In the spirit of "African solutions for African problems" I've been looking at various "traditional" political systems. Lately my science background has lead me to also start looking at various spiritual systems. Now that might sound odd so let me provide a little background...

Context:
From my studies of history prior to any formal notion of science or religion you have...(Note: this is a loose definition)
1st layer. Observation of phenomena: Phenomena that you hear, see, smell, touch, taste around you.

Which leads to...
2nd layer (A). Knowledge/crafting: Acknowledgement and/or incorporation of said phenomena to meet some need.
What is this phenomena? What caused this phenomena? What can I do with this phenomena? I can use this phenomena to do[insert task]. etc.

2nd layer (B). Spirituality/relating: Assigning some level of importance based on the phenomenas' relation/place in life.
Is this phenomena Good or bad? How do I feel about this phenomena? What is my relationship to this phenomena? How should I treat this phenomena?

Splitting apart at...
3rd layer. Science/engineering: Understanding and/or incorporation of said phenomena to meet some need.
Exactly how does this phenomena work?

and...
4th Layer. Religion: Formally organizing spirituality into a specific ridge uniform order.
All these different phenomena ultimately came from some one/place and who or whatever caused them should be the sole recipient of all related acknowledgement and importance. That acknowledgement must come in the form of acts A, B, C, etc. etc.



Now I stated the above to say this, I'm primarily interested in the 1st and 2nd layer. The Idea of the CHI has to come from the observation of some observable phenomena I'm just trying to get an idea of what it could be.

Chi

Chi is the personal spiritual guardian of a person. Chi as a personal providence is a divine agent assigned to each human from cradle to the coffin. Chukwu will assign one’s Chi before and at the time of birth, which remains with the person for the rest of his/her lives on Earth (Uwa). Chi simply means an Arushi (supernatural being) that is assigned to a human being for care, guardianship, and providence, which remains with that person until the end of his/her life on Earth. Unlike Chukwu which is genderless, Chi can be either feminine or masculine. It is the ocean Chukwu’s divine love that takes form on the lower world. It is the spark of Chukwu and the right of any mmadu in the main stream.

Chi determines a person’s successes, misfortunes, and failures throughout his/her lifetime. It serves as an intermediary between mmadu and Chukwu. The Igbo believe that their success in life is determined by their Chi, and that no human can rise past the greatness of his or her own Chi. In this respect, a person’s Chi is analogous to the concept of a guardian angel in Western Christianity, the daimon in ancient Greek religion, and the genius in ancient Roman religion.

To survive spiritually, one must establish a special relationship between oneself and one's godly guardian. This places the human person at the forefront of interlinked activities that involve other cosmic forces. But not so fast: He who walks before his godly guardian runs the race of his life “Onye buru chi ya uzo, ogbagbue onwe ya n'oso.”

Dictation of Chi

The Igbo know that the Almighty Chukwu (God) cannot be manipulated in any way. Our lot is etched on the palm of our hands as destiny. One can’t decode it, but one can derail it. Chi, the personal godly guardian, can be coerced to help here: “Onye kwe chi ya ekwe” (whoever believeth, achieveth).

Chi as the lower force of Chukwu is the only means through which one can get connected. One spiritual law here is that “No one reaches Chukwu directly or gets favor directly from the same supreme force except through Chi.” In this sense, dictation of one’s Chi marks the beginning of one’s spiritual journey on Earth. This is one of the major practices of Ndiigbo.

Often, people receive prophecy that the major cause of their failure is a spirit of their home town. This is not a general spirit for everybody but rather one’s personal Chi. If you receive such a prophecy, it means that Ọdịnala is calling you, which is a problem to some people. The only solution to such a problem is to dictate your personal providence, Chi; identify it by name and know what the spirit wants and how to placate/negotiate with it.

This may be difficult if the Dibias (priest in Ọdịnala) are not there. The Dibia can identify a person’s Chi through divination and give more of an idea how to placate it. For such spiritual purposes, one can visit any of the real temples of Ọdịnala e.g. Ukoma/Duruojikeeme Temple, Umunumo Amandugba, Isu, LGA, Imo State. There are many other temples around Igboland and the Igbo diaspora.

Wikipedia-

Sorry about the Wikipedia quote I use wikipedia for a quick breath first search. I go to other sources for depth


OK now two things:

Chi determines a person’s successes, misfortunes, and failures throughout his/her lifetime. It serves as an intermediary between mmadu and Chukwu. The Igbo believe that their success in life is determined by their Chi, and that no human can rise past the greatness of his or her own Chi.

and

The Igbo know that the Almighty Chukwu (God) cannot be manipulated in any way. Our lot is etched on the palm of our hands as destiny. One can’t decode it, but one can derail it. Chi, the personal godly guardian, can be coerced to help here: “Onye kwe chi ya ekwe” (whoever believeth, achieveth).

These two seem to be the most useful parts. is the Chi suppose to be the observation of the effects of autonomous mental cognition?
Example:
1.If I open the fridge and think "no I don't want that chicken I had some last night. So I'll eat some soup" That's deliberate mental cognition. As in I actively reasoned out what I was going to eat.
2.If I keep working on whatever I'm doing even though I'm hungry until someone comes home and cooks That's autonomous mental cognition.
As in my brain autonomously picked up on the pattern that the person I live with cooks when they get home so I don't even think to cook.

That autonomous mental cognition and the effects of it would have far reaching effects on every aspect of a persons life. It can keep a person alive by autonomously recognizing a bad situation or bringing fortune by recognizing an opportune time to make a move.

Thoughts please?

(hears silence)
Ok, let me try it another way
.
1.Is the "CHI" suppose to be the "subconscious mind"(I hate that phrase by the way)?
2.Is the "CHI" an abstraction of the notion of luck?
3.Is it both 1 & 2?
3.Under what circumstance would you "call on" your "CHI"?
4.If driving home while sleepy & you said to self "stay awake, just stay awake until I get home." would that be communicating with the "CHI"?


Hopefully that's more straight forward
Thanks

Interesting question, really good question. I've been visiting and revisiting this post these past days hoping someone will have an answer.

But I think the question will need someone with a deep understanding of igbo phenomenology (am I even using that word right? ) to even attempt an answer. And I doubt you'll find many of such 'scholars' here.

The traditional understanding of "chi" isn't lost to the Igbo, and one need not be a scholar to provide an answer. It's simply that the concept is not an easy one to put on paper. It's complex and involves so much. At the very basic level, the concept of "chi" is akin to predestination, but not in the same sense as Christian theology's predestination. Unlike predestination in Christian theology, "chi" is not sealed, and it is not the product of an "Almighty God"; the way Christianity would understand it. Instead, "chi" (though very personal) is an intrinsic element of the force that drives all cosmic order.

Some writers have [erroneously] translated "chi" at the personal level as meaning a "guardian angel". It isn't anything like that. Igbo cosmology (Igbo culture, in fact) is highly utilitarian, and so there is nothing benevolent or malevolent about one's personal "chi". At the personal level, "chi" is both a guide and a tool. It can set you up to do well, and also be your complete undoing.

I don't have the time now to go indepth, but I can be back to explain more. Also, I'm trying to be as general as possible so as to make this explanation as applicable as possible to all Igbo cosmology. But the truth is that diffierent communities can have their own peculiar understanding of the specifics regarding "chi". In fact, though I'm trying to be as general as possible, it cannot be helped that much of my explanation (now and in the future) will be derived from my own community's understanding. Anyway, I'll be back.

Getting warm!
Quick breakdown/draft of what you wrote...

Instead, "chi" (though very personal) is an intrinsic element of the force that drives all cosmic order .

1st layer. Observation of phenomena: Phenomena that you hear, see, smell, touch, taste around you.
So it's associated phenomena is identified as being an "element of the force that drives all cosmic order"

Note to self: If the CHI is an element of the driving force I can assume there are other parallel elements/components that work in tandem with the CHI in the cosmic order.
Force = "Force that drives all cosmic order"
Force = (element 1 , element 2 , element 3, ....element x)
Force = (CHI, element 2, element 3, ....element x)
Force vector = <CHI_final - CHI_Initial ,element 2_final - element 2_Initial ,element 3_final - element 3_Initial , ....element x_final - element x_Initial >

At the personal level, "chi" is both a guide and a tool.

2nd layer (A). Knowledge/crafting: Acknowledgement and/or incorporation of said phenomena to meet some need.
not enough info yet

1. ...It can set you up to do well, and also be your complete undoing.
2. ... there is nothing benevolent or malevolent about one's personal "chi".

2nd layer (B). Spirituality/relating: Assigning some level of importance based on the phenomena's relation/place in life.
not enough info yet
(After looking back at #2) I take it that the CHI has no rationality associated with it?

Example:
A rolling rock doesn't roll over your foot because it rationally came to the conclusion it doesn't like your shoes.
A rolling rock rolls over your foot because of internal"cosmic forces" set into motion by external"cosmic forces"(gravity, ground topography,etc.)

I'm going to make up a simple "cosmic order" as an idea scratch pad.
Cosmic order = ( F(X+G(Y+H(Z))),F(GX+(Y+H(Z))),F(X+G(Y+H(Z))) ) = Great CHI

Great CHI(Earth CHI, Moon CHI, Sun CHI, etc, etc)
Earth CHI = (Village CHI 1, Village CHI 2, Village CHI 3)
Village CHI = (Lineage CHI 1, Lineage CHI 2, Lineage CHI 3)
Lineage CHI = (Family CHI 1, Family CHI 2, Family CHI 3)
Family CHI = (Personal CHI 1, Personal CHI 2, Personal CHI 3 )
Personal CHI(X, Y, Z) --> Personal CHI(Health, ambitions, wealth, , , )


How far off am I?

Also does ones personal CHI apply to effecting the world/system outside of the individual it's "assigned to"?

---

Example: If running a race would you...
1.call on your CHI to make you run faster?
2.call on your CHI to make the other person run slower?
3. Both 1 and 2

#1 would indicate that the personal CHI is applied inside the system of the individual(Augments what the individual already has control over)
#2 would indicate that the personal CHI is applied outside the system of the individual(Augments what the individual doesn't have control over)
#3 would indicate that the personal CHI is applied both inside & outside the system of the individual(Augments all systems for the individual)

RandomAfricanAm: Also does ones personal CHI apply to effecting the world/system outside of the individual it's "assigned to"?

