There are several levels (like steps on a ladder) between
the intellect and the senses, but no one can begin to un-
derstand them without knowing something about them
and the fact that the different levels are utterly distinct
from each other. In fact, they are so distinct that the inner
levels can emerge into lasting existence without the outer
levels, although the outer levels cannot do so without the
inner. For instance, our spirit can exist without our body
and its matter, and does exist without them when sepa-
rated from the body by death. Our spirit is on an inner
plane and our body on an outer one.
The same thing happens with our spirit after death,
if we are among the blessed. We are on the lowest level
there when we are in the first heaven, on an inner level
when we are in the second, and on the inmost level when
we are in the third. When we are in the third heaven, we
are actually in the others too, but these other levels are
unconscious in us, in almost the same way that our body
is unconscious during sleep. The difference is that in
heaven our inner levels are wide awake among the angels.
There are as many distinctly different levels in us, then,
as there are heavens, except for the last level, which is the
body with its senses.
—Secrets of Heaven 5114:3
