| Levels of Thinking and the Chakras Your brain, as well as any other biological or social system, is designed to process information in varying chunks, or levels. These levels represent information processing from the very general to the very specific - or vice versa. Your brain has a predictable way of processing this information that relates to both the experience of thinking and that of being.
In the NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) community, the original thinking about these "logical levels" was that there were five levels of processing, each encompassed in the level above it. They are best described in the words of Robert Dilts:
"From the psychological point of view there seem to be five levels that you work with most often. (1) The basic level is your environment, your external constraints. (2) You operate on that environment through your behavior. (3) Your behavior is guided by your mental maps and your strategies, which define
your capabilities. (4) These capabilities are organized by belief systems and (5) beliefs are organized by identity."
Since this work was done in 1990, these levels have evolved to include a sixth, spirituality. I invite you to consider the possibility that there is a seventh logical level so subtle that it has gone undetected, as it is the larger context within which several of the other levels unfold.
We know that we presume there to be seven major chakras. Over the past seven years of working in programs and individually with clients, particularly when I was working with the chakras, I'd notice that there were seven chakras and only six Logical Levels. How could this be? I was struck by the correspondence between the chakras and the Logical Levels, and felt certain that a pattern must be completing itself. As I played with it over the years, things began to fall into place.
Levels of Thinking and the Chakras Part 2 The following very abbreviated and simple journey through the chakras and Logical Levels may encourage you to consider the correspondences for yourself.
The Root chakra is about being grounded. Naturally, it corresponds to the earth element. We believe that the very light, very fast energies move down from the Crown chakra through to the Root chakra, manifesting thought in physical space and time. It makes perfect sense that there is a connection between the earth element, the Root chakra and the experience of our personal, physical surroundings in their
myriad manifestations. (Logical Level - Environment: Where and When.).
The second chakra is the seat of emotion in the body, often referred to as the watery area. Feelings are held in this part of the body. The element here is water, magnetic and with the power to draw to us experiences which allow us to notice the emotions that are held captive in there. Our behaviors are
driven by our emotional states. Our sense of resourcefulness or resourcelessness leads to specific behaviors. (Logical Level - Behaviors: What)
The third chakra, the Power chakra, is the center of the ability to take action. It is from this area that I experience the energy that powers my capacity to act. The fuel (and the element) is fire, combustible and resulting in movement, either slow (embers) or rapid (explosions). The conduit for the _expression of this energy - what forms the channel through which this energy can flow - is my capability, meaning my ability to determine the appropriate course of action into which to direct the powerful force of movement. (Logical Level - Capability: How) Levels of Thinking and the Chakras Part 3 And here's where things get interesting. The fourth or Heart chakra is considered to be the center of identity - but at what level? My belief is that the Heart chakra is the center of who I think I am, that collection of beliefs, values and attitudes that are the by-product of habituated responses and early
cultural conditioning. But is it really who I am, or just who I think I am? Or worse, who I have been taught to believe that I am? The element associated with this chakra is the air element.
Air represents movement and change. If the chakra is open and air is moving freely, then my beliefs are subject to movement and change, thus allowing for and ensuring growth and expansion. If the chakra is closed, or if my heart is closed, my beliefs, values and attitudes are like concrete - and have become immovable. We even talk about how the heart hardens, or turns to stone.
The fifth chakra is the Throat chakra, the seat of self-_expression, the gateway for revealing who I am to the world. It is the way that I make myself heard in the universe. The element associated with this chakra is sound (sound waves). The sounds that we make, through speech or through the symbol of speech - the written word - are the physical impressions of our
presence in the world.
The sixth chakra is the Third Eye, the center of ethereal sight. Through and with it, we can see beyond what is to what can be. The element associated with this chakra is light (light waves).
The seventh chakra is the Crown chakra, the center of spirituality, where we connect to something greater than our experience in the body. It is the point of entry of "source" energy into the various levels of the body. It is the point of contact between what I experience as "me" and the larger context of I AM. The element associated with this chakra is thought.
