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 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 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.



Paul, in his writings, also mentions the natural body and the spiritual

body while the man himself is a spirit inhabiting those vehicles. We will

briefly note the constitution of the various bodies of man invisible to

the physical sight but as objective to spiritual sight as the dense body

to ordinary vision.