Many of the more advanced metaphysical practices work with a system of energy sources in the body (usually located in specific positions in the physical body but considered to be part of the astral body) known as the Chakras. This system goes back to ancient India and possibly earlier and can be found in many different practices. The origin of the Christian halo (which was originally a golden disk rather than a thin ring) is the eighth or highest chakra which rides above the head and was supposedly mastered by Jesus and used by him to perform his miracles.
LRH ignored this system and worked with a system of golden balls (or GE [Genetic Entity] anchor points) instead.
I've drilled and experimented with both of these systems and both seem to be real. There seem to be layers of spiritual or astral bodies and they follow the pattern of our physical evolution on the track. The pattern of the chakras seems to go back to the magic universe and is an almost material fairly low level theta mockup whereas Ron's system of anchor points seems to go back earlier to the conflicts universe and the first compulsive body mockups. More basic than both of these is the "thetan" as a sphere of energy which can project tractor and pressor beams, which is another system that Ron worked on in the technique 88 lectures of 1952.
There are earlier and more basic systems which manifest as even higher (less material and more theta) spiritual body types that we still mockup and drag around with us. The next one is a sort of "symbol" body that dates back to the symbols universe, and there are "templates" and "pools" associated with it (discussed elsewhere in these writings) but I am nowhere near having a good anatomy of it, so I will put it aside for now.
As to the chakras, the GE anchor points, and the energy theta body, many drills work on all three, but nothing works spectacularly and you can't work any of these things too long or hard because it is putting you back into agreement with energy and mechanics. Ron recognized this early on and decided to abandon the whole matter because cases would start deteriorating after long drilling. But he also got some exceptional results on PCs before abandoning these things (anchor point adjustments, energy beam handling, etc.) so I would consider it to be a mistake to ignore these areas. Just don't specialize in them or start grinding away, use a light touch instead and go onto something else whenever you have a bit of a win with these things.
The GE anchor points (golden balls) are discussed extensively in the tapes of 1953 and 54, so I will primarily address the chakras here.
There are many different eastern and American metaphysical systems that try to work with these. There are varying numbers, descriptions, colors, and significance assigned to them. Most systems have either 6 or 7 chakras, but a few of the advanced systems consider that an 8th chakra develops above the head in a sort of halo in very advanced souls.
From our viewpoint, seeing how the thetan has decayed, the obvious is that there are naturally 8 chakras, including one above the head, and that the 8th has been impacted and collapsed down into the head and our first task would be to unstick it and get it back up where it belongs. Furthermore, we would conclude from the fact that some systems only allow for 6 chakras that maybe some people have both the 7th and 8th collapsed down onto the 6th chakra. Perhaps the collapse goes even further, because we only have the observations of very advanced mystics who would be expected to have these things in better shape than average. Probably most people have the whole series collapsed down into the 3rd or 2nd or even the first chakra. Since the 2nd chakra has to do with sex, and considering the behavior of most people in this society, it would not be surprising to find that most were collapsed into the 2nd.
There is also a lot of importance placed on the color of these things, but the various systems do not quite agree on the colors assigned or the meanings although there is some similarity. For myself, I found it best to work towards white and then golden on all of them and blow off any black or dark spots or splotches. The other colors probably have to do with direction of flow, wavelength, and how you're trying to use the chakra, and might be appropriate in some cases, but golden energies tend to be basic on the higher spiritual and energy bodies and so it works well with the chakras and might actually be an upgrade above their natural state. As you get up to a good level of golden energy, you will spot a faint rainbow of colors within the gold. This then can be worked further so that you have a basic golden color that is carrying a rainbow. Since these things spin, the view is a bit like having a golden CD disk (but a bit thicker and larger) spinning with a bit of a rainbow of colors reflecting off of its surface.
