Filename: RC1099.TXT
Source: "The Vital Body" by Max Heindel

[PAGE 3559]

   In lecture No. 3 we say that the vital body is the storehouse of both the
conscious and subconscious memory;  upon the vital body is branded indelibly
every  act and experience of the past life,  as the scenery upon an  exposed
photographic plate.  When the Ego has withdrawn it from the dense body,  the
whole life,  as registered by the subconscious memory,  is laid open to  the
eye of mind.   It is the partial loosening of the vital body which causes  a
drowning  person  to see his whole past life,  but then it is  only  like  a
flash, preceding unconscious; the silver cord remains intact, or there could
be  no  resuscitation.   In the case of a Spirit passing out at  death,  the
movement is slower; the man stands as a spectator while the pictures succeed
one another in the order from death to birth, so that he sees first the hap-
penings  just prior to death,  the the years of manhood or womanhood  unroll
themselves;  youth,  childhood,  and infancy follow,  until it terminates at
birth.   The man, however, has no feeling about them at that time.   The ob-
ject is merely to etch the panorama into the desire body,  which is the seat
of feeling,  and from that impress the feeling will be realized when the Ego
enters the Desire World,  but we may note here that the intensity of feeling
realized depends upon the length of time consumed in the process of etching,
and  the attention given thereto by the man.   If he was undisturbed  for  a
long period by noise and hysteria,  a deep,  clear-cut impress will be  made
upon  the  desire  body.  He  will  feel  the  wrong  he  did more keenly in

[PAGE 3560]

Purgatory  and  be  more abundantly strengthened in his  good  qualities  in
Heaven,  and though the experience will be lost in a future life,  the feel-
ings will remain, as the "still, small voice."  Where the feelings have been
strongly indented upon the desire body of an Ego,  this voice will speak  in
no vague and uncertain terms.  It will impel him beyond gainslaying, forcing
him to desist from that which caused pain in the life before, and compel him
to yield to that which is good.  Therefore the panorama passed BACKWARD,  so
that the Ego sees first the effects, and then the underlying causes.

   As to what determines the length of the panorama, we remember that it was
the collapse of the vital body which forced the higher vehicles to withdraw,
so after death, when the vital body collapses, the Ego has to withdraw,  and
thus  the panorama comes to an end.   The duration of the panaroma  depends,
therefore,  upon  the time the person could remain awake only a  few  hours,
others  can endure for a few days, depending on the strength of their  vital
body.

   When the Ego has left the vital body,  the latter gravitates back to  the
dense body,  remaining hovering above the grave,  decaying as the dense body
does,  and it is indeed a noisome sight to the clairvoyant to pass through a
cemetary and behold all those vital bodies whose state of decay clearly  in-
dicates  the state of decomposition of the remains in the grave.   If  there
were more clairvoyants,  incineration would soon be adopted as a measure  of
protection to our feelings, if not for sanitary reasons.

[PAGE 3561]

   Our latest investigations indicate that where a man spiritualizes his ve-
hicles,  the constitution of the vital body, made of ether,  is most materi-
ally  changed.   In the ordinary man there is always a preponderance of  the
two  lower ethers--the chemical and life ethers--which have to do  with  the
upbuilding and propagation of the physical body,  and a minimum of light and
reflecting ethers,  which are concerned with sense perception and the higher
spiritual  qualities.   After death the body of the ordinary man is laid  in
the  grave  and  the  vital body hovers about  two  feet  above  the  mound,
gradually  disintegrating.   The dense  body  disintegrates  simultaneously.
However,  when we say it decays,  we really mean that it becomes  much  more
alive  than it was while man inhabited it,  for each little molecule is  now
taken charge of by a separate, individual life.  It begins to associate with
its neighbors;  the unity of an individual life is superseded by a community
of many lives.

   Therefore  we  speak of such decaying corpses as alive with  worms.   The
denser and the more gross this vehicle is,  the longer time it will  require
for disintegration, because the vital body hovering above the tenacious mag-
netic hold that keeps the dense molecules in check.   The two higher  ethers
vibrate  at  a  much more rapid rate than the lower,  and  where  a  man  by
spiritual thoughts has massed around him a great volume of this ether, which
then composes his vital body,  the vibrations of the dense body also  become
more intense.   Consequently, when the man leaves his body at death there is
little or nothing of the vital body left behind to  keep  the  components of

[PAGE 3562]

the  physical body in check.   The disintegration is therefore  very  rapid.
This  we  cannot  easily  prove because very  few  people  are  sufficiently
spiritual to make the difference noticeable, but you will recall that in the
Bible it is said of certain characters that they were translated.  Also, the
the body of Moses was so vibrant that it shone, and this body was not found,
etc.

   These were cases where the body was rapidly returned to the elements, and
when  the Christ's body was laid in the grave its disintegration took  place
almost instantaneously.

   However,  so long as the archetype of the physical body persists,  it en-
deavors to draw to itself physical materials which it then shapes  according
to  the  form  of the vital body.  Thus it is difficult  for  the  Invisible
Helper who passes out of his body to refrain from materializing.  The moment
his will to keep away from himself all physical impediments is relaxed,  ma-
terials  from  the surrounding atmosphere attach themselves to him  as  iron
filings are drawn to a magnet,  and he becomes visible and tangible to what-
ever extent he desires.  Thus he is enabled to do actual physical work wher-
ever  it is necessary,  no matter if he be thousands of miles away from  his
body.   Therefore the Spirits who pass away from this earth life are  unable
to  materialize  save through a medium where they extract her  living  vital
body,  drape themselves therewith and thus attract the  physical  substances
necessary to make themselves visible to the sitters.

