What happens to perception when the body, the senses, and ordinary distance disappear; why the fourth level is separated from the soul’s world by an energetic membrane; and what I experienced during my meeting with the elder Eloney and my union with the light of the Oversoul.
The farther an explorer moves from physical reality, the harder it becomes to describe what was experienced.
The second energy level can still be discussed in familiar terms. It contains rooms, houses, streets, cities, and reflections of the physical world. Its environment differs from ours, but it retains points of reference that a human being can understand.
Familiar forms also remain present on the third level. There I saw fields, mountains, houses, gardens, animals, and entire communities of souls. These worlds are not copies of Earth, but their structure can still be conveyed, at least approximately, through human language.
The fourth energy level begins where ordinary language starts to fail.
Our language was developed to describe bodies, objects, colors, sounds, and distances. We construct sentences in sequence: one thought follows another, one event happens after another. But how can we describe a reality in which there is no physical body, the eyes no longer determine the direction of sight, communication occurs without words, and knowledge is perceived all at once in its entirety?
I can describe the transition, the sensations, and the individual images my memory retained. I can share the conclusions I reached after returning. But I understand that words inevitably reduce the experience. They break a unified event into separate pieces.
Even so, this experience needs to be shared. The fourth level reveals that the form of the soul known to us is not its final state. Beyond the world of souls lies another stage: a realm of pure energy, direct knowledge, and a far deeper unity with the Source.
The Boundary Between Two Orders of Existence
The transition from the second energy level to the third can occur through attunement to a particular environment or by increasing the frequency of one’s own energy. Sometimes a person can cross into the third level without fully understanding how the transition happened.
The fourth level is different.
Between it and the first three levels, I felt an actual barrier. It was not a symbolic boundary or an imagined door, but an energetic membrane that had to be crossed. As I approached it, my movement stopped almost as clearly as it would against a physical wall.
This experience led me to conclude that the first, second, and third levels belong to one vast system. They differ in the density of their energy, the laws of their environments, and the possibilities available to consciousness, but they remain internally connected. The fourth level belongs to another order of existence.
It cannot be entered by accident.
To pass through the membrane, a soul must deliberately raise the frequency of its energy and come into precise alignment with the realm beyond it. Imagining a destination or simply wishing to move is not enough. The entire state of the soul must change.
I found it difficult to do this without assistance. Despite years of practice and experience working with energetic vibrations, I needed the support of a teacher from the third level during my earliest visits. His energy helped mine enter the necessary resonance and sustained me where my own strength and experience were not yet sufficient.
My First Passage Through the Membrane
During my first transition, the teacher took my hands and slowly began to raise the frequency of his energy. I felt his vibrations changing and worked to keep pace, bringing my own state into alignment with his.
Within moments, I felt movement. Almost immediately, I struck an invisible wall.
The teacher was still holding my hands. I continued to feel his energy and followed it. When the frequency of my vibrations reached the necessary level, the resistance changed. I began to pass through the barrier, slowly, as though moving through a dense but yielding membrane.
Another moment passed, and all heaviness disappeared.
“Weightlessness” only approximates what I felt. We usually use that word in relation to a body. There, consciousness itself became weightless. The sense of shape, weight, and boundaries vanished. The space around me glowed, but there was no familiar source of light and no objects from which that light could reflect.
It was as though I had entered a cloud of pure energy.
This was not an empty space. On the contrary, it felt extraordinarily full—alive, powerful, and saturated with information. Yet this fullness existed without familiar objects. There were no houses or trees before me, no ground beneath my feet, and no sky overhead. The very ideas of “above,” “below,” “ahead,” and “behind” had disappeared.
My perception changed together with the reality around me.
What the Soul Looks Like Without a Body
On the third energy level, I usually perceived myself in human form. I had arms, legs, a face, and clothing. The body appeared younger and lighter than my physical body, but it remained recognizable. That form allowed me to act, communicate, and preserve my familiar sense of self.
On the fourth level, the human form disappeared.
I could perceive everything around me at once. I no longer needed to turn my head or shift my gaze. I had no eyes, yet my ability to see had expanded. It had no fixed direction.
I became curious about what I looked like. At that instant, my point of perception divided, and I saw myself from the outside.
I resembled a brilliant white star, a small concentration of luminous energy with subtle iridescent movement. It was not a body made of light shaped like a human being. It was truly a cloud of energy. The teacher remained beside me. His energy looked different from mine and carried a violet tone. He continued to support my state and helped me remain at the necessary frequency.
That experience changed my understanding of the soul’s form.
The human image is not its eternal body. It is connected with the experience of incarnation and remains present on the levels closest to us because this is how we are accustomed to perceiving ourselves and one another. Beyond a certain boundary, that image is no longer necessary. The soul does not lose itself when it loses its human outline. It remains itself, recognizes other beings, and retains the ability to perceive, understand, and communicate.
