DISSERTATION COVER SHEET Student declaration: I have read and understood the SOAS policy on plagiarism. This is my own work. All material derived or quoted from other sources is clearly identified as such. Student Number: 643051 MA in the Traditions of Yoga and Meditation Course Code/Title: 15PSRC989-A19/20 Dissertation in the Traditions of Yoga and Meditation. Supervisor: James Mallinson Title: The chakras beyond yoga: The Western chakra system from theosophy to contemporary fringe New Age thinking. Word Count: 10,543 (including quotations, footnotes and titles) Word count is defined as the number of words contained in the submitted work including quotations, footnotes, titles, abstracts, summaries and tables of contents. Appendices and bibliographies are not included in the word count. Appendices will not normally be marked and they must not include material essential to the argument developed in the main body of the work. This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MA in the Traditions of Yoga and Meditation of the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) on 7th October 2020. Contents Introduction 3 Chapter One: The Western chakra system Chakras now versus chakras then 3 Theosophy: The contact zone of chakras and the West 5 Theosophy and the number seven 6 The chakras and anatomy 7 Early influencers: Sir John Woodroffe and Charles W. Leadbeater 9 The chakras and the rainbow spectrum 11 The dawning of the New Age and the psychologised chakras 12 Chapter Two: Chakras on the fringe of the New Age An alternate model: chakra removal 14 Chakra removal and the New Age 15 Lady Mistycah and the first wave indigos 15 George Kavassilas and the multi-dimensional deception 16 The chakra in chakra removal 17 Potential antecedents to chakra removal 20 Conclusion 23 Bibliography 24 Appendix 28 The chakras beyond yoga: The Western chakra system from theosophy to contemporary fringe New Age thinking. Introduction This dissertation will focus on the development of the Western chakra system, looking specifically at Western disciplines and traditions outside of yoga. During colonial era India, in the late nineteenth century, the yogic concept of the chakras entered modern discourse. As with yoga as a whole, the chakras were filtered through the political, cultural and religious lens of Western ideology. The religio-cultural phenomena of theosophy and the New Age directed the transformation of chakras from an aspect of traditional tantric and hatha yoga practice to a New Age system of healing or “spiritual growth”. As a concept that implies an unseen body, chakras do not sit comfortably with the anatomically conceived yoga body that has come to dominate most contemporary yoga classes. Rather, as a bridge between the corporeal body and something other, be it the astral bodies of theosophy or the “energy” healing of the New Age, the chakras have thrived within spheres that are predicated on the non-physical. Nonetheless, each of these spheres overlap and intertwine with modern yoga, almost re-inserting what was once an exclusively yogic concept back into a system from which it has become estranged. Any superficial investigation will reveal that a particular format has come to dominate the definition of the chakras that is markedly different from their pre-modern conception in South Asian yoga practice. In the contemporary West, the chakras are popularly defined as seven incorporeal centres in the human body, aligned up the spinal column, correlating to parts of anatomy and colours of the rainbow, for the purpose of psychological and spiritual growth. In chapter one, I will investigate how these key features arose in the late nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century under the influence of theosophy and the emerging New Age, which, of course, both existed within the context of broader cultural upheavals. In chapter two I will examine a particular belief system and practice at the fringe of the contemporary New Age: that of “chakra removal”. My aim is, on one hand, to highlight chakras as morphic symbols that continue to be co-opted and re-purposed to suit Western spiritual ideologies, however divergent from the original context and meaning, and on the other, to explore potential antecedents to the chakra removal worldview in traditional yoga and other religious and folk concepts. I will rely on a mix of primary and secondary sources, utilising secondary sources to build and support my argument wherever necessary. For chapter two, much of my research is based on contemporary internet blogs and radio shows. The internet, as a body of information in constant flux, obviously lacks the fixed reliability of published works. However, I would argue that this kind of research is absolutely necessary for bringing to light newly conceived ideas on the fringes of religious sub-culture, that might otherwise be overlooked. Chapter One: The Western chakra system Chakras now versus chakras then In Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion, Carrette and King discuss how the “mind, body, spirit” sector has re-interpreted the transgressive techniques of self-deconstruction in Asian wisdom traditions as a “cultivation of the self” Carrette and King (2005) p.133., providing “little more than an accommodation to mainstream western, consumerist culture”. Ibid. p.132. The simplified, universalised, Western chakra system can certainly be seen to fit this interpretation. Today’s spiritual shopper can now “balance” their chakras with a healing tea For example, see www.positivitea.co.uk (last accessed 02/10/20) or “align” them with a crystal necklace For example, see wanderlust.co.uk/collections/chakra- (last accessed 02/10/20) for a quick-fix metaphysical pick-me-up. Chakra-inspired products are not only sold through grass-roots “mind, body, spirit” brands; major high street retailers have now caught on to their commercial potential. See appendix 1. At the other end of the spectrum, the chakras express themselves in surprising ways on the fringes of New Age religious thinking. New Age author Shanti Johnson in Dolphin Heart Reiki invites us to connect with pink etheric dolphins via the “high heart chakra” Johnson, S (2005) p.1., while “holistic health practitioner” Mistycah, L. (2007). Laura Lee Mistycah encourages us to remove our chakras, which in her view have been implanted into our bodies by malevolent interdimensional extra-terrestrials (a subject I return to in chapter two). The chakras were once an aspect of South Asian yoga practices used to facilitate religious liberation, but now they are a marketable symbol and even an etheric implant that can be removed, a bit like spiritual surgery. Of course, between these two extremes, the Western chakras have settled on a dominant model that offers a form of enrichment Baier, K. in Chajes, J. and Huss, B. (eds.) (2016) p.318. to the self as popularly conceived in the contemporary spiritual imagination. This model defines the chakras as seven incorporeal centres in the body aligned up the spinal column and head, correlating to parts of the anatomy and particular psychological, emotional and spiritual states, that can be awakened, activated or balanced in meditation, yoga and various healing modalities. Visually, they are depicted as glowing orbs or vortices spaced along the spine in ascending rainbow colours. Sometimes they retain the traditionally ascribed number of petals and Sanskrit letters, although these features make little sense when the chakras are extracted from the framework of tantric philosophy The tantric use of Sanskrit seed syllables (bija matras) is imbedded in a broader philosophy of sound and the Sanskrit alphabet, dating back to the Upanisads. See Padoux, A. (1990). and transplanted into modern self-care practices. Ontologically, they describe a real - albeit etheric - phenomenon common to all humans, irrespective of cultural tradition, usually conceived as a form of subtle body “energy”. Notions of subtle bodies appear in many parts of the world See Samuel, G. and Johnston, J. (eds.) (2013), and Göttler, C and Neuber, W. (eds.) (2008)., but in New Age discourse it is based on the idea that there is an “etheric double” Leadbeater (1927) p.3. overlaying the material body, or that there are several bodies Based on the “problematic” (Samuel, G. and Johnston, J. 2013, p.2.) theosophical interpretation of the Indian Vedantic doctrine that there are three bodies, the material, subtle, and causal body. Theosophy’s interpretation, added more bodies, totalling seven, based on clairvoyant insights, corresponding to gross and higher realms of existence or consciousness. Samuel, G. and Johnston, J. (2013) pp.187-188. ranging from material to subtle. The chakras’ salvational function