Section 3

26
less treasures of the higher life are offered, the difficul- ties are insuperable. If men really desired what they pretend to desire, we should have much more rapid changes around us than we now see. But they make believe, and make believe so effectually that they deceive themselves into the idea that they are in earnest, and they come back life after life to live in the same un- progressive manner for thousands of years; and then in some particular life they wonder why they do not advance, and why somebody else has made such rapid progress in this one life while they make none. The man who is in earnest — not spasmodically but with steady persistence — can make what progress he chooses; while the man who is making believe will run round and round the mill-path for many a life to come.
Here, at any rate, in this purification of the body lies the preparation for all Yoga practice — not the whole preparation most certainly, but an essential part of it. This much must suffice as to the dense body, the lowest vehicle of consciousness.
The Ether ic Doiihle. — Modern physical science holds that all bodily changes, whether in the muscles, cells, or nerves, are accompanied by electric action, and the same is probably true even of the chemical changes which are continually going on. Ample evidence of this has been accumulated by careful observations with the most delicate galvanometers. Whenever electric action occurs ether must be present, so that the presence of the current is proof of the presence of the ether, which in- terpenetrates all, surrounds all; no particle of physical
27
matter is in contact with any other particle, but each swings in a field of ether. The western scientist asserts as a necessary hypothesis that which the trained pupil in eastern science asserts as a verifiable observation, for as a matter of fact ether is as visible as a chair or a table, only a sight different from the normal physical is needed to see it. As has already been said, it exists in four modifications, the finest of these consisting of the ultimate physical atoms — not the so-called chemical atom, which is really a complex body — ultimate, because they yield astral matter on disintegration.*
The etheric double is composed of these four ethers, which interpenetrate the solid, liquid, and gaseous con- stituents of the dense body, surrounding every particle with an etheric envelope, and thus presenting a perfect duplicate of the denser form. This etheric double is per- fectly visible to the trained sight, and is violet-grey in color, course or fine in its texture as the dense body is coarse or fine. The four ethers enter into it, as solids, liquids, and gases enter into the composition of the dense body, but they can be in coarser or finer combi- nations just as can the denser constituents; it is im- portant to notice that the dense body and its etheric double vary together as to their quality, so that as the aspirant deliberately and consciously refines his dense body, the etheric double follows suit without his con- sciousness and without any additional effort, t
* See an article on ''Occult Chemistry," in Lucifer, Novem- ber, 1895.
t On looking at a man's lower bodies with astral vision, the
28
It is by means of the etheric double that the life-force, Prana, runs along the nerves of the body and thus enables them to act as the carriers of motor force and of sensitiveness to external impacts. The powers of thought, of movement, and of feeling are not resident in physical or etheric nerve-substance ; they are activi- ties of the Ego working in his inner bodies, and the ex- pression of them on the physical plane is rendered pos- sible by the life-breath as it runs along the nerve-threads
etheric double (Linga Sharira) and the astral body (kamic body) are seen interpenetrating each other, as both interpenetrate the dense physical, and hence some confusion has arisen in the past, and the names Linga Shirira and the astral body have been used interchangeably, while the latter name has also been used for the kamic or desire-body. This loose terminology has caused much trouble, as the functions of the kamic body, termed the astral body, have often been understood as the functions of the etheric double, also termed the astral body, and the student, unable to see for himself, has been hopelessly entangled in apparent contradictions. Careful observations on the formation of these two bodies now enable us to say definitely that the etheric double is composed of the physical ethers only, and cannot, if extruded, leave the physical plane or go far away from its denser counterpart; further, that it is built after the mould given by the Lords of Karma, and is not brought with him by the Ego, but awaits him with the physical body formed upon it. The astral or kamic body, the desire-body, on the other hand, is composed of astral matter only, is able to range the astral plane when freed from the physical body, and is the proper vehicle of the Ego on that plane; it is brought with him by the Ego when he comes to re-incarnate. Under these circumstances it is better to call the first the etheric double, and the second the astral body, and so avoid confusion.
29
and round the nerve-cells ; for Prana, the life-breath, is the active energy of the Self, as Shri Shankaracharya has taught us. The function of the etheric double is to serve as the physical medium for this energy, and hence it is often spoken of in our literature as the ''vehicle of Prana."
It may be useful to note that the etheric double is peculiarly susceptible to the volatile constituents of al- cohols.
