THE VITAL FORCE AND THE PREPARATION OF THE MEDICINES
I. The Vital Force
The vital force is a non-material essence that animates all living organisms. For Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, all health and all disease depend on the condition of this vital force. He maintains, in his most important work, Organon of Medicine, that in health the vital force, “rules with unbounded sway, and retains all parts of the organism in admirable, harmonious, vital operation…”
To get an idea of the vital force, imagine a three-dimensional duplicate body which is so very fine and light that it can neither be seen nor sensed. Without it, the chemical-physical body would cease all functioning.
In the Organon of Medicine, he writes:
“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 principle) which animates the material organism in health and disease.”
Hahnemann’s idea was that when the vital force is disrupted then uncomfortable and unwanted sensations appear which we call symptoms. Symptoms, for Hahnemann and all of us who follow his ideas, are signposts or markers giving us valuable clues as to the state of the vital force. We believe that a headache, for example, is happening in two places at the same time.
It is happening biochemically within the brain.
It is happening as a disturbance of the vital energy that surrounds and penetrates the head.
Hahnemann put it this way (also from the Organon):
“The affection of the morbidly deranged, spirit-like dyanamis (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.”
In other words, when the vital force becomes disturbed or “deranged” in the interior of the body it produces symptoms in the body and mind. These symptoms and the disturbance of the vital force are one and the same. Whenever a person experiences a pain or abnormal sensation, there is a corresponding disturbance in the vital force.
When it comes to curing an illness, homeopaths believe the correct homeopathic medicine acts first and foremost on this disturbed vital energy, putting it into order. As the vital energy returns to order, it, in turn, affects the biochemical processes going on inside the body, in this case the head, returning them to normal and the headache pains cease.
Why do we believe our medicines act principally on the vital force and not on the physical body? It is because of the way they are prepared. We know they cannot contain any molecules. If they contain no molecules they cannot interact bio-chemically as do drugs. They contain no molecules because they are diluted so many times that—by calculation—we know there are no molecules remaining.
2. Preparation of Homeopathic Medicines
To make a plant or herb into a homeopathic medicine, the whole plant is cleaned and then placed into a vat filled with 190 proof alcohol (95% alcohol by volume). The plant is left in the alcohol solution for several weeks. During this time chemicals composing the plant are released into the alcohol. After straining the dregs, a colored solution remains that is full of the chemicals that made up the plant. This colored solution we call a ‘Mother Tincture.’
Drops of a mother tincture can be given to patients, but this is seldom done by homeopaths who prefer to dilute the mother tincture.
There are two scales for diluting. One is the decimal scale, abbreviated as an ‘x’, and the centesimal scale, abbreviated as a ‘c’.
The decimal scale = one-tenth; the centesimal scale = one hundredth.
Using the decimal or ‘x’ scale one takes the mother tincture and puts one drop into a vial. Then nine drops of pure water are added. The vial is then capped or stoppered and the mixture is ‘succussed’ which means shaken vigorously either by hand or by machine. At this point we have a one-tenth dilution. A drop of this solution is placed in a second vial and nine drops of water are added. Again, this mixture is succussed. We now have a one hundredth dilution. Done a third time, we have a one thousandth dilution, a fourth time a one ten thousandth solution, a fifth time a one one hundred thousandth solution and done a sixth time we have a solution containing one part in a million.
This procedure is known as a serial dilution. With each dilution there is succession. Dilution + Succussion = Potentized substance.
All homeopathic medicines are potentized. When the centesimal or ‘c’ scale is used the numbers rapidly become unmanageably large so we use a code. A 6c potentized substance means it has been diluted one to one hundred six times. A 30c = the one to one hundred dilution has been carried out 30 times. A 200c = 200 dilutions. Some homeopathic medicines are diluted a thousand times and more.
After 23 dilutions, using the decimal scale, it can be calculated
that the solution contains no molecules. For those who remember chemistry, we have diluted beyond the negative of “Avogadro’s Number” = 6.02 x 10–23.
Knowing—by calculation—that our medicines contain no molecules and observing that they, indeed, do act curatively, we postulate the medicine must be acting in some way other than biochemically. We believe the medicine acts in a subtle way on what Hahnemann called the vital force. By restoring the vital force to integrity the physical and mental entity we call the body simultaneously begins to proceed toward health.