Metabolic-limb subsystem
Man as a threefold being consists of three subsystems, the Nerve-sense subsystem, the Rhythmic subsystem, and the metabolic-limb system which is the newest and therefore 'coming into existence'.
The metabolic subsystem is most closely related to the Earth and the alchemy of the elements, see Schema FMC00.280 (lower left).
Aspects
- the metabolic-limb subsystem is the more spiritual coming into being part .. it is entirely an interplay of physical, etheric, and astral bodies and an imprint only of the I (1921-04-11-GA313) - see Schema FMC00.603
- mineral physical substance is continuously renewed in the human physical body: seven or eight years the physical substance of a Man's body has completely changed (1924-02-06-GA240)
- origin of illness: "the origin of internal illnesses must always be looked for in the metabolic system .. it constantly imbued with every kind of tendency towards illness" because the process of digestion and breathing has so many complex individual process steps that cannot stand on their own and be carried to conclusion but they need to work together and form an orchestrated whole, therefore the least unbalance in their mutual cooperation can give structurally give rise to illness (1923-11-09-GA230). See also Schema FMC00.513 and Schema FMC00.542 and Schema FMC00.015A eg on Spiritual scientific physiology.
- The metabolic-limb system is the basis for Man's faculty of Willing, see Thinking Feeling Willing
- The metabolic system from Old Moon, the limb system is the most recent and part of the Earth stage of evolution.
- Mineral science differentiates between the catabolic, amphibolic and anabolic metabolic processes. See eg wiki page for Metabolism, and compare with the 1923-11-10-GA230 quote and its illustration on Schema FMC00.412 below.
- development of the metabolic-limb system (1924-06-30-GA317)
- too weakly developed <-> metabolism-and-limbs system which produces albumen that is poor in sulphur
- too strongly developed <-> metabolism-and-limbs system which produces albumen that is too rich in sulphur
- see also: Nutrition
Illustrations
Schema FMC00.412 uses the 1924-09-14-GA318 illustration FMC00.015A to overlay the workings of the metabolic system, that were not on the base FMC00.015A. Hence both schemas can be taken together. Note the FMC00.015A illustration logic does not quite fit the descriptions of the lecture extracts, to depict this would require other arrows, to compensate for this the red block of the warmth body was expanded to above.
Schema FMC00.513 provides an overview on the main process through which the human being sustains his physical body during incarnate life. The narrative to this mind map is given by the two main lectures provided in the lower corners: 1922-08-05-GA347 (left) and 1922-10-22-GA218 (right - see also Schema FMC00.160 for another view), with additional complementary lecture references provided.
Whereas the left downward destructive process is well-studied in contemporary medical science (see mineral science), a true understanding of the renewal of Man's bodies - see the right upward constructive process - requires a spiritual scientific perspective. The latter can also not be read twodimensionally, rather the process needs to be imagined, as Man's bodily principles are not physically located or corresponding to specific parts of Man's physical body. So for the etheric and astral bodies, and the I-organization, certain organs play a main role, but effect the whole bodily principle and even work from the higher to the lower bodily principles. For this last point, see Schema FMC00.415A on Man: an integrated view or also: Schema FMC00.245 (which is key) and FMC00.415 on I-organization (and in second instance see also Schema FMC00.477 and FMC00.283 on Group souls of humanity). Streams [A] and [B] at the output of the intestines need to be superimposed on all that imaginatively.
