Vril, or Vital Magnetism

...without. The Arcane Teaching original: "Arcane Teaching"; a system of hidden or esoteric knowledge popular in the early 20th century holds that this very power to act and move is the second phase of the existence of Vril. A body may possess sensation and will—the ability to feel and the ability to exercise choice—and yet still not be able to act or move. Feeling and will are mental states or qualities, but the power that acts and moves is something different from the mind. It is what is called vital force, life energy, or Vril. A man may feel the sting of an insect and may then will to brush that insect aside. But unless he sends a current of vital force, life energy, or nervous energy—in short, Vril—his muscles will not contract, nor will his hand move (this usually happens by the exercise of his will, but sometimes by reflex activity). Moreover, without Vril, he cannot even perform the processes of thought or come to a decision regarding brushing the insect away. Vril is the force that operates the machinery of life, from the simplest movement up to the highest functioning of the brain cells of the philosopher or mathematician.

In its second phase of manifestation or existence, Vril is the inner power of action and movement for all material forms in the universe. It is through the action of Vril that ions, electrons, corpuscles an early scientific term for subatomic particles, specifically electrons, or particles of elementary matter are attracted and repelled. It is also what causes them to engage in the wild whirl referring to early atomic models where particles were thought to orbit a center like planets around each other—a movement that resembles the planets circling our sun. This attraction, repulsion, and the resulting "whirl" combine to form what we know as the atom of matter.

Likewise, it is Vril that causes these atoms to be attracted and repelled, manifesting constant vibration and thereby forming the combinations that give us our eighty elements of matter at the time this was written, only about 80 chemical elements had been discovered; today there are 118. It is also by Vril that molecules (formed of two or more atoms) manifest their varying degrees of cohesion and other molecular qualities, properties, and attributes, which give us the distinctive qualities of matter in all its various forms. Vril, then, is the fine energy or force that enables material things to move by their own power—the power within them. Vril is, in itself, this power within, which enables the particle or atom of matter to move back and forth; which enables the atoms to form their combinations; which causes the molecules to manifest their qualities; which...