We called the Ethereal Matter as the astral world by now, but actually the astral world starts in the middle part of Gross Matter. According to the Law of Reciprocal Action the soul of a human must experience after death in the astral planes everything that it did not redeem on earth. A developed and pure soul, not burdened with a guilt and bad propensities crosses this threshold very quickly to the upper spheres of Ethereal Matter. There is much more varied life in the astral planes than on earth. The lands, buildings and everything what has been created or invented by man on earth is more beautiful but also worse here because ethereal matter get shaped more easily.
In another part of the astral world the models of all things and actions from upper worlds after which people on earth create their works are situated. What one thinks of that one attracts according to the Law of the Attraction of Homogeneous Species because it hangs literally over his head. Man conforms the model to his own images and the times in which he lives whereby he thinks that everything comes from himself. In fact, also other men on earth and men in upper spheres as well engaged in similar actions helped him to create the work.
The astral world and Ethereal Matter are not the destinations of the wandering of a soul. It is only "waiting" here for the next incarnation but it does not sleep here forever. More developed souls live active lives here as conscious personalities - they even learn here. The soul is in shape of a human but it is more handsome than the physical body. Since it is of finer substance it disposes of the ability to expand and to shrink as well. Therefore, it grows with the body. In the lower spheres of the astral world the souls are not so handsome and so is the surroundings because it came into being from negative thought-forms and emotions. In the astral world, lower souls develop by sufferings which they experience according to the Law of Reciprocal Action.
After the leaving of its physical body a soul goes up or down to a plane according to the Law of Reciprocal Action. Then, it wanders through this plane to a part where it belongs to according to the Law of the Attraction of Homogeneous Species. In the Christian teaching there is properly captured that souls after their deaths go to the "heaven" - to upper planes or to the "hell" - to the lower planes. It is a figurative expression of the quality of individual gross material and ethereal worlds.
Let’s show the example, how the not very clean souls feel in the next world, in astral. If they got their status or possession ignobly or by harming other people, they would suffer the same wrong after the death. Most of them don’t know, they are dead, because they come to the similar surrounding as on the Earth- to the factory, office, prison and so on, where they continue in their life- style. Thanks to their same characteristics, all of them punish and are punished at the same time in this sphere. Only when they wake up and recognize their faults and mistakes, they start to desire to put right the wrong they did on the Earth. When the proper conditions come, they will get the possibility to be incarnate- to be born.
In the beyond souls are ranked into individual spheres according to the Law of Gravity and into parts according to the Law of the Attraction of Homogeneous Species and the quality of a soul. On earth only spirits developed to a different degree live together. Thus, a possibility of developing in a fast way is created even though more developed souls suffer or sustain a damage frequently. Inferior individuals find a model for their behaviour and better opportunities to grow mentally. In the astral world this is not possible because a soul lives together with souls situated on the same plane. The oversaturation and aversion towards the evil or perversity leads it to the development, to the yearning for a change and an escape out of this environment.
More developed people on earth suffer by negative manifestations of inferior individuals living in their surroundings. If this suffering does not distort their character they become stronger and more perfect in their virtues. The aim of the development is not only the perfection but also the gaining of the psychical power.