I sketched this on a napkin during a conversation with my mum about a year ago. It was a simple diagram exploring how energy centres (chakras) open.
I find it interesting that chakras are experientially real for many people (myself included) yet remain invisible to Western science (or scientific instruments) – pointing to different ways of knowing what’s real.
At the time, it was just a rough sketch, but the idea kept developing. So a few months later, as part of my “A Whole Life’s Work” deck, I refined and expanded the illustration and created the slide below.
It maps a simplistic healing journey from suffering (caused by blocked energy from past traumas and conditioning) through self-help practices like therapy and meditation, leading to the opening of energy centres that connect physical and spiritual dimensions, and the ultimate goal (for some) of cosmic unity.
This gap between what we feel and what we can prove feels like something worth exploring further.
Concept development questions:
- Where in my body do I experience these energies/phenomena? Can I map it?
- What does “energy” feel like in language or visuals I can articulate?
- Do other people’s experiences match mine? Make work from the overlaps/differences
- How can I depict the energy centres journey using form/material?