Module 4 Audio Recording: The Subtle Energy Body

“The Simplicity of Inner Peace”

Transcription:

Hi, this is Wenndi Freer again and welcome back to The Simplicity of Inner Peace. We’re in module 4. The Subtle Energy Body.

During this module, I am going to teach you about a model of consciousness originally developed by Rudolf Steiner who founded an esoteric spiritual movement in the 20^th century. Steiner’s writings were also behind the founding of the first Waldorf schools, biodynamic agriculture and anthroposophical medicine. This model is also quite compatible with the kosas of the Indian tradition.

My goal in this module is not to make you an expert on this particular model of consciousness called the 4 fold subtle bodies model but to:

1.     Have a basic understanding of the 4 layers of this model

2.     Help you to feel your own subtle energy and

3.     Give you a couple of practices that you can do on your own so you can continue to feel your subtle energy body

The 4 fold subtle bodies model is used extensively by the meditation school that I’m part of which is the Clairvision School of Meditation.

And I like this model because it gives us an easier way to share meditation experiences. So for example if I say that my etheric feels a certain way or has a lot of light in it, people using this or similar models will know what I am talking about and we can have a deeper discussion and likely deeper experiences. The idea is that having a word to describe something, makes that something more tangible. I’m sure you’ve heard stories about people not seeing something right in front of them because they never brought it into their consciousness. I remember hearing a story about some indigenous people who didn’t recognize a square because in nature there are no squares. What they saw were lines but their mind didn’t formulate the lines into a square form at first because it was foreign to their experience.

My hope with this module is to get you more familiar not only with the terminology but with how your own subtle bodies feel so that you can have deeper experiences of them in meditation.

So back to my story in module one. It was easy for me to feel the light of my consciousness when I was under that wave because I was familiar with it. I had felt it many times before in meditation and in the Inner Space process which I spoke about in Module 3.

I want to be very clear that this model is just one model and it definitely doesn’t explain everything in the creation but it’s a great place for us to start a conversation about subtle energy. It has many levels – all of which I will not be able to cover in this audio but here it is the 4 fold subtle bodies model in a bit more detail.

It’s called a 4 fold subtle bodies model because it breaks our subtle energy down into 4 categories.

The physical body, the etheric body, the astral body and the Higher Self or Spirit. You have received a basic diagram of the subtle body model with your module which you can refer to for clarity.

So let’s jump in and talk a bit about the body we are most familiar with.

The physical body – which is what we see and can touch with our hands. In the Indian tradition is it called Anna-maya-kosa.  In Sanskrit Anna-maya-kosa means the envelope made of food because the physical body is basically made of what you ingest.  The physical body is made up of physical substance. Rocks, plants, animals and humans all have a physical body.

The next body or layer of this model is called the etheric body – In Sanskrit the Prana-maya-kosa. Which means envelope made of prana or life-force. So etheric body equates with prana in the Indian tradition, chi in Chinese medicine and can sometimes be called life force or body of energy.

The etheric body is more of our feeling body. It can be felt as a vibration and it permeates through and extends beyond our physical body. This is the part of us that feels things that are not visible to our physical eyes. You see some places can look very nice but feel terrible and our etheric body will pick up on that.

For example, one of the other services I offer is space clearing which means I go into homes and offices and in simple terms I do an energetic cleaning and revitalization of the space. I was recently in New Orleans where I went into a building that my client had recently taken ownership of and she was going to start a business in this building. I walked up the stairs and my body of energy or my etheric felt very uncomfortable. Although it was clean and had a great open space, my senses told me there was something wrong with the energy in the building. My client was surprised when I eventually shared this because other people had come in and said it looked like a great space AND indeed it did look like a great space but it did not feel good to me. When I questioned this deeper I found out that it was previously a residential space and the people who lived there were suspected of doing drugs in the space. Well that was it, my etheric could feel something was off because I have spent years developing that natural ability to feel so it is more heightened. Cultivating my etheric body is essential to being able to do my space clearing work well.

