After basically telling me that I cannot put up an effective resistance due to 'low density', you seem to convey to us  that you are going along with the herd  ("I've also felt that for awhile, but the majority of people around me seem to be going on with business as usual") and have stopped trying to clear out that cess pool - and that is fine. It's your choice but I'm just looking at the irony here... you admit that your spirit work was "traumatic" and even go as far as to surrender to the evil without so much as a glimmer of hope for us good people!!!

The Lower Astral Plane is for the uninstructed and the ignorant - those who are unaware of the existence of spiritual realities - who can’t visualise anything beyond the purely physical. The astral world is not divided into watertight compartments

Bhang, I'm not sure what you are thinking people should do. It seems like there are tons of people, on this forum included, who know the ways of ritual magic, the occult and shamanistic practices. Many people, including me, have had bad experiences with ceremonial magicians, witches, demon-raisers and all that sort of thing. These things seem to be lower fourth-dimensional beings as far as I can tell, so why would I want to work in a medium (and as a medium) of all of that lower, weird stuff. The astral realm is not a very high frequency, or high vibrational realm, as far as I can tell. "Tapping into the pool" is basically like tapping into a cesspool, for me, and I'd rather not get involved in occult warfare with a bunch of dark occultists.

The Unseen Realms
Radio and TV signals fill the room you are in right now, and if your eyes and ears were built a little differently, you would actually be able to see and hear them, just as you can see sunbeams streaming through the window onto the furniture and hear the cat purring on your lap. If you could “see” the radio and TV signals all around you, you would be overwhelmed by the many personalities, comedies, dramas, news programs, and action movies all competing for your attention.

As it is, the radio and TV signals vary in vibration or frequency, so that each signal remains distinct even though they’re all jumbled together in the same space. That way, the electronic circuits within a TV or radio can tune-in to a distinct signal, allowing us to hear only one program sent by only one station. The signals are separated from each other by frequency, so they can’t overwhelm us.

The room you’re in is also filled with countless realms of existence beyond the physical world, all teeming with life. And again, if your eyes and ears could see and hear those non-physical realms, the room would be incomprehensibly crowded, and you would be completely overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of the many entities around you.

Likewise, the many realms of existence (dimensions) all inhabit the same space, but each realm remains distinct by its vibration. In this case it is not a radio or TV frequency, but rather the vibration of consciousness that makes each realm unique and discrete, so that the inhabitants and activities of that realm aren’t disturbed by the many other beings inhabiting other realms, all of which are teeming with life.

The Realms of Spirit
The Lower Astral Planes are described as a dark, dismal world reminiscent of the Christian purgatory or hell. After dying, some people, because of the low vibration of their thoughts, are pulled toward and trapped near the physical plane in a state of confusion. There being no sense of time nor space in the worlds of spirit, they might reside here for years or even centuries of Earth time, totally bewildered, not even aware that they have died.

The Middle Astral Planes are pleasant realms where 60-70 percent of us wake up to be rehabilitated after our earthly education in “the school of hard knocks.”

The Higher Astral Planes are wonderful realms called Heaven by Christians, or the Summerland by spiritualists. About ten percent of the human population arrive at this level after “death”.

The Mental-Causal Planes are a realm of divine inspiration, free of earthly desires and conflict. The beings in these dimensions inspire many of the artistic and technical breakthroughs on Earth by sending silent messages to its inhabitants.

The astral planes are much like Earth, though more mental, less physical. In the spirit worlds thoughts create reality, so as thousands of people leave Earth and enter the astral planes, the worlds in those subtler planes take on an Earth-like appearance. Many messages we receive from “the other side” describe concert halls, museums, hospitals, schools and homes much like those on Earth, all set amongst flower-strewn meadows, mountains, and rivers that are like the landscapes on Earth, but more magnificent.

While the ultimate destiny of every soul lies in the “higher” or subtler planes in and beyond the celestial frequencies, a typical lifetime on Earth as a non-spiritual or moderately spiritual person drags our soul down to low frequencies. After physical death, our soul, being somewhat “acclimatized” to the Earth plane, would feel out of place in the higher realms, so the astral planes provide a buffer zone between a dense Earth plane rife with deception, fear and violence, and the higher, subtle realms of pure love, Light and wisdom. The astral planes provide very pleasant surroundings for resting before moving on. However, not everyone moves on right away. Some departed souls enjoy the astral planes so much that they choose to stay for centuries. Others choose to return to Earth to experience another lifetime in a new body - a process known as re-incarnation.

