Life force

The veins of skin are organized along the same lines as the arteries in that there are both subpapillary and subdermal plexuses [11]. The main arteriole communication to these is the capillary bed. Copious blood is passed through capillaries when the core body is either feverish or overheated, far more than needed to sustain the life force of the epidermis, and this rich perfusion lends a red coloration to skin. When there is opposite physiological need, the capillary bed is short-circuited as blood is passed directly into the venous drainage by way of the arteriovenous anastomoses. Fair skin noticeably blanches when this occurs. These mechanisms act in part to regulate body temperature and blood pressure. 

Using the word occult to describe recently discovered energies like X-rays, of course, invokes both its meaning as hidden from view and its supernatural connotation. Moreover, it aligns the kind of occult forces Crowley describes in Moonchild with any other physical energy or force known to mainstream science, and draws upon the still scientifically debated theories of a life force posited by tum-of-the-century vitalism. 

Vitalism occupied the epistemological gap in life science that began to close definitively only with the emergence in molecular genetics of a theory that finally clarified the mechanisms that sorted and ordered material elements into living organisms, that produced the invariant replication of species, and that enabled the retention of evolutionary variations as they randomly arose. The doctrine of the life force began with the reasonable idea that the new chemistry of its... 

Blavatsky s main polemical purpose in Isis Unveiled was to undermine the materialist nature of Darwinian evolution and to build a spiritual system based upon an evolutionary theory revamped to include the life force and spiritual goals. She defined the terms of her argument by articulating an emana-tionist perspective against an orthodox evolutionist interpretation ... 

Across her work from Isis Unveiled through The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky posited a scheme of spiritual evolution not only of mankind but also of the inanimate world and the animal and vegetable kingdoms, all of which are pervaded by a life force. She chose a Tibetan word, Fohat, to name this life... 

The sexing of UPAs as male and female, with the traditional positive/ negative characterization of the genders, makes the essence of matter a kind of subatomic sexual intercourse. Opposites attract and infuse each other with lines of life force pulsing in and out of them. Indeed, contraception at the subatomic level would have catastrophic consequences The UPA... 

Such a positive/negative flow of life force, stemming from electro-vitalism, became increasingly gendered during this period as it moved into medical discussions of gender difference (see Clarke 31). 

Indeed, the Theosophical infusion of matter with life, and the ability of life force and will to effect the changes in matter demanded by spiritual alchemy and occult chemistry, seemed to find some support from the newly discovered phenomenon of radiation. Besant s On the Watch-Tower column, for instance, noted with excitement an article on the origin of life by Butler Burke published in the Daily Chronicle in 1905. There, Burke noted that radium may be that state of matter that separates, or perhaps unites, the organic and the inorganic worlds, and that radioactivity endows matter with some of the properties of organic matter (quoted in [Besant] 1905a, 481). 

To punish Prometheus for his deceit and his fondness for humans, Zeus forbade men fire—a symbol of creative power, life force, and divine knowledge. But Prometheus would not let his children be 00) denied this greatest of gifts. He took a hollow reed, stole fire from Mount Olympus, and gave it to man. With this divine power, creativity, ingenuity, and culture flourished in the land of mortals. 

Upon completion, rest in the resulting sense of calmness, vitality, and well-being. Allow the life-force to nourish you on all levels. 

After Aristotle, the word synthesis is not found explicitly mentioned in the chemical literature until Dalton used it in his classical book. In the year 1808, Dalton (1766-1844) published his book A New System of Chemical Philosophy , the chapter IB of which is entitled On Chemical Synthesis . However, in the meantime the word synthesis had experienced a semantic change and acquired the modern meaning of forming a compound . There is, therefore, a time lapse of more than twenty centuries, in which the word synthesis was not mentioned by chemists, perhaps because all of them believed as Gerhardt (1816-1856) that "The chemist s activity is therefore exactly opposed to living nature the chemist bums, destroys and operates by analysis. Only the life force works by synthesis it builds up again the edifice tom down by chemical forces" [4], A better ecological manifesto would be... 

Ankh This is a popular talisman. Some say that the image is derived from a sandal strap or a vertebra, but no one is sure. What is certain is that it symbolizes life. In Egyptian art every god can be seen carrying it with his or her hand holding the loop like a handle. Egyptians wore it to enhance the life force. 

Libido. Conscious or unconscious sexual desire creative energy. Any passionate form of life force. 

Strassman speculates that DMT, released by the pineal after death, could diffuse to nearby brain areas, allowing the soul to transit. His hypothesis is that the pineal gland produces psychedelic amounts of DMT at extraordinary times in our lives and at death. As we die, our life force leaves the body through the pineal gland, which releases a flood of DMT. Pineal DMT may be produced for a few hours even after we are dead, which could affect any lingering consciousness. The pineal gland is close to the brain s visual, auditory, and emotional centers and thus would be strategically positioned to alter our inner experiences. 

Steiner also emphasized the oneness of the spiritual and material worlds and the importance of balancing cosmic forces. Such lingo is not unusual in metaphysical movements, but anthroposophy goes beyond mystical exhortations. Steiner had some, let us say, unusual ideas about how the spiritual and the material worlds are linked. The soil, he said, is a living organism with a life force that we must replenish constantly. Agricultural chemicals destroy the soil, so we have to nourish it with special composts and sprays in order to make it more spiritually balanced. ... 

Spiritual existential level - pure consciousness of being Astral - energetic flow of psychic energy, drama Etheric - weaving into life forces Physical - encountering the emblem outside ourselves... 

The Peacock s Tail is the central experience to this process, the point of inner transformation, which arises from a true consciousness of the astral body. We note also that the other stages mirror each other. Thus the Black Crow and the Phoenix are related as beginning and end of the process, but in a deeper sense they are both connected with death-processes. The dying to the senses of the Black Crow stage is ultimately transformed into the triumph over the death process of the physical, that is pictured by the Phoenix. There is a further mirroring of the White Swan and Pelican stages. The White Swan is an experience of the etheric forces in one s being, and this is later transformed into a conscious mastery and outward expression of these life forces. 

T ai chi chuan, also known as t ai chi, is an ancient Chinese system designed to develop chi within the body. Lao Tzu is the founder of Taoism. Both t ai chi and chi kung are based on the Taoist principles of perfect harmony between the yin and yang energies of the body and the smooth flow of the life force known as chi. It can be used to rejuvenate, to heal and prevent illness and injuries, and also to lead to spiritual enlightenment (Thomas, 1997 and General References). 

Chi in Chinese medicine, known in India as prana (life force) and in Japan as ki, gives us a measure of the vitality of a person, object, or state. 

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