Yes.

I think I see what you're trying to do, and it's got my attention. Developing a function model for Chi could prove very interesting. However, such a thing cannot be done with Chi alone. Chi works within a dualistic system as one of two coalescent elements (or maybe "principles" is a better word). The other element/principle within this dualistic system is Eke. Eke can best be described as the allotment principle. Like Chi, Eke is a complex concept. It involves the notions of division, creation, will and reproduction. In traditional understanding, these two coalescent principles are realized as a single phenomenon called Chileke (as least for my community, since we traditionally do not have "Chukwu" in our cosmology).

Etymologically, Chileke is "Chi la Eke", which literally translates to "Chi and Eke" ("Predestination and Allotment", for the sake of this discussion). The nature of Chi and Eke's interaction within this dualistic system is quite unique in that it is not characterized by any form of contrast or opposition, as tends to be the case with dualism in some other philosophical systems. So rather than contrast and opposition, Chi and Eke's interaction is characterized by what can only be rightly described as a kind of interdependence and causality (i.e. Chi implicates Eke, just as Eke implicates Chi). This coalescent interdependence gives us that cosmic order. Simply put, it is Chi and Eke's interrelationship that is the very same driving force I mentioned earlier.

Now, if you're looking to develop a model for Chi, then you'd have to do it within this dualistic system. It would also have to read as some sort of self-sustaining, causal dualism. That is be the only way to accurately represent Chi (both on the cosmic and personal level).

@ChinenyeM, I'm finding it difficult to accept your definition of "Chi" . Besides scholars, Igbo literatures, we also have proverbs that aptly shows that "chi" is an individual diety,god or force.
Onye na chi ya not anyi na chi anyi.

I'm all ears and want to know why you think otherwise.

Ify, the discussion isn't really a religious one. It's more about discussing how Chi functions. But what exactly did I say that you're finding difficult to accept? Perhaps I can clarify.

ChinenyeN:
Some writers have [erroneously] translated "chi" at the personal level as meaning a "guardian angel". It isn't anything like that. Igbo cosmology (Igbo culture, in fact) is highly utilitarian, and so there is nothing benevolent or malevolent about one's personal "chi".

Can you explain this further @ Chi.

I think I see what you're trying to do, and it's got my attention. Developing a function model for Chi could prove very interesting.

Well, actually I was/am just genuinely interested in the topic after briefly coming across it a couple times during my daily readings. If I'm being overly technical it's because of my engineering/software background and the **intellectual tools** that come with it. I.E that's just how I describe things.(Now that's not to dismiss what we've done so far ...that's just me explaining the rational behind it)

Thanks for indulging my curiosity! Hey and who knows maybe something interesting will come out of this brain/cultural dive
.

Chi works within a dualistic system as one of two coalescent elements (or maybe "principles" is a better word). The other element/principle within this dualistic system is Eke. Eke can best be described as the allotment principle. Like Chi, Eke is a complex concept. It involves the notions of division, creation, will and reproduction. In traditional understanding, these two coalescent principles are realized as a single phenomenon called Chileke

My knee jerk reaction is to think in terms of...
1.Eke being the allotment of the physical/material world.
2.Chi being the operations performed on the physical world
3.Chileke being the culmination of the two I.E --> Chi(Eke) = Operation(material)

Chi(Eke) = Eke Chi Eke = Variable Operator Variable = X + Y = 3 + 3 = 6
Chi(Eke) = Eke Chi Eke = Variable Operator Variable = male intercourse Female = ChinenyeN intercourse ifyalways = baby

Taking my above statement of...

Note to self: If the CHI is an element of the driving force I can assume there are other parallel elements/components that work in tandem with the CHI in the cosmic order.
Force = "Force that drives all cosmic order"
Force = (element 1 , element 2 , element 3, ....element x)
Force = (CHI, element 2, element 3, ....element x)
Force vector = <CHIfinal - CHIInitial ,element 2final - element 2Initial ,element 3final - element 3Initial , ....element xfinal - element xInitial >

I would change it to...
Note to self: If the CHI is an element (one of two principles) of the driving force I can assume there are other parallel elements/components (principles) that work in tandem with the CHI (each other) in the cosmic order (such that one "allots" what elements the material world consist of while the other "predestines" what has been allotted).
Force = "Force that drives all cosmic order"
Force = Predestined order(allotted element 1 , allotted element 2 , allotted element 3, ....allotted element x)
Force = Chi(Eke 1, Eke 2, Eke 3, ....Eke x)
Force vector = <Eke 1_final Chi Eke 1_Initial ,Eke 2_final Chi Eke 2_Initial ,Eke 3_final Chi Eke 3_Initial , ....Eke x_final Chi Eke x_Initial >

Etymologically, Chileke is "Chi la Eke", which literally translates to "Chi and Eke" ("Predestination and Allotment", for the sake of this discussion). The nature of Chi and Eke's interaction within this dualistic system is quite unique in that it is not characterized by any form of contrast or opposition, as tends to be the case with dualism in some other philosophical systems. So rather than contrast and opposition, Chi and Eke's interaction is characterized by what can only be rightly described as a kind of interdependence and causality (i.e. Chi implicates Eke, just as Eke implicates Chi). This coalescent interdependence gives us that cosmic order. Simply put, it is Chi and Eke's interrelationship that is the very same driving force I mentioned earlier.

Well I think we are given a tool kit to represent such a set up.

[img]http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/PIX2/oyibo_gabriela2003.gif[/img]
Gabriel A. Oyibo

Grand Unified Theorem: Discovery of the Theory of Everything and the Fundamental Building Block of Quantum Theory
Nova Science Publishers, Inc. New York
ISBN 1-59033-835-9 (Hardcover)

Chapter one

Generic Group Theory

1.1 Definition of Generic or New Group Theory

Generally mathematical groups are defined around given mathematical operations. Thus traditional mathematical groups are defined as
collections of elements which under given mathematical operations obey the following fundamental rules in the minimum: (1) closure, meaning that two elements of a given group operate on one another to produce another member of the same group; (2) the group must have an identity element; (3) the group must have an inverse element; (4) the group must obey associativity laws of the given mathematical operation. These rules could be summarized in the following equations. Let a group consists of G_jk with j and k being tensor notations representing 1,2,3,.... Suppose the operation is represented by o.

(1)closure requires that G_lu o G_fv = G_np (being a member of the group),

(2)identity law G_lu o I = G_lu (I is an identity element),

(3)inverse law G_lu o G^-1 _lu = I (where I is the identity element and G^-1 _lu is the inverse of G_lu ),

(4)associativity law G_lu o ( G_fv o G_np ) = (G_lu o G_fv) o (G_np ).

Generally the operations for a given group is specifically prescribed ab initio. However in the generic or new group theory the operation is not specifically defined at the beginning but assumed to exist. The process of defining the operation is supposed to evolve while the analysis is progressing (1-11). The end results or goal of a given exercise, analysis or investigation motivates the definition, selection or evolution of the operation for a given group of elements for the generic groups.

1.2 Relationship to traditional Groups

The difference between the generic group and the traditional groups is that in the generic groups the operations are not defined at the beginning while they are defined at the beginning for traditional groups. When eventually the group operations are defined for generic groups, they (generic groups) become similar to the traditional groups. However, due to the overall goals of the "global" analysis, the operation may turn out to be somewhat abstract when compared to regular or traditional operations. In this sense the generic groups may suffer criticisms or attract skeptical remarks for being different. Their defense lies in the very broad nature of the definition of operations as implied in group theory in general. Group operations are supposed to be generally arbitrary.

1.3 Potential Groups Operations

Bla Bla Bla.....(I'm tired of typing :p )


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS2cBio3diM

1 ...Now, if you're looking to develop a model for Chi, then you'd have to do it within this dualistic system. It would also have to read as some sort of self-sustaining, causal dualism. That is be the only way to accurately represent Chi (both on the cosmic and personal level). ...

2 ...Like Chi, Eke is a complex concept. It involves the notions of division, creation, will and reproduction. ...

This is where I get kinda iffy
1. Reconciling the influence of personal Chi and/or cosmic Chi in the description put forth above

Force = Chi(Eke 1, Eke 2, Eke 3, ....Eke x)
Force vector = <Eke 1_final Chi Eke 1_Initial ,Eke 2_final Chi Eke 2_Initial ,Eke 3_final Chi Eke 3_Initial , ....Eke x_final Chi Eke x_Initial >

Again my knee jerk is to look back at a previous post

Great CHI(Earth CHI, Moon CHI, Sun CHI, etc, etc)
Earth CHI = (Village CHI 1, Village CHI 2, Village CHI 3)
Village CHI = (Lineage CHI 1, Lineage CHI 2, Lineage CHI 3)
Lineage CHI = (Family CHI 1, Family CHI 2, Family CHI 3)
Family CHI = (Personal CHI 1, Personal CHI 2, Personal CHI 3 )
Personal CHI(X, Y, Z) --> Personal CHI(Health, ambitions, wealth,??,??,??) --> **Knee jerk** --> Personal CHI(Eke 1, Eke 2, Eke 3, ...Eke x)

^
That fit quite elegantly actually ...hmm ?!
The Great Chi would be depicted as a recursive culmination of "smaller" personal Chi. I'll think on it.

2. This one gets me because acts such as "division, creation, will and reproduction" indicates not only allotment but operation ...independent of Chi which is (For now) assumed by me to be the operating principle. Eke as creator independent of Chi seems manageable since we don't know how the material world came into being ...just that it is recognizably ordered.

Math correction:
Force vector = <Eke 1final Chi Eke 1Initial ,Eke 2final Chi Eke 2Initial ,Eke 3final Chi Eke 3Initial , ....Eke xfinal Chi Eke xInitial >

That is wrong, while Chi is depicted as an operator on Eke the above should have described an arithmetic operation on the end results of
"Chi la Eke" to detect the extent of change that has occurred. I got the statement of change confused with the checking of that change.

