What is The Astral Plane?

Here's a response to a good question:

The question from the reader:
What is the astral? Is it a part of the universal consciousness? An alternate dimension? The spirit world? The collective electro-magnetic energy of the earth? The unified subconscious of man? Heaven? Hell?

My response:
Well, this is a big question, and you're going to get different answers from every person that you ask due to their religious and cultural backgrounds. So my opinion is just that, an opinion!

I'm going to answer it based off your suggestion/question above: Heaven and hell are really just the astral plane, separated by vibrational frequencies. You can say earth is also "hell" because it's so low vibrationally, along with the lower astral realms, and the higher astral planes are "heaven" because they vibrate at a very fine rate and are quite gorgeous. But the astral has only 7 levels and then you start getting into the higher planes of existence (mental, buddhic, etc.) which is where the "collective unconscious" or "universal mind" might exist. Everyone uses different words for these planes of existence (heaven, hell, collective unconscious, etc.) Spirits live in the astral realm, and when you leave the astral realm to the higher realms, you are "consciousness" and have no vehicle like the physical body or astral form although you can elect to appear in one (Robert Monroe talked about how he would see a blaze of energy and that energy would tune itself down and appear as a human). You are simply Conscious energy at that point. All things are vibrations, whether light or sound, so the physical realm is just different vibrations (coarser) then the astral, the mental and so forth. We are here to learn and love, and as we do, our vibrations raise, which is when you can start to tap into the different planes of existence. The more I meditate and astral project, the wider my frequencies become which means that I can go to higher planes of existence. When I project, I can pick up on radio and tv frequencies, and can sometimes 'see' or 'hear' what some other people cannot. When you die, you migrate to the portion of the astral plane that you are in tune with vibrationally (hence the whole concept of "bad" people go to hell and "good" people go to heaven). If you saw the higher astral planes, you would know why it's confused for "heaven" for it is simply beyond words.

The astral realm is also known as the "emotional" realm because it reacts to our thoughts. Not only is it an astral counterpart to the physical world (so the astral counterpart of a chair would exist in the astral), but it is also what we "think" about so a lot of mental "debris" exists in the astral which is why everyone gets so confused while projecting. This is not all levels though. The higher levels don't seem to have the astral thought matter that the lower and mid levels do (I know, because I've seen them). People think that they are not astral projecting (despite the unmistakable separation process) because they see objects in the astral that do not necessarily exist in the physical, so they question this reality. The fact is, they ARE astral projecting, and the astral can seem quite jumbled at times. And we humans are not the only entities that exist in the astral as well...

The astral is not just a play land for sleeping or projecting humans. It can be structured like physical life, where people go to classes, or even "work" on projects of their choice.

Take care,
Anne