CHAKRAS: What Do Scientists Say? (Part 1)

INTRODUCTION

No scientific evidence supports the existence of the chakra system in the spiritual sense. No scientific evidence can. Centuries ago, Western science discarded all notions of a vital energy or force. (The Vedic science of Hinduism calls this life force prana, the Sanskrit word for “breath.”) However, modern science did retain concepts of invisible physical forces. Strict empiricists frequently object even to this.

The concept of “field” in physics refers to a nonphysical element that interacts with the object within it. Because a field is nonphysical, the instruments of science cannot detect it directly. Science can only investigate its actions and effects.

Science has created the term biofield to replace terms used by metaphysicians and spiritual practitioners like energy body, psychic body, subtle body, and etheric body. Science has also created the term biofield practitioner to replace terms like yogi, meditator, energy healer, and spiritual adept in case studies.

This biophysical paradigm embraces a “field” view of life that complements the dominant “particle” view. Within this paradigm, a body’s biofield is a field of energy that holds information central to its higher order of being. The biofield is proposed to have mind-like properties. It is considered to be the super-regulator of the biochemistry and physiology of the organism that coordinates all life functions, and it is key to understanding life’s integral wholeness.

Some scientists have argued that the human body involves an electromagnetic communication system. They say that the traditional locations of the main chakras align closely with the endocrine glands of the body and with major nerve plexuses of the central nervous system.

BACKGROUND

Anatomical and Physiological Evidence

Scientific research into the subject of the chakra system has been meager and sporadic. Despite this fact, Dr. Margaret Moga, a professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine compiled a review of the research that exists. She searched out evidence of the chakras in clinical research from the 1970s-2020s (Moga, 2022).

Moga grouped her results in two categories: anatomical studies and physiological studies.

She concluded that there is some evidence that the “energy centers” known as “chakras” emit measurable electromagnetic radiation. She also concluded that they have possible anatomical correlates. The midline chakras are located close to major neurological plexuses, suggesting an association between the chakra system and the nervous system.

The cardiac plexus of nerves is located at the base of the heart, in close proximity to the heart chakra or anahata chakra (Rokade, 2017). The muladhara chakra or root chakra located at the base of the spine is closely associated with the inferior hypogastric plexus and its sub plexuses (Sweta et al., 2018). These studies support the hypothesis that the midline or main chakras have neuroanatomical correlates.

She also found several physiological studies that detected electromagnetic emissions from the chakras. When experienced meditators activated a chakra, the photoelectric cells emitted a faint light. A copper electrode also detected high-frequency oscillations. This indicates that physical changes occur when the mind interacts with the body, and these changes have measurable radiations (Motoyama,1981).

An electromyograph (EMG) detected wave forms and frequency bands from 100 Hz to 1 KHz. These corresponded to various colors in the area of the chakras. At the same time the electronic data was being collected, an auric reader recorded her observations at the same chakra locations. She noted color, size, and energy movement of the chakras and the auric “cloud” of the subject. Distinct frequency bands were discovered for each auric color, regardless of chakra location. There was another notable finding as well. As the subjects activated or “opened” a chakra, there was an observed increase in amplitude of electrical activity (Hunt, 1977, 1996).

Another separate investigation used electrodes to measure frequencies in biofield practitioners and university students. The frequency bands matched what Hunt had found in both groups. In addition, the frequency band power was higher among the biofield practitioners than the students (Rowold and Hewson, 2020). A separate investigation found each chakra emits a particular band of frequencies from 29 MHz – 86 MHz. This matches the overall frequency of the human electromagnetic field of about 53 MHz (Jalil et al, 2015).

The Body Electric

The energy body or etheric body is where the most powerful and profound interactions in our beings take place. Mystics and practitioners of energy healing have long known this body. Recently scientists too have verified its existence under the term biofield.

Bioelectric potentials are identical with the potentials produced by devices such as batteries or generators. There is one major difference. In nearly all cases, a bioelectric current consists of a flow of ions (that is, electrically charged atoms or molecules) whereas the electric current used for lighting, communication, or power is a movement of electrons. These bioelectric signals are generated by the activity of certain proteins in cell membranes. They spread throughout cell networks via electrical synapses.

Scientific research into the voltages and electric fields produced naturally within living organisms has been going on for nearly one hundred years. This is the field of bioelectricity.

1930s-1970s

Harold Saxon burr IMAGE: Yale University Library

In the 1930s Harold Saxton Burr, Professor of Anatomy at Yale University School of Medicine and researcher into bio-electrics, made observations that led him to propose an electrodynamic theory of life. His main hypothesis was that bioelectric gradients serve as prepatterns. He proposed that these prepatterns guide the biological process that causes a cell, tissue, or organism to develop its shape. These patterns of forces in the electrodynamic field also influence growth and development. They determine the pattern of living things. Modern molecular physiology has now confirmed this fact. The same for Burr’s ideas about the place of the nervous system in biological organization (Levin, 2020).

