Excerpts

A Bridge to the Invisible emerged from a series of workshops that were given to several meditation groups. These workshops were intended to provide clear and detailed information on the different subtle planes which, combined with practical exercises, would help people discern the quality and nature of what they were starting to perceive in their meditations, and understand the relationships between the inner and outer realities.

At the request of several people, I accepted to write a small book that would serve as a roadmap and which both participants and others could use in their own quest. This small “Guide for the inner traveller”, as we fondly called it, gained unforeseen momentum, and will comprise two volumes.

A Bridge to the Invisible synthesizes a body of knowledge transmitted throughout many writings on the diverse vibratory planes, including, in particular, those of Alice Bailey. It aims to make familiar a topic that is not easily accessible – because of its scope and complexity, but also and especially because it is quite different from the mainstream rational model, which tends to explain the world around us in a physical way.

The world of subtle energies is not the product of beliefs nor intellectual or spiritual concepts. It does actually exist, is organised in a coherent manner and impacts our lives in a concrete and tangible fashion. The physical reality that we know so well constitutes merely one plane or layer, with its own laws and modus operandi. It is a very dense plane, but a plane that nonetheless constantly interacts with others that are not visible and that possess other characteristics.

A Bridge to the Invisible seeks to help us distinguish the diverse types of forces at play behind the events we witness in our lives; forces that influence us, often without our knowing. The more we are aware of them, the more we will be able to detach ourselves from those that no longer serve our evolution and to collaborate consciously with higher vibrations, to stimulate goodness, beauty and truth in all aspects of our lives.

The etheric body is particularly interesting, as it acts as a transition between the subtle and the physical worlds. The incarnating soul energises the physical body through the etheric body for the whole duration of our life. It does so, more precisely, through two main energy canals, of a different nature than nadis.

The first one transmits the life stream. Anchored in the heart region, it energises the whole body, influencing its activity, its quality, the way it expresses itself and is perceived by others. The second one conveys the consciousness stream. It is anchored in the head region and indicates the level of consciousness of the individual. The etheric body is, thus, a major clearinghouse that receives, metabolises and distributes higher energies in the dense, physical plane.

As a transmitting agent, the etheric body is closely connected with the physical body, which it vitalises. Since it is energetically close to the physical body, its very existence is easily validated through our physical senses, in particular our sight and touch. Acknowledged for millennia in most of the healing and esoteric traditions, the etheric body is variously called the vital body, linga sarira in Sanskrit, qa in Ancient Egypt and corresponds to the Yesod sefirot in the Kabbalah Tree of Life.

The etheric body is also directly connected with the astral, mental and soul planes, including the soul groups we are connected to. As we will observe repeatedly, each body is linked to the others, and all influence one another.

The etheric body is a pool of energies that come from a variety of sources with two main roles. First, it vitalises, animates the body and breathes life into it.

The realm of emotions may occupy an immense amount of space in our lives – and in our auras! – and it can totally dominate us if it is not balanced by the other subtle bodies.

Energetically, there is a difference between an emotion and a feeling. An emotion is a spontaneous reaction to an internal or external stimulus and is not associated in any way with our thought processes. It usually lasts from a few seconds to a few hours.

There are seven basic emotions: fear, anger, contempt, disgust, sadness, surprise, and joy.

An emotion is often accompanied by a physiological manifestation (alteration of the heart or breathing rates, increased perspiration, paleness or blushing, facial expressions and body language), which makes it easily recognizable. We can either welcome the emotion by letting it express itself freely, or repress it, either out of habit or if we deem that circumstances or social conventions require it.

Feelings or more complex emotions, such as tenderness, remorse, affection, compassion, guilt, shame, aspiration, melancholy, resentment, resilience and hope, include a mental component. If nourished by our thoughts, they may long outlast the event that brought them in the first place. This is the work of rumination, the head spinning exercise we are all too familiar with. Feelings thus can, unlike basic emotions, grow, evolve, become more complex and, potentially, lead to new emotions, which may in turn alter our mood, etc.

