The Theosophical Society,
The Constitution of Man
From
A Textbook of Theosophy
By
C
Man
is therefore in essence a Spark of the divine Fire, belonging to the monadic
world. (The President has now decided upon a set of
names for the planes, so for the future these will be used instead of those
previously employed. A table of
them is given below for reference) To that Spark,
dwelling all the time in that
world, we give the name “Monad”. For the purpose of
human evolution Monad
manifests itself in lower worlds. When it descends
one stage and enters the
spiritual world, it shows itself there as the
triple Spirit, having itself three
aspects (just as in worlds infinitely higher the
Deity has His three Aspects.)
Of
those three - one remains always in that world, and we call that the Spirit
in man. The second aspect manifests itself in the
intuitional world, and we
speak of it as the Intuition in man. The third shows
itself in the higher mental
world, and we call it the Intelligence in man. These
three aspects taken
together constitute the ego which ensouls the fragment from the group-soul.
Thus
man as we know him
New Names & Old Names
1Divine World Âdi
Plane
2Monadic World Anupâdaka
3Spiritual World Âtmic
or Nirvânic Plane
4Intuitional World Buddhic Plane
5Mental World Mental Plane
6Emotional or Astral World Astral Plane
7Physical World Physical Plane
reality a Monad residing in the monadic world,
shows himself as an ego in the
higher mental world, manifesting these three aspects
of himself (Spirit,
Intuition
and Intelligence) through that vehicle of higher mental matter which
we name the casual body.
This
ego is the man during the human stage of evolution; he is the nearest
correspondence, in fact, to the
ordinary unscientific conception of the soul. He
lives unchanged (except for his growth) from the
moment of individualization
until humanity is transcended and merged into
divinity. He is in no way affected
by what we call birth and death; what we commonly
consider as his life is only a
day in his life. The body which we can see, the
body which is born and dies, is
a garment which he puts on for the purposes of a
certain part of his evolution.
Nor
is it the only body which he assumes. Before he, the ego in the higher
mental world, can take a vehicle belonging to the
physical world, he must make a
connection with it through the lower mental and
astral worlds. When he wishes to descend he draws around himself a veil of the
matter of the lower mental world, which we call his mental body. This is the
instrument by means of which he thinks all his concrete thoughts – abstract
thought being a power of the ego
himself in the higher mental world.
Next
he draws round himself a veil of astral matter, which we call his astral
body; and that is the instrument of his passions and
emotions, and also (in
conjunction with the lower part of his mental body)
(Page 43) the instrument of
all such thought as is tinged by selfishness and
personal feeling. Only after
having assumed these intermediate vehicles can he come
into touch with a baby
physical body, and be born into the world which
we know. He lives through what we call his life, gaining certain qualities as
the result of its experiences;
and at its end, when the physical body is worn out,
he reverses the process of
descent and lays aside one by one the temporary
vehicles which he has assumed.
The
first to go is the physical body, and when that is dropped, his life is
centered in the astral world and he lives in his
astral body.
The
length of his stay in that world depends upon the amount of passion and
emotion which he has developed within himself in
his physical life. If there is
much of these the astral body is strongly vitalized,
and will persist for a long
time; if there is but little, the astral body has
less vitality, and he will
soon be able to cast that vehicle aside in turn.
When that is done he finds
himself living in his mental body. The strength
of that depends upon the nature
of the thoughts to which he had habituated
himself, and usually his stay at this
level is a long one. At last it comes to an end, he casts aside the mental body
in turn, and is once more the ego in his own
world.
Owing
to lack of development, he is as yet but partially conscious in that
world; the vibrations of its matter are too rapid to
make any impression upon
him, just as the ultraviolet rays are too rapid to
make any impression upon our
eyes. After a rest there, he feels the desire to
descend to a level where the
undulations (Page 44) are perceptible to him, in
order that he may feel himself
to be fully alive; so he repeats the process of
descent into denser matter, and
assumes once more a mental, an astral and a
physical body. As his previous
bodies have all disintegrated, each in its turn, these
new vehicles are entirely
distinct from them, and thus it happens that in
his physical life he has no
recollection whatever of other
similar lives which have preceded it.
