Just as the life-units we call human beings, animals and plants, in order to manifest themselves or maintain life, require certain "inner" as well as "outer" conditions, so the small life-units that appear for us in the form of substance or our intake of food, drink, tobacco and so on also require "inner" and "outer" conditions for their perfect existence. For people, animals and plants the "outer" conditions consist of the universe, the natural surroundings in which they live, which in turn means the planet on which they are situated, the forces of Nature surrounding them, the climate, the spiritual atmosphere or all the realities that together constitute the "organism" in which the mentioned beings experience life. The "inner" conditions for the same beings will on the other hand be the harmony between the life-units that, in the form of organs, cells, molecules and so on, experience life in their bodies, together with the introduction of the right life-units or living beings that, in the form of substance or matter, should be material for the maintenance of the same bodies.
      For the life-units in our intake the "outer" conditions are likewise the "universe", the "forces of Nature", the spiritual atmosphere or all the realities together constituting the organisms within which they live, with the one difference that, while for people these realities are the ordinary known universe, the known forces of Nature and their religious or cultural standard respectively, the universe for the above-mentioned small beings consists of the bodies of the people, animals and plants in which they are situated. The circulation of the blood, the digestion and the oxidation that take place in the body in question will thus be the "forces of Nature" for the small beings, while the cultural standard for these beings is determined by the level of evolution to which the organisms in which they are situated belong, which in turn means whether these organisms are plants, animals or people.
      The "inner" conditions for the small beings or life-units in our intake are naturally also that they get the proper nourishment, the proper "surroundings", but these affect us only in such cases where we, in the form of food and drink, have introduced some of the same life-units into our organism that do not belong there and therefore cannot get their vital conditions fulfilled in this, but achieve an unnatural, sick and deadly existence. Through the introduction of such life-units into our organism disharmonies arise in it, disharmonies that can sometimes be so intense that they ultimately make this totally unsuited as a universe or residence for the life-units that in reality belong there, whereby this must therefore perish in an unnatural way. These disharmonies are identical to the fatal organic illnesses that occur in daily life. For the human being it is thus of great importance to introduce, in the form of food, the proper life-units into his organism or physical body.