On the subject of hell, C.S.Lewis once wrote: "There is no doctrine that I would like to exclude from Christian dogma more than the doctrine of hell, if it were in my power."... And I agree with him in many ways. No one, including Christians, should like the idea of \u200b\u200bhell. Those of us who believe in hell are not sadists who take pleasure in the idea of \u200b\u200bendless suffering. In fact, it breaks my heart to think that people I know will spend eternity in hell because they don’t know Christ. As a young Christian, when I began to study the subject of hell and its consequences, I almost lost my faith. It was very disturbing.
Hell is a hard realitybut this is what the Bible teaches, and we cannot fully understand God and His world until we come to terms with it. These seven truths should shape our discussions about hell.
1. Hell is hell because God is God.
People hastily talk about "seeing God" as if seeing God face to face is a warm and pleasant experience. But the Bible makes it clear that God's holiness and perfection is so complete that if anyone saw Him, he would die (Isaiah 33:20). Even the smallest sin in His presence results in instant destruction. When Isaiah, God's prophet, came to His throne, he fell on his face, fearing and confident that he would die (Isaiah 6: 5).
Many people dislike the doctrine of hell. There is a reason for this. God tells us about hell, demonstrating the full extent of his holiness. Hell is hell because the holiness of God is the holiness of God. Hell exists for us to stand with our mouths open before the righteousness and holiness of God. Hell should make us in awe of His majesty and splendor.
Ironically, by getting rid of hell, you are getting rid of those resources that demonstrate God's justice. When a person experiences violence or abuse as a child, he needs to know that there is a God of such a level of holiness that He does not tolerate any evil.
2. Jesus talked about hell more than anyone else in Scripture.
Some people try to evade the idea of \u200b\u200bhell by saying: “This was the God of the Old Testament, he was young and capricious then. But when he grew up in the New Testament through Jesus - the meek and gentle Jesus - He was full of love and compassion. " 
The problem is that when you start reading the Gospels, you find that Jesus talks more about hell than anyone else. Fact is, if you count the verses, it turns out that Jesus talked about hell more than about heaven. One of the most famous critics in history, Bertrand Russell wrote in his book Why I Am Not a Christian that the doctrine of hell was "One deep defect in the character of Jesus"... If we want to avoid the idea of \u200b\u200bhell, we cannot ignore the problem by just focusing on "The meek and gentle Jesus".
3. Hell shows us the extent of God's love in the fact that He saves us.
Why did Jesus talk about hell more than anyone else in the Bible? Because He wanted us to see what kind of suffering He was going to endure on the cross for us. On the cross, the execution of Jesus could hardly be described: this bloody and disfigured man was hanged on a cross, which, perhaps, was not used for this purpose for the first time - he was covered in blood, in the feces and urine of other people who had hung on him before ... Experiencing incredible pain on the cross, He slowly died.
The worst part was the separation of the Father that Jesus felt, a separation that was like hell in itself.
"My God, My God, - He shouted. - Why did You leave Me? " (Matthew 27:46). In all this, Jesus took the hell of our sin onto His body.
People usually think that hell is some huge flaw in God's love for us. The Bible shows us the other side. Hell magnifies God's love before us by showing us how far God has gone and how much He has done to save us.
4. People are eternal.
CS Lewis once observed that hell is a necessary inference from the Christian belief that man was created to live forever. He defined it like this:
“Besides, Christianity says that everyone will live forever, and this is either true or delusion. This means that if I am destined to live some seventy years, then there are many things I do not need to worry about, but they are worth worrying about, and very seriously if I have to live forever. Perhaps my bad temper is getting worse, or my inherent jealousy - more, but it happens so gradually that the changes for the worse, accumulated over seventy years, are almost invisible. However, over a million years, my flaws could develop into something terrible. If Christianity is not mistaken, "hell" is an absolutely correct term that conveys the state into which envy and bad character will lead me over millions of years. "
In another of his books, Lewis wrote:
“Hell… starts with a grumpy mood. We are trying to isolate ourselves from him and even criticize. We still have the opportunity to repent of this sin of discontent and be free from it. But one day we realize that we can no longer resist such behavior. Your I will disappear, and you can neither criticize your discontent, nor even enjoy it. There will be only one grumbling discontent, which like a faceless mechanism will work non-stop. "
