Q: Is there a way that someone can detect which Ray is active in human behavior?

A: There are certain qualities or characteristics associated with the Seven Rays as they express through the personality. For example:

First Ray – Giving directives, orders, or commandments; prescribing specific actions others must take

Second Ray – Disseminating precepts or wisdom teachings, giving guidance for living; inspiring others to treat other people and living creatures with love, compassion, and empathy

Third Ray – Delineating steps or making plans to reach a goal; using intelligence to solve problems; creating a clear goal image of what one wishes to achieve

Fourth Ray – Immersion in present time experience and the flow of consciousness; pursuing creativity; and exploring new possibilities for living

Fifth Ray – Using analysis, study, and testing to gain exact knowledge; performing construction and deconstruction to isolate causal factors

Sixth Ray – Living in faith and obedience to religious or moral precept; developing virtues and a good character; being conscientious and striving for excellence

Seventh Ray – Bringing ideas and inspirations into expression; putting ideas together in a coherent theme (synthesis)

The Seven Rays do not exist in isolation; individuals may operate under the influence of different Rays, depending on the context where they are:

• If they are parenting their children or managing others, they may utilize a First Ray approach.
• If they are meditating or contemplating, they may adopt the Second Ray perspective.
• If they are setting goals for their life or working on a project at work, they may employ the methods of the Third Ray.
• If they are surfing or hiking in Nature, they may drop into the frame of the Fourth Ray experience.
• If they are investigating or scientifically studying an object or behavior, they may assume the mindset of the Fifth Ray.
• If they are religious and are attempting to live up to the moral guidelines of their faith, they may enact the behavior of the Sixth Ray.
• If they are inventing a new product or receiving ideas from their Soul, they may step into the Seventh Ray viewpoint.

If you understand these general patterns of how the Seven Rays express in the personality, you can recognize them when they are engaged. You can also come to recognize the environmental cues and the etheric resonances that influence people to shift into one of these frames of mental activity and behavior.

While we can characterize that one of these expressions of the Seven Rays is a dominant or preferred mode for a person, most people can flexibly shift into other Ray expressions, as the situation requires.

We give a succinct overview of the Seven Rays in our book, A Mudrashram® Reader: Understanding Integral Meditation. The interested reader may wish to start there to gain a better grasp of what the Seven Rays are, and how they express at the different levels of the mind.