On Nutrition and Inner Development

Our present age is marked by reform. Reform movements and reform efforts are everywhere. Dissatisfied with the status quo and traditional ways, and dissatisfied with their experiences, people are seeking to create something new, to develop something new, and to find salvation in something else. And that is how it must be. For everything in the universe, the big picture, all cultures, the individual human being—everything, everything is in a state of becoming, of developing; there is no standstill.

How great and powerful are often the ideas of individual reformers, but how distorted and taken to extremes they are by the masses. Let us take one of our most outstanding reform movements as an example. There is a movement that has never been seen before in any cultural epoch and which strikes many as very strange: it is the “women's movement.” The urge to participate in the great tasks of culture and social life drives women to strive for appreciation and equality with men. The circumstances of the times also compel women to do so. They no longer want to rule in small circles, bound by unsatisfactory conditions, or stand alone in the world, without fulfilling work, without a purpose in life. No, they want to participate in cultural life, standing on their own two feet, with the same rights as men. The wonderful ideal of a housewife, which Schiller so beautifully depicts in his poem “Die Glocke” (“The Bell”), “And inside, the virtuous housewife rules,” is no longer an ideal for the vast majority of our female world. But how misunderstood and extreme is this urge for independence and freedom, because women have not yet grasped that it is not independence in professional life alone that makes women free and independent, or that arbitrary action does not fall within the sphere of freedom, but that we must first and foremost become independent and free within ourselves; that it is only by working through our entire soul life, by refining and purifying our character, that we become independent, free beings. Then, whatever the external circumstances may be, they will have little influence.

The achievement of inner independence then also gives women the right to external freedom and independence, and only then can they become men's co-workers, but not their rivals. Only spiritual science can show us the way to this true inner independence. All other striving for freedom leads to no high goal.

Let us move on to another area, that of natural healing methods. It has been found that many of today's illnesses can be traced back to our current cultural life. The struggle for existence hardly allows people to find peace, let alone recovery. It is believed that because our ancestors lived so completely in nature, in fresh air, unencumbered by clothing, with a simple diet, this was decisive for their health. And because medical science is unable to find the right remedy in some cases, it is believed that a return to nature, a life in harmony with nature, would be the healthiest option. Earth, water, air, and warmth are taken and applied in every conceivable way. But this fails to take into account that humans are individual beings who are no longer related to all the elements. For some people, sunbathing is completely inappropriate; for others, water cures can be extremely harmful. If people are to become healthy from a spiritual scientific point of view, then an individual approach will be necessary. Everyone will receive what is beneficial for their innermost nature, their temperament, their entire character, and their spiritual constitution. However, human beings are always closely connected with eternal laws, and only in accordance with these can complete healing of the human being and complete harmony between the human being and their physical and psychological organism be brought about. For human beings, there is no “return to nature” in the sense of seeing nature as the highest good, but rather a “through nature to the spirit.”

Vegetarianism usually goes hand in hand with natural healing methods. People are convinced that animal food contains something that is not beneficial to health; they believe that it would be more beneficial for humans to eat a purely plant-based diet, and they even go so far as to consider milk and products made from it, such as cheese, unsuitable for human consumption. Plant products are taken from everywhere in order to obtain variety and a complete substitute for meat. This way of life is very wholesome, but whether everyone can maintain it in the long term is another question. For a vegetarian life without spiritual striving leads to illness. It is said that vegetarianism was known in Greece centuries before Christ and that the great sage of antiquity, Pythagoras, was the founder of vegetarianism. One must ask oneself: Who was Pythagoras, and why did he live as a vegetarian? And this brings us to the realm of secret schools and mysteries.

At all times and scattered throughout all parts of the world, there have always been secret schools whose members endeavored, through strict self-discipline, diligent study, and meditation, to penetrate the hidden being of the world and look behind the veil of the transitory. In Greece, it was Pythagoras, one of the greatest initiates, who worked in this sense. He had gathered disciples around him, whom he introduced to the mysteries through previous strict trials. At the same time, however, strict dietary rules were also imposed. Intoxicating beverages were completely frowned upon. Likewise, the consumption of meat and beans in particular was strictly forbidden. In later times, too, rules were laid down in all secret schools for the way of life of the students. For the student must learn to choose his food according to the principles of spiritual knowledge. He must know that in what he takes as food lies the power of certain beings. And if man wants to become the ruler of his organism, he must choose his food consciously.

When one understands which beings are attracted by this or that food, one also recognizes the importance of nutrition.

