In his book "The Rosicrucian
Mysteries", Max Heindel summarized these four different types of
ethers:
« The occult
investigator finds that ether is of four kinds, or grades of density:
·
The Chemical Ether,
·
The Life Ether,
·
The Light Ether,
·
The Reflecting Ether.
1) The Chemical Ether is the avenue
of expression for forces promoting assimilation, growth and the maintenance of
form.
2) The Life Ether is the vantage
ground of forces active in propagation, or the building of new forms.
3) The Light Ether transmits the motive
power of the sun along the various nerves of living
bodies and makes motion possible.
4) The Reflecting Ether receives an
impression of all that is, lives and moves. It also records
each change, in a similar manner as the film upon a moving picture machine. In
this record mediums and psychometrists may read the past, upon the same
principle as, under proper conditions, moving pictures are reproduced time and
again. »
(Chapter 3)
And in his book "The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception", Max Heindel gave many more details about it:
« To the trained clairvoyant ether is as tangible as
are the solids, liquids, and gases of the Chemical Region to ordinary beings.
He sees that the vital forces which give life to the mineral forms of plant,
animal and man flow into these forms, by means of the four states of ether. The
names and specific functions of these four ethers are as follows.
Chemical Ether
This ether is both positive and negative in its manifestation. The
forces which cause assimilation and excretion work through it. Assimilation is the
process whereby the different nutritive elements of food are incorporated into
the body of plant, animal and man.
This is carried on by forces with which we shall become acquainted
later. They work along the positive pole of the chemical ether and attract the
needed elements, building them into the forms concerned. These forces do not
act blindly nor mechanically, but in a selective way (well-known to scientists
by its effects) thereby accomplishing their purpose, which is the growth and
maintenance of the body.
Excretion is carried on by forces of the same kind, but working along
the negative pole of the chemical ether. By means of this pole they expel from
the body the materials in the food which are unfit for use, or those which have
outlived their usefulness in the body and should be expurgated from the system.
This, like all other processes independent of man's volition, is also
wise, selective, and not merely mechanical in its operation, as seen, for
instance, in the case of the action of the kidneys, where only the urine is
filtered through when the organs are in health; but it is known that when the
organs are not in health, the valuable albumen is allowed to escape with the
urine, the proper selection not being made because of an abnormal condition.
Life Ether
As the chemical ether is the avenue for the operation of the forces the
object of which is the maintenance of the individual form, so the life ether is
the avenue for the operation of the forces which have for their object the
maintenance of the species — the forces of propagation.
Like the chemical ether, the life ether also has its positive and
negative pole. The forces which work along the positive pole are those which
work in the female during gestation. They enable her to do the positive, active
work of bringing forth a new being. On the other hand the forces which work
along the negative pole of the life ether enable the male to produce semen.
In the work on the impregnated ovum of the animal and man, or upon the
seed of the plant, the forces working along the positive pole of the life ether
produce male plants, animals and men; while the forces which express themselves
through the negative pole generate females.
Light Ether
This ether is both positive and negative, and the forces which play
along its positive pole are the forces which generate the blood heat in the
higher species of animal and in man, which makes them individual sources of
heat. The forces which work along the negative pole of the light ether are
those which operate through the senses, manifesting as the passive functions of
sight, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling. They also build and nourish the
eye.
In the cold-blooded animals the positive pole of the light ether is the
avenue of the forces which circulate the blood, and the negative forces have
the same functions in regard to the eye as in the case of the higher animals
and man. Where eyes are lacking, the forces working in the negative pole of the
light ether are perhaps building or nourishing other sense organs, as they do
in all that have sense organs.
In plants the forces which work along the positive pole of the light
ether cause the circulation of the juices of the plant. Thus in winter, when
the light ether is not charged with sunlight as in summer, the sap ceases to
flow until the summer sun again invests the light ether with its force. The forces
which work along the negative pole of the light ether deposit the chlorophyll,
the green substance of the plant and also color the flowers. In fact, all
color, in all the kingdoms is deposited by means of the negative pole of the
light ether.
Therefore animals have the deepest color on the back and flowers are
deepest colored on the side turned towards the light. In the polar regions of
the earth, where the rays of the sun are weak, all color is lighter and in some
cases is so sparingly deposited that in winter it is withdrawn altogether and
the animals become white.
Reflecting Ether
It has heretofore been stated that the idea of the house which has
existed in the mind can be recovered from the memory of nature, even after the
death of the architect. Everything that has ever happened has left behind it an
ineffaceable picture in this reflecting ether. As the giant ferns of the
childhood of the Earth have left their pictures in the coal beds, and as the
progress of the glacier of a bygone day may be traced by means of the trail it
has left upon the rocks along its path, even so are the thoughts and acts of
men ineffaceably recorded by nature in this reflecting ether, where the trained
seer may read their story with an accuracy commensurate with his ability.
The reflecting ether deserves its name for more than one reason, for the
pictures in it are but reflections of the memory of nature. The real memory of
nature is found in a much higher realm. In this reflecting ether no thoroughly trained
clairvoyant cares to read, as the pictures are blurred and vague compared to
those found in the higher realm.
Those who read in the reflecting ether are generally those who have no
choice, who, in fact, do not know in what they are reading. As a rule ordinary
psychometrists and mediums obtain their knowledge through the reflecting ether.
To some slight extent the pupil of the occult school in the first stages of his
training also reads in the reflecting ether, but he is warned by his teacher of
the insufficiencies of this ether as a means of acquiring accurate information,
so that he does not easily draw wrong conclusions.
This ether is also the medium through which thought makes an impression
upon the human brain. It is most intimately connected with the fourth
subdivision of the World of Thought. This is the highest of the four subdivisions
contained in the Region of Concrete Thought and is the homeworld of the human
mind. There a much clearer version of the memory of nature is found than in the
reflecting ether. »
(Chapter 1)
OBSERVATION
Unfortunately, all these affirmations Max Heindel said, are falsehoods because in reality the ethers do not exist
for the reasons that I explain in this other article.