This main schema can be used to branch off to the study of various related topics:
- when contemplating the schema, overlay this with the seven life processes and the etheric formative forces (see also The Elementary Kingdoms) or higher ethers (eg Schema FMC00.015 below for a complementary view, or Schema FMC00.419)
- nutrition and the alchemy in the human body (eg 1924-08-02-GA354 and 1924-09-13-GA346)
- transmutation of substances in the human body (see table on the lower left in the schema)
- the formation of organs - see the two etheric streams (eg Schema FMC00.051 and the 1920-05-14-GA201 description for the human heart)
- the use of the brain as a vehicle for waking consciousness, see Damming up between heart and brain and Schema FMC00.033A; and related Matter is destroyed in the brain and 1922-08-09-GA347 which describes the process of continuous depositing and destruction of minerals ('brain-sand', more also in 1922-09-09/16-GA347)
- for the outstreamings of the human body due to its decay and/or excretion and radiation: the transitory fleeting destruction (senses, glands, digestion) on the left, and the slower outstreaming into the world (due to decay of nerves, muscles, bones) on the right, see also Schema FMC00.514 from the amazing 1911-12-31-GA134 lecture
- the creation of the blood (and the rest of the mineral physical body, from spiritual to mineral substance due to the Luciferic effect) - see Blood is a special fluid and the reverse (from mineral back to etherization) see etherization of blood
- the forming of the bony system and skeleton and the production of blood, see oa Spiritual scientific physiology#Skeleton (oa for the relation to the warm red blood and waking consciousness - see 1924-01-07-GA352)
Schema FMC00.514 illustrates another excerpt from the important lecture 1911-12-31-GA134 that positions physical blood and the impact of the luciferic infection. The simple schema makes the distinction between how Man functions on a daily basis with the short term process of sense perception and metabolism, and the continuous but slow outstreaming of intuition, inspiration and imagination into the world and cosmos due to our actions and activities and the longer term decay. See also Schema FMC00.513, and compare with Schema FMC00.492, as well as Schema FMC00.389A on Clairvoyant research of akashic records.
Regarding the outstreaming of these spiritual influences: in this lecture, Rudolf Steiner describes that some sensitive persons can have a sense of feeling awareness of the energies by people or left in a room.
Lecture coverage and references
1906-06-07-GA094
makes a statement on fasting
Nature is governed by one sovereign law which is that rhythm must enter into all manifestation. When the twelve-petalled lotus-flower which constitutes man's organ of astral-spiritual perception has developed, he can begin to work upon his body and imbue it with a new rhythm whereby its fatigue is healed. Thanks to this rhythm and the restoration of harmony it is no longer necessary for the astral body to perform the restorative work on the sleeping physical body which alone prevents it from falling into ruin.
The whole of waking life is a process destructive of the physical body. Illnesses are caused by excessive activity of the astral body. Eating to excess affords a stimulus to the astral body which re-acts in a disturbing way on the physical body. That is why fasting is laid down in certain religions. The effect of fasting is that the astral body, having greater quiet and less to do, partially detaches itself from the physical body. Its vibrations are modulated and communicate a regular rhythm to the etheric body. Rhythm is thus set going in the etheric body by means of fasting. Harmony is brought into life (etheric body) and form (physical body). In other words, harmony reigns between the universe and Man.
1909-01-08-GA068D
is a lecture called 'Problems of Nutrition'
Is it not possible to mold the body in such fashion that it turns into a progressively more suitable instrument for the impulses of our spiritual life?
Will we lose our freedom and become dependent upon our bodies if we ignore what is the right nourishment for us?
What must we eat so that we are not merely the product of what we eat?
...
The essential question now to be asked is what internal activities are aroused by what substances. Here we shall try to throw light on the relationships of vegetable and meat substances in human diets, and thereby to gain some idea of the manner in which animal and vegetable foods react in the human organism.
...
We can now proceed to consider the relationships of these two types of diet from a purely spiritual basis.
...
1923-11-09-GA230
see: Working of substances and their forces#1923-11-09-GA230
provides an excellent high level description as an entry point for further study
1922-10-22-GA218
see full lecture: Spiritual scientific physiology#1922-10-22-GA218, the below is just a pointer reference extract (SWCC) explained in full
... foodstuff is taken up, killed, revived, astralized, transformed into the I — only then one understands ptyalin, pepsin, in the food that has been taken up and killed, and then transported into the lymphatic glands conveyed to the heart, fired by the heart.
The kidneys then radiate through it, and all is astralized, taken up by the liver functioning and conveyed to the I.
Then the whole can be caught up by the activity of the spleen, and ...
1923-11-09-GA230
from the synopsis
All substances taken into the body must be transformed: mineral into warmth ether, plant into air processes, animal into water processes. Carbon created in Man disperses ether, which penetrates sense organs and opens man to spiritual influences. Metabolic processes would cause illness, if they were not kept in check by healing processes born on Sun.