In earlier times, even the great religious communities, such as the Jewish and Catholic religions, were aware of the effects of food. Violating the rules was punished by expulsion from the community.

In Brahmanism, too, the period from Christmas to Easter was dedicated to Vishnu. Those who called themselves his servants celebrated this time through abstinence, for example from all legumes, oil, salt, meat, and intoxicating beverages. At that time, people still had a vivid sense of the connection between the microcosm and the macrocosm, and every adult member of the community was required to make themselves more receptive to certain spiritual forces at specific times so that they could celebrate a rebirth and resurrection with the whole of nature. These times were before Christmas and Easter.

Now let us consider what food actually is. Almost no other area attracts as much interest as nutrition, because the demands that modern life places on the performance of the individual require a good and nutritious diet. We see how we need food to keep our bodies strong. Through food, we provide the body with building and sustaining forces. From a scientific point of view, nutrition is an energy supply. However, the secret science says: The trinity manifests itself throughout nature. Every thing consists of form, life, and consciousness. Everything in nature is animated and spiritualized. We now obtain our food from the animal and plant kingdoms. Animals have their physical, etheric, and astral bodies in the physical world; the group ego of animals is on the astral plane. When the animal is dead, the effect of the animal nature is not yet abolished, for the principle continues to work after the death of the animal. The same is true of plants. Plants have their physical and etheric bodies in the physical world; their astral body in the astral world; the ego of the plant is in Devachan. The principle that works in the plant will continue to be effective even after the plant has been prepared. For the effect of food extends not only to the physical and life bodies, but also to the other parts of the human being.

And now let us talk about nutrition in connection with our spiritual striving. Meditation and concentration exercises will certainly be the main thing, but how the aspirant nourishes himself will not be insignificant when the processing of the astral body begins.

Above all, it is important to avoid alcohol in any form; even sweets containing alcohol have a very harmful effect.

Alcohol and spiritual exercises lead to the worst paths. From a scientific point of view, the harmful influence of alcohol on brain function has already been proven; how much more should a person who directs all his efforts toward the spiritual refrain from a pleasure that completely excludes the recognition of the spiritual. The consumption of meat and fish is not advisable. In meat, humans enjoy all the animal passions, and in fish they enjoy all the world's karma. Mushrooms are extremely harmful: they contain inhibiting lunar energy, and everything that originated on the moon signifies stagnation. Legumes are also not very advisable due to their high nitrogen content. Nitrogen contaminates the etheric body.

Let us pick out some of the coarsest, lowest qualities and relate them to the various nutrients.

If a person is very independent and prone to selfishness, they should consume little concentrated sugar, because sugar promotes independence. On the other hand, if someone lacks inner and outer stability and always believes they need support and assistance, they should consume plenty of sugar in order to become more independent. If someone is [very] dominated by anger, they should not enjoy a lot of spices in their food, especially salt and pepper. If someone is very prone to laziness and sluggishness, they should avoid foods containing nitrogen (which contaminates the etheric body) and choose vegetables and fruit instead.

If someone wants to tackle the difficult problem of controlling sexual passion, the passion which, when exercised in a base manner, degrades man to the level of an animal, but when transformed brings him closer to his divinity, he should eat as little protein-rich food as possible. Excessive consumption of protein causes the reproductive fluids to become excessive, making it very difficult to control sexual passion.

For someone who is very prone to envy, resentment, and deceit, cucumbers, pumpkins, and all climbing plants are not beneficial. You also need to be a little careful when eating fruit. People who are very prone to emotional outbursts should not eat melons. The sweet, intoxicating scent of this fruit clouds clear thinking. Eating too many apples is also not good for everyone. In certain people, it increases the desire to dominate and often leads to coarseness and brutality. Cherries and strawberries are not digestible for everyone due to their high iron content. Bananas, dates, and figs are more beneficial.

A certain selection can also be made when it comes to nuts. If someone wants to undergo mental training, they need above all a well-built, healthy brain. However, parents nowadays rarely provide their children with such a well-developed brain, so additional aids are needed to strengthen the brain. Hazelnuts are particularly valuable for building the brain. All other types of nuts are less valuable, and peanuts should be avoided altogether.

As far as fats are concerned, we should give preference to butter made from milk; hazelnut butter is also recommended.

Now we come to stimulants: coffee and tea. Coffee consumption supports logical thinking, but coffee alone will not make us logical thinkers, because there is more to it than that. And in people who are not predominantly intellectual, as is often the case with women, excessive coffee consumption leads to hysteria.

Tea consumption generates good ideas. However, good ideas can also be obtained through special exercises.

