Human breath

From Anthroposophy

With the process of cosmic breathing is meant 'all Man takes in' and this is not just inhaling and exhaling air into our lungs, but also the higher ethers, and everything we take in through our senses, see Process of perception. Man continuously takes in astral and etheric streams, and the higher ethers are carried by the warmth that Man breathes in. Man breathes in his 'I', see the Human 'I' (1906-10-02-GA266/1 and 1922-04-01-GA211, and FMC00.015A below).

The physical process of breathing air through the lungs in therefore a carrier of the life forces and the rhythms in Man's bodily structures. Through the breathing the astral-etheric streams get into the heart's two blood circuits through the lungs (see also Ganganda Greida).

As a result, a wide range of breathing techniques exist in all cultures as part of mindfullness, meditation, and initiation exercises.

Aspects

  • Process of cosmic breathing: Breathing is not only a physical oxygen process but also an astral-etheric process through which the human being is connected to cosmic streams. In other words, it is a process of warmth ether exchange .. on which are carried the light, sound and life ethers. These are again connected to the sum of what flows through all the human senses. See FMC00.015A below.
  • Inbreathing relates to past incarnation and karmic stream, outbreathing to future
  • oxygen being added through the lungs to the blood circuit, see the oxygen-rich and carbon-rich circuits passing through the organs on Schema FMC00.157 on The heart's two blood circuits

Rhythm

  • Equivalence of 18 breaths/min in microcosmic man with 18y lunar nutation period in macrocosmos
  • Ratio between heart pulse and breathing rhythm
  • Breath is basis for speaking and feeling, see also: rhythmic subsystem

Techniques

  • As part of the initiation process
    1. Evolution of how it was for indian yogis - see pranayama
    2. Conscious breathing - see Initiation exercises#Conscious breathing and pore breathing
    3. Rhythmic process in rosecrucian path
    4. breathing not air but the prana flows of etheric energy in kriya yoga
  • breathing techniques
    • mindfull breathing
    • breathwork such as Tummo and the Wim Hof method (WHM)

Other

Illustrations

FMC00.015 simply depicts the breathing process, and shows that the regular air breathing is superimposed with a finer breathing of the higher ethers. Below in amber: breathing in air through the longs, above that in purple: the cosmic breathing process in terms of astral-etheric flows.

The exhalation of the upper (purple) 'fine breathing' (through which we take the higher ethers into our body via sense perception and the sense-nerve system) takes place through the nerve system into the lungs, and thus makes its way into the blood stream.

FMC00.015.jpg

FMC00.015A shows threefold Man and how the three main intake processes lie at the basis of Thinking, Feeling and Willing (TFW). It shows also how the subsystem processes are linked (green arrows), and how at each stage part of the etheric flows is stopped et the exhalation stage (red line).

Furthermore the schema allows to contemplate Man: an integrated view with the matrix linkeage between fourfold Man (above, re: the four elements) and the Man as a threefold being (below, with three subsystems).

FMC00.015A.jpg

FMC00.463 shows the regular process of cosmic or fine breathing through the nadis or energy channels ida and pingala (see Schema FMC00.096), and through the reservoir of life energy in Man's base or root chakra (see also kundalini, eg Schema FMC00.353 on that page). Compare with the flow of the higher ethers ('life energy') on FMC00.015A above, showing how the organs and subsystems take up these energies as part of the fine breathing process. Diagram contents based on Shelly Trimmer.

The chandra chakra (moon) is also called 'mouth of God' and is like an antenna through which we draw in the life energy from the universe.

See also Etherization of blood for the two sun and moon chakras, (referenced by Rudolf Steiner through the pineal and pituitary glands), and The two etheric streams for the polarity of Moon and Sun influences.

FMC00.463.jpg

FMC00.419 is an illustration from the lecture by Karl König where his description refers to the 1924-09-14-GA318 lecture (left), and also describes the flows in terms of chemical elements (right) and glands in the subsystems of Man.

FMC00.419.jpg

Lecture coverage and references

1906-05-06-GA266

A Man is always destroying living things. He kills when he breathes. No living creature could exist on earth if only men who exhale carbon dioxide lived on it. The gas that a man exhales pollutes the atmosphere. It is lethal for all living things. Plants exhale oxygen and thereby enable live things to exist.

[Old Moon]

When the Earth was still at the Old Moon stage there was no human kingdom such as the one we have. The whole Old Moon was a kind of a plant being like a peat bog, soft and alive. The beings who are now men developed out of this plant-mineral Earth. This plant porridge also contained present plants and animals. There was an intermediate kingdom between these two: animal-plants had sensation. There was a plant kingdom on Old Moon, higher than the present mineral kingdom, an animal-plant kingdom of sentient plants, and a kingdom of man-animals, higher than the present animal kingdom and lower than the present human kingdom.

Creatures on this Old Moon mainly lived in a nitrogen atmosphere. The Old Moon was surrounded by it, and it perished from an excess of nitrogen. The mushrooms that now still live on a more plantlike soil are remnants of the animal-plant kingdom that was present on old Moon. Since they contain much nitrogen they're not good for occult development. Parasitic mistletoe is another remnant of that kingdom.

