The human body perceives the world through its five senses. Beyond the sensory inputs of touch, smell, sight, sound, and taste that operate through the physical body, there are the faculties of thought and feeling, which operate separately from the physical, through the energy body.
The energy body is attached to the physical body. It downloads its inputs through the chakra points of entry in the physical body, which are then interpreted through the central nervous system and the brain.
the physical tree…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel
The energy body and the physical body operate as a single unit during the day. However, at night they separate. As the physical body sleeps, the energy body leaves. It remains attached to the physical body by a cord, while it goes off into other dimensions of experience, i.e. into the astral world, where it interacts with other energy bodies also operating on a similar frequency. Dreams may often reflect the residual memory of these beyond-the-physical-body escapades.
We experience the separateness and autonomy of the physical body and the energy body, very distinctly, when we drive a car. As we drive, the physical body perceives the physical stimuli of the road; stop signs, other cars, pedestrians, weather conditions, etc. Meanwhile, the energy body may be miles or dimensions away, as it lives or relives experiences in its thoughts and feelings.
Accidents are frequently caused by too great a separation of these two bodies. Disasters can occur if the consciousness of the energy body, off in another world of thought, is suddenly required by the physical body. More consciousness than simple body memory is often required to navigate through some driving situations.
This bilocation of physical body and energy body is actually evident in all of waking life. If we pay attention, we might notice our thoughts and feelings taking us far away from our physical reality, as we drift through the day, in and out of virtual daydreams.
Under waking conditions of shock or trauma, the separation of physical and energy body may occur spontaneously. In such cases, this abrupt dissociation of bodies offers a protective measure to modulate the full impact of the trauma in vivo. The fuller integration of consciousness—seated in the energy body—with the events experienced by the physical body, may need to be postponed until the two bodies are ready to absorb and process the full truth of the traumatic experience. Thus traumas may be completely forgotten, only to emerge later as buried memories and/or psychosomatic pain.
In contrast, Shamans, Buddhists, and Hindus, as well as out-of-body explorers, cultivate the conscious use of Intent to willfully explore in the energy body, volitionally entering into the astral realm to prepare for a smooth transition beyond human life when the cord is cut between the human and energy body, as the physical body dies and the energy body moves on its own into infinity.
the energy body of the tree…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel
We can all cultivate a volitional exploration of the energy body in everyday life. Thoughts and feelings are energetic entities after all, messengers from our energy body that extend way beyond the confines of the physical. Everyone has had the experience of thinking of someone and then suddenly hearing from them or running into them. On Saturday, I ran into two people I hadn’t seen in years, but had thought of less than an hour earlier.
To put it simply: thoughts and feelings are magnetic energies that attract physical realities. This is the operating principle behind the Law of Attraction and Intent. All the major religions advocate this same principle in the use of prayer. Prayers are codified energetic intentions that attract energetic reactions from one energy body to another or to energetic entities residing at a much more sophisticated energetic level. Some people call this magnetic attraction, contact with God.
When we send out loving, compassionate intentions to others in the world, they are receiving, at some energetic level, the support of our messages. We are told to avoid the trap of attaching to outcome, to expectations for our prayers and intentions, but we must remain aware that these practices do have impact at some level. Even though we may not receive the desired outcome of our efforts, we must know that the intent has landed on target and will work in a way that is most appropriate.
Thoughts and feelings are subtle energetic messengers, as alive as you or I. They travel on an equally subtle interconnected highway of energy, much like the interconnected transmission of messages on the internet. The ability to hone where we place our attention and intention, as developed through the practice of meditation, develops our ability to take in thoughts and feelings with choice and to be equally choosy in how and what we transmit.
In other words, just as we can choose to explore with our energy body in dreaming, by intending to become aware, we can also choose to be equally focused and responsible in the use of our thoughts and feelings while awake, honing the messages we transmit along the energetic superhighway of our everyday world.
It’s all energy in the universe…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel
Am I sending a good and helpful message to so-and-so? Am I sending a positive message to myself? Is that a harmful thought? Is that a necessary or appropriate feeling to have right now? How will that thought or feeling impact everyone else in the room?
Knowing that our thoughts and feelings are energetically alive offers us entry into the energetic world of true reality, as well as a myriad of possibilities in the world of our energy body beyond this world. Subtle though it all may be, it’s not that hard to test. In the end, what matters most is deciding to use our thought and feeling energy wisely, responsibly, and compassionately, for ourselves and others.
With loving thoughts and feelings,
Chuck
