The spiritual self carries a collection of knowledge and experience from our very beginnings. This collection is stored in a series of seven energy centers known as Chakras, comprising the Chakra System. Each chakra contains a different part of our memories, experiences, etc. Chakras are our spiritual organs, much like our heart, kidneys, and lungs are our physical organs.

When the chakras are functioning in a healthy manner, they open and close like a vegetable steamer in a fluid, unobstructed manner, at a moment’s notice, at our will. They all function in harmony with each other so that our experience of life is well-balanced. When they become damaged or blocked, they either do not open much at all, are stuck wide open or only open a percentage of what they can normally open. They become blocked because of storing unresolved experiences, emotions or memories. Even one damaged or blocked chakra can throw the entire chakra system off, leaving us in a spiritually unbalanced state. The following chakra descriptions explain how these blocked states can effect us.

Root

The first chakra at the base of the spine. This energy center controls survival instincts. Its normal condition is open ten percent. If shut down, we tend to be what some refer to as accident-prone: stubbing toes, breaking bones, involved in fender-benders or worse. If it is stuck wide open, we experience everything in life as an emergency. Physical symptoms of blockage include lower back pain.

Sacral

The second chakra, three fingers below the navel. This energy center controls the emotions, sexuality and creativity. Its normal position is open ten percent. If it is shut down, we tend to have a difficult time feeling our emotions, sexual impulses or creative inspiration. If stuck wide open, we tend to allow our emotions and sexual impulses to rule us and our creative drive might overshadow everything else in our life. Physical symptoms of blockage include digestive problems, sexual dysfunction and diseases of the sexual organs.

Solar Plexus

The third chakra in the diaphragm area of the body. This chakra is our power center. Its normal position is open ten percent. (Note that power in this context has to do with the amount of energetic lifeforce flowing through us. It does not have to do with society’s definition of power over another person.) If it is shutdown, we tend to overcompensate for feeling powerless by acting completely opposite. We are a fighter always looking for a cause or figure with which to do battle. We tend to hide from our feelings of powerlessness by focusing on our anger. If it is stuck wide open, we tend to feel like a victim, blaming others for the problems in our life, as opposed to seeing which parts are ours and which parts are other people’s responsibilities. Physical symptoms include ulcers and shortness of breathe.

Heart

The fourth chakra in the center of the chest. This energy center controls the loving energy that flows into and out of us. It also houses the Divine Spark, our connection to a higher power. Its normal position is as open as possible. If shut down, we have difficulty feeling love for ourselves or anyone else, we have difficulty receiving love or anything else from ourselves or others, and we feel cut off and all alone without feeling our connection to that Divine Spark within us. We also tend to feel hurt by others easily because when the heart center is functioning properly, it acts as radar, identifying other’s energies so that we know exactly where they are coming from. Physical symptoms include pain in the back between the shoulder blades and heart problems. (Note the number of heart attacks in this country.)

Throat

The fifth chakra at the Adam’s Apple. This energy center controls communication. Its normal position is as open as possible. When shut down, we have difficulty expressing ourselves. Sometimes we get a “lump” in our throat when we are not expressing what needs to be expressed. This chakra also contains telepathic channels in the sinuses and ear canals. When people constantly throw their opinions at us or think about us doing something for them, like phoning home, their energy gets dumped here. Physical symptoms of blockage include sore throats, sinus headaches, colds and earaches.

Third Eye

The sixth chakra in the center of the forehead. This energy center controls clairvoyance, clairaudience, etc. This is where we receive information from a higher source, where we know things that we have no explanation for knowing. Its normal position is as open as possible. If it is shut down, we might not be aware of receiving higher information and we might have a strong reaction to anyone suggesting that we can. Physical symptoms of blockage include migraines and pain at the base of the skull.

Crown

The seventh chakra at the center of the top of the head. This energy center controls our connection to Spirit, God, Goddess, Universal Source, etc. Its normal position is as open as possible. When shut down, we tend to feel lost, alone, abandoned and that no one can help us; we have to do it all by ourselves. Physical symptoms include pain at the top of the head.

Let’s explore the effects of Childhood Sexual Abuse on our spiritual self and Chakra System.

The Out Of Body Experience

Our spiritual self has the ability to come and go from our body at will. There have been many documented cases of people in life-threatening situations, in unconscious states, having memories of watching medical personnel working on their bodies from a bird’s eye view. Apparently, their spiritual self had left their body and was floating above, watching the scene below. Many survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse have memories of watching their bodies being abused from someplace on their ceiling. 

The body contains the physical experience of the abuse. This physical experience is stored in the Chakra System.

