In using the term “subtle energetic body”, I am referring to the spiritual body that is concurrent with the physical body but not typically perceivable with our visual senses.
There are many schools of thought on the types of subtle bodies and what to call them. Spirit, soul, auras, human auric field, and human energy field are common references to parts of the subtle energetic body. Aspects of these are perceivable through equipment and modern scientific methods, such as in the findings of the HeartMath® Institute. That institute calls the heart the “most powerful source” of electromagnetic energy in the body and has measured a magnetic field emanating from it that can be detected up to 3 feet away from the body using specific types of magnetometers. It goes on to say that all cells of the body are surrounded by an environment of “fluctuating invisible magnetic forces”.
While we don’t yet have the answers to the age-old question of what is spirit or soul, these measurements are, I believe, circumstantial evidence pointing a scenario in which our physical body is surrounded by an energetic field of interconnected vibrations that have a function — or, at minimum, have a resonance that produces effects. HeartMath®’s studies propose that frequencies involved in the heart’s field serve as carriers of emotional information. If you’re interested in the details, you can read more in chapter 6 of the book Science of the Heart.
One of their specific findings is a relationship between the patterns found in the heart’s rhythms and spectral information in the field that the heart creates. They state it as follows: “…Information about a person’s emotional state is encoded in the heart’s magnetic field and is communicated throughout the body and into the external environment.” (italics mine). With the belief in a connected universe on a quantum-physics-type level, it is not such a huge leap to believe that the vibrational parts of one’s being can have their effects on one’s environment, fields and beings in that environment (i.e. people, creatures, etc.), one’s world, cosmos, or even, dare I say it, universe.
