Vitalism, Gilpin, and the frozen dead guy
The philosophy behind the big celebration
Today gaming brings most of the tourists up to Gilpin. They may be clutching a copy of The Gambler and looking for the deals. But, if you’d been in these parts between about 1870 and 1920 a good many tourists would be found here clutching different books. They hold the works of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, Lydia Pinkham or Horatio Dresser. Those tourists were seeking not fun, but better health. The invigorating mountain air was supplemented by draughts of radium water and a healthy daily exercise regimen said to put one in touch with a vital flow of energy. This approach to health was often called vitalism.
Vitalism was based on some very old notions of health going back to the middle ages in Europe where the “regimen sanitatis salernitanum” outlined the basic vitalist principles. Mostly the regimen consisted of breathing exercises and generally exercising in high mountain air. Indeed many claimed to be cured of tuberculosis, dropsy, poor circulation and other diseases by following the regimen. The vital energy flow obtained was thought to be more potent in these parts than down in the flat lands, hence the health tourists. At least an echo of that vitalist philosophy is still alive and well in these mountains. Nederland’s upcoming Frozen Dead Guy Days, whether acknowledged or not, is a celebration of that concept.
Hold Onto Your Hat Nederland!
It’s time once again for Nederland to shine in the international spotlight. Frozen Dead Guy Days are here and 6,000 visitors are expected. Cars will line 119 almost to the Sundance Restaurant and down at least to Barker Dam. Tourists from all over the U.S. and many other countries will gather to celebrate this most bizarre of all local festivals. There will be coffin races, the ever popular blue ball and the events go on and on. Visitors will leave lots of money in town and a good time will be had by all. It’s all in honor of a corpse stored in a box of dry ice. It’s a curious thing, this corpse of Grandpa Bredo Morstoel. This is the 20th anniversary of his death so it’s good time to cogitate. What possessed Trygve Bouge to bring his dead grandfather here from Norway in the first place? Why did it end up at his mother’s house overlooking town? That answer has to be in the philosophy Trygve Bouge apparently believed in, vitalism.
Trygve Bouge, Preacher of Vitalism
Frozen Dead Guy Days is all for fun and no one takes it very seriously. Few of us took Trygve Bouge very seriously either. Yet, back in the day, I would hear Trygve Bouge hold forth on the “life force” and “vitalism” and I found it fascinating. Whether or not he’d ever read any of the vitalist philosophers, he, like many others, used their phrases and philosophy. Many a “new age” writer expounded on the “life force” and the “vial force” back in the 1970s without tipping their hats to the originators of those phrases either. Trygve may not have been much of a philosophical expounder, but he was listened to by many as he talked of health and the life force. In fact, he was effective as a speaker and organizer for polar plunges, snow immersion, and many other practices. Many of his health regime ideas were adopted by city councils, groups of spiritualists, and on and on.
Getting Into The Life Force
Trygve urged us all to get out in the elements and become one with the vital force. He advised all of us to run, ski, or swim, no matter what the weather and preferably naked. Some do that naked running and swimming thing (even bicycle riding) today. That leads to the endless vexation of the Boulder City Council. The debate over public nudity gave rise to some great moments in Boulder City Council history. Who can forget the recitation by a local columnist of “The Old Swimmin’ Hole” by James Whitcomb Riley as the council was about to pass an ordinance against nude swimming? I think it was Trygve who popularized the various polar plunges around the state. I believe it was his “lectures” in bars in Boulder and in Nederland that got the whole idea of the New Year’s plunge in Boulder Reservoir started. That’s an ever growing event with, say some, over two hundred plungers this year. I do think it’s a bit too bad that as we celebrate Frozen Dead Guy Days few consider the philosophy behind it all.
Vitalism Is Here To Stay
During the late 19th century (and here and there today) the philosophy of vitalism was quite popular in Europe and was preached by many a popular lecturer here. Among these were Phineas Parkhurst Quinby, Mary M. Paterson, Horatio Dresser and, of course, Lydia Pinkham. Vitalism found a special home in north Germany and the Scandinavian countries. I don’t doubt that Trygve and Aud his mother heard plenty of vitalist ideas as they grew up in Norway. While the idea of the “vital force” or the “Odic force” was probably never formally preached in young Trygve’s hearing he would certainly have heard those ideas expressed in his native Norway. Even today Scandinavians are famous for their vigorous winter exercise, their saunas and for doing lots of this in the nude so they can soak up the energies all about them. Vitalism is certainly practiced today. Trygve himself still holds the world’s record for submersion in ice water. He stayed in ice water for one hour and four minutes in Feb. of 1994. A lot of this goes back to one of the European fathers of the vitalist movement, Karl von Reichenbach. Reichenbach would have approved of Trygve’s preaching whether or not Trygve would formally claim to be a vitalist.
Karl Ludwig von Reichenbach
Karl Reichenbach, like Trygve, believed in a vital force (called the Odic force by von Reichenbach). This vital human spark formed a kind of energy field around all living beings. One could measure the electric impulses, heat, magnetism and so on, coming from every living thing, and the healthy exercised body exposed to all nature gave off more. Those measurable forces did not quite add up to the Odic force, the life force itself, however. That force was something one felt. Human beings who exercised, who lived life fully, who danced and sang, all could exhibit this Odic force and cultivate it. The sexual urge itself was another example of this force animating the human. Indeed, Trygve often seemed to give off a good deal of such vital life force. I noted how many a young woman would sit at his feet as he expounded the vital force philosophy. He certainly did command attention in a kind of wild Nordic way. Some young men were jealous.
Cryonics
In many ways the believers in contemporary cryonic science follow in the path of the vitalists. By freezing a human body they assume some of the odic force in that person will be captured though (they may not put it that way). When the family of grandfather Bredo froze his body cryonically from 1990 till 1993 they followed this philosophy. Put very simply, just because someone has been declared medically dead, or even clinically dead, does not necessarily men they are dead from an information-theoretic point of view. There may be all sorts of information still stored in the brain. Scientists think this information-theoretic death comes fairly soon after clinical death, but who’s to say? If the life force could be re-programmed into that brain all sorts of material might come forth. In fact, if medicine could find a way to re-start the heart and so on maybe the brain (which could possibly survive information-theoretic death) could pop back. At least believers in cryonics argue that.
Bo still brings the dry ice
Exactly how the body of grandpa Bredo came to be in Nederland is never clear. One theory is that Trygve and Aud simply couldn’t afford the rent on the cryogenic facility in California. Trygve was in the process of building an H-bomb proof house in Nederland so the little shed next door seemed a good spot for grandpa. The house, by the way, was never quite finished and still stands built of heavy concrete slabs. It is clear that Aud called the Nederland police department to complain that she had no help keeping the body frozen out in her shed and that she had no electricity or water in her house. That’s what began the long saga of Bo Shaffer bringing dry ice to the shed and now and again taking donations to keep up the work. Bo has been nicknamed “the ice man” ever since taking up the task.
Vitalism Today
Vitalism has influenced many philosophic movements such as nudism,vegetarianism and even breatharianism. The basic concept of “energizing, life force, the force,” and so on are part of our every day language now. While no conclusive scientific evidence has been found for the “vial force” in humans, poets long have felt it to be there. Where would love poems be without the strangely attractive force leading one to the beloved? That force simply can’t be calibrated? Athletes experience the force and talk of days when they’re “energized”. It’s too bad Trygve was deported back to Norway. I’d love to buy him a drink in the P.I. and quiz him. In any case we’re in for a great celebration of frozen dead guy days. It’s got lots of philosophical roots in these mountains.