by Gayle Kirk
It is the discovery and appreciation of our Higher Self and finding the
God within us that is the ultimate goal of the journey through the chakras.
The goal of this text on chakras is to help you understand:
1.) What are chakras, why are they important, and how do they support
our bodies?
2.) Where are the 7 main chakras and what are their related life issues?
3.) What are energy blockages or energy imbalances in the chakras?
4.) Why do we want to identify and remove energy blocks/imbalances and
balance our chakras?
5.) What are some ways you can balance your chakras and your clients'
chakras?
6.) What is meant by the "kundalini rising"?
1) What are chakras, why are they important, and how do they support our
bodies?
Our bodies appear to be solid, but, in fact, we are 99.99% empty space
filled with energetic, vibrating atoms, according to quantum physicists.
Our entire body vibrates at a basic frequency of approximately 8 cycles
per second, which is the same frequency as the basic electromagnetic
field of the Earth. We are literally attuned to the Earth.
Chakras (pronounced "Shock-Ruhs") are whirling concentrated energy
centers. They are measurable patterns of electromagnetic activity for
receiving, assimilating, and transmitting life-force energy to and
within the body. Chakras receive and transmit energy all the time. When
perceived clairvoyantly, chakras appear as a colorful wheel or flower
with a hub in the center, similar to fans with overlapping blades.
Chakras are located deep within the center of the physical body next to
a hormonal gland along the spinal column. There are three currents or
nadis, which flow in and around the spinal column, like the serpents
spiraling around the caduceus (the familiar symbol used by the American
Medical Association). The current on the left is the Ida, the feminine
force of passion and emotion. The current on the right is the Pingala,
the masculine force of the intellect. Chakras are attached along the
spine from the base to the top of the head and are held in place by the
crossing of the invisible Ida and Pingala.
Chakras draw in Divine life-force energy (also called "ki", "chi" or
"prana") from the Universe and distribute this vital energy to the
physical glands and organs in the body and through the bloodstream and
nervous system for optimum health and well being.
Chakras coincide with the body's endocrine system. Each chakra has an
influence over the endocrine glands and internal organs in that part of
the body where the chakra is located. Sometimes, their influence covers
a broader area.
The chakras also connect the spinal cord, the autonomic nervous system,
and the endocrine system with our subtle body of vibration energy called
the bioelectromagnetic field or aura. There are two primary electrical
systems in the physical body. The first is the alternating electrical
current of the nervous system and brain, which governs our muscles,
hormones, and physical sensations.
The second is a continuous, electromagnetic radiation coming off our
atoms which allows for an energy exchange between individuals and their
environment. Each person's unique energy field or aura makes up the
person's physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual states. Scientists
in the field of energy medicine agree that this vibrating energy field
stores coded information about our past, present, and future health.
Chakras originated in the ancient Hindu system of healing dating back to
before 2,500 BC. Yogis have used the chakra system for thousands of
years as an integral part of holistic healing. Every living being,
including the Earth has chakras. There are hundreds of chakras within
and around you, but most psychics and healers are concerned with only
the 7 major ones.
Some people are sensitive enough to see or feel the chakras. To try it
for yourself, lie on your back and pass your hand over your front
midline, from the pubic area to the top of your head, a few inches above
your body. You may feel the chakras as intense concentrations of energy.
You may see the colors of the chakras with your inner eye or third eye
even if you aren't looking directly at them. This may be seen easier
with your eyes closed using the inner eye. It may also be easier to try
to see and feel the colors of a friend's chakras rather than your own.
2) Where are the 7 main chakras and what are their related life issues?
Besides their role in maintaining our physical health, chakras also
oversee various life issues. Each of the 7 main chakras reflects
essential aspects of consciousness and governs our lives, loves,
learning, and spiritual awakening.