So the etheric body feels – it knows when you are in a beautiful environment and when the environment is not so nice and the etheric body likes to spread and it does that much more easily in nature than in a busy city. We are going to talk in module 5 about setting up your meditation space so that your etheric body is happy and comfortable in meditation.

You’ll notice that I said the etheric correlates to chi in the Chinese system.  When an acupuncturist works on your energy they are working on the energetic channels and meridians that are in your etheric body and that has an effect on your physical body. That is because the etheric and physical bodies are closely related. The etheric body supports life in the physical body so if the etheric is weak most likely the physical body also has a weakness. The physical and etheric body make up the lower complex in our 4 layer system. Plants, Animals, and Humans have an etheric body and it brings life to the physical body.

The next layer or body is the astral body – In Sanskrit Mano-maya-kosa. Meaning envelope made of mind.  This is the subtle body that is consciousness and part of that includes the mind and emotions. You’ll remember in module 3 I talked a little about Samskaras, this is the subtle body where Samskaras are found.   Again Samskaras are imprints left by traumatic emotional experiences. They are scars of the mind and emotion. We can also refer to the astral body as the mind and emotions but there is way more to it than just that.

The astral body permeates through and extends beyond both the etheric and physical body. Human beings and animals have an astral body but plants do not have an individuated astral body. Humans and animals have mobility and that is in part due to this astral body. Without the interaction of the astral body we would be vegetables, unable to move or perform complex mental tasks.

Then there is the part of the model, this is the part that Rudolf Steiner calls the Capital E Ego but that is not to be confused with Freud’s little e ego.   The little e ego is more like the mind of the astral body or the personality.  To avoid any confusion for this talk I am going to refer to this 4^th layer of the subtle body as the Higher Self or Spirit. Human beings have a higher self and can experience transcendental consciousness. We can cultivate a state of awareness in which consciousness knows that it is conscious.  It is because of the Higher Self or Spirit that a transformation can occur in humans.

So those are the 4 parts and as you can imagine it is not quite that easy or straight forward because each of these subtle bodies relate to and bleed over into the others. Each of the 4 parts actually can be broken down into subparts but for this talk we are going to keep it at 4

The subtle body that I spoke about most in Module 2 and 3 is the Astral body. The grasping nature of the mind and reactions or samskaras are found in the astral body.

The subtle body that I am going to try to make most tangible in this module is the etheric body.

So let’s try a couple practices together that are designed to help you feel your etheric body.

(Close your eyes for 2 practices to help you feel the etheric body)

So to sum up this module I don’t want you to struggle to academically understand these 4 parts of the subtle energy but I do want you to know that you will be feeling these different parts of your energy when you meditate.  For example the vibration that I have been gearing us towards is a sensation of your etheric body. And at times you may feel your astral body coming in as thoughts or even just a tightness in your energy. So the tightness will be the astral body constricting the etheric body which likes to spread and flow and vibrate and feel a sense of well-being.

As you continue your journey of meditation you may become more aware of these different layers of your subtle body and it’s helpful to be aware of what’s happening on a subtle level especially on days when your meditation does not feel easy. When the ordinary mind is relentless is may be easier to let go if you know “oh, that’s just my astral body, let me let go of that and feel the vibration of my etheric body because that will allow my energy to spread and release the grasping nature of the mind.”

And it’s also good to know that when meditation just starts feeling too difficult because of unyielding thoughts or pain in your body there is always the IST (Inner Space Techniques) process that we talked about in module 3 to help you bring your meditation deeper or to the next level.

Until next time, Keep doing your etheric practices and I’ll connect with you again in the next module when we’ll talk about setting up a space for your meditation that will keep your etheric body happy and why meditating in groups is so much easier. Until then, I wish you beautiful meditations and remember …Be Glorious!