David Crow on Plant Medicine and the Chakra System
The Art of Healing podcast recently featured plant medicine expert David Crow in a fascinating exploration of ancient chakra systems and their original purpose. As a specialist in Chinese, Tibetan, and Ayurvedic medicines, Crow brings 40 years of experience studying these traditional healing modalities. What becomes immediately clear in this conversation is that our modern Western understanding of chakras differs dramatically from their historical foundations.
The contemporary Western chakra system we commonly encounter in yoga classes, Reiki sessions, and modern energy medicine was largely created in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Western translators, many associated with the Theosophist Society, attempted to make these ancient Eastern concepts palatable to Western minds by correlating chakras with endocrine glands and nerve centers. This translation served to validate these subtle energy centers in a way that Western scientific minds could accept, but in doing so, much of the original purpose was lost.
David Crow explains that the original chakra systems emerged from a spiritual revolution that began around the first few centuries AD, reaching significant development between 500-700 AD. This represented a profound shift in spiritual thinking: the revolutionary concept that the universe exists inside us, not just outside. This was counter to prevailing religious thought that placed the divine as external to human experience. These body-based lineages—Tantra, Madhuryana, Taoism, and inner alchemy—articulated that the human body is a microcosm of the entire universe.
The ancient chakra system served as a map of this inner landscape, showing how the five elements—earth, water, fire, air, and space—align in the physical body just as they do in the outer universe. This map provided guidance for practitioners seeking to move from identification with earth (the first chakra) to formless awareness (the seventh chakra). But the ultimate goal of this journey was something rarely discussed in contemporary chakra teachings: samadhi.
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Samadhi, as Crow explains, is a state of consciousness that represents the true goal of yoga and meditative practices. It encompasses various levels of blissful meditative states, with the deepest samadhi being one where self-awareness dissolves completely as consciousness reunites with primordial awareness. This transcendent state was what the ancient chakra systems were designed to help practitioners achieve.
Perhaps most fascinating is Crow’s explanation of two approaches to working with chakras: the forceful system and the non-forceful system. The forceful approach, exemplified by certain kundalini practices, involves intensive breathing techniques and physiological control to “awaken” energy and move it through the chakras. The non-forceful approach, in contrast, focuses on letting go—dissolving our attachment to each element, beginning with earth at the root chakra and progressing upward.
This dissolution process mirrors what some traditions describe as occurring at death: earth dissolves into water, water into fire, fire into air, and air into space, allowing consciousness to return to its source. But we don’t need to wait for death to experience this—through meditation, we can practice this letting go, moving from physical density toward the lightness of pure awareness.
This understanding reveals something profound about our modern approach to chakras. While contemporary systems often focus on “opening” or “balancing” chakras for psychological and emotional well-being, the original systems were concerned with transcending the limitations of embodied existence altogether. The chakras weren’t something to fix or optimize—they were portals to move through on a journey beyond the body.
As we integrate this ancient wisdom with modern understanding, we might find a more nuanced approach to working with our subtle energy. Rather than forcing or manipulating energy, perhaps the most profound practice is simply letting go—dissolving our attachments to physical form, desires, power, and even our sense of self, allowing consciousness to naturally return to its source.