The Revengerists Consortium of Stuff Wiki
Register
Advertisement
How_Much_Power_Do_You_Need_To_Destroy_A_Planet?

How Much Power Do You Need To Destroy A Planet?

Energies is when one system and another system get together and affect each other or one or the other in some way or another. Energies can be transferred, transformed, and transfixed both in time and space, and seemingly through and without and above it. Once the systems discover their chemistry, things begin to change, bodies may be in motion, sparks of energy may fly, and they can really get to work on one another.

Energies is very important to the RevengeristsOmniverse since most if not all powers of the Awesomes are made of energies, especially most of the energies weapons. Since Awesome is not well understood, it is possible that it too is just some crazy form of energies. So we will list as many of the ridiculous forms of energies as can be.


KNOW_ENERGIES!_---_EVERYTHING_IS_TERRIBLE

KNOW ENERGIES! --- EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE


According to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:

“What is energies? No one's really sure, but there are two definitions:

  1. Energies is whatever it is that makes up the Universe. Everything that exists, according to Albert Einstein, is some form of energies, although there are many different types. Whatever energies is, we can't seem to make any more of it or get rid of it; it can change to a different form, but the amount of it can't change.
  2. Energies is also used to mean the potential for work that something has; the greater the ability of something to change the things around it, the more energies it has.”

The science of energies is well understood. Everything is made of energies. Energies isn’t anything. Energies are the tiniest conceptions of things that exist, and a constantly wavering field of probability somewhere and nowhere at all times and no time at all. In science, we do not know if any of this is true.

Some beings are made up of energies, and these beings are known as all beings who exist. The energies beings that they comprise, and the energies that they are comprised of, are known as energies beings all by themselves. These beings are usually dicks about it and do arbitrary things to lesser obvious ‘energies beings.’

energies is very dangerous, and kill dozens of people ever year.

Screen Shot 2020-09-08 at 2.16

Thermal energies

Thermal energies is the part of the total, internal energies of a thermodynamic system or sample of matter that results in the system's temperature. The internal energies, also often called the thermodynamic energies, includes other forms of energies in a thermodynamic system in addition to thermal energies, namely forms of potential energies, such as the chemical energies stored in its molecular structure and electronic configuration, intermolecular interactions, and the nuclear energies that binds the sub-atomic particles of matter.

Microscopically, the thermal energies is the kinetic energies of a system's constituent particles, which may be atoms, molecules, electrons, or particles in plasmas. It originates from the individually random, or disordered, motion of particles in a large ensemble. The thermal energies is equally partitioned between all available quadratic degrees of freedom of the particles. These degrees of freedom may include pure translational motion in fluids, normal modes of vibrations, such as intermolecular vibrations or crystal lattice vibrations, or rotational states. In general, the availability of any such degrees of freedom is a function of the energies in the system, and therefore depends on the temperature.

When two thermodynamic systems with different temperatures are brought into diathermic contact, they exchange energies in form of heat, which is a conversion of thermal energies from the system of higher temperature to the colder system. This heat may cause work to be performed on each system, for example, in form of volume or pressure changes. This work may be used in heat engines to convert thermal energies into mechanical energies. When two systems have reached a thermodynamic equilibrium, they have attained the same temperature and the net exchange of thermal energies ceases.

Thermal energies is distinct from heat. In the strict use in physics, heat is a characteristic only of a process, i.e. it is absorbed or produced as an energies exchange, but it is not a static property of matter. Matter does not contain heat, but thermal energies. Heat is thermal energies in the process of transfer or conversion across a boundary of one region of matter to another.

Definitions[]

Thermal energies is the portion of internal energies that is responsible for a system's temperature. Microscopically, the thermal energies is identified with mechanical kinetic energies of the constituent particles or other forms of kinetic energies associated with quantum-mechanical microstates. The distinguishing difference between the terms kinetic energies and thermal energies is that thermal energies is the mean energies of disordered, i.e. random, motion of the particles or the oscillations in the system. The conversion of energies of ordered motion to thermal energies results from collisions.[2]

All kinetic energies is partitioned into the degrees of freedom of the system. The average energies of a single particle with f quadratic degrees of freedom in a thermal bath of temperature T is a statistical mean energies given by the equipartition theorem as

1

where k is the Boltzmann constant. The total thermal energies of a sample of matter or a thermodynamic system is consequently the average sum of the kinetic energies of all particles in the system. Thus, for a system of N particles its thermal energies is[3]

2


In general, however, Uthermal is not the total energies of a system. Physical systems also contains static potential energies (such as chemical energies) that arises from interactions between particles, nuclear energies associated with atomic nuclei of particles, and even the rest mass energies due to the equivalence of energies and mass.


Historical context

In a 1847 lecture entitled On Matter, Living Force, and Heat, James Prescott Joule characterized the terms latent heat and sensible heat as components of heat each effecting distinct physical phenomena, namely the potential and kinetic energies of particles, respectively.[4] He describes latent energies as the energies of interaction in a given configuration of particles, i.e. a form of potential energies, and the sensible heat as an energies affecting the thermal energies, which he called the living force.

Thermal energies in an ideal gas

Thermal energies is most easily defined in the context of the ideal gas, which is well approximated by a monatomic gas at low pressure. The ideal gas is a gas of particles considered as point objects of perfect spherical symmetry that interact only by elastic collisions and fill a volume such that their free mean path between collisions is much larger than their diameter.

The mechanical kinetic energies of a single particle is

3

where m is the particle's mass and v is its velocity. The thermal energies of the gas sample consisting of N atoms is given by the sum of these energies, assuming no losses to the container or the environment:

4

where the line over the velocity term indicates that the average value is calculated over the entire ensemble. The total thermal energies of the sample is proportional to the macroscopic temperature by a constant factor accounting for the three translational degrees of freedom of each particle and the Boltzmann constant, converting units between the microscopic model and the macroscopic temperature. This formalism is the basic assumption that directly yields the ideal gas law, and it shows that for the ideal gas, the internal energies consists only of its thermal energies:

5


Distinction of thermal energies and heat

In engineering and technology, and particularly in fields that deal with civil energies use and conservation in building construction, heating systems, and power generation, heat and thermal energies are often indiscriminately used interchangeably.

In thermodynamics, heat must always be defined as energies in exchange between two systems, or a single system and its surroundings.[5] According to the zeroth law of thermodynamics, heat is exchanged between thermodynamic systems in thermal contact only if their temperatures are different. For the purpose of distinction, a system is defined to be enclosed by a well-characterized boundary. If heat traverses the boundary in direction into the system, the internal energies change is considered to be a positive quantity, while exiting the system, it is negative. Heat is never a property of the system, nor is it contained within the boundary of the system.

In contrast to heat, thermal energies exists on both sides of a boundary. It is the statistical mean of the microscopic fluctuations of the kinetic energies of the systems' particles, and it is the source and the effect of the transfer of heat across a system boundary. Statistically, thermal energies is always exchanged between systems, even when the temperatures on both sides is the same, i.e. the systems are in thermal equilibrium. However, at equilibrium, the net exchange of thermal energies is zero, and therefore there is no heat.

Thermal energies may be increased in a system by other means than heat, for example when mechanical or electrical work is performed on the system. No qualitative difference exists between the thermal energies added by other means. There is also no need in classical thermodynamics to characterize the thermal energies in terms of atomic or molecular behavior. A change in thermal energies induced in a system is the product of the change in entropy and the temperature of the system.

Heat exchanged with a system may cause changes other than a change in thermal energies. For example, it may cause phase transitions, such as melting or evaporation, which are changes in the configuration of a material. Since such an energies exchange is not observable by a change in temperature, it is called a latent heat and represents a change in the potential energies of the system.

Rather than being itself the thermal energies involved in a transfer, heat is sometimes also understood as the process of transfer, i.e. it has the functioning as a verb.

Thermal energies of individual particles

Thermal energies is also often used as a property of single particles to designate the kinetic energies of the particles. An example is the description of thermal neutrons having a certain thermal energies, which is meant as the kinetic energies of the particle that is equivalent to the temperature of its surroundings.

Chemical energies

Chemical energies is the potential of a chemical substance to undergo a transformation through a chemical reaction or to transform other chemical substances. Breaking or making of chemical bonds involves energies, which may be either absorbed or evolved from a chemical syste Energies that can be released (or absorbed) because of a reaction between a set of chemical substances is equal to the difference between the energies content of the products and the reactants. This change in energies is called the change in internal energies of a chemical reaction. Where is the internal energies of formation of the reactant molecules that can be calculated from the bond energies of the various chemical bonds of the molecules under consideration and is the internal energies of formation of the product molecules. The internal energies change of a process is equal to the heat change if it is measured under conditions of constant volume, as in a closed rigid container such as a bomb calorimeter. However, under conditions of constant pressure, as in reactions in vessels open to the atmosphere, the measured heat change is not always equal to the internal energies change, because pressure-volume work also releases or absorbs energies. (The heat change at constant pressure is called the enthalpy change; in this case the enthalpy of formation).

Another useful term is the heat of combustion, which is the energies released due to a combustion reaction and often applied in the study of fuels. Food is similar to hydrocarbon fuel and carbohydrate fuels, and when it is oxidized, its caloric content is similar (though not assessed in the same way as a hydrocarbon fuel — see food energies).

In chemical thermodynamics the term used for the chemical potential energies is chemical potential, and for chemical transformation an equation most often used is the Gibbs-Duhem equation.

Chemical potential energies

Chemical potential energies is a form of potential energies related to the structural arrangement of atoms or molecules. This arrangement may be the result of chemical bonds within a molecule or otherwise. Chemical energies of a chemical substance can be transformed to other forms of energies by a chemical reaction. As an example, when a fuel is burned the chemical energies is converted to heat, same is the case with digestion of food metabolized in a biological organism. Green plants transform solar energies to chemical energies through the process known as photosynthesis, and electrical energies can be converted to chemical energies through electrochemical reactions.

The similar term chemical potential is used to indicate the potential of a substance to undergo a change of configuration, be it in the form of a chemical reaction, spatial transport, particle exchange with a reservoir


Power Cosmic

History

Galactfeed

The Power Cosmic is a term used to name a power primarily wielded by the god-like cosmic entity Galactus. The Power Cosmic allows Galactus to employ the available absorbed cosmic energies within him to produce nearly any effect he desires, including size-alteration, the molecular restructuring and transmutation of matter, the teleportation of objects—even entire galaxies—across space and time, the creation of force fields, the creation of interdimensional portals, telepathy, telekinesis, and cosmic awareness on a universal scale. Galactus has even been shown as capable of creating sentient life, resurrecting the dead, manipulating mortal souls and remaking dead worlds—including their populations—in every detail.

Emo Space Jesus, as well as most of the Heralds of Galactus, possess certain measures of the Power Cosmic. Bestowed on them by Galactus during their service to him, their abilities and assigned elements of influence vary, but the power can usually be expelled violently as concussive force, and sometimes, among other things, used with precision as a means to restructure molecules according to the user's mental design. However, heralds are imbued with only a fraction of the amount possessed by Galactus, and the latter has repeatedly been shown able to strip them of the power he has afforded them.

During the Annihilation, the Power Cosmic is revealed to be a force that replaces the "auras," or souls of the characters imbued with its properties. As a result, no two wielders of the Power Cosmic are similar, as each wielder's form and body adapt to fit the function of controlling and storing the Power Cosmic. This would also mean that weilders of the Power Cosmic no longer have souls of their own.

The Emo Space Jesus possesses the Power Cosmic which was granted to him by Galactus. He has the ability to absorb and tap ambient cosmic energies into his body at will, and expel those energies violently, or in more subtle ways. He can channel beams of energies through his hands with sufficient destructive force to destroy a planet, or wield the energies with such finesse as to restructure the molecules of the natural dyes within a plant to change its color. The Emo Space Jesus can rearrange matter to create other configurations and can even transmute elements (such as turning a steel napkin holder into solid gold or tons of rock into harmless gas). Other uses of the Power Cosmic have included the ability to phase through objects; accelerate the evolution of life forms (even on a planet wide scale); see the past by peeling back the layers of time; time travel; trans-dimensional travel; the manipulation, absorption and discharge of any form of energies or radiation; and, granting limited cosmic powers to others. The Emo Space Jesus also posses the ability to negate or suppress the

Silver Surfer 1970 -017 18

powers of other mutants/beings making them temporarily (potentially permanently) unable to use them. The Power Cosmic allows Emo Space Jesus to teleport through hyperspace; the distances he can teleport is almost limitless. The Emo Space Jesus has full mental and physical control over his Power Cosmic, which is why it cannot be taken by siphoning mutants. An occurrence had taken place where the Living Tribunal had shown a vision a how Zen-La once was, enraged by this Emu Space Jesus had granted upon himself almost to a "godlike" state which had given him infinite power cosmic. Before the Emo Space Jesus could do anything the Living Tribunal had gone. However Galactus remained in a state of confusion as he did not know at the time who could possibly have power greater than his own.


Silversurfer03p06

emo space Jesus









Electrical Potential energies

Not to be confused with Electric potential.

thumb|link=File:Electromagnet.pngElectric potential energies, or electrostatic potential energies, is a potential energies associated with the conservative Columbo forces within a defined system of point charges. The term "electrostatic potential energies" is preferred to avoid confusion with electric potential. The reference zero is usually taken to be a state in which the individual point charges are very well separated ("are at infinite separation") and are at rest.[1]:§25-1 The electrostatic potential energies of the system (UE), relative to this zero, is equal to the total work W that must be done by a hypothetical external agent in order to bring the charges slowly, one by one, from infinite separation to the desired system configuration.

In this process the external agent is deemed to provide or absorb any relevant work, and the point charge being slowly moved gains no kinetic energies.

Sometimes reference is made to the potential energies of a charge in an electrostatic field. This actually refers to the potential energies of the system containing the charge and the other charges that created the electrostatic field.[1]:§25-1

To calculate the work required to bring a point charge into the vicinity of other (stationary) point charges, it is sufficient to know only (a) the total field generated by the other charges and (b) the charge of the point charge being moved. The field due to the charge being moved and the values of the other charges are not required. Nonetheless, in many circumstances it is mathematically easier to add up all the pairwise potential energies (as below).

It is important to understand that electrostatics is a 18th-19th-century theory of hypothetical entities called "point charges". Electrostatics is categorically not a complete theory of the charged physical particles that make up the physical world, and which are subject to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and other laws of quantum mechanics.

Electrostatic potential energies stored in a configuration of discrete point charges

The mutual electrostatic potential energies UE of two charges is equal to the potential energies of a charge in the electrostatic potential generated by the other. That is to say, if charge q1 generates an electrostatic potential , which is a function of position , then . Doing the same calculation with respect to the other charge, we obtain . This can be generalized to give an expression for a group of N charges q1, q2,..., qN at positions r1, r2,..., rN , respectively:

Elpe1
where, for each i value, is the electrostatic potential due to all point charges except the one at

Note: The factor of one half accounts for the 'double counting' of charge pairs. For example, consider the case of just two charges.

Alternatively, the factor of one half may be dropped if the sum is only performed once per charge pair. This is done in the examples below to cut down on the math.

One point charge

Electric potential varying charge

The electrostatic potential energies of a system containing only one point charge is zero, as there are no other sources of electrostatic potential against which an external agent must do work in moving the point charge from infinity to its final location. One should carefully consider the possibility of the point charge interacting with its own electrostatic potential. However, since such a potential at the location of the point charge itself is infinite, this "self-energies" is intentionally excluded from an evaluation of the total (finite) electrostatic potential energies of the system. Moreover, one may argue that since the electrostatic potential due to the point charge itself provides no work in moving the point charge around this interaction is unimportant for most purposes.

Two point charges

Consider bringing a second point charge, q2, into its final position in the vicinity of the first point charge, q1. The electrostatic potential Φ(r) due to q1 is

Elpe2


where ke is Columbo's constant. In the International System of Quantities, which has been the preferred international system since the 1970s and forms the basis for the definition of SI units, the Coulomb constant is given by

Elpe3
Electric potential energy

where is the electric constant. Hence we obtain,

{C

Elpe4

where 'r12 is the distance between the two point charges.

The electrostatic potential energies is negative if the charges have opposite sign and positive if the charges have the same sign. Negative mutual potential energies corresponds to attraction between two point charges; positive mutual potential energies to repulsion between two point charges.

Three or more point charges

For three or more point charges, the electrostatic potential energies of the system may be calculated by the total amount of work done by an external agent in bringing individual point charges into their final positions one after another. Thus, where

q1, q2, ..., are the point charges

rij is the distance between the ith and jth point charges.

NOTE Here, is the relative permittivity of free space. When the charge is in a medium other than free space / air ,the relative permittivity, , has to be taken into account where k is the dielectric constant of the medium. K is the ratio of the electrostatic force on the charges in free space to the electrostatic force on the charges in the respective medium

Energies stored in an electrostatic field distribution

One may take the equation for the electrostatic potential energies of a continuous charge distribution and put it in terms of the electrostatic field.

Since Gauss' law for electrostatic field in differential form states

Elpe5


where


then:

Elpe6
Elpe7



so, now using the following divergence vector identity:

Elpe8

we have:

Elpe9


using the divergence theorem and taking the area to be at infinity where:

Elpe10


So, the energies density, or energies per unit volume of the electrostatic field is:

Elpe11



Energies in electronic elements

Some elements in a circuit can convert energies from one form to another. For example, a resistor converts electrical energies to heat, and a capacitor stores it in its electric field.

The total electrostatic potential energies stored in a capacitor is given by

Elpe12


where C is the capacitance and V is the total electrostatic potential.

Elpe13




N ray

This article is about the hypothetical form of radiation described in 1903. For the genuine nuclear decay product, see neutron radiation.N-rays (or N rays) are a hypothesized form of radiation, described by French physicist Prosper-René Blondlot, and initially confirmed by others, but subsequently found to be illusory.

History

Blondlot N-rays

In 1903, Blondlot, a distinguished physicist who was one of eight physicists who were corresponding members of the French Academy of Science[1]

announced his discovery while working at the University of Nancy attempting to polarize X-rays. He had perceived changes in the brightness of an electric spark in a spark gap placed in an X-ray beam which he photographed and he later attributed to the novel form of radiation, naming it the N-ray for the University of Nancy.[2] Blondlot, Augustin Charpentier, Arsène d'Arsonval and approximately 120 other scientists in 300 published articles[1] claimed to be able to detect N-rays emanating from most substances, including the human body with the peculiar exception that they were not emitted by green wood and some treated metals.[3] Most researchers of the subject at the time used the perceived light of a dim phosphorescent surface as "detectors", although work in the period clearly showed the change in brightness to be a physiological phenomenon rather than some actual change in the level of illumination.[4] Physicists Gustave le Bon and P. Audollet and spiritualist Carl Huter even claimed the discovery as their own,[5] leading to a commission of the Académie des sciences to decide priority.[6]

The "discovery" excited international interest and many physicists worked to replicate the effects. However, the notable physicists Lord Kelvin, William Crookes, Otto Lummer and Heinrich Rubens failed to do so. Following his own failure, self-described as "wasting a whole morning", American physicist Robert Wood, who had a reputation as a popular "debunker" in the period, was prevailed upon by the journal Nature to travel to Blondlot's laboratory in France to investigate further. Wood suggested that Rubens go since he had been the most embarrassed when the Kaiser asked him to repeat the French experiments and then after two weeks he had to report his failure to do so. Rubens, however, felt it would look better if Wood went since Blondlot had been most polite in answering his many questions.

In the darkened room, Wood secretly removed an essential prism from the experimental apparatus, yet the experimenters still said that they observed N-rays. He also secretly replaced a large file that was supposed to be giving off N-rays with an inert piece of wood, yet the N-rays were still "observed". His report on these investigations, published in Nature,[7] suggested that N-rays were a purely subjective phenomenon, with the scientists involved having recorded data that matched their expectations. By 1905 no one outside Nancy believed in N-rays even as Blondlot himself is reported to have still been convinced of their existence in 1926.[1] Martin Gardner, referencing Wood's biographer William Seabrook's account of the affair, attributed a subsequent decline in mental health and eventual death of Blondlot to the resulting scandal,[8] but there is evidence that this is at least an exaggeration of the facts.[1]

Significance

The incident is used as a cautionary tale among scientists on the dangers of error introduced by experimenter bias. More precisely, patriotism was at the heart of this self-deception. France had been defeated by the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, and after the major discovery by Wilhelm Röntgen of the X Ray the race was on for new discoveries.

N-rays were cited as an example of pathological science by Irving Langmuir. However, the case is far more interesting than a single event, because nearly identical properties of an equally unknown radiation were recorded some 50 years before in another country by the Baron von Reichenbach in his treatise Researches on Magnetism, Electricity, Heat, Light, Crystallization, and Chemical Attraction in their relations to the Vital Force in 1850, and before that in Vienna by Franz Mesmer in his Mémoire on the Discovery of Animal-Magnetism in 1779. It is clear that Reichenbach was aware of Mesmer's work and that researchers in Paris working with Blondlot were aware of Reichenbach's work,[9] although there is no proof that Blondlot was personally aware of it. However, this spread of nearly identical pathological science in history shows the phenomena to have greater breadth than the usually assumed patriotic self-deception.

A park in downtown Nancy is named after Blondlot.[10] He left his house and garden to the city which transformed it into a public park. This can be seen as appropriate since he made significant contributions to physics before the N-ray debacle. James Randi reported that citizens of Nancy and members of the faculty at the university did not remember having heard about N-rays or Blondlot.[3][11]


Artron energies

Artron energies had a connection with, apparently, both life force and with time travel. Those who travelled through the Time Vortex would absorb artron energies in the form of a "background radiation." Some life forms were even made of artron energies.

Properties

thumb|link=http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Fifth_DoctorThe Doctor once claimed to Monarch, an Urbankan, that artron energies had a relationship to the functioning of his TARDIS (or vice versa), although he did not elaborate. Artron energies altered and enhanced human antibodies, making the immune system of the human in question better at fighting diseases.

thumb|link=http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Fifth_Doctor once claimed to Monarch, an Urbankan, that artron energies had a relationship to the functioning of his TARDIS (or vice versa), although he did not elaborate. Artron energies altered and enhanced human antibodies, making the immune system of the human in question better at fighting diseases.

Coupling the mind to a source of high-voltage electricity could result in a massive release of Artron energies. The Doctor once compared the relationship between Artron and normal energies to the movement in the depths of the sea and the waves on the surface. Artron energies is slight in Humans but can be in large quantities in others.

Engin noted the Doctor must have had great reserves of artron energies to survive near-fatal attacks on his person while in the Matrix.


Both Martha Jones and Sarah Jane Smith had elevated artron energies levels, so much so when the Bane known as Mrs Wormwood scanned the latter, she found this remarkable.

The Bane called Mrs. Wormwood believed this indicated passage through the Time Vortex, although it may also have happened as a result of contact with the TARDIS itself, or for both reasons. Her interest would tend to suggest that not all living beings possess artron energies, or at least that humans do not usually possess it.

During the later days of the Doctor's first incarnation, the Time Lord Magnus encountered and attempted to exploit a living sphere of artron energies in space, hoping (in the words of the Doctor showing a projection of the incident) that it would have enabled the Time Lords "near-unlimited supply of temporal power and complete mastery over the Vortex".

