Is Heaven a real place or a state of being?

Being

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by Bob Trowbridge

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Much passion will undoubtedly be brought to bear on this debate, especially by those who believe in the literal teachings of the New Testament. Nevertheless, this question cannot be answered with any certainty by either side.

Does Anything Exist Outside of the Mind?

There is no evidence that heaven is a real place but then there is no evidence that any place is "real." There are differences of opinion among quantum physicists. Some, however, have come to the conclusion that both time and space are fictions. This is also the conclusion of certain spiritual or metaphysical teachings.

From this point of view, it could be claimed that everything we experience, including space and time, is a state of being, a state of consciousness. This would include the idea of heaven. It would also include the idea of physical reality. The Hindus believe that physical reality is maya, an illusion. Maya comes from the word "to create." So our physical universe and our own physical experiences are an illusion created by mind or being.

Reality as Illusion

From a religious point of view, one would say that some divine being is the creator of this great illusion. You could also say that we are the creators of our own illusions or at least participate in their creation. There is some interesting evidence that we can and do affect our physical experience with our minds. I won't go into all of the studies on psychic abilities. There are other powerful pieces of evidence for physical reality as an illusion.

One of the most interesting to me is multiple personality disorder. Those suffering from this bizarre disorder have an amazing capability of changing their bodies as they change from one state of being/consciousness/ personality to another. Just to name a few of the more interesting changes, tumors and birth marks come and go, illnesses, including diabetes, come and go, handwriting changes, skills and knowledge change, visual acuity (and eye color in one case) change from one personality to another.

This suggests that even the physical body is far more fluid than we assume. Miraculous instantaneous healings also suggest this kind of fluidity. In a recent study, shared by a friend of mine, researchers studied some housekeeping ladies who worked at a hotel. They noticed that these ladies worked very hard every day and yet all were overweight. Their hard physical labor didn't seem to affect their bodies in a positive way.

The employees said that they didn't have time to exercise or go to a club so they weren't able to lose any weight. All the researchers did was tell the housekeepers that because of the physical work they did every day, they should be losing weight just from doing their jobs. This suggestion was enough to cause these women to immediately being losing weight without changing their diets or any of their behaviors.

Heaven on Earth

When we talk about heaven, it seems to me that the mind or being or consciousness of any individual is capable of experiencing heaven while still being physical. It is likely that many people reading this article have had small experiences of heaven, experiences of oneness with humanity or oneness with God. Simply losing oneself in a beautiful sunset or in a feeling of love for another, are experiences of heaven.

Others of you have had "peak" experiences, times when all seemed right with the world, times of extreme joy and happiness, times when everything seemed to be as it should. I would say, in fact, that the goal of most spiritual systems is precisely to bring such experiences into life as a daily way of being. This is enlightenment. This is Christ or Buddha consciousness.

Whethe r we are in the physical or out of the physical, it is very likely that what we experience will proceed from our mind, from our being. That being the case, we can choose each day whether we wish to experience heaven or hell. We can use our mind and our being to form the world and the life we desire. We can decide to stop being victims and choose to be creators, creating the maya that brings more peace, joy, and abundance into our lives, more love.

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