[PAGE 3563]

   During life and in the waking state of consciousness, the vehicles of the
Ego are all together and concentric,  but at death the Ego,  clothed in  the
mind and desire body,  withdraws from the dense body, and as the vital func-
tions  are at an end,  the vital body also is taken out of the  dense  body,
leaving  it inanimate upon the bed.   One little atom in the heart is  taken
out and the rest of the body disintegrates in due course.   But at that time
there is an extremely important process going on,  and those who attend  the
passing  Spirit in the death chamber should be very careful that the  utmost
quiet  reigns there and in the whole house,  for the pictures of  the  whole
past  life which have been stored in the vital body are passing  before  the
eye of the Spirit in a slow and orderly progression, IN REVERSE ORDER,  from
death back to birth.   This panorama of the past life lasts from a few hours
to three and one-half days immediately following death is this:  During that
time  the  panorama of the past life is being etched upon  the  desire  body
which  will  be  man's vehicle while he stays in  Purgatory  and  the  First
Heaven,  where he is reaping the good or ill that he has sown,  according to
the deeds done in the body.

[PAGE 3564]

   Now,  where the life has been full of events and the man's vital body  is
strong,  a longer time will be given to this etching than  under  conditions
where  the vital body is weak,  but DURING ALL THAT TIME THE DENSE  BODY  IS
CONNECTED  WITH THE HIGHER VEHICLES BY THE SILVER CORD AND ANY HURT  TO  THE
DENSE  BODY  IS FELT IN A MEASURE BY THE SPIRIT,  so  that  embalming,  post
mortem examinations and cremation are all felt.  Therefore,  these should be
avoided  during the first three and one-half days after the time  of  death,
for when the panorama has been fully etched into the desire body,  then  the
silver cord is broken,  the vital body gravitates back to the dense body and
there  is no more connection with the Spirit,  which is then free to  go  on
with its higher life.

   When the body is buried,  the vital body disintegrates slowly at the same
time as the dense body,  so that when,  for instance,  an arm has decayed in
the  grave,  the etheric arm of the vital body which hovers over  the  grave
also disappears, and so on until the last vestige of the body is gone.   But
where  cremation  is performed the vital body disintegrates at once,  an  as
that is the storehouse of the pictures of past life, which being etched upon
the desire body to form the basis of life in Purgatory and the First Heaven,
this would be a great calamity where cremation is performed before the three
and one-half days are past.  Unless help were given, the passing of the work
that is done by the Invisible Helpers for humanity.   Sometimes they are as-
sisted by nature spirits and others detailed by the Creative Hierarchies  or
leaders  of  humanity.  There  is  also  a loss where one is cremated before

[PAGE 3565]

the  silver cord has broken naturally,  the imprint upon the desire body  is
never as deep as it would otherwise have been,  and this has an effect  upon
future  lives,  for the deeper the imprint of the past life upon the  desire
body,  the keener the sufferings in Purgatory for the ill committed and  the
keener  also  the pleasure in the First Heaven which results from  the  good
deeds of the past life.   It is these pains and pleasures of our past  lives
that create what we call conscience, so that where we have lost in suffering
we  lose also the realization of wrong which is to deter us in future  lives
from committing the same mistakes over and over again.   Therefore,  the ef-
fects of the premature cremation are very far reaching.

   A  phenomenon similar to the panorama of life usually takes place when  a
person is drowning.   People who have been resuscitated speak of having seen
their whole life IN A FLASH.   That is because under such conditions the vi-
tal body also leaves the dense body.   Of course there is no rupture of  the
silver  cord,  or  life could not be  restored.   Unconsciousness  following
quickly in drowning, while in the usual post-mortem review the consciousness
continues  until  the vital body collapses in the same manner that  it  does
when we go to sleep.  Then consciousness ceases for a while and the panorama
is terminated.  Therefore also the time occupied by the panorama varies with
different  persons,  according  to whether the vital  body  was  strong  and
healthy, or had become thin and emaciated by protracted illness.  The longer
the time spent in review, and the more  quiet and peaceful the surroundings,

[PAGE 3566]

the deeper will be the etching which is made in the desire body.  As already
said,  that has been a most important and far-reaching effect,  for then the
sufferings which the Spirit will realize in Purgatory on account of bad hab-
its  and misdeeds will be much more keen that if there is only a slight  im-
pression,  and in future life the still small voice of conscience will  warn
so  much  more insistently against mistakes which caused sufferings  in  the
past.

   Never  since the world was has there been such universal sorrow as  there
is at the present time (1914).  But besides this,  we must not forget we are
now laying up for ourselves a great deal of future suffering;  for,  as  has
been  explained in the Rosicrucian literature,  it is impossible  for  these
people who are now so ruthlessly and suddenly torn away from their bodies to
review their past life,  and thus the etching of the life panorama does  not
take  place as it should.   Therefore these Egos will not reap the fruit  of
their  present existence as they should in Purgatory and the  First  Heaven.
They will come back minus this experience at some future time;  and it  will
be necessary, in order that they may regain what they have lost, to let then
die  in childhood so that they may have the new desire body and  vital  body
imprinted with the essence of their present life.

   We  saw that when the Ego had finished its day in the school of life  the
centrifugal  force at Repulsion caused it to throw off its dense vehicle  at
death,  then the vital body, which is the next coarsest.   Next in Purgatory
the coarsest desire stuff accumulated by  the  Ego  as  embodiment  for  its

[PAGE 3567]

lowest desires was purged by this centrifugal force.   In the higher  realms
only  the force of Attraction holds sway and keeps the good  by  centripetal
action, which tends to draw everything from the periphery to the center.