The 1st Chakra (Root) governs Physical Needs and Security. The 2nd
Chakra (Sacral) governs Sexuality, Emotions, and Desires. The 3rd Chakra
(Solar Plexus) governs Power. The 4th Chakra (Heart) governs Love,
Forgiveness, and Compassion. The 5th Chakra (Throat) governs
Communication. The 6th Chakra (Brow) governs Intuition and Reasoning.
The 7th Chakra (Crown) governs Spirituality and Understanding.
The chakras are interrelated; one affects another. The Root Chakra is
the lowest of the 7 chakras and spins the slowest or resonates at the
lowest of the 7 vibration frequencies. The Crown Chakra is the highest
of the 7 chakras and spins the fastest.
Each chakra is also a different color. The colors are similar to a
rainbow and go from Red (Root) - Orange (Sacral) -Yellow (Solar Plexus)
- Green (Heart) - Blue (Throat) - Indigo (Brow) - Violet (Crown).
3) What are energy blockages or energy imbalances in the chakras?
Imbalances in the chakras are known as energy blocks. When there is
unreleased emotion such as fear, anger or guilt accumulated from past
experiences or when there's been a lack of nurturing, love, and
encouragement during the developmental period, the energy flows less
freely to/from the chakras.
Whenever a person blocks an experience, he/she blocks the flow of energy
to/from their chakras. The chakras become blocked, clogged with
stagnated energy, spin irregularly or backwards or can even become
distorted or torn. When the chakras are functioning normally, each one
will be open and spinning properly to metabolize the particular energies
needed from the universal energy field.
If you were to completely think thoughts of love and faith, your body's
energy would flow smoothly between and around the chakras. You would
probably feel happy and healthy. Fearful thoughts negatively affect
your chakras' ability to function. They cause the chakras to become
dirty, shrunken or swollen. That is why you may feel out of sorts or
lethargic and not know why. Obsessive thoughts cause the chakras to
enlarge and become out of proportion.
When there is an energy imbalance in the chakras, the chakras tend to
close down starting at the top chakra (Crown) and moving downward to the
Root. Many people close down the top three chakras (Crown, Brow, and
Throat) by the time they are three years old as a reaction to the
disbelief of their parents and society in nature spirits, spirit
friends, and past lives.
During the teenage years, the Heart or 4th Chakra often closes down or
becomes blocked because of pain and rejection from parents, peers, and
lovers.
The Solar Plexus or 3rd Chakra may close down or become blocked when
parents and society force teens into molds they don't fit.
By the time many of us reach adulthood, we have closed down all but the
first 2 chakras (Root and Sacral) and even those often have imbalances
due to energy blocks.
The closure or imbalance/energy blockage doesn't usually occur in
response to a single event. It's the repetition of similar events
without relief that eventually closes off the chakra or causes the
imbalance/energy blockage.
After high school, there is usually less pressure to conform and some
people begin to reverse the process and start opening their chakras.
Usually the Solar Plexus/3rd Chakra opens before the Heart/4th Chakra
and so on successively upwards towards the Crown. But this isn't always
true. Some people don't need to work on their higher chakras. It's their
lower chakras that need balancing. When your childhood and adolescence
have been healthy and nurturing, you may be balanced and open in every
chakra.
4) Why do we want to identify and remove energy blocks/imbalances and
balance our chakras?
Yogis knew that a person's illness often first manifests in the chakras
before the physical body. They knew that no one could be completely
healed if the chakra system continued to be out of balance. When there
is a blockage or imbalance in one part of the chakra system, it has an
impact on all the other chakras.
Imbalances occur when there is too much or too little energy flowing
through the chakras. By understanding how each chakra affects a
particular body function and life issue, it is possible to identify
where a chakra is malfunctioning. Various techniques can then be used to
balance the chakra system and restore health in the individual
physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
Holding negative thoughts causes chakras to become dirty with dense,
dark energy. This prevents chakras from providing sufficient vital
energy for the body. Unbalanced or "blocked" chakras create a whole
range of mental, emotional, and physiological conditions.
