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Personological models of communication do not match the
experience of people from other cultures that have a non-
personological view. The purpose of this paper is to discuss a holistic
model with which to understand and work with these people from
these other cultures. This holistic model uses the seven chakras
[see endnote 1], and discusses their role in individual, couples,
group and therapeutic communication.

Pe  
  e 

Personological models believe that there is a unique personal self

that causes and is responsible for the construction of one's personal
life destiny. This personal self establishes meaningful personal
relationships in the family-of-origin, in peer and friendship groups,
in the conjugal relationship and marital family groups, and in the
institutional settings of school, work, the armed forces, and the civic
community. These personological models predominate in nations
heir to the Judeo-Christian and Hellenic world views: the United
States, Western and Eastern Europe, and in Christianized nations of
South and Central America, Australia, New Zealand and South
Africa.

The personological models emphasize personal freedom, personal

autonomy, separation and dominion over the environment, and
individual causation and responsibility. Four models can be briefly
described:

‡ e ² Consciousness is the activity of the brain. Individual

faculties are localized in discrete neural foci, and express through the motor
organs of the voluntary skeletal muscles (movement), facial muscles and
viscera (emotion) and the larynx, tongue and jaw (speech).

‡ 
e ² The individual is a separate person who develops his unique
traits and characteristics due to an interaction with the environment. The
personality is shaped by interactions with the mother and father, with the
most significant impact during infancy and childhood; with peer and
friendship groups, adults who function as teachers and mentors, and the
intimate relationships with lover and spouse playing a significant but
secondary role. An individual must cope with the demands of the
environment and of his own organism, and through this ongoing struggle
creates a unique life history.

m
e
  ² An individual creates his life destiny out of the beliefs one
holds and the choices one makes. The goals that a human being sets, the
possibilities he believes are attainable, the way in which he conceives of
himself and his abilities determine whether a person will succeed or fail in
his life endeavor. In every moment, a human being has the ability to create
a new future, a whole new possibility by choosing a new path, by making a
new commitment.

‡ Pe   ² Each individual is a unique entity created by God to

serve Him. Each individual has free choice whether or not to follow the
moral guidelines laid down by the Creator, but at the time of death, the
individual is held accountable for the choices made in his life. The choices
made in life determine whether one will experience an infernal afterlife or a
blessed one: the choice to have an obedient and loving relationship with
God being most significant choice in determining that outcome.

 
 e 

Holistic models are found in the cultures of India and other Middle-
Eastern and Asian cultures, among African people, and among
aboriginal people throughout the world. Holistic models do not break
down human functioning into the dualities of self and other, man
and environment, man and Nature, but believe a human being is
unified with and is a part of the cosmos.

In this viewpoint, the organism is an integral unit, pervaded by a

multi-dimensional mind, and integrated by a Self which participates
in Cosmic Life, which has been called the Soul or Atman. Rather
than an individual at odds with his environment, man is a part of
Nature. Events occur in natural cycles, as a process of unfolding or
evolving that have little to do with man's choices yea or nay. Each
human life is a chain in an ongoing unfolding of events, of destiny or
karma, that determines future lives. As man's Soul evolves, he
enters the Way, in which his Soul progressively participates in the
Divine Life. Ultimately, through virtuous living and meditation, he
enters into Union with that Divine Life, resulting in freedom from the
cycle of birth and death. While man has a personality, it is seen as a
temporary, dream-like interlude in the eternal life of the Soul, and is
like a masque that one puts on to play a role, taking it off at the
time of death.

Holistic models include:

‡ 
 eeeh e  e ² Consciousness

operates simultaneously through multiple vehicles to give expression to the
life of the Soul. Different abilities arise from different strata or levels of
consciousness: each has its own distinct characteristic modes of expression
and communication. The chakra model is based on this theory.

‡   ² The conscious mental activity we are aware of is only the

surface, and arises out of a deep unconscious reservoir. In addition to the
conscious mind, there are the lower unconscious (Subconscious or personal
unconscious), middle unconscious (Metaconscious) and higher unconscious
(Superconscious) mental strata that substand the conscious mind. This
theory has been advanced in Roberto Assagioli'sPsychosynthesis (Assagioli,
1965),[see endnote 2] and has similarities to Hindu and Buddhist systems
of psychology.

‡   ee² Man is a microcosm of the Macrocosm, the universe,

and replicates the levels of the greater Cosmos within himself. In this way
man participates in union with the Divine Life, in which he is part and
parcel. As the Soul of man evolves, it comes to recognize its identity with
the Divine Life, as Divine Child, and ultimately, as a Master Soul, freed from
birth and death.

 e 
   ² Man, in the final analysis, is the Soul±±the

ineffable, unifying essence of Being, which is beyond all categories and
descriptions, and is inherently Divine. In holistic systems, the purpose of life
is the realization and expression of the Soul in human life. The apprehension
of the Soul is non-rational, non-linear, and non-empirical. It is cognized in
an experience of Realization or Gnosis. The trans-cerebral center in the
chakra model corresponds to this state of Soul Realization.

The paradox is that we function simultaneously in both individual

and collective contexts. Robert Orinstein believes this duality arises
out of dual hemispheric structure of the brain that imposes intuitive
and spatial (right hemisphere) and logical and linguistic (left
hemisphere) filters upon perception of reality and experience.
(Orinstein, 1972) Our dominant way of perceiving the world in turn
colors the way in which we communicate.

e ! 
 

