The Scientific Basis of the Chakras

There is a Definitive Scientific Basis for the Chakras, Auric Field, and Human Energy Field. Period. It is a scientific fact purely from the perspective of the physics involved. I believe the problem the scientific community has with the idea of the Human Energy Field in general, is not the founding principles, but everything else that comes along with it.

Attached to the chakras and auric field is an extensive body of tradition that is, for all intents and purposes, like emotional baggage in a relationship. It comes with it, whether you like it or not. And it usually tends to create chaos, cause problems, or otherwise make integration into the new relationship difficult (if not impossible).^[i]

The validity of everything else that is associated with (and/or attributed) to chakras, the aura, and the human energy field is a different matter entirely. The claims that disease originates first in our energy field, the idea of “energy healing” — that you can heal the body energetically by working with the energy system specifically — are ideas that emerge from the understanding of the human energy field. Yet their validity is a separate matter. One which has not been proven scientifically one way or the other. From there, the more tenuous associations between chakras, incense, angels and demons, spirit guides, ESP, psychics, crystals, and pyramid power is what unfortunately overshadows the definitive scientific basis of the chakras.

However, one thing that cannot be questioned on scientific grounds is the existence of complex electromagnetic fields around the body. These arise from the electric currents running through the perhaps 100 billion neurons wiring through human anatomy, which create the literal Human Energy Field — the electromagnetic field that arises from our firing nervous system. Within that field are localized regions of greater field intensity that correlate with nerve plexus and nerve bundles as found in the brain, spinal cord, heart, etc).

As you can see in the brief description above, the scientific basis for the chakras, aura, and human energy field is beyond reproach.

The Basics of the Human Energy Field

The Human Energy Field is composed of two primary aspects: the auric field and the chakras. The chakras are energy centers that are located along the spine, connected to (and creating) an axis of energy that is fundamental to all human beings (called the shushumna in the Indian system).

The seven major chakras according to the Indian system are:

1. Muladhara (Root Chakra) (First Chakra) — Located at the base of the spine.
2. Svadhisthana (Sacral Plexus Chakra) (Second Chakra) — Located below the navel.
3. Manipura (Solar Plexus Chakra) (Third Chakra) — Located just above the navel.
4. Anahata (Heart Chakra) (Fourth Chakra) — Located at the heart center.
5. Vishuddha (Throat Chakra) (Fifth Chakra) — Located at the throat.
6. Ajna (Third Eye Chakra) (Sixth Chakra) — Located in the center of the brain, directly between the eyes.
7. Sahasrara (Crown Chakra) (Seventh Chakra) — Located at the top of the head.

The Seven Chakras are distinct energy centers, understood as vortices of energy (discs of light) that exist at locations up and down the spine. I believe that they are usually conceived of as being composed of a spiritual energy called pranic energy (rather than the electrical and magnetic energies of science) which equates with qi of East Asian systems of energy arts.

(It should be noted here that the idea of prana and qi existed from before humans knew what electricity was. We knew the body was animated by energy, but we had no real understanding of the world. No true science. Likewise, the idea that we breathed prana and qi — literally “life-force” which kept us alive — existed before we understood what oxygen was. This is precisely what I am talking about. Not taking the time to understand the traditions, let alone the context of those tradition, and throwing everything out together — the truth included. In this case, an animating energy that we breathed and which kept us alive was a good guess. The best theory with the limited evidence available, after all, the dead don’t breathe. Maybe they are related. Ironically, their assumption technically turns out to be correct: not prana, but electricity and oxygen.)

The aura, auric field, and human energy field on the other hand is the total energy field. While the chakras are understood to be localized sources of energy, the auric field is the energy field around that source. (Again these ideas predate real science, before we had any knowledge of electric, magnetic, and gravitational fields, which in and of itself is both incredible, and surprising. There is a reason why the great physicists who created Quantum Mechanics gravitated towards Vedic-Hindu thought.) Depending on the system, the auric field is sometimes perceived to have layers (called “bodies, light body, or subtle body”) of which there are several distinct bodies often corresponding to a specific chakra that has a distinct field around it. All of which combine with and interpenetrate one another to compose the total Human Energy Field.

