Analysis of the Chakras from a Psychophysiological
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What are the psycho-dynamics of the chakras?
From a physiological viewpoint there are aspects of the chakras that deal with mood, with the mind, aspects dealing with experiences on the psychic plane and also aspects concerned with the energy turnover of the body and mind. The brain, which is divided up in terms of its emotions and cognition, can also be divided into the aspects of the different chakras. It seems to me that from the physiological and anatomical point of view, the chakras are the sum total of the input and output of the different segments of the body. The throat (vishuddhi) section deals with perception, especially the voice. Many of the psychic aspects of this chakra are actually telepathic out; that is, communication. The chest (anahata) deals mainly with the love aspect. The upper abdomen (manipura) deals with the assertiveness and drive aspect. The lower abdominal or upper pelvic area (swadhisthana) deals with the pleasure aspect. The lowest segment (mooladhara), according to Freud and many yogis who went before him, deals with security, possessions and material sorts of things.
Consider manipura chakra. It deals with hunger and it is directly connected with hunger centers in the hypothalamus. It is closely related to the next chakra down, swadhisthana, which deals with pleasure. The hunger and pleasure centers are adjacent in the posterior part of the hypothalamus. They are so close to each other that some of the cells actually intertwine and it is hard to separate which is which. It is interesting to note that when people are sexually tense and sexually dissatisfied, they start reaching for sweet things - they get hungry, start putting on weight and all that. This indicates the close interconnection of these two chakras.
There are also what we can call energy circuits involved in these interconnections. These energies can be directed up or down. If the instincts or desires related to specific areas are not actually satisfied, then there is a tendency for the energy to build up. We see it especially in relation to the sexual impulse, which is connected mainly to swadhisthana, and also partly to mooladhara and manipura. An unfulfilled sexual life at swadhisthana level tends to redirect energy either into the desire for power and dominance at manipura or the neurotic craving for possessions at mooladhara. Energy is built into this chakra system and all of its connections with the hypothalamus and the limbic system. The limbic system, amongst other things, generates a continuity of emotions, and emotions of course motivate action. If there is, for example, competition, then anger is stirred up within the solar plexus, stomach areas and related organs, including the adrenal glands. The adrenals, of course, activate a person to fight if it is over territory or food. Also, adrenalin increases the sugar content in the blood by breaking down glycogen in the liver, so it keeps the animal going even though it is hungry and short of food. If necessary, adrenalin will supply the bloodstream with sugar, so that it can win the fight and get food. It seems to me that a lot of the physiological energy that is inherent in all these chakra circuits is this sort of energy. I do not really believe it is energy per se, but I think it is nerve impulses, for instance in the case of manipura chakra, stimulated by a block in blood glucose which then activates the stomach and the hunger centers in the hypo thalamus, which then activates these mechanisms.
Swami Shankardevananda: So you do not believe in a specific localized energy, but a total body functioning within that circuit. And one circuit becomes dominant if it is neglected or overactivated.
Yes. It can be constitutionally dominant in a person too. You see people who are all manipura chakra - a lot of drive, ambitions and right in there. They are not sexual people (swadhisthana motivated) and they might not even have a security drive (mooladhara motivated). I have known many business people and lawyers who dabble here and there and do it only for the fun of the game. They are just very competitive people. Everyone says to their wives, ‘Well, it must be great to be married to a guy like that’, and she says, ‘Ugh’ - he has little swadhisthana (sex) or anahata chakra (love) working. He is a bad husband, but makes a very good provider (manipura).
Swami Shankardevananda: In a study of sociopaths and those people who are fearless, they found that there is in fact very little difference between them. People who are testing jetplanes and rocketships and climbing mountains without ropes etc., have fundamentally the same character as sociopaths.
