Will Your Pet Dog or Cat Go to Heaven?
Inquiring minds want to know, especially inquiring minds that have just lost a beloved pet.
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Will Your Pet Dog or Cat Go to Heaven?
The person who inspired today’s article is MICA, a first-time commenter at this blog.
She had found some help for grieving here: Spiritually Saying Goodbye After a Death.
Commenting, she wrote the following.
Would this technique be appropriate for saying goodbye to a precious family member, who also happens to be non-human (such as a beloved “pet”)?
Many people experience intense grief and anguish over the loss of a cat or dog whom they’ve had the honor of being responsible and caring towards for many years. Many would consider them family members, if not special companions. The connection is deep.
Blog-Buddies, I have a lot to say on the topic of considering a cat or dog “a family member.”
Fair warning though: If considering a different point of view seems offensive to you, don’t read the rest of this article. It’s pretty counter-culture.
I am just one spiritual teacher in this new Age of Awakening. You can find plenty of teachers who will echo points of view like those expressed by Mica. Don’t expect me to be one of them. Since most members of today’s “Enlightenment Establishment” are teaching as though it’s still the Age of Faith. Although that era ended on Dec. 21, 2012!
Regarding What Happens to Pets After They Die
Everybody has an opinion. Ever notice?
Today’s article brings you an unusual perspective, because I’m bringing you perspective as an Enlightenment Coach for the Age of Awakening. That link takes you to a video, btw.
Also important to know right away, this article is meant to be interactive. Your responses can make it come alive. To lead off our conversation here, what do you think? As you start reading this article, pause in your reading to answer this question:
Do you believe that your pet dog or cat has a soul? Maybe just like yours?
Which Approach Will I Take?
Whether you love animals or . . . not so much, welcome! I have so much to tell you on this topic. To begin with, many common beliefs that people have about pets are mainstream ideas that have gained traction.
Important distinction here: These beliefs are popular. Not that they have Big Truth Value. Drawing upon MICA’s words, I’ll point out ideas that are socially popular but may have SMALL Truth Value. Very small truth value indeed! And, if you care about spirituality, truth matters.
Laying a Foundation, Acknowledging Beliefs like MICA’s
In Sections 1-4 of this post, you will find:
- From MICA: A quotation from MICA
- Quick Perspective from Rose
- Popular Now in American Collective Consciousness: Some research into the popular ideas she expresses. Popularity statistics via Google. As for me, I’m a researcher into consciousness. I’m convinced that “Collective Consciousness Subconsciously Grabs You” through cliches, popular memes, etc. (That link just provided will tell you more.)
- Food for Thought, Human Thought: I’ll give you one related question. Inviting you to put together a perspective on pets that is spiritually up to date, now that we’re in the Age of Awakening.
Then I’ll Share a Spiritual View of Pets for the Age of Awakening
Starting with Section 5 of this article, we begin my Enlightenment Coaching on Pets. Thinking informed by over 50 years as a spiritual teacher — one who still does not know everything, but does at least know some things. Almost needless to say, I’m the founder of Energy Spirituality®. Using effective skills for cocreating along with the Divine.
At any point along the way, you’re invited to pause in reading. Share your point of view. Whether you agree or disagree with me, you’ve got something to say. Following that you can easily return to this article.
What’s one of the things I like best about our informal, curious, caring community at this Energy Spirituality Blog? You can feel safe agreeing with me. Despite how the ideas in this article are more leading-edge than what is currently mainstream.
Sourcing My Perspective, Today’s Spiritual View of Pets
My source of knowledge should matter to wise reader., I’ll summarize that “Sourcing” perspective at my personal blog — in the Comments section there beneath the main article.
Meanwhile, I’m eager to get going, and bet you are too.
Will Your Pet Dog or Cat Go to Heaven? #1.
Are Pets Really Members of Your Human Family?
From MICA
Would [Spiritually Saying Goodbye] be appropriate for saying goodbye to a precious family member, who also happens to be non-human (such as a beloved “pet”)?
Quick Perspective from Rose
Look, two kinds of reality are essential to human experience: objective reality and subjective reality.
The sweet-and-flowery language from MICA is part of her perspective on pets, which is dominated by subjective reality. However, the truth about what happens to pets after death is not about subjective feelgood ideas.
Isn’t death one of the most conclusive kinds of objective reality? In this article we’ll continue to explore what happens, in reality, after death.
