The surface of an astral plane is two-dimensional and covered with perfectly straight horizontal and vertical grid lines. This makes for uniform checkered appearance over the entire surface. Each square on a surface contains a brilliantly multicolored geometric design, repeated endlessly in every other square. The surface of each astral plane has its own unique pattern, completely different from that of any other astral plane's surface pattern.

Each astral plane appears two dimensional when its surface is approached. However, a fully three-dimensional environment is experienced when this is penetrated...

The surface of an astral plane is magnificent and awe-inspiring to behold. These structures are absolutely beyond compare in their artistic, crisp, and colorful beauty; their enormity and grandeur; and their spectacular awe-inspiring power and deep mystery. I am certain that they are logically and intelligently designed structures, much too geometrically near and intelligently functional to be merely accidental or natural. They appear to have been designed by an intelligence far beyond ours.

The illustration and its perspective is not abstract. It is based on my living memories of many conscious-exit projections and entries into the astral plane. This accurately represents the surface of what I believe to be the fifth astral plane and shows what the surface of an astral plane actually looks like when encountered firsthand during an astral projection.

If you can stretch your imagination just a little after looking at this illustration (on the rear cover) try imagining yourself there. Close your eyes and imagine yourself hovering five miles high, looking down onto a spectacularly checkered wonder.