42 OCCULT PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH & HEALING
having gained ingress into the stronghold of the desire
body when it began to develop the heart into a
voluntary muscle.
It interpenetrates the dense body and extends
beyond its periphery about an inch and a half. In
texture the vital body may be crudely compared to one
of those picture frames made of hundreds of little
pieces of wood which interlock and present
innumerable points to the observer. The points of the
vital body enter into the hollow centers of the dense
atoms, imbuing them with vital force that sets them
vibrating at a rate higher than that of the mineral of the
Earth which is not thus accelerated and ensouled.
The Ethers and Their Functions
When we analyze the human being, we find that in
him all four ethers (the chemical, life, light and
reflecting ethers) are dynamically active in the highly
organized vital body. By means of the activities of the
chemical ether he is able to assimilate food and to
grow; the forces at work in the life ether enable him to
propagate his species; the forces in the light ether
supply the dense body with heat, work on the nervous
system and the muscles, thus opening the doors of
communication with the outside world by way of the
senses; and the reflecting ether enables the Spirit to
control its vehicles by means of thought. This ether
also stores past experience as memory.
The chemical and life ethers form a matrix for our
physical bodies. Each molecule of the physical body is
embedded in a meshwork of ether which permeates