The Dimensions of Being

Our further hypothesis is that such "doubles" may consist of either the "semi-physical" feature which we call the vehicle of vitality (described in the glossary and also known as the "etheric double" of the Theosophists and the "vital body" of the Rosicrucians), or the "super-physical;" Soul Body (the Emotional Body of the Theosophists and the Desire Body of the Rosicrucians).

According to Sri Aurobindo, in their truest form, these beings appear as "pure vibration." He even likens their ability to appear as either a form or a vibration, to the wave-particle duality discovered by "modern science."

We change frequencies by requesting clarity and inner movement. We can even request the higher frequency body. There is a tendency for our nonphysical bodies to become progressively less dense as we continue to have OBEs.

NOTE: manas = consciousness

The difference is a difference of functioning activity and not of nature: the higher manas is manas working on the spiritual plane, in possession of its full consciousness of its own past; the lower manas is manas working, on the psychic or astral plane, veiled in astral matter... and with all its activities intermingled with and coloured by the desire nature; it is to a great extent blinded by the astral matter that veils it...

The lower manas is the "I" and is what we term the Personal-Ego; the voice of conscience, vaguely and confusedly regarded as supernatural, as the voice of God, is for them the only manifestation of the higher manas on the psychic plane, and they quite rightly regard it as authoritative, however mistaken they may be as to its nature. But the student must realize that the lower manas is one with the higher, as they ray is one with its sun.

For all practical purposes, of course, you will usually find yourself in some sort of body in your out-of-body experiences. These are a necessary camouflage, for you cannot yet think of identity without some kind of body, so you project in such a form. The form itself is not important, but it can tell you something about the dimension in which you are having the experience.

I have observed seven layers... At first I could see the lower layers, which are the most dense and easiest to see. The longer I worked, the more layers I could perceive. The higher the layer, the more expanded my consciousness needed to be to perceive it. That is, in order to perceive the higher layers, like the fifth, sixth and seventh, I would have to enter into a meditative state, usually with eyes closed...

Every other layer of the field is highly structured, like standing waves of light patterns, while the layers in between appear to be composed of colored fluids in constant motion. These fluids flow through the form set by the shimmering standing light waves... The standing forms of light are themselves scintillating, as if they are composed of strings of many tiny, rapidly blinking lights, each blinking at a different rate. These standing light lines appear to have tiny charges moving along them.

Thus the first, third, fifth and seventh layer all have a definite structure, while the second, fourth and sixth are composed of fluid-like substances that have no particular structure... Each succeeding layer interpenetrates completely all the layers under it, including the physical body... Actually, each body is not a "layer" at all, although that is what we may perceive. It is, rather, a more expansive version of our self that carries within it the other, more limited forms...

In order to perceive each consecutive level, the observer must move up in consciousness to each new frequency level

NOTE: distance outward is determined by frequency. Remember, the length of focus = the frequency you can see....

The structured layers contain all the forms that the physical body has, including internal organs, blood vessels, etc., and additional forms that the physical body does not contain. There is a vertical flow of energy that pulsates up and down the field in the spinal cord. It extends out beyond the coccyx. I call this the main vertical power current. There are swirling cone-shaped vortexes called chakras in the field. Their tips point into the main vertical power current, and their open ends extend to the edge of each layer of the field they are located in.

NOTE: Brennan's Bodies/Charkas: Etheric, Emotional, Mental, Love, Higher/Divine Will, Celestial Love, Higher Mind. The Physical Plane bodies are the Physical, Etheric, Emotional, and Mental.

[The aura] is much more than a medium or a field. It is life itself. Each layer is a body, just as real, alive and functioning as is our physical body. Each body exists in a conscious reality that is in some ways like, and in some ways unlike, the physical reality. Each layer is, in a sense, in a world of its own, yet these worlds are interconnecting and exist immersed within the same space in which we experience our physical reality...

The physical plane is composed of four levels: the physical, etheric, emotional, and mental levels. The astral plane is the bridge between the spiritual and physical, and the spiritual plane is above it and has gradations of enlightenment within it.

There are seven lucid dream bodies known by tantric traditions and by the Sufis of the near East. These bodies are known as the physical, the etheric, the astral, the mental, the spiritual, the cosmic and the nirvanic. Each dream body apparently dreams according to its own set of rules or laws, and within realms and territories specific to it. As the lucid dreamer gradually explores each level and approaches the nirvanic level, so the dream worlds take on greater and greater "reality."

In the system I use for healing, the lower three auric layers are associated with and metabolize energy related to the physical world, and the upper three metabolize energies related to the spiritual world. The fourth layer or astral level, associated with the heart chakra, is the transforming crucible through which all energy must pass when going from one world to the other.

The Master: '1. That man is an ego, or soul, and in the course of his evolution from an undeveloped state, the savage, to that of a perfect man, he has to use three vehicles of consciousness or bodies. These are known as the mental or mind body, the astral or emotional body and the physical body...

'2... These three bodies are used by us when functioning in the three different states of consciousness, which are: the mental plane, the astral plane and the physical plane.

'3... The home of the ego round which these bodies are drawn, is the upper part of the mental world. This is known as the causal level. NOTE: In agreement with Theosophy

'When the ego starts from the causal level for a new incarnation, he has to have one of each of these three bodies. I want you to visualize the ego as a naked man, preparing to clothe himself with his three coverings or bodies. The least dense in texture is the mental body, and this the ego draws round himself from the matter of which the mental world is constructed... The mental body of an unevolved man is very different from that of an evolved being, an old soul... The ego next draws round himself a slightly coarser vehicle, made of or outside the mental body, and the type of the body is again in accordance with the man's emotion development... A still coarser and denser body is now required and to obtain this, a body has to be found by physical means at the physical level. In other words, a woman, with the assistance of a man, produces a child... Owing to the density of the outside body, the physical, it is impossible to see the other two.'

In Stage One, we see the soul, a small beam of light.

In Stage Two, a ball of energy emanated from the soul, surrounding it like a cloud. Now the soul is called a "Light Being" and its energies are very fine, very subtle. This being operates on a very high frequency, on what is called the mental-causal plane.

In Stage Three, the astral body is formed. The vibrations become heavier and the Light Being begins to assume a shape similar to the physical body...

In Stage Four, the vibrations become heavier and the body now becomes denser than the astral body and even more closely resembles the physical body. In this fourth stage of manifestation, the body is referred to as the "etheric body"... Russian scientists referred to it as the "beta body" or "bioplasmic body."...

In Stage Five, the last stage, the physical body comes into form

God encased the human soul successively in three bodies – the idea, or causal, body; the subtle astral body, seat of man's mental and emotional natures; and the gross physical body. An astral being works with his consciousness and feelings and a body made of prana.

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"The interpenetration of man's three bodies is expressed in many ways through his threefold nature. In the wakeful state on earth a human being is conscious more or less of his three vehicles. When he is sensuously intent on tasting, smelling, touching, listening, or seeing, he is working principally through his physical body. Visualizing or willing, he is working mainly through his astral body. His causal medium finds expression when man is thinking or diving deep in introspection or meditation; the cosmical thoughts of genius come to the man who habitually contacts his causal body."

In the classical Vedenta texts it is said that the Self is ensheathed by five bodies – the food or gross sheath, the vital, the mind, the intellect, and the bliss sheaths.

Evolution of consciousness takes place from below upward... the comparatively undeveloped majority of mankind are effectively conscious as yet only in the physical body. Their astral bodies are for the most part still shapeless and unorganized- bridges of communication indeed between the ego and its physical vesture, and even vehicles for the reception of sensation, but in no sense as yet instruments in the hand of the real man or adequate expressions of his future powers on that plane.

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In their earlier stages these undeveloped souls cannot feel the intensely rapid and piercing vibrations of the highly-refined matter of their own plane; the strong and coarse but comparatively slow movements of the heavier matter of the physical plane are the only ones that can evoke any response from them. So it is only upon the physical plane that they feel themselves to be alive at all, and this explains their strong craving for birth into earth-life... NOTE: Wonderful, perfect. Well spoken Their consciousness begins to be centred rather in their emotions than in mere physical sensations.

At a later stage, but always by the same process of learning to respond to impacts from without, the souls learn to centre their consciousness in the mental body.

It is the possession of a body which constitutes individualization. The average unevolved man it is barely distinguishable at all, for it is a mere colorless film – just sufficient, apparently, to hold itself together and make a reincarnating individuality, but no more.

As soon, however, as the man begins to develop in spirituality, or even higher intellect, the real individual then begins to have a persisting character of his own, apart from that molded in each of his personalities in turn by training and surrounding circumstances: and this character shows itself in the size, color, luminosity, and definiteness of the causal body. This higher vehicle is naturally subtler and more beautiful.

It happily differs from the bodies below it, and that is that in any ordinary circumstances no evil of any kind can manifest through it. The worst of men can commonly show himself on that plane only as an entirely undeveloped entity; his vices, even though continued through life after life, cannot soil that higher sheath; they can only make it more and more difficult to develop in it the opposite virtues.

That of an Adept is a magnificent sphere of living light.

At each stage as we ascend we shall find that while the higher matter exhibits a splendid power of expression of the nobler qualities, it gradually loses the power to express some which are lower. The peculiarly unpleasant hue which represents coarse sensuality in the astral body is quite incapable of reproducing itself in mental matter.

A man may form a mental image which evokes sensual feeling in him, but the thought and the image will express themselves in astral matter, and not in mental. It will leave a very definite impression of its peculiar hue upon the astral body, but in the mental body it will intensify the colors which represent its concomitant mental evils of selfishness, conceit and deception. These in their turn will find no expression whatever in the resplendent glory of the causal body, but the very intensification of them in the lower vehicle, every indulgence in them down here, tends somewhat to dim the luminosity of the colors representing the development of the opposite virtues in that higher existence which is so much nearer to reality.

So, in the course of his many lives, man develops within himself many qualities, some good, some evil; but while all good development is steadily stored up and accumulated within the causal body, that which is evil can express itself only through the lower vehicles, and so is comparatively impermanent. Man receives absolutely the exact results of his own action, whether it be bad or good; but the evil necessarily works out is effects upon the lower planes. Its force, therefore, is all expended at its own level, and it reaches in its entirety upon its creator in his astral and physical life, whether it be in this or in future incarnations.

The good action or though produces its results upon these lower planes too, but in addition to that it has the immensely higher and permanent effect upon the causal body.

A man or woman, however, is not these seven bodies; each is rather a pure consciousness which can reside in any one or a combination of bodies.

Their individuality came from having separate bodies and separate spirits, but the light that was their most extraordinary attribute was the same.

What may appear to originate in one dimension, as, for example, at the etheric level, may actually derive from a deeper level such as the emotional or mental.

All these varieties of finer matter exist in man also, consisting in each case of their matter. When sufficiently evolved he is able to express himself on all these different levels of nature, and he is therefore provided with a suitable vehicle of the matter belonging to each, and it is through these various vehicles that he is able to receive impressions from the world to which they correspond.

As man learns to function in these higher types of matter, he finds that the limitations of the lower life are transcended. He finds himself in a world of many dimensions.

The astral matter within a man, for example, is not only capable of receiving a vibration from etheric matter and transmitting it to the mental matter, but it is also quite capable of receiving impressions from the surrounding matter of its own plane, and transmitting those through the mental body to the real man within. In order to do either of these things, he must learn to focus his consciousness in his astral body or in his mental body.

From clairvoyants we learn that the personality includes three types of energy fields - the etheric or vital, the astral or emotional, and the mental - all of which surround and interpenetrate every cell of the physical body. The interplay among these three fields may be likened to what a musician calls the major chord, which is composed of three frequencies that in combination with four other notes form an octave of seven frequencies. Every human being emits a unique tonal pattern which is created by his individual energy fields working in unison. This is sometimes referred to as the personality note. A perfect tone indicates health, whereas dissonance in the fields and their major centers indicates disease...

The harmonics of the chakras in the etheric, astral, and mental fields is an important factor, for dissonance can give rise to disease in that part of the body which the center serves. Studies of a chakra made in the three levels have established some information regarding the harmonics of the chakra system. For example, if we assume that the speed of the etheric center is one, then the astral center's speed of rotation should be double and the mental center's four times that rate, i.e., a ratio of 1:2:4. In actuality, of course, the rates are much higher, but this ratio would indicate that the chakras are working together harmoniously. If, on the other hand, the rate of an astral center is higher than that of the mental, as for example 1:5:3, the possibility of dissonance and disease associated with that astral center is indicated. In any case, it shows that the patient's emotions, not his mind, control his physical responses.

John: "Picture the entire physical body as a reasoning faculty or as a physical organ for the expression of the soul. Then picture the patterns of individual thought extending along the body's various meridians. In this way, the soul's thoughts are extended into the physical body and manifest in specific properties within the various organs.

"The soul is in a state of perfection, yet the illumination that it may give to this particular plane comes through your physical body and is therefore filtered through your experiences on this plane, which is your karma...

"It is not so much that each organ bears a form of intelligence, it is moreso that each organ bears a system of consciousness. Even as you have discovered certain electromagnetic fields about the physical body, so in turn does each organ, by its very molecular existence and vibration, give forth specific patterns of energy...

"Chakra points correspond to the various glands... These are the portals through which the soul manifests itself in the physical."

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John: "It is through the seven major chakras within the physical body that the soul makes its imprint on the earth plane."

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Tom MacPherson: "The closest model I can come up with to describe the interface between spirit and the physical seat of consciousness is when your Marconi fellow, if I have it correctly, broadcast electromagnetic waves at a crystal. The crystal resonated, and audible sound resulted from the transference to electrical impulses. In many ways, the pineal gland is quite similar. Being rich in silicon, I believe, the spirit interfaces with it and resonates, and this becomes detectable as the bioelectrical functions of the body, which stimulate the cell-division process flowing along the meridians and other energy fields concentrated around the chakras."

The movements of "doubles" are sometimes identical with those of the corresponding physical body- but the two sets of movements do not occur simultaneously. On the contrary, there is an intriguing interval between the two.

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"Doubles" that are interpreted as composed of the "semiphysical" vehicle of vitality made movements that were identical to those of the body. "Doubles" that consisted of the "super-physical" Soul Body made movements that differed from those of the body.

Dr. Peebles: "The physical brain is a translator, extremely sophisticated translator, but no more than that... Behind the brain is the mind, that is creative and subjective in nature and is able to go beyond language to form symbols. The force behind the symbols that the mind begins to design and expand upon, that force is the will."

Many soul formations are linked to those of the other worlds. The human soul, for example, is linked to the human physical body and to the human spirit, and the processes observable in it are influenced by both the physical and spiritual worlds...

After freeing itself from the body, the spirit is still linked to the soul.

Everything has an energy field around it that looks somewhat like the light from a candle. I also began to notice that everything was connected by these energy fields, that no space existed without an energy field.. Everything, including me, was living in a sea of energy.

We normally identify ourselves as a body (the wax and wick) with consciousness (the flame). When we enter a state of expanded consciousness, we perceive ourselves also as the light coming from the flame. Where does the light begin and where does the flame end?.. The flame is completely penetrated by the light. Does the light in the room that is not from the candle (sea of energy) penetrate the flame? It does.

Ancient Indian spiritual tradition, over 5,000 years old, speaks of a universal energy called Prana. This universal energy is seen as the basic constituent and source of all life. Prana, the breath of life, moves through all forms and gave them life.

Prana is vitality, the integrating energy that co-ordinates the physical molecules and holds them together in a definite organism; it is the life-breath within the organism, the portion of the universal Life-Breath... and appears in two forms in the dense and etheric parts of the physical body.

The Chinese, in the 3rd millennium BC., posited the existence of a vital energy which they called Ch'I. All matter, animate and inanimate, is composed of and pervaded with this universal energy. This Ch'I contains two polar forces, the yin and the yang. When the yin and yang are balanced, the living system exhibits physical health; when they are unbalanced, a diseased state results.

In his Phaedros Plato described the True Earth. It is the highest region of being. The True Earth is situated in the Pure Ether where everything is clearer, lighter, healthier, and happier. To the Greeks the ether was just as much a metaphysical power as ch'i is to the Chinese or prana to the Hindus.

But in the East, where it is known as prana, it has always been perceived as a universal force in nature connected with breathing and breath. It is active in plants and animals as well as humans.

The bioenergy which runs the extremely complex mechanism of the human body and provides the fuel for thought is not split up into compartments or currents acting independently of each other. It is one homogeneous whole, performing all the functions of the body from the movement of a muscle to the highest flight of thought. It is a medium working in a hundred ways, with varied speeds, varied spectrums and varied material to perform the almost limitless functions of the body. But the energy is basically one, capable of assuming any pattern or any speed to suit every situation. This means that prana assumes one form for digestive activity, another for the circulation of the blood, yet another for the movement of the muscles. It is an incredible stuff which can manipulate atoms and molecules in any conceivable way.

Examples: the loss of eyesight is somehow compensated by increased sensitivity of the ears or skin. In some cases of damage to a certain part of the brain, say by a tumor or accident, its function is taken over by other parts.

All the extremely complex reactions that follow a serious infection or a serious accident emanate from this mysterious intelligence present in every cell.

Prana is a medium for the activity of thought and transference of sensations and impulses in living organisms. Prana is not matter, nor is it mind or intelligence or consciousness, but rather an inseparable part of the cosmic energy or Shakti, which resides in all of them. It is the medium by which the cosmic intelligence creates, maintains, and destroys the gigantic globular formations burning ceaselessly in space as well as the tiny bacteria, filling every part of the earth. Shakti, when applied to inorganic matter, is force.

The term prana or prana-shaktiis generally applied to that aspect of the cosmic energy, which operates in the organic sphere. The generic name Shakti is applied to every form of energy.

NOTE: If fits in everywhere! Seth – The Pure Essence! Attention! Prana is essentially a part of reality, assuming different shapes and appearance, entering into countless types of formations, building persistently the units or bricks to create the complicated organic structures in the same way that physical energy starts with electrons, protons, neutrons, and atoms to raise the mighty edifice of the universe, all its activity governed by eternal laws as rigid and universal as the laws which rule the physical world.

Prana brings into existence the marvelous domain of life, acting intelligently and purposefully with full knowledge of the laws and properties of matter.

While remaining constant and unaltered fundamentally, it enters into countless combinations, acting both as the architect and the object produced. It exists as a mighty universe, vaster and more wonderful than the cosmos perceived by our senses, with its own spheres and planes corresponding to the suns and earths of the latter, its own materials and bricks, it own movement and inertia, its own light and shadow, laws, and properties, existing side by side with the universe we see, interwoven with our thoughts and actions, interpenetrating the atoms and molecules of matter, radiating with light, moving with wind and tide, marvelously subtle and agile, the stuff of our fancies and dreams, the life principle of creation, which is woven inextricably with the very texture of our being.

The owners of the bodies, even the most intelligent and perceptive, know nothing of what is happening in them, know nothing of intelligence which regulates the body machine, which builds it in the womb, preserves it in illness, sustains it in danger, heals it when injured, cares for it when asleep or delirious or unconscious, creates urges and tendencies which move and sway them as wind does a reed.

After doing each and everything, even to the extent of drawing the breath and inducing the thoughts, because of its own marvelous and absolutely incomprehensible nature, it keeps itself always behind the scenes, allowing the surface consciousness, which it maintain as oil does a flame, to think and act as the master.

Prana is present in atoms and their constituents. Prana is possessed of a superhuman intelligence and memory, beyond the range of our thought.

All these wheels are perpetually rotating, and into the hub or open mouth of each a force from the higher world is always flowing. The primary force is sevenfold in its nature, and all its forms operate in each of these centres, although one of them in each case usually predominates over the others. In a more evolved man, an enormously greater amount of energy passes through them, with the result that there are additional faculties and possibilities open to the man.

The first and second chakras, having but few spokes or petals, are principally concerned with receiving into the body two forces which come into it at that physical level – one being the serpent-fire from the earth and the other the vitality from the sun. 3, 4, and 5 are engaged with the forces which reach man through his personality – throughout the lower astral in the case of centre 3, the higher astral in centre 4, and from the lower mind in centre 5. 6 and 7 are connected with the pituitary body and the pineal gland.

The primary, the vitality and the kundalini are connected only with his bodily well-being. But there are also forces entering the chakras which may be described as psychic and spiritual. The first two centres exhibit none of these, but the navel chakra and the others higher in the body are ports of entry for forces which affect human consciousness.

Cosmic Energy/Prana: The vital bodies are but its distributors, rectifiers, transformers; the complicated mechanical arrangements that the energy of life works through and upon. The physical body itself cannot even hold the energy of life, that energy being held in the astral condenser, and poured through the physical. The energy you are using is cosmic, present everywhere. It is not created by you, but is attracted by you and condensed in your astral body.

The ordinary belief concerning energy is that it is created by the body- that to eat 'so much' food will produce 'so much' energy. If this idea were true, we could easily substitute food for sleep. Food is material, like the physical body, and builds up the body because the cosmic force operates upon it; not because it produces energy in itself. If foods were the only source of animal heat and working energy, fasting for a long period would be impossible. What, then, are the functions of food and drink? All that they can do is to furnish the materials to keep the system in such a condition that vital force can manifest in and through it. The inflow of life-force into the cells and organs of the body and its free distribution, by way of the nervous system, depend upon a normal or healthy condition of the organism.

This cosmic force orientals call 'prana'. Prana is held to be capable of being transmitted from one organism to another, and it is held to be the energizing power by means of which many forms of occult and magic phenomena can be produced. Prana is very much akin to the "human magnetism" of the Western occultists. This cosmic energy has many faculties. One of these is the 'healing' faculty. Every ill that is cured is cured by cosmic energy. All that any curative method can do is assist.

Externalizing Prana: Another common belief is that we 'burn up' our energy. But what we really do is 'externalize our energy.' NOTE: projecting away power and essence One set of bodily exercises and postures will cause the cosmic energy to externalize, while another set of exercises and postures will cause the energy to internalize. Fear will fill the blood-stream with poison, almost instantly. It is claimed that, for this reason, a person becomes weak when in the grip of fear. Fear externalizes the neuric energy from the astral body. Energy is omnipresent and indestructible; it is not created, nor is it burned up, it is internalized and externalized, and it is condensed in the astral body. When projected in the astral body, and conscious, one can observe this neuric energy; that is, he can see its color and condensation in the bodies of others. It is luminous, like white light. It is this energy which gives the astral body its phosphorescent appearance. It is the scintillations of this condensed energy which trail along behind the phantom, when the latter is moving at the intermediate speed. Although the glow of the neuric energy can be seen throughout the entire body, it is condensed mostly in the center of the body. It is very luminous in the center of the body.- at the solar plexus region. It is my belief, from astral observation, that the great store-house of condensed energy in the human being is located at the solar plexus region. We always feel the effects of fear in the solar plexus.

Consciousness Uses Up Energy: Consciousness (merely being awake) uses up energy, just as exertion uses it up. Unconsciousness is necessary in order to reap the full benefit of the recharging. If you project the astral and retain consciousness all the time, you will not recharge the astral body. I have noticed many times that, after experiencing an entirely conscious projection, I felt still enervated upon recoinciding with the physical- in fact more so. It is very common to experience a 'dog-tired' feeling after an exteriorization that has been conscious, accompanied by a headache in the back of the head.

Fasting often helps the liberation of the astral body. Abstinence from liquids constitutes an important positive factor. When the fast is in progress, one of the secondary sources of energy is cut off; and in order to retain in the system the needed amount of energy, the astral body at night is thrown further out of coincidence, in order to collect a greater charge of cosmic energy to balance the loss. It does not depend upon the length or duration of sleep, but upon the distance of separation of the astral and physical bodies during sleep.

It is almost colourless, and shines with a white or slightly golden light. But as soon as it is drawn into the vortex of the force-centre at the spleen, it is decomposed and breaks up into streams of different colours, though it does not follow exactly our division of the spectrum. As its component atoms are whirled round the vortex, each of the six spokes seizes upon one of them, so that all the atoms charged with yellow flow along one, and all those charged with green along another, and so on, while the seventh disappears through the centre of the vortex.

The force exists around us in the atmosphere. It clothes itself in millions of tiny particles which are colorless though intensely active. After it has been absorbed into the human body through the spleen, however, these particles take on a beautiful pale rose color, and they flow in a constant stream over and through the whole body along the nerves, the brain being the centre of this nervous circulation.

This flow is necessary to the proper working of the nerves, for when it is withdrawn there is no sensation.

The easiest way to begin to observe the universal energy field is to simply relax on your back in the grass on a nice sunny day and gaze at the blue sky. After some time you will be able to see the tiny globules of orgone making squiggly patterns against the blue sky. They seem to be tiny white balls, sometimes with a black spot, that appear for a second or two, leave a slight trail mark, and the disappear again. When you continue this observation and expand your vision, you will begin to see that the whole field pulsates in a synchronized rhythm. On sunny days these tiny balls of energy will be bright and move fast. On cloudy days they will be more translucent, move slowly and be fewer in number. In a smoggy city they are fewer, dark, and very slow moving... Apparently sunlight charges the globules..

Now shift your gaze to the edge of treetops against the blue sky. You may see a green haze around the trees. Curiously, you may also notice that there are no globules in this haze. But if you look closer, you will see the globules at the edge of the green haze changing their squiggly pattern and flowing into the aura of the tree, where they disappear. Apparently the tree's aura is absorbing the tiny globules. The green around the trees appears in the leafing stage, during spring and summer. Earlier in the spring, the aura of most trees has a pink-reddish hue, similar to the color of the red buds of the trees.

If you look closely at a house plant, you will see a similar phenomenon. Put the plant under bright lights with a dark background behind it. You may see lines of blue-green flashing up the plant along the leaves in the direction of growth. They will suddenly flash; then the color slowly fades, only to flash again, perhaps on the opposite side of the plant. These lines will react to your hand, or a piece of crystal, if you bring them near the aura of the plant. As you draw the crystal away from the plant, you will see the aura of the plant and the aura of the crystal stretch to maintain contact. They pull like taffy... NOTE: Surface tension?

I observed the aura of the leaf. It was a simple aqua-blue. When I cut the leaf, the aura of the entire leaf turned a bloody maroon... When the aqua-blue color reestablished itself in a minute or two, it showed definite signs of the missing part, but not as clearly as I have seen on the Kirlian photographs.

Inanimate objects also have an aura. Most personal objects become imbued with the energy of the owner and radiate this energy.

The vitality globule, though inconceivably minute, is so brilliant that it is often seen even by those who are not in the ordinary sense clairvoyant. Many a man, looking out towards the distant horizon, especially over the sea, will notice against the sky a number of the tiniest possible points of light dashing about in all directions with amazing rapidity. These are the vitality globules, each consisting of seven physical atoms. The Hindus call specks charged with that force prana.

That force does not come into the atom from outside, but wells up within it – which means that it enters it from higher dimensions.

In brilliant sunshine this vitality is constantly welling up afresh; during the night the operation is entirely suspended.

Sunlight is one of the most important factors in the attainment and preservation of perfect health.

NOTE: OBE states! As soon as certain measures of success are attained in meditation, a greater demand for the life energy is felt in the concentrated condition of brain, and to meet this, prana, or vital energy, residing in other parts of the body, flows to the head, sometimes to such an extent that even vital organs like the heart, lungs, and the digestive system almost cease to function, the pulse and the breathing become imperceptible, and the whole body appears cold and lifeless.

With the additional fuel the brain becomes more intensely alive; the surface consciousness rises above bodily sensations and its perceptive faculty is vastly enlarged, rendering it cognizant of super-physical existences. In this condition the first object of perception is prana, experienced as a lustrous, immaterial stuff, sentient and in a state of rapid vibration both within and outside the body, extending boundlessly on every side.

