When we think of heaven, we instinctively look up. When we think of hell, we imagine the burning center of the earth—a deep, dark place. And purgatory?
Perhaps we picture it as an endless waiting room, like being in a doctor’s office, with time suspended, just waiting. These images are etched into our minds in a strange way.
We all recognize them, yet no one has truly seen them. There are no photographs, no tangible records, yet they exist in our consciousness. That’s weird, let’s analyse those concepts together.
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Afterlife Realms Tourist Package: Visit Heaven, or Hell! What about the in between for lower budgets?
But what if these aren’t just three separate “islands”?
What if there’s more?
What if, instead of isolated places, it’s more like a path that connects various realms—different cities on the road of existence?
Perhaps there are more levels, like Dante’s many circles of hell, or perhaps multiple heavens, as described in Autobiography of a Yogi.
But what if the transition isn’t abrupt?
What if the shift from life to death is gradual, like a slow fading into another state?
After all, as mentioned in the previous sections, we can’t just open a curtain and peek into the afterlife. For most of us, that journey only happens when we die.
Yet, what we do know is that this transition, when it happens naturally, is slow—very slow. We don’t leap from one state to another, like being five years old one day and suddenly twenty-five the next.
Everything requires preparation. If we limit ourselves to the traditional three possibilities—heaven, hell, and purgatory—we are restricting our imagination.
We’ve inherited the idea of teleporting through a great golden gate with a checklist guardian. It’s logical, familiar, and deeply rooted in us.
If we limit ourselves to the traditional three possibilities—heaven, hell, and purgatory—we are restricting our imagination. We’ve inherited the idea of teleporting through a great golden gate with a checklist guardian. It’s logical, familiar, and deeply rooted in us.
Next Astral Plane: We are so close we can smell it.
Experienced nurses who have witnessed natural deaths say that when patients begin to see their deceased loved ones, they are going to die most likely, there’s no return from that, and even if the patience is not that bad.
That is because the slow transition. Their physical senses weaken, while their psychic senses grow stronger. Space no longer limits them, and distances seem to dissolve.
At this point, they become more sensitive to the subtle, spiritual world and less attached to the material one. There are even reports of people dreaming about their dying loved ones or having visions of them, almost like a paranormal event.
This is often interpreted as a sign that the dying person is transitioning to another plane—one that isn’t heaven or hell, but something in between, much closer than we think. It’s as if this other plane is “an arm’s length away,” not somewhere in the clouds.
This idea should bring us comfort: the other world isn’t as distant as we imagine. It’s right “around the corner.”
Yet, if it were so accessible, we might expect to be more attuned to those who have passed. However, only a few people have this sensitivity—those with clairvoyant abilities, as they are often called.
These individuals seem to live with one foot in our world and the other in that continuous plane, the one that’s “right here,” so close that even some animals can sense it.
DISCLAIMER:
Gaining new knowledge doesn’t mean rushing to book a session with a medium to talk to your dog. Instead, it’s about understanding that the good intentions we hold don’t need to cross vast distances, like a transatlantic or transastral journey. They’re much closer than we expect.
Or perhaps, it’s more accurate to say we are closer than expected.
In truth, the spirit world isn’t far away, like a city in the clouds or a fiery sphere beneath the earth. It’s more like a service station between towns—a temporary stop before moving on to other planes.
Defining Afterlife: Understanding Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory in Mysticism
In Eastern wisdom, multiple planes of existence are described, from the highest spiritual planes to the lower ones, and there are many more than we usually imagine.
Although their names may seem complex and hard to grasp, the essential point is that the steps between these planes are very close to one another, like rungs on a ladder leading to a heaven or descending toward a hell.
In this sense, religions have helped solidify the concepts of heaven and hell, but these are more like conventions, similar to the way we use units like “meter” or “kilogram” in Western science. Each religion describes “heaven” in its own way, according to its traditional beliefs.
And just as the idea of “hell” was created in opposition to heaven, the astral world also contains lower subplanes where disembodied souls who had brutal or destructive tendencies on earth experience the consequences of their actions. But these planes aren’t eternal.
The astral hell is not an eternal punishment. The disembodied soul has the chance to purify itself and eventually move to a better “environment.”
The idea of purgatory, too, has its equivalent in these lower astral planes. As Hamlet’s father’s ghost famously says: “And for the day confined to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away.”
However, it’s not a material fire, but rather the fire of understanding—similar to when we repeatedly lose our keys until we decide to assign them a specific place to avoid losing them again.
TL,DR:
- Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory:
- We imagine heaven above, hell below, and purgatory as a waiting room, even though no one has truly seen these places. That is the real mistery.
- More than Three Realms:
These aren’t isolated places but part of a continuous path, like Dante’s circles of hell or multiple heavens described in Autobiography of a Yogi. - Gradual Transition to the Afterlife:
Death is a slow, progressive journey, not an abrupt leap. No need to wear safety belt. - The Afterlife Is Closer Than We Think:
The next realm is “an arm’s length away,” offering comfort that the other world is not distant. But let’s leave the ghost alone. - radual Transition to the Afterlife:
- Death is a slow, progressive journey, not an abrupt leap
Remember this is part III, of “what happens after death series?” based on “Ramacharaka: Life Beyond Death.”
-Previous post of the series:
Part I & Part 2:
