Energy (esotericism)

Spiritual practices and ideas often equate life-energy with the breath

The term energy has been widely used by writers and practitioners of various esoteric forms of spirituality and alternative medicine^[1][2] to refer to a variety of phenomena.

Such "energy" is often seen as a continuum that unites body and mind. It is sometimes conceived of as a universal life force running within and between all things, (as in some forms of vitalism), as a subtle body, in Chinese medicine as qi, and in Indian yoga as prana or kundalini.^[3] Sometimes it is equated with the movement of breath in the body, sometimes described as visible "auras", "rays", or "fields" or as audible or tactile "vibrations".^[4] These are often held to be perceptible to anyone, though this may be held to require training or sensitization through various practices.

The term "energy" also has a scientific context and the scientific foundations of physical energy are often confused or misused to suggest a scientific basis for physical manifestations, properties, detectability, or sensing of psychic energy and other physical phenomena where no presently known scientific basis exists.^[5]

Spiritual energy is often closely associated with the metaphor of life as breath – the words 'qi', 'prana', and 'spirit', for instance, are all related in their respective languages to the verb 'to breathe'.^{[citation needed]}

History and metaphysics

Various distinct cultural and religious traditions postulate the existence of esoteric energies, usually as a type of élan vital – an essence which differentiates living from non-living objects.^{[citation needed]} Older sources usually associate this kind of energy with breath: for example qi in Taoist philosophy, prana in Hindu belief, or the "breath of life" given by God to Adam in the Abrahamic creation story.^{[citation needed]} Thus energy became closely associated with concepts of animating spirits or of the human soul. Some spiritual practices, such as Qigong or traditional yoga open or increase this innate energy, and the philosophy behind certain martial arts implies that these energies can be developed and focused.

A number of New Age spiritual practices and alternative medicine modalities rely upon such ideas, without the more spiritual or mystical elements of traditional beliefs. Instead, they focus on the perception and manipulation of subtle experiences in the body, usually in the belief that conscious attention to the body's state will draw vital energy to the body, producing physical, psychological, and in some cases spiritual benefits.

Helena Blavatsky wrote that everything (living and non living) radiates, and can reflect an influence upon its surroundings. Everything is vibration, she said, and everything expresses itself in varying degrees of vibration.^[6] Physicist, Dr Nikola Tesla has been quoted: "If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration". Writer, Nick Smith equates the vibrating energy of atoms known in quantum theory, with vibrations produced by thought which can be felt in a person's aura.^[7]

Energy in alternative medicine

The approaches known collectively as "energy therapies" vary widely in philosophy, approach, and origin. The ways in which this energy is attested to be used, modified, or manipulated to effect healing also vary. For example, acupressure involves manual stimulation of pressure-points, while some forms of yoga rely on breathing exercises. Many therapies, in regards to the given explanation for their supposed efficacy, are predicated on some form of energy unknown to current science. In this case, the given energy is sometimes referred to as putative energy.^[1] Some energetic modalities require moderate to extensive lifestyle changes, including diet, waking hours and how to hug and make love, which has led to allegations of cult-like communities in some cases.^[8]

However "subtle energy" is often equated with empirically understood forces, for example, some equate the aura with electromagnetism. Such energies are termed "veritable" as opposed to "putative", albeit that they remain unverified by any empirical measurement. Some alternative therapies, such as electromagnetic therapy, use veritable energy, though they may still make claims that are not supported by evidence. Many claims have been made by associating "spirit" with forms of energy poorly understood at the time. In the 1800s, electricity and magnetism were in the "borderlands" of science and electrical quackery was rife. In the 2000s, quantum mechanics and grand unification theory provide similar opportunities. There is growing evidence of injury and even death^[9] caused by supposed manipulation of the energy field, though not without systematic evidence collection has been done.

Insofar as the proposed properties of "subtle energy" are not those of physical energy, there can be no physical scientific evidence for the existence of such "energy".^[2][10] Therapies that purport to use, modify, or manipulate unknown energies are therefore among the most controversial of all complementary and alternative medicines.^[1]

Theories of spiritual energy not validated by the scientific method are usually termed non-empirical beliefs by the scientific community. Claims related to energy therapies are most often anecdotal, rather than being based on repeatable empirical evidence.^[10][11][12]

Acupuncturists say that acupuncture's mode of action is by virtue of manipulating the natural flow of energy through meridians. Scientists argue that any palliative effects are obtained physiologically by blocking or stimulating nerve cells and causing changes in the perception of pain in the brain.^[13] The gap between the empirically proven efficacy of some therapies and the lack of empirical physical evidence for the belief-systems that surround them is at present a battleground between skeptics and believers.

