The Mental body by A E Powell

This is probably the most lengthy review I have written of any book. I wouldn't call this a review....it's more of a short notes or summary of some aspects of the book which is appealing to me. Hope this encourages someone to read this book.
I personally think that it is more meaningful to read Etheric double and Astral Body book before you read this though it's understandable even otherwise. Below are some of the definitions and my understanding of the concepts:


Prarabddha Karma
Repeated thinking or mental activity over incarnations makes a part of the mental body active. Example: A soul who has been repeatedly a mathematician over one or many incarnations, will have an active Mathematical thinking pattern. This soul subsequently tends to perceive every situation in life through this pattern. This is called Prarabddha Karma.
Insight: Now there could be the karma or the effect of an action by the soul driven by this pattern. Or the higher soul might want to provoke the soul to exercise other aspects of the mental body. Hence it will lead the soul to situations which cannot be perceived through this pattern or the solution cannot be derived through this pattern. So the soul is forced to think out of the box. This also could probably be termed as Prarabddha Karma.

When we travel to New places the unaccustomed energy vibrations of the place will bring life to the astral mental and Etheric part of the body which has otherwise remained latent. That's y travel is good

The freedom to choose between the desires shows that mental body is higher to the astral body

The initial meaning of spiritualism:

This goes back to the preliminary initiation period. A dead person was chosen, awakened sufficiently on the astral plane, trained with the principles and powers of Astral plane and then handed over to the spiritual group with some purpose. This trained person would further train other dead people on the same lines and this group would impress the spiritual purpose on the earthly life. The Master of the group would guide the spiritual guide of the group. When it became impossible to hold back this leader of the group, he was allowed to move on to the higher world which was long pending for him. Now the new leader was chosen and he would take on the astral form of the later or use his shade(mental image in astral plane) to carry on with the work.

However no Master/adept of the Himalayas were involved in this, since this was artificial and also prone to the black magician influence. Which inventually did happen. I think this was the downfall of the Atlantans.

When a soul reincarnates, it attracts the mental and astral material around itself from its past life. So the previous habits virtues and vices are present in the latent form. Egs. Drinking affinity. However if the soul is virtuously guided by the parents, in this incarnation the soul might refrain from these habits. Then these latent tendencies slowly die and are not carried forward in the next incarnation. Such is the importance of the parents and the teachers in the journey of the monad.

Sometimes the soul gets stuck in its shade/ yet to disintegrate astral corpse/ the astral body of the animal that the soul had previously abducted. Such souls generally don't reach the physical world unless they are free from it. Under rare circumstances the human soul reincarnates in the animal body. The body of the animal is more of prison than any good for the growth of the soul. Under most cases these souls are born with predominant animal nature. The physical body may sometimes reassemble the animal.

Ways of thought transference:
A certain sect or group or religious belief thoughtforms which are constantly energised over ages. When the mental body comes in contact with such a thoughtform, a copy of it is impressed into the mental body. Further the mental body may in turn contribute it's part by reacting to the thoughtform launched.
Another influence is the thought corpse of a soul which has departed. The corpse sometimes hangs around like that of an astral corpse for long time. When the soul reincarnates it makes an impression or launches itself into the newly built mental body.
Yet another sacred training method of thought transference is as follows. A highly evolved teacher would keep his disciple in his vicinity to serve the Guru with all his needs. In the meantime, the constant impression from the teacher moulds the mental body of the students with the teachings and the purpose of the incarnation. Now with little training the student is ready to tune into the mental body and bring the purpose into full action.

We have heard of many stories of this kind where the great teacher suddenly declared his student as an initiate. This includes the story of Lord Buddha initiating Ananda. When his co disciples asked the teacher, Lord Buddha said, I meditated on his behalf. Now the meaning is more clear :)

Mental clairvoyance:
In Hinduism, anima is zoom in to the details and Mahima is zoom out to see the big picture in mental clairvoyantic vision.

If you have attended Master Choa's higher clairvoyance course, the description mentioned in the book will make deeper sense.

Intuitive intelligence
The chakras in ordinary people are slightly bent towards the vortex. However as the chakras evolve, they align better. As the crown aligns to the pineal gland, the impressions and communication from the higher soul can bypass the astral body and impress the physical brain directly.
Intuition comes from Atmic to the Atmic mental to Atmic Astral to Atmic Etheric. Hence the brain is incapable of perceiving this information.
Insight:
However in Meditation on twin hearts this information is flashed/impressed to the brain. That's y it develops intuition. Such a high technology given to public. What a teacher!!
This explains to a certain extent why crown is the centre of buddhic consciousness and why meditation on twin hearts improves our intuitive faculty.

Meditation:
Its the inexpressible longing of the inner man for the infinite- HPB
According to Patanjali, 5+1 stages of mind on any plane during meditation:
Kshipta: jumping like butterfly
Mudha: confused
Vikshipta: Infactuation. Need to develop Viveka
Ekagrata: mesmerized by an ideal thought. Need to develop discrimination
Niruddha: self control to generate an ideal thought. Need to develop Shatasampati-tuning to higher soul
Samadhi

4 states of mind:
Jagrata
Swapna
Sushupta
Turiya/Trance

There are some techniques in hatha yoga to experience the Turiya state of mind/ Trance state of mind. One of them is *to focus on the tip of the nose*
Awesome!!!!

Meditation can be used to develop a virtue and hence the character building. This explains the importance of meditation on loving kindness. The meditation is empowered by the teacher with omph mantra.

Chanting a mantra is also a form of meditation. If the mantra is the name of a great being, eventually a connection is established and the Guru/ great being will send constant energy through this connection even when you are not meditating. If the mantra is blessed/ concecrated, it generates sympathetic vibrations around even in the higher plane and helps the soul consciousness to be uplifted.
Good incence and right posture also can produce the higher state of consciousness to the mind and environment. Exercise and breathing rhythm also adds to it
This explains the Arhatic yoga procedure and it's significance.

Some interesting symbolic meaning:

Original Sin: It's the traces of the previous life time tendencies. These matters are attracted when the mental/astral body is being formed. However, whether the tendencies will become active in this life depends on the upbringing by parents and to some extent the environment. In childhood the soul has less impact on the bodies.

Baptism: its intended to minimise the effects of seeds. The energy of the baptised water will pour down to purify the Etheric body then rushes up to purify the astral and mental body.

The holy water: is rich in spiritual energy which attracts the higher vibration material to form the body which eventually stiffens and becomes part of the habit

Exorcism: To remove the evil to prevent from being encouraged during the lifetime

Finally by making the symbol of cross on the child, the priest builds the thoughtform which yields the divine force. A nature spirit known as sylph is assigned to the thoughtform and a guardian angel to nurture. Eventually the sylph individualises and becomes a seraph.

If a baptised child dies immediately also, it's protected in its astral life due to the energies of baptism.

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