   In  the  Second Heaven as much of the vital body as the Life  Spirit  had
worked upon,  transformed,  spiritualized,  and thus saved from the decay to
which  the rest of the vital body is subject,  will be amalgamated with  the
Life Spirit to insure a better vital body and temperament in the  succeeding
lives.

   When  we left the Ego in its pilgrimage through the invisible worlds,  we
had reached the point where it entered the Third Heaven after discarding the
dense body at death, the vital body shortly afterwards, the desire body upon
leaving Purgatory and the First Heaven, and finally before leaving the  Sec-
ond  Heaven  it also left the sheath of mind behind,  and then  entered  the
third Heaven absolutely free of encumbrance.  All the discarded vehicles de-
cay,  only the Spirit persists,  laving for a while in the  great  spiritual
reservoir of force which we call the Third Heaven,  in order to fortify  it-
self for the next rebirth into Earth-life.

   The vital body is composed of four ethers.  The two lower ethers are par-
ticular  avenues of growth and propagation.   In the vital body of a  person
whose  chief concern is with the physical life,  who lives as it  were,  en-
tirely for the sensual enjoyment, these two ethers predominate, whereas in a
person who is rather indifferent to the material enjoyment of life, but  who

[PAGE 3568]

seeks to advance spiritually, the two higher ethers form the bulk of the vi-
tal body.   They are then what Paul calls the SOMA PSUCHICON,  or soul body,
which  remains  with man during his experiences in Purgatory and  the  First
Heaven  where the essence of the life lived is extracted.   This extract  is
the soul, whose two chief qualities are conscience and virtue.   The feeling
of  conscience is the fruit of mistakes in past earth lives,  which will  in
future  guide the Spirit aright and teach it how to avoid similar  missteps.
Virtue is the essence of all that was good in former lives,  and acts as  an
encouragement to keep the Spirit ardently striving upon the path of  aspira-
tion.   In the Third Heaven this amalgamates thoroughly with the Spirit  and
becomes  a part thereof.   Thus in the course of his lives man becomes  more
soulful,  and  the  soul  qualities of conscience  and  virtue  become  more
strongly operative as guiding principles of conduct.

   But there are some people who are of such an evil nature that they  ENJOY
life spent in vice and degenerate practices, a brutal life,  and who delight
in  giving  pain.   Sometimes they even cultivate the occult arts  for  evil
purposes  so  that they may have a greater power over their  victims.   Then
their fiendish, immoral practices result in hardening their vital body.

   In  such extreme cases where the animal nature has been paramount,  where
there has been no soul expression in the preceding earth life,  the division
in the vital body spoken of before cannot take place at death,  for there is
no dividing line.  In such a case, if the vital body  should  gravitate back

[PAGE 3569]

to  the dense body and there gradually disintegrate,  the effect of  a  very
evil life would not be so far-reaching,  but unfortunately there is in  such
cases  an  interlocking grip of the vital and desire bodies  which  prevents
separation.   We have seen that where a man lives mostly in the  higher  na-
ture,  his spiritual vehicles are nourished to the detriment of  the  lower.
Conversely,  where his consciousness us centered in the lower  vehicles,  he
strengthens them immeasurably.  It should be understood that the life of the
desire body is not terminated by the departure of the Spirit;  it has a  re-
sidual life and consciousness.   The vital body is also able to sense things
in a slight measure for a few days after death in ordinary cases (hence  the
suffering causes by embalming, post-mortem examinations,  etc.,  immediately
after  death),  but where a low life has hardened and endued it  with  great
strength  it has a tenacious hold on life and an ability to feed  on   odors
and liquors.   Sometimes, as a parasite, it even vampirizes people with whom
it comes in contact.

   Such beings are therefore one of the greatest menaces to society  imagin-
able.   They  have sent countless victims to prison,  broken up  homes,  and
causes an unbelievable amount of unhappiness.   They always leave their vic-
tims to prison, broken up homes, and causes an unbelievable amount of unhap-
piness.   They always leave their victims when the latter have come into the
clutches of the law.   They gloat over their victims'  sorrow and  distress,
this being a part of their fiendish scheme.   There are other classes  which
delight  in posing as "angels"  in spiritualistic seances.   They also  find
victims there and teach them immoral practices.  The so-called "Poltergeist"
which enjoys breaking dishes, upsetting tables, knocking hats over the heads

[PAGE 3570]

of  the delighted audience,  and similar horseplay,  is also in this  class.
The strength and density of the vital body of such beings make it easier for
them  to give physical manifestations than for those who have passed  beyond
into the Desire World,  in fact,  the vital bodies of this class of  Spirits
are so dense that they are nearly physical, and it has been a mystery to the
writer that some of the people who are taken in by such entities cannot  see
them.   Were they once discovered,  one look at their evil,  sneering  faces
would very soon dispel the delusion that they are angels.

   Wherever  a person dies who has fostered malice and hatred in his  heart,
these interlock the desire and vital bodies and make him a more serious men-
ace  to the community than anyone can imagine who has not investigated  this
subject.

   Earthbound Spirits,  such as previously mentioned, gravitate to the lower
regions of the Desire World which interpenetrate the ether,  and are in con-
stant and close touch with those people on earth most favorably situated for
aiding  them  in their evil designs.  They usually stay in  this  earthbound
condition for fifty,  sixty,  or seventy-five years,  but extreme cases have
been  found  in which such people so remain for centuries.   So far  as  the
writer has been able to discover up to the present time,  there seems to  be
no  limit  to what they may do or how soon they will let go.   But  all  the
while they are piling up for themselves an awful load of sin,  nor can  they
escape  suffering therefore,  for the vital body reflects and etches  deeply
into the desire body a record of their misdeeds,  and  when  at last they do

[PAGE 3571]

let go and enter the purgatorial existence,  they meet the retribution which
they well deserve.  This suffering is naturally lengthy in proportion to the
time  they have continued their nefarious practices after the death  of  the
dense  body--another proof that "Though the mills of God grind  slowly,  yet
they grind exceeding small."

