In the right understanding of the relationship of the etheric or vital body (with its major and minor centers and its network of nadis) to the nervous system of the human body, two great aspects of soul activity can be grasped.

• First, that aspect of soul life which enables the soul to motivate and force into incarnation and activity the physical [331] mechanism, the body, through the galvanizing activity of what we call Life.
• Second, that aspect of soul life which preserves the physical vehicle in health through the free play of the pranic currents. The above is an attempt to express a great truth in as simple a fashion as possible. The true significance of the above statement embodies the next great step in the field of true psychology and of healing. The whole subject is profoundly interesting. Some of it I have dealt with in the pages of A Treatise on White Magic, pages 18-50, and you would find it of value to study the matter there outlined.

The general situation in this connection might be outlined very briefly as follows:

A human being is a combination of various types of force. There is the force or energy of matter itself which might be regarded as the energy aspect, in its totality, of the cells or atoms of the body. The word "cell" itself suggests, in its usual connotation, an imprisoned life, and life and energy are, for the esotericist, synonymous terms. This is the third aspect of divinity, expressing itself in humanity. There is also the dual energy which the soul embodies or transmits; this might be likened to two streams of energy, which merge and blend to form one stream when detached from the body, and which divide into two when they enter into matter and form. They bring to matter, or to the aggregated cell lives, the contribution of quality - consciousness and pure life. It might be stated also that:

1. The stream of life-energy finds its way to the heart, the physical heart, and there (via the physical permanent atom) it energizes coherently the entire physical body, using the blood stream as its major agency and channel of contact and communication between this central powerhouse [332] of life and the periphery. As we well know, the blood is the life. This life activity is the factor which gathers together and holds in form all the living atoms and cells of the body. When that life thread is withdrawn by the soul at death, the living atoms separate, the body falls apart and disintegration ensues, with the atomic lives returning to the reservoir of power, to the bosom of living matter from whence they came.
2. The stream of energy which conveys the soul quality of intelligence, plus love-wisdom, and which constitutes what we understand as the consciousness, with its powers to contact, to sense and to rationalize, only penetrates as far as the physical brain. There this second aspect concentrates itself or anchors itself in the region of the pineal gland. From there in ever increasing potency, as the processes of incarnation and experience are pursued, the soul begins to control, galvanize into purposeful activity, and to use the physical body. Remember that, to the soul, the body is only its response apparatus on the physical plane and a medium of expression.

It might also be pointed out, as a third necessary statement, that the soul pours its consciously directed energy into the dense physical body through the medium of the etheric or vital body. This instrument is composed of:

1. Seven major centers of force and forty-nine minor centers. The major centers are found in the head and up the spinal column. The minor centers are to be found scattered all over the body.
2. The etheric network which is composed of streams of energy, connects all the centers into two systems - one major and one minor - and radiates out from these centers all over the entire body. [333]
3. The nadis are infinitesimally small threads of energy or force fibers which radiate out from every part of the network and underlie every part of the triple nervous system. They are found in their millions, and produce the sensitive response apparatus through which we work and of which the mechanism of the five senses is one of the externalizations.

The controlling power station will be found to vary according to the point in evolution reached:

1. Low-grade humanity uses the solar plexus as the point where the basic energy is localized temporarily. There will also be found a slight activity in the ajna center.
2. Average humanity works partly through the solar plexus center but largely through the ajna center and the throat center.
3. High-grade human beings, the intelligentsia and world aspirants use the head center, plus the ajna center, the throat, heart, and solar plexus.