an Exploration of Subtle Energy

The subtle energy of life, or “life force” in western civilizations, has been described by many different cultures in each their own ways. If we travel to India, we will hear it described as Prana. Briefly, Prana is defined as the subtle, intelligent energy that moves through the body through the breath and the chakra energy system of the body. It can be cultivated and controlled through one of the Eight Limbs of Yoga known as Pranayama. Pranayama is a deep, spiritual study which involves many forms of breathing techniques that allow the practitioner to become deeply aware of Prana. A student will learn how to increase it, control it, and use it for their spiritual growth and physical wellbeing. Yoga Asana and Pranayama are very deep practices that stirred my own awakening to the subtle energy, Prana, moving throughout my body. At first, I could feel the coolness of this energy moving through me gently after my personal and in class yoga practices. It felt soothing and healing, and it was awakening me to Spirit. This continued until one day, I felt the energy coming out of the palms of my hands in what were in the size, shape and feel of soccer balls. In fact, this occurrence signaled the beginning of my spiritual path to becoming an Energy Healer, from which I am recently retired. (Just so you know, I retired as an Energy Healer in order to devote full time to my business, Evolve Aromatherapy, and following a spiritual calling to develop into an Evidential Psychic Medium. There are many good Energy Healers out there that can help you if you need one.)

Western scientists have been searching for ways to describe and investigate this subtle energy, or as they now generally refer to it as “life force”, scientifically.  It started back in the 1700’s with German born Franz Anton Mesmer, who termed it “Animal Magnetism”. Then another, German scientist, Baron Von Reichenbach, investigated subtle energy and named it the” Odin Force”. Wilhelm Reich, an Austrian scientist of the 1900s called it the “Orgone Force”.  It continues to be studied to this day with the rigorous testing of Psychic Mediums and Energy Healers out in Tucson, Arizona, USA. This research is led by Dr. Gary E. Schwartz at the University of Arizona’s Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health and has remarkable, verifiable results. You can web search his name or the Laboratory if you wish to learn more about his work. It is fascinating! Also - there are in fact 45 terms for subtle energy from all around the world and if you wish to learn more about them, please refer to this website: https://subtle.energy/life-force-energy-8-examples-from-around-the-world/

What I would like to share with you in this post is how subtle energy physically feels to a psychic, a medium, and an energy healer, which is based on my own experience working with these energies on almost a daily basis for almost 30 years. (If you are of a different, spiritual discipline, like Shamanism, I’d be interested to know if your experience of subtle energy is the similar or different to what I am going to describe herein and how it feels to you.) I have studied two forms of energy work, Touching Spirit LLC over 25 years and Reiki Usui School levels l and II over 2 years now. I am able to send energy remotely in Reiki II and have always been able to do so with Touching Spirit LLC. I will describe for you some of what I feel as I open to work with subtle energy. When I “open to Spirit”, I begin with my purposeful intention of doing so. This energy can be accessed and closed off when I am not using it, so I begin with allowing myself to open to it and receiving it. When I am done, I intentionally close down my access to most of it. When I do open to it, I can physically feel my energy system respond to my intention. The chakras, that I described in my earlier post about the energy system, begin to open, broaden, and lengthen, especially my 7th or Crown Chakra at the top of my head. A deep feeling of peace begins to envelope me as the subtle energy from Spirit begins to slowly permeate my entire being. It comes in through the top of my head, then it slowly moves down throughout my entire energy system, blending with my own subtle energies is it does. It also flows throughout all the cells in my body as it moves through my Chakra energy system.

 If I could use an analogy for how this feels it would be like the sun warming your body if you were standing on a beach. I would love for you to experience this with me. So, if you would, take a moment with me now and imagine that you are standing in the golden sunlight as its warmth radiates from the outside of your body inward until your body is completely warmed, nourished, and relaxed by it. In your mind, see yourself laying down on a soft towel in the sun-warmed sand and let yourself experience just how good it feels to your body, mind, emotions, and spirit to soak up all that soothing sunshine. Allow yourself to notice how deeply cleansing, comforting, and healing it is. Every part of your being is just melting and releasing any stress or tension you may have been feeling just moments ago and you are so relaxed you almost feel “boneless”. This feeling is very similar to what I experience when I connect to Spirit. What differs is my intention for the energy, which in one case is to be a conduit (think of a straw or a tube) for this Divine energy. The purpose for allowing the flow of this subtle energy through me would be for an energy healing for a human or animal client who’s subtle energetic frequency is not vibrating in a healthy manner. The frequency going through me is for creating a healthy frequency for their body, mind, emotions, and spirit to use to heal. Or, more recently, when my intention is to work as an Evidential Psychic Medium, the process is a bit different. I will relax deeply and let go of my own thoughts in order to become a vehicle for Spirit, sort of like a wireless cellphone or a car radio that tunes into different sound frequencies, in order to receive and then report/communicate messages. In this case, I am acting like a satellite dish transmitting information from a “transitioned” loved one in Spirit to a living loved one here on Earth. (Note: I prefer the term “transitioned” to deceased as from my experience as a psychic medium, I know that the person on the “other side” still exists even if they are not embodied in flesh.)

