Energy

I’ve been thinking a lot about energy lately.  My chronic neck pain was being more…well…chronic than usual.   I happened to be going to see my doctor anyway so I asked him what I should do.  I should explain that my doctor is no ordinary licensed drug pusher.  He is a certified homoeopathist, which means that he much more apt to offer an herbal remedy rather than a pharmaceutical one.  Moreover, he’s more likely to order some diet or lifestyle change that anything.  I think most of his patients ignore him when he does this, because he always seems a bit surprised when I follow his advice.

Back to my back.  So, I wanted to address my pain and I asked him if I should see a chiropractor, acupuncturist or a masseuse.  He suggested the masseuse, which seemed like a win for me because I love a good massage.  It so happened that of one of the two people he recommended I had already sampled the work on one of them.  She does Shiatsu massage, which (near as I can tell) means that she combines the concept of acupuncture with massage.  What the hell does that mean?

The Chinese have the theory that there are energy lines that run through the body.  These lines deliver information of a sort to the cells that control body functions.  Sometimes, these energy lines get blocked.  They can be blocked by emotional issues, physical conditions or even spiritual distress.  Basically, if your life gets out of balance in any way, you can suffer energy blockage.  When this happens, bad things happen:  illness, pain, stress, emotional discomfort.  Chiropractors, acupuncturists and masseuses all use different techniques to free trapped energy.

The western medical world has heretofore considered energy medicine quackery.  In the last 10 years, the evidence has been mounting against this view.  The tide is beginning to turn.  Energy medicine is on the rise.  What will it all mean?  People figured out how to manipulate the body’s energy along time ago, but they have never really understood what’s going on at the cellular level.  Now, for the first time, we are exploring all the scientific nuances of the nature of energy’s role in bodily function.

It’s hard to imagine what we will ultimately learn about the body’s energy.  Is there just one type of energy in our bodies or are their multiple types?  If we manage to develop equipment that measures one or more types of energy in the body, will we be able to use it to measure that same type of energy elsewhere in the universe?  If we can, where will it show up?  Will this open the door for understanding the fundamental nature of energy any better than we do now?

Our first experience with energy was fire: fire from the Sun and fire from the Earth’s core.  Our science is pretty advanced when it comes to thermodynamics.  But, are there other, non-thermal, types of energy out there?  Our sense of touch allows us to sense thermal energy, but what if there are other types of energy that our five senses don’t offer any access to?  How can we experience anything in the universe for which we have no sensory apparatus from which to extend our perception?

Some people claim to be able to see auras around people’s bodies.  Maybe our brains have untapped sensory capabilities.  The good news is that we seem to be on the path to discovery.  Hopefully, it’s just a matter of time before we find something.  How exciting would it be to live in a time when the fundamental nature of the universe exposed and the very foundation of our beliefs were altered?  I hope I last that long.  That’s why I’m going to let energy medicine practitioners help me along – however primitive their craft.

Postscript: I am finishing this blog at 2 am in the morning because we lost energy in the house and I had to get up to switch us to our backup power.  Oh well.