   The  red  cloud of hate is lifting, the black veil of  despair  is  gone,
there are no volcanic outbursts of passion in either the living or the dead,
but so far as the writer is able to read the signs of the times in the  aura
of  the  nations,  there is a settled purpose to play the game to  the  end.
Even in homes bereaved of many members, this seems to hold good.   There  is
an  intense longing for the friends beyond,  but no hatred for  the  earthly
foe.   This  longing  is shared by the friends in the unseen  and  many  are
piercing  the veil,  for the intensity of their longing is awakening in  the
"dead" the power to manifest by attracting a quantity of ether and gas which
often is taken from the vital body of a "sensitive" friend, as materializing
Spirits use the vital body of an entranced medium.  Thus the eyes blinded by
tears  are  often opened by a yearning heart so that loved ones now  in  the
spirit world are met again face to face,  heart to heart.   This is Nature's
method  of cultivating the sixth sense which will eventually enable  all  to
know that man is an immortal Spirit and continuity of life a fact in nature.

   At every death the tears that are shed serve to  dissolve  the  veil that

[PAGE 3572]

hides,  the invisible world from our longing gaze.   The deep-felt  yearning
and the sorrow at the parting of loved and loving ones on both sides of  the
veil are tearing this apart, and at some not far distant day the accumulated
effect  of  all this will reveal the fact that there is no death,  but  that
those who have passed beyond are as much alive as we.   The potency of these
tears,  this sorrow, this yearning is not equal in all cases,  however,  and
the effects differ widely according to whether the vital body has been awak-
ened  in any given person by acts of unselfishness and service according  to
the occult maxim that all development along spiritual lines begins with  the
vital body.  This is the basis, and no superstructure can be built until the
foundation has been laid.

                             ON WAY TO REBIRTH:

   WHEN  AN  EGO IS ON ITS WAY TO REBIRTH THE SEED ATOM OF  THE  VITAL  BODY
GATHERS NEW MATERIAL.  THE POLARITY OF THIS MATERIAL DETERMINES ITS SEX DUR-
ING THE COMING LIFE.

   The seed atom of the vital body is next aroused into activity,  but  here
the process of formation is not so simple as in the case of the mind and the
desire  body,  for it must be remembered that those  vehicles  were  compar-
atively unorganized,  while the vital body and the dense body are more orga-
nized and very complicated.   The material, of a given quantity and quality,
is  attracted in the same manner and under the operation of the same law  as
in the case of the higher bodies,  but the building of the new body and  the
placement  in the proper environment is done by four great Beings of  immea-
surable  wisdom,  which are the Recording Angels,  the "Lords  of  Destiny."
They  impress the reflecting ether of the vital in such a way that the  pic-
tures of the coming life are reflected in it.   It (the vital body) is built
by  the inhabitants of the heaven world and the elemental spirits in such  a
manner as to form a particular type of brain.  But mark this,  the returning
Ego itself incorporates therein the quintessence of its former vital  bodies

[PAGE 3573]

vital bodies and in addition to this also does a little original work.  This
is done that in the coming life there may be some room for original and  in-
dividual expression, not predetermined by past action.

   The  vital body,  having been molded by the Lords of Destiny,  will  give
form to the dense body, organ for organ.  This matrix or mold is then placed
in  the womb of the future mother.   The seed atom for the dense body is  in
the  triangular head of one of the spermatozoa in the semen of  the  father.
This  alone makes fertilization possible and here is the explanation of  the
fact  that  so  many times sex-unions are  unfruitful.   The  chemical  con-
stituents  of  the seminal fluid and the ova are the same at all  times  and
were  these  the only requirements,  the explanation of  the  phenomenon  of
unfertility,  if sought in the material, visible world alone,  would not  be
found.   It becomes plain, however, when we understand that as the molecules
of  water freeze only along the lines of force in the water and manifest  as
ice  crystals instead of freezing into a homogeneous mass,  as would be  the
case  if there can be no dense body built until there is a vital  body  into
which to build the material,;  also there must be a seed atom for the  dense
body,  to act as gauge of the quality and quantity of the matter which is to
be built into that dense body.  Although at the present stage of development
there is never full harmony in the materials of the body, because that would
be a perfect body, yet the discord must not be so great as to be  disruptive

[PAGE 3574]

of the organism.

   When the impregnation of the ovum has taken place, the desire body of the
mother  works upon it for a period of from eighteen to twenty-one days,  the
Ego  remaining  outside in its desire body and mind sheath,  yet  always  in
close touch with the mother.   Upon the expiration of that time the Ego  en-
ters the mother's body.   The bell-shaped vehicles draw themselves down over
the  head  of the vital body and the bell closes at the bottom.   From  this
time the Ego broods over its coming instrument until the birth of the  child
and the new earth life of the returning Ego commences.