When
functioning in this physical world he remembers by means of his mental
body; but since that is a new one, assumed only for
this birth, it naturally
cannot contain the memory of previous births in which
it had no part. The man
himself, the ego, does remember them all when in
his own world, and occasionally some partial recollection of them or influence
from them filters through into his lower vehicles. He does not usually, in his
physical life, remember the experiences of earlier lives, but he does manifest
in physical life the qualities which those experiences have developed in him.
Each man is therefore exactly what he has made himself during those past lives;
if he has in them developed good qualities in himself, he possesses the good
qualities now; if he neglected to train himself, and consequently left himself
weak and of evil
disposition, he finds himself precisely in that
condition now. The qualities,
good or evil, with which he is born are those which
he has made for himself.
This
development of the ego is the object of the whole process of
materialization; he assumes those veils of matter precisely
because through
them he is able (Page 45) to receive vibrations to
which he can respond, so that
his latent faculties may thereby be unfolded.
Though
man descends from on high into these lower worlds, it is only through that
descent that a full cognizance of the higher worlds is developed in him. Full
consciousness in any given world involves the power to perceive and respond to
all the undulations of that world; therefore the ordinary man has not yet perfect
consciousness at any level – not even in this physical world which he thinks he
knows. It is possible for him to unfold his percipience in all these worlds, and it is by means of such developed consciousness
that we observe all these facts which I am now describing.
The
causal body is the permanent vehicle of the ego in the higher mental world.
It
consists of matter of the first, second and third subdivisions of that world.
In
ordinary people it is not yet fully active, only that matter which belongs to
the third subdivision being vivified. As the ego
unfolds his latent possibilities through the long course of his evolution, the
higher matter is gradually brought into action, but it is only in the perfected
man whom we call the Adept that it is developed to its fullest extent. Such
matter can be discerned by clairvoyant sight, but only by a seer who knows how
to use the sight of the ego.
It
is difficult to describe a causal body fully, because the senses belonging to
its world are altogether different from and higher
than ours at this level. Such
memory of the appearance of a causal body as it is
possible for a clairvoyant to
bring into his physical brain represents it as ovoid,
and as surrounding the
(Page
46) physical body of the man, extending to a distance of about eighteen
inches from the normal surface of that body. In the
case of primitive man it
resembles a bubble, and gives the impression of
being empty. It is in reality
filled with higher mental matter, but as this is not
yet brought into activity
it remains colorless and transparent. As
advancement continues it is gradually
stirred into alertness by vibrations which reach
it from the lower bodies. This
comes but slowly, because the activities of man in
the earlier stages of his
evolution are not of a character to obtain
expression in matter so fine as that
of the higher mental body; but when a man reaches
the stage where he is capable
either of abstract thought or of unselfish emotion the
matter of the causal body
is aroused into response.
When
these rates of undulation are awakened within him they show themselves in his
causal body as colors, so that instead of being a mere transparent bubble it
gradually becomes a sphere filled with matter of the most lovely and delicate
hues – an object beautiful beyond all conception. It
is found by experience that
these colors are significant. The vibration which
denotes the power of unselfish
affection
shows itself as a pale rose-color; that which indicates high intellectual power
is yellow; that which expresses sympathy is green, while blue betokens
devotional feeling, and a luminous lilac-blue typifies the higher spirituality.
The same scheme of color significance applies to the bodies which are built of
denser matter, but as we approach the physical world the hues are in every case
by comparison grosser – not only less delicate but also less living.
