Words Matter No 1: "Energy" and "Spirit"

The words we use matter.  They matter to us, and they matter to whoever hears or reads what we have to say.  The choice of words can make or break a conversation, a relationship or even the fate of an idea.  In the land of knowledge, words rule.

So I use the words "energy" and "spirit" nearly interchangeable on this blog and in my upcoming book because I think they are physically interchangeable in my own cosmology--my set of beliefs that define the cosmos for me.  Everyone has some form of cosmology, call it your "model" for the Universe.  For many, this model is a fancy way to say what you think about God.

And now that we've brought "God" into this equation, the majority of people have already checked out because they don't believe in god and this must be some kind of God-thing that they wouldn't like.  While for others, the use of "God" means THEIR God, and we better hope we don't offend or insult, lest we incur their wrath.  Our god is wrong, and their God is right.  You know the type.

But wait a minute, I was talking about "cosmology," remember?  Why does the association to God make anything such a touchy subject? 

I've wasted countless hours saying, "I must use "energy."  It is the more accurate!:  I change everything to energy and take out any mention of "spirit," afraid to offend the scientist, the agnostic, the prove-it-to-me-and-i'll-believe crowd that I so want to reach. 

Then I see a touching movie, or watch a stranger help another who has fallen down, and I say, "I must use 'spirit' because it is the most accurate."  I change everything back to "spirit."  Finally, I got so tired of the debate and the changes, that I just gave up.  So throughout this blog and book, I am leaving both words used in different places where each seemed the best or most accurate description of that particular energy or spirit.

After all, the "energy" I am talking about, the energy I write about, the energy of "God" and the major religions, is a specialized, personalized energy that manifests individually, uniquely in each of us.  Regardless of what you call it or what I call it, its existence speaks volumes all on its own. Whether you think God caused it or it is a natural side-effect of our universe, we need not share the same descriptions to still share the same experience.

Your energy is not my energy, even though we are made of the same primal element and connected through the same unifying Energy Field.  When you say "energy" that point gets lost because it all sounds the same, but when you say "spirit," it is perfectly clear:  your spirit is not my spirit.  Of course not.

This is my spirit, and that is yours.  It is obvious when said that way, and yet every spirit is still only energy.  Each camp misses part of the whole by focusing on their description exclusively.

So I use the word "spirit" to help my friends of faith see the natural balance of their faith among all faiths, including those of no faith.  I use the word "energy" to help my agnostic, atheistic or scientific friends see the intelligent and responsive organizing principles within energy that motivate life.  And I use both in the hopes that each might see something of themselves within the other.

This is the power of "energy."  This is the power of "spirit."

For some, the connotations of "spirit" are too much, and yet I think there is also value in using "spirit" because it is the most commonly used word for the energetic structural form that I am trying to model in the Energy Field through Flow and Grow. 

Your "energy" becomes your "spirit" whenever you decide it does, and for most this happens upon a certain expansion of self-awareness occasioned by an acute observation of their energetic emotional experience, a pure moment of Flowing or Growing that somehow reveals more about the underpinnings of us all, a peek behind the Wizard's curtain, a glimpse of the hollowdeck's matrix.

Recognizing and engaging your energetic aspects is taking the energy that is you and directing it towards something consciously felt or desired.  We all do this constantly.  We don't need to think about it, and yet there is a fundamental difference between default creation and deliberate focused creation.

They are both "energy," and they are both "spirit."  But when you know you are doing it, you are doing it on purpose.  When you focus it, you are doing it with purpose, and perhaps in that purpose there is something more, something with soul. 

And we can always use more soul.

Comments

[bgk]

if energy and spirit are interchangeable, then we are drifing through a plane of mutuated spirits to physical properties, encompassed and penetrated by spirits of non-mutated form.

I just don't think that spirit in this culture's context is as interchangeable as you see here. Spirited is energy with a directed metaphysical course. Spirit is either a semi-aware divine energy or is a manifestation of some intelligence, either recently of this earth or some divine-human mix.