The Mystery of Life Energy

Today’s post was inspired by the views on a recent morning’s walk – the hilltops were still ice-caked, but lower down in the valley the sun had already melted the ice off the branches. A beautiful contrast, as these photos show, but what does it have to do with life energy?

The melting process that will soon (hopefully!) lead to the next cycle of Spring’s growth and renewal. And it’s all because of photons – the particle form of light energy that conventional science describes, the complement to light’s wave-like aspects. These light particles fuel photosynthesis in plants, creating the foundation of the food chain that supports all living creatures. But there’s also a subtle energy aspect to sunlight that is worth discussing.

The energy aspects of sunlight are fascinating, and start with the commonplace experience that sunshine feeds us and fuels us very directly, even though humans can’t do photosynthesis. For example, when sunlight levels get low, like in New England during each “long, cold, lonely” winter, we are (ie, I am) prone to the winter blahs, aka SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Modern psychiatry has a neuroscientific explanation, invoking the usual suspects – neurotransmitters, circadian rhythms, and endocrine glands (here, the pineal). But even a few minutes of fresh air and sunshine can be re-energizing, and that’s not enough time for a chemical re-set. So what else might be happening? 

For starters, consider the crazy-sounding idea that we can actually see solar energy in the sky with our own eyes, if we know how to look for it.  It’s not a matter of looking at the sun with special eclipse glasses (now on sale at Staples for $2.99, ahead of the April 8 eclipse). It’s about the sparkly, flickering curlicues of light that are visible to the naked eye all across the sky. Not the dust motes (the irregularly shaped “floaters” that slowly drift across the field of view), or the vividly colored patterns that appear when the eyeball is pressed (“phosphenes” – psychedelic, man!). These are pin-point light spots that shimmer on and off, lasting only a fraction of a second as they fade in and out across the sky. 

So it’s time for some field research: Go outside now and take a look, to convince yourself whether or not they’re an optical illusion. Open and close your eyes, look at the ground and then the sky (not the sun!), compare cloudy and clear skies, and so on. Are they visible at night (even with a full moon), or indoors when the lights are on? Why are they more numerous during a cloudy noon than a clear sunrise? And looking at them with binoculars, don’t they seem to get bigger (proving that they’re “out there”, rather than all in the mind)? What is that all about?

Many metaphysical traditions talk of this phenomenon – they’re called “vitality globules” by the Western mystical school of Theosophy (1), while the psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich tried to harness this energy with a series of devices called accumulators and cloud-busters (see Chapter 2 for details of how he ran afoul of the FDA and ended up in prison). In one study, 75% of participants with no prior training in solar prana visualization could discern these lights (2). And some advanced yoga practitioners claim to get all their energy by gazing at the sun during sunrise and sunset (surya yoga) – no food at all, just direct absorption of solar prana. This practice is not well-documented, and it’s not recommended by any licensed clinicians that I know of(!), despite many videos about it on YouTube.

A bonus question: What do you think will happen to the globules during next week’s solar eclipse? I’m predicting that they’ll gradually diminish and then disappear during totality, though it’s just a guess. We can turn this question into a group research project: report back with your personal observations, making note of how close to the zone of totality you were (by % of totality, or miles from the zone), and what amount of change you saw in those globules during the eclipse (estimating the fractional degree of change, or even just “a lot” vs. “not much”).  

I’ll total up all your responses, and see what sort of consensus there is. Citizen science!

1. Leadbeater, Charles W. The Chakras, Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton IL, 1927.

2. Srikanth N. Jois et al. Viewing of air prana: An exploratory study of perceptions among participants of different gender and education. International Journal of Ayurveda Research and Pharma. 2017;8(3):59-62