Energy Beings

Entry updated 20 May 2024. Tagged: Theme.

Immaterial Alien intelligences have long been a popular sf concept, occasionally "explained" by some form of Imaginary Science such as self-sustaining electromagnetic vortices or standing waves in space/time. Notable examples include the benevolent Arisians who as Secret Masters of the galaxy have directed human and other Evolution in E E Smith's Lensman series, and the destructive AI creation the "Mad Mind" in the back-story of Arthur C Clarke's The City and the Stars (1956); the latter also features a more successful experiment along similar lines, the vastly knowledgable but friendly and childlike entity Vanamonde.

Energy Monsters and Villains frequently appear. These include the inimical "pure mentalities" of E E Smith's earlier Skylark sequence opening with The Skylark of Space (August-October 1928 Amazing; 1946; rev with cuts 1958); the parasite Vitons in Eric Frank Russell's Sinister Barrier (March 1939 Unknown; 1943; rev 1948); the eponyms of Fredric Brown's "The Waveries" (January 1945 Astounding), which though notionally harmless feed on electricity and put an end to our electrical Technology; the titular deep-space horrors of Cordwainer Smith's "The Game of Rat and Dragon" (March 1955 Galaxy); the angry Poltergeist-like entities of Keith Roberts's "Boulter's Canaries" (in New Writings in S-F 3, anth 1965, ed John Carnell); the not unsympathetic alien Rakasha (and associated "elementals") in Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light (1967); the deeply enigmatic Loarra of Terry Carr's "The Dance of the Changer and the Three" (in The Farthest Reaches, anth 1968, ed Joseph Elder); and multiple Id Monsters (see below) in the deep-past secret history unearthed in Colin Wilson's Cthulhu Mythos tale The Philosopher's Stone (1969). A conceptual shark-like monster – perhaps rooted more in Information Theory than physical energy – is central to Steven Hall's The Raw Shark Texts (2007)

Several varieties of energy being hail from Mars, as in The Day Mars Invaded Earth (1962) directed by Maury Dexter; in Isaac Asimov's David Starr, Space Ranger (1952 as by Paul French; vt Space Ranger 1973); in Robert A Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land (1961; text restored 1991), where the dead stay around and play a part in Martian society (though different arrangements apply to humanity); and Gerry Anderson's Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967-1968), whose Mysterons are Mars-dwellers.

Heinlein's discorporated Martians are also examples of the frequent sf rationalization of the soul in Religion as a perhaps immortal and transferable energy being. Others include Eric Frank Russell's Sentinels from Space (November 1951 Startling as "The Star Watchers"; exp 1953; vt Sentinels of Space 1954 dos), Roger Zelazny's already cited Lord of Light (1967) – whose hero's atman or soul-equivalent is at one stage punitively projected into the "Nirvana" of an orbital magnetic cloud and later retrieved – Bob Shaw's The Palace of Eternity (1969) and Philip José Farmer's Traitor to the Living (1973). The notion is briefly touched on, in a context of Matter Transmission/Matter Duplication and continuity of Identity, in Clifford D Simak's Way Station (June-August 1963 Galaxy as "Here Gather the Stars"; 1963).

Further Cinema and Television examples abound, most famously the Id Monster in Forbidden Planet (1956) directed by Fred McLeod Wilcox. Other relevant films include Fiend Without a Face (1957 directed by Arthur Crabtree), Kronos (1957) directed by Kurt Neumann and The Alien Factor (1978) directed by Don Dohler. Energy beings and manifestations recur in Star Trek (1966-1969) and its many spinoffs, possibly because a simple special effect makes a change from complex makeup and facial prostheses. Babylon 5 (1993-1998) has its ancient, enigmatic and invariably armour-concealed Vorlons. There are numerous Comics Superhero characters: E-Man made his Charlton Comics debut in 1971 and in 1973 DC Comics introduced Wildfire, a young man converted by the traditional lab accident into "anti-energy" (whatever that might be) and requiring a containment suit to maintain humanoid form.

The notion that Posthumans might take the form of immortal energy beings has occasionally been explored, for example in the above-cited Skylark sequence and Sentinels from Space, in Isaac Asimov's melancholy "Eyes Do More Than See" (April 1965 F&SF) and in David Langford's Parody "Outbreak" (in A Novacon Garland, coll 1985 dos). Entire civilizations may choose to "Sublime" and pass beyond material existence in Iain M Banks's Culture tales, though even the novel most concerned with this process – The Hydrogen Sonata (2012) – reveals almost nothing about Sublimed life. This form of Transcendence has been generally superseded by the prospect of a Computer-based afterlife, as discussed in the entry for Upload. Also outside the scope of the present entry are entities born of Psi Powers, like the "god" Mahrt spawned by a planetary racial consciousness in The Warriors of Day (1953) by James Blish. [DRL]

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