Communication is an essential part of understanding human beings
and helping them make sense of their lives and resolve their
conflicts through psychotherapy. Several models of communication
have informed the development of human understanding and the
techniques and aims of psychotherapy.

In his seminal book, ë
s of the ëind, Charles Hampden-Turner

(1981) surveys six theoretical models of human communication. In
this book he views communication as the sixth of nine levels of
ever-more-comprehensive explanations of mind, experience and
reality. He states:

"At the level of communication, language and symbolic

interaction, we see mind in terms of the structures²
linguistic, visual, emotional²that are the basis of mutual
understanding. Language and communication are among the
most highly developed human faculties and the analysis of
them has revealed patterns and structures that appear to be
common to people of widely different cultures. At this level
mind is seen to be reaching out from the nucleus that
consists of the preceding five levels [e.g., morality or
principle-ruled, psychoanalytic and existential, physiological,
creative mind, and psychosocial development levels] to
extend its experience through contact with other minds."

Alfred Korzybski, one of the most important thinkers in the field of

semantics, believed language allows us to hand down information
from generation to generation. The problem with language is that it
fails to distinguish between words and the things they describe.
Hence words do not differentiate between the map and the territory.
These linguistic, "verbal-visual maps" are contexts we can share
with one another to judge differences, and are at best tentative
hypothesis about the nature of external reality. Koryzbski holds that
we can eliminate the confusion inherent in abstract language, such
as is seen in political debate, by defining the context from which we
are speaking while acknowledging the context of the listener. He
referred to this as reflexive speaking, which fosters cooperation and
better mutual understanding. The therapeutic tools of reflection and
self-disclosure are examples of reflexive speech.

There can be different contexts of communication, which Benjamin

Whorf defined as communication (verbal content or non-verbal
behavior) and meta-communication, that is words, postures or
gestures that are about other words. For example, we can
differentiate a punch given playfully from one given in an personal
assault by smiling as we hit a friend. Rudolf Carnap differentiated
the object level of language (descriptions about things) and a meta-
language level, in which we speak about language itself. The
differentiation between the 'content' of a client's speech and the
'process' of the interaction between client and therapist makes a
similar contextual distinction.

Paul Wachtel (1993) notes that a therapist must pay close attention
to the attitudinal message implied in the meta-communication when
using an interpretation in therapy. A message worded in one way
imputes blame or wrongness to the client, while phrased in a
different manner it allows a client to explore a meaning without
feeling judged by the therapist.

Noam Chomsky believed that the mind generates structures for

sentences to communicate, and that much of this learning is done
between the ages of two and five. Not only is the vocabulary
dramatically extended during this period, but more significantly, a
child learns the rules for constructing language. Chomsky argued
that the brain appears to have an innate and intuitive linguistic
competence, e.g., that the human nervous system seems hard-
wired to acquire language.

Applying Chomsky's ideas to psychotherapy, Richard Bandler and

John Grinder believe that people form a linguistic map of their
experience. This map has two parts, a deep structure that is a
complete linguistic representation of the experience, and surface
structures, which transform that deep structure in various ways, by
generalization, deletion, and distortion. The therapist's task, then, is
to use the transformed surface structures to get at the deep
structure, that tells the truth about the experience, but also to
explore the generalizations, deletions and distortions which serve to
defend against simply and clearly stating the truth about what
happened.

Language can also convey meanings greater than the sum of the
parts of a system. Buckminster Fuller first advanced the idea of
synergy. He defined it as "the behavior of whole systems
unpredicted by the sum of its parts." This is demonstrated, for
example, by the greater-than-predicted structural strength of the
geodesic dome, or by the strength of a metallic alloy that far
exceeds the strength of its component elements. In the
psychological arena, Abraham Maslow, adapted the idea of synergy
to his work with "self actualizers", who have "a rare capacity to
resolve value dichotomies". Self actualizing people are at once
spiritual and sensual, find duty to be pleasurable, and likewise
transcend other apparent opposites. The ability to find a synthesis
between the conflicts between values (shoulds) and desires (wants)
is a nearly universally-identified goal of therapy: therapeutic
language and technique seeks to facilitate the client discovering this
synthesis beyond the dialectic poles of the conflict.

Hampden-Turner, drawing from his own writings, points out that the
logic of polarizing moral structures±± good/evil, ally/enemy,
hawks/doves±±underlies the forced choices of religious
fundamentalism and political advocacy for and against war. Such
dualistic thinking lay at the bottom of the escalation of the nuclear
arms race during the Cold War. Similar polarities can be seen in the
modern pro-life and pro-choice debates about abortion. No synthesis
can be found, and the individual must make a forced choice to stand
with one side or the other; to do so is to invite the undying enmity
and animosity of advocates of the other point of view. What must
happen to heal this split, according to Hampden-Turner, is to see
the apparent dichotomy as parts of a continuum, to see the truths of
both sides. Psychotherapy clients must often come to grips with
their rebellion against the values of their parents by their congruent
personal choices, which may be viewed as wrong or disloyal by the
parents±±but to abandon those choices in deference to the parents
is to lose one's integrity. Respect arises when people can see the
truths of both sides, and allow the other to exist. When respect is
gone, dehumanization and stereotyping of the other rapidly follows,
permitting excess and atrocity to be committed against the other
who is viewed as wrong. When respect dies with continual
disappointment and betrayal, the marital relationship can become a
war zone of verbal and physical abuse.

