What follows is an excerpt from the introduction to Julian’s book, Yoga and the Chakras: a Healing Workbook for Students and Teachers, available here for purchase!. Check the workshops page to find out when Julian will be teaching this exciting healing system!

Energy

Let’s start with the central idea of energy. “Energy” refers to the life-force of the sophisticated systems that make up the human body and mind. Energy is the electrical current that animates the body. Energy is the warmth that radiates from our skin, the creativity that blossoms in our minds, the wave of emotion we experience in our hearts.

The experience of energy is a universal one. Whether we use the Chinese word chi, the San Bushman word num, the Christian mystic term holy fire, or the Yogic word prana, we are referring to the same thing.

For centuries poets, philosophers, and religious mystics have been exploring the nature of the body’s energy. Eighteenth century English poet William Blake writes, “Energy is eternal delight.” Nineteenth century American poet Walt Whitman joins him, saying, “I sing the body electric!” The twelfth century Sufi master Rumi tells us “The body is a screen that reveals and partially hides the light that is blazing inside your presence.”

Energy and the Chakras

The word “chakra” means “wheel.” The chakras can be pictured and experienced as whirlpools of energy along the spine, from the seat of the pelvis to the crown of the head. The ancient yogis came up with a map of these wheels of energy and their relationship to the evolution of consciousness. The system they described corresponds with our major glands and nerve plexi as explained by modern medicine, and also with western psychological theories of human development.

Each of the seven chakras is home base for a certain group of emotions and thoughts. We have discovered that yoga postures can be sequenced to target specific muscles, which we call high charge points. The high charge points are the key to opening the chakras, releasing blocked energy, and understanding the body-mind connection. The chakras and the physical body are not two different things. The body and the mind are not two. We are a multi-dimensional, interwoven, intelligent, energetic matrix.

In sum: Our experience of being alive happens in an internal, invisible, yet absolutely essential space—the space of energy and consciousness. The chakras are a map of this dimension.

Confused?

No one has actually ever seen a thought or a dream, a sensation or an emotion, a desire or an instinct. Nor have we ever seen our egos, love, or consciousness itself. Yet all of these are central to our experience as human beings. To borrow an idea from computer technology, these things are experienced in a kind of “virtual” space. To continue this analogy, we can think of the mind as the “software” of the brain. We can think of instincts and emotions as being the software of the limbic and glandular systems, and of sensations as the software of the nervous system.

The chakras are like the “energy software” of the body.

Energy is the “electricity” that allows all of these systems to function and, ultimately, to blossom into consciousness of themselves. As we reclaim more of the body in conscious awareness, we begin to feel energy open up and move. As we awaken energy through yoga poses and breath, we become aware of ourselves at a deeper level.

Initiation

When the four levels of energetic healing synergize and the chakras open, energy streams through the rest of the body. The energy travels via subtle channels called “nadis” in the yogic tradition, and “meridians” in the Chinese Medicine tradition. This matrix-like web is the energetic basis of the body and mind. As we are practicing yoga or receiving bodywork, new sensations arise; we may feel tingling or heat, the body may shake or make spontaneous movements as we melt layers of stress and tension from the past. Deeply held emotions may surface for healing and release. We may spontaneously sigh, laugh, cry, or make other sounds. We delightedly discover that energy is not abstract, but is powerfully real!

As our bodies unwind and our energy blossoms, we discover what needs to be disentangled, healed, and revised so that we may open to inspiration, love, creativity, grounding, and pleasure.

The initiation is just the beginning. Initiation is the “peak experience” that sustains us as we continue on our journey and strive to integrate our insights, new awareness, and energetic openings into our daily lives. The process of integration asks us to let go of the old familiar habit patterns and stay open and non-judging toward our experience. We are all human; we all have life stories of suffering and joy, and we all have the deep potentials for compassion, ecstasy and wisdom. Our sensations, thoughts, and emotions are the raw material for this awakening. The initiation by itself means nothing if it does not affect our experience of being alive in community, work, and relationship.

Three Stages of Energetic Initiation

1) The perception of the body as gross matter.
2) A growing sensation of the energetic qualities of the chakras in the core of the body.
3) A powerful sense of energy streaming through the energy matrix.

The path of energetic initiation leads from stasis (static) to ex-stasis (ecstatic), or from feeling stuck to feeling flow. Again, this process will illuminate that which limits our energy in order for it to be examined, healed, and released.

