I always remember as a small child, asking my mother what heaven was. She replied that for her, heaven would be if we could just carry on as we were! We were lucky enough to be comfortable, but not wealthy. As a family we were happy. I think that if you take the happiest experiences of your life, that will be your heaven

Heaven is a term for where we want to be after we leave this mortal life and move to the next. Unfortunately, what lies ahead for us is not understood by many of us. In reality when we leave this life we go to the disembodied spirit world where we await the resurrection of the just. Jesus taught this doctrine very clearly to the thief who was on a cross beside him as he was crucified. Jesus also taught that at the time of resurrection we could be resurrected to a world or mansion of glory based upon our goodness and works. Three glories are defined in the scriptures - telestial i.e. like the current world we live in; terrestrial i.e. a world of greater glory and beauty; and celestial i.e. the world where the Gods live. Since we are created in the image of the Gods from indistructible matter we can become as the Gods are if we follow the path that leads to Godhood.

John Patterson

I have never heard of people going to Hell in near death experiences, but rather meeting with relatives and loved ones who have been there to comfort them and help them through the transition from this physical plane to the spiritual.

For me, Heaven and Hell are a state of mind, spirit and living in this life. I don't believe in a Hell in after death, just as I don't believe that we are born wicked sinners, and I think it is one more way that we have been controlled and made to conform, and made powerless in this life by the Church.

The transformation after death to the spirit world is exactly that. I don't believe in an accounting after death, just a joyous reunion with other spirits. I believe that we account for ourselves here as, for example, any guilt disempowers us here by keeping us in a low vibrational state, or what we call Hell. THAT is why Jesus taught us to live a good life, and why we are also taught to forgive, and judge not lest we be judged (by ourselves and thus inflict guilt on ourselves and disempower ourselves.), and so on, because our actions here can either empower us here or disempower us here, by our resulting thought and opinion of ourselves and our lives, and our beliefs about our worthiness.

I would recommend a small book by John Randolph Price called The Abundance book - in the first chapter he traces how, in 180 AD, Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons attacked independent thinking and all teachings related to the Oneness of God and man, (as taught by Jesus). Irenaeus believed that a spiritual consciousness and a personal union with God would undermine the authority of the priests and thus the heavy editing and rewriting of the teachings of Jesus began, and continued over the centuries by many translations and agendas. Small though this book is, it has a lot to provoke thought and open new pathways to understanding and positive results in our lives.

I'm going to start with some links in response to Rebecca's opening observation. There are indeed stories of people going to or seeing hell in near death experiences. ABC News even had an episode on 20/20 that documented a case (link).

A couple other stories can be found at www.near-death.com and at www.emjc3.com. This last link tells the story of a cardiologist, Dr. Maurice Rawlings, who has written "To Hell and Back" (available at Amazon.com) about a number of his patients who experienced hell in near death experiences, and wrote a book about it.

Seeing the biblical context of many of your answers, I wonder if you're looking for the Judeo-Christian answer, but I suspect you already know that. Beyond that, there are undoubtedly as many answers as there are people using Inward Quest. I'd be surprised to find two detailed answers that were identical. For many of us, our concept of heaven was given to us early on by parents and religious teachers. As life progressed, we either accepted it as taught, rejected it, or modified it. These changes from our initial belief have obviously come about by our unique life experiences and learning.

Here my short answer (I'm still mulling over the long answer). Heaven is reconciliation and reunion. Heaven is wherever reconciliation and reunion happen, where we are in a relationship of complete love with others.