Life Force

The life force is a force that connects living entities to one another with interactions that cannot be explained by the four scientifically recognized forces. Some examples are shown in the box to the right.

The primary force in our lives is electromagnetic. It is responsible for effects as diverse as sending a picture from the transmitter to your television, running the computer you are reading this on, providing all of the energy required to run your physical body, and transmitting sound waves. I expect that we will discover that the life force provides similarly diverse effects. Gravity, which is the other force we experience, seems to just pull masses together. It's pretty boring by comparison, but that may be because we don't understand gravity yet.

There are many aspects of the life force that deserve study. Here's a beginning list:

• How does the life force interact with the other forces to produce something our physical bodies can sense?
• How fast does the life force travel?
• How does the life force fall off as a function of distance?
• What techniques are available to measure the strength of the life force?
• What is there in us that experiences the life force?
• Can the life force explain the observations in the box on the right?

Other names for the life force

Some of the other terms for life force are given in the box on the right. Other names include bioenergy and Rupert Sheldrake's morphic resonance. Wilhelm Reich used the terms bion and orgone.

Force and energy

We must be careful to distinguish between force and energy. Of the two, energy is more mutable, showing up as heat, light, noise, movement, and even the potential energy of being in a force field such as gravity. Force is more fundamental and defines the interactions between objects/entities or the cause of a change in an object/entity. For those who understand dimensional analysis, I will remind you that (in metric units) force is g*cm/(sec*sec). Energy is g*cm*cm/(sec*sec).

Do we need another force?

It's hard to explain someone floating in the air without having to look for another force to counteract gravity. If the consistent use of another force can unify these "mysteries" and help us understand them, it is worth changing the current Western view of the world.

Historically, one of the most serious problems in these research areas has been the tendency to try to explain what is observed using one of the four forces currently recognized (almost always electromagnetic). Unfortunately, electromagnetic force is very well understood and there just doesn't seem to be a way it can explain what people are seeing. Recently there has been a trend toward using quantum mechanics as an explanation for some of these phenomena. Quantum mechanics predicts some physical events well, but it has other problems that seem to make it unsuitable as an explanation for the phenomena that life force research is interested in. In any case, it is not a force and some sort of force is required, too.

The result of using questionable physics to explain events is that the observations are rejected because they are "impossible." I believe many of the observations are accurate and what is required is a different way to understand them. So I propose looking at a new force as a way to explain them.

Where the Life Force is Observed

• Martial Arts (It may be called ki, chi, qi, or other names, depending on the country of origin)
• Healing Arts (including qigong, reiki, shiatsu, and acupuncture)
• ESP (Connections between people that cannot be explained by the other forces.)
• Ghosts and Spirits (Ghostly manifestations such as visual presence, poltergeist activity, EMF readings, and voice recordings)
• Witches, Shamans, and Magic (The method of transmitting magic.)
• Reincarnation and Life after Death (The continuation of self after the death of the body.)
• Ecstatic Experiences (Usually religious. For example, Saint Joseph of Cupertino floating through the air and visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. D.D. Home, although not religious, may fit in here, too.)
• Faeries (The fae seem to have extraordinary control of the life force.)
• Cryptozoology (So many reports with so little physical evidence suggests non-physical entities may be involved.)
• UFOs and Crop Circles (Hoaxers aside, many of the reports on UFOs are easier to explain with life force than with conventional physics.)