Note: The Structure of Heaven is a 325-page book that can be downloaded from Amazon.com in Kindle format by clicking here. It is also available in paperback format by clicking here.
The upper winterlands exist just beneath the transitional plane. The spirits that come to rest there may not experience heavenly conditions, but they are not in “Hell” either. You might call these regions “shabby heavens”. The winterlands are really just the reversed reflections of the summerlands above the transitional plane. They are still parts of the plane of illusion, but it is here that the less spiritually evolved souls create their own realities. Because of their lower spiritual qualities, the overall environment is less pleasant. The colors are more subdued, the background noise can be grating and more earth-like, and the synaesthetic qualities are less pleasing than they are in the summerlands. In spite of this, the winterlands could be described as the “lower heavens”.
The souls in the winterlands generally find the familiar trappings of home, and, for all their shabbiness, the spirits there are still fairly comfortable. However, these souls occupy thewinterlands because of their less evolved natures, and their interactions with their neighbors are likely to be as shabby as their interactions with others of their kind when they occupied material bodies.
The winterlands, like the summerlands contain numerous levels, but in reverse. In the summerlands, as you proceed to higher levels, the environment and the residents get nicer, but in thewinterlands, the lower you go, the darker and less pleasant the environment, and the more negative the interactions between souls.
It should be stressed again that the planes of illusion (the summerlands and the upper winterlands) are not “forever”. They are meant to be resting places. Even though the conditions on these planes are pleasant, and the spirits there can stay as long as they like, a soul will eventually get tired and desire to “stretch its wings”. When this happens, as it inevitably will, the soul will decide on its next adventure. For those still retaining the desire for the more primitive human instincts, the soul may opt for an earthly reincarnation, or even a life on another planet. But the souls in the upper summerlands are more likely to desire a less material and more cerebral existence in the plane above the summerlands, and will strive to enter the plane that Myers called the Plane of Color where the soul will abandon the illusions of matter entirely, including all bodily form.
Note: The Structure of Heaven is a 325-page book that can be downloaded from Amazon.com in Kindle format by clicking here. It is also available in paperback format by clicking here.