It has long been known that a new arrival in the spirit worlds, after a life on Earth with a typical western spiritual education, is initially lost and bewildered by the almost unimaginable series of new and strange experiences. Often there is an overriding sadness regarding the loved ones left behind. Such grief is completely natural - on both sides of the veil - but the new arrival must get on with the business of starting a new life. Excessive and prolonged grief by family members left behind on Earth presents a tie that tends to hinder the new arrival from concentrating on the job of starting a whole new life. It literally pulls the spirit of the newly deceased into low frequencies near the Earth and holds it there.

New arrivals have the opportunity to get to know people-in-spirit from all stages of human history and to meet unfamiliar, intelligent beings of non earthly origin. How readily a newcomer can accept the many new and unusual things, is a factor in determining how quickly he or she may move on to the subtler dimensions. There is no real need to eat food. The astral body absorbs everything it needs for its health and well-being from its surroundings. There is no need for sex as there is no pregnancy in spirit. Still, sex as well as eating can be enjoyed in the astral planes by those who made it a major part of their lives while on Earth. Eventually they will find more important things to do.

Astral worlds are typically clean, pure and well organized. All planets are inhabited at the higher levels and within these higher planes of existence are lakes, forests, rivers, and oceans. There are no pests or predators. Climate is always spring like. New arrivals are usually drawn to an astral family of people with whom they are compatible - spiritually and mentally. In the astral planes we have true freedom.

Moving on up
As people move upward from the middle to the higher planes, their astral bodies become lighter, subtler, and of higher-frequency substance. When they reach the rapid vibrations of the mental-causal planes, their astral bodies disappear. The mental body is not really a body at all and can be described as a glowing mass of energy. Some people who advance into the mental-causal planes lose their interest in the affairs of Earth and move onto bigger realities. Other people return frequently to the astral planes, donning astral bodies as they descend, so that they can be involved in earthly projects such as the awakening of humanity.

Life in the lower stages of the astral world duplicate in every detail our lives on earth. Were it no so, the shock for the many who are uninstructed and ignorant would be more than they could stand. And so it has to be accomplished by very easy stages. The next stage of life resembles this current physical world. That is why so many in the astral planes are unaware they have passed beyond the physical.

Here essentially it is a world of thought, where thought is reality. And, being a thought world, thought moulds every expression of its life and its activity. Being so near to the earth plane, and peopled by men and women who are naturally still very material in their outlook on life, the expression of the thought is very gross and so, they tend to think in terms of physical things.
They cannot think of life apart from its physical aspects. There has never filtered into their consciousness any understanding of a life apart from the purely physical. They cannot visualise spiritual activities and, because they cannot visualise them, they have no place in their scheme of things. But there are degrees of astral life, for gradually as awakening comes, the grossness slowly but surely becomes more refined, and life, they begin to see, is something beyond its material aspect. When spiritual realisation dawns they are ‘dead’ to the astral world and they begin to live in the world of spirit. There are many deaths and many births within the many mansions (dimensions) of the Father.

The Lower Astral Plane is for the uninstructed and the ignorant - those who are unaware of the existence of spiritual realities - who can’t visualise anything beyond the purely physical. The astral world is not divided into watertight compartments.

You do not climb from one sphere into another; you grow - you evolve. The lower gives way to the higher. You ‘die’ and are born again and again. You do not lose the astral body in quite the same way that you lose the material body. It becomes rarefied and refined as the lower drops away. Death really means transformation and resurrection - the rising of the higher out of the lower.

Your ‘dead’ relatives are closer than you know. They know your secrets, the unspoken desires of your minds, your wishes, your hopes and your fears. And all the while they bring their influence to bear on you, to guide you so that you may be able to extract from your earthly lives the experiences so necessary for the growth of your souls. They are not vague, shadowy, nebulous beings, but real men and women who love you still and who are in reality closer to you than ever they have been before.

There is no parliament in the spirit world because there is no need to make laws to regulate the lives of the people who dwell there. The natural law takes care of people in the spirit world because they are confronted with it in a form which is inescapable. Because they no longer have physical bodies; the problem of physical life does not concern them. They are now expressing themselves in spiritual form and the natural law is in operation. There is no need for any intermediary.

