The Reality of Worlds of Existence Other than the Physical World

We have a strong bias in favor of accepting things that we can perceive with our physical senses, and we tend to disbelieve or discount anything that is not directly, physically available to our experience. Yet if we reflect on the totality of our life experience, it becomes clear that there are many experiences, innumerable forces and powers, that are not susceptible to direct sense perception, yet are able to be determined as real.

We cannot see electricity or gravity for instance, but we can experience their effects and we can measure their power, and harness the effects. Similarly, there are many things which occur within us which cannot be perceived by the physical senses, yet are patently real for us. When we get a new idea or inspiration, when we experience an emotion, we sense them directly with the mind, not the external sense organs. They arise somehow, from somewhere, and thus, imply a reality that is other than that of the physical world we are rooted in. Whether in a state of dream, or an out of body experience, or some abstracted state of trance or a mystical state of some sort, we experience things which are real and meaningful, yet which defy direct perception by the physical senses. How many times in our lives do we have such experiences and gain some new insight or understanding, yet discount the reality of those experiences in some way? Just as electricity and gravity can be known through their effects, such experiences also make themselves known through their effects.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “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.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 2, Planes and Parts of the Being, pg. 12