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Hi all,
I'm up for the sharing, reading, and exchanging ideas on Kolisco's
work. I've read the book about 4 years ago. The book was not mine so
I don't have a copy. Yes I enjoyed
reading it. I'll participate according
to the bits and pieces delivered on this list.
My comments for are for Chapter 1:
Steiner comments on this part of Kolisko's research in "Mensch und
Welt: Das Wirken des Geistes in der Natur (1923)":
- "... We have demonstrated with this method the action of smallest
entities of substances. You see, the effect of very small quantities is
curiously rhythmic. If we dilute, we obtain at a the end, at a given
dilution, the best growth. Growth increases and decreases with each
dilution; this evolution occurs rhythmically. By giving these substances
to plants, we thus demonstrate that their growth depends on something that acts
on them from the outside, and what acts on them is related to what is
rhythmic in its environment...".
So... how does this relationship function? What is the outside
rhythm? I'll venture an opinion. Perhaps the relation is
that of 'material elements' to 'cosmic rhythms (the motion of the sun, moon,
planets and constellations). Linking Koliscos 'potency' research to
Maria Thun's ideas about cosmic influence, tells us that the cosmos acts on BOTH
plants and soil elements. Maria T. showed that, at the time of
germination, the cosmos influenced either roots, fruits, leaves,
or shoots. Kolisko showed that the cosmos
influences elements according to dilution in
water. Perhaps a web of interactions here? How
can we formulate this web.?
Second, I wonder about his treatment variable; germination. If
a potency of 9 is best for lime on germination of seeds, what would be the
substance and its dilution for, say, leaf growth? Is it possible
that each plant part has a 'smallest entity' given by
a specific substance. Couldn't we look at the Maria
Thun's cosmic conditions to get an answer? For example, leaf signs
(e.g. Aquarius, Libra, and Gemini) would not only
influence leave, but specific minerals. What minerals are under
these cosmic conditions? Couldn't potency be linked to the chaos that
a seed encounters under cosmic influence? If this is the case,
then it should not be to difficult to elaborate.
What say you?
Hmmm... I need more meditation before I turn my attention to Chapter
10.
Robin
----- Original Message -----
Sent: August 11, 2002 5:05 AM
Subject: Re: : Koliskos on 'Smallest
Entities In Agriculture' and The Calcium Process in Nature (long 6
pages)
Hi Allan and all .I have added on chapter ten and a few
comments at the very
bottom for any interested in reading that
far
Koliskos on 'Smallest Entities In
Agriculture'
> The following is from "Agriculture of Tomorrow"
by Eugen and Lily
> Kolisko. This title is out of print and is
reproduced here for
> purposes of education.
>
> "Today,
people in general are little inclined to detach themselves
> from the
claims of the material world and to seek the spiritual
> directly in the
physical world around them . . .
>
> It is, however, precisely
from observing directly the
> sense-perceptible that a right path will
open out for those who wish
> now to work entirely within the fild of
present-day science, if they
> really seek to discover the spritual
there. It can be done . .
>
>
> Chapter 1
>
INTRODUCTION
>
> It may seem strange to speak about "smallest
entities" in
> agriculture, but it is absolutely necessary that farmers
and
> gardeners learn to understand this important
phenomenon.
>
> The problem of minutest quantities, or better
"smallest entities,"
> was studied from 1920 in the Biological Institute
at the Goetheanum
> (Stuttgart) and later on in the Biological Institute
at Bray, Berks.
> The attempt to find a remedy for "Footand-Mouth
Disease" led us to
> the question of "smallest entities." What is the
right concentration
> of the specific remedy to be injected? Rudolf
Steiner suggested that
> the effect of different dilutions on
germinating plants should be
> studied. From 1920 until today we have
been studying this interesting
> subject. One might think that this is a
medical problem rather than
> an agricultural one. Of course it is a
medical problem in that we are
> looking for a certain remedy, but it
becomes an agricultural problem
> as well if we study how the growth of
plants is affected by
> substances which are diluted, or rather
potentised.