1923-11-10-GA230
from the synopsis
All food must be transformed in the human organism. Mineral substance must be turned to warmth ether to receive cosmic forces for the building of the body. Children can only transform milk. Untransformed substances cause disease, e.g. diabetes. External warmth also must not enter the body.
quote A
There is the mineral substance; this mineral substance enters into Man. Within Man, passing through the fluid conditions, and so on, it is transformed into warmth-ether.
Now it is warmth-ether. This warmth-ether has a strong disposition to absorb into itself what radiates inwards, what streams inwards, as forces from world-spaces.
Thus it takes into itself the forces of the universe. And these forces of the universe now form themselves as the spiritual forces which here imbue the warmth-etherized earth-matter with spirit.
And only then, with the help of the warmth-etherized earth-substance, does there enter into the body what the body needs for its formation.
1924-02-06-GA240
It has often been emphasised here that in seven or eight years the physical substance of a man's body has completely changed. Physical substance is thrust out through the skin; nails and hair are cut.
This indicates, and it is actually the fact, that man thrusts out physical substance from the centre of his being and produces new substance to replace it. What you cut from your nails today was within your organism seven or eight years ago; you thrust it out and have now got rid of it. Physical substance is renewed.
Any of you who may have been here ten years ago must not imagine that the same muscles and the same physical components are present to-day, for that is not so. But the soul-and-spirit of each of you — that is present.
The same is true of the heavenly bodies. The physicist is concerned only with the physical substance and speaks as if the Moon he now sees in the heavens were the same Moon whose physical substance once separated from the Earth. But that is just as nonsensical as to believe that the muscles and physical components which were here ten years ago are here again to-day. It takes longer for the heavenly bodies to change their substance, but they do indeed change it. The physical Moon should not really be spoken of in the way that modern science speaks. What has endured in the Moon are the spiritual Beings who were once inhabitants of the Earth together with men. The Moon that is now their habitat has changed — that is to say, its physical substance has changed. And just as it is your soul-and-spirit which forms the link between the ‘you’ who sat here ten years ago and the ‘you’ of today, so it is the Beings of spirit-and-soul who in reality constitute the essence of the Moon. And these are the Beings who register our past.
1924-05-10-GA236
We pass now to the metabolic-limb system. In what modern anatomy and physiology have to say of the metabolic-limb system, we do not come to the forces of this system, but only to what falls away and is discarded by it. Everything that in the modern view is the content of the metabolic-limb system does not belong at all to the real human structure and organization but is expelled. The content of the bowels is only the extreme instance. Whatever else is physically perceptible in the metabolic-limb system does not belong to the human being but is deposited by him; some of it remains within him for a longer time, some for a shorter time. The content of the bowels remains a short time; what is deposited by the muscles, nerves, etc. remains longer. Any physical substance that can be found in the metabolic-limb system does not belong to the human being; it is excretion, deposit. Everything that belongs to the metabolic-limb system is of a super-sensible nature. So that in studying the metabolic-limb system of man we have to pass over to what has a purely super-sensible existence within the physical.
We must therefore picture the metabolic-limb system in such a way that physical arms, etc., are in reality spiritual, and within this spiritual the I unfolds. When I move my arms or my legs, deposits are continually taking place, and these deposits are observed. But they are not the essential. You cannot refer to the physical when you want to explain how the arm or the hand grasps something; you must refer to the spiritual. The spiritual that runs all along the arm — that is the essential in the human being. What you perceive is merely a deposit of the metabolic-limb system.
How, then, can we even start on a study of karma if we believe that what we see in the metabolic-limb system is the human being?
The human being is not this at all. We can only start on a study of karma when we know what the human being really is. We must include something that is to be found, certainly, in the sense-world, but which is, nevertheless, a super-sensible picture of Intuition.
And so, my dear friends, you can say:
- A study of the head is an Imaginative process, projected into the sense-world;
- a study of the rhythmic system must be truly Inspired, though active in the realm of sense-observation, within the sense-world;
- a study of the metabolic-limb system must be Intuitive, a super-sensible activity in the sense-world.
