Theosophy does not speak of limitations to man’s knowledge through his organism; but says, on the contrary, that he is surrounded by worlds for which he has the organs of perception. It indicates the means by which to extend the temporary limits. It also occupies itself with the investigation of the vital, or etheric body, and to what in the following may be called the yet higher principles of human nature. It admits that only the physical body can be accessible to the investigation of the bodily senses, and that from this standpoint one can at most only chance on something higher by a train of reasoning. But it gives information as to how one can open up for oneself a world in which these higher principles of human nature appear before the observer, just as the colors and light of objects appear before the blind-born person after his operation. For those who have developed the higher organs of perception, the etheric or vital body is an object of actual observation, and not a theory resulting from intellectual activity or a train of reasoning.
Man has this etheric, or vital body, in common with the plants and animals. It causes the matter and forces of the physical body to form themselves into the manifestations of growth, of reproduction, of the internal motions of the fluids, etc. It is also the builder and sculptor of the physical body, its inhabitant and its architect. The physical body can therefore also be called an image or expression of this vital body. Both are approximately the same in man as regards form and size, yet they are by no means quite alike. But the etheric body in animals and still more in plants, differs considerably from the physical body with regard to its shape and dimension.
The third principle of the human being is the so-called body of feeling, or astral body. It is the vehicle of pain and pleasure, of impulse, desire, passion, and so forth. An entity composed merely of a physical and an etheric body has nothing of all this, to which may be ascribed the term—sensation. The plant has no sensation. If many a learned man of our time concludes that plants have a certain power of sensation, from the fact that many of them respond to a stimulus, by movement, or in other ways, he merely shows that he does not know the essence of sensation. The point is, not whether the being in question responds to an outward stimulus, but rather whether the stimulus reflects itself through an inner experience, such as pleasure or pain, impulse, desire, etc. If this be not the standard of sensation, one would be justified in asserting that blue litmus paper has a sense of feeling for certain substances, because on coming into contact with them, it turns red.[2]
Man has the astral body in common with the animal world only. It is thus the medium for the life of sensation and feeling.
One must not fall into the error of certain theosophical circles and think that the etheric body and
astral body consist merely of finer matter than that which exists in the physical body. For this would mean simply the materialisation of these higher principles of human nature. The etheric body is a form of living forces; it is composed of active forces, but not of matter—and the astral body or body of feeling is a form consisting of colored luminous pictures revolving within themselves.[3]
The astral body differs in form and size from the physical body. It appears in man in the form of an oblong egg, in which the physical and the etheric bodies are embedded. It projects on all sides beyond these two like a luminous cloud.
Now in the nature of man there is a fourth principle which he does not share with other earthly creatures. This is the vehicle of the human “I”. The little word “I” as we call it in English is a word that separates itself from all other words. He who duly reflects on
the nature of this word, gains access at the same time to an understanding of human nature. Every other word may be used by all men in the same way to suit some corresponding object. Anyone can call a table “table,” any one can call a chair “chair,” but with the word “I” it is not so. No one can use it as an indication of some one else, for each person can only speak of himself as “I”. Never can the word “I” sound in my ears as a reference to myself. For a man in designating himself “I”, must name himself within himself. A being that can say to himself “I” is a world in himself. Those religions which are built up on the basis of Theosophy have always felt this. They have therefore said that with the “ego” the God begins to speak within—the God who, among lower beings, is manifested only from without in the surrounding phenomena.
The vehicle of this lastly developed capacity is now “the body of the ego,” the fourth principle of the human being.[4] This body of the ego is the vehicle of the higher human soul, and through it man is the crown of all earthly creation. But the ego in present humanity is by no means a simple entity. Its nature can be recognized when a comparison is made between men of different stages of evolution. Take for instance the uneducated savage and the average European, and compare these again with a lofty idealist. Each one of them has the faculty of saying to himself “I” for the “body of the ego” is existent in each of them. But the uncivilized savage gives way with this “I” to his passions, his impulses and appetites, almost like an animal. The more highly developed man allows himself to follow certain inclinations and desires, others he checks or suppresses. The idealist has formed, in addition to the original inclinations and passions, others that are higher. This is all due to the fact that the “ego” has been at work on the other principles of the human being. And it is precisely the mission of the “ego” to ennoble and purify the other principles by its own power.