Therapeutic Importance of the Blood
The importance of blood in human life and human well being has become overlooked in a day of materialism and over-analytical science. In earlier times blood-letting was regarded as a “cure” for many diseases, and there is no doubt that the blood in man ought to be renewed and perhaps renewed often. But this can be done in many ways without resorting to a knife or needle, either to let the blood be released from the body, or to have it energized through direct or indirect stimulation.
The importance of blood is recognized in the teachings of the New Testament, but while the Orthodox have tended to accept most of it in a very literal manner, they have chosen to symbolize this word so that “blood” no longer means blood and has no connection with human blood, even in the most indirect fashion. Passages such as “There are three witnesses on earth: water and breath and blood …” are simply not a part of religion or theological metaphysics, yet they stand out boldly in the divine teachings.
The Bible says that God created Adam in His image, but this does not tell us what the word “Adam” means. It’s root is dam, which is to say, the circulatory influx in nature, or in a particular sense “blood.” That this was not originally blood is because blood does not appear in the early stages of creation, it comes later. Biological evolution is largely blood evolution. It is also breath evolution and nerve evolution, but in the final sense it is blood evolution. The greatest difference between man and ape comes in the blood. Schools as different as the Abrams electronic method and the blood-type analysis do agree in these blood distinctions. They were also derived, in a quite different fashion, by Rama Prasad, in his Nature’s Finer Forces.
Man, in a sense, has several bodies and these bodies have their correspondences in the flesh. These may be called breath-body, nerve-body, gland-body, and blood-body. In this paper all attention will be paid to the latter which in the end may prove to be basic. As man is Adam, so man is blood. The Blood-of-Christ is the purified blood and it contains the essence of immortality, even physical immortality as can be observed from Dr. Alexis Carrel’s experiments. Adepts, who live long in the flesh, have been able to purify their blood stream and so can call upon it for all energies and substances they need.
The blood has two movements in the flesh which have been called diastole and systole. One is the “Divine Mother;” it feeds and nourishes all the cells, tissues and organs in the body. They derive from it two fundamentals: food, which is derived from the digestive tract, and breath-energies, which are received at the lungs. The former is needed for sustenance, the latter for power and purification. The opposite to the “Divine Mother” is the Savior-Blood, which purifies and heals all the tissues, organs and cells. If one therefore knows how to purify the bloodstream one may be able to cure anything.
Man differs from animals also in that he is able to draw the akashic-energy into the flesh. This may come by way-of-power, as through the breath meditation and other methods. But it also comes by way-of-grace which makes miraculous healing possible. This explains Lourdes. The basis of this miraculous power has been called Berachoth or Baraka, which is to say blessing. Today most of the knowledge of blessing has become an empty shell or is overloaded with superstition.
When God created the earth in its bareness what later became the circulatory system was the ocean or “seas.” These play a very import part in all mythologies and esoteric schools. In the Greek mysteries the neophytes were led to the sea but there was no great explanation of its importance. But the sea is the blood-of-the-adamic. The Adamic or ground stands as a polar opposite to Adam, whom God created in his image. It is prakrit or sakti in Hindu teachings and is the repository of form and power but not of consciousness.
Early marine life did not have any circulatory system. They lived in the ocean, which is to say in the blood stream of the adamic. In some animals such as bivalves [mollusks—Ed], the ocean water was siphoned in and even microscopic foods were derived from it. And even the earliest blood streams were like water.
Salt: A great deal has been said on this subject and none of it may be the last word. Some schools are very much opposed to salt and in some senses they are right. Yet Jesus said, “Ye are the salt of the earth,” and without salt-tablets it is very difficult for some people to live in humid climates. But neither the table salt nor the vegetable salts are the divine salt. The true salt is the ocean salt as it is, or rock salt. Cave salt is also good. Animals have been known to travel for miles to visit salt licks.
