What is energy?
How would you define energy in everyday terms? And how does it work, in everyday terms.
Are we all referring to the same thing, but using different language?
To what extent does our language limit how we work with energy, and our understanding?
Does our understanding evolve as the way that we connect to energy evolves?
Answers:
Meiah,
Now there's a tricky question. :D
In "everyday terms" we could say that energy is the self-interacting force that causes everything in the universe to function.
If you want to get more detailed and talk about how it works then you're going to start getting into the realms of science and quantum electro dynamics (QED for short). Or you could look at it from a spiritual perspective in which case the "way it works" could be described in any number of ways such as the spirit realm channels the energy of the universe and there is an energy exchange etc. etc.
Does language limit us.... yes it does, in many ways, not just working with energy etc. but in everything in our lives. Being able to put language aside and meditate on our understanding will yield us greater understanding, but being able to pass that knowledge onto others is again limited by language.
As for our understanding evolving, of course it does. We are always evolving.
Love and Reiki Hugs
Answers:
Am quite happy to get into QED and science. Could you point me in the right direction, or give me a starter for 10?
As for a spiritual perspective, yep, fine.
Am trying to reconcile traditional understanding with modern scientific perspective. There will be gaps on boths sides I suspect, asboth are explaining the same thing from completely opposite sides, but there will be a meeting point, or a point whereby it is clear that "this" is the same as "that", but from different perspectives.
In addition, I'd like to know what people understand by energy. we all talk about it, but how many people don't actually know what they mean? (I am not suggesting that this applies to anyone here, but have attended enough courses where people use "energy" as a way of saying "I dunno why it works, but it does...so it must be energy". ask them to explain their position, and you get "well, its just energy").
Am not comfortable with that throwaway use of the term, it seems to me to devalue much of what we do.
Thanks
Meiah
Answers:
Energy isn't a concept - it is a fact everything is energy - in fact that is all it is. The problem we have with energy is that we try to define it or intellectualise it. We just have to accept that if you hit something with enough counter energy it breaks apart. That is why energy mass can be rearranged. For example we can be destroyed as physical bodies, but the energy that goes to make us up cannot it just gets dispersed. If I'm wrong on this I apologise and will bow to someone else's greater wisdom.
Using the energy that we are is a matter of focus. All thought is energy and whatever we focus on will become our reality, because that is where you are sending the energy and like a magnet the energy will attract what it is directed towards. Language is also a way of directing energy - so the way you use language also acts like an energy magnet in providing a chanel to be answered in the way that you use it (if that makes sense).
Answers:
Hi Meiah,
What is energy?
Everything in the universe is made up of energy, including the universe itself. Simply put, energy is data, information. This data is in the form of a vibration, and the frequency of this vibration determines it's physical state. So, for example, a table vibrates at a low frequency and therefore appears solid and robust-definately a physical object. Things like the aura and chakrasare energy vibrating at a high frequency, and therefore do not manifest as physical objects. They alsocannot be perceived by the physical senses, because thephysical senses are material of a lowvibration.However- thinking about it, some people say they can physically see auras around a person and I would attribute that to their sense of colour. Colour is a bit tricky in that sense, because it's not a physical thing, but not invisible either...somewhere in between the physical and metaphysical.
Answers:
Some easy reading (if your somewhat scientifically minded) would be John Gribbins books:
1) In Search of Schrodingers Cat (written in 1980's but still available)
2) Schrodingers Kittens (written in 1990's and still available)
He provides many references to variousphysicists work, but most notably in the line of QED would be:
QED by Richard Feynman
Hope that helps
Love and Reiki Hugs
Answers:
hi azalia..
i have to say that your definition matched my thoughts perfectly..
i love to read the interesting posts at this site and although i'm learning a great number of things, there are times when i have trouble keeping up.. LOL
thank you for your clear and informative description..:)
ali xx
Answers:
Hi Meiah
Spiritual creative energy is the fifth element, everything in the physical reality is made up of spirit plus one or more of the natural elements, earth, water, fire or air.
