Is There an Early Christian “Subtle Body”? Pauline Pneuma and Tibetan Parallels

I argue here that Paul’s understanding of pneuma and pneumatic life is fittingly compared with Tibetan understandings of the “subtle body” and associated phenomena. Late-ancient Mediterraneans commonly understood pneuma as rarified embodiment. Central for Paul is to be metamorphosed from our present mode of embodiment—psychē-animated, material embodiment—into the mode Jesus accomplished in the resurrection: pneuma embodiment. This metamorphosis is indistinguishably physiological and “mentalistic:” It is a change in “hidden” physiology (in kardia, the seat of nous, where pneuma enters and circulates the body) which causes changes in nous and phronēma (mindset). It occurs through intensive embodied experiences and is accompanied by paranormal manifestations. I point to two Tibetan parallels: (1) theoretical discussions, where subtle embodiment is the order at which mind-becomes-physiology and physiology-becomes-mind; and (2) hagiographic and practice-manual references to paranormal phenomena associated with subtle body changes. These parallels helpfully transform our understanding of early Christianity.