In India, the flow of intelligence is called Prana (usually translated as "life force"), which can be increased and decreased at will, moved here, and there, and manipulated to keep the physical body orderly and young... A yogi moves Prana using nothing more than attention, for at a deep level, attention and Prana are the same.

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Prana is intelligence and consciousness... Some people sense it as a streaming or buzzing energy in their bodies...

The body's main source of Prana is through the breath.

A certain type of mind or mental activity is invariably accompanied by a prana of corresponding character, whether transcendental or mundane. For instance, a particular mood, feeling, or thought is always accompanied, manifested, or reflected by a prana or breathing of corresponding character and rhythm. Thus anger produces not merely an inflamed thought-feeling, but also a harsh and accentuated 'roughness' of breathing. On the other hand, when there is calm concentration on an intellectual problem, the thought and the breathing exhibit a like calmness. When the concentration is in a state of profound thinking, as during an effort to solve a subtle problem, unconsciously the breath is held... In deep samadhi no thought arises; so there is no perceptible breathing.

NOTE: Fear (or other) projections also stop the breath

NOTE: Attention is very connected to breath in my experience

NOTE: This, in more detail, is due to the quality of prana accepted by the chakras

The activity of the brain and the nervous system depends on the existence in the body of a subtle life element known as prana, which pervades each cell of every tissue and fluid in the organism, much in the same way that electricity pervades each atom of a battery.

This vital element has a biological counterpart, as thought has a biological complement in the brain, in the shape of an extremely fine biochemical essence of a highly delicate and volatile nature, extracted by the nerves from the surrounding organic mass. After extraction, this vital essence resides in the brain and the nervous system, and is capable of generating a subtle radiation impossible to isolate by laboratory analysis. It circulates in the organism as motor impulse and sensation, permeated and worked by the superinetelligent cosmic life energy, or prana, by which it is continuously affected.

Prana signifies both the cosmic life energy and its subtle biological conductor in the body, the two being inseparable. At the very moment the body dies, the rare organic essence immediately undergoes chemical changes, ceasing to serve as a channel. The work of extraction of prana to feed the brain is done by a limited group of nerves, operating in a circumscribed area of the organism, with the result that the consciousness of an individual displays no variation in its nature or extent during the span of life exhibiting a constancy which is in sharp contrast to the continuously changing appearance of the body.

Prana-shakti utilizes oxygen as the main vehicle for its activity.

The radiating spokes of the chakras supply force to these sympathetic plexuses.

Dr. Annie Besant writes as follows in A Study in Consciousness:

"Let us see how the building of the nervous system, by vibratory impulses from the astral, begins and is carried on. We find a minute group of nerve cells and tiny processes connecting them. This is formed by the action of a centre which has previously appeared in the astral body – an aggregation of astral matter arranged to form a centre for receiving and responding to impulses from outside. From that astral centre vibrations pass into the etheric body, causing little etheric whirlpools which draw into themselves particles of denser physical matter, forming at last a nerve cell, and groups of nerve cells. These physical centres, receiving vibrations from the outer world, send impulses back to the astral centres, increasing their vibrations; thus the physical and the astral centres act and re-act on each other, and each becomes more complicated and more effective."

If he examines further into the action of this life-ether, he will soon see reason to believe that the transmission of impression to the brain depends rather upon its regular flow along the etheric portion of the nerve-threads than upon the mere vibration of the particles of their denser and visible portion, as is commonly supposed.

When a finger becomes entirely numbed with cold, it is incapable of feeling; and the same phenomenon of insensibility may readily be produced at will by a mesmerizer, who by a few passes over the arm of his subject will bring it into a condition in which it may be pricked with a needle or burnt by the flame of a candle without the slightest sensation of pain. Why does the subject feel nothing ? The nerve-threads are still there.

The reason why the frozen finger seems dead, and the blood is unable to circulate through its vessels, is because the rosy life-ether is no longer coursing along the nerve-threads. Though matter in the etheric condition is invisible to ordinary sight, it is still purely physical, and, therefore, can be affected by the action of cold or heat.

When the mesmerizer makes the passes by which he renders the subject's arm insensible, what he really does is to pour his own nerve-ether into the arm, thereby driving back for the time that of the subject. The arm is still warm and living, because there is still life-ether coursing through it, but since it is no longer the subject's own specialized life-ether, and is therefore not en rapport with his brain, it conveys no information to that brain, and consequently there is no sense of feeling in the arm.

Visual observations reveal the field to be highly organized in a series of geometric points, isolated pulsating points of light, spirals, webs of lines, sparks and clouds...

This field is the opposite of entropy, a term used to describe the phenomenon of the slow decay that we so commonly observe in physical reality... NOTE: Entropy is watching old organizations become new organizations without seeing the new. The HEF has an organizing effect on matter and builds forms... Any changes in the material world are preceded by a change in this field...

[The second law of thermodynamics] states that entropy is always increasing... says that disorder in the universe is always increasing and that you cannot get more energy out of something than you put in... [The Universal Energy Field] is always continuing to create more energy.

This vital force is poured upon us from the sun. The earth's atmosphere is full of this force at all times; though it is in special activity in brilliant sunlight.

The subtle prana that feeds kundalini is obtained from both food and air.

The earth has its own supply of prana, pervading every atom and every molecule of all the elements and compounds. The sun is constantly pouring an enormous supply of pranic radiation on the earth as a part of its effulgence.

The moon is another big supply center of prana for earth.

We must emphasize once more that we are only justified in referring to the life energies, feelings, and thoughts associated with every individual as "fields" if we hold them to be special instances or intensifications of universal fields in which all life participates. (A field may be generally defined as a continuous condition of space.)

John White in his book Future Science lists 97 different cultures that refer to the auric phenomena with 97 different names.

Many esoteric teachings- the ancient Hindu Vedic texts, the Theosophists, the Rosicrucians, the Native American Medicine People, the Tibetan and Indian Buddhists, the Japanese Zen Buddhists, Madame Blavatsky, and Rudolph Steiner, to mention a few- describe the Human Energy Field in detail.

The aura is.. the "place" where all the emotions, thoughts, memories and behavior patterns we discuss so endlessly in therapy are located.

The ether body as a life form fills out the physical body, and beyond the ether body we can distinguish the soul body or astral form projecting outward on all sides. Extending beyond this is the sentient soul, and then the mind soul that grows ever larger as it takes in ever more of the true and the good. If people lived solely out of their own inclinations, likes and dislikes, the boundaries of their mind souls would coincide with those of their sentient souls.

This formation, in the midst of which the physical body can be seen as if in a cloud, can be called the human aura...

The "I" gains an ever-increasing mastery over body and soul, and this is expressed in a person's aura. The greater the mastery, the more differentiated, complex and richly colored the aura becomes.

Many cultures believe the aura of an extremely spiritual individual is so bright it is visible even to normal human perception. The great Sufi mystic Hazrat Inayat Khan, who died in 1927, is said to have sometimes given off so much light that people could actually read by it.

The first time I saw the distinctive mist of light around my arm I thought it was smoke and jerked my arm up to see if I had somehow caught my sleeve on fire.

Brennan experiences them as changing textures and intensities of visual sensation. She compares this to being immersed in the ocean and feeling water of different temperatures wash by. "I tend to see the energy field in terms of movements and waves of energy," she says. "It's as if my vision is telescoping through various levels and dimensions of the energy field, but I don't actually see it neatly arranged in various layers."

She perceives a dazzling amount of pattern and structure—kaleidoscopic clouds of color shot through with light, complex images, glistening shapes, and gossamer mists. Shallow people have shallow and humdrum auras. Conversely, the more complex the person, the more complex and interesting their energy field.

Each soul has a particular color aura, too. There are shades of soul energy mass. The intensity aspect of our energy can make us less brilliant.

Our guides are yellow, of course. Their guide's teacher is light blue. Some souls are reddish, but there are no green ones. The more knowledge one has, the darker intensity of light one gives off. Blue is deeper than yellow, and yellow is more intense than white. The further along one is, the more heavy, dense, and steady their light is. Increase in the power of our knowledge and perception increases the concentration of our light matter. Individual patterns of energy display who we are, and indicate our ability to heal others and regenerate ourselves. The change is gradual. Most souls are shades of white. Colors are apparent mostly from a distance, when they are shapeless. More advanced souls project masses of faster moving energy particles, which are blue to purple. Blue and violet have the shortest wavelength. Longer wavelengths are lower vibrational energy. Once a spiritual level is attained by a soul, it stays there. The intensity of mental power increases with the darker phases of light. The knowledge by which the energy of darker light is extended to us comes from the source. Our light is attached to the source.

The energy of radiated light from cooler stars is red-orange, while the hotter stars increase from yellow to blue-white.

Level I: Beginner: White (bright and homogenous)

Level II: Lower Intermediate: Off-White (reddish shades, ultimately turning into shades of yellow)

Level III: Intermediate: Yellow (solid, no traces of white)

Level IV: Upper Intermediate: Dark Yellow (a deep gold ultimately turning into traces of blue): Junior Guide

Level V: Advanced: Light blue (no traces of yellow, ultimately turning into traces of purple): Senior Guide

Level VI: Highly Advanced: Dark bluish-purple (surrounded by radiant light): Master Guide

Surrounding each individual is a thought-world created by him or her. Within this thought-world is the seed, the "Divine Presence," the "I AM," which is the only acting Presence there is in the Universe, and which directs all energy. This energy can be intensified beyond any limit through the conscious activity of the individual.

The "Divine Presence" within is likened unto the pit or seed of a peach; the thought-world around It unto the pulp of the peach. The pulp represents not only the thought-world created by the individual, but also the Universal Electronic Substance, ever present, waiting to be acted upon by the conscious determination of the individual- to be precipitated into his visible use as the form of whatsoever he may desire.

NOTE: Holmes' subjective receptive stuff!

Within the auric streams and rays surrounding a person, three different types of color phenomena are distinguishable...The first type of color is relatively dull and opaque in character, although even it seems fleeting and transparent in comparison to the type of color seen by our physical eyes. Within the spiritual world itself, however, these colors make the space they occupy comparatively opaque, as if they were filling it with figures of mist. The second type of color is all light, so to speak; these colors light up the space they occupy so that it too becomes all light. But the third type of color phenomenon is totally different from the other two in its radiating, sparkling, glittering character. These colors do not simply fill the space they light up; they shine and radiate right through it. There is something active and inwardly mobile about them, as if they were constantly creating themselves from within, while the other colors have something quieter and more lackluster about them...

[These three color types] interpenetrate in a great variety of ways. It is possible to watch all three kinds mixing and mingling in the same place in the aura... We can sort things out by turning our supersensible attention to only one of the three at a time... Seers have three different organs for the three kinds of color...

The threefold human aura is the supersensibly perceptible expression of the three components of the human being's essential nature- body, soul and spirit. The first aura reflects the body's influence on the soul; the second represents the soul's own life that extends beyond direct sensory stimulation but is not yet devoted to the service of the eternal; the third reflects the immortal spirit's degree of mastery over the transitory aspect of human nature...

Any emotional or mental activity that is totally given over to sensuous impulses, fleeting desires and momentary external stimuli shows up as garish colors in the first aura, while the second is weakly developed, showing mere traces of colored forms. In a case like this the third aura is barely visible. Only a flicker of color here and there indicates that even in a person with this attitude, the eternal is present in the form of potentials even though it may be suppressed by the effect of sensory factors. The more a person rids him- or herself of physical urges, the less prominent the first part of the aura becomes. Meanwhile, the second part becomes larger and larger, filling the body of colors within which the physical human being dwells with its radiating energy. And the more a person proves to be a servant of the eternal, the more the third part of the aura is revealed.

[Masters] seem as gods in comparison with lower humanity, because every sheath in Them is translucent, and the Light of the Spirit shines through unchecked.

When a note is struck on the piano, a wave form of that note is emitted. The resonance of that first wave excites a vibration in other notes of mathematical equivalence. If we slowly depress and hold a piano key so it does not sound, then strike and release a key an octave lower, a tone will be heard in the depressed key. The depressed note is the first harmonic of the lower, or fundamental note. The second note vibrates because its natural frequency (measured in cycles per second) is triggered into movement by a complementary frequency in the original note. This phenomenon is known as harmonic, or sympathetic, vibration. Each harmonic is a mathematical multiple (in cycles per second) of the fundamental note.

NOTE: different octaves of red

The frequencies of visible color have a harmonic relationship to the frequencies of auric color; auric colors may exist in both lower and higher harmonics of visible color. Let us use the example of a woman wearing a red blouse. That red blouse reflects the visible light color red; red here simply indicates a hue or pigment. If we see red in the aura of the woman, however, that red could indicate either pain or anger. These two reds in the aura look identical, but they are not the same. The lower two or three harmonics of the color red reflect pain in the physical body. In the higher red harmonics (or vibrations) there exists the same drive or action that pain excites someone to, but it is not pain itself. At least it is not physical pain; it could be existential pain. It could also be rage or anger.

Dr. Dora Kunz, President of the American Section of the Theosophical Society, has worked for many years with the medical profession and in healing. She has observed in The Spiritual Aspects of the Healing Arts that, "when the vital field is healthy, there is within it a natural autonomous rhythm," and that, "each organ in the body has its corresponding energetic rhythm in the etheric field. Between the spheres of the various organs, the different rhythms interact as if a transfer were occurring; when the body is whole and healthy, these rhythms transfer easily from organ to organ. However, with pathology, the rhythms as well as the energy levels are changed. For example... NOTE: For example, the two-tone frequency pulse in physics, this is called impedance matching or mismatching. Each adjacent tissue is 'impedance matched,' which means that the energy can easily flow through all the tissue. Surgery or illness changes the impedance matching so that the energy is to some degree dissipated rather than transferred."

John: "The life force does not travel by capillary action, but is a completely independent system of energy. It travels through the blood, within the hemoglobin, which is rich in iron, and its very flow generates a mild magnetic field. Also, the electrical properties of the nervous system, particularly the sympathetic nervous system, generate a similar mild magnetic flow. The life force, which extends forth from the soul, travels along these magnetic flows to various individual streams of light which flow forth from the sun- the light is not the sun itself, it is but a portion of its energies."

On the even-numbered layers of the field, disease takes the form of... undercharged, overcharged or clogged dark energy. On the structured layers of the field, disease takes the form of disfiguration, disruption or entanglement. There may be holes in the grid structure on any of the odd-numbered layers of the aura.

When the vital field shows a slightly broken up and grainy appearance in any area this indicated the area of disease in the physical body...

In the case of an individual who has intense periods of depression, Laura observes a leaking of energy in the vital field and the emotional field shows a great deal of gray color.

The vital energy field may be dull or bright. The brighter it is, the healthier the individual. If there are localized patches of dullness a tendency to disease in these areas is indicated. That part of the vital field which extends outside the physical body shows radiating lines of energy. If these radiating lines of energy are at right angles to the physical body the vitality is good. If these lines of energy droop downward the person is listless and lacks vitality.

Diana insisted that this was not precognition. The energy web or body showed the condition clearly many months before it became apparent in the physical body...

The whole energy web of energy may appear to her as tightly woven or loosely woven, as coarse or fine, as dull or bright. It may extend as much as two inches beyond the physical body or less than an inch. In conditions of disease it may show a wide range of disturbances. There may be loss in the energy field, breaks in the pattern, tiny whirlpools of energy that have broken off from the normal stream, gaps in the web, or a jumble of lines of force like scar tissue.

The energy moved at a faster rate and was brighter than it appeared in the average person. Diane remarked that the subject had always been a person with a great deal of energy and vitality.

When Ben is observing a speaker he sees wave motions emanating from the forehead of the individual. He is often aware of this in ordinary every day conversation. He finds with the slow thinker the waves are slower and with the quick thinker they are faster. To his observation a very clear thinker shows lines of force that are broad and smooth and terminate sharply. With individuals whose minds are off on tangents the wavelengths are closer together, thinner in outline and fade out gradually toward their termination. With the clear, focused thinker the energy radiations extend much further from the forehead than with the average person.

When [Diane] observes the total field, the general pattern of energy flow is in the form of a figure eight, crossing at about the heart center. In addition, there is a flow of energy inward and outward at the major vortices and numerous micro-vortices.

[The "normal" or "quiescent" aura] has a dark bluish-purple or clear pulsating layer out to one quarter inch or as much as one and a half inches from the skin. It is constantly pulsating at the rate of about 15 pulses per minute. The pulsations usually form a wave-like motion down the arms, legs and torso NOTE: Satori!... The blue color generally turns to a yellow color around the head at about three to four inches in distance. There are usually streamers of the lighter blue coming off the fingertips and toes and out of the top of the head.

As it spins, each chakra produces its own electromagnetic field. This field then combines with fields generated by other chakras to produce the auric field.

Spiritual feelings have a range of colors: blue for the speaker of truth, purple for spirituality and silvery gold for purity.

The quality of the color red is what denotes anger. Bright red orange is not anger; it is related to vibrant life force...

Someone who is angry has a dark red color. When this anger is expressed, it shoots off the person in flashes like bolts of lightning or round sparks that move away from the person...

An example in which the person did not release her anger and pain: As the red spot emerged from the throat area, it slowly moved outward. A moment later the group leader made a comment to her that was, in my opinion, hurtful. At this point, the red spot quickly moved back toward her body and into her heart area. When it hit her heart, she started crying. The crying was not of the cathartic type. It was rather "poor me, the victim." My interpretation of this event is that she had stabbed herself in her heart with her own anger...

Frustration and irritability will probably have dark reddish tones (red with anger), but are mostly apparent from their irregular vibrations that beat against another person's energy field, causing very unpleasant sensations. Usually one's friends react to this interference by trying to elicit a direct expression of negative feelings, which are much more pleasant to deal with. For example, one will say, "Are you angry?" Another will blurt out angrily, "No!" Thus some of this annoying interference is released.

Fear... has a whitish-gray prickly appearance in the aura... It is very unpleasant looking and has a repulsive odor. Envy appears to be dark, dirty green and sticky, as in "green with envy." Sadness is dark gray and heavy as in the cartoons of people with dark clouds over their head.

The effect of fear upon the astral body is very striking. A sudden shock of terror will in an instant suffuse the entire body with a curious livid Grey mist, while horizontal lines of the same hue appear, but vibrate with such violence as to be hardly recognizable as separate lines. All light fades out for the time from the body, and the whole Grey mass quivers helplessly like a jelly.

One of the earliest "explosions" of the human energy field I observed remains one of the most vivid. In 1972 during a bioenergetics-primal scream intensive workshop, I watched Linda light up like a Christmas tree as she screamed about the death of her father from cancer. Bright beams of red, yellow, orange and some blue streamed from her head...

People flash bright colors when they are engaged in feelings or actions. When they are quiet, the auric field returns to a stable "normal" state for that person.

If a person has a strong feeling, his quiescent aura will suddenly be permeated with another color and form correlating to his emotional state... If the person has not released the feeling, it will remain in his aura (usually faded) until he does...The colors and forms may rapidly flash and move out of the auric field, or they may simply fade away over a period of a few minutes or even a few weeks. They may even be colored over or masked by other colors and forms in a layered effect... Every thought, feeling, and experience a person has affects and changes his aura. Some effect always remains.

When a woman gets pregnant, her field expands and becomes much brighter... The mother-to-be has beautiful soft balls of blue, pink, yellow and green rolling over each other down her shoulders.

A purely physical sex emotion appears to "muddy" the emotional field and dull the mental field.

The right temporal lobe of the brain had been removed...

When I asked Diane to describe the physical brain she seemed puzzled by what she saw and rather hesitantly said, "On the right side there is a bare patch with nothing in between. The energy has to jump across."

I asked Diane to look at the energy vortex at the top of the head. She described one of the tiny spirals of energy as dropping downward like the drooping petal of a flower instead of standing upward in what we had come to designate as the normal pattern... "The energy pattern in the brain is erratic. Instead of an orderly pattern the lines of energy crisscross in a confused jumble."

Diane remarked that the left side of the brain had to work faster to compensate for the lack on the right side. As she looked at the energy field she described the right side of the brain as showing short, jerky wave patterns and the left side as showing longer wave patterns...

Her observations of physical conditions correlated with amazing accuracy with the medical diagnosis.

This woman had been a "good girl" type for years and finally just reached her rebelliousness. She stopped being so "nice" and got very angry during her session. She knocked down the chairs in the room and even stomped on the tissue box, tearing it to pieces. She left the session feeling liberated. However, the next week she contracted and withdrew very deeply and came into my office with a terrible head-ache. She moved carefully and held her shoulders up around her ears. At this point, I observed a large "blob" of mucus on top of her head. Apparently the mucus had been released in the earlier session and had accumulated there... (The phenomenon of toxin release from bioenergetic work is well known. Strong energy flow releases toxins held in the tissues. Sometimes people get "sick" after deep work.)

This process is called grounding. By the end of the session the mucus had distributed itself in a thin layer over her body. Her headache was gone. It took several weeks of bodywork to rid her of the entire mucus layer.

Vibration, color, and sound are all interrelated, and all three represent a means of determining or monitoring the frequency of energy in the auric field. (Those who have the ability to see auric color may do so by "speeding up" the normal process of visual perception) As a point of clarification, when reference is made to the color of energy, not only the visible light spectrum is intended but the nonvisible frequency bands as well; X rays, gamma rays, ultraviolet, infrared, and microwave bands are included in this category. When clairvoyants see the auric field, they may be "reading" one or more of these frequency bands.

UCLA research by Valerie Hunt: vibration and color correlated directly. Furthermore, our equipment was able to measure seven (and there may be more) harmonics or varying frequency bands of (sound, vibration, and) color of each chakra.

Hunt discovered that the electrodes of the electromyograph could pick up another field of energy radiating from the body, much subtler and smaller in amplitude than the traditionally recognized body electricites but with frequencies that averaged between 100 and 1600 cps, and which sometimes went even higher. Moreover, instead of emanating from the brain, heart, or muscles, the field was strongest in the areas of the body associated with the chakras.

When an aura reader saw a particular color in a person's energy field, that electromyograph always picked up a specific pattern of frequencies that Hunt learned to associate with that color. Hunt was able to see this pattern on an oscilloscope.

The normal frequency range for electrical activity in the brain is between 0 and 100 cps, most of which is between 0 and 30. Muscle frequency goes up to 225 cps, and heart up to 250 cps. There is also a more subtle frequency with smaller amplitude between 100 and 1600 cps, and sometimes even higher. This field was strongest in the areas of the chakras. Hunt found correlations between auric colors and certain frequencies. Certain talents corresponded to certain frequencies. Material-oriented people have frequencies in the lower range. People who are psychic or who have healing abilities have added frequencies in the 400-800 cps range. People who can go into a trance and channel other information sources through them skip the psychic frequencies and operate in the 800-900 cps range. Frequencies above 900 cps are what Hunt calls mystical personalities. While trance mediums can channel, mystic personalities know what to do with the information. They often have both psychic and trance abilities. Some individuals have frequencies as high as 200,000 cps. These energy fields came in clumps and patches, seemingly fluctuating randomly. The very high frequencies alone showed "the most dynamic chaos pattern you ever saw."

This may be the first true chaos pattern to be found in a major electrobiological system. The pattern appeared after only four seconds of analysis, suggesting that the human energy field is far richer in information and possesses a far more complex and dynamic organization than even the brain.

Recently researchers have found chaos patterns in EEG recordings of the brain, but they needed many minutes of data from numerous electrodes to obtain such a pattern. Hunt obtained a chaos pattern from three to four seconds of data recorded by one electrode, suggesting that the human energy field is far richer in information and possesses a far more complex and dynamic organization than even the electrical activity of the brain.

The most exciting study I have seen on the human aura was done by Dr. Valorie Hunt and others at UCLA. In a study of the effects of rolfing on the body and psyche ("A Study of Structural Neuromuscular Energy Field and Emotional Approached"), she recorded the frequency of low millivoltage signals from the body during a series of rolfing sessions. To make these recordings she used elementary electrodes made of silver/silver chloride placed on the skin. Simultaneously, with the recording of the electronic signals, Rev. Rosalyn Bruyere of the Healing Light Center, Glendale, California, observed the auras of both the rolfer and the person being rolfed. Her comments were recorded on the same tape recorder as the electronic data. She gave a running report of the color, size and energy movements of the chakras and auric clouds involved...

Consistent wave forms and frequencies correlated specifically with the colors Rev. Bruyere reported. in other words, when Rev. Bruyere observed blue in the aura at any specific location, the electronic measurements would always show the characteristic blue wave form and frequency in the same locations...

Blue: 250-275 Hz plus 1200 Hz

Green: 250-475 Hz

Yellow: 500-700 Hz

Orange: 950-1050 Hz

Red: 1000-1200 Hz

Violet: 1000-1200, plus 300-400; 600-800 Hz

White: 1100-2000 Hz

These frequency bands, except for the extra bands at blue and violet, are in reverse order of rainbow color sequence.

It is the self that looks outward. It is the self that you call egotistically aware. The inner self became what I refer to as the inner ego. It looks into that inner reality, that psychic dimension of awareness from which both your own consciousness and your body consciousness emerged...

These portions, however, are intimately connected. They are like three different systems of consciousness operating together to form the whole. The divisions- the seeming divisions- are not stationary, but change constantly.

These three systems of consciousness NOTE: inner self, waking consciousness, and body consciousness operate in one way or another in all of the species, and in all particles, in the physical universe... The proportions of the three systems might vary, but they are always in operation... The inner self represents your prime identity, the self you really are...

Seth: The inner ego, or unconscious mind, is another term for the inner self. It has access to a huge library of knowledge (the collective unconscious). The outer ego is spoonfed- given only that information, including feelings and emotions, that it can handle. This information is usually in the form of data picked up by the physical senses. Matter, in short, is the shape that basic experience takes when the inner ego projects into the three-dimensional world. The conscious mind can see into inner reality once it understands that it is possible to do so and rids itself of unnecessary limitations. A broader focus is available to the outer ego when and if the ego learns to handle it. The soul is not a closed system. The inner ego is itself a projection of a still higher consciousness... There are no real divisions to the self.

The outer ego performs in the world at the direction of our inner ego because you are learning to translate energy and ideas into experience. In your system of reality you are learning what mental energy is, and how to use it. You do this by constantly transforming your thoughts and emotions into physical form.

The true unconscious is not unconscious. Instead, it is so profoundly and unutteringly conscious that it bubbles over. The life that you know is simple; one of the many areas in which it is conscious. In each facet of its consciousness, literally tremendous power and balance must be maintained to hold aloft this particular consciousness-experience from all others.

Your reality exists in a particular area of activity in which aggressive qualities, thrusting-outward characteristics, are supremely necessary to prevent a falling back into the infinite possibilities from which you have only lately emerged. Yet from this unconscious bed of possibilities you derive your strength, your creativity, and the fragile yet powerful kind of individual consciousness that is your own. The two-sex division was adopted, separating and balancing these most necessary but seemingly opposing tendencies.

The soul is not a unit that is definable. It is instead an undefinable quality. It cannot be broken down or built up, destroyed or expanded, yet it can change affiliation and organization, and its characteristics, while ever remaining itself.

NOTE: This is good, but Blavatsky is DENSE and difficult to understand.

We say that the two sources of 'memory' are in these two 'principles'. These two we distinguish as the Higher Manas (Mind or Ego), and the Kama-Manas, i.e., the rational, but earthly or physical intellect of man, incased in, and bound by, matter, therefore subject to the influence of the latter: the all-conscious Self, that which reincarnates periodically... and which is always the same, while its reflected 'Double', changing with every new incarnation and personality, is, therefore, conscious but for a life-period. The latter 'principle' is the Lower Self, or that which, manifesting through our organic system, acting on this plane of illusion, imagines itself the Ego Sum, and thus falls into what the Buddhist philosophy brands as the 'heresy of separateness'. The former we term Individuality, the latter Personality...

