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I went searching on multiple sites (including this one actually) for people's depictions of paradise.
Nine out of ten included large bodies of water, such as an ocean, or being above a similar ocean of clouds.
The one out of ten at least featured a river, brook, or waterfall coming from the sky, always crystal clear and pure.
I'm curious as to why that is, why our pictures of paradise rely so heavily on water and green things?

Paradise

Hmm to live and coerce without fear of ones life or the lives of others...peace and harmony!

The scenery comes as a package and I would like water to be involved for al the reason stated. lol

I guess it depends on your upbringing and beliefs how you see paradise. In my personal vision I don't see any water only green fields and airy houses, peace and tranquility.

We Hindus do not have any belief of paradise (swarga)...

coz in epics and holy books did not mention that paradise how look and is...

I like the idea of making your own paradise, that is why in my dream reality I would have an abundance of money so that whatever goal I envisioned I could build.

I think it's hwre ever you decide to create it after deaath maybe?

Creating your own paradise would have to be the case, because it would be different for everyone, some would like a farm, some a jungle, some the sea.... Paradise is going to change from person to person. Shoot, I can even find the beauty in a bog/swamp, not to mention the beauty in a lava field....

It could have something to do with the fact that without water there could have not been life on this planet and this is the only planet we live on so we base our biases off of that.

well being that water is one of the four elements and there is no life with out water, I can see why majority of peolpe would always join water in with what they beleive paradise to be.

Paradise?
Good thread, I dont know why and will not repeat the obvious that has already been stated so far. My personal Idea of it would be-- a state in which I no longer worry, no longer fear the unknown. a state in which I can choose the color, texture, and content of my existence. or simply choose not to contemplate at all.

Paradise.....

To me is a forest, with rocks like a cave. Beside the cave is a stream with smooth pebbles so you can lay on the rock and close your eyes and rest under the stars and hear the stream trickling past you. To me...that is paradise.

@MysticalRealms, I thought there were 5 elements

Wood
Earth
Metal
Fire
Water

Primal needs ...... the ones hard wired in our survival instincts and are a fixed genetically. Naturally we are drawn to the elements that give and sustain our lives.

Possibly it is something in the unconscious since the body is 70 percent water. It sustains life but it is a symbol of purity. I would suspect most think of Paradise as the perfect and purest place one could enter.

In most of the myths of an afterlife there is most often a body of water mentioned so for some it is a gateway such as the river Styx. Some beliefs don't separate into a good and evil place but just one where all those who have died go. Many rivers are involved.

Even the Garden of Eden was thought of as a "Paradise" and it was surrounded by water.

"Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.[...] The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria And the fourth river is the Euphrates."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_of_Eden

I think this idea is engrained in most people's mind and they visualize water connected to Paradise. I know I do.

Water hold a significance to the terrestrial body, not to the spirit.

I think its just because water gives live, without nothing survives.

Perhaps its also an element thing, having something of all the elements of nature.

Water is the basis of all Green things, be it liquid or the greater solid and so forth. It can absorb great amounts of energy and yet release them. It can be dirty yet it is cleansing.
It can wear down mountains yet it can sooth a childs face.
Listen yet feel the quiet stream flowing.Enough for now.

it's the expression of nature...
Nature=Paradise
and the areas where nature is the must lush
is around large bodies of flowing water, like oceans
waterfalls, large lakes, and rivers

i love how it's been said multiple times here that without water there would be no life.
Of course there would be, just none that we're used to.
Some life is still created by acidic winds, magnetic fields, churning gases, etc.
Of course life would have to be defined as unified movement in a seemingly intelligent pattern...
*Shrug*

and i think Wind is also an element,
pretty sure the five were
Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Spirit,
Spirit including the life that grows on the planet as well as it's magnetic force,
Earth including metal.

Everyone knows the only elements that matter are Earth, Wind & Fire! ... and the Phoenix Horns of course!

;)

lol...
this isn't Captain Planet...
there are 4 classical elements,
held by the Hindu, Buddhist, Japanese and Greek
systems and they are:
Air [can be called Wind], Water, Fire, Earth.
They are associated with the
four known states of matter (solid, liquid, gas and plasma).

Later... there was a 5th added for space
called Aether...
but it's not really commonly used.
Spirit is not an actual element.




and the definition of life is:
is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes (biology) from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased (death), or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate.

So honestly there is no life with out water.... there is existence... like the presence of gasses and minerals and things of that matter, but that isn't life. So they are right.