4. The Law Of Action

In the relations between the living organism and lifeless matter, the former is active and the latter passive, always; (R. Trall) therefore, whenever and wherever action occurs in the living organism as a result of extraneous influences, the action is ascribed to the living organism which alone is empowered with the ability to act, and not to any lifeless material, agent or influence whose leading characteristic is inertia.

This means that if you provide the wrong conditions for living things, such as pollutants or poisonous substances taken into the body from without, you will provoke defensive action and instinctive efforts of the organism to defend itself on the cellular, organic, and systemic levels as a unit. This principle goes hand-in-hand with our next law.