Awakening Your Chakras 
By Jon Terrell, M.A.

Would you like to connect with sources of wisdom, healing, and creativity within yourself? Clear out mixture, confusion, limitations? And effortlessly express more of your Light and love into the world?

Do all this when you learn to purify and awaken your chakras.

These places within yourself, when cleansed, are focal points that uniquely express your true nature. Each chakra represents a particular aspect of your deepest self, the teacher within, the healer within, your innate creativity, and much more.

Our job is not to open them but to clear out the blockages to their full expression.   

Read on to learn what are chakras. And then follow the link at the bottom of the page to have an experience of clearing chakra blockages--by  beginning the process of cleansing and awakening your own Heart Center!

What Are Chakras

The term chakra comes from ancient Sanskrit and means “wheel” or “disc.” Chakras in Hindu, Buddhist, and Tantric traditions are often described as Wheels of Light within the body.

There's considerable disagreement about the purpose, meaning, size, and location of your chakras. Why is this?

One reason is that many people believe all sorts of ideas about energies and centers without having clear experiences of them. Most of what I have read on the internet doesn't include a source for the information and is just repeating what somebody else wrote! It's repeated and deemed true because so many people have said the same thing. But then others say something different. It is hard to discover what is true.

It is difficult to tell what is fake news and what is true. 

We can easily confuse intellectual understanding with experience. If an authority tells us something, or we read it in a book or online, and it sounds plausible, we often believe it and repeat it to others. We assume the writers or teachers have genuine experience to back up what they say. 

I've had more than 50 years experience working with chakras and have verified over and over again their locations and purposes. The methods I teach are designed to be verified by you so you don't have to take mine, or anyone's word as truth. 

Chakras Or Centers?

You can say either. I generally try to use English words instead of terms in other languages for two reasons. One is to help clarify often misunderstood concepts.

The other is to help make these terms less exotic and more practical.

But the word chakra has become quite popular in the English-speaking parts of the world that I have slowly switched from using the term "centers" to using "chakras." They mean the same thing.

Why Are There So Many Different Interpretations?

Each tradition and culture describes the centers/chakras somewhat differently. They disagree about the number of chakras, their location in the body, their purposes, and the colors associated with them. Chakras are sometimes associated with the endocrine glands, sometimes with nerve plexuses, and sometimes are related to specific organs.

Most commonly, seven main energy chakras are described. But some systems describe more.

I believe the main reason for these variations is that humanity's needs are evolving through time. As we evolve and awaken to spirit, our needs and abilities are changing.

Right now, we need the power and Light of the newer chakras to move forward.

Going Up Or Down?

Humanity has evolved quite a bit from 2000-3,000 years ago when the chakra techniques were first developed in India. At that time, spiritual yogis focused on drawing energy upward through the chakras towards higher consciousness. People spoke of raising the Kundalini, the life force, from the lower chakras to the head or above the head. The journey to God was an upward journey.

Today, we need is to bring higher energies down into our bodies and the world.

The focus is downward, grounding the higher energies. It's not enough to rise into higher states of consciousness. There are lots of ways to "get high."  That's the easy part. The challenge is to transform our lives and our relationships, to bring that high down, to ground it in earth.

We need to transform our bodies and minds so that we can uplift ourselves and those around us. Our job is to bring Love and Light from the ideal, from spirit, into our lives!

In the awakening and transforming methods I teach (Inner Light-Fire Meditation), clients learn how to tap into pure sources of life energy from within and direct that energy into their bodies and the earth. 

We bring heaven to earth, which is the meaning of the incarnation...bringing the divine into flesh, into "carne."

Our focus is practical: to lift the vibratory rate of our bodies and minds, of each other, and the world. Bringing pure life-energy down into the body and the earth cleanses and awakens consciousness. 

History Of Chakras

The story of chakras goes as far back as the Upanishads in India, at least 3000 years ago. In the modern West, the idea of chakras was probably first introduced about 100 years ago by teachers in the Theosophical Society, many of whom traveled to India and China and were well acquainted with Eastern philosophy.

But there are references to energy centers and working with them in ancient Jewish texts (the Sefirot or ten emanation points of the Tree of Life in the Kabbalah) and in Egyptian, Islamic and Christian texts.

In the West, Rudolf Steiner, founder of Anthroposophy, was one of the first to talk about drawing energy downward, as we do in Inner Light-Fire Meditation. 

Modern understanding of energy centers comes from an amalgam of many ancient traditions and New Age ideas. Some of the many approaches that include a chakra focus are Reiki, yoga, Eastern martial arts, crystal/gem therapy, aromatherapy, Tai Chi, and Qigong.

Don't Open Your Chakras

You may have heard that it's good to open your chakras, and that opening them will improve your life.

