NEUOFFENBARUNG← Gifts of Heaven · Volume 1 · Contents
The breathing process of plants
22nd November 1840 (continuation)
[1] Behold, a plant, from tree to grass, consists, as you generally know, consists of a lowest part which is always stuck in the earth and is the root part of the plant, which root part is like a foot on which the plant stands. And at the same time this many-branched foot is also a bare polyp, which sucks the food into itself through thousands of suction trunks.
[2] On this lowest part stands – in organic connection – above the earth, the trunk, which is like the body of the animals, in which the "main stomach" is for the digestion of the food taken in – beside which main stomach of course still, as in each animal body, are many thousands of small "secondary stomachs", of which each digests the food taken up by the main stomach, again digest it into something else. This is not the place to enumerate all these "side stomachs" in the order of their performance, but in the meantime it should be left to you to sharpen your power of thinking about it in love to Me.
[3] And so we see what further appears above the "body" of the plant, namely: the crown, in which the stem, multiplied, runs out into the smallest branches.
[4] Well, this is just the organic image of the plant!
[5] In most plants you will have discovered more or less in the stem itself or in the stem of the leaves or branches, a hollow space, which is not filled with any liquid, but only with air – which air, however, is not quite the same as the external atmospheric air surrounding the plant, but according to the particular nature of the plant. No-one will doubt that you will find such air in the petiole tube of a pumpkin plant, for example. But how did the air get in there?
[6] See, this is already answered by the fact that the plant must have the ability to draw the air to itself – otherwise this peculiar air could not easily be present here, of which your nose must already teach you, if you cut such a tube and then bring the air in it closer to your nose.
[7] That this air is present in the plant through inhalation is also proven by the fact that, if you tear the plant, while it is still alive, out of the earth and place it on a fire, you will immediately become aware that air is present in it through the blowing hissing when it burns. For if there were no air, the plant would burn without hissing and spluttering like a thread dipped in oil.
[8] However, a natural scientist would say: Yes, this air can also penetrate through the pores! Oh yes, I say, and I also say that it must do so. For if the plant were so closed that it did not have even the finest pores, tell Me, how should the air penetrate, even if the plant would express it's ability to breathe even more visibly than any animal?
[9] If, for example, your mouth and nose were blocked, how would air get into your lungs as you need it to live? Since your two larger mouth and nose pores must be open if you are to breathe, you will have nothing against it if a plant is also provided with pores through which the air can penetrate into it according to it's needs. And you will envy the plant all the less for this ability, since it is much more economical with breathing than you are.
[10] For while you exhale and inhale every second, the plant breathes only twice a day, namely the inhalation process happens at daytime and the exhalation process at nighttime. According to the needs of the plant, the atmospheric air is slowly drawn into itself through the pores, and in some plants even through specially designed channels, throughout the day. At night, however, when the chemical process has proceeded and the plant has absorbed what is agreeable to it, the unnecessary carbon, which is not agreeable to the plant, is expelled together with other nitrogenous particles,
which are also not agreeable to the plant – which expulsion process then continues for the same length of time as the inhalation process lasted during the day.
[11] Well, there you would have the breathing of the plants and heard that it is real! Why it happens, is already explained with the stone. Because it is one and the same reason with the plant as with the stone.
[12] However, how the plant breathes, that is something else. For although the same reason is also present in the plant as the moving cause of breathing, it is nevertheless achieved by completely different means, corresponding to the organism of the plant, than in the case of the other, completely clumsy organic matter.
[13] For the time being, in order to understand the how, you must know that breathing is not such a simple task as it appears on the outside. Rather, breathing is always the consequence of another, preceding breathing.
[14] For example, if you take a double bellows and pull it open with your hand, the air from the lower bellows is forced into the upper bellows. As soon as the lower part is released again, it draws air again. And when you press it again, this air that has been sucked in, is pressed into the upper one again. As soon as the lower part is released again, it again draws air. And when you press it again, the air that has been sucked in, is pushed back into the upper one. But tell Me, could the bellows have done this on it's own, without any moving force compelling it to do so? "No," even the most blind mind will say, "such a thing is not possible!"
