They are fundamentally jada, or composite or un-feeling. The Vedanthins speak of a subtle body, separate from this gross body. That too is physical. It is the centre of subtle skills and force. It is in this body that all the subtle mental feelings and agitations take place.
Every force can work only through some medium or other, which is physical.
The same power that operates the gross body works through the subtle processes of thought. They are not two different entities. One is the subtle form of the other, that is all. If we delve deep, we will find that there are two things in nature, Akasa and Prana. Like the blocks of ice that water becomes and that float on water and that move about on water, the Prana acts on Akasa and bodies appear.