Jacques Lacan, a modern French interpreter of Sigmund Freud,

believes that the unconscious is structured by language in an
associative network, accessible in puns and poetry, but not by logic.
He believed that culture imposes meaning on anatomical parts, such
that they take on a symbolic or metaphorical meaning. For example,
the phallus, has come to be a symbol of power and authority.
Women don't seek the phallus as completion for themselves as a
missing part or out of repressed sexual desire as Freud believes, but
instead seek the power and authority their social subordination
denies them. Language then provides a metaphor for a real need,
which is wordless: the goal of psychotherapy is to use language to
go beyond language, to tap the inner pain of the unfulfilled need.

Underlying the social communication implied by these models, other

researchers and thinkers discuss the brain's communication between
its parts: between cerebrum and sub-cortical structures. John Lilly
(1961) proposes that language is a means of programming the
subconscious mind, and that through language, aspects of
consciousness that are unconscious can be brought into awareness.
In essence, the cortex and sub-cortical structures must find a way
to talk to one another.

Simeons (1961) believed that cortical structures misinterpret the

signals from diencephelic (thalamic) structures, and mislabel them
as disease or pathological symptoms. This contributes to further
apprehension and anxiety about the body's initial flight-fight
response to the immediate event, and hence exacerbates the
immediate response to stress into chronic conditions of anxiety and
psychosomatic illness.

Erickson's work with hypnosis and his strategic therapy successors

recognized the link between language (suggestion) and the
operation of the subconscious mind. They believed that it is possible
to disinhibit the conscious mind's labeling process that contributes
to anxiety conditions by reframing communication about symptoms
and events; they similarly believed that by bypassing the cortical
inhibitory controls in the state of hypnosis, the subconscious mind
could be addressed directly. (Pelletier and Garfield, 1976)

Pelletier and Garfield (1976) further cite that hypnosis is seen as a

valuable adjunct to short-term psychotherapy, having relevance
with "anxiety and tension states, certain hysterical conversion
reaction symptoms, some obsessive-compulsive reactions, and habit
disorders like insomnia, enuresis, over-eating, nail-biting, and
smoking."

Todd Pressman (1992) suggested that the value for non-ordinary

states of consciousness as therapeutic agents lies in their ability to
reach psychological material not normally accessible, making the
awareness of this material available for integration with the
awareness of one's ordinary subjective identity.

Nathan Field (1992), from a psychodynamic perspective, believes

ways in which altered states of consciousness (ASC) can be
therapeutically effective include lowering of tension, release of bad
objects, restorative emotional experience, facilitation of the working
alliance, and enhanced creativity. This effect of ASC can be
observed in both analytic and non-analytic types of therapy
approaches.

Pelletier and Garfield (1976) further note that a variety of

approaches have been developed using imagery techniques,
relaxation, biofeedback and meditation, that induce therapeutic
altered states of consciousness in which access to subliminal and
unconscious levels of awareness are significantly and dramatically
enhanced.

Jaime Bulatao (1987), writing in the Phili

ine Journ l of

Psychology, describes indigenous and exported methods of altering
consciousness. He lists hypnosis, possession by spirits, trances,
recovering repressed material, [learning to use] the language of the
subjective mind, psychic communication, interpreting dreams,
becoming another, time expansion, healing, psychokinesis, and
meditation. These techniques may be thought of as varieties of
strategies for conscious subconscious communication.

Ken Keyes (1975) in his book, H ndbook to Higher

Consciousness, advanced a popular model of subconscious conscious
intercommunication using inner observation and suggestion. Keyes
advocated the practice of observing which chakra an individual was
momentarily operating from, and consciously choosing to operate
 from a higher chakra. For example, when one was operating from
the competitive and other-exclusive solar plexus chakra, one
directed his attention to the cooperative and other-inclusive heart
chakra. When sexual behavior (navel chakra) was inappropriate,
one could shift attention to the heart chakra and regard the other
with respect and love. Alternately, one could lift attention into the
forehead chakra, where one would view the other as a spiritual
entity, or the brain center, where the other would be viewed as a
Soul. The goal of this process of conscious monitoring and
sublimation was believed to lead to a state of Realization and
wisdom.

Such approaches have been used in Asian Yoga Therapy, and

continue to be used in therapy today. Roger Gilchrist and William
Mikulas (1993) describe the seven chakras as seven stages of
consciousness, (1) security, (2) sensation, (3) power, (4) love, (5)
creativity and receptivity, (6) integration and mindfulness, and (7)
fulfillment and enlightenment. They believe that the chakra model is
consistent with Maslow's hierarchical developmental theory of
growth and actualization, and the progression through stages
discussed by various group theorists. They believe that by skillful
facilitation, group participants can be led from the lower chakras of
clinging to security and survival, sensation-seeking and sensuality,
and competitiveness and power-struggles, to the experience of love
for others and group solidarity and support. In a few individuals, the
group dynamics sparked enhanced creativity and integration.
Gilchrist and Mikulas note, however, that rarely do groups reach the
fulfillment stage.

Chakras also are the subject of recent research by social scientists.