In
the course of evolution in the lower worlds man often introduces into his
vehicles qualities which are undesirable and
entirely inappropriate for his life as an ego – such, for example, as pride,
irritability, sensuality. These, like the rest, are reducible to vibrations,
but they are in all cases vibrations of the lower subdivisions of their
respective worlds, and therefore they cannot reproduce themselves in the casual
body, which is built exclusively of the matter of the three higher subdivisions
of its world. For each section of the astral body acts strongly upon the
corresponding section of the mental body, but only upon the corresponding
section; it cannot influence any other part. So the casual body can be affected
only by the three higher portions of the astral body; and the oscillations of those
represent only good qualities.
The
practical effect of this is that the man can build into the ego (that is, into
his true self) nothing but good qualities; the evil qualities which he develops
are in their nature transitory and must be thrown aside as he advances, because
he has no longer within him matter which can express them. The difference
between the causal bodies of the savage and the saint is that the first is
empty and colorless, while the second is full of brilliant coruscating tints.
As the man passes beyond even sainthood and becomes a great spiritual power,
his causal body increases in size, because it has so much more to express, and
it also begins to pour out from itself in all directions powerful rays of
living light. In one who has attained Adeptship this
body is of enormous dimensions.
The
mental body is built of matter of the four lower subdivisions of the mental
world, and expresses the concrete thoughts of the man. Here also we find the
same color scheme as in the casual body. The hues are somewhat less delicate,
and we notice one or two additions. For example, a thought of pride shows
itself as orange, while irritability is manifested by a brilliant scarlet.
We
may see here sometimes the bright brown of avarice, the grey-brown of
selfishness, and grey-green of deceit. Here also we
perceive the possibility of
a mixture of colors; the affection, the
intellect, the devotion may be tinged by
selfishness, and in that case their distinctive
colors are mingled with the
brown of selfishness, and so we have an impure and
muddy appearance.
Although
its particles are always in intensely rapid motion among themselves,
this body has at the same time a kind of loose organization.
The
size and shape of the mental body are determined by those of the causal
vehicle. There are in it certain striations
which divide it more or less irregularly into segments, each of these
corresponding to a certain department of the physical brain, so that every type
of thought should function through its duly assigned portion. The mental body
is as yet so imperfectly developed in ordinary men that there are many in whom
a great number of special departments
are not yet in activity, and any attempt at thought
belonging to those departments has to travel round through some inappropriate
channel which happens to be fully open. The result is that thought on those
subjects is for those people clumsy and uncomprehending. This is why some
people have a head for mathematics and others are unable to add correctly – why
some people
instinctively understand, appreciate
and enjoy music, while others do not know
one tune from another.
All
the matter of the mental body should be circulating freely, but sometimes a
man allows his thought upon a certain subject to set and solidify, and
then the
circulation is impeded, and there is congestion
which presently hardens into a
kind of wart on the mental body. Such a wart appears
to us down here as a
prejudice; and until it is absorbed and free
circulation restored, it is impossible for man to think truly or to see clearly
with regard to that particular department of his mind, as the congestion checks
the free passage of undulations both outward and inward.
When
a man uses any part of his mental body it not only vibrates for the time
more rapidly, but it also temporarily swells out and
increases in size. If there
is prolonged thought upon a subject this increase
becomes permanent, and it is
thus open to any man to increase the size of his
mental body either along
desirable or undesirable lines.
Good
thoughts produce vibrations of the finer matter of the body, which by its
specific gravity tends to float in the upper part
of the ovoid; whereas bad
thoughts, such as selfishness and avarice, are
always oscillations of the grosser matter, which tends to gravitate towards the
lower part of the ovoid.
Consequently
the ordinary man, who yields himself not infrequently to selfish
thoughts to various kinds, usually expands the
lower part of his mental body, and presents roughly the appearance of an egg
with its larger end downwards. The man who has repressed those lower thoughts,
and devoted himself
to higher ones, tends to expand the upper part of
his mental body and therefore
presents the appearance of an egg standing on its
smaller end. From a study of
the colors and striations of a man’s mental body
the clairvoyant can perceive
his character and the progress he has made in his
present life. From similar
features of the causal body he can see what
progress the ego has made since its
original formation, when the man left the animal
kingdom.
