When we go to sleep, we are in a spiritual world!

When we go to sleep, we are in a spiritual world!

Otherworldly travel is not quite the same as envisioning in various imperative ways.

In otherworldly travel, the explorer's mindfulness is uplifted and the voyager can coordinate the experience if wanted. This is dissimilar to imagining, in which the visionary's mindfulness is dulled, and the visionary needs activity. In many dreams, the fantasy dramatization unfurls as though controlled by some outside power with next to zero control practiced by the visionary.

In profound travel, the explorer is additionally mindful that he or she has left the physical body and the world that is experienced is not the physical world. In typical imagining, notwithstanding, the visionary trusts the fantasy to be genuine as though he or she is acting in the physical world. This clarifies the immense dread in bad dreams where any danger is seen as a risk to the physical body which could bring about death.

Since the profound voyager's mindfulness is clear and thought, there is typically no troublesomely recollecting the experience. Many individuals experience difficulty recalling their fantasies in light of the fact that most visionaries encounter a dulled type of mindfulness amid dreams.

Following an otherworldly travel involvement, at times does the voyager fall once again into a fantasy state or oblivious state. The force of profound travel does not fit quickly reemerging rest or dreams. As a rule, there is a familiarity with coming back to the physical body, and the individual stirs promptly after an otherworldly travel involvement.

In spite of the fact that otherworldly travel may start by "awakening in a fantasy" (clear envisioning), the fantasy show typically stops when the visionary stirs. The emblematic substance of a fantasy more often than not stops quickly when the clear dream starts, and the visionary detects that he or she is presently responsible for the fantasy's occasions.

Otherworldly travel additionally gives a significantly more extensive scope of experience than is available in dreams. The clear visionary with the correct preparing can utilize the clear dream as a bouncing off point to investigate a wide assortment of profound and mystic states not accessible in dreams. When one inward the truth is entered intentionally, it is generally simple to enter another in light of the fact that the clear dream state is much similar to being in a lift in a building. The visionary who figures out how to push the right catches can trigger a change to an alternate floor or plane of reality.

Clear envisioning is just a single of the ways that profound travel can be started. Otherworldly travel may likewise start amid contemplation, or because of a horrendous stun to the body. The way that an otherworldly explorer can go straightforwardly into an internal world by means of reflection without the loss of cognizance that happens when profound travel starts from the fantasy state appears to demonstrate that profound travel states are free of and not to be related to the fantasy state. The fantasy state is just a single of an arrangement of entryways which can be utilized to achieve otherworldly travel states.

One of the troubles of recognizing a typical dream state from a clear dream state is that there are degrees of clarity. Some of the time there is expanded mindfulness in a fantasy where the visionary trusts he has stirred however then goes ahead to act in a way that is unique of somebody who is totally alert.

Arousing totally implies that the visionary responds to dream circumstances similarly he or she would respond if wakeful in the physical world. Now and again this semi-waking state shows as a powerlessness to act to change the fantasy. Here there is a solid feeling of waking mindfulness which is joined by a uninvolved state of mind of acknowledgment and weakness. Another type of semi-waking cognizance happens when the visionary has restricted access to typical memory and can't perceive well-known people or circumstances. Here, the visionary has a subset of his ordinary recollections and can't respond typically to the fantasy circumstance in light of these missing recollections. Additionally, a type of semi-clarity happens when the visionary feels clear in the fantasy yet the fantasy show proceeds as the mind or individual oblivious keeps on creating representative substance in the fantasy. Here visionaries may keep on interacting with figures in the fantasy, and notwithstanding for instance view themselves as to be detained in the fantasy state as they look to avoid terrifying circumstances however can't wake up. Full clarity for the most part implies that visionaries can wake up in the event that they want to wake up.

This semi-waking cognizance muddies the refinement between ordinary envisioning and clear imagining. Genuine clear imagining has a precious stone clearness that by one means or another feels much more intense than the standard lucidity of waking mindfulness, and it is this sort of clear dream express that is effectively recognized from a typical dream state.

The clearness of impression of the clear dream state likewise enables the fantasy voyager to analyze and assess the multifaceted nature of the clear dream condition which is not something that the vast majority in a typical dream state can do. Clear dream situations frequently contain so much unpredictability and detail that it would take many Hollywood set fashioners and manufacturers weeks and even a long time to develop them. Such intricacy makes the claim that the fantasy condition is a result of the visionary's creative ability or oblivious personality appear to be unimaginable or possibly exceptionally improbable.

Any individual who has done mechanical or compositional outline, designing, and development knows the enormous mindfulness, arranging, and care that essentially goes into influencing an item to like a bike or building a solitary, basic structure like a staircase. Both plan and development are to a great degree tedious procedures requiring days and long stretches of work to outline or potentially assemble moderately straightforward structures. No individual could promptly (or over a time of a solitary night) make the multifaceted nature of a reasonably complex clear dream condition without anyone else. Furthermore, adding to this many-sided quality is the test of the brain making an animatronic dream body which is completely utilitarian for the clear visionary to occupy and use to collaborate with the clear dream condition. To put it plainly, visionaries do not have the time, aptitude, and fixation important to make most clear dream conditions.

In this way, similar to the case with physical conditions, the wellspring of such creation (counting both body and encompassing condition) should fundamentally be outside of the visionary's brain. Being outside the visionary's mind influences the clear dream condition to some portion of some bigger parallel plane of presence which contains target components however it may not be called objective similarly physical items are depicted as goal. This is basically in light of the fact that fantasy protests regardless of their multifaceted nature do not have the solidness of physical questions and shared involvement of these articles in the fantasy world is amazingly hard to report and confirm.

