The location, or address, of heaven, depends less on human viewpoint than on the inescapable reality that we know nothing about realms of existence outside of our physical experience. The prevailing view of most faiths is that the afterlife, or heaven, is “above” us. Of course “above” is contingent on where you are standing at the moment.

It seems instinctive that heaven is in the realm overhead.

It seems that the afterlife neighborhood goes by many different names, depending on the particular brand of your belief. The entry point also has different names – the pearly gates, the rainbow bridge, and more. But, regardless of what label you put on it, the question remains – where is it?

The answer to that perplexing question is hidden in the equally perplexing vocabulary of human experience. We can only describe that “place” in terms of our own human sensory vocabulary. If that “place” exists in another realm other than the physical realm we inhabit, we have no words to describe it.

We are accustomed to describing a location by using familiar words such as right, left, east, west, up, down, inside, outside, and others. Each of these terms is understood because of universal agreement on what those terms mean. In most cases, each term can be linked to a visual representation or a physical movement.

How then can we describe a “location” that has no physical presence?

The problem, of course, is that we are handicapped by the fact that we have no vocabulary, no past experience we can use to convey the concept of an alternate realm. Those who claim to have had a brief visit to the other side via a NDE (near-death experience) sometimes describe seeing colors they have never seen. They may claim to have “heard” music like they have never heard on earth.

They may also claim that they didn’t “see” or “hear” as much as they “sensed” these things, suggesting that there are ways of receiving information beyond our basic human senses.

Perhaps the “location” of heaven, or the afterlife, falls into a similar category. Perhaps we are looking at the question backward. Perhaps our physical existence exists within the realm of heaven, but we are unable to see beyond our physical niche in the overall scope of existence.

Perhaps our journey into the afterlife isn’t so much a journey as it is an escape from the restraints of our physical world. Perhaps our death is merely the shedding of those blinders that have restricted our vision during our human experience.

Perhaps heaven is now, and has always been, all around us.