Lilipoh Interviews Dr. James Dyson

Question: What is the real essence of the heart?

Dr. Dyson: As an organ it has less propensity to disease than other organs; in fact it helps sustain the health of the other organs. What popularly goes by the name of 'heart pathology' actually has more to do with problems of circulation. Much of what is termed `heart failure' should actually be called circulatory failure. And that brings us to a medical mystery which is still hardly acknowledge today, namely that the heart is a sensing organ and not a mechanical pump. This is widely recognized in physiological research, yet we are still bur­dened with this crude, mechanical and outmoded concept. Rudolf Steiner wanted doctors to overcome the notion of the heart as a pump. He said it would be a precondition for a renewal of social life.

Question: If the heart is not a pump, what is its relation to blood?

Dr. Dyson: The heart has the task of maintaining the pressure within that relatively small section of the arterial circulatory system bounded by mechanical laws. By far the larger part of the circula­tion, namely the capillary system, transcends these laws. This is a system with microsocopic dimensions yet enormous surface area which, from a mathematical point of view, may be understood as approaching infinity. How the heart contributes to the maintain­ing of the pressure can probably best be understood by the image of the hydraulic ram (see image), and also by the fact that through its architecture and movement it maximizes an efficiency within the fluid dynamics status of the circulation.

Question: Is the cross formed by the septa (walls) between the chambers an image of the function of the heart?

Dr. Dyson: The upper chambers of the heart, which are separate from the main body of heart muscle, have more of a sensory function; the lower chambers more a metabolic function. The fourfoldness of the chambers is an expression of the heart in its relation to the earth realm. The metaphorical fifth chamber connects back to the etheric realm and raises the mineral cube to the plant rose.* The real cross in the heart is between the pulmonary artery and the aorta. This cross may be seen as the midpoint within the lemniscate of the pulmonary and systemic circulations.

Question: What relation does the warmth of the blood have to our warmth of soul?

Dr. Dyson: The warmth of the blood and warmth of the soul are no doubt inseparable. The former serves the latter and has it origin more in physiological processes. That latter re-enlivens the former and has its origins more in the communion of soul and spirit

Question: What does Rudolf Steiner mean when he says that a new understanding of the heart would have an effect on social life?

Dr. Dyson: The heart works less through the principle of pushing and more as a receiving organ into which the blood is “sucked” during diastole. The origin of circulatory movement is primarily in the capillaries. That is to say, the movement arises in the periphery and is not hierarchically controlled from the center. Therein also lie a mystery of the social life.

Dr. James Dyson is a medical doctor, and co founder of Park Attwood Clinic, NR Stourbridge/Post code Worcestershire DY12 IRE, Britain.

*The Fifth Chamber of the Heart      

It is gradually being surmised that feeling perception has a basis in certain plant-like metabolic areas of the heart such as the nodes between atrium and ventricle. So constant is the delicate activity and interplay that one may easily imagine a fine evolving structure, created out of purified ideas and ideals; a future fifth chamber.