The Force That Heals: Qi, experiential health and the Thirteen-State Scale: oriented vital energy as the source variable of human flourishing

We propose that scattered findings in psychology, physiology, social neuroscience and epidemiology describe one underlying variable, which we call Qi: a person’s vital energy insofar as it is oriented toward something that matters more than the self and sustained by loyalty to it. We review evidence on subjective vitality, purpose and mortality, physiological synchrony in couples, human–animal bonds, prayer and collective ritual, post-adversity ignition and the polarity of this energy. We propose a threefactor model (vitality, orientation, loyalty), define experiential health as its outcome (emotional, mental and relational health as lived in the first person), and present the Qi Scale, a thirteen-state ordinal scale inspired by Hawkins’s phenomenological ordering and refined with validated constructs, with courage as its turning point. We state seven falsifiable hypotheses and a six-study programme that measures behaviour and physiology without requiring belief.