   It is stated in THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION that the vital body of a
woman is positive and the vital body of a man is negative.   When the agents
of the Recording Angles are assisting an Ego to come to birth, the matter of
sex  has  already been determined,  either by the law of  alternation  or  a
modification of that law by specific circumstances in the individual life of
the  Spirit,  and  the Ego is then helped to draw to  itself  as  sufficient
amount  of  the  different kinds of ether as required  by  its  development.
These  materials are all of certain polarity,  either positive or  negative.
When a matrix made solely from positive etheric atoms is placed in the  womb
of the prospective mother,  these atoms will unerringly drawn to  themselves
negative physical atoms, and the resultant child body becomes female in con-
sequence.  If, on the other hand, the matrix which is placed in the mother's

[PAGE 3575]

womb  is composed of negative etheric atoms,  it will attract  the  positive
dense  atoms with the result that the male sex organ is most  developed  and
the sex therefore masculine.  Life, like electricity, requires both positive
and negative expression, otherwise it cannot manifest.

   When  the  Ego is on its way to rebirth through the  Region  of  Concrete
Thought,  the Desire World,  and the Etheric Region,  it gathers  a  certain
amount of material from each.  The quality of this material is determined by
the seed atom,  on the principle that like attracts like.   The quantity de-
pends upon the amount of matter required by the archetype built by ourselves
in the Second Heaven.   From the quantity of prismatic ether atoms that  are
appropriated  by  a certain Spirit,  the Recording Angels and  their  agents
build  an  etheric  form  which is then placed  in  the  mother's  womb  and
gradually clothed with physical matter which then forms the visible body  of
the new-born child.

   The  silver  cord which has grown from the seed atom of the  desire  body
(located  in  the heart) since conception,  is welded to the part  that  has
sprouted from the central vortex of the desire body, (located in the liver),
and  when the silver cord is tied by the seed atom of the vital  body,  (lo-
cated  in the solar plexus),  the Spirit dies to life in  the  supersensible
world, and quickens the body it is to use in its coming Earth life.

[PAGE 3576]

                                 OF CHILDREN:

   A CHILD'S VITAL BODY AT BIRTH IS UNORGANIZED.   UP UNTIL ABOUT THE AGE OF
SEVEN, WHEN THE INDIVIDUAL VITAL BODY IS BORN, IT DRAWS FROM THE MICROCOSMIC
VITAL BODY.

   In  the period immediately following birth the different vehicles  inter-
penetrate one another, as, in our previous illustration, the sand penetrates
the  sponge and the water both sand and sponge.   But,  though they are  all
present,  as in adult life, they are merely present.  None of their positive
faculties  are active.   The vital body cannot use the forces which  operate
along  the positive pole of ethers.   Assimilation,  which works  along  the
positive  pole  of the chemical ether, is very dainty during  childhood  and
what  there  is of it is due to the macrocosmic vital body,  the  ethers  of
which  act  as  a womb for the child's vital body until  the  seventh  year,
gradually  ripening it during that period.   The propagative faculty,  which
works along the positive pole of the life ether, is also latent.   The heat-
ing  of the body--which is carried on along the positive pole of  the  light
ether--and  the  circulation of the blood are due to the  macrocosmic  vital
body,  the ethers acting on the child and slowly developing it to the  point
where it can control these functions itself.  The forces working  along  the

[PAGE 3577]

negative pole of ethers are so much the more active.   The excretion of sol-
ids, carried on along the negative pole of the chemical ether (corresponding
to the solid subdivision of the Chemical Region), is too unrestrained, as is
also the excretion of fluid,  which is carried on along the negative pole of
the  life  ether (corresponding to the second or fluid  subdivision  of  the
Chemical  Region).   The  passive sense perception,  which  is  due  to  the
negative  forces  of the light ether,  is also exceedingly  prominent.   The
child is very impressionable and it is "all eyes and ears."

   Although  the vital body of an infant is still comparatively  unorganized
at  the time of birth,  the ether which is to be used for its completion  is
within the aura,  ready to be assimilated, and if anyone in its surroundings
happens to be weak and anemic, and unconscious vampire, he or she draws from
the  unassimilated store of ether of the infant much more easily  than  from
that  of an adult whole vital body is fully organized.   Naturally the  weak
person draws more easily ether that is negatively polarized,  as in the body
of a boy baby, than the positive ether of the girl baby.  .  .Massage of the
spleen and stimulation of the splanchic nerves, CAREFULLY AND CONSERVATIVELY
PRACTICED will aid the etheric counterpart of that organ in its activity  of
specializing  the solar energy upon which the vital processes are as  depen-
dent as the lungs are on air.

   We usually think that when a child is born it is born and that is the end
of it; but as during the period of gestation the dense body is shielded from

[PAGE 3578]

the  impact of the outside world by being placed within the protecting  womb
of  the mother until it has arrived at sufficient maturity to meet the  out-
side  conditions,  so are also the vital body,  desire body,  and mind in  a
state  of gestation and are born at later periods because they have not  had
as long an evolution behind then as the dense body and, therefore,  it takes
a longer time for them to arrive at a sufficient state of maturity to become
individualized.  The vital body is born at the seventh year, when the period
of excessive growth marks its advent.

   Only  a small portion of the ether appropriated by a certain Ego is  thus
used,  and the remainder of the child's vital body,  or rather the  material
from which that vehicle will eventually be made,  is thus outside the  dense
body.   For that reason the vital body of a child protrudes much farther be-
yond  the periphery of the dense body than does that of the  adult.   During
the period of growth this store of ether atoms is drawn upon to vitalize the
accretions within the body until, at the time when the adult age is reached,
the  vital body protrudes only from one to one and a half inches beyond  the
periphery of the dense body.

   From  the first to the seventh year the vital body grows and  slowly  ma-
tures  within  the  womb of the macrocosmic vital body and  because  of  the
greater  wisdom of this vehicle of the macrocosm,  the child's body is  more
rounded and well-built in later life.

