How does it actual work? As I understand it the astral body cannot produce prana by itself to keep the Self intact and therefore relies on the material body. Does it mean when I die I will still have some consciousness that eventually will go off because the astral body runs out of prana?
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It’s not the astral body, that is the mental body.
Under Qigong, It’s the qi body that is part and parcel of a physical vessel that you also must leave to properly die and move on from an incarnation.
Qi and prana are the same thing. Yoga has a different way of explaining things, a different model. Do not mix them it’s just going to be confusing.
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It’s not the death of the astral body that causes the death of the mental body?
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No, they are the same thing, imo.
In the taoist systems I follow, there’s no such thing as an “astral body”, they don’t call it that. In the systems that have an astal body, there’s no such thing as a mental body. I THINK they are equivalent.
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The astral body cannot produce prana by itself. Prana comes from the material body absorbed by things like the sun. Is that the same with mental body in taoist system?
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No.
Prana IS human qi (Ren qi)
Qi is only stored in the qi body
Qi can be converted to other kinds of energy
Mental enery is stored in the mental body
Qi can be converted to mental energy
Mental energy converted from qi makes up the mental body
I have no idea what the model is for Yoga, I cannot answer for what “prana” does IN THAT MODEL, which is s DIFFERENT model. Maybe someone else can.
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I’ll try to explain in short, what I learned growing up in a form of western mysticism and what probably is in core a very similar view in many eastern mystic philosphies. So take in account I am trying to be somewhat brief in explaining, so.I am skipping over a lot of subtleties etc.
We are a microcosm, that can be seen as a globe with our divine seed/ spark as a single point at the heart of it. That microcosm and divine spark is our immortal self. Within that microcosm we have 4 bodies, which you can visualize as a square. Our physical body connected with the subtle bodies that govern it’s functions. Our ether body or prana/ qi/ lifeforce governs the primal functions that keep us alive and if I remember correctly the actual ether or prana is mainly generated and maintained by digestion in our physical body. There is our astral body that makes us want and need and then there’s our mental body which, you’ll never guess, let’s us think. The 4-unity of these bodies allow us to exist in this material plane and form our personality. They are the vehicle for or life on this plane of existence, if you will.
When you die your physical body will stop it’s functions and part of your ether body will stay behind and start to dissipate, clearing your microcosm of them. That is the 1st death.
Your microcosm together with your astral body and mental body will go to unseen parts of the material plane, a reflection of the living world, where it will further process the experiences you had in life. While doing so these bodies will also dissipate until the personality is fully gone and the experiences you had are stored in the microcosm as karma. This is the 2nd death.This makes sure you don’t have to learn these lessons anymore and the microcosm will get ready to receive a new personality and start it’s new incarnation.
So…. Short-long story shorter. The unity of the 3 subtle bodies in service of the 4th, the physical body, form the vehicle that enables us to manifest as a living being on the physical.plane of existence. Prana or the ether body is a subtle body in itself in service of our physical body. That is why your astral body, another subtle body in service of the physical body can’t generate ether for the ether body.
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According to Bardon it happens how you describe. Essentially the physical body dies and then astral body begins to decay and run out of energy. Eventually when it dies it the mental body can no longer remain and it reincarnates. So to answer a question you asked further down, the death of the astral body does not cause the death of the mental body as the mental body is the immortal part of you that moves from life to life.
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Hermeticists (or neo-hermeticists) following Giuliano Kremmerz believe that the soul gets reduced to a seed, then reincarnation happens; Evola and the Ur Group held that after death a person would practically vanish, this situation could gradually be changed through spiritual progress, which according Hermeticism is possible either on a Lunar or Solar (Osiridean) path, the first one long and “easy”, the second quick and hard (in fact the authors mostly do not disclose it and just talk about correctly interpreting the classic alchemical recipes).
In lunar hermeticism, one would pray, practice fasting and bath according to Moon’s cycles, light inner fires (love for parents, the husband or wife etc.) in order to “solve” some hardened stuff to get rid of, and so on.
Ur Group identified the path of initiation as firstly creating a division between thought and the spirit (for example by imagining that the mind becomes solid, then extracting and concentrating on it as an object outside of the body). Then moving the mind from head to heart, besides progressing from “I am” to “being”… All of that alongside practicing awareness about standing or sitting, seeing, hearing, inhaling, exhaling… also getting rid of inner blockages by feeling as the center of the Universe and, beyond the body, spread in all the Universe itself, considering oneself as the origin of the natural forces etc.
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While skeptics believe that when you die, everything is over and you become nothing, the truth is that what is left after you die is your consciousness. Sadly, you could remain as a ‘ghost’ until you finally accept that you no longer belong here.
^^ And to circle back to the whole lifeforce thing…
A western mystic theory is that while you choose to remain on the material plane, you need ether or lifeforce. Since you can’t generate your own, you’ll have to steal it from the living. Which is usually not a healthy and sustainable state, creating all sorts of problems for the living and the ghosts.
Fun fact (to me), but not important. The mystic organisation I used to be a part of viewed those as types of demons, instead of fallen angels or demonized gods and goddesses of other religions.