Subtle energy can be a difficult concept to understand, let alone digest.
If we sidestep the controversial nature of this topic in western society, the definition of the term itself appears fluid and is understood differently from person to person. Take Ontario-based video producer Clayton Masales, who considers subtle energy to be the energies that our bodies produce.
“Be that chakras, or really any kind of label you want to put on it, it’s just sort of that natural force that comes with being,” said Masales, adding that “I’m a person who loves to experience the world, and part of that [involves] that energy — that feeling that you get from people, places, and things.”
While he does not consider himself to be “exceptionally knowledgeable” on the topic, Masales does believe in the ideology of subtle energies. “From a scientific standpoint, each human being puts out a small, very weak electromagnetic field. We have electric currents running through us.”
He adds that “Straight down to a scientific level, we are energetic beings. It’s just part of who we are, so it does very much stand to reason that that energy is part of us. It resonates from each of our persons.”
Asked about his thoughts on subtle energy as a form of “healing”, in terms of its existence and a potential complement to modern medicine, Masales suggests it has the potential to become something that is more generally known or recognized.
“Again, it’s one of those areas where there’s not a lot of real scientific understanding of it, but at the same point, there wasn’t a lot of understanding of radioactivity and its impact on the body, even from afar, until Marie Curie and her husband did their thing.”
That idea is reflected in a research article published in 2020 called “The Borderline Between Two Areas of Research”. In it, author Mogens Ehrich notes that subtle energy is “not measurable by physical means and therefore not widely accepted in modern western science.”
The paper, published in Volume 21 (Number Two) of the peer-reviewed journal Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine, based its assumptions on the idea that subtle energy is non-physical, and that the ability to sense it is real.
The paper’s conclusion highlights a communication issue between people with an “alleged sensitivity to subtle energy” (ASTSE), and people without this sensitivity, while also noting that it is normal when people without ASTSE do research on people with ASTSE and obtain “unproductive results”.
“Future research in ASTSE and CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) must naturally be connected with the users [of CAM] and build on their reality [of their experiences],” the article reads.
As for Masales, he believes subtle energy healing could become something more in the future, once society recognizes the equal importance of mental and physical health and reduces the social stigma.
A holistic approach
In Quebec, An Hua, a nurse at the Integrated University Health and Social Services Centres in Montreal, views the concept of subtle energy through the lens of a more holistic approach.
She believes it is “more the overall person: the mind combined with the physical,” and imagines someone walking around with a negative and/or positive charge. “It’s like a battery — [like] if someone had a low battery or a high battery.”
An example of a negative battery would be a person who feels sad or depressed, while a positive battery could represent someone who is more upbeat.
Hua also said the digestibility of the concept may depend on a person’s overall state, interest in well-being, and if they are working on their mental health.
“It’s the same thing if someone is hungry for something; it will be easy to digest. If it’s someone that is overfull or their energy is overcharged, even though they are not doing well, they [may not] have the insight to understand [it],” she said.
Beyond the senses
CEO and President of Astara Greg Toews, who heads a non-profit spiritual organization in California, said people may have a hard time believing something that may not make sense to them or that they have not yet experienced.
“I think that the idea of even embracing something that’s energetic, really kind of helps take you out of the rational side of your brain,” said Toews. “I refer to it as the everyday brain, where your everyday brain is going to the store and paying your bills, and dealing with your work, and it’s basically processing information from your senses — from your five senses.”
He said the subtle energy concept involves connecting with the intuitive side of the mind, which in turn involves tapping into something that is beyond the senses. Cultivating this part of the mind, he adds, can help bring in new ideas. It also allows people to be curious about things outside of itself.
“This can be done through prayer, it can be done through meditation, it can even be done when interacting with the people around you,” said Toews.
Echoing that thought, Ontario-based Charlene Schartmann notes that there are subtle particles and there is energy, and believes the former affects us in ways we do not fully understand.
“Our bodies are extremely sensitive to energies, but in order to feel that energy, you need to develop a sensitivity, and one way to develop that sensitivity is through, prayer or spirituality, or certain meditations — or by having a noble career … [where you are] really dedicated to the art of healing people.”
She adds that anyone who is in the art of helping people, when they continue to do so with integrity and proper intentions, can develop spiritually, “which means they can also develop a sensitivity to subtle energies.”
Schartmann is a senior certified energy healing instructor who ran a Pranic Energy Healing centre in Montreal, Que., for many years and served as a board member for The Inner Sciences Foundation — a not-for-profit organization based in the United States.
Earlier in her career, she worked as a registered nurse at the Montreal Children’s Hospital in Quebec, and spent a summer working as a psychiatric nurse at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute.
She describes subtle energy as a vibration.
“The reason it’s subtle is because we feel the results of it and not necessarily understand that it’s energy,” said Schartmann, noting that people can walk into a room and not feel right.
“Something doesn’t feel right,” she said. “And the reason that they feel that way is because they are picking up subtle energy — and that subtle energy is affecting their body because it’s a vibration, and it either feels good or it doesn’t feel good, or sometimes it’s just a neutral energy.”
Overall, many people describe the concept of subtle energy differently, but there is also a shared understanding that it is something intangible that human beings can experience on different levels — and pick up on.