I am developing a new AI app, I called it the Business Chakra Scan. It is based on a fusion between Western science (Maslow) and Eastern experience (Chakra’s). I had a few sessions with ChatGPT about it over the past month.
Both are psychological models of humans and their needs and impulses and behavior.
I know Maslow from my studies and work as business economist, and Chakra’s from my work as (freestyle independant) priest back around 2001. It occurred back then, 25 years ago, that these match to a high extent. So I used ChatGPT to check it out, ChatGPT is good in languages, semantics, and pattern matching. These are two patterns that seemed to match, so I had ChatGPT check it out. I am good at languagues and patterns myself, so I had a blast with ChatGPT working this out. Others also noticed, you can do a search in Google, ‘maslow and chakra’s’, and get a few pages with results. There is no scientific research into it, however.
I had a few sessions with ChatGPT about it and what came out was a handy model for cultivating customer loyalty, towards that elusive 15% EBITDA : 1-2-3->Prosperity, how to connect with customers and bind them ?
Allow me to explain.
Introduction
Why do people choose a product, service, or relationship — and why do they stay? This question strikes at the heart of marketing, customer loyalty, and human dynamics. In this article, we build a bridge between Western science with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Eastern experience, with the chakra system, applying this to customer engagement and relationship building.
We begin with the insight that both models show a natural progression from fundamental survival to a sense of meaning. This “ascent” is not only spiritually and psychologically relevant, but also highly applicable in business.
Maslow and Chakras: Two Paths, One Movement
American psychologist Abraham Maslow described in his famous hierarchy of needs how people only begin to pursue higher goals once their basic needs are met. He later expanded his model to eight levels, seven levels for the self and one for transcendance of self.
The Eastern chakra system describes seven major energy centers in the body, each linked to physical, emotional, and spiritual themes.
Notably, the order of Maslow’s needs closely aligns with the sequence of the chakras — from root (safety) to crown (connection with the greater whole).
Hypothesis: The clusters of needs Maslow identified correspond to the nerve clusters and energy centers described in the East as chakras. Maslow detected these clusters of needs because they all stem from the same (nerve) center.
Western Chakras: From Vortex to Nerve Center
For many Western thinkers, the idea of “energy vortexes” feels vague. But in streams like Kundalini Yoga and from the perspective of modern neuroscience or psychosomatics, chakras can also be understood as major nerve clusters that process stimuli and regulate emotions.
For example:
- The solar plexus (plexus solaris) is a real nerve center that responds to social stimuli, feedback, and self-esteem.
- The heart area is linked to the autonomic nervous system (rhythm, stress, rest).
- The third eye (Ajna) is related to the limbic system (intuition, memory).
When you view these centers not just as “spiritual energy vortexes” but as physical biological stimulus processors, a rich, integrated model emerges for how people feel and respond to information — in any type of relationship.
The Flow of Connection: 1-2-3-Prosperity
In real-life interactions — whether a sales pitch, a date, or a job interview — the “spark” of connection flows through a fixed pattern of stages, checks, which we can summarize as follows:
- Safety & Identification (Root Chakra)
“Is this safe?” - Familiarity & Relationship (Sacral Chakra)
“Who are their friends and family? Do we have friends in common?” - Social Fit & Impact (Solar Plexus Chakra)
“Will this work for me? Will that community accept me ?”
Only when these three “checks” are positive, the fourth center is stimulated, the heart. The four chakra’s in this circuit or four nerve centers have as themes (4x ‘S’) : ‘safe, sweet, strengthening, satisfying’ or alternatively ‘reliable, relatable, sociable, lovable’. In order to be lovable, we have to be reliable, relatable and sociable.
- Love & Connection (Heart Chakra)
“I’m loving it.”
That in my view is the okay code, the stimulus of the heart. That is what people (and the broader market) strive for, that McDonalds experience, ‘I’m loving it’.
A negative impression in any of the first three layers (unsafe, unfamiliar, socially off) blocks the flow to the heart. These cause frustration, they are ‘red flags’ for someone. These are often personal ‘red flags’ based on bad experiences in the past.
We perform this check in all connectivity and bonding, in relations, in jobs, and when buying goods and services. It is our natural logic.
Practical Example: Customer Retention towards 15% EBITDA
Why my interest in this model ? Because it shows a way to 15% EBITDA, the characteristic of a healthy business.
Most companies spend 20–30% of their revenue on customer acquisition cost CAC, through advertising (Google Ads, Meta, marketplaces).
A practical example : we pay 22 cents for a click on scrub in Google Ads. If we book 2% conversion, we pay 50 clicks per sale, 11 dollars, on a 40 dollar shoppingbasket. That is roughly 27%.
If we can increase conversion to 3% (by improving our score on ‘safe, sweet, strengthening’ (or reliable, relatable, sociable) then we spend 33 clicks, 7,33, which is 18% Google Ads. That already frees up almost 10%.
However, if the company can ‘bind’ the customer, that saves 20-30% in Google Ads spend per every next sale. And that is the actual key to 15% EBITDA.
These savings are ideally shared:
- 10% extra margin for the company
- 10% value (discount, service, recognition) for the customer
In this way, EBITDA structurally grows towards 15%. A win-win mutual savings situation emerges based on connection.
In dating, you pay 20% of your monthly income to find a date, and when you find a nice date, you both can save the 20% per month and spend it together on one another and your common cause.
That is an ‘ideal form’ in the economy, saving on finding through binding. We all have our needs and need to supply in them. So we are often constantly searching for suppliers/bonds to save cost and create prosperity in that sense.
Maslow or Chakras ?
Maslow is objective, scientific, factual, ‘there is, there are’. That is soothing, in ways, it is ‘scientific’. Chakra’s are subjective, experience, personal. That’s sometimes complex.
But as I showed above, the final ‘buy in’ is a matter of ‘feelgood’, feelings. The checks are logical and emotional, but the final decision is made from the heart. In that sense, the experience based subjective Chakra model offers me more and better insights in my customers than Maslow when it comes to the buy-decision. The Maslow model offers more practical hands on measures you can take to supply in needs.
If you don’t have a home, you have a strong disbalance in your muladhara, and you can chant LAM and do Reiki to clear the frustration, but finding a home fixes the problem as well. And often better, more permanent.
But objective versus subjective : Maslow will describe layer 3 as ‘social acceptance’ and Chakra’s as Manipura, ‘willpower, ego, self worth’. It is the same basic idea, can you do your thing in a community without too much strife and arguments ? Do the community accept you and who you are and what you do ? But is it is the basic idea, “you in the community”.
That is a good demonstration of the scientific ‘objective, outside yourself’ view and your personal experience, subjective, when it comes to ‘will, the works’.
My customers are all subjective epxeriencing personae, so as said, sometimes the chakra’s offer more insight and allow me to better relate to the customer and their needs and grudges and complaints. And it shows a clear and easy path to get them back to the ‘I’m loving it’ okay-state.
And for marketing, you now have a vast library of associations, traits, like astrological sign, moonfase, stones, scents, chants, power animals, gods, demons, songs, all kinds of things relating to that nerve center or chakra. And you can use it all in your next marketing campaign. But the Chakra models offers more than just that in terms of insight in human nature, soul, spirit, what drives humans to act that way ? And how we can influence that behavior and experience.
Conclusion: the heart of the matter
Connection is about feeling. Those who understand how people run their 123-check for ‘prosperity’, can convert better and build better relationships — in marketing, HR, sales, or personal relations.
Through the Maslow–Chakra cross-pollination, a new framework emerges for understanding human behavior: the model of the energetic customer journey : 1-2-3->prosperity.