Some say we come into this life with a certain set of life challenges
already factored into our chakras. This partly determines our attitudes
and behaviors.
Many therapists believe that the imbalances in our chakras are in part
from our childhood and cultural experiences. They say that one of the
ways we try and protect ourselves is by closing down the relevant chakra
so we won't feel those uncomfortable emotions. It is a defense
mechanism.
5) What are some ways you can balance your own chakras and your clients'
chakras?
There are many ways to balance the chakras and clear any energy
blockages/imbalances. Some useful therapies and tools are: Chakra
Balancing, Inner Child Retrieval, Intuitive/Spiritual Counseling,
Spiritual Healing, Mediumship, Past Life Regression.
There is also Strong Desire, Clear Intention, Love & Forgiveness,
Prayer, Sound, Massage, Dowsing, Yoga, Reflexology, Astrology, Reiki,
Meditation, Visualization, Toning & Chanting, Healthy Diet & Exercise,
Tuning Forks, Music, Crystals & Gemstones, Aromatherapy, Flower
Essences, Oils, Perfumes, Incense, Color, Affirmations, Introspection,
and Journaling.
We are made up of vibrating atoms, which appear to those who can sense
the subtle energies as color and sound. Color and sound are forms of
energy, which vibrate. As the vibration of sound becomes higher and
lighter, the sound is transmuted into color. Color is visible sound.
Both color and sound affect the chakras, especially when used together.
Each of the chakras or energy centers is associated with a specific tone
of the musical scale and with a specific color. Certain music and tones
can help heal energy imbalances in the chakras by assisting the body to
release unwanted thoughts and feelings and to come into its natural
state of balance and harmony through deep relaxation and entrainment.
When our physical, emotional, mental or spiritual bodies are out of
vibrational harmony and sound and color are projected into the chakras,
correct vibrational patterns can be restored enhancing overall well
being. Sound produces changes in the autonomic, immune, endocrine and
neuropeptide systems.
Quartz crystals amplify, transform, store, focus, and transfer energy.
They are used in microphones, radios, TV equipment, watches, laser
tools, and computers. Crystals may have profound affects on the organs,
tissues, and cells as well as the circulatory, endocrine, and metabolic
systems. When thought energy interacts with a crystal, those thoughts
are changed to harmonic forms, which change brainwave frequencies and
can alter consciousness. Thus, positive intention or affirmation
combined with crystals can provide wonderful healing results.
The laying-on-of-hands as in Spiritual Healing, Reiki, and Therapeutic
Touch have also been found to be extremely effective in balancing the
chakras when done by a knowledgeable, trained, and experienced
practitioner. The willingness of the client to surrender to the Divine,
to ask Spirit for assistance, and to willingly release and receive, is
paramount to allowing Spirit to work. Chakras can also be helped back
into balance during hands-on healing through entrainment. The body wants
to vibrate at a healthy resonance and will readily move from an out of
balance state towards a healthy state when healing energy is available.
Lower chakras spin slower than those in the upper body and head. Lower
chakras relate to issues of the material world, while your upper chakras
relate to more spiritual issues. The direction chakras spin is often
described as clockwise, although some say they spin in alternating
directions and vary in the direction depending on if you are a man or a
woman.
The concept of open or closed chakras is an oversimplification since
there are really varying degrees of openness that can be experienced in
different chakras. Even though we may be able to assign some illnesses,
ailments, and emotional/mental imbalances to the chakras, there are
interpretations that defy categorization and require intuition for
understanding.
When the energy in a chakra is deficient, it can be treated with color
visualization of that chakra's color or the opposite color called the
antidote color to create balance. If the energy in the chakra is clearly
excessive, it can be treated with the antidote color as it is visualized
into the chakra as thought energy. For example, if a baby's skin is too
red, it is overly excited and could lead to conditions such as heart
troubles and high blood pressure later in life if it becomes habitual.
