What is a subtle body?

What is a subtle body? How is different from the physical body?

As you already know, there are several different plans, and dimensions of existence that are beyond the reach of your normal perception. You are unaware of them on a daily basis because your mind is not objectively aware at higher levels. Your normal level of consciousness is somewhat limited and prevents you from tuning into subtler dimensions. Sometimes only small children seem to notice something that we cannot see but lose this ability with age.

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In this article you will learn:

• What a subtle body is.
• About their types: physical, etheric, emotional, mental, causal, buddhic, and celestial.

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You can experience different states of consciousness only in exceptional situations. When the action of your inner narrator – the ego stops. Different states of consciousness can be caused by some drugs, psychedelic substances, shamanic practices, out-of-body experiences, some breathing techniques, and meditations, e.g. pranayama. They also appear naturally every night in a hypnogogic state when you are sleeping, but you are not sleeping.

To operate in a multidimensional universe, you need a multi-dimensional body.

Or rather several bodies, that will allow you to function in every dimension. Each of these bodies must have sufficient density to enable it to function in a specific plane. Each of these bodies also has a different frequency. The physical body vibrates the lowest. All these bodies are connected with each other and penetrate each other. Because each of them is more subtle (less physical) than the previous ones.

These bodies are so integrated that the average person considers them as one being. They considers their mind, emotions, and physical body to be themself. Meanwhile, you are really composed of the field of consciousness, mental body (intellect and creativity), emotional body (emotions and desires), and etheric body (life energy), which work through the physical body.

The physical body 

It allows you to move and experience the physical world, i.e. the physical plane. Thanks to it, you interact with reality through your senses. You transform everything you touch, hear, try, see or smell in electrical impulses that are perceived by your subtle bodies.

The physical body is made of cells, each of which is a tiny, separate life.

The physical body evolves along with other bodies, which is why it is so important in spiritual development to improve the physical body to avoid discrepancies in the frequency of vibrations.

So, it is very important to play sports, nutrition, get enough sleep and sunlight, and avoid stimulants, drugs, and sugar.

The electrical body (also called the etheric body) 

It is the template, a matrix in which your physical body resides. It extends approx. 5 – 10 cm beyond the physical body. The etheric body is made of neutrinos and we call it a human aura, or also prana, chi energy, ether, and orgone. Its task is to distribute life energy throughout the physical body. It conducts consciousness to the physical brain and nervous system from higher levels. It is responsible for the number of your life forces, as well as the sexuality zone and reproduction because it contributes to the seed of life. 70% of this energy comes from the Sun, in others from other stars and the planet Jupiter, so for example, after a few days spent without sunlight, you feel clearly deprived of energy and enthusiasm.

In the etheric body, there are chakras or energy meridians.

After death, this body dissolves within a few days and re-creates in a new incarnation. The remaining bodies continue and incarnate in the new body. This body also has animals, plants, and stones, everything has an energy form.

Thought nourishes and controls this body, which is why positive thinking is so important.

The astral and etheric bodies cause most of the diseases that the physical body suffers from. So, to properly nourish the etheric body, you need the sun, a light diet, the right proteins and vitamins, and avoid fatigue and worry.

The emotional body (also called the astral body)

We use the body on the astral plane. It is a place to store your feelings, emotions, and impressions. Kind of a bridge between the mind and the physical body. It fulfills the role of an independent tool of awareness and action. The body emits your emotions into the atmosphere causing other people to feel them. We often say, for example, that it is a “dense” or “heavy atmosphere” in a room in which someone just argued because you can feel the tension in the air. Its role is to transfer the impulses of the mental body to the physical brain.

Astral matter is more subtle than physical, so it permeates physical matter. Thanks to this, a creature living in the astral plane can occupy the same place in space as a physical being. Each of them may be completely unaware of the other’s existence.