   While the macrocosmic vital body guides the growth of the child's body it
is  guarded  from  the  dangers  which  later  threaten  it  when the unwise

[PAGE 3579]

individual vital body takes unchecked charge.   This happens in the  seventh
year,  when the period of excessive, dangerous growth begins,  and continues
through the next seven years.   During this time the macrocosmic desire body
performs the function of a womb for the individual desire body.

   Were the vital body to have continual and unrestrained sway in the  human
kingdom, as it has in the plant, man would grow to an enormous size.   There
was  a time in the far distant past when man was constituted like  a  plant,
having only a dense body and a vital body.   The traditions of mythology and
folk  lore all over the world,  concerning giants in olden times  are  abso-
lutely true,  because then men grew as tall as trees,  and for the same rea-
son.

   The  vital body of the plant builds leaf after leaf,  carrying  the  stem
higher  and higher.   Were it not for the macrocosmic desire body  it  would
keep in in that way indefinitely,  but the macrocosmic desire body stops  in
at a certain point and checks further growth.   The force that is not needed
for further growth is then available for other purposes and is used to build
the  flower  and the seed.   In like manner the human vital body,  when  the
dense body comes under its sway,  after the seventh year,  makes the  latter
grow very rapidly,  but about the fourteenth year the individual desire body
is  born  from the womb of the macrocosmic desire body and is then  free  to
work on its dense body.   The excessive growth is then checked and the force
theretofore  used for that purpose becomes available for  propagation,  that
the  human  plant  may  flower  and bring forth.  Therefore the birth of the

[PAGE 3580]

personal desire body marks the period of puberty.   From the period that at-
traction  toward  the  opposite sex is felt,  being  especially  active  and
unrestrained  in the third septenary period of life--from the fourteenth  to
the twenty-first year, because the restraining mind is still unborn.

   It will be remembered that assimilation and growth depend upon the forces
working along the positive pole of the vital body's chemical ether.  This is
set free at the seventh year,  together with the balance of the vital  body.
Only  the chemical ether is fully ripe at that time;  the other  parts  need
more  ripening.   At the fourteenth year the life ether of the  vital  body,
which has to do with propagation,  is fully ripe.   In the period from seven
to fourteen years of age the excessive assimilation has stored up an  amount
of  force which goes to the sex organs and is ready at the time  the  desire
body is set free.

   By the seventh year the vital body of the child has reached a  perfection
sufficient to allow it to receive impacts from the outside world.   It sheds
its protective covering of ether, and commences its free life.   And now the
time begins in which the educator may work on the vital body and help it  is
in the formation of memory,  conscience, good habits,  and a harmonious tem-
perament.  AUTHORITY and DISCIPLESHIP are the watchwords of this epoch, when
the child is to learn the meaning of things.   In the first epoch it  learns
that things are,  but must not be bothered about their meaning,  except what
it  picks up of its own accord, but  in  the  second  epoch  from  seven  to

[PAGE 3581]

fourteen years,  it is essential that the child should learn the meaning  of
them,  but should learn to take things on the autority of parents and teach-
ers,  memorizing their explanations,  rather than reasoning for itself,  for
reason  belongs to a later development,  and though he may do so of his  own
accord, with profit, it is harmful at this period to force him to think.

   It must not be imagined,  however,  that when the little body of a  child
has been born,  the process of birth is completed.   The dense physical body
has  had  the longest evolution,  and as a shoemaker who has worked  at  his
trade  for a number of years is more expert than an apprentice and can  make
better shoes,  and QUICKER, so also the Spirit which has built many physical
bodies produces them quickly,  but the vital body is a later acquisition  of
the human being.   Therefore we are not so expert in building that  vehicle.
Consequently  it takes longer to construct that from the materials not  used
up  in making the lining of the archetype,  and the vital body is  not  born
until the seventh year.

   When the vital body is born at the age of seven a period of growth begins
and  a  new motto,  or relation rather,  is established between  parent  and
child.   This may be expressed in the two words AUTHORITY and  DISCIPLESHIP.
In this period the child is taught certain lessons which it takes upon faith
in  the  authority of its teachers,  whether at home or at  school,  and  as
memory  is a faculty of the vital body it can now memorize what is  learned.
It is therefore eminently teachable;  particularly because it is unbiased by

[PAGE 3582]

preconceived opinions which prevent most of us from accepting new views.  At
the end of this second period, from about twelve to fourteen, the vital body
has been so far developed that puberty is reached.

   Children  who die before the seventh year have been born only so  far  as
the dense and vital bodies are concerned and are not responsible to the  Law
of Consequence.   Even up to twelve or fourteen years the desire body is  in
process of gestation,  as will be more fully explained in the next  lecture,
and  as that which has not been quickened cannot die,  the dense  and  vital
bodies alone go to decay when a child dies.   It retains its desire body and
mind  to  the next birth.   Therefore it does not go around the  whole  path
which  the Ego usually traverses in a life cycle,  but only ascends  to  the
First Heaven to learn needed lessons, and after a wait of from one to twenty
years it is reborn, often in the same family as a younger child.

[PAGE 3583]

                      VITAL BODY OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS:

                         GENERAL NATURE AND FUNCTION:

   ANIMALS  AND PLANTS HAVE A VITAL BODY,  TOO.   ALTHOUGH THIS  VEHICLE  IS
LACKING IN THE MINERAL, THE DISINTEGRATION OF HARD ROCK,  ETC.,  AFFECTS THE
VITAL BODY OF THE EARTH.

