I have to first say that words don't explain my answer well but it's all we have to describe ‘Heaven ‘. I experienced it in my NDE experience. The Angel said that I would feel it and immediately I did. I was ‘there’!! The feeling of relief was completely overwhelming. The feeling of peace, security, wholeness, and love was all consuming. I kept thinking that it's really true!! That it wasn't all lies or bs, that there is a place where negativity and evil do not, and never have, existed. It was perfection. I'm sorry, but words are absolutely meaningless for they fall so short of the feeling of it all. It drives me crazy that I can't explain it so well, ugh!! Just trust that you will be there one day and all that you hoped it will be…it is, and yet so much more. During my NDE, we had no physical bodies. We were all connected to each souls thoughts and feelings. I believe it sounds better to say that ‘Heaven ‘ is a state of mind. Although that sentence alludes to it being not real somehow and yet it's the most ‘real’ one can feel. Where we go when we leave here is truly magical and spiritual. I experienced a glimpse of what to expect, a gift given during the hardest time of my life where giving up would have been too easy. It has brought on so many unanswerable questions. At times I am obsessed with writing it down but when I do, it doesn't explain it good enough and it angers me. A gift yet, at times, like a curse, if that makes some sense. It is on my mind daily, it is what it is…

Is heaven a state of mind or a place?

Home is where your heart is.

When we went on our 7 month adventure in a caravan (trailer), one of my boys one day remarked:

• “Daddy, you know that people say ‘Home is where the heart is’? … our home actually goes with us everywhere we go … just like a tortoise”.

I will admit, even though I found this statement very profound at the time, I did not quite realize the true extent of it until recently (about 4 years later).

Heaven is where God is

Heaven is God’s Home. Without [a] God…there is no Heaven.

Heaven is therefore “where God lives”.

Where is God?

• At that time, you'll know that I am in my Father, that you are in me, and that I am in you.
• The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.

Question:
Is heaven a state of mind or a place

Answer:
Heaven is YOU!!!

None other that one of the most important Christian thinkers, Augustine of Hippo, felt that heaven was not a “place”. It was a state in which people experience the bliss of perfect fellowship and harmony with God. In these views, Heaven is within us, and God, in a sense, is heaven. In this way of thinking, time and space are finite concepts. These are human ways of thinking. As Kant said, we cannot really think without these categories. God on the other hand, is not bound by time or space. All times and spaces are one to him. There are not really “places” for god. God cannot live in one physical place, as we think of it, because the physical universe is his creation and cannot contain him. Heaven in this thought is not a particular space. Heaven is ultimately beyond what human minds can understand or even think about very well. In this way, the Catholic church teaches that heaven is primarily a state rather than a place. You can’t travel “up there” to heaven. The blessed will be in a state of comprehension of God that is constant. They can’t leave heaven and then go back to heaven precisely because heaven is principally a state of being. Heaven is a state of utter and absolute fulfillment; a radical union with God that transcends anything we could envisage. According to St Aquinas, our intellects will be so illuminated by God as to empower us to be able to “see God” in the beatific vision and that the effect of this empowering will be the comprehension of “the whole order of the universe.”

And hell is thought of as a state in which people experience the greatest possible estrangement from God, the greatest possible sense of alienation, and perhaps also an intense hatred of everyone including themselves. It is not really a “place” either. For these thinkers, the agony of hell is psychological and spiritual in nature, consisting of the knowledge that every possibility for joy and happiness has been lost forever. Hell, as they see it, is thus a condition in which self-loathing, hatred of others, hopelessness, and infinite despair consumes the soul like a metaphorical fire.

Heaven
-Talking Heads

Everyone is trying
To get to the bar
The name of the bar
The bar is called heaven

The band in heaven
They play my favorite song
Play it one more time
Play it all night long

Heaven
Heaven is a place
A place where nothing
Nothing ever happens

Heaven
Heaven is a place
A place where nothing
Nothing ever happens

There is a party
Everyone is there
Everyone will leave
At exactly the same time

It's hard to imagine that
Nothing at all
Could be so exciting
Could be this much fun

Heaven
Heaven is a place
A place where nothing
Nothing ever happens
Heaven
Heaven is a place
A place where nothing
Nothing ever happens

When this kiss is over
It will start again
It will not be any different
It will be exactly the same

It's hard to imagine
That nothing at all
Could be so exciting
Could be this much fun

Heaven
Heaven is a place
A place where nothing
Nothing ever happens
Heaven
Heaven is a place
A place where nothing
Nothing ever happens

I must be honest, I've seen Heaven. At 16 the boy that i was with passed out while driving I was told. I had fallen asleep on his shoulder. Mind you, in the 70′s seatbelts weren't required. To block our path from going over a very high mountain, he hit a large tree. A tree to this day, people who lived across the street said was never there begore that night. I died. I could hear him say, “she's not dead" i saw them zip the bag over me, then in a blink of an eye I was standing in heaven. It was so beautiful that there are no words to describe the Majestic Glory that radiated. I could hear angels singing praise to God in the highest to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I wanted to go in those Gates desperately. There was such a sense of overwhelming love and peace and I wanted and craved more of it I needed to go to God. But it wasn't my time, Jesus appeared to me touch my shoulder and told me that I had to come back that my purpose has yet to be fulfilled. I remember turning and looking at this figure, with such love such desire to be near and said I didn't want to leave and again I was told I must come back until my purpose has been fulfilled by the will of God. 3 days later I woke up in ICU with absolutely nothing wrong with me.Heaven in its glory, is the most peaceful, beautiful, glorified place you could ever imagine and then some. A light so bright, here on earth it would blind you, yet it did not, shinned everywhere, radiating love. I can't wait to go home and serve my God forever more

