The exit from the astral body and the astral plane is thus a second death, the individual life force leaving behind an astral corpse which in turn disintegrates. Thus after the second soul slumber the ego or the individual life force wakes up on the lower mental plane and starts its life in its mental body on the mental plane.
Journeying to planes below the soul’s plane: The subject of communication between persons in the flesh and souls out of the flesh may be divided into two general classes, i.e., the lower and the higher respectively. The lower is composed of cases in which disembodied souls, of a lower order, the so-called earth bound souls manifest their presence to persons still in the flesh.
The higher class consists of cases in which the souls on the higher planes of the astral manifest their presence to persons in the flesh.
It is absolutely impossible for a soul to go beyond the plane to which it belongs, although those on the upper planes may freely revisit the lower planes, this being the rule of the astral plane.
On the astral plane, the soul with the greatest amount of materiality, and coarsest nature, is stopped by the screen of a certain grade or plane, and cannot pass on to the higher ones; while one which has passed on to the higher planes, having cast off more confining sheaths, can easily pass backward and forward among the lower planes, if it so desires.
As a matter of fact, souls often do so, for the purpose of visiting friends on the lower planes and giving them comfort, and in the case of a highly developed soul, spiritual help may be given in this way.
The one exception to the rule of free passage to the planes below that of the particular soul, is the one which prevents the lower-plane souls from entering the plane of the sleepers, i.e., the plane where the individual life forces or souls rest prior to entry into the astral plane.
This plane cannot be entered by souls which have awakened on a low plane, but may be freely entered by those pure and exhalted souls who have attained a high degree of spiritual evolution. The plane of soul slumber is sacred to the souls occupying it, and it is of a nature which is a distinct and separate state than the great series of astral plane, and sub-planes.