The Energy Body is a REAL Body!

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The Energy Body is a body

Summary

Many people, even in alternative occupations, are unclear about what energy is, our relationship to it, how to use it to heal, and how it relates personally to each of us. In this short article, I try to clear up some of these ideas in a way that can be used practically in daily life. This is a short introduction to the ‘energy model’ of life, or a kind of ‘vitalism’ as it used to be called.

Some people are very aware that they ‘possess’ an Energy Body, particularly people with a habit of self-awareness, or those who frequently ‘tune in’ to themselves (as women do more than men). Anybody who open-mindedly looks at the evidence of real enquiry and at their own experience will soon be led to the conclusion that we live in a world of energies, as energy beings. Even our physical bodies are a dense form of energy. And all this is well accepted, and proven, by science. Yet many mainstream scientists pretend that this is not true, because they have grown up with a mechanical worldview which will only be turned upside down if they admit to an energetic basis for life, as well as healing, thinking, memory, etc. So they cling stubbornly to the old mechanistic models derived from Newton’s laws, and also ignore the fact that Newton fully believed in an energy model. His laws applied to physical closed systems at a macro scale, and not to life systems, or to microscopic levels of reality.

The conscious universe

A quick example of proven science which goes way beyond the mechanistic model is Bell’s theorem of ‘non-locality’. Simply put, this states that whatever happens in any part of this universe is instantly registered in all other parts of the universe… or that location is irrelevant energetically, which is a fundamental notion of the ‘energy model’ I’m writing about here.

This single theorem is a major thorn in the side of the materialist view of this universe, and as such, is assiduously ignored by such people. In simple fact, it turns the mechanistic worldview on its head, period.

The implications of this ‘theorem’ are astonishing, including the fact that our universe is a universe of awareness, or consciousness, or energy. We are an indivisible, inseparable part of this energy universe, and seem to be designed to increasingly become aware of, or ‘include’ in our being (our consciousness), more and more of this universe. This process could be called evolution. It is also described as the ’perennial philosophy’. Furthermore we seem to be able (potentially) to accelerate our own evolution by working to increase our awareness or consciousness.

A later article will go into a more detailed ‘proof’ of these assertions, but for the moment, let me speak to those who are willing to allow the possibility of possessing an Energy Body, or who simply ‘know’ it is so… What is happening around the world is that ordinary people who can think for themselves are making up their own minds about these matters and as a result choosing energy-based understandings of healing, psychology, and the like. Just as in politics, power is moving away from the centralised model favoured by politicians and business interests, into a decentralised model, in which individuals publish and act and think and gather power independently for themselves.

Back to our main question… What does it mean to have an Energy Body?

The simple fact of the matter is that you and I have an ‘energy body’, which is shorthand for a very powerful and complex and life-sustaining entity, that has been called in the past the ‘etheric body’, the body of formative forces, the ‘life body’, the ‘chi body’, body of ‘prana’, etc. There are many names for this Energy Body, as most cultures and all spiritual traditions have had a direct understanding of its existence. Our western, rationalist culture is a glaring exception, but it could be argued, as Rudolf Steiner did, that this exception has been necessary in order to develop that very desirable rational capability in us, and the western habit since the ‘Enlightenment’ of excluding a recognition of the more subtle aspects of the human being was, for a while, helpful in that specific mental development.

Living and dead

The difference between a living body and a dead body is clear to anyone who has been in the presence of a dead body. “Lifeless’ means to be without a ‘life body’, it means that only the heavy matter of the physical body remains. The biochemistry and nervous activity of a living being are sustained and informed by the Energy Body. When it departs, there is nothing left to animate the many processes that make up life. You cannot just put all the chemicals of a human body together in a soup, or a body, and expect some ‘magic’ to animate them, as some suggest as a vague theory for the beginning of life. That ‘magic’ is the life force, and that life force is the substance of the Energy Body.

When we are conceived and born, we ‘inherit’ the beginnings of a physical body along with the germ of a life body, and the process of living is the process of growing into those bodies, which develop under the direction of the life body. That life body could also be thought of as a repository of blueprints for living, some of which act through the DNA and the many other processes involved in developing on this earth, such as healing a cut, growing teeth, making a baby. The life body is a body of wisdom, which has evolved over millions of years, and which, with the physical body it animates, contains and remembers the entire history of the race. A quick look at the stages of a baby’s growth in the womb will soon convince a doubter of that.