The form changes. The essence remains.
Perception Without Physical Senses
In the physical world, perception is divided into separate channels. We see with our eyes, hear with our ears, feel touch through the skin, and recognize scent through the nose. The brain collects these signals and assembles them into a unified picture of reality.
There was no such division on the fourth level.
I did not see the light through eyes or hear the teacher through ears. I perceived the surrounding energy with my entire being. Sensation could not be separated from understanding. To see something was also to feel it and know it. Information did not pass through physical senses and did not require later processing.
This is difficult to imagine while living in a physical body. We can close our eyes and stop seeing. We can move too far away and stop hearing. Our perception depends on the body’s location and the limits of its organs.
There, the point of perception was not confined to a body. The surrounding reality therefore opened all at once, without the blind spots familiar to human experience.
This did not mean that I became omnipotent or instantly understood the whole structure of existence. My abilities were still limited by my level of development and my capacity to remain in that state. Yet the mode of perception itself was incomparably broader than human perception.
A Realm Saturated with Knowledge
The most extraordinary quality of the fourth level was the presence of knowledge.
In ordinary life, we first formulate a question. We then search for information, compare different answers, reflect, and eventually arrive at a conclusion. Knowledge comes to us as the result of a sequential process.
There, questions did not arise.
This was not because I was forbidden to ask them or because curiosity had disappeared. The environment itself was filled with understanding. I simply knew. Information was not stored somewhere apart from me—in a book, in another being’s memory, or in a repository I had to reach. It was present within the energy that my consciousness had entered.
The state felt like omniscience, but after returning I recognized an important distinction. An immense field of information had been available to me on the fourth level, but my ability to carry it back into physical memory remained extremely limited.
The brain cannot contain this kind of knowledge in its original form. To preserve it here, unified information must be translated into words, images, and sequential thoughts. Much of it is lost during that translation.
I did not return with an encyclopedia of answers. I retained the state, the central meanings, and the knowledge that such a source exists. The experience itself mattered more than any collection of facts.
Communication Through Direct Transmission
On the third level, I had already encountered communication without ordinary speech. A thought could be conveyed directly and received faster than a spoken sentence.
On the fourth level, even that method seemed too slow.
Communication occurred through a complete, direct transmission. This is the closest expression I have for what I experienced, although it still cannot convey the full nature of the process.
I could send the teacher not a sequence of sentences, but everything I was feeling, seeing, and understanding at once. He received it as a single whole. His response arrived in the same way. I did not separate it into individual parts. I immediately perceived the meaning, the emotional state, the personal experience, and the path through which he had reached that understanding.
Imagine that instead of telling you about an experience, someone could transmit the experience itself—not only the final conclusion, but also the circumstances, emotions, inner changes, and the full history through which it developed. And instead of taking hours of conversation, all of it would be received in a single act of communication.
Such a transmission does not need to be memorized. The knowledge becomes part of you.
This is why ordinary language seems especially limited in that realm. Words arrive one after another. They require interpretation and always leave room for misunderstanding. Direct transmission conveys the whole.
After returning to the body, I once again had to divide the experience into sentences. Every article I write is therefore a translation. I work to preserve the meaning, while knowing that the original experience was far larger than the text.
Who the Elders Are
My experience shows me that the soul’s development does not end on the third energy level.
Souls learn, acquire experience, work with energy, and gradually move toward a more complex mode of existence. I refer to those who have reached the next stage as elders.
The word does not indicate age in the earthly sense. There is no aging physical body there. It refers to the depth of accumulated experience and the soul’s level of development.
The elders are not rulers, judges, or masters over other souls. I perceived them as teachers who can see far more and work with energy at a level that remains difficult for me to access.
Their strength can be felt directly. To communicate with a less prepared soul, an elder must reduce the intensity of his or her energy. Otherwise, remaining nearby would be too difficult.
Every soul develops. I therefore do not see the fourth level as a closed realm reserved for a chosen few. I see it as the next stage of existence, one that souls gradually reach after completing the experience they need on earlier levels.
The Journey to a Point of Entry
I visited the fourth energy level several times. One of those visits became especially important to me.
During another meeting, Ilrin told me that he wanted to show me a place connected with the soul’s memory and knowledge. He asked me to take his hands and focus on his energy.
I already knew these vibrations. Entering resonance with Ilrin was easier than it had been during my first transition. Once again, I felt movement, similar to the instant of a rapid descent when everything inside you briefly drops. Then I encountered the familiar barrier. This time, we passed through the membrane much more easily.
When the movement ended, I opened my eyes and was surprised.
