Life Energy Beliefs
R
Life Force Ideas Around the World
Here are the R entries of life energy beliefs around the world and from antiquity to the present. An edited and expanded version of this Life Energy A to Z is published in my book
Life Energy Encyclopedia.
R
Radiant energy is a theory about a radiation present and accessible
everywhere, by the American electrical engineer Thomas Henry Moray
(1892-1974). He claimed to have started this research in 1909, when he was
seventeen. Later on, he used a mineral he had found in Sweden, which
was to be called Swedish stone. In 1949 he patented an electro-therapeutic
machine, which was supposed to use both electricity and radioactivity in
healing treatments. The expression radiant energy was also used by the
Serbian engineer Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), active in the USA, whose
theories have inspired many 20th century hypotheses about yet unknown
forms of energy. Ha made a number of important inventions involving
electricity and radio waves. Tesla regarded radiant energy as cosmic, with
the sun as its closest source, and existing in such a scale that it could be an
inexhaustible energy source (see free energy). It consisted of small particles
with such minute charge that they could be compared to neutrons, and
with a speed beyond that of light. He also claimed that this radiation
ionized the air. In 1901, Tesla patented a machine to make use of this
energy. Tesla's radiant energy is sometimes mentioned as a synonym to qi,
although to him it was more of a concrete source of energy for practical
use. But others have developed his theory into more complex systems,
where this or a similar energy is also claimed to have healing properties,
and be some kind of force field – such as the above theories of Moray.
Radiation is a phenomenon and a term used in many ideas about life
energy and such, increasingly so since the late 19th century, as different
forms of radiation have been discovered and understood. Whereas ancient
ideas about life force have mostly described it as flowing, like air or water,
modern beliefs tend to describe it as some kind of radiation. Another term
often used for similar concepts is emanation.
Radiesthesia (approximately 'sensitivity to radiation') is an expression
introduced in 1927 by the French Jesuit abbots Alexis Mermet (1866-1937, on the photo)
and Alex Bouly (1865-1958), for an extrasensory capacity to sense certain
substances or objects. When this is done from a distance, it is called tele-radiesthesia. Often a pendulum or dowsing rod is used to enhance this
sensitivity and find the object. Methods to search with the help of such
sensitivity, mostly to find water, have existed far back in history. A
modern method is called radionics (see this word), based on the
assumption that all matter emanates a recognizable radiation, which also
Bouly claimed. In 1939, the French physicists Leon Chaumery (1880-1957?)
and Antoine de Belizal (1896-?) gave this phenomenon the name micro-vibrational physics.
Mermet pendulum.
Radionics is a theory about radiation from living creatures, introduced in
1916 by the American pathologist Albert Abrams (1863-1924), but he used
the term radiotherapy. It is also called psionics (see the word psi). The
radiation was different from sick and from healthy body parts, which
Abrams used in both diagnosis and treatment, with a machine called
oscilloclast. See also radiesthesia and homogeneity vibration.
Albert Abrams and his oscilloclast, from a 1923 booklet.
Reflexology see zone therapy.
Reiki (Japanese for 'universal qi') is a system for treating human energy
flows, founded by the Japanese businessman Mikao Usui (1865-1926), who
got the inspiration to do it during meditation training in 1914. Reiki
spreading to the west was mainly the work of Hawayo Takata (1900-1980),
who lived in Hawaii. In reiki the therapist uses the hands to transmit qi,
and to stimulate the qi flow inside the patient. Much of this is done
without physical contact.
Roh see semangat.
Rono see ayik.
Ruach/ruah/rua is the Hebrew word for spirit or wind, and is used in the
Old testament of the Bible for what has been translated to the Holy Spirit,
ruach hakodesh. It is God's breath, by which he blows life into his creatures.
The word is also connected to will-power. The grammatical gender of the
word ruach is feminine. Jewish mystic tradition (in Torah and Talmud, as
well as in Kabbalah) also speak about nefesh, a life force for the physical
body, and just as mortal, linked to the blood. There is also neshamah,
higher than the two previously mentioned, linked to the mind. These three
powers are in Kabbalah often called naran. Compare ruh. See also Holy
Spirit.
Ruh is the Arabic word for spirit or spiritual power. Compare ruach. The
Arab word for the soul or the I is nafs.
Life Energy Beliefs from A to Z
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My Life Energy Books
Qi, prana, spirit, ruach, pneuma, and many other life forces around the world explained and compared. Click the image to see the book at Amazon (paid link).
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The ancient Chinese life energy
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chi) explained and how to exercise it.
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Other Books of Mine
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About me
I'm a Swedish author and historian of ideas, researching the thought patterns in creation myths. I've also written books about Taoism, the Tarot, and life force concepts around the world.
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Life Energy Encyclopedia
Qi — Increase your life energy
Cosmos of the Ancients
Archetypes of Mythology
Tao Te Ching
Fake Lao Tzu Quotes
Stefan Stenudd