Popular Now in American Collective Consciousness
Many people think as MICA does. For instance: “Pets Are Family”
On my Google just now? 822 MILLION hits.
Food for Thought, Human Thought
In objective reality, is any cat or dog is a member of your biological family?
Feel free to share your thoughts about this.
Will Your Pet Dog or Cat Go to Heaven? #2.
Does Your Suffering over that Pet’s Death . . . Make that Pet HUMAN?
From MICA
Many people experience intense grief and anguish over the loss of a cat or dog
Quick Perspective from Rose
Strong subjective emotions can often seem to be true about objective reality. But that emotional intensity does not mean that the associated ideas are true.
This can be one of the hardest lessons for us humans to learn.
- It was hard to learn during the first consciousness era on Earth, The Age of Faith.
- It is equally hard for us to learn this lesson during the second consciousness era on Earth, The Age of Awakening.
But why flunk that test? Accepting reality helps us to live and also helps us to grow.
Popular Now in American Collective Consciousness
Many people think as MICA does. For instance: “Death isn’t real”
On my Google just now? 885 MILLION hits.
Food for Thought, Human Thought
Can grief after a death make a person vulnerable to ideas with Low Truth Value?
Feel free to share your thoughts about this.
Will Your Pet Dog or Cat Go to Heaven? #3.
Is Caring for a Pet Really a Spiritual Honor?
From MICA
A cat or dog whom they’ve had the honor of being responsible and caring towards for many years.
Quick Perspective from Rose
Ideally, domesticated animals and their humans have a mutually beneficial relationship. Does it make your relationship with a pet more “spiritual” if you consider pet ownership a great spiritual honor?
From my perspective as an Enlightenment Coach, accepting objective reality is essential for growing. Worshiping false gods doesn’t help, and that holds true about idealizing the mutually beneficial relationship of pet ownership.
Popular Now in American Collective Consciousness
Many people think as MICA does. For instance: “Caring is spiritual“.
On my Google just now? 789 MILLION hits.
Food for Thought, Human Thought
Can caring sometimes cause people to be spiritually stuck?
Feel free to share your thoughts about why, or why not.
Will Your Pet Dog or Cat Go to Heaven? #4.
Loving Animals More than Humans
From MICA
Many would consider [their pets] family members, if not special companions. The connection is deep.
Quick Perspective from Rose
Having a strong emotional connection to a pet may not be as “deep” as some folks think. At least if you think that “deep” means spiritually true — having High Truth Value.
Subjective emotions for a pet can be very strong. And beautiful!
Alternatively, what if you think that GROWING is the spiritual purpose of life at Earth School. Then objective reality matters as much as subjective reality. Honesty matters too.
It might stretch the truth to claim that any pet can be a family member or “special companion.” For one thing, pets don’t have human consciousness. Even if it’s common to anthropomorphize pets, projecting whatever we choose onto them, then believing it. Still, like a wise old saying, “Wishing does not make it so.”
Popular Now in American Collective Consciousness?
Just for giggles, let’s get a sense of how popular that wise old saying is in today’s pop culture.
These days, do many people believe “Wishing does not make it so“?
On my Google just now? 4,160 hits.
Food for Thought, Human Thought
Can you accept the fact that, despite the popularity of Law of Attraction and other feelgood beliefs, wishing does not make it so?
Feel free to share your thoughts about this.
Will Your Pet Dog or Cat Go to Heaven? #5.
Now Let’s Begin Today’s Enlightenment Coaching on Pets
Just the best I know so far, Blog-Buddies — that’s all I can give you.
What follows will be my first article of this kind. Written in just the second decade of the Age of Awakening. Who knows what newer knowledge will unfold in decades, then centuries, then millennia to come?
Unlike MICA’s sweet perspective, which is mainly about her subjective beliefs, here’s my invitation to you. As you read what follows, and as you respond, emphasize your perspective about objective reality in this world.
Having established the objective truth in your mind, then this next question can be productive:
What might be the spiritual significance of objective reality for humans on Earth?
Feel free to share your thoughts about this.
Will Your Pet Dog or Cat Go to Heaven? #6.
Humans Have Sovereignty Over All Life Forms on Earth
We humans have consciousness. Humans have individuated souls. (More on that to come.)
Earth School is structured so that humans can evolve spiritually.
