Do you think that Heaven/Hell are states of being?

www.wisdomdome.com...

Heaven and Hell are often talked about in most Religions. You go to “Heaven” if you’re a good person and do good things, and you go to “Hell” if you’re a bad person and do bad things. If you’re not of that Religion, but you’re still a good person, you still go to Hell – according to some Religions.

The truth about Heaven and Hell is that they don’t exist as physical OR spiritual planes, but they do exist. Heaven and Hell are in reference to your state of mind and not an actual place that you can even physically or spiritually experience. You can only experience either of those while you exist on Earth either physically or spiritually, and you have the ability to leave these states of mind whenever you’re ready. This isn’t to say that everything stated in Religion was and is wrong, because many Religions have truth within them but they’re often distorted and misunderstood for reasons that I’ll get into later. Some of you more Religious people may be ready to navigate away from this page – but just bare with me for a few more paragraphs.

Both Heaven and Hell exist only as analogies for your state of being, your mental and emotional state of mind, and the suffering that you cause in your own life based on your destructive and negative thoughts, actions, and decisions that you attract and manifest into your life. So in a sense, Heaven and Hell are real as they are states of being, but aren’t cloudy or fiery places that you will experience after you die based on the actions you’ve made in your life. You can, in a sense, experience what you might think “Heaven” feels like in the afterlife, but the truth is that what you’ll experience is far greater of a feeling than Heaven. You can experience Hell in the afterlife, but that again is based on your own state of being that you can avoid and escape from whenever you’re ready to. The afterlife in many cases can be referred to as Heaven, because we escape from all of the suffering and pain of “Real life” that we (mostly subconsciously) choose to experience and return to our natural states, but it’s a place that we all experience after death provided that we allow ourselves to accept and let go of our misery. I’ll get more into this some other time.

www.wisdomdome.com...

I really enjoy this blog, and I had another post on these forums about a post of theirs about Reality that I was contemplating for a while, but they bring up another very debatable topic that I've always had itching at me in the back of my mind.

What do you guys think? There's more of that post on the website, it's quite long but I decided to post a snippet of what I thought was the most fundamental of what they talk about.

I think that Heaven is real, but Hell is just a place to scare us. Heaven would be considered the afterlife, but I think that's all it really is.. another word for the astral or spiritual plane, really. I don't see why any person on earth would be condemed to hell for being unaware or not having access to certain knowledge. I think all Religions lead to the same path, the same end result, which is basically that we all die and our consciousness lives on while our bodies die and rot.

reply to post by OhNoItsCritical


I honestly do beleive this. If your soul is tormented you probably go to a hellish afterlife but if you feel light (and this can go along with the egyptian belief of weighing souls) then you will go to a heavenly afterlife.

that quote you provided seems to claim they actually know what heaven and hell is. i dont think anyone can know, but the idea of heaven and hell is very disturbing. to think that you are worth more as a human being than anyone else for complete bogus reasons is very cynical and disgusting.

reply to post by OhNoItsCritical


I think heaven and hell are just the modern adaptation of thousands of years of mythology. A long time ago, it was Haedes, and that transformed into heaven and hell. They're just mans way of attempting to explain death in an acceptable manner.

IMO God didn't create man, man created God.

Heaven and Hell are temporary states of consciousness.

Prior to awakening to the truth of who yo are hell is experienced on earth and after realizing the truth heaven is the experience.

I believe your quote is spot on. I personally have found salvation in denouncing the church and beginning to think for myself, as well as making art.. As have many people I know. If I had continued going to church, and being guilted into believing something that causes people to be self righteous and judgmental, I would have never been able to do the things that I value most in my life currently.

The words "heaven" and "hell" in their native languages as they were written in our silly religious books have completely different meanings then that which we are taught by our DEVILS who "teach" us our religion of today.

The meanings we beleive of those words today are COMPLETELY different from their original intended meanings. The fools who believe it as they are told TODAY who are too lazy to look into the ORIGINAL meanings for themselves, absolutely deserve to be frightened their whole life of "fiery pits" with some "satan" boogeyman laughing at them and burning them for "all eternity".

Silly fools who are too lazy to look into their religion which is supposed to be so "important" to them.

Most are only in it for there assumed "heaven" or "paradise" in the afterlife.

