7 Bodies of Man Man is a walking miniature solar system created in the image or reflection of God, and that man does not have one body but seven, corresponding to the seven planes of this life or nature. These bodies are sometimes called vestures or sheath of energy.

Each of these bodies or forms is surrounded by a force field just as the physical body is surrounded by what we call the aura. The following break down list the bodies of man;
7 Bodies of Man

1. PHYSICAL A. Dense Physical body composed of solids, liquids, and gases. B. Etheric double, a counterpart of the dense physical which is composed of the 4 physical ethers. 2. ASTRAL A. The body of lower desires called Kama rupa. B. The body of higher desires called astral body. 3. MENTAL A. The lower mental body which registers concrete thought. B. The higher mental or causal body which registers abstract thought. Then there are the four higher, or spiritual principles: 4. INTUITIONAL OR BUDDHIC 5. SPIRITUAL. 6. MONADIC 7. DIVINE

The Dense Physical Body

In the dense physical form the heart is the great central station of life activity. When the heart fails to pulsate the body is "dead." The blood stream carries "life" throughout the complicated arterial channels, being sent there not alone by the pumping action of the heart, as is supposed, but also by the law of magnetic attraction. The physical body exudes energy from itself, as well as attracts energies into itself. From the marrow of the bones flows the electric ether we have already spoken about. It registers as a pale silvery mist about the body, with concentrated points of activity around all the vital organs, its principal seat of activity being the apex of the right auricle of the heart. The Etheric Body

The etheric double is composed of the four physical ethers: (1) the electric, (2) pranic, (3) light, and (4) the mental reflecting ethers. During the process of birth, the atoms of the new forming physical body adhere to the atoms of this etheric body which forms the archetypal pattern for the dense physical form. This coalescence operates through the law of attraction, and the infusion of these two bodies is so complete as to make them one indissoluble unit. To separate them means death to both. The physical form, without the vital etheric form interpenetrating it is only an empty shell and possesses no vital life. The etheric double, after rising out of the physical form at death, is also only an empty shell and disintegrates. It requires the two of them, operating as a unit, to express life. The etheric body is an interlacing network of etheric "wires" knitted concentratedly at all the chakras along the spine, the principal point of contact being the navel chakra. From there it extends into the spleen via the nerve ganglia,

The electric ether in the physical form is associated with the "solids" of the body, such as the body structure. Just so, the pranic ether of the etheric body is involved in the "fluids" of the body such as the blood stream and the excretions of the gonad glands.

The force field of the etheric form extends from one and one-half to five inches beyond the physical form. It is an electromagnetic field of energy. It resembles a luminous fur. The emanations of this electric body originate in the nerve terminals and except for being electric, are similar to flowing water.
The Astral Body

The astral body has its principal seat of contact in the solar plexus, in the region of the great lobe of the liver. All of man's desires arise from this emotional force field. The solar plexus with its astral-emotional center is a principal station of the subconscious mind in man, though it operates under the subtle influence of the pituitary gland in the head. At the present level of man's evolution, his con-sciousness is polarised in the astral body which means that his life is governed more by emotions than by will power, and which also means that he thinks as much with his abdominal brain in the solar plexus as with the brain in his head region. At the present, desire is the motivating factor and the most powerful force in man's life. There are at present two desires at the root of emotion: 1. Attack — man's desire to possess or move toward something, 2. Retreat — man's desire to escape something. The astral aura extends from eight to twelve inch-es beyond the periphery of the physical body. Since man's emotions now rule his life, his astral vehicle is entering the height of its development. His astral "sense" organs are becoming accelerated, which means that he is beginning to function on the astral during the hours when his physical consciousness is asleep, with his astral sight and hearing and awareness awak-ened and alerted.

The astral form contains counterparts of our physical senses and organs. For instance, the astral body has eyes, nose and mouth...but its organs are not used in the same way they are on the physical plane. Here we say that we see through the eyes; on the astral plane one "sees" and cognizes through his entire body with the eyes only as focal points. Man's senses on the astral far surpass the ranges of which physical man is capable. The matter-energy of which the astral body is composed is constantly in rapid motion, so the sense of seeing, hearing or tasting is not stabilized through any particular organ, nor do they operate through any particular nerve channel.

The astral form also contains a brain, which is a counterpart of the physical brain with this one dif-
ference: the astral brain is capable of remembering both your astral experiences and your physical exper-iences, while the physical brain is capable, at least in the vast majority of humans, of remembering only the physical plane experiences and forgets almost com¬pletely its experiences on the astral. This is because an etheric web, a concentrated center in the etheric double, exists in the head region, preventing astral plane experiences from gaining entrance to the waking consciousness. This is indeed a blessing for the physical brain is not capable of withstanding the vibrational impacts it would be called upon to endure if this protective web were not present.

