The Complete Works of Yogy Ramacharaka. William Walker Atkinson
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- they are but his late servants, and have no connection with his consciousness. Others of these atoms remain in the ground for some time, until taken up by some other form of living thing which needs nourishment. As a leading writer has said, "Death is but an aspect of life, and the destruction of one material form is but a prelude to the building up of another."
From the moment that the Ego leaves the physical body, and the influence of the commanding mind is withdrawn from the cells and the cell groups, disorder reigns among them. They become a disorganized army, rushing hither and thither, interfering with each other - jostling and pushing each other - even fighting each other, their only object being to get away from the crowd - to escape from the general confusion. During the life of the body their main object is to work together in harmony, under the orders of their officers - after the death of the body their only object seems to separate and each go its own way. First the groups separate one from the other - then each group breaks up into smaller groups-and so on until each individual cell becomes freed from its fellows, and goes its own way, or where it is called by some form of life needing it. As a writer on the subject has said, "The body is never more alive when it is dead; but it is alive in its units, and dead in its totality."
When the Ego departs from the physical body, at the moment of death, the Prana being no longer under control of the central mind, responds only to the orders of the individual atoms or their groups, which have formed the individual body, and as the physical body disentegrates and is resolved into its original elements, each atom takes with it sufficient Prana to maintain its vitality, and to enable it to form new combinations, the unused Prana returning to the great universal storehouse, from which it came.
When the Ego leaves the body, at the moment of death, it carries with it the Astral Body as well as the higher principles. This astral body, you will remember, is the exact counterpart of the physical body, but is composed of a finer quality of matter, and is invisible to the ordinary vision, but may be plainly seen by clairvoyant or astral sight, and may therefore be sometimes seen by persons under certain psychic conditions. Clairvoyants describe the parting of the Astral Body from the Physical Body as most interesting. They describe it as rising from the physical body, like a cloud of thin luminous vapor, but being connected with the physical body by a slender, silken, vapory cord, which cord becomes thinner and thinner until it becomes invisible to even the fine clairvoyant vision, just before it breaks entirely. The Astral Body exists some time after the physical death of the man, and under certain circumstances it becomes visible to living persons, and is called a "ghost." The Astral Body of a dying person is sometimes projected by an earnest desire and may become visible to relatives or friends with whom the dead man is in sympathy.
After a time, differing in various cases, as we will see later on, the Astral Body is discarded by the Ego, and it in turn begins to disintegrate. This discarded Astral Body is nothing more than a corpse of finer material, and is what occultists know as an "astral shell." It has no life or intelligence, when thus discarded, and floats around in the lower astral atmosphere, until it is resolved into its original elements. It seems to have a peculiar attraction toward its late physical counterpart, and will often return to the neighborhood of the physical body and disintegrate with it. Persons of psychic sight, either normal or influenced by fear or similar emotions, frequently see these astral shells floating around graveyards, over battlefields, etc., and are often mistaken for the "spirits" of departed people, whereas they are no more the person than is the physical corpse beneath the ground. These astral shells may be "galvanized" into a semblance of life by coming into contact with the vitality of some "medium," the prana of the latter animating it, and the sub-conscious mentality of the medium causing it to manifest signs of life and partial intelligence. At some of the seances of the mediums these astral shells are materialized by means of the vitality of the medium, and talk in a stupid, disconnected way with those around, but it is not the person himself talking, but a mere shell animated by the life principle of the medium and the "circle," and acting and talking like an automaton. There are, of course, other forms of spirit return, which are far different, but those investigating spiritualistic phenomena should beware of confounding these astral shells with the real intelligence of their deceased friends. And now let us return to the Ego, which has left the physical body.
While the Ego, encased in its Astral body, is slowly passing out of the Physical Body, the whole life of the person from infancy to old age, passes before his mental vision. The memory gives up its secrets, and picture after picture passes in swift succession before the mind, and many things are made plain to the departing soul - the reason of many things is discovered, and the soul sees what it all means - that is, it understands its whole life just complete, because it sees it as a whole. This is in the nature of a vivid dream to the dying individual, but it leaves a deep impress, and the memories are recalled and made use of at a later period, by the soul. Occultists have always urged that the friends and relatives of a dying person should maintain quiet and calm around him, that he may not be disturbed by conflicting emotions, or distracting sounds. The soul should be allowed to go on its way in peace and quiet, without being held back by the wishes or conversation of those around him.
So the Ego passes on, and out from the body. To where? Let us say here that the future states of the soul, between incarnations, have nothing to do with places - it is a matter of "states" not of places. There are numerous places of existence, and all interpenetrate each other, so that a given space may contain intelligences living on several different planes, those living on the lower planes not being conscious of the existence and presence of those living on the higher ones. So get the idea of "place" out of your minds - it is all a matter of "states," or "planes."
The soul after passing out of the body, if left undisturbed by emphatic calls from those whom it has left behind (and which calls may consist of violent manifestations of grief, and earnest demands for the return of the departed one on the part of some loved one, or from someone to whom the deceased person was bound by ties of duty) falls into a semi-conscious state - a blissful, peaceful, happy, restful state - a dream of the soul. This state continues for some time (varying in individuals as we shall see) until the astral shell falls from it, and floats off in the astral atmosphere, and until the lower portions of that etherealized matter which confines the lower portions of the mind gradually dissolves and also drops from the soul, leaving it possessed of only the higher portions of its mentality.
The man of low spiritual development, and consequently of a larger degree of animal nature, will part with but little of his mind-body, and soon reaches the highest of which he has been mentally and spiritually capable in his earth-life. The man of high spiritual attainment, will gradually "shed" much of his mental-body, until he has thrown off all except the highest portions developed in his earth life. Those between the two mentioned types will act according to their degree of spiritual attainment, of course. Then, when the last possible remnant of the lower mentality has dropped from the soul, it awakes, as it passes on to states which will be described a little later on in this lesson. It will be seen that the man of gross mentality and spiritual development will stay in the dreamlike state but a short time, as the process of casting off of sheaths is a comparatively simple one, requiring but little time. And it likewise will be seen that the man who has reached a high degree of spiritual development, will rest for a longer period, as he has much more to get rid of, and this discarded material of the mind drops from him like the leaves of a rose, one after the other, from the outer to the inner.
Each soul awakens when it has discarded all that it can (or rather all that will drop from it) and when it has reached the highest state possible to it. Those who have made material spiritual progress during the earth-life just past, will have much useless and outgrown matter to discard, while the one who has neglected his opportunities, and dies about as he was born, will have but little to throw off, and will awaken in a very short time. Each rests until the highest point of unfoldment has manifested itself. But before going on further, let us stop a moment to say that both the sinking into the restful state, and the soundness and continuance of it may be interfered with by those left in the earth life. A soul which has "something on its mind" to communicate, or which is grieved by the pain of those who have been left behind (especially if it hears the lamentations and constant call for its return) will fight off the dreamy state creeping over it, and will make desperate efforts to return. And, likewise, the mental calls of those who have been left behind, will disturb the slumber, when it has been