Chakra Theory arises from spiritual practices, philosophies, and theological systems of reality found within Ancient Indian tradition. Specifically from Vedic traditions brought into India by the Indo-European Aryan people from the northwest probably around 4000 years ago. These traditions form the ancient scriptures called the Vedas, which developed into Hinduism. The Aryan people brought with them the seeds of knowledge that became the sophisticated traditions that today include energy anatomy, yoga, meditation, and chakras.

In the Vedic Sanskrit language, chakra means “wheel” or “disc” and are often visualized as spinning discs of light that are beyond the ability of the senses to perceive (for most people). While the word aura is not Vedic Sanskrit, but of Greek origin, they have an extensive variety of terms in use for their spiritual system. (And when I say extensive, I mean extensive.) One word for the “light body, subtle body” is the Sanskrit term suksma-sarira. However, I will continue to use aura, auric field — and my personal preference — human energy field.

Chakra Theory posits that human beings are composed of energy first and foremost — that we are, literally, light. Energy moves through and radiates from the chakras, which can be energetically blocked or distorted. Energy also flows in the nadis (meridians) throughout the body, including the shushumna nadi. The quality and intensity of the flow of energy within the field itself and within the body determines everything about us and our lives. From our emotions, relationships, choices, perception, spiritual experience, wealth, all the way to our health.

The Basic Physics of the Human Energy Field and Chakras

The scientific basis of the chakras, auric field, and human energy field is simple: they exist according to basic physics and anatomy. Human beings are electrical creatures. At our deepest physiological expression, it is electricity that makes us what we are. You can take away the function of literally anything in our body (heart, brain, lungs, muscles, sexual organs) and we can, with the intervention of medical technologies, survive. At least for a time. Take away the electricity in our body and we are literally nothing but meat and bone instantly. Everything that is anything about a human being is entwined with electricity in a way that we do not understanding (yet) as scientists.

We die when the electricity in our body dies. Yes, when the heart stops pumping, blood ceases to circulate, which means that red blood cells are not being transported around the body, which means that oxygen is not being delivered to our cells, which means that our brain cells start dying which leads to brain death, and so on and so forth.

Yet the pumping of the heart is an electrical event. Electrical signals cause the muscles of the heart to contract. Electricity is first in the order of causation. An electrical event first, passed through our nervous system, triggering an event in the muscles called a muscular contraction. We measure beats of the heart through their electricity.

It is the electricity that is important here. Electricity is electrons at its deepest level — the fundamental units of electric charge of the polarity that we arbitrarily call “negative”, simply as a contrast to its opposite charge. Surrounding each electron is a static electric field of polarity negative. When these electric fields move through the body, as they do because of the motion of charged ions in our nervous system (like sodium [Na⁺], potassium [K⁺], chloride [Cl^–], and negatively charged proteins) their motion creates magnetic fields. This is a fundamental principle of electricity:

Changing electrical fields create magnetic fields, changing magnetic fields in turn produce electric fields and can induce electric current.

What this means in practice is that around each neuron, which is charged as it is firing (but resets afterwards so that it can fire again, like a trigger) has an electromagnetic field around it. As the charges in the neuron move, this moving electric field creates a magnetic field.

Considering the EM fields around a single neuron is one thing. However, we have an estimated 86 billion neurons in the brain alone, more when we factor in the rest of our body. All firing constantly in all living creatures.

This is the physics of the Human Energy Field, Aura, and Chakras. Again, for any scientists (cautious, and thorough thinkers) who happen to be reading this, this does not prove the validity of Chakra Theory as a whole. Certainly not everything else attached to it (most of which is associated only by virtue of also being rejected by mainstream science). All it proves is the existence of the so-called “aura” and Human Energy Field. Definitively. This is literally basic physics. The chakras are more specific, but also described by the same principles of science, which we cover below.

