Are chakras just a New Age myth—or is there real wisdom behind the energy centers?
In this episode, I unpack the skepticism around chakras—and why it’s totally valid. We explore how chakras are not physical organs, but symbolic energy centers that correlate with real anatomical structures like nerve plexuses and endocrine glands. I also share how the chakra system evolved in ancient yogic texts, and how yoga teachers can present chakras in a way that feels grounded, inclusive, and relevant.
You’ll learn:
🔹 The historical roots of chakras in ancient yogic texts
🔹 How chakras align with anatomical and physiological structures
🔹 Why skepticism is welcome—and how to teach through it
🔹 Ways to talk about energy without alienating your students
🔹 How to present the chakras through the lens of body awareness
If you’ve ever felt torn between spiritual depth and scientific credibility—this episode bridges the gap.
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Relevant Blog: How To Ignite The Power Of The Seven Chakras
Relevant to Today’s Episode:
💖 History of Yoga
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🔮 300-hour Online Yoga Teacher Training
🎧 Also Listen to:
#303 – The 7 Chakras as a Tool for Personal Growth
#341 – How To Balance Your 3rd Eye with Guru Singh
#370 – Yoga’s Messy Origins: Understanding Yoga’s Historical Context
© 2025 Uplifted Yoga | BrettLarkin.com
Transcript:
Welcome to the Uplifted Yoga Podcast, where ancient yogic wisdom meets modern business strategy. I’m Brett Larkin, creator of Uplifted Yoga, where I’ve certified thousands of yoga teachers, built a multi-seven figure business, and guided over half a million students on YouTube. Here’s the truth.
You don’t have to choose between embodying deep yogic wisdom and building a thriving, freedom-based business. This podcast is your space to integrate both. Because yoga isn’t just what you do on the mat, it’s how you show up in every part of your life.
Whether you’re here to deepen your yoga practice, grow your teaching career, or align your energy with your purpose, you’re in the right place. Let’s dive in. Are the chakras just a new age myth, or is there something actually happening in the body when we talk about energy?
I think a lot of us, especially if you’re a yoga teacher or someone who loves yoga but also has a logical brain, you’ve probably had this moment of like, but wait, are the chakras real or am I just making this up? And here’s the thing, your skepticism is not only valid, it’s actually important. So in today’s episode, we’re going to unpack where the chakra system really comes from, how it evolved in ancient texts, and how these energy centers might map onto real anatomical structures in the body, like nerve plexuses and endocrine glands.
By the end of this episode, you’ll have a much more grounded, teachable way to talk about the chakras, whether that’s for your own practice or for your students, without feeling like you have to choose between spirituality and science. If this conversation sparked something in you, I want to invite you to go deeper with me inside my free seven-day chakra challenge, where we’ll actually experience each of the chakras together through movement, meditation, and daily practice. This is a challenge I’ve run almost every year for the past 10 years.
It’s so beautiful. It’s totally free. Sign up with a friend or a couple friends.
Each day, I’ll email you a class and a meditation, starting with the root chakra and then moving on up. It’s just seven days, and you can sign up for free at brettlarkin.com/chakralive. All one word.
I’ll also put that in the show notes. Now let’s dive in. Hello, yoga family.
We are back today to talk about an incident that occurred. One of my incredible trainers here at Uplifted, who teaches in a couple of our certification programs, messaged me and she said, you know, you’ll never believe what just happened. I had someone come up to me the other day who is actually also a yoga teacher and said that the chakras were just new age woo-woo.
And she messaged me right away because she said, you were the first person I thought of who might’ve looked further into this. And oh boy, yes, I have. And I think let’s start by talking about what do people mean by like woo or new age nonsense?
What does that language actually mean? And I think when someone’s using language like that, what they’re really saying is maybe that that’s unscientific or that’s made up or that there’s no proof for that. And let’s be honest, sometimes they might be right.
The wellness world can absolutely spread oversimplified, appropriated, completely fabricated ideas. So I think it’s absolutely fair to ask questions. In this podcast, we’re not only going to decode the origin of the word chakras and prove to you that there is contextual basis for the chakras, but we’re also going to talk about how we got to a place where there is this misconception and maybe that’s a good place to start.
