I've read a lot that's critical of the Chakras centers from people who have had negative experiences, but it seems to have been done by people who haven't done enough of the initial work regarding detachment from earthly things that both Orthodox Christianity and Eastern Religions advocate.

So, the reason I'm here considering what this realm means more is because, quite without seeking it, my spiritual awakening through engaging in the life of the Orthodox Church has forced me to acknowledge the existence of spiritual beings (good and bad), spiritual energies (good and bad) and the fact that our soul seems to be tethered to the body and has the 7 chakra gateways to the spiritual realm. Most of what I read from Orthodox Christian sources online seems to advocate for keeping these gateways shut (as God supposedly intended) and this conclusion is reached because someone who was not aligned with the Holy Spirit opened a gateway and received energy from the demons. But if we're honest, my experience is that energy is energy, and I can do just as much damage to myself spiritually, actually more damage, by opening myself up to sinful thoughts and actions, without the chakra gateways even being open - every thought and action invites in some energy and it seems to be relatively unavoidable. Most people, Christians especially, seem to be unaware: migraines don't just happen: they're the result of being spiritually misaligned and having negative spiritual energy residing in you, and my experience has been this is why migraines can be experienced everywhere in the body, not just in the head like a headache. Conversely, when I pray and invite in the Spirit's Energies of Grace (and the Orthodox do call Grace the Energies of God), these chakra centers seem to heat up, be set on fire, and emit an all-encompassing white, loving spiritual light that comes from God, and this seems to heal both my spiritual and my physical maladies. If I embrace this, I'm able to see people's hearts through the connection we share in the Grace of the Holy Spirit and give them exactly the word they need to hear to be healed of some spiritual confusion or trauma, but if I reject it and shut these energy gateways down, then I'm blind and unable to be useful to anybody, and my attachments to the world and this life come back.

I think there's been a false dichotemy painted by many in the Church who operate out of fear instead of faith/trust. The spiritual realm is not a subject of cognitive study, but a matter of experimentation whereby a person needs to learn to navigate it by encountering both the Godly and the evil and learning to listen to the Holy Spirit's movements in, most importantly the nous (which resides in the heart chakra, and even the Holy Fathers say this), but also in all of the 7 chakra centers. This discernment is learned through a process of successes and failures, a process which becomes possible if a person is willing only to drop all worldly attachments and fully put their trust in God to lead them and heal them and catch them no matter how many times they fall until accepting and being filled with Grace becomes as natural as breathing - and St Seraphim of Sarov seems to say that this is the entire goal of the Christian life: the acquisition of Divine Grace. Fear seems to close all doors, not just to the demonic realms, but also to the heavenly realms. It also seems when faith and love for God are made perfect, fear cannot abide: how can fear exist along side absolute trust?

Now, discuss.