After Old Moon had perished from its atmosphere everything went through a pralaya, re-emerged, and present earth evolution began. Then after awhile everything that wasn't favorable for further evolution split off and formed the present moon. Other kingdoms developed out of the Old Moon kingdoms on earth. So that present plants could arise, one part of the plant-mineral kingdom had to be pushed down a stage, and the present mineral kingdom gradually arose through consolidation and hardening of the same. Men had not been able to perceive the world objectively on Old Moon, but now that the plant-mineral kingdom had descended and the present mineral kingdom formed gradually it became objectively visible. It was only through the solidification that it could now reflect light and there was a world that became visible for physical eyes. This is what the biblical story about the creation of light refers to. All heavenly bodies that can be seen in a telescope have solidified to the mineral stage. But there are many more heavenly bodies than those we can see minerally.

Plants not only live from the mineral world, but also from the light that is reflected by the mineral kingdom. And just as plants live from this light, so men and animals live on the oxygen that plants exhale. The animal-plants of old Moon went down a step on one side and up a step on the other side. That's why animals can live from plants' oxygen. Physically oxygen is what otherwise lives in a plant as its etheric body.

Men-animals also split into two kingdoms, into the two sexes. This split gives rise to the human love that initially is still physical. Man can lift himself into the Gods' realm through this love. They lived from men's physical love just as men and animals live from the oxygen that plants emanate, and as plants live from light that's radiated back from the mineral kingdom. The nectar and ambrosia that the Gods feed on is the love of men and women. Man's ascent takes place through the overcoming of physical love, the regulation of the breathing process, and the development of kundalini light. First the overcoming of physical love. A separation of the previously unisexual man into two sexes was necessary so that the intellect could develop in man. Man was split into a higher spiritual nature and a lower animal one. It's an ascent when a man overcomes the forces of physical love and transforms them into higher, more spiritual forces through his own inner soul force.

Secondly, a man who wants to develop higher must give up the forces that he takes from plants. Man uses up the vital oxygen that plants exhale through his breathing process. The breath becomes purer through rhythmization of the breathing process and inner soul work, so that what a man exhales contains less carbon dioxide. Then the air around him isn't used up as fast, and he doesn't take away so much oxygen or vital substance from other living beings.

To attain this as much as possible Indian yogis withdraw into caves, where they breathe as little oxygen as possible. They can do that because their breath is so pure from soul work that they can live a long time without intake of outer air. The more spiritualized a man is the longer he can live in his own air and the less carbon dioxide he exhales. The breath of a materialist ruins much more air than that of an idealist. Modern materialists can't live without a continual supply of fresh air. A man out in the country brings a certain rhythm into his life through his life with nature. Thereby the air that he exhales becomes better, whereas the city air gets full of poison through men's immorality. Plants stream out pure air, oxygen. They're pure, selfless, without desire, and that's why a man feels good among plants. But a continual supply of fresh air actually has an unfavorable effect on occult development, because one thereby takes too much life from plants. An esoteric learns to control his breathing process, and thereby he can have moments when he doesn't participate in the destructive process that's brought about by breathing.

Thirdly a man learns to radiate back the light that the mineral kingdom reflects. He develops kundalini light and radiates it into the world, thereby giving light back to it — the light of the human kingdom. A man doesn't know what an important instrument he has in his organism. He knows the rest of the world better than he knows himself. He can in fact develop wonderful capacities.

[Conscious breathing - see: Initiation exercises#Conscious breathing]

A Man has an organ in himself that fills with air when he inhales and loses this air when he exhales. It fills up with outside air right into its finest branches on inhalation. But spirit lives in the air around us. When a man inhales he breathes spirit in, and when he exhales he puts some of the spirit that lives in him into the exhaled air. The spirit develops in him ever more and also outside in the world through the rhythmicized, spirit-filled breath. The spiritual man's growth is promoted through breathing in and out. The most important thing is the spirit that a Man puts into his exhaled breath. The spirit is built up by thoughts. A man builds up and streams out his spirit through every thought that he gives along with the exhalation.

[Evolutionary aspects of breathing]

Man didn't always have an organ to inhale air.

  • Beings breathed fire instead of air on Old Moon. Just as we breathe oxygen in and out, so they breathed fire in and cold out.
  • Future men will no longer breathe air. Just as a man prepares his warmth by feeding his warmth organ, the heart, with the blood circulation, through air streaming in from outside, so he will later have an inner air organ through which his organism will be supplied with what we now take in from the atmosphere. A man prepares his own warmth, that on old Moon had been directly sucked in from the environment by the beings there. A man will be able to elaborate the used up air in his interior.
  • Later on he'll no longer live in an outer air. On Future Jupiter he will live in light and inhale light just as we inhale air now and inhaled warmth on Old Moon.
1922-12-23-GA348

is called 'Concerning the Soul Life in the Breathing Process'

... Man lives through the process of breathing .. if you look for the reason why he is alive, you have to consider his breathing, because the breath is related to all aspects of life. In one respect, human beings breathe just as the higher animals do, although many animals do breathe differently. A fish, for instance, breathes while swimming and living under water.