Proper salt would be the ocean salt and this contains in addition to sodium chloride a number of other salts in about the proportions needed by the animal bodies that live in the ocean. Those who insist on vegetable salts claiming that they have certain biological energies would do better to use dried kelps and ocean mosses, as the Japanese and Irish do. But even then these are selective, and they contain a larger percentage of iodine and a lesser percentage of some other elements. Thus magnesium and its compounds are removed from ocean salts and a number of other trace elements. They are needed by living tissues. Someday people will come to realize the value of these things.
It must be remembered that ocean salt is the result of synthesis, which is to say, life and growth, and most vegetable salts are derived by analysis or destructive methods. They are thus lacking in vital and vitamin values. No doubt the body can handle just so much sodium, and just so much chlorine and so much sodium-chloride, but the living salt that comes out of the ocean-of-life will ultimately be found to have values. It will help feed the blood stream and glands and both prevent dis-equilibrium and affect cures.
As the biological world evolved, the blood stream was able to derive from the energies of earth, water, fire, air and ultimately ether. The reptiles are not able to assimilate the fire-energies which are found in birds and beasts only, the so-called warm blooded animals. But even these are not able to assimilate the akashic energies which alone make it possible to build the body which is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
This temple of the Holy Spirit is granted man at birth and is common to all babies. It remains dominant until the age of seven. However during that time man is not conscious of himself and it is spirituality in form only. The body has to be built first in order that man can derive and benefit from the blessings in which he lives and moves and has his being.
Man may draw upon both the form energies and the vibrational energies. The former comes immediately through the food sand the latter through the breath. Thus the body has the two immediate methods of drawing upon the universe. The Chinese classified foods chiefly as yang—or energy foods—and yin—or balancing foods. The former included meats an proteins and the latter included chiefly vegetables. The Indians took a dimmer view, regarding most protein foods as Tamasic and tending toward destruction, while fruits and vegetables are living and helpful. In between were the rajasic foods which were considered as a source of energy and included chiefly the grains. There is some truth in both views.
Meat: From the Chinese point of view meat is necessary, but never meat alone. The anti-meat people have not studied humanity as it is. They know all about the poisonous properties of many of the proteins and albuminoids. What they do not know is that these proteins and albuminoids can be counteracted by the proper usage of herbs and fruits. Thus pemmican was the sustenance of many of the Indians of the south west. It came through rubbing meats, like venison (jerked) in certain berries until it was saturated. Whether meat is primary, as about the Indians, or secondary, as among the Chinese, it was thus balanced by something which had the opposite or compensating polarity, whether we consider this as acid-base or yin-yang or sattvic-tamasic.
Meat substitutes have been regarded as incomplete. This is a very uncertain word. No doubt for the sustenance of certain kinds of bodies some “whole” proteins are necessary. But this makes the body secondary and when the body is secondary to food, the whole philosophy of evolution is contradicted. Man simply did not grow in that way, nor did the animals or anything.
There are various sources of proteins, some of which have been studied and others bypassed. We know something of eggs, milk, legumes, fish and nuts, although not so much about the latter as might be known. We overlook the presence of greater or lesser amounts of proteins found directly in nature in olives, avocados, greens (especailly the darker ones) and roots. The amount of protein needed by the body is greater than many have presumed but the mere intake of protein foods does not mean the digestion and assimilation thereof. Plants are killed today by giving them too many vitamin-hormone-compounds. The over-stimulation causes their death. In the same way while meat eating may be enjoyable and satisfying unless there is over-compensation, there is always sure to be a shortage of life.
The Eskimos may be contrasted to the Finns. The Eskimos are chiefly protein and fat consumers. This has given them strong bodies and their moral natures are high, but their mental development is aborted. A parallel is found among the M’Sai in Africa who live almost entirely upon milk and blood—fine bodies and high morals, but limited minds. The Finns also live in the Arctic and have a totally different dietary from the Eskimos with decidedly better bodies and also wonderful minds.
On the other hand, the Japanese who have not been meat-eaters have fine minds but poor bodies. When they eat meat they grow big and strong. But no doubt some of their difficulties are due to the polishing of rice and the failure to utilize the best in other proteins. They do not use milk and milk products.