Our physical bodies are synchronized with physical reality & thus with each other. This creates a shared experience we call objective reality, meaning that which anyone can observe & verify for themselves regardless of who they are. But without the body, that level of synchronization no longer holds. What people experience in the occult & metaphysical realms (via NDEs, OBEs, mystical experiences, occult & shamanic maneuvers) depends on who they are on the inside, because that’s all there is without the body. *What* beings & phenomena you encounter in those occult/spiritual states is largely a matter of soul resonance, intention, and permission. As Jason Abadi points out below, being in a very dark place internally can lead to finding yourself in very dark situation “externally” in an OBE or NDE state. *How you perceive* what you encounter, that depends on the development/distortions of your etheric sense organs plus the particular symbolic lexicon of your subconscious (the same lexicon used to produce symbolic imagery & themes in your dreams). The objects of ESP perception aren’t physical, thus not optical, but your mind can automatically translate such ESP data into 5-sense representations via the subconscious lexicon. Much of clairvoyance is this. That’s why two psychics viewing the same astral/etheric neg entity may perceive some differences: one sees a floating black eel with a red human-like face, the other a dark red snake with human-like arms. Notice how both share common archetypes, yet render the superficial details differently, like how browser render the same website slightly differently. The archetype then, rather than the apparent visual form, is what constitutes objective reality in realms beyond the physical. This starts moving toward Plato’s idea of “forms.” So a person whose etheric & astral bodies have been severely damaged or atrophied by extended spiritual/emotional self-sabotage, will outside the body be as someone who is deaf, dumb, and blind (or find themselves in the presence of demonic entities who share their soul nature). This all goes to show that material existence really is just a small slice of the experiential superspectrum, the rest being richer & more dependent on consciousness. Now, OBEs & NDEs are little previews of what happens after death. What applies in those, applies even more in the latter. The critical lesson is that those who wish to avoid afterlife deceptions & traps, ought to focus not only on building up lucidity & mindfulness in daily life (ideally also in sleep as proof of progress) but to also build up their moral/spiritual/emotional character. The soul resonance (and karmic) factor is much more decisive as to what happens. Without the physical body, the internals of the soul & spirit are all that remain, and therefore all that matter. Energy is best invested there.

For materialists, there’s no barrier to integrating the brain with machines, to modifying ourselves beyond recognition. For materialists, there’s nothing sacred about the mind or soul. Just data to manipulate. The Ahrimanic trap. The correct use of AI therefore requires a correct understanding of consciousness. Those who think human consciousness arises from matter, or who think current AIs are conscious, are both deceived & liabilities. The correct understanding must become part of consensus reality before we hit the point of no return & lose our capacity to be spiritual beings. Whether AI elevates us, or destroys us, comes down whether we make the leap beyond science into the metaphysical & spiritual realms.

Simple working model of reality I’m using. Physical is a subset of the etheric, which is a subset of the astral, which is a subset of encompassing levels that extend to base reality. It’s like Inception, a dream within a dream within a dream. The important point is this: each level has its own environment, physics parameters, therefore laws, values, and goals. But since as humans we’re composite beings, we are subject to the rules & needs of different realms simultaneously. “Man does not live by bread alone,” Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, etc. When you move beyond the physical, whether through death or transcendence, you’re free of that plane but still under the grip of the next ones. Like when you leave the physical, you’ll be free of human laws, tax obligations, material physics, and physical possessions. But you’ll still be subject to the laws of karma & soul development there as you were in the physical. Physicality is the heaviest, most illusory, most virtual plane of them all. It has the strongest arrow of time, the greatest entropy, the slowest uplink to the higher planes, and the least amount of quantum coherence. The physical world is a lie that tries to convince you that YOU are the lie: that your consciousness is an epiphenomenon of matter. But the inverse is true, and the core of consciousness (spirit) is that which can & shall overcome matter. Diagram I drew, improved with Grok. Shows the nested structure of different realms:

