For thousands of years, human beings have spoken about an invisible quality that distinguishes living things from the dead.
The Chinese called it qi. . Indian traditions spoke of prana. Japanese traditions developed the concept of ki. Older Western traditions used words such as vital force, élan vital, and vital energy.
The language is different but all of this shares the same idear: life is not just a collection of physical parts. We all have a energy which flows through the =body. When that flow was strong and balanced, a person experienced vitality. When it became weak, stagnant, or disturbed phsyical issues may pop us. Does this mean that if we have strong chi we wont have issues? No. But the way those issues effect us can be lessened.
As human biology advanced, scientists discovered mechanisms that could actually be measured. Diseases once attributed to mysterious imbalances could be connected to bacteria, viruses, hormones, genes, deficiencies, immune responses, damaged tissues, and biochemical pathways.
The old concept of a mysterious vital force seemed unnecessary.
But perhaps something else was lost along the way.
Because life is not only chemical.
Life is electrical.
Every nerve impulse depends upon electrical changes across cellular membranes. Every heartbeat depends upon coordinated electrical activity. Muscles contract because electrochemical signals tell them to contract. Cells maintain electrical potentials across their membranes. Injured tissues can produce measurable electrical currents. Developing tissues use electrical as well as chemical information.
Modern developmental biology is increasingly investigating how electrical states within and between cells participate in migration, differentiation, tissue formation, wound healing, regeneration, and the maintenance of biological form. A 2025 review in the Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology described bioelectric activity as essentially as old as cellular life itself and examined its role in development and tissue repair. A 2026 review likewise emphasized electrical signaling outside the nervous system as an important and still underexplored form of cellular communication.
So perhaps we should ask a question that would have sounded strange a generation ago:
Did Western culture become so focused on the chemistry of life that it underestimated the electricity of life?
Harold Saxton Burr and the Fields of Life
One scientist who believed electricity was far more important to living organization than his contemporaries generally recognized was Harold Saxton Burr.
Burr was not an occultist or wandering mystic. He was a professor of anatomy at Yale University. He spent decades studying development, regeneration, neuroanatomy, and bioelectric phenomena.
Burr and his collaborators measured electrical potentials associated with living organisms. He eventually developed the idea of what he called L-fields, or fields of life. Burr believed these measurable electrical patterns were intimately connected with the organization and development of organisms.
Yale's archives describe Burr's work as encompassing experimental embryology, electrical phenomena, regeneration, development of the nervous system, and what he regarded as electrodynamic fields associated with living things.
Burr went considerably further than contemporary biology generally does. He believed the electrical field of an organism could function almost like an organizing blueprint.
That larger hypothesis has not become established scientific doctrine.
But the basic observation beneath it—that living organisms possess measurable electrical properties extending far beyond the familiar electrical activity of nerves—is no longer particularly radical.
Cells are electrical entities.
Tissues can establish voltage differences.
Electrical gradients can influence cellular behavior.
The interesting question is how much biological information those patterns contain.
Robert Becker and the Current of Healing
Decades later, orthopedic surgeon and researcher Robert O. Becker became fascinated by another question.
Why can certain animals regenerate structures that humans cannot?
And what role might electricity play in healing?
Becker studied naturally occurring electrical phenomena associated with injury and regeneration. His work helped renew scientific interest in the relationship between electrical currents and tissue repair.
In 1977, Becker and colleagues reported clinical experience using extremely low direct currents to stimulate bone growth in patients with difficult fractures that had failed to unite normally. Their small series involved 13 patients and reported successful bone union in 77 percent of them. It was an early clinical investigation rather than the kind of large randomized trial expected today, but it represented an important step in studying electrical stimulation of biological repair.
The field continued developing beyond Becker. Electrical and electromagnetic stimulation subsequently became subjects of substantial research in orthopedics and regenerative medicine.
Modern regenerative engineering continues to explore electrical stimulation for tissues including bone, nerves, skin, muscle, cartilage, tendons, and ligaments.
Once again, that does not mean every theory Becker proposed has been confirmed.
It means something simpler and, in some ways, more profound:
Healing has an electrical dimension.
This Does Not Mean Science Has Proven Chi
This distinction matters.
It would be tempting to say:
Ancient traditions believed in chi.
Scientists discovered bioelectricity.
Therefore chi is bioelectricity.
We cannot scientifically make that leap.
Traditional qi is a much broader concept than membrane voltage, ion movement, or an electrical field measured with laboratory equipment. Traditional descriptions include physical vitality, breath, awareness, emotional state, movement, environmental harmony, and other ideas that do not correspond neatly to a single measurable biological phenomenon.
