The Chakras and the Human Energy Fields

The Chakras and the Human Energy Fields

The Chakras and the Human Energy Fields

The Chakras and the Human Energy Fields

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Overview

A presentation of experimental evidence that illness can be seen in the subtle energy fields of the body. Fascinating case studies of actual patients show that clairvoyant observation can diagnose disease and even reveal potential illness before it manifests in physical symptoms. The key to health and disease lies in the dynamic interaction between the body's physical, emotional, and mental fields and universal energy fields. Understanding this interaction can help us alter our energy patterns in the direction of better health. Includes a full-color foldout diagram of the chakra system.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780835606417
Publisher: Quest Books
Publication date: 04/01/1989
Series: Quest Book Series
Edition description: 1st ed
Pages: 243
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.65(d)

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

The Dawn of a New Consciousness

Today the winds of change are gusting through our world, blowing away many old prejudices, unsettling the stability of institutions and the endurance of "truths" long taken for granted. There is every sign that we are at the dawn of a new era of human discovery and accomplishment. Many people are dismayed at the rate of change, fearful that we will be unable to control the unprecedented discoveries and techniques which are opening up new areas of knowledge about nature; others welcome the challenge. But all recognize that our world-picture will change dramatically in the coming decades.

We are breaking through the frontiers of space above and beyond our planet, and are probing the minute inner spaces of physical matter. Both of these achievements move us multidimensionally into new levels of space-time with energies hitherto unrecognized. It has become a commonplace if terrifying fact of twentieth-century life that the old scientific picture of a solid material world has vanished in favor of a universe that is charged with stupendous energies. In the years since the first splitting of the atom, we have discovered that the organization and behavior of the atomic realm are stable and enduring, thus giving the world an appearance of solid form, but that the energies within this realm are moving at incredible rates of speed. This new understanding of the universe as a stable pattern within which tremendous charges of energy move in and out demands a change in our worldview — a wholly different concept of reality from that which grew out of nineteenth-century materialist science.

Hitherto, we humans have pursued our games of war and peace in the confident belief that we could control change and enhance the quality of life merely by manipulating our environment: applied technology would create a perfect society. But we have found to our sorrow that it is the seemingly uncontrollable human factors which dominate the world scene. We are also beginning to realize that it is the subtler aspects of life — unpredictable, hard to identify, impossible to measure — that govern human behavior. And going beyond the purely human sphere to that all-encompassing nature of which we are a part, we now understand that life is a very complex relationship between the individual and its environment, and that this environment is not limited, but includes the Earth and indeed the whole universe.

This growing perception of the interrelatedness of all living things has many implications. For our purposes, however, we focus on the fact that there is a continuous energy exchange between the individual and the environment which every living system (whether human, animal, vegetable, or even chemical) regulates in terms of its own self-organization. This energy exchange is so constant and so indispensable for all living organisms that it can be regarded as a universal field effect. We discuss this at some length in the section on The Fields and the Chakras. But here we note particularly that self-regulation throughout nature is achieved from within, not imposed from without, and that this implies a degree of conscious control, even if consciousness in this context is very different from what we experience at the human level. Erich Jantsch wrote in The Self-Organizing Universe, "If consciousness is defined as the degree of autonomy a system gains in the dynamic relations with its environment, even the simplest ... systems such as chemical dissipative structures have a primitive form of consciousness" (p. 40). The allpervading role of consciousness at every level of organization is a postulate important in the work reported in this book.

The implications of this emerging paradigm are yet to be measured. What life is, and what it means to be a whole, functioning, healthy living organism, is now perceived as a multidimensional process, involving a delicate and dynamic balance of many energy systems and levels of integration. To this list we add: many levels of consciousness, even within the physical organism itself, for each of these systems "knows" its own function. These subtler levels of existence, moreover, are universal (at least so far as this earth is concerned), for the energies involved are as much a part of existence as the forces of gravity or electromagnetism. No living particle can escape them. Thus we are already moving beyond a purely mechanical interpretation of life.

The notion of fields is introduced to every school child who is exposed to the experiment of proving that when electricity flows through a wire it establishes a magnetic field. Other physical field phenomena can also be easily demonstrated, although detection of the nuclear fields requires more sophisticated equipment. But when we posit a universal life or vital field (as we do in this book), this is much more difficult to demonstrate in a tangible way, for there are as yet no scientific instruments capable of detecting the presence of such a field. Yet "life," if as yet undefined, is real, and the living (as open systems) have specific characteristics not shared by inorganic matter. The most important of these is the ability to replenish energy (what we call vitality) without an outside agency, which no machine can do.

The concept that the earth is embedded in a series of universal fields is here broadened to include not only the life energy (whose effects upon such physical processes as the immune system have not as yet been possible to measure), but also mind and emotion, which we accept as universal concomitants of life. All living creatures exhibit choice (likes and dislikes) as well as volition; life is a learning process, and evolution implies a growth in assimilated knowledge.

This process is enormously accelerated in human beings. But in us the assimilation of knowledge becomes more critical, for it involves the uses to which that knowledge is put. Self-understanding and an appreciation of the higher possibilities of the human spirit have become imperative for our very survival.

