FIVE
Blood’s Influence on the Spirit
Absolute harmony must also prevail in the composition of the radiations of the human body in order to provide the spirit with the best means for its protection, development and advancement, such as are meant for it in the normal course of development in Creation.
ABD-RU-SHIN, IN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH: THE GRAIL MESSAGE
The main task of the blood consists of offering the spirit the radiation that it requires. This radiant energy depends on the composition of the blood; therefore, each blood component—red blood cells, proteins, minerals, and so on—plays a role in the formation of the overall radiation of the blood. Healthy blood, which contains all these components in certain quantities, offers the spirit what it needs. If the levels of the different components change, the blood radiation also changes. If one of the substances needed for forming healthy blood is missing, then the radiation is affected and the spirit is deprived of its optimal radiation. If, on the other hand, some substance suddenly appears in the blood that normally is not a part of blood composition—for instance, poison in some form—then the blood radiation is again changed, but in a way that the spirit does not recognize. Depending on the substance, the resulting change to the blood could merely throw the person a little off balance, or she could become completely disturbed and unsettled. If the poisoning is severe enough, the connection between the spirit and the body could be at risk.
The nature, properties, and “color” of the blood affect its radiation and contribute to providing the spirit with what it needs for its activity in the material world and for the absorption of impressions and information from its earthly surroundings. Whatever qualitative changes the blood undergoes affect the blood’s radiation and thereby affect this perceptive ability of the spirit, such that the way the spirit sees things, and even the spirit’s awareness of itself, undergoes a change.
The gateway or bridge that the blood radiation provides is absolutely necessary for the spirit. It is the only pathway by which it can gather impressions and information from the body.
The perceptions of the spirit depend on the blood radiation much like the way someone who wears glasses depends on those glasses to see clearly. Anyone who wears glasses sees the world as a result of the particular characteristics of the corrective prescription of those glasses—much like our unique blood radiation informs our view of the world. If the lenses are made for close up, as reading glasses are, then the vision will not be the same as with a pair of distance glasses, whose lenses have a different prescription in order to enable the wearer to see great distances. In addition, if the lenses are strongly tinted, the world will be perceived as being the color of that tint, although in reality it is not that color. The same is true of the blood radiation.
Spirit’s Perceptual Lens
The influence of blood radiation on the spirit of a person cannot be underestimated. For example, when the blood sugar level is normal, the person “feels comfortable in his skin.” He has drive and is dynamic and enterprising. But when the glucose content falls, the person feels tired and unwell. Not only is there no energy, but his entire view of the world also changes. Where just a short while ago everything was rosy, now the world seems gray or even truly dark. A person in a hypoglycemic crisis becomes anxious, fearful of all kinds of things not seen as frightening by those around him, and simple questions become insurmountable problems. Fears and problems that weren’t there before the hypoglycemic crisis suddenly become realities that seem unsolvable. No amount of reasoning or encouragement is of any help. This new view of “reality”settles in so strongly that the person might forget that only a short time ago, he felt perfectly well and happy, without a care in the world. Then he eats and the blood sugar level returns to normal, anxiety lifts, the world again becomes beautiful and simple as before. Problems and fears disappear, and the person will wonder why everything looked so dark just a few moments ago and will laugh at himself.
Drugs and Alcohol
It is well known that one’s state of consciousness is affected by the abuse of mind-altering substances such as alcohol. When someone gets drunk, we say she is not her “normal self ”—her perception and behavior change according to her altered awareness of reality. When the person’s blood alcohol level drops back to normal and she sobers up, her blood radiation also returns to normal. Her spirit then perceives her surroundings in the accustomed way and acts “normal.”
