Society Member
For individual health seekers and anyone who wishes to study Applied Vitalism, take part in the Society's work, and contribute their knowledge and experience.
A Developing Field of Health and Healing
Applied
Vitalism
Applied Vitalism is the field of healing arts through which Vitalism, the Western healing tradition, is practiced.
It encompasses the many healing arts, therapies, and practices that raise vitality, remove obstructions, or heal the psyche, working in alignment with the healing power of nature and the intelligence of the body. The Unified Laws of Vitalism are its scientific foundation, revealing the reach of each healing art and its place within the whole of health and healing.
Every science has its laws and its field of practice. Physics studies the laws of matter and energy, and engineering is the practice of that science. The civil engineer, the electrical engineer, and the mechanical engineer work in separate domains, yet they can build one thing together and understand one another, for all of them answer to the same laws.
Vitalism studies the vital life force and the laws by which it acts. Vitalism is the proper name of the Western healing tradition, as Ayurveda is the name of India's, and its laws have been stated as one body in the Unified Laws of Vitalism. Vitalism has long been practiced in pieces, each healing art holding part of it, and now those pieces can be seen and practiced as one field.
The vital life force is life itself. Its proper name is Vita, the Latin word for life; Chinese medicine calls it Chi, and Ayurveda calls it Prana. Each tradition recognizes the same living intelligence within the organism.
To study Vita is to study how that intelligence organizes and maintains the living being, adapts and defends, conserves and repairs, forms symptoms, and heals. It also means studying the conditions that strengthen or weaken Vita, the obstructions that interfere with its activity, and the lawful order by which a living being devitalizes and restores.
The healing professions are already working with that force. The naturopath calls it the healing power of nature, the chiropractor speaks of innate intelligence and works to remove interference with its expression through the nervous system, and the homeopath calls it the vital force. Others work upon one of its domains: the trauma therapist upon the human psyche, the bodyworker upon the structure of the body, and still others upon nourishment, movement, light, or the energy of the cell. Functional and integrative medicine have carried this work into modern clinical practice, where they seek the root causes of illness and the restoration of healthy function. All are working with the same human form, subject to the same laws of nature, guided by the same supreme Vital Intelligence. These healing arts belong to the Western tradition of Vitalism. Their practitioners are Vitalists when their work proceeds in alignment with the healing power of nature and the intelligence of the body, whether or not they have recognized themselves as belonging to that tradition.
When the healing professions come to understand the natural laws that guide all aspects of healing, the full breadth and nature of human healing comes into view. The physician can understand and speak with the naturopath, the chiropractor with the trauma therapist, and the mitochondrial researcher with the fitness instructor. Each remains in his or her own profession and domain, and each works within the broader field of Applied Vitalism.
The Axiom
Natural Law
Nature cannot violate the laws of nature.The Axiom of Natural Law
Symptoms arise through lawful biological processes. Some are purposeful expressions of Vita, the Vital Intelligence, revealing what the body is doing and why. Others arise as lawful consequences of injury, obstruction, or unmet requirements of life. When the lawful origin and nature of a symptom are not understood, it is misinterpreted as pathology, a presumed error of the Vital Intelligence, and given the name of disease.
The task is to understand what has occurred in the Living Person and the lawful processes through which the symptoms arose. The Unified Laws make this possible. Once the laws governing life are stated, they change what can be known about health and disease.
The Foundation of the Field
The Unified Laws of Vitalism
The seven Unified Laws of Vitalism bring the work of centuries of Vitalist researchers, practitioners, and writers into one coherent body. They state the natural laws governing the action of Vita in the Living Person, from the Vital Economy and the conditions required for life and health to the genesis and resolution of symptoms and the healing sequences through which trauma is brought to completion. Together they give Applied Vitalism its scientific foundation and the healing arts a common language.
