Dharma Talks by Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz

The subtle physical body is a body of light. It is a much truer body, it is closer to what we are really like than our physical bodies are. The subtle physical body is composed of strands or luminous fibers of energy that interconnect different planes and times. The times are what we would refer to as the past, the present and the future. And the planes of consciousness are the seven principal planes of awareness, of existence. They're all interconnected through the chakras or gateways that are in the subtle physical body along the spine. From the base of the spine to the crown of the head there's an astral tube which is called the shushumna. It has two lesser tubes on both sides, the ida and the pingala. The kundalini energy, which is the basic life principle or life energy that works through the subtle physical body, moves normally up and down the ida and the pingala. It does not move too much through the shushumna. The shushumna, you might say, is not accessible to the kundalini in most human beings. Ple