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The Reality of Worlds of Existence Other than the Physical World · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We have a strong bias in favor of accepting things that we can
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  perceive with our physical senses, and we tend to
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  disbelieve or discount anything that is not directly physically
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  available to our experience. Yet if we reflect on the
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  totality of our life experience, it becomes clear that there are
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  many experiences innumerable forces and powers.
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  That are not susceptible to direct sense perception, yet are
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  able to be determined as real. We cannot see electricity or
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  gravity, for instance, but we can experience their effects and
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  we can measure their power and harness the effects.
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  Similarly, there are many things which occur within us which
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  cannot be perceived by the physical senses, yet are
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  patently real to us. When we get a new idea or
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  inspiration, when we experience an emotion, we sense them
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  directly with the mind, not the external sense organs.
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  They arise somehow from somewhere and thus imply a
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  reality that is other than that of the physical world we are
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  rooted in, whether in a state of dream or an out of body
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  experience. Or some abstracted state of
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  trance, or a mystical state of some sort.
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  We experience things which are real and meaningful, yet which
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  defy direct perception by the physical senses.
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  How many times in our lives do we have such experiences and
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  gain some new insight or understanding, yet discount the
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  reality of those experiences in some way?
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  Just as electricity and gravity can be known through their
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  effects, such experiences also make themselves known through
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  their effects, Sriorobindo observes Quote.
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  The physical is not the only world.
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  There are others that we become aware of through dream records,
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  through the subtle senses, through influences and contacts,
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  through imagination, intuition, and vision.
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  There are worlds of a larger, subtler life than ours.
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  Vital worlds, worlds in which mind builds its own forms and
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  figures, mental worlds, psychic worlds which are the souls,
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  home, others above, with which we have little contact.
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  In each of us there is a mental plane of consciousness, A
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  psychic, A vital, A subtle physical, as well as the gross
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  physical and material plane. The same planes are repeated in
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  the consciousness of general nature.
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  It is when we enter into or contact these other planes that
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  we come into connection with the worlds above the physical.
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  In sleep we leave the physical body only a subconscient residue
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  remaining, and enter all planes and all sorts of worlds.
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  In each we see scenes. Meet beings share in happenings,
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  come across formations, influences, suggestions which
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  belong to these planes. Even when we are awake, part of
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  us moves in these planes, but their activity goes on behind
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  the veil. Our waking minds are not aware
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  of it. End Quote Reference Sriorobindo
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  and the mother our many selves practical yogic psychology.
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  Chapter 2. Planes and Parts of the Being,
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  page 12.