Every human being has an energy field surrounding them, that arises from the electricity of their nervous system. Period. It literally creates an oval-shaped field around our bodies. Ovular not for some metaphysical reason, but because of the shape of our bodies. We are not square blocks or spherical blobs, but significantly taller than we are wide (in our natural, healthy state as a species) thus the natural shape of the field around us.

The Human Energy Field is the field that results from the sum of every single electromagnetic field around every single neuron in our bodies. 86–100 billion neurons, all firing. And firing in unique ways that change from person-to-person according to the baseline mood of a person, their emotional state in a given moment, by the time of day, even by what they are doing. Different parts of the brain activate differently depending on actions being performed or experiences being experienced, which changes the quality of the EM field on a moment-to-moment basis.

The Exact Correlation Between Physics, Anatomy and Chakra Theory

There is a definitive scientific basis for the human energy field. Electromagnetic fields arise from the nervous system itself. Interestingly, these same electromagnetic fields around neurons also align perfectly with (and describe precisely in scientific terms) the chakras.

In addition to minor nerve strands that run down our arms and legs, and in all directions to the periphery of the body, we also possess major nerve bundles that perform important functions. These are called nerve plexus — dense concentrations of nerves — found at locations up and down the spine. Their locations correlate with the chakras almost identically. The highest concentration of neurons is in the brain (the estimated 86 billion), the second highest is in the spinal cord, third highest in the heart, fourth highest in the solar/celiac plexus, and so on. Not surprisingly, the three highest concentrations happen to be found in the objectively most important structures of our body: brain, spinal cord, then heart.

These dense concentrations of neurons called nerve plexuses are discrete regions in the body that are the source of particularly powerful EM fields. Again, the location of the major nerve plexus correlate exactly to that of the chakras. Many of the minor nerve plexuses also either correlate to chakras, or to other energetic features within energetic anatomy of Vedic, Chinese, or other systems (meridians, nadis, acupuncture points, and so on). For example, the shushumna nadi runs up and down the spine, and is the main energy channel in the body said to connect the chakras, which correlates with the bundle of nerves of the spinal cord.

It is estimated that the brain has between 86 -100 billion neurons. (I have come across a range of estimates, and I am not sure which is more accurate. Nor do I consider it all that relevant in the greater scheme of things personally. Like counting the exact number of blades of grass or aphids in a garden.) The spinal cord has an estimated 69 million neurons. The heart has an estimated 40,000 neurons. The celiac plexus (the solar plexus nerve bundle) has roughly 25,000 neurons.

While we have neurons throughout the body, there are specific regions of the body that are of a high-density. Such as the Brain, Spinal Cord, Cardiac Plexus, Brachial Plexus, Celiac Plexus, Splenic Plexus, Sacral Plexus, Lumbar Plexus, and the Coccygeal Plexus, to name a few of those that are probably relevant. Together, these combine their EM fields to create the greater scientifically defined Human Energy Field (HEF). The major centers, correlate directly to the chakras. If we go down even further, to smaller nerve bundles, we have a network throughout our body that correspond to minor chakras and accupuncture points defined in systems of energy anatomy.

I don’t assume to know which plexus (of many more than is relevant to list here) would actually correlate most exactly to a given chakra. For example, is it the brachial plexus (a spinal plexus) that serves the chest area in general that is best associated with the heart center (anahata), or is it the cardiac plexus (an autonomic plexus) that specifically connects the heart to the nervous system. In the end the cardiac plexus connects to the spinal cord, thus to the brachial plexus anyways. But it is still might be an important question.