What the person said and did under the influence of alcohol is often regretted afterward. It is said she was “under the influence.” Indeed, she was not herself, given that her blood radiation had been altered by the presence of alcohol. If she had “kept a clear head” (i.e., if her spirit had not lost control over her brain and body), her words and actions would have been quite different. However, with her particular blood radiation having been affected by the alcohol, her spirit could not fully assert itself. It is as if it had been pushed aside, and the self-control, the sense of morality and dignity—attributes of the spirit, not the brain—were rendered inactive for the duration of time she was drunk.
Every drug, whether it be alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, heroin, cocaine, prescription drugs, or whatever other mind-altering substance yet to be discovered or created, whether taken medically or not, separately or as a cocktail, alters the blood radiation in a particular way and leads to varying repercussions on the perceptions of the spirit.
Drug-induced changes are widely known, and anyone taking drugs is looking for a certain high (or a suppressed state), with the main goal being to detach from or alter reality. If the person is not happy with her perception of the world as mediated by her normal blood radiation, then she can change it by taking a drug selected for the effects that she wants to have. The drug overrides her spirit’s volition, with the consequences being the person is operating in an altered state of reality.
Heavy Metal Overload
Besides drugs, which are taken intentionally, there are any number of substances that can get into the blood without our ever knowing it and cause our blood radiation to become altered, thereby affecting the perceptions of the spirit. Among the most insidious blood-altering substances to be found in our modern-day environment are heavy metals such as lead, mercury, arsenic, aluminum, and soon, which can originate in the air, the water, or the soil.
Let’s consider lead, for example. Lead poisoning leads to various physical symptoms such as colic, encephalopathy (brain dysfunction), anemia, and neuropathy1 but also different psychic symptoms such as nightmares, hallucinations, and delusions; a person may see, hear, or smell things that are not there.
Notably, the level of lead, as well as other heavy metals, is generally much higher in the blood of criminals. According to a study undertaken in Switzerland, the lead concentration in the blood of prisoners is twice as high as in other population groups.2 Lead toxicity cannot, of course, be held solely responsible for the malicious behavior of incarcerated persons; lead does not create criminals, but in changing the blood radiation, it contributes to a clouded perception and judgment.
Copper, a substance that is beneficial in small quantities, can have detrimental effects on blood radiation at higher doses. The normal blood level of copper is between 64 and 143 micrograms per 100 grams of blood. If the level of copper increases beyond this normal range (for example, as a result of eating acid foods cooked in uncoated copper cookware or from exposure to excess copper in drinking water or other environmental sources), symptoms can include vomiting, hematemesis (vomiting of blood), hypotension (low blood pressure), melena (black, tarry feces), coma, jaundice, and gastrointestinal distress.3 With this kind of poison in the blood, everything the spirit sees makes it irritable and hot-tempered, depressed and paranoid.
To counteract this condition and lower the copper content of the blood, we use its antagonist, zinc. Taking zinc gets rid of the surplus copper and, at the same time, changes the blood radiation and the general condition of the patient. His usual temperament returns; he once again can feel joyful and loving toward those around him.
Whatever the state of the blood radiation, the human spirit always retains its faculty of freedom of choice; it can try to remain calm and amicable at any given moment. This ability is seriously challenged, however, when there is an excess of any heavy metal, or any other substance that disturbs the blood radiation.
It is important to realize that sensitivity to various substances, dietary or otherwise, varies from one person to the next. A substance that can be perfectly well tolerated by a great number of people can cause serious difficulties for others, until the real cause of their condition is discovered.
ADD/ADHD
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, a new and unusual pattern of behavior has been observed among children, which has led many of these young people to delinquency. The condition, ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (or ADD, attention deficit disorder), causes the child to be hyperactive, unable to sit still, in constant motion. These children seem to have to put their hands on everything, and they talk too much. Their power of concentration is low and they are easily distracted. They cannot keep to one activity and frequently jump from one thing to another and end up finishing nothing. They are careless, absent-minded, and neglectful. Despite a great need for affection, they have great difficulty establishing relationships, mostly because of their unpredictable, stubborn, and unmanageable nature. Lying and contemptuous, they are finally rejected by those around them.
