Dimensions or Planes of Existence

     Three main divisions exist within the portion of the universe affected by samsara (the cycle of rebirths). Arupa-dhatu (“the sphere of formlessness”) is the highest plane of existence. It is totally non-material, populated by highly evolved, formless brahma-deities occupied in the deepest states of contemplation. One source explains that this plane of existence is at the “summit” of the universe, consisting of “four realms of purely mental rebirth, without form.”[1]

     Next comes Rupa-dhatu (“the sphere of form”). It contains only the subtlest type of material substance. In this realm there are numerous deities many of whom are recognized personalities in Buddhist mythology. From this sphere certain brahma-deities descend, assuming human form, to repopulate the earth after it passes through the cycle of destruction and recreation.

     The lowest sphere is called Kama-dhatu (“the sphere of desire”). In Kama-dhatu there are six principal divisions of rebirth called gatis (“destinies”): those of (1) gods; (2) demi-gods (asuras, rebel gods, demonic beings); (3) humans; (4) animals; (5) hungry ghosts (pretas, beings who are tortured with continual hunger and thirst) or (6) hell-beings (those confined to various hells). Kama-dhatu contains the Tusita Heaven, where the next Buddha, referred to as Maitreya, awaits his appointed time to come to earth. It also contains the Heaven of the Thirty-Three Gods and the Heaven of the Four Guardian Kings.

Christianity: The Bible teaches at least seven planes or realms of existence: three heavens, the earth and three locations in “the underworld.” Though the Bible does not explicitly define the characteristics of the three “heavens,” most likely their order is as follows: (1) The First Heaven-the earth’s atmosphere; (2) The Second Heaven-the starry, physical universe beyond the atmosphere; (3) The Third Heaven (also called Paradise)-the manifest presence of God, the abode of righteous angels and departed saints.

There are apparently corresponding, spiritual realms that occupy somewhat the same ‘space’ as the first and second heavens. These spiritual realms comprise an intermediate sphere (between paradise and earth) where fallen spirit beings (Satan and his demons) roam freely, engaging at times in conflict with the righteous angels of heaven. Both demonic and angelic spirits have the power to infiltrate the natural world and influence those who dwell in the earth.

The Bible also speaks of a spiritual, subterranean abyss called the “bottomless pit” where certain evil spirits are imprisoned, and a place of torment called hell, reserved for the unsaved. After the Millennial Reign of Christ on earth, hell will be cast into “the lake of fire,” which is the ultimate, eternal place of confinement for Satan, evil spirits and all who are eternally separated from God.

Roman Catholicism promotes the idea of other realms, specifically “limbo” and “purgatory.” “Limbo” is described as a somewhat peaceful, blissful realm, situated on the edge of hell, where unbaptized infants and others free from personal sin (like the mentally inpaired) are sent at death. Though not worthy of the tortures of hell or purgatory, still, they have not qualified for the supreme beatitude of heaven. “Purgatory” is described as a temporary hell-like state that exists for the punishment of certain souls that are not so wicked as to deserve hell, yet not so righteous as to inherit heaven immediate upon death. So God requires a time of ‘purging’ before these souls are released into the ultimate heavenly state. Protestant sects in Christianity, generally speaking, do not embrace these two concepts, believing them to be non-biblical. The concept of purgatory is in direct conflict especially with the belief that salvation comes through grace and through Jesus’ death on the cross, not through “works of righteousness.” (Titus 3:5, See 2 Chronicles 6:18, Psalms 102:19; 115:16, Luke 8:30-31, 1 Corinthians 15:47, 2 Corinthians 12:2-4, Revelation 9:1, 2, 11; 20:1-3.)

Confucianism: This philosophy of life primarily speaks of heaven and earth. Though modern Confucianism may have enhanced views of this topic, having been mixed with other belief systems, historically, it emphasizes only two planes of existence.

