THE ETHERIC PLANE MENTIONED BY CHARLES LEADBEATER IN REALITY DOES NOT EXIST

Charles Leadbeater in his book "Occult Chemistry" (1908) wrote:

« Footnote: These sub-planes are familiar to the Theosophist as gaseous, etheric, superetheric, subatomic, atomic; or as Gas, Ether 4, Ether 3, Ether 2, Ether 1. »

(p.8)

And in the 1919 edition of this book, he gave more details:

« The atoms of the Astral plane in combination give rise to the finest variety of physical matter, the ether of space, which is not homogeneous but really atomic in its character, and the minute atoms of which physical molecules are composed are atoms of ether, "etheric atoms," as we have now learned to call them. 

The article detailing the results of the research carried on in the year 1895 (see the November issue for that year of the magazine then called Lucifer), began with some general remarks about the clairvoyant faculty, already discussed in the preceding chapter. The original record then goes on as follows:

"The physical world is regarded as being composed of between sixty and seventy chemical elements, aggregated into an infinite variety of combinations. These combinations fall under the three main heads of solids, liquids and gases, the recognised substates of physical matter, with the theoretical ether scarcely admitted as material."

Ether, to the scientist, is not a substate or even a state of matter, but is a something apart by itself. It would not be allowed that gold could be raised to the etheric condition as it might be to the liquid and gaseous; whereas the occultist knows that the gaseous is succeeded by the etheric, as the solid is succeeded by the liquid, and he knows also that the word "ether" covers four substates as distinct from each other as are the solids, liquids and gases, and that all chemical elements have their four etheric substates, the highest being common to all, and consisting of the ultimate physical atoms to which all elements are finally reducible. »

(Chapter 2, extracts)

OBSERVATIONS

In summary, Leadbeater states that on the physical plane there are four different types of ethers, which he called: ether 1, ether 2, ether 3, and ether 4. And these four different etheric states constitute the etheric plane.

But this statement is completely false!

1) To begin with, the four different types of ethers that Leadbeater claimed to have perceived through his clairvoyance do not exist.

First, because Leadbeater asserted that these ethers are in a formative phase of what he called "the primordial physical atom" or "anu," and even revealed that there are female anus and male anus:

The anu was imagined by physicist Edwin D. Babbitt who put this figure in his  book "The Principles of Light and Colour" which was published in New York in 1878.

 

And he titled this image “The Ethereal Atomic Philosophy of Force” because  Mr. Babbitt theorized that atoms were formed from the ether theorized by the scientists of his time,  which they considered to be an invisible fluid that filled all space and constituted the medium for transmitting the various manifestations of energy (heat, light, magnetism, etc.).

 

And the reason Mr. Babbitt imagined the atom as a vortex is precisely because several scientists of his time  (such as Lord Kelvin in the 1860s) had suggested that the atom could be a vortex generated within the ether.

 

But the negative result of the Michelson-Morley experiment in 1887 led scientists to believe that the ether did not exist, and the theory of relativity published in 1905 by Albert Einstein finally convinced the scientific community to completely discard this theory of the ether.

 

And this shows how little informed Charles Leadbeater was because by the time he published his book in 1919, fourteen years had already passed since scientists had completely rejected the existence of the ether and the anus.

2) But Leadbeater also asserted that when matter passes from one etheric state to another, a change in atomic structure also occurs, and in the following diagram Leadbeater showed the differences that, according to him, take place in hydrogen (left column), in oxygen (middle column) and in nitrogen (right column):

E1  is the first etheric state

E2  is the second etheric state

E3  is the third etheric state

E4  is the fourth etheric state

Gas is the gaseous state

Liquid is the liquid state

Solid is the solid state

But science soon discovered that this does not happen when changing from one state of matter to another (for example from solid to liquid, or from liquid to gas, etc.).

The atomic structure remains the same regardless of the state of matter,  and  therefore what Leadbeater proposed is contrary to the laws of physics.

But moreover the atomic structure that science has discovered is completely different from the atomic structure presented by Leadbeater.

3) And to make matters worse, what Leadbeater taught is different from what Blavatsky taught, since she, based on ancient Hindu tradition, explained that there are seven main states of matter on the physical plane, which are the following: 

STATES OF THE MATTER	ELEMENT WITH WHICH IT IS ASSOCIATED	TATTVAS (IN SANSKRIT)
still unknown in the west	primordial or supreme matter (aether)	adi
still unknown in the west	"parentless" or  self-existing matter	anupadaka  or aupapaduka
ethereal	ether	akasha  or  alaya
incandescent	fire	taijasa  or  tejas
gaseous	air	vayu
liquid	water	apas
solid	earth	prithivi

And as you can see, there are notable differences with what Leadbeater taught because in the original theosophy and in the Hindu tradition, of the four higher states of physical matter, only one is ethereal .

