4. The Beings of the Astral World

The man of the present stage of development leaves his body in sleep. He wanders, sometimes at great distances from his physical body, in the astral world and there meets other beings of the astral world and exchanges with their thoughts. But when man wakes up, he does not remember this. This has to do with his present stage of development. However, the development can become one higher and higher. The student who learns under the guidance of a so-called master can gradually make his consciousness a continuous one, an ongoing one. Then he will be able to bring the experiences of the night to his consciousness as a memory in his waking state. When the disciple, the chela, has reached a continuous consciousness, then he remembers what he received in the astral world. These cognitions of the chela are not learned in the physical world, but they are experienced in the astral world and brought into his physical life. This is what Plato means when he speaks of recollection of higher states of soul.