Can Scientific Proof be Found for the Existence of Chakras?

So, you know about chakras, right? They’re like this spiritual thing from the East and are also used in Western biofield therapies. Anyway, some people have looked into whether there’s any scientific proof for the existence of chakras behind them, and it turns out there’s some evidence suggesting that they might actually be real. There haven’t been many studies on them, but it seems like chakras could give off some electromagnetic radiation and maybe even have something to do with nerves in your body. Pretty wild stuff, huh?

Introduction to Scientific Proof or the Existence of Chakras

To begin with, have you heard of the chakra system? It’s this thing from India that’s been around for like a thousand years as part of Hindu and Buddhist yoga traditions. Basically, people meditate on these “chakras” to achieve a higher level of consciousness.

It’s actually been around in the West since the 1880s, thanks to some group called the Theosophical Society. Then in the ’60s and ’70s, some other folks came up with a more Western version of the system that’s all about personal growth and healing.

Nowadays, it’s a pretty big deal in the New Age world and is used in biofield therapies and spiritual healing. People think chakras are these energy centers that control the flow of “life force” within our bodies, but it’s not clear if they’re a real thing or just a metaphor. In this review, we’re gonna look at some of the science behind it all.

The Method to Proofe Scientifically the Existence of Chakras

To determine whether there is any scientific basis for chakras, a search was conducted on PubMed, ResearchGate, and Google Scholar. Studies were sought that provided evidence for the existence of chakras in a similar manner to the investigation of acupuncture points and meridians.

The search terms used were “chakra,” “chakras,” “science of chakras,” and “human electromagnetic radiation.” Books that discussed scientific studies of chakras were also identified from reviews on Google Scholar and reference books on Energy Medicine. The focus was on empirical studies, rather than theoretical papers or New Age descriptions. The results were intriguing.

Results of the Research

Sixteen articles were found on PubMed during the search, the results were classified into three categories according to their subjects: anatomical studies of chakra locations (n=2), theoretical reviews of subtle anatomy, and clinical studies of mind-body therapies.

A small number of studies were also discovered in conference proceedings and non-indexed databases through Google Scholar and ResearchGate. In addition, two physiological studies on chakras were mentioned in books (Motoyama, 1981; Hunt, 1996).

Anatomical studies

Back in 1927, Leadbeter made a point in his book that the midline chakras are located near major neurological plexuses, which might suggest a connection between the nervous system and the chakras. Rokade recently discovered that the cardiac plexus of nerves can be found at the base of the heart, right by the heart chakra.

Additionally, the muladhara chakra (also known as the base or root chakra) is closely associated with the inferior hypogastric plexus and its sub-plexuses, according to Sweta and other researchers in 2018. These studies support the idea that the midline chakras have some sort of neuroanatomical association.

Physiological studies

A couple of old studies were discovered in books by scientists. In Motoyama’s “Theories of the Chakras” (1981), a series of preliminary experiments examining electric, magnetic, and optical emissions from chakras during meditation was described. In the experiment, meditators were seated on a chair in an electrostatically shielded, light-proof room.

International Journal of Healing and Caring 2022, 22(2)39-45

A round copper electrode and photo-electric cell were positioned in front of a given chakra, with another copper electrode placed in front of a control chakra. The emissions from a particular chakra were measured, and a control chakra was also measured using another copper electrode.

The scientists set up a magnetometer on the floor and asked the meditator to focus on one chakra. Whenever the person felt anything from the chakra, they pressed a button. The photoelectric cell picked up a faint light during emissions, and the copper electrode detected high-frequency vibrations from the active chakra, but not from the control chakra. The scientist even included some recordings in the book that showed that chakras might release energy that can be detected and measured.

According to Motoyama, “when the nonphysical [mind] interacts with the physical [body], there are perturbations in physical space with measurable radiations.”

Hunt research

Hunt (1977, 1996) wrote about her chakra experiments in two different places: her book Infinite Mind and a project report to the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute. To measure chakra electrical activity, Hunt used surface electrodes on 9 chakra/acupuncture spots on 4 people who got 10 “Rolfing” deep massage sessions.

They recorded 40 sessions in total. Where they put the electrodes depended on which part of the person’s body the massage therapist worked on. At the same time, Rosalyn Bruyere, who can read auras, recorded what she saw and heard with a microphone, noting the color, size, and energy flow of the chakras and the person’s auric “cloud”.

One big thing Hunt noticed was that certain waveforms and frequencies in the chakras matched the colors that Bruyere saw at those chakra spots. They found different frequency bands for each auric color between 100 Hz to 1 KHz, regardless of where the chakra was. They also saw that the electrical activity got stronger when a chakra “opened”.

After Hunt’s work, Wirth and his colleagues (1997) did EMG recordings of chakras at multiple spots while people did Qigong and Therapeutic Touch healing sessions, but other scientists have questioned the validity of Wirth’s research findings (Solfvin et al., 2005).

Rowold and Hewson’s approach

Rowold and Hewson (2020) recently did a study similar to Hunt’s where they put EMG electrodes on the seven main chakra areas and recorded frequencies above 200Hz. They checked baseline values in two groups, 20 biofield practitioners and 24 university students. For both groups, they found 10 different frequency bands, which includes the eight bands Hunt identified, plus two extra bands.

The biofield practitioners had more power in the frequency bands than the university students, which suggests that healers might have more energy for healing.

Jalil’s approach

Jalil and colleagues (2015) used a radiofrequency meter with a whip antenna to measure MHz radiation from the seven major chakras in 26 healthy young people. They made sure to calibrate the detector, figuring out the best antenna length and distance from the human body.

They discovered that each chakra emits its own unique frequency band in the MHz range. On average, the frequencies of the chakras ranged from 29 MHz to 86 MHz, with the highest frequencies found at the third eye and crown chakras. Supporting this finding is the fact that the human body has an overall resonant radiofrequency of around 53 MHz (King, 2000).

International Journal of Healing and Caring 2022, 22(2)39-45

Final Words

These studies show that chakras may be scientifically studied, similar to acupuncture points and meridians, which have unique electrical properties and possible anatomical correlates. The Motoyama and Hunt studies were trailblazing because they showed the possibility of studying chakras, and bridging spiritual/clairvoyant experiences of the chakras with scientific measurements.

Later studies by Rowold and Hewson (2020) and Jalil et al. (2015) were more carefully designed, pointing the way for future studies. Overall, it seems that radiations can be detected at chakra sites, which is consistent with the emerging field of energy medicine and biofield therapies. Spiritual traditions were the first to describe a subtle body and subtle energies, but scientific evidence suggests that the ‘subtle energy’ in energy medicine is neither supernatural nor requires a revision in biophysics.

The biofield, of which chakras are part, is based on bioelectromagnetics and biophysical fields that play a regulatory role in cellular structure and function.

Please find the original version of the research here.