Opening up the Centers

There are seven major centers (also called Chakras) of the human body. These centers coordinate the life force we all have within us. These centers on the lowest level are bundles of nerves but the higher, subtler level are our key to our true existence. A true opening of these centers is more than just stimulating or vitalizing nerve endings. It is an esoteric event that precludes our awakening.

I have written about this life force before in my article on Star Wars and Feng Shui. Some call this life force psychic energy some call it chi. The life force is integrated and disseminated via our nervous system, from the tail bone (the second to the last lower center) which is the base of our nervous center all the way to the crown center i.e. the brain.

When we develop spiritually these centers open up gradually and in harmony and when they are all opened, you are facing yourself in the mirror as a new person.

I won’t bother with the descriptions of these major centers or by showing you the fancy drawings or the Sanskrit names either. It is sufficed to say that the seven centers are;

1. The Crown Center (which is approximately on the top of the head but some believe that it is linked to your aura and it is beyond the physical body)[1]
2. The Brow Center (which is also the third eye that some say is linked to the pineal gland.
3. The Throat Center is linked to the thyroid, a gland that is also in the throat
4. The Heart Center is linked to the organ of the heart but it is not the same
5. The Solar Plexus center is linked to the stomach and digestive systems.
6. The Pelvic Center is linked to the tail bone and the reproductive systems of the body
7. The Base Center is the navel center and is located below the navel. It is called the base center as it is the source of your nourishment during the embryonic stage and later it governs sensuality, sexual energy and creativity.

The information above is open and available to all in some form or another. It varies greatly depending on whom you read and if you follow tantric, Tibetan, Hindu or other schools. I follow neither.

What you will seldom read is that these centers are not to be meddled with. You ideally wish them to develop naturally but never force these. There are schools in which they meditate, chant on opening these centers. I do not recommend any of these techniques. Namely, I have kundalini yoga in mind.[2]

It should be pointed out that there were great many teachers, otherwise very spiritual and talented men who have experimented with opening these centers prematurely and usually ended up emotionally and mentally disturbed.[3]

The other misconception is that the lower centers are inferior somehow and the higher centers are too concentrated exclusively. This cannot be further from the truth. All centers are important and misusing or ignoring one can be done to your peril. The three lower centers should be transmuted to their higher aspects not to be denigrated.

As there are no good and bad numbers in Numerology, there are no good or bad centers. All are important.

Some spiritual teachers focus on one center and others on the other centers which are silly technicalities. All centers are to be focused equally. Your efforts and selfless acts along with meditation will gradually open these centers. You cannot hasten or force this. You cannot pick or direct in which order this will take place.

I strongly suggest that any teaching that promises that you can manipulate or open these centers somehow before their time is dangerous and misleading.

[2] The website www.yogadangers.com describes several incidences of Kundalini and TM, where serious episodes occurred with some of the practitioners, a number of them were hospitalized several times.

[3] Some followers of TM (Transcendental Meditation) and some of Gurdjieff’s pupils ended up the “deep end” by forcing nature and meddling with the occult aspects of the self.