> Let me give you another perspective.
> The Earth plane is just another spiritual plane.
> It’s really a misunderstanding to refer to the
> Earth plane as the basis or home base for the
> individual’s reality and the next planes the
> person experiences as the afterlife or
> spiritual realm.

Thanks, Craig. I don't always agree with you or your sources, but the above gave me something to think about. I appreciate you taking the time to explain your view.

I just want to be clear: One of the gists of what you're saying is that Earth doesn't necessarily serve as one of the "soul kindergartens", that it doesn't necessarily serve as a first stopping point for an evolving soul on a journey, right?

(My assumption is that there are other inhabited physical planets, and that souls can incarnate there as well. And my other assumption was that a "new soul" has to start incarnating in the physical realm/plane, before it can begin journeying through the spiritual realms when the physical being dies.)

> So what all this means is that we’re able to
> enter any of the millions of planes and spheres
> to continue our spiritual growth. We make the
> choice.

Can you explain that one just a tiny bit more? I'm confused because, in all (most?) of the "New Age"-type (for lack of a better word - sorry!) literature I've read, there's the concept about the "progress of a soul" (which is what I meant above when I said "evolving soul"). It's the idea that a soul needs to experience and learn certain things before it is allowed to advance to the next sphere or level. Maybe "allowed" isn't the right word (because it implies a gatekeeper); maybe I should say "capable", because the idea is that when a soul progresses, its "vibration" accelerates - which is, I guess, the mechanism that allows it to inhabit the next, more advanced level or sphere.

Frances Banks (posthumously) describes this to Helen Greaves in "Testimony of Light". And she describes how she was sometimes allowed (?) or was able to have glimpses of the levels higher than the one where she currently resided, but then had to return.

I dunno, doesn't that seem to make more sense? That not every soul is equal in terms of its level of progress, and thus not every soul can inhabit whatever level it desires, that a "lower" soul can not inhabit a "higher" sphere until it is ready?

Thanks again for your time and efforts.