>
> What does "potentise" mean? Exactly what the word
itself expresses.
> In potentising a substance, we increase its
effectiveness. We make
> the substance more potent. The strange thing
about potentising is,
> that we have to reduce the amount of the
substance which we want to
> make more potent. In everyday life we are
accustomed to think: if we
> want to make something more effective, we
have to take a bigger
> quantity. For instance, if we want to make
coffee sweeter, we take a
> second teaspoonful of sugar. In homeopathy
we are told just the
> opposite thing. If we want a stronger action from
a certain remedy,
> we have to potentise it, that means dilute it with
water or alcohol,
> again and again, in a rhythmical
way.
>
> This is the first and most important thing we have to
learn: to
> discriminate between matter and force. Matter can act in
two
> different ways: as matter, or as the specific force behind
the
> matter. In everyday life we ask only for matter, for quantity, and
we
> do not even stop to think, that there is something like a force
which
> is active in every kind of matter. Sugar for instance is not
only
> sweet that is one quality we discover with our sense of
taste.
> Besides being sweet, sugar has many other qualities which we
are
> unable to taste but none-the-less have definite reactions within
our
> organism.
>
> Now we must raise another important
question: What do we want in
> reality? The substance itself, or the
inner quality of the substance?
>
> For instance, a farmer may be
convinced that his soil needs lime. How
> does he solve the problem?
Usually he digs a large amount of lime
> into the soil. Again and again
he will dig in lime.
>
> Let us now study the influence of
"smallest entities" of lime on the
> germination of wheat. We put a
certain number of seeds in a control
> dish with water. Then we dissolve
one gram of calcium hydroxide in
> ten parts of water and shake the
mixture for some minutes; then we
> have the first potency or a dilution
of 1: 10.
>
> We take I part of the first potency; mix it with 9
parts of water;
> shake for the same time, and we have the second
potency, or a
> dilution of 1:100. We may continue this process of
diluting as long
> as we like. Usually we make our experiments up to the
60th potency.
> Having finished all the potencies, we insert the
carefully selected
> seeds, and, a few days later we compare the
results.
>
> The seeds inserted in he first potency of lime
scarcely start to
> germinate. The effect of lime in such a high
concentration is thus
> proven unfavorable. The seeds in the 2nd
potency start to sprout,
> while while those in the water control are
much more advanced in
> growth.
>
> The 3rd potency is more
advanced than the 2nd, the 4th is of about
> the same value as the water
control, the 5th already surpasses the
> water control and has
definitely better developed roots.
>
> The 6th potency is more
advanced than the 5th, and the 7th and 8th
> potencies show still more
increase in growth. That means, if we
> observe these few potencies,
that a dilution of 1: 100,000,000 of
> lime produces a much better
growth than a lower potency. The lime
> works much more powerfully 9 we
use a minute quantity. Whenever we
> have to introduce lime into the
soil we need not dig in a ,'large
> quantity of the solid matter, but
spray a certain potency carefully
> on the surface of the
soil.
>
> It is an easy, and a very economical way of helping the
soil which is
> lacking in lime.
>
Chapter X THE CALCIUM
PROCESS IN NATURE
Calcium also, like silica, plays a great part in Nature,
and farmers and
gardeners have to know something about the calcium content
of their land.
Our first question must be about the origin of calcium on
our planet earth.
Where did it come from? Huge mountains are built up from
this substance.
The limestone we find in the South Sea Islands originated
from corals; that
means it comes from the animal kingdom. Much of the
mountain region in the
Alps, is also built up from corals (the Bavarian
Alps, Wetterstein
Mountains, Jura Alps, etc.). We find everywhere that
limestone originates
from the shells of living beings. If we look at
marble, for instance, the
pure, white, crystallised Carrara marble which is
used for sculpture, for
building material, etc. - it seems to be a
perfectly lifeless mineral
matter. But here and there we find petrified
corals in the quarries.