The life body is practically never encountered separate from the physical body, except in very special circumstances during certain spiritual initiations, in full-body anaesthetics, and of course, in death.

Changes in attitudes to the Energy Body

About 35 years ago in the early ‘70s, I studied acupuncture in the first course given in Australia, and learned quite a lot about the meridian system of energy channels, which interpenetrate the physical body and form a part of the ‘energy plumbing’ of the Energy Body. I remember that I could mention to hardly anyone the fact I was studying this oriental art/science, because I was usually confronted with guffaws or sniggers about my gullibility and even craziness in wasting my time on what was obviously a crazy hoax, which couldn’t possibly be true. Thankfully, things have changed a lot, and 3 decades later you’d have a hard time finding anyone who rejected acupuncture outright. It’s a cheering thought, but there is still a long way to go for a general acceptance of the fundamental nature and importance of the ‘energy model’ in our lives.

Many people have no doubt, however, that it is so, that energies are important, but as our culture and language has developed in deliberate ignorance of such notions, there seems to be no terminology, no tradition, no conceptual help - except at the forefront of physics, which most people avoid as irrelevant to their lives (and who can blame them?). What we do have is a mish-mash of ideas and words derived from other, older cultures, which are all talking about energy matters, but in a very dissonant cacophony due to cultural biases, local histories, different approaches and hide-bound religions. It is hard to distil it down to the basics, but it is possible, and we find that they are all pretty much in agreement on the basics. But for most in the west, it seems fractured and anachronistic, the domain of weirdos, artists and crazies, and thus can be neatly dismissed.

Some assertions about the Energy Body

The Energy Body is a real body with a real structure or anatomy, though this anatomy is considered ‘subtle’ simply because it’s invisible. The subtle anatomy of the Energy Body includes the system of meridians (the ‘meridian body’), the system of chakras, the energy duplicates of the various organs of the physical body, the thousands of ‘nadis’ (Hindu word meaning ‘energy channel’ or tiny meridian), the Sushumna, Ida and Pingala channels (central, left and right vertical channels), the ‘column of spirit’ through the central axis of the body, the ‘hara’ of the Japanese tradition (essentially the centre of gravity of the energy/physical bodies), and much more. The ‘Assemblage Point’, which is derived from the spiritual traditions of Central America, and has been explored by such writers as Carlos Castaneda and Taisha Abelar and Jon Whale is a lynch-pin of the Energy Body and extremely important in aligning the various ‘bodies’. I’ll also be writing some more about this soon.

The Energy Body can also ‘peel off’ versions of itself for temporary independent travel, as described by Robert Bruce in his excellent book ‘Astral Dynamics’.

The Energy Body is a real body, as real as the physical body. It is not a metaphor, or an idea, or a helpful construct, but a real body with the real structures mentioned above that just happen to be invisible when viewed with physical eyes, just as radio-waves are invisible and certainly exist. However, with training anyone can learn to see some of these structures, by learning how to see with their ‘energy eyes’. Many who work with energies such as alternative healers and Energy Psychologists give lip service to the Energy Body without really acting as if it were real, as if it were more of a map than a real territory. This makes their healing much more hit-and-miss and much less powerful, and indicates that they are confused about the real existence of the energy body, even in their own model.

To realise the Energy Body is completely real is to strengthen significantly the energy work that anyone does, as healer or client. And it allows us to develop ways of testing whether changes have really been made in the Energy Body, such as what I call ‘inner dowsing’, i.e., using your own energy responses and sensations to understand the world. This is like getting a second opinion about issues from your own Energy Body, your own source of wisdom. (More on this in a later article, and on this site elsewhere.)