When
a man thinks of any concrete object – a book, a house, a
landscape – he
builds a tiny image of the object in the matter of his
mental body. This image
floats in the upper part of that body, usually in
front of the face of the man and at about the level of the eyes. It remains
there as long as the man is contemplating the object, and
usually for a little time afterwards, the length of time depending upon
the intensity and the clearness of the thought. This form
is quite objective, and can be seen by another
person, if that other has developed the sight of his own mental body. If a man
thinks of another, he
creates a tiny portrait in just the same way. If
his thought is merely
contemplative and involves no feeling
(such as affection or dislike) or desires
(such as a wish to see the person) the thought does not
usually perceptibly
affect the man of whom he thinks.
If
coupled with the thought of the person there is a feeling, as for example of affection,
another phenomenon occurs besides the forming of the image. The thought of
affection takes a definite form, which it builds out of the matter of the
thinker’s mental body. Because of the emotion involved, it draws round it also
matter of his astral body, and thus we have an astro-mental
form which leaps out of the body in which it has been generated, and moves
through space towards the object of the feeling of affection. If the thought is
sufficiently strong, distance makes absolutely no difference to it; but the
thought of an ordinary person is usually weak and diffused, and is therefore
not effective outside a limited area.
When
this thought-form reaches its object it discharges itself into his astral
and mental bodies, communicating to them its own
rate of vibration. Putting this
in another way, a thought of love sent from one
person to another involves the
actual transference of a certain amount both of force
and of matter from the
sender to the recipient, and its effect upon the
recipient is to arouse the feeling of affection in him, and slightly but
permanently to increase his power of loving. But such a thought also
strengthens the power of affection in the thinker, and therefore it does good
simultaneously to both.
Every
thought builds a form; if the thought be directed to another person it
travels to him; if it be distinctly selfish it
remains in the immediate neighbourhood of the
thinker; if it belongs to neither of these categories it floats for awhile in
space and then slowly disintegrates.
Every
man therefore is leaving behind him wherever he goes a trail of thought-forms;
as we go along the street we are walking all the same amidst a sea of other
men’s thoughts. If a man leaves his mind blank for a time, these residual
thoughts of others drifts through it, making in most cases but little
impression upon him.
Sometimes
one arrives which attracts his attention, so that his mind seizes upon
it and makes it its own, strengthens it by the
addition of its force, and then
casts it out again to affect somebody else. A man,
therefore, is not responsible
for a thought which floats into his mind, because
it may be not his, but someone
else’s, but he is responsible if he takes it up,
dwells upon it and then sends
it out strengthened.
Self-centered
thought of any kind hangs about the thinker, and most men surround their mental
bodies with a shell of such thoughts. Such a shell obscures the mental vision
and facilitates the formation of prejudice.
Each
thought-form is a temporary entity. It resembles a charged battery,
awaiting an opportunity to discharge itself. Its
tendency is always to reproduce
its own rate of vibration in the mental body upon
which it fastens itself, and
so to arouse in it a like thought. If the person
at whom it is aimed happens to
be busy, or already engaged in some definite train
of thought, the particles of
his mental body are already swinging at a certain
determinate rate, and cannot
for the moment be affected from without. In that case
the thought-form bides its
time, hanging about its object until he is
sufficiently at rest to permit its
entrance; (Page 53) then it discharges itself
upon him, and in the act ceases to
exist.
