Wednesday 6 January 2010

How Many Bodies Do We Have?

The obvious answer is, “One!” It is obvious because your physical body is the only one you can see. How could you possibly have any more? Well, if you think you have a body and a spirit, then you might want to claim you have two bodies; a physical body and a spiritual body.

Some books will tell you that you have almost as many as you can think, each one being a vehicle or receptacle for your soul to be carried around in, or protected by. If you can think of the soul as being the kernel of you, the real you, then perhaps a simple dictionary definition can help you to understand something about the number of bodies you might have.

You see, the soul is described as the animating part of you. It is the part of you which is emotional, moral and intellectual. In fact it is jut about everything apart from your physical body! The definition gives us a clue; apart from being physical, we are emotional, mental, intellectual and vital beings. We are all of these things, and if you think about it, each has its own sensitivity; each has its own way of knowing about the world.

Your physical body will tell you whether the day is warm or cold. Your emotional body will tell you if it is a happy day or not. Your mental body will tell you the day of the week and what month it is, while your intellectual body allows you to dwell on the passage of time and its significance. In that sense, we have a “body” or sensitivity for each kind of knowing we have.

Some older religious teachings link the physical to the non-physical bodies through what they call an etheric body, one that gradually dissipates or disintegrates after the death of the physical body. In a simplified form, their understanding is that we have five bodies; the physical, etheric, astral (or desire body), the lower mental, which masters facts, and the higher mental, which is capable of wisdom and understanding. Each is a vehicle for the soul, your individual essence-of-life. Maybe the soul is our ultimate “body”. This would give us six in all.

Say for a moment then that we really do have six bodies. Does it matter? Do you need to know how many bodies you have? Millions of people have lived their lives without either knowing or caring. However, it might be interesting to consider the possibility. I will tell you why.

If you think of a human being as only a physical entity, then you do so in terms of someone who needs food, clothing and shelter. You will not understand much of what he does, and you will not be able to help him grow to his full potential. You may feed him physically, but who is to feed him emotionally, mentally or spiritually if no-one recognise that there are other aspects of him? Under such circumstances, he has to remain perforce partially undeveloped. The more facets we recognise in man, the more we can nurture and develop him.

Once man has understanding, he has the key to mastery. Part of the soul’s nature is to understand. It uses its various “bodies” to draw information from experience of life. The soul can then process into its own wisdom and understanding that same experience and understanding. By perceiving life – observing it, apprehending it – the soul learns.

It learns through the physical, through the emotional, through the mind and the soul itself until deep understanding is achieved.

This is an excerpt form the excellent book “The Seeing Eye, the Feeling Heart” by Will Ford and Linda Muir: Published by Longsdunn Press Ltd. ISBN 1 874514070

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