Any adult human with normal mental health has over 1,000 chakra databanks. Each one includes a Divine-level Gift of the Soul. Helping each of us to navigate “My Personal Path.”
We humans have free will. Our brains benefit from neuroplaciticity. By contrast, animals have instincts. Each species of animal has some degree cumulative learning. Squirrels, for instance, are exceedingly clever. Witness the ingenious and incredibly entertaining Ninja Warrior Course for squirrels designed by Mark Roper.
BIG QUESTION
Can you still love your pet if you accept that your human intelligence, including how your spiritual consciousness works, goes far beyond what is available to your pet, that sweet furry animal with a tail?
Feel free to share your thoughts about this.
Will Your Pet Dog or Cat Go to Heaven? #7
Our Planet Is Structured as Animal, Vegetable, OR Mineral
Look around you right now. Whatever you see, yes! It belongs to one of these three categories.
For humans to evolve spiritually, we have been given ANIMAL bodies.
- Compared to living as a VEGETABLE, like broccoli
- Or staying put as a MINERAL, like a solid piece of feldspar
- By comparison, what freedom we humans have!
As human animals, we can move and talk. Innumerable possibilities exist for our spiritual learning, free will, etc. Let’s not even elaborate, for now, on how much learning each adult does . . . simply related to sex!
Regarding non-human animals on Earth, like mammals for instance; like cats and dogs, hey! They don’t have human consciousness. Pets sure can look cute, with their soft fur and adorable eyes. That’s how they’re built in objective reality.
BIG QUESTION
Inwardly, do dogs or cats possess a vast subjective reality?
“Don’t kid yourself,” says Rose.
Feel free to share your thoughts about this.
Will Your Pet Dog or Cat Go to Heaven? #8.
We Can Easily Project Our Feelings and Ideas onto Animals
But that doesn’t make it true. I wonder if one of the main reasons people say, “I like animals better than people” is this sequence:
- We humans can make up whatever we like.
- Then we can project our personal whatever onto our pet.
- In objective reality, that pet cannot contradict us.
- With other humans, we don’t have that magical power, do we?
BIG QUESTION
Are non-human animals capable of learning about spirituality, to the degree that humans can?
Feel free to share your thoughts about this.
Will Your Pet Dog or Cat Go to Heaven? #9.
Humans Have Eternal Souls. Dogs and Cats Don’t
Again, it’s so easy to imagine or believe whatever we make up regarding the inner life of our pet. However, subjective intensity — like MICA’s quote — doesn’t translate into objective reality.
Incidentally, you can learn more about your Eternal Soul at our monthly series of blogposts on Living with Soul in the Age of Awakening. Start at the link just provided.
To Be Clear
The love we feel for our pets is real. So is the learning we gain from that relationship. All subjectively true!
Also true, seems to me, is all the good karma we can gain from treating our pets with respect.
But that’s it, folks.
Baby souls and very young souls often feel great commonality with animals. So can babies and young children. Maybe that’s because they’re still new to the amazingness of Earth School’s animal-vegetable-mineral reality.
As kids mature they can start learning what it means to become a human adult, to evolve spiritually, to grow emotionally. To a surprising extent, each person’s path is shaped by free will.
BIG QUESTION
Do you yearn to believe that every life form on this planet must be as spiritual as you? (Why or why not?)
Feel free to share your thoughts about this.
Will Your Pet Dog or Cat Go to Heaven? #10
Finally, Do Pets Go to Heaven Or Not?
Some of you readers have been taught to believe in one Heaven. Your religion taught you to believe in one Hell. To this day, you may believe that Heaven is exactly like the best of your human life, so of course your pets must go there. Maybe also your favorite living room sofa? And a big bowl of buttery popcorn that is perpetually self-renewing?
Don’t change your beliefs one iota just to please me. However, according to my beliefs (and not mine alone):
- There are innumerable heavens, or lokas.
- There is no official Hell. There is no Satan, no Devil.
- Karma is certainly real, both the karma we create and the Returning Karma we receive.
- In order to receive an individuated soul, it takes many thousands of lifetimes. At least, according to traditional teachings of Eastern religions. Receiving a Life Contract for a human life on Earth is a huge opportunity for spiritual evolution.
- Every species of animal has its own consciousness. Learning develops for that specie’s collective consciousness. A great example is The Hundredth Monkey Effect.
