A system and method for engineering loss in a physical system by steering parameters of the physical system to the vicinity of an exceptional point is disclosed. In the vicinity of an exceptional point, localization of the fields helps to enhance any linear or nonlinear processes. As examples loss-induced transparency in the intracavity field intensities of coupled resonators, loss-induced suppression and enhancement of thermal nonlinearity in coupled resonators and loss-induced suppression and revival of Raman lasing in whispering-gallery-microcavities are demonstrated.