The mental body (the mind) is one of the Subtle Bodies in Theosophy and New Age thought. It is understood as a sort of psychic body or aura that is made up of thoughts, just as the Emotional body consists of emotions and the Physical body is made up of matter. In occult understanding, thoughts are not just subjective qualia, but have an existence apart from the individual consciousness.

According to C.W. Leadbeater and Annie Besant (Adyar School of Theosophy), and Alice Bailey, the mental body is equivalent to the "Lower Manas" of Blavatsky's original seven principles of man. But Barbara Brennan describes the Mental body as intermediate between the Emotional and the Astral body in terms of the layers in the "Human Energy Field" or Aura.

The mental body is usually considered in terms of an aura

According to Max Heindel's Rosicrucian writings, the mind is the latest acquisition of the human spirit. It is not yet an organized body and in most people it is still a mere inchoate cloud disposed particularly in the region of the head. It works as the link or focus between the threefold Spirit and the threefold body , in a reversed reflexion manner . He states that to the trained clairvoyant there appears to be an empty space in the center of the forehead just above and between the eyebrows and it looks like the blue part of a gas flame, but not even the most gifted seer can penetrate that veil, also known as "THE VEIL OF ISIS".

See also

Esoteric

• Thoughtforms
• Epigenesis
• Subtle body
• Esoteric cosmology

Science

• Consciousness
• Mind
• Mind-body problem
• Philosophy of mind
• Theory of mind

References

• Brennan, Barbara Ann, Hands of Light : A Guide to Healing Through the Human Energy Field, Bantam Books, 1987
• -- Light Emerging: The Journey of Personal Healing, Bantam Books, 1993
• C. W. Leadbeater, Man, Visible and Invisible
• Powell, Arthur E. The Mental Body
• Max Heindel in The Rosicrucian Mysteries (Chapter IV: ), 1911, ISBN 0-911274-86-3