Otherwise? Although beloved Fido doesn’t continue past death, guess what? On a very abstract level, Fido has contributed to the consciousness of his specie of dog. For Fido, that would mean the consciousness of Dalmatians.
All Dalmatians continue to learn, with evolving consciousness. Expect that to continue until-and-unless that specie goes extinct.
By comparision, human life doesn’t end with death. Not unless we have a subjective belief, as many do, that life ends with death. Even then, what happens regardless?
Once you become an eternal soul, then you’re an eternal soul forever. After each incarnation, you have a Life Review. Then you’re sent to the heaven you deserve, given your current consciousness, karma, and evolution.
BIG QUESTION
MICA was so wise to ask for my input over whether or not to use “Saying Goodbye After a Death” for her dead cat.
What do you think would happen if MICA didn’t bother to ask? What if she just went ahead and used that Energy Spirituality technique, breaking the rules, because she wanted to, regardless of my recommendation?
Feel free to share your thoughts about this.
In Conclusion
Thank you for reading, everyone. This topic is so sensitive, so personal.
I wonder if any of you have learned something, informed by spirituality, that you didn’t know before.
Of course, I look forward to reading all your contributions as you respond to this article, my questions included.
Here’s the one thought I’ll add in conclusion — at least as controversial as anything else you’ve read in this article.
Saddens, Worries, or Annoys
What really saddens me, annoys me, worries me? (My particular emotional reaction depends upon what a particular person, on one particular occasion, has said.)
As you know, Blog-Buddies, many beliefs exist about spirituality. Seems to me, people are drawn to a level of truth value that is comparable with their current development of consciousness. All that is fine with me.
What bothers me is when people express sentimental ideas about life . . . like maudlin conversations at a bar . . . as though these ideas qualified as spirituality. Or a teaching that could possibly help anyone. Not so. This sentimental version of spirituality is one of my least favorite aspects of our culture.
One reason why I have taken all this time to respond to MICA’s questions is that, to me, she didn’t cross that line. In her original comment at the Energy Spirituality® Blog, she showed remarkable wisdom and restraint. Especially how she asked this teacher directly about what would, or wouldn’t, work with the technique I published about “Spiritually Saying Goodbye After a Death.”
Whether or not she comments here further, whether she agrees with me or not, I respect what MICA has done. I respect her for asking important questions at a platform that was new to her.
Comment Updates – Week of 6-23-25
Of Special Interest this Week at the Energy Spirituality® Blog
Follow Our Flash Contest on WISE MONEY MANAGEMENT Chakra Databanks
All our 28 nominations from last week win prizes, and those aura readings will begin this week.
Also lively is our groundbreaking discussion of what Dharma means now, in the Age of Awakening.
Additions start at Comment #1217
Rose Invites Comments on Dharma INWARDLY:
Ideal #1. Doing right action, according to your sacred beliefs.
Ideal #2. Finding smart choices that bring you spiritual joy.
Ideal #3. Making choices that help you to feel very alive. (To use a technical term from Energy Spirituality, there’s Soul Thrill.)
Ideal #4. Living in a manner that is harmonious. (At least, in contexts where harmony is compatible with integrity.)
Ideal #5. Treating others well, doing your reasonable best. (But also not acting like a dutiful chump. Such as letting others take advantage of you.)
Ideal #6. Telling the situational truth, even when that’s tough.
Ideal #7. Live with honor. During a conflict, stick up for yourself. But also . . .
Ideal #8 for Dharma in the Age of Awakening, Dharma INWARDLY:
Live according to today’s new rules for being a good person… Rules for the Age of Awakening. Rather than following obsolete rules that applied previously, in the Age of Faith. (For a practical education in both sets of rules, get this book.)
Now, Regarding Comment Conversations at this Blog.
Lively Comments Are Happening at the Following Articles Here
Use what follows to discover our most lively topics this week. You see, I’m now showing you just enough to help you learn which topics are most lively now.
In previous weeks I spent a ridiculouts amoubnt of time, cross-referencing every single new commenter at every single comment conversation. That’s done.
All you really need to stay current is the comment number for this week’s first addition. Then you can start exploring what is freshest, most new at this blog. Here goes.
Aura Reading — Spot Political Lies — Published in 2008!
