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Excerpt G: Toward A Comprehensive Theory of Subtle Energies Part III. Some Specifics of an Integral Theory of Subtle Energies
I mentioned that we would go into the correlations of energies and consciousness according to the traditions such as Vedanta and Vajrayana; also the intricate topic of reincarnation or transmigration; and a finer taxonomy of subtle energies (involving family, genus, species). Start with the correlations. Both Vedanta and Vajrayana have a very simple but very powerful map of the relation of states of consciousness, levels of consciousness, and realms of bodies/energies. I believe this scheme is essentially correct, even when retrofitted in AQAL terms. Briefly: According to Vedanta/Vajrayana, there are three major states of consciousness, correlated with three major bodies (or mass-energy realms), and five major levels/structures of consciousness. The 3 states are waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. The 3 bodies are gross, subtle, and causal. The 5 levels/sheaths are the 5 koshas outlined earlier (gross material, emotional-pranic, mental, higher mental, overmental). The relationships, in the average person, are as follows: the waking state, which possesses a material consciousness, is correlated with (and supported by) a gross body/energy. The dream state—which contains (or can contain) the 3 levels of emotional, mental, and higher mental—is supported by a subtle body/energy. And the deep sleep state, which contains an overmental consciousness, is supported by a causal body/energy. See Table 2. (And note: the states and stages of consciousness are UL; the bodies/energies are UR.) The brilliance of this scheme is that it manages to relate structures of consciousness, states of consciousness, and energies in a simple, elegant fashion, a fashion that, in those essential respects, has yet to be improved upon. I have written at length about these correlations and why they are important for any integral psychology (see, e.g., Sidebar G, "States and Stages," posted on wilber.shambhala.com). Here I will again attempt a very brief summary.
To begin with, why do Vedanta/Vajrayana maintain that the waking state contains one level of consciousness but the dream state contains 3 levels of consciousness? According to Vedanta/Vajrayana, the item that most defines the waking state is that you are aware of gross sensorimotor bodies: you can see rocks, trees, rivers, towns, cars, planets, etc., all of which are gross sensorimotor objects or bodies (hence, the gross realm). There are other things that you might be aware of in the waking state, but if you can see rocks, you are aware of the gross realm. When you dream, however, you are not aware of rocks, trees, rivers, towns, or any other gross objects. You can, however, be aware of emotions, images, ideas, visions, archetypes, and so on—in other words, the 3 middle levels of consciousness can all appear in the dream state, and that means that the 3 middle levels of consciousness can all be supported by same subtle body. (This is not to say that this subtle body/energy cannot be subdivided, which clearly it can, inasmuch as both Vedanta and Vajrayana do so; but it is to say that all forms of subtle energy are genera of this family [see below]). When you enter the deep dreamless state, however, even those levels of consciousness and energy fall away, and there is only a vast, almost infinite overmental consciousness—a blissful-radiant and nearly formless consciousness (anandamayakosha)—which is supported by a causal body/energy (which Vedanta terms "causal" and Vajrayana terms "very subtle"; i.e., the body/energies for Vedanta are called gross, subtle, and causal; for Vajrayana, they are called gross, subtle, and very subtle; I will follow Vedanta, although it is clear that they are both referring to essentially the same phenomena, inasmuch as they both explicitly identify these states/bodies with waking, dreaming, and sleeping). One of the many reasons that such a model is important is that it allows us to grasp some very intricate and otherwise confusing relationships among states and stages. It is hard to give an indication of the profundity of the Vedanta/Vajrayana accomplishment in a short summary, but let me use one quick example that might help. According to both Vedanta and Vajrayana, the states and their bodies/realms are given to a human from birth (and are fully present), but the levels or stages undergo development (and are not all present at birth). Start with a few uncontested facts: an infant wakes, dreams, and sleeps—in other words, the infant has access to all 3 major states of consciousness. But an infant does not have access to all the major stages of consciousness (e.g., the infant does not have access to formal operational cognition, which emerges or develops during adolescence; nor does the infant have access to postconventional morality, nor to hypothetical reasoning capacities, nor to the orange meme, nor the green meme, and so on. The higher levels, such as manas and vijnana, have not yet emerged). So if we look at the contents of an infant's dream state, what might we find? Whatever we find, it will not be contents from the higher stages of development: as research has made abundantly clear, the dreams of infants and children do not contain formal operational thoughts, nor postconventional impulses, nor turquoise visions, and so on. Rather, the contents of the various states are provided by the stage(s) of development that the person is at. Thus, to use the simple 5-stage scheme, an infant has access to the 3 great states (waking, dreaming, sleeping) and their 3 associated body/energies (gross, subtle, causal); but the infant has developed only the first one or two levels of the 5 levels of consciousness: namely, the material-food and emotional-pranic levels. The higher levels/stages (mental, higher mental, overmental) have not yet directly emerged. Therefore, the actual contents of the infant's waking and dreaming states will be provided by those first two levels of consciousness. As the child grows, matures, and develops, and the higher level/stages begin to emerge, then the contents of those levels will provide the much of the content for the various states. By the time a person reaches early adulthood—and has developed, for example, formal operational cognition, postconventional morality, yellow values, etc.