In this presentation, I wish to look at our sleep lives. It may sound strange at first to equate sleep with having a life. We know we dream, but is that a life? If there is a life, very few of us have a recollection of it. Yet from the myriads of discussions we have had so far, we know that when we go to sleep, it is possible to have a very active life. Let’s start this discussion from the time we get into bed. Many people struggle with wandering thoughts when trying to fall asleep. In these cases, creating a mental barrier can help block out external thoughts and provide the peace needed to fall asleep. This barrier only needs to be temporary, as it’s meant to provide a brief interval of calm to facilitate falling asleep.
A person will take this mental shell with them when they depart from their physical body, but its purpose will then be fulfilled, as its sole aim is to enable them to leave their body. When a person is in the physical body, mental activity can easily prevent the person from leaving the body. However, once that person is away from the body, the same worry or wandering thought will not bring them back to it.
When the shell breaks, idle thoughts or mental worries may reassert themselves, but as the person is away from their physical brain, this will not interfere with the body’s rest, which is the whole point of sleep. The body needs rest to repair itself and can not do this while the monad is in residence.
It is extremely rare for either an ordinary person during sleep or a psychically developed person in a trance condition to penetrate the mental plane. Arthur Powell tells us that purity of life and purpose are absolute prerequisites. This is a quaint way of saying our monad needs to be focused elsewhere and to achieve this we need to radically overhaul our mental and emotional envelopes first. Even when the mental plane was reached, there would be nothing that could be called real consciousness, just a capacity for receiving impressions. Why? Because the vast majority of us are only subjectively conscious in the Mental World.
An example illustrating the potential for accessing the mental plane during sleep is as follows: Assume a person with a pure mind and considerable though untrained psychic ability was approached while asleep and presented with a vivid mental image. The intense feelings of reverent joy and the lofty, spiritual thoughts evoked by the magnificent scene caused the sleeper’s consciousness to transition to the mental plane. While floating in a sea of light and colour, the sleeper was completely absorbed in their own thoughts, unaware of anything beyond them. This state persisted for several hours, with the sleeper apparently unconscious of the passage of time. It is evident in this case that although the sleeper was conscious on the mental plane, they were not conscious of it.
It is likely that such a result would only be possible if a person already has some level of psychic development. This condition is even more necessary for a mesmerised subject to access the mental plane while in a trance. The reason for this, as mentioned before, is that the average person’s mental capacity is not developed enough to be used as a separate vehicle of consciousness. It can only be used as a vehicle by those who have been specifically trained in its use by teachers who are part of the Great Brotherhood of Initiates.
As mentioned previously, until the 2nd Initiation (i2), a person predominantly works within their emotional envelope during the night. Most monads are currently focused in their 48:1 permanent atom. Once they have full control over their emotional envelope and can use it effectively, they start working within the mental envelope. This can only occur when the monad moves its focus from the 48:1 permanent atom to the 47:4 permanent molecule. When this envelope is fully developed, it becomes a more adaptable vehicle than the emotional envelope, allowing for the accomplishment of tasks that are impossible on the emotional plane.
Although a person after death may live in the heaven world (aka the mental plane) for centuries, as we shall see later, they are shut up in a shell of their own thoughts; this cannot be called functioning on the mental plane, for that involves the ability to move about freely on that plane, and to observe what exists there.
A person who can operate freely in the mental realm has the ability to experience all the wonders and beauty of the Mental World. Even when working in the Emotional World, they have a broader mental awareness that provides incredible insights and makes decision-making far more effective, as those decisions are not clouded by emotions. When functioning in the mental realm, a person leaves behind their emotional and physical envelopes. Should a person need to manifest themselves on the emotional plane, they don’t summon their own emotional vehicle; instead, they materialise one temporarily through an act of will. This emotional materialisation is known as a mayavirupa and typically requires the guidance of a qualified master to initially teach a person how to construct it.
There is another way to make good use of our bedtime, and that is to solve problems. Many people already do this, often without even realising it, as seen in the saying, “The night brings counsel”. When you go to sleep, hold the problem quietly in your mind. Don’t debate or argue about it, as that might keep you from falling asleep. Simply state the problem to your mind and let it go. While you are asleep and free from your physical body and brain, your mind will work on the problem. When the term mind is used here, it means the monad is using the facilities provided by the possession of a mental envelope to work on a problem. It should be stated that we need a mental envelope to think. Monads are conscious, but the ability to think in a concrete manner is a faculty of the lower mental envelope (47:4-7). As we will see in the next series of presentations, when we are focused in our causal envelopes, we “think” in a completely different manner. The results of our thought processes in our mental envelope are usually impressed upon our brain, and we will be conscious of it when we wake up. It’s a good idea to keep paper and a pencil by your bed so that you can write down the solution as soon as you wake up. This is important because the distractions of waking life can easily erase a thought obtained in this way and might be difficult to recall.
Now, let’s take a look at the temporary emotional body that was just mentioned. The Mayavirupa, which literally means “body of illusion,”. It is a temporary emotional body created by someone who can function in the mental body. It may or may not resemble the physical body, and the form it takes is suitable for the purpose for which it is projected. This body can be made visible or invisible on the physical plane at will. It can also be made indistinguishable from a physical body, feeling warm and solid to the touch, as well as being visible and able to engage in conversation, resembling a physical being in every way. The advantage of using the Mayavirupa is that it is not subject to glamour on the emotional plane, as is the emotional body. No emotional glamour can overpower the Mayavirupa, nor can emotional illusion deceive it.
With the power to form the mayavirupa, a person is able to pass instantly from the mental plane to the emotional and back and to use the greater power and keener sense on the mental plane at all times. It is necessary to form the emotional materialisation only when the person wishes to become visible to people in the Emotional World. When a person has finished work on the emotional plane, they withdraw to the mental plane again, and the mayavirupa vanishes, its materials returning to the general circulation of emotional matter from where they had been drawn by the pupil’s will.
When in the Mayavirupa, a person may use the mental plane method of thought-transference so far as understanding another person is concerned; but, of course, the power of conveying the thought in that way to another is limited by the degree of development of that other person’s emotional body.
The Master or one of their disciples must instruct their pupil on how to make the Mayavirupa, after which, although it is not at first an easy matter, the pupil can do it for themself. After achieving the Second Initiation (i2), rapid progress is made in the development of the mental body. It is at or near this point that the student learns to utilise the Mayavirupa.
In the next presentation, we will start to take a detailed look at the Devachan or Heaven World.