Additions start at Comment #3
Delights and 7 Dangers of PRACTICE GRATITUDE
Additions start at Comment #1
Energy Spirituality Is Not Psychic Work
Additions start at Comment #105
How to Recognize and Avoid Extreme Spiritual Addiction
Additions start at Comment #35
Karma Made Spiritual But Not Religious
Additions start at Comment #6296
Skilled Empath Merge with Ancient Mudrock
Additions start at Comment #1
Will Your Pet Dog or Cat Go to Heaven?
Additions start at Comment #1
Additions start at Comment #366
Plenty of other problems don’t directly impact consciousness in the way I’m about to describe.
But first, here’s a list of some significant problems that could be grounds to end a friendship, but don’t necessarily impact consciousness.
* Gambling
* Sexual promiscuity
* Shopping addiction
* Straining to live in The Anorexic Ideal
* Preferring to have many lovers; lovers who are already married, encouraging them to cheat
Now, since we’re discussing what you wisely brought up, JASMINE, about friends who are addicted to recreational substances.
Note: See what I just did there, in the last comment? I adapted the language for this comment conversation; adapted it from “substance abuse,” which is a popular term from Pop Psych.
That know-it-all kind of terminology makes it easier than ever to miss the point, imo. Many kinds of “abuse” flagged by Pop Psychology are NOT interchangeable as just another kind of abuse.
Alcoholics and potheads are taking substances that can become physically addictive.
But the real concern, to me, in the context of staying friends with a person with such a problem involves . . . .
Involves paying attention to objective reality. As of my estimate set out in the blogpost “Consciousness Lifestyles 2025,” as of last January only 14% of Americans were living in a consciousness lifestyle that allowed them to make good contact with objective reality.
Society needs people like us. It’s fine for us to be flexible in many ways. But, in my view, it is not okay to have protracted conversations that involve supporting an astral reality as a substitute for — or improvement over — human reality.
And, of course, this what alcoholics and potheads are hooked on: substances that put them in touch with life at an Astral Vibrational Frequency, not a Human Vibrational Frequency.
Perceiving life, saying and doing things, at a Human Vibrational Frequency? This is one of the great privileges unique to humans living on Earth.
Such a life, well lived, affords us the opportunity to grow way faster spiritually and emotionally.
Let’s not trash that, even temporarily, for the sake of a friend who has ideas about her pets that would be more appropriate for a five-year-old.
So, basically, you end up with two messed up people instead of one. Thanks for this a-ha which I think is an overall upgrade for how I have friendships and communicate.,
Magnificent ending to this part of our conversation here!
Thank you so much, JASMINE.
Hi Rose, so many thought provoking questions in this blogpost. This one really caught my attention:
“What might be the spiritual significance of objective reality for humans on Earth?”
Would you tell us more about it please?
PETER, good to see your latest comment here. So, what might be the spiritual significance of objective reality for humans on Earth?
First of all, we have senses that support our consciousness learning and spiritual evolution.
Maybe that seems obvious, but did you ever think of this? It’s well known that different species of animals have different senses. Do you think these support the consciousness learning and spiritual evolution of those animals?
I doubt it.
Different animals, like different plants and different members of the mineral kingdom, attest to the creativity of our Divine Creator. But non-human bodies do not support the evolution of “souls of animals,” who lack any Life Contract designed for consciousness learning and spiritual evolution.
Besides, animals that aren’t human also lack individuated souls. Sorry, but that is the truth as I know it.
For us humans, what do our physical senses show us about objective reality?
This can become an important contribution to each incarnated human being’s growth. If we simply pay attention to objective reality.
Second, our objective reality is made of things and life forms that exist at Human Vibrational Frequencies.
This really matters, since this kind of perception — human perception — represents a rare opportunity to evolve spiritually.
Third, other incarnational worlds exist at an Astral Vibrational Frequency, whichever one is best suited to that planet’s incarnational opportunity to evolve.
But our vibrational frequencies at Earth School are purposely designed to be LOWWWWW and SLOWWWWW. Enhancing other built-ins that are part of the Earth Experience for us humans.
Learn more about this, a lot more about this, by reading “The New Strong.”
Finally, thanks for asking, PETER.
Wow, thank you for the clarity here, Rose.
I guess I have some fantasy ideas about animals.
I really wanted a dog and now I am glad I don’t have one at the moment, because it will be easier to reshape my views.
If I actually had a pet it might be harder.
When it comes to deciding to get a dog, I can realize now that maybe it wouldn’t give me all that I had been hoping for.
