The Afterlife Book: Heaven, Hell, and Life After Death

What happens when we die? Many view it as a mystery, but there are tantalizing clues to be found in the Bible and other religious scriptures, scientific findings, historical writings, literature, reports of near-death experiences, and in many other recorded sources. Facing the contradictions and similarities of beliefs from all over the world and throughout history, The Afterlife Book: Heaven, Hell, and Life After Death shows how death and the afterlife is viewed in a variety of different ways. This engrossing guide looks at the many competing views of the afterlife-and the shared connections between them, including ...

ISBN-13: 9781578598212

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Visible Ink Press

Publication Date: 06-06-2023

Pages: 336

Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

Marie D. Jones is the author of over twenty nonfiction books, including Visible Ink Press’ Demons, the Devil, and Fallen Angels, Earth Magic: Your Complete Guide to Natural Spells, Potions, Plants, Herbs, Witchcraft, and More, and The New Witch: Your Guide to Modern Witchcraft, Wicca, Spells, Potions, Magic, and More,. A former radio show host herself, she has been interviewed on more than two thousand radio programs worldwide, including Coast-to-Coast AM, The Shirley MacLaine Show, and Midnight in the Desert. She has also been interviewed for and contributed to dozens of print and online publications. She makes her home in San Marcos, California, and is the mom to one very brilliant son, Max. Larry Flaxman is an accomplished author, researcher, and paranormal theorist who has written 10 books exploring the realms of the paranormal and "fringe" science. He is revolutionizing the field through his groundbreaking work, extensive research, and application of a scientific approach, including integrating quantum physics. Flaxman's contributions have earned him appearances on numerous popular TV shows such as the History Channel's "Time Beings" and “Ancient Aliens,” as well as hundreds of interviews on radio programs worldwide. Additionally, his work has been featured in esteemed publications, further cementing his reputation in the field. He resides in Little Rock, Arkansas.

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Heaven and Hell and The In-Between

“Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.”—Mark Twain

“Religion is for people who are scared to go to Hell. Spirituality is for people who have already been there.’—Bonnie Raitt

“Men long for an afterlife in which there apparently is nothing to do but delight in Heaven’s wonders.”—Louis D. Brandeis

After death many religious traditions believe the human soul resides in another place for eternity or that it sticks around for a while before hitching a ride in a new body and a new life. Depending on the tradition, Heaven is where people go who are being rewarded for a lifetime of good behavior. Hell is a place opposite of Heaven, where those who break the laws of God or the gods deserve eternal punishment for their sins. In the triadic worldview of Abrahamic religions, Heaven is located in the sky, and Hell is beneath or below the earth, an “underworld” filled with fire and the agony of tortured souls.

Not all traditions view the places our souls might journey to after death the same, just as they don’t always agree on the existence of the soul or afterlife. Though we may wish to end up in the right place, a life review might send us packing for the underworld unless, as some religions insist, we repent and beg for forgiveness. Those who make a lifetime of sin and brutality might not even get the chance to repent and get a one-way ticket to fire and brimstone. What about those who aren’t exactly pure or evil, but somewhere in between? There’s a place for them, too. In between Heaven and Hell is a place called purgatory, a sort of waiting room which some feel is life on Earth itself with all its pain and suffering, or outside a courtroom where you are about to go on trial and God is the judge.

It seems almost impossible to imagine ceasing to exist and having no conscious awareness of anything, even eternal blackness, so we humans like to imagine scenarios and places we will inhabit after we leave our bodies. Heaven and Hell also provide us with a moral compass to guide our lives, with Heaven pointing due North and Hell pointing due South, and our path towards one or the other is determined by the good or bad we did on Earth.

There is also a between-state, such as the Catholic concept of purgatory, or the “bardo” of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. More on that in the next chapter. We will start with Heaven and work our way down.

Heaven

The promise of eternal reward in a paradise-like place is what drives the behavior of many religious people who know that, if they sin too much, they will end up somewhere else, as in Hell, suffering eternal punishment. Heaven has many names, as we shall see, but it is not attainable until we die and go on to meet with God, Jesus, angels, spirit guides, our dead ancestors, and other entities depending on the religious tradition we follow.

Heaven can be both a place and a state of mind, as in "Heaven on earth," which describes a beautiful location like Hawaii or a peaceful mountain lake, or the blissful, joyful state of mind a mother might experience while holding her newborn child. Heaven was associated with order and the absence of suffering, pain, ignorance, fear, and death. It was a place and a state of being unrivaled in terms of peace, communion with God, spirits, and angels, joy, and fulfillment of the heart's desires.