Stephen Gould (1993) studied affective symptoms evoked by the
content matter of television commercials and a music video, that
were linked to a specific body location. His hypothesis was based on
the Asian chakra model that posits that different types of emotional
reactions are keyed to anatomical loci. For example, sexually toned
messages would produce arousal in the navel center (sexuality) and
heart center (romantic love and fantasy). Power-cued messages
would stimulate arousal in the solar plexus center (power and
competitiveness) and forehead (will). Results of his study supported
the proposed concept that differentiation of patterns of symptoms
by individuals occurs in response to various emotion-keyed
commercials.

!h"

Whereas Western Eurocentric models of the functioning of the

nervous system are empirical, based on anatomic and
neurophysiological functioning, Eastern Asian models of the
operation of the nervous system are intuitive systems of meaning,
highly metaphorical and symbolic. Chakras are centers of psychic
integration that synthesize the distinctive and varying aspects of
human functioning into a harmonious whole, including:

(1) sensing of the world and of the inner workings of the body-mind
(2) patterns of movement and gestures

(3) characteristic emotional responses

(4) imaginal, creative and intuitive modes of thinking

(5) perceptual and contextual filters and viewing and organizing the
phenomena of the objective and subjective world

(6) the cognitive index of memory for facts, words, persons, events, and
meanings that are stratified and encoded in the subconscious reservoir of
the body-mind

(7) the operation of innate intelligence that communicates between the

organism and itself, and with the environing world

In the holistic model, all these functions work together

synergistically, analogous to musicians in an orchestra playing their
instruments in harmony to create a symphony. Each chakra, in turn,
as a center of intrapsychic organization, motivation and innate
intelligence, has specific functions to contribute to the functioning of
the whole organism.

While there are varying descriptions and purported functions of the

chakras, these varied sources agree that chakras reflect the spiritual
evolution of the individual, and that they are common structures
that reside in all human beings.

Paramahansa Yogananda (1946) describes the centers on the

cerebrospinal axis as coccyceal, sacral, lumbar, thoracic, cervical,
medullary, Christ Consciousness center (point between the
eyebrows) and Cosmic Consciousness center (brain). He sees them
as whirling wheels that circulate life force (prana) throughout the
body. By a series of meditation exercises called Kriya Yoga, he
believes it is possible to speed up the evolution of human
consciousness to obtain Cosmic Consciousness.

Dr. Ramamurthi Mishra (Swami Brahamananda) in his

book, @und ent ls of Yog (1959) identified the chakras as
neurohormonal mechanisms that can be accessed through
suggestion. In his view, the chakras are ganglionic centers that are
related to endocrine gland function, as shown in Table One.

TABLE ONE

ëishr s odel of the ch kr s



  

º

º

 
sex
Muladhara gonads/ovaries perineal
organs
legs and
Svadhisthana adrenal glands sacral
feet
 abdominal
Manipura pancreas lumbar
organs
breathing
Anahata and thymus thoracic
heartbeat
arms,
hands
Visudha thyroid cervical
and
speech
entire
Ajna (a) pituitary thalamic
body
Sahashrara entire cerebral
(b) body
pineal
cortex

a - concentration at this center results in the union of individual and Universal
Consciousness

b - concentration at this center results in identification with Cosmic Consciousness


Other sources assign a different correspondence of glands to
chakras: the adrenals are relegated to the root chakra, and the
gonads/ovaries to the navel chakra. Similarly, others place the
pineal as the gland of the forehead chakra, and give the brain
chakra, the pituitary.

A review of books at the Bodhi Tree Bookstore by different authors

from classical Yoga traditions as well as New Age venues also
reveals variant spellings for the names of the chakras, and places
them at varying anatomical locations. Some identify them with
major and sundry autonomic nervous system ganglia, e.g. prostatic,
epigastric, solar, splenic, hepatic, cardiac, the cavernous plexus in
the midbrain, hypothalamus, etc., whereas others like Dr. Mishra
locate them in the spinal cord and central nervous system [CNS].

To add to this confusion, I now offer my own model of the chakras.

In this model, the chakras have differential functions. I call them
root, navel, solar plexus, heart, throat, forehead, brain, and trans-
cerebral, that have the following generalized functions, shown in
Table Two.

TABLE TWO

 oyds gener lized odel of the ch kr s


 


 
º






Orientation to
root perineum reality, survival
of organism
 Sexuality,
three fingers
family life,
navel below navel in
gender
CNS
relations
Territoriality,
behind solar
solar plexus control,
plexus in CNS
livelihood
Caring,
behind the
heart community,
heart in CNS
cooperation
behind the
Creativity,
throat pharyngeal
communication
hollow in CNS
in the center of
the brain Intuition, inner
forehead
behind the guidance
brows
Wisdom,
entire cerebral understanding
brain
cortex of life's
meaning
above the top Gnosis,
trans-cerebral
of the head Enlightenment

A more detailed examination of the chakras reveals they have

distinct channels of activity and intercommunication. In classical
texts, chakras have been viewed as lotus flowers with varying
numbers of petals. In other versions, they are believed to be
vortices of energy with radiating spokes. However chakras are
described, descriptions are at best metaphors, and as Koryzbski
pointed out, the map is not the territory. Discovering chakras is an
subjective and experiential journey, a search for meaning, not
unlike the journey of depth psychotherapy. In Table Three I present
a detailed model of the chakras.