My belief is that the Logical Level of Beliefs, Values and Attitudes corresponds to the fourth or Heart chakra; that the level of Identity corresponds to the sixth chakra or the Third Eye; and that at the fifth chakra or Throat chakra lies the as-yet unnamed Logical Level of Choice (Which). Levels of Thinking and the Chakras Part 4 Whether we are conscious of it or not, we are always choosing. When we are silent, our absence of speech is a choice. Over the last years, I have been struck by two things in my programs: how common it is that people do not recognize they are choosing and that there are never any exceptions; and also that all behaviors have consequences, whether we notice them or not. So change does mean consequences, but there are also consequences associated with no change. This underlying process was completely transparent to those who were doing the choosing. Yet, at each of the Logical Levels, we are choosing.
I believe that at the Heart chakra level we carry the past of who we have been conditioned and taught to believe we are. We carry the conditioned responses that manifest through those beliefs, values and attitudes. And I believe that at the Third Eye, we carry the potential to "see" who we are capable of becoming; to recognize grace and perfection as our birthright;
and to hold that as a model or standard for _expression. At the level of the Third Eye, we can know our own magnificence.
The throat is the gateway to sound; it is the junction of the internal and the external; it is the point at which information from the Heart chakra collides with information from the Third Eye and its messages of possibility and magnificence. It is there where I must choose which will direct my life. It is there where this struggle is resolved and the resolution is put forward, into physical space and time, for all to hear and know; it is the point at which I either choose to decloak and move
toward who I AM, or to stay cloaked, to await the next opportunity for _expression - with these opportunities never-ending.
The first through the fourth chakras carry history; the sixth and the seventh carry possibility. The fifth chakra, at the throat, is the link between these points in time as well as the platform on which we stand in the "now". This platform is my connection to what I perceive as the outside world. As I stand on this platform in the present, do I speak from history or do I speak from possibility? As I choose mindfully, information from
the higher chakras moves into the lower ones, disengaging me from multiple dualities and allowing for the integration, in the full body, of new insights. Levels of Thinking and the Chakras (the Conclusion) Whether we are conscious of it or not, we are always choosing. When we are silent, our absence of speech is a choice. Over the last years, I have been struck by two things in my programs: how common it is that people do not recognize they are choosing and that there are never any exceptions; and also that all behaviors have consequences, whether we notice them or not. So change does mean consequences, but there are also consequences associated with no change. This underlying process was completely
transparent to those who were doing the choosing. Yet, at each of the Logical Levels, we are choosing.
I believe that at the Heart chakra level we carry the past of who we have been conditioned and taught to believe we are. We carry the conditioned responses that manifest through those beliefs, values and attitudes. And I believe that at the Third Eye, we carry the potential to "see" who we are capable of becoming; to recognize grace and perfection as our birthright;
and to hold that as a model or standard for _expression. At the level of the Third Eye, we can know our own magnificence.
The throat is the gateway to sound; it is the junction of the internal and the external; it is the point at which information from the Heart chakra collides with information from the Third Eye and its messages of possibility and magnificence. It is there where I must choose which will direct my life. It is there where this struggle is resolved and the resolution is put forward, into physical space and time, for all to hear and know; it is the point at which I either choose to decloak and move
toward who I AM, or to stay cloaked, to await the next opportunity for _expression - with these opportunities never-ending.
The first through the fourth chakras carry history; the sixth and the seventh carry possibility. The fifth chakra, at the throat, is the link between these points in time as well as the platform on which we stand in the "now". This platform is my connection to what I perceive as the outside world. As I stand on this platform in the present, do I speak from history or do I speak from possibility? As I choose mindfully, information from
the higher chakras moves into the lower ones, disengaging me from multiple dualities and allowing for the integration, in the
full body, of new insights. |
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