Course for Young Doctors
Christmas Course
GA 316
Dornach, 4th January, 1924
Lecture III
From tomorrow onwards I want you to think about what questions you would like to ask, and then give these questions to me so that I may remember them as these lectures go on.
Today I want to say something in direct continuation of what was said in the two preceding lectures about the nature of the human being and his relation to the world. In our anthroposophical studies here it is useless to bother about the ‘views’—in reality they are not ‘views’ at all—that are held by modern science in connection with the human being. It would be equally useless to make up our minds to deviate as little as possible from things that have become customary and habitual. For the state of affairs at present is that in certain great and significant directions the truth deviates very considerably from what has become customary. It deviates in an extraordinarily high degree. And so those who are striving after truth today will also need to have the courage to acknowledge many things that modern science would consider quite absurd. On the other hand, if you really want to heal, it will be necessary for you—not here, but in other places—to mix with those who set out to heal today by the methods customary in the external world. You will have to have dealings with science as it is in the modern world. Otherwise, among all the errors of the times, you will feel insecure with the truth you possess.
The current idea today is that there are about seventy to eighty substances on the earth, with certain forces of attraction and repulsion. These forces are supposed to work through certain atomic weights and the like. A number of theoretical laws of nature are then evolved according to which people try to find out how the substances are formed, and then, out of the different forces whose origin is looked for in the substances, a phantasmal picture is built up which is supposed to represent “man.”
But the truth is that neither in his form nor in the forces which maintain his processes of growth and nourishment is the human being subject only to the influences proceeding from the substances of the earth. In speaking of the etheric body, we found that it is entirely under the influence of forces which stream in from the periphery, from the cosmos. Taking these two kinds of forces—those which proceed from the substances of the earth, and those which stream in from the periphery—you will realize that a balancing, a harmonizing of these two kinds of forces, is necessary for each organ in the body. The several systems of organs in the human being differ very considerably in the way in which this balance is established.
Let us now consider the human head from this point of view. To begin with, attention must be called—and I have often done this—to the weight of the human brain which is very largely eliminated because the brain, with its definite outline, floats in the cerebral fluid. The brain floats in the cerebral fluid which circulates through the spinal column. The actual weight of the brain is about thirteen hundred to fifteen hundred grams. But when it is within the human being, it weighs much less—at most, twenty grams. This is because it floats in the cerebral fluid, and, according to the Law of Archimedes, every body, when it floats in fluid, loses as much of its weight as is equivalent to the weight of the volume of fluid displaced. In the fluid, the brain is subject to buoyancy so that only about twenty to twenty-five grams of its weight remains, and this is the weight with which the brain presses downwards. If it were to press downwards with its full weight there could be no blood vessels underneath it; they would be crushed. The earthly quality of heaviness is actually taken away from the brain. It is not the earthly quality of heaviness that enables us to be alive in the brain, but the buoyancy, the force that is in opposition to heaviness. In the case of the brain, this earthly heaviness amounts to, at most, twenty grams. The force of attraction exercised by the earth upon the human head is very little.
We see from this that the earthly characteristic of the brain vanishes—vanishes because of the way man is organized. The human organization is such that the earthly forces vanish. The Law of Archimedes has taught humanity about buoyancy, but it is not always taken account of in technical contrivances. I am not sure whether people realize it, but it is quite obvious that they acknowledge laws which happen to suit them and ignore those which do not. What I have told you about heaviness disappearing applies not only to the human head but to the whole inner structure of the head. Something else happens as a result of the special
arrangement of the breathing process, of certain static conditions which hold sway between in-breathing and out-breathing. When we draw a breath, a force is exercised, and then comes a counter force when we breathe out again. The relationship between this force and counter force in breathing is similar to the relationship between gravity and buoyancy.
The curious thing is that when we are walking, the head, the brain, remains at rest. On account of buoyancy, the brain is not heavy, and its inner condition of rest, its inner static condition, is not changed when we are walking. Nor is this true only of our walking, but, in a curious manner, it is especially true also of the movement we make together with the earth. We only share in the movement with the rest of the body, not with the brain. The movement is quashed, so far as the brain is concerned. We may move the head itself as rapidly as the rest of the body, but even then the brain remains at rest. It is harder to conceive that something that is momentarily in movement is, in reality, at rest, than to conceive that something that is subject to gravity is, in reality, not heavy. But it is so, nevertheless. Thinking of the inner organization of the human being, we must say that the head remains at rest all the time. All the forces adjust themselves; there is a slight pull of gravity in the downward direction, in a proportion of twenty to fifteen hundred, and in the forward direction there is a very slight propelling force of movement. In essentials, however, the movement is balanced out.
We can, therefore, say that the human head, as regards its inner existence, is like a person who is sitting quietly in an automobile and not moving at all while the car moves forward. The experience of the human head is just as it would be if it had no weight. Neither does it move when the human being moves and when the earth is moving together with the human being. The head is, therefore, a very special organ, for it excludes itself, exiles itself from what is happening on the earth; the earth only participates to a small extent in the activities of the head. The head is an image of the cosmos. In its essential nature, it has nothing to do with the forces of the earth. The inner structure of the brain is an image of the cosmic forces. Its form cannot be explained from anything of an earthly nature but only from the in-working cosmos. I must speak rather crudely here, but you will understand me. The earth works only to this extent, that it breaks through the cosmic formation and inserts into the human being that which tends towards the earth. You can see this readily by looking at a skeleton. Take away the skull and you have taken away the part of the skeleton that is an image of the cosmos. The arrangement of the ribs is only half cosmic for here the skeleton is already impressed by the earthly forces. In the long bones of the legs and the long
bones of the arms, you have a purely earthly formation. The spinal vertebrae to which the ribs are connected have arisen from the condition of equilibrium between the cosmic and the earthly. In the head, with its covering skull you have a form in which the cosmos deprives the earthly forces of the possibility of taking shape; this form of the skull is an image of the cosmos. In this way we must study the forms of the human body.
When we study the forms of the human body in this way, knowing that the inner life of the head, the soft substances and fluids of the head remain at rest and in this state of rest are an image of the cosmos, we shall realize that anatomy and physiology, as presented today, cannot really be said to be true because they do not acknowledge the existence of cosmic influences. I have spoken of forces which proceed from the periphery and stream inwards. They stream in from all sides upon the human head. But it makes a difference if these forces are intercepted by the moon, by the sun, or by Saturn. There peripheric forces are modified by the planetary bodies standing in the heavens. The directions from which these forces stream in are, therefore, not without significance. The in-streaming is essentially modified according to the position of the constellation from which it comes.
This is a thought around which there is nothing but dilettantism today, but in olden times it was the basis of great astronomical wisdom. The dreadful treatises that exist on such subjects today give no picture at all of the reality. Understanding of what I have said is essential before we can have insight into the structure and make-up of the human being. For the fact that in his head the human being is subject entirely to the cosmos, and in the long bones of arms and legs entirely to the earthly forces, is an expression, right down into substance, of how the cosmic formative forces behave. You know that human bone contains calcium carbonate. But it also contains calcium phosphate. Both substances are very important for the bones. Through the calcium carbonate the bones become subject to the earth. If the bone substance was not permeated by calcium carbonate, the earth could not approach the bones. The calcium carbonate constitutes the substantial point of contact for the earth which is thereby able to shape the bones in accordance with its formative forces. The thigh bones could not have their extension from above downwards if this was not made possible by the calcium carbonate. But there would be no femoral head without CaPO3. This fact is not changed by the objection which anatomists will raise, that the quantities of CaCO3 and CaPO3 do not essentially differ in the shaft of a long bone and its neck or head. To begin with, this statement is not quite accurate, for minute research will reveal a difference, but something else comes into consideration here. The human organism must have within it both up-building processes and processes of demolition—processes out of which something is built up and processes by means of which what is not used in the up-building is separated off.
A very decided difference between these up-building forces and forces of demolition in substances themselves is shown, for example, by fluorine. The physiologist would say that fluorine plays a part in the up-building of the teeth and is also present in the urine. Fluorine, therefore, exists here and there in the human body. But that is not the point of importance. In the up-building of the teeth, the activity of the fluorine is a positive one. The teeth could not develop without fluorine. In urine, there is fluorine which has been broken down and is excreted. The essential thing is to distinguish between whether a substance is being eliminated at some place in the body or whether it is an absolute necessity in the up-building process. If part of a bone is built in from the cosmos, as it were, CaPO3 has here an up-building activity. In another part of a bone the CaPO3 is being eliminated. In the shafts of the long bones, CaCO3 builds up, but it is being eliminated in that part of the bone which is built in from the cosmos (head of the bone). The essential thing is not the actual presence, here or there, of a substance. The point of importance is what the substance is doing, what significance it has at some particular place in the organism.
I once tried to give a picture of these things by saying the following: Suppose I am going for a walk one morning at nine o'clock and see two men sitting together on a bench. At three o'clock in the afternoon I pass the bench again and the two men are together there again. These two facts in themselves really tell me nothing, because it may be that one of the men had taken his lunch with him and had remained sitting on the bench from nine o'clock until three o'clock, while the other had gone off for a walk and had come back again just before three o'clock. One of them is quite rested, the other terribly tired. In this respect there is an inner difference between them. The point of importance is not the presence of the one person or the other, but what each of them has been doing, how has life brought him to this particular place. Therefore, so far as understanding of the human being is concerned, the presence of some substance in an organ is not really a matter of importance. It is a question of knowing in what kind of process the substance is involved—a process of up-building or a process of demolition.