in pre-modern yoga has mutated into a therapeutic technique to promote well-being, self-improvement and personal growth. This is not to say that all modern practitioners shun the aim of spiritual liberation, but in general, a popular consensus has been reached about the form, function and ontological status of the chakras. In medieval India, the traditionally conceived chakras, as a feature of the tantric yogic body, were to be imaginally constructed by tantric initiates in tradition-specified rituals. From a soteriological perspective, the yogic body, as an analogue of divinity, was understood to overlay and intersect with the practitioner’s anatomical body, functioning to identify the yogi with the source of creation. Thus, the body acted as a bridge between the microcosm of the individual and macrocosm of the cosmos. In this respect, practice with the chakras not only aimed at attaining divine powers, but in uniting the body with the divine principle, liberating the practitioner from worldly existence. Flood, G. (2006) pp.146-154. In general, pre-modern chakras (literally “wheels”) are non-corporeal loci aligned along the spinal column, to be created in meditation or, as they became increasingly linked to material correlates, affected with yogic techniques. Mallinson, J. and Singleton, M. (2017) p.171. Medieval tantra contains the earliest formations of chakra systems, which differ in location and mode of practice depending on the text at hand. “there is no “standard” system of the cakras. Every school, sometimes every teacher within each school, has had their own cakra system”. White, D. G. (2003) p.144. The number of chakras is also widely variable: the Buddhist tantra, the Hevajratantra, has four chakras and Śaiva tantras the Kubjikāmatantra, the Siddhasiddhāntapaddhati and the Kaulajñānanirṇaya have six, nine and eleven chakras respectively. Mallinson, J. and Singleton, M. (2017) pp.204-211. From the twelfth century, as Hatha yoga developed, chakras commonly (although not always) numbered six, Ibid. p.175. the usual locations of which persevere in the Western system: the perineum (mūlādhāra), the genitals (svādhiṣṭhāna), the navel (maṇipūra), the heart (anāhata), the throat (viśuddhi) and between the eyes (ājñā). Probably originating in the early Śaiva tantra, the Kubjikāmatantra. Ibid. p.177. Often the chakras are described as lotuses and ascribed different numbers of petals or leaves. While colours can be associated with the traditional chakras, they are never allocated individual colours ascending in order of the rainbow, as found in the dominant Western chakra system. Meditations, rituals and practices involving chakras take various forms, from installing mantra-deities within them (nyāsa), to raising the breath through the chakras or piercing them with “knowledge”. Ibid. p.203. It is difficult to disentangle chakras from the yogic body as a whole; they function as part of a network (rather than the dominant feature) linked by channels (nāḍīs) that transmit various forces (vāyus, bindu, and Kuṇḍalinī). The modern chakra system, especially in the context of yoga practice, does consider this network (particularly Kuṇḍalinī and the three major nāḍīs, Iḍā, Piṅgalā and Suṣumnā), but usually, the chakras are discussed as its primary feature, and often as a completely independent phenomenon. Compare the following modern texts on chakras, which decrease in their degrees of reliance on the yogic body network as their emphasis on practice shifts from one of yoga towards New Age energy healing: Kundalini Tantra (Swami Satyananda Saraswati, 1984), Wheels of Life (Anodea Judith, 1987) and Hands of Light (Barbara Brennan, 1988). Theosophy: The contact zone of chakras and the West The 1880s is the decade in which the chakras left the singular domain of Indian yogic tradition and made their debut to a Western audience. This was part of “a complex reciprocal process of transculturation” Baier, K. in Chajes, J. and Huss, B. (eds.) (2016) p.310. within the Theosophical Society, an occult organisation founded in New York in 1875 that viewed the “mystic east” as the source of an ancient wisdom religion. Helena Blavatsky and Henry Olcott, founding members of the society, quickly established themselves in Bombay, amidst a society undergoing radical cultural upheaval instigated by colonial invasion. Both parties involved in the “intercultural transfer” Ibid. of the chakras, theosophists of both Indian and Western origin, were at odds with the traditions of their respective mainstream cultures. In trying to form a new synthesis of ideas, they involved the chakras in a value exchange that resulted in their re-contextualisation within a new cultural framework. Ibid. p.314. Indian theosophists, usually anglicised Brahmins, were in the process of re-constructing their religious heritage to better align with the values of modernity, and Western theosophist were eager to absorb exotic spiritual concepts into their countercultural movement rooted in various western esoteric systems such as Spiritualism, Mesmerism, Swedenborgism, Freemasonry, and Rosicrucianism. Ibid. p.310. Further influencing this intercultural exchange was theosophy’s conviction that the esoteric knowledge of the ancients would finally be vindicated by advancements in the fringe sciences (for example, mesmerism, psychical research and new physics), proving the efficacy of Eastern spiritual practices to an otherwise cynical mainstream. Thus, the chakras entered into a paradoxical milieu; one in opposition to dogmatic Christianity, Brahminism and mainstream science, yet set within its hegemony; one convinced of the spiritual superiority of India, but only if filtered through a more culturally “advanced” Western lens. Theosophy and the number seven I would now like to unpack the seven-fold chakra system, a key feature of the Western system that was initiated early on in theosophy, before the twentieth century. In 1880 The Theosophist Journal published its first article about the chakras titled A Glimpse of Tantric Occultism by Baradā Kānta Majumdār. The piece was part analysis, part English translation of the chakra system of a sixteenth-century text, the Ṣaṭcakranirūpaṇa, literally meaning “description of the six chakras”. The Ṣaṭcakranirūpaṇa describes six chakras aligned up the spinal column, with one additional “thousand petaled lotus” in the head (sahasrāra), which is not described as a chakra. The article rather confusingly describes the chakras as both “six revolving wheels of force” The Theosophist (Jul 1880) p.244. and “seven systems of psychological forces” Ibid.. In 1884 Srisa Chandra Vasu published an English translation of fourteenth century hatha text the Śivasaṃhitā, also a six-plus-one system. Vasu’s translation clearly describes “six chakras” Vasu, S. C. (1914) p.62., calling sahasrāra “the thousand petalled lotus”. Ibid. p.73. An 1888 article in the The Theosophist, The Anatomy of the Tantras, examines Vasu’s translation and identifies “the famous six Chakras” The Theosophist (Mar 1888) p.372.. Other than these two models, a twelve-chakra system came by way of Sabhapaty Swami, a Western-educated Brahmin, whose Om: A Treatise on Vedantic Raj Yoga Philosophy, edited by the above-mentioned Vasu, was also published in The Theosophist in 1880. The theosophists ultimately disapproved of the Swami after he claimed to fly through the air with his physical rather than astral body. Hine, P. (2018) p.5. Perhaps this is one reason why his twelve-chakra system did not have the influence of the Ṣaṭcakranirūpaṇa and Śivasaṃhitā, whose six-chakra models were interpreted to include sahasrāra, forming a seven-chakra system that is now so prevalent it seems unlikely that incredulity at a flying Swami was the only contributive factor. Baier credits the popularity of Sir John Woodroffe’s 1919 Serpent Power: The Secrets of Tantric and Shaktic Yoga Baier, K. in Chajes, J. and Huss, B. (eds.) (2016) p.336., a translation and lengthy commentary on the Ṣaṭcakranirūpaṇa Serpent Power: The Secrets of Tantric and Shaktic Yoga is also a translation and commentary on the Pādukāpañcatā which is not relevant to the present discussion. , however, this text clearly emphasises a six-fold system. Every other page of Serpent Power is headed “the Six Centres of the Serpent Power” [emphasis mine] and while Woodroffe does make one references to “sahasrāra chakra” (Woodroffe, J. (1919) p.156) and two references to “seven centres” (p.2 and p.10), the term “six chakras” is mentioned thirty-seven times. Theosophists, however, had a pre-existing bias towards the number seven. One month earlier than Majumdār’s 1880 article, an article titled The Number Seven appeared in The Theosophist The Theosophist (Jun 1880) p.232., extolling the