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Odic force

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The Odic force (also called Od [õd], Odyle, Önd, Odes, Odylic, Odyllic, or Odems) is the name given in the mid-19th century to a hypothetical vital energy or life force by Baron Carl von Reichenbach. Von Reichenbach coined the name from that of the Norse god Odin in 1845.

1 History
2 Scientific basis
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

History

Siegfried Adolf Kummer, in his 1932 book Heilige Runenmacht referred to Odin as the 'Odbringer', or 'bringer of Od': Odin der Odbringer, Odebar (der Storch), der die Kinder bringt" [Odin the Odbringer, Odebar (the stork), who brings children] so Odin was seen as the bringer of life itself. As von Reichenbach was investigating the manner in which the human nervous system could be affected by various substances, he was led to conceive the existence of a new force allied to electricity, magnetism, and heat, a force which he thought was radiated by most substances, and to the influence of which different persons are variously sensitive. He named this vitalist concept Odic force. Proponents say that Odic force permeates all plants, animals, and humans. Believers in Odic force said that it is visible in total darkness as colored auras surrounding living things, crystals, and magnets, but that viewing it requires hours first spent in total darkness, and that not everyone has the ability to see it. They also said that it resembles the eastern concepts ch'i and prana. However, they regarded the Od, not as associated with breath (like India's Prana and the Ki or "Qi" of Eastern martial arts), but rather mainly with claimed pseudo-electromagnetic fields. Von Reichenbach did not tie Odic force into other vitalist theories. Baron von Reichenbach expounded the concept of Odic force in detail in a book-length article, Researches on Magnetism, Electricity, Heat and Light in their Relations to Vital Forces, which anomalously appeared in a special issue of a respected scientific journal, Annalen der Chemie und Physik. He said that (1) the Odic force had a positive and negative flux, and a light and dark side. (2) Individuals could forcefully "emanate" it, particularly from the hands, mouth, and forehead. (3) Odic force had many possible applications. The Odic force was conjectured to explain the phenomenon of hypnotism. In Britain an impetus was given to this view of the subject, following the translation of Reichenbach's Researches, by a professor of chemistry at the University of Edinburgh. These later researches tried to show many of the Odic phenomena to be of the same nature as those described previously by Franz Mesmer, and even long before Mesmer's time by Swedenborg.

Scientific basis

Von Reichenbach hoped to develop a scientific proof for a universal life force, however his experiments relied not on scientific instruments but on perceptions reported by individuals claimed to be psychically sensitive or psycho-kinetically adept. The "sensitives," young women recruited from the poorer social classes, worked in total or near-total darkness, and were forerunners of the Spirit Mediums who appeared all over Europe 10 years later, in the 1850s. The Odic force found no favor among mainstream scientists, and belief in it survives today as one among many concepts of spiritual energies associated with living things. The Odic force has been mentioned frequently in European books on dowsing, such as Reveal the Power of the Pendulum, by Karl Spiesberger. More recently, it has been adopted by some New Age groups.

References

Jastrow, Joseph, Error and Eccentricity in Human Belief, NY, Dover Publications, 1962; NY, Appleton Century Crofts, 1935, under the title Wish and Wisdom, Episodes in the Vagaries of Belief; see pp. 341-349. No ISBN.