We shall never find the transition from the quality of a substance that is necessary to the human organism, to a remedy, unless we keep this process in mind. This is the only way which will lead to the realization that the distribution of substances in the cosmos is quite different from what is usually thought. It is a striking fact—a fact to which no thought has been given for five or six centuries—that while certain analytical processes prove the existence of iron in the human organism (it can be said quite certainly that there is iron in the blood), attempts to prove the existence of lead in the human organism will fail, if the organism is in a normal state. Lead is only known in the form of lead ores, or heavy lumps. But just think of it—all metals which exist in the coarse, lumpy form as earthly substances were once present during the epochs of Saturn, Sun and Moon, in the fluid condition, even in the condition of warmth ether. Now, the human being—in a different form of course—was already in existence on Old Saturn. He has been involved in all these processes, among them the process whereby, out of a fluid, delicate etheric condition, iron has become what it is today. Man has been involved in the whole process of the world's evolution.
The strange thing is that the human being has taken iron and also magnesium into his own structure, but not lead. He has united the magnesium process with his own being. But he threw out the lead process. So far as the magnesium is concerned, therefore, we see that there are working, within the human being, the same forces as are working in magnesium in the external world; the human being has to master them inwardly. But before man was enclosed in his skin, when he was still a structure that was involved in a process of metamorphosis and united with the cosmos, he overcame the lead process and still has within him the forces for the elimination of the lead process. He has within him the up-building forces of magnesium and the forces for the elimination of the lead process.
What does this mean, in reality? You need only study what happens to the human organism in lead poisoning. It becomes inwardly brittle, sclerotic. It is therefore correct to say that the organism cannot tolerate lead and when there is lead poisoning there is lead within the organism. The organism begins to fight against the process that is contained in the lead substance—substances are always processes. Lead spreads out within the organic process, and the organism, exerting itself in opposition, tries to drive out the lead. When it succeeds it gets well. If the lead proves itself to be the stronger, the organism does not get well, and the well-known process of decay that is connected with lead poisoning sets in, because the organism can only tolerate those processes which overcome the lead process. It cannot tolerate the formative forces of lead. If we now try to find out what it means to the human being that he will not put up with having lead in his organism, we are led to the following: man is a being of sense. He perceives things around him and then thinks about them. He needs both forms of activity. He must perceive things in order that he may be connected with the world; he must also think about them. He must repress the act of actual perception and then unfold his own, independent activity. If we were only to perceive, we should lose ourselves all the time in acts of external seeing. But by retreating from the things themselves, by thinking about them—thereby, we become a personality, an individuality. We do not lose ourselves in the things. If we study the human etheric body, we find that it has within it a center for the forces which throw out lead. This center, approximately, lies where the hairs grow in a kind of vortex at the back of the crown of the head. That is the center of the forces which overcome lead. They stream into all parts of the organism in order that the formative forces of lead may not get into the organism. The forces which the body has developed for the overcoming of lead have great significance, for they are the same forces which enable me, when I am looking, say, at this piece of chalk, not to be entirely caught up in the simple act of looking at the chalk. Otherwise I should identify myself with the object of perception. But I make myself independent, I dampen down the perception of the object observed by means of those forces which overcome lead. It is due to these forces that the human being can be a self-contained personality; these forces enable the human being to separate himself from the world.
I will now speak of something that is very striking in connection with the forces which overcome lead. Not only have they a physical-etheric significance but also a psychical and moral significance.
The human being takes certain metallic substances into himself, unites them with his own bodily organism; other metallic substances he overcomes and has them within him only in the form of processes of rejection, processes which are master of these substances. Now why is it that in the course of his long evolution from the Saturn period and the Sun period, man has separated off certain external substances and has received others into his organism? In that man has this process of elimination within, he is able to receive into himself independent moral forces. We can imagine that the human organism, as constituted presently, may be unable to make use of lead but contains certain forces which compensate for lead; we can imagine the organism containing lead in the same way as it now contains iron. If this were so the human being would bring into himself semi-moral qualities; for it is so with lead. He would then have a morbid affinity (we should call it a 'morbid' or pathological affinity) to the impurities existing in the outside world. Such a person would always be on the lookout for vile-smelling substances and like to smell them. If we notice that some child has perverted instincts of this kind—and there are children who are partial to everything that smells,—they will sniff petroleum, for instance—then we may be sure that the quality of the blood that rejects lead is not present. And it is then a matter of calling up this lead-rejecting power by clinical methods or even by medicaments. It is possible to do this.
And now let us think of magnesium, a substance which plays a significant role in the human organism. There is something very interesting about magnesium. When speaking about education I have said many times that the first period of life, the period which lasts to the time of the change of teeth, must be sharply differentiated from the following periods. The second period lasts from the change of teeth until puberty. Magnesium, as well as fluorine, is necessary for the development of the teeth. But the process of the development of the teeth is not localized in the upper and lower jaws—the whole organism participates in it. The magnesium process takes place over the whole organism. And this is the most important process of all up to the time of the change of teeth. After the teeth have changed, magnesium has no longer its former significance. For the magnesium forces in the human being harden the organism; they enclose it in itself. This consolidation of the organism, this incorporation of the forces and substances, comes to an end at the second dentition.
Until then, the magnesium forces are exceedingly important for the organism. This organism, so far as its development is concerned, must now be considered a self-contained whole. It must contain and it must enfold the magnesium process, for if this process were absent the organism would lack the necessary forces of consolidation. The organism cannot cease generating the magnesium forces. This goes on after the change of teeth just as it did before. The magnesium forces must be worked upon in the organism, and after the change of teeth the essential thing in regard to magnesium is that it must be overcome, must be thrown out. It enters particularly into the secretion of milk, is excreted with the milk. The secretion of milk is connected with puberty, so you have here a periodic process. Up to the change of teeth magnesium is consumed, as it were, by the organism; after the change of teeth, up to the time of puberty, it is thrown off, separated. And magnesium, now a substance to be secreted, is one of the forces which form the milk. After puberty there is a kind of rebound and the magnesium forces are used for the more delicate consolidation of the muscles.
Substances are only a combination of processes. Lead is only in semblance the heavy, gray substance—with which we are familiar. It is nonsense to say that lead is a piece of coarse substance. In reality, lead is the process that goes on within the boundaries which mark the extent of the spread of lead. Everything is a process. One cannot say, once and for all, that certain 'substance processes' are worked up in the human being, and certain others, like the lead process, for which we must always have the power of elimination, are thrown off. It is not correct to say this because there are other processes, like the magnesium process, in connection with which there is rhythmic alternation; in periods which alternate rhythmically we have to consume the magnesium process, and then again throw it out.
This will show you that it means nothing to say, as the result of mere analysis: the human organism contains magnesium. It means nothing, for in the twelfth year of life these substances have quite a different significance than they have in the fourth or fifth year of life. We unfold a real knowledge of the human being when we know the period during which certain substance processes are important in the human organism. If we want to know how substances outside in nature can work further within the human organism, it is of very little importance to study the chemical composition of these substances. We must study something that is hardly studied at all today. If we trace back the study of substances to the thirteen or fourteenth century, we find the beginnings of modern chemistry. These beginnings are to be found in the alchemical processes which are so often scoffed at nowadays. But alchemy contained something else too, of which there has been no continuation. It is what might be called today the doctrine of signatures. This Doctrine of Signatures was applied especially in the study of plants but also of minerals, and it has not been developed or continued.
The characteristic quality of antimony is its well-known spiky, crystalline formation. If you apply a certain metallurgical treatment to antimony, you get the familiar “antimony mirror” when the volatilizing antimony is precipitated on a cold surface. Antimony has the tendency to develop forms which reveal themselves very clearly as forms of the etheric body. The shapes taken by antimony are very similar to the forms of certain simple plants which have an affinity to the etheric body. When one studies antimony one has the feeling at once that this antimony is very sensitive to etheric forces. It has an affinity with etheric forces. Everyone can confirm this by bringing antimony to the cathode. There will be a series of slight explosions which show the relation of antimony to the etheric forces. This is a striking case, but at one time people had a great faculty for understanding these things. This faculty is now quite lost and no attention or respect is paid to such indications as I have given. And for this reason, certain significant observations leave people in complete perplexity.
Think of diamond, graphite, anthracite, common coal. They are all carbon, but yet so different from each other. Why are they different? If people were capable of not limiting their investigations to the chemical composition but of finding out about the ‘Signature’, as it was called in olden times, they would begin to understand what the difference is between common coal and graphite. Common coal came into being during the Earth evolution, graphite during the preceding Moon evolution. Diamond came into being during the Sun evolution. When you study these things in the cosmic aspect, you realize once again that what is of essential importance is not the substance itself but the conditions and times under which and during which a substance assumed a definite form. Physical reality is subject to the element of time, and time has a definite significance. If you think of what I have said, you will realize: common coal is a child, it has as yet no great age; graphite is a youth, but older than common coal; diamond, though not exactly ancient, is very mature. If you have to set a task which demands the power of maturity, you will not give it to a child. Everything depends on the age. So you will realize that simply because of its cosmic age, coal, in whatever form it appears, has a different task from graphite which is more mature.
Insight into cosmic processes is necessary if we want to understand the relationship of the human being to what is out there in the cosmos. Antimony has a particular connection with the human etheric body, and if you introduce it into the human organism as a medicament, you must understand what antimony is outside the human being before you can know what is stimulated in the etheric body by the use of antimony. You must study the delicate processes in nature if you want to understand how a medicament is to act within the human organism.
Dritter Vortrag
Meine lieben Freunde!