Answers:
Azalia - I am not sure that our physical senses can only percieve energy at a low frequency and therefore not the aura. It seems to me that when working with energy, ie during a Reiki treatment, we sense warm spots, cold spots, itchy bits etc in the aura with our hands. And so we can sense energy with our physical senses?
Thanks, Energylez, I'll look those out!!
Paul - could you explain that further please? By this, do you mean that spiritual creative energy is that which interacts with the other four elements to give form and purpose to their being? Or, another way, the knowing behind the being?
Meiah x
Answers:
Hi Meiah
Whenever anyone gets to the end of the physical, i.e looking in a powerfully microscope, you end up with large areas of nothing, you get the same thing when you look out to space, lots of stars with nothing in-between, the nothing is the spirit element.
Everything in the physical realm can be broken down into the basic building blocks, these will be made up of one or more of the physical elements of earth, fire, water and air, that is what science says anyhow, but there is the fifth element spirit which holds it all together.
Once we are aware of it, it then becomes more easy to interact with it, so yes we can sense the aura and energy centres etc.
This is the primary energy we work with when healing, the other elements or the elemental counterparts do have their place in healing though once we can get our heads round them :-)
Answers:
This is a whole new line of thinking for me, Paul. It instantly makes sense at one level, butdoesn't immediately tie inwhat i "know" at other levels. How can I find out more about this way of looking at energy? and the way that we consciously / subconsciously interact with it?
Meiah x
Answers:
Hi Meiah [sm=wave.gif]
You said: Hmmm. Maybe this is where people are going to disagree then, because we all perceive energy through the "senses" in different ways. Personally I don't experience heat or cold when giving a treatment- when I do feel thingsI don't actually 'feel' them, I just 'sense' them. It's more like an'impression'thatI get rather thana sensation. (This is where the barriers of the english language are inhibiting me somewhat in my description-sorry!)
An example of this was when I was giving healing to somebody and they remarked afterwards that they had felt a heat from my hands but wondered how this could be, since my hands were touching them at the time, and were cold. It seemed (and these are my own words here) that she felt a coldness from my hands touching her shoulders at a physical level, but at the same time felt a gentle, vibrating heat. My interpretation of this would be that she was getting kinesthetic sensation from my hands at both a physical level and an energetic, non physical level.She mentioned that at first she just noticed the cold, but then 'on top' of that, was the heat. When I asked which felt stronger she said shecouldn't tell, because a) she couldn't work out howhot and cold could exist at the same time, and b) each sensation was very distinct from eachj other, but neither one was 'stronger' than the other because they were both so "different".
Something else that I can think ofin this vein is blind people, who have been blind from birth.They can't see (obviously!) but nevertheless have a conception of what colour-e.g 'blue' is for example. Now, their blue and our blue isvery different, but at the sametime very similar- if you relax enough, you can 'feel' the colour blue too. Try it! Close your eyes, therefore blocking off the physical sense of sight, and try and 'experience' blue. It probably won't be as distinct as the visual blue, but it's still there. This is what I was trying to get at earlier in my post: when we sense heat, initially we think of feeling heat with the physical senses. But- when I feel heat, I'm not feeling it physically, but rather just gaining the impression of heat, rather like what I'd feel if I just imagined heat, without physically feeling it.
Hope that makes sense!
Answers:
In Chi Kung (Qigong), they work with five elements, Earth, Fire, Water, Air and Wood. (hope I've recalled that correctly [&:]). Perhaps if we were to say that the spirit element is the zero'th (0th) element then that allows for the other element models to come after it? Just a thought. ;)
Love and Reiki Hugs
Answers:
Hi Giles
Yes there are a few different interpretations, but wood is made up of spirit, earth and water, it also relies on fire as in sunlight to exist in its natural state that is as a live tree.
They could be referring to the tree of life, which is not a physical tree to represent the unknown spiritual element?
Spirit is misunderstood, so it is often put as one of the other elements, as well as the main five elements there are lots of other elementals, but they are usually made up of the five main ones.
You might find it informative to look up transmutation, this was used by the alchemists, though what they where doing was again generally misunderstood, as they where looking for personal transformation and the changing of leadinto gold was an internalspiritual process, though some did apparently learn to creatively manifest elements into the physical!
