chakras · stations · glands
Chakras are stations on an old map. Glands on that line already convert a signal.
You wanted the stations on the poster to be real.
A chakra is a named station on an old body map. People who use that map put those stations on the midline, and the midline is the line down the middle of the body. You may have seen seven dots on a yoga poster or in a book. You opened this page because you wanted those named stations to match something you can point to, and you wanted a name for that match.
What is a chakra?
People who use the old map named stations from the base of the spine to the top of the head, and they used those names as places you can feel and work with. Some people also name a station in the middle of the head as the third eye. You can keep wanting that station to be real. Keep the chakra name, then ask what glands already sit on that same line and already turn one kind of signal into another.
What is a gland on that line?
A hormone is a chemical message in the blood, and endocrine glands are the glands that send those messages. A transducer is a thing that turns one kind of signal into another. Neuroendocrine is a long word for glands that can take a nerve signal and send a hormone. People named stations on the midline, and glands on that line already turn a signal into a hormone.
You already have glands on that same midline. One of them is the pineal gland, a small gland in the middle of the head that can meet light. Josephine Arendt wrote that this gland weighs about 100 to 150 milligrams. Milligrams are a tiny unit of weight, so this is a small gland, and you can read her pineal chapter on NCBI.
Other glands on or near that line also convert a signal. The adrenal glands sit above the kidneys and can finish a chain by sending cortisol, a stress hormone, into the blood. The thyroid sits in the front of the neck. The brain sends a signal to a gland under the brain, that gland sends a signal to the thyroid, and the thyroid sends a hormone in the blood. The pancreas sits behind the stomach and can turn a blood-sugar signal into a hormone. You can name those glands as converters. You do not need a proven pair that says each chakra is one gland.
Did anyone name a gland that converts a signal?
Julius Axelrod did that in 1974. He wrote in Science, a journal that prints papers on how nature works, that the pineal gland is a neurochemical transducer, which means that gland turns one kind of signal into another. Light is the incoming signal, and melatonin is the night hormone that gland makes, so Axelrod named the pineal as a converter of light into melatonin. You can read that paper at doi.org/10.1126/science.184.4144.1341.
People also teach a longer chain, and they call that chain the HPA axis. The hypothalamus is a small control region in the brain, and it sends a first chemical message called CRH. The pituitary is a gland under the brain, and it answers with a next chemical message called ACTH. The adrenal glands answer with cortisol, a stress hormone, so your glands can turn a nerve signal into a hormone in the blood. That path is ordinary textbook physiology.
Do chakras match one gland each?
People who want the stations to be real often ask if each chakra is one gland. Glands sit on the same midline and convert a signal, and that already gives you something you can point to. You can keep the chakra name for the station. You do not need a one-to-one pair for the names to stay useful in your hands. You can still use the station names because they mark places on a line where your glands already turn a signal.
Why does the poster have seven colors?
Some people later painted seven colors on the stations, and you have seen that rainbow on a yoga poster. People painted the colors later, after people had already named the stations on that line. This page does not lock a paper that proved those colors.
What about kundalini and meridians?
People use other old maps too. Kundalini is the old name for a rise you can feel. Open the kundalini page if you want that rise. Meridians are the old map of lines on the body. Open the meridians page if you want the lines. Stay here if you want the stations.
If the stations or this work bring unusual distress, talk to a clinician, because this page is educational.
Can you still want the stations?
You wanted the stations on the poster to be real. Keep the chakra name.
Glands on that line already turn a nerve signal or light into a hormone. You can still call those stations chakras tonight.
Sources
Axelrod, J. "The pineal gland: a neurochemical transducer," Science 184(4144):1341-1348 (28 Jun 1974), pineal as a neurochemical transducer, which means that gland turns one kind of signal into another, light to melatonin, DOI 10.1126/science.184.4144.1341, PMID 4151465. doi.org/10.1126/science.184.4144.1341
Arendt, J., and Aulinas, A. "Physiology of the Pineal Gland and Melatonin," Endotext, pineal mass 100-150 mg mentioned once. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK550972
HPA axis, textbook physiology: the hypothalamus, a small control region in the brain, sends CRH, the pituitary, a gland under the brain, sends ACTH, and the adrenal glands send cortisol, a stress hormone, so a nerve signal becomes a hormone in the blood.