THOUGHTS ON THE BIODYNAMIC PREPARATIONS DENNIS KLOCEK Even among the most ardent supporters of biodynamic agriculture, the issues involving the biodynamic preparations have a distinct air of complexity. To a business owner, explaining to a corporate client or a customer why cow manure is put into a cow horn as an amendment is a demanding task. To practitioners, the effects of the preparations are so subtle that they may seem to be an exercise in belief rather than a practical production tool. This doubt can turn the stirring of the silica and horn manure into a ritual of impatience in the context of a busy schedule. For these reasons and most likely several more there apparently is sentiment in biodynamic circles to marginalize or even eliminate the
through infection, can transform the genetic structures of not only cell nuclei but even the genetic structure of mitochondria in the cytoplasm and even the minuscule ribosomes or energy transfer units in the mitochondria. These things go against accepted classical genetics. But they open the door to an understanding of the recently discovered entourage effect in medicinal plants. Plant physiologists have long held the view that growth and the production of medicinal substances in plants requires quite specific cascades of hormones and enzymes. The cascades were thought to be composed of unique precursors that allowed the next precursor in the cascade of enzymes to linearly move the reaction toward a
...what would have been a heretical concept fifteen years ago in genetics is currently becoming an accepted reality. BD preparations from biodynamic practices. Perhaps this is understandable from these perspectives but it reveals a lack of insight into the alchemical principles that Rudolf Steiner introduced in the methods used to make the preparations. The alchemical method of analogy used in the thinking around the preparations is not common knowledge. However, current research in plant and animal physiology is revealing that these more intuitive methods may be important for future developments in agricultural research. As an illustration, what would have been a heretical concept fifteen years ago in genetics is currently becoming an accepted reality. That is the idea of horizontal gene transfer, or HGT. Research shows that far from the accepted classical genetic transfer mechanism of splitting DNA in a cell nucleus, DNA transfer is remarkably fluid even among different species. It is estimated that 8% of the human genome actually comes from the capacity of a virus to sense proteins in membranes. This is the way of life for viruses. The specific section of the genetic code that accompanies this capacity in viruses appears in the human genome linked to the ability of the zygote to sense membrane perfusion at the time of implantation in the uterus in the first week of life. Researchers recognize this unique code from viruses in human genetic inheritance. But this gets stranger because the method for virus DNA to perfuse human DNA is most often through infection or what is known as random touching. Random touching, or the acceptance of cell detritus of bacteria or viruses 16
specific target. It is now recognized that enzymes lacking a particular precursor can often substitute other precursors in completing the cascade. The ability of enzymes to select alternative partnering in the formation of a cascade is known as enzyme promiscuity, an unheard of idea until recent times. Likewise, in the realm of plant hormones it was long thought that a particular hormone dominated a particular organ in a plant and that the dominance was a fixed condition. It is now recognized that what is known as hormone crosstalk is active between polar hormones even in the most minute areas of growth and chemical transformation in the plant. The recognition of promiscuous enzymes and hormone crosstalk has made it possible to understand the entourage effect in medicinal plants. In the formation of plant medicines it is now being recognized that “crude extracts” of whole herbs act more effectively than what were previously recognized as the isolated “active ingredients” in phytochemistry. The active ingredients that were isolated and then synthesized have proven to be linked synergistically to whole hosts of other minor ingredients that amplify the effects of the “active ingredient”. The minor or support substances are known as the entourage of the “active ingredient.” Research done on whole herbs rather than isolates is revealing that whole extracts are often more effective because the process of synergistic interaction is actually the most “active ingredient.” We could ask, what does this have to do with the biodynamic preparations?
Biodynamics
SPRING 2019
