Yesterday evening I was speaking about the separation of the spirit from the body, an inevitable process and experience, at least in man’s present state. As servers there certainly is a need to understand these things and know how to handle such situations. I might, for a moment, consider what might be described, I suppose, as the mechanics of the thing; the passage in the 12th chapter of Ecclesiastes, which relates to this matter, the 6th verse: "Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern." The point being made here is that the person should remember now his creator in the days of his youth, before this happens. We’re not considering at the moment—particularly in relationship to ourselves, but with respect to others, because we have, as servers, a proper part to play in this regard—when the point is reached where the separation of spirit and body is imminent. When it works out in a natural way for a person it's a very easy experience and there is a certain joy involved in it. We’re well aware of the fact that pneumaplasm, as we have called it, is an essential substance connecting spirit with form, pneumaplasm is present right from the point of conception, in relationship to the physical form. During the period of gestation, of course, there is a continuing generation of pneumaplasm. At a certain point in the unfoldment the connection between the incarnating God Being, or angel, is established from within the form. Initially, while the God Being, or angel, is present in relationship to the form, the unfoldment takes place from an external point; in other words, the point of conception is not the point when the God Being enters into the body. There is a point during gestation that this happens. It happens when the endocrine system is sufficiently developed to let it happen. Before that point the connection is an external one. Now, when the God Being enters the physical form, so that the development takes place from within the form, we needn't imagine the angel sort of compressed into a little bundle so that he could get in. Where there's a control the operation begins to occur from within rather than from an external source. During the time of gestation a mother may be rather—keenly aware of a sense of well-being because there is the sensing of the reality of herself, of course, the angel which she is; but also, there is a cooperative venture going on here, and there is the God Being related to the developing child also present where she is.
So there's a double dose, so to speak, and consequently. If there's an openness, a yieldedness in spirit, there is a sensing of something very much intensified in that regard. So, this cooperative venture continues until the birth of the child. Then, at that point, when the first breath is drawn, there is a beginning point for an incarnating God Being in individual form on earth, no longer sharing the responsibility with the mother. Of course, the mother still plays a part, but the child is distinctly on its own now, separate from the mother, but still in union with the incarnating angel. At that point the child's body seems to be almost transparent, and there is a consciousness of something angelic being present. Of course. It's usually seen merely as this little creature, but there's more to it than that. When the first breath is drawn there is this beginning point of the distinct existence of angelic incarnation on earth. Now, we may recall how it was put in the book of Genesis: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Well, with the first breath of air this distinct manifestation—divine manifestation on earth—has a beginning point. The dust of the ground has been drawn together, and die breath of life is present in that form but in a very particular way when that first breath of air is taken into the lungs. Air is the symbol of spirit. And there is a very close relationship between air, the breathing mechanism, and pneumaplasm—pneumaplasm, which is the substance of spirit insofar as the physical form is concerned. Spirit has no meaning or effect Insofar as the physical form is concerned directly. It only happens because there is this connecting substance, the connecting substance which is generated out of physical substance, rising up to provide the connection that is necessary with spirit.
Now, all during the course of life, in physical form on earth, the pneumaplasm is present; it permeates the physical substance that is exuded, so to speak, from the physical substance and there is a connection with spirit. So, there is what may be referred to as a pneumaplasmic body and a physical body, but in oneness. You can't get them apart as long as life remains. However, at the point where what is called death occurs there is a separation between the pneumaplasmic body and the physical body. This is one aspect of it. Nowadays there is a good deal of discussion as to what constitutes clinical death, an endeavor to set some standards in this regard so that you really know when a person is dead. This seemed to be necessary because they're going to yank out his eyes, or his kidneys, or something else, as quickly as possible; therefore you have to know the exact moment so that you can immediately go to work; at least this is the human view in the matter. From our standpoint, the moment of death is described here as the loosing of the silver cord. Now, the silver cord is a localization of pneumaplasm which has a direct relationship to the endocrine system. And when this is broken, or there is a separation between this connection, between pneumaplasmic substance and the physical body in a specific sense, the silver cord and the endocrine system, at that point death has occurred. The physical body is no longer connected to the pneumaplasm; however, at that point the pneumaplasm may still be connected to the spirit. "Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern"—these all relate to various happenings at unto God who gave It." That's a very simple outline of the happening.
