Heaven and hell

 I believe the concept that heaven and hell are places we go to and stay in after death to be a misrepresentation of a reality. Besides the evidence from many people having near death experiences, very few of which describe either, you will discover the true nature of hell is being lost, and if you find yourself there can find your way out. But you don't need to die to find either of them, again from experience, I believe the error is assuming both are permanent, and actual locations. Instead they are frequencies, and we are swinging between them constantly. Most of the time we are indeed in neither, so assume we can't experience them while we are alive. But if you think they are temporary conditions, then most people can remember at least one example of their own lives where they have been in one or both.

They are extreme levels beyond our normal experiences, and as it is easy to destroy in seconds and can take years to build, so anyone can experience hell instantly but relies on chance for heaven, and again bad experiences seem to hang around indefinitely while the best ones often wear off very quickly. But of course both are consistent as hell is the worst, so must be easier to access and lasts longer, otherwise we could all avoid it and be in heaven.

\It is also not necessary to experience hell before you can relatively see heaven, this is the shortage mentality version of progress, in fact all you need is awareness of hell without needing to experience it directly, much like being able to learn from other people's mistakes rather than from your own. So just the knowledge of darkness once is all you need to eat the serpent's apple and by awareness of the dark can then be aware of the light, otherwise you have nothing to compare it with.

How you reach heaven is a different lesson entirely, and probably not one which is necessary on the spiritual path, as it is a gradual consequence of spiritual work in general. Dreams give us the best examples of both, as they are known to be unlimited, and express the perfect imaginary experiences of both heaven and hell, maybe even in the same dream, to demonstrate both their existence and their fleeting natures. That is something nearly all of us can relate to, as dreams are often far more extreme than reality, as you can lose limbs, your head, or die altogether in a dream, just like in a cartoon, and then always wake up whole. This is also a metaphor for both literal rebirth and shamanic rebirth, where your old broken soul is torn apart and replaced with a good whole one. Conversely heaven is often experienced for a short time in dreams, and vanishes the moment you wake up, but you will have the memory so know exactly what it's like, and you were alive when you visited there.

Our spiritual evolution is gradually leading us out of hell altogether, and when we reach what many call fifth dimensional consciousness, we will raise our frequencies and hell will be a distant memory. That is a natural process, so will eventually become our normal state. There are plenty of clues around now, and if you follow more and more of them you will discover the way it works in reality.