The Subtle Body

• Why is this important?
• Dynamical Systems Beyond the Physical Body
• Channels, Centers and Fields of Energy
  • The Channels (meridians)
  • The Centers (chakras)
  • The Fields (auric/magnetic)
    • The Auric Field
    • 12 Layers of Energy, Within 3 Planes
• Sources

Why is it important to learn about energy channels, chakras and fields (the subtle body)? 

Every single day you are moving through the world surrounded by a field of energy that interacts with other fields of energy. Because these fields of energy are invisible, we aren’t able to see or recognize how often we are affected by external world energy. Without this awareness, we cannot protect ourselves from taking on energy that isn’t ours to manage, and we can’t be mindful of the energy field we exist within and project onto to those in our surroundings. 

It’s important to learn about energy and how it is managed in the human body/experience because this understanding empowers us to take better care of ourselves and our individual well-being. Only then can we live in a way that promotes emotional balance, personal growth and spiritual expansion. Not to mention, when we take good care of ourselves, we’re able to show up for others and support one another to build a better world through elevated energy fields. 

When we’re able to discern how we feel from one moment to the next, and when we’re able to detect whether what we feel is ours or someone else’s, then we’re able to take action to process these feelings so they can pass through. If we aren’t aware, then we can’t properly process energy or move through it, which results in staying stuck and stagnant, or worse, we avoid and suppress energy, which creates lingering discomfort and eventually leads to disease in the body. 

Another reason why it is important to learn about energy fields is because this helps us to understand how we are connected to source energy and the spirit world. In this game of life, we are born into a physical body and we grow into a reality that suggests that the physical world experienced by the five senses is the only plane of existence within which we can experience life. 

It’s important for us to learn that there is more to life than what we can see and experience through the five physical senses. We are not just five-sensory beings, we are multi-sensory beings. Our five senses, together, form a single sensory system that is designed to perceive physical reality. The perceptions of a multi-sensory human extend beyond physical reality to the larger dynamical systems of which our physical reality is only a part. Beyond the physical world, there is a bigger picture and other planes of existence that multi-sensory beings have the capacity to interact with… through energy.

Dynamical Systems Beyond the Physical Body

In this image we can see that our physical (etheric) body is the central part of the dynamic system we exist within. The term ‘subtle body’ refers to the layers of energy that extend beyond the physical body. Beyond our physical body, there is the emotional body, the mental body, and the spiritual body. 

The physical body exists within the 3rd dimension (the physical realm), and when we open ourselves up to dimensions beyond (the metaphysical realms), we have the capacity to connect beyond the physical plane using our our mind, our emotions, and our spirit (everything conscious and unconscious within us). 

Channels, Centers and Fields of Energy

There are three systems that link our physical and spiritual energies, and they interact together to form our overall energetic anatomy.

1. The Channels (meridians)
2. The Centers (chakras)
3. The Fields (auras)

The Channels (meridians)

Meridians spread energy through the body. They are an interface between the human energy field and the physical body. It’s worth noting that first documentation that clearly described the meridians was a book on Chinese medicine dating from about 100 BCE. This knowledge is nothing new, it has been studied and proven through science for many, many years. 

The subtle body has channels, also known as ‘the meridian system’, which are a vast network of invisible energy pathways. 

Each meridian is inter-connected within the system, which means every atom, cell, tendon, bone, organ, and centimetre of our skin is connected and capable of interaction. The upper system is connected to the lower, and the exterior is connected to the interior, therefore nothing in this system is separate. 

There are twelve major meridians that run on each side of the body, mirroring each other, and corresponding to an internal organ. Each organ, with its innate physiological and energetic function, is dependent on other organ systems but also on the greater meridian network.

Meridians carry energy, blood and information; sending signals to manage homeostasis throughout the entirety of your body, to regulate emotions and coordinate the work of the organs, keeping your body balanced and regulating all its functions.

Energy (AKA life force energy, chi, prana, qi, etc.) should be flowing freely throughout all meridians and organs as they work in precious harmony. When your meridian system is functioning optimally, so is your body. Meridians can become energetically clogged or blocked which affects the function of the corresponding organ, ultimately affecting the body-mind-spirit axis.

Encouraging flow through a clogged or blocked meridian via acupuncture, medicinal foods, herbs, movement, experiencing or releasing stuck emotion can all stimulate flow and restore balance and health.

These invisible pathways form your body and all aspects of your being, seen and unseen, into an intercommunicating whole.

The Centers (chakras)

Chakras are energy receptors that receive, assimilate and expresses life force energy. Chakras link the body and the psyche with associated metaphysical realms. They express the embodiment of spiritual energy on the physical plane. 

Just as emotions affect our breathing, heart rate and metabolism, the activities in the chakras influence our glandular processes, body shape, chronic physical ailments, thoughts and behaviour. 

By using techniques such as somatic movement, breathing, bioenergetics, physical exercise, meditation and visualization, we can influence our chakras, our health, our physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. 

