The Rudolf Steiner Archive

6. Blood and Nerve

[ 1 ] The activities of the individual human organisms in relation to the organism as a whole are found in a particularly impressive way in blood and nerve formation In that blood formation takes place in the further development of the ingested nutrients, the entire blood formation process is under the influence of the ego organization The ego organization acts from the processes that take place in the palate in the tongue accompanied by conscious sensation to the unconscious and subconscious processes - in pepsin, pancreas, bile, etc. - Then the action of the ego-organization recedes, and the astral body is primarily active in the further transformation of the food substance into blood substance. This continues until the blood meets the air - the oxygen - in the breathing process. At this point the etheric body carries out its main activity. In the carbonic acid in the process of exhalation, before it has left the body, one is dealing with preferably only living - not sentient and not dead - substance. (Living is everything that carries the activity of the etheric body within it.) The main mass of this living carbonic acid leaves the organism; a small part, however, continues to work in the organism in the processes that have their center in the head organization. This part shows a strong tendency to pass over into the lifeless, inorganic, although it does not become completely lifeless. The opposite occurs in the nervous system. In the sympathetic nervous system, which permeates the digestive organs, the etheric body predominates. The nervous organs that come into consideration here are of themselves primarily only living organs. The astral and ego organization do not have an organizing effect on them from within, but from without. Therefore the influence of the ego and astral organization working in these nervous organs is a strong one. Affects and passions have a lasting, significant effect on the sympathetic nervous system. Sorrow and worry gradually destroy this nervous system.

[ 2 ] The spinal cord nervous system with all its branches is the one in which the astral organization primarily intervenes. It is therefore the carrier of what is psychic in the human being, of the reflex processes, but not of what takes place in the ego, in the self-conscious spirit.

[ 3 ] The actual cranial nerves are those that underlie the ego organization. With them, the activities of the etheric and astral organization recede.

[ 4 ] You can see that this creates three areas in the organism as a whole. In a lower area, the nerves, which are preferably internally interwoven with the etheric organism, interact with the blood substance, which is primarily subject to the activity of the ego organization. During the embryonic and post-embryonic developmental epoch, this area is the starting point for all organ formations connected with the inner animation of the human organism. During embryonic development, this still weak area is supplied with vitalizing and formative influences from the surrounding mother organism. A middle area then comes into consideration, in which nerve organs, which are influenced by the astral organization, work together with blood processes which are also dependent on this astral organization and, in their upper part, on the etheric This is the starting point, during the period of human formation, for the development of the organs which mediate external and internal mobility, e.g. for all muscle formation but also for all organs; an upper region is that in which the nerves standing under the inner-organizing ego co-operate with the blood processes, which have a strong tendency to pass over into the inanimate mineral During the formative epoch of man, here lies the starting-point for the formation of bones and for everything else that serves the human body as a supporting organ

[ 5 ] The human brain will only be understood if one can see in it the bone-forming tendency that is interrupted in the very first formation And one can only see through the bone formation if one recognizes in it a brain impulse effect that has come to a complete end and is permeated from the outside by the impulses of the middle organism where astrally conditioned nerve organs are active together with etherically conditioned blood substance In the bone ash that remains behind with its own formation, when the bone is treated by burning, the results of the uppermost region of the human organization are present In the cartilage substance that remains when the bone is subjected to the action of dilute hydrochloric acid one has the result of the impulses of the middle region

[ 6 ] The skeleton is the physical image of the ego organization The human-organic substance striving towards the lifeless mineral is completely subject to the ego organization in the bone formation. In the brain the I is active as a spiritual entity. However, its formative power, which works into the physical, is completely overwhelmed by the etheric organizing, indeed by the inherent forces of the physical. The organizing power of the ego only quietly underlies the brain; it is submerged in the living and in its own physical effects. This is precisely the reason why the brain is the carrier of the spiritual ego effect, that the organic-physical activity there is not taken up by the ego organization, which can therefore work completely freely as such. The skeleton of the bones, on the other hand, is the perfect physical image of the ego-organization; but this exhausts itself in the physical organizing, so that nothing remains of it as spiritual activity. The processes in the bones are therefore the most unconscious.

[ 7 ] The carbonic acid that is expelled with the respiratory process is still a living substance within the organism; it is seized by the astral activity anchored in the middle nervous system and excreted to the outside. The part of the carbonic acid that goes to the head with the metabolism is made inclined to enter into the effects of the ego organization through the connection with the calcium. The carbonic acid lime is thus driven towards bone formation under the influence of the head nerves, which are more impulsive internally by the ego organization.

[ 8 ] The substances arising from the food substances: myosin and myogen have a tendency to be deposited in the blood; they are initially astral substances that interact with the sympathetic nervous system, which is internally organized by the etheric body. However, these two proteins are also partly affected by the activity of the middle nervous system, which is under the influence of the astral body. In this way they enter into a relationship with the decomposition products of protein, with fats, with sugar and sugar-like substances. This enables them to enter the path of muscle formation under the influence of the central nervous system.