In the new view of human life which is just emerging, man's inner resources are seen to embody not only his physical systems but also a process for replenishing vitality, and an almost untapped resource of higher energies which can harmonize and integrate the mind and emotions with the physical body, thus enhancing all of life.

What are some of the implications?

As human beings become more and more aware that the body is a vehicle which the self uses for its own purposes (whether good or bad, constructive or destructive), this developing self-awareness produces tides of restlessness, such as those which are sweeping over peoples and nations today. Freedom for self-expression is the criterion of modern life. Although some of the results of this phenomenon are negative, even destructive, it signals that the awakening self in man is seeking to explore more complex aspects of his own nature, as well as wider ranges of experience.

Certain aspects of this new development — such as the ethics of recent medical and biochemical discoveries — have become controversial; others, especially those which deal with the higher energy fields, are not generally accepted. All of these hold out great promise for increased human understanding, but they also hold some dangers. The whole area is a new world of exploration without many signposts for guidance or criteria of credibility. Therefore, knowledge is essential, lest we be led astray into irrational beliefs, or accept dubious conclusions on insufficient evidence.

What is needed, from our point of view, is a careful study of the postulate that man is an intelligent, conscious self, functioning simultaneously on several levels of complexity — physical, vital, emotional, and mental — and interacting constantly with the universal energies of nature itself. Beyond these, there is the much deeper level of true selfhood: the soul, with all its characteristics of intentionality, integration, creativity, compassion, insight and, ultimately, spiritual awareness.

This doctrine is far from new, for it has been part of the esoteric tradition, both East and West, for numberless generations. What is new is the effort to map onto this esoteric view of man the enormous gains in contemporary knowledge, in order to develop a true science of the self. If successful, this effort can give us the perspective, the tools and the impetus to make a quantum jump in our understanding of human nature and the range of human possibility.

CHAPTER 2

Breaking the Barrier of the Senses

Throughout the long evolutionary journey of life on this planet, living forms have developed within the narrow constraints set by nature. Like the caterpillar wrapped in its cocoon, man's experience has been limited to the range of his five senses. The conscious perceiver and interpreter of his physical environment, he has been largely unaware of the presence of other dimensions of reality which lay all about him. This is particularly true of modern man.

But today we recognize that the sensed world is far from being the only "real" domain of experience, and that in fact our senses merely deliver impressions to us that the mind/brain interprets according to its own inner vision. Moreover, the narrow boundaries of the sensed world are crumbling, as our knowledge expands to include quantum reality as well as the information bombarding us from outer space. The possibility of extending our understanding into realms long hidden from us by the limitations of the senses is opening an ever vaster world to us — a world which, far from being remote, is now seen to lie all around us, and even to be part of our own being.

As we seek to explore the world of finer perceptions, a number of questions arise. What are the mechanisms for perceiving the hidden world which lies beyond the reach of our senses? Can we develop the capacity and use it creatively and constructively?

At this stage of inquiry we are very much in the position of the blind men in the parable, each of whom tried to describe an elephant in terms of that portion of the animal he was able to grasp. Similarly, in a village of a hundred inhabitants, if ninety-eight were color-blind we could expect them to be very skeptical of the descriptions of the remaining two people who perceived the full spectrum of prismatic colors. In fact, they probably would be sure that these two were visionaries, or story-telling, or just hallucinating. However, if over a period of time 20 percent of the inhabitants began to see the whole spectrum, the rest might begin to concede the possibility that it might exist, even though beyond their own perception. This story is somewhat analogous to the present state of affairs vis-a-vis extrasensory perception.

There are many signs that the next great adventure for humanity will take place in the realm of consciousness, and that a whole range of yet unexplored possibilities awaits us. These raise many unanswered questions. What are the boundaries of the self? Where do self and environment begin and end? Can we develop reliable mechanisms for discovering these subtle interrelationships?

Just as the five physical senses give us access to a certain range of physical reality, so the higher senses allow us to perceive elements of the supersensory world. Higher sense perception includes clairvoyance, which means "clear seeing," and usually refers to the ability to perceive the vital and/or the emotional field. Because such perceptions have seemed to be both exotic and idiosyncratic (since they are experienced by the few), today's scientists and researchers have never tried in any systematic way to explore and understand the mechanisms which permit such phenomena to exist. In a culture committed to the scientific method, this neglect would appear to stem from a fundamental prejudice or misconception.

Scientists have held that it lies outside the province of their discipline to investigate claims that it is possible to perceive states of matter subtler than the physical. For this reason, the painstaking work of J.B. Rhine in the field of telepathy and clairvoyance had little impact upon the scientific community. But physicists concerned with quantum physical reality are investigating probabilities and indeterminacies which are far removed from the so-called facts of our gross physical world, and can only be "observed" through their effects. Is it not also likely that if we were to extend our explorations into the subtler aspects of that world, we might find these dimensions just as lawful, just as amenable to study and understanding as the complex and ambiguous world of quantum reality?