Vitalism and spirituality in the age of electricity

Electro-metabograph machine

The successes of the era of the Enlightenment in the treatment of energy in natural science were intimately bound up with attempts to study the energies of life, as when Luigi Galvani's neurological investigations led to the development of the Voltaic cell. Many scientists continued to think that living organisms must be constituted of special materials subject to special forces, a view which became known as vitalism. Mesmer, for example, sought an animal magnetism that was unique to life.

As microbiologists studied embryology and developmental biology, particularly before the discovery of genes, a variety of organisational forces were posited to account for the observations. From the time of Driesch, however, the importance of "energy fields" began to wane and the proposed forces became more mind-like.^[14] Sometimes, however, as in the work of Harold Saxton Burr, the electromagnetic fields of organisms have been studied precisely as the hypothetical medium of such organisational "forces".^[15]

The attempt to associate additional energetic properties with life has been all but abandoned in modern research science.^[16] But despite this, spiritual writers and thinkers have maintained connections to these ideas and continue to promote them either as useful allegories or as fact.^[17]

Some early advocates of these ideas were particularly attracted to the history of the unification of electromagnetism and its implications for the storage, transference, and conversion of physical energy through electric and magnetic fields. Potentials and fields were viewed after the work of James Clerk Maxwell as physical phenomena rather than mathematical abstractions. Aware of this history, spiritual writers positivistically adopted much of the language of physical science, speaking of "force fields" and "biological energy". Concepts such as the "life force", "physiological gradient", and "élan vital" that emerged from the spiritualist movement would inspire later thinkers in the modern New Age movement.^[18]

• Vitalism of Johannes Reinke and Eduard von Rindfleisch
• Entelechy of Driesch
• Élan vital of Henri Bergson
• Vis medicatrix naturae (healing force/power of nature) - Hippocrates; later sometimes interpreted as a vitalist energy.
• Recapitulation theory of Ernst Haeckel
• Morphic field of biologist Rupert Sheldrake
• L-field of Harold Saxton Burr
• Kirlian Photography of Semyon Davidovich Kirlian - The Body Electric
• Odic force of chemist Carl von Reichenbach
• Psychoenergetics of Professor William A. Tiller^[19]
• Animal magnetism of Franz Anton Mesmer
• Vril of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
• Aura of Walter Kilner
• Biotic energy of biochemist Benjamin Moore
• Somatotype and Constitutional Psychology of William Sheldon
• Mitogenetic radiation of Alexander Gurwitsch
• N ray of Prosper-René Blondlot
• Radionics

Modern western psychotherapies

These are therapeutic approaches that depend on the idea of "energy". The following are mostly neo-Reichian therapies that aim to release emotional tension from the body:

• Body Psychotherapy and Somatic psychology
• Orgone energy and Vegetotherapy of Wilhelm Reich
• Bioenergetic analysis of Alexander Lowen
• Rebirthing-Breathwork of Leonard Orr
• Rolfing therapy of Ida Pauline Rolf
• Orgonomy, the American College of Orgonomy
• David Boadella
• Gerda Boyesen
• Integrative Body Psychotherapy IBP
• Myron Sharaf

Spiritualism

Early psychical researchers who had investigated mediumship and spiritualism proposed that the phenomena observed in séances could be explained by a mysterious energy or force. The idea of ectoplasm was merged into the theory of an "ectenic force" by some early psychical researchers who were seeking a physical explanation for reports of psychokinesis in séances.^[20] Its existence was initially hypothesized by Count Agenor de Gasparin, to explain the phenomena of table turning and tapping during séances. Ectenic force was named by de Gasparin's colleague M. Thury, a professor of Natural History at the Academy of Geneva. Between them, de Gasparin and Thury conducted a number of experiments in ectenic force, and claimed some success. Their work was not independently verified.^[21][22]

Other researchers who studied mediumship speculated that within the human body an unidentified fluid termed the "psychode", "psychic force" or "ecteneic force" existed and was capable of being released to influence matter.^[23][24] This view was held by Camille Flammarion^[25] Edward William Cox and William Crookes. Cox wrote that mediumship occurs due to the action of a "psychic force" from the medium. Cox described his theory in his book Spiritualism Answered by Science (1872). Gracis Gerry Fairfield in his book Ten Years with Spiritual Mediums (1875) proposed that the psychic force originates from the human nervous system. Similar views were also supported by Asa Mahan in The Phenomena of Spiritualism Scientifically Explained and Exposed (1875); most of these authors had rejected the spirit hypothesis of the spiritualists as they claimed the phenomenon associated with mediumship was caused by a force from the medium's body.^[26] A later psychical researcher, Hereward Carrington, pointed out these forces and fluids were hypothetical and have never been discovered.^[27]

