Life Energy Beliefs
E
Life Force Ideas Around the World
Here are the E entries of life energy beliefs around the world and from antiquity to the present. An edited and expanded version of this Life Energy A to Z is published in my book
Life Energy Encyclopedia.
E
Eck is the divine spirit according to the movement Eckankar, founded in
1965 by Paul Twitchell (1909?-1971, he was secretive about his birth date). Eck
can be consciously exercised and accelerated, and is by nature a kind of
guide to the heavenly. The word eckankar comes from the Sikh expression
ek-onkar, 'a true god'.
Ecstacy (from the Greek word ekstasis, astonishment) is a word commonly
used for an overwhelming feeling of extreme joy or delight, making the
mind incapable of reason and restraint. Historically, it has been used also
for intense religious experiences. See also euphoria.
Ectoplasm (from the Greek ektos plasmos, which approximately means
'emanated substance') was the name of a thick white liquid that came out
of the mouths of mediums in a seance, and took the shape of contacted
spirits or their hands, in the Spiritism of the 19th century. It happened that
such a liquid was mixed by the mediums themselves. There were differing
recipes, such as the combination of soap, gelatine, and egg white.
Three out of seven photos from a seance in 1943, where ectoplasm emerges and forms into a spirit. The medium is Ethel Post-Parrish, and the spirit is Silver Belle, an Indian spirit guide to the medium.
Élan vital (French, approximately 'life spirit') was the name that the
French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941) gave the idea of an energy
that is kind of the principle of creation, the driving force behind the
evolution toward ever higher life forms. His thought that chemical and
physical processes alone could not explain the appearance of life, is called
vitalism (see this word) or neo-vitalism. Compare entelechy.
Electricity (from the Greek elektron, amber, because this was used to
induce electricity by rubbing) has because of its elusive nature been the
source of many theories about how nature works, often connected to ideas
about a life energy. Only by the end of the 18th century, electricity started
to be understood and explained, but pioneering work was done by the
English physician William Gilbert (1544-1603), who also introduced the
name electricus, 'of amber'. See also animal electricity, electricum, and
imponderabilia.
Electricum was used in 18th century European thought as a name for the
substance supposed to lie behind electricity, for example in the theory on
animal electricity by the Italian physiologist Luigi Galvani (1737-98). See
electricity.
Electrogravity is an expression used by the American physicist Thomas
Townsend Brown (1905-1985) for a high voltage system that can create
movement through an electric field, without reaction – also called X-force
or the Biefeld-Brown effect. Paul Alfred Biefeld (-c.1940) was Brown's
mentor. Their work on this force started in 1923. Such a force would
explain, among other things, how UFO vessels could accelerate freely to
high velocity, and how interstellar travel could be possible. In 1926 Biefeld
and Brown presented a sketch of a space-mobile working on this principle.
The effect of this technique can also be described as antigravity (see this
word). It has few similarities to qi. The term X-force seems also to have
been used by the Englishman Leon Ernest Eeman, who around 1920
developed the machine Eeman Relaxation Circuit, to create a healing flow of
this force. The method is also called biocircuitry.
Flying device using the Biefeld-Brown effect. See electrogravity.
Elima are special songs in the Mbuti tribe in Zaire, which are used at
female passage rites. The male equivalent is molimo. These singing rituals
are believed to have great power. Elima is sometimes mentioned as a
synonym to life energy such as qi, which is misleading.
Elixir (from Arabic al-iksir, probably from Greek xerion, medical powder)
is a term traditionally used for a substance supposed to cure all ills, or
even sustain life forever. The term was also used by the Medieval and
Renaissance alchemists for philosophers' stone, a substance believed to
change metals into gold. See also longevity.
Eloptic energy is a theory from the 1940s by the American engineer
Thomas Galen Hieronymus (1895-1988), about a healing energy that
combines the properties of electricity and light. Thereby the name, which
is a compound of the words electricity and optics. He built machines to
receive this energy. He is also reported to have imagined a raw material
for creation, logoital plasma, the energy of which was the origin of eloptic
energy.
Emanation see radiation.
Emerald Tablet is a short mystical text, according to legend composed by
the deity Hermes Trismegistos ('Triple great'), but probably composed
around 200-300 CE, which is central in alchemy. Here is the text in its
entirety, from a 12th century Latin version of it: True, without falsehood,
certain, most certain. What is above is like what is below, and what is below is like
that which is above. To make the miracle of the one thing. And as all things were
made from contemplation of one, so all things were born from one adaptation. Its
father is the Sun, its mother is the Moon. The wind carried it in its womb, the
earth breast fed it. It is the father of all works of wonder in the world. Its power is
complete. If cast to earth, it will separate earth from fire, the subtle from the gross.
With great capacity it ascends from earth to heaven. Again it descends to earth,
and takes back the power of the above and the below. Thus you will receive the
glory of the distinctiveness of the world. All obscurity will flee from you. This is
the whole most strong strength of all strength, for it overcomes all subtle things,
and penetrates all solid things. Thus was the world created. From this comes
marvelous adaptions of which this is the procedure. Therefore I am called Hermes,
because I have three parts of the wisdom of the whole world. And complete is what
I had to say about the work of the Sun. See also telesma.
The Emerald Tablet, as imagined by Heinrich Khunrath, in 1606.
Empty waves is a theory about energy waves that exist without being
possible to observe, by the French quantum physicist Louis de Broglie
(1892-1987). Any resemblance to the concept qi is not likely, although they
are sometimes mentioned as synonyms.
Energy (from the Greek energeia, active) originally referred to the activity
of living creatures, their ability to act without outer influence. Therefore it
was in its initial use not far from life force ideas. The modern scientific
perspective on it is mainly the opposites mass and energy, where Albert
Einstein (1879-1955) showed the relation between them in his famous
formula E=mc2. The energy (E) found in mass (M) is in the proportion of
the speed of light (c) in square – in other words a whole lot of energy. The
formula also indicates that energy can transform to matter, and the other
way around. This is in line with many beliefs about a life force or aura
permeating all of cosmos. Within New Age, the term energy is very often
used for all kinds of speculations and theories about other influences on
life and health than the ones confirmed by natural science.
Hydrogen bomb cloud, from a Christmas Island test in 1958. The invention of the atomic bomb, and later the hydrogen bomb, introduced a new and terrifying perspective on energy — and faced mankind with the sudden ability to eradicate its own civilization.
Entelechy (from the Greek en telei echo, to be in perfection) was to Aristotle
(384-322 BC) the inherent purpose that governed a creature's development
– in humans their souls. The term was used similarly by the German
embryologist and philosophy professor Hans Driesch (1867-1941), who
claimed that life cannot be explained solely by chemical and physical
processes. This standpoint is named vitalism (see this word). Compare élan
vital and monad.
Ether see quintessence.
Ether body see life ether.
Etheric field see dielectric energy.
Etheronic force is an expression used by the American medium Edgar
Cayce (1877-1945) and his followers, for a radiation or vibration that can
be stimulated with prisms and high temperature. It can be either healing
or damaging.
Euphoria (from the Greek word euphoros, healthy) is a word commonly
used for extreme joy, an overwhelming feeling similar to inebriation. In
Christianity, it also signified a divine reward for saintly acts. See also
ecstacy.
Life Energy Beliefs from A to Z
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Life Energy Encyclopedia
Qi — Increase your life energy
Cosmos of the Ancients
Archetypes of Mythology
Tao Te Ching
Fake Lao Tzu Quotes
Stefan Stenudd