(Part 1)
The cosmic synchronicity of our heart
Rudolf Steiner called the heart an “inner spiritual sensual organ” 100 years ago. He saw the physiological rhythm of the heart and of our breathing in connection with the cosmic periodicity and found some direct analogies. The “Platonic world year” lasts 25’920 years. A healthy human being breathes approx. 18 times per minute, when they are relaxed. In 24 hours, we breathe approx. 25’920 times. If the human being reaches the “biblical” age of 71 years, they have lived for a total of 25’915 days. We see that the micro-rhythm and the macro-rhythm are tightly connected to each other. This is a clear economic advantage of evolution.
Steiner put the physiology of the heart and of the vascular system into comprehensive correlations with his inspired and intuitive experience. He explained to medical students in 1920 that the blood circulation moves the heart and triggers the pulsation. He said it is not the so-called pump effect of the heart muscle which induces the blood circulation – the way the materialist heart research has been describing it for 400 years.
Steiner opened the gates to a holistic view of this special organ by saying: “The whole world process, the fight between the light and the heaviness of the earth is reflected in the heart.”
Paracelsus also saw this synchronicity between above and below when he said: “The way the sun affects the earth, the heart affects the body.”
Gold, the sun metal, has a direct analogy with the heart, carrying in itself the same ambivalence of light and heaviness. It is understandable that gold represents a wonderful medicine for the sick heart in a refined form in Paracelsus’ holistic medicine and in all the subsequent healing methods.
Steiner explained to his students that there are three poles in the human organism. At the top it is the pole of the senses and nerves that rules, at the bottom we find the pole of the metabolism and the limbs which controls the physiology, and, in the middle, there is the rhythmic system of the heart and the breathing. The centre equalizes, mediates, so that the balance will be kept.
This is why the heart is of central importance as a harmonizing medium between above and below.
Particularly metabolic disorders in the lower part of the human which arise from assimilation disorders of what we take up with our food or from something else that we “cannot digest”, will “radio” this information to the centre and in this way rhythm disturbances come about, by which the heart, our centre, tries to balance this disharmony.
We all know the symptoms that when we have a food intolerance, our heart rhythm accelerates soon after eating or we experience skipped heart beats when there are gases in the small intestine.
We know the connection between the heart and the small intestine from the Taoist art of healing in classical acupuncture. The small intestine is a masterful and very differentiated digestion artist. It is the yang equivalent to the heart, which is a yin organ. This “mother-son” relationship leads to the fact that the “mother” tries to harmonize the difficulties of the “son”. It is like “in real life”.
When this weakness of the “son” is very pronounced, there will be more gas formations and a high-stand of the diaphragm, which will not only lead to heart rhythm disorders, but to heart anxiety (“Römheld effect”).
Steiner’s holistic view was shared by some researchers in the last century, whose results make it clear that the heart does not only work as a motor, but as a very fine regulator (e.g. Prof. Mendelsohn from Berlin, Dr. Nieper from Hannover, Engineer Wilfried Hacheney from Detmold …).
The heart as the communication centre of our organism
In 1996 the research results of Paul Pearsell from the USA were published. He found out in experiments that our heart has a key position as a communication centre of the whole organism. These informative results were published under the term of cardioenergetics. They confirm Steiner’s holistic view, but they have not really found any access into the materialist orthodox cardiology. In the course of this research it became clear that the heart is the greatest producer of electro-magnetic energy in the human body. The heart reacts immediately and completely autonomously to electro-magnetic impulses from its environment, not only on command of the brain, but even without its “knowledge”.
One could demonstrate a subtle energy, which is only radiated, forwarded and received by the heart. Since the heart is the energy conductor of our body cells, significant changes in the body cells can be brought about, which were described as the info-energetic cell memory.
Each body cell – and there are approximately 75 trillion cells – “bathes” in the energy of the heart. Each throbbing heart cell – and there are millions – possesses its own basic rhythm. The vibrating basic tone of each heart cell is specific and unique. And each heart cell is in a dialogue with the other heart cells, it pulsates in constant subtle communication. From this pulsating togetherness the one tone, the one particular, palpable beat of the heart arises. It is like an orchestra with millions of musicians who play a symphony in an unimaginable rhythmical unity, through which the mystery of the individual life becomes hearable and palpable.
Thus each heart beat is a lot more than a pulsating movement. It is an energy mystery on the physical plane, a subtle energy pattern on the soul level and a hardly graspable energy mystery, which weaves the miracles of the spiritual light into us.
Our heart is a unique, pulsating miracle of energy and light.
Its electro-magnetic radiance is 5000 times stronger than that of the brain.
The heart – a light organ
In its most subtle aspect, our heart is a light organ and therefore it can react to light impulses from the eternal spiritual field.
With each heart beat this universal light “knocks” at the door of our deepest inner being to be taken up there and developed. Our heart beats approx. 100’000 times a day and 40 million times a year. In 70 years, there are approx. 3 trillion heart beats. Is it possible that a human being has hardened his heart in such a way that he cannot perceive the silent knocking of the spirit on his heart door?
Between the moment of absorbing the blood from the body into the heart and the moment of the ejecting of the blood from the heart into the body, there is a short time of a fulfilled and expectant waiting, a strange kind of silence. These are the most merciful moments in which the touch of the cosmic light impulses is possible when we open our heart for this holy encounter in a present silence.
If we do not grasp this grace that we are given, if we suppress this task to manifest the eternal light in our temporal personality, then the organic heart will react by orchestrating different health disorders on the physical stage, so that we might recognize our actual sense of life and adapt our thoughts, feelings and impulses of will on the basis of which a different kind of acting and a recovery can take place.
This wonderful, rhythmical happening in our heart gives our individuality its unique expression of life.
For these reasons we will understand that a transplantation of this special organ into another human being whose consciousness vibrates in a different way, will cause problems of compatibility. Therefore, people, in whom another person’s heart is implanted, will often experience an “alienation”. They develop different life patterns, different behaviors, have unknown inclinations and interests and many do not feel identical with their former self, so that they fall into heavy depressions. So, we will understand that our unique individuality and its interpretation is particularly imprinted in our heart organ.
(to be continued in part 3)