If we are partially or totally not in our body, or not grounded, we may have experiences of driving somewhere and not remembering the trip. We may have little sense of our physical body, how it feels, its weight, etc. We may tend to express ourselves intellectually more often than emotionally. This could be viewed as living in the head instead of the heart. People who live in their heads only have their heads to help them figure out the world. They are very attached to being able to analyze everything. They do not pay attention to feelings because they are not in touch with them. Feelings are stored below the head in the rest of the Chakra System.

Common Chakra Blockages

When too many unresolved emotions or memories are stored in a chakra, it becomes blocked. Some common reasons for blockages to chakras as a result of Childhood Sexual Abuse are as follows:

Crown - There are two possible reasons: We are angry at God for not rescuing us, or we never want to return to our body to feel the memories of the physical experience.

Third Eye - Our psychic abilities allowed us to pick up the feelings and thoughts of our abuser during the abuse.

Throat - We were ordered to never tell about the abuse.

Heart - It broke our heart to have someone we trusted and loved abuse us.

Solar Plexus - The power-over nature of abuse results in our personal boundaries being forcibly knocked down, leaving us feeling powerless and victimized.

Sacral - The sexual nature of the abuse, plus feeling you had to hide your feelings about the abuse, caused us to shut this down.

Root - You lived in a constant state of survival, plotting how best to avoid further abuse, working out how to survive the actual abuse.

Often, the spiritual self will feel safe to return to the body only up until the point it reaches the first chakra containing memories of the physical experience of the abuse. For example, if we find we have a sense of our body from the top of our head to our chin only, chances are that the first blocked chakra is at the throat, like when we were ordered not to tell anyone.

Let’s explore some techniques for healing our spiritual self and Chakra System.

Grounding

This is the process of returning all the way into the physical body and connecting to the Earth. In order to begin healing from the abuse experience on a spiritual level, we need to be willing to return to our body to discover which chakras require clearing. Allow yourself to return slowly. Each step can bring up memories and feelings that you might not have experienced before. Two techniques for grounding are as follows:

Sit in a chair with both feet flat on the floor and close your eyes. Feel yourself sitting in the chair. Feel the chair touching the back of your body from your shoulders to your legs. Focus on your feet. Feel your shoes and socks on your feet. Feel the bottoms of your feet against the floor. Wiggle your toes. Open your eyes, stand up and walk around. As you walk, feel your feet moving against the floor. Notice any pain that you might become aware of anywhere in your body. Repeat this exercise as many times as necessary over as long a period of time as necessary, at your own pace, until you can feel the entire back of your body from head to toes and the Earth beneath your feet as you walk.

After completing #1, drop a cord of light from the base of your spine into the Earth, like dropping anchor. You can walk around with this cord. It does not hold you down. It connects you to a stabilizing earth force.

As you begin to experience life while in your body, you may feel a little sluggish. This is because you are not used to being aware of moving your body around from place to place. This sluggish feeling will pass as you get used to the experience.

Clearing Chakra Blockages

If you found it difficult to ground past a certain part of your body, or you discovered a physical pain in your body, you might have a blocked chakra. Start with the chakra closest to the first part of your body that you could not feel, or that felt painful, and perform the following steps:

Sit in a chair with both feet on the floor and close your eyes. Place a white fluffy cloud in front of the chakra. Send a beam of White Light into the opening of the chakra. White Light is a pure, high vibrational energy that conducts only healing and loving energies. The beam will open the chakra just enough to clear it out. Remember, chakras open and close like a vegetable steamer. 

After the Light opens the chakra, the chakra will begin draining into the white fluffy cloud like puss pouring out of an old, diseased wound. The cloud automatically increases in size to contain all the drainage. You may experience this draining in any way that feels true to you. For example, the drainage may appear as a dark oozing liquid, a herd of stampeding buffalo or you may hear a trumpet blowing loudly. There is no wrong or right way to drain a chakra; there is only your willingness to do so.

When you feel like the chakra has drained as much as possible at this time, fill the chakra up with the White Light and ask the Light to bring this chakra into present time. Send the white fluffy cloud up into the Light where all that drained from the chakra will be transmuted into Light.

Allow the chakra to be as open as acceptable for that chakra (as discussed earlier) and as open as you feel safe to at this time. You can perform this exercise  as many times as you feel necessary for each blocked chakra.

In healing the spiritual self and Chakra System, it is important to always go at your own pace. Be gentle with yourself. Know that all that you did at the time of your abuse was in your highest good for your survival. The task for you now is bringing your Chakra System into present time, allowing you to react to the world around you based upon current situations, as opposed to past experiences exclusively.