sacred value of the number in “all the cultured nations of antiquity” Ibid.. Blavatsky’s seven principles of man Blavatsky, H.P (1888). Vol. 1. And 2., the idea that man is composed of seven bodies ranging from gross to subtle, was key to her teachings, as was the idea of a “solar logos”, a great consciousness that emanated seven realms of existence. Ibid. While she elucidates as many as fifty-six chakras It is difficult to discern from Blavatsky’s verbose style whether she posits forty-nine or fifty-six chakras. H.P. Blavatsky, H.P. (1980) Collected Writings 1889-90 -Volume XII. p.619. (itself a multiple of seven), she does state that there are seven master chakras, correlating to the rays of the logos. “If asked whether the seven plexuses [chakras]…are the centres where the seven rays of the Logos vibrate, I answer in the affirmative…” Ibid. p.620. By the time of Serpent Power’s publication in 1919, it is clear that theosophy had already established the relationship between seven and the chakras. I am not ruling out that inattentive reading of the Śivasaṃhitā and the Ṣaṭcakranirūpaṇa played a part, more that interpreting sahasrāra as a chakra was almost a necessity for theosophy, fated by the pre-existing sacred supremacy of the number seven. The chakras and anatomy Another feature of the Western chakra system that entered theosophical interpretations early on is the belief that chakras correlate to bodily anatomy. As an alternate body, the yogic body of the tantrists made sense as a map of cosmic correlates, but as medicine advanced and the causative mechanics of the anatomical model came to dominate bodily perception, a new vision of the chakras seemed possible. Perhaps the tantrists had been perceiving the nerve plexuses of the empirical body and were yet to find a way to communicate their discovery, other than through allegory. The 1888 Theosophist article, The Anatomy of the Tantras, suggested just that. The author, Baman Das Basu, claimed that “the Yogis and the Tantrists had made a special study of the nervous system. And undoubtedly they had gained this knowledge by dissection”. The Theosophist (Mar 1888) p.370. This trend probably begun much earlier than theosophy. Singleton relates a (possibly inauthentic) anecdote from 1855, where Ārya Samāj founder Dayananda Saraswati dissects a corpse in an unsuccessful attempt to find chakras. Singleton, M. (2010) p.51. For Basu, the Śivasaṃhitā contained scientific truth, albeit cloaked in figurative language. Both the Westernised Indian and the Theosophical Society had their own agendas when it came to legitimising the chakras via medical science. As already noted, the reputation of India in the West was one of a nation whose scientific and medical knowledge was in a state of stagnation and decay. Arnold, D. (2004) p.4. In light of such criticism, the educated Indian utilised science to lend their religious heritage the credibility it deserved. Singleton, M. (2010) pp.49-53. Central to theosophy was the idea that science and religion were underscored by one singular essential truth Santucci, J. A. in Hammer, O. and Rothstein, M. (eds.) (2012) p.234. that could unite the two disparate fields. Both parties cooperated (albeit for very different reasons) to present chakras as an anatomical reality inherent to the human body. Blavatsky continued this trend in Esoteric Instruction No. III (1890). Throughout this teaching, she interchanges the term chakra with “plexus” as if they are identical. “And if the term plexus…does not represent to the Western mind the idea conveyed by the term of the anatomist, then call them Chakras.” Blavatsky, H.P. Collected Writings Volume Twelve (1890) p.620. By the twentieth century, correlations between chakras and nerve plexuses had been established Basu made the following correlations to nerve plexuses: mūlādhāra, sacral; svādiṣṭhāna, prostatic; maṇipūra, epigastric (solar); anāhata, cardicac; viśuddhi, laryngeal; ājñā, cavernous; sahasrāra, medulla oblogata. The Theosophist (Mar 1888) p.372.., but the correlations with the endocrine glands that are so ubiquitous in today’s Western chakra system, were still incomplete. Blavatsky, who died in 1891, had already related the pituitary and pineal glands to the sixth (ājñā) and seventh (sahasrāra) master chakras respectively, Blavatsky, H.P. Collected Writings Volume Twelve (1890) p.616. but as advancements were made in human anatomy, all of the chakras were assigned an associated endocrine gland. Prolific theosophist Alice Bailey, in her 1930 work The Soul and its Mechanism, writes: When we compare the Eastern Doctrine of the seven centres with the Western doctrine of glands, we find first of all a striking fact with regard to locality… and each centre of force might well be (and according to Indian teaching is) the source of power and of life for the corresponding gland. The following comparative table shows this identity of location. Bailey, A. (1930) location 120-121. It is possible that Bailey inherited her complete list of correlations (with variations) from American yoga teacher Cajzoran Ali, whose book Divine Posture Influence upon Endocrine Glands (1928) was the first to present a complete list of chakra and endocrine gland correlations with an illustration of their placement on the human torso. Singleton, M. (2010) p.148-150. Fortunately for the pre-modern yogi, he was not obliged to navigate the gulf between scientific causation and magical correspondence. The causative effect of the invisible, subjective chakras on the objective anatomical body, despite attempts to prove the chakras’ empirical existence, In Hiroshi Motoyama’s Theories of the Chakras: Bridge to Higher Consciousness, Motoyama describes several experiments designed to detect physiological changes in yoga practitioners who claim to have “awakened” various chakras. It appears that the experiments yielded results. While they showed that yoga practice affected physiology at the appropriate locations, they did not prove the existence of chakras per se, nor explain the mechanics of the interaction between the subtle body and the anatomical body. Motoyama (1981) pp.257-279. remains a somewhat troubled theory. What this theory has successfully achieved, by fixing the chakras to bodily locations, is the “disregarding [of] religious particularisms” Altglas, V. (2014) p.82., thus de-contextualising the traditional tantric yoga body and reformulating it as a universal body common to all, irrespective of culture. I would now like to cover some key influential figures and associations made in the first half of the twentieth century that helped cement the Western chakra system before the counter-culture of the 1960s instigated the New Age movement and the rise of “psychologised spirituality”. Carrette, J. and King, R. (2005) p.80. Early influencers: Sir John Woodroffe and Charles W. Leadbeater In 1919 Sir John Woodroffe, under the alias Arthur Avalon, published Serpent Power: The Secrets of Tantric and Shaktic Yoga, which included a translation, with an exhaustive commentary, of the Ṣaṭcakranirūpaṇa. Woodroffe was “the father” Urban, H. (2003) p.114. of modern academic tantric studies who “brought about a revolution in attitudes to this previously despised branch of the Hindu religion”. Taylor, K. (1998) p.2. Woodroffe was sympathetic to occult ideas, Woodroffe was friends with Blavatsky’s successor as president of the Theosophical Society, Annie Besant (Taylor, K. 2001 p.45), and his wife, Ellen Woodroffe, was a theosophist. (p.19). but his main concern was to present tantra from an objective perspective. Although his work has been criticised as “deodorised” Urban, H. (2003). Chapter 4. tantra, Serpent Power, was a markedly more comprehensive work on a pre-modern chakra system than anything else available in English at the time. As a direct interpretation of a source text, it possessed a sense of authenticity; however, what appeared as a definitive guide to the chakras as traditionally conceived, was only a solitary glimpse of a vast tradition, unchallenged by alternate academic opinion. Charles W. Leadbeater’s The Chakras (1927) took a fundamentally different approach. As a prominent theosophist, Leadbeater’s esoteric beliefs, compounded by the authority of his claimed clairvoyance, took precedence over the study of traditional texts. His knowledge was experiential; he could see the chakras, as a “series of wheel-like vortices” in the “etheric double of man”. Leadbeater, C.W. (1927) p.3. According to Leadbeater, man has several etheric bodies, whose “streams of vitality…keep the [physical] body alive”. Ibid. p.4. This is achieved via seven chakras, through which flows life force from the “higher worlds”. Ibid. p.5 In their undeveloped state in the ordinary man the