The ketheric template is the mental level of the spiritual plane. It extends two and a half to three and a half feet out from the physical form. It is an egg shape around the human aura and contains all the auric bodies of the human. It holds the whole form of the aura together. It is referred to in Eastern thought as the causal body.

In this layer of the auric field there is direct knowing that we are one with the creator, the mental aspect of oneness, whereas the previous layer contains the feeling sense of the experience of oneness with Creator, God, or Absolute.

Author Comments:

In Amrut Laya (The Stateless State) (1998), Shri Sadguru Siddharameshwar Maharaj says this is the supra-causal body and "it can be experienced as pure knowledge," beyond human ways of thinking.

The chakras are outlined in gold, as well as the physical body, and light extends out from there to form the egg-like cocoon. According to Barbara Brennan in Hands Of Light (1988), the ketheric template "appears [as] beautiful shimmering light, composed mostly of pastel colors. This light has a gold-silver shine and opalescent quality, like mother of pearl sequins... appears to be composed of light that radiates out from the body like the glow around a candle. Within this glow are also brighter, stronger beams of light."

Genevieve Lewis Paulson calls this the Divine Body in Kundalini And The Chakras (1991). In this layer of the auric field, one would "feel the presence of God all around. Know that God is within and without at all times... enables you to... be open to cosmic or Christ consciousness... opens us to living in constant oneness with God."

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

Helmut G. Sieczka says in Chakra Breathing (1994) that this is the causal body, which vibrates at the fastest rate, coinciding with Shirley MacLaine's claim in Going Within (1989) that the seventh chakra "is the fastest oscillating center." Sieczka also says "At the level of the causal body, the permanent transformation of all unresolved issues can occur."

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, in Meditation: The Art Of Ecstasy (1976), speaks of this as a "bodilessness" layer. I have mentioned above that the sixth layer was the end of his discussion on auric layers. Perhaps this layer is the unknowable beyond.

Joshua David Stone, Ph.D., says in Soul Psychology: Keys To Ascension (1994), and that this layer is the light body. "The Lightbody is the body you will inhabit at the time of your Ascension, Ascension deemed to complete merger with the monad... At that time your entire being, including your physical body, merges into light… This body is not fully complete until just before ascension."

Bob Larson condemns this experience of the seventh layer of the auric field in Straight Answers On The New Age (1989). He says of the seventh layer, "For new agers it is a holy grail, the end of their spiritual search in this life. Becoming one with the pantheistic cosmos is their goal... such doublespeak endorsing one's own ego as god doesn't make sense to the rationalist..." Bob Larson most likely has never had a spontaneous experience of realizing the self as the God within, and has probably not had a moment of samadhi, or he would not doubt the legitimacy of this experience that others have had. He comes from a Christian background, and most Christians do not accept the idea that humans are an expression of God itself within its manifestation of physical creation. Most Christians believe that God is outside the self, rather than inside the self, although esoteric Christians would be the exception.