The hyperactivity that characterizes these children, along with their resistance to any change in surroundings, makes them suspicious, hostile, and aggressive. They tease and bully other children. There is constant fighting and hitting. The violence can also be directed against objects: toys are destroyed, furniture and glass broken. During violent episodes of this kind, the child has absolutely no control over his actions, seeming to have hardly any awareness of what he’s doing, and does not remember anything afterward. If you catch these children red-handed and try to reason with them, they seem distant. No comment or threat gets through to them. They are not really reachable and, because of that, they seem incorrigible. It is sometimes said these children act as if they are being driven by someone else. The core of their personality, their spirit, does not seem to be present and in control. Their body acts on its own, as if controlled by something stronger than their spirit.
Parents, teachers, and therapists who sought to help these children gradually became aware that they were dealing with something quite specific, and that the standard explanations for maladjustment, such as rebellion, spoiling, and so on, did not apply to these children. Later on it was discovered that the behavioral disturbances started to show up when the diet was changed. The conclusion was that some type of food played a part in the problem. But which food or substances was it? Nobody knew. Finally, Hertha Hafer, a German pharmacist, discovered the culprit: phosphate, a preservative found in meat and sausages, also used as a flavor enhancer in soups and colas, andasananticakingagent.4 When the diet no longer contains phosphates, a child displaying this syndrome normalizes, becoming more present and self-aware.
With a condition such as ADHD/ADD, a diet without phosphates is adopted. It takes about three days before all symptoms disappear and for the blood radiation to normalize. Taking specific remedies can bring about an even quicker effect. In addition to certain pharmaceuticals, ordinary wine vinegar can neutralize phosphates, sometimes within half an hour, even in the middle of an attack.
A young person with ADHD/ADD who regularly consumes fast food and colas might also display antisocial behavior or seek refuge in drugs. But if he follows a strict diet, without phosphates, he can likely correct the abnormal blood radiation and bring about a more balanced mental, physical, and spiritual state.
Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies
As suggested in chapter 4 (see “Effects of Diet”), significant changes in blood radiation, and consequently one’s spiritual potential, can result from an absence of substances necessary for normal blood composition, such as certain vitamins and minerals.
A study was conducted in which subjects were fed a normal diet but with total restriction of vitamin B1 (i.e., thiamin). At the end of three months, all the subjects had become irritable, depressed, and worried that some misfortune might befall them. Some even began to feel suicidal. Six months into the experiment, the physical effects became painful (headache, nausea, severe vomiting). At this point vitamin B1 was added to the subjects’ diet, but without informing the trial subjects, in order to avoid any placebo effect. After only a few days, the trial subjects rediscovered their joy of life and clarity of spirit and became friendly, cooperative, and enthusiastic.5
That all the subjects in this experiment became worried that something might happen to them (although there was really nothing wrong), and that this fear disappeared shortly after the subjects were given vitamin B1, clearly shows that it was the perception of the spirit and not something within the spirit itself, that was the root of the problem. Certainly, for the trial subjects themselves, the fear was perfectly real, and they had to struggle to overcome it. This cannot be compared to real fear in the face of real danger. In the course of the experiment, the spirits of the volunteers were not changed by the lack of vitamin B1; the subjects lost neither their personal attributes nor their abilities. Something material like a vitamin does not have the power to directly affect something nonmaterial like a spirit. It was the change in blood radiation—the body’s bridge to the spirit—that was altered as a result of the missing nutrient, vitamin B1.
Magnesium provides another good example of how this can happen. A slight magnesium deficiency makes one irritable, nervous, sensitive to noise, excitable, and anxious. A greater deficiency can be even more serious, so much so that the subject becomes disoriented, wildly excited, and aggressive. With alcoholics the terrifying hallucinations of the DTs, delirium tremens, along with the changes in the brain, appear to result in large part from the lack of magnesium caused by alcohol consumption. The angry and violent behavior disappears quickly if we supply the missing magnesium to reestablish normal blood radiation.