As we were considering the matter yesterday evening, I described the process as the coming forth of the angel. In a sense it's another birth— the coming forth of the angel and the relinquishing of the physical form. The only reason the physical form is alive is because the spirit is present in relationship to the pneumaplasm, and the pneumaplasm in relationship to the physical substance. So, there's life in the flesh, life born in the flesh. At the point of death there is a loosing of the silver cord. As I say, the silver cord is a particular localization of pneumaplasmic substance related to the endocrine system, and the high point in that endocrine system is the pineal gland. Now, when the silver cord is separated from the endocrine system, the physical form is dead, even though for the moment the pneumaplasmic substance, the pneumaplasmic body, may be still closely associated with the flesh. However, there is a gradual separation going on between the physical substance and the pneumaplasmic substance, so that here are two separate forms. Now, the physical body that's of no more value needs to be disposed of in some fashion. Various methods have been worked out for this in the various human societies. Possibly cremation is the cleanest and easiest way of disposing of the physical body, the purpose being to return the substance to the dust, to the soil from whence it came that's where it belongs now. It's not been removed from the experience of unfolding life, because life is unfolding throughout the whole universe, specifically throughout the whole of this planet. So that's where the body belongs, or the substance of which the body was composed. It's of no more value as a physical body. There's absolutely no point of mummifying it, or indeed in freezing it, as some people seem to think nowadays, that they may haw it out later. Well, this seems important from the standpoint of earthly oriented people, because that's all that they have there, slammed into a wall and there's nothing tore, so the body seems so tremendously important.
But the Lord God doesn’t have much trouble in creating a human body. In the womb it only takes nine months and then later, perhaps, a further period of time to become useful. But it's not really such a big deal, is it? It would be, if human beings took a billion years to produce, as some seem to imagine. It doesn't take a billion years; it only takes nine months—we know that. So it's no trick from the divine standpoint. Where there is a natural separation, then, of the spirit associated with the pneumaplasmic substance from the physical body, it is a very easy experience. And very often it is characterized by what may be referred to as the last breath. There's a first breath and there's a last breath. Well, you may say the last breath is merely the fact that the breathing mechanism has stopped and everything has shut down, and the air that was in the lungs is now being expelled; that's a nice mechanical way of describing it. But actually it relates to this process of separation—the pneumaplasmic body from the physical body. The individuals body is expiring; the breath is going out and the pneumaplasmic body is going out. The evidence of that going out can be heard in that sigh, the last breath; very peaceful, very natural. Just the way it should be under the circumstances as we have it.
Now, of course, on many occasions the separation of the spirit from the body is of a more violent nature, may occur in what some people call accidents, for instance, just suddenly like that!—in which case there is no particular forewarning, although there may be some foreboding. And there's nothing much that can be done about it. It just happens and that's it. But when the pneumaplasmic body is separate from the physical body, it may still be connected with the angel, with the reality of you. And this relates to a continuing cycle of what may be called ascension. There are several layers of pneumaplasm; we've been considering this from the standpoint of seeing a coarse end to the pneumaplasm and a very fine end to the pneumaplasm and all that is in between. The pneumaplasm specifically relates to the subconscious mind, the levels of the mind that are below the conscious mind; it relates to the level of the conscious mind; and it relates to the level of what we call spiritual expression. It is the level of spiritual expression, the finest pneumaplasm, that may maintain the connection with the God Being, with the reality of the person. We may see this particularly as being a vital factor in those whom we are serving on such an occasion. There is a very great need to maintain a smooth and consistent and calm vibration. It is very painful and distracting, for instance, if, as there sometimes is in the earthly oriented world, a bunch of relatives around there weeping and walling and in a mess. And here is the individual moving through this beautiful experience and being distracted by all this nonsense, when what is needed is an enfoldment, the provision of something of the right nature and enfoldment of additional pneumaplasm in this sense, so that what is being worked out can do so quite easily. And the first factor of outworking is the separation of the physical body from the pneumaplasmlc body, evidenced by that last breath.
