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The Etheric Body Spring 2013 The Etheric Body John F. Nash Summary sue, and body fluids, the etheric body mediates his article discusses Alice Bailey’s teach- health, disease and healing. It undergoes im- T ings on the etheric body, which permeates portant changes as a person evolves spiritually, the dense physical human form and surrounds and it continues to play a role in the lives of it as part of the aura observed by clairvoyants. initiates who have completed their incarnation- Specifically, the article discusses the relation- al cycle. ship between the etheric and physical bodies; Notions of the etheric body go back to antiqui- the etheric body’s role in diseases, healing and ty, probably reflecting clairvoyant abilities death; changes in the etheric body during spir- pervasive at that time. Ancient Egyptian reli- itual development; and the etheric bodies of gion spoke of the ka. Biblical Judaism dis- initiates. Our etheric bodies are built by devas cussed the nephesh, which captured the sense of various orders and are energized through of both life and breath. In classical Greece, the devic activity by terrestrial and solar prana. physical body was said to be animated by the psyche, which the sixth-century BCE philoso- A major objective of the article is to provide a 1 coherent statement of the relevant teachings pher Anaximenes equated to breath. In India, and a platform for further study. Another ob- we find the pranamaya kosha of Vedantic teachings and the sthulopadhi of Taraka Raja jective is to draw attention to the importance of 2 the etheric body for us, during our incarnation- Yoga. Isaac Newton famously wrote of a al cycle, and for entities who no longer need to “subtle spirit,” pervading animal bodies, whose “vibration” propagates along nerves to the incarnate. The article also notes the pervasive 3 existence of etheric bodies across the whole brain and muscles to produce movement. spectrum of lifeforms in the universe and the Annie Besant wrote of the etheric body in The planets, stars and galaxies on which they re- Ancient Wisdom (1897), and Rudolf Steiner in side. Theosophy (1904). Max Heindel discussed the “vital body” in The Rosicrucian Cosmo- Introduction Conception or Mystic Christianity (1910). nyone who has seen a corpse, even one Charles Leadbeater published his clairvoyant A prepared for viewing at an open-casket studies of the etheric body in Man Visible and funeral, knows that it looks very different from Invisible (1925) and The Chakras (1927). Al- how the person is remembered. Despite morti- ice A. Bailey, who served as amanuensis for cians’ best efforts, the corpse is unmistakably the Tibetan Master Djwhal Khul, provided a dead. The very obvious basis of life, what we _____________________________________ call the etheric body, is gone. Death can be defined by the etheric body’ severance from About the Author the dense physical form. John F. Nash, Ph.D., is a long-time esoteric student, The etheric body, also referred to as the etheric author, and teacher. Two of his books, Quest for the vehicle, etheric double, vital body, or energy Soul and The Soul and Its Destiny, were reviewed in the Winter 2005 issue of the Esoteric Quarterly. body, is the closest of the subtle vehicles to the Christianity: The One, the Many, was reviewed in dense physical form and provides the link be- the Fall 2008 issue. His latest book: The Sacramen- tween it and the astral and higher vehicles. In tal Church was published in 2011. For further in- addition to investing life in what would other- formation see the advertisements in this issue and wise be an inanimate collection of bones, tis- the website http://www.uriel.com. Copyright © The Esoteric Quarterly 13 The Esoteric Quarterly wealth of information on the etheric body in The Etheric Body her twenty-four books, beginning with Initia- tion, Human and Solar (1922). The know- and Prana ledge, perspective and insights offered by the he dense physical body—which for con- Tibetan sets Bailey’s work apart from other T venience will be referred to simply as the treatments of the subject. “physical body”—is composed of matter of the Despite the volume of available information in three lower subplanes of the physical plane: Bailey’s books and elsewhere, the information solid, liquid and gaseous. The etheric body is is fragmented, complicating detailed study. composed of matter of the four higher sub- Few attempts have been made to provide a planes. Our present focus is on the human clear, coherent account of the subject. Indeed, etheric body, but animals, plants, and even the etheric body does not seem to be a popular rocks all have etheric bodies. We understand topic in the esoteric literature, often glossed that the Earth, the Sun, and all other entities in over in descriptions of the human constitution. the universe also have etheric bodies. Perhaps the