The Rainbow Body (of Bon/Dzogchen tradition) is identically what the Biblical Jesus attained upon Resurrection. Specifically in his case, the “Rainbow Body of Great Transference” where the body disappears completely in a blast of light but they continue staying around in transfigured form indefinitely for the benefit of others (coming to them via inner guidance, dreams, visions, etc.) The idea was depicted in Star Wars with Obi Wan disappearing when struck down (his form shrinking to nothing) and becoming transcendent & stronger than before. Star Wars has a lot of secret society symbolism woven in. The proper way attain the Rainbow Body is to sequentially absorb the lower bodies (physical, etheric, astral) into spirit. Spirit first transforms (and gains full control over) the astral body. This can only be done by purifying the astral of contaminants, hence the Buddhist/Hindu/Christian dictum to overcome attachment to worldly desires. The astral is the seat of desires & passions. The purified & strengthened astral then gains control over the etheric. Alternatively, the etheric is tuned up directly through energy work practices then meets the spiritualized astral body halfway. It’s possible for the most spiritual, devout, pious saints to attain the Rainbow Body without doing any energy work, as it happens automatically same way someone who loves dancing gets a good physique without ever hitting the gym. Only when the etheric is strong, pure, and properly configured enough can it override physics (the demiurge) and transfigure the physical body. It’s like transferring a game avatar from a more deeply nested simulation to the next higher simulation level. That’s the traditional occult explanation. Now, what I think is really going on: The physical, etheric, and astral planes are different domains within a universal quantum condensate. Portal-like conduits, links, or throats connect between these domains. Spirit is outside that structure, or at the top level, extending its conduit down through the nested layers until lastly the etheric body interfaces with the physical through a network of micro-conduits we call the meridian/aura network. These conduits, links, or throats are normally highly choked off, low in throat conductance, and so the spirit to astral, astral to etheric, etheric to physical are bound together just barely enough to keep the human complex functional. At death, however, the conduit to the astral & spirit domains opens up, which is perceived as the tunnel with the bright light at the end. The light is due to that higher condensate level having a much higher amplitude than our reality. This death-associated opening process is accompanied by an inrush of energy from that higher realm, which is perceived feeling more alive, more real, more surrounded by love than you ever did in ordinary “reality.” That’s because down here we’re in an entropic, de-energized, low-amplitude, low-coherence, low-resolution part of the condensate. Now, if a person does the Rainbow Body training sufficiently in life, which already greatly reinforces the links/conduits/throats between the various levels, then death is the final mega amplifier needed to widen all those channels fully & pull down a superconductive blast of energy from the spirit level. This immense negentropic higher order energy accessed via death disentangles one from the grip/agreement of the demiurge, putting that sector of the demiurge that generates the physical body under the control of spirit. Thus it disappears in a flash of light. Thereby is attained full & complete transfiguration of the physical body. The rainbow color concepts comes from the different chakras & subtle body layers being all activated, aligned, and crystallized together in one shot. In the Tibetan Book of the dead, the different colored lights relates to this; they go to different sectors of the astral planes, each with their own conduit & vibration (hence color). Thereafter, one is freed from linear time, material physics, dark forces, shadow, ego, etc. and can serve/give without suffering for it. This is conversion from an STS state to a higher STO state, like inverting a black hole into a white hole. A faux version of “transcending physicality” is possible through occult training, where the etheric alone is raised in strength, coherence, and amplitude enough to move/project the physical body. It’s not the same as spiritual transcendence, just occult transcendence. Bigfoot, many aliens, certain shamans (Skinwalker lore) & dark occult masters can do this. May also be emulated through quantum phase shifting technologies.

