It seems very unlikely to me that there's an afterlife, so in that respect the concepts have no meaning for me.

In terms of consciousness or state of mind while alive, people can be in either a joyful or despairing state, sure, but not continuously, or there's be no yardstick to measure the feeling.

If you were always in the same blissful state of joyful consciousness, how would you *know* that this was a "good" state unless you'd also had a taste of unhappiness or despair to calibrate against?