The idea that some kind of "negative energy" is responsible for creating or attracting ghosts or demons appears in contemporary paranormal culture and beliefs as exemplified in the TV shows Paranormal State and Ghost Hunters.^[28]

Parapsychology

Some parapsychologists have suggested that an unidentified nonphysical subatomic particle, such as "psitrons", "mindons" or "psychons", carries psi data, responsible for extrasensory perception, telepathy and psychokinesis. Axel Firsoff has said that "mindons" might have properties somewhat similar to those exhibited by neutrinos and may act as a kind of psychic energy.^[29] The psychologist Cyril Burt has said that a "psychon" may exist which would act as a type of "mental field" which may explain some psychic phenomena.^[30] Gerald Feinberg also suggested that telepathy may exist due to as yet undiscovered elementary particles which he called psychons or mindons.^[31][32]

Feinberg's concept of a tachyon, a theoretical particle that travels faster than the speed of light has been advocated by some parapsychologists who say that it could explain psychokinesis.^[33] The British physicist and mathematician Adrian Dobbs (1965) proposed a theory in which precognition occurs due to “psitrons,” hypothetical particles similar to tachyons that travel backward in time which may contact an observer's brain to produce a precognitive experience.^[34] Hans Berger proposed that a psychical energy was the carrier of telepathic information.^[35] Hammond (1952) and Ruderfer (1980) have proposed that neutrinos are the possible carrier of psi information.^[36][37]

According to William G. Roll all objects and individuals have "psi fields" around them which are the carriers of psi information.^[38] Ervin László has also supported the "psi field" theory and has attempted to update it with his theory of the "Akashic field". Laszlo has written that this Akashic field is universal and connects everything at the sub-quantum level where it also conserves and conveys all information.^[39][40][41] Oliver Reiser theorized that the brain was an amplification and receiving station for information stored in a memory field around the earth which he termed the psychosphere, he wrote that the psychosphere may be able to explain telepathy.^[42][43]

Some parapsychologists and paranormal writers have written that out of body experiences occur when the soul, spirit or subtle body can detach itself out of the physical body and visit distant locations. Muldoon (1936) embraced the concept of an etheric body to explain OBEs.^[44] Other researchers have also attempted to explain apparitional experiences and ghosts with the concept of energy. An early psychical researcher Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick had claimed that objects such as furniture or buildings can absorb psychic energy or impressions which could be transmitted to people nearby.^[45] This idea was later termed the Stone Tape theory. The parapsychologist H. H. Price proposed that a universal psychic ether exists as an intermediary between the mental and ordinary matter. According to Price the psychic ether consists of images and ideas and could explain hauntings, clairvoyance, ghosts and other paranormal phenomena.^{[46][47][48][49]}

Chinese vitalism

The traditional explanation of acupuncture states that it works by manipulating the circulation of qi (energy) through a network of meridians. To the extent that acupuncture is regarded as efficacious in western medicine, its effects are usually described as palliative and obtained physiologically by blocking or stimulating nerve cells and causing changes in the perception of pain in the brain.^[13] However the idea of qi is not confined to medicine, as it appears throughout traditional East Asian culture, for example, in the art of feng shui, in Chinese martial arts and spiritual tracts.^{[citation needed]}

Qi philosophy also accepts a notion of "negative qi", typically understood as introducing negative moods like outright fear or just more moderate expressions like social anxiety or awkwardness.^[50] Deflecting this negative qi through geomancy is a preoccupation in feng shui.^[51]

• Qi in Taoism – Qigong – Jing Qi Shen – Internal alchemy
• Meridian (Chinese medicine) of Acupuncture – Shiatsu

Indian vitalism

• Sir John Woodroffe used the term cosmic energy to denote Shakti in his English translations of the Hindu Tantric texts of the Hindu philosophy known as Kashmir Shaivism (See Cosmic energy (disambiguation) for other uses of the term cosmic energy); also referred to as Prana; said to be the energy that powers the three Doshas, the five Koshas, the seven Chakras, and the Kundalini in Indian Ayurveda and Yoga
• Subtle body – the Etheric Body and Astral Body in Hinduism and Theosophy

Earth energy

• Crop circles
• Cursus monument
• Divining rod
• Dowsing
• Earth mysteries
• Earth radiation
• Geoglyphs
• Thomas Charles Lethbridge
• Ley lines
• Long range locator
• John Michell (writer)
• Michel Moine
• Psychogeography
• Songlines
• Karl Spiesberger

See also

References

External links

• New Age Energy: An examination of energy, as new agers use the term Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena