The Study of Vibes

Everyone from musicians and athletes to bohemian poets and spiritual gurus talk about “vibes.” Other words include energy, mood, flow, buzz, ambience, and atmosphere. But few people try to define or explain what they mean. What exactly are we talking about when we say “vibes?” Is it a loose metaphor for emotion? Maybe gut instinct? Just a poppy catch-phrase? Or does it refer to a unique phenomenon that needs its own classification and terminology? Are we referring to the light and sound vibrations that travel through air and hit our eyes and ears, or are we referring to some transcendent and metaphysical experience?

My interest in vibes dates back to the early 1990s when I was participating in New York City’s early rave scene and the roving fan festivals of the band Phish. I wrote my first paper on the vibe for a college class on nonverbal communication. I then used my master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation to reconceptualize the vibe as a tangible, felt energy that emanates from our bodies. This “bodily emanation” is a human energy system that can be detected on interpersonal, small and large group, and even global levels, and it can be used as a form of communication, as a way of knowing, and as an existential guide for moving through the world.

I've met plenty of skeptics over the years. But there are numerous philosophies, paradigms, and traditions from across the world that speak to similar phenomena: Prana, Qi, Ki, Lung, Mana, Orenda, Ruach, Pneuma, eternal and primal energy, life force, élan vital, and the corresponding ideas and practices of auras, halos, chakras, subtle energies, meditation, yoga, Qigong, tai chi, and “alternative” healing and medicine. Some of these traditions are abstract and esoteric while others are more concrete and convincing. Nevertheless, human energy systems are of global, cross-cultural, and historical interest.

My lifelong commitment to social justice has not given me much time to work on my philosophy of vibes -- I’ve attended to it only sporadically. But my interest in the topic is ongoing.