After-death states of man’s three astral bodies

Book excerpt: A dialogue between the two Editors of Lucifer, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Mabel Collins on astral bodies or doppelgängers. Lucifer was a monthly theosophical journal published from September 1887 to August, 1897, in London. There are three kinds of “doubles” or astral bodies: 1. The most material double: the Protean or plastic body (linga-sharira) of the gross physical body (shtula-sharira). 2. The middle, psycho-physical double: the “thought” or “dream” body (kama-manas), vehicle of animal desires (kama) and worldly thoughts (manas). Occultists call it the illusion-body (mayavi-rupa). 3. The truly spiritual double: the true Ego (monas + manas) is the causal body (karana-sharira) and chief cause of reincarnation, known in the trans-Himalayan schools as the karmic body. Adepts can project consciously, and dying persons unconsciously, an illusory appearance of their person to any distant location — while their physical body is left “entranced.” This phantom is termed mayavi-rupa. The ability to project a mayavic rupa depends upon the plastic power of the imagination and the higher faculties of the mind. Imagination is far more intense in those who are spiritually minded, than in those whose metaphysical part of the brain has atrophied, for it is by this very intense imagination that the former obtain the power of creation. However, when armed with a powerful imagination, a malicious person can turn unconsciously bad thoughts to a lethal weapon. Unless the evil-wisher is a high adept in Black Magic, in which case his karma is delayed, such a wish only comes back to roost. Warning to students of occultism: learn how to adapt your ideas and thoughts to your plastic potency. Otherwise, you are creating things by which you may be making bad karma.