FROM THE AUDIOGRAM TO TANTRIC CHAKRAS

Factorial analysis of auditive spectral sensitivity and of a projection of personality

Bernard M. AURIOL (M.D.), Jean- Louis BASSANO (Ph D - M B A) Directeur de Recherche au Centre d'Etude et de Recherche du Service de Psychologie Appliquée de la Marine (Toulon - France), Bernard M. DOYON (M D, HBD) Institut de Médecine du Travail et d'Hygiène Industrielle, Pierre JOSSERAND (Ph D) Professeur Université Toulouse III

Introduction Tantric yoga gives a description of various centers called "chakras" (i. e. wheels) connected by "subtle" canals driving energy currents of positive (solar) type or negative (lunar) type. (1) (2) (3). We can notice a number of relations between this theory and Chinese acupuncture (conception vessel and ruling vessel) (Jenn Mo and Tu Mo). However they cannot be reduced to each other and become one. We must emphasize that the theory of chakras looks much more simple and synthetical than the system of meridians and points (4). This tantric system describes seven main points and puts forward a graphic symbol for each of them, except one of them that escapes from any description because of its "transcendent" characteristic. The pictorial symbols of the other six centers have been photographed from the illustrations of Avalon's book : "The Serpent Power" (5). They have been reduced to the size of 9 cm by 13 cm. These pictures have been presented to the subjects of our investigation, who had to grade them up according to their liking, having regard to a protocol similar to the one used by Lüscher (6) (7) in his test about colours, or Szondi (8), in his test about pulsions.

 

Main chakras

Traditional symbols after Arthur Avalon

 

To each chakra symbol is assigned a roman figure from II to VII. The "non corporeal" chakra is assigned to N° I but it is not taken into account in our research (Table I).

TABLE I
Chakra	Avalon pictures nomination	Usual numbering	Topical and structural standpoint	Genetic  phase	age (approximate !)	Anatomical parts
ajna	VII	6	Super- ego	Latency	8-12	Cranium
vishudda	VI	5	Shadow	Questionning	6-7	Cervix
anahata	V	4	Ego	Phallic	4-5	Thorax
manipura	IV	3	Persona	Anal	2-3	Loins
swadishtana	III	2	id	Oral	0-1	Sacrum.
muladara	II	1	“Self”	Intra-uterine	before birth	Coccyx
Correlations borrowed from litterature about yoga, from analytic psychology and psychoanalysis (9). The chakra called Sahasrara (N° I) does not appear here because it does not seem to have any somatic meaning. (K stands for Kilocycle per second.)

Each patient's choice allows to determine which chakras pictures are his (or her) "favourite ones" and which are his "rejected ones" (respectively the first ones and the last ones). The chosen chakras are numbered from 1 to 6. So 1 and 2 are the loved chakras, 3 and 4 are the indifferent chakras, 5 and 6 the rejected chakras.

The frequent use of this test in psychotherapeutic practice from 1972 has placed in prominent position its clinic value, even in our culture, with persons who had not yet had any noticeable opportunity to get to know the Indian symbols.

This use has confirmed Baudoin's work (10) connecting each of these centres to a definite psychological investment which can be spotted in the occidental analytical language. Some chakras should be located according to Freud's topography (Super ego, Ego, id), others according to structural entities defined by Jung (Shadow, Persona), then the basic center should correspond either to the fundamental zone in Balint's sense (11) or to the "self" in Winnicott's sense (12).

According to the general theory of systems (13) every part of the living organism is connected to the organism  with all its parts in such a way that one given important modification in any part of the organism would have a proportionate consequence, though usually very small, in a precise place of the individualizable part of the organism which had been previously taken into account. Such is the case with the external ear that auriculo- therapists describe as carrying of a precise somatotopy, with the foot sole (massage by acu- pressing), with the external surface of the nose, with the skin on the top of the cranium, with the gums, etc...

Auriculo- therapy seems to be already steadily based from an experimental standpoint and the electro- physiological detection of sensitive spots gives a corrobora­tion universally reproducible and verifiable at any moment, at least from a diagnostic standpoint. The other approaches to the problem have mainly been matter of empirical researches and we lack calculated notions (14).

In the field of audition, Tomatis (15), Aucher (16) and their followers (17), declare that there is a correlation between the spectrum of audible frequencies and the human body, in such a way that the lower parts would be tuned to low - pitched sounds, whereas the upper parts of the organism (head and throat) would be tuned to high- pitched sounds (Table II).

