It is natural for the human mind to desire to know the general structure of the universe. It is also helpful to have a sort of chart of the universe in which one finds oneself. The fabric of the universe includes the spheres and the planes, and the different bodies with which a human soul is endowed.
The gross, subtle and mental spheres are interpenetrating globes and have an existence in space. They can be regarded as places since they have an expansion in space. The planes, on the other hand, are both places and states, though the state of a particular plane cannot be experienced unless one’s consciousness first gets raised to it and begins to function from there.
There are forty-nine steps in the ascent through the planes. The human mind delights in perceiving and creating symmetry and proportion everywhere, but this tendency should not be carried into the realm of facts. The forty-nine steps in the Path are not evenly distributed within the
seven planes. They are distinguished from each other because of their distinguishing psychic characteristics, although they have also structural equivalents in the subdivisions of the seven planes.
The human soul has three bodies — gross, subtle and mental. Though overlapping each other, they would still impel the soul in three psychic dimensions were there no point of interaction or fusion between them. This contact of the intertwining bodies invites action and interaction between the three bodies.
-Beams, p11
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“The more you become a student, the more are your chances of becoming a teacher.”
(“Sparks of the Truth”, p93)