* The Human Body: Is the entire physical structure of a human organism. Body a physical object or physical structure of an organism especially of a human: A sound mind in a healthy body; she loved him body and soul (= totally). With regard to living things, a body is the integral physical material of an individual. "Body" often is used in connection with appearance, health issues and death. The Human Body consists of a head, neck, torso, two arms and two legs. Body type and body composition are influenced by postnatal factors such as diet and exercise. The human body is often called a "body". The study of the workings of the body is physiology. The body's organ systems include: the circulatory system, immune system, respiratory system, digestive system, excretory system, urinary system, musculoskeletal system, nervous system, endocrine system and the male and / or female reproductive system. The body of a dead person is called a "corpse" or "cadaver".
* According to the traditional teachings: of Yoga and various esoteric, occult, and mystical teachings, human beings are constituted not only by a gross physical form but by a series of energetic psycho-spiritual subtle bodies each of increasing subtlety and metaphysical significance. Derived principally from the Indian spiritual tradition where they were originally conceived as sheaths covering the immortal soul these concepts spread throughout the West in the late nineteenth century through the theosophical movement.
* The Astral Body: Refers to the concept of a Subtle Body which exists alongside the physical body, as a vehicle of the soul or higher consciousness. It is usually understood as being of an emotional nature and, as such, it is equated to the desire body or emotional body. However, some philosophies conceive that the astral body is a body made of ether (the soul body), built by each individual during the current evolutionary stage (the Philosophers' Stone), which is said to give support to the desire (emotional) body during the astral projection.
* The Causal Body: Originally Karana-Sarira - is a Yogic and Vedantic concept that was adopted and modified by Theosophy and Neo-Theosophy, and from the latter made its way into the general New Age movement and contemporary western esotericism. It generally refers to the highest or innermost subtle body that veils the true soul.
* The Mental Body (the mind): Is one of the subtle bodies in esoteric philosophies, in some religious teachings and in New Age thought. It is understood as a sort of body made up of thoughts, just as the emotional body consists of emotions and the physical body is made up of matter. In occult understanding, thoughts are not just subjective qualia, but have an existence apart from the associated physical organ, the brain.
* The Subtle Body: Is more specifically a term for the pranic, mental and consciousness bodies considered collectively (see Sukshma sarira). The concept of one or more subtle bodies in human beings is a common philosophical element in diverse spiritual traditions.
* Interpretations: Eastern Esotericism The yogic systems of India (including the Tantric tradition), Tibet, China (Taoist alchemy) and Japan (Shingon) describe a subtle physiology or yogic anatonomy in terms of a series of channels (nadis, Acupuncture meridians) that convey life-force (prana, vayu, ch'i, ki) and have a number of focal points (chakras, acupuncture points).
* These invisible channels and points: Are understood to determine the characteristics of the visible physical form. The general principal in the spiritual traditions of India is that the characteristics of each level of manifestation are determined by the characteristics of a more subtle level whose form is determined by an even more subtle level of manifestation ultimately determined at the level of the immortal spirit, Brahman (God).
* By understanding and mastering the subtlest levels of reality: One gains mastery over the physical realm. This mastery is gained primarily through the self-knowledge (atma-jnana) gained by commitment to the path of yoga. Through practice of various breathing and visualisation exercises one is able to manipulate and direct the flow of vital force, to achieve superhuman (e.g. in martial arts) or miraculous powers ("siddhis"), attain higher states of consciousness, immortality, or liberation. The various attributes of the yogic body are described in terms of often obscure symbolism (Tantra features references to the sun and the moon and various Indian rivers and deities, Taoist alchemy speaks of cauldrens, cinnabar fields, and so on).
* In Physics; The Physical Body (sometimes called simply a body or even an object): Is a collection of masses, taken to be one. For example, a cricket ball can be considered an object but the ball also consists of many particles (pieces of matter). Specifically, a physical body is an object which can be described by the theories of classical mechanics, or quantum mechanics, and experimented upon with physical instruments. This includes the determination of position, and in some cases the orientation in space, as well as means to change these, by exerting forces.
* Life Body in Anthroposophy Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy: Often referred to the etheric body (Ätherleib or "Life Body") in association to the etheric formative forces and the evolution of man and the cosmos. According to him, it can be perceived by a person gifted with clairvoyance as being of "peach-blossom color". Steiner considered the etheric reality or life principle as quite distinct from the physical material reality, being intermediate between the physical world and the astral or soul world.
