There is much that I could add to what I have said on the cause of disease arising in the etheric body, but in Part II (when dealing with the section on certain basic requirements) I shall elaborate the theme much further. Congestion, lack of integration and over-stimulation of the centers, are obviously fundamental causes as far as the dense physical body is concerned, but they themselves are frequently effects of subtler causes, hidden in the life of the astral and mental bodies and, in the case of [81] over-stimulation, the result sometimes of soul contacts. The etheric body reacts normally, and by design, to all the conditions found in the subtler vehicles. It is essentially a transmitter and not an originator and it is only the limitations of the observer which lead him to ascribe the causes of bodily ills to the etheric body. It is a clearing house for all the forces reaching the physical body, provided the point in evolution has brought the various force centers to a condition wherein they are receptive to any particular type of force. Esoterically speaking, the centers can be in one of five conditions or states of being. These can be described in the following terms:

1. Closed, still and shut, and yet with signs of life, silent and full of deep inertia.
2. Opening, unsealed, and faintly tinged with color; the life pulsates.
3. Quickened, alive, alert in two directions; the two small doors are open wide.
4. Radiant and reaching forth with vibrant note to all related centers.
5. Blended they are and each with each works rhythmically. The vital force flows through from all the planes. The world stands open wide.

Related to these five stages, wherein the etheric body expands and becomes the vital livingness of all expression upon the physical plane, are the five races of men, beginning with the Lemurian race, the five planes of human and superhuman expression, the five stages of consciousness and the various other groupings of five with which you meet in the esoteric philosophy. Incidentally it might be of value and of interest to point out that the five-pointed star is not only the sign and symbol of initiation and finally of perfected man, but it is also the basic symbol of the etheric [82] body and of the five centers which control perfected man - the two head centers, the heart center, the throat center and the center at the base of the spine. When these centers are fully awakened and functioning in right rhythm with each other, the various quintuplets to which I have referred above form an integral part of the consciousness of the perfected man.

If you were to ask me what, in reality, lies behind all disease, all frustrations, error and lack of divine expression in the three worlds, I would say it was separativeness which produces the major difficulties arising in the etheric body, plus the inability of the outer tangible form to respond adequately to the inner and subtler impulses. Here is found the cause (the secondary cause, as I pointed out above) of the bulk of the trouble. The etheric body of the planet does not yet freely transmit and circulate the forces which are seeking entrance into the consciousness and the expression of man upon the physical plane. These forces emanate from within himself as he functions on the subtler levels of consciousness and from the soul; they come also from associated and contacted groups, from the planetary life, [83] and eventually, in the last analysis, from the entire universe. Each of the centers can, when fully awakened and consciously and scientifically employed, serve as an open door through which awareness of that which lies beyond the individual human life can enter. The etheric body is fundamentally the most important response apparatus which man possesses, producing not only the right functioning of the five senses and consequently providing five major points of contact with the tangible world, but it also enables a man to register sensitively the subtler worlds, and, when energized and controlled by the soul, the spiritual realms stand wide open also.

The vastness of the subject is, however, so real that only little by little can humanity grasp the situation and come to the realization that man is essentially (through his etheric body) an integral part of a great and vibrant Whole; only in time will he learn that, through the processes of evolution, can he hope to register all the different areas of divine expression. Only when the etheric body is swept into [84] activity under the influence and through the "impressed forces" of the soul, the mind, and temporarily, of the astral body, can man become aware of all worlds, all phenomena, and all states of consciousness, and so achieve that omniscience which is the birthright of all the sons of God.

But, during the period wherein this state of being is in process of achievement, the lack of development, the failure to register, the life work of awakening and organizing the various centers and of then correctly relating them to each other, produces much difficulty. It is this condition which is the fruitful source of those difficulties which, when carried down into the physical body, produce disease of various kinds, the many tensions and congestions, the over-stimulation of the centers in one part of the etheric vehicle and their underdevelopment in another, plus the unequal unfoldment and wrong balance of the centers.