Descriptions of channels, centres and internal winds are frequently read as an alternative anatomy. Their function in the source texts is closer to that of a procedure than a description.
The maps appear inside practice instructions
These descriptions occur in texts that are telling a practitioner what to do: which syllable to place where, which direction to move attention, what to visualise at each stage.
The details serve that sequence. Petal counts, colours, deities and sounds are components the practitioner assembles, not measurements taken from a body.
Read as instructions, the level of specificity makes sense. A visualisation requires exact parameters in the way that a description of an organ does not.
Variation between texts is expected rather than contradictory
Different lineages describe different numbers of centres in different positions, and traditions treat these as distinct systems rather than as competing claims about one structure.
A practitioner works within the system given by their lineage, and mixing elements from several is generally discouraged for exactly that reason.
If the maps were anatomical claims, the variation would be a problem. As procedures, several can be valid at once because they generate different practices.
Initiation and transmission were part of the design
These practices were typically transmitted through initiation, with a teacher who knew the system and could judge the student's readiness and progress.
Texts frequently omit key details deliberately, on the understanding that the missing pieces come from a teacher rather than from the page.
Printed and online versions therefore present an incomplete artefact, sometimes reconstructed by later editors, and their relationship to the living practice is indirect.
The experiential claim is narrower than it appears
Sources describe sensations, heat, light and movement that practitioners report during practice, and those reports are treated as significant within the tradition.
Reporting an experience at a location is not the same as claiming a structure exists there, and much of the material stays within the first kind of statement.
Modern presentations tend to convert experiential language into anatomical language, which creates claims the older texts were not making.
Intensive practice carries cautions in the sources themselves
Traditional literature warns repeatedly that vigorous breath and energy practices undertaken without guidance can produce disturbance rather than benefit.
Those warnings are not decorative. Teachers within these lineages continue to restrict certain techniques to students with preparation and supervision.
Anyone with a cardiac, respiratory, psychiatric or blood pressure condition should treat intensive breath practices as requiring medical advice, not as a general wellness activity.