Are There Different Versions of The Afterlife?
I believe that our souls are eternal. When we 'die' here, we leave our bodies behind like we might with an old broken-down car. It's just a thing. I have not doubt that our consciousness lives on.
Yesterday, I watched a Hindu man tell his incredible NDE story. Boiling it down, he said he found himself looking at a walled city or walled compound with 12 golden doors. He said he could see that it was heaven inside. He wanted desperately to get inside, but was instead isolated on a platform. Eventually, an extremely imposing figure comes into view. He believes it is God. He has a life review and now understand his flaws and sins. The man he 'speaks' with tells him he is not ready and must go back. He is shown a very narrow door. When he goes back to his life, he must make some changes and be a better person. But, there are vague conditions about how to enter the narrow door when it is truly his time. In time, the man discovers that the narrow doorway is connected to a story in the Bible and that he must take Jesus into his heart in order to enter the gates of heaven.
To me, this contradicts a vast majority of stories that basically put spirituality, goodness and love as the most important virtues. My sense of things is that regardless of your faith, education, knowledge, or religion, we all go to the same 'place'. Maybe we have slightly different experiences based on familiarity, but essentially what happens to a man or woman who dies in Asia or Africa...the same thing will happen to me.
So, the question is, if you believe in an afterlife, are there different afterlives? Are some people in the so-called golden city and other's, even if they are good people, always going to be looking in with envy...simply because they didn't profess their faith in Jesus? I know my Christian family and friends believe this, but, to me, it seems illogical. More than anything, As much as it sounds like I might be looking for religious debate, I'm not.