   When we consider plant, animal, and man in relation to the Etheric Region
we note that each has a separate vital body in addition to being  penetrated
by the planetary ether which forms the Etheric Region.   There is a  differ-
ence,  however,  between the vital bodies of the plants and the vital bodies
of animal and man.  In the vital body of the plant only the chemical and the
life ethers are fully active.  Hence the plant can grow by the action of the
chemical  ether and propagate its species through the activity of  the  life
ether  of the separate vital body which it possesses.   The light  ether  is
present,  but  is partially latent or dormant and the  reflecting  ether  is
lacking.  Therefore it is evident that the faculties of sense-perception and
memory,  which are the qualities of these ethers, cannot be expressed by the
plant kingdom.

   Turning our attention to the vital body of the animal we find that in  it
the  chemical,  life,  and light ethers are dynamically active.   Hence  the
animal has the faculties of assimulation and growth, caused by activities of

[PAGE 3584]

the  chemical  ether  and the faculty of propagation by means  of  the  life
ether--these being the same as in plants.  But in addition,  consequent upon
the action of the third or light ether,  it has the faculties of  generating
internal heat and of sense-perception.  The fourth ether, however,  is inac-
tive in the animal, hence it has no thought nor memory.   That which appears
as such will be shown later to be of a different nature.

   The separate Ego is definitely segregated within the Universal Spirit  in
the Region of Abstract Thought.   It shows that only man possesses the  com-
plete  chain  of  vehicles correlating him to all  divisions  of  the  three
worlds.   The animal lacks one link of the chain--the mind;  the plant lacks
two links--the mind and the desire body;  and the mineral lacks three  links
in the chain of vehicles necessary to function in a self-conscious manner in
the Physical World--the mind, the desire, and the vital bodies.

   When an animal is to be born, the Group Spirit,  helped by nature spirits
and Angels,  fashion the vital body of the coming animal,  which is then de-
posited  in the womb of the mother and the seed atoms are deposited  in  the
semen of the male; then gestation takes place and an animal is born.   With-
out the presence of the seed atom and the matrix vital body no dense  animal
body can be formed.  Similar conditions govern fecundation in the case of an
egg,  or a plant seed.   They are like the female ova--they are so many  OP-
PORTUNITIES.   If an egg is put into an incubator or under a hen,  the Group
Spirit  sends  forth  the  requisite  life,  accepting  the  opportunity for

[PAGE 3585]

embodiment.   If a seed is dropped in the soil, that also is fertilized when
the  proper conditions have been made for its development,  but not  before.
When an egg is crushed, cooked, or in other ways disqualified for its primal
designation,  or where a seed is stored for years perhaps, there is no life,
and consequently we do no wrong when we use these products for food.   It is
even  beneficial  to plants when the ripe fruits are removed,  because  then
they cease to take sap from the tree unnecessarily.

   The  animal has no "individual"  Spirit yet,  but has a  so-called  Group
Spirit,  which informs all the members of a species.   The separate  animals
have three bodies--a dense, a vital, and a desire body--but lack one link in
the chain:  mind.  Hence animals do not ordinarily think, but as we "Induce"
electricity  in a wire by bringing it close to another which is charged,  so
in  a similar way by contact with man a semblance of thought has  been  "in-
duced" in the higher domestic animals, such as the dog, horse, and elephant.
The other animals obey the prompting (which we call instinct) of the  animal
Group Spirit.   They do not see objects in such clear outlines as does  man;
in  the lower species in the animal consciousness resolves itself  more  and
more into an internal "picture-consciousness," resembling man's dream state,
except  that their pictures are not confused,  but convey perfectly  to  the
animal the promptings of Group Spirit.

   The  animal Spirit has in its descent reached only the Desire World.   It
has  not  yet  evolved  to  the  point  where  it  can "enter" a dense body.

[PAGE 3586]

Therefore  the animal has no individualized indwelling Spirit,  but a  Group
Spirit,  which directs it from without.  The animal has the dense body,  the
vital body,  and the desire body,  but the Group Spirit which directs it  is
outside.   The vital body and the desire body of an animal are not  entirely
within  the  dense body,  especially where the head is concerned.   For  in-
stance,  the etheric head of a horse projects far beyond and above the dense
physical head.   When,  as in rare cases it happens,  the etheric head of  a
horse draws into the head of the dense body,  that horse can learn to  read,
count,  and work examples in elementary arithmetic.   To this peculiarity is
also due the fact that horses, dogs, cats,  and other domestic animals sense
the Desire World,  though not always realizing the difference between it and
the Physical World.   A horse will shy at the sight of a figure invisible to
the driver;  a cat will go through the motions of rubbing itself against in-
visible legs.   The cats sees the ghost, however,  without realizing that it
has no dense legs available for frictional purposes.   The dog,  wiser  than
cat  or horse,  will often sense that there is something he does not  under-
stand about the appearance of a dead master whose hands it cannot lick.   It
will  howl  mournfully and slink into a corner with its  tails  between  its
legs.

   Dr.  McDougall  also  tried his scales in  weighing  dying  animals.   No
diminution was found here, though one of the animals was a large St. Bernard
dog.   That  was  taken to indicate that animals have no  souls.   A  little
later,  however,  Professor La V. Twining, head of the Science Department of
the  Los  Angeles  Polytechnic  School,  experimented with mice and kittens,

[PAGE 3587]

which he enclosed in hermetically sealed glass flasks.   His scales were the
most  sensitive procurable and were enclosed in a glass case from which  all
moisture had been removed.   It was found that all the animals observed lost
weight at death.   A good sized mouse, weighing 12.886 grams,  suddenly lost
3.1 milligrams at death.

   A kitten used in another experiment lost one hundred milligrams while dy-
ing  and at its last gasp it suddenly lost an additional  sixty  milligrams.
After that it lost weight slowly, due to evaporation.

