Physical World
Physical World
In theosophical thought, the lowest of the seven worlds, the world in which ordinary man moves and is conscious under normal conditions (formerly known as the Sthula Plane). It is the limit of the ego's descent into matter, and the matter which composes the appropriate physical body is the densest of any of these worlds. Physical matter has the seven divisions of solid, liquid, gas, ether, super-ether, sub-atom, and atom in common with the matter of the other worlds.
Beside the physical body, familiar to ordinary vision, there is a finer body, the etheric double, which plays a very important part in collecting vitality from the sun for the use of the denser physical body through its etheric centers, the chakras. At death, the physical body and the etheric double are cast aside and slowly resolved into their components. Theosophy adopted these ideas from Hindu teachings.