In India the treas­ury of sym­bol­ic inter­pret­a­tions of the spin­al column is unpar­alleled in its rich­ness. The spine is the pil­lar of man's bear­ing, and an upright pos­ture is the key to suc­cess­ful med­it­a­tion and to rais­ing con­scious­ness. The chakras lie along the spin­al column, so the spine is a ver­it­able chakra-lad­der, on which man's life force, or the energy of his con­scious­ness, can rise all the way to enlight­en­ment. An inter­est­ing par­al­lel is the Chris­ti­an sym­bol of a cru­ci­fix with seven rungs added to it, like a lad­der.

The chakra sys­tem of the human organ­ism works on the prin­ciple of res­on­ance: where man's atten­tion is focused, there his energy gath­ers, and con­versely, whatever rung he has reached as he climbs the chakra-lad­der, his activ­ity reflects it.

In the myth­ic­al struc­ture of man two func­tions appear pre-emin­ent: the spir­itu­al-med­it­at­ive activ­ity bound to the highest levels, and its polar coun­ter­part, the bio­logy of pre­serving exist­ence and the spe­cies, which res­on­ates in the lower chakras. The man who lives on the first of these two planes we call the spir­itu­al man – saints, ascet­ics, sci­ent­ists, artists, cre­at­ors may belong here – and the man who lives on the second, the bio­lo­gic­al man.

For an enlightened man it is no trouble to apply his ener­gies only on the highest levels – art, cre­ativ­ity, sci­ence, intu­it­ive fac­ulties – for this is man's call­ing in its high­er align­ment. The authen­t­ic ascet­ic is able to coordin­ate his ener­gies, and he need not sub­lim­ate or sup­press the func­tion­ing of the lower chakras, for these urges no longer dis­turb him, no longer divert his atten­tion. This high res­on­ance is the ele­ment of the golden age: in the age of spir­itu­al pur­ity, upper-chakra func­tion is dom­in­ant.

If, how­ever, man neg­lects these high­er fac­ulties, his energy slips down­ward and con­cen­trates at lower levels. He who strays fatally far from his intel­lec­tu­al-spir­itu­al self is left with noth­ing but his bio­lo­gic­al exist­ence – this is the final con­geal­ing of the iron age into mat­ter. It is held that mod­ern man's pineal gland is a mere ves­ti­gi­al lobe beside the fully developed organ it once was. This sig­nals the with­er­ing of spir­itu­al­ity and of the intu­it­ive abil­it­ies.

The bio­lo­gic­al man turns almost all his energy to com­fort and pleas­ures, yet neg­lect­ing the upper-chakra func­tions has inev­it­able con­sequences. Energy left unused at the upper chakra levels floods down into the lower chakras, and the res­ult may be an intens­i­fied pur­suit of pleas­ure, and the ill­nesses that go with it.

The pitu­it­ary gland, linked with the brow chakra, plays a spe­cial role in the mys­ti­cism of yoga. Through this gate man reaches the heav­enly nec­tar, the drink of immor­tal­ity. Drop by drop this nec­tar des­cends, and in his med­it­a­tion man is able to con­trol it and keep it high. When this is neg­lected, how­ever, the nec­tar of life des­cends unhindered to the lower levels and accu­mu­lates there. An under­act­ive pitu­it­ary gland hinders man's spir­itu­al devel­op­ment, and so soon­er or later the intel­lec­tu­al fac­ulties waste away. The energy pour­ing down from here pro­duces a sur­plus of energy in the sex glands. And this has ambi­val­ent con­sequences. On the one hand sexu­al­ity is over­val­ued: bey­ond its nat­ur­al call­ing, repro­duc­tion, a kind of myth­ic­al ven­eer settles over it, and it plays an ever more dom­in­ant role in the life of man or of soci­ety. On the other hand, the energy that accu­mu­lates and is not prop­erly handled strikes back, for the capa­city to beget and to con­ceive has dimin­ished, and tumours of the gen­it­als afflict women and men alike. Per­haps the for­mula that equates a neg­lected pitu­it­ary gland with a pro­state tumour seems too great a sim­pli­fic­a­tion, yet it is worth reflect­ing on the con­nec­tion between the crisis of male spir­itu­al­ity and the spread of pro­state tumours. Neg­lect of our spir­itu­al dimen­sion also shakes man's bio­lo­gic­al exist­ence to its found­a­tions.