An etheric body is the organised, entire body, in which the different kinds of ether can carry out their organising breaking-down and building-up activities at the same time. Just as the scientist speaks about a physical body, someone who conducts spiritual research speaks about an entire body, which is an etheric body. Each person possesses a more or less strong etheric body, without this he could not live. This etheric body, however, is never visible with the physical eyes, but the expression of life gives an indication of the fact that life forces or etheric forces work within a human existence.
Apparently best connection
Sweeping circular connection in the sense of an entirety
The two points could be directly connected with a line. This connection would, at a first glance, appear to be the best because it is straight and direct. If someone observes the etheric forces, however, he notices that there is never a direct line. All movements in the etheric body round into a circle, almost like the sun itself, and therefore carry on their connection as if they are manifesting the attempt to form a whole. The practitioner should therefore connect the two points not with a straight-line, but with a sweeping curve, which represents something round or almost circular.
By devoting himself to this task, the practitioner notices sensitively how the sweeping, near-circular curve-form produces less an isolated figure, but a larger, whole being. The straight line, on the other hand, does not represent a real connection which takes into account the surroundings, but simply unites the two points externally in the attempt to take the shortest connection. The straight line, however, remains an isolated external abstraction, while the sweeping line opens up the first hint of becoming whole, of including a greater entirety.
A second exercise aims to promote body-free experiencing in the sense of some first forms of sensitive feeling. The etheric forces cannot be recognised through the physical senses because the etheric forces are actually not accessible to the perceiving eye. For this reason the aspirant on the path to clairvoyance must practise developing very concrete visions in the sense of a body-free consciousness. These visions come about when the soul is trained, through thinking and sensitively feeling, to the extent that it becomes active outside the body in free availability and carried by a fully mature, conscious ‘I’.