We have previously seen that, under certain conditions, the Etheric Double may be separated from the dense body, though it is always connected to it by a thread or cord of etheric matter. This is the famous Silver Cord that extends far beyond the etheric plane and is the ultimate source of life to a monad in incarnation. At death the etheric envelope finally withdraws from the dense body and may be seen as a violet mist, gradually condensing into a figure, which is the counterpart of the expiring person and attached to the dense body by a glistening thread. This thread or magnetic cord is snapped at the moment of death. This is the same cord that was attached at birth. The control of this attachment and detachment process is under the exclusive control of the solar deva or guardian angel of the monad. Should this detachment process be accelerated by other parties or the monad itself, there are karmic consequences to be faced.
As the etheric life-web or envelope, accompanied by prana, disentangles itself from dense physical matter at death, it draws itself together in the heart around the permanent atom. This is the first time that I have mentioned where the 49:1 permanent atom is located and may help to clarify why the heart holds such a primary position in the body of a person. It is linked to the principal seat of the etheric envelope. The permanent atom, web and prana then rise along the secondary shushumna-nadi into the third ventricle of the brain. Do you remember what the shushumna is? It is part of the three-strand complex that is linked in etheric matter to the spinal cord. From the third ventricle, the three components move to the point of junction of the parietal and occipital sutures in the brain and finally out of the body. The life-web or etheric remains to enshroud the physical permanent atom in the causal body until the time comes for a new physical body to be built. This process has been described in detail in a previous presentation.
The withdrawal of the Etheric Double and with it of course prana, destroys the integral unity of the physical body, thus leaving it merely as a collection of independent cells. The Life of the separate cells themselves continues, as evidenced by the well-known fact that hairs on a corpse will sometimes continue to grow.
The moment the Etheric Double withdraws and consequently prana ceases to circulate, the lower lives, i.e., the cells, run rampant and begin to break down the hitherto organised body. The body is thus never more alive than when it is dead: but it is alive in its units and dead in its totality; alive as a disorganised jumble, dead as an organism. As the French esotericist, Eliphas Levi said: “The corpse would not decompose if it were dead; all the molecules which compose it are living and struggle to separate.”.
When the double finally quits the dense body, it does not go far away but usually floats over it. In this condition, it is known as the wraith and sometimes appears to those with whom it is closely bound up as a cloudy figure, vaguely conscious and speechless. Unless disturbed by tumultuous distress or violent emotion, the state of consciousness is dreamy and peaceful.
It is during the withdrawal of the etheric double, as well as afterwards, that the whole of the person’s past life passes swiftly in review before the persona, every forgotten nook and corner of the memory yielding up its secrets, picture by picture, event by event. In these few seconds, the persona lives over again its whole life, seeing its successes and failures, loves and hatreds. It perceives the predominant tendency of the whole and the ruling thought of the life asserts itself, marking the region in which the chief part of the post-mortem life will be spent. As one of the Upanishads describes it, “at death, prana gathers everything together and, withdrawing from the body, hands everything onwards to the Knower, who is the receptacle of all”. The location and timeline presented here are not in agreement with other sources I have consulted. My view is that the review process occurs on the emotional plane and may take some time to complete, even though the tape of a person’s life is run at high speed. The Emotional World location makes more sense when you consider that some discarnate monads need some convincing that they are dead at all. If this review process kicked in automatically at the detachment of the etheric envelope, this would not be the case. It is the density and location of the elemental essences in one’s emotional envelope that determines where the monad becomes conscious again in the Emotional World. This is why I suggested in a previous presentation that it is a good idea, if you can achieve it, to make sure your emotional body does not separate into layers like an onion when you pass over. In this way, you end up on a subplane that is the average of all your elemental essences, rather than having to shed each layer’s denser essences before you can rise to the next level.
Anyway, back to our narrative; this stage is usually followed by a brief period of peaceful unconsciousness, due to the withdrawal of the etheric matter and its entanglement with the Emotional body, thus preventing the person from functioning either in the Physical or the Emotional World. Some people shake themselves free from the etheric envelope in a few seconds; others rest within it for hours, days, or even weeks, though usually the process does not take longer than a few hours.
As the days pass, the higher principles gradually disengage themselves from the etheric double and the latter then becomes, in its turn, an etheric corpse, which remains near the dense one, both disintegrating together. These etheric wraiths are often seen in churchyards, sometimes as violet or bluish-white mists or lights, but often presenting an unpleasant appearance as they pass through various stages of decomposition.
One of the great advantages of cremation is that by destroying the dense body, the etheric body also loses its focus and so rapidly disintegrates. If a person is so misguided as to wish to cling to the physical life and even to their corpse, the preservation of the dead body, either by burial or embalming, offers a distinct temptation to them to do so and facilitates this unfortunate choice. Cremation entirely prevents any attempt at a partial and unnatural temporary reunion of the principles. In addition, there are certain unpleasant forms of black magic, fortunately rare in Western countries at least, which make use of the decaying physical body. The etheric body of a dead person may also be similarly used in a variety of ways. All of these possibilities are avoided by the hygienic practice of cremation. It is quite impossible for a dead person to feel the effects of the fire on their discarded body, for, so long as it is dead, the emotional and etheric matter has been completely separated from the dense physical matter.
A dead person can’t get back entirely into their corpse. In the case of someone who knows nothing beyond purely physical life and is crazy with fear of being entirely cut off from it, they can keep in touch with physical life. They frantically scavenge etheric matter. They get this off the discarded body and drag it about with them. This may be the cause of considerable suffering, entirely unnecessary and easily avoided by the practice of cremation. This is where most current religions utterly fail to prepare their adherents for what is the only certainty in life; death!
In the case of people who cling desperately to physical existence, the emotional body cannot altogether separate from the etheric and they awaken still surrounded by etheric matter. The condition is very unpleasant, as such a person would be shut out from the Emotional World by the shell of etheric matter and at the same time, the loss of physical sense organs prevents them from coming fully in touch with earthly life. Consequently, they drift about, lonely and dumb and terrified, in a thick and gloomy fog, unable to be in contact with either plane.
In the process of time, the etheric shell wears out, despite a person’s struggles, though usually not until after that person has suffered intensely. Kindly people among the discarnate monads still in the Emotional World and others, endeavour to help the class of person described, but seldom with success. You may be one of those kind people, who during your earthy sleep period may do this rescue work. This sometimes explains why you wake up exhausted after what should have been a restful period in your daily schedule.
Sometimes a person in this condition may endeavour to get in touch once again with the physical plane through a medium, though usually the medium’s “spirit guides” sternly forbid them access, knowing that the medium runs the risk of being obsessed or sent into a psychosis. Occasionally an unconscious medium – usually a sensitive young girl – may be seized upon, but the attempt can be successful only if the girl’s persona has weakened its hold on its vehicles by indulging in undesirable thoughts and actions, like playing with ouija boards. Occasionally, also a human soul wandering in this grey world may succeed in partially obsessing an animal, those most commonly seized upon being the less developed – cattle, sheep or pigs, though cats and dogs or monkeys may also be used in this way. This appears to be the modern, i.e., Fifth Root Race, substitute for the awful life of the vampire, found in Fourth Root Race peoples. Once entangled with an animal, it is possible to disentangle oneself only gradually and by considerable effort, extending probably for many days. Freedom usually comes only at the death of the animal and even then there remains an emotional entanglement to shake off. Werewolves may not just be a figment of an overactive imagination. On that grim note, see you in the next presentation.