Chakras have been in fashion for a while now. Every energy healer of any denomination talks glibly about chakras and how to energize them. They wave their hands over you as you lie on a couch like magicians about to produce a rabbit out of your belly.
The trick is the same.
Some of what these guys talk about and do is quite dangerous. I followed the advice of a New Age Californian author a couple of decades to ago on chakra energizing. I ended almost losing an eye! I later learnt that people have lost their minds doing this stuff.
I am posting this piece to educate as well as warn.
Indian and Chinese spiritual schools, of Hinduism, Buddhism, Zen and Tao, as well as traditional medical systems that arose from these spiritual schools, believed that the human mind body spirit system is energy. This is why Hinduism and Buddhism consider life as eternal. This inner energy within continues even after the physical mind body perishes at death. This in turn leads to concepts of karma, rebirth etc.
The inner energy within us, the inner energy that sustains us, is an integral part of the energy of the Universe, the Cosmic energy. Hindu philosophy of the Vedas believed that this inner energy lies dormant in our perineum. When dormant, it works on instinctive reactions related to survival and security needs.
This inner energy, called kundalini energy, can be awakened through techniques of yoga and tantra. The purpose is to make us self-aware. When this kundalini energy at the root or muladhara chakra center rises to the top of the head, the crown chakra center, we become fully Self-aware. We become aware that we are nothing but cosmic energy.
The path of the kundalini energy from the root energy center to the crown energy center is through a virtual energy pathway along the spine, passing through 5 other inner energy centers. all called chakra. Chakra refers to an active inner energy center, circular and spinning like a wheel.
Most Western literature i have read on this subject are superficial and often dangerous. People have lost their health and even mind following New Age techniques purported to awaken the kundalini energy. After my bad experience following some of these techniques, i decided to learn from the scriptures directly.
Awakening the kundalini energy has practical benefits. We become intuitive. We become compassionate. We become coaches and healers. There are safe methods and unsafe shortcuts.
I shall outline some safe methods on this journey of mind body spirit in future posts.
zentocoach 
Timely warning ji, well said.
I thought I might add to this with a transcription of one of my Satasangs on this subject when in Tiruvannamalai:
The Mantra Path to Kundalini
From a Satsang with Ramana Baba (Muz Murray)
Q. Baba, what is the connection between Kundalini and Realisation?
A. Kundalini is the intelligence of the universe manifesting as Prana (the Conscious life-Force) moving in the physical organism. When this force traverses the spinal column and reaches the brain centre, it awakens the Cosmic Intelligence, enabling one to become enlightened or—to be unburdened of all the residual hang-ups which exist in the subconscious. Its effect is to clean out everything including past karma. This process can eliminate all the traumas and neurosis that one would normally have to go through therapy to eliminate.
But as kundalini arousal doesn’t happen to everybody, there has to be step-by-step therapy ‘en route’ as it were.
Q. So when you are having strange Kundalini effects, is that just mind-stuff clearing out?
A. It is, in a natural manifestation of kundalini, yes. It is the kundalini energy steadily moving through the different chakras. And from the chakras it spreads out through the nadi system at each particular level. Nadis are fine lines of energy or ‘channels of force’ in the psychic nervous system, radiating outwards through the subtle body and thereby affecting the physical body. Nadi comes from the root ‘nad’ meaning sound. Therefore nadis are carriers of sound, and are specifically affected by mantric sounds, which are the best methods of arousal.
But if you cause kundalini to awaken without being spiritually involved in your heart centre, you are asking for trouble. For example, if you are just doing it technically by using powerful hatha yoga techniques to force the kundalini to rise, by going to a weekend kundalini-raising workshop, this can land you in big trouble.
If kundalini is forcibly made to rise up and bursts out through Muladhara chakra, then you might not be able to control your bowels. If it floods svadhisthana chakra your urination can be out of your control. If it comes up to another level you may be unable control your laughing or your crying, or stop your limbs from shaking or jerking. If its arising is too speedy it can derange your brain because it is not a step-by-step progression. It can make you insane or even kill you. So forcing it up technically, like a pump, can be a disaster.
On the other hand, it can rise up automatically in a natural way if it arises because you have a sudden profound spiritual insight, or a spiritual welling up of joy in the heart. It is important to realise that it is the quality of your level of spirituality that makes it move.
Mantra chanting is the accredited way of activating the chakras. When you are Chanting, you are energising the chakras, and at the same time you are strengthening the nadi system, giving the psychic nervous system a charge. It is like putting extra protection round a thousand-volt live wire. Gradually with mantra your nadi system is ready to take a stronger charge. But if you are forcing Kundalini before your ‘psychic wiring’ system is ready, you can ‘blow the fuses’ as of the chakras, which act like tiny fuse-boxes of the body.
It is vital that you strengthen the nadi system with mantric frequencies before attempting to arouse kundalini.
Mantra is the time-honoured and safe step-by-step method of Kundalini Yoga.
Dear Muz, thanks. This is the kind of interaction we should eventually generate on this site. Kundalini is a real and powerful energy. It requires a correct process and a wise tutor to be carried out safely. Be it mantra, tantra or yoga, the technique must be fool proof guided by a person who has experienced the awakening of the energy. cheers
Great post there Ram, I recently get in touch with this chakra concept from the book I read, . I know not much about it, I consider myself to belong to no religion, although I am a Chinese. There are some brief information introduced in a more tangible form from the book. The book mainly focus on how to use the Attractor Sales System in order to create Abundance in business. The Author is Joe Nunziata, (Speaker at ICA, 2009). I will recommend this book to you if you haven’t read it. 🙂
Ben, in my experience any effort on chakras has to be experiential, guided face to face by a very competent teacher. Too many people write too many things with a superficial understanding of chakra, tantra, meditation and yoga. Be careful, very careful, of what you read, however authentic it may seem. cheers