So why is there this confusion? Well, the chakras to review aren’t physical organs. We can’t dissect someone and see their chakras.
They’re part of what’s called the subtle body. And pretty much every culture tried to map or had theories that explained the energy in our bodies and how it moves. Also looking at a lot of different religions, a lot of different cultures, I’ve also seen a very common theme, which is that people believe that we’re made up of the same stuff as the world around us.
We’re made up of earth and air and fire and water. And that is absolutely true. We are liquid inside us.
But ultimately, whether we’re talking about traditional Chinese medicine, the Shariras, the Granthies, the Koshas, the chakras, Kundalini, the Hara, you can’t cut someone up in an anatomy lab and see these things. But just because something isn’t visible, it doesn’t mean it’s not there. Your emotions aren’t visible, but I would argue they’re there.
They’re here. Same with our thoughts. Same with our energy.
All of these things are real. And just because we can’t cut ourselves open and see literal anger inside us, no one’s questioning that humans have anger. So if you want to say there’s no science behind the chakras because I can’t cut someone’s meat suit body up and see the chakras, I might agree.
They’re not scientific in that way. However, we could make the argument the chakras are associated with major nerve plexuses and endocrine glands, which do give us some sort of biological correlation. So while I can’t open a body and see a literal chakra that’s glowing a color, the chakras do align with major anatomical landmarks.
And this is what’s so incredible because we look back in these ancient cultures, intuitively mapped energetic zones that actually mirror the physiological hubs. So let’s go through those just before we move on. Mooladhara, base of the spine.
We have that coccygeal nerve plexus, the pelvic floor nerves. It’s related to the adrenal glands. Svadhisthana, sacral chakra.
We have that sacral nerve plexus, all the reproductive organs. And this relates to the gonads, which is basically a fancy word for ovaries or testes. Manipura chakra, the solar plexus.
That solar plexus nerve bundle is actually referring to the abdominal aortic plexus. And the endocrine gland correlation here would be the pancreas. Anahata, the heart chakra, is right around the heart.
The cardiac plexus and all the vagus nerve branches that we see there, and it’s related to the thymus. Visuddha, the throat chakra, is near the cervical plexus. And if you have ever had laryngitis, well, there are laryngeal nerves that are also very closely connected to your thyroid.
Ajna chakra, the brow, the forehead, is related to the cranial nerves, the optic nerves, and the pineal gland. And Sahasrara, the crown chakra, is not as anatomically precise, but perhaps associated with the brain as a whole. And there’s a whole other podcast about is it pineal gland, is it pituitary gland, with Guru Singh.
I’ll link that up below in case you’re curious about the exact organs and endocrine areas related to the third eye, because we go into a lot of detail on just Ajna specifically and breaking down pineal compared to pituitary compared to thymus. The vagus nerve, which everyone is super into right now, plays a huge role in nervous system regulation, in trauma healing. And guess what?
This wandering vagus nerve intersects with many of the chakra regions, especially Anahata and Visuddha, the throat. So yeah, the chakras aren’t physical in the way we might actually dissect them in a laboratory and medical school, but these traditional locations aren’t random. They do correspond to nerve plexuses and endocrine centers, places where our body naturally concentrates sensory input or hormonal activity.
So instead of asking like, are the chakras real, maybe something more interesting to talk about is like, what are the chakras describing? Like why thousands and thousands of years ago were people pointing to these areas? Misconception number two, when people are like, this is new age fluff.
You know, in the West, the idea of chakras got blended with a lot of other modalities. It got blended with color psychology. It got blended with crystal healing.
It got integrated into Reiki. Now that doesn’t make the system fake. I think what this actually means is that this system is so resonant, like it strikes a chord with so many people because there is inherent truth to these nerve bundles, these sections, these core areas of the body that a lot of people have gotten attached to it and then reinterpreted it.
And this 100% can be cultural appropriation when the chakra teachings are stripped from their original roots. And that’s why I think it’s so important to trace the lineage, teach with respect, be aware of these misconceptions, but also be aware of the deeper context and the deeper history. And we’ve already touched on the deeper anatomy, but let’s now look at key yogic texts and see how this word chakra shows up when we officially see it, how it evolves.
