When you think of heaven, you probably look upwards. You may have assumed, as many do, that heaven must be up beyond the skies. But is this tendency merely a habit that you have learned from society, or could it be ancient historical conditioning, or is it something else entirely? This is neither habit nor history, because your upward glance results from the amazing link between your physical eyes and your spiritual anatomy — your chakras.
Your upper energy centers, or chakras, are your resonators for deeper cosmic realization. And when you access the deeper spiritual awareness of your higher energy centers — especially your crown chakra atop your head — you really do tend to look upwards. This is why people in a state of prayer and contemplation often find themselves looking upwards — towards heaven, as they would generally describe it.
When you look upwards, with sincere spiritual intention, you truly open an energy doorway that grants you a more profound cosmic perspective of reality. And you may be inclined to interpret your mystic visions as a window into heaven, as if heaven were literally above you. This perception often happens because when you sense the universe through the refined perception of your upper chakras, you are sensing the deeper divine essence of everything. And you are sensing the world as an interconnected energy field. And it is only natural to assume, when you first experience this, that you’re accessing a different world entirely — the world of heaven.
Every day, you are generally sensing the material world that you are familiar with. When you open your consciousness to a deeper spiritual reality, you may not realize that you have shifted your chakra viewpoint, and that you are now sensing the universe through a higher frequency window — your crown chakra. And so you may have no conceptual framework to explain what you’re seeing, other than the familiar material plane concepts that you are already familiar with.
Is this starting to explain why heaven seems to be floating in the sky above you?
Your reference point is generally the material plane, and so you can only interpret your upper chakra perceptions in the usual words and concepts of the material plane. They didn’t teach you about your crown chakra and cosmic perception in school, did they?
In other words, you have come to believe that heaven isn’t here in this material dimension. So your mind does its best to understand the spiritual vibrations that you access in prayer and contemplation — and concludes that you are accessing the realm of heaven. Or, the metaphysical equivalent to heaven, the celestial higher dimensions, or the realm of light — a place far, far, away. And you imagine, from your familiar material plane reference point, that this wonderful vibration that you are sensing in your contemplation must be somewhere a great distance away from this material world.
That is why you may have interpreted your spiritual experiences, perceived through your upper chakras, as coming from a distinct heavenly place that is beyond the skies. As you know, in the material world, everything is divided by location. You are here where you are standing, and your pet cat is sitting by the door, and your sister is in the next room. That’s the reality of the material plane — everything has its own location.
Heaven has no particular location.
If heaven were a place, then it would be in one location. If all the people, in all the galaxies of the universe, all had to go to one particular place when they pass on, that place would be infinitely large. But if heaven isn’t a particular location, then it must be a state of consciousness, or a specific range of vibrations. That explains how people in infinite numbers can be there, because a vibration doesn’t require a location. A vibration easily exists throughout the entire universe, unlimited by location.
Heaven is a deeper state of consciousness, in which you are in resonance with your soul wisdom, your heart wisdom, and your deeper intuition. You feel more connected with the cosmic united web of all consciousness in the universe. But what about the people who have had near-death experiences, and who reported that they went to heaven, and that there were beautiful buildings and gardens there? They seem to be referencing an actual place.
When you pass from this world, and you are experiencing the heavenly dimensions, you are accessing it in a way that you can comprehend. And that means that if you are symbolically enlivened by Beauty, then you may experience heaven as beautiful flowers or sparkling meadows. And when you sense the shining divinity within souls on the heavenly dimension, you are sensing the divine light of their auras. But if you are unfamiliar with auras, you might interpret every bright aura as coming from celestial angels, or whatever symbolic interpretation you require.
If you were no longer in a physical body, your soul would exist on the vibration that you were best suited to. Your habitual states of mind define where your soul lives when you are no longer living in a body. This is why various ancient teachings refer to levels of heaven, and levels of hell. It is not that the universe needs to punish or reward anyone, because the law of resonance, popularly known as the law of karma, brings you to the vibration level that you naturally resonate with.
You may have heard the idea that heaven is in your mind. This is a valid concept, but it doesn’t go far enough in explaining that heaven is accessed through the law of resonance. Very simply, your state of awareness is in alignment with energies similar to itself. For example, if you habitually spend some time every day contemplating the divine essence of life, you build a pattern where you can access that vibration more easily. Those who never access their divine nature would have more difficulty accessing that reality when they finally release from their body.
So you aren’t being punished at all, either in this life or in the hereafter. You create habits of heart and mind, and these patterns attract similar patterns. When your personal patterns are out of balance with the higher states of consciousness, you lose that divine resonance. Not because of punishment, however, but simply through a temporary lack of resonance with your preferred state of awareness.
Many people, especially in a religious context, are concerned with getting to heaven. They evidently don’t realize that heaven is a vibration that they could access now. So let’s look at their wish to someday get to heaven, but interpret it with a higher understanding of heaven as a vibration.
Start with the understanding that heaven is a deeper state of consciousness. Heaven reveals your divine nature, and heaven opens you to the divine nature of the entire universe. And let’s further assume that you do have the means to access heaven — not as a place, but as a living, divine energy field.
Here is the method for accessing heavenly realms now —
– Feel into the truth of these universal principles, so that you can really sense the living reality within your body, mind, and soul.
