by Swami Panchadasi

Disembodied Souls

You will notice that our vibrations are now changing, and growing more intense. We are now entering upon a very wonderful sub-plane, or rather, upon one of the subdivisions of such a plane.

This region, I ask you to remember, is one of which the entry is strictly guarded by the law of the Astral, and is watched over by certain very high spiritual influences. It is a sacred place. No one is admitted here as a visitor, unless he be of high spirituality and pure heart. Even a trained occultist, unless he possesses these qualifications, finds it impossible to enter these vibrations. This region is the resting place of the disembodied souls for some time after they have left the physical body. In it they dwell in peaceful slumber, until Nature performs certain work in them for their new plane of life. This stage has been compared to the cocoon-stage, between the stage of the caterpillar and that of the butterfly, in which stage a complete transformation is effected, and the wings of the new life are developed to take the place of the old crawling form.

We are now on this particular sub-plane. Enter upon a contemplation of its wonders, with all reverence and love of all mankind. On all sides, stretching away as far as the eye can see, you perceive the slumbering forms of disembodied souls, each astral form resting in dreamless sleep. And, yet, even if you were not so informed, you would recognize that these forms are not dead, but are merely sleeping. There is none of the atmosphere of death or corpses about this region. Nothing depressing. Nothing but a sense of infinite calm and peace. Being spiritually developed yourself, you doubtless feel the presence of certain great spiritual entities – though you see them not, because their vibrations are too high for you to see them even by astral vision – these are the great spiritual guardians of this realm, who protect the slumber of the souls at rest herein the Great Watchers of the Sleeping Souls. If you will watch carefully, you will notice here and there a movement indicating the awakening of some of these resting forms. A moment later the form disappears from the scene – it seemingly melts into nothingness. But it still is existent – its vibrations simply have changed, and it has moved onto another sub-plane, or division thereof, without having been aware of the scenes of this place. It has begun its real life after death. Let us move on, leaving this scene behind us, while I explain to you some of the phenomena of this period of existence of the disembodied soul. Let us pause here, on the quiet sub-plane, until the matter is made plain to you.

It is a common teaching of many religions that the disembodied soul enters at once upon its heaven or hell. The Roman Catholic Church, and some branches of Buddhism, however, teach of an intermediate state called Purgatory, or a similar name. Some denominations of the Christian Church hold that all souls slumber in unconsciousness, until the call of the great trumpet of Judgment Day, when all awaken from their long sleep and are judged and sent to the place of reward or punishment, as their cases may deserve. You see on the Astral some things which show you that all of these views have a basis in fact, and yet how imperfect are these conceptions of the theologies!

All occultists know, however, that nearly all of the original religious teachers had a very complete knowledge of the real facts of the Astral, and higher planes, and merely handed down to their followers such fragments of the truth as they thought could be assimilated at the time. All of the theological teachings regarding the Life after Death – heavens and hells – contain some truth, but none contain all the truth. In the majority of cases, the mind of the dying person sinks into the slumber of so-called death, and awakens only after a period of restful transforming slumber upon the Astral, in the region we have just seen. In some cases, however, there is a brief waking, like a semi-awakening from a dream, shortly after the departure from the physical body, in which case the astral body may appear, visibly, to some friend, associate or loved one – or even in the scenes in which the person usually spent much of his time, as, for instance, his office, shop, study, etc. This accounts for the occasional instances of the disembodied person so appearing, of which there are many well authenticated cases. But even in such event, the disembodied soul soon becomes drowsy, and sinks into the preliminary sleep of the Astral, moving on to the region we have just left.

There is a great difference in the time in which the disembodied soul slumbers in this state. Strange and paradoxical as it may appear, the highest and lowest souls in the scale of development, awaken first. The average soul slumbers far longer than either. I will explain the reason of this to you in a moment.

The highly spiritual person, needing but comparatively little transformation to fit him for the higher planes, may slumber here only a very short time, and then passes onto some of the higher astral planes; or, in cases of high development, may omit these higher astral planes, and pass on at once to the plane or planes above the Astral – into what occultists know as the “heavens,” which, technically, are regions of the mental plane, and the ones still higher. The average soul, however, slumbers a much longer time, many years, perhaps, and then awakens upon a higher astral plane suited to its requirements.