TABLE THREE

 oyds det iled odel of the ch kr s

AOOT CHAKAA

The first chakra has four petals. These petals correspond to Matter (body,
possessions), Energy (life, health), Space (experience of immediate environment), and
Time (personal history, memory). Concepts associated with the activity of this chakra
are balance, homeostasis, harmony, and orientation. Its purpose is to create a
foundation of reality, and to safeguard individual survival.

NAVEL CHAKAA

The second chakra has six petals. These petals correspond to Culture (preservation of
cultural rituals, learning of expected rules for social behavior, marriage and courtship
customs), Courtship (attraction of the sexes, dating and romantic behavior), Sexuality
(Coitus, lovemaking), Intimacy (bonding as a couple, honest communication,
idealization and realistic knowing of the other), Division of Labor (assigning gender and
family roles, setting limits, delegating family responsibilities), and Parenting
(disciplining, nurturing, providing the necessities of life for, teaching, modeling,
imparting values, listening and being present for one's children). Concepts associated
with the activity of this chakra are family relations, sexuality, intimate relationship, and
transmission of skills and values for living. Its purpose is parenting, the procreation,
education, and raising of children`

SOLAA PLEXUS CHAKAA

The third chakra has ten petals. These petals correspond to the executive functions of
the adult, and the skills used to earn livelihood. They may be described by verbs, to
Lead (motivate self and others, conceive goals and strategies), to Manage (direct self
and others to achieve goals), to Finance (maximize resources, to allot and procure
resources to reach goals), to Sell (persuade others to purchase or commit to a product,
service, or set of values), to Organize (coordinate resources, people, and logistics to
produce a product or deliver a service in an efficient manner), to Design (package a
product or service in a way that it is desirable by others), to Communicate (let others
know about one's intentions, needs or desires, or about one's product or service), to
Inspect (analyze, critique, insure adherence to standards of quality or to rules, policies
or laws), to Develop (to invent, build prototypes for, model, test a product or service),
and Produce (provide the support and/or physical labor required to manufacture or
fabricate a product, or to deliver a service). Concepts associated with the activity of this
chakra are Manifestation (actualizing goals), Success (achieving goals), Profit
(Aealizing financial gain), and Winning (beating competitors). Its purpose is to assure
livelihood for the family, to fulfill a role as a worker in society, and to contribute money
and labor to the larger community or society in which one lives.

HEAAT CHAKAA

The fourth chakra has twelve petals. Its functions can also be defined as verbs, to
Enrich (eradicate poverty, to provide shelter, clothing and the means for livelihood), to
Feed (to relieve hunger and thirst), to Educate (to combat illiteracy, lack of cognitive,
vocational and social skills), to Comfort (to provide safety, to assuage emotional pain,
and to reach out to the tormented), to Guide (to eliminate ignorance and confusion and
to give direction), to Teach (to disseminate spiritual concepts, to remedy ignorance
about faith, scripture and the Divine Nature), to Evangelize (to lead others to wisdom,
love, and salvation), to Heal (to remove physical infirmity and suffering), to Prophesy (to
reveal intuitive truth and moral guidelines), to Aeform (to overcome social injustice), to
Change (to counter political injustice), and to Emancipate (to attack racial, sexual, and
other types of personal injustice and to stop cruelty towards humans, animals, plants,
and the Earth). Concepts associated with the activity of this chakra are Advocacy,
Caring, Empathy, and Understanding. Its purpose is to express Compassion, to
overcome injustice, to build community and solidarity, to unify the broken tribes of
humanity, and to minister to human needs.

THAOAT CHAKAA

The fifth chakra has sixteen petals. Its functions represent the expression of the Soul's
abilities in human life, and can also be be described by active verbs: [The Emotional
Skills] to Teach (to illumine and teach spirituality), to Guide (to counsel and teach
wisdom), to Understand /Empathize (to do psychotherapy and guide an individual back
to wholeness), to Move (e.g., dancing, sports, drama, martial arts); [The Sensory Skills]
to Hear (e.g., composing and playing music), to Feel (to develop an exquisite sensitivity
to life and experience), to Smell and Taste (e.g., Perfume maker, Chef), to See (e.g.,
painting, sculpture, fabric design, interior design, contemplation of beauty); [The Mental
Skills] to Study (e.g., scholarship, discerning meaning, introspection and self-study), to
Investigate (to analyze, to reason, to obtain detailed knowledge), to Concretize (the
Scientific method of inquiry, to synthesize study and empirical data into hypothesis, to
mathematically model, to test one's truths), and to Visualize (to design and invent by
making a mental model); [The Intuitive Skills] to Imagine, (e.g., to tell stories, to express
humor, to write poetry, to write a fiction novel), to Explain (e.g., Philosophy, to write a
non-fiction novel), to Know (intuitional apprehension of reality, psychic ability), and to
Initiate (to activate higher will, to empower others). Concepts associated with the
activity of this chakra are Expression of the Soul, Exploration, Growth and Development
of Ability. Its purpose is Creativity, making the human personality a conduit for the
impulses of the higher unconscious (Superconscious), and service to others.

FOAEHEAD CHAKAA

The sixth chakra has two petals. It is active and passive, yin and yang. It brings skillful
attunement to the rhythms of life and nature, with their ebb and flow of light and dark,
day and night, Winter and Spring. Concepts associated with the activity of this chakra
are Intuition, Attunement, Inner-Direction, and Illumination. It synthesizes the urge to
activity, work and service, with the inward life of self-inquiry, insight, and meditation. Its
purpose is Inspiration, the breathing of the Soul's life and intention into the mind, the
incubation of the ideas which spawn creativity, ministry, work, and new possibilities of
relationship.

