Entering heaven alive

Entering heaven alive (called by various religions "ascension", "assumption", or "translation") is a belief held in various religions. Since death is the normal end to an individual's life on Earth and the beginning of afterlife, entering heaven without dying first is considered exceptional and usually a sign of a deity's special recognition of the individual's piety.
Ascended Master Teachings.
Members of various Ascended Master Teachings, a group of New Age religions based on Theosophy, believe that Francis Bacon underwent a physical Ascension without experiencing death (he then became the deity St. Germain). They also believe numerous others have undergone Ascension; they are called the Ascended Masters and act as spirit guides to human souls on their spiritual path. The leaders of these religions claim to be able to receive channeled messages from the Ascended Masters, which they then relay to their followers.
Christianity.
The Christian Bible, in the Old Testament, records that both the prophet Elijah and the patriarch Enoch were bodily assumed into Heaven on a chariot of fire.
Since the adoption of the Nicene Creed in 325, the ascension of Jesus into heaven, as related in the New Testament, has been officially taught by all orthodox Christian churches and is celebrated on Ascension Thursday. In the Roman Catholic Church, the ascension of the Lord is a Holy Day of Obligation. In the Eastern Orthodox Church the ascension is one of twelve Great Feasts.
In the Reformed Churches, which teach Calvinist theology, belief in the ascension of Christ is included in the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Heidelberg Catechism and the Second Helvetic Confession."
The "rapture" is a reference to "being caught up" as found in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, when the "dead in Christ" and "we who are alive and remain" will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord, though Christians differ on interpretation.
Catholicism.
Enoch and Elijah are said in scripture to have been taken into heaven while still alive and not experiencing physical death.
The Catholic Church distinguishes between the ascension of Jesus in which he rose to heaven by his own power, and the assumption of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who was raised to heaven by God's power.
On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII, acting "ex cathedra", issued "Munificentissimus Deus", an authoritative statement of official dogma of Roman Catholicism. In Section 44 the pope stated:
The doctrine is based on sacred tradition that Mary, mother of Jesus, was bodily assumed into heaven. For centuries before that, the assumption was celebrated in art. The proclamation states that Mary suffered bodily death before being assumed into heaven. Some theologians have argued that Mary didn't die, but this is contrary to the text of the dogma's proclamation.
Eastern Christianity.
The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that three other persons were taken bodily into heaven: Enoch, Elijah (Elias) and the Theotokos (Virgin Mary). Similar to the Western "Assumption" of Mary, the Orthodox celebrate the Dormition of the Mother of God on August 15. The Orthodox teach that Mary died a natural death like any other human being, that she was buried by the Apostles (except for Thomas, who was late), and three days later (after Thomas had arrived) was found to be missing from her tomb. The church teaches that the Apostles received a revelation during which the Theotokos appeared to them and told them she had been resurrected by Jesus and taken body and soul into heaven. The Orthodox teach that Mary already enjoys the fullness of heavenly bliss that the other saints will experience only after the Last Judgment.
Islam.
Islamic teaching states that Muhammad ascended into heaven alive at the site of the Dome of the Rock. However, this ascent was temporary and he came back to Earth. It is ascribed to the exact descriptions presented in both the Quran and the Hadith.
Islamic texts deny the idea of crucifixion or death attributed to Jesus by the New Testament. The Quran states that people (i.e., the Jews and Romans) sought to kill Jesus, but they could not crucify or kill him, although "this was made to appear to them". Muslims believe that Jesus was not crucified but instead he was raised by God unto the heavens. This "raising" is often understood to mean through bodily ascension.
Some Islamic scholars have identified the prophet Idris to be the same person as Enoch from the Bible. This is because the Quran states that God "raised him to a lofty station", and that has been taken to be a term for ascending, upon which it is concluded that "Idris" was "Enoch".
In contrast, the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam believe that Jesus, having survived crucifixion and later living to old age, that only his rank and spiritual stature was ‘raised’ to be closer to God. The movement reject the notion of Jesus’s bodily ascension into heaven.
Judaism.
Heaven in Judaism was the realm of God, Earth of mankind, and Sheol was for the dead, and travel between them was generally impossible, although God and his messengers frequently appear on Earth and the dead can be summoned up from the underworld as the Witch of Endor summons the shade of Samuel.
There are two possible exceptions to this general rule that humans could not go to heaven, Enoch and Elijah, but neither is clear. mentions Enoch as one who "...walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away," but it does not explicitly say whether he was alive or dead, and it does not say where God took him. The Books of Kings describes the prophet Elijah being taken towards "shamayim" in a whirlwind, but the word can mean both heaven as the abode of God, or the sky (as the word "heavens" does in modern English), and so again the text is ambiguous.
According to the post-biblical Jewish Midrash, eight people went to (or will go to) heaven (also referred to as the Garden of Eden and paradise) alive:
Zoroastrianism.
It is believed in Zoroastrianism that the Peshotanu was taken up into heaven alive and will someday return as the Zoroastrian messiah.