Energy?

[PSI Rockin]

Energy is a description of a system's ability to perform work. It is not a "thing".

chi is energy, and chi is a thing

[FlyingAngel]

chi is energy, and chi is a thing

If energy is not a thing, then chi is not energy

[Magnanimus]

Creatures made of electricity? Right...

HEY! Don't ruin this for me, I've already got so little going on for me right now. You can attack my God, my race, my nationality, my political views, but you keep your negativity the hell away from the possibility that we might discover actual Pokemon, alright?

[Magnanimus]

How do people/entities take your energy and why do they do it? How do they benefit from it? And how do you protect your energy?

To answer the OP though, every culture has a concept of an invisible, spiritual force that's part of the fundamental composition of life and pervades matter, like chi, prana, pneuma, mana, ruach, quintessence, and on, and on.

Usually, these were discussed in purely religious terminology and described as "powers" or "virtues" or "potencies", and thought of as these intangible (and often intelligent) elements of the universe. When Isaac Newton described gravity as a "force", he was actually trying to distance himself from these numinous, religious terminologies of unseen "things" in nature, as he understood gravity to be a calculable and universally consistent player in the physical world and not a magical quantity.

Jump a couple centuries forward and the budding New Age movement was looking for catch-alls to describe all of the different cultures' universal, vital, spiritual powers and decided to go with the more scientific-sounding "energy". Understandable and rather innocuous for the time, science and the various subfields of physics have gone much further into the mechanics of how this place runs exactly. Unfortunately, the stagnant, pseudo-science definition has been muddled with the actual science's terminology.

Just because energy is a measurable property of a system in no way implies that "energies," in the spiritual context, are in any way related. Nor are the "vibrational energies" discussed in New Age material in any way an accurate depiction of the vibrations of sub-atomic particles or molecular heat. Nor are the measurable, ionic, cellular interactions that generate bio-electricity part of this nonscientific use of the word. It's an antique misnomer, through and through.

Now, to avoid perpetuating confusion, I'm going to here-on-out refer to the unmeasurable, universal, religious, intangible, numinous life-force by its English name, derived from the Latin same; spirit.

Speaking in very broad and universal terms of cultures here, spirit is almost always discussed and exercised in terms of it's literal definition, "breath" or "wind"; necessary for life and affecting the world, though unseen. Just like breath, spirit has a tidal volume--one that fluctuates depending on inhale and exhale--and a residual volume--an amount retained upon maximum exhalation. Part of one's spirit fluctuates and is expended and replenished regularly, while another portion (the "spiritus vitae") remains within the individual.

To answer the OP, there are any number of supernatural predators that regularly feed off the "tidal" spirit, the worst of which go for the "residual" vital-spirit. By taking and stealing this innermost, most condensed form of the spirit, they are taking something of the very identity of the person to use as gas in the tank and enable their preternatural abilities. Before Bram Stoker wrote Dracula and cemented vampires as blood-suckers, vampiric demons stole spirit from blood as well as breath, like the Mesopotamian lilitu or Lilin. As an individual loses spirit, their vitality, immunity, and overall health rapidly diminishes, along with their livelihood, luck, and fortune, hence the historical tendency of sudden-onset wasting diseases being blamed on witches and vampires.

Protection from having your spirit manipulated or stolen came in a number of forms that most often were in the shape of prayers and talismans. There's one anthropological theory that stipulates that all forms of jewelry may trace their origins back to such protective talismans. Then there are a number of benedictive gestures like the sign of the cross or (believe it or not) the rock and roll "horns" made by sticking out your index and little finger. Last are certain invocations to protective spirits, i.e., Guardian Angels, to run interference and drive away spiritual predators.

[mskate]

They cannot , unless you let them my dear. educate your self or google it...

[mskate]

Energy converts to mater -matter converts to energy-energy then converts to matter

Energy keeps changing. It keeps changing.

[Emma_Acid]

chi is energy, and chi is a thing

Prove it, and revolutionise science while you're at it.

[+Liquid Gardens]

Because the OP was referring to energy as a noun, and it isn't.

I definitely don't disagree with you as far as the non-existence of 'chi', but I was wondering what distinction you are making with the above. 'Energy' is clearly a noun, since even using the scientific definition, 'description' and 'ability' are nouns. I'm definitely no science pro, but would you make a differentiation between 'electrical energy' and 'electricity'? It seems odd that if 'energy' is not 'a thing' that we have units of measure for it, although I realize that there isn't any universal measure for just 'energy', just for the different types of energy. If someone is electrocuted, it seems weird to say, 'he was killed by the ability of electrons to do work'; he was killed by the electrons actually doing work. Was just curious at what point and what terminology we should use in situations where we would normally refer to something like 'electricity' as the 'thing' that it is.

I would guess though that your responses are specific to the concept of 'chi' which as typically defined doesn't sound consistent with the other types of energy we are familiar with, so I may be reading too much into your references to just 'energy'.