The 'Higher Ego' cannot act directly on the body, as its consciousness belongs to quite another plane and planes of ideation: the 'lower' Self does: and its action and behavior depend on its free-will and choice as to whether it will gravitate more towards its parent ('The Father in Heaven') or the 'animal' which it informs, the man of flesh. The 'Higher Ego', as part of the essence of the Universal Mind, is unconditionally omniscient on its own plane, and only potentially so in our terrestrial sphere, as it has to act solely through its alter ego- the Personal Self. Now, although the former is the vehicle of all knowledge of the past, the present, and the future, and although it is from this fountainhead that its 'double' catches occasional glimpses of that which is beyond the senses of man, and transmits them to certain brain cells (unknown to science in their functions), thus making of man a Seer, a soothsayer, and a prophet; yet the memory of bygone events- especially of the earth earthy- has its seat in the Personal Ego alone. No memory of a purely daily-life function, of the physical, egotistical, or of a lower mental nature- such as, e.g., eating and drinking, enjoying personal sensual pleasures, transacting business to the detriment of one's neighbor, etc., etc., has aught to do with the 'Higher' Mind or Ego.

There are three basic levels of self: personality, essence (or soul), and spark.

Our personality is our outermost level; it is who we are for this lifetime only. It is a composite of physical, mental, and emotional traits and is influenced by such factors as overleaves, body type, heredity, imprinting...

Our essence animates our personality, providing our spiritual component. It is the part of us that continues from lifetime to lifetime on the physical plane, as well as through the six higher planes of creation in the universe. It is influenced by factors such as role, cadence position, entity, frequency, male/female energy ratio, and many others. Our essence develops from what we learn in all our earth lifetimes and our periods between lifetimes, the "astral interval." When our personality integrates lessons from our present lifetime, they become a part of our essence's knowledge.

Our spark animates our essence. It is our core, the part of us that is a unit of consciousness of the Tao, which is also referred to as the "All That Is" or the "Ground of All Being." The Tao is the source from which the universe springs. Our spark develops from what we learn in all our experiences in the universe. When our essence integrates the experiences of our series of earth lifetimes, as well as our higher-plane experiences, they become part of our sparks knowledge.

Our spark created our essence to enable us to express ourselves in the universe. Our essence, in turn, created our personality to enable us to express ourselves specifically on the physical plane.

The essence is the intrinsic core of the soul. Essence mainly means the abstract aspects of self resonating with the three cardinal planes. These could be called our buddhaic, messianic, and mental selves. The essence is in the dimensional universe rather than the Tao, which is undimensional, it is beyond time and space. It could be contrasted with the concrete aspects of self, those that resonate with the ordinal planes and are influenced by time. These could be called our physical, astral, and causal selves. Our ordinal levels of self could be viewed as clothing or expressing our cardinal levels, just as our essence itself clothes our spark, our personality clothes our astral self. Our astral self, which has direct contact with our body and leaves our body at death and sometimes during sleep, could be specifically designated as our soul. It contains our reincarnational selves.

"What makes the agreements is your astral self...which is mostly in essence, and the vestiges of personalities. Agreements are not made by essence." - Messages From Michael

The soul is created from essence, as its vehicle into the physical body. The emergence of the essence transforms the personal self.

Atman, the Self, has four conditions.

The first condition is the waking life of outward-moving consciousness, enjoying the seven outer gross elements.

The second condition is the dreaming life of inner-moving consciousness, enjoying the seven subtle inner elements in its own light and solitude.

The third condition is the sleeping life of the silent consciousness when a person has no desires and beholds no dreams. That condition of deep sleep is one of oneness, a mass of silent consciousness made of peace and enjoying peace.

This silent consciousness is all-powerful, all-knowing, the inner ruler, the source of all, the beginning and end of all beings.

The fourth condition is Atman in his own pure state: the awakened life of supreme consciousness... He is Atman, the Spirit himself, that cannot be seen or touched, that is above all distinction, beyond thought and ineffable. In the union with him is the supreme proof of his reality...

This Atman is the eternal Word OM. It's three sounds, A, U, and M, are the first three states of consciousness...

The word OM as one sound is the fourth state of supreme consciousness. It is beyond the senses and is the end of evolution. It is non-duality and love.

Because the Soul Body is our primary body, our Soul survives the death of our physical body...

"The wonder of this revelation continues to echo and re-echo down through the years of my life: its memory lingers undimmed, beyond worldly skepticism, beyond intellectual doubt and argument, and beyond religious dogma."

The soul stands between the present and the permanent... It preserves the present for remembrance...

Through the body, we belong to the physical human genus; we are members of this genus. With our spirit, we live in a higher world. The soul binds the two worlds together for a while.

Your soul body is very beautiful, is perfect in every way- strong, healthy, harmonious, pure, radiant, glorious; for it is your real body, in which you really live and where you always are at night when sleep frees you from your physical body consciousness. It is so because I am there, because I created it as My habitation in the beginning, and because I dwell in it as your Self and therefore You when there are one with Me, and consequently are perfect now, even as I am perfect.

Angels: "The spirit is not confined by linear space and time. It is never separated from the source of all creation and is, therefore, forever perfect and pure and whole- at one with God. The soul is that part of the spirit that takes on an individualized form. This form is seemingly separate from the whole.

The Spirit of man has two dwellings: this world and the world beyond. There is also a third dwelling place: the land of sleep and dreams. Resting in this borderland the Spirit of man can behold his dwelling in this world and in the other world afar, and wandering in this borderland he beholds behind him the sorrows of this world and in front of him he sees the joys of the beyond.

Among the Zulus, traditional thinking makes a distinction between the physical form of the manifestation, the physical body (inyama), and a nonphysical form of manifestation (isithunzi). The word sithunzi literally means "shadow." This isithunzi is said to have a likeness to the physical body- to be its "double"- and is held to survive physical death as the "vehicle" of the individual's "spirit"- (umoya). The isithunzi is also said to be separable from the physical body during life.

In truth there is only one under three aspects or phases: the most material portion disappearing with the body; the middle one surviving both as an independent but temporary entity in the land of shadows; the third, immortal.

Two people have been living in you: the ego and the wise guide. The wise guide is the hidden spiritual being, whose still voice of wisdom you have rarely listened to. Your guide can also be a continual, joyful, tender, and sometimes teasing presence, who knows always what is best for you and will help you find more ways out of your obsession with habits and confused emotions.

Our buddha nature has an active inner teacher, who works tirelessly for us, trying to bring us back to the radiance and spaciousness of our true being.

Hilgard: In a study involving age regression and hypnosis, adult subjects were asked to go back to childhood and experience being five years old. This experience takes two different forms. In one form the subject becomes completely absorbed in the experience of being a child again, while in the second form the subject becomes a child again in a manner that feels convincing, but in addition there is an observer present.

Campbell: The hidden observer proved to be superior, in many ways, to the conscious individual inside whom it was hidden; more mature, more realistic and logical, and in possession of more information.

The Supersoul fulfills the desire of the soul as one friend fulfills the desire of another. The Vedas, such as the Mundaka Upanishad, as well as the Svetasvatara Upanishad, confirm this concept of two kinds of souls by comparing them to two friendly birds sitting on the same tree. One of the birds (the individual atomic soul) is eating the fruit of the tree, and the other bird is simply watching his friend. Of these two birds, although they are the same in quality, one is captivated by the fruits of the material tree, while the other is simply witnessing his activities. Krishna is the witnessing bird, and Arjuna is the eating bird. Although they are friends, one is still the master, and the other is the servant. Forgetfulness of this relationship by the atomic soul is the cause of one's changing his position from one tree to another, or from one body to another... As soon as he agrees to accept the other bird as the supreme spiritual master... the subordinate bird immediately becomes free from all lamentations.

Whenever we speak of life we are talking of a stupendous Intelligence, pervading every nook and corner of the universe, which at every moment of our lives reads our thoughts and knows precisely all about our actions even before we have formulated or performed them. We are merely the tiny droplets of an ocean which every moment supplies and controls the whole thinking of humankind.

There is a natural fount of wisdom in all of us which, alas, oversophistication, faulty education, crazy ideas imbibed from books and foolish indoctrination depletes or destroys.

Jump in and trust your inner guide. The purity of your own yearning and of the methods you follow will show you the way.

Your attachments lead you to seek outside of yourself for answers that can only come from your own heart. Each time you lose contact with that inner awareness, you need only meditate.

Your soul knows everything- past, present, and future. It knows Who You Are, and Who You Seek to Be. It knows Me, intimately, because it is the part of Me that is closest to you.

The physical body has a certain dim consciousness of its own, quite apart from that of the real self, and apart also from the mere aggregate of the consciousness of its individual cells.

When watching the extraction of a tooth under the influence of gas. The body uttered a confused cry, and raised its hands vaguely towards the mouth, clearly showing that it to some extent felt the wrench; yet when the ego resumed possession twenty seconds later, he declared that he had felt absolutely nothing of the operation. "Reflex action" is a mere phrase and explains nothing whatever.

This strange, dim consciousness has many remarkable peculiarities. Its action seems to a be to a great extent automatic, and the results are usually incoherent, senseless, and hopelessly confused. It seems unable to apprehend an idea except in the form of a scene in which it is itself an actor, and therefore all stimuli, whether from within or without, are forthwith translated into perceptual images. It is incapable of grasping abstract ideas or memories as such; they immediately become imaginary percepts. If the idea of glory could be suggested to that consciousness, it could take shape only as a vision of some glorious being appearing before the dreamer.

As the body became physical, however, the inner self formed the body consciousness so that the physical body became more aware of itself, of the environment, and of its relationship within the environment. Before this could happen, though, the body consciousness was taught to become aware of its own inner environment. The body was lovingly formed from EE units through all the stages to atoms, cells, organs, and so forth...

To that body consciousness the inner self gives "its own body of physical knowledge," the vast reservoir of physical achievement that it has triumphantly produced... [The body] possesses its own system of consciousness that to some extent, now is separated from what you think of as your own normal consciousness. The body's consciousness is hardly to be considered less than your own, or as inferior to that of your inner self, since it represents knowledge from the inner self, and is a part of the inner self's own consciousness- the part delegated to the body.

[Each cell] is aware of the position, health, vitality, of all other cells on the face of the planet. It is aware of the position of each grain of sand on the shores of each ocean, and in those terms it forms a portion of the earth's consciousness.

At that level environment, creatures, and the elements of the natural world are all united...Your intellect as you think of it operates so clearly and precisely, so logically, sometimes so arrogantly, because the intellect rides that great thrust of codified, "ancient" "unconscious" power- the power of instant knowing that is a characteristic of the body consciousness...

So once again the inner self put a portion of its consciousness in a different parcel, so to speak. As once it had formed the body consciousness, now it formed a physically attuned consciousness.

NOTE: Seth is really quite difficult to grasp

The volatile awareness-consciousness that exist independently of matter, form matter according to their ability and degree. The fetus, therefore, has its own consciousness, the simple component consciousness made up of the atoms that compose it. This exists before any reincarnating personality enters it. The consciousness of matter is present in any matter- a fetus, a rock, a blade of grass, a nail.

Under certain conditions, therefore, the body can maintain itself while the "main consciousness" is away from it... At certain levels of the sleep state this does in fact happen. In sleepwalking the body is active, but the main consciousness is not "awake"...

Let us look for a moment at the body consciousness.

It is equipped, as an animal is, to perform beautifully in its environment. You would call it mindless, since it would seem not to reason. For the purpose of this discussion alone, imagine a body with a fully operating body consciousness, not diseased for any reason or defective by birth, but one without the overriding ego-directed consciousness that you have. There have been species of such a nature. In your terms they would seem to be like sleepwalkers, yet their physical abilities surpassed yours. They were indeed as agile as animals- nor were they unconscious. They simply dealt with a different kind of awareness...

Their main points of consciousness were elsewhere, in another kind of reality, while their physical manifestations were separate. Their primary focuses of consciousness were scarcely aware of the bodies they had created. Yet even those bodies learned "through experience," and began to "awaken," to become aware of themselves, to discover time, or to create it...

Don: "What is the body without the soul?"

Dr. Peebles: "It is nothing. There can be temporal movement, experience, excitement, as an electrical charge, through a body that is not inhabited. However, it is very temporary, and it extinguishes itself; the life force is gone...

"The entire experience of intelligence comes from the soul...

"The physical brain... holds information... Memories can be held and located in the brain. The brain is also a translator for language... it is a vehicle to help you integrate."

The physical body is our ability to have a focus in time and space... Wherever we deal with the physical body, there's always an urgency or impulsiveness to it. That is why the Buddhists say the body is the here and now.

Every local direction of though becomes for it an absolute spatial transportation. If during our waking hours we think of China or Japan, our thought is at once, as it were, in those countries; but nevertheless we are perfectly aware that our physical bodies are exactly where they were a moment before. In the condition of consciousness which we are considering, any passing thought suggesting China and Japan could image itself only as an actual, instantaneous transportation to those countries, and the dreamer would suddenly find himself there, surrounded by as much of the appropriate circumstance as he happened to be able to remember.

While startling transitions of this sort are extremely frequent in dreams, the sleeper never seems at the time to feel any surprise at their suddenness. In the mere consciousness of the physical brain there is nothing capable of such a feeling as surprise – it simply perceives the pictures as they appear before it; it has no power to judge either of the sequence or of their lack of that quality.

NOTE: This is important for dreams!

Another source of the extraordinary confusion visible in this half-consciousness is the manner in which the law of the association of ideas works in it. We are all familiar with the wonderful instantaneous action of this law in waking life; we know how a chance word – a strain of music – even the scent of a flower – may be sufficient to bring back to the mind a chain of long-forgotten memories.

Now in the sleeping brain this law is as active as ever, but it acts under curious limitations; every such association of ideas, whether abstract or concrete, becomes a mere combination of images. Naturally enough a succession of such pictures is rarely perfectly recoverable by memory, since there is no order to help in recovery.

Another peculiarity of this curious consciousness of the brain is, that while singularly sensitive to the slightest external influences, such as sounds or touches, it yet magnifies and distorts them to an almost incredible degree.

Among the stories most commonly told is one of a man who magnified the prick of a pin into a fatal stab received in a duel; another translated a slight pinch into the bite of a wild beast.

The physical body has a certain blind instinctive consciousness of its own, which we sometimes call the physical elemental. This consciousness seeks always to protect its body from danger, or to procure for it whatever may be necessary. This is entirely apart from the consciousness of the man himself, and it works equally well during the absence of the ego from the physical body during sleep. It is through its activity that the working of the sympathetic system is carried on.

While we are what we call awake, this physical elemental is perpetually occupied in self-defense - he is in a condition of constant vigilance, and he keeps the nerves and muscles always tense. During the night or at any time when we sleep, he lets the nerves and muscles relax, and devotes himself specially to the assimilation of vitality and the recuperation of the physical body. He works at this most successfully during the early part of the night, because then there is plenty of vitality, whereas immediately before the dawn the vitality is almost complete exhausted. This is the reason for the feeling of limpness and deadness associated with the small hours of the morning.

This vitality is indeed the food of the etheric double.

When you feel your consciousness withdrawing, the first step is this: Forget the physical body or what you are to do with it. Its maintenance is being controlled by the consciousness of the individual cells and organs of which I have spoken.

There sure enough was my body apparently still asleep on the bed but even as we stood looking at it, I noticed that it moved and turned from one side on to its back. My guide pointed this out to me and explained that, subconsciously, it was beginning to realize that the time had nearly arrived for it to wake up again, that within a few minutes an SOS would be sent out and, even if I were ten thousand miles away, I should have to return immediately.

For many years, Reichian therapists have been documenting conscious memory patterns in specific muscle groups in the body. NOTE: pictures in the aura They have found that they can alleviate specific psychological conditions by manipulating particular pressure points on the body...

Through suppression, the painful memory doesn't enter into consciousness. It remains unrealized, or "subconscious." If that memory continue to be suppressed, often it will manifest as a psychosomatic NOTE: astral body illness. Edgar Cayce said that karma, which is our actions from the past, is the source of all disease in the physical body.

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John: "When there are voids in the emotional structure, or blockages of harmony in the physical body, there is slippage in the muscular structure, both upon the physiological and physical levels, and even misalignment of the muscle tendons themselves.

Some transplant patients report an uncanny experience after receiving a donated kidney, liver, or heart. Without knowing who the organ donor was, they begin to participate in his memories... In one instance, a woman woke up after a heart transplant craving beer and [fast food]; she was very surprised, because she had never before wanted either. After she began to have mysterious dreams in which a young man named Timmy came to her, she tracked down the donor of her new heart, which had come from the victim of a fatal traffic accident; when she contacted his family, it turned out that the victim was a young man named Timmy. The woman was stunned to discover that he'd had a particular fondness for drinking beer and had been killed on his way home from [the restaurant that makes that fast food].

NOTE: The last shock memories

In one regression a young woman was being burned at the stake for her beliefs while the whole town watched... As the flames leaped higher, she decided she would not give them the satisfaction of seeing her suffer. So she left the body and watched from a hovering position above the scene. There, much to her chagrin and aggravation, she saw her body screaming as it went through the agonies of burning to death.

NOTE: She leaves her body during a painful labor

She was shocked to see how contorted her facial features appeared. "At first I thought I must have died, but then the body on the bed below began to thrash about wildly and let out a terrible cry of pain."

Arnold: "Just then a spasm of pain doubled me over, and the reflex action seemed to shoot the thinking part of me up to the ceiling. I thought, 'Oh, no! I wanted to be able to escape the pain, but I didn't want to die!'"

Arnold was completely astonished. He could actually see his mother fussing about, and he could clearly perceive himself tossing about on the bed, moaning and groaning.

"My body seemed to be like some kind of puppet, just going through the motions of awful sickness. But I- the Real Me- could no longer feel a thing. Incredibly, the pain remained down below with my physical body on the bed.

"Then I started feeling kind of ashamed about the way my physical body was behaving like such a baby, I mean, the pain was awful and all; but I was whimpering and moaning like a wimp. I decided that I really should go back and act like a man."

And just like that, Arnold said that he was back in his physical body and howling in pain.

"If it hurt so bad to be in my body- and there was absolutely no pain when I was outside of my body- then it didn't take a genius like me very long to decide where I wanted to be."

Arnold was surprised to discover how quickly the Real Arnold was able to be back up floating near the ceiling.

Kundalini means "coiled up." Bioenergy said to lie latent at the base of the spine can be activated under certain circumstances. It then travels up the spine. As it travels, it activates chakras and may induce explosive and destabalizing energy transformations that are experienced both psychologically and physically. The initial experience is one of supreme rapture. It throws the nervous system into overdrive, activating its latent potentials and permitting the individual to experience the world and perform in it in extraordinary fashion. The activation of this energy is responsible for genius, psychic abilities, and varieties of mystical and religious experience. This energy is responsible for humanity's evolution towards higher consciousness. This is called the kundalini hypothesis. In full kundalini awakenings, what is experienced is significantly similar to the experiences of NDErs. The aftereffects of these awakenings seem to lead to individual transformations indistinguishable from those of NDErs. Yoga is designed to arouse kundalini deliberately through a combination of postures, breath control, and meditation upon the chakras.

Kundalini lies asleep in the normal person, coiled three and a half times round the lowest triangular end of the spine.

Kundalini, a Sanskrit word meaning "circular power," is an individual's basic evolutionary force. Each of us is born with some of this energy already flowing. The amount available and usable determines whether a person has low intelligence, is a genius, or is somewhere in the middle...

The Kundalini energy lies coiled at the base of the spine.

This is the path of the chakras, with Kundalini as the "force" of consciousness.

This extraordinary activity of the nervous system and brain is present in varying degrees in all cases of supernormal spiritual and psychic development, in a lesser measure in all cases of genius, in a still diminished form in all men and women of exceptionally high intellectual caliber, and in a morbid manner, when too violent and sudden or operative through a wrong nerve, in many kinds of insanity, neurosis, and other obscure and difficult to cure nervous and mental afflictions.

Its principal function in connection with occult development is that, by being sent through the force-centres in the etheric body, it quickens these chakras and makes them more fully available as gates of connection between the physical and astral bodies. When the pituitary body is brought into working order it forms a perfect link with the astral vehicle, so that through it all communications from within can be received.

As [the kundalini] rises and descends, She changes the internal order of the personal matrix, each time allowing a greater perception of the whole.

One purpose of Kundalini is to cleanse and refine the body cells so that higher mental and spiritual energies can operate in the system.

The energy not only has an evolutionary purpose, it literally gives us extra energy. The body may draw from it (without our conscious knowledge) to handle extreme situations. Often, when such situations conclude, the flow continues and the person does not handle things well; the person deals now with excessive kundalini release as well as the original trauma.

Its natural flow is up the spine and out the top of the head: along that path it brings new awareness, new abilities, and transcendental states.

Kundalini is itself invisible; but in the human body it clothes itself in a curious nest of hollow concentric spheres of astral and etheric matter, one within another. There appear to be seven such concentric spheres resting within the root chakra, but only in the outermost of these spheres is the force active in the ordinary man. In the others it is "sleeping", as is said in some of the Oriental books. The harmless fire of the outer skin of the ball flows up the spinal column, using the three lines of Sushumna, Ida and Pingala simultaneously.

This fire exists in seven layers or seven degrees of force, and it often happens that a man who exerts his will in the effort to arouse it may succeed in affecting one layer only, and so when he thinks that he has done the work he may find it ineffective, and may have to do it all over again many times, digging gradually deeper and deeper, until not only the surface is stirred but the very heart of the fire is in full activity.

There are many layers of Kundalini waiting to be released. The action is similar to peeling off the outer edges of an onion. A person can release a few or many layers during a lifetime.

But kundalini plays a much larger part in daily life than most of us have hitherto supposed; there is a far lower and gentler manifestation of it, which is already awake within us all, which is not only innocuous but beneficent, which is doing its appointed work day and night while we are entirely unconscious of its presence and activity.

As the stems of all the chakras thus start from the spinal cord, this force naturally flows down those stems into the flower-bells, where it meets the incoming stream of the divine life, and the pressure set up by that encounter causes the radiation of the mingled forces horizontally along the spokes of the chakra.

The surfaces of the streams of the primary force and the kundalini grind together at this point, as they revolve in opposite directions and considerable pressure is caused. This has been symbolized as the "marriage" of the divine life, which is vividly male, to the kundalini, which is always considered as distinctively feminine, and the compound energy which results vivifies the plexuses; it flows along all the nerves of the body and is principally responsible for keeping up its temperature.

When the two forces combine as mentioned above there is a certain interlocking of some of the respective molecules. The primary force seems capable of occupying several different kinds of etheric form; that which it most commonly adopts is an octahedron, made of four atoms (not a chemical atom, but the basic type of matter in the highest sub-plane of each plane of nature) arranged in a square, with one central atom constantly vibrating up and down through the middle. It also sometimes uses a exceedingly active little molecule consisting of three atoms. The kundalini usually clothes itself in a flat ring of seven atoms, while the vitality globule, which also consists of seven atoms arranges them on a plane not unlike that of the primary force, except that it forms a hexagon instead of a square.

NOTE: detailed form diagrams, page 36

The creation of the chakras is made by the intersection of these two forces. Each chakra has a different balance between them.

Movement and flow along these nadis are responsible for the spinning of the chakras. Generally the chakras alternate between clockwise spins at each step. The motion, in opposite directions around both sides of the center, causes the chakra to spin.

The concepts of yin and yang also apply to the chakras themselves. Chakra number one is yang. Chakra two is yin, thus encompassing more of the "feminine" qualities associated with receptivity, emotions and nurturance.

The chakras are located where the ida and the pingala cross. The ida and the pingala originate in the base chakra and terminate in the sixth chakra. The pingala is white and carries solar energy and the forces of the day. This energy moves our consciousness upward toward the rational. The ida is black and carries lunar energy and the forces of the night. Its downward movement takes us into the unconscious, the source of regeneration, creativity and intuition. It is only with the awakening of enlightenment that the energy flows fully and completely up the central channel, the susumna. When this happens, the chakras reverse their orientation from downward and outward to upward and inward.

The astral spinal energy, like its etheric counterpart, rises from the chakra at the base of the spine and flows upward to the medulla oblongata in three streams which correspond with the ida, pingala, and sushumna. DVK has described theses as follows: The stream on the right side of the astral spine rises from the right side of the core of the chakra at the base of the spine and flows upward to the back of the head in a stream approximately one centimeter in width. Its color is pale blue (whereas the etheric counterpart is blue-green). The stream on the left side of the spine duplicates that on the right, but its color is pink (whereas the etheric is a darker yellow-red). The energy which flows through the central portion of the astral spine arises from the very heart of the base spinal chakra, moves upward and bifurcates at the area near the medulla oblongata, at which point the two divisions cross each other, the energy on the right going to the left brain, and that on the left to the right brain. This central spinal stream is brighter than the other two streams, opalescent and many-colored, with a great deal of yellow and orange. If it is very bright with a predominance of yellow, this indicates a state of health.

With respect to the brain, at the astral level the energy is structured differently from the etheric, and there appears to be some connection between the cerebellum, the pineal gland and the crown chakra. There is normally a tremendous amount of energy in the brain at the astral level.

There is a subtle channel that runs along the right side of the spine known as the pingala. This contains the upward directed, hot, bright, positive, yang, masculine, solar energy.

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Ida is the subtle channel that moves along the left side of the spine. The ida contains the downward directed, cool, dark, negative, yin, feminine, lunar energy.

"It is by passing up through this channel of the Sushumna that a yogi leaves his physical body at will in such a manner that he can retain full consciousness on higher planes, and bring back into his physical brain a clear memory of his experiences." -(The Hidden Life in Freemasonry I)

The channel Pingala is almost wholly masculine, whereas that rising through the channel Ida is almost wholly feminine.

The second differentiation which takes place during the passage of this force up the spine is that it becomes intensely impregnated with the personality of the man. It seems to enter at the bottom as a very general force, and to issue forth at the top as definitely this particular man's.

The sushumna brings psychic energy from pure consciousness (God, Goddess, The Force, Divine Mind, Nature, etc.) to the mental and physical individual here on the Earth plane.

A dynamic network of subtle channels (nadi), "winds" or inner air (prana), and essences (bindu). There are 72,000 subtle channels in the body, but three principal ones: the central channel, running parallel to the spine, and the right and left channels, which run either side of it. The right and left channels coil around the central one at a number of points to form a series of "knots." Along the central channel are situated a number of "channel wheels," the chakras or energy centers, from which channels branch off like the ribs of an umbrella. Through these channels flow the winds, or prana. There are five root and five branch winds. Each of the root winds supports an element and is responsible for a function of the human body. The branch winds enable the senses to operate. The winds that flow through all the channels except the central one are said to be impure and activate negative, dualistic thought patterns; the winds in the central channel are called "wisdom winds."

The "essences" are contained within the channels. There are red and white essences. The principal seat of the white essence is the crown of the head, and of the red essence at the navel.

In the ancient Sanskrit language of the fully enlightened, this process of growth of consciousness is described as the ecstatic union of Kundalini Sakti with her divine lover, Siva. Sakti sleeps in the first chakra at the base of the spine; Siva lives Alone in the Crown. When enlightenment dawns, Sakti rises from the base and marries Siva in the crown; they then move together to dwell forever in the heart.

Siva is the unlimited whole, Sakti is the ongoing convergence of parts that make up the whole; Siva is transcendent and changeless, Sakti is phenomenal and mutable.

The seventh chakra, is related to the original transcendental union of Siva and Sakti. In the sixth chakra, Sakti separates from Siva and creates the mind and the intellect. The five remaining chakras, located from the neck to the pelvis, represents the five stages of progressive crystallization of the Ascendant into matter.

