The Scale of Energies

Energy is life, It cannot be destroyed, but it can be transformed to higher or lower gradations. There is nothing black or white about energy. We can only see the effects energy has upon us rather than the energy itself. For this reason, it is important to understand the nature of energy, how it influences our own transformation, and the impact it has on the evolution of everything.

We are instruments of transformation that serve a very great purpose.

When we study energy and its various levels of organization, we understand how we can contribute to the reciprocal maintenance of life, our cosmos, and the progression of consciousness. Our interface with cosmic energies that create and emanate the divine impulse of Love becomes more accessible as we progress. Our Will then has the capacity to manifest in the material world so that we become co-creators of that divine purpose.

In the mid-twentieth century, J.G. Bennett formulated a Scale of Energies which attempted to classify twelve levels of energy into three categories: material, living, and cosmic, in order to delineate, both scientifically and spiritually, how energy progresses from chaos to higher consciousness and beyond. He referred to this movement as the transformation up and transformation down of energy. It helped elucidate spiritual transformation in terms of “worlds” we find ourselves experiencing.

One world is “the world of bodies”, known in the language of Sufism as alam-i-asjam.

“It is what we can see and know through our senses. It is also the world we can think about and calculate with because the functioning of our thinking is ideally suited to engage with the functioning of the external world. It is the world of things, objects, or bodies from submicroscopic particles to galaxies millions of light years away. The bodies can be liquid, gaseous, dispersed, living, or whatever, all that is ever observed and measured is the movement and activity of bodies.” Deeper Man by J.G. Bennett

The other world is the world of energies, known as alam-i arvah in Sufi terminology, 

These energies cannot be observed or measured themselves, but we can know them by the impact they have on us. We know them by our experience and abilities, and not by recognizing the energy itself. There is something invisible that is acting upon everything visible, including our own awareness of self or the power to participate in the realm of consciousness.

“There is no experiment that we can devise which would reveal these energies to us directly. They are altogether out of reach by the senses and any kind of observation. But this does not entirely mean that they are altogether outside of experience.” from Deeper Man

Delving into each of the twelve energies in detail would exceed the scope of this article. However, I can offer an overview of some of these energies, exploring their connection to our direct experience and highlighting the importance of studying their impact on us.

The Scale of Energies

Mechanical Energies

• Dispersed - it is not organized (i.e. heat)
• Directed - appears when there is direction (i.e.magnetism, gravitational pull)
• Cohesive - that by which everything is held together (chemical bonding)
• Plastic - able to move about yet remain what it is (i.e. elasticity)

Living Energies

• Constructive - organized with a pattern and able to produce patterns in other things (i.e catalytic: enzymes, hormones, DNA)
• Vital - force by which everything that is alive is able to maintain itself on a different level than anything dead (i.e. vitality; seeks nutrition, reproduction)
• Automatic - associated with the vital functions rather than life itself (i.e. movements, heart beat, five senses)
• Sensitive - Awareness of experience; separation from automatism (i.e. aware of existence

Cosmic Energies

• Conscious - something greater than the power to observe in which humankind can participate. It does not belong to us (i.e. human “I”, Will)
• Creative - beyond consciousness that connects with the creative activity by which the Universe is renewed (i.e. generation and creation)
• Unitive - the force by which everything is connected and made whole (i.e. Universal Love)
• Transcendent - Creative Source of which everything is a part (i.e. the Supreme Will, Life as a hologram

For 14 years, I immersed myself in the Fourth Way and Sufi traditions, gaining profound knowledge of these energies. I received specific meditation exercises designed to cultivate higher energies as necessary. Through this extensive process, I came to understand how my own experience of lasting freedom—not merely temporary glimpses—was actualized and, subsequently, could be taught to others.

For this article, I want to explain some of the living energies as well as how the cosmic energies allow us the possibility of developing secondary bodies to insure a permanent state of freedom. This secondary body is requisite for entering higher worlds of consciousness and remaining there.

Most of us live in the realm of automatic energy where thinking, feeling, and sensing operate in mechanical terms. The thinking can be quite sophisticated in its usual ability to analyse, compare and contrast, and evaluate (good v. bad, right v. wrong) according to its conditioning. Emotions are reactive and reinforced by thought in a binary feedback loop. The body is, in addition, physically reacting to this feedback loop and functioning on vital energy. There is no separation from this, and the particulars of this conditioning is our life.

Only when sensitive energy is liberated are we able to see in a new way, separated from the experience with a sense of “I” that can watch the experience. This is when true self-observation is possible. There are certain meditation exercises and presence practices that enable this, and require effort on our part. Until that is developed, we are unable to maintain a reservoir of sensitive energy, and thus get only glimpses.

We can have a diligent practice of meditation and still not be able to maintain a reservoir due to daily leakage.

What causes this leakage? Various states of worry, fear, and anxiety from fretting over what “should” be, being angry about what’s not fair, lingering in past or future scenarios to jealousy, low self-esteem, pride, self-importance, guilt, and shame – to name a few things.  These are all states of attachment that our ego uses to identify itself. The catch is we must see these states from a place of presence in order to dismantle them and stop the leakage.

The more effort we make to maintain awareness, the more sensitive energy is liberated… even if the effort seems like a failure.

Gradually, these efforts will release enough sensitive energy to counteract the leaks, leading to frequent daily observations. A surplus of sensitive energy then becomes available, allowing a higher energy to utilize this abundance to actualize conscious energy.

The higher blends with the lower to actualize the middle.

This is a fundamental law spoken of by Gurdjieff known as The Law of Three which needs to be explained before I go any further. There are always more organized energies streaming towards us from above. This blends with our personal energetic atmosphere to actualize the energy between the two. According to the scale of energies this means, for example, creative energy blends with sensitive energy to actualize conscious energy.

This explains how a preponderance of one energy then liberates the adjacent higher energy. We have a greater chance of touching into the pool of consciousness by maintaining a surplus of sensitive energy.

Our experience begins to look less reactive and becomes driven by conscious choice rather than doing what our conditioned personality thinks we should be doing. We gain a tremendous amount of empathy as we loosen the grip of egocentricity. Maintaining this level of conscious energy enables a new body to form; a body that facilitates life in the heart realm. This body is the vessel by which these energies can concentrate.

Bennett referred to this as the Being World—a dimension where the unity and diversity of all things are understood. Under the influence of creative energy, Will aligns with function. We become co-creators of our reality, where the present moment serves to repair the past and prepare for the future. Here, we achieve oneness with the Creator.