This vital energy has its origin in the spiritual body of the earth. Every created thing has two bodies, one visible and substantial, the human-energyother invisible and transcendent.

The latter consists of an ethereal counterpart of the physical form; it constitutes the vehicle of archæus, and may be called a vital body.

This etheric shadow sheath is not dissipated by death, but remains until the physical form is entirely disintegrated. These “etheric doubles, “seen around graveyards, have given rise to a belief in ghosts.

Being much finer in its substances than the earthly body, the etheric double is far more susceptible to impulses and inharmonies. It is derangements of this astral light body that cause much disease.

Paracelsus taught that a person with a morbid mental attitude could poison his own etheric nature, and this infection, diverting the natural flow of vital life force, would later appear as a physical ailment. All plants and minerals have an invisible nature composed of this “archæus,” but each manifests it in a different way.

Manly P. Hall – The Secret Teachings of all Ages

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