Vital Force in a Post Materialistic World
By Bill Rumble
INTRODUCTION
APHORISM 9 “In the Healthy Human state, the spirit like life force (autocracy) that enlivens the material organism as dynamis, governs without restriction and keeps all parts of the organism in admirable, harmonious, vital operation, as regards both feelings and functions, so that our indwelling, rational spirit can freely avail itself of this living, healthy instrument for the higher purposes of our existence” (1).
Hahnemann published the 1st edition of the “Organon of Medicine in1810 and the 6th, and final, edition in 1842. By this time the “Age of Enlightenment”, emerging in the late 17th century alongside the French Revolution, had begun to reach fruition with the abolition of Slavery in Europe and the developing doctrines of “Humanism,” “Rationalism”, and material science. It is significant that Hahnemann’s development of Homeopathy emerges at the same time that Evolutionism replaces Creationism as the pre-eminent ideology of the times.
By the end of the 19th century, with the development of “Germ theory”, the belief that we are isolated living beings in a dead mechanical universe had become the dominant ideology. This belief system, while heralding extraordinary developments in surgery and hygiene in conventional medicine, fails to address the fundamental issue that we are energetic beings who resonate with each other and with animals, plants, places, music and art etc.
It happened, however, that the early 20th century saw the development of Quantum theory. The concept of “wave-particle duality and “matrix mechanics” developed, suggesting that there is, after all, an energetic background to what we call reality and that we inhabit a vibrant and connected universe. Indeed, a dismantling of European colonialism has also seen a resurgence of respect for indigenous knowledge and spirituality suggesting that the natural and human worlds share an essential aliveness and an ability to communicate within a resonant universe.
Hahnemann points out in Aphorism 10 that: “The material organism, thought of without life force, is capable of no sensibility, no activity, no self-preservation. It derives all sensibility and produces its life functions solely by means of the immaterial Wesen (the life principle, the life force) that enlivens the material organism in health and in disease.” (2)
PART 1: THE WESEN
APHORISM 11: “When a person falls ill It is initially only this spirit-like, autonomous life force (life principle), everywhere present in the organism that is mistuned through the dynamic influence of a morbific agent inimical to life. Only the life principle, mistuned to such abnormality can impart to the organism the adverse sensations and induce in the organism the irregular functions that we call disease. The life principle is a Power Wesen invisible in itself only discernible by its effect on the organism. Therefore, its morbid mistunement only makes itself known (discernible) by manifestations of disease in feelings and functions (the only aspects of the organism accessible to the senses of the observer and the medical art practitioner). In no other way can it make itself known. (3)
Hahnemann suggests here that disease has an energetic source, conceived in the field that he calls the “Wesen”. The Glossary to the 6th edition, edited by Wenda Brewster O’Reilly defines “Wesen” thus: “Wesen is a multifaceted term which can mean any of the following: Essence, substance, creature, living thing, nature or entity. There is no English term that adequately defines Wesen. In almost every instance in the Organon, Hahnemann uses the term to refer to that entity which is the essential unchanging Esse of something: It’s being, its quintessence. A wesen is not an abstraction: it is a dynamic, self-subsisting presence even though that presence is not material and has no mass. A Wesen is also not a property: it permeates the whole of something and is indivisible from it……Hahnemann indicates that the Wesen of a disease impinges upon the Wesen of a human being, resulting in a particular set of symptoms (and, I would add, Signs). The Wesen of a medicine is introduced by the medical art practitioner in order to retune the mistuned Wesen of the patient. Hahnemann’s use of the word “Wesen” in these various contexts makes it clear that the life force, diseases and medicines belong in the same dynamic dimension”. (4)
Hahnemann also uses the term “Dynamis” to describe the life principle. It is useful to understand the Dynamis as the power or active principle of the Wesen, the “juice!”. The Wesen can be understood as the field or Matrix of Potentials and while the Dynamis is its executive power, its communication system.
