Energy.  It has many forms and incarnations, some of which are known to the world at large, and some of which elude us in any definitive way, yet pervade our every waking moment.  Energy Work, as it has been called by many, is the conscious redirection and application of thought energy.  It holds great meaning to many, but to some it's superstitious nonsense.  In my many years of Energy Work, I have realized that many people who are quite proficient at it are only aware of it through faith and experience, akin to a religious belief.  In other words, they accept what most of us cannot see.  I, myself, am a skeptic.  When I first came across Energy Work, I thought it to be total nonsense.  Only after spending a considerable amount of time in study and theory was I able to draw the conclusions that I needed in order to open my mind to its influence, and ultimately attempt to understand its origins and composition.

Being naturally empathic, I have always been used to feeling the emotions of those around me.  I never related any of these experiences to energy, simply because I felt that it wasn't necessary for energy of a metaphysical origin to exist for me to be able to tune into others.  There is a daunting wealth of information that we do not currently know about the human brain, or even the nature of the universe, and I simply chalked it up to a part of my mind that was somehow more sensitive to the thoughts of others.  Later on in my life, I've realized that this attitude was a necessary stepping-stone to the realizations I've made in my life today.

Well, that of course brings us to the topic: What is metaphysical energy?  Does it exist?  If we have no way to scientifically record it with our technology - see it, smell it, taste it - what gives us cause to consider its existence?  These are hard questions when posed as anything vaguely spiritual, since so much of what is intrinsically spiritual defies scientific logic or application.  For many, this simply means it's a farce, some vagary invented by the deranged or religious to fill a gap of individuality, to provide meaning where there is none.

Being a skeptic, this was of course my initial approach.  How could I believe that some measurable spectrum or quantity of energy exists around me that I cannot see, gauge, or understand?  Was it necessary to have "faith" in this energy to see it, to understand it?  The clear answer I've come upon is a resounding no.

I was first made aware of thought energy when a good friend of mine began to use Reiki techniques to help alleviate my headaches and muscle strain.  He had offered several times before and I had refused him, telling him that I didn't buy into his "invisible healing energy".  Finally, I relented, after suffering a particularly bad migraine for about three hours. My eyes had become incredibly sensitive to light and the throbbing and nausea began to overwhelm me.

He had me lay down and began to pass his hands over me.  Being the skeptic that I am, I was very careful to breathe as I had been, and change nothing else (other than my physical positioning of course).  If this was going to work, I wanted to know exactly why.  I began to feel undulating waves of energy passing through my body, carrying my pain with it.  This energy was centered around his hands, so I immediately assumed the radiant heat was having an effect on my skin, and that soft warmth was causing some kind of reaction in me.  I expressed this thought to him, and with a smile, he immediately began to radiate an intense cold through me, with the same effects as the first wave.  This caught my attention, because it refuted my theory and made me examine my perception of what was happening.  After about ten minutes of this, my headache was gone, and I was left with many questions about the nature of what had been done to me.

I began a process, which lasted nearly a year, to understand the nature of this energy, and to understand not only what metaphysical energy is, but how it exists and interacts with the world around us.  Since, as I stated before, most information that can be found on the subject of metaphysical energy is of questionable scientific merit, I decided that there was a set of assumptions I would have to make about this energy if I intended to cogitate on a cohesive theory.

• Thought energy, if it exists, may be like many other bands of energy that we cannot detect with our senses such as radiation, radio waves, and many others.  The simple fact we cannot detect it or record it may simply mean it exists in a spectrum that we currently cannot observe (much like radiation and other forms of energy must have appeared to early scientists)
• Those who are adepts at using thought energy and energy work have trained themselves to use and harness it.  How do the energy of an untrained person and a trained person differ?  Is this effect measurable?
• What creates this energy?  Energy is a constant in our universe. Any physics student can tell you that the law of conservation of matter and energy states that energy/matter cannot be destroyed; it simply changes from one form to another. Does thought energy share this property?

As you can see, I had many tough obstacles to overcome in order
to understand the nature of an invisible force, especially since that force may have spiritual ramifications.  The majority of the information I knew I'd be able to gather would hardly be scientific.  With this in mind, I created a logical progression to help me understand this energy. What follows are conclusions I was able to reach through observation, self-study, and contemplation:

• Spiritual energy/thought energy adheres to the law of matter/energy conservation.  It is not destroyed or created; it simply changes forms.  Energy can be scattered, formed and cohesive, inactive (if thoughts and emotions aren’t currently affecting it in any way), and it can be focused and directed, as it was in my experience with the headache.
• Spiritual energy/thought energy must adhere to the law of complexity. I can cut a glass with a diamond because the diamond’s structure is far more dense and complicated, and by the same token I can overwhelm a bandwidth of radio waves with either a stronger signal or a far more complicated one on the same frequency.  Thought energy gets its complexity from conscious and unconscious thought and emotion.  It is assumed because of this property that people familiar with energy work can raise "shielding" around themselves.  By consciously focusing on its existence the energy becomes more complicated and dense, and prevents incoherent or coherent energy from passing through it.