During the Last Great Time War, the Daleks evolved so they could use artron energies as a power source. In this manner, a Dalek on the verge of death could be restored to operational status by the slightest touch from a time traveller.

Physically, artron energies resembled a sort of blue electricity when outside of containment.

Artron energies seemed to have an odour detectable by some species, such as the Groske.

Void stuff, as it was described by the Doctor, is a type of background radiation that clings to those who have travelled through the Void. The Doctor was able to show its presence on himself and all those who had travelled to or from Pete's World with his 3-D glasses. A full opening of any breach that opens into the Void will violently pull the matter back in along with anything that it is clinging to.

During the Battle of Canary Wharf, the Daleks from the Genesis Ark and the Cybermen were more susceptible to being pulled in because they had been super-saturated with Void stuff.


Chakra[]

Chakra is a concept originating from Hindu texts and used in Hindu practices. Its name derives from the Sanskrit word for "wheel" or "turning" (cakraṃ चक्रं [ˈtʃəkrə̃], pronounced [ˈtʃəkrə] in Hindi; Pali: cakka चक्क, Thai: จักระ, Tamil: சக்கரம், Chinese: 轮, Tibetan: འཁོར་ལོ་; khorlo).[1]

ColouredChakraswithDescriptions

Coloured Chakras with Descriptions

Chakra is a concept referring to wheel-like vortices which, according to traditional Indian medicine, are believed to exist in the surface of the etheric double of man.[2] The Chakras are said to be "force centers" or whorls of energies permeating, from a point on the physical body, the layers of the subtle bodies in an ever-increasing fan-shaped formation. Rotating vortices of subtle matter, they are considered the focal points for the reception and transmission of energies.[3] Different systems posit a varying number of chakras; the most well known system in the West is that of seven chakras.

It is typical for chakras to be depicted as either flower-like or wheel-like. In the former, "petals" are shown around the perimeter of a circle. In the latter, spokes divide the circle into segments that make the chakra resemble a wheel (or "chakra"). Each chakra possesses a specific number of segments or petals.

Texts describing the chakras go back as far as the later Upanishads, for example the Yoga Kundalini Upanishad.


Definitions[]

Sapta Chakra, from a Yoga manuscript in Braj Bhasa language with 118 pages (1899).Although there are various interpretations as to what exactly a chakra is, the following features are common in all systems:

  • They form part of a subtle energy body, along with the energy channels, or nadis (Thai: นาฑีส์), and the subtle winds, or pranas (Thai: ปราณส์).
  • They are located along a central nadi, Sushumna (Thai: สุษุมฺนา), which runs either alongside or inside the spine.
  • Two other nadis, Ida (Thai: อิทะ) and Pingala (Thai: ปิงฺคละ), also run through the chakras, and alongside Sushumna. They occasionally cross Sushumna at the location of the chakras.
  • They possess a number of 'petals' or 'spokes'. In some traditions, such as the Tibetan, these spokes branch off into the thousands of nadis that run throughout the human body.
  • They are generally associated with a mantra seed-syllable, and often with a variety of colours and deities.

Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda describes a chakra as:[4]

...[a] powerhouse in the way it generates and stores energies, with the energies from cosmos pulled in more strongly at these points. The main nadis, Ida, Pingala and Shushumna (sympathetic, parasympathetic, and central nervous system) run along the spinal column in a curved path and cross one another several times. At the points of intersection they form strong energies centers known as chakras. In the human body there are three types of energies centers. The lower or animal chakras are located in the region between the toes and the pelvic region indicating our evolutionary origins in the animal kingdom. The human chakras lie along the spinal column. Finally, the higher or divine Chakras are found between the top of the spine and the crown of the head.

Anodea Judith (1996: p. 5) provides a modern interpretation of the chakras:

A chakra is believed to be a center of activity that receives, assimilates, and expresses life force energies. The word chakra literally translates as wheel or disk and refers to a spinning sphere of bioenergetic activity emanating from the major nerve ganglia branching forward from the spinal column. Generally, six of these wheels are described, stacked in a column of energies that spans from the base of the spine to the middle of the forehead, the seventh lying beyond the physical world. It is the six major chakras that correlate with basic states of consciousness...

Susan Shumsky (2003, p. 24) states a similar idea:

Each chakra in your spinal column is believed to influence or even govern bodily functions near its region of the spine. Because autopsies do not reveal chakras, most people think they are a fancy of fertile imagination. Yet their existence is well documented in the traditions of the Far East... Chakras, as described above, are energies centers along the spine located at major branchings of the human nervous system, beginning at the base of the spinal column and moving upward to the top of the skull, through which pass 3 major energies channels, Sushumna, Ida and Pingala. Chakras are considered to be a point or nexus of biophysical energies or prana of the human body. Shumsky states that "prana is the basic component of your subtle body, your energies field, and the entire chakra system...the key to life and source of energies in the universe."[5]


The following seven primary chakras are commonly described:

  1. Muladhara (Sanskrit: मूलाधार, Mūlādhāra, Thai: มูลาธาระ) Base or Root Chakra (ovaries/prostate)
  2. Swadhisthana (Sanskrit: स्वाधिष्ठान, Svādhiṣṭhāna, Thai: สฺวาธิษฺฐานะ) Sacral Chakra (last bone in spinal cord, the coccyx)
  3. Manipura (Sanskrit: मणिपूर, Maṇipūra, Thai: มณีปูระ) Solar Plexus Chakra (navel area)
  4. Anahata (Sanskrit: अनाहत, Anāhata, Thai: อนาหะตะ) Heart Chakra (heart area)
  5. Vishuddha (Sanskrit: विशुद्ध, Viśuddha, Thai: วิศุทฺธะ) Throat Chakra (throat and neck area)
  6. Ajna (Sanskrit: आज्ञा, Ājñā, Thai: อาชฺญา) Brow or Third Eye Chakra (pineal gland or third eye)
  7. Sahasrara (Sanskrit: सहस्रार, Sahasrāra, Thai: สหัสฺราระ) Crown Chakra (top of the head; 'soft spot' of a newborn)
  • Chakras
  • 1Muladhara.svgMuladhara
  • 2Swadhisthana.svgSwadhisthana
  • 3Manipura2.svgManipura
  • 4Anahata green.svgAnahata
  • 5Vishuddhi blue.svgVishuddha
  • 6Ajna.svgAjna
  • 7Sahasrara.svgSahasrara

In addition, a number of other chakras are postulated. B.K.S Iyengar[6] states that between the navel and the heart are the Manas (mind) and Surya (sun) chakras, and that at the top of the forehead is the Lalata chakra. The Tibetan tantric tradition has the [1] Wheel between the heart and the throat, the Wind Wheel on the forehead, and below the navel, instead of Swadhisthana and Muladhara, they have three chakras; the Secret Place Wheel is located four fingers below the navel, the Jewel Wheel is located on the sexual organ, and the very tip of the sexual organ is the very last chakra, where the central channel ends. Other traditions, such as the Bihar school of yoga, add Bindu chakra, which exists at the back of the head, and is where the divine nectar or Amrit is stored, place Lalata chakra in the roof of the mouth, and place Hrit chakra below the heart.

Many traditions posit a number of higher chakras in the head, which from lowest to highest are: golata, talu/talana/lalana, ajna, talata/lalata, manas, soma, sahasrara (and sri inside it).

Models[]

The study of the chakras is a part of many philosophical] and spiritual traditions, as well as many therapies and disciplines. In eastern traditions, the theory of chakras is a central part of the Hindu and Buddhist tantra, and they play an important role in attaining deep levels of realisation. Yoga, Pranayama, Acupuncture, Shiatsu, Tai Chi and Chi Kung focus on balancing the energetic nadis or energies meridians which are an integral part of the chakra system.

In the West, the subtle energies of the chakras is explored through practices such as aromatherapy, mantras, Reiki, hands-on healing, flower essences, radionics, sound therapy, colour/light therapy, and crystal/gem therapy.

Hindu Tantra[]

Crown Brow Throat Chakras, Rajasthan 18th Century

Thousand Petalled Crown Chakra, Two Petalled Brow Chakra, Sixteen Petalled Throat Chakra (Nepal, 17th Century)

In Hinduism, the concept of chakras is part of a complex of ideas related to esoteric anatomy. These ideas occur most often in the class of texts that are called Āgamas or Tantras. This is a large body of scripture, most of which is rejected by the traditionalists. The chakras are described in the tantric texts the Sat-Cakra-Nirupana, and the Padaka-Pancaka,[7] in which they are described as emanations of consciousness from Brahman, an energies emanating from the spiritual which gradually turns concrete, creating these distinct levels of chakras, and which eventually finds its rest in the Muladhara chakra. They are therefore part of an emanationist theory, like that of the kabbalah in the west, lataif-e-sitta in Sufism or neo-platonism. The energies that was unleashed in creation, called the Kundalini, lies coiled and sleeping at the base of the spine. It is the purpose of the tantric or kundalini forms of yoga to arouse this energies, and cause it to rise back up through the increasingly subtle chakras, until union with God is achieved in the Sahasrara chakra at the crown of the head.

There are many variations on these concepts in the Sanskrit source texts. In earlier texts there are various systems of chakras and nadis, with varying connections between them. Various traditional sources list 5, 6, 7, 8 or even 12 chakras. Over time, one system of 6 or 7 chakras along the body's axis became the dominant model, adopted by most schools of yoga. This particular system may have originated in about the 11th century AD, and rapidly became widely popular.[8]

The central role of the chakras in this model is the raising of Kundalini, where it pierces the various centers, causing various levels of realisation and resulting in the obtention of various siddhis or occult powers, until reaching the crown of the head, resulting in union with the Divine. The methods on how to raise kundalini are generally secret, but a number of methods have been published, for example the Bihar school of yoga begin with a number of preparatory practices such as asanas and pranayama to purify the nadis, and then a number of practices and meditations specific to each chakra, and finally the raising of the kundalini through special kriyas, which terminate in the vision of ones causal self[9]

Vajrayana (Buddhist Tantra)[]

The Tibetan theory of chakras plays an important role in all the Highest Yoga Tantras. They play a pivotal role in all Completion stage practices (as opposed to Generation stage practices), where an attempt is made to bring all the subtle winds of the body into the central channel, to realise the clear light of bliss and emptiness, and to attain the 'illusory body' of a divinity .[9]

The Tibetan system states that the central channel begins at the point of the third eye, curves up to the crown of the head, and then goes straight down the body to the tip of the sexual organ. The two side channels run parallel to, and without any space in between, the central channel, but they begin at the two nostrils: the lunar channel ends in the sexual organ, and the solar channel in the anus. Along the central channel are positioned 10 chakras, of which usually four or five are expounded as being important. They are located in the following positions:

  1. Third eye between the eyebrows
  2. The wind wheel on the forehead
  3. The crown wheel on the top of the head
  4. The throat wheel
  5. The fire wheel between the throat and the heart
  6. The heart wheel
  7. The navel wheel
  8. The secret place, four fingers below the navel
  9. The jewel wheel on the sexual organ, near the end
  10. The tip of the sexual organ

The channels run parallel through them, but at the navel, heart, throat and crown the two side channels twist around the central channel. At the navel, throat and crown, there is a twofold knot caused by each side channel twisting once around the central channel. At the heart wheel there is a sixfold knot, where each side channel twists around three times. An important part of completion stage practice involves loosening and undoing these knots.

Within the chakras exist the 'subtle drops'. The white drop exists in the crown, the red drop exists in the navel, and at the heart exists the indestructible red and white drop, which leaves the body at the time of death. In addition, each chakra has a number of 'spokes' or 'petals', which branch off into thousands of subtle channels running to every part of the body, and each contains a Sanskrit syllable.

By visualising a specific chakra, the subtle winds (which follow the mind), enter the central channel. The chakra at which they enter is important in order to realise specific practices, for example, meditating on the syllable 'Ah' in the navel chakra is important for the practice of tummo, or inner fire, the basis of the six yogas of Naropa. Meditating on the 'Hum' in the heart chakra is important for realising the Clear Light of bliss and emptiness. Meditating on the throat chakra is important for lucid dreaming and the practices of dream yoga. And meditating on the crown chakra is important for consciousness projection, either to another world, or into another body.

In general, the higher tantras, starting with the Guhyasamaja tantra, are very uniform in their descriptions of the chakras, channels and drops. The Kalachakra tantra has a slightly different system, which relates the chakras with astrology.

A result of energetic imbalance among the chakras is an almost continuous feeling of dissatisfaction. When the heart chakra is agitated, people lose touch with feelings and sensations, and that breeds the sense of dissatisfaction. That leads to looking outside for fulfillment.

When people live in their heads, feelings are secondary; they are interpretations of mental images that are fed back to the individual. When awareness is focused on memories of past experiences and mental verbalisations, the energies flow to the head chakra increases and the energies flow to the heart chakra lessens. Without nurturing feelings of the heart a subtle form of anxiety arises which results in the self reaching out for experience.

When the throat chakra settles and energies is distributed evenly between the head and the heart chakras, one is able to truly contact one's senses and touch real feelings.[10]

Bön[]

Chakras, as pranic centers of the body according to the Himalayan Bönpo tradition, influence the quality of experience, because movement of prana cannot be separated from experience. Each of the six major chakras are linked to experiential qualities of one of the six realms of existence.[9]

A modern teacher, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, uses a computer analogy: main chakras are like hard drives. Each hard drive has many files. One of the files is always open in each of the chakras, no matter how "closed" that particular chakra may be. What is displayed by the file shapes experience.

The tsa lung practices such as those embodied in Trul Khor lineages open channels so lung (Lung is a Tibetan term cognate with prana or qi) may move without obstruction. Yoga opens chakras and evokes positive qualities associated with a particular chakra. In the hard drive analogy, the screen is cleared and a file is called up that contains positive, supportive qualities. A seed syllable (Sanskrit bija) is used both as a password that evokes the positive quality and the armour that sustains the quality.[9]

Tantric practice is said to eventually transform all experience into bliss. The practice aims to liberate from negative conditioning and leads to control over perception and cognition.[9]

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche teaches a version of the Six Lokas sadhana which works with the chakra system.

Western derivative models and interpretations[]

ChakraDiag

Recent Western traditions associate. In Western culture, a concept similar to that of prana can be traced back as far as the 18th century's Franz Anton Mesmer, who used "animal magnetism" to cure disease. However it was only in 1927 that the shakta theory of seven main chakras, that has become most popular in the West, was introduced, largely through the translation of two Indian texts: the Sat-Cakra-Nirupana, and the Padaka-Pancaka, by Sir John Woodroffe, alias Arthur Avalon, in a book titled The Serpent Power.[11] This book is extremely detailed and complex, and later the ideas were developed into the predominant Western view of the chakras by C. W. Leadbeater in his book The Chakras. Many of the views which directed Leadbeater's understanding of the chakras were influenced by previous theosophist authors, in particular Johann Georg Gichtel, a disciple of Jakob Böhme, and his book Theosophia Practica (1696), in which Gitchtel directly refers to inner force centers, a concept reminiscent of the chakras.[12]

Due to the similarities between the Chinese and Indian philosophies, the notion of chakras was quickly blended into Chinese practices such as acupuncture and belief in ki. The convergence of these two distinct healing traditions and their common practitioners' own inventiveness have led to an ever-changing and expanding array of concepts in the western world. According to medical intuitive and author, Caroline Myss, who described chakras in her work Anatomy of the Spirit (1996), "Every thought and experience you've ever had in your life gets filtered through these chakra databases. Each event is recorded into your cells...", in effect your biography becomes your biology.[13]

The chakras are described[by whom?] as being aligned in an ascending column from the base of the spine to the top of the head. New Age practices often associate each chakra with a certain colour. In various traditions chakras are associated with multiple physiological functions, an aspect of consciousness, a classical element, and other distinguishing characteristics. They are visualized as lotuses/flowers with a different number of petals in every chakra.

The chakras are thought to vitalise the physical body and to be associated with interactions of a physical, emotional and mental nature. They are considered loci of life energies or prana, also called shakti, qi (Chinese; ki in Japanese), koach-ha-guf[14] (Hebrew), bios (Greek) & aether (Greek, English), which is thought to flow among them along pathways called nadis. The function of the chakras is to spin and draw in this energies to keep the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical health of the body in balance. They are said by some to reflect how the unified consciousness of humanity (the immortal human being or the soul), is divided to manage different aspects of earthly life (body/instinct/vital energies/deeper emotions/communication/having an overview of life/contact to God). The chakras are placed at differing levels of spiritual subtlety, with Sahasrara at the top being concerned with pure consciousness, and Muladhara at the bottom being concerned with matter, which is seen simply as condensed, or gross consciousness.

Rudolf Steiner (one-time Theosophist, and the founder of Anthroposophy) says much about the chakras that is unusual, especially that the chakra system is dynamic and evolving and is very different for modern people than it was in ancient times, and will in turn be radically different in future times. In contrast to the traditional eastern teachings, Steiner describes a sequence of development from the top down rather than the bottom up. This is the so called 'Christos Path' which has not always been available to humanity. [This is also revealed by Swami Sivananda in his book on Japa Yoga, Himalaya Press 1978. In which the Swami states that a yogi that practices Japa with only the Om and is successful at Mahasamyama {oneness with the object...in this case a Word being meditated on} becomes a direct disciple of that, the OM, the most Holy of all words/syllables { the same as the word of creation as recognized by the Torah, although this is not professed or quite possibly not even recognized by those of secular authority in either Judaism or Christianity} thus the yogi achieving this feat needs no Guru or Sat-guru* to achieve any Spiritual goal {*Archetype / Ascended Master i.e. A Krishna, a Rama, a Jesus, a Nanak a Buddha..et al.} and Swami Sivananda mentions that this yogi has a path that is, in all recognizable ways and manners, reverse that of other Yogis or Spiritual aspirants and their paths and those include all Christian ascetics, in that this spiritual aspirant then works through the chakras, mastering them from the crown down.

Whereas every other well known path and all major religions[citation needed] start by trying to master the chakras starting with the 'Svadhisthana Chakra' {Sex}, these Yogis aren't expected to renounce sex or certain foods, and by virtue of this they do not need to remove themselves from the world of temptations and become monks or recluses. They can stay in the world of men and live what appears to be a normal life that observes whatever local custom{s} there may be. Trevor Ravenscroft also mentions this spiritual goal and achievement in his book, "The Cup Of Destiny", and says that these practices and achievements were known and the most highly regarded and desired by the Templar Knights of old.]

He also seems to ignore the Thousand Petalled chakra at the crown of the head and instead cryptically mentions an eight-petalled chakra located between the Ten Petalled and the Six Petalled ones. In his book How to Know Higher Worlds Steiner gives clear instructions on how to develop the chakras safely into maturity. These are more like life disciplines than exercises and can take considerable time. 7 Chakras. New Age writers, such as Anodea Judith in her book Wheels of Life, have written about the chakras in great detail, including the reasons for their appearance and functions.

7 Chakras

7 Chakras

Another interpretation of the seven chakras is presented by writer and artist Zachary Selig. In the book Kundalini Awakening, a Gentle Guide to Chakra Activation and Spiritual Growth, he presents a unique codex titled "Relaxatia", a solar Kundalini paradigm that is a codex of the human chakra system and the solar light spectrum, designed to activate Kundalini through his colour-coded chakra paintings.

Some chakra system models describe one or more Transpersonal chakras above the crown chakra, and an Earth star chakra below the feet. There are also held to be many minor chakras, for example between the major chakras. Chakras are also used in neurolinguistic programming to connect NLP logical levels with spiritual goals on the crown, intellectual on the forehead and so on.

Endocrine system

The primary importance and level of existence of chakras is posited to be in the psyche. However, there are those who believe that chakras have a physical manifestation as well. The author Gary Osborn, for instance, has described the chakras as metaphysical counterparts to the endocrine glands, while Anodea Judith noted a marked similarity between the positions of the two and the roles described for each. Stephen Sturgess also links the lower six chakras to specific nerve plexuses along the spinal cord as well as glands. C.W. Leadbeater associated the Anja chakra with the pineal gland, which is a part of the endocrine system. Edgar Cayce said that the seven churches of the Book of Revelation are endocrine glands.

The Spectrum of Light

A development in Western practices dating back to the 1940s is to associate each one of the seven chakras to a given colour and a corresponding crystal. For example, the chakra in the forehead is associated with the colour purple, so to cure a headache you would apply a purple stone to the forehead. This idea has proven highly popular and has been integrated by all but a few practitioners.

Mercier introduces the relation of colour energies to the science of the light spectrum; "As humans, we exist within the 49th Octave of Vibration of the electromagnetic light spectrum. Below this range are barely visible radiant heat, then invisible infrared, television and radiowaves, sound and brain waves; above it is barely visible ultraviolet, then the invisible frequencies of chemicals and perfumes, followed by x-rays, gamma rays, radium rays and unknown cosmic rays. Understanding existence and physical form as an interpretation of light energies through the physical eyes will open up greater potential to explore the energetic boundaries of color, form and light that are perceived as immediate reality. Indian Yogic teachings assign to the seven major chakras specific qualities, such as color of influence (from the 7 rays of spectrum light), elements (such as earth, air, water & ether), body sense (such as touch, taste, and smell), and relation to an endocrine gland.

Description[]

Tantric chakras

Sahasrara Ajna Vishuddha Anahata Manipura Swadhisthana Muladhara


Bindu

Seven chakras in particular are described in the Shakta Tantra tradition that was brought over to the West. Below is a description of each of them, with Eastern and Western associations.

Sahasrara: The Crown Chakra[]

1Chakra07

Sahasrara, which means 1000 petalled lotus, is generally considered to be the chakra of pure consciousness, within which there is neither object nor subject. When the female kundalini Shakti energies rises to this point, it unites with the male Shiva energies, and a state of liberating samadhi is attained. Symbolized by a lotus with one thousand multi-coloured petals, it is located either at the crown of the head, or above the crown of the head. Sahasrara is represented by the colour white and it involves such issues as inner wisdom and the death of the body.Its role may be envisioned somewhat similarly to that of the pituitary gland, which secretes hormones to communicate to the rest of the endocrine system and also connects to the central nervous system via the hypothalamus. According to author Gary Osborn, the thalamus is thought to have a key role in the physical basis of consciousness and is the 'Bridal Chamber' mentioned in the Gnostic scriptures. Sahasrara's inner aspect deals with the release of karma, physical action with meditation, mental action with universal consciousness and unity, and emotional action with "beingness".

In Tibetan buddhism, the point at the crown of the head is represented by a white circle, with 32 downward pointing petals. It is of primary importance in the performance of phowa, or consciousness projection after death, in order to obtain rebirth in a Pure Land. Within this chakra is contained the White drop, or Bodhicitta, which is the essence of masculine energies.