   Thus the teaching of occult science in regard to the possession of  vital
bodies  by  animals was also vindicated when sufficiently fine  scales  were
used,  and the case where the rather insensitive scales did not show diminu-
tion  in the weight of the St.  Bernard dog shows that the vital  bodies  of
animals are proportionately lighter than in man.

   The Angels are particularly active in the vital bodies of the plants, for
the stream of life ensouling that kingdom started its evolution in the  Moon
Period,  when the Angels were human,  and they worked with the plants as  we
are now working with our minerals.  There is therefore a particular affinity
between Angels and plant Group Spirit.  Thus we can account for the enormous
assimilation,  growth,  and fecundity of the plants.   Man also grew  to  an
enormous  size  in the second or Hyperborean Epoch,  where the  Angeles  had
principal charge.   So does the child in its second septenary epoch of life,
because  then  the  Angels  have full sway, and at the end of that epoch, at

[PAGE 3588]

fourteen,  the child has reached puberty and is able to reproduce its  kind;
also due to the work of the Angels.

   They  were the molds which drew to themselves the dense material  forming
the plant-bodies of the present day and also of the plant-forms of the past,
which are embedded in the geological strata of our Earth globe.

   These  ethereal plant forms were aided in their formation when  the  heat
came  from the outside,  after the separation of the Earth from the Sun  and
Moon.   That heat gave them the vital force to draw to themselves the denser
substance.

   The vital body is the most important principle of the plant,  it is  that
which makes the plant grow stem and long in alternating succession,  so that
the plant grows taller and taller;  but there is no variety,  the plant goes
on repeating all the time.  Stem, leaf, and branch--ever the same.

   The plants have only a dense body and a vital body;  hence they can  nei-
ther  feel  nor  think.   They lack desire body and mind,  and  therefore  a
greater  gap exists between the plant and its Group Spirit than between  the
animal and its Group Spirit;  hence the consciousness of the plants is  cor-
respondingly dimmer, resembling our state of dreamless sleep.

   The  mineral has only a dense body.  It lacks three links to  connect  it
with its Group Spirit.   It therefore is inert and its unconscious resembles
that of the dense human body  in  the  "trance" state when the human spirit,

[PAGE 3589]

the Ego, has passed correspondingly beyond it.

   In conclusion, let us note that the three worlds in which we live are not
separated by space.  They are all about us, as light and color,  imbedded in
the physical matter;  as lines of cleavage in the mineral.  If we let a dish
of  water freeze,  and examine it under a microscope,  we shall see the  ice
crystals divided off from one another by lines.   These were present  though
unseen in the water as lines of force,  invisible until the proper condition
brought them out.   So one world lies imbedded in the next above,  unseen to
us  until  we provide the proper conditions;  but when we have  fitted  our-
selves, Nature, who is ever ready to unfold to us her wonders, expresses ar-
dent  joy  over  every one who has a helper in  evolution  thus  attains  to
citizenship in the invisible realms.

   As  we saw in Lecture No.  3,  the plants have a dense and a vital  body,
which enables them to do this work; their consciousness we also saw,  was as
a deep,  dreamless sleep.  Thus it is easy for the Ego to overpower the veg-
etable  cells and keep then in subjection for a long time,  hence the  great
sustaining power of the vegetables.

   To  function in any world,  and express the qualities peculiar to it,  we
must first possess a vehicle made of its material.   In order to function in
the dense Physical World,  it is necessary to have a dense body,  adapted to
our  environment.   Otherwise  we should be ghosts,  as  they  are  commonly
called, and be invisible to most physical beings.  So  we  must have a vital

[PAGE 3590]

body  before we can express life, grow,  or externalize the other  qualities
peculiar to the Etheric Region.

   When  we examine the four kingdoms in relation to the Etheric Region,  we
find that the mineral does not possess a separate vital body, and at once we
see the reason why it cannot grow, propagate, or show sentient life.

   As  an  hypothesis necessary to account for other known  facts,  material
science  holds  that  in the densest solid, as in the rarest  and  most  at-
tenuated gas,  no two atoms touch each other;  that there is an envelope  of
ether around each atom;  that the atoms in the universe float in an ocean of
ether.

   As sensation in animals and men is due to their separate vital bodies, so
the feeling of the Earth is particularly active in this sixth stratum, which
corresponds  to the World of Life Spirit.   To understand the pleasure  felt
when mining operations are disintegrating the hard rock,  and the pain  when
deposits  gather,  we must remember that the Earth is the dense  body  of  a
Great Spirit,  and to furnish us with an environment in which we could  live
and  gather  experience,  it had to crystallize this body into  its  present
solid condition.

   The  vital  body  of  the  plant is composed  only  of  the  two  densest
ethers--the  CHEMICAL  ETHER and the LIFE ETHER--which enable the  plant  to
grow and propagate,  but it lacks the two higher ethers--the LIGHT ETHER and
REFLECTING ETHER.  Hence it has no sensation or memory of what passes around
it.   Therefore, amputation of a limb will not be felt by the plant,  and in
the case of the cliff which is blasted,  only the CHEMICAL ETHER is present,
so that the crystals will have no feelings at all.  Still, it would be wrong
to infer that there is no feeling in either of these cases,  for though  the
plants and the minerals have no individual means of feeling, they are envel-
oped  and interpenetrated by the ethers and the Desire World of the  planet,
and  the PLANETARY SPIRIT FEELS everything, on the same principle  that  our
finer, having no INDIVIDUAL desire body, cannot feel, but we, the indwelling
Spirits inhabiting the body, feel any hurt done to the finger.

Continued with file "RC1100.TXT"

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