The
self-centered thought behaves in exactly the same way with regard to its
generator, and discharges itself upon him when
opportunity offers. If it be an
evil thought he generally regards it as the
suggestion of a tempting demon,
whereas in truth he tempts himself. Usually each
definite thought creates a new
thought-form; but if a thought-form
of the same nature is already hovering round
the thinker, under certain circumstances a new
thought on the same subject,
instead of creating a new form, coalesces with
and strengthens the old one, so
that by long brooding over the same subject a man
may sometimes create a
thought-form of tremendous power. If
the thought be a wicked one, such a
thought-form may become a veritable
evil influence, lasting perhaps for many
years, and having for a time all the appearance and
powers of a real living
entity.
All
these which have been described are the ordinary unpremeditated thoughts of
man. A man can make a thought-form intentionally,
and aim it at another with the
object of helping him. This is one of the lines of
activity adopted by those who
desire to serve humanity. A steady stream of powerful
thought directed
intelligently upon another person may
be of the greatest assistance to him. A
strong thought-form may be a real guardian angel, and
protect its object from
impurity, from irritability or from fear.
An
interesting branch of the subject is the study of the various shapes and colors
taken by thought-forms of different kinds. The colors indicate the nature of
the thought, and are in agreement with those which we have already described as
existing in the bodies. The shapes are of infinite variety, but are often in
some way typical of the kind of thought which they express.
Every
thought of definite character, such as a thought of affection or hatred,
of devotion or suspicion, of anger or fear, of
pride or jealousy, not only creates a form but also radiates an undulation. The
fact that each one of these thoughts is expressed by a certain color indicates
that the thought expresses itself as an oscillation of the matter of a certain
part of the mental body. This rate of oscillation communicates itself to the
surrounding mental matter precisely in the same way as the vibration of a bell
communicates itself to the surrounding air.
This
radiation travels out in all directions, and whenever it impinges upon
another mental body in a passive or receptive
condition it communicates to it
something of its own vibration. This does not
convey a definite complete idea,
as does the thought-form, but it tends to produce
a thought of the same
character as itself. For example, if the thought
be devotional its undulations
will excite devotion, but the object of worship may
be different in the case of
each person upon whose mental body they impinge. The
thought-form, on the other hand, can reach only one person, but will convey to
that person (if receptive) not only a general devotional feeling, but also a
precise image of the Being for whom the adoration was originally felt.
Any
person who habitually thinks pure, good and strong thoughts is utilizing for
that purpose the higher part of his mental body – a
part which is not used at
all by the ordinary man, and is entirely
undeveloped in him. Such an one is
therefore a power for good in the world, and is
being of great use to all those
of his neighbours who
are capable of any sort of response. For the vibration
which he sends out tends to arouse a new and higher
part of their mental bodies,
and consequently to open before them altogether new
fields of thought.
It
may not be exactly the same thought as that sent out, but it is of the same
nature. The undulations generated by a man thinking of
Theosophy do not
necessarily communicate theosophical ideas to all
those around him; but they do
awaken in them more liberal and higher thought than
that to which they have
before been accustomed. On the other hand, the
thought-forms generated under
such circumstances, though more limited in their
action than the radiation, are
also more precise; they can affect only those who
are to some extent open to
them, but to them they will convey definite
Theosophical ideas.
The
colors of the astral body bear the same meaning as those of the higher
vehicles, but are several octaves of color below
them, and much more nearly
approaching to such hues as we see in the physical
world. It is the vehicle of
passion and emotion and consequently it may
exhibit additional colors,
expressing man’s less desirable feelings, which
cannot show themselves at higher levels; for example, a lurid brownish red
indicates the presence of sensuality, while black clouds show malice and
hatred. A curious livid grey
betokens the presence of fear, and a much darker
grey, usually arranged in heavy
rings around the ovoid, indicates a condition of depression.
Irritability is
shown by the presence of a number of small scarlet
flecks in the astral body,
each representing a small angry impulse. Jealousy is
shown by a peculiar
brownish-green, generally studded with
the same scarlet flecks. The astral body
is in size and shape like those just described,
and in the ordinary man its
outline is usually clearly marked; but in the
case of primitive man it is often
exceedingly irregular, and resembles a rolling cloud
composed of all the more
unpleasant colors.
