The protagonist in my Modified Humans series can see “fields”. It’s not something I planned. It was one of those pantser inspirations that just popped up as I was writing.
When you read any of the Modified Humans novels, it’s pretty self-evident from the context what a field is. If you haven’t read the books, a ‘field’ is a person’s aura, the cocoon of energy that surrounds them and permeates them. I also incorporated other aspects of the world of energy into the series. My character can see the energy signature around electrical appliances, and even the flow of electromagnetic winds in the environment.
Fields as a dramatic tool
As a dramatic tool, it’s turned out to be very useful. My protagonist (and hence the reader) can tell what another character is feeling through their field. Occasionally I also use it to describe the setting in an interesting way. Check out this paragraph from Chapter 14 of Immunity Bond:
The room was a space of densities and disturbances. Jian floated in it. The dim lamp in the corner was a hot vibration. The wall sockets were points of buzzing energy – not a heard buzz, because there was no sound here, but a jiggering tremor that rippled against his edges with the high, sharp bite of a drill. The sofa and the chairs were hazy areas of vague resistance, the ceiling and the walls were fields with an odd regularity that he could move into and through at will. Outside the cold skin of window, the spring night throbbed with the planet’s living pulse.
People have asked me if this ability of Jian’s to see fields is a by-product of his being a Modified. My answer has been, ‘no’, because it’s rooted in real people I’ve met who see or manipulate energy fields. Notice, I’m not saying “claim to see or manipulate”. Despite having spent my life in the laboratory relying on empirical evidence, I long ago decided to be open-minded.
Fields in real life
It all started with a man I knew several years ago. He could see auras. He was the kind of person who, two thousand years ago, would have been a holy man living in a cave and surviving on the offerings of kindly village folk who respected his otherworldliness. Whenever we’d meet, he’d invariably tell me that my aura was pink and curved to one side. Somehow I never doubted him. He didn’t know it, but I suffered from chronic pain in one SI joint. It made perfect sense that my aura, if it existed, would curve away from it.
Then there’s the person I know who gave up a career as a university professor – of Economics, no less – to become an energy healer. I must admit, I was skeptical when I first met her. But over the years she has demonstrated unerring accuracy in reading my field, pinpointing deep-rooted reactions to situations and beliefs. She even worked with me to heal the years-long pain I mentioned in the paragraph above. If many of you are rolling your eyes, I don’t blame you. But even modern medicine acknowledges the healing power of meditation and belief. How does that work? I certainly don’t know, but isn’t energy manipulation as good an explanation as any?
Fields in animals
Even my horse’s veterinarian deals in the manipulation of energy in the body. He’s an older gentleman who uses acupuncture and chiropractic as adjuncts to traditional medicine to treat his patients. He deplores how veterinary colleges only teach about ‘matter’ (i.e. the physical world) and totally ignore the importance of ‘energy’. Both he and Larry-horse’s bodyworker trace and adjust the flow of energy in the horse’s body to help it to heal. Their work doesn’t rely on auras. It’s based on knowledge of the body’s energy meridians, and on information gleaned from muscle tension and locomotion restrictions. Many would argue this isn’t ‘energy’ work at all, but manipulation of physical structures. I won’t dispute this, even though I’ve seen physical results achieved from merely floating the hand above the horse’s body.
Maybe ‘energy’ is just a way to describe the subtler aspects of a body’s existence and function. Or maybe we don’t yet have the tools to detect and measure auras and energy fields. To me, it doesn’t matter. The world of energy makes for good science fiction. For now, let’s go with that.