TABLE II
Usual numbering of chakras	Avalon pictures nomination	Anatomical parts	Aucher (musical scale)	Tomatis (sinusoidal frequencies)	Chakras correspondences	ISD (sinusoidal frequencies)	Leipp numbering
7	I	Out of Body	?	?	sahasrara	?	?
6	VII	Head	1K - .5K	20K –3K	ajna	6K – 20K	8
5	VI	Cervix			vishudda	3K – 6K	7
4	V	Thorax	.5K - .26K	3K – 1.5K	anahata	1.8K – 3K	6
						1.2K – 1.8K	5
3	IV	Loin	.26K - .06K	1.5K - .2K	manipura	.8K – 1.2K	4
2	III	Sacrum			swadishtana	.4K - .8K	3
1	II	Coccyx			muladara	.2K - .4K	2
						.03 - .2K	1
This table gives the various speculations as regards the term to term correlations between the chakras and the auditory spectral zones. The conjuncture recorded as Leipp's I.S.D. corresponds to Auriol's suppositions taking simultaneously into account Tomatis' empirical observations (15) and Leipp's statistical investigation (18).

It could seem odd to admit that auditive sensitivity varies for such given frequency as a function of what occurs in such and such organ, or in such psychological set. That such a link should exist becomes less surprising if we admit that all the data from the organism are col­lected by the nervous system and centralized by the brain which in turn responds to these data by an extremely com­plex set of regulations.

Audisio writes very rightly "It is sure that neuraxis centers filter information, as it is sure that most senses are only excitable when they are put under favourable con­ditions. Then, as a matter of fact, this setting under favourable conditions is beyond sensation and refers to the general context of activity. The control of the making of information always goes through a response" (19).

Fraisse also shows what is sensed depends on the state of preparation of the person who perceives, just when occurs the excitation. The apprehensive attitude leads to phenomena of selection, sensitization or distorsion of perception, and the most elementary sensation is a response from the total orga­nism to a stimulus (Froisse, 1959, quoted in Audisio, 19).

So we can understand there are not - contingent reasons why some individuals might carry odd perceptive distortions which no particular lesion of the auditive apparatus has allowed O.R.L. to explain till now.

To check the hypothesis of a term to term correspondence between the choice of chakras and spectral auditive sensi­tivity, Auriol (1977) analyses the medium audiogram of subjects giving such and such type of choice of chakras. He thus proposes to oppose the subjects choosing the upper chakras and catching less low- pitched sounds, to the sub­jects choosing the lower chakras and catching less high-­pitched sounds.

Under these circumstances, it looked convenient to appeal to more sophisticated methods of data analysis. Thus the results discussed by Elbeze (9) from the factorial analysis of an important number of observations suggested that the differentiation obtained by Auriol (supra) is not unconnected with the sex. Nevertheless it seems difficult to decide whether it is a factor or a cofactor able to deter­minate a mental attitude characterising a specific choice of chakra and a specific form of spectral sensitivity.

This study means to recapitulate the analysis brought forward (9) for subjects presenting a form of personality trouble, with a projection typed in the chakra classifi­cation.

Method

The investigation includes 253 subjects, aged 15 to 65, presenting a form of personality trouble, their psychia­tric testing differing by 200 in the W H D code, with a loss of sensitivity equal than or superior to 10 db in at least one of five given frequency bands - 125 cps (FR 1), 250 cps (FR 2), 4000 cps (FR 3), 6000 cps (FR 4), 8000 cps (FR 5) - by aerial conduction (right ear). The measures have all been carried out from a MAICO audiometer, in a quiet room non phonically isolated (Leipp, 1977). For each frequency the thresholds have been measured on the right and on the left from weaker intensities (- 10 db) to higher intensities by stages of 5 db.

A classification of chakras (CH 2, CH 3, ... CH 7) from II to VII by preferential choice from the favourite one is also available for each subject.

Agreements

Under these circumstances, eighteen binary variables can be determined - valued 0 or 1 - corresponding to functions characterizing definite situations (states or choices).

Functions characterizing the age (under 30, over 40), that is AGE 1, AGE 2, with

Functions characterizing the sex (male sex and female sex, that is SEX 1, SEX 2, with

Functions characterizing the loss of sensitivity (loss of sensitivity less than 10 db, loss of sensitivity greater than 15 db) for a frequency of i order (FRi, i = 1 ... 5), that is FRi 1, FRi 2, with

Functions characterizing the choice (in position 1 or in position 2) or the rejection (in position 5 or 6) of lower chakras (CH2, CH3), or of upper chakras (CH6, CH7), that is LCHI, LCH2, UCHI, UCH2, with

These eighteen variables can be regarded as points in the space of subjects (21) - The transformation Xij => pij = Xij / SXij, or Xij = Xi (Sj), I= 1 … 18 (variables), j = 1 ... 253 (subjects), allows to place the data in an interval of probability which can be provided with a distance (metric of CHI²) .

The points Pi, with coordinates Pij, J = 1 ... 253, makes up a cloud of points which can be respectively assimilated to the center of gravity of the subjects typed by the property (Xi - I). Pratically, this cloud is symbolized in projection on the main plane of inertia (first and second axes of inertia) or on the main axis of inertia (first axis of inertia) according as the calculus allow to attribute to two or one factors the scattering of datas.

 

Results

1 - A first factorial analysis was computed upon 121 coherent subjects.

