Bodies and soul

In a comment on my post "Four Bodies," a reader named frith objected that Crookall's scheme of four bodies seemed overly elaborate. I gave this reply:

Well, Crookall was trying to work out an organizational scheme that would make sense of the various accounts. What he found was that people reporting leaving the physical body, often being veiled or befogged for a while, then achieving clarity, and later ascending to a state of still greater clarity.

So he posited four bodies — physical body, aura or astral shell, soul body, and spirit body.

Although somewhat complicated, this formulation does make sense of many disparate phenomena, such as the confusion of earthbound spirits, apparitions that seem mechanical and lifeless, the two different life reviews, the tunnel, the silver cord, the often confused or surreal accounts of astral projectors (still enshrouded in the astral shell), ectoplasm (seen as drawn from the astral shell/aura), the difficulty of spirit communications (because the soul body must enveil itself in the medium's aura, restricting lucidity), the idea that the frequency of "vibrations" increases as each body is shed, and other things.

I thought it might be worth expanding on these points in a more systematic way. First, let's look at the four bodies in Crookall's system.

The physical body — the one we use during our earthly incarnation.

The energy body — this is the term I've decided to use for what Crookall calls "the vehicle of vitality," and which other authors call the astral body, the aura, the etheric body, etc. I use the term "energy body" because, for Crookall, this body is something like an energy field (an aura) that serves as the interface between the physical and spiritual realms. It is essentially a veil covering the physical body, which allows impressions from higher realms to filter through.

The soul body – nested inside the physical body, the soul body becomes our main vehicle once the physical body and energy body have been cast off. The soul body is the one used by inhabitants of Summerland, the paradise-like environment reported by many discarnate communicators.

The spirit body – at the heart of the soul body is the spirit body, which remains after the soul body is cast off in preparation for ascending to higher realms of spiritual life. The Summerland environment is understood to be only a resting place, not a permanent destination.

With this in mind, let's take a look at specific issues in mediumistic communications, apparitions, deathbed visions, and so forth.

Earthbound spirits. According to Crookall, most spirits remain earthbound at least for a short time, usually three or four days. During this time, even though the physical body has been (at least mostly) cast off, the energy body continues to veil the soul body. As a result, the soul body's perceptions of its environment are distorted by the filtering effect of the energy body. Only a portion of the true environment gets through the filter, while the rest is either distorted or blocked entirely. This condition corresponds to the bardo in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, or the ideas of Limbo and Purgatory in the Abrahamic religions, or the shadowy, ghostly realm of Hades in ancient Greco-Roman religion.

Many communications through mediums come from spirits who are still in this condition and who are accordingly confused, befogged, bewildered, and prone to hallucinations and dreamlike experiences. Once the energy body has been completely shed, the soul body can interact with its environment without a filter, and the clarity of its perceptions will be immeasurably improved. This, according to Crookall, is why initial spirit communications are often unsatisfactory, while later communications are much better.

Apparitions. There are countless reports of apparitions that appear to be mindless or unconscious. Many ghost stories involve a figure repeating the same pointless action over and over, such as climbing a flight of stairs. In other cases, people report seeing an apparition that simply stands there, showing no expression and making no attempt to communicate. Crookall explains some of these as instances in which the energy body has been cast off but persists for a while as a hollow shell. People who are psychically sensitive may find it relatively easy to perceive the energy body (as an apparition or in a dream, etc.) and to mistake it for the soul body.

Life reviews. Mediums have described two separate life reviews. The first takes place immediately upon dying, or even before death has taken place. It is a quick panoramic overview of one's entire life, observed without judgment or even much emotion. The second typically takes place later and involves a subjective reexperiencing of critical life events, sometimes from the perspective of the persons affected by one's own actions. In this second review, which Crookall calls the Judgment, lessons are learned; the person discovers what he did right and what he did wrong, where he took the right path and where he went astray.

