Homeopathy and The Vital Force reads a bit like a title for an episode of Star Wars.
Actually it is a serious philosophical point. And it is a philosophy that differentiates the homeopathic branch of medicine from the allopathic (orthodox).
Modern scientific medicine (indeed science in general) has the material world as its focus. Though its successes have been considerable, its emergence is a relatively recent phenomenon.
Leading figures such as Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch advanced the concept of germs causing disease less than two centries ago. Medical progress since has been substantially built on the foundations of their work; antibiotics and so on.
Science is a materialistic / reductionist endeavour. That is to say its hypotheses are based on finding something substative be it a cell, or virus or gene. And technological advances enable us to find smaller and smaller things – hence ‘reductionist’.
However – and disconcertingly – science struggles to explain ‘Life’ despite the high expectations from the discovery of DNA and the subsequent mapping of the human genome etc.
It is a point Philip Ball (former editor of Nature) makes in the opening pages of his recent book titled How Life Works.
Science dismisses the concept of an animating vital force. As Ball says, it’s a tautology. In other words Life is, eh…Life.
A fair point, but the question remains.
Professor George Vithoulkas – now in his nineties – who established the International Academy of Classical Homeopathy in Greece, quotes in his seminal work The Science of Homeopathy an ancient Sanskrit text:
“Honour your body, which is your representative in this universe. Its magnificance is no accident. It is the framework through which your works must come; through which the spirit within the spirit speaks. The flesh and the spirit are two phases of your actuality in space and time. Who ignores one, falls apart in shambles. So it is written…“
John O’Donohue in his book (1997) on Celtic Spiritual Wisdom, Anam Cara makes a similar point:
“Your body is, in essence, a crowd of different members who work in harmony to make your belonging in the world possible. We should avoid the dualism that separates the soul from the body. The soul is not simply within the body, hidden somewhere within its recesses. The truth is rather the converse. Your body is in the soul, and the soul suffuses you completely. Therefore, all around you there is a beautiful soul-light.“
Samuel Hahnemann, who was the first person to comprehensively document the principles of homeopathic medicine, understood this relationship between the material and the non-material self. In aphorism 9 of his Organon of Medicine (~1840s) he states:
“In the state of health the spirit-like vital force animating the material human organism reigns in supreme sovereignty. It maintains the sensations and activities of all the parts of the living organsim in a harmony that obliges wonderment. The reasoning spirit who inhabits the organism can thus freely use this healthy living instrument to reach the lofty goal of human existence.“
In the subsequent aphorisms (10 / 11) he goes on to say:
“Without the vital force the material organism is unable to feel act or maintain itself….It is only this vital force thus untuned which brings about in the organism the disagreeable sensaton and abnormal functions that we call disease…..“.
The monument to Hahnemann in the photograph at the beginning of this article, is in Washington DC. A testimony to his teaching, which is now all but ignored in medical schools today.
In our enthusiastic study of the human organism we seem to have lost sight of our total true nature. That is to say the immaterial as well as the material self.
Edi Bilimoria in his masterwork ‘Unfolding Consciousness’ presents several models from antiquity showing the layered make-up of man extending from the divine to the physical.
This cropped image below from his book gives you an idea.
If true, then modern medicine is potentially missing half of the picture.
Worse, given the complexity of the endeavour, modern medicine increasingly subdivides the material body to such an extent that even the physical whole gets lost. Dr Bob Leckridge in his blog ‘Keeping our intention fixed on the whole‘ makes the point perfectly.
Yet, modern science – specifically physics – is more aligned to the wisdom of the ancients. The late Harold Saxton Burr (1889-1973) proposed ‘L’ (for life) electromagnetic fields – akin to wireless signals, that inform.
Richard Alabone drawing on his work in radar and television, in his book Making Sense of Life postulates that there is a carrier of biological information to the developing foetus. He suggests that DNA is not the person in his or her entirety as Crick and Watson famous for the discovery of DNA thought. Rather it is something more akin to a code that allows the foetus to search for the necessary information (species; tribe; family) for its development. And most likely it is a process that continues until the last breath.
Dr James Tyler Kent pictured below, was a notable homeopathic doctor working in Chicago in the early 20th century. In his Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy he wrote words to the effect that your pathology is not your disease but its ultimate, emphasising Hahnemann’s point that disease is a disturbance of the vital life force.
The goal of homeopathic treatment is to correct this disturbance and restore harmony. It is not a quick fix because the vital force – not the homeopath nor the patient – sets the pace. Healing takes time and patience is a challenge in an impatient world.
May the force be with you! Well, like it or not, it probably is.
Perhaps you would be interested in exploring Homeopathy for your health? I offer a free 30 minute discovery call to allow you to investigate further.
Disclaimer: I am a qualified professional homeopath and not a medical doctor. The NHS has many resources, and seeking the opinion of your GP is always of value.
Dibden Purlieu, Southampton