the reader to simple methods by which the reality of this statement can be tested. To have this opportunity is vital not only as a means of intellectually assimilating the material, but also for coming to an organic understanding of what is involved. Our underlying purpose is not scholarly. We are basically concerned with helping readers to apply what they learn to further their own inner development.
An example of one such method is the following:
Place your attention about an inch above where your eyebrows converge. Keep your attention on this spot in a relaxed manner. When you have a clear sensation at that point, allow your awareness to penetrate a little below the surface of the skin. After you feel that happen, say to yourself, "This is the center of my experience" Then, whatever else occurs, keep part of your awareness on this spot for 60 seconds. If you wish, take the forefinger of your right hand and slowly lift it until you make gentle contact with that spot on your forehead. After 10 seconds remove your finger and notice the effect.
If something seems to have occurred, you might wish to take a further step. Keeping your awareness focused on the spot in your forehead, notice your breathing. It has been going on all the time without you paying attention to it. If you keep your awareness in the center of your lower forehead as you breathe in, you will tend to draw extra energy to that place. If you hold your breath briefly and relax, it will give the energy that you have brought there a chance to expand. Then, when you let go and breathe out, you will have the chance to surrender any physical or emotional tension that you are holding in the forehead. Try coordinating your awareness and your breathing in this manner for a few minutes. After this experiment you may have your first taste of what it is like to begin consciously to open a chakra; in this case the third eye.
Fig. 4. Place your attention slightly above where your eyebrows converge.
OPENING CHAKRAS
While it is generally assumed in working with the energetic body that it is a conscious experience to be developed through the proper inner exercises, it is also true that spontaneous experiences involving the opening of the chakras do occur. The main value of such experiences is that they demonstrate to the person involved that the center is actually there, whether or not they have ever heard of it, or would have believed in it if they had.
Perhaps the center that is most likely to open spontaneously is the heart chakra. Think of a time when you were with someone you loved, under very relaxed conditions, in front of a fire or sharing a quiet meal. Whatever the circumstances, one of the sensations you may have noticed was a warm, radiant expanding feeling in the center of your upper chest. If you can remember something of this nature, you have experienced an opening of your heart chakra.
Another type of opening that may have occurred involves the center in the lower belly. Most people have at one time or another experienced a sense of effortless coordination while engaged in a physical activity. It may have been during an athletic event, hiking, or dancing. Whatever the setting, such moments are associated with a heightened sense of awareness, greater relaxation in the midst of activity, a sensation of being lighter, and a feeling that the physical actions occur without much conscious effort on our part. If that experience is at all familiar to you, the chakra in your lower belly was probably open and functioning.
Fig. 5. The spontaneous opening of the heart by a pleasant thought.
Perhaps the most familiar experience for most people is of the inner flow that occurs in a relaxed and harmonious body. This flow can take various directions, some of which do, and some of which do not correspond to traditional pathways in the subtle body. Think of a time when you were free from worry and responsibility, perhaps camping in the wilderness or on the seashore close to nature. Under such conditions you may have felt a great surge of well-being and relaxation and noticed a kaleidoscope of shifting sensations that flowed naturally and effortlessly into each other, creating their own balance and adjustment. At that moment nothing else is necessary. You are content!
While it is natural to focus on the opening of separate energy centers, their interconnections are equally important. Different traditions vary considerably in their emphasis on these interconnections or in their recognition of them. In Kundalini Yoga the major channel for these connections is along the spine, with two subsidiary pathways that twist around in a kind of double helix. In Buddhism the two subsidiary channels are straight. In Taoism a veritable landscape of energy circuits is described in detail. These differences are not necessarily contradictory, but may be due to focusing on different practices or on different levels of practice. In addition, over time, elements of these teachings may have been forgotten. Given the magnitude of the time scales involved (some over thousands of years), it is remarkable how much has been retained.
An energy center is very much like a flower bud. If it is properly cared for and receives the necessary sunshine, the bud opens and turns into a flower. The interconnections between the centers are more like a subtle circulation system. They can develop leaks, holes, or become clogged up with garbage and debris. In working with these interconnections, one must become a spiritual electrician or a psychic plumber, in order to repair the connections and balance the flow between centers.
There is a whole array of methods to help clear the psychic system. Some are strange and complex, others are quite simple. Consider the following:
Sit comfortably. Let your open hands hang down at your sides. Ask in a voice that seems to come from your heart center, "Please help me to surrender my negative psychic tensions" Then relax and see what happens. If the exercise takes, you will feel a warmth and tingling in your hands as the negative psychic tension begins to flow out of them. If you feel nothing, ask again with greater sincerity. Listen to your own voice as you ask, and see if you believe that it is sincere. After the process has gone on for a few minutes shake your hands, make a fist, and the flow will stop.
Fig. 6. Surrendering negativity
AN HOLISTIC VIEW
Over the course of time some traditions have emphasized working more with specific chakras and less with their interconnections. This is unfortunate. If the various channels cannot communicate, they will not be able to fulfill their underlying purpose. The chakras and the network that encloses them are part of a whole that cannot be understood, and cannot function properly, outside the context of the system that constitutes their frame of reference. This holistic orientation is often portrayed by showing sacred individuals and divinities with auras around their bodies and haloes surrounding their heads. If this type of symbolism occurred in only one or two traditions, it could be viewed as coincidental. But it is too pervasive to be an accident. A simpler explanation is that holy persons become that way precisely because a higher level of cosmic energy flows through them. It is this experience that religious art seeks to reproduce, utilizing a combination of psychic sight and traditional representation.
Students of the human energy field attest to the fact that all people have auras—colored emanations that are radiated as part of the life process of the individual. The frequency and intensity of the colors symbolize the level of energy transformation that is occurring. Dark brown is less desirable than shining orange. A person in whom the subtle body is fully functioning has greatly accelerated the transformation process within him. This is expressed as an expanded and purified energy field around the physical body. It is no accident that the aura of holy people is drawn in gold, which is rare, pure and radiant.
Sacred pictures may leave one with the impression that the particular saint was born with a halo or attained it in a moment of great illumination. This is misleading. The light that is shown was created as the overflow of a gradual process of development, in much the same way that the size of a tree trunk expresses a continuous growth process over many seasons. Religious artists have been telling us throughout history that the subtle body exists, and that the truest expression