Physical Body - in New Age Philosophy, Mysticism and Religion

In New Age Philosophy, Mysticism and Religion

In some systems of mysticism, such as Theosophy, the physical body is understood as the last of several progressively denser "vehicles of consciousness". In Blavatskyian Theosophy it is called by the Vedantic name sthula sarira - "gross body" - and distinguished from the linga sarira, the "subtle body" or astral double. In C. W. Leadbeater and Alice Bailey, the physical body is distinguished from the etheric body, which serves as its "blueprint", and structures of the etheric body, such as chakras, are mirrored in the main glands and nerve ganglia of the physical body.

In some religions, and in some new age philosophies, a physical body is contrasted with the self, mind, spirit, soul, or astral projection, and sometimes with an heavenly body. It is ephemeral in time, not eternal. It may be what houses the spirit or soul, and it is what is left behind in an astral projection, or ascention into heaven. A physical body exists on earth, not in heaven, not in the astral world, nor in the aether.