Hello Kim,

I understand what you're thinking. Let me give you a perspective on the concept of planes.

We think of planes in eternal life as rather like different countries that exist now. Our perpsective is bound by time and space. The planes don't exist in a physical sense, and there is no time outside of the Earth plane.

It will help if you think of people as minds having experiences. Both our minds and the experiences have no limitations of time or space. We have experiences on the Earth plane that have the feel of time and feel of space. But they're just the unique experiences of the Earth plane, rather like having the experience of water when we jump into a pool or the experience of cold when we walk outdoors in zero degree temperatures. Our minds experience time, space, wetness, cold, and all of the other experiences. However, the experiences are not bound up in a real, separate physical plane. People have experiences whether in a physical body on the Earth plane or not. Only the mind and experiences are real.

Those on the other side of life who communicate with us tell us about "planes" and "spheres" but that is only because our minds need a concept we can understand in the physical realm. We can understand the concept of a plane because it is analogous to another country. However, we mustn’t take it literally.

Having said that, we know that the next plane of life is very much like the Earth plane, with physical bodies, rivers, streets, houses, and all the other things we associate with the Earth plane. The reason is that our minds need a smooth transition from Earth school into the next experiences we'll have. We are the same people we were on the Earth plane when we transition to the next plane of life.

However, think of it as a realm of experiences. In the astral plane or "Summerland" as the Spiritualists call it, which most people experience after leaving the Earth plane, the experiences are very pleasant. We are with loved ones and pets we loved on the Earth plane. The experiences are of houses, streets, countryside, rivers, animals, and all of the other experiences we're familiar with on the Earth plane. But they're just the experiences of that realm we, the eternal selves, experience. We're together there, experiencing them together.

When we grow spiritually and want to go into another, "higher" level, we transition naturally into new realms of experience, with new minds that have matured and changed. We do that with our soul groups, we understand, but I'm sure it's much more complicated than the image of a series of tailgating parties we all attend together. We needn't worry about being separated from those we love on the Earth plane. It all works out.

And so, instead of planes in a physical sense, like a different country, we should think of the afterlife as millions of different realms of experience we transition into naturally as our minds change. They don't "exist" in the sense that they're out there in the universe. They are realms of experience we enter that become real to us when we enter them, and have no "existence" apart from us.

As we grow spiritually, or "ascend," these experiences take on forms we can't now imagine or understand. They are represented as planes, but they're actually matrixes of experience relevant to our individual and group minds.

So there are no planes after the Earth plane to "merge." They are realms of experience that become real for us when we transition into them naturally as we grow in eternity. We create them because they suit our minds as our minds change and grow.

However, the important thing to realize is that the next realm of experiences we come into after the Earth plane is just like the Earth plane, but with no cold, death, ticks, worries about finances, and all of the other negatives of the Earth plane. There, we continue to have experiences as we are now, with our loved ones and everything we now love. We may live there for a very long time, if we wish. When we're ready to have new, different experiences or to reincarnate to have Earth school experiences again, we choose to do so, and in the choice, everything changes naturally.

Love and peace, Craig