1. Introduction

Almost everybody ignores this amazing resource: the body. What a shame! They concentrate on pleasure, survival, social status and power, like using a fighter jet just to go to the grocery store.

One can continue to develop and transform the entire life indefinitely – but only if one has done a certain amount of the correct work during one’s life. From a linear time point of view, death ends life. From a present moment point of view death bounds life, the border between space-time and time-space. Each experience adds a brushstroke to the painting which is your life; death frames it. Or, as Shakespeare put it, death is a mirror.

People often wonder: is there life after death? Meaning: does consciousness continue after death? No, because consciousness does not begin, end, or endure, being only now.

As a tree’s trunk, branches, and leaves show above ground, and its roots hide below ground, so a human’s body and physical manifestations show in Space-Time, and its experience, archetypes, and motivations hide in Time-Space. Most modern people work only on their Space-Time life because that’s what they see and nobody taught them how to work on the other part.

So a person’s “roots” in Time-Space remain undeveloped, shallow and weak, and when the “tree falls,” and the physical body dies, the “roots” soon die too. If a person works on their roots during their life and the roots grow strong and deep, they might live even when the tree falls.

What does “body” mean? We talk about a “body of ideas,” a “body of work,” a “body of facts,” …

“Body” refers to a set of related things which somehow form a whole, which, according to the notion of synergy, has properties unpredictable from the properties of the parts.

However, a living body is not a “thing,” but a process, through which the materials and energies continually flow. The pattern identifies the body, not the physical substance.

Ancient teachings often come down in garbled form. So, some religions posit the existence of a “soul,” which exists independently of the physical body.

To clarify thinking: many assume that any concept must refer to something actual, or at least possible. People often invent concepts with no correspondence to actual or possible phenomena (heaven, hell, God as an old man with white beard sitting on a cloud…) In theory, words serve as “signs” which point to concepts, but many use “empty” words which lack specific referents in order to invoke a reaction in the hearer or reader, due to conditioned responses. Very common in the media: “terrorism,” “drugs,” “communism,” “poverty,” “sexual predator,” “capitalism,” “liberal – conservative,” … Propaganda techniques use this method.

Take a word like “love.” People use it in so many different ways (“I love chocolate,” “You should love your country,” “Make love…”) rendering it effectively meaningless, though everyone “knows” what it means.

The word “soul” calls to mind some sort of “presence” separate from the physical body which continues to exist after the body dies and enters another body (Hindu) or goes to heaven or hell (Christian). Gurdjieff jokingly pointed out that English speakers confuse this supposed spiritual entity with the bottoms of their feet, since “soul” sounds like “sole.”

2. Order of Practice

Of course to some extent one works on all the bodies simultaneously, but there is a definite progression.

Westerners often assume that so-called “spiritual” exercises will benefit them no matter what. In fact, exercises meant for someone working on third or higher body can impede development or even harm someone still working on second body. So masters with understanding will assign students exercises commensurate with their level at that time.

For example, the Christian Gospels record certain teachings of Jesus. An Initiate can see that he intended many of these for his inner circle of advanced students and not for the general public. Fortunately, in most cases like this, “the secret protects itself.” Those insufficiently advanced to perceive the true meaning will simply find them baffling or take them as common morality.

3. Dimensions

(For a good treatment of dimensions, read the book Flatland.)

We will work with the idea of the 7-dimensional universe: three “outer” dimensions of Space-Time, three “inner” dimensions of Time-Space, and the 7th dimension which corresponds to the Asian “Tao,” or the Ancient Greek “Chaos.” Some call it “The Impossible.” (See The Dramatic Universe, by J. G. Bennett.)

Just as Einstein showed that the Earth rotating around the sun moves in a straight line in space-time, scientists will one day realize that evolution inevitably increases complexity in a seven dimensional universe. Despite the quixotic efforts of Richard Dawkins and others to defend the theory, random mutations and natural selection cannot explain increasing complexity and order in an entropic, four-dimensional universe without meaning or purpose.

Different dimensions work by different laws. We could restate The Second Noble Truth of Buddhism: suffering derives from mistakenly attempting to apply the characteristics of one dimension to another.

The dimensions of Time-Space have no beginnings, endings or duration; these qualities belong to Space-Time.

Westerners consider the idea of linear time fundamental. The Western model of time – past, present, and future – presents time as a linear progression. An image: a perceiver strapped to a seat on a train, looking in the direction from which the train has come. While a useful model for some purposes, we mistake it for reality.