Hinduism: On a fundamental level, Hinduism defines existence as being comprised of three worlds. (1) The First World (Bhuloka) is the material universe, the physical plane. (2) The Second World (Antarloka) is the subtle, astral plane, the mental and emotional sphere, occupied by angels, spirits and devas (divine beings). (3) The Third World (Brahmaloka) is the causal plane, the spiritual universe of the Mahadevas, ‘great radiant entities,’ the gods and highly evolved souls spoken of in Hinduism. This superior, superconscious realm has also been referred to as Karanaloka or Sivaloka (by Saivites who believe Shiva is the Creator). The philosophy of Hinduism revolves around the harmonizing and interaction of these three worlds. In Hindu Scripture is found the prayer, “Make me immortal in that realm where movement is accordant to wish, in the third region, the third heaven of heavens, where the worlds are resplendent.” (Rig Veda 9.1113) Some Hindus would list the three worlds as: (1) Heaven (Svarga); (2) Earth (Bhumi) and; (3) The Underworld (Patala).

More specific categorization speaks of “seven underworlds” (known collectively as Patala and Sapta Adholoka) and “seven upperworlds” (known collectively as Sapta Urdhvaloka).¹ The seven “upper worlds” are a more detailed breakdown of the “three worlds” already mentioned. First there is Bhuloka, the physical, material plane. Then the second, third and fourth planes (Bhuvarloka, Svarloka, and Maharloka) make up the subtle plane, Antarloka. The fifth, sixth and seventh (Janaloka, Tapoloka and Satyaloka) make up the highest realm of the gods, the causal plane.²

Another reference speaks of “twenty-one hells beneath the netherworld.”³ Hordes of snakes inhabit all of these “hells.” They are considered only temporary planes of existence for disembodied souls who deserve such negative treatment because of their karmic debt. Such persons must go through a preparatory purging as they await the next reincarnation on their journey toward ultimate perfection and liberation.

Islam: “The seven heavens declare his glory and the earth (too).” (Surah 17.44) “Allah is He who created seven firmaments and of the earth a similar number. Through the midst of them (all) descends His command: that ye may know that Allah has power over all things, and that Allah comprehends all things in (His) Knowledge.” (Qur’an 65:12)

The wicked, as well as Satan (Shaitan) and his demons, will be confined to an eternal hell. A realm of hell called Djahannam (Heb. Gehenna) is said by some theologians to be reserved for those Muslims who have committed “grave sins” and have not repented. They are punished only for a season before they are finally accepted into the presence of God. Paradise (Djanna) is the ultimate goal of the righteous. Its location is directly under the Throne of God and just above the highest heaven.

Jainism: Five regional subdivisions make up the Jain universe: (1) The Supreme Abode (Siddha-silla); (2) The Upper World (Urdhavalok); (3) The Middle World (Madhyalok); (4) The Nether World (Adholoka); (5) The Base (Nigoda).

“The Supreme Abode” is a celestial sphere at the top of the universe to which perfected souls ascend. “The Upper World” contains 30 heavens: 16 heavens for superior celestial entities and 14 for ordinary celestial entities. “The Middle World” contains the earth, planets and stars. “The Nether World” is made up of seven hells, with each successive level becoming darker, more threatening and more torturous. “The Base,” located just beneath the Nether World, is the dwelling place for the lowest forms of life called nigodas. There is little or no activity in this sphere of existence. It is a ‘storage space’ for an infinite number of bonded souls. Every time that a soul ascends to Siddha-silla, one is freed from Nigoda.

Numerous concentric continents separated by large bodies of water make up the middle world (madhyaloka). The centermost continent is called Jambudvipa. Though human beings are said to exist on two other continents, liberation of the soul can only take place for those inhabiting Jambudvipa (a name for our world).

Jainist Scripture states, “Men who commit sins will go to hell. But those who have walked the road of righteousness will obtain a place in heaven.” (Uttara-Dhyayana Sutra 18.25) The region referred to as hell (bhumis) is only a temporary abode on the karmic journey toward perfection. Souls confined to hell are tormented by demonic beings until the accumulation of evil karma is depleted. Beyond the cosmos (the loka) three levels of wind exist, before reaching the aloka, the non-universe, which is utter emptiness.

