Chakras
From SkepticWiki
Contents |
[edit] Definition
In traditional Indian medicine and New Age medicine, the chakras are centers of prana (life force) in the human body.
[edit] Origins
The traditional systems of chakras is described in the sixteenth-century Indian manuscript Sat Cakra Narupana [1]. This describes six chakras, located at the perineum, the “root of the genitals”, the navel, the heart, the throat, and the head; most Western systems use seven; New Age practitioners sometimes use additional chakras such as the “ear chakra”, or even chakras located some distance away from the actual body.
The original texts associate colors with chakras: this is still done today, but the colors are often different. In ‘’Sat Cakra Narupana’’, for example, the perineal chakra is associated with the color yellow; in Western systems the chakras are associated with the successive colors of the rainbow from red to violet (reading from the perineum to the head).
[edit] Discussion
It has been suggested that the system of chakras and prana is the origin of the Chinese system of acupuncture points and chi. It is easy to see why New Age practitioners prefer the Indian system. Whereas the smallest systems of acupuncture require 365 acupuncture points, there are only six chakras; and while in acupuncture a pain in the stomach may require a needle in the ear, in systems based on chakras treatment is given to the nearest chakras. So in crystal healing, for example, any problem with the head is treated by applying a crystal of the appropriate color (purple) to the head chakra.
This has an appealing simplicity, and if it could only be shown to have any medical effects better than placebo, it would make the tedious business of, for example, attending medical college, seem rather a waste of time.
The various changes in the system as it has been Westernized allows the practitioners of crystal healing and such dubious arts to do what they like, including fitting their system to a Western cultural tradition of a seven-color spectrum and to modern concepts of endocrine glands (which they identify with chakras) while still claiming that what they’re peddling is ancient Eastern wisdom.