* The Etheric Body, Ether-Body, Aether Body, or Vital Body: Is one of the subtle bodies in esoteric philosophies, in some religious teachings and in New Age thought. It is understood as a sort of life force body or aura that constitutes the "blueprint" of the physical body, and which sustains the physical body.
* Bodywork: Is a term used in alternative medicine or complementary medicine to describe any therapeutic, healing or personal development work which involves some form of touching, energetic work or the physical manipulation of a rational and practically oriented physical and somatic (see somatics) understanding of the body.
* Etheric Body in Theosophy The term "Etheric": In the Theosophy context seems to derive from the writings of C.W. Leadbeater and Annie Besant (Adyar School of Theosophy). It is given an almost identical meaning by New Age writer Barbara Brennan who describes it as the first (lowest) layer in the "human energy field" or aura. According to Adyar Theosophy and Alice Bailey, the etheric body and the etheric plane correspond to the four higher subplanes of the physical plane. Prana principle In Theosophy, the Prana principle is understood as the vital, life-sustaining force of living beings and the vital energy in all natural processes of the universe. Its first expounding came in the Upanishads, where it is part of the worldly, physical realm, sustaining the body and the mother of thought and thus also of the mind. Prana suffuses all living form but is not itself the Atma or individual soul.
* Aristotle's Psyche Threptikon (vegetative or nutritive soul)Also bears comparison with the "etheric body". In some cases the phenomenon appears to occur spontaneously; in others it is associated with a physical or mental trauma, use of psychedelic drugs, or a dream-like state. It is possible to induce the experience deliberately, for example through visualization while in a relaxed, meditative state.
* Linga Sharira On the other hand: The "Linga Sharira" is the Sanskrit term for the invisible double of the human body. It has been called by many other names such as etheric body, etheric double (or astral body in the original Theosophical concepts by Blavatsky). It is one of the seven principles of the human being, according to Theosophical philosophy. It serves as a model or matrix of the human body form, thus it is often called the "double" since it has the same shape and appearance as the body. The body conforms to the shape or condition of this double. It is a vehicle of prana or qi, thus its other name, pranamayakosa. Its effusion of energy can be observed through Kirlian photography or Kilner screens. Such glow around the body is called the human aura.
* The Prana-Maya-Kosha (sheath made of life-force) of Vedantic thought could be considered equivalent to the etheric body.
* An out-of-body experience (OBE or sometimes OOBE): Is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one's body and, in some cases, perceiving one's physical body from a place outside one's body (autoscopy). About one in ten people has reported having an out-of-body experience at some time in their lives. Scientists know little about the phenomenon. OBEs are often part of the near-death experience, and reportedly may also lead to astral projection. It is claimed that those experiencing an OBE sometimes observe details which were unknown to them beforehand. Recent (2007) studies have shown that experiences somewhat similar to OBEs can be induced by direct brain stimulation. Relatively little is known for sure about OBEs. Some of those who experience OBEs may have willed themselves out of their bodies, while others found themselves being pulled from their bodies (usually preceded by a feeling of paralysis). In other accounts, the feeling of being outside the body was suddenly realized after the fact, and the experiencers saw their own bodies almost by accident.
* The Mind: Is the facility by which a person remembers, thinks, understands, reasons, wills, excetra. Mind collectively refers to the aspects of intellect and consciousness manifested as combinations of thought, perception, memory, emotion, will and imagination; mind is the stream of consciousness. It includes all of the brain's conscious processes. This denotation sometimes includes, in certain contexts, the working of the human sub-conscious or the conscious thoughts of animals.
* The "Mind" Is often used to refer especially to the thought processes of reason. There are many theories of the mind and its function. The earliest recorded works on the mind are by the Buddha, Plato, Aristotle, Adi Shankara and other ancient Greek and Indian philosophers. Pre-scientific theories, based in theology, concentrated on the relationship between the mind and the soul, the supposed supernatural, divine or god-given essence of the person.
* Modern theories, based on scientific understanding of the brain:Theorise that the mind is a phenomenon of the brain and is synonymous with consciousness. The question of which human attributes make up the mind is also much debated. Some argue that only the "higher" intellectual functions constitute mind: particularly reason and memory. In this view the emotions - love, hate, fear, joy - are more "primitive" or subjective in nature and should be seen as different from the mind. Others argue that the rational and the emotional sides of the human person cannot be separated, that they are of the same nature and origin, and that they should all be considered as part of the individual mind.
