Why Heaven and Hell Don’t Exist: How Ancient Teachings Became Misunderstood

Most of us grew up with some version of the same story. If you are good, you go to heaven. If you are bad, you go to hell. Heaven is perfect and bright. Hell is dark and full of fire. The story is simple, clear, and easy to use as a warning. It is also, when you look closely at history and sacred texts, not actually what the earliest teachers said. Heaven and hell as physical places of eternal reward and eternal punishment are not ancient universal truths. They are later ideas, built from misunderstandings, mistranslations, and, at times, deliberate choices by people in power who found fear to be a useful tool.

When we go back to the oldest layers of the Hebrew Bible, we do not find hell at all. The word that appears again and again is Sheol. Sheol is not a fiery pit. It is not a torture chamber. It is simply “the place of the dead,” a shadowy realm where everyone goes, whether they were kind or cruel, faithful or unfaithful. Scholar Alan F. Segal, in his large study Life After Death: A History of the Afterlife in the Religions of the West, explains that ancient Israelites “did not believe in heaven and hell” in the later Christian sense; they believed in Sheol, a neutral place of the dead, and focused more on life, justice, and covenant than on post‑mortem reward or punishment. The idea that God would send people to burn forever simply is not there in the beginning.

Even the word that later became “hell” in many English Bibles, Gehenna, did not start as a spiritual location. Gehenna was a real valley outside Jerusalem where trash and sometimes animal remains were burned. Over time, Jewish teachers used it as a symbol for spiritual cleansing. The Talmud, a central text of rabbinic Judaism, says that most souls who go to Gehenna stay there for “twelve months” before moving on. That is not eternal torment. That is a temporary process, more like a spiritual detox than a final sentence. It shows that early Jewish thought saw purification after death as limited and purposeful, not endless and cruel.

Jesus of Nazareth, whose words are often used to support belief in hell, did not use the word “hell” at all. He used Gehenna, the same symbolic term the rabbis used. When he spoke about the “kingdom of God,” he did not describe a distant place in the clouds. He said, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). That is a very different picture. It suggests that heaven is a state of awareness, a way of being aligned with the Divine, not a physical location where some people go and others do not. His teachings focused on forgiveness, compassion, and inner change. The later image of Jesus as someone who constantly threatened people with eternal fire comes more from translation choices and later theology than from his own words.

So how did we get from Sheol and symbolic Gehenna to the detailed, frightening pictures of hell that many people still carry today? A big part of the answer lies in what happened when early Christianity moved into the Greek‑speaking world. Greek philosophers like Plato had already developed ideas about the soul rising to higher realms or sinking to lower ones based on its purity. These ideas were meant as metaphors for moral and spiritual development. They were not meant as maps of actual places. But when Christian thinkers like Augustine read these ideas, they began to treat them as literal descriptions. In his work City of God, Augustine wrote about “everlasting fire” and helped fix the idea of eternal punishment into Christian doctrine. He blended Greek philosophy with Christian belief, and the result was a new, much harsher picture of the afterlife.

At the same time, Christianity was becoming closely tied to political power. By the fourth century, it was the official religion of the Roman Empire. In that setting, the idea of hell became very useful. Historian Bart Ehrman has pointed out that the threat of eternal punishment became “a powerful tool for maintaining order.” If people believed that disobeying the Church or the state could lead to endless suffering after death, they were easier to control. Fear is a strong motivator. It can keep people in line even when earthly punishments are not enough.

During the Middle Ages, this fear was reinforced in many ways. Preachers gave vivid sermons about hell. Artists painted terrifying scenes on church walls. Plays and public rituals showed demons dragging sinners away. Much of the imagery that still lives in people’s minds today, however, does not come from the Bible at all. It comes from a poem. Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, written in the early 1300s, describes hell in great detail: circles of punishment, strange monsters, frozen lakes, and burning pits. Dante was a poet, not a prophet, but his imagination was so powerful that his version of hell became more real to many people than anything in scripture. Over time, his literary vision and the Church’s interest in control worked together to make hell feel like a fixed, unquestionable reality.

Yet even while official religion leaned on fear, many of the most sincere spiritual seekers and mystics were saying something very different. Christian mystic Meister Eckhart wrote that “heaven is the soul’s state of being in God,” which means heaven is not a place but a condition of deep union and peace. Julian of Norwich, another Christian mystic, had visions in which she heard the words, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” Her experience of God was so full of love that she could not accept the idea of eternal torment. For her, divine love would not abandon any soul forever.

In the Sufi tradition of Islam, poets and mystics also spoke of heaven and hell as inner realities. Rumi wrote, “Heaven is within you. Hell is within you,” pointing to the idea that our inner state creates our experience. Ibn Arabi, another great Sufi thinker, described hell as the pain of being far from one’s own truth and from the awareness of God, not as a physical furnace. In Buddhism, texts like the Dhammapada say that the mind creates its own heaven and hell through attachment, anger, and fear. Hindu scriptures describe many realms, called lokas, but they are temporary and part of a larger cycle of learning, not final destinations. Across these traditions, the pattern is clear. The deeper the teaching, the less it supports the idea of eternal reward and punishment, and the more it points to states of consciousness and ongoing growth.

Modern psychology adds another layer to this understanding. Carl Jung, one of the most influential psychologists of the twentieth century, believed that religious images often reflect inner psychological realities. He saw heaven as a symbol of wholeness and integration, and hell as a symbol of the “shadow,” the parts of ourselves we deny or reject. He wrote that hell is “the shadow we refuse to face.” In this view, heaven and hell are not places God sends us. They are experiences we create through our relationship with our own inner life. When we face our shadow with honesty and compassion, we move toward something like heaven. When we run from it, we create something like hell.