Lithium, another mineral, is used in psychiatry to bring the behavior of manic depressives into balance. The lithium requirement of the body is extremely low. With a person in good health, ingested lithium is quickly eliminated in the urine, whereas manic depressives retain it, even high quantities, and only start to eliminate it when they begin to feel better. It is as if the body wants to conserve the lithium it requires in order to keep enough in reserve in the blood. Since food contains very little lithium, it must be given as a supplement to these persons, and in significant quantities (50 to 1,500 mg daily). The body uses it to maintain the blood radiation, which the spirit needs in order to keep control over the body. In fact, when the blood level of lithium reaches a sufficient level, recovery comes at the end of one to two weeks. In general, these patients take lithium all the time as a preventive measure, although this really would only be necessary if the lithium content of the blood again declined.
The Role of the Endocrine Glands
The endocrine system plays a fundamental role in blood radiation. The pineal gland, pituitary gland, ovaries, testes, thyroid gland, parathyroid gland, hypothalamus, and adrenal glands comprise the major glands of the endocrine system. These glands are called endocrine because their secretions—hormones—are emptied directly into the blood. This contrasts with the exocrine glands—the sweat glands, salivary glands, mammary glands, and liver—which secrete their essential products by way of a duct to some environment external to itself, either inside the body or on a surface of the body (e.g., digestive juices into the intestine, perspiration of the sweat glands onto the skin). The importance of hormones is still insufficiently understood, yet they are determining factors for blood radiation and the potentials of the spirit.
We assume that the brain is the great control center where everything starts and on which everything depends. However, without the thyroid gland or its secretions, a person cannot think at all; she has no feelings, no needs or desires, nor any intellectual life. The brain and sensory nerves would be asleep without the thyroid and its secretions. The eyes see, the ears hear, but the person is as if deaf and dumb. In medicine such a person is referred to as being in a vegetative state.
The absence of thyroid hormones in the blood prevents the spirit from using the brain. The tool is there, but the user appears to be absent, disconnected, unplugged. This deficiency in the blood radiation of the person prevents her from using this tool. Simply supplying the missing thyroid hormone will remedy this situation. The patient awakens from her stupor; she can feel, take notice, react, and think.
The activity of the endocrine glands changes over time. The thymus, for instance, which lies at the base of the neck, is mostly active during childhood, but with adolescence it begins to atrophy and disappear. The sex glands do not assume their full activity until puberty and are less active toward the end of life. These changes, as well all those that the body undergoes during childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age, see to it that the blood composition changes over time, providing different blood radiations for the different stages of life.
To this must be added the fact that at birth each person receives a body whose organs may be either stronger or weaker because of heredity. These differences from one person to the next naturally bring about diverse possibilities for the development of the blood. Whatever blood radiation that results from one’s heredity provides a unique means by which each person can express himself. These differences have long been observed and form the basis for classifying humans into groupings of similar characteristics: the four temperaments.
The Four Temperaments
The ancient concept of the four temperaments was a medical theory proposed by Hippocrates, who suggested that there are four fundamental personality types: sanguine (pleasure-seeking and sociable), choleric (ambitious and leaderlike), melancholic (analytical and quiet), and phlegmatic (relaxed and peaceful). Most formulations include the possibility of mixtures of the types. The association of these temperaments with blood has long been recognized and is found in such expressions as a person being “hot-blooded,” “cold-blooded,” and so on.
We each inherit a temperament or a combination of temperaments. However, during the course of life, every human being, because of changes in blood radiation, goes through four major stages in life that are colored by the characteristics of one or other of the four temperaments. The temperaments are then grouped into four age periods that, along with the different kinds of blood radiation that go along with them, offer the spirit different potentials for its sojourn on Earth.
