INTRODUCTION

The Secret of the Blood

I wish to fill the gaps which have so far always remained unanswered in the souls of men as burning questions, and which never leave any serious thinker in peace, if he honestly seeks the Truth.

ABD-RU-SHIN, IN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH: THE GRAIL MESSAGE

The book you are now holding in your hands, The Spiritual Mysteries of Blood, is different from the other books I have published with Healing Arts Press. Those books are mainly concerned with physical health from a naturopathic perspective; they deal with the practical matters of detoxification and rejuvenation, diet and the cellular terrain, and they suggest remedies. This book is a major departure in that it is concerned primarily with a metaphysical idea—specifically, it speaks of the immaterial spirit of the human being and the way that this spirit is connected to the body through the blood.

You may ask what is the relationship between this subject and my work as a naturopath? In my practice I have often been confronted by things I have been unable to comprehend and that I later realized had a spiritual explanation. Patients came for treatment of very physical problems like rheumatism or eczema. They followed the diet I recommended; they took herbs, detoxed their bodies, and addressed all their physiological deficiencies. Such a protocol not only healed them of their physical ills, it also helped them overcome mental problems like anxiety, depression, lack of self-confidence, and various fears. How could these physical treatments have such a profound effect on the mind as well?

The most common explanation is that these kinds of naturopathic treatments work directly on the brain; to wit, as toxins are gradually eliminated, the brain receives more oxygen and thus absorbs more nutrients. But I found this explanation unsatisfying, mainly due to my conviction that our mental faculties do not originate in the brain, but rather in the human spirit. The question therefore remained open for me: How does a physical substance such as a food or an herb affect the immaterial spirit of the human being?

I felt that a piece of the puzzle was missing, and I found it one day when reading a spiritual work titled In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message, written between 1923 and 1937 by Oskar Ernst Bernhardt, a German better known under his pen name of Abd-ru-shin. Abd-ru-shin himself didn’t form or formally support any of the spiritualist organizations that proliferated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries nor was he known ever to have been a member of one; on the contrary his work seems to place a high value on individual responsibility and self-discovery—something that very much appealed to me.

Oskar Ernst Bernhardt was born on April 18, 1875, in Bischofswerda, Germany. Educated and trained as a businessman, his travels took him throughout Europe, Asia, and North America, bringing him into directcontact with peoples of many classes and cultures. He became a prolific writer of travel books, stories, and plays.

After residing for a time in New York, he moved to London in 1913. While there, the outbreak of World War I took him unawares, and because he was German he was interned on the Isle of Man for the duration of the war. His imprisonment and the seclusion it afforded him brought with it an inner deepening. At the end of the war, Bernhardt returned to Germany, fully conscious of his life’s purpose: to open the path for humankind to a new knowledge of Creation, irrespective of nationality, race, creed, or any of the other means by which humanity divides itself.

Beginning in 1923, as Abd-ru-shin, a name of Persian-Arabian origin translated as “son,” “workman,” or “servant of the light,” Bernhardt started writing spiritually themed lectures from his home in the Austrian Alps. But his prolific writing activities were cut short when the Nazis came to power in 1938. On the very day they came to power, the Nazis, threatened by Abd-ru-shin’s message of human freedom and the description of a path to happiness that is attainable by anyone, arrested and imprisoned him. During his incarceration and later under house arrest, he used his solitary time to edit and arrange his 168 lectures into the present form of The Grail Message, though he was forbidden from publicizing his writings or making contact with his readers and was under constant surveillance by the Gestapo. Unable to continue his writing, he died in 1941.

In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message gives an explanation of the world and offers a complete survey of everything that exists between the Creator and us human beings. It has been translated into seventeen languages and is available in ninety countries worldwide and can be found online as well (www.grail-message.com).

The book states that God created human spirits and sent them in search of self-consciousness and maturity. They wandered into gross matter and acquired physical bodies in which to function on Earth. All are to learn to live by the original “Laws of Creation,” which provide each human spirit with support on his earthly journey so that we can eventually return to our place of origin as mature, self-conscious entities. The book describes the mythical Holy Grail as representing a reality, the connecting point between the Creator and Creation. It provides clear answers to the fundamental questions of human existence: where the human spirit comes from, its purpose here on Earth, and where it goes after death. The book discusses fate and karma, divine justice, free will, and the mission of Jesus. On this latter subject, Abd-ru-shin says that modern human beings have become so overintellectualized that the simple, childlike belief that Jesus demanded in his time no longer suffices as a means for human beings to follow their way to God. For this reason The Grail Message explains Christ’s teachings in a language adapted to our present way of thinking, which allows us to cultivate a certainty of conviction.

The Grail Message also touches on the question of the constitution of the human being, to wit, not only is a spirit incarnated in a body, but—and this is what struck me in particular and is the premise behind this book—is maintained in that body thanks to the blood.*1 In this model blood’s role is not restricted to simply irrigating organic tissue, as taught in physiology. In reality it plays a much higher role—that of keeping body and spirit together. One consequence of the role blood plays as a liaison element is that any change of blood composition has repercussions on the quality of that liaison and, because of that, on the way exterior reality is perceived and felt. Our moods are thus extremely dependent on the composition of our blood.

This idea immediately captured my imagination and is the premise behind this book. This knowledge not only explains why naturopathic treatments targeting a physical problem can also influence the mind, it suggests specific tools for working on the mind in a positive way, through the blood. In fact, by altering our blood composition, we can take positive steps toward achieving mental balance and inner harmony. My hope is that this approach will open new therapeutic horizons and offer new and possibly better avenues toward self-understanding.