New age: Details about 'Etheric Plane'
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The etheric plane or etheric region is one of the planes of existence, or more specifically a subplane or planes, in Theosophy and New Age thought. According to C.W. Leadbeater and Annie Besant (Adyar School of Theosophy), and Alice Bailey, the etheric plane constitutes the four higher subplanes of the physical plane, the lower three being the states of solid, liquid, and gaseous matter. It might be argued that the etheric plane is in part equivalent to Sri Aurobindo's concept of the subtle physical. In Anthroposophy the equivalent is the etheric formative forces.
EtymologySee Aether (classical element) The aether (also written as "ether") was widely accepted in ancient Greek philosophy and science. This Greek concept seems to derive directly from the akasha, its Hindu counterpart. In Greek doctrines it seems that the aether was the celestial fire, the pure essence where the gods lived and which they breathed. In this connection, it seems that aether is radiative heat like that of the sun, which is able to propagate in empty space. The Greek word aither derives from an Indo-European root aith- ("burn, shine"). This root figures in the name of Aithiopia (Ethiopia), which means something like "burnt land". Alchemy backgroundRosicrucian and Esoteric Christianity conceptionsAccording to Max Heindel's Rosicrucian writings , there is - in addition to the solids, liquids, and gases which compose the Chemical Region of the Physical World - a finer grade of matter called ether, which permeates the atomic structure of the earth and its atmosphere. The ether, which is disposed in four grades of density, is considered to be physical matter and responsive to the same laws which govern other physical substances upon the physical world (the blue haze seen in mountain canyons is said to be in fact ether of the kind known to occult investigators as chemical ether). He states that there are various grades of spiritual sight, each suited to the superphysical realm which it opens to our perception: etheric vision, color vision, and tonal vision. Ether is reported to be of four kinds, or grades of density (from the lowest to the highest one) : are in this Etheric region various classes of sub-human beings and also here it may be observed the Angels who are seen as being one step beyond the human stage, as humans are a degree in advance of the animal evolution. According to Esoteric Christianity teachings, based upon the Bible and in esoteric knowledge, the next major step in human evolution will be entering and living in the Etheric region of the planet, through a major change which is expected to occur in the Earth's environment ("reserved unto fire") in a future, not identified, time: the "new heavens and a new earth", or "New Galilee". It also teaches that, in order to the human being be able to adapt to these new etheric conditions, it is necessary the development of a body, named Soul body (Paul of Tarsus' "soma psuchicon") or the "Wedding Garment" as taught in the Holy Scriptures, eg.:
However, it also states that before entering "New Galilee" - as mankind walk forward to the understandings of universal brotherhood, during the next six centuries toward the Age of Aquarius - the spiritual sight will start developing allowing human beings to perceive the so-called "dead" living in the supraphysical planes. Relation to physicsSome theosophists held that the vital force could be identified with "N-rays". This notion, named after the city of Nantes where the radiations were "observed" by physicist René-Prosper Blondlot in 1903, have long since been debunked in mainstream physics. Modern theosophists sometimes claim that the ideas discussed in this article are related to a contemporary area of fringe science, modern Aether theories. Even fringe scientists are likely to disavow such a relation, and few if any physicists would recognize theosophy as closely related to physics. However, there are plausible alternative explanations - which includes the model of a dynamic ether with density proportional to the density of any physical substance occupying the area of space concerned, increasing around large bodies such as stars and planets, acting as a refracting medium and affecting the speed of propagation of light and electromagnetic forces, etc. - for all the experimental data and astronomical observations currently cited in support of the special and general theories of relativity, and the internal inconsistencies and unwarranted assumptions of standard relativity theory have been pointed out by dozens of scientists. See also
Physics
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