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Esoteric Healing - Chapter I - The Psychological Causes of Disease
2. Causes Arising in the Etheric Body It will be wise for you to bear in mind that I am not here going to deal with those causes which, producing effects in the physical body, arise in the mind or in the astral body. Necessarily they pass through the etheric body. The etheric body is a transmitter of all energies to the physical body, [72] and all types of force pass through it to different parts of the physical form, producing good and bad results, negative or positive results, as the case may be. This is a fact which we accept. I am here considering the diseases, problems and physical difficulties which arise in the etheric body itself and work out in its relations to the physical body. These are quite widespread and usual. It is essential that you keep these two lines of force-activity clearly differentiated in your mind. Both pass through and from the etheric body into the physical body, but only one of them originates in or is concerned with difficulties which have an etheric origin. The etheric body is a body composed entirely of lines of force and of points where these lines of force cross each other and thus form (in crossing) centers of energy. Where many such lines of force cross each other, you have a larger center of energy, and where great streams of energy meet and cross, as they do in the head and up the spine, you have seven major centers. There are seven such, plus twenty-one lesser centers and forty-nine smaller centers known to the esotericists. However, we will confine ourselves at this time to the etheric body as a whole and to the seven major centers. It might be of interest to you, nevertheless, to be told where the twenty-one minor centers are to be found. They can be located at the following points: There are two of them in front of the ears close to where the jaw bones are connected. There are two of them just above the two breasts. There is one where the breast bones meet, close to the thyroid gland. This, with the two breast centers, makes a triangle of force. There are two, one each in the palms of the hands. [73] There are two, one each in the soles of the feet. There are two, just behind the eyes. There are two also connected with the gonads. There is one close to the liver. There is one connected with the stomach; it is related, therefore, to the solar plexus, but is not identical with it. There are two connected with the spleen. These form one center in reality, but such a center is formed by the two being superimposed one on the other. There are two - one at the back of each knee. There is one powerful center which is closely connected with the vagus nerve. This is most potent and is regarded by some schools of occultism as a major center; it is not in the spine, but is no great distance from the thymus gland. There is one which is close to the solar plexus, and relates it to the center at the base of the spine, thus making a triangle of the sacral center, the solar plexus, and the center at the base of the spine. The two triangles referred to in this tabulation are of real importance. One is above and the other below the diaphragm. It is of course apparent that where there is a free flow of force through the etheric body into the dense physical body there will be less likelihood of disease or sickness. There may, however, be increased tendency to difficulties arising from over-stimulation and its consequent results of over-activity of the nervous system, with all the attendant problems. These forces, seeking inlet into the dense vehicle, are emanations from three directions (if I may use such a term): [74] From the personality vehicles - the astral and mental bodies. From the soul, if contact, recognized or unrecognized, has been established. From the environing world to which the vehicles of the soul and of the personality have acted as "doors of entrance." Incidentally, in connection with this last phrase, I would call your attention to a possible relation between these "doors of entrance" and the phrase "door of initiation." In the case where these centers, through which the inflowing energy from these sources of supply flow, are quiescent, unawakened or only functioning partially or too slowly (as far as their vibratory rhythm is concerned), then you will have a condition of blocking. This will produce congestion in the etheric vehicle, and consequent and subsequent difficulties in the functioning of the physical body. One of the most common of these is congestion of the lungs which - though it may be exoterically traced to certain and definite physical causes - is in reality those causes, plus an inner condition of etheric congestion. It is the bringing together of the outer apparent cause and the inner true cause which is responsible for the outbreak of the trouble. When these two conditions are brought into conjunction with each other, and you have a physical handicap and an etheric situation which is undesirable, then you will have disease, illness, or weakness of some kind. Every outer congestion can always be traced to these two causes - an inner and an outer cause. In these cases, the outer cause is not an effect of the individual inner cause, which is interesting. You will note, therefore, that all ills are not purely subjective or psychological in origin as far as an individual is concerned, [75] but are sometimes both exoteric and esoteric. Hence the complication of the problem. The above statement opens up the whole question of the activity of the seven centers of force in the etheric body. These can be regarded as dormant or unawakened, awakening but only as yet sluggishly alive, or functioning normally, which means that some of the energies which produce the form of the center are moving rhythmically, and are therefore receptive to inflow, while others are still entirely inactive and unresponsive. Other centers will be fully active, and therefore predominantly attractive to any inflowing forces; still others will be only partially so. For the majority of people, the centers below the diaphragm are more active than those above the diaphragm (I am referring here to the seven major centers and not to the twenty-one minor centers). For aspirants, centers below the diaphragm are active and the heart and throat centers are slowly coming into activity, while in the case of disciples, the ajna center, plus those centers below it in the body, are rapidly awakening. In the initiate, the head center is coming into vibrant activity, thus swinging all the centers into real and coordinated rhythm. Each patient or human being, being on some ray, responds differently; the time factor also differs; the pattern of the unfoldment varies, and the response to the inflowing forces is slightly differentiated. All of this we will consider with due care when we deal with Chapter IX, which concerns itself with the seven modes of healing. I simply mention it here so as to lay the foundation for what must later be considered, and thus show you how the whole question of the relation of the etheric body to the physical body is connected with the problem of healing. It will be apparent, therefore, how important it is - before real healing can take place - that the healer should know the point in evolution reached by [76] the patient, and should also know his ray type, both personality and egoic. If to this you add some knowledge of his astrological inclinations and indications, a far more accurate diagnosis can be produced. The key to all release (either through the physical cure of disease or through death) lies in the understanding of the condition of the centers in the etheric body. These determine the rate of the bodily vibratory activity and the general responsiveness of the physical body. They even condition the activity and accuracy of the instinctual nature and its relation to the outer plane life and the "wholeness" and general health of the sympathetic nervous system.
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