Of course lime can be dissolved in water (not so
silica), then it
re-crystallises and looks like dead mineral matter, with
no connection
whatsoever with life. Nevertheless, calcium originates from
living beings.
We have already mentioned the publication by Professor
Vernadsky, the
Russian geo-chemist, and must mention him here again,
because he has
collected an immense amount of material which proves beyond
any doubt, that
all the lime we find on earth has been derived from living
beings:
"omni calx e vermibus." Dover cliffs consist of pure white chalk,
the
deposit of millions and millions of shells from tiny living creatures,
the
Foraminiferae.
And as for Coal - everybody knows that it is the
remains of plants belonging
to previous epochs of the earth's evolution.
The same can be said about
Slate.
Today science is coming to the
conclusion that nearly all the mineral
deposits are derived from living
beings, that they are the remains of plants
or animal skeletons.
It is
interesting to remember how geological classification came about.
An
Italian scientist, standing in the Plain of the Po and looking towards
the
Alps, noticed that different layers were to be seen in the rocks, and
he
called the lowest one the "primary" rocks, the next layer "secondary,"
and
the next "tertiary" - these are the limestone formations; and the next
was
the "quaternary" (Alluvium). That is the origin of our
geological
classification. At present we count some twelve or thirteen
layers, because
later some sub-divisions were made.
In these different
layers of the earth the remains of specific animals are
to be found. The
geologists call these animals index fossils. In a
particular layer certain
specific shells or snails are to be found - so
wherever such fossils appear
one is able to say to which geological period
they belong. Thus the
principles of geology are based on the presence of
certain petrified
animals. The old layer which does not contain fossils is
called
"archaic."
The question is: Do we not find specific animal residues there
because there
was no life? Or is it possible that everything was life, that
the whole was
permeated with life?
If we study geology, and see how much
life there has been everywhere, we
cannot really think there can have been
any epoch in our earth evolution
when there was no life at all. There is a
certain place in the Jura
Mountains - Hoizmaden - where nearly all the huge
petrified animals have
been found, and which now can be seen in various
museums all over the world.
In Hoizmaden (Southern Germany) we find the
Triassic Slate Formation. This
layer is full of animals. Life cannot be
created out of dead matter, but it
is the life-process which deposits dead
matter. As in a swamp, where all is
permeated with life, with slugs and
worms and insects, etc., so we have to
imagine that once our earth was in a
more liquid condition - between solid
and liquid - but full of life. The
whole of earthly matter was living
substance.
If we can grasp this, then
we can understand better how the whole mineral
kingdom of bur planet earth
has originated out of such living creatures. The
earth as a whole was once
a huge living being.
There is ample material to prove this as far as the
lime and calcium process
is concerned, and also for many other processes in
nature. The Russian
scientist Vernadsky, who has made extensive geologi-cal
investigations, is
convinced that living beings and dead matter have always
existed side by
side. He is convinced of the "eternity of life on earth."
Life, as such, has
never been created on earth -but dead, lifeless matter
has originated from
the life-process itself. For instance, a living
substance like
85
protoplasm, contains many different substances
which cannot be discriminated
from one another so long as they are in the
living organism. If the living
organism is killed, then, of course, all the
different substances become
apparent. In a similar way, life was interwoven
in the origin of our planet
earth.
In speaking of Silica, its resistance
to heat and to acids was mentioned,
and that it is insoluble in water.
Neither heat nor water affect it. With
calcium it is different. If we want
to understand calcium as a substance,
then we must observe, for instance,
how it slowly crystallises out of the
water. It is deeply connected with
water, but has also the tendency to form
a deposit. But lime can only be
dissolved in water, if there is also a
certain amount of carbonic acid
present. If the carbonic acid evaporates -
lime is deposited.
That is a
general law we find in Nature. If out of a medium something
evaporates into
the air, another part solidifies, and falls to the earth.
So we see the
lime wandering between tlie solid and the liquid state. This
substance has
a certain desire, as well for the one as for the other kind of
existence.
