The chakras do not exist in the physical body. They exist in the psychic body, which cannot be experienced by the senses. This requires an altered state to be perceived through the mind. In yoga nidra we induce this state of perception by gradually withdrawing the senses during the rotation of consciousness throughout the body and by practicing breath awareness. This induces both pratyahara and deep relaxation. In fact, deep relaxation has been shown to be an altered state of perception…
– Swami Satyananda
Then he goes on to say:
Many, if not all, of the truly creative discoveries in life, such as those of science, art, music and religion, were made during creative “flashes” of intuition which we understand as occurring when the inherent knowledge of the unconscious surfaces into consciousness. There are many documented examples. Newton’s revelations about gravity occurred while he was relaxing under an apple tree. Van Gough said that “pictures come to be as in a dream”. Mozart once composed an entirely new musical composition while dozing in the back of a carriage. Einstein increased his perception of relatively while visualizing himself walking along a sunbeam.
All these people allowed themselves to relax deeply enough, for the images and forms of their unconscious mind to manifest as solutions to their particular problems or quest. It has even been reported that through the use of deep relaxation and visualization, people have been able to diagnose their own particular disease before confirmation by medial examination. These deeper layers of the mind contain the solutions to all our problems, but we have to be able to allow them to manifest while maintaining complete detachment. One of the hallmarks of a genius is the ability to produce imagery in great abundance. Children also possess this ability, which usually becomes repressed as they are conditioned by worldly experience.
… fascinating.
