Is there such a thing as our life force? - Medical study says yes!

I was going to start a thread on the human life force, and the power of it should it exist.

The notion of an energy that we exude just by living seems a little unscientific, and definitely not something measurable. The power of the human spirit to affect the world around us seemed like an interesting topic.

However I came across an article discussing the results of a study into extroverted patients, or put in another way, those with more life force.

'Life Force' Linked To Body's Ability To Withstand Stress

Our ability to withstand stress-related, inflammatory diseases may be associated, not just with our race and sex, but with our personality as well, according to a study published in the July issue of the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity. Especially in aging women, low levels of the personality trait extraversion may signal that blood levels of a key inflammatory molecule have crossed over a threshold linked to a doubling of risk of death within five years.

An emerging area of medical science examines the mind-body connection, and how personality and stress contribute to disease in the aging body. Long-term exposure to hormones released by the brains of people under stress, for instance, takes a toll on organs. Like any injury, this brings a reaction from the body's immune system, including the release of immune chemicals that trigger inflammation in an attempt to begin the healing process. The same process goes too far as part of diseases from rheumatoid arthritis to Alzheimer's disease to atherosclerosis, where inflammation contributes to clogged arteries, heart attacks and strokes.

The current study found that that extroverts, and in particular those high "dispositional activity" or engagement in life, have dramatically lower levels of the inflammatory chemical interleukin 6 (IL-6). Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung defined extroverts as focused on the world around them and most happy when active and surrounded by people. Introverts looked inward and were shy.

The report goes on to detail the science and is well worth a read.

I reminds me of Reiki(pronounced Ray-Key) a method of natural healing based on the application of Universal Life Force Energy (the name literally means Universal Life Force Energy).

I recommend having a read even if only out of curiosity.

The Reiki Page

But for the lazy among you:

Reiki is one of the more widely known forms of energy healing. Energy Healing involves direct application of Chi for the purpose of strengthening the clients energy system (aura). Chi is the term used by the Chinese mystics and martial artists for the underlying force the Universe is made of. Mystics in all cultures have talked about the physical universe being made of an underlying form of something, much as modern physics research is now coming to understand the Universe is made of energy which is subject to (or affected by) thought. Just as modern physics says this energy is affected by thought the mystics also say this underlying form is affected by thought, going so far as to claim we create our own reality from our thinking and the thoughts we share between each of us every day.

Reiki is capable of healing anything because it works at very fundamental levels of reality. Even though the capability is there, this is not what always happens. The limits to Reiki seem to be in the recipients willingness to cast off old habits and patters, to accept change and to accept healing. The level of reality where Reiki operates is the underlying energy structure of matter, as the physical matter we see around us is a solidified form of energy (Remember Einsteins famous equation which says that each unit of mass is equivalent to a certain amount of energy). At the level where Reiki functions, anything can be changed because all is fluidlike and is very malleable. Or so is the theory and so is the experience of Reiki practitioners. Emotional difficulties are just as healable as physical ones since emotional issues are even more directly present in the energy structures.

It's good to see the alternative and the scientific agreeing.

I wish there were more examples of this.




[edit on 19-6-2009 by kiwifoot]

Very interesting, reminds me of dynamo jack/ John Chang.... and others who practice qui gong

A friend told me how Soviet scientists came up with a way of measuring a persons "life force" and that it all involves measuring the natural electric field around living bodies.
Interestingly it turns out that if a plant develops disease you can see where the disease will be (before it becomes physically apparent) just by measuring unusual dips in this natural electric field.
It seems this field can encourage trouble when it's not working right.

Apparently those who most demonstrated psychic abilities (in controlled tests) tend to also have a higher than normal field (the average was over twice the average!) (Whatever that is).

reply to post by kiwifoot

This comes under the heading of what many think of as "mind over matter."

It has been seriously studied and practiced outside of the traditional medical community for centuries. Traditional science and medicine are just beginning to take a serious look at it, but usually on the via of brain function.

I'm not a top expert or anything, but I know that various different methods have been developed to improve body health via thought, with varying rates of success.

I used to work for a place in Berkeley (CA) that made biofeedback machines. Several doctors found these useful.

One of the major modern contributors to this field did an informal experiment at Oak Knoll Hospital (CA) while he was recuperating from war wounds.
A doctor there was testing hormones on the recovering soldiers. Without this doctor knowing, this guy did simple psychoanalysis on a few of the doctor's research subjects. According to him, the doctor told him that these subjects were the only ones responding well to the hormone treatments.

The trick in doing science on this area is developing a workable research model. These things are measurable. No one should accept the idea that they aren't. Of course, the next trick in doing this research is to get your study funded!

But as I say, this has been looked into outside "traditional" science, and various different life models have been advanced to explain the observations.