Neuroscientists who demand the psyche is indistinguishable with the cerebrum will by and large recognize that the waking mind has many points of confinement on its inventive limit (aside from the cerebrum of an innovative virtuoso like a da Vinci or a Picasso). However some way or another the normal resting cerebrum turns out to be hugely imaginative amid both clear and ordinary envisioning to the point of being nearly god-like. The visionary with no related knowledge or training turns into a content author, on-screen character, executive, outfit and set planner, prop producer, lighting master, and numerous different things to deliver a perplexing dream play progressively. The clear dream state enables the visionary to look at a standout amongst the most nitty gritty components of the play - the set and the greater part of the articles it contains.

Shockingly, the undeniable irregularity in the limit of imagination when looking at the resting and waking mind does not appear to irritate neuroscientists. This is maybe in light of the fact that clear imagining where this innovativeness is most observable happens haphazardly in many subjects and is along these lines hard to think about. However clear imagining brings the test of clarifying this inventiveness into stark concentration in a way that ordinary envisioning does not. The way that clear imagining presents this test when ordinary envisioning more often than not does not is yet another method for recognizing clear imagining from typical imagining.

In any case it is likewise likely that these mind boggling dream marvels are conflicting with the neurological model of a cerebrum that is naturally restricted and artificially determined. Likewise with close demise understanding, it appears to be humiliating for neurological reductionists to concede that they have no persuading biochemical or neurological clarification for the monstrous burst of imagination that happens in the repeating mental wonder of clear envisioning and to a lesser degree in ordinary envisioning. This is particularly genuine when dreams have been the protest of genuine investigation for clinicians since the late nineteenth century.

Therapists now and then appear to see dreams as alters of recollections of past ordinary experience that have been by one means or another joined together and replayed in dreams. This approach may represent complex dream involvement in a few occurrences yet in clear imagining, the visionary associates intentionally and inventively in flighty, unconstrained courses with the fantasy condition. So this "replaying the past" hypothesis separates since it winds up noticeably difficult to locate an altered memory part that can be embedded to give the substance of this sort of eccentric, intelligent dream understanding.

Our decision is that if the many-sided quality of clear dream situations is past the innovative limit of the normal personality or cerebrum to create at that point, as with objects in the physical world, this unpredictability must start outside the individual's brain. Since clear dream objects are not physical articles they should start and exist in some parallel plane of presence. The nonphysical place or plane where clear dreams exist can be precisely depicted as a nonmaterial or extraordinary world. On the off chance that clear dream encounters are not physical and not a result of the visionary's psyche (in light of the fact that no individual's brain could be that innovative), they must be part of some metaphysical reality. And as stated previously, if there is one nonmaterial world or space that contains dream experience, there are probably many more and these would include the spaces where the spiritual traveler goes during spiritual journeys.

Finally, it is not necessary wake up in a dream to do spiritual travel while asleep. Many of the experiences at this site occurred spontaneously while the traveler was asleep without actually beginning in a dream. Adopting a spiritual practice that emphasizes spiritual travel will tend to produce such spontaneous travel experiences where the sleeper "pops into" out-of-body states while asleep without first being in a dream.

Having tried to describe the differences in analytic terms, it is necessary here to state that none of these distinctions really captures the qualitative differences between normal dreaming and spiritual travel or lucid dreaming. The quality of awareness is just different in ways that seem impossible to describe. One thing that can be said is that this "difference" in consciousness sometimes inspires awe and fascination. There is also many times the direct and immediate sense that one's soul is composed of spiritual energy with much potential. It only awaits thought to activate that potential energy and direct it towards some end. It is up to the traveler to train his or her mind and increase the ability to concentrate to be able to direct this energy towards some desired state of consciousness or new form of knowledge.

It is important to understand the differences stated above so as not to confuse spiritual travel with dreams. However it may be difficult to convince someone who has not done spiritual travel that it is different from dreaming no matter how many distinctions are drawn.

The Hierarchy of Dreams,

and the Stages of Awakening

The Hindu Brihadaranyaka Upanishad mentions a hierarchy of four basic states of consciousness that compose mankind's experience. However, the four states (deep sleep, dreaming, waking, and samadhi or the spiritual trance that brings union with Brahman) constitute a bare bones outline, and very little is said about the relationship of these states to each other, or how an individual in one state perceives the other states. The following essay is an attempt to describe a broader variety of states, and includes states that change over time such as after-death states and the states of historical memory that span lives or incarnations. We will also describe the rules by which an individual perceives or remembers one state from another. The overarching analogy that best describes the relationship of the adjoining states of our new hierarchy to one another is the relationship between the waking state and the dream.

The author acknowledges a Buddhist bias in developing this hierarchy and assumes that the highest Buddhist state (Nirvana) is beyond the Christian heaven. This state therefore is assumed to provide a broader view of the universe than is afforded by heavenly states described in Christianity or other religions with heavens such as Pure Land Buddhism. This statement is not meant to disparage deities many of whom have vast awareness that manifests as great fountains of wisdom, love, power, and creativity in the spiritual worlds. These deities provide access to spiritual worlds to countless individuals following their deaths. The statement is only meant to acknowledge that any qualities or personal attributes associated with a deity represent a narrowing and limiting of infinite Truth.

But now let us return to the topic of this essay, the hierarchy of dreams.

Realizing One Was Dreaming Upon Awakening

The dream is only understood to be false when the dreamer awakens. During the dream, the world encountered is understood to be real. Its "illusion" is not recognized during the dream. As we shall see later, this limited form of awareness which cannot recognize illusion can give us insight into why materialists so strenuously deny the spiritual world.

However, each time we wake up, we have the realization that it was only a dream. Illusions cannot harm what is real. We are safe in the real world, and the dream could never have harmed us. But we were deluded and we thought that the phantoms we encountered in the nightmare we had last night were a threat to us.

Was the dreamer ignorant or insane or primitive or immature or evil? No - he or she was simply unaware.

