Atmospheric Composition, Organ Systems, and Healing Substances

Spiritual Science shows us this significant fact: every change in the composition of the atmosphere which alters the normal proportion of oxygen to nitrogen, in either direction—is associated with disturbances in the process of human sleep. That leads us to inquire into this hidden relationship more definitely. You know that in Spiritual Science we have found it necessary to state that man consists of the following four members: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body and the ego. You know that we have been led by the facts themselves, further, to maintain that when sleep begins ego and astral body separate, in a sense, from the other vehicles, though this separation takes place more in a dynamic sense, and return again when the individual awakes. Thus you must conclude: in the state of sleep there is a bond between the astral body and the ego, and another bond between the etheric and physical bodies; so even in the waking state, we must accept a less intimate connection between astral body and ego on the one hand and etheric body and physical body on the other, than between the ego and astral body or between the etheric and physical bodies. This looser link between the two groups, the upper human entity, ego and astral body and the lower human entity, etheric and physical bodies—is a true mirror-image of the loose admixture of oxygen and nitrogen in the external atmosphere. Both correspond in a remarkable and astounding way. The composition of the external atmosphere is of such a nature as to furnish the ratio for the connection between astral and etheric bodies, and concurrently between their partners, the physical body and the ego.