I will share one of my favorite stories that for me illustrates what heaven is like. The parable is well known, but for the sake of convenience, I am copying from one of my favorite books, Confronting the Myth of Self Esteem, by Ester Rasband:

“A young man died, and upon arrival at the Pearly Gates was treated to a tour of heaven and hell before his final assignment. Hell was first, and he was surprised to find it a room of lavish banquet tables, laden with wonderful things to eat. The people there, however, were emaciated and crying out in hunger. The only way to gain access to the food was with extremely long-handled spoons permanently attached to their hands. When they tried to put the spoons to their mouths, they found it impossible to reach. So the residents of this home of the damned cried out in anguish as well as hunger. The young man on the tour averted his eyes in horror. To see these people starving in the midst of plenty was more than he could bear. He begged to be taken away from this place.”

“Imagine the young man’s surprise on arrival in heaven when he saw identical tables and identical food. The people here, however, were well fed and happy. There was laughter and music and delight. At first the young man thought that the access to the food must be easier. Then he saw it. The food had to be eaten with the same long-handled spoons. The people in heaven, however, had discovered that the long-handled spoons worked very well to feed the food to each other.”

We can experience a bit of heaven on earth if we shift our focus from ourselves to others!

Someone asked: “Is [Heaven] a state of mind or a place?”

Yes.

“The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Jesus— Matthew 4:17, et al.)

(Please explain how your mind can exist without a “place” of reference.)

OK, enough playing around, let’s get down to it:

People (erroneously) believe: “When I die, I’m going to Heaven.” Well, that’s nice, but why wait? Seriously? Where are you? (“Here”) and what time is it? (“Now.”) One is always Here and Now. *Always!*

Let’s say it’s 1 minute before you die. “I’m gonna be dead in 1 minute and go to Heaven.” What time is it? Now.

Fifty seconds go by: you’ve got 10 seconds to live. “In ten seconds, I’ll be in Heaven.” What time is it? Now.

OK, you’re dead and you’ve gone to Heaven (or otherwise) and you have the presence of mind to ask yourself once you get there: “What time is it?” Now.

“The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” NOT “will be,” NOT “was,” NOT “maybe,” but “is” at hand!

Heaven is. “Now” is “NOW”. “Will be in the future” is eternally a false condition, although the closer a point in the “Now” approaches an appointment, the closer the moment approaches the truth of the Eternal “Now.”

That’s why getting a “Yes!” answer to “Will you marry me?” is such an enormously powerful moment in a woman’s life: It’s the entry point into Heaven.

I was already frustrated during my exams time and a day came which got my nerves.

It started when I woke up late. I got ready for my college lately and I catched my bus, which was really overcrowded.

I somehow manage to travel and when I reached college, I got scolded for being late.

Then came my paper.

It was great enough to left me with a great shock. I still was trying to manage myself with that situation.

I didn't know what shit I was writing at one moment, yet I kept writing. When I was done, and started giving a finishing to it,

I accidentally tore a side of my paper! :’)

And when the examiner came and when I said him about it,

I got scolded again! Even in front of my whole class!

I survived this all somehow, but it took all my energy. I needed a break.

Thus, I went to a park.

Usually on getting too low, music is the only thing we prefer, and so did I. Luckily, I didn't forget my earphones that day.

I started my program.

At one moment, I was completely lost while listening a song. That balmy weather of the park, started making me more calm by time.

I was getting a pleasure at that moment.

In between this all, I suddenly felt something in my bag. I opened it and saw there some packets of kurkure.

And I heard the exact saying in my mind,

“Bhookh lagegi khaa lena yeh, aur phone karna mujhe chutne par!” *Have this when you'll be hungry and call me when you get leave*

It was my mom saying there, at a shop buying me those kurkure. Being late, I didn't had breakfast and couldn't even said a 'bye' to her, properly.

I made a call to her. And the first word I heard was,

“Kuch khaaya?” *Did you eat something?*

Just mumma's thing you already know! :p

I said “Yeah”, and further, I told her everything happened.

She was listening all this quietly. When I was done from my ranting, she said,

“Koi baat nahi, hota hai hota hai. Koi koi exam chala jaata hai aise aur din bhi. *It's fine. It happens sometimes. Some exam just went like this and so days*

“Tension mt le aur ghar aaja jaldi se, special banaya kuch. Rakhad mt bahar jyada vrna pta h tujhe.” *Dont worry, come home early, I've made something special. No need to roam there more or you know it better*

I smiled. I felt relief.

After alot of rushing and a messy day, I just wanted a chance to feel that comfort. And I got that,

Because of my mom. Because of her care and because of her, those kurkue :D

What is heaven like?

It's when our parents are there, in need.

It's when they understand us.

