I have appropriated a number of yoga metaphors throughout my book. My primary organizing principle is the seven-step “chakra ladder” of communications centers associated with the human energy field: a parallel system of communicating networks, information fields and reception and transmission devices. This ancient healing tradition believes that a subtle energy field surrounds the human body. The transponders (transmitter-responders) that connect this field inwards to the physical body and outwards to the greater field of consciousness are the chakras (Sanskrit for “wheels”). Each chakra aligns with a specific set of nerve clusters along the spinal column; each is associated with a different set of organs, and each has its own emotional-developmental resonance.
I believe that at a minimum, each of these developmental themes is being played out in how we use our different communications technologies, and thus each chakra can be said to have its corresponding communications theme. Different media stimulate different energy centers, and at the same time they mirror the spiritual-emotional challenge associated with the different chakra levels...
By connecting the technologies of the Infosphere to their corresponding chakras, we discover that much of the debate over “media impacts” is really about the shadow side of our interior communications. We see in each of our external telecommunications networks not only a reflection of the state of our socio-cultural development, but also the core inner challenge each of us must overcome to move up the ladder of conscious communications. From this perspective, our media become our guides to advancement: our virtual ankle weights, barbells and yoga stretches in our electronic ashram!
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