Stating change -->Chi(Eke) = Chi(Eke 1_Initial )
Checking change -->Chi(Eke) - Eke = Chi(Eke 1_Initial ) - Eke 1_Initial

Correct notation:
Force vector = <Chi(Eke 1_Initial ) - Eke 1_Initial ,Chi(Eke 2_Initial ) - Eke 2_Initial,Chi(Eke 3_Initial ) - Eke 3_Initial , ....Chi(Eke x_Initial ) - Eke x_Initial >



Note to self: (thinking out loud)
"Chi la Eke" --> "Chi () Eke" --> Chi(Eke) = o () Eke = o(Eke) --> generic predestination on allotted element
Chi((Eke_1 X, Eke_1 Y, Eke_1 Z, Eke_1 rotation, Eke_1 pitch, Eke_1 yaw),(Eke_2 X, Eke_2 Y, Eke_2 Z, Eke_2 rotation, Eke_2 pitch, Eke_2 yaw))

[size=24pt] I'm going to throw some material on the "work bench" [/size]

Igbo Spirituality 101
by
Onyii Anyiwo


The spiritual system of Ndi Igbo (the Igbo people) is one of the oldest on Earth. The roots of Igbo spirituality is the same as the roots of every other African one; that is, in Africa. Igbo spirituality predates Islam, Christianity, Judaism and every other -ism that one can think of. If there are any similarities between the traditional practices of the Igbo and those of other religions, it is because they were borrowed from our ancestors, and not the other way around.

The ancient spirituality of the Ndi Igbo, like most other traditional African spiritual systems, has been misunderstood and demonized unjustly. Evangelical churches, with the help of Nollywood movies, have helped to paint a negative picture of traditional Igbo spirituality that dates back to the arrival of the Europeans in Alaigbo (Igboland). It is quite unfortunate that most of the people who condemn Igbo spirituality do not know much about it, and base their most of their information from the lies of the very same people who wanted to destroy it and everything about our culture. While all the misconceptions about the traditional practices cannot be corrected in one article, this introduction to Igbo Spirituality will help clear a few things up.

The basis of Igbo Spirituality is the concept of “Chi.” Similar to the “Ori” of the Yoruba, and the “Ka” of Ancient Egyptians, Chi was the fundamental force of creation. Everyone and everything has a Chi. Ndi Igbo, like other Africans, worshiped one Creator, who is known by many names: Obasi Dielu (The Supreme God), Chi di ebere (God the merciful), Odenigwe (The Ruler of Heavens), etc. The two most popular names for Supreme Being used in Alaigbo were Chukwu and Chineke. The dominant name, Chukwu, which is a combination of the Igbo words “Chi” and “Ukwu”, literally means “The Big Chi”, and shows that Igbos believed that the Supreme Being was omnipresent and all-pervading. Chineke, which most people translate as “God the Creator” actually has a deeper meaning. Chi is the masculine aspect of God and Eke is the feminine aspect. Ndi Igbo knew that it took male and female to create life, so the Creator of everything would have to encompass both parts.

Because Ndi Igbo believed that everything in it had a chi, they also gave names to the Chi found in nature (the Alusi). The Alusi of the sky was known as Igwe. The Alusi of the yams (the most important crop of Ndi Igbo) was called Ahiajoku. The Alusi of the Sun was called Anyanwu. The most important of the forces of Nature was Ani, which was the feminine force that presided over the Earth. The Alusi were not limited to natural forces; metaphysical and supernatural forces and principles also had their own names and attributes. Ikenga was the Alusi of strength and Agwu was the Alusi of wisdom and healing. Each Alusi had its invididual personality and function, but they all were still parts of Chukwu.

The Ndiichie (esteemed ancestor spirits) also held a high place in traditional Igbo society. Elders have always been revered in Igbo society, and even more so after they passed onto Be Mmuo (the land of the spirits). The Nddichie would often be consulted to offer advice to their descendants and appeal to the Alusi on their behalf. Ndi Igbo have never worshiped their ancestors, only venerated them, which is no different then what Catholics do to their saints or what every country does to its national heroes. Respect and honor for the Nddichie was shown in one way by pouring of libations while chanting incantations. Ndi Igbo believed in the concept of reincarnation, and felt that the Nddiichie often reincarnated back on Earth. In fact, all Mmadu (human beings) were believed to reincarnate seven or eight times, and that depending on your karma, one either ascends or descends into another spiritual plane.

The personal relationship between God and Man in Igbo spirituality is as close as it can get. Ndi Igbo did not believe that they were separate from their Creator, and felt that the Chi that resided within them kept them connected. Igbo felt that their Chi was unique and personal and served as a guide and protector to them. A person’s destiny was also guided by their Chi. Those with a strong Chi would have prosperity, good health and good fortune, while those with a weak Chi would be prone to sickness, poverty and bad luck.

Even though the Igbo are largely Christian now, their traditional spiritual beliefs still live on. Along with these beliefs, a fundamental part of Igbo philosophy was “Biri Ka'm Biri” (live and let live). Ndi Igbo did not believe in fighting wars over religion. In their view, everybody should be able to worship God as they see fit. If there is any lesson from Igbo spirituality that we must not forget, it is this one.

Still throwing material on the bench

The basis of Igbo Spirituality is the concept of “Chi.” Similar to the “Ori” of the Yoruba, and the “Ka” of Ancient Egyptians, Chi was the fundamental force of creation.

The Ancient Egyptian Ka

Understanding conceptual ideas related to ancient Egypt thought can be difficult, and there is little more complex than the ideas surrounding the ka. Yet the ka was a most important concept in ancient Egyptian religion. Indeed, the name of Egypt itself is probably derived, though Greek, from the ancient name for the capital city, Memphis, which was Hut-ka-Pteh, or "House of the Ka of Ptah".
The word, ka, was expressed by a hieroglyph depicting two upraised arms, which was usually the symbol of an embrace, the protection of a man by his ka, or a sign of praise, although other interpretations are possible. The ka hieroglyph sometimes appears on offering tables in place of representations of actual offerings, and in its basic sense of life-power, the sign may appear in apposition with the ankh or some other sign.
Unfortunately, the concept of the ka has no exact analogues in European culture and so it is difficult to identify the ka with more familiar concepts. Hence, there are many interpretations that are frequently ambiguous and often unsatisfactory. One will frequently see the term translated as "soul" or "spirit", the ka was much more than that. During very ancient times, the ka may have indicated male potency, and in all periods it is used as a term for the creative and sustaining power of life.



Importantly, the ka needed continuing nourishment in order to survive and offerings of food and drink were made to it. Eventually, the offerings themselves began to be regarded as being imbued with the ka's life-power, and the plural kau was used to mean "food offerings"
This broad diversity in the meaning of the term ka is responsible for a wide variety of uses for the sign. A distinction must be made between the internal and external ka, as well as between the royal and the human ka, because these concepts could be very different.
The idea that there was something securing the physical and mental activities of man arose in Egypt and elsewhere during prehistory. The ka (or internal ka) was believed to be one of those entities. Many ancient Egyptian words, such as "think about" and "thought" have the same basic root as the word for ka, as do other words such as "magic" and "enchant"., reflecting the supernatural essence of the ka. There was also a reproductive role of the ka, but its connection to the thought process is not as clear. It is another part of what the ancient Egyptians considered to be a part of mankind's existence, the ba, which was usually related to the mind. Thus, in the literary work, "Dispute of a Man with his Ba", confusion of thought is described as a dialogue with the ba. Nevertheless, the word hmt, meaning to "think or "to act three together", lends support to the idea that the ka was also considered to be involved in the thought process.
The ka could be thought by the ancient Egyptians to designate individual human traits such as character, nature, temperament or disposition. And since one's character has so much to do with one's life, ka could also refer to destiny or providence. Yet, considering the ka as a kind of universal vital force is too abstract.



The idea of personifications were readily adopted in ancient Egypt. Hence, the Egyptian mind transformed this spiritual idea into a certain being, which we can refer to as the external ka. Apparently this form of the ka was primarily associated with the placenta, considered the twin of a man, and was born with him. Hence, scenes of the king's birth depict Khnum forming the royal baby and his ka on a potter's wheel. At the same time, to "go to one's ka" meant to die, even though the ka continued to live on after the body itself died, and was then supreme. In fact, priests who served in the funerary cult were called hemu-ka or "ka servants".
Within Old Kingdom pyramid temples, New Kingdom royal tombs and the temples dedicated to the gods, there are many representations of the ka accompanying the king, either as a personified ka sign or even in human form with the ka sign on its head. The ka hieroglyph holds the serekh with the Horus name of the king, while the ka itself holds an ostrich feather, the symbol of world order or ma'at, in one hand, and a long staff with a finial shaped like the king's head in the other hand. Hence, the royal ka is related to the Horus name describing the presence of that god in the king. This shows the dual nature of the king, which combines divine and mortal components. His divinity is realized through the ka. The relationship between the royal ka and Horus is apparent in its identification with Harsiese in the New Kingdom..
Unlike the royal ka, the human ka was never represented as a separate figure, because any representation itself is the ka. This explains the indifference of Egyptian artists to rendering individual features. They did not reproduce the portrait of an individual, but that of his ka, who was eternally youthful and in perfect shape.
During the Old Kingdom, the pictures created in private tombs created an entire world for the ka. They are an exact, although incomplete, copy of the earthly world. Only the people and objects essential for the owner are shown. Being a reproduction of everyday life, this "Doubleworld" is surprisingly realistic. There is nothing supernatural about it, including the gods. Every tomb formed its own doubleworld, and their total did not merge into an aggregate next world.
The idea of the ka was a dominating concept of the next life in the Old Kingdom. In a less pure form, it continued into the Middle Kingdom, and thereafter lost much of its importance, although the ka always remained the recipient of offerings.

---

Ib (heart)

An important part of the Egyptian soul was thought to be the Ib (jb), or heart. The Ib[1] or metaphysical heart was believed to be formed from one drop of blood from the child's mother's heart, taken at conception.[2]
To ancient Egyptians, the heart was the seat of emotion, thought, will and intention. This is evidenced by the many expressions in the Egyptian language which incorporate the word ib, Awt-ib: happiness (literally, wideness of heart), Xak-ib: estranged (literally, truncated of heart). This word was transcribed by Wallis Budge as Ab.
In Egyptian religion, the heart was the key to the afterlife. It was conceived as surviving death in the nether world, where it gave evidence for, or against, its possessor. It was thought that the heart was examined by Anubis and the deities during the Weighing of the Heart ceremony. If the heart weighed more than the feather of Maat, it was immediately consumed by the monster Ammit.


