In a previous presentation, we considered, in general outline, the composition and structure of the emotional body. We will now proceed to study it, in greater detail, as it exists and is used during the ordinary waking consciousness of the physical body. Many of the points made, will have been made before in the series on the Etheric envelope, but it is worth emphasising them again. In this way, it is hoped to convey through this presentation that it is all well and good saying, yes, yes, I know that and then you do nothing about it.
The factors, which determine the nature and quality of the emotional body during physical life can be roughly grouped as follows: –
1- The physical life.
2- The emotional life.
3- The mental life
This is no surprise other than the fact that we are not only compartmentalising three aspects of our being, we are acknowledging that they occupy different envelopes. Let’s start with:
1- The Physical Life. – We have already seen that every particle of the physical body has its corresponding emotional “counterpart”. The solids, liquids, gases and ethers of which the physical envelope is composed, may be coarse or refined, gross or delicate. Consequently, so will the nature of the corresponding emotional envelope. A physical body nourished on impure food will produce a corresponding impure emotional body, whilst a physical body fed on clean food and drink, will help to purify the emotional vehicle.
As the emotional body is the vehicle of emotion, passion and sensation, it follows that an emotional body of a grosser type will be chiefly susceptible to grosser varieties of passion and emotion: whereas a finer emotional body will more readily vibrate to more refined emotions and aspirations. Seems logical.
You are kidding yourself if you think you can run with a coarse physical body, full of impurities and then organise your emotional and mental envelopes into finer vehicles. They are all linked and interdependent. It all starts with the physical envelope. In the same vein, it is futile to purify your physical vehicle, which many people who follow a strict code of cultural practices do and somehow expect your other envelopes to purify. Active processes have to be engaged in within those envelopes to bring about a harmonious result. Not only the physical body but also the higher bodies, are affected by the food which is eaten. Carnivorous diets are unsuitable if one wants to raise one’s vibrations and begin to walk the Path. Those who remain omnivorous, are throwing unnecessary difficulties in their way. Why? Because animal products intensify all the undesirable elements and passions of the lower planes. Especially if you consume the blood of these animals, which holds the physical reservoir of their emotional being. This is why the Muslims and Jews made a fetish out of bleeding animals while still alive, to get all the blood out of the carcass. While this may benefit the consumer of the meat, the emotional trauma caused by this method of slaughter, infects the emotional environment with the fear and terror the animals radiate as they die.
In the ancient Mysteries, people were exhibiting great purity and they were invariably vegetarian. The Raja Yogi takes special pains to purify the physical body through an elaborate system of food, drink and sleep. They insist on foods, which are sattvic, or “rhythmic”. A whole system relating to foodstuffs is built up to help in the preparation of the body to be used by the higher consciousness, be it focused on the 47:4 or 47:1 molecule or atom. Flesh foods are rajasic, i.e., they come under the quality of activity of being stimulants and build up within us the nature to express animal desires and activities. They are unsuited to the finer type of nervous organisation. The yogi therefore cannot afford to use these for the higher processes of thought. Foods on the way to decay, such as game, venison, as well as alcohol, are tamasic, or heavy and also should be avoided. Foods, which tend to grow, such as grain and fruits, are sattvic, or rhythmic, being the most highly vitalised and suitable for building up a body’s sensitivities while increasing its strength.
Certain other substances also affect the physical and emotional bodies detrimentally. Tobacco permeates the physical body with impure particles, causing emanations that are perceptible to the sense of smell. Emotionally, tobacco not only introduces impurity but tends also to deaden the sensibility of the body: “soothing the nerves”, as we well know. While this may, in conditions of modern life, be sometimes less harmful than leaving the nerves “unsettled”, it is certainly undesirable for an esotericist, who needs the capacity to respond to vibrations, combined with perfect control. Similarly, there is no doubt that from the point of view of both emotional and mental bodies, the use of alcohol is always undesirable.
