Have you ever walked into a room or building where the energy felt dark and heavy? Or have you been with another person and their energy felt either dark or light? Perhaps you have been at a power spot on the earth when you noticed a change in the space around you, or in a cathedral and felt uplifted. You were noticing the energy field at these places or around a particular person.

Scientists and researchers are finding that around every living and "non-living" thing there exists an energy field. This was first discovered in Kirlian Photography as the "phantom leaf effect." Through this method, an entire leaf could be photographed after half the leaf was torn off. In other words, the energy form around the leaf was still visible enough to be photographed. At The International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine (ISSSEEM) conference I once attended, doctors presented research with what is known as "the phantom limb" syndrome. In these situations, people who have lost a limb often complain of aches and pains in the missing limb. In this research they found that by actually manipulating or massaging the missing foot or limb, it helped decrease the pain. This has led scientists and researchers to acknowledge the human energy field as having a bonafide place in Western medicine.

The Subtle Energy Body
The energy field around your physical body is called the subtle energy body, sometimes referred to as the aura, and extends beyond your physical body between twelve inches to several feet, depending on your state of health and emotions. It consists of interpenetrating layers or levels of energy that oscillate in and around the body like an opalescent egg-shaped bubble. Within this bubble and connecting to the spinal area of the body are energy centers known as chakras. The chakras correspond to the glandular system of the body and move out of it both front and back like funnels of rotating energy. Imagine the rotating energy funnels within the egg-shaped bubble of the energy field; this is what it might look like using inner vision.

A vital key to having physical and emotional health and balance, as well as the joy of following your soul's passion, is maintaining your subtle energy body at its optimal level. How do we find this enlivened state and maintain its optimum state of vibrancy? There are several ways. You can do this through meditation, yoga, and clearing and balancing the energy body.

Becoming aware of your subtle energy body and clearing and removing any blocked energy that may be carried in these layers and chakras is the first step to not only maintaining a healthy vibrant state, but also allows you to develop many perceptual states well beyond the five senses. At this optimal state your subtle energy body, like an antenna that picks up all sorts of information, can access help from the invisible realms. The invisible realms are what I call the Mystic Realms. Masters and teachers throughout time have been able to move through these realms. The Mystic Realms are dimensions "beyond" the third dimension—the physical plane—and are well known to shamans, mystics, and yogis. These invisible realms exist at higher frequencies in the multi-level dimensions in the universal energy field than does the reality we know as the physical plane. To experience these many wonderful dimensions and the invisible helpers that reside there, start by clearing and opening the subtle energy body so you can resonate with these higher dimensions of consciousness. When you have done this, the subtle energy body becomes the traveling gear that allows you entrance to these many realms.

As noted above, the subtle energy body contains levels, like layers of an onion, each having its own purpose with regard to who you are as a soul inhabiting your physical form. The first four levels of the subtle energy body are the most important for clearing and developing perceptual awareness outside the five senses—inner sensory perception (ISP). We all have ISP; it is simply a matter of fine tuning the subtle energy field and your ISP opens up.

The First Four Levels of the Subtle Body
These four levels of the subtle energy body are the most important to work with to bring balance and healing to the body, mind, and soul. They are the etheric body, the emotional body, the mental body, and the astral body.

The first level in the energy field is called the Etheric Body; this is the subtle energy body that is closest to the physical body. This is the part of you that carries your vital energy, or chi. When you are ill, your chi is weak. You can strengthen your etheric body through exercise, yoga, walking, and breathing exercises. Yogis know how to build their chi through the breath. By taking short, inhaling breaths, you can enhance your chi, and strengthen the etheric body. If you have been ill, in an accident, or have had some other trauma to the body or psyche, your etheric body may have "holes" in it where it leaks chi. It is a good idea to have this worked with in energy work with a body worker who does vibrational healing.

The second level of the subtle energy body to work with is the Emotional Body. Our subtle energy body picks up and holds emotional residue from others. It also holds energy from your own emotions and can become clogged with low vibratory emotions. There are many ways to clear the emotional body. Clearing the chakras is helpful to clearing this level of your subtle energy field. Here is an exercise you can do every day: when you are in the shower, simply think of the colors of the rainbow. Send these colors down and over you like a waterfall. Each color will correspond to a chakra and will clear it. You can also run you hand over each chakra while in the shower by making counterclockwise circles over the chakra, then rinse the hand (both literally and metaphorically) after each one. After you are done, move your hand over the centers in a fluid clockwise motion, starting at the root and moving all the way up to your crown chakra.

The third level is out about eight to twelve inches and is the Mental Body. This is the subtle energy field that contains thoughts and thought forms. You will want to clear any thoughts that you have created which are negative, or vibrationally low. These may be anxious thoughts, or depressive or pessimistic thinking. Once again, these hold a vibration and they will clog your energy body, eventually creating immunity imbalances. As you may know, form follows thought, and the universal Law of Attraction states that your thoughts will eventually take form. At night, before falling asleep, review the thoughts of the day, beginning with the last and work your way back to morning. Cast out or intend to "delete" those you do not wish to manifest. It also has become evident in health fields that our thoughts have a profound effect on our ability to recover from illness, and hence our health and wellness. Our thoughts and those of others constantly bombard our subtle energy body. We must stay vigilant to our thought patterns and find ways to keep our energy levels high, so that we are not affected by the chaos in the world, or by our own thought patterns and those of others. Make it a daily practice to keep your mind in a state of gratitude.

The fourth body is the Astral Body; this is the part of us that travels to astral realms in our dream time. You may remember dreams that feel as if you visited a place or with a deceased friend or family member. You most likely visited the Astral Realm with your astral body. This area of your subtle energy body contains your karma and past lives. You may know this part of your field is filled with aspects of karma when you are in relationships that aren't working, or when you are not able to move forward with your soul's purpose. Clearing the astral level can resolve unresolved issues and karmic patterns and frees you to explore other ways of being in heart filled relationships.

In my book, Gifts of the Soul: Experience the Mystical in Everyday Life, I've provided many exercises to develop these levels of the subtle energy body to help you in your life's path. Through these exercises I show you how to journey to the multidimensional realms to access help and important information for your soul's evolution. You can learn more about the subtle energy body and how to develop your perceptual sense to travel to the Astral and other mystical realms for self help in this book. Not only will you find esoteric practices made simple that show you how to access these mysterious dimensions, but they will also help you fine-tune your energy body and develop your ISP. When you have amplified your own energy field to a sufficient extent, you are able to then shift your awareness and participate in the dance of an alternate set of realties. You will find any of the answers you need to life's questions from the mundane to the esoteric by using the practical exercises in Gifts of the Soul. Enhancing your subtle energy body is key to all you wish to accomplish. Then the joy of being alive will become a full expression of who you are at the level of the Soul.

* The contents of this article is not intended to replace professional medical advice or used for diagnosis of any kind.