Spiritual Health
The Hidden Dynamics of Health and Illness
by Terry Lamb
We have all heard the aphorism that illness is a path to spiritual growth, or less happily that we create our own illness through imbalanced behavior and mistaken attitudes. The real dynamics of inner health are more complex than this.
If we could each see the aura, or human energy field, we would fully understand how disease comes to be - that it is not merely a matter of germs and viruses. Rather, we are predisposed through inherent strengths and weaknesses toward certain illnesses and illness patterns, and these can be seen as a basic dynamic of health which is hidden to most of us through lack of training.
The Human Energy Field
To understand the link between our multi-leveled being and health, we must understand the levels that make up our wholeness. There are many models describing the layers of the human energy field and the way they interact with each other. The visible physical body is only a small part of the picture. Many people see the physical body as the densest level of an egg-shaped energy field, where the more subtle bodies appear in layers like those of an onion.
The layers, called bodies in many traditions, interpenetrate each other and contain successively less dense energies from innermost to outermost. Each layer has a boundary, and the entire energy field is surrounded by a protective sheath.
Briefly, the nature of each layer is as follows:
The Physical Body - the part of the human energy field that all of us can sense with our ordinary senses. It is the densest part of the field. When it takes on an imbalance, it affects what we normally call "health", and we become ill or "out of sorts". It is the visible counterpart and extension of all the other bodies, in a downward flowing process.
The Etheric Body - extends from 1/4-2 inches from the body. Its light-to-smoky, gray-to-blue weblike structure pulsates at 15-20 cycles per minute. As with all the bodies, all the structures, from the cell to the organs, found in the physical body can be seen on this layer made of the same bluish matrix. It is associated with physical sensation and functioning, including cellular growth and decay. A cell is created as a matrix of fine lines on the etheric level before it is actually manufactured by the physical body. It is also associated with physical pain and pleasure, and the automatic and autonomic body functions.
The Emotional Body - Extending 1-3 inches from the body, the emotional body shows all the hues of the rainbow for clear, positive emotional energies, and shows darker, muddied tones for confused or negative feelings. The colors move freely about at this layer, and may be thrown off during times of emotional release.
The Mental Body - Finer still, this body is a yellow filament structure which brightens around the head and shoulders, especially when one is focusing the mind. Thought forms appear as blobs which may carry other colors if emotions are attached to the thoughts. Our mental like - linear thinking - is experienced here.
The functions of these bodies are identifiable by most people. They handle the way we interact energetically with the physical world. However, beyond the "lower" bodies exist three (more, really) higher bodies that handle the spiritual counterparts of the etheric, emotional and mental aspects of the "spiritual" (so-called because it is mysterious and relatively unknown and unfelt, not because it is less real) world. In addition, they are linked by a bridge layer which lies between the spiritual and physical realms, called the astral body.
The Astral (Bridge) Body - Similar in appearance to the emotional body, the colors are brighter and rose-hued with the light of love. This layer is a crossroad between the higher and lower bodies. It is where we experience love, both personal and agape, the love for humanity.
The Etheric Template - This is a blueprint of the physical body which looks liek the negative of a photograph. The etheric layer derives its structure from this level. This level is associated with a higher will more connected with Divine Will. Here we create through word and thought (logos), and we must take responsibility for our actions.
The Celestial Body - The emotional body of the spiritual planes, this is where we can experience spiritual ecstasy. It can be reached through meditation and other spiritual practices of a devotional nature, such as chanting and singing. It appears as pearly shimmering light with pastel colors. The celestial body carries our experience of spiritual love, the connection with and nurturance of all life.
The Ketheric Template or Causal Body - This is a template of fine threads of golden-silver light that holds the whole aura together. Although the least dense, this is the strongest and most resilient level of the aura, extending to at least three feet from the body. The golden light that shimmers through the fine filaments at this level are an extension of Divine Mind. This is the higher mind, the highest level of knowing and integrating our spiritual Self with our physical self. It is worth noting that at a certain point in our development, the causal body "breaks" open, allowing the light of the soul to enter in. At this point, the individual's life becomes soul-directed, and the "light body" is created.
