Theos-Talk Archives (February 2008 Message tt00189)

 http://www.AnandGholap.net/Theosophy_Pamphlet-Anand_Gholap.pdf - Important pamphlet for studying and spreading Theosophy] 
"Man dwells, as we shall see, in various vehicles, physical, astral, and mental and it is important to know and remember that as we are evolving upwards, the lowest of the vehicles, the dense physical, is that which consciousness first controls and rationalises. The physical brain is the instrument of consciousness in waking life on the physical plane, and consciousness works in it - in the undeveloped man - more effectively than in any other vehicle. Its potentialities are less than those of the subtler vehicles, but its actualities are greater, and the man knows himself  as " I " in the physical body ere he finds himself elsewhere. Even if he be more highly developed than the average man, he can only show as much of himself down here as the physical organism permits, for consciousness can manifest on the physical plane only so much as the physical vehicle can carry.
The dense and etheric bodies are not normally separated during earth life; they normally function together, as the lower and higher strings of a single instrument when a chord is struck, but they also carry on separate though coordinated activities. Under conditions of weak health or nervous excitement the etheric double may in great part be abnormally extruded from its dense counterpart ; the latter then becomes very dully conscious , or entranced, according to the less or greater amount of the etheric matter extruded. Anesthetics drive out the greater part of the etheric double, so that consciousness cannot affect or be affected by the dense body, its bridge of communication being broken. In the abnormally organised person called mediums, dislocation of the etheric and dense bodies easily occurs, and the etheric double, when extruded, largely supplies the physical basis for "materialisations."

Complete book can be read at
http://anandgholap.net/Ancient_Wisdom-AB.htm
In Christ.
Anand Gholap 

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