IV. Knowledge of the Human Being According to Body, Soul or Spirit, Brain and Thinking — The Liver as a Sensory Organ

But because blue blood goes into the liver, which otherwise throws carbon dioxide out into the outside world and is turned red again, the liver is almost as isolated from the other human body as the eye. So the liver is a sense organ. The eye perceives colors. The liver perceives whether the sauerkraut I eat is beneficial or harmful to the body, whether the milk I drink is beneficial or harmful to the body. The liver perceives this very finely, and the liver releases bile, and the bile is released – this is really the case – just as the eye releases tears. When a person becomes sad, he begins to weep. Tears do not come from the eye for no reason. The process of becoming sad is connected with the perception, with the noticing of things. And in the same way, the secreting of bile is connected with the liver perceiving whether something is harmful or beneficial to the body. It secretes more or less bile, depending on how harmful it is for the person to receive it. So we have a perception organ in the liver.