When a man begins to develop his senses, so that he may see a little more than everybody sees, a new and most fascinating world opens before him, and the chakras are among the first objects in that world to attract his attention. His fellow-men present them-selves under a fresh aspect; he perceives much with regard to them which was previously hidden from his eyes, and he is therefore able to understand, to appreciate and (when necessary) to help them much better than he could before. Their thoughts and feelings are expressed clearly before his eyes in colour and form; the stage of their development, the condition of their health become obvious facts instead of mere matters of inference. The brilliant colouring and the rapid and incessant movement of the chakras bring them immediately under his observation, and he naturally wants to know what they are and what they mean. It is the object of this book to provide an answer to those questions and to give to those who have not yet made any attempt to unfold their dormant faculties some idea of at least this one small section of what is seen by their more fortunate brethren.

In order to clear away inevitable preliminary misconceptions, let it be definitely understood that there is nothing fanciful or unnatural about the sight which enables some men to perceive more than others. It is simply an extension of faculties with which we are all familiar, and to acquire it is to make oneself sensitive to vibrations more rapid than those to which our physical senses are normally trained to respond. These faculties will come to everyone in due course of evolution, but some of us have taken special trouble to develop them now in advance of the rest, at the cost of many years of harder work than most people would care to undertake.

I know that there are still many men in the world who are so for behind the times as to deny the existence of such powers, just as there are still villagers who have never seen a railway train. I have neither time nor space to argue with such invincible ignorance; I can only refer enquirers to my book on Clairvoyance,1 or to scores of book by authors on the same subject. The whole case has been proved hundreds o times, and no one who is capable of weighing the value of evidence can any longer be in doubt.

Much has been written about the chakras, but it is chiefly in Sanskrit or in some of the Indian vernaculars. It is only quite recently that any account of them has appeared in English. I mentioned them myself in The Inner Life 1 about 1910, and since then Sir John Woodroffe's magnificent work The Serpent Power has been issued, and some of the other Indian books have been translated. The symbolical drawings of them which are used by the Indian yogis were reproduced in The Serpent Power, but so far as I am aware the illustrations which I give in this book are the first attempt to represent them as they actually appear to those who can see them. Indeed, it is chiefly in order to put before the public this fine series of drawings by my friend the Rev. Edward Warner that I write this book, and I wish to express my deep indebtedness to him for all the time and trouble that he has devoted to them. I have also to thank my indefatigable collaborator, Professor Ernest Wood, for the collection and collation of all the valuable information as to the Indian views on our subject which is contained in Chapter V.

Being much occupied with other work, it was my intention merely to collect and reprint as accompanying letterpress to the illustrations the various articles which I had long ago written on the subject; but as I looked over them certain questions suggested themselves and a little investigation put me in possession of additional facts, which I have duly incorporated. An interesting point is that both the vitality-globule and the Kundalini-ring were observed by Dr. Annie Besant and catalogued as hyper-meta-proto elements as long ago as 1895, though we did not then follow them far enough to discover their relation to one another and the important part that they play in the economy of human life.

About the book

According to the teachings of the Hindu and other mystic schools there are subtle organs in man's superphysical bodies which channel psychic energies and vital forces, and serve as a link between the physical, psychic and superphysical states of consciousness. These centres are called Chakras, a Sanskrit term meaning wheels or discs.

The Chakras, which have been likened to flowers with many petals, have been seen and described by clairvoyant investigators as wheel-like vortices which appear in vivid colours like blazing, coruscating whirlpools.

C. W. Leadbeater describes his research into the nature and functions of the Chakras in this book which was first published in 1927. It has since been through several printings and has become a classic in its field. The work is illustrated by ten colour plates and nine drawings.