higher vehicles are more interest- The human etheric body permeates and ex- ing (dare one say glamorous?) yet they are tends a short distance beyond the physical scarcely more important to us, in our present body and resembles its physical counterpart in phase of evolution and beyond. shape. Some writers claim that it extends about This article seeks to compile and analyze Bai- one-half of an inch (a little over a centimeter) ley’s teachings on the subject, to provide a rea- beyond the physical body. Charles Leadbeater sonably comprehensive account of the etheric reported that it extends “very slightly” beyond body, its properties, strengths and weaknesses, the physical body.4 Alice Bailey stated that it and its potential for development. Occasional “may extend for a few or many inches.”5 She references are made to the works of other writ- commented that the etheric body “can be stud- ers where supporting or dissenting context is ied with relative ease” in the area that extends appropriate. The article is divided into five beyond the physical body.6 Clairvoyants see sections concerned with: this area as the innermost part of a person’s aura. Leadbeater described it as “a mass of The fundamental principles of the hu- faintly luminous violet-grey mist.”7 The astral man etheric body, including the key body, also known as the sentient or emotional role of prana and its devic mediators. body, may extend much farther from the phys- The relationship between the etheric ical body. and dense physical bodies, involving Bailey declared that the etheric body has one the chakras and the several physiologi- main objective: cal systems. This is to vitalize and energize the physical The etheric body’s role in disease, heal- body and thus integrate it into the energy ing and death. body of the Earth and of the solar system. It Changes in the etheric body that occur is a web of energy streams, of lines of force during spiritual development, including and of light. It constitutes part of the vast awakening of the chakras and raising of network of energies which underlies all the kundalini forms whether great or small (microcosmic or macrocosmic). Along these lines of en- High initiates’ need for etheric bodies, ergy the cosmic forces flow, as the blood whether or not they work on the physi- flows through the veins and arteries. This cal plane. constant, individual—human, planetary and Hopefully, the present study—still brief, rela- solar—circulation of life-forces through the tive to the breadth of the subject—will stimu- etheric bodies of all forms is the basis of all late greater interest and further research. manifested life, and the expression of the essential non-separateness of all life.8 14 Copyright © The Esoteric Quarterly, 2013. Spring 2013 She emphasized that the etheric body “of every spoke of solar and planetary prana. Solar prana human being, is an integral part of the etheric is the “life-essence” of the Solar Logos, “ani- body of the planet itself and consequently, of mating, vivifying and correlating” the seven the solar system.”9 In other words, the etheric systemic planes “and all that is to be found body is not individualized to the extent that the within and upon them.”18 human monad or the soul is; its energy flows We recall that the seven systemic planes—the from one living entity to another. This startling ones that provide the backdrop for the whole realization gives precise meaning to affirma- of human existence and evolution— tions like “We are all connected” or “We are collectively comprise the cosmic physical all One.” The sharing of etheric matter plane. Our physical, astral and mental planes throughout the cosmos provides the medium comprise the “solid,” “liquid” and “gaseous” for telepathy and also gives meaning to con- subplanes of the cosmic physical plane. Our cepts like divine omniscience.10 Bailey de- buddhic, atmic, monadic and logoic planes scribed the “golden etheric web” through comprise its four cosmic etheric subplanes.19 which “there is a constant circulation of ener- These correspondences are of more than just gies and forces,” adding that “this constitutes theoretical interest. The four systemic etheric the scientific basis of the astrological theo- subplanes, from which our etheric bodies are ries.”11 Space itself, which ordinarily we con- built, have qualities that draw upon those of sider empty, is said to be etheric in nature.12 the four highest systemic planes. This enrich- The cosmic etheric web has a geometric pat- ment of qualities can be expected to become tern. The pattern is not uniform throughout the more apparent as we progress spiritually. universe but varies from one planet or sun to Planetary prana has its origins in the Sun but another according to its point of evolution.13 has been imprinted with the energy of the Earth’s etheric body currently has a square planet.
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