—then those contents can be found in both waking and dreaming states, as research has again repeatedly demonstrated. Now, for both Vedanta and Vajrayana, the whole point of this scheme is that, when a person is highly evolved—or enlightened—then they have consciously and fully developed through all of the 5 levels/stages of consciousness; and therefore they can permanently access or Witness the waking, dream, and deep sleep states; such witnessing is called turiya (or "the fourth," meaning the fourth great state beyond waking, dreaming, sleeping); and then unite the empty unqualifiable Witness with entire world of Form (a nondual realization called turiyatita or sahaja: "spontaneous" and "just so"). This model allows us to see how an infant can have access to the 3 great states and bodies of gross reality, subtle reality, and causal reality—but not in any developed fashion that would allow it to permanently master those realms. Permanent realization and mastery demands development and evolution through the actual levels/stages, a development that converts "temporary states" to "permanent traits." Nonetheless, according to Vedanta/Vajrayana, all of the structures/stages/levels of consciousness—whether we say there are 5 of them, or 7 of them, or 12 of them, or more—are all variations on these 3 great realms of consciousness and their 3 supporting bodies or energies. The reason that model is especially important for subtle energies is that it allows us to see why an infant would possess a gross energy field, a subtle energy field, and a causal energy field (because it wakes, dreams, and sleeps), but it would NOT possess the species and subspecies energy fields that go with the specific stages/levels of consciousness unless it has actually developed those stages. For example, an infant, like an adult, would possess the family energy fields of gross, subtle, and causal, but not the genus subfields such as T-1, T-2, etc.—in exactly the same what that the infant possesses the same general dream state as an adult, but does not yet contain, within that dream state, any thoughts from the stages of blue, orange, yellow, etc. Forgive me for repeating myself, but the staggering brilliance of this scheme continues to just floor me. There are no other models even remotely like it in its explanatory capacities, and I have incorporated those aspects, virtually unchanged, in my own model of Integral Psychology. Needless to say, modern research allows us to complexify this basic scheme enormously—we now recognize at least 12 (or more) major levels/stages of consciousness, which exist in at least two dozen different developmental lines, none of which are covered by the Vedanta/Vajrayana model. But the extraordinary breakthrough insights are all contained in their pioneering discoveries.
A Refined Taxonomy of Subtle Energies Let us use the common "family, genus, species" scheme, combined with the terminology in Table 1, to summarize our (suggested) conclusions. The three great families of energy are gross, subtle, and causal. (As necessary, we can add family turiya, and family turiyatita.)
Let me emphasize again that much of this is a matter of convention and semantics (including the number of levels we can reasonably postulate). This taxonomy is simply a series of suggestions as to what I believe is the minimum requirement to carry an integral theory forward. Any good model open up lines of further research, and the integral or AQAL model is no exception. I have been developing many of these research agendas in conjunction with Bob Richards, co-founder of Clarus, Inc. and a vice president of Integral Institute. We would be glad to discuss these issues with interested parties.
Reincarnation We come now to the most controversial topic related to subtle energies, namely, reincarnation or transmigration. I am reluctant to even comment on it, because once you take sides in this issue, you alienate the other half of the audience. My own belief is that reincarnation does occur; however, for the moment, I am more concerned with suggesting a proposed mechanism for such an occurrence, rather than arguing that it does or does not happen. Let us simply assume that it does, and then ask, how can that occurrence be squared with hypothesis #3, namely, that subtle energies are associated with complexifications of gross form? Upon death, clearly the gross form dissolves; what happens to the subtle energies if they are tied to those gross forms? At this point, one simply chooses to decide whether reincarnation exists or not. If you believe that reincarnation does not exist, then the integral theory of subtle energies that I have presented thus far needs no further adjustments (not in relation to reincarnation, that is). If, on the other hand, you believe in reincarnation, then an integral theory needs to be able to incorporate that occurrence. It can do so if it adds one hypothesis, as follows:
#4. Complexity of gross form is necessary for the expression or manifestation of both higher consciousness and subtler energy.