What are the characteristics of a dream which cause dreamers to make this mistake in judgment and to lack awareness? We can see the following limitations in dreams when we wake up.

The dream lasts a short period of time (relative to waking experience)

It is less organized and more random than waking experience

Events in the dream were not true and could not harm us (even though we thought they could)

Our analytic skills are very limited and we cannot perceive irrational and disorganized events as strange or unusual

There is no causal link between events in an earlier dream and events in a later dream (events in last night's dream do not usually affect events in future dreams)

Waking up renders the dream experience unimportant or of little value

When the dreamer wakes up, the dream disappears never to return to the same context (the dream usually cannot be continued where it left off)

Events in the dreams have no influence over events in our waking existence

But we can see these truths only in hindsight when our awareness shifts to waking awareness. There must therefore be degrees of awareness. So let us speculate on these degrees of awareness.

Let us make a hierarchy of these degrees of awareness, going from low to high, that incorporates the concepts and insights that we derive from dreams, spiritual travel, and world religions. Here is our hierarchy of levels of awareness listed in order from lowest to highest.

Normal dreaming

Lucid dreaming

Waking awareness

Afterlife (heavens, hells, hungry ghost worlds, ancestor worlds, etc.)

Knowledge of multiple incarnations in multiple worlds (reincarnation)

Enlightenment, moksha, liberation, or ultimate Truth

Now let us try to relate these states to one another. The author's argument is that as we move from a lower level to the next higher level, it is like waking up from a dream.

As we go from a normal dream to a lucid dream, we gain freedom, increased awareness, and self-determination. We are asleep and wake up in a dream. The dream then changes no longer resembling its earlier form. The symbolic content of the dream usually shuts down as we begin to examine the dream environment, and take control of the dream. We have shifted to a state of greater awareness in the lucid dream and can see that the dream state was a kind of sleep-walking. Our awareness was dimmed or dulled in the dream but it has now become bright and sharp in the lucid dream.

But when we wake up from either a lucid dream or normal dream, we gain awareness and generally conclude they were both unreal and not very important in the scheme of things. We are in normal waking awareness and realize the limitations of the dream described above.

But what about the next level? Let us accept a generic religious claim (derived from Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism), and assume that there is such a thing as heaven, hell, and afterlife worlds. One of the things we hear is that heaven or hell is eternal, or at least lasts a very long time. If we stay in heaven thousands of years ("When we've been here ten thousand years bright shining as the sun ..." as the Christian hymn Amazing Grace goes when referring to heaven), and we look back on our former earthly life, it will seem like a dream. Just like a dream, it lasted for a short period (perhaps 75 years) and disappeared never to return. After such a long time in heaven, it will not seem very important. We will look back on our earthly life as if it were a dream. But even after a short time following our death as we notice that we still have awareness, we will begin to look at our former life as a kind of extended dream. It lasted for a finite period and now it is gone and replaced by a different form of awareness. Our whole complex, familiar earthly existence simply vanished like a dream.

Now let us assume, as the Buddhists and Hindus do, that our time in heaven or hell is finite, and that there is reincarnation. In this approach, people are reborn in different worlds (heaven, earth, ancestor worlds) and evolve spiritually in the process. In this case, a new life (or incarnation) will make the previous incarnation seem like a dream. If we become aware of memories from our past lives, they will seem like distant memories or dreams that are of little importance. Like the dream, we have left them behind and can never return to live fully in that life again. For those who have experienced a deep past life regression, some have claimed that the experience of the past life was so real that they believed temporarily that their past life was the real life and their current life seemed distant and unreal like a dream. Upon leaving the past life regression, the situation reverses and the current life again becomes the real one. Reality and dream (past and present) can switch sides when examining past lives. The structure of the personality and its network of memories seems to stay intact following death and are still accessible to those who explore past lives in depth.

Remembering multiple lives in sufficient detail will give us a unique perspective on our experience, helping us to see our current life in a context of a broader series of lives and experiences. The person who in the dream of everyday life identified him or herself with a single personality wakes up to discover other layers of personalities that are inherited from previous lives. As such, this awakening can be classified as a higher form (or degree) of awareness that brings wisdom and increased vision to our waking awareness. This vision will also provide us with a unique attitude towards death since we will know (instead of only hope) it is but a transition and not the end of our existence.

But as we go through hundreds and thousands of lives and become wiser spiritually, we may begin to seek liberation or enlightenment. And when we become enlightened according to Buddhist thought, we become Buddhas. The Buddha is the "awakened one". He or she has awakened from the dream of life. However this dream we call life is complex. It consists of dream life, of waking life, of after-lives (heavens and hells), and of repeated incarnations (many lives). When the person has his or her final awakening, he or she will encounter ultimate reality and all previous dreams will cease. The Buddha has awakened fully from the many dreams of existence and has finally encountered what is ultimately real.

And each awakening makes the previous existence seem in varying ways like a dream.

We Can Look Down But Not Look Up

A second observation when describing the relationship of these states of consciousness to each other is that our vision is unidirectional vertically. In other words, we can perceive or remember what is below but not what is above. The waking person can generally see (be aware of and remember) his or her dreams which are "below" waking awareness in our hierarchy. But past afterlife (heaven or hell) states (which reside above waking awareness) are invisible and cannot be remembered. Because there is usually no evidence for or awareness of afterlife states, faith becomes a very important psychological component of many religions.

The waking person also cannot usually remember what happened prior to his or her birth (past lives), since that experience also exists "above" the person in our hierarchy.

The person in the afterlife is generally assumed to be able to (look "down" to) remember his previous existence on earth. This, after all, was what brought the person to the appropriate state of heaven or hell. In Christian thought, it is assumed that it is the person's behavior on earth that results in their afterlife state, and justice requires that people be aware of how their earthly actions affect their afterlife. But, based on most Christian cosmologies, the person in heaven or hell cannot look "up" and see any direct evidence for the existence multiple lives or any evidence for the existence of the state of enlightenment. This may explain why there is no mention of either of these states in Christian thought.

