Why does western medicine deny the existence of the chakras?

[Donal]

Western medicine seem to think that they do not exist, when they do. It is the same with energy work like Kundalini, when it is raised the brain transforms with loads of "antennas" sticking up, howcome western medicine has never studied a person with raised kundalini?

I think they should study reality first before they even start to think about disproving OBE's, NDE's and the like.

[MisterJingo]

There is no study to try and disprove OBEs or NDEs. The bruden of proof lies on those who are tyring to prove they do exist. Until then science simply disregards them.
Regarding chakras, I think this is more complicated than if they exist or not. Chakras were part of an eastern spiritual system - yet the west has had its own spiritual systems for millenia which didn't need or incorporate chakras.
I sit on the fence whether chakras exist or if they are created through repeated belief and visualisation exercises. My guy instinct is that they are a belief system - a way of maping the macro and microcosm to the human psyche - and energy work is more a balancing of this abstraction which effects the porsonality constructs it is meant to represent. Sort of an ancient form of psychological self-development.

[CFTraveler]

Candace Pert, the scientist who discovered endorphins, has reported chemical pathways throughout the body (neurotransmitters) that correspond pretty closely with mapped  acupuncture meridians.  Perhaps our endocrine system would correspond with the chakra system?  Maybe it's two ways of looking at the entire system- physical/energetic interact, medicine looks at the phsysical, alternative medicine (for lack of a better term) looks at the energetic results/source (depending on your belief system.)

[MisterJingo]

There is no study to try and disprove OBEs or NDEs.

Hi MJ,

Just for your information, there actually have been quite a few studies, but with mixed results sofar.

I'm inklined to take Blackmore's approach, in that firm evidence is lacking, but that something is going on.

A quick search turned up this:
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/skeptic01.html
http://www.aspr.com/osis.html


On a personal level, validation seems to be a very complex thing during OBEs, and difficult to achieve.

For example, I visited TVOS the other night, and sofar not much success to report, although we're still working out some details.

Likewise, I have visted Frank before, without objective similarities in his actual environment, but some subjective similarities.

Other visits to others,have had some striking "coincidences", and enough, to make me think that something is going on.

The exact implication of it all eludes me in terms of surivival after death, although I'd like to believe there is, and probably do.

If undeniable verification is possible, I have the feeling that it requires certain abilities in an OBer that probably is absent in most.

Perhaps it can be developed however, which would be an interesting avenue to explore.

Hi Major Tom. I meant that there has been no studies which have specifically looked to 'disprove' the OBE phenomenon as being more than the body. They mostly consist of validation type experiments or as part of psychological studies (such as a recent one concerning OBE experiences and day-to-day body perception).

I agree that something seems to be going on - I've experienced enough on a personal level to show me this. This is why I'm so interested in find out what exactly is going on .
Something I'm currently working on concerns a detailed OBE experience online repository. It will simply store experiences using a standardised approach without worrying about support belief systems. People will be able to search the recorded records, and it will allow a map of different techniques and experiences to be built up. I guess I hope the long term goal will be the creation of a set of techniques produced from a large test group which will be effective in helping others achieve the OBE state.
If anyone would be interested in working on something like this (such as helping to create a set of standard criteria to be recorded with each experience entry then send me a pm ).

[Donal]

Does anyone else just get ticked off by the blatent materialism of the west?

Take Persinger for example, he doesn't care about love, God, or any of the finest things in life, he thinks we are just unconscious phenomena and everything is of the brain, and when we die we are gone.

I don't let it affect me, but I DETEST fools like him.

[MisterJingo]

Does anyone else just get ticked off by the blatent materialism of the west?

Take Persinger for example, he doesn't care about love, God, or any of the finest things in life, he thinks we are just unconscious phenomena and everything is of the brain, and when we die we are gone.

I don't let it affect me, but I DETEST fools like him.

The thing to remember is that he simply takes an opposing viewpoint to those who believe the mind is more than the product of the brain. Right now he could be right, wrong or partially right. But he is simply doing no more than those who have opposite views to him. In the greater scheme of this, I thing it's great, and I do appreciate materialism. I though we will evolve past it in the future through the use of technology, but for now we really have little option but to accept it. I guess we could go leave behind all personal belongings and go join a conume etc if we really wanted too.

[ChineseRoom]

Well, I dont know, is there any good evidence for Chakras? If not, then I wouldnt blame anyone for not believing in them.

[Battousai]

could any of you direct me to a site where i can get all the different Chakra's and where they are and what they do.. Thnx