Hypothesis #4 introduces the possibility that the higher forms of consciousness and energy (i.e., higher than the gross-family realm) are not tied to complexifications of gross form ontologically but rather as vehicles of the expression of subtler forms and energies in that gross realm itself. In other words, it is not that higher consciousness and energies are bound to the complexities of gross form out of ontological necessity, but that they need a correspondingly complex form of gross matter in order to express or manifest themselves in and through the material realm. The question of whether or not that is true is one thing; but if it is true, something like hypothesis #4 must be entertained. To avoid that hypothesis is to avoid the entire issue. For example, Francisco Varela et al., in The Embodied Mind, attempt to derive a spiritually attuned theory of consciousness that anchors consciousness firmly in the sensorimotor body—so much so that reincarnation, by their theory, is impossible. They present their theory as consonant with an updated Buddhism, but clearly it avoids this difficult issue. There is no way around something like hypothesis #4 if one wants to entertain transmigration. With hypothesis #4, integral theory, at least in this particular regard, would revert to something closer to the traditional Vedanta/Vajrayana conception, but with a few major and important exceptions (which eliminate most of the metaphysical postulates required to drive the scheme, while still accepting the relevant data to be explained). 4 All we need note here is that it is exactly the bare essentials of the Vedanta/Vajrayana model, already incorporated into Integral Psychology, that can be outfitted with hypothesis #4 and used to drive a possible explanation of reincarnation. There is no question but that this increases the metaphysical baggage of any approach, but it can be done in relatively modest ways that, further, are open to a fair amount of actual empirical and phenomenological testing (which is the antidote to metaphysics). The bare essentials of the Vedanta/Vajrayana model, with regard to reincarnation, are as follows. It is true that there is no mind without its supporting body, and no body without its guiding mind (where "mind" means "consciousness" and "body" means "mass-energy"; in other words, to put it in AQAL terms, every consciousness state/stage in the UL has a mass-energy-body correlate in the UR). In simple terms, for both Vedanta and Vajrayana, the gross mind has a gross body; the subtle mind has a subtle body; and the causal mind has a causal body. We can, in fact, simply refer to them as the gross bodymind, the subtle bodymind, and the causal bodymind. According to Vedanta/Vajrayana, although there is never a mind without a body, the subtle bodymind can exist without the gross bodymind, and the causal bodymind can exist without either of them. Hence, although there is never a mind without a body, transmigration can occur. There are several ways that, according to the traditions, that statement is true. One, ontologically, during involution—which is also essentially the path that is said to occur in the bardo realm of the reincarnating or transmigrating entity (see below)—when Spirit first throws itself outward, it creates a causal bodymind. The causal bodymind clearly exists without either a subtle bodymind or a gross bodymind, since neither of them have yet been created. Two, phenomenologically, when you go to sleep each night and begin dreaming, the gross bodymind does not exist and you reside primarily as a subtle bodymind; likewise, as you pass into dreamless-formless sleep, there is no gross or subtle bodymind, only a causal bodymind; hence, phenomenologically, the senior bodyminds can exist apart from the junior bodyminds. Three, in certain nonordinary waking states—such as out-of-the-body experiences (or "astral travel")—one exists in a subtle bodymind, not merely a gross bodymind. And in formless meditative states, one exists in a causal bodymind, not a subtle or gross bodymind. The traditions therefore maintain that upon physical death, as the gross bodymind dissolves, the soul, existing now in its subtle state and actually supported or carried by a very real but subtle energy (or subtle body), transmigrates through a series of bardo realms or stations, until various karmic factors incline it towards the assumption of a new gross bodymind, whereupon rebirth in a physical body occurs. Thus, the overall subtle body/energy (i.e., the family subtle-energy) is said to support various minds or states and stages of consciousness, including: (1) the dream state in all humans; (2) meditative states with form (e.g., savikalpa samadhi); (3) various nonordinary states (e.g., out-of-the-body experiences, near-death experiences); (4) and the bardo realms of transmigration. This is why, for example, if, during one's lifetime, one practices meditation and learns to enter the dream state with awareness (lucid dreaming), it is said that one can then control to some degree one's actual bardo course of rebirth, because to master one is to master the other: they are essentially the same realms. Hypothesis #4, then, involves the suggestion that a subtle consciousness, supported by a very real but subtle mass-energy, does not itself depend for its essential existence on the gross realm, although it does require a specific degree of complexification of gross matter-energy in order to manifest in the