The etheric double is the etheric body, which is the physical-adjacent subtle energy structure coalesced from the local etheric environment + father’s etheric donation during insemination + mother’s etheric contribution during gestation. After birth, the etheric body is further sustained by the incarnated soul’s higher aspects transmitting negentropic energy through the subtle body’s inner transducers (the chakra, dantian, meridian system). After death, the person goes OBE immediately. Their etheric body later drops off & disintegrates within 3 to 40 days (unless the person stays earthbound & maintains it via energy vampirism or special meditative practices). As Steiner explained, the parasitic/predatory part of the etheric body, called the doppelganger, may flee in the days *before* death since it’s afraid of dying & doesn’t want to be there when the body dies. This is identically what Castaneda wrote about the Predator. Hence a person might encounter a ghostly copy of himself days before dying, as reported in paranormal literature & is the anecdotal basis of the doppelganger phenomenon Steiner incorporated into his worldview. The higher self isn’t the etheric body. It’s the nonlocal somewhat atemporal aspect of our being that exists beyond spacetime. The etheric is coupled to spacetime but fuzzier in its localization. As humans, we’re using the lower mind which is the localized body-centric aspect of our being. The etheric & astral bodies are avenues through which the higher self beyond them interacts with the physical body & lower mind, and vice versa. If these avenues are extremely weak or damaged, the lower mind can’t register the presence or influence of the higher self, and vice versa. Conversely, if the etheric & astral bodies are purified & strengthened, the connection increases. Only beyond a certain degree of connection does one get more than mere hunches, but rather actual direct communications (audio, visual, sensations) which is nonlocal info rendered to fit the human mind. The etheric connection is strengthened through energy-work exercises (bottom up conditioning) or infusion from spirit (top down vitalization). The astral is strengthened through emotional, moral, and spiritual upliftment & self-mastery. Sufficient astral purification & strengthening can trickle down to also improving the etheric, but not necessarily vice versa, which is why saints can become psychic but being psychic doesn’t alone make you a saint. When people call upon their intuition, or get messages from the subconscious as in dreams, these can come from the higher self -- or other higher beings. Or they can come from lower entities if they have hooks into the etheric & astral (very much so in the case of schizophrenics). That’s why in addition to the optional etheric energy work & the mandatory astral moral/spiritual training, one must also training reason & discernment. Steiner said it’s more important to understand & have discernment concerning the “supersensible world” than to experience it personally, versus experiencing it but not having the discernment.

Benevolent NHIs (non-human intelligences) exist. They’re active & they’re why hostiles have to tiptoe around in secrecy while why we have enough freedom/normality in this world to have these conversations. If someone says something the hostiles don’t like, technologically & psychically they could eliminate that person within seconds. But in practice, that rarely happens. The person may get close to being taken out, and all signs are there that something’s trying to take them out, but there’s intervention. You have to ask yourself why. Benevolent NHIs come in several types: Type 1: Nonphysical, ultraterrestrial, powerful. Closer to what we think of as angels. Under divine authority. Total mastery over spacetime. But foresight, wisdom, and strict rules keep them from exercising that power in frequent & obvious ways except in extreme cases. Then physics breaks, or time seems to reset, to prevent a forbidden outcome. These operate more on the soul/spiritual/moral/karma/destiny axis, which involves backstage dynamics & reasons that aren’t always clear to us. Type 2: Nonphysical discarnate beings of positive intent, including personal tutelary & guardian spirits. Not as powerful, but operating on a similar axis as Type 1. These can operate pretty freely within the strict ruleset of Type 1. Human governments can’t do anything about them, but then again they don’t meddle with political matters except spiritually & sychronistically supporting humans who came here to help in such domains. Type 3. Physical, or quasi-physical, technological, cerebral, ethical. The classic alien with interdimensional psi or tech based phasing ability. They can look human, but their minds don’t resemble ours, anymore than ours resemble that of a monkey. From what I can tell they keep a very low profile because they’re physically vulnerable & operating in hostile territory due to predatory aliens having secured legal jurisdiction over many parts of the world via the cooperation or infiltration of the secret human government(s). So they also operate in the shadows. Thus there’s a cold war between them & the predators; situation is very similar to the infowar & cold war between secret societies or intelligence agencies. Their influence is real but similar to how US intelligence agents might act in a foreign hostile country where there’s not yet an active military campaign. This means that on a mass public scale, we don’t see obvious signs, except the most obvious which is that we’re still here. So this whole idea seems unfalsifiable. But it’s not, because on a personal level anyone can experience & verify their influence if they come under it. Otherwise they’ll have to infer probabilities from other people’s anecdotes. Freewill, plausible deniability, Type 3 protecting themselves, plus a kind of quarantine imposed by Type 1 — these all amount to a managed reality where unequivocal proof is prevented from upsetting consensus reality except in measured planned doses. But within a compartment, i.e. within one’s own sphere of experience, proof can be undeniable.

