When Healing Becomes Educating, Vol. 1 - Waldorf Research Institute

We see a similar phenomenon, albeit in a different form, in the adult
who displays obsessive tendencies or fixed ideas. In a fixed idea a spiritual
hap pening becomes de-contextualized—it is made into something of an
isolated entity. The way the ether body works in the lung is continually
appealing to this kind of isolating, fixating tendency. The forces of the
outer world are therefore not being so thoroughly internalized, digested and
metamorphosed into fantasy as they are in other organs, for instance, the
liver. The outer world imposes itself on the soul in too direct a form—hence
we can say that in the lung, as in the brain, the outer forces are, relatively
speaking, conquer ing the inner forces.
Just as the lung stands in an intimate relation to the brain and the
nerve-sense system, in so far as it isolates the individual elements from the
whole being, making a kind of self-contained entity from them, so the liver,
in contrast, is an organ which cooperates very closely with the spleen in
the whole system of metabolism. Just as the sense organs all converge on
the brain, where the sense impressions become metabolized within the life
of soul, so does the intestinal tract converge in the liver, through which
sub stances from the outside world begin to be elaborated into the unique
substances of our own bodies.
This substance-building activity of the liver, when imbued with the
impulses from the spleen, also forms the bodily basis of our will life, but
it exerts its influence a little closer to the level of the soul than does the
spleen. If the spleen is the guardian of our pre-earthly intentions, then the
liver is already attempting to bring these to manifestation here and now on
this side of the threshold. It is the organ which gives the bodily basis for the
exercising of initiative and motivation, it is the origin of our vitality and, to
some extent also, our enthusiasm. All these soul functions are intimately
connected with the way metabolic processes interface with what is taken in
from our senses. It is possible, indeed up to a point normal, for cognitive life,
which has developed itself on the basis of our sense perceptions, to follow a
different direction to the life of deeper motivation or intentionality. Without
the tension that arises between these two realms, both connected as they are
to our life of will, but in very different ways, we would not find the power to
pursue our earthly biography from a condition of inner freedom. However,
it is possible for the normal healthy tension that should exist between these
two realms to diverge to such a degree that the seeds are planted for a real
split between the cognitive world and the world of more unconscious will
life. This may manifest itself fairly quickly in some form of depression or
inability to put intention into deed, or be delayed by years, decades or even
life-times! Liver physiology is in turn connected with the biliary system.
Secretory processes of the liver are focused in the production of bile, which
46