Gustaf Stromberg IMAGE: Ervin Willard Spurr, The Huntingdon Library

During the 1930s-1940s, the renowned astronomer Gustaf Stromberg further developed Burr’s concept of the life field theoretically. Alongside his work at Mount Wilson Observatory, he began to consider the nonphysical world. In 1940 he published his thoughts in the book The Soul of the Universe (1940, 1948). In this book, and in a number of articles published in various scientific journals, he called the life field an “autonomous field” or “organizing field.” He proposed that this field determines the location of particles and not vice versa.

The theory of autonomy or primacy of force fields over structures is of fundamental importance in physics. Both of these researchers held that the theory can be applied to biology. Both held that there is a hierarchy of autonomous fields in living organisms, especially animals. Both held that these fields have particular structures and functions that organize the substances of which living organisms are built. And both held that it is hard to escape the conclusion that these fields are independent of material bodies; and that they are involved with and determine, by their innate properties, the structure and functions of living organisms.

In the 1960s Burr attacked the materialist philosophy behind modern science and called for field models of bioelectric control (Burr, 1962). In the 1970s Burr contended that the electrodynamic fields of all living things shape and control each organism’s development, well-being, and mood. He measured and mapped them with standard voltmeters. And he named them Life-fields or L-fields. Burr described the almost inconceivably complicated L-field as “an energy blueprint.” He used the L-field to explain both cellular differentiation and the form of living organisms (Burr, 1972).

2010s-2020s

Burr’s theory, his approach, and his work were largely forgotten by the scientific world until the 21st century.

There are reasons for this neglect. It was not until around 2000 that the first tools were created to examine the role of voltage in a multicellular context. Since that time, a variety of Burr’s specific predictions have proven true (Levin, 2020). Also confirmed are Burr’s ideas about the relationship between the nervous system and nonneural bioelectricity. This includes his idea that the nervous system carries a significant portion of instructive bioelectric signaling (Herrera-Rincon, 2017).

Patterns of differing bioelectical charge are now accepted to be prepatterns. Science accepts that these patterns determine the large-scale anatomy of the physical body, along with other forces. And the large-scale anatomy of the human body places the endocrine glands and major nerve plexuses of the central nervous system in locations that align closely with the traditional locations of the main chakra system. Both the endocrine system and the nervous system are important segments of the human body’s communication network. Moreover, it is now clear that the bioelectric signaling layer is an important aspect of physiological software.

The Human Body as Communications Network

The biophysical view is based on the existence of an organizing field within and around every living organism. This organizing field carries bioinformation central to regulating the organism’s life functions. In this view, living systems are constantly exchanging energy that carries information.

The endocrine system is a messenger system. It is comprised of feedback loops of hormones that internal glands release directly into the circulatory system. In this way, hormones target and regulate distant organs. The hypothalamus is the neural control center for the endocrine system. It is located in the brain adjacent to the pituitary gland. This is the location traditionally assigned to the “crown chakra” or “Sahasrara chakra” in Vedic science. One of the most important functions of the hypothalamus is to link the endocrine system to the nervous system via the pituitary gland.

The Hypothalamus-Pituitary Complex IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons

Each of the plexuses in the nervous system is like an electrical junction box in a house. In them, nerve fibers from different spinal nerves are sorted and recombined, so that all fibers going to specific body parts are put together in one nerve. And these nerves have both sensory and motor functions.

Both the nervous system and the endocrine system are involved in electrical communication.

Bioelectric phenomena occur throughout the physical body. Lipid membranes, flat sheets that act as insulators bathed in a conducting milieu, form a continuous barrier around all cells. All bilayer lipid membranes can support a membrane voltage and an electric field between membranes. The lipid bilayer allows selective passage of certain molecules and ions into and out of cells (McLaughlin, 2018). Membrane voltage modulates the energy available to all molecules that are associated with the membrane. This simple fact has wondrous and far-reaching implications (Cohen, 2014).

There is more to biocommunication than these two major communication systems and the lipid membranes. There is in the physical body a vast fluid superhighway that spans the entire body. This highway travels between organs, from one organ to the other. It connects everything to everything else throughout the body. It is called the “interstitium.” It is an important organ not discovered by Western science until 2018. But since ancient times, Indian Ayurvedic medicine has known it as the “nadis.” And ancient Chinese medicine has known it as the “meridians.” It is the network of acupuncture, the pathways through which the life energy known as “chi” flows (Brandel, Theise, 2023).

The structure of the interstitium is fractal. That is, it exhibits the same pattern at various scale. And it is unified. Scientists had seen glimpses of this mesh-like network before. But they had not realized that it connects the entire body — just underneath the skin, wrapping around organs, arteries, capillaries, veins, head to toes. It moves four times more fluid through the body than the vascular system does. And the fluid is a clear, “pre-lymphatic” substance that carries within it nutrients, information, and new kinds of cells.

The physical body is made up of cells. The interstitium is the something in between cells and around cells that keeps things together. Layers of collagen fibers in a thick, woven mat keep the organs together. And they give structure to every visceral organ throughout the body.