The male principle, Shiva, is identified with pure unmanifest consciousness. He represents bliss and is represented as a formless being, deep in meditation.

Shakti, the female counterpart to this inactive consciousness, is the life giver. She is the entire creation and mother of the universe.

It is through union with Shakti that the consciousness of Shiva may descend and embody the universe (Shakti) with Divine Consciousness.

Each of these deities has a tendency to move toward the other.

Chakras exist in many dimensions simultaneously, and as such, are a point of entry into those dimensions. In the realm of the physical, they are areas of the body and can be measured as patterns of electromagnetic activity, centered around the major nerve ganglia.

In all dimensions, chakras are a kind of vortex- a significant gathering point of organized life energy.

In metaphysical terminology, a chakra is a vortex. The scientific definition of a vortex describes chakras as well: a mass of fluid with a whirling circular motion, forming a cavity or vacuum in the center which draws toward itself bodies subject to this action. Anything the chakras encounters on its particular vibrational level gets drawn into the chakra, processed, and passed out again.

The spinning is the vibratory pattern of the chakra.

Like Brennan, Carol Dryer, who makes her living as a psychic, can adjust her vision and see the chakras.

"Vortices of energy at certain points along the spine, connected with or influencing the endocrine system."

A chakra is a series of wheel-like vortices which exist in the surface of the etheric double of man.

The chakras or force-centres are points of connection at which energy flows from one vehicle or body of a man to another. In the etheric double, they show themselves as saucer-like depressions, or vortices in its surface. When quite undeveloped they appear as small circles about two inches in diameter, glowing dully in the ordinary man; but when awakened and vivified they are seen as blazing, coruscating whirlpools, much increased in size, and resembling miniature suns. The etheric double projects slightly beyond the outline of the dense body. The stalk of the flower in each springs from a point in the spine, so another view might show the spine as a central stem.

In Indian literature the chakras have been referred to as lotuses because of their flower-like form, and because they have a central root or stem which connects them energetically to the spine and nervous system.

The colors, which vary from chakra to chakra also glow in a way that contributes to their flower-like appearance. In a healthy person, the chakras' forms are beautifully balanced, symmetrical and organic, with all the parts flowing together in a rhythmic pattern.

John: "The seven chakras are common to all cultures, all expressions. In Judeo-Christian systems of thought, they are referred to as the Tree of Life. They are the Seven Churches of the Book of Revelations. They are the wheels of the Eastern systems of thought. They are the Seven Serpents of the Quetzalcoatl mythology."

These seven force-centres are frequently described in Sanskrit literature, in some of the minor Upanishads, in the Puranas and in Tantric works.

European mystics were acquainted with the chakras.

[Diane] can see the physical organs of the body and any pathology or disturbance in function...

She observes a "vital or energy body or field" which sub-stands the dense physical body, interpenetrating it like a sparkling web of light beams... Within this energy body or pattern of frequencies she observes eight major vortices of force and many smaller vortices. As she describes it, energy moves in and out of these vortices, which look like spiral cones. Seven of these major vortices are directly related to the different glands of the body... The spiral cones of energy that make up these vortices may be fast or slow, rhythmical or jerky. She sometimes sees breaks in the energy pattern. Each major vortex as she describes it more minutely is made up of a number of lesser spiral cones of energy and each major vortex differs in the number of these spiral cones

NOTE: Like Leadbeater's picture.

Each major chakra on the front of the body is paired with its counterpart on the back of the body, and together they are considered to be the front and rear aspect of one chakra. The frontal aspects are related to the person's feelings, the rear ones to her or his will...

Each of the seven chakras has seven layers, each corresponding to a layer of the auric field. Each chakra looks different on each of these fields...

Acupuncture points look like little vortexes of energy or tiny chakras.

As a system, the seven chakras describe an incremental spectrum between matter and consciousness. The lower chakras are the most dense.

The upper chakras, then, are the least dense. - WoLiresearcher • modern • Judith

Generally a healthy, functioning chakra will spin or turning a clockwise direction (when we are viewing the front of a person), so that the energy will be drawn upward to the next chakra. (Below the equator, healthy chakras spin counterclockwise.) - WoLclairvoyant • modern • Bruyere

Like lotuses, chakras have "petals," which vary in number from chakra to chakra (from bottom to top: 4,6,10,12,16,2,1000 petals). Like flowers, chakras can be open or closed, dying or budding, depending upon the state of consciousness within.

[p.14-15 awesome pictures of chakra patterns in nature] - WoLiresearcher • modern • Judith

The organ in the vicinity of the larynx has sixteen "petals" or "spokes"; the one near the heart, twelve; and the one near the solar plexus, ten. - HTKHWclairvoyant • modern • Steiner

The spinning of the individual chakras creates energy, the frequency of which determines the color of a particular chakra. The amount of intensity of energy produced by a particular chakra or group of chakras determines the color that dominates the auric field.

Each chakra looks like a vortex of a different color and follows the colors of the rainbow...

Chakra 1 = red

Chakra 2 = red-orange

Chakra 3 = yellow

Chakra 4 = bright grass green

Chakra 5 = sky blue

Chakra 6 = indigo

Chakra 7 = white - HoLclairvoyant • modern • Brennan

Clairvoyant Valerie Hunt: "Chakras frequently carried the colors stated in the metaphysical literature, ie red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, white."

Various yoga texts, describing how the chakras appear, often describe the first chakra as yellow, the second white, the third red, the fourth smoky, the fifth blue with the sixth gold and the seventh lustrous beyond color.

When viewing chakras clairvoyantly, it is equally unlikely that one would see a set of chakras reflecting the above rainbow description, for these are optimum colors occurring in chakras that are fully developed and clear.

From my own experience, it is far more common to see many colors in each chakra, twisting in and out of the chakra and forming patterns and images that relate to that person's life. - WoLiresearcher • modern • Judith

NOTE: polarity input/output One of these relationships is that of polarity. A chakra can be positive or negative. Those chakras that move energy out of the front of the body are called output chakras and have a positive polarity. - WoLclairvoyant • modern • Bruyere

Each chakra has a different pitch, and each person's pitch for a particular chakra is slightly different...

To find the pitch for each chakra, I vary the range a bit until I hit a resonance... When I hit the right pitch, the chakra tenses up and begins to spin rapidly and evenly. It's color brightens up...

An interesting effect of this sounding, which is usually very powerfully felt by the patient, is to increase the patient's ability to visualize... the chakra's color...

Traditional Indian teachings give a Sanskrit letter and a particular sound for each chakra. - HoLclairvoyant • modern • Brennan

The chakras also reveal a person's quality of consciousness and degree of personal development and abilities, through the variations in the etheric centers and their interconnections with those at other levels. In a simple, rather undeveloped person, the chakras will be small in size, slow in movement, dull in color and coarse in texture. In a more intelligent, responsive and sensitive person they will be brighter, of finer texture and with a more rapid movement, and in an awakened individual who makes full use of his powers, they become coruscating whirlpools of color and light.

In any one individual, some chakras may vary in size and brilliance, and this, together with the activity of their interconnections, indicates special talents and abilities. For example, the throat and brow centers of a talented singer of speaker will be much larger than the norm, as well as being brighter, more luminous and more rapidly spinning. In a quite different case the solar plexus center of a trance-medium will be enlarged but of a coarser texture, with dark colors and some dysrhythmia and looseness in the core. In a newborn baby, the chakras are usually about three centimeters in size and look like hard little disks.

The various chakras also indicate the primary emphasis on an individual- the focus of the "I". For example, if a person identifies principally with feelings, the solar plexus and heart center will be more active and prominent than the others. If the brow center is very bright, this indicates a degree of personal integration; if the crown center is especially luminous, it signifies the development of spiritual awareness. The level of activity of the etheric chakras and the degree of sensitivity of their interconnections with their emotional and mental counterparts determine an individual's potential for the development of higher sense perception.

Educating our feelings, thoughts, and moods in the ways indicated fashions an organization in our soul and spirit. Without such training, our soul and spirit remain unstructured masses. In this state, clairvoyant seers perceive them as intertwined, spiraling, cloud-like vortices. These have a dull glow and are generally sensed as reddish and red brown or red-yellow in color. After esoteric training, however, the vortices display an orderly structure and are seen as shinning spiritually in yellow-green or green-blue colors.

The order we create enables us to breathe and see with the soul, and to hear, speak, and so on, with the spirit.

Five of these macro-vortices are located in a line along the spine. There is one at the base of the spine, one approximately midway between the pubic bone and the navel, one at the navel, one at the level of mid-sternum near the heart area and one near the larynx or Adam's apple. There is another macro-vortex on the left side of the body in the area of the spleen and pancreas. This one does not seem to be connected with the spinal pattern of vortices. There are two other macro-vortices, one approximately where the eyebrows meet and one at the top of the head. There is a ninth smaller vortex at the back of the head in the vicinity of the medulla oblongata.

Each of the major vortices which Diane observes has its own characteristic number of spiral cones of energy which form the total macro-vortex. In each case the major vortex as she observes it presents a mandalla pattern.

This seemingly useless appendage... [The pineal gland] is the pendulum which, once the clock-work of the inner man is wound up, carries the spiritual vision of the Ego to the highest planes of perception, where the horizon open before it becomes almost infinite. NOTE: DMT!

The major chakras are situated at:

1. MASTER: Base chakra (base of spine, between anus and genitals)

2. Spleen chakra (slightly below the belly button)

3. Solar Plexus chakra (1 hand-span above the belly button)

4. MASTER: Heart chakra (centre of the chest)

5. Throat chakra (base of throat, above where it joins the chest)

6. Brow chakra (exact centre of forehead)

7. MASTER: Crown chakra (whole top of head above the hairline)

They are best imagined as roughly the size of the palm of your hand, except for the crown chakra which is much larger...

The chakras are attached to the spinal cord and nervous system via certain glands and nerve ganglia. The full chakra system is extremely complex. There are 3 master, 4 major and over 300 minor chakras in the human body. There are also several non-physical chakras situated outside of the body. Detailed maps of the chakra system and their connecting meridians and pathways, have been used for thousands of years in Eastern mysticism and medicine, i.e., acupuncture.

The further we advance in soul development, the more regularly structured our soul organism becomes. To the clairvoyant it looks like an independent body, containing certain organs. These organs may be seen spiritually in the following areas of the physical body: the first, between the eyes; the second, near the larynx; the third, in the region of the heart; the fourth, in the neighborhood of the pit of the stomach or solar plexus; and the fifth and the sixth, in the lower abdomen or reproductive region.

Each of the centers has special links with certain organs of the body, as well as with certain states of consciousness.

The endocrine glands are related to the etheric chakras.

Subsidiary Chakras: Palms of hands – Soles of feet

Pineal: The pineal gland is now recognized as being a connecting link between the physical and spiritual worlds. Oriental occultists claim that the pineal gland is intimately associated with certain forms of transmission and reception of waves of mental vibrations.

Pituitary: Molecular motions in the pineal gland cause spiritual clairvoyance, but to make this clairvoyance illumine the field of the Universe, the fires of the pituitary body must unite with the fires of the pineal gland, and this union means that the sixth and seventh senses have become as one, or in other words that the individual consciousness is so indrawn that the magnetic sphere of the highest mentality and the highest spiritual sense is conjoined. The force is not created by the physical nervous center; the physical nervous center is operated upon by force.

The third eye can be seen as the psychic tool of the sixth chakra, just as our physical eyes are tools of perception for the brain.

The pineal gland is actually a mystery to modern science.

The pineal gland is affected by light. "Changes in external lighting influence pineal activity... Even when pathways mediating conscious light perception have been severed."

Studies have shown that light has a definite effect on the health and behavior of plants and mammals.

Their effect upon the physical body is strong, for it is believed that the physical body shapes itself around the chakra. An overblown third chakra would show in a big, tight belly; a constricted fifth chakra results in tight shoulders and a sore throat; a poor connection to the first chakra shows itself in skinny legs or bad knees. The shape of our physical body may even be determined by our development of chakras in former lives, to be picked up and continued again in this life.

The sensations you will feel in your chakras can vary, according to the degree of activity occurring in them, i.e., your physical make up, natural ability, concentration and relaxation skills affect this. It can vary from a gentle warmth, a localized pressure, or bubbling, a localized dizziness, a tingling, a gentle pulsing, to a heavier throbbing, or a combination of some or all of the above. The heavier the thrumming, the more active the chakra. If you place your hand on a chakra, when it is active, you will actually feel the flesh pulsing. Some of the chakras, when active, can cause other odd, localized sensations:

Base chakra: You may feel a very slight burning or tingling, or a cramping, like you have been riding a bicycle for too long, to begin with. Once it is working properly, you will feel a gentle pulsing or throbbing between your legs, at the site of the chakra.

Solar Plexus Chakra: This can sometimes cause a shortness of breath feeling, which can cause you to hyper-ventilate. This will pass, with time and use, as the chakra stabilizes.

Heart Chakra: The heart chakra merits special mention due to the strong, and sometimes frightening, sensation it can cause. When strongly activated it can feel like your heart is racing at an impossible rate. It is a powerful sensation. Try and ignore this when it happens, it won't hurt you. It is not your heart racing but the chakra working. I know this is easier said than done. This racing is more apparent in the early stages of development. I think this is caused by a lack of energy flowing from the lower centres. In a way it is like a pump racing, when it does not have enough fluid to pump.

Throat Chakra: The throbbing in it can cause a very mild choking feeling, because of the sensitive area it is in. This feels something like having an emotional lump in the base of your throat.

Crown Chakra: When fully active it feels like a thousand soft, warm fingers gently massaging the inside of the top of your head, above the hairline, and extending down in the centre of the forehead, to include the brow chakra, which is part of it. This sensation is the reason the Buddhists call it "The Thousand Petalled Lotus". You may feel a stronger sensation in some chakras and little or none in others. Concentrate on the lowest ones with the least sensation. This will help balance the energy flow in the chakra system.

If you are unbalanced, during projection the inactive chakras can cause failure, i.e., you may get your body partly loose but find you are stuck to your body at the site of the inactive chakra. If this happens, concentrate on stimulating the inactive chakra prior to projection.

In eastern esoteric literature, each of the chakras is seen as having a certain number of petals. On closer investigation, these petals appear to be small rotating vortices spinning at very high rates. Each vortex metabolizes an energy vibration that resonates at its particular spin frequency. The pelvic chakra, for example, has four small vortices and metabolizes four basic frequencies of energy... The colors observed in each chakra are related to the frequency of energy being metabolized at its particular rate.

Since the chakras serve to vitalize the body they are directly related to any pathology in the body... Each chakra is associated with an endocrine gland and major nerve plexus. The chakras absorb the universal or primary energy (ch'i, orgone, prana, etc.), break it up into component parts and then send it along energy rivers called nadis to the nervous system, the endocrine glands and then the blood to nourish the body.

The three chakras in the head and throat are govern the reason; the chakras on the front of the body govern the emotions; their counterparts on the back govern the will.

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The front and rear aspects of each work together as a pair, and a balance between each is more important than to try to open only one very widely.

The chakras are superphysical centers or organs through which the energies of the different fields are synchronized and distributed to the physical body. They are more or less active on the astral, mental and (to some extent) on even higher levels, in which they have different roles, but they are of primary importance at the etheric level, where they serve as instruments for the focusing of energy in the body.

The etheric, astral and mental vehicles each contain seven major centers of force. Through this core, the energies of the different fields focus and circulate, and around it the energies whirl centrifugally and pulsate rhythmically. The cores or hearts of the centers are points of interaction where energy flows from one field or level into another. These are also associated with specific abilities or powers of consciousness related to one or another of the other fields.

It is important to note that the chakras are both the transmitters and the transformers of energy from field to field, for their mechanism synchronizes the emotional, mental and the etheric energies. They step the energy up or down, or slow or speed it up, from one field to another, so that the faster energy of the emotional field can affect the slower energy of the etheric, as well as the reverse.

Their motion is, in fact, harmonic or musical in character, with rhythms which vary according to individual, constitutional and temperamental differences.

Yet it must not be inferred that the chakras are separate from the fields themselves, as might be implied by the way they appear in the diagrams. They are vortices which concentrate the energy within the fields, just as whirlpools are formations in and of water. Therefore any important change in the energy field is immediately apparent in the chakras, and most easily observed there.

Chakras are non-physical organs that transform raw Kundalini energy into more subtle, and usable, forms of energy. The chakras do not, themselves, contain energy. Raw energy is drawn up from the planet, by the minor chakras in the legs and feet, and fed into the main chakra system. Kundalini energy is, in essence, pure thought energy that permeates and binds the universe together. This living energy field can be tapped, more deeply, by the application of focussed, creative will. It can be drawn into the body.

Each layer of the aura is associated with a chakra. That is, the first layer is associated with the first chakra, and the second with the second chakra, and so on.

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The chakras of the auric body have three major functions:

1. To vitalize each auric body and, thus, the physical body.

2. To bring about the development of different aspects of self-consciousness...

3. To transmit energy between the auric levels. Each auric layer has its own set of seven major chakras.

When the chakras are functioning normally, each will be "open," spinning clockwise to metabolize the particular energies needed from the universal field. A clockwise spin draws energy from the UEF into the chakra, very much like the right-hand rule in electromagnetism, which states that a changing magnetic field around a wire will induce a current in that wire. Grasping the wire with the right hand, point fingers in the direction of the positive magnetic pole. The thumb will automatically point in the direction of the induced current. The same rules hold true for chakras... When a chakra spins counterclockwise, the current is flowing outward from the body, thus interfering with metabolism.

Energy can be seen flowing into all of these chakras from the Universal Energy Field. Each swirling vortex of energy appears to suck or entrain energy from the UEF. They appear to function as do fluid vortexes we are familiar with in water or in air such as whirlpools, cyclones, water spouts and hurricanes. The open end is about six inches in diameter at a distance of one inch from the body.

We live and move in a vast and complicated ocean of energies. These energies move in and out of our own individual fields in a similar fashion to the process of breathing... Certain activities or stimuli key in or give access to this ocean of energy... NOTE: Where you see the Pure Essence. Grief or self-centeredness, for example, appear to greatly diminish the individual's access to this energy supply.

NOTE: Like... so selfish you won't breathe out. So disgusted you won't breathe in

The centers are never static; their speed of rotation is both rapid and variable according to the state of health and the quality of the flow. The whole process is analogous to the mechanism of respiration, for the energy is, as it were, breathed in and breathed out by the living human being. The energy pours in through the core of the chakra, reaches the spine via its stalk, then flows along the tiny pathways of the etheric body which are connected with the physical nervous system. It finally returns to the chakras, moving outward in spirals through the periphery of the petals, in constant intake and outflow. These spirals of energy become wider and wider during the circulation process, gradually blending and fading into the whole field of the etheric body, and then dispersing into the universal field, just as our expelled breath becomes part of the whole atmosphere of the earth.

The primary force itself, having entered the vortex, radiates from it again at right angles, but in straight lines, as though the centre of the vortex were the hub of a wheel, and the radiations of the primary force its spokes. By means of these spokes the force seems to bind the astral and etheric bodies together as though with grappling-hooks. The number of these spokes determines the number of waves or petals which each of them exhibits.

Each of the secondary forces which sweep round the saucer-like depression has its own characteristic wave-length. It moves along relatively large undulations of various sizes, each of which is some multiple of the smaller wave-lengths within it. The number of undulations is determined by the number of spokes in the wheel and the secondary force weaves itself under and over the radiating currents of the primary force. The wave-lengths are infinitesimal, and probably thousands of them are included within one of the undulations. These oscillations produce the flower-like form. All of these undulations or petals have that shimmering pavonine effect, like mother-of-pearl, yet each of them has usually its own predominant colour. This silvery aspect is likened in Sanskrit works to the gleam of moonlight on water.

The secondary force, in passing each spoke, is to some extent modified by its influence, and therefore changes a little in its hue.

The condition of the etheric portion of the brain is affected by any change in the volume or the velocity of these life-currents.

When the quantity of nerve-ether specialized by the spleen falls for any reason below the average, physical weakness and weariness are immediately felt, and if, under these circumstances, it also happens that the speed of its circulation is increased, the man becomes supersensitive, highly irritable, nervous and perhaps even hysterical, while in such a condition he is often more sensitive to physical impressions than he would normally be, and so it often occurs that a person suffering from ill-health sees visions or apparitions which are imperceptible to his more robust neighbor. If, on the other hand, the volume and velocity of the life-ether are both reduced at the same time, the man experiences intense languor, becomes less sensitive to outside influences, and has a general feeling of being too weak to care much about what happens to him.

Like the physical body, which is continually disintegrating and rebuilding itself, the etheric, emotional and mental fields are constantly changing, but at a much more rapid rate. The chakras are involved in this change.

Consciousness is a basic factor in self-actualization and self-transformation, and this, of course, is reflected in the chakras. These can and do change in response to modifications in our thinking and feeling, as well as in our patterns of behavior, and this change in turn affects the healing process.

Nadis: Nadis are energy-carriers. There are 72,000 of these. They are composed of astral matter. These are the storage centers and the chief means of circulating the prana.

There are said to be twenty-one minor distribution centers. These minor centers, which are called nadis in Indian Tantrism differ from true chakras in that they are primarily concentration points where there is a greater flow of energy. The only subsidiary centers which are noteworthy in the context of this study are those in the palm of each hand and in the sole of each foot, as these are important in the practice of healing or therapeutic touch.

There are doors or seals between the chakra levels deep within the hearts of the chakras. These seals or doors must be opened in order to move from one level to the next. This is done by raising the vibrational level of your energy system. To increase and maintain your field at a higher vibrational level means purification work. You must keep your field clear and highly cleared to perceive the higher levels of the auric field. Doing this also means increased sensitivity in your daily life. This means a lot of self-care in terms of diet, exercise and spiritual practices...

This is not necessarily an easy task... Every increase in energy in the system knocks loose blocks that take you through experiences that you have buried within your subconscious because the events were too threatening to be felt at the time they occurred.

For example, for the fourth chakra, there are really seven chakras, each of a higher frequency band than the lower one. These chakras appear to be nested within each other like nesting glasses. Each chakra on each higher layer extends out farther in the auric field (to the edge of each auric layer) and is slightly broader than the one below it.

Energy is transmitted from one layer to the next through passageways in the tips of the chakras. In most people these passageways are sealed. They open as a result of spiritual purification work and thus the chakras become transmitters of energy from one layer to another. Each chakra... is directly connected to the same chakra in the next finer body that surrounds and interpenetrates it.

At times a person may throw off color blobs of energy into the air around him. This is especially observable when someone is releasing feelings.

The first layer of the field and the first chakra are associated with physical functioning and physical sensation- feeling physical pain or pleasure. The first layer is associated with automatic and autonomic functioning of the body.

The first chakra, the coccygeal center, is related to the... will to live in the physical reality... The coccyx acts as an energy pump on the etheric level, helping direct the flow of energy up the spine.

This statement of physical potency, combined with the will to live, gives the individual a "presence" of power and vitality. He makes a statement, "I am here now"... He often acts as a generator by energizing those around him, recharging their energy systems...

When the coccygeal center is blocked or closed, most of the physical vitality of the life force is blocked, and the person does not make a strong impression in the physical world. He is not "here." He will avoid physical activity, will be low in energy and may even be "sickly."

The first centre radiates out in four spokes alternately red and orange in hue.

Diane described the energy vortex at the base of the spine as having a direct connection with the adrenal glands. According to her description it is made up of four smaller spiral cones of whirling energy with the sharp points of the cones fitting into a center point.

The chakra at the base of the spine center is spoken of as the source or habitat of the kundalini fire, which is coiled up, asleep, in the ordinary human being. The two channels of energy, ida and pingala, which rise up and down on either side of the major spinal channel, called sushamna, originate in this center.

The center at the base of the spine, therefore, is particularly associated with the life energy.

The second layer and second chakra are in general associated with the emotional aspects of human beings. They are the vehicles through which we have our emotional life and feelings.

The pubic center (chakra 2A) is related to the quality of love for the opposite sex that the person is able to have. When it is open, it facilitates giving and receiving sexual and physical pleasure...

The sacral center (chakra 2B) is related to the quantity of sexual energy of a person. With this center open, a person feels his sexual power... The orgasm bathes the body in life energy...

The sacral acts as a pair with the pubic chakra. At the two points where the front and rear centers come together, in the heart of the chakra, in the spine, the life force exhibits its second most powerful physical urge and purpose- that of the desire for sexual union...

[Orgasm] revitalizes and cleanses the body with an energy bath. It rids the body system of clogged energy, waste products and deep tension...

It is not unusual for one of these centers to be closed when the other is open. many times this is just how the pairs (front/back) of chakras work in people. There will be an overfunctioning in one and an under-functioning in the other, because the person cannot tolerate the power of having both aspects of a chakra functioning at the same time...

For example, when the rear center is strong in a clockwise direction and the front center is weak or closed, the person will have a strong sex drive and probably a great demand for sexual relations. The problem is that the large amount of sexual energy and drive is not accompanied by an ability to give and receive sexually.

There is a center (the svadhisthana chakra) in the sacral region which governs sexuality.

The development of the six-petalled lotus flower brings us into relation with beings of the higher worlds. NOTE: This six-petalled lotus is the second chakra

That vitality is poured out again from it in six horizontal streams, the seventh variety being drawn into the hub of the wheel.

The spleen chakra's most important functions to absorb vitality from the general field, modify it, and then distribute it to the other centers. It is believed that each of the colors present in this chakra has a vibratory affinity with the other chakras in which that particular color is dominant and that by this means the other chakras are continuously vitalized.

This center usually has a radiant and glowing appearance. Since it is the main transmitter of prana or life energy to the physical body, its most important function lies in its ability to absorb and distribute vitality.

Fluctuations in rhythm, hyperactivity, and disturbances in the color patterns of this center indicate a person who is overidentified with his emotions, and cannot easily control his feelings.

NOTE: emotional This chakra is the most important with respect to the connection with the emotional field, since it as this point that the astral energy enters the etheric field.

In the life of an ordinary person, the solar plexus center is probably the most important and active of all the chakras, since it is very much involved in the emotional life. It is active in a person with strong desires and plays an important role in the projections of personal energy. For this reason, when stress of emotional problems affect the digestive system, this indicates disturbance in the solar plexus area.

The third layer is associated with our mental life, with linear thinking.

The solar plexus is associated with the great pleasure that comes from deeply knowing one's unique and connected place within the universe. A person with an open chakra 3A can look up to the starry heavens at night and feel that he belongs...NOTE: self-confidence

Although the solar plexus chakra is a mental chakra, its healthy functioning is directly related to an individual's emotional life. This is true because the mind or mental processes serve as regulators of the emotional life...

If this center is open and functioning harmoniously, he will have a deeply fulfilling emotional life that does not overwhelm him. However, when this center is open but the protective membrane over it torn, he will have great uncontrolled extremes of emotions...

If this center is closed, he will block his feelings, perhaps not feeling anything...

Many times this center serves as a block between the heart and sexuality. If both of those are open and the solar plexus is blocked, the two will function separately; i.e., sex will not be deeply connected to love and vice versa. These two connect very nicely when one is aware of one's firmly rooted existence in the physical universe...

Whenever a person creates a relationship with another human being, cords grow between the two 3A chakras...

Cords develop between other chakras of people in relationship also, but the third chakra cords seem to be reenactment of the dependent child/mother connection... The nature of the chakra cords that you build in your first family will be repeated in all the following relationships that you create later...

The diaphragmatic center (chakra 3B), located behind the solar plexus, is associated with one's intention towards one's physical health. If someone has a strong health-love toward his body, and an intent to keep it healthy, this center is open. This center is also known as the Healing Center and is associated with spiritual healing. It is said that in some healers this center is very large and developed... This center is associated with the solar plexus center, in the front, and is usually open if the solar plexus center is open.

