Pneuma.
- caretakeradvocates
- May 14, 2025
- 5 min read
Pneuma, according to ancient Greeks and Romans was a driving force in the body, necessary for maintaining bodily functions. Pneuma was said by Aristotle and Plato to be a liquid-like substance forced through tubular nerves, causing the muscles to move. ...Alcmaeon (circa 500 bc) was the first to suggest that pneuma circulated within the arteries. ...Pneuma were at first considered to be inherent in the blood, not separate from it. ...In Stoic philosophy, pneuma meant "breath of life."
Aether, in Greek mythology, was considered the pure essence that the Gods breathed, filling the space where they lived (above the clouds in the upper atmosphere), and the substance everything else originated from. ...The Greek pneuma, meaning “breath,” also roughly translated as “air in motion,” or “wind,” ...Later in ancient Greece, pneuma becomes the circulating, moving air that we inhale ...psyche has been used by Greek philosophers in a variety of ways, including “life”, “to blow,” “spirit,” “soul,” or “self,” among some other meanings... psyche was often used synonymously with pneuma, having similar properties of motion and moving, and as such also analogies with wind, breath, and breathing. ...the ancient Romans synonymized the Greek word psyche to their Latin anima (soul, breath, or life), a word that comes from the Greek word anemos, meaning “wind” or “breeze,”... The derived Latin words animationem (English: animation) and animare meant “action of imparting life,” “bestowing life on,” “give breath to,” “to enliven,” “to endow with a spirit.” Nowadays, animation is used in the sense of vitality, motion, vigor, liveliness, or the appearance of activity or life.
[Homer and Galen] explored vital connections between breath, heart, mind, and brain. They also considered how breath functions to control the body’s temperature. ...Greek breath (pneuma) was all around, in the guise of wind or air; it was what Hellenic people inhaled and exhaled every moment; it was the vital spirit (psyche) that coursed through their blood vessels... The Latin equivalent of pneuma is spiritus... The Greek noun pneuma in its earliest instances signifies wind or breeze, not inhaled or exhaled breath. But the corresponding verbs pneo and empneo, meaning breathe and inhale respectively, occur in two of the Homeric passages cited [in this article]... "The bodies of human beings and other animals are nourished by a trio of nutriments; their names are food, drink, and wind (pneuma)... For mortals air is the cause of life, and the cause of disease in the sick. So great is the body’s need for wind that a person can be deprived of food and drink for several days and survive, but if the windpipe is cut off death will rapidly ensue. Furthermore, all other activities are intermittent, but breathing alone is continuous, by inhalation and exhalation.
Veins and arteries... were regarded as channels for the motion of breath as well as blood. That notion persisted right down to the time of Galen for whom the vital pneuma manufactured by the heart was transmitted throughout the body via the blood vessels. Rather than regarding the heart as a pump, Empedocles and Hippocrates assigned the cause of blood flow to breath and breathing.
With the demise of alchemy and the development of empirical science spirit and spirits dropped out of intellectual discourse.
The word "animal" comes from Latin, stemming from animalis ("having breath/soul") and anima ("breath, soul, life"), meaning "a living being that breathes".
Pneuma, according to ancient Greeks and Romans was a driving force in the body, necessary for maintaining bodily functions. Pneuma was said by Aristotle and Plato to be a liquid-like substance forced through tubular nerves, causing the muscles to move. The reservoir of this pneuma was thought to be held in the cerebral ventricles, the rear one regulating the flow into the nervous system. Alcmaeon (circa 500 bc) was the first to suggest that pneuma circulated within the arteries. Later, pneuma theory was elaborated upon by Plato (428-347 bc). Plato depicted life as involving multiple levels of pneuma by which he meant a person's soul or spirits. All levels arose from the vital organs. Inhaled air, emanating from God was transformed in the lungs into the first form of pneuma. Another form of pneuma or natural spirit was in the veins, which moved through the alimentary canal. When this venous fluid entered the heart it became transformed into a third, and higher form of pneuma, the vital spirit. This enriched pneuma past to the base of the brain where it was again transformed into the highest form of pneuma—animal spirit. Animal spirit, the essence of life, was, according to Plato, distributed through the body via the hollow nerves. Pneuma were at first considered to be inherent in the blood, not separate from it.
Vibrating nerve theory, an underlying assumption of 19th-century neural science that originated with Isaac Newton. He hypothesized the existence of an “Aethereal Medium” pervading the universe. This same almost infinitely subtle substance, or “spirit,” was, he suggested, responsible for sensation and muscle movement by acting as the medium for vibrations traveling within and between the nerves and the brain. Analogizing between the function of the optical and auditory nerves, Newton broke with the doctrine of hollow, animal-spirit-bearing nerve pipes to suggest that solid nerves, acting as the routes of travel of this ethereal medium, could enable vibratory transmission.
Erasistratus commented how air (cosmic pneuma), after being carried from the lungs to the heart, became transformed into zootikon pneuma (spiritus vitalis, in Latin) and was subsequently carried to the brain through the blood. There, within the cerebral ventricles, it became pneuma psychikon (spiritus animalis, in Latin).
Descartes contended that rational thought was the necessary and sufficient condition of the soul, and that the pineal gland was the seat of rational thought.
One of the proposed biological causes of autism is malfunction of the pineal gland and deficiency of its principal hormone, melatonin.
Note: It's really interesting that Lylah has a breathing tick. Blowing, constantly, all day long every day.
Note: Passover is the mark of God. The door posts were marked with blood. Life is in the blood. Spirit (pneuma) seems like it might be in the blood. Vaccines are injected directly into the blood, and many people see their kids become demon-possessed (autistic) right after injection. Euthanasia of dogs is via injection and happens literally instantly, even though they tell you that the poison travels into the rest of the body through the blood but Pearl's death was INSTANT... there was no traveling into the rest of the body. Something killed the "life in her blood" immediately. And the Covid vaccine came out on Dec 14, 2020 exactly half way between the eclipses.
Why did God say that if you're with unclean things, you become unclean? Even though this is crass and inappropriate, why is it still true what that psych ward guy said: "If you hang out with shit you become shit." Why has Lylah been able to destroy me with her uncleanness?
"Autistic kids don't catch yawns"