In many cosmogenesis stories of the creation of the world, Heaven was this overarching realm that encompassed the sky and upper atmosphere far beyond the visible sun, moon, and stars. The triadic nature of physical existence found in many of these creation myths usually placed Heaven atop Earth and Earth atop Hell or the underworld, but there were in our ancient past concepts of Heaven as some place far away from Earth, even a place only accessible on a spiritual level.

According to ancient Mesopotamian beliefs, the universe or entirety of existence is divided into three levels, with Heaven at the top, accessible only to the purist and most heroic of people. This was the domain of the high gods, who formed a Heavenly council. Earth was created for mortal humans to serve the gods by providing food, tribute, and sacred dwelling places. Minor gods and magical demons were also present on Earth. Humans mostly descended into the underworld after death, with only a few brave souls ascending to Heaven.

Ancient Egyptians believed the soul was in the heart and upon death, they would be taken to Duat, which was the realm of the dead, similar to the underworld. They would be judged, and their hearts weighed against a feather. Those found virtuous and light went on to a place called Aaru, the Egyptian Field of Reeds, their version of Heavenly paradise. The kings of the ancient Greeks would share with the sun god, Re and the sky god, Horus the responsibility of protecting the order of things against chaos. The kings would be given the privilege of renewable life as part of this cosmic cycle and the mortals accepted this.

Ancient Egyptians had many visual depictions of this Heavenly concept: the divine crow on whose back the sun god withdrew from the Earthly realm; as the goddess Nut arching her body over the Earth; and as the falcon-headed Horus whose glittery eyes formed the sun and moon. Originally an afterlife here was reserved only for the kings and royalty, but later in the Book of the Dead, an afterlife was accessible for all once they were judged by Osiris, ruler of the Underworld.

This tri-level concept of existence of the Heavens above, the underworld below, and Earth in the middle, is mirrored in shamanism, with the lower, middle, and upper worlds a shaman travels through on a spiritual level to attain wisdom or perform a healing. The upper world is not so much a Heavenly place as it is the realm of higher beings and wise, knowing guides.

A similar view is the designation of body, mind, and spirit, with the body representing the “underworld” or lower level of base drives and instincts; the mind as the middle level of intellect and reason; and the spirit as the upper level of oneness and higher consciousness.

The ancient Persians coined the term "paradise," which referred to a walled garden or park. In Zoroastrianism, paradise is reached on the fourth day after death by crossing the Chinvat Bridge, also known as the Bridge of the Separator, which widens when approached by the righteous, who were deemed good by Mithra's scales. When the righteous soul crossed the bridge, they were greeted by a beautiful maiden who embodied the soul's good works on Earth and led into the House of Song to await the Last Day, when all would rejoice and be purified. There is no mention of who the righteous female souls met, though the beautiful maiden is most likely a construct of male desire and nothing more.

Our popular Western concept of Heaven, and how you get there, comes from Christianity, which places it as the realm in the “Heavens” of God and Jesus Christ and the angelic beings. The faithful and those who lived by grace would die and automatically ascend to Heaven until the second coming of Christ and Christians believe this is where Christ went when he rose from the dead, to be at his father, God’s side. This act was considered to have closed the gap between Heaven and Earth so that all who were without sin or purified of their sins could be admitted through the “Pearly Gates.” This idea of judgment clashes a bit with the teachings of Jesus Christ about not judging others and play into Old Testament beliefs of God as a more punishing Father.

The Christian Heaven is also called paradise and a place for great rejoicing. Contained within this Heaven is the city of New Jerusalem, described in detail in the Book of Revelation as a city walled in with 12 gates. On each gate is the name of one of the tribes of Israel along with an angel. The wall, made of precious stones, is 200 feet high and the city is 1400 square miles in size. The river of the water of life flows through from the throne of God and the trees along the riverbanks produce a huge variety of fruit.

Judaic texts don’t offer a clear indication of a Heaven or an afterlife. The Pharisees believed in an implied concept of an afterlife, and the Sadducees claimed there was no Biblical evidence to back that up. Over the course of a thousand years or so, Jews believed God alone could reside in Heaven, as in Psalm 115:16, “The Heavens are the Lord’s Heavens, but the earth he has given to human beings,” and that it was separate from Earth, or that some version of Heaven will occur when the Messiah brings the righteous dead back to life. Heaven was described as a vast realm that existed above the Earth and was supported by a hard firmament of dazzling precious stones. This firmament kept the upper waters from mixing with the waters beneath the firmament. In this firmament were the sun, moon, and stars and rain fell when a window was opened, as well as snow, hail and dew.

