Od

Od, the name given by Baron Reichenbach (q. v.) to a peculiar physical force which he thought he had discovered, intermediate between electricity, magnetism, warmth, and light. This force, according to him, pervades all nature, and manifests itself as a flickering flame or luminous appearance at the poles of magnets, at the poles of crystals, and wherever chemical action is going on. All motion generates od; and all the phenomena of mesmerism are ascribed to the workings of this od-force. See Buchner, Das Od (1854); Fechner, Erinnerungen an die letzten Tage des Odlehre (1876); and the Transactions of the Psychical Research Soc. (1883).