1924-06-30-GA317
[Two situations]
- .. what does it mean if a boy has a metabolism-and-limbs system that is too weakly developed? When metabolism and limbs are too weakly developed, the albumen substance in the human organism is prevented from containing the right amount of sulphur. We then have a metabolism-and-limbs system which produces albumen that is poor in sulphur. This can quite well happen; the proportion in which the constituents are combined in the albumen is, in such a case, different from what is usual. In consequence, we have in the patient as I havebeen describing: fixed ideas, beginning to announce themselves in the organism in the years of childhood.
- But now the opposite condition may also arise. The system of metabolism and limbs may be so constituted that it is too strongly attracted to sulphur. The albumen will then be too rich in sulphur. It will have in it carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and — in proportion — too much sulphur. In a metabolism-and-limbs system of this kind — for the system is influenced in its manifestations by the particular combination of the substances within it — there will not be, as before, the urge to push everything back; but, on the contrary, in consequence of the albumen being too rich in sulphur, the impressions will be absorbed too powerfully, they will nest themselves in too strongly. Note that this is a different condition from the one I described in an earlier lecture, where there is a congestion at the surface of an organ. That condition gives rise, as we saw, to fits. It is not congestion that we have now, but a kind of absorption of the impressions: the impressions are, as it were, sucked in — and consequently disappear. We bring it about that the child has impressions, but to no purpose; impressions of a particular nature simply disappear into the oversulphurous albumen. And only if we can succeed in getting these impressions back, in drawing them out again from the sulphurous albumen — only then shall we be able to establish a certain balance in the whole organism of spirit, soul and body. For the disappearance of the impressions in the sulphurousness of the metabolism-and-limbs system induces a highly unsatisfactory condition of soul; it has a disturbing, exciting effect. The whole organism is a little agitated, a slight tremor runs through it.
As you know, I have often said that Psycho-Analysis is dilettantism “squared”, because the Psycho-Analyst has no real knowledge of soul or spirit or body — nor of ether body; he does not know what it is that is taking place, all he can do is to describe. And since this is all he can do, he is quite content simply to say: “The things have disappeared down below; we must fetch them up again.” The strange thing is, you see, that materialism is quite unable to probe thoroughly into the qualities even of matter! Otherwise it would be known that the disappearance of the impressions is due to the fact that the albumen-substance in the will organism contains too much sulphur. Only by following the path of Spiritual Science can the nature and character of physical substance be discovered.
1924-07-31-GA354
is the first of two lectures on 'nutrition and health' (1924-GA348)
1924-08-02-GA354
.. I spoke of the four substances necessary to human nutrition: minerals, carbohydrates, which are to be found in potatoes, but especially in our held grains and legumes, then fats, and protein. I pointed out how different our nutrition is with regard to protein as compared, for instance, to salt.
- A man takes salt into his body and it travels all the way to his head, in such a way that the salt remains salt. It is really not changed except that it is dissolved. It keeps its forces as salt all the way to the human head.
- In contrast to this, protein — the protein in ordinary hens' eggs, for instance, but also the protein from plants — this protein is at once broken down in the human body, while it is still in the stomach and intestines; it does not remain protein. The human being possesses forces by which he is able to break down this protein. He also has the forces to build something up again, to make his own protein. He would not be able to do this if he had not already broken down other protein.
Now think how it is with this protein. Imagine that you have become an exceptionally clever person, so clever that you are confident you can make a watch. But you've never seen a watch except from the outside, so you cannot right off make a watch. But if you take a chance and you take some watch to pieces, take it all apart and lay out the single pieces in such a way that you observe just how the parts relate to one another, then you know how you are going to put them all together again. The human body must take in protein and take it all apart.
Protein consists of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen and sulphur. Those are its most important components. And now the protein is completely separated into its parts, so that when it all reaches the intestines, man does not have protein in him, but he has carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, and sulphur. Now the man has the protein all laid out in its parts as you had the watch all laid out on the table.
... A human being has his memory as a complete human entity; his body by itself does not have the kind of memory that can take note of something, it uses its “memory” forces just for building itself up. So one must always be eating new protein in order to be able to make a protein.