Instead of a formless realm of luminous energy, I found myself in a garden. Majestic trees grew around us. I heard birdsong, the sound of surf, and even the rhythm of cicadas. A narrow path climbed a hill toward a building surrounded by columns, resembling an ancient Greek temple. From above, I could see a rocky shoreline and a turquoise sea stretching toward the horizon.
My appearance was human again.
After my previous visits to the fourth level, I had not expected to see anything like this. I later understood that a recognizable form does not contradict the energetic nature of the realm. It creates a point of entry—an environment that consciousness can perceive more easily and in which different souls can interact through familiar forms.
There may be many such places, each with a different appearance. The garden and temple do not mean that the fourth level is structured like an earthly landscape. They show that energy can assume the form needed for a particular purpose.
We followed the path and entered a large, luminous building. Brilliant light passed through a transparent dome overhead. The walls were decorated with images of natural landscapes. Massive open doors stood on both sides of the hall.
A man emerged from one of them and walked toward us.
My Meeting with Eloney
He appeared older than any being I had encountered on the third level. He had gray hair and a beard. He was dressed in a white himation, a heavy ancient Greek mantle draped over one shoulder. Perhaps my perception gave him this form because this is how a human mind imagines an elder. But something far more significant could be felt beyond his appearance.
When he approached and looked into my eyes, I experienced a feeling for which I still cannot find an exact comparison. It was like meeting someone deeply loved after an immeasurably long separation.
His energy was so powerful that I could clearly feel him consciously reducing its intensity so I could remain near him. The support of Ilrin and the elder himself helped me sustain my state. Without it, I would have returned to my body almost immediately.
“My name is Eloney,” he said.
I did not need to introduce myself. I felt that Eloney already knew who I was.
I asked why their names sound unusual to us and what those names mean. Eloney explained that such names are used for our understanding. To beings who communicate through energy, a name is not a sequence of sounds.
A true name is the energetic signature of a soul.
It carries far more information than a word. It reflects the soul’s qualities, experience, and development. As the soul grows, its energetic signature changes, and so does what might be called its name.
Even in the physical world, a name is only a coordinate. When we first meet someone, we need to know how to address them. Over time, however, that name becomes connected in our awareness with the person’s character, voice, actions, and energy. When we hear a familiar name, we no longer perceive a collection of letters. We perceive an entire person.
On the fourth level, this principle is fully revealed. A soul is recognized directly, without the need for an external label.
The Corridor and the Open Door
Eloney invited us to follow him. We crossed the hall and approached an open doorway. Beyond it was a long corridor with many doors on both sides. Nearly all of them were closed. Only one doorway gave off a soft blue glow.
Eloney told me that beyond that door I would be able to understand a great deal. He warned me to treat the knowledge I received responsibly. Knowledge is not an ornament or a means of placing oneself above others. It requires inner maturity and thoughtful use.
I moved toward the luminous doorway.
My emotions were extremely strong. The support of my companions held me on the fourth level while I worked to preserve calm and clarity. As I came closer, I saw that there was no room beyond the threshold. There were no walls, floor, ceiling, or objects.
There was only light.
I felt no fear. I knew that nothing there could harm me, and I stepped forward.
Inside the Light
The light surrounded me, and the sense of my own form disappeared.
I was not merely standing inside it. I became part of it. The division between me and the surrounding energy ceased to exist. In place of the familiar sense of a separate self came a profound union with the Source of life—the Oversoul.
I was filled with absolute peace and balance. Inner tension vanished, along with the need to prove anything or struggle toward understanding. Everything was in its place and belonged to one living process.
The word “bliss” may sound like emotional exaggeration, but I know no better word. This was not pleasure and not excitement produced by a beautiful scene. It was a state of complete belonging, a return to that of which I had always been a part.
I perceived the scale of the Oversoul and the interconnection of countless journeys of consciousness. I saw my own experience as part of the soul’s much larger history. I felt my connection with those who had been beside me across different lives, and I could no longer perceive one incarnation as an isolated fragment of existence.
The central result of this experience was not a list of facts. I understood the way connection with the source of knowledge could occur.
I later called it the key to direct knowing.
By direct knowing, I do not mean the ability to answer every ordinary question without error, nor the right to declare every passing thought an absolute truth. I mean an inner channel of connection with a wider level of consciousness. Using it requires a clear intention, calmness, and the ability to distinguish deep understanding from the desires, fears, and fantasies produced by the brain.
This key does not replace reflection or learning. It expands the source from which understanding can arise.
Returning to the Physical Body
I do not know how long I remained inside the light.
Perhaps only a few moments passed. To me, it felt as though an entire lifetime could have fit within that state. Time was not experienced as a sequence of minutes. It had stopped functioning as a frame separating one event from another.
But I could not remain there.