The two different life reviews can be understood in terms of different bodies. The first life review involves the energy body, which retains a complete record of one's experiences. The review may simply involve the mechanical process of transcribing this record onto the soul body, preparatory to jettisoning the energy body. The second review (the Judgment) occurs after the energy body has been sloughed off, allowing the now-unfiltered soul body to not only observe but to deeply experience the events of a lifetime from multiple points of view.

Crookall acknowledges that some people who've had near-death experiences have undergone the Judgment, even though presumably they did not shed their energy body during their brief period of "death." He suggests that some people have an energy body that is more loosely attached; such people are more prone to dissociative experiences, psychic impressions, creative insights, etc. and may be more likely to undergo the Judgment right away. I don't know if he's right about this, but at least it would explain why not everybody who has an NDE reports a Judgment.

The tunnel. Reported by both near-death experiencers and some mediums, the tunnel is a passageway through which the dying person travels after leaving his physical body. Crookall says that because the energy body is still veiling the soul body, the soul body is limited in its impressions of its environment. Thus it may perceive a void, a dark tunnel, or – if the energy body is looser – a vague impression of a shadowy world beyond a tenuous barrier.

The silver cord. This shining threadlike connection between the physical body and the hovering soul body has been observed by sensitive persons at the bedside of the dying, and has been reported by mediums and some near-death experiencers, as well as many astral projectors. In Crookall's view, the dying process involves the egress of the soul body from the physical body. This egress is usually accomplished gradually, with the soul body building up in form and detail near (usually above) the physical body. Until the soul body has been completely reformed outside the physical body, there will be a connection of "soul stuff" which takes the form of one or more cords. The same is true of a person who practices astral projection and looks back at his temporarily discarded physical form. He will usually see a cord trailing from it. If shocked back into the body, he will feel as if the cord has yanked him back like a rubber band.

The dreamlike nature of astral projections. Many of the accounts provided by astral projectors are confused, surreal, and dreamlike. (See this old post for examples.) One explanation is that, although they have left the physical body, they remain veiled by the energy body, which distorts and filters their impressions of the spiritual planes they are visiting. The same thing possibly happens in dreams, where the experiences of the temporarily liberated soul body are altered and made to seem bizarre and illogical by the masking effect of the energy body.

Materializations. Ectoplasm remains a subject of great controversy in paranormal circles. If there is such a thing as ectoplasm, it would appear to be drawn from the body of the medium and, usually, some of the sitters in the medium's circle. This ectoplasm is then gathered together to create a more-or-less convincing simulation of some departed person (often only partial). If I understand Crookall correctly on this point, he thinks that ectoplasm is drawn from the energy bodies of the medium and some of the attendees, and that this material – temporarily borrowed – can be built up into a new form because it is essentially just a sheath or veil, with no consciousness of its own. This could explain why the purported ectoplasmic materializations in some séances can appear mechanical and mindless.

Mediumistic communications. Many communicators have indicated that, in order to use the medium's body as an instrument, they must "lower their vibrations" and enter that body, which the medium herself has temporarily vacated. It has never been very clear what is meant by lowering vibrations. In Crookall's scheme, the soul body vibrates at a higher frequency than the physical body. If the soul body attempts to enter a medium's physical body, it must reduce its frequency and also accept the filtering, distorting influence of the medium's energy body, which is still in place. The degree to which the energy body will hamper communication depends on how loosely or firmly it is attached to the medium's physical body. In general, people with highly developed mediumistic or psychic abilities have looser energy bodies, but even a loosely attached energy body will prove to be a barrier, to a certain extent, to communication. And many communicators have, in fact, complained that communication is extremely difficult and that it feels like trying to be heard through a barrier. The most famous example may be an automatic writer's record of a purported communication from early psychic researcher F.W.H. Myers:

The nearest simile I can find to  express the difficulties of sending a message is that I appear to be standing behind a sheet of frosted glass – which blurs sight and deadens sound – dictating feebly to a reluctant and somewhat obtuse secretary.

In Crookall's scheme, the sheet of frosted glass that blurs sight and deadens sound is "the vehicle of vitality," or what I call the energy body, of the medium, which the communicator must put on when he enters the medium's physical body to use it as his instrument.

