Why Heaven Stories Vary
One of the questions I often encounter after my experience of going to Heaven is why do NDE accounts of the afterlife vary so much? If God and the afterlife is real, wouldn’t there be any congruency? Does the variation of Heavenly or spiritual experiences reflect the person’s own mind, personal beliefs, and psychology or can the accounts be trusted as something that actually exists outside of ourselves or within the spiritual dimension?
According to my understanding, the variation in Heavenly and afterlife experiences is typically the result or reflection of a person's spiritual life here on Earth, whether they lived in spiritual connection to God or Jesus, or whether they lived a life of love. While some Christians can paint a very black-and-white view of the afterlife, NDEs show us more of a rainbow or a spectrum of places that people can end up, and there seems to be a lot of commonality, despite the apparent variation. Many of these places are described in the Bible and in other spiritual texts. Just like here on Earth, things exist within a spectrum (think the color spectrum, or the LGBQTIA+ spectrum, or the Autism Spectrum), the afterlife is something of a spectrum as well, with different places or realms that reflect closeness to love or God and distance from.
It is my understanding that the majority of NDErs end up above the Earth or in what the LDS church has termed the Telestial Kingdom. People like Tricia Barker, David Ditchfield, and Brooke Grove describe NDE accounts being full of stars, galaxies, and other planets. They describe being greeted by God, the angels, loved ones (spiritual guides), or Jesus Christ who help them in their transition from life on Earth into the afterlife. The Telestial Kingdom is apparently a place full of peace, love, and joy for those who experience it, but from my understanding, it isn’t Heaven proper or the City of Heaven as described in the Bible and other religious texts.
Other experiencers, usually Christians, seem to end up in what’s called the Celestial Kingdom by the LDS church, or what is called The Kingdom of Heaven within the Bible. This is where I found myself going during my experience and why I relate to other Christian experiences of Heaven so well (Lorna Byrne, Crystal McVea, Mary C. Neal, Anna Beam, Don Piper, Randy Kay, Colton Burpo, etc). My experience was full of pure, white Light where I felt myself going to a City in Heaven called Crystal City. I found myself in the clouds surrounded by pure white light that was like a waterfall flowing upwards. People who go to the City of Heaven seem to be very close to God/Jesus Christ and His Teachings on love. They usually have lives where they go to church and read the gospels. They often describe feelings of immense peace, love, and joy, but also experience places like the gates of Heaven, the Throne Room of God, the library in Heaven, and more.
Then, there is the New Earth as described in the book of Revelation. Ian McCormack, who is now a Christian, found himself hovering above the New Earth after he died an atheist, but first he found himself in what is likely the place of the dead (Sheol), described in the Christian Bible or the TaNaK, until he was rescued by Jesus Christ when he called for help. Jesus flooded him with waves of immense love and showed his true home before being sent back to Earth. Dr. Eben Alexander had a similar experience of what might be called Sheol before being taken into The Light by his sister or an angel. Each of them, when they called on God for help, were immediately rescued.
Paradise is said to be a place outside of Heaven. If Heaven is the city, think of Paradise as the suburbs. One account I read of described Paradise as a place of healing and preparation souls go on before entering The City or Kingdom of Heaven proper. This is also the place that Jesus told the good thief he would meet him in when he died in the Bible. People who experience paradise in their NDEs or spiritual experiences usually describe it as a place full of gardens, flowers, trees, houses, and healing.
The Pre-Birth realm is where we came from before we were born on Earth. If you don’t know what the pre-birth realm is, think the movie Soul by Disney’s Pixar. People like Joanna Oblander, Christian Sundberg and Melissa Denyce experienced their lives before they were born. If you understand the concept of free will to its fullest extent, and that you are an eternal being that exists forever (past, present, and future), this place makes perfect sense. Since God cannot violate our free will, our lives on Earth are not an accident, but a result of pre-planning like when we map out where we are going on a GPS before we travel somewhere new. Verses in Ephesians chapter 1 highlight how God chose us to come to Earth before it was ever created to do good things that reflect the love of God in Heaven.
Penny Wittbrodt is a near-death experiencer who found herself in a spiritual world or dimension place termed as “the void”. Before dying, she described her life as not particularly spiritual and ending up in a place where there doesn’t seem to be any pain, but there also doesn’t seem to be much pleasure. It seems to be a place of spiritual neutrality, but also not what would be described as purgatory. She simply existed in a state of darkness until she came into The Light or realization of why she was there, only to be greeted lovingly by one of her family members and God who taught her about how energy worked.
Sadly, there are experiences of people who end up in a hellish realm like Dr. Rajiv Parti or Howard Storm, but it is my understanding that it is never God’s will for anyone to end up there or remain there. Hell seems to be the result of the worst possible outcome for a soul on Earth, who failed almost completely to live in love or within their connection to God. Yet, what God shows us about each of these experiences is that there is always the hope of Heaven, if we reach out to God and the angels for help.
The rainbow or spectrum of the places or worlds beyond then don’t paint an imaginary result of the consciousness of a person’s individual beliefs, but a genuine spiritual reflection of the heart and soul told as told about by various religious traditions and texts from around the world. Each of them, in their own way, from Buddhism to Christianity, has each tried to teach us how to love one another and connect to God. The places beyond are simply the places which we will each one day experience when we leave the Earth behind in this magnificent reflection of God’s immeasurable love, beauty, understanding, compassion, and forgiveness for humanity.
You are made for peace, love, and joy.
God Bless,
Kathryn Elsie