* In popular usage mind is frequently synonymous with thought: It is that private conversation with ourselves that we carry on "inside our heads." Thus we "make up our minds," "change our minds" or are "of two minds" about something. One of the key attributes of the mind in this sense is that it is a private sphere to which no one but the owner has access. No-one else can "know our mind." They can only know what we communicate.
* Bodymind is a compound conjunction of body and mind: and may be used differently in different meditation traditions. Which, in scientific disciplines, researchers have begun studying in order to move beyond the dualist conceptions of body and mind that limit their medical research. These different understandings often inform each other. Buddhist philosopher, Herbert V. Günther has stated: What we call 'body' and 'mind' are mere abstractions from an identity experience that cannot be reduced to the one or the other abstraction, nor can it be hypostatized into some sort of thing without falsifying its very being.
* John Money develops a conception of 'bodymind' as a way for scientists:In developing a science about sexuality, to move on from the platitudes of dichotomy between nature versus nurture, innate versus the acquired, biological versus the social, and psychological versus the physiological, both for science and in gender and sexuality studies. He suggests that all of these capitalize on the ancient, pre-Platonic, pre-biblical conception of body versus the mind, and the physical versus the spiritual. In coining the term bodymind, in this sense, Money wishes to move beyond these very ingrained principles of our folk or vernacular psychology, in understanding sexuality, and aspects of humanness. Money suggests that the concept of threshold - relating to the release or inhibition of sexual behavior - is most useful for sex research as a substitute for any concept of motivation.
* It confers a great of advantage of continuity and unity: To what would otherwise be disparate and varied. It also allows for the classification of sexual behaviors. For Money, the concept of threshold has great value because of the wide spectrum to which it applies. "It allows one to think developmentally or longitudinally, in terms of stages or experiences that are programmed serially, or hierarchically, or cybernetically (i.e. regulated by mutual feedback)." Herbert Benson MD has pioneered bodymind research, focusing on stress and the "relaxation response" in medicine. In his research, the mind and body are one system, in which meditation plays a significant role in reducing stress responses (Benson 1972). Anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes has developed a concept of bodymind for medical anthropology to provide a basis for research that is not limited by the untenable view that the body and mind are distinct from one another.
* Mind-Body Interventions: Use a variety of techniques designed to enhance the mind's capacity to affect bodily function and symptoms. Some of these techniques that were once considered to be complementary or alternative medicine but have now become mainstream (for example, patient support groups and cognitive-behavioral therapy). Other mind-body techniques are still considered complementary or alternative medicine, including meditation, prayer, mental healing, and therapies that use creative outlets such as art, music, or dance. Mind-Body interventions is the precise name of a U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) classification that covers a variety of techniques designed to enhance the mind's capacity to affect bodily function and symptoms.
* The English word "spirit" comes from the Latin spiritus, meaning "breath" (compare spiritus asper): But also "soul, courage, vigor", as opposed to anima, translating psykhe. The word was loaned into Middle English via Old French The distinction between soul and spirit became current in Judeo-Christian terminology (e.g. Greek. psykhe vs. pneuma, Latin anima vs. spiritus, Hebrew ruach vs. neshama or nephesh; in Hebrew neshama from the root NSHM or breath.) Spirit a persons, disposition, mood or state of mind. Spirit a body less or supernatural being, as God, fairies, ghosts, exctra. Spirit an animating principle, as the soul to the body; the moral, religious, or emotional aspect of something. The word is used in two related contexts, one metaphysical and the other metaphorical.
* Its metaphysical context has attained a number of meanings:
1. An incorporeal but ubiquitous, non-quantifiable substance or energy present individually in all living things. Unlike the concept of souls, which are by definition eternal and usually believed to preexist the body, a spirit develops and grows as an integral aspect of the living being. This concept of the individual spirit is common among traditional peoples. It is therefore important to note the distinction between this concept of spirit and that of the pre-existing or eternal soul because belief in souls is specific and far less common, particularly in traditional societies. This is more properly termed life ("bios" in Greek) ether than spirit ("pneuma" in Greek.)
2. A daemon sprite, or especially ghost. A ghost is usually conceived as a wandering spirit from a being no longer living, having survived the death of the body yet maintaining the mind and consciousness.
3. In religion and spirituality, the respiration of the human being has for obvious reasons been strongly linked with the very occurrence of life. A similar significance has been attributed to human blood. Spirit in this sense denotes that which separates a living body from a corpse and usually implies intelligence, consciousness and sentience.