I don't see it that way.

For the past 25 years I've been contacted by people who attempted to open their chakras, and have gotten into serious difficulty. Some have even started to hear voices. Others experienced severe pain. Others worried that they were going crazy.

You may have seen people with mental illness that converse out loud to others that most of us can't see. (And they are not using mobile phones!) They can have open chakras and are too open to external influences. They need to get grounded! The psychiatric drugs that mentally ill people receive help close down their perception. Some of these folks have tried meditation techniques to open their chakras and have gotten stuck. I've met some of them.

We need to awaken our chakras, not open them. That is a huge difference.

A Modern, Practical Approach To Chakras

I have been teaching people how to tap into and direct pure life energy from within since 1970 when I began my studies of Inner Light-Fire Meditation, which was also known as Agni Yoga or Actualism. The following information and practical advice come from my personal experience teaching hundreds of people this approach to meditation and healing.

Please note that working with the energy centers is powerful, transformative work and should be carefully undertaken, preferably with a qualified teacher. I strongly recommend that you do not mix energy techniques from different traditions or you could end up bringing up more than you can comfortably handle! It is better to try one approach for a few months to determine how it benefits you and then switch to another. so you have something to compare.

Your own experience is the best guide.

What Do Chakras Do?

Chakras have two primary purposes. Chakras are (1) places within our nature that express unique aspects of our Divine Self and (2) focal points for express into the world the pure life energy within us. These purposes are revealed as our chakras are purified and awakened.

1. They are unique places in consciousness. Each chakra expresses a particular aspect of our divinity. For example, the chakra in the center of our brain connects us into the wisdom of the divine and to our inner knowing. When you want to understand something or clarify a situation in your life, this is the place to go. Entering this center is like entering a room where you can connect with the Teacher Within.

Likewise, you can travel to the heart center to get in touch with the Healer Within. Or travel to connect with your Creative Source, the Warrior Within, and other aspects of your divine nature.

Chakras are places in consciousness that, when purified and awakened, are powerful, limitless sources of inspiration and renewal. So often, we turn outward to others for help, inspiration, and guidance. Or we look outward for something to give us a boost--food, exercise, advise, etc. When we learn to turn to vibrant, pure sources within ourselves, we tap into our own wisdom and healing.

But they are more than places in consciousness.

2. They are also focal points for expressing limitless life energy, the Inner Light within us. You can express this life energy into your body, mind, and energy field, and out into the world.

There is no energy shortage within! Limitless, pure Light is yours directly from Source. Most people, without training, have a limited supply of energy. And most of that gets channeled into old behavior patterns. For example, our inner wisdom, can get distorted into conditioned mental habit patterns that we endlessly repeat as self doubt, fear, negativity, confusion, etc.

In Inner Light-Fire Meditation (also called Agni Yoga), we work with inner light-fire to cleanse our bodies and chakras of these old habitual patterns. We learn to express our Light without distortion. We awaken our chakras in a step-by-step manner.

As you learn to connect with your chakras, you can tap, at any time, the power of Inner Light.

Our chakras are hidden treasures--waiting for us to discover them. And as we learn to access these treasures, we become powerful forces for good in the world, radiating our Light out to others.

Find Out The Condition Of  Your Chakras 
Get your chakras, body and energy field evaluated

Would you like to know the condition of your chakras and what to do to awaken them? I offer a full evaluation of your body, chakras and energy field that we can do over Zoom or other service. Plus, I will teach you the first Inner Light-Fire technique to immediately begin to cleanse your consciousness. You can continue to work with this technique to purify your body and mind.

Go to our Distant Energy Healing page to find out more about this session and how you can work with me.

Inner Light-Fire Training

How Can You Cleanse Your Chakras And Release Blockages?

I teach Inner Light-Fire meditation in person and using Zoom, Skype or FaceTime. You can send me a message below to learn more about my training or view one of the links below.

Massage and bodywork, especially those that work with energy, can also help with the releasing and cleansing. Energy therapy, such as the Chakra Balancing Massage that I offer, can be especially valuable.

To learn more about our methods and experience a taste of it, click here. 

For an experience of purifying your Heart Chakra go to Working with Your Heart Center.

Jon Terrell, MA, offers Meditation Training, Energy Healing Therapy and Counseling at his office in Northampton, Massachusetts and in New York City, in downtown Manhattan. He offers retreats on emotional healing. For more information or if you have a question, contact him using the form below. 

Jon Terrell, M.A.
Fitzwilly's Building
25 Main Street, Suite #342
Northampton, Massachusetts

Go from What Are Chakras to Meditation Page

Go to Proceed with Caution

Go to Energy Healing Page

Go to Retreats Page

Go To Home Page