Have you ever noticed the way a charismatic person can light up a room? Or how the air gets heavy when a difficult roommate walks in?
Each of us produces what I call a “psychosocial field” that affects those around us.
The New Age community made popular the language of “energies” and “vibrations,” “auras” and “vortexes.” I believe what they—and previous eras of magical thinkers—were picking up on were real psychosocial phenomenon that our minds usually sense on a subconscious level.
These fields have nothing to do with physical or metaphysical energies. They are based entirely in psychological and sociological dynamics. “Energy” in this context means psychological and emotional energy.
Why does all this matter?
If you pay attention, you’ll notice these psychosocial fields at work all around us. Other peoples’ fields constantly affect us. They push and pull us. Direct our lives without us realizing it.
People with stable fields are seen as confident, grounded, charismatic, and exude a certain power. They aren’t blown about like candles in the wind; they live in line with their values and are able to influence those around them—sometimes merely by their presence.
When in the presence of someone that exudes a field of authority, judgement, or aggression, we may notice the tone and volume of our voice change, our body posture unconsciously contracts, our breathing becomes shallow and quick, and we have a hard time look around the room or meeting others’ gaze.
We might feel these limits to our own field as a kind of invisible “pressure,” or “force.” It may make us feel uneasy or downright uncomfortable. And these constrictions may even limit the range of emotions and thoughts we are capable of experiencing, and even the roles we play in the different social arenas—friend groups, family gatherings, workplace environments, etc.
Conversely, when we’re around someone who “lights us up,” a good friend or beloved person, be feel ourselves (and our field) “expand” and brighten. We talk louder, are more expressive, and can feel and think more freely.
When we strengthen our psycho-social field we are no longer pushed and pulled by the opinions or expectations of others. We gain solid inner stability.
A strong psycho-social field is not always about being the biggest and toughest presence in the room. (A strategy most typically used by men, consciously or not.) This leads to emotional rigidity. And worse, while exuding a dominant display of power, we are implicitly expressing our own weakness—a truly powerful person doesn’t try to seem powerful.
So how do we strengthen our field if not by “trying?”
A strong psychosocial field primarily comes from deep and unshakable rootedness in the essence of who you are. It is a powerful and consistent out-flowing of your own psychological presence.
This out-flowing is experienced as a kind of “energy” that an individual has. It may be joyous, gracious, confident, playful, or it may be hostile, agitated, fearful, paranoid, etc. A person’s psychosocial field can be thought of as the “space” they take up, these emotional energies are like the “colors” that field takes on, and their power is like the “loudness” of these colors and the “firmness” of their space.
Unless we pay attention, we are usually not aware of how our field affects others, or how others’ fields affect us. But as soon as we start to notice these dynamics, we realize the invisible influence these dynamics have on social interactions.
A leader’s charisma depends on their psychosocial field. Group chemistry depends on how well peoples’ fields work with one another. Romantic partnership is often based on “how a person makes us feel,” which arises from the unique interplay of two peoples’ psychosocial fields.
But what exactly are we talking about? What are psychosocial fields, really?
A psychosocial field is the way a person, place, or thing appears in and affects our consciousness.
When we approach the grave of someone we loved, the “field” of that place, the tombstone, the remains of our loved one, generates a strong field — but only for us. A stranger walking by that same headstone may feel little or nothing. Psychosocial fields are the products of our own consciousness. They are the result of consciousness acting upon itself or upon one another.
According to the seminal psychologist Carl Jung, for millennia, human beings intuitively sensed the invisible forces of the conscious, and subconscious, psyche and attributed them to external entities. Witches and miracle workers, demons and angels, haunted lands and sacred waters.
Modern secular thought tried to dispel these “forces” as nonsense. But these forces are very real. Not magical but psychosocial in nature. The scope of modern psychology isn’t large enough to encompass the full range of these fields—they spill over across sociology, anthropology, mythology, religious studies, history, and beyond. They are intrinsic to our consciousness and we cannot get rid of them. But we can learn to understand and wield them with greater wisdom.
What I hope is that we begin to take seriously the power and influence of these “unseen forces” in our lives. They are wondrous, they are ancient, and they are powerful. These fields can exist between two people or in massive aggregates between two civilizations. They combine to form the occult “egregore,” the “deities” of human religions, and the zeitgeists of historical eras.
These psychosocial fields are the invisible fabric of our human reality. The “matrix” we live within but rarely see. Ultimately, the mystery that remains in all of this is the mystery of consciousness itself. Whether it is just an emergent phenomenon of our human psyche and body, a property of sophisticated neural networks, or a more fundamental characteristic of the universe itself.
Wherever you are, look around yourself. Blink a few times.
What do you see?
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Read more of Daniel’s writing on his website daniellevshkolnik.com
i disagree that these energy fields are not in any way physical. we each have an electrical component, and likely others. Our eyes cannot see them but that doesn’t make it either “magic” or nonexistent.
That’s quite true Sarah. We all have electrical magnetic components. Gravitational. As well as the microscopic strong and weak forces. And while it may be that there are some influence that these forces or others we haven’t discovered can have on our perception of other people in the way that I described, I suspect that most if not all of the effects and dynamics that I discuss come from psychological and sociological patterns.
I could be wrong of course, but I have yet to see an explanation of how a persons electric field affects my perception of them.
i have seen reports of scientific testing showing that one’s own field changes with meditation or anxiety. if my field changes, surely how you sense it changes too.
it is an interesting field of study and regardless of the “mechanics”, awareness of the effects and dynamics is helpful.
thank you.
Right, regardless of the mechanics being conscious of the dynamics is what actually matters to help one another heal and navigate the world
Field=energy in this particular discussion.
Thank you. It’s nice to read about what I have often thought about and experienced. My husband and I were in a grave yard in New York hunting a grave. We came across a mausoleum. I didn’t know who it was yet, but I was overwhelmed with a palpable bad feeling – I was afraid. It turned out to be Leona Helmsley’s grave. I never had dealing with her. I may have seen a news clip that revealed her evil response to life long ago. Wow, it knocked me over. And I do have an acquaintance who sucks the energy out of me. She is working with me to change that through a fellowship that encourages change. Thank you. Are there course to take in this?
Hello Jean, Im glad to hear this is something that resonated with you.
I’m not sure about courses in this area, but if you’re interested in exploring this further I offer 1:1 sessions to help strengthen your field.
You can sign up for a free consult on my website: daniellevshkolnik.com
It seems like you’re talking about paralinguistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paralanguage
I’d say that paralinguistics is certainly an expression of what I mean, but I believe it’s wider than just that