What Are Energy Centers (Chakras)?
Energy Centers Defined
We hear the term chakra a lot, but what exactly are chakras? Chakra means wheel or circle. It’s derived from the Sanskrit root word cakra, which literally means wheel. While not yet scientifically proven, beliefs about chakras date back to at least 1,500 years ago. While there isn’t a consensus on the classification or number of chakras in Hinduism, Buddhism, or Yogic teachings, the total number ranges between 109 and 114. Sadhguru (Guru, Yogi & Mystic) explains that there are seven primary chakras, 114 chakras total, with at least two outside of the body.
There does seem to be a consensus that the seven fundamental chakras are the root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third-eye, and crown chakras. For our purposes, we will use the term energy center rather than chakra. Energy centers are considered energy processing hubs, perhaps best described as the mechanisms that translate various types of energy into health and vitality. They are said to reside in the subtle astral body and can’t be detected via mainstream scientific means like X-rays. Are these what the Bhagavad Gita (8:9-12) elude to when mentioning the life-airs between the eyebrows and gates of the body?
Essentially, energy centers function as vortices and two-way transformers that regulate the energy exchange between our material bodies. Christina Lopes (DPT, MPH & Heart Alchemist) explains that energy centers can also act like computer chips to encode information (trauma, gifts, etc.) from various lifetimes.
Energy Centers As Processing Hubs
Energy centers process and distribute energy — including kundalini energy and life force energy (Law of One: 63:6, 73:8) — based on a variety of personality and archetypical influences. They translate these energies into hormonal, nerve, and cellular activity throughout our gross physical body. Edgar Cayce Readings (281-29) explain that each energy center corresponds to particular parts of the gross physical body and particular functions within the gross physical body which are controlled by the nervous system or endocrine glands.
Food, liquids, and breath are directly associated with our energy centers because digestion, metabolism, and assimilation is viewed in Yogic teachings as the way life force energy is extracted from the gross elements. We need a daily intake of the elements to sustain our gross physical bodies. Essentially, our gross physical bodies use the elements as a fuel tank, burning the elements to release the life force energy stored within them. Keep in mind fellow souls that we can extract life force energy through both indirect and direct means. Indirect means are from the air (breathing) or food (eating). Direct means are straight from the ether (zero point field). And if we stop extracting life force energy, the body returns to being simple matter (apara prakriti).
Let’s expand on those direct means. As explained by Autobiography of a Yogi (26:207-215), advanced yogis and spiritual masters have been known to use shortcut techniques like pranayama and kriya yoga to directly draw in life force energy from the ether without the need for a physical carrier like food or oxygen. Giri Bala (1868 – unknown) was said to have done this for decades (Autobiography of a Yogi, 46:390-399). The difference is that direct extraction takes way more willpower while digesting food is more of an automatic, subconscious process. But we digress…
After life force energy is extracted, it then flows to and vitalizes the energy centers. This is because the food we eat, liquids we drink, and air we breath in are said to contain different vibrational qualities related to the three gunas of material nature (Bhagavad Gita: 17:8-9). The three gunas or qualities are sattvic (fresh, pure), rajasic (spicy, stimulating), and tamasic (stale, heavy, processed). Think about that for a second fellow souls. Every time we consume food, the quality of that food is extracted and transformed, either harmonizing, over-stimulating, or depressing our energy centers. Mind. blown.
Energy Centers Illustrated
Energy Center Movements and Directions
Whirling Vortexes
Energy centers are thought to be whirling vortexes located on a straight line along the spine. Each energy center emits a specific vibrational frequency, per Laura Berman, Ph.D (Educator & Therapist). Is this why energy centers are associated with colors, which also have vibrational frequencies? Colors can be perceived by us and their electromagnetic waves can be measured in nanometers. For example, violet has the highest frequency and shortest wavelength, while red has the lowest frequency and longest wavelength.
How energy centers spin and why is debatable. Some of our resources suggest they spin clockwise to release various energies out into our energy fields, and counterclockwise to pull various energies in from the environment into our bodies. Others, like the Law of One (51:7-8, 73:17), suggest that each center has a variable speed of rotation or activity, with centers eventually forming stable, crystalline structures in more developed entities.
The Law of One (73:17) further explains that as the green-ray (heart) energy center becomes more brilliant (crystallized), its energy spirals twice. First, clockwise from the green-ray energy center to the right shoulder, through the head, the right elbow, down through the solar plexus, and to the left hand. This sweeps all the body’s energy into a channel which then rotates the circle clockwise again from the left to the feet, to the right hand, to the crown, to the left hand, and so forth.