[15] So when I ask, what moving force enables the plant in it's organism so that the organs in it expand proportionately and thereby suck the air into themselves like a bellows? You will say: That is exactly the point where we are still lacking! But you should be freed from your "lack" immediately, but first you must take a careful look at the countless, often smaller and often larger rough spikes, which fill both the trunk often completely, but especially the lower side of the leaves.
[16] Behold, these little points are nothing else than pure electricity suckers. They eagerly suck this polar fluid into themselves all day long – and indeed during the day, the positive of this polarity. By this sucking in of the positive electricity, which corresponds to the centrifugal force, since it expresses in itself a fullness, the organs are expanded, by which then the spaces become larger and larger and must necessarily suck in the air through the pores.
[17] At night time, however, the electric polarity also changes, and the electric fluid flows out through the tips, or discharges, as you are accustomed to say, whereby the organs then shrinks again and expel the unusable carbon and nitrogen air, which correspond to two types of air of negative polarity, expelled by the polarity of the electricity itself.
[18] Well, there you have the "lack" resolved! Now you will say: Now we have it! But I say: You have it, but one main thing is still missing. And this is the following: that especially those plants which persist through the winter, as such are shrubs and trees, as well as some lower plants, which will be well known to the botanist, have a still greater breathing period, which happens once in and once out over the course of a year. That is, throughout the summer, with the daily breathing, the main inhalation also happens continuously, in the following way:
[19] By each special breath such a process takes place in the organism of the tree that, apart from the natural consumption of the inhaled air, still some of this air remains in the organism, with which the tree during the summer especially promotes it's growth in circumference. Once the summer is over, however, the significant remainder that has not been consumed is expelled again, which can be seen partly in the coarse bark, but also partly in the moss that frequently develops on it.
[20] If, due to the general constriction of the organs in winter, this residual air is pressed out through the pores everywhere, you can easily imagine that this air has not remained completely pure through the longer presence in the organism of the tree. When it goes out again into the free atmospheric
air, it must, before it is absorbed by it, by a peculiar chemical process, deposit what is not it's own on the bark or on the trunk in one form or another, whereby the coarse bark itself as well as the moss on it is then formed.
[21] Behold, this is the great periodical breathing of such plants! The existence of such a plant itself speaks for the fact that it must happen. And the discussed phenomena vouch loudly for the truth of this revelation.
[22] But that the tree still has a fourth breathing – like the animals a fifth and sixth and the man an innumerable number – is not the place to discuss here, as it would be also still too early for the weak understanding of your mind. However, in it's time, everything will be given to you in abundance. For this said here is hardly a sun-dust in comparison to the infinite, what could still be said even about only a sun-dust particle.
[4] Although there is nothing infinite and nothing eternal in Me and for Me in this, since I am infinite and eternal Myself, nevertheless everything contains infinity in itself, since it contains Me Myself in it. For where would be the thing, which would be apart from Me and would not carry Me in itself? But what carries Me in itself, carries infinity in itself and therefore can never be discussed finitely also for the finite being.
[5] Therefore, you can also be assured that I still have infinite things hidden in the background for all eternity for those who love Me, and that those who go to school with Me will not stop learning for all eternity.
[6] Because the more one will recognize, the more will still remain for him to recognize. Therefore, there will be no "scholars" in My kingdom. And there will never be someone who can pass the "Rigorosum" (State examination) to achieve doctor's dignity. Because it will always be said:
[7] We remain eternally scholars, and all our cognition and knowledge is nothing but a vain piecework against the omniscience of our Father!
[8] Behold, therefore be glad and full of good cheer! Even if you do not know everything, you know that nothing can be unknown to Me. And know, moreover, that whatever you ask of Me, your holy Father, will be given to you. Amen. This says I, your wise Father!