Energy

You know those conversations that wake you up? The ones that engage you so thoroughly that the hours seem to tick by like seconds? When you can feel the energy of everyone in the room gushing out and flowing together? A genuine conversation. One that brings you closer in a profound way both to knowing yourself and those around you.

That word, energy, always comes up to describe these intense kind of relationships between people. Whether you're "exchanging energy", "sharing energy", or some other starry-eyed New Age phrase, there is an idea that some kind of force or power is at play. One of my friends in the conversation last night said he couldn't conceptualize this energy because it has no physical or scientific basis. I've had similar feelings in the past, but was having a hard time reconciling them with the fact that I did feel the energy of connection between people. Hell, between everything on the planet. His comment made me realize something: there is a physical explanation. A scientific one.

Mirror neurons are those that fire when one either performs a specific action or sees it performed. The mirror neuron doesn't care who is the doer, just as long as the action happens. These types of neurons are thought to help in learning motor skills. More importantly, they are intimately linked with the concept of emotional empathy. You can watch videos of someone in a neutral mood slowly adopt the mood of those around her. For example, if she talks with a sad person, her shoulders will slump, her tone of voice will drop and slow, she will frown.

A few weeks ago Frans de Waal gave a talk at MSU on the subject of animal empathy. His lecture was fascinating and covered empathy in broad strokes, but one study he explained stood out to me. He described an experiment in which his research group found that chimpanzees (the most closely related primate to humans) who see a member of their in-group yawn are much more likely to yawn themselves than if they see a stranger yawn (the idea here being that those in the in-group will have a greater empathetic bond). And what system is responsible for this "yawn contagion"? Mirror neurons. Thus, they've showed that mirror neurons are more active between individuals who share a greater empathetic bond than between those who share a lesser one.

This fits beautifully with our notion of energy, don't you think? When you're feeling that energy, it isn't some intangible force. It is your brain's chemistry enacting change on your consciousness. It is the brain literally taking on the form of another. We feel connected with others because we are emulating them. This also explains why one feels the energy more intensely with certain individuals. People who we "click" with, who we have some innate connection to, share with us a more empathetic bond than those who we dislike or disregard. Now the reason why some bonds are inherently stronger than others is a different question.

This not only applies to conversation. In fact, the most connected I've felt with others has been while playing music with them. Whether it be a West African drum circle or Sunday Mass, it makes complete sense to me why communal music-making (especially singing) is such a strong component of cultural and religious identity. Making music requires everyone listen to each other and be in sync. While conversation is a give-and-take, music is unified expression. I'd love to see the activity of mirror neurons when one is involved in this kind of situation...

Love,
Connor