Chakras

A chakra (Sanskrit for "wheel") is a centre of psychic energy within the body. The idea comes from the esoteric teaching about the body held in some schools of Hinduism and in Tantric Buddhism. Today chakras are often mentioned in yoga classes, where they are usually described as seven points along the spine that some people associate with particular physical, emotional and spiritual functions. The chakra system is also familiar to energy healers, psychics and followers of self-help, many of whom think of it as thousands of years old.

Description

Key terms

• Chakra (Sanskrit "wheel"): a centre where, in this teaching, psychic forces and bodily functions meet.
• Kuṇḍalinī: a cosmic energy, pictured as a coiled serpent, believed in some Tantric yoga to rest at the base of the spine.
• Prana and nadi: in yoga terms, energy and the channels along which it is said to travel between the chakras.

There are really two chakra traditions to learn about: the older Hindu and Tantric Buddhist teaching, and the much more recent Western system most people meet today. Knowing which one a teacher or book is using avoids a good deal of confusion.

In Hindu and Buddhist practice

The chakras are thought of as points where psychic forces and bodily functions meet and act on each other. Of the 88,000 chakras said to exist in the human body, the most important are six major ones lying roughly along the spinal cord and a seventh just above the crown of the head. Buddhist systems count four major chakras. Each major chakra is linked with its own colour, shape, sense organ, natural element, deity and mantra.

The lowest chakra, mūlādhāra, sits at the base of the spine; the highest, sahasrāra, at the top of the head. The ajna or "third eye" chakra, between the eyebrows, is often marked with a bindi. In some Tantric forms of yoga, a cosmic energy called kuṇḍalinī, pictured as a coiled serpent, is believed to rest at the base of the spine in everyone. In Laya Yoga, using postures, gestures and breathing exercises, the practitioner seeks to draw it up the spine through the chakras. When it reaches the seventh chakra, at the top of the head, the practitioner is said to experience an indescribable bliss.

In yoga and wellbeing practice today

In yoga terms, prana (energy) is said to travel between the chakras along channels called nadi. Each of the seven chakras is commonly given a Sanskrit name and an English one (root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye and crown) and is linked with particular feelings. Yoga teachers pair each chakra with certain poses and with affirmations. "Balancing" the chakras is described as working out which part of life feels out of balance and fostering the positive feelings linked with the matching chakra.

Practices used for this include:

• yoga poses chosen for a particular chakra
• breathing techniques, such as alternate nostril breathing
• affirmations repeated while focusing on one area of the body
• chakra meditation, in which a person focuses on an area of the body and pictures the colour linked with its chakra, for example picturing a bright red light at the tailbone for the root chakra.

What the evidence says

Chakras are not recognised by Western science, and there is no scientific evidence that they work. Cleveland Clinic suggests the chakras may still be a useful metaphor, and notes that Western medicine does recognise the value of yoga, meditation and breathwork. Alternate nostril breathing is said to balance the flow of energy through the chakras. There is no scientific evidence for that claim, although this kind of breathing has been shown to help relieve stress and increase alertness.

Scope

What it includes

• Meditation and visualisation focused on the chakras
• Yoga poses, breathwork and affirmations linked with particular chakras
• The traditional Hindu and Tantric Buddhist teachings on the chakras and kuṇḍalinī

What it is not

• The seven-chakra system most used in the West is not as old as many people believe. According to the publisher of Kurt Leland's history of the Western chakra system, many people who use it believe it is thousands of years old, but its most common form came together as recently as 1977.
• Chakra work is not proven to affect health, and chakras are not recognised by Western science (see What the evidence says above).
• Chakra work is not a way to diagnose illness. Victoria's Better Health Channel advises anyone worried about their health to see their doctor for diagnosis and treatment rather than seeking a diagnosis from a complementary therapist.

Traditions and lineage

Chakra teaching began in the hidden ("occult") physiology of some Hindu schools and of Tantric Buddhism.