But, of course, as I indicated before, the fact of death is only so when the silver cord has been loosed. Now, it is assumed, for instance, that the Master was dead when He was hanging on the cross; that was the appearance of the thing. I don’t suppose that they had too many of our present-day scientific tests; they weren’t interested in applying them anyway. The job had been done, the soldiers were through; they wanted to get off and so complete the task as quickly as possible. Anyway, there was the appearance of death but the silver cord was not loosed. Now, of course, there can be the appearance of death for anyone—the silver cord is not loosed—so it’s wise to wait a little. In the individual, if the silver cord has not been loosed and the individual is thought to be dead, that person will probably very shortly be dead if you just wait a little; the silver cord, in other words, will be loosed. Now, at that point of the separation, if there has been a strong connection at the level of spiritual expression, the pneumaplasmic body will still remain associated with the God Being and there will be a further process of ascension carried on for whatever period of time may be necessary. But that isn’t the business of human beings; that is something that is happening from the standpoint of God Being and requires no interference or particular prayers or anything of this nature to let it happen. However, of course where there isn't that strong connection, and particularly in the case of a sudden accident, we will say, there may be a rupture there at both ends of the pneumaplasm, so to speak. Now with most people there is usually some remaining connection between the level of spiritual expression and God Being. But there may be a separation below that between the conscious and subconscious minds; in fact the pneumaplasm of the conscious mind may become separated from the pneumaplasm of the subconscious mind. But where the pneumapiasm is separated from the God Being, as it will be, a certain amount of it anyway, will be in most every case, then that is, I suppose you could say, in the nature of a second death. In other words, there is no more life in that pneumaplasm, no more spiritual connection in the individual sense in that pneumaplasm. So, just as it is the right thing to do to let the physical body disintegrate in whatever way may be fitting, so it is also right to let that pneumaplasm disintegrate. And this is where these bonds that may have been woven by living people come into the picture because that ghost, so to speak, may be kept alive by a living person and maintained. It becomes a parasitic situation, where the individual is deliberately—he's not being preyed upon by anything—but is deliberately giving his life force to maintaining pneumaplasm which is related to somebody else; but the somebody else is gone. And there's no sense to that, in the general sense, I suppose most people get over their grief, and the connections are dissolved, and the pneumaplasm is allowed to disintegrate as it naturally will.
When people walk past graveyards at night, particularly, there is a certain trepidation in many, it is because of this which I am now speaking. Under the ground there are some decaying physical bodies, and that's hidden from the sight of men, but perhaps above the ground there is a certain amount of pneumaplasm hanging around which is also in the process of disintegration, and a person may sense that; and if he is fearful he will tend to give his life force to that pneumaplasm. Now, this is basically the way that ghosts, so called, are seemingly living entities or caused to be living entitles; they aren't until some human being comes along and pours his life force into the ghost. Otherwise it will quite naturally disintegrate. Sometimes it takes a little longer to disintegrate than others, because of the violent emotional experience that may have been involved, particularly with respect to the point of death or the events leading up to it. This is why the ghosts are very often carrying their heads under their arms.
But there is something, one might say, factual about what human beings call ghosts. Not that we should pay any attention, or become interested in them, or try to investigate. Oh, no. Let them disintegrate! Because if someone becomes very interested In ghosts, of course, he's pouring his life force into the thing; he's going to discover all sorts of interesting facts, as he thinks of them—all meaningless," doesn’t mean a thing. By the same token, there are those who function in the realm of spiritualism where there is the endeavor to contact the dead, and that's where it is, contact the dead, this residue of pneumaplasm hanging around. And then—of course, a lot of the spiritualistic stuff is a hoax anyway—but what it is genuine, one might say, is a matter of making contact with the pneumaplasm that is present in some dead person. It isn't the person at all. The person seems to come to life because, whoever it is, someone's loved one obviously is looking for association with the one who has passed away. There's a bit of emotion Involved here and the life force is poured out and this thing comes to life, and it's like playing back a tape recording or something, and all this stuff in the pneumaplasm that was in the person. Everybody gets so excited: "Well, nobody knew that!" No. Then something comes out. Well, the person knew it, and the record is left behind in the pneumaplasm. And they get the record and put it on the turntable and play the record, and, by golly, it comes out when we play it. We play tapes. But where pneumaplasm has become separated from the source of life, let it disintegrate. We hear great stories about Edgar Cayce, who went into his trances and found out all sorts of things in that state. Well, he had a facility for playing back some of the records that he touched in that state. And insofar as the earthly oriented human being is concerned there is a great deal of knowledge, a great deal of information, many things in that background pattern of memory, which is part of the memory bank, incidentally, of the human race.