Imagine the Wesen as an energetic field, dynamic and intelligent. It represents the energetic background to our lives, our experience and, indeed, our potential. I envisage this field consisting of a matrix, like an infinite number of potentials, some powerful and some slight, some dormant and some active at any given moment or phase of our life. These potentials are laid down at our conception and relate to our ancestry and activated by our experiences and interactions with life. Hahnemann describes these moments of activation as “Befallments” in Aphorism 6. (5) It is these Befallments, from the German word Zufallen (what “falls to us”), that activate the Potentials already present in the Wesen (Field) and experienced by us as symptoms and by others as signs. In other words whatever happens to us already exists as potential.
Whereas Hahnemann refers to “Morbific agent” (see above), I believe that these experiences are designed to activate potential. These experiences engender adaptation and transformation.
PART 2: THE MULTI CHANNEL SYSTEM
The vital force: Wesen/Dynamis is a multi-channel system.
The brain is a processor, it has no nerve endings, it feels nothing. All the signals that are processed by the brain (approximately 11 million per second, including homogenous background cosmic radiation) are transmitted through the senses.
These signals are orchestrated and transmitted via the Dynamis, the energy body. Thinking radically inhibits the process of perception and signal transmission. Hahnemann invites us to be “Unprejudiced”, i.e. empty headed, observers, in order to fully activate our perception of symptoms and signs (Aphorism 6). (5).
The vital force is a rhythmic and vibrant process: a multi-channel system and communicator, orchestrating body rhythms, voluntary and involuntary neurotransmissions, and all of our bodily systems and responses, both habitual and unexpected. It is also a memory body. The vital force remembers and archives every moment that has altered its tuning, to whatever degree. It is like a library, even containing a restricted section that holds records of events marginalised by our primary identity. When the field is activated by certain events — and indeed, by remedies — there can be a return of old symptoms, sensations, and memories that have slipped from our awareness.
The vital force is a field of potentials. It is no surprise that potentised remedies operate primarily in this dimension. Everything we experience creates an Impression and activates the field of potential to a greater or lesser degree according to the constellation of the field. This is why we individualise our case taking and prescribing in every case.
Whatever creates an Impression (pressing in) in the field must move to Expression (pressing out) as Symptoms and Signs. Indeed, it is the potentised remedies themselves which resonate with the activated elements of the matrix. The process of receiving and recording the image of the disease depends on our perception of the Symptoms and Signs and our awareness of the Befallment that activated the pattern. Thus, we are able to prescribe and give a remedy capable of amplifying the Expression and moving the process to completion.
PART 3: THE SYMPTOM MAKER
“It is the disease tuned life force alone that brings forth diseases” Aphorism 12. (6)
It follows that every disease has two parts; There is the part that is suffering from the pain and the part that is giving the pain. By identifying primarily with the suffering we work to help and reduce the suffering of the patient but may miss Signals from the part that is creating the suffering. It is the “diseased tuned life force alone” which, Hahnemann tells us, generates symptoms.
In Aphorism 6; Hahnemann tells us: “The Unprejudiced observer, even the most sharp witted one - knowing the nullity of super sensible speculations which are not born out of experience - perceives nothing in each single case of disease other than the alteration of the body and soul, disease signs, befallments, symptoms, which are outwardly discernible through the senses…”
Symptoms (from the ancient Greek ”Sumpiptein”; to fall together) literally translates as “With the falling body” and the symptoms are experienced exclusively by the sufferer.
Signs, (From the Latin “Signus” to point to or designate) are noticed and experienced primarily by the observer and are a direct communication from the energetic field of the disease. The transmission of Signs is designed to move us from an Observer to a Participant. Signs and Symptoms are generated in the same energetic dimension; A dimension which is generally unknown to Western medicine.
PART 4: KNOWN WORLD, UNKNOWN WORLD
The Known World consists of our identity, our ideas, our beliefs about ourselves, our personal history, and our feelings about ourselves and our relationships. It is how we describe ourselves, our habitual way of explaining what we do for a living, and the way we introduce ourselves to others. It is also reflected in how we describe our suffering, and in our attempts to understand the meaning of our lives.