There is currently no scientific instrument that can point at a person and objectively report, “This person's qi is 37 percent lower than yesterday.”
But that doesn't make the ancient concept useless.
Perhaps qi can also be understood as a traditional vocabulary for the experienced state of a living system.
When people say, “My energy is gone,” they usually do not mean their cells have literally stopped producing electrical potentials.
They mean something immediately recognizable.
They feel exhausted.
Their body feels heavy.
Their thinking feels cloudy.
They don't want to move.
Their breathing may be shallow.
Their muscles may be tense.
They may feel emotionally depleted.
Conversely, when people say they feel full of energy, they may feel awake, strong, mobile, clear-minded, emotionally engaged, and connected to the world around them.
Ancient traditions bundled many of these experiences together under the language of life energy.
Modern science separates them into dozens of physiological processes.
Perhaps both perspectives have something useful to tell us.
What Does It Mean to “Raise Your Chi”?
Instead of asking whether science can prove that we are literally increasing an invisible substance called qi, consider a more practical question:
What activities reliably make the human organism feel more alive, regulated, mobile, attentive, and energetic?
Suddenly the ancient advice begins to sound surprisingly familiar.
Move the Body
One of the simplest ways to change the way you feel is movement.
Walking increases muscular activity, circulation, respiration, sensory stimulation, and metabolic demand. Physical activity also affects mood, sleep, cognition, cardiovascular health, blood pressure, and many other physiological systems.
The CDC notes that even a single session of moderate-to-vigorous activity can reduce feelings of anxiety and improve sleep, while regular activity produces extensive long-term benefits. Importantly, some activity is better than none.
Traditional Chinese practices would describe movement differently.
Movement prevents stagnation.
Movement encourages qi to circulate.
Whatever vocabulary we choose, the practical advice overlaps remarkably well:
The living body was designed to move.
This does not require becoming an athlete.
Walk around the block.
Stretch.
Garden.
Dance.
Sweep the floor.
Climb stairs.
Move your arms.
Stand up periodically.
Take a slow walk after dinner.
For someone who has been sedentary, even five or ten minutes of additional movement can become a beginning.
When Movement Is Difficult, Begin With Breath and Attention
Not everyone can exercise freely.
Age, disability, injury, chronic illness, pain, fatigue, or recovery from surgery may severely limit movement.
Traditional energy practices recognized this too.
Qigong includes both active and passive practices. Some forms involve standing and flowing movement; others can involve breathing, attention, visualization, and very little physical movement.
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health describes qigong as traditionally combining regulation of body, breath, and mind. It can even be practiced in seated or otherwise sustainable positions when necessary. Research into qigong is still developing, but studies suggest possible benefits for balance, quality of life, physical function, and some chronic conditions.
That makes qigong particularly interesting in a discussion of chi.
Instead of treating energy as something we merely possess, qigong treats vitality as something we can cultivate through attention.
Try sitting comfortably.
Relax the shoulders.
Breathe slowly without forcing the breath.
Notice the sensation of the air entering your body.
Notice the movement of your abdomen and chest.
Bring your attention to your hands.
Feel warmth, pressure, tingling, pulsation, or whatever sensations happen to be present without needing to label them supernatural.
Whether someone interprets this as nervous-system awareness, interoception, meditation, or the movement of qi, the practice brings attention back into the living body.
Spend Time Around Trees and Plants
There is a reason so many people say they feel different after walking through a forest, sitting beside a garden, or spending an afternoon working with plants.
Traditional traditions might speak about the energy of nature.
A scientist might talk about green-space exposure, physical activity, sensory environments, stress reduction, temperature, air quality, attention, or social factors.
The vocabulary changes.
The human experience remains.
Large reviews have found associations between exposure to green spaces and several positive health outcomes, particularly aspects of mental health and well-being, although much of this evidence is observational and does not prove that plants are transmitting a measurable life force into people.
So keep the plants.
Grow herbs.
Sit beneath a tree.
Walk through a park.
Put your hands into garden soil.
Watch leaves moving in the wind.
If you feel restored afterward, you do not have to decide whether the explanation is psychological, physiological, environmental, energetic—or some combination of them—before enjoying the effect.
Practice Meditation
Sometimes the greatest drain on our sense of vitality is not physical exertion.
It is relentless mental activity.
Worry.
Planning.
Rumination.
Notifications.
Arguments.
Fear.
