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Poll Summary #2: The Concept of the Vital
Force
When you explain homeopathy to people for the first time,
do you mention "The Vital Force"?
Yes (45.9 %) 61 votes
No (29.3 %) 39 votes
Occasionally (21.8 %) 29 votes
What's that? (3.0 %) 4 votes
Total votes #: 133
To look at the full results for this poll,
click
here
It’s comforting to see how many respondents found the concept
of the Vital Force to be so important as to require explanation
to those who seek to learn about homeopathy, even for treatment
or the sake of discussion. Those respondents who mention the vital
force list a variety of reasons and methods for conveying the important
concept. Here are a few quotes from our “Yes” responses:
From Marta Eugenia Matamoros (1/23/2006)
I usually explain Vital Force to my patients
as an energy which usually is in equilibrium but looses it for reasons
related to mental and emotional distresses. When this equilibrium
is lost, the organism searches its restoration and shows symptoms
which are like the mirror of the place where the equilibrium is
trying to recover. I also tell them the Vital Force is like electricity
which we can not see, but is there and flows through paths in our
body which are the Chinese meridians and sometimes looses its way,
producing different symptoms. I always mention the Vital force to
them because it is the vehicle by which homeopathy cures.
Dr.Gary Stier, O.M.D., writes (1/23/2006):
Yes, I discuss the concept of the 'Vital
Force' with patients because I believe that it is Key to their Understanding
of how Homeopathy can help them.
Additionally, it frequently offers an alternative
diagnosis and prognosis paradigm which better explains how and why
their health condition or disease developed initially, and why the
mainstream Medical Management with Pharmaceutical Drugs and/or the
Surgical Management provided by Allopathic Physicians failed to
resolve the condition, or offered only temporary amelioration of
the presenting symptoms, but surfaced again later on...oftentimes
worse than before!
In one of two examples of “simplicity”, Latifeh Behra
(1/22/2006) writes:
I explain vital force for them and most
of them are interested in it and want to know more.
Bonnie Rotenberg (2/5/2006) provides another example of simplicity
in her comment:
I explain it as that 'thing' that exists in me this moment as I'm
sitting here and does not if I died in the next moment.
Others write about making the concept accessible by referring
to better-known parallel concepts, such as the Chi in Chinese medicine;
or talk about explaining it “because it is true”, or
because it provides an understanding of disease that no other medical
system can match.
In the “No” responses, comments often addressed the
inaccessibility of the concept to first-time learners. Priyanka
Jadhav writes that she believes the term “Vital Force”
shows a lack of understanding in itself. In her comment of 2/8/2006,
she writes:
No, I don't mention people about vital force.
It’s very hard for people to understand and moreover accept
the concept of vital force. I think at the time of Dr. Hahnemann,
science and technology was not so advanced so he used the term,
now with so much of technological advances, I think we can find
the answer and much research is necessary in this field to find
an appropriate answer.
Others, like Peter Darashah (1/24/2006) state simply:
I find it is more than enough to get through
the explanation of homeopathic symptoms and how the remedies work
in accordance with the Law of Similimums than to introduce the etherial!!
The “Occasionally” comments were very similar in that
those who answered this way seem to “choose” a time
when the explanation will be appropriate or understood or even worthwhile
for the patient to hear. Here is one comment by Jamie Taylor,
underlining once again how the individualization process must also
apply in our readiness to “teach” others about homeopathy:
As in my practice so in my private life,
I always try to assess before immediately talking about the role
of the Vital Force within health. So there are some for whom this
would be a place to ridicule Homeopathy and therefore it is better
left unsaid.
There are those who want to understand more.
It is always better to give a little and then see if more is wanted
rather than "throwing pearls to swine" as Paracelsus warned.
I always strive not to give someone more
than their appetite. To those who are still hungry, I will give
more. To those who feel they are satisfied I will not force feed
them more. Once they have digested what I have told them then they
do sometimes come back for more.
So I always try to individualize, not just force my knowledge on
everyone because they should know about it, as I did when a zealous
student!!!
Though the concept is fundamental to what we need to know as practitioners,
it may not be information that is so readily accepted or even needed
by our patients—the kind of information that has to find an
appropriate time and place to be of any value to someone else. The
idea of the Vital Force sounds as solid as the earth to me, when
I think of it as Bonnie Rotenberg described it, or, more appropriately
the way Hahnemann described it (as the thing which heals, as, without
it, the body would simply be dead). But it is quite a foreign one
to introduce to populations already so conditioned by the “biochemical”
paradigm we’re all taught not to question all our lives.
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