Shamanism for the Age of Science: Awakening the Energy Body - Kenneth Smith 2018

The Energy Body
Anatomy of the Energy Body

It is accepted by many quantum physicists that physical particles form as an effect of wave structures, and that the particles and objects of the physical universe spring from nonphysical energy. Atoms themselves are waveforms, not particles.¹³ If the universe is inherently an energetic wave structure then the physical body could be the particle emanating from the human waveform.

If so, this gives credence to a view of the world in which: a) the physical body results from, or is an effect of, the energy body, b) states of health are the effect of conditions within the energy body that then find expression through the physical body, and c) the energy body is an objective, measurable form, not just the effect of physical-based emissions of energy.

As mentioned, Toltecs have provided a comprehensive view of the energy body, including uniformity, cohesion, assemblage point, and core. This schematic offers a discrete picture of the energy body as existing independently of the physical body, given that one influences the other. Let’s then take a look at these elements and the environmental fields affecting them.

Emanations

Specific vibrations or energy lines known as emanations are generated by a cosmological source energy.¹⁴ Each aspect of creation has its own emanation; there is an emanation for planets, for humans, for plants, for trees, for bugs, and so forth. Emanations are energy streams emitted from a source, be it from an individual or of cosmic origin. They may be a single vibration, a bandwidth comprised of various frequencies such as the chakra energies coming together to form human life, or the emanations that bundle together to form planet Earth. Whether a single strand or a composite, an emanation carries within it the natural essence of a person, place, or thing. Emanations sustain your energy body as well as your environment, ranging from your living room to multiple dimensions to all creation.

From this perspective, dark energy represents the conditions of emanations. A recent discovery, dark energy is thought to comprise almost three-fourths of our universe and to have a direct influence on our world and us. This energy is called “dark” as it hasn’t been directly mapped; it is thought to exist due to certain effects that may account for its existence. It could determine the shape of galaxies, for instance. That it appears to spread evenly throughout the universe makes it difficult to isolate, and considerations of both matter and dark energy may be necessary to explain the interconnectedness of all forms of matter. Another interpretation is that from the perspective of Earth an uneven expansion of the universe lends itself to perceiving a cosmic void. This void produces the effects that have been interpreted as resulting from dark energy.¹⁵ With either interpretation, we have not only the impact of environmental conditions but the influences of perception as to how we view the environment.

Stretching through infinity, emanations contain the realization of potential. What they contain is what they contain; what we know they contain is a different matter as this is often open to various interpretations. As one becomes more conscious of an emanation, the potential within it translates to the actual, to the usable. While some emanations directly affect the energy body, others, which exist beyond the domain of human awareness, have indirect influence; still others may have no affect whatsoever as they don’t connect, directly or indirectly, with the human band of energy.

Auric Field

Just as there are emanations that produce life, humans emit vibrations that generate what are often referred to as auras. This is the energy extending outward from the entire energy body. Oschman postulates that it is a field of ionic vapor surrounding the physical body.¹⁶ An apt analogy is that of an incandescent lightbulb. The filament represents the physical body and the glass represents the outer edge of the nonphysical energy field. As the energized physical body (filament) interacts with nonphysical energies (gas inside the bulb), the entire energy body (bulb) emits energy: the aura.

Some healers have schematics that associate states of health with the colors and clarity of the auric field whereas others may isolate only brightness and clarity to make their determinations.¹⁷ The aura, however, is not the energy body itself. It is the light emanating from the entire organism that reflects the energetic conditions of that being.

Coherence and Cohesion

Cohesion is the overall pattern of energy within the energy body. It reflects the vibrations from all of the things, the meanings, and the conditions that influence you, conscious or not. Coherence relates to the interworkings among all of these influences. Let’s boil it down to the chakras, for an example. Each chakra represents something: physical, emotional, mental, and so on, and carries its own dynamics, its own set of circumstances. All of these energies interact to produce coherence and form cohesion. It’s easy to see that it is quite a balancing act to choreograph many separate forms of energy so that they act cooperatively. When we add the pushes and pulls found in daily life, the task becomes seemingly overwhelming. Coherence, then, reflects the orchestration of a number of influences and results in the cohesion that provides your perceptions and interpretations of reality.

