What Is Your Power Chakra? Options

We all have at least one chakra that is more easily opened than others and can draw a great deal of energy quite quickly from it. In my case, my solar plexus, brow, and crown chakras are all like this, but my brow chakra takes the lead a little in how quickly it opens. It opens in seconds when I think about that spot and it is highly pleasurable once open (it's like a high and I'm almost laughing it feels so good). The effects stretch from my brow to almost my temples, and from above my hairline down to the bridge and sides of my nose, almost like a cross.

So what's your power chakra and what effects does it have on you once active?

Ajna is my most active center, and always has been since I was a kid, although then I didn't know it was a chakra. For me I sort of consider it a literal third eye, and opening it has become a motion very much like opening an eye. I forget exactly when I developed that particular action, but it was many years ago now. I developed it for that purpose, though, and it used to be just an imaginary feeling, just visualizing an eye there that would open sideways (like an eye tilted 90 degrees). Now it's just like opening an eye. The sensation is no longer extreme, maybe because i'm used to it, but it used to itch a lot around the time I first started working with it. I can open it and look around with it clairvoyantly, which has been getting sharper pretty slowly, although I have a few recently developed and acquired techniques to hopefully speed that process up. So far I can find small misplaced items, and check on how far away the train is. Yay for practical application.

Second to that is my solar plexus chakra, which I still maintain is not a chakra proper, but lately i've come to think that it's just very large - some systems talk about a navel chakra, some about the solar plexus, some include both and don't acknowledge the crown as a chakra. IN chinese mysticism as well as japanese, the navel center is call the dan tien/hara respectively, for instance, and is considered a resevoir that the rest of the energy system draws on. But, I think the solar plexus center covers the lower abdomen from the bottom of the rib cage to the navel, as the sensations when working with either are very similar. That one I open the same way as Ajna, but not as an 'eye'. I do it like one of the astral projection tutorials I read suggests - as though one were 'opening a loaf of bread'; except that now its just an opening action, doesn't involve the visualization of reaching in and prying open anymore.

I utilize the ajna center just like an eye, which sees subtle light instead of regular light. THe solar plexus center I utilize with a kind of extra limb or set of limbs like tentacles. I got that idea from Castaneda's don juan books.

I'm pretty proficient with most all of them to some degree, though I utilize the lower chakras less than the higher ones in terms of regular application. The crown I only ever utilize during ascension meditation, the heart I utilize during healing sessions, the throat only recently has seen action in practical application for experiments in communication in the astral and telepathy with friends. The bottom two I use instinctively during massage sessions, other than that they only get worked on during energy circulation or just before astral projection when I charge them all.

peace

How did you get your third eye that developed?? Any advice/references/book reccomendations for me to do the same?

I have found that any action you want to master with your chakras, or energy in general, just takes constant attention, practice, and a strong intention to develop. I have always had an interest in my energy system since I was about six or seven years old, although I didn't know that's what it was at the time. I just knew that I could cause certain sensations, and I was curious about them. So I did them a lot, and eventually it just unfolded on it's own, really.

Later on, when I was in my preteens (time kind of lumps together for me in the past, so my chronology is hard to determine exactly) but in any case, around the time I was in middle school, I got into wicca, which gave me some context to put those sensations into, and that furthered it a bit at the time. Then when I was in high school I met a more experienced person, my first real teacher, who told me about the basics of opening and charging chakras. I actually messed myself up playing around with them for a while, and there was some resulting turbulence in life for a while, but I evened it all out around sixteen, then when I was seventeen I got my first reiki attunement, and that involved some training with practical internal energy work. Throughout all of that I studied qi gong and a lot of yoga philosophy on chakras and the energy system, and of course all throughout I had been practicing magick, and I've always had at least one spirit guide since I was six (sometimes more, sometimes less as their individual purposes are fulfilled and new ones arise). Then I got into evocation and started questioning spirits about other things. So it's hard to say exactly which practices did what, honestly.

