Course XXXVI - Teaching 6: Mental World

All beings dwelling in the astral plane are directly influenced by the mental world by different thickness.
Even unconsciously, beings of the seventh, sixth, fifth and fourth astral plane pass through the mental world; otherwise, to them it would be impossible to bring energy in order to face the new life.
Beings of second and third astral plane truly dwell in the mental world. When they concentrate their will, they are in the astral world; when they widen their consciousness, they are in the mental world. To them, day, watchful state, is astral world; dream, night, is mental world.
If we wished to represent the difference between astral world and mental world, we should say one is a flower and the other, its perfume, and one is a note, and the other its sound.
This separation between astral world and mental world is entirely arbitrary and we make it only for mere didactic purposes.
The inhabitants of the first astral plane are almost continuously contacting the mental world. When they concentrate their thought, all beautiful colors, variable forms and persistent astral sounds fall away and they are in the world of the perennial light.
But many of these great beings suffer terribly when they pass from the mental world to the astral world, from the state of mind in itself to the state of defined mind. If many of these beings never take a physical form, to them it is already a big sacrifice to take the astral form.
In this plane, souls are scintillating lights. When they work, they expand, extend and reflect in themselves all other lights. When they re-concentrate, they become tiny, because acquire greatness of spirit. All their words are creations; all their actions shape a life in our world.
They recognize each other by its shining lights and they love each other by reflecting on one another. In this world there is neither the time nor a fourth dimension widened, multiplied or reduced at will by the operator. It is only duration that exists there.
Immersed in a continuous, perfect ecstasy, these souls live an experience of eternal bliss.
We could say there are also seven different planes, and the elevation of the soul and the plane to which the latter belongs depend on the duration and persistency of such ecstasy.