In Aphorisms 9 to 16 hahnemann explains his VITAL FORCE THEORY, which is actually a reassertion of unscientific philosophy of DYNAMISM that was a strong intellectual presence during his period. This part of ORGANON contributes much in making homeopathy incompatible with modern scientific knowledge, and it seems to be the greatest stumbling block in our efforts of making homeopathy a MEDICAL SCIENCE. This part of organon reflects the most primitive state of scientific knowledge that existed during hahnemann’s period. There is no doubt, if master had lived a few years later, he would have completely avoided this part from organon. In my opinion, these most unscientific aphorisms should be bracketed from new editions of organon being taught in our colleges, classifying it as only of historical interest. They should be replaced and updated with NEW scientific understanding of life, disease and cure, based on modern biochemistry and advanced life sciences.
For a scientific-minded person, there nothing to be seriously debated or argued in the following aphorisms, other than noting its historical premises and moved away into the archives.
Homeopathy can exist even without vital force theory. Actually, it becomes more rational and scientific by replacing the concept of ‘vital force’ with modern scientific understanding of ‘molecular level biochemical vital processes’.
READ Organon : Aphorism 9:
“In the healthy condition of man, the spiritual vital force (autocracy), the dynamis that animates the material body (organism), rules with unbounded sway, and retains all the parts of the organism in admirable, harmonious, vital operation, as regards both sensations and functions, so that our indwelling, reason-gifted mind can freely employ this living, healthy instrument for the higher purpose of our existence.”
My comments:
According to hahnemann, vital force is a ‘dynamis’ that ‘animates’ and ‘rules’ the ‘material body’. It is this vital force that “retains all the parts of the organism in admirable, harmonious, vital operation, as regards both sensations and functions”. As per this view, “material body” is only an “instrument” of “indwelling, reason-gifted mind”.
Hahnemann seems to think that the role of “material body” is limited to obeying the “rule” of vital force and act as an “instrument” of mind. He do not consider the molecular level structure, organization and chemical properties of the complex biological molecules constituting the ‘material body’ to play a role in the evolution of the phenomena he call ‘vital force’. He failed to understand that a ‘vital force’ cannot ‘animate’ a NON-LIVING ‘material body’ irrespective of its molecular level structure, organization and chemical properties? Actually, it is the STRUCTURE, ORGANIZATION and CHEMICAL PROPERTIES of complex biological molecules in the organism that initiate the MOLECULAR INTERACTIONS of ‘vital processes’ hahnemann call “vital force”. It is obvious that VITAL FORCE theory perceives biological processes upside down! At least, hahnemann should have noticed that this “all powerful” VITAL FORCE cannot “animate” MATERIAL BODIES if they have no a molecular level structure appropriate for the complex biological interactions constituting the vital processes.
Organon : Aphorism 10 : Sixth Edition:
“The material organism, without the vital force, is capable of no sensation, no function, no self-preservation1, it derives all sensation and performs all the functions of life solely by means of the immaterial being (the vital principle) which animates the material organism in health and in disease.
Foot notes:- It is dead, and only subject to the power of the external physical world; it decays, and is again resolved into its chemical constituents.”
My comments:
The most relevant question is, can this “immaterial” vital force ‘animate’ a metal body, a stone or a piece of wood and convert them into LIVING organisms, and give them ‘sensations’? Why vital force is capable of “animating” ONLY “material bodies” having a peculiar molecular structure and organization?
No ‘vital force’ can ‘animate’ a dead organism and bring it back to life, once the biochemical processes essential for normal vital functions are stopped and biological molecules are disorganized. All the functions you consider as vital force are seen only in highly organized organism constituted by complex biological molecules. It is the molecular level structure and organization of biological molecules and their interactions that impart properties of life to a ‘material body’. Vital force cannot animate a ‘material object’ in the absence of biological chemical molecules.
Organon : Aphorism 11 : Sixth Edition:
“When a person falls ill, it is only this spiritual, self acting (automatic) vital force, everywhere present in his organism, that is primarily deranged by the dynamic1 influence upon it of a morbific agent inimical to life; it is only the vital force, deranged to such an abnormal state, that can furnish the organism with its disagreeable sensations, and incline it to the irregular processes which we call disease; for, as a power invisible in itself, and only cognizable by its effects on the organism, its morbid derangement only makes itself known by the manifestation of disease in the sensations and functions of those parts of the organism exposed to the senses of the observer and physician, that is, by morbid symptoms, and in no other way can it make itself known.
