Science has extensively demonstrated how interacting biological, cultural, and environmental processes influence individual and collective health and well-being.
Yet knowledge and understanding of these processes, traditional concepts, and our subjective experiences of vitality and life remain critically fragmented and incompletely understood. The Vivome Operationalization Framework™ (VOF) is my proprietary system for investigating the dynamic interactions of the interdependent biological, cultural, and environmental systems that determine whether individuals, societies, and nature flourish, struggle, collapse, or die—collectively known as the vivome.
VOF organizes critical data from complex, interconnected physical and cultural feedback systems to:
Yet knowledge and understanding of these processes, traditional concepts, and our subjective experiences of vitality and life remain critically fragmented and incompletely understood. The Vivome Operationalization Framework™ (VOF) is my proprietary system for investigating the dynamic interactions of the interdependent biological, cultural, and environmental systems that determine whether individuals, societies, and nature flourish, struggle, collapse, or die—collectively known as the vivome.
VOF organizes critical data from complex, interconnected physical and cultural feedback systems to:
- Inform coherent public health policy
- Advance ethical research and technology
- Promote better people-care strategies
- Accelerate human and planetary flourishing
Vivome is a critical addition to the –ome constellation—also inhabited by Genome, Microbiome, Proteome, Metabolome, and Biome.
Demystifying Qi
Chinese medicine's most fundamental concept is qi (pronounced "chee"). Its traditional Chinese character is 氣.
Qi has traditionally encompassed concepts of vital breath, material substance or force, and the dynamic processes of life and transformation, with its qualities believed to be influenced through therapeutic and lifestyle practices.
Researchers have investigated electromagnetic, thermal, and other physical phenomena associated with qi, but no one has ever established qi as a single, discrete physical entity.
Perhaps that’s because there was never one discrete thing to find.
I realized that the vivome may be what people have called qi, pneuma, mana, etc. for millennia:
The dynamic interactions of measurable physiological constituents and processes (ie. blood, hormones, hydration, neurotransmitters, fascia, etc.)—and the cultural and environmental systems that influence them.
Given that qi is often translated as “vital force,” vivome seems an especially appropriate scientific equivalent. My Vivome Operationalization Framework™ (VOF) provides a quantitative basis for supporting clinical research into qi-associated phenomena.
My Introduction to Qi
I practiced Kajukenbo from ages 7 - 10. While Kajukenbo is not overtly associated with Daoist practices like Qigong or Tai Chi, they have common roots. Kajukenbo uses "ki" (pronounced "kee") for self-defense whereas Qigong and Tai Chi cultivate qi for homeostasis and healing.
I learned about the symbiotic relationship between Tui Na and Martial Arts at the Acupressure Institute when I was 21. While their earliest references are found in the Spring and Autumn Annals (5th century BCE), legend places their origin more than 4,000 years ago, during the semi-mythical Xia Dynasty.
According to Encyclopaedia Britannica:
"The primary unifying aspect of the East Asian martial arts, which sets them apart from other martial arts, is the influence of Daoism and Zen Buddhism. This influence has resulted in a strong emphasis on the mental and spiritual state of the practitioner, a state in which the rationalizing and calculating functions of the mind are suspended so that the mind and body can react immediately as a unit, reflecting the changing situation around the combatant. When this state is perfected, the everyday experience of the dualism of subject and object vanishes. Since this mental and physical state is also central to Daoism and Zen, and must be experienced to be grasped, many of their adherents practice the martial arts as a part of their philosophical and spiritual training."
