Is Heaven Just A Myth?

Buried somewhere deep within everyone is a school of ageless wisdom. Some call it a 'gut feeling' while others make an active effort to tune in to their higher consciousness as they seek answers they know are important. The greatest age-old debate may be 'Is heaven real?' Unless you are facing what seems to be a certain end of your own life or you have lost someone you truly love you may not understand the profundity of it all; and profound it is. What happens when we leave this world we know? What happened to the people we have loved and lost? It matters... to our own peace of mind and to our ability to allow the door to close gently on what was.

In the face of a deep personal loss, non-believers are the first to shout "Where is this God you believe in, if He is real how and why did this happen?" They may also respond with 'six feet under, that's where you go when you die.' Six feet under is true for the physical body if that option is chosen as the final disposition for life. But isn't there more to this journey we embark on, the one we call life? Why don't we know the answer to this age-old question? Is it possible that we do?

It can be helpful if we search backwards in this quest. Humans have progressed through thousands of years of growth and development, yet the destination after death has remained the same. Did our earliest ancestors search the heavens and wonder if heaven is real? They may have never doubted it. The years of growth and advancement have taught us to live differently than they did. Their very existence depended on using instinct to survive. We have been taught to ignore it and instead 'use our brain.' After all, it's the most important part of us, isn't it?

What's wrong with this assumption is our lack of acknowledgement that our incredible brain operates much like the hard drive of our favorite computer. The information contained and the ability to access that information is limited to what we have exposed it to; essentially to what programs and information has been loaded into it and our ability to apply it accurately. Our trusty brain, regardless of how powerful it is, can only deliver information that has been allowed to be entered into it. It cannot know more than it has been exposed to, nor can it unlearn what it knows to be true. Things like denial and delusion do not stem from our brain. They are programs we employ through our emotional brain, the heart. There is where we hold bias, filters and the memory of pain or great joy and apply it to what has been analytically delivered to us by our brain. Neither is the place to find the answers to this question. It is much bigger, far deeper than the mundane gathering of information.

Profound answers are delivered to us through the instinctive brain, the place where filters and bias do not exist. Pure truth is found at this level. Here is where the answer is found when we ask "Where is that magnificent all-powerful Creator" as we stand before mass executions of innocent people or search for an answer to inexplicable evil that has invaded our lives. This is not the work of His hand. We are staring at the results of humans who have exercised their right to choice in the most horrific of ways.

The proof of His existence is found not in the carnage of what humans can accomplish but in the miracles that only His hand can produce. The living emergence of 33 minors from the bowels of the earth 69 days after they were buried is but one example. Thirty-three is the number of the compassion of the Christ. It was impossible, yet we all witnessed it. There are so many examples of miracles that happen every day; events where only His hand can produce those results. But does this prove there is a heaven?

I have noticed that the closer we all get to miracles, to knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are real, the more raw emotion bubbles from within us. It brings tears of joy and amazement at what we are witnessing. How could this be, we wonder. This kind of emotion and our response is answered by that instinct that humans used to depend on. It brings only truth and is the part of us that we were given to survive. Instinct is that part of us that quickly knows the right response to avoid disaster and to recognize truth enabling us to make the right choice.

The existence of Heaven transcends every culture and has existed though eons of time. It brings hope when all hope seems lost, the comfort of knowing that the end is really a beginning. To those who have stared at the broken body of their child or loved one it is the ultimate redemption for incomprehensible events that led to this moment. We search for the hand more powerful than what lies before us. Surely there must be more. Death is a transition of consciousness from the physical plane beyond to the place once described as looking through a glass darkly. We can't seem to see what is real. But way down deep, we know.

Everyone arrives at their own conclusions. As you search discard everything but the instinctive part of yourself and the answer may seem easy. The real myth could be the ability we all have to deceive ourselves about things we know down deep are truth. The level of emotion you feel when you touch truth defines the depth of it.