Earth is one of countless worlds within countless universes in the big scheme of things… but it’s rather unique in a dark, dramatic sort of way.

This is a view of Earth and its place in relation to the central source (a.k.a God, Allah, Brahman…), which emits a life-energy that creates and nourishes everything everywhere with vitality and purpose. The omniverse (the “all-that-is”) is sort of pulled apart here like an accordion file, and our material Earth can be seen at level 1.

• The diagram is reasonably accurate because it depicts various copies or versions of the Earth leading both toward the source (into the omniverse) and away from the source (into Earth’s shadow). Religious and metaphysical thinkers have known about Earth’s spiritual copies since time immemorial. What we want to do now is to explain why Earth has its funky little shadow and how it all fits together into the big picture.
• The diagram is also arbitrary by showing seven levels in each direction. Truth be told, there are many levels and sublevels, but down through the ages, when trying to quantify them or to map them out, seven seems to be a popular number.

Bear in mind: Life-energy from the source tries to nourish everything everywhere with vitality and purpose; after all, that’s its main role in the grand scheme.

Here are the main points (what I consider to be “truths”) that the picture above is trying to convey:

• By the time life-energy from the source reaches the Earth (level 1), some is repelled by the parasitic nature of our world, where living things take life-energy from each other by feeding off each other… often killing each other in the process. Whether it’s a cow munching grass, or a pack of cackling, bloody hyenas ripping apart a carcass… living things on Earth feed on each other. Whether it seems gentle or cruel, it all goes against the grand plan, which is to be nourished by life-energy from finer levels closer to the source.
• That parasitic, predatory life-style is uncommon in the omniverse (and might even be unique to Earth). It stirs up weariness, hate, fear, deception, confusion, and other troubled feelings among its inhabitants… and those troubled feelings come into contention with the noble forces from the source—vitality, love, awe, truth, understanding, and so on. The source just wants to nourish us all, but we on Earth have found other, more dramatic ways to nourish ourselves.
• Earth’s dog-eat-dog scenario with its deflected life-force casts a spiritual shadow around our world.
• The seven shadow realms are a sort of dark mirror image of the seven finer realms, and they pertain only to Earth, not to other worlds throughout the omniverse. While the seven finer levels are increasingly richer in life-energy as we move from the Earth toward the source, the seven shadow levels get less and less of the life-energy as we move from the Earth deeper into its shadows.
• So… while spiritual entities in the vast, finer realms feel more vitality, love, awe, truth, and understanding when they’re closer to the source, spiritual entities in the nasty little shadows feel more weariness, hate, fear, deception, and confusion as they become further removed from the source… blocked from its life-energy by Earth’s parasitic nature.

Elsewhere on this website, the various levels are described in more detail, especially level 3, the paradise world where most of us awaken after we die. Following is just a brief description of some of the levels… a summary that might help put things in clearer perspective:

Light Levels 1 Through 7

• Level 1 includes not just the physical Earth, but also a subtle copy or template that’s tightly superimposed over the physical planet. It’s sometimes called the earthplane or the spiritual template of the planet. Everything on Earth—every rock, every mountain, every person, every molecule—has its own spiritual template. Collectively they all become the spiritual template of the planet.
• Level 2 is the threshold to paradise, a subtler version of Earth where people are refining themselves after a lifetime on the predatory physical planet, before getting settled at level 3. Most of their physical blemishes have disappeared.
• People are naturally drawn into the paradise at level 3 after they’ve cleansed themselves of much of the savage residue shown in the right-hand column of the table above—whether during lifetime or during a stay on level 2. At level 3 they can still have sex, eat food, dress in nice clothes, drive fancy cars and motorcycles, live in beautiful buildings, and do other things they’d enjoyed on Earth, but these activities quickly lose their luster at level 3 because hormones and predatory impulses were left behind on Planet Earth. Food is formed from life-energy to resemble earthly food and to taste even better. Sex is something enjoyed casually by compatible, willing partners. Everyone’s at the prime of life. Level 3 is a place to enjoy the best qualities of physical Earth… but those earthly desires seem less important as we reset our sights on spiritual living.
• After a lifetime, people arriving at Level 4 (sometimes called the Summerland) have lost their earthly desires altogether in favor of spiritual advancement—that is, fostering the noble forces listed in the left-hand column of the table above. Their bodies and all other structures throughout the Summerland are exquisite.
• Level 5 is sometimes called the mental realm. By earthly standards, everyone and everything here is brilliant and unconditionally loving. It’s a world beyond form and structure, so everyone here could be described as energy beings. They’re like banks of living supercomputers that exchange oceans of information instantly.
• Levels 6 and 7 are inhabited by light beings, far more brilliant and powerful than any of the other entities flourishing throughout the omniverse. They can create and guide the evolution of entire worlds and universes.

The main thing to know about all of these amazing levels of life in the omniverse is that they’re not just all around us, but also within us. We have a light being, an energy being, and beautiful astral beings all as part of our basic make-up. That rich spiritual hierarchy of life leading to the source is nested within everyone… but it remains hidden from view while we’re alive on Earth.

Why is hidden from us?

Well, there’s also a lot of dark, ghostly residue stuck in Earth’s shadow, so whether by plan or by evolution, most of us humans have blocked out all of the spiritual reality around us to avoid getting distracted while living physical lives. Our five senses are keyed into the material world because the shadow levels can get a bit gruesome, as we see below.

Dark Levels -1 Through -7

• Level -1 is part of the earthplane. Day in and day out, things going on around us can make us happy or sad, angry or inspired. The earthplane roils with all of the ups and downs of worldly emotions, which pass out of our world as though through a spiritual prism, forging a spiritual template around the Earth that’s both light and dark… just like life on Earth. Level -1 is tightly enmeshed with level 1 to form the earthplane.
• While our lighter thoughts spin through the prism into the astral worlds, our darker thoughts swirl down into Earth’s shadows. People who settle in level -2 after a lifetime might live in hovels while trying to scratch a meager existence from the barren land.
• Level -3 through level -7 become increasingly decrepit, and people stuck in those levels can experience immense suffering.

Afterlife experiences in Earth’s shadows are described in some detail elsewhere on this website, but the main point is that many people awaken there after a troubled lifetime, and there are always opportunities to grow, purify, and move toward happiness… especially for those of good-will who simply made some bad choices in life and awaken on the earthplane (level -1) or maybe at level -2. No one is “stuck” in the shadows indefinitely. Only the most predatory of people who hurt others deeply without regret find themselves in the darkest levels after a lifetime. And even they have the opportunity for spiritual growth.

So… life-energy from the source enriches everything everywhere, and it’s good to live our lives (and afterlives) in ways that open us up to the source.

Hopefully this article gives a general feel for our place in the omniverse. Life on Earth isn’t easy, but if we stay connected to the finer realms leading toward the source and open ourselves to the life-energy that’s so bountiful, a lifetime on Earth can be quite pleasant amid the drama.