The psychic level

Objective evidence for the existence of the chakras also appears to have been found by kinesiologist Valerie Hunt aad her associates at UCLA in America. (7) Assisted by Rosalyn Bruyere, a psychic “aura reader”, Hunt used a number of measurements in order to study the body’s field emission when it is being stimulated by deep muscle massage (Rolfing). This was prompted by an earlier observation that after Rolfing and meditation there was an increase in the electromyographic baseline.

Hunt and associates utilized electromyographic equipment (EMG) which measures the steady, low voltage of muscular activity plus several other instruments. Electrodes were attached to eight sites, including chakra locations such as the crown (sahasrara), eyebrow center (ajna), throat (vishuddhi), heart (anahata), base of the spine and acupuncture points on the foot and knee. The sites for the electrodes were in places where muscle activity was minimal and, therefore, electrical readings would indicate energy from a different source. The electrodes were placed on the body in consultation with the “aura reader”.

The individual being experimented on was given Rolfing (deep muscle massage), designed to liberate deeper subconscious tension, and, therefore, theoretically able to affect chakra activity. As the massage progressed the EMG readings were recorded on one track of a two-tracked tape recorder. Simultaneously, while isolated in another room and oblivious to the EMG and subject’s reports, Bruyere recorded on the second track her observations of psychic activity in terms of color change at the various centers. Hunt was able to question the aura reader via a separate audio system so that no clue as to what the subject was experiencing or what was going on at the EMG level could be detected by the psychic.

At the same time the subject related his experience which was tape recorded using a second microphone, and any similarity between his experience, the symptoms of chakra activation and the EMG recording were noted. It was quickly evident in the central monitoring room where Hunt was sitting, that the EMG changes and the distinctive wave forms being recorded correlated with the colors reported by the sensitive, as did the experience of the subject. Later analysis, whether by wave form, Fourier-frequency analysis or sonogram, produced consistently the same pattern of results.

Hunt acknowledged that the possible interpretations of this data are staggering. The radiations were taken directly from the body surface, quantatively measured in a natural state and were isolated by scientifically accepted data resolution procedures. The study concluded that there had been direct correspondence in every instance throughout all recordings between the distinctive wave form and the psychic’s description of the color err amanating from the chakra. For example, every time a medium-large, sharp deflection with single or double peaks at the top occurred, the psychic reported the color blue, while red corresponded to large, sharp clumps of regular and irregular spikes of short duration interspersed with plateaux. Yellow was a broad, smooth wave resembling an uneven sine wave.

The relationship between the emotional states and the colors was also accurate. Emotions, imagery, interpersonal relations and the state of resiliency and plasticity of the connective tissue are related to the color, and the state of the aura as seen by the psychic. It is an interesting fact that in early Rolfing sessions the chakras appeared to be uneven, small, low in frequency and amplitude and with indiscriminate or dark primary colors. As the technique continued the chakras became large, even in size, and of lighter color, while the wave forms were of higher amplitude and frequency. Some chakras which had been closed, opened, producing kaleidoscopic color effects, such as dark blue, yellow, red-orange and olive green. By the fifth hour of Rolfing all subjects had a clear blue aura. By the seventh and eighth hours the colors were predominantly light and blended, for example, peach, pink, ice blue and cream. Higher frequencies were associated with pleasant experiences. Developing our psyche Hunt’s research is important at several levels. It firstly supports the claims of yogis and psychics that other levels of perception, more subtle and yet intimately connected with the physical body, do in fact exist. Though it has been called extrasensory perception it appears rather to be an extension of the normal range of perception of physical events into the more subtle. According to yogis, development of ajna chakra and the pineal/thalamic area of the brain, plus relaxed concentration of mind, allows us to see things which most of us miss because of gross physical and mental tensions and a dissipated, distracted state of mind. There is nothing miraculous, abnormal or supernormal about psychic phenomena. Most of us just do not look at things long enough to allow the subtle to register in our brains. We see something and are immediately distracted, thinking that there is nothing else to see or learn from a situation. But if we take our time we can learn, much more. We know that vision is our major information processing system and therefore tied into many other neurological systems. Defects in the visual system are now linked to other problems such as allergies, anxiety, insomnia, postural problems, and a whole range of physical and psychological problems. (8) Connecticut optometrist Albert Shankman is quoted as saying “The skill of seeing relationships is a principal object of visual training. Visual training is essentially brain training.” (9) Shankman and others have observed that visual flow and flexibility are associated with a more flexible, creative thought style. Yoga follows the same principle, for example in trataka, an essential component of kundalini yoga. Trataka teaches us to gaze at things without preconceptions and to allow the information to impinge on our brains, to allow the connections time to come together and the inner knowledge, the processed information within the brain, time to formulate itself fully and rise up to the conscious plane. This is what yogis mean when they say that yoga balances the external and the internal, the right and left sides of the brain, ida and pingala, and awakens faculties that lie dormant within us all but which we do not know exist and which we do not develop.

Psychic vision, a side-effect of kundalini yoga and part of the awakening of intuition, inner vision and inner knowledge, is one of these capacities. All it means is that we are relaxed and we take our time to look at things without preconception. Hunt’s research verifies that this faculty is not a myth and not confined just to yogis practising sadhana for years in isolation in the Himalayas, but is also verifiable within the confines of a laboratory. Verifying the chakras The work of Motoyama and Hunt points to the fact that within the physical body there are locations which, though they may not have any obvious physical or structural demarcation, have definite functional characteristics which differentiate from other parts of the body. It verifies the fact that the yogic descriptions of these points correspond to physical emanations in the case of Motoyama’s research and psychic emanations in the case of Hunt’s research. We see then that the chakra locations have both a physical component and a psychic component. This scientific description fits the yogic definition of chakras as vortices of energy, the interacting points of the most powerful psychic and physical forces which control our total human existence. The studies also confirm that the traditional chakra locations, when activated, are related to emanations of light and color, and to emotions and experiences which are subtle and usually stored in the subconscious mind, beyond our usual conscious capacity. When we concentrate and focus psychic energy, chitta shakti, on the chakra, or if we manipulate the areas of the body under its control, by asana or massage, for example, we can stimulate activity at both the physical and psychic levels of that center.

What lies at the basis of these energy emanations at the neurological and mental levels, how these forces interact to control our psychophysiology, behavior and experience, still requires much more research. What we do know is that the concept of chakras has a definite psychophysiological foundation, that they affect our body, emotions and mind, and that they produce both physical and psychic energy which can be measured and quantified. There is something within the body of man, which yogis called chakra, awaiting our discovery and awakening.