The causal consciousness (Kārana-Śarīra) or Higher Manas, which is the seat of man’s higher consciousness. According to theosophy, upon physical death the material body and the etheric double are shed, and later both ASTRAL and Mental Bodies are similarly shed, (see Death, Second), leaving the Causal Body (Kārana-Śarīra) free to enter Devachan. In time, karma, or the law of cause and effect, impels the Ego to incarnate for further experience in the physical world.

The word “Ego” in this context should be distinguished from the “ego” as used in contemporary psychology, which is the equivalent to transient personality in the theosophical literature. Some writers therefore capitalize the word “Ego” when referring to the reincarnating Ego. See also Reincarnation.

V.H.C.

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