Ajna: The Brow Chakra[]

2Chakra06

Ajna is symbolised by a lotus with two petals, and corresponds to the colors violet, indigo or deep blue. It is at this point that the 2 side nadis Ida and Pingala are said to terminate and merge with the central channel Sushumna, signifying the end of duality. The seed syllable for this chakra is the syllable OM, and the presiding deity is Ardhanarishvara, who is a half male, half female Shiva/Shakti. The Shakti goddess of Ajna is called Hakini.Ajna (along with Bindu), is known as the third eye chakra and is linked to the pineal gland which may inform a model of its envisioning. The pineal gland is a light sensitive gland that produces the hormone melatonin which regulates sleep and waking up. Ajna's key issues involve balancing the higher & lower selves and trusting inner guidance. Ajna's inner aspect relates to the access of intuition. Mentally, Ajna deals with visual consciousness. Emotionally, Ajna deals with clarity on an intuitive level. (Note: some opine that the pineal and pituitary glands should be exchanged in their relationship to the Crown and Brow chakras, based on the description in Arthur Avalon's book on kundalini called Serpent Power or empirical research.) {C}

In Tibetan Buddhism, this point is actually the end of the central channel, since the central channel rises up from the sexual organ to the crown of the head, and then curves over the head and down to the third eye. While the central channel finishes here, the two side channels continue down to the 2 nostrils.

Vishuddha: The Throat Chakra[]

3Chakra05

Vishuddha (also Vishuddhi) is depicted as a silver crescent within a white circle, with 16 light or pale blue, or turquoise petals. The seed mantra is Ham, and the residing deity is Panchavaktra shiva, with 5 heads and 4 arms, and the Shakti is Shakini.Vishuddha may be understood as relating to communication and growth through expression. This chakra is paralleled to the thyroid, a gland that is also in the throat and which produces thyroid hormone, responsible for growth and maturation. Physically, Vishuddha governs communication, emotionally it governs independence, mentally it governs fluent thought, and spiritually, it governs a sense of security. In Tibetan buddhism, this chakra is red, with 16 upward pointing petals. It plays an important role in Dream Yoga, the art of lucid dreaming. {C}

Anahata: The Heart Chakra[]

4Chakra04

Anahata, or Anahata-puri, or padma-sundara is symbolised by a circular flower with twelve green petals. (See also heartmind). Within it is a yantra of 2 intersecting triangles, forming a hexagram, symbolising a union of the male and female. The seed mantra is Yam, the presiding deity is Ishana Rudra Shiva, and the Shakti is Kakini.Anahata is related to the thymus,located in the chest. The thymus is an element of the immune system as well as being part of the endocrine system. It is the site of maturation of the T cells responsible for fending off disease and may be adversely affected by stress. . Anahata is related to the colours green or pink. Key issues involving Anahata involve complex emotions, compassion, tenderness, unconditional love, equilibrium, rejection and well-being. Physically Anahata governs circulation, emotionally it governs unconditional love for the self and others, mentally it governs passion, and spiritually it governs devotion. {C}

In Tibetan buddhism, this centre is extremely important, as being the home of the indestructible red/white drop, which carries our consciousness to our next lives. It is described as being white, circular, with 8 downward pointing petals, and the seed syllable Hum inside. During mantra recitation in the lower tantras, a flame is imagined inside of the heart, from which the mantra rings out. Within the higher tantras, this chakra is very important for realising the Clear Light.

Manipura: The Solar Plexus Chakra[]

5Chakra03

Manipura or manipuraka is symbolised by a downward pointing triangle with ten petals. The seed syllable is Ram, and the presiding deity is Braddha Rudra, with Lakini as the Shakti.Manipura is related to the metabolic and digestive systems. Manipura is believed to correspond to Islets of Langerhans, which are groups of cells in the pancreas, as well as the outer adrenal glands and the adrenal cortex. These play a valuable role in digestion, the conversion of food matter into energies for the body. The colour that corresponds to Manipura is yellow. Key issues governed by Manipura are issues of personal power, fear, anxiety, opinion-formation, introversion, and transition from simple or base emotions to complex. Physically, Manipura governs digestion, mentally it governs personal power, emotionally it governs expansiveness, and spiritually, all matters of growth. {C}

In Tibetan buddhism, this wheel is represented as a triangle with 64 upward pointing petals. It is the home of the Red drop, or red bodhicitta, which is the essence of feminine energies (as opposed to the Shakta system, where the kundalini energies resides in Muladhara). It contains the seed syllable short-Ah, which is of primary importance in the Tummo inner fire meditation, which is the system by which the energies of the red drop is raised to the white drop in the crown.

Swadhisthana: The Sacral Chakra[]

6Chakra02

Swadhisthana, Svadisthana or adhishthana is symbolized by a white lotus within which is a crescent moon, with six vermillion, or orange petals. The seed mantra is Vam, and the presiding deity is Bramha, with the Shakti being Rakini ( or Chakini ). The animal associated is the crocodile of Varuna.The Sacral Chakra is located in the sacrum (hence the name) and is considered to correspond to the testes or the ovaries that produce the various sex hormones involved in the reproductive cycle. Swadisthana is also considered to be related to, more generally, the genitourinary system and the adrenals. The key issues involving Swadisthana are relationships, violence, addictions, basic emotional needs, and pleasure. Physically, Swadisthana governs reproduction, mentally it governs creativity, emotionally it governs joy, and spiritually it governs enthusiasm. {C}

In Tibetan buddhism, this is known as the Secret Place wheel. Below this point the Shakta tantra and Vajrayana systems diverge somewhat.

Muladhara: The Base Chakra[]

7Chakra01

Muladhara or root chakra is represented as a yellow square, with 4 red petals. The seed syllable is Lam, the deity is Ganesh, and the Shakti is Dakini. The associated animal is the elephant Ganesha. This chakra is where the 3 channels are merged, then separate and begin their upward movement. Inside of this chakra is wrapped up the goddess kundalini three times around a black lingam. It is the seat of the red bindu, the female drop (which in Tibetan vajrayana is located at the navel chakra).Muladhara is related to instinct, security, survival and also to basic human potentiality. This center is located in the perineum, which is the region between the genital and the anus. Although no endocrine organ is placed here, it is said to relate to the gonads and the adrenal medulla, responsible for the fight-or-flight response when survival is under threat. There is a muscle located in this region that controls ejaculation in the sexual act of the human male. A parallel is charted between the sperm cell and the ovum where the genetic code lies coiled and the kundalini. Muladhara is symbolized by a lotus with four petals and the colour red. Key issues involve sexuality, lust and obsession. Physically, Muladhara governs sexuality, mentally it governs stability, emotionally it governs sensuality, and spiritually it governs a sense of security. {C}

There is no chakra that exists in this position within Tibetan buddhism. Instead, below the secret place wheel, there are 2 other wheels, the jewel wheel, which is located in the middle of the sex organ, and the wheel located at the tip of the sex organ. These wheels are extremely important for the generation of great bliss, and are involved with tantric consort practices.

Minor chakras[]

In addition to the 7 major chakras, there are a number of other chakras which have importance within different systems. For example, Woodroffe describes 7 head chakras (including Ajna and Sahasrara) in his other Indian text sources. Lowest to highest they are: Talu/Talana/Lalana, Ajna, Manas, Soma, Brahmarandra, Sri (inside Sahasrara), Sahasrara. In addition, the chakra Hrit known as the wish-fulfilling tree is often included below the heart, which may be the same as a chakra known as Surya located at the solar plexus. Some models also have a series of 7 lower chakras below muladhara that go down the legs.

Hrit chakra or Surya chakra[]

This chakra is a minor chakra located just below the heart at the solar plexus, and is known as the wish-fulfilling tree. Here, the ability to determine your destiny becomes a reality. It is also known as the Surya chakra. It supports the actions of Manipura chakra by providing it with the element of heat, and is responsible for absorbing energies from the sun.

In Tibetan buddhism, a similar chakra called the Fire Wheel is included in the scheme, but this is located above the heart and below the throat.

Lalana/Talumula[]

A chakra known as Lalana is situated in one of two places, either in the roof of the mouth, between Visuddhi and Ajna, or on the forehead, above Ajna. The Lalana chakra on the roof of the mouth is related to Bindu and Vishuddhi. When the nectar amrit trickles down from Bindu, it is stored in lalana. This nectar can fall down to Manipura and be burned up, causing gradual degeneration, or through certain practices it can be passed to Visuddhi and purified, becoming a nectar of immortality.

Manas[]

A chakra known as Manas (mind) is located either between the navel and the heart, close to Surya, or is located above Ajna on the forehead. The version on the forehead has 6 petals, connected to the 5 sense objects plus the mind. In Tibetan buddhism, the chakra located on the forehead is called the Wind wheel, and has 6 spokes.

Bindu Visarga/Indu/Chandra[]

Bindu visarga, is located either at the top back of the head, where some Brahmins leave a tuft of hair growing, or in the middle forehead. It is symbolised by a crescent moon. This chakra secretes an ambrosial fluid, amrit, and is the seat of the white bindu (compare with the white bodhicitta drop in the crown chakra in the Vajrayana system).

Brahmarandra/Nirvana[]

In some systems, Sahasrara is the chakra that is on the crown of the head. However, other systems, such as that expounded by Shri Aurobindo, state that the real Sahasrara is located some way above the top of the head, and that the crown chakra is in fact Brahmarandra, a sort of secondary Sahasrara with 100 white petals.

Shri/Guru[]

This is a minor chakra located slightly above the top of the head. It is an upward facing 12 petalled lotus, and it is associated with the Guru, that higher force that guides us through our spiritual journey.

Lower chakras[]

There are said to be a series of seven chakras below muladhara going down the leg, corresponding the base animal instincts, and to the Hindu underworld patala. They are called atala, vitala, sutala, talatala, rasatala, mahatala and patala.

Atala[]

This chakra is located in the hips, it governs fear and lust.

Vitala[]

Located in the thighs, it governs anger and resentment.

Sutala[]

Located in the knees, it governs jealousy.

Talatala[]

Translated as 'under the bottom level', it is located in the calves, and it is a state of prolonged confusion and instinctive wilfulness.

Rasatala[]

Located in the ankles, it is the centre of selfishness and pure animal nature.

Mahatala[]

Located in the feet, this is the dark realm 'without conscience', and inner blindness.

Patala[]

Located in the soles of the feet, this is the realm of malice, murder, torture and hatred, and in Hindu mythology it borders on the realm of Naraka, or Hell.

Others[]

There are said to be 21 minor chakras which are reflected points of the major chakras. These 21 are further grouped into 10 bilateral minor chakras that correspond to the foot, hand, knee, elbow, groin, clavicular, navel, shoulder and ear. The spleen may also be classified as a minor chakra by some authorities despite not having an associated coupled minor chakra.


The Force

1The Force

Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi use the Force to telekinetically push at each other.

"The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energies field created by all living things, including rocks. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together."

Obi-Wan Kenobi

The Force was a metaphysical, binding, and ubiquitous power that held enormous importance for both the Jedi and Sith monastic orders. Known as the Way in ancient times, the Force was viewed in many different aspects, including, but not limited to, the light side, the dark side, the Unifying Force, and the Living Force. The first two aspects were concerned with the moral compass of the Force, as manifested by the conduct and emotions of living creatures who were themselves part of the fabric of the Force. The light side of the Force was the facet aligned with compassion, selflessness, self-knowledge and enlightenment, healing, mercy and benevolence, while the dark side of the Force was the element aligned with hatred, fear, covetousness, anger, aggression, jealousy and malevolence. The latter two aspects were defined by prominent Jedi philosophies: The Unifying Force essentially embraced space and time in its entirety while the Living Force dealt with the energies of living things. Though the Force was categorized in this way, there were no specific abilities or powers (i.e. "Force Push") that were only usable by a follower of a different path of the Force; the Force partially existed inside the life forms that used it, and drew energies from their emotions.

Some beings, particularly the Sith, believed that the dark side of the Force was more powerful than the light, though it was possible that the dark side was just more tempting to those who used it (or desired to use it). Others thought of the Force as an entity capable of intelligent thought, almost as a sort of deity. Anakin Skywalker, who was believed to have been conceived by the Force itself, may have shared this belief; if this was indeed the case, it would add credence towards the view of the Force as a sentient entity.

Though the Force was thought to flow through every living thing, its power could only be harnessed by beings described as "Force-sensitive." This Force-sensitivity was correlated with, and sometimes attributed to, a high count of internal microorganisms called midi-chlorians that were found in a Force-sensitive's blood: the higher the count, the greater the being's potential Force ability, though there were some exceptions to this rule. Force-sensitive beings were able to tap into the Force to perform acts of great skill and agility as well as control and shape the world around them. Sometimes this ability was described as having a strong Force "aura".

The Living Force

Main article: Living Force

"The ways of the Living Force are beyond our understanding… But fear not. You are in the hands of something much greater and much better than you can imagine."

Qui-Gon Jinn[src]

PowerFromWithin

A Jedi guided by a Force ghost.

The Living Force was a view on the Force, accepted by the majority of Jedi throughout ages. The Living Force was thought to be present in most living beings, surrounding and penetrating them, thus making all living things connected by it. The Jedi believing in the Living Force relied on their instincts and were attuned to other living beings around them. They were mindful of the future and the possible consequences of their actions, but remained focused on the present. The Living Force was viewed as having both the light and the dark side. The Jedi always had to be mindful of their actions to avoid the temptations of the dark side. Through following the Living Force, several Jedi were able to retain their identities after their physical death, becoming one with the Force and able to manifest themselves as Force ghosts. Proponents of the Living Force view, such as Qui-Gon Jinn, espoused a philosophy of "living in the moment," relied heavily on their instincts and concentrated more on sensitivity to living things, rather than fulfilling destiny, which was one of the main tenets of the Unifying Force philosophy.[2]

The light side of the Force

Main article: Light side of the Force

"A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense. Never for attack."

Yoda

The light side of the Force was concerned with the ideals of good, benevolence, and healing. Followers of the light side strove to live in harmony with the world around them, acting out of wisdom and logic rather than anger and hasty judgment. In order to achieve harmony with the light side of the Force, its practitioners would often meditate to clear themselves of emotion; particularly negative emotions such as aggression, fear, anger, and hatred, since these were thought to bring on acceptance of the dark side.[2]

The Jedi Order

Main article: Jedi Order

The largest group of proponents and teachers of the light side was the Jedi Order, who strove to maintain peace and justice throughout the galaxy. The values of the light side were culminated in the Jedi Code. The Jedi accepted the view on the two sides of the Force: the dark side and the light side. A follower of the light side tried to live in harmony with those around him. Mutual trust, respect, and the ability to form alliances gave the Jedi their distinct advantage over the Sith. In contrast, a follower of the dark side uses the dark side of the force, usually for himself. Use of the dark side of the Force was forbidden within the Jedi Order, and was strictly considered the domain of the Sith.

Traditional Jedi were keen to keep the Force "in balance". They attempted to achieve this by destroying the Sith and denying the dark side—essentially "keeping balance" by restoring the Force to its natural state, as they viewed the dark side as "corruption". This involved the purging of negative emotions such as aggression, anger, and hatred, since they could easily bring on acceptance of the dark side. In contrast, positive emotions such as compassion and courage nurtured the light side of the Force. The Jedi Code compared such feelings and provided insight into the ethical use of the Force.

Passion was considered dangerous, as it could lead to strong emotions that could unbalance the Jedi and lead them to the Dark Side. Love was, curiously enough, seen as something both Jedi and Sith avoided. While the Jedi espoused a broad, all-encompassing, self-sacrificing love for all beings, love for another being—romance, a possessive love by nature—was shunned in post-Ruusan order. Possession of all types was also shunned in the post-Ruusan Reformation era Jedi Order, the only exceptions being a Jedi's lightsaber and clothes. The Jedi viewed love as a danger best left untouched. While the passion that came with love could lead to hatred and anger—as Anakin Skywalker demonstrated in becoming a Sith because of his love for Padmé Amidala; it could also lead to pity, mercy, self-sacrifice and compassion, emotions the Sith did not see as beneficial, as demonstrated by Darth Vader in sacrificing himself to save his son from the Emperor at the end of his life, thus bringing balance to the Force.

The dark side of the Force

Main article: Dark side of the Force

"The strength of the dark side lies with the power of the individual. The Force comes from within. You must learn to draw on it yourself. I will not always be there to teach you."

Darth Bane to his apprentice[src]

BZZZZZZ

BZZZZZ!

The dark side of the Force was considered by the Jedi to be the element aligned with fear, hatred, aggression, and malice toward all living things. Such emotions seemed to increase the strength and abilities of a user of the dark side, providing a path towards personal power and the destruction or control of all opposition. It was generally accepted that use of the dark side of the Force was extremely addictive. Dark side Jedi were known as Dark Jedi

. Some light Jedi, such as Jaden Korr & Galen Marek, could use dark side powers.

The Sith Order

Main article: Sith

"It has been said that anyone who knows the ways of the Force can set her- or himself up as a King on any world where only she or he knows the ways of the Force. Any Jedi could do this. But the Jedi, fools that they are, adhere to a religion in which the Force is used only in the service of others. How shortsighted of them. Is that not why they lost the galaxy to the dark side?"

Palpatine, in The Weakness of Inferiors[src]

The Dark Lord Darth Bane considered the Force to be finite and thus ideally for exclusive use by the Dark Lord. He eliminated the practice of having vast numbers of Sith at the same time, thereby aiming to concentrate the dark side of the Force into two individuals: a Sith Master and his or her apprentice. This tradition, or "Rule of Two," later underwent a small reformation by Dark Lady Lumiya, following the deaths of Darth Sidious and Darth Vader (the Sith Lords at the time) in 4 ABY. The Rule of Two was later rejected by Darth Krayt, who instituted the Rule of One, using "One" to refer to the Sith Order itself and encompassing many minions, acolytes/adepts and lords, led by only one Dark Lord of the Sith (or Dread Lord). Darth Krayt believed he gave the Sith and their power a purpose, unlike Darth Bane, who believed that power was its own purpose. The Rule of One called for cooperation and even some level of loyalty between the Sith. However, the Rule of One did not represent the Sith as a whole, and Krayt was even labeled a heretic by the holocrons of Darth Bane, Darth Nihilus and Darth Andeddu.

The Unifying Force

Main article: Unifying Force

"Jedi refer to the ‘light side’ and the ‘dark side’, but really, these are only words, and the Force is beyond words. It is not evil, just as it isn’t good—it's simply what it is."

Barriss Offee[src]

The concept of the Unifying Force found fewer supporters within the Jedi Order than the Living Force. The concept of the Unifying Force was that the Force is a single entity and has neither a light nor the dark side. The Unifying Force was viewed as a deity that neither had sides nor chose them, treating all beings equally. Followers of the Unifying Force always kept their eyes open for future possibilities. In the end, it resulted in them trying to fulfill a destiny rather than focusing on here and now, as the Living Force supporter would do.

Visions of the future were of particular significance to Unifying Force supporters. Yoda was one of the most adamant proponents of heeding visions of the future though never once acknowledged any of the other views common with the Unifying Force. Many of the Jedi held a similar philosophy, and focused on the flow of time as a whole, ignoring primary use of the Living Force. Voices for the latter espoused a philosophy of "live for the moment" and heavily relied on their instincts. This viewpoint might have allowed the Jedi Order to stave off the conflict that gave rise to the Galactic Empire, as its members lost themselves in looking forward rather than analyzing the unfolding events before them. Yoda later espoused beliefs closer to the philosophy of the Living Force when training Luke Skywalker on Dagobah.

Ironically for Unifying Force Jedi, Emperor Palpatine, also known as Darth Sidious, also supported this belief. He claimed that there was only one Force: the only difference worthy of note was that the Sith saw the Force as a means to an end while the Jedi saw it as an end in itself. This view was also supported by Vergere, who taught Jacen Solo that there was no light side or dark side of the Force—only the Unifying Force. Vergere also told Solo that "the Force was everything, and everything was the Force"; that the Force did not have sides and never took sides.[2]

Potentium belief

Main article: 'Potentium

The Potentium view of the Force, not to be confused with the Unifying Force, was strictly disapproved by the old Jedi Order. While similar to the Unifying Force, which suggested that there was only one Force that did not take sides, the Potentium view stated that the Force and the galaxy in general were inherently good. According to this belief, the so-called dark side was not made up of specific "parts" or "abilities" of the Force: as espoused by the Light Side, it existed inside the life form which used it, made from their emotions. By that standard, and unlike the Light Side, all Potentium followers could perform any action and use the Force in any way they saw fit, as long as the intention behind it was good. In contrast, the Old Jedi Order acknowledged the existence of Potentium, but made it clear that it was subverting of the Jedi teaching and a way to misguide people to the dark side, or a means to serve it.[2] The living planet Zonama Sekot supported the Potentium theory of the Force as well.

Alternate views on the Force

Way of the Dark

Main article: Way of the Dark

"I have been trying to create. To build, when I should have destroyed. I abandoned the Way of the Dark, and the Dark abandoned me."

Cronal[src]

The Way of the Dark, or simply the Dark, was a view of the Force taken up by Cronal and those that taught him. It was effectively the polar opposite of the Potentium, but taken a step further. This Way of the Dark belief did not just deny the existence of the Light side of the Force; it stated that the Force itself was simply a small extension of the Dark. This system stated that destruction was the universal constant that all things worked towards, going so far as to call it the "will of the universe". An initiate was taught that if one made destruction his primary goal, with whatever scheme he was taking part in being a secondary objective, then the Dark would effectively reward the initiate for the devastation caused by pushing the secondary objective to success.[3]

As a prime example of this, Cronal cited that Palpatine was able to achieve success against the Jedi and the Republic because his primary motive was the destruction of both parties. However, once he had achieved these goals and set about consolidating his rule and building the Empire, his focus shifted from destruction to creation, in total opposition to universal processes. Thus when before he could not fail, now he could never succeed.[3]

The insidious Force

Darth Traya, a female Sith living during the Old Sith Wars, believed the Force to be akin to some sort of deceptively sinister, indifferent god. She pointed to the numerous wars fought by countless Force users, as proof that the Force cared nothing for the lives it consumed, so long as balance was achieved. This philosophy emphasized the belief that neither the light nor the dark side was truly superior to the other, and that if people were to be truly free, the Force had to be eliminated from the galaxy. This was generally a very unpopular theory with both the Sith and the Jedi, and this practice practically disappeared entirely with Traya's death.

Aing-Tii beliefs

Main article: Aing-Tii

The Aing-Tii monks from the Kathol Rift viewed the Force in a way different, but similar to the view of the Jedi. Instead of the dark and the light sides of the Force, they viewed it as having many colors, much like a rainbow. They believed that the Force could manifest itself in different ways, which allowed a being to develop unique abilities, unknown to most of the Jedi and the Sith. They believed the Force was much too complicated to be just light or dark. According to their beliefs, Force-users were not strictly good or evil, but instead had their place in a larger spectrum.

White Current

Main article: White Current

The Fallanassi called the Force the White Current and saw it like the river flowing through the galaxy and all living beings. A single person could not alter the current any more than a being could divert a river with one hand. Thus, the Fallanassi immersed themselves in the Current, letting it flow through them. This way they managed to shape its flow without imposing their will on it, which also opened them a way for unique Force abilities.[2]

Sorcerers of Tund

Main article: Sorcerers of Tund

The Sorcerers of Tund shared most of the Sith beliefs, which was not surprising, given the fact that their order was founded by Sith mages. However, they viewed the force as the magical power and manipulated it mostly by arcane symbols and spells. The Jedi viewed the sorcerers as merely another Force sect, but would often try to "convert" the Sorcerers, attempting to convince them to use the Force without any of their trappings of magic and mysticism. However, they were unsuccessful, and eventually the Jedi contented themselves with making sure the Sorcerers did not descend into the dark side.