Judaism: The average Jew has little opinion on concepts like this since normal Judaism de-emphasizes the afterlife and cosmological issues. Such mystical insights are found primarily in Kabbalistic writings, which promote ideas such as the following-“the Bible has seven different designations for heaven; therefore there must be seven heavens. There are seven heavens, named respectively Vilon, Rakia, Shechakim, Zebul, Maon, Machon, and Araboth.”¹ In the highest heaven (called the “heaven of heavens” in Scripture) resides “righteousness and judgment; the treasuries of life and peace and blessing; the souls of the righteous dead; the souls and spirits that are yet to be created; the dew with which God will revive the dead; there are the ofanim and seraphim, the holy beasts (‘living creatures’) and the ministering angels.”²

“Corresponding to the seven heavens, the earth was also pictured as consisting of seven strata, since there are seven different words for it in the Bible.”³ The realm of the dead is called She’ol.⁴ Other names are given to She’ol such as: eretz (“earth,” “netherworld”); qever (“grave”); ‘afar (“dust”); bor or shahat (“pit”); dumah (“the place of abiding” or “the abode of silence”); ‘avadon (“Abaddon”); mahalei beliyya’al (“the torrents of Belial”); “the depths of the pit” (Lamentations 3:55) and “the land of darkness” (Job 10:21). Some commentators feel that She’ol is located “at the bottoms of the mountains (Jonah 2:6), or under the waters-the cosmic ocean (Job 26:5).”⁵ The area reserved for the souls of the wicked is Gehenna (also called Gehinnom). This term is derived from a valley on the south side of Jerusalem where, at one time, children were caused to walk through fire as they were sacrificed to the god Moloch. Traditionally “this accursed valley, designated for suffering, became identified with the place of retribution for the wicked after their death.”⁶ There are seven names applied to Gehenna, “seven departments, one beneath the other,” and “seven kinds of pains.”⁷ This ‘prison’ for evildoers is described as both a place of fire and darkness.

Paradise, the ultimate realm of the righteous, is also referred to as Gan Eden (the “Garden of Eden”). It is described as having “at least three levels…one higher than the other, the uppermost being nearest to God’s abode in heaven.”⁸

Sikhism: The Guru Granth (the holy book of Sikhism) seems to imply that there are “many millions” of realms or planes of existence-“thousands of worlds and underworlds.” (Adi Granth 276:11-12, Japji 22)

Taoism: On a basic level, there are nine layers of heaven and nine underworlds. An additional tenth level in the underworld serves as a final court (thus, a total of ten hell courts). The dead must pass through all of these levels in the underworld in order to progress to higher levels. The underworld, though acknowledged as a place of punishment, is also seen as a place of learning and rehabilitation. Its inhabitants are under the oversight and tutelage of Celestial Beings (Underworld Governors), who are aided by a staff of Good and Radiant Demons. The Lords of the Five Mountains are some of the most important underworld deities. They are the gatekeepers, who must be petitioned to open the gates that the souls of the deceased might enter.

Concerning the upper, celestial realms, a more detailed and expanded view of Taoist beliefs reveals thirty-six levels. These higher spheres are divided according to the Buddhist tradition of Three Worlds: (six heavens in the World of Desire, eighteen heavens in the World of Form and four heavens in the World of Formlessness-twenty-eight in all). Those who inhabit these twenty-eight heavens are still subject to reincarnation.

There are also four Brahma-Heavens for the spiritually advanced (gods and the members of the Celestial Administration). Then further above are the Three Clarities (in ascending order: Jade Clarity, Great Clarity and Highest Clarity-also called the Three Pure Realms). These are the dwelling place of the immortals, which are divided into twenty-seven ranks. Finally, the highest sphere is referred to as the Galaxy of Grand Network, where the Tao exists in its purest form and where the sacred celestial Scriptures reside. In this ultimate heaven of heavens is found the Jade Capital of Mystery Metropolis from which the Three Venerables rule the universe. Added together, these heavenly realms total thirty-six.