Ich habe Ihnen mitzuteilen, daß wir von morgen ab die Sache so machen, daß Sie sich überlegen, was Sie gern von sich aus für Fragen stellen wollen, daß Sie mir dann diese Fragen geben oder aufschreiben, so daß ich alle Wünsche, die sich aus Ihnen heraus ergeben, im Verlauf der Vorträge berücksichtigen kann, so daß alles zum Vorschein kommt, von dem Sie wünschen, daß es komme.
Nun, heute möchte ich Ihnen noch etwas sagen, was sich unmittelbar an die Betrachtungen anschließt, die wir gestern und vorgestern angestellt haben über den Menschen selbst und seine Beziehungen zur Welt. Es nützt nichts, wenn wir versuchen, hier bei einer anthroposophischen Betrachtung über den Menschen uns gewissermaßen zu genieren vor denjenigen, welche aus der heutigen Wissenschaftlichkeit heraus allerlei Ansichten über den Menschen haben, eigentlich Nichtansichten über den Menschen haben, und wenn wir versuchen, möglichst wenig von den Dingen, die so allgemein üblich sind, abzuweichen. Denn dasjenige, was vorliegt, ist, daß in großen und bedeutenden Tatsachen die Wahrheit von dem, was heute üblich ist, ganz beträchtlich abweicht. Ganz außerordentlich stark weicht die Wahrheit ab von dem, was heute allgemein üblich ist. Und deshalb wird derjenige, der heute nach der Wahrheit strebt, auch den Mut haben müssen, manches einzusehen, was vor der gegenwärtigen Wissenschaftlichkeit geradezu als etwas außerordentlich Absurdes gilt. Aber dennoch, es ist schon notwendig, daß Sie sich — nicht hier, aber sonst —, wenn Sie wirklich heilen wollen, also sich mischen wollen sozusagen unter diejenigen, die aus der äußeren Welt heute heilen, daß Sie sich in einer Weise, die ich noch sagen werde, doch mit dieser heute äußerlichen Wissenschaft befassen. Sonst werden Sie ziemlich taumelnd mit der Wahrheit unter den heutigen Irrtümern herumwandeln müssen.
Man betrachtet heute die Sache so, um die es sich handelt, als wenn man es zu tun hätte mit den siebzig bis achtzig Stoffen, die auf der Erde sind, mit gewissen Kräften, die unter diesen Stoffen walten, anziehenden und abstoßenden Kräften und so weiter, Kräften, die durch gewisse Äquivalenzzahlen wirken, Atomgewichtszahlen und so weiter. Man kommt da zu gewissen sogenannten Naturgesetzen, durch die man eine Überschau zu schaffen sucht darüber, wie die Stoffe zur Gestaltung kommen, wie sie zu Naturgesetzen kommen, und dann baut man sich ein Phantasiegebilde auf, das der Mensch sein soll, herausgebildet aus den verschiedenen Kräften, deren Ursprung man in den Stoffen sucht und so weiter. So ist das aber nicht. Der Mensch steht weder in seiner ganzen Gestaltung noch in den Kräften, die seine Ernährungs-, seine Wachstumsprozesse unterhalten, durchaus nicht etwa bloß unter den Einflüssen, die von den irdischen Stoffen ausgehen. Wir haben schon bei der Betrachtung des Ätherleibes gesehen, daß dieser durchaus unter dem Einfluß von Kräften steht, die aus der Peripherie, aus dem Kosmos hereinströmen. Wenn Sie nun diese zwei Arten von Kräften betrachten, die Kräfte, die von den Stoffen der Erde herkommen, und die Kräfte, die von der Peripherie herkommen, haben Sie schon das gegeben, daß für jedes Organ ein Ausgleich, ein Gleichgewicht, eine Harmonisierung dieser zwei Kräftearten notwendig ist. Durch die Art, wie dieses Gleichgewicht hergestellt wird, unterscheiden sich wirklich beträchtlich die einzelnen menschlichen Organsysteme voneinander.
Und betrachten wir von diesem Gesichtspunkt aus das menschliche Haupt, den menschlichen Kopf. Da muß man ja zuerst darauf aufmerksam machen - ich habe schon öfters aufmerksam darauf gemacht im Verlauf der Vorträge, da, wo sich solches ergeben hat -, wie die Schwerkraft, das Gewicht, das doch bei jedem irdischen Körper zunächst berücksichtigt werden muß, dessen Zusammenhang berücksichtigt werden muß, wie das Gewicht des menschlichen Gehirnes, also der Hauptmasse des menschlichen Kopfes, eigentlich zum großen Teile eliminiert wird, indem das scharf konturierte Gehirn im Gehirnwasser schwimmt, so daß man sagen kann: In dem Gehirnwasser, das eigentlich zirkuliert durch den Rückenmarkskanal hinunter, in diesem Gehirnwasser schwimmt das Gehirn. Wiegt man das Gehirn, nun, so hat es 1300 bis 1500 Gramm Schwere. Aber im Menschen wiegt es nicht so viel, es wiegt höchstens 20 Gramm. Warum ist dieses so? Weil es im Gehirnwasser schwimmt, und nach dem Archimedischen Gesetze verliert jeder Körper so viel an Gewicht, als die von ihm verdrängte Flüssigkeit wiegt. Das Gehirn erfährt im Flüssigen einen Auftrieb, so daß von seiner Schwere eigentlich nur 20 bis 25 Gramm übrigbleiben. Mit dem drückt das Gehirn nach unten. Würde es mit voller Schwere nach unten drücken, dann könnte unter dem Gehirn kein Blutadersystem sein, da würde alles zerquetscht, so daß man sagen kann, es ist wirklich so, daß ihm seine Erdeneigenschaft der Schwere genommen wird. Wir leben mit unserem Gehirn nicht durch die Erdeneigenschaft der Schwere, sondern durch dasjenige, was von der Erde entfernen will, durch den Auftrieb, der der Erdenschwere entgegengesetzt wird. Mit höchstens 20 Gramm unterliegt das Gehirn der Erdenschwere. Wir werden nur mit einer sehr geringen Kraft in bezug auf unseren Kopf von der Erde angezogen.
Das ist das eine. Daraus können wir sehen, daß das Erdenhaftige des Gehirnes in hohem Grade einfach verschwindet durch die menschliche Organisation. Die menschliche Organisation ist so eingerichtet, daß die Erdenkräfte einfach verschwinden. Aber es ist noch in einem viel höheren Maße der Fall. Den Auftrieb kennt die Menschheit aus dem Archimedischen Prinzip heraus, obwohl es im Technischen nicht immer berücksichtigt wird. Sonst würden nicht solche Dinge geschehen sein wie die Verwüstung des Stausees in Italien, wo einfach durch Nichterkenntnis des Archimedischen Prinzipes in seiner vollen Totalität ein technischer Mangel war. Ich weiß nicht, ob die Menschheit das einsieht, aber man konnte es aus den Beschreibungen, die gemacht wurden, sehr genau entnehmen. Man betrachtet diejenigen Gesetze als richtig, bei denen es einem paßt. Man ignoriert diejenigen Gesetze, bei denen es einem nicht paßt.
Nun ist nicht nur das vorhanden für dieses menschliche Haupt, daß die ganze innere Bildung des menschlichen Hauptes, daß die Schwere verlorengeht, es ist durch die besondere Einrichtung des menschlichen Atmungsprozesses, durch gewisse statische Verhältnisse, die sich abspielen zwischen Einatmung und Ausatmung, noch etwas anderes der Fall. Es ist dieses der Fall, daß der Atemstoß, der dadurch ausgeübt wird, daß eingeatmet wird, sich in einer gewissen Weise bricht, indem eingeatmet wird, und daß der Gegenstoß, der bei der Ausatmung erfolgt, sich in einer ähnlichen Weise verhält. Die beiden verhalten sich in einer ähnlichen Weise wie Schwere und Auftrieb, so daß das Kuriose ist, daß, wenn wir gehen, wir in Wahrheit in bezug auf die statischen Verhältnisse unseres Hauptes den Kopf, das Gehirn in Ruhe lassen. Wie wir es nicht schwer sein lassen durch den Auftrieb seines Wassers, so ist es in bezug auf sein inneres Verhältnis, wenn wir gehen. Und das gilt nicht nur für unser Gehen, sondern in kurioser Weise namentlich auch für die Bewegung, die wir mit der Erde mitmachen. Die machen wir bloß im übrigen Körper mit, nicht mit dem Gehirn; für das Gehirn wird sie fortwährend aufgehoben, so daß bei dem Gehirn bei einem Gewicht von 1500 Gramm immer nur 20 Gramm übrigbleiben. Außerdem ist es so, daß, wenn wir unseren Kopf auch ebenso schnell bewegen wie unseren übrigen Körper, er in Wahrheit in Ruhe bleibt. Sie können sich schwerer vorstellen, daß etwas, was für den Anblick in Bewegung ist, in Wirklichkeit ruht, als Sie sich vorstellen können, daß etwas, was der Schwere unterliegt, eigentlich nicht schwer ist. Aber es ist dennoch so. Für die innere Organisation des Menschen ist das Haupt durchaus so, wie wenn es in fortwährender Ruhe wäre, alle Kräfte gleichen sich gegenseitig aus, nur daß nach unten eine geringe Schwere, die sich verhält wie 20 zu 1500, und daß nach vorne eine ganz geringe Fortbewegungskraft existiert. Aber das Wesentliche der Bewegung wird ausgeglichen, so daß man einmal sagen kann, das menschliche Haupt ist im übrigen Organismus so - in bezug auf sein inneres Erleben — wie ein Mensch, der ruhig sitzt in einem Auto, sich gar nicht bewegt; das Auto bewegt sich, und er kommt doch vorwärts. Das menschliche Haupt erlebt so, wie es erleben würde, wenn es nicht schwer wäre. Es hebt seine Beweglichkeit auf, wenn sich der Mensch bewegt, und wenn sich mit dem Menschen sogar die Erde bewegt.
