Theos-Talk Archives (June 2002 Message tt00123)

June 22, 2002

Re Physical and Astral Bodies


Dear Friends:

In regard to the relation of the physical body to the astral body.

Theosophy offers the basic premise that the astral body precedes the
physical, and serves as a kind of elecro-magnetic lattice work on
which the physical atoms and molecules arrange themselves according
to their own individual affinities.

Mr. Judge in the 5th Chapter of the OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY explains this
very well.

Larry Kolts has also given us a brief synopsis of the condition which
extends to pre and post life conditions and states.

Let me quote it for those interested:



=========== W. Q. Judge on Astral and Physical Bodies =========


ASTRAL and PHYSICAL BODIES ( Ocean )



Body and Astral Body


The body, as a mass of flesh, bones, muscles, nerves, brain matter,
bile, mucous, blood, and skin is an object of exclusive care for too
many people, who make it their god because they have come to identify
themselves with it, meaning it only when they say "I." Left to itself
it is devoid of sense, and acts in such a case solely by reflex and
automatic action. This we see in sleep, for then the body assumes
attitudes and makes motions which the waking man does not permit. It
is like mother earth in that it is made up of an infinitesimal number
of "lives."


"Little Lives" (Monads in physical evolution,)

Each of these lives is a sensitive point. Not only are there microbes,
bacilli, and bacteria, but these are composed of others, and those
others of still more minute lives. These lives are not the cells of
the body, but make up the cells, keeping ever within the limits
assigned by evolution to the cell. They are forever whirling and
moving together throughout the whole body, being in certain apparently
void spaces as well as where flesh, membrane, bones, and blood are
seen. They extend, too, beyond the actual outer limits of the body to
a measurable distance.

One of the mysteries of physical life is hidden among these "lives."
Their action, forced forward by the Life energy -- called Prana or
Jiva -- will explain active existence and physical death. They are
divided into two classes, one the destroyers, the other the
preservers, and these two war upon each other from birth until the
destroyers win. In this struggle the Life Energy itself ends the
contest because it is life that kills. This may seem heterodox, but in
Theosophical philosophy it is held to be the fact. For, it is said,
the infant lives because the combination of healthy organs is able to
absorb the life all around it in space, and is put to sleep each day
by the overpowering strength of the stream of life, since the
preservers among the cells of the youthful body are not yet mastered
by the other class.


Sleep restores the balance of Life Force

These processes of going to sleep and waking again are simply and
solely the restoring of the equilibrium in sleep and the action
produced by disturbing it when awake. It may be compared with the
arc-electric light wherein the brilliant arc of light at the point of
resistance is the symbol of the waking active man. So in sleep we are
again absorbing and not resisting the Life Energy; when we wake we are
throwing it off. But as it exists around us like an ocean in which we
swim, our power to throw it off is necessarily limited. Just when we
wake we are in equilibrium as to our organs and life; when we fall
asleep we are yet more full of life than in the morning; it has
exhausted us; it finally kills the body. Such a contest could not be
waged forever, since the whole solar system's weight of life is pitted
against the power to resist focused in one small human frame.


Physical Body is in Constant Change.

The body is considered by the Masters of Wisdom to be the most
transitory, impermanent, and illusionary of the whole series of
constituents in man. Not for a moment is it the same. Ever changing,
in motion in every part, it is in fact never complete or finished
though tangible. The ancients clearly perceived this, for they
elaborated a doctrine called Naimittika [the correct Sanskrit term is
Nitya] Pralaya, or the continual change in material things, the
continual destruction. This is known now to science in the doctrine
that the body undergoes a complete alteration and renovation every
seven years. At the end of the first seven years it is not the same
body it was in the beginning. At the end of our days it has changed
seven times, perhaps more. And yet it presents the same general
appearance from maturity until death; and it is a human form from
birth to maturity. This is a mystery science explains not; it is a
question pertaining to the cell and to the means whereby the general
human shape is preserved.

The "Cell" and its Molecular Components.

The "cell" is an illusion. It is merely a word. It has no existence as
a material thing, for any cell is composed of other cells. What, then,
is a cell? It is the ideal form within which the actual physical
atoms -- made up of the "lives" -- arrange themselves. As it is
admitted that the physical molecules are forever rushing away from the
body, they must be leaving the cells each moment. Hence there is no
physical cell, but the privative limits of one, the ideal walls and
general shape.

