Physical Proof of Spiritual Energy

By Lloyd Pumphrey

There are “invisible” spiritual influences which affect people without their realizing it.

This article considers phenomena that reinforce and may prove the existence of these non-physical forces.

Initially, I intended to research “physical proof of spirit world.” However, after consideration and discussion with others, I realized there is no way to “physically” prove the existence of spirit world.  The only way to prove its existence is to open one’s spiritual senses.

There have been many attempts to demonstrate the existence of spirit world, such as The Afterlife Experiments by Gary E. Schwartz. The major flaw in these experiments was the participation of well-known spiritual mediums.  This is evidence that the only proof of spirit world or afterlife is the testimony of those who can, or have, seen it for themselves.

For the skeptic, in order for an experiment or proof to be valid, anyone should be able to experience it. For example, it is impossible for a male to experience the pain of childbirth.  He can see it, empathize with it, share the experience with his wife, but cannot feel the actual pain of childbirth.

The same goes for spirit world. Most people cannot see or feel spirit world; therefore, it cannot be proven to a skeptic on a basic level.

However, by considering proofs of spiritual energy, we may come to an understanding of it as a building block of the spirit world. Spiritual energy can and has been measured for some time through various means.

External evidence of spiritual energy

Qi is vital energy that is held to animate the body internally and is of central importance in some Eastern systems of medical treatment (such as acupuncture) and of exercise or self-defense. It is the Chinese term for spiritual energy. There have been countless books written on Qi, but some of the most convincing proofs are filmed demonstrations that can be viewed on YouTube.

Several Qi masters, including monks and healers, have allowed themselves to be filmed showing their ability to control people’s movements without touching them, setting paper on fire, turning mud into dust, and treating patients.

Qi is not physical energy as we know it; therefore, it cannot be measured the same as electrical energy. There also needs to be a connection, like a positive and negative pole, between the practitioner and patient. Minus that link or openness, there can be no result. Qi’s effect has been likened to a form of hypnosis. In fact, our understanding of hypnosis may be wrong.  What we consider hypnosis might be our Qi being affected by another’s Qi.

Auras are energy fields that are held to emanate from living beings. They have been portrayed in art and literature for thousands of years as people “glowing” or emanating light.  Another way they have been depicted is through halos. As with all the proofs of spiritual energy, most of them rely on testimonies of those who either can produce the proofs or have seen the proofs firsthand.

However, there are ways of viewing them that extend beyond personal testimony or aesthetic imagination. Kirlian photography is the most well-known.  It is a process through which an image is obtained by application of a high-frequency electric field to an object so that it radiates a characteristic pattern of luminescence recorded on photographic film.

The water molecule/rice experiments of Masaru Emoto are possibly a third external proof of spiritual energy. He and his staff froze water from different sources and under different conditions to produce water crystals. They found that tap water and water from lakes and rivers near big cities did not produce beautiful crystals, whereas pure water containing no additives produced beautiful, unique crystals. They also observed that prior to freezing, water exposed to good words, music or prayer produced beautiful crystals. The opposite produced disfigured crystals. In 2001, Emoto published Water Knows the Answer, an explanatory book that was a bestseller in Japan and overseas.

Dr. Masaru Emoto’s central premise is that human beings can affect the shape and molecular structure of water just through conscious intention.

In the rice experiments, Emoto took boiled rice and divided it among three jars, one labeled “love,” the second “hate,” and the third “ignore.” For 30 days, staff would spend one minute each telling the “love” rice how much they love it, the “hate” rice how much they hate it, and they ignored the “ignore” rice. The “Emoto Rice Experiment” has been replicated by others thousands of times. It consistently showed the jars of rice marked “I hate you” molded while the jars of rice marked “I love you” were in a more pleasant condition. The ignored jar is consistently in similar shape to the hate one.

Internal evidence of spiritual energy

Cemeteries are not just the remains of previously living human beings but markers of the difference between the living and the dead. The essence that was once that person, their soul force, is no longer present. Whether their essence continues in another place is pure speculation.

Life itself shows evidence of spiritual energy. In 1907, Dr. Duncan MacDougall performed an experiment with six terminally ill patients who were weighed before and after death on an extremely sensitive scale.  At the moment of their deaths, their body weight dropped by 21 grams on average. One explanation could be that the weight difference was that of their souls.

Extrasensory perception (ESP), including telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition, involves awareness of information about events external to the self not gained through the senses and not deducible from previous experience. During the Cold War, government agencies both in the Soviet Union and United States used ESP as an espionage tool. The 2009 movie, “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” was loosely based on one of these organizations. There also have been several documented instances of psychics being used to work with and solve police cases, including the account of a psychic who picked out members of the group that kidnapped Patty Hearst during the 1970s.

One of the definitions of intuition is “the power or faculty of attaining to direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference.” Every person has this to an extent. There are many cases of persons who have “feelings” about people or situations that turn out to be accurate. Serendipity, or the occurrence of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way, is a related phenomenon. It is said that there are no coincidences.  Things that have happened in the past have a tendency to repeat themselves, until a condition or resolution occurs.  This ranges from personal experiences to worldly events.

Debunking the debunkers

Debunkers are skeptics. One of the most prominent skeptics is magician James Randi who has extensively challenged paranormal claims.  In 1996, he went so far as to create a One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge to anyone who could prove the existence of the paranormal. The challenge ended in 2015, shortly after one of the challengers nearly won the prize. Many people invited to take the challenge turned it down, often because they realized the purpose of the contest was not to prove the paranormal but disprove it.

If spiritual energy exists, spirit world exists.  If spirit world exists, then God exists. I would like to assert this, but the truth of the matter is that the evidence, including proofs that can and have been performed by anyone, are not enough.  Only by experiencing spiritual energy can one truly recognize the existence of it.

Spiritual energy is all around us.  It is in everything we touch, see, feel, and hear.  It is the building block of existence; without it, there would be nothing.

Each and every person is the product of countless generations of descendants from the first humans who stood upright, looked at the world, and perceived that there was something beyond what they saw.  What we do with that information is entirely up to us.♦

Lloyd Pumphrey is the eldest son of Galen and Patty Pumphrey, two of the original members who joined the Unification Church in 1960 (when he was nine months old) under Dr. Young Oon Kim. Growing up, he was able to attend many of the major church events, including Rev. Moon’s Yankee Stadium and Washington Monument rallies.  He participated in CARP, MFT, and worked for World & I magazine and The Washington Times. He began the Unification Church of America History website. Lloyd has completed his M.A. coursework at UTS and is finishing his thesis, from which this text is adapted.