Chakra Guide
What Are The Chakras
By Jon Terrell, M.A.
What are the chakras? In Advanced Meditation, we teach that there are many chakras or energy centers in and around our bodies. Starting out, we teach seven essential chakras along a central column, beginning at the top of our heads and proceeding vertically downward. Some of these are different from what you may have read.
There is also a vitally important chakra located six inches above our heads. Because it is outside our bodies, it is not affected by our personal history, the thoughts, feelings, and perceptions that make up our personality, or our sense of who we are. We can easily connect to our Higher Self there.
What AreThe Chakras is part two of our Chakra Meditation Guide. Go here for Part One.
All About Chakras
Chakras run in a vertical column through the middle of our bodies, centered both left/right and front/back. That column or axis runs above us, through our bodies, and below.
This axis has many names. It has been called the central channel, the rainbow bridge, the magic flute, etc. It can bridge ordinary and higher states of consciousness, connecting our ordinary day-to-day mind with higher or awakened mind.
Our axis is also related to the Axis Mundi, the world axis of Earth.
I like to bring terms into the common language. Otherwise, personal growth and healing can seem otherworldly and esoteric. So instead of chakra (from the Sanskrit "wheel"), I might say center. Instead of Central Axis, I might liken it to an elevator. Along this elevator are different locations, like floors in a building. We call these locations chakras, the Hindu/Buddhist term, or energy centers, a Western English term.
Our job is to help our chakras evolve, to awaken to Presence within, and shine their Light. As we grow, so do the chakras. As we learn to purify and awaken these energy centers, they become sources of Light and Love to uplift, heal and awaken ourselves, each other, and all beings.
They are also places within you to experience and express qualities of your divine nature:
- The Crown Chakra, at the top of our head is a place to experience and express the finest, highest qualities of ourselves.
- The Wisdom Chakra, in the middle of our head, is for clarity of mind, problem solving, and focus.
- The Creative Chakra, in the throat, is about expressing ourselves and our gifts to the world.
- The Heart Chakra, in the center of our chests, expresses the healing power of personal love in all relationships.
- The Communication Chakra, at the solar plexus, at the bottom of our rib cage, can increase our energy and stamina and ease our body and mind.
And two chakras are not associated with the Hindu system, but have shown up in other cultures. They are vital to our evolution, and especially to our planetary evolution. One, in the upper chest (corresponding to what some call "the High Heart"), has to do with Higher Will. It mobilizes our will with the will of Presence, our deepest Self.
The other chakra, located just above the level of the navel, is all about harmony and balance. When it is fully functioning, we are at home in our skin, in the world, and life is effortless and filled with joy.
(Two other centers, related to the first and second chakras in the Hindu and Tantra traditions, are taught in Advanced Meditation, but only after the ones mentioned above are functioning at a higher level.)
A Brief History Of Advance Meditation's Chakra Method
Although I had childhood experiences of Inner Light, when I began studying with Russell Paul Schofield and his wife, Carol Ann Schofield, in 1970, I learned how to transform my consciousness and awaken chakras with Inner Light. For the next 18 years, I went from student to teacher to staff director to president of the School of Actualism. After Russell Paul Schofield's death, I helped lead a process to reorganize the school.
In 1986 I left active participation in the school to focus on completing my education and continuing my journey and growth. I wanted to discover what was missing for me and others in their teachings. I trained as a psychotherapist and became a student of deep emotional healing modalities and numerous other methods.
Advanced Meditation is a product of those years of personal and professional exploration. It is a new synthesis of the Inner Light-Fire methods I learned from my teachers, from working with hundreds of meditation students, and from participants in my deep emotional healing retreats.
Advanced Meditation presents an updated version of the Inner Light-Fire, with new perspectives, techniques, and depth. This Chakra Meditation Guide, and this website as a whole, express a more profound synthesis and understanding of chakras, meditation, and healing developed over the past years.
For a more detailed bio, go here.
In describing the Inner Light-Fire methods, Russell Paul Schofield called it "the Teaching that Heals, and the Healing that Teaches." I follow that tradition and am blessed by all those who came before.
What Are The Chakras? Going From Theory To Experience
Our program of healing and awakening is not a brief and easy program to learn what are the chakras and heal yourself in a couple of weekends. At our intensive retreats, you learn a " toolbox" of skills you can apply immediately. And there are plenty more techniques to delve into! You will probably get powerful results early on.
It's not something you can just read about. It takes time (I recommend a minimum of 15 minutes each day), patience, and the willingness to look at where you are stuck. Working with a qualified teacher is a big help.
And it's not all fun. You will learn how to transform difficult, uncomfortable states of consciousness, which means looking at issues you have avoided and suppressed!
On the other hand, if you are seeking a powerful, joyous journey of deep healing and profound awakening, this training may be for you. If you want to learn to serve others and spread your Light and Love into the world, our methods may suit you.
If you want to be a "Light in the World," I know nothing faster and more effective.
Your body and mind lift and shine as your chakras are purified and awakened. You become a multi-leveled Lighthouse, one of many, shining Light and Love into and throughout the world.
We all need the Light now.
Now that you know more about our work and what are the chakras you may be interested in finding out more about your chakras and beginning your Inner Light-Fire journey of Advanced Meditation.
It's time to go from theory to experience. Go here to try out Advanced Meditation to cleanse, heal and awaken your Heart Chakra.
Go from Chakra Meditation Guide to Advanced Meditation Home Page
Go To Training in Advanced Meditation
Go To Principles of Advanced Meditation
LEARN WHAT IS GOING ON IN YOUR CHAKRAS NOW-Contact me through the form below to learn about getting a full 1 hr and 40 minute chakra assessment where I evaluate your chakras, body energy systems and surrounding and teach you how to begin our purification and awakening process.