So, you needn’t pay any attention to spiritualism. People are easily deluded in this regard because of their longing, their loneliness and all this, and longing to contact some loved one. Whether it's a genuine situation or whether it's a hoax, it's all pretty much the same thing, really, because it doesn't mean anything. It's tomfoolery. Why would one wish to contact the dead? One wouldn't be interested, I don't think, in digging up the physical body and have it around. Then why the pneumaplasmic body? Let it disintegrate too. We're interested in the angel of the Lord; heavenly orientation, not earthly orientation; our associations with the living, not with the dead. Our primary concern, insofar as the living are concerned, is those who are Incarnate in human form, those who are present on earth, because this is where we came to get a job done. We don't need to be particularly interested at the moment as to where those who are not incarnate are, or what they're doing—that's their business; this is our business. We may have a consciousness of the fact that there are the hosts of heaven, as I indicated last night. In other words, there is something vast back of us, namely God. That is God. And so we are keenly aware of the support and the backing that we have. But here's the job to be done, right where we are. And it is done by those who are living souls, those through whom the breath of life is being breathed, so that the expression of life is made evident. I'm talking about life, not human existence; there's a vast distinction.
And as there is the expression of life, spiritual expression we call it, a very strong pattern of the essential pneumaplasm is generated and in place. Because of that, we sense, in the externalsense, a close connection with God Being and we begin to experience the reality of that in our own expression. And there is no consideration that by any means could we be anything other than that. Obviously, a physical body in which there is no more life is not what we are at all. The physical body that we now have shares with us this expression of life. There is something in relationship to the physical substance of the body that participates in the generation of pneumaplasm; here is the ascending process, something moving out through the physical flesh. And you perhaps can see that it would naturally be possible for the whole body to move up, so that there would be nothing left, in which case there would be no separation of the body from the spirit. This is the true process, a process that was certainly demonstrated and revealed by the Master. However, that was His business, that was His job; that was something He took upon Himself to do. And the doing of it, of course, required that He accept into Himself what was true of humanity. The Christian world claims that He died for our sins.
Now, because there was a sinful humanity, because there was a fallen state on earth, clearly something had to be done about it, and the easy way was rejected. That point of rejection was made evident when He wept over Jerusalem. They would not, and He had to face the fact that they would not. Well, what are-you going to do? He couldn't do what He could have done if they would have let Him do it, so He had to do something else. Now, this relates to the healing process, restoring process, which is made possible if there is a sufficient reality of oneness with true being. This may be used in some measure—although it is wise to refrain from trying to do anything until you know what you're doing—to accept into oneself what may be present in someone else because that someone else is not capable, at the moment, of handling the problem. And accepting it into oneself, it is presumed that then one is capable of handling it within oneself, and because it's clear within oneself, then it is clear for the other person. Now, I was speaking of this a little bit, I believe, in one of the tapes this morning, from a little different standpoint. By the way, you’re having to take three of me today. We may be able to see this from the standpoint of individual service. But, as I say, I suggest that you don't experiment with it. You need to come to the point where you really know what can be done and what you are capable of handling.
Now, our Master knew what could be done and what He was capable of handling, and that was something immense! It wasn't just a matter of taking something from some individual. It was taking something from the whole body of mankind—accepting it into Himself and being willing to experience the results of so doing. Now, it was a deliberate thing insofar as He was concerned. It was all He could do from the standpoint of His own approach, after the other opportunity had been rejected. Human beings had rejected Him, so He couldn't work with them directly anymore. All He could do was accept this into Himself, just as an individual, and let it clear through in Himself, which, of course. He did. The result of accepting that into Himself was crucifixion. The result of the condition into which human beings have gotten themselves is crucifixion. If nothing had been done about it, this is what would happen now—it is happening, in fact, in the world of man—crucifixion. They wouldn't let it work out in the way much would have been easy when He was present on earth with human beings, so He had to accept the responsibility into Himself and carry through Himself so that the way was open, when the crucifixion came upon the body of mankind, for anything to happen. He offered healing, restoration, which is now being picked up to a certain degree, to a certain measure. We begin to have some consciousness of these things ourselves, in our own experience. Some have wondered why He may, after He was crucified and came forth from the tomb and so on, and presented Himself before the disciples, He said, "Well, put your fingers in the nail holes in my hands and put your hand in my side." Why, why should He be in the same condition? Well, He had taken that condition upon himself. Now, obviously there was something worked out in the days to come which cleared the pattern. Of course, human beings are inclined to think of Him still as hanging on a cross or with all these wounds all over, as though He was going to be that way forever. But He accepted that into Himself. It didn't prevent the resurrection, and then subsequently it was all cleared through. When the time came for what was called the ascension, He wasn't still full of holes.
