The Third Dimension or Physical Plane is the only one where saints rub shoulders with sinners.
In the Fourth Dimension or Astral Plane you’ll find both saints and sinners but the saints live in the loft (the Higher Summerlands) and the sinners live in the basement (the Dark Planes or Winterlands). Never the twain meet save if the saint travels down to the Winterlands for the upliftment of the sinner.
So on the Third, we all share the same environment and on the Fourth we’re all there but segregated into different environments. To the Fifth or Mental Plane, the sinner has no access. And the entry requirements just go up from there.
That having been said, much about each dimension remains the same, with differences mostly in quality. The same grass, the same trees, the same flowers, the same lakes and oceans, houses and buildings. But with each dimension, everything the same is now more marvellous. The grass, trees and flowers sing. The atmosphere radiates bliss. The colours are more radiant. The houses and buildings are more translucent, crystalline, and so on.
But only here in the Third Dimension could you have a mass tragedy such as the shooting in Denver. And it’s that way, as I understand it, because the Third Dimension is the place where karma is rapidly cleared. The afterlife is where the fruits of karma are enjoyed or suffered, as the case may be, but not where radical cleansing can take place. That must wait for reincarnation.
A denizen of the Dark Planes who killed people must stay in the Winterlands for perhaps 250 years, depending on the severity of the crimes. One who tortured people during the Inquisition might still be in the Dark Planes. But they’ll at some point be released to ascend the ladder of planes. But they won’t be released as quickly from their karma as they might be if they reincarnated in 3D and met their objective lessons more dramatically in the flesh, so to speak.
The dimensional environments on the other side are plastic and designed by higher spirits, often angels. The astral planes are also attached to planets. How many times has Matthew Ward said that he was away helping another planet redesign its astral settings? He began his service on the other side as a guide to the newly-transitioned and went from there to actually participating in the planning and design of the afterlife environment.
One can read extensively about the afterlife environment and the different dimensions in the online book, New Maps of Heaven. (1) One might ask, well, if one can read about the Fifth Dimension there, why am I not writing extensively about the Fifth Dimension?
The reason relates to how the transitioned report back to us.
When spirits relocate to the Astral Planes, they’re excited by what they see. They want to write home and tell the folks they left behind that they survive and what wonders they can expect. Their family is largely here in 3D and they feel a strong desire to share their excitement and enthusiasm.
Then as the years pass, they gradually integrate into society on the other side and forget about the folks they left behind. They climb up (I should say “ascend”) to the higher subplanes of the Astral or Fourth and then ascend to the Mental Plane or Fifth.
Here is an account of an ascension to the Fifth Dimenion from the astral side. “Dr. G.” is an associate of T.E. Lawrence, known to us as Lawrence of Arabia. Dr. G. confesses to Lawrence that he is nearing the end of his stay on the Astral Plane and soon will ascend to the Mental, which we know as the Fifth Dimension. Dr. G. discusses the nearness of his Ascension:
“‘The timelessness of our life,’ [Dr. G. said to T.E. Lawrence], ‘misleads us into thinking that there is no longer any period to our happiness. We have no lengthening shadow of old age to put a natural limit to our activities and so, when we are happy and easy, we think it can continue indefinitely.
“‘But I know there are natural periods in our time here and that I am approaching one of them. I could perhaps disregard the intimations and stay on here [in the Astral Plane], but, if I did so, I should be perverting the pattern. So you see, even this paradise may not be enjoyed for too long lest it thwart one’s proper growth. …
“’I am growing old in this [astral] body and shall soon be done with it. Then I shall go on to explore this wonderful universe on another level [i.e., the Mental Plane or Fifth Dimension].'” (2)
“[As Dr. G. spoke,] the illumination of his wise spirit made a glory around him and was more convincing than many words.” (3)
Lawrence is given the opportunity to watch Dr. G. ascend from the Fourth to the Fifth Dimension.
“I had heard about this second death and transition to the next sphere…. Now it seems that I may be privileged to watch it happening to another. (4)
“The end came suddenly. I called on him and was told that he was sleeping. We stood around and watched his still form and the light which waxed and waned there. In a breathtaking second the change came. The light gathered itself together and burnt itself to a keen thought of light so intense and inward that we gasped and turned aside. Then it had gone and only a wraith of our friend remained which shrank away and disappeared as we watched.
“We sat speechless, absorbed in the beauty and meaning of the transition. It was long before anyone broke the silence and then one said: ‘I have heard that some time is needed for a spirit to get used to the new conditions, just as we needed time to adjust when we first came here, so we must not expect our friend to come to us yet. I suggest that when an interval has elapsed we should meet here again and wait and hope for his coming.’ We agreed to do this and went off full of thought to our various occupations.” (5)
After the passage of some time, Dr. G. returns to the Fourth Dimension to revisit his friends.
“Dr. G. has kept his promise to come to us but he appeared when we were least expecting him. Some few of us were sitting quietly talking when his voice suddenly took up the parable and as we looked up, startled, we saw the outlines of a form which speedily filled in and took substance and there he was among us again.
“He brought with him an exalted air and we felt his presence as a spiritual baptism, a stream of pure joy absorbed hungrily by our thirsty beings. Light and happiness glowed up in us too with the pleasure of heightened being. He stayed only a short while … and left us again.” (6)
By the time spirits like Dr. G. ascend to the Fifth Dimension from the Fourth, they are entirely integrated into spirit life and give very few thoughts to the ones they leave behind. Gone is their desire to describe the wonders of the afterlife.
Thus fewer send back messages and the messages they do send are devoid of the elaborate descriptions of the newly-arrived.
What that means is that we have far fewer descriptions of the higher planes and the descriptions we do have are less detailed. And that’s why I haven’t given copious descriptions of the Fifth Dimension from afterlife sources but have instead given some of the Fourth, about which the newly-arrived enthuse and which they extol.
But you can read all about the formation of the soul group on the Fifth, the dedicated work that people do, the wonderful expansion of consciousness that comes with ascension to the Fifth, and so on, in New Maps of Heaven.
Footnotes
(1) New Maps of Heaven can be found at https://www.angelfire.com/space2/light11/nmh/nmh-index1.html
(2) T.E. Lawrence, PMJ, 76.
(3) Loc. cit.
(4) Ibid., 77.
(5) Ibid., 78-9.
(6) Ibid., 83.