The Four-Body System

We tend to identify ourselves only with our physical bodies as it is the most familiar of our four-body system.  All enjoyment, pleasure, ills and pains are experienced through our physical body.  However, besides our physical body we have other subtle bodies which we do not see, feel or sense with our five physical senses.  These bodies are our Emotional Body, Mental Body and Spiritual Body.  There are also higher bodies connected to different planes of existence.

Much of our illness, pains, discomforts and dis-ease in our physical body stems from the imbalances in the higher bodies.  As our thoughts create our reality, our thoughts create our emotions.  When we are happy and have positive emotions, we feel good.  When we are sad, angry, depressed or carry negative emotions, we do not feel good.  This translates to discomforts and dis-ease in our physical body.  If the emotions are strong enough, they can create havoc in the physical body.  Many illnesses and health problems are caused by imbalances in our Emotional and Mental Bodies.  The imbalance in our Emotional and Mental Bodies will step down into our Physical Body and will manifest as health problems, aches and pains.

The Physical Body is the physical vehicle as we know it.  It is closely surrounded by the etheric body, which is the subtler counterpart to the Physical Body.  The etheric body interpenetrates (as do the other bodies) the physical body and can be likened to a blueprint of the physical body.  The etheric body gives vitality, health, life and organisation to the physical body.  It also attunes our consciousness to the principle of energy.  The etheric body also steps energies from our higher bodies down into our physical consciousness.  Our physical body contains 13 major organ systems which work together systematically to keep us alive, harmonious and active and, each organ system and each organ plays a specific role related to our health and development.

The Emotional Body is the storehouse of our emotions.  Each and every emotion, positive and negative, that we have ever expressed are stored in our Emotional Body.  The Emotional Body is very dynamic.  It allows us to express any form of feeling and expression. The most common types of emotions are happiness, joy, love, sadness, unhappiness, anger, frustration, or just feeling low.

The Mental Body is the storehouse of our thoughts.  It records each and every thought, positive and negative, that we have ever had.  A typical human being has as average of 40,000 to 80,000 thought forms a day.  Out of those thought forms, more than 80% are negative thought forms!  Most of us have been programmed with different types of beliefs, mental scripts, and perception by the society, family, authority, media, friends, or loved ones.  These influence us even if they have a productive or destructive outcome. Unfortunately, most of the programming has a negative effect in our life.

There are many terms in the spiritual movement for the Spiritual Body, some call it Soul, Aura, Energy Fields, Higher Body, or Light Body.  It is the body that cannot be seen by the physical human eye.  Of course, a very small number of people may be able to see the Spiritual Body with their higher psychism.  The Spiritual Body is also called the light body, the essence and the vehicle for the soul, formed comprising the physical, etheric, emotional, mental, causal, atmic, monadic, cosmic and other higher light bodies.  Each body has its own unique function.  The main purpose of the higher light bodies is to supply life force energy to the lower bodies, to guide the lower bodies, and also to serve as a bridge to the multi-dimensional worlds.  There are different levels of higher bodies and they become active with growth in different levels of spiritual consciousness.