The Five Bodies

The Five Bodies

The Physical Body     

The Etheric or Qi Body

The Mental or Shen Body    

The Devic or Ling Body

The Supracausal / Universal or Tao Body

One of the facets of our human form I was shown is that humans are actually composed of five unique parts. The first is the physical body, about this we can all agree.
Then there is a body of Qi or etheric energy. What I understood about Qi is that it is really another entire ‘universe’. We can never prove Qi in a purely physical way. We can demonstrate it’s presence. It is as if the universe of Qi stands at a 90° angle to the physical universe. It intersects it, but cannot be captured by it. In the physical body Qi can be demonstrated in the electrical activity and output of the body. So far experimentation has demonstrated coherent energy fields around the body, being emanated by the physical body in the form of electromagnetic, magnetic, ultrasonic, subsonic, infrared, photonic, microwave and other electrical type ‘fields’. These correspond loosely with the universal concept of the ‘aura’. This is the idea, common to every traditional culture that I have ever been exposed to, that there are fields of ‘energy’ around the body, and that some sensitive people can even see them. From my own Qigong training I knew that anybody could be trained to feel these energy fields with consistent practice. My understanding is that Qi cannot be ‘captured’ with physical instruments, but it’s presence can be inferred by the presence of measurable (or feel-able) ‘energy’ phenomena.

I also realized that there is a Mental universe. This is actually completely self evident. You are present, inside a state of Beingness while reading this. That Beingness may be colored by a mood or a thought, but it is still there. The mental universe seemed filled up with, indeed composed of, that which colors Beingness. This ‘universe’ creates another body for humans – the ‘Mental’ body. Again this concept has been recognized in many traditions – it is variously referred to as the astral body, the Shen, the mental body, the soul etc.

I saw that the ‘mental’ body was itself composed of three parts or sheathes. The first sheath I have named the Mental body and just described as being composed of the thought layers which color pure Beingness. This pure Beingness itself is the third or final of the mental bodies. I have called it the Supracausal / Universal body. It is simultaneously composed of two aspects. Firstly it is within everything, as if underlying it. It is your consciousness as you read this. Not the content of your consciousness – the thought which just agreed or disagreed with the previous statement – but the consciousness itself. This is the immanent aspect. Then it is also that which contains everything. This is the transcendent aspect. It is beyond all form or description or relationship but it contains all meaning. The transcendent (outside of everything) and the immanent (within everything), aspects of the fifth state I call the Supracausal / Universal ‘body’. They are the consciousness distinction of Yin and Yang, or Nothingness and Everythingness.

Between the Mental body and the Supracausal / Universal ‘body’ lies another distinction. This has been referred to in some mystical literature as Linga Sarira or the Design body. I believe it is what Plato referenced in the concept of the ideos a realm of perfect forms. I believe it is well referenced in the term the Devic realms. As I saw it I termed it the Causal body, because it appeared to ‘cause’ the development of things. I now think this name is misleading, as I have realized that it causes nothing – it simply channels cause into form. I believe that the Chinese character Ling     captures it well. When people talk of the Akashaic records, the idea is that this is a realm where all information is stored. This is it. It is the storage place of intelligence. The intelligence of a fern leaf to unfold from its spiral pattern, the intelligence for all of life in all its incredible and interlocking complexity. Seen without the core of love this realm can appear as a terrifying and vast mechanism, giving rise to visions of a hell-like universe. Seen from within, this realm is the dance of Shiva, the play of Creation and the sport of the Gods. This realm has many levels! It shines down and interpenetrates the Mental realm. The Mental body, the third ‘body’, is really like a clear pool, it absorbs the ‘design’ imperative, the information, from the Devic realm, which is our fourth ‘body’. The Mental body substance – thus encoded, is penetrated by the brilliant shining force of pure consciousness emanating from the Supracausal / Universal ‘body’, the fifth ‘body’. It shines down through the fourth body – the Devic body – into the Mental body which then is propelled into the etheric body, and from there it controls the physical body.