I subscribe to Hubbard's model. I think it is the most workable. It goes roughly like this:
A totally non-physical being or entity, which could be called a "spirit" is the primary cause point in most humanoid species. This being may elect to operate the body directly (less lazy approach) or indirectly through the mind (more lazy approach) and may do both. The mind is an energy system which surrounds and permeates the live body. The being can separate from it but normally refuses to and considers the mind his property, and the body as well. Ordinarily, the being gets confused about who actually runs what and becomes totally unaware that it is capable of independent activity.

To complicate things, most beings share the running of the body with a "lower-order" intelligence that is closely connected to the body and monitors heart, breathing, endocrine activity, etc.

Hubbard's idea of mind roughly corresponds to what others call "aura."

The being is capable of generating energy, but normally stays extremely subdued in this regard. The being can also heal the body directly. But the fact that the mind exists as an energy system leaves us open to mental influences from external energy sources. This is a huge topic, especially right now. The criminals on this planet want that technology!

Hubbard discounted mind manipulation and decided to work directly with the spirit. He has thus earned the eternal ire of those who were hoping to exploit his research for mind control purposes. So that gives you the unfortunate political tie-in that surrounds this whole subject and our attempts to understand it.

Stuart Wilde covers something similar in his audio courses.

My particular favorite is The Journey Beyond Enlightenment.

You should check it out.

There simply has to be a life force. For years we have tried to "measure" this and mostly failed.

But it is physics which insists it must be true, if all matter is merely a vibration of a higher dimension than the very fact that our body has an energy field mandates a higher dimensional pattern. If we develop sentience in this dimension, then is it not obvious the higher dimensional pattern would have an even greater sentience?

I am quite sure this energy persists and does not disrupt after our bodies die.
I have always seen this form as sort of a placenta to what we really are.

Nice post...

My mother is a Reiki Master and taught many a folk. I myself have had first hand healing and I do understand the process and how healing manifests from within.

There are many points to Reiki and I don't understand all of them but I can say with confidence that the results are astounding. Many people, after having healing, often look as though they are stoned and completly lost of there surroundings, others look flustered and feel strange, but the majority of people come back to be educated in healing themselves.

On top of that she is very psychic and often channels thoughts which I myself can say are not of my mothers mind, I know her well enough to know here own words and those that are not.

I may ask ma' to teach me and I could post my understanding as I go.

It is incredible to see the number of people who have taken spirituality into the stride. It is on par, or as respected as any religion in many countries. The West seemed to have been hindered spiritually. But thats just my opinion.

G.

reply to post by kiwifoot


Here is something you might find interesting:

The German physician, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, over 200 years ago talked about the "life force" or "vital force" back in the 1700's in his first book the "Organon of Medicine." It is the basis of the system of homeopathic medicine....working with the vital force.

He was dismissed as a fraud and a charlatan and run out of town after town, time and again. He was neither a fraud, nor a charlatain....he was simply way ahead of his time.

He was a brilliant physician who couldn't stomach the "cures" the physicians back in his day were using to "cure thier patients." (blood letting, curettage, leeches, et..). So, he went back to translating ancient greek medical texts into other languages (he knew like 5 languages) and used the ancient medical information he re-discovered from Hippocrates, etc... to found the homeopathic system of medicine.

So, allopathic physicians (what we call western medicine physicians) are only now finally now coming to the same conclusion that Hippocrates and Dr. Hahnemann came to centuries ago. Yet, they say that the allopathic system of medicine (modern medicine) is the most advanced in the world. Ha! They're centuries behind homeopathy, ayruveda, and traditional Chinese medicine, too.

Seriously, though, research homeopathy, and you'll see that homeopaths select remedies that help the body's own life force (vital force) heal itself. They don't believe that the remedies heal a person, rather, the remedies merely "stimulate" the vital force to heal the body.






[edit on 19-6-2009 by nikiano]

I believe the life force is the soul. if we could understand that we are not a body with a soul, but a soul with a body, then you can look at your life force being whom you really are. This understanding that you are a soul and spirit first, with a body, you facilitate control of the body as being subject to the life force.

Just my opinion.

Peace!

Doc Childre "The HeartMath Solution"
Institute of HeartMath


Bruce Lipton "The Biology of Belief"
Bruce Lipton Ph.D.

I believe these both go into that. It is nice to see other sources.

Both books are very GOOD and worth the read!!!

reply to post by kiwifoot


Thanks for the articles, I dig it!
I believe that humans all exhibit a life force, chi, or whatever you want to call it and it directly affects our lives.
Other things like Karma play into this as well.

Point? Live good lives people! everything will become much much better in our lives and our world.

Originally posted by l_e_cox

This comes under the heading of what many think of as "mind over matter."

i was just going to say exactly what you said!

i also wanted to share this one .pdf document about this very thing:
www.thesonsofthelawofone.com...

check it out!

[edit on 19-6-2009 by adrenochrome]

It's an interesting concept. If you look up the TRUE story behind the assassination of Rasputin, many people actually believe that the reason he was so hard to kill was because he had a much higher 'life force' (or some equivalent). They also believe that this is why he had such a powerful and insatiable sex drive - possibly they are all related.