It's when they care.

And at the same time, they don't leave a chance to roast us.

It's when they love us.

Because, they're our everything that we need in our life!

“That's it, baaki ka fir kabhi!!”

(Image source: Google)

~Thank you, for the reading! :)

See you again! 🖤🥂

I believe 2 + 2 = 4 because its in a math book and because I've experienced it.

Thats the same reason I believe in God and that most others believe in God.

Much of the confusion between Christians and atheist is a root cause of a confusion of what Christianity is about and what its for.

Its truly an unfortunate state of affair. It requires non-believers to open their eyes to the need for something beyond a physicalist, materialist existence in order for life to have meaning and purpose. Our choices fundamentally don't really matter in a world of physicalism--we're just billiard balls. Or where just a bag of chemicals. Neither of those existences is something that I aspire to. Neither of those existences is reflective of the way I live my life.....or experience reality. They are fundamentally contra the empirical data I have--that is to say anti-historical and anti-empirical. It confuses me why someone would deny those fundamental issues.

All I'm saying is that a world of the supernatural is more likely than the world of the natural--which is the baseline assumption of most forms of atheism that are popular and practiced.

Looking beyond their limitations and confines one finds a bigger and better reality. One sees a world where relationships and love matter beyond survival and sex. Where moments and memories matter beyond survival and sex. Where sacrifices and service matter beyond survival and sex. Where empathy and ethics are fundamental, rather than a secondary consideration which get relativized away or reduced to nothingness or skeptically questioned away into non-existence.

I come from a place of hope, purpose, and meaning--and hope and pray that others realize and wake up to a better way. The possibility of a better way and one which takes the fundamental spiritual nature of reality for the Truth that it is.

This echoes some of the same sentiments--but hopefully might help some to open their eyes to something bigger and deeper and real: Nathan Ketsdever's answer to What are the best arguments for—and against—nihilism?

You're quite right. If, and it's an 'if' I give no credence to whatsoever, this god was real and wanted the best for those he/she/it created, the place for that 'best' would be in the here and now whilst people were living, not in an indefinable place in the future, when life had gone!

It's a crazy notion and an entirely man-made one, our modern interpretation of which probably derives from Plato's "Myth of Er". But it's perpetuated because of the way in which organised religion uses the concept of heaven - and its opposite, hell - as part of the reward and threat mechanism to control people and have power over them.

I must say that is very twisted logic (not in a bad way just hard to follow).

“Promises made for convenience
Aren't necessarily what we need
Truth is a word that's lost its meaning
The truth has become merely half truth

So lie to me like they do it in the factory
Make me think that at the end of the day
Some great reward will be coming my way” – Depeche Mode: Lie to Me

My I begin with some questions? Why if God is being itself how did God create us and why would the said God (Moment) want us to be present? I have a hard time believing that God (as a moment in time its self) would have a need for people to be present.

If God is just a moment, then there is nothing more than the moment, so there is nothing before or after this very moment. Does that mean that God is made and destroyed every moment, and as such there is a new God every moment? Could it be that our lives are like a film where only the part that we see and maters is the part that passes in front of the light and this is what is projected on the screen that we perceive as the moment? In this case God does not move, but our lives move past God? But would that not mean that God is able to see any moment in our lives even though our lives are only moments viewed through the projection of God?

So by your same logic what is the purpose of God? Why does God exist? To what ends did God create the Earth and put us on it? Why would God even care about us as people? What does God do? What does God get out of this arrangement? What happens to God when someone dies? What if time ends does God end too? Does God care if we do anything in our moments?

If God is a moment then God would be constantly changing as is needed by said moment, and therefore could not be God because God is nothing more than a period of time. This would make God imperfect and there in not God because God is perfect and he is God by his being perfect.

Plenty of people have seen heaven! There’s a place in heaven for everyone. I feel that our Lord knows just what we would need, just what we would want, to be perfectly happy there. If He takes care of a little sparrow, how much more would He care for us! I believe He created us for fellowship with Him. He said something like, “What am I supposed to do, talk to the rocks?” I have a personal relationship with Jesus; I have, since I was old enough to communicate. And not because I was forced. When I went to Bible Camp, the counselor passed out little arrows to the little eight-year-old children; she said they would indicate where each of us would be spending eternity. I was the only one who got the one that was pointed down! I cracked up laughing! What a joke on me! I already knew that counselor was, excuse the expression, dead-wrong, because I have blessed assurance. Jesus is mine. I was probably the only one there who had already had a visit from the Holy Spirit, in my room, when I was four! I was glad when camp was over. They didn’t care to make sure a little kid had a good time. I can’t think of any camp I ever went to that did. Here’s a picture, painted by a little child prodigy, Akiane Kramarik; her vision of heaven. It’s as good a depiction as any, so far.

Kudos for thinking about this - it is the most important issue of your life. Your question mixes ideas and full answers come over a long time so let me just help you on one initial idea and ask you to seek and ask more questions.

Following the God of Christianity is not putting your life on hold to fly off to heaven after you die. With Jesus reigning at the right hand of the Father, the Kingdom of Heaven is active here and now. God is calling people now to work in His fields, making disciples and bringing hope and restoration to those that are broken.

