Why Vibes Matter: Understand Your Energy and Learn How to Use it Wisely

In a nutshell: “We are essentially swimming in a sea of invisible vibes that we’re not consciously aware of but have significant impact on the choices we make, how we feel, and even our health”, writes Dr Garret Yount who has spent decades immersed in the study of energy vibes and consciousness.

His new book, Why Vibes Matter, offers an overview of the kinds of subtle energy – ‘subconscious’ or ‘invisible’ vibes – we get from people and places, and how and why this energy might exist and be perceptible. For example, when it comes to picking up subtle moods from other people, he looks at research using electrocardiograms to measure the heart electromagnetic field (EMF) of people experiencing different emotions and discovers that a person’s emotional state is reflected in their EMF.

Dr Yount writes: “Scientists can observe and measure the field of electromagnetic energy surrounding the body associated with different emotional states. If you’re brimming with positive emotions, it shows up in the patterns of your EMF – you are literally radiating good vibes”.

He goes on to say that “these biophysical vibes can also affect those around them. Research showed that the heart EMF of one person can transfer energy to that of another person”.

Best for: Why Vibes Matter offers a wide-ranging mix of modern science and spiritual philosophy. Certain techniques for attuning to and raising these subtle energy vibes might be a little leftfield for some people (think psychedelics, chanting and tantric sex, for example), while others, such as meditation, forest bathing and feng shui are more mainstream and will appeal to a wider base.

Thumbs up: In a fast-paced, materialistic world, Why Vibes Matter is a timely reminder to switch on to the less obvious, but no less important vibes that surround us.

The idea that underlying energy connects everything and that there are practices that can dissolve the “illusion of separateness” is woven throughout the book. This has encouraging implications for compassion and offers hope for “a more peaceful and co-operative society”.

While this guide to tuning into and radiating good vibes has science at its core, the author doesn’t shy away from the fact that there’s much more research to be done in these fields.

Don’t miss: The chapter on haunted places, which offers some reassuringly empirical explanations for spooky vibes.

• Why Vibes Matter: Understand Your Energy and Learn How to Use it Wisely is published by Welbeck Balance (£10.99).
• Garret Yount, PhD is a scientist and molecular biologist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) where his research focuses on mapping the mind-gene interface.

Lead picture credit: Natalya Letunova on Unsplash