Visions Of Heaven?

[LazyGun]

I note that Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon who recently achieved some measure of fame from claiming that, during a coma he was in, he visited heaven, rode on the back of a giant butterfly, met an angelic blue-eyed girl, and that heaven was an "immense void,completely dark, infinite in size,yet also infinitely comforting"

He even wrote a book about it - Proof Of Heaven, and now I hear it is being turned into a made for TV movie at some point.

So, it set me to thinking - for those that believe in a heaven, how do you imagine it will be? I would have all sorts of questions - stuff like where does everyone live? Do you have your own house? is it set on a cloud? Do you need to eat? When meeting friends and relatives who have died, are they incarnated as how you remember them from memory, or are they as they would like to be? Or is everyone just some sort of energy cloud?

This is not designed to mock - I am genuinely interested in what peoples visions of heaven might be, and whether any of those questions I mentioned are addressed in your visions.....

[society]

My concept of heaven - a quiet and peaceful place where you'll meet all the dead alive again. Blue skies, always warm and sunny, flowers everywhere. Everyone just happy and getting along... What a fantasy eh! :)

[paddywak]

Having had a bit of experience of this sort of thing thanks to a mining accident back in the '70s which resulted in nearly 3 weeks in a coma in the ICU and I saw and experienced nothing, no white lights, no stairs rising to heaven, no angel waiting to guide me across just pain.

[seadogg]

Glad you escaped with your skin PW

[LazyGun]

@Society - Its a nice idea, although dead alive sounds almost uncomfortably zombiesh :) Would those family and friends be as they you remember them, or would they have reverted to an optimal age?

[seadogg]

Thanks LG. Nope, the feeling is an essence and doesn't involve any person, or dog for that matter.

[naomi24]

LG, Dead alive!! Ha ha!!

I think Society's vision is pretty much what most people envisage. Lovely idea.

[Gran67]

Good Question LazyGun, I'm a believer in the afterlife myself and to tell you the truth I never really thought about how it would be.

The things I have thought about are the negative ones, like meeting up with family and people you never want to see again, or even just meetimg up with people.....I'm a bit of a loner and like to be alone most of the time, what awaits people like me there I wonder.

[society]

"Would those family and friends be as they you remember them, or would they have reverted to an optimal age?" - as I last saw them.

You'd think I'm crazy, but I often talk to some of the loved ones I've missed.

[vulcan42]

seeing as how we leave the body behind, how do we see the blue sky, feel the warmth of the sun or smell the flowers?

[seadogg]

Hope you can choose who you meet again in this Clapham Junction in the clouds.

[naomi24]

vulcan, //seeing as how we leave the body behind, how do we see the blue sky, feel the warmth of the sun or smell the flowers? //

Just as people who claim to have out of body experiences look down on their own bodies from a higher vantage point I presume. 'They' say it happens.

[Gran67]

I think I'd be bored after a few weeks of utopia. I'd want to take a tour of hell.

[naomi24]

Ha ha! On the 'Glitzy Glam Tram', Gran?

Bed time. Night all. x

[ludwig]

// 'Glitzy Glam Tram', Gran? //

That's a good tongue-twister ;-)

[seadogg]

They say the sherry is better in Hell.

[paddywak]

Thanks seadog, I've got a few scars and I still get the odd twinge but at least I'm still here.

[Mojo-Jo-Jo]

Now correct me if I misunderstand this, but heaven is supposed to be all the things you love and hell all the things you hate the most right?
So, seeing as I absolutely, definitely will be going to hell I think I'm going to be sitting on a cloud playing a harp for eternity.
Unless I'm with people I love in a pub where you're all just a nice amount of drunk with a band playing and you can smoke indoors...oh, and there's free food...I don't fancy it much.

[Gran67]

I wonder what life is like in hell. Hell was something I have though about and it's a vision of people hopping on a bed of hot coals, so I've been told by those catholic priests. I just hope they burn in hell for giving me visions like that!

[LazyGun]

@PW Glad you made it through your experience, obviously. You were in a coma, but experienced pain? I had not thought that would be possible. Must have been horrible.

@Gran I think it was a philosopher, may Satre who said something like " Hell is other people". I think there are a lot of people for whom that expression might hold true :)

It is interesting, how many different visions there are of heaven. For some its an experience, excorporate; For others, something more analogous to an (un) earthly paradise. Its the little details I find interesting though...

@Society Thanks for the input.Its interesting how different peoples visions can be..

[paddywak]

LazyGun they said I was in the coma for nearly three weeks but to be honest I cant remember if I was drifting in or out but believe me I remember the pain.