A Critique of the Book Prophetess of Health

Vital Force

Prophetess of Health on pages 154-6 introduces the doctrine of vitalism as a basis for Ellen White’s philosophy of life and longevity setting it forth in this way: CBPH 73.6

“Ellen White’s sexual attitudes,” it is asserted, “rested squarely on the popular vitalistic physiology of Broussais that Sylvester Graham had been preaching since the early 1830s. Puzzled by the organic processes that sustained life, the vitalists had invented a mysterious ‘vital force’ (or energy) that supposedly interacted with inanimate matter to produce the vital functions of the body... CBPH 73.7

“To illustrate the concept of vital force, nineteenth-century authors frequently compared it to capital in a bank account, gradually depleted over the years by repeated withdrawals. Again Mrs. White was no exception. As she saw it, God had made the original deposit by granting each individual, according to sex, ‘a certain amount of vital force.’ (For some inscrutable reason he had been more generous with men than women.) Those who carefully budgeted their resources lived a normal lifetime, but those who by their intemperate acts used ‘borrowed capital,’ prematurely exhausted their account and met an early death.”—p. 154. CBPH 73.8

A few of Mrs. White’s statements related to this subject are quoted, but not enough to give a full picture of her teaching. CBPH 73.9

A survey of her use of the term “vital force” in the Comprehensive Index to the Writings of Ellen G. White is most illuminating and helpful. CBPH 73.10

Such a survey shows that she used interchangeably a wide range of terminology. She speaks of “vital force” (Appeal to Mothers, pp. 26, 27, 28; The Ministry of Healing, 234), but also uses the term “vital forces” (Appeal to Mothers p. 28; 4SG 131, Selected Messages 2:414, Counsels on Diet and Foods, 426). In the quotation from Appeal to Mothers which Prophetess of Health cites, two more terms appear: “vital capital” and “vital energies.” Elsewhere in her writings we find: “vital energy” (Temperance, 74, Testimonies for the Church 4:97), “constitutional force” (Selected Messages 2:414, Counsels on Diet and Foods, 426), “life force” (The Ministry of Healing, 235), “life forces” (My Life Today, 151), “life and vitality” (Counsels on Diet and Foods, 131), “life-giving power” (My Life Today, 151), and “vitality” (21 117). CBPH 73.11

A study of these passages reveals that all these terms refer to just about the same thing. It is especially significant to note that the term “vital powers” is used as a synonym for “vitality” in Testimonies for the Church 2:364 and that “vitality” according to Ellen White, can be increased as well as depleted. “Vitality increases under the influence of the Spirit’s action,” she writes (Medical Ministry, 12). “Walking is preferable to riding. The muscles and veins are enabled better to perform their work. There will be increased vitality, which is so necessary to health” (Testimonies for the Church 2:529). She also speaks of air giving “energy and vitality” (Testimonies for the Church 2:533). CBPH 73.12

What is it that makes the difference between life and death? Why did Adam live so much longer than people today live? Why does the human body age and die? Prophetess of Health belittles the concept of “vital force,” saying “Puzzled by the organic processes that sustained life, the vitalists had invented a mysterious ‘vital force’ (or energy) that supposedly interacted with inanimate matter to produce the vital functions of the body” (p. 154). Note that Prophetess of Health identifies the “processes that sustained life” as organic. Ellen White would disagree: “Many teach that matter possesses vital power—that certain properties are imparted to matter, and it is then left to act through its own inherent energy; and that the operations of nature are conducted in harmony with fixed laws, with which God Himself cannot interfere. This is false science, and is not sustained by the word of God... CBPH 73.13

Nature testifies of an intelligence, a presence, an active energy, that works in and through her laws” (Patriarchs and Prophets, 114). CBPH 73.14

Here the presuppositions of Prophetess of Health, which exclude supernaturalism, come face to face with the presuppositions of Ellen White, which affirm that God, not “organic processes,” is the sustainer of life. CBPH 74.1

Ellen White saw each individual as endowed with vitality—the vital energies, forces, or powers which sustained life. These forces could be taxed, sapped, worn away, squandered, expended, lessened, or exhausted—to use the verbs she used. But they could also be increased through “the influence of the Spirit’s” action and by healthful endeavors such as walking. CBPH 74.2

While Ellen White, as in other cases already referred to, couched certain important points somewhat in the language of the times, it is our studied conclusion that coercive evidence is lacking which would provide an explanation or her use of these terms through a rigid interpretation of vitalism. CBPH 74.3

On the point of women having less vital force, as Ellen White uses the term broadly and rather loosely, should not the dressing and living habits of females of that time be considered as a factor in interpreting the statement? A sentence employing the word “vitality” written in 1867 would seem to support the point: CBPH 74.4

I saw the beneficial influence of outdoor labor upon those of feeble vitality and depressed circulation, especially upon women who have induced these conditions by too much confinement indoors.—Testimonies for the Church 1:562. CBPH 74.5

We do not begin to understand just what life is—how it is sustained or why it is inevitably lost. But we are not inclined to dismiss Ellen White’s concept of a “vital force” as ludicrous. We have no doubt that she was right in designating various factors which tend to weaken vitality and shorten life, factors such as drugs, overeating, hurtful food and drinks, tobacco, excessive sexual activity, doubt, excessive grief, and perplexity, and factors through which life might be enriched or extended. CBPH 74.6

Prophetess of Health pages 155, 156 speaks of Ellen White’s reliance on L. B. Coles and Horace Mann for her concepts of “vital force,” sympathy existing between the mind and the body, and “the electric currents in the nervous system.” For a treatment of paralleling passages, see pages 29-31; 53-55, and Chapter Seven, pages 76 and 77. CBPH 74.7