Plane of popular occultism and New Age thought. Mind or Mental being Mind proper is the conceptual and cognitive mind, the manakosha. Mind is a subordinate process of the Supermind. It is the intermediary stage between the Divine and the mundane life. It works by measuring and dividing reality, and has lost sight of the Divine. It is the seat of ignorance, yet it is still capable of an upward ascent toward the Divine. Unlike Western psychology, in which mind and consciousness are considered the same, Sri Aurobindo strongly distinguishes between the "Mental" and the "Vital" (emotional) faculties, as well as between Mind and pure Consciousness. Sri Aurobindo in part bases his concept of the Mental on his reading of the Taittiriya Upanishad, the mental being (or perhaps just the Mental Purusha) is the mano-maya-atma – the self made of mind (manas). For Sri Aurobindo, Mind or the Mental being is not simple and uniform, but consists itself of various strata and subdivisions, which act at different levels of being. These various faculties are described or variously referred to, usually in obliquely or in passing, in some of his books, including Savitri, which has poetic references to many types of Mind. In his letters answering questions from disciples, Sri Aurobindo summarises the characteristics of the various levels of Mind. Spiritual Being Above mind proper lie various higher individual levels of mind, namely the Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind and Overmind, which ascend toward the Spirit, and provide a higher and more inclusive vision of reality: Higher Mind is the realm of Truth-thought. It can hold a wide range of knowledge in one vision and an integral whole. It receives illumination from the Illumined Mind, and is not dependent on the limited knowledge of the senses. It is also capable of transforming the lower realms of body and mind, effectuating changes of habit and life. Nevertheless, it is still a state of thought, in contrast to Illumined Mind, which is a state of vision and spiritual insight. Illumined Mind is the mind of sight and vision. It transforms the Higher Mind by providing it a direct vision. Intuition provides the illumination of thought and vision to the Higher Mind and the Illumined Mind. Mundane mind may experience intuition too, but in the higher realms of mind it becomes more frequent and stable. Overmind is the Cosmic Consciousness. It is the