After a lifetime of studying biology, medicine, neurophysiology, biophysics, physics, computer science, information theory, psychiatry, and parapsychology, he has answered his questions with the enformy theory. Sophisticated contemporary thought focuses on the roles of information and energy in living systems, yet applying these concepts to organization per se has limited value. Indeed, to define life, describe health, and resolve the classical mind-body problem requires developing a new paradigm. Understanding why we need this new paradigm begins with examining the limitations of the energy and information concepts.
Energy is the fundamental, conserved capacity to perform work.
It is an ubiquitous quantity associated with all material systems, yet energy itself is nonmaterial. As such, it cannot be directly observed or measured. To quantify energy entails measuring the physical properties of material systems, then calculating the quantity of energy as expressed, for example, in heat, motion, wave length, or electromagnetism from its theoretical relationships with these systems. The ubiquity and nonmateriality of energy make it an attractive concept to apply to mental and biological systems. Hence, terms such as psychic energy , bioenergy , and subtle energies have been applied to biological systems.