The "Ideal" shape set by the Astral Body

The molecules assume position within the ideal shape according to the
laws of nature, and leave it again almost at once to give place to
other atoms. And as it is thus with the body, so is it with the earth
and with the solar system. Thus also is it, though in slower measure,
with all material objects. They are all in constant motion and change.
This is modern and also ancient wisdom. This is the physical
explanation of clairvoyance, clairaudience, telepathy, and
mind-reading. It helps to show us what a deluding and unsatisfactory
thing our body is.


The "Life-Force" -- Prana (breath).

Although, strictly speaking, the second constituent of man is the
Astral Body -- called in Sanskrit Linga Sarira -- we will consider
Life Energy -- or Prana and Jiva in Sanskrit -- together, because to
our observation the phenomenon of life is more plainly exhibited in
connection with the body.

Life is not the result of the operation of the organs, nor is it gone
when the body dissolves. It is a universally pervasive principle. It
is the ocean in which the earth floats; it permeates the globe and
every being and object on it. It works unceasingly on and around us,
pulsating against and through us forever. When we occupy a body we
merely use a more specialized instrument than any other for dealing
with both Prana and Jiva. Strictly speaking, Prana is breath; and as
breath is necessary for continuance of life in the human machine, that
is the better word. Jiva means "life," and also is applied to the
living soul, for the life in general is derived from the Supreme Life
itself. Jiva is therefore capable of general application, whereas
Prana is more particular. It cannot be said that one has a definite
amount of this Life Energy which will fly back to its source should
the body be burned, but rather that it works with whatever be the mass
of matter in it. We, as it were, secrete or use it as we live. For
whether we are alive or dead, life-energy is still there; in life
among our organs sustaining them, in death among the innumerable
creatures that arise from our destruction. We can no more do away with
this life than we can erase the air in which the bird floats, and like
the air it fills all the spaces on the planet, so that nowhere can we
lose the benefit of it nor escape its final crushing power. But in
working upon the physical body this life -- Prana -- needs a vehicle,
means, or guide, and this vehicle is the astral body.


The "Astral Body" has many names: "Linga Sarira" the "Design
Body"

There are many names for the Astral Body. Here are a few: Linga
Sarira, Sanskrit, meaning design body, and the best one of all;
ethereal double; phantom; wraith; apparition; doppelganger; personal
man; perisprit; irrational soul; animal soul; Bhuta; elementary;
spook; devil; demon. Some of these apply only to the astral body when
devoid of the corpus after death. Bhuta, devil, and elementary are
nearly synonymous; the first Sanskrit, the other English. With the
Hindus the Bhuta is the Astral Body when it is by death released from
the body and the mind; and being thus separated from conscience, is a
devil in their estimation. They are not far wrong, if we abolish the
old notion that a devil is an angel fallen from heaven, for this
bodily devil is something which rises from the earth.
It may be objected that the term Astral Body is not the right one for
this purpose. The objection is one which arises from the nature and
genesis of the English language, for as that has grown up in a
struggle with nature and among a commercial people it has not as yet
coined the words needed for designating the great range of faculties
and organs of the unseen man. And as its philosophers have not
admitted the existence of these inner organs, the right terms do not
exist in the language. So in looking for words to describe the inner
body the only ones found in English were the "astral body." This term
comes near to the real fact, since the substance of this form is
derived from cosmic matter or star matter, roughly speaking. But the
old Sanskrit word describes it exactly -- Linga Sarira, the design
body -- because it is the design or model for the physical body. This
is better than "ethereal body," as the latter might be said to be
subsequent to the physical, whereas in fact the astral body precedes
the material one.


Astral Substance is a Finer Material and very Strong

The astral body is made of matter of very fine texture as compared
with the visible body, and has a great tensile strength, so that it
changes but little during a lifetime, while the physical alters every
moment. And not only has it this immense strength, but at the same
time possesses an elasticity permitting its extension to a
considerable distance. It is flexible, plastic, extensible, and
strong. The matter of which it is composed is electrical and magnetic
in its essence, and is just what the whole world was composed of in
the dim past when the processes of evolution had not yet arrived at
the point of producing the material body for man. But it is not raw or
crude matter. Having been through a vast period of evolution and
undergone purifying processes of an incalculable number, its nature
has been refined to a degree far beyond the gross physical elements we
see and touch with the physical eye and hand.


The Astral Model is the prototype of the Physical.

The astral body is the guiding model for the physical one, and all the
other kingdoms have the same astral model. Vegetables, minerals, and
animals have the ethereal double, and this theory is the only one
which will answer the question how it is that the seed produces its
own kind and all sentient beings bring forth their like. Biologists
can only say that the facts are as we know them, but can give no
reason why the acorn will never grow anything but an oak except that
no man ever knew it to be otherwise. But in the old schools of the
past the true doctrine was known, and it has been once again brought
out in the West through the efforts of H. P. Blavatsky and those who
have found inspiration in her works.


