There’s recently been a discussion on one of my email lists about heaven and hell and where they might be and if they even exist. In a world of duality like we live in, most of us believe that if one exists, the other has to, too. Sort of like the song says about love and marriage; can’t have one without the other.
I’m not sure that’s true. At least I don’t believe it’s true. I don’t believe in hell, at least not as somewhere we go to if we’ve been “bad.” Shoot, even the pope has stated that hell doesn’t exist as a place unless we believe it does. Hell is a condition of consciousness, not a place. Probably heaven is, too, then.
So, where do we “go” when we die?
This discussion led me to think about my own NDE, or what I think was my NDE. Most of the people on that discussion group, as well as many others not involved in it, mystics and writers and researchers, say that when we die or have an NDE, we find what we expect to find, depending on our religious upbringing or maybe, our lack of it.
That is, if we’ve been taught that heaven is populated by angels plucking harps and traveling on streets of gold or sitting on clouds, that’s what we’ll find when our physical consciousness ends. Or we might meet Jesus or Moses or Mohammed or someone else, like deceased loved ones.
Me, I wanted to be reunited with my beloved animals.
I’ve written about my NDE elsewhere so I won’t describe it again. I can tell you, though, that “none of the above” would have been the answer I gave on any exam about what we experience during an NDE.
Of course, I didn’t even know I’d had one for a few years so I can’t be sure how I’d have answered any exam questions. I can tell you, though, that I didn’t have any expectations, religious or otherwise, about heaven or hell. I felt it wasn’t my business to decide what or where they would or wouldn’t be. I just sort of figured heaven would be pretty nice and hell, well, hell wouldn’t.
As to “where” they’d be, I had no idea. I didn’t believe in Heaven in the sky or above the sky, or Hell in a pit of fire “down below” somewhere. So, if I were to die, what would I expect to find?
Not what I did find, that’s for sure! And since I didn’t read any of the books that described events much like what I experienced until after I “died,” I couldn’t have been influenced by anything I’d read before that.
So, where did I “go?” If Heaven isn’t a place (and I’m pretty sure I was “in” heaven *G*) then where was I? Inside the mind of God? But I don’t believe in God as a person with an inside of any kind so where was I?
I can tell you that I seemed to be “somewhere,” even after I realized that my first memories of the event were quite different than the reality, or what I think was the reality. That is, I experienced “coming home” and being met by robed persons.
But when I eventually realized that those “persons” were electric blue balls of energy and there were no robes, only wisps trailing beneath them, I still had the same memory of being welcomed and loved beyond anything I’d ever known when I was “alive,” when I was “on Earth.”
And “I” certainly felt like I existed “somewhere.” I have no idea what it would be like to exist nowhere. I existed and I knew I existed. Maybe I was still too close to my physical consciousness to conceive of such a notion as existing nowhere, but whatever the mechanism, I knew I existed. I Was.
My memory of my NDE is very, very short, none of the traveling through a tunnel and such things that so many others have reported. It’s like I remember only a snippet of a much larger event, a sort of snapshot or “still” photo taken from a moving video.
And while I was overwhelmed by the love I felt there, I have nothing to report about meeting my beloved animals. Or maybe they were some of the blue energy balls and I just didn’t recognize them. I think I would have recognized them, though.
Then again, I don’t recall recognizing any of the energy balls, either as animals or people. I knew them, though, and they knew me.
So, I can’t say where Heaven and Hell might be or if they exist anywhere at all. I can say, though, that the love at that place, wherever I was, was immense and endless and that sounds pretty heavenly to me.
Sam,
Personally, I do not believe in hell. When I went through Science of Mind 1 class, it clicked with me because they don’t have a concept of hell either.
Recently though I was subbing for a Health class and a young black teenager told the class that a woman came to speak at her church who had been to hell and came back to tell people about it. I was intrigued as we have heard of so many NDE where people are going to heaven. I guess this woman just knew she had not been good enough to go there.
Something to think about, huh?
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Hi Sherrie,
I’ve heard about people who had NDEs and “went to hell” but I’ve heard very few details about those experiences except that they weren’t “good.” I don’t remember when I quit believing in hell but at some point I realized there is nothing but “God” or whatever is the underlying ground of everything. That means when we die, there’s no place else to go but wherever that “God” is which, according to most teachings, is “heaven.” It also means that, as the Gospel of Thomas (?) says, “Heaven is spread out on the earth and you see it not,” or something like that. IOW, we’re already in heaven if we’d only notice. I’d like to hear more details about those hellish experiences. Some of the stories of earthly experiences surely would qualify, I’m sure. Thanks for your comments. Sam
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As Tracy Chapman sings “Heaven is on Earth”… But no one knows for sure, so I just do the best I can, live simply, and move on. I see heaven everywhere in nature. I am not sure about the human side although I am certain it is there. I’ve never had a NDE and went to hell, but did have had a dream of dying and feeling at peace.
Will reply later – I am exhausted right now…
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Hi Kay, Yes, no one knows fershure what dying is really like because, by definition, those who have NDEs aren’t dead. I’m currently reading a book about “awakening” experiences and many of them sound very similar to what I experienced. The author does address NDEs, too, and notes the similarities.
Whether heaven on earth is “just” an awakening experience, a state of samadhi, or if being “enlightened” is similar to a permanent state of awakening (or dying) may be of less importance than the fact that those things happen and people are affected, often permanently, by them, generally in a positive direction.
I have no experience of “awakening” or even dying, for that matter, in dreams, but my feeling is, anything that makes us more aware of the truth of Life is a good thing, even if it’s death. Sam
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