5. In a sense, God does not send anyone to hell; we send ourselves there.
Hell is the culmination of telling God to get out. We keep asking Him to leave us alone , and in the end God says good. This is why the Bible describes it as darkness: God is light; His absence is darkness. On earth, we experience light and experience things like love, friendship, and the beauty of creation. These are all remnants of the light of God's presence. But when you tell God that you don’t want Him to be your Lord and you don’t want Him to be the center of your life, in the end your wish is fulfilled.
We have two options: life with God or life without God. If you say: “I don't accept God's authority. I'd rather live for myself " - this is hell. In The Great Divorce and The Problem of Pain, Lewis puts it this way:
“In the long term, the answer to all those who oppose the doctrine of hell is, 'What do you want God to do?' ... ... ... Leave them alone? Alas, I'm afraid that's what He does. ... ... As a result, there are only two types of people - those who say to God "Thy will be done" and those to whom God says "Thy will be done."
6. On the other hand, God sends people to hell and all His ways are true and righteous.
We may be tempted to be angry with God and correct Him. But how can we find faults in God himself? As the Apostle Paul said in Romans 9, who are we - just pieces of clay - to argue with the divine potter? 
We cannot be more merciful than God. Isaiah reminds us that all who are currently “at enmity against God” will come to Him at the last day and will be ashamed (Isaiah 45:24) because they will then understand how excellent God's ways are. Every time God is compared to a person in the Bible, He is the most merciful.
When we look back at our lives, we are struck not by the severity of his justice, but by the greatness of His grace.
7. It is not enough for God to take us out of hell; He must take the hell out of ourselves.
Some people see it as a problem to use hell to forcefully submit to Christianity. It's as if God said: "Serve me or you will have problems"... This may seem like manipulation. It may surprise you, but God will agree with you.
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If people believe in God simply because they are afraid or because God has performed some great miracle (Luke 16:31), they can submit, but this will not change their hearts' relationship to God. If you accept Jesus just to avoid hell, then you will hate the idea of \u200b\u200bliving in heaven, since only those who love God and trust Him will enjoy life in heaven. If you do not love the Father, then life in the Father's house will be like slavery. It is as if you are forced to marry someone you don’t want to marry. You can only go to heaven if you learn to love and trust God.
It is only when you experience the love of God that your heart begins to change and love and trust in God begins to arise in it. It is not enough for God to take us out of hell; He must take the hell out of ourselves.
Comments - 9
I myself have personally transferred literally the words “there will be crying and gnashing of teeth” in my life. January 2, 1990. I could not be helped by any medicines that were in my first-aid kit at home. And this went on for several hours. I gritted my teeth in pain. So I sincerely believe in the existence of hell and fiery hell.
Everything I've heard, read or heard about hell before has not satisfied my heart. This year, as I began to read and talk more about the gospel of grace, I decided to come back and study the subject of hell. I wrote to many pastors asking them to send me sermons on the topic of hell, listened to videos of people who had been to hell, reread verses from the Bible, talked with believers and non-believers, read philosophers, and found that people are full of fears of doubts and misunderstandings about everything related to the word "hell". As a result of this, this article was born. I invite you to explore together and reflect on one of the most exciting and mysterious topics in the Bible and Christianity in general. Let's start with the definition: the word “hell” (Greek κολασε - flour) comes from the verb κολαζο and has two meanings. The first meaning is “to cut the branches of the tree”, the second is “to punish”. This word in the Holy Scriptures is often used in the meaning of punishment. And not in the sense that God punishes a person, but a person punishes himself when he does not accept His grace. Look at the following Bible verse: “Perfect love casts out fear because fear is torment (κολασε). He who fears is imperfect in love ”(1 John 4:18). Here the word "torment" is the same word that describes hell. See what torment a person who is in fear is experiencing? What the hell is he going through? This torment is associated with a lack of love. If you read the Bible, you know how the word of God teaches that a person is reconciled to God through Christ. God is never at enmity with man, but man himself becomes the enemy of God. Even if a person becomes an enemy of God, God does not become an enemy of a person. Man himself imagines God to be angry and hostile. Let's go back to the definition of hell. What if I tell you that heaven and hell are the actions of God's grace on people? There are four words in the Bible that have been incorrectly translated, in our synodal translation, these four words are denoted by one word “hell”. The Bible uses the Hebrew word sheol to denote the word “hell,” and the three Greek words “hell,” “tartar,” and “hell”. But these words do not mean "hell", in the way in which they are present in the understanding of most people.
