Life Force

[Sriram]

Hi everyone,

I have written about this before...why not again.

Life could be caused by some amorphous energy like 'substance' that is possibly present everywhere on earth.  It could be reacting with certain chemical molecules and causing what we experience as 'life'.

Just as electricity gives 'life' to most man made products, this 'life force' could be inducing power and intelligent reactions within organisms.

In Yogic science this substance is called 'Prana'. Once it enters any organism it gives it life and when it departs the organism is dead.

Science has not so far identified any such substance .....but then science always takes its time. Maybe sometime in the future, science may get there.

Just some thoughts.

Cheers.

Sriram

[Aruntraveller]

Science has not so far identified any such substance .....but then science always takes its time. Maybe sometime in the future, science may get there.

So has this substance been identified by any non scientists?

Or is this just mere postulation?

[Stranger]

Life could be caused by some amorphous energy like 'substance' that is possibly present everywhere on earth.  It could be reacting with certain chemical molecules and causing what we experience as 'life'.

And gravity could be caused by tiny, supernatural, invisible elves, called Eric...             

[BeRational]

Hi everyone,

I have written about this before...why not again.

Life could be caused by some amorphous energy like 'substance' that is possibly present everywhere on earth.  It could be reacting with certain chemical molecules and causing what we experience as 'life'.

Just as electricity gives 'life' to most man made products, this 'life force' could be inducing power and intelligent reactions within organisms.

In Yogic science this substance is called 'Prana'. Once it enters any organism it gives it life and when it departs the organism is dead.

Science has not so far identified any such substance .....but then science always takes its time. Maybe sometime in the future, science may get there.

Just some thoughts.

Cheers.

Sriram

More inane woo.

[jeremyp]

I have written about this before...why not again.

I love the smell of woo in the morning.

Life could be caused by some amorphous energy like 'substance' that is possibly present everywhere on earth.  It could be reacting with certain chemical molecules and causing what we experience as 'life'.

Just as electricity gives 'life' to most man made products, this 'life force' could be inducing power and intelligent reactions within organisms.

In Yogic science this substance is called 'Prana'. Once it enters any organism it gives it life and when it departs the organism is dead.

Science has not so far identified any such substance .....but then science always takes its time. Maybe sometime in the future, science may get there.

Usually when science "identifies" a mysterious substance that accounts for some phenomenon, it later finds out it was a mistake. For example:

- caloric was used to explain heat: false

- phlogiston to explain combustion: false

- the luminiferous aether to explain the propagation of light: false

The reason why all of these hypotheses are debunked is that evidence became available that contradicted the idea.

So does your substance have mass? How does it react with chemicals? Why do you think life is not possible without it?

Electricity isn't a substance, by the way, so it is a poor analogy.

[Sriram]

No one knows its chemical composition or mass or whatever.  I am calling it a substance for want of a better word. You can call it energy packets if you want.  (Your microscopic minds would get all tangled up with words...wouldn't it?!!  )

The point is that it is nothing 'supernatural'. (Why does it have to be always 'supernatural'?  )   A String is not supernatural is it?!!

It is just something that we can call ...'life force' or 'life substance'  or whatever. We just call it Prana. It is something that induces life into organisms. 

It is experienced and can even be regulated while doing Yoga and meditations.  It can also be regulated to heal certain illnesses.  Many illnesses are believed to be due to congestion or depletion of Prana at certain points in and around the body.

What Christians call holy ghost could be Prana.

[jeremyp]

No one knows its chemical composition or mass or whatever.  I am calling it a substance for want of a better word. You can call it energy packets if you want.  (Your microscopic minds would get all tangled up with words...wouldn't it?!!  )

How would we detect it?

The point is that it is nothing 'supernatural'. (Why does it have to be always 'supernatural'?  )   A String is not supernatural is it?!!

Do you mean the stuff you tie parcels together with or the strings in string theory? If the latter, it's far from obvious that the strings exist. At the moment they are just hypothetical constructs that help with the maths.

It is experienced and can even be regulated while doing Yoga and meditations.  It can also be regulated to heal certain illnesses.  Many illnesses are believed to be due to congestion or depletion of Prana at certain points in and around the body.

How do you know that what you experience during yoga has anything to do with your hypothetical life force?

What Christians call holy ghost could be Prana.

You mean both are imaginary?

[bluehillside Retd.]

Sriram,

I have written about this before...why not again.

Life could be caused by some amorphous energy like 'substance' that is possibly present everywhere on earth.  It could be reacting with certain chemical molecules and causing what we experience as 'life'.

Just as electricity gives 'life' to most man made products, this 'life force' could be inducing power and intelligent reactions within organisms.

In Yogic science this substance is called 'Prana'. Once it enters any organism it gives it life and when it departs the organism is dead.

Science has not so far identified any such substance .....but then science always takes its time. Maybe sometime in the future, science may get there.

Just some thoughts.

More incoherence than thoughts. You’ve tried this before – just assumed your premise to be true, then proposed that it’s the fault of evidence or of science to find it that’s the reason you can’t demonstrate your speculation. Pots of gold could be left at the ends of rainbows too – after all, science has not so far identified any such phenomenon .....but then science always takes its time. Maybe sometime in the future, science may get there.

Absent logic or evidence of any kind, can you see that your speculation and mine are epistemically identical?

How does this help you do you think?

[Sriram]

Typical 'Two Boxes syndrome'......

https://tsriramrao.wordpress.com/2018/03/03/the-two-boxes-syndrome/

[Stranger]

It is just something that we can call ...'life force' or 'life substance'  or whatever. We just call it Prana. It is something that induces life into organisms. 

Why do you think anything is needed beyond complicated chemistry? This seems to be an old, abandoned idea called vitalism.