Heaven is assumed to be the highest state attainable by human beings in the Christian tradition. It is also generally believed that the individual only lives one life on earth followed by an eternal afterlife. The heavenly afterlife will seem like a type of joyous waking existence, but possibly without the sense of anticipation of a future death (i.e., it may seem eternal).

Similarly, the individual who can perceive past lives and looks "down" to remember these past lives has direct evidence of his or her earlier lives because of the complex set of memories associated with these previous existences in both earthly and supernatural worlds. Such a person can potentially remember past lives in heaven, hell, and on earth. But the individual who can perceive previous lives still cannot look "up", and therefore has no experiential evidence for or direct knowledge of the state of enlightenment.

Lastly, according to Buddhist thought, the Buddha, Bodhisattva, or the enlightened person can look "down" and see all worlds, all states of being, and all previous existences but realizes they are all empty and devoid of substance. The enlightened person can see everything below because he or she is at the top of the hierarchy. However, everything that is seen (past or present) will seem like a dream. Past experiences that seemed very real at the time will have lost their drama and importance, and any identification with them will have evaporated like morning fog. In the present, those caught in the various levels of our dream hierarchy will look like phantom figures having mock experiences and fighting mock battles.

Perceptual Transparency

One quality of experience that may help the reader understand this concept of emptiness is perceptual transparency. Transparency of perception occurs when an individual looks through (or shifts from) one world into another making the previous world seem illusory or dream-like.

This phenomenon of transparency is something experienced when the lucid dreamer observes the process of waking up. The lucid dream body becomes transparent to waking perception and disappears all together as one finds oneself back in the physical body. The lucid dreamer knows that the seemingly solid world of his or her lucid dream is a temporary space that will disappear slowly like water as it evaporates on hot pavement in the process of waking up and returning to the physical body.

Spiritual travel experience also causes the physical world to become temporarily transparent to the psychic or spiritual worlds. One clear example of this kind of travel occurs when the person having a near-death experience enters the "dark tunnel" that leads to another world. The person is generally first looking at the outer world (in an out-of-body state) and then finds him or her self moving at tremendous speed through a tunnel as perception of the physical world fades or disappears. A more rapid kind of transition to another space occurs when the traveler shifts or skips from one lucid dream environment to another.

The most dramatic example of seeing through one world into the next occurs at death where there is a permanent transition to a different plane of existence and physical perception ceases as the world of the afterlife comes into focus.

All the above experiences require a dramatic transition when shifting perception from one world to another. However on a more subtle level, people routinely shift from physical perceptions to the imagination and back again. It is seamless and hardly noticed but the physical perception loses focus becoming transparent as the imagination temporarily takes over.

For individuals who have not experienced spiritual travel and therefore experiences themselves as completely one with the physical body and its limited form of perception, the concepts of moving between worlds and transparency of perception are difficult to understand, and something that is likely to be an object of skepticism. However these concepts may give insight into the nature of the enlightened mind for one who is open to the religious goals of moksha or spiritual freedom.

When we look at the enlightened person as an advanced spiritual traveler, we can assert that the enlightened mind is able to shift (i.e., travel, or in more popular terminology "trip") between universes composed of vastly different kinds of perception. This freedom to move through the planes of consciousness, identity, and perception make the field of vision so large that all that is experienced looks transparent to something else so that every form or perception is perceived as an illusory layer of an infinitely layered universe. In other words since all perceptions are fleeting and potentially transparent, they seem like a dream. Leaving behind or seeing through one layer and focusing on the next is like waking from a dream.

Another way of saying that all environments and perceptions are illusory or transparent is to say that they are empty or devoid of substance. This is the way Buddhists describe the world but many find it difficult to understand the meaning of this claim without understanding the nature of spiritual travel experience.

The surface of the water of a lake reflects the surrounding light composed of trees and clouds but it can quickly reveal a completely different underwater world beneath it with a slight change of focus. The surface reflections are then exposed to be an illusory world that had seemed real. As the surface becomes transparent, the underwater world dominates and eventually blots out the surface reflections entirely.

Now try and imagine a trillion worlds or layers of perception instead of only two. Each world can be a focus of perception but that world can and will become transparent as another one of the countless worlds comes into focus. The more profound perception of the Buddha is the ability to perceive all these levels at once as an infinite ocean of change. But beyond even this is the capacity to perceive the profound spiritual emptiness from which all these worlds arise and upon which they all depend.

Spiritual freedom or liberation means not being tethered to any one layer or subset of layers (such as normally occurs when one is incarnate in a physical body) while also being aware of the emptiness that is the source of all the layers.

There are two other analogies that may be helpful in understanding the emptiness of objects and phenomena. The Javanese shadow puppet plays are full of drama and complex character interactions but the players are completely composed of shadows. A shadow is a form without substance but one capable of complex role playing and dynamic movement. Similarly Plato described the material world as a complex of shadows whose existence depends on invisible, higher order, divine or ideal forms. The physical world is composed of the shadow projections of these higher forms. Shadows are good examples of empty or insubstantial forms.

The Buddha or Bodhisattva who perceives all lokas or levels of existence can look into the many worlds of other beings and out of compassion tries to help them wake up and realize the unreal, empty, or dreamlike nature of their experience. The profound insight that reveals the countless beings that are suffering in illusory worlds creates an enormous feeling of sympathy and compassion that motivates liberated beings to try to eliminate such suffering. This perception is the basis for the deeply held principle of compassion in Buddhism.

The enlightened person is at the top of the hierarchy of awareness and therefore cannot look up since there is nothing to see. This parallels the person in the dream state who cannot look down since, being at the bottom of the hierarchy, there is also nothing the see.

