|
Introduction:
Dr.Himanshu Shekhar Rath is a Lecturer in Organon of Medicine and Homoeopathic Philosophy at C.L.Chouksey Memorial Homoeopathic Medical College Bilaspur . Here he shares his lectures on vital force with Homoeo times readers.
Vital force, the force of life is usually understood by any common man as soul. But, a little reflection over the matter obliges one to think are the two terms vital force and soul synonymous?
Hahnemann writes in aphorism 10 of 5th edition of Organon, “The material organism, without the vital force is capable of no sensation, no function, no self preservation, it derives all sensation and performs all the functions of life solely by means of the immaterial being (the vital force) which animates the material organism in health and in disease.” The body is immaterial. It’s animating principle, known as vital force is immaterial.
The basic difference between matter and non-matter is that the former occupies space, but the later not, the former is sense perceptible and hence can be experienced by the sensory organs, (i.e. can be seen, heard, touched, tasted, smelled) but the later is not sense perceptible; the former can be measured and hence can be subjected to experimentation in laboratory, but the later can not be measured and hence cannot be subjected to experimentation in laboratory.
Vital force being immaterial is not sense perceptible. But, we say many things about the nature of vital force is immaterial it is present every where in the material body, just like soul being immaterial is present every where in the material body without being attached to any part of the body.
It means that although sky is present everywhere, it is not attached to any thing. Similarly soul being immaterial, it is not attached to any part of body, although it is present all over the body. Wind is unseen. But when the trees bow down their head and when the smoke raises up into the air we see that these events are due to the work of wind. Although wind is unseen, but the moment it acts on some visible material object, by observing the action upon the later, we indirectly assess the function of the former. Similarity although vital force is invisible, when it acts on the material body which is visible, we are able to say that the resulting function is due to action of the former upon the later.
The living organism, according to aphorism 15of 5th edition of Organon is a combination of immaterial vital force and the material body. In the process of disease both are simultaneously affected, although for our easy conception we think them as separate entities. Vital force regulates all the activities of the body. By observing the activities of the material body we conceive some idea about the vital regulating it. When we observe a person to be healthy and active, we say that his vital force is in a normal state. On the contrary when one looks diseased and acts in a dead spirit, we say that his vital force is weakened. Again the question arises, is there any wrong if we say that the body is performing the activities by it self without any vital force or soul? The answer may be that, to say the self-control of body without the vital force would be wrong. If the body is capable of performing all the activities without the control of vital force, then why the organs of the body are not performing their work in the dead body after somatic death and prior to cellular death? Whereas the same organs in this state when implanted in a living body, they continue their action.
As written in the foot note of aphorism 67 of 5th edition of Organon, in healthy conditions also sometimes there occurs obstruction and suppression of the healthy vital force due to the effect of sudden accidents like asphyxia; suspended animation from lightning, suffocation, freezing, drowning etc.; and poisoning. In these cases palliatives in the form of stimulants are required to stimulate the vital force. No homoeopathic medicines required, because there is no dynamic disease. The substance of this paragraph indicates that vital force, is affected by injurious influences of different matters, in its healthy state.
As per the homoeopathic concept of the pathogenesis of diseases, in aphorism 11 of 5th edition of Organon it is written that, the vital force is primarily affected in the process of disease, followed by the affection of the body. In aphorism 15 of the same edition in it’s written that the vital force and the material body are simultaneously affected in the process of disease, although we think them separately for our easy conception. The sole concept of homoeopathy is that the vital force is affected in disease. In the process of cure as written in aphorism 16 of 5th edition of Organon, the vital force is affected by receiving the impression of medicines through the sentient faculty of nerves everywhere present in the organism.
It means that soul is not affected by any weapon or by fire, water or air. It is unaffected. It is not affected by any quality of the material body or mind, although it controls the body. Although, it is said that, dynamic disease are caused by a dynamic invisible disease producing force, but where is the dynamic disease producing force present? Is it not present in different matters and moral phenomena in invisible form? It is present in different materials and moral phenomena in invisible form, e.g. the psoric miasm is present in the fluid of the itch vesicle, which is simply a matter; and like wise a sad incidence may cause a disease, which is a moral phenomenon.
Thus we observe that vital force is affected in accidents by material substances as in accidents like drowning, lightning, poisoning etc. and by moral phenomena like faintness from listening or observing some heart breaking incidence; and in dynamic diseases, by the dynamic power present in different materials and psychic phenomena; and in cure by the effect of dynamic medicine. The whole phenomenon observed in this paragraph is that the vital force is affected in health, disease and cure.
On the other hand it is the soul, according to the mythological concept, which is neither affected by the material substances nor by the psychic phenomena. As the vital force is affected by the immaterial dynamic disease producing power present in different matters and psychic phenomena, as well as by matters where as soul is not affected by these, so it implies that soul is in a more subtle level than vital force.
