Orage on the Three Foods

April 7, 1931
It is important to keep the sequences of these talks in mind. And to make an effort between meetings to
digest what has been said, remembering that the brain is also a stomach. Otherwise ideas go in one ear and out
the other.
othing is so rotting to the brain as to let a stream of images pass through it with no effort to digest
them. !he digestion, or assimilation, of ideas is brought about b" comparing, contrasting, and measuring them
with ideas alread" current in the mind. #$en if this is done, the idea ma" not be full" grasped, but as a result
of the effort made "ou will ha$e e%tracted the ideas from it that are of personal $alue to "ou in "our present
condition and these ideas, or food for the mind, redound to "our general health and well&being.

A man requires 3 foods'
1( what is ordinaril" called food' liquid and solid)
*( air)
3( impressions.

Of the first we ha$e a prett" complete digestion) of the second we get onl" a few of the grosser
elements, unaware that we are not getting the important $itamins) of the third we ha$e hardl" an" digestion at
all.
!he first e$idence of emotional well&being is impression&abilit") the capacit" to respond to a new
situation, or to a person, or an idea, in what is ordinaril" called a nai$e, or bo"ish wa". One who is alwa"s
bored, incapable of delight, is emotionall" senile, or paral"+ed.
As our bod" depends on the thorough digestion of food, our emotions depend on the thorough
digestion of air. ,igher emotions are possible onl" through the assimilation of the -$itamins- of the air. !his
assimilation is the result of a certain kind of breathing, for which there is no name in current ph"siolog".
.h"siolog" has the two names, respiration and e%piration. /ut there are two other forms, which are
aspiration and inspiration. /ut these cannot be done mechanicall". !his kind of breathing comes about and is
possible onl" when one is in a certain attitude.
0ompare ps"chological attitude with ph"sical posture. #$er"one knows that posture affects breathing.
An attitude is a -ps"chological posture-. In certain attitudes aspiration and inspiration are more possible.
If "ou are tr"ing to aspire to something, abo$e "our ordinar" plane 1 e.g. a higher state of being 1
"ou will find that "ou will be breathing differentl".
!he lungs are the organ for the digestion of air.
!he brain is also a stomach, but the food of the brain consists of ideas. An idea is the e%pression of
relationships between sense impressions. It is hard to think that these are food for our growth as real as
ordinar" food and air.
Ideas ha$e the same range as foods' good, bad, spoiled, neutral, poisonous, etc. One can ha$e a
plethora) or ha$e too few to sustain intellectual life. Or, ideas ma" be so badl" mi%ed b" association that the"
become collecti$el" poisonous to us. 2e are familiar with the idea that ordinar" food can be taken in good
order or in bad order, and we arrange our meal accordingl". !he same is true of ideas.
!he ideas discussed at these meetings, for e%ample, compare with roods of which a small quantit"
gi$es a strong effect. If taken too soon after talk on light, tri$ial sub3ects, or followed immediatel" b" such
talk, bad effects result. 0ompare the care taken in religious ser$ices to surround the consideration of di$ine
sub3ects with relati$e quiet. !he kneeling and pra"ing on entering, the church is to pro$ide a moment of -fast-
before the intake. 4imilarl" on lea$ing the church, to pro$ide another moment of fast during which ideas ma"
be absorbed, or the impressions settle to their le$el before being mi%ed with impressions of a different specific
gra$it".
One remembers the custom in the $illage church that he knew as a bo", of keeping silence until one
was out of the church"ard. If this -silence- is complete 1 i.e. not merel" on the lips but in the mind 1 the
impressions ha$e a chance to be absorbed, while still unmi%ed.
In these groups we come to the discussion fresh from the affairs of e$er"&da" life, and turn back to
them immediatel" afterward. It can be seen that it is hard to maintain a state of intellectual health. Almost no
one succeeds. One must know when to feed. #ach of our three healths thus depends on food selection.
5istinguish between letting ideas pass through our heads, and entertaining them. In first, entertaining a
new idea one abstains temporaril" from other ideas. One is not making the new idea one6s own, nor agreeing
with it, but finding out how it feels in the mind. 2hat is for "ou in it will be absorbed) what is not will drop
out of "our memor". 2hat drops out is not for "our present mental health. A while after thus entertaining an
idea "ou will find "ourself intellectuall" stronger 7like the in$igoration after a meal(.