Also, das menschliche Organ des Kopfes hat etwas ganz Besonderes, indem es sich ausschließt, sich exiliert von alldem, was auf der Erde geschieht. Nur wenig nimmt die Erde teil an dem, was irgend Hauptestätigkeit ist. Dagegen ist dieses ganze menschliche Haupt eine Nachbildung des Kosmos. "Tatsächlich, dasjenige, was menschliches Haupt ist, ist eine Nachbildung des Kosmos, ist wirklich ein Abbild des Kosmos, hat in seinem Wesen gar nichts zu tun mit den Kräften der Erde. Also, die innere Gehirnbildung ist den Kräften des Kosmos nachgebildet, und wir haben eine innere Gehirngestaltung, deren Form wir nicht erklären können aus irgend etwas Irdischem, sondern die wir erklären müssen aus dem Kosmos heraus. Die Erde wirkt nur, indem sie - ich spreche es grob aus, aber Sie werden mich verstehen - durchbricht nach unten die kosmische Bildung und in den Menschen einfügt alles dasjenige, was nur zu der Erde hintendiert. Sie können das ja sehr leicht an einem Skelett wahrnehmen. Sie heben am Menschen den Schädel ab, dann haben Sie das abgenommen, was kosmisch nachgebildet ist und Sie haben zunächst das übrig, was nur noch halb kosmisch ist, in der Anordnung der Rippen, da ist es aber schon unter dem Eindruck des Irdischen stehend. Sehen Sie sich namentlich am Skelett an die Röhrenknochen der Beine, die Röhrenknochen der Arme: da haben Sie rein irdische Bildungen. Sehen Sie sich an am Skelett die Rückenmarkswirbel, die rauhen Rückgratwirbel, an denen die Rippen sitzen. Da müssen Sie einsehen, daß das entstanden ist aus dem Gleichgewichtszustand zwischen dem Kosmischen und dem Irdischen. Und sehen Sie den Kopf an, da haben Sie auch in der Schädeldecke eine Form, in der der Kosmos entreißt dem Irdischen die Möglichkeit, sich selbst zu formen, eine Form, die nachgebildet ist dem Kosmischen. So muß man die menschlichen Formen wirklich studieren.
Nur wenn Sie so die menschlichen Formen studieren und außerdem wissen, daß eigentlich der Kopf für sein innerliches Erleben gerade mit Bezug auf seine Weichbildungen, seine Flüssigkeitsbildungen in Ruhe ist, also in Ruhe den Kosmos nachbildet, dann werden Sie sich schon sagen müssen, eigentlich ist alle Anatomie und Physiologie, wie sie heute in Beschreibungen auftreten, ja etwas, wovon man überhaupt nicht sprechen kann als von Wahrheit, weil die nicht das Bewußtsein haben, daß es sich um etwas handelt, was unter kosmischem Einflusse steht.
Ich habe gesagt, es sind Kräfte da, die gehen aus der Peripherie herein, es ist so, wie wenn sie von allen Seiten hereinkommen würden auf diesen menschlichen Kopf. Aber es ist ein großer Unterschied, ob diese Kräfte kommen und der Mond sie aufhält, oder ob die Sonne sie aufhält, oder ob der Saturn sie aufhält. Dadurch, daß gewisse Sterne da sind, werden diese peripherischen Kräfte modifiziert. Es ist also nicht gleichgültig, aus welchen Richtungen diese Kräfte herkommen. Die Wirkung wird wesentlich modifiziert durch den Ort, in dem wir irgendein Sternbild sehen. Das ist ein Gedanke, der heute nur dilettantisch, in sehr alten Zeiten in intuitiver Weisheit der alten Astronomie zugrunde liegt. Heute bekommt aus den Tatsachen, die da sind, keiner eine Vorstellung davon, wie die Dinge in Wirklichkeit sind. Das, was ich gesagt habe, ist ganz wesentlich, um einzusehen, wie diese menschliche Bildung eigentlich ist. Denn in dem, daß der Mensch in seinem Haupte ganz dem Kosmos unterliegt, daß er in dem, was die Röhrenknochen der Beine sind, nur dem Irdischen unterliegt, drückt sich zugleich aus, bis ins Substantielle hinein, das, was in den Bildekräften liegt. Wenn Sie ein menschliches Knochengebilde haben: Sie wissen ja, darin ist dasjenige, was dann erscheint als kohlensaurer Kalk. Es gibt dann aber auch phosphorsauren Kalk, beides hat seine starke Bedeutung für den Knochenbau. Durch den kohlensauren Kalk erhält der Knochen die Eigentümlichkeit, der Erde zu unterliegen. Wäre die Knochensubstanz nicht überhaupt durchsetzt von kohlensaurem Kalk, könnte die Erde nicht an den Knochen heran. Der kohlensaure Kalk bildet für die Erde den substantiellen Angriffspunkt, um nach ihren Bildungskräften den Knochen zu formen. Der phosphorsaure Kalk bildet für den Kosmos den Angriffspunkt, um den Knochen zu formen. Wenn Sie also zum Beispiel einen solchen Röhrenknochen haben wie den menschlichen Oberschenkelknochen, dann würde dieser Oberschenkelknochen seine Ausdehnung von oben nach unten nicht haben können, wenn nicht dieses vermittelt würde durch den kohlensauren Kalk. Er würde aber den Schenkelhals nicht haben, wenn dies nicht vermittelt würde durch den phosphorsauren Kalk. Daran ändert sich nichts durch die Tatsache, welche die Anatomen einwenden, daß die Menge des phosphorsauren und kohlensauren Kalkes für ein Knochenrohr und einen Schenkelhals sich im wesentlichen nicht unterscheiden. Erstens ist es für eine feinere Untersuchung nicht ganz richtig, sie unterscheiden sich, aber bei diesen Dingen kommt noch ein anderes in Betracht. Der ganze menschliche Organismus ist darauf angelegt, Aufbau- und Abbauprozesse zu haben. Prozesse, aus denen sich etwas aufbaut, und Prozesse, durch die sich das, was beim Aufbau nicht verwendet werden kann, abscheidet. Einen sehr bedeutenden Unterschied zwischen solchen aufbauenden und abbauenden Kräften in den Substanzen selber können Sie zum Beispiel beim Fluor konstatieren. Der gewöhnliche Anatom würde sagen: Fluor spielt eine Rolle beim Aufbau der Zähne, es findet sich auch im Harn, also Fluor da und dort. Darum handelt es sich nicht. Beim Aufbau der Zähne spielt Fluor eine positive Rolle; die Zähne können nicht aufgebaut werden ohne Fluor. Im Harn findet sich das Fluor, das herausgebaut ist, das abgebaut werden soll. Das Wesentliche ist, daß Sie unterscheiden, ob irgend etwas an einer Stelle abgeschieden ist und deshalb sich bildet, oder ob es absolut notwendig ist im Aufbau. Und so ist es. Wenn Sie einen Knochenteil haben, der im wesentlichen aus dem Kosmos hereingebildet ist, so ist der phosphorsaure Kalk aufbauend. In einem andern Knochenteile findet sich der phosphorsaure Kalk als Abscheidung - und umgekehrt: Beim Röhrenknochen ist der kohlensaure Kalk aufbauend und findet sich als Abscheidung, wird abgeschieden nach dem Teil hin, der aus dem Kosmos hereingebildet ist. Man muß sagen, es kommt nirgends darauf an, ob der oder jener Stoff da ist, sondern darauf kommt es an, was diese Stoffe für einen Weg machen, was sie für eine Bedeutung haben an irgendeinem Orte des Organismus.
Ich habe diese Dinge einmal dadurch versucht unseren Freunden bildhaft zu machen, indem ich sagte: Nehmen wir an, ich gehe um neun Uhr morgens spazieren und treffe auf einer Bank zwei Menschen, die dort friedlich beisammensitzen. Am Nachmittag um drei Uhr gehe ich wieder hin. Die Menschen sitzen wiederum friedlich beisammen. Wenn ich diese zwei Fakten konstatiere, habe ich nichts getan, weil es so sein kann: der eine Mensch kann sich Butterbrot mitgenommen haben und ist von neun bis drei Uhr sitzengeblieben, der andere ist gegangen, hat einen Weg gemacht, hat sich erst vor drei Uhr wieder hingesetzt. Der eine ist ausgeruht, der andere ist furchtbar müde. Die innere Konstitution unterscheidet sich ganz wesentlich bei beiden. Es kann danach nicht darauf ankommen, ob dieser oder jener Mensch da ist, sondern darauf: Was hat er gemacht, was ist sein Weg im Dasein, um zu diesem Ort zu kommen. — Und so ist es im Grunde genommen gleichgültig für das Verständnis des Menschen, ob in einem Organ dieser oder jener Stoff ist. Man muß wissen, wie er darin ist, ob er als aufbauender oder als Abscheidestoff drin ist, dann kann man erst den Menschen verstehen. Niemals wird man den Übergang finden können von der Qualität eines Stoffes, der für den menschlichen Organismus notwendig ist, zu einem Heilmittel, wenn man nicht diesen Prozeß ordentlich ins Auge fassen kann. Erst wenn man dieses kann, kommt man darauf, daß tatsächlich die Verteilung der Stoffe im Kosmos eine ganz andere ist, als man gewöhnlich glaubt.