– Breathe, stay in your body, and open your imagination:
1. Your body and soul are a spectrum of vibrations — low to high frequencies — and you can learn to choose where your attention is focused in your vibration spectrum.
— This means that you are a conscious energy being — feel into that reality now.
2. Your vibrations include the core divine creative essence that actually created your soul.
— This means that you can access the spark of the Creator within you — imagine it and sense it now.
3. Your vibrations include the soul spark that was created by the divine, which is your own unique soul signature.
— This means that your soul essence lives within you — breathe into your essence now.
4. You can choose which chakras, or energy centers, you are sensing through.
— This means that you can scan the entire frequency spectrum of reality, from the material plane, all the way to cosmic consciousness — your crown is the window, but you are going to stay centered in your body while you look through your crown.
5. Everything within you is connected, so you can use the higher cosmic vibrations within you to help the aspects of yourself that have become stuck or limited.
— This means that you can create harmony and healing between your earthly and cosmic aspects, because they are all interconnected parts of you, united as one being, called you — let the lighter parts of you enlighten the shadowed parts.
6. Any quality that you associate with heaven is also accessible to you. Your spectrum of vibrations includes these heavenly qualities.
— This means that the love, wisdom, insights, and divine assistance, are all universal principles that live within you, and also live within the cosmic web of interconnected consciousness that you are part of — feel the higher qualities resonating within you.
7. When you resonate with those heavenly energies, you are touching heaven, here and now. You don’t have to go anywhere else to do this.
— This means that the heaven that seems to be above you is, in fact, all around you as a cosmic energy, and it is within you, as a cosmic energy, and you can learn to resonate with it, and breathe it into your body — imagine that you can reach out and touch heaven, within you and all around you.
These lofty words may be easy to say, but how easy is it to actually do these practices? When you re-read through the above list of divine principles, realize that you are being invited to explore qualities, rather than things. As you recall, heaven is a quality, or vibration. It is real, and not simply made up. Heaven is a living field of divine energy. But, it is not a place, and it is not a thing.
If you are going to explore the resonance of heavenly vibrations, you need to sense the difference between a quality and a thing.
An example of a quality is the feeling that you get when you experience the aroma of incense, as distinct from the physical incense itself. What actually happens within you when you experience the aroma? It is much more than just a sensation in your nose. Beautiful incense actually opens subtle dimensional doorways in your soul. This subtle experience gives you a sense of what a vibratory quality is.
Or, you could explore the love that you feel within your heart when you hug a loved one. The feeling you get in your heart is distinct from the physical hug itself. The feeling is different from words of love, because it transcends words. The vibration of love, as a living vibration in your heart, gives you a sense of what the resonance of love is.
Now that you have a deeper sense of how to access qualities, rather than things, explore the list above again, and let yourself start to taste the delights of heaven, as subtle resonances within you. They are here for you, here and now. People may say that heaven is in your mind, but heaven is bigger than your mind. Heaven is everywhere. It is within you, within everyone, and existing throughout the universe.
When you consider that heaven is everywhere, you realize that waiting to die to experience heaven is a rather limited way to go through life. And you begin to wonder, though, if there might be a deeper symbolic meaning to the various beliefs that people have about getting to heaven. For example:
Spiritual teachings generally suggest that being a good person helps you get to heaven. There is something to this idea, but it is often presented in a rather limited way.
For example, people are taught that if they attend a religious service, they are being a good person. What is the deeper symbolic meaning to this teaching?
When you resonate with the divine vibration within you, you are accessing the heavenly reality. When you notice what puts you in alignment with the divine, and what separates you from it, you are discovering how to attend the true religious service — alignment with the divine vibration. So whether or not you attend an official religious service, you always have a choice to align with the deeper divine reality — the sacred space that exists in each moment, when you choose to access it.
Essentially, the deeper teaching is that you are learning how to access heaven now, and that you don’t have to wait to experience heaven.
And you realize that the teachings about hell must also relate to your life now. Spiritual teachings advise people to avoid going to hell by avoiding bad behavior. Ah, but what is bad behavior, exactly?
Briefly, bad behavior puts you in an unbalanced state where you can’t access the heavenly vibrations. These negative states would include the usual overtly negative, anti-social behaviors. But negative states also include those various times during the day when you get stuck in bursts of anger, limited and tense thoughts and emotions, ungrounded fears, and confused behaviors that take you out of alignment with your body and soul.
So hell, if it exists, is simply this — hell is when your unbalanced states of consciousness keep you separate from the heavenly states.
However you describe it, hell is not bad or sinful, but it is certainly a less enjoyable state, because you are out of alignment with the divine universal truth. So when you don’t feel that you are in heaven, you are probably accessing hellish states of consciousness to some extent. Without making yourself bad or wrong, you can start to notice this. That will free you to gently move your attention towards the heavenly states.
Breathe, center yourself, and explore your choices. Switching from one state to another takes patience, and if you judge yourself for being in a less than perfect state, then you will prolong the unpleasantness. The good news is that heaven is here. It is accessible to you. And you aren’t being kept from it. Heaven is something for you to explore, whenever you’re ready. And this moment is as good as any, so remember the resonance of a smile, and breathe that smile into your being right now.
Many Blessings,
Joel Bruce Wallach
Founder, Cosmic Living – spiritual instruction – tele-classes and home-study mp3’s
Awesome post.
Many thanks!