Once again, we see how challenging, even impossible, it is to study the subtle bodies as separate. Emotions, physiological reactions, mental ruminations, etc. all influence each other. While it is useful to understand the energetic distinction between basic emotions and feelings or more complex emotions, for the sake of simplicity, we will use the terms emotions and feelings rather interchangeably in this book.

From an energetic perspective, emotions may be graded. The astral plane, like the other planes, is made up of seven sub-planes, which contain an extremely wide scale of vibrations, from lowest to highest in minuscule increments. This gradation is easily felt at the emotional level. Without wishing to draw up a long, tedious and rigid list of emotions, it is nonetheless useful to mention here the more frequent emotions, as they do not necessarily occupy the place one might expect.

The lowest vibratory plane is very dense; it comprises emotions such as hatred, sadism, intense fear or absolute egocentricity. Although these emotions may make occasional passes through our aura in particular circumstances, this vibrational state is, fortunately, less common than one might fear. It is in this category that the most absolute sense of separation is found.

The sixth sub-plane includes emotions such as desire for revenge, fanaticism, contempt, despair and perversions.

The fifth sub-plane includes emotions such as anger, self-pity, self-righteousness, disgust and addictions of all kinds. There are also more unexpected elements, such as uncontrolled hilarity (like convulsive laughter), which, in fact, does not vibrate very high. Sexual frustrations arising from imposed or self-imposed celibacy also fall into this category. Passion belongs to this group, since it often comes with its share of suffering, as its Latin origin “passio”, meaning suffering, rightly acknowledges.

We will use the term thought-form in this book to emphasise the creation process. Indeed, all creation, whether in the visible or non–visible world, has its origin in a thought-form. However, the reverse is not necessarily true: a thought-form does not necessarily result in a visible creation.

The thought-form is the energy reservoir that animates the creative process, just as the etheric body is the energy reservoir that animates the physical body. In the same way that there can be no physical body without an etheric body, there can be no creation without a thought-form, which is the prerequisite for all creation. We shall return to this subject in detail.

We will use the term egregore to underline the collective dimension of a thought-form. The egregore will designate, in this book, the amalgam of thoughts and desires emitted by a more or less large number of people who may or may not know each other. These thoughts and desires, being very similar or identical in nature, gather by mutual attraction and merge.

For example, even if we believe we are the only ones thinking about a particular project or creation we wish to manifest, it is very likely that we unknowingly share that thought or urge with hundreds or thousands of people around the world. An egregore does not need to bring people together in the physical plane to form.

A good way to imagine what an egregore looks like is to think of social media. There are an extraordinary number of communities forming around common interests or topics all over the world. You don’t have to know each other or meet in person. People are attracted to this community, repulsed by that one. They follow several continuously and visit others as they feel like it or if a particular event occurs. On social media, people gather by affinity, just as an egregore is formed by energetic and vibratory affinity.

An egregore is composed of desires and thoughts coming, most often, from the astral and concrete mental planes. It should be remembered that the area where the mental and astral planes overlap is referred to in Eastern and esoteric traditions as the kama-manasic plane. In Sanskrit, “kama” means love, pleasure or desire and “manas” means spirit or thought.

The desires and thoughts emitted correspond to a certain vibratory rate and quality, which will characterise each egregore.

Types of egregores

There are many egregores within which we evolve and with which we identify in a more or less conscious way. There are countless others with which we are not at all associated, because they have no resonance in us. We will cite several examples to show how present they are in all aspects of our lives.

Ethnic and national egregores

Our ethnic and national affiliation is complex and highly diverse. Being Belgian, Cameroonian, Japanese or Russian does not represent a single, fixed identity. Within each of us, as within each nation, there are traces of a number of groups and sub-groups. Thus, the national egregore is composed of smaller egregores, representing different regions, counties, old and new ethnic groups, etc., just as the Russian nesting dolls contain smaller and smaller dolls within the largest.