Another point of halfway agreement with a bit of contention in the different systems is the definition of each chakra. I examined various systems, and played around with what I could reach on this stuff, and tried working it all around to line up with the 8 dynamics (which has some correspondence) and finally realized that they represent the energy of each dynamic as the dynamics were interpreted in the magic universe (which is very hedonistic, passionate, and emotional) and so you have the 4th chakra (the heart chakra) handling the energy flows of courage, compassion, leadership, etc. which can all be viewed as part of your relations to society and mankind. There is also a bit of the corresponding upper dynamic (numbers 9 to 16) included in each one.
The simplest drills follow the same methods used for GE anchor point adjustment (see Creation of Human Ability and the 5th to 9th ACCs) or for energy field handling (see Tech 88, SOP for Theta Clearing and the November lectures of 1952). You can mock up copies of these chakras outside the body and have the body draw them in, you can run gentle flows of energy across them until they become visible, you can lightly add energy (never force or push at body related energy structures, a delicate touch is always called for) and gently coax them into position when they are out of place. And you can blow black masses out of them by turning them white or golden. You can also blow entities out of these things (and that also works for GE anchor points etc.) and blow entities that are holding them out of place or keeping them mocked up (you don't need their help) or keeping them hidden. With these techniques, you should be able to unstick collapsed chakras and get all 8 into their natural positions, including the one over the head.
Note that the chakras are spinning in alternate directions.
The 8 chakras are as follows (in my own interpretation):
Note that many of the metaphysical systems work exclusively with a particular manifestation or subset of the full energy field available and often insist that the other systems are incorrect.
1st Chakra: This is the 1st dynamic (body self) energy source. It is located a bit below the base of the spine, just below and behind the genital area, right where you sit. This, rather than the stomach chakra, is tied to the energy of eating etc. Its oriented to the end product rather than the start of digestion. This grounds the entire energy system in reality and location and is the basic negative pole of the entire affair. It provides energy oriented towards strength and physical healing. The stance used in martial arts systems like karate is oriented around this chakra and to some degree energizes it. The advanced yogis get carried away on doing sitting drills (lotus position) because they are trying to master this chakra and use it as a firm base. The flows of this chakra generally remain within the body. It can also sublimate into ethics or decay into gluttony.
2nd Chakra: This is the 2nd dynamic (sex/children) energy source. It is located at the level of the sexual organs, but a bit behind because the entire series of chakras are located one above the other. It includes sexual, reproductive, and nurturing energies. It is also involved in healing and aging (like the first chakra) because of cellular reproduction. Whereas the first chakra provides strength to fight disease and maintain circulation in injured areas, this one is involved in rebuilding damaged tissue etc. This one flows out of the body only on very close personal relationships (including deep friendships, close apprenticeships, etc. as well as true family, children, and sexual relationships). The energies run on a basis of high affinity, love, and admiration. It can be degraded into sexual cravings, lust, etc. Or it can be sublimated into aesthetics.
3rd Chakra: This is the third dynamic (groups) energy source. It is located at the level of the stomach and solar plexus. Many of the eastern systems consider this to be the "emotional" chakra because they see that it is connected with anger, fear, etc. Other systems call it the "control" chakra (and some say that the efforts to control are debased and will always fail). The correct definition includes co-operation, control, group effort, constructive activities, and the general emotions (not only anger and fear but also enthusiasm etc.) because these all have to do with dealing with groups of people that you are connected with. This chakra flows outward into your immediate sphere of operation, but it can easily be jammed and backlash into the body, giving one terror stomachs etc. In its degraded form, it is the drive to enslave others, and in its highest form, it is the center of constructive effort.
4th Chakra: This is the fourth dynamic (society) energy source. It is at the level of the heart. It includes compassion, courage, loyalty, leadership, ethical systems in the social sense, judgment and reason in the low sense of legal systems (rather than high abstract thought), and various other things related to getting along with mankind. It produces a light broad wave that goes way out but is usually fairly tenuous. In its degraded form, it is the energies of hatred, prejudice, and self righteousness.
