Title: First Steps Toward the Experience of the “Subtle Body” Tags: #Evola #SubtleBody #InnerEssence #Hermeticism #EsotericPractice 1. The Heart as the Center of Consciousness: The intuitive truth that the center of consciousness resides in the “heart” has been obscured by modern science’s focus on the brain, which silences true knowledge in favor of sensory illusion. 2. Creating an Inner Environment: The first step toward experiencing the subtle body involves creating an “inner environment” where its organs can awaken to consciousness, similar to how physical organs respond to external stimuli. 3. Perceiving the Subtle: Alongside sensory impressions, we must strive to perceive a distinct, supersensible essence—a silent echo within us that reflects the intimate nature of things. 4. Separation of the Subtle and the Dense: By experiencing the head as detached and external, we separate the “subtle” from the “dense” (Hermetic terms) or the “real” from the “unreal” (Hindu terms), allowing subtle impressions to replace ordinary sensations. 5. Methodical Discipline: This practice requires intense, prolonged concentration to discern precise differences between sensory impressions and their subtle counterparts, which retain an objective character. 6. Thoughts and Emotional Contents: The same practice can be applied to thoughts and emotions, distancing ourselves from the head to seize thoughts before they are cerebrally articulated, revealing a new order of differences. 7. Dangers of Ecstasy: A key danger lies in becoming ensnared by ecstatic feelings or cosmic consciousness, which can cloud awareness. It is essential to retain the sense of the Self and active consciousness, avoiding the voluptuousness of possession that returns us to the physical body. This approach emphasizes the development of the subtle body through disciplined inner work, transcending the limitations of the physical and sensory world to achieve a deeper, esoteric understanding of th