In the halls or buildings of learning there are collections of varying kinds, of objects relating to earthly life throughout history, and also collections of interesting forms of spiritual life. For example, flowers that have not bloomed on earth and many other phases of natural life unknown to the third dimension.

Gifts, talents and faculties which people had on earth do not end with death. Death brings them greater freedom and the extended opportunities to express those talents.

Telepathy is the common method of communicating with each other. But it is possible for those who know how, to reach and address vast numbers, even when they are not themselves present.

There are no newspapers in our earthly sense, because there is no necessity to chronicle happenings, as we do on Earth. Information is constantly being dispensed to those who should have it by the ones whose occupation it is to spread these facts. There are people engaged on the task of disseminating these thoughts. They are specially trained for it.

If someone passes on who is known to many people by a certain name, it may be convenient for him to keep that name as long as it is necessary for him or her to be so identified. That may take hundreds or even thousands of years. But once you have passed beyond the magnetic field of the earth, your name does not matter because you are then known for the individual that you truly are. Once you have passed the stage of earthly association and reached the span of spiritual life to which you are thus entitled, you emit a light, an aura, a radiation, which indicates who and what you are.

There is nothing in our world of matter with which you can compare the life of the spirit, where you are free from the body of matter, with liberty to go where you will, to see your thoughts take shape and to follow out the desires of your heart. This is the world where the artist finds all his dreams come true, where the painter and the poet realise their ambition, where genius has full power of expression, where the repressions of Earth are swept away and all gifts and talents are used in the service of one another. There are vast halls or buildings dedicated to all the arts, and literature has its place among them. It is possible to obtain knowledge of any subject in which you are interested.

On the other side there are no clumsy words to express inspiration, but where thought is the living language and reveals itself with lightning rapidity. This is the world with no money worries, no competition, no unemployment, no slums, no selfishness, an only one religion - that of love.

Flowers such as you have never seen, colours such as your eye has never beheld, scenes and forests. Birds, plants, streams and mountains - the astral plane has them all - in magnificent splendour! We have nothing on Earth to compare them with! And you will be able to enjoy it all.

After physical ‘death’
When we die and shed the physical body, we normally live on in the quantum realm for a few days. The Quantum realm is a sort of midway house between the physical and astral realms where we can prepare for the next stage in our transition.

We still possess a body of form and structure nearly identical to our physical body, but it’s lighter, subtler and more vibrant. This after-death interlude is supposed to be a gentle, relaxed time during which we get acclimated to our newfound freedom and lightness of being, and we tie up loose ends of our recent lifetime before moving on to the higher frequencies of the Astral Realms. We might journey back to the earh plane to visit friends and loved ones at their bedside, when their minds are in that half-awakened state in which they are consciously attuned to the spirit worlds, so that they can see our smiling face and hear our thoughts. Then, after a few days in the quantum realm, we move smoothly into the astral worlds and settle into a life of bliss, enjoyment and good service.

The Lower Astral Realm
While the quantum realm is supposed to be a gentle, relaxed area for everyone who leaves the Earth, it has developed dismal pockets of darkness and negativity where some people get stuck for a while before moving on to the the higher astral worlds. Some refer to this level as the Lower Astral. These pockets of darkness exist mainly due to humanity’s fear of death, a result of spiritual ignorance and misunderstanding. They boil over and spill back onto the Earth to stir up more negativity and they present an obstacle to many people leaving the Earth and looking for paradise.

Formation of darkness
As we approach death, we are supposed to be aware of the paradise that awaits us, and our thoughts and feelings of anticipation can then give us an inner joy and peacefulness which we carry along into the quantum realm at the moment of death. Most people make their transitions in that peaceful way. If all people died in that fashion—anticipating the beauty that awaited them—the quantum realm would be a place of delightful expectancy. Instead, some people on their death beds are wrought by uncertainty, remorse, and fear. Many people don’t believe there is an afterlife. They think that when they die, that’s the end. They regret leaving loved ones behind whom they’ll never see again. They desperately want to stay on the Earth, and their desperation sometimes reaches the level of panic. They regret that they didn’t accomplish more while they were alive. The troubled feelings present an obstacle on the road to paradise.