To go a little deeper into the physical experience of Subtle energy, there are different strengths and speeds of this energy that I would like to explain as well. This time let’s use sound waves as the analogy. So, let’s go back to the beach and aallow yourself to feel back into that deeply relaxed moment when you were just on the edge of sleep, warmed by the sun and the scent of the sea. The waves are rolling onto and off of the beach much like a soothing heartbeat. You can hear and physically feel the sounds and vibrations that the waves make as they hit the shore, reach towards you, and then recede into the ocean. You know in your bones when the wave, at its strongest, has a louder sound vibration and feel to it as it crashes downward onto the shore. There is more power in the wave, and it vibrates through you more strongly as it first hits the sand, but then its vibration softens as it spreads towards, and then away from you. A seagull’s cry cuts the air, sharp and high. You can feel this cry physically, too, as you are deeply relaxed and aware of what is you and what is not you. Someone on the beach near you turns the page of a book. You can hear the paper lifted by a finger and then smoothed down by a palm. You can also feel this simple sound and gesture, as you are so deeply relaxed and aware of all the sounds, movements, and vibrations all around you. This is what feeling the differences of subtle energy is like, and there are distinct differences in this energy that are palpable to someone who works with it. It is how an Energy Healer can feel when something is “off” in a client’s energy system and is where they will need to focus the healing energetic frequencies moving through them from Spirit. It is also how a Psychic Medium can “tune in” to a spiritual frequency of a soul. She first allows herself to be very relaxed, open, aware, and receptive to the very high frequencies that Spirit exists in. The Reader/Medium then uses his Chakra system to fine tune the information that he is receiving from Spirit into visual, tactile, emotional, auditory, and sensory information in order to report to the sitter, who came for the reading, who the Spirit communicator or soul is and what they want to share with their loved one here on Earth.

 As ineffable or impossible as it may seem to some of you reading this right now, I believe that this subtle, spiritual energy is something that can be accessed by you, me, and anyone who is interested in learning about it. But, just like learning to play the piano, the beginning can have its hits and misses. Learning anything new and exciting takes practice starting with the basics and working up to the subtleties or artistry if you will. Learning anything well takes dedication, passion, and lots of practice. So, if you want to learn to play the piano or work with subtle energy as a professional, expect to need to practice until you can play or work at a masterful level. You will need to learn new words, ideas, and skill sets. You will gradually grow your capacity to handle more and more information and different energetic levels. You will also need to do your own healing work to become as clear and open a channel for this subtle energy that you can possibly be. And the learning is an ongoing process, even if you are a professional. Yes, there are child prodigies in this field, like any other, but mostly there’s a lot of us out there who had to or are currently learning to play all the energetic “scales” just like a pianist has to do, though we generally start out in group classes with other students like ourselves. Working with subtle energy can be an interest or a calling depending on the direction you, yourself, choose to take it in. Either way, it is illuminating and can be a fascinating part of your life’s journey and spiritual study.

I hope that this has helped you to gain a bit of an understanding of what Subtle Energy is and what it feels like. We, and anything we could name, are all made from it and it is in the very air we breathe. If you only want to learn to feel this energy to just be able to recognize it, there are introductory classes and lots of teachers available to you, probably even one close enough to drive to, and certainly hundreds of them online. If this interests you, I invite you to explore what is out there with curiosity and an open mind, but please remember to take your common sense and intuition – that gut feeling – with you. Stay grounded in your body as you connect to Spirit, and in choosing any potential teachers, so you can make the best, thoughtful, and self-informed choices for your personal growth and for your highest good.

Namaste,

Jean 🌱