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Paradise and Heaven

In our many cultures and religions, from the East to the West, we humans have always told tales of a special place called Paradise. The word pairidaeza has its origins in the Avestan language of Zoroastrian teachings, in which it means a special “enclosure.” In Greek, paradeisos means a unique “park.” We associate this term with the original “park,” the Garden of Eden, that special place where God walked and talked with us. On the cross, in his final moments, Jesus referred to this place when he told the thief who was dying next to him, “This day you will be with me in Paradise.”

Paradise. The word means so much to us. It is a place of supreme happiness, exquisite beauty, perfect peace, and safety. It is where the righteous live after physical death.

In strict Christian teachings, however, paradise is not the ultimate resting stop for the deceased but an intermediate place for the departed souls of the righteous awaiting the final resurrection of the dead to eternal life with God and Christ. Cayce’s readings support this interim view of Paradise. When he was asked what Jesus meant by his statement to the thief on the cross, Cayce answered: “The inter-between; the awareness of being in that state of transition between the material and the spiritual phases of consciousness of the Soul.” (262-92)

Near death experiences (NDEs) have added to our understanding of Paradise as an inter-between realm that can be known while still incarnate. Most who have had a NDE return to this world profoundly changed by the time in the inter-between, mostly in their outlook and attitude toward physical life and death.

Buddhists have a concept that also seems to separate the ultimate heavenly reality from an interim paradise. According to some of their key teachings, nirvana, which means ultimate bliss, is of such a nature as to render one who experiences nirvana useless in this world. It is a heavenly state so far from earthly reality that there is no connection between the two. However, bodhisattva consciousness, literally meaning “enlightened existence,” is an interim state of consciousness of an advanced spiritual being who has chosen not to pass into full nirvana, choosing instead to continue in the round of rebirths in order to help others still in the body or even in the realms of life beyond bodily existence. Cayce appears to support this view of Paradise consciousness. During reading 5036-1 he answered a request to suggest a doctor who could carry out the recommended treatments, by saying, “There are those in Paradise who may work with these suggestions.” It’s good to know that there are healers in Paradise who can help others.

The Kingdom of Heaven

The Kingdom of Heaven is within us, Jesus taught, and he likened it to many things: to seed that a man sowed in his field, to leaven a woman hid in three measures of meal, to a treasure hidden in a field, to a pearl of great price, and to a net cast into the sea (see Matthew 13). Jesus said that one who has been made a disciple of the Kingdom of Heaven is like “a householder who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old.” Cayce’s readings say that the Kingdom of Heaven is attained through “the consciousness, the awareness of the activity of the spirit of truth in and through us, as individuals,” and explain further that “the individual does not go to heaven, or paradise, or the universal consciousness, but it grows to same; through the use of self in those things that are virtues.” (2505-1) Living in virtue and giving aid to others brings that happiness that is associated with the Kingdom of Heaven. It is a growing thing, like an unseen seed planted in good soil or unseen leaven kneaded into bread dough.

There is an implication in the Cayce work that as long as we are incarnate—in the body—we cannot fully realize or maintain a completely conscious connection with the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s somewhat akin to the Buddhist idea of nirvana being so alien to this world as to be impossible to sustain while actively functioning here. In one of his readings, Cayce said that the spiritual entity and superconscious mind are a “thing apart from anything earthly” and can only be experienced by lifting oneself up into the spirit and higher levels of consciousness. He explained that “the earthly or material consciousness is ever tempered with material conditions; the superconsciousness with the consciousness between soul and spirit, partakes of the spiritual forces principally.” He said that “we find only projections of subconscious and superconscious … in dreams and visions,” unless we lift ourselves “into the superconscious forces,” which are the higher spiritual forces and dimensions of our mind. Nevertheless, there is a connection between our earthly selves and our godly selves because the superconscious is affected by and helps affect our spiritual discernment and development, which occurs while we are in the earth realms and physical life. (900-16)

Heaven on Earth?

During one of his most inspired readings, Cayce said that we could know “heaven on earth or in the earth, or in flesh.” It is the “destiny of those that are willing, who have had their minds, their bodies, their souls cleansed in the blood of the Lamb. How? By being as He, a living example of that He, the Christ, professed to be.” (262-77) “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father which is in heaven. Heaven? Where? Within the hearts, the minds; the place where Truth is made manifest!” (262-87)

In the Revelation, a new heaven and a new earth are spoken of. Cayce stated that “as the desires, the purposes, the aims are to bring about the whole change physically, so does it create in the experience of each soul a new vision, a new comprehension. Is this not a new heaven, a new earth?” (281-37)

Heaven: A State of Mind or Place?

Some wonder if heaven is just a state of consciousness or an actual place. Some point to Jesus’ comments to Mary in the garden after His resurrection, “Touch me not, for I have not ascended to my Father.” Cayce addressed this: “Some would say this indicates that the heaven and the Father are somewhere else—a place of abode, the center about which all universal forces, all energies must turn. Heaven is that place, that awareness where the Soul—with all its attributes, its mind, and its body—becomes aware of being in the presence of the Creative Forces, one with same. That is heaven.” (262-88)