Our chapter head, “the constitution of
man,” may surprise a reader who has not previously studied the Mystery teachings, or
he may imagine that we intend to give an anatomical dissertation, but such is not our
intention. We have spoken of the earth upon which we live as being composed of several
invisible realms in addition to the world we perceive by means of our senses. We have also
spoken of man as being correlated to these various divisions in nature, and a little thought
upon the subject will quickly convince us that in order to function upon the various planes
of existence described, it is necessary that a man should have a body composed of their
substance, or at least have specialized for his own use, some of the material of each of
these worlds.
We have said that finer matter, called desire stuff and mind
stuff, permeates our atmosphere[pg 121]and the solid earth, even as blood percolates through all parts of our
flesh. But that is not a sufficient explanation to account for all facts of life. If that
were all, then minerals, which are interpenetrated by the world of thought and the world of
desire, would have thoughts and desires as well as man. This is not the case, so something
more than mere interpenetration must be requisite to acquire the faculties of thought and
feeling.
We know that in order to function in this world, to live as a
physical being among other like beings, we must have a physical body all our own, built of
the chemical constituents of this visible world. When we lose it at death, it profits us
nothing that the world is full of just the very chemicals needed to build such a body. We
cannot then specialize them, and therefore we are invisible to all others. Similarly, if we
did not possess a special body made of ether, we should be unable to grow and to propagate.
That is the case with the mineral. Had we no separate individual desire body, we should be
unable to feel desires and emotions, there would be no incentive to move from one place to
another. We should then be stationary[pg 122]as plants, and did we not possess a mind, we should be incapable of
thought, and act upon impulse and instinct as animals.
Some one may of course object to this last statement, and contend
that animals do think. So far as our domesticated animals are concerned that is partially
true, but it is not quite in the same way that we think and reason. The difference may
perhaps best be understood if we take an illustration from the electrical field. When an
electric current of high
voltage is passed through a coiled copper wire, and another wire is placed in
the center of the coils, that wire will become charged with electricity of a lower voltage. So also the
animal, when brought within the sphere of human thoughts, evolves a mental activity of a
lower order.
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