In Part I, I described the spiritual fractions (and particles), how they make up the matter in the world, and how this and other material (and semi-material) Universes are the vehicle for their evolution, with us, unit spirits, just tagging along on the last second (metaphorically speaking).

In this second part I will describe the nature of our etheric body and how does it relates to our incarnation.

I strongly recommend that you first read about the Epistemological considerations on the metaphysical and spiritualist discourse on this blog.

According to a particular theory from the Basilio Scientific School Association:

Turns out that incarnation is also, and mainly, a vehicle for the evolution of the spirit fragments and particles (Such that our own human incarnation is also just a part of our last-minute participation in this whole system). In other words, it is not just us, humans, the ones that incarnate. Incarnation is a universe-level process that occurs even at the level of subatomic (physical) particles.

At its core, incarnation is—at all levels—a hierarchical, functional form of modulated expansion, which augments, and largely increases the progression rate, of all the participants in a given multi-dimensional incarnation complex.

A single quark, or an electron, is, for instance, such an incarnation complex with a physical and an ethereal part. A fundamental (physical) particle—with all its properties—is actually the complete multi-dimensional complex, and not just the physical part of it alone. The physical part alone (if that were to be found alone) would not have all of the properties, nor the stability, we effectively measure on them [1].

In a way, and specially from the point of view of the physical-only parts, these ethereal complexes might be seen as somewhat analogous to mathematical complex numbers with their real and imaginary components. For example, the individual parts of a complex number are in different dimensions, while the entire mathematical complex number is a multi-dimensional entity. Furthermore, a complex number is more than just a real (or just imaginary) number, and can provide solutions to problems that are just not found when using only reals (For instance, the math core of quantum physics is only workable when using complex numbers. And interestingly, many signal processing calculations are performed using complex numbers too).

Incarnation always forms a hierarchical structure with an ethereal head, even though the purpose of incarnation is to boost the progression of ALL the participating parts, not just that of the (ethereal) head [2]. Furthermore, incarnation is recursive: when, for example, 3 quarks make up a proton, the proton as a whole has its own top-level ethereal head.

The ethereal participants of otherwise similar structures are not necessarily similar in their ethereal parts. For example, neutrons and protons are all composed of three quarks, yet the ethereal substructure of electrons—which might be seen as somewhat similar to quarks, the building blocks of protons and neutrons—is much larger and more sophisticated than that of protons and neutrons (even though these are composite particles made of 3 quarks). Likewise, water has a larger ethereal substructure than any other similar molecule, even those containing oxygen and hydrogen [3].

According to this concept of universal, generalized incarnation, there is an ever present physical-ethereal duality on every bit of material object.
Furthermore, since the ethereal sub-structures are hierarchical, there exist, for instance, the ethereal head of, say, an atom, then another (higher one) of a molecule, and so on…
Additionally, the ethereal substructures can vary significantly even among otherwise "similarly-reducible" objects. For example, a cell has a much much specialized, sophisticated, complex and large ethereal substructure than any inorganic matter made of the same type and number of atoms.
The so-called spark of life resides in the special characteristics and size of the ethereal substructures of biological organisms—and in turn organic compounds— even though there is incarnation—and the dual physical-etheral complex—on every kind of physical object.

Universal, generalized incarnation has a fundamental purpose: to allow the spirit fragments (and particles) to build, temporarily, a sort of modulated multi-agent heterogeneous conscious unit.
This multi-agent heterogeneous unit is formed when the participating spiritual components become entangled, linked, bound in a certain way. Such a heterogeneous unit is not the original, homogeneous unit to which the fragments initially belonged to, but the temporary union leads them on the path of final reintegration into their own "true" unit.

In a way somewhat similar to how, "I" perceive, feel and experience "me in my body" as my whole self, as a unit, the same happens in every case of incarnation (even for, say, a molecule). Each part perceives, somehow and to a certain extent, the heterogenous entangled complex unit it is a part of, as its whole self.
It is the formation of such local, separable but not separated, hierarchically aggregable form of "oneness" one of the fundamental purposes of the Universal generalized incarnation, at all levels.

Now, what does any of this has to do with the "second death" we are discussing…

From this description of the hierarchical, multi-level, multi-agent and recursive dual nature of (generalized) incarnation, it follows that we humans are quite complex dual entities in which "us", unit spirits, are sitting on the top-level driver's sit, but there is a full hierarchy of sub-incarnations all the way down to cells, DNA and even atoms.

