We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
—William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Conceptual maps of different realms of consciousness and reality are found in the Asian spiritual traditions, in indigenous shamanistic worldviews, in Western esoteric and mystical writings, and in twentieth-century psychological theories. It should be understood that the analysis in terms of levels or realms or dimensions of consciousness is conceptually different than the analysis in terms of states of consciousness that I discuss in part three, MindSpace and TimeStream. Rather, the “worlds” are more or less permanent structural features of our own being and of the real world around us. One could say that during particular states of consciousness, such as a dream state or a meditation state, we are focused “in” a particular realm or level or world.
Shamanistic cosmologies worldwide distinguish between upper, middle, and lower worlds, although in some traditions, like the Nordic-Germanic, there are nine worlds that the shaman may visit and explore in the course of his or her healing journeys. Experientially and functionally, upper world journeys are out-of-body states in which one moves upward, as if flying, perhaps accompanied by a bird ally. On lower world journeys, one moves downward into a cave or opening in the ground, and emerges after a while into a distinctively different open landscape. We shall be exploring an integrated cosmology of nine worlds arrayed along the World Tree or World Axis in part six, The World Tree and the World Axis.
Western religion and philosophy. In the teachings of Catholicism, there was traditionally a four-level model of the psyche: Body-Mind-Soul-Spirit. Somewhere along in the Middle Ages, this model devolved to a threefold model of body, mind, and spirit. By the time of Descartes, the threefold model had shrunk to a two-fold model of matter and mind—res extensa and res cogitans. The journey of the incredible diminishing psyche reached its climax in the behaviorist psychology of the early twentieth century, by which time all notions of divinity or spirit had been expunged from the natural and social sciences, and psychology was the observation of bodily behavior.
Jungian and transpersonal psychology. C. G. Jung, as is well known, broadened the conception of the unconscious mind, saying it included not only the libidinal and aggressive impulses that Freud had emphasized, but also creative insights and spiritual intuitions. Jung posited a collective unconscious, a realm of primordial images and thought-forms shared more or less by all human beings. In our dreams and visions our personal imagery may be blended with the archetypes of the collective unconscious. For example, an individual’s feelings and perceptions of their personal mother may be bound up with the Great Mother Goddess archetype. The notion of the collective unconscious comes close to the traditional idea of the spirit world.
Western esoteric teachings. In Western esoteric traditions, a seven-layer model of the human constitution is often described—ranging from the densest and heaviest (the physical body), through the intermediate or personality bodies of lesser density, on up to the highest level of oneness with the Divine Mother-Father Creator. In these teachings, the difference between levels is formulated in terms of differences in vibratory frequency rate, like the notes of an octave, with the physical body being the lowest frequency, densest form, and the only one visible to ordinary perception. Just like the notes of different frequency in a chord, these subtle bodies and dimensions can coexist and coincide within the time-space world, without interference.
Living systems worldview. From the perspective of an ecological systems view, as I suggested in my book Green Psychology, the Jungian “collective unconscious” (with both its conscious and unconscious elements) is actually the species-wide human level of consciousness—shared by and accessible by all of humanity, in varying degrees and in different states of consciousness. And once we recognize that level of human consciousness, we can also see that there are levels or realms of consciousness “below” or “beyond” the human species level: the consciousness of all animals; of all organic life; the Gaian or biospheric consciousness of planet Earth; and universal or cosmic consciousness. All the different realms or levels of consciousness are accessible to humans, intentionally or spontaneously, in dreams, in meditations, in psychedelic and visionary states, and the like.
Here I present the Buddhist multidimensional world model called The Wheel of Birth and Death, with its six worlds of existence held together by the chain of “interdependent origination.” Each of the six “worlds” symbolize a state of consciousness, whether long-lasting or short-lived, in which we may find ourselves, in the course of a day or a month or a lifetime, or in the after-death Bardo realms.
Then I describe and invoke intentional divination journeys to each of the six worlds, as we have practiced them, both with and without entheogenic amplification. Such guided inner journeys essentially replicate the practices of Buddhist monks and meditators who contemplate the mandalas of the Six Worlds of Existence and chant the prayers and invocations connected with each realm. The essential purpose behind the contemplative use of these mandala paintings, with their six possible worlds, is to prepare oneself before death for our unavoidable encounter with these realms after death.