Odic force

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Odic force (also called Od [õd] and Odyle) is the name given in the mid-19th century to a hypothetical vital energy or life force by Baron Carl von Reichenbach (1788-1869), an accomplished chemist (known for his analysis of creosote, waxy paraffin, and phenol). Von Reichenbach coined the name for his "discovery" from that of the Norse god Odin in a long article first published in 1845.

Von Reichenbach had entered upon an investigation of the manner in which the human nervous system could be affected by various substances, and was led to conceive the existence of a new imponderable 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. To this vitalist concept of his, he gave the name of Odic force. Proponents of the concept suggested without evidence that Odic force permeates all plants, animals, and humans. It took its place in the latter half of the 19th century as one of many proto-scientific ideas contributing towards a unified pseudoscientific scenario of vitalism. Believers in Odic force claimed that it is visible in total darkness as colored auras surrounding living things, crystals, and magnets, but that viewing requires hours first spent in total darkness, and that not everyone has the ability to see it. It has also been claimed that it resembles the eastern concepts ch'i and prana. However, believers regarded the Od, not as associated with breath (like the Chinese traditional qi or ch'i), but mainly with claimed pseudo-electromagnetic fields.

Although von Reichenbach gave no attention to animal magnetism, which was very much in vogue at the time, along with its direct offshoot mesmerism and other related quack theories, the existing pseudosciences would have been inevitably encountered by him in his researches. Perhaps wanting to make his "discovery" more exclusive, he avoided tieing it into any other pseudosciences of the day. Baron von Reichenbach expounded the concept of Odic force in detail in a book-length article, Researches on Magnetism, Electricity, Heat and Light in their Relations to Vital Forces, which anomalously appeared in a special issue of a respected scientific journal, Annalen der Chemie und Physik. His unsubstantiated claims included (1) that his Odic force had a positive and negative flux, and a light and dark side. (2) Individuals could supposedly forcefully "emanate" it, particularly from the hands, mouth, and forehead. (3) He believed it had many possible applications, and that for example crystals could store it within themselves as "crystalod".

The Odic force concept was once thought 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 unsuccessfully 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.

Von Reichenbach hoped to develop a scientific proof for a universal life force, but since his experiments relied not on instruments but on perceptions reported by allegedly psychically sensitive and psycho-kinetically adept individuals, who were paid to give positive reports, his ideas never acquired currency in the general scientific community. Von Reichenbach's "sensitives," young women recruited from the lower social classes, who performed their Od-powered "marvels" in total or near-total darkness, were clear forerunners of the Spirit Mediums who set up shop all over Europe 10 years later, in the 1850s. Like the spirit mediums, Von Reichenbach's "sensitives" failed every valid test to which they were subjected by other researchers, and were repeatedly detected in fraud.

The Odic scenario therefore found no favor within science, or among mainstream scientists, and instead it survives today as one among many mystical concepts of vague "fields" associated magically with living things. The Odic force has been mentioned frequently in European books on Dowsing, such as Reveal the Power of the Pendulum, by Karl Spiesberger. More recently, Odic lore has become mildly popular again amongst some New Age groups.

[edit] Reference

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