chakras appear as small, faintly glowing circles, but in his striking description of their awakened state, Leadbeater describes them as “blazing, coruscating whirlpools, much increased in size, and resembling miniature suns.” Ibid. Several times in The Chakras, Leadbeater insinuates the superiority of his system over Indian systems. While he displays no confusion over the fact that source texts do not view sahasrāra as a chakra, he cannot understand why Sanskrit texts are “confining themselves to six chakras only” Ibid. p.64. [emphasis mine], again affirming the unquestioned assumption that sahasrāra is the seventh chakra, without any consideration of why source texts did not define it as such. Leadbeater’s certainty, and perhaps arrogance, that his system was superior, and that any variance to it is the result of inadequate clairvoyant faculties on the part of other observers, Ibid. is based on the notion that clairvoyant experiences can and should reveal a singular truth. Both Woodroffe, in his role as arbiter of the “authentic” chakras to the West, and Leadbeater, via his clairvoyant perception of the way chakras really appeared in the theosophically defined astral body, possessed the power to define and control how the chakras were perceived. The multiplicity and particularity of pre-modern South Asian chakra systems was simply not accessible to their Western readers, who received instead only a narrow slice of a diverse concept, and in Leadbeater’s case, one re-defined by his particular subjective vision. Not all features of Leadbeater’s chakras persist today, notably, his replacement of the genital with the spleen chakra and despite their visual appeal, the book’s stunning paintings of chakras as vibrant, multi-coloured flecked discs (fig. 1). However, the idea that clairvoyant vision reveals the chakras as they actually are, and the assertion that chakras change in appearance depending on one’s spiritual evolution, are now both prevalent notions. As for Woodroffe’s Serpent Power, most of the traditional elements of the Ṣaṭcakranirūpaṇa have been erased, for example, the primacy of the deity, the specifics of the yogic practice with chakras and the merits gained from such practice. On practice with anāhata chakra: “He who meditates on this Lotus in the Heart becomes like the Lord of Speech…like Isvara…Briefly, he becomes the Creator, Protector and Destroyer of the Worlds.” Woodroffe, (1919), Verse 26, p.379. Aspects of its remarkable illustrations (fig. 2) do remain in some Western chakra systems, most commonly the number of petals ascribed to each chakra and sometimes the Sanskrit lettering, albeit in a tokenistic manner. Curiously, while both sets of drawings and their attendant narratives describe vibrant colours, neither colour scheme depicts the most visually striking feature of the modern chakra system: the individually ascribed rainbow colours ascending from red at the mūlādhāra chakra to violet at the sahasrāra “chakra”. In fact, I have not yet discovered an account of this spectral colour order in any system, Western or pre-modern, prior to 1932. Fig. 1: The heart chakra. Charles W. Leadbeater (1927). Fig.2: Anāhata chakra. Sir. John Woodroffe (1919). The chakras and the rainbow spectrum In many ways, esoteric conceptions of the subtle body exist in a dialectic relationship with reductionist materialism. In the case of anatomical correlations, the chakras seek justification from the scientific mainstream view of the body, which demands that they be understood in relation to it. Olav Hammer speculates that the roots of the rainbow-coloured chakras, might be found in a reaction to, rather than seeking justification from, the Newtonian Newton, in his book Opticks: or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light (1704) established the idea that colours are a purely physical phenomenon. view that colours are a purely physical phenomenon. Hammer, O. (2003) p.93. Goethe’s “Romantic” Ibid. Theory of Colours (1840), which emphasised the experiential dimension of colour, influenced abstract artist and theosophist Hilma af Klint, who was also influenced by Blavatsky’s ideas. Ersman, H. and af Klint, J. (2018). Her painting Altarpiece No. 1 (fig. 3) depicts seven rainbow coloured rays radiating from a golden disk, reminiscent of Blavatsky’s solar logos emanating the seven realms of existence. Fig. 3: Altarpiece No. 1. Hilma af Klint (1915). In the 1920s, Alice Bailey became interested in chromotherapy, a healing method which claimed that colour had a curative effect on a person’s spiritual, emotional and physical body. Bailey formed groups for the exploration of colour healing, and developed metaphysical speculations that expanded theories of colour to encompass Blavatsky’s septenary cosmology, linking the seven emanationist rays of creation to seven rainbow colours and chakras (although not yet in the familiar ascending order). Leland, K. (2016) p.254.According to Kurt Leland, the earliest dated association of the chakra colours in spectral order can be traced to the “lost colour teachings” Ibid. p.277. of theosophist Ivah Bergh Whitten Ibid. pp.258-272.. Colour, Whitten claimed, is an emanation from God (again, Blavatsky’s solar logos) in the form of white light, which splits into seven rainbow coloured rays, which are also great entities. These entities again split into seven rays, the fourth of which divides into seven spiritual “masters”, each of whom govern various aspects of life. The chakras, which themselves are associated with specific rainbow colours, are each attuned to these aspects. Whitten’s theory was developed further by her student Roland T. Hunt, whose book The Seven Keys to Colour Healing (1940) was illustrated with unique diagrams depicting Leadbeater’s chakras and Blavatsky’s seven planes correlating to the rainbow spectrum (fig. 4). Ibid. p.281. Fig. 4: Chakras and planes. Roland T. Hunt (1940). Klint’s paintings and Bailey, Whitten and Hunt’s theories, attempt to rescue colour from its materialist fate, claiming instead it’s spiritual status in esoteric metaphysics as well as a way to heal the body through the chakras. Unfortunately, theosophy’s more elaborate rainbow cosmology has fallen out of popular Western interpretations of the chakras, but the rainbow colours, with their potential to heal have remained. The almost childlike simplicity of the rainbow spectrum serves the Western chakra system on multiple levels. Not only is it conveniently subject to septenary “pattern recognition”, Hammer, O. (2003), p.186. but by its nature the rainbow provides a reductive visual tool to understand the chakras as step by step stages in psychological development. I would also go a step further and suggest that associating the chakras with the rainbow spectrum has huge commercial product potential, not only in its visual appeal, but in its ability to generate a similar product in collectable multiples of seven, with a deeper meaning that appeals to the shopper seeking spiritual fulfilment from their retail therapy. The dawning of the New Age and the psychologised chakras Alice Bailey had already coined the term “New Age” in the 1930s to indicate the dawning of a coming era of well-being, abundance and peace. Sutcliffe, S. J., and Gilhus, I. S. (eds) (2013) p.3. However, it was not until the counterculture movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which lent itself to dissenting religious forms, that the New Age begun to transform into a recognisable milieu. In many ways, theosophy is the cultural forebear of the New Age, which has adopted the theosophical versions of other realms, astral bodies, the chakras, non-physical beings and “ascended masters”, without any recognition of their historical origin. The 1960s and 70s brought a more human-centric influence to the emerging New Age, which transformed the field of psychology from a discipline based in medical pathology into a practical self-help modality. Beginning in the 1950s, humanistic psychology began to see happiness in terms of, what American psychologist Abraham Maslow called, “self-actualisation”. Leland, K (2016) p.323. In the fertile environment of the counterculture, various personal development centres sprung up across the U.S. and U.K. For example the Zen center and the Transcendental Meditation center in the U.S. and the Findhorn community in Scotland. Leland documents the Esalen Institute in California in particular, as a place where humanistic psychology and body based therapies intermingled with Eastern inspired philosophies to produce new psychologised innovations in chakra theory. The process of psychologising the chakras was initiated as early as 1932 with psychoanalyst Carl Jung. I think the individualistic approach of humanistic psychology