Insight #22: Notions of hell and heaven

Hello again and welcome to Insight #22; On hell and heaven.

Sorry for the lack of Insights these past few days. Ideas have been pretty vague and refinement is taking time.

• Since the beginning of written history humanity has had stories of mythical places of extreme circumstances. Depending on the tradition you can find things like storms of razor sharp ice, rivers of magma, endless limbo and everything in between.

• Wether these places “actually” exist Is beyond the scope of today's insight ( I would not however rush to say they are completely false though), instead I would like to focus on their metaphoric value.

• In reality we can say that both of the extremes exist on earth, and people have and do experience them on a daily basis. War-torn zones for example earn their hell on earth status rightfully. Heavenly like locations also exist, grandiose mountain ranges, places like the Chilean salar de Atacama have an almost surreal beauty to them.

• However, for both extremes the most important definer is the sequence of events that happens, the people there and what they are doing. In the end both heaven and hell are man made, they are the result of the sum of the actions taken there. If people stopped punishing others in hell, would it still be hell?

• The stories for these places I believe comes from a place of wanting to know the future, in some way. One of the things we hate most is uncertainty, and having a place that completely defines what will happen to us is comforting, even if that fate is terrible.

• I truth, the human experience is so much bigger and more diverse than we can ever imagine. Within it all kinds of hellish and heavenly environments exist, no religion needed. As for what happens after we die, one of the main questions that often leads to the creation of these places, I believe the answer to be rather similar to what we have right now in our lives; that is we each choose where we want to go.

• Yes, really. I believe your will to be more powerful than what you might anticipate. If at the end of your life you wish to go to christian heaven, that's what will come true for you. And at some point you could change your mind and go elsewhere. This might sound outlandish, but if you survey people who have had near death experiences, they often report things like seeing heavenly gates, tunnels of white, etc. ( I guess most people don't want to go to hell, huh.)

Well, that's it for me today. Have you had an experience of heaven or hell? I would love to know about it. Until next time, see ya.