The solar plexus chakra is the most active center of emotional energy in the majority of people. It is the bridge between the emotions and the physical/etheric, its closest physical connection being with the stomach and the whole gastro-intestinal tract. DVK has theorized that the astral solar plexus chakra acts as a shock absorber between the intake of astral energy and its dispersal through the body.

The colors of this chakra are somewhat variable: in an integrated person, the green indicates balance; a somewhat different shade pertains to symphony or adaptability; a mixture of yellow and green shows interest in expressing ideas in physical form. Often inventors and designers have this color combination. Also there is an entirely different shade of sickly yellowish – green which indicates jealousy, while yellow mixed with gray implies frustration in connection with work.

The third centre receives a primary force with ten radiations. It is very closely associated with feelings and emotions. Its predominant colour is a curious blending of several shades of red, though there is also a great deal of green in it.

The heart chakra is linked with the higher dimensions of consciousness and with one's sense of being, and as noted above it has a close relationship with the twelve golden petals within the crown chakra. The heart center registers the quality and power of love in the individual's life. When a person has transformed personal desires and passions into a wider and more universal compassion and love for his fellows, the heart becomes the focus of energies which were formerly concentrated in the solar plexus. In mediation, the student is encouraged to focus on the heart center, in order to strengthen its connection with the core of the crown chakra. This brings about a state of true balance in the body, for the heart center is really the point of integration in the whole chakra system, and therefore has an important overall balancing effect. The heart center acts as a primary factor in spiritual transformation.

NOTE: heart & healing In the physical body, there is a relationship between the heart chakra and the thymus gland, and through it with the immune system.

The fourth level, associated with the heart chakra, is the vehicle through which we love, not only our mates, but also humanity in general. The fourth chakra is the chakra that metabolized the energy of love. The fifth level is the level associated with a higher will more connected with the divine will.

The heart chakra (chakra 4) is the center through which we love. Through it flows the energy of connectedness with al life. The more open this center becomes, the greater is out capacity to love an ever widening circle of life...

Through this center, we connect cords to heart centers of those with whom we have a love relationship... When this chakra is open, the person can see the whole individual within his fellow man. He can see the uniqueness and inner beauty and light in each individual as well as the negative or undeveloped aspects. In the negative state (closed), the person has trouble loving, loving in the sense of giving love without expecting anything in return.

The heart chakra is the most important chakra used in the healing process. All energies metabolized through the chakras travel up the vertical power current through the roots of the chakras and into the heart chakra before moving out of the hands or eyes of the healer. In the healing process, the heart transmutes the earth plane energies to spiritual energies and the spiritual plane energies into earth plane energies...

Midway between the shoulder blades, chakra 4B is associated with the ego will, or outer will...

If this center is clockwise, we will have a positive attitude about accomplishing things in life and see other people as supports for those accomplishments... We will experience our will and the divine will in agreement. We will see the will of out friends aligned with out will...

If this center is counterclockwise... we will have the misconception that God's will and that of other people is opposed to our will. People will appear to be blocks in our way of getting what we want or in out accomplishing something...

NOTE: The chakra closes on the reason why it closed, continually projecting that reason outwards. Like closing our eyes when we think we see a monster. It then continues to exist until we open them again.

An image of the universe as a basically hostile place where the strong aggressors will survive, sometimes boils down to "not getting my way means my ultimate survival is at stake." The person functions by control and seeks to make his world safe by controlling others.

In individuals who meditate regularly, the heart center is large than usual, for it expands easily. It also tends to be more luminous and its rhythmic movement is speeded up.

Its primary force makes for it twelve spokes.

The twelve-petalled lotus flower, near the heart, is formed in a way similar to the sixteen-petalled one. Half of its petals were also already present and active in a past evolutionary stage of humanity.

Quite different perceptions come to light through the twelve-petalled lotus flower. These may be roughly characterized in terms of warmth and coldness of soul. Seers, endowed with this sense organ, feel soul warmth or coldness streaming from the figures perceived by the sixteen-petalled lotus flower.

The fifth chakra is associated with the power of the word, speaking things into being, listening and taking responsibility for our actions.

The throat chakra, located at the front of the throat, is associated with taking responsibility for one's personal needs...

This center also shows what the state of the person is with respect to receiving whatever is coming toward him. If the center is measured as counterclockwise, the person does not take in what is given to him...

If the person sees the world as a negative, generally hostile place, he will be cautious and have negative expectations about what is coming his way... Since he sets up a negative force field with his negative expectations, he will attract negative input to him...

When he is able to go through this experience, connect to the original cause within himself and find inner trust again, he will reopen his throat center. This process of opening and closing continues until all misconceptions of receiving or taking in are transformed into trust in a benign nourishing universe.

The aspect of assimilation that occurs at the back of the fifth chakra (5B), sometimes referred to as the professional center, is associated with the person's sense of self within the society, his profession and with his peers...

If the person has chosen a profession that is both challenging and fulfilling and is giving his best to his work, this center will be in full bloom... If this is not the case, the person will hold back from giving his best. He will be unsuccessful and conceal his lack of success with his pride...

In this center, we will also uncover the fear of failure that blocks taking the chance to move out and create what one so dearly wants. This also holds true of one's personal friendships and social life in general. By avoiding contact, this person also avoids revealing himself and feeling the fear of not being liked on the one hand, and competition and pride like, "I'm better than you; you are not good enough got me," on the other.

The throat chakra is particularly associated with rhythm and sound. In those who are clairaudient, or sensitive to sounds which are physically inaudible, the petals of this center will be larger than average and more luminous. When diagnosing, the main factor to be looked for in connection with this center is its degree of harmony with the etheric chakra.

Chakra five is the center of sound, vibration, and self-expression. It is the realm of consciousness that controls, creates, transmits, and receives communication...

When the opening of the fifth chakra occurs, the person within becomes aware of the world around him on a "vibrational" level.

The senses are a function of perceiving rhythm. Hearing sound waves and seeing light waves are only two. The very mechanism through which nerve fibers feed information to our brain is one of rhythmic pulsations of energy.

The fifth centre has sixteen spokes.

The throat center has links with the crown and brow chakras in certain states of expanded consciousness, and is especially important with respect to the interconnections between the mental and the etheric fields.

From the clairvoyant's point of view, a clear color and a steady rhythm in the etheric throat center indicate a healthy thyroid.

Eight of the petals of the "sixteen-petalled lotus flower" near the larynx were formed in the distant past, in an earlier evolutionary state. We ourselves contributed nothing to their development. We received these first eight petals as a gift of nature at a time when human consciousness was still dreamlike and dull. These eight petals were already active then, and their activities corresponded to this state of dim consciousness. As consciousness intensified, these lotus petals then lost their light and ceased their activity. We ourselves can form the remaining eight petals through the conscious practice of exercises. This will make the whole lotus flower shining and mobile.

The sixteen-petalled flower perceives forms. That is, it perceives as a form both another soul's way of thinking and the laws according to which a natural phenomenon unfolds. Such forms are mobile and filled with life. A vengeful thought has an arrow-like and jagged shape, while a kind thought often has the form of a flower beginning to blossom.

The sixth level and sixth chakra are associated with celestial love. It is a love that extends beyond the human range of love and encompasses all life.

The forehead center (chakra 6A) is associated with the capacity to visualize and understand mental concepts... if this center is counterclockwise, one has confused mental concepts, or images about reality that are not true and are usually negative. The person holding them projects them onto the world and creates his world by them. If this center is clogged and weak, the person is usually blocked in his creative ideas simply because the amount of energy flowing through this center is small...

NOTE: When spinning backwards, a chakra projects out the cause of blockages to be visible in the aura - SO IMPORTANT! THIS IS KEY TO MY PSYCHEDELIC UNDERSTANDINGS!

During the therapy process of purifying or sorting out negative belief images, when an image arises in the energy system and begins to function dominantly, this center will probably spin counterclockwise, even if it is usually clockwise... With therapeutic help, the person will understand and see the image clearly for what it is. The center will then turn around and will spin clockwise. usually this type of counterclockwise motion can be detected by the seasoned therapist because of the unstable quality of feeling accompanied by the counterclockwise motion...

At the back of the head, the mental executive center (chakra 6B) is associated with implementing the creative ideas formulated through the center in the forehead. If the executive will center is open, one's ideas are followed with the appropriate action to cause them to materialize in the physical world. If it is not open, the person has a rough time bringing his ideas into fruition.

The sixth centre has the appearance of being divided into halves, one chiefly rose-coloured, and the other predominantly a kind of purplish-blue. Perhaps it is for this reason that this centre is mentioned in Indian books as having only two petals. Each half is subdivided into forty-eight, making ninety-six in all, because its primary force has that number of radiations.

This sudden leap from 16 to 96 spokes, and again the even more startling variation from 96 to 972 between this and the next chakra, show us that we are now dealing with centres of an altogether different order from those which we have hitherto been considering.

In structure, the brow chakra differs from the other centers in that it appears to be divided into two segments, one half colored rose and yellow, the other blue and purple. This center is linked with the pituitary gland; interestingly, this gland is also composed of two parts, each of which has a separate function. This is the chakra which is mainly concerned with the integration of ideas and experience with capacity for organization.

When it is interconnected primarily with the throat center, this indicates an active use of the creative imagination.

It is also prominent in musicians and composers, and indeed in those engaged in creative work of any kind, for this chakra indicates a sensitivity to color and form as well as sound and rhythm. It could be said that the creative aspect of the self is transmitted from the brow chakra where it is conceptualized, to the throat chakra, where it is vitalized.

Once the two petalled lotus flower begins to move, we are in a position to establish a connection between our higher I and higher spiritual beings. Currents or streams emanating from this lotus flower move toward higher realities in such a way that we can be fully conscious of their movements. Just as light makes physical objects visible to our eyes, so these streams make the spiritual beings of the higher worlds visible to us.

The higher self — which until now has lain dormant within us, seed-like and unconscious – is here born into conscious existence. This birth is a literal birth in an absolutely real sense; a birth into the spiritual world. Our own development must ensure that our higher self begins its conscious existence equipped with all the faculties it needs.

No one can give birth to a healthy higher self who does not live and think in a healthy manner in the physical world.

The seventh later and seventh chakra are associated with the higher mind, knowing and integration of our spiritual and physical makeup.

The crown center is related to the person's connection to his spirituality and the integration of his whole being, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual... If this center is open, the person probably often experiences his spirituality in a very personal form, unique to that individual.

Unlike the etheric, the astral body has no visible counterparts of the physical organs, such as the spleen or the intestinal tract. There is, however, an exchange of energy. For example, if the flow of astral energy is dull in the crown center, one should expect serious mental disorders or even extreme mental deficiency. If, on the other hand, the etheric and astral levels match in color and brilliance, this indicates that the thinking processes are clear and lively. The reflection of the pineal gland may appear as a golden color in the astral body, but there is no true counterpart of the organ.

The seventh centre, when stirred into full activity is the most resplendent of all, full of indescribable chromatic effects and vibrating with almost inconceivably rapidity. It is described in Indian books as thousand-petalled, and really this is not very far from the truth.

This chakra is usually the last to be awakened. Another peculiarity attends its development. It is at first a depression in the etheric body, as are all the others, because through it, as through them, the divine force flows in from without; but when the man realizes his position as a king of the divine light, dispensing largesse to all around him, this chakra reverses itself, turning as it were inside out; it is no longer a channel of reception but of radiation, no longer a depression but a prominence, standing out from the head as a dome, a veritable crown of glory.

In Oriental pictures and statues of the deities or great men this prominence is often shown. (Picture, Fig.2, p.17)

The crown chakra is usually larger than the others, and is the dominant seat of consciousness.

The topmost chakra is located about six centimeters above the crown of the head. Saucer-like in shape, it consists of 12 golden central petals, with a complex of 960 secondary petals arranged around them: thus it is called the "thousand-petaled lotus" in Indian Tantrism. These petals display all the colors of the rainbow, with violet predominating.

It is most important and reveals both the spiritual quality of the individual and the state of his consciousness. The size, variation in color, speed of rotation, rhythm, degree of brilliance, texture and elasticity, as well as the development of the interconnections with other centers, all indicate the quality and character of the whole personality and the strength of its connection with the inmost self. If the core of the chakra shines very brilliantly, this usually indicates meditation is practiced.

The size of the core, as well as its other characteristics, gives an indication of the individual's ability to expand in consciousness, or even to achieve continuity of consciousness between the waking and sleeping states, for this is the center through which we normally exit in sleep. However, if the core is exceedingly elastic, this may make egress from the body too easy, as in the case of a medium who enters a trance unwittingly.

This is the chakra, in other words, that reveals the stage of conscious evolution in the individual.

Govinda writes that this center, together with the next two, "go beyond the gross elements (mahabhuta) and represent higher dimensions of space, in which the quality of light...merges into the psychoenergetic state of prana and into the realm of cosmic consciousness."

When the etheric interconnections between the crown and the brow centers are open and active, this indicates a degree of clairvoyance, and also that meditation and concentration are practiced.

At all stages of development, the crown chakra serves as the organ of synthesis.

Because our chakras continually receive and send out energy, we are continually being affected by and affecting others, sometimes in positive ways, sometimes not.

If your energies are strong, you will have an immediate impact upon anyone who comes into your presence. Specifically what kind of impact will depend on the condition of the other person's energy system. Someone who has weak energies or is not feeling well may be intimidated, overwhelmed or wiped out in your presence; that person also could be energized by you. If the other person also has strong energies, there is likely to be better balance and a better rapport—a feeling of being equal.

When you become aware of a strong reaction to another person but do not understand that reaction, seek to know the area or chakra of your body where you feel this energy most strongly.

Charismatic people have strong energy fields which they can use in positive or negative ways.

Stronger or intimidating energies: Sometimes you will find that other people literally blow your mind with their forceful energies. You may be at a loss to answer the person, think clearly or verbalize your thoughts. This type of person usually sends very strong energies from the third eye (between the eyebrows) or the fifth eye (in the center of the forehead). If you find this happening to you, send energy out either your third or fifth eye, whichever seems appropriate, and let it meet the other person's half way.

Another's strong energy flow from a particular chakra may snag you in that same chakra. Concentrating on a higher chakra will help to balance things.

Co-workers often leave a negative situation only to go elsewhere and complain about it, unaware they got snagged with the negativity and are spreading it. Feel your own moods without feeling compelled to snag others into it.

Thoughts affect the subject: Every thought and feeling you have about another person becomes an energy form which goes to that person. It affects the person on some level. Do remember that anything you send out eventually returns to you.

How to deal with it: If you feel inundated with thoughts and feelings from others, imagine yourself surrounded with a psychic ultraviolet light. If the feelings or thoughts get stronger, they are yours; if they fade away, they are someone else's. You may even be aware of the person sending them or see his or her face. The person probably does not mean any harm. There are many careless thoughts and feelings which pollute our air.

In the company of someone whose chakras are blocked, you may feel shut out, as if that person wants nothing to do with you. This may not be the case at all.

There are some very positive benefits to openness: a sense of connection, strength, cuddliness, or of not being alone in the world.

All of our chakras radiate constantly. We constantly radiate psychic signals of fear, joy, or anger, even when we may have no particular intention of doing so. Our nervous systems are constantly bombarded by harsh, conflicting rhythms. The body becomes overstimulated, and soon the internal systems lose their delicate balance. We dull our senses in order to withstand the imbalance.

When too much abrasive energy is found in our surroundings, the chakras will close down to protect the subtle body from this caustic invasion. Overloaded chakras are difficult to open. Grounding is a way to channel this excess tension.

Many people experience difficulty because their upper chakras are too open, while their lower chakras are not stable enough to support the barrage of psychic energy they pick up around them. Even simple physical touch can help a lot to ground someone in intense pain.

This specialized life-force is constantly radiating from the body in all directions. A man in perfect health, therefore, not only is able to impart some of it another intentionally, but is also constantly through unconsciously shedding strength and vitality on those around him. On the other hand, a man who from weakness or other causes is unable to specialize for his own use a sufficient amount of the world's life-force, sometimes, equally unconsciously, acts as a sponge and absorbs the already specialized vitality of any sensitive person who is unfortunate enough to come into contact with him. A similar lassitude is frequently felt by persons who attend spiritualistic seances.

When you want someone to have certain energies, such as confidence or peace, feel that in your energies and usually it will reflect in the other person. Sometimes you may be angry over another's lack of calm or peace, but this only makes matters worse.

For example: Someone with a very closed third chakra (personal power) would be terrified of making a public speech, while another may thrive on it. Someone with an open second chakra (sexuality) may juggle many sexual partners, while someone who is closed may have difficulty maintaining even one relationship.

"Sappers" are people who draw upon the etheric or emotional energies of others and devitalize them.

We tested FF's claim that she could both charge a person with etheric energy or drain it away. She sat facing the subject, and DVK and SK sat fifteen feet away. FF focused her eyes on the subject's eyes, and in a few minutes DVK reported that she was pulling energy out. DVK then asked FF to reverse the process and charge the subject with etheric energy, which she did. After several repetitions of the experiment, we concluded that FF did have the ability to energize or devitalize. Later we studied subjects who "sapped" astral and mental energies as well as the etheric.

A person with highly charged or unbalanced chakras may seek stimulating conditions, such as arguments, which aid the release of these excess energies.

Gossip, heavily judgmental, is another form of stir-it-up release. In the company of someone who is trying to stir it up, try to remain peaceful and not get snagged.

When people fall in love, beautiful arcs of rose light can be seen between their hearts... When people form relationships with each other, they grow cords out of the chakras that connect them. These cords exist on many levels of the auric field in addition to the astral. The longer and deeper the relationship, the more cords and the stronger they are. When relationships end, those cords are torn, sometimes causing a great deal of pain. The period of "getting over" a relationship is usually a period of disconnecting those cords on the lower levels of the field and rerooting them within the self...

A great deal of interaction takes place between people on the astral level. Great blobs of color of various forms whisk across the room between people. Some of it is pleasant and some not so pleasant... For example, when a man or woman fantasize about making love with someone, say in a bar or at a party, there is an actual testing in the energy fields to see if the fields are synchronous and if the people are compatible.

People in relationships grow cords of energy between each other. These are connected through the chakras. In a healthy relationship these cords are clear bright gold, balanced and connected through most of the chakras. In a lot of relationships, these cords simply repeat the unhealthy connections that were there from childhood between parent and child. Many of these cords connect in the solar plexus and are dark in color. During the process of transforming a relationship from unhealthy to healthy, the unhealthy cords must be disconnected, energized and reconnected deep into the individual's own core...

I have heard bereaved people speaking of feeling torn apart or of losing their better half. In such a serious trauma, one feels as if one's whole front has been torn off. This is literally true. Many times I see those threads from the solar plexus dangling about in space after such a painful separation.

The sensitive often describes bright lines of energy connecting two people who may be in opposite ends of the room at a social gathering. It may be between a husband and wife who are devoted to each other or people who have some vital and intense interest in each other.

People who have strong mutual feelings establish energy ties which bind them even when they are not physically together. The bind may be at the heart, brow, navel, or sexual chakras, or combinations of the chakras.

When one person of a married couple starts sending energy to a third person, his or her mate may notice something is missing.

When there are connections at all chakra levels, the partners have a feeling of blending and really fitting together. Relationships with an easy flow and strong contacts have a stronger chance of lasting. Too strong a tie may represent a loss of individuality. Sometimes one person takes on characteristics of the other. This is one reason we should be careful with whom we have our deepest contact.

A cord is a psychic connection with another person that transmits energy. Cords allow parents to provide supplemental life support for their children until they can become energetically independent (during adolescence). Adults can "run" a couple of small children off their "battery." The size of cords can vary: one that is large can seriously drain someone's energy.

Cording among adults is common. Most people both cord others and are corded by others. There may be a net loss of energy, as net gain, or it may come out equal. It is preferable for adults not to allow anyone to cord them.

Cording is not the same as a shared bond, which does not take energy from another but provides connection. A shared bond looks similar to a cord, but it does not transmit a substantial amount of energy. It is more like a telephone line that is available when needed for communication.

To eliminate cords, dissolve them in the light.

When you release a major cord, you may find that it leaves a "stub" or at least some rawness, if not an "open wound." If the wound is open, it is easier for others to re-cord you.

Cording is on the physical level.

We experience energy primarily through our most open chakras. If your sexual chakra is the most open then regardless of what you receive from others, you will experience it on the sexual level. Not only that, but the other person's energy will primarily go out the sexual level. If your heart chakra is the most open, you tend to experience life as love.

It is possible that an open chakra may dominate another's closed chakra if it's on the same level. John, who is open in the fifth chakra, is paired with Paul, who is closed. Therefore John does all the talking, and Paul retreats into greater silence. Or take the examples of Bill and Mary. Bill's openness on the third chakra level keeps Mary, who is weak in that area, at a constant disadvantage, heightening her feeling of powerlessness. If he can be sensitive about this issue, she can learn from him and they will gradually balance out.

Living together creates a situation where all people in a group tend to block or open the same chakras. Children pick up many of their parents' attitudes and feelings, even on a subliminal level, getting clues that certain chakras should be closed or open at certain times; without anyone's realizing it, the child takes on the parents' way of relating to the world.

In the world of the mind, chakras are patterns of consciousness- belief systems through which we experience and create our world around us.

Through involvement with the outside world, patterns within the chakra tend to perpetuate themselves; hence the idea of karma (patterns formed through past action). It is common to become trapped in the self-perpetuating action of any one of the chakras. This is called being "stuck" in a chakra.

Sensitives observe that certain activities, ideas or experiences seem to increase the inflow of energy into the field of a given individual. When an individual comes into the presence of a well-beloved person all three of his energy fields are intensely brightened. He appears to have more energy of a bright and scintillating quality in these fields.

Some people show a brightened energy field under the stimulus of interesting intellectual conversation. In these cases it appears to be the mental field which first receives an inflow of energy and the effect spreads to the emotional and vital fields.

As [a man] sings, his aura expands and brightens. Bright lightning-like flashes and sparks of iridescent blue-violet move off just after the movement of inhaling, before he starts each new line. As the audience becomes more attentive, its general aura expands. Great arcs of light reach out from the singer to the audience, and the two auras connect. Mutual forms begin to build as feelings flow between performer and audience. These energy-consciousness forms relate in structure and color to the mutual thoughts and feelings of the group and the music being created. At the end of the song, these forms are disconnected and broken up by the applause, which acts as an eraser to wipe the field clean for the next creation. Both performer and audience are energized by absorbing the energy created by the music. Some of this energy will be internalized to break blocks held in the body; some of it will be used for the next creation.

As another person lectures on his favorite subject, his aura expands and becomes yellow-gold with silvery-gold or iridescent blue sparks... The same speaker-audience phenomenon occurs, this time with an emphasis on the mental energies, which show up as yellow-gold. After the lecture, his aura remains expanded from some time, as he is high from his work. There has been a mutual exchange of energy consciousness. Some of the audience now vibrates more at his level.

When an actor or actress is performing before an audience... the emotional field of the actor seems to glow and expand and extend outward until it includes the whole audience... What might be called a unified emotional field results for the duration of the performance. When the performance is over, the clapping of the audience breaks the unified field and each person is seen by the clairvoyant as again functioning within his own separated emotional field. If the performer is not able to achieve this unified field he does not reach his audience and they will say that the performance was mediocre or poor...

Basil Gill, the great Shakespearian actor in England in the early part of the century... said that when he walked on the stage he felt a rush of uplifting golden energy enfold him from the audience, as if his own energy had been magnified a thousand times. Then he seemed to move out and enfold the whole audience in his own sense of exhilaration as he portrayed a Shakespearian character and moved through the action of the drama. He felt that he and the audience together were intimately a part of a moving experience of reality until the curtain came down on the final scene. Then something snapped like a rubber band as the applause started and he was himself again instead of the character in the play.

I found six general types of energy blocks... People use their fields in defensive ways to protect them from an imagined unpleasant experience. They organized their entire auric fields into what I call an energetic defense system...

All of us use a combination of several of these blocks...

We all create blocks because we see the world as unsafe... Our energetic defense systems are designed to repel, to defend aggressively or passively against an incoming force.

The "blah" block is a result of depressing one's feelings and energy till they stagnate and cause an accumulation of body fluids in that area. The body tends to bloat there. This block usually does not have high energy but is rather of low intensity, which is usually associated with despair... There is anger there also, usually the laming kind. The person has given up and feels powerless.

The compaction block, which suppresses feelings, on the other hand, contains a lot of accumulated rage, like a volcano. It is dark red in color, usually appearing quite ominous to the observer... This energy block results in an accumulation of body fat or body muscle in the area... The person is usually aware of the rage and feels trapped because release of rage is associated with humiliation... [One woman's] father humiliated her with regard to her sexuality when she was young. The result was that she blocked her powerful sexual feelings and held them tightly in her pelvis. The held sexual feelings slowly turned to rage. When the rage was not released, due to fear of humiliation, the accumulation of stagnated energy in her pelvis brought on infection.

The mesh armor is an effective block in that it helps the person avoid feelings, especially fear, by quickly moving the blocks around when she is challenged either in a life situation or in therapy. For example, if the therapist tries to release a block through exercise or deep massage, the block will simply move to another part of the body. This type of blocking probably will not initiate disease as readily as the other types of blocks. Everything will appear to be wonderful in this patient's life... Yet she will have the vague sense that something is missing. This person will be able to tolerate deep feelings for only a short period of time before pulling herself out of them. Finally, she will probably create some crisis in her life to break into her deeper feelings.

The plate armor... holds all types of feelings by freezing them. They are held in place around the body by a field of generalized high tension. It effectively helps the person build a well-structured life on the outer level. The body will be well constructed; muscles will tend to be hard. on the personal level, life will not be so fulfilling, because the plate armor effectively nullifies all feelings... NOTE: I'll bet anything these go in and out of fashion, learned through interaction with and witnessing others' defenses. He will also probably eventually create some kind of life crisis... that will help him connect to his deeper reality. A heart attack does this nicely for some men.

The energy depletion block is simply a decrease of energy flowing down the limb in the direction of the distal end. The person cuts off the limbs by simply not allowing the energy to flow there. This results in weakness of the limb and, in some cases, even physical underdevelopment in that area. This person will avoid the use of the limb to avoid the feelings of weakness, and then the deeper associated feelings, like not being able to stand on his own feet in life, or the feeling of failing in life.

The energy leak occurs when the person squirts his energy out of the joints instead of allowing it to flow down the limb. He does this (unconsciously) to decrease the energy flow through his limbs to the point where will not have the strength or feeling to respond to certain experiences in his environment. The reason he does not want to respond is based on a childhood conclusion that response is either improper or even dangerous... Both of these latter types of blocks also result in coldness in the limbs... This type of block results in joint problems.

With the "porcupine" (usually whitish-gray in color), the person's aura becomes spiny and painful to touch. It is sharp. Many times, when I have put my hand on someone when he did not want it there, I could feel the spines going through my hand. Most people respond to this defense by distancing.

In the "withdrawal" form of defense, the portion of the person's consciousness and aura that is being threatened simply leaves his body in a cloud of light blue energy. The eyes will have a glazed look, although he pretends to be fully there listening to you.

The same is true for the person who is "beside himself." This particular configuration is more long-term than withdrawal, which may last only for a few second up to hours. The "beside himself" manifestation usually lasts for a longer period, perhaps days or even years. I have seen people who have been partially out of their bodies for years from some trauma or early surgery... her higher bodies would partially disconnect and float out, up and behind her. This disconnection resulted in a disconnection from her feelings.

Verbal denial is associated with much energy, usually yellow, in the head, a severe neck block and depleted energy in the lower half, which is pale and still. In order to keep the status quo, the person stays active verbally so as to sustain some feeling of being alive. This verbal exchange keeps the energy flowing in the head.

