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satay
19 June 2007, 08:41 AM
namaskar,

I am wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction. I am looking for information on Astral plane and the astral bodies that reside there.

Specifically, I am trying to find out how the astral body is connected to our physical body. In addition, there are other questions that I am trying to understand:

1. Does the astral body have same limitation as the physical body might? e.g. if one has a physical body with limitation in vak, hearing etc. does the astral body have similar limitations due to karma?

2. Can one affect the astral body somehow even from the physical plane? i.e. can a muni/rishi/sadhu/healer affect the astral body in such a way that it heals the physical body?

3. How are dreams in physical body related to astral body? or are they?

4. Is the astral body 'concious' of its surroundings?

What do our sastras say about this?

Please advise...

saidevo
19 June 2007, 10:23 AM
Namaste Satay.

I am glad to note your interest on the popular subjects in Theosophy. Even though Hinduism speaks of only five sheaths and three bodies, Theosophy expands the seven principles that surround the human soul into:

1. physical body - lives in the physical world (or plane)
2. etheric double - body that houses the chakras; lives on the first four (subtler) etheric sub-planes of the physical world.
3. astral body - lives in the astral world, the play field of our emotions and feelings.
4. mental body - lives in the rupa regions of the mental world (last four sub-planes)
5. causal body - lives in the arupa regions of the mental world (first three sub-planes)
6. Buddhi - resides in the Intutional world or Buddhic plane
7. Atma - spiritual or atmic plane

The seven planes or worlds corresponding the principles map to the Hindu equivalents bhu loka, bhuvar loka, suvar loka, mahahar loka, janar loka, tapah loka, satya loka.

The best source of reference for the human bodies are Arthur Powell's compilations that can be read/downloaded at:

The Etheric Double - http://www.theosophical.ca/EthericDouble.htm
The Astral Body - http://www.theosophical.ca/AstralBodyByPowell-A.htm (and B)
The Mental Body - http://www.theosophical.ca/MentalBodyA.htm (and B)
The Causal Body and the Ego - http://www.theosophical.ca/CausalBody1.htm (and 2)

For books by C.W.Leadbeater and Annie Besant on Theosophy, check:
http://www.anandgholap.net/index.html

Incidentally, in contemporary Hindu metaphysics both Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami and Swami Sivananda, among others are generally in agreement with the clairvoyant investigations expounded in Theosophy.

I have a fairly decent exposure to Theosophy through the books of Besant and Leadbeater and the compilations of Powell, though I read them a couple of years back. From what I remember offhand about the astral body, the answers to your queries could be on the following lines:



1. Does the astral body have same limitation as the physical body might? e.g. if one has a physical body with limitation in vak, hearing etc. does the astral body have similar limitations due to karma?


No, astral body does not have the limitations of the physical body. A person physically visionless will have astral vision. There are no separate organs in the astral body for the five senses. The entire body, which is sort of a fast revolving cocoon of colorful and fine astral matter, employes the astral senses. Since the astral body functions in dreams and in the astral world its acts are not subject to karma experience or accumulation.



2. Can one affect the astral body somehow even from the physical plane? i.e. can a muni/rishi/sadhu/healer affect the astral body in such a way that it heals the physical body?


Physical manifestations of all human acts originate in the mental plane, take shapes in the astral plane and then only manifest in the physical body and world. For the kind of healing and other effects done by sages, I think they communicate at the mental body level with due effects on the target person's astral and physical bodies. A sage this way can take an ailment of a person on his physical body, effectively transferring it onto him. In the same way, physicians who are capable of clairvoyance, astral vision and communication can be better healers.



3. How are dreams in physical body related to astral body? or are they?


Dreams I think don't happen in the physical body or world at all. Even in daydreaming and hallucinations the manifestations occur in the astral plane and are visible to the physical brain due to manifestations in the matter of the brain and the nervous system.

Dreams are broadly of two types: in most cases they are formed by the mind dramatizing the impressions from the Chitta. Lucid dreams, however, are actully due to the functioning of the astral body in the astral world.



4. Is the astral body 'concious' of its surroundings?


A normal human soul can focus its consciousness in only one of the bodies though it switches back and forth among the bodies. During wakeful state, the awareness is focussed on the physical brain, so the astral body per se, though it functions before every physical act, has no consciousness. The same applies to the mental body.

Sometimes, when we are totally absorbed in something, we forget our physical self. The awareness in such cases is focussed on the mental body.



What do our sastras say about this?


I leave it to our better-informed members here to discuss correspondences in our Shastras.

Znanna
19 June 2007, 08:09 PM
Namaste,

There are numerous treatises offered on such.

However, I'd suggest that consistent meditation practice will offer revelations which cannot be expressed or described in any more efficient manner than the doing of the practice.

Devi will offer insight and perspective.


/nuff said?


Love,
ZN

Jigar
09 August 2007, 10:03 PM
Namaste Satay,
Since we revolve around the north star, I would suspect that the gravitional pulls that occur when the astral bodies in a plane coincide it may have some kind of effect on you physically.

unlimited "Insight and perspective" is crucial for mental psychological development , otherwise,
"It Is As Simple As That"
Manifest Destiny Energy
http://img458.imageshack.us/img458/471/manifestenergymp2.gif (http://imageshack.us)



maste nam,jigar