I woke up this morning at 5 am with the thought that heaven--the afterlife, so to speak--must be very like a lucid dream. (I use the terms loosely here, as heaven is not a location or place but a state of consciousness. "Afterlife" can be misconstrued because in my reality, life is eternal, so what I am really talking about here is the state of existence after we decide to stop using a physical body to manifest in this reality.)

Anyway, heaven is supposed to be a place where physical limitations--illness, disablitiies, whatever--no longer apply. Where the usual laws of the so-called physical universe do not apply. Where one can meet and relate with one's "deceased" ancestors and what not. All these qualities can be attributed to lucid dreams.

And for me, the notion of heaven as a dream state is consistent with the notions that we create our own reality, and that our free will is absolute--notions I have held for some time now.. There may be some interesting parallels with the Australian abo concept of the dreamtime, but I am not sufficiently conversant with that metaphysics to comment knowingly.

My idea of heaven is being completely infinite and aware. That'd be cool as hell, being able to experience...everything, ideas that my finite mind can't even currently imagine, doing that for all eternity. Of course it raises serious issues and I doubt it's possible.

^This is in line with the concept that one's soul, or essential self, is non-local--that is, everywhere in general and no where in particular.

I have had some interesting experiences which might be loosely considered astral travel this way.

My current concept of heaven is exactly like the original post.

I feel so unique

You guys do know that dreaming to the brain is like defragmentation to your harddrive?

Without the brain the dreaming cannot occur and thus you sense of heaven will quickly dim away into enternal nothingness.

Life is not eternal. Just a belief majority of humans made to calm their minds that when we die, that is the end of everything. Just like anything else that passes away on this planet.

I assume you've died so you can confirm this?

I assume you've died so you can confirm this?

He doesn't need to die to confirm it. If you want to believe in minds, spirits, etc, that's all good and delusional, just don't bring it into discussion as if it's actually part of reality. In reality, there are brains, which cease to function and thus end the organic life of a being. Beyond this, there is no reason to believe anything else is there to go on.

Is heaven not also supposed to be blissful? Also, most people don't dream lucidly. Also also, I would hope that in heaven I wouldn't be randomly eating marshmallow clouds while having a giant pop tart chasing me.

I've had some scary as shit dreams...If thats heaven count me out

If it is true as I believe, that dreams represent inner aspects of ourselves, which is the result of our souls or you could use the term deterministic energy field, and the way our signature has interacted with these waves, vibrations, and cycles. Being that consciousness is part of this vast physical and metaphysical system we call the Universe, our interactions during our physical incarnations could very well have an effect on our signature as we are reintegrated into the system. And to tie this together with what Arms was saying, why is it we choose to do or are limited from certain things in our lucid dreams? Because they represent inner aspects of our selves.

I've had some scary as shit dreams.

reading this, I flashed "Well,t hat would be hell."

Point is, we create our own reality, but we do not always do so with conscious or deliberate intent.