[ZZtop]

Oh, I believe the different realms might be real. Ive read alot about near death experiences and even though they tend to be viewed through a persons personal belief system, I see the different realms in them, and I choose to believe what these people are seeing is real, not just a hallucination of a dieing brain, but I digress on that last point as it is off topic. What I dont take as literal is the cosmology of how these realms are situated in our universe, as the way it is described, if taken literally, is in direct conflict with our current scientific knowledge. I also take the kalpa year-numbers as figuratively relating long periods of time rather than exact time periods.

My opinion as to the realms is that in life, ones state of mind eventually comes to dominate one state of being more than another. When one dies, the afterlife and rebirth experience one has fits with the state of being one has made for oneself in life. And beings collect in realms according to their type/state. A birds of a feather flock together type thing.