You are now on the Astral Plane. The room looks exactly as it does in the material world, but the air is like ether. Your vibratory rate is such that you are above the lowest astral sub-planes but for our purpose here, you will intentionally lower your vibratory rate so that you may "see" what lies on the lowest sub-planes. Remember, the Astral World is comprised of a series of Planes — States of Being — and each Plane has many Sub-Planes, and each Sub-Plane has many Sub-Divisions, which all exist at the same time in the same point of space.

 

SPECIAL NOTE: On the lowest sub-planes you will witness many unpleasant sights. Danger will lurk everywhere. But as long as you are protected by the higher knowledge of self-protection, you will be safe (something I did not have when I dabbled in this realm, whatever it is.) And I have also learned that even if you do not have this higher knowledge of self-protection, as long as you hold a strong positive mental state/attitude, you can deny the Astral inhabitants' power to harm you. (I wish someone had told me about this earlier.)

 

Now as your astral vibratory rate lowers, you will see a kind of semi-transparent veil between you and the physical, material plane (we will return to this sub-plane/division later). Meanwhile, your vibratory rate continues to lower until you find yourself on the lowest subdivision of the lowest sub-plane, which the old occultist called, the "Astral Cemetery."



The Lowest Astral Sub-Plane 7

Here, a ghastly sight of disintegrating "astral forms" — also known as "astral shells" and "astral corpses" — of human beings and some animals are floating in space. This plane is akin to a grave or cemetery where our physical, material corpses are laid to rest.

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Disembodied souls eventually leave the Astral — move on, so to speak — and when they do, they leave behind its astral body (form), which it inhabited while on the Astral. This astral body (form) eventually disintegrates and disappears all together. In the meantime however, the discarded astral body dwells on this lower subdivision of the Lowest Astral Sub-Plane. There is no other purpose on this plane.

"Astral Shells" vary from person to person. The ones with high spirituality and ideals disintegrate rapidly, because its atoms have little or no cohesive attraction. The ones with earthly ideals and material tendencies however, hold together for a long time because of their strong attractive force to those earthly matters.

It should be understood that these astral bodies (shells) are "dead." They have no consciousness or intelligence. They act like shadowy human beings walking about in a dreamlike state (ie. Zombies?) Simply put, they are empty "astral shells" which the souls have departed.

When the souls left them, they left them with enough power from the forms' thought and will vibrations to give them semblance of life and action. But eventually, the power gradually wears away and the shell sinks to the lower subdivision.

Opposite this is the soul with the higher ideals and spiritual aspirations. There is no particular thought vibrations remaining to adhere to the astral body after the soul has left, or withdrawn itself; its higher nature has neutralized these lower vibrations.

Astral Shells are often mistaken for departed loved ones. Many (seemingly real) "spirit forms" are nothing more or less than semi-vitalized thought-forms or Artificial Astral Entities (More on this later.)

Many mediums are clairvoyant and unconsciously draw (to some extent) upon the Great Akashic (Astral) Records, for their information, instead of receiving the information by communicating with the disembodied souls.



On the lowest subdivision, you are surrounded by a thick, sticky, foggy atmosphere. You have an unpleasant feeling about this region. Amidst this dimly lit region, you perceive countless human forms of the most repulsive appearance. They are the disembodied souls in the astral body, living on the low plane they descended AFTER they awoke from their very brief astral sleep.


 

 

Through the enveloping fog, you become conscious of the physical, material world, which appears like a backdrop. Although it appears detached and removed in space, to these lowly creatures, the two planes seem blended together, in fact, they appear to be living amongst the people of the lowest phases of earthly life.



But these poor souls can only see, or watch these low earth scenes; they cannot participate, nor make their presence felt. The very sights they enjoyed so much while in the flesh (glutinous eating, drunkenness, obsessive gambling, debauchery and brutality, etc.) is now merely lust to their eye and a thorn in their flesh. This is their HELL. The lack of a physical body to enjoy these physical pleasures is torturous hell to them.


In some cases, the poor soul on this lowly astral sub-plane has such a strong desire for rebirth in the flesh among these similar scenes, they press forward toward reincarnation on a similar low plane. More on this later.

 

 

 

On the other hand, the scenes can disgust the soul to such an extent, its desires gravitates it in the opposite direction, and in so doing, opportunities arise toward better tendencies that offer a better rebirth opportunity in the future for them.

It should be noted that in nearly all cases, "living-out" results in "out-living." Get it?

So even the lowest rise in time...generally speaking that is.

A few however, sink so low they are incapable of rising out of the mud and they eventually meet their fate of annihilation. These degraded souls are "punished NOT FOR their sins, BUT BY their sins."

There are other scenes on this sub-plane of the Astral, as there are 1000s of similar regions on the lower Astral. Some are higher than the one described above, so please don't get the impression that what is written above is the only scene that represents this sub-plane.

All of them serve as a kind of Purgatory where their lowly desires are burned-out = NOT a burning of material by heat and flame, BUT "BY the FIRE OF DESIRE itself." Get it?

 

This idea of burning, or purging of the low desires, permeates nearly all religions. This is where the Christian Hell of Fire originated, which is, IMO, an ancient, esoteric truth that has been redefined, rewritten and reintroduced in a manner in which the general (uneducated/less informed?) masses could understand.

Now let's move on.

SOURCE:
The Astral World by Swami Panchadasi

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