There Are No Bad Vibes (Only Bad Reception)
[Level 1: Transitional] Why "good vibes only" is a misconception
The problem with the New Age “good vibes only” crowd is that they are creating separation where there is none.
There is only one always-transmitting signal.
This signal is modulated by your nervous system.
The “bad vibes” are ALSO the signal, but trapped in echo, creating interference with the ever-incoming signal.
Let me explain.
How interference happens
The signal becomes trapped inside of you through the two actions you consciously or subconsciously take:
Resisting
When you resist the signal (dvesha, repulsion), it doesn’t disappear—it stays stuck and echoes, resulting in distortions in the incoming signal.
This can be anything you classified as “negative” that “left a bad taste in your mouth” that you now go out of your way to avoid. Examples include a particular person who hurt you, a restaurant you got food poisoning at, or an activity that traumatized you.
Clinging
When you cling to the signal (raga, attraction), it also echoes and distorts the incoming signal.
These can be happy memories you relive like a trip or conditions you now require to be happy like lifestyle inflation.
Both leave an imprint (samskara) upon your personality.
Both create interference.
Both create the “low vibes”.
The interference—whether you know it or not—is coming from you, not from the people with “bad vibes”.
How to work with this
I’m not going to prescribe a “five step solution” because the interference patterns you’ve built are uniquely yours. They’re shaped by your specific history, nervous system, and conditioning.
What I can share is what’s been helping me navigate this, and what might help you too.
Noticing
Something’s arisen as a result of consistent meditation practice over the years. It could be called “mindfulness”, but I prefer to just refer to it as “noticing”.
I say this because there’s an assumption that mindfulness—aside from being co-opted in the name of self-improvement for productivity’s sake—is effortful and requires thought. There’s the conception that it’s a deliberate act that you do to create space between your experience and your reaction to your experience.
While that has its own value, there is a different kind of mindfulness that arises on its own. This is what I call “noticing” the same way you notice something is off or different—not by trying, but by something deeper in your own awareness.
You’re likely holding tension
What I’ve been noticing more and more without looking for it specifically is the tension that my body has been holding, both in seated meditation and spontaneously throughout the day.
“Hey, you’re tensing again,” seems to pop into my awareness and sure enough, my shoulders are slightly raised. It seems to be my default state, unsurprising with the sheer volume of micro-stressors in our always-on environment. Also, I don’t have the best posture given I work a desk job, ergonomic office equipment aside.
I’m remembering periodically that it’s not necessary in the moment to carry this tension and that it’s okay to physically release.
Try picking your second choice
This one comes from Dr. K from HealthyGamer that I’ve put into practice before.
The next time you go to a restaurant, don’t pick your favorite food or top choice on the menu. Instead, pick the second best option with awareness.
Notice what happens inside of you when eating something that’s not your top choice. What’s it like?
You may discover eating it is fine, but the more you don’t follow your preferences (raga and dvesha) by doing this over and over, it’s still enjoyable.
This forms basis of detachment (vairagya). Once you’ve cultivated detachment, the signal will naturally pass through on its own because you won’t be generating interference with your past conditioning.
Wrapping up
There is no division, all is the one signal, modulated by your own body and mind.
It’s not “good vibes” or “bad vibes” any more than purple is a “good vibration” of light and red is a “bad” one. They’re all light—just different frequencies. Your nervous system doesn’t create the light. It refracts it.
That one signal cannot be escaped, only distorted by your clinging or resisting—either consciously or subconsciously. And it’s not coming from the outside.
Once you learn to let it pass though you? The signal no longer becomes distorted. There’s resonance. The body sings. And you realize: “good vibes only” was just spiritual bypassing.
Six Days Later...
After writing the first draft of this post, I went to a sound bath at my local studio and actually felt myself vibrating with every instrument. I wrote up the following (raw) Field Note that I forgot to share:
Field Note: I Was The Instrument
I felt myself resonate with EVERY sound, EVEN THE SILENCE AT THE END. This impossible tuning fork is behind my sternum. Except it’s not actually a tuning fork. It’s the feeling of Anahata resonating with EVERY SOUND. There’s a reason it’s called the gate of the Unstruck Sound. It’s where Stillness meets Sound. Where you become one with it.
I love sound bath because it allows you to FEEL the Truth that you are one with the Field.
After class tonight as we were sharing what we felt, I said that it felt like I became the instrument being played, I could feel it in my heart center. And that I was twitching. I was more surprised than they were when I heard someone say they were twitching too. I thought I was going to be the only one... but I wasn’t. — December 29, 2025
When I shared the above with Claude, I was pointed to Nada Brahma, meaning “transcendental sound” or “Brahman with sound”. When I looked it up, the Wikipedia page for Shabda Brahman (an alternate name) was the top result. As I read through, this resonated (pun intended with this post) so I had to include my finding:
Consciousness in all beings is Shabda Brahman.
[...]
In Tantra, Sound is the first manifestation of Parama Shiva; in its primary stage it is a psychic wave. Its very existence entails the presence of spandan or movement (’vibration’) without which there cannot be sound; spandan is the quality of Saguna Brahman and the world is the thought-projection of Saguna Shiva. The first sutra of Sarada Tilaka explains the significance and hidden meaning of Shabda Brahman.
In other words: Sound is God’s first expression. And that sound begins as vibration (spandan)—not physical sound waves, but the primordial pulse of consciousness itself. The world you experience? It’s all that vibration, slowed down into form.
Sound familiar?