Editing Afterlife (section)

===Heaven and Hell===
{{Main|Heaven|Hell}}

[[File:Georgin François, The 3 Roads to Eternity, 1825 Cornell CUL PJM 1040 01.jpg|thumb|Georgin François, ''The 3 Roads to Eternity'', 1825]]
[[Heaven]], the heavens, [[Seven Heavens]], [[pure land]]s, [[Tian]], [[Jannah]], [[Valhalla]], or [[the Summerland]], is a common [[Religious cosmology|religious, cosmological]], or [[transcendence (philosophy)|transcendent]] place where beings such as [[Deity|gods]], [[angel]]s, [[jinn]], [[saint]]s, or [[Veneration of the dead|venerated ancestors]] are said to originate, be [[throne|enthroned]], or live. According to the beliefs of some religions, heavenly beings can descend to earth or [[Incarnation|incarnate]], and earthly beings can ascend to heaven in the afterlife, or in exceptional cases, enter heaven alive.

Heaven is often described as a "higher place", the [[Sacred|holiest]] place, a [[paradise]], in contrast to hell or the [[underworld]] or the "low places", and [[Universal reconciliation|universally]] or conditionally accessible by earthly beings according to various standards of [[divinity]], [[good and evil|goodness]], [[piety]], [[faith]] or other [[virtue]]s or [[orthodoxy|right beliefs]] or the [[will of God]]. Some believe in the possibility of a heaven on Earth in a [[world to come]].

In [[Hinduism]], heaven is termed ''[[Svarga|Svarga loka]]''. There are seven positive regions and seven negative regions to which the soul can go after death.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Life After Death Revealed – What Really Happens in the Afterlife |language=en-GB |work=Spiritual Science Research Foundation |url=https://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/spiritual-research/afterlife/life-after-death/ |url-status=live |access-date=9 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612141042/https://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/spiritual-research/afterlife/life-after-death/ |archive-date=Jun 12, 2018}}</ref> After completing its stay in the respective region, the soul is subjected to [[Reincarnation|rebirth]] in different living forms according to its ''[[karma]]''. This cycle can be broken after a soul achieves ''[[Moksha]]'' or ''[[Nirvana]]''. Any place of existence, either of humans, souls or deities, outside the tangible world (heaven, hell, or other) is referred to as [[otherworld]].

[[Hell]], in many religious and [[folklore|folkloric]] traditions, is a place of [[torture|torment]] and [[punishment]] in the afterlife. Religions with a [[Philosophy of history#Philosophy of chronology|linear divine history]] often depict hell as an [[eternal damnation|eternal destination]],<!--(for example, see [[Christian views on hell]])--> while religions with a [[Reincarnation|cyclic history]] often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations.<!--(for example, see Chinese [[Diyu]])--> Typically, these traditions locate hell in another dimension or under the Earth's surface and often include entrances to hell from the land of the living. Other afterlife destinations include [[purgatory]] and [[limbo]].

Traditions that do not conceive of the afterlife as a place of punishment or reward merely describe hell as an [[Bosom of Abraham|abode of the dead]], the grave, a neutral place (for example, [[Sheol]] or [[Hades]]) located under the surface of Earth.<ref name="EECO 2018">{{cite encyclopedia |author-last=Somov |author-first=Alexey |year=2018 |title=Afterlife |editor1-last=Hunter |editor1-first=David G. |editor2-last=van Geest |editor2-first=Paul J. J. |editor3-last=Lietaert Peerbolte |editor3-first=Bert Jan |encyclopedia=Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online |location=[[Leiden]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |doi=10.1163/2589-7993_EECO_SIM_00000067 |issn=2589-7993}}</ref>