New Age Integral?

Hey Michael,

I always feel a certain twinge of something--i don't know, embarassment?--when we get into subjects that have become so synonymous with new age thought. But i also know that we don't want to purposely avoid any topics just because of this sort of woo-woo connotation, as i think there is still a great deal to be "taken back" from the standard new age rhetoric.
 

That said, I too thought this talk was a bit more "out there" than our typical fare.  But also thought that it was really useful to give Michal the space to offer her perspective, and to check it against Ken's.  If anything else, she gives a really interesting take on the subject, and allows us a fairly unique angle on a topic that is frequently discussed in integral circles.  
 

And this is precisely the reason why we also ran the "Towards a Comprehensive Theory of Subtle Energies" piece alongside this discussion, as a way to bring some intellectual rigor to some of the truth claims we find in the talk.
 

And i too had a little chuckle when i heard that "wood absorbs fear"--but then, if the hypotheses Ken presents in the above essay prove true, i'd have to admit that it could be entirely possible that some link may exist.  For example, if we look at the diagram above, could substances in the "etheric" class of energy perhaps have some sort of influence upon "etheric"-equivalent emotions in the UL quadrant?  Of course it is important to remember the key word in the title of Ken's essay--Toward a Comprehensive Theory of Subtle Energies--and not take any of this as fact until much more research and evidence can be accumulated.  But it seems a really great place to start, and offers a way to cut through both "the voice of the sceptic" and "the voice of the believer" as we listen to Michal, and ask ourselves these questions.
 

And by the way, i am sitting on a micro-suede couch right now, and experienced absolutely no fear while writing this. ^_^

Finally here's a couple excerpts from the above essay, in case it helps the discussion.  The first may have something to do with the question of "could we see subtle energy?" while the second offers a few of Ken's thoughts about chakras themselves.

Harold Saxon Burr, the Yale physiologist who was one of the first great pioneers in the scientific (or third-person) study of energy fields, often used a diagram like figure 8, which represents experimentally detected energy fields. 
 

Let me emphasize that this is a highly schematic diagram, simply to show what is involved.  It includes a “P-field,” or any gross physical energies associated with this body; as well as an “L-field” (or “life-field”) and a “T-field” (or “thought-field”).  Note the holonic character.  Of course, none of these energy fields are merely local, or confined simply to a physical and localized space.  The local aspects of these energy fields—represented by the shells in the diagram—are simply the areas of highest density of the fields (or, alternatively, the areas of greatest probability of finding the signature energy).  But many of these local aspects can indeed be physically detected with various instruments (e.g., Burr, Motoyama, Tiller).  Also, well-known and highly respected psychics (e.g., Michal Levin) often perceive these energy shells in essentially the way Burr depicted them—fields within fields within fields.  This is not to say they do not appear in other ways, only that the Burr diagram captures some typical and important aspects of these energies.
 

The point is that, on both the interior and the exterior, evolution is indeed, in many significant ways, holarchical: it is transcend and include.  And thus the holonic milestones of ongoing evolution and development—in consciousness, in complexification of form, and in energy-field emergents—show a nested hierarchical pattern: the whole of one wave becomes a part of the whole of the next.  In this regard, Plotinus was right on the money: development is envelopment.
 

Because each holon or compound individual contains or subsumes the matter and energy of its subholons, we can use a few more diagrams to schematically indicate what this might mean.  With reference to the Burr diagram of holonic fields, each individual holon, as it emerges, has its own gross material form plus its associated energy fields: the greater the degree of complexity of the material form, the more energy fields surrounding it (hypothesis #3).  This can be indicated as in figure 9.
 

In this figure, which represents actual occasions when looked at in an objective, third-person stance (i.e., holons in the UR quadrant), we can see that each level of increasing complexity of gross material form transcends-and-includes (or subsumes) its junior levels of material form—but all of those levels are compound individuals in their own right, and thus all of them retain their own energy signatures, so that the compound individual itself is compounded of both its previous, junior, material components (represented by the solid spheres) and their associated energy fields (represented by the surrounding shells). 
 

Although we have been focusing on individual holons and their energy fields in the Upper Right, the AQAL nature of all holons clearly implies that there would be, in the Lower Right, systems of collective energy fields associated with social holons, and I believe there are (we will return to that topic in later sections). 
 

By the way, there are no energy fields in the Left-Hand quadrants, of course, because those are aspects of holons that are first-person feelings, awareness, consciousness, and so on, whose exterior (or Right-Hand) correlates are mass and energy.  All holons have four quadrants, which means all holons have interiors of consciousness and exteriors of form and energy (e.g., even subtle consciousness has a subtle body, and causal consciousness has a causal body, etc.), but consciousness is not itself energy, nor energy consciousness. 

The Chakras

In my opinion, the real test case of any theory of subtle energies is whether it can adequately explicate the chakras.  The chakra system is both beautifully simple and bewilderingly complex, but the basics need to be fully accounted for by any theory of subtle energies.
 

Let me begin a suggested elucidation by referring to figure 10.  Here we can see the relation of the three major family-energies in thehuman compound individual.  Even in infancy, as we have seen, a human being wakes, dreams, and sleeps, and therefore even an infant has access to gross, subtle, and causal realms (although the specific contents of those realms will be supplied by the stages of development). 
 

This is indicated in the figure.  Even though these three family-energies emerged or manifested only during the course of evolution, by the time of human emergence, all three family-energies are therefore intrinsic to a human holon.  That is, gross family-energies emerged with the Big Bang; subtle-family energies emerged with living cells; and causal-family energies emerged with triune brains.  Because each stage transcends-and-includes its predecessors, all three family-energies come with a human body (which is, in fact, a conjoining of three bodies).
 