5th Chakra: This is the fifth dynamic (lifeforms) energy source. It is at the level of the throat or mouth. This is often called the communication chakra. One system limits its use to talking to god. If we consider the 5th dynamic (lifeforms) and subtract out what has already been covered in the lower dynamics (eating, sex, etc.), and then think about what life has in common that is not present in inanimate (6th dynamic) objects, we come around to communication and willful change as the distinguishing characteristics of the fifth dynamic. This would also include life-force and "oneness" with nature.
6th Chakra: This is the 6th dynamic (MEST) energy source. It is at the level of the eyes. A few of the Easter systems have turned their backs so far on the physical universe that they miss this chakra and label the 7th as the 6th (and if they have the 8th one, they call it the 7th). This is sometimes called the perception chakra, and some practices associate the third eye with it. At least one practice tries to exteriorize from the body by moving into this chakra and then flowing out of the body via the third eye. But that area has been so heavily implanted that I would suggest using other techniques. Here is the perception and projection of physical reality, and also the playing of games.
7th Chakra: This is the 7th dynamic (theta) energy source. It is near the top of the head. This is often called the thought chakra. Here is the energy of understanding and knowingness, and the spiritual and metatative energies and power of concentration, etc. Here also is the high level permeation of MEST for the sake of understanding, and the telepathic energies.
8th Chakra: This is the 8th dynamic (god/infinity) energy source. It belongs above the head although it is often collapsed. This is the center of creative energy including the continuous creation of reality and is the positive pole of the entire system, connecting to infinity and the underlying allness of the basic life static. You can find an underlying "god wave" permeating everything and the interesting thing about it is that it is accepting of everything and all embracive without any restriction (and from this one might get Jesus' statement that God is Love, but note that the "god" in this sense is not thinking or judgmental). In its degraded form you will find humbleness and propitiative worship and destructive energies and engaging in these things is probably what collapses it.
The entire system probably generates energy on the dichotomy of a solid physical location in reality on the one side and being part of a location-less infinity on the other.
Once you have cleaned these up in the body, you can find a more basic set that you have hidden in some mocked up space sideways of reality. Those will be your basic energy sources and the bodily ones are only a mundane projection. You can clean up this basic set in much the same way as you clean up the ones in the body, handling black masses etc. You will find that each chakra in the basic set has a connection to the corresponding bodily one. This connection can be cleaned up and unblocked and the energy flow increased, which will improve the energy level of the ones in the body.
If you then trace back from the basic set, you will find a line leading to a "universal" set that is held in common by all of us. I will refer to these as the "universe machines", and we have each put a piece of ourselves into them. These are huge spinning disks and that is where the cross copy of the reality of this universe takes place. You wouldn't be able to mess with these until you blow lots of guardian entities out of the way, so leave them be until you're fairly far along the road.
Everything I have mentioned up to this point is fairly safe and easy. You can work on cleaning up individual chakras without stirring up too much. But the next drill can turn on heavy somatics and should be left until you are quite advanced. Up until I ran into trouble on the following one, I considered the entire chakra system to be highly speculative and was mainly playing with it to get a datum of comparable magnitude to Ron's anchor point system. The following, however, sold me on these things being real.
In yoga, there is an advanced practice called Kundalini where you get the energies of each chakra flowing upwards to the ones above it, starting with the first and continuing on to the top of the series. They warn beginners not to try this, because people have turned on pains that lasted for years before they got these things under control. I, of course, figured that the odds were that I was probably just mocking these chakras up anyway, and that even if something was really there I'd be able to handle the energies involved because I had done so many other energy drills.
So I began gently coaxing an energy flow upwards from the first chakra to the second, and having the second contribute to the flow to make an even bigger flow going up to the third, etc.
