Mystery
Read Time: 4 minutes
“The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. They who know it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, are as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle.”
The experience and exchange of energy is mysterious. We can speculate, discuss, explain, and come to some agreements about the vibe. But can anyone say for sure what we’re talking about? I am not being dismissive or flippant—my life is obviously dedicated to the vibe. But it’s important to highlight the limits of our knowledge and to embrace the blind spot in our pursuit of the vibe.
That blind spot is a good thing. It adds intrigue and drama to our lives. It invokes the curiosity of a child. It invites wonder and spurs creativity. It motivates thought and action. It resists and challenges dogmas and reified paradigms. It allows us to create new realities as we journey through unknown lands.
I believe that transpersonal psychologist Jorge Ferrer would agree when he states that “spirituality essentially emerges from human cocreative participation in an undetermined mystery or generative power of life, the cosmos, or reality.”
That “undetermined mystery or generative power” could be the vibe itself. The universal vibe—the primordial force or energy that is the source of all creation. As Reiki healer Hawayo Takata states: “I believe there exists One Supreme Being—the Absolute Infinite—a Dynamic Force that governs the world and universe. It is an unseen spiritual power that vibrates and all other powers fade into insignificance beside it.”
Those with a more materialist worldview might disagree. They believe that the world is nothing but matter in motion. They might use hard science to justify their claims. They might even use Einsteinian ideas. He was, after all, one of the pioneers of quantum physics.
I’m no expert, but as far as I know, quantum physics argues that subatomic particles are the building blocks of atoms. And atoms are the building blocks of all matter, including inanimate objects and sentient creatures. But quantum physics also argues that particles and atoms vibrate. Which is to say, the entire universe, including human bodies, vibrate.
But “vibrating atoms” are not necessarily the same as “the experience and exchange of energy.” If that were the case, then I could simply use my mind—my vibrational intention—to alter the coffee cup that’s sitting on my desk. Spoiler alert: I’ve tried, and it doesn’t work!
This is probably why people turn to spiritual meta-physics to explain the vibe. Although Einstein drew a distinction between the natural world and spirituality, he did discuss a “cosmic religious feeling.” He also believed that it’s hard to explain this feeling “to anyone who is entirely without it, especially as there is no anthropomorphic conception of God corresponding to it.”
But maybe each of these views—the physical and metaphysical—is too limiting. Maybe the vibe is both physical and metaphysical. Maybe it’s neither physical nor metaphysical. And going further still, maybe it is both physical and metaphysical and neither physical nor metaphysical.
The last formulation is difficult to grasp, but it opens our blind spot of knowledge and spurs rather than stops discussion about the vibe. Rather than attaching ourselves to one or another paradigm, or even rejecting them both, maybe we can embrace all of it. That, to me, is the best way to honor the mystery of the vibe.
Sources:
Albert Einstein. The World as I See It. Citadel Press, 2006 (1956). Mystery quote, p. 7. Cosmic feeling quote, p. 28.
Jorge N. Ferrer. Participation and the Mystery: Transpersonal Essays in Psychology, Education, and Religion. SUNY Press, 2017. p. 10.
Hawayo Takata quote found in: Diane Stein. Essential Reiki: A Complete Guide to an Ancient Healing Art. The Crossing Press Inc., 1996. Supreme being quote, opening page (no page number).
*Note: I edited the opening Einstein quote to make it more gender inclusive. The second line originally reads like this: “He who know it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle.”