Working
with Chronic and Life Threatening Illness: Part VIII
The sixth chakra is known as the third eye; it is located on the bridge between the eyes. It is the window into our intuitive self and inner wisdom as well as other realms of reality and, in Jungian terms, the collective unconscious. The sixth chakra is underdeveloped in most western cultures and is the source of great knowledge in others. When I first began village life as a Peace Corps volunteer, I was amazed at what the people around me could see, sense and know. By western standards they were considered “primitive”, yet their ability to see on many levels was highly developed. Many in western cultures experience blockage in the sixth chakra, which can manifest as headaches. There is a tension that arises when we resist or push down that which we know intuitively. Often when someone comes to see me with a headache, I will take a crystal or use my finger in a clockwise direction to open the third eye. Within in moments the headache is usually gone. Conversely, when the sixth chakra is too open and the person has not been trained as to how to work with the rush of information that is available, they can appear ungrounded or psychotic, and even, in some instances, become psychotic. When I am with someone in this state, I often move my finger in a counter clockwise direction to close the flow of energy down a bit.
Sleep difficulties are often associated with the sixth chakra. When we try to block intuitive information that is attempting to emerge, it is challenging to fall asleep as once we are asleep this information may flow into the dream state. Unconsciously we keep ourselves awake or wake ourselves up once we are asleep, so as not to learn what we need to know but are afraid of. Conversely when the third eye is wide open it is difficult to sleep. When I travel to foreign and exotic places, I often have difficulty sleeping as my senses are overloaded with new sights, smells, and energies. It is as if the third eye is wide open to download all of this new information so it may be processed at a later time.
