What is the Afterlife?
by Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts
Readings
Luke 16:19-31
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
Read the written message below with music videos
The eternity of life is something at the core of many traditions, although sometimes details are scarce. After having my own near-death experience, I was attracted to others’ accounts of the afterlife through similar near-death experiences, often abbreviated as “NDEs.” Surprisingly, I found thousands and thousands of these accounts online and catalogued in books (just Google them!), many with similar themes and details despite coming from people across the religious and non-religious spectrum. I was again amazed to find the writings of the 18th century mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg, who not only described the universe and God(dess) in a way that spoke to my developing compassionate spirituality, but also his vast accounts of the afterlife, which described similar core details as found in the NDEs that started to be catalogued in the 1950’s (thanks to the author Raymond Moody). The best part of that discovery was the corroborating and fleshed out account that God is a God(dess) of love, who resides at the centre of all beings, and that even hell can be understood to be one’s continuing preference for the hell of our own making.
What we hear about heaven and hell is often rooted in evangelical and fundamentalist conceptions of them, which have taken shape not from accounts in scripture or even NDEs but from popular authors’ and speakers’ imaginations. The afterlife has been morphed into a useful tool for fear-wielding priests and preachers, who often shape salvation into a gift that only their church or tradition can bestow – twisting both the words and the attitude of Christ to fit their personal conceptions. Even the key account from the 14th century which has influenced our ideas, and which had much less destructive ambitions than most of the later accounts announced at the pulpit, was intentionally a fictional work: Dante Alighieri’s Inferno taken from his larger poem, Divine Comedy.
That being said, we have accounts much closer to first-person accounts from the many NDEs shared in the last 70 years. Although there a number of outliers that describe less shared details, these often describe being welcomed by beings that exude an observable but almost transcendent light that conveys their feelings of love within its warmth. They detail being reassured and taught by these beings, who many describe as angels or other terms that fit their tradition or one the observer knows about. NDEs also have many accounts of being reintroduced to loved ones, family, and friends – often with the deceased spiritual body seeming to be more beautiful or younger and wiser than they were when they passed. They also tend to describe environments with natural elements and amazing structures, some that would put our most impressive feats to relative obscurity, and that our perception of these things in the spiritual realm are heightened with the light itself in that realm conveying a felt sense of truth.
What’s further fascinating is that Swedenborg’s 18th-century accounts emphasize each of these elements as well. In his visions, which you can read some of in what’s considered to be the West’s first book of the dead entitled Heaven and Hell (since it wasn’t published as a fictional work, like Inferno), people are described as continuing to have a body in the afterlife, albeit a spiritual one that symbolizes their internal state. He also shares that all external details are symbolic in that realm, thus the light and heat conveyed by angelic people as well as the spiritual sun literally do convey truth (light) and love (heat). He says our deep connection with this realm even while we are living is part of the reason our languages reflect these symbols, like when we say such things as, “I feel enlightened,” or, “This is a very warm atmosphere thanks to your loving presence.” Indeed, like what many NDEers describe, Swedenborg writes that the material realm is but a dim reflection of the deeper reality found in the deeply meaningful appearances in the spiritual realm.
All that being said, it’s clear that the reason Swedenborg shared his own “Lord-given” visions of these realms was to help us take seriously the eternal orientation of our minds and hearts. Just like some NDEs do, he also warns of the possibility of a manifest spiritual hell for us if we decide to keep centering on the hell within our minds. His teachings were less a tool to keep people coming to church and under his thumb (he didn’t lead a religious group) but tools to motivate people to give up destructive selfishness and deludedly divisive ideas, and instead uncover the natural unity we all have in the compassionate wisdom at our core. Interestingly, this means that the hellish communities he describes are hells of our own continued making and choosing, as, in a spiritual sense, we live close to those like us. Imagine living close to others with your core motivations, without the bounds of reputation and prison, and with no power to lord over those in more heavenly realms!
But aren’t there other major ideas about what happens when we die with corroborating witnesses? Yes! The other major belief about what happens when we die (besides “nothing”) with many sharing experiences that relate to it is called reincarnation, with multifaceted traditions like Buddhism, Sikhism, and Hinduism supporting its key tenets. What’s fascinating about reincarnation as it appears in these major traditions’ scriptures is something that many of us do not know about it: it often includes descriptions of heavenly and hellish destinations as part of the reincarnation journey, which often ends in full transcendence or an eternity in a heavenly abode.
For example, many Buddhist, Hindu, and Sikh scriptures speak about the reincarnation journey itself as often a hell, warning that if we don’t take advantage of this time in a human body we might have to go through millions of more incarnations before getting a chance to transcend again. Like with Swedenborg, most lines of Buddhist thought describe letting go of false selfish identity and poisonous motivations and finding compassionate unity with all things as part of what allows us to find the Nirvana or the Pure Land within and around us, as well as finding within that we are one with the all-pervasive loving-awareness that gives rise to all things. Indeed, Pure Land Buddhism often espouses that we eventually spend eternity in a heaven typically called the “Pure Land,” after our suffering-filled reincarnation journeys have been transcended and we die. Moreover, some Buddhist scriptures, such as the Buddha’s Dhammapada and Padmasambhava’s writings talk literally about going to “hell” or “the three sorrowful realms” - akin to Swedenborg’s idea that there are three major realms in hell, just like in heaven, each giving rise to the next.
The similarities between these traditions continue, but that’s a talk for another day (see my recent class about some of the parallels between Buddhism and Swedenborgianism in our videos)! The essential theme here is that when it comes to first person accounts of the afterlife, as well as with scriptural and visionary texts that talk at length about it, there are key similarities all pointing to the importance of transforming our hearts from being set on the deluded concerns of our false, self-limiting identities, to one of compassionate unity with all things in the present moment. Similar to Christ’s teachings about not worrying or fearing and finding loving unity in God.
And so, ultimately, we are asked to turn to the intrinsic awareness that we find through many prayerful, meditative practices – many of which ask us to let go of our false egos and limited definitions of self. They task us with finding the peace at the core of our spirits in the present moment by reminding us that all is the will of God in the end, and that our own hurtful thinking is but emptiness that eventually recedes for the dawn of a new day. Like Christ, these tall tales and personal, transcendent experiences teach us to take our current life seriously, letting go of perceived shame for the health and vibrancy of the angelic being present in this very moment within. Taking advantage of our advantageous time as a human being, turning toward wholeness and health so that all may be whole and healthy.
Peace and love to you,
Cory