Force abilities

Main article: Force power

"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force."

Darth Vader referring to the Death Star[src]

Manifestations of the Force, which were mentally-based abilities and tapped through the practitioner's willpower, could take all forms, and included telepathy, psychokinesis, and enhanced physical and metaphysical perception. The Force could be used to bend the will of weak-minded beings and guide an adept's body. Users who were very good at using the Force could cease merely reacting to their surroundings and actually predict events in the very near future, such as the next blow in a duel. Guidance like this enabled Luke Skywalker to launch a proton torpedo into an extremely difficult target on the Death Star in the Battle of Yavin. The Force could also be used to sedate. Qui-Gon Jinn used this power on Jar Jar Binks when traveling the dangerous underwater path to Theed. Qui-Gon placed a hand on Jar Jar's shoulder and asked him to relax causing the Gungan to almost lose consciousness. Obi-wan, observing the extreme change in Jar Jar's behavior, told Jinn, his master, "You overdid it."

Qui-Gon Force

Qui-Gon Jinn uses the Force to destroy Trade Federation battle droids.

In

addition to enhancing their own skill, Force users were capable of channeling the energies of The Force directly into the world around them. The Sith were infamous for making heavy use of this ability to conjure Force Lightning, or Force Choke enemies by constricting their windpipes. The Jedi preferred to use their abilities to heal and protect; closing wounds and shielding others with barriers of Force energies. Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn discovered that Jedi could achieve near-immortality through the Force by existing as a Force ghost after death.1

Some Force users even learned how to transfer their spirit into another body. Palpatine used this technique in order to prolong his life, and evidence suggests the legendary Dark Jedi Set Harth, who fell to the dark side in the aftermath of the New Sith Wars, used this power to leapfrog his essence between hundreds of clone bodies, lingering in the physical realm up until the Yuuzhan Vong invasion and beyond. Later Callista Ming transferred herself to the body of a dying friend so that she could stay alive. Callista, unlike Harth and Palpatine, lost her ability to touch the Force in the process of transference.

Others, such as Darth Nihilus and the Jedi Exile, could use the Force to feed off other Force users. Nihilus' power could encompass entire planets and drain them of life, like the Miraluka colony world of Katarr. Some dark side users could use a different and weaker form of this technique to drain the strength of others into themselves, occasionally to fatal results. Darth Nihilus' ability to do this originated from a "Wound in the Force", which is essentially a rip in the fabric of the Force itself.

Palpatine mentioned that the Force could help one cheat death, or create life, a secret mastered only by Darth Plagueis. Another Sith Lord, Darth Sion, used a more indirect method to cheat death. As he could call upon his pain to strengthen his will and allow him to rise up again as strong as he was beforehand, he was arguably immortal.

The Force played a major part in the Jedi use of a lightsaber, in that their heightened awareness kept them from accidentally injuring themselves while using the weapon in combat, as the blade had no relative weight, making it difficult to judge its position. Similarly, the Force allowed a Jedi to use his/her lightsaber to deflect incoming blaster bolts. The Force also came into play during the construction of a lightsaber, both in assembling its intricate innards, and the initial charging of the power cell.

Manipulating the Force entailed significant risks, however. When a person used the Force beyond their body's ability to sustain it, the individual could suffer physical damage, accelerated aging, or in an extreme case, certain death by burning their own body cells from the inside out. Palpatine, and Dorsk 81 are prime examples of excessive Force usage and the consequences.

Disturbances in the Force

Main articles: Disturbance in the Force and Wound in the Force

"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."

Obi-Wan Kenobi, referring to the destruction of Alderaan[src]

The Force existed in all life, and when great amounts of life passed away, a disturbance was created, running through the Force like a scream that Force-adepts could hear. This was how a "hole" in the Force was created at the battle of Malachor V during the Mandalorian Wars when the Mass Shadow Generator was unleashed. In addition, when the Mandalorians destroyed the cities of Serroco using nuclear weapons. This happened again when Alderaan was destroyed; Obi-Wan Kenobi sensed "a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.…". The students of the Jedi Praxeum felt a similar disturbance when the Carida system was destroyed. It was suggested that Yoda could not even stand on Kashyyyk as Order 66 was being executed. It was as if Yoda was being overpowered by the disturbance caused by the many simultaneous Jedi deaths. It is possible that those strong in the Force could have glimpses of what is creating the disturbance, though the severity that the adept would feel would depend on numerous variables, including both their training and their innate connection with the Force. This could explain why Yoda seemed to know what happened when Obi-Wan Kenobi was about to look at the security recordings of the Jedi Temple. However, while typically called "disturbances", they were sometimes be referred to as "tremors", as Darth Vader did about Obi-Wan's presence at Death Star I. Disturbances could also be felt lingering from a past event, such as when Leia Organa Solo felt a disturbance when she visited the place where Anakin Skywalker slaughtered an entire village of Tusken Raiders.

Unusual Force occurrences in nature

The Rakatan Force-enabled hyperdrives allowed them to travel to hyperspace.

The ysalamiri were a species of tree-dwelling lizard-like creatures that were immune to most effects of the Force. The creatures exuded a "bubble" which "pushes back" Force energies, making them useful tools for individuals (such as Grand Admiral Thrawn) requiring a means to nullify a Jedi's abilities. They originated on the world of Myrkr. It is mentioned that the ysalamir, when put together, create a much more extensive bubble, sometimes expanding a few kilometers outside their native forest. They evolved this trait to survive being hunted by the predatory vornskrs, pack animals that hunted by tracking down live prey using the Force.

A creature with a similar peculiarity was the taozin, a large, gelatinous predator. Though not widely known, at least one of these creatures was alive deep in the undercity of Coruscant approximately ten years before the Clone Wars.[4]

Gurlanins could also 'hide' themselves from the Force, though they could also make themselves detectable in the Force at will if they chose to.

While not immune to the Force, Hutts were highly resistant, having an innate defense against Force-based mind manipulation.

Toydarians were immune to mind tricks as well. The Yinchorri and the Dashades were also largely unaffected by Force mental manipulation, and were thus both utilized to varying degrees by the Emperor; the Yinchorri during the period surrounding the Stark Hyperspace War and the Dashadi during the first few years following the Great Jedi Purge.

Additionally, Force-resistant creatures called terentateks were a major threat to the Jedi. Some suspected that they were created by the Sith to hunt down the Jedi. Periodically, the Jedi held a Great Hunt in an attempt to hunt down and destroy all of the terentateks. The monsters appeared to be extremely long-lived and resilient.

Although not natural, voxyn could hunt Jedi and other Force users by noticing their "Force scent."

Hssiss could influence Force-sensitive beings around them. If bitten by an hssiss, one would succumb to the effects of a dark side poison. Hssiss also had the ability to conceal themselves and become invisible, possibly doing so through the Force.

Sith magic was sometimes considered outside of the Force by some of its practitioners, though how much of that is true is unconfirmed.

The Yuuzhan Vong could not be sensed or affected directly by the Force as they had been stripped of it around 15,000 BBY.

Organized Force traditions

"The Force is a river from which many can drink, and the training of the Jedi is not the only cup which can catch it."

Luke Skywalker[src]

The Jedi and Sith Orders taught the Force as described above, but there were other traditions which instructed different philosophies and uses of the Force, or use of powers similar to the Force.

L-Field

The L-field is a name proposed by the Yale Professor of Anatomy Harold Saxton Burr[1] for the electromagnetic field of any organism. Burr held that the study of this field offered great promise for medicine since it exhibited measurable qualities that might be used in prognosis of disease, mood and viability. The voltage measurements he used are not in doubt but "the scientific community has all but ignored" Burr's term and his interpretation of the field as a blueprint-like mold for all life.

Those having produced notable research along the same lines include Becker, Marino and Selden,[2] Lund[3] and Athenstaedt.[4] Progress has also been made in the use of electromagnets to aid the healing of broken bones.[5]

Details

Beginning in the 1930s H.S. Burr's seminal work at Yale aimed at a gradual accumulation of hard data to support the hypothesis of the bio-electric field as having emergent, unexplained qualities and acting as a causal agent in development, healing, mood and health. Burr set up a series of experiments, later repeated by other researchers, which demonstrated some properties of these EM fields which he called Life-fields (L-fields).

He showed that changes in the electrical potential of the L-field were associated with changes in the health of the organism. By leaving some trees hooked up to his L-field detectors for decades he found correlations between such things as the phases of the moon, sunspot activity, thunderstorms and readings from the trees.[6] He found that the axis of EM polarity in a frog's egg could predict the spinal axis of foetal development, which he interpreted as suggesting that the L-field was the organizing matrix for the body. His insistence that the L-field has primacy over the physical aspects of the organism eventually resulted in Burr being accused[by whom?] of "wishful vitalism".

In his work with humans, he wrote papers detailing his successes in charting and predicting the ovulation cycles of women, locating internal scar tissue, and diagnosing potential physical ailments through the reading of the individual's L-field. As there was little interest in Burr's work, few other scientists even attempted to duplicate Burr's results.

Student and colleague Leonard Ravitz carried Burr's work forward. Ravitz focused on the human dimension, beginning with an investigation of the effects of the lunar cycle on the human L-field. He concluded that the human L-field reaches a peak of activity at the full moon. Through work with hypnosis he became convinced that changes in the L-field directly relate to changes in a person's mental and emotional states. "Both emotional activity and stimuli of any sort involve mobilization of electrical energies, as indicated on the galvanometer, hence, both emotions and stimuli evoke the same energies. Emotions can be equated with energies." Most intriguingly, Ravitz showed that the L-field as a whole disappears before physical death.[7]


Mesmerism

A tendency emerged amongst British magnetizers to call their clinical techniques mesmerism in order to distance themselves from the magnetic-fluid-centered theoretical orientation of animal magnetism. Some mesmerists attempted to channel what they thought was a magnetic "fluid"; and, sometimes, they attempted this with the laying of hands. Reported effects included various feelings: intense heat, trembling, trances, and seizures.[1]

However, many scientific practitioners—such as French physician, anatomist, gynecologist, and pupil of Joseph Philippe François Deleuze (1753–1835), Théodore Léger (1799–1853), who had moved to Texas around 1836—found the label "mesmerism" to be "most improper".

Noting that, by 1846, the term Galvanism had been replaced by electricity, Léger argued that: MESMERISM, of all the names proposed [to replace the term animal magnetism], is decidedly the most improper; for, in the first place, no true science has ever been designated by the name of a man, whatever be the claims he could urge in his favor; and secondly, what are the claims of Mesmer for such an honor? He is not the inventor of the practical part of the science, since we can trace the practice of it through the most remote ages; and in that respect, the part which he introduced has been completely abandoned. He proposed for it a theory which is now [viz., 1846] exploded, and which, on account of his errors, has been fatal to our progress. He never spoke of the phenomena which have rehabilitated our cause among scientific men; and since nothing remains to be attributed to Mesmer, either in the practice and theory, or the discoveries that constitute our science, why should it be called MESMERISM?[2]

Royal Commission[]

The existence of Mesmer's magnetic fluid was scientifically examined by a French Royal Commission set up byLouis XVI in 1784.[citation needed] The Commission included Majault, Benjamin Franklin, Jean Sylvain Bailly, J. B. Le Roy, Sallin, Jean Darcet, de Borey, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, Antoine Lavoisier, Poissonnier, Caille, Mauduyt de la Varenne, Andry, and de Jussieu.[citation needed]

Whilst the Commission agreed that the cures claimed by Mesmer were indeed cures[citation needed], the commission also concluded there was no evidence of the existence of his magnetic fluid, and that its effects derived from either the imaginations of its subjects or through charlatanry.[citation needed][3]

Mesmerism and hypnosis[]

[2]

thumb|Advertisement poster of 1857: Instant sleep. Miscalenous effects of paralysis, partial and complete catalepsy, partial or complete attraction. Phreno-magnetic effects (...) Musical extasis (...) Insensitivity to physical pain and instant awakening (...) transfusion of magnetic power to others|link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abb%C3%A9_FariaAbbé Faria was one of the disciples of Franz Anton Mesmer who continued with Mesmer’s work following the disapproval of the Royal Commission. In the early 19th century, Abbé Faria introduced oriental hypnosis to Paris. Faria conducted experiments to prove that “no special force was necessary for the production of the mesmeric phenomena such as the trance, but that the determining cause lay within the subject himself;” in other words, that it worked purely by the power of suggestion.[4]

thumb|Advertisement poster of 1857: Instant sleep. Miscalenous effects of paralysis, partial and complete catalepsy, partial or complete attraction. Phreno-magnetic effects (...) Musical extasis (...) Insensitivity to physical pain and instant awakening (...) transfusion of magnetic power to others|link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abb%C3%A9_Faria was one of the disciples of Franz Anton Mesmer who continued with Mesmer’s work following the disapproval of the Royal Commission. In the early 19th century, Abbé Faria introduced oriental hypnosis to Paris. Faria conducted experiments to prove that “no special force was necessary for the production of the mesmeric phenomena such as the trance, but that the determining cause lay within the subject himself;” in other words, that it worked purely by the power of suggestion.[4]

Hypnosis originates from the practice of Mesmerism, being an attempt at what the surgeon James Braid described as "rational mesmerism". Braid based his methods of hypnotism directly on the practice of Mesmerism, but applied a more rational explanation for how the process worked.[5] The term “hypnotism” was coined and introduced by Braid.[6]

The vital fluid and the practice of animal magnetism[]

A 1791 London publication explains the Mesmer’s theory of the vital fluid : “Modern philosophy has admitted a plenum or universal principle of fluid matter, which occupies all space; and that as all bodies moving in the world, abound with pores, this fluid matter introduces itself through the interstices and returns backwards and forwards, flowing through one body by the currents which issue therefrom to another, as in a magnet, which produces that phenomenon which we call Animal Magnetism. This fluid consists of fire, air and spirit, and like all other fluids tends to an equilibrium, therefore it is easy to conceive how the efforts which the bodies make towards each other produce animal electricity, which in fact is no more than the effect produced between two bodies, one of which has more motion than the other; a phenomenon serving to prove that the body which has most motion communicates it to the other, until the medium of motion becomes an equilibrium between the two bodies, and then this equality of motion produces animal electricity.”[7] According to an anonymous writer of a series of letters published by the editor John Pearson in 1790, Animal magnetism can cause a wide range of effects ranging from vomiting to what is termed the “crisis.” The purpose of this treatment (the crisis) was to shock the whole body into convulsion in order to remove obstructions in the circulatory system that was causing sicknesses.[8] Furthermore, the anonymous supporter of animal magnetism purported that the crisis created two effects on the patient including a hypnotic state in which the patient was “possessed of his senses, yet cease to be an accountable creature” and the patient would have “unobstructed vision” being able to see through objects.[9]A patient under crisis was believed to be able to see through the body and find the cause of illness in themselves or in other patients.

The Marques of Puységur’s miraculous healing of a young man named Victor in 1784 supports this treatment of the crisis. The Marques was able to hypnotize Victor and while hypnotized, Victor was said to have been able to speak articulately and even diagnose his own sickness.


Magnetic Energies

Magnetic energies and electric energies are related by Maxwell's equations. How the fuck do they work? The potential energies of a magnet of magnetic moment m in a magnetic field B is defined as the work of magnetic force (actually of magnetic torque) on re-alignment of the vector of the magnetic dipole moment, and is equal:

Mag1



while energies stored in an inductor (of inductance L) when current I is passing via it is:

Mag2


This second expression forms the basis for superconducting magnetic energies storage.


Aether

Aether theories in early modern physics proposed the existence of a medium, the aether (also spelled ether, from the Greek word (αἰθήρ), meaning "upper air" or "pure, fresh air"[1]), a space-filling substance or field, thought to be necessary as a transmission medium for the propagation of electromagnetic waves. The assorted aether theories embody the various conceptions of this "medium" and "substance". This early modern aether has little in common with the aether of classical elements from which the name was borrowed.

Theories

Although hypotheses of the aether vary somewhat in detail they all have certain characteristics in common. In 19th century theories, aether is considered to be a physical medium occupying every point in space, including within material bodies. A second essential feature is that aether's properties give rise to the electric and magnetic phenomena and determines the propagation velocity of their effects. Therefore the speed of light and all other propagating effects are determined by the physical properties of the aether at the relevant location, analogous to the way that gaseous, liquid and solid media affect the propagation of sound waves. The aether is considered the overall reference frame for the universe and thus velocities are all absolute relative to its rest frame. Therefore, in this view, any physical consequences of those velocities are considered as having an absolute, i. e. real effects.

John Bell, interviewed by Paul Davies in "The Ghost in the Atom" has suggested that an aether theory might help resolve the EPR paradox by allowing a reference frame in which signals go faster than light.[2] He suggests Lorentz contraction is perfectly coherent, not inconsistent with relativity, and could produce an aether theory perfectly consistent with the Michelson-Morley experiment. Bell suggests the aether was wrongly rejected on purely philosophical grounds: "what is unobservable does not exist" [p.49]. Einstein found the non-aether theory simpler and more elegant, but Bell suggests that doesn't rule it out. Besides the arguments based on his interpretation of quantum mechanics, Bell also suggests resurrecting the aether because it is a useful pedagogical device. That is, many problems are solved more easily by imagining the existence of an aether.

Luminiferous aether

Main articles: Luminiferous aether and History of special relativityIn the 19th century, luminiferous aether (or ether), meaning light-bearing aether, was the term used to describe a medium for the propagation of light (electromagnetic radiation). However, a series of increasingly complex experiments had been carried out in the late 1800s like the Michelson-Morley experiment in an attempt to detect the motion of earth through the aether, and had failed to do so. A range of proposed aether-dragging theories could explain the null result but these were more complex, and tended to use arbitrary-looking coefficients and physical assumptions. Hendrik Lorentz and George Francis FitzGerald offered within the framework of Lorentz ether theory a more elegant solution to how the motion of an absolute aether could be undetectable (length contraction), but if their equations were correct, Albert Einstein's 1905 special theory of relativity could generate the same mathematics without referring to an aether at all. This led most physicists to conclude that the classical notion of aether was not a useful concept.

Gravitational aether

Main article: Mechanical explanations of gravitationFrom the 16th until the late 19th century, gravitational phenomena had also been modeled utilizing an aether. The most well-known formulation is Le Sage's theory of gravitation, although other models were proposed by Isaac Newton, Bernhard Riemann, and Lord Kelvin. None of those concepts is considered to be viable by the scientific community today. Einstein sometimes used the word aether for the gravitational field within general relativity, but this terminology never gained widespread support.

Modern analogies

In physics there is no concept considered exactly analogous to the aether. However, dark energies is sometimes called quintessence due to its similarity to the classical aether.

Quantum mechanics can be used to describe spacetime as being "bitty" at extremely small scales, fluctuating and generating particle pairs that appear and disappear incredibly quickly. Instead of being "smooth", the vacuum is described as looking like "quantum foam". It has been suggested that this seething mass of virtual particles may be the equivalent in modern physics of a particulate aether.



Phlogiston

Jjbecher

The alchemist and physician J. J. Becher proposed the phlogiston theory

The alchemist and physician J. J. Becher proposed the phlogiston theoryThe phlogiston theory (from theAncient Greek φλογιστόνphlogistón "burning up", from φλόξphlóx "flame"), first stated in 1667 by Johann Joachim Becher, is an obsolete scientific theory that postulated the existence of a fire-like element called "phlogiston", which was contained within combustible bodies and released during combustion. The theory was an attempt to explain processes such as combustion and the rusting of metals, which are now understood asoxidation.

History[]

In 1667, Johann Joachim Becher published his Physical Education, which was the first mention of what would become the phlogiston theory. Traditionally, alchemists considered that there were four classical elements: fire, water, air, and earth. In his book, Becher eliminated fire and air from the classical element model and replaced them with three forms of earth: terra lapidea, terra fluida, and terra pinguis.[1][2] Terra pinguis was the element which imparted oily, sulphurous, or combustible properties.[3] Becher believed that terra pinguis was a key feature of combustion and was released when combustible substances were burned.[1] In 1703 Georg Ernst Stahl, professor of medicine and chemistry at Halle, proposed a variant of the theory in which he renamed Becher's terra pinguis to phlogiston, and it was in this form that the theory probably had its greatest influence.[4][75][76]Phlogiston theory was a 17th century attempt to explain oxidation processes such as fire and rust==[edit] Theory== The theory holds that all combustible resources contain phlogiston, a substance without colour, odor,taste, or mass that is liberated in burning. Once burned, the "dephlogisticated" substance was held to be in its "true" form, the calx.

Large bonfire

Phlogiston theory was a 17th century attempt to explain oxidation processes such as fire and rust

"Phlogisticated" substances are those that contain phlogiston and are "dephlogisticated" when burned; "in general, substances that burned in air were said to be rich in phlogiston; the fact that combustion soon ceased in an enclosed space was taken as clear-cut evidence that air had the capacity to absorb only a definite amount of phlogiston. When air had become completely phlogisticated it would no longer serve to support combustion of any material, nor would a metal heated in it yield a calx; nor could phlogisticated air support life, for the role of air in respiration was to remove the phlogiston from the body."[5]

Thus, phlogiston was described in a way basically the opposite of the real role of oxygen in combustion.

Joseph Black's student Daniel Rutherford discovered nitrogen in 1772 and the pair used the theory to explain his results. The residue of air left after burning, in fact a mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide, was sometimes referred to as "phlogisticated air", having taken up all of the phlogiston. Conversely, when oxygen was first discovered it was thought to be "dephlogisticated air", capable of combining with more phlogiston and thus supporting combustion for longer than ordinary air.[6]

Challenge and demise[]

Eventually, quantitative experiments revealed problems, including the fact that some metals, such asmagnesium, gained weight when they burned, even though they were supposed to have lost phlogiston. Mikhail Lomonosov attempted to repeat Robert Boyle's celebrated experiment[clarification needed] in 1753 and concluded that the phlogiston theory was false. He wrote in his diary: "Today I made an experiment in hermetic glass vessels in order to determine whether the mass of metals increases from the action of pure heat. The experiment demonstrated that the famous Robert Boyle was deluded, for without access of air from outside, the mass of the burnt metal remains the same." Some phlogiston proponents explained this by concluding that phlogiston had negative weight; others, such as Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, gave the more conventional argument that it was lighter than air. However, a more detailed analysis based on the Archimedean principle and the densities of magnesium and its combustion product shows that just being lighter than air cannot account for the increase in mass.

During the eighteenth century, as it became clear that metals gained weight when they were oxidized, phlogiston was increasingly regarded as a principle rather than a material substance.[7] By the end of the eighteenth century, for the few chemists who still used the term phlogiston, the concept was linked to hydrogen. Joseph Priestley, for example, in referring to the reaction of steam on iron, whilst fully acknowledging that the iron gains weight as it binds with oxygen to form a calx, iron oxide, iron also loses “the basis of inflammable air (hydrogen), and this is the substance or principle, to which we give the name phlogiston.”[8] Following Lavoisier’s description of oxygen as the oxidizing principle (hence the name oxygen: oxus = sharp, acid; geneo = I beget), Priestley described phlogiston as the alkaline principle.[9]

Phlogiston remained the dominant theory until Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier showed that combustion requires a gas that has weight (oxygen) and could be measured by means of weighing closed vessels. The use of closed vessels also negated the buoyancy which had disguised the weight of the gases of combustion. These observations solved the weight paradox and set the stage for the new caloric theory of combustion.

