Ah, true, the locations themselves could very well have been expectation effects, though what that would reveal about the power of expectation effects would be even more interesting than the existence of specific points along the spine. These weren’t subtle sensations! they were often intense to the point of great discomfort, and the books did mention weird “channels” that were supposed to link the points along the spine, but I never experienced those, so it’s not like my experience fully matched what the chakra books said should happen. And I never got deep enough into chakra-based practices for them to yield any positive effects that I could see, apart from the generic concentration benefits that any focusing practice yields, regardless of focus object. To me they remained just a weird phenomenon that happens when I pay attention to the spine. I got into chakras out of a “surely that stuff can’t be real too, can it?” instinct after some initial weird experiences shattered my view on what meditation could do.
Ah, true, the locations themselves could very well have been expectation effects, though what that would reveal about the power of expectation effects would be even more interesting than the existence of specific points along the spine. These weren’t subtle sensations! they were often intense to the point of great discomfort, and the books did mention weird “channels” that were supposed to link the points along the spine, but I never experienced those, so it’s not like my experience fully matched what the chakra books said should happen. And I never got deep enough into chakra-based practices for them to yield any positive effects that I could see, apart from the generic concentration benefits that any focusing practice yields, regardless of focus object. To me they remained just a weird phenomenon that happens when I pay attention to the spine. I got into chakras out of a “surely that stuff can’t be real too, can it?” instinct after some initial weird experiences shattered my view on what meditation could do.