Sheut (shadow)

A person's shadow or silhouette, Sheut (šwt in Egyptian), is always present. Because of this, Egyptians surmised that a shadow contains something of the person it represents. Through this association, statues of people and deities were sometimes referred to as shadows.
The shadow was also representative to Egyptians of a figure of death, or servant of Anubis, and was depicted graphically as a small human figure painted completely black. Sometimes people (usually pharaohs) had a shadow box in which part of their Sheut was stored.


Ren (name)

As a part of the soul, a person's ren (rn 'name') was given to them at birth and the Egyptians believed that it would live for as long as that name was spoken, which explains why efforts were made to protect it and the practice of placing it in numerous writings. For example, part of the Book of Breathings, a derivative of the Book of the Dead, was a means to ensure the survival of the name. A cartouche (magical rope) often was used to surround the name and protect it. Conversely, the names of deceased enemies of the state, such as Akhenaten, were hacked out of monuments in a form of damnatio memoriae. Sometimes, however, they were removed in order to make room for the economical insertion of the name of a successor, without having to build another monument. The greater the number of places a name was used, the greater the possibility it would survive to be read and spoken.


Ba

The 'Ba' (bꜣ) was everything that makes an individual unique, similar to the notion of 'personality'. (In this sense, inanimate objects could also have a 'Ba', a unique character, and indeed Old Kingdom pyramids often were called the 'Ba' of their owner). The 'Ba' is an aspect of a person that the Egyptians believed would live after the body died, and it is sometimes depicted as a human-headed bird flying out of the tomb to join with the 'Ka' in the afterlife.
In the Coffin Texts one form of the Ba that comes into existence after death is corporeal, eating, drinking and copulating. Louis Žabkar argued that the Ba is not part of the person but is the person himself, unlike the soul in Greek, or late Judaic, Christian or Muslim thought. The idea of a purely immaterial existence was so foreign to Egyptian thought that when Christianity spread in Egypt they borrowed the Greek word psyche to describe the concept of soul and not the term Ba. Žabkar concludes that so particular was the concept of Ba to ancient Egyptian thought that it ought not to be translated but instead the concept be footnoted or parenthetically explained as one of the modes of existence for a person.[3]
In another mode of existence the Ba of the deceased is depicted in the Book of Going Forth by Day returning to the mummy and participating in life outside the tomb in non-corporeal form, echoing the solar theology of Re (or Ra) uniting with Osiris each night.[4]
The word 'bau' (bꜣw), plural of the word ba, meant something similar to 'impressiveness', 'power', and 'reputation', particularly of a deity. When a deity intervened in human affairs, it was said that the 'Bau' of the deity were at work [Borghouts 1982].


Ka

The Ka (kꜣ) was the Egyptian concept of vital essence, that which distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead person, with death occurring when the ka left the body. The Egyptians believed that Khnum created the bodies of children on a potter's wheel and inserted them into their mothers' bodies. Depending on the region, Egyptians believed that Heket or Meskhenet was the creator of each person's Ka, breathing it into them at the instant of their birth as the part of their soul that made them be alive. This resembles the concept of spirit in other religions.
The Egyptians also believed that the ka was sustained through food and drink. For this reason food and drink offerings were presented to the dead, although it was the kau (kꜣw) within the offerings that was consumed, not the physical aspect. The ka was often represented in Egyptian iconography as a second image of the king, leading earlier works to attempt to translate ka as double.


Akh

The Akh (Ꜣḫ meaning '(magically) effective one'),[5] was a concept of the dead that varied over the long history of ancient Egyptian belief.
It was associated with thought, but not as an action of the mind; rather, it was intellect as a living entity. The Akh also played a role in the afterlife. Following the death of the Khat (physical body), the Ba and Ka were reunited to reanimate the Akh.[6] The reanimation of the Akh was only possible if the proper funeral rites were executed and followed by constant offerings. The ritual was termed: se-akh 'to make (a dead person) into an (living) akh.' In this sense, it even developed into a sort of ghost or roaming 'dead being' (when the tomb was not in order any more) during the Ramesside Period. An Akh could do either harm or good to persons still living, depending on the circumstances, causing e.g., nightmares, feelings of guilt, sickness, etc. It could be evoked by prayers or written letters left in the tomb's offering chapel also in order to help living family members, e.g., by intervening in disputes, by making an appeal to other dead persons or deities with any authority to influence things on earth for the better, but also to inflict punishments.
The separation of Akh and the unification of Ka and Ba were brought about after death by having the proper offerings made and knowing the proper, efficacious spell, but there was an attendant risk of dying again. Egyptian funerary literature (such as the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead) were intended to aid the deceased in "not dying a second time" and becoming an akh.


Relationships

Ancient Egyptians believed that death occurs when a person's ka leaves the body. Ceremonies conducted by priests after death, including the "opening of the mouth (wp r)", aimed not only to restore a person's physical abilities in death, but also to release a Ba's attachment to the body. This allowed the Ba to be united with the Ka in the afterlife, creating an entity known as an "Akh" (ꜣḫ, meaning "effective one".
Egyptians conceived of an afterlife as quite similar to normal physical existence — but with a difference. The model for this new existence was the journey of the Sun. At night the Sun descended into the Duat (the underworld). Eventually the Sun meets the body of the mummified Osiris. Osiris and the Sun, re-energized by each other, rise to new life for another day. For the deceased, their body and their tomb were their personal Osiris and a personal Duat. For this reason they are often addressed as "Osiris". For this process to work, some sort of bodily preservation was required, to allow the Ba to return during the night, and to rise to new life in the morning. However, the complete Akhu were also thought to appear as stars.[7] Until the Late Period, non-royal Egyptians did not expect to unite with the Sun deity, it being reserved for the royals.[8]
The Book of the Dead, the collection of spells which aided a person in the afterlife, had the Egyptian name of the Book of going forth by day. They helped people avoid the perils of the afterlife and also aided their existence, containing spells to assure "not dying a second time in the underworld", and to "grant memory always" to a person. In the Egyptian religion it was possible to die in the afterlife and this death was permanent.
The tomb of Paheri, an Eighteenth dynasty nomarch of Nekhen, has an eloquent description of this existence, and is translated by James P. Allen as:
Your life happening again, without your ba being kept away from your divine corpse, with your ba being together with the akh ... You shall emerge each day and return each evening. A lamp will be lit for you in the night until the sunlight shines forth on your breast. You shall be told: "Welcome, welcome, into this your house of the living!"

The idea that there was something securing the physical and mental activities of man arose in Egypt and elsewhere during prehistory. The ka (or internal ka) was believed to be one of those entities. Many ancient Egyptian words, such as "think about" and "thought" have the same basic root as the word for ka, as do other words such as "magic" and "enchant"., reflecting the supernatural essence of the ka.

Heka

Heka (/ˈhɛkə/; Egyptian: Ḥkȝ; also spelt Hike) was the deification of magic in Egyptian mythology, his name being the Egyptian word for "magic". According to Egyptian writing (Coffin text, spell 261), Heka existed "before duality had yet come into being." The term "Heka" was also used for the practice of magical ritual. The Coptic word "hik" is derived from the Ancient Egyptian.

Heka literally means activating the Ka, the aspect of the soul which embodied personality. Egyptians thought activating the power of the soul was how magic worked. "Heka" also implied great power and influence, particularly in the case of drawing upon the Ka of the gods. Heka acted together with Hu, the principle of divine utterance, and Sia, the concept of divine omniscience, to create the basis of creative power both in the mortal world and the world of the gods.

As the one who activates Ka, Heka was also said to be the son of Atum, the creator of things in general, or occasionally the son of Khnum, who created specific individual Ba (another aspect of the soul). As the son of Khnum, his mother was said to be Menhit.

The hieroglyph for his name featured a twist of flax within a pair of raised arms; however, it also vaguely resembles a pair of entwined snakes within someone's arms. Consequently, Heka was said to have battled and conquered two serpents, and was usually depicted as a man choking two giant entwined serpents. Medicine and doctors were thought to be a form of magic, and so Heka's priesthood performed these activities.

Egyptians believed that with Heka, the activation of the Ka, an aspect of the soul of both gods and humans, (and divine personification of magic), they could influence the gods and gain protection, healing and transformation. Health and wholeness of being were sacred to Heka. There is no word for religion in the ancient Egyptian language, mundane and religious world views were not distinct; thus Heka was not a secular practice but rather a religious observance. Every aspect of life, every word, plant, animal and ritual was connected to the power and authority of the gods.[1]

In ancient Egypt, medicine consisted of four components; the primeval potency that empowered the creator-god was identified with Heka, who was accompanied by magical rituals known as Seshaw held within sacred texts called Rw. In addition Pekhret, medicinal prescriptions, were given to patients to bring relief. This magic was used in temple rituals as well as informal situations by priests. These rituals, along with medical practices, formed an integrated therapy for both physical and spiritual health. Magic was also used for protection against the angry deities, jealous ghosts, foreign demons and sorcerers who were thought to cause illness, accidents, poverty and infertility.

Medicine and doctors were thought to be a form of magic, and so Heka's priesthood performed these activities.



Note:What we are doing here is tracking the Observed phenomena categorized as Ka down to it's every day practical implications in life. As I said before...


"Context:
From my studies of history prior to any formal notion of science or religion you have...(Note: this is a loose definition)
1st layer. Observation of phenomena: Phenomena that you hear, see, smell, touch, taste around you.

Which leads to...
2nd layer (Common part A). Knowledge/crafting: Acknowledgement and/or incorporation of said phenomena to meet some need.
What is this phenomena? What caused this phenomena? What can I do with this phenomena? I can use this phenomena to do[insert task]. etc.

2nd layer (Common part B). Spirituality/relating: Assigning some level of importance based on the phenomenas' relation/place in life.
Is this phenomena Good or bad? How do I feel about this phenomena? What is my relationship to this phenomena? How should I treat this phenomena?

