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Hans Oosting

The final journey.
Some know for certain where we go when life on earth is over. They are fully convinced that there is a heaven close to God where we are reunited with all our loved ones. Many are not so sure, but they do believe that they are going somewhere; the great void, heaven, or, despite all good deeds, ultimately to hell. So many cultures, so many ideas about the afterlife. Different words such as Jannah, Jahannam, Olam Ha-Ba, Samsara, Nirvana, Duat, and other dimensions and realms of the dead.
When we close our eyes for the last time, that final journey begins. By boat, or floating as a soul leaving the body; still others climb a ladder to the Gates of Heaven, and entire tribes return to earth but in a different form of an animal. One thing is certain. We are going to a place that is grand and immeasurable. No one travels to a small, cozy spot somewhere in a small heaven. It is all grand and overwhelming, even if it turns out that absolutely nothing remains after death. And that, too, is overwhelming.