gross realm. If hypothesis #4 is true, then we would have warrant to say that this is why these subtler dimensions, although created and existing in potentia during involution, cannot actually manifest themselves until evolution in the gross realm reaches a required degree of complexification. Increasingly complex vehicles are required for increasingly higher realms; when these higher realms manifest, they are not apart from the complexification of form, but shine through them and by virtue of them: again, even with hypothesis #4, we would say that the higher realms are not actually above matter, but within matter. The difference with hypothesis #4 is that it adds: the higher realms, when they manifest, manifest within matter, but in themselves, they can exist without gross-family matter. Thus, etheric energies cannot manifest until gross matter assumes the complex form of a living cell (a quark is not complex enough to "contain" or funnel etheric, psychic, or causal energies). As gross form continues to complexify—driven by the fact that even the stones cry out and reach for God—then increasingly subtler dimensions of both energy and consciousness can shine through them, until the entire Kosmos shines with the radiance of the Spirit that is their Source and Suchness. Accordingly, a subtle bodymind can migrate from one gross bodymind manifestation to another gross bodymind manifestation, much as heat can pass from one material object to another; but it requires a complex gross bodymind to manifest—and further, any truly integral spiritual realization would require the enlightenment of the gross bodymind, the subtle bodymind, and the causal bodymind—which is surely why the traditions maintain that only humans (and not angels, not gods, not demi-gods) can realize enlightenment. Only humans have all three bodies. The fact that the subtle (and causal) bodymind can transmigrate the gross bodymind is indeed metaphysical; but the fact that these subtle energies are postulated as real, concrete, detectable, often measurable—if subtler—energies, stops the whole conception from spinning off into the vaporware of pure metaphysics. If you read hypothesis #4 in conjunction with the first three hypotheses, I think you will see that they are at least consistent with each other; and thus I believe that an integral theory of subtle energies can accommodate the existence of transmigration, if we decide, on other grounds, that there is enough evidence to conclude that transmigration occurs.
The Chakras In my opinion, the real test case of any theory of subtle energies is whether it can adequately explicate the chakras. The chakra system is both beautifully simple and bewilderingly complex, but the basics need to be fully accounted for by any theory of subtle energies. Let me begin a suggested elucidation by referring to figure 10. Here we can see the relation of the three major family-energies in the human compound individual. Even in infancy, as we have seen, a human being wakes, dreams, and sleeps, and therefore even an infant has access to gross, subtle, and causal realms (although the specific contents of those realms will be supplied by the stages of development). 
Figure 10. The 3 Major Family Energies Present in a Human From Inception click to enlarge This is indicated in the figure. Even though these three family-energies emerged or manifested only during the course of evolution, by the time of human emergence, all three family-energies are therefore intrinsic to a human holon. That is, gross family-energies emerged with the Big Bang; subtle-family energies emerged with living cells; and causal-family energies emerged with triune brains. Because each stage transcends-and-includes its predecessors, all three family-energies come with a human body (which is, in fact, a conjoining of three bodies). Therefore, even an infant human possesses waking, dreaming, and sleeping states, as well as correlative gross, subtle, and causal family-energies—even though, again, the contents of those consciousness states will be supplied by developmental stages, and the genus and species of subtle and causal energies will likewise be supplied by the specific stages of development (e.g., only as the human develops concrete operational and formal operational thinking will the T-1 fields begin to light up, etc.). This means that, if the great traditions were really alive to these realities, they would maintain that the chakras represent or contain both the three great bodyminds (because all three states/bodies are present from infancy) AND the various stages of consciousness development. In other words, each chakra contains gross/subtle/causal energies, AND each chakra is a stage of development or evolution of consciousness. Needless to say, that is exactly what we find. There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of variations on the chakra system found in the different traditions. I will again give merely an extremely abbreviated treatment, and simply use one example: the overall summary of the chakras given by Hiroshi Motoyama. (In the following quotes, I have substituted "subtle" for "astral," which is a mere semantic shift to be consonant with the terms we have been using; the meaning is unaltered.) On the one hand, the chakras are indeed stages of evolutionary unfolding: "During spiritual growth, a person must ascend the evolutionary ladder through these dimensions step by step, gradually increasing his awareness of the higher realms." 