Zoroastrianism: The cosmos has three levels: heaven, earth and the underworld. Ahura Mazda, the righteous god, rules in heaven. Angra Mainyu, god of evil, rules in hell.

Other Religions, Sects and Teachers

Bahá’í: Bahá’u’lláh taught a “cosmological framework, which was traditional in certain schools of Islamic metaphysical thought.” This included a belief in five dimensions or planes of existence:

(1) “hahut: the realm of the unknowable, unmanifested essence of God.” Even God’s prophets cannot penetrate or experience this realm.

(2) “lahut: the realm in which the divine names and attributes become defined within the divine consciousness as the archetypal forms of all created things. This is the ‘All-Glorious Horizon’ of the primal will, the active means by which God has created the heavens and the earth.

(3) jabarut: the realm of the revealed God acting within creation, the ‘All-Highest Paradise’ of divine decrees in which reside the imagery forms of the archangels;

(4) malakut: the angelic realm, the ‘world of similitudes’ (‘alam-i-mithal).

(5) nasut: the physical world, subdivided into animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms.” God is expressed or manifested only in the second through the fifth level. “Human beings exist at the interface between the angelic and physical realms, and are able to choose in which to live.”¹

Heaven and hell are “states of the soul, which may be entered both in the present life and the afterlife.” Because the soul is immaterial, “heaven and hell are not physical planes.”²

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization (Raja Yoga): There are three realms: (1) The Corporeal World (Physical Plane); (2) The Subtle World (Astral), and (3) The Soul World (Brahmlok). There are three separate regions in the Subtle World (Brahmapuri, Vishnupuri and Shankarpuri) named after the “Trimurti” or the three highest gods beneath Shiva: Brahma, Vishnu and Shankar. In the Subtle World, bodies are made of light, not of matter. The highest realm, the Soul World, is pervaded by the golden-red, divine light, which is the sixth element called “Brahm.” In the Soul World, souls have neither bodies of matter nor of light. Prior to descending into this world, “Souls abide there as star-like points of light.”¹

1 New Beginnings (Pandav Bhawan, Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India: Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, 1996) p. 34.

ECKANKAR: Paul Twitchell, the founder, taught the Kingdom of heaven is divided into eleven different realms: the upper six are heavenly, the lower five are ruled by the devil (who is given the name Kal Niranjan). They are, from lower to higher: (1) The Physical Plane; (2) The Astral Plane; (3) The Causal Plane; (4) The Mental Plane; (5) The Etheric Plane; (6) Atma Lok; (7) Alakh Lok; (8) Alaya Lok; (9) Hukikat Lok; (10) Agam Lok; (11) Anami Lok. The true heaven where God dwells is called Anami Lok. The hub of the spirit world is a spiritual, capital city named Sahasra-dal-Kanwal.

ISKCON (International Society of Krishna Consciousness): “There are different lokas, or planetary systems, and you can go to the higher planetary systems where the demigods live and take a body there, or you can go where the Pitas, or ancestors, live. You can take a body here in Bhuloka, the earthly planetary system, or you can go to the planet of God, Krsnaloka.”¹

1 A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, The Journey of Self-Discovery (Botany, Australia: The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1997) p. 6.

Kabbala (Mystical Judaism): There are five levels or planes of existence. From the lowest to the highest, they are known as: (1) Assiyah (the “world of physicality,” the “material world,” the “world of action”); (2) Yetzirah (the “world of emotions,” the “world of formation”); (3) Beriyah (the “world of the intellect,” the “world of creation”); (4) Atzilut (the “world of the spirit,” the “world of emanations”); and (5) Adam kadmon (the “world of will,” the primordial source).¹

1 Rabbi David A. Cooper, God is a Verb: Kabbalah and the practice of mystical Judaism (New York, New York: Riverhead Books, The Berkeley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Putman, Inc., 1998) pp. 95-99.