BAAIN CHAKAA

The seventh chakra has one thousand petals. It represents learning the Lessons of
Life. The individual achieves resolution of problems by overcoming them through the
struggle of experience, and through completion and fulfillment of the desire tendencies
of the mind. The opening of this chakra dissolves Karma and bestows Liberation. It
frees the mind from attachment and clinging. It brings into expression of the innate
virtue of the Soul. Its purpose is wisdom.

TAANS-CEAEBAAL CENTEA

The eighth chakra is beyond symbol and metaphor. It is the Soul's knowledge of itself,
transcendent to the mind and personality. It is Being untrammeled by mind, by the
tenuous spider webs of belief, by the dancing images of thought. Concepts associated
with the activity of this chakra are Existence, Consciousness, Bliss, and Eternality. Its
purpose is Gnosis, Aealization, and Enlightenment.


People do not experience the chakras in the same way, hence there
are varying descriptions of them. My own map reflects my cultural
bias as an American, and does not necessarily reflect the experience
of a person from another culture, whose cognitive maps and world
view are different than my own.

Because chakras are structures at a deeper level of the mind that

the level that we experience in waking awareness (Conscious mind),
they are not a part of many people's experience at all. Some
individuals may either consider the inner life as unworthy of
examination, or are simply too busy to journey inward. What does
seem to be agreed upon by those who have investigated them are
the following:

(1) They are in some way correlated with the activity of the nervous system
and the glands.

(2) How they are perceived is a reflection of the spiritual evolution of the
individual, and hence are perceived in multiple forms.

(3) They are intrapsychic organizing structures.

(4) They are centers of intuition, that are non-logical or prelogical (Maupin,
1969).

(5) They are archetypal, mythic or metaphorical, not anatomical forms

(Maupin, 1969).

(6) They may exist in states of full activity, partial activity, or be dormant.

(7) States of partial activity or dormancy are characterized by states of

blockage in the channels of the chakras. These blockages may have direct
psychophysiological analogues in the form of chronic muscle tension or
armoring; unexplained pain, inflammation, or swelling of tissues;
psychological conversion reactions; chronic anxiety; depression due to low
levels of available energy; and other forms of psychosomatic conditions
such as headaches (Lowen, 1967, 1975).

(8) They are experienced in altered states of awareness such as dreaming,

hypnosis or meditation, as well as under the influence of hallucinogenic
drugs. (Pelletier and Garfield, 1976; Maupin, 1969).

!h" ! 
 

Chakras, as organizing principles in the subconscious mind present
in each individual, may provide a common ground to understand
communication between two people, within groups, and in the
psychotherapeutic relationship. Like the nervous and
neuroendocrine systems that are their substrate, chakras are
organizing structures for the mind that respond to the demands of
the environment and the body. To understand how chakras are
involved in communication, I propose two principles to understand
their activity: resonating and mirroring.

Through body language, posture, speech, and movements of facial

musculature, one person communicates an idea to another.
Something about the what the person feels about the idea, what the
idea means to him, how important it is, whether it is an object of
desire or indifference±±all this has also been communicated. How?

When the message is received through the sense organs, it is

passed to the brain, where it is analyzed for its multiple
components; translated into information, where it is acted upon by
the rational, intuitive and executive structures of the mind.

The message is first reson ted with one's own experience, and the
message that was communicated is reconstructed in the receiver's
mind, with an attempt to understand and make sense of the
communication.

The other's experience is then irrored within, and one begins to

construct a cognitive picture or map of the other's life and
experience. As the other is experienced in different situations over
longer periods of time, this cognitive map is revised continually to
reflect new knowledge of the other.

Where chakras fit into this model is, for example, when a woman's
body language tells me that she is sexually aroused by me, the
chakra "petal" corresponding to sexual arousal in her is activated
and resonates its signal through her total body's communication.
When I receive her message, I mirror her experience, and my own
corresponding "petal" is resonated. Whether I choose to respond
with behavior that accepts her communication, and my night is
plunged into passionate lovemaking, or have other more important
priorities and must politely defer, I have received her
communication by internally mirroring it and resonating her
communication with my own experience.

If I were totally sexually naive, her communication may be

incomprehensible to me. I may also not respond if the channel of
this petal were blocked, whereby my experience of my own sexual
response would be repressed or otherwise relegated to the
unconscious, e.g., out of my conscious awareness.

The chakra model further proposes that chakras represent a

collective, archetypal, shared experience of life, present in people in
some form in all times, in all cultures, as a kind of universal
sounding board for experience. Whether the chakras may be
experienced by individuals of different cultures as concentric
geometric patterns (e.g., yantras or mandalas); as hierarchies of
symbols (e.g., the tree of life of the Qabalists or the sacred syllables
of the Tibetan Buddhists), supernatural beings (e.g., seven angels
before the throne of God, seven gods or deities on the path to Shiva
), planets (e.g., the seven sacred planets of the Medieval
Europeans) or sacred animals (e.g., the totem of the Native
Americans); or as colored lights or whirling wheels of light and fire,
they represent a common bridge to the cosmological universe
another experiences. If I can resonate with another's experience so
that I can construct it with in my own mind, and mirror it, so I can
form a picture of their experience, I can understand that person.