Because for someone who says the chakras aren’t real, well, I could major, I’d actually love to do this, or do a PhD in Sanskrit or yoga studies or Tantra and could write an academic thesis on the chakras because they’re documented. We see them. So I think it’s always interesting to step back and be like, if I just came at this purely from an academic perspective, could I write an academic level paper on this with proper footnotes and citations?
There are some topics where maybe that’s not the case. The chakras are not one of them. You 100% could write an academic level postdoctoral paper on the chakras.
We have texts, we have documentation. This wasn’t made up by hippies or modern yoga teachers. So those of you who’ve taken my history of yoga course, which if you haven’t, I really, really encourage you to, I’ll put the link in the show notes.
It’s an incredibly budget-friendly program. I think it gives you a lot of confidence. Also if you are a yoga teacher to talk to your students about how yoga originated from its earliest origins, where we see it in cave paintings all the way through to today.
So the course walks you through that timeline with a lot of fun presentations and lectures, keeping it entertaining, I promise. But for those of you who have taken it, you know what the earliest, some of the earliest texts are the Vedas. And there are four Vedas.
We have the Rig Veda, the Sama Veda. A lot of these books are hymns. There’s more detail about all of this in the course.
These texts do talk about prana. They do talk about the vayus. They do not refer to chakras as psychic energy centers in the subtle body.
So the Vedas do discuss subtle energy structures, including this idea of nadis. For those of you who don’t know, the word nadi is like meridian or energy channel. But we don’t see a direct use of the word chakra itself.
That comes later. Keep in mind, the word chakra means wheel or disc. So if we want to be like, well, what’s the earliest use of this word?
Well, we actually do see this word in secular contexts and ritual contexts, but it’s not describing what we would think of as a chakra. It’s often been used to describe like Lord Vishnu has this sun disc that’s a circle or a royal symbol, like the equivalent of a coat of arms back then. And we see the word chakra referred to describe these things like a round royal symbol or a round sun disc.
But the first explicit reference to chakra, this word wheel or disc as an actual psychic emotional energy center within the subtle body comes later. So the Vedas were thinking 1500 to 600 BCE. We think we have to flash forward to 100 BCE.
Sorry to interrupt and we’ll get right back to the show. But if you’re already a yoga teacher and feeling that quiet nudge for more depth, my online 300 hour yoga teacher training is where your teaching becomes embodied, not just technically strong, but intuitive, grounded, and truly yours. It’s open year round and fully online so you can move at your own pace.
It’s also supported live. It’s deeply experiential and designed to help you integrate nervous system awareness, subtle body work, and your own authentic voice as a teacher while giving you all my best business strategies. Amplify both your income and your impact.
Start treating your business as a spiritual practice. Learn more about the uplifted advanced 300 hour teacher training at brettlarkin.com. And the Shandilya Upanishad to start to see the word chakra being used in a way that we had recommended.
So in that Shandilya Upanishad, we have direct reference to Muladhara Chakra, verse 1.3. In the middle of the spine is Shishumna Nadi. Above the genital point is the subtle Muladhara Chakra. This information is from an academic review article from the International Research Journal of Ayurveda and Yoga.
It has several co-authors, including Ayurvedic physicians. And what’s interesting is we see this term Shada Chakra, which is basically two words, Shad, representing the number six, and Chakra, wheel or disc. So we start to see the whole system outlined in verses 1.4 through 1.8 of this same Shandilya Upanishad. It says following one ascends through Svaristana, Manipura, Anahata at the heart, Visuddha at the throat, and Agnya between the eyebrows. And then it actually notes in Sutra 1.8 that there’s some disagreement about the number of petals. So there’s an ancient disagreement about chakras that goes back a very long time in terms of the petal count.
So this verse we could translate as like others assert Manipura has 16 petals, though here we think it has 12. Next, the Yoga Kundalini Upanishad, which is 300 to 500 CE, also mentions a Muladhara meditation, like it says meditate on the four-petaled Muladhara lotus, which holds the Kundalini Shakti. We also see the sequence of the chakras again, like above that is the heart, then the throat, then Agnya between the eyes.
