TL;DR: Energy appears to move through the body via channels called meridians, and centres called chakras as explained through several ancient texts. More recently, science is validating these claims.
“In every culture and in every medical tradition before ours, healing was accomplished by moving energy.” – Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Biochemist and Nobel Prize Winner. [1]
Introduction
Energy moving within the body is a concept we are all familiar with to some extent. We know what it feels like to have a burst of energy, or to feel blood rush to our muscles when we work out. There’s an intuitive sense that energy moves through us in some way.
We also have scientific verification that neurons use electricity to communicate, that our bodies extract chemical energy from food and move it around the body, and that our brain and heart create electromagnetic fields. These forms of energy are well known and confirm many of our intuitive senses.
Eastern models of how energy moves through the human body give us a unique perspective on the energy that powers us beyond nerves, blood, and metabolism. They use a system of chakras, which are 7 energy centres along the spine, and meridians, channels that convey this energy between chakras and to all areas of the body. Not only this, but they believe that this energy is universal and flows into you from the universe.
This article outlines this Eastern understanding of energy, how it moves in the body, the scientific evidence to support its existence, and how it can be practically useful.
What Is “Energy”?
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Chinese call it qi, Indians call it prana, Japanese call it ki, Ancient Egyptians called it subtle bodies, it’s known as kundalini in kundalini yoga, and the West is now starting to call it subtle energy or bioplasma, which is part of the newly identified biofield [2].
What do all of these words mean? They roughly translate to universal energy, and this energy flows within and through you, keeping you alive. The truth is, we don’t understand the exact nature of this form of energy that the body works with, but several cultures and now science supports its existence.
How Does Energy Move In The Body?
People have been trying to understand the way energy moves throughout our bodies for thousands of years, mostly in Eastern cultures. One of the most popular representations of how energy is stored and moved through the body is the chakra system combined with the meridian system (also known as the nadi system).
Dozens of past and current cultures recognize the chakra system, and it is now well known worldwide. It is generally accepted that there are seven main chakras in the body. There are other variations that use a different number, but seven is most common, so we’ll expound upon that system in this article [3].
The chakras are centres of electromagnetic – and possibly other forms – of energy in the body, and the meridians (or nadis) are energy pathways similar to our cardiovascular system that spread throughout our bodies, including between chakras.
The word chakra comes from Sanskrit, and translates to “wheel of life”, and energy is said to move through them like water spinning in a spiral fashion into a funnel [4].
You might think of chakras as software programs that run in your body. They process things like feelings and thoughts, and when they don’t get the energy they need to run properly, or they are programmed incorrectly through past experiences, our minds and bodies cease to function well.
See the 7 chakra system outline in the below image.
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Each chakra is said to correspond to different aspects of our lives [6].
- Survival (root)
- Sexuality and emotion (sacral)
- Power, will (solar plexus)
- Love, relationships (heart)
- Communication, expression (throat)
- Intuition, imagination (third eye)
- Awareness, spiritual connection (crown)
To give a specific example, sex energy is associated with the sacral chakra and can travel through other chakras and energy pathways to higher chakras allowing greater capabilities in these higher chakras. To learn more about sublimating sexual energy like this, see our article Introduction to Sexual Transmutation Part I.
Certain activities and practices like meditation and yoga are designed to facilitate energy movement between chakras to allow a more heathy flow of energy between them.
It is a common belief that chakras that are too closed or tight don’t allow proper energy to flow into that chakra and it doesn’t function as well. Some chakras may also be too loose and allow too much energy through them, not holding enough in for themselves.
According to Eastern philosophy, energy imbalance in the body is the primary cause of disease. The releasing of blockages and allowing proper energy flow may be fundamental to healing. It appears to be very common for the average person to have imbalanced chakras, but this can be worked on.
Where’s the Evidence?
A core tenant of science is only accepting the measurable and repeatable as true.
Until recently, science lacked the motivation to delve into the idea of life-energy in the body. As scientists learn more about the area, it is very interesting to observe it “catch up” to ancient knowledge and allow a deeper understanding of concepts like chakras and meridians with our observational tools and properly controlled studies.
Since science is so new to the scene, this energy in the body is still not well understood in the Western World, but some advances are outlined below.
Electromagnetic Fields
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From the above diagram, you can see the range of electromagnetic waves of different frequencies emitted by the body. Higher intensity seen on the y axis means more light is emitted in that frequency.
Humans emit the strongest EM frequency between 1012 and 1013 Hz. This is mostly in the range we know as infrared – what thermal cameras use to see people in the dark. If you put your hand close to someone’s skin, you can feel this light radiate off of them and warm your hand.
