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.Thus the Russian in a way gives himself up to the surrounding world and has a comparatively slight ego-feeling, unless it is artificially-supplemented by some theory; these attributes being associated with their small intake of sugar.The Englishman, on the other hand, has a strong feeling of his own Self, and the organic basis for this quality is associated with a large intake of sugar.Nevertheless in such cases, the fact of taking in is less important as an indication, than the urge for a certain diet.For the fact of habitual consumption of any special food develops from the urge and therefore the urge is the main factor to be remembered.Finally; if you fully realise that the real origin of the so-called mental or spiritual diseases is to be sought in the lower organic systems of man, you will be made unmistakably aware of interactions within man which cannot be neglected in the practice of pathology or therapeutics.These interactions between what I have termed the lower and the upper man, must be considered always and equally, both in pathology and therapeutics; otherwise it will not be possible to form an opinion of the manner in which external influences will affect the patient.For instance: there is a very great difference between the application of heat or of water to the head, or to the feet respectively.But we can find no fundamental principle here, unless we are aware of the great differences of function in the two bodily spheres of man; the upper and the lower.For this reason, we will now proceed to discuss external influences affecting man, so far as is possible within the scope of these lectures.XIVI HAVE carefully considered for some time whether or not to include today's chapter in this lecture series, for its subject matter can only be presented in outline.But I have decided to include it, even if only to prove once more how greatly such things may be misunderstood.For on the one side, some people have long endeavoured to prove that Anthroposophy and its doctrines are muddled nonsense.Recently, however, it appears to have dawned on some other people that this opinion can no longer be held, but that Anthroposophy appears to correspond with the results of additional research into the ancient mysteries.So the attack is now from the other side: I am represented as a betrayer of the mysteries.Thus people can always find a possibility of accusation and attack, whether on one score or the other.If they can no longer state that these things are false they can at least maintain that it is extremely wrong to say them.I must first of all repeat that the exclusively physical study of man only surveys a part and a comparatively small part of human nature This is for the simple reason that man contains the etheric body, the astral body and the ego, which are constantly working upon and moulding the physical organism, yet entirely inaccessible to external physical judgment — I use this term with intention and reference to what follows.At the same time it is not impossible for the human being to educate himself and evolve (granting steadfast effort) to the point of acquiring and assimilating a certain degree of clairvoyance into the operation of intellect and judgment.This will not yet mean the attainment of a proper clairvoyance associated with definite visual images, but it will be possible to attain a type of judgment capable of strong and reliable coincidence with the results of clairvoyance.Now consider this.Let us begin with the ego — as it were the opposite extreme from the physical.The ego works upon the other human vehicles, and at the present stage of evolution its main sphere of action is on the physical body.In mankind today the ego has as yet comparatively little capacity for governing the etheric body.During childhood, it has such power strongly but unconsciously.This ceases later on.Only in those who retain in later life a vivid imagination or fantasy, is there a strong ego influence over the etheric body.In general, however, in all persons who develop their intelligence as distinct from their imagination and become dry intellectualists, there is a strong ego-influence over the physical body and only a slight influence over the etheric.If you try to visualise this influence over the physical body, you will not need to go much further in order to picture in your minds as the work of the ego an intricate framework extending throughout the bodily organism; a delicate, weblike scaffolding.This scaffolding in the physical body, like a kind of phantom of man, is always present.We human beings carry with us through life, a framework imprinted into us through our ego-organisation; its structure is most delicate, and indeed it is the forces of the etheric body that insert it into the physical.But in the course of our lives, we gradually forfeit the power of consciously contributing to this structure.Only in people with creative imagination we find a half-conscious, dreamlike remnant of such power.As you will have easily conceived, this weblike framework which the ego “timbers” into the organism of man is actually in some sense a “foreign body.” And there is a constant tendency to resist it.Every night during sleep, the human organism seeks to tear down this structure.Although we remain unaware of it in everyday waking life, do not let us forget this tendency.For this continuous tendency on the part of the ego-framework to break up, to fall to pieces in the organism, is the secret and permanent source of inflammatory conditions.The concept of this kind of phantom-structure inserted by the ego into the human organism is of great importance, as is the realisation of the constant organic defensive reaction against it as a “foreign body,” and its continuous tendency to break up within the physical organisation.You will arrive at a visualisation which helps your judgment if you study psycho-physiologically the organisation of the human eyes.For all that takes place as between the eye itself and the external world, that is to say, between the soul and the external world by means of the eye, represents par excellence the erecting of this scaffold.There is an intimate interaction between the ego-framework proper and the results of the interplay of the eye with the world around it.I have often had occasion to study this interaction of eye and ego, in blind-born persons and in those who had lost their sight
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