Energy (esotericism)

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"Subtle energy" redirects here. For the mystical concept of psychospiritual bodies overlaying the physical body, see Subtle body.
File:Respiracao.jpg
Spiritual practices and ideas often equate life-energy with the breath

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

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, sometimes supposed to be directly perceptible to some observers, who have usually undergone some form of training or initiation.[citation needed] This 'energy' is sometimes conceived of as a universal life force running within and between all things, and in other cases it is seen as a more localized phenomenon, such as in vitalism, subtle bodies, or somatic energies such as qi, prana, or kundalini.[3] 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'. It is also often seen as a continuum that unites body and mind.

The experience of spiritual energy is described differently depending on the tradition or practice in question. Sometimes it is described as a physical sensation similar to the movement of breath in the body, sometimes as visible "auras", "rays", or "fields", sometimes as audible or tactile "vibrations".[4] As a rule, these experiences are held to be available to anyone, but only after proper training or sensitization through practices which vary widely across different belief systems. Spiritual energy is also usually associated with feelings of bliss or contentment, as in the pleasurable sensations of kundalini, the ecstatic states of certain forms of meditation, and the 'oceanic feeling' discussed by western scholars such as Freud and Rolland. There is no scientific evidence of physical energies of this type.[5]

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. 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. Thus energy became closely associated with conceptions of animating spirits or of the human soul. This is most evident in spiritual traditions that hold beliefs about reincarnation or an afterlife. Some spiritual practices, such as Qi Gong or traditional yoga are designed[by whom?] to open or increase this innate energy, and the philosophy behind certain martial arts implies that these energies can be developed and focused.

In modern usage, esoteric energy has been taken up by a number of New Age spiritual practices and alternative medicine modalities. These usages often lack 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.

Energy in alternative medicine

Main article: Energy 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]

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.[9] However, this theory fails to account for the specificity of the locus of successful intervention.[citation needed] 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

File:Electro-metabograph machine.jpg
Electro-metabograph machine

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.[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]

Modern western psychotherapies

See also: Psychodynamics and Energy (psychological)

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;

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 as telepathy and dowsing at a distance, are by nature attempting to go beyond normal time-space, so these are excluded.

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.[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.

Indian vitalism

Spiritual healing and Faith Healing

Main article: Faith healing

Other systems

Dowsing and "Earth energy"

Some dowsers talk about "earth rays".

Movies and entertainment

Scientific references

The activity of biological and astronomical systems inevitably generates magnetic and electrical fields, which can be measured with sensitive instruments and which have at times been suggested as a basis for "esoteric" ideas of energy, an idea already found, for example, in the use of the magnetic compass in Feng shui.

See also

References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The 'National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2006-10-13). "Energy Medicine Overview". 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Citation/CS1/Suggestions' not found.
  3. ↑ energy
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ Victor Stenger (2001). "The Breath of God: Identifying Spiritual Energy" (PDF). Skeptical Odysseys. Prometheus Books: 363–74. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Robert Todd Carroll. "Skeptic's Dictionary: Energy". Skepdic. 
  7. ↑ Stephen Barrett (February 15, 2002). "Some Notes on Wilhelm Reich, M.D". Quackwatch. 
  8. ↑ William T. Jarvis (1999). "Reiki". The National Council Against Health Fraud. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Get the Facts, Acupuncture". National Institute of Health. 2006. Retrieved March 2, 2006. 
  10. ↑ Lois N. Magner, A history of the life sciences: Third Edition, Revised and Expanded, CRC Press, 2002
  11. ↑ Blueprint for Immortality The Electric Patterns of Life, H.S.Burr, Neville Spearman, London, 1972. Foreword.
  12. ↑ Vitalism. Bechtel W, Richardson RC (1998). Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. E. Craig (Ed.), London: Routledge.
  13. ↑ 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): Jonas,-W-B; Crawford,-C-C. PMID 12652884.  More than one of |pages= and |page= specified (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ↑ Bruce Clarke. (November 8, 2001). Energy Forms: Allegory and Science in the Era of Classical Thermodynamics. University of Michigan Press. p. Clarke, Bruce. ISBN 0472111744. 
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