The six vehicles used by the spirit and by means of which the Ego gains experience are:
Body, as a gross vehicle.
Vitality, or Prâna.
Astral Body, or Linga Sharîra.
Animal Soul, or Kâma Rûpa.
Human Soul, or Manas.
Spiritual Soul, or Buddhi.
The Linga Sharîra is needed as a more subtle body than the corporeal frame, because the latter is in fact only stupid, inert matter. Kâma Rûpa is the body, or collection, of desires and passions; Manas may be properly called the mind, and Buddhi is the highest intellection beyond brain or mind. It is that which discriminates.
At the death of the body, Prâna flies back to the reservoir of force; the astral body dissipates after a longer period and often returns with Kâma Rûpa when aided by certain other forces to séance-rooms, where it masquerades as the deceased, a continual lie and ever-present snare. The human and the spiritual soul go into the state spoken of before as Devachan or heaven, where the stay is prolonged or short according to the energies appropriate to that state generated during earth-life. When these begin to exhaust themselves the Ego is gradually drawn back to earth-life, where through human generation it takes up a new body, with another astral body, vitality, and animal soul.