The fact is, the human being is involved in a very, very complicated activity when he manufactures his own protein.
- First he divides the protein he has eaten into its separate parts and puts the carbon from it into his body everywhere.
- Now you already know that we inhale oxygen from the air and that this oxygen combines with the carbon we have in us from proteins and other food elements. And we exhale carbon in carbon dioxide, keeping a part of it back. So now we have that carbon and oxygen together in our body. We do not retain and use the oxygen that was in the protein; we use the oxygen we have inhaled to combine with the carbon.
Thus we do not make our own protein as the materialists describe it: namely, that we eat a great many eggs which then are deposited throughout our body so that eggs we have eaten are spread over our whole body. That is not true.
Actually, we are saved by the organization of our body so that when we eat eggs, we don't all turn into crazy hens! It's a fact. We don't become crazy hens because we break the protein down in our intestines and instead of using the oxygen that was in the protein, we use oxygen coming out of the air.
Also, as we breathe oxygen in we breathe nitrogen in too; nitrogen is always in the air. Again, we don't use the nitrogen that comes to us in the hens' eggs; we use the nitrogen we breathe in from the air. And the hydrogen we've eaten in eggs, we don't use that either, not at all. We use the hydrogen we take in through our nose and our ears, through all our senses; that's the hydrogen we use to make our protein. Sulphur too — we receive that continually from the air. Hydrogen and sulphur we get from the air. From the protein we eat, we keep and use only the carbon. The other substances, we take from the air. So you see how it is with protein.
There is a similar situation with fat. We make our own protein, using only the carbon from the external protein. And we also make our own fat. For the fats too, we use very little nitrogen from our food. So you see, we produce our own protein and fat. Only what we consume in potatoes, legumes, and grains goes over into our body. In fact, even these things do not go fully into our body, but only to the lower part of our head. The minerals we consume go up into the entire head; from them we have what we need to build up our bones.
[healthy nutrition]
- Therefore you see, we must take care to bring healthy plain protein into our body. Healthy plant protein, that is what our body needs in large quantity. When we take in protein from eggs, our body can be rather lazy; it can easily break the protein down, because that protein is easily broken down. But plant protein, which we get from fruit — it is chiefly in that part of the plant — that is especially valuable to us.
- If a person wants to keep himself healthy, it is really necessary to include fruit in his diet. Cooked or raw, but fruit he must have. If he neglects to eat fruit, he will gradually condemn his body to a very sluggish digestion.
[agriculture]
You can see that it is also a question of giving proper nourishment to the plants themselves. And that means, we must realize that plants are living things; they are not minerals, they are something alive. A plant comes to us out of the seed we put in the ground. The plant cannot flourish unless the soil itself is to some degree alive. And how do we make the soil alive? By manuring it properly. Yes, proper manuring is what will give us really good plant protein.
We must remember that for long, long ages men have known that the right manure is what comes out of the horses' stalls, out of the cow-barn and so on; the right manure is what comes off the farm itself. In recent times when everything has become materialistic, people have been saying: Look here! we can do it much more easily by finding out what substances are in the manure and then taking them out of the mineral kingdom: mineral fertilizer!
And you can see, when one uses mineral fertilizer, it is as if one just put minerals into the ground; then only the root becomes strong. Then we get from the plants the substance that helps to build up our bones. But we don't get a proper protein from the plants. And the plants, our field grains have suffered from the lack of protein for a long time. And the lack will become greater and greater unless people return to proper manuring.
There have already been agricultural conferences in which the farmers have said: Yes, the fruit gets worse and worse! And it is true. But naturally the farmers haven't known the reason. Every older person knows that when he was a young fellow, everything that came out of the fields was really better. It's no use thinking that one can make fertilizer simply by combining substances that are present in cow manure. One must see clearly that cow manure does not come out of a chemist's laboratory but out of a laboratory that is far more scientific — it comes from the far, far more scientific laboratory inside the cow. And for this reason cow manure is the stuff that not only makes the roots of plants strong, but that works up powerfully into the fruits and produces good, proper protein in the plants which makes man vigorous.