“Wishing doesn’t make it so.”
RIVER FAWKES, you’re welcome. And thank you for this beautifully thoughtful comment.
“Wishing doesn’t make it so.” Yet American society is full of child-friendly ideas (in contrast to spiritually adult ideas) about pets, such as:
* Our pets are my family
Right now, on my Google, 512 MILLION hits.
Consider, despite the strong subconscious influence of such a popular belief, your family is HUMAN.
Cats and dogs and goldfish are not human. Loveable though they may be to pet owners, pets do not have consciousness like humans. They have no biological similarity either. Count this as a pleasing fantasy, RIVER FAWKES and other readers.
* “My dog understands me.”
Right now, on my Google, 432 MILLION hits.
Just because the pet owner really-really needs to be understood by SOMEBODY, and Fido seems to be the most promising candidate, that’s a wish. Not reality.
The consciousness of dogs and cats doesn’t come anywhere close to what humans have.
“Wishing doesn’t make it so.”
* Dogs go to Heaven
Right now, on my Google, 73.6 MILLION hits
Certain fantasies can seem like a religion to dog lovers.
Yet everything I know about different Heavens, especially due to experiences I’ve had, facilitating past-life regressions with Soul Energy Awakening Hypnosis® . . . Never have I encountered a dead pet at a Life Review or other real events that happen after a human death.
With all respect due to the power of love, and all respect due to religions, very Small Truth Value is the biggest problem here.
RIVER FAWKES, I appreciate your counter-culture comment here.
In my family everybody believed that all our pets who died would go straight to heaven and wait for us there. Then the whole family would be reunited.
Now I’m beginning to have my doubts. Can you share your opinion on whether your whole family will be reunited in heaven?
Oh, SAMMY, of course I have opinions on whether your whole family will be reunited in heaven.
Welcome to the Energy Spirituality® Blog, too.
Here I am giving just my personal opinions. This is not like when I teach a trademarked skill of Energy Spirituality, or I’m writing one of our books.
Although, full disclosure, when I write anything at this blog I am cocreating with a Divine Being.
All that said, here come some of my opinions about your family and pets all living together in Heaven.
1. The Humongous Living Room
In terms of human families and pets staying together, you’d need a very large living room over in heaven, wouldn’t you?
Think about it? How many folks would be living in your place there?
* You and your parents for this lifetime.
* Plus each of your parents is part of a family too, right? (Life on Earth didn’t begin with you, even though it may feel that way.) So you might want to picture yourself as cooped up for eternity with two sets of grandparents. And their dead pets, if any.
* Plus their dead grandparents and their brothers and sisters, etc. Going back for each bloodline, going back all the way.
Since the traditional Christian idea of heaven is Just One Heaven, like Just One Hell, you can expect to need an extremely large living room, SAMMY.
2. Everybody’s Together Now, even the Cows and Goats?
Go back a few generations and most families were farmers. (For me, that would include my Grandma Gisela.)
Depending on the kind of farming your family did, there could have been many household pets and kinds of livestock that seemed like “Part of the family.”
* Maybe Bessie, your grandmother’s favorite cow.
* And nine horses.
* Some wonderful oxen may have been indispensible for tilling the fields, so they may have seemed like trusted family members.
SAMMY, would you like sharing a condo or ranch in Heaven with all those interesting members of your family?
3. Do You Really Want the Same Dishes, the Same Dilapidated Sofa?
Because, if you take this literal belief about heaven far enough, won’t you get to have the same dishes you grew up with? And will your heavenly abode include the washboard people used for generations, every Laundry Day? How about corsets for all the females who were proper corset-wearers, back in the day?
4. There Are Different Heavens for Different Kinds of People
In reality, spiritual reality, there’s no reason to believe that even the human members of your nuclear family will go to the same Heaven. Take a good, honest look at all your blood relatives. Very likely:
* There’s nobody else who deeply understands you as an adult, nobody in the entire blood family.
Perhaps you signed up, as I’m convinced that I did, for the spiritual volunteer service known as The Awakening Project. Read more about that in my memoir, “Bigger than All the Night Sky.”
If you signed up for The Awakening Project, very likely, you didn’t meet a single person who could understand you well until you were at least 21 years old.
* Any alcoholics in your family this time around, SAMMY?
* Anybody addicted to porn?
* Anybody with a secret fondness for child pornography?
