Perspectives on heaven and hell

[Enoch327]

Well put, definitely something everyone should try to remember.

 

Anyway, I just wanted to make a comment that I find common with this topic. From all the different interpretations, people like to conclude that heaven and hell could be many different things. This leads to three typical responses: 1)its all subjective and your heaven/hell is based on what you like/despise (roughly); 2)there is only one heaven and hell and everyone else is wrong; 3)neither exists. People tend to get caught up in interpretations including things like whether their dog will be there, if there will be sex, if they can do their favorite hobby, if they will sing praises to God for eternity, or if they will see old relatives, etc. and miss the general concept of an afterlife. Whether they accept the concept at all tends to fall along religious lines but not always.

 

I think if you look towards general themes across many belief systems it becomes a little bit more apparent. Some theories are reward based and include things such as happiness and eternal bliss. Others seem to capture wisdom, knowledge and truth with include things such as expanded thought, self-understanding and enlightenment. Still others focus on a God figure and include hope, faith, love and community with other deceased persons. I am grossly oversimplifying, but the point is many people are dissatisfied with the idea of life being limited to earth. This brings of questions of meaning and purpose, with the psychologist sitting in the background saying belief in something after is just a coping mechanism to deal with all the suffering and hardship. Life leaves so many holes in human understanding, enlightenment, and experience that people look onward. Death is often not an end but a new beginning, creating a duality that is consistent with themes of heaven and hell (life and death after human life). In some cultures children were often viewed as a continued legacy of their parents, a way for people to live on and have an impact years later, even if they left no mainstream legacy.

 

I honestly cannot imagine what heaven and hell would be like, but that people would propose that science and reason cannot allow for the existence of such nonsense is a shame. There is more to life than just reason and I would rather leave people with a sense of hope that there is something better to strive for each and every day than convince them it is for nothing; for their benefit. Its easy to say that non-existence is no big deal, but honestly, with all the tribulations of life, is it better to live or are you better off dead? To the world you may be one person, but to someone you can mean the world. I know which one I prefer.

 

EDIT:

I wanted to add one thing about the idea of heaven and hell as reward/punishment. Many preachers convince people that they are doomed to hell unless they repent and whatnot. We have all heard it in some form or another I am sure. I don't remember where I heard it, but I am convinced that only those that want to go to hell actually do, although that will not stop preachers, since the idea is to use fear to get people to push themselves. People tend to become complacent and content with their habits and don't always have the motivation to challenge themselves. I also get annoyed when people believe that heaven is a reward that a good life will earn, which is a poor way to look at it to say the least.

 

 

You reminded me of a book where the author talks about the soul splitting in two at death. One half goes to hell and the other half goes to heaven. Eventually there is a reunion. I can't remember the author's name or the title of the book.

[Guest Anonymous]

I haven't died (in this life) yet so I can't be sure of how afterlife will be...but I believe afterlife to be on a single spirit plane or world (instead of two seperate departments of reward and punishment) where souls are waiting to be reborn and other things like that. They say you can have visions of afterlife (resusication, astral projection, regression etc) even before physical death but wether it is true or false there won't be any evidence.

[Enasnil]

heaven is ultimate love and hell is the blindness of this love.

 

what is love? love is the everlasting joy that is our inheritance from being made out of the love come from Gods heart and our returning desire towards the self same one we came out of, all in absolute freedom with infinite creation and expression. all the revelations of Gods children in God and God united in a loving embrace that has always been and will always be. hell is in this love and it is grasped and taken ever upwards. darkness becomes transmuted into light for this consuming fire is the only reason to exist. the light is the darkness but the light was so bright that it was blinding, our eyes adjust and then we see that all there is is eternal life and expression of love and fellowship, an infinite becoming and everlasting joy. true friendship and completeness. utter isolation with your beloved... for all aspects of love are revealed and expressed in all possible ways that are worthy of love. in this love there is no more separation for it was only part of the play of the world of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

 

so what is hell? boredom and human stupidity. ignorance and a knowledge that feels wise and yet it cast ones heart down to the deepest pits of realities that don't deserve to exist forever. but their purpose is to be rescued from the insanity of only trusting your limited experience of this reality and thinking human insanity to be a stable foundation for eternal love.

[Argentum]

Has anybody heard of or mentioned the theory that what you experience after death is simply based on your beliefs and perceptions? Like those who believe there is nothing simply vanish, and those that think there is heaven/hell experience it as they believe it is?

 

This theory makes a lot of sense to me.

[Ashmo]

Derp...that made e weep.

 

Heaven is a state of love. Love without pride, self, pity, or malice. The priest you spoke with speaks a beautiful, divine truth that I don't think any people of the cloth understand.

[LittleTulpa]

Has anybody heard of or mentioned the theory that what you experience after death is simply based on your beliefs and perceptions? Like those who believe there is nothing simply vanish, and those that think there is heaven/hell experience it as they believe it is?

 

This theory makes a lot of sense to me.

 

That rings a bell, something like errr... Spirit science on youtube or new age? I wouldn't say they are directly like that but sometimes they will mention how the afterlife is anything you want so a hardcore religious person would pretty much be in heaven or whatever.

[Mowgly]

 

That rings a bell, something like errr... Spirit science on youtube or new age? I wouldn't say they are directly like that but sometimes they will mention how the afterlife is anything you want so a hardcore religious person would pretty much be in heaven or whatever.

 

I think it's more than that, if the hardcore religious person is in touch with his subconcious thoughts, feelings and is true to himself, he might be in "heaven". In life I think you can fake who you are but that doesn't affect you physicly but after death faking who you are will leave you darkness with no identity, only a conciousness suspended in nothing?

Your power, could be directly taken from the conection between your conciousness and who you are.

[FurryBlueNaki]

I believe we create our own afterlife. So some will create their own hell. But it's only temporary until they realize the illusion. Some will see Jesus, others the Buddha, others whatever deity they believed in. I'm hoping to see Ra there. Of course there are guides that help us in the afterlife. In my schizophrenia bipolar I've experienced both heaven and hell.

[glitchthe3rd]

At the risk of being torn apart by the diehard metaphysicists that all hate my guts, I *think* I traveled to Heaven during an astral projection once. It's set up in such a way that one must pass through Hell to get there, which probably serves the purpose of cleansing us of our sins and our earthly attachments.

 

When I did get to Heaven, it was your stereotypical clouds and gold stuff everywhere picture, though Naomi tells me that Heaven is just a massive cloud of information in its most basic form, and takes on whatever appearance you expect it to. I didn't get to stay very long before I got kicked out of my astral projection, either due to a lack of focus or because I'm not "ready" to go there yet.

[Guest amber5885]

I've heard people say the same thing before. That heaven is basically a giant library or something.

 

I have my own thoughts but I like your theory especially needing to go through hell to cleanse yourself. Like the bhuddist idea of suffering and how it is actually a requirement in order to attain enlightenment.