We are a human biocomputer. The body is hardware, our programming (belief systems) is software and the self is the user. We all function by a set of programs (thought patterns), which may or may not be conscious. 

We all have a survival program that tells us what we need to do to stay alive (eat, sleep, protect ourselves, etc). It contains details such as how much money we think we need, what we are willing to do for that money, what constitutes a threat to our survival, and what makes us secure. It also has programs for sexuality, power, love and communication. The chakras are the operating system that organizes and interprets all these programs. 

We outgrow the programs we developed or were given as children. The challenge before us is to find the appropriate program that needs to be updated and get the bugs out. 

1. Base/Root
2. Sacral 
3. Solar Plexus
4. Heart
5. Throat
6. Head 
7. Crown

Chakras are openings for energy to flow into and out of the aura. Each swirling vortex of energy sucks or entrains energy from the universal energy field.

It is important to open the chakras and increase our energy flow, because the more energy we let flow in, the healthier we are. A lack of flow in the human energy system leads to disease, distorts our perceptions and dampens our feelings. 

There are two horizontal currents flowing into and out of each chakra – the current of reception and expression. 

The flow of energy through the chakras can become:

• Blocked
• Deficient (decrease of energy)
• Excessive (increase of energy)

When a chakra is blocked, reception and expression can be distorted. 

As we develop through life, we are likely to become excessive in some areas and deficient in others. The way an individual copes with stress, negative experiences, or trauma usually falls into two categories:

• increasing one’s energy and attention in order to fight the stress
• decreasing it in order to withdraw from the situation

This results in an excessive or deficient coping strategy.

More lessons on Chakras to come, stay tuned for my next posts!

The Fields (auric/magnetic)

Our energetic fields are essentially circles of light outside of our body. They link our inner self with the outer world. They listen to the data in our chakras and other energy centers to determine which information to bring from outside to inside, and they also communicate messages from within to the outer world.

The human body generates magnetic fields because it’s made up of charged particles and electrical energy, or currents, that flow through it. These invisible fields are also known as the human bio-field, human aura, or biomagnetism. 

The terms auric field and electromagnetic field mean the same thing. These fields are a continually emerging and fluctuating field of energy produced by electrical currents in our body. Every cell in our body pulses with electricity, electricity produces magnetism, which means that every cell and organ in the body, as well as your entire body, generates energy fields. 

Fields are interactive, which means they take in and emit energy. That’s why we can sense people, or get a read on their personalities – because our energy fields are interacting. Energetic fields invite energy-information exchanges between people (and we can also converse energetically with plants, animals, and inanimate objects). 

12 Layers of Energy within 3 Planes

The auric system consists of 12 different bands of light. Each band operates at a different frequency in the electromagnetic spectrum. Bands become tuned to a specific frequency based on our life experiences, which is how we attract specific people or experiences into our lives, because we’re putting out a frequency that draws in similarly attuned energy.

If we want to change our patterns, and attract different things into our life, then we have to work on our chakras to shift and change the frequency we’re putting out.

Chakras project into the corresponding layer of the aura via front and back emanations. Each chakra opens into a very specific auric layer right outside of the body, and receives energy from that layer. 

Each of the 12 layers filters a specific type of information-energy that we send out into or take in from the world. 

Physical Plane: Physical (etheric) Body, Emotional Body, Mental Body
Astral Plane: Astral body
Spiritual Plane: Etheric Template, Celestial Body, Ketheric/Causal Body

Physical field: Lowest in frequency. Regulates the human body.
Etheric field: Blueprint for the physical structure that it surrounds. There is also an etheric human energy field for the soul.
Emotional field: Regulates the emotional state of the organism.
Mental field: Processes ideas, thoughts, and beliefs.
Astral field: A nexus between the physical and spiritual realms. Free of time and space.
Celestial field: Accesses universal energies and serves as a template for the etheric fields (etheric template).
Ketheric/Causal field: Directs lower levels of existence.

It’s important to learn that there are realms of existence beyond the physical (3D) plane of existence, and it’s helpful to know that our human body emanates fields of energy that invite things in and push things away.

It’s not necessary to dive deeply into the physics or mechanics behind how all these fields and templates work, instead we are learning about this so we come to understand that we are literal magnets that attract and repel things into our lives.

Once we realize this is how we’re designed and how our human bodies interact with the world, then we’re able to take control and create change in our lives by working on shifting and balancing our energy through the chakras and energetic boundaries.

Sources

Eastern Body, Western Mind – Anodea Judith

Hands of Light – Barbara Brennan

Energetic Boundaries – Cyndi Dale

I’m going on an adventure.

Okay. So… I have a story to tell. I am here to record a story.

I just want to paint a picture of what’s going on around me. I’m sitting on the comfiest couch. Pillowy, cushiony, in the middle of a room that is surrounded by glass, and I have a sunset playing out before me.