[inhaling]

If we now look at human breathing we have first to consider the process of inhalation. The breathing process is initially one of inhalation. From the air around us we inhale the oxygen that is required for our existence. This then permeates our whole body, in which carbon in minute particles is deposited; or rather, in which it swims or floats. The carbon that we contain in our bodies is also found elsewhere in nature. As a matter of fact, carbon exists in a great many forms. For instance, carbon is found in coal and in every plant, which consists of carbon, mixed with water and so on, but carbon is the main component of the plant. The graphite in a pencil contains carbon, and the diamond, which is a valuable gem, is also carbon. The diamond is transparent carbon; hard coal is opaque carbon. It is rather interesting that something like coal exists in nature. It is certainly not elegant or attractive, yet is of the same substance as a valuable gem, which, depending on its size, for example, is fit for a crown. Coal and diamonds have the same substance in different forms. We, too, have in ourselves carbon of various forms.

When we breathe in oxygen it spreads out everywhere in our body and combines with the carbon. When oxygen combines with solid coal, a new gas, carbon dioxide, arises. This is a combination of oxygen and carbon, and it is this gas that we then exhale. Our life involves incorporating our body into the rest of the world by inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide.

If we inhaled only pure oxygen, however, we would have to contain an immense amount of carbon, and the carbon dioxide would have to remain in us. Yes, we would be forever expanding, finally becoming gigantic, as big as the earth itself. Then we could always be inhaling. But we do not possess that much carbon; it must be constantly renewed. We could not survive if we only inhaled. We have to exhale to acquire carbon anew, and the carbon dioxide we produce is lethal. Indeed, if oxygen is life for us, carbon dioxide is death. If this room were now filled with carbon dioxide, we would all perish. Our life alternates between the life-giving air of inhalation and the deadly air of exhalation. Life and death are constantly within us, and it is interesting to see how they initially enter into the human being.

... [read further online]

1924-02-03-GA234

is called 'Respiration, warmth and the I'

1924-09-14-GA318

The term 'spiritual breathing' is used in 1912-01-01-GA134 to point out that Man's functioning is not just breathing air, but breathing and as exchange with the environment, as microcosmos in the macrocosmos, and how the times require and will necessitate the spiritual element (and not just the physical material, as is predominant in society and culture):

How can this come about? When we come to make a deep study of the spiritual meaning of earth evolution we discover that in the time when post-Atlantean man had still something left of ancient clairvoyance, Imaginations, Inspirations and Intuitions were communicated in great abundance to the spiritual atmosphere of the earth. That was a time when spiritual substance was given forth in large measure.

Since the fourth Postatlantean epoch, and especially from the present day onwards, we gradually send out less and less; what falls rather to us is to receive the old substance, for it is something with which we are intimately connected; we have the task to take up again into ourselves what has been sent out.

That means it is required of man to replace an earlier spiritual outbreathing by a spiritual inbreathing. Man must grow ever more sensitive and receptive to the spiritual that is in the world. In ancient times that was not so necessary, for men of those olden times were able to put forth from them spiritual substance, they had, so to speak, a reserve store. But this reserve of spiritual substance has been so deeply drawn upon since the fourth Postatlantean epoch that in future man will, in a sense, only be able to send out what he has first absorbed, what he has first inbreathed.

In order that man may be able to take his place with full understanding in this new task in earth existence — to this end is Anthroposophy or Spiritual Science there in the world. When a man feels drawn to Anthroposophy it is not just that it takes his fancy as one among many other things in the world that take his fancy. He is drawn to Anthroposophy because it is intimately and deeply bound up with the whole of earth evolution, intimately bound up with the task that lies immediately before man to-day in evolution, namely to develop understanding for the spiritual all around him. For from the present time onwards it will be the case that those who do not develop understanding for the spirit behind the senses, for the world of the spirit behind the world of the senses, will be like men whose breathing system is so injured that they cannot take in air and they suffer from difficulty in breathing.


Related pages

Various notes

  • Hasslet mentions lecture S-1462 of 1907-01-15 in Kassel with title 'the occult significance of breath'. No notes on this lecture could be found (oa steinerdatenbank)


Related pages

Further reading

There are of course a huge number of books on a topic such as breathing.

  • Swami Vivekananda: 'The Science of Breathing' (1900)

  • Thich Nhat Hanh: 'Breath, You are Alive' (1987)

  • Dennis Lewis:

    • The TAO of natural breathing (1997, 2006)

    • Free your breath, free your life (2004)

and more recently:

  • Danny Penman: 'The Art of Breathing: The Secret to Living Mindfully' (2018)
  • James Nestor: 'Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art' (2020)

Various other

  • Peryt Shou or Albert Christian Georg Schultz (1873-1953)
    • Der psychische Atem als Schlüssel zur Geheimlehre (1912)
    • Das Mantram und die Vokalatmung (1922)
  • Karl Spiesberger (1904-1992): Das Mantra Buch
    • contains chapters on Vokalatmung