This post was originally uploaded on July 31, 2015. It was re-uploaded as part of the Archive Restoration Project.

“I hold on to the notion
that I just wasn’t born to die
buried beneath the motion of life
I never stopped to question why
I’m still sticking to the notion
There is a bigger story left to tell
In the lowest level of this hell
Transmission coming from my savior
receiving in this lonely place
They’re analog and digital
And they’re guiding me through time and space
The path becoming clearer
I’m getting closer
And everyday I’m nearer
To The Salvation Code.” –Scandroid

When someone stops believing in heaven as an afterlife, people often ask, “Then how do you find purpose in life?”

I’ve heard some great responses from atheists – whole theories about ethics and humanism have centered on this question. What I haven’t seen as much of, though, is the idea that heaven exists as a force, an experience, something that starts now, and something that has yet to manifest.

I invented the word “frumonition” to give myself a concise way to describe a thing that I do. We don’t have a word in our language for manifest-destiny, for the-process-of-making-a-dream-real. “Frumonition” comes from combining the words “fruition” and “premonition,” and it’s something like prophecy, but also something like revolution.

I’ve always loved the line from Rush’s song Vital Signs that says “drag the dream into existence,” And it’s rather like that. Frumonition unites the whole self – past, present, and future; and also dreamer, mystic, creator and doer. Frumonition is manifest destiny, free will and prophecy combined. When I look into the future and see my ambition imagined, my decision to make that dream a reality is a frumonitive step. The resonance of my spirit with the dream is a more solid decision of frumonition than a merely cognitive one.

Frumonition says that my focus determines my reality. As above, so below.

Part of bringing heaven on earth is that the kingdom of heaven is within – it is aion, the way emotions and experiences intensify when I’m paying attention. Listening, noticing, observing, being wakeful – those are the ways of the agent of heaven. Because my name is an epithet for Artemis, I also personally identify with the quiet watcher in the moon, and the detailed attention of a hunter.

I once heard that if part of a fractal changes, the rest of it will follow suit. When I free myself and live in a more heavenly way, that will have a real impact on the people around me. That’s why I love existentialism, which says to behave in the same way I think everyone should be allowed to behave.

Another part of bringing heaven on earth, though, acknowledges the reality that we’re far from heaven. Massive genocides are still piling in our recent history, the climate is changing, and we’re out of touch with each other and with ourselves.

I have a crazy idea that humanity is evolving, and our goal is to bring heaven on earth. From atheists and agnostics, you might hear the ideas of humanism or transhumanism, and I identify with those ideas, too. Philip Pullman ends his book The Amber Spyglass with the mission to bring the “Republic of Heaven.”

I like the word “heaven” a lot, though. It has so many positive connotations for the collective consciousness. I also have the advantage of using a code word that only some people will understand, because only those who are paying attention will know that I’m talking about an idea, a dream, a force, and not an afterlife.

I don’t know what heaven will be like when it finally manifests, or if it will ever manifest completely. I know for me, I aim to learn as much as I can about what the nature of heaven is, and apply that to my life.

Hell constrains, heaven frees. So I rob and murder my heroes, and take no followers. Hell is imbalance, and heaven is balance. So I don’t cling to the light, and I’m not afraid of the dark, and I realize that there is color beyond black and white. Hell un-Names, heaven Names. So I seek out the true identity and subjective perception within myself and others. The list goes on and on, for the manifestation of heaven is the manifestation of an endless discovery, a truth without opposite.

When I realized that heaven wasn’t an afterlife, my life had far more purpose. I knew that heaven was something else, and my frumonition tells me that it is both within and it must be dragged into existence.