Our future is ultimately that of magick, not technology. Magick harnesses the forces of the inner world, technology of the outer. Since consciousness precedes matter, and inner exists regardless of the outer, magick is superior to technology. Magickal action occurs from the fulcrum of existence rather than from/upon the outer manifested forms. Thus in having better leverage, it can “move the world.” Magick seems ineffectual right now because our inner/conscious state is so poorly developed versus our demonstrated technological skill. But technology has tighter boundary conditions than magick since it’s a product of the physical & etheric planes, which are lower, false, temporary creations of the demiurge. Its currency is only good within the dream. The control system on this planet is fundamentally a magickal one, with technology only in an auxiliary role. Humanity’s spiritual sleep is more the symptom of a spell or curse than mere socio-electro-chemical mind control. So the counter to this problem must ultimately be one of a magickal, spiritual, occult nature rather than (just) a technological, social, political, or other physical type of solution. Rudolf Steiner foresaw how magick would become the dominant means of control & liberation in the future: == From en.anthro.wiki/Black_magic == “The abuse of spiritual powers is related to that seductive power of the beast with two horns. And we call this abuse of spiritual power black magic in contrast to the right use, which we call white magic. Thus, by dividing itself, the human race will prepare itself, on the one hand, to reach ever more spiritual states and thus to enter into the use of spiritual powers, into white magic, and on the other hand, that which abuses spiritual powers will prepare itself for the wildest power of the two-horned beast, black magic. In the end, humanity will split into beings who practise white magic and those who practise black magic. Thus in the secret of 666 or Sorat is hidden the secret of black magic. And the seducer of black magic, of that most terrible crime in the evolution of the earth, which no crime can equal, is represented by the apocalyptic through the two-horned beast. Thus, as it were, the division of humanity enters our horizon in the very distant future: the chosen ones of the Christ, who will ultimately be the white magicians, and the opponents, the wild sorcerers, the black magicians, who cannot get away from matter and whom the apocalypticist represents as those who make prostitution with matter. Therefore all this activity of black magic, all that arises in marriage between man and the hardening in matter, is brought to his view before his visionary soul in the great Babylon, in the community which unites all those who practise black magic, in the terrible marriage or rather wild marriage between man and the forces of degenerate matter.” ==== Yes, we do need white hat magicians (wizards) to counter the demonic NHI sorcerers pulling the strings. This will develop naturally as knowledge of the higher worlds & intensity of our consciousness continues to evolve. But remember that white magicians don’t act on their own; they are vessels of the godhead. As Philip K. Dick wrote, “Probably the real, secret Christian church still exists, long underground, with the living Corpus Christi as its head or ruler, the members absorbed into it. Through participation in it they probably have vast, seemingly magical powers.”

There’s either escape or transcendence. Escape means being out of the demiurge’s reach. Transcendence means being immune or invincible to its influence. The core of our being (spirit) is located beyond the demiurge. It’s like we’re a rover on the ground on “planet Demiurge” while the spirit is the satellite in orbit. The rover has a crappy autonomous AI built in so that it can get by on the surface, but ideally it needs the supercomputer in orbit to be fully functional. Yet the antenna array is damaged, not extending, and radiation storms often block the signal. At night, radiation dies down a bit, and weak signals do get downloaded from the satellite and cached when the rover is in sleep mode, but the rover doesn’t always access the cache. Depends on how capable or damaged the particular rover is. To escape means to return to orbit and get out of here. To transcend means to restore all functions and allow the supercomputer to operate through the rover on the ground, unaffected by storms, unblinded by the conditions on the planet. Let’s say the rover is a terraforming machine and can get to work then transforming the planet. If humans were to transcend the matrix/demiurge, they would need to first acquire a full downlink from spirit that acquires dominance over the astral, etheric, and physical domains in turn. At least within themselves. But if also the environment, then that leads to performing of miracles. Note there are ways to perform fake miracles without spirit, just willpower & deals with dark NHIs, so such tricks aren’t proof of anything other than the ability to manipulate the astral/etheric and therefore physical environment. Right now, our physical, etheric, and astral bodies are largely borrowed from the demiurge. When spirit gains manual override over these, that’s when you enter Jesus/Buddha mode. If this happened to many people, it would be a decentralized (cloud-like) “second coming.” Escape is still a choice, but might go against the grain of choices made at a higher level. Depends. But to transcend, to bring Heaven to Earth, to spiritualize matter, to override of the demiurge… this is the ultimate act of Alchemy and, in my view, the Grand Plan.

