Spiritual Realms, Evolution in the World, and the Role of the Psychic Being

People are generally skeptical about the existence of beings outside our normal experience of life in the world. At the same time, there is incredible interest in other beings, and the search for life-forms in the universe occupies the minds of many people. People frequently report encounters with other beings, whether they are called gods, celestial beings, angels, demons, Asuras, Rakshasas, ghosts, apparitions or alien beings. There are reports world-wide about the existence of these beings and many highly revered texts recount visitations, meetings and teachings provided by other-worldly beings.

The Bible has numerous tales of angels interacting with human beings. The ancient Greeks and Romans described the interaction of various beings designated as gods who interacted with and intervened in the lives of men. They also referred to ghosts, shades of men, that survived in an incorporeal existence. Tibetan texts describe various beings and their worlds of residence, as also can be found in texts of India. Scriptural texts from all corners of the world provide information on ethereal beings, subtle presences, etc. The Taittiriya Upanishad provides an insightful description of the levels of bliss, Ananda, attainable by various beings, and in Chapter 8 of the Brahmanandavalli, the seer describes these beings and the ascending level of subtle existence that they occupy above the human world. The chapter also notes "The Spirit who is here in a man and the Spirit who is there in the Sun, it is one Spirit and there is no other."

Human beings perceive beings that provide sensory input to us within a certain limited range of the electro-magnetic spectrum. Vibrations below, and above, this range are generally imperceptible to us, although we know both that they exist, as we can measure some of them, and that some beings on the planet can actually see or hear at levels outside our own ability to perceive. With various instruments, scientists have found living beings at the microscopic level that we could not directly know without access to these instruments. At a certain point, the existence of vibratory ranges outside the human field, and the known fact that beings exist in those other ranges, make it clear that, as Hamlet relates to Horatio in Shakespeare's famous play "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Those ranges that represent vibratory levels above the human are known as 'spiritual' levels. The evolution of consciousness slowly begins to extend the range into levels currently beyond our level of perception, just as the vital range extended beyond the physical, and the mental range extended beyond the physical and the vital levels.

Beings that exist currently at those levels, in some cases, are able to interact with human beings, and in other cases, may try to take possession of the physical existence of an individual. Rishis, seers and sages have indicated, based on their experience and interactions, that one of the lures of existence within the earth-plane is the evolutionary potential. It seems the beings on other planes are 'static' beings, not able to progress and develop. This development includes the extension of awareness into more subtle, spiritual ranges. In the meantime, beings who exist at those levels would need to take birth in the world to actively participate in this evolutionary development..

The psychic being is the divine essence that acts in the world and provides the central evolutionary impetus to carry out the divine intention in the world. While the spiritual realms are experienced above the being, the psychic is experienced deep within behind the heart-centre.

A disciple inquires: "What is the difference between 'spiritual' and 'psychic'?"

The Mother responds: "It is not the same thing. The psychic is the being organised by the divine Presence and it belongs to the earth --- I am not speaking of the universe, only of the earth; it is only upon earth that you will find the psychic being. The rest of the universe is formed in quite a different way."

"The universe contains all the domains higher than the physical; there is a global physical comprising the mental, the vital, etc., and all the domains above the mental are domains of a spiritual order, domains which are, for us, domains of the spirit, and it is this 'spirit' which little by little, progressively, materialises itself to arrive at Matter as we conceive it. The beings of the Overmind, for instance, and all the beings of the higher regions have no psychic being -- the 'angels' have no psychic being. It is only upon earth that the psychic life begins, and it is just the process by which the Divine has awakened material life to the necessity of rejoining its divine origin. Without the psychic, Matter would never have awakened from its inconscience, it would never have aspired for the life of its origin, the spiritual life. Therefore, the psychic being in the human being is the manifestation of spiritual aspiration; but there is a spiritual life independent of the psychic."

reference: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Psychic Being — Soul: Its Nature, Mission and Evolution, Section 1 Meaning and Nature of the Psychic Being, pp. 36-37