The Cult of “Positive Energy” — Explained Slowly
You’ve heard the lines a hundred times:
- “Protect your energy.”
- “Surround yourself with positive vibes.”
- “Negative people drain you.”
It sounds deep, doesn’t it? But here’s the uncomfortable truth: the whole positive vs. negative energy obsession rests on a 300-year-old accident in vocabulary, not some ancient wisdom. And from that accident, a wellness marketplace was born.
Franklin Was Naming, Not Moralizing
In the 1700s, Benjamin Franklin was tinkering with static electricity — rubbing glass rods, watching sparks, even flying a kite with a key during a storm. He noticed electricity came in two forms. To tell them apart, he needed labels.
- He could have picked A and B.
- He could have picked chicken and goat.
Imagine a yoga teacher today: “Darling, your goat energy is blocked — let’s realign your chickens.”
But Franklin picked positive and negative. Not because one was good and the other bad — just because they were opposites. Simple notation, nothing more.
The Word Trap
Here’s where the trouble started. In daily life, “positive” means good and “negative” means bad. Over time, people blurred Franklin’s neutral labels into moral judgments:
- Positive = uplifting, healing, pure.
- Negative = toxic, draining, harmful.
Franklin never meant that. But the confusion stuck, and eventually the wellness industry turned it into a business plan.
From Vocabulary to Marketplace
Now “positive energy” is something you can buy:
Rose quartz to “absorb negativity.”
Amethyst to “raise vibration.”
€120 salt lamps that look like glowing potatoes, supposedly “purifying your aura.”
Rocks don’t filter moods. They just sit there.
Meanwhile, “energy healers” promise to unblock your flow with sage smoke and soft music. Ask them what “energy” actually is, and you’ll hear words like “frequency” and “vibration.” Translation: they don’t know, but it sounds mystical enough to charge €200 for a weekend.
Instagram, of course, industrialized the whole thing: “Good vibes only.” “Your vibe attracts your tribe.” Plastered on sunsets, yoga poses, latte art. Vibes stopped being emotions — they became branding.
The Physics They Don’t Want to Tell You
In reality, “positive” and “negative” come from physics. Atoms have protons (positive charge) and electrons (negative charge). Protons stay put, electrons move — and that movement is electricity.
- Lightning? Just electrons escaping a charged cloud.
- Your heartbeat? An electrical pulse across muscle.
- Your thoughts? Voltage changes in neurons.
Without negative charges, nothing fires, nothing beats, nothing thinks. “Negative” isn’t bad — it’s half of life’s circuit.
The Energy Transfer Illusion
But the myth goes further: that one person can “give” energy to another, and it magically knows where to go. As if your fatigue is a battery problem and someone else can wirelessly top you up.
If that were true, hospitals would staff Reiki healers instead of ICU teams. Energy doesn’t have GPS. Electrons don’t whisper, “Let’s fix his kidneys today.”
So why do people sometimes feel better after these rituals? Because something real does happen — just not what’s being sold.
Touch and presence calm the nervous system.
Expectation and belief activate the placebo effect — real changes in how the brain processes pain, stress, and mood.
Social connection lowers cortisol and boosts oxytocin.
That’s why “energy rituals” feel powerful. The ritual focuses attention, primes expectation, and provides care. The body responds. The effect is real — but the explanation is wrong.
What This Means in Massage
Massage is a perfect example. Clients often describe feeling “recharged” or “filled with energy” after a session. But no external energy was transferred. What happened was:
Muscles released tension, changing nervous system signals.
Parasympathetic activity rose, slowing heart rate and breathing.
Touch, belief, and trust activated the placebo effect, amplifying relief.
The result feels like “energy flow” because the client’s body shifted state. Not from a mystical current, but from biology plus expectation, framed inside a caring interaction.
The Bottom Line
The cult of “positive energy” was born from Franklin’s choice of labels, not from ancient wisdom. But that vocabulary accident snowballed into salt lamps, retreats, hashtags, and pseudo-science.
Next time someone says “protect your energy,” translate it correctly: “I care about you.” That’s all that’s needed. Because real energy doesn’t care about your vibes — but your nervous system absolutely does.