The hooks I have seen on some people's heads usually are on people who have a psychopathic character structure and who are in the process of being confronted by, say, a group of people. They become very threatened in such a situation and form a "hook" on the top of the head. If things really get hot, they will throw the "hook" at whomever they see as the aggressor. This "hook" is usually accompanied with a verbal statement. On the other hand, if this type of person wants to confront someone, she may very well try to grasp the other by the head with mental energy. The possible effect on the person being confronted is to be held within the confronter's energy field until the latter is sure her point is being made and accepted as she wishes. This type of defense/offense is very threatening to the recipient because, from all appearances, she is being approached logically with very rational steps leading to the "right" conclusion, but the "between-the-lines" message being conveyed is that the recipient had better agree. This kind of exchange is usually accompanied with the underlying implication that the person being confronted is "bad" and wrong, and the confronter is "good" and right.

NOTE: Notice the similarity between these energy defenses and natural defenses. The porcupine IS the porcupine, the porcupine fish. The hook is the snake raising and cocking its head. These kundalini energy shape animal form and behavior to a great extent

"Tentacles" are oozing, slippery, silent and heavy. They reach for your solar plexus in an effort to capture your essence but doesn't know what to do with it, because he feels that allowing it to move means humiliation. Thus he is caught in despair and even loses touch with his own essence.

The silent brooding is very noisy, however, on the energetic level. He stands out in a room full of people who are actively having fun. Soon he will be surrounded by those who wish to help him, and he will unconsciously, but cleverly and graciously, thank each person for the help offered, saying why it won't work and ask for other suggestions.

The tentacled person thinks he needs something from the outside, but what he needs is to give out, he may then try verbal arrows to provoke someone to anger. These arrows are not only verbally painful, but also energetically painful, flying through the air and striking the recipient very precisely and effectively. The archer unconsciously hopes this will cause enough pain to elicit anger, which will then give him an excuse to release his own anger in such a way as to avoid humiliation.

The person who uses "hysterical defense" will gladly respond to the "arrows" by exploding. The hysterical type will explode in a way that will impinge upon everyone's field with lightning bolts and explosions of color in such fury as to threaten and intimidate with the sheer force of power and chaos. His purpose is to clear the room of everyone.

The person using "boundary containment" will simply remove himself from the situation, while strengthening and thickening his boundary in order to remain unaffected. The message thus conveyed is one of superiority! Another may simply state his supremacy with a strongly ordered, well-controlled, power/will display which blows up and lights up his aura, so that there is no question of who is in charge here and who is not to be tampered with!

People with low levels of energy may unconsciously drain or sap energy from others. Such people have not learned to absorb energy from the surrounding air, instead pulling it predigested from another person. "Predigested" means that the energy has already been brought in by another person and transformed to a usable frequency; it is an easy way out.

People who for no apparent reason make you feel drained or irritable are sapping your energy. Energy pulled from you leaves you weakened. You may look for excuses to get away from the sappers.

Feeling drained, you may wish to become aware of the chakra or chakras from which energy is being pulled. Sometimes people become dependent on others' energies. You can then make the choice to close the chakra or send energy to the other person. Sometimes people become dependent on others' energies.

Often the emotionally focused individual likes to stir up emotional scenes with those around him. When he does this the sensitive observes a brightening of the emotional and vital fields with little observable effect on the mental field. Those involved in the emotional scene often appear depleted and seem to lose energy. The individual creating the scene appears to achieve a sense of well-being and to be energized...

NOTE: Jamie's happy face after annoying someone, or when bickering.

Other people seem to achieve this emotional sense of well-being from the excitement of danger, from fast driving, from needling other people or from an argument. In such cases it is primarily the emotional and vital fields that are energized...

Some people achieve an access of energy observable in the brightening of their energy fields from being out on the ocean or in the forest or from art or music or creative work.

Oral sucking is closely related to verbal denial in that it is effective in sucking energy from those around in order to fill the person's own field, which he usually is unable to do from the natural surrounding environment... one can feel this form of sucking in verbal prattle that is boring and exhausting to the recipient, or see it in the "vacuum cleaner" eyes that some people possess. These people love to be around others in some form of socializing. There are other people who need to discharge an excess of energy (masochist types) who make good partners with the oral suckers. Together, they fill each other's needs quite nicely.

NOTE: The energy vampire

A number of the sensitives with whom I have worked have made repeated observations on individuals which we have come to designate as the "Sappers." There are certain people who do not seem to be able to pick up their own energy from the surrounding ocean of energy which the sensitives describe. They appear to take their energy "pre-digested" from the people in their immediate vicinity... "Sappers" are practically always very self-centered individuals.

The sensitive describes the sappers as having closed-in energy fields... They simply feel better when they are in the company of more vital people. Any individual who remains in the vicinity of the sapper for too long begins to feel desperately exhausted for no reason that he can understand. This baffles and bewilders him. Eventually a deep instinct of self-preservation causes the victim of the sapper to feel an irresistible desire to get away. He may attribute this to any one of a number of reasons. By the time this happens he is usually feeling an unreasoning irritation with the sapper.

As soon as the victim of the sapper has escaped and begins to feel better, he looks at his recent behavior as being rather unreasonable...

Some of these sappers pull energy from almost anyone in their vicinity. Others seem to be able to pull energy more easily from only certain people. The simply selfish person who wants things for himself or the attention of other people is not usually a sapper... It is the self-centered person enclosed in his own orbit who lacks outgoingness to other people and the outside world...

The energy pull from a victim is usually via the weakest vortex...

There are several methods, according to the sensitives, by which sappers may pull energy. Some sappers appear to pull energy by using the voice. The extremely self-centered person who is a compulsive talker pulls the energy of his victim, whose attention he has gained, simply by talking. If the victim listened long enough his vital field and even his emotional and mental fields will being to wilt, grow dull and show a general condition which to the sensitive means he is very exhausted...

Some sappers appear to use the eyes to pull energy. They look with a quiet, steady, unbroken focus at their victim...

Those in an already weakened state always seem to be more distressed and more easily drained by the sapper...

The sensitives describe a rather wide opening in the solar plexus area of the sapper in his vital field. Around the edges of this opening streamers or tentacles appear to shoot out and hook into the field of an individual; in close proximity. The sapper often seems to have a desire to touch the person whom he is draining of energy or else to be as near as possible to him.

A psychological evaluation of the sapper shows an individual who often speaks the language of altruism volubly. He will often talk a great deal about his concern and kindly interest in friends and acquaintances who are his victims. He will assure you that he would do anything for them, that they are wonderful people and they do him so much good. It requires more careful observation to realize that the sapper is nearly always extremely self-centered.

[Carrie] simply felt exhilarated and in great good spirits after an evening with guests.

A number of observations of Carrie at social events in the homes of other people proved interesting. At a cocktail party or reception she did not make much effort to circulate or talk to people. Instead she usually established herself in a comfortable chair with a good view of the people present. She would sit quietly with a pleasant dreamy look on her face and her eyes focused with a quiet intensity on one person after another. As time went by she would show a flush in her cheeks and a general brightness and alertness... She could remain for hours in her chair making no particular effort at conversation or personal contact with the other guests.

Our observations showed that when changes occured in the centers in the form of dysrhythmia, especially if there was a reversal of the movement from clockwise to counterclockwise, the potential for disease was very marked. If this was accompanied by other changes, whether in color, degree of brightness, form or texture, the malfunctioning was exaggerated. In addition, if the core of the center displayed a conflicting dual movement, that is, turning both clockwise and counterclockwise, within a few years the patient was likely to develop a growth, probably cancerous, related to those parts of the body supplied by that center. This opinion is based on a number of cases where the observations were made years before the onset of disease.

In severe physical abnormalities, where the glands related to the chakra had been surgically excised, it was noted that the surgery did not correct the abnormaility in the center itself. The persistence of this abnormal condition may help explain the recurrence of the disease in the organs of the body that were partially excised, such as the thyroid.

Every time the center, during its rotation, comes to the place where the leak is, this produces confusion in the rhythm. It is as if the energy is disturbed as it passes through into the body.

No disease related to an etheric chakra was ever found when the center itself was perceived to be absolutely normal.

We do not as yet know what factors determine exactly where disease will show itself when an abnormality develops in a center.

If a chakra is imbalanced, disease will result. The more imbalanced a chakra is, the more serious the disease... The spiral cones of energy that make up these vortices may be fast or slow, jerky or lopsided. Sometimes breaks in the energy pattern can be observed. A spiral cone may be fully or partially collapsed or inverted...

A torn chakra... has appeared in every cancer patient I have seen. Again the configurations listed here go out to the seventh layer. A chakra can be torn, and the cancer may not appear in the body until two or more years later. The protective shield is completely ripped away from this chakra... The effect of a torn seventh layer is loss of a lot of energy from the field. In addition to energy loss, the patient is subject to all kinds of outside influences that affect him not only psychologically, but physically. The field is unable to repel incoming energies that are not healthy for the system to assimilate.

If any of these major vortices show a dullness or irregularity or "leak"' in the central point or core, she looks for some serious pathology in the physical body in the area. If the pattern of the cone of energy is out of rhythm or shows a "break or crack" she finds that it is related to a problem of function in the area... She insists that any disturbance in the physical structure itself is preceded and later accompanied by disturbances in this energy body or field.

As she looked at the energy body of the patient, she noted that the vortex of energy located at the throat showed a gray color with red specks. She described these cones of energy as moving at different rhythms with an irregular slowing down and speeding up. In the normal person, Diane sees these spiral cones of energy at the throat vortex as blue-grey in color and all moving at the same steady rhythm...

The energy of the parathyroids was "flickering", and she was sure the person had a disease of the parathyroids.

At times the etheric and astral centers may be interrelated and the mental out of harmony; if the color gray appears predominately in an astral center this indicates that there is a blockage between the emotional and mental fields.

If the astral body is generally disturbed, the energy will flow toward one particular chakra, usually that at the solar plexus. When there is a steady and harmonious rhythm between the astral and etheric chakras, a good inner relationship is indicated, whereas disharmony and dissonance may lead to disease.

A break in the petals or in the core of one of the astral centers, leading to a leakage of energy, will tend to make that center and the energy supplied to the corresponding part of the body more vulnerable; this may or may not lead to illness some kind of serious physical condition.

Gray color in the energy vortex always indicates trouble in that area.

Any disturbance in the crown center is reflected in most of the centers.

We have found that psychological patterns described by therapists are connected to the human energy field in predictable locations, shapes and colors.

When there are chronic disturbances on the emotional level, such as continuous hostility or anxiety, the energy discharge is disordered, and this can eventually damage the whole system. Fear and depression tend to cut down the normal flow of energy, so that organs like the kidneys become less able to function normally.

Just as too little energy is damaging, so also is the effect of too much. If the energy flow is too rapid, it can be used up quickly, resulting in a depletion of the body's reservoir of energy. Tension will also deplete energy reserves, and this can have sudden effects at the physical level. Energy depletion of this kind has such a pervasive effect that it is not possible to tell where it will manifest or which vital organ will be affected, although DVK is able to see where the depletion is occurring.

If, for example, a person is emotionally upset over a period of time, this energy goes through the whole of the etheric field as well as the emotional field, and therefore it reacts upon the body's organs such as the kidneys. Conversely, when the body is under stress, some of the outward flow from the etheric through the chakras in turn affects the emotional field.

Grief, trauma, fear, hurtful memories all aid in "blowing open" the subconscious, which in turn releases the energies. The emotional states then usually increase out of proportion to reality and people are prone to obsession. If the extra Kundalini is not removed from the subconscious (belly area) and balanced with the rest of the body, it continues and compounds the obsessiveness.

Kundalini will look for the most open area or chakra to "escape" through if the body is not ready to receive its energies, blowing open a particular area or chakra and tending to pull all energies toward that spot, as if to a black hole. Only a redirection of energy releases the obsession.

The process of slowly awakening to the physical world continues after birth. The baby sleeps frequently during this time; the soul occupies its higher energy bodies. It leaves the physical and etheric bodies disengaged and allows them to be very busy doing the work of body building...

They still have some awareness in the spiritual world, and I have seen them struggling to let go of spiritual playmates and parent figures and to transfer affections to the new parents. The newborns I have observed have very wide open crown chakras... When I see them leave the physical body, in their higher bodies, they appear many times to be spirits of about twelve feet tall. They go through an enormous struggle in opening the lower root chakra connecting to the earth...

The child was struggling to let go of two playmates and a spirit woman who did not want to let go either. In his struggle, he would open and connect with the earth whenever his guide was present. Then he would lose contact with his guide, see his playmates and the woman, and struggle fiercely between the two worlds. He felt more affinity with the spirit woman than his own physical mother at those times... After a time of struggle, he would again connect with his guide and calm down, open the root and start the incoming process again...

The incoming soul often enters and leaves the body through the crown chakra as it begins working on opening the root chakra to grow roots into the physical plane. The root chakra looks like a very narrow funnel, and the crown chakra looks like a very wide funnel at this stage... The general field of a baby is amorphous, formless, and has a bluish or grayish color.

As a baby fixes his attention on an object in the physical plane, the aura tenses and brightens, especially around the head. Then, as his attention fades, the aura fades in color; however, it retains some of the experience in the form of color in the aura. Each experience adds a little color to the aura and enhances its individuality.

The child's chakras are all open in the sense that there is no protective film over them which screens out the incoming psychic influences. This makes the child very vulnerable and impressionable. Thus, even though the chakras are not developed like those of an adult, and the energy that comes into them is experienced in a vague way, it still goes right into the field of the child, and the child must deal with it in some way...

At around the age of seven, a protective screen is formed over the chakra openings that filters out a lot of the incoming influences from the universal energy field. Thus, the child is no longer as vulnerable as before...

Adult rage shocks the child's system like physical shock, while grief and depression swamp it like a fog.

In addition to the physical nourishment, breast-feeding gives etheric energy to the child. There is a small chakra in each nipple which supplies the baby with energy. Remember, the baby's chakras are not developed and so do not metabolize all the energies from the universal energy field needed to sustain life.

As a child grows and the second chakra begins to develop, the child's emotional life becomes enriched. The child weaves fantasy world in which to live, she begins to feel like a separate person from the mother, and these worlds help create that separation. Within these fantasy worlds are the child's possessions. She will send amoeba-like projections from her etheric field out and around these objects. The more important the object in building the fantasy world, the more energy-consciousness from her field with which she will surround it. The object becomes part of the self. When this object is grabbed forcefully from the hand of a child, it tears the field and causes pain, both physical and emotional, to the child.

Beginning around the age of two, the child sees his parents as belonging to him, "me, my daddy, my mommy, etc." The colors red-orange and rosy-pink become more visible in the aura. The child is learning to relate to another, learning a basic kind of love... The child prefers to play alone, or if a playmate is allowed in, the playmate is carefully watched so as not to allow too much disturbance of the space. At this stage the child does not have a strong enough ego to maintain a real clarity between self and other. She struggles to find her uniqueness, and yet still feels very connected to all things. Personal objects become ways of defining individuation. The private energy space helps this definition. Thus, when another child comes to visit the room of a five to seven year old, the hostess struggles between wanting the communication with another and preserving the image of self. So she struggles to control personal objects that help define who she is and around which she has placed her own energy-consciousness.

NOTE: You can see adults caught up in stages as far back as this one

At around the age of seven, the child begins to weave a lot of gold energy into this space. The space becomes freer, larger, less connected to mommy and more open to visitors. Having a greater sense of self, the child now begins to see her similarities to other humans. She can now allow the "other" a greater self-expression within her private space. A visitor is allowed to create all manner of energy forms within her private space. This makes things more "fun" and "lively" and enhances fantasy life. Children go into the "gang" stage. One of the things that makes this all possible is that, by the age of about seven, all the chakras now have a protecting screen over them that filters out many of the energetic influences from the field around her. The child feels "safer" because in her auric bodies she really is.

As the child grows into latency between seven and puberty, the development of more mental faculties occurs, along with the development of the third chakra... The mental energies are primarily used to enhance the fantasy life of the child... The child becomes the Indian chief, the princess, Wonder Woman... Within these archetypal forms are found the deep spiritual longings of the individual, the goals and aspiration, as expressed by the qualities played out in the backyard or the school playground.

As the child approaches puberty, large changes start occurring all through the body and the surrounding energy field. More green is added to the aura and the individual's private space. The space becomes infused with "vibes" from friends. As the heart chakra opens to new levels of feelings, and the dawning of eros and love emerge from deep within the psyche, the beautiful color of rose fills the field. The pituitary (third eye chakra) is activated, and the body begins to mature to that of an adult. All the chakras are affected by these changes. These new higher vibrations are sometimes embraced with excitement by the individual and at other times are loathed because they bring with them new longings and new vulnerability that the individual has not yet experienced...

The individual now repeats all the stages of growth that he has experienced but with a difference. The first three stages involved the self as the center of the universe... Now it is an "I-thou" relationship... The individual no longer "owns" the love object as he did in the case of his parents or toys.

By the end of adolescence, the chakras and energy pattern used by the individual are now set. All chakras have taken on an adult form. It is at this point that the individual may try to settle down and have no more changes. Some are able to accomplish this and with it cause there lives to stagnate into safe, set, patterns of clearly defined and limited reality. Most people, sufficiently shaken by their life experiences, see that reality is not so easily definable and continue a lifelong search for meaning that leads them through constant challenge to deeper experiences of fulfillment.

In maturity, the "I-thou" expands to include the personal family, which creates its own energy form. More energies flowing through the throat chakra help this personal giving and receiving... The heart can open to include not only love of the mate and children, but also love of humanity... As the third eye opens to higher vibrations, one begins to see the unity of all things and can see at the same time the unique preciousness of each individual soul within that unity.

As the individual approaches old age and death, even more higher-vibration rates can be added to the energy bodies. People's hair turns bright white as the white light coursing through their being increases their affinity with the spirit world. Now, to the "I-thou" relationship is added a very deep personal relationship with God. The lower earthly energy, metabolized though the lower chakras, decreases and is steadily replaced by higher finer energies having much more to do with spirit than life on the physical plane... The solar plexus chakra, especially, becomes more harmonious.

Because they resemble wheels or flowers, esotericists call these formations chakras. In a person whose soul life is undeveloped, the "lotus flowers" are of a darkish color, quiet and unmoving. In a seer they are in motion, shining forth in different colors.

When an esoteric student begins practicing the exercises, the light of the lotus flowers intensifies; later the flowers will also begin to rotate. When this happens, it means that a person is beginning to have the ability to see clairvoyantly. These "flowers" are the sense organs of the soul.

The spiritual sense organ, which is near the larynx, enables us to see clairvoyantly into the way of thinking of other soul beings. The organ located in the region of the heart opens clairvoyant cognition into the mentality and character of other souls. With the sense organ situated near the solar plexus, we gain insight into the abilities and talents of other souls.

If we are to find our way about this world, simply achieving mobility of the lotus flowers is not enough. We must be able to regulate and control – by our own will and in full consciousness – the movements of our spiritual organs. We must be able to hear what is called the "inner world." And for this we need to develop not only the soul body, but also the ether body.

I do not believe that the crown chakra itself is the seat of enlightenment, but rather the presence and connection of all the chakras together, given conscious attention, that brings enlightenment.

For specially strong vibrations may at any time galvanize one or other of the chakras into temporary activity, without arousing the serpent-fire at all; or it may happen that the fire may be partially roused, and in this way also spasmodic clairvoyance may be produced for the time.

The chakra system is used with every psychic ability, no exceptions. Whatever the psychic ability, the method of development or the terminology used to describe it, it is all done through chakra stimulation. It is impossible to manifest any psychic ability without first stimulating the chakras. There are many ways to develop yourself, agreed, but they all, directly or indirectly, stimulate the chakra system. And let's not forget natural ability. Many people are born with naturally active chakras and hence, natural psychic ability.

Mediums are people who exhibit psychic abilities when aided by a nonphysical spirit entity. This entity stimulates the chakras of the medium directly, by melding with the medium and causing psychic abilities; clairvoyance, channelling, healing, production of ectoplasm, etc to manifest through the medium. This is why they are called Mediums or channels, i.e., they have the ability to become a passive vehicle for a spirit entity to affect, or communicate with, the physical world... If you learn to control your own chakras and energy, you can do these things on your own, with no spirit entity involved.

NOTE: Swedenborg's Celestial & Spiritual exactly!

One sense organ is never developed apart from the others. - HTKHWclairvoyant • modern • Steiner

The ether body is not merely a result of the physical body's substances and forces, but a real, independent entity that calls these same substances and forces to life...

A portion of the ether body is finer than the rest, and this finer part forms a unity with the sentient soul, while the coarser part forms a kind of unity with the physical body.

NOTE: Blavatsky refers to the etheric body as the 'astral'

There are three kinds of 'doubles'... First, man has his 'double' or shadow, properly so called, around which the physical body of the fetus- the future man- is built. The imagination of the mother, or an accident which affects the child, will affect also the astral body. The astral and the physical both exist before the mind is developed into action, and before the Atma awakes. This occurs when the child is seven years old, and with it comes the responsibility attaching to a conscious sentient being. This 'double' is born with man, dies with him, and can never separate itself far from the body during life, and though surviving him, it disintegrates, pari passu, with the corpse. It is this which is sometimes seen over the graves like a luminous figure of the man that was, during certain atmospheric conditions. From its physical aspect it is, during life, man's vital double, and after death, only the gases given off from the decaying body...

It is not created; it grows, as I told you, with the man and exists in the rudimentary condition even before the child is born.

The etheric body (from "ether," the state between energy and matter) is composed of tiny energy lines "like a sparkling web of light beams"... It has the same structure as the physical body including all the anatomical parts and all the organs.

The etheric body consists of a definite structure of lines of force, or energy matrix, upon which the physical matter of the body tissues is shaped and anchored. The physical tissues exist as such only because of the vital field behind them; that is, the field prior to, not a result of, the human body... Through the use if High Sense Perception, we observed that an energy field matrix in the shape of a leaf is projected by the plant prior to the growth of a leaf, and then the leaf grows into that already existing form.

The web-like structure of the etheric body is in constant motion. To clairvoyant vision, sparks of bluish-white light move along its energy lines throughout the entire dense physical body. The etheric body extends from one quarter to two inches beyond the physical body and pulsates about 15-20 cycles per minute.

The color of the etheric body varies from light blue to gray. The light blue color has been connected to a finer form than the gray. That is, a more sensitive person with a sensitive body will tend to have a bluish first layer, whereas a more athletic, robust type of person will tend to have a more grayish etheric body. All the chakras of this layer are the same color as the body. That is, they will also range between blue to gray in color. The chakras look like vortices made of a net of light, just like the rest of the etheric body... This etheric substance sets up the matrix for the cells to grow; i.e., the cells of the body grow along the lines of energy of the etheric matrix, and that matrix is there before the cells grow...

You may be able to see the pulsations of this etheric body. The pulsation rises, say at the shoulder, and then makes its way down the arm, like a wave. If you look more closely, there appears to be a blank space between the shoulder and the blue hazy light; then there is a layer of brighter blue haze that slowly fades as it extends from the body. But be aware that as soon as you see it, it will be gone, because it moves so fast.

The etheric is not only the vehicle of the life force or prana; it also furnishes the basic pattern according to which the physical body is built.

To the clairvoyant, the etheric body looks like a luminous web of fine bright lines of force which, in a healthy person, stand out at right angles to the surface of the skin. Its texture may be fine-grained or coarse, a characteristic which repeats itself in the physical body type.

The color of the etheric body is a pale blue-gray or violet-gray, slightly luminous and shimmering, like heat waves above the earth on hot days. In the average person it extends from five to seven centimeters (two to three inches) beyond the periphery of the physical body, gradually fading away into the enveloping ocean of etheric energy. This ocean of energy is in constant rapid motion, and surrounds the body much as the atmosphere surrounds the earth.

The first characteristic of the etheric body is color: normally, pale violet or blue-gray.

The second is degree of brightness: this may vary from strongly luminous to dull, but should be uniform throughout.

The third is motion: movement should be rhythmic throughout the field, but may be fast, average or slow.

The fourth is form: size, shape and symmetry are all important.

The fifth is angle: the etheric should stand out at right angles to the physical body; if it is droopy in part or as a whole, this indicates ill health.

The sixth is elasticity: the ability of the etheric to stretch and expand is a sign of health.

The seventh is texture: the quality should be firm and fairly fine; if it is coarse, porous, spongy, thin or broken, it should be noted whether this condition is generalized or limited to a section of the etheric field, for this indicates some kind of illness or abnormality.

The ether body is the subtle body that is seen by clairvoyants as a kind of double of the physical body. One might say it is an intermediate stage between the physical body and the soul body. Just as we can turn our attention away from things around us, so those who are clairvoyant can completely erase the physical body from their perception. Consequently, the physical body becomes totally transparent. What still remains before their soul eyes are the so-called ether body and the soul body, which is larger than the physical and ether bodies and permeates both.

The ether body is an extremely delicate and finely organized structure. Its basic color is one not found among the seven colors of the rainbow. As we become able to observe the ether body, we learn to see a color that actually does not exist for sensory observation. It is best compared to the color of young peach blossoms. Of course, to study the ether body alone, we have to remove the soul body from our perception through an exercise of attentiveness similar to the one mentioned above.

The tiny particles of the human ether body are in constant movement. Countless currents stream through it in all directions. These currents maintain and regulate life. An attentive observer may even see traces of the ether body in minerals. Without esoteric training, these currents and movements are completely independent of our will and consciousness.

When an organ is removed, the etheric organ can still be reconstructed and serve to keep harmony in the auric bodies above the physical body.

The etheric double is not in any sense a separate vehicle, but must be considered simply as part of the physical body. This etheric matter is the link between the astral and the physical, but it has also a very important function as the vehicle of the vital force on the physical plane.

The most important function of the etheric body is the transfer of life energy or vitality from the universal field to the individual field, and thence to the physical body.

At the etheric level, the individual field is conditioned and vitalized by the life force or etheric energy which pours in through its major centers or chakras.

The etheric channels run parallel to the nervous system.

Much as the unborn child floats in the embryonic fluid of the womb, so human beings are sustained by a sea of nourishing energies.

Almost exactly co-extensive with and interpenetrating its visible form is his etheric double, and that also has a brain which is really no less physical than the other, though composed of matter in a condition finer than the gaseous.

The etheric matter of which we have spoken and the denser matter ordinarily recognized as belonging to the brain are really both parts of one and the same physical organism. Neither can be affected without instantly producing some reaction on the other.

Now this etheric double has often been called the vehicle of the human life-ether, or prana. Anyone who has developed the psychic faculties will see the solar life-principle almost colorless, though intensely luminous and active, which is constantly poured into the earth's atmosphere by the sun. The etheric part of his spleen absorbs this universal life, and specializes it into prana, so that it may be more readily assimilable by his body. It then courses all over that body, running along every nerve-thread in tiny globules of lovely rose light, causing the glow of life and health and activity to penetrate every atom of the etheric double. When the rose-colored particles have been absorbed, the superfluous life-ether finally radiates form the body in every direction as bluish white light.

When a healthy person is in a calm and happy state of mind, the energy flows evenly and smoothly. The chakras are able to transform energy from level to level in health as well as in disease, so that when an individual is full of affection this is transmitted to the body in the form of increased balanced energy. If there is no emotional conflict, the etheric energy is strengthened and enhanced. Certainly, healthy children are naturally happy and spontaneous, and they are overflowing with energy.

[The etheric double's] absence from the body is generally marked by the heaviness or semi-lethargy of the latter. Acting as the reservoir, or vehicle, of the life-principle during earthlife, its withdrawal from the body is naturally marked by the lowering of all vital functions.