The person with the most vision and awareness resides at the top of the hierarchy and the person at the bottom (i.e., in a dream state) is the most limited and has the most narrow vision.

Increasing Reality

In general, the author will make the claim that each level is increasingly "real" as we move up the hierarchy. As we wake up from each level on the hierarchy, we realize that each of the previous levels was "dream-like" or, in philosophical terms, ontologically inferior to the present level.

The important exception to this generalization is that the spiritual states encountered in spiritual travel or near-death experience may allow one to jump into higher levels of the hierarchy. That is why spiritual travel is so unusual and valuable. This exception accounts for why lucid dreaming does not conform with the rules that govern the hierarchy i.e., we are aware of the next higher level of awareness (waking existence) during the lucid dream, which breaks the rule. Lucid dreams can provide us with awareness of the states that reside "above" waking existence in the hierarchy which is what mystical and out-of-body experience does. Such experience breaks all the rules that normally limit our awareness.

The mysterious thing about all this is the recurring certainty that we have at every level of awareness that:

The one we are in is real

The lower levels are unreal, illusory, or less real

The higher levels do not exist

Theories are supposed to give explanations for situations in the world that otherwise seem difficult to explain. We have numerous claims by multiple religious systems throughout the world that there are many transcendent spiritual realities. But few of these often conflicting claims can be substantiated and they are difficult to organize into a coherent system. What does our new theory about the hierarchical nature of awareness seek to explain?

It explains why materialists are so sure there is no spiritual world (they cannot see evidence for it from their limited state of waking awareness and as with a dream, the current level of awareness is always believed to be the most or only real one)

It explains why some religions focus on heaven and why others focus on reincarnation and enlightenment (these states represent different levels of awareness on the hierarchy and therefore both different religious ideals and world views)

It explains why we dismiss the importance of a nightmare upon awakening which, moments earlier, had us terrified and in fear of imminent death (the lower levels of awareness are illusory from the point of view of the upper levels)

It explains why dreaming individuals are certain the dream is real (the current level of awareness is always the real one regardless of how irrational or confusing it is)

It explains why people doubt the existence of reincarnation and that they have lived before (again, it is not visible during waking awareness)

It explains why the term Buddha means "awakened one" and why becoming enlightened in Buddhism is described as an "awakening from sleep"

It may explain why many theistic religions are sure that their deity is the supreme being, and that their deity's heaven is an ultimate and eternal state .

Monotheistic religions seldom acknowledge reincarnation or states more transcendent than the heaven of their deity because the cyclic view of life supported by the doctrine of reincarnation challenges the eternal nature of heaven and the ultimate importance of a single life. When heaven is not eternal, the deity that runs the heaven tends to lose the quality of omnipotence since he is no longer in complete control of the individual's afterlife (and the loss of other qualities such as omniscience tends to follow). The doctrine of linear time where there is a single birth, life, death, judgment, and eternal afterlife for the individual (as opposed to cyclic time) is thus a required feature of most monotheistic religions.

However from the point of view of a devotee, the mind of the deity is so vast and the sphere of the deity's control so enormous that the fact that the deity did not create and does not control the entire universe is not of critical importance. The fact that the deity is powerful enough to offer some form of salvation or a positive afterlife environment to the devotee following death is what usually matters most.

The blind are only aware of their blindness if a seeing person explains to them that they are blind. Similarly, dreamers can only find the motivation to wake up if they become aware that they are dreaming. This applies especially to lucid dreaming and to spiritual enlightenment. This is why we need religions and mystics that talk about transcendent worlds of eternal truth and beauty. It also applies to people who seek spiritual experience through spiritual travel.

The skeptics are caught in the dream world of everyday existence. The nature of this and all dream worlds make them certain that there is no afterlife (higher world) based on the absence of spiritual or transcendent experience in their own lives. To repeat, they cannot see upward.

This is the mystery of awareness. It is also the mystery of ignorance. In many ways, it is this certainty that is truly the dream and the illusion. We are wrong all the time when it comes to judging what is real in the dream but we always assume we have it right this time. We love the certainty of our narrow view of the world and the assurance that we are right no matter how many times we are proven wrong. Spiritual travel and near-death experience presents further evidence that we are wrong in assuming that waking consciousness is the ground or truest aspect of existence, and other worlds do not exist.

Tonight, most of us will be sure in our dreams that the world we encounter is real, and wake up as we have thousands of times before to discover it was unreal. But few will reflect on our recurring inability to judge what is real. Few will consider the possibility that our senses do not give us an accurate view of the universe. Few will discover that our ability to judge the reality of a situation is limited by our state of consciousness. For those who do spiritual travel and explore it in depth, it is well known that our perceptions are also limited by our state of consciousness.

If we did such reflection and analysis, we might change our approach and begin to seek out that which is real by setting out on the spiritual path.

There are few routes in which one can visit the soul world. The first is the most widely recognized one. Consistently when we are snoozing, we go to the soul world, particularly when we are in profound rest and in delta wave. In any case, we don't recollect our visits to the soul world more often than not. In the event that we have had a brilliant night's rest including times of dreamless rest, we will wake up feeling altogether revived: this is a decent sign that our vitality has been energized in the astral. It will be most blessed on the off chance that one can recollect an astral dream. In the event that we long for someone who has passed on, and he shows up in his prime and years more youthful, this is the surest sign that we are in the astral. On the off chance that we have an intermittent dream of going to a house, which is being changed, or modified, it would imply that we are setting up our future house in the astral. At whatever point you long for yourself flying you are in the astral. Every one of these fantasies are clear and clear and we recall them for quite a long time after that. The second way we visit the astral is by having a close passing knowledge. In this occurrence, the scenes delineated are likewise exceptionally distinctive and to a great degree reasonable: we meet dead relatives and companions with vistas of flawless wide open in addition to personages of white light, which radiates huge amounts of affection. The following strategy for landing at the astral is by the act of out of body involvement (OBE). OBE can, and frequently do, arrive you in this physical world, as in another nation or in your relative's place in a similar town. Be that as it may, a skilful explorer can extend himself to the following domain without much trouble and this would be the astral. Obviously, the surest approach to land at the astral is to have a physical demise, and this is the subject of this article.