If a person’s behavior is accepted by society, then he is a hero. If it is unacceptable he is a psychopath. It reminds me of the old joke that you can murder someone if the government approves of it. This is interesting because these people have that same kind of drive. They are driven by an overactive mianipura chakra. Mooladhara chakra deals principally in security, swadhisthana principally with pleasure, rnanipura principally with assertiveness, courage and personal power, anahata with love, vishuddhi with communication out and also the ability, mainly because of the perception of our external environment, to feel at home virtually anywhere. It is a state of consciousness that is inherent in vishuddhi chakra. When it develops to a certain point you can be sitting on a pile of garbage and still everything is just right. Ajna chakra of course, deals with intellect, intuition and psychic power (siddhis) such as telepathy. As well as these qualities within the different chakras there is another parameter, which is the degree of evolution. Each one of us has these circuits constitutionally energized to different degrees. One person may have a lot of energization of swadhisthana chakra; that person is very much pleasure bent, and has perhaps less development at manipura or anahata.
Swami Shankardevananda: This would be very much a hormonal thing depending mainly on the drive from the hypothalamus.
Vivekananda: That is right. I have not thought very much about what governs the constitutional factors of it. Each one of us is proportionately energized differently in different chakra circuits. Each one of us strikes a different chord. There is a different frequency of energization of the chakras. There are individual differences between each one of us, because each one of us has different degrees of evolution of the quality of the manifestation of each of the chakras. A sociopath who goes round beating up old ladies to steal their handbags, and an astronaut, may have the same chord. They may be identical in the level of activity of each of the chakras, but the guy who is an astronaut, hopefully, has a higher degree of evolution in most of his chakras. So these are two important parameters which define the qualities of the chakras - percentage of activity and degree of evolution. These define the character of each person.
Swami Shankardevananda: You mentioned that there are chakras which express energy and certain chakras which take in energy. Vivekananda: No, what I was saying is that we know these circuits exist in anatomical form, that there are whole areas down there in the body which do not only trigger off something up here (in the brain), but are also triggered by something up here. And we know that there are, for instance, the hunger and the sensual centers in the hypothalamus. We know that they are directly connected with the relevant organs in the body. As the hunger builds up, more neuronal activity builds up within those circuits. And if an emotional component comes into it, it’s very likely that other parts of the limbic system will start generating energy too. You will go rushing around to get something to eat as quickly as possible. This implies that there is an increased neuronal activity within that circuit. People talk about energy within those circuits, and they are certain it is an energy. They say these circuits are energized because when they start getting activated, you can feel throbbing, shaking, etc. But is it energy like electricity running through a wire, or is it in actual fact only a message like the electricity running through a telephone wire? The mere fact that a person shakes can mean that it is a message that is being transmitted to the muscles and the muscles do all the shaking. I tend to prefer the physiological point of view which says that it is neuronal activity; that is, the nerves and circuits conduct impulses and the muscles create the shaking and energy. Swami Shankardevananda: But there is energy even in neuronal activity. Swami Vwekananda: Well, there is, but the energy is produced secondarily to the neuronal activity. The primary object of the circuit is to convey an impulse. The message is carried and it uses energy as a carrier in the same way as a telephone uses energy. You would not get a telephone wire and try to light a 1OO watt bulb, because there is just not enough energy there. Telephone wires run only on about 2 volts; it is not primarily an energy transmission, but primarily a message transmission; the energy is a secondary issue and comes from another source. Some people, by their nature, have some of these circuits much more activated and “energized” than others. There are some people who are very much more into the whole manipura thing. They eat a lot and have big muscles; they are all manipura chakra. You get anahata people who are very paternal and loving and always sensing other people’s feelings, everywhere they go. The same applies to the other chakras. Chakra types can be easily seen at a party where there are a whole lot of people around and you do not know anybody. Then you will see the person who’s very much into feelings will start picking up all over the place who is kind and who is not kind. That is what he perceives in the environment. He is predominantly an anahata type. A person who’s into the intellectual trip will listen to all the conversations going on and if there is a good intellectual tone, he will fit into that circle. If a group is talking about football or something like that, he will go straight past. He will be the vishuddhi/ajna type. Then you will get the manipura chap who will notice first of all who’s in the power scene and he will start associating with that. If there is no obvious power position, it usually develops towards the end of the night. Sometimes you will go into a place and say “that is it”. It is a