Astral substance and the Evolution of the Earth

This doctrine is, that in early times of the evolution of this globe
the various kingdoms of nature are outlined in plan or ideal form
first, and then the astral matter begins to work on this plan with the
aid of the Life principle, until after long ages the astral human form
is evolved and perfected. This is, then, the first form that the human
race had, and corresponds in a way with the allegory of man's state in
the garden of Eden. After another long period, during which the cycle
of further descent into matter is rolling forward, the astral form at
last clothes itself with a "coat of skin," and the present physical
form is on the scene. This is the explanation of the verse of the book
of Genesis which describes the giving of coats of skin to Adam and
Eve. It is the final fall into matter, for from that point on the man
within strives to raise the whole mass of physical substance up to a
higher level, and to inform it all with a larger measure of spiritual
influence, so that it may be ready to go still further on during the
next great period of evolution after the present one is ended.


"Model of the Child" is first in Astral Substance.

So at the present time the model for the growing child in the womb is
the astral body already perfect in shape before the child is born. It
is on this the molecules arrange themselves until the child is
complete, and the presence of the ethereal design-body will explain
how the form grows into shape, how the eyes push themselves out from
within to the surface of the face, and many other mysterious matters
in embryology which are passed over by medical men with a description
but with no explanation. This will also explain, as nothing else can,
the cases of marking of the child in the womb sometimes denied by
physicians but well-known by those who care to watch, to be a fact of
frequent occurrence.

The Astral Body sets the limits of growth for the Physical

The growing physical form is subject to the astral model; it is
connected with the imagination of the mother by physical and psychical
organs; the mother makes a strong picture from horror, fear, or
otherwise, and the astral model is then similarly affected. In the
case of marking by being born legless, the ideas and strong
imagination of the mother act so as to cut off or shrivel up the
astral leg, and the result is that the molecules, having no model of
leg to work on, make no physical leg whatever; and similarly in all
such cases. But where we find a man who still feels the leg which the
surgeon has cut off, or perceives the fingers that were amputated,
then the astral member has not been interfered with, and hence the man
feels as if it were still on his person. For knife or acid will not
injure the astral model, but in the first stages of its growth ideas
and imagination have the power of acid and sharpened steel.


Can the "Astral Body" move out of the "Physical Body ?"

In the ordinary man who has not been trained in practical occultism or
who has not the faculty by birth, the astral body cannot go more than
a few feet from the physical one. It is a part of that physical, it
sustains it and is incorporated in it just as the fibers of the mango
are all through that fruit. But there are those who, by reason of
practices pursued in former lives on the earth, have a power born with
them of unconsciously sending out the astral body. These are mediums,
some seers, and many hysterical, cataleptic, and scrofulous people.
Those who have trained themselves by a long course of excessively hard
discipline which reaches to the moral and mental nature and quite
beyond the power of the average man of the day, can use the astral
form at will, for they have gotten completely over the delusion that
the physical body is a permanent part of them, and, besides, they have
learned the chemical and electrical laws governing in this matter. In
their case they act with knowledge and consciously; in the other cases
the act is done without power to prevent it, or to bring it about at
will, or to avoid the risks attendant on such use of potencies in
nature of a high character.


The Astral Body contains the Real Senses of Perception

The astral body has in it the real organs of the outer sense organs.
In it are the sight, hearing, power to smell, and the sense of touch.
It has a complete system of nerves and arteries of its own for the
conveyance of the astral fluid which is to that body as our blood is
to the physical. It is the real personal man. There are located the
subconscious perception and the latent memory, which the hypnotizers
of the day are dealing with and being baffled by.


"Astral Form" is released at death from the "Physical"

So when the body dies the astral man is released, and as at death the
immortal man -- the Triad -- flies away to another state, the astral
becomes a shell of the once living man and requires time to dissipate.
It retains all the memories of the life lived by the man, and thus
reflexly and automatically can repeat what the dead man knew, said,
thought, and saw. It remains near the deserted physical body nearly
all the time until that is completely dissipated, for it has to go
through its own process of dying. It may become visible under certain
conditions. It is the spook of the spiritualistic seance-rooms, and is
there made to masquerade as the real spirit of this or that
individual. Attracted by the thoughts of the medium and the sitters,
it vaguely flutters where they are, and then is galvanized into a
factitious life by a whole host of elemental forces and by the active
astral body of the medium who is holding the seance or of any other
medium in the audience. From it (as from a photograph) are then
reflected into the medium's brain all the boasted evidences which
spiritualists claim go to prove identity of deceased friend or
relative. These evidences are accepted as proof that the spirit of the
deceased is present, because neither mediums nor sitters are
acquainted with the laws governing their own nature, nor with the
constitution, power, and function of astral matter and astral man.