Nevertheless, some research is going forward in this area, using man himself as the sensor, such as the practice of healing methods like Therapeutic Touch. Sensitives who can observe the interactions of vitality, emotion and thought processes remove these interactions from the realm of the purely subjective. Their observations, however, differ in degree, in clarity and in comprehension. Some of them perceive only the etheric or life field; others perceive both the field and the etheric centers (chakras) which are a key element in the basic pattern that characterizes man, both as an individual personality and as a member of the human species. Some clairvoyants see the astral or emotional field, rather than the etheric. Such psychics do not usually perceive the chakras within the emotional field unless they have been trained to do so, or have great natural gifts. The mental field and its centers are seen only by those with a highly developed type of specialized clairvoyance.

Thus far, breakthroughs into these levels of reality have met with a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding. The result has been a flood of "psychic" literature of very uneven quality and credibility, all claiming to furnish accurate information about the supersensory dimensions of human experience. Unfortunately many people, bored and dissatisfied with the present-day scene and its lack of values, accept these accounts uncritically. Such enthusiasts often plunge into personal experimentation without regard for the pitfalls that could be encountered in entering any new area of experience without previous knowledge or preparation. Like the ability to walk or fly, such capacities must be developed. This takes time, patience and much more effort than those who are eager for new sensations wish to expend. Thus interest in the so-called psychic world often becomes more of an escape from the constraints of every-day life than a serious search for new knowledge.

This situation does not change the fact that many people today are exhibiting various degrees of paranormal ability, including clairvoyance, clairaudience, precognition, telepathy, psychometry, dowsing, and healing. It is beginning to look as though these abilities are emergent, and may eventually become a normal part of human consciousness. If we accept the concept mentioned before, that evolution is a learning process, we realize that living systems are continually developing new capacities for a creative response to their environment. If this is so, why should not human beings begin to extend their perception to supersensory levels, and develop the ability to explore more encompassing dimensions of reality?

The first requirement for the development of higher sense perception is a recognition that the supersensory realms are not opened up "magically," but are regulated by natural laws just as precise as those which govern the physical world. If they are to become known to us, we must define more precisely the ranges of supersensory perception; the energies involved and their relationship to physical health and disease; the effects of behavior; the role of the mind and of mental images, intent, and motivation; and much more. Since there are different types of extrasensory perception, and since all observation is filtered through the percipient's mind, we must also determine the degree of "observer effect" in clairvoyant investigation, and develop a system of checks and balances, as well as a common vocabulary. These are only a few of the requirements if we are to bring more order and coherence into the whole field, especially as it bears upon our understanding of the human being.

So far, medicine has been concerned with problems of the physical organism, achieving very important results, even though the question of how healing takes place still remains a mystery. Today our ability to deal with hitherto intractable diseases has been enormously enhanced through the development of scientific sensors, which allow the body to be seen from a number of different aspects. Infrared and liquid crystals give a heat color pattern called thermography; the newest medical instrumentation using ultrasound and nuclear magnetic resonance gives us other dimensions and patterns. At a more fundamental level of physical being, we are becoming accustomed to thinking of ourselves in terms of systems, processes, and patterns of energy, rather than of dense materiality.

(Continues…)



Excerpted from "The Chakras and the Human Energy Fields"
by .
Copyright © 1989 Dora van Gelder Kunz.
Excerpted by permission of Theosophical Publishing House.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Dora van Gelder Kunz,
Acknowledgments,
Introduction by Shafica Karagulla, M.D,
ONE - A NEW VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE,
Chapter I- The Dawn of a New Consciousness,
Chapter II- Breaking the Barrier of the Senses,
TWO - THE FIELDS AND THE CHAKRAS,
Chapter III- The Three Fields of the Personal Self,
Chapter IV- The Structure and Function of the Etheric Body,
Chapter V- The Bole of the Chakras,
Chapter VI- The Astral Body and the Emotions,
Chapter VII- Higher Dimensions of Consciousness,
THREE - CLAIRVOYANCE AS A DIAGNOSTIC TOOL,
Chapter VIII- The Background of Clairvoyant Investigation,
Chapter IX- The Use of Clairvoyance in Research,
FOUR - OBSERVATIONS OF THE DISEASE PROCESS,
Chapter X- Variations in the Etheric Field,
Chapter XI- The Chakras and the Endocrine Glands,
Chapter XII- Diseases Related to Consciousness and the Brain,
Chapter XIII- Effects of Drugs and Other Modifiers of the Fields,
Chapter XIV- Effects of Surgical Excision,
FIVE - THE ROLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS,
Chapter XV- Effects of Changes in Consciousness,
Chapter XVI- The Dynamics of Healing,
Chapter XVII- Towards the Future,
Part One by Shafica Karagulla,
Part Two by Dora van Gelder Kunz,
APPENDIX: Case Histories,
The Crown Chakra,
The Brow Chakra,
The Throat Chakra,
The Heart Chakra,
The Solar Plexus Chakra,
The Spleen Chakra,
Consciousness,
Healers,
Bibliography,
Index,

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