The energy systems of the East offer the West an holistic template that integrates mind, body and spirit. By learning about Traditional Chinese Medicine or the Ayurvedic system of chakras, we have the opportunity to heal ourselves and explore the unknown and the missing piece of the West's body - the spirit.
Two Popular Examples of Energy Systems of the East
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the human body has an elaborate meridian system that transmutes energy (chi/qi) throughout the body. The energy is undetected by the human eye, though can be felt and seen by some gifted TCM doctors, and treated by all TCM doctors based on the patient’s physical symptoms. Simply speaking, the physical symptoms of dis-ease are caused by imbalances and/or blockages along the meridians or in the energy centres (dan tien) themselves.
Ayurvedic medicine is also based on a similarly unseen energy form called prana. Prana’s major energy centres are called chakras. Chakras are a meeting place for prana, or energy. Prana courses though the body along energy lines called nadis.
Eastern Prana Meets Western Energy
Currently people in the West are becoming increasingly interested in eastern philosophies in general. Our preoccupation with Eastern answers to western problems has generated an unprecedented interest and alternative medicines, alternative lifestyles and alternative views of energy.
In our left brained wish to rationalise all experiences, we’ve happily cornered quantum physics and proudly lift the banner of science to help us validate and accept our desire to experience the mystery of vibrational medicine.
If Science, and namely Einstein, validates the equation of ‘energy equals matter’, then we can accept what the Ancient Tribes of many lost cultures and modern shamans have been saying since we have records of their existence. Namely – that ultimate reality is, as Jamie Sams states in Shamanic Wisdom Keepers ‘a total and complete merging of spirit within the whole and finding your place within the whole. You are still a human spirit but you acknowledge that you have a meat body that is connected to the animals, nature and every other part of the universe.'
Increasing Sensitivity to Higher Levels of Vibration
By increasing our awareness and sensitivity to how our body receives information and understanding the nature of our relationship with our environment , we increase awareness of how colours, sounds, feelings, thoughts, experiences, memories and other influences begin to affect us. One of the reasons to increase sensitivity to higher levels of vibration is to feel and perhaps see our chakra system.
Chakras 4 Us
Bookshops, websites, movie stars, articles like this one and healers from many disciplines call upon the invisible (to the naked eye) energy system to explain a whole range of phenomena. Chakras are cleaned, balanced and cleared, because they are dirty, enlarged/shrunken or even suffering because of their connection to other people. They range in colour and size, depending on their location and how healthy and high functioning they are. People use them for self help in relationships, for healing, for medical diagnosis and for connecting with the divine.
What is a Chakra?
A chakra is an energy centre.
Etymology of Chakra
The term chakra comes from the Sanskrit, and is usually translated as ‘wheel’ or ‘disk’.
Pronunciation
Origin of the Term Chakra
The term chakra is intrinsic to yoga and all Ayur Vedic medicine, originating from the yogic studies of Ancient India. It is a word that helps describe the energy centres in the body, much like, though not the same as the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) term of 'dan tien'.
What Do Chakras Look Like?
People who can see chakras, and there are many documented cases, including accounts from children, say that they appear to be spinning wheels of brilliant colour. However, the shade, intensity, shape and size of the chakras depend upon your health and well being.
In effect, chakras allow us access to initial indicators of many types of dis-ease and indicates physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual disturbances.
Where are the Chakras?
The seven main chakras are positioned within the etheric body.
They connect to the physical body by means of the nervous system and strongly influence the hormonal system.
How many chakras are there?
If a chakra is a centre of energy, it infers that a chakra has the potential to exist anywhere there is an energy flow. The number of chakras can be limitless, as energy shifts, inside and outside of the body, in the environment and on the planet in different landscapes.
However, for spiritual and well being practices, we are mostly concerned with the 7 major chakras positioned along the spine.
For the previous article in this series, please read The West's Call for Alternative Wisdom. The fourth article is entitled Healthy, Balanced Chakras.
For more details about the research material used for these articles, or for a reading list on chakras, please take a look at Chakra Basics Recommended Reading List.