But, I have and will always maintain that you can either develop totally on your own just by 'playing around' with sensations and you'll eventually stumble upon something interesting. Alternately, you can gather up all the theory you can, and then start trying to apply it. I know now, of course, that it's preferable to develop all your chakras at once, or to start from the bottom and work up - root to crown - and if you have the right intention, again it'll develop on it's own. The thing that holds most people back is, in my opinion, a passive approach to development. I know a lot of people who know what the chakras do, and know how to do those things, but don't practice often enough to make good progress in a short time. I think if you spend maybe between two to four weeks practicing opening and charging, and then utilizing, each chakra, they'll be developed enough that you can keep them in balance as you focus on the ones that you're most proficient with. Figuring out how to actually apply their inherent functions takes experimentation and observation.

Most importantly it takes time, patience, commitment, and constant observation. So when you ask how I got it that developed... I think the first time I sensed an odd sensation in my forehead, I was nine, I was in fourth grade. So, I started early, but only in the last year or so have I developed pretty acute, if somewhat specific, clairvoyancy. And it only took a little over a decade. I think that with more information, and a stricter regiment of practice like what I have now, I could have cut it in half, but, hindesight is 20/20.

One thing you might try, that I do believe helped me along quite a bit when I started doing it, is to understand the chakras in relation to the entire universe. They aren't just specific to individual beings, they are, in my opinion and so far experience, simply the localized context points that make up our total context in a greater field of energy - in other words, your root chakra is a particular context within a universal sea of energy that is the same energy as the root chakra, and so for the other ones as well.

Taking that into account, get to know the feeling of that chakra by contemplating it, feeling it, and trying to sense it with all of your senses - what sort of image, sound, taste, smell, and texture does it have? What kind of emotional sensation do you get from it? What kind of indescribable feeling does it evoke? Then, imagine that energy surrounding you, as though you were immersed in a sea of that particular energy. Then, breath in, and imagine that the sea of energy (we'll say "Root Energy" for the root chakra as an example here) flowing into your root chakra as though it were an empty vessel. Seven breaths per set, one set per chakra. This tends to open them naturally, but you can use any other method to open the prior to that. I adapted this from Bardon's initiation into hermetics in his description of acquiring elemental energies. Loading the entire body with the four elements in order to balance everything out will balance the chakras naturally, but will not specifically awaken and develop individual centers. So, I took the same practical technique and expanded the variables available from the four elements to the seven archetypal energies of the chakras. You can imagine the 'fluid' of each chakra as being the color of that chakra - so you'd imagine yourself immersed in a universe of red fluid energy, which you must 'visualize' as it were, as having the same qualities as your root chakra. When you have made seven breaths and charged each of the seven chakras (49 breaths total) you should meditate for a few minutes, and feel the energy in your system, no thoughts, just observation. Then, I would recommend breathing in elemental water energy and 'washing' yourself out from the crown to the root, allowing the water energy to pass down your feet and into the ground, carrying the excess energy with it.

I've found that this makes each chakra somewhat brighter, and so far the lower chakras with I have not spent time studying experientially much in comparison to the higher once, have become easier to feel and work with since I begain this particular practice, around three months ago or so. I have used other methods to awaken them in the past, and they did work marginally well, from creating a ball of pranic light and sinking it into the chakras, to simply manually 'tuning up' the vibration of each one off of my own reserves of energy (which is somewhat tiresome). I have concluded in my own experience, that this newer method is more effective and connects the chakras more to the plane of energy that they operate on - creating an overall greater connection between my context and the universe.

But, in the end, if you dedicate lots of time and creativity to it - keep in mind that I spent at least six to eight hours a day doing some form of energy/astral/magickal work, due to my inordinate amount of free time - then you will inevitably reach breakthroughs in their proper time. You just have to want it, and work at it.

