VITAL ENERGY IN ITS UNIVERSAL APPLICATION


For Vital Energy Dr. Robert’s says, If we have no motion, no action, no direction, without vital energy, it must be this energy which is responsible for all growth and all development in all spheres of existence …


*** THE vital energy is that force which animates each individual. While the vital energy is in the individual, that individual is said to have life, to be, to exist. Even as the individual is derived from–becomes— from the mating of two individuals, from the cell mating of which this vital force may be handed on with physical characteristics of the parents, so is the vital force itself derived from an infinite source, a storehouse of dynamic power, capable, of developing and reproducing to an infinite degree in its manifestations, yet each individual partaking in greater or less degree of general vital characteristics common to all.

The vital force in the individual becomes therefore the ego, that most intimate spark of the individual which is in itself the essence of the individual, and which divides his individuality from all others, yet is his closest relationship to the universe. This closely relates him to all living creatures, yet he is identical with none; it is at once his tie to all energy, all vitality, all life, and at the same time his insulation against the massed power of the whole.

Probably religion was the first expression of thought to formulate this vital concept of life. Many religions, through many ages, have expressed the thought we find in the Bible: “And the Lord God…. breathed into his nostrils the breath life; and man became a living soul.” “Before Abraham was, ***I AM.” Religion accepts the concepts of infinite life on the spiritual plane, but has no attempted to apply it to all plans of existence; science accepts it in part, one is tempted to say in fragments, but science has never correlated the whole, even on the material or intellectual planes.

Astronomy is a part of science; mathematics is an essential component of astronomy. Astronomy and mathematics, viewed in the light of the whole vision of vital energy are essentially a partial proof of the omnipresence of vital energy as being the moving Energy, the activating Power, of the universe.

As Logic deals with “the principles governing the comparative and constructive faculties in the pursuit and use of truth”, let us apply this science to our theorem, and reason this through to its natural conclusions.

Without this vital force there can be no life, no development. Since there is no static condition in nature, without a healthy normal development of the vital force we find a state of decay and death.

As homoeopathic philosophers we do not concern ourselves at this time with the sociological aspects of this problem, although inferences from the foregoing statements may seem obvious; it is our duty to consider these primarily as they relate to the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of our patients.

We have observed, in the study of the human race, that life is perpetuated under certain favourable conditions of mating. It is true that physical characteristics are handed on from parents to offspring, but that the parents actually give life to the child we may reasonably doubt. We may say with all assurance that under favourable circumstances life is handed on from the parents to the child, in more or less perfect vigour. Whence life comes we cannot say, but that it gives vigour in greater or less degree to the individual according to the heredity and environment we cannot doubt.

That life is continuous we know to be true; there has been no age when all life has ceased, and we find this vital force, this energy, this dynamis, passed on in all forms and degrees of living creatures. History shows us that life has thus been manifest for so many centuries that we come by deductive reasoning to comprehend that life is infinite; it is eternally going on and on.

Where there is vital force there is action, motion; action is one interpretation, one manifestation, of vital force. We speak of the inanimate as dead, yet with death there is always decay. We think of the earth and other plants as dead, yet they are in continual motion, according to their regular and defined direction through the universe, which has been observed and recorded by man. We may reason, therefore, that since these great bodies have regular motion and direction, they are impelled by some force, some energy, which although it may not be what we have come to call vital energy, is in degree closely related to

it.

If therefore this force, this energy, actuates or permeates all forms and degrees of life from the most humble and inconspicuous to the very planets, we may reasonably assume that vital force is the most fundamental of all conditions of the universe, and that the laws governing the vital force in the individual are correlated with the laws which govern all vital force, all forms of energy, wherever or however expressed.

If we have no motion, no action, no direction, without vital energy, it must be this energy which is responsible for all growth and all development in all spheres of existence.

Like all laws, the laws governing vital force may be infringed to some degree. The privilege granted to human life is the right of choice, and this right of choice implies degrees of choice. The planets, being set in their courses, have no right of choice and move always according to law. Human beings we know to exercise the right of choice, and herein is our province as physicians, for in making the choice, which is often a choice against natural laws, we find the vigour of the vital force abated and a retrograde action of the body, mind, or spirit sets in. As we have pointed out before, vital force in its perfection means growth and development; since there is no condition of standing still in nature, an infringement, of natural laws means decay and death. The degree of the infringement either in an individual or in his predecessors, determines the degree of decay and its speed.

Since human beings as individual have the right of choice, even in the face of the operation of the natural laws governing the vital energy, they have also been given those circumstances and conditions surrounding them which tend toward, (1) a correct choice (direction), and (2)aids to correct the mistakes already made and to regain the normal balance. Both these conditions are found in three spheres, the physical, the mental, and the spiritual.

On the spiritual plane we find those aids which tend toward correct choice and aids to regain a lost balance in the form of religious convictions and beliefs, all those aids which foster the growth and development of the spiritual life of man. On the mental plane we find instruction of various kinds which tends to development of the mental faculties and all those things which go toward an honest comprehension of the individual toward himself and his relationship to others and toward all life; in other words, those things which foster sanity. On the physical plane we find those things which tend to keep us healthy in body, such as suitable foods and those things which we can adapt for better housing, cleanliness, sanitation, and many other things. We find on this plane, too, many substances closely allied to foods which have within them a vital energy capable of being raised by potentization from the purely physical plane to that of the mental or even spiritual. This is most decidedly the study of the homoeopathic physician, for in these substances we find the most similar remedies for the conditions of the ills of man.

These substances, themselves are derived from three kingdoms, mineral, vegetable, and animal. We cannot definitely say that the mineral substances in themselves possess vital energy, but they are fragments of that which composes the planet, earth, and that planet either possesses some form of vital energy in itself or is susceptible to being activated by vital energy to such an extent that it performs its appointed movements according to the law; and we can use these minerals, by proper preparation, in the form of vital energy, not to perpetuate life but to influence it on all three planes of body, mind, and spirit, that the vital energy of the individual may be thereby guarded against decay and death.

We recognize the presence of vital energy in vegetable growth, for it is evidenced in growth and movement in the plant, according to the natural law of development, from within outward; the plant develops from the seed according to the physical characteristics of the parents, and again under favourable circumstances passes on this spark of vital energy in its own fertility. Not only do we know that vegetable growth has this manifestation of vital energy, but it has been observed that the mysterious vital force, beyond our comprehension, which controls by law the planets in their courses and influences the winds and tides, influences the manner and periods of growth of the individual plant, thus again tying what we know to be a manifestation of life to the universal energy.

The vegetable kingdom has probably served man in disease conditions longer than either the animal or the mineral kingdom. In the homoeopathic method of preparing drugs for medication, by releasing the energy therein through potentization; we have found that from this source again which we regard as material we can influence disorder on the three planes of body, mind, and spirit.

H.A. Roberts
Dr. H.A.Roberts (1868-1950) attended New York Homoeopathic Medical College and set up practrice in Brattleboro of Vermont (U.S.). He eventually moved to Connecticut where he practiced almost 50 years. Elected president of the Connecticut Homoeopathic Medical Society and subsequently President of The International Hahnemannian Association. His writings include Sensation As If and The Principles and Art of Cure by Homoeopathy.