We can only measure this kind of time by observing something moving. Our concept of time begins with the apparent movement of the sun, moon, and stars through the sky, actually the rotation of the Earth. It continues with the yearly cycle of the Earth’s orbit around the sun. Modern clocks use oscillations of atoms – still something moving.

So observed existence can be called “Space-Time.”

Traditional Western science works very well with Space-Time, existence. It completely ignores experience, like the proverbial ostrich with its head buried in the sand, though everyone knows that experience is part of reality. However, quantum physics recognizes that what you perceive depends on what you pay attention to. If you look for particles, you find particles; waves, then waves.

Science (knowledge) deals with what it can measure. Measuring means comparing one thing to another. If you want to measure the length of something, you can use a stick or tape marked with evenly spaced lines. But how can you measure consciousness or experience? With what can you compare it? We can call the fourth dimension time, or consciousness, defined as the “unique subjective.” As Einstein showed, each subjective observer experiences time in its own unique way.

Western scientific cosmology describes consciousness as just a faculty of humans. The story goes: the universe began, life evolved resulting eventually in humans, and somewhere along the way the nervous system became complex enough to be conscious.

A different perspective sees consciousness as a fundamental part of the universe, like gravity or the speed of light, though it does not “exist,” like matter and energy.

At least we can differentiate between Space-Time, existence, and Time-Space, experience. They intersect at the point called “the Present Moment.”

How many times can you experience? How many consciousnesses? I experience one consciousness, only here/now – presumably others also experience one consciousness – how? Space-time has the exclusion principle: a thing is itself, not any other thing, and no other thing can be it. But time-space doesn’t work that way. A different dimension: no things at all.

The word “eternity” can be used for the fifth dimension, the dimension of forms. Jesus referred to this dimension as the “Kingdom of Heaven.” Later Christianity interpreted that to mean a hypothetical place where your “soul” may go after you die.

Jesus said that if you follow his teachings you will have eternal life, i.e. life in eternity. Since people don’t understand eternity, they mistake it for unending life in Space-Time – absurd since our experience shows that all physical bodies die.

Just as infinite extension of a line never results in a plane, and infinite extension of a plane never makes a solid, infinite extension of linear time never creates eternity.

Plato also discussed forms as primary to appearances.

The sixth dimension can be called “Hyparxis:” the dimension of decisions, or will.

Will defies understanding, neither measurable nor experiencable. Like particles in a cloud chamber, we can only observe its effects.

The “Tao,” or “Chaos” as the basic foundation of everything, constitutes the seventh dimension, also called, “The Impossible,” “Unfathomable,” “Unknowable.” The Mystery, beyond all possible knowledge.

In speaking of dimensions, the word “higher” should be taken as an analogy. A better word might be “deeper,” or “more original.”

A given dimension controls those lower than it. So decisions control forms, and forms control experience. Experience, or consciousness, controls space-time. This hierarchy illustrates the saying, “you create your own reality.”

4. Higher Bodies and Dimensions

The possible higher bodies relate to the dimensions.

You can’t find the higher bodies in space-time. The word “bodies” calls to mind images of something looking like the physical body. Imagine them instead as “presences” in the higher dimensions, or the entire life experiences, “solidified” in a certain way.

The second body dwells in the fourth dimension: a body of time, of consciousness, of experience. Experiences intense enough to “make a mark” compose this body.

The third body arises from the fifth dimension, the dimension of forms. This body can perceive and create and destroy forms, in Hindu mythology the archetype of Shiva. When death ends the physical body, without this body’s ability to understand and manipulate forms, one may lose one’s way.

Without the “anchor” of the physical body one may remain lost and bewildered in the realm beyond death. The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation, also known as the Book of the Dead, describes this state and gives indications how to deal with it. As with many esoteric teachings, it assumes a certain level of “spiritual” accomplishment on the part of the student.

The fourth body persists in the sixth dimension, the dimension of decisions, of will. One cannot reach completion, the “insan-i-kamal,” “boddhisatva,” without developing this body.

5. Bodies and Will

The physical body dies, no doubt. Does anything of a human persevere beyond its physical body’s death?

People talk about “life after death” – a contradiction since death means the end of life. Perhaps they hope that consciousness will somehow continue after the body dies.

