Other Domains and Worlds Exist Beyond the Limits of Our Waking Awareness

When we reflect deeply on the development of life and mind out of Matter, it becomes clear that they are not able to manifest in Matter if they do not already exist in their own right and in their own domain. Seers and mystics have described vital worlds. Teilhard de Chardin described a mental sphere, which he called the ‘noosphere’ which encompassed the mental force in its own right. Similar to the ionosphere, or the biosphere, the noosphere created a range of its own vibratory level within which the actions of mentality could take place.

For those who undertake the inner exploration, these worlds tend to open up and become perceptible, if not to the outer senses, then to the more subtle senses that are available either to the mind through direct perception, through the touches on the nervous or vital envelope that are felt but not clearly seen, and through states such as dream or trance where the outer waking consciousness recedes and other experiences can then occur.

C.G. Jung’s work made it clear that there is a domain where archetypal images reside and that provides these images to those who escape the blindered confines of the outer waking consciousness. He called this the ‘collective unconscious’ as it was experienced by our being outside the normal waking state.

We can appreciate this possibility when we reflect on the fact that when we live in the external world during the day, with the sun shining upon our lives, we lose sight of the vast universal creation that abides outside our solar system, but when the sun recedes with the advent of night, we have the opportunity, if we turn our gaze upward, to see a portion of the vast range of universal existence that far exceeds our planetary existence. The waking mental consciousness, fixated on the impulses provided by the external senses, does not attend to the vast field of consciousness that exists beyond its normal frame; only when it withdraws and one becomes receptive to other experiences, does the awareness of these other domains arise and begin to reach our notice through some means or other.

As we see in our waking experience, the vital or mental domains are populated with beings who have their own agenda, their own focus and who may be either benign or malignant in relation to our experience of them. Care must be taken when exploring or interacting with these subtler domains as we tend not to understand what it is we are truly seeing and relating to. Our own vibratory pattern and receptivity tends to condition much of what we come into contact with, so to the extent we harbour desires, lusts, ambitions, greed, etc., (or aspiration, good will, compassion, etc.), we attract just those forces to us who vibrate on a similar level.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “The physical is not the only world; there are others that we become aware of through dream records, through the subtle senses, through influences and contacts, through imagination, intuition and vision. There are worlds of a larger subtler life than ours, vital worlds; worlds in which Mind builds its own forms and figures, mental worlds; psychic worlds which are the soul’s home; others above with which we have little contact. In each of us there is a mental plane of consciousness, a psychic, a vital, a subtle physical as well as the gross physical and material plane. The same planes are repeated in the consciousness of general Nature. It is when we enter or contact these other planes that we come into connection with the worlds above the physical. In sleep we leave the physical body, only a subconscient residue remaining, and enter all planes and all sorts of worlds. In each we see scenes, meet beings, share in happenings, come across formations, influences, suggestions which belong to these planes. Even when we are awake, part of us moves in these planes, but their activity goes on behind the veil; our waking minds are not aware of it. Dreams are often only incoherent constructions of our subconscient, but others are records (often much mixed and distorted) or transcripts of experiences in these supraphysical planes. When we do sadhana, this kind of dream becomes very common; then subconscious dreams cease to predominate.”

“The forces and beings of the vital world have a great influence on human beings. The vital world is on one side a world of beauty , — the poet, artist, musician are in close contact with it; it is also a world of powers and passions, lusts and desires, — our own lusts and desires, and passions and ambitions can put us into connection with the vital worlds and their forces and beings. It is again a world of things dark, dangerous and horrible. Nightmare’s like X’s are contacts with this side of the vital plane. Its influences are also the source of much in men that is demoniac, dirty, cruel and base.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch.6 Hidden Worlds and Evolutionary Forces, pp.141-142