Scientific studies indicate that if coherence among the body’s systems reflects well-integrated and stable energies, the person probably is in good health; if coherence is weak, discord and possible illness may be evident.¹⁸ As cohesion results from all influences within and without, any energy assessment needs to take into consideration all factors, including the combined energies of the chakras, the meridians, the biological electric circuitry, and the environment. A greater understanding of all influences and how they influence each other and the whole might well be the focus of future scientific research.

In review, the keystone of understanding this energetic anatomy is recognizing that your cohesion determines exactly what you think, feel, or otherwise experience. It is the first cause of perception. At the same time, cohesion forms from our experiences. New experience permits new cohesions; new cohesions provide new experience. Meridians and chakras also play a role as they reflect and influence your state of health and so affect how cohesion forms and vice versa. While cohesion is the underlying factor of perception, it can be managed.

Cohesion dictates meaning. It drives behavior. Your job reflects a particular cohesion, as do your family, hobbies, religious life, and every other aspect of your life, whether dysfunctional or positive. When they are in harmony, so is coherence and vice versa. Learn to manage coherence and you learn to shift your cohesion; as a result, your experience changes. Shift cohesion enough and you may enter new worlds. The many forms cohesion takes are ultimately governed by uniformity.

Uniformity

Within infinity, our energy bodies exist within a certain bandwidth, as do the energy forms of other species.¹⁹ The nature of an emanation is the environment that gives birth to and sustains the organisms of that energy field. Uniformity is the attribute that provides basic shape and definition to the organism, just as the regions or specific bandwidths of the AM and FM radio frequencies each have their own nature: FM consists of higher vibrations and clearer reception but generally does not travel the distance that AM frequencies do. The use of one or the other depends on what you want to listen to. Uniformity is an overarching condition that influences perception and behavior. It molds that which is within it and therefore determines the possibilities of cohesion, which determines the possibilities of perception.

One line of thought is that the energy body was once narrow and elliptical, is now more egg-shaped, and is evolving to a pure sphere. If so, this provides another example of how uniformity, the shape of the container, affects cohesion, the conditions inside the container. Perception and behavior were more narrowly constrained in the days of old, as exemplified by the ancient Toltecs’ unrelenting emphasis on power for the sake of self-aggrandizement. In the modern era, considerations about humans residing in a multidimensional landscape are becoming more commonplace as uniformity expands toward a more spherical shape. Medicine is becoming more holistic, and more people are waking to new modes of perception and avenues of thinking. We’re gaining breadth and depth of perception.

Assemblage Point

Cohesion can be identified by the location of the assemblage point. In the same manner that an EEG map of brain waves registers coherence among various frequencies and indicates a state of consciousness, for example, the assemblage point’s position indicates the type of overall cohesion.²⁰

The assemblage point is an area within the energy body where all the elements that go into perception come together, all the properties of coherence unify. It is a focal point, where perception is brought into focus as internal energies intersect external emanations. This intertwining and assembling of a number of influences focuses awareness and is the essential process of cohesion. The energetic pattern that forms, the cohesion, directs what you perceive.

It was once thought that the assemblage point determined perception rather than acting as a maplike representation of one’s state of consciousness, but after generations of examination Toltecs realized a greater perspective. The term has taken root as reflected in the works of others, including groups of non-shamanic, alternative healers known as “assemblage point practitioners.”

Personal awareness originates through the pressure of external emanations of energy impinging on the energy body, says don Juan. The pressure produces an alignment of energy lines inside the energy body with those outside it. This coherence energizes a specific area of the energy body, the point where cohesion becomes organized and perception results. There are myriad factors influencing this process such as extent of your learning, personal desires, environments near and far, and your goals, to name a few, all coming together for assembly by the force of cohesion.

