The Joy Within: Lesson 1: The Mechanics of Vibration

Note: This course may be taken as a standalone course, with no prerequisites required. Additional modules referenced may be found in the starter course: Quiet The Mind in 30 Days.

In the last module we focused on the energy of joy, looking at how this energy can be viewed from a number of different perspectives. Now we’re going to turn to the mechanics of vibration so we can understand some of the scientific principles that underly this energy and learn how to apply them to our daily lives.

We’ve already talked about the fact that everything is energy, but I want to go into a little more detail about what, exactly that means. When we talk about the state of energy of an object, what we’re really talking about is that object’s frequency, it’s rate of vibration. Energy is vibration.

There is fundamentally no difference between what we call energy and what we call matter. Einstein proved this to us over a hundred years ago. It’s just that when something is outside of the realm that we can perceive with our five senses, we call it pure energy. You can think of UV light condensing down to visible light. Another good analogy is to think about water and steam. It’s the same basic “stuff,” it just vibrates at a different rate. You can then extend this analogy to include everything in the universe. Every physical object, even the densest objects, are nothing but this vibratory energy. They are particles bouncing around inside atoms. Within those atoms is immense space — you can compare it to the space between planets and stars in the universe. There’s more “nothingness” even in very dense objects than we often believe in day to day life.

The integration between matter and energy is even more closely linked than that, because these quantum particles are constantly bouncing in and out of existence, moving between a state of energy and matter. This is known as the wave-particle duality in quantum physics. The act of observing an object collapses the wave function, forcing this energy into a state of matter than can be observed by the physical senses. Without this observation, the particles would continue to dance back and forth between matter and energy. This dance happens with every single thing in the universe, every object you’ve ever seen or could ever imagine, constantly bounces back and forth between these states. The point here is simply that this dance always occurs within a specific range of vibration.

You Are Always Receiving Vibration

We spend our entire lives operating within this field of vibrations. The principles we just talked about apply as equally to the human body and mind as they do to a chair or a beam of light. You are constantly interacting with this field of energy, and as we saw in the last video with the collapse of the wave-function concept, you are constantly influencing this field, just by existing. Just by observing objects you are influencing the form that this vibration takes.

All vibration you experience exists within a certain range. In order to observe an object, that object has to exist within the range of vibration that your physical senses can perceive. This is a very simple concept, but it isn’t something that we’re usually used to thinking about.

Think about how sound works. We’re already used to thinking about sound as a vibration, and even though we don’t think about it in a day to day context, it makes sense that when we hear something — whether that’s music or someone speaking — we are really doing is interpreting a vibration that comes to us. There’s a vibration of sound in front of us, it comes towards us and we have a mechanism through our ears and our brain to understand and process the information that’s coming through that vibration.

The example of sound also helps us to realize that even though this vibrational field is constant, it is never static. When you listen to someone speaking or listen to a piece of music, there’s a flow that happens to the sound. Even though there’s constantly a push of vibration to you, that vibration is constantly fluxing, constantly moving in different forms and waves as it shifts among various frequencies. This happens all of the time, regardless of whether or not you are consciously aware of it.

You Are Always Emitting Vibration

This interaction works both ways. We’re not only receiving vibration, but we’re emitting it as well. This works on many different levels, only a few of which we can perceive with our physical senses. Think about how cell phones work or other wireless technology: there is obviously a signal out there that we can’t perceive with our physical bodies, so we developed tools to perceive and interpret the information for us.

One of the biggest categories of vibration with which we constantly interact is thought vibration. As we receive vibrations from the world around us, our brain processes them and interprets them as thought. Though we can’t perceive it with our physical senses, it is no less poignant. When you think something, you can then manipulate the range of vibration that that thought has.

Again, let’s use the example of sound to illustrate this. What happens when you speak something is that generally you’ve received some information from the world around you, you have thoughts about that information, all of which occurs as vibration, through different frequencies of thought.

Then you condense that thought into speech. When you speak, you change the frequency, the rate of vibration, of a thought, into a rate of vibration that you can perceive with your physical body…into the range of sound, in this example. This process is constantly happening. You are constantly receiving and emitting these thought vibrations regardless of whether or not you perceive. It’s then only some of those vibrations that we receive and interpret through the senses.

Exercise: Noticing Subconscious Perceptions

These concepts can seem a little abstract, since we’re not used to thinking about our interactions with the day to day world in terms of vibration. It can be difficult to wrap your mind it. In this video I want to give you a thought exercise that will help to put this in perspective and help you to realize that you are already moving through the world in this way.

Example 1: Getting a Bad Vibe

All that you’re going to do is think about the last time you got a bad vibe from someone. This can be incredibly simple. Maybe you were walking down the street and — without really thinking about it — instinctively crossed to the other side of the street. Though you might not have realized it at the time you crossed, half a block or a block later you saw someone who was really off-putting. Maybe they were aggressively selling something or begging for money in a way you didn’t like. They would have been in your path, but your instinct told you to move to the other side of the street first. This is just one example of how you’re constantly receiving, processing, and even acting on information in ways that you don’t always perceive consciously.

Example 2: Trusting Your Instinct

Another example is a time when you trusted a gut instinct not to work with someone. Maybe you were in a business or an academic situation and planning to work on a project with someone. On paper, everything looked good, but there was some reason, maybe something that you couldn’t quite articulate, you felt it wasn’t right for you. There was something about the other person you’d be working with that stopped you from moving forward. On some level, even if you weren’t consciously aware of it, you received information (you received a vibration) telling you not to move forward with that person.

This actually happens all of the time. It’s only in somewhat extreme examples that we’re able to put it into context and realize that we are moving through this field of vibrations, we are constantly processing this field of vibrations, using that information to influence how we act and there influence how the world around us results.

Exercise: Noticing Energy Habits

For the last exercise of today’s lesson, I want you to start to notice your state of vibration as you move throughout the day. Simply notice the energy, the state of being, the emotion that you have at various points throughout the day.

For example, maybe when you get up you’re a little sluggish and lethargic. Then you take a shower, have some coffee and feel ready, raring to go. Then as the day moves on you might get tired, and your energy lowers a little. It’s a really simple flow of how the energy is moving, but the key is to start noticing that energy and to pay attention to how it shifts. Begin to think of it in terms of the vibration that you hold as you move throughout the day.