During periods of intellectual endeavor, it is particularly important for people to live moderately. “Moderation purifies the emotions, awakens the faculties, cheers the mind, and strengthens the memory; it almost relieves the soul of its earthly burden and thus enables it to enjoy a higher freedom,” said an ancient sage.

If people ate a lot and often, they would not be able to produce fruitful thoughts. For if digestion takes up a great deal of energy, there is no energy left for thinking. It is precisely those people who filled the world with the products of their minds who lived on a very meager diet. Schiller, Shakespeare, and many of our poets, to whom we owe wonderful works today, worked their way through severe privations. The mind is never as clear as after a long fast. In the history of religious orders and in the biographies of saints, too, one finds numerous examples of the effects of an abstinent life. The greatest saints lived only on fruit, bread, and water, and no miracle-working saint is known to have wielded divine powers while enjoying an opulent meal.

All the great sages of antiquity were also famous for their moderation.

When human beings go further in their spiritual striving, when the laws of truth and goodness flow more and more into the I, when the rays of the great spiritual sun flood and illuminate the I more and more, then the conscious working through of the life or etheric body begins. The eternal essence of the human being, that which passes from incarnation to incarnation, lives itself out in each new incarnation in such a way that it causes a certain interaction between the four members (physical, etheric, astral, and ego) of the human nature; and from the way these four members interact, the temperament of the human being arises. Depending on which of these members is particularly prominent, we encounter people with one temperament or another. Whether the forces of one or the other predominate and have the upper hand over the others determines the peculiar coloring of human nature, what we call the actual coloring of the temperament.

There are four main temperaments: choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic, and melancholic. These are mixed in a variety of ways in each individual, so that one can only say that one or the other predominates in a person. When a person works on themselves, they bring harmony, order, and balance to these temperaments. Although mental exercises will be the main thing in working on the temperaments, how a person eats will also be important here.

If the physical principle predominates in a person, this often becomes a kind of obstacle to development. However, a person must be master of their physical body if they want to use it. If a person is not able to use their instrument fully, so that the other principles are inhibited, disharmony arises between the physical body and the other members. When a melancholic person works on themselves, they should only enjoy food that grows very close to the sun, food that thrives far away from the earth, food that has ripened in the full power of the sun; and that would be fruit. Just as spiritual exercises cause the spiritual sun to glow and shine through a person, so the sun's forces contained in fruit should permeate and interweave the melancholic's physical body, breaking down what is solidifying and rigidifying.

In phlegmatic people, where the etheric body predominates, keeping the individual functions in balance, where the self-supporting inner life produces inner comfort and the person prefers to live in this inner comfort, so that they feel quite well when everything in their organism is in order, and they are not at all inclined to direct their inner interest outward or even to develop a strong will—such people should eat food that does not grow underground, especially foods that often take two years to reach the surface of the earth; for example, a phlegmatic person should not eat black salsify. The seed of this plant takes a long time to open up to external forces, and even with phlegmatic people, some things have to be worked through before they take an active part in the outside world. The principle of these plants would only increase their inner comfort.

For sanguine people, where the astral body predominates, where people are interested in something but soon lose interest, where they are quick to become excited and quickly move on to something else, even root vegetables should be chosen as food. One could almost say that a sanguine person must be bound to the physical realm through food, otherwise their light-heartedness could lead them too far.

When the ego is dominant, when the ego exerts its powers in a particular way and controls the other elements of human nature, the choleric temperament arises. The choleric person must above all avoid hot and stimulating foods; all pungent, strongly spiced foods are extremely harmful to them.

One would assume that with higher development, temperament no longer plays a major role and that nutrition also has no influence. At the level of mastery, this is probably the case, because the master does not need solid food; likewise, temperament no longer influences or dominates him. But he will use the temperaments to be effective in the physical world. He uses the choleric temperament to perform his magical acts, letting the events and occurrences of the physical world pass by like a sanguine person; in his enjoyment of life he behaves like a phlegmatic person; and he broods over his spiritual insights and experiences like a melancholic person.

But we still have a little while to go before we get there! We should try to bring our whole life into harmony with our spiritual aspirations. We should not just live according to our ideals for a short time each day, but organize our activities accordingly, choose our pleasures in this spirit, and even regulate our diet so as to become harmonious, self-assured individuals who can then do their best in life. Life gives us nothing; everything must be achieved.

This is where Goethe's beautiful words belong: “A serious will, a persistent striving, alone leads you to your goal. Happiness is not mere chance, and life gives back only what you have given it.”