Modern science, especially physics, does not talk about heaven and hell, but it does suggest that reality is far more layered than we once thought. Physicists like Brian Greene and Max Tegmark write about multiple dimensions and even multiple universes. These ideas come from serious mathematical work, not fantasy. They suggest that what we see with our eyes is only a small part of what exists. This does not prove anything about the afterlife, but it does make it easier to imagine that consciousness might move through different dimensions or states after death, rather than simply stopping or being sorted into two fixed places.

Near‑death experience research adds more pieces to the puzzle. Doctors and researchers like Bruce Greyson and Raymond Moody have collected thousands of accounts from people who were clinically dead for a short time and then revived. Many of these people report similar experiences: a sense of peace, moving through a tunnel, meeting a being of light, seeing loved ones, and watching a review of their life. In this life review, they often feel the impact of their actions on others, not as punishment, but as understanding. Some people do report frightening or dark experiences, but these are usually brief and often shift into more peaceful states. The overall pattern does not match the idea of a fixed, eternal hell. It looks more like a process of learning, healing, and integration.

If heaven and hell as literal places are not part of the earliest teachings, and if mystics, psychologists, and some scientific ideas all point toward something more fluid and complex, why do these old images still have such a strong hold? One reason is habit. Stories told for centuries sink deep into culture and family life. Another reason is fear. The idea of hell can be used to keep people from questioning, from leaving a group, or from trusting their own inner sense of truth. During the Middle Ages, the Church used hell to enforce obedience. During colonial times, missionaries used it to pressure Indigenous peoples into converting. Even today, some religious groups use the threat of hell to keep members from leaving or from thinking differently. In all these cases, hell functions less as a spiritual reality and more as a tool of control.

When we strip away the fear and go back to the roots, a different picture appears. Jesus spoke about inner transformation and the kingdom within. Buddha taught that suffering comes from attachment and that liberation is a change in awareness, not a move to a different place. Jewish mystics described layers of reality and consciousness. Sufi poets wrote about union with the Beloved. None of these teachings require a literal heaven or hell. They describe a journey of the soul that continues beyond one lifetime, moving through different states, learning, healing, and returning again and again to the Source of all life.

So if heaven and hell do not exist as fixed locations, what does? Many traditions speak of dimensions or realms of consciousness. The Kabbalah describes Olamot, or worlds, that reflect different levels of awareness. Hindu texts speak of lokas, realms where souls experience the results of their actions and continue to grow. Buddhist teachings describe various realms that mirror states of mind, from peaceful to painful, but all are temporary and part of a larger path toward awakening. Near‑death research suggests that after death, the soul may go through a life review and then move into a state of peace or continued learning. Mystics across cultures describe a final return to the Source, a field of love and awareness that is beyond form and beyond fear.

Understanding this changes the way we relate to spirituality. If there is no eternal hell waiting to punish us, then fear is no longer a useful foundation for faith. If there is no external heaven we must earn, then spiritual life becomes less about passing a test and more about growing, healing, and becoming more honest and loving. Morality stops being about avoiding punishment and starts being about alignment with our own deepest truth. Responsibility becomes internal rather than imposed.

Heaven and hell as literal places do not exist. They are misunderstandings of older, more subtle teachings, shaped by history, politics, and the human tendency to turn symbols into concrete facts. What does exist is consciousness, which does not seem to be limited to the brain alone. What does exist are dimensions of experience that reflect our inner state. What does exist is a long, ongoing journey of the soul, moving through many forms and many lessons, always held within a larger field of love. That reality may be less simple than the old story, but it is also less cruel, more honest, and, in many ways, far more beautiful.

References

Segal, Alan F. Life After Death: A History of the Afterlife in the Religions of the West. Doubleday, 2004. A major historical study showing that ancient Israelites believed in Sheol, not heaven and hell.

The Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 17a. This passage explains that souls remain in Gehenna for twelve months, showing that early Judaism did not teach eternal punishment.

The Holy Bible, Luke 17:21. Jesus says, “The kingdom of God is within you,” which supports the idea that he taught inner transformation rather than a distant heaven.

Augustine of Hippo. City of God. Written in the fifth century, this work helped shape the Christian idea of eternal punishment by blending Greek philosophy with Christian belief.

Ehrman, Bart D. Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife. Simon & Schuster, 2020. Ehrman explains how the idea of eternal heaven and hell developed over time and how it was used to control behavior.

Dante Alighieri. Inferno. 1320. A poem that shaped the modern Western picture of hell even though it is not based on scripture.

Eckhart, Meister. Selected Writings. Penguin Classics, 1994. Contains the teaching that “Heaven is the soul’s state of being in God,” showing a mystical view rather than a literal one.

Julian of Norwich. Revelations of Divine Love. 14th century. Known for the line “All shall be well,” which reflects her belief in divine love rather than eternal punishment.

Rumi, Jalal al‑Din. The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks. HarperOne, 1995. Contains the teaching “Heaven is within you. Hell is within you,” expressing the Sufi view of inner states.

Jung, Carl. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Princeton University Press, 1968. Jung describes hell as “the shadow we refuse to face,” showing a psychological interpretation.

Greene, Brian. The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos. Knopf, 2011. A clear explanation of modern physics theories about multiple dimensions.

Tegmark, Max. Our Mathematical Universe. Knopf, 2014. Another scientific source describing multiverse theory and the possibility of many dimensions.

Greyson, Bruce. After: A Doctor Explores What Near‑Death Experiences Reveal About Life and Beyond. St. Martin’s Press, 2021. A medical study showing that near‑death experiences often involve peace, clarity, and life review rather than punishment.

Moody, Raymond. Life After Life. HarperOne, 1975. The first major study of near‑death experiences, showing common patterns that do not match the idea of hell.