The audiometric loss which appears with age, more important on an average in the high frequencies (4000, 6000 and 8000 cps) than in low frequencies (250 and 500 cps), is greater for men than for women in the first case and greater for women than for men in the- second case. Under these circumstances, the proximity of such characteristics as (FR32, FR42, FR52), (AGE2 and SEXI) expresses an extremum in relation to which AGE1 and SEX2 appear as shifted bet­ween (FR12, FR22) and (FRi1) (22) . These people's attitude towards chakras belongs to a coherent dimension - selection of upper chakras and rejection of lower chakras (UCHI, LCH2), rejection of higher chakras and selection of lower chakras (UCH2, LCHI), more clearly directed by choice than by rejec­tion. This dimension admits significant components in both factors of general sensitivity and spectral sensitivity the subjects who tend to select lower chakras and reject upper chakras (LCHI, UCH2) also tend to present a deficit of sensitivity to high frequencies (FR32, FR42, FR52), whereas the subjects who tend to select upper chakras and reject lower chakras (UCHI, LCH2) may present a deficit of sensitivity to lower freqencies (FR12, FR22). We note that this dissociation is parallel to the dissocia­tion (AGE2, SEX1), (AGE1, SEX2) and it offers the same difficulties of interpretation, because of the weight of high frequencies in the spectral analysis of a deficit of auditive sensitivity whose physiological components, connected to age and sex, cannot be excluded (22).

2 - A correlation between the choice or the rejection of a chakra and the existence of a deficit of sensitivity to low or high frequencies could be concealed by the pre­sence in the sample of subjects who do not present a signi­ficant impairment of sensitivity - while rating the chakras - .

Discussion and conclusion

Generally speaking, these results fit well

We must notice these are total notions, about the putting side by side (in term of distances between sub- populations offering such and such a characteristic) of certain types, and not a point by point correlation, and their interpretation must take possible skews into account. Thus, the partition of a set of significant auditive deficits (for example greater than 10 db for at least two consecutive bands) as a function of the pitch- spectral sensitivity- leads statistically to swell the proportion of female subjects in the sub- set of the most important deficits in the low frequency area, and to swell the proportion of male subjects in the sub- set of the most important deficits in the high frequency area.

A strict dichotomy (FR12, FR22)/(FR32, FR42, FR52) or SEX1/SEX2­ as the one taking place in factorial analysis inducts the double opposition in the mass (FR12, FR22; SEX2)/(FR32, FR42, FR52 ; SEX1). Although the choice or the rejection of chakras might correspond to a type of coherent organisation on this level, it cannot be linked as a matter of course to one of these connected factors or the other. Thus, nothing allows to connect the choice of upper chakras (or the rejection of lower chakras) with a loss of sensitivity in low frequencies rather than with sex.

However, the presence of a form of per­sonality trouble (independently of sex and age) being suffi­cient for intensifying the noted proximities, this suggests a correlation between an attitude towards chakras and spectral sensitivity, the more so as the opposition between sexes relatively to spectral sensitivity is established in works only for subjects over forty. As age no longer interferes in this study, it seems plausible to infer that the variation of spectral sensitivity is really connected to a psychosomatic attitude which is more frequent respectively in either sex and involves the noted variation of spectral sensitivity as well as a propensity for making a specific choice of chakra in the test.

This opinion is given an indirect corroboration as for the meaning assigned to the various chakras : the up ones (especially VII) might be linked more closely to paternal values, and the lower ones to maternal values. A few more details can be added to this discussion by comparing directly male subjects (SEX1) choosing upper chakras and rejecting lower chakras (UCH1, LCH2), to female subject (SEX2) rejecting upper chakras and choosing lower chakras (UCH2, LCH1). The calculus (Table III) shows that

Then, it becomes clear that the deficits of spectral sensitivity are linked to the projection of personality through the choice or the rejection of particular chakras, whether it is consistent or not with the sex.

Table III
	FR1, FR2	FR3, FR4, FR5
SEX1, UCH1, LCH2	10,5	12,5
SEX2, UCH2, LCH1	11,9	16, 4

The average deficits pointed out in the low frequency area (FR1, FR2) and in the high frequency area (FR3, FR4, FR5) with two groups of subjects :

It must be stated that such an observation requires

Key Figure 1

A factorial analysis computes upon 121 subjects presenting a loss of sensitivity greater than or equal to 10 db for one at least of five frequencies

puts forward

The rating of chakras determines a coherent dimension

which admits significant components with each of these factors. Its arrangement suggests that subjects whose general sensitivity is impaired, the more clearly as the frequencies are high (FR32, FR42, FR52) - they are mainly elderly subjects (AGE2), of male sex (SEX1) - , tend to choose lower chakras (LCH1) and to reject upper chakras (UCH2).

Key Figure 2

A factorial analysis computed with 52 subjects presenting a significant deficit of sensitivity (greater than 10 db for at least two consecutive frequencies) puts forward an axis of spectral sensitivity which opposes :

 

 

References