You are deciding how you will live your life and the bible is suggesting a better way. Seeking more money or status will leave you empty at some point (is this all there is?) and at death whatever you stocked-up will be lost.
Have you heard the joke about why funeral suits have no pockets?

However, what you do for others out of love is enduring. A change in heart now makes you a different person NOW. You will see the difference NOW and know NOW - it is not just blind hope. Most visible is in times of trial (which we all experience), you will have hope and peace. Christianity is not ball and chain to endure for future gain, it is a new freedom NOW - to do what is right. With that is promised eternal life, HERE on the new incorruptible earth, as the good news of the gospel is God with us.

Heaven will be very much like life here on Earth now, only without any sickness or death or anything else that causes pain. You will live in the exact same skin you are now wearing, only it will be changed -- made "incorruptible," as the Bible describes it -- so it will not succumb to injury or aging. Our lives will be lived as God always intended us to live prior to mankind's fall from grace. Eden will be restored. You will have friendships, you will eat and drink, you likely will have a job, etc. Basically, it will be "Earth 2.0," a perfect version of the present reality.

You can blame Greek philosophy, not the Bible, for a lot of the silly notions that folks now have about what heaven will be like: clouds, harps, etc. (Plato idealized the spiritual soul and taught that it will be set free from the visible, physical world after death.) By contrast, the final chapters of the Book of Revelation describe how at the end of time that "heaven" -- the New Jerusalem, the city of God -- will actually descend to Earth and the dwelling place of God will be with man. Until then, the present heaven -- wherever it is, certainly not yet here -- is only a temporary place where the souls of believers go to wait until Judgment Day.

If you are a Christian who has never heard of such things, don't be surprised. The heresy of Gnosticism (going back to Plato again) is taught in most churches today; this is the idea that the Christian life is mainly experienced "inside" your body -- in your thoughts and feelings -- but not in the physical realm. However, the central teaching of the Christian faith is that God became a man, Jesus Christ, who was born and died and rose from the dead, not as a ghost but as a living, breathing person. Thomas, a disciple who did not believe news of the resurrection, understood this clearly when Jesus stood before him and let him touch his nail-scarred hands.

Our future is to be the same as it was for Jesus. Someday every person who has died will be awakened from the dead, just as Lazarus was called forth from his tomb, and be reunited with his or her physical body. Those who have rejected God will perish again -- cast into hell, the second death -- and those who have trusted in Jesus as their rescuer will be freed from the curse of sin and death. They will live as they were always meant to live, forever as the companions of God.

Heaven is a moment of respite, or anywhere with a dog, or with the sound of laughing children, or a warm spot that a cat chooses to sleep upon.

Hell for me is subjective. It is gout, it is watching the New England Patriots win, it is bad music, or bad company, or bad manners and ill moods.

No matter what I’ve read or believe, Heaven will outdo my wildest hopes. I won’t bore you with my imaginings, but I will see my big brother there and he will show me around! When we lived together he liked to surprise me with new ideas or things he had discovered; I’m looking forward to all the wonders he has to show me. Supposedly time doesn’t exist in Heaven, life is one big NOW. When I arrive it may not seem to him like we’ve been apart for over 43 years. Just the same, I hope there’s a big reunion party because I’ll be thrilled to see my ancestors and pets again! The questions! The answers! Hallelujah!

Well, let’s see. God never threatened Adam & Eve of Hell. Cain was never warned of Hell after slaying Abel. God never proclaimed the people not saved in the parable of Noah’s Ark, were going to burn forever. The Hebrew Bible, which is essentially the Old Testament, never mentions Hell or eternal torment. It does mention Sheol, which means grave.

The King James Bible (KJB) is the one most of us were raised to believe is God’s Word. King James believed in witchcraft and wrote a book on witchcraft prior to his KJB translation in 1611. Good ole King James also oversaw the torture of women. His interpreters substituted Hell for Sheol.

Hell is mentioned in the New Testament less than one time per book. The first time Hell is documented was in Babylon approximately 300 A.D. READ THAT LAST SENTENCE AGAIN!

If Jesus’ main purpose was to be prevent the world’s population, including the 70 - 90% non-Christian, from being condemned to a torturous fire for all eternity, why didn’t he shout it from the rooftops? Instead, he said, I came that ye may have life and have it abundantly.

It appears, when Christ hung on the cross and said, Forgive them Father for they know not what they do, and It is finished, He meant it. Please note that he did NOT say, Well, my part’s done. It’s all up to you now.

Most Christians do not even know there are major differences between English Bible translations. Most do not know there are many translations that do NOT contain the concept of a hell of eternal punishment. Here are a few of them: Young's Literal, Rotherham's Emphasized, Weymouth's N.T. in Modern Speech, Concordant Literal N.T., 20th Century N.T. as well as many more.

Most have been told since early childhood about hell from people, parents and clergy, who would never lie to them. If you tell people something enough, they tend to believe it. This is the way Nazi Germany brainwashed people against the Jews.

Now here’s the kicker….if you don’t believe anything I just typed, research it for yourself.

I love this question, because it gives me the opportunity to correct one of the most widely accepted errors in the world.

Heaven is not some other worldly, disembodied, spiritual afterlife somewhere else. As Belinda Carlisle once sang, “Heaven is a place on Earth”.

