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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WayneLigon" data-source="post: 1894885" data-attributes="member: 3649">Like many things in D&D or gaming in general, the answer is 'all of the above'. No, most scientists, unless they are also genre readers or gamers, won't know what that means save perhaps in a general sense. They might use the term 'dimension' but that's not right, either, since 'dimensions' are not 'other worlds'. 'Parallel Universe' might be closest.  Most religions have the concept of 'some place that isn't this one, that is normally imperceptable to human senses but occassionally people can go there and sometimes come back again'. That'd probably be the basis for the entire idea of 'other planes'. Right off the top of my head, the first place I can think of that refers to 'planes' is Theosophical writings (which itself is a kind of bizarre marriage of religious and scientific ideas), though that probably pulls in things from previous occult traditions (since most occult traditions cross-pollinate). Most occult thinking of that time refers to an 'astral plane', which Theosophy seems to have invented - the dictionary refers to 'astral' as  1. Of, relating to, emanating from, or resembling the stars. 2. Biology Of, relating to, or shaped like the mitotic aster; star-shaped. 3. Of or relating to a supersensible body believed by theosophists to coexist with and survive the death of the human physical body Ethereal, among it's other definitions, has - a. Of the celestial spheres; heavenly. b. Not of this world; spiritual.  Ether, if I remember right, comes from Huygens, a Dutch philosopher who put forth the idea of an all-pervading medium which would explain why heat and light could travel in a vacuum. D&D takes those ideas and blends them all together. In most occult circles, 'astral' and 'ethereal' are used interchangably; the astral body can also be referred to as the 'ethric body'. The 'silver cord' idea in the Astral Plane is taken directly from Theosophical teachings (or, probably more accurately, popular fiction using Theosophical ideas and terms; the terms have become so common in fiction that it's probably impossible to pinpoint an exact source unless Col_Playdoh has a really fantastic memory). THERE has been an infinite confusion of names to express one and the same thing.  That's from the astral light chapter of Isis Unveiled, Madame Blavatsky's first (?) work. That should give you terminology to mine for game effect for a few weeks <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> <a href="http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/isis/iu-hp.htm" target="_blank">The whole thing can be found here.</a></blockquote>

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