Varying States
Energy centers are also said to have different states: open, closed, overactive, and underactive. Does this mean that an underactive energy center could kick another energy center into overdrive, pulling extra energy away from that part of the body? There does seem to be a consensus that life force energy (prana) takes on two opposite directions to create the battery (vortex) necessary for spiritual evolution. In Vedic teachings, life force energy directions are called prana vayus. Vayu means wind or direction of energy.
According to Dr. Ram Jain, PhD (Yoga), the five major vayus regulate a specific area of our bodily functions.
- Udana governs respiratory functions above the heart, moving energy upwards.
- Prana governs respiratory functions in the heart region, circulating energy throughout.
- Samana governs digestion, metabolism, and assimilation — metabolizing food, turning it into usable energy, and moving the energy inward.
- Apana governs the pelvic region and elimination functions, moving energy downward.
- Vyana governs circulation and the nervous system, moving energy outward through energy channels referred to as nadis or meridians.
Movements Summarized
VECTOR
DIRECTION
ENERGIES
PURPOSE
In-Pouring
Downward (Crown → Root)
- Pure Consciousness
(Divine Light, Intelligent Infinity) - Spiritual Energy (Para Prakriti)
Sustenance: Providing the light of consciousness in every atom
Up-Pouring
Upward (Root → Crown)
- Kundalini Energy (Spiritual Energy, Harmonized Feminine and Masculine Principles)
- Life Force Energy (Prana, Unharmonized Feminine and Masculine Principles)
- Material Energy (Apara Prakriti, Universal Light, Gross Elements)
Evolution: Refining matter into spirit; the striving and will of the seeker to return to Source
Energy Channels (Nadis)
Nadis as Pathways
Nadis and energy centers (chakras) are considered interconnected. Ergo, energy centers are like energy processing hubs and nadis are like pathways — creating a complex network of energy flow in the subtle astral body. Nadi means tube or channel in Sanskrit. Energy flows through our subtle energy system using nadis, similar to how blood flows through our circulatory system using arteries and veins, or signals flow through our nervous system using nerves. Nadis weave through our subtle energy system, intersecting with the lower six energy centers (Law of One: 49:5, 54:30-31). Some of our resources even suggest that nadis follow the same pathways as our nerves and blood vessels.
There isn’t a consensus on the number of nadis or energy channels. There are between 72,000 and 350,000 nadis per Yogic teachings and 12 meridians per Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). According to Yogic teachings, there are three main nadis or channels: ida, pingala, and sushumna. Could these channels be synonymous with the three pillars of the tree of life (severity, mercy, middle) in Kabbalah as well as the service to self (STS) and service to others (STO) distinctions in the Law of One?
The ida and pingala are often portrayed as serpents, representing the conduits for our dualistic experiences in the material universe. There seems to be a general consensus that the ida and pingala flow upwards, intertwining and crisscrossing along the spinal column. Let’s dive deeper.
Channels Illustrated
Ida and Pingala
The ida and pingala are like two separate intake pipes. The ida is often associated with the moon, left nostril, left side of the body, and the passive, feminine principle. The pingala is often associated with the sun, right nostril, right side of the body, and the active, masculine principle. They use the feminine and masculine aspects of life force energy (prana) to run the automatic factory of the gross physical body that includes digestion, thinking, movement, and survival. Does this correlate with the Law of One (49:4-5) which explains that the left side of the head is associated with negative polarization and the right side is associated with positive polarization, magnetically speaking?
The central channel is the sushumna — running parallel between the ida and pingala and originating at the base of the spine. It’s considered the path of neutrality, stillness, and equilibrium, where the two dualities of feminine and masculine life force energy are balanced and duality stops. Ergo, the ida and pingala are two channels for the dualistic life force energies of the material universe while the sushumna is the conduit for non-dual/spiritual evolution.
Think of it this way. The ida and pingala are like two wires of a battery (positive and negative), and the sushumna (lightbulb) only shines when both wires are connected and balanced. Ordinarily blocked, the sushumna is said to provide a direct upwards pathway for balanced life force energy, also referred to as kundalini energy, to ascend through the energy centers. Yes…the infamous kundalini. Kundalini energy is considered a specific form of balanced life force energy (spiritual energy) that occurs only when the circuit of the sushumna channel is completed by balancing the polarities of the ida and pingala channels.
FEATURE
IDA CHANNEL
PINGALA CHANNEL
Energy Type
Lunar
Solar
Charge
Negative / Receptive
Positive / Active
Flow Direction
Left side (starts at base, ends in left nostril)
Right side (starts at base, ends in right nostril)
Metaphysical Role
Mental / Intuitive
Vital / Physical
Character
Cooling, passive, feminine, creative
Heating, active, masculine, analytical
Law of One Term
Love/Light (In-pouring / Receptive / Sustaining)
Light/Love (Up-Pouring / Active / Evolving)