Es ist schon einmal eine auffallende "Tatsache, über die nur seit fünf bis sechs Jahrhunderten nicht mehr nachgedacht wird, daß man mit gewissen analytischen Prozessen im menschlichen Organismus, wie man meint, Eisen nachweisen kann. Alle diese Prozesse sind so, daß man sagen kann: im menschlichen Organismus, im Blut ist Eisen. Aber man wird vergeblich versuchen, im Menschen Blei nachzuweisen, wenn der Organismus normal ist. Nun, das Blei kennt man eigentlich nur in Bleierzen sowie da, wo es sich grobklotzig findet. Aber alle Metalle, die sich grobklotzig in unserer Erdensubstanz finden, waren einstmals in ihren Urgebilden in Saturn, Sonne und so weiter in ganz flüchtigen, sogar wärmeätherischen Zuständen, als aufgelöste, flüchtige, wärmeätherische Zustände vorhanden. Nun, der Mensch war, allerdings natürlich in einer andern Form, in seiner Wesenheit schon auf dem alten Saturn vorhanden. Er hat alle diese Prozesse mitgemacht, unter denen zum Beispiel Eisen von einem ganz flüchtigen, fein verteilten, wärmeätherischen Zustande dasjenige geworden ist, was es heute ist. Er hat mitgemacht, wie die Welt geworden ist und so weiter. Das Eigentümliche ist, daß der Mensch dem Eisen gegenüber, dem Magnesium gegenüber sich so verhalten hat, daß er diese Stoffe in seine eigene Bildung aufgenommen hat. Das Blei hat er überwunden. Also dem Magnesium gegenüber hat er sich so verhalten, daß er den Magnesiumprozeß mit seinem Prozeß verbunden hat. Dem Blei gegenüber hat er sich so verhalten, daß er geflohen ist vor dem Bleiprozeß, daß er den ausgeschieden hat, so daß wir in bezug auf das Magnesium sehen, wie im Menschen dieselben Kräfte walten, die eben draußen im Magnesium walten. Der Mensch muß sie innerlich überwinden. Aber bevor der Mensch in seiner Haut eingeschlossen war, als er noch ein metamorphosierendes Gebilde war, das mit dem Kosmos einig war, hat er den Bleiprozeß überwunden, so daß er heute noch in sich hat die Überwindung, die Ausscheidung des Bleiprozesses. Er hat in sich die Aufbaukräfte des Magnesiums, er hat in sich die Ausscheidungskräfte für den Bleiprozeß.
Was heißt das eigentlich? Sie brauchen ja nur zu studieren, was aus dem menschlichen Organismus wird, wenn er eine Bleivergiftung hat. Er wird in sich brüchig, sklerotisch. Daher könnte man sagen: Blei kann der menschliche Organismus nicht in sich dulden. Wenn eine Bleivergiftung eintritt, so ist also Blei im menschlichen Organismus drin. Der Organismus fängt allerdings an, den Prozeß, der in der Bleisubstanz liegt — Substanzen sind immer Prozesse —, zu bekämpfen. Blei breitet sich aus im organischen Prozesse; der Organismus rüttelt sich dagegen auf, sucht das Blei auszutreiben. Wenn er das kann, gesundet er. Wenn das Blei stärker ist, gesundet er nicht. Es tritt der bekannte Zerfallsprozeß der Bleivergiftung im menschlichen Organismus auf, weil der menschliche Organismus nur verträgt die den Bleiprozeß überwindenden Prozesse. Er kann die die Bleisubstanz bildenden Kräfte nicht in sich haben.
Wenn man nun nachforscht, was der Mensch davon hat, daß er kein Blei in sich duldet, kommt man zu folgendem. Sehen Sie, der Mensch ist ja zunächst ein Sinneswesen. Er nimmt Dinge um sich herum wahr, und dann denkt er nach über die Dinge. Beides braucht er. Er muß Dinge wahrnehmen, damit er mit der Welt in Verbindung treten kann. Er muß auch nachdenken, muß zurückdrängen seine Wahrnehmung, und im Zurückdrängen dann seine Selbständigkeit entwickeln. Würden wir nur wahrnehmen, gingen wir immer im äußeren Anschauen auf. Hingegen dadurch, daß wir zurücktreten von den Dingen, über sie nachdenken, sind wir erst eine Persönlichkeit, eine Individualität. Dadurch gehen wir nicht in den Dingen auf. Und wenn man studiert den menschlichen Ätherleib, so hat er in sich ein Zentrum für bleiabweisende Kräfte. Dieses Zentrum ist ungefähr dort, wo die Haare ihren Wirbel bilden. Da strahlen die bleiüberwindenden Kräfte aus. Überall in den Organismus strahlen sie hinein, damit ja nicht die bleibildenden Kräfte in den Organismus hineinkommen können. Die bleiüberwindenden Kräfte, die der Körper ausgebildet hat, haben eine große Bedeutung dadurch, daß diese selben bleiüberwindenden Kräfte machen, daß, wenn ich diese Kreide anschaue, ich nicht im einfachen Anschauen der Kreide befangen bleibe. Sonst würde ich selber mich mit dem Angeschauten identifizieren. Ich mache mich selbständig, ich lähme die Beobachtung ab, aber das tue ich mit denselben Kräften, die die blerüberwindenden Kräfte sind, so daß der Mensch diesen bleiüberwindenden Kräften verdankt, daß er eine innerlich geschlossene Persönlichkeit sein kann. Daß der Mensch sich von der Welt absondern kann, das verdankt er den bleiüberwindenden Kräften.
Es ist schon so, daß diese Kräfte, die im Menschen sitzen und deren Dasein einem recht auffällig werden kann, wenn man einen gewissen Zusammenhang, den ich gleich erwähnen will, berücksichtigt, nicht nur eine physisch-ätherische Bedeutung, sondern eben durchaus auch eine psychisch-moralische Bedeutung haben. Was ich sagen will, ist dieses: Der Mensch nimmt gewisse Metallkörper in sich auf, die er mit dem eigenen körperlichen Organismus verbindet, andere Metallkörper überwindet er; er hat sie nur als Abweisungs-, als Überwindungsprozesse in sich. Nun, woher kommt das, daß der Mensch im Laufe seiner langen Entwickelung von der Saturnzeit, der Sonnenzeit und so weiter gewisse Substanzen, die draußen entstanden sind, ausgeschieden, andere nur aufgenommen hat? In diesem Ausscheiden liegt zu gleicher Zeit das, daß der Mensch selbständige moralische Kräfte in sich aufnehmen kann. Es ist schon so, daß der Mensch, würde er zum Beispiel daraufhin veranlagt sein, bleibildende Kräfte in sich zu haben - man könnte denken, daß der jetzige Organismus zwar jetzt nicht Blei brauchen kann, aber daß er irgendwelche bleibildende Kräfte hätte, daß er Blei in demselben Sinne in sich hätte wie jetzt das Eisen —, dann würde der Mensch - beim Blei ist es so — halb moralische Eigenschaften in sich haben, von dem Blei her in sich tragen, dann würde der Mensch etwa eine krankhafte — wir würden es heute krankhaft nennen - Affinität haben zu den äußeren Unreinigkeiten in der Welt. Riechende, stinkende Stoffe würde der Mensch sehr gerne aufsuchen und an ihnen riechen, um aufzugehen in denselben. Und wenn man ein Kind hat und an ihm beobachten kann, wie es bei Kindern vorkommt, daß sie solche perversen Eigenschaften haben - es gibt Kinder, die suchen mit Vorliebe alles Stinkende auf, sie naschen mit der Nase zum Beispiel am Petroleum -, da ist immer diese bleiabweisende Eigenschaft des Blutes nicht vorhanden. Da muß man versuchen, durch klinische oder sogar durch medikamentöse Einwirkung diese bleiabweisende Kraft aufzurufen. Es ist möglich durch Behandlungsarten, die noch zu besprechen sein werden, diese bleiabweisende Kraft aufzurufen.
Bleiben wir einmal bei einem Stoff, der im menschlichen Organismus eine gewisse Rolle spielt, dem Magnesium. Da können wir eine besonders interessante Sache studieren. Ich habe gerade auf pädagogischem Felde immer wieder darauf aufmerksam gemacht, wie der erste Lebensabschnitt, den wir scharf abgrenzen müssen von allen folgenden, der ist, der bis zum Zahnwechsel geht. Dann ist der nächste Abschnitt derjenige, der bis zur Geschlechtsreife geht. Nun ist die Sache so, daß geradeso, wie Fluor notwendig ist zur Zahnbildung, auch Magnesium zur Zahnbildung notwendig ist. Aber die Zahnbildung findet nicht nur statt im Munde, im Oberkiefer und Unterkiefer, sondern der ganze Organismus ist daran beteiligt, der Magnesiumprozeß spielt sich im ganzen menschlichen Organismus ab. Und das bedeutet für den Menschen das Allerwesentlichste bis zum Zahnwechsel. Nachher, nach dem Zahnwechsel hat das Magnesium nicht mehr jene große Bedeutung, die es vorher hatte, denn die Magnesiumkräfte im Menschen, die verhärten seinen Organismus. Sie schließen seinen Organismus in sich selbst zusammen, und ich möchte sagen, der Schlußpunkt dieses Konsolidierens des menschlichen Organismus, dies In-sich-Gliedern der Kräfte und Stoffe, das findet in dem Zahnwechsel, mit dem Erhalten der zweiten Zähne seinen Abschluß. Bis dahin hat die Verwendung von Magnesium die allergrößte Bedeutung für den menschlichen Organismus.
