Where Do We Go When We Die?

After my father passed away last week, my brother naturally wondered what heaven is like. After reflecting on his inquiry, I felt the only true response could come from those who have directly experienced what we call "heaven." I pointed him to Near-Death.com, a site that includes many descriptions of experiences from those who have purportedly crossed over to the other side and returned to tell about it.

Many near-death experiencers (NDErs) who've had extensive and profound visits to the other side consistently describe similar scenarios: hovering over their physical body; experiencing an expanded awareness and freedom from pain; traveling through a tunnel of brilliant light; encountering beings who played an important role in their physical lifetime; an intense life review; and especially, viewing a vivid realm that radiates indescribable beauty and unconditional love. Although there are some accounts of encountering negative entities or hellish realms, the majority of NDErs tell of positive transitions.

According to many NDE reports, there are several realms of existence consisting of graduated vibrations, beginning with a darkly negative and painful realm, then each one increasing in beauty, truth, and love beyond the next level. Our home on the other side and which community we belong to is determined by our vibration. This vibration that our being resonates with is influenced by our deeds, thoughts, intentions, past decisions, beliefs, and accumulated wisdom. Contrary to archaic religious dogma, we are not sentenced to an eternity in any realm, including one in which we would describe as fiery and hellish, but instead can spend an undetermined length of time at a certain level until we grasp constructive realizations about our past deeds and decide upon future aspirations. Our time spent at any level may well seem like eons have passed until there is finally a spark of awareness within the self that the soul desires to progress to a higher plane of existence.

The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
— John Milton

I remember how captivating it was to read Ruth Montgomery's description of the afterlife in "A World Beyond," a metaphysical classic. Montgomery, a Washington D.C. reporter who in the 1960s set out to debunk paranormal and psychic phenomena, became a believer herself when she experienced validation of mediumship. Later she began automatic writing and communicated with a sixth-level entity called Lily. Montgomery eventually befriended the renowned but controversial medium Arthur Ford, and when he passed over he supposedly joined her group of guides and communicated much of the information that formed the content of the book. If the afterlife scenarios described in "A World Beyond" are presented as truth, they offer us an exquisite view of an expansive and awesome spiritual existence filled with infinite possibilities.

George Anderson, a respected medium from New York, is another credible source of information about life on the other side and how souls make their transition. In his book, Lessons From the Light: Extraordinary Messages of Comfort and Hope From the Other Side, he describes the souls' transition from this world to the next, what their existence is like, what happens to a soul during a terminal illness, and the process of reincarnation.

Dr. Michael Newton's hypnotherapy experiments with between-lives regressions have also provided us with an enthralling and highly detailed account of the spirit world. Here again, like near-death experiences, the portrayals of the afterlife are consistent in describing the passageway and transition to the next world, the architecture and beauty of this next existence, the process of choosing another earthly incarnation, and the varied communities and schools that are formed by like-minded souls. There are even accounts of what our soul bodies look like, what the colors mean that make up our soul bodies, and occupations we choose on the other side that fulfill our soul's yearnings and learning lessons.

One particularly enthralling theory I've run across a few times considers the reality that our ultimate "home base" is actually the sun. Perhaps this is why we "go into the light," a brilliant portal to our soul's true place of origin. It's intriguing to note that many NDEs compare the extremely brilliant light they initially encounter to that of the sun, or actually describe going into our sun. (Warning: the preceding link includes a graphic description of her death experience; scroll down to the question, "Did you see a light?" in both NDE descriptions.)

In "Suns Beyond Suns," John Van Horne describes a series of personal divine revelations that there is a Great Chain of Being, a hierarchy or chain of suns that make up the higher reaches of creation. He goes on to explain this hierarchy:

The Western religious traditions might call it the higher heavens. The esoteric tradition would call it the cosmic planes, the realm of great sunlike beings that create whole solar systems, universes and systems of universes. Most religions have noted these higher realms, [and] agreed that the spiritual domain is organized as a hierarchy, a series of great dimensions, planes, or heavens upon heavens. (p. 8)

He also compares his discoveries with those of Kabbalah:

The Hebrew esoteric tradition of Kabbalah, has for centuries held that the universe is organized around a "tree of life" composed of "sefira," variously translated as "dimensions," "spheres," or "spiritual suns." (p. 14)

Before I discovered these theories, I had a dream about souls going toward the sun, because in my dream I felt that's where they ultimately belonged. Coincidentally, I found a blog posting on TheHeavyStuff.com the very day I had the dream, suggesting the same possibility. However, on retrospect, my dream may only metaphorically indicate that as souls, this is what we aspire to evolve toward — becoming a great cosmic spiritual being, growing and reaching toward a higher level of creation or spiritual hierarchy.

You can always find the sun within yourself if you will only search.
— Maxwell Maltz

Wherever our ultimate home resides in this universe, I am hopeful that my father will find his way to the loving, sacred place he belongs. I had only a few opportunities to describe my beliefs about the next world to my father, knowing that he had very little understanding and acceptance about the continued existence of the soul and our real home on the other side.

When my mother, brothers, and I knew his time was close and we were sitting around his bed awaiting his final breath, each of us told him it was okay to go and there was nothing left for him to do here. We told him to look for the light and watch for his family, especially his sister who earlier passed away from cancer. It was only a very short time after we had finished our goodbyes when he died — we all felt relief and at peace with the cessation of his suffering from a horrific, fierce cancer. Since my inner vision expanded because of my kundalini awakening, I was able to observe many brilliant lights hovering over his bed throughout the ordeal. This confirmed, to me, that we indeed have eternal loving guidance and assistance available during the major transitions of our earthly cycles. But it is always our individual choice through the power of free will — either on a conscious or supraconscious level — whether we accept it or not.