Chakras In Yoga Meditation and Stress Relief

Chakras in Studies

It used to be that chakras and other related topics were considered completely imaginary. But science is finally catching up with what many have known for centuries.

For example, countless studies have now demonstrated that meditation – a wholly "non-physical" act – has a very real impact on the brain and blood system. The act of meditation can create measureable improvements in the brain. It wasn't that long ago that meditation was considered a new-age touchy-feely activity that did nothing at all. Now science has proven that it has immense benefits.

It could be that chakras are the next area of subtle energy to benefit from more careful research.

We are barely beginning to understand the brain. The chakras are related to the pineal gland – a tiny, pine-nut-sized cluster of powerful nerves within the cranium. We're still working hard to understand the brain's larger signals such as alpha and beta waves. It could be a while before we have delicate enough equipment to work with the faint pineal gland signals.

Think of how lost we were before EEGs. And now EEGs and other related devices interpret the electrical signals of the brain. Signals that, a few hundred years ago, would be thought to be witchcraft.

One study done at UCLA by Dr. Valerie Hunt was able to detect electrical activity from the locations of the chakras. This was done wholly by accident as part of another study. The detector was an oscilloscope – a machine that detects energy levels.

It's worth it to note that there is a long-standing million dollar prize for anyone able to prove they have a supernatural ability. This is hosted by the Randi foundation. So far, no psychic has been able to prove their ability to claim it. A number have tried and failed. Discoveries such as the "happy water crystals" that reacted to emotion were shown to be fakeries. For this reason, some are skeptical that chakras exist as a "real" energy system. Surely, if they were, then a chakra practitioner would have stepped forward to claim the prize, if only to then donate it to charity.

However, it's worth noting that in this case it's not that chakras have failed. It's that chakras have never been put to the Randi test. There simply hasn't been a way to test them yet. Chakras are more about subtle energy fields and we are only now developing the devices to be able to test these.

I would think in the next five to ten years that we'll learn more about them, just as we are learning more about the brain's subtle energy fields via EEGs!

Chakras and the Pendulum Test

A few practitioners claim that you can judge the quality of a chakra simply by using a pendulum. For the sake of completeness I'll include this test here. I will caveat that I am currently skeptical that this works. The chakra is a subtle energy field. It should not – one would think – be detectable by a hunk of wood.

The idea is to get a wooden pendulum on a string. It is hung so the pendulum base is two inches above the chakra. For our sake of argument let's say the stomach chakra, since that's easy to get to.

If the stomach chakra is healthy, the pendulum supposedly swings clockwise. Reverse or no motion means the chakra is blocked and in trouble.

But surely a right-handed hand naturally swings things clockwise? And a left-handed person might swing them counter-clockwise? Is this test biased assuming that the person holding the pendulum is right handed?

If you look up "ideomotor phenomenon" you'll find that it is a well-known scientific situation that a person wanting an outcome will make tiny, undetectable-without-high-speed-camera motions with their hands to get the results. So if they feel their heart is having issues, they'll subconsciously make changes to how they hold or move the pendulum to indicate that.