All or any of these things are alright. It's very difficult to explain the 'energy' feeling or sense, or the organ we use to manipulate it directly. So, instead we do this, at least at first, by proxy with other 'phantom senses'. That is to say, using the sense of touch, sight (as visualization), hearing, etc. Each of the senses, it has seemed to me, corresponds to a different quality or aspect to an energy - that is to say, that the senses will perceive different aspects of energy. For instance, negative (this is relative) energies often 'smell' bad; extremely intense energies often 'sound' like bells, or high pitched ringing; agressive energies 'feel' cold.
When we progress to a point where these proximal phantom versions of our senses are no longer necessary - either because of the initiation or completion of a permanent brain change, or perhaps just experience with various energies - then the understanding of the nature of an energy becomes more instant, bypassing these early necessities. You 'just know' and the presence and manipulation of energy becomes more natural, as a 'sixth' energetic sense and set of limbs becomes available whereas before, in my own opinion, they were simply atrophied from disuse. Legs we never learned to walk with in a sense. Then, energy has a presence in space, or at least a central locus of emanation or associated 'root' in the physical world even if it is more a concept represented by something, some place, or some person. I can't really explain it more than that.
To begin with though, your physical senses, and their phantasmal counterparts, will be the most useful tools for learning about energies and becoming sensitive to and adept with them. So any of these things, as I said, are useful. I would suggest trying each one out, with some energy that is more universally available to understand, such as elemental energies. You can contemplate the qualities of physical fire, and then abstract them to a more broadened sense of their, we might say, philosophical characteristics, such as expansion, breaking things down, releasing the energies latent in things, etc. It helps to learn about the chemical processes that cause fire/heat.
When we begin to comprehend the more subtle nature of an element in this manner, we begin to become associated more closely with the subtle energies that are its foundation, which express it into reality as a process of manifestation. WHen we're working with energy, this is what we're really working with - the 'pre-existent' archetypal forces that become manifest as physical process and things. When you have reached this level of comprehension of a chosen element - I suggest one that you naturally grasp intellectually - then begin to imagine it with all of your senses in that archetypal sense. What does it feel like around you; what does it smell like, sound like, taste like, etc. More than likely one of these things will stand out in your mind, and this is in my opinion the best place to start when accumulating that energy. Accumulation is a foundational process for working with energies - raising energy is a synonymous term, and you may read about them both. Another term is 'calling down' an energy, etc. - all that's important if you want to broaden your intellectual study is to know that Accumulation is what all of these terms represent.
Accumulation according to different senses is going to manifest a little differently. A smell will drown out all other smells and become intense and almost physical. A sound will surround you and seem to be coming from every part of you and your environment. Visually, many things can happen, but at the height you will actually see the element as though it were there in front of you or wherever you are accumulating it - someone watching will probably not see it unless they are trained to do so, of course, although accumulated energy can affect the environment such that it will affect the people in that environment whether they are 'sensitive' to energy or not. That's something you can play with over time to gauge your own progress.
Speaking of, it's important to realize that at first you will use some method to accumulate energy, and it may seem 'really intense', and yet show no sign that you've actually accumulated what appears to you to be a great deal of energy. This is a matter of getting used to the intensities of energy. What I mean is, what you will consider 'instense' when you first begin, is the equivalent of barely a whisper of energy in, say, a couple of years. Many people get confused or sidetracked based on this misconception that just because it is intense to you, it is universally intense. 100% of your capability now is only 1% of your capability later on. But you have to start somewhere. Push yourself with any given energy to the point where you literally cannot accumulate any more. You cannot harm yourself just by doing this, although of course it's important to use some balancing technique afterwards - you can exercise, do the LBRP, the MP ritual, disperse the energy in some manner if you know how, or just experiment to find something that works for you specifically. I find that sitting down to write burns of energies, and what I write tends to reflect the nature of the excess energy itself. It just needs to go somewhere. Doing this, you'll be able to push yourself farther over time, and of course accumulation becomes easier and more efficient. While you may need to spend an hour to really reach your full 'capacity' now, in time you may find you're able to reach your peak in moments, even at an instance, and cause an effect as quickly, though of course this is after a great deal of practice.
Keep in mind, this is a 'use it or lose it' kind of skill. If you do it for a few months and then take a few months off, you'll end up back where you started. As you learn to expand your own energy and accommodate greater 'amounts' of energy, you'll begin to notice changes in your own life, as you become more able to handle the energies moving through your sphere from your job, home, other people, etc., all the myriad 'causes' in life which are in reality energies manifest as these events and the objects that enact them. You will have an effect on the world around you, simply by doing this work. If you stop doing it, then over time your world will 'readjust you' as it were. This is important to know, because while it's perfectly find to dabble out of curiosity, only extended and consistent practice will ultimately yield results. In some respects it's like riding a bike - you'll never really forget the techniques themselves, but while you can bike uphill for a mile after training, take a two year break and you'll end up huffing and puffing your way back to that level when you pick it up again.
Hope that helps!
Peace V
This post has been edited by Vagrant Dreamer: Nov 27 2008, 09:43 PM
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The world is complicated - that which makes it up is elegantly simplistic, but infinitely versatile.
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