Now, we see these things coming upon mankind, and we're not separate from mankind. But we need to know how to handle what is taking place. We need to understand what went before. We need to know that the way is clear, the door is open and that it can be done. If we didn't have what the Master accomplished on earth, we couldn't do It. How many of you would have liked to have assumed, the responsibility that He assumed in that situation? Of course, He was the only one who could really do it for mankind, because of His particular point of focus in the world. But we could have done it individually for our own worlds. And who would like to take such a responsibility?—because it appears that you have nothing to show for it, at the time. It all tends to seem so useless, it seems such a useless thing to those who are observing it, those who loved Him and were observing it. Of course, the carrying through required something, required some assistance from others, obviously. Someone took His body down from the cross and put it in the tomb, so that everything could work out decently and in order. But the disciples weren't of much value, were they? They were afar off. Peter denied; Judas had betrayed; but you'll recall that John stood with the Master in the judgment hall. He was the only one who was with Him, and he was with Him at the foot of the cross also. And there were some of the women. In other words, there was a certain enfoldment maintained by these during that time without, perhaps, a clear awareness of what was happening, but trusting, being faithful. And while the human consciousness may not have known exactly what was going on, the angelic consciousness certainly did. The one who was incarnate in John and in the various women—these ones. So, there was something provided in that regard, a necessary part of the cycle of resurrection which came.
And while, in our service, insofar as those in whom the separation of spirit and body is occurring is not the same by any manner of means, nonetheless we can see a responsibility here of enfoldment, so that there is a protected place in which what needs to be done can be done, done by the angel, by the God Being who is present there. If we have our eyes fastened on the external form, then of course it becomes a harrowing experience for people. The external form, in a sense, is quite incidental to what is happening. There is some substance related to the external form that is in the process of ascension, and when that is complete, well, the job is done and there can be expiration. And the withdrawal of the pneumaplasm—I'm thinking of this from the standpoint of those who have a close-woven cord of connection from the spiritual standpoint, thinking of Emily last evening, clearly enough, the strong cord of connection there—and when there is, it’s a very beautiful experience, because it’s not as though there was a sudden rupture and nothing, nothing on earth at all, in the realm of the dimensional world. But where this close connection with pneumaplasm is present there are connections still with the dimensional world through this pneumaplasm, not for the achievement of anything much more than allowing the ascension to continue to take place. But, nevertheless, there is a sensing of the spirit of the individual concerned being on hand for a while, not altogether gone, as is so often the experience in the earthly oriented state. There seems to be nothing, probably because there is nothing in that sense; not that anything happens to the real person, but to the connections with the dimensional world.
And so, I have been speaking of these things that as servers you may have some background understanding in your consciousness when you are called upon to handle anything of this nature. And you also need to understand because you will be associated with people, other people, who are losing loved ones, perhaps, that you don’t know and you have to help that person. Not the loved one who is being lost; you can't reach that situation; but you can reach the person who is concerned about it. So it's really a wide field of service. And, as I have been emphasizing, our service is spiritual expression, a consciousness of how to handle each circumstance that may arise. Now, in Class, we could not possibly cover all the circumstances that might arise. It's not necessary anyway, and we're not trying to make out a booklet that you can thumb through, "Oh, this circumstance. Now I have it here somewhere," because it will be something spontaneous of the moment to be right and not a rehash of something which you heard before. In fact, all these things which you hear now you will probably be inclined to forget in a specific sense. And yet, if you have been moving with me, it's all down here in you and when the occasion demands, whatever is required, you'll find it's right there. The spirit is very capable. And even if you don't have anything very specific about the circumstance itself, the spirit is very capable of picking up something here, something over there, something somewhere else, and bringing it all together, and there's the answer. You may say, "Well, how did I know that?" And because your mind didn't know it, the mind may begin to question and say, "Well, maybe that's not right, not true, maybe it's nonsense," and doubts come in. Get thee hence, satan. Just allow it to work the way it is designed to work and you will find yourself offering many things that you didn't know you had to offer; but if you're offering them, they must have come from someplace. They came from you.
So perhaps that will complete our consideration in this particular area of circumstance so that we may go on to other matters in the classes in the days to come.
