In obituaries, the deceased go to the angels, fall asleep in death, go before the Lord, enter into eternal rest, and move on to new horizons. They become one of God’s newest angels, pass into peaceful bliss, enter into the Lord’s embrace, and pass into the loving arms of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The departed go home to be with the Lord, and knock on Heaven’s door.

The selection of words to describe death seems to imply hope that when a person dies, there is something beyond the earthly realm. But what do people really think they will encounter after death?

“A 2004 Gallup Poll suggested that 81 percent of Americans believe in Heaven, and 70 percent in Hell,” said Richard Grigg, professor of religious studies at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield.

Of those Americans of Christian beliefs today, said Prof Grigg, information points to a majority who do not believe that Heaven exists as a literal place. “The three Abramic religions — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — are where the idea of Heaven that we are most familiar with really comes into play,” he explained. It was after the Old Testament was written that Judaism invented an idea of eternal life with God in Heaven, he said, with the original idea being that one died and ceased to exist until the end of time when the whole body was resurrected.

In contemporary Judaism, the belief in an afterlife has evolved more into a dictum that “One lives on in one’s deeds,” said Prof Grigg, and even most American Christians, outside of fundamentalists, do not put much emphasis on the resurrection of the body component.

“Muslims are the most straightforward about Heaven, since the Koran contains many descriptions of it as an actual place where one is rewarded with quite worldly pleasures,” he added.

Changes in people’s thinking about Heaven are influenced by cultural changes, including science and science fiction, he suspects. Still, Prof Grigg sees that a majority of traditional Christians do believe that Heaven is enough like earth that they will meet up with their departed loved ones, he said, beliefs reinforced by the New Age spirituality and “near death” experiences in which people report being greeted by loved ones as they make their way down “that famous tunnel of light and into the next world. What hasn’t been so widely reported is that a fair number of those people’s near-death experiences aren’t happy ones: they don’t see loved ones eager to greet them, but something very intimidating.”

A Glimpse Of The Tunnel

Without being aware that a life and death accident was just hours away, one Newtown resident was offered a glimpse of her future. “I was shown the tunnel, and it was all gray. There was nobody around the tunnel,” she said. She was also offered, all in the seconds it took to make a turn while driving, a choice. “If you were standing in front of the tunnel, would you choose to walk through?” a very clear, feminine voice asked.

It is her belief that her firm response of “No” at that moment accounted for the fact that she survived an accident later that day in which she was struck and nearly killed by a car. “I was so thankful that my answer had been respected,” she said.

“I believe we can be asked by spirit guides, or they try to ask, if we are ready [to die]. I think we will be reunited with people who were important to us in our life, and I think we’ll have some shape and form to us, though not so ‘dense’ as we currently are,” she said of her view of the afterlife. “There is going to be a lot of love and positive feelings,” she added.

The experiences surrounding the accident, from which she fully recovered, have exorcised her fear of death. “I am not afraid to die. More importantly, I am not afraid to live,” she said. “I do believe we go on to something.”

“I picture the afterlife to be very much like this life, but with the total presence of God,” said a Sandy Hook resident. “Therefore, there is only love, and none of the bad things can possibly exist. We will see people we knew on Earth and will get to know others in any and every capacity. Because the afterlife is spiritual, we can exist in any form we can imagine. We can be any age, at any time, and any place we so desire,” is this person’s view of the afterlife, shaped by a Christian upbringing. All questions will be answered with a full understanding, as well. “There will be some surprises, because scripture tells us that the ‘eye has not seen what God has waiting for those who love Him,’” said this believer.

Bringing Clarity

Words of a visiting priest struck home for another Sandy Hook resident. “I thought [the priest] had a good insight that I’d go along with,” he said. The afterlife is filled with saints and angels, he believes, who bring clarity to questions you have always had and who show you things that you never even dreamed of. Speaking with pets, touring the inside of a volcano, and flying with eagles are all possible. “So with an infinite number of saints and angels, coupled with infinite imagination, you spend an eternity filled with awe,” he said.

A Newtown couple whose children are of Asian descent said that they have read a lot about Asian culture and adopted some of the traditions surrounding death. The Chinese people believe that after death the spirits reside in a floating world where they are not yet in heaven but can oversee what is happening on Earth. It is not until their “tablet” is complete that they ascend to Heaven, they said. On the anniversary of a loved one’s death, the family follows a Chinese tradition, burning red paper for the deceased’s luck in Heaven; burning a dollar bill so that the spirit has money; and burning something food related so that the spirit will not go hungry. “I am hoping,” said one parent, “that there is a Heaven so that I can be together with my loved ones again.”

The key for most contemporary American believers concerning life after death, said Prof Grigg, is the experience, spiritual rather than physical, of closeness to departed family members and to God.

It must also be considered that different religions have different notions about Heaven, said Prof Grigg. Buddhists and Hindus believe in reincarnation. Contrary to what many Westerners suppose, though, reincarnation is not a good thing, but rather a “wheel of rebirth and redeath” to which one is chained. Both Hindus and Buddhists hope to one day be freed of the cycle, Hindus to reunite with God, and Buddhists to enter a state “beyond the limitations of our earthly experience,” explained Prof Grigg.

Infinite Systems

Dr Ronald Davidson, professor of religious studies at Fairfield University and the author of several books on Buddhism, said that Buddhists have traditionally maintained that the universe has infinite world systems in the various directions, and that one may be born into any of these world systems, based on the previous moral agencies, or karma. Buddhists also maintain that the universe is beginningless and endless, with no need for divinities creating or adjucating one’s past or future, Dr Davidson said.

“This means that personal decisions now have consequences for the future, but that future decisions may mitigate in some measure the unfortunate problems of the past. So if you are asking what the afterlife looks like to Buddhists,” he said, “the answer must be, it all depends on one’s behavior in this life.”

“Anna Belle” of Newtown has a belief system similar to that of Buddhism. “I believe in reincarnation,” she said. “I think there are different levels in the afterlife. Some people have work to do. I think you have a place to live, jobs, things to do to work through what you didn’t work through in this life, and then a choice to come back.” The surroundings will be earthly, but the levels will be on a different “frequency” than this reality. Children will always be children in the afterlife, and others who have died will be seen in a form of abundant health and vitality.

Having experienced “entities” in the form of spirits, voices and singing since she was a child, this midlife woman does not doubt that people will be rejoined in the afterlife. Spirit guides in human form will accompany the newly dead to the afterlife, she believes. In her meditations, she said, she sees what she refers to as “holy places” and things that are comforting, assuring her that the afterlife is not a frightening place — for most.

“I don’t think that Hell is this burning pit where people are consumed in flames, but it is a negative, bad, sickening place. There are souls that will be perpetually in that dark side,” she said, unable to travel to the next level of enlightenment. “It’s so deep and complicated.”

Similarly, a Bridgewater resident and graduate of the Yale Divinity School believes that life is just one in a long series of incarnations. “The afterlife is just the next life setting. It will provide us with the perfect set of karmic conditions,” she said, “to contribute to our spiritual evolution.” She does not believe that we merely move from one life to the next, however. As the Buddhist idea of “Bardo” suggests, she said, there is a great deal of processing between lives.

“I think it’s possible that we continue to be in relationships with people in our current and past lives, with new opportunities to work through lessons we need to master. The ultimate purpose of this growth activity is to evolve to become the purest, most highly beneficial beings possible,” she said. By clarifying our defilements it will be possible to experience a perfect union with All That Is, she added.

Nineteenth Century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, “There are so many things betwixt heaven and earth of which only the poets have dreamed.” But it would seem that what lies “betwixt” is the dream of many, not just poets.