But be sure to balance the rest of your life out, especially at your age (granted i'm not that much older than you, but I was on my own at 15 owing to the previously referenced turbulence), because focusing on the quick and hard path to development will probably mean social and professional sacrifice. I have put so much of my time into metaphysical exploration, spiritual and psychic development, magickal practice, etc., that now I'm a full blown adult and I have virtually no social life, haven't had a date in six months now - and the last several were far between and never went anywhere - and have mostly given up even thinking about a relationship. I have three close friends that I live with, by virtue of the fact that we've known eachother since I was sixteen. I dropped out of high school for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the desire to dedicate more time to said development paths, and then dodged college and finagled a career that basically amounts to very ethical hustling. We do grow old, and while psychic/spiritual development is wonderful in its own right, you're only young for so long, and the sad truth is that living the world gets harder as you get older. I'm now making up for lost time trying to get a worthwhile degree before it's too late and my friends marry off or whatever, and I'm left still hustling at 30.

Time, patience, dedication, intention, creativity, etc.... as long as it's all there, you're in the right direction almost no matter what. Nothing wrong with taking your time about it. If you think about it, why are you even doing it in the first place? That development is the only thing you'll take with you when the body gives out. You've got until then to make it happen, and it's probably a long way off. In the meantime there are responsibilities to attend to, unless you decide to take up the monastic path.

blah, didn't originally intend to start a rant on that kind of thing, but, I get a lot of 'words' now and then about my apparently 'quick' development - when really, I just started early and focused on it to the exclusion of all else, and if I had it to do again, while I harbor no real regrets, I would have sacrificed that 'quick' development for, say, a relationship, a degree, a career, etc, and stretched it out till I was maybe thirty. I have seriously called in to work several times to meditate and play with a new technique. Irresponsible. hindsight - 20/20.

I've also been up like forty hours or so, and am almost delirious with sleep dep. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/q20.gif)

peace

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/greedy.gif) Thanks for the chakra-opening tips. I have no social life (at all) due to location restrictions at the moment. Furthermore, I have a LOT of free time on my hands (roughly 10 hours a day with little or nothing to do). Once I move, however, this will change and I'll balance my social and mystical lives accordingly. In your case, why not dedicate, say, 4 hours of your day to mystical pursuits and the rest of your day to social pursuits (minus job time of course)?

The perfect time for me to get into magick would have been when I was 11. That time would have been spot-on. It had been about a year after I rejected a majority of the hypocritical Bible-thumping, hellfire-and-brimstone, Dark Ages teachings that my mother force fed me. Instead, I became near-atheistic and this set me back almost a decade. Hindsight's 20/20 and I'm making up for lost time.

It was nearly a tie between my solar plexus and third eye, but my third has this shutting down issue and its always on the fritz.

Greetings!
This is going to sound stuffy and preachy but...
According to most all the teachings I've ever come across, it is the Solar Plexus chakra that powers the system. period. That is where the main vital energy of prana flows (yes, I know but the nose isn't a chakra) activating the triple heater and onward. If you are having/experiencing a psychic attack, cover your solar plexus! In astral projection this is where the silver cord emanates. In cases of psychic dominence, aim for the solar plexus! Ever feel like you've been punched in the gut? You've just taken a hit in the solar plexus. OK, I'll shut up now...but a little digging around will reveal the veracity of this post. Good luck!

WHile I agree the solar plexus is the power house of the body and its energy spheres, its not necessarily where we draw the most energy from. I tend to draw lots of energy through my throat, 3rd eye, crown and sacral chakras. In other words I talk alot, I'm mystical, philosophical/intellectual on a deep level and I have lots of sexual energy.

I think people tend to channel energy through various places based on their personalities and experiences. If you're more intellectual then you probably draw a lot from your third eye and crown. More physical then your heart, solar plexus or sacrum. Talkers draw through there throat. And if you're an intellectual health nut with strong mystical beliefs and sex life, then you're energy centers are probably pretty well balanced.

