Life-Atom

Life-atoms is a term used by H. P. Blavatsky who regarded atoms as centers of life that undergo their own process of "transmigration." This concept rests on the occult theory "that there is neither organic nor inorganic matter or particles, but that every atom is permeated with Life"

Related concepts are the "permanent atoms" of Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater and the "tanhic elementals" of G. de Purucker.

The life-atoms conserve a memory of their own:

The Occultists, who trace every atom in the universe, whether an aggregate or single, to One Unity, or Universal Life; who do not recognize that anything in Nature can be inorganic; who know of no such thing as dead matter—the Occultists are consistent with their doctrine of Spirit and Soul when speaking of memory in every atom, of will and sensation. But what can a materialist mean by the qualification? The law of biogenesis, in the sense applied to it by the Hæckelians—“is the result of the ignorance on the part of the man of science of occult physics.” We know and speak of “life-atoms”—and of “sleeping-atoms”—because we regard these two forms of energy—the kinetic and the potential—as produced by one and the same force or the ONE LIFE, and regard the latter as the source and mover of all.

Some life-atoms can be transmitted to the progeny, while others are withdraw into the Monad:

The latter (Occultism) teaches that—(a) the life-atoms of our (Prâna) life-principle are never entirely lost when a man dies. That the atoms best impregnated with the life-principle (an independent, eternal, conscious factor) are partially transmitted from father to son by heredity, and partially are drawn once more together and become the animating principle of the new body in every new incarnation of the Monads. Because (b), as the individual Soul is ever the same, so are the atoms of the lower principles (body, its astral, or life double, etc.), drawn as they are by affinity and Karmic law always to the same individuality in a series of various bodies, etc., etc.

Life-atoms and sleeping-atoms

When jiva or prana is animating a set of atoms, these atoms are regarded by Mme. Blavatsky as life-atoms, or "organic atoms", while when prana is absent we have "sleeping" or inorganic atoms. She wrote:

We know and speak of “life-atoms”—and of “sleeping-atoms”—because we regard these two forms of energy—the kinetic and the potential—as produced by one and the same force or the ONE LIFE, and regard the latter as the source and mover of all.

Permanent Atoms

Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater developed the term "permanent atom" which Besant claims is connected to H. P. Blavatsky's "life-atoms." This concepts resembles also G. de Purucker's teachings about his "tanhic elementals".

Whilst nothing evil can be stored in the causal body, it is, however, stored if we may so use the term, in the lower vehicles to which it pertains. For under the law of justice, every man must receive the results of his own actions, be they bad or good. But evil necessarily works itself out on the lower planes, because it is only the matter of those planes that its vibrations can be expressed, and it has not even overtones capable of awakening a response in the causal body. Its force, therefore, is all expended at its own level, and it reacts in its entirety upon its creator in his astral and physical life, whether in this or in future incarnations. More precisely, the result of evil is stored in the mental unit and in the astral and physical permanent atoms : and so the man has to face it over and over again: but that, of course, is a very different matter from taking it into the ego and making it really a part of himself. Good actions and thoughts also, of course, produce results on the lower planes, but, in addition to that, they have the immensely higher and permanent effect upon the causal body. Thus all alike produce effects on the lower planes, and are manifested in the lower temporary vehicles, but good qualities alone are retained in the causal body as so much definite gain to the real man.

The student should realise that it is necessary for evolution that these permanent, atoms should be carried over, the reason being that the developed man must be master of all planes or worlds, and the permanent atoms form the only direct channel, imperfect though it be, between the spiritual triad, or ego, and the forms he is connected with. If it were conceivable that he could develop without permanent atoms, he might possibly become a glorious, archangel upon higher planes, but he would be entirely useless in these lower worlds, having cut off from himself the power of feeling and thinking. We must not, therefore, drop the permanent atoms: our business is to purify and develop them.

We have seen that as the ego descends to a fresh incarnation, he has to take up the burden of his past, much of which has been stored as vibratory tendencies in his permanent atoms. These germs or seeds are known to Buddhists as Skandhas, a convenient word for which there seems to be as yet no exact equivalent in English. They consist of material qualities, sensations, abstract ideas, tendencies of mind, mental powers, the pure aroma of all these having been built into the causal body, the remainder being stored, as stated, in the permanent atoms and mental unit.

Tanhic elementals

G. de Purucker talks about these life-atoms as "tanhic elements"

Now all these principles and aspects, and indeed everything in the human constitution, are enclosed within the auric egg, which is at one and the same time the aggregated effluvia from all the different monads and, because of this, the conjoined representative expression of the forces and energies of the septenary imbodied human being. Yet, when death ensues, the lower part of the auric egg, because built largely of the effluxes from the aspects, dissipates in that part of the astral light which is called the kama-loka of earth; although even here the more ethereal life-atoms or appurtenant forces and substances are drawn upwards into latency to become the tanhic elementals in the higher parts of the auric egg enclosing the permanent basic principles mentioned by H.P.B.

The tanhic elementals may be otherwise described as the emotional and mental thought-deposits, as Patanjali did; and these remain after the second death -- and before the ego's entering the devachan -- stamped upon the various kinds of life-atoms which had functioned on all the lower planes of man's constitution. Some of these tanhic elementals or life-atoms peregrinate, and finally are psychomagnetically attracted back to the reincarnating ego during its process of bringing forth a new astral form preceding rebirth. Others belong to the monadic substances of the auric egg, and consequently remain therein in a latent condition, to awaken only when the devachani leaves the devachan. Then these dormant tanhic elementals, in combination with the other life-atoms which had been peregrinating, combine in building up the new astral form that H.P.B. speaks of; and it is largely these two classes of tanhic life-atoms or elementals which compose the skandhas (a Sanskrit word meaning bundles or aggregates) of the man in his coming incarnation.

Further reading

• Life-Atom at Theosopedia

• Tanhic Elementals at Theosopedia