IThe Law of the Vital Life Force, Vita
IIThe Law of the Vital Economy
IIIThe Law of the Living Person
IVThe Law of the Seven Vital Requirements
VThe Law of Symptom Genesis
VIThe Law of Symptom Resolution and Healing
VIIThe Law of Trauma Healing Sequences
The full canonical text is set out in the book The Unified Laws of Vitalism, together with an exposition of each Law. The book is presently issued in a private press edition, and wider publication is planned for 2027.
The Laws are presented at instituteofvitalism.org.
The Unified Laws in Practice
Natural Law in Action
A familiar example makes the role of natural law plain: the life of a plant. A plant has four Vital Requirements: sunshine, water, air and temperature, and soil and nutrition. When these requirements are not met, the plant devitalizes in an ordered progression, and no separate disease need be found to account for its condition. Restore what its nature requires while sufficient vitality remains, and it revitalizes by the same lawful order.
Human beings are governed by the same laws, and their Vital Requirements are seven.
1Sunshine
2Water
3Air & Temperature
4Nutrition
5Activity & Rest
6Trauma Healing
7Mental, Emotional & Social Health
Vitalistic Diagnosis
Vitalistic Diagnosis is the discipline of Applied Vitalism that uses the Unified Laws of Vitalism to read a person’s history through the Seven Vital Requirements and the Four Pathways of Symptom Genesis. The Vital 7 show the conditions of life that were unmet, violated, or disrupted, while the Four Pathways show the biological processes through which the symptoms arose. Together they reveal how a person’s health declined and their symptoms arose, what the Vital Intelligence is doing now, and whether the return of health requires restoring vitality, resolving trauma, or both.
The Four Pathways of Symptom Genesis are Reactive, Devitalization, Revitalization, and Trauma.
Each healing art has both depth and boundary. The Unified Laws reveal what each healing art contributes, which Vital Requirements it addresses or obstructions it removes, and where its reach ends. When another kind of care is needed, including medical care, the Laws help us recognize it, and a referral then follows from a deeper understanding of what the person needs.
The Institute of Vitalism
Steward of the Unified Laws
The laws of nature do not change. What changes is the clarity with which they are seen and the precision with which they are stated. Where closer observation shows that a law has been expressed imperfectly, the statement must be corrected. The Institute is entrusted with their continuing study, articulation, and refinement.
The Institute of Vitalism works to restore the vital life force, Vita, to the center of Western medicine and to bring the valid knowledge of modern and alternative medicine into a unified science under the natural laws that govern all living beings. It gathers and develops modern research, clinical observation, and discoveries that strengthen vitality, restore the conditions of health, and support the lawful processes of healing.
The Institute of Vitalism was founded in 2026 by Joseph Dunkley, author of The Unified Laws of Vitalism, and is being established as a nonprofit foundation, the home of 21st Century Vitalism.
International Society of Applied Vitalism
The Community of the Field
The International Society of Applied Vitalism (ISAV) brings together individual health seekers and people working throughout the healing arts to study Applied Vitalism, share knowledge and experience, and contribute to its development.
Practitioner Member
For people working throughout the healing arts who wish to understand their work through the Unified Laws of Vitalism, exchange knowledge with others, and contribute their experience to the field.
Fellow of Applied Vitalism
Recognition awarded for a substantial contribution to the scholarship, research, or practice of Applied Vitalism.
Through ISAV, members gather and examine their research, clinical experience, and discoveries. This shared work deepens the understanding of natural law, brings greater precision to the statement of the Unified Laws of Vitalism, and advances their application in health and healing.
ISAV hosts international conferences, lectures, and invited speakers. It provides fellowship for vitalistic practitioners and a community for individual health seekers. It also gives members a forum in which to develop and present their work.
The Journal of the Institute of Vitalism publishes the research, case studies, clinical observations, and discoveries of the field, including work arising from the Institute's Seven Pillars, its principal domains of research and practice.
ISAV is presently being established. Membership will open when its founding structure is complete, and the terms of participation will be published here.
Applied Vitalism is developed by those who study it, apply it in their own lives, and bring it into the healing arts.