I disagree. You may draw power to those spots/chakras but it is ultimately from your solar plexus. The solar plexus is the processing center for energy, the other chakras are able to 'pull' energy from the solar plexus. There are many lesser chakras in the human system and they all will draw or exude energy to some degree. There has been many discussions (on this Forum) about the peculiarities of 'missing' chakras in a 'vampire' for instance, to be later discovered that this is/was untrue. Activity level in other chakras does not imply that the chakra in question is the main power source of the body. But, without actually showing you, I can't convince you. I hope that you will take the time to pursue the texts on the subject. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/i_triangle.gif)

I think that the nature of the solar plexus requires a bit of a deeper explanation to understand why it's considered the power chakra.

There are different kinds of energies for different purposes. The solar plexus chakra draws in what you might call the 'energy of action' - the essential energy that galvanizes action of all kinds. Thought, metabolism, movement, creative expression, communication, etc. When you take that 'energy of action' and combine it with, for instance, the 'energy of communication' then you get communicating action. Because every kind of thing we do is a kind of action - except of course the distinct not-doing of action - every action you take requires the energy of the solar plexus chakra. That makes it, naturally, the most active chakra in most individuals.

When the root chakra is a low vibration, we will be insecure, constantly worried about losing what we have, worrying that we don't have enough to be 'safe' as we see it, and will feel generally lacking in the essential necessities of life, along with feeling disconnected from the world around us and alone, cut off. But, if the solar plexus is of a moderately high vibration in compensation, then if we are making positive changes we will have the energy and the motivation (the presence of excess energy induces motivation to expend that energy somehow, unless we willfully remove the energy through the 'exhaust' so to speak) to raise the vibration of the root chakra, either by getting what we feel we lack (can often become a negative action, i.e., avarice, materialism, etc), or by consciously adjusting the vibration of the root center. Either way it requires the energy of action, which the solar plexus gives us.

The energy centers of the body all draw from the same universal sea of energy. The draw in this undifferentiated energy from the universe, and then as that energy descends from the 'top' of the chakra into it's root within the center of the being, it is adjusted to the vibration of that chakra's function. Most problems with chakras involve a dysfunction of some kind which causes that energy to be adjusted wrongly. When it influences the energy system then, it doesn't do so the way it is supposed to.

A dysfunction in the solar plexus center will cause generally lack of energy, lethargic attitude and activity, one will be unimaginative, not inclined to seek out spiritual truth, unwilling to utilize material assets, complacent with their current situation, unwilling to communicate and not entirely sure what they are feeling or thinking in any case, and will not tend to engage psychic abilities. A lot of sexual dysfunctions actually find their root in the dysfunction of the solar plexus rather than the two centers below it because of this.

I have seen systems of organization of the chakra systems that actually do not consider the solar plexus center a chakra. I have after much observation in my clients during healing sessions decided that it is in fact a chakra - it looks like one, acts like one, and can be healed and dealt with like one, so no reason to call it anything else.

All of the energies of the chakras mix like that though, it isn't just the solar plexus center. To think about your security requires the energy of your root and third eye centers. To think about that with your feelings as well requires your heart center's energetic input. To contemplate the spiritual nature of sex requires the energies of the crown and sexual centers, as well as the heart as a mediator. Any of those actions require the energy of the solar plexus chakra.

The exception to that besides not-doing engagements, are meditations in which one immerses themselves in the energy of specific energy centers or combinations of them.

Solar plexus energy by itself is only really good for mindless physical labor. It is rare to engage the energy of only one chakra at a time, however. While you can consider the solar plexus chakra your 'power chakra' as in, the one you are most familiar with and can draw the most energy through in the shortest time, the other chakras are typically considered more 'utilitarian' because we rarely consider the fact that we use the solar plexus chakra in order to engage those energies.