God sat in the highest realm of this Heavenly place and intervened in the affairs of the living through his prophets and providential care. God was surrounded by a host of angelic and astral beings which were similar to gods and goddesses of the Canaanite and Mesopotamian belief system. Later, when the Hebrew scriptures transitioned to monotheism, there was only one God, the Lord, who oversaw all Heavenly and earthly powers.

Some Jews believed God ruled from his throne in Heaven and there was also an underworld, with Earth stuck in the middle. Souls upon death went to the underworld but during the Hellenic period, this belief changed, and humans were able to go to Heaven after death.

Muslims believe children automatically go to Heaven, no matter their religious upbringing. Adults must be virtuous to get into Heaven where there is nothing but joy and bliss and loving family and friends. The best thing about paradise is the being close to God, and those who were the most virtuous and blessed would achieve such closeness. Heaven is also described as a paradise where those who have done mostly good works can lay around on couches in a lovely garden surrounded by chaste, dark-eyed virgins (female, of course).

The Quran speaks of the Heavens as a sign of the sovereighnty, justice, and mercy of God. When the Earth was formed, the sky was vapor until God commanded the earth and sky to join together. God then formed the sky into seven firmaments and assigned everything its measure and place. There were seven Heavens and one Earth where praise of God was to be celebrated as evidence that God had the power to raise the dead and judge all souls on the last day. Islam believes souls dwell in an intermediate or in-between state where they get to first see a preview of their future existence which will be either misery and suffering, or bliss, depending on the judgment they receive. On the last day, Heaven will split asunder, and all souls will get their final test, with the most righteous moving through Hell easily and being accepted into the gardens of bliss.

Eastern traditions held a different viewpoint and did not believe in the concept of Heaven, Hell, and Earth in the Western sense. There are many "Heavens" in Buddhism (five main Heavens in Tibetan Buddhism), and the cycle of samsara, or birth/death/rebirth, continues as the soul moves up the ladder, so to speak, with the goal of achieving Nirvana one day. Nirvana is not Heaven, but rather a state of being in which one's soul is free of the cycle of samara and enjoys the bliss of not having to reincarnate. According to one of the Buddhist four noble truths, all suffering is caused by desire, tanha, and the goal is to free ourselves from the illusions of ego and all desire in order to finally end our suffering. Enlightenment is regarded as the ultimate goal in terms of a state of being that frees one from the cycle of birth and rebirth.

There are, however, celestial beings in Buddhism that offer compassion and wisdom, such as Amitabha Buddha and the bodhisattva Avaolokiteshvara, both of whom work to cultivate salvation in all sentient beings, but Heaven is not the end goal of Buddhist beliefs. It’s all about becoming enlightened.

Hindus believe, as the holy Vedas tell us, that Heaven is not the ultimate resting place of a human soul, but instead is the place where the gods exist, such as Indra, Soma, and Agni. The Upanishads of the Hindu Vedic texts state that one’s actions connect us to the world of appearances and illusion. Brahman, which is the ultimate reality, transcends. In ancient times, ritual sacrifices and funeral rites assured a soul ascended to the “world of the fathers’ and rebirth depended on having male descendants who would sponsor the rites. In the Upanishads, liberation required great spiritual discipline and was more the realm of devotional Hinduism. The Bhagavad-Gita and Puranas offered salvation as a personal union with the divine and this opened up the path for more humans to enter by putting their trust in a deity that would protect them on their journey.

Confucianism is a belief system rather than a religion, with the emphasis on living in the present with kindness, harmony, and order. The emphasis is not on what happens after someone dies, but on how they live in the present, which is more important. Confucius was not a god, but rather the teacher of this philosophy that aimed to combine ancient wisdom with modern daily life. Because death was thought to disrupt societal or community harmony, it was rarely discussed in the teachings.

Instead of a God figure portrayed by Western traditions, Confucianists rely on tian, a concept of Heaven as a more-than-mortal power that instilled morals and obligations. The word tian is often translated in Confucianism and Taoism as “Heaven,” the cosmos which were complimentary to Di, translated as Earth. In Taoism, the tian and Di are considered the two poles of the Three Realms of reality, with the middle realm as Earth. Early Taoism focused on this life instead of the afterlife and incorporated the notion of salvation as a matter of participation in the eternal return of the natural world, a never-ending cycle of chaos followed by spontaneous creation back to chaos again. True salvation was not escaping this world, but to become perfectly aligned with the natural world and its cosmic forces.

Native and Indigenous Afterlife Beliefs

Native cultures have their own beliefs about what happens after death. When the Europeans came to North America, there were over 600 autonomous Indian nations with their own religions that usually focused on life rather than death or any kind of afterlife of punishment or reward. Some tribes did have afterlife beliefs of their own.