Are we all referring to the same thing, but using different language?
To what extent does our language limit how we work with energy, and our understanding?
Does our understanding evolve as the way that we connect to energy evolves?
Answers:
Meiah,
Now there's a tricky question. :D
In "everyday terms" we could say that energy is the self-interacting force that causes everything in the universe to function.
If you want to get more detailed and talk about how it works then you're going to start getting into the realms of science and quantum electro dynamics (QED for short). Or you could look at it from a spiritual perspective in which case the "way it works" could be described in any number of ways such as the spirit realm channels the energy of the universe and there is an energy exchange etc. etc.
Does language limit us.... yes it does, in many ways, not just working with energy etc. but in everything in our lives. Being able to put language aside and meditate on our understanding will yield us greater understanding, but being able to pass that knowledge onto others is again limited by language.
As for our understanding evolving, of course it does. We are always evolving.
Love and Reiki Hugs
Answers:
Am quite happy to get into QED and science. Could you point me in the right direction, or give me a starter for 10?
As for a spiritual perspective, yep, fine.
Am trying to reconcile traditional understanding with modern scientific perspective. There will be gaps on boths sides I suspect, asboth are explaining the same thing from completely opposite sides, but there will be a meeting point, or a point whereby it is clear that "this" is the same as "that", but from different perspectives.
In addition, I'd like to know what people understand by energy. we all talk about it, but how many people don't actually know what they mean? (I am not suggesting that this applies to anyone here, but have attended enough courses where people use "energy" as a way of saying "I dunno why it works, but it does...so it must be energy". ask them to explain their position, and you get "well, its just energy").
Am not comfortable with that throwaway use of the term, it seems to me to devalue much of what we do.
Thanks
Meiah
Answers:
Energy isn't a concept - it is a fact everything is energy - in fact that is all it is. The problem we have with energy is that we try to define it or intellectualise it. We just have to accept that if you hit something with enough counter energy it breaks apart. That is why energy mass can be rearranged. For example we can be destroyed as physical bodies, but the energy that goes to make us up cannot it just gets dispersed. If I'm wrong on this I apologise and will bow to someone else's greater wisdom.
Using the energy that we are is a matter of focus. All thought is energy and whatever we focus on will become our reality, because that is where you are sending the energy and like a magnet the energy will attract what it is directed towards. Language is also a way of directing energy - so the way you use language also acts like an energy magnet in providing a chanel to be answered in the way that you use it (if that makes sense).
Answers:
Hi Meiah,
What is energy?
Everything in the universe is made up of energy, including the universe itself. Simply put, energy is data, information. This data is in the form of a vibration, and the frequency of this vibration determines it's physical state. So, for example, a table vibrates at a low frequency and therefore appears solid and robust-definately a physical object. Things like the aura and chakrasare energy vibrating at a high frequency, and therefore do not manifest as physical objects. They alsocannot be perceived by the physical senses, because thephysical senses are material of a lowvibration.However- thinking about it, some people say they can physically see auras around a person and I would attribute that to their sense of colour. Colour is a bit tricky in that sense, because it's not a physical thing, but not invisible either...somewhere in between the physical and metaphysical.
Answers:
Some easy reading (if your somewhat scientifically minded) would be John Gribbins books:
1) In Search of Schrodingers Cat (written in 1980's but still available)
2) Schrodingers Kittens (written in 1990's and still available)
He provides many references to variousphysicists work, but most notably in the line of QED would be:
QED by Richard Feynman
Hope that helps
Love and Reiki Hugs
Answers:
hi azalia..
i have to say that your definition matched my thoughts perfectly..
i love to read the interesting posts at this site and although i'm learning a great number of things, there are times when i have trouble keeping up.. LOL
thank you for your clear and informative description..:)
ali xx
Answers:
Hi Meiah
Spiritual creative energy is the fifth element, everything in the physical reality is made up of spirit plus one or more of the natural elements, earth, water, fire or air.
