Can a spiritual being travel more rapidly than light?

Is it possible for spiritual beings to visit such remote, far-away zones as the so-called Milky Way, or stars so far distant that it takes such a long period of time for their light to reach us here? Can a spiritual being travel more rapidly than light?

A spiritual being cannot travel to these far distant spheres. A spiritual body cannot travel faster than light—but within this body is another body, which for want of a better name we shall call the thought body.

Some may think that we here mean the soul, but we do not, for within this thought body dwells the soul. A person on earth, who has not yet laid aside the material body, has a material body, a spiritual body, a thought body, and a soul. The soul is the immortal living principle that has neither beginning nor end, and it clothes itself with these various bodies or substances—the material body, the spiritual body, the thought body—and it expresses itself through these various forms.

The material body cannot leave the material earth, and yet the thought body can transfer itself instantaneously to any part of the globe, as well as to the far-away regions in space. The spiritual body, after leaving the material body, cannot leave the spiritual spheres, but the thought body can go, in a comparatively short time, to any sphere or zone that it is possible to cognise; but when the spirit is freed from the earthly body its powers are increased an hundred fold, and its perceptions and sight become clear and lucid.

If, while in the material body one can weigh and measure the stars and compute their distance, understand them somewhat, and see their light, what may not the soul and thought body be capable of? But we have the power here of freeing ourselves of the spiritual body for quite lengthy periods of time. One might say the spiritual body goes to sleep, or becomes unconscious, while the soul and thought body fly away to other zones.

And this is what we meant when, in a former letter we stated that men of earth travelled from one city to another, from one country to another, and occasionally around the globe; while we, here, travel from one sphere to another, from one planet to another, and occasionally took a turn through the milky way, as we really do; still, we can visit all the planets in our sublimated spiritual body, that is, all belonging to the system of which your earth is one.

After we have taken these delightful journeys we return home, so to speak, enlarged and refreshed, having added to our store of knowledge.