My tentative conclusion is that sentient dark beings (including predatory humans) are fundamentally irrational. They may seem logical, knowledgeable, technological, even wise… but it’s all a farce built on a deep dark secret they keep even from themselves. At the root of their false identity is void, shadow, lie, and pain. Their whole existence is predicated on a fundamental ignorance, not from lack of knowledge but a refusal to go there & acknowledge the truth of their spiritual nature & its proper place in Creation. They’re individuated fragments of the Creator reacting negatively against having to share existence with other individuated fragments. Consciousness, in its purest essence, seeks to experience, learn, and freely exercise its creative power. It needs freedom. This is self-evident. And in a solipsistic existence, you as the lone conscious agent would have that fully. But in a shared existence, you run into limitation, scarcity, unfulfillment, and thus the potential for pain. That’s where it begins. If a being were in touch with their true nature & acknowledged same in others, they would have empathy & respond to the challenges of existence with understanding, compromise, and cooperation. But if they don’t acknowledge the divine spark within themselves or respect it in others, they might choose competition, manipulation, and violence. Narcissism & sociopathy is the central issue, built upon a malignant need for freedom & security that takes same from others. The ego is free to acknowledge or reject the spirit within, to numb or nurture empathy. These choices create a feedback loop where one gets increasingly mired in environments that necessitate more of same. So you can imagine how, say, a darkened soul enters a physical environment where they can use force to tyrannize others, where they’re part of a wolf pack cooperating only to prey/exploit those outside the pack, and how with the principles of karma & soul resonance create consequences from their anti-spiritual actions that increasingly cuts them off from divine support. So they become part of a pocket existence, pinched off from the rest of creation, sustained by their own freewill & feedback loops, increasingly hard to escape (or to even want to). The ignorance & rebellion at their core is never questioned; it’s only built upon, rationalized, and imperially expanded. The ego is meant to be an avatar for spirit, not its own rebellious autonomous thing. But animated by pain, survival reflex, vengeance, hubris, envy, hunger, greed, etc. it can secede from the divine framework and become a cancer unto itself, feeding on the rest of Creation. The lie consists of all the false assumptions it uses to justify its mode of being (“only the strong survive” and such). To convert would mean burning their identity to ashes & giving up their core assumption, and becoming as baby learning to crawl & walk again on a new path. That’s not going to happen until they let go of the rebellion & ignorance sustaining their false identity, which generally requires hitting absolute rock bottom or having some miraculous epiphany.

Good question about why loving souls may be bad at manifesting while certain types of selfish people can be very good at it. Usually it’s because the caring loving souls are empaths, meaning they sense & hold a lot of pain within. And since they’re tasty loosh-donors they get fed on a lot in life, including abuse/demeaning. So their identity gets beaten down in life & picks up patterns of martyrdom (sacrificing self for others), being downtrodden, the world being full of pain, sadness, money being dirty, trying but drowning, etc. All this can morph into subconscious beliefs like “why should I get happiness & success when there are so many other people suffering way worse than me who deserve it more than I do? Wouldn’t it be selfish for me to be happy & successful when they’re in misery?” You can tell these patterns are active if you feel sadness or emptiness when you think about receiving something good, whether a loving happy trouble-free relationship or money or whatever. It stems from an unhealthy lack of ego (due to it being beaten down, having poor self image, low self-esteem, etc.) without having yet discovered the spiritual ego that knows its power & place in the cosmos. Although, ironically, the beaten down ego may seek and cling to a false substitute “empowered ego” (like “I’m a Zeta Starseed and Greys are my friends!”) which leads to a toxic dynamic you find in the New Age field. So not only does the ‘matrix’ crush their self-identity, but it then offers substitute identities that serve the ‘matrix’ all the same. Sick game they’re playing. Meanwhile certain types of selfish people tend to be practically incapable of self-blame, honest introspection, or empathy. As a result, they take on little to no pain or blame, and are instead confident even arrogant or cocky, and so they have will, conviction, and confident energy which is what allows them to manifest better since they’re not sabotaging themselves as much with guilt, sadness, shame, or self-hatred. They have an unhealthy ego in the other direction. These particular types, their heart isn’t shut down like in an empty, blank, zombie person. It’s just very self-focused, as they love themselves & love what they want in a narcissistic way. You can see this in action in parking lots where nasty rich people always get the best spots (and good rich people too, showing that patterns of material success requires a mindset that translates to other areas in life including the synchronistic). The solution is to transcend these two false choices. You need a healthy ego tied into your objective spirit, which involves a path of self-realization that can only come through experience & introspection, through a change/strengthening in your beingness. That’s not something you can develop vicariously from the afterlife by watching people here in the physical or “reading books” in the Akashic, anymore than you can develop physical fitness by watching videos of people exercising. That’s one of many reasons for incarnation.