In the body, seen as Upper Right, there are three physical dimensions to address:
- chemical (diet)
- electrical (nervous system)
- mechanical (musculo-skeletal)
Nervous system is more than brain and mind; it involves growth ofsensory awareness and control of movement; growth of feeling awareness,
the ability to make subtler and subtler distinctions, and sense of
control of action/behavior, of navigable memory, of flights of
imagination — and to leave off all of these.
The “loss” of the physical body in sleep is FORGETTING the
constraints of the waking state through a psycho-physical inhibition
process electro-chemically generated in the physical body. It’s a
suspension of attentional-intentional memories associated with the
waking state, revealing the “subtle” body. That inhibition continues
into the dream state.
When the memories of eros and agape (imagination and memory) are
inhibited, the rest/equilibrium state perceived is called the causal
body.
Thus, the four basic somatic functions, attention, intention,
imagination and memory, when inhibited, lead from the waking state
through dream and deep sleep.
The matrix of the three states may be somatic — or soma may be the
“outer picturing” of the harmonic content of the three states. “If you
want to know the past of the mind, look at the body; if you want to know
the future of the body, look at the mind.”
Soma isn’t just flesh; to think so forgets that all matter is
embedded in fields. Soma consists of both matter and field. It is very
tempting to leap to, “physiology is the matter” and “sentience is the
field”. But I won’t say that.