And then we see another text, the Hamsa Upanishad, which is a tantric text in the 8th to 10th century CE. And we see this idea of chakra meditation continue to progress. In Chapter 3, we have a Sanskrit verse that says you raise the breath from Muladhara, then Svaristana, Manipura, Anahata, Visuddha, Agnya, then the crown.
In Chapter 8, we have a reference to Turiya. Those of you who’ve done 300-hour teacher training, you hopefully recognize we do a whole breakdown of Turiya, but basically, it’s the dreamless sleep. It’s part of the word, but it’s referencing this lotus center that symbolizes dreamless sleep.
Above it lies Turiya, which is pure consciousness. And if you’re like, hold up, back up, what is a Upanishad? Well, the Upanishads are a collection of Indian spiritual texts that basically explore the nature of consciousness, the nature of the self, us as individuals, Atman, and ultimate reality, Brahman.
It literally means to sit down near the feet of the teacher. So the Upanishads symbolize in their name, like the passing down of spiritual knowledge from teacher to student. Upa means near, ni means down, sad means to sit.
Academics have recognized 108 texts as fitting into what we would call the Upanishads. There are 13 major Upanishads. These are the oldest ones and the ones that are most widely studied.
Many are embedded in the four Vedas. They’re very philosophical. And then after those 13, there are what’s called minor Upanishads.
And these were usually written much later. Those are the ones that I just mentioned. The Chandilya Upanishad, the Kundalini Upanishad, and the Hamsa Upanishad.
So all of those ones that I just read from are considered minor Upanishads. They talk about the subtle body. They talk about the chakras.
They’re drawing from tantric, hatha yoga, kundalini yoga. There’s an additional one called the Yoga Chudamani Upanishad, which is like actually around medieval times appears. And it’s a detailed chakra system with petals and the bija mantras.
So think of these minor Upanishads as manuals that essentially are bridging classic Vedic wisdom with the yoga practices many of us are actually doing today. Pranayama, mudra, practicing the bandhas. They are 100% scripturally rooted.
And they were texts that were intended for practitioners, not philosophers, which makes them especially relevant for us. It’s interesting because the old Vedas, like the Rig Veda, it’s documenting rites and rituals that mainly like the priestly class would be overseeing. So what I think is interesting is what we’re seeing in these minor Upanishads is content that’s more designed for consumers, less rites and rituals, and more personal energy practices.
And the only reason they’re called the minor Upanishads, I know that makes them sound inferior, but they’re only called that because they were written after the classical Vedas. But it’s these texts that read like yogi manuals rather than philosophy books. And it’s in these texts that the chakra system really starts to take place, not as some vague idea, but as a detailed map that is passed down from teacher to student.
The next big text to mention, and now we’re out of the minor Upanishads and we’re in the Hatha yoga tradition, in the 14th century CE, we have this text called the Shiva Samhita. Chapter 5, verse 68, the Sanskrit literally says, Above that, in the heart, is the charming Anahata lotus, the region of Vayu, smoky in color with 12 petals and 12 bijakaras. So while the colors and sounds might not be identical to what’s commonly taught today, we’re seeing kind of a convergence of knowledge begin to emerge.
The Hatha yoga pradipika, which you may be familiar with, that’s 15th century CE. In chapter 3, verse 73, talks about at Visuddha, there are 36 supports and the seed sound hum is born. So we’re even starting to see the bija mantras come in.
So there is textual evidence for even these things that get associated with the chakras, sounds and colors and whatnot. The Garanda Samhita, there’s our third Hatha yoga text that also mentions the chakras. Chapter 6, verse 5 says, In the root of the spine is the four-petaled lotus of Muladhara, in which kundalini awakens.
So it’s in these Hatha yoga texts that we see the elements, the sensory correspondences that we now have and teach around the chakras coming into play. And it’s in that Garanda Samhita that we see also kundalini awakening being mentioned. So no, tell your friends, the chakras weren’t invented by crystal shops in the 70s.
They are part of the fabric of tantric, Hatha and kundalini systems that go back at least 2000 years. So what do we do as a yoga enthusiast or a yoga teacher when someone is in the position that the teacher was in that kicked off this podcast, when someone like rolls their eyes at the chakras? First, I think we can acknowledge their skepticism and we can absolutely tell them, agree with them, you know, yes, the word chakra definitely gets tossed around a lot.