is more relevant to the evolution of the Western chakra system than Jung’s more intellectual approach, which applied the chakras to the psyche’s evolution through the ages, rather than to the individual person. Jung, C.W.16 (first published 1966). Jung, The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1932 (first published 1996). Maslow was a significant influence at Esalen: his heirachy of human needs may be seen as a blueprint for the emerging view that chakras represented ascending levels of human experience Leland, K (2016) pp.322-324. - physical, emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual - through which a free flow of “energy” was necessary to “unblock” psychological traumas. For example, psychologist William Schutz’s, a faculty member at Esalen, defined the chakras in Here Comes Everybody: Bodymind and Encounter Culture (1971) as representing the following qualities: root chakra, primitive energy; genital chakra, sexual energy; solar plexus chakra, assertiveness and anger; heart chakra, affection and love; throat chakra, communication and expression; brow chakra, intuition; crown chakra, cosmic consciousness. Ibid. p.327 This new self-help approach to therapy claimed the chakras as a tool for self-development, where the “unblocking” of a chakra may result in better communication skills rather than the self-dissolution implied by pre-modern practices. This “use of exotic religious resources for personal growth”, according to Altglas, can to be understood in the context of the “pyschologization of social life”, Altglas, V. (2014) p.202. defined as the propensity of modern people to understand everyday issues through a psychological lens. By the 1980s, the chakras had emerged as the fully formed Western chakra system, best demonstrated by the popularity of American teacher Anodea Judith, a “leading authority on the integration of chakras and therapeutic issues”. Judith, A. (1996), back cover. Her ambitious synthesis of a wide range of Western psychological theories with seven rainbow coloured chakras, Eastern Body, Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System as a Path to Self (1996), views the chakras as an “otherworldly discipline borrowed from the cultures of the East, [creating] a down to earth, practical application for contemporary members of Western civilisation” [emphasis mine]. Hine, P. (2018) Book 4, p.22. The tantric and hatha material, comprised of complex cosmologies and contradictory chakras schemas spanning many centuries has transformed, in little over a century, from a concept aiding self-dissolution, reserved for the initiated yogi, to one that “everybody” (more accurately, the upwardly mobile middle-class Westerner) can apply to their own step-by-step self-care routine. The New Age, built on the foundation of “source amnesia”, Hammer, O. (2004) p.180. understands this radically altered model as an ahistorical experiential reality. The Western chakra system thus provides an unquestioned base-line from which new innovations are formulated. The next chapter focuses on one such innovation, the unusual notion of “chakra removal”. Chapter Two: Chakras on the fringe of the New Age An alternate model: chakra removal My initial attraction to this subject was its seemingly radical departure from the whole-hearted adoption of chakras into the New Age. Nevertheless, the existence of the Western chakra system is integral to the practice’s soteriological aims of spiritual sovereignty. However, this sovereignty is not achieved by ascension through the chakras, but by their destruction. In this model, the chakras are a long way from imaginal lotus petals where mantra-deities reside; the chakras exist and they are not welcome, in fact, they are rejected as extraneous, alien invaders. It is not supposed to be this way, not merely in the sense that chakras are not in their optimised state; the chakras are not supposed to be there at all. They are alien, both literally and figuratively. In terms of its global interest, chakra removal is still niche and information on the topic is primarily internet based, although the 2013 book Our Universal Journey by George Kavassilas provides a detailed account of the world view that it is predicated on. In July 2020, the term “chakra removal” returned 79,800 results on Google. See appendix 2 for a screen shot showing these time stamped search results. Compare this to the term “chakra balancing” which returned nearly 50 times the results. It is difficult to establish the idea’s reach as its traceable history is short; the earliest internet article about chakra removal, titled The Secret Behind the Chakras, dates from 2007 and is written by New Age practitioner Laura Lee Mistycah on her website firstwaveindigos.com. Mistycah, L. (2007). Rather than presenting the idea as a continuation of one from an unknown past, Mistycah describes the very discovery of chakras as malevolent alien implants, that she subsequently decides to remove. Mistycah’s beliefs are in alignment with Kavassilas’, who, as the most prominent advocate of the chakra removal worldview, has attracted 11,070 followers on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/weareinfinite.love and hosts a podcast called Super Woo Radio which, running since 2013, is averaging 40,000 downloads per episode (according to the show). Episode 5, Super Woo Radio (2012): https://soundcloud.com/search?q=super%20woo%20radio (last accessed 04/10/20). His book, Our Universal Journey, presents an elaborate and intimidating view of cosmic reality, of which the chakra system forms a sinister part. Ultimately though, both Mistycah and Kavassilas offer highly optimistic, even Utopian, visions of multi-dimensional unification, that not even the chakras can divide. Despite its infancy and relatively small following, chakra removal is not only a fascinating development in the ever-evolving history of chakras, but highlights how the Western chakra system has been accepted by the New Age as an authentic, ancient fact. I have chosen to focus on Mistycah and Kavassilas’ teachings and beliefs as they both offer significant yet typical contributions to this world view. In quintessential New Age style, both individuals, while presenting similar metaphysical views, have highly unique styles and do not offer identical philosophies. Chakra removal and the New Age I want to briefly explain my reasoning for categorising this phenomenon as New Age, despite the fact that, from an emic perspective, advocates of chakra removal are highly critical of New Age culture, not to mention their rejection of chakras, which almost enjoy “jewel in crown” status in New Age ideologies of the subtle body. According to Kavassilas, the New Age movement is “nothing more than a sophisticated version of religion” Kavassilas, G. (2013) p. 92. designed to entrap. What Kavassilas is rejecting is the crystallisation of the New Age into new orthodoxies. However, the repudiation of the New Age in this way, paradoxically places it back in that category. The rejection of dominant forms of religion is one of the cornerstones of the etic categorisation of New Age. For example, Hanegraaff describes the New Age as a reaction to the dominant western values of Judeo-Christian religion. Hanegraaff, W. (1996) p. 331. After a century of development, the New Age has formed its own habitual codes, and from deep inside the paradigm, a new reaction to the dominant form of New Age thinking is triggered, producing what might be described as a meta-New Age. As the below discussion unfolds, the reason for this categorisation will become clear, regardless of the internal rejection of this labelling. With true New Age flair, traditional folk and religious beliefs such as invisible forces and entities, multi-layered realities, and of course the chakras, are all re-formulated in "an unsystematic fashion, often through a process of bricolage from already available narratives and rituals.” Hammer, O. in Hanegraaff, W. (ed.) (2006) p.855. Lady Mistycah and the first wave indigos In December 2007, on her website firstwaveindigos.com, Laura Lee “Lady” Mistycah revealed “the secret behind the chakras”. Mistycah, L. (2007). Mistycah and a group of first wave indigos (a wave of “higher octave” beings of non-human origin, born as humans between 1969-1987) Mistycah, L. (2001). investigated a surprising comment made by one of the group’s members. “I hate my 3rd eye”, they revealed, “it feels creepy to me”. Mistycah, L. (2007). How the group investigated this statement is not clear, but, in the words of Mistycah, what they discovered was the following: The chakra system is an imposed system that is not our natural energy state. It is a system to compartmentalize our energy for easy access to outsiders and energy