The New Metabolic Knowledge

The New Metabolic Knowledge

From the Forthcoming New Edition of The New Experience of the Supersensible

Chapter 5: The Knowledge Drama of the Second Coming  

When the physical body becomes transparent through the above described meditative exercises, we can acquire what Rudolf Steiner designated as ‘the new metabolic knowledge’, attained purely by means of conscious spiritual activity, and not by any manipulation of the physical body.

 In this part of the chapter, we describe how the physical body is gradually and systematically spiritualized, when we intensify the entire meditative praxis. This has led us already to the mysteries and riddles of the forces of reproduction and their spiritualization, which could only take place, because not only etheric forces, but also to some extent certain forces of the metabolic-limb and reproduction systems were also spiritualized. The whole digestive-metabolic process and the inner organs connected with it, must become transparent and conductive to spiritual cognition and formation, as was accomplished in the astral and etheric bodies.

 We shall introduce this section by pointing out, that when we spiritualize the digestive and metabolic forces, we prepare the forces and substances of the sacred bread and wine required in the sacrament that nourishes the seed of the Phantom. This will become increasingly clear, the more this process is described. And we must also be reminded that what above all make this possible, it’s the Christ permeated activity of the true ‘I’, that connects the highest forces of the spiritual world with the highest and lowest forces of the body and earth. Rudolf Steiner pointed out the result of this meditative praxis in the domain of the physical body:

‘For ordinary, everyday life it [the body] must be untransparent. This is its normal condition. But it cannot remain so for higher knowledge; it must become transparent; it must become transparent for soul and spirit. This is achieved by means of the will exercises. Our organism then becomes transparent. We then no longer look down into something indeterminate when our will works, for our organism becomes as selfless as the eye, which is set selflessly into our organism so that we may perceive external objects properly. Just as the eye is in itself transparent, so our organism becomes transparent regarding the element of spirit and soul; our whole organism becomes a sense organ.... Our will exercises ... are aimed at developing the element of soul and spirit to such an extent that it becomes capable of seeing through the physical body. This is the main point. We see into the spiritual world only if we look through ourselves...The whole of evolution in recent times depends, firstly, on our developing our thinking to an extent which makes it independent of the brain, and secondly, on our developing our will to an extent that the whole human being becomes transparent.... We have to look through ourselves, and this is brought about by means of the will exercises.’

 When the body becomes transparent through these will meditative exercises, as we shall described in detail below, we can acquire what Rudolf Steiner designated as ‘the new metabolic knowledge’, that is attained purely by means of conscious spiritual activity, and not by any manipulation of the physical body. For example, Rudolf Steiner says that the ancient ‘hashish-eaters’ gained such metabolic knowledge, ‘who wished, through the effects of certain material substances, to gain a knowledge which cannot be obtained without them’. Then this practice was replaced by the sacrament of the communion. ‘Poison was not given, but the Holy Supper was offered, wrapped in the mantric formulas of the Holy Mass, in the fourfold form of the Mass- Gospel, Offering, Transubstantiation, Communion. For after the Communion, after the fourth part of the Holy Mass, the actual Communion of the Faithful occurred, and an endeavor was made to give them at least an intimation of the fact that a certain wisdom must be regained which leads to the goal of ancient “metabolic knowledge.”’

 Today, it requires a spiritualization of the whole metabolic infrastructure of the physical body, that is possibleonly with the help of the body penetrating and spiritualizing power of the etheric Christ, given in the third stage of the modern Christ experience. As we saw in chapter 4, in each stage He planted a ‘golden spiritual seed’ and power in the three soul forces, three bodies, and three functional systems of the physical body. And the task of the knowledge drama is to activate the develop them, to create the threefold bridge of spiritual memory and continuation of consciousness, that will connect the whole human being with the spiritual worlds. And in the third stage of the modern Christ experience, the etheric Christ planted a potent golden seed of resurrection and spiritualization in the metabolic-limb system. Only the united power of the whole human being, in spirit, soul and body, can spiritualize metabolism and the body building processes, and eventually also ‘pierce the bones’ and spiritualizes the formative forces and substances of the skeleton. And this will be the highest- and lowest- actualization of the ‘chemical Christological process’, through which not ‘I’ but the ‘I’ of Christ is resurrecting the physical body.

 The term ‘digestion’ is used to denote how the body processes food in the digestive or gastrointestinal tract and eliminates food waste via the intestines. Metabolism refers to how the body utilizes the substances and forces absorbed from food during digestion to build and rejuvenate the body. The digestive process is catabolic and destructive, while the metabolic is anabolic and creative. But it is not enough to wait for the results of digestion on the other side of the membrane of the small intestine to start the spiritualization of metabolism. As a matter of fact, important forces required for the spiritualization of metabolism must be gained in the spiritualization of the digestive process. As Rudolf Steiner pointed out, ‘in everything of a mineral nature [that we consume] the ego-organization brings about a thorough metamorphosis; not merely in the solid mineral, but also in the liquid and gaseous mineral, and the mineral that is in the state of warmth or heat’. In this metamorphosis, external matter is destroyed, and the Ego develops its forces in overcoming them. And with the forces that the Ego develops in the digestive process, it builds its individual physical body. It goes with the external substances that it destroys, and transforms them into the new substances, by mean of which it builds the physical body. Furthermore- as we shall see below- to the physical nourishment the Ego adds the spiritualized and condensed forces of cosmic nutrition, that flow in through the senses, skin and nerves and uses them to build the internal organs and bodily tissues. But the most important thing that happens through both the earthly and cosmic processes of nourishment is that the Ego transforms and spiritualizes itself, unconsciously, in daily physical life, and consciously, in the spiritualization of metabolism. 

