Energy transfer

[exchemist]

What is spiritual energy?

Search me. It was you that mentioned it in the OP.

 

[exchemist]

You're not. The OP was a reflection of a TED Talk. The speaker said we were all energy-but he did it from a brain neuroscientific perspective. I'd have to watch it a couple of times to get what he meant. I assume whatever energy keeps the body functioning its true of the brain as well.

Perhaps if you can link to a video of the TED talk in question and tell us how many minutes in the speaker says this, we can work out what was meant.

The body is a biochemical system and most of what goes on in it is biochemical reactions, so the energy in question is most likely chemical energy of various molecules in the cells. If those reactions cease, we are dead, so in that sense our existence, as sentient beings rather than lumps of flesh and bone, depends on them continuing.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Search me. It was you that mentioned it in the OP.

I have to learn to write shorter OPs : If there is a spiritual energy, I wouldn't know where to begin to address the nature of it.

 

[exchemist]

I have to learn to write shorter OPs : If there is a spiritual energy, I wouldn't know where to begin to address the nature of it.

Well, you were asking about energy in the context of science, but the word is also used in a non-scientific sense too, in everyday speech. So, in that sense, maybe one can speak of spiritual energy.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Well, you were asking about energy in the context of science, but the word is also used in a non-scientific sense too, in everyday speech. So, in that sense, maybe one can speak of spiritual energy.

The closest I can think of is things like Reiki. I have a guess it's heat transference (say physiological response to near skin contact) and psychology rather than a supernatural force. Simular to what Nakosis said in post 11.

 

[exchemist]

The closest I can think of is things like Reiki. I have a guess it's heat transference (say physiological response to near skin contact) and psychology rather than a supernatural force. Simular to what Nakosis said in post 11.

Not really. Reiki is pseudoscience - and thus codswallop.

I meant that we speak of energy in non-physicals contexts. For instance we talk or feeling full of energy, or of the energy in a piece of music or sculpture. That has no scientific meaning: it's another use of the word entirely.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Not really. Reiki is pseudoscience - and thus codswallop.

I meant that we speak of energy in non-physicals contexts. For instance we talk or feeling full of energy, or of the energy in a piece of music or sculpture. That has no scientific meaning: it's another use of the word entirely.

There's a term for that. Euphoria and things like dopamine. There was a study done (I'd have to look up my Ted Talk references later) that test the affects of answered prayers caused by the brain. They had three groups of people. Two (g-1 and g-2) were hospital patients from christian backgrounds. The third group were a christian "prayer" team. To test the affects of prayer, researchers told g-1 that people are praying for them to get better but researchers didn't tell group-2 anything. Awhile later, researchers looked at the affects of the prayers on their heath. G-1 improved a bit while g-2 stayed the same. Instead of a supernatural cause, they found certain endorphins in the brain triggered a hope or gratitude mindset (lack of better words) that did a pseudo effect to help patients.

Even when I visited a temple awhile back, one of the Buddhist nuns said she went to the hospital for treatment and after meditating (and other things) her blood pressure went back to normal and a couple other bigger things happened.

That same feeling we get from doing our passion, or like you're saying, music, art, and things of that nature. I think it has a lot of scientific causes but meaning varies by person.

 

[exchemist]

There's a term for that. Euphoria and things like dopamine. There was a study done (I'd have to look up my Ted Talk references later) that test the affects of answered prayers caused by the brain. They had three groups of people. Two (g-1 and g-2) were hospital patients from christian backgrounds. The third group were a christian "prayer" team. To test the affects of prayer, researchers told g-1 that people are praying for them to get better but researchers didn't tell group-2 anything. Awhile later, researchers looked at the affects of the prayers on their heath. G-1 improved a bit while g-2 stayed the same. Instead of a supernatural cause, they found certain endorphins in the brain triggered a hope or gratitude mindset (lack of better words) that did a pseudo effect to help patients.

Even when I visited a temple awhile back, one of the Buddhist nuns said she went to the hospital for treatment and after meditating (and other things) her blood pressure went back to normal and a couple other bigger things happened.

That same feeling we get from doing our passion, or like you're saying, music, art, and things of that nature. I think it has a lot of scientific causes but meaning varies by person.

Yes. But we should not muddle up our language when we describe such things. Scientific explanation of such effects, in terms of dopamine, endorphins, adrenalin etc, which are biochemical molecules or classes of them, are one thing. Subjective and non-scientific language, like "I feel energetic", are something else.

When people mix up the two by waffling about "vibrations" or "energy" when there is no physical basis for using these terms, they are indulging in pseudoscience. Some of these mystical and trendy "Eastern" things may have real enough effects. But the scientific-sounding "explanations" of how they work - if they work - are all too often codswallop.