While this is the centerpiece for the formation of your perceived reality, it is not the formation of perception itself. The title of a book is like the assemblage point. It indicates the focus of the book but is not the content, the cohesion, the internal organization that gives rise to the title. A book also has uniformity; you know a book when you see it.

Change cohesion of the energy body and you change the location of the assemblage point. Sleep results in a natural shift in cohesion from the right side to the left, from physical into nonphysical regions. When this occurs, you see a corresponding shift of the assemblage point. Common experiences with seeing include perceiving patterns of energy resembling heat rising from asphalt or more directly seeing the light of cohesion that, to me, appears like bundles of fiber optics.

Throughout the course of a day, the assemblage point tends to move around, albeit in small measure. For many, it may constantly quiver. This results from not having a stable relationship with the world. When the assemblage point moves, you may initially feel disoriented. This is due to having no conscious points of reference for your new cohesion. Anxiety, for example, can result from a shift of cohesion to an unconscious awareness; the physical body translates this shifting energy as the feeling of anxiety. The more experience you have with this new awareness, the more it becomes conscious and the less you experience anxiety.

Figure 3.5. Assemblage Point Shift

As mentioned earlier, states of health or disease, which are inherently types of cohesion, are reflected by the position of the assemblage point. Medical scientist Jon Whale, author of The Catalyst of Power, actively investigates cohesion. He uses two forms of technology: one using crystals and intent, the other using a well-machined, modern medical device that filters light through gemstones. He bases his selection of a particular gemstone for a specific condition on ancient Ayurvedic healing practices. With these technologies, he has demonstrated rapid and remarkable healing. He accounts for the results of each therapy as a shift of the assemblage point to a state of health.²¹

Core Awareness

The essence of an individual core equates to a direct connection with infinity. Considerations of what is internal and external cease to have ordinary meaning as your inner-outer references melt away, leaving you with full experience of your life rather than thoughts about it. The further you stretch awareness, the more you are able to touch your core. From another perspective, core and a completely awakened energy body are synonymous.

First Energy Field

This is the known world, that which has been actualized. You may also think of it as that which is most familiar to you, the order of your life. In essence, the first field contains the order that has been formed out of potential energy. In most circumstances, our relationship with the first field forms through reason; it provides the capacity for self-reflective order and thinking is the enhancement of this reflection. But reason and thinking are but a portion of what’s available to human awareness. The more you suspend reason, the more you become adept at expanding the first field as you have not relegated yourself solely to the prevailing known world, the reality formed by group consensus.

Usually we behave within a very narrow margin of the energy body, and so have relatively few options of behavior. It is therefore unreasonable to be able to see auras, to heal with a simple movement of energy, or to imagine entirely new worlds into existence. The more you expand through your energy body, the more order and knowledge you have at your disposal. What once was unimaginable becomes the order of the day. Stepping out of reason’s self-made order you rest more easily within a universal natural order.

Second Energy Field

The second field pertains to the unknown, to the potential that has yet to be actualized. This usually comprises the more expansive area of the energy body. By expanding the first field, you reduce the second field. The unknown becomes known. One perspective maintains that the first field needs to be constantly extended into the second field through learning. Another view holds that the second field pulls at, and expands, the first field through imagination. In either case, you are realizing more of your innate potential.

Figure 3.6. Energy Fields

First Field: Physical energies; order; the known world.

Second Field: Nonphysical energies; the unknown world. Emanations: Some exist within and without the energy body; others reside completely utside ordinary human awareness and are therefore unknowable.

Both the first and second fields contain properties of awareness, attention, and intent. Awareness relates to consciousness, attention to focus, and intent to directing energy. All enable the general management of your resources.

Third Energy Field

In relation to normal awareness, this represents the unknowable, as it is beyond human anatomy. In the same way the second field is potential to the first field, the third field exists as potential to overall perception. Postulations of its existence stem from those who have developed their energy bodies in a manner as to temporarily step beyond ordinary human confines by pushing their assemblage points outside of their energy bodies. An alternate description is that they have temporarily pushed uniformity into another domain. Extending beyond normal human endeavors, the third field may provide a basis for theological and philosophical doctrines dealing with life after death.