Chapter 63The Environmental Consciousness · The Environmental Consciousness and the Subconscient

— as experienced by the outward sense mind and senses. But that is not the whole of Matter. There is a subtle physical also with a subtler consciousness in it which can (for instance) go to a distance from the body and yet feel and be aware of things in a not merely mental or vital way. As for mind and vital they are everywhere — there is an obscure mind and life even in the cells of the body, the stones or in molecules and atoms.

* It [the subtle physical] is difficult to realise without definite experience, e.g. as when light or ananda or force come into the body and one feels it working as if in the cells, yet with a little attention it becomes clear that it is not the material cells, but something more subtle that feels it.

* There is what is called the nervous envelope surrounding the body — you are probably seeing the s¯uks.ma and the nervous envelope in one view. The s¯uks.ma deha contains the sth¯ula deha. Only it is not bound to itself and can contract or expand unlike the material body.

The physical nerves are part of the material body, but they are extended into subtle nerves in the subtle body and there is a connection between the two.

* Yes, there are nerves in the subtle body.

* The physical nerves have many centres or plexuses. The nervous being proper is part of the physical — and it starts from the physical centre, the Muladhara.

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