People speak of a 'fourth dimension', but there is no fourth dimension, for if you could lift yourself into it you would find your self in another set of three dimensions just as real as the three you have left behind you, while the three dimensional world you have just vacated would have vanished, so it is with the Etheric World. It is a very real place functioning on a faster vibrational speed than this world, and is placed in succession with the lowest plane nearest the earth in vibration. There is no actual border line between them, yet the borders are clearly marked because of the types of souls dwelling there. It is important to bear in mind that the Earth is not the only real and physical place in creation. All the planes of the spirit world including Heaven are not imaginary places, they are as real to the people living there as what the Earth is to us. In the spirit world if you touch the grass, you feel the texture of the blades as you would here. If you smell the air, you will experience the different aromas - as you do here, you will hear - as you do here, all of the senses are still intact and experience the environment as a real place. The only difference being in the intensity of the senses. In the spirit world you will hear more clearly, see brighter, be more sensitive to taste, touch and smell.
Description of the Planes
The Pit
First Astral Plane
Second Astral Plane
Third Astral or First Etheric Plane
Fourth Astral or Second Etheric Plane
Fifth and Sixth Astral Planes
Seventh Astral Plane
Eighth Astral Plane
Ninth Astral Plane
Communication between Planes
The Earth Plane
Not actually considered one of the Astrals, this is the plane of God's school. It is to this plane we reincarnate in order to learn lessons - the basic lessons required for further development after we leave it for the last time.
This is an actual place that lies lower than the first plane and is darker and more loathesome than the lowest of the astrals. This is the place we on earth call 'Hell', although it bears no resemblance to the hell depicted in the Bible and taught to us by church leaders and parents. Only very great evil can find itself there, evil that has practically lost its semblance to humanity, for the mind makes the form we inhabit in the Etheric World. A bright mind makes a bright form, an ugly dark mind will produce an ugly dark form. It depends upon a souls own development, as no soul group can return to God so long as a single member of it is missing. The door of improvement and salvation is never closed to any human soul, for the core of a soul is a drop of the God-power; eternal, beautiful and something that must, sooner or later, make itself felt, even by the most insensitive owner. So one day, even the Pit must empty and all soul matter return to God.
This is the lowest plane, the 'Plane of Outer Darkness', and is a plane of loneliness and darkness where distinctly 'bad' types have made a place for themselves. The inhabitants of this plane make their own conditions. They are the cruel, the selfish and the unloving and by their own thoughts and actions have shut themselves off from others.
Many of the Romans of Caesar's time are still to be found there. The Romans were great athletes, great thinkers and eventually conquered the world as they knew it then. This caused them much selfishness and foolish pride which they to this day have not been able to shake off.
Less dark and lonely than the First Plane but there is still gloom and bareness in it. Though where there was nothing but rocks in the First Astral Plane here sparce grass and stunted trees now begin to appear, and even houses, though small and hovel-like in appearance. These are the places souls have fitted themselves for, the places they have prepared for themselves.
As the planes ascend, the grass becomes greener and the trees straighter, flowers begin to appear and dwellings improve. On the Earth Plane, the cruel and selfish prey on the meek, but in the lower astrals they are placed only among others of similar tendencies, removing this ability.
This plane is also known as the 'Summerland' and from it come the guides who endeavour to serve their fellow man in earth life. The Summerland is a place of great beauty where most souls go when they 'die'. There is no night or winter or harmful elements. All God has given the earth is granted to the Summerland, but in perfection not known to the Earth World. There soul mates meet and work and live together. Persons gravitate to their own kind, just as they do in all parts of the Etheric World. Souls remain here until all the Earth desires and passions are no longer felt.
Also known as the 'Plane of the Changed Form', and from there, there is no possibility of return to this Earth. Teachers and helpers from this Fourth Plane go to the Third Plane in order to transmit their knowledge. This is the plane of intellectual realisation.
These planes are so pure and so refined that there is little contact between them and even the Third Plane. On these planes the mind is purged of any 'self'. Before a soul can continue it must accept and appreciate that it no longer will be an individual and must cease to 'see' itself as one. All vanity, self wants and needs and aspirations must be discarded. These are the waiting halls of meditation.
This plane is also known as the 'Heaven Plane'. Ever heard the saying 'seventh heaven'? It is true - heaven lies on the Seventh Astral Plane. By the time a soul arrives there, it has rejoined it's soul group and becomes ready to return to God. No soul group can continue until it is complete and before every last member of it has risen from the Pit and rejoined it. It is on this plane that the Christ Spirit resides and from here that it returns to the Earth Plane.
It is on this plane that the soul groups discard the group identity. The groups here prepare for the rejoining with the other spirit groups.
Also known as 'Nirvana' or nothingness where the soul is purged of everything ready for the return to God.
Just as we on the Earth Plane can, with much practice and some initial difficulty make contact with those in the Spirit World, so too can those on the Third Plane communicate with those on the Fourth Plane, but not with souls on higher planes. Those on the Fourth Plane can communicate with those on the Fifth Plane but no higher and can transmit their knowledge to those on the Third Plane, but no lower. It is because of this filtering of information that our knowledge of the higher planes is so limited.
