Power, etc.

It is not necessary in this book to go into the general consideration of
the nature and character of Prana. It is sufficient for us to consider
it in its manifestation of Vital Force, Life Essence, etc. In its
broadest sense, Prana really is the Principle of Energy in Nature, but
in its relation to living forms it is the Vital Force which lies at the
very basis of manifested Life. It exists in all forms of living things,
from the most minute microscopic form up to living creatures on higher
planes, as much higher than man as man is higher than the simple
microscopic life-forms. It permeates them all, and renders possible all
life activity and functioning.

Prana is not the mind or the soul, but is rather the force or energy
through which the soul manifests activity, and the mind manifests
thought. It is the steam that runs the physical and mental machinery of
life. It is the substance of the human aura, and the colors of mental
states are manifested in that substance, just as the colors of chemical
bodies are manifested in the substance of water. But Prana is not
material substance--it is higher than mere matter, being the underlying
substance of Energy or Force in Nature.

While it is true, as we have seen, that all auras are composed of the
substance of Prana, it is likewise true that there is a simple and
elementary form of auric substance to which occultists have given the
simple name of the prana-aura in order to distinguish it from the more
complex forms and phases of the human aura. The simplicity of the
character of the prana-aura causes it to be more readily sensed or
perceived than is possible in the case of the more complex phases or
forms of the aura. For whereas it is only the more sensitive organisms
that can distinguish the finer vibrations of the mental and emotional
aura, and only the clairvoyant sight which can discern its presence by
its colors, almost any person, by a little careful experimenting, may
become aware of the presence of the prana-aura, not only in the way of
"feeling" it, but in many cases of actually seeing it with the ordinary
vision rightly directed.

That which is known as the prana-aura is of course the most simple form
or phase of the human aura. It is the form or phase which is more
closely bound up with the physical body, and is less concerned with the
mental states. This fact has caused some writers to speak of it as the
"health aura," or "physical aura," both