In some respects, the phlogiston theory can be seen as the opposite of the modern "oxygen theory". The phlogiston theory states that all flammable materials contain phlogiston that is liberated in burning, leaving the "dephlogisticated" substance in its "true" calx form. In the modern theory, on the other hand, flammable materials (and unrusted metals) are "deoxygenated" when in their pure form and become oxygenated when burned. However, the first part of the old theory requires that phlogiston has weight (since ashes weigh less), but the second requires that it have no weight or negative weight, since corroded metals weigh the same or more, depending on whether or not they are allowed to corrode in sealed chambers, and organic materials when burnt lose mass as the carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in them are oxygenated fully to carbon dioxide and water vapor, which are gases.


Nuclear energies

See also: Nuclear power, Nuclear binding energies, and Nuclear Energies (sculpture)Nuclear potential energies is the potential energies of the particles inside an atomic nucleus. The nuclear particles are bound together by the strong nuclear force. Weak nuclear forces provide the potential energies for certain kinds of radioactive decay, such as beta decay.

Nuclear particles like protons and neutrons are not destroyed in fission and fusion processes, but collections of them have less mass than if they were individually free, and this mass difference is liberated as heat and radiation in nuclear reactions (the heat and radiation have the missing mass, but it often escapes from the system, where it is not measured). The energies from the Sun is an example of this form of energies conversion. In the Sun, the process of hydrogen fusion converts about 4 million tonnes of solar matter per second into electromagnetic energies, which is radiated into space.


Sound energies[]

Sound energies is defined as:

Sound



With



Orgone[]

CloudCroftpyramidcb

A cloudbuster: (seen at bottom, right of center, not the sculpture) a device intended to influence weather, supposedly by altering levels of "atmospheric orgone".

Orgone energies is an idea which was proposed and promoted in the 1930s by psychoanalystWilhelm Reich, who originated the term to describe a universal life force.[1] The idea was quickly discredited and dismissed.[2] The current consensus of the scientific community is that orgone theory is pseudoscience.[3][4][5]

Reich, originally part of Sigmund Freud's Vienna circle, believed that Freud's concept oflibido had an actual biological basis,[6] and developed a therapeutic practice that was ostensibly designed to open up this bodily energies in the belief—following Freud—that healthy psychological state derived from uninhibited libidinal flow. This biophysical theory eventually developed into the concept of orgone (a word coined from the same root as "organism" and "orgasm"): which Reich saw as a massless, omnipresent substance, similar to luminiferous aether, but more closely associated with vital, living energies than inert matter. Orgone would coalesce and create organization on all scales, from the smallest microscopic units—called bions in orgone theory—to macroscopic structures like organisms, clouds, or even galaxies.[7] Reich's follower Charles R. Kelley went so far as to claim that orgone was the creative substratum in all of nature, comparable to Mesmer's animal magnetism, the Odic force of Carl Reichenbach and Henri Bergson'sélan vital.[1] Reich believed that many diseases, and particularly cancer, were caused by deficits or constrictions in the flow of orgone in the body, and developed specially designed "orgone accumulators" which supposedly charged the body with orgone collected from the atmosphere.[8] These devices were distributed as devices to improve general health and increase sexual potency, and later were adopted into tools such as cloudbusters, devices intended to stimulate rainfall.

Reich created the Orgone Institute after immigrating to the US, and pursued research into orgone energies for more than a decade, publishing his own work through the institute and producing orgone accumulators and related devices for distribution. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) eventually obtained a federal injunction barring the interstate distribution of orgone-related materials, on the charge that Reich and his associates were making false and misleading claims. When Reich violated the injunction he was jailed, and all orgone-related equipment and literature owned by Reich and his associates were destroyed.[9]

Orgone is regarded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine as a type of "putative energies", a model which some therapists use for clinical procedures but which is untestable or defies measurement.[10] There is little or no support for the concept in the medical and scientific communities.[2]

History[]

The concept of orgone belongs to Reich's later work, after he immigrated to the US. Reich's early work was based on the Freudian concept of the libido, though influenced by sociological understandings with which Freud disagreed but which were to some degree followed by other prominent theorists such as Herbert Marcuse and Carl Jung. While Freud had focused on a solipsistic conception of mind in which unconscious and inherently selfish primal drives (primarily the sexual drive, or libido) were suppressed or sublimated by internal representations (cathexes) of parental figures (the superego), for Reich libido was a life-affirming force repressed by society directly. For example, in one of his better known analyses Reich observes a workers' political rally, noting that participants were careful not to violate signs that prohibited walking on the grass; Reich saw this as the state co-opting unconscious responses to parental authority as a means of controlling behavior.[11] He was expelled from the Institute of Psycho-analysis because of these disagreements over the nature of the libido and his increasingly political stance and was forced to leave Germany very soon after Hitler came to power.[12] [79][80]

WilhelmReichcloudbuster2

Reich with one of his cloudbusters, which he said could manipulate streams of orgone to produce rain.

Reich took an increasinglybioenergetic view of libido, perhaps influenced by his tutor Paul Kammerer and another biologist, Otto Warburg.[13]In the early 20th century, when molecular biology was in its infancy, developmental biology in particular still presented mysteries that made the idea of a specific life energies respectable, as was articulated by theorists such as Hans Driesch. As a psycho-analyst Reich aligned such theories with the Freudian libido, while as a materialist he believed such a life-force must be susceptible to physical experiment. He wrote in The Function of the Orgasm; "Between 1919 and 1921, I became familiar with Driesch's 'Philosophie des Organischen' and his 'Ordnungslehre'... Driesch's contention seemed incontestable to me. He argued that, in the sphere of the life function, the whole could be developed from a part, whereas a machine could not be made from a screw..... However, I couldn't quite accept the transcendentalism of the life principle. Seventeen years later I was able to resolve the contradiction on the basis of a formula pertaining to the function of energies. Driesch's theory was always present in my mind when I thought about vitalism. The vague feeling I had about the irrational nature of his assumption turned out to be justified in the end. He landed among the spiritualists.[14]

The concept of orgone was the result of this work in the psycho-physiology of libido. After his migration to the US, Reich began to speculate about biological development and evolution, and then branched out into much broader speculations about the nature of the universe.[1] Believing he had detected "bions"—self-luminescent sub-cellularvesicles visible in decaying materials, and presumably present universally—he first conceived them aselectrodynamic or radioactive entities, as had the Ukrainian biologist Alexander Gurwitsch, but later concluded from his research that he had discovered an entirely unknown but measurable force, which he then named "orgone",[1] a pseudo-Greek formation probably from org- "impulse, excitement" as in org-asm, plus -one as inozone (the Greek neutral participle, virtually *ὄργον, gen.: *ὄργοντος).[15]

For Reich neurosis became a physical manifestation he called "body armor"—deeply seated tensions and inhibitions in the physical body that were not separated from any mental effects that might be observed.[16] He developed a therapeutic approach he called vegetotherapy that was aimed at opening and releasing this body armor so that free instinctive reflexes—which he considered a token of psychic well-being—could take over.

Evaluation[]

Orgone was closely associated with sexuality: Reich, following Freud, saw nascent sexuality as the primary energetic force of life. The term itself was chosen to share a root with the word orgasm, which both Reich and Freud took to be a fundamental expression of psychological health. This focus on sexuality, while acceptable in the clinical perspective of Viennese psychoanalytic circles, scandalized the conservative American public even as it appealed to countercultural figures like William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac.

In at least some cases, Reich's experimental techniques do not appear to have been very careful, or to have taken precautions to remove experimental bias.[17] Nevertheless, conclusions based on these unreplicated informal sensory observations by Reich and his associates are still regarded and relied upon as fact in current publications by orgonomists. Reich was concerned with experimental verification from other scientists. Albert Einstein famously agreed to participate, but thought Reich's research lacked scientific detachment and experimental rigor; he found Reich's demonstrations of "orgone heat" inconclusive.[18]

Orgone and its related concepts were quickly denounced in the post-World War II American press.[19] Reich and his students were seen as a "cult of sex and anarchy," at least in part because orgone was linked with the title of his best-known book The Function of the Orgasm, and this led to numerous investigations as a communist[20]and denunciation under a wide variety of other pretexts.[21] He was, as the New York Times later put it, "much maligned".[22] The psychoanalytical community of the time saw his approach to healing diseases as quackery of the worst sort, and they took his comments about UFOs out of context to make him look like a charlatan.[23] In 1954 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration successfully sought an injunction to prevent Reich from making medical claims relating to orgone, which (among other stipulations) prevented him from shipping "orgone devices" across state lines.[24] Reich defied the order and was jailed, and the FDA took that opportunity to destroy any of Reich's books which mentioned orgone, along with research materials and devices.[6][24][25][26]

Some of Reich's observations have been replicated by other researchers. Stefan Müschenich, in an unpublishedMaster's thesis, has demonstrated effects of orgone accumulators on test subjects in keeping with Reich's original descriptions, while a subjects exposed to a known "dummy box" showed no such effects.[27] As of 2007, the National Institutes of Health database PubMed, and the Web of Science database, contained only 4 or 5 peer-reviewed scientific papers published (since 1968) dealing with orgone therapy.

Some psychotherapists and psychologists practicing various kinds of Body Psychotherapy and Somatic Psychology have continued to use Reich's proposed emotional-release methods and character-analysis ideas,[27][28][29] but use of orgone equipment is rare, limited mainly to therapists who have been trained in "Reichian" institutions such as the American College of Orgonomy.

Orgone in popular culture[]

Orgone was used in the writings of several prominent beat generation authors, who were fascinated by both its purported curative and sexual aspects. To that extent, it is heavily associated with the 1950s counterculture movement, though it did not carry over into the more extensive movements of the 1960s.

William S. Burroughs[]

William S. Burroughs was a major proponent of orgone research, who often included it as part of the surreal imagery in his novels. Orgone interested Burroughs particularly because he believed that it could be used to ease or alleviate "junk sickness"—a popular term for heroin withdrawal. This fit well in the context of his novels, which were usually narrative recreations of his own experiences with narcotics and the Beat life.

Burroughs explicitly compares "kicking the habit" to cancer in the novel Junky, and ties it to the use of orgone accumulators. He writes: Cancer is rot of tissue in a living organism. In junk sickness the junk dependent cells die and are replaced. Cancer is a premature death process. The cancer patient shrinks. A junkie shrinks—I have lost up to fifteen pounds in three days. So I figure if the accumulator is a therapy for cancer, it should be therapy for the after-effects of junk sickness. At the time that Burroughs was writing, orgone accumulators were only available from Reich's Orgone Institute in New York, offered for a ten dollar per month donation. Burroughs built his own instead, substituting rock wool for the sheet iron, but still achieved the desired effect. Burroughs writes about what occurred once he started using the accumulator: Constant use of junk of the years has given me the habit of directing attention inward. When I went into the accumulator and sat down I noticed a special silence that you sometimes feel in deep woods, sometimes on a city street, a hum that is more rhythmic vibration than a sound. My skin prickled and I experienced an aphrodisiac effect similar to good strong weed. No doubt about it, orgones are as definite a force as electricity. After using the accumulator for several days my energies came back to normal. I began to eat and could not sleep more than eight hours. I was out of the post cure drag.

Jack Kerouac[]

In Kerouac's popular novel, On The Road, the orgone accumulator was treated more as another type of drug than as a medical device: primarily a stimulant, with strong sexual overtones. When Sal Paradise visits Old Bull Lee in the novel (characters representing Kerouac and Burroughs, respectively), Lee's orgone accumulator is described as follows: 'Say, why don’t you fellows try my orgone accumulator? Put some juice in your bones. I always rush up and take off ninety miles an hour for the nearest whorehouse, hor-hor-hor!' said Bull Lee… The orgone accumulator is an ordinary box big enough for a man to sit inside on a chair: a layer of wood, a layer of metal, and another layer of wood gather in orgones from the atmosphere and hold them captive long enough for a human to absorb more than a usual share. According to Reich, orgones are vibratory atmospheric atoms of the life-principle. People get cancer because they run out of orgones. Old Bull thought his orgone accumulator would be improved if the wood he used was as organic as possible, so he tied bushy bayou leaves and twigs to his mystical outhouse. It stood there in the hot, flat yard, an exfoliate machine clustered and bedecked with maniacal contrivances. Old Bull slipped off his clothes and went to sit and moon over his navel.

J.D. Salinger[]

According to his daughter, J.D. Salinger would sometimes use an orgone accumulator, among an assortment of other alternative health regimens.[30]

Hawkwind[]

British space rockers Hawkwind released the track "Orgone Accumulator" as the first track on side three of the 1972 live album, Space Ritual. I've got an Orgone Accumulator It makes me feel greater I'll see you sometime later When I'm through with my Accumulator It's no social integrator It's a one man isolator It's a back brain stimulator It's a cerebral vibrator ...But an Orgone Accumulator Is a superman creator

Kate Bush[]

The song "Cloudbusting" by British singer Kate Bush describes Reich's arrest and incarceration through the eyes of his son, Peter.

Devo[]

The new wave '80s band Devo claimed that their iconic energies dome design was used to recycle the wasted orgone energies that flows from a person's head. Devo co-founder Mark Mothersbaugh has said, 'We did the red energies dome, which was useful—besides being an icon -- it was a useful icon. You probably know this very well, but your orgone energies goes out the top of your head and it dissipates out the top, but if you wear an energies dome it recycles that energies. It comes back down and showers back down on you and, among other things, you remain manly, shall we say, for maybe another 150 years of your life, probably. I think that's a safe prediction to say that energies domes -- if you wore them constantly, night and day -- which I don't do, but there are people out there who do, not too many of them but there are some. We get e-mails from them, so we know they're out there, those people will probably live about an extra 150 years because of all that orgone energies that they're saving and not wasting away.'[32]


Odic force

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 energies or life force by Baron Carl von Reichenbach. Von Reichenbach coined the name from that of the Norse god Odin in 1845.[citation needed]

History

As von Reichenbach was investigating the manner in which the human nervous system could be affected by various substances, he conceived 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 prana and qi. However, they regarded the Odic force, not as associated with breath (like India's prana and the qi of Eastern martial arts), but rather mainly with biological electromagnetic fields.[citation needed]

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 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.[citation needed]

Scientific basis

Von Reichenbach hoped to develop a scientific proof for a universal life force, however his experiments relied 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.[citation needed]

Reichenbach stated that through experimentation possibly 1/3 of the population could view the phenomenon, but far less otherwise. Author Sydney Billing claimed to have witnessed it, as well as colleagues who were medical doctors in England who viewed it through experimentation,[1] and discussion on the subject matter continues into the present-day, with some claiming to be able to see it on sunny days with clear skies naturally.[2]

Scientists have abandoned concepts such as Odic force. In western popular culture, the name is used similarly to qi or prana in reference to spiritual energies or vital force associated with living things. In Europe, Odic force has been mentioned in books on dowsing, for example.[3]



Qi[]

Qi (Ch'i)

Qi 3 forms

Chinese name

Traditional Chinese

Simplified Chinese

Japanese name

Hiragana

Kyūjitai

Shinjitai

Korean name

Hangul

Hanja

Thai name

Thai

ชี่

RTGS

Chi

Vietnamese name

Quốc ngữ

khí

For other uses, see Qi (disambiguation).In traditional Chinese culture, qi (also chi or ch'i) is an active principle forming part of any living thing. Qi is frequently translated as "energies flow", and is often compared to Westernnotions of energeia or élan vital (vitalism), as well as the yogic notion of prana and pranayama. The literaltranslation of "qi" is air, breath, or gas.

Term and character[]

Qi obsolete

Traditional Chinese character qì, also used in Korean hanja. In Japanesekanji, this character was used until 1946, when it was changed to 気.

The etymological explanation for the form of the qi logogram in the traditional form is “steam () rising fromrice () as it cooks”. The earliest way of writing qi consisted of three wavy lines, used to represent one's breath seen on a cold day. A later version, 气, identical to the present-day simplified character, is a stylized version of those same three lines. For some reason, early writers of Chinese found it desirable to substitute for 气a cognate character that originally meant to feed other people in a social context such as providing food for guests.[citation needed] Appropriately, that character combined the three-line qi character with the character for rice. So 气plus 米formed 氣, and that is the traditional character still used today (the oracle bone character, the seal scriptcharacter and the modern "school standard" or Kǎi shū characters in the box at the right show three stages of the evolution of this character).[1] [83][84]


In the Japanese language, the Chinese character corresponding to "qi" () is pronounced 'ki'. The Japanese language contains over 11,442 known usages of "ki" as a compound. As a compound, it tends to represent syllables associated with the mind, the heart, feeling, the atmosphere, and flavor.[citation needed]

Definition[]

References to things analogous to the qi taken to be the life-process or flow of energies that sustains living beings are found in many belief systems, especially in Asia. In Chinese legend, it is Huang Di (the Yellow Emperor) who is identified as the one who first collected and formalized much of what subsequently became known as traditional Chinese medicine.

Philosophical conceptions of qi from the earliest records of Chinese philosophy (5th century BC) correspond to Western notions of humours. The earliest description of qi in the current sense of vital energies is due to Mencius(4th century BC).

Within the framework of Chinese thought, no notion may attain such a degree of abstraction from empirical data as to correspond perfectly to one of our modern universal concepts. Nevertheless, the term qi comes as close as possible to constituting a generic designation equivalent to our word "energies". When Chinese thinkers are unwilling or unable to fix the quality of an energetic phenomenon, the character qi () inevitably flows from their brushes.[2]

Manfred Porkert

The ancient Chinese described it as "life-force". They believed qi permeated everything and linked their

Ki-hanja

Hand written calligraphic Qi.

surroundings together. They likened it to the flow of energies around and through the body, forming a cohesive and functioning unit. By understanding its rhythm and flow they believed they could guide exercises and treatments to provide stability and longevity.

Although the concept of qi has been important within many Chinese philosophies, over the centuries the descriptions of qi have varied and have sometimes been in conflict. Until China came into contact with Western scientific and philosophical ideas, they would not have categorized all things in terms of matter and energies. Qi and li (理, li, pattern) were 'fundamental' categories similar to matter and energies. [85][86]Hand writtencalligraphic Qi.Fairly early on, some Chinese thinkers began to believe that there were different fractions of qi and that the coarsest and heaviest fractions of qi formed solids, lighter fractions formed liquids, and the most ethereal fractions were the "lifebreath" that animates living beings.[3]

Yuán qì is a notion of innate or pre-natal qi to distinguish it from acquired qi that a person may develop over the course of their lifetime.

Pronunciation[]

Other spellings include simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; Mandarin Pinyin: qì; Wade–Giles:

ch'i;Jyutping: hei. Qi is pronounced /ˈtʃiː/ in English; [tɕʰî] in Standard Chinese; Korean: gi; Japanese: ki; Vietnamese:khí, pronounced [xǐ]) The approximate English pronunciation of qi, similar to "chee" in cheese, should also be distinguished from the pronunciation of the Greek letter chi, which has a hard c sound, like "c" in car, and a long i, similar to other Greek letters phi, psi, xi.

Early philosophical texts[]

The earliest texts that speak of qi give some indications of how the concept developed. The philosopher Mo Diused the word qi to refer to noxious vapors that would in due time arise from a corpse were it not buried at a sufficient depth.[4] He reported that early civilized humans learned how to live in houses to protect their qi from the moisture that had troubled them when they lived in caves.[5] He also associated maintaining one's qi with providing oneself adequate nutrition.[6] In regard to another kind of qi, he recorded how some people performed a kind of prognostication by observing the qi (clouds) in the sky.[7]

In the Analects of Confucius, compiled from the notes of his students sometime after his death in 479 B.C., qi could mean breath,[8] and combining it with the Chinese word for blood (making 血氣, xue-qi, blood and breath), the concept could be used to account for motivational characteristics.

The [morally] noble man guards himself against three things. When he is young, his xue-qi has not yet stabilized, so he guards himself against sexual passion. When he reaches his prime, his xue-qi is not easily subdued, so he guards himself against combativeness. When he reaches old age, his xue-qi is already depleted, so he guards himself against acquisitiveness.

—Confucius, Analects, 16:7

Mencius described a kind of qi that might be characterized as an individual's vital energies. This qi was necessary to activity, and it could be controlled by a well-integrated willpower.[9] When properly nurtured, this qi was said to be capable of extending beyond the human body to reach throughout the universe.[9] It could also be augmented by means of careful exercise of one's moral capacities.[9] On the other hand, the qi of an individual could be degraded by averse external forces that succeed in operating on that individual.[10]

Not only human beings and animals were believed to have qi. Zhuangzi indicated that wind is the qi of theEarth.[11] Moreover, cosmic yin and yang "are the greatest of qi."[12] He described qi as "issuing forth" and creating profound effects.[13] He said "Human beings are born [because of] the accumulation of qi. When it accumulates there is life. When it dissipates there is death... There is one qi that connects and pervades everything in the world."[14]

Another passage traces life to intercourse between Heaven and Earth: "The highest Yin is the most restrained. The highest Yang is the most exuberant. The restrained comes forth from Heaven. The exuberant issues forth from Earth. The two intertwine and penetrate forming a harmony, and [as a result] things are born."[15]

"The Guanzi essay 'Neiye' 內業(Inward training) is the oldest received writing on the subject of the cultivation of vapor [qi] and meditation techniques. The essay was probably composed at the Jixia Academy in Qi in the late fourth century B.C."[16]

Xun Zi, another Confucian scholar of the Jixia Academy, followed in later years. At 9:69/127, Xun Zi says, "Fire and water have qi but do not have life. Grasses and trees have life but do not have perceptivity. Fowl and beasts have perceptivity but do not have yi (sense of right and wrong, duty, justice). Men have qi, life, perceptivity, and yi." Chinese people at such an early time had no concept of radiant energies, but they were aware that one can be heated by a campfire from a distance away from the fire. They accounted for this phenomena by claiming "qi" radiated from fire. At 18:62/122, he too uses "qi" to refer to the vital forces of the body that decline with advanced age.

