Chap 8 : The Pillars of Man

The Power of Being Man

The Cakras … or nerve centers … comprising about seven of them … begin at the Muladara ( base of spine ) and end at the top of the head … at a position called the sahasrara. Together they form a vertical pillar … in the human body … and represent what Indic literature refers to as … seven universes … or dimensions of experience. The experience is not unknown in other writings.

In the fairy tale … Rapunzel … a beautiful girl is locked in the top of the tower … without staircases  ... and held prisoner by her knowledge of herself. This may well represent the sahasrara experience. The prince who comes to rescue … persuades her to let down her hair … for him to climb the tower … no doubt through 5 cakras along the way … to get to the top and rescue her. 

In its form as a fairy tale … the story brings to our early experience … the nature of the mystical in us … which we hope to understand ... through our human condition in life. In much the same way … the legends of the early Pleiades … illustrate a place of the muses in man … in which we create our plays in the social circle. This is again brought up in Wicca stories of the boiling pot … and in Indic legends … as the resting place of Vishnu on the serpent of time.

In reviewing the many references … we come to find that such a place is not in the mind … but in the body. Science brings our attention to the diaphragm in the body … as the instrument that assists in breathing. It is made up of three levels … and contains a central tendon ... looking much like braided hair ... that connects it to the rest of the body. At one end … the diaphragm is connected to the base of the spine … and is expected to be connected to the nervous system of the body. 

The effect of the cakras … experienced as visions … when combined with the powerful central tendon … provide a physical feel to the experience of visions … as if they are experienced physically by the body. It also engages … the seven cakras to bring to us an experience of dimensions … the universe … and the world. In the biological understanding we create of the body … we come to a greater clarity about the possible nature of these phenomenon … that we may have experienced in the past.

In the conscious study of these experiences … and in bringing it to relate to science and the human body … we gain so much more in the understanding of these experiences. It removes these experiences from the altars of esoterism … and helps us to relate to them … with understanding … human warmth … and to attain a greater peace regarding the human personality. In applying our minds to the experience … we realize that its not something alien … but very much human.

To the layman who relied on his priest for the divine intervention … or to the wife for intimations of birth and the soul … and to the political leadership for views about society … this represents an opportunity to understand the issues ourselves. In understanding ourselves … we understand others … and the mysteries of creation. Perhaps the anxiety we face … is simply in trying to organize and put in proper perspective … the tons of information … stored in our minds and bodies.

As the 21^st century dawns upon us … we may well realize the special nature of the human body … its role in the evolutionary process … and its relations to the world around us. The reality we seek … would include man in its reckoning … not exclude it.