Nervous system

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Overview of the human nervous system

The nervous system is a part of the nerve-sense system and is divided into two main areas, namely the somatic nervous system, which was predisposed on the Old Moon, and the vegetative nervous system, which was already prepared on the Old Sun. The somatic (animal) nervous system is primarily the direct physical expression of the astral body. The cranial nerves are subject to the I-organisation.

The structure, function and development of the nervous system is studied by specialised sciences such as neurobiology, neurophysiology, neuroanatomy and other neurosciences. The medical discipline that deals with the functions, diseases and healing possibilities of the nervous system is neurology.

Nervous System and the Members of Man

„In the sympathetic nervous system, which penetrates the digestive organs, the etheric body predominates. The nervous organs which come into consideration here are of themselves only living organs. The astral and I-organisation do not organise them internally, but from outside. Therefore the influence of the I and the astral organisation, which are active in these nervous organs, is a strong one. Affects and passions have a lasting, significant effect on the sympathetic nervous system. Grief and worry gradually destroy this nervous system.

The spinal cord nervous system with all its branches is the one in which the astral organisation primarily intervenes. It is therefore the carrier of what is soulish in man, of the reflex processes, but not of what goes on in the I, in the self-conscious spirit.

The actual cranial nerves are those which are subject to the I-organisation. In them the activities of the etheric and astral organisation stand back.“ (Lit.:GA 27, p. 40f)

This is not contradicted by the fact that the sympathetic nervous system, along with the blood, forms the main point of attack for the human I in the physical body, although this remains completely subconscious:

Drawing from GA 174, p. 126
Drawing from GA 174, p. 126

„In order to illustrate the matter, I will now start from that which we recognise as essential for earth-humanity: from the I. I expressly remark that in pictorial representations it is very easy to come to misunderstandings, in that what was said earlier seems to contradict what was said later. If you look at things more closely, you will notice that such contradictions do not exist in reality.

Let us assume, then, that we are dealing with the I-nature of the human being, with that member of the human being which we call the I. This I-nature is, of course, entirely supersensible; it is, after all, the most supersensible thing we have to begin with, but it works through the sensuous. That through which the I works in the human physical nature, mainly in the intellectualistic sense, is the nervous system known as the ganglionic system, the nervous system that emanates from the solar plexus. Schematically we can indicate this nervous system, this ganglionic system, this solar plexus system in this way (see drawing, black). This unfolds an activity which at first seems to have nothing special to do with what one could call nervous life in the materialistic sense. Nevertheless, it is the actual point of attack for the real I-activity. That the human being, when he begins to see himself occultly, has to feel the centre of the I in the head, does not contradict this, since we are dealing with something supersensible in the human I, and the point in which the human being experiences the I is different from the point of attack through which the I preferably works in the human being.

The meaning of the word: The I works through the point of attack of the solar plexus - must be fully understood. This meaning lies in the following: The I of man himself is actually endowed with a very dull consciousness. The I-thought is something other than the I. The I-thought is, so to speak, that which rises as a wave into consciousness, but the I-thought is not the real I. The real I intervenes as a formative force through the solar plexus in the whole organisation of the human being.

Certainly one can say that the I is distributed over the whole body. But its main point of attack, where it intervenes especially in human formation, in human organisation, is the solar plexus, or rather, because all the branches belong to it, the ganglionic system, this nervous process living in the subconscious, which takes place in the ganglionic system. Since the ganglionic system determines the whole circulation of the blood, this does not contradict the fact that the I is expressed in the blood. In these matters one must take what has been said very carefully. It is something else to say: The I intervenes through the ganglionic system in the formative forces and in the whole living conditions of the organism, than when it is said that the blood with its circulation is the expression of the I in man. Human nature is simply complicated.“ (Lit.:GA 174, p. 126ff)

The nervous system as an inverted plant

„We see the plant keeping a direction radially. This is the same direction that we as human beings have in the waking state. Only we must be clear that in so far as we compare our vertical direction with the vertical direction of the plant's growth, we must not use both with the same signs, but must use both with opposite signs. There are many reasons that force us to use the vertical direction of the human being in the opposite direction to the vertical direction of growth of the plant. There are many reasons. I only want to point out the one I have already mentioned. It is that the process of plant growth, which ends with the deposition of carbon, is annulled in man, that it must be made negative in man, so to speak. That which the plant consolidates in itself must be removed by man. This and similar things force us to say: If we set the direction of plant growth in this way, we must set the corresponding direction in man in this way (Fig. 2).

Drawing from GA 323, p. 304 (Fig. 2)
Drawing from GA 323, p. 304 (Fig. 2)

Now the question is: What do we actually have in this direction? We have that in this direction which is connected with our growth from year to year, as long as we grow at all, that which therefore presents us with a process similar to that of the plant. But we can only manage if we imagine it: The plant grows radially upwards from the earth, towards the cosmic space; but we must imagine ourselves in such a way that a superphysical invisible grows against our physically visible growth, grows, as it were, into us from above downwards. We have to seek an understanding of the human form in a vertical direction by imagining it, as it were: The human being grows upwards, but against him grows a kind of invisible plant formation which develops its roots upwards, towards the head, and develops its blossoms downwards. It is a negative process of plant formation which is opposed to the physical process of human formation. In this direction (the two arrows), then, we have to look for similar movements. In the same way as the plant grows away from the earth, we have to imagine that this superphysical human plant grows out of the space of the world from the sun towards the centre of the earth. And we have - as I have said, I can only indicate the direction now, you can certainly follow it from the empirical phenomena - in what appears to us as a line directed in the same direction, a line of growth, only the one time positively reaching out, the other time negatively reaching back, we have to look for the connecting line between the earth and the sun in this. You will not be able to imagine it in any other way, it is even a rather trivial idea, than that you have to look for in it at the same time the lines of movement both for the earth and for the sun. So we have to look for lines of movement for the earth and the sun in the connection of the two, but in such a way that this line gives a vertical line for the surface of the earth.“ (Lit.:GA 323, p. 303ff)

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
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