If there is to be nothing but the mineral fertilizer that has now become so popular, or just nitrogen from the air — well, gentlemen, your children, more particularly, your grandchildren will have very pale faces. You will no longer see a difference between their faces and their white hands. Human beings have a lively, healthy color when the farmlands are properly manured.
So you see, when one speaks of nutrition one has to consider how the foodstuffs are being obtained. It is tremendously important.
...
- When grains are eaten, the heart and lungs become particularly strong. Grains strengthen heart and lungs. A man then develops a healthy chest and he is in fine health. He is not so keen on thinking as on breathing, perhaps; but he can endure very much when he has good breathing.
...
- And then came the potato diet! The potato takes little care of lung and heart. It reaches the head, but only, as I said, the lower head, not the upper head. It does go into the lower head, where one thinks and exercises critical faculties. Therefore, you can see, in earlier times there were fewer journalists. There was no printing industry yet. Think of the amount of thought expended daily in this world in our time, just to bring the newspapers out! All that thinking, it is much too much, it is not at all necessary — and we have to thank the potato diet for that! Because a person who eats potatoes is constantly stimulated to think. He can't do anything but think. That's why his lungs and his heart become weak. Tuberculosis, lung tuberculosis, did not become widespread until the potato diet was introduced. And the weakest human beings are those living in regions where almost nothing else is grown but potatoes, where the people live on potatoes.
1924-09-13-GA346
[Man eating - food intake]
What do people imagine the anatomical and physiological human being to be like?
He eats, takes the substances of his food into his stomach, digests these, discards some of them, and replaces what needs replacing with the substances he takes in.
But this is not how things are at all. The human being is threefold and has in him a human being of nerves and senses, a rhythmical human being, and a human being of metabolism and limbs.
None of the substances taken in through food enter the system of metabolism and limbs, for all of it goes into the system of nerves and senses. The system of nerves and senses absorbs the salts and other necessary substances that are always finely distributed in the air and light, and steers these towards the system of metabolism and limbs. The system of metabolism and limbs is nourished entirely from above downwards. It is quite untrue that this part of the human being receives the substances it needs directly from food.
If earthly substances enter the system of metabolism and limbs, then the human being is ill. All the substances taken in and digested in food provide solely the organs belonging to the system of nerves and senses. The head in particular is built from earthly substances. The organs of metabolism and limbs, on the other hand, are built from heaven.
And the rhythmical human being brings about balance in both directions. The human being does not eat the oxygen in the air, he inhales it. The way he takes in substances through his system of nerves and senses is coarser than the way he does this through his system of metabolism and limbs. What the human being needs for his system of metabolism and limbs is absorbed through an immensely delicate breathing process. Ordinary breathing is quite coarse by comparison. And what the human being does with oxygen — namely producing carbon dioxide — is once again something more delicate than what happens so that the foods passing through the stomach can supply the head. The transition takes place in the rhythmical human being.
This is the truth about the structure of the human organism and its processes. What anatomy and physiology teach today is nonsense in the face of the truth and comes about as a result of the materialistic outlook. As soon as you know something about this, you realize that what builds the human body comes not only from below, from the plant, mineral and animal kingdoms of the earth, but that what nourishes the organs which are often regarded as the coarser ones comes from above.
Knowing this, one will be able to see quite clearly that up to the time when Jerusalem perished there was a kind of surfeit of nourishment from below. Then, with the Mystery of Golgotha, what comes from above begins gradually to assume importance.
[Form of head]
Although people have reversed these facts in the manner described, what happens today is that development comes about in many ways as a result of the old nutrition from below being replaced by nutrition from above, which is now more important.
This causes the human form to change. Our head is no longer like the heads of old.
The human head in ancient times had a forehead that sloped back more. The forehead today is more domed; the outer part of the brain has become more important. This is the actual change, for the part of the brain that is becoming more important is more akin to the organs of digestion than the part that lies beneath it. The peripheral part of the brain is becoming more similar to the organs of digestion than are the more delicate tissues in the middle part of the brain, i.e. the continuation of the sensory nerves towards the centre of the head. The organs of metabolism, in particular, are nourished from above.
Discussion