Splitting apart at...
3rd layer(Separate part A). Science/engineering: Understanding and/or utilization of said phenomena to meet some need.
Exactly how does this phenomena work? What societal needs can I meet with my understanding of this phenomena?

and...
3th Layer(Separate part B). Religion: Formally organizing spirituality into a specific ridge uniform order.
All these different phenomena ultimately came from some one/place and who or whatever caused them should be the sole recipient of all related spiritual acknowledgement and importance. That acknowledgement must come in the form of spiritual acts A, B, C, etc. etc.
"

What Is Ancient Egyptian Medicine?


Ancient Egypt (3300BC to 525BC) is where we first see the dawn of what, today, we call "medical care". The Egyptian civilization was the first great civilization on this planet. Egyptians thought gods, demons and spirits played a key role in causing diseases. Many doctors at the time believed that spirits blocked channels in the body, and affected the way the body functioned.

Their research involved trying to find ways to unblock the "Channels". Gradually, through a process of trial and error and some basic science, the profession of a "doctor of medicine" emerged. Ancient Egyptian doctors used a combination of natural remedies, combined with prayer.

Unlike prehistoric peoples, ancient Egyptians were able to document their research and knowledge, they were literate and could read and write; they also had a system of mathematics which helped scientists make calculations. Documented ancient Egyptian medical literature is among the oldest in existence today.

The ancient Egyptians had an agricultural economy, organized and structured government, social conventions and properly enforced laws. Their society was stable; many people lived their whole lives in the same place, unlike most of their prehistoric predecessors. This stability allowed medical research to develop. In this society, individuals were relatively wealthy, compared to their ancestors, and could afford health care.

They had temples, priests and rituals in which deceased people were mummified. In order to mummify you have to learn something about how the human body works. In one mummification process, a long hooked implement was inserted through the nostril, breaking the thin bone of the brain case, allowing the brain to be removed. A significant number of priests became medical doctors.

Ancient Egyptian doctors knew that the body had a pulse, and that it was associated with the function of the heart. They had a very basic knowledge of a cardiac system, but overlooked the phenomenon of blood circulating around the body - either because they missed it, or thought it did not matter, they were unable to distinguish blood vessels, nerves, or tendons.

The ancient Egyptians were traders, and travelled long distances, coming back with herbs and spices from faraway lands. Their relatively high standard of living gave them free time, which they could use for observing things and thinking about them. Medical research involves patience and observation.


The Channel Theory and how the Gods impacted on human health

The Channel Theory - this came by observing farmers who dug out irrigations channels for their crops. They believed that as in irrigation, channels provided the body with routes for good health. If the channels became blocked, they would use laxatives to unblock them.

They thought the heart was the center of 46 channels - types of tubes. To a certain extent, they were right, our veins, arteries, and even our intestines are types of tubes. However, they never came to realize that these channels had different functions.

The Gods were the creators and controllers of life, the Egyptians thought. They believed conception was done by the god Thoth, while Bes, another god, decided whether childbirth went smoothly. Blockages in the human "channels" were thought to be the result of the evil doings of Wehedu, an evil spirit.

The channel theory allowed medicine to move from entirely spiritual cures for diseases and disorders, towards practical ones. Many medical historians say this change was a major turning point, a breakthrough in the history of medicine.


Doctors gave "good" and "bizarre" medical advice

Some recommendations made by physicians were fairly sound - they advised people to wash and shave their bodies as measures to prevent infections. They told people to eat carefully, and to avoid unclean animals and raw fish.

Some of their practices were bizarre, however, and most likely did more harm than good. Several medical prescriptions contained animal dung, which might have useful molds and fermentation substances, but were also infested with bacteria and must have caused many serious infections.

Ancient Egyptian medicine was highly advanced for its time

Egyptian doctors were sought after by kings and queens from faraway lands because they were considered as the best in the world.

Archeologists have found Papyri (thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant) where Egyptians had documented a vast amount of medical knowledge. They found that they had fairly good knowledge about bone structure, and were aware of some of the functions of the brain and liver.


The Ebers Papyrus (Papyrus Ebers)

These are medical documents which are thought to have been written around 1500 BC, and most likely include retranscribed materials dating back to 3400 BC. It is a 20-meter long scroll, which covers the equivalent of approximately 100 pages. The Ebers Papyrus, along with the Edwin Smith Papyrus, are the oldest preserved medical documents in existence.


The Ebers Papyrus explaining the best
treatment for asthma

Georg Moritz Ebers (1837-1898), a German novelist and Egyptologist, discovered this medical papyrus at Thebes (Luxor) in 1873-74. It is now in the Library of the University of Leipzig, Germany.

The Ebers Papyrus was has over 700 remedies and magical formulae, as well as scores of incantations aimed at repelling demons which cause disease. However, it also has evidence of sound scientific procedures.

The authors wrote that the center of the body's blood supply is the heart, and that every corner of the body is attached to vessels. The functions of some organs appear to have been overlooked, while the heart was the meeting point for vessels which carried tears, urine, semen and blood.

The Book of Hearts, a section of the Ebers Papyrus, described in great detail the characteristics, causes, and treatment for such mental disorders as dementia and depression. It appears they viewed mental diseases as a combination of blocked channels and the influence of evil spirits and angry Gods.

There is even a section on family planning, contraception, how to tell if you are pregnant, and some other gynecological issues. They wrote about skin problems, dental problems, diseases related to the eyes, intestinal disease, parasites, and how to surgically treat an abscess or a tumor. The ancient Egyptians clearly knew how to set broken bones and treat burns.

Below are some quotes from the Ebers Papyrus (adapted into familiar modern day phrases:

*From the heart there are vessels to all four limbs, to every part of the body. When a doctor, Sekmet priest or exorcist place their hands on any part of a person's body, they are examining the heart, because all vessels come from the heart. The heart is the source, and speaks out to every part of the body.

*When we breathe in through our noses, the air enters our hearts and lungs, and then the entire belly.

*The nostrils have four vessels. Two of them provide mucus while the other two provide blood.

*The human body has four vessels which lead to two ears. Into the right ear enters the "breath of life", while into the left ear the "breath of death" enters.

*Baldness is caused by four vessels to the head.

*All eye diseases originate from four vessels in the forehead which provide the eyes with blood.

*Two vessels enter a man's testicles and provide them with semen.

*The buttocks have two vessels which supply them with vital nutrients.

*Six vessels reach the soles of our feet.

*Six vessels lead to our fingers, through our arms.

*The bladder is connected to two vessels. They supply it with urine.

*The liver is supplied with liquid and air via four vessels. When they overfill the liver with blood, they cause many diseases.

*The lungs and spleen are connected to four vessels, which like the liver, are supplied with liquid and air.

*The liquid and air that come out of the anus come from four vessels. The anus is also exposed to all the vessels that exist in the arms and legs when they are overflowing with waste.


Egyptian doctors were adept at some basic surgical procedures

Egyptian physicians were trained and good at practical first aid. They could successfully fix broken bones and dislocated joints.

Basic surgery, meaning procedures close to the surface of the skin (or on the skin) was a common and well learnt skill. They knew how to stitch wounds effectively. They did not, however, perform surgery deep inside the body. They had no effective anesthetics, only antiseptics. Performing surgery deep inside a human body would have been impossible.

They had excellent bandages, and would bind certain plant products, such as willow leaves, into the bandages for the treatment of inflammation.

Circumcision of baby boys was common practice. It is hard to tell whether female circumcision existed; there is one mention, but several experts believe the text has not been translated properly.

Egyptian doctors said there were three types of injuries:
*Treatable injuries - these were dealt with immediately.

*Contestable injuries - these were deemed not to be life-threatening, i.e. the doctor believed the patient could survive without his intervention. Patients would be put under observation. If they survived, the doctor would decide in his own time whether to intervene.

*Untreatable ailments - the meaning is clear; the doctor would not intervene.



Ancient Egyptian inscriptions illustrating bone
saws, scales, lances, dental tools, suction
cups, knives and scalpels
Surgeons had an array of instruments, such as pincers, forceps, spoons, saws, containers with burning incense, hooks and knives.

Prosthetics did exist, but archeologists say they were probably not that practical and were used either to make deceased people look more presentable during funerals, or were simply for decorative purposes.


Ancient Egyptian public health

The aim of public health is to protect the community from the spread of disease, and too keep everybody as healthy as possible. The provision of water so that people can wash themselves, their animals and their homes is a vital part of preventing the spread of disease. Cleanliness was an important part of Egyptian life; however, it was promoted for social and religious reasons, and not health ones.

Their homes had rudimentary baths and toilets. Personal cleanliness and appearance were an important part of life; many even wore make-up around their eyes to protect from disease. Most people used mosquito nets during the hot months - we cannot know whether this was to protect against malaria and other diseases, or simply because they did not want to be bitten.

Priests washed themselves and their clothing and eating utensils regularly. But they did it for religious reasons. Although hygiene practices did help protect their health, this was not their reason. Cleanliness was an appeal to their gods.

There was no public health infrastructure as we know of today, with sewage systems, proper medical care and public hygiene.


Magic and religion to treat illnesses

Everyday life in Egypt involved beliefs and fear of magic, gods, demons, evils spirits, etc. Luck and disaster were caused by angry celestial beings or evil forces. They believed that if illnesses and physical and mental disorders were partly caused by supernatural forces, then magic and religion were required to deal with them and treat people.

Anthropologists, archeologists, and medical historians say there did not appear to be a clear difference between a priest and a doctor in those days. Many healers were priests of Sekhmet, and used science as well as magic and incantations when treating people. (Sekhmet was an Egyptian warrior goddess).

The religious and/or magic rituals and procedures probably had a powerful placebo effect, which were likely seen as proof of their effectiveness.

Some treatments used products or herbs or plants that looked similar to the illness they were treating, this is known as simila similibus (similar with similar). This practice has existed all over the world, even in modern alternative medicine (homeopathy, treating like with like). In Egyptian times ostrich eggs were used to treat a fractured skull.


The medical profession had a structure and a hierarchy

The earliest ever record of a physician was Hesy-Ra, 2700 BC, who was "Chief of Dentists and Doctors" to King Dioser.

The first female doctor was probably Peseshet 2400 BC, who was known as the supervisor of all female doctors.

The top doctors worked in the royal court. Below them there were inspectors who would supervise the proper actions of doctors. There were specialists, such as dentists, proctologists, gastroenterologists, and ophthalmologists. A proctologist was called "nery phuyt" which means "shepherd of the anus".

