Are Chakras Real? What a doctor sees in clinic

Key takeaways

• The classical chakra centres appear to correlate with major autonomic plexuses and endocrine hubs along the central axis of the body.
• ECG, EEG and ultra-weak photon emission show that the body does produce real fields, whilst measurement work specifically at the chakra sites is still exploratory.
• In clinic, patients often describe colour sequences that align with these classical maps whilst experiencing deep emotional shifts. That clinical pattern is one of the biggest reasons I take this framework seriously.
• In my personal opinion, bringing these patterns into public scientific debate with both clinical rigour and open curiosity could be paradigm-shifting for how healthcare thinks about the body, emotion and consciousness.

The shift in the clinic

In medicine, chakras are usually dismissed before the evidence is even discussed. I understand the reflex. I did the same.

That changed when patients began describing colours and images during treatment that I had not suggested to them. Colours appeared as something changed emotionally within them, and it happened often enough that I could no longer file it under coincidence.

These experiences were enough to make me look properly at what ancient medical traditions were trying to map, and whether modern anatomy, interoception or autonomic physiology could explain any part of what I was seeing.

Here is what I found, and why I no longer dismiss it out of hand.

What are chakras?

The classical maps describe seven main energy centres of organised activity along the central axis of the body. In the Tantric and yogic texts these are called chakras, often rendered as “wheels”^{1, 2}. Similar ideas of concentrated energy centres appear in Tibetan Buddhism³, in Sufism⁴, and in later Western esoteric writing⁵.

Chakras are viewed as the organs of the subtle body, intricately connected to the body’s energy channels, or nadis. These nadis can be equated to the meridians in Chinese medicine. These energy centres, or chakras, are thought to absorb and process a universal energy, prana in Ayurveda, and to act as intermediaries, transforming energy between the physical, astral and causal dimensions into forms usable by the body.

From an Ayurvedic perspective, chakras are fundamental to an understanding of holistic healing, and to understanding disruptions in our psychological and physiological states: by managing this vital energy, they influence our physical health, emotional well-being and spiritual growth. In the same way the body has physical organs, Ayurveda views the chakras as organs of the energy field, or subtle body, that surrounds us. That field can be equated to what certain scientists are now calling the biofield, or electromagnetic field, around the body¹⁶. This language can sound abstract, and I fully understand the scepticism around it. For those who are interested, I have also written about how modern physics may be describing the same reality as Ayurveda, in a different language.

Where the traditional map overlaps with anatomy

One of the parts I find hardest to dismiss, after my own research, is the anatomy. Each of the seven centres sits, more or less, over a major autonomic plexus or endocrine structure.

What I find striking is that observers working without modern dissection repeatedly located “energy centres” exactly where the body concentrates its densest autonomic wiring and its major hormone-producing glands. I now find that spatial coincidence alone is worth taking seriously, even if one remains sceptical about the metaphysical language.

The table below sets each one against its traditional colour, its nerve plexus, its associated gland, its classical acupuncture point on the Conception and Governing vessels, and what Ayurveda links to it.

What has been measured, and what remains contested

A small number of investigators have tried to record electrical or photonic activity at these same sites. Hiroshi Motoyama developed a device that measures conductivity at the classical acupuncture points and reported differences that he linked to chakra states¹². Valerie Hunt, working at UCLA in the 1970s, recorded low-level electrical signals from electrodes placed over the traditional centres during deep bodywork and, with the help of an aura reader, associated particular frequency patterns with particular colours and emotional states¹³. Konstantin Korotkov has used gas-discharge imaging to photograph corona discharge around the body and interprets the patterns as an energy field^{14, 15}.

The instinct to look for something physical at these sites is not as strange as it might sound. The body does produce genuinely measurable electromagnetic fields. The heart’s is recorded on an ECG, the brain’s on an EEG, and both can be detected just off the surface of the body¹⁷. Living cells also emit ultra-weak photons, and these emissions appear to carry information about metabolic state¹⁸.

From a strictly scientific perspective, I think this work is exploratory and far from conclusive. But considering what I see in clinic, which I will describe next, I think these experiments raise serious questions worth investigating with rigorous curiosity, standards and intensity.

What my patients describe

In the work I do, I often aim to reach the systems that regulate the body outside conscious awareness. In both Chinese medicine and Ayurveda, the aim is much the same: to free the flow of this subtle energy, whether we describe it as unblocking a meridian, releasing emotion held in the body, or supporting mental health more directly, so the system can regulate itself again.

It has now become very common for patients to locate an emotion as a distinct physical presence, in the chest, throat, belly or pelvis, and in various parts of the body. Many also describe feeling energy moving, or unusual sensations, as we work.

What I find interesting is that colours also appear very commonly. Red is typically associated with fear. Pink or green with a sudden sense of openness and love. Purple, white and occasionally gold with the deepest sense of peace. Two patients who had never heard of chakras both described a lotus-like image, which is striking for anyone aware of what Ayurveda has depicted for thousands of years.

One woman moved, within a single session, through red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and violet, the colours associated with all seven chakras. Her felt experience tracked the colours exactly, from tight fear to a quiet sense of unity. I have now seen variations of this sequence many times. It is the same sequence recorded in Hunt’s electrodes and written in the classical texts thousands of years ago.

Where this leaves us

This is a very basic introduction to this concept. To the best of my knowledge, we are probably far from conclusively validating chakras from a scientific perspective. But when you look at the correlation between these centres, the body’s major autonomic plexuses and endocrine hubs, and the clinical patterns that I and others have seen - patients reporting the same places and the same colours - something in that overlap is hard to dismiss as coincidence.

I will continue to observe and document these clinical patterns with keen interest. In my personal opinion, bringing these patterns into public scientific debate with both clinical rigour and open curiosity could be paradigm-shifting for how healthcare thinks about the body, emotion and consciousness. Who would benefit most from that? The patient.

Dr Shehan Wijesingha, MD, M.TCM, DipAP, BMedSci, CPT, practises at Serenity Holistic Medical Clinic, Malta. He is Vice President of the Association of Ayurvedic Professionals UK.

Medical disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes. It is not a substitute for individual medical assessment, diagnosis, or treatment. Do not alter or stop medication, or begin new treatment, based on this article alone. Consult a qualified clinician who can evaluate your specific situation.