To begin experiencing gradually but with full consciousness the subtle universe means getting initiated into the first mystical Journey. In other words, when a soul through the media of the mind and the subtle organs, begins to experience in full consciousness the subtle sphere, just as a man of the world experiences, through the media of the mind and the gross organs, the gross sphere in full consciousness, he can be said to have entered the Path and acquired some Gnosis. Of the seven stages or planes of the first Journey, the first four belong to the subtle sphere. But this does not mean that communications with and glimpses of the spirits of the dead amount to an experience of the subtle sphere.

In a way, even an ordinary dream is also a subconscious experience of the subtle, because everyone necessarily makes an actual use of one's subtle body in the dreaming state; but, be it noted, through that body, one experiences different sensations and happenings pertaining to the gross only. In other words, the ordinary dreaming state is the experience of the gross, through the subtle means, in the subconscious state. Of course, the case regarding communications with the spirits of the dead is not the same as that of the dreaming state. Just as a man in the ordinary dreaming state uses his subtle body subconsciously and thereby experiences different sensations pertaining to the gross sphere, so in certain cases, a man can consciously so use his gross organs as to get the experiences of the semi-subtle sphere, and this amounts to being able to have communications with or getting glimpses of the spirits of the dead. Therefore, spirit communication is the experience of the semi-subtle through the gross means in the conscious state. It is not at all a mark of advancement on the divine Path, as it has nothing to do with the Gnosis, the subtle sphere and the Planes. There lies a world of difference between the subtle and the semi-subtle. The semi-subtle is the link between the gross and the subtle spheres. The spirits of all human beings (with the exception of those who have gone beyond the fourth plane, or the stage of the first Journey) come to this semi-subtle sphere, and according to their sanskaras, either go to "heaven" or to "hell," from which they again return to the semi-subtle sphere, or to wait directly for a new gross body, to reincarnate in the gross sphere, without, however, necessarily being aware of it. It is the spirits that are in the "waiting room" of the semi-subtle sphere who are likely to enter into communications with those who are in the gross sphere. They may either be on the point of going to "heaven" or "hell," or may have finished their terms of pleasure and pain in heaven or hell, as the case may be; or they may be directly awaiting reincarnation following the last physical death; but it is only these spirits that can be communicated with, though not always with a mathematical precision, as believed by many.