RandomAfricanAm: (hears silence)
Ok, let me try it another way
.
1.Is the "CHI" suppose to be the "subconscious mind"(I hate that phrase by the way)?
2.Is the "CHI" an abstraction of the notion of luck?
3.Is it both 1 & 2?
4.Under what circumstance would you "call on" your "CHI"?
5.If driving home while sleepy & you said to self "stay awake, just stay awake until I get home." would that be communicating with the "CHI"?


Hopefully that's more straight forward
Thanks

Chi is just like Ori in yoruba. infact it is Ori

so I can explian using yoruba spiritulity
1. yes
2. yes
3. yes
4. every thing that u are to do in ur life should be wat would make ur Ori grow(the growth of Ori, determines the developement of ur Soul|). So its beneficial to call on Ori every secound of ur life.
5. That is Your Ori telling u to stay awake, Its ur subconscious that determines ur conscious. Ur brain(powered by the Soul|) probably doesnt know why it should prevent ur body from going to sleep(since the body is tired and needs rest) but Ori is telling the brain not to sleep.

We're still chasing dat Bush meat to put on da table

...The religious and/or magic rituals and procedures probably had a powerful placebo effect, which were likely seen as proof of their effectiveness. ...

Placebo

A placebo (/pləˈsiboʊ/ plə-SEE-boh; Latin placēbō, "I shall please"[2] from placeō, "I please" is a simulated or otherwise medically ineffectual treatment for a disease or other medical condition intended to deceive the recipient. Sometimes patients given a placebo treatment will have a perceived or actual improvement in a medical condition, a phenomenon commonly called the placebo effect.

In medical research, placebos are given as control treatments and depend on the use of measured deception. Common placebos include inert tablets, vehicle infusions, sham surgery,[3] and other procedures based on false information.[1] However, placebos can also have a surprisingly positive effect on a patient who knows that the given treatment is without any active drug, as compared with a control group who knowingly did not get a placebo.[4]

In one common placebo procedure, however, a patient is given an inert pill, told that it may improve his/her condition, but not told that it is in fact inert. Such an intervention may cause the patient to believe the treatment will change his/her condition; and this belief may produce a subjective perception of a therapeutic effect, causing the patient to feel their condition has improved — or an actual improvement in their condition. This phenomenon is known as the placebo effect.

Placebos are widely used in medical research and medicine,[5] and the placebo effect is a pervasive phenomenon;[5] in fact, it is part of the response to any active medical intervention.[6] Archie Cochrane suggested in 1972[7] "It is important to distinguish the very respectable, conscious use of placebos. The effect of placebos has been shown by randomized controlled trials to be very large. Their use in the correct place is to be encouraged […]"

The placebo effect points to the importance of perception and the brain's role in physical health. However, the use of placebos as treatment in clinical medicine (as opposed to laboratory research) is ethically problematic as it introduces deception and dishonesty into the doctor-patient relationship.[8] The United Kingdom Parliamentary Committee on Science and Technology has stated that: "...prescribing placebos... usually relies on some degree of patient deception" and "prescribing pure placebos is bad medicine. Their effect is unreliable and unpredictable and cannot form the sole basis of any treatment on the NHS."[3]

Since the publication of Henry K. Beecher's The Powerful Placebo [9] in 1955, the phenomenon has been considered to have clinically important effects.[10] This view was notably challenged when, in 2001, a systematic review of clinical trials concluded that there was no evidence of clinically important effects, except perhaps in the treatment of pain and continuous subjective outcomes.[10] The article received a flurry of criticism,[11] but the authors later published a Cochrane review with similar conclusions (updated as of 2010).[12] Most studies have attributed the difference from baseline until the end of the trial to a placebo effect, but the reviewers examined studies which had both placebo and untreated groups in order to distinguish the placebo effect from the natural progression of the disease.[10] However these conclusions have been criticized because of the great variety of diseases—more than 40—in this metastudy. The effect of placebo is very different in different diseases. By pooling quite different diseases the results can be leveled out.

The placebo effect points to the importance of perception and the brain's role in physical health...

Neural top down control of physiology

top down control of physiology concerns the direct regulation by the brain of physiological functions (in addition to smooth muscle and glandular ones). Cellular functions include the immune system’s production of T-lymphocytes and antibodies, and nonimmune related homeostatic functions such as liver gluconeogenesis, sodium reabsorption, osmoregulation, and brown adipose tissue nonshivering thermogenesis. This regulation occurs through the sympathetic and parasympathetic system (the autonomic nervous system), and their direct innervation of body organs and tissues that starts in the brainstem. There is also a noninnervation hormonal control through the hypothalamus and pituitary (HPA). These lower brain areas are under control of cerebral cortex ones. Such cortical regulation differs between its left and right sides. Pavlovian conditioning shows that brain control over basic cell level physiological function can be learnt.

Higher brain:

Cerebral cortex:
Sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and the hypothalamus are regulated by the higher brain.[1][2][3][4] Through them, the higher cerebral cortex areas can control the immune system, and the body’s homeostatic and stress physiology. Areas doing this include the insular cortex,[5][6][7] the orbital, and the medial prefrontal cortices.[8][9] These cerebral areas also control smooth muscle and glandular physiological processes through the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system including blood circulation, urogenital, gastrointestinal[10] functions, pancreatic gut secretions,[11] respiration, coughing, vomiting, piloerection, pupil dilation, lacrimation and salivation.[12]

Lateralization:
The sympathetic nervous system is predominantly controlled by the right side of the brain (focused upon the insular cortex), while the left side predominantely controls the parasympathetic nervous system.[4] The cerebral cortex in rodents shows lateral specialization in its regulation of immunity with immunosuppression being controlled by the right hemisphere, and immunopotention by the left one.[9][13] Humans show similar lateral specialized control of the immune system from the evidence of strokes,[14] surgery to control epilepsy,[15] and the application of TMS.[16]

Brainstem

The higher brain top down control of physiology is mediated by the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems in the brainstem,[1][2][3][4] and the hypothalamus.[1][17][18] The sympathetic nervous system arises in brainstem nuclei that project down into intermediolateral columns of thoracolumbar spinal cord neurons in spinal segments T1–L2. The parasympathetic nervous system in the motor nuclei of cranial nerves III, VII, IX, (control over the pupil and salivary glands) and X (vagus –many functions including immunity) and sacral spinal segments (gastrointestinal and urogenital systems).[12] Another control occurs through top down control by the medial areas of the prefrontal cortex.[1][17][18] upon the hypothalamus which has a nonnerve control of the body through hormonal secretions of the pituitary.

Immunity:
The brain controls immunity both indirectly through HPA glucocorticoid secretions from the pituitary, and by various direct innervations.[19]

*Antibodies. There is sympathetic innervation of the thymus gland.[20] Sympathetic control exists over antibody production,[21] and the modulation of cytokine concentrations.[22]

*Cellular immunity. An intact sympathetic nervous system is required to maintain full cellular immunoregulation as denervated mice do not produce and activate, for example, splenic suppressor T cells, or thymic NKT cells.[23]

*Organ inflammation. Sympathetic innervation of various organs[19] contacts macrophages and dendritic cells and can increase local inflammation including the kidney[24] gut,[25] the skin,[26] and the synovial joints[27]

*Antiinflammation. The vagus nerve carries a parasympathetic cholinergic antiinflammatory pathway that reduces proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF by spleen macrophages in the red pulp and the marginal zone and so the activation of inflammation.[28][29] This control is in part controlled by direct innervation of body organs such as the spleen.[30] However, the existence of the parasympathetic antiinflammatory nerve pathway is controversial with one reviewer stating: “there is no evidence for an anti-inflammatory role of the efferent vagus nerve that is independent of the sympathetic nervous system.”[31]

Metabolism:
The liver receives both sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system innervation.[32]

*Plasma glucose levels. A vagus brain-liver axis exists that detects lipids produced by the gut and acts to regulate glucose homeostasis.[10]

*Glycogenesis. Vagal activation also controls glycogen synthesis in the liver.[34]

*lipogenesis. Vagal activation also controls the generation of lipids in brown adipose tissue.[34]

*Insulin. Vagal innervation of the pancreas controls the release of insulin release from its beta cells (and this is inhibited by norepinephrine released under sympathetic control from the splanchnic nerve).[35]

*Thyroid hormones can control glucose production via the hypothalamus and its sympathetic and parasympathetic innervation of the liver.[36]

Other:
*Thermogenesis – this is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system starting in the dorsolateral preoptic area of the anterior hypothalamus via projections from the rostral raphe pallidus to the spinal intermediolateral nucleus nonshivering thermogenesis by brown adipose tissue.[37]

*Stress – norepinephrine and epinephrine, the stress hormones, are released from nerve terminals in the adrenal medulla in the kidney innervated from the sympathetic nervous system’s splanchnic nerve.[38][39]

*Kidney function – the sympathetic nervous system projects to the kidney and controls glomerular filtration rate and so fluid balance, sodium reabsorption, and osmoregulation.[40][41]


Conditioning

The brains of animals can anticipatorily learn to control cell level physiology such as immunity through Pavlovian conditioning. In this conditioning, a neutral stimulus saccharin is paired in a drink with an agent, cyclophosphamide, that produces an unconditioned response (immunosuppression). After learning this pairing, the taste of saccharin by itself through neural top down control created immunosuppression, as a new conditioned response.[42] This work was originally done on rats, however, the same conditioning can also occur in humans.[43] The conditioned response happens in the brain with the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus providing the output pathway to the immune system, the amygdala, the input of visceral information, and the insular cortex acquires and creates the conditioned response.[5] The production of different components of the immune system can be controlled as conditioned responses:

*Antibodies[43][44][45]

*IL-2[46][47]

*B, CD8+ T cells and CD4+ naive and memory T cells, and granulocytes.[48] Such conditioning in rats can last a year.[49]

Nonimmune functions can also be conditioned:

*Serum iron levels[50]

*The level of oxidative DNA damage[51]

*Insulin secretion[52][53]

*Blood glucose levels[53][54]

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Continued below

ChinenyeN: Some writers have [erroneously] translated "chi" at the personal level as meaning a "guardian angel". It isn't anything like that. Igbo cosmology (Igbo culture, in fact) is highly utilitarian, and so there is nothing benevolent or malevolent about one's personal "chi".

ifyalways: Can you explain this further @ Chi.