He resisted poisoning by cyanide, being shot in the torso 3 times, being beaten with chains, and finally an assassination-style shot in the forehead from close range (from a British spy apparently - gripping true story), yet his cause of death was drowning, from when he fell into the river. The autopsy results were confirmed again sometime around 1996 - there was definitely fluid in his lungs, meaning a death by drowning.

If it wasn't some elevated 'life force' or something, how was he able to withstand this sort of treatment, before succumbing to something which 'life force' would have no influence over - ie. it could provide resistance to chemicals, or levels of healing or resistance for gunshot wounds, but without oxygen (from drowning), any person is going to die...

Rew

While to a certain extant I am a believer in, as someone else put it, mind over matter the first thing I thought of when I read this was how a real cause of some illness will be deflected.

"Sorry Mr. Jones, your illness is not caused by all the chemicals we put in your food, it's all in your mind and attitude."

Mind over matter...I am one who believes everything in life follows a set of guide lines, but having positive thought on yourself has always seemed to reap the best attitude.

hey! ive heard of these biofeedback machines.. im supposed to get hooked up to one pretty soon to look upon the effects of generalized anxiety disorder and PTSD upon by body... also, i want to say i do believe in a separate life force/body theory.. but what i think is that they arent measuring the life force itself, but just the electrical field that each of our bodies produces naturally. i believe that the life force, or "spirit" is a separate entity.. think of it this way, if we didnt have this life force we could possibly be just living like plants live, or like single cell organisms live.. but we have things like conciousness and feelings and ect.. and i believe that our conciousness comes from the life force, and not the mind or body like weve been lead to believe, and that the pain, and senses that we see, feel, touch, ect, are just translations that our body gives to our mind to relay it to our life force to experience. Just a couple thoughts....

also, i do believe the mind over matter theory as well.. to an extent.. as the body and mind may be a separate entity all together than the life force, then it could be possible that the mind and body could react to something without our control at all. one instance, i have been suffering from anxiety attacks for almost a year now, and 3 weeks ago.. i was in a convienence store, buying some snacks.. when my ex fiance walks in with her new fling.. well, i tried my hardest to overcome the panic attack that comes of seeing her, telling my body and mind that it was ok, i was gonna be fine, there is no harm, no threat.. well, my body and mind would not listen, and finally i had to leave, due to the fact i felt like i was gonna pass out, vomit, drop to the ground and shake, and my heart was beating fast and irregular.. so yeah, i would say, in some instances, you cannot overcome what your body tells you to do, unless you have extensive training and therapy.

reply to post by l_e_cox


hi
this is a great topic!!!! flagged.
new here.
this is the essence of 'the secret' a book/dvd that came out about 2 yrs ago.

the research has been going on, from what i gather, for at least 30ish plus years.
Dr. Valerie Hunt (wrote a book, cant remember the name) did a lot of research in late 70's at usc with a colleague, most of the research was suppressed, and auras were researched/documented then and how they connect between loved ones and parents and children, as well as those meditating. fascinating info.

i am sensing, gathering, that this is the key to 'transcending/transforming' into the '4th' or 5th demension, as was suggested in 'the celestine prophesy'.

if one can think of 'life force' as 'spirit' and then use the mantra 'we are spiritual beings having a human experience', it helps to be on one's way.

we do live in 'interesting times'.

great topic!!!!!!!

reply to post by nikiano


again, kiwifoot, agreed about homeopathy.
interestingly hiprocates said there are 2 ways to heal: one with 'the law of opposites' from which western medicine is derived (WE 'FIGHT' everything and attempt to kill it, etc, when really we are interfering with some simple biochemical process in the pathway, rather than addressing the 'cause'; and the law of 'similars' from which homeopathy and now bioresonance is derived, where the same thing that causes the symptoms can now be used to treat the symptoms, and 'boosting' the life force. interestingly, in homeopathy, the 'remedies' are made from the substances that cause the symptoms in HEALTHY individuals, but then are 'diluted' down yet 'succussed' and made more potent with each 'dilution'. the most potent remedies have no molecules of substance, but only the energy that has been transferred.

an eloquante way once said was that everything is immediately at one's disposal to 'treat' if one knows homeopathy.

another area that strongly supports this is all the work by Dr. David Hawkins who has validated scientifically the use of kineseology. where if one puts a substance or thought into the energy field of an individual/animal/plant, it strengthens or weakens that animal/plant or based on it's properties. this could revolutionize research and make most research obsolete, it will also change the 'practice' of medicine, as many will begin to be able to treat themselves, and get in touch with their own energies.

powerful stuff.

we live in interesting times!!!!!!!!!!

let's keep our energies evolving and think of this stuff. pretty exciting the stuff we ourselves can do, if we permit ourselves to expand our beliefs and thoughts

great topic!!!!!!

sh

the soul is mainly the flesh, and blood...

Well tho I guess it's getting time for my mouth to become shut since no-one heeds warnings anymore...

Anyway I call what you posted Junk Science...

[edit on 20-6-2009 by nowshining]