Nun ist der menschliche Organismus in bezug auf seine zeitliche Entwickelung ein Ganzes. Er muß Magnesium in sich entwickeln, in sich haben. Er hätte nicht die richtigen Konsolidierungskräfte, wenn er nicht diese Magnesiumprozesse in sich hätte. Er kann aber nicht aufhören, die Magnesiumkräfte zu erzeugen. Es geschieht dies nach dem Zahnwechsel ebenso wie vor dem Zahnwechsel. Die müssen im Organismus verarbeitet werden, und so wird nach dem Zahnwechsel das Wesentliche sein, daß das Magnesium überwunden wird, daß es ausgeschieden wird. Es zieht sich besonders in die menschliche Milchabsonderung, es wird besonders mit der Milch abgeschieden. Indem die Milchsekretion zusammenhängt mit der Geschlechtsreife, sehen Sie einen merkwürdigen zusammenhängenden Prozeß, einen periodischen Prozeß. Nehmen Sie das Magnesium: Bis zum Zahnwechsel wird es sozusagen vom menschlichen Organismus konsumiert, nachher vom Zahnwechsel bis zur Geschlechtsreife wird es abgeschieden und unter den Kräften, die die Milchkräfte bilden, ist durchaus das Magnesium als Abscheidung. Nachher kommt ein Rückschlag bis zum zwanzigsten Jahre. Dann findet die Magnesiumkraft eine Verwendung zur feineren Konsolidierung der Muskeln. Substanzen sind eigentlich nur eine Zusammensetzung von Prozessen, Blei ist ja nur scheinbar diese grobe, grau aussehende Substanz. Es ist Unsinn zu sagen, daß es ein Stück grober Substanz ist, Blei ist jener Prozeß, der innerhalb der Grenzen abläuft, die der Ausbreitung des Bleies gezogen sind; alles ist Prozeß! Nicht wahr, man kann sagen, daß die substantiellen Prozesse nicht nur so sind im Menschen, daß gewisse substantielle Prozesse im Menschen verarbeitet werden können, gewisse andere abgewiesen werden können wie der Bleiprozef, den wir niemals brauchen können, bei dem wir immer die ausscheidende Kraft haben müssen, sondern es gibt andere, wie den Magnesiumprozefß?, der so ist, daß er rhythmisch wechselt, daß wir tatsächlich in rhythmischen Perioden unseres Lebens die konsumierenden Prozesse entwickeln für die Magnesiumkräfte, dann die abscheidenden Prozesse.
Das ist dasjenige, was Ihnen zeigt, daß man wiederum eigentlich gar nichts hat, wenn man bloß analysiert und sagt, der menschliche Organismus hat Magnesium. Es ist gar nichts damit gesagt, denn im zwölften Jahre haben diese Substanzen eine ganz andere Bedeutung als im fünften oder vierten Jahre. Und nur dann lernt man den Menschen kennen, wenn man weiß, wann gewisse substantielle Prozesse, also Substanzen, diese oder jene Bedeutung im menschlichen Organismus haben. Will man erkennen, wie Substanzen, die draußen in der Natur sind, im menschlichen Organismus weiter wirken können, dann ist es wirklich von der geringsten Bedeutung, die chemische Beschaffenheit der Substanzen zu studieren. Man muß etwas studieren, was heute kaum studiert wird. Wenn man verfolgt das Substanzenstudium bis ins 13. oder 14. Jahrhundert, so hat man da erst die Anlagen zur heutigen Chemie. Diese Anlagen sind in den damaligen uns oftmals töricht vorkommenden alchimistischen Prozessen vorhanden. Aber es ist noch etwas anderes vorhanden. Es war dazumal etwas vorhanden, was gar keine Fortsetzung erfahren hat, das, was man heute die Signaturenlehre nennen könnte, die Signaturenlehre, die für Pflanzen besonders angewendet wurde, aber auch für Mineralien, die nicht mehr ihre Fortbildung erhalten hat.
Sehen Sie, ein solcher Stoff wie das Antimon, das Grauspießglanzerz: das Eigentümliche dieses Antimons ist, daß es die bekannte spießige Gestalt bekommt, diese haarförmige Gestaltung.
Wenn Sie es in einer gewissen Weise metallurgisch behandeln, dann bekommen Sie den Antimonspiegel, nämlich wenn das sich verflüchtigende Antimon auf einer kalten Fläche niederschlägt. Sie haben überall im Grauspießglanzerz die Tendenz, Formen zu bilden, die eigentlich sich sehr deutlich zeigen als Formen des Ätherleibes. Es sieht sehr ähnlich, was sich da bildet, den Formen gewisser einfacher Pflanzen, die sich dem Ätherleib anschmiegen. Wenn man Antimonsubstanz betrachtet, hat man unmittelbar das Gefühl, dieses Antimon ist sehr empfänglich für Ätherkräfte. Es schmiegt sich hinein in die Ätherkräfte. Jeder kann das dadurch konstatieren, daß er Antimon elektrolytisch behandelt, unter gewissen Umständen an die Kathode bringt: es entsteht eine Reihe von Explosionen, die überleiten in die Beziehungen des Antimons zu den Ätherkräften. Das ist ein auffälliger Fall, aber für diese Dinge hatte man einmal ein sehr starkes Auffassungsvermögen, heute ist dieses Auffassungsvermögen gar nicht mehr da; man respektiert solche Betrachtungen gar nicht mehr wie diejenigen, die ich angegeben habe. Daher ist man zu solchen Dingen gekommen, daß man bedeutsamen Wahrnehmungen gegenüber ratlos dasteht. Sehen Sie, man hat ja Diamant, Graphit, Anthrazit oder Steinkohle: alles ist Kohle, aber doch so verschieden. Warum ist das so? Würden die Menschen wirklich eingehen können auf dasjenige, was nicht bloß die chemische Beschaffenheit, sondern was im alten Sinne die Signatur ist, so würden Sie anfangen zu verstehen, was für ein Unterschied ist zwischen Steinkohle und Graphit. Steinkohle ist während des Erdprozesses entstanden. Graphit während des Mondprozesses, des der Erde vorangehenden planetartschen Prozesses, und Diamant während des Sonnenprozesses. Und Sie bekommen da, wenn Sie die Dinge kosmisch betrachten, auch einen Einblick dahinein, daß es wiederum nicht auf die Substanz ankommt, sondern daß es darauf ankommt, unter welchen Umständen und Zeiten eine Substanz eine gewisse, also eine feste Form angenommen hat. Nun, nicht wahr, wenn aber Substantielles, Physisch-Reales der Zeit unterliegt, so hat die Zeit eben eine bestimmte Bedeutung. Denn denken Sie einmal, wenn Sie das nehmen, was ich gesagt habe, so können Sie sagen, die Steinkohle ist ein Kind, ist noch nicht sehr alt; Graphit ist ein Jüngling, ist schon älter; Diamant ist, wenn nicht ein Greis, so doch mindestens sehr stark männlich. Wenn Sie irgendeine Aufgabe stellen wollen, die, sagen wir, reifes Menschenalter erfordert, so werden Sie nicht ein Kind hinstellen, es kommt auf das Lebensalter an. So werden Sie einsehen können, daß einfach nach dem kosmischen Lebensalter die Kohle überall da, wo sie auftritt, eine andere Aufgabe hat als Graphit, der ein gewisses reiferes Alter hat. So ist es notwendig, daß? man in kosmische Prozesse hineinsieht, wenn man die Beziehung des Menschen kennenlernen will zu dem, was draußen im Kosmos ist. Wenn Antimon eine besondere Empfindung hat für den menschlichen Ätherleib und Sie bringen Antimon als Medikament in den menschlichen Organismus, so müssen Sie erkennen, welche Beziehung es schon außer dem Menschen hat, wenn Sie erkennen wollen, was durch Antimon im menschlichen Ätherleib angeregt wird. Sie müssen durchaus eingehen auf die feinen Prozesse in der Natur, wenn Sie verstehen wollen, was irgendein Heilmittel im Menschen sein soll.
Third Lecture
My dear friends!
I would like to inform you that starting tomorrow, we will proceed as follows: you will consider what questions you would like to ask, then you will give me these questions or write them down so that I can take all of your wishes into account during the lectures, ensuring that everything you wish to come to light will come to light.
Now, today I would like to say something to you that follows on directly from the reflections we made yesterday and the day before yesterday about human beings themselves and their relationship to the world. It is of no use if, in our anthroposophical consideration of the human being, we try to be embarrassed, so to speak, before those who, based on today's scientific approach, have all kinds of views about the human being, or rather, have no views about the human being, and if we try to deviate as little as possible from the things that are so commonly accepted. For what we have here is that, in large and significant respects, the truth deviates considerably from what is common today. The truth deviates very strongly from what is generally accepted today. And therefore, those who strive for truth today will also have to have the courage to recognize many things that are considered downright absurd by current scientific thinking. Nevertheless, if you really want to heal, that is, if you want to mix, so to speak, with those who heal in the outer world today, it is necessary that you — not here, but elsewhere — engage with this outer science in a way that I will explain later. Otherwise, you will have to wander around quite dizzyingly with the truth among today's errors.