All that matters here is that both are dense concentrations of neurons that produce (relatively) powerful EM fields in the body, which correlate to the chest and heart region where the Heart Chakra is said to be located. To give you some idea of these correlations, here is a list of the major alignments:

• Brain — Ajna (Third Eye Chakra)
• Cervical Plexus — Vishuddha (Throat Chakra)
• Brachial/Cardiac Plexus — Anahata (Heart Chakra)
• Solar/Celiac Plexus — Manipura (Solar Plexus Chakra)
• Sacral/Splenic Plexus — Svadhisthana (Sacral Chakra)
• Spinal Cord — Sushumna Nadi

These dense concentrations of nerves within the human body correspond more-or-less exactly with one of the chakras. More importantly, the fact that they are dense concentrations of nerves means that they have particularly dense EM fields that arise from them. The closer that you get to the plexus, the stronger the EM field is.

If you were to capture an image of them, and map field density to luminous intensity (brightness in the image) they would literally look like “wheels” or “discs” of light, as their name means — but not light, electromagnetic energy. Literally bright spots at the nerve plexus which would decrease in brightness as you moved away from the actual plexus.

The Significance of the Existence of the Chakras

While these correlations do not prove the rest of the theories, tenets, and conclusions of Chakra Theory, they definitively prove the existence of chakras in a sense, and demonstrate that the scientific basis of the chakras is unquestionable. The chakras and the human energy field exists, specifically from this perspective that I have laid out here, wherein they are described specifically as electromagnetic energy.

Period.

Remember that in Vedic times, and for thousands of years afterwards until the last four centuries or so, humans had no understanding of real science. Electricity, electric fields, gravitational fields or magnetic fields were not even conceived of. It is interesting then that in this time there was some conception of energy and fields.

What is even more interesting, is that the core of this knowledge appears to be genuinely Vedic — of the oldest layer of Indo-European tradition that entered India from the area of modern Iran, Pakistan, or beyond. These ideas were expanded upon a great deal during the developmental phase of Hinduism towards the end of Ancient History, and continued into Medieval History. However, the fundamental tenets of this system are very, very ancient. Their roots appear to predate the arrival of the Aryan people into India. (This is discussed thoroughly in The Chakras — Knowledge of the Seven Sages from the chapter Advanced Knowledge Encoded In Myth and Legend.)

I cannot make this point strongly enough: there shouldn’t be this degree of correlation if chakra theory was purely imagined. Ancient healers and soldiers alike would have come across human anatomy on the battlefield. All would have been familiar with the innards of all animals which they butchered for food from time immemorial (which is an experience humans have lost today, in the majority) so they would have been familiar with anatomy on an experiential level.

They would have seen nerves and nerve bundles, veins, arteries, muscles, organs and ligaments, even while they wouldn’t have known what they did or how they worked. But to derive the concepts of energy centers, chakras, discs of light, subtle bodies, the aura, and the human energy field from this alone? The fact that there is any correlation at all between between these energy centers and the nervous system is astounding.

Whatever the case may be, the fact remains that any scientist with basic understanding of physics can tell you that there are energy fields emanating from and surrounding the body. It is ironic that most of those same scientists will also laugh at the notion of auras and chakras — since what they are really laughing at are the names themselves, and the other things that the types of people who believe in chakras tend to believe in, not the meaning of the words — when in reality they are the same.

From an objective perspective I fail to make a distinction between the nervous system, nerve plexuses and resultant EM fields and the chakra, aura, human energy field counterparts. Different names, same things. The major distinction is one perspective is biological mechanism, while the other is physics.

Does this in itself prove that chakras and the HEF are related to disease and health? No. Does it prove that they are the seats of human consciousness. No. It only proves that the scientific basis for the chakras and human energy field is definitive, in the sense that we have defined them here. It is also a fascinating historical mystery, which in my opinion has potentially deep implications.

But beyond all of this, the fact of the chakras and human energy field is significant. Fields have a powerful effect, and although they are more abstract and harder to understand, they are the most fundamental truth of reality. Moreover, modern science and technology has the power to use fields to influence biology, and we use these principles all of the time in medicine. It is practically inevitable that revolutionary knowledge exists down this line of inquiry, which at the very least, is deserving of further investigation.

It might just open the doorway to a completely new understanding of human beings, consciousness, and reality.