The chakras are described in modern practice as subtle energy centres aligned along the spine, through which the vital force is held to flow. The familiar scheme has seven.
Muladhara at the base of the spine, associated with survival and grounding, earth, and the colour red; Svadhisthana at the sacrum, with sexuality and creativity, water, orange; Manipura at the solar plexus, with will and personal power, fire, yellow; Anahata at the heart, with love and compassion, air, green; Vishuddha at the throat, with speech and truth, ether, blue; Ajna between the brows, with insight, indigo; and Sahasrara at the crown, with union, violet or white.
Each is given a lotus with a set number of petals, a Sanskrit seed syllable, lam, vam, ram, yam, ham and om, and in the classical sources a presiding deity and an element. They are connected by nadis, channels, of which three are central: ida and pingala winding around a middle channel, sushumna, up which the coiled energy Kundalini is said to rise from the base to the crown when roused.
Practitioners work with them through posture, breath control, mantra, visualisation and meditation, and read a centre as blocked, open, deficient or excessive, with corresponding psychological and physical tendencies. In contemporary therapeutic use each is also paired with an endocrine gland and a set of complaints.
Two things should be said about status. Practitioners describe the chakras as belonging to a subtle body rather than a physical one, so their absence from anatomy is not, on their own account, an objection. And where specific medical claims are made, that working a centre treats a named disease, those are testable claims, and they have not been established.