Foot notes:- What is dynamic influence, – dynamic power? Our earth, by virtue of a hidden invisible energy, carries the moon around her in twenty-eight days and several hours, and the moon alternately, in definite fixed hours (deducting certain differences which occur with the full and new moon) raises our northern seas to flood tide and again correspondingly lowers them to ebb. Apparently this takes place not through material agencies, not through mechanical contrivances, as are used for products of human labor; and so we see numerous other events about us as results of the action of one substance on another substance without being able to recognize a sensible connection between cause and effect. Only the cultured, practised in comparison and deduction, can form for himself a kind of supra-sensual idea sufficient to keep all that is material or mechanical in his thoughts from such concepts. He calls such effects dynamic, virtual, that is, such as result from absolute, specific, pure energy and action of the one substance upon the other substance.
For instance, the dynamic effect of the sick-making influences upon healthy man, as well as the dynamic energy of the medicines upon the principle of life in the restoration of health is nothing else than infection and so not in any way material, not in any way mechanical. Just as the energy of a magnet attracting a piece of iron or steel is not material, not mechanical. One sees that the piece of iron is attracted by one pole of the magnet, but how it is done is not seen. This invisible energy of the magnet does not require mechanical (material) auxiliary means,
hook or lever, to attract the iron. The magnet draws to itself and this acts upon the piece of iron or upon a steel needle by means of a purely immaterial invisible, conceptual, inherent energy, that is, dynamically, and communicates to the steel needle the magnetic energy equally invisibly (dynamically). The steel needle becomes itself magnetic, even at a distance when the magnet does not touch it, and magnetises other steel needles with the same magnetic property (dynamically) with which it had been endowered previously by the magnetic rod, just as a child with small-pox or measles communicates to a near, untouched healthy child in an invisible manner (dynamically) the small-pox or measles, that is, infects it at a distance without anything material from the infective child going or capable of going to the one to be infected. A purely specific conceptual influence communicated to the near child small-pox or measles in the same way as the magnet communicated to the near needle the magnetic property.
In a similar way, the effect of medicines upon living man is to be judged. Substances, which are used as medicines, are medicines only in so far as they possess each its own specific energy to alter the well-being of man through dynamic, conceptual influence, by means of the living sensory fibre, upon the conceptual controlling principle of life. The medicinal property of those material substances which we call medicines proper, relates only to their energy to call out alterations in the well-being of animal life. Only upon this conceptual principle of life, depends their medicinal health-altering, conceptual (dynamic) influence. Just as the nearness of a magnetic pole can communicate only magnetic energy to the steel (namely, by a kind of infection) but cannot commu nicate other properties (for instance, more hardness or ductility, etc.). And thus every special medicinal substance alters through a kind of infection, that well-being of man in a peculiar manner exclusively its own and not in a manner peculiar to another medicine, as certainly as the nearness of the child ill with small-pox will communicate to a healthy child only small-pox and not measles.
These medicines act upon our well-being wholly without communication of material parts of the medicinal substances, thus dynamically, as if through infection. Far more healing energy is expressed in a case in point by the smallest dose of the best dynamized medicines, in which there can be, according to calculation, only so little of material substance that its minuteness cannot be thought and conceived by the best arithmetical mind, than by large doses of the same medicine in substance.
That smallest dose can therefore contain almost entirely only the pure, freely-developed, conceptual medicinal energy, and bring about only dynamically such great effects as can never be reached by the crude medicinal substances itself taken in large doses.
It is not in the corporal atoms of these highly dynamized medicines, nor their physical or mathematical surfaces (with which the higher energies of the dynamized medicines are being interpreted but vainly as still sufficiently material) that the medicinal energy is found. More likely, there lies invisible in the moistened globule or in its solution, an unveiled, liberated, specific, medicinal force contained in the medicinal substance which acts dynamically by contact with the living animal fibre upon the whole organism (without communicating to it anything material however highly attenuated) and acts more strongly the more free and more immaterial the energy has become through the dynamization.
Is it then so utterly impossible for our age celebrated for its wealth in clear thinkers to think of dynamic energy as something non-corporeal, since we see daily phenomena which cannot be explained in any other manner?
If one looks upon something nauseous and becomes inclined to vomit, did a material emetic come into his stomach which compels him to this anti-peristaltic movement? Was it not solely the dynamic effect of the nauseating aspect upon his imagination? And if one raises his arm, does it occur through a material visible instrument? a lever? Is it not solely the conceptual dynamic energy of his will which raises it?”
My Comments:
Listen to this statement, which amounts to a confession by Hahnemann: “think of dynamic energy as something non-corporeal, since we see daily phenomena which cannot be explained in any other manner”. That clearly explains how Hahnemann happened to “think of dynamic energy as something non-corporeal” It was only “since we see daily phenomena which cannot be explained in any other manner”! He was compelled to explain homeopathy using concepts of “dynamic energy” and “vital force”, only because he could not explain the phenomena of cure he observed, using “any other manner”! This statement constitutes a great historical truth.