Among the animals, the gibbon and the crane were considered experts in inhaling the qi. The Confucian scholarDong Zhongshu (ca. 150 BC) wrote in Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals:[17] "The gibbon resembles a macaque, but he is larger, and his color is black. His forearms being long, he lives eight hundred years, because he is expert in controlling his breathing." ("猿似猴。大而黑。长前臂。所以寿八百。好引气也。")

Later, the syncretic text assembled under the direction of Liu An, the Huai Nan Zi, or "Masters of Huainan", has a passage that presages most of what is given greater detail by the Neo-Confucians: Heaven (seen here as the ultimate source of all being) falls (duo 墮, i.e., descends into proto-immanence) as the formless. Fleeting, fluttering, penetrating, amorphous it is, and so it is called the Supreme Luminary. The dao begins in the Void Brightening. The Void Brightening produces the universe (yu-zhou ). The universe produces qi. Qi has bounds. The clear, yang [qi] was ethereal and so formed heaven. The heavy, turbid [qi] was congealed and impeded and so formed earth. The conjunction of the clear, yang [qi] was fluid and easy. The conjunction of the heavy, turbid [qi] was strained and difficult. So heaven was formed first and earth was made fast later. The pervading essence (xi-jing) of heaven and earth becomes yin and yang. The concentrated (zhuan) essences of yin and yang become the four seasons. The dispersed (san) essences of the four seasons become the myriad creatures. The hot qi of yang in accumulating produces fire. The essence (jing) of the fire-qi becomes the sun. The cold qi of yin in accumulating produces water. The essence of the water-qi becomes the moon. The essences produced by coitus (yin) of the sun and moon become the stars and celestial markpoints (chen, planets).—Huai-nan-zi, 3:1a/19==[edit] Traditional Chinese medicine== Further information: Traditional Chinese medicine andAcupunctureTraditional Chinese medicine (TCM) asserts that the body has natural patterns of qi that circulate in channels called meridians.[18] In TCM, symptoms of various illnesses are believed to be the product of disrupted, blocked, or unbalanced qi movement through the body's meridians, as well as deficiencies or imbalances of qi in the Zang Fu organs.[19] Traditional Chinese medicine often seeks to relieve these imbalances by adjusting the circulation of qi using a variety of techniques including herbology, food therapy, physical training regimens (qigong, tai chi chuan, and other martial arts training),[20] moxibustion, tui na, and acupuncture.[21]

Scientific investigation[]

There have been a number of studies of qi, especially in the sense used by traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture. These studies have often been problematic, and are hard to compare to each other, as they lack a common nomenclature.[22] Some studies claim to have been able to measure qi, or the effects of manipulating qi, such as through acupuncture[citation needed], but the proposed existence of qi has been rejected by the scientific community.

A United States National Institutes of Health consensus statement on acupuncture in 1997 noted that concepts such as qi "are difficult to reconcile with contemporary biomedical information."[23] In 2007 the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas published an article [24] covering the concepts by which qi is believed to work and research into possible benefits for cancer patients. A review[25] of clinical trials investigating the use of internal qigong for pain management found no convincing evidence that it was effective.

Feng shui[]

Main article: Feng shuiThe traditional Chinese art of geomancy, the placement and arrangement of space calledfeng shui, is based on calculating the balance of qi, interactions between the five elements, yin and yang and other factors. The retention or dissipation of qi is believed to affect the health, wealth, energies level, luck and many other aspects of the occupants of the space. Attributes of each item in a space affect the flow of qi by slowing it down, redirecting it or accelerating it, which purportedly directly impacts the energies level of the occupants. Feng shui is said to be a form of qi divination.[26]

Martial arts[]

Main article: Nei Jing

Qi is a didactic concept in many Chinese, Korean and Japanese martial arts. Martial qigong is a feature of bothinternal and external training systems in China[27] and other East Asian cultures.[28] The most notable of the qi-focused "internal" force (jin) martial arts are Baguazhang, Xing Yi Quan, T'ai Chi Ch'uan, Snake Kung Fu, Dragon Kung Fu, Lion Kung Fu, Aikido, Aikijujutsu, Kyudo, Hapkido, jian and katana swordplay, Lohan Chuan, Shaolin Kung Fu, Liu He Ba Fa, Buddhist Fist, and some forms of Karate and Silat.

Demonstrations of qi or ki power are popular in some martial arts and may include the immovable body, the unraisable body, the unbendable arm and other feats of power. All of these feats can alternatively be explained using biomechanics and physics.[29]



Ki

GokuKaio-KenNamekGinyu

No matter how many episodes Goku charges over, he will always be stuck inside of this table labeled "Mobile With The Memphis Blues"

Ki (気; pronounced "kee") is the force energies used by the Dragon Ball/Z/GT characters. This force also bears some realistic tendencies being that it is used in the real life martial arts such as Kung Fu or Tai Chi.

Ki is also known as "latent energies" or "fighting power." The term is the Japanese romanization of the Chineseterm "Chi" (氣), which directly translates as "life force." This force is a tangible energies inside a living being, its major focus being in the center of the body. By drawing it out, a person is able to manipulate it and use it for performances outside the body. Ki can be used for many different techniques. Usually the more concentrated the masses are, the more time the user requires to draw it out (to "power up"). When a fighter gathers Ki, he is able to gain enhanced strength, speed, endurance, and can increase the power of their attacks to inflict greater damage to opponents.

Appearances[]

Ki comes in a variety of colors. The most common color in the series is white; other colors include yellow, red, purple, orange, blue, green, pink, and black. These colors vary on the race, technique being used, species that the character is, or how (im)pure the being's heart is.

History[]

MutaitoKi

Mutaito using ki

The term "Ki" was first introduced by Master Mutaito in a filler episode of Dragon Ball where Goku travels back in time and learns about Ki. Although it is unknown who originally discovered this inner energies in the Dragon Ball timeline, the first usage of it is seen when Master Roshi performed an energies blast called the Kamehameha in order to extinguish the fire on Fire Mountain. By drawing his ki energies into the palms of his hands, Roshi was able to expel an explosive mass of visible ki energies. This was the birth of Dragon Ball energies attacks.

It is unknown whether or not the incantations (such as "Ka... me... ha... me... ha!") must actually be spoken for the attack to be performed, or if the incantations are anything more than glorified battle cries. Often, the Z Fighters and their enemies can perform attacks without saying anything, but there still exists the possibility that they are actually thinking the incantations, rather than saying them aloud.


Ki users[]

Saiyans[]

GokuKamehamehaWave

Goku using a form of ki known as a Kamehameha Wave

Main article: Saiyan

Saiyans and their hybrid counterparts are naturally adept at using Ki. They generally have no difficulty manipulating their energies, and have even evolved to have the ability to increase it numerous times in battle without tiring easily. This is much unlike Humans who usually spend themselves after the first increase. However, unlike Humans and Namekians, Saiyans don't seem to have a natural ability to detect ki by sensing ki signatures. That ability must be acquired through learning.

Namekians[]

KingPiccoloExplosiveDemonWave

King Piccolo using a form of ki known as the Explosive Demon Wave

Main article: Namekian Although Namekians are generally not as strong as Saiyans, their ability to use Ki is as good as — if not more advanced than — that of Saiyans. Namekians use Ki in more mystical ways than Saiyans do, but use it in the same manner when fighting. Namekians also are able to naturally detect Ki energies by sensing the concentration of it. Namekians also are able to sense the "evil" in a being's Ki.

Earthlings[]

KrillinBlast

Krillin, a human, firing a ki blast.

Main article: Human It is very uncommon to see an Earthling who uses Ki energies, though several humans have been shown to acquire full mastery of the art. Among those are Yamcha, Tien Shinhan, Krillin, Chiaotzu and Master Roshi. Another, lesser adept human is Videl, who was taught basic flight from Gohan (she can fly, but she is no match for Z Fighters). Other users include Spopovich, Yamu, and Olibu (although Spopovich and Yamu were Majins and don't really count, and Olibu may have learned the art in the Other World). Humans also have a natural disposition to detect the concentration of Ki that their opponents possess (though the ability has to be learned).

In the events leading up to the computer game Dragon Ball Online, Gohan wrote a book called "Groundbreaking Science" which revealed his studies on advanced martial arts and ki control. As of Age 1000, many Humans fight using ki attacks; including powering up and raising their ki, producing energies waves and spheres, discs, and self-destruction techniques. The Kikoukenjutsu Sword School, founded by Trunks and Goten to educate Earth's newer generation of warriors, focuses on the principle of channeling ki energies through swords. Tien's newly re-established New Crane School focuses on high spiritual damages; in some instances, techniques where the user must sacrifice health to produce the powerful attacks. All playabke races, including Humans, can use the Kaio-ken technique which constantly drains the user's HP (health) and EP (ki).

Androids[]

Main article: Android Androids generally have an unnatural source of Ki, so sometimes their Ki capacity is unlimited. Most of the time, because it is unnatural, it is unable to be detected by sensing. But, also, most of them are not able to detect it by sensing either, instead they must have special devices to do that. Some Androids can absorb other forms of Ki.

Androids like #17 and #18 are human, yet cybernetic modifications to their bodies have given them a near limitless supply of Ki.

Kais[]

Main article: Kai A Kai's energies is mostly invisible. Only two kais have ever been seen using it; the first one was King Kai, who used his invisible ki to assist his pupils in his training. The second was the Supreme Kai, who thrust his hand forward and caused what appeared to be a gust of wind to blow at Majin Buu, having no effect whatsoever.

Other[]

Extraterrestrial, monstrous creatures, and Demons are also sometimes able to use ki.

Auras[]

Auras of ki radiate from the user when increasing the concentration of it inside their body. Warriors (excluding Androids) have a limit to the ki that their bodies can withstand, but the capacity for ki can be increased through mental and physical training. Some techniques (such as the Kaio-ken) rapidly increase the concentration of Ki in the body, enabling the user to fight at a strength level that far exceeds their regular limits for a limited period of time.

Auras can also displace solid matter.


In Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, there are several Z-items that change the default color of a character's aura to a different one (for example, Aura Charge Red gives the character a red Kaio-ken-like aura) or grants an aura effect on characters (like Androids) who do not possess an aura.

There is also the bio-electric aura produced by the Super Saiyan 2 and Super Saiyan 3 levels (and Cell as well).


Transformation[]

Vegeta gt ssj2

Vegeta increasing his ki to transform into a Super Saiyan

Depending on their genetic inheritance, some beings are able to transform. However, not all beings are able to transform at will; in some instances, there must be certain environmental conditions required for their transformation (like moonlight for Great Ape transformations) or emotional upheaval (for Super Saiyans). By transforming, a person then acquires physical limits that somehow change the ones of their regular body. Effects of transformations usually include alterations in strength and Ki capacity. Some other effects may include differences in speed and durability. The most commonly seen transformation is the Super Saiyan transformation, which is only accessible to certain Saiyans and Saiyan/Human hybrids. The negative aspect of most transformations is that the process itself consumes energies. The effect of energies loss when dealing with Super Saiyan transformation can be limited through training.

Transformation is not always intended for increasing abilities. Some beings are known to transform in order to limit their abilities rather then increasing them. An example of this is Frieza, who was first seen in a suppressed state, being that his fourth form was his original state, and the form that he is first seen in was actually a transformed one. Cell demonstrated a similar ability when he reverted to a larval state in order to fit in Future Trunks' Time Machine and save energies during the time that he had to wait for the Androids. Then there was Buu, who transformed into his original Kid Buu state, after his counterpart was removed from his body.


Aura[]

Aura

The Human Aura in a healthy woman after a diagram by Walter John Kilner (1847-1920). The picture depicts Kilner's "inner and outer auras." Colours have been added for illustrative purposes and have no other significance.

See also: Energies (esotericism)In parapsychology and many forms of spiritual practice, an aura is a field of subtle, luminous radiation surrounding a person or object (like the halo or aureola in religious art). The depiction of such an aura often connotes a person of particular power or holiness. Sometimes, however, it is said that all living things (including humans) and all objects manifest such an aura. Often it is held to be perceptible, whether spontaneously or with practice: such perception is at times linked with the third eye of Indian spirituality.[1][2]Various writers associate various personality traits with the colors of different layers of the aura.[3][4][5]

Skeptics such as Robert Todd Carroll contend that auras may be seen for reasons such as migraines,synesthesia,[6] epilepsy, a disorder within the visual system, a disorder within the brain, or due to the influence ofpsychedelic drugs such as LSD.[7][8] Eye fatigue can also produce an aura, sometimes referred to as eye burn.

Spiritual traditions[]

Virgin Mary and Jesus (old Persian miniature)

An old Iranian Shi'a Muslim impression of Jesus and Mary shows an aura after the style of the farrInIran the aura is known as farr or "glory": it is depicted in association with Zoroastrian kings and the prophets of Islam.[9]

Ideas of the aura are well represented in Indian religions. The Buddhist flag represents the colours seen around the enlightened Buddha.[10] In Jainism the concept of Lesya relates colours to mental and emotional dispositions. To the Indian teacher Meher Baba the aura is of seven colours, associated with the subtle body and its store of mental and emotional impressions. Spiritual practice gradually transforms this aura into a spiritual halo.[11] Hinduand Buddhist sources often link these colours to kundalini energies and the chakras.[12]

In the classical western mysticism of neoplatonism and kabala the aura is associated with the lustre of the astral body, a subtle body identified with the planetary heavens, which were in turn associated with various mental faculties in an elaborate system of correspondences with colours, shapes, sounds, perfumes etc.[13]

The symbolism of light found in The Bible is at times associated with the idea of the aura or "body of light":[14]similar interpretations are found in Islamic traditions.[15]

According to the literature of Theosophy, Anthroposophy, and Archeosophy also, each colour of the aura has a meaning, indicating a precise emotional state. A complete description of the aura and its colours was provided byCharles Leadbeater, a theosophist of the 19th century.[16] The works of Leadbeater were later developed byPalamidessi[17] and others. [114][115]A stylised aura surrounds the figure of Shakyamuni Buddha in this BuddhistThangka.The British occultist W.E. Butler connected auras with clairvoyance and etheric, mental and emotional emanations. He classified the aura into two main types: etheric and spiritual. Auras are thought to serve as a visual measure of the state of the health of the physical body.[18] Robert Bruce classifies auras into three types: etheric, main, and spiritual.[19] According to Bruce auras are not actual light but a translation of other unknown sensory readings that is added to our visual processing. They are not seen in complete darkness and cannot be seen unless some portion of the person or object emitting the aura can also be seen.[20]

Glenn Morris, grandmaster head of the Hoshin Roshi Ryu lineage, included perception of the aura in his training of advanced martial artists. His experience was that it consisted of multiple layers. He described the most easily visible of these as being "light and denser than the air in which the body is immersed", typically half to quarter of an inch thick and correlating with the etheric body of an individual. Around this he described a yard thick egg-shaped layer reflecting hormonal state that he linked to the emotional body, and outside this, other barely perceptible layers corresponding to the mental body and beyond.[21] Recalling the aura of another sōke, he wrote, "The first time I saw Hatsumi, he was running continuous bright, lime, neon green a foot wide and was so easy to see he would flash in bright sunlight".[22]

For holistic healers, aura reading is the art of investigating the human energies field, or the energies fields of other sentient beings. It is a basis for using techniques of holistic healing, and includes such practices asbioenergetics, energies medicine, energies spirituality, and energies psychology.


Kundalini[]

DiagrammaChakraKundalini

Chakra Kundalini Diagram

Schools

Samkhya ·Yoga ·Nyaya ·Vaisheshika·Purva Mimamsa ·Vedanta (Advaita ·Vishishtadvaita ·Dvaitadvaita ·Dvaita·Achintya Bheda Abheda)

Personalities

Ancient Gautama ·Jaimini ·Kanada ·Kapila ·Markandeya·Patañjali ·Valmiki ·Vyasa ·Nammalvar

Medieval Adi Shankara ·Madhwacharya ·Basava ·Dnyaneshwar ·Chaitanya ·Jayanta Bhatta ·Kabir ·Kumarila Bhatta ·Madhusudana ·Madhva ·Namdeva ·Nimbarka ·Prabhakara ·Raghunatha Siromani·Ramanuja ·Vedanta Desika ·Pillai Lokacharya ·Manavala Mamuni ·Lakshmi Kumara Thathachariar ·Vallabha Samarth Ramdas ·Tukaram ·Tulsidas ·Vachaspati Mishra

Modern Aurobindo ·Coomaraswamy ·Chinmayananda ·Dayananda Saraswati·Krishnananda ·Narayana Guru ·Prabhupada ·Ramakrishna ·Ramana Maharshi ·Radhakrishnan ·Vivekananda ·Yogananda ·

Kundalini (kuṇḍalinī, Sanskrit: कुण्डलिनी) literally means coiled. In yoga, a "corporeal energies"[1] - an unconscious, instinctive or libidinal force or Shakti, lies coiled at the base of the spine.[2][3][4] It is envisioned either as a goddess or else as a sleeping serpent, hence a number of English renderings of the term such as 'serpent power'. The kundalini resides in the sacrum bone in three and a half coils and has been described as a residual power of pure desire.[5]

Description[]

Kundalini is described as a sleeping, dormant potential force in the human organism.[6] It is one of the components of an esoteric description of man's 'subtle body', which consists of nadis (energies channels),chakras (psychic centres), prana (subtle energies), and bindu (drops of essence).

Kundalini is described as being coiled up at the base of the spine, usually within muladhara chakra. The image given is that of a serpent coiled 3 and a half times around a smokey grey lingam. Each coil is said to represent one of the 3 gunas, with the half coil signifying transcendence.

Through meditation, and various esoteric practices, such as kundalini yoga, laya-yoga,[7] and kriya yoga, the kundalini is awakened, and can rise up through the central nadi, called sushumna, that rises up inside or alongside the spine. The progress of kundalini through the different chakras leads to different levels of awakening and mystical experience, until the kundalini finally reaches the top of the head, Sahasrara chakra, producing an extremely profound mystical experience.

Meaning[]

A number of descriptions exist that attempt to describe exactly what the kundalini experience is.

Sri Ramana Maharshi maintained that the kundalini energies is nothing but the natural energies of the Self, where Self is the universal consciousness (Paramatma) present in every being, and that the individual mind of thoughts cloaks this natural energies from unadulterated expression. Advaita teaches that Self-realization, enlightenment, God-consciousness, nirvana and kundalini awakening are all the same thing, and self-inquiry meditation is considered a very natural and simple means of reaching this goal.[8]

Swami Vivekananda described kundalini briefly in London during his lectures on Raja Yoga as follows:[9]


According to the Yogis, there are two nerve currents in the spinal column, called Pingalâ and Idâ, and a hollow canal called Sushumnâ running through the spinal cord. At the lower end of the hollow canal is what the Yogis call the "Lotus of the Kundalini". They describe it as triangular in form in which, in the symbolical language of the Yogis, there is a power called the Kundalini, coiled up. When that Kundalini awakes, it tries to force a passage through this hollow canal, and as it rises step by step, as it were, layer after layer of the mind becomes open and all the different visions and wonderful powers come to the Yogi. When it reaches the brain, the Yogi is perfectly detached from the body and mind; the soul finds itself free. We know that the spinal cord is composed in a peculiar manner. If we take the figure eight horizontally (∞) there are two parts which are connected in the middle. Suppose you add eight after eight, piled one on top of the other, that will represent the spinal cord. The left is the Ida, the right Pingala, and that hollow canal which runs through the centre of the spinal cord is the Sushumna. Where the spinal cord ends in some of the lumbar vertebrae, a fine fibre issues downwards, and the canal runs up even within that fibre, only much finer. The canal is closed at the lower end, which is situated near what is called the sacral plexus, which, according to modern physiology, is triangular in form. The different plexuses that have their centres in the spinal canal can very well stand for the different "lotuses" of the Yogi.


Other well-known spiritual teachers who have made use of the idea of kundalini include Swami Rudrananda (Rudi), Yogi Bhajan, Osho, George Gurdjieff,Paramahansa Yogananda, Swami Sivananda Radha who produced an English language guide of Kundalini Yoga methods, Swami Muktananda, Bhagawan Nityananda, Nirmala Srivastava (Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi),and Samael Aun Weor.


Etymology[]

According to well-known teacher and translator Eknath Easwaran, kundalini means "the coiled power," a force which ordinarily rests at the base of the spine, described as being coiled there like a serpent.[10]

Awakening[]

The kundalini rises from muladhara chakra up a subtle channel at the base of the spine (called Sushumna), and from there to top of the head merging with the sahasrara, or crown chakra. When kundalini Shakti is conceived as a goddess, then, when it rises to the head, it unites itself with the Supreme Being (Lord Shiva). Then the aspirant becomes engrossed in deep meditation and infinite bliss.[11][12]

The arousing of kundalini is said by some to be the one and only way of attaining Divine Wisdom. Self-Realizationis said to be equivalent to Divine Wisdom or Gnosis or what amounts to the same thing: self-knowledge.[13] The awakening of the kundalini shows itself as "awakening of inner knowledge" and brings with itself "pure joy, pure knowledge and pure love."

Different approaches[]

The question arises: how is this awakening triggered? There are two broad approaches to kundalini awakening: active and passive. The active approach involves systematic physical exercises and techniques of concentration, visualization, pranayama and meditation under the guidance of a competent teacher. These techniques come from any of the four main branches of yoga but for this purpose could be termed kundalini yoga. The passive approach is instead a path of surrender where one lets go of all the impediments to the awakening rather than trying to actively awaken the kundalini. A chief part of the passive approach is shaktipat where one person's kundalini is awakened by another who already has the experience. Shaktipat only raises the kundalini temporarily but gives the student an experience to use as a basis.[14]

The experience of kundalini awakening can happen when one is either prepared or unprepared.[15]

Preparedness[]

According to Hindu tradition, in order to be able to integrate this spiritual energies, a period of careful purification and strengthening of the body and nervous system is usually required beforehand.[16] Yoga and Tantra propose that kundalini energies can be "awakened" by a guru (teacher), but body and spirit must be prepared by yogic austerities such as pranayama, or breath control, physical exercises, visualization, and chanting. Patanjali emphasised a firm ethical and moral foundation to ensure the aspirant is comfortable with a reasonable degree of discipline and has a serious intention to awaken their full potential. The student is advised to follow the path in an openhearted manner.[15]

Unpreparedness[]

The kundalini can also awaken spontaneously, for no obvious reason or triggered by intense personal experiences such as accidents, near death experiences, childbirth, emotional trauma, extreme mental stress, and so on. Some sources attribute spontaneous awakenings to the "grace of God", or possibly to spiritual practice in past lives.[15]

A spontaneous awakening in one who is unprepared or without the assistance of a good teacher can result in an experience which has been termed as "kundalini crisis", "spiritual emergency" or "kundalini syndrome". The symptoms are said to resemble those of kundalini awakening but are experienced as unpleasant, overwhelming or out of control. Unpleasant side effects are said to occur when the practitioner has not approached kundalini with due respect and in a narrow egotistical manner. Kundalini has been described as a highly creative intelligence which dwarfs our own. Kundalini awakening therefore requires surrender; it is not an energies which can be manipulated by the ego.[15]

Physical effects[]

Physical effects are believed to be a sign of kundalini awakening by some,[17] but described as unwanted side effects pointing to a problem rather than progress by others.[16] The following are either common signs of an awakened kundalini or symptoms of a problem associated with an awakening kundalini (commonly referred to as Kundalini syndrome or physio-Kundalini syndrome):

  • Involuntary jerks, tremors, shaking, itching, tingling, and crawling sensations, especially in the arms and legs
  • Energy rushes or feelings of electricity circulating the body
  • Intense heat (sweating) or cold, especially as energy is experienced passing through the chakras
  • Spontaneous pranayama, asanas, mudras and bandhas
  • Visions or sounds at times associated with a particular chakra
  • Diminished or conversely extreme sexual desire sometimes leading to a state of constant or whole-body orgasm
  • Emotional upheavals or surfacing of unwanted and repressed feelings or thoughts with certain repressed emotions becoming dominant in the conscious mind for short or long periods of time.[32]
  • Headache, migraine, or pressure inside the skull
  • Increased blood pressure and irregular heartbeat
  • Emotional numbness
  • Antisocial tendencies
  • Mood swings with periods of depression or mania
  • Pains in different areas of the body, especially back and neck
  • Sensitivity to light, sound, and touch
  • Trance-like and altered states of consciousness
  • Disrupted sleep pattern (periods of insomnia or oversleeping)
  • Loss of apetite or overeating
  • Bliss, feelings of infinite love and universal connectivity, transcendent awareness


A personal experience was described by Brian Van de Horst: he felt an activity at the base of his spine starting to flow so he relaxed and allowed it to happen. A feeling of surging energies began traveling up his back, at each chakra he felt an orgasmic electric feeling like every nerve trunk on his spine beginning to fire. D. R. Butler describes a similar experience accompanied by a wave of euphoria and happiness softly permeating his being. He described the surging energies as being like electricity but hot, traveling from the base of his spine to the top of his head. He also reported that the more he analyzed the experience, the less it occurred.[19]

Reports about the Sahaja Yoga technique of kundalini awakening suggest the practice can result in a cool breeze felt on the fingertips as well as on the fontanel bone area.[5][20] One study has measured a drop in temperature on the palms of the hands resulting from this technique.[17]



Prana[]

Prana (प्राण, prāṇa) is the Sanskrit for "vital life" (from the root prā "to fill", cognate to Latin plenus "full"). It is one of the five organs of vitality or sensation, viz. prana "breath", vac "speech", chakshus "sight", shrotra "hearing", and manas "thought" (nose, mouth, eyes, ears and mind; ChUp. 2.7.1).