Today, the matter at hand is viewed as if one were dealing with the seventy to eighty substances that exist on earth, with certain forces that operate among these substances, attractive and repulsive forces and so on, forces that act through certain equivalence numbers, atomic weight numbers, and so on. This leads to certain so-called laws of nature, through which one seeks to gain an overview of how substances are formed, how they come to be governed by laws of nature, and then one constructs an imaginary structure of what man is supposed to be, formed from the various forces whose origin one seeks in substances and so on. But that is not how it is. Human beings, neither in their entire constitution nor in the forces that sustain their nutrition and growth processes, are by any means subject solely to the influences emanating from earthly substances. We have already seen in our consideration of the etheric body that it is entirely under the influence of forces flowing in from the periphery, from the cosmos. If you now consider these two types of forces, the forces that come from the substances of the earth and the forces that come from the periphery, you will already have realized that for each organ a balance, an equilibrium, a harmonization of these two types of forces is necessary. The way in which this equilibrium is established really distinguishes the individual human organ systems from one another considerably.
And let us consider the human head from this point of view. First of all, we must point out — I have already pointed this out several times in the course of my lectures, wherever such a situation has arisen — how gravity, weight, which must first be taken into account in every earthly body, whose connection must be taken into account, how the weight of the human brain, i.e., the main mass of the human head, is actually largely eliminated by the sharply contoured brain floating in the cerebral fluid, so that one can say: The brain floats in the cerebral fluid that actually circulates down through the spinal canal. If you weigh the brain, it weighs between 1300 and 1500 grams. But in humans it does not weigh that much, it weighs at most 20 grams. Why is this so? Because it floats in the cerebral fluid, and according to Archimedes' principle, every body loses as much weight as the fluid it displaces weighs. The brain experiences buoyancy in the fluid, so that only 20 to 25 grams of its weight actually remain. With this, the brain presses downwards. If it were to press down with its full weight, there could be no blood vessel system under the brain, as everything would be crushed, so that one can say that it is really the case that its earthly property of heaviness is taken away from it. We live with our brain not through the earthly property of heaviness, but through that which wants to remove itself from the earth, through the buoyancy that opposes the heaviness of the earth. With a maximum of 20 grams, the brain is subject to the earth's gravity. We are only attracted to the earth with a very small force in relation to our head.
That is one thing. From this we can see that the earthbound nature of the brain simply disappears to a large extent through the human organization. The human organization is set up in such a way that the forces of the earth simply disappear. But this is even more the case to a much greater extent. Humanity knows about buoyancy from Archimedes' principle, although it is not always taken into account in technical matters. Otherwise, things like the devastation of the reservoir in Italy would not have happened, where there was simply a technical deficiency due to a lack of knowledge of Archimedes' principle in its entirety. I don't know if humanity understands this, but it could be deduced very clearly from the descriptions that were made. People consider those laws to be correct that suit them. One ignores those laws that do not suit one.
Now, not only is it the case for this human head that the entire inner formation of the human head, that the heaviness is lost, but due to the special arrangement of the human breathing process, due to certain static conditions that occur between inhalation and exhalation, something else is also the case. It is the case that the breath that is exerted by inhaling is broken in a certain way by inhaling, and that the counter-breath that occurs during exhalation behaves in a similar way. The two behave in a similar way to gravity and buoyancy, so that the curious thing is that when we walk, we actually leave the head and the brain at rest in relation to the static conditions of our head. Just as we do not let it be weighed down by the buoyancy of its water, so it is in relation to its internal condition when we walk. And this applies not only to our walking, but also, curiously, to the movement we make with the earth. We only make this movement with the rest of our body, not with our brain; for the brain, it is continuously suspended, so that with a weight of 1500 grams, only 20 grams remain. Furthermore, even if we move our head as quickly as the rest of our body, it actually remains at rest. It is harder for you to imagine that something that appears to be in motion is actually at rest than it is to imagine that something that is subject to gravity is not actually heavy. But it is nevertheless the case. For the internal organization of the human being, the head is indeed as if it were in constant rest, all forces balancing each other out, except that there is a slight heaviness downward, which is like 20 to 1500, and that there is a very slight force of movement forward. But the essence of the movement is balanced out, so that one can say that the human head is, in relation to its inner experience, like a person sitting quietly in a car, not moving at all; the car moves, and yet he moves forward. The human head experiences what it would experience if it were not heavy. It suspends its mobility when the person moves, and when even the earth moves with the person.
So, the human organ of the head has something very special in that it excludes itself, exiles itself from everything that happens on earth. The earth takes little part in what is essentially head activity. In contrast, the entire human head is a replica of the cosmos. "In fact, what the human head is, is a replica of the cosmos, is truly an image of the cosmos, has nothing to do with the forces of the earth in its essence. So, the inner brain formation is modeled after the forces of the cosmos, and we have an inner brain structure whose form we cannot explain from anything earthly, but which we must explain from the cosmos. The earth only works by — I'm putting it crudely, but you'll understand me — breaking through the cosmic formation downwards and inserting into human beings everything that only tends towards the earth. You can see this very easily in a skeleton. If you remove the skull from a human being, you have removed what is cosmically modeled, and what remains is what is only half cosmic, in the arrangement of the ribs, but there it is already under the influence of the earthly. Look at the long bones of the legs and arms in the skeleton: these are purely earthly formations. Look at the spinal vertebrae in the skeleton, the rough vertebrae to which the ribs are attached. You must realize that these arose from the balance between the cosmic and the earthly. And look at the head: there, too, in the skull, you have a form in which the cosmos snatches from the earthly the possibility of forming itself, a form that is modeled on the cosmic. So one really has to study human forms.
Only when you study human forms in this way and also know that the head is actually at rest for its inner experience, precisely in relation to its soft formations, its fluid formations, that is, it calmly replicates the cosmos, will you have to admit that all anatomy and physiology, as they appear in descriptions today, is something that cannot be spoken of as truth at all, because they do not have the awareness that it is something that is under cosmic influence.
I have said that there are forces that come in from the periphery, as if they were coming in from all sides onto the human head. But there is a big difference between whether these forces come and the moon stops them, or whether the sun stops them, or whether Saturn stops them. The presence of certain stars modifies these peripheral forces. So it is not irrelevant from which directions these forces come. The effect is significantly modified by the place where we see a particular constellation. This is a thought that today is only amateurish, but in very ancient times it was based on the intuitive wisdom of ancient astronomy. Today, no one can get an idea of how things really are from the facts that are available. What I have said is essential for understanding what human education actually is. For the fact that the human being is completely subject to the cosmos in his head, that he is only subject to the earthly in what are the tubular bones of the legs, expresses at the same time, down to the substance, what lies in the formative forces. If you have a human bone structure, you know that it contains what appears to be carbonic acid calcium. But there is also phosphoric acid calcium, and both are very important for bone structure. Carbonic acid calcium gives the bone its characteristic of being subject to the earth. If the bone substance were not permeated by carbonic acid, the earth could not affect the bone. Carbonic acid forms the substantial point of attack for the earth to shape the bone according to its formative forces. Phosphoric acid forms the point of attack for the cosmos to shape the bone. So, for example, if you have a tubular bone such as the human thigh bone, this thigh bone would not be able to extend from top to bottom if this were not mediated by carbonic acid calcium. However, it would not have the femoral neck if this were not mediated by phosphoric acid calcium. This is not changed by the fact that anatomists argue that the amount of phosphoric and carbonic calcium for a bone tube and a femoral neck does not differ significantly. First, it is not entirely correct for a more detailed examination; they do differ, but there is another factor to consider in these matters. The entire human organism is designed to have building and breaking down processes. Processes that build something up and processes that break down what cannot be used in the building process. You can see a very significant difference between such building and breaking down forces in the substances themselves in the case of fluorine, for example. The ordinary anatomist would say: fluorine plays a role in the formation of teeth, it is also found in urine, so fluorine is present here and there. That is not the point. Fluorine plays a positive role in the formation of teeth; teeth cannot be formed without fluorine. The fluorine found in urine is that which has been broken down and is to be eliminated. The essential thing is to distinguish whether something is deposited in one place and therefore forms, or whether it is absolutely necessary for building. And so it is. If you have a bone part that is essentially formed from the cosmos, then the phosphoric acid calcium is building. In another bone part, the phosphoric acid calcium is found as a deposit – and vice versa: In the case of tubular bones, carbonic acid calcium is constructive and is found as a deposit, deposited towards the part that is formed from the cosmos. It must be said that it does not matter anywhere whether this or that substance is present, but what matters is what path these substances take, what significance they have in any part of the organism.
I once tried to illustrate these things to our friends by saying: Let's assume I go for a walk at nine o'clock in the morning and meet two people sitting peacefully together on a bench. At three o'clock in the afternoon, I go back there. The people are still sitting peacefully together. When I state these two facts, I have done nothing, because it could be that one person took a sandwich with them and stayed seated from nine to three, while the other left, went for a walk, and only sat down again before three o'clock. One is rested, the other is terribly tired. The inner constitution of the two differs significantly. It cannot depend on whether this or that person is there, but on what he has done, what his path in life has been in order to come to this place. — And so, basically, it is irrelevant for the understanding of a person whether this or that substance is in an organ. One must know how it is in them, whether it is there as a building substance or as a waste product; only then can one understand the person. One will never be able to find the transition from the quality of a substance that is necessary for the human organism to a remedy if one cannot properly grasp this process. Only when one can do this does one realize that the distribution of substances in the cosmos is actually quite different from what is commonly believed.