Or, more correctly, Heaven IS, and will be, Earth.

WHAT!?!?

Yes. Let me explain.

After the Great Tribulation, Jesus will return and set up the Millennial Kingdom here on Earth. The Millennial Kingdom is the literal 1000 year period during which Jesus will rule as ABSOLUTE King over all the Earth. He will confine Satan and his angels to the abyss during this 1000 year period, restore the devastated Earth to near Edenic perfection, and rule, with His Church, from David's throne in Jerusalem. This will fulfill Isaiah 11, as well as MANY other prophecies about the Kingdom, including fulfilling the Davidic Covenant.

During this time, the righteous who have survived the Great Tribulation and are still “mark I” humans will repopulate the Earth. They'll have children and grandchildren, all of whom will grow up in a world where they never know most of the terrible things we've known in the current ages of Man - war, famine, disease, crime, corruption, etc. And there will be very, VERY little death, though there will still be some (explaining this would take us on a tangent, so if anyone is interested, just ask, and I'll do another response to it). The children born into this world will grow up knowing for an ABSOLUTE FACT that Jesus is real and that He's God, and they'll be able to see and interact with Him physically. They'll have NO excuse for disbelief.

After the thousand years, Satan must be set free for “a little while”. Now, you might ask why, but if you think about it for a moment, you'll see why.

The children raised during the Millennial Kingdom will never have known a world with war, crime, famine, disease, widespread death, corruption, etc. They will only have known the near paradise of the Messiah's reign. There won't be any false religions during that time, either. There will only be worship of Jesus. And Satan will not be free to deceive the nations, either. So, these children must be given the choice. After seeing Jesus and living under His just rule, and experiencing a nearly perfect world, they still have to freely choose whether or not to follow Jesus.

And sadly, MANY of them will choose to rebel and be destroyed.

This also brings up another reason that Satan has to be freed for a little while. The result of the rebellion against Jesus demonstrates that God has spoken the Truth about the human heart: it is incurably wicked. Even when given a nearly perfect world, and EVERYTHING that Man has ever desired from good government and good society, Man will STILL reject God the first chance he gets, because he doesn't WANT God; he wants to BE God. Nothing short of a recreation - a New Birth - will change the heart of Man. And so, God will destroy the rebels in one fell swoop, and begin anew.

And this brings us to what most people think of when they think of “Heaven”: The Eternal State, or the New Heavens and New Earth.

The description of the Eternal State begins in Revelation 20:11, with the “Great White Throne” judgement. This is what most people mean when they think of “Judgement Day”. The judgement begins with the arrival of God the Father in our realm. When this happens, the Earth and the rest of the universe are obliterated by His Almighty Presence. Then, ALL of the dead from ALL ages of the world are resurrected and judged. All who belong to God are preserved. All who don't are cast into the Lake of Fire with the Antichrist and the False Prophet (who, as the first residents of the Lake of Fire, have already been there for a thousand years at this point), and Death and Hades.

After this, God creates a New Heavens and New Earth, with its capital being the New Jerusalem. And the dwelling place of God will be with His people on Earth. And there will be NO more sin, suffering, pain, tears, or death. For all the rest of eternity, there will only be goodness and peace, in the Presence of God, and His people will rule over the entirety of the new universe, forever.

The Millennial Kingdom is HERE, on a renewed Earth. It is physical, not metaphorical or spiritual. We're not disembodied entities floating around. God made us to be human, and He called us good when He made us. He intends for us to be human forever; we'll just be perfected, glorified, indestructible humans (with VASTLY expanded abilities), living on a restored, nearly perfect Earth. The Eternal State will be HERE, on an entirely recreated Earth, in an entirely recreated universe. But we'll be PHYSICAL and HUMAN, as God always intended us to be.

When Jesus became Man, He didn't become a fake Man. He became a REAL Man, and He remains a Man to this day, and will remain a Man for all eternity. The union of God and Man in Jesus is irrevocable, and is the basis for the glorification (divinization or apotheosis) of Man. Or, to paraphrase Athanasius, “God became Man so that Man might become god”. Or, as the Apostle John said,

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

And, not for nothing, it'd be worth your time to chase down the term “Sons of God” and “Children of God” throughout the Bible, to get an idea of some of what this new state of Man will entail.

Anyway, just as the resurrected Jesus was a physical, though deified, Man, so WE will be physical, though deified, Men. We will live in a physical world suited for the habitation of deified Men. And God will live with us. We will be His Children, and He will be our God.

THIS is what the Bible teaches us about Heaven. It WON'T be an eternal church service, it WON'T be floating around on clouds playing harps, and it WON'T be some disembodied, less than human, “spiritual” state. It will be more fully real than this world is, and we will be more fully and truly human than we are now. But we will also partake of the divine life, making us MORE than human, not less.

Hope that helps.

The afterlife is definitely not a physical replica of our reality.

The concepts of heaven and hell are human constructs. More specifically, invented by religious zealots as fear-mongering tools of control. It is regarded in various religions as “the abode of God (or the gods) and the angels, and of the good after death, often traditionally depicted as being above the sky.”