The North American Pueblo Indians saw life after death as the same as life before death, with the deceased joining a group of deceased people they knew in life. It is a continuation of the life-death cycle, with no Heaven or Hell. As in the Western tradition of Hell, Pueblo cosmology did not recognize a place of eternal punishment or reward by gods or deities.

In contrast, the Northern Plains Cheyenne Indians believed the souls of the dead travel along the Road of the Departed, aka the Milky Way to the place of the dead. There is no Hell or punishment, and the spirits of the dead would all find a trail of footsteps leading them to a camp in the stars where their friends and relatives awaited them after death. They would continue to exist in this location.

This same lack of a place of punishment or reward is central to the vision of the afterlife among the tribes in the New England region and one could find new opportunities after death and continue to flourish there. The souls would journey to the southwest where they could share in the joys of the wigwam and fields of the great god Kanta or Tanto with their ancestors after attending a welcome feast.

The Navajo Indians believed they would find out about the afterlife once they died. and they should not waste their living moments thinking about it. To the Navajo, life was about life, and making it harmonious and happier.

The Australian aborigines believed in a “Land of the Dead,” defined as the “sky world” where a deceased person’s soul would go. There were certain rituals that had to be carried out throughout their lives and at their deaths that would allow them to enter the Land of the Dead. Souls could also go to places called the Braigu or the Uluru and all of these sacred locations were treated with great respect. Aborigines, like Catholics, believed in resurrection and that spirits or souls were resurrected into new living beings in their native land of Australia one by one.

To the Aborigines, life was a cycle that never ended. You were born, you died, you were born again. and animals also had a life cycle, too. They also ascribed to an idea called “eternal dreaming” in which death is seen as a rebirth from your previous life. Another belief is that the soul of a dead person would go to the land of the “Dreaming Ancestors” and unite with their gods and ancestors. Different tribes had different beliefs, and some believed you had two souls that merged during death.

Tribes often buried the possession of their dead with the bodies or destroyed them and saying the dead person’s name was forbidden. If someone in the tribe spoke the name, it would be changed.

World myths, like religious origin stories, speak of the original state of Heaven and earth as being close or together, until some event occurred where they were torn asunder when the gods separated the two or withdrew one from the other. If you think about this, it is the perfect analogy for how human beings become separated from their own souls or spirits, and Heaven truly may be the return to a union of the body, mind, and spirit. Whether you believe in a God or gods or no gods, reuniting with these aspects of the self can lead to greater happiness, joy, fulfillment, and bliss even before your body leaves this realm, and isn’t that really what Heaven is all about?

The In-Between: Limbo, Purgatory, and the Bardo

Some religious and spiritual traditions believe that the soul exists in a state between purification and judgment, or both. This period of limbo goes by several names such as purgatory and the Bardo but serves as a holding tank of sorts for the soul that has not yet either gone to Heaven or Hell, nor been reincarnated or advanced along the cyclical wheel of birth, life, death, and rebirth.

Limbo is like an afterlife Grand Central Station where souls wait around for the next train to come. It also mirrors the human concept of holding someone in a prison cell while they await their court date and trial before a jury where they will be found guilty or not guilty. Another apt comparison is sitting in a doctor’s waiting room before going in the back to find out whether you have a minor cold or full-blown pneumonia. In conversational language, we often use the word limbo to describe a state of not knowing or not yet deciding, as in "I'm in limbo until they tell me if I'm getting fired or not," or "I feel like I'm in limbo waiting to see if he/she loves me back after texting them at 3 a.m. professing my love." It is the stage or location of waiting.

In Roman Catholic theology, limbo is the borderland between Heaven and Hell where souls who are not yet condemned to punishment sit without any of the joy of eternal and Heavenly existence. It’s a neutral, dead zone with Teutonic roots, meaning “border” or “anything joined on.” The concept of limbo may have developed in Europe during the Middle Ages but was never accepted as dogma, and after the official catechism of the church issued in 1992, references of limbo were removed.

There were two kinds of limbo in the original concept:

Table of Contents

1. What Happens When We Die?
2. How People Die Today
3. Death and Dying Around the World
4. What is the Soul?
5. Heaven and Hell and the In-Between
6. Do We Ever Truly Die? The Brain, Consciousness, and Death
7. Near-Death Experiences, Pre-Birth Experiences and Reincarnation
8. Ghosts in the Afterlife
9. Talking to the Dead: Devices of Ghost Communication
10. Spiritualism and Mediumship
11. Immortality: Who Wants to Live Forever?
12. Conclusion: The Ivy on the Wall

Appendix: Personal Stories of Death and the Afterlife
Bibliography
Index