The word Chakra or Tchakra, which comes from Sanskrit, means “wheel”. Each chakra is composed of three concentric and interconnected spirals of energy, whose rotation intensifies as the individual develops. They can also be called energy centres or energy centres. The chakras can be energy emitters or receivers and the energies captured can originate from the most diverse sources; cosmic origin, the collective unconscious, the physical, astral and mental planes, etc.

Chakra (Sanskrit, “wheel”) also refers to the ancient Hindu concept of seven vortexes of energy located in the spine from the coccyx to the crown of the head. These centres define the points of physical and spiritual contact in the human body. In yoga, they are bridges to higher consciousness, symbolizing the journey from the material world to the divine. Alternative medicine healers recognize them as a dynamic resource for health. First published in 1927, this pioneering book by the famous clairvoyant C. W. Leadbeater was the first to introduce chakras to the West.

With great clarity, he explains what each chakra means about our well-being, perception, and personal power, his full-colour illustrations showing the chakras as they truly appear to those who can see them. Anyone can perceive chakras, he says. We must only become sensitive to more subtle vibrations than those to which we normally respond. Charles Webster Leadbeater (1847-1934) was a Church of England clergyman until he joined the Theosophical Society in 1883.

He spent a few years in Sri Lanka working for the revival of Buddhism, and later became the Presiding Bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church, which seeks to combine the preservation of Catholic sacraments with the widest measure of freedom of thought and interpretation of scripture. He was a highly developed clairvoyant and the author of more than thirty books on spiritual life and the psychic nature of man.

The chakras of the etheric body (body formed by more subtle energy coupled with the physical body) originate where the lines of energy cross. The chakras have three functions: to vitalize the physical body; carry out the development of self-awareness; transmit spiritual energy to elevate the individual to a spiritual plane. The energy of the chakras circulates through the physical body through energy channels: the nadis.

The human being has a set of circular energy centres located throughout the body: in the head, trunk and limbs. There are energy centres in the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, and seven central energy centres in the midline of the body. This central system of energy centres is closely related to the endocrine system. Each energy centre is associated with one or more specific glands, while the first and eighth act as physical and spiritual regulators, respectively, of the endocrine system