Is Heaven Real? by Miriam A. Silver

The human race has asked the same question for ions - where do we go when we die?

So we ask the question, & when an answer does come, we are still too skeptical to acknowledge the response since it may not fit into a prescribed mold. After all, we all come from the same place - Missouri; we want to be shown, otherwise it holds no validity. Of course, the only way we can hope to validate an afterlife is by going there, and I don't know too many people who would want to gather that type of empirical evidence.

Being human encourages that process of thinking - cynical to the last drop. So what do we learn when we are faced with an experience that challenges our way of thinking? It creates fear. We don't quite know how to use it or where to store it or classify it into our mental database, along side of our other mundane subject matters. 

Directed by Randall Wallace and based on a book of the same title, "Heaven is Real" tells the story of a 4 year old boy who ends up taking a short trip to the other side while being operated on for acute appendicitis; however, that's just the beginning. The real story lies in how his devout community assimilates this information once publicly known. We are a very cynical race of beings who have forgotten its earlier connection to the God Force, where at one time it was as much a part of us as breathing.

This 4 year old is chosen as the messenger to wake up the rest of his community because, as a child, he is innocent and does not question. As we grow up, such ideas become tainted with adult cynicism and that pure acceptance from early on slowly slips away. We get so caught up in the details by the one who has journeyed there, trying hard to fit it into our way of acceptable thinking, that it ends up becoming a battle between what we know as reality and what we think of as pure fantasy.

What is not understood is that the afterlife is merely another dimension that lies parallel to our earth realm and various other realms. It is just as real as the one we are engaged in right now, though it has no need of physical attachments. The afterlife is just as personal and individual as each of our present and past lives, molded by our own beliefs and expectations. So what the boy experienced would be far different from another person's journey; to get hung up on specifics really isn't the important thing.

What is important is that the spirit realm is just as real as we believe this realm is, and we have a great many amazing experiences yet to encounter that are just not going to fit into a secure mental classification system. As for our very diligent "Tour Guides" on the other side - our spirit guides, teachers and protectors - they wait patiently, ready to help us acclimate to our new creative environment; ready to envelop us in the true essence of the afterlife experience - the Light.