astral plane,
also called the astral realm, or the astral world, or the soul realm, or the spirit realm, is a plane of existence
postulated by
classical, medieval, oriental, esoteric, and New Age philosophies and mystery religions.
It is the world of the celestial spheres, crossed by the soul in its astral body on the way to being born and after death, and is generally believed to be populated by angels, spirits, or other immaterial beings.
In the late 19th and early 20th century, the term was popularised by Theosophy and neo-Rosicrucianism.
The astral spheres were thought to be planes of angelic existence intermediate between Earth and heaven.
Another view holds that the astral plane or world, rather than being some kind of boundary area crossed by the soul, is the entirety of spirit existence or spirit worlds to which those who die on Earth go, and where they live out their non-physical lives.
It is understood by adherents that all consciousness resides in the astral plane.
Some writers conflate this realm with heaven or paradise or union with God itself, while others do not.
Paramahansa Yogananda wrote in Autobiography of a Yogi (1946), "The astral universe ... is hundreds of times larger than the material universe ... [with] many astral planets, teeming with astral beings