It is a striking fact, which has not been thought about for five or six centuries, that certain analytical processes in the human organism can, as one believes, detect iron. All these processes are such that one can say: there is iron in the human organism, in the blood. But one will try in vain to detect lead in humans if the organism is normal. Now, lead is actually only known to exist in lead ores and in places where it is found in coarse lumps. But all metals that are found in coarse lumps in our earth's substance were once present in their primordial forms in Saturn, the Sun, and so on, in very volatile, even heat-etheric states, as dissolved, volatile, heat-etheric states. Now, human beings were already present on ancient Saturn, albeit in a different form, of course. They went through all these processes, during which, for example, iron changed from a very volatile, finely distributed, heat-etheric state into what it is today. They participated in how the world came into being and so on. The peculiar thing is that human beings behaved towards iron and magnesium in such a way that they incorporated these substances into their own formation. They overcame lead. So, with regard to magnesium, they behaved in such a way that they connected the magnesium process with their own process. He has behaved towards lead in such a way that he has fled from the lead process, that he has eliminated it, so that in relation to magnesium we see how the same forces are at work in man as are at work outside in magnesium. Man must overcome them internally. But before human beings were enclosed in their skin, when they were still a metamorphosing entity that was one with the cosmos, they overcame the lead process, so that today they still have within themselves the overcoming, the elimination of the lead process. They have within themselves the building forces of magnesium, they have within themselves the elimination forces for the lead process.
What does that actually mean? You only need to study what happens to the human organism when it is poisoned by lead. It becomes brittle and sclerotic. Therefore, one could say that the human organism cannot tolerate lead. When lead poisoning occurs, lead is present in the human organism. However, the organism begins to fight the process that lies in the lead substance—substances are always processes. Lead spreads in organic processes; the organism shakes itself up against it, seeking to expel the lead. If it can do so, it recovers. If the lead is stronger, it does not recover. The well-known process of decay associated with lead poisoning occurs in the human organism because the human organism can only tolerate processes that overcome the lead process. It cannot contain the forces that form the lead substance.
If we now investigate what benefit humans derive from not tolerating lead in their bodies, we arrive at the following conclusion. You see, human beings are first and foremost sensory beings. They perceive things around them and then think about them. They need both. They must perceive things in order to connect with the world. They must also think, must suppress their perceptions, and in suppressing them, develop their independence. If we only perceived, we would always be absorbed in external observation. On the other hand, by stepping back from things and thinking about them, we become a personality, an individuality. In this way, we do not become absorbed in things. And when one studies the human etheric body, it has a center for lead-repelling forces. This center is approximately where the hair forms its whirl. This is where the lead-overcoming forces radiate out. They radiate throughout the organism so that the forces that form lead cannot enter the organism. The forces that overcome lead, which the body has developed, are of great importance because these same forces that overcome lead ensure that when I look at this chalk, I do not remain caught up in simply looking at the chalk. Otherwise, I would identify myself with what I am looking at. I become independent, I paralyze my observation, but I do so with the same forces that are the forces that overcome lead, so that human beings owe it to these forces that overcome lead that they can be inwardly closed personalities. The fact that human beings can separate themselves from the world is thanks to the forces that overcome lead.
It is true that these forces, which reside in human beings and whose existence can become quite noticeable if one takes into account a certain connection that I will mention in a moment, have not only a physical-etheric significance, but also a psychological-moral significance. What I mean to say is this: human beings absorb certain metallic bodies, which they connect with their own physical organism, while they overcome other metallic bodies; they have them within themselves only as processes of rejection and overcoming. Now, why is it that in the course of their long development from the Saturn era, the Sun era, and so on, human beings have excreted certain substances that originated outside themselves and absorbed others? This excretion also means that human beings can absorb independent moral forces into themselves. It is true that if human beings were predisposed, for example, to have lead-forming forces within themselves — one might think that although the present organism does not need lead now, it might have some kind of lead-forming forces, that it might have lead within itself in the same sense as it now has iron — then humans would — as is the case with lead — have semi-moral characteristics within them, carried within them from the lead, then humans would have a pathological — we would call it pathological today — affinity for the external impurities in the world. Humans would very much like to seek out smelly, stinking substances and smell them in order to become absorbed in them. And if you have a child and can observe how children sometimes have such perverse characteristics — there are children who love to seek out everything that stinks, who nibble with their noses on petroleum, for example — then this lead-repellent quality of the blood is always absent. In such cases, one must try to invoke this lead-repellent power through clinical or even medicinal means. It is possible to invoke this lead-repellent power through types of treatment that are yet to be discussed.
Let us stay with a substance that plays a certain role in the human organism, namely magnesium. Here we can study a particularly interesting phenomenon. In the field of education, I have repeatedly pointed out that the first stage of life, which we must sharply distinguish from all subsequent stages, is the period up to the change of teeth. The next stage is the period up to sexual maturity. Now, just as fluoride is necessary for tooth formation, magnesium is also necessary for tooth formation. But tooth formation does not only take place in the mouth, in the upper and lower jaw, but the whole organism is involved; the magnesium process takes place throughout the entire human organism. And that is the most essential thing for humans until the change of teeth. Afterwards, after the change of teeth, magnesium no longer has the great significance it had before, because the magnesium forces in humans harden their organism. They close the organism within itself, and I would say that the final point of this consolidation of the human organism, this structuring of forces and substances within itself, is completed with the change of teeth and the emergence of the second set of teeth. Until then, the use of magnesium is of the utmost importance for the human organism.
Now, in terms of its temporal development, the human organism is a whole. It must develop magnesium within itself, have it within itself. It would not have the right consolidating forces if it did not have these magnesium processes within itself. However, it cannot stop producing magnesium forces. This happens after the change of teeth just as it did before the change of teeth. These must be processed in the organism, and so after the change of teeth, the essential thing will be that the magnesium is overcome, that it is excreted. It is drawn particularly into human milk secretion; it is excreted particularly with the milk. Since milk secretion is connected with sexual maturity, you see a remarkable connected process, a periodic process. Take magnesium: until the teeth change, it is consumed, so to speak, by the human organism; afterwards, from the change of teeth to sexual maturity, it is excreted, and among the forces that form the milk forces, magnesium is definitely present as an excretion. Afterwards, there is a setback until the age of twenty. Then the magnesium force is used for the finer consolidation of the muscles. Substances are actually only a composition of processes; lead is only apparently this coarse, gray-looking substance. It is nonsense to say that it is a piece of coarse substance; lead is that process which takes place within the limits set by the spread of lead; everything is process! It is true to say that the substantial processes are not only like this in humans, that certain substantial processes can be processed in humans, certain others can be rejected, such as the lead process, which we can never use, where we always have to have the excreting force, but there are others, such as the magnesium process, which is such that it changes rhythmically, that we actually develop the consuming processes for the magnesium forces in rhythmic periods of our life, then the excreting processes.
This is what shows you that, again, you actually have nothing if you merely analyze and say that the human organism has magnesium. That doesn't tell you anything, because in the twelfth year these substances have a completely different meaning than in the fifth or fourth year. And you only get to know people when you know when certain substantial processes, i.e., substances, have this or that meaning in the human organism. If you want to understand how substances found in nature can continue to have an effect in the human organism, then it is really of the least importance to study the chemical composition of the substances. You have to study something that is hardly studied today. If you trace the study of substances back to the 13th or 14th century, you will find the beginnings of modern chemistry. These foundations are present in the alchemical processes of that time, which often seem foolish to us today. But there is something else present as well. At that time, there was something that has not been continued, what we might today call the doctrine of signatures, the doctrine of signatures that was applied particularly to plants, but also to minerals, which has not been further developed.
Take a substance such as antimony, the gray spear-shaped ore: the peculiarity of this antimony is that it takes on the familiar spear-shaped form, this hair-like structure.
If you treat it metallurgically in a certain way, you get antimony mirror, namely when the volatilizing antimony precipitates on a cold surface. Everywhere in gray spiny ore, you have the tendency to form shapes that actually show themselves very clearly as shapes of the etheric body. What forms there looks very similar to the shapes of certain simple plants that cling to the etheric body. When you look at antimony substance, you immediately get the feeling that this antimony is very receptive to etheric forces. It clings to the etheric forces. Anyone can confirm this by treating antimony electrolytically, bringing it to the cathode under certain circumstances: a series of explosions occurs that reveal the relationship between antimony and etheric forces. This is a striking case, but people once had a very strong understanding of these things; today, this understanding is no longer there; people no longer respect observations such as those I have mentioned. This has led to a situation where people are at a loss when faced with significant perceptions. You see, we have diamond, graphite, anthracite, and coal: all are carbon, yet so different. Why is that? If people could really respond to what is not merely the chemical composition, but what in the old sense is the signature, they would begin to understand what a difference there is between coal and graphite. Coal was formed during the Earth process. Graphite was formed during the Moon process, the planetary process preceding the Earth, and diamond was formed during the Sun process. And if you look at things cosmically, you also gain an insight into the fact that it is not the substance that matters, but the circumstances and times under which a substance has taken on a certain, i.e., a fixed form. Well, isn't it true that if something substantial, something physically real, is subject to time, then time has a certain significance? Because if you think about what I have said, you can say that coal is a child, not yet very old; graphite is a young man, already older; and diamond, if not an old man, is at least very strongly masculine. If you want to set a task that requires, say, mature age, you will not put a child in charge; it depends on the age of life. So you will be able to see that, simply according to its cosmic age, coal has a different task wherever it occurs than graphite, which has a certain more mature age. So it is necessary to look into cosmic processes if you want to know the relationship of human beings to what is out there in the cosmos. If antimony has a special effect on the human etheric body and you introduce antimony into the human organism as a medicine, you must recognize what relationship it already has outside of the human being if you want to understand what is stimulated by antimony in the human etheric body. You must definitely consider the subtle processes in nature if you want to understand what a remedy is supposed to do in the human being.