vampires. The chakras, or “cones” were placed there so that specific energies could be accessed. This easy access is ideal to control and manipulate our energy fields and minds. They were put there by E.T.s that view us as their personal energy source and property. Our original state was to have energy that emits from our core or SunStar in the chest/solar plexus area. Ibid. After gaining more clarity on this “covert operation that has been duping us for centuries” the group decided to take “extremely radical” action - they “eliminated” the chakras. Ibid. Typically, this process is described as non-physical gathering up of the chakras, generally the seven chakras that have come to dominate (although other chakras can be involved) and absorbing them into the “core star”. Ibid. This process is completed in a meditational inner space where other energies can be accessed. Technically, it seems that the chakras are not removed and discarded, or placed in another location, but absorbed or destroyed. There is no fixed way this is done, each practitioner can remove the chakras in their own way, as long as their energy is absorbed into the core star, a fundamental heart energy that connects to one’s authentic, trans-dimensional self. On Kavassilas’ podcast, Mistycah describes her own method as follows: … everybody just did it their own way, but what I did is first is I decided to turn mine off, so I capped ‘em all off, and I thought, “wooo that feels way nice” and then mine…actually I could unscrew them, it was very strange and so I unscrewed them all and put more of my authentic self in there and all of a sudden my core star just started beefing up and emanating and pulsating and it was the most amazing, outrageous experience I had had up until that time, I was just in awe of how your authentic core self could feel without all this interference. Episode 5, Super Woo Radio (2012): https://soundcloud.com/search?q=super%20woo%20radio. (last accessed 04/10/20). George Kavassilas and the multi-dimensional deception In Our Universal Journey Kavassilas paints the chakra deception in more elaborate, cosmic detail. His theory about the chakras is also gained from personal insight, “having travelled to numerous realities and interacted with numerous races and expressions of life” Kavassilas, G. (2013) p.78.. He states: The chakra body is a major component in the greatest deception ever imposed on our human race! It is a most intricate element to the fragmentation, manipulation and control of humanity on a cosmic level. Ibid. The chakra body is seen as an energetic overlay, implemented by a “conglomerate of extra-terrestrial and inter-dimensional races”, Ibid. p.79. luring spiritual practitioners into a synthetic version of reality and spiritual enlightenment. The natural, organic way to “enlightened and aware consciousness” is “somewhere over the rainbow”, Ibid. through the heart, or core, conceived of as a holistic, non-dual centre of being. The chakra overlay is predicated on an ancient battle between planetary gods; the Sun, the true creator, and the jealous and egoic Saturn. This parallels theosophical beliefs: “Theosophical teaching add a spiritual dimension [to the solar system], including the planes and the notion that the sun and the planets are great conscious beings…the Solar Logos [is identified] with the sun of our system.” Leland, K. (2016) p.112. In Saturn’s bid for control, with the aid of inter-dimensional beings and extra-terrestrial groups, the “cosmic software” of Saturn’s rings were created. Each of the seven chakras are fed from a cosmic beam from one of these rings, forming a direct line of influence over human beings. The seven rainbow colours of the chakra body cocoon us in a bubble, designed to interfere with our perception of the Sun’s light, and lure us back into the false light constructs of the deceitful gods and their simulated heaven realms. Kavassilas, G. (2013) pp.78-82. The pineal gland, correlating to the “third eye” (ājñā) chakra, Ibid. pp.90-92. As noted above, Blavatsky and Bailey associated the pineal gland with sahasrāra chakra. is also implicated in this deception as an ancient multi-dimensional implant designed as a radio-like receiver of synthetic reality signals, validating what we experience through the five senses as the only truth. “Specialised practices” Ibid. p.92. can attune these signals, navigating us to the heavenly realities of false gods via “ritualistic prayers and meditations, techniques and practices designed to give one’s power over to the “higher authority””. Ibid. The ultimate purpose of this grandiose fraud is to farm life energy, which humans generate more of than “any other beings in the universe”. Ibid. p.108. The chakras serve up seven colours of cosmic candy, each flavoured by human behaviour, emanating from seven convenient entry points. If one bypasses the chakra system to reside in our natural true heart essence then duplicitous gods and amoral E.T.s cannot control and manipulate our energy, which, in its unfragmented holistic state it is simply too spiritually potent for “lower vibrational” beings to digest. The ultimate aim of human beings is individual sovereignty, achieved via ascension (through the heart) from the fourth dimensional matrix into “the realms of the Higher Self” where one experiences continual unconditional love. Ibid. p.33. Although Our Universal Journey is more cosmological conspiracy theory than a guide for removing the chakras, Kavassilas does make it clear on his podcast, Super Woo Radio that he “got rid” of his chakras (although it is not specified how), advocating that others do the same. Episode 5 and 12 (2012 and 2013), Super Woo Radio: https://soundcloud.com/search?q=super%20woo%20radio (last accessed 04/10/20). The chakra in chakra removal Conspiracy theories of intergalactic magnitude are nothing new, nor are academic interpretations of their socio-political meaning and their interface with pop-culture. See: Dean, J. (1998), Goldberg, R. A. (2001), Jung, C.G. (1978), Kahn, R. and Tyson, L. (2005). The 1990s saw controversial U.K. ex-sports presenter David Icke ignite interest in the subject of inter-dimensional alien overlords, a theory that is a continuation of a wider U.F.O. conspiracy culture that rose to popularity in post World War II America, when atomic technology obliterated any feeling of global stability. Political events of the decades leading up to the twenty-first century only compounded public fear and paranoia, The Watergate scandal (1972), The Vietnam War (1955-1975), the Gulf War (1990-1991), The Clinton-Lewinsky scandal (1998), “9/11” (2001). illustrating that those on high (be they politicians or aliens) acted in destructive and covert ways to protect their own interests. Representations of an alien agenda abounded in pop-culture throughout the 1980s and 1990s (the Alien Trilogy, The X-Files, The Matrix) while the new technology of the internet instigated transnational capitalism on an unprecedented level. Previously disparate realities of pop-culture, politics, technology and commerce intermingled, forming new multi-layered narratives. Whether “a manifestation of the post-modern zeitgeist” Dery, M. (1999) p.13., or a lived subjective experience of the New Age few, multi-dimensional aliens in the twenty-first century does not require a huge imaginative leap. The curious inclusion of the chakras that Kavassilas and Mistycah add to the Ickian conspiracy theory seeks to explain our material bodily connection to its extra-sensory enslavement by reversing the meaning of the beloved rainbow body. The physical body interfaces with the chakra body in the now familiar scientised manner, via the endocrine system, Kavassilas, G (2013). p.83. but the chakras are no longer our innate technology for spiritual enlightenment, but an alien technology of etheric implants or overlaid “A.I.” programs. In this way chakras are repurposed as an explanatory piece of the puzzle, fitting the previously existing narrative of control by negative outside forces. Two New Age strands of thought, the scientised rainbow chakras and alien conspiracy, intermingle and re-emerge transformed. The question remains, could the rejection of the chakras be a depressing echo of the colonial suspicion of tantra and yoga? Do the chakras appear to be extraneous alien invaders because they originate from another culture? Kavassilas does malign tantra as an ineffective vehicle for spiritual enlightenment: “Divine sacred union occurs naturally through the heart and does not need the vehicle of the serpent energy running up the spine to be achieved”. Ibid. p.108. The chakras as traditionally conceived are primarily utilised in tradition-specific yoga practices, fitting somewhat awkwardly into the