The Master: '[The etheric double] is not a body in the ordinary sense of the word in that you cannot live in it, as you can in your physical body; you cannot even see it, unless you have developed the lowest form of clairvoyance- which is called etheric sight.

'The matter of which this etheric body is composed, also surrounds our nerves... The nerve currents do not actually run along the white thread of the physical nerve, but along a coating of etheric matter which surrounds it, so that if this coating is removed from the physical nerve, we do not get any sensation. This is what happens when an anaesthetic is used. In the case of a local anaesthetic, the etheric matter which conducts the feeling is driven away a short distance from the particular nerve... When a much more powerful general anaesthetic is given for a major operation, which necessitates the patient being unconscious and devoid of feeling for a considerable time, the etheric matter is driven away almost entirely from the dense body. If it is entirely driven out, then the patient dies; this is what has happened when a patient occasionally dies while under the effect of an anaesthetic.'

NOTE: Look into what exactly anesthesia does to nerves. Novocain blocks nerve transmissions by blocking sodium channels.

Without the etheric body 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.

Dryer is able to peel back a person's waking self and gaze directly at the unceasing river of images that is always flowing through their unconscious mind.

Dryer's ability to observe and interpret the innermost workings of a person's psyche is one of the reasons she is able to effect such profound transformations in many of her clients. The first time she described the stream of images she saw unfolding in my own energy field, I had the uncanny sensation she was telling me about one of my own dreams, save that it was a dream I had not yet dreamed. At first the phantasmagoria of images are only mysteriously familiar, but as she unraveled and explained each symbol and metaphor in turn, I recognized the machinations of my inner self, both the things I accepted and the things I was less willing to embrace.

While the etheric is not in itself a vehicle of consciousness, it does transmit the stream of consciousness to the physical brain. There is an etheric web of the finest texture that acts as a natural barrier between the etheric and astral fields, and protects the individual from opening communication between these two levels prematurely. It is in effect a protective device, and its injury has serious consequences, since this opens the door to forces beyond the individual's control. Among the factors reported to modify or tear this web are alcoholism and the continued use of narcotics and similar substances.

NOTE: things that break the barriers prematurely.

These currents then ramify and branch out in the most delicate way to form a kind of net. This becomes a sort of membranous network at the boundary of the ether body. Before we began practicing the ether body was not enclosed. The currents of life flowed in and out from the universal ocean of life directly and unhindered. Now, however, all influences from the outside have to pass through this thin web or skin. As a result, we become sensitive to these outer currents and begin to perceive them.

If a person is ill, the outline of the etheric body becomes uneven and the normal energy flow through the chakras is reduced.

When the energy pattern is closely knit, it is very resistant to invasion from the outside world, but when loose and porous it can be penetrated more easily, and therefore the subject is apt to take in whatever may be in the surrounding environment.

The goal of our development is now to form a kind of central point near the physical heart from which currents and movements spread in manifold spiritual colors and shapes. This center is not really a "point," but rather a quite complex formation, a marvelous organ, shining and shimmering spiritually in a great variety of colors and revealing quickly changing shapes of great regularity.

Further forms and streams of color radiate out from this central organ to the other parts of the body and even beyond it, permeating and illuminating the entire soul body. The most important currents, however, flow to the lotus flowers, permeating each petal and regulating their rotation. The currents then flow out from the tips of the petals and disappear into the surrounding space. The more developed a person is, the greater the circumference formed by these spreading currents.

The twelve-petalled lotus flower is closely related to the central point described above. All the currents flow directly into and through this "point."

When we follow the instructions given here, we acquire currents and movements in our ether body, which are in harmony with the laws and evolution of the world to which we belong.

In individuals who have some higher sense perception, especially telepathy, the etheric seems to be finer in texture than in the average person, and also slightly larger and more rhythmic.

[Healers'] etheric fields seem to have more elasticity than the average, thus enabling them to transmit energy to the patient.

In a trance-medium, the etheric varies from the norm in several ways. If the medium goes into a trance frequently over a long period of time, certain changes take place. The texture of the etheric becomes increasingly spongy and porous, and its connection with the physical body loosens. Physical problems related to the kidneys, adrenals and water metabolism may arise from these etheric changes and abnormalities manifest themselves through fluctuations in body weight.

The chakras are the gears that turn the spiral of evolution, drawing our attention toward the still untapped frontiers of consciousness and its infinite potential.

In the dimension of time, chakras describe stages of cultural evolution and personal life cycles.

In terms of evolution, chakras are paradigms of consciousness that prevail in the world at a given time.

This fits in well with my "Societal Change" section in human-essence.php.

It is well known that tiny particles of dense physical matter are constantly being thrown off from man's body, in insensible perspiration and in other ways; and these particles also are visible to clairvoyant sight as a faint grey mist. These particles are in many cases crystals, and therefore are seen in certain geometrical forms; for example, the tiny cubes of sodium chloride or common salt, are among the most frequent. The health-aura is a faint bluish-white, almost colorless, and has the appearance of being striated; that is, it is full of, or perhaps it might rather be said to be composed of, an infinitude of straight lines radiating evenly in all directions from the pores of the body. That at least is the normal condition of these lines when the body is in perfect health; they are separate, orderly, and as nearly parallel as their radiation allows. But on the advent of disease there is an instant change, the lines in the neighborhood of the part affected becoming erratic, and lying about in all directions in the wildest confusion, or drooping like the stems of faded flowers.

The rigidity and parallelism of the lines of this health-aura are caused by the constant radiation of life-force from the healthy body; and as soon as this radiation ceases, the lines fall into the confused condition described above. As long as the lines are firm and straight, and the force steadily radiates between them, the body seems to be almost entirely protected from the attack of evil physical influences, such as germs of disease, for example – such germs being repelled and carried away by the outrush of the life-force.

It is possible by an effort of will to check this radiation of vitality at the outer extremity of its lines, and there to build it into a kind of wall or shell, which will be absolutely impervious to these germs – and, with a little further effort, impervious also to any kind of astral or elemental influence – so long as such effort of the will in maintained.

The etheric chakras are most easily visualized as rapidly spinning vortices, which draw in energy at their cores in a tight flow and disperse it along the periphery of their petals in ever-widening spirals. The torrent of incoming energy from the general field pours into the chakras, and because of their pattern of organization, this produces a whirling or spinning motion. This flow does not affect their basic geometrical structure, however, for that remains constant.

The principal functions of the etheric chakras are to absorb and distribute prana or vital energy to the etheric body and, through it, to the physical body, and to maintain dynamic connections with the corresponding chakras in the emotional and mental bodies. One of the functions of the chakras is to coordinate the interaction among the various fields. The condition of the physical body is affected not only by the rate of etheric energy flow, but also by the degree of harmony in its rhythm, and any obstructions which deform the normal energy patterns result in loss of vitality and ill health.

The etheric chakras, which lie on the surface of the etheric body, vary greatly in shade, brightness, size, rapidity of motion, rhythm and texture, some being finer, some coarser, depending upon individual idiosyncrasy and state of health. For this reason, the disease process is very apparent in the chakras, since it both disrupts their harmonic motion and changes the texture of their material.

John: "The astral body is the pattern of energy that keeps your personality structure in containment, so that you function upon this level rather than slipping into levels of lives past. That is, the soul is encased in the astral body to maintain your individuality in these days and in these times." - SCchanneled • modern • Ryerson

In the astral body you do not have any physical organs, i.e., eyes. You are a non-physical point of consciousness floating in space. You are also unaffected by gravity and other laws of physics. In this state there are no ups or downs, backs or fronts, left or rights. It is only lifelong habit that tries to force this perspective on you during projection. - ToPOBEr • modern • Bruce

The Astral Body is the vehicle of the soul and mind, not the soul and mind itself. - PotABOBEr • Spiritualism • Muldoon

This astral vehicle is even more sensitive to external impressions than the gross and etheric bodies, for it is itself the seat of all desires and emotions – the connecting link through which alone the ego can collect experiences from physical life. It is peculiarly susceptible to the influence of passing thought-currents, and when the mind is not actively controlling it, it is perpetually receiving these stimuli from without, and eagerly responding to them.

A man who had been a drunkard was describing the difficulties in the way of his reformation. He declared that after a long period of total abstinence he had succeeded in entirely destroying the physical desire for alcohol, so that in his waking condition he felt an absolute repulsion for it; yet he stated that he still frequently dreamed that he was drinking, and in that dream state he felt the old horrible pleasure in such degradation.

Apparently, therefore, during the day his desire was kept under control by the will.

The second is the 'Thought' body, or Dream body, rather; known among Occultists as the Mayavi-rupa, or 'Illusion-body'. During life this image is the vehicle both of thought and of the animal passions and desires. - SiOresearcher • Theosophy • Blavatsky

The astral body is composed exclusively of astral matter, and is, in fact, the expression of the man on the astral plane, just as his physical body is the expression of him on the lower levels of the physical plane. - Dclairvoyant • Theosophy • Leadbeater

As I stood there, I perceived that a condensation of light was forming on the bank of the pool, and I sensed a Being within the radiance from whom flowed an indescribable beautiful love.

[The astral body] is composed of astral substance which resembles very fine matter.

This magic NOTE: astral body is made of pure neural energy flashing up from the clear light. It is like the between-body, and like the body you have when you arise in a dream, its eyes are like the eyes you see with in the dream, its ears and other senses like the between or dream senses...

[The magic body] is like a bubble in that it irrepressibly bubbles forth from the clear light ground.

"During my NDE, I observed that my body was made up of vibrant bits of colored light, a kind of shimmering shape very like the texture of the rest of the place I was in."

Marilyn Hall, v.XVII, n.1

The other me had a body of light, closely resembling my normal, physical self. I did not glow with light, nor was I illuminated, but I was aware of being composed entirely of light. I climbed out of bed, stepping onto an ankle that had never known an injury.

Practically all my focus, attention and awareness were with my light body self.

There is no feeling of weight in my body.

Some NDEers assert that in addition to being composed of colored frequencies of light, we are also constituted out of sound. "I realized that each person and thing has its own musical tone range as well as its own color range." "If you can imagine yourself effortlessly moving in and out among prismatic rays of light and hearing each person's musical notes join and harmonize with your own when you touch or pass them, you would have some idea of the unseen world." - HUscientific, researcher • modern • Talbot

The astral plane is the world of passion, of emotion and sensation; and it is through man's vehicle on this plane that all his feelings exhibit themselves to the clairvoyant investigator. The astral body of man is therefore continually changing in appearance as his emotions change.

Another strikingly holographic feature of the OBE is the plasticity of the form a person assumes once they are out of the body. After detaching from the physical, OBEers sometimes find themselves in a ghostlike body that is a replica of their biological body. Although some OBEers describe this phantom double as naked, others find themselves in bodies that are full clothed. This suggests that the phantom double is not a permanent energy replica of the biological body, but is instead a kind of hologram that can assume many shapes. There are numerous reports where people have also perceived themselves as balls of light, shapeless clouds of energy, and even no discernible form at all.

"A cloud of colors," "a mist," "an energy pattern," or "an energy field."

After wondering what he looked like, one man said he suddenly found himself staring at his own back.

Again I noticed the strange rubbery elasticity of this other body. I could stand in the middle of the room and reach out to touch the wall some eight feet away. At first, my arm didn't come anywhere near the wall. Then I kept pushing my hand outward, and suddenly the texture of the wall was against my hand... If left alone, it reverts to your normal humanoid shape. If you consciously think it into a given shape, I suspect you take that form.

A soul may appear as a mass of energy, but it can appear human, too. - JoShypnosis • modern • Newton

Our need for a body in the lucid state is due in part to our past identity with a physical body, and our hesitancy to relinquish this identity.

The texture of the "astral body" is flexible – often described as fluidic – and has the capacity to expand to a considerable extent, but the periphery is clearly marked even though the material dissipates imperceptibly into the surrounding astral field.

You will finally learn to take many forms, as you choose, consciously. In one manner of speaking you do this now, translating your thought and emotion quite literally but unconsciously into physical objects NOTE: becoming. When you imagine yourself as a child, after death, you suddenly have the form of the child that you were. For a certain period of time, you may manipulate this form so that it takes any appearance that it had when it was connected with your immediately previous physical life. Most choose a form at the age of peak physical, mental, or emotional abilities, regardless of beauty or age at that time. You will feel comfortable with the form you choose and will use it to communicate with others you have known; though for such communication with the living, you may adopt the form known to that individual.

Habit comes into play, and the astral and mental particles, having become accustomed to that form, retain it even when the dense body which caused it is destroyed, so that there is no more difficulty in recognizing a man after death than before it. Temporary changes may take place, for the finer matter may be molded by a passing though; but as soon as the pressure of that constraining thought is withdrawn, it slips back again into its usual shape.

No man habitually images himself as decrepit, infirm, bowed, or wrinkled; and so, although immediately after death his astral body may accurately reproduce all these characteristics, the unconscious influence of his own thought of himself slowly brings back to him something of the appearance of the prime of life.

A factor which has its share in helping to preserve the astral shape unchanged after death is the thought of others. When a man's friends, whether living or dead, turn their thoughts upon him, they naturally think of him as they know him; but every such thought is a momentary molding force, and in the aggregate the effect is considerable...

Since this finer matter can be modeled by thought, the man is as he thinks of himself, and it is easy for each person to clothe himself as he will. If his attention is entirely occupied with some other matter, his mind usually automatically reproduces some ordinary costume with which it is familiar, so that he will probably appear in whatever dress he wears most frequently.

Case No. 561: "His astral body wore a white undershirt just as his physical body did. But his astral body was outlined with a silver glow, and it was transparent."

At first this mental body will have a form similar to the body of the life just lived, yet it is without any defects and in the prime of life.

Case No. 560: "I saw a mist arise from the top of her head like a silver cord. It spread out and as it got about four feet above her it suddenly took on her natural form and looks... I saw Uncle Charley take her hands and they passed right on through the ceiling before my very eyes." - CBAPresearcher • modern • Crookall

Case No. 701: When very ill in hospital, this lady felt "a wispy puff of cotton" float away from her body and go to the middle of the ward. There "it seemed to unravel itself into another version of me." - CBAPresearcher • modern • Crookall

NOTE: Continued from rocking separation

...Shortly after that, the doctor felt his true self to be somehow gathered in the area of his head, where he emerged through the sutures of the skull.

"I recollect distinctly," he told the society in his report, "how I appeared to myself something like a jellyfish as regards to color and form..."

He felt himself bobbing gently up and down until his exertions landed him squarely on the floor.

At that point, he gradually arose and expanded himself to the full stature of his regular physical body.

"I seemed to be translucent, of a bluish cast, and perfectly naked," he said...

As he reached the door, Dr. Wiltse observed that he was suddenly fully clothed.

Another man who studied his hands while in the ND state said they were "composed of light with tiny structures in them" and when he looked closely he could even see "the delicate whorls of his fingerprints and tubes of light up his arms." - HUscientific, researcher • modern • Talbot

The form of our physical body is carried over in replica down to the last hair follicle and scar, unless you deliberately think otherwise.

"The astral body is an exact counterpart of the last physical form. Astral beings retain the same appearance which they possessed in youth in their previous earthly sojourn."

I passed the right hand over the left shoulder confirming the presence of a dark, hairy birthmark... on the left deltoid...

The soma is a replica of the psychosoma NOTE: astral body down to the smallest detail, including pores, fingerprints and hair.

You find yourself outside of your physical gown or body, and clad in your astral form alone... As you glance at your body you find that it appears not different from your ordinary one. Even your clothing is the same, to the most minute detail- this occurs through perfectly natural laws on the Astral plane.

"When I looked down at my hands, I saw that they were translucent/transparent. As I marveled at the intricacies of blood vessels, atoms, and the swirling activity of my 'inside.'"

NOTE: still mostly in his physical body during an OBE

I then moved my arms, which were folded, and stretched them upward as I lay on my back. They felt outstretched and I was surprised when I looked, for there were my arms still folded over my chest.

I looked upward to where I felt them, and I saw the shimmering outlines of my arms and hands in exactly the place they felt they were!.. I could see through them to the bookshelves beyond. It was like a bright, glowing outline which moved when I felt them move or made them move willfully... they felt just like ordinary hands...

I tried to move the physical arms, but could not do so... I tried to feel with my physical arms, but could determine no sensation... With the glowing outline arms, I clasped my hands together, and they felt completely normal... I moved one outline hand to the shelf by the cot, and I couldn't feel the shelf! My outline hand went right through it.

The vibrations started to fade, and I quickly moved the glowing outline arms and hands back to my chest. It felt exactly as if I slipped on long-sleeved gloves, and then I could move my physical arms.

One retains his organs of sex in the astral body.

Nine times out of ten I awaken in the astral body with everything so perfectly duplicated that I do not realize that I am out of my physical shell- until I begin to move, or try to make contact with physical objects about me. The majority of the dead state that when they have awakened in the astral body, they have thought themselves in the physical body! - PotABOBEr • Spiritualism • Muldoon

When we come into the spirit world we are recognizably ourselves. But we leave behind us all our physical disabilities... The five senses, as we know them upon earth, become many degrees more acute when we are discarnate. Any supernormal or subnormal conditions of the physical body, such as excessive stoutness or leanness, vanish when we arrive in these realms...

There is a stage in our lives on earth which we know as the prime of life. It is towards this that we all move...

How does the spirit appear anatomically, you will ask? Anatomically, just exactly the same as does yours.

The temporarily released "doubles" of the pseudo-dead (and of elderly astral projectors- whose vehicles of vitality are loosening from the body, preparatory to transition) appear younger than their physical counterparts.

The myopia I have had since adolescence, the permanent buzz in the left ear and the "scraping" sound created by the narrowing of the space between three cervical vertebrae upon moving my head from side to side that have been with me since an auto accident in 1970, completely disappeared while outside the soma.

The person with an amputated leg carries a strong mind construct or template of a missing leg. Even though the astral body is perfect, how the person "sees" the self in his or her mind has a great deal to do with how the astral body appears to others...

Most people on the astral plane choose to depict themselves at an age when they were healthiest and most handsome or beautiful- their prime. Yet if wearing glasses is part of that image of self, the person may choose to depict himself or herself with glasses.

"I have also spoken with a certain one who had died when an infant, and yet then appeared as an adult." -Swedenborg, Arcana Coelestia

It is the law that, as we progress spiritually, so do we shake off the semblance of age as it is known on earth... We do, in truth, return- or advance, according to our age when we pass into spirit- towards what we have always known as 'the prime of life'.

I examined my hands and feet. They seemed semi-material, as if seen under X-rays.

[He goes to visit a friend] In this dimension one only kept the appearance of the upper portion of the body.

The astral body is just one more costume we wear.

I have slipped out of the astral body, leaving it behind like a worn out pair of coveralls. If you manage to accomplish this, you will still retain all the simulated senses you have in the physical. The power of thought must be handled carefully and clearly. Anything you can imagine you will see or experience. - STOBEr • modern • Taylor

Case No. 577: "Up and up, through the ethereal regions, he went till suddenly he... became conscious of himself in heaven as a small transparent ball of jelly, in the center of which was a speck which he knew to be his very Self or Ego." - CBAPresearcher • modern • Crookall

The form is consistant with one's beliefs and expectations. - JoShypnosis • modern • Newton

While deep in thought about a novel I was working on about werewolves, I noticed that the ghostly image of a werewolf's body had formed around my own body. I could actually see the individual hairs in the fur and the way the canine nails protruded from the wolfish hand that encased my own hand. As my thoughts strayed from the novel, the werewolf image slowly faded.

"They have to appear to me as their loved ones would recall them. For example, a boy who died in infancy but who would have been sixteen at the time of his mother's reading may appear to me at the age he died. Or he might appear as a teenager and tell me what age he would have been had he remained here."

A woman at a lecture: "I was here in California, and my daughter in Oregon had had a baby. I wanted to go and see this child...

"One night I was cooking supper, waiting for my husband to come home, and I went in and lay down on the bed- still had on my apron from the kitchen. I dropped off into a semiconscious state and suddenly I was standing in my daughter's home in Oregon. Her husband was home from work, and was holding and talking to the baby. Suddenly they both looked up and saw me standing in the door. They were very surprised. And their surprise, I guess, startled me back into my body...

"In a few minutes the phone rang. My daughter was wanting to know where I was- was I all right? They thought I was dead! They had seen me in Oregon! The funny part was- they didn't see me with my apron; they saw me in my best dress, the one I'd just bought and was planning to wear when I went to Oregon. It seemed I just put it on and went."

The appearance of the psychosoma NOTE: astral body is dependent upon the mental state of the projector. Illnesses and disturbances of the soma and the mind generally alter the psychosoma for the worse.

Those... who had been injured or maimed in some way, recovered their wholeness when they arrived in Focus 27. One report referred to a man... who had been born with only the vestiges of legs. He had lived for nearly thirty-five years... In Focus 23 he was still deformed; in 27... he was whole and fit, as he had never been in physical life.

My astral legs didn't feel like my physical legs; they felt rubbery or elastic. I noticed that I could extend them or wrap them around each other forming an astral pretzel. I could also change their size and shape at will.

I have managed to change the length of my limbs and even to add extra limbs, tentacles, horns, flowers and flames growing from my fingers. Again, as with the matter penetration experiments, I found there is usually a slight pause, almost as if the imagery generator was saying, 'are your sure?' before the effect begins.

In the early stages of OBE activity, you seem to retain the form of your physical body... As you become more familiar with this other state of being, you may become less humanoid in shape... For a short period it retains the form of the mold; then it begins to melt around the edges and finally it becomes a liquid or blob... When this happens in an OBE, it takes only a thought for you to become totally human again in shape and form.

NOTE: Aha - the astral body is simply a thought form!

The hands and arms are capable of remarkable flexibility beyond imagination. They are also lightning fast. - EwOOBEr • modern • Briggs

I felt, physically, a giant... I felt light in weight.

Now, you feel your life force vibrating at a higher rate, and realize that the sense of weight seems to be dropping from you. You feel as light as a feather, and feel as though you could move without an effort.

The psychosoma NOTE: astral body appears to be somewhat shrunken while outside the soma. When re-entering the body, it seems to increase in volume and weight.

The mental body is about the size of a child of eight to ten years old.

The psychosoma NOTE: astral body, even though it is "more subtle" and does not breathe air, is still slightly material or physical in nature. It has been stated that it should weight about one thousandth of the weight of the soma. So, a person weighing 154 pounds would have a psychosoma weighing approximately 2.5 ounces...

When one discards the soma while passing through the first death, the holo-chakra or energetic body is not yet completely discarded. In this state, the psychosoma remains fairly dense, retaining a varying, minimal percentage of energy.

Its appearance differs very greatly according to the stage of development which the ego to which it belongs has reached. In the case of the entirely uncultured and undeveloped person it is simply a floating wreath of mist, roughly ovoid in shape, but very irregular and indefinite in outline, while the figure within the mist (the denser astral counterpart of the physical body) is also vague, though generally recognizable.

These were entities who had completed their cycle of incarnations here.

"These beings have the ability to radiate a warmth of friendliness that evokes complete trust. Perceiving our thoughts is absurdly easy for [them]. The entire history of humankind and earth is available to them in the most minute detail." -Monroe

What these beings looked like: "The first of these I saw I remember very clearly, and the manner of its appearance: there was at first a dazzle of light, and then I saw that this came from the heart of a tall figure with a body apparently shaped out of half-transparent or opalescent air, and throughout the body ran a radiant, electrical fire, to which the heart seemed the centre. Around the head of this being and through its waving luminous hair, which was blown all about the body like the living strands of gold, there appeared flaming wing-like auras. From the being itself, light seemed to stream outwards in every direction; and the effect left on me after the vision was one of extraordinary lightness, joyousness, or ecstasy."

W.Y. Evans-Wentz, The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries

The psychosoma NOTE: astral body always gives off some light, ranging from dim to exuberant. Its brightness is dependent upon the evolutionary level and condition of a consciousness and its environment.

NOTE: Monroe, while OB, goes to visit physical R.W. and she saw him

R.W.: "On the other side of the room was something hanging and waving in the air... It was like a filmy piece of gray chiffon."

NOTE: The following was observed from the physical while Monroe was OB

Stuart Twemlow: "Dr. Jones and I simultaneously had the impression of a heat-wave-like distortion of Monroe's upper body while the lower part of his body was clearly in focus to us."

NOTE: Charlie was a friend of Monroe's who died. BB was a visitor from another system

[Charlie] looked in BB's direction. (You got somebody with you?.. I can just barely see the edges of something... You will have to teach him to fine-tune a little better, Robert. I can't get even a clear outline, just something like heat distortion on the desert.)

Suddenly she disappeared from my sight; she seemed to dissolve into a cloud and vanish.

On a whole, I think that it is less uncommon for the disappearance to be gradual- a fading away, occasionally accompanied by an expansion of the figure. Other cases do not get beyond the stage of indefinite cloudy forms.

"While gazing, I distinctly saw – rising in the moonlit space between the curtains at the foot of the bed – what appeared to be a vapor or cloud, and as this grew higher, it gradually assumed the shape of a draped female figure, holding towards me in one hand a lamp and in the other a basin, from which steam seemed to rise. The form vanished slowly, and I afterwards fell asleep without experiencing either fear or horror."

-Robert Collings

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"The door at the end of the passage seemed obscured by mist. As he advanced, the mist, so to call it, gathered into one spot, deepened, and formed itself into the outline of a human figure, the head and shoulders becoming more and more distinct, while the rest of the body seemed enveloped in a gauzy, cloak-like vestment of many folds, reaching downwards so as to hide the feet, and from its width, as it rested on the flagged passage, giving a pyramidal outline. The full light of the window fell on the object, which was so thin and tenuous in its consistency that the light on the panels of a highly varnished door was visible through the lower part of the dregs. It was altogether colorless, a statue carved in mist. He had no thought of anything supernatural till, as he gazed, the head was turned towards him, and he at once recognized the features of a very dear friend. The expression of his countenance was that of holy, peaceful repose. And then, in an instant, all passed away. The writer can only compare the manner of the evanescence to the way in which a jet of steam is dissipated on exposure to cold air."

"The morrow's or the next day's post brought the tidings that his friend had tranquilly passed out of this world, at the time when he was seen by the writer."

-from the Church Quarterly Review

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"One night I awoke with a feeling some one was in the room. I looked about, and presently saw something behind the little table; felt myself grow perfectly cold; was not in the least frightened, and looked at it steadfastly. Gradually a man's head and shoulders were perfectly formed, but in a sort of misty material. The head and features were distinct, but the whole appearance was not substantial and plain; in fact it was like a cloud, formed as a man's head and shoulders. The formation of the head and forehead 'Captain W _____.' The appearance faded away."

"Have had a severe fall off the coach."

-E. W. R.

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"When crossing a garden on my way to dine there, I felt some irresistible, magnetic sort of influence compel me to turn around and look behind me. I saw an indistinct white form, about the height of a human being, gazing at me, as if it were trying to attract my attention. It was only a very few yards off. I at once walked towards it, and spoke, but it vanished."

-J. G. F. Russell

Legends of ghosts came from these memories. Our energy mass is not uniform. The eyes you speak of represent a more concentrated intensity of thought. They are not eyes, they are windows to old bodies, and all the physical extensions of former selves. The blackness is a concentration of our presence. We communicate by absorbing the energy presence of each other. - JoShypnosis • modern • Newton

Their appearance was always heralded by a brilliant flash of light. Like holograms shifting from their frequency aspects and slowly coming into focus, they were at first amorphous and slowly coalesced into human shape. There were often accompanied by doves "formed of pure light" that soared for great distances over the crowd, but never flapped their wings. As interest in the phenomenon started to wane, the Zeitoun figures also waned, becoming hazier and hazier until, in their last several appearances, they were little more than clouds of luminous fog.

