While our scientists have worked diligently to understand everything about our physical world, they have not been able to make much progress in understanding the etheric worlds as our only link to those worlds is through sight. We call this gift clairvoyance. There are different levels of that ability, but typically it opens up what are termed the 3rd and 4th ethers to vision through the physical eyes. Usually these abilities are first found in people who have a higher degree of evolutionary attainment, and they often have worked consciously to open this ability more fully.

So, in addition to the matter we know in the states called solid, liquid, and gas, we have forms of matter beyond gases that we term the four ethers. These ethers have no mass, are unaffected by gravity, and inter-penetrate our solid matter. These ethers are, however, similarly energized like the physical matter we know with its changes of state, and the ethers in turn may be excited into various discrete levels of activity. We call these levels “planes”. Thus we come to have a physical plane that we know, as well as an astral plane and mental plane that we are not aware of consciously. We could view these planes as successively higher energy levels. These planes are also what some people view as “different dimensions” or sometimes in science fiction writing as “a parallel universe”.

Further, man also has a separate body of consciousness on each of these planes, and for the most part those bodies are built of that etheric substance. So, it is not like we are discussing something that is totally alien to ourselves. The etheric, astral, and mental bodies that are a part of us also have their corresponding forms throughout the planetary worlds. So the Earth also has an astral body as well as a mental body, and in a way they are all a part of us - or more accurately we are a part of the Earth and its different mansion worlds.

Because these bodies, comprised of etheric matter, are not perceived by most people, the tendency is to ignore their reality. Now, consider the person that has a medical problem, and must go into the hospital to undergo an operation. Once under anesthesia they suddenly become conscious again, but strangely they find themselves up floating in mid air near the ceiling. Even more disconcerting they can see their own body on the table below and the first thought is they must have died. No one below seems concerned however, and the monitors are beeping normally. In short the person is still alive, but separated from their own physical body.

The person soon realizes that their full waking consciousness is with them, and they are now in a different form. The question then is what should we think about this matter? Is it not evident that there is more to us than just the physical body, and more to the point, our real consciousness does not reside in that physical form. Ponder that!

Until our science acknowledges the existence of the etheric, and undertakes active investigation of these worlds we will remain mired in 20th century orthodoxy. This also means no real progress in the new fields such as Astrobiology or other fields of exploration.