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According to Vedanta and to other Indian experiential and mystical schools relating to the “Pancha Kosha doctrine,” human beings (and quite possibly other sentient beings that have physical bodies) are expressions of the universal source acting as an individualized “Atman.” But every physical being is in fact Atman (the Supreme reality) that is “covered” or “hidden” in illusion by three main “shariras” or “bodies” which, in turn, incorporate 5 different “sheaths” or modes of consciousness and experience.

The three bodies are the Gross, the Subtle, and the Causal. In Vedic terms, the “Sthula,” “Linga,” and “Karana” shariras. The gross or physical body would include a mode of experience by means of the Annamaya Kosha (or food sheath). That which we call “the astral body” would be an expression of the Subtle Body (Linga Sharira) that includes a lower comparative, concrete, emotional sheath (“manas” or “ManomayaKkosha”) and also the higher mind, or spiritually intuitive sheath (“Vigyanamaya Kosha”).  Some interpreters place another “sheath” or “kosha” (the Pranamaya Kosha) as an intermediate, semi-physical entity situated between the Gross Body and the Subtle Body and others simply locate it in the Subtle Body. Finally, the Causal Body (or “seed” body) would include the Anandamaya Kosha or sheath of bliss.

From a top-down, dualist perspective, when considering Atman as the origin, the Gross Body would be encompassed by the Subtle and the Subtle by the Causal.  The origin of the more exteriorized or dualistic and illusory expressions covering Atman would be in its immediate, more encompassing (and materially subtler) superior.  Here we are referring to three main types of ontological realities manifested in the world of duality and form.  And, according to Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory (whose “quadrants” seem to apply across all ontological levels), we could say that there exist different kinds of exterior objects and matter, even in the non-physical “shariras” or “bodies.”  And, extending the Quantum Hologram Theory of Consciousness based on the ability to decode information, these bodies (and possibly their corresponding “koshas”) would serve to decode different planes of reality located in distinct ontological realities. 

From this perspective, we need to learn think how these ontological levels may interface, connecting to conscious experiences and how they relate to reported physical, astral, and unique encounters in which our perception of spacetime is modified. The mental or physically malleable nature of some physical contact experiences seem to reflect how subtle “matter” seems to respond to subjective inputs according to out-of-body practitioners. For instance, being floated out of bed through the ceiling or a window, quite often into a craft waiting outside. This also suggests an inter-realm mechanism in that more advanced physical effects may use the rules applicable in the Subtle worlds.   

According to serious researchers and experiencers like Preston Dennett and those anonymous reports received in the FREE Experiencer Survey, there are many kinds of physical and non-physical contact experiences and paranormal phenomena as normally associated with them. But, how can this be? What mechanism is in place and what is the nature of reality like to allow for it? Again, I consider the “Pancha Kosha” doctrine associated to the three “shariras” or bodies are a starting point to understand. Moreover, besides taking the word of sacred spiritual textbooks said to be associated to rishis or seers, there may be logical reasons to think that contingent or duality-based reality is indeed primarily subdivided into three main “realms.” 

So, are contact experiences with entities related to UFOS physical, astral (Subtle Realm-based), or both? The term “all of the above” would be adequate if we consider that according to Vedanta there are many worlds or “lokas” with sentient agents that can, in turn, be located in a variety of particular “locales” in the physical, subtle and causal realms. Moreover, coinciding with shamanic experiencers, these Indian traditions allow beings from different realms to interface and interact. 

A superior technology capable of utilizing these universal fundamentals would also be able to traverse different levels among these realms and to modify physical (otherwise stable) spacetimes utilizing their immediate source or origin in the next subtler adjacent realm.  Therefore, many of the beings encountered may actually be “trans ontological beings,” meaning that they can’t just be “physical” but also perfectly at home in various levels of the Subtle Realm associated to the previously mentioned “Linga Sharira.” 

In fact, by canceling our actual physical patterns, returning them to their Subtle Realm potential state, and reconfiguring them so as to express once again in physical reality, these beings may be able to temporarily alter our normally experienced physical patterns, even confusing us into thinking that a unique experience has taken place in astral or subtle form.

Then again, by comfortably operating with a technology reconfiguring patterns of physicality to how reality operates in the Subtle Realm, some advanced beings may interface with ‘our’ reality not only modifying it but also being partially modified through it. This may happen when their potentially different patterns temporarily become part of our experienced or actual physical patterns and this may be one of the reasons why they seem reluctant to openly interact with us.

Through their multi-realm , interface technology they might also might easily dislodge our astral bodies and take us into a particularly programmed or modified astral sub-realm, or to a less physically dense, spacetime-modified spacecraft environment in which our subtle body is perceived and can interact.  Furthermore, if we consider that the Subtle and Physical realms can intermingle, combine, or fuse under different proportions, many of these beings may be able to exist in stable form in alternative varieties of physical universes or of levels of physicality that could, for instance, be less dense than ours and thus we could in some occasions confuse these levels with astral or subtle realities.  

When in contactee lore we speak about “energies,” it may be more useful to think about a whole range of them, divided into the three main aforementioned categories of physical, subtle, and causal subdivisions of contingent reality. From our limited experiential perspective fixated in one physical universe, any less dense physical energy may seem “non-physical” and all non-physical interactions may seem like interactions simply with “energy” without any clear and necessary differentiation.    

But as Near-Death Experiencers (also often associated with UFO-related contact experiences) often testify, they have encountered an ultimately indescribable and beautiful conscious ‘energy’ (and being) of love.  As Preston Dennett and other experiencers testify, some persons might even be able to experience the subtlest energies associated with spiritual bliss (Ananda or the energies of the Anandamaya Kosha) of the subtlest “causal realm,” situated even beyond (or within) the beauty of the upper Subtle worlds. Apparently, some extraterrestrial, interdimensional, non-human entities may even be able to expose our awareness to some of these energies.   

The complexity and variety of experiences today overwhelming our human minds due to a lack of explanatory concepts may in fact be simplified if we understand the universal principles of interface connecting the three main realms. The concept of a “multiverse” could more easily make sense if – instead of quantitatively focusing on variety, multiplicity and complexity - we began to qualitatively discern and understand the underlying fundamental ontological patterns. It would be much better than trying to simplify by exclusively reducing them to physical or astral events.

Giorgio Piacenza https://www.jar-magazine.com/ask-the-panel/132-astral-encounters

Bibliography

• Dennett, Preston. July 11, 2021. “Out of Body Exploring: My Own Experiences with Astral Projection.”