When it comes to drawing energy into oneself, all of the chakras do this. But because all action requires the engagement of the solar plexus center, it does indeed naturally draw in the most energy, and we have more of that energy present in our body at any given time. Before I said - either on this thread or another - that 'storing' energy in any center except the solar plexus was a bad idea, and that is why - because we maintain those various energies at different levels, and our bodies (physical and energetic) are accustomed to storing more energy in the solar plexus center than any other center, which is simply to say we have more of that energy in us at any given time, on average, than energy from any other center. To store or pull in energy through any other center puts the energy system out of balance, and that energy must typically be utilized immediately or shortly thereafter, or it will cause an imbalance. Using an energy center consciously on a regular basis will allow you to hold more energy for longer amounts of time without causing an imbalance. Except in the case of kundalini awakening, of course, because then those energy centers are regulated by a higher consciousness and imbalances are less likely and more manageable.

So it seems that everyone is partially right to some degree. The truth is, however, the energy system is very complex and we are almost never utilizing any part of it to maximum effect, either through lack of awareness of that potential, or ignorance of the ability to engage it.

peace

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/ac42.gif)

It seems that I will reread my source material.
Nicely articulated! I still have lingering arguments but... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/giveup.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/ac42.gif)

It seems that I will reread my source material.
Nicely articulated! I still have lingering arguments but... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/giveup.gif)

By all means, I always love to hear either opposing or expanding perspectives.

I have read tons of material on chakras, starting with new agey books on them, and eventually getting into the original sources, the vedic texts on the matter. The problem I had with those texts when I got to them, was that they don't speak plainly. They were intended to be read and interpreted by spiritual masters instructing their students. I wouldn't say that I didn't get anything from reading them, but I was left with a general rather vague theory of the energy centers. For instance, all nadis are said to radiate from the heart center. This suggests that the heart center is actually the 'power house' which transfers energy to the entire body. No where in the vedas are the chakras explained in relationship to one another in their interactions to produce changes or states of mind in the body - they are dealt with individually, as though they operate only individually.

Far be it for me to criticize the ancient illumined who first recorded their observations of the chakras and the energy bodies - but they either didn't write everything down, or it has been paraphrased so many times over the ages that the subtlties and specifics have been misplaced.

It gets even more confusing when the chakras are viewed from a higher dimensional perspective, beyond the physical body. We imagine them and even experience them as correlating to particular areas of the body, but from a different perspective outside of that physical shell, they are all extensions of a single point, like a sphere with cones pointing into it - on a higher level still, it's a single sphere, with various layers, in another perspective it's a single line that vibrates at different rates along the length of it. And these descriptions, without the vision behind them to illuminate them, would make no sense at all if I read them without that experience.

And I think that's how it is with the original texts. Everything is described in symbolism - the petals and seed sounds of the chakras represent their various qualities and the energies they process. Their color describes the 'tones' that they process, the images of the deities describe the various divine qualities that they give us access to, and so on, but nothing is described directly as it is, because it can't be.

I work as a massage therapist primarily, but a part of that in my private practice involves energy work for healing - it has always been my forte in the mystical artes, and while it came naturally to me, I have had a lot of training from teachers, non-physical entities of varying descriptions, and of course, good old fashion 'poke around till you get it'. I experiment a lot with my clients - never in a way that will harm them, and I set everything right before they leave! - on myself, on my willing but likely uninformed friends, and with my fellow students under my previous teachers. There is no better teacher than experience. If you 'plug' one chakra or another, it will cause an immediate response astrally, and that will cause a reliable, predictable set of responses in the rest of the bodies, first mental, then emotional, and if it gets that far, on the etheric and physical bodies. If you push it, you can cause reactions in the physical body as well.

