AEHU/Plot/Esoterica Part I
Part 1: The Trichotomy, A Unified Framework of Esoteric Concepts[edit]
- B Note: This first chapter summarizes Dr. Melchior's thoughts on a logical framework upon which he could address and attempt to resolve Guru Bekkler's dilemma.
There are three facets to intelligent life, which are termed here: "Body"; "Soul"; and "Spirit." In light of our Enlightened Kingdom's culture, it would be best to recast the word "Spirit" as "Aura." Should references to "Spirit" still remain in this text, please think the word "Aura" when you come across it.
The Body is probably the easiest facet of life to visualize. In short, it consists of matter; you can touch it. A wide variety of traditional life forms - ranging from the vines in Kajar's hanging garden exhibits to the creatures of the Earth clinging to the barren plains below our sky islands, to we ourselves - exhibit a Body. However, it is theoretically possible within this framework that there exist forms of life lacking a body.
The Soul is that part of life which would correspond to the "Shadow Realm" spoken of in our religious tradition. It is that part of us which is completely unobservable. No instrument that we could devise would ever be able to measure it or its potentiality.
- B Note: Ah, Melchior, how you have learned from your predecessor's mistakes! The future Guru of Life possessed political sensibilities Bekkler lacked. I personally found this concept to be utter cowtowing to prevailing royal sensibilities and completely impractical for a text claiming to be scientific, but as you will see later, he managed to make supreme use of this. To this day I cannot guess whether my protege was drawn to it by private religious tendencies. In any case, we had to adhere to a religion publicly, so there is hardly further use in discussing it.
The Aura. Now we come to something truly esoteric and a bit difficult to wrap our minds around. Defining it as our "personality," or our "will," or even the "emotions" that separate us from more feeble creatures would not be incorrect. However, perhaps it would be best to term it our "dreams," since it has proven most measurable in Enhasa's famous sleepers.
That's right -- what separates "Aura" from "Soul" is that "Aura" is measurable both scientifically and even to human senses. Surely you have noticed it in daily life: the anger that surrounds someone storming out from an unfavorable chess tourney, the pride pervading the victor of an Elemental duel even though he or she keeps a straight face; the peaceful contentment soaking into you should you happen to gaze upon one of Enhasa's sleeping beauties.
What you sense in each of these situations can be summarized as psychic energies associated with a figment of the human experience. When we feel an emotion, make a decision, reflect on the past - indeed, when we engage in any activity requiring intellect - eletric signals flow through that part of our brains known as the cerebrum. One could say that this natural process generates the Aura through "Astral Induction" just as an electric current generates a magnetic field through magnetic induction.
Astral Induction has proven easiest to observe when studying a dreaming individual. When the human subject enters R.E.M. sleep, massive electric signals course through the otherwise resting brain, accompanied by observable increases in the intensity of his or her Aura. It is hypothesized that dreams serve the function of data rearrangement within the brain; thus, while we dream, we relive impressions of waking life, our hidden desires, and our interaction with others. By the end of our lives, our dreams may have turned over the entirety of our unique personal experience.
Still, the dreaming process seems curious. Perhaps it only serves a practical data rearrangement function and nothing else. However, brought within the Body/Soul/Spirit trichotomy, it may serve other crucial purposes. One of the mysteries Zealian and Shikari religion cannot answer in and of itself is how the Soul should be able to contain the identity of an individual. If we experience the totality of our lives once while awake and once again while asleep, it is as if a "copy" of our experiences is made; perhaps it is transmitted through dreams to the Soul. Upon death - essentially the disassociation of Body, Soul, and Spirit - the human experience can still live on within the Soul now that it has been imprinted by the individual's dreams -- by his or her Aura.
A hypothetical corollary to this function of the Aura is that it serves as a point of connection between Body and Soul -- the pathway of communication between the tactile physical world and the unseen, unobservable Shadow Realm. In fact, possessing an Aura may be prerequisite to possessing a Soul. If the Soul's purpose is to carry the individual's identity - the totality of his or her experiences - into an "afterlife," the Soul has no business being where an Aura is absent. Conversely, the Soul has every reason to be where there is an Aura, because this fulfills the Soul's function. It is the Aura that allows the Soul to experience the physical world and interact with it, and thus the Aura anchors the Soul to the observable world.
Any conscious and intelligent being may therefore possess a Soul. Also therefore, beings that do not exhibit conscious thought processes do not possess a soul. In short:
I think, therefore I am.
I dream, therefore I have a Soul.
With this theoretical foundation in mind, let us turn to a situation in the life sciences that has come to be known as "Bekkler's Dilemma" and how this dilemma may be resolved.