As man evolves, the etheric web will gradually disintegrate, allowing astral plane memories to seep through into his waking consciousness.

A minority of the human race has now developed an astral form which slips away from the sleeping physical body each night and enters into active work upon the astral.

The astral form is that which will be utilized by most people when they drop their physical body at death In this astral body desires are extremely intensified, which is one reason why it is necessary to overcome undesirable habits before death. Such desires, not overcome, can hold you a long time in a hell of your own creation after death. They should be overcome while the astral is still encased and somewhat protected by the physical form. The purified astral form is one of transcendent beauty.

The Mental Body

The mental force field embraces the upper part of the physical body, extending down to the root chakra at the base of the spine, its principal points of contact being; 1. The pineal-pituitary area. 2. The throat area. 3. The solar plexus (at our present stage of evolution). The seat of consciousness focuses in the brain and passes through the medulla oblongata into the spinal column. The spinal column is an elongation of the seat of consciousness in that it is a carrier of the mysterious brain dews which travel downward to kundalini in the root chakra. It is also the carrier for the Golden Oil sent up from kundalini to reach the head region. We do not show the causal or higher mind in this illustration, only the active fields of the conscious and subconscious minds. We have included the solar plexus because it is the ''brain" of the sympathetic nervous system and the seat of our emotions. It is also the reflected seat of our subconscious mind. Since carnal desires run rampant in the majority, the solar plexus becomes the seat of kama-manas, or lower mind: the animal-man center. When passion has been transmuted into compassion, then the sympathetic nervous system will become a vehicle of the higher soul power and the lower mind will be no more. The process of transmutation will have lifted it, via the heart chakra, into the throat chakra, where it will radiate as divine creativity.

The conscious mind finds its seat of activity in the head region and focalizes around the pineal gland and the pituitary bodies. Note that the mind not only extends down the spinal column to kundalini, but also projects upward from the crown chakra at the top of the head.

During life on the physical plane, man does not usually express his full mental powers until he reaches his fourth cycle, around the age of twenty-one. Until then he is dominated by the desire-mind, controlled by the astral body in the solar plexus region. After the age of twenty-one his mind power increases until around the age of forty-nine. The years following should be dominated by the higher causal mind, depending upon the entire evolutionary history of the individual — whether he is a traveler on the path, or whether he is only a drifter with the masses.

If he is on the path, his remaining years should be powerfully influenced by the Buddhic mind, which is the vehicle of divine wisdom and love. If not, he may tend toward senility or degeneration. In the majority, man continues to be ruled by his lower desire mind, and never exercises his full mental potential.

The Causal Body

Study the accompanying diagram and concentrate your attention upon the ovoid or the force field above your head which we designate as the causal body. You see here a twelve-petalled lotus resting in the heart of a six-pointed star or double triangle. One triangle of the double triangle points upward, representing the Oversoul. The other triangle of the double triangle points downward to a central point of contact in the head region. The twelve-petalled lotus represents and symbolizes the causal body of man. This entire symbol -- the down-pointing triangle and the lotus — designates the soul of man . When we refer to the Oversoul, we refer to the High Self which is divine but which is still evolving. When we speak of the soul, we refer to that part of yourself which is sent down by the Over soul and which is developing through the process of evolution by constantly reincarnating to learn its lessons in living, but which is not yet immortal or wise in everything. It is only through each physical incarnation as a personality, that knowledge of the laws of life will ultimately become wisdom. Each incarnation in matter adds increasing wisdom to the Oversoul, the REAL you. The causal body, or force field, is not only a part of your physical form, but of your Over-soul as well, being integrated into each and linking them together. The causal body has its seat of contact in the head region, just as does the mental body.

From that contact point, the nerve force of the soul flows downward through the vagus nerve to the heart chakra where it co-mingles with the blood and is thus carried throughout the arterial network of the entire physical body. Thus the old adage, "The soul is in the blood," is quite true.

But the soul's principal area of activity is in the head regions and extending upward to the Oversoul in the magnetic field directly over your head. Thus the causal body of the soul occupies the same force field as does the mental body, since the causal body as the higher mental body, with this important difference: Whereas the mental body has its principal center of activity in the head region and extends downward to the base of the spine, the causal body has its area of activity extending upward to include the Oversoul.

Our destiny is godhood. It is hope that this knowledge concerning You and the World Within will help to light the way towards that ultimate goal.