When we die, our biological body is left behind. And as described above, our biological body is a recursive conglomerate of lower-level sub-incarnated entities…. what is it that happens, top to bottom, with all of these sub-incarnated entities after we, at the very top, disincarnate??

Well, as it turns out, the disincarnation of the top-level head (at any level) precipitates, at different points in time, a gradual and recursive disincarnation of the lower levels (But not all the way down, since at the inorganic layer, the incarnated entities such as the atoms remain).

A molecule such as a single RNA strand has its own incarnated ethereal driver, or head. In turn, that spiritual fragment incarnated on the RNA strand is itself a sub-incarnate of the cell that contains the RNA. The cell, in turn, has its own driver, another "higher-level" spiritual fragment. And that one is, in turn, a sub-incarnate of a tissue or multi-celular organism. This hierarchical progression continues, for example in the case of a human being, all the way up, with all of these spiritual fragments being the sub-incarnates of "us", top-level incarnated unit spirits.

And when we die, they all, recursively, die as well.

However, we said that one of the fundamental purposes of incarnation is to form temporary multi-agent entangled consciousness unit. So... after we die, what happens with all those spirit fragments who died along with us as well?

We remain entangled, bound, to pretty much all those spirit fractions that used to animate our physical body. That is, even though upon death we left the physical body behind, we do not break completely free from the so called incarnation complex. Rather, we still remain a multi-agent consciousness whole (of which we unit spirits are participants). It is just that a part of that whole, the physical part, is left behind. But we remain linked to the ethereal parts—not all but most of them—of what used to be our human body.

The most popular contemporary term for this ethereal part that remains a part of our selves, even after physical death, is Astral Body (Other common terms include: Subtle Body, Etheric Body, Etheric Double and Peri Body). And it's no accident, or strange coincidence, that our Astral Body, even on the after life, looks so similar to our human body. That happens because the Astral Body was, when alive, the "life principle" of our human body (that is, the hierarchical complex ethereal substructure incarnated in and animating every single bit of our physical body).

There are of course lots and lots of details, as well as diverging ideas, about the astral body. We we will not discuss them here for the sake of the subject under consideration: "the so-called second death"

When we are alive, we are so entangled with our human body that we feel as one with it. The postulate here is that, after physical death, we are still similarly entangled, and still feel as one, but in this case with our astral body.

Incarnation is a modulated union in the sense that the higher dimensional head acts not directly (freely and independently) but through the lower dimensional components. The entanglement is not just in regards to how we perceive, feel and experience but also in what we do. While this is certainly restrictive, it is highly functional to the progress of those who participate in the incarnation system, as it allows us to re-learn the depth and extent of the impact of what we intend, by means of modulated mechanisms which translate said intentions into concrete actions, but neither directly nor freely.

When humans, it seems like there is quite a distance from intention to action. For example, we cannot just intend for food to appear and go down our throats. The reason for this distance is that it is the barely conscious, role following, spiritual particles at the strict ruled system, that is the material lower end of this universe, the ones who ultimately reify our intended actions (According to "The Seth Material", this is so very much on purpose, so we can learn to use our creative energy in a tightly controlled environment before we go to higher realms in which our mere thoughts can and will build concrete things and set concrete processes in motion).

Fortunately, though, there is far more leeway in the Astral Plane, so our Astral Bodies are still indirect vehicles through which we act, but but far less restricted, and far more direct, than the case with the physical body.

There are, therefore, many similarities to how we perceive ourselves, how we feel and experience, how we think and how we act, both before and after life (or using better terms, when in both the physical and the astral lives). In both cases we are entangled to a body onto which we project our identity, and through which we experience, think and operate. It is the nature of that vehicle, and of the world it is in, what differs: one is physical-etheric, the other is only etheric.

Above the physical dimension, there are several etheric planes, not just one, and in some of these planes, there are also etheric-bodies that we bind to. These etheric bodies are different from one another such that the higher the plane, the more direct and the less filtered our thoughts and intentions translate into action through them.

However, in all cases, these bodies are not our true selves. They are a temporary substance and vehicle through which we evolve.

These bodies are, in essence: others (spirit fragments). We entangle, link to all those others (which are themselves organized hierarchically) to temporarily form a higher-level multi-agent unity.

We call that temporary entanglement: incarnation.