In Vedantic philosophy, prana is the notion of a vital, life-sustaining force of living beings and vital energies, comparable to the Chinese notion of Qi. Prana is a central concept in Ayurveda and Yoga where it is believed to flow through a network of fine subtle channels called nadis. Its most subtle material form is the breath, but it is also to be found in the blood, and its most concentrated form is semen in men and vaginal fluid in women.[1] ThePranamaya-kosha is one of the five Koshas or "sheaths" of the Atman.

Prana was first expounded in the Upanishads, where it is part of the worldly, physical realm, sustaining the body and the mother of thought and thus also of the mind. Prana suffuses all living forms but is not itself the Atman or individual soul. In the Ayurveda, the Sun and sunshine are held to be a source of Prana.

Nadis[]

Further information: Nadi (yoga)In Yoga, the three main channels of prana are the Ida, the Pingala and the Sushumna. Ida relates to the right side of the brain, and the left side of the body, terminating at the left nostril and pingala to the left side of the brain and the right side of the body, terminating at the right nostril. In some practices, alternate nostril breathing balances the prana that flows within the body. In most ancient texts, the total number of nadis in the human body is stated to be 72,000. When prana enters a period of uplifted, intensified activity, the Yogic tradition refers to it as Pranotthana.[2]

The Five Prāṇas[]

In Ayurveda, the Prāṇa is further classified into subcategories, referred to as prana vayus. According to Hindu philosophy these are the vital principles of basic energies and subtle faculties of an individual that sustain physiological processes. There are five pranas or vital currents in the Hindu system:[3]

Prāṇas
Prāṇa Responsibility
Prāṇa Beating of the heart and breathing. Prana enters the body through the breath and is sent to every cell through the circulatory system.
Apāna elimination of waste products from the body through the lungs and excretory systems
Uḍāna sound production through the vocal apparatus, as in speaking, singing, laughing, and crying. Also it represents the conscious energy required to produce the vocal sounds corresponding to the intent of the being. Hence Samyama on udana gives the higher centers total control over the body.
Samāna the digestion of food and cell metabolism (i.e. the repair and manufacture of new cells and growth). Samana also includes the heat regulating processes of the body. Auras are projections of this current. By meditational practices one can see auras of light around every being. Yogis who do special practise on samana can produce a blazing aura at will.[citation needed]
Vyāna the expansion and contraction processes of the body, e.g. the voluntary muscular system

The Five Upa-Pranas[]

In Yoga the Prana is further classified into subcategory Upa-prana with following items[4]:

Upa-Prana Responsibility
Naga burping.
Kurma blinking
Devadatta yawning
Krikala Sneezing
Dhananjaya opening and closing of heart valves

Pranayama[]

Pranayama is the practice in which the control of prana is achieved (initially) from the control of one's breathing. According to Yogic philosophy the breath, or air, is merely a gateway to the world of prana and its manifestation in the body. In yoga, pranayama techniques are used to control the movement of these vital energies within the body, which is said to lead to an increase in vitality in the practitioner.[citation needed] However, intensive practice[5] of these techniques is not trivial. Kason [6] describes situations where intensive pranayama techniques may have adverse effects on certain practitioners.


Mana


Mana is an indigenous Pacific islander concept of an impersonal force or quality that resides in people, animals, and (debatably) inanimate objects. The word is a cognate in many Oceanic languages, including Melanesian,Polynesian, and Micronesian.

In anthropological discourse, mana as a generalized concept is often understood as a precursor to formal religion. It has commonly been interpreted as "the stuff of which magic is formed," as well as the substance of which souls are made.

Modern fantasy fiction, computer and role-playing games have adopted mana as a term for magic points, an expendable (and most often rechargeable) resource out of which magic users form their magical spells.

Etymology[]

Mana is a word in South Pacific indigenous languages and more recently a New Zealand English word. See Māori influence on New Zealand English. New Zealand is located in the Polonesian Triangle.

In New Zealand[]

The indigenous word reflects a non-Western view of reality, complicating translating.[1] To quote the New Zealand Ministry of Justice: Mana and tapu are concepts which have both been attributed single-worded definitions by contemporary writers. As concepts, especially Maori concepts they can not easily be translated in to a single English definition. Both mana and tapu take on a whole range of related meanings depending on their association and the context in which they are being used.[2] In contemporary New Zealand English, the word "mana", taken from the Maori, refers to a person or organization of people of great personal prestige and character.[3] Sir Edmund Hillary, is considered to have great mana both because of his accomplishments and of how he gave his life to service. Perceived egotism can diminish mana because New Zealand culture tends to shun personal display (see Tall poppy syndrome). A New Zealander might say, "Sir Ed has a lot of mana" even though he is deceased. Also, a New Zealander might say, "Sir Ed brought a lot of mana to the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuit Centre" (OPC) meaning that it has mana because of its association with a man of great mana. However if the OPC did something that was not respected by New Zealanders, it could lose mana.

In Polynesian culture[]

In Polynesian culture, mana is a spiritual quality considered to have supernatural origin—a sacred impersonal force existing in the universe. Therefore to have mana is to have influence and authority, and efficacy—the power to perform in a given situation. This essential quality of mana is not limited to persons—peoples, governments, places and inanimate objects can possess mana. There are two ways to obtain mana: through birth and through warfare. People or objects that possess mana are accorded respect because their possession of mana gives them authority, power, and prestige. The word’s meaning is complex because mana is a basic foundation of the Polynesian worldview.

Mana is also referred to in the Huna religion as the vital life force which flows through the body. The kahunabelieved that there are three different kinds of mana within the body.

In Māori culture[]

In Māori, a tribe that has mana whenua must have demonstrated their authority over a piece of land or territory.

In the Māori culture, there are two essential aspects to a person's mana: mana tangata, authority derived fromwhakapapa connections, and mana huaanga, defined as "authority derived from having a wealth of resources togift to others to bind them into reciprocal obligations".[4]

In Melanesian culture[]

Melanesian mana is thought to be a sacred impersonal force existing in the universe. Mana can be in people, animals, plants and objects. Similar to the idea of efficacy, or luck, the Melanesians thought all success traced back to mana. Magic is a typical way to acquire or manipulate this luck.

Objects that have mana can change a person’s luck. Examples of such objects are charms or amulets. For instance if a prosperous hunter gave a charm that had mana to another person the prosperous hunter’s luck would go with it.

Universal archetype[]

Concepts analogous to mana in various other cultures include the power of magic, sympathetic magic and of seeking the intervention of a specific supernatural being, whether deity, saint or deceased ancestor.

The concept of a life-energies inherent in all living beings is a common archetype, appearing in many ancient religions and systems of metaphysics.

Analogies[citation needed] to mana in other societies include:

Also related are the philosophical concepts of:

Mana came to the attention of the anthropological community with the English missionary Robert Henry Codrington's (1830–1922) work The Melanesians(1891). It has since been discussed by anthropologists such as Émile Durkheim (1912), Marcel Mauss (1924), Claude Lévi-Strauss (1950) and Roger Keesing(1984).



Vril[]

Vril, the Power of the Coming Race

Vril coming race 2008

Cover of a 2008 printing

Author

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Country

United Kingdom

Language

English

Genre(s)

Science fiction novel

Publisher

Broadview Press

Publication date

1870

Media type

Print (Hardback & Paperback)

ISBN

NA

Vril is a substance described in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1871 novel The Coming Race, which was later reprinted as Vril: The Power of the Coming Race. The novel is an early example of science fiction. However, many early readers believed that its account of a superior subterranean master race and the energies-form called "Vril" was accurate, to the extent that some theosophists accepted the book as truth. Furthermore, since 1960 there has been a conspiracy theory about a secret Vril Society.

History[]

The vril Race was originally published anonymously in late 1871 but Bulwer-Lytton was known to be the author.Samuel Butler's Erewhon was also published anonymously, in March 1872, and Butler suspected that its initial success was due to it being taken by many as a sequel by Bulwer-Lytton to The Coming Race; when it was revealed on the 25 May 1872 edition of the Athenaeum that Butler was the author, sales dropped by 90 percent because he was at the time an unknown.[1]

Plot summary[]

The novel centers on a young, independently wealthy traveler (the narrator), who accidentally finds his way into a subterranean world occupied by beings who seem to resemble angels and call themselves Vril-ya.

The hero soon discovers that the Vril-ya are descendants of an antediluvian civilization who live in networks of subterranean caverns linked by tunnels. It is a technologically supported Utopia, chief among their tools being the "all-permeating fluid" called "Vril", a latent source of energies which his spiritually elevated hosts are able to master through training of their will, to a degree which depends upon their hereditary constitution, giving them access to an extraordinary force that can be controlled at will. The powers of the will include the ability to heal, change, and destroy beings and things; the destructive powers in particular are awesomely powerful, allowing a few young Vril-ya children to wipe out entire cities if necessary. It is also suggested that the Vril-ya are fully telepathic.

The narrator states that in time, the Vril-ya will run out of habitable spaces underground and start claiming the surface of the Earth, destroying mankind in the process if necessary.

Vril in the novel[]

The uses of Vril in the novel amongst the Vril-ya vary from an agent of destruction to a healing substance. According to Zee, the daughter of the narrator's host, Vril can be changed into the mightiest agency over all types of matter, both animate and inanimate. It can destroy like lightning or replenish life, heal, or cure. It is used to rend ways through solid matter. Its light is said to be steadier, softer and healthier than that from any flammable material. It can also be used as a power source for animating mechanisms. Vril can be harnessed by use of the Vril staff or mental concentration.

A Vril staff is an object in the shape of a wand or a staff which is used as a channel for Vril. The narrator describes it as hollow with 'stops', 'keys', or 'springs' in which Vril can be altered, modified or directed to either destroy or heal. The staff is about the size of a walking stick but can be lengthened or shortened according to the user's preferences. The appearance and function of the Vril staff differs according to gender, age, etc. Some staves are more potent for destruction, others for healing. The staves of children are said to be much simpler than those of sages; in those of wives and mothers the destructive part is removed while the healing aspects are emphasized. The destructive force is so great that the fire lodged in the hollow of a rod directed by the hand of a child could cleave the strongest fortress or cleave its burning way from the van to the rear of an embattled host. It is also said that if army met army and both had command of the Vril-force, both sides would be annihilated.

Interestingly, the Vril-ya also use Vril to take baths: It is their custom also, at stated but rare periods, perhaps four times a-year when in health, to use a bath charged with Vril. They consider that this fluid, sparingly used, is a great sustainer of life; but used in excess, when in the normal state of health, rather tends to reaction and exhausted vitality. For nearly all their diseases, however, they resort to it as the chief assistant to nature in throwing off the complaint.

Analysis[]

The "science" of Vril[]

Bulwer-Lytton makes many references to the scientists of his time.

In Chapter VII, Vril is defined as what Michael Faraday had been experimenting with: There with Zee began to enter into an explanation of which I understood very little, for there is no word in any language I know which is an exact synonym for Vril(prana,chi,or qi).I should call it electricity, except that it comprehends in its manifold branches other forces of nature, to which, in our scientific nomenclature, differing names are assigned, such asmagnetism, galvanism, &c. These people consider that in Vril they have arrived at the unity in natural energic agencies, which has been conjectured by many philosophers above ground, and which Faraday thus intimates under the more cautious term of correlation:--[2] Faraday is then quoted: "I have long held an opinion," says that illustrious experimentalist, "almost amounting to a conviction, in common, I believe, with many other lovers of natural knowledge, that the various forms under which the forces of matter are made manifest have one common origin; or, in other words, are so directly related and mutually dependent, that they are convertible, as it were, into one another, and possess equivalents of power in their action."[2] Again in Chapter XVI, we are told that Faraday would understand the "science" of Vril: Though I had a secret persuasion that whatever the real effects of vril upon matter Mr. Faraday could have proved her a very shallow philosopher as to its extent or its causes, I had no doubt that Zee could have brained all the Fellows of the Royal Society, one after the other, with a blow of her fist. Every sensible man knows that it is useless to argue with any ordinary female upon matters he comprehends; but to argue with a Gy seven feet high upon the mysteries of vril,--as well argue in a desert, and with a simoom![3]Bulwer-Lytton refers to the then current theory of universal luminiferous aether, which was thought necessary for the propagation of wave energies. The book goes on to say in Chapter XI: "She described a subtle and life-giving medium called Lai, which I suspect to be identical with the ethereal oxygen of Dr. Lewins, wherein work all thecorrelative forces united under the name of Vril; and contended that wherever this medium could be expanded, as it agencies of Vril to have ample play, a temperature congenial to the highest forms of life could be secured."[4]Bulwer-Lytton also quotes zoologist Louis Agassiz at length in Chapter XIV a part of an examination of the religious beliefs of the Vril-ya.[5] Agassiz is remembered today as the first scientist to propose that there had been an Ice Age. However, at the time of the book's writing he was well known as a biologist opposed to Darwin's theory of evolution[6] and an advocate of "scientific" justifications for racism.[7]

In chapter XV Bulwer-Lytton uses ideas from the geologist Charles Lyell to introduce an examination of thephrenology of the Vril-ya.[8] Where Lyell is still considered an important contributor to the development of geology, phrenology is now considered a discredited science. It claimed to be able to understand human personality by examining the shape of the skull.

Lyell was a friend of Darwin's and the story Zee later tells of how the ancestors of Vril-ya in their ignorant past had a major debate over whether they descended from frogs or frogs descended from them is clearly meant to be a parody of the very heated debate over Darwinism taking place in Bulwer-Lytton's time.[3] However, there seems to be at least some evidence that Bulwer-Lytton didn't know the difference between Darwinism and the already discredited Lamarckism. He explains that the palm nerve necessary to control Vril was developed by generations of exercising this nerve. "It has been slowly developed in the course of generations, commencing in the early achievements, and increasing with the continuous exercise, of the Vril power; therefore, in the course of one or two thousand years, such a nerve may possibly be engendered in those higher beings of your race, who devote themselves to that paramount science through which is attained command over all the subtler forces of nature permeated by Vril"[3] This book mentions fountains of Naphtha at several points and describes in chapter XXIII: In the centre of the floor were a cistern and a fountain of that liquid light which I have presumed to be naphtha. It was luminous and of a roseate hue; it sufficed without lamps to light up the room with a subdued radiance. All around the fountain was carpeted with a soft deep lichen, not green (I have never seen that colour in the vegetation of this country), but a quiet brown,......[9] However, earlier (in Chapter XV) he states that while calls the luminous fluid "naphtha" he is ignorant of its true nature, implying that he has at least some doubt that the two are actually one and the same substance.

Naphtha refers to a family of petroleum distillates which burns with about the same heat and light as gasoline, kerosene, or diesel. They are poisonous to drink, inhale as fumes, or touch. They have dangerous explosive vapors.

The Vril-ya as an Aryan Race[]

According to the book: "I arrived at the conviction that this people—though originally not only of our human race, but, as seems to me clear by the roots of their language, descended from the same ancestors as the great Aryan family, from which in varied streams has flowed the dominant civilization of the world; and having, according to their myths and their history, passed through phases of society familiar to ourselves,--had yet now developed into a distinct species with which it was impossible that any community in the upper world could amalgamate: And that if they ever emerged from these nether recesses into the light of day, they would, according to their own traditional persuasions of their ultimate destiny, destroy and replace our existent varieties of man."[10] In essence, the narrator believes the language of the Vril-ya to be of the same origin as Aryan languages. Chapter XII describes the grammar in some detail and also states that "the language of the Vril-ya is akin to the Aryan or Indo-Germanic".[11] These passages do not outright affirm the narrator's belief that there is also an ethnic connection between the Vril-ya and the Aryans. In fact, subsequent passages have Zee, a female Vril-ya scientist, explain to the narrator that the Vril-ya are descended from frogs.[12]

The Vril-ya as Descendants of Atlantis[]

The narrator makes this remark in passing in Chapter IX: According to the earliest traditions, the remote progenitors of the race had once tenanted a world above the surface of that in which their descendants dwelt. Myths of that world were still preserved in their archives, and in those myths were legends of a vaulted dome in which the lamps were lighted by no human hand. But such legends were considered by most commentators as allegorical fables. According to these traditions the earth itself [... was] subject to many violent revolutions of nature. By one of such revolutions, that portion of the upper world inhabited by the ancestors of this race had been subjected to inundations, not rapid, but gradual and uncontrollable, in which all, save a scanty remnant, were submerged and perished. Whether this be a record of our historical and sacred Deluge, or of some earlier one contended for by geologists, I do not pretend to conjecture; though, according to the chronology of this people as compared with that of Newton, it must have been many thousands of years before the time of Noah.[13] The link to Atlantis was made later by occult writers who believed The Coming Race to be non-fiction.

The Vril-ya in Serious Prophecy[]

The Polish explorer Ferdinand Ossendowsky described in his book Beasts, Men and Gods (London, 1923, p. 313-314) a reported visit by the "King of the World" to the Tibetan monastery of Narabanchi in 1890. In a prophecy passed to the High Lama, a succession of horrors was predicted for the coming century and a third, at the completion of which "the people of Agartha will leave their caverns and appear on the surface of the Earth". It is open to speculation that the Vril-ya are synonymous with, or a constituent people of, Agartha. It is possible to calculate from the King of the World prophecy that the invasion from below occurs in 2029. This date coincides with the Mariological prophecy.

Hollow Earth[]

The legend has received a further layer of elaboration from recent authors like Raymond Bernard who conflate Bulwer-Lytton's "Coming Race" with speculations about interior civilizations which live on the inside of the Hollow Earth. (The concept of a hollow earth was first advanced by Edmond Halley at the end of the seventeenth century.) By contrast, Bulwer-Lytton's subterranean people dwelt in caverns within the crust of a solid earth. The world of the Vril-ya is always described as being underground tunnels, artificially lit (using Vril). The book contains no suggestion of a hollow earth; theories of this kind are only found in subsequent works.

Literary significance and reception[]

The book was quite popular in the late 19th century, and for a time the word "Vril" came to be associated with "life-giving elixirs".[14] The best known use of "Vril" in this context is in the name of Bovril (a blend of Bovine and Vril).[15]

Some readers believe the book is non-fiction, and "Vril" has become associated with theories about Nazi-pilotedFlugscheiben ("Flight Discs"), Vril-powered KSK (Kraftstrahlkanone, "force-ray cannon" — transmission rods that produce potent energies rays), Jesuit "spiritual exercises", and Atlanteans to name a few.[citation needed]

The concept of Vril was given new impetus by the French author Louis Jacolliot (1837–1890), who at one time was the French Consul in Calcutta. In Les Fils de Dieu (1873) and in Les Traditions indo-européennes (1876), Jacolliot claims that he encountered Vril among the Jains in Mysore and Gujarat.[16]

The writings of these two authors, and Bulwer-Lytton's occult background, convinced some commentators that the fictionalised Vril was based on a real magical force. Helena Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy, endorsed this view in her book Isis Unveiled (1877) and again in The Secret Doctrine (1888). In Jacolliot and Blavatsky, the Vril power and its attainment by a superhuman elite are worked into a mystical doctrine of race. However, the character of the subterranean people was transformed. Instead of potential conquerors, they were benevolent (if mysterious) spiritual guides.

When the theosophist William Scott-Elliot describes life in Atlantis in The Story of Atlantis & The Lost Lemuria(first published 1896), the aircraft of the Atlanteans are propelled by Vril-force.[17] Obviously he did not regard that description as fiction, and his books are still published by the Theosophical Society.

George Bernard Shaw read the book and was attracted to the idea of Vril, according to Michael Holroyd's biography of him.

In the Doctor Who Past Doctor Adventures novel The Shadow in the Glass, the Sixth Doctor and his companionBrigadier Lethbridge-Stewart confront the son of Adolf Hitler, who believes that an alien navigation tool he possesses is a scrying glass that taps into the Vril energies surrounding the world, although the Doctor notes that Hitler Junior cannot have read the book given his belief that the Vril energies described is real.

Stage Adaptation[]

A stage adaptation of the book was written by journalist David Christie Murray and magician Nevil Maskelyne. The production premiered at Saint George's Hall in London on January 2, 1905. Both Nevil Maskelyne and his father John Nevil Maskelyne collaborated on the special effects for the play. The play did not meet with success and closed after a run of eight weeks.[18]

Vril society[]

Speculation on Vril has not ceased. However, the speculation has not been continued by the Theosophical Society.

Willy Ley[]

[122][123]Willy Ley (right) in a discussion with Heinz Haber and Wernher v. Braun, 1954Willy Ley was a German rocket engineer who had emigrated to the United States in 1937. In 1947, he published an article entitled "Pseudoscience in Naziland" in the science fiction magazine Astounding Science Fiction. There he attempted to explain to his readers how National Socialism could have fallen on such a fertile ground in Germany. He explained this with the high popularity of irrational convictions in Germany during the time. Among other pseudo-scientific groups he mentions a very peculiar one: "The next group was literally founded upon a novel. That group which I think called itself Wahrheitsgesellschaft - Society for Truth - and which was more or less localized in Berlin, devoted its spare time looking for Vril."

The article by Ley, and two small pamphlets by a "Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft‚ Das kommende Deutschland", that describe a perpetual motion based on Vril, are the only real basis for the speculation that set off later. TheSociety for Truth that Ley describes was conducting 'research' on the existence of Vril. One can assume that it did not succeed, since the existence of Vril would not comply with common physics. However, it may not be related in any way to Nazi organizations. On the other hand, theories around the Nazi's wonder weapons might support links to research to the existence and application possibilities of Vril, for example in the purported top secret and highly sensitive scientific technological device Die Glocke.

