Devachan and the Heaven-World

The means to attaining heaven in many orthodox religions is a pretty straight-forward procedure. The individual physically dies after only one lifetime, and is judged in the after-life usually by the son of the religion’s deity. If the soul is determined to have done enough good while on Earth, they are admitted into an eternal paradise or heaven. Those souls who a single incarnation didn’t merit blissful life in heaven, find themselves being punished, and sometimes tortured in a physical fiery hell, or it’s parallel. In addition to these two expressions of spirit world existence, some religions, like Catholicism, include an intermediate or “purgatory” level of the spirit world where individuals undergo purification prior to ascending into a permanent heaven.

The true nature of the spirit world with its diverse planes and subplanes is more complex than the traditional religionist recognizes. All dense physical planets are surrounded by six interpenetrating spheres of consciousness, as well as the four invisible etheric subplanes of the physical plane. Interpenetrating the etheric plane, but extending well beyond it is the astral plane with its seven subplanes.

The higher subdivisions of the astral plane contain the materialistic heaven of the religious fundamentalist. Interpenetrating the denser astral plane surrounding Earth and encompassing it, is the mental plane with it’s seven sub-planes. The lower subplanes of causal plane include the Devachanic plane that humans experience as part of their spiritual life between incarnations.

Some occult philosophy authors designate the three higher subplanes of the mental sphere as the causal level of consciousness, and identify its four lower subplanes as the mental sphere. This writer acknowledges both a mental sphere composed of seven subplanes, and a interpenetrating causal sphere beyond the mental sphere, also with seven subplanes. The causal sphere of awareness is the home of our Higher Selves, or immortal Souls before, during, and after temporary physical embodiments on Earth.

The Devachan is called the plane of illusion because the hopes, dreams, unfulfilled desires and earthly religious expectations of individuals come true and are absolutely real to the person subjectively experiencing them. Combined with these are bliss-filled memories of people, places, and experiences from the previous earth life.

Devachan is a place of reward for the good thoughts, words, unselfish acts and goodwill demonstrated while on Earth. The Devachanee lives in a self-created ongoing dream filled only with ecstasy and total unalloyed joyousness. No pain, sorrow, grief or frustration intrudes on the complete elation of the soul in Devachan. Living in their own dreams of intense rapture, Devachanees are completely unaware of events taking place on Earth. Devachan experience can be very brief or last decades, centuries, or longer, depending upon the soul and their spiritual development level.

Recognizing that time doesn’t exist in the afterlife but is a function of our physical brain, the average duration in Devachan for Earth inhabitants between incarnations is roughly around 250 of our years. Prior to their entrance into Devachan, humans experience purification on the astral plane that is rapid for the primarily good soul, and proportionately longer for individuals requiring greater karmic cleansing. In Devachan, the person not only receives a rest between incarnations, but absorbs the experiences of the previous lifetime and translates them into abilities and capacities the new personality will take into their next incarnation.