Theos-Talk Archives (August 1996 Message tl00106)

Jerry S>As I see it, the globes, bodies, and planes are pretty much
fixed and definite objective "things."  The principles, however, are
subjective and they can shift and mix together.  So we can talk about
atma-buddhi-manas, and higher manas, and kama-manas, and
so on because the principles mix together pretty well and can
temporarily combine in many ways as our consciousness shifts
around.  This is very confusing to newbies, and I am not at all
sure how to explain it to them.

        It is often confusing to long-time theosophists too :)
Personally I like to think in terms of music (vibrations).
The bodies can be attuned to different vibrations ('principles' or qualities
of energy). That is a simple and hopefully adequate picture.
The more esoteric view is that the bodies consist themselves of
energy-vibrations
and can be refined (transfigurated). In the final (?) analysis we're left
with energy operating on or within or through energy structures (forms,
patterns)
and this is in accord with science, although scientists have not generally
accepted consciousness as a form of energy, I think.

Martin