THUS FAR, in our study, we have spoken of that which reincar - nates man under the generic term of Soul. It now becomes necessary to use a more specific expression, in order that we may determine just what portion of man reincarnates, and what does not. This can only be accomplished by a study of that composite nature of man's soul which is evidenced by the complex character of his conscious functioning.

All systems of philosophy, with the sole exception of that which passes for a philosophy under the name of modern Materialism, recognize the complex nature of man, and all classify this complexity as a necessary step in any philosophic analysis of his being. In the Kabala, Gnosticism and Buddhism, the division is into seven Principles or basic elements entering into his composition; in Vedantin Brahmanism and the teachings of Lao-Tse, there are five; in Christianity, three - the body, soul, and spirit, of Paul; while Materialism alone recognizes but one, the "matter" of his body, and of which all his other faculties are, according to it, but properties.

Without pausing to examine wherein other systems agree or disagree with the Theosophic classification, we will take up that as being identical with exoteric enumeration of several great religions, and as agreeing esoterically with all of them. This is the sevenfold division, and corresponds with other great septenates in nature. It separates man into Body (Sthula Sharira); Astral Body (Linga Sharira); Vitality (Prana); Animal Soul (Kama); Human Soul (Manas); Spiritual Soul (Buddhi); and Spirit (Atman). The words in parentheses are the Sanscrit originals, of which the English equivalents are attempted translations.

From this classification it is at once apparent that "soul" may be defined as any vehicle for consciousness, as was shown in the opening sentences of this work; and the necessity for an accurate technology is seen to be imperative. For in the above enumeration there are three Principles classed as "souls," each being a vehicle for a higher expression of consciousness, while the Body and Astral Body fall, strictly speaking, under the same category, both being also but vehicles for other states of consciousness.

Let us begin this necessarily brief examination with the lowest principle, or the Body. Under the evolutionary and philosophic necessity, as previously pointed out, of higher, more developed centers of consciousness, using matter already the seat of consciousness in lower expressions of form, it is at once seen that the Body represents in its molecular constitution hosts of these lower lives. Every cell is a synthesized group of such lives; every organ, a synthesized group of cells; every system, a synthesized group of organs; every Body, a synthesized group of systems. Now, a synthesis demands - and demonstrates - a synthesizer. So it is evident that man, even in his lowest, most material aspect, or Body, represents hosts of such synthesizing centers of consciousness. That each cell is an entity, even science freely admits. Green, for example, in his "Pathology and Morbid Anatomy," states:

"Ever since Schwann discovered the cellular nature of animals, and established the analogy between animal and vegetable cells, there has been a gradually increasing conviction among physiologists, which has now become a universally accepted physiological and pathological doctrine, that the cell is the seat of nutrition and function; and, further, that each individual cell is itself an independent organism, endowed with those properties and capable of exhibiting those active changes which are characteristic of life. Every organized part of the body is either cellular, or is derived from cells, and under no circumstances do they originate de novo."

This is directly confirmatory of Weismann's theory of an immortal cell handed down from parent to offspring, from modifications of which, by the countless elemental lives actively engaged in the construction, maintenance and repair of his body, all that magnificent structure is formed. It has an important bearing, as will be shown when dealing with the Reincarnating Ego, upon the karmic relation of the Thinker to his body; this immortal cell being the actual physical basis for the transmission of physical heredity.

. The Body, then, is simply a molecular and cellular association of lower "lives," of various degrees of consciousness, synthesized and used by the Thinker, the true Reincarnating Ego, as a necessary bundle of sense organs to relate its higher consciousness to this lower plane.

The Linga Sharira, or Astral body, is the ethereal counterpart of the gross body; the location of the centers of sensation; and the vehicle of Prana, the Life Principle, upon one side, and of Kama, or desire, upon the other. The philosophic and logical necessity for such a body is abundantly demonstrable, yet space limits to the consideration of phenomenal proof alone. These consist in dreams, in "doppelgangers," in "materializations," in "repercussions" of injuries inflicted during "materializations," in the "physical manifestations" of mediums in (low) clairvoyance, in "ghosts," "wraiths," apparitions, etc. The complete hypothetical proof of the existence, by necessity, of such a body is to be found in certain phenomena of hypnotism. It is well known that hypno- tizers can prevent their subjects from seeing any person or object which the hypnotizer designates by simply willing or "suggesting" that upon awakening they can not. This prohibition may be made to extend to any or all of the senses, at pleasure. Thus, in one instance, the "subject" was made unable to see the body of a person present, but was permitted to see his hat.

This resulted in an apparent movement of a hat through space without any perceptible cause, greatly to her astonishment and dismay.

Now, it is at once apparent that if the centers of sensation are located in the physical cells of either retina, optic nerve, or thalami, nothing but an actual physical interposition of matter upon their own plane can possibly inhibit their action. Given that physical cells convey the result of a vibratory impact along physical nerve tracts to physical ganglia, and we have a physical sequence that only physical means can possibly disturb. This, too, without noting the further factor in the problem of purely mechanical motion having been transmuted into terms of sensation - an impossible phenomenon with a purely physical circuit. Nothing but degenerative disease, or the surgeon's knife, can interpose any barrier between the vibration and its translation into terms of sensation, if the whole sequence have actually been limited to the physical plane. Therefore, when phenomena force us to admit the fact of such inhibition we are also forced to postulate this "inner man" as the only possible explanation. Its presence, also, is, as we have seen, proven by hosts of other phenomena; and it is thus not compelled to rest its claims for recognition solely upon a hypothetical necessity.