When
the astral body is comparatively quiet (it is never actually at rest) the
colors which are to be seen in it indicate those emotions to which the man is
most in the habit of yielding himself. When the man experiences a rush of any
particular feeling, the rate of vibration which
expresses that feeling dominates
for a time the entire astral body. If, for example,
it be devotion, the whole of
his astral body is flushed with blue, and while the
emotion remains at its strongest the normal colors do little more than modify
the blue, or appear faintly through a veil of it; but presently the vehemence
of the sentiment dies away, and the normal colors reassert themselves. But
because of that spasm of emotion the part of the astral body which is normally
blue has been increased in size. Thus a man who frequently feels high devotion
soon comes to have a large area of blue permanently existing in his astral
body.
When
the rush of devotional feeling comes over him it is usually accompanied by
thoughts of devotion. Although primarily formed in the mental body, these draw
round themselves a large amount of astral matter as well, so that their action
is in both worlds. In both worlds also is the radiation which was previously
described, so that devotional man is a center of devotion, and will influence
other people to share both his thoughts and his feelings. The same is true in
the case of affection, anger, depression – and, indeed, of all other feelings.
The
flood of emotion does not itself greatly affect the mental body, although
for a time it may render it almost impossible for
any activity from that mental
body to come through into the physical brain. That
is not because that body
itself is affected, but because the astral body, which
acts as a bridge between
it and the physical brain, is vibrating so
entirely at one rate as to be incapable of conveying any undulation which is
not in harmony with that.
The
permanent colors of the astral body reacts upon the
mental. They produce in it their correspondences, several octaves higher, in
the same manner as a
musical note produces overtones. The mental body
in its turn reacts upon the
causal in the same way, and thus all the good
qualities expressed in the lower
vehicles by degrees establish themselves permanently
in the ego. The evil
qualities cannot do so, as the rates of vibration
which express them are
impossible for the higher mental matter of which
the causal body is
constructed.
So
far, we have described vehicles which are the expression of the ego in their
respective worlds – vehicles which he provides for
himself; in the physical
world
we come to a vehicle which is provided for him by nature under laws which will
be explained later – which , though also in some sense an expression of him, is
by no means a perfect manifestation. In ordinary life we see only a
small part of this physical body – only that which is
built of the solid and
liquid subdivisions of physical matter. The body
contains matter of all the
seven subdivisions, and all of them play their part
in its life and are of equal
importance to it.
We
usually speak of the invisible part of the physical body as the etheric double; “double” because it exactly reproduces the
size and shape of the part of the body that we can see, and “etheric” because it is built of that finer kind of matter
by the vibrations of which light is conveyed to the retina of the eye. (This
must not be confused with the true aether of space –
that of which matter is the
negation.) This invisible part of the physical
body is of great importance to us, since it is the vehicle through which flow
the streams of vitality which keeps the body alive, and without it, as a bridge
to convey undulations of thought and feeling from the astral to the visible
denser physical matter, the ego could make no use of the cells of his brain.
The
life of a physical body is one of perpetual change and in order that it shall
live, it needs constantly to be supplied from three distinct sources. It must
have food for its digestion, air for its breathing, and vitality for its
absorption. This vitality is essentially a force, but when clothed in matter it
appears to us a definite element, which exists in all the worlds of which we
have spoken. At the moment we are concerned with that manifestation of it which
we find in the highest subdivision of the physical world. Just as the blood
circulates through the veins, so does the vitality circulate along the nerves;
and precisely as any abnormality in the flow of the blood at once affects the
physical body so does the slightest irregularity in the absorption or flow of
the vitality affect this higher part of the physical body.