The low, material soul, as a rule, awakens very speedily, and passes at once to the low plane for which it has an affinity. But, note this difference: the highly developed soul awakens speedily, for the reason that it has less to slough off and be transformed into higher attributes – the work is already partially performed.

The average soul, on the other hand, requires a much greater transformation for its scenes of higher activities, and so remains much longer in the transforming sleep; and, last (note the seeming paradox, and its explanation), the low, material soul awakens speedily, not because it has been transformed easily for the higher scenes, but, on the contrary, because it is not destined for these higher scenes – it never reaches them, but descends to a low plane of the Astral, where it lives out its low inclinations and ideals, until it finally sickens of them, at least to an extent, and then is ready for further transformation.

All souls, however, high or low, eventually move off the Astral and enter into the place, or rather the state, of the Mental Plane, or the regions of the “heavens,” leaving their astral shells behind them. Some of the highest, as I have said, mount to these planes without any intervening stay on the higher Astral, but the majority have their share of Astral life, higher and lower.

On the “heaven” planes, the spiritual souls spend great periods of time enjoying the well-earned bliss. Souls lower in development spend less time there. The low, material souls, scarcely taste the experience of those high regions. I shall speak further regarding this, as we proceed.

As a general rule, I would remind you, the higher the advancement of a soul, the greater the time between its incarnations; and vice versa. There are special cases, however, such as the call to duty on the part of a high soul, or a strong attraction to another, or others, approaching reincarnation, which may bring back a high soul in a shorter time than it really deserves – this is simply renunciation however, on the part of the high soul, and is not a violation of the general rule as stated a moment ago.

Let us now change our vibrations, and visit some of the scenes of Astral life, in which the awakened souls are living, moving, and having their being. A few actual illustrations of life on these planes will teach you more regarding this great subject, than would volumes of books, or years of verbal teaching. Let us begin at some of the lowest sub-planes, and their divisions – the sight is not pleasant, but you will gain a valuable lesson.

Scenes Of The Astral

We are now vibrating on a very low subdivision of the lowest sub-plane of the Astral. You are conscious of a very unpleasant feeling, and an almost physical repulsion to the atmosphere around you. Some very sensitive natures experience a feeling of being surrounded by a dense, sticky, foul, foggy atmosphere, through which they must almost force their way, when they visit these regions. It is akin to the feelings experienced by a high-minded spiritual person on the earth plane, if he happens to enter a place inhabited by persons of a lewd, vulgar, depraved nature and character – this magnified many degrees by reason of the astral laws.

It is no wonder that one of the old Egyptian writers, whose work survives on graven stone, said, some four thousand years ago: “What manner of foul region is this into which I have foolishly come? It is without water; without air; it is unfathomably deep; it has the darkness of the blackest night, when the sky is overcast with dense clouds, and no ray of light penetrates their curtain. Souls wander hopelessly and helplessly about herein; in it there is no peace, no calm, no rest, no quiet of the heart or mind. It is an abomination and desolation. Woe is the soul that abideth herein!”

Looking around you, in the dim, ghastly light of this region, you perceive countless human forms, of the most repulsive appearance. Some of them are so low in the scale as to seem almost beast-like, rather than human. There are still lower forms on the subdivisions just below this one, but I shall spare you the disgusting sight. These creatures are disembodied souls, in the astral body, living on the low plane to which they descended when awakening from their very brief astral sleep.

If you will peer through the enveloping fog, you will become conscious of the presence of the material world as a sort of background. To you it appears detached, and removed in space, but to these creatures – these low souls – the two planes seem to be blended. To them, they appear actually to be abiding in the scenes and among the persons of the lowest phases of earth life. Even you find that you can see only the very low earth-scenes in the background – the higher scenes appear blotted out with great smears, like a censored newspaper page in war times. To these poor souls there is no earth world except these scenes which accord with their old desires.

But while apparently living amid these old familiar and congenial low earth-scenes, these souls are really suffering the fate of Tantalus. For while they plainly see these scenes, and all that is going on in them, they cannot otherwise participate in the revels and debaucheries which they perceive plainly – they can SEE only – as for the rest they participate only vicariously. This renders the place a veritable hell for them, for they are constantly tantalized and tormented by sights of scenes in which they cannot participate. They can exercise simply “the lust of the eye,” which is but as a thorn in the flesh to them. On all sides, on earth-life, they see their kind (in the flesh) eating, drinking, gambling, engaging in all forms of debauchery and brutality – and while they eagerly cluster around, they cannot make their presence felt (under ordinary circumstances) nor can they participate in the scenes which they witness. The lack of the physical body is indeed a very hell to them, under such circumstances.

