Thought-Form Body

A friend who was deceased now for over twenty years came to see me last night on the astral side. He was in a jovial mood and began to speak about another fiend who is currently still using a physical body. As this visiting friend was near to me, I turned to see his form but I did recognize his voice and vibration. When I turned there was nothing there, just plain subtle air.

I then concluded that his astral body took on an invisible form which could not register in the astral dimension I was in during the visit. However as he finished speaking and was on the verge of leaving, I noticed a thought form which was like a trailing cloud of energy. It was like white smoke, thick, and then trailing off to nothing. That was his subtle body.

To avoid becoming a form like that one should, during the physical life, continually shift one’s focus to what one is as a composition of subtle energy. If one remains bound up as only a physical being, if in reality regardless of what one believes, one acts in every way as if there is no subtle form for fulfillment which is distinct and separate from the physical system, then when one loses the physical body, one may find the self to be a fragmented subtle form.

But even so, when one takes the next physical body one will again feel as if one has resumed oneself as a whole being again. This system of dying as a physical body, not being much of anything as a subtle form hereafter, then again becoming another physical body, was mentioned in brief by Lord Krishna to Arjuna:

अथ चैनं नित्यजातं

नित्यं वा मन्यसे मृतम् ।

तथापि त्वं महाबाहो

नैनं शोचितुमर्हसि ॥२.२६॥

atha cainaṁ nityajātaṁ

nityaṁ vā manyase mṛtam

tathāpi tvaṁ mahābāho

nainaṁ śocitumarhasi (2.26)

atha — furthermore; cainaṁ = ca — and + enam — this; nityajātaṁ = nitya — continually + jātam — being born; nityam — continually; vā — or; manyase — you think; mṛtam — dying; tathā 'pi = tathā — so + api — also; tvam — you; mahābāho — strong-armed man; nainaṁ = na — not + enam — this; śocitum arhasi = śocitum — to mourn + arhasi — you can

And furthermore if you think that this embodied soul is continually being born or continually dying, even so, O strong-armed man, you should not lament. (2.26)

In other words, if one thinks that there is nothing left of the person after death of the physical system, and if anyway, that person miraculously comes back into existence again as a baby, then even Krishna said there is no reason to fuss about it