Fools.

Originally posted by HangTheTraitors
The words "heaven" and "hell" in their native languages as they were written in our silly religious books have completely different meanings then that which we are taught by our DEVILS who "teach" us our religion of today.

The meanings we beleive of those words today are COMPLETELY different from their original intended meanings and fools that believe it as they are told TODAY are too lazy to look into it in its ORIGINAL meanings, for themselves deserve to be frightened of "fiery pits" with some "satan" boogeyman laughing at them and burning them for "all eternity".

Silly fools who are too lazy to look into their religion which is supposed to be so "important" to them.

Most are only in it for there assumed "heaven" or "paradise" in the afterlife.

Fools.

edit on 6-11-2011 by HangTheTraitors because: (no reason given)

I don't think that it's fair to call them fools, maybe unaware, but at one point we all were unaware of what we believe to be true - as for what's really true, nobody really knows, that's up to each of us to decide. Mocking people is what creates sides, and makes those sides oppose. Maybe if we try to spread information and awareness through respect and love the truth could be made more aware to people.

But I mostly agree with your post, I just think that people go about spreading inforamtion the wrong way. Nobody likes to feel inferior, or that their opinion isn't respected.

my personal take on this...

Heaven is the afterlife, the place we all return to regardless of what you do in this life...

Hell is a place thats created by the mind in the absence of spiritual understanding.

If you believe such a place exists, then the guilt of your "sins" in this life will create that Hell for you when you pass...

If you don't believe your own spirit exists... who will do it for you?

Death is not the end, its just another step...

God is light. Light reflects on the surface of substance to reveal the substance and its form. Nature is the light manifesting what God has created. All of it comes from His consciousness (His Spirit). We are artificial creations from God's emanation. We have a spirit (consciousness) given to us to sense the creation. Not only does light reflect from matter, it also reflects preexistent truth to our minds in the same manner. We reflect in our spirit what we experience in the world around us. This changes our spirit. What we choose to reflect from the image becomes the end of our spirit when we die.

God divides the darkness form the light. This happens on two levels. In nature, all of nature declares God's glory. He provided a perfect garden to us at the beginning of creation. We have the choice to join Him on the path to division of light and darkness by how our image reflects His image in the natural world. We either take what was given and trample it under foot, or we give to the universe by our actions. Taking creates a debt, while giving adds to the light.

In the end, God will judge what we do by our works and continue to divide the light from the darkness. This is His choice. By giving to the light and removing the darkness, He adds to the many. This is His love and protection to His creation. We are invited to do the same. If we fail in this duty of love to God, our image is cast into separation with the darkness that we become. Light remains. Hell is separation from the light by our own choice. It happens in this world and ends in the final judgment when all darkness is cast into the abyss.

Eternal separation is ultimately the eternity apart from the light. We light the fire we burn by or we are the light unto the path for others. This is where the true light shines. We are incapable of removing our own darkness. Our works are not enough to divide darkness from the light. The only provision we have to allow this is faith. Faith is trusting that God can make a way for us out of our ignorance and darkness. Removing the debt that we cause is the payment for our salvation out of the darkness. This happens when we find love for God and our fellow man. When we demonstrate faith, we allow God to build our faith. This is His job and work in us. Faith leads to the fruits of the spirit. Once we bear fruit, the tree of life is opened and we develop our next vehicle in the kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 15 tells the story of our work here to gain our next life there. Luke 10 tells how to gain eternal life. John 3 tells how we are either born again (baptized) in the water of the material world or we are reborn into the spirit of God by union with the spirit of God. All unions happen by love. The spirit is consciousness and we are here to find union with the Holy Spirit of God to produce fruit (light instead of darkness). A holy consciousness is necessary. Heaven is gained by our consciousness and the spirit that resides within us.