The mind can continuously tell the body that there is something to solve.
Meditation interrupts that pattern.
Meditation does not necessarily mean completely stopping thought. It can simply mean repeatedly returning attention to the breath, bodily sensations, a sound, a phrase, an image, or the present moment.
Research suggests mindfulness and meditation can be helpful for stress and some aspects of psychological well-being, although effects vary depending on the person and the condition being studied.
In energy language, meditation might be described as gathering scattered energy.
In physiological language, we might talk about attention, arousal, breathing, and autonomic regulation.
Different maps. Similar territory.
Try Tai Chi or Qigong
If there is one practice that belongs naturally in a discussion about cultivating qi, it is qigong.
The word itself is commonly translated along the lines of cultivating or working with qi.
Slow movement, breathing, posture, attention, and relaxation occur together.
Tai chi incorporates many of these same elements.
Research does not establish that these practices manipulate a scientifically measurable substance called qi. But studies do provide evidence for more concrete effects.
Tai chi may improve balance and reduce falls among older adults, and it may be useful for certain forms of chronic pain and quality of life. Qigong research has shown promising results in several areas, though the evidence varies considerably in quality.
That alone makes them worth considering.
And unlike vigorous exercise, many movements can be adapted to different physical abilities.
Acupuncture and the Meridian Tradition
Acupuncture comes directly from a medical tradition in which qi is understood to move through pathways traditionally called meridians.
Modern anatomical research has not established those meridians as literal tubes carrying an unidentified energy.
Yet acupuncture itself presents a more complicated scientific picture than simply saying it “doesn't work.”
Research suggests acupuncture may help some people with certain pain conditions, including some forms of back pain, osteoarthritis-associated knee pain, neck pain, headaches, and postoperative pain. Effects can differ considerably by condition, and in some studies the difference between real and sham acupuncture is modest.
Someone receiving acupuncture may describe the experience as unblocking qi.
A researcher may investigate sensory nerves, connective tissue, endogenous pain modulation, expectation effects, local biochemical responses, or other mechanisms.
Those explanations do not necessarily have to be forced into one another.
We can acknowledge the traditional framework while continuing to investigate the biological mechanisms.
Massage and Human Touch
Massage may be another way people experience what they describe as renewed energy.
A tense body consumes attention.
Muscles ache.
Movement becomes guarded.
Breathing can become shallow.
Relaxing physical contact may change that experience dramatically.
Research on massage varies according to the condition, with evidence of short-term benefits for some forms of musculoskeletal pain but less certainty for others.
Traditional systems may describe massage as moving blocked energy.
Modern approaches might describe reduced muscular tension, sensory stimulation, relaxation, and changes in pain perception.
Again, the languages are different.
The experience of emerging from a massage feeling lighter, calmer, and more alive is entirely real even when we debate precisely why it occurs.
Reiki: Experience Versus Evidence
Reiki deserves inclusion precisely because it demonstrates where we need to distinguish personal experience from scientific evidence.
Reiki practitioners traditionally describe themselves as working with or channeling a healing energy, usually by placing their hands lightly on or above the recipient. As energy is timeless it can also be sent at a distance but the practitioner must learn the art of letting go which some struggle with.
People report finding Reiki deeply peaceful. This is becomes it directly impacts the bodies life force.
This experience should not simply be mocked or dismissed.
Although energy practices have been looked down on by modern medicine for many years it is starting to change. Hospice offers reiki to bring comfort to paitents, hosptials have reiki healers on hand, and doctors have began showing a interest in some of its calming effects.
Will this magically cure a medical ailment? Most likely not but as our life force begins to be enhanced we will be able to handle stres much easier.
Sleep May Be the Most Overlooked Energy Practice
There is another way to cultivate vitality that is so ordinary we often overlook it.
Sleep.
No amount of meditation, acupuncture, herbs, supplements, or energy work can make chronic sleep deprivation irrelevant.
Sleep is when an enormous amount of biological maintenance occurs.
A person who consistently sleeps poorly may understandably describe themselves as having depleted energy.
Traditional language might call that weakened vitality.
Modern physiology gives us dozens of mechanisms explaining why.
Either way, respecting the body's rhythms is part of respecting life.
The Electricity Within Every Cell
Every living cell maintains a difference in electrical charge across its membrane.
It does this partly by controlling the movement of charged particles—ions such as sodium, potassium, chloride, and calcium.
Those differences in voltage are not merely incidental.
Cells can use electrical states as information.
