I guess I've kind of got two different angles on this question.  The first
came when I was talking to font a little while back, and she mentioned
something about energy, and afterwards I realized I had given her a bit more
of a skeptical look than was warranted without really understanding what she
was talking about.  In that case, she was talking about magical energy - also,
though, there are techniques in stage combat that I've run across that tend
to be described in terms of physical energy, and of 'sending energy' in a
direction without actually moving.


So it occurred to me both times that I really didn't even understand what was
meant by 'energy' in either of these cases - whether they're related, or just
given the same name by coincidence.  But, in both cases it's been something
I've been trying to understand without success for some time.
Okay, so it's a bit of a big question, but what _is_ this 'energy' stuff
anyway?

(Something tells me this is kind of like 'explain color to a blind man', but
what they hey...)

20 responses total.

Well! Life in this conference, whaddya know!  And an interesting
question, besides.

I think your stage combat example is dead on- it's about being able to
intensify your "presense", your "aura" if you will, in a particular direction-
Consider the person wh seems to take up an outsized amount of space for their
apparant physical size, or another person who's damn near invisible, they
take up so little space.
"Energy" is vitality- it's "life energy"- it might be electro-magnetic in
nature.  It's not something that we can measure easily, although I think 
that cutting-edge paranormal research has been able to document some stuff
which not too many years ago was considered conjectural at best.  
Beyond such generalities, I think it' more like describing water to a fish
than like describing sight to a blind man; invisible by its ubiquitousness
rather than by being alien.  But different people use different sensory
translators- some folks "see" auras, some "feel" pressure or temperature or
a tingling or sense of resistance, smome might even "hear" a vague crackling
or whine although I don't recall hearing of anyone like that.   So it can
be a matter, like learning to read, of having changes in energy- your own
or someone else's- pointed out by a person with greater experience until you
find your own way of percieiving and interpreting it.

Gee, describing water to a fish would be like... describing air to a person.
=}
Seriously, have you ever been sitting in a room, doing something, when
suddenly you feel like there's somebody behind you, even though you haven't
heard anything, and there *is*? If so, you've most likely picked up 
on auras... 

Yes, but there have been just as many times, if not more, when that
impression's been false, or when I haven't noticed someone who really was
there.  My sense of it has been more like: you get random impressions every
once in a while, and eventually one's going to be right.

I don't mean to sound as skeptical as I'm sounding...put another way, how do
I know what's 'real' and what's just random impressions?

(This is sounding more and more like an impossible question to me, really)

The learning process, like a kid learning to read, still applies; when a kid
first starts testing words, they guess wildly or make a good attempt, which
misses as often as it hits, at first.  With practice, they get to where they
do well except when tired, distracted, or faced with an unfamiliar font.  
Eventually, theire discernement becomes experienced enough to handle most 
things. 
In the same way, once you become aware that there are aspects to perception
beyond what's already familiar, there's a learning process which will enable
you to separate reality from fantasy, even internal reality from personal
fantasy.  Even so, when you're tired or ill, or emotionally off balance you'll
miss the obvious, and when you sense something without corroboration, it'll
be rather a long time before you can judge whether there's a long-distance
cause or whether it's just your head throwing red herrings at you.  OK?

Hmm...makes sense, I suppose...

Besides, just because there is nobody corporeal behind you, that doesn't mean
there's nobody behind you.,...

<grin>  I love reading this.  I will answer later, when I have thought about
it more.

(we're glad you approve) <g>

        Many cultures used to picture souls as small animals or human-
headed animals inside of one's self;  it's a cultural artifact that we think
in terms of energy.

well, I have thought about it...and I guess I feel that the energy thing is
really there (I only speak for myself) and it's a matter of practice and
attention paid. 

        It may be a perfectly valid internal way to represent something;
I just wonder what pre-electric and pre-radio people would think of it as.

Well, as far as I know, ley lines have been around since before electricity
(dunno if that's true or not...call me on it)...

What I mean is the consept of (or perception of..take your pick)...

Jazz does have a point, though, if I understand correctly - it would make
sense for people who didn't run across energy in the form of electricity, or
radio, to have different ways of imagining magical "energy"

   the analogy of streams and rivers comes to mind.

It's humerous, I am currently thinking about the pre-physics perception of
gravity:  Deamons trying to drag everything to hell.  
I wonder if this is a perversion of an earlier theory?

how about static? Certianly that's been around awhile...I mean, the perception
of it would be different, definately.  And lightening has been around a while,
too...:-P

re: 11- maybe "soul", or "ether", or a sort of cosmic glue.  The notions of
the "humours" would be tied to the perception of auras and how they differ.
There is a Chinese folk belief that a man's life-energy is in his semen and
there's a finite amount of it per person such that, if they can have sex but
never ejaculate they'll live forever- the funny bullet-shaped heads on some
chinese statues reflect that belief; the "life energy" is stored there. Hmmm.

Interesting.

        Herein "The Golden Bough" probes invaluable (if you can throw off the
Christian bias) in seeing our concepts in other contexts.  Aboriginal cultures
often percieved the "soul" as something vital to our being, but not
necessarily there all the time, which could voyage out ahead of us, lag
behind, be captured, or disappear - and many of these cultures percieved the
soul as a bird or as a small human in appearance.

        If two cultures percieve the seme thing so differently, and we accept
both to have some grain of truth, then we must accept our definition may be
but an approximation or metaphor.

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