QUOTE(greenlantern153 @ Feb 6 2013, 04:24 AM)
Hello
According to the equation of continuity, energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can only be converted into various forms. For example, in an internal combustion engine, the chemical energy in fuel is converted by combustion into heat and kinetic energy. The kinetic energy drives the pistons, the pistons drive the crankshaft, the crankshaft drives the wheels and whala, the car accelerates. So when one does Magick, are we really just converting energy into the forms that ultimately bring the change we intend? If so, what kind of energy is the starting point in the chain? Is it something that our spirit (kia, akasha, chi, life force) possesses? Or am I able to 'take' energy from sources outside of me, convert it and apply it according to my intention? For example, can I go and stand in the sun, absorb the energy of its radiation and then use that energy for Magick? Or am I getting too much into the physics of a highly subjective practice?
You are thinking in too much of a physical sciences theme of mind.
First off, the conservation of energy begs some major questions about the nature of things like dark matter, antimatter, the function of the boson, and a dozen other new discoveries that suggest that energy might not be created or destroyed... but it isn't always necessary *here* either, so we have to expand out understanding of how broad creation might actually be. In other words... the universe as we know it is in a kind of box. Sometimes the energy that is supposed to always be here is mysteriously outside of that box... is the conservation of energy wrong? Or is our box too small?
Secondly, in magic you can operate on multiple planes - the physical plane, the etheric, the psychic, the causal, and the acausal... energy works differently on each level, from the most easily calculated here on the physical, to the entirely incalculable in the acausal. Energy passes 'vertically' through the planes on one vector, and 'horizontally' on the other, but it isn't as simple as saying that etheric energy becomes physical energy. The energy of, for instance, heat exists on this plane. On the etheric plane there is an energy which is more archetypal, expressing itself as multiple kinds of physical energies - it itself manifested from a psychic energy one plane up that expresses itself in the etheric as multiple etheric energies... and so on. There is an expression from acausal energy down through the planes, and there is a flow from highest to lowest in this way.
If one moves energy on the etheric plane, its corresponding energy on the physical plane can be moved as well - horizontally, you could say. The energy on the physical plane does so because the etheric energy trumps the physical energy. Scientifically this is considered laughable because they would say - in that case move etheric energy and show a corresponding movement of physical energy. All movements of physical energy are caused by movements of etheric energy, in turn caused by movements of psychic energy, in turn caused by movements in causal energy, in turn caused by movements of acausal energy in all its mysterious unthinkable glory. So if you influence the etheric plane, you will see a corresponding reaction in the physical plane but it won't seem particularly magical.
It isn't just heat, though. There are more than 'physical' energies on the physical plane. Some of them are measurable, very real energies like the electricity running your brain. Most magic is essentially the influence of higher principles or energies upon lower principles or energies like these, which ultimately steer the world around you towards achieving what you want to happen. How many times has magic seemed to come about due to the fortuitous choices of the people around you? Assuming you do practice... if not, well, it is often the case as you'll eventually start to find out. It is because a higher, more abstract etheric pattern is in place which influences the way people who are, we could say 'in sight of' that pattern think and act and make choices.
However in the case of, for instance, Reiki or other forms of energy work - the heat felt from the practitioners hands and body, or the heat felt within the recipient's body, collects and moves as it does because of an etheric influence. Energy is moving, but it isn't 'coming from' the etheric plane, nothing is gained or lost, the law of conservation of energy is still appeased.
Hope that at least helps stimulate thought on the matter from a different angle.
peace
Energy Conversion, Is this how Magick works?
Feb 6 2013, 03:24 AM