 This mystery is foundation the new metabolic knowledge, of transubstantiation and communion, both physical and spiritual. ‘We dive into this transformed matter and absorb the stuffs of the outside world; our life process consists in this transformation; in immersing ourselves with our soul and spirit into this transformation of the external world, our self constantly receives nourishment and draws nearer to unite with the substance transformed by this process. The union with the substance after its transformation is how the spirit accessible to us inside the human body, is becoming part of our “I”’. The two sides of the process are therefore two aspects of one essential activity, through which the unconscious Ego destroys the world and builds its physical body. The conscious true ‘I’ must therefore spiritualize the digestive as well as the metabolic parts, the destructive no less than the constructive, to develop the capacity to spiritualize the physical body. The Ego builds itself as it builds the physical body, and in this process, it growth and develops its spiritual forces to higher stages of evolution.

 In physical life, the function of physical nutrition is to form the brain. ‘Within the human body, matter that is subconsciously transformed in this way ends up in the “dung heap” that fills the brain, where it allows us to grasp spirit. We must learn that our task as human beings is to transfer this “manure” to the cosmos in the right way... We must acknowledge that the purpose of the human brain is to manure spiritual fields for the gods who descend to humankind’. In the same way, but only on a higher spiritual level, we must prepare- indeed not a ‘dung heap’- but the transubstantiated and spiritualized sacred ‘bread’ required to nourish the embryonic seed of the Phantom. In the unconscious spiritual process of metabolism, ‘above we have a physical brain, and below, a spiritual brain. And if what is excreted below were subjected to another process, if one continued to remodel it, then the final metamorphosis for the time being would be the human brain. The human brain mass is a further developed excretion product... The brain is definitely a higher metamorphosis of the waste products’. In terms of the cosmic cultus and spiritual communion of humanity, the spiritualized formative forces of physical nourishment, that form the physical brain, constitute the ‘bread’ of spiritual communion, and the spiritual ‘wine’ is produced from the spiritualized forces and substances received through cosmic nourishment. Together they provide the spiritual nourishment and growth forces of the Phantom, as we shall see below.

  To spiritualize the unconscious metabolic process, we must first spiritualize the digestive process of physical nourishment. We had to find a way to concentrate and activate them from the mouth downward, descending through the alimentary canal to the digestive process. We must follow it all the way down, where the external physical substance of the food is wholly annihilated and recreated as human substance on the other side of the membrane of the small intestine. In ordinary unconscious life, from these wholly transformed forces, the Ego builds the nerves and brain in the head. In the conscious spiritual activity, the Ego must spiritualize them, to form the spiritual formative forces of the spiritualized physical body. The same must be done with the cosmic nourishment, flowing through the senses, that build the organs of the ‘inner solar system’. We enter presently into extraordinary complicated and multifaceted field of research, and the reader will be required to prepare himself to follow the investigator as walks into this maze. From all fields of spiritual research, the digestive-metabolic field is the least amenable for general concepts and abstractions, and only detailed observation and description can do justice to its true nature.

 When we enter the mouth, in which digestion begins, consciously, we also enter the stream of the breath, and therefore, before we can delve into the watery element, in which digestion is taking place, we confront the element of air. The element of air lies between the spiritualized warmth and fire of the blood, used by spiritual cognition, and the water and mineral elements of earthly nourishment, digestion, and metabolism. We cannot proceed from spiritualized warmth to spiritualize the elements of water and earth, without first, to certain degree, spiritualize also the air and the breathing process, by means of which we assimilate air from the external world. Using the forces of spiritualized fire, the main cognitive and formative instrument in the hands of the true ‘I’, we procced to spiritualize the physical air in the physical breathing process.

 It must be emphasized that the knowledge drama begins with the spiritualization of thinking and sense—perception, in pure soul activity, completely detached from the physical body. This is of outmost significance, that the spiritualization of the physical body, including the warmth, air, water and mineral forces and substances, proceed from pure spiritual activity. The first entry into the physical body occurs in the etherization, astralization and spiritualization of the forces of warmth ether in the blood, described above. Through the spiritualized warmth ether of the blood the spiritualized forces of thinking, feeling and will work intimately on the three bodies, and spiritualize them from above. As Rudolf Steiner pointed out, in the present age the physical air lost the former spiritual forces of Jehovah and is controlled by Ahriman, and therefore one should not start today from the spiritualization of physical breathing as in eastern Yoga, but through the spiritualization of the soul forces, beginning with thinking and sense-perception in the Michaelic yoga. Only after the forces of Ahriman in ordinary consciousness have been thoroughly overcome, and we permeate the imaginative force of the modern ‘head clairvoyance’ with the forces of the etheric Christ, working in the spiritualized warmth ether of the blood, we may begin to also spiritualize the forces of breathing.

 Also, in must be noted that the spiritualization of breathing and digestion, is at the same time spiritualization of the middle senses of smell, taste, and touch, concentrated in the nose and mouth. We must spiritualize them, as we spiritualized the senses of warmth, sight, and hearing in the Michaelic yoga. As Rudolf Steiner said, in the cosmic cultus the solid-mineral and fluid-watery elements of the physical and etheric bodies must be spiritualized, to create the sacred ‘bread’ and ‘wine’ of the spiritual communion of humanity. In this cultus, the spiritualized human body is served as the substance of the communion, offered to the gods. And this happens through the fiery forces of the will, transformed into love, in which the Ego is working in the forces of warmth in the blood, and the spiritualized forces of feelings, transformed into wisdom, in which the astral body is working in the interaction of breathing and blood, air and water. Then the cosmic stream of nourishment is added, as potent ‘tincture’, or ‘heavenly wine’ to the ‘bread’ produced from the spiritualized physical stream of nourishment, to enliven and vivify this process…

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