The Rudolf Steiner Archive

11. The Organization of the Human Body and Gout

[ 1 ] The absorption of protein is a process that is related to one side of the internal activity of the human organism. This is the side that comes about as a result of the absorption of substances. Every such activity results in the formation of form, growth, new formation of substantial content. Everything connected with the unconscious activities of the organism belongs here.

[ 2 ] These processes are contrasted with those that consist of excretions. They can be excretions that go outwards; they can also be those where the excretory product is further processed internally in the shaping or substantialization of the body. These processes form the material basis of conscious experiences. Through the processes of the former kind, the power of consciousness is diminished when they exceed the measure of what can be kept in balance by the processes of the latter kind.

[ 3 ] A particularly remarkable excretory process is that of uric acid. The astral body is active in this excretion. This must take place through the entire organism. In particular, it takes place through the urine. In a very finely distributed way, for example, in the brain. In uric acid secretion through the urine, the astral body is mainly active; the ego organization is involved in a subordinate way. In the case of uric acid secretion in the brain, the ego organization is primarily decisive, the astral body takes a back seat.

[ 4 ] Now, in the organism, the astral body is the mediator of the activity of the ego organization for the etheric and physical body. This must carry the lifeless substances and forces into the organs. Only through this impregnation of the organs with the inorganic can man be the conscious being that he is. Organic substance and organic power would dampen human consciousness down to animal consciousness.

[ 5 ] Through its activity, the astral body makes the organs inclined to absorb the inorganic deposits of the ego organization. In a sense, it is the pathfinder for them.

[ 6 ] You see: in the lower part of the human organism, the activity of the astral body has the upper hand. The uric acid substances must not be absorbed by the organism. They must be excreted in abundance. Under the influence of this excretion, impregnation with inorganic substances must be prevented. The more uric acid is excreted, the more active is the activity of the astral body, the less that of the ego organization and thus the impregnation with the inorganic.

[ 7 ] In the brain, the activity of the astral body is low. Little uric acid is excreted, but all the more inorganic matter is stored in the sense of the ego organization.

[ 8 ] The ego organization cannot cope with large quantities of uric acid; they must lapse into the activity of the astral body; small quantities of uric acid pass into the ego organization and then form the basis for the formation of the inorganic in the sense of this organization.

[ 9 ] In a healthy organism, the right economy must prevail in the distribution of uric acid for the individual areas. For everything that is nerve-sense organization, only as much uric acid must be supplied as can be used by the ego activity; for the metabolic limb organization, this activity must be suppressed; the astral activity must be able to unfold in the abundant uric acid secretion.

[ 10 ] Since the astral body is the pathfinder for the ego activity in the organs, the correctly distributed uric acid deposit must be regarded as a very essential element of human health. For it expresses whether the right relationship exists between the ego organization and the astral body in any organ or organ system.

[ 11 ] Now suppose that in some organ in which the ego organization should predominate over the astral activity, the latter begins to have the upper hand. This can only be an organ in which the excretion of uric acid is impossible beyond a certain degree due to the organ's structure. This organ then becomes overloaded with uric acid, which cannot be dealt with by the ego organization. The astral body then begins to excrete it anyway. And since the excretory organs are missing in the relevant places, the uric acid is deposited in the organism itself instead of outside. If it reaches places in the organism where the ego-organization cannot intervene sufficiently, then there is inorganic matter, i.e. that which belongs only to the ego-organization but is left by it to astral activity. Foci arise where sub-human (animal) processes are inserted into the human organism.

[ 12 ] We are dealing with gout. When it is said that this often develops due to hereditary disposition, this is precisely because the astral-animalic becomes particularly active when the hereditary forces predominate, and the ego organization is thereby pushed back.

[ 13 ] But one will see through the matter better if one seeks the true cause in the fact that substances enter the human body through the ingestion of food, which cannot lose their foreignness within the organism through its activity They are not transferred into the etheric body through a weak ego organization and therefore remain in the region of astral activity A joint cartilage or a connective tissue area can only be overloaded with uric acid and thereby cause the overloading with inorganic substances in them that in these parts of the body the ego activity lags behind the astral activity Since the whole form of the human organism is a result of the ego organization, a deformation of the organs must occur due to the marked irregularity. The human organism strives out of its form.