In Western society, guardian angels fulfill a particular purpose, which in general understanding is strictly benevolent. While Satan and his demons are deemed responsible for all that goes wrong in a person's life, God and his angels are held up as a person's only saving grace. The two sides are at constant war over souls. The role of Chi in Igbo cosmology is markedly different from this.

By explaining Chi as a "guardian angel", we completely take it out of its cultural context, only to repackage it so it makes sense under a foreign religious system. I'm not saying that it is bad. For some, it helps to give a faint idea of what Chi represents, but at the same time it also limits a person's understanding of Chi, especially as a philosophical concept.

In short, Chi is too complex of a philosophical notion to be dumbed down to simply being a "guardian angel". So, I don't believe we should remain content with redefining Chi to fit nicely into someone else's religious understanding.

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Definitions, effects, and ethics

A placebo has been defined as "a substance or procedure… that is objectively without specific activity for the condition being treated".[11] Under this definition, a wide variety of things can be placebos and exhibit a placebo effect. Pharmacological substances administered through any means can act as placebos, including pills, creams, inhalants, and injections. Medical devices such as ultrasound can act as placebos.[13][14] Sham surgery,[15][16][17] sham electrodes implanted in the brain,[1] and sham acupuncture, either with sham needles or on fake acupuncture points, have all exhibited placebo effects.[18] Bedding not treated to reduce allergies has been used as a placebo to control for treated bedding.[19] The physician has even been called a placebo;[20] a study found that patient recovery can be increased by words that suggest the patient "would be better in a few days", and if the patient is given treatment, that "the treatment would certainly make him better" rather than negative words such as "I am not sure that the treatment I am going to give you will have an effect".[21] The placebo effect may be a component of pharmacological therapies: Pain killing and anxiety reducing drugs that are infused secretly without an individual's knowledge are less effective than when a patient knows they are receiving them. Likewise, the effects of stimulation from implanted electrodes in the brains of those with advanced Parkinson's disease are greater when they are aware they are receiving this stimulation.[22] Sometimes administering or prescribing a placebo merges into fake medicine.

The placebo effect has sometimes been defined as a physiological effect caused by the placebo, but Moerman and Jonas have pointed out that this seems illogical, as a placebo is an inert substance that does not directly cause anything. Instead they introduced the term "meaning response" for the meaning that the brain associates with the placebo, which causes a physiological placebo effect. They propose that the placebo, which may be unethical, could be avoided entirely if doctors comfort and encourage their patients' health.[11] Ernst and Resch also attempted to distinguish between the "true" and "perceived" placebo effect, as they argued that some of the effects attributed to the placebo effect could be due to other factors.[23]

The placebo effect has been controversial throughout history. Notable medical organizations have endorsed it,[24] but in 1903 Richard Cabot concluded that it should be avoided because it is deceptive. Newman points out the "placebo paradox", – it may be unethical to use a placebo, but also unethical "not to use something that heals". He suggests to solve this dilemma by appropriating the meaning response in medicine, that is make use of the placebo effect, as long as the "one administering… is honest, open, and believes in its potential healing power".[8] Another possible resolution of the ethical dilemma might come from the "honest placebo" effect found in a 2010 study[4] carried out by researchers in the Program in Placebo Studies at the Harvard Medical School, where patients with irritable bowel syndrome experienced a significant beneficial effect even though they were told the pills they were taking were placebos, as compared to a control group who received no pills.

Although the placebo effect and theories on its underlying mechanisms are mostly understood in terms of human psychology, studies have also indicated that non-human animals such as dogs can also have symptoms reduced by placebo treatments.[25]


Mechanism of the effect

The placebo effect is highly variable in its magnitude and reliability and is typically strongest in measures of subjective symptoms (e.g., pain) and typically weak-to-nonexistent in objective measures of health points (e.g., blood pressure, infection clearance).[citation needed]

A 2001 meta-analysis of clinical trials with placebo groups and no-treatment groups found no evidence for a placebo effect on objectively measured outcomes and possible small benefits in studies with continuous subjective outcomes (particularly pain).[10] A 2004 follow-up analysis found similar results and increased evidence of bias in smaller trials that calls into question the apparent placebo effect on subjective outcomes.[31]

Because the placebo response is simply the patient response that cannot be attributed to an investigational intervention, there are multiple possible components of a measured placebo effect. These components having varying relevance depending on study design and the types of observations.[32] While there is some evidence that placebo interventions can alter levels of hormones[33] or endogenous opioids,[34] other prominent components include expectancy effects, regression to the mean,[35][36] and flawed research methodologies.

Expectancy and conditioning

The placebo effect is related to the perceptions and expectations of the patient; if the substance is viewed as helpful, it can heal, but, if it is viewed as harmful, it can cause negative effects, which is known as the nocebo effect. In 1985, Irving Kirsch hypothesized that placebo effects are produced by the self-fulfilling effects of response expectancies, in which the belief that one will feel different leads a person to actually feel different.[37] According to this theory, the belief that one has received an active treatment can produce the subjective changes thought to be produced by the real treatment. [b]Placebos can act similarly through classical conditioning, wherein a placebo and an actual stimulus are used simultaneously until the placebo is associated with the effect from the actual stimulus.[38] Both conditioning and expectations play a role in placebo effect,[39] and make different kinds of contribution. Conditioning has a longer-lasting effect,[40] and can affect earlier stages of information processing.[41] The expectancy effect can be enhanced through factors such as the enthusiasm of the doctor, differences in size and color of placebo pills, or the use of other interventions such as injections. In one study, the response to a placebo increased from 44% to 62% when the doctor treated them with "warmth, attention, and confidence."[42] Expectancy effects have been found to occur with a range of substances. Those that think that a treatment will work display a stronger placebo effect than those that do not, as evidenced by a study of acupuncture.[43][44]

Because the placebo effect is based upon expectations and conditioning, the effect disappears if the patient is told that their expectations are unrealistic, or that the placebo intervention is ineffective. A conditioned pain reduction can be totally removed when its existence is explained.[45] It has also been reported of subjects given placebos in a trial of anti-depressants, that "Once the trial was over and the patients who had been given placebos were told as much, they quickly deteriorated."[46]

A placebo described as a muscle relaxant will cause muscle relaxation and, if described as the opposite, muscle tension.[47] A placebo presented as a stimulant will have this effect on heart rhythm, and blood pressure, but, when administered as a depressant, the opposite effect.[48] The perceived consumption of caffeine has been reported to cause similar effects even when decaffeinated coffee is consumed,[49][50] although a 2003 study found only limited support for this.[51] Placebos represented as alcohol can cause intoxication[52] and sensorimotor impairment.[53] Perceived ergogenic aids can increase endurance,[54] speed[55] and weight-lifting ability,[56] leading to the question of whether placebos should be allowed in sport competition.[57] Placebos can help smokers quit.[58] Perceived allergens that are not truly allergenic can cause allergies.[59] Interventions such as psychotherapy can have placebo effects.[60]pp 164–173 The effect has been observed in the transplantation of human embryonic neurons into the brains of those with advanced Parkinson's disease.[61]

Because placebos are dependent upon perception and expectation, various factors that change the perception can increase the magnitude of the placebo response.[/b] For example, studies have found that the color and size of the placebo pill makes a difference, with "hot-colored" pills working better as stimulants while "cool-colored" pills work better as depressants. Capsules rather than tablets seem to be more effective, and size can make a difference.[62] One researcher has found that big pills increase the effect[63] while another has argued that the effect is dependent upon cultural background.[64] More pills,[65] branding,[66] past experience,[67] and high price[68] increase the effect of placebo pills. Injection[69] and acupuncture[18] have larger effect than pills. Proper adherence to placebos is associated with decreased mortality.[70]

Motivation may contribute to the placebo effect. The active goals of an individual changes his/her somatic experience by altering the detection and interpretation of expectation-congruent symptoms, and by changing the behavioral strategies a person pursues.[71][72] Motivation may link to the meaning through which people experience illness and treatment. Such meaning is derived from the culture in which they live and which informs them about the nature of illness and how it responds to treatment. Research into the placebo treatment of gastric and duodenal ulcers shows that this varies widely with society.[11] The placebo effect in treating gastric ulcers is low in Brazil, higher in northern Europe (Denmark, Netherlands), and extremely high in Germany. However, the placebo effect in treating hypertension is lower in Germany than elsewhere.[73] Social observation can induce a placebo effect such when a person sees another having reduced pain following what they believe is a pain reducing procedure.[74]

The placebo effect can work selectively, under the influence of various psychological factors. If a placebo cream is applied on one hand with the expectation that it is an analgesic, it will reduce pain only in that hand and not elsewhere on the body.[75] If a person is given a placebo under one name, and they respond, they will respond in the same way on a later occasion to that placebo under that name but not if under another.[76]


Placebo effect and the brain

Functional imaging upon placebo analgesia shows that it links to the activation, and increased functional correlation between this activation, in the anterior cingulate, prefrontal, orbitofrontal and insular cortices, nucleus accumbens, amygdala, the brainstem periaqueductal gray matter,[77][78][79] and the spinal cord.[80][81][82][83]

These changes can act upon the brain's early stages of information processing: Research using evoked brain potentials upon painful laser pulses, for example, finds placebo effects upon the N2–P2, a biphasic negative–positive complex response, the N2 peak of which is at about 230 ms, and the P2 one at about 380 ms.[41] They occur not only during placebo analgesia but after receiving the analgesic placebo (the areas are different here, and involve the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior parietal cortex and inferior parietal lobule).[84]

Different areas in the higher brain have different functions. The prefrontal involvement could be related to recalling the placebo and maintaining its cognitive presence in a "self-reinforcing feedback loop" (during pain an individual recalls having taken the placebo and reduced pain reinforces its status as an analgesic).[85] The rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) and its subcortical connectivity could be related to the expectation of potential pain stimuli[86][87]

The higher brain works by regulating subcortical processes. High placebo responses link with enhanced dopamine and mu-opioid activity in the circuitry for reward responses and motivated behavior of the nucleus accumbens, and, on the converse, anti-analgesic nocebos responses were associated with deactivation in this part of the brain of dopamine and opioid release.[78] (It has been known that placebo analgesia depends upon the release in the brain of endogenous opioids since 1978.[88]) Such analgesic placebos activation changes processing lower down in the brain by enhancing the descending inhibition through the periaqueductal gray[78] on spinal nociceptive reflexes, while the expectations of anti-analgesic nocebos acts in the opposite way to block this.[80]

