CHAPTER III

THE AURA AND THE SOUL
The existence of an aura, or colored mist of rarified matter surrounding the human body, has long been known. It was frequently depicted in paintings at the time of the Renaissance, not merely as a halo around the head, but as an ovoid in the midst of which the human form is standing. We have collected personally over sixty photographs of famous paintings now in Italian art galleries, in which the aura is shown.
The aura is clearly visible to the trained investigator, and is frequently seen in part by many as a glow of light above the heads of others. All human beings, and to a certain extent animals, plants and even minerals, are surrounded and interpenetrated by a cloud of delicate matter drawn from the etheric part of the physical world and from the emotional and mental worlds. This mat- ter is so sensitive that it responds instantly to thoughts and feelings, and as it does so its vibrations give rise to various colors.
In a developed human being this cloud of matter has been so specialized that it is to a large extent separated from the rest of the matter of the unseen worlds, in the same way that our physical bodies are distinct objects. Further, it has been so moulded and organized by the constant play of thoughts and feelings, that it has been fashioned into subtle bodies by means of which a man comes into contact and communication with the invisible worlds.
Analysis has shown that the aura is composed of four distinct layers:
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(1) A striated etheric mist, bluish-grey in color, which extends outwards for several inches on all sides from the surface of the skin. This is made up largely of etheric emanations from the etheric double of the physical body.
(2) An oval-shaped form, which is the seat of all our emotions, passions, feelings and sensations. This is the emotional body formed of the matter of the emo- tional world.
(3) A similarly shaped form, in which all our con- crete, every-day thoughts and mental pictures are gen- erated. This is the mental body formed of the matter of the lower mental world.
(4) An ovoid form, which is the seat of all our abstract and philosophical thoughts and spiritual aspira- tions. This is the causal body or soul body, formed of the matter of the higher mental world.
It is important to remember that these various bodies, including the physical, are not separated like pearls upon a string, but that they occupy the same space, the subtler interpenetrating the denser ones, the whole forming one compact working unit we call a human being.
The etheric double, which should not be confused with the etheric emanations from it, is an exact counterpart of the physical body, and as it is faintly luminous and bluish-grey in color and extends out beyond the surface of the body about one fourth of an inch, it is sometimes visible to ordinary sight. It permeates the whole phys- ical body and its function is to conduct the different currents of electricity, magnetism and vitality, which circulate everywhere throughout the tissues.
The old idea, common a generation or so ago, that there was a " vital force," was really nearer the truth than many modern theories, for when one has developed
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the power to see etherically, streams of rosy-colored par- ticles may be observed flowing down and around each nerve from the brain, until, when they reach the skin, they are forced out into the surrounding air. This out- rush of vitality particles from the nerve terminals in the skin gives a striated appearance to the etheric at- mosphere surrounding the body, and because the straight or drooped arrangement of the striations indicates whether a man is well or ill, it has frequently been called the "health aura."
The rosy-colored particles are charged with a force known as "vitality," which is distinct from electricity, but is derived from the sun, for on bright days the air is filled with colorless molecules charged with this force, as if with myriads of dancing sparks of light. To be of use to the physical body, however, these colorless mole- cules must first be drawn into the etheric double in the neighborhood of the spleen, specialized into rosy-colored particles which are then sent on their journey along the nerves and through the tissues of the body.
The emotional body is larger than its physical com- panion and on an average extends some eighteen inches out on all sides from the latter. The emotional body of a primitive man is a vaguely-outlined, indefinite cloud of matter, glowing dully with muddy colors, but that of an advanced man is a sharply defined ovoid, marked by definite color areas and bands, each one of which indi- cates an habitual trend of passion, feeling or emotion.
Despite the oval shape of the emotional body, it is interesting to know that in the emotional world we ap- pear almost exactly as we do physically and are there- fore easily recognizable. This is due to the fact that about 90% of the densest matter of the emotional body is condensed within the limits of the physical form, ap- parently being held there by some force of attraction, so that the oval form is only faintly indicated, the
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denser counterpart of the physical body within being most prominent and clearly visible in every detail.
Whenever a strong emotion or feeling sweeps over a man, the emotional body is stirred to intense activity and from its vibrating matter there flash out those colors which are always associated with that emotion or feel- ing. Thus anger appears as scarlet, selfishness as a hard brown, fear as a livid grey, sympathy as a bright apple green, love as a tint of rose, devotion as blue, and so on. The study of these colors and their correspondences to the changes of consciousness is one of the most inter- esting of the many aspects of Theosophy.
The mental body is usually of the same size as the emotional, both of them growing in size as we advance along the path of evolution. With definite progress in the power to think the mental body becomes more highly organized and therefore more definite in outline. It is exceedingly luminous and radiant with clear, beautiful colors, especially in an advanced type of human being, each color area indicating an habitual thought attitude.
The vibrations which accompany intellectual activity emit a yellow light, which varies in hue from a strong orange yellow in a commonplace, selfish type of mind, to the beautiful primrose yellow of the philosophical mind of an advanced man. All our mental activity which can be expressed in images and pictures arises here, for the mental body is the conscious instrument used in generating concrete thoughts.
Lastly we come to the true man, the soul, of whom it is said in an ancient scripture :
"He is not born nor doth he die, nor having been ceaseth he any more to be. Unborn, perpetual, eternal and ancient, he is not slain when the body is slaughtered."
This is the individuality, the soul, the ego, who sur- [31]
; THEOSOPHY SIMPLIFIED
vives all bodily changes, stores up all experiences and remembers all events. It is our higher Self, the source of that sense of "I" which is always in the background of all our thinking.
