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future? It wouldn’t be the first time people thought “nothing’s there” when it actually was. Years ago, surgeons scoffed at the “preposterous notion” that there were tiny little creatures called bacteria that could get into a patient’s bloodstream and make him sick if the doctor didn’t wash his hands before operating. Thank goodness we figured that one out.
    And maybe we simply have areas in our energy field that are open to receive whatever signals come from outside of us—say, we’re like radios with our personal energy fields serving as one, big antenna. Whatever the nature of our porous boundaries, we pick up signals much like a radio picks up radio waves that convey information and music being broadcast. None of us is immune to changes in the energy field that occur all around us.
    FROM ENERGY TO PHYSICAL REALITY: THE NATURE OF THE “BOND”
    When our personal energy field changes, our body responds. Neuroscientist Candace Pert’s pioneering research has shown that whenever we feel an emotion, we also experience an instant physical response: our bodies create molecules called neuropeptides that travel through our bloodstream and hook up with receptor cells in the brain, the skin, the stomach, and so on, and they let those cells know what we’re feeling. Two of the more well-known peptides are serotonin and endorphins, which, when they meet up with receptor sites, change our mood for the better. There are also peptides that let our cells know we’re angry, resentful, or fearful. When the cells in the digestive system receive these peptides, we say, “I feel in my gut that something’s wrong”—which is literally true.
    The body also responds to thoughts and emotions by releasing hormones into the bloodstream. For example, when we’re scared or under emotional stress, upset or angry, our adrenal glands release cortisol . That’s why when someone says something upsetting, we can feel ourselves shaking: the body has instantly created the “juice” needed for us to put up a fight or to run away. In fact, our emotional and physical responses happen so quickly that our logical brains may take a few seconds to catch up. ( Wait, what did he just say to me? ) Then, if we start thinking about just how angry or scared we are, the anger is intensified. ( I can’t believe he said that! He’s a jerk! Who does he think he is? He’s always doing this to me. ) We talk ourselves into freaking out and the adrenals pump out more cortisol.
    Why do thoughts and emotions, which seem like incredibly subtle energies, have such powerful effects on our bodies? Because physical objects are collections of energy that interact with each other.
    At the smallest level of physical reality—the subatomic level—our bodies are not solid, unless we choose to see them that way. If we had far better eyesight, we could see what the most powerful microscopes can: that any solid object, including a human body, is made up of photons , or waves of light. These are only shaped into matter, or particles, when they’re observed or perceived. If you expect to see a photon, it’s a photon. If you expect to see a particle, well, that smallest unit of reality will oblige and appear as a piece of matter. In other words, our consciousness—our thoughts and intentions—determine the nature of reality itself.
    These photons, or particles, are constantly vibrating through empty space, so your body is actually made up of quite a lot of air—although it doesn’t feel that way when you step on a scale! Now, if you think about anything else that vibrates, like a guitar string, you know that it’s easily affected by a vibration outside of it. Play an A string on a guitar, and the A string on a guitar across the room will vibrate in sympathy. Your body works this way, too: you can actually get your heart to entrain to the rhythm of music