Energy

From RationalWiki

— Outline Only —
This article is only a brief description of the subject, and is not intended to give a full explanation.
Check out the "see also" or "references" sections, or Wikipedia's article for more detail.

Energy is strictly defined as the ability to do work. It is the primary constituent, in one way or another, of the universe.

Einstein taught us that matter, or mass is nothing more than highly concentrated energy, and the relationship between them is expressed in terms of the speed of light.

[edit] Pseudo-scientific use of the term

Devotees of New Age beliefs use the term "energy" for almost anything for which they don't have a scientific explanation, including emotion ("I'm feeling some bad energy") and processes within the human body ("the flow of energy seems to be blocked"). They believe crystals, sounds, light, pyramids, and numerous other objects with which they associate magical properties, give off or transform some sort of "energy" that is traveling through the universal ether and affecting everyone with a positive or negative effect. When science types complain that they can't detect these energies, the woo-woos call them "subtle energies" so they don't have to explain why they can't be detected.