By taking the name of Jesus, we take on His character. Faith apart form the works of love is dead. In this case, we take the name of the Lord in vain. His character is necessary. Love is the point.

reply to post by OhNoItsCritical


That's a tough one. I am a born again christian and therefore I am obligated to believe in heaven and hell, right? Well, the truth is that it really depends on where you are at in what you believe or maybe just what your particular church believes in. Christianity is all over the map these days, and I gotta say I am no different. I try very hard not to blindly follow anyone and to do the research for myself, and to decide for myself what I believe. I have done alot of reading online, and I gotta say that there are lots and lots of near death experience stories online. Most of them are about heaven but many of them are about hell also. Some of them are true I believe, but there are some that I'm not so sure. I'm a little biased about the harsh judgemental sort of christian, so I'm not really sure if that's my issue or theirs. Anyway, moving on. From what I've read of the NDE's, heaven and hell are both very real. I think that what people feel in either place that it is are very very real. It is probably a state of mind to the soul, but reality is that the experience is very very real, and it is eternal and does not end as things do here on earth. We live in a physical world, but outside of this earth there is a world that exists that is not physical, but yet very real. Call it the matrix or whatever, but I would not want to take the chance that it is escapable. Okay, think of it this way. If you think that hell is not real....you might think that if you go there you can pull a "Matrix" and choose to not believe it and therefore you can overcome it with your mind.....but What If that doesn't work. Read some of the NDE's of heaven and hell online and let me know what you think. There are lots...all you have to do is google them.

Hell is believing mind made stories.
Heaven is the realization that the mind is talking sh1t.

Be confused or be amused.

All of the confusion and possibilities is exactly why I don't believe that Heaven or Hell exists outside of emotional/conscious states of being. If the universe, god, the source, whatever you want to call it exists, why would we be damned to an eternal suffering in the afterlife for not knowing what to believe? Assuming that God, The Source, whatever is real and that we are indeed it's creation, it would have nothing but love for us. It would understand that we have this free will and it would understand that there is a lot of confusion.

I believe that regardless of our actions and choices here on earth that we all go to the same exact place when we die. How could we not? It's not like God/whatever is like "Yeah, there's only 1 right religion and everybody else... sorry about your luck. You're forever screwed. Enjoy your eternal damnation." It really just doesn't make sense to me.

Originally posted by TupacShakur

IMO God didn't create man, man created God.

edit on 6-11-2011 by TupacShakur because:

I disagree, I think its denial that causes many to disbelieve due to FEAR. Yet there is a door with a key to be opened here upon Earth to further assist the Lambs wrath. So its easy to see how the Faithful and nons will work out. As a youth I used to ASK GOD in spirit WHY do people go to HELL. And when you look at how the Earth is and many are losing belief in the CREATOR and the ANGELS of HEAVEN its getting easy to see the division. Many are seperating themselves from the LIGHT so they are game for Darkness smh...

After a few years of formal education about this very topic, I can't resist but to throw my two cents in.

Obviously, there is no way that Heaven or Hell exists in a physical plane of existence. It is more of a state of mind than anything, but even saying that isn't descriptive enough.

If we're gonna talk about it from a Catholic perspective (which is honestly the only perspective I can approach it from) then Heaven is the experience of the soul when they are close to God and Hell is the opposite. The farther away from God you are, the closer to Hell you are. And Hell itself, is literally the absence of God.

If God is love, then Hell is the opposite. Hell is hate.

I agree with C.S. Lewis' ideas on Hell and Heaven, he goes into a lot of detail about exactly what Hell and Heaven are like, in allegories and even non-fiction anecdotes. I'd recommend three books regarding this topic by C.S. Lewis: The Great Divorce, Surprised by Joy, and The Problem of Pain.

Anyway, as I said above, Hell is the absence of God. But the doors of Hell are locked from the inside. The old school teaching that says you'll be sent to Hell if you're bad is only mildly true. No one is forced into Hell, they choose to be there. The people in Hell want to get away from God so desperately that they've found a way to do so. After all, God loves us, but he can't force us to love him back.

It's interesting to think about.

And Heaven... is even harder to describe, because there is a specific "Heaven" for every individual. Have you ever had that feeling of longing for something, but you don't really know what it is? I mean, even in life, when I've thought that I've had everything, and I've been perfectly content... there is still that longing for something more and better. As humans we can NEVER settle, specifically because our place on earth isn't where we are meant to be. And it's Heaven that is that something which we subconsciously long for.

Every human belongs in Heaven. But since God can't force us to do something we don't want (ah, the irony of free will), Hell is that which is not Heaven. If you refuse Heaven, you end up in Hell.


So I guess, in short, Heaven and Hell are states of being, probably on a different plane of existence that we can't even begin to imagine.