In the 1970s, my primary spiritual teacher shocked his audience with an honest answer to a simple question. An expert in out-of-body astral travel, he was explaining how the realms of the afterlife are structured.

Let me interject by using terminology that I have since developed. Our physical realm is in upper third density (3D), sometimes called the "third dimension." The afterlife is in fourth density (4D), often called the "astral realms," and your soul's consciousness is primarily based in fifth density (5D), often called the "mental realms."

You can live in 4D as a spirit (astral) being or as a physical being. Most ascended masters are physical and have chosen 4.6D as a strategic location for providing their best service to humanity.

Within the 4D afterlife, there are twelve sub-levels - one through twelve. I call them 4.1D ("four point one D") through 4.12D ("four point twelve D"). My teacher was pointing out how most people pass on into the afterlife in what I now call 4.3D. From there, spiritually-minded people quickly adapt to their new life in the afterlife and move on up to higher sub-levels - to 4.4D and higher.

With his extensive experience of leading rescue missions to the lower astral realms, the teacher pointed out that the lowest sub-realms - 4.1D and 4.2D - are commonly called "the hells" as they are populated by people who habitually function at a lower frequency of consciousness than the average person. Dante's vision of hell is, of course, nothing but a work of imaginative fiction. The real hells are not places of fire. In fact, they appear darker than the normal afterlife realms because the depressive consciousness of the inhabitants affects the intensity of etheric light in those realms.

Illustrating these levels on a blackboard, the teacher was then asked the question, "So where are we - the physical world - on that picture of levels?"

"Oh, somewhere down there," he replied, pointing to an area BELOW the hells! At that point, anyone with the slightest psychic sensitivity felt the sense of shock that silently swept through the minds of the audience as they thought, "We're lower than the hells?"

The lower astral realms, also known as "the hells", are right above us, located at the bottom end of the fourth-density realms of the afterlife. Well, that was quite a shocker but, when you stop and think about it, it has to be that way. When people in the physical world die, they find themselves inhabiting a spirit body composed of etheric energy. 4D is the natural home for all things etheric, so they automatically rise into 4D, then settle into the sub-realm to which their frequency of consciousness is most suited.

While the criminally-minded will settle into the lower astral realms of 4.1D and 4.2D, most people find themselves in 4.3D, where life is remarkably similar in many ways to their old existence in the physical world. Residents of 4.3D are not concerned about visitors from the lower realms as spirits are unable to enter realms above their frequency of consciousness.

One Big Question

The consciousness of planet Earth began the ascension process in 1964. Since then, she has been raising the frequency of physical matter step by step in amounts that people can handle. As the years tick by, we draw closer to the big Ascension Day when all matter shifts into physical 4D and takes us with it. But, that raises one big question.

How can it be safe to move from 3D up into 4.1D when that's the worst realm of afterlife consciousness?

Obviously, the Karmic Lords who manage the stable administration of Divine Will asked the same question long ago. When I pondered that very question some years ago, I received an intuitive insight that they had solved the problem in a most elegant manner.

When the global ascension occurs, the lowest sub-levels of 4D (4.1 and 4.2) will stay where they are and all realms from 4.3D upward will be raised up one sub-level. This will vacate sub-level 4.3D.

The incoming 3D physical world will ascend right into that vacant slot of 4.3D.

So, whether we experience the global ascension in the physical world or in the afterlife, it will still be a glorious event. For people in the physical world, their new home will have a curiously magical feel to it. For people in the afterlife, rising to a higher sub-level within 4D will make it clear what the Biblical prophecy meant, "the dead shall be risen."

Owen Waters is a spiritual researcher and author.  For articles and books by Owen Waters, visit InfiniteBeing.com.