Astral Body
Astral Body
H. P. Blavatsky used the term in a general way. She said that there are various Astral Bodies, although the astral, "par excellence", is the second principle in Man or linga sharira.[1]
In talking about other kinds of astral bodies, Mme. Blavatsky said:
A more important kind of Astral Body is the Mâyâvî-Rûpa, or illusionary Body, and this is of different degrees.[2]
She also talked of the astral body as being constituted by "the lower manas and volition, kama"[3].
Since the linga-sharira cannot go far away from the physical body, it is to these other kinds of astral bodies that Mme. Blavatsky was probably referring in the following passage in Isis Unveiled
In our sleep the astral body is free and can, by the elasticity of its nature, either hover round in proximity with its sleeping vehicle, or soar higher to hold converse with its starry parents, or even communicate with its brothers at great distances.