Kriya Yoga (Swami Sri Yukteswar): Proceeding from the highest substance, the Absolute, to the lowest, gross matter, there are seven spheres of existence: (1) Satyaloka, the Sphere of God; (2) Tapoloka, the Sphere of the Holy Spirit, a normally inaccessible realm; (3) Janaloka, the Sphere of Spiritual Reflection; (4) Maharloka, the Sphere of the Atom, the beginning of maya, the door and the link between the spiritual and material creation; (5) Swarloka, the Sphere of Magnetic Aura; (6) Bhuvarloka, the Sphere of Electric Attributes; (7) Bhuloka, the Sphere of Gross Material, visible to everyone.¹ The first three comprise the spiritual creation, the last three comprise the material creation and the fourth is the door between the two. Paramahansa Yogananda emphasized three main planes: Physical, Astral and Causal.

1 Swami Sri Yukteswar, “Sutra 13,” The Holy Science (Los Angeles, California: Self-Realization Fellowship, 8th ed., 1990) pp. 33-34.

Meher Baba: There are seven planes that the soul can experience above the physical or gross plane. The soul exists apart from these planes, experiencing them according to the level of spiritual maturity: (1) The subtle world of energy (the gross world on the threshold of the energy world); (2) The subtle world of infinite energy (minor miracles); (3) The subtle world of infinite energy (grand miracles); (4) The subtle world on the threshold of the mental world (the dark night of the soul); (5) The mental world: inquiring or reflective thought; (6) The mental world: impressions or sympathetic feelings; (7) Reality: the experience of Infinite Knowledge, Power and Bliss. The first six planes are in the realm of duality and thus, can afford false or delusional experiences. The seventh plane alone provides an experience of the Absolute or the Real.

There are “seven subdivisions of the first Subtle plane (the Astral), seven stages of evolution, seven planes and seven heavens in involution.”¹ Heaven and hell do have an existence in the Subtle World, but they are actually “states of mind; they should not be looked upon as being places. And though subjectively they mean a great deal to the individualized soul, they are both illusions within the greater illusion.”² Heaven and hell states provide temporary, transient experiences to the soul between incarnations.

Scientology: Offers no set doctrinal stance on dimensions of existence after death (heavens and/or hells). Scientology is primarily concerned with the betterment of life here and now, as well as helping to produce a more sane civilization worldwide.

Sufism (Mystical Islam): Planes or dimensions of being, categorized from the highest to the lowest: (1) lahut: the realm of the Absolute where the divine nature reveals itself; (2) jabarut: spiritual existence, beyond form where decrees and spiritual powers are located; (3) malakut: the angelic world; (4) nasut: the place of humanity, the natural world.¹

1 Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 1975) p. 270.

Theosophy: Teaches seven planes of existence: the physical plane, emotional (astral) plane, mental plane and four higher planes that are beyond the present state of human evolutionary development. Theosophists do not believe in “hell or paradise as localities” but “a postmortem state or mental condition such as we are in during a vivid dream.”¹

1 Helena P. Blavatsky, The Key to Theosophy (Pasadena, California: Theosophical University Press, 1995) p. 138 (unabridged printing of original 1889 ed., with new index).

United Church of Religious Science (Dr. Ernest Holmes): Teaches the following concerning heaven and hell. Heaven is defined as “Harmony-Wholeness-Health-Physical Well-being-Happiness-Mental peace, poise, and well-being.”¹ Hell (Hades or Sheol) is defined as “Symbolic of the lower plane of consciousness. The torment of experiencing that which contradicts Truth.”² It is “the underworld,” the “drama of the soul in its conflict with opposing desires and state of consciousness before the transition from the lower to the higher plane of perception.”³

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