Jacques Bergier and Louis Pauwels[]

The existence of a Vril-Society was first alleged in 1960 by Jacques Bergier and Louis Pauwels.[19] In their bookThe Morning of the Magicians, which appeared in 1960, they claimed that the Vril-Society was a secret community of occultists in pre-Nazi Berlin. The Berlin Vril Society was in fact a sort of inner circle of the Thule Society. It was also thought to be in close contact with the English group known as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Vril information takes up about a tenth of the volume, the remainder of which details other esoteric speculations, but the authors fail to clearly explain whether this section is fact or fiction.

In his book Monsieur Gurdjieff, Louis Pauwels[20] claimed that a Vril Society had been founded by General Karl Haushofer, a student of Russian magician and metaphysician Georges Gurdjieff. Pauwels later recanted many assertions in relation to Gurdjieff.[citation needed]

Obviously belief in the existence of the Vril Society has persisted.

Publications on the Vril Society in English[]

Supposedly, a historian with the name Michael Fitzgerald has published two books on the Vril society, seeking to establish both the reality of the Vril Society, and Hitler's own membership in it.


Radiant energies[]

Trees and sunshine

Visible light (a form of radiant energies) scattered by fog in a forest.

Radiant energies is the energies of electromagnetic waves.[1] The quantity of radiant energies may be calculated by integrating radiant flux (or power) with respect to time and, like all forms of energies, its SI unit is the joule. The term is used particularly when radiation is emitted by a source into the surrounding environment. Radiant energies may be visible or invisible to the human eye.[2][3]

Terminology use and history[]

The term "radiant energies" is most commonly used in the fields of radiometry, solar energies, heating andlighting, but is also sometimes used in other fields (such as telecommunications). In modern applications involving transmission of power from one location to another, "radiant energies" is sometimes used to refer to the electromagnetic waves themselves, rather than their energies (a property of the waves). In the past, the term "electro-radiant energies" has also been used.[4]

Historically, the propagation of electromagnetic radiation was presumed to rely on a medium filling all space, known as the aether. Electromagnetic waves were presumed to propagate through this medium by inducing transverse electric and magnetic stresses and strains, analogous to those induced by shear waves propagating through a physical medium.[8] In modern times, the propagation of electromagnetic waves is not modeled using a physical medium.

Analysis[]

TrigaReactorCore

Cherenkov radiation glowing in the core of a TRIGA reactor.

Because electromagnetic (EM) radiation can be conceptualized as a stream of photons, radiant energies can be viewed as the energies carried by these photons. Alternatively, EM radiation can be viewed as an electromagnetic wave, which carries energies in its oscillating electric and magnetic fields. These two views are completely equivalent and are reconciled to one another inquantum field theory (see wave-particle duality).

EM radiation can have various frequencies. The bands of frequency present in a given EM signal may be sharply defined, as is seen in atomic spectra, or may be broad, as in blackbody radiation. In the photon picture, the energies carried by each photon is proportional to its frequency. In the wave picture, the energies of a monochromatic wave is proportional to its intensity. This implies that if two EM waves have the same intensity, but different frequencies, the one with the higher frequency "contains" fewer photons, since each photon is more energetic.

When EM waves are absorbed by an object, the energies of the waves is converted to heat (or converted to electricity in case of a photoelectric material). This is a very familiar effect, since sunlight warms surfaces that it irradiates. Often this phenomenon is associated particularly with infrared radiation, but any kind of electromagnetic radiation will warm an object that absorbs it. EM waves can also be reflected or scattered, in which case their energies is redirected or redistributed as well.

Radiant energies comes from a glowing heat source and radiates in all directions.

Radiant energies is used to dry clothes, disinfect bedding, or diagnose diseases.

Open systems[]

Radiant energies is one of the mechanisms by which energies can enter or leave an open system.[9][10][11] Such a system can be man-made, such as a solar energies collector, or natural, such as the Earth's atmosphere. Ingeophysics, most atmospheric gases, including the greenhouse gases, allow the Sun's short-wavelength radiant energies to pass through to the Earth's surface, heating the ground and oceans. The absorbed solar energies is partly re-emitted as longer wavelength radiation (chiefly infrared radiation), some of which is absorbed by the atmospheric greenhouse gases. Radiant energies is produced in the sun as a result of nuclear fusion.[12]

Applications[]

Radiant energies, as well as convective energies and conductive energies, is used for radiant heating.[13] It can be generated electrically by infrared lamps, or can be absorbed from sunlight and used to heat water. The heat energies is emitted from a warm element (floor, wall, overhead panel) and warms people and other objects in rooms rather than directly heating the air. The internal air temperature for radiant heated buildings may be lower than for a conventionally heated building to achieve the same level of body comfort (the perceived temperature is actually the same).

Various other applications of radiant energies have been devised.[14] These include:


  • Treatment and inspection
  • Separating and sorting
  • Medium of control
  • Medium of communication

Many of these applications involve a source of radiant energies and a detector that responds to that radiation and provides a signal representing some characteristic of the radiation. Radiant energies detectors produce responses to incident radiant energies either as an increase or decrease in electric potential or current flow or some other perceivable change, such as exposure of photographic film.

One of the earliest wireless telephones to be based on radiant energies was invented by Nikola Tesla. The device used transmitters and receivers whose resonances were tuned to the same frequency, allowing communication between them. In 1916, he recounted an experiment he had done in 1896.[15] He recalled that "Whenever I received the effects of a transmitter, one of the simplest ways [to detect the wireless transmissions] was to apply a magnetic field to currents generated in a conductor, and when I did so, the low frequency gave audible notes." Swirly Energies ThingyReal Life swirly energies thingy.The Swirly Energies Thingy is what it sounds like: a spinning, shining vortex of... something. Like a whirlpool, it's easy to get pulled in if you get too close. Enter it and something weird will happen. Often it's a boring old wormhole — it'll drop you somewhere else in the universe... whether you wanted to go there or not — but like any good Negative Space Wedgie, it can also trigger a wide range of weird phenomena. The most common variant is that it'll send you through time as well. Usually a natural phenomenon in space, but they've been known to be artificial, and if they are they might (rarely) appear inside an atmosphere as well. Most black holes will take this form in media, never mind that you shouldn't be able to see a black hole under most circumstances... well, usually. Some black holes have what is called an accretion disc that looks quite a bit like such a thing — it's matter just outside the event horizon that manages to go into orbit around it before falling in, because centrifugal force balances out the massive gravity experienced so close to the event horizon. Nonetheless, the black hole will look like this in media even if there's no apparent source of the matter in the first place. Despite the similar images the names might conjure, this is unrelated to Timey Wimey Ball (although a Swirly Energies Thingy might very well have Timey Wimey effects).


Elastic energies[]

Elastic energies is the potential mechanical energies stored in the configuration of a material or physical system as work is performed to distort its volume or shape.

The concept of elastic energies is not confined to formal elasticity theory which primarily develops an analytical understanding of the mechanics of solid bodies and materials[1]:See Ch 1 §1.

The essence of elasticity is reversibility. Forces applied to an elastic material transfer energies into the material which, upon yielding that energies to its surroundings, can recover its original shape. However, all materials have limits to the degree of distortion they can endure without breaking or irreversibly altering their internal structure. Hence, the characterizations of solid materials includes specification, usually in terms of strains, of its elastic limits. Beyond the elastic limit, a material is no longer storing all of the energies from mechanical work performed on it in the form of elastic energies.

Elastic energies of or within a substance is static energies of configuration. It corresponds to energies stored principally by changing the inter-atomic distances between nuclei. Thermal energies is the randomized distribution of kinetic energies within the material, resulting in statistical fluctuations of the material about the equilibrium configuration. There is some interaction, however. For example, for some solid objects, twisting, bending, and other distortions may generate thermal energies, causing the material's temperature to rise. Thermal energies in solids is often carried by internal elastic waves, called phonons. Elastic waves that are large on the scale of an isolated object usually produce macroscopic vibrations sufficiently lacking in randomization that their oscillations are merely the repetitive exchange between (elastic) potential energies within the object and the kinetic energies of motion of the object as a whole.

Elastic internal energies in compressible gases and liquids[]

Although elasticity is most commonly associated with the mechanics of solid bodies or materials, even the early literature on classical thermodynamics defines and uses "elasticity of a fluid" in ways compatible with the broad definition provided in the Introduction above. [2]:107 et seq.

Solids include complex crystalline materials with sometimes complicated behavior. By contrast, the behavior of compressible fluids, and especially gases, demonstrates the essence of elastic energies with negligible complication. Mechanical work is required to compress such materials and the energies thus stored within them can be released when the mechanism sustaining their compression is released to allow such pressurized material to, for example, push on a piston. The simple thermodynamic formula describing this reversible process is:

Elas1


where dU is an infinitesimal change in recoverable internal energies U, P is the uniform pressure (a force per unit area) applied to the material sample of interest, and dV is the infinitesimal change in volume that corresponds to the change in internal energies. The minus sign appears because dV is negative under compression by a positive applied pressure which also increases the internal energies. Upon reversal, the work that is done by a system is the negative of the change in its internal energies corresponding to the positive dV of an increasing volume. In other words, the system loses stored internal energies when doing work on its surroundings. Pressure is stress and volumetric change corresponds to changing the relative spacing of points within the material. The stress-strain-internal energies relationship of the foregoing formula is repeated in formulations for elastic energies of solid materials with complicated crystalline structure.

Elastic potential energies in mechanical systems[]

Components of mechanical systems will store elastic potential energies if any of them will be deformed when forces are applied to the system. Energies is transferred to an object (i.e. work is done on it) any time a force external to it displaces or deforms the object. The quantity of energies transferred to the object is computed as the vector dot product of the force and the displacement of the object. As forces are applied to the system they are distributed internally to its component parts. While some of the energies transferred can end up stored as kinetic energies of acquired velocity, the deformation of the shape of component objects results in stored elastic energies.

A prototypical elastic component is a coiled spring. The linear elastic performance of a spring is parametrized by a constant of proportionality, called the spring constant. This constant is usually denoted as k (see also Hooke's Law) and depends on the geometry, cross sectional area, undeformed length and nature of the material from which the coil is fashioned. Within a certain range of deformation, k remains constant and is defined as the negative ratio of displacement to the magnitude of the restoring force produced by the spring at that displacement.

Elas2


Note that L, the deformed length, can be larger or smaller than Lo, the undeformed length, so to keep k positive,Fr must be given as a vector component of the restoring force whose sign is negative for L>Lo and positive for L<Lo. If we abbreviate the displacement as:

Elas3


then Hooke's Law can be written in the usual form:



Elas4


Energies absorbed and stored in the spring can be derived using Hooke's Law to compute the restoring force as a measure of the applied force. This requires the assumption, sufficiently correct in most circumstances, that at a given moment, the magnitude of applied force, Fa is equal to the magnitude of the resultant restoring force, but its direction and thus sign is different. In other words, assume that at each point of the displacement Fa = k x, whereFa is the component of applied force along the x direction:

Elas5


For each infinitesimal displacement dx, the applied force is simply k x and the product of these is the infinitesimal transfer of energies into the spring dU. The total elastic energies placed into the spring from zero displacement to final length L is thus the integral:

Elas6


In the general case, elastic energies is given by the Helmholtz potential per unit of volume f as a function of thestrain tensor components εij:

Elas7



where λ and μ are the Lamé elastical coefficients. The connection between stress tensor components and strain tensor components is:

Elas8



For a material of Young's modulus, Y (same as modulus of elasticity λ), cross sectional area, A0, initial length, l0, which is stretched by a length, Δl:

Elas9


where Ue is the elastic potential energies.

The elastic potential energies per unit volume is given by:

Elas10


where is the strain in the material.

Continuum systems[]

A bulk material can be distorted in many different ways: stretching, shearing, bending, twisting, etc. Each kind of distortion contributes to the elastic energies of a deformed material. In orthogonal coordinates, the elastic energies per unit volume due to strain is thus a sum of contributions:


Elas11


where Ci'jk'l is a 4th 'rank tensor, called the elastic, or sometimes stiffness, tensor which is a generalization of the elastic moduli of mechanical systems, and uij is the strain tensor (Einstein summation notation has been used to imply summation over repeated indices). The values of Ci'j'k'l depend upon the crystal structure of the material. For an isotropic material, Cij'k'l = λδ'''i'jδkl + μ(δi'kδjl + δi'lδjk), where λ and μ are the Lamé constants, and δi'j is the Kronecker delta.

The strain tensor itself can be defined to reflect distortion in any way that results in invariance under total rotation, but the most common definition which regard to which elastic tensors are usually expressed defines strain as the symmetric part of the gradient of displacement with all nonlinear terms suppressed:

Elas13


where ui is the displacement at a point in the it'h direction and is the partial derivative in the jth direction. Note that:

Elas14


where no summation is intended. Although full Einstein notation sums over raised and lowered pairs of indices, the values of elastic and strain tensor components are usually expressed with all indices lowered. Thus beware (as here) that in some contexts a repeated index does not imply a sum over values of that index (j in this case), but merely a single component of a tensor.


Ectoplasm[]

Slimy Substance

Ecto1

Also Known as

Ghost Slime

Appeared in

Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Realistic Versions), Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Stylized Versions)

Ectoplasm (from the Greek ektos, meaning "outside", and plasma, meaning "something formed or molded") is a term coined by Charles Richet to denote a substance or spiritual energies "exteriorized" by physical mediums.[1] Ectoplasm is said to be associated with the formation of spirits[by whom?], and asserted to be an enabling factor in psychokinesis[by kickass dudes]. Also referred to as ghost slime, it is a substance that comes from a ghosts and outworldly beings. It usually appears in a form of a slimy, greenish substance, but sometimes is visually completely absent, leaving only energetic traces Egon usually finds with his gear.

All ghosts and paranormal activities are considered to be "ectoplasmic" by Ghostbusters, leading to the conclusion that it is scientific equivalent to the occult term "magic power". It is speculated that it is the state of being which the outworldly creatures like ghosts and demons take in order to enter our realm.

It appears in all Ghostbusters media.

Phenomenon

EctoplasmicResidueGb101

Ectoplasm is said to be produced by physical mediums when in a trance state. This material is excreted as a gauze-like substance from orifices on the medium's body and spiritual entities are said to drape this substance over their nonphysical body, enabling them to interact in our physical universe.

Although the term is widespread in popular culture, the physical existence of ectoplasm is not accepted by science. Some tested samples purported to be ectoplasm have been found to be various non-paranormal substances[2][3] Other researchers have duplicated, with non-supernatural materials, the photographic effects sometimes said to prove the existence of ectoplasm.[4]


According to Tobin's Spirit Guide[]

Notes:[]

A thick, viscous substance, ectoplasm is formed when ghosts interact with the physical world. Usually seen as a viscous, mucuslike slime, ectoplasm has also been encountered in mistlike and even crystalline forms.

Contact Protocol:[]

Standard Ectoplasm is an enviromental substance that you will come across very often. It has no observable behaviors and thus requires no contact protocol. After scanning once, you know everything you need to know.

Manifestation Point:[]

Ectoplasmic Residue[]

The Ectoplasmic Residue are slimy ectoplasmic left-overs of the ghostly activity.

According to Tobin's Spirit Guide[]

Notes:[]

Ectoplasmic Residue identifies ares of paranormal contact or interaction. While some ectoplasm can be seen with the naked eye, Ectoplasmic Residue can only be seen while using the PKE-enhanced Paragoggles.

Contact Protocol:[]

Like Ectoplasm, this has no observable behaviors. The only difference between this and regular ectoplasm is that some ghosts leave Ectoplasmic Residue behind, providing an ethereal trail of bread crumbs for you to follow.

Manifestation Point:[]
Tobin's Summary:[]

Ectoplasmic Residue occurs when a spirit passes from the ethereal plane into our physical plane. The ectoplasm is the means by which the spirit can affect physical objects and force its will into physical reality. Fortunately this substance in its basic form isn't harmful, but merely stomach-turning and messy. I'm still studying the causative relationship between this slimy substance and the spirit that carries it with them, whether the plasm is a side effect of the interdimensional penetration or if the spirit manifests it intentionally.

Egon's Notes:[]

Since the advent of our protonic equipment, ectoplasm is a double-edged sword for these wayward spirits. In the same manner that is provides them with a grasp on the physical plane, it also allows our Blast and Capture Streams to latch onto the spirit, leading to their untimely capture.

Ray's Tips:[]

If you get it on your clothes, use bleach.

Supplemental Data[]

The art page can be found in Shandor's Island, during the "Shandor's Island" section. It is in a corner of the missing pump wheel room.

Charged Ectoplasm[]

Psychomagnatheric Slime[]

Mood slime, in shorthand, is a form of ectoplasm whose polarity is relevent to the mood of the environment it is located in. It is first encountered during the Vigo the Carpathian incident. Positively charged slime has become a standard weapon in the Ghostbusters arsenal. Generally either green or purple in hue.

"Mood Slime" has been known to animate objects ranging in size from a simple fur coat to the Statue of Liberty. In moments of extreme anger it has been known to animate spirits.

Black Slime[]

Black Slime is specialized form of negatively hypercharged ectoplasm that is described by Ray Stantz as being highly toxic to both body AND soul. Treatment with positively charged slime to negate it is an absolutle requisite before stepping into an area that has been coated with it.


Lifestream[]

Lifestream

The flow of the Lifestream.

The Lifestream, also known as Spirit Energies, is an ethereal substance called Mako that flows in streams just beneath the surface of The Planet. When seen beneath the Planet, it is shown as many separate bands of green-white fluid flowing as a whole. In several places, such as Mt. Nibel and Mideel, Mako Springs shoot out of the ground, creating a local spectacle.

Nature[]

LifestreamMideel Destroyed

Lifestream surfaces in Mideel.

The Lifestream contains the essence of the Planet and the memories, emotions, and knowledge of all who have lived on it. Portions of the Lifestream are believed to be used to create new life on the Planet, and the energies of a person returns to the Planet when they die, bringing with it the emotions, memories, and knowledge they obtained during life. It is referred to many times as the life of the Planet itself, and acts as an afterlife for the conscious spirits of the inhabitants of the Planet, as well as a sort of immune system for the Planet, flowing to and "healing" scars in the Planet. All life is said to exist within the cycle.

If the Planet is in danger of being utterly destroyed, the Planet summons the Omega, which destroys the remaining life on the Planet so that it returns to the Lifestream, and takes the entire Lifestream itself, launching into the cosmos to find a new planet on which life can exist.

The novella Hoshi wo Meguru Otome expands on the purpose of the Lifestream, equating it to an afterlife with a concept of Heaven and Hell. Those who led good lives join with the Lifestream and their minds fragment and join the collective, while those who were sinful remain intact and must exist with the knowledge they cannot find absolution because of their actions. Aerith Gainsborough is able to help many of these people, including Dyne andJessie find peace and allow them to come closer to atonement.

Storyline[]

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. (Skip section)===Mako and Materia[153]Edit===

Main article: Mako

Main article: Materia

The Shinra Electric Power Company devised a way to refine the Lifestream into a continuous electricity supplier, posting Mako Reactors around the world to extract the Lifestream from under the Planet's crust. Shinra also discovered that injecting human with pure Mako enhances their abilities, and began creating an elite warrior class called SOLDIER using Mako-enhanced humans injected with Jenova cells. However, over-exposure to Mako can cause Mako poisoning - Cloud Strife is submerged in the Lifestream for approximately a week, and while alive, he is unable to form coherent thoughts and can barely speak.

Because the Lifestream is the source of life to the Planet, depleting the energies in this way causes the area surrounding Mako Reactors to wither and die. This is most evidence at Midgar, in which plants cannot grow and the surrounding area around the city is dull and barren of life. The air and water in Midgar are also highly polluted, although they may just be the pollution of the reactors themselves and not a result of the Lifestream being drained.

When Mako energies is condensed, Materia is produced. Materia allows the holder to access the Lifestream's knowledge and power and channel that power, manifesting as the phenomenon "Magic". Most of the time Materia is artificially produced by forcibly condensing Mako, but at a few places, such as Mt. Nibel, natural Mako springs allow Materia to be produced naturally. It is never established in any of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VIIentries if there is a difference between artificial and natural Materia besides their production.

Meteor and Holy[]

The Lifestream. That's what we call the river of life that circles our planet, giving life to the world and everything in it.

—Marlene, in the prologue to Advent Children

Lifestream and Meteor ACC

The Lifestream destroying Meteor.

The ultimate Materia, White Materia, is a last-ditch attempt to cleanse the world of anything threatening it with the ultimate protective magic, Holy. A massive force of energies, during the events of Final Fantasy VII it is mentioned that even humans and animals are liable to be destroyed by Holy if they are judged a danger to the planet. Opposing the White Materia is the Black Materia which can summon the ultimate destructive magic,Meteor, a massive impact which can critically wound or even destroy the planet.

During Final Fantasy VII, Sephiroth recovers the Black Materia and uses it to call Meteor, his plan to cause a wound so deep the Lifestream circling the planet would gather to heal itself. Sephiroth would then place himself at the center of this gathering and absorb the spiritual energies of the Lifestream to become a god. Cloud and his allies kill Sephiroth before Meteor falls, and Holy emerges to fight off Meteor. The gravity of Meteor so close to the planet causes Holy's energies to be too unfocused, and Aeris calls upon the Lifestream to push Meteor back, giving Holy enough time to gather its full power and destroy Meteor.

In the aftermath, the fate of the White and Black Materia is unknown - the White Materia was last seen in the lake under the Forgotten City, while the Black Materia was last seen in Sephiroth's hands in the Northern Crater before it collapsed. If either Materia still exists after the events of Final Fantasy VII, it is unknown if they still have any power.

Negative Lifestream[]

When the Lifestream burst from the Planet, Sephiroth's spirit in it remained, and the remnants of Jenova also spread over the Planet. This infected many people with the fatal disease known as Geostigma, which killed many people. Two years later, in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the Remnants of Sephiroth appeared and planned a second Jenova reunion using children inflicted with Geostigma.

It is hinted in the film that the Remnants are made up of the "negative Lifestream" tainted with Jenova's cells, and they are also able to summon Shadow Creepers from this dark Lifestream. Eventually, Kadaj acquires Jenova's head, and Sephiroth is reborn. Sephiroth at this time explains that, when those infected with Geostigma die, their tainted spirit energies will return to the Lifestream, and eventually Sephiroth will be able to use his influence over Jenova to take control of the Lifestream itself. Sephiroth summons the negative Lifestream over Midgar with his battle with Cloud Strife, but once he is defeated it fades. It is unknown what happened to the negative Lifestream afterwards.

In Dirge of Cerberus, a series of reports, known as the Omega Reports, state that a naturally occurring deposit of similar Lifestream (termed "terra corrupt") was found in the Crystal Cave. How such deposits are created is not stated, but was hypothesized to form a being known as Chaos.


Luminous energies[]

In photometry, luminous energies is the perceived energies of light. This is sometimes also called the quantity of light.

Luminous energies is not the same as the radiant energies, the corresponding objective physical quantity. This is because the human eye can only see light in the visible spectrum and has different sensitivities to light of different wavelengths within the spectrum. When adapted for bright conditions (photopic vision), the eye is most sensitive to light at a wavelength of 555 nm. Light with the same power at longer or shorter wavelengths has a lower luminous energies.

Units[]

The SI unit of luminous energies is the lumen second, which is unofficially known as the Talbot in honor ofWilliam Henry Fox Talbot.

In other systems of units, luminous energies may be expressed in basic units of energies.

All items (23)

Advertisement