At all times, our bodies are giving off these electromagnetic frequencies. The sum of of these frequencies may make up an overall human electromagnetic field. Each person would have a similar, but different, electromagnetic field. Another type of animal like a snail or elephant would have a different field.
Do Our Bodies Use Electromagnetism?
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One proposed mechanism through which our energy field influences our bodily processes is by acting on molecules directly (as a magnetic field would act on charged particles – like the water bending experiment anyone can do at home).
Some evidence of this is that cellular function is changed in animals when exposed to electromagnetic fields, and this can cause healing or damage depending on what kind of field they are exposed to.
The fact that we emit electromagnetic fields, and that electromagnetic fields can affect how an animal’s body functions lends credit to the possibility that electromagnetic fields in the body may influence cells to behave differently, perhaps even beneficially.
Electroencephalograms
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Science has been using devices that measure aspects of the biofield in the body for over a hundred years, including the electrocardiogram and electroencephalogram for electrical heart and brain recording. There are also measuring tools like the magnetocardiogram and magnetoencephalogram for measurements of magnetic fields from the heart and brain [8].
Reiki
Reiki, a popular Japanese form of energy therapy, has become very popular recently, and has even been shown experimentally to change the patient’s magnetic field [9]. There are many anecdotal reports of Reiki greatly benefiting patients’ health. Other popular treatments that alter the biofield for medical purposes include chiropractic, acupuncture, pranic healing, and qigong.
Scientific Support For Meridians
Meridians, or nadis, line up very well with a map of our central and peripheral nervous system, which sends signals with electricity, a form of energy. In addition, researchers at Seoul National University have found evidence of the physical aspect of the meridian system, which they call the primo-vascular system. They identified this by injecting dye into acupuncture sites [10].
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Brain Waves
Although this is not a strong piece of support yet, Sanskrit texts describe four types of subtle bodies, and they seem to correlate to 4 types of brain waves found using electroencephalograms:
- Delta waves 1 – 3.5 Hz: Physical body
- Theta waves: 3.5 – 7 Hz: Emotional (or astral) body
- Alpha waves: 7 – 14 Hz: Mental body
- Beta waves: 14 – 30 Hz: Causal body
This may indicate that there are different ‘layers’ in the body that correspond to different frequencies of operation similarly to how the brain operates on different frequencies of operation depending on the task at hand.
To read further science on the human biofield, see this resource.
So How Is This Useful?
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Energy is a central part of our lives, and understanding the underlying forces that determine how this energy can move in the body gives us more power over it. This can range from using sexual transmutation to increase the “power” of higher energy centres like our intuition, or crown chakra, or to free blockages in our energy system allowing us to heal.
See our article on How To Convert Horniness Into Motivation for practical techniques on how to move energy from a sexual expression to a higher form of expression.
Summary
We have been trying to understand how energy moves in the body for thousands of years, mostly in the East. Using more scientific Western tools, we have shown evidence that theories from the East seem to be correct, and now we can start looking more deeply into how it works.
This is useful because with practice, your energy can be willfully redirected through energy pathways into higher energy centres giving more willpower, love, improved communication, intuition, and awareness – according to the 7 chakra system.
Click the button below to read the next article in our series on Sex.
References
[1] https://upliftconnect.com/science-proves-meridians-exist/
[2] https://www.humanfrequencies.com/biofield-definitions/
[3] https://upliftconnect.com/truth-about-the-chakras/
[4] https://karenkallie.com/articles/AnatomyoftheSubtleEnergySystem.pdf
[5] https://upliftconnect.com/truth-about-the-chakras/
[6] [Eastern Body Western Mind – Anodea Judith pg.11]
[7] https://www.faim.org/measurement-of-the-human-biofield-and-other-energetic-instruments
[9] https://www.faim.org/measurement-of-the-human-biofield-and-other-energetic-instruments
[10] https://upliftconnect.com/science-proves-meridians-exist/
[11] https://scottjeffrey.com/zhan-zhuang/#The_Way_of_Energy
Images
[a] https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.greenvaleshopping.com.au%2F_photos%2Fblog%2F6-yoga-poses-to-namaste-away-from.jpg&f=1&nofb=1
[b] https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi0.wp.com%2Fx-menfilms.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F08%2FMagneto-1.jpg%3Fssl%3D1&f=1&nofb=1
[c] https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FofKQKY5fYI4%2Fhqdefault.jpg&f=1&nofb=1
[8] http://media-1.web.britannica.com/eb-media/05/91405-004-DC01EF75.jpg