The Dying Process

When we are going to kick the bucket our vitality levels progress toward becoming lower and lower, and our cognizance goes all through our physical bodies, i.e. the soul leaves the physical body irregularly. This goes ahead until the last takeoff, when the silver string is disjoined. This rope associates the physical body to the soul body. At the point when the line is at long last separated, all the unobtrusive bodies will involute and total at the heart chakra. To extrasensory eyes a light is seen floating over the heart chakra. At that point after a brief time the aggregate soul with all its chaperon auric bodies will withdraw from the physical body through the seventh chakra i.e. at the highest point of the head where the front fontanelle used to be. While the soul is congregating at the heart chakra, life will gradually pull back from the body, beginning at the toes and the feet. This loss of motion will gradually climb to the legs, thighs and the middle. At that point the last aggregate loss of motion will concur with the withdrawal of the soul from the body. At the last flight, the face as a rule portrays serenity and peace, particularly if the body has until now been subjected to much torment. To extrasensory eyes this billow of smoke emanating from the highest point of the head will then change into an assume that looks precisely like the dead body on the bed.

The Spirit World

After the soul leaves the cadaver for good, a few things may happen. Some of them will be met by soul directs in their natural rooms, and they are immediately driven away to the soul world by these aides. Now they might possibly be met by relatives or companions. After a few welcome and making up for lost time of occasions, the individual is then driven away by the advisers for a place for a rest. On the off chance that the subject has been sick for quite a while on earth, he will be sent to an improving home for a delayed rest and mending. A few, be that as it may, will either experience a dim passage or move up a flight of stairs towards the white light. Here, he will meet friends and family, i.e. dead relatives or companions who will joyfully welcome him and clarify the circumstance he is in. At that point an existence audit will happen: it is at this crossroads that the individual will see his great deeds or his errors for the duration of the life that has recently passed. Or, on the other hand this survey may occur at a later date, when the perished has totally recuperated from the difficulty of traverse. Little demonstrations of graciousness have all the earmarks of being of significance. At that point he is taken to the domain where he has earned the privilege to dwell. This totally relies upon how the individual performed in the current life just passed. Each of the endless domains has its own particular vibration, and the soul will go just to that categorize that he merits. Amid this period, he is cared for by his guide, and this taking care of may continue for quite a while. For the individuals who have kicked the bucket a savage demise, frequently they don't understand that they are dead, and are in this way exceptionally confounded. The perished sees a swarm assembling around a dead body and he goes crosswise over to discover what really matters to the tumult. He sees his friends and family crying and groaning endlessly finished his own cadaver, and after that he starts to yell to his friends and family to state that he is OK. In any case, oh, it is without much of any result. They can't hear him. This situation rehashes itself in his home until at long last he gets the message that he is dead. With the goal that when the aides come to enable him to traverse, there might be some trouble here on the grounds that the perished may not understand that he is dead. It will require some investment before reality soaks in. Some of these people will remain earth destined for quite a while. The spirits who have a tendency to be earth bound are the individuals who are exceptionally joined to their families, their homes, their business domains or different connections. Some stay behind in light of the fact that they trust that they should go to heck, because of wrong religious inculcation. The most obstinate are the individuals who keep on believing that they are not dead. These earth bound spirits will show up as apparitions to the individuals who can see them. A few people who are profoundly created may go straight to the correct domain without a guide. These people kick the bucket with full mindfulness, and the excursion to his legitimate domain is additionally brought with full mindfulness independent from anyone else.

The Astral and Higher Realms

The soul world is made out of multitudinous interpenetrating domains around the physical world. It is not topographically far away or far up from earth. It is interpenetrating and just around us. The soul universe of China is beside the physical China. The soul universe of America is exactly where physical America is et cetera. There are various men-made orders of the soul world. Give us a chance to utilize the commonest arrangement, in particular the astral, mental and otherworldly: (a) the lower astral, (b) the center astral, (c) the higher astral, (d) bring down mental, (e) higher mental, (f) the lower profound, (g) the higher otherworldly et cetera.

The Lower Astral World (Hell or Purgatory)

Whoever goes to the center astral must go through to the lower astral. The aides going with the new soul more often than not request that the soul close his or her eyes until the point that they achieve the center astral. An incidental individual may falter onto the lower astral all alone when not went with. He may see dreadful things like discouraged individuals cowed in a dull, damp environment, gathered together feeling hopeless and groaning and moaning. This place is not for him, but rather lurching into this domain by slip-up can give him a significant startle. These districts are generally called "hellfire or limbo" by Christians and others. The discipline here is increasingly a passionate and mental issue. In the event that one has slaughtered another person by wounding, this cutting scene will be rehashed again and again. Be that as it may, this time the killer will endure the torment of the cutting and not the casualty. This scene will proceed until the point that the killer is humble and requests pardoning from the casualty, and the anguish will stop when the time of requital is finished. The killer would then be able to be discharged from the lower astral. Suppose one is a Hitler or a Stalin, the generous may take quite a while. We have been educated that Hitler is still there (The Testimony of Light). Amid the entire time frame while one is enduring in the lower astral, there are numerous gatekeeper blessed messengers or other higher creatures who will keep on going down to help these sufferers to atone and to influence them to request pardoning. Higher spirits and in addition living creatures are directing this type of protect for the duration of the day and night. For the last mentioned, the work is most burdensome, unsafe and frightening. These living assistants are genuinely playing out a Herculean errand of overhauling the dead.