The Western chakra system developed from the mid-nineteenth century through the twentieth. Kurt Leland's history traces it from its roots in Indian Tantra through Blavatsky and Leadbeater, Steiner and Alice Bailey, Jung and Joseph Campbell, Ramakrishna and Aurobindo, and on to Esalen, Shirley MacLaine and Barbara Brennan. According to the book's publisher, it explains where the names, colours, locations and other associations now given to the chakras came from, and why chakra systems differ from one another. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was one of the founders of the Theosophical Society in New York in 1875.

Leadbeater's book The Chakras was published by the Theosophical Publishing House in 1927.

Context

Within Spiritualism

In her study of a Spiritualist church in Montreal, the anthropologist Deirdre Meintel found that beliefs such as reincarnation and chakras were widely held by members but were not considered integral to Spiritualism, being drawn from other traditions. She also describes one medium's groups doing breathing exercises "to open the chakras" before a guided meditation.

The historical link runs through Theosophy. According to the Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, the Theosophical Society, founded in New York in 1875, grew out of interest in the occult stirred up by the magnetist movement and especially by Spiritualism, in which two of its founders, Helena Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott, had both taken part. Kurt Leland's history of the Western chakra system traces its development through Blavatsky and Leadbeater, among others (see Traditions and lineage above).

In Australian Spiritualism

The Victorian Spiritualists' Union's Beginners Awareness Course includes a session on auras and chakras, and C. W. Leadbeater's The Chakras is on the union's suggested reading list. Spiritualism and Theosophy overlapped early in Australia: W. H. Terry, a Melbourne Spiritualist medium and healer, was a founding fellow and councillor of the Theosophical Society in Australia in March 1880.

A Spiritualist perspective

Chakras are part of everyday conversation in many Spiritualist development circles, as the Victorian course and the Montreal study above show, yet they are not part of Spiritualism's own teaching. A Spiritualist teacher would explain that the idea came from Hindu and Tantric traditions and reached the movement largely through Theosophy, and would treat those origins with respect rather than present chakras as a Spiritualist discovery.

In a circle, picturing the chakras can be a useful way to settle, attune and close down, and many students find it helpful. A teacher would offer it as a meditation aid, not as fact about the body, and would be honest that, as the page notes, science does not recognise chakras. Above all, no one should tell a sitter that a "blocked" chakra explains an illness. Healing in Spiritualism works alongside medical care, never instead of it, and diagnosis belongs to doctors.

Chakras in Australia

Charles Webster Leadbeater (1854–1934), who in the early 1900s was the Theosophical Society's most prominent lecturer, moved to Australia in 1914 and left for India in 1929. In Sydney he presided over a religious community at The Manor in Mosman, and his presence, with that of G. S. Arundale, made Sydney a major centre of Theosophy in the 1920s.

The complementary therapy industry in Australia is largely self-regulated, and there is no legal requirement for an unregulated complementary therapist to be qualified, trained or experienced.

Safety and good practice

Victoria's Better Health Channel warns that complementary therapies are not always safer than conventional treatment just because they seem more natural. Relying on a complementary therapy alone can delay diagnosis and medical treatment, which in a serious illness such as cancer can lead to serious complications or death. It advises people to talk to their doctor before starting a complementary therapy and to tell their doctor about any they use.

Spiritualist healing bodies set similar limits for their own healers. The National Spiritualist Association of Churches in the United States says spiritual healers should not make a medical diagnosis, and that people receiving healing should never give up medication or stop following their health professional's advice. For chakra work this means that talk of a "blocked" or "unbalanced" chakra should never be offered as an explanation of someone's illness.

Related modalities

• Aura reading
• Colour therapy
• Crystal healing

Further reading

• Better Health Channel. "Complementary therapies – safety and legal issues". Department of Health, State Government of Victoria, 2014.
• Cleveland Clinic. "The 7 Chakras: What They Mean and How To Use Them for Health and Wellness". Health Essentials, 2025.
• Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Chakra" and "Kundalini".
• Leland, Kurt. Rainbow Body: A History of the Western Chakra System from Blavatsky to Brennan. Ibis Press, 2016. (Only the publisher's description has been checked.)
• McMinn, W. G. "Leadbeater, Charles Webster (1854–1934)". Australian Dictionary of Biography, 1986.