EXPLORATIONS INTO THE NATURE OF OUR CONSCIOUSNESS
the new vital body J. van Rijckenborgh If we want to give you an idea of the new vehicle of the reborn soul that is erected when the soul has entered the Light birth of God, we should explore our way very carefully. The number of its aspects is so overwhelmingly large that we would certainly need many discussions to achieve a somewhat acceptable overview. This is why this explanation should be seen as only an introductory, sober, and obviously incomplete description of this extremely important topic.
W
e know that the physical body has a so-called etheric double, also called the etheric or vital body. The etheric body has approximately the same shape as the physical body and also expresses the same type. We might say that the etheric body is the matrix for the physical body. This is why the universal teachings say that everything begins in the etheric body. When something new must be built, we should always pay attention to the etheric vehicle. If a person becomes ill, the cause is always to be found in the vital body. This is why it is said (and we repeat very well-known facts here) that the restoration of health must begin in the vital body, and that, when this restoration is clearly manifested there, the restoration of the physical body will automatically follow. The vital body is basically composed of the four familiar ethers, with successive degrees of density and vibration. In the vital body, we distinguish a structure of lines of force similar to the nervous system. If you have ever seen a diagram of the nervous system in an ana2 pentagram 5/2011
tomical atlas, you can to some extent imagine what this system of lines of force looks like. In the vital body, the ethers are assimilated, concentrated and differentiated according to the various necessary functions, after which they are transferred to the physical body. We might say that the physical body inhales the ethers. In this context, the skin plays an important role. We inhale the ethers, we assimilate the ethers through the skin. If the skin does not function properly, there is not proper ether assimilation either, and if there is no proper ether assimilation, the physical body will languish. In the body, there are also very special entrance gates for the ethers, for instance, the spleen. However, also understand that the whole body, every inch of it, assimilates ethers. Even the internal parts of the body inhale ethers because, as explained before, the etheric body pervades the whole physical vehicle. The nature, the biological state, and the degree of crystallisation of the physical body are, therefore, determined by the ethers
