Energy (esotericism)
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[[Image:Electro-metabograph machine.jpg|thumb|180px|Electro-metabograph machine]]
{{ redirect3|Subtle energy|For the mystical concept of psychospiritual bodies overlaying the physical body, see [[Subtle body]]}}
The term '''Energy''' has been widely adopted into the fields of spirituality, complementary medicine <ref name="NCCAM">{{cite web | url=http://nccam.nih.gov/health/backgrounds/energymed.htm | title=Energy Medicine Overview | author=The 'National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine |date=2006-10-13 }}</ref><ref name=Atwood>{{cite web | url=http://www.csicop.org/si/2003-09/alternative-medicine.html | title=Ongoing Problem with the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine | author=Kimball C. Atwood | publisher=Skeptical Inquirer magazine | date=September, 2003}}</ref>etc. to refer to a variety of forces, known and unknown, measurable and immeasurable, actual and putative, physical and spiritual, often, though not always, conceived as "fields" or subtle forms surrounding the earth or any living thing, supposed to be directly perceptible and accessible to the human mind as "rays", "fields" or "vibrations".<ref>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.</ref>
In many cases "energy" is conceived of as a universal life force: to this extent "spiritual energy" theories resemble scientific [[vitalism]]<ref>[http://skepdic.com/energy.html energy<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> and may even invoke the [[Luminiferous Ether]] of Victorian physics.<ref>Playfair and Hill op. cit.</ref> 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 Upanisads.<ref>[http://skepdic.com/energy.html energy<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> 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."'' <ref>Milton Klonsky, "William Blake: The Seer and his Visions", Orbis 1977.</ref>
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.<ref>Jonathan Locke Hart, "Northrop Frye: The Theoretical Imagination", Routledge 1994, Kathleen Raine, "Blake and Tradition", Routledge, 2002, Plato, "The Republic", trans. Desmond Lee, Harmondsworth.</ref> 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 [[heirarchy]] of "inner planes" or "subtle bodies".<ref>Mead, G. R. S. (1967). "The Doctrine of the Subtle Body in Western Tradition". Theosophical Publishing House. Onians, Richard Broxton. (1951). "The Origins of European Thought About the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time, and Fate". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.</ref>
It will be evident from the above that such an idea of energy, to the extent that it is expressed with rational rigour, may draw upon comparative religion, biology, physics, medicine or even all at once. Moreover, the status of any such idea may generally be assumed to be a matter of controversy. Further, many themes commonly discussed under this rubric are elaborated in Wikipedia in their own articles. All this being the case, these present remarks can be and need be no more than tentative. It is therefore intended that a list of such articles be compiled here, divided into general headings and commented upon only sufficiently to aid, hopefully, a primary orientation in this far-reaching matter.
===Bio-energy and field theories===
The success of the scientific Enlightenment's treatment of energy in natural science quickly led to attempts to study the energies of life, a process which at first derived much strength from [[Luigi Galvani]]'s neurological discoveries. Some, like [[Mesmer]], identified these energies with magnetism, others continued to assume that living organisms were constituted of special materials subject to special forces - a view which became known as [[vitalism]].
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 [[Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch|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]]
* [[Odic force]] of chemist [[Carl von Reichenbach]]
* [[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]]
===Scientific references===
Electromagnetism and living systems.
* [[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 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]]
* [[Magnetic resonance imaging]]
* [[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.
===Modern western psychotherapies===
(''See main articles'' [[Energy (psychological)]] ''and'' [[Psychodynamics]])
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|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]]
* [[IBP Integrative Body Psychotherapy|Integrative Body Psychotherapy IBP]]
* [[Myron Sharaf]]
There have also been attempts to align the psycho-analytic theories of [[C.G.Jung]] regarding the [[archetype]]s of the [[collective unconscious]] with the memory-like morphogenetic force-fields postulated by biologists like [[Hans Driesch]] and [[Rupert Sheldrake]].
* [[Psychobiology]]
* [[Evolutionary Psychology]]
===Energy Medicine===
Complementary interventions that depend on a form of energy, whether '''veritable''' (known to science) or '''putative''' (unknown to science).
''See main article'' [[Energy medicine]].
===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.
* [[Haunting]]s: Phenomena attributed to [[ghost]]s, also [[spirit]]s, [[fairies]], [[angels]], [[daemon]]s and [[demons]]. [[Ectoplasm (paranormal)]].
* [[Radiesthesia]]: Perception of biofields
===Dowsing===
Some dowsers talk about " earth rays".
* [[Dowsing]]
*[[Karl Spiesberger]]
* [[J. Francis Hitching]]
*[[Thomas Charles Lethbridge]]
* [[Divining rod]]
* [[Long range locator]]
* [[Michel Moine]]
===Earth Energy===
* [[Ley lines]]
* [[Earth radiation]]
* [[Geoglyph]]s
* [[Archaeoastronomy]]
* [[Cursus monument]]
* [[Glastonbury]]
* [[Telluric currents]]
* [[Earth's magnetic field]]
* [[Songlines]]
* [[Psychogeography]]
* [[Earth mysteries]]
* [[Aurora Borealis]]
* [[Geodesy]]
* [[Gaia hypothesis]]
===Chinese theories===
Chinese acupuncture theory states that [[acupuncture]]'s mode of action is by virtue of manipulating the circulation of '''[[qi]]''' energy through hypothesised [[Channel (Chinese medicine)|meridians]]. To the extent that acupuncture is regarded as efficacious in western medicine, its palliative effects are usually described as obtained physiologically by blocking or stimulating nerve cells and causing changes in the perception of pain in the [[brain]].<ref name="NCCAM2006-Acupuncture">{{cite web | url=http://nccam.nih.gov/health/acupuncture/ | year=2006 | publisher=National Institute of Health. | accessdate=2006-03-02 | title=Get the Facts, Acupuncture}}</ref> However the idea of qi is not confined to medicine: it appears throughout traditional [[east Asia]]n 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]]
* [[Channel (Chinese medicine)]] of [[Acupuncture]] - [[Shiatsu]] - [[Electroacupuncture according to Voll]]
===Indian vitalism===
* [[Prana]], [[Doshas]], [[Chakra]], [[Kosha]], [[Kundalini]] in Indian [[Ayurveda]] and [[Yoga]]
* [[Subtle body]] - the [[Etheric Body]] and [[Astral Body]] in [[Theosophy]]
=== Other Cultures===
* [[Holy Spirit]], [[Pneumatology]], [[Spirituality]]
* [[The Force (Star Wars)]]
* [[Egyptian soul]]
* [[Unani]]
* [[Mana]] in [[Oceania|Oceanic]] cultures and in anthropology
* [[Aether (classical element)|Aether]] or the quintessence of classical physics
* [[Holy Spirit]] in some branches of [[Christianity]], similar ideas in [[Islam]] and [[Judaism]]
* Qudra in Sufism
* [[Magic (paranormal)|Magical energy]] in various systems
* [[Mana]] in [[Oceania|Oceanic]] cultures
* [[Ghedee#Mbec|Mbec]] in [[Ghedee]]
* [[Silap Inua]] in [[Inuit mythology]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Spirituality]]
[[Category:Orgone energy]]
[[Category:Paranormal]]
[[Category:Vitalism]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience]]
[[de:Energie (Esoterik)]]
[[pt:Psicoenergia]]
[[ru:Энергия (эзотерика)]]