Let’s take the case of Canada. The Canadian egregore contains the egregores of all the First Nations that have lived in this territory long before it became Canada. Each person born in Canada is included in the egregores of the towns or cities they were born in, grew up in and live in, each town or city contained within its province, each province included in the egregore of the Canadian nation. We thus can be Torontonian and Ontarian and Canadian, with a strong influence of the Maritime Provinces where our parents come from, and by the Danish egregore, the country of our forebearers. When we are born in Canada and our parents abroad, we are contained within the Canadian egregore, with that of our family origins still very present in our lives.

Political egregores

All political parties, associations and organisations – whether formal or informal – have their own egregore. The municipal council of a small municipality constitutes an egregore, contained within the regional or provincial political egregore, itself contained in the political egregore of the nation… etc. Some political parties have existed for decades and have more or less evolved over time. The stronger the egregore of a political party, the more committed its members are, whether in terms of values, ideology, volunteerism, financial contribution or membership base. Of course, the party’s egregore will be contained within the political egregore of the nation and then the continental region in which it is located.

Before we begin the description, we should point out that we usually consider birth and death only from the point of view of a human experiencing life in the dense, physical plane. We celebrate the arrival of Baby, who is just starting his life, and we mourn the death of Grandma, who just finished hers. From the soul’s perspective, the process is reversed!

Incarnations are tiny interludes in the life of the soul. The descent into a physical body, which leads to our birth, represents for the soul a confinement into a very restricted form; what we call death is for the soul a release and a return to life on its own plane.

So, how do these interludes that we call lifetimes play out, from the point of view the soul?

Step 1: Release from the physical-etheric plane

This is the stage we typically call death.

During the tiny fraction of time which we call our life, we have lived many, many experiences: we have acquired skills, used and developed certain talents, known many successes and failures, learnt from our various travels and encounters, as well as from our many relationships. We have learnt through crises, through the range of emotions available to us, through the observations and lessons we have harnessed from our own experiences and from studying the world around us. The more we can live reflectively, the more we can benefit from the learning opportunities our life provides.

Whatever the case, after a while – meaning a few years or several decades – our soul feels it is time to pack up and go home… Our death happens when the soul determines it is appropriate to do so; therefore, “we” do not have to worry about leaving too soon: we leave at precisely the right time!

So, what happens? The soul prepares to leave its physical body in two stages, allowing us to prepare for our upcoming death. In the first step, the soul sounds the return signal to the body. Not with a trumpet, but with a particular vibration sent to the physical body via the etheric body and which spreads along the nadis. This has the immediate effect of distending the connection between the etheric body and the physical body. This vibration produces physiological reactions in the heart, nervous, circulatory and endocrine systems. This moment can be almost instantaneous, as in the case with a heart attack, “accident” or aneurysm, or it can last for days or weeks in the case of an illness.

At this point, there is a pause – of a few seconds to a few weeks or even months. What is often interpreted as an improvement in health and an encouraging sign is, in fact, a time given to the dying person to say goodbye to their loved ones and slowly prepare to leave and pass to the other side. During this time, we often see the dying person’s features relax, their mood improves, their breathing become calmer. We might even see a light and a smile in their eyes, as they may begin to perceive beings or sensations from the other side.

After this pause, the second phase takes place. As it is now time to go home, the etheric body completes its release.1 Since the physical sensations come indirectly from the etheric body, when the etheric body disengages from the physical body, all sensations leave the physical body: death itself is therefore in no way physically painful. The etheric body withdraws from the physical body, but is still attached to it by a cord. This cord, called the silver cord in many traditions, including the Bible, is the link between the soul and the physical body.

The near-death testimonies are all about experiences that occur in this in-between place, the time between the first and second phases: the etheric body has detached, except for the silver cord, which is still connected to the physical body. These people have begun to die, but since they are still here to talk about it, it means that they have not finished the work of dying. So, it is truly a near death experience, but not death itself. After a near-death experience, the silver cord remains as before, and the etheric body fully reconnects with the physical body. Life goes on for the time being, but these people were given an opportunity to get glimpse of the astral plane…