Phenomena connected with the Physical Body. — When a person ' ' goes to sleep ' ' the Ego slips out of the physical body, and leaves it to slumber and so to recu- perate itself for the next day's work. The dense body and its etheric double are thus left to their own devices, and to the play of the influences which they attract to themselves by their constitution and habits. Streams of thought-forms from the astral world of a nature con- gruous with the thought-forms created or harbored by the Ego in his daily life pass into and out of the dense and etheric brains, and, mingling with the automatic repetitions of vibrations set up in waking consciousness by the Ego, cause the broken and chaotic dreams with which most people are familiar.* These broken images are instructive as showing the working of the physical body when it is left to itself ; it can only reproduce frag- ments of past vibrations without rational order or co- herence, fitting them together as they are thrown up,
*See the articles on "Dreams" in Lucifer, November and December, 1895; republished in book form, 1898,
30
however grotesquely incongruous they may be ; it is in- sensible to absurdity or irrationality, content with a phantasmagoria of kaleidoscopic shapes and colors, without even the regularity given by the kaleidoscope- mirrors. Looked at in this way, the dense and etheric brains are readily recognized as instruments of thought, not as creators thereof, for we see how very erratic are their creations when they are left to themselves.
In sleep the thinking Ego slips out of these two bodies, or rather this one body with its visible and in- visible parts, leaving them together; in death it slips out for the last time, but with this difference, that it draws out the etheric double with it, separating it from its dense counterpart and thus rendering impossible any further play of the life-breath in the latter as an organic whole. The Ego quickly shakes off the etheric double, which, as we have seen, cannot pass on to the astral plane, and leaves it to disintegrate with its life- long partner. It will sometimes appear immediately after death to friends at no great distance from the corpse, but naturally shows very little consciousness, and will not speak or do anything beyond ''manifest- ing" itself. It is comparatively easily seen, being physi- cal, and a slight tension of the nervous system will ren- der vision sufficiently acute to discern it. It is also re- sponsible for many "churchyard ghosts," as it hovers over the grave in which its physical counterpart is lying, and is more readily visible than astral bodies for the reason just given. Thus even ''in death they are not divided" by more than a few feet of space.
31
For the normal man it is only at death that this separation takes place, but some abnormal people of the type called mediumistic are subject to a partial division of the physical body during earth-life, a dangerous and fortunately a comparatively rare abnormality which gives rise to much nervous strain and disturbance. When the ether ic double is extruded the double itself is rent in twain; the whole of it could not be separated from the dense body without causing the death of the latter, since the currents of the life-breath need its presence for their circulation. Even its partial withdrawal re- duces the dense body to a state of lethargy, and the vital activities are almost suspended ; extreme exhaustion fol- lows the re-uniting of the severed parts, and the con- dition of the medium until the normal union is re- established is one of considerable physical danger. The greater number of the phenomena that occur in the presence of mediums are not connected with this ex- trusion of the etheric double, but some who have been distinguished for the remarkable character of the ma- terializations which they have assisted in producing of- fer this peculiarity to observation. I am informed that Mr. Eglington exhibited this curious physical dissocia- tion to a rare extent, and that his etheric double might be seen oozing from his left side, while his dense body shrivelled perceptibly; and that the same phenomenon has been observed with Mr. Husk, whose dense body became too reduced to fill out his clothes. Mr. Eglin- ton's body once was so diminished in size that a ma- terialized form carried it out and presented it for the
32
inspection of the sitters — one of the few cases in which both medium and materialized form have been visible together in light sufficient to allow of examination. This shrinkage of the medium seems to imply the removal of the denser "ponderable" matter from the body — very possibly part of the liquid constituents — but, so far as I am aware, no observations have been made on this point, and it is therefore impossible to speak with any certainty. What is certain is that this partial ex- trusion of the etheric double results in much nervous trouble, and that it should not be practiced by any sen- sible person if he finds that he is unfortunate enough to be liable to it.
We have now studied the physical body both in its dense and etheric parts, the vesture which the Ego must wear for his work on tlie physical plane, the dwell- ing which may be either his convenient office for physi- cal work, or his prison-house of which death alone holds the key. We can see what we ought to have and what we can gradually make — a body perfectly healthy and strong, and at the same time delicately organized, re- fined, and sensitive. Healthy it should be — and in the East health is insisted on as a condition of discipleship — for everything that is unhealthy in the body mars it as an instrument of the Ego, and is apt to distort both the impressions sent inwards and the impulses sent out- wards. The activities of the Ego are hindered if his instrument be strained or twisted by ill-health. Healthy, then, delicately organized, refined, sensitive, repelling automatically all evil influences, automatically receptive
33
of all good — such a body we should deliberately build, choosing among all the things that surround us those that conduce to that end, knowing that the task can be accomplished only gradually, but working on patiently and steadily with that object in view. We shall know when we are beginning to succeed even to a very limited extent, for we shall find opening up in us all kinds of powers of perception that we did not before possess. We shall find ourselves becoming more sensitive to sounds and sights, to fuller, softer, richer harmonies, to tenderer, fairer, lovlier hues. Just as the painter trains his eye to see the delicacies of color to which common eyes are blind ; just as the musician trains his ear to hear overtones of notes to which common ears are deaf; so may we train our bodies to be receptive to the finer vibrations of life missed by ordinary men. True, many unpleasant sensations will come, for the world we are living in is rendered rough and coarse by the hu- manity that dwells in it ; but on the other hand, beauties will reveal themselves that will repay us a hundredfold for the difficulties we face and overcome. And this, not that we may possess such bodies for selfish purposes either of vanity or of enjoyment, but in order that we, the men who own them, may own them for wider use- fulness, for added strength to serve. They will be more efficient instruments with which to help the progress of humanity, and so more fit to aid in that task of for- warding human evolution which is the work of our great IMasters, and in which it may be our privilege to co-operate.