The sanguine temperament corresponds to childhood. It is seen in the joy of life, enthusiasm, light-heartedness, spontaneity, and effervescence. It is life without cares, living from one day to the next. One could say that the spirit takes things lightly and without any sense of responsibility. And that is the way it really is, because childhood is the time when the spirit does nothing other than discover the world into which it finds itself incarnated. Before it has understood how everything works by living through life’s experiences, it can obviously not yet act with a true sense of responsibility. Only upon entering adolescence will its apprenticeship have been sufficient to enable it to begin to act more consciously, in preparation for adulthood.
Then the temperament changes and the spirit is bathed in the blood radiation of the melancholic temperament. The melancholic period of adolescence, with its nostalgic daydreams, leads young men and women to an awareness of the serious side of life and to bit by bit prepare for earthly activity. With the awakening of the sex glands in adolescence, the blood radiation changes substantially. By means of the new radiation bridge now offered to it, the spirit establishes a far closer contact with reality. It ceases to flit about in life the way it had done during childhood and sees ever more clearly the responsibility that it must assume for its actions. The ardent yearning and striving after high ideals typical of this phase of life helps the future adults to direct their actions in a harmonious and beneficial way.
Strictly speaking, true earthly activity does not begin until the end of adolescence and the beginning of the choleric temperament of the adult. With the period of learning and the awakening of consciousness complete, the spirit can now start to give concrete expression to its will in earthly life. It puts its own stamp on its environment, transforms it, and begins to achieve things of its own and see the results. The “excitable” blood of the choleric temperament pushes toward action and is eager to get going and get things done. The spirit has no time or inclination for a passive life; it seeks to build as long as it is on the Earth.
Toward the end of life, the spirit has to learn to leave behind everything earthly, which it will soon be doing, and turn toward higher pursuits. The phlegmatic temperament that sets in with aging contributes to this progressive loosening. The need to affirm itself and be active in the material world decreases and is replaced by a profound desire to understand the meaning of life itself. Activity gives way to quiet meditation on the experiences gained from life and past achievements. When the period of phlegmatic temperament is fully experienced, death can be faced without fear, and the spirit can easily detach itself from its earthly cloak.
Through the different temperaments, the spirit makes use of the different blood radiations to enable it to take the best advantage of life.
Blood Radiation and Depression
Knowledge of the relationship between temperament and blood radiation can provide us with an approach for the treatment of depression and manic depression.
In the past the term melancholy was used to describe what we today call depression. Could there be a relationship between depression and the melancholic temperament or, more accurately, the kind of blood radiation that dominates with the melancholic temperament?
Although depression is not a particular characteristic of the melancholic temperament, it can nevertheless be said that people with a melancholic temperament are more easily subject to depression. Could it not also be said that a person with depression displays symptoms that resemble, in an exaggerated way, the peculiarities of the melancholic temperament, only distorted and intensified? With depression the serious look of someone with a melancholic temperament is not just thoughtful reflection, it becomes a feeling of oppression; daydreaming changes into morbid analyzing, nostalgia changes into anxiety, and sadness into discouragement and fear.
In manic-depressives episodes of depression alternate with mania, which appears as a caricature of the sanguine temperament. The vivacity of this temperament, full of joie de vivre, is transformed into hyperactivity and excitability; living one day at a time turns into carelessness; spontaneity becomes inconsistency and irresponsibility.
The treatment of these two illnesses, depression and manic depression, must then be focused on changing the blood radiation, with the aim of reestablishing a blood composition in keeping with the true nature of the person’s temperament and not an exaggerated version of it. Note that we use the term de-pression, which implies a reduction of pressure. What sort of pressure is meant by this? Observation of depressed people leads us to use this term because their entire manner, the way they look, what radiates from them, demonstrates a lack of pressure. It is obviously not blood pressure nor any supposed pressure in the nervous system, but rather an inner pressure resulting from the ex-pression of the will (i.e., the outward pressure we exert on our surroundings through the way we go about our lives). Our words and our actions make an im-pression on those around us.