It’s easy to think it’s just trendy. Then we can remind them that their yoga practice is a buffet. I love the buffet analogy because if they’re not interested in something or they don’t want something, they don’t have to take it.
So we can say, if this doesn’t interest you or if this isn’t serving you, there are so many other aspects and facets of your yoga practice that we can explore together or that you can focus on. Truly, they can focus very much on their physical yoga practice, finding that sense of Sita and Sukha and all the yoga poses. They can focus on breath work.
They can focus on meditation. Maybe they want to focus on Yoga Nidra or body scans. It’s like you don’t have to drink the chakra Kool-Aid, but you can educate people gently and say, this concept goes way back.
It’s in several ancient Indian texts. Would you like me to send you more information if you want to send people more information? And I might also say, you don’t have to believe in chakras or use the chakras, but I offer them in my class because many people feel shifts in either their breath, their emotional state, or their sensation when they’re focusing on these different energy centers.
And what I love about these chakras as teaching tools is that they really appeal to all different kinds of learning styles, right? Some people get pulled in because they’re interested in the color, other because they’re interested in the sound, others because they feel physically something or it helps them anchor their attention in meditation. Others love the psychology of the chakras, all of Anadeya Judith’s books, one of which is required reading in 300 hour.
She’s also come on this podcast many times. She’s a mentor and dear friend of mine. She really ties the chakras to psychology and our development.
So you can tell someone, you know, you don’t have to believe in chakras, but this is a framework that for me, if true, and I’ve seen helps people gain more awareness of their energy, of their patterns and of why they do what they do. Another tip, and those of you who’ve done the somatic yoga training, which is a home study course, I’d invite you to try on some somatic language around the chakras in your teaching. So instead of saying things like open your third eye or focus on your third eye, you could simply say, feel the space between your brows.
Can you soften there? So depending where you’re teaching and who you’re teaching, if using the colors and the sounds and even the word chakra isn’t appropriate, you can still focus on these key energy centers, but by dropping some of the more like new agey language. And I think that’s a great challenge for those of you who are teachers.
If you want to talk about the chakras, like challenge yourself in your cuing and the way that you use your voice to not say things like activate your root chakra or feel the fire and many put a chakra, but to actually say more relatable, anatomical body oriented things that your students could follow. Like notice if your glutes feel clenched and tight or relaxed. See if you can breathe in such a way that opens up the rib cage and creates more space around your heart.
Do you see how that’s different than saying like, let’s breathe into our heart chakra. So if you are getting students who are skeptical or rolling their eyes, I think a lot of like looking at your languaging, not in a self-critical way, but just in a challenging yourself way. You know, I’m constantly examining my own cuing in my own language to think about how can I be more trauma informed or appeal more to a diverse student population or appeal more to people who have different ways of learning.
And my invitation for you this week is to read the Shandilya or Kundalini Upanishad on your own. You can order these books from Amazon. You can look at them.
If you’re a teacher, a tip I have for you is to teach a class in the upcoming weeks that explores just one chakra, but very much from a sensory lens. Like can you teach a throat chakra class without using the word chakra and invite a student to really explore how that connection between the heart and the head, aka the head, neck and throat, like how that connection feels rather than what it means. Ultimately, we don’t need our students, nor do we need to buy into any of these ideas or any of these systems.
As yoga teachers, I really think we’re educators in helping people increase their body awareness so that they can shift their habitual bracing patterns, experience more safety in their body. The chakras are one framework, one tool that may resonate deeply or may not. If you like today’s episode, you will love my history of yoga course.
So please check that out, support the show, dive into a deeper course experience with me. Let me know your thoughts on this episode. You can always find me on Instagram @LarkinYogaTV.
And I recently saw we have so many more reviews on the podcast than we did a couple months ago. So thank you so much to all of you who’ve been leaving a review, especially if you listen to the show on Apple Podcasts. Leaving a review only takes a moment, and it really helps get the show in front of more enthusiastic yoga students and teachers.
Thank you so much for being here all the way to the very end. And until next time, take care of you. Loving what you’re learning on the podcast?
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