As with the Divine Universes, we can speak of subplanes or levels
here. Their traversing constitutes the higher mystical and visionary
ascent, quite different from the psychic-astral ascent. It is concerning
this mystical ascent that the Sufis are referring to when they meditate
on the ascent of the Prophet Mohammed to Heaven, called the Mi`raj.
The Apostle Paul also refers to being "caught up to the Third Heaven".
Esoteric Judaic Kabbalah incorporates the earlier concept of Hekhalth or
Merkavah ("chariot") mysticism, which is here used to refer to the ascent
of the Kabbalsist to teh Throne of God. This is identified with the
"archangelic" world of Beriah.
A more recent and quite detailed perspective occurs in the spiritual
psychology of Sri Aurobindo. In his book The Life Divine and
elsewhere, Sri Aurobindo refers to psycho-spiritual stages of ascent beyond
even the ordinary Enlightened or Liberated Mind, and transitional between
ordinary (dualistic) mentality and the infinite Truth-Consciousness of
the Manifest Absolute (what he calls the "Supermind"). These transitional
stages are termed by him Higher Mind, the Illumined Mind, the Intuitive
Mind, and the Overmind. The latter is equivalent to what I have termed
the Divine Ontocosm, whereas the Higher Mind would seem to pertain to the
Lower part of the Noeric ontocosm.