Modern developmental biology is investigating how membrane potentials, ion channels, gap junctions, and endogenous electric fields participate in coordinated cellular behavior.
A major 2021 review described bioelectrical networks as capable of influencing gene expression and helping coordinate large-scale patterns of growth and form. More recent research continues exploring electrical signaling in development and regeneration.
This is where the story of Burr becomes unexpectedly contemporary.
Burr believed electrical organization was deeply connected to biological form.
Modern researchers are not simply resurrecting Burr's exact theory of L-fields.
But they are asking questions that would have fascinated him:
How do groups of cells electrically coordinate?
Can electrical patterns guide growth?
How does tissue know where an injury is?
How do cells decide where to migrate?
How does an organism maintain its shape?
Can changing electrical signaling alter regeneration?
These are no longer mystical questions.
They are laboratory questions.
Maybe “Energy” Was Too Important a Word to Abandon
Western science was right to demand evidence.
We should not call every unexplained sensation an energy field.
We should not substitute Reiki for emergency medicine, meditation for treatment of a fracture, or acupuncture for diagnosing a serious disease.
But scientific skepticism does not require us to become intellectually incurious.
The old traditions may have bundled together many things under the word energy that modern science now separates into different categories.
Some may be metaphor.
Some may describe subjective experience.
Some may involve breathing and movement.
Some may involve the nervous system.
Some may involve circulation.
Some may involve psychology.
And some may eventually overlap with biological processes we are only beginning to understand.
Perhaps the ancient concept of chi should not be treated as a primitive scientific theory that must either be completely true or completely false.
Perhaps it can also be understood as an observation:
Living things possess organization, responsiveness, movement, rhythm, and vitality that disappear when life ends.
Modern biology explains much of that organization through chemistry.
But increasingly, it is also studying information.
Mechanical information.
Chemical information.
Genetic information.
And electrical information.
Cultivating the Feeling of Being Alive
So what does it mean to raise your chi?
Perhaps it begins by paying attention to what makes you feel genuinely alive.
Walk when you can.
Move your joints.
Stretch.
Breathe deeply and comfortably.
Practice tai chi or qigong.
Meditate.
Sit among trees.
Care for plants.
Spend time in daylight.
Drink enough water.
Eat nourishing food.
Protect your sleep.
Receive massage if it helps your body relax.
Explore acupuncture when appropriate and when provided by a qualified practitioner.
If Reiki brings you peace, experience it as a complementary practice while understanding what has and has not been scientifically demonstrated.
Spend time with people whose presence restores rather than exhausts you.
Create something.
Listen to music.
Laugh.
Rest without feeling that every moment of rest needs to be productive.
And above all, begin noticing the body again.
We live increasingly in our screens and our thoughts.
Traditional energy practices continually call our attention back to something simpler:
The breath.
The hands.
The feet touching the earth.
The movement of the spine.
The rhythm of the heartbeat.
Warmth.
Cold.
Tension.
Release.
Stillness.
Motion.
The remarkable sensation of inhabiting a living body.
The Question We Should Be Asking
Perhaps the question is no longer:
“Is chi real?”
That answer has already been established of course it is.
A better question might be:
What were ancient people experiencing when they developed the concept of life energy, and how much of that experience can modern biology now begin to describe?
Harold Saxton Burr believed electrical patterns were fundamental to living organization.
Robert Becker investigated electrical phenomena associated with healing and regeneration.
Modern researchers study membrane potentials, ion currents, electrical gradients, electrotaxis, bioelectrical networks, tissue regeneration, and morphogenesis.
Meanwhile, traditions thousands of years old continue telling people to breathe, move, meditate, spend time in nature, cultivate awareness, and pay attention to the flow of vitality through the body.
We should not pretend those traditions predicted modern cellular biology.
But neither should we assume that humanity's ancient fascination with the “energy of life” contains nothing worth investigating.
Perhaps Western medicine never needed to choose between chemistry and electricity.
Perhaps the living body has always been both.
And perhaps the next great advances in understanding healing will come not from abandoning everything we already know, but from recognizing that life operates through multiple interconnected languages:
chemical, electrical, mechanical, informational—and experiential.
The electricity of life was never gone.
We may simply be learning how to notice it again.
Health note: Practices such as meditation, qigong, tai chi, massage, Reiki, and acupuncture are best considered complementary approaches rather than substitutes for appropriate medical diagnosis or treatment. People with significant medical conditions, injuries, pregnancy, or unexplained persistent fatigue should discuss suitable activities or treatments with a qualified health professional.