The first three were easy and pleasant and gave me no problem. When I hit the 4th, there was a bit of resistance but I was able to push through it (a mistake as it turns out). When I hit the 5th, I turned on an array of Heavy somatics. This included toothaches, headaches, chest pains, etc. These all started simultaneously and were quite intense. I was amazed. So I slowly and carefully dampened the flow (not reacting in panic or suppressing the area, because that can make something stick or react compulsively) and this reduced the intensity of the somatics from heavy to mild.
Now, with only a faint trickle of energy still flowing upwards, I reexamined the 4th chakra (which had appeared golden with a rainbow effect previously) and found it full of black smudges. So I turned those areas golden with a gentle flow of my own energy and the lingering somatics faded. Then I increased the upward flow a bit and the chakra started going black again and the somatics began to return. So I shut the flow down completely, blew the new black masses, and started contemplating what had just happened.
And I thought about the 4th chakra and the 4th dynamic, and I realized that that is where I have heavy charge. I'm actually in fairly good shape on the 3rd dynamic. I might want to see things change and improve, but I'm not really interested in vengeance or make-wrongs or burning someplace down. But the 4th dynamic is a different matter. I do have a bone to pick with society and government, and although I have it well justified, its still a manifestation of charge and dramatization.
I realized that as the energy flowed past the chakra (the black spots and somatics did not turn on until I passed the 4th chakra and went on to the 5th), the chakra began energizing my flows with society and some of those flows were stuck or inverted and this resulted in the blackness. And the more energy I flowed through the chakra, the more these flows backed up and the more blackness was generated.
So I spotted and recognized the presence of charge on society and the 4th dynamic, and I confronted and blew a few things, and I exteriorized from the game I was playing on the 4th dynamic (pretty much by postulate and by a willingness to let go that was brought about by the realization that my charge and the game condition were detrimental).
Once I had put aside all my game conditions and considerations on society, I tried the drill again. This time I was able to run through the 4th chakra and up to the 5th without somatics or blackness and it was all quite comfortable, pleasant feeling, and revitalizing.
So of course I pushed through some resistance on the 5th and got the flow up to the 6th and turned on a new set of heavy somatics and found blackness in the 5th chakra.
This happened on each of the remaining ones as I worked my way up to the top, and on each one, I searched around and confronted things and changed my mind about them (as I had done on the 4th chakra) until it was cleaned up.
In retrospect, each of the chakras that gave me trouble had some kind of protest connected with it, and when I stopped protesting, the flow cleaned up. On the 4th, it was my protest at society jamming narrow minded rules and moralities and taxes etc. in on people. On the 5th, it was my protest at the way insects etc. swarm and reproduce endlessly. On the 6th, it was my protest at being trapped in a fixed reality. On the 7th, it was my protest at the ignorance and stupidity of others. On the 8th, it was my protest at having to compulsively participate in the continuous creation of this universe.
I don't know if protest will always be the button to look for or whether that was peculiar to my current case state. It certainly hinted to me that we probably need a grade of release to handle the subject of protest in general.
Before you should even consider trying this, your first action should be to handle the rudiments (problems, overts, upsets) on each of the 8 dynamics and also handle any protest connected with the dynamic (things that you are protesting). Then causatively exteriorize from the game conditions that you are in on each dynamic. And of course have each chakra well cleaned up on an individual basis first.
The interesting thing about this is that It was a practical test of my relationship to each dynamic and it brought home to me the fact that I was not-ising (making nothing of) various areas of heavy charge.
By making postulates to put aside all my game conditions on various dynamics, I was able to get a light flow all the way up to the top, and then reflected it back down from the 8th to the first, and then reflected it back upwards again. This would be the full drill, bouncing a wave up and down, and also holding the system (especially the 1st and 8th) apart by means of strong intention and postulates (because they will pull together as the flow increases). As of now, I have only done this lightly. I need to clean up the dynamics some more before I would try any heavy flows on these channels. The light pass on this was meant merely to get an idea of where this is going. It did seem to improve my energy level a bit, but the more dramatic effect even with only a trickle of energy, was to cause changes in my perception and orientation.