According to the world traditions, man consists of 2-30 bodies (including physical).
However, if the amount and the location of chakras in Hinduism, shamanism and Slavic tradition are almost the same, the case of aura is far more complicated.
Because of the fact that an aura is a unit and inseparable system, it is impossible to describe all of its aspects (characteristics and functions) separately and precisely. Only the combination of some descriptions will give some realization of the work and the opportunities of subtle bodies.
According to each tradition, the energy body is separated to the subtle bodies accounting their own principles and functional aspects where each of them is given some characteristics and abilities for their practical implementation in life.
According to the traditional Indian Yoga, man’s creatures have 5 levels of energy (and consequently, 5 bodies) that exist in such a diapason – from the toughest to the subtlenest energies, they are called as kosha’s:
annamaya kosha (food body, the physical body); pranamaya kosha (pranic body, the energy body, the sheath of vital force);
manomaya kosha (mental body, or "reservoir of the mind");
vigyanamayya kosha (mental or astral body, the shell of pure knowledge and intelligence);
anandamaya kosha (bliss body, the body of the reasons).
Modern researchers usually use such a classification:
1. Physical body.
2. Ethereal body.
3. Astral body.
4. Mental body.
5. Spiritual body.
6. Cosmic body.
7. Nirvana body.
We can meet the descriptions where the astral and emotional bodies are considered to be different systems, but it is commonly taken that they are referred to the same system.
What is more, there are some versions, where the storage of life experience (like the gained trait of soul) is referred to as the soul body. On the other hand, there are some authors that refer this to the karma (reason) body.
Sometimes the soul body is called the intuition body, the karma body is called the spiritual one, and all the bodies can be called heavenly bodies, cosmic bodies, or nirvana bodies.
And these classifications exist in such an amount that the reader gets absolutely lost with it.
A man is considered to be just a tandem of physical and energy body without any of separations in many esoteric streams. Communication with the gods, Spirits and Elements, healing, astral war, travel through the subtle worlds, time-travel etc. – all of these stuff is done with the help of energy body and it doesn’t matter which of these elements "knows" how to do this or that sort of things.
During the ritual actions of healing, nobody thinks about the body, which help is used to get some sort of information from the subtle or subtle worlds or "what" is used to get the help of spirits, angels or gods.
The main thing to know is how to develop an ability in oneself and what to do in order to make it work. Also, which patient’s system (physical body, energy body, energy channels or chakras) are needed to work with in this case.
Mexican shamans, who were described by Carlos Castaneda, come to this question in a different way – they operate such phenomena as (energy body), "dream body", "energy double", or "energy twin".
They studied the practical implementation only of these systems and separated aura into additive subtle bodies as in other traditions. On their point of view, energy double and dream body – are the autonomously acting systems and double, besides other characteristics, they are the storage for a huge supply of energy that can be used be a magician in emergency cases or during the magical practices.
However, a typical person has no access to his energy body, dream body or energy that is locked in his energy double. Magicians "create" them with the help of specific practices in order to "switch them on" – they get to know how to run them or "negotiate" with them.
Probably, Mexican shamans examined the constitution and functional abilities of energy body in a different aspect or there were some reasons that make Castaneda skip this point in his descriptions.
But despite this, there are a lot of aspects – superpowers, healing etc. – where they reach the same results as their "colleges" from India of Tibet or shamans, magicians, sorcerers and witches from the other places of the world.
There are a lot of achievements in analogical development of energy body all over the world and consequently we figured out that some serious results can be achieved in magic, healing, proliferation of superpowers, spiritual development, if different world traditions are followed.
As you understand, the difference between them exists only in some sort of the teaching or in the approaches of the achievement. But the core of the traditions is universe – all of them work with the same systems inside them and literally with the same "external" Powers of Universe, not accounting how we call them.
On the shamans’ of Far North point of view, a man consists of nine bodies (including physical); according to ancient Slavic system – from three bodies in one variant and from nine in other one; according to the ancient Slavic esoteric SPAS system, a man consists of eleven (thirteen) bodies; Hawaiian shamans-kahunas separate a man into the 3 bodies – lower "I" (animal), middle (human) and upper (divine). And in Christian theology a man consists of physical body, immortal soul and the Spirit.