All this just to say, I would agree that the various very old sources of material on the energy system are comprehensive in their way, and are excellent to understand the spiritual nature of that system, and to describe to us an existence that is not merely physical. However, a lot is left unsaid, personal experiences are not a part of those texts, and not in any language that the western psyche understands as practical material. A lot of books have been written since then, but one has to agree that almost all of them were written with a particular purpose in mind, and describe only a fraction still, of the entire field of knowledge that is available to the willing and able student.

I am always more than willing to hear and research other points of view on the energy body and how it works. For that matter, while most individuals will probably never actually put into practice any of the bits and peices i've put up on these forums, you ought not ever take anything you read to be the gospel in any case - you should always go out and see if your experience correlates. Everyone on the earth believed it to be flat at one point, if you'll recall, and they harbored no doubts that if you sailed far enough you'd fall off the edge. Those same people knew without a doubt that the sun spun around that flat earth, which was the center of creation. Even the Indian people believed it in their day, despite the countless illumined sages that litter their history like so many leaves in the autumn.

Only when we all get digging, experimenting, and recording can we find the common threads between out experiences and weed out the mistakes to find what's really true. Even in comparing texts, that thread can be rather thin. The more cooperation there is, the greater scope one has to review, and the more likely to find the truth of the matter.

peace

What? The Earth isn't flat? *sigh* How long have I been sleeping this time around? LOL! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wheelchair.gif)
I have only a rudimentary experience with hands-on energy work. My best friend is a massage therapist and a healer. I should go talk to her as well. A number of my sources are books by Powell and Leadbeater of Theosophist fame (Man, Visible and Invisible/The Chakras), the Serpent Power by Avalon and Nuclear Evolution by Chris Hill (somewhat more contemporary-'70's/80's) to mention a few. I will, of course, defer to your practical expertise. Another source are the lodge papers of the Aurum Solis and also the writings of Osbourne Philips and Melita Denning. I use their approach concerning psychic energy flows along with my own experiences. I will attempt to give you a more comprehensive list in the near future. I agree with what you and Acid have said within about an 80% mark. Alot more material has surfaced and or been written since the turning of the nineteenth century. (*sigh* this was my base reading stock when I embarked on this wretched go-around)
LOL! It appears that some further elucidation can be had in our classes here under the tutelage of Aunt Clair...being mindful that separation of wheat from chafe must occur for everybody. Thanks for the heads up! (Aaaargh! MORE reading) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/book.gif)

After reading this post I wish there was a Nobel available for threads... I wonder if anyone's won the Pulitzer for a post?
(IMG:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/P_dove_peace.png/45px-P_dove_peace.png)

The solar plexus is the processing center for energy, the other chakras are able to 'pull' energy from the solar plexus. There are many lesser chakras in the human system and they all will draw or exude energy to some degree. There has been many discussions (on this Forum) about the peculiarities of 'missing' chakras in a 'vampire' for instance, to be later discovered that this is/was untrue.

My favorite theory on chakras is that they're a series of energy transformers, stepping down power from one level to another. Seeing as the solar plexus is close to both the respiratory & digestive systems, both sources of physical energy, it's not too much of stretch to think of it as being the main energy system for the physical body. If the heart chakra were blocked, the solar plexus chakra might switch over to the closest thing to it: someone else's heart chakra, which may explain energy vampirism.

Far be it for me to criticize the ancient illumined who first recorded their observations of the chakras and the energy bodies - but they either didn't write everything down, or it has been paraphrased so many times over the ages that the subtleties and specifics have been misplaced.

Throughout history the different maps of the chakras don't match up, which leads me to think chakras are just a map and not the territory. If our thoughts can form just about anything, why not the chakra system? In The Holographic Universe, there was an account of a woman in Japan who was able to see her heart chakra, but was confused by what appeared to be an upside-down sailboat in it the middle, she found out later that it was the Sanskrit Anāhata symbol.

I don't know much about chakras in the sense that you guys are talking about. Due to my strong psychic abilities, I would have to say my third eye, maybe? I don't have to do the opening funny sensation in the middle of the head thing, though.