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The heart is an organ with high electrical activity, which can be recorded as an '''electrocardiogram''' ('''ECG''' or '''EKG'''). The electrical currents that flow through the heart generate a corresponding cardiac magnetic field that can be recorded as a '''magnetocardiogram''' (MCG). Although the magnetic field of the heart is much weaker than the earth's magnetic field, it is 500 - 5000 times stronger than the magnetic field of the brain and can still be detected several metres outside the body.<ref>[https://www.sein.de/das-herz-unser-zweites-gehirn/ Das Herz – unser zweites Gehirn], retrieved 31 Oct 2018</ref><ref>[https://impulsdialog.de/ueber_uns/blog/ueber-neurone-im-herz-br-unser-herz-kann-mehr-als-gedacht Über Neurone im Herz: Unser Herz kann mehr als gedacht], retrieved 31 Oct 2018</ref><ref>[https://www.heartmath.com HeartMath Institute], retrieved 31 Oct 2018</ref>
The heart is an organ with high electrical activity, which can be recorded as an '''electrocardiogram''' ('''ECG''' or '''EKG'''). The electrical currents that flow through the heart generate a corresponding cardiac magnetic field that can be recorded as a '''magnetocardiogram''' (MCG). Although the magnetic field of the heart is much weaker than the earth's magnetic field, it is 500 - 5000 times stronger than the magnetic field of the brain and can still be detected several metres outside the body.<ref>[https://www.sein.de/das-herz-unser-zweites-gehirn/ Das Herz – unser zweites Gehirn], retrieved 31 Oct 2018</ref><ref>[https://impulsdialog.de/ueber_uns/blog/ueber-neurone-im-herz-br-unser-herz-kann-mehr-als-gedacht Über Neurone im Herz: Unser Herz kann mehr als gedacht], retrieved 31 Oct 2018</ref><ref>[https://www.heartmath.com HeartMath Institute], retrieved 31 Oct 2018</ref>


The activity of the heart muscles is stimulated by electrical impulses. In so-called '''myogenic hearts''', as found in vertebrates, tunicates, molluscs and some annelids and arthropods, these autonomous rhythmic impulses are excited by cardiac muscle cells specialised for this purpose. '''Neurogenic hearts''', as found in some annelids and arthropods, are in contrast excited by nerve cells. However, the heart rate is also influenced by nerve activity in myogenic hearts such as that of humans. A corresponding [[heart rate variability]] ('''HRV''') is of decisive importance for the health of the entire organism. The actual cause of the heart's movement, however, lies, as [[Rudolf Steiner]] emphasises, in the [[astral body]], whose influence on the heart can be promoted or inhibited by nervous activity.  
The activity of the heart muscles is stimulated by electrical impulses. In so-called '''myogenic hearts''', as found in vertebrates, tunicates, molluscs and some annelids and arthropods, these autonomous rhythmic impulses are excited by cardiac muscle cells specialised for this purpose. '''Neurogenic hearts''', as found in some annelids and arthropods, are in contrast excited by [[nerve cell]]s. However, the [[heart rate]] is also influenced by nerve activity in myogenic hearts such as that of humans. A corresponding [[heart rate variability]] ('''HRV''') is of decisive importance for the health of the entire organism. The actual cause of the heart's movement, however, lies, as [[Rudolf Steiner]] emphasises, in the [[astral body]], whose influence on the heart can be promoted or inhibited by nervous activity.


== Literature ==
== Literature ==

Revision as of 05:46, 12 October 2021

The heart is the central organ of the blood circulation. It is a hollow muscular organ about the size of a fist, resembling a rounded cone with the tip pointing downwards and to the left, slightly offset to the left side of the body behind the sternum. Only in the relatively rare case of right-heart disease is it more offset to the right side of the body, usually with an overall mirror-inverted organ arrangement (situs inversus). In the macrocosm, the heart corresponds to the Sun and, as a planetary metal, to gold.

The heart as a future voluntary organ

The heart consists mainly of striated muscles, similar to our skeletal musculature, which we can activate at will. According to Rudolf Steiner, this already heralds the future development through which the heart will one day become an voluntary organ:

„It is that organ which is intimately connected with the circulation of the blood. Now science believes that the heart is a kind of pump. This is a grotesquely fantastic idea. Never has occultism made such a fantastic assertion as the materialism of today. That which is the moving force of the blood is the feelings of the soul. The soul drives the blood, and the heart moves because it is driven by the blood. So exactly the reverse is true of what materialistic science says. Only, man today cannot yet direct his heart arbitrarily; when he is afraid, it beats faster because the feeling acts on the blood and this accelerates the movement of the heart. But what man now suffers involuntarily he will later, at a higher stage of development, have under his control. Later on he will drive his blood and move his heart as he does the muscles of his hands today. The heart with its peculiar construction is a crux, a cross, for present-day science. It has striated muscle fibres that are otherwise only found in voluntary muscles. Why? Because the heart has not yet reached the end of its development, but is an organ of the future, because it will become an arbitrary muscle. Therefore it already shows the disposition for this in its construction.

