The Seven Subtle Bodies
As I mentioned in a previous post, I want to expand the studies on the subtle bodies, the amalgamated layers that are threaded around and beyond us and are part of our being. More than that, I believe understanding and discussing these concepts are important for energy healers, to help us define how manipulating and interacting with these different levels affect our subjects.
In energy healing, we believe that our physical body and physiological systems are only one of the many layers of our existence.
There are many different ways of dividing ethereal parts of the body, Hinduism, Yoga, Theosophy, Taoism, Spiritism, they all have nuances and similarities among their teaching of subtle bodies. Here I lay out seven separations that help me relate better different aspects of energy being dealt with when working with Reiki and energy healing.
The Physical body
The closest to us, because it’s the most palpable one. This is the one we can’t deny or ignore. It is also the manifestation of all the other parts of our self. In the physical body, we will see the consequences of our decisions in this life and from all the previous incarnations. The scars we carry are a literal symbolism to all that we experience and how our physical body carries those stories.
The Vital Body
Also, know as Prana or Pranic Body. Our psychic layer that feeds and filters energy to our physical body. Is a body of energy and is present in all things — animated or inanimate object. It is the layer that carries our vitality, our life connected to this incarnation.
The Etheric Double (or Template)
This layer is a double of our body that exists in the spiritual realm, it reflects exactly how we look now. When we sleep, this is the body that wanders, when we leave this physical existence this is the body that comes appear to others — but at that time it can shift form accordingly to our spiritual evolution. This is the body that is usually treated in spiritual surgeries and when healing wounds in the physical body. That because all illness comes first to this layer before manifesting itself in the Physical body.
The Astral Body
The intermediate between the more gross layers of our bodies and the more subtle ones. It has less of a shape than the previous layers and it is shown more as light with an energetic signature. Through this body that we do Astral traveling, because of its lightness. Many see the manifestation of this part of our body as our Aura, that is because this is the beginning of the Auric layers.
The Manic Body
I’m calling this layer the Manic body because it is when we break free of our own sense of ego. This is when the energy starts flowing freely through our bodies, in such a strong way that we can feel a frantic, wild and apparently deranged excitement and energy (which is the definition of Mania in Psychology). That because this is the connection with the Universe in the way that we still have a glimpse of our existence, then trying to fit the bliss in our limited perception can be overwhelming.
The Enlightened Body
A layer of permanent expansion, this is the subtle body that allows us to receive everything that is energy, connecting with the cosmos, feeling light and then disconnecting from our physical perception of life and reality. Time and space as we understand are not part of this layer, as everything comes to us as a whole. This can also be understood as the Buddhic Body, and where our soul is.
The Divine Body
Also called the Monadic Body, or just Monad, this is where we all first and will always exist. The most subtle and higher level of existence is the layer that connects everything and everyone that is was and will be. Cosmos, God, Black Matter. The Divine Body is what bonds all of us, here there is not a sense of self anymore, but the feeling of belonging and being something greater than ourselves.
