Glossary Of Terms - U
UNIVERSAL LAWS: Mental laws set into motion at the time of creation, coinciding with natural law and working out of the psychology, emotions and psychic levels of the human mind.
UNIVERSAL LIFE FORCE: A vital force or energy that transcends time and space, permeates all things in the universe and upon which all things depend for health and life. It is known by many names in different cultures, som e of those names follow.
Prana: The Hindu name from a Sanskrit term usually translated as "life force", "vigor" or "vitality". To the Hindu, prana is the divine power that acts in the akasha which is where the universe is manufactured through the power of prana. It is the soul of energy, the essence of all motion, force and power in all things. It permeates all matter, animate and inanimate; however, it is NOT matter itself. Probably the nearest thing it can be said to be analogous to is electricity. When material substance reaches the end of its life cycle, it is resolved back to prana.
The personal prana is in constant touch with the universal pranic energy and the chakras, especially the spleen chakra, are focal points for transforming universal energy in the body's energy system.
Although manifested in the breath, prana is NOT breath. It is related to the element of air and motion. The control of the flow of prana through breathing is central to yoga. In Tantric yoga it is used to raise latent psychic powers.
Healthy people have an excess of prana, while sick people are depleted in it. It may be transferred from a healthy body to a sick one by the laying on of hands.
Qi (Ch'i) is the Chinese term literally meaning "breath", "gas" or "ether". It has never been clearly defined. It was developed into a metaphysical principle by various Chinese philosophers as far back as Lao-Tzu (551 B.C. to 479 B.C.?) Who allegedly authored the Tao Teh Ching and conceived of it as a dualistic principle which evolved into the concept of yin and yang. Yang is light, the sun, the active/dry/masculine principle. Yin is earth, the dark, the passive/wet/feminine principle. From this arose the concept of Five Elements in Chinese medicine as well as the basis of the I Ching. Yang energy enters the body by flowing downward from the heavens; yin, upwards from the earth converging at a point in the lower belly about two (2) inches below the navel deep within the body where this life force can be converted into spiritual energy creating physical heat.
The earliest descriptions of qi in relation to health and healing date back to the Han dynasty of 206 B.C. to 220 A.D. There it is described in 32 different forms. Since all life is in a constant energy exchange with qi, illness results when the exchange is restricted, depleted or out of balance and if it ceases entirely, the organism dies.
It flows through the body in 12 meridians and through eight (8) psychic channels in the body, thus, playing a key role in the purification of vital energy. The term is always found in descriptions of Taoist exercises and breathing techniques.
Ki is the Japanese term for qi which was introduced into Japan between 710 A.D. and 1185 A.D. and was absorbed into the Shinto beliefs about nature and its "life force".
With the rise of the Samurai class, the concepts of ki began to undergo dramatic changes and became a part of the warrior's discipline of courage, will power, vigor, conserving energy and even prolonging breathing as a matter of life and death.
In this guise it had a two-fold nature: (1) the unifying principle between the individual and the universe, and (2) the expression of breath-powers. Victory depended on ki.
Mana is the term used by the Huna in Hawaii. It has three (3) primary forms functioning in one of the three (3) "selves" in every individual. Mana, the basic life force, operates in the subconscious (the Low Self) and builds and maintains the physical body. Mana-mana operates in the conscious (the Middle Self) and is creative will power and manifested thought and emotions. Mana-loa operates in the superconscious (the High Self) and is high-voltage energy containing the power of compassion to be harnessed for instantaneous healing and miracles.
The flow of mana through the body is in waves and layers forming a figure 8 and emanating from the solar plexus flowing down one leg and back up to the opposite shoulder with the pattern reversed on the back. Through breathing and visualization, mana can be converted from a lower to a higher level.
Od/Odic Force is a term created by Baron Karl von Reichenbach (1788-1869) which describes a subtle substance emanating from all things in the universe including the stars and planets. It streams from crystals and can be observed by clairvoyance as luminous radiations similar to the aurora borealis and can be felt as hot or cold. It is believed to be affected by breath and fluctuates during day and night and before and after meals.
Reichenbach, a chemist and metallurgist, conducted hundreds of experiments with sensitives who were not Spiritualist mediums, and published his findings in 1845 to make a scientific case for the Universal Life Force. His findings were rejected by the scientific establishment and endorsed by mesmerists, magnetic healers and Spiritualists.
In 1882, the Society for Psychical Research studied the "Reichenbach Phenomena" and validated many of his claims.
Orgone is a term for a vital force or primordial cosmic energy that permeates all things and exists as a biological energy, is blue in color and can be demonstrated visually, thermically and electroscopically with a Geiger counter. The term was coined by Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957), a student of Sigmund Freud and a psychoanalyst. Reich believed it was the basis of sexual and psychosomatic neuroses.
He developed a device called the "Orgone Accumulator" which was suppose to concentrate orgone for therapeutic purposes. He reported positive results of its use on cancer patients; however, the Food and Drug Administration tested the device and found it worthless. Reich was then enjoined from manufacturing, distributing or using the device and the term "orgone" in his writing. He refused and was fined and imprisoned, where he died. The "Orgone Accumulators" were destroyed and his books burned.
Bioenergy is an Eastern European concept of the Universal Life Force. The term itself was borrowed from Wilhelm Reich who was the first to use it to describe the life energy within the body. It is seen to tie all things together and may be controlled and directed by personal will. The Eastern European healing disciplines use this energy. Both the concept of bioenergy and its use has been of great interest to researchers in the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia in particular. These researchers claim that they are able to store the energy in generators.
It is said to radiate from the human bodies and is associated with psychic phenomena such as psychokinesis (PK). It has not been decided whether it is external to the body and channeled through it or whether its origin is within the body.
The term itself has been applied in healing by Czechoslovakian researcher Zdenek Rejdak to a touch method that is purported to be based on the concept of prana rather than Reich's concept of bioenergy. This technique involves the transmission of vital energy from a healer to a patient whose own energy field is depleted and out of balance through the "biocurrents" in the aura and can be done at a distance similar to the modality known as Reiki.