Vitalism

thumb|Depiction of the soul leaving the body at the moment of death: The Grave (poem)|The Grave, illustrated by [[William Blake, engraved by Luigi Schiavonetti, 1808]]

thumb|In meditation, chakras are often visualised in different ways, such as a lotus flower, or a disc containing a particular deity.

thumb|Shakti, the feminine power, is often personified as an aspect of Devi

form of non-scientific healing

In the Sinosphere and Chinese philosophy, qi ( ; ) is a vital force traditionally believed to be a part of all living entities. Literally meaning 'vapor', 'air', 'gas', or 'breath', the word qi is polysemous, often translated as 'vital energy', 'vital force', 'material energy', or simply 'energy'. Qi is also a concept in traditional Chinese medicine and in Chinese martial arts. The attempt to cultivate and balance qi is called qigong.

Vitalism is an idea that living organisms are differentiated from the non-living by the presence of forces, properties or powers including those which may not be physical or chemical. Varied forms of vitalist theories were held in former times and they are now considered pseudoscientific concepts. Where vitalism explicitly invokes a vital principle, that element is often referred to as the "vital spark", "energy", "élan vital" (coined by vitalist Henri Bergson), "vital force", or "vis vitalis", which some equate with the soul. In the 18th and 19th centuries, vitalism was discussed among biolog

Naturopathy, or naturopathic medicine, is a form of alternative medicine. A wide array of practices branded as "natural", "non-invasive", or promoting "self-healing" are employed by its practitioners, who are known as naturopaths. These treatments range from the pseudoscientific and thoroughly discredited, such as homeopathy, to the widely accepted, such as certain forms of psychotherapy. The ideology and methods of naturopathy are based on vitalism and folk medicine rather than evidence-based medicine, although practitioners may use techniques supported by evidence. The ethics of naturopathy

philosophy and religious concept of the animating essence within humans

thumb|Kundalini, chakras, and nadis

parapsychological and spiritual concept

In yoga, Ayurveda, and Indian martial arts, prana (, ; the Sanskrit word for breath, "life force", or "vital principle") permeates reality on all levels including inanimate objects. In Hindu literature, prāṇa is sometimes described as originating from the Sun and connecting the elements.

ancient Egyptian religious concept

Polynesian spiritual practice

thumb|upright=1.3|Sphera volgare, featuring the Sun, the [[Moon, the winds and the stars as living. Woodcut illustration from an edition of De sphaera mundi, Venice, 1537.]]

thumb|Evolutionary progress as a tree of life (biology)|tree of life. [[Ernst Haeckel, 1866]] thumb|upright=1.4|Lamarck's two-factor theory involves 1) a complexifying force that drives animal body plans towards higher levels (orthogenesis) creating a ladder of phyla, and 2) an adaptive force that causes animals with a given body plan to adapt to circumstances (use and disuse, [[inheritance of acquired characteristics), creating a diversity of species and genera. Popular views of Lamarckism only consider an aspect of the adaptive force.]] Orthogenesis is an obsolete biological hypothesis that

purported force in living things

Barakah or Baraka ( "blessing") is a blessing power in Islam, a kind of continuity of spiritual presence and revelation that begins with God and flows through that and those closest to God.

paranormal phenomenon

150px|right|thumb|The word manitō (in both Cree language|Cree and Ojibwe) written in [[Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics and Cree syllabics]]

Numen (plural numina) is a Latin term for "divinity", "divine presence", or "divine will". The Latin authors defined it as follows: Cicero writes of a "divine mind" (), a god "whose numen everything obeys", and a "divine power" () "which pervades the lives of men". It causes the motions and cries of birds during augury. In Virgil's recounting of the blinding of the one-eyed giant, Polyphemus, from the Odyssey, in his Aeneid, he has Odysseus and his men first "ask for the assistance of the great numina" (). Reviewing public opinion of Augustus on the day of his funeral, the historian Tacitus re

life-energy path in traditional Chinese medicine

Pneuma () is an ancient Greek word for "breath", and in a religious context for "spirit". It has various technical meanings for medical writers and philosophers of classical antiquity, particularly in regard to physiology, and is also used in Greek translations of ruach רוח in the Hebrew Bible, and in the Greek New Testament.

In Greek mythology, ichor () is the ethereal fluid making up the blood of the gods and/or immortals. The Ancient Greek word () is of uncertain etymology, and has been suggested to be a foreign word, possibly the pre-Greek substrate.

Orgone ( ) is a pseudoscientific concept variously described as an esoteric energy or hypothetical universal life force. Originally proposed in the 1930s by Wilhelm Reich, and developed by Reich's student Charles Kelley after Reich's death in 1957, orgone was conceived as the anti-entropic principle of the universe, a creative substratum in all of nature comparable to Mesmer's animal magnetism (1779), to the Odic force (1845) of Carl Reichenbach and to Henri Bergson's élan vital (1907). Orgone was seen as a massless, omnipresent substance, similar to luminiferous aether, but more closely assoc

psycho-spiritual constituents of living beings, according to various esoteric, occult, and mystical teachings

hypothetical explanation for evolution and development of organisms

term used by various esoteric forms of spirituality and alternative medicine

refers to the Japanese belief that mystical powers dwell in words and names. English translations include "soul of language", "spirit of language", "power of language", "power word", "magic word", and "sacred sound". The notion of kotodama presupposes that sounds can affect objects, and that ritual word usages can influence the environment, body, mind, and soul. Some interpret the belief as the discovery of commands words that can affect physiology and the mind.

first or lowest layer in the human energy field or aura

Baron Carl von Reichenbach's notion of a physical force believed to pervade all nature, and manifesting itself chiefly in connection with mesmeric phenomena

thumbnail|Yoruba veranda post, Brooklyn Museum

fictional creature said to feed off the life force of other living creatures

Teōtl () is a Nahuatl term for sacredness or divinity that is sometimes translated as "god". For the Aztecs was the metaphysical omnipresence upon which their religious philosophy was based.

kind of force vitalizing the body

In Spiritism, perispirit or perisprit is the subtle body that is used by the spirit to connect with the perceptions created by the brain. The term is found among the extensive terminology originally devised by Allan Kardec in his books about Spiritism. Its first use was in a commentary (by Kardec) to the answer given by the spirits to the 93rd question of The Spirits Book:

chiropractic concept

Inuit deity

Orenda is the Haudenosaunee name for a certain spiritual energy inherent in people and their environment. It is an "extraordinary invisible power believed by the Iroquois Native Americans to pervade in varying degrees in all animate and inanimate natural objects as a transmissible spiritual energy capable of being exerted according to the will of its possessor." Orenda is a collective power of nature's energies through the living energy of all natural objects: animate and inanimate.