Have you considered that the places we’re told we must die to reach may be already all around us?

Concept Teaser for Heaven, Hell, & Purgatory

Having spent my early years raised in the Catholic Church, I learned much about heaven, hell, purgatory, and other concepts & allegories discussed in the Bible. By the time I was 10, I had already received my christening and communion and by 14 I was graduating from St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Middle School marked as Teacher’s Nightmare.

Through everything I experienced and was taught during my upbringing, the idea that we all must repent or potentially suffer for “eternity” in Hell seemed contradictory to the grace and love that God was meant to represent.

It was this dichotomy that spurred my spiritual exploration during my teenage years, researching and speaking with individuals of the various and vast variety of religious beliefs and practices available through my surroundings and the internet.

My research led me to many others who wondered about who/what God really was, and how/where we really exist; I still do not have definitive answers to those questions but I have made peace with much of what I discovered.

Through engaging with content created by various YouTubers (Aaron Abke, Lucid, Ralph Smart, & The Amazing Atheist)I cultivated a personal belief regarding the reality we all share. I grew to understand that the concepts of Heaven, Hell, and even the Catholic idea of Purgatory are not outside of us, rather, they are examples of the states we can embody.

It became clear to me, during a conversation with a couple of my peers, that this revelation was worth sharing as I had not seen anyone discuss it prior.

Heaven, the place (state) we all pine for, is often taught as the reward for a life well lived; What if the Heaven we experience from a “good” life is the feeling of doing good instead of a place we go to after we pass away?

And Hell; What if that is the internal conflict most of us feel from committing “bad” acts? If the extremes of “good” and “bad” are associated with Heaven and Hell does that mean that Purgatory would be the absence of either?

These questions led me to the understanding that Heaven and Hell are not distant planes that we only access upon our death, rather they are mental states we embody throughout our lives with Purgatory representing our day to day lives.

The answer I discerned was we all are essentially living in a Purgatory mind-state, living in neither extreme joy or suffering, rather we are shifting between the two competing states.

I believe, like the Catholic Purgatory, we are usually drawn to “heaven”, meaning pursuant of joy; however, unlike the Catholic Purgatory, we can also be drawn toward “hell” or suffering based on our personal experiences and beliefs. We use our free will to determine which state we believe we deserve to exist in.

For example, individuals who exist in a “Hell” mind state will inflict suffering upon themselves and others because they believe it’s what they (and subsequently others) deserve, while individuals who exist in a “Heaven” mind state will pursue joyous interactions for themselves and others.

The most important thing to remember is that neither of these states are permanent, rather we embodied them in moments through space/time. The states we embody most often bleed into our “Purgatory” or daily state giving the impression of permeance through conscious effort.

Like most things in this reality, we experience changes as waves throughout our life moving us daily towards our desired results; everything is always in motion whether we acknowledge this fact or not.

Heaven or Hell, where we find ourselves is not beyond our control nor beyond this lifetime. We can make choices daily to support the creation of our own Heaven here on earth; we do not have to propagate Hell. If we take ownership of what we can and make a conscious effort to pursue joy in our lives we can, in time, facilitate Heaven on Earth for us all.

Leave a comment with your thoughts or questions and I’ll do my best to respond with further clarification. I truly believe we have more authority over our mental, spiritual, and emotional well-being than we give ourselves credit for.

Thanks for reading!