alien implant narrative. Even if pre-modern yogic body practices are considered in the “specialised practices” bracket that leads to false enlightenment, there is no acknowledgement of how unfeasible it is to establish this, nor any consideration of the sophistication of traditional yoga metaphysics and soteriology. How Kavassilas perceived chakras before his discovery is not elaborated on in any detail. All he does say is that “‘Chakra’ is a Sanskrit word which means wheel or vortex”, adding that they are non-physical and aligned with human physiology. Further echoing theosophical sentiment, he writes that the seven “most commonly known” chakras are known as “The Seven Seals” in the Bible, Theosophist James Morgan Pryse writes in The Apocalypse Unsealed: “It is simply the human body, esoterically considered: it is “written inside and at the back,” referring to the sympathetic and the cerebro-spinal systems, and “close sealed with seven seals,” which seals are the seven major chakras.” Pryse, J.M. (1910). p.39. correlating to the rainbow and the musical scale. See Ivah Bergh Whitten’s 1932 correlations in Leylend, K. (2016). pp.269-270. He does mention five other, less common chakras that are somehow aligned with DNA, but their role is more obscure. Kavassilas, G (2013). p.77. On an episode of Kavassilas’ podcast titled “Chakras Round Table”, his guest, Perry Mills, Perry Mills is a “truth seeker, astrologer, tarot reader and kabbalist” and co-author of Surfing the Transformational Waves of 2012. makes an interesting comment about the difficulties contemporary practitioners face when practising with chakras. He states: …moving away from the lower chakras and raising your frequency so you can get all the way up to the top and then “pow, ka-tow”…well that’s all very fanciful and most people fail at this as you will look across the planet and talk to anyone who has done this type of practice [emphasis mine]: and every time they fail they are reinforced that they are not worthy… Episode 12, Super Woo Radio (2013): https://soundcloud.com/search?q=super%20woo%20radio (last accessed 04/10/20). I do not take this conversational statement as conclusive of the speaker’s opinion, however I do think it highlights the kind of myopic worldview that can develop inside the echo chamber of a subculture. It is a statement that does not consider the most relevant groups engaging in this type of practice, i.e., Indian yogic ascetics, with a long cultural lineage involving techniques that have developed over a millennium, not to mention life-long renunciation and dedication to teachings. It is no wonder that in the West, “most people fail” to achieve the desired result when practises involving the Western version of the chakra system are not rooted in a long-established cultural framework and lineage of teachers. Mistycah also does not elaborate on how she viewed chakras pre-revelation, although she does indicate that her notion of the chakra system conformed with popular New Age author and energy healer, Barbara Brennan’s. She writes: “I highly respect her and have been using Barbara’s books for years to illustrate how these systems work”. She uses illustrations from Brennan’s Hands of Light to demonstrate her belief that “what she sees is exactly what’s there…the manipulated chakra and energy system”. Mistycah, L. (2007). Kavassilas also includes illustrations that depict the chakra body as similar to the images in Hands of Light. Kavassilas, G (2013). pp.106-107. I believe one of the foundational elements of the chakra removal paradigm lies in Brennan’s chakra body as permeable energy system open to vampirism. It also strikes me that the chakra body depicted in Hands of Light (fig. 5) lends itself to translation as a caged being, splintered by funnel-like openings, rather than a vision of glowing rainbow ascension: Fig. 5: “The seven major chakras, front and back view”. Barbara Brennan (1988). I will discuss Brennan’s work in more detail below, but first I think it is important to examine an example of a pre-modern yogic texts to highlight how far we are from traditional chakras. An 18th century Hatha yoga text, the Siddhasiddhāntapaddhati elucidates a nine-chakra yogic meditation, so from the outset it is clear that the number seven holds no special significance. The emphasis on practice in traditional expositions on chakras cannot be stressed enough. The chakras are an aspect of the yogic body to be utilised in tradition-specific practice; there is no evidence that they are reified pseudo-physical objects, existent in every-body, regardless of whether one is an initiate or not. On the base chakra, the text states: There are nine cakras in the body. At the base [of the body] is Brahmā cakra, which is coiled around three times and has the form of a vulva (bhagamaṇḍala) the root bulb (mūlakanda) is located there. In that visualize the goddess in the form of fire. There indeed is the seat of Kāma, the god of love, which bestows all desires. Mallinson, J. Singleton, M. (2017). p.210. This passage is indicative of how the practice unfolds with each chakra; there is an object or deity to visualise, instruction of where to place it within the chakra, sometimes an indication of the chakra’s form and size and the power that it bestows, from mastery of the senses to liberation. Straight away it can be established that correlation to rainbow colours and the seven seals of the Bible is not applicable. The specificity of the form of the chakras also bear no resemblance to Brennan’s energy cones. Compare the Siddhasiddhāntapaddhati’s heart chakra, “which is a downward facing eight petalled lotus” Ibid. p. 211. to Brennan’s energy-based system which concludes, after acknowledging the “eastern esoteric literature”, Brennan, B. (1988) p.141. that on closer investigation the petals appear to be “small rotating vortices spinning at very high rates”, Ibid. It is reasonable to deduce from the text that the petals in the Siddhasiddhāntapaddhati are a visual tool for practice rather than misidentified vortices. As previously noted, it is hard to know for sure whether the Siddhasiddhāntapaddhati details a “specialised practice” leading to false enlightenment in the synthetic heaven realm of a deceitful god, Kavassilas, G. (2013) p. 92. but what can be said is that it is a Nāth yogi text, a Śaiva sect rooted in non-dual metaphysics. Śiva, as the non-dual absolute, beyond time, form and causality Mallik, K. (1954) p.19. does not correlate to Kavassilas’ notion of “Shiva”, who he homogenises with the culturally heterogenous Jehovah, Allah and Cronus, all as representations of his Saturnian creator/imposter who is “merely an aspect of cosmic energy” Kavassilas, G. (2013) p. 80. bent on control. This type of homogenising is typical of theosophy and the New Age in general, which tend to correlate culturally disparate ideas to conform with internal narratives, while disregarding those that do not fit. The most striking example of this relevant to chakras is the erasure of mantra deity installation (nyāsa) from the Westernised system, which takes a central role in many traditional tantric practices For example, see Śaiva Tantra, the Brahmayāmala: “…He should install Caṇḍākṣī on the throat lotus [and] Mahocchuṣmā on the heart. Karālī is on the lotus of the naval, Danturā on the lotus of the genitals, Bhīmavaktrā on the knee, Mahābalā on the lotus of the feet.” Mallinson, J. and Singleton, M. (2017) p.203.. In terms of chakra removal, nyāsa, the practice of installing a positive being inside one’s chakra in order to assimilate their power is somewhat opposed to the idea of a negative being installing chakras inside a human being in order to vampire their power. Despite this opposition, and at risk of imprudent correlation, the elements of the formula are similar, but its permutation and mode of conception different. Both equations feature incorporeal beings, the implanting of an extraneous ethereal element inside the body and the transference of power from one being to another via chakras. I am not suggesting that we disregard the profound differences between traditional modes of conceiving chakras and the chakra removal mode, but as I will discuss below, there are other elements of the chakra removal paradigm that resonate with traditional modes of religious thinking. Potential antecedents to chakra removal Perhaps its relevant to analyse the chakra removal movement as both a critique and expression of post-modernism, where a fragmented, individualised culture battles a bewildering kaleidoscope of multi-layered narratives in endless entanglement. Malevolent “A.I.s” implant “synthetic”, energy-sucking vortexes in our being, fragmenting our attention in the same way faceless tech giants root digital