!r" to put "ourself in the attitude of aspiring, and note the effect on "our breathing. An" aspiration to
e%cel, to become more, etc.
Aspiration is hope plus effort. either one alone constitutes aspiration. It is because of this double
nature of aspiration that it was s"mboli+ed in ancient times b" the two wings of the eagle on the o%. One wing
was hope, the other effort.
2e li$e three li$es simultaneousl". Our first stomach is in passable condition, but our emotional and
intellectual stomachs badl" deranged. An in$alid stomach needs an in$alid diet.
Imagine the three&stor" diagram'
3 1 intellectual
* 1 emotional
1 1 ph"sical
In each of these there is a stomach. !he first recei$es food, digests, e%cretes. !he organ has taken
what it could from the food recei$ed. .erhaps it has been accustomed to cheap food, of little nourishment
$alue) or perhaps it is in a normal condition and accustomed to the best. 2e won6t go into the question of the
first food e%cept to remark in passing that it is dangerous to eat if, during the process, "ou are ps"chologicall"
depressed. /ut the care suggested here is not meant to be that of a $aletudinarian, picking at food) and afraid
of quantit", or strange dishes, or irregularit". A -robustiousness- that is not rash, but ad$enturous. -8ood,
taste- is the normal selecti$e facult" of health" organisms.
.ostponing consideration of its emotional stomach until later, look at its intellectual stomach. !he
brain is at its best. !his does not mean that it is changed. It is still "our brain, not somebod" else9s. !hat is,
there is nothing supernatural, or m"stical, about this matter. !he brain will still be "ours, not ewton9s) but it
will be "ours at its ma%imum. And the result of this ma%imum functioning would be a sensation of
satisfaction. 4atisfaction is the result of normalit". It is true that "ou would gi$e the impression both to
"ourself and to others that "ou had become $er" different, although "ou would not be.
ow to return to the emotional stomach, and to e%plain wh" we left it to last. :emember the
conception of three forces' positi$e, negati$e and neutrali+ing. 2hat is' the neutrali+ing 6force;6 !ake as an
e%ample the pla" of <acbeth, the positi$e force is =ad" <acbeth, the negati$e force <acbeth. !he word
negati$e does not here mean weak) the negati$e force is a force but onl" in resistance) is not self&initiating.
70ompare Othello and Iago, neither one weak.( !he neutrali+ing force is the pla". Another e%ample' e$olution
7pos.( and in$olution 7neg.(. !his can be taken to an" profundit", but for e%ample, growth and deca", in
organism grows to a certain point, then merel" changes, then begins to deca" or the organism in$ol$es.
All life consists of the opposition of these two forces. An" ob3ect at an" moment is growing, changing,
or deca"ing. 0hemicals in it differ in what ma" be called -age-, i.e. the" are neither ascending nor descending
their own scale.
<odern ph"sicists, >eans, etc., agree in stressing the negati$e force, as if the positi$e force had been
applied once for all at some pre$ious moment, and then withdrawn. !he" sa" that the uni$erse is running
down onl" b" deca". Impossible that this should be true. ?rom the widest point of $iew, the neutrali+ing force
is the uni$erse itself.
An" gi$en note is alwa"s in process of decreasing or increasing its number of $ibrations. 2hat keeps
it at the note; !he balance of the two forces.
2e are notes. In each of us Othello and Iago work. !he will to li$e, to e%cel, to aspire 1 to tr" to
become, more susceptibilit" to new ideas, et., $ersus the will to resign, to cease to make effort, to become
inert. !he neutrali+ing force in each of us 7as in e$er" ob3ect, and the uni$erse consists e%clusi$el" of ob3ects(
is our bod". #$er" bod" is a field.
2e can change the neutrali+ing 1 i.e. the person 1 not directl", but onl" b" changing either the
positi$e or the negati$e. 2e change the pla" b" changing either Othello or Iago. Once, gi$en the two
characters, the pla" follows. /ut all three are inter&related. 2here does the impetus start; 2ith the brain) that
is, through the effect of a change in the brain, in relation to the bod". <ind without bod" doesn6t make change
of emotion) and bod" without mind, doesn9t make change of emotion.
/ut the neutrali+ing force must not be thought of as merel" the result of the other two. !he pla" had to
be created according to its own reason. 4hakespeare is in the emotional center. And e$er" time the brain is
opposed b" the bod", 4hakespeare writes a pla", which is our emotional state.
!he technical definition of <an is the emotional center. ,e is at e$er" moment a neutrali+ing force to
these two practicall" cosmic forces.