What is the earth of the lower astral like? This "hellfire" is not a position of ceaseless consuming flame, as what the scholars would need us to accept. Rather, the domain is dull, moist and disgusting. There is no glow. Truth be told, it is strongly chilly. The climate is covered with fog, and it shows up as though there is a consistent cover over the place. There is no vegetation. Blooms and trees don't develop there. The greater part of the territory is rough and uneven. There is an incredible peril of sliding down the stones to pools of waste, however one can't suffocate in it. No one can pass on in the soul world. Mixed scantily are little shanty shacks, which contain a couple of sticks of furniture that are most awkward to utilize. All over are gatherings of bowed, twisted ghastly old bodies arranging underhanded deeds to torment their kindred inhabitants. There is a periodic disconnected individual who is seen hunkered hopelessly independent from anyone else loaded with outrage. There are no feathered creatures or creatures display. The greater part of them were people some time recently, yet up to now they have stayed unrepentant. Their wrongdoings on earth continue returning through their brains with consistent normality, however despite everything they stay a long way from penitent. The outrages they exacted on their kindred men and ladies on earth are to be sure substantial, and their stay here is the aftereffect of their natural exercises. As the majority of them are absolutely dishonest, they keep up a demeanor of honest outrage at the way they are dealt with here, not understanding that they themselves are the creators of their own predicament. Among them were conspicuous religious figures, government officials and multimillionaires, who administered millions to philanthropy while on earth. The cash that they gave away was sick gotten. Exclusively, they all look old making out of sacks and bones, and their countenances and bodies are twisted and distorted with barely any appendages being straight. Getting about is an extraordinary strain. Their malevolent deeds on earth have formed their present attitude, facial qualities and substantial deformation. Some of them have occupied these cottages for quite a long time, and they are as yet unrepentant even after various endeavors by higher creatures to change their states of mind.

The Middle and Higher Astral

Presently the center astral legitimate. Where is it? Geologically, it is precisely where we are, with the exception of that it is interpenetrating our reality. Why don't we see it? It resembles the edges of a fan. At the point when the cutting edges are spinning gradually, we can in any case observe the sharp edges moving. In the event that they go significantly quicker, there will come a period when our eyes can't see the cutting edges. This is precisely what happens. The etheric and the more inconspicuous bodies vibrate at a considerably higher speed than the physical body, and thusly our eyes can't see these bodies, aside from those with insightful sight. That implies that the astral world is not up there. It is around us. In a similar manner the higher astral domain is not obvious to the lower astral tenants. As there are multitudinous evaluations of the astral, and as there are likewise the mental, the profound, and the divine and astronomical awareness et cetera, the best approach to enter these higher domains is to expand our own vibrations to their rates. In any case, we can't expand our vibrations so rapidly: it takes a great deal of time and exertion. In this way, on the off chance that one is intrigued to visit another person in the higher domain, another being with higher vibrations must escort that individual up. And after that it is just temporarily; else, it gets excessively hot and smothering for that person who must return to one's own particular categorize quickly. In traverse from a lower domain to a higher one we definitely go to an undetectable fringe past which we can't cross. The air gets more slender as the vibration rate is higher. The light winds up plainly brighter as we approach this outskirt. At that point in the wake of intersection the outskirt, we start to suffocate and feel black out. At that point our quality falls flat us. Now if our guide, who is of higher vibration does not help us, we need to come back to our own particular domain.

Having been invited by relatives and companions and having experienced the life audit, they assemble at a concourse like a stop. The individuals who have recouped from the improving homes may go along with them there or go straightforwardly to their goals. Every one of them would be assigned their individual categorizes: these are the groups of like personality inside a set scope of vibrations. Their aides escort every one of them to their individual goals. Like pulls in like. In one categorize, every one of the occupants vibrate at a similar speed, and are at a similar level of otherworldly improvement. There are no monstrosities or blackguards in the group. They all mirror each other: the irate will be with the furious, the cherishing will stay with the adoring.

Since they are settled down they can begin to find out about their new condition and either make new companions or restore old colleagues. They will see that everything is accessible to them as on earth aside from mechanized machines like autos, lifts and planes. There are additionally no policemen, financiers, merchants or cab drivers. There are no eateries, sustenance slows down, and open or private toilets. They don't eat or drink and in this way there is no need to discharge squander. The air is heavenly and not polluted. The vegetation is superbly crisp and the shades of the blossoms are just flawless: the red is redder and the green is greener. The blossoms are themselves a wellspring of vitality. If you somehow managed to glass the blooms with your hands, a surge of vitality will go up your two arms. The hues give out various sounds. Each shading has its own particular sound. The scents and the aromas are wonderful. Everything is so distinctive. The sounds are more keen and the melodic scale is substantially more than the eight note octave: there have all the earmarks of being characteristic semitones and quartertones and the melodic measurement is divinely past human ears. It appears to wrap around you: there are no shaking sounds and there is no hard metal music.

You don't need to eat or drink. In any case, on the off chance that you were in the propensity for eating, the very idea of any sustenance would influence it to appear to you straightaway. In the wake of eating midway, in the event that one wouldn't like to keep eating, whatever sustenance is left finished will basically vanish. Sex is required in the physical world since that is the best approach to renew the species, yet the soul world is populated by the demise of the general population on earth. In this way, there is no need for physical sex. However adore in the astral is especially more extreme and substantially more fulfilling than on earth. Seeing that we can have practically anything we need by just considering it, there is no finish of testing, however certain items must be earned also. For example, on the off chance that we need a house in a specific territory, we need to perform enough support of have authorization to have it worked there. So is the kind of house. Obviously, we could have earned that privilege notwithstanding when we were on earth.