Most people on their deathbed have vivid dreams and visions of departed loved ones who approach them, beckoning them home, and those visions are supposed to be reassuring. Individuals who don’t believe in afterlife are usually confused and often terrified by the sight of “dead people” in their presence. Some newly deceased people struggle intensely to escape the people in spirit who have come to help them find paradise. They struggle to stay attached to Earth and their living loved ones. Sometimes these confused, troubled individuals without physical bodies remain attached to a residence on Earth, refusing to leave—trapped by their own fears and mis-understandings. Their energies can sometimes be sensed by those still in physical form. Occasionally this energy manifests as a whispy, ghostly apparition, and some people have reported seeing these “ghosts” as they wander obsessively in and around the house. Sometimes these entities are drawn into the pockets of darkness in the quantum realm which are inhabited by other confused individuals.

The challenge of humanity today is to spread the word of spiritual reality as quickly and as widely as possible, to wash away the fear of death which feeds the pockets of darkness in the quantum realm. It is time to restore the quantum realm to its intended state of gentle anticipation—a place of smooth and happy transition from a lifetime on Earth into the paradise of the astral worlds.

The Astral Realm is a world of form much like the Earth, though astral structures are easier to affect with thought and intention. Compared to our dense and heavy physical world, the astral world seems wispy and ethereal to us, but not to astral residents. Their world seems as solid and real to them as ours seems to us.

The astral realm contains many, many divisions of varying vibratory rates. The astral contains a “fourth level,” or mid-astral dimension, and the “fifth level,” or higher astral dimension. The lower the vibration, the denser the substance. After we have shed our physical body, most of us reportedly “wake up” in our astral body living in the astral region where substance is vibrating at a rate compatible to the substance of our astral body. This is sometimes called our home frequency. This frequency resonates with our own personal note - our personal frequency of vibration. Like attracts like, and we are drawn to the level of vibrational reality that exactly matches our own.

During our lives on Earth and beyond, we determine our vibratory rate by our thoughts, attitudes and spiritual understanding. Fear and resentment produce low vibrations, while love and reverence produce high vibrations. Devotion to a community raises the vibration, while isolation and separation lower it. Learning with an open mind raises the vibrations, while orthodox closed-mindedness and the resulting prejudice (whether religious, scientific or political) lower them. Attachments to worldly things create low vibrations, while calm detachment in the Eastern tradition produces high vibrations.

The astral realm is much like Earth, though more mental, less physical. In the spirit world thoughts create reality, so as thousands of people leave Earth and enter the astral planes, the worlds in those subtler planes take on an Earth-like appearance in resonance to the vibrational level of their thoughts and beliefs.

The astral realm is a buffer zone between a dense Earth plane rife with deception, fear and violence, and the higher, subtle realms of pure love, Light and wisdom. People in the astral realm can rest up and enjoy paradise to its fullest before deciding what to do next. Some people will reincarnate quickly to learn more of life’s lessons or to take on special missions in the physical realm. Others will work with an ethereal guide to learn how to purify the mind and, in so doing, raise the vibration of their consciousness so they can ascend to higher levels in the astral realm, and eventually find ultimate freedom in the ethereal realm.

Not everyone moves on right away, however. Some departed souls enjoy the astral planes so much that they choose to stay for centuries of our earth time. Others return to Earth for one reason or another to experience another lifetime in a new body.

Some residents live in thought-construct castles, fortresses or beautiful mansions, others in tents or teepees, whatever makes them comfortable. How readily a newcomer can accept the many new and unusual things is one factor determining how quickly he or she can move on to the subtler dimensions.

The astral body absorbs everything it needs for its health and well-being from its surroundings. There is no real need to eat, as astral residents acquire their nourishment through the loving energy of The Source, an energy which permeates through all levels of creation. Still, astral residents can eat if they have the desire, and most people newly arrived from Earth carry that desire with them. There is no need for sex, as there is no pregnancy in spirit, but sex can be enjoyed in the astral realm by those who made it a major part of their lives while on Earth. Eventually there will be more important things to do than following terrestrial patterns.

There are many astral communities or regions differentiated by vibration and the interests of their inhabitants. New arrivals are usually drawn to an astral family of people with whom they are compatible spiritually and mentally. They suddenly find themselves without the physical body that needs to be fed, clothed, sheltered, exercised, and rejuvenated everyday with several hours of sleep. Suddenly they have a great sense of freedom.

