Astral Body                        

                 See Spiritual Anatomy 		  

     Each of us is composed of three primary parts: the body, the soul and the spirit. The physical body we understand, the spirit is generally unknowable, but the soul we experience daily. It is the astral body which is composed of subtle material that provides us with sensation and emotion.

      The part seen surrounding the body is called the aura. The words aura and astral body are often used interchangeably. All life has soul and an aura can be seen around all animals and plants. It is a luminous body that completely surrounds our physical body and is directly connected to  the body and its energy vortices - the seven chakras  

    During out-of-the-body experiences, a cord of light is often seen connecting the physical, astral and spiritual bodies. This cord is an astral  thread that connects the astral body to the physical body. When the physical body dies, the subtle silver cord that connects the astral and physical bodies is severed.  .

    The quality and intensity of our emotions colors our astral body and determines the rate at which it vibrates. There are certain afflictions that
are  directly connected with the imbalance in the

Astral Body and that are provided to us as daily ticklers or signs that our Astral Body is weak and that it needs more care and awareness from us.  The common complaints of indigestion, nervousness, liver and stomach claims, frequent nightmares (which tell us quite a lot about the lower areas of the astral plane that we often are aware of during our sleep.  The consumption of liquor, tobacco and mood altering drugs is detrimental to the astral body as well as the physical body. Theosophical literature says that, if a man was a heavy smoker, after death he will continue to possess the aaddiction with no means of fulfilling it.

    Master Hilarion is reported to have said that alcohol has the capacity to lodge its toxins inside the etheric and astral parts, causing them to become frayed and weakened. The over-indulgence in alcohol causes a tear at the back of the Anja chakra.

   The astral body has great regenerative powers so long as it is not constantly weakened through the ingestion of astral poison caused by fear, or by the poisons of nicotine and alcohol consumption. If the person abstains from the ingestion of these substances for a period of nine weeks, Master Hilarion says that the astral body can restore itself to a nearly perfect state. These changes come to be manifest and visible in our third dimensional being.