The interstitium IMAGE: Arthur Jones

The walls of living organs glow in a regular honeycomb sponge form that is full of holes, with translucent threads encasing the organs. Places throughout the body that researchers had always thought were solid structural stuff are not. They are actually shot through with little tubes and tunnels that flow from tissue to tissue, from organ to organ, reaching bigger streams that come together in big rivers. Twenty-five percent of the fluids going through our body is this stuff, four times the amount of blood. And in the interstitium are telocytes. They are a newly-discovered cell that appears to have a role in immune response regulation and cell-to-cell communication or signaling.

The Radiant Body

All living organisms emit ultraweak photons in ultraviolet frequencies and in the visible region, 400-700 nm (violet to red light). They are called “biophotons” (from the Greek meaning “life-light”).

In the 1970s and 1980s Fritz-Albert Popp and his research group at the University of Marburg in Germany showed that the spectral distribution of the emission fell over a wide range of wavelengths, from 200 to 750 nm (Popp, 1988).

This low level of light has a much weaker intensity than the visible light produced by bioluminescence. But biophotons are detectable above the background of thermal radiation that tissues emit at their normal temperature. A growing number of researchers maintain that at least some of this light emission is coherent. They also maintain that it contains bio-information, and is indicative of dynamic coherence within organisms (Popp, 1988). The intensity of biophotons may be extremely low; but the electromagnetic information carried by this light can be significant for organisms (Popp, 1989).

THE PROBLEMS

As a whole, there currently seems to be no meaningful way to measure the chakra system scientifically. Scientists perceive only what their technologies permit, and their theories are constrained to what their technologies enable them to observe. And the current scientific paradigm continues to be materialistic and ignores consciousness.

Burr’s work in general received limited attention until around 2000. Then bioelectricity began to be integrated into mainstream molecular genetics. And interest in his work increased exponentially. At the same time, the first tools were created to examine the role of voltage in a multicellular context. Despite all the progress in bioelectric research, Burr’s emphasis on field models of bioelectric control has not yet been developed. As of 2020, Burr’s ideas have only begun to be mined.

Traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medicine have for some thousands of years looked at the body as a dynamic, fluid-oriented system whereas Western medicine has focused on isolating and treating symptoms. Neither have Western doctors come to fully understand and appreciate the role of the interstitium or fascia. However, rolfers, osteopaths, and myofascial workers have been working for years with fascia structure and the fluid within it. They look at the well-being of the entire body through a lens of interconnection, dependent relationships, and movement.

Searching for evidence behind chakras is still a topic of ongoing scientific research. Studies have been conducted on related practices such as Reiki, which is based on the concept of energy flow through chakras (McManus, 2017). But while Reiki is based on the concept of energy flow through chakras, it is not a direct study on chakras themselves.

Finally, more investigation needs to be done on the effect of colored light on the body. Chromotherapy (color therapy) is still considered a pseudoscience.

THE SOLUTION

More research is needed to investigate the science behind chakras directly. We need a new scientific worldview that is more encompassing. And we need new scientific approaches in basic and clinical research.

We need in biology, for example, an extended concept of information. Conventional biology accepts that molecules such as DNA and hormones convey information. Biofield science offers the new concept of electromagnetic bioinformation.

When researchers found the interstitium, they did not find the reason it is doing what it is doing, what animates it, or its purpose. But they have given future researchers a place to look. And this is the place to bring ancient, time-tested Eastern ideas together alongside modern Western medicine. The Chinese medicine community, the Tibetan buddhist medicine community, and Indian Ayurvedic medicine have been talking about the same organ. Now Western scientific researchers have a chance to do the same.

Detection of biophotons has been reported by several groups. They hypothesize that biophotons indicate the state of biological tissues and that they facilitate a form of cellular communication. Their investigations imply that biophotons have great significance in relation to well-being and disease, to mental states, and to acupuncture. But their hypotheses are still under investigation. And the limited number of studies allows only first conclusions. Further research in the field is justified.

Although the current scientific paradigm continues to be materialistic and ignores consciousness, there is a growing body of work on consciousness from the so-called postmaterialist scientists. The number of universities in the U.S. that support this work is still small, but the movement is rapidly growing in Europe. These scientists hold that consciousness is primary to the structure of the physical world, as demonstrated by quantum physics.

CONCLUSION

As a whole, there currently seems to be no meaningful scientific way to measure the energy centers called “chakras.” No scientific evidence can support the existence of chakras in the spiritual sense. But there are scientists who argue that the primary chakras may correspond to endocrine glands and to different nerve plexuses of the central nervous system.

Science will require revision to embrace the full human potential of consciousness and the multidimensional nature of our existence. Life is inherently complex, and science should be mature enough to embrace its complexity. From a systems view, we can expect new biological principles at higher levels of organization. Science and spirituality may not currently be in synch, but fortunately there have been and are scientists who are also spiritual seekers.