How would we go about? There are four ways. The first is to stroll about like what we are doing on earth. The second route is to coast along as we go on a travelator. The third strategy is to fly. The last strategy is to think about a place and without a moment's delay we are there. This technique, in any case, needs some training at first. There are no autos, trains or planes or any mechanized vehicles: as they are not required. Rest is a bit much as we don't have to rest the etheric and astral bodies. There is no sun, nor is there any moon. There is an unceasing sun that is never glaring or warm delivering. It is delicate and gleaming. In any case, if a gathering of souls need to have some murkiness to reenact night for some rest, it should be possible collectively, yet after some time, they understand that it is not required. Thus entire groups can change the scene by longing for mountains, waterways and waterfalls and so forth. These set aside opportunity to arrange. However after numerous ages, the magnificent scene is as of now present and it doesn't appear to require making strides. As one goes up higher the otherworldly stepping stool (mental and profound domains), there will be no sexual contrasts lastly there will be no frame.

There are various lobbies of learning for all premiums and orders e.g. history, folklore, science, painting, music and so forth. There is no lack of instructors on the off chance that you will learn. All the data will be shown before you in realistic structures and around you in three or four measurements. All the sound framework will be either stereophonic or sense around. The directions will be up to our own particular individual level and no higher. Shouldn't something be said about entertainment? You may play a wide range of ball games or swim or ski, anything that is included with nature. At that point the individuals who are slanted to take care of creatures sitting tight for their lords, or to watch over kids who have gone before their folks, may get themselves entirely bustling keeping an eye on these pets and youngsters until the point when their separate proprietors and guardians touch base in the astral. For the all the more relaxed and the individuals who are in for stylish appearance, they may embellish themselves with gems, rubies and jewels and so on. These decorations must be earned. The greater part of them are given for delayed administration. Evidently the meriting ones may cull these adornments from the ethereal mists. The biggest and most lovely ones are worn by higher creatures of thousands of years old.

The field in the astral is the most wonderful. Whatever one has seen on earth, those in the astral outperform the earth by a thousand times. The glades, streams, trees and blooms and different plants are so all around developed that one would require a thousand plant specialists on earth to have a similar impact. In the astral, only a couple of masters working with the brain will get the job done. Obviously these particular nursery workers would have had much preparing regarding the matter. They have leverage with the climate. There are no rain, tempests, snow and winds of any sort. The air is constantly great. The plants and blooms have their own vitality and they pretty much develop without anyone else. They discharge such awesome scents that the fragrances of France resemble modest aromas. The vegetation likewise creates melodic sounds befitting nature. The water in the streams, lakes, lakes and ocean don't wet the person. The water just tumbles off like, light mercury. One can jump into the ocean for a swim and the moment one escapes the water, one is dry!

Assistance From the Other Side

There are various individuals who are still extremely appended to the earth domain and their employments are to help the expert on earth in their strengths, e.g. researchers, specialists, craftsmen, artists and healers. The last classification is currently showing up in full power and with one merciful healer there perhaps a few soul specialists assisting at a session. Researchers, architects and designers are on the whole being propelled by soul guides without their insight. This assistance is to encourage learning and astuteness on earth to enhance the conditions in this world. Whatever new disclosure or choice bit of workmanship that shows up on earth should have its plan in the astral first. What's more, these are where researchers and imaginative virtuosos work always in the soul world.

Finally, let us talk about race, religion and connections. We will soon discover that the shade of our skin is just important on earth, as it is identified with the sun and its beams. As there is no sun in the astral, the etheric and astral bodies have a tendency to have just a single shading, and after at some point we find that we are managing just with one race or one individuals. The shade of the skin is embellished mostly for the earth individuals to remember them when they show up before them. On the off chance that one is a raging bigot, the odds are that he will wind up in the lower astral. For the most part, the spirits in the center astral don't separate between the races, as this distinction will soon vanish. Be that as it may, there are still little gatherings and groups that are as yet nostalgic for their own particular race and religious love. These will total in Chinatowns, Dutch or Eskimo people group or Jewish ghettos. Some assemble in holy places, mosques, synagogues and sanctuaries. These types of isolation won't last as they will soon understand that there are definitely no racial or religious contrasts. Their religious convictions are not viable in light of the fact that there is no religion in the soul world. Religion is man-made and it exists just on the planet earth. These supposed houses of worship, sanctuaries and synagogues are not spots of love. They are settings for them to get together and to welcome a few guests from the higher domains or for shared gatherings. There are no radios, daily papers or TVs to declare these events. The declarations are influenced clairvoyantly to the people to concern. The gatherings are short, yet the transmission of vitality and gift is immensely capable.

While on earth, we come to know our close families extremely well, and close to the finish of our life expectancy we would discover that our consistent friends and individuals from our families have been with us for more than one lifetime. Some dear companions additionally come into this classification. A few connections have enhanced, however some have decayed. After death, one understands that a significant number of these connections are perfect partners. They are there to show us. In any case, in the event that one is not intrigued to meet anybody in the astral one can without much of a stretch keep away from it. Try not to consent to the meeting. To meet somebody in the astral, the two gatherings must concur. Obviously, the greater part of us might want to perceive how our friends and family are getting along in another domain and the normal propensity is to endeavor to see them.

Developments between Realms

When we are in the higher conditions of the astral, and we expect to slip to the lower astral or physical world we need to diminish our speed of vibration (like utilizing a rheostat). This is with the goal that we don't hurt the creatures in the lower domains; e.g. we may hurt them with our speedier vibrating vitality. On the off chance that we need to climb to the higher measurements, the best is to be joined by a higher being, who will change our rate of vibration by only one touch. When we appear to the living, we would look our prime, for the most part in the thirties. Truth be told, soon after our landing in the astral we would return to our prime. After that we would look our prime wherever we go. Whatever we have lost e.g. an appendage or an eye these will be reestablished as needs be. At the end of the day we turn out to be entire once more.