Vibration. Finally, we might make some sense of the idea of gradually increasing frequencies by seeing all of these interlocking bodies as coexisting at different rates of vibration. Presumably this is only a metaphor or a loose description, but it's not necessarily a bad one. Even in this physical world, two or more things can occupy the same space if they are vibrating at different rates. For instance, different waves on the electromagnetic spectrum can travel through the same airspace without interfering with each other. In something of the same way, two or more bodies could occupy roughly the same physical space without interference if each vibrated at a different frequency. Shedding a body would be equivalent to raising one's frequency. Resuming a previously cast-off body would be equivalent to lowering one's frequency.

It should be pointed out that Crookall insists that one's state of consciousness is intimately connected with both the rate of frequency of the body that's being employed and the nature of one's environment. 

1. The physical world requires a physical body and a consciousness that are severely restricted by the filtering effect of the energy body.
2. The Summerland world requires a soul body and a consciousness that are not restricted by the energy body.
3. Still higher planes of spiritual development require a spirit body that has a correspondingly higher range and clarity of consciousness.

Each environment is attuned to each body, or vice versa, and consciousness is always in tune with both. In fact, Crookall suggests that shedding bodies may be akin to simply changing one's focus of consciousness. In this respect, Art may be right when he said, in a comment on the previous post, "I suspicion the only thing that is real is consciousness. And that everything else is just a projection from one universal consciousness."

P.S. I came across a couple of pertinent quotes in William Buhlman's book The Secret of the Soul, a discussion of out-of-body experiences. The first is an except from The Bridge Across Forever, by Richard Bach, best known as the author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Bach experimented with OBEs with his wife Leslie. At one point, while the two of them were in an out-of-body state, he perceived her this way:

Oh, my! I thought. The Leslie I've been seeing with my eyes isn't the tiniest part of who she is! She's body within body, life within life, unfolding, unfolding … will I ever know all of her?

Buhlman himself observes, "The spiritual form experienced by most people during an OBE is their astral or emotional body. This energy body is the seat of our personal desires and emotional needs, so it is only natural that sensual experiences with manifest themselves there." (He uses the terms "astral body," "emotional body," and "energy body" interchangeably; all of these refer to Crookall's vehicle of vitality or, as in this post, the energy body.)

Later, in discussing ecstatic unions (or reunions) that occur in some OBE's, Buhlman writes, "After decades of examination, I believe that many of these experiences are an internal reunification of our multidimensional nature." This comment is in line with the channeled teachings of Jane Roberts' Seth, the between-lives hypnotic regressions of Michael Newton, and, for what it's worth, my own speculations on the self as one facet of a diamond and the soul as a multidimensional entity with many different states of consciousness existing at once.

Comments

[Planetary Paul]

Funny to see that between New World and Old World the terms Soul and Spirit tend to be used reversed. Where I'm from (NL) Soul is the highest and Spirit comes second. In US apparently Spirit is highest and Soul comes second.

[Michael Prescott]

"Where I'm from (NL) Soul is the highest and Spirit comes second. In US apparently Spirit is highest and Soul comes second."

I've never been too clear on the hierarchy, myself. For purposes of consistency, I decided to follow Crookall's usage, which ranks "spirit" higher than "soul." The choice is arbitrary, of course.

The way I remember it is that, in the Christian tradition the third part of the Holy Trinity is the Holy Spirit, not the Holy Soul. So "spirit" is closer to God, and therefore higher. This is just a mnemonic device, not any kind of philosophical statement. :-)

[Juan]

This can be quite interesting, but what does physics say about it? According to their descriptions, these bodies clearly have physical properties, so it should be physics that deals with these issues, but it is not.

In addition there is another question: according to this approach, the lifeless apparitions are the corpses of the energy body, but what are apparitions of inert objects? Throughout history there have also been reported cases of apparitions of inert objects such as ships or cars and I do not believe that inert objects have an energy body.

