The Seven Levels of Existence and your presence within them

QUESTION:
Hermes, it seems strange to think of a level of awareness after death. Are you talking about heaven? -- Dotty

Yes, heaven is one such level of awareness and a reality-plane in itself. After physical death, the consciousness leaves the body and the earth-plane (the lowest of the seven realms) and will naturally gravitate upward on to the plane and level of awareness that that consciousness has evolved to. Your purgatory (the Etheric Plane), referenced in your biblical text, is the first and lowest of these nonphysical realms. It is here where consciousness waits for its next incarnation or some kind of understanding to come into its being, so it can progress upward to the next higher plane or back downward into the physical system. The realm just above the Etheric Plane is the Astral Plane, and it is the heaven that these ancient biblical writers talked about. Here, on the Astral Plane, energy, feelings, emotions flow very freely. It is indeed a realm of desire and of getting everything that you want -- especially if you've lived a physical existence denying yourself or being denied the comforts of existence, as many of these ancients did.

However, these two realms are merely the beginning of the pile -- so to speak. When these concepts were given to humanity, the bulk of the species was unable to fathom much more than the in-between state -- where the spirit went to reflect and wait -- and a heaven -- a blissful, fun, play-like environment. However, humanity is increasingly evolving and the heaven of the past is no longer the heaven of today. Many of your kind already gravitate to the astral plane and are quite comfortable there. But, as they are learning, you can only take so much bliss, fun, and frolicking. Consciousness possesses an innate drive to strive upward and to continue to develop its innate abilities. The next two realms, which are called the Lower and Upper Mental Planes, satisfy this need very well and are the new heavens for your species.

The next higher plane and level of awareness is the plane of Spirit. It is from this realm that the masters descended and had their psychological awareness on -- even while they were physically manifested. They used their connection, to this plane, to draw down the teachings that humanity needed to evolve itself and get passed being trapped by the Etheric Plane's alluring physical-like nature. You see! Your species was caught in a never ending cycle of birth, death, and rebirth through reincarnation and had forgot the way out of the system. These great teachers and masters came down into the physical plane and system in the hope of showing you the way.

The physical system, for the most part, is meant as a teaching place or preparation for emerging consciousness, so that it can learn how to handle the awesome creative power that it possesses. Once consciousness learns all there is to know about its creative potential and power, it can leave the seven-level system and move on -- and back -- to divinity. Divinity, of course, is the highest level and plane of awareness and it is here on this plane and awareness that consciousness leaves the last of its human qualities behind and moves out of the physical- like system entirely.

There are many biblical references to these seven levels, though they have been obscured to some extent and one must be looking for them to find them. The entity known as Christ, originally incarnated into the physical system to teach the species about these seven levels. However, when he got into the physical system, he realized that the general populace was not ready for the complexities of such a system of development. So, the Christ entity, instead, opted to teach a scaled-down version of this multi-level system of development. He, however, did reveal the full content of this knowledge to those individual's known as the apostles. There is even a biblical reference to this in your gospels where he states to them "Have I not revealed to you the true nature of existence?" It was Christ's hope that the apostles would keep and safeguard this more vast knowledge and release this knowledge when the time was right. Unfortunately, this more vast knowledge was not well preserved and in the course of being handed down from generation to generation has been much disassembled and corrupted.

Whether you are physical, nonphysical, dead, or alive, you will have an awareness and a connection to whatever plane you have evolved too. Each plane represents a different level of creative power and prowess, and your consciousness will always be tethered to that level. As there are varying levels of intelligence in your society, there are varying levels of spiritual development. You will be pulled toward the level that you presently can handle. Just like a child will only play with the toys that he can handle, so too do you only move upward when you are ready for larger more complex toys. Consciousness is the first and last toy and is ever changing as you grow and evolve. That toy, however, is more powerful than you can ever imagine, and it can do wondrous things in the hands of a master, as all of you are aspiring to become. Don't become too caught up in the the physicalness of the reality that you find yourself in. It is all an allusion meant to instruct you in the ways of spirit and good consciousness. It will dissolve away as you grow upward in knowledge and evolution and will be as dream-like, one day, as your dreams are to you now.