To be clear that the Energy Body is real and to properly feel oneself entering it during healing is to strengthen tremendously the power of any healing received. Much energy healing and energy work suffers from the fact that clients (and healers) are not fully ‘inhabiting’ their Energy Bodies – to not be strongly in the Energy Body means that once cannot get the full power of a healing. Healing happens at the level of energy, i.e., at the level of the Energy Body. A similar comment applies to the recently fashionable ‘The Secret’ movie and book – much of what is said and recommended is fine, but a visualisation or affirmation is just a mental event if one is not in the Energy Body. If one is, the effect of any action is magnified in power and effect. Now it must also be said that some people naturally are in their bodies/Energy Bodies to a reasonable degree (for example, the speakers in the ‘Secret’ movie are apparently all of this type, whether they know it or not, hence their success) and so will naturally get the benefits of a fuller magnification of their efforts. But many people simply are not embodied or incarnated fully, having been frightened out of themselves (literally) when young. These people feel anxious and frightened, they are ‘beside themselves’ with worry or anxiety, and will remain so until they re-inhabit themselves. The physical and energy bodies need to be consciously inhabited, and they will continue to cause problems for us (illness, anxiety, etc.) increasingly until we wake up and engage with ourselves more deeply.

To enter the Energy Body, you need to enter fully the physical body. See my accompanying article on www.energy-body-work.com on how to enter the physical body and Energy Body for more details about this.

The Energy Body is also a ‘knowledge space’ or field, a noosphere, a ‘morphogenetic field’ as described by Sheldrake, which connects seamlessly with the Energy Bodies of all other beings of all kinds, or, said another way, with the Energy Body of the universe itself. At the level of this energy there is no distance effect – 1000 km distance or much more means nothing to the Energy Body. This is similar in concept to Bell’s Theorem of ‘nonlocality’ (see my previous comments on this) which seems to suggest the same effect, even into the physical.

How individual and group energies integrate

Our individual Energy Bodies are in fact a ‘subset’ of the Energy Body of the race, and of the earth itself, and so on outwards… Ken Wilber’s ideas about ‘holarchies’ apply here (see later article on this)

The Energy Body is also the field of memory, and nothing is ever forgotten. This is related to the ancient esoteric references to the ‘akashic record’ which is said to be a record of all events at all times. We have an individual akashic record, which again is just a subset of the overall record. (See the work of Erwin Laszlo for much more on this.) Evidence of this comes from experiments in hypnosis which show massive capability for recall of memory in hypnotised subjects. Going into hypnosis is a way of entering the Energy Body with the help/suggestion of someone else, and can be a bit dodgy due to the interference or imposition of another’s will.

The ‘unconscious’ of psycho-analytical fame, and the ‘subconscious’ in its various uses, and the ‘archetypes’ and ‘shadow’ of Jungian psychology are to be found in the Energy Body.

The ‘mental body’ and ‘emotional body’ are subsets of the Energy Body (for the sake of terminology and clarity).

Dismantling Energy Structures

The Energy Body is full of energy structures, both inherited as part of the human structure of the Energy Body, and formed in the process of living a life. These energy structures formed by us include: thoughts, habits, patterns of behaviour, neuroses, beliefs, etc. These can all be regarded as ‘energy structures’ in the Energy Body. Any of these ‘denizens’ of the Energy Body can be modified, adjusted, removed, dismantled (or grown, in the case of useful structures), with a resultant increased ‘flow’ or clarity or heightened energy in the Energy Body. My recently developed Energy Psychology process called ‘Freedom Now’ emerged out of this understanding, and it’s a method I show people how to use to actually dismantle or ‘scramble’ undesirable energy structures directly, structures like fear, anxiety, obsessive thoughts, bad habits, limiting beliefs, etc. Then, having deconstructed the unwanted structures, there are ways to reconstruct wanted structures, such as expansive thoughts, sense of abundance, etc.

The process of evolution and learning on a personal and collective level implies the ‘clearing’ of the blocked and blocking structures of the Energy Body, whether done using the ‘Freedom Now’ technique or any other way.

Dismantling collective structures and relationship issues

Groups of people who are reasonably clear personally can collectively identify energy structures in the Energy Body of the wider group and modify them – this helps to explain the power of group meditations and intention, such as Lynne McTaggart of ‘Living the Field’ does on http://www.livingthefield.com (which, by the way, you can participate in). On a reduced level, the same thing can be done within any relationship between any two (or more) people, if all involved are practised in doing so. This is a terrific shortcut to clearing issues in any relationship. If you find yourself with issues in your relationship, and both are willing to work on them, contact me to learn this method.

