n every part of the world, already thousands of years ago, humans have speculated about some kind of life force. In China it is called qi (also spelled chi), in India prana, in ancient Greece pneuma, in Latin Spiritus, and in Hebrew ruach. There are hundreds of life energy beliefs, ancient and con­temporary, which have many similarities.
     This encyclopedia presents and explains them all.
     In the introduction, distant origins of human thought are traced, examining how spiritual beliefs and life force ideas emerged, and how they were developed through time.
     This is the second edition of the book, which has been edited and extended, with more illustrations.

Stefan Stenudd is an author and historian of ideas, who researches the thought patterns of myth in general and creation myths in particular. He is also a high-grade instructor of the peaceful and spiritual martial art aikido, since more than 30 years. Aikido, too, evolved from ideas of a life energy.


The contents
Here is the book's table of contents:

Foreword 7
Introduction 11
Homo rudis 11
Life and death 14
The mover 15
Prime mover 17
Air 19
Bodily fluids 22
Survival 25
The dead 29
Spirits 31
Hell 33
Change 39
Agricultual order 41
A demanding spirit 44
Magic 46
The Scientific Revolution 51
Mechanical man 54
Subversive spirits 55
Alien forces 59
Future speculations 63
Encyclopedia 67-194


Samples
Here are two extracts from the book, as Acrobat PDF files in computer screen resolution (72 DPI):
     From the introduction
     From the encyclopedia


How to get the book
If you want to buy the book, you can do so at most international web based bookstores, such as Amazon and the like. Here are links to the book on Amazon US and Amazon UK. Use the latter if you are European - then you get the book cheaper and quicker. Otherwise, you may want to buy it at Amazon US.

At Amazon US:

At Amazon UK:

Life Energy Encyclopedia
Qi, Prana, Spirit, and Other Life Forces around the World
by Stefan Stenudd
Arriba, 2009
Paperback, 196 pages
ISBN: 978-91-7894-019-6