The astral atmosphere of low dram-shops, pool rooms, gambling halls, race tracks, “free-and-easies,” brothels, “red-light” districts – and their more fashionable counterparts – are filled with these low astral forms of souls across the astral border. Occasionally, they are able to influence some earth companion, who is so saturated with liquor, or overcome by drugs, that he is physically open to such influences. When they so influence him, they strive to lead him into further degradation and debauchery, for, in so doing, they obtain a reflex gratification, as it were. But I shall not dwell upon this subject – it is too loathsome. In some instances, the sojourn on this low astral sub-plane sets up such a strong desire for rebirth in the flesh, among similar scenes, that the poor soul eagerly presses forward toward reincarnation on a similar low plane. In other cases, I am glad to say, the experience so sickens and disgusts the poor soul that it experiences a revulsion and disgust for such things, in which case the current of its desires naturally carries it in the opposite direction, and it is given the opportunity to rise in the scale of the Astral, where its better tendencies are encouraged, and a better rebirth finally results.

At the end, however, in nearly all cases “living-out” results in “out-living,” and even the lowest rises in time. Some few souls, however, sink so low as to be incapable of rising, and they meet the final fate (not of damnation) of annihilation. Even in these hells of the astral, however, the degraded souls are “punished not for their sins, but by them” as an old writer once forcibly stated it.

But this particular scene is not the only one on this sub-plane of the Astral – it has many counterparts. I cannot take time to show them all to you, or to describe them in detail. I can illustrate the idea, however, by stating that close to the scene you have just witnessed, is another in which the actors are those miserly, money-loving souls, who have sold all their better nature for the mess of pottage of worldly gain. The punishment, by the sin rather than for it, is similar to that of the low souls in the preceding scene. They are tormented by the sight, but are tantalized by not being able to participate. The result is practically similar to that mentioned in the last case – some find desire increased, and others find disgust and nausea and thus seek the way to higher things. There are hundreds of similar regions on the lower Astral, some of which are much higher, however, than those we have just considered. All of them serve as a Purgatory, or place of the burning-out of desires of a low kind – not the burning of material flames, but by the fire of the desire itself, as we have seen. This idea of burning away, or purging, of the low desires, is found to permeate nearly all religions, and has its basis in the facts of the Astral.

Changing our vibrations, and mounting to higher sub-planes, we pass rapidly from scene to scene. You appear astonished to notice that many of these scenes seem to be set to scenery, like a great theatre. You notice with wonder the artificial nature of this astral scenery, and wonder at the fact that the people on these scenes seem to regard this scenery as natural and real, instead of make-believe. It all seems very shadowy and imperfect to you, but very real to them. The secret is that the scenery is the creation of the minds of those taking part in the scenes, and those who have preceded them on this plane. It is all make-believe – a mirage, so to speak – but very real to those taking part in the scenes. It is not the purpose here to describe the chemistry of the Astral by means of which it is possible for the mind to build up scenery, etc., from the astral substance. To the advanced occultist, who has studied deeply the occult chemistry, the matter is as simple as is the formation of ice from water, which in turn was once steam – and at the same time as wonderful. The traveller on the Astral always will bear witness to the wonders of that plane, the scenery of which is all built up in this way, though he may not be able to explain the chemistry of its formation.

In this way, on the various higher planes of the Astral, including some of the comparatively lower planes, we find beautiful mountains and valleys, rivers and lakes, cities, towns, villages and country land – in fact, all forms of scenery known in earth life. We also see buildings of all kinds, and all varieties of household utensils, implements, furniture, etc. All are built from the astral substance by means of the imaginative minds of the dwellers on those planes. To the visitor they seem most unreal – one can actually see through them, and on all sides of them at one time, as in the case of transparent crystal. But to the dwellers on the Astral they are as solid and real as are their material counterparts – and no doubt regarding their solidity ever enters the mind of the Astral inhabitant.

Excerpt from The Astral World

See Part I here. See Part II here.

Part IV coming soon.