Intelligent Energy
According to the film Yogananda Coming to the West at around 31 minutes, the famed botanist Luther Burbank developed the spineless cactus after receiving kriya yoga initiation from Paramahansa Yogananda. Burbank stated that he developed the spineless cactus after simply talking to the cacti, and assuring them there was nothing to fear, and they did not need their thorns while under his care, for fear of being eaten by animals. Under Burbank's care, the generation of cacti were told, "you have nothing to fear, you don't need your thorns, I will protect you." Gradually, over the generations, the thorns fell away, and they continue to exist today for all the world to see.
Proof of a Higher Power and Intelligent Energy: This mind begins to think of God as the sum total of all the energy in the universe, and suspects that God is even greater than that, and encompasses all the energy in the universe, which is a part of God, but God is even greater than that. Certainly this conception of God has more energy than what exists inside one human brain alone. Leaving the soul aside for a moment, the potato battery of the human mind has an electrical charge that can be scientifically measured. Therefore, if even measuring raw voltage or kilowatt hours, comparing a human brain with the energy of even one star in the sky, the Sun, one is forced to admit that a "Higher Power" exists outside the human body. One cannot ever hope to manifest as much raw power in one's brain as exists in even on star alone. Therefore there is a higher or "greater power," when analyzed from a purely materialist sense. Now comes the question of whether this energy is intelligent or not. This mind asks itself, if I were given all the raw materials necessary to construct a living tree that actually grows, would I be able to do it? The answer is no, this brain is currently not intelligent enough. I could probably understand how to construct the wood of a tree and decorate it with dead leaves like a wooden house, but I cannot construct a living tree that will continue to grow and reproduce on its own. Maybe someday I might be able to understand the precise combination of chemicals and DNA to create my first tree seed, but not even modern genetics is there yet, and continues to rely on seeds which have come before, which are merely being altered (or rather selected from among billions of mutational possibilities, for favorable traits) by humans, and not created out of nothing, from scratch. The same concept in deciding if this life energy is intelligent or not can be applied to an orange. Could I construct an orange from scratch without a seed, using a combination of dirt, sunlight, and the chemicals which make up the DNA of oranges? I can color a piece of paper orange and fill it with seeds, but that is very different from an orange which grew out of nothing, on its own. Maybe in a far future lifetime this mind will be smart enough, but for now the only honest answer is no, I am not more intelligent than the energy which grew the orange in the first place. The same holds true with the human brain. Even given all the necessary materials and a lab capable of synthesizing DNA, is this mind intelligent enough to construct a functioning human brain out of the raw materials alone? Could I grow a human brain out of nothing? The answer is no, I am not smart enough. Therefore I am forced to admit there is a Higher Power out there, that is both composed of more energy, and is more intelligent than my meager human brain. Suddenly, we are getting a lot closer to the concept of a God. The proof of God's existence is in all the living plants, animals, and human beings around you, who go on existing, erroneously believing they are separate and apart from God, until one begins to wake up: "I'm really not as smart as whatever created that tree, how arrogant I might have been."
All matter (and the chemicals comprising living DNA) is just energy in its most fundamental form. E=mc^2. Energy = Mass times (the Speed of Light) Squared. There is no difference between the wooden table and the thought energy inside your brain, at the most fundamental level. The energy is merely presenting / manifesting at a different density.
The breakthrough, and number one reason I encourage everyone to learn kriya yoga as originally taught by Lahiri Mahasaya, is the realization that the energy itself is intelligent. One can realize God, talk to God, experience God, ... self-realize the Intelligent Energy that just is a small piece of God's right hand, if you will. Experience it for yourself, scientifically test it all you want, it can hold up to your scrutiny. It is alive and vibrating all around you, if only we will let go of our attachments to what we think we already know about what is real, and open our hearts and minds to what is Real. The maya, or worldly illusion, exists for an important purpose, to serve as spiritual school. The table is only as real as we make it, but should never be confused with that which is truly Real: God, The Intelligent Energy all around us, and inside of us. :)