The etheric template body contains the blueprints of physical plane forms. It extends one to two feet out from the physical body. All seven chakras are seen in bluish white tones. It is similar to the template form for the first layer pertaining to the physical body, but it is a negative version of that. The places where the lines would be are empty, and the places there would be open spots in the first layer, are full of light. It is said by Barbara Brennan in Hands Of Light (1988)to be the place where sound creates matter.

Perhaps it is, for Eastern practices of mantras, chanting, and the focus on the word "om," or "aum" in some Sanskrit texts, are routinely used to take the spiritual aspirant into higher states of consciousness, states that could well likely be related to the auric layers and the chakras. It is believed that sound affects matter positively in this way.

Author Comments:

Genevieve Lewis Paulson in Kundalini And The Chakras (1991) calls this the Atmic Body (or Will/Spirit). In this layer "polarities are balanced and very usable. Balance will align us with evolution and divine will. Great powers, joy, and bliss will be natural parts of our being."

Ted Andrews in How To See & Read The Aura (2000), agrees with Genevieve Lewis Paulson that this is the atmic layer of the auric field.

In the Encyclopedia Of Psychic Science (1966), by Nandor Fodor, this layer is called the astral body. It is said to be an exact replica of the human form, and is considered "the double" in psychical research. It "denotes the link between the nervous system and the cosmic reservoir of energy."

In Man, Myth & Magic, Vol 1 (1985), editor in chief, Richard Cavendish reports that the astral body has a "shining and luminous appearance... capable of separating itself from the physical body and traveling about, passing through walls, ceilings, and other solid obstructions... It exists in...the astral plane, which includes the normal, everyday world but extends beyond it." This book also points to the possibility that some apparitions of persons living or dead are due to the presence of an astral body. Man, Myth & Magic, Vol 1 (1985), Professor Hart says in his paper "The Enigma Of Survival," that "the verified evidence of the reality of astral projection seems quite conclusive, and the evidence that apparitions of the dead may often be and usually are vehicles of surviving conscious personalities, seems also to be convincing."

Helmut G. Sieczka also says in his book Chakra Breathing (1994) that this layer of the human aura is the mental body, bridging the sixth and seventh chakras.

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, in his book Meditation: The Art Of Ecstasy (1976), says this is the layer that contains the polarities of cosmic levels of creation and destruction, and a person at this level of existence "cannot kill an ant, not because of any principle of nonviolence, but because it is his death. Everything that dies is his death."

Joshua David Stone, Ph.D., says in his book Soul Psychology: Keys To Ascension (1994), "The Buddhic body is associated with the Buddhic plane and the characteristic quality of it is intuition."