There’s a mountain, and the sun has just gone past the point where it can burn your retinas… and now I can look at it because the bright rays of sunlight are coming from beyond the mountain. And before that, there’s all sorts of buildings splayed all over the place. And right in front of that, there’s a big, huge park. It’s like Central Park. It’s actually bigger, apparently, than Central Park.

It’s called Chapultepec (park), which means grasshopper (park). And in that park there’s a castle. For real? For real! There’s a huge fucking castle! And I live on the 13th floor… I do not know how I became so blessed as to have this available to me, but it’s just stunning. Stunning! Please find pictures I’ll post online.

But yeah, I’m sitting here on the couch watching this before me. The beautiful greens, the sunset, the light and this castle just right at my eye level, sitting on top of a big green mound of trees. And then there’s a cityscape right behind it. It’s such a beautiful little landscape of all sorts of different urban motifs.

Okay, that was a tangent, but this is where I’m at. Maybe that’s where I can start, is this is literally where I’m at. I’m sitting in Mexico City, it is January 5th, 2024, and I’m writing in my journal because I have an adventure to head on that has just suddenly appeared. This just struck me, it caught me by surprise that this trip needs to happen.

So… I arrived in Mexico City in November, and normally you get an 180 days when you come through the border here. It’s just standard. And apparently those rules changed a couple months ago, and now it’s to the discretion of the immigrant… immigrant? That’s wrong. Immigration! They’re actually not immigrants… immigration is definitely somebody from the local government.

Anyway! So I went and looked at my stamp, I assumed, which is the ‘no-no’ here – when you’re a digital nomad, don’t assume that your stamp is going to be what you think it’s going to be! Because I’ve learned this lesson… I say learned, yet apparently I’m going through it again! You gotta look at your stamp to be sure how long you’re allowed to be in the fucking country… because if you’re not allowed to be there… then you gotta go!

And that’s what happened… I ended up finding out that I had a 60 day stamp. Guess what? I have to leave the country on the 12th. Today is the fourth. So that’s sudden. And if I can be perfectly honest, financially, this is definitely not the time for this to happen. I absolutely adore adventures. I am willing and able. Let’s do it! But yeah, this just caught me by surprise in big ways, and uncertainty like that, especially when there’s financial fear… I absolutely have fear connected to finances… it just hits hard. I get panic, anxiety, this looming feeling of like, oh, you fucked up! You did something wrong, and now you’re going to fucking pay for it! And it’s going to suck. You’re fucked. That’s essentially how my brain speaks to me.

My brain likes to let me know all the shit that I fucked up and make me pay for it. I’ve come to learn that that’s shame and guilt. I’m trying to notice these patterns at this stage in my healing journey and just re-programing all the shit that goes on in my head.

So I’ve been navigating my way through those feelings of anxiety. I actually have tools now, which is incredible! And I have this sense of awareness that allows me to notice these things, now. Before, I was very much on autopilot and the anxiety was so ingrained in how I lived. It was all I knew. It was just all part of the experience. You know, you’re just so wrapped up in everything that’s happening all the time, and you’re just pushing forward in survival mode. You just gotta get through things.

I feel so removed from that at this stage. I am noticing a difference. I can now take a beat and recognize, oh, I’m feeling anxiety. There’s something going on with my nervous system right now. It’s not me. I am not this anxiety. I am not this fear. There is something at the root of this, and I am removed enough from it that I can respond instead of impulsively reacting right or just being stuck in it.

And so, it’s been so beautiful witnessing myself at this stage where I really am catching myself in these moments and going, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait! It’s okay. We can breathe, we can redirect, we can ground and center and come back to the moment and recognize that everything’s okay. It is not the end of the world. Everything is figureoutable. I have faith, I trust in the process. I am in flow with what is. Let’s just be with this. Let’s just call it what it is. Fear and anxiety and distrust. And we can work with that. Right. We can. We can work with that.

And now, it’s so funny… I woke up this morning feeling bright as a shining light. So energized and positive. I don’t think I’ve been in a mood like this for a while. It was really noticeable. I was very playful and sing-songy and bouncing around… very high energy. When I woke up this morning and I thought, wow, this is so great! I’m going on adventure and everything is figureoutable!

I know that I will be challenged. This is this type of travel I have done a lot over the last five years, and therefore I know that it is extremely challenging for me. There is a part of me that’s like, why the fuck do you have this lifestyle? Like, this is the most dysregulating lifestyle for me. As somebody who is living with trauma, and a dysregulated nervous system that gets tripped up and triggered so easily, and everything is amplified and my senses are totally raw and everything’s intense… it’s just a time in my life where I am very open, I’m more open than I have ever been, and there’s so much coming in and there’s a lot to process.

But also… I have tools and I have awareness. And so, it feels like this adventure is upon me because it will be a test. This is where I’ve landed in 2024. I have landed in this new place of awareness and this ability to practice being in flow with what is, and coming back to love and light and positivity and moving away from fear and redirecting from programming.

I recognize that that is where I’m at in my story. I have this gift of being able to see and move through things now… and now it’s time to practice. Now it’s time to practice being in flow.