Questions Regarding Nutrition in the Light of Spiritual Science

On the other hand, we want to describe the influence of a stimulant taken from the plant world, the influence of alcohol. This has a very special significance. It only arises when the actual plant process, that which happens through the wonderful effect of light, of which the astral body is the opposite, has ceased. Then a process begins that takes place on a lower level and affects humans even more than animal food. Human beings bring the substances to the astral body and, through the astral body, bring them into a special structure. But when what is to be brought to the astral body decomposes in the way that alcohol does, what would otherwise happen through the astral body happens without the astral body, namely the effect on the ego and the blood. The effect of alcohol is that what should otherwise happen through the free decision of the ego happens through alcohol. In a certain sense, it is true that a person who enjoys alcohol needs less food. They allow their blood to be permeated by the forces of alcohol; they give to the foreign substance what they themselves should do. In a certain sense, one can say that in such a person, alcohol thinks, feels, and senses. By surrendering to alcohol what should be subject to his ego, the person places himself under the compulsion of an external force. He acquires a material ego. The person may say: I feel a revitalization of my ego as a result. Certainly, but it is not he, but something else to which he has banished his ego. We could show in many ways how a person can become more and more what he eats. But Spiritual Science also shows us how a person can become free from the forces of food.