Incarnation, is, then, a multi-level process: there is the temporary material-level incarnation in a physical-etheric material body, typically lasting from birth to death a small number of earthly decades. And there is also the temporary, astral-level incarnation in an etheric-only astral body. This second level astral incarnation lasts for a much longer period (typically several earthly centuries or even millennia), as it encompasses all of the lower-level material incarnations.

Since this higher-level astral incarnation is also temporary, even though it lasts much longer, there is a so-called second death.

In our initial, totally free and direct form (as we have been created by God), we have a spiritual permanent primordial body, which is also our substance and vehicle, but this body is of a different, far more fundamental nature. This primordial body has no definitive shape, and it is like the pure, direct, unconstrained and instantaneous manifestation of our intentions and "spiritual thoughts".

This permanent primordial body is our very own (primordial) substance. It is not composed of others, as it is the case with the temporary material and astral bodies made up of spirit fragments.

Our spiritual primordial body is eternal as we are. Being the vehicle of our intentions, the manifestation of our thoughts, the expression of our actions, it changes, it transform, it becomes what we make of it. So much so, in fact, that it even shatters into pieces if we are so extremely hurt, angry and out of control as to try to annihilate ourselves (and others), getting split into spirit fragments. But since this primordial body is permanent, and as eternal as we are, it may get fragmented but it can never, ever, be destroyed.

When God first created us, this spiritual primordial body was the only one we had. And we had the freedom, the direct drive, and the faculty to manifest and express, to produce and generate [4], just about anything, unrestrictedly. The distance between imagination and production was virtually none.

But the full strength, the seemingly unlimited potency, the unbounded energy of that ability to unrestrictedly manifest and build the reality, came from God as it flows and resonates on the union, the cohesion, the harmony and synergy of one another.
One individual spirit can, isolated and all by itself, produce and manifest something through his own, individual, spiritual body. But that something is a simple, small and ephemeral thing compared to what several spirits can manifest jointly.

However, full joint production requires harmony, synchronicity and more importantly Love.
Unfortunately, us humans, as well as so many other spirits (such as those who shattered themselves into fractions), failed to Love, unite with all others, and wanted to go our own separate way. But we still wanted reality, which is what we all generate, to be the way we wanted it to be, which is a contradiction to going solo, for reality is a joint production.

That is, reality is what we make of it because that is our fundamental nature [5]. But it is what WE, together, make of it, not what I, independently, make of it. Therefore, either we all intend and imagine in unity, harmony, and synchronicity, and as a result reality becomes what we all want. Or we split, intend and imagine individually, but then demand and try to control anyone else because in the end, reality is always what we all do, and never ever what we do individually.

As we grew further and further apart, reality became more and more fragmented, more and more chaotic, less and less coherent, meaningful, functional, pleasing and magnificent.

Yet, quite literally "Thanks God", that started to change as Nature found its way and we, gradually, started to build restricted, filtered, contained but coherent, functional and meaningful local realities through incarnation. We started to express ourselves not directly through our primordial spiritual bodies, but indirectly through temporary "incarnation" bodies (At the different planes of non-primordial existence).

At the very end of this incarnation journey, on the Astral level and even beyond, we will have learned to, correctly this time, use the full potential of our manifestation power, but directly through our primordial spiritual body. We won't need, anymore, to act indirectly and restrictedly through the incarnation bodies that we are bound on the stages of this journey.

We will experience, in this journey, not one, and not even two, but several "levels of death". And after each level, we will become freer, less restricted, and our intentions will manifest more directly; all the way to our full, pure potential, because we will have transitioned, having corrected our past mistakes, stage after stage, from being locally linked to a (restrictive) "body made of others" to be linked, in full harmony and union, to those actual others but through our own full, unrestrictive, body.

Footnotes:

1. Interestingly, there is a contemporary scientific physical theory known as "The Neppe-Close triadic dimensional vortical paradigm", or TDVP for short, which postulates the existence of a third, mass-less, energy-less substance or process besides mass and energy, named 'gimmel', which bares a strikingly close resemblance to the ethereal components described here.
2. Which implies that when we unit spirits incarnate on a biological human body, the evolution (and well being) of our body is just as important as ours. That is, our body is not just a mere tool for us to use.
3. Interestingly, the exact same is said about the gimmels of these objects in the TDVP.
4. I am very much purposely not using the word create, since creation is reserved for God. Only God creates. We transform, produce, generate, build, etc...
5. Our spiritual bodies, that primordial substance, builds up reality as it manifests whatever it is that we imagine and intend.