But consciousness cannot continue after death, because consciousness does not continue before death. Consciousness has no continuity. One can easily verify this by studying one’s own experience, though it takes some work. At any moment, one is conscious of a “slice” of experience. That “slice” consists of the contents of the “buffer” of recent memory. By seamlessly merging present experience with memory, the nervous system creates very well the illusion of continuity.

So neither the body nor consciousness extend beyond death. That leaves the will.

The dimension of will intersects that of experience at attention.

Clearly, the effects or consequences of will can extend beyond death. Most people make a “will.” That person makes decisions which have effects after its death. The will carries the “will” of the person forward, after the death of the physical body.

The Physical Body wills to survive, reproduce, obtain pleasure and avoid pain, to establish its territory and manifest in the physical world.

The Second Body wills to participate in its community, to gain a respected postion, obtain praise and accolades, perhaps fame and wealth, to master and manifest in its culture.

The Third Body wills to transcend its culture, to “enter history” with its own individual “take” in art, science, politics or whatever its field is, to “make its mark” and manifest on the world stage.

The Fourth Body wills to transform history by creating an event genuinely new, that can never be erased as long as humanity lasts, maybe even if it ends, to manifest on the cosmic stage.

6. Bodies and Energies

Physical body runs on Automatic and Sensitive energies and if the person works on itself, Conscious energy. Second body runs on Conscious energy and Creative energy. Third body Creative energy and Transcendent energy, Fourth body Transcendent energy and Chaos.

7. First Higher Body (Second Body)

Some call the first higher body the “Astral Body.” Subjectively, this body manifests as a time-body, or a body of consciousness, in the fourth dimension. From birth, each already has the “shell” of this body, an outline, an empty container with the form.. Then one fills it in, fleshes it out, like a child putting colors in a line drawing.

Sufi language refers to developing this body as “learning to swim.” Everybody develops second body, some orders of magnitude more than others.

Objectively, this body appears as connections with other people and society – one’s personality. From conditioning and random selection of memes, one slaps together a “false personality.” By real education and conscious work, one can construct a “true personality,” a character with individual moral codes. Of course, official educational institutions (actually conditioning centers) do not provide real education.

This body perseveres more or less after death but gradually dissipates, as others forget the person and die themselves. Everyone supports the second bodies of some people who have died: “Let’s keep his memory alive.” Some cultures specify for how many generations the family must conduct ceremonies for the dead.

Second body: a seat in time-space. The tradition of alchemy used the metaphor of separating gold and silver from baser metals by crushing, grinding, dissolving and distilling.

8. Second Body and Intense Experiences.

Modern “education” cloisters people in classrooms during the period of their life when they should intensely develop Second Body, thus diminishing their chances to build higher bodies.

Some conclude from Buddhist philosophy that one should eliminate desires, avoid the hassles of life and seek retreat. Probably, transmission and copying over time distorted the original teaching.

On the contrary, one should plunge into the midst of the broils of life.

Rather than attempting to delete desires, one should not identify with them. Divide attention. “One bird eats the sweet fruit, the other bird watches.” One attention lives in the midst of life, the other watches; and that second attention has no desires but experiences whatever.

The building of the second body requires varied and intense experiences in the midst of life, including dangerous, demanding adventures as well as ecstatic and joyful times. Feed it with ecstasy and misery, exultation and horror. Some of these experiences will not be ones you would choose, but one also needs subjectively “negative” ones.

This provides “food” or materials for the construction of the third body. Extreme experiences stretch the boundaries like blowing up a balloon. Otherwise third body will be limited, will not grow to its full capacity, just as a malnourished child will not grow big. This can take a long time – so it helps to live long and healthily.

For some, war serves this function, one reason why war has remained so popular. Some Schools, such as the Samurai, even use war as the foundation of their work.

Marpa, when teaching Milarepa, ordered him to single-handedly construct and then tear down several houses before he would give him any higher teaching. He needed to clean out the “dirt” from his working with “black magic” or sorcery; using higher powers for egoistic ends.

Tilopa worked with Naropa in an even more intense way.

Other methods: Long solitary periods, fasting, pain. Some yogis hang themselves from hooks through their skin. Some native Americans practice dry fasting for four days. Samoans do full body tattoos.

Travel, try different employments, associate with many people of various cultures and social levels. Experience both luxury and poverty.

If one develops the second body sufficiently, one can continue to work on the life as a whole and possibly complete the third body. Those without a “solid” enough second body see it gradually dissipate: the second and final death.

