Theos-Talk Archives (April 2004 Message tt00255)

March 8th 2004

Dear Friends and Pat::


Here is a brief review of some of the details that THEOSOPHY teaches
about the "astral body" and its qualities, also, later on in the
article, it speaks and explains about "astral travel."

Best wishes, 

Dallas
------------------------------------


ASTRAL and PHYSICAL BODIES 


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" (or "life-atoms") 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. 



THE 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. [A
"force-field" might be an illustratin of this, with component electrons,
protons, neutrons and other sub-atomic particles showing us how these
infinitessimal building blocks of Natute, the "lives," come and go,
flowing along definite pathways of magnetic affinity and attraction.This
is well known to medical science, and evokes contiual wonder at the
extraordinary sensitvity of Nature in organizing such a viable
complexity, for us, the "MIND-Being" to dwell in -- as such, our bodies
represent an enormous period of thorough evolutionary progress. We need
toremembner that like the "atoms" these small "lives"are immortal. They
neer "die." Our "MIND" never dies, but is always "reincarnated," and
forever moves forwardin its progress.. DTB]



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. 



SLEEP RESTS AND 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.



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. 




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. 



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 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 "GHOST or 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. 



PHOTOGRAPHIC PROJECTION OF MEMORIES OF LAST LIFE


>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 BODY" AND PSYCHIC PHENOMENA
.

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.



CLAIRVOYANCE AND CLAIRAUDIENCE


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.



DESIRE-NATURE AFTER PHYSICAL DEATH - THE "KAMARUPA"


At death [Kama] informs the astral body, which then becomes a mere
shell; for when a man dies his astral body and principle of passion and
desire leave the physical in company and coalesce. It is then that the
term Kamarupa may be applied, as Kamarupa is really made of astral body
[Rupa], and Kama in conjunction. [The true Man, the MIND-Being, goes
into a separate state of mediative review of the last life, (named
"DEVACHYAN" -- the "'place of the Gods.') The memory of noble and high
deeds and thoughts then fills the period of such a review, as they ar
studied and are then consciously built into the ever-living and growing
'character' of the reincarnating individual. DTB]

This joining of the two makes a shape or form which though ordinarily
invisible is material and may be brought into visibility. Although it is
empty of mind and conscience, it has powers of its own that can be
exercised whenever the conditions permit. These conditions are furnished
by the medium of the spiritualists, and in every seance room the astral
shells of deceased persons are always present to delude the sitters,
whose powers of discrimination have been destroyed by wonderment. 

It is the "devil" [Bhut] of the Hindus, and a worse enemy the poor
medium could not have. For the astral spook -- or Kamarupa -- is but the
mass of the desires and passions abandoned by the real person who has
fled to "heaven" [Devachan] and has no concern with the people left
behind, least of all with seances and mediums. Hence, being devoid of
the nobler soul, these desires and passions work only on the very lowest
part of the medium's nature and stir up.always the lower leanings of the
being. Therefore it is that even the spiritualists themselves admit that
in the ranks of the mediums there is much fraud, and mediums have often
confessed, "the spirits did tempt me and I committed fraud at their
wish." 



DANGER OF EXECUTIONS AND SUICIDE


This Kamarupa spook is also the enemy of our civilization, which permits
us to execute men for crimes committed and thus throw out into the ether
the mass of passion and desire free from the weight of the body and
liable at any moment to be attracted to any sensitive person. Being thus
attracted, the deplorable images of crimes committed and also the
picture of the execution and all the accompanying curses and wishes for
revenge are implanted in living persons, who, not seeing the evil, are
unable to throw it off. Thus crimes and new ideas of crimes are wilfully
propagated every day by those countries where capital punishment
prevails. 



KAMA -- PASSION AND DESIRE ARE NOT THE MIND


Passion and desire, together with astral model-body, are common to men
and animals, as also to the vegetable kingdom, though in the last but
faintly developed. And at one period in evolution no further material
principles had been developed, and all the three higher, of Mind, Soul,
and Spirit, were but latent. Up to this point man and animal were equal,
for the brute in us is made of the passions and the astral body. 

The development of the germs of Mind made man. because it constituted
the great differentiation. 

The God within begins with Manas or mind, and it is the struggle between
this God and the brute below which Theosophy speaks of and warns about.
The lower principle is called bad because by comparison with the higher
it is so, but still it is the basis of action. We cannot rise unless
self first asserts itself in the "desire to do better." 

In this aspect [in the philosophy of the "Bhagavad Gita"] it is called
rajas or the active and bad quality, as distinguished from tamas, or the
quality of darkness and indifference. Rising is not possible unless
rajas is present to give the impulse, and by the use of this principle
of passion all the higher qualities are brought to at last so refine and
elevate our desires that they may be continually placed upon truth and
spirit [sattva]. 

By this Theosophy does not teach that the passions are to be pandered to
or satiated, for a more pernicious doctrine was never taught, but the
injunction is to make use of the activity given by the fourth principle
so as to ever rise and not to fall under the dominion of the dark
quality that ends with annihilation, after having begun in selfishness
and indifference. 
But believing in his teacher, the theosophist sees all around him the
evidence that the race mind is changing by enlargement, that the old
days of dogmatism are gone and the "age of inquiry" has come, that the
inquiries will grow louder year by year, and the answers be required to
satisfy the mind as it grows more and more. Until at last, all
dogmatism being ended, the race will be ready to face all problems, each
man for himself, all working for the good of the whole, and that the end
will be the perfecting of those who struggle to overcome the brute. For
these reasons the old doctrines are given out again, and Theosophy asks
every one to reflect whether to give way to the animal below or look up
to and be governed by the God within. 

_______________________________

These statements are culled from The OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY - by W Q Judge


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 all 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.


=================================

-----Original Message-----
From: slorain2000@aol.com [mailto:slorain2000@aol.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 6:30 AM
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Theos-World ISIS UNVEILED and REINCARNATION

In a message dated 3/30/2004 6:59:43 AM Eastern Standard Time,
dalval14@earthlink.net writes:

> THEORIES ABOUT REINCARNATION AND SPIRITS

After reading this essay, I am curious how flights into the astral
worlds while a human is still alive, possible, and for what purpose, if
that being is destine for disillusionment?
Pat