[Michael Prescott]

I would say that only the physical body is clearly measurable by physics. Just possibly the energy body may also be measurable by scientific instruments. Some people claim to have detected and even photographed the human aura, though these claims are not widely accepted. The soul body and spritual body are presumably not physical matter in any way known to us. Perhaps some kind of "afterlife physics" could measure these bodies, but it would require going beyond the paradigm of physicalism (the philosophical position that everything can be reduced to physical matter and energy).

Crookall's view is that some apparitions involve extrasensory perception of the discarded energy body, but that other apparitions are telepathic or clairvoyant in nature. I’m not familiar with too many cases where an object like a ship or a car has been seen as an apparition, but I would guess that these cases involve a telepathic or clairvoyant impression rather than any sort of energy body.

[Juan]

The soul body and spritual body are presumably not physical matter in any way known to us.

And matter at a quantum level is not matter as it is commonly understood, so that excuse does not work.

Perhaps some kind of "afterlife physics" could measure these bodies, but it would require going beyond the paradigm of physicalism (the philosophical position that everything can be reduced to physical matter and energy).

It is not about going beyond physicalism, but about elaborating theories and instruments to detect those bodies; It is difficult to believe that they can be detected for some gifted but we do not have any instrument for that detection.

[Michael Prescott]

"And matter at a quantum level is not matter as it is commonly understood, so that excuse does not work."

I wouldn’t call it an excuse; I’d say it’s valid to draw a distinction between matter (and energy) in the physical world and "matter" (and "energy") in a nonphysical world. I think it’s a category error to expect to detect and measure the soul with instruments designed to detect and measure physical things. It’s like trying to weigh love on a scale or photograph someone’s conscience.

"It is not about going beyond physicalism, but about elaborating theories and instruments to detect those bodies." Physical instruments? Physics-based theories? Maybe a quantum theory of consciousness can be developed (people are certainly trying), but I suspect that, at most, it will help explain how the physical nervous system interfaces with consciousness. I doubt it will explain consciousness as such.

My best guess is that consciousness is ontologically primary and hence beyond explanation. But this view entails "going beyond physicalism," which you seem reluctant to do.

[Juan]

I doubt it will explain consciousness as such.

But those bodies have physical properties and are not the same as we usually understand by consciousness, so they should be the object of a hypothetical physics.

[Hug h]

“People who are psychically sensitive may find it relatively easy to perceive the energy body (as an apparition or in a dream, etc.) and to mistake it for the soul body.”

This gave me goosebumps. In mid July 2014 our 13 year old son Cameron died in his sleep of undiagnosed, asymptomatic Cardiomyopathy. Life long, difficult road since and although the burden remains, it’s weight lessens. Below is a journal entry I wrote less than a month after his death.

“Shortly before I woke up this morning I had a brief vivid dream of Cameron. He had a bin with dirt in it containing fishing worms. We were outside at the SE corner of the garage under his room. I told him if he dug with a hand rake in the dirt he could get some worms out. He began digging and then I remember telling him that I wanted to give him a hug. He hugged me back as I told him I loved him, I could feel the warmth of his body, the smell of his hair and he told me as he always does, "I love you too Dad".

Everything seemed vividly real and right except as he walked away I realized that it was his body and mind but that his Soul was not there, he had already moved on, his essence had left his body...

I felt relief remembering this dream as I got out of bed. I was reassured that even in the presence of Cameron's living body, voice and smell that something was missing. It wasn't Cameron- his essence was somewhere else.”

Peace an Love to you Michael, thanks for the work you do, much appreciated.

[Kathleen]

This is not quite relevant, but maybe worth discussion. I listened to an excellent Tedx talk on near-death visitations, involving people who are very near death but are still conscious, and who describe seeing deceased loved ones with them.