Although the afterlife is not a place, it exists as states of the mind—“mind it and it will matter [as in, materialise].” Our soul memories determine how we experience disembodiment in the afterlife dimensions.

Experiences gathered here in the physical are imprinted into our souls as energetic memories. They may haunt us in the afterlife, but that does not change what the afterlife is—an environment that operates on higher frequencies than the physical reality. As such, it is malleable and responds to the expectations forged by our earthly experiences and the resultant beliefs.

Beware of what you wish for ie. believe. 🕊

No. Heaven is a place . So is Hell .

Hell is a complete separation from God . It's where people feel anguish and pain . It's where we go when we choose to spend eternity gnashing our teeth and burning our souls . It's a place where we are completely detached from God . It's where we feel the pains of our souls burning , which hurts less than the pain that we feel , when we are trapped in the fire knowing that we are without any access to God , or love , or anything that is good and loving. Hell is full of pain and suffering.

Heaven is a place of love. It's a place of fulfillment . It's a place where there is no pain , nor is there any anxiety . The sky is fresh , the Earth is green . The water is crystal clear and the fruit from the trees is tasteful and filling . It's a place where there is no arguing . There is no disappointments . There is no hardships . There is only happiness and comfort and a true sense of belonging .

Human perceive easily if they are able to imagine a picture in their mind.

This is a limitation as of now with evolved mind in general.

Now heaven has been painted with a picture that could be depicting a place with various pleasure and fun in different way for individual to extract the substance.

The mind thus is always that rules it be in heaven or hell and it is our mind that creates the situation to draw an analogy.

Mind has lot of potential to evolve where lower mind is supposed to be more closely attached with sensory perception and so has higher mind to exist which has potential to work above it.

Thus for example mortal eyes can see and appreciate what we physically see whereas the higher mind can feel it intuitively.

Thus the higher we ascend the meaning of life starts changing when dependence on material may reduce if the situation demands and works with more rational reasoning.

A satisfied life could lead to peace temporary which lower mind would see the end whereas peace in a higher mind creates a wider aura in and around influencing people.

They could be making life a heaven of many even by not using or giving them a wrong assurance.

Thus heaven may have a meaning to suit a mind or could not have any useful meaning by its own and so can never be a place and assuming a state of mind also could not be necessary

All experiences are states of consciousness. That is life. You are the story you tell yourself. Period. I had an NDE. I understood from that NDE that I could stay here or I could go to the other side and in either case, I would be fine. All suffering is the result of forgetting our truth.

Our truth is always Love. Infinite abiding unconditional Love. When we forget this, we create trauma. Some might call that Hell. But it is just a story. It is not real. Heaven, too, is just a word. A story. There is only one truth and it is Love. There is no religious component to this. Religion is another set of stories.

When you awaken to the truth, everything else can be identified as distraction. Ego. Avoidance. Fear. And when you awaken to the truth, you can forgive those things. In others and in yourself. When you truly know Love, all the nonsense of egoism falls away pretty quickly.

You can forget. I forget so often! But you find it easier and easier to return to Love. To source. Like anything else, it gets easier with practice.

An NDE is just one path to Source. There are infinite paths and they are all valid. We all find our way back to Love eventually. That is Destiny. Love is the truth. Everything else is make believe. An NDE is just an abrupt lifting of the veil.

*First let me state that I do not believe in the existence of ‘heaven.’

That should not, however, preclude me from answering this question.

In order not to believe in something, I must necessarily have some idea of what that ‘something’ is. And I do.

My understanding of ‘heaven’ stems from the data I have accumulated about it.
This information was acquired through reading, conversing with believers, and listening to endless lectures on the subject.

There is an incredibly wide variety of interpretations of the concept of heaven.
None of them based on anything remotely resembling evidence.

All of them created through imaginations.

A general consensus seems to include:
Bliss, peace, love, all that is considered good, and the lack of all that is considered evil.

And this residing in some form or other of an afterlife. And not just an afterlife, but a sentient afterlife. Where self-awareness, the ego, survives.

In almost all cases, this involves eternity. Throughout infinite time. Forever.

And therein lies the crux.

Eternity is everything.
To ‘live’ for an eternity would turn out ‘having to live for an eternity.’
Once everything is experienced…then what?

The dissolution of the mind, after death, is horrifying to me.
But it is understandable.

The laws of entropy require the breaking down of all matter and energy.
I can comprehend an eternity of nothingness.

In 5 or 6 billion years the Earth will cease to exist.

Eventually, either through heat death, big freeze or big rip, the universe itself will die. Or contract back to a singularity and be recreated in another big bang, Ad Infinitum.

This mythical place we call heaven exists only temporarily, within the human mind. It is a pleasant thought, soothing the angst of our existential crisis’, easing our primordial fears.

What is heaven like?

It is like the wisp of a wind warmed by the sun we feel upon our faces…eventually to be replaced by the cool, dark night.

And somewhere, far in the distance, from the top of the mountains to the bottom of the valleys, the faint echoing of…

Ululation!

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Ulalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala…lala…lala…la……

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Edit: Thank you, Quora User, for the A2A.

Story time!

Buckle up, y’all, this’ll be a long one!