special chair and a special place. Now if you are on a power trip you go and sit there. The emotional person, when he perceives the scene, is perceiving the feelings around the place, the swadhisthana chap will be seeing other things such as food, sexual encounters, etc. Each one of us has a preference in these things, and that preference seems to be to be driven by energization or activation of those particular circuits which may be predominating. And some people are balanced and versatile and will fit into any situation. These are the yogic types. I think there is an inbuilt rhythm and activation of these particular circuits within the body. I somehow suspect that we go along on a number of different levels of consciousness at the same time. Sometimes we have dreams of total experiences of something that is going to occur in three or four months time. That means time, instead of being a longitudinal thing, is a vertical thing. How do we explain that in our neuro- physiological framework ? There are a lot of experiences that are difficult to explain scientifically. But I don’t think that necessarily means that a physiological explanation is invalid. These days it is possible to measure certain physical manifestations of chakras and the dissociated chakras. Maybe you could get a personality break of a person who was obviously into a certain chakra and test the activation of that chakra. I think the energy around the chakra is easily explainable in that it is the energy that would be given off by the activated field. Swami Shankardevananda: In terms of circuits, certain of the chakras have more receptive properties, especially in mooladhara and ajna, whilst certain chakras seem to be more expressive, such as swadhisthana and manipura. Vivekananda: Probably it is associated with the gyanendriyas and karmendriyas (sensory and motor nerves). Swami Shankardevananda: All the chakras must have a dual purpose: there must be a receptive and an active side to them. It would seem, for example, that ajna is receptive to psychic and intuitive energy, but it also transmits at the subtle, telepathic level. Vishuddhi expresses and communicates that intuition at the verbal level, and at the same time expresses compassion felt through anahata, and also expresses the experiences felt through manipura and swadhisthana. All chakras have a two-way channel and that is because of ida and pingala.
Vivekananda: I think that vishuddhi expresses the qualities of the other chakras only as an agent of their quality, because the other chakras will express energy in a different way. If you are with a person who is loving, especially if you get close, you can feel the love pouring out. Therefore, anahata is expressing in that way, but I think that anahata would use vishuddhi chakra to say the words that go with it. Swami Shankardevananda: Yes, the energy flows through the other chakras, so the activation of one chakra affects all the other chakras and modifies them according to its major harmonic, but in its own way, so then manipura and swadhisthana become love dominant if anahata becomes active. All the other chakras would then line themselves up with anahata chakra.
Vivekananda: Yes, I suppose manipura chakra is an expressive chakra and if you feel high in manipura, then it would tend to flow out love more than feel the experience of love, which is anahata. It gets a bit complicated and it gets into an area which I had not thought of.
Swami Shankardevananda: There is a definite connection between mooladhara and ajna. Also, there appears to be a connection between swadhisthana, vishuddhi and bindu, a very direct connection, and lalana, which is a sub-chakra of vishuddhi. Then it seems that manipura and anahata are also related. This intimate connection between the chakras is symbolized by the seven candles on the Hebrew candlestand (menorah). This is a representation of how chakras are interacting, but actually it is a much more complicated diagram in which all chakras interact with each other. We can regard mooladhara and swadhisthana as being tamasic chakras, manipura and anahata as being predominantly rajasic, and vishuddhi and ajna as being sattvic. These pairs function together. Vishuddhi and ajna, for example, are connected on a receptive, expressive merger, one being active and the other being receptive.
Vivekananda: But I see rajasic and tamasic qualities being in each of the chakras and I see the chakras as being horizontal rather than a vertical ladder form. I just see that they have qualities all the way through them from rajasic, right through to sattvic. Swami Shankardevananda: That is also true. Some people think the word tamasic carries moralistic connotations. Vivekananda: In evolution, is the bliss that the yogi experiences any different to the bliss of orgasm? It might be at a more highly evolved level. Is the selfish love of mother for child, to the exclusion of all other children, anything more than just a lower level of transcendental love? Swami Shankardevananda: In his article on kundalini, Carl Jung says that from above manipura chakra you leave the whole sphere of the earth behind, the individuality, and the diaphragm which lies at the manipura level could be an important anatomical separating component as far as the chakras are concerned. And the movement away from individual love towards universal love takes place at that point just above the diaphragm; anahata chakra. Vivekananda: It is very likely that these different opinions are all right. The mountain looks different from different angles, but from above you see all the people looking at the same mountain. The problem comes when you go back down to earth and talk to all the individual people. It is very difficult to describe what you experienced when you saw the whole mountain. This is why we get so many different opinions, philosophies and religions.