When people start to think about this topic deeply it will stir up many thoughts.
Am I going to heaven?
What about all the bad things that I’ve done in my life? What about the good things I’ve done? … In which way are my “moral life scales” balanced towards?
When a person starts to understand that a soul truly exists within themselves (especially if that experience has come as an unexpected occurance), the first thing that they do is start thinking about all the bad things they’ve done in their life.
This in turn snowballs things, as the person is continually thinking negative thoughts … as such (self-fulfilling prophesy), the person loses self-confidence and all they can think about are negative aspects.
As Deepak Chopra has said “fear is a contracted state of awareness”.
You’re focusing all your thoughts and energy towards the fear of the possibility of going to hell.
Is “heaven” so black and white?
I don’t believe so. I believe that for the majority of souls, the individual souls will go back to the same place that they came from “that is, the 4th/5th astral plane“ which to many is known as the “christian heaven”. Althought, I suspect that for serious crimes against society (ie. mass murderers, etc – such as some of the recent US school shootings) those souls may take more of an indirect route. Even then, those souls that have given out terribly bad karma towards others, I don’t believe that it would then mean spending an eternity in hell. [#1]
Also, why should your/my soul go to the exact same place as of say, the soul Mother Teres, Joan of Arc, Sir Isaac Newton, Mozart? It wouldn’t make sense.
If that were the case, then there would be little incentive for our souls to strive to be better and to help each other in life - and we could all ‘sail’ through life (knowing that we’ve been saved and going to heaven).
This is where the idea of levels or ‘planes of existence’ starts to make more sense. It is part of the concept of what makes understanding the astral plane.
What about those moral life scales? How will I be judged?
As with many people that have had NDE’s (near death experiences) - some of whom have experienced it first hand… I believe a kind of ‘life review’ takes place.
This is a time where the soul goes over everything that has happened during it’s life with other souls that are similar to spirit-guides/mentors (entities from higher planes, which to some could be interpreted as god?).
It’s a time for reflection. Understanding what happened in your soul’s most recent life and why things went the way they did. The soul isn’t so much as being judged, but given a time to reason why your soul took the path in life that it did. [#2]
It is thought, that it is at this stage of soul progression – souls can move closer to other souls, or perhaps even be moved to a different plane (ie. lower plane – ‘hell’ if extreme crime committed).
When we die, where do we go? Is it up to heaven?
That’s a hard question to answer, and it will depend on your individual beliefs.
My view (which is of an esoteric/astral nature) the soul doesn’t go anywhere as such – except for ceasing to exist in a physical body on earth. I believe, that a soul can be present on multiple planes at the same time (the soul isn’t contained to the brain/body – but actually the other way round, whereby the physical body is an extension of the soul) … as such, while a person is alive – their soul also exists on another plane of existance (eg. what’s called heaven to some, or the astral plane to others).
Many people seem to think that heaven is up above (possibly due to hollywood’s interpretation) … but heaven is all around us (above, below, infront, found in nature, etc). It simply exists on another plane that is invisible to the normal 5 human senses that we’ve come to know.
Annotations
#1.) Many books (ie. those that I have read which are listed on my main website) talk about a type of purgatory, whereby the soul has an opportunity to ‘work through’ the negative karma it has created, and a chance to rejoin where the majority of souls preside … this also fits in with the Catholic belief, as they also believe in a type of purgatory.
#2.) The book, Journey Of Souls describes the ‘life review’ quite well.
[First Published: January 13, 2013]
Last updated: May 24, 2015 at 12:13 pm
[Revision: 1]