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Proponents and practitioners of various esoteric forms of spirituality and alternative medicine refer to a variety of claimed experiences and phenomena as being due to "energy" or "force" that defy measurement or experimentation, and thus are distinguished from the scientific form of energy.^[1]^[2]

Claims related to energy therapies are most often anecdotal, rather than being based on repeatable empirical evidence, thus not following the scientific method.^[3]^[4]^[5]

There is no scientific evidence for the existence of such energy,^[2]^[1] and physics educators criticize the use of the term "energy" to describe ideas in esotericism and spirituality as potentially confusing.^[6]

^ ^a ^b Stenger, Victor J (Spring–Summer 1999). "Bioenergetic Fields". The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine. 3 (1). Archived from the original on 2016-05-08. Retrieved 2017-04-20.
^ ^a ^b Smith, Jonathan C. (2010). Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker's Toolkit. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 268–274. ISBN 978-1405181228.
^ "energy – (according to New Age thinking)". The Skeptic's Dictionary. 2011-12-19. Retrieved 2014-05-02.
^ "Some Notes on Wilhelm Reich, M.D". Quackwatch.org. 2002-02-15. Retrieved 2014-05-02.
^ Jarvis, William T. (2000-12-01). "Reiki". National Council Against Health Fraud. Retrieved 2014-05-02.
^ Arias, A. G. (August 2012). "Use and misuse of the concept energy". Latin American Journal of Physics Education. 6 (1): 400. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.669.3285.