Eastern Body, Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System As a Path to the Self by Judith Anodea

Author:Judith, Anodea [Judith, Anodea]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

It is not so much the

parent alone that is

internalized, as it is the

relationship between the

parent and the child.

KEN WILBER

When Alex was about five, he

came down with a stomach u

that kept him in bed for a few

days. As he was sick to his

stomach, I was not about to

force him to eat, but wanted

him to have nourishment if he

wanted it. So I prepared some

toast, left it on a plate next to

his bed, and tucked him in with

his teddy bear. He soon

recovered and the incident was

forgotten. A few weeks later,

when I was taking an

afternoon nap, I woke to find a

plate of awkwardly buttered

toast placed on my night table

and a teddy bear on the pillow

next to me. This was a true

sign he was in the heart chakra

stage.

The

fourth

chakra

developmental stage begins

when the child moves from the

intense

egocentricity

and

willfulness of the third chakra

into a readiness to meet and

cooperate with others. This

generally begins between three

and four years, after autonomy

and basic impulse control have

been established. It may

happen suddenly, when the

seemingly impossible child

spontaneously does something

sweet and kind for someone

else. A child may also swing

back to stubborn willfulness at

three-and-a-half before nally

moving on to the more loving

and harmonious heart chakra

stage at around four years. In

the uncertainty of new

behavior, a child often runs

back to familiar patterns for

security. Development is not

always smooth.

As we climb further up the

chakras, the exact timing of the

developmental stages becomes

less speci c. It depends in part

on the successful resolution of

previous stages, which varies

from case to case, and the

variations widen as we get

higher. Unfortunately, many

people do not reach the upper

chakra stages at all, or do so

only later in life. Therefore, we

will now begin to discuss both

childhood

and

adult

development.

In childhood, fourth chakra

development

marks

the

formation of our social identity,

also known as the persona.

This is the aspect of self that

we create to win love, gain

social approval, and get along

in the larger world. In the

fourth chakra we no longer see

the world entirely in terms of

our own needs, and so our

relationships expand from

being speci cally one-on-one

(i.e., child and mother, child

and father) to include larger

family and social structures.

The child now nds that she is

part of Mommy and Daddy’s

relationship with each other,

and that she has brothers and

sisters, classmates, neighbors,

and friends of her own.

The verbal messages that

were internalized during the

third chakra stage centered

around action and behavior.

Now in the fourth chakra stage

it

is

the

parent-child

relationship itself that becomes

internalized. It is not only the

messages Dad continually gives

us about being noisy in the

house, but also the context of

Dad’s relationship with us that

becomes important. If the

message was given in the

context of fear, we feel fear

along with the internalized

message. How we behave and

who we become is shaped by

the way we internalize our

basic family relationships.

Eric Berne outlined these

internal relationships in his

theories

of

transactional

analysis, which describes how

we operate from internalized

parent, adult, or child scripts.

If we rebel against Dad’s

messages, we are playing the

script of the naughty child with

a critical parent, and aspects of

it become part of our internal

dialogue. Throughout life, we

may

nd

both

roles

simultaneously clamoring for

the driver’s seat, as sometimes

we will be led by rebellious

urges, while at others we will

be held back by our inner

critic. We also repeat these

relationships with others. If a

friend criticizes you, they may

suddenly become your critical

parent. Then you nd yourself

reacting like a naughty child,

instead of listening to what

they have to say.

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