4. Spirits are often visualized as being interconnected to all others and The Spirit (singular capitalized) refers to the theories of a unified spirituality, universal consciousness and some concepts of Deity. All "spirits" connected, form a greater unity, the Spirit, which has both an identity separate from its elements plus a consciousness and intellect greater than its elements; an ultimate, unified, non-dual awareness or force of life combining or transcending all individual units of consciousness. The experience of such a connection can be a primary basis for spiritual belief. The term spirit has been used in this sense by at least Anthroposophy, Aurobindo, A Course In Miracles, Hegel, and Ken Wilber. In this use, the term is conceptually identical to Plotinus's "One" and Friedrich Schelling's "Absolute." Similarly, according to the pan(en)theistic aspect, Spirit is the essence that can manifest itself as mind/soul through any level in pantheistic hierarchy/holarchy, such as a mind/soul of a single cell (with very primitive, elemental consciousness), or a human or animal mind/soul (with consciousness on a level of organic synergy of an individual human/animal), or a (superior) mind/soul with synergetically extremely complex/sophisticated consciousness of whole galaxies involving all sub-levels, all emanating (since it is non-dimensional, or trans-dimensional) from the one Spirit.
5. In Christian theology, the Spirit is also used to describe God, or aspects thereof as in Holy Spirit, referring to a Triune God (Trinity): "The result of God reaching to man by the Father as the source, the Son as the course ("the Way"), and through the Spirit as the transmission."
6. Also in (popular) theological terms, the individual human "spirit" (singular lowercase) is a deeply situated aspect of the soul subject to "spiritual" growth and change; the very seat of emotion and desire, and the transmitting organ by which human beings can contact God. In a rare theological definition it is higher consciousness enclosing the soul. It is a central concept of Pneumatology (in context of the latter definition note that this science studies "pneuma;" Greek for "spirit," not "psyche;" Greek for "soul" studied in psychology.
7. In Christian Science, Spirit is one of the seven synonyms for God. These are: "Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 587).
8. In Harmonism, spirit is a term reserved for those which collectively control and influence an individual from the realm of the mind.
* The metaphorical use of the term likewise has several related meanings:
1. The loyalty and feeling of inclusion in the social history or collective essence of an institution or group, such as in school spirit or esprit de corps.
2. A closely related meaning refers to the worldview of a person, place, or time, as in "The Declaration of Independence was written in the spirit of John Locke and his notions of liberty", or the term zeitgeist, meaning "spirit of the age".
3. As a synonym for 'vivacity' as in "She performed the piece with spirit." or "She put up a spirited defense."
4. The underlying intention of a text as distinguished from its literal meaning, especially in law; see Letter and spirit of the law.
5. As a term for alcoholic beverages stemming from medieval superstitions that explained the effects of alcohol as demonic activity.
6. In Mysticism, as existence in unity with Godhead. Soul may also be known as spirit, but soul is certain individual human consciousness, while spirit comes from beyond that.
* Spirit Guide: A spirit who brings other spirits to a medium's attention or carries communications between a medium and the spirits of the dead is called a "spirit guide." Many mediums claim to have specific guides who regularly work with them and "bring in" spirits of the dead. The relationship between the medium and the guide may be providential, or it may be based on family ties. In 1958, the English-born Spiritualist C. Dorreen Phillips wrote of her experiences with a medium at Camp Chesterfield, Indiana: "In Rev. James Laughton's seances there are many Indians. They are very noisy and appear to have great power. The little guides, or doorkeepers, are usually Indian boys and girls [who act] as messengers who help to locate the spirit friends who wish to speak with you." Then, describing the mediumship of Rev. Lillian Dee Johnson of Saint Petersburg, Florida, she noted, "Mandy Lou is Rev. Johnson's guide. She was, on earth, a slave to Rev. Johnson's grandmother."
* Spirit Communicator: A spirit who communicates with a medium, either verbally or visually.
* Spirit Operator: A spirit who uses a medium to manipulate energy or energy systems.
Resources: (MedTerms) - Medical Dictionary definitions of popular medical terms easily defined on MedTerms. (NCCAM) - The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. (Wikipedia) - Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia Main article: Complementary and Alternative Medicine; Energy Therapies: (NIH) - National Institutes of Health. (MWD) - Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (IPL) - Internet Public Library: Health & Medical Sciences: (Kofutu's CAM) - Glossary of Spiritual Terms: (Scared Texts) - The Internet Sacred Text Archive:
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