1. The Process of Restitution, governing the period of withdrawal of the soul from the physical plane and from its two phenomenal aspects, the dense physical body and the etheric body. This concerns the Art of Dying.
2. The Process of Elimination. This governs that period of the life of the human soul after death and in the two other worlds of human evolution. It concerns the elimination of the astral-mental body by the soul, so that it is "ready to stand free in its own place."
3. The Process of Integration, dealing with the period wherein the liberated soul again becomes conscious of itself as the Angel of the Presence and is reabsorbed into the world of souls, thus entering into a state of reflection. Later, under the impact of [408] the Law of Karmic Liability or Necessity, the soul again prepares itself for another descent into form.

The field of experience (in which is death, as the average person knows it) is the three worlds of human evolution - the physical world, the world of emotion and desire, and the mental plane. This world is, in the last analysis twofold, from the angle of death, and hence the phrase "the second death." This I have earlier applied to the death or destruction of the causal body, in which the spiritual soul has hitherto functioned. It can be applied, however, in a more literal sense, and may be referred to the second phase of the death process in the three worlds. It then concerns form only, and is related to those vehicles of expression which are found below the formless levels of the cosmic physical plane. These form levels are (as you know well, for the knowledge constitutes the a.b.c. of the occult theory) the levels on which the concrete, lower mind functions, the emotional nature reacts to the so-called astral plane, and the dual physical plane. The physical body consists of the dense physical body and the etheric vehicle. We have consequently, when considering the death of a human being, to employ the word death in relation to two phases in which it functions:

• Phase One: The death of the physical-etheric body. This phase falls into two stages:

1. That in which the atoms which constitute the physical body are restored to the source from whence they came. This source is the sumtotal of the matter of the planet, constituting the dense physical body of the planetary Life.
2. That in which the etheric vehicle, composed of an aggregation of forces, returns these forces to the [409] general reservoir of energy. This dual phase covers the Process of Restitution.

• Phase Two: The "rejection" (as it is sometimes called) of the mental-emotional vehicles. These form, in reality only one body; to it the early theosophists (correctly; gave the name of the "kama-manasic body" or the vehicle of desire-mind. I have said elsewhere that there is no such thing as the astral plane or the astral body. Just as the physical body is made up of matter which is not regarded as a principle, so the astral body - as far as the mind nature is concerned - is in the same category. This is a difficult matter for you to grasp, because desire and emotion are so real and so devastatingly important. But - speaking literally - from the angle of the mental plane, the astral body is "a figment of the imagination"; it is not a principle. The massed use of the imagination in the service of desire has nevertheless constructed an illusory glamorous world, the world of the astral plane. During physical incarnation, and when a man is not upon the Path of Discipleship, the astral plane is very real, with a vitality and a life all its own. After the first death (the death of the physical body) it still remains equally real. But its potency slowly dies out; the mental man comes to realize his own true state of consciousness (whether developed or undeveloped), and the second death becomes possible and takes place. This phase covers the Process of Elimination.