You can help the baby and mother to relax by encouraging them to wear
blue clothes, listen to soothing music, bringing in blue flowers, using
blue light in the home, and other "blue" techniques.
The antidote for excessive red is blue and the antidote for excessive
blue is red. The antidote for excessive Orange is indigo and vice versa.
The antidote for excessive yellow is violet and vice versa. If someone
has excessive sexual energy (Sacral/2nd Chakra imbalance - chakra color
orange), the antidote would be indigo which would help make the person
feel less nervous.
An alternate treatment would be to use yellow which strengthens the
Solar Plexus/3rd Chakra - chakra color yellow and puts that person more
in touch with his or her own gift which enhances their feelings of
self-worth and makes the person less desperate for a sexual partner.
The personality will usually reflect the energy of the highest open
chakra or the chakra with the most energy and focus. Illnesses and
ailments respond well to treatments using color visualization in
combination with the other chakra balancing techniques already
mentioned.
Other ways to use color vibration to help balance the chakras are by
wearing clothing and jewelry with specific colors or by having certain
colors in your home and office. Surround yourself with various colors of
nature and flowers for balance as well. You can even ingest color
vibrations as a food or juice or as colored water. Visualize the colors
through your inner vision and absorb them as colored light. Through our
sense of smell, we can also breathe the color essences or vibrations
into our bodies through Aroma-Therapy.
6) What is meant by the "kundalini rising"?
Your body's energy system is extremely powerful and should be taken
seriously. The journey of energy upward through the chakras is spoken
of as "kundalini rising". According to Hindu tradition, when you are
spiritually awakened to the Divine and your Higher Self, kundalini
energy pierces each chakra from lowest (Root/1st Chakra) to highest
(Crown/7th). The person is then said to have achieved enlightenment. It
is the discovery and appreciation of our Higher Self and finding the God
within us that is the ultimate goal of the journey through the chakras.
The goal of yoga is to awaken the kundalini to rise up the spine,
awakening each chakra until it reaches the crown. When you inhale,
energy moves up the Ida and when you exhale, it energy moves down the
Pingala. Yoga teaches the student to bring the breath to the central
channel, which goes through the center of the spine. The kundalini is
aroused and rises through the chakras to the crown where it triggers the
pineal and pituitary glands. It causes a rush of energy and a brilliant
experience of cosmic consciousness often described as seeing the Pure
White Light and having a sense of total identity with All That Is. This
is a glorious experience of enlightenment for one who has been well
prepared through spiritual discipline. Preparation is essential and
usually takes many lifetimes to reach.
When we are completely developed in consciousness and are fully
awakened, we will finally be free from the cycle of re-birth and death.
As Jesus said, "He that overcometh, I will make a pillar in the Temple
of my God, and he shall go out thence no more."
GAYLE KIRK
49 Hill Road, # 31
Belmont, MA 02478
617-489-7717
E-mail: Gomikirk@concentric.net
Website: http://www.neholistic.com/gaylekirk
© Gayle Kirk, 2000
Resources & References:
"The Book of Chakra Healing" by Liz Simpson
"Anatomy of the Spirit" by Caroline Myss, Ph.D.
"Chakra Clearing" by Doreen Virtue, Ph.D.
"Chakras for Beginners" by Naomi Ozaniec
"The Encyclopedic Psychic Dictionary" by June G. Beltzer, Ph.D.
"Wheels of Light" by Rosalyn L. Bruyere
"The Chakras" by C.W. Leadbeater
"Wheels of Life" by Anodea Judith, Ph.D.
"Hands of Light" by Barbara Ann Brennan
"Color and Crystals A Journey through the Chakras" by Joy Gardner-Gordon
"Healing with Color & Sound" Presented 2/2000 by Charles Paul Curcio &
Marshall Smith of the Patricia Hayes School of Inner Sense Development
at Delphi University in Georgia
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