Answers:
Azalia - I am not sure that our physical senses can only percieve energy at a low frequency and therefore not the aura. It seems to me that when working with energy, ie during a Reiki treatment, we sense warm spots, cold spots, itchy bits etc in the aura with our hands. And so we can sense energy with our physical senses?
Thanks, Energylez, I'll look those out!!
Paul - could you explain that further please? By this, do you mean that spiritual creative energy is that which interacts with the other four elements to give form and purpose to their being? Or, another way, the knowing behind the being?
Meiah x
Answers:
Hi Meiah
Whenever anyone gets to the end of the physical, i.e looking in a powerfully microscope, you end up with large areas of nothing, you get the same thing when you look out to space, lots of stars with nothing in-between, the nothing is the spirit element.
Everything in the physical realm can be broken down into the basic building blocks, these will be made up of one or more of the physical elements of earth, fire, water and air, that is what science says anyhow, but there is the fifth element spirit which holds it all together.
Once we are aware of it, it then becomes more easy to interact with it, so yes we can sense the aura and energy centres etc.
This is the primary energy we work with when healing, the other elements or the elemental counterparts do have their place in healing though once we can get our heads round them :-)
Answers:
This is a whole new line of thinking for me, Paul. It instantly makes sense at one level, butdoesn't immediately tie inwhat i "know" at other levels. How can I find out more about this way of looking at energy? and the way that we consciously / subconsciously interact with it?
Meiah x
Answers:
Hi Meiah [sm=wave.gif]
You said: Hmmm. Maybe this is where people are going to disagree then, because we all perceive energy through the "senses" in different ways. Personally I don't experience heat or cold when giving a treatment- when I do feel thingsI don't actually 'feel' them, I just 'sense' them. It's more like an'impression'thatI get rather thana sensation. (This is where the barriers of the english language are inhibiting me somewhat in my description-sorry!)
An example of this was when I was giving healing to somebody and they remarked afterwards that they had felt a heat from my hands but wondered how this could be, since my hands were touching them at the time, and were cold. It seemed (and these are my own words here) that she felt a coldness from my hands touching her shoulders at a physical level, but at the same time felt a gentle, vibrating heat. My interpretation of this would be that she was getting kinesthetic sensation from my hands at both a physical level and an energetic, non physical level.She mentioned that at first she just noticed the cold, but then 'on top' of that, was the heat. When I asked which felt stronger she said shecouldn't tell, because a) she couldn't work out howhot and cold could exist at the same time, and b) each sensation was very distinct from eachj other, but neither one was 'stronger' than the other because they were both so "different".
Something else that I can think ofin this vein is blind people, who have been blind from birth.They can't see (obviously!) but nevertheless have a conception of what colour-e.g 'blue' is for example. Now, their blue and our blue isvery different, but at the sametime very similar- if you relax enough, you can 'feel' the colour blue too. Try it! Close your eyes, therefore blocking off the physical sense of sight, and try and 'experience' blue. It probably won't be as distinct as the visual blue, but it's still there. This is what I was trying to get at earlier in my post: when we sense heat, initially we think of feeling heat with the physical senses. But- when I feel heat, I'm not feeling it physically, but rather just gaining the impression of heat, rather like what I'd feel if I just imagined heat, without physically feeling it.
Hope that makes sense!
Answers:
In Chi Kung (Qigong), they work with five elements, Earth, Fire, Water, Air and Wood. (hope I've recalled that correctly [&:]). Perhaps if we were to say that the spirit element is the zero'th (0th) element then that allows for the other element models to come after it? Just a thought. ;)
Love and Reiki Hugs
Answers:
Hi Giles
Yes there are a few different interpretations, but wood is made up of spirit, earth and water, it also relies on fire as in sunlight to exist in its natural state that is as a live tree.
They could be referring to the tree of life, which is not a physical tree to represent the unknown spiritual element?
Spirit is misunderstood, so it is often put as one of the other elements, as well as the main five elements there are lots of other elementals, but they are usually made up of the five main ones.
You might find it informative to look up transmutation, this was used by the alchemists, though what they where doing was again generally misunderstood, as they where looking for personal transformation and the changing of leadinto gold was an internalspiritual process, though some did apparently learn to creatively manifest elements into the physical!