Not all of the Marian apparitions are silent. Some, like the manifestations at Fatima and Lourdes, speak, and when they do, their message is invariable a warning of impending apocalypse if we mortals do not mend our ways. - HUscientific, researcher • modern • Talbot

On the afternoon before his death, at 3 o'clock, in broad daylight, Brown was attending the sick man:

"I was standing on one side of the bunk, and while trying to prevent Pearce from rising, I saw on the other side of the bunk, the wife, two children, and the mother of the dying man, all of whom I knew very well, and they are all still living. They appeared to be very sorrowful, but in all other respects were the same as ordinary human beings. I could not see through them; they were not at all transparent. They had on their ordinary clothes. The mother said to me in a clearly audible voice, "He will be buried on Thursday, at 12 o'clock, in about fourteen hundred fathoms of water." They all then vanished instantly, and I saw them no more."

-Captain Blacklock

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"The gas was full on at the time; there was no light about the figure; he was as natural as in life, but as I came near to him vanished. I was going down a corridor, and the vision was certainly 'external and palpable.'"

-Amelia M. Rooke

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"During church service, I had an impression of something being close to my face. I opened eyes, and saw distinctly the face of a friend. It appeared quite solid, and I could recognize all the markings in the face. Being startled, I closed my eyes, when it was no longer visible; on re-opening them it was still present. He died during the day (Sunday) on which I had the vision."

"It disappeared suddenly – did not fade, but was there one moment and gone the next."

-Anonymous

"I was sitting in my drawing-room reading, when I became aware of a vague presence within a few feet of me. It assumed no shape, and was nothing more than an indefinable dark appearance as of massed and disordered drapery, though there was not rustling. It made me feel a little uncomfortable. I received a note which informed me that my pupil had died at about the same time that I had been conscious of this appearance."

-James Went

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"I suddenly woke without any apparent reason, and felt an impulse to turn round, my face being towards the wall, from the children. Before turning, I looked up and saw a soft light in the room. I turned round, and then a wonderful vision met my gaze. Over the second bed from mine, and on the same side of the room, there was floating a small cloud of light, forming a halo of the brightness of the moon on an ordinary moonlight night."

"In the bed, over which the light seemed to float, slept the youngest of the 6 children."

"I was seized with a strong impulse to rise and touch the substance, or whatever it might be (for it was about 5 feet high), and was getting up when something seemed to hold me back. I am certain I heard nothing, yet I felt and perfectly understood the words – "No, lie down, it won't hurt you." I at once did what I felt I was told to do. I fell asleep shortly afterwards."

"At 6 o'clock I began dressing the children. The child had been talking with the others; suddenly he was silent. And then, looking me hard in the face with an extraordinary expression, he said, "Oh, Mr. Jupp, my mother came to me last night. Did you see her?"

-Rev. C. Jupp

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"I was placing my head on the pillows, when I beheld, close to the side of the bed, and on a level with it, Z's head, and the same wistful look on his face which it had worn when we had parted years before. Starting up, I cried out, "What do you want?" I did not fear; anger was my feeling. Slowly it retreated, and just as it disappeared in the shadow of the wall, a bright spark of light shone for a few seconds, and slowly expired."

"A few days after, my sister wrote, 'You will have heard of poor Z's death on his way to the South of France.'"

-Mrs. Forsyth Hunter

The emotional field is moving much more rapidly, and is therefore perceived as a higher octave of color and sound. The form of the individual emotional field (the astral body, or aura) has certain structural features which correspond to those of the etheric field and the physical body itself. To the clairvoyant, this structure appears as a multicolored aura extending thirty-nine to forty-five centimeters (fifteen to eighteen inches) beyond the physical body. It looks rather like an ovoid, luminous cloud surrounding the body, as though the individual were suspended inside a semitransparent bubble of changing colors and patterns.

These colors indicate not only the quality but also the intensity of the individual's feelings, and whether they are habitual or momentary. Therefore, inner conflicts can be perceived by noting the shade, clarity and position of the colors.

The rhythm of the aura is also significant, as it indicates the degree and kind of interaction with the etheric and mental fields. In health the shape is uniform and well defined, not ragged or wavy at the edges. The section above the diaphragm usually indicates the individual's potential – sometimes developed, sometimes not – and the colors in this part of the aura are usually lighter and less intense. The part below the diaphragm indicates ongoing and active experiences, and here the colors are usually darker, and the texture heavier and more granular. It is impossible to say as yet whether the universal law of gravity may operate in the astral world or not, but it is a fact that the heavier or coarser feelings seem to gravitate to the lower portion of the astral field, while the higher, more expansive feelings are located above the region of the heart.

Seven categories: quality (type of energy, density of substance, purity of tone), texture, form (whether symmetrical or asymmetrical), color (and its location within the aura), movement (whether rhythmic or turbulent), relationship (to the etheric and mental bodies), and luminosity.

The primary characteristic of the aura is dynamism. It is a kaleidoscopic pattern of colors, whose shading and brilliance denote the quality of the emotions. In the average person these vary according to mood, and therefore the colors wax and wane, lighten and darken, and the energies which impel them are in constant motion. For example, an individual who is happy in the presence of a dear friend will display a harmonious pattern of colors suffused with a lovely rose-pink, while during meditation or prayer, the colors may be overlaid with blue and gold. Anger flashes red through the aura like a bolt of lightning, while grief overlays the whole field with a cloud of gray.

Emotions that are sustained over a long period of time remain fairly constant in the aura. If they are negative, such as depression or resentment, they can affect the flow of energy, and this has long-range effects in terms of the condition of the etheric and physical bodies. For example, states of anxiety appear as grayish-blue clouds within the astral field, localized toward the center of the body near the solar plexus chakra. This causes the astral energy to flow inward toward the body, inhibiting the normally free circulation of energy throughout the emotional field. NOTE: Flowing inwards towards the body might cause a reversal in the flow/direction of the related chakraThe closer the gray-blue color is to the physical body, the more severe the degree of anxiety and the greater the degree of its impact upon health. When this color tends towards the periphery of the aura, this indicates that the subject is on the way to freeing himself of his anxiety.

The colors in the region below the diaphragm indicate the more ordinary and sensate feelings – those which come into play in daily life – while those above this level, especially in the region around the head, indicate intellectual and spiritual qualities.

When the man's energy flows outward toward external objects of desire, or is occupied in passional and emotional activities, this energy works in a less subtle order of matter than the mental, in that of the astral world. What is called his desire-body is composed of this matter, and it forms the most prominent part of the aura in the undeveloped man. When the man is of a gross type, the desire-body is of the denser matter of the astral plane, and is dull in hue, browns and dirty greens and reds playing a great part in it. Through this will flash various characteristic colors, as his passions are excited. A man of a higher type has his desire-body composed of the finer qualities of astral matter, with the colors, rippling over and flashing through it, fine and clear in hue. While less delicate and less radiant than the mental body, it forms a beautiful object, and as selfishness is eliminated all the duller and heavier shades disappear.

All known colors, and many which are at present unknown to us, exist upon each of these higher planes of nature; but as we rise from one stage to another, we find them ever more delicate and more luminous, so that they might be described as higher octaves of color.

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The lowest astral colors may be thought of as dark and coarse, and they certainly are so as compared to the higher and purer hues, but at least they are luminous in their coarseness; they are not so much dark color in our ordinary sense of the word, as dimly-glowing fire.

An outburst of anger will charge the whole astral body with deep-red flashes on a black ground; a sudden fright will instantaneously veil everything in a mist of ghastly, livid gray. When this fluctuating astral vehicle is comparatively at rest, it will then show a definite group of colors which retain more or less the same arrangement.

In certain cases, there are definite bands and clearly defined lines in these bodies; but in the vast majority the clouds of color not only melt into one another, but are all the while rolling over one another, and appearing and disappearing as they roll. Indeed, the surface of this luminous and brightly-colored mist resembles somewhat the surface of violently boiling water in the way in which the particles are seen to swirl about, to rise to the surface and sink back again, and constantly to change places with one another.

The process by which the colors are produced works always from below upward. After a time the emotion dies down, and the color corresponding to it fades away-but not entirely. A certain proportion of the matter of the astral body is normally oscillating at the especial rate appropriate to that emotion, and every great outburst of it adds somewhat to this proportion.

For example, men have within them a certain amount of irritability, which expresses itself in the astral body as a scarlet cloud. When the man manifests that irritability by some special outburst of temper the whole astral vehicle is temporarily suffused with scarlet. The fit of passion subsides, and the scarlet flushes die away, but it has left its traces behind, for there is a slight permanent addition to the size of the scarlet cloud of irascibility, and the whole matter of the astral body is a little more ready than before to respond to the vibration of anger when any opportunity offers. Every time we yield to a passion of any kind, we make it a little more difficult for ourselves to resist its next attack; while every successful effort at its repression makes the next victory a little easier.

The whole or almost the whole, of the matter in an astral body may be temporarily forced by a sudden rush of passion to vibrate at a certain rate; but all of it except that to which the vibration is natural will fall back into its ordinary rate when the force is removed.

The Master: 'The astral body, which is composed of much finer matter than the physical one, is drawn round the ego on his way down into incarnation. It fills what we call the causal body, forming an ovoid of luminous mist. But the physical body, being denser, has a very strong attraction for the astral matter, and draws this closer to it, so that we have an astral reproduction of the physical form in the centre of that ovoid, and there the astral body is just as recognizable by the features as the physical body, only it is built of finer matter.'

As the child-form grows its influence steadily increases, until the adult has usually over ninety percent of the matter of his astral and mental bodies within the periphery of his fleshy tabernacle. Every one of them is in rapid motion and is constantly passing in and out; but on the whole that proportion is maintained. Therefore when, with astral sight, we examine a friend, what we really see is a human form of very dense and solid-looking mist surrounded by an egg-shaped cloud of diaphanous mist; and as every feature of the familiar countenance is faithfully reproduced, the man is instantly recognizable.

When I had my NDE, I noticed that everyone had a certain combination of colors around them. They were the same basic colors, they were just shaded differently for each person.

The astral body is amorphous and is composed of clouds of color more beautiful than those of the emotional body. The astral body tends to have the same set of colors, but they are usually infused with the rose light of love. It extends out about one half to one foot from the body.

[The emotional body] roughly follows the outline of the physical body. Its structure is much more fluid than the etheric and does not duplicate the physical body. Rather, it appears to be colored clouds of fine substance in continual fluid motion. It extends one to three inches from the body...

Its colors vary from brilliant clear hues to dark muddy ones, depending on the clarity or confusion of the feeling or energy that produces them. Clear and highly organized feelings such as love, excitement, joy or anger are bright and clear; those feelings that are confused are dark and muddy.

One thing is clear to me- the clothing of the phantom is created, and is not a counterpart of the physical clothing. As a rule, if my physical body were clad in a certain garb, my astral counterpart would be clothed in an identical garb. But again, there have been many exceptions to that. Sometimes the astral body will be clothed in a different manner, eg a sort of flimsy, gauzy white. This is not at all unusual, and is perhaps the reason why 'ghosts; have invariably become identified with white garments. Sometimes this astral garment is mistaken by observers for an 'aura', and sometimes the aura is mistaken for the garment of white. It is my belief that the clothing is formed from the aura. At times the aura is more dense than at other times; it also seems to collect in some spots more densely than in other spots- causing the phantom to take on a blotchy appearance- really hideous. No sooner does one begin to think about his clothing than he will discover that his thoughts have already formed or materialized clothing for him. Thought creates in the astral. On another occasion I awakened and found myself moving along at the intermediate speed. A very dense aura surrounded me- so dense, in fact, that I could scarcely see my own body. It remained so until the phantom came to a stop, when I was dressed in the typical ghost-like garb. The conscious mind does not necessarily create the phantom's attire- as many seem to think. The clothing seems to form out of the colored aura which surrounds the astral body; when one sees the clothing form (and it does so quickly-instantaneously) it seems to form by the aura growing very dense, close to the body. At first, right after death, the molding in most cases is an unconscious act. But as the mind gains control of itself, the act of dressing becomes a conscious act. All darker colors denote a low state of development. As the spirit progresses upward the colors of the aura become continually brighter. The character, quality, and development of the spirit are denoted by the color of the garment. - PotABOBEr • Spiritualism • Muldoon

"The ethereal astral body may occasionally be cut or bruised but is healed at once by mere willing."

NOTE: Better to say dented than bruised. Recall the dream where I was shot in the head, and found a dent there, but was otherwise unharmed. And doubtless the moment I put my attention elsewhere, it returned to its normal state.

"I see a boy in the kitchen, then a man. How did they get in with all the doors locked? Then with some elation I discern: "It's a dream; now I can experiment." I remember that I have thought, among other things, of trying murder in a lucid dream, and so I attempt to tear the boy limb from limb, but I cannot make the least impression on his body and with my hands. The experiment is distasteful and I desist."

NOTE: LOL

"The advanced beings on Hiranyaloka remain mostly awake in ecstasy during the long astral day and night, helping to work out intricate problems of cosmic government and the redemption of earthbound souls. When the Hiranyaloka beings sleep, they have occasional dreamlike astral visions. Their minds are usually engrossed in the conscious state of highest bliss."

"I never experience tiredness, but I do have daily 'sleep' periods that are very refreshing." -James

These astral centers are open to the great ocean of astral energy in which all living beings are immersed. As the astral energy flows in and out of these centers from the universal field, it energizes and organizes the astral body or aura. These astral chakras are similar in form to the etheric being petal-like structures clustered around a central core.

The astral chakras also act as interconnections with those at the etheric level, thus integrating the two fields. Chronic worry produces a disturbance in the solar plexus chakra at the emotional level; this in turn creates a disturbance in the corresponding chakra at the etheric level, which directly affects the digestive tract and liver.

The astral chakras are always brighter than those on the etheric level, but at the same time they are more difficult to describe precisely in respect to such qualities as texture. Little or no variations are observed in elasticity which appears to be constant.

The astral energy normally enters the individual field via the solar plexus chakra, and may move in either of two directions, depending upon whether or not there is obstruction to its flow along the astral "spine", in which the chakras have their roots. In a normal, healthy state, the astral energy flows upward towards the head, but when obstructed it will turn and flow downward, increasing sexual activity. At the same time, there will be a diminution of the astral energy in the brain leading to a disturbance in the balance of control.

"The astral body is not subject to cold or heat or other natural conditions. The anatomy includes an astral brain, or the thousand-petaled lotus of light, and six awakened centers in the sushumna, or astral cerebro-spinal axis. The heart draws cosmic energy as well as light from the astral brain, and pumps it to the astral nerves and body cells, or prana. Astral beings can affect their bodies by pranic force or by mantric vibrations."

Each of the etheric centres corresponds to an astral centre. The astral centre is frequently quite in the interior of that vehicle.

The astral centres are already in full activity in all cultured people.

These centres to some extent take the place of sense-organs for the astral body.

Specialized organs are not necessary for the attainment of this result. There is matter in every part of the astral body which is capable of such response, and consequently the man functioning in that vehicle sees equally well the objects behind him, above him, and beneath him, without needing to turn his head.

As all the particles of the astral body are constantly flowing and circling about like those of boiling water, all of them in turn pass through each of the centres or vortices, so that each centre in its turn evokes in all the particles of the body the power of receptivity to a certain set of vibrations. But even when these astral senses are fully awakened it by no means follows that the man will be able to bring through into his physical body any consciousness of their action.

The first of these centres is the home of the serpent-fire. This force exists on all planes, and by its activity the rest of the centres are aroused. When awakened it moved on to the second centre, corresponding to the physical spleen, and through it vitalized the whole astral body, enabling the person to travel consciously, though with only a vague conception as yet of what he encountered on his journeys.

Then it moved on to the third, thereby awakening in the astral body the power of feeling – a sensitiveness to all sorts of influences.

The fourth centre, when awakened, endowed the man with the power to comprehend and sympathize with the vibrations of other astral entities, so that he could instinctively understand something of their feelings.

The awakening of the fifth, that corresponding to the throat, gave him the power of hearing on the astral plane.

The development of the sixth produced astral sight.

The arousing of the seventh endowed him with the perfection of its faculties.

The third aspect or fact of the personal self is the instrument through which the mind finds expression; in theosophical and esoteric literature this is traditionally called the mental body. The mental is finer-grained and faster-moving than the astral. However, it should be remembered that the mental field interpenetrates both the astral and the etheric at every point, and the mental body also conforms to these vehicle in structure. The mental dimension is in constant interplay with other aspects of the personality throughout life, and its energy permeates every experience, even when we are not engaged in intellectual pursuits or even consciously thinking.

The energy which pours into the mental chakras from the inexhaustible reservoir of the universal mental field circulates through the mental chakra system in much the same manner as at the astral and etheric levels. But the mind is more complex than the emotions; it has in fact two primary aspects or functions which make possible the subtlety, originality and conceptual power of the mind, at the same time that it can lead us into false reasoning and self-delusion. Because of its multifaceted nature, the habits and patterning of the mind can affect the disease process adversely, but it can also be a powerful force for health, growth and change.

The human mental body is an ovid like the astral, but it is considerably larger and less dense. Its colors and quality are good indicators of the individual's interests and mental powers, whether latent or active, for sometimes the capacities we are born with do not mature during life. All this shows up in the mental body, just as the astral aura accurately reveals the emotional life.

Because the mental and emotional fields are so closely interconnected, the mind is colored by emotion, just as the feelings are conditioned by thought.

Far from being a product of brain activity, the distillation of meaning and the interpretation of experience are seen to derive from a deeper level of the self. Such insight is then developed rationally by the mind and related to other knowledge, while the brain, which is the mind's instrument or physical partner, registers the information.

When there is a harmonious relationship from the mental level through the emotional to the etheric, the flow of energy through the chakras displays a rhythmic and unimpeded pattern.

Man, the thinker, is clothed in a body composed of innumerable combinations of the subtle matter of the mental plane, this body being more or less refined in its constituents and organized more or less fully for its functions, according to the stage of intellectual development at which the man himself has arrived. The mental body is an object of great beauty, the delicacy and rapid motion of its particles giving it an aspect of living iridescent light, and this beauty becomes an extraordinarily radiant and entrancing loveliness as the intellect becomes more highly evolved.

NOTE: self and the power we know According to reincarnation, those fruits of experience which we have transformed into enduring qualities mark the growth or evolution of the individual self. These are retained from life to life within the casual body which becomes a composite of the highest qualities of the Self; insight, intuition or direct knowing, creativity, intentionality, aspiration to God or the Good, and the purest forms of love and compassion.

The mental body extends about ninety centimeters (three feet) beyond the periphery of the physical body, and interpenetrates both the etheric and the astral bodies. The individual who perceives the "I" more in terms of his thoughts than his feelings usually has a mental body that is brighter and more vital than the average, and of finer texture. When such a person is using the mind, energy moves more swiftly in and out of the mental chakras, and the whole mental body becomes more lively and luminous.

[The mental body] usually appears as a bright yellow light radiating about the head and shoulders and extending around the whole body. It expands and becomes brighter when its owner is concentrating on mental processes. It extends from three to eight inches from the body.

Each mental chakra is also closely linked with its higher frequency counterpart on the intuitional (buddhic) level.

The energy of the mental field is stepped down as it passes through the chakras, and can in this way have a direct effect on the physical body if it is not blocked at the emotional level, which is sometimes the case. If there is a disturbance in one of the mental centers, it will be transmitted to the emotional and etheric levels, but it is more usual for the disturbance to occur at the astral level. An astral disturbance will not only affect the etheric chakra but also inhibit the energy coming in from the mental level. The whole process is very complex.

The mental body is also a structured body. It contains the structure of our ideas... Within this field can be seen thought forms. They appear to be blobs of varying brightness and form. These thought forms have additional colors superimposed on them, actually emanating from the emotional level. The color represents the person's emotion that is connected to the thought form. The clearer and more well-formed the idea, the clearer and more well-formed is the thought form associated with that idea. We enhance these thought forms by focusing on the thoughts they represent. Habitual thoughts become very powerful "well-formed" forces that then affect our lives.

NOTE: Leadbeater splits the mental into two levels - the mental, and above that, the causal.

The causal body (sometimes called the auric egg) is the real vehicle of the reincarnating ego, and is inhabited by him as long as he remains upon the plane which is his true home, the higher levels of the mental world. When he descends into the lower levels, he must, in order to be able to function upon them, clothe himself in their matter, and, descending into the astral plane, he forms his astral body out of its matter, though, of course, still retaining all the other bodies.

When this causal body is newly formed it is transparent yet iridescent, like a gigantic soap-bubble. It also resembles the soap-bubble in being almost empty in appearance, for the divine force which is really contained within it has as yet had no time to develop its latent qualities by learning to vibrate in response to impacts from without, and consequently there is little color. What little there is comes because certain qualities have been already evolved within the group-soul of which that causal body previously formed a part.

NOTE: In this way the lower realms are evolved spiritually. In the broadest sense, the higher spiritual is moving into the lower, learning, and developing intelligent responses to various vibrational inputs such that it can experience and improve those worlds.

Seen clairvoyantly, the causal body is pale and ethereal, with iridescent colors like those is a soap bubble...At this level, the Self is not constrained by the usual limits of time and space and causality, but is able to experience the universality of life and to perceive meanings and interrelationships which are often hidden from us during physical existence.

The third is the true Ego, called in the East by a man meaning 'causal-body', but which in the trans-Himalayan schools is always called the 'Karmic body'.

NOTE: This section appears in full in the Between Lives section

The Master: 'The causal body changes every life merely by the addition to it of the experience the man has accumulated during his last incarnation: for this reason we sometimes refer to it as the reservoir of knowledge. An evolved man can tap this reservoir at will and draw down to the physical level the experiences of his past lives; this enables him to avoid having to learn certain things every time he has a new physical brain, for, in itself, the brain has no memory of past experiences...

'This ego, or individuality, overshadows and guides that personality to the best of his ability, within the limits allowed by the free will which is granted to all men...

'At the causal level past, present and future are in reality one.'

NOTE: The causal body is the source of memory, as past and present and future are one

Each soul is represented by an ovoid form- at first a mere film, colourless and almost invisible, of most tenuous consistency; but, as the ego develops, this body begins to show a shimmering iridescence like a soap-bubble, colours playing over its surface like the changing hues made by sunlight on the spray of a waterfall.

All these causal bodies are filled with living fire drawn from a higher plane, with which the globe appears to be connected by a quivering thread of intense light, vividly recalling to the mind the words of the stanzas of Dzyan, 'the Spark hangs from the Flame by the finest thread of Fohat' NOTE: the animating principle electrifying every atom into life and as the soul grows and is able to receive more and more from the inexhaustible ocean of the Divine Spirit which pours down through the thread as a channel, the latter expands and gives wider passage to the flood... Once more the stanza says it for us: 'The thread between the Watcher and his shadow becomes more strong and radiant with every change. The morning sunlight had changed into noonday glory. This is thy present wheel, said the Flame to the Spark. Thou art myself, my image and my shadow. I have clothed myself in thee.'

The counterpart exists in mental matter as well as in astral, so through the heaven-life also the man retains to a considerable extent the appearance as well as the memory of his last personality. Even in the causal body there is also a human form – not that of any one incarnation, but a glorified blending of what is noblest in all of them.

NOTE: Is this what I see when in psychedelic states I see everyone through someone?

Looking at the causal body, the colors betoken qualities definitely and permanently acquired by the soul, and whatever expression of this may be possible upon the lower planes will be his as a kind of stock-in-trade or inherent quality in every incarnation which the future holds in store for him.

At first, the bodies Whitton's subjects assumed resembled the persons they had been in their last life. But as their experience in the between-life state continued, they gradually became a kind of hologram-like composite of all of their past lives. This composite identity even had a name separate from any of the names they had used in their physical incarnations, although none of his subjects was able to pronounce it using their physical vocal cords. - HUscientific, researcher • modern • Talbot

All these different portions of the mechanism are in reality merely instruments of the ego, though his control of them is as yet often very imperfect. The ego is a developing entity, and that in the case of most of us he is scarcely more than a germ of what he is to be one day...

The grasp which the ego has of his various instruments, and, therefore, his influence over him, is naturally small in his earlier stages. Neither his mind nor his passions are thoroughly under his control. The average man allows himself to be swept hither and thither just as his lower thoughts or desires suggest. Consequently, in sleep the different parts of the mechanism which we have mentioned are very apt to act almost entirely on their own account without reference to him.

The vibrations of the nerve-threads present to the brain are merely impressions, and it is the work of the ego, acting through the mind, to classify, combine, and re-arrange them...

Mere vision is by no means sufficient for accurate perception. The discrimination of the ego acting through the mind must be brought to bear upon what is seen.

It would seem that just as primitive man casts every natural phenomenon into the form of a myth, so the unadvanced ego dramatizes every event that comes under his notice; but the man who has attained continuous consciousness finds himself so fully occupied in the work of the higher planes that he devotes no energy to such matters, and therefore he dreams no more.

The extremely subtle body is called the indestructible drop; it is a tiny energy pattern existing normally only in the center of the heart wheel or complex. The extremely subtle mind that corresponds to it is the intuition of clear light, called transparency. At this extremely subtle level, the body-mind distinction is abandoned, as the two are virtually inseparable. This indestructible-drop transparent awareness is the Buddhist soul, the deepest seat of life and awareness, whose continuity is indestructible, though it constantly changes while moving from life to life...

[The indestructible drop] consists of the finest, most sensitive, alive, and intelligent energy in the universe. It is a being's deepest state of pure soul, where the being is intelligent light, alive and singular, continuous yet changing, aware of its infinite interconnection with everything. It is beyond all instinct patterns of lust, aggression, or delusion, beyond all duality, one with reality, and one with the Truth Body of all Buddhas... This is the living soul of every being. It is what makes the boundless process of reincarnation possible. It is the gateway into liberation, always open, essentially free, though the being evolved around it may identify itself with intensely turbulent states of suffering. It is peaceful, translucent, trouble-free, and uncreated.

The soul is like the sun in splendour. When it becomes one with the self-conscious 'I am' and its desires, it is a flame the size of a thumb; but when one with pure reason and the inner Spirit, it becomes in concentration as the point of a needle.

The soul can be thought as the part of a point of a hair which divided by a hundred were divided by a hundred again; and yet in this living soul there is the seed of Infinity.

There is a Light that shines beyond all things on earth, beyond us all, beyond the heavens, beyond the highest, the very heavens. This is the Light that shines in our heart.

Core Self: The original (M) Field energy vortex of each living physical being.

The soul wants nothing. The soul has everything. All wisdom, all knowing, all power, all glory. The soul is the part of You which never sleeps; never forgets.

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The soul is lightness and freedom. It is also peace and joy. It is also limitlessness and painlessness; perfect wisdom and perfect love.

It is all these things, and more. Yet it experiences precious few of these things while it is with the body.

Only the germ sheath, which surrounds the actual life kernel of these beings, is taken from the elements of the world of thoughts... The life kernel itself has its origin in still higher worlds.

Deceased scientists who now live in the next dimension say that we indeed do have a soul. They describe it as a small beam of undying Light which resides in the area of the heart. Curiously, the ancient yogis spoke of the soul, calling it the "seed atom" and said it resided in the left ventricle of the heart.

Man is primarily divine, a spark of the Divine Life. This living flame, passing out from the Central Fire, weaves for itself coverings within which it dwells, and thus becomes the Triad, the Atma-Buddhi-Manas, or Spirit, the reflection of the Immortal Self. This sends out its Ray, which becomes encased in grosser matter, in the desire body, or kamic elements, the passional nature, and in the etheric double and the physical body. The once free immortal Intelligence thus entangled, enswathed, enchained, works heavily and laboriously through the coatings that enwrap it.