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One of my very best friends came to MIT from a Muslim-Christian household in the Southern US. She was fairly agnostic up until the end of high school, but when she got to Boston, she found herself surrounded by churches and student groups (yes, MIT has many religious student groups!) of a myriad of different denominations.

This was very novel for someone who had been born and raised in the mostly-Southern-Baptist “Bible Belt” of the country. Specifically, she was from Alabama, a state known for not much other than religion and food. I have no personal feelings against AL, since my grandparents’ house is miraculously not even an hour’s drive from this friend’s parents’ house!

So, she began exploring all these other forms of Christianity. I’m proud to say I convinced her to successfully audition for the Christian a cappella group — yes really, they’re the Cross Products! She also joined what’s now called Cru.

And as another part of her journey, my friend brought philosophical/religious discussion groups back to our dorm — or, if she wasn’t the one to bring them to EC, she certainly encouraged everyone she knew to come around and voice their beliefs. She specifically sought out those of us she knew were not Christian, because she wanted to hear as many perspectives as possible. She even got me to go to an off-campus sermon once, just because she knew the topic was LGBTQ+, and she knew I would have strong opinions about it!

Through my friend’s journey is how I came to know a little more about the Christian idea of Heaven than I otherwise would have. Christianity is ubiquitous here in Florida, too, but no one ever brought me to church, and I had no interest in it whatsoever. What I knew here is what I would call “commercial” Christianity — greeting cards, Christmas specials, choral music, grace before meals in other people’s homes, graduation speeches and people interviewed on the news thanking God for something or other. Religion was a very private experience in my house, if it came up at all. Holidays are celebrated with traditional food and with family time.

I didn’t believe in Heaven, but I had always thought it was supposed to be sort of, “the best thing you can imagine,” where you reunited with loved ones who had passed away and enjoyed whatever things you wanted the most.

I disagreed with most of that sermon my friend dragged me to, but I also came away with a very new idea of what Heaven meant in Christianity.

The speaker talked a lot about how marriage was a glimpse of what eternal union with God was like — but only a glimpse. He reiterated that sex might feel like the best thing you could ever imagine, but that was just nothing in comparison to Heaven.

He compared it to the difference between sex and chocolate (given that you like both sex and chocolate, which he assumed). When you’re young, how could you imagine the intensity of sex with your soul mate? Try to convince a kid that there’s anything better than chocolate, and they probably won’t believe you. But with age and experience, you find out there is something better after all.

All my disagreements aside, I thought that idea of Heaven was pretty interesting. So I won’t talk about anything I’ve literally seen and what it was like.

I’ll talk about the times I caught a glimpse of something unimaginable.

If there were an afterlife, and if it were the Heaven I’ve heard about, it would be something like this, but better:

• Roller coasters that never get old.
• Looking up while I’m kayaking through mangrove tunnels, or white-water kayaking.
• Watching a space shuttle launch.
• The night sky reflected on the Charles on a completely windless night.
• Getting in to MIT.
• The moment I was 100% certain that my partner was an angel and I needed to propose to them.
• When a partner is in pain and asks me to sing to them, and they fall asleep listening to my voice.
• The night I had been mind-blowingly in love with my crush for years, and when I finally asked them out, after a silence, they said, happily, “This is not a negative response, I just don’t have the words.”
• When the music is loud and the only thing on my mind is dancing, like each song will never end.
• When I saw a video of my crush dancing, and I could swear bits of my brain were blasted to the far edges of the universe.
• The first time someone got me off.
• The first time I told someone I loved them. And the first time I told the next person, too.
• Being completely absorbed in a book or a movie, especially if they make me cry, or being completely in-character at Faire.
• Endless summer days with friends who I know will always be my friends.
• Someone who is eternally grateful for something I’ve done. Or just… for me.
• Falling asleep feeling safe and loved, and like the whole world is electric with happiness.

Something a little better than all that.

Cheers!

Katie❤️⭐️

Hope for ourselves and loved ones.

If you ask a blind man how he would explain the colors of the rainbow he would not know how to respond. How would a deaf man know what a symphony sounds like and relate its beauty to others? We are blind and deaf when it comes to explaining eternity. We do know that whatever and however we experience the knowledge of creation but it will be a real rush. Along with knowing the beginning we will also experience the present and future all at the same instant. This is the true definition of our soul multitasking. We will feel a sense of connectedness not only with the universe but all that it is not. With that the blind will be able to describe all the rainbows colors to the deaf man leading leading his orchestra.

Blessed are those who pass while having to endure severe disabilities for heaven has a special place for them.

Revelation 20 and revelation 21 KJV.The Kingdom of Jesus Christ is coming.Matthew 24;29–30 KJV.Jesus comes AFTER the tribulation.Unless God cuts the tribulation in half,no flesh would be left alive,from all the insane technology,the fallen angels and demons in people are creating.Matthew 24;22 KJV.WHen Jesus comes back,the flesh age ends.1,000 year reign of Christ on Earth,.1 Thessalonians 4;13–17 KJV.His people will rule and reign with him.Then New Jerusalem comes down from above.Heaven is not a state of mind.We will be in spirit bodies and Living on earth for 1,000 years and then A New heaven and Earth will be created and brought down from above.1 Cor.2;9 KJV.

I had a ‘near death ‘experience at the dentist.

