A suggestion by Feynman that the Lamb-shift energy can be obtained from the changes in zero-point energy due to the presence of the atoms involved is worked through in detail for the Bethe nonrelativistic contribution to the energy shift. The self energy of a free electron is obtained in the same way and is equivalent to the state independent shift due to the e 2 A 2 /2m 2 term in the normal perturbation methods.