Bodies fed on flesh and alcohol are liable to be thrown out of balance if they open up to the higher consciousness. Nervous diseases occur partly because the human consciousness is trying to express itself through bodies clogged with flesh products and poisoned with alcohol. In particular, the pituitary body is very easily poisoned by even a very small amount of alcohol and its further evolution is consequently checked. It is the poisoning of the pituitary body with alcohol that leads to the abnormal and irrational vision associated with psychotic episodes.
In addition to the direct coarsening of the physical and emotional bodies, meat, tobacco and alcohol are bad news as they tend to attract undesirable emotional entities, which take pleasure in the scent of blood and alcoholic spirits. They surge around the person, impressing their thoughts upon them, forcing their impressions on their emotional body, so that the person may have a shell of objectionable entities hanging on to their aura. Principally for this reason, in the Yoga of the Right Hand Path, meat and wine are forbidden.
The negative entities under discussion, consist of artificial elementals, which are constructed by the thoughts and desires of people. Elementals, as well as discarnate humans, can seek to invade the bodies of people, encouraging them to perform depraved acts and allowing these two types of emotional entities to enjoy the experience, something they can not do without a physical body. The elementals are attracted towards people whose emotional bodies contain matter congenial to their nature. An emotional clairvoyant can see hordes of these loathsome elementals crowding around butchers’ shops, whilst in beer houses and gin palaces, elementals and discarnate humans, the ones who want to get into bed with you, so to speak, gather, feasting on the emanation of liquors and thrust themselves sometimes into the bodies of the drinkers. Leadbeater, in his research, refers to these nefarious entities always as “elementals”. To me, this does not make sense. An elemental may be an artificial construction we make with our thoughts, but this construction feeds from and adds back to us what we feed into it. Taken this way these artificial creations may well pray on the unwary. There, I suspect are also other bad actors that get involved, including nature spirits and discarnate humans, who are so attached to physicality that they strive to feed their etheric envelopes from the “vapours” of these unhealthy practices. There is also the matter of those discarnate souls who reside in the lowest three subplanes of the Emotional World, 48:5-7. They are also able to draw near to the physical plane and they seek to vicariously enjoy the thrills that they are no longer able to experience on the plane, in which they now reside.
Nearly all drugs – such as opium, cocaine, caffeine in tea, and coffee – produce a deleterious effect on the etheric web. Occasionally, their use is almost a necessity, in the treatment of certain diseases for instance, but an esotericist should use them as sparingly as possible. It is possible to remove the negative effect of opium, which may have been used to relieve great pain, from the emotional and mental bodies after it has done its work on the physical. But that is a specialist operation known to few people.
Dirt of all kinds hurts the higher envelopes, more so than it does on the physical plane and attracts a low class of nature spirits. The esotericist therefore needs to be stringent in all matters of hygiene. Especial attention should be paid to the hands and feet because through these extremities emanations flow out readily. Interestingly, Muslims make an issue out of washing their hands and feet before going to pray in a mosque, even though their body odour may leave something to be desired.
Physical noises, which pervade all cities, jar the nerves and cause irritation and fatigue. The effect is accentuated by the pressure of so many emotional bodies vibrating at different rates; add to this that these bodies are excited and disturbed by all sorts of nonsense. Although such irritation is superficial and may pass out of the mind in ten minutes, an effect may be produced in the emotional body lasting for forty-eight hours. Hence it is difficult, whilst living in modern cities, to avoid irritability, especially for someone whose body is more highly strung and sensitive. In general, it may be said that everything, which promotes the health of the physical body, also reacts favourably upon the higher vehicles.
Travel is another of the many factors, which affect the emotional body, by exposing the traveller to changes of etheric and emotional influences, connected with each place or district. Oceans, mountains, forests, and waterfalls, each have their special type of life, emotional and etheric, as well as visible and therefore its own set of influences. Many unseen entities are present pouring out vitality. In many cases, their effect on etheric, emotional and mental bodies is likely to be healthy and desirable in the long run, though a change may be somewhat tiring at the time. This is why city people used to, if they could afford it, take regular trips to the countryside or other countries. You may say that is obvious and true, but what is being pointed out here is why this is necessary from the perspective of our envelopes.
See you in the next presentation, where will look in detail at the effects of talismans from an emotional aspect.