The Body of Light and the Body without Organs

Among the most problematic of the main concepts of Deleuze and Guattari’s thinking is the Body without Organs (BwO.) This paper undertakes to examine the BwO in the light of another body from a radically different tradition, the Body of Light or Subtle Body that is the object of several forms of magical, mystical and alchemical practices, including Buddhism, Theosophy, and Hermeticism. Juxtaposing these two concepts will allow them mutually to explicate one another. I submit that the practices involved in the discipline of the construction of the subtle body may be appropriated as techniques for the construction of the BwO.