Vitality
is a force which comes originally from the sun. When an ultimate
physical atom is charged with it, it draws round
itself six other atoms and
makes itself into an etheric
element. The original force of vitality is then
subdivided into seven, each of the atoms carrying a
separate charge. The element thus made is absorbed into the human body through
the etheric part of the spleen. It is there split up
into its component parts, which at once flow to the
various parts of the body assigned to them. The
spleen is one of the seven
force-centers in the etheric part of the physical body. In each of our vehicles
seven such centers should be in activity, and when
they are thus active they are
visible to clairvoyant sight. They appear
usually as shallow vortices, for they
are the points at which the force from the higher
bodies enters the lower.
In
the physical body these centers are:
(1) at the base of the spine
(2) at the solar plexus
(3) at the spleen
(4) over the heart
(5) at the throat
(6) between the eyebrows
(7) at the top of the head
There
are other dormant centers, but their awakening is undesirable.
The
shape of all the higher bodies as seen by the clairvoyant is ovoid, but the
matter composing them is not equally distributed
throughout the egg. In the
midst of this ovoid is the physical body. The
physical body strongly attracts
astral matter, and in its turn the astral matter
strongly attracts mental
matter. Therefore by far the greater part of the
matter of the astral body is
gathered within the physical frame; and the same
is true of the mental vehicle.
If
we see the astral body of a man in its own world, apart from the physical
body, we shall still perceive the astral matter
aggregated in exactly the shape
of the physical, although, as the matter is more
fluidic in its nature, what we
see is a body built of dense mist, in the midst of
an ovoid of much finer mist.
The
same is true for the mental body. Therefore, if in the astral or the mental
world we should meet an acquaintance, we should
recognize him by his appearance just as instantly as in the physical world.
This,
then, is the true constitution of man. In the first place he is a Monad, a
Spark of the Divine. Of that Monad the ego
is a partial expression, formed in
order that he may enter evolution, and may return to
the Monad with joy,
bringing his sheaves with him in the shape of qualities
developed by garnered
experience. The ego in his turn puts down part of
himself for the same purpose
into lower worlds, and we call that part a
personality, because the Latin word
persona (Page 61) means a mask, and this
personality is the mask which the ego
puts upon himself when he manifests in worlds lower
than his own. Just as the
ego is a small part and an imperfect expression of
the Monad, so is the
personality a small part and an imperfect expression
of the ego; so that what we
usually think of as the man is only in truth a
fragment of a fragment.
The
personality wears three bodies or vehicles, the mental, the astral and the
physical. While the man is what we call alive and
awake on the physical earth he
is limited by his physical body, for he uses the
astral and mental bodies only
as bridges to connect himself with his lowest
vehicle. One of the limitations of
the physical body is that it quickly becomes
fatigued and needs periodical rest.
Each
night the man leaves it to sleep, and withdraws into his astral vehicle,
which does not become fatigued, and therefore needs
no sleep. During this sleep
of the physical body the man is free to move about
the astral world; but the
extent to which he does this depends upon his
development. The primitive savage usually does not move more than a few miles
away from his sleeping physical form – often not as much as that; and he has
only the vaguest consciousness.
The
educated man is generally able to travel in his astral vehicle wherever he
will, and has much more consciousness in the astral
world, though he has not
often the faculty of bringing into his waking life
any memory of what he has
seen and done while his physical body was asleep.
Sometimes he does remember some incident which he has seen, some experience which
he has had, and then he calls it a vivid dream. More often his recollections
are hopelessly
entangled with vague memories of waking life, and
with impressions made from
without upon the etheric
part of his brain. Thus we arrive at the confused and
often absurd dreams of ordinary life. The developed
man becomes as fully
conscious and active in the astral world as in the
physical, and brings through
into the latter full remembrance of what he has been
doing in the former – that
is, he has a continuous life without any loss of
consciousness throughout the
whole twenty-four hours, and thus throughout the
whole of his physical life, and
even through death itself.
The Theosophical Society,