As you can see, there are a lot of different attitudes towards the subtle bodies. But all the traditions are right – all of them describe the same systems, but they highlight some diverse aspects.
If we are talking about the classification which is the closest to me, I will propose to use this one:
1. Physical body.
2. The first, the smallest and the densest ethereal body that consists of a few layers.
3. Astral body (emotions, feelings, imagination, will).
4. Soul body (storage of soul’s traits).
5. Karma body or causal body ( causal connections).
6. Mental body ( body of thoughts, sanity, logic).
7. Spiritual body.
To sum up, there are 7 bodies including the physical one.
But they don’t follow each other in our common understanding, separating from each other – they are tightly connected to each other, they penetrate and form the unit energy system.
Remember a simple pattern – the STATE OF EACH BODY is reflected on the states OF THE REST BODIES.
In other words, if one of your bodies GETS some energy or mechanic damages somehow, or if you DON’T PAY ANY ATTENTION to some of them – "spoil" it with inactivity or indifference – this leads to the illness of this body. But with the time, the chain reaction starts and all the rest bodies get down the same way.
That’s why it is forbidden to neglect the problems of the bodies.
Each subtle body has its individual traits and abilities, and it differs because of its structure, size, amount of dimensions that they can percept, the quality of energy, vibrations and color. They are connected with the "silver thread" (astral fiber or pitrie-nadi) that gives the opportunity to synchronize with each other.
All the bodies do not only their work but they arrange the universe and inseparable mechanism. All of them are tightly connected to each other and the physical body, chakras and subtle worlds (the levels of Being).
The authors, following the diverse traditions, connect each chakra with the bodies differently, but usually this classification occurs:
1. Muladhara – connected with the physical body.
2. Svadhisthana – connected with the etheric body.
3. Manipur – is connected with the astral body.
4. Anahata – associated with mental body.
5. Vishuddha – associated with karmic (causal, reasonable) body.
6. Ajna – associated with the mental body.
7. Sahasrara – connected with the spiritual body.
But I think that this tough connection of chakras and subtle bodies is not correct and exists only for systemizing the phenomena that are very complex for our "three-dimensional" logic.
If we follow this classification, it occurs that only Muladhara is connected to the physical body. But I reckon that each "human" chakra is connected not only with one body somehow and not only with one level of Being. Each chakra is absolutely connected to all the bodies; the other case is the tightness of the connection to some of them (or a few of them).
In this case, it is far more important to know how to affect this or that subtle body. That’s why, in my opinion, the best classification is that one, which connects chakras with the subtle bodies not very tightly and unambiguously.
It looks like:
1. Pitrie chakra (between the feet) – is associated with the etheric and physical body.
2. Muladhara – is related to the etheric and physical body.
3. Svadhisthana – connected with the etheric and astral body (the body of feelings, emotions, will).
4. Manipur – is connected with the astral body (the body of feelings, emotions, will).
5. Anahata – associated with the astral (body feelings, emotions, will) and mental (accumulation of qualities) body.
6. Surya – associated with the astral (body feelings, emotions, will) and mental (accumulation of qualities) body.
7. Chandra – associated with the astral (body feelings, emotions, will) and mental (accumulation of qualities) body.
8. Vishuddha – associated with karmic (causal) and the mental body (the body of ideas, experience and logic).
9. Ajna – associated with the mental (body of thoughts, experience and logic) and the spiritual body.
10. Sahasrara – connected with the spiritual body.
Most classifications and descriptions that you can find in the books or on the Internet are not diverse. The authors list subtle bodies, give them their own names, connect them with specific chakras, determine the functional abilities and characteristics, but PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE CONDITIONS AND THE STAGES OF LIFE THAT INFLUENCE THEIR FORMATION.
What is more, it is rarely noticed what are the conditions that give a man the opportunity to get the "access" to his subtle bodies. And this is the most important thing.
Consequently, this "simplified" description gives an unprepared reader a reason to think that every mentioned body is absolutely accessible for everyone and exists under his ownership. And it takes him "no efforts" to make them "serve".
Energy body (the ancient slavic tradition - the body 3)
Energy body (the ancient slavic tradition - the body 9)
Energy body (the ancient slavic tradition SPAS)
