Is there such a thing as “positive” and “negative” energy, and can positive energy truly be attracted?

It should be understood that the concepts of “positive” and “negative” as they pertain to particles and energy in physics have absolutely nothing to do with the New Age energy-healing nonsense. In physics, energy is defined as the capacity to do work. In thermodynamics—a branch of physics that deals with the energy and work of a system—if work is done on the system, its sign is conventionally defined as positive, and if work is done by the system, its sign is conventionally defined as negative. This is simply a sign convention used to indicate the direction of energy transfer. In physics, a sign convention is an agreed-upon way of using plus and minus signs to represent physical quantities in cases where the choice of sign is arbitrary. The term “arbitrary” here means that the same physical system can be correctly described using different sign conventions, as long as one convention is used consistently.¹ Thus, in thermodynamics, the standard convention is that energy entering the system is positive, while energy leaving the system is negative. Again, this is purely a matter of convention and must be applied consistently throughout. Likewise, there is nothing inherently “sacred” about electrons being labeled negative and protons positive. These labels arise from their behavior in an electric field: electrons are assigned a negative charge by convention and move toward the positive pole, while protons are assigned a positive charge by convention and move toward the negative pole. In other words, the labeling of one type of charge as “positive” and the other as “negative” is entirely conventional and could, in principle, have been defined the other way around without changing any physical laws. The same principle applies to positive and negative ions. An ion is simply an atom or group of atoms in which the number of electrons is not equal to the number of protons. As explained earlier, electrons carry a negative charge, whereas protons carry a positive charge. When an atom loses one or more electrons, it becomes a positively charged ion, known as a cation, because it then has more protons than electrons. Conversely, when an atom gains one or more electrons, it becomes a negatively charged ion, known as an anion, because it then has more electrons than protons. The key point is that in physics, there is no such thing as “positive” or “negative” energy in the sense promoted by so-called New Age healers. Nonetheless, they abuse the term “energy” to give their claims a false appearance of scientific legitimacy.

According to scientists, there is real energy all around us—potential and kinetic energy—which can be measured, harnessed, and manipulated. However, they maintain that energy is not easily defined, as it is not a tangible thing so much as a mathematical property. In their terms, energy is a mathematical property that objects possess in our universe. Indeed, because of its abstract and elusive nature, energy is a concept that readily lends itself to pseudoscience. The so-called New Age energy healers constantly speak of “the power to heal using cosmic energy,” “clearing negative energy from one’s body or home,” and “channeling and attracting positive energy.” But what is this “power” to heal? What do “positive” and “negative” energies look like? Obviously, there is no evidence for the existence of such a form of energy. Nevertheless, this does not prevent the so-called New Age energy healers from claiming that they can feel, unblock, and balance it. They have appropriated the terms “energy,” “positive,” and “negative” from physics, using them non-metaphorically and equating “positive energy” with an optimistic outlook on life and “negative energy” with a pessimistic one. They claim that people and their thoughts are made of “pure energy” and that a process of “like energy attracting like energy” exists through which individuals can improve their health, wealth, and personal relationships. They repeatedly assert that “positive attracts positive and negative attracts negative,” that “positive thoughts create positive energy and negative thoughts create negative energy,” and that “positive or negative thoughts bring positive or negative experiences into a person’s life.” However, the claim that thoughts are tangible forms of energy that travel throughout the world and bring into existence what people are thinking about is nothing more than superstitious mumbo-jumbo. As earlier stated, the so-called New Age energy healers invoke the concepts of “positive” and “negative” as used in physics to support their belief in positive and negative energy. However, this is pure nonsense because, apart from the superficial use of the words “positive” and “negative,” what scientists mean by these terms in physics has nothing whatsoever to do with the positive and negative energies described by the so-called New Age energy healers.

Funnily enough, the so-called New Age energy healers tell people not to sit in places where they sense “negative energy,” claiming that such places “will wreck their vibration and even cause them to become ill.” Indeed, the claim that places can hold negative energy is absurd. These same so-called healers also claim that places of worship are filled with positive energy, evidently in an attempt to appeal to believers’ emotions. However, places of worship are not “charged” in this sense and therefore emit neither negative nor positive energy. In fact, this is true of all places: there is no such thing as a place filled with positive or negative energy. If someone tells you that a place is full of negative energy and therefore you should avoid it, it is better to avoid them instead—and your life will be better and you will waste less money. Indeed, so-called New Age energy healers should stop misusing scientific terms to lend credibility to their bogus claims.