Planes are not the same as dimensions
There are as many planes as there are dimensions. And the planes have within them many dimensions and grid systems as well. Connections between planes are by way of portals of dimensionality. It is through experiencing various planes of expression that the soul is able to garner information and utilize it and then send it forth through portals into dimensions.

The Seven Planes
There are six major planes existing between the physical earth plane and the Source. These are not separate areas of existence, but frequencies or states of being interpenetrating each other. The heavier and grosser the matter the lower its frequency. Earth is the grossest and heaviest with the Source the finest and lightest.

The First Plane
We will designate the earth plane as the First Plane. When a spirit is ready to move ahead in its experience, its new awareness and raised frequency will raise it to the next plane. As the wisdom and light quotient of the spirit grows, its vibration or frequency becomes finer and higher until eventually it achieves its objective - a resonate state of complete harmony and oneness with the Source.

The Second Plane
The Astral Plane. As mentioned, the Astral Plane consists of a number of differing dimensional frequencies, from the lower Astral plane, to the mid-planes, to the higher Astral plane. Often referred to as the Summerland, the Astral Plane is where spirit is at liberty to re-create conditions on earth as it experienced them in its physical body, or to create fantasies to gratify repressed yearnings of the recent earthly life. A spirit can remain in this state for as long as it wishes. It moves on only when its desire to progress is expressed. They may then decide to reincarnate time and time again until they eventually reach a more enlightened thought state - a level of understanding that enables them to move on to the Third Plane.

The Third Plane
On arrival at the Third Plane, the spirit will learn more about the physical universe, the cosmos and the Source of All That Is. This higher awareness helps it to realise its evolutionary experience is still far from being complete. It may decide against reincarnation for a while, and decide to gain experience by becoming a guide for someone still living on the earth plane. The spirit is not limited to the number of humans it can guide. It still has free will and can progress as and when it wishes. A spirit may assist one person or several. Eventually the time comes when its knowledge and wisdom uplift it to the next plane.

The Fourth Plane
This is the plane where one can begin to intergate the higher vibrations of the light body with the physical while still retaining your individual ego identity. It is here where we begin to become aware of our true multi-dimensional selves. Upon arriving at the Fourth Plane a spirit will enter a dimension where colour is of a lighter, brighter brilliance, and the quality of sound indescribable. The spirit ascends in vibration by gradually assimilating an awareness of even higher levels of thought around it. After a series of tests and initiations, it will pass on up through a series of dimensions, each a little higher in vibration than the one below it, until, becoming finer and wiser, it enters the Fifth Plane.

The Fifth Plane
This realm is one of illumination - where the spirit is uplifted by the beauty, the wonder and the loving wisdom of Creation. Here the spirit learns to be a creator in its own right. Here is where it prepares for the Sixth Plane, the highest before the ultimate plane of the Source. This plane is sometimes called the plane of Light.

The Sixth Plane
The exalted beings who guide the planets inhabit the Sixth Plane - a realm of inexpressible majesty and magnitude. Archangels and Ascended Masters are of this realm. The Sixth Plane is known as the Christ Consciousness Plane. Jesus the Christ carried this frequency with him when he taught here on the planet over 2,000 years ago. Here the spirit broadens its vision to encompass all worlds and all planes. And it is here where final adjustments are made in preparation for the final step to the ultimate - oneness with God.

The Seventh Plane
Everything is in God’s imagination. Without it, nothing would exist. When a spirit finally reunites with its Source at the Godhead, it retains a certain amount of its individuality yet is still in complete harmony with all other thought. The Godhead is an ever expanding energy force and each returning spirit, having achieved that degree of fineness, breadth of thought and understanding, adds to the infinity of experience within the Godhead. The spirit itself continues to expand in complete harmony and oneness until it finally merges into such greatness that there are no words to describe it.

These various planes of vibration are not individually boxed and stacked one on top of the other, reaching up towards some imaginary throne in the sky. These levels of existence interweave and co-exists within each other right here on this plane we call earth. All spirit worlds interweave, so that within you, within your home and within your workplace, all are present, from the densest to the Godhead itself!

These descriptions of planes within planes are presented only to give you a broad outline - to help you visualise existence beyond the physical. There are many, many rooms in many, many mansions awaiting the eager explorer of this ever expanding, infinite cosmos we call home.