!h" e 
 h 

The chakra model would describe one's family life as the activity of
the navel chakra. One's work would reflect the activity of the solar
plexus chakra. What one does at church, temple or synagogue, and
secondarily in the community as a result of what one has learned in
these institutions, the activity of the heart chakra. Special
giftedness, a sense of vocation or "calling," genius, or extraordinary
talent in a particular area of human endeavor would suggest in this
model that one or more petals in the throat chakra would aroused
into full activity; lesser levels of talent would indicate partial activity.
Wild, speculative, over-length and visionary research papers such as
this one hastily put together over a feverish night may point to the
stimulation of the forehead chakra, the chakra of Inspiration.

Through the phenomena of resonating and mirroring, family

members, work groups, social, political and religious groups
communicate their needs, expectations and requirements to their
members, neighbors, customers and to the larger society. As
members of these groups agree as to which levels of communication
are acceptable domains of expression for their endeavor, they tend
to restrict communication to certain channels. For example, sexual
communication is excluded from the dinner table (Navel Chakra,
family Values), labeled as sexual harassment and prohibited at the
workplace (emphasizes solar plexus chakra activities), and viewed
as sinful or morally degenerate at church (emphasizes heart chakra
activities).

It is perfectly acceptable in the bedroom (Navel Chakra,

Lovemaking). It is also condoned by the social scientist studying
human sexuality (Throat Chakra, Concretizing function). The writer,
who is composing a steamy novel full of highly marketable sex and
violence, actively invites in this material (Throat Chakra, Imagining
function). It is sensitively explored by the psychotherapist who is
treating a sexual dysfunction or helping a client recover from a
history of sexual abuse (Throat Chakra, Understanding/Empathy
function, and others as described below).

!h" Ph
he

Extending our metaphor of the chakras to the therapeutic

relationship, we can view the therapist resonating and mirroring the
client's experience through the sounding board of his own chakras.

The therapist must keep a firm grip upon his own reality, being
present, oriented, grounded (Root chakra): this sets the tone for the
therapy session as a place of being real, genuine, a setting where
the client can take off the mask and be him or herself.

The therapist may also act as a kind of surrogate parent (Navel

chakra, Values petal) for the client. This allows the client to work
through his or her issues with parents and siblings. It helps the
client discover and think through in a place of safety a set of
congruent values. It lets the client role play and dialogue with
imagined or actual persons with whom he or she is having a
significant current relationship, or with whom he or she had a past
relationship in which there are unresolved issues. The therapeutic
relationship can be a place of re-parenting, where the therapist
offers discipline, non-sexual nurturing, teaching, modeling, assisting
the client to discover authentic values, supportive listening and
being present. The therapist may also need to be sensitive to the
client's cultural traditions that are different than his own (Navel
Chakra, Culture petal).

The therapist must also set limits and expectations for payment
(Solar Plexus Chakra, Finance petal); set appropriate and firm limits
for what is and what is not acceptable in the therapeutic relationship
and to communicate directly, honestly and assertively with the client
(Solar Plexus Chakra, Communicate petal). The therapist must also
be a business propretor. He must function as a leader for his office
staff. He must manage the day-to-day responsibilities that arise in
the office and in his personal life, He must actively marketing him
self to attract new client. He must be highly organized to do the
work of a therapist in an efficient manner. (Solar Plexus Chakra,
Lead, Manage, Sell, and Organize petals). He may also design new
ways to do therapy, adding workshops or groups (Solar Plexus
Chakra, Develop petal) or may act as a supervisor for new
therapists-in-training (Solar Plexus Chakra, Inspect petal, with
contributions from Navel, Heart and Throat Chakras as required to
instill correct understanding and methodology). Finally, he may be
required to sit down and do paperwork, help type or input, or assist
with tax preparation when tasks cannot be delegated (Solar Plexus
Chakra, Produce petal).

The therapist keeps his heart chakra open (activation of the

Educate, Comfort, and Guide petals) to regard the client as a unique
and valued person, embracing the stance of advocating, caring for,
empathizing with and understanding the client. In client-centered
therapy, this is called unconditional positive regard (Rogers, 1961);
we refer to this open hearted attitude in this model as Compassion.

As the therapist gains insight into self, and develops the creative
modalities of the throat chakra to facilitate the client's change and
recovery (Throat Chakra, primary activation of Guide,
Empathize/Understand, and Feel petals), he or she becomes a
catalyst for change. Some therapists may also incorporate other
aspects of their creativity, including, for example, Imagine through
story-telling; Initiate, by permission-giving and empowerment; See,
when using Art Therapy; Move, as is utilized in Dance Therapy; and
Teach, facilitating growth with guided meditations and imagery
work.

As the therapist listens to the client, trying to make sense of the

client's experience, by resonating with the client and mirroring it
within, he may also experience moments of Inspiration. These
intuitive flashes from the forehead chakra give the therapist sudden
insight into what is going on with the client at that moment. He
would also rely upon this intuition as to when to be active and
directive in therapy, and when to be passive, and allow the client to
lead.

The therapist must also rely upon his own lived-through, deeply
experienced, wisdom about the resolution of issues (Brain chakra).
This allows the therapist to share the experiential set of the client,
as he or she is working through that issue. For example, therapists
who have worked through and recovered from their own struggles
with substance abuse, child sexual abuse, eating disorders, and
other addictions may be able to empathize powerfully with the client
with similar problems. They have a special sensitivity for the issue,
and may able to capture the client's experiential set better than a
therapist who has only read about these issues in books.

