…. It’s at the very summit of human consciousness, on the borderline between what Sri Aurobindo calls the lower and the higher hemispheres. It is very high, very high.

It is a world of creation with several levels or degrees.

The first zone you encounter is the zone of painting, sculpture, architecture: everything that has a material form. It is the zone of forms, colored forms that are expressed as paintings, sculptures, and architecture. They are not forms as we know them, but rather typal forms; you can see garden types, for instance, wonderfully colored and beautiful, or construction types.

Then comes the musical zone, and there you find the origin of the sounds that have inspired the various composers. Great waves of music, without sound. It seems a bit strange, but that’s how it is.

When I play I generally hear what I am playing. It’s hard to say…. It’s not just an ordinary sound, it’s a combination of sounds, and it’s not… no, it’s true, it’s not the same sound but something like the essence of that sound. But for instance, I have a sort of feeling that what I am hearing should be expressed by a large orchestra…. I SEE it, you know, I see something like large orchestras around me, on my right, on my left—and I am supposed to transcribe it on a harmonium! It’s like an orchestra made up of groups of musicians, with each group expressing one part of that combination, which is a much more complete sound than the ear can perceive. That’s what it is. It’s not something you can express just by humming a little tune, but a whole body of musical vibrations. And as I hear it, I see how it should be expressed. I see large orchestras around me. But it’s another kind of vision; it’s not the precise vision of the physical eye, but something very… it’s how consciousness sees. How can I describe it! All you can say is that it’s not our normal kind of vision, or hearing, either.

It’s quite a total knowledge, which includes a vision, an awareness of the combination of sounds and how they should be expressed.

Beyond the musical zone lies thought: thoughts, organized thoughts for plays and books, abstractions for philosophies. But what used to interest me particularly were the combinations that give birth to novels or plays.

That is the third zone.

…. what you find there are thought formations that are expressed in each person’s brain in his own language. There are thought combinations for novels, plays, even philosophical systems. They are combinations of pure thought, not formulated in any language, but they are automatically expressed in each one’s brain according to his particular language. It is the domain of pure thought. That’s where you work when you want to work for the whole earth; you don’t send out thoughts formulated in words, you send out a pure thought, which then formulates itself in any language in any brain: in all those who are receptive. These formations are at anyone’s disposal—nobody can say, “It’s MY idea, it’s MY book.” Anyone capable of ascending to that zone can get hold of the formations and transcribe them materially. I once made an experiment of that kind; I wanted to see what would happen, so I made a formation myself and let it go off on its way. And in the same year, two quite different people, who didn’t even know each other, one in England and the other in America, got hold of my formation; the one in England wrote a book, while the one in America created a play. And circumstances so arranged themselves that both the book and the play found their way to me.

Higher up, there is a fourth zone, a zone of colored lights, plays of colored lights. That’s the order: first form, then sound, then ideas, then colored lights. But that zone is already more distant from humanity; it is a zone of forces, a zone which appears as colored lights. No forms—colored lights representing forces. And one can combine these forces so that they work in the terrestrial atmosphere and bring about certain events. It’s a zone of action, independent of form, sound and thought; it is above all that. A zone of active power and might you can use for a particular purpose—if you have the capacity to do so.

That’s the highest zone.

Thus we have form, expressed in painting, sculpture or architecture; sound, expressed in musical themes; and thought, expressed in books, plays, novels, or even in philosophical and other kinds of intellectual theories (that’s where you can send out ideas that will affect the whole world, because they influence receptive brains in any land, and are expressed by corresponding thoughts in the appropriate language). And above this zone, free of form, sound and thought, is the play of forces appearing as colored lights. And when you go there and have the power, you can combine those forces so that they eventually materialize as creations on earth (it takes some time, it’s rarely immediate).

…. But it’s the higher level of the musical zone. Each of these zones contains several levels, and the top of the musical zone is already starting to be waves, waves of vibration. But it’s still directly related to music, while those colored forces I am speaking of have to do with terrestrial transformations and actions—great actions. They are powers of action. This zone where you hear no sound eventually becomes sounds and music. It is the summit. Each zone contains several levels.

…. it goes through specific transformations en route. It passes through one zone or another, where it undergoes transformations to adapt itself to the particular mode of expression. The waves of music are one particular mode of expression of those colored waves—they should really be called “luminous” waves, for they are self-luminous. Waves of colored light. Great waves of colored light.

All those zones of artistic creation are very high up in human consciousness, which is why art can be a wonderful tool for spiritual progress. For this world of creation is also the world of the gods; but the gods, I am sorry to say, have absolutely no taste for artistic creation. They feel absolutely no need for permanence in forms—they couldn’t care less! When they want something, there it is—all they have to do is want it. When they wish a particular surrounding or atmosphere, it takes form all by itself at their wish. They get everything the way they want it, so they feel no need for fixed forms. Man, on the other hand, who doesn’t get what he wants the way he wants it, must make an effort to create forms, and that’s why he progresses—art is a great means of spiritual progress.
The Mother – Agenda, Vol. 3, pp. 387-391