Therefore, even an infant human possesses waking, dreaming, and sleeping states, as well as correlative gross, subtle, and causal family-energies—even though, again, the contents of those consciousness states will be supplied by developmental stages, and the genus and species of subtle and causal energies will likewise be supplied by the specific stages of development (e.g., only as the human develops concrete operational and formal operational thinking will the T-1 fields begin to light up, etc.).
 

This means that, if the great traditions were really alive to these realities, they would maintain that the chakras represent or contain both the three great bodyminds (because all three states/bodies are present from infancy) AND the various stages of consciousness development.  In other words, each chakra contains gross/subtle/causal energies, AND each chakra is a stage of development or evolution of consciousness.
 

Needless to say, that is exactly what we find.  There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of variations on the chakra system found in the different traditions.  I will again give merely an extremely abbreviated treatment, and simply use one example: the overall summary of the chakras given by Hiroshi Motoyama.  (In the following quotes, I have substituted “subtle” for “astral,” which is a mere semantic shift to be consonant with the terms we have been using; the meaning is unaltered.)
 

On the one hand, the chakras are indeed stages of evolutionary unfolding: “During spiritual growth, a person must ascend the evolutionary ladder through these dimensions step by step, gradually increasing his awareness of the higher realms.”    
 

Now for the hard part.  Each chakra must also contain gross, subtle, and causal energies and their correlative consciousness states(because even in the lowest stage of development—the first chakra—an infant wakes, dreams, and sleeps, and possesses a gross, subtle, and causal body).  In other words, in addition to being a specific stage of development, each of the 7 chakras must contain three body/energies and three mind/states.  Motoyama: “The chakras are the centers of the body’s energy systems, which exist in each of the three different dimensions: gross, subtle, and causal.”  That is, each chakra has those three dimensions, which is why each chakra acts as an intermediary between the gross, subtle, and causal energies circulating at that chakra: “The chakras act as intermediaries between the three dimensions [gross, subtle, causal], and can convert the energy of one dimension into that of another.”
 

Each of those 3 energy/body dimensions, at every chakra, also has its corresponding mind (i.e., a version of waking, dreaming, and sleeping states, correlated with gross, subtle, and causal energies, so that each of the 7 chakras contains gross bodymind, subtle bodymind, and causal bodymind).  Therefore, each chakra acts as the intermediary not only between the 3 different types (or families) of bodies/energies present at each chakra, but between the 3 minds (or 3 great consciousness states) and their 3 corresponding bodies/energies at each chakra.  Thus, each of “the chakras are also intermediaries between the physical [gross] body and [gross] consciousness, between the subtle body and [subtle] manas, and between the causal body and [causal] karana, that is, between the body and the mind of each dimension” (i.e., between the consciousness/state and the body/energy of the 3 great realms present at every chakra). 
 

At the same time, as development or evolution occurs, each of the 7 chakras can be awakened and entered with consciousness, at which point they function as actual stages (or “steps,” as Motoyama calls them) of evolution.  The overall picture of the chakras, then, is quite sophisticated, and, exactly like the Vedanta/Vajrayana “bare essentials” model of 3 states, 3 bodies, and 5 levels, the chakra system covers virtually all of the important bases.  As a matter of fact, it is simply a slightly expanded version of that model, with 7 levels instead of 5. 
 

But the overall picture is consistent: the 7 chakras are 7 levels/stages of development or evolution.  Each of those levels exist in three major dimensions: gross, subtle, causal.  In the gross dimension, the chakras are associated with bodily organs and systems, such as the genitals, the solar plexus, the heart, the larynx, and the pituitary gland.  In the subtle dimensions, the chakras appear as they are most often depicted, which is as subtle centers of energy and consciousness aligned along the spine (with secondary meridians as found in, e.g., acupuncture).  In the causal dimension, the 7 stages themselves are so subtle and so ethereal they are starting to loose definition, but they are still present as the causal ground and support of all of the junior levels and dimensions—what Vajrayana calls “the very subtle chakras.” 
 

This means that each of the 7 chakras has a gross, subtle, and causal energy dimension.  At Motoyama points out, each chakra acts as a transforming station between those 3 energies as they appear at its chakra (e.g., the throat chakra can convert gross energy from food into subtle energy, or convert causal energy into subtle energy, and so on).  Further, each chakra mediates the energy/body with the consciousness/mind at its chakra (e.g., the throat chakra mediates the gross, subtle, and causal energies with the waking, dreaming, sleeping states at that level).  In other words, each chakra contains, at its level, the family-gross bodymind, the family-subtle bodymind, and the family-causal bodymind; and it mediates both those 3 energies with each other AND the various energies with their corresponding minds.
 

Therefore, and lastly, each chakra also represents a stage of development or evolution (the chakras are a variation on the Great Chain of matter to body to mind to soul to spirit) and, accordingly, each chakra is a transforming station that mediates between the great states of consciousness (waking, dreaming, sleeping, all of which are present from infancy and present at all of the chakras) and the actual contents, features, genus and species of both energy and consciousness as evolution or development occurs through those 7 major stages or levels.  The genus and species of consciousness and energy are not fully present or manifest at infancy, and consequently development is the emergence and maturation of 7 levels of both consciousness and its 7 correlative signature energies or bodies (or genus and species energy-fingerprints at each of the 7 chakras).  I will pursue some of these details in an endnote for those interested.

As I said, the chakra system is both beautifully simple and bewilderingly complex, but in the last analysis, it is the simplest model that can adequately handle three things that we know exist: states of consciousness, stages of consciousness, and their associated energies, all of which can rather seamlessly be woven together with such a model.  At this point, anything more is likely unneeded; anything less is likely inadequate.

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Corey W deVos
(dj rekluse)

Writer, Content Producer, and Webmaster
Integral Life, Integral Naked
Managing Editor, KenWilber.com

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