The comment section, aside from a skeptic who felt driven to repeatedly state that death is the ultimate end (as if no one had ever considered this), was perhaps the most interesting. Person-after-person stated that the dying stated that their deceased relatives were there. The skeptic admonished many of these people, and very cruelly in some instances, stating that these were just misfirings of a dying brain. And yet, she could still not explain why so many saw deceased relatives. Why don't they see the cast of a TV sitcom, characters in a movie, celebrities, politicians, etc., and why not living people? As with NDEs, it's hard to believe that these are just evolutionary mechanisms designed to comfort the dying, as nature appears only to favor individual survival and survival of the species. It's hard to see how near death visitations and experiences could be hard-wired into the brain to aid survival of the individual or species.

[Michael Prescott]

"In mid July 2014 our 13 year old son Cameron died in his sleep of undiagnosed, asymptomatic Cardiomyopathy." I’m very sorry to hear this. What a terrible loss.

In Richard Matheson's novel What Dreams May Come, the protagonist (who has died) sees a medium trying to connect with his discarded astral shell (energy body), which she mistakes for his spiritual being. Matheson based his novel on extensive readings in spiritualism and theosophy, as well as parapsychology literature. Odd as it seems, this kind of thing does apparently happen.

Thank you for sharing your story.

[Michael Prescott]

" ... a skeptic who felt driven to repeatedly state that death is the ultimate end (as if no one had ever considered this)." LOL. Yes, some Skeptics seem to regard this opinion as strikingly original and profound.

The most striking cases of deathbed visions involve perceptions of people who are deceased but are not known to be deceased at the time, either because the news has not yet reached the family or because the information was deliberately withheld from the patient. These cases are rare, but they have been documented. Sir William Barrett was the first to write them up in a systematic way, I believe.

https://www.survivalafterdeath.info/library/barrett/dbv/contents.htm

[Irina @ Fluxo Divino]

I am about one year doing meditation with some regularity and I have not yet been able to do any astral travel or access the akashic records. What is missing? Is this just for some more sensitive people? thanks for your Blog

[Michael Prescott]

Crookall would say that the energy body is more loosely attached to some people's physical bodies, making it much easier for them to have OBEs. I guess it’s as good an explanation as any.

Some people seem to have spontaneous OBEs very easily, while others never have an OBE no matter how hard they work at it.

I’ve never had an unambiguous OBE. I did have a few exceptionally vivid dreams that had the qualities of an OBE, but I can’t be sure about them. I’ve never had an OBE while meditating.

Some people report success in using the HemiSync technology developed by the Monroe Institute. I tried it, but the closest I came to an OBE was a sudden intense tingling sensation throughout my body. This could have been the preparatory step in taking an OBE. Unfortunately I panicked and the feeling passed. It never happened again.

[Bardon Kaldian]

I am puzzled why Michael Prescott pays so much attention to Crookall scheme, while four-five fold body imagology is present virtually everywhere. You can find it in yoga with its koshas (see works by Mircea Eliade or David Gordon White); in Western occultism (theosophists like Leadbeater or anthroposophists like Rudolf Steiner or long-winded but clear Max Heindel's "Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception"). For a serious scholarly discussion of Sufism, Henry Corbin's "Man of Light in Iranian Sufism" & "Celestial Earth", chapter on Shaykh Al-Aksai(and Corbin's other works, popularized in readable Harold Bloom's "Omens of the Millennium") or any Western perennial tradition rooted in Plato/Plotinus (physical, soul & spirit "body" - sarx, psyche, nous & One/God/To Hen). Basically- what's the big deal with Crookall?

[Michael Prescott]

I’m not familiar with most of those sources, although I have noticed the parallels with Gnosticism. Crookall strikes me as interesting because he’s starting from empirical studies (or at least anecdotes) and then trying to make sense of these facts (or claims) by developing a formal scheme.

Most of the traditions you cited may have begun with reported experiences, but they developed into philosophical-religious systems with little empirical content, as far as I know.

[Bardon Kaldian]

Crookall is, from what I see, no more empirical than Max Heindel, his magnum opus here (he actually uses Heindel's terminology): You got Heindel here (voluminous reading): https://www.rosicrucian.com/rcc/rcceng00.htm ; http://www.rosicrucian.com/pdf_plaza/Rosicrucian%20Cosmo-Conception.pdf

I don't see something new or more empirical in Crookall.