I opened my eyes and returned to my physical body. Tears rose in my eyes. I felt both the profound bliss of what I had experienced and the pain of returning to a dense world.
The body had weight again. Time moved in only one direction again. Perception narrowed to the physical senses, while the immense field of unified knowledge began to break into separate fragments.
After an experience like this, a person cannot simply get up and pretend that nothing happened. The inner understanding of reality has already changed. One must learn again how to live in the ordinary world, communicate with people, and carry out daily responsibilities while preserving the memory of a far wider existence.
This is why out-of-body practice requires psychological stability. It is not enough to enter an extraordinary state. A person must also be able to return, accept the limitations of physical life, and continue to live fully here.
Spiritual experience should not pull a person away from reality. It should make earthly life deeper, more conscious, and more meaningful.
Why the Knowledge Fades After We Return
After returning, I spent a long time reconstructing what had happened.
I understood that a significant part of what I had perceived was already gone. This was not because someone had deliberately erased the information. The physical brain simply could not reproduce it in its original form.
A unified transmission has to be converted into a sequence of thoughts. Multidimensional perception must become separate images. Direct knowledge must become words. With every conversion, some of the original content is lost.
It is like trying to convey an immense three-dimensional world through a few photographs. The photographs may be accurate, but the space between them disappears.
Even so, the most important part remained with me.
I retained the memory of the fourth level, of my energetic nature, of my meeting with Eloney, and of the state of unity with the Oversoul. I understood that consciousness can receive information through more than the physical senses and the brain’s sequential processes.
After this experience, the Source was no longer an abstract religious concept to me. I had directly experienced my connection with it.
What the Fourth Level Adds to My Map of Reality
My map contains four energy levels known to me.
The first is physical reality, where consciousness gains experience through a dense material body.
The second is the nearest energetic realm, which reflects the physical world and responds quickly to thought, expectation, and inner state.
The third is the independent world of the soul, containing stable environments, communities, learning, and life between physical incarnations.
The fourth is the level of pure energy, the elders, direct knowledge, and a deeper connection with the Oversoul.
This progression does not describe upward movement through physical space. It describes a transformation in the mode of existence itself. Matter becomes less dense. Form gradually becomes less important. Perception expands. Communication becomes more direct. The connection between individual consciousness and the one Source reveals itself more fully.
Unity does not mean the destruction of individuality.
On the fourth level, I did not stop being myself. I recognized the teacher, communicated with Eloney, and retained my own point of perception. Yet the boundary between me and the surrounding energy became more transparent. I remained myself while also feeling that I belonged to something far greater.
To describe the larger system, I often use the image of a cluster of grapes. Each grape may contain its own immense reality with internal levels and worlds. Yet all the grapes remain connected to a single vine and receive life through it. They are different, but they were never entirely separate.
This is how I understand the unity of consciousness: not sameness and not dissolution, but the connection of countless unique journeys within one living whole.
The Boundary of My Knowledge, Not the Boundary of Reality
I describe four levels because this is the part of reality I have been able to explore and partially understand, not because I believe nothing else exists.
Beyond the fourth level, there may be other states of consciousness, other systems of worlds, and modes of being for which human beings currently possess neither experience nor language. It would be arrogant to declare the map available to me a final diagram of all existence.
Yet even these four levels completely change the scale of the question of what a human being is.
We are accustomed to defining ourselves through the body, biography, profession, age, and personal memories. All of these matter within physical life, but they do not exhaust our nature. Beyond the earthly personality exists a wider consciousness. Beyond it lies the world of the soul. Beyond the soul’s world opens a realm in which consciousness exists as energy and approaches direct unity with the Source.
The fourth level showed me that the soul’s development does not end when it returns Home. Home itself is part of a far greater journey.
Beyond Words
Whenever I try to describe the fourth energy level, I have to rely on comparisons: a membrane, a cloud of light, a star, a file containing information, a key, a cluster of grapes. None of them is exact.
Human beings have always needed images to approach what cannot yet be expressed directly.
The most important part of what I brought back cannot be placed into a diagram or reduced to a beautiful story. I know that consciousness can exist without human form. I know that perception is not limited to the physical senses. I know that knowledge can arrive not as a sequence of words but as complete understanding. And I know the state in which the boundary between an individual soul and the Source becomes almost transparent.
I returned to being a person living within time and a physical body. But I could no longer regard this life as the whole of existence.
We are far more than our earthly personality. The soul’s journey is far longer than a single human life.
The fourth energy level does not eliminate the mystery. It makes the mystery deeper. It shows that beyond form there is not emptiness, but a fuller life—a life of energy, knowledge, and unity.
I describe this journey, my meeting with Eloney, and my experience of union with the light of the Oversoul in greater depth in my book, The Phenomenon of Consciousness Outside the Body.
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