Hi Jared,

Yes I'd say the Vis is not mathematics.  Equations are descriptions of relationships, rather than just numbers.  E=mC2 for instance does not involve numbers per se but rather describes the relationship between energy, mass, and the speed of light.  

What I am trying to capture with the equation metaphor/model is that energy, mass, intention, spirit, etc all are part of the vis and are interconnected.  This interconnectedness can be analysed (or at least observed) and values put on the various elements of connectedness so as to get a feeling for how the Vis is operating in a given person.

this is a tough one.  The vis is there in full operation irregardless of the values of vitality in any given system.   This point is critical to argue as a profession.  We need to get a grip on it to understand how to think the vis.

Love and light,

Bill

---

From: DrZeff@...
Reply-To: NDPhilosophy@yahoogroups.com
To: NDPhilosophy@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [NDPhilosophy] Re: Vis Medicatris Naturae as algebra
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2007 11:09:23 EST

William,

 

I think you have provided an excellent point. The problem here is that the Vis Medicatrix Naturae is not mathematics.  I think Bill has provided an excellent model to help understand how we work and how we think.  But the model, the formula, is not the Vis.  It is a useful map, but the map is not the territory.  One might say that "A" or "B" is "stimulation applied to the vis"; this is one solution.  Hippocrates said that we can not know the whole thing, it is too complex and too mysterious.  We can know that if we do this or that we can expect something to happen; we can understand some patterns and predict some outcomes. 

 

I recently had an unresponsive patient.  I recommended a series of hydrotherapy treatments. Midway through the series she got diarrhea.  She had to cancel three treatments due to unstable bowels.  Then she returned, stating how good she felt.  Now it has been several days in a row of better sleep and no headaches.  She reports feeling great.  She had a healing reaction.  We applied stimulation to the "Vis"; she got worse, she had a discharge, she got much better.  This is an old pattern that Hippocrates wrote about. 

 

What does hydrotherapy do?  I can say it causes circulatory changes, it improves function in the vital organs, it promotes detoxification, it stimulates the immune system.  I know it stimulates the Vis Medicatrix.  But I do not really know what it does. I have a feeling for what it does.  I know how I feel when dashed with cold water, or when a cold towel is placed on my belly.  I can describe that feeling in a poem.  I can discuss that effect in a scientific paper.  But neither of those are the feeling.  And the feeling is not the whole effect.  I accept that I know from experience what to expect, and sometimes that actually seems to happen.

 

Jared Zeff, ND