technologies into every facet of our lives, separating us further and further from nature. False gods co-opt our spiritual feeling with phony “love and light” energy, just as increasing numbers of New Age gurus and religious figures are exposed as sexual predators with phony spiritual credentials. See: 30 for 30, Season 3 (2018): Bikram (podcast); Gibney, A. (2012): Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (documentary); Kramer, J. and Alstad, D. (1993): The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power; Storr, A. (2013): The Secret Swami (documentary). What is more, it is the Western chakra practices that “fail” - as discussed throughout this essay, research increasingly uncovers that major aspects of the chakras that dominate in Western culture are not rooted in ancient Indian, time-tested practice at all, but Western ideas that date back less than one hundred fifty years. Nonetheless, I do not think that contemporary cultural anxieties and New Age bricolage are the only reference for understanding chakra removal. Comparative examples of chakras as negative are not entirely absent from pre-modern yoga. The idea of removal might be compared to the practice of piercing chakras (chakrabhedana) with the force of kundalini. To “remove” and to “pierce” are different actions, however, as destructive rather than beneficial acts, both negate the chakra’s status as a sacred venue for the gods or a vital force to be “awakened”. The practice of piercing is more commonly associated with granthis (knots) in earlier texts, which are comparable to chakras in that they are loci in the subtle body associated with various deities. Mallinson, J. Singleton, M. (2017). p.175. However, the instruction to pierce chakras does occur: the ninth century Netratantra states that the yogi “should pierce all the [chakras]” Ibid. p.203. and much later the sixteenth century yogacintāmani makes several references to chakrabhedana. Personal communication James Mallinson. The body as a permeable system vulnerable to control by incorporeal beings is a central theme in broader chakra removal worldview. This phenomenon - better known as spirit possession - is far from modern and corresponds with a universal religious outlook rather than with New Age ontology specifically. Of course, there are several key conceptual differences, not least the positioning of chakras, but I would like to diminish the notion of E.T.s and multidimensional beings as “woo” or paranoid conspiracy, when in fact something directly comparable to well established religious ideas is happening. While “spirits unseen” Göttler, C. and Neuber, W. (eds.) (2008). can be found in many pre-modern cultures, See Kärkkäinen, V., Kim, K. and Yong, A. (eds.) (2013). It seems fitting to look at Indian culture specifically as the birthplace of chakras and therefore the raison d être of the present discussion. The Tantric tradition is infused with demons, deities and a whole host of other incorporeals. The Netratantra devotes its longest chapter to demonology, describing practices of “protection, pacification and exorcism”. White, D.G. p.1. in The Journal of Hindu Studies (2012). Alexis Sanderson calls medieval Kashmir tantrism “a vigorous polydaemonistic culture of power”, Sanderson, A. p.201. in Carrithers, M., Collins, S. and Lukes, S. (ed.) (2008). where the initiated self is permeated by the gods and the uninitiated vulnerable to possession by negative forces. Complementary to demonology is Bhūtavidyā, the science of (primarily incorporeal) existent beings, which was developed into a systematic taxonomy elucidated in Āyurveda, Sāṃkhya and various tantric texts, with historical antecedents as far back as the Ṛg Veda and Chāndogya Upaniṣad. Smith, F. M. (2006) p. 474. Kavassilas describes his own polydaemonistic culture of extra-terrestrial and interdimensional beings in Our Universal Journey: the “saturnalian and amoral” Draconian races, Reptilians, Greys and Golgothians Kavassilas, G. (2013) p.38., who all rob us of our autonomy by indirect possession with the chakras. It may be even more accurate to compare such beings with life-sucking vampires than demonic possessors. In Indian folklore the figure of the vampire is better known as vetāla, a malevolent being on the threshold between life and death who can inhabit and re-animate corpses (the most famous example of this being the eleventh century Vetālapañcaviṃśati (Vikram and the Vampire). Smith, F. M. (2006) p.323. Tantric female deities are also known to display vampiric tendencies. According to Sanderson, the Netratantra describes “Yoginīs and Śakinīs and other tantric female obsessors [who] suck life from their victims into themselves as an offering to their regent Mahābhairava enthroned in their hearts”. Sanderson, A. in Carrithers, M., Collins, S. and Lukes, S. (ed.) (2008) p.213. Such examples are often framed in moral or social terms; the victim’s moral transgressions make them vulnerable to possession, Smith, F. M. (2006). p.478. or in the case of folk tales, serve to reinforce social order. Ibid. p.327. In the twentieth century the vampire was re-contextualised in the New Age paradigm of energy exchange as a “psychic vampire”, an etheric being or person that feeds off another’s life force. British occultist Dion Fortune’s Psychic Self-Defence (1930), discusses the “psychic parasite”, a human being who unconsciously feeds off another’s life force, and the “true vampire”, a malicious being who, in order to avoid death, remains in this world by astrally projecting their etheric double and living off the life-force or blood of another. Fortune, D (1930), Chapter V, pp.56-62. Although Fortune’s vampire utilises theosophical language (“etheric double” and “astral projection”), it is a figure comparable to India’s vetāla, in that it exists on the border of death, using another to maintain a semblance of life. In comparing the more traditional vampire to the psychologically conceived “psychic parasite”, Fortune’s work exists on the threshold between folk religious thinking and psychologised spirituality. To bring us back to chakras, Barbara Brennan’s illustrated descriptions of energy exchange in Light Emerging (1993) depict the process of energy being “vampired” via the chakras (fig. 6), which are perceived as the apparatus through which energy enters and exits the body. Brennan, B (1993) Chapter 15. In this respect Brennan’s model is a necessary development for the understanding of chakras as vortices from which another can feed. Fig.6: Energy exchanged through the chakras, Barbara Brennan (1993). Far from being a modern fairy story, reflecting contemporary paranoias, the idea of unseen beings and “permeable embodiment” Smith, F. M. (2006) p. xxvii. subject to possession and vampirism is clearly deeply imbedded in human culture, regardless of time, place and tradition. Conclusion A religious concept obviously morphs when it enters a new cultural environment. I have attempted to establish the key factors that shaped the dominant conception of the chakras as they transitioned from traditional South Asian yoga to the contemporary Western religious imagination. The chakras were uprooted from their original context and re-shaped according to a range of Western theosophical and New Age values as a universal feature of the subtle body, which were then, in their new fixed form, inculcated in the popular imagination as ancient mystical wisdom. The emic understanding of the Western chakra system thus supersedes history, and rightly or wrongly, source amnesia enthrones it as the model that has dominated all along. From this deceptively flimsy foundation, new understandings of the chakras are built on the fringes of New Age religious thinking. In the case of the chakra removal worldview, the short-lived Western chakra system enters into a robust pre-existing cosmogonic scheme of malevolent interdimensional beings, extra-terrestrials and planetary gods. This paradigm accepts the Western chakra system as the traditional system, and then rejects it, not only as failure incapable of delivering real results, but as a sinister, alien implant. I therefore define the chakra removal paradigm as “meta-New Age”, in that it is the New Age referring back to itself, rejecting itself and re-configuring itself from its own constituents. This kind of self-referencing sounds rather bewildering, but I do not mean to reduce chakra removal to merely a New Age merry-go-round. In-fact, ultimately, I want to ground and soften such interpretations by highlighting that there are aspects to the chakra removal paradigm that have obvious parallels in established forms of religious thinking, even if at first glance they appear highly unusual. 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