In my opinion, foot note of aphorism 11 is a severe self-insult Hahnemann inflicted upon his own credibility, as it contains a lot of most irrational and unscientific statements that reflects the limitations of scientific knowledge available to him.
Please read carefully the following statements I quoted from this most unscientific and most unwanted foot-note:
“Our earth, by virtue of a hidden invisible energy, carries the moon around her”
“moon raises our northern seas to flood tide and again correspondingly lowers them to ebb by a hidden invisible energy”
“we see numerous other events about us as results of the action of one substance on another substance without being able to recognize a sensible connection between cause and effect.”
“calls such effects dynamic, virtual, that is, such as result from absolute, specific, pure energy and action of the one substance upon the other substance.”
“For instance, the dynamic effect of the sick-making influences upon healthy man, as well as the dynamic energy of the medicines upon the principle of life in the restoration of health is nothing else than infection and so not in any way material, not in any way mechanical. “
“the energy of a magnet attracting a piece of iron or steel is not material, not mechanical.”
“the piece of iron is attracted by one pole of the magnet, but how it is done is not seen.”
“The magnet draws to itself and this acts upon the piece of iron or upon a steel needle by means of a purely immaterial invisible, conceptual, inherent energy, that is, dynamically, and communicates to the steel needle the magnetic energy equally invisibly (dynamically).”
“a child with small-pox or measles communicates to a near, untouched healthy child in an invisible manner (dynamically) the small-pox or measles, that is, infects it at a distance without anything material from the infective child going or capable of going to the one to be infected. A purely specific conceptual influence communicated to the near child small-pox or measles in the same way as the magnet communicated to the near needle the magnetic property.”
“Substances, which are used as medicines, are medicines only in so far as they possess each its own specific energy to alter the well-being of man through dynamic, conceptual influence, by means of the living sensory fibre, upon the conceptual controlling principle of life “
“The medicinal property of those material substances which we call medicines proper, relates only to their energy to call out alterations in the well-being of animal life.”
“Only upon this conceptual principle of life, depends their medicinal health-altering, conceptual (dynamic) influence, just as the nearness of a magnetic pole can communicate only magnetic energy to the steel, namely, by a kind of infection.”
“every special medicinal substance alters through a kind of infection, that well-being of man in a peculiar manner exclusively its own and not in a manner peculiar to another medicine, as certainly as the nearness of the child ill with small-pox will communicate to a healthy child only small-pox and not measles. “
“These medicines act upon our well-being wholly without communication of material parts of the medicinal substances, thus dynamically, as if through infection”
“That smallest dose can therefore contain almost entirely only the pure, freely-developed, conceptual medicinal energy, and bring about only dynamically such great effects as can never be reached by the crude medicinal substances itself taken in large doses”
“It is not in the corporal atoms of these highly dynamized medicines, nor their physical or mathematical surfaces that the medicinal energy is found. “
“there lies invisible in the moistened globule or in its solution, an unveiled, liberated, specific, medicinal force contained in the medicinal substance which acts dynamically by contact with the living animal fibre upon the whole organism (without communicating to it anything material however highly attenuated) and acts more strongly the more free and more immaterial the energy has become through the dynamization.”
“If one looks upon something nauseous and becomes inclined to vomit, did a material emetic come into his stomach which compels him to this anti-peristaltic movement? Was it not solely the dynamic effect of the nauseating aspect upon his imagination?”
“And if one raises his arm, does it occur through a material visible instrument? a lever? Is it not solely the conceptual dynamic energy of his will which raises it?”
IF YOU READ ALL THESE SENTENCES I QUOTED FROM ABOVE FOOT NOTE, YOU WILL REALIZE WHY I CONSIDER THIS FOOT NOTE AS A SELF-INFLICTED INSULT UP ON CREDENTIALS OF OUR MASTER.
Organon : Aphorism 12 : Sixth Edition:
“It is the morbidly affected vital energy alone that produces disease, so that the morbid phenomena perceptible to our senses express at the same time all the internal change, that is to say, the whole morbid derangement of the internal dynamis; in a word, they reveal the whole disease; consequently, also, the disappearance under treatment of all the morbid phenomena and of all the morbid alterations that differ from the healthy vital operations, certainly affects and necessarily implies the restoration of the integrity of the vital force and, therefore, the recovered health of the whole organism.
Foot notes:- How the vital force causes the organism to display morbid phenomena, that is, how it produces disease, it would be of no practical utility to the physician to know, and will forever remain concealed from him; only what it is necessary for him to know of the disease and what is fully sufficient for enabling him to cure it, has the Lord of life revealed to his senses”
My Comments:
Regarding the question “how vital force causes disease”, Hahnemann declares “it would be of no practical utility to the physician to know, and will forever remain concealed”. Up on god, he says the physician should try to know only “what it is necessary for him to know of the disease and what is fully sufficient for enabling him to cure it”! Lazy and dogmatic homeopaths love to quote this statement frequently to cover up their inability to answer “how homeopathy works”. According to them, our master has eternally forbidden us from asking such questions!
