Chakra

The word means wheel or disc. Classical tantric texts describe a series of these centres along the axis of the body, each associated with an element, a sound, a set of qualities and a location — most popular systems list seven, from the base of the spine to the crown, though the older sources vary in number and detail. They belong to a symbolic anatomy, not to the body a surgeon opens, and the honest way to use them is as a structured map of attention.

What they are for, in practice, is a vocabulary for working with the inner body. Asking someone to bring attention to the base of the throat, or to the space behind the sternum, and to notice what the breath does there, is a precise instruction with a real effect. The framework also organises a lot of traditional practice: particular seed sounds, breath techniques and postures are mapped to particular centres.

In a KEO session, Ben uses the map lightly and never diagnostically. You might be asked to put your hands on the belly or the chest and breathe into that space; you will not be told that a chakra is blocked or that a bowl tuned to a specific frequency will fix one, because that claim has no evidence behind it. The sound and the attention are real; the physics-flavoured version sold online is not.