The brain is also involved in less-studied ways upon nonanalgesic placebo effects:

*Parkinson's disease: Placebo relief is associated with the release of dopamine in the brain.[89]

*Depression: Placebos reducing depression affect many of the same areas that are activated by antidepressants with the addition of the prefrontal cortex[90][91]

*Caffeine: Placebo-caffeinated coffee causes an increase in bilateral dopamine release in the thalamus.[92]

*Glucose: The expectation of an intravenous injection of glucose increases the release of dopamine in the basal ganglia of men (but not women).[93]

*Methylphenidate: The expectation of intravenous injection of this drug in inexperienced drug users increased the release of dopamine in the ventral cingulate gyrus and nucleus accumbens, with this effect being largest in those with no prior experience of the drug.[94]

Present functional imaging upon placebo analgesia has been summarized as showing that the placebo response is "mediated by "top-down" processes dependent on frontal cortical areas that generate and maintain cognitive expectancies. Dopaminergic reward pathways may underlie these expectancies".[95] "Diseases lacking major 'top-down' or cortically based regulation may be less prone to placebo-related improvement".[96]


Brain and body

The brain has control over the body processes affected by placebos. Pain, motor fatigue, and fever are directly organized by the brain[citation needed]. Other processes usually regulated by the body such as the immune system are also controlled indirectly through the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system[citation needed].

Research upon conditioning in animals shows the brain can learn control over them[citation needed]. In conditioning, a neutral stimulus saccharin is paired in a drink with an agent that produces an unconditioned response. For example, that agent might be cyclophosphamide that causes immunosuppression. After learning this pairing, the taste of saccharin by itself through neural top-down control created immunosuppression, as a new conditioned response.[97] Such conditioning has been found to affect a diverse variety of not just basic physiological processes in the immune system but ones such as serum iron levels, oxidative DNA damage levels, and insulin secretion. This work was originally done on rats, however the same conditioning of basic physiological processes can also occur in humans[citation needed]. Recent reviews have argued the placebo effect is due to top-down control by the brain for immunity[98] and pain.[99] Pacheco-López and colleagues have raised the possibility of "neocortical-sympathetic-immune axis providing neuroanatomical substrates that might explain the link between placebo/conditioned and placebo/expectation responses."[98]:441

A recent fMRI study has shown that a placebo can reduce pain-related neural activity in the spinal cord, indicating that placebo effects can extend beyond the brain.[100]


Evolved health regulation

[b]Evolutionary medicine identifies many symptoms such as fever, pain, and sickness behavior as evolved responses to protect or enhance the recovery from infection and injury. Fever, for example, is an evolved self-treatment that removes bacteria or viruses through raised body temperature. These evolved responses, however, also have a cost that depending upon circumstances can outweigh their benefit (due to this, for example, there is a reduction in fever during malnutrition or late pregnancy). According to the health management system theory proposed by Nicholas Humphrey, the brain has been selected to ensure that evolved responses are deployed only when the cost benefit is biologically advantageous. To do this, the brain factors in a variety of information sources, including the likelihood derived from beliefs that the body will get well without deploying its costly evolved responses. One such source of information is the knowledge the body is receiving care and treatment. The placebo effect in this perspective arises when false information about medications misleads the health management system about the likelihood of getting well so that it selects not to deploy an evolved self-treatment.[101][/b]


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMbsGBlpP30

macof:

Chi is just like Ori in yoruba. infact it is Ori

so I can explian using yoruba spiritulity
1. yes
2. yes
3. yes
4. every thing that u are to do in ur life should be wat would make ur Ori grow(the growth of Ori, determines the developement of ur Soul|). So its beneficial to call on Ori every secound of ur life.
5. That is Your Ori telling u to stay awake, Its ur subconscious that determines ur conscious. Ur brain(powered by the Soul|) probably doesnt know why it should prevent ur body from going to sleep(since the body is tired and needs rest) but Ori is telling the brain not to sleep.

Hey thanks for the contribution and Yes, I mentioned that about Yoruba Ori twice above(See: posts 14 and 15)

The basis of Igbo Spirituality is the concept of “Chi.” Similar to the “Ori” of the Yoruba, and the “Ka” of Ancient Egyptians, Chi was the fundamental force of creation.

That's why I took a detour and started to post about the Chi Antecedent Ka and was/am going to add the Chi peer Ori next(I was looking to see if there was some parallel among the Seerer ethnic group and there spiritual practices). This gives a means to discuses the topic of the Chi from an African context instead of having to rely on "foreign" concepts such as the "Guardian angel".

That said it's nice that you affirmed what I ended up going to naturally in my admittedly basic investigations of the Ka and that is topics dealing with cognition. To be more specific "Neural top down control of physiology" or using cultural/spiritual cues to "trick/activate/train" the mind into giving beneficial internal responses. That said that seems to be only one manifestation but it is one example that's a practical application into everyday life which is the main thrust of what this thread is getting at.


What observable phenomena does (x) spiritual practice account for?

Sorry the bot banned me twice while replying to different threads. I'm coming back to this topic. I have some good info to add that I never got around to because I was trying to find an online converter for the pdf file I was viewing.(The text was protected from copy&paste)

The basis of Igbo Spirituality is the concept of “Chi.” Similar to the “Ori” of the Yoruba, and the “Ka” of Ancient Egyptians, Chi was the fundamental force of creation.

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[size=18pt]A Naturalistic Interpretation
of the Yoruba Concepts of Ori [/size]

[size=16pt] Adebola Babatunde Ekanola [/size]

Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan, Nigeria




Introduction

Ori is a central concept in Yoruba-language conception of human personality.¹
The Yoruba are said to believe that the personality of each individual is predetermined Ori.
In this paper, I aim to show that the available accounts of Ori constitute
an inadequate explanation of this determinism——-what is popularly translated
as destiny—in Yoruba thought. In place of the spiritualistic predetermination of
personality implied in the idea of destiny, I wish to offer a naturalistic, humanistic
account of Ori.

The Myth of Creation

One of the available versions of the Yoruba account of the creation of the human person holds that the human body (ara) was molded by Orisanla (one of the deities in Yoruba traditional religious system) out of sand. It is thereafter that the lifeless body is infused with emi (life or breath of life) by Olodumare (supreme deity). The body at this stage becomes activated with life and then goes to Ajala (deity responsible for making Ori) to select an Ori.²

The act of selecting Ori in Ajala’s house has three important aspects:³ First, its supposed to be one of free choice. You are said to be free to choose any of the Ori available in Ajala’s storehouse. Second, the Ori selected determines, finally and irreversibly, the life course and personality of its possessor on earth. Third, each individual is unaware of the content or quality of the chosen Ori, that is, the person making the choice does not know if the destiny embedded in an Ori is good or bad. Other terms used to symbolize Ori include Akunleyan (that which is chosen kneeling), Ipin-Ori (allotment), Aycmmo (that which is chosen or affixed to oneself), and Akunlegba (what is received kneeling).

Apart from the above account of the determination of destiny through a choice of Ori in Ajala’s house, there are other versions of the Yoruba belief on the determination of destiny. One such version has it that it is Olodumare who confers destiny on each human person, which is later doubly sealed by Onibode (the keeper of the gate between heaven and earth.)“ However all the available versions agree that destiny is determined by the Ori, either chosen or conferred upon a person. They also agree that by the time people arrive in the world, through birth, they are totally ignorant of the type of destiny awaiting them.

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Up next: A Critical Analysis of the Myth

The Notion of truth in Igbo thought.A Philosophical exposition
http://www.bravoprojecthelp.com/philosophy/the-notion-of-truth-in-igbo-thought-a-philosophical-exposition/

You can read this article: The Fraudulent and False Representation of Igbo Spirituality

RandomAfricanAm:


The Ancient Egyptian
Ka

Ib (heart)

Sheut (shadow)

Ren (name)

Ba

Akh

The Ancient Egyptian (Ndi Ogbodo/kmt/Gbt)
Ka
Aka: hand, a, limb, branch, extension, spirit (Onu Afa - divination language, diviners use aka to refer to a spirit or atomic core or the imprint of a thing); nka- talent, imprint, art, age

Ka is the imprint a person leaves behind by actions by building and deeds.
Ib (heart)
Obi: heart, soul, spirit, engine

Sheut (shadow)
Chi uta: governing spirit of responsibility

Chi or chi uta is the energy of your personal morals. Your personal conscience or guilt thermometer. If your chi agrees then all things are possible. If your chi doesn't agree you will fail.

Ren (name)
(r)Onwe: self, identity

The r is more pronounced in some dialects but onwe is the personal identity. Also called ogwe, which also means trunk or log. A log is the middle of a tree that can always regenerate and is where birds (which represent thoughts and light descending from heaven) come and perch.

Ba
Mba, Agbö, Aba: nationality, race, genes, branch/sprout, chapter, division, background. This represents your background. Who raised you, who is guiding your personal behavior? The symbol in Egypt was a totem of a bird with a human head representing lineage and ancestral descent. Ancestors reside in the heavens and guide people on the ground with signs and messages, metaphorically speaking just like birds.
This one would be controversial to even some black academics don't like to admit Egyptians as true Africans, human beings who saw themselves as small races and tribes, with family totems and beefs and rivalries over ancestry etc. The word Ba can be found in Ba ntu, Ba Malike, Ba Luba and variations are in our faces as Ama Zulu, Umu Igbo, Omo Yoruba, Wa Swahili, Nwa Igbo, Wa Nyamwezi.

Akh
Ichie, Agu: ancestors, guiding lights, guiding ancestors

Ancestors or elders give enlightenment and guidance wisdom just like stars in the night. Self explanatory.

heka/hekau/heqaw
Okwu: words, grammar, o-kwu: that which programs or gives rise or lifts or erects or activates or suspends in the air.
Pro gram literally means to put out grammar, grammar means signs. So program is to put out signs. This captures the intent of okwu or hekau. You put out signs (okwu), they are received and processed by the brain of other beings or by nature and then a reaction occurs.