"Subtle energy" redirects here. For the mystical concept of psychospiritual bodies overlaying the physical body, see
Subtle body.
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. The term "energy" also has a scientific context, and the scientific foundations of
physical energy are often confused or misused to justify a connection to a scientific basis for physical manifestations, properties, detectability, or sensing of
psychic energy and other physic phenomena where no presently known scientific basis exists.
[3] It is sometimes conceived of as a universal life force running within and between all things, (as in some forms of
vitalism), as doctrines of
subtle bodies or as concepts such as
qi,
prana, or
kundalini.
[4]
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] 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".
[5] These are often held to be perceptible to anyone, though this may be held to require training or sensitization through various practices.
[edit] History and metaphysics
Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy. Energy is Eternal Delight.
“
”
William Blake (1793), The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
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.
[edit] 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 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]
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". 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.
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][6] 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.
[6][7][8]
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.
[9] 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.
[edit] 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.
[10] 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".
[11]
The attempt to associate additional energetic properties with life has been all but abandoned in modern
research science[12]. 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.
[13]
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.
[14]
[edit] 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:
[edit] 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.
[16] 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.
[17][18]
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.
[19][20] This view was held by
Camille Flammarion[21] 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.
[22] A later psychical researcher,
Hereward Carrington, pointed out these forces and fluids were hypothetical and have never been discovered.
[23]
[edit] 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.
[24] 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.
[25] Gerald Feinberg also suggested that telepathy may exist due to as of yet undiscovered
elementary particles which he called
psychons or
mindons.
[26][27]
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.
[28] 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.
[29] Hans Berger proposed that a psychical energy was the carrier of telepathic information.
[30] Hammond (1952) and Ruderfer (1980) have proposed that
neutrinos are the possible carrier of psi information.
[31][32]
According to
William G. Roll all objects and individuals have "psi fields" around them which are the carriers of psi information.
[33] 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.
[34][35][36] 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.
[37][38]
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.
[39] 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.
[40] 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.
[41][42][43][44]
[edit] 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.
[9] 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]
[edit] Indian vitalism
[edit] Dowsing, "Earth energy", etc.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c The 'National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2006-10-13). "Energy Medicine Overview". http://nccam.nih.gov/health/backgrounds/energymed.htm.
- ^ a b Kimball C. Atwood (September 2003). "Ongoing Problem with the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine". Skeptical Inquirer magazine. http://www.csicop.org/si/2003-09/alternative-medicine.html.
- ^ Victor Stenger (2001). "The Breath of God: Identifying Spiritual Energy" (PDF). Skeptical Odysseys (Prometheus Books): 363–74.. http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/RelSci/Breath.pdf.
- ^ energy - (according to New Age thinking) - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com
- ^ e.g. Playfair G.L. and Hill S., "The Cycles of Heaven", Pan Books 1978 p.12 "We discuss the fascinating new concept of man's "energy body" and its radiations, and how it may be interacting with its energetic surroundings.." See also ibid. Ch12 passim.
- ^ a b Robert Todd Carroll. "Skeptic's Dictionary: Energy". Skepdic. http://skepdic.com/energy.html.
- ^ Stephen Barrett (February 15, 2002). "Some Notes on Wilhelm Reich, M.D". Quackwatch. http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/reich.html.
- ^ William T. Jarvis (1999). "Reiki". The National Council Against Health Fraud. http://www.ncahf.org/articles/o-r/reiki.html.
- ^ a b "Get the Facts, Acupuncture". National Institute of Health.. 2006. http://nccam.nih.gov/health/acupuncture/. Retrieved March 2, 2006.
- ^ Lois N. Magner, A history of the life sciences: Third Edition, Revised and Expanded, CRC Press, 2002
- ^ Blueprint for Immortality The Electric Patterns of Life, H.S.Burr, Neville Spearman, London, 1972. Foreword.
- ^ Vitalism. Bechtel W, Richardson RC (1998). Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. E. Craig (Ed.), London: Routledge.
- ^ Jonas, WB; Crawford, CC (2003 Mar-April). "Science and spiritual healing: a critical review of spiritual healing, "energy" medicine, and intentionality.". Altern-Ther-Health-Med. 9 (2): 56–61. PMID 12652884.
