MYTHS AND TRUTHS ABOUT “ENERGY”

If you want to talk about something fluffy and vague, start a conversation about “energy.” My sense is that when it comes to energy, the majority of people seem to be highly superstitious and given to magical thinking. Maybe they’ve watched too many sci-fi movies! Now I am also a sci- fi buff and love movies about time travel, traveling faster than light, and the wonderful technology of the 25th century. Neat stuff. Yet there’s a difference. I’m crystal clear that it is all science-fiction! It is not reality. Sure, it would be fantastic if we could read-minds, levitate, exercise telekinesis and move objects through space, send energy through the ether, read remotely, etc.

Whether it is The Fantastic Four, or the X-men, or other sci-fi programs of haunted houses, channeling spirits, super-heros with wonderful powers, tapping quantum powers for controlling things— all of that is imaginative fiction. Now for the why question: Why are we so fascinated by such? Why are we so enamored by these possibilities? What attracts us to wanting such powers?

While there are numerous explanations, at the core it is within our nature to want to take control of our lives. Power, the “ability to do, to take action” is part and parcel of our nature. So imagining power in extremes seems innate to us. We are more human and more fully ourselves when we are empowered. When we are without power, when we are out-of-control —that is when we are dangerous to ourselves and others. It’s powerless people who launch revolutions to overturn things— they have less or nothing to lose.

So when we are humanly and adequately empowered, we are at our best— fully able to take effective action on the things that are important to us. And as noted in the previous article, this is an aspect of our response power. When we access and develop our innate powers (of thinking, framing, believing, emoting, speaking, acting, etc.) then we are able to take control of our lives and forge a life and a future that fits with our potentials. Then the energy of our powers works to support our life.

De-Mystifying “Power” and “Energy” Linguistically, the word “energy” is a nominalization. That means that while it sounds like a noun and refers to a thing, it does not. So lets do what we do in NLP with nominalizations— de- nominalize our terms. Let’s question the vagueness of these terms as false nouns in such a way that we can discover the actual processes which the terms are referring to. That’s because underneath or within the term is a hidden verb. It does not refer to a true noun (a person, place, or thing). Instead it is referring to a process and usually a conceptual process. This is the way it is with energy and power— two nominalizations.

What is energy? The word energy comes from the Latin energia comes from a Greek word (energeia) that is made up of two smaller words: en (in) and ergon (work). So what is energy? It is an activity (influence, force) that works inside of something. “Power” is defined as “the ability to do” something or act in a particular way, especially as a faculty or quality.

What are the recognized and demonstrable forms of energy? Actually, “energy” has a number of different forms, all of which measure the ability of an object or system to “work” on another object or system. This means that there are different ways in which an object (or a system) can possess energy. So in terms of the physical energies that we experience, “energy” comes down to certain physical basics of chemistry, electricity, gravity, and kinetics. These are the facets of energy that exist in the world. And obviously, there are whole disciplines devoted to understanding and working with them.

Isaac Newton studied physical energy in terms of motion, speed, acceleration and created the basic “laws of energy” that we still use for macro-level experiences.

Chemical energy (chemistry) starts with the study of elementary particles, atoms, molecules, substances, metals, crystals and other aggregates of matter. The interactions, reactions and transformations result from the interaction between different chemical substances or between matter and energy. A chemical reaction is a transformation of some substances into one or more other substances. Energy and entropy considerations are invariably important in chemical studies. Chemical substances are classified in terms of their structure.

The glucose (blood sugar) in your body is said to have "chemical energy" because the glucose releases energy when chemically reacted (combusted) with oxygen. Your muscles use this energy to generate mechanical force as well as heat. Chemical energy is really a form of potential energy (microscopically) which exists because of the electric and magnetic forces of attraction exerted between the different parts of each molecule, the same attractive forces in thermal vibrations. These parts get rearranged in chemical reactions, releasing or adding to this potential energy.

Electrical energy is based on the forces that arise from the electromagnetic spectrum. Here energy as light is recognized as particles (electrons and dozens of sub-atomic particles) and waves. The energy of the electromagnetic spectrum describes the vibration of waves that show up in terms of our sensory-system, i.e., light, sound, sensation, smells, touch, etc.

What is the medium of the energy?

Every form of energy operates in a particular medium in which it functions. In that medium it increases, decreases, and is transferred. Korzybski ...

4) How is the energy transferred?

Does the energy, like electricity, go through a wire? Rubber, however, stops the transfer. We know that metal transfers heat much better than cloth.

5) What are the questionable forms of energy that people have postulated or invented?

Telekinesis, telepathy, channeling, therapeutic touch, levitating, mind-reading, remote reading, reading auras.