Yoga world-view with various bodies is briefly addressed here: https://www.yogajournal.com/yoga-101/getting-know In detail, in D.G.White: http://libgen.io/book/index.php?md5=0AEB78899477A40B28E35007B06A9623

Real stuff is from prophets, great cultural heroes & thinkers like Plato,Valentinus of Alexandria, Ibn Arabi, Corpus Hermeticum...
Most "moderns", quasi-rational tentative empiricists lack prophetic voice & visionary energy one encounters among truly great ancients. Cf. Valentinus: "From the beginning you have been immortal and you are children of eternal life. And you wanted death to be allocated to yourselves so that you might spend it and use it up, and that death might die in you and through you. For when you nullify the world and are not yourselves annihilated, you are lord over creation and all corruption"

Popular exposition of developed Sufi doctrine can be seen in Bloom: http://libgen.io/book/index.php?md5=A638725244AA7E2ADA6E49241B269426 .. Each human being, Corbin comments, possesses four aspects of a body. Corbin charts them, and I adapt them here in simplified form:

1. The “elemental” or apparent body, the one that we can see, touch, and weigh: it is accidental and perishable. Let us call it the “apparent body,” for convenience. 2. Within (1) there is a hidden body, also elemental but essential and imperishable: “spiritual flesh,” as Corbin calls it, which I will adopt. 3. The traditional “astral body,” not elemental yet still accidental, not everlasting, because it will be reabsorbed by divinity in the resurrection. I will call it the “astral body” proper. 4. The eternal, subtle body, essential and angelic, the ultimate guarantee of individuality, and akin to the zelem of Kabbalah and the “immortal body” of the Hermetic writings. Let us call it the “angelic body.” What are the advantages, spiritual and expositional, of this fourfold scheme? Its added complexity is to give us two versions of the astral body of tradition, “astral” yet not eternal, and “angelic” or everlasting. The relation between the “apparent body” and “spiritual flesh” is parallel to that between the “astral body” and the “angelic body.” Since orthodox, Sunni Islam interpreted the Koran as literally as many Christians have read the New Testament, resurrection to them meant the return to the “apparent body,” just as it was. But in the Shi’ite Sufi vision, both the “apparent body” and the “astral body” eventually vanish, while a fusion of “spiritual flesh” and “angelic body” ultimately abides. That “spiritual flesh” is equivalent to the ancient Gnostic metaphor of the “spark,” or innermost self, which
is no part of Creation but is already a particle of God, since it is as old as God. When Gnostics, ancient or modern, speak of the Resurrection as already having taken place, they mean that they firmly distinguish between the outward body and the spark. The Sufi “angelic body” is akin to the ancient Gnostic “Angel Christ,” the fulfilled form of the surviving sparks. But there still remains the subtle imaginal distinction between the “astral” and “angelic” bodies. What can we gain by resorting to this distinction? Essentially, the Shaikhis’ complexity renews the ancient Gnostic difference between soul (or psyche), and self (or pneuma, or spark). The “astral body” is like the Gnostic soul, and both are impermanent. The spark, or “spiritual flesh,” survives and rejoins a more authentic soul, in a fusion of self and angelic soul that truly is the Resurrection Body, and that guarantees a survival of individual identity, while dispensing with the accidental “apparent body” and accidental soul, or “astral body.”

[Michael Prescott]

Very interesting, Bardon. That so many of these traditions agree, at least on some essential points, is additional evidence of an abiding truth behind this multi-body concept.

At the same time I wouldn’t want to over-emphasize the agreement of all these disparate traditions. The Gnostics, for instance, seemed to hold that immortality was available only to psychic and pneumatic people (i.e., those who had attained some degree of spiritual advancement), while sarkic (fleshly) people were destined for oblivion. This is very different from the view embraced by Spiritualism, which insists that every person has an immortal soul. I’m sure there are other points of conflict.