Energies enter and leave the body through energy centers, or chakras, the Hindi word for 'wheel'. They appear as funnel-shaped vortices on the front and back of the body. People who are clairsensuous ('clear-feeling') can feel the energies enter and leave. There are seven main chakras found along the centerline of the body. In addition, there are smaller chakras at other points on the body, such as the palms of the hands, soles of the feet and directly in front of the ears. These large and small centers are tapped in energetic healing, acupuncture and other therapies which heal on the energetic levels of the body.
Each of the seven central chakras correlates with the corresponding energy body - the first chakra with the etheric/physical, the second with the emotional, and so on. The chakra fulfills the function of the auric level to which it relates through allowing the energies to come and go, filtering and processing what it encounters. Many of our backaches are the result of energies which have entered the front and have not been assimilated properly into the physical or allowed to leave through the will centers on the back of the body. However, each level of the aura has all the chakras found in the substance/color of that level.
How Disease Develops
Contrary to common scientific belief, diseases do not develop simply as a result of contact with bacteria or viruses. Neither can other types of illness, such as injury, psychological malaise, emotional illness or mental imbalance, be characterized solely in terms of the symptoms and prognosis that received Western medicine (called allopathy) describes.
Western allopathic medicine does not officially recognize such concepts as constitutional type, the role of the four (or five) elements, the levels and participation of the human energy field, and the complex genesis of disease processes. Yet all these factors play a role in health imbalances of all types, and they can be detected in the human energy field. Furthermore, diseases, illnesses and injuries can usually be detected in the human energy field prior to their occurrence in the physical body.
Let's take the common cold as an example. Although we are taught that we catch a cold as a result of coming into contact with a virus, observation teaches us that not everyone who comes into contact with a cold virus catches the "bug". On the contrary, other factors come into play, which are lumped into "the immune system", which is the conglomerate of functions which battles disease. However, what makes the immune system function as it does; what makes one person able to fight off a cold while another succumbs to it?
The immune system is one of the observable manifestations of the general energy system that is sustained on the other levels of being. The immune system is in a sense supported and restored by the chi, or basic vitality, force within the whole system. There are several centers where chi is stored, but it is found in all parts of the body to varying degrees depending on how blocked a given area is. So, if you suffer from persistent low back pain, you carry less chi force there (deficient chi), what is there may be less free-flowing (stagnant chi), and you may have the experience in your life of a lack of support from the world around you (no "backing"). This may be related to an unresolved childhood injury or trauma which, upon release of the memory and relearning of the emotional patterns surrounding it, would release you to have a different psycho-emotional experience of the world, and the symptoms may then disappear.
All the things that we experience in life are taken into our energy field. Sensations, emotions, thoughts all vibrate at a unique and precise rate which will lead them to gravitate to and lodge in specific locations in the body and its energy field. The physical laws by which this occurs are called harmonic induction and sympathetic resonance. Memories, specifically negative ones, are stored as blockages at locations associated with that type of experience. This is why patients often report memory recall and emotional release to massage therapists and other healers as a sensitive area of the body is physically opened. By understanding the relationship between our symptoms, their locations, our thoughts and our predispositions, we can get to the root of every health problem. The aura is a reflection of this basic process within each of us. Through the aura we can see and often heal disease processes.
The basic process of self-creation, including health, is essentially a top-down process. What comes from the Source as a divine creative impulse is filtered according to our own native abilities to accept this impulse at any given time. Some impulses are attracted vibrationally to flow through the field where there is little impedance. Other impulses (like a sense of connectedness with all), where, we have deeply held misconceptions (like abandonment) resulting in blockages even at the highest auric levels, may make it to us in barely recognizable form (such as a longing to be needed by another person). They may even be translated into fear or anger (at not being loved, etc.).