It is eager to be dissolved in water - but it is as eager to fall
out as a
deposit again. This process is carried out with the help of the
carbonic
acid. In the sea there are thousands of species of animals and
plants which
collect calcium. In the living organisms we find
exclusively
calcium-carbonates.
Calcium-sulphates are deposited from
concentrated solutions, where there is
no more life left. Calcium sulphate
or gypsum can be dissolved in water. For
instance, all the Italian mineral
waters contain some sulphur. In gypsum we
have not only the qualities of
calcium, but those of sulphur as well.
Calcium carbonate can be dissolved
in water containing a surplus of carbonic
acid; it can be burnt and the
carbonic acid driven out; and then we get
quicklime. If lime is heated it
begins to emit light, the so-called
Drummond's lime-light. This burnt lime
has an enormous desire to get into
contact with water. If it is slaked the
water disappears rapidly into the
lime, and begins to boil. The lime has
become an alkali.
Calcium Nitrate is formed during the disintegration of
nitrogenous organic
substances in the presence of calcium.
Calcium
Phosphate treated with sulphuric acid, becomes soluble in water;
mixed with
calcium phosphate in about equal proportions, it is used as a
"fertilizer"
under the name of superphosphate. Lawes of Rothamsted worked
out and
patented in 1842 a method for doing this on a large scale. This was
the
first artificial fertilizer.
Calcium fluoride we find in Nature, sometimes
in beautiful crystals, as
fluorspar.
Again we turn back to silica. It
was said that silica is found more on the
surface of the earth and less the
deeper we go down beneath the surface. The
plants deposit silica more or
less in their peripheric parts. In the animal
kingdom we find it also more
or less deposited in the peripheric organs, or
forming the shell of the
lower animals. The same phenomenon happens in the
human organism, where
silica is to be found in the skin, nails, hair and
eyes.
Lime, on the
other hand, withdraws inside the human body and forms the
skeleton. If we
look at the way the different substances are distributed in
Nature, in all
the different kingdoms of Nature, if we try to follow up the
steps that are
made, then we get a better understanding of what we have to
do in
agriculture. We must grasp the whole process: the silica-process,
the
calcium-process, the sulphur-process, the nitrogen-process, etc.;
a
"process" embraces much more than substance
alone.
86
>>If we follow this a bit further (thru chapter 11)
we see the results of
experiments >>carried out using slaked lime ,
quicklime and nitro chalk (I
imagine this is a crude >>powdered form
of calcium nitrate?) NO MENTION of
ordinary carbonate lime. The
>>results for these three were very different
but with a lift at the
ninth or tenth potency . >>Read on-------
Chapter
XII
SUGGESTIONS FOR THE HOMOEOPATHIC USE OF LIME
What can we do to bring
lime into soil which has an "insufficiency" of this
process?
We have
mentioned this in the introduction to the Chapter "Smallest Entities
in
Agriculture":
(1) We distribute lime in a certain potency over the
surface of the soil
which lacks lime.
According to our experiments, we
suggest using the 9th or 10th potencies.
This is very economical. We owe a
great debt of gratitude to Dr. Rudolf
Steiner for his idea of introducing
the homoeo-pathic principle into
agriculture.
(2) In making
compost heaps (see Chapter IX, Part III), we spread a thin
layer of
quicklime between the layers of the materials that are used.
(3) In
the Oakbark preparation (see Chapter III, Part III), we introduce
calcium
again in
homoeopathic quantities into the manure or compost heaps. This
calcium comes
from the living plant process in the oak tree, and has the
faculty of acting
prophylactically against "plant diseases." In those cases
where plant
diseases are to be dealt with and where calcium must take the
place of a
remedy, it is better to take it from a living plant-process and
not in its
more mineral form as quicklime. The oakbark preparation has to
undergo a
special composting process in the skull of an animal. Thus, as a
surrounding
for the calcium-containing oakbark, that part of an animal
which is also
built up of calcium - the bony structure of the head - is
used. If we adopt
these suggestions, the soil receives all it needs of
calcium forces, and we
need not dig in large quantities of it.
Your
turn!!
L Charles
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