5 Now for the hard part. Each chakra must also contain gross, subtle, and causal energies and their correlative consciousness states (because even in the lowest stage of development—the first chakra—an infant wakes, dreams, and sleeps, and possesses a gross, subtle, and causal body). In other words, in addition to being a specific stage of development, each of the 7 chakras must contain three body/energies and three mind/states. Motoyama: "The chakras are the centers of the body's energy systems, which exist in each of the three different dimensions: gross, subtle, and causal." That is, each chakra has those three dimensions, which is why each chakra acts as an intermediary between the gross, subtle, and causal energies circulating at that chakra: "The chakras act as intermediaries between the three dimensions [gross, subtle, causal], and can convert the energy of one dimension into that of another." Each of those 3 energy/body dimensions, at every chakra, also has its corresponding mind (i.e., a version of waking, dreaming, and sleeping states, correlated with gross, subtle, and causal energies, so that each of the 7 chakras contains gross bodymind, subtle bodymind, and causal bodymind). Therefore, each chakra acts as the intermediary not only between the 3 different types (or families) of bodies/energies present at each chakra, but between the 3 minds (or 3 great consciousness states) and their 3 corresponding bodies/energies at each chakra. Thus, each of "the chakras are also intermediaries between the physical [gross] body and [gross] consciousness, between the subtle body and [subtle] manas, and between the causal body and [causal] karana, that is, between the body and the mind of each dimension" (i.e., between the consciousness/state and the body/energy of the 3 great realms present at every chakra). 282 At the same time, as development or evolution occurs, each of the 7 chakras can be awakened and entered with consciousness, at which point they function as actual stages (or "steps," as Motoyama calls them) of evolution. The overall picture of the chakras, then, is quite sophisticated, and, exactly like the Vedanta/Vajrayana "bare essentials" model of 3 states, 3 bodies, and 5 levels, the chakra system covers virtually all of the important bases. As a matter of fact, it is simply a slightly expanded version of that model, with 7 levels instead of 5. But the overall picture is consistent: the 7 chakras are 7 levels/stages of development or evolution. Each of those levels exist in three major dimensions: gross, subtle, causal. In the gross dimension, the chakras are associated with bodily organs and systems, such as the genitals, the solar plexus, the heart, the larynx, and the pituitary gland. In the subtle dimensions, the chakras appear as they are most often depicted, which is as subtle centers of energy and consciousness aligned along the spine (with secondary meridians as found in, e.g., acupuncture). In the causal dimension, the 7 stages themselves are so subtle and so ethereal they are starting to loose definition, but they are still present as the causal ground and support of all of the junior levels and dimensions—what Vajrayana calls "the very subtle chakras." This means that each of the 7 chakras has a gross, subtle, and causal energy dimension. At Motoyama points out, each chakra acts as a transforming station between those 3 energies as they appear at its chakra (e.g., the throat chakra can convert gross energy from food into subtle energy, or convert causal energy into subtle energy, and so on). Further, each chakra mediates the energy/body with the consciousness/mind at its chakra (e.g., the throat chakra mediates the gross, subtle, and causal energies with the waking, dreaming, sleeping states at that level). In other words, each chakra contains, at its level, the family-gross bodymind, the family-subtle bodymind, and the family-causal bodymind; and it mediates both those 3 energies with each other AND the various energies with their corresponding minds. Therefore, and lastly, each chakra also represents a stage of development or evolution (the chakras are a variation on the Great Chain of matter to body to mind to soul to spirit) and, accordingly, each chakra is a transforming station that mediates between the great states of consciousness (waking, dreaming, sleeping, all of which are present from infancy and present at all of the chakras) and the actual contents, features, genus and species of both energy and consciousness as evolution or development occurs through those 7 major stages or levels. The genus and species of consciousness and energy are not fully present or manifest at infancy, and consequently development is the emergence and maturation of 7 levels of both consciousness and its 7 correlative signature energies or bodies (or genus and species energy-fingerprints at each of the 7 chakras). I will pursue some of these details in an endnote for those interested. 6 As I said, the chakra system is both beautifully simple and bewilderingly complex, but in the last analysis, it is the simplest model that can adequately handle three things that we know exist: states of consciousness, stages of consciousness, and their associated energies, all of which can rather seamlessly be woven together with such a model. At this point, anything more is likely unneeded; anything less is likely inadequate. |
 
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