What are ‘near enemies to the truth’? Borrowing this phrase from Buddhism, I use it to refer to slightly distorted versions of spiritual teachings—statements that are close to a profound and subtle truth, but are distorted just enough to make a big difference over time. When we’re talking about deep and fundamental truths, getting it a little bit wrong doesn’t matter in the short run, but it does in the long run, just like a tiny adjustment to the rudder of your boat makes little difference at first, but after 1000 miles, it lands you on a different continent.
Now, some people object to the use of the word ‘wrong’ in the previous sentence, subscribing as they do to the idea that the only necessary criterion for truth is it feels true to me. This view is as dangerous in spirituality as it is in politics, because it usually means I want it to be true, so I'm going to believe it, regardless of the facts. If you don't see how dangerous this is, or if you doubt whether there really are facts or universal truths, please read the first blog post in this series.
Understanding the Near Enemies to the Truth, and why they are near enemies and not the truth itself, is hugely important for any spiritual seeker who wants to get past the beginner stages and into the deep (and deeply fulfilling) spiritual work. Having said that, it’s important to note that if a Near Enemy is near enough, it can be a Temporary Ally for a beginner. But as the stakes get higher in spiritual practice, there is no such thing as ‘close enough’ anymore, and your comforting affirmations must be sacrificed on the altar of truth, or else your spiritual progress stalls. With that brief orientation, let’s look at this month’s Near Enemy.
Near Enemy #12: negative energy
The word ‘energy’ is used in many different ways these days, especially in communities that think of themselves as spiritual. It’s often used as a synonym for ‘vibe’, as in “he has really nice energy” or “I just love the energy of your home!” It’s also often used in the same sense that premodern people used the word ‘magic’: to denote an unknown kind of force or power that can accomplish something in the real world—despite the inability of modern science to detect its existence—such as in the phrase ‘healing energy.’ Magical thinking remains rife in our society, often exemplified by people who deny that they believe in magic. And in the magical thinking paradigm, since is there is such a thing as ‘positive energy’ that can have real-world beneficial effects, then there must also be something called ‘negative energy’ that can have real-world detrimental effects. The premodern analogues of this are found not only in Western magical traditions, but also in ancient Chinese thought, which teaches that there is such a thing as ‘negative qi’.[1]
Science is a method of looking more deeply into things and trying to discover if the way in which we think about something is demonstrably founded in reality. In this sense, science is entirely compatible with contemplative spirituality. Though there is a huge amount of poorly done science, primarily due to bad incentives from the corporate sector, that doesn’t mean that the scientific method itself is invalid. In fact it’s the most powerful tool humanity as a collective has ever developed.[2] In criticizing the imaginary concept of ‘negative energy’, I’m coming from a perspective based in the critical thinking standards of the scientific method, which I recommend applying to any and all claims about the putative causes of real-world experiences (we’ll explore this further in the subsequent chapter on ‘Energy Healing’).
First we have to establish what we mean by the word ‘energy’. There’s only one definition of the word that applies across the board, in science as well as spirituality: ‘the capacity to do work’ or ‘the power to transform’. (This is also the meaning of the Sanskrit equivalent of the word energy, namely śakti.) It’s incredibly important to understand that in scientific usage, energy is not a thing, it’s an attribute of (some) things. So energy never exists by itself, it’s a property of an object or a system that allows that object or system to perform actions with observable results. For example, the energy provided by the food you’ve eaten allows you to do the work of lifting an object or comprehending the sentence you are reading right now. Inanimate things generally have potential energy, such as the potential kinetic energy in a heavy object sitting on a high shelf: if it falls off the shelf, it has the power to crush your foot.[3] Its potential energy is not something magical or mysterious, it’s measurable.
In light of the fact that ‘energy’ means ‘the power to do work’, what would ‘negative energy’ mean? It could only mean some as-yet unknown force that drains your energy through some unknown mechanism, reducing your power to do work—whether physical, emotional, or spiritual work. And some people do believe that such a force exists, and that there are people who somehow possess this nefarious power: spending time with these negative people supposedly drains of your life-force. I contend that this belief is false, and that the reason spending time with some people is draining is because of something you are doing or not doing. For example, you might not be setting healthy boundaries for yourself with this person, and that is draining. <SNIP>
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] Van Norden, Bryan W. Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy, p. 98. In the Indian tradition, we find no precise analogue to this concept, since there is no such thing as negative prana, and that is the Sanskrit equivalent to Chinese qi. However, premodern South Asians (and most modern ones as well) certainly believed in magic, especially black magic.
[2] We can define the scientific method informally in terms of its fundamental principles. Firstly, it involves careful observation and application of rigorous skepticism about what is observed, given that cognitive assumptions can distort how one interprets the observation. Secondly, it involves formulating hypotheses (conjectures), based on such observations; thirdly, performing experimental and measurement-based testing of deductions drawn from the hypotheses; and fourthly, refinement (or elimination) of the hypotheses based on the experimental findings. This process often needs to be reiterated many times to arrive at something approaching certainty, which is why the response to bad science is always to do more science.
[3] Common forms of energy include the kinetic energy of a moving object, the potential energy stored by an object's position in a force field (for example, in the case of the heavy object on the shelf, it has potential kinetic energy only because it is in a gravitational field), the chemical energy released when a fuel burns, the radiant energy carried by light, and the thermal energy due to an object's temperature. Note that all these forms of energy are attributes of things or systems; they don’t exist independently.
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