But it is not the ether theorized by scientists of the past, nor is it part of the ethers imagined by Leadbeater, but rather it corresponds to what Indian sages call the tattva [fundamental state] called akasha or alaya.

And Blavatsky revealed that these three higher states of matter are currently incipient, but that as the Earth continues to advance in its cycle of existence, these three higher states will become increasingly manifest.

« Occult Science recognises Seven Cosmical Elements — four entirely physical [earth, water, air, fire], and the fifth (Ether) semi-material, as it will become visible in the air towards the end of our Fourth Round, to reign supreme over the others during the whole of the Fifth [Round]. The remaining two [self-existent matter and  primordial matter] are as yet absolutely beyond the range of human perception. These latter will, however, appear as presentments during the 6th and 7th Races of this Round [Four], and will become known in the 6th and 7th Rounds respectively. " 

(The Secret Doctrine I, p.12)

In other words, those three higher states have nothing to do with the creation of atoms, as Leadbeater claimed, but are more sublimated states of physical matter.

Just as incandescence is a more sublime state than the liquid state, and the liquid state is a more sublime state than the solid state.

But the atoms in the liquid state will not create the atoms in the solid state, since they are the same atoms and only their concentration changes due to the temperature change.

Low Temperature                  High Temperature

4) But the height of absurdity is that in order to incorporate his four fictitious etheric states, Leadbeater eliminated the fourth state of matter, which is incandescence. This is nonsense because the element fire is found in all esoteric traditions and also in science. Yet Leadbeater eliminated fire on a mere whim.

CONCLUSION

From everything I have just demonstrated, it can be concluded that the ethers that Leadbeater claimed to have discovered through his clairvoyance in reality do not exist, and consequently neither does the etheric plane, and this is further proof of Leadbeater's enormous charlatanism.

NOTES

1. In the book "Occult Chemistry" it is stated that Annie Besant also participated in the clairvoyant investigations on ethers, but in reality the clairvoyance of Leadbeater and Besant was null, but still Leadbeater managed to convince Besant that he had awakened her clairvoyance, and what Mrs. Besant perceived were only images produced by her imagination and influenced by Leadbeater.

Gregory Tillett commented:

« In the summer of 1896, Mrs. Besant, Leadbeater, and Jinarajadasa spent a holiday at Mr. and Mrs. Bright's summer home in Shepperton on the Thames, where they continued their clairvoyant investigations. Jinarajadasa took copious notes but observed  that Leadbeater did most of the clairvoyance, while Mrs. Besant merely added some extra detail. »

(The Elder Brother, p.65-66, extracts)

2. The book "Occult Chemistry" contains so many falsehoods that the Theosophical Society of Adyar stopped publishing it in the middle of the last century in order to try to hide the enormous charlatanism of its authors.

But the Department of Chemistry at Yale University published an article that demolishes them, asserting that absolutely everything Leadbeater and Besant clairvoyantly saw about atoms is false, and that they also intentionally lied even knowing they were telling falsehoods (see link). 

3. And despite the fact that the etheric plane does not exist, several pseudo-instructors of esotericism have taken it up, teach it to their followers, and have even added more lies to it.

And some of them have been: Max Heindel, Rudolf Steiner, Alice Bailey, Samael Aun Weor, Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov, Vicente Beltrán Anglada and Jorge Angel Livraga.

4. The true Theosophical instructors (Kuthumi, Blavatsky, William Judge) explained that there are seven planes of existence at the planetary level, and one of those planes is the bearer of the vital energy known in the East as prana.

But as you can see for yourselves, the pranic plane is located "above" the physical plane, not within it as Leadbeater claimed. This individual, in his arrogance, decided to modify the original teaching by eliminating the pranic plane and incorporating its characteristics into his false etheric plane.

5. But Leadbeater also made tremendous mistakes in this, such as stating that the etheric plane is only composed of four different types of ethers, but it turns out that the universe has a septenary structure, and that is why there are seven planes of existence, and each plane is composed of seven states of the substance that makes it up.

That is, just as physical matter has seven main states (and under the Law of Correspondence which says that "as above, so below"), in the same way the substance that makes up the pranic plane also has seven main states and not four as Leadbeater stated.