The Theosophical philosophy does not deny the facts proven in
spiritualistic seances, but it gives an explanation of them wholly
opposed to that of the spiritualists. And surely the utter absence of
any logical scientific explanation by these so-called spirits of the
phenomena they are said to produce supports the contention that they
have no knowledge to impart. They can merely cause certain phenomena;
the examination of those and deductions therefrom can only be properly
carried on by a trained brain guided by a living trinity of spirit,
soul, and mind. And here another class of spiritualistic phenomena
requires brief notice. That is the appearance of what is called a
"materialized spirit."



The "Astral" forms the "Spook" after Death.

Three explanations are offered:

First, that the astral body of the living medium detaches itself from
its corpus and assumes the appearance of the so-called spirit; for one
of the properties of the astral matter is capacity to reflect an image
existing unseen in ether.

Second, the actual astral shell of the deceased -- wholly devoid of
his or her spirit and conscience -- becomes visible and tangible when
the condition of air and ether is such as to so alter the vibration of
the molecules of the astral shell that it may become visible. The
phenomena of density and apparent weight are explained by other laws.

Third, an unseen mass of electrical and magnetic matter is collected,
and upon it is reflected out of the astral light a picture of any
desired person either dead or living. This is taken to be the "spirit"
of such persons, but it is not, and has been justly called by H. P.
Blavatsky a "psychological fraud," because it pretends to be what it
is not. And, strange to say, this very explanation of materializations
has been given by a "spirit" at a regular seance, but has never been
accepted by the spiritualists just because it upsets their notion of
the return of the spirits of deceased persons.


The "Astral Body" and Psychic Phenomena.

Finally, the astral body will explain nearly all the strange psychical
things happening in daily life and in dealings with genuine mediums;
it shows what an apparition may be and the possibility of such being
seen, and thus prevents the scientific doubter from violating good
sense by asserting you did not see what you know you have seen; it
removes superstition by showing the real nature of these phenomena,
and destroys the unreasonable fear of the unknown which makes a man
afraid to see a "ghost." By it also we can explain the apportation of
objects without physical contact, for the astral hand may be extruded
and made to take hold of an object, drawing it in toward the body.
When this is shown to be possible, then travelers will not be laughed
at who tell of seeing the Hindu yogee make coffee cups fly through the
air and distant objects approach apparently of their own accord
untouched by him or anyone else. All the instances of clairvoyance and
clairaudience are to be explained also by the astral body and astral
light. The astral -- which are the real -- organs do the seeing and
the hearing, and as all material objects are constantly in motion
among their own atoms the astral sight and hearing are not impeded,
but work at a distance as great as the extension of the astral light
or matter around and about the earth. Thus it was that the great seer
Swedenborg saw houses burning in the city of Stockholm when he was at
another city many miles off, and by the same means any clairvoyant of
the day sees and hears at a distance.

-_______________________________

Note: In the OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY Mr. Judge reserves the last 2
chapters ( 16 and 17) to a discussion of what Theosophy has to offer
on psychical phenomena and the place that the astral plays in mall
extraordinary events. [ Available as a book to be read "on-Line" at
various Web-Sites. BLAVATSKY NET http://www.blavatsky.net makes
this available to those interested.

________________________________

Offered by Dallas.



Best wishes,



Dallas

-----Original Message-----
From: Larry F Kolts [mailto:llkingston2@juno.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 22, 2002 4:34 AM
To: study@blavatsky.net
Subject: [bn-study] Re: "damage" to bodies

Hi Louis,

Our Astral Bodies do indeed age. In fact it is the Astral that carries
the "program" for the aging of the physical body. So when the physical
body dies a natural death, it is the Astral that has reached the end
of
its appointed time. The Prana or life force leaves, the higher self
separates and the remaining Astral-Kama Rupa begins to disintegrate
shortly after.

A corollary to this is when the physical body dies "before its time"
as
in homicide, suicide or accident. then the Astral-Kama Rupa-Lower
Manas
remainder, not yet ready to depart, confused and angered, becomes a
"shade" a "ghost", and continues on until the end of its natural
life.
This is the basis for Theosophy being so opposed to capital punishment
and why suicide is so tragic.

Check out on Blavatsky Net the William Q. Judge articles on SUICIDE IS
NOT DEATH and THEOSOPHY AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT for a thorough
treatment
of the subject.

Larry

CUT