TheEmergence of Geist und Wesen

Backto Seed thoughts

The term Lebenskraft["Living Power"] first appears in the Introductionto the Fourth Edition " the unhelpful, useless, not infrequentlyinjurious efforts and operations of the instinctive, unreasoningLebenskraft (misnamed nature)" [SeeSaumarez on the Living Principle and Power]

In the fifth edition he seesit in its visible diseased state.

In the sixth edition it isfully expounded into the two presences, Geist and Wesen, whichact in, on and about the organism. Geist uses the organism - Wesenenlivens the organism - neither is the organism.

This is one example of thefact that there is nothing new in the re-translation of the Organon,only concepts that have not been fully disclosed. What homeopathisthas a conscious realization of this functional polarity and what are the implications?

The Living Power is not Spirit but Spirit-like,in other words invisible (unsichtbar)/ supersensible (Ðbersinnlich)/immaterial.

§9. In the healthy human state the spirit-like Living Power (Autocracy) enlivening the material organism as Dynamis rules unrestrictedly and keeps all of its parts in admirable, harmonious, vital operation in both feelings and functions, so that our indwelling rational spirit [Geist] can freely avail itself of this living healthy instrument for the higher purposes of our existence.

Geist is the basis of witting (wissen)= intelligent and rational awareness primarily communicating throughthe sentient being, the nervous system, achieving a sense of well-being(Wohlseyn) -- Menschen-Geist

Introduction to the Organon: ...true remedial art is that thoughtful business that devolves upon the higher human spirit, [Menschen-Geist] free deliberation, and the choosing intellect deciding according to reasons, in order to retune that instinct-like (lacking intellect and awareness) but automatic energic Living Power, when it through disease has been mistuned to abnormal activity,

Wesen is the basis of kenning (kennen);it is instinctual and acts according to wisdom, primarily communicatingthrough impression; it is equivalent to consciousness or the consciententity experienced by means of the Living Power in sensationsand functions, achieving soundness (Gesundheit).

§10. The material organism, thought of without Living Power, is capable of no sensibility, no activity, no self preservation1); only the immaterial Genius [Wesen] (the Living Principle, the Living Power) enlivening the material organism in the healthy and sick state bestows on it all sensibility and produces its life-functions.

Menschen-Wesen = Human Entity

FN §289 I am being assiduously mindful here, having spoken of the decided and certain remedial power of the positive mesmerists, not of that highly deplorable exaggeration of the same, by means of which, neurasthenic patients are subjected to repeated passes of this kind for hours on end, even on a daily basis, ushering in that monstrous re-sonification of the whole Human Entity [Menschen-Wesen] called somnambulism and clairvoyance, wherein the person, transported from the sense world, appears to belong more to the spirit world - a highly unnatural and dangerous state, whereby one has not seldom tried in vain to cure chronic diseases.

Kraftwesen = Power-Entity

§11. When a person becomes diseased, it is initially only this spirit-like autonomic Living Power (Living Principle), everywhere present in the organism, that is mistuned by the dynamical influence of a morbific agent inimical to life; only the Living Principle, mistuned to such an abnormality, can impart adverse sensations to the organism and induce such irregular functions in it, which we call disease; for this Power-Entity [Kraftwesen] in itself invisible and solely discernible by its actions in the organism, makes its morbid mistunement known only by manifestation of disease in feelings and functions (the only side of the organism turned towards the senses of the observer and the Remedial Artist), that is, by disease symptoms, and can in no other way make itself known.

Arzneiwesen = Genius of the medicine

§.20.1. This hidden spirit-like power in the inner Genius of medicines [Wesen der Arzneien] to alter the condition of man and thus to cure diseases, is in itself in no way discernible with mere intellectual exertion; it only permits itself to be perceived in experience, and distinctly to be sure, solely by its manifestations while impinging on man's condition.

§.130 in the 5th Edition of the Organon, Hahnemann uses "Wesen der Arzneien" which in the 6th edition reads as "Charakter der Arzneien."

Other references from variousMATERICA MEDICA:

Guernsey - Abies-n "The genius of this remedy appears prominently in the stomach."

Medical Advance - Aconite "If one has an intimate knowledge of the genius of a remedy and is willing to study his cases it is not always so difficult to see in the analysis of a patient's symptoms the counterpart of the remedy."

Dunham Therapeutics: Belladonna (with reference always to the genius of the remedy).

Hahnemannian Monthly (1860's) "The more closely we investigate the genius of Carbo v., the more fully do we appreciate its wonderful curative properties."

Nash Therapeutics: "No remedy will better repay a careful and thorough study to understand its genius."

Chouduri: "Pulsatilla seemed to be the presiding genius of the case."

Nash: Sulphur "The sensations of coldness or susceptibility to cold and cold bathing alternate with the opposite burnings so characteristic of the remedy and must not be lost sight of in order to get at the true genius of the remedy."

Krankheitswesen= Genius of the disease

Introduction to the Organon part 3....the invisible process of the changes in the core Entity [internal Wesen] of diseased man -- a dark fantasy picture, which theoretical medicine took for its primary cause of disease, which then was supposed to be the proximate cause of disease and simultaneously the inner Genius of the disease [Wesen der Krankheit], the disease itself ...

Back to Seedthoughts