* Any homosexual who was forced into Conversion Therapy? (Maybe with former Vice President Mike Pence?)
You get the gloomy idea.
Folks with these proclivities would each go to a heaven populated by people just like them. A whole worldful.
5. Religious Differences Correspond to Living in Different Heavens
SAMMY, once I had a close friend, “Gladys,” who was unhappily married. She would talk to me, with anguish in her voice, that it wasn’t enough that she and her husband, “Joe,” were both Christians.
Sure, both of them were Christians. Both of them were even Episcopalians.
But Gladys was High Church. While Sam was Low Church.
This bothered Gladys so much!!!!!!!!
From different sources that I respect, such as the books written by Robert Monroe, it’s clear that there is a different Heaven for every single religious group, each religious sect.
An entire Heaven! Why not?
In Conclusion
SAMMY, you might be ready to let go of the very literal beliefs you were taught — as a child? — about One Heaven and One Hell, and that One and Done business.
Reincarnation is a fact of life, for people who are not bound up in the need to believe in a very literal and traditional form of Christianity.
Ask about your previous incarnations, if you like, when you have your Life Review. (That will happen after this incarnation is over.)
Meanwhile, thanks for having had the courage to ask for my opinion, SAMMY.
Now you are free to keep your old beliefs and opinions, or perhaps to change. Either way, we’re allowed.
It’s fascinating to me that there are innumerable heavens.
It makes sense though.
Thanks, VIVIAN. I’ve encountered this idea in detail from the writings of the superb Enlightenment Teacher, Parmahansa Yogananda.
And yes, it makes sense to me, too.
“Strong subjective emotions can often seem to be true about objective reality. But that emotional intensity does not mean that the associated ideas are true.”
Wow, Rose! That is so well put and helpful to know that distinction.
Welcome to Enlightenment Coaching from this teacher of Energy Spirituality®, VIOLET!
Discernment matters a great deal as we seek to use our full potential in life.
I love this quote too Violet.
Thanks, VIVIAN.
Ideas about Heaven may not be as innumerable as all the various heavens that exist throughout creation, but there sure are many such ideas.
It can feel freeing to let go of ideas like “One Heaven for everybody, one and done.”
Ideas that have, imo, low truth value.
I wanted to chime in here to add that I initially had a very strong reaction when this blog post was posted, and stopped reading after the introduction, and set it aside.
I want to thank Rose and everyone who commented here.
I am someone who loves animals, and has had family pets since childhood, and now as an adult.
Many comments here I have held as true, such as Andrew’s Comment #26, sharing he knows some people who view their pets as members of their family and children, and Melissa’s Comment #3 – my pet is waiting for me in heaven.
I have been considering many of the beliefs that I grew up with and those beliefs did give me comfort.
I remember my mother consoling me as a child, talking to me about a rainbow bridge that pets cross over to heaven.
I also wanted to acknowledge Vivian’s comment 24 about low truth value, and being susceptible at certain periods of time.
One of my cats did pass away in December 2022 after illness, and that was an incredibly tough period for me. There was a brief moment then that I had looked up an animal medium – which is something I had never considered or done before .
I did not go through with booking that appointment btw.
I also wanted to mention that I did bring my reactions to this blog post to an Energy Spirituality® session with Rose within the last few months.
Rose, as always, was incredibly understanding and kind, and I did receive immense help as I considered many beliefs that I grew up with.
MICHAEL SCANLON, this wonderful series of comments sure does sound like you. For example, I just love how you, “had a very strong reaction when this blog post was posted, and stopped reading after the introduction, and set it aside.”
What a temperate and thoughtful reaction to ideas that were – splat – directly in opposition to what brought you comfort as a child.
I applaud your willingness to reconsider a belief that brought you comfort, rainbow bridge and all.
You and I, and everybody reading this Energy Spirituality® Blog have the bittersweet privilege of being among the first to live in the Age of Awakening, yet we were raised during the Age of Faith.
Seems to me, it will be easier to question Age of Faith ideas when folks have been born and raised during the Age of Awakening, or you’re among the generations to follow.
Bottom line, it’s to your benefit to be open to the idea of Big Truth Value, in contrast to Small Truth Value.
During the Age of Faith, that concept wasn’t really viable but guess what? Now that we’re in the Age of Awakening, relative truth value makes a whole lot of sense.
Thank you, MICHAEL SCANLON, for every golden word in your comments here today.