The blockages at the higher levels eventually lead to stagnation and blockages at successively lower levels. Finally, imbalances in the lower bodies occur, leading to a lack of attunement to the sensations of the physical body, and bad habits, improper diet and so forth may arise, contributing to a disease process due to this lack of sensitivity.
Getting back to the cold, it may first show up as, let's say, a depletion which may be primarily emotional in source due to a fight you had with your boss. An anger/fear response to the disagreement led to sadness and a sense of hopelessness about your career, the direction of which has been troubling you for some time. If you can clear the negative emotions, their dark forms found in the emotional body may never have the chance to filter down into the etheric body and create the sticky webbing which produces mucus, nests in the visual field/nose (third eye chakra), thus precipitating the cold. The physical depletion which precedes the cold is a byproduct of the lingering, enervating nature of the emotional negativity. Contributing to this condition may be a constitutional weakness or predisposition to lung ailments resulting from a deep grief carried forth from before birth (past lives, if you wish). Your relationship with your boss may be based on a misunderstanding that stems from that higher level misconception. (You attracted the boss so you could work this out!) The disruption from the highest levels would exist as a condition in the aura until a greater awareness came in which allowed the core misunderstanding to dissipate. The bodies would repair themselves or be able to be repaired through healing. Frequently the chakras are also disfigured and require repair.
Obviously, the cold, or any other illness, has its beginning in many different processes, some even stemming, perhaps, from previous lifetimes. It makes sense, then, that treatment cannot be effectively handled if all we do is treat the symptoms of the disease or attempt to eradicate it only from the physical body. If the form of the illness--emotional energy blockages, tears or disfigurement in the mental body structure, toxic energy "spills" or entangled or disrupted filament structures in the higher bodies--continues to exist in the energy field, it may recur, causing what naturopaths call "echo illnesses", a well-known phenomenon among all medical practitioners.
Precipitating True Healing
There are many techniques which can prompt the human energy system to heal itself. Most good therapies trigger the healing response inherent in the body, enabling it to tap the Creative Force.
For the most part, drug therapies do not serve to assist in this true healing process. Drugs can be observed to toxify various organs such as the liver and kidneys, to destroy the boundaries between layers of the energy field or to clog it. Chemo- and radiation therapies seem to be especially injurious when seen from this level. However, every possible therapy has its place, especially if it is an instrument of a caring person, and the person being healed has a belief in its effectiveness.
Some of the therapies which correct these inner levels of reality seem to some people like hocus-pocus. However, for those who can see or otherwise perceive the body's energy patterns, the shifts brought on by these subtle therapies can be quite dramatic. Although some (and maybe all) of these therapies work with more than one level, a listing of some of the extant methods of healing each level is included:
1. The Physical-Etheric, Emotional and Mental Bodies - homeopathy, herbs, nutritional supplements, massage, diet, exercise. aromatherapy (all levels through the limbic), shamanic healing, naturopathy, hatha yoga, breathing practices, acupuncture, acupressure, jin shin jyutsu, Bach Flower Remedies (mostly emotional), Perelandra Flower Essences (emotional/celestial), rebirthing, energy healing (chelation), smudging; mental-emotional: psychotherapies, affirmation, journaling, astro-therapy, redirection of thought patterns, family therapies.
2. The Astral Body - constitutional homeopathy, aromatherapy, smudging, energy healing (4th layer chelation), breathing practices, kundalini kriya yoga, sharing love, astrology, spiritual practices opening the heart (dzikr).
3. The Etheric Template, Celestial Body and Ketheric Template - constitutional homeopathy, spiritual astrology, crystal healing, sadhana meditation, kundalini kriya yoga and meditation, breathing practices/pranayam, reiki, radionics, laying on of hands, Divine Template energetic healing; Etheric template: "psychic" surgery (etheric template level), mantra yoga, sound healing, sound meditations; Celestial: color healing, meditation using visualization; Ketheric: meditations and practices energizing the crown chakra (sat kriya, dzikr), shaktipat.
