HUMAN BEING:

The human being is a microcosm of the macrocosm. If we take this statement as our starting point, we can build up a picture of the human being by observing nature, and in nature we find there are three major kingdoms:

The Mineral Kingdom.

The Plant Kingdom.

The Animal Kingdom.

The human being's relationship to the mineral kingdom is that the substances which are used by the human organism for the maintenance of its physical body are mineral/chemical substances. From the perspective of the human observer, the mineral kingdom is inanimate, it is dead. Therefore, if we were constituted of nothing but mineral/chemical substances we would be dead, we could not exist as human beings. So:

Mineral Kingdom / Physical Body / Unconscious.

Plants are alive; they germinate in the soil, grow, develop, mature, produce flowers, fruits and seeds and die. They thus have a 'body' which is invisible to physical sight which takes up the mineral substances of the soil, along with water and light, which gives form to the plant and is responsible for its growth, development etc. This is called the etheric, life or formative body in the Western Tradition and I think the concept of 'chi' , 'ki' and 'prana' in the Eastern Tradition is the Eastern equivalent of etheric. The consciousness of the plant is more of a dream-like consciousness. The plant is therefore constituted of both mineral body and etheric body. So:

Plant Kingdom / Etheric Body / Dream-like consciousness.

Animals are distinguished from plants by being able to move around, they show patterns of behavior which indicate they respond to whatever is going on around them; they fight, run away from danger, look for food and water, mate, take care of their young, mark out territory and guard it etc., etc. They thus have an additional 'body' to the physical and etheric body, and this is called the astral body or soul, which, like the etheric body, is also invisible to physical sight. So:

Animal Kingdom /Astral Body / Instinctive consciousness.

The major difference between animals and human beings is that in the case of animals, if we know the behavioral patterns of a single individual of a species, we know the behavioral patterns of all the individuals of the same species. This is because each species of animal has a 'group soul'. This is not the case with the human being, because no two human individuals behave in an identical manner in the same set of circumstances. The major distinction between human beings and animals is the ability of the human being to think as an individual. This ability is due to an additional spiritual constituent of the human being, called the Ego, which can simply be stated as that aspect of the human being which gives each one of us our identity. When we say, I , we can only be referring to ourselves as individuals, not to anyone else.

Thus the human being is constituted of:

Physical Body.

Etheric Body.

Astral Body.

Ego.

Now, the physical body as we observe it with our physical eyes, has its actions and shape because of the etheric body. The etheric body is the spiritual body which takes up the mineral/chemical substances provided for by nourishment and molds them, (and is responsible for the activity of each organ and tissue and co-ordinating them), into the form of the tissues and organs of the physical body. In essence, the physical body is the 'mineral apparition' of the etheric body, which permeates throughout the physical body, and is responsible for its growth and development as a whole, and for the minutiae of activity and form of the various organs and tissues of the body.

Now, of course it stands to reason, based on what has been written so far, that when any substance or tissue is extracted from the body in order to observe it under the microscope that it is no longer is under the influence of the etheric body. Rather, once it is removed from the physical body, it then becomes subject to the same laws of physics and chemistry that operate in the mineral kingdom. This is fine as long as it is clearly understood that whatever knowledge we gain from so doing will be utterly misleading if we assume that what we discover will give us any insight into the workings of the physical organism, be it plant, animal or human physical organism.

The astral body is 'attached' to the etheric body which permeates the physical body. It is the astral body or soul which is the locus of our feelings, perceptions, memory, emotions, thoughts, imagination, attitudes, world-view, ideals, visions etc. Since this is the way we are constituted it cannot be the case that thinking, for example, takes place in the brain. It is more accurate to say the brain is the 'sense-organ' of thinking. Nor can it be said that our emotions or feelings are located in the physical body, rather the body expresses the emotions and feelings going on in our soul.

However, in the case of health and disease, the relationship of the astral body being linked to the physical body via the etheric body means that disturbances and imbalances in any one of the three will manifest and permeate into the other two. Thus, as Rudolf Steiner stated it, "all disturbances in the physical body have their origin in the astral body, and all disturbances of the soul have their origin in the physical".

Thus, in order for us to heal ourselves, we have to deal with our condition from the perspective of our ego, our psyche (the Greek word meaning soul), our etheric body and our physical organism.

All these aspects will be explored and discussed throuhout the Alchemycal Pages and I begin by talking about the material of our physical body, which is our daily nourishment. As it states in the Taittiriya of the 'Upanishads', a sacred text of India:

" Out of Brahman, who is Self, came ether; out of ether, air; out of air, fire; out of fire, water; out of water, earth; out of earth, vegetation; out of vegetation, food; out of food, the body of man. The body of man, composed of the essence of food, is the physical sheath of the Self. From food are born all creatures which live upon food and after death return to food. Food is the chief of all things. It is therefore said to be medicine for all diseases of the body."

Many centuries later, Hippocrates, the Greek philosopher/physician, widely considered to be the father of Western Medicine, said:

"Let food be thy medicine, and let thy medicine be thy food."

FOOD DOES NOT HEAL NOR DOES IT CAUSE DISEASE.

The point I want to emphasise here is the idea food has any healing qualities is absurd. In other words the idea as food as medicine, in the sense we speak of medicine today is entirely misleading if we think that eating the right diet is what heals us. We have to entirely change our ideas of what medicine is, for today it has become so degenerate that we think of it as taking a pill or having surgery, chemotherapy or radiation or, the worst error of all, thinking that diseases lie in our genes. So we are now having the great gene search where the genes attributed to be the cause of everything from alcoholism and asthma to cancer and heart disease are found, altered and then patented for the treatment of the disease for which the original gene is blamed. No amount of gene therapy is going to have any effect in the long run on the problem of disease.

Medicine means(Oxford English Dictionary): "the art of restoring and preserving the health of human beings by the administration of remedial substances and the regulation of diet, habits and the conditions of life."

Characteristics of Human beings...all human should answer..?

The thing that separates humans from all other animals is our ability to view the world in the past, present and future. This ability allows us to learn from our past mistakes, progress in the present and imagine the future. I dont know of any other animal that thinks about tomorrow.

Human is always a great word to know.

So is lollapalooza. Does it mean:

a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.

an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.