Mystic masonry, or, The symbols of freemasonry and the greater ...

The Secret Doctrine. 165
elements. The tissues and organs originate from
cells, these from molecules, and these again are
supposed to be composed of atoms or so-called
elements. Physiology classifies the functions of
man as organic—mere association of tissues endowed
with life like the plant, hence sometimes
called vegetative functions: as Animal—viewe'd
from the sensuous plane, and common to all animal
life : as Intellectual, in which are generally included
the Moral and the Spiritual. Consciousness is usually
regarded as incidental, according as it appears
or disappears on the physical plane.
It has already
been shown that in the Secret Doctrine, Consciousness
is regarded as the permanent or basic factor in
Man's Being. It is never destroyed, never suspended,
but may retire from one plane to another.
In this sense it may be withdrawn from the physical
plane.
This old theory of the Ego, or Thinker,
and its planes of consciousness on any of which it
may be latent or active during its connection with
the body, makes it possible or thinkable that the Ego
may, in its states of consciousness, transcend the
limits of the physical body altogether, and furnishes
a conception of the nature and existence of the human
Soul. These elements of truth, be it observed,
are derived from the phenomena and experiences of