We might also suggest that a Transpersonal Psychologist or Yoga

Therapist could perhaps mirror the goal of Wholeness or Spiritual
Psychosynthesis, through the Trans-Cerebral Chakra.

All of this leads me to believe that psychotherapists seek to engage

in a profession that involves their whole self, the creative
intelligence of all of their chakras. They would probably feel stultified
if they had to sit behind a desk doing phone sales (Solar Plexus
Chakra, Sales, Organize, Communicate and Produce petals) or work
as a secretary (Solar Plexus Chakra, Organize, Communicate and
Produce petals). They sense a much greater potential for
themselves, and seek to promote this in others (is Heart Chakra,
Evangelize, at work here?).

The chakra model, however, despite its explanatory value for

communication between people, groups and in the therapeutic
relationship, does have some weaknesses.

P e#
h
he!h" e 

One of the problems with this model is that it does not seem to
adequately account for negative emotions such as anger, pain,
sadness, grief, disgust, revulsion, and so on. It appears to be a
cognitive model that describes the functioning of the parts of the
personality that are working, delegating non-functioning or
frustrated drives to proposed blockages in the chakras. Other than
the anecdotal experiences of massage therapists and "body
workers" from different disciplines, and the work of psychiatrist
Alexander Lowen²who incorporate body work into their clinical
practice and who claim to have located these blockages²not every
one believes in chakras. There is no consensus in the therapeutic
community that chakras indeed exist, or if they exist, they have any
special relevance or are necessary to promote the client's recovery.

The second flaw in this theory is that it uses the sorting box
analogy. The sorting box in a mailroom is where the clerks put the
incoming mail, placing it into different mail bins for the different
departments. There may be combinations of personality factors that
don't fit into the chakra model as it is currently designed. For
example, what petals are involved in the skills for a doctor, a
lawyer, an aerospace engineer, a microbiologist, a farmer, a woman
in India who hand paints and weaves saris? Does the nervous
system create different boxes to sort the mail depending on the
cultural and experiential context of the individual?

The third issue is that the chakras as described here may fit the
experience of a lower-middle class Anglo male who is a child of the
sixties, but do they generalize to other cultures or other social
groups? Would these analogies apply to an Eskimo, a South
American native tribesman from the Amazon? Would they apply to a
cultured German baron or English aristocrat? Would they apply to
people from people of the generations of the twenties, thirties and
forties, or to people from the generations of the seventies and
eighties?

Finally, the chakra model imposes a metaphorical shell on the

functioning of the neurohormonal system, analogous to the way
WindowsŒ places a graphic user interface over the MS-DOSŒ
command system. Not everyone may choose the rose-colored
glasses of myth and metaphor, instead of the hard-won empirical
evidence of observable behavior and neuroanatomical and
biochemical studies. There may also be those that think that anyone
who believes in chakras is frankly delusional, and needs a shot of
Thorazine STAT.

!    

e
 
heeeh

 Clearly, the chakra model is a metaphor for the functioning of the
nervous system, an alternate construct for personality activity, and
another explanation for what takes place in the act of
communication. Since not everyone experiences a personal self, the
chakra model may pose some value in communicating with those
who live in holistic world-views.

More study is needed to determine

(1) what role blockages have, if any, in human emotionality, and to isolate
their psychophysiological origins.

(2) How the nervous system constructs its "sorting boxes", and how
different people label the functioning of their chakras.

(3) How can the construct be generalized to other cultures. For example,
where do people use chakra-like models to define their world, and for what
types of people is it applicable to use in psychotherapy?

These and other questions must be resolved before we can better

understand and appropriately use this transplant from Asian Indian
mysticism, and before we know if it belongs in our psychotherapy
offices...or better fits in our psych wards.


$%$&'

^. The word chakra comes from the Sanskrit language, and means
wheel. They refer to discrete centers of neurophysiological
integration, that are believed to channel life energy, emotions,
memory, thought and volition in specific patterns based on the
inherent organizing activity of the particular chakra. Classical Yoga
philosophy refer to seven such chakras: Muladhara (root of spine),
Svadhisthana (navel), Manipura (solar plexus), Anahata (heart),
Visudha (throat), Ajna (forehead, e.g., the point between the
eyebrows) and Sahashrara (the cerebral cortex). Additionally, a
transcerebral center is described in these teachings, six inches to
three feet above the top of the head, referred to as the
Brahmanandhara; in some traditions it is believed to reside as a
spark within the heart, referred to as the Hridaya center. It represents
the state of Enlightenment.

2. Aoberto Assagioli, in his book, P   
spoke about four

stages of therapeutic growth. (^) Integrating the lower unconscious
(working through issues from one's personal history that remain
unresolved). (2) Working with the middle unconscious (unifying the
many aspects of the personality, which Assagioli referred to as "sub-
personalities"). (3) Entering the higher unconscious (incorporating
archetypal or collective material into the personality, resulting in
enhanced creativity and altruism). This culminates in (4) Spiritual
Psychosynthesis, in which the personality is integrated with the Soul,
or Transpersonal Self.
 
m(m&)Pm!$!

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 New York: Viking Press, ^
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