It is strange to talk about a “sleep life” when at this time we were apparently dead to the world. What life are we talking about? We have touched on this topic in the first series of presentations, Adventures of the Monad. Let us now look at it in more detail, as we have a better understanding of the emotional envelope and its relationship to the other envelopes contained within the persona.
The real cause of sleep would appear to be that the various bodies of incarnation grow tired of one another. In the case of the physical body, not only every muscular exertion but also every feeling and thought, produce certain chemical changes. A healthy body is always trying to counteract these changes, but it never quite succeeds whilst the body is awake. Consequently, with every thought, feeling or action, there is a slight, almost imperceptible loss of energy, the cumulative effect of which eventually leaves the physical body too exhausted to be capable of further thought or work. In some cases even a few moments of sleep will be sufficient for recuperation, this being effected by the physical nature spirits. What is going on when this happens? Remember, we store prana in our spleen. When we are awake, the focus of the nature spirits that run our body is focused on carrying on our nervous or muscular activity. We need to get out of our physical body’s way of these nature spirits to allow them to get on and repair our cells and recharge their batteries. This is the fundamental reason we need to sleep.
In the case of the emotional body, it too becomes tired of the heavy labour of moving the particles of the physical brain and needs a considerable period of separation from it to enable it to gather strength to resume the tiresome task. On its own plane, however, the emotional body is practically incapable of fatigue, since it has been known to work incessantly for twenty-five years without showing signs of exhaustion. Although excessive and long-continued emotion tires a person very quickly in ordinary life, it is not the emotional body, which becomes fatigued, but the physical organism through which the emotion is expressed or experienced. Similarly with the mental body, when we speak of mental fatigue, it is in reality a misnomer, for it is the brain, not the mind, that is tired. There is no such thing as fatigue of the mind.
When a person leaves their body in sleep (or in death), which means the emotional and mental envelopes depart, the pressure of the surrounding emotional matter – which really means the force of attraction on the emotional plane – immediately forces other emotional matter into the space previously occupied by the emotional body. Such a temporary emotional counterpart is an exact copy, so far as arrangement is concerned, of the physical body, but it has no real connection with it and could never be used as a vehicle. These particles are randomly drawn from any emotional matter of a suitable kind that happens to be at hand. When the true emotional body returns, it pushes out this other emotional matter without any opposition.
This is one reason why we should be careful when choosing the surroundings in which we sleep. If the surroundings chosen are of a low vibration, emotional matter of an objectionable type may fill the physical body while the person’s emotional body is absent, leaving behind influences, which are likely to react unpleasantly on the monad when it returns.
When a person “goes to sleep”, their higher principles in their emotional vehicle withdraw from the physical body. The dense body, including the etheric body, remains by themselves on the bed, the emotional body floating in the air above them. In sleep, then, a person is simply using their emotional body instead of their physical. It is only the physical body that is asleep, not necessarily the monad itself.
Usually, the emotional body, thus withdrawn from the physical, will retain the form of the physical body, so that the person is readily recognisable to anyone who knows them physically. This is because the attraction between the emotional and the physical particles continues all through physical life and sets up a habit or momentum in the emotional matter, which continues even while it is temporarily withdrawn from the sleeping physical body. For this reason, the emotional body of a person who is asleep will consist of a central portion corresponding to the physical body, which is relatively dense and a surrounding aura, which is rarer in composition.
In the case of a (1) Young soul, they are practically as asleep when they are awake, as they are when they are asleep. This is because they are capable of very little definite consciousness in their emotional body. They are also unable to move away from the immediate neighbourhood of the sleeping physical body. If an attempt were made to draw them away in their emotional body, they would probably wake up in their physical body in terror. Such (1) Young souls have emotional bodies, which are relatively shapeless in form, floating wreaths of mist, roughly ovoid, but very irregular and indefinite in outline. The features and shape of the inner form (the dense emotional counterpart of the physical body) are also vague, blurred and indistinct, but always recognisable.
A (1) Young soul uses their emotional body, during waking consciousness, sending mind currents through the emotional envelope to the physical brain. But, during sleep, the physical brain is inactive The emotional body, being undeveloped, is incapable of receiving impressions on its own account and so the person is practically unconscious, being unable to express themselves clearly through the poorly organised emotional body. The centres of sensation in it may be affected by a passing thought form and they may answer to stimuli that arouse the lower nature. But the whole effect given to the observer is one of sleepiness and vagueness, the emotional body lacking all definite activity and floating idly, inactive, above the sleeping physical form. In a (1) Young soul, the higher principles, i.e., the monad expressed through the persona, is almost as asleep as its physical body.
In some cases, the emotional body is less lethargic and floats dreamily about on the various emotional currents. Occasionally they recognise other people in a similar condition. They meet with experiences of all sorts, pleasant and unpleasant, the memory of which is hopelessly confused. It often gets distorted into a grotesque caricature of what happened and will cause the person to think the next morning what a remarkable dream they had.
In the case of (2) Community souls, there is a great difference. The inner form of the emotional envelope is much more distinct and definite – a closer reproduction of the person’s physical appearance can be seen. Instead of being surrounded by a cloudy mist, there is a sharply defined ovoid form preserving its shape unaffected by all the varied currents, which are always swirling around it on the emotional plane. A person of this type is by no means unconscious in their emotional body but is quite actively thinking. Nevertheless, they may be taking as little notice of their surroundings as the youngest of souls. This is not because they are incapable of seeing, but because they are so wrapped up in their own thoughts that they do not see, though they could do so if they chose. Whatever may have been the thoughts engaging their mind during the past day, they usually continue when they fall asleep and they are thus surrounded by so dense a wall of their own making that they observe practically nothing of what is going on outside. Occasionally a violent impact from without, or even some strong desire of their own from within, may tear aside this curtain of mist and permit them to receive some definite impression. But even then the fog would close in almost immediately and they would dream on as oblivious as before.
In the case of a (3) Cultured soul, when the physical body goes to sleep, the emotional body slips out of it and the person is then in full consciousness. The emotional body is clearly outlined and definitely organised, bearing the likeness of the person and the person can use it as a vehicle, a vehicle far more convenient to use than the physical body. The receptivity of the emotional body is increased until it is instantly responsive to all the vibrations of its plane, the fine as well as the coarse: but in the emotional body of a very highly developed person; there would be practically no matter left capable of responding to coarse vibrations.
Such a person is wide awake and is working far more actively, more accurately, and with greater power of comprehension, than when they were confined in the denser physical vehicle. In addition, they can move about freely and with immense rapidity to any distance, without causing any disturbance to the sleeping physical body. They may meet and exchange ideas with friends, either incarnate or discarnate, who happen to be equally awake on the emotional plane. They may meet people more evolved than themselves and receive from them warnings or instructions, or they may be able to guide those who know less than themselves. An evolved person, a (4) Compassionate soul, may come into contact with non-human entities of various kinds. Such a soul would be subject to all kinds of emotional influences, good or evil, strengthening or terrifying. They may form friendships with people from their parts of the world; they may give or listen to lectures. If they are students, they may meet other students and with the additional faculties, which the emotional world gives, they may be able to solve problems, which present difficulties in the physical world.
A physician, for example, during the sleep of the body, may visit cases in which they are especially interested. They may thus acquire new information, which may come through as a kind of intuition to their waking consciousness. In a (5) Initiate, the emotional body, being thoroughly organised and vitalised, becomes as much the vehicle of consciousness on the emotional plane, as the physical body is on the physical plane.
In the next presentation, we will look at the Emotional Plane as a physical abode and what it has to offer.