‘Angels are singing in heaven; heaven is real.’ That’s something I read just now on the internet. Heaven is real. That’s an affirming message, of course. Very affirming. Totally affirming. But then, naturally enough, we also have to consider the alternative proposition, which is that heaven isn’t real. It’s important to take the balanced view, as everyone knows. That’s very important. If we don’t take the balanced view then what does this say about us? It says we are unbalanced, it says that we delight in the prejudiced, biased and unsupported view. It says that we already know the answer to the question that is being asked. We knew it all along and so there was no point in asking it! The answer was always going to be what the answer was going to be. We’re going to be balanced however and not make this mistake. So let us suppose the other point of view is right, which means that there is no heaven (or anything like that) which means in turn that everything is just crap and nothing great is ever going to happen, not ever, no matter how long we wait, no matter how much good stuff we do. It’s all pointless. It was all a waste of time. That’s a bummer, right? ‘What – there’s no heaven!’ we ask. ‘How crap is that?’ But that’s the possibility we are exploring here so we won’t pay any heed to how crap it is. That’s as maybe – it could still be true, you see. Crap or not. So – nothing great is ever going to happen to us, it’ll all just carry on just the same as always, day in and day out with no relief ever in store. No let up. That could be true, you see. That could perfectly well be true. We could all just be egos, after all. Did you never think of that? We could all just be egos. A bunch of egos doing ego-type stuff, trying to find some kind of satisfying egoic fulfilment the best way we can. Engaging in typical egoic-type activity, doing ego-type stuff all day long, and there might not be any more to it than that. That could be all there is to it. We like to think that there’s going to be redemption at the end of it all because all that ego-type stuff is awfully stale, awfully lacking in flavour, awfully tiresome. It’s frightening in its own way because that’s all that ever happens – the bloody old egos engaging in their perennial egoic fantasies, fantasies that are all about themselves. These egoic fantasies can be pleasant or they can be very unpleasant – they can swing both ways, as is well known. Sometimes good, sometimes nasty, sometimes fun and sometimes very crap indeed. Heaven is the ultimate ego fantasy in this case because it’s the best anything could ever be. It’s definitely the best thing that could be – it’s the very greatest thing, better than anything else ever could be, as everyone knows. ‘Boy is this going to be good’ – that’s what we say. We’re looking forward to it. Heaven is the ultimate egoic fantasy in that case – it really is. You bet it is. It really is the ultimate egoic fantasy in that case, if we’re going to carry on with this line of thinking. So let’s suppose – just for the sake of the argument – that there isn’t a heaven and this fact one day becomes clear to us.  How crap would we feel then? How crap would the poor old ego (which is who we are) feel then? That would be a bad let-down, right? That would be a bad moment, wouldn’t you say? And it could perfectly well be true you see. It could perfectly well be true. We could all just be egos, engaging in non-stop pseudo-heroic self-serving ego-type fantasies from morning til night…