The subtle body

[Ninshub]

Is the subtle body what I experience when I'm meditation, for example, and just resting my awareness on the "inner body" (feeling the sensations or the energy of the body from the inside, so to speak)?

When I do this for the body as whole, it often feels like it's exactly aligned with the physical body.

This made think of videos I've seen with non-dual teacher Francis Lucille, who speaks of the subtle body. He mentions, for example, that if we're walking in a room filled with objects that feels cramped, it can actually be because our subtle body is brushing up against the objects.

I wonder if the phantom limb phenomenon can be explained in this sense as well.

Is the subtle body what I experience when I'm meditation, for example, and just resting my awareness on the "inner body" (feeling the sensations or the energy of the body from the inside, so to speak)?

When I do this for the body as whole, it often feels like it's exactly aligned with the physical body.

This made think of videos I've seen with non-dual teacher Francis Lucille, who speaks of the subtle body. He mentions, for example, that if we're walking in a room filled with objects that feels cramped, it can actually be because our subtle body is brushing up against the objects.

I wonder if the phantom limb phenomenon can be explained in this sense as well.

Unless your meditation has achieved the ultimate level where the body is dropped completely and you are aware of a 'subtle body' (whatever that is?... but that which is commonly reported) I would say no. But coming from someone who doesn't meditate, it's arguably not worth much. Hope this helps  

Edit :That little smiley face next to the time lapse just appeared there and won't let me delete it

[Ninshub]

When I do this for the body as whole, it often feels like it's exactly aligned with the physical body.

Sorry there's a there typo (or missing word): I meant it often feels like it's NOT exactly aligned with the physical body.

Is the subtle body what I experience when I'm meditation, for example, and just resting my awareness on the "inner body" (feeling the sensations or the energy of the body from the inside, so to speak)?

When I do this for the body as whole, it often feels like it's exactly aligned with the physical body.

This made think of videos I've seen with non-dual teacher Francis Lucille, who speaks of the subtle body. He mentions, for example, that if we're walking in a room filled with objects that feels cramped, it can actually be because our subtle body is brushing up against the objects.

I wonder if the phantom limb phenomenon can be explained in this sense as well.

A person is normally completely unaware of the "subtle body", but I think that it is ultimately real and a very complex structure responsible for the immaterial spirit interface with physical body and especially brain (an interface predicted to exist by the various interactive dualist philosophies). Having that role, the subtle body would absolutely need to be normally perfectly aligned with the physical body, in order for the immaterial spirit to seamlessly "meld" with the physical processing of the physical brain, in order to form the composite human physical personality and human mind. If the subtle body really becomes chronically shifted and misaligned with the physical body and brain, some mental and psychological problems and disease conditions would presumably arise. This may be the underlying cause (hitherto mostly a mystery) for problems like autism spectrum disorder. The resistance and intractability of such conditions to drug and surgical therapy might be evidence of this kind of origin for the conditions. Drugs and surgery obviously won't correct for misalignments of the subtle body.

Well there is some evidence from neuroscientist Olaf Blanke that inducing out of body experiences can help alleviate phantom limb pain. I would say that the subtle body has differing levels of immersion, sort of like putting on a suit or submerging oneself in the ocean. The barest level of the subtle body is like getting your toes wet or putting on an undershirt. There is a simple exercise called the energy bounce which is taught by Robert Bruce of astral dynamic fame, and consists of merely imagining an area of your body until it begins to feel heavy, tingling or whatever corresponding feeling you get, and then moving this sensation from your feet to the top of your head very rapidly. Again, I think this is a low level experience of the energy body, whereas the highest that I have experienced is the out of body experience and the early levels of immersion lead to the higher.

This may be the underlying cause (hitherto mostly a mystery) for problems like autism spectrum disorder.

There are many issues with the idea that a misaligned subtle body causes autism in my opinion. For one, there is an extremely large gender skew for autism. Maybe male subtle bodies are failing to adapt to modernity as well as women? I for one don't think the differences between men and women warrant a 4:1 rate of male to female ASD differences but this is a pretty open question and I don't have the answers. The next one worth considering is that many risk factors for autism have been uncovered, such as genetics, and the condition of the mother while she carries the child to term, the age of the father, hormone levels in amniotic fluid and more. If the issue was simply an energetic one I doubt we could have this many predictors. Finally, twins are more likely to have ASD if one of them has it (maybe twins share an energetic body?).