9. Second Higher Body (Third Body)

One should not rush into beginning the third body; it needs a good foundation.

Those at different stages of the Work require different strategies. Third body work reverses the approach. One has to become eccentric, peculiar. Work on second body fills in the existing outline, but work on third body creates something genuinely new. Second Body takes conscious work, but Third requires creative work. You have to design it. Second Body existed in potential but Third did not. This allows freedom.

Work on Third Body constructs the “house” you will live in after you die. A Second Body with large scope allows a mansion, a constricted Second Body only a small cave.

Metaphorically, building Second Body resembles taming a wild animal, learning to ride a horse. Third body rather means learning to control the puppet, program the robot. It explores and masters the possibilities of the physical body.

Third Body begins work on Reality Studio – making and shaping your Reality.

Some call the second higher body the “Body of Light.” This is a form-body in the fifth dimension. Those who have this body become, or “embody,” an archetype, or even several archetypes: shape-shifters. Sufi language calls work on this body, “Building a Ship.” Traditionally, this requires a group, with a genuine coach, or guide.

Even if you can swim, you have to return to shore or you drown. You can stay on a ship indefinitely and even sail to other shores.

The Third Body could be called a “Historical” Body. Not everyone mentioned in history books had such a body and not every Third Body appears in written history. But Third Body wills have a definite effect on history. These bodies transcend being remembered by those who knew them personally. They can survive for hundreds or thousands of years.

When Kennedy said, “We will put a man on the moon in ten years,” he was speaking from Third Body. When Hitler said that Germany will rule the world, when Churchill said that Britain would never give up, they were speaking from Third Body.

The creation of a Third or Fourth body requires a unique event, a singularity.

10. Fourth Body, or Third Higher Body.

The third higher body, in the sixth dimension, constitutes a Decision-Body, or Will-Body. Few create this body; it confers immortality at least within objective human history. Perhaps it even transcends humanity.

Jesus created such a body. Decisions that he made still resonate and affect people after 2000 years, and will go on affecting people. Adam, who according to tradition lived 40,000 years ago, made decisions that still affect people. Prometheus, whose legend probably represents an actual human who first understood how to control fire, lived even farther in the past.

This extremely rare Fourth Body could be called a “cosmic” body. Fourth Body wills start a whole new branch of history. In art, third body creates a new style of an art form, for example Impressionism in painting. Fourth body creates a whole new art form, science, culture or even civilization, though civilization probably requires the collaboration of several fourth bodies.

Just as with the Third Body, we don’t know who all the Fourth Body individuals were, but the wills go on “living” and affecting people’s lives. Jesus, Gautama Buddha, Mohammed, Lao Tse, and others made decisions that persevere still.

Making Third and Fourth bodies also requires some luck, right time, place, preparation… Some people may work on themselves in vain; the historical situation does not favor transformation. Others may miss the time.

In our oldest surviving story Utnapishtim (or Ziusudra) told Gilgamesh, who sought immortality, “There is no secret formula. Who will call the gods together for you?” All the right ingredients have to combine in the right way.

Nevertheless, Gilgamesh did create a Fourth Body, as we still remember his deeds after 5,000 years.

Despite their best efforts, not everyone can achieve destiny.

11. Conclusion

If you identify with the physical body you are going to suffer, because it will die. If you identify with consciousness you will suffer, because consciousness cannot do anything, it can only experience.

If you identify with Second Body you will suffer because it depends on people remembering you, and will gradually dissipate.

Only when you identify with Third Body can you start to transcend suffering.

In Norse culture, for example, people hoped to do deeds great enough that people would continue to sing their “Sagas.”

12. Conquest of Time-Space

Time-Space is stolen from us, colonized by karma: cultural conditioning continually community reinforced. Peripheralized; the System insists that we accept Space-Time as the only reality. To retake it, steal it back requres a revolution, a guerrilla war against that internalized imposed dictator. Victory seals the conquest of Time-Space.

The entire life can continue to develop and transform indefinitely. Experiences don’t disappear. The universe is a closed system, so where would they go? Past and future are concepts; reality contains only the present moment, the many-petalled, ever-changing lotus. You’re the boss. Write your own ticket. Create your life as a work of art.

“Love, if you and I with Him conspire, To grasp the sorry state of things entire, Would we not shatter it to bits, And then rebuild it nearer to our heart’s desire?”

Death “shatters it to bits.” But to rebuild it requires something apart from what was shattered to bits. What is that?