‘Bringing in’ new structures

Once an individual has developed a structure in the Energy Body, such as a ‘new’ idea, process, invention, etc., it becomes a ‘template’ which subsequently other individuals find it ever easier to access or ‘download’ – e.g., the calculus (Newton and Liebniz invented or ‘downloaded’ it at about the same time, then every scientist soon had it); and the ‘100^th monkey’ notion, in which a number of animals develop a skill, which suddenly starts to appear in other animals at a remote distance without any physical contact with the original discoverers.

Beliefs as structures of the Energy Body

Beliefs are structures of the Energy Body, and like all other structures are simply a work in progress, as beliefs are simply devices to help us make sense of the ever-increasing complexity of perception and thought that comes with evolution – the final state of all beliefs is the end of belief, and what takes its place is a simple ‘knowing’ or, in effect ‘being’. (I’m trying to write something about this interesting process at the moment—see here.) This is the same process that scientific hypotheses are subjected to in properly conducted science. The proposer of a model or theory must always be ready to dismantle it for either a more encompassing one, or eventually nothing at all.

At the end of this process, energetically, we will all cease to be sketchy ‘maps’ of the territory (which some call the universe or God or Being), as we currently are at this level of evolution, and we will become the territory itself. Maps will no longer be necessary. Another traditional way of saying this is that we as humans are microcosms of the macrocosm, and are always trying to bridge the gap to the Whole. Let’s hope we are succeeding!

Personally (and this is very theoretical, and perhaps is just another belief!), I would love to get to the point of having no more beliefs, because beliefs, even the best of them, seem to include some part of the universe and exclude other parts. Beliefs in the end also cause trouble by shifting the emphasis of existence to the mental sphere, where exclusion reigns supreme as the (lower) mind’s very nature is to exclude. It is the realm of ‘like, don’t like’, the realm of wishes and desires that eventually needs to be trained, either consciously (using the methods described on this site) or by slow attrition.

The ‘energy model’ goes a good way to explaining such phenomena as intuition, creativity, the paranormal, clairvoyance, dowsing, kinesiology, etc. (See separate article on the way.)

The lower mind as a ‘starter motor’

The normal conscious mind is rather like the starter motor and the Energy Body is the engine. The starter motor is designed to prime the engine and get it moving. It is not designed to operate as the prime mover of our lives, considering its low voltage! However it can be greatly strengthened and transformed, i.e., thinking can be made much more powerful if we train the mind by refusing to go along with the daily mental chatter, by learning how to focus on things exclusively when we want to (concentration), and other such training, such as developing a habit of observation.

In fact, the normal conscious mind (‘lower mind’ for short) can also be referred to as the ‘lower ego’, and this lower ego seems to be a basic obstacle all humans have to learn how to negotiate somehow. The lower ego is our main obstacle to evolution and self-development, and the best way to overcome it traditionally is to inhabit the physical and Energy Body, whether by martial arts, meditation, mindfulness, or direct awareness. The lower ego is actually composed of all our self-sabotage, bad habits, neuroses, rigid thinking, etc., and is very conservative, in that it does not want to be modified in any way. It also is determined to make us believe that it is us, and continues to hijack our experience and lives in every way it can. The lower ego is the main obstacle to our inhabiting ourselves more deeply, i.e., being fully in the Energy Body.

Thus when you do begin to dismantle some of these lower ego structures, say by using the process of ‘Freedom Now’, the lower ego begins to feel it is being ‘killed’ or at least disempowered and resorts to all kinds of ‘mental tricks’ to stop you continuing. This leads into a discussion of the many ‘mind tricks’ - see a later article on this.

Once you do inhabit your Energy Body, you begin to feel much that you never felt before, physically, energetically and emotionally. You begin to become aware of sensations, movements, and energy flows, and you also become aware of feelings of blockage, tension, tightness, numbness, and other indications of ‘stuck energy’ in the body and Energy Body. You begin to align your physical body, energy body, mental body and emotional body, so that they start to move in the same direction more often, rather than taking off individually in a number of directions.

I could go on! But I’ll quit while I’m ahead. I think that may give some food for thought or action to some people. If you have any questions about this, or contributions of any kind, please send them in. I’m working on a number of articles relating in various ways to the topics mentioned here.

In the end, it’s just a model, and a model is only as good as the results it gets.