The form of the causal body is ovoid — in fact it is the mould upon which the mental and emotional bodies are fashioned — and while in the savage it resembles an empty bubble because undeveloped, yet in the advanced man it is marvellously beautiful, flashing with radiant colors and glowing with a living light all its own. Words are powerless to describe it ; it must be seen to be known.
The growth of the soul is of almost inconceivable slowness during the early stages of human evolution, be- cause the only experiences upon which the soul can thrive are fine emotions, inspiring thoughts and unselfish aspirations. Naturally these are almost unknown while man is still learning the crude lessons of physical exist- ence, but they come later when he commences to turn his attention to higher things. This is the enormous ad- vantage of living a pure and noble life, dedicated to un- selfish service — it gives to the soul, the real man, that which stimulates his growth in a most wonderful man- ner and hastens his journey to the splendid goal of human evolution.
Whenever we think or feel, our invisible bodies vibrate strongly, and as they do so they produce two effects in the atmosphere of the subtle worlds :
(1) They set up waves which radiate out from us in all directions, not unlike circular water waves on the surface of a pond after the fall of a pebble, but it should be remembered that thought waves move out as rapidly expanding spheres of which we form the centre, not merely as increasing circles. The distance to which these waves penetrate is proportionate to the intensity of the thought or emotion which created them ; a strong thought
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sends out a powerful wave, a weak thought a feeble wave which soon flickers out.
These thought and emotion waves affect more or less the thoughts and feelings of everyone they touch, and tend to stir up similar but not exact reproductions of the impulse which started them on their journey. Thus a feeling of depression over some personal failure will tend to reproduce similar feelings of depression in the emotional bodies of many people within a certain radius, but each person so affected will associate the depression with some trouble which he has experienced, and not with the trouble of the sender. In the same way a strong thought of joy will cause many in the immediate neighborhood to feel joyous, though they know not why, usually connecting the emotion which surges into their thoughts with some happy event which perhaps has happened not long before.
(2) A strong emotion or thought actually builds a little form in the subtle matter of the unseen worlds, and projects it with the rapidity of a rifle bullet to the object or person with whom the thought was connected. This thought-form may persist for many hours or even days, depending upon the intensity of the original im- pulse, and its one function in life is to impress upon the subtle bodies of the distant person the exact thought or emotion which brought it into existence. This once accomplished and its force discharged, it melts away again into the sea of surrounding matter as a cloud melts into the blue sky, but for the time being it was almost a living thing, charged with thought energy.
If the thought or emotion is personal and not con- nected with another, the thought-form generated lingers around its creator, and during some moment when the consciousness of the latter is passive, discharges its energy upon him. Thus many of the thoughts which
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THEOSOPHY SIMPLIFIED
tempt us are those which we ourselves generated a few hours or days before.
These facts indicate how we may be of much service to others by the assistance and encouragement we can give them with our thoughts. Furthermore it warns us to be on our guard as to the kind of thoughts we per- mit our minds to think and to the quality of emotions we allow ourselves to feel. For our thoughts and feel- ings create a very real personal atmosphere through the influence of which we help or hinder those with whom we come in contact.
Whenever we go to sleep, we withdraw from our physical bodies and move about in the unseen world using our emotional bodies. All people are not equally conscious, however, while their physical bodies are asleep, and the extent to which we are aware of the fact that we are in an unseen world depends primarily upon the stage of growth we have reached as souls and second- arily upon our physical knowledge of the existence of that world.
The consciousness of the densely ignorant, primitive man is so undeveloped, that, during the hours of sleep when he is no longer experiencing the stir and rush of physical life, he is practically unconscious as he floats in his cloudy emotional body just above his slumbering physical body. In a little more developed type, the man is actively conscious in his emotional body while his physical body sleeps, but he knows nothing of the un- seen world, as he is completely absorbed in thinking over his own petty plans and dreaming about the objects of his desires. At a still further stage of development, glimpses of the outside emotional world are caught now and then, and such a man may move some distance away from his slumbering body in search of these half- glimpsed adventures and scenes.
A thoughtful, cultured man, however, especially one
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who has had some training as an occultist, is very active in the emotional world, meeting many people, visiting distant places and going through interesting experiences. If willing, he may be a power there for good, teaching, helping and protecting those who know much less than he. This is the beneficent work of those known as the "Invisible Helpers."
Those whom we mistakenly call "dead" are quite active in the emotional world for several years after the death of their physical bodies, and it is possible for us at night to meet and talk with them. Death is a separa- tion only in our imagination, for we are with those who have passed on and whom we love, every night of our lives. W p^~jvw^4 \s**td- **
Sometimes when we awake in the morning w member with singular vividness some scene, experience or conversation. Such a dream is usually a memory of something which has actually happened to us while out of our physical bodies. We should remember, however, that we may be very active in the emotional world at night and yet retain not a single memory of what we have done when we awake in the morning. This is en- tirely due to the insensitiveness of the brain.
The usual dreams, which are grotesque, fantastic and illogical, arise spontaneously in the brain itself while we are away from it. They are usually fragments of pictures or experiences automatically reproduced by the brain cells during the absence of any guiding intel- ligence, and their very absurdity shows that the brain is merely an instrument of consciousness, not an origin- ator of thought.
It is helpful if we clearly understand that our waking consciousness — that is, the totality of the thoughts and feelings of which we are aware while awake — is only a small portion of our whole consciousness. In fact, our waking consciousness is made up of only those overtones
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arising in the grey matter of the brain by sympathetic response to the more powerful vibrations of the emo- tional and mental bodies, the seats respectively of our emotional nature and mind. In the great majority of cases, because of general undevelopment, lack of training and care in diet, the nervous tissue is not very responsive, and as a result of the very limitations of the brain as a transmitting instrument, we are aware in our waking consciousness of only a small portion of all our emotions and thoughts.