"By 1931, biologists had "almost unanimously abandoned vitalism as an acknowledged belief.""

It's actually difficult to even define life and draw a clear line between lving and non-living things. For example, would a virus need your "life force"?

It is experienced and can even be regulated while doing Yoga and meditations.  It can also be regulated to heal certain illnesses.  Many illnesses are believed to be due to congestion or depletion of Prana at certain points in and around the body.

Where is the evidence?

[bluehillside Retd.]

Sriram,

Typical 'Two Boxes syndrome'......

https://tsriramrao.wordpress.com/2018/03/03/the-two-boxes-syndrome/

Except this article is written by the same bozo who wrote the last one you cited, and it's just as error strewn. For starters science doesn't say that claims of the spiritual (or of the leprechaunal for that matter) are wrong; it says they're not even wrong. They're just white noise. And if you think the methods and tools of science are the problem, then propose something else. So far at least, all you have though is assertion. And that's why your claim about a "life force" is epistemically identical to my claim about leprechauns, though again you just ignored that in preference for dismissing the problem a priori.

Why so dishonest, or will this be another of your "chemo doesn't cure cancer" moments that you just run away from when you're called out on it?     

[bluehillside Retd.]

Hang on - the article is written by one "T. Sriram Rao"!

Any relation perhaps? 

[ekim]

Why do you think anything is needed beyond complicated chemistry?

Perhaps you could outline the opposing view showing that 'life' is just complicated chemistry.  A comparison could then be made.

[Sriram]

Here is the article about this....

https://tsriramrao.wordpress.com/2016/03/15/life/

[bluehillside Retd.]

Sriram,

Here is the article about this....

https://tsriramrao.wordpress.com/2016/03/15/life/

Oh dear - that's a lot of wrong to cram into relatively few paragraphs...

[bluehillside Retd.]

Sriram,

This is gonna be right up your street:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47960874

Let's see what kind of a pig's ear you make of it eh?

[Stranger]

Perhaps you could outline the opposing view showing that 'life' is just complicated chemistry.  A comparison could then be made.

I refer you to modern biology and biochemistry.

There is a reason why (as quoted from Wiki before) biologists "almost unanimously" abandoned vitalism in the first half of the twentieth century: there is no evidence for it and no need for it.

It's entirely unclear what a "life force" would be for - what would it actually achieve? That's before we get to the difficulty of even defining life as opposed to non-life. The notion that living things are fundamentally different to non-living things is simply not one that survives modern scientific scrutiny.

[Udayana]

 Erwin Schrödinger's "What Is Life?"

A brilliant read, written before the chemistry of genetics had been discovered.   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_Life%3F

[jeremyp]

Sriram, please don’t ignore my questions. How would we detect this life force and how do you know that what you experience during yoga is this life force?

[Udayana]

Sriram, please don’t ignore my questions. How would we detect this life force and how do you know that what you experience during yoga is this life force?

Seems very simple: If something is alive it contains life force. If something is not alive it doesn't have life force.

If you feel good you have controlled your life force. If you feel worse you are not doing it right.

That's the beauty of non-falsifiable conjectures.

[Walter]

Hi everyone,

I have written about this before...why not again.

Life could be caused by some amorphous energy like 'substance' that is possibly present everywhere on earth.  It could be reacting with certain chemical molecules and causing what we experience as 'life'.

Just as electricity gives 'life' to most man made products, this 'life force' could be inducing power and intelligent reactions within organisms.

In Yogic science this substance is called 'Prana'. Once it enters any organism it gives it life and when it departs the organism is dead.

Science has not so far identified any such substance .....but then science always takes its time. Maybe sometime in the future, science may get there.

Just some thoughts.

Cheers.

Sriram

Sriram
what happened to you in your life that led you to think like this?

this is a genuine enquiry , thanks .

[Sriram]

Sriram, please don’t ignore my questions. How would we detect this life force and how do you know that what you experience during yoga is this life force?

If one practices Yoga and meditations, they will know. What we experience is what is called Prana.

Try some Yoga or deep meditations instead of merely asking questions and you will know. Anyone can ask questions.   I am sure you have no answers to most questions about Dark Energy or Dark Matter or 11 dimensions.

[Sriram]

Sriram
what happened to you in your life that led you to think like this?

this is a genuine enquiry , thanks .

I am hale and healthy....thank you very much...Walter! Nice of you to ask! 

[Sriram]

What you need to understand is that this does not contradict any biological or chemical aspects of our physiology. Science currently does not have any explanation for Life....except as an Emergent Property of cell activity.

It is like saying that Consciousness is a product of the brain.  It isn't. Consciousness uses the brain as a platform.

Similarly,  Life is not a product of cell activity, the cell activity is driven by Prana. 

These are philosophical speculations based on personal experiences. It is objective to the extent that similar experiences are had by millions of people around the world and people can actually be trained to experience and regulate such energies.

[Stranger]

What you need to understand is that this does not contradict any biological or chemical aspects of our physiology.

If there is a "life force" one would assume it would be doing something, so why isn't there any sign of any mysterious "force" in living things?

Science currently does not have any explanation for Life....except as an Emergent Property of cell activity.

Science actually finds it difficult to define life exactly because there is no clear dividing line between life an non-life. Is a virus alive? What about this strand of replicating RNA:

NNNNNNUGCUCGAUUGGUAACAGUUUGAAUGGGUUGAAGUAU–GAGACCGNNNNNN

This is R3C and it was produced as part of abiogenesis research and it, or something like it, may have been the ancestor of all of us - is it alive?

Life is not a product of cell activity, the cell activity is driven by Prana. 

So why is there no evidence that cells are being "driven" by anything but normal biochemistry?

These are philosophical speculations based on personal experiences.

These are blind-faith, unsupported assertions based on woolly wishful thinking.