We can call this information STATIC.
The Unknown World is the world of befallments — events that cannot be planned and seem to exist to disrupt our Known World — as well as body symptoms and signs, such as a sudden shudder or an unexpected synchronicity: a clap of thunder, or a phone call from someone just as we were thinking of them. The Unknown World also reveals itself through dream images, the tapping of our feet to music, and the way we feel around certain people and in certain places. It may even manifest in the moment when a romantic date suddenly turns into an argument.
The Unknown World is VIBRANT!
The Unknown World is closer to our essential aliveness and defies analysis. It is inherently mysterious and, like Homeopathy itself, belongs to the Dynamic Dimension. We do not need to know the meaning of a patient’s disease in order to make a prescription. Indeed, to assume otherwise would involve speculation and represent an inflation: the belief that we are the creator of the pattern rather than its assistant. (Rather than asking a patient what they feel or think about a certain symptom or circumstance, try asking what they are noticing in that moment.)
Something has to happen during a consultation. Often we are so busy writing or analysing that we fail to notice the significant moment that reveals a direct communication from the Unknown World.
By entering into the Mysterious we can become an intermediary between the patient’s Unknown World and the Patient themselves. It may simply be through noticing a shift in the energy during a consultation or noticing a body sensation or a striking or odd symptom that appears nonsensical that we can connect with the Symptom generator.
It may be that the Unknown World has been signalling for generations so that we can become more energetic and creative and to discover things about ourselves which have become marginalised or hidden. Maybe the disruptive events and even diseases themselves represent the last throw of the dice for us to go beyond our Selves, our Ideas and our Identities and connect up with the Field of Potential that is our essential being.
Maybe Psora is simply that Rut that hinders adaptability and change!
Hahnemann tells us in Aphorism 7: “ …… It must be the symptoms (and signs!) alone by which the disease Demands and can point to the most appropriate medicine for its relief…..so that the disease shall be cured (brought to light) and TRANSFORMED into health”. (7). Therefore the Disease has the potential to become transformative!
Maybe classifying the symptoms according to whether they are Mental, Emotional or Physical can become redundant. Maybe it is the VIBRANT information that constitutes a direct connection to the Wesen itself.
PART 5: THE SCANNER
It is inconceivable that the living Wesen, processing and orchestrating millions of sensory signals, is not also scanning us as we engage with our patients. Perhaps the patient’s energy field is able to sense our awareness, our attention, and our own perception in order to transmit the information we need — information that can then be utilised and decoded so that a resonant Homeopathic potency may be introduced to facilitate healing.
To facilitate this process we can Relax, Slow Down, Work Less, Write Less, Notice More.
In other words simply Connect. Allow Space for the disease Image to constellate and tell us what remedy it requires. The Process contains its own wisdom. We are simply assistants to nature.
References: Organon of the medical art, 6th Edition. Translated by Steven Decker and Edited and Annotated by Wenda Brewster O’Reilly 1996. Published by Birdcage Books, Palo Alto, California.
Aphorism 9 page 65.
Aphorism 10 page 65.
Aphorism 11 page 66.
Glossary page 361.
Aphorism 6 page 62.
Aphorism 12 page 68.
Aphorism 7 page 63.
Author Bio:
Bill Rumble is a fellow of the society of Homeopaths in the UK. He has been teaching Homeopathy since 1991. He has been in practice since 1986 he has practiced and taught in the UK, Ireland, Czech Republic, California, Kenya and Ghana. He founded the Welsh School of Homeopathy in 1995.
“I live with my family and my dog Milo by the sea on the Gower peninsula in South Wales. I am particularly interested in Homeopathic philosophy and the dynamics of practice. Our engagement with patients and the case taking process is endlessly fascinating to me. I believe that the way we engage with people is the most significant aspect of our work and a source of endless development and fascination.