An alleged force or natural power, supposed, by Reichenbach and others, to produce the phenomena of mesmerism, and to be developed by various agencies, as by magnets, heat, light, chemical or vital action, etc.; -- called also odyle or the odylic force. Archaic

http://www.wkonline.com/d/odylic_force.html - Web Knowledge Online definition

Odylic force, also known as odic force, od, odyl force, and odyle force, is an ethereal, or non-tangible biological energy. The term was coined by Baron Karl von Reichenbach (1788 - 1869), and the idea has been recycled and modified many times since: Mesmer's animal magnetism, and Wilhelm Reich's orgone being the two most common examples. It has been compared to the eastern ideas of chi and prana, and also is referred to among some modern magick practitioners and believers in alternative spirituality. It is described as behaving similar to magnetism, but being a separate force altogether, entirely biological.

The Baron Reichenbach was a scientist who was respected for his research in the fields of chemistry and metallurgy, and he had already made a name for himself in scientific circles through his discovery of kerosene. He became fascinated with the phenomenon of somnambulism, or sleep walking. It was observed that somnambulism was most active in periods of the full moon. People who suffered from this, at the time, were called lunatics. Reichenbach's goal was to find common elements in somnambulists. He was able to disprove heredity and sex as factors, and found that in most victims it was truly periodic, timed with the phases of the moon. He performed experiments where he allowed the subjects to be exposed to the light of the moon, and where they were kept in dark rooms with no outside light, and reached the conclusion that there was a magnetic force emanating from the moon, that somnambulists were particularly sensitive to. He called this od, or odylic force. In 1845, the baron published his findings in a book called "Researches On Magnetism, Electricity, Heat, Light, Crystallization And Chemical Attraction In Their Relations To The Vital Force"

The people who were more sensitive to this seemed to fit in a pattern. They were sensitive to the presence of other people, agitated, exhausted, and lacking in energy. It was the baron's theory that they had a broader range of senses, and the constant overexposure was taxing to their nervous systems. He claimed that they often could sense auras from people, animals, plants, and even magnets and crystals. He reported correlations between such sensitivity and the phenomenon of water dousing, mesmerism, and other such psychic phenomenon. Methods for storing odyllic force into liquids and solids were found, as well.

The inability to quantize any results or perform any measurements on odylic force left Reichenbach largely ignored by science, and the subject has fallen into obscurity. However, many other psychics, magicians, and charlatans have taken on and continued the research into the od. One of the more interesting examples would be Eusapia Paladino and the theory of table turning. It was proposed that tables built from certain types of wood (soft pinewood), and engraved with letters and symbols, could become receptors for odyllic force and be caused to lift into the air and turn. Seances in which this happened were reported, and there are a few photos of the phenomenon in action. All of them have been found to be faked, and the kinder suggestions have been that the people at the seances were hypnotized into not remembering having turned the table themselves.

http://www.diamondhead.net/chapt3.htm - Baron Karl von Reichenbach
http://www.mindspring.com/~pmarsh/aura.html - Tha Aura and the Seven Chakras
http://www.shout.net/~bigred/odforce - Somnambulism and the Od Force
http://www.spiritwritings.com/fodort.html - table turning as odylic manifestation from mezmerists

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