We have already noted that it is the spirit that plays a central role in expressing the will and the personality. We can certainly express something purely intellectually, making corresponding facial expressions and gestures, but the effect is completely different when we express something with the warmth and vitality generated with the full participation of the spirit. It is the same as the difference between a mere “thanks” out of politeness and a sincere “thank-you” coming from the bottom of the heart.
In a depressed person, the blood radiation does not provide a sufficient bridge for the spirit to act with its full power to exert its impressions on the person as well as to counterbalance or equalize pressure coming from the outside. On the contrary the spirit of the depressed person is not just exposed to external pressure, it is overwhelmed by it, thereby giving rise to anxiety, despair, and a sense of resignation. It no longer feels on top of things and, for the moment, rightly so. A certain something is missing from the blood radiation.
Psychotherapy cannot succeed until the spirit can be reached and, in responding, it alters the blood radiation, as we shall see in the next chapter. However, treatment at the level of the blood is also possible. This consists of a correction or readaptation of the blood radiation to the needs of the spirit, so that it can again assert itself and express all its abilities.
Clairvoyance
So far we have seen that blood radiation consists of different kinds of radiation, just as the blood consists of different components. In other words each specific blood radiation has a corresponding color, and the sum total of these colors results in the complete spectrum of blood radiation. Healthy blood contains all the colors, and thus everything it needs is placed at the disposal of the spirit. But the proportions of the different colors differ in the blood of one person to the next, and so the many possible color combinations form an endless variety of different bridges, corresponding to the diversity of human spirits. Some blood radiations may contain, for instance, much green and yellow but very little blue, while in another person blue and purple might predominate.
Beyond the different proportions of color entering into the different compositions of radiations, blood can also differ through the quality of the colors. These can be pure and have a more or less radiant glow. They can be dark or, alternatively, very bright and lively. As one could easily imagine, a dull yellow radiation does not offer the same possibilities as that of a sparkling golden yellow. To explain the difference that exists between the type and quality of radiations as expressed by different colors, let us turn to the phenomenon of clairvoyance.
A clairvoyant is a person who can see what is happening in planes of Creation that lie beyond the dense matter that is visible to our earthly eyes. In general one assumes that clairvoyance is a special ability of the spirit of the clairvoyant person. In reality, clairvoyance is not an ability of the spirit, but rather it depends on a special type of blood radiation. This can change in the course of time with alterations of the blood and its radiation. This explains why clairvoyance can appear suddenly, can decrease, or can even disappear entirely. Most people, because of their blood radiation, can only see with the eyes of their earthly body. But in addition to its physical body, the incarnated spirit carries cloaks, or bodies, of the various planes that the spirit has traveled through nits way to Earth. These bodies all possess sensory organs, exactly like the earthly body, including eyes. If they are not active, it is because normally only the sensory organs corresponding to the plane in which the spirit finds itself now are active and working. Some people, however, have a special kind of blood radiation that permits them to see with the eyes of their ethereal body. This special kind of radiation provides a connection with the spirit, opening the eyes of the ethereal body, thereby paving the way for the spirit of the clairvoyant to gain access to something more.
The seeing of clairvoyants differs greatly from one to another. They do not all see the same thing, because they are seeing with “eyes” of different kinds. For some their seeing reaches into the astral plane; for others to fine matter or at least to a certain level of that plane. The unique faculty of clairvoyance depends on a very specific kind of blood radiation, but that which can actually be seen depends on the quality of these radiations. The finer and purer the blood radiations, the higher the plane or sphere that can be seen—meaning that the “eyes” being used for the seeing are those of the higher ethereal body of the clairvoyant.
Rightly understood this fineness and purity of blood radiation can naturally not be obtained merely through a certain type of diet or through the supply of certain substances into the blood. The deciding factor is the spirit. It plays, as we shall see in the next chapter, a determining role in the development of the blood radiation.