THE NINE PRIMARY ENERGY SYSTEMS

People that have the ability to “see” energy all describe what the “see” in ways that seem to have a great deal in common. Not only are their descriptions very similar, but they are also in agreement with descriptions of human vital energies that are found in healing traditions from all over the world! Now, with the aid of modern technology, these descriptions of the energy body are being verified by electromagnetic measurements.

The Meridians, the Chakras and the Aura are all terms that have become familiar to many of us here in the west. And according to Donna Eden, author of book “Energy Medicine”, there are actually nine energy systems that interact with our mind/body experience:

1) The Electrics:  The electrics are a subtle energy system that interconnects with all of the other energy systems as well as with the physical body. On the physical level, our cells generate electricity. Every cell in the body is a miniature battery. While a battery's positive and  negative voltages are set and do not change, the polarity electricity of the cell can change through action of the ion pumps in the cell's membrane.

Every muscle you move, every thought you think, every bite of food that you digest involves electrical activity.

The other eight energy systems listed below all interact with the body's electrical system.

2) The Meridians: The Meridians are to the body’s energy system as the arteries are to blood flow. When the energy flows naturally through the meridians it vitalizes, removes blockages (which can lead to dis-ease) and even affects  the change at the cellular level. Energy is meant to move; no movement – no life. Each physiological system is fed (or governed) by at least one meridian. If the energy in a meridian is obstructed or unregulated, the system(s) being fed by that meridian can be compromised and lead to various forms of dysfunction or dis-ease.

The meridians include fourteen channels that carry energy into, throughout and out of the body. Distributed along the meridians are a series of points that act as receptors for physical, thermal and electrical excitation. These are the acupuncture points. These points are manipulated by Energy Medicine practitioners to restore and maintain balanced and harmonious flow of energy.

3) The Chakras: Chakra is the Sanskrit word for disk, wheel or vortex. The Chakras are seven swirling energy vortices that are positioned along the center line of the body from the middle of the perineum to the crown of the head. While the Meridians deliver energy to the organ functions, the Chakras bathe the organs in their energy.

A Vital Force Energy Medicine Practitioner’s hand held over a chakra may resonate with pain in a related organ, congestion in a part of the lymphatic system, subtle disturbances in heat or pulsation, or even pick up a stored memory that may need to be dealt with as part of the healing process.

4) The Aura: Your aura is sort of like a seven-layered energy space suit. It is a seven-layered field that surrounds and protects your body. It filters out harmful energies while drawing  in supportive, healthy energies that you need.
When you feel happy, attractive, and spirited, your aura may fill an entire room. When you are sad, depressed, or melancholy, your aura collapses in on you, forming an energetic shell that isolates you from the world.

5) The Celtic Weave works like an invisible thread that keeps all the energy systems functioning as a single unit and networks throughout and around the body in spiraling figure-eight patterns. The body’s energies are not static. They continuously spin, spiral, crisscross and weave themselves into elegant patterns that are breathtaking in their magnificent beauty.

This kaleidoscopic dance of interlocking energies is called by many names in cultures throughout the world.

• The Tibetan Energy Ring in the east
• Yoga tradition represents it by two curved lines that cross seven times, symbolically encasing the seven chakras
• In the West, the intertwined serpents ¬also crossing seven times ¬found on the staff that is the symbol of the medical profession.

Donna Eden refers to this system as the Celtic Weave partly because “the pattern looks to her like the old Celtic drawings of a spiraling, sideways infinity sign, never beginning and never ending and sometimes forming a triple spiral.”

6) The Five Elements: There is a subtle pattern that pervades all energetic interactions throughout nature. The doctrines of Yin and Yang and five elements can be understood as the basis of the Chinese understanding of the nature of the cosmos. The Yin-Yang doctrine teaches that everything is the product of two principles: Yin, which is weak, female and destructive and Yang, which is strong, male and creative. It is the interaction of these two principles that produces the arising of the five elements and enables change to take place within the world.

Metaphors for describing these five distinct rhythms have drawn from concrete, observable elements of nature (water, wood, fire, earth, and metal) and from the seasons (winter, spring, summer, Indian summer, and autumn). A person's primary rhythm, in combination with the changing rhythms of life's seasons, directs the tone and mood of the entire energy system and sets the atmosphere of the life being lived.

7) The Triple Warmer: Triple warmer is the meridian that networks the energies of the immune system to attack an invader, and it mobilizes the body’s energies in an emergency for the fight-or-flight-or-freeze response. In carrying out these critical functions, it operates in ways that are so beyond the range of any other meridian that some consider it a system unto itself. Although the exact reasons for the term "triple warmer" are lost in antiquity, its energies work in conjunction with the hypothalamus gland, which is the body’s thermostat. The hypothalamus is also the instigator of the body’s emergency response. Like an army, triple warmer mobilizes during threat or perceived threat, coordinating all the other energy systems to activate the immune response, govern the fight/flight/freeze mechanism, and establish and maintain habitual responses to threat.

8) The Radiant Circuits: The radiant circuits function to ensure that all the other energy systems are working for the common good. They redistribute energies to where they are most needed, responding to any health challenge the body might encounter. In terms of evolution, the radiant circuits have been around longer than the meridians. Primitive organisms such as insects move their energies via the radiant circuits rather than through a meridian system, and the radiant circuits can be seen in the embryo before the meridians develop. As in the way that riverbeds are formed, it is as if radiant energies that habitually followed the same course became meridians. Where the meridians are tied to fixed pathways and specific organs, the radiant energies operate as fluid fields, embodying a distinct spontaneous intelligence. Like hyperlinks on a website, they jump instantly to wherever they are needed, bringing revitalization, joy, and spiritual connection. If triple warmer mobilizes your inner militia, the radiant circuits mobilize your inner mom, showering you with healing energy, providing life-sustaining resources, and lifting your morale.

 
9) The Basic Grid: The basic grid is your body’s foundational energy. Like the chassis of a car, all the other energy systems ride on the energy of the basic grid. For instance, when you are lying down, it would appear to a seer such as Donna that each of your chakras sits upon this foundational energy. Grid energy is sturdy and fundamental. But severe trauma can damage and deform the grid, and when this occurs, it does not usually repair itself spontaneously. Rather, the other energy systems adjust themselves to the damaged grid, much as a personality may be formed around early traumatic experiences. Repairing a person’s basic grid is one of the most advanced and intense forms of energy therapy. If a grid’s structure or a car’s chassis is sound, you never notice it is there; if it is damaged, nothing else is quite right.

Reference: D. Eden, Energy Medicine, New York: Tarcher/Penguin, 1998.