That last observation was an important one.  The human mind is in essence a large bio-electric computer.  The brain emits waves of discernable measurable energy that can be recorded in many ways, one of which is an electroencephalogram (EEG).  It is not hard to make the leap that there are bandwidths and types of energy emitted by the mind that we cannot yet detect, considering that we know so little of the human mind, and have such a rudimentary understanding of the nervous system.  This was the tiny leap I had to make in order to form a good thesis as to the nature of metaphysical energy and its effect on us and the world around us.

When we have an emotion, there is a physiological response, and an electrochemical response.  It is not hard to fathom that this phenomena emits a type of energy, or more specifically, that the mind affects the waves of energy that flow outward from us, somewhat like a large object being dropped into a lake.  The ripples that channel away from us can be felt by those with increased sensitivity.  Finally, I had come across a logical explanation for my empathy!  I was compelled to look more into the effects of this energy and its existence.  I was finally getting somewhere.

Energy pervades us, but thought energy must gather around those with the conscious ability to think and reason.  This energy would then change in intensity and composition to reflect the thoughts, emotions, and "energy history" of a being - hence the idea of an aura.  One by one, the building blocks began to fall into place.  The psychic phenomenon that science has been at a loss to explain begins to reveal itself on a grander scale.

Object reading would then begin to make sense.  If an object is near a person or an intense experience, it would be soaked in cohesive thought energy.  If a person is sensitive to this energy, then they can come in contact with the object and "feel" the experiences the item has been subjected to, and they can form a picture of its use or possessor.

Finally, Vampirism, as it is crudely called, and I say "crudely" simply because of the connotations the media and the world at large have placed on this term, falls into focus as well.   Individuals whose thought patterns create a void within are driven to feed on the energy of others in order to stabilize their own energy.  This is “psi” vampirism, or pranic vampirism as it is sometimes called, borrowing from the eastern traditions of prana (life energy).  Being around individuals like this who are unaware of their condition can make one feel drained, sleepy, or even irritated for no reason whatsoever. They deplete the natural thought energy that a person has unconsciously accumulated.  If a person with this problem doesn't "feed", there can be physical manifestations, such as the headaches with which I used to often find myself plagued with.

The next question with vampires, of course, falls to the blood drinkers or "Sang" variety of vampires.  These individuals literally drink the blood of those who donate to them, consuming for pleasure, or need.  Why the blood?  Well, if I had to apply the same scientific assumptions I've made in the rest of this essay, I’d say it’s because blood travels through every part of the body and is exposed to every bit of it, including the brain, and therefore has much more intense energy associated with it.  It exists behind the natural wall we all erect, and therefore blood would be one of the most potent sources of this energy.

Since thought energy is an expression of the will and subconscious, even the act of allowing a person to make physical contact and feed may transmit this energy.  I would never presume to understand the exact nature of sanguine vampirism, as I am not one of them, but I have noticed that feeding on blood also seems to have the same effect as feeding on energy in my case.  Draw your own conclusions.

Since a mind’s ability to focus and direct energy is completely dependent on cohesive thought, concentration, and belief/awareness, my ability to look at metaphysical energy as a real force I can scientifically understand—instead of an invisible, unknowable force that possibly exists—has made my ability to work with energy much stronger, and has intensified my personal drive to explore. From all of these conclusions and my newfound relationship with energy, I have pursued its understanding with a renewed hunger.

Energy work has had much more meaning to me than it ever did before, and every day I come to new conclusions with the understanding that thought energy is more than mumbo jumbo; it's simply another one of nature's potent forces that many do not understand.  I hope this realization brings some of you into focus, and helps you all on the path of understanding we all aspire to walk.

Definitions

Reiki: A technique of energy healing that originated in Japan. It was imported to the United States through Hawaii. In Reiki, individuals are tuned to a source of universal life energy, and they are taught to channel this energy in order to heal others. Vampires report varying results with Reiki. Many are proficient in the energy techniques that form the basis of Reiki, but when it comes to using Reiki energy to sustain themselves, most vampires quickly learn that, though they might use Reiki energy to heal others, it’s another matter entirely to try to “eat” Reiki.

Empathy: By its classic definition, empathy is the ability to relate to and sympathize with another’s feelings. In a magickal or psychic context, however, empathy has come to describe the extrasensory perception of others’ feelings. Related in concept to telepathy, an empath is able to pick up on the energy of emotions, reading people far more accurately than even the most astute interpreter of facial expression and body language.

Electrical interference: A number of psychic vampires assert that they have an unusual impact on electrical devices in their immediate vicinity. Many uncontrollably drain watch batteries. Some regularly blow out light bulbs. Still others drain the batteries in cell phones and digital cameras. This particular side effect was demonstrated quite dramatically on A&E’s 2005 documentary The Secret Life of Vampires. While interviewing author Michelle Belanger in a Philadelphia park at dawn, the camera suddenly recorded a high-pitched whine and then went completely dead. A&E shouldn’t feel bad, though. A number of film crews have experienced similar problems when trying to interview Michelle.

~Used with the kind permission of the Author