Mental body
The Mental Body is one of the Subtle Bodies in Theosophy and New Age thought. It is understood as a sort of psychic body or aura that is made up of thoughts, just as the Emotional body consists of emotions and the Physical body is made up of matter. In occult understanding, thoughts are not just subjective qualia, but have an existence apart from the individual consciousness.
According to C.W. Leadbeater and Annie Besant (Adyar School of Theosophy), and Alice Bailey, the mental body is equivalent to the "Lower Manas" of Blavatsky's original seven principles of man. But Barbara Brennan describes the Mental body as intermediate between the Emotional and the Astral body in terms of the layers in the "Human Energy Field" or Aura.
The mental body is usually considered in terms of an aura that includes thoughtforms. In Theosophical and Alice Bailey's teachings, it corresponds to the Mental plane
References
- Brennan, Barbara Ann, Hands of Light : A Guide to Healing Through the Human Energy Field, Bantam Books, 1987
- -- Light Emerging: The Journey of Personal Healing, Bantam Books, 1993
- C. W. Leadbeater, Man, Visible and Invisible
- Powell, Arthur E. The Mental Body