You will note that many of these are "self-therapies", since they can be done on your own, with only moderate guidance from others.
Spiritual Growth and Illness
It is part of modern life, with its acceleration of experience, that spiritual growth is also a part of the picture for many people, whether they are aware of it or not. Spiritual growth meshes with health in three ways. First, it may be precipitated by challenges to one's health. A fall on the tailbone may hasten the kundalini awakening (the process by which the relatively dormant life force invigorates the body, producing spiritual experiences). A bout with cancer may change one's priorities to the spiritual in the face of death.
Second, spiritual growth may precipitate illness, as the kundalini breaks through blockages thus creating a health crisis, or as energy forces moving more rapidly in the higher bodies precipitate imbalances so that they can be cleared. Third, spiritual growth sometimes feels like an illness all its own. The body becomes more sensitive, transient symptoms occur which mimic other illnesses and intrude upon a person's normal waking reality.
Generally speaking, if you have taken on spiritual practices, or you are participating in any inner growth process, you may take it at face value that when an illness occurs, it is not sufficient to treat it at only the physical level. You may set back your growth process years if imbalances are not addressed at the other levels as well. Further, if you are on a spiritual path, you may not respond to standard allopathic (drug/surgical) therapies in the typical manner, and precautions or at least a sensitivity to your unique needs must be considered. Depending on your constitutional type and stage on your path, you may be more or less sensitive than normal to drugs. However, it is important not to ignore potentially life threatening symptoms just because you are on a spiritual path. It is part of our self-responsibility to honor the needs of the physical body as well as those of the less manifest levels. So, go see your doctor if you feel you might need to!
Quite often, the experience of spiritual growth is palpable. You may experience the sensation of energy moving through the body and encountering the resistance that blockages offer. You may begin to feel, see or otherwise sense the flaws in your aura. Most crucially, you will begin to feel an illness before it occurs in the physical and predict what its course will be, why it is occurring and take appropriate measures to prevent the imbalance from manifesting further.
The symptoms associated with spiritual growth include trembling, even a feeling of an inner earthquake, tiredness, tingling, palpitations, feelings of localized pressure (especially in the chakra areas), insomnia, vivid dreams, visions, digestive difficulties, panic, anxiety, depression, rapid pulse, and body aches. If you feel at any time that you are facing a medical emergency, it is best to err on the side of caution and seek the guidance of a health practitioner whom you trust. Usually these types of "side effects" happen only when other factors provide an additive or confounding effect such as drug or alcohol use, inherent health weakness or existing illness, and psychological issues. Even so, some people are more prone to dramatic awakening events; this tendency and the timing of such events can be seen in the astrological chart of the individual. The nature of the experience, contributing factors and triggers as well as potential "hot spots" in time can be detected by the knowledgeable astrologer.
It is often during spiritual growth crises, or the health crises catalyzed by spiritual growth, that we first begin to seek more subtle healing therapies. We are either drawn intuitively to these or we find that the standard methods don't work well for the conditions we are facing and realize we must turn to something else.
With all the pain I've mentioned, you might wonder why you would want to take on such a task as the spiritualization process. If the added sensitivity found on the path to spiritual awareness is sometimes painful, certainly one of its greatest benefits is the ability to improve one's health through prevention. While the acceptance of such a path is no guarantee of health or healing, it is a guarantee of growth. Becoming aware of the multi-leveled reality which lies behind our health picture may help us in the end to improve our health to a major or minor extent and to forgive ourselves when we become ill. And when we begin to radiate light, love and joy and feel connected to all things and people more and more, the benefits are beyond measure.
References
Brennan, Barbara. Hands of Light and Light Emerging. Bantam.
Krishna, Gopi. Kundalini: The Transformational Energy in Man.
©Terry Lamb. This article may be downloaded and shared freely so long as it remains intact, including copyright notice and authorship.
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