34
Although we have been only on the physical plane throughout this part of our subject, we may yet see that the study is not without importance, and that the lowest of the vehicles of consciousness needs our at- tention and will repay our care. These cities of ours, this land of ours, will be cleaner, fairer, better, when this knowledge has become common knowledge, and when it is accepted not only as intellectually probable, but as a law of daily life.
35
The Astral Body.
We have studied the physical body of man both as to its visible and invisible parts, and we understand that man — the living, conscious entity — in his ''waking" consciousness, living in the physical world, can only show so much of his knowledge and manifest so much of his powers as he is able to express through his physi- cal body. According to the perfection or imperfection of its development will be the perfection or imperfection of his expression on the physical plane ; it limits him while he functions in the lower world, forming a verit- able "ring pass-not" around him. That which cannot .pass through it cannot manifest on earth, and hence its importance to the developing man. In the same way when the man is functioning without the physical body in another region of the universe, the astral plane or astral world, he is able to express on that plane just so much of his knowledge and his powers, of himself in short, as his astral body enables him to put forth. It is at once his vehicle and his limitation. The man is more than his bodies; he has in him much that he is unable to manifest either on the physical or on the astral plane ; but so much as he is able to express may be taken as the man himself in that particular region of the uni- verse. What he can show of himself down here is limited by the physical body ; what he can show of himself in the astral world is limited by the astral body; so we shall find as we rise to higher worlds in our study, that more and more of the man is able to express itself as he him-
36
self develops in his evolution, and also graduaU^ brings towards perfection higher and higher vehicles of con- sciousness.
It may be well to remind the reader, as we are en- tering on fields comparatively untrodden and to the majority unknown, that no claim is here put forward to infallible knowledge or to perfect power of observa- tion. Errors of observation and of inference may be made on planes above the physical as well as on the physical, and this possibility should always be kept in mind. As knowledge increases and training is prolong- ed, more and more accuracy will be reached, and such errors will thus gradually be eliminated. But as the writer is only a student, mistakes are likely to be made and to need correction in the future. They may creep in on matters of detail, but will not touch the general principles nor vitiate the main conclusions.
First, let the meaning of the words astral plane or astral world be clearly grasped. The astral world is a definite region of the universe, surrounding and inter- penetrating the physical, but imperceptible to our or- dinary observation because it is composed of a different order of matter. If the ultimate physical atom be taken and broken up, it vanishes so far as the physical world is concerned ; but it is found to be composed of numerous particles of the grossest kind of astral matter — the solid matter of the astral world.* We have found seven sub- states of physical matter — solid, liquid, gaseous, and
* The word ' ' astral, ' ' starry, is not a very happy one, but it has been used during so many centuries to denote super-physical
37
four etlieric — under which are classified the innumerable combinations which make up the physical world. In the same way we have seven sub-states of astral matter, cor- responding to the physical, and under these may be classified the innumerable combinations which similarly make up the astral world. All physical atoms have their astral envelopes, the astral matter thus forming what may be called the matrix of the physical, the phy- sical being embedded in the astral. The astral matter serves as a vehicle for Jiva, the One Life animating all, and by means of the astral matter currents of Jiva sur- round, sustain, nourish every particle of physical mat- ter, these currents of Jiva giving rise not only to what are popularly called vital forces, but also to all electrical, magnetic, chemical, and other energies, attraction, co- hesion, repulsion, and the like, all of which are differen- tiations of the One Life in which universes swim as fishes in the sea. From the astral world thus intimately in- terpenetrating the physical, Jiva passes to the ether of the latter, which then becomes the vehicle of all these forces to the lower sub-states of physical matter, wherein we observe their play. If we imagine the physical world to be struck out of existence without any other change being made, we should still have a perfect replica of it in astral matter, and if we further imagine every