I stopped breathing and had to be given oxygen etc .

Until then I was morbidly afraid of death.

I went down the tunnel to the light at the other side- that was a bit scary, but when I got out the other side it was the most fantastic experience I ever had.

I was surrounded by love and was taken to the Central Sun where I stood before the Light.

My life flashed before me as on a speeded up video recording,

I felt all the same emotions as when I had lived through it, sorry for some things, and proud about others.

I was then taken away from the Light to a dark place which I did not like, so I made the choice that I always wanted to be near the light.

I visited my moms house and wanted to breathe on the mirror to leave my initials but I knew that would freak them out so I declined!

Time was different to here and I went ahead in time to my own funeral,

I did not know anyone- as my children had grown up and my parents had already passed on, as I obviously didn't truly die at that time.

I remembered many things about the experience over a 3 week period.

I knew that if the piece of string broke that connected me to Earth that I wouldn't come back- I later found out that that is called the silver chord.

I was allowed to return to ‘Terra’ to bring up my young children.

The experience changed my life!

I am not afraid to die at all now.

We can make our homes a heaven on Earth by the way we behave in our homes. We can also take a piece of heaven with us by the way we carry ourselves in our business, school, and other activities.

Heaven is an actual place that will include all of the righteous people who lived on this planet. God has not yet judged the wicked, and will wait until after all of the righteous have been judged. Since all of the righteous have not yet been born, the wicked have been waiting for thousands of years, and will continue to wait for their judgment until after the last righteous person is born, lived their life, and died, before they will be judged.

It has an actual location. But now we have to be specific. Which heaven did you want to know about?

You see there are many heavens. Let's keep it simple then, and talk about the main two classes. The one most of us go to after death, which is semi-material. This consists of Seven Spheres, and you can't go to a higher sphere, in fact can't even see it, until you are worthy of it, or taken by someone with the power to do that. Even then you cant stay long. Now of those seven, sphere 1 contains the hells in two major sub-spheres. The top of sphere 1 is described as being very like this world with a climate like California. But it's not really a heaven. However this sphere exists within our solar system, within the orbit of our earth round the sun. So it's huge.

I have no idea where the next six are, but because of the very dreadful condition of this earth, they will be progressively very far away. To give you some idea other inhabited planets have complained about our spiritual stink. So the earth would actually affect the happiness of folks in those heavens if they were too close.

Now if you are asking about the heaven that all the Christians think they are going to after death, that's totally non-material, timeless and eternal. They are not going there any time soon because they don't have the foggiest notion how to get themselves reborn of spirit. So it makes no difference really where it is. Is it outside time/space or is it right here? I don't know.

Having a bit of Jewish ideology, it'd be nice to have a garden of Eden, which the Bible does reference as being, then 72 loving virgins that are good natured liking each other and loving me. Which having God right there and visiting would be the best.

No ailments, no pain, no misery, sounds good. Which the real heaven if I recall, maybe in Isaiah, it's to be like the Garden of Eden. So, I'd imagine the climate would be accommodating as well. Or, our bodies will be well.

Then, no oppressors, etc. Which if the Bible is true, I know there's a God, the Bible has evidence that has merit. So, if it's true, those that cause hardship and oppression to innocent people of God, they won't exist.

I should edit this. As 72 virgins, in the real heaven, being spirit, it wouldn't matter except if they're loving. Which people who make it to heaven, in the spiritual realm, maybe it could be another physical place, but a lot suggest spiritual too. But imagine being able to trust any and everyone, others equally concerned about each other and all the good things. It becomes easy to see why it's said there'll be few that get to heaven. As many are kind of self seeking, which everyone is when struggling especially, but there's so many ugly types that will take from another when that person needs, where they're not allowed into heaven. No petty whiners worrying about someone having something they do not. Simply innocent people, which so many living for themselves without regard for God, environment and such, they won't be there.

I am going to take a strange route to answer this question.

To answer this question correctly, you need to know a little about the dying process to know what heaven could be like. But you do ask the question correctly because heaven is not a place but is an extraordinary state of being in the brain and mind.

We live with a set of limitations in the brain-mind. When you remove these limitations, you experience heaven/ Why? Because the brain and mind leave the personality behind and is instantly the source of existence in you and you being that True Self in you, the Truth of all things, the source of creation - when you experience IT directly is that sense of heaven in you. But you need to get into Tukdam, the dying process, to know it.

The brain-mind goes through this path, and then just prior to dying, has perception in the brain-mind, and you sense the body, brain and mind without any of its limitations and hence experience that emergent force in the universe, which is the source of all existence.

People who have near-death experiences will describe what “heaven” experience in the brain and mind is like during the dying process and then come back to tell you what it is like.

You can see why you see extraordinary things during the process of dying. The illustration itself will show you this. Imagine all the limitations of the brain-mind - being locked into memory with thinking, the sense of existence as a distraction from that sense of heaven in you, the lifestyle problems of the brain and mind, the preoccupation of the personality as a distraction from one's True Self. Then during deep meditation, you start to get a sense of this “heaven” on Earth, and then, just prior to dying, you experience the source and say goodbye to the body and brain and mind.

The ending of time in the brain-mind - heaven on Earth.

(good question - I see it also because you see it).