July 30, 1994:
Throughout the various human cultures, there have been references to seven -- or there about -- levels of existence. These levels all refer to consciousness as it progresses upward in its evolutionary track. The levels are both metaphoric and substantial in nature. In other words, they exist and yet they don't. Their actual existence depends on your present molecular state. If you are nonphysical, as in a dream-state or in an out-of-body condition, these realms will most certainly be concrete -- because they are the realms of thought, consciousness, and the mind. However, when you are physically focused -- as you are most of the time -- these are not concrete in nature and represent the level of awareness of your consciousness and its mind. Let's examine the physical and the nonphysical aspects of each of these levels in depth. You will quickly see how they interrelate to one another and form the basis of your presence within the Universe. (Note: For a complete introduction on the seven levels see "Hermes' Reality Cooker" Book 2 Chapter 2)

The first and lowest level, in terms of molecular structure, is the physical plane itself. Here matter is the most dense and is physical. It is the world you know and are immersed in right now. There is no nonphysical counterpart to this realm, per-se, as it is your home base for the duration of your present incarnation. However, from consciousness's standpoint, this realm represents much more.

The physical plane, from a conscious perspective, is the conscious level of instinct and the bare beginnings of consciousness being aware itself -- not a full-fledged awareness, mind you, just a sense of your "I" being separate from others. The survival instinct is very strong here as is procreation for the sake of continuing the species. On this level of awareness, thoughts and actions are one in the same and never separate from each other. Fear is an ally and a necessity, here, because without it, your physical existence would be in jeopardy, as your consciousness is not able, at this level, to pretense or anticipate danger.

For the most part, most of humanity has evolved passed the physical level of awareness, and it merely exists primarily as a level for many of your animals (remember, we're talking a level of awareness here, not actual physical existence). However, it is not uncommon for many of your kind to switch, psychologically, to this level of awareness when some dangerous or threatening situation arises. While this switching downward may be necessary, from time to time -- because you still inhabit the physical plane -- too frequent shifts to this form of consciousness show a great lack of conscious control over one's reality and, most certainly, will hold back the individual's consciousness from progressing upward to higher planes of existence.

July 31, 1994:
The next level upward is the Etheric Plane. The Etheric Plane is a semi-physical type plane. It's molecular structure is more free than the physical plane. Habitation on the Etheric Plane, in a nonphysical state, allows you to float but not to pass through objects. The Dream Universe has a strong presence here, so it is quite common to see images come and go. The ready-to-reincarnate will occupy this realm in preparation for their next incarnation.

On consciousness's level, the Etheric Plane represents the concretization of form. Psychologically, from this state of awareness, for something to be real to you, it must materialize itself physically. That materializing means that all that is unseen and composed of finer matter will not be noticed, detected, or sought after. Here, at this level of awareness, you are only aware of physical matter and its structures. Ideas, for example, are not real to you because ideas are not physical materializations and are merely the preform of matter. On higher planes and states of awareness, as you will see, ideas are just as real as physical matter; however, here, they remain unnoticed and unmanifested. Also, a person on this level of awareness can not comprehend the idea of spirit without form and, thus, will cling to organized religion like a boat to an anchor. It is the only way that such a person can identify with ALL- THAT-IS and the universal mind. Furthermore, Sex on this level is very physical but with the added bonus of physical touch bringing pleasure. Sex, for the first time, has other purposes besides the propagation of the species and is used for self pleasure.

Many of your people still sit on this plane and in this state of awareness. These people are very physical in nature and are attracted to very physical activities, such as sports, body building, and the raising of a family for the purpose of continuing the linage. Their challenges will almost always manifest in the form of some bodily injury or sickness, or in some way put their physical bodies to a test. Many -- but not all -- Firemen and Policemen sit here at this level too because the physical danger makes them feel alive and gives them a sense of permanence on the physical plane.

If a person has his/her psychological base on this plane of existence, after they die, they will almost always reincarnate quickly. The Etheric Plane is very alluring to consciousness because it acts like a narrow lens, filtering out all of the other aspects of existence. A person on this level, after death, is not aware of any higher planes or forms of existences and can only see the physical plane. They ignore everything else. Thus, they sit and wait for conditions to be right for reincarnation and will take the first opportunity to do so. These people will rarely go no longer than 80 years in-between life times with the average reincarnatal span sitting below 30 years.

That concludes part 1 of this series, which we will finish at a later time, when time permits -- for you that is.