The ancient yogis described a central energy column, called the shushumna, and two criss-crossing currents, ida and pingala. The shushumna description is much like the caduceus, the ubiquitous healing symbol used as by different traditions around the world, including the American Medical Association.

Core Self and Ego

The developmental process described in this book is defined by the relationship between the core self and the ego. This diagram of the mind demonstrates the concept of this relationship. In turn, the chakra system reveals how this relationship plays out in the body.

The circle of the mind is divided into the conscious mind and the unconscious mind. The organizational center of the conscious mind is called the ego. Far from a negative word, “ego” refers to our sense of self; it is the center around which our consciousness is organized. The unconscious is the place where undiscovered potentials, archetypal resources, and spiritual peak experience circuits lie in wait. The unconscious also houses the shadow material of repressed memories and emotions, and is the source of our most primal instincts and our most exalted yearnings. The core self is the center of the entire psyche, but exists outside of ordinary ego consciousness. Although powerful and always present, the core self and the contents of the unconscious are, by definition, unknown to the ego.

However, the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind are in a dynamic relationship with each other. The core self sends messages to the ego in the form of intuitions, dreams, emotions, creative impulses, and psychosomatic symptoms. In turn, the ego represses thoughts, emotions, sensations, and experiences that are threatening to how it has been conditioned to perceive reality.

In order to help maintain a comfortable status quo, ego-defenses are erected along the dividing line between the conscious and unconscious mind. These defenses serve a valuable purpose and allow us to function without being overwhelmed. However, many of the defenses that serve us well at one phase of development become a hindrance at another phase. They actually distort our perception of reality and sabotage our choices to move toward happiness, because their purpose is to screen out anything that appears to be threatening. Just like the analogy from yogic philosophy in which one mistakes a rope in the darkness for a snake, we are all prone to react defensively in response to harmless stimuli. However, when we soften the defense and process the past association in a safe way, we become more grounded, open, and free. This healing also liberates the energy that was locked up in the defensive strategy and allows it to be redirected in a positive way.

The core self is an agent of transformational growth and healing, and is persistent in its quest to be recognized. The goal is to have a strong, open channel of communication between surface and depth, between inner and outer reality. As the core self actualizes its potential, the ego is sequentially transformed and awakened.

This dynamic dance between the conscious and the unconscious is echoed in the ancient Chinese yin-yang symbol, which illustrates the unity of opposites and the vital tension of masculine and feminine, shadow and light, activity and receptivity. The opposing energies contained within one another suggest a perpetual cycling back and forth in dominance.

Our chakra system maps the development of consciousness as it manifests through the body. There is an underlying intelligence that expresses itself in a different energetic language at each level. Each chakra also delineates different challenges to be surmounted on the way to that healthy actualization of the core. Ideally, each phase of this process transcends the limitations but also includes the gifts of the phases before it.

The ego develops as a way to mediate between the primal energies of the first three chakras and external reality. At chakra one, the core self expresses the need to survive and protect itself, as well as the right to enjoy being alive and to celebrate its impulse toward evolution. At chakra two, it expresses a sensual, emotional capacity to be in relationship with others, and at chakra three it translates those relationships into an internalized sense of independence, boundaries, and self-empowerment. Each of these early stages can be derailed or incompletely developed, and usually require a good deal of work in any transformational process. At chakra four, the core can start to express empathy and compassion for others, becoming less self-involved and more spiritually aware. At chakra five, the ego expresses to the world the core self’s unique creative gifts and personal truth. Chakra six reveals a transpersonal sense of self that transcends yet includes the ego. Spiritual insight, wisdom, and clarity of vision arise as we become less identified with limitations of the ego, and more able to witness our lives. At chakra seven, our deep potentials for mysticism and freedom are realized.

This path through the chakras also expresses the yin-yang polarity. Chakra one is yang, two is yin, three is yang, four is yin, five is yang, six is yin. Chakra seven integrates, transcends, and includes the polarities of yin and yang.

Integrating Multiple Approaches

A consistent yoga practice is enormously helpful as you work through the layers of growth and healing that the chakra system encodes. We also use the hands-on techniques of Core Sequencing Bodywork to catalyze the process. In addition, a qualified therapist you resonate with can be an invaluable guide in this process. Meditation is a powerful addition to the physical yoga practice and will deepen and expand your experience immeasurably. Yoga is traditionally thought of as mere preparation for meditation! Lastly, cleansing your organ systems and maintaining healthy dietary and supplemental habits will greatly increase your body-mind’s ability to receive and integrate the energetic gifts of yoga.