Energy (esotericism)

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

The term energy has been widely adopted by writers and practitioners of various forms of spirituality and alternative medicine^[1][2] to refer to a variety of ideas, often (though not always) conceived as "fields" surrounding the earth or any living thing, supposed to be directly perceptible and accessible to the human mind as "auras", "rays", "fields" or "vibrations".^[3] There is no scientific evidence for any of these putative fields in any sense in which energy is currently defined in physics.^[4]

In many cases "energy" is conceived of as a universal life force: to this extent "spiritual energy" theories resemble vitalism^[5] and may even invoke the Luminiferous Ether of Victorian physics.^[6] Additionally, or alternatively, such notions are often aligned with or derived from conceptions found in other cultures, such as the Chinese idea of Qi and the Prana of the Upanishads.^[5] Many such ideas arise from the primitive idea of life as breath - a relationship implicit also in the word "spirit". Such a usage is already evident in William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793);

"Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy. Energy is Eternal Delight." ^[7]

Blake's alignment of energy with affective emotion is noteworthy, for it depicts energy as the psychic continuum that unites body and mind, thus reflecting Plato's celebrated tripartite division of the human psyche into the appetitive, the spirited and the rational.^[8] Such an integration of "energy" into systematic esoteric expositions of the universe and/or the human psyche is frequently found combined, as in Kundalini and Theosophy, into an account of a hierarchy of "inner planes" or "subtle bodies".^[9]

[edit] Vitalism and spirituality in the age of electricity

The successes of the era of the Enlightenment in the treatment of energy in natural science was 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 the 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.

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".

• Vitalism - Entelechy of Driesch. Johannes Reinke
• Élan vital of Henri Bergson
• 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
• Animal magnetism of Franz Anton Mesmer
• Vril of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
• Walter Kilner
• Somatotype and Constitutional Psychology of William Sheldon
• Developmental systems theory
• Organismic theory
• Organicism
• Emergence

Electro-metabograph machine

The attempt to associate additional energetic properties with life has been all but abandoned in modern research science,^[10] 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.^[11]

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.^[12]

[edit] Modern western psychotherapies

These are therapeutic approaches that depend on the idea of "energy". The following are mostly neo-Reichian therapies which 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
• Emotional Freedom Techniques
• David Boadella
• Gerda Boyesen
• Integrative Body Psychotherapy IBP
• Myron Sharaf

There have also been attempts to align the psycho-analytic theories of C.G.Jung regarding the archetypes of the collective unconscious with the memory-like morphogenetic force-fields postulated by biologists like Hans Driesch and Rupert Sheldrake.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Energy medicine

Some alternative medicine practices depend on a form of energy, whether veritable (known to science), putative (unknown to science), or pseudoscience (unfalsifiable).

[edit] Parapsychology

These pages do not cover all of parapsychology but only those that are concerned with some "energy". Some effects studied in that discipline, such telepathy and dowsing at a distance, are by nature attempting to go beyond normal time-space: these are excluded.

• Parapsychology
• Paranormal phenomena
• Aura (paranormal)
• Out-of-body experience as Astral projection
• Reincarnation: Rebirth in a new physical body.
• Apparitional experiences are phenomena attributed to ghosts and haunted places, also spirits, fairies, angels, daemons and demons.
• Ectoplasm (paranormal) is a type of energy-field referred to by Victorian spiritualists.
• Radiesthesia: Perception of biofields

[edit] Dowsing and "Earth energy"

Some dowsers talk about "earth rays".

• Dowsing
• Karl Spiesberger
• J. Francis Hitching
• Thomas Charles Lethbridge
• Divining rod
• Long range locator
• Michel Moine
• Ley lines
• Earth radiation
• Geoglyphs
• Archaeoastronomy
• Cursus monument
• Glastonbury
• Telluric currents
• Earth's magnetic field
• Songlines
• Psychogeography
• Earth mysteries
• Aurora Borealis
• Geodesy
• Gaia hypothesis
• John Michell (writer)

[edit] Chinese vitalism

The traditional explanation of acupuncture states that it works by manipulating the circulation of qi energy through a network of meridians. There is no scientific evidence for these so, 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: it appears throughout traditional east Asian culture, for example, in the art of Feng Shui, in Chinese martial arts and spiritual tracts.

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

[edit] Indian vitalism

• Prana, Doshas, Chakra, Kosha, Kundalini in Indian Ayurveda and Yoga
• Subtle body - the Etheric Body and Astral Body in Theosophy

[edit] Other cultures

• Holy Spirit, Pneumatology, Spirituality
• Egyptian soul
• Unani
• Mana in Oceanic cultures and in anthropology
• Aether or the quintessence of classical physics
• Holy Spirit in some branches of Christianity, similar ideas in Islam and Judaism
• Qudra in Sufism
• Magical energy in various systems
• Silap Inua in Inuit mythology

[edit] Premise of energy therapies

The various 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 are predicated, as regards the given explanation for their supposed efficacy, 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 that energy's existence.^[2][14] Therapies that purport to use, modify, or manipulate unknown energies are 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.^[15][16][14]

Some acupuncturists say that acupuncture's mode of action is by virtue of manipulating the natural flow of energy through hypothesized 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] However, this theory fails to account for the specifity of the locus of successful intervention. The gap between the empirally 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 sceptics and believers.

[edit] Movies and entertainment

• The Force (Star Wars)

[edit] Scientific references

The activity of biological systems invariably generates magnetic and electrical fields, which can be measured with sensitive instruments. It remains an open question as to whether any of the phenomena listed below bear any relation to energy therapies such as reiki, but claims to that effect continue to be made:

• Electric field and Magnetic field - their general nature.
• Electrophysiology - the scientific study of the electrical properties of biological cells and tissues.
• Radiobiology (radiation biology) - the interdisciplinary field of science that studies the biological effects of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation of the whole electromagnetic spectrum, including radioactivity (alpha, beta and gamma), x-rays, ultraviolet radiation, visible light, microwaves, radio wave, low-frequency radiation (such as alternating or pulsing fields or currents), ultrasound, thermal radiation (heat) and related modalities.
• Biomagnetism - the magnetic properties of living systems (see, for example, the research of David Cohen using SQUID imaging) and Magnetobiology - the study of effect of magnets upon living systems. See also Electromagnetic radiation and health
• Bioelectromagnetism - the electromagnetic properties of living systems and Bioelectromagnetics - the study of the effect of electromagnetic fields on living systems.
• Electrotherapy
• Radiation therapy
• Electroconvulsive therapy
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation - a powerful electrical current produces a transient, spatially focussed magnetic field that can penetrate the scalp and skull of a subject and induce electrical activity in the neurons on the surface of the brain.
• Magnetic resonance imaging - a very powerful magnetic field is used to obtain a 3D image of the density of water molecules of the brain, revealing different anatomical structures. A related technique, functional magnetic resonance imaging, reveals the pattern of blood flow in the brain and can show which parts of the brain are involved in a particular task.
• Embryogenesis, Ontogeny and Developmental biology - a discipline that has given rise to many scientific field theories.
• Bioenergetics - the study of energy exchange on the molecular level of living systems.
• Biological psychiatry, Neurology, Psychoneuroimmunology
• Bioluminescence - a marked phosphoresecence found in fungi, deep-sea creatures etc., as against Biophoton - a much weaker electromagnetic radiation, thought by Alexander Gurwitsch, its discoverer, to be a form of signalling.

[edit] References