Organon : Aphorism 13:
“Therefore disease (that does not come within the province of manual surgery) considered, as it is by the allopathists, as a thing separate from the living whole, from the organism and its animating vital force, and hidden in the interior, be it ever so subtle a character, is an absurdity, that could only be imagined by minds of a materialistic stamp, and has for thousands of years given to the prevailing system of medicine all those pernicious impulses that have made it a truly mischievous (non-healing) art.”
My comments:
Hahnemann considers asking questions about the inner processes of disease is an “absurdity” “imagined by minds of a materialistic stamp”, and it is this “materialistic mind” that made “the prevailing system of medicine” “a truly mischievous (non-healing) art.”
Organon : Aphorism 14 : Sixth Edition:
“There is, in the interior of man, nothing morbid that is curable and no invisible morbid alteration that is curable which does not make itself known to the accurately observing physicians by means of morbid signs and symptoms – an arrangement in perfect conformity with the infinite goodness of the all-wise Preserver of human life.”
My comments:
“”There is, in the interior of man, nothing morbid that is curable and no invisible morbid alteration that is curable which does not make itself known to the accurately observing physicians by means of morbid signs and symptoms”- It is a correct statement even valid from modern scientific point of view, even if we discard the vitalistic interpretations of Hahnemann.
Organon : Aphorism 15 : Sixth Edition:
“The affection of the morbidly deranged, spirit-like dynamis (vital force) that animates our body in the invisible interior, and the totality of the outwardly cognizable symptoms produced by it in the organism and representing the existing malady, constitute a whole; they are one and the same. The organism is indeed the material instrument of the life, but it is not conceivable without the animation imparted to it by the instinctively perceiving and regulating dynamis, just as the vital force is not conceivable without the organism, consequently the two together constitute a unity, although in thought our mind separates this unity into two distinct conceptions for the sake of easy comprehension.”
My comments:
I would suggest to modify this aphorism as follows: “”The affection of the morbidly deranged molecular level vital processes, and the totality of the outwardly cognizable symptoms produced by it in the organism and representing the existing malady, constitute a whole; they are one and the same. The molecular processes in the organism are indeed the material basis of the phenomenon life.
Organon : Aphorism 16 : Sixth Edition:
“Our vital force, as a spirit-like dynamis, cannot be attacked and affected by injurious influences on the healthy organism caused by the external inimical forces that disturb the harmonious play of life, otherwise than in a spirit-like (dynamic) way, and in like manner, all such morbid derangements (diseases) cannot be removed from it by the physician in any other way than by the spirit-like (dynamic1, virtual) alterative powers of the serviceable medicines acting upon our spirit-like vital force, which perceives them through the medium of the sentient faculty of the nerves everywhere present in the organism, so that it is only by their dynamic action on the vital force that remedies are able to re-establish and do actually re-establish health and vital harmony, after the changes in the health of the patient cognizable by our senses (the totality of the symptoms) have revealed the disease to the carefully observing and investigating physician as fully as was requisite in order to enable him to cure it.
Foot notes:- Most severe disease may be produced by sufficient disturbance of the vital force through the imagination and also cured by the same means.”
My Comments:
Hahnemann says: “alterative powers of the serviceable medicines acting upon our spirit-like vital force, which perceives them through the medium of the sentient faculty of the nerves everywhere present in the organism”. According to this view, homeopathic potentized drugs act through “sentient nerves”. But research works proved otherwise. Researchers have proved that potentized drugs act even up on in vitro biological samples which do not contain any ‘sentient nerves’ or nerve cells. There are enough scientific evidences now to prove that potentized drugs act up on biological molecules- not merely ‘sentient nerves’.
Hahnemann’s statement “disease may be produced by sufficient disturbance of the vital force through the imagination and also cured by the same means” actually explains the phenomena of so-called psychosomatic diseases, which are well explained by biochemistry, without any involvement of vital force theory. According to scientific view, “imaginations’ and “emotoions” are not “non-material” What we call ’emotions’ and ‘sensations’ are actually very complex biochemical processes happening in our brain. There is nothing ‘immaterial’ in ’emotions’ and other mental processes. During those biochemical processes, different types of chemical molecules are synthesized and utilized by the central nervous system, such as hormones, cytokines, neuro-mediators and neurotransmitters etc. What we call ‘bad effects’ of emotions are actually the delayed, off-target or rebound chemical actions of these biochemical molecules. Biochemistry can explain such phenomena without any involvement of any ‘immaterial’ or ‘dynamic’ vital force.
REDEFINING HOMEOPATHY 