reading books about chakras, and practicing the exercises they said would “open” my chakras, and again I was supremely surprised to find that, indeed, there were very strong sensations I could feel at specific points along my spine, exactly where the book said the “chakras” ought to be
From an outside view, this seems at least plausibly like a placebo—you were primed to expect sensations at certain locations and then felt them there. As far as I know (and I’m not an expert here), the location of chakras is only found in forms of meditation that are related to Buddhism, not in other forms (eg. Christian meditation, Native American practices, etc.). But if it were a general truth about humans, rather than a social truth, one would expect it to have been discovered independently.
One way to test this, though actually doing the study would be difficult, would be to get two separate groups to learn meditation, teaching one group the traditional location of the chakras and the other group a separate but equally plausible location of the chakras. If the second group still detects the chakras in the traditional location, or doesn’t all while the first group does detect the chakras, this would be strong evidence that there is something fundamental.
Of course, things that are created socially can still be very important and have real effects. I’m not saying in any way that you should stop or change how you meditate.
As far as I know (and I’m not an expert here), the location of chakras is only found in forms of meditation that are related to Buddhism, not in other forms (eg. Christian meditation, Native American practices, etc.)
Hindu religion focuses a lot more on chakra’s than Buddhism does.
When it comes to locations of chakra’s there’s one interesting question. There’s a chakra that the Hindu’s call the Manipura chakra.
You sometimes read that it’s located where the navel is. Other sources say it’s located where the solar plexus is. Years ago I asked a question in the Hindu stackexchange and they told me “Place the little finger of your hand on the navel. Your navel is the solar plexus or the manipura chakra”. Quite obviously, in Western anatomy the navel and the solar plexus are not the same place.
To me, this experience was really weird as I would have expected to get clear answers about where the chakra is supposed to be. It’s quite unclear to me what those people for whom chakra’s are a central concept actually believe about them.
The lack of concern from the users of the Hindu StackExchange for the inconsistency also felt weird.
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.
From an outside view, this seems at least plausibly like a placebo—you were primed to expect sensations at certain locations and then felt them there. As far as I know (and I’m not an expert here), the location of chakras is only found in forms of meditation that are related to Buddhism, not in other forms (eg. Christian meditation, Native American practices, etc.). But if it were a general truth about humans, rather than a social truth, one would expect it to have been discovered independently.
One way to test this, though actually doing the study would be difficult, would be to get two separate groups to learn meditation, teaching one group the traditional location of the chakras and the other group a separate but equally plausible location of the chakras. If the second group still detects the chakras in the traditional location, or doesn’t all while the first group does detect the chakras, this would be strong evidence that there is something fundamental.
Of course, things that are created socially can still be very important and have real effects. I’m not saying in any way that you should stop or change how you meditate.
Hindu religion focuses a lot more on chakra’s than Buddhism does.
When it comes to locations of chakra’s there’s one interesting question. There’s a chakra that the Hindu’s call the Manipura chakra.
You sometimes read that it’s located where the navel is. Other sources say it’s located where the solar plexus is. Years ago I asked a question in the Hindu stackexchange and they told me “Place the little finger of your hand on the navel. Your navel is the solar plexus or the manipura chakra”. Quite obviously, in Western anatomy the navel and the solar plexus are not the same place.
To me, this experience was really weird as I would have expected to get clear answers about where the chakra is supposed to be. It’s quite unclear to me what those people for whom chakra’s are a central concept actually believe about them.
The lack of concern from the users of the Hindu StackExchange for the inconsistency also felt weird.
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.
I’d test the meditation → vibrating thing first, and start with a control group not taught about that before trying to modify it.