Chakras - how to open and why?

For those who have already done this, whether to mastery or not, I have a few questions for you:

Why? What is gained by doing this? If I understand them correctly, are they not always open to begin with? Since they are central points in our bodies where energy and physical points conjoin, wouldn't they always be open in order for us to live?

Which one? There are several schools of thoughts behind Chakras, and depending on the source (and age) there are seven or dozens. Which one is correct?

David Gordon White traces the modern popularity of the seven chakra system to Arthur Avalon's The Serpent Power, which was Avalon's translation of a late work, the Satcakranirupana.[9] Below is a description of the seven chakras, with various associations.

From Wikipedia

So was this due to translation or has the advance of the seven-chakra system been because it is easier than dealing with more?

How do you open them? What's a good primer or guide for it?

I'd like to increase my awareness around me, because I feel like it's the only way I can further quantify what I've seen. Is this an appropriate step, or should I look elsewhere?

There was an excellent topic here on ATS recently:
How to open the chakras

Originally posted by Etherguide
There was an excellent topic here on ATS recently:
How to open the chakras

Thanks for the link

Unfortunately, while it does answer part of the "how", it doesn't go into the why. For that matter, what should I see/feel? Will my key indicator be the feelings he listed that match the different chakras?

Root - Feeling Safe and Eternal (no matter what everything will be ok)
Sacral - Sexuality, Lust
Solar Plexus - Intuition (as in "gut" feelings), Will-power
Heart - Passion (feeling "in love") , Compassion
Throat - Truth, Wisdom
3rd Eye - Imagination, Visions
Crown - Bliss, happiness


Why seven? Some people state you have to do learn from a master, others say they just did it and eventually got it. Confusing stuff; even after spending time searching around the net before posting there is considerable amounts of information but very little in the way of a clear primer.

Wow - I've been on multiple paths for a long time myself.
I am interested in your statement about "quantifying what you have seen" do you care to be more specific?
Many cultures refer to serpent energy and chakras - and yes the numbers vary depending on path.
If you could give me an idea what you are trying to quantify I might be able to help you.
For example are you trying to open your third eye or understand Psychic phenomena?
Or are you doing this for health reasons - some believe certain ailments are tied into respective chakras and that having them blocked or not open results in their being blocked and the aliments ascribed to them manifesting.
Opening them - can be done through types of meditations, certain energy healings - or IMO psychological introspection. If you can share your goal I might be able to advise you as to direction.

Originally posted by LittleBirdSaid
Wow - I've been on multiple paths for a long time myself.
I am interested in your statement about "quantifying what you have seen" do you care to be more specific?
Many cultures refer to serpent energy and chakras - and yes the numbers vary depending on path.
If you could give me an idea what you are trying to quantify I might be able to help you.
For example are you trying to open your third eye or understand Psychic phenomena?
Or are you doing this for health reasons - some believe certain ailments are tied into respective chakras and that having them blocked or not open results in their being blocked and the aliments ascribed to them manifesting.
Opening them - can be done through types of meditations, certain energy healings - or IMO psychological introspection. If you can share your goal I might be able to advise you as to direction.

Thanks for the reply. I have two primary goals: One, I guess, is to open the "third eye" and try to understand or better experience paranormal or psychic phenomena. I've had a few events that are beyond my ability to explain or quantify scientifically. Worse yet I can't just replicate them to prove to myself that they occur. Since events seem to occur more to those who are more spiritually aware and active, the next logical step is to try to increase my own awareness and see if the rate or clarity of the occurrences increase. More so, to have a better defense if such events happen. What it really boils down to though, I think, is I just dislike the idea of being blind to a part of the world that supposedly exists. I don't know if it does, but I've seen enough to not discount it - and therefore want to learn more of it, and I learn best by doing.

Secondly is a more robust health. I used to do martial arts, and spent a good twenty years doing so. A lot of the latter years hinged around meditation and more spiritual training as much as physical, and aside from being physically healthy I felt more mentally healthy as well. I'd like to reclaim and grow in that regards.

Any advice or starting points would be great; there seems to be a dozen ways and paths and philisophies and proponents arguing which one is correct, true, or better. Others warn that this is all devil's work and you're opening yourself to demonic infestation or harassment.

I don't believe in a heaven or hell. I don't believe anything occurs past death. But I've had enough experiences to suspect more might be going on than that. "Ghost" encounters do not actually engender the idea of an afterlife to me, in fact it makes it more likely there isn't pearly gates to me than anything.

So I want to approach this informed, guided if possible, and with as open a mind as I can - because just because I don't believe in some things, doesn't mean there isn't more there than I know.

No further advice?

I am no expert on this subject but I have gradually (for the last year or three) been developing a more robust relationship with my chakras. This has included what amounts to concept+visual "tutorials" from them at times.

I will give a summary in response to your posts, but please know that I can only tell you my own experience and for all I know this could be unique to the individual.

1. Everything is energy, which is to say, you are as much 'energy' as your chakras and they are as much 'identity' as you are. So it's not like you're working on further-opening a can. It's more like you're working on developing a decent relationship with someone who is already closely related to you and living in the same house.

2. There is no such thing as a fully closed chakra; they permeate us and if they were completely closed the body would shut down completely in that area and we would very promptly die. There is, however, 'barely breathing' or otherwise strangling/suppressed situations.

3. What we think of as 'us' overlaps with them. For example if you are feeling creative, or insightful, or energetic, they are already part of that in your life. Improving your relationship with them, making them healthier, is akin to making your liver or heart healthier: you probably don't have to do, but you'll probably feel better if you do.

You may find this thread interesting:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

ETA: Or what Etherguide said.

I missed one thing you asked about OP regarding the quantity.

It's a spectrum. Seen from the outside, we look like a sort of egg-shaped golden star-field.

I perceive the most massive chakras at
a) the typical 7 places, plus
b) one just under the feet in a similar relationship to the crown
c) there is an 'extension' of the foot and crown chakras that is about ~10 inches out
d) there's one between the heart and throat but this didn't actually come around for me -- it is still sort of developing it seems -- until not too long before my inner guide/angel started talking to me, so I think it might relate to that development somehow

And then: the palms and soles, and all the skeletal joints (from the big ones like pelvic to the many-little-ones like fingers and toes) have chakras. All the organs kind of overlap with what you could call chakras. And then there's just way too many to count, from that size down to beyond the 'smallness' I could perceive, stuffed throughout that golden field.

I once read that some eastern theory has it at 144,000 or something like that. Wouldn't surprise me given the visual but I didn't exactly count them. Suffice to say, a ton of them but the size/power varies drastically.

I suspect that we're "over-interpreting" the entire concept -- rather like living in a huge spectrum and obsessing on the first radio waves we discover. When really that is just part of something infinitely larger.

I read a lot of chemistry and biology and the funny thing is, I am constantly having these 'spark' syncs while reading. As if looking at the myriad of elements inside most cells (not the super simplified version but reality) makes clear that every cell is almost a little solar system of its own. Most the syncs I get the last several years are all about cosmology, and I suspect there is some holographic nature to this which makes the 'every person a star' concept true on some level.