An Overview of Astral Planes

Physical Plane

This is the world we are sitting in right now. The physical plane is the familiar world of our everyday life. In the occult scheme, there are aspects of the physical world that are invisible to our senses, and these invisible aspects of the physical plane are called the "Etheric plane". In the occult world-view, energies like are x-rays, radioactivity, ultraviolet radiation and subatomic particles "Etheric" energies, and again, this simply means that these are energies of the physical plane that we cannot perceive with the senses of our physical body. Occultists claim we have a body made of Etheric energies and they call this our "Etheric body".

The Astral Plane

The astral plane is described of as a world of emotion and desire. On this plane our emotions and desires are actually living creatures. Also, according to occultists, the astral plane is where people go immediately after they die. "Dead people" (actually, "discarnate" people) do not stay forever on the astral plane, it is only a temporary stop after death. In this regard, the idea of "purgatory" is related to the idea of the astral plane.

Also on the astral plane are a whole host of creatures and inhabitants that are native to that plane, such as faires, devas, and other such things.

Believe it or not, according to occultists, the astral plane is also where we go at night when we dream. When you are in a dream, you are quite literally in the astral plane.

The Mental Plane

The mental plane is the world of all thoughts and ideas. On the mental plane, thoughts are real objects, and these objects are called thought-forms. "Thoughts are things" is a common idea in occultism, and this idea refers to the fact that thought-forms exist as real live things on the mental plane. The mental plane is a dynamically brilliant world of ever-shifting abstract landscapes of color, sound and sights that would probably make the ordinary person go stark raving mad if they could actually see the mental plane for what it is.

The mental plane overlaps substantially with the astral plane, and there is every good chance you will see numerous thought-forms during astral projection. However, chances are very good that you will NOT ever perceive the mental plane as distinct from the astral plane and you will never see the stuff that could make you lose your mind. The reason this is so is because it takes a lot of talent to get to the mental plane.

The Buddhic Plane

According to occult ideas, this is the highest plane that we can access as humans, within the context of what we understand as a "human being". In effect, the buddhic plane is the realm of our soul. The energies of the buddhic plane that we use in our daily life are the following: inspiration, great creativity, compassion, wisdom, will-power. It is by these types of behaviors that the buddhic plane "leaks" into our regular physical lives.

In and of itself, the buddhic plane is supremely abstract and extremely powerful. Just like the mental plane, it is very unlikely that you will ever go to the buddhic plane in a projection. It takes even more talent to focus your consciousness exclusively on the buddhic plane than it does for the mental plane.

However, accessing the energies of the buddhic plane is critical in astral projecting. In a nutshell, the buddhic plane represents everything that makes human life good. The more of this you have in your aura, the lighter you will be in your consciousness, and therefore, you will be able to travel through a broader range of the planes than otherwise. On the other hand, the less buddhic energy you have in your aura, the harder it will be for you to astral project, and as well, you will project into ugly regions of the planes, and in general, probably hurt yourself in the attempt to project. Maybe not hurt yourself physically, but emotionally and mentally. In effect, the buddhic plane is related to morals, wisdom and creativity.

Atmic Plane

On this plane, what we think of as human no longer makes any sense. There are no individual personalities on this plane. Seth, from the Seth material by Jane Roberts, reflects what the Atmic plane is like. Here, consciousness exists as the simultaneous experience of a number of incarnations. Sure, we can say the concept easy enough, and even understand intellectually the idea. However, the actual direct experience of this state of consciousness is totally outside of our scope. If you can get your consciousness to focus on this level, then you will no longer exist!

Anupadaka Plane

Even more abstract than the Atmic plane. Here everything bleeds into everything else. Extraordinarily abstract! Again, we might conceptualize the idea of everything being a part of everything else, but on this plane, that's the way it is! No dualisms either - all the contradictions are inside of each other!

Adi plane

God is here. If Atmic and Anupadaka were weird, well, this is the weirdest of them all. Completely beyond anything we humans can say, do, feel, think, etc. Yet, Adi is the very essence of everything. The more buddhic energy you have in your aura, the better a feel you get for Adi.

Source: Donald J. DeGracia, OOBE Class Notes

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Astral Projection or Out of Body Experience

Astral projection is defined as an experience in which we live in an altered state of consciousness as opposed to our normal waking state of consciousness. Maybe the closest experience we can relate to it is dreaming. Although some scholars disagree, astral projection is also called:

• lucid dreaming
• out-of-body experience (OOBE)

For the purposes of this article, we will not touch upon scientific views about OOBE (this one is shorter), but focus on what the occult has to say about it.

As a matter of fact, the term "astral projection" itself comes from occult views of this experience and implies the projection of one's self to the astral plane.     Occultists teach that the universe is a series of planes of matter and that the physical world we perceive with our senses is but one of a series of, usually seven, planes. Occultism teaches that,

• our consciousness transcends our physical body
• each of us is an immortal soul who has temporarily incarnated into the physical world
• the universe is a series of planes and each plane is a world unto itself
• each of us has facilities for interacting with at least 4 of these planes. These facilities are called "vehicles" or "bodies" and we have four of them:

1. a physical body for interacting with the physical world (or plane),
2. an astral body for interacting with the astral world/plane,
3. a mental body for interacting with the mental world/plane,
4. a buddhic body for interacting with the buddhic world/plane.

To an occultist, the act of astral projecting entails transferring one's consciousness to the astral body and exploring the astral plane. According to our common social beliefs, we are either atheists/materialists who do not think there is any such thing as a "soul", or we were raised with simple-minded ideas about God, Heaven and Hell.[1]

The senses of our physical body; our hearing, vision, taste, feeling, senses of heat and balance, smell, these senses define for us the physical world, and by definition, only allow us to perceive the physical world. Occultism, simply put, holds the view that there are energies that exist which we cannot perceive with our physical senses.

So far, this does not contradict the materialistic view as there are energies that can only be detected by machines like x-rays, radiation, etc. However, occultism goes beyond that and deviates considerably when it says we can perceive these energies without the aid of machines. By using our four bodies mentioned above, each on its own respective plane, the occultist claims not only these energies can be seen but there are whole worlds, full of life and activity, that is beyond the realm of science.

In occultism, each plane is typically a world full of all kinds of strange and exotic places and creatures with sights and sounds that dwarf anything we know of here in the physical world. Planes are also called dimensions, aethyrs, lokas and realms and they are:

1. Physical Plane (which includes the Etheric Plane)
2. Astral Plane
3. Mental Plane
4. Buddhic Plane
5. Atmic Plane
6. Anupadaka Plane
7. Adi Plane

Humans can access only four of these planes.

[1] Donald J. DeGracia, OOBE Class Notes

Technorati Tags: aethyrs, Astral Projection, bodies, buddhism, consciousness, dimensions, dreaming, lokas, occult, OOBE, planes, Occult and Beyond

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