- ^ Bruce Clarke. (November 8, 2001). Energy Forms: Allegory and Science in the Era of Classical Thermodynamics. University of Michigan Press. p. Clarke, Bruce. ISBN 0-472-11174-4.
- ^ Tiller, WA. "What are Subtle Energies?". Journal for Scientific Exploration 7 (3): 293–304. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:TNoPUWva4BEJ:www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_07_3_tiller.pdf+w+a+tiller&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShW7mr-6K7rOEZ5jgNhgV-mwXOvmkfibTMMuPO_5ufNCNM8RFXgUUE5hRyxlSm2TDoexX9qLWfhyzlzi7YrdYublcD7d1CQjaG4n9vnmuvIBPXgOopFghOl72vdqgQVgnnzHH-M&sig=AHIEtbT37kzJKX9nSCKt8a5Be5Y63Uw3gA&safe=active.
- ^ John L. Randall Psychokinesis: a study of paranormal forces through the ages Souvenir Press, 1982, p. 83
- ^ Blavatsky H. P. "ISIS UNVEILED: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology", Theosophical University Press
- ^ (Paperback) Randi, James. Clarke, Arthur C. (1997-03-15) "An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural", St. Martin's Griffin, ISBN 0-312-15119-5
- ^ Hamlin Garland Forty years of psychic research: a plain narrative of fact 1936, pp. 127–128
- ^ Lewis Spence An Encyclopaedia of Occultism 2003, p. 133
- ^ H. F. Prevost Battersby Psychic Certainties Kessinger Reprint Edition, 1988, pp. 125-126
- ^ Alvarado, C. S. (2006). Human radiations: Concepts of force in mesmerism, spiritualism and psychical research. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 70, 138–162.
- ^ Hereward Carrington Eusapia Palladino and Her Phenomena Kessinger Reprint Edition, 2003, p. 267
- ^ Wilbur Bradbury Into the unknown Reader's Digest Association, 1981, p.332
- ^ Carroll B. Nash Science of psi: ESP and PK 1978, p. 215
- ^ Andrew Tomas On the shores of endless worlds: the search for cosmic life 1974, p. 65
- ^ J. S. Zaveri Theory of atom in the Jaina philosophy critical study of the Jaina theory of paramanu pudgala in light of modern scientific theory 1975, p. 123
- ^ Marc Seifer, Stanley Krippner Transcending the Speed of Light 2008, p. 52
- ^ Dobbs, H. (1965). Time and extrasensory perception. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 54, 249–361.
- ^ Berger, H. (1940). Psyche. Jena: Verlag Gustav Fischer.
- ^ Hammond, A. (1952). A note on telepathic communication. Proceedings of the I.R.E., 40, 605.
- ^ Ruderfer, M. (1980). Neutrino theory of psi phenomena. In B. Shapin & L. Coly (Eds.), Communication and parapsychology (pp. 121–149). New York: Parapsychology Foundation.
- ^ D. Scott Rogo Parapsychology: a century of inquiry Taplinger Pub. Co., 1975, p. 158
- ^ Ervin Laszlo Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral Theory of Everything Inner Traditions; 2nd edition, 2007 ISBN 1-59477-181-2
- ^ Diarmuid Ó Murchú Ancestral grace: meeting God in our human story 2008, p. 241
- ^ Andris K Tebecis Is The Future In Our Hands-My Experiences With Sukyo Mahikari 2009, p. 226
- ^ Mark Heley The Everything Guide to 2012 2009, pp. 251-252
- ^ Barbara Hand Clow, Carl Johan Calleman The Mayan Code: Time Acceleration and Awakening the World Mind 2007, pp. 114-155
- ^ Muldoon, S. (1936). The case for astral projection. Chicago: Ariel Press.
- ^ Susan Bursell Haunted houses Lucent Books, 1994, p. 23
- ^ Price, H. H. (1939). Haunting and the psychic ether hypothesis; with some preliminary reflections on the present condition and possible future of psychical research. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 45, 307-343.
- ^ K. Ramakrishna Rao, V. Gowri Rammohan New frontiers of human science: a festschrift for K. Ramakrishna Rao 2002, p. 54
- ^ Dr. Mehra Shrikhande Paranormal Experiences 2009, p. 90
- ^ Carroll B. Nash Parapsychology, the science of psiology 1986, p. 134
[edit] External links
New Age Energy: An examination of energy, as new agers use the term Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena
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