The Imaginal Kinesthetic

Naturalizing a common family of energy practices

The felt body image (body representation) is fundamental to the organization of the body. For example, when holding a hammer or driving a car, the felt body image extends beyond the physical body to include the hammer or the car, and so we are able to intuitively hammer a nail or stay within the curve of the road. The felt body image is both extensible and modifiable.

Part of the felt body image is kinesthetic sensation. For example, consider tactile illusions: for example, having one's hand stroked while looking at a mannequin arm being stroked at the same time creates the feeling that the mannequin arm is your arm.

One family of "energy practices" involves the reorganization of the felt body image via imaginal kinesthetic sensation, resulting in both a change in internal sensation and a change of interaction with the world.

Just as, with practice, you can visualize a geometric shape and rotate it in your mind, with practice you can imagine a feeling in your body, and it becomes easier the more you practice.

For example, to "flow energy into one's fist" can cause a reorganization of the body image resulting in greater force actually being delivered in one's punch.

Or, "radiating energy from the heart" may reorganize the body representation to include awareness of others as emotional fields integrated with the body, and so affect interaction with them positively. The “other” becomes ready-at-hand, instead of present-at-hand.

The traditions of energy practice are methods that have evolved over centuries. This is no different than the discovery and evolution of traditions of swimming strokes: time has evolved and filtered a collection of useful swim strokes; none of them is "the" way to swim,

The language within a particular practice can be understood as terms for patterns of imaginal kinesthetic sensation. Practitioners often reify the terms, taking the experience of “energy” as a literal fluid that moves through the body, for example. This is a perfectly useful way to describe what is happening, as long as the “fluid” is not mistaken for the type of fluid that can be collected in buckets. Naturalized energy practice encourages benefiting from this family energy practices while dropping grandiose metaphysics.