In general, energy can be defined as “the potential for causing changes.” That means energy is the cause of any change.

Typically in feng shui the precise meaning of energy (which comes from physics) is mixed with a fuzzy definition (which comes from folk traditions and belief systems or spirituality).

They are not the same thing.

You can tell them apart by their capacity to measure change (and the potential for change).

• “Energy” in physics is detectable and measurable
• Energy in folk traditions and spirituality requires you to accept a belief that it exists, although it cannot be detected or measured. (This is the “because I said so” version.)

“Energy” in folk traditions and spirituality

Energy in folk tradition is a belief system that claims there is an interpersonal, non-physical force or essence. That is how McFengshui practitioners can claim with a straight face that “feng shui is the same energy found in Einstein’s formula E=mc²” (mass-energy equivalence). Never mind that those who advocate the connection don’t know why this is so, who proved it, when, or how. Nor can they show you how they know this is so.

New Age thought, like occult thought, is full of “energies,” never clearly explained but always convenient.

No one has to show that this “energy” exists. This “force” or “essence” version of energy is a matter of faith — and a poor science education. It is not like a hypothetical or theoretical existence of a type of force or essence. People test hypotheses and theories — they let the evidence show whether an idea is valid.

Originally, Rev. Norman Vincent Peale used energy in the sense of determination or willpower. If you read New Age books and substitute “willpower” for “energy” the books generally make sense.

You may read that “the universe is a vast field of energy.” But have you ever asked

“What kind of field, and how vast?”

“How do you know?”

“Energy” in evidence-based philosophies, such as physics

The most common definition of energy is “the ability to do work.” Energy has the same units as work and is a force applied through a distance. (Energy has no direction in space.)

Energy has many different forms. It can be gravitational, electric, heat, meteorological, and so forth.

These forms of energy can be grouped into two major categories:

• kinetic energy
• potential energy

Energy is conserved. That is, energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be converted from one form into another. The total energy of the universe always remains constant.

That is a most abstract idea, because it is a mathematical principle; it says that there is a numerical quantity, which does not change when something happens. It is not a description of a mechanism, or anything concrete; it is just a strange fact that we can calculate some number, and when we finish watching Nature go through her tricks and calculate the number again, it is the same.

— Richard Feynman: The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol. 1