How Does Physical Perception Affect the Astral and Mental Bodies?
© 2004
>> I think I understand the basic description of how an idea moves from the mental body, then is "strengthened" as it passes through the astral body based on the emotional state of a person, then is manifested by the physical body, but how does it work going the other way? As in, what happens when something is experienced with the physical senses? Does it directly interact with the mental body to create an idea of what is being experienced, or is the astral body somehow involved? If so, how? <<
As I pointed out in my Self-Healing Archaeous, it is our mental body that *perceives*. Which is to say, our conscious awareness perceives. We perceive essential meaning with the Fire region of our mental body; ideas with the Air region; emotions with the Water region and astral body; and, physical sensations with the Earth region and physical body.
When our conscious awareness is focused within the Earth region, then the Fire, Air and Water regions of our mental body is simultaneously perceiving physical sensation, emotion, idea and essential meaning. However, *at the level of our mundane awareness* we are usually conscious of just the physical sensation. Nonetheless, *it is our mental body which is doing the perceiving*.
There is an infinitesimal time lag between the mental body's perception of the essential meaning which underlies the physical sensation and the *physical brain's* final processing of that information. The perception of the essential meaning simultaneously encompasses the Air region perception of that essential meaning at the level of ideas, but there is again an infinitesimal time lag between that and the *physical brain's* processing of those ideas. The physical brain must break down and digest the perceptions of the Fire and Air regions before they reach the surface awareness. Part of that digestion process encompasses the perception of the essential meaning and ideas with the Water region of the mental body -- the astral body and the emotions. This astral/emotional perception plays a very significant role in the *physical brain's* processing of the physical sensation and indeed, is the main factor in the brain's final product or response to the perception.
All of this happens very, very quickly and some parts (the Fire and Air aspects of perception) happen outside of time (i.e., they are simultaneous to the experience of the actual physical sensation). It happens so quickly in fact, that very few humans ever realize the sequence of events. It's only through very deeply introspective meditation, akin to an advanced form of the Step One observation exercise, that the time lag and sequence of perception can be perceived.
My best to you,
:) Rawn Clark
03 Feb 2004