This body allows you to experience a full range of emotions from fear, and hatred to love, and ecstasy. And also, to experience dreams, OBE, NDE, hallucinations, imagination, and visions.

The 5 senses of this body are clairvoyance astral hearing, astral touch/feeling, clairvoyance (astral vision), imagination – astral taste, and astral smell.

With the help of the astral body, you are able to move from place to place during sleep or trance (astral travel), because it can very quickly and far away from the dormant physical body. We can develop this ability in order to consciously be able to leave the physical body without interruption in consciousness at any moment and at will.

Not only the physical body has its counterpart on the astral plane, but every physical object.

The astral body is also the cause of phantom pain because when you amputate a part of the physical body, its astral counterpart remains in place. This applies to all living organisms.

Like the physical body, the astral body is consumed, so it exchanges its particles for new ones, taking them from the surrounding atmosphere. After the death of the physical body, consciousness withdraws to the astral body and leads in it its further life in the astral world.

The mental body 

This is the place of our ideas and intellectual and rational mind. It is a tool with which you manifest yourself as a knowing person. The body allows you to express specific thoughts in the physical sphere. It is here that memory and imagination develop. This is the home of your ego.

It allows you to express specific thoughts through the physical body working with the astral body, etheric brain, and cerebrospinal system.

Its role is also to assimilate the experiences gathered in each life and to pass them on to the soul, or causal body.

This body also has its mental senses, thanks to which it can communicate directly through transfer, transfer of thoughts, without having to formulate them in words. There is no language barrier in communication here. The thought is transmitted immediately as color, sound, and form (vibration), so there are no senses in terms of understanding the physical body.

Keeping this body in good condition is recognizing each of your thoughts that come from your subconscious mind or from other people. The key is to identify whether it comes from fear or love, whether it is truth or illusion. If it’s positive, let it enter your mind, if it’s negative, don’t let it.

The causal body 

This is the place of our abstract, conceptual thoughts. It creates a relationship between our personality (lower self) and soul (higher self). Here are also our memories and experiences from past lives. It is the source of every personality that you incarnate in every life so we call it causal. We colloquially call this body the soul. It shares at the beginning of each new life and only a small piece actually incarnates to gather experience as a human being. It comes back after physical death and back and connects with the rest of the causal body. So, there is often talk of spirit and soul.

The causal body has two senses: a response to group vibration, which it uses to find its soul group, and spiritual telepathy, which it uses to communicate with other souls.

This body develops through life experiences and meditative practices. It is unbreakable and lasts as long as the evolution of the individual soul.

The messianic/buddhist body 

We use it to experience the Buddhist level, its characteristic feature is intuition. This is real wisdom. Thanks to this body man also experience bliss and spiritual ecstasy.

The atmic body

It is a state of complete connection with everything that is. The moment when your whole being blends in with the light. This is a very light body that accompanies Enlightenment.

All subtle bodies have their shape, color, and aura. The clairvoyant can, for example, determine the character of a person and the progress he has made in his present life.

Ayurveda or Hindu healing art also knows these bodies. The physical body is annamayakosha, the etheric body is pranamaya kosha, the emotional body is majomaya kosha, the mental body is vijnanamaya kosha, and the causal body is anandamaya kosha. Ayurveda is based on a deep knowledge of how to keep each of these bodies (not just physical) in optimal conditions, which is why it is one of the most holistic medical sciences.

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Source:

Lee Bladon „6b – The Constitution of Man”, evolvingsouls.com https://evolvingsouls.com/book/article6b/

Arthur E. Powell “The Mental Body” („Ciało mentalne”, Interart, Warszawa,1995)

Arthur E. Powell “The Astral Body”(„Ciało astralne”, Ezoteric, 2015)

Arthur E. Powell “The Casual Body” („Ciało Przyczynowe”, Interart, Warszawa, 1995)

Arthur E. Powell “The Etheric Body” („Ciało eteryczne”, Interart, Warszawa, 1997)