As to the various descriptions of the conditions prevailing in the semi-subtle sphere and in heaven or hell, which are purported to come from such spirits, some of these are in some way or other true, but it is not proper to attach importance to them. The semi-subtle sphere and even heaven and hell and the respective happiness and sufferings in them are not of real existence. The experiences in the semi-subtle are like those in a dream; and heaven and hell are nothing but states in which the Jivatman, according to his good or bad sanskaras, experiences subtle enjoyments and miseries respectively through the subtle organs. When Jivatman gets Self-realized, heaven and hell are found to have been imaginary existences, just as one, who in the dreaming state enjoys and suffers, finds the dream experiences devoid of reality when one gets up.

Worldly people can never enter into communication with higher spirits, i.e., spirits belonging to subtle, mental, and super-mental spheres; for though the spirits of the subtle and also, in some cases, of the mental spheres have to reincarnate, they don't have to stay in the semi-subtle sphere at any time. Spiritually advanced persons can, of course communicate with advanced, disembodied spirits; but they do not do so, for it is unnecessary. Spirituality has nothing to do with spiritism or communication with the spirits of the dead.

The first Journey continues through the mental sphere, or the sphere of the mind, when the pilgrim reaches the fifth Plane or stage. He now becomes the master of the mind. He can work wonders through the medium of the mind without the help of the gross and subtle organs. In other words, without using his gross or subtle organs, the pilgrim can bring about the desired results in any of the gross, subtle and mental spheres, with far greater certainty and exactitude than those who work through the media of the mind and the gross and subtle organs. It is true that every ordinary human being can also do a lot of things mentally. In fact, none can do anything in the gross or the subtle sphere without first doing that thing in the mind, whether slowly or swiftly, consciously or unconsciously. But generally, "doing in the mind" means doing only in imagination. Suppose you are in India and think that you are in Russia, you will feel yourself to be there to a certain extent; but would you feel yourself to be actually in Russia with the same certainty and feeling as you would if you were bodily present there? Then again the average human being can only do such things in the mind as he can do through the media of the gross organs. He can eat, drink, walk, and jump in imagination, but these are all gross actions; and thus, at the most, the average man can experience only gross things in the mind, and that too, in imagination, because the Jivatman in the gross sphere