Thus everything that goes on in the soul of man changes the structure of the human organism.“ (Lit.:GA 99, p. 147f)

Heart and Blood Circulation

The heart is not a pump!

The heart begins to form from the flowing blood circulation as early as the 3rd week of embryonic development and begins to pulsate independently from the 23rd or 24th day of pregnancy. In Steiner's view, the shape of the heart is a result of the accumulating currents of force from left-right or right-left and from above and below. The backwater of these currents creates thickenings from which the four chambers of the heart are formed. But according to Steiner, not only the shape but also the activity of the heart is a result of the living movement of the blood circulation. In his view, the heart does not function as a pump that drives the blood through the body, but rather the blood circulation sets the heart in motion. The left half of the heart receives the oxygen-rich blood from the small pulmonary circulation, the right half of the heart receives the oxygen-poor blood from the large systemic circulation.

The cardiac output (CO) is about 4.5-5 l/min in healthy adults; under high stress it can rise to over 30 l/min, especially in top athletes.

„The mechanical-materialistic view has turned this heart into a pump that drives the blood through the human body. It is the opposite, this heart: a living thing is the circulation of the blood - embryology can prove it exactly if it only wants to - , and the heart is set into action by the internally moving blood. The heart is that in which the activity of the blood is finally manifested, in which the activity of the blood is taken into the whole of human individuality. The activity of the heart is a consequence of the activity of the blood, not the activity of the blood a consequence of the activity of the heart.“ (Lit.:GA 74, p. 92f)

„If one learns to recognise the rhythmic system as it is expressed in the formation of the course of respiration, of the course of the blood, one breaks with the superstition that the heart is a pump which drives the blood through the organism like some kind of water. Then one learns to recognise that the spiritual intervenes in the blood circulation, that therefore the rhythm takes hold of the metabolism, effects the blood circulation and then in the course of human development, already in the embryonic development, the heart is sculptured out of what is the blood circulation, so that the heart is formed out of the blood circulation, thus out of the spiritual.“ (Lit.:GA 203, p. 151f)

Rudolf Steiner's view that the heart is not a mechanical pump, but rather is put into action the other way round by the living flowing blood, was largely ignored in medical research for a long time. However, more recent studies confirm his statements. Branko Furst, for example, summarises in his book The Heart and Circulation:

„In summary, an attempt has been made to review the current status of the pressure- propulsion model of circulation and highlight a number of inconsistencies which have been either explained away or tailored in order to fit its mold. According to the mechanistic (cardiocentric) model, the blood is considered an inert fluid, impelled along the vessels by the pressure gradient created by the heart. Experimental and phenomenological evidence presented in this monograph suggests exactly the opposite, namely, that the blood is a “fluid organ”, with self-movement as its inherent characteristic. Conceptually, autonomous movement of the blood is no different than autonomous contraction of the heart, the enterohepatic circulation of bile salts, or the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid ...

... the ontogenetic origin and morphology of the cardiovascular system indicate that it can be considered an organ, whose function is rhythmic mediation between the nerve–sense (form) and the metabolic poles of the organism. Its mobile component, the blood, fulfills this function ...“ (Lit.: Branko Furst: The Heart and Circulation, p. 217)

The heart as an electrically active organ

Electrocardiogram

The heart is an organ with high electrical activity, which can be recorded as an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG). The electrical currents that flow through the heart generate a corresponding cardiac magnetic field that can be recorded as a magnetocardiogram (MCG). Although the magnetic field of the heart is much weaker than the earth's magnetic field, it is 500 - 5000 times stronger than the magnetic field of the brain and can still be detected several metres outside the body.[1][2][3]

The activity of the heart muscles is stimulated by electrical impulses. In so-called myogenic hearts, as found in vertebrates, tunicates, molluscs and some annelids and arthropods, these autonomous rhythmic impulses are excited by cardiac muscle cells specialised for this purpose. Neurogenic hearts, as found in some annelids and arthropods, are in contrast excited by nerve cells. However, the heart rate is also influenced by nerve activity in myogenic hearts such as that of humans. A corresponding heart rate variability (HRV) is of decisive importance for the health of the entire organism. The actual cause of the heart's movement, however, lies, as Rudolf Steiner emphasises, in the astral body, whose influence on the heart can be promoted or inhibited by nervous activity.

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.
  1. ↑ Das Herz – unser zweites Gehirn, retrieved 31 Oct 2018
  2. ↑ Über Neurone im Herz: Unser Herz kann mehr als gedacht, retrieved 31 Oct 2018
  3. ↑ HeartMath Institute, retrieved 31 Oct 2018
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