- The word "Hell" is used 65 times in the Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament, and means a grave (place of the dead) or a pit.
- The word "Hades" is used 11 times in the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, and has the same meaning as the Hebrew word "sheol." Thus, it also means grave or pit.
- "Tartarus" is used only once in the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in the following verse.
"For if God did not spare the angels who had sinned, but, having bound them with the bonds of hellish darkness, gave them over to be watched for judgment for punishment;" / 2 Peter 2: 4 / Notice that this verse tells us that God rejected angels and not humanity.
- Gehenna is used 12 times in the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, and each time it is incorrectly translated.
"... and if your eye tempts you, pluck it out and throw it away from you: it is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to be thrown into fiery hell with two eyes." / Matthew 18: 9 /
When Jesus uses the term "Gehenna" He means the name of the valley located in Jerusalem. At the time of Jesus, this valley was used as a city dump. Something was constantly burning on her, because people burned garbage there.
It becomes obvious to me that the Holy Scriptures do not have one universal word describing “hell”. In addition, Jesus uses the word hyena symbolically, as does His expression “pluck your eye out” which is not to be taken literally. Hell is not just a geographic location, but rather two radically opposite directions of the presence of God Himself. For some, this is a party with smiling faces. For others, a room full of cannibals ready to eat you! The bottom line is this - it depends on the eyes of faith.
Friends, what if hell is not at all what you heard about? What if there is no place where God is not? What if the love of God is not only for the saints but also for the sinners? What if a created and visible hell just doesn't exist? Do I believe in the existence of hell? Yes, I do, but I also believe that hell exists only from the point of view of man, but not from the point of view of God. This understanding is inextricably linked with the teaching of the Bible about enmity and reconciliation between man and God. If God is not at enmity with man, if God is no longer angry with us, then where can the understanding of God as angry and hostile come from? There is only one answer: only in the mind of the person himself. That is why hell exists only from the point of view of man and not God. I believe that hell really exists, but at the same time it exists as the other side of God. God Himself is heaven for some and hell for others. (we will talk about this in more detail in the third part) We cannot assume that God allows hell to exist outside of Himself, or without His influence or control. The Bible says:
"Everything through Him began to be, and without Him nothing began to be that began to be." / John 1: 3 /
"... for by Him everything that is in heaven and that on earth, visible and invisible, was created: whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or powers - everything was created by Him and for Him;" / Colossians 1:16 /
We cannot assume that God did not "put hands" to create hell. If you believe in a tormenting and eternal hell that is prepared for punishment, you must also believe that God is its author. Friends of hell does not exist outside of God, let's look at two more verses from the Bible confirming this:
"He will drink the wine of God's wrath, whole wine, prepared in the cup of His anger, and will be tormented in fire and brimstone before the holy angels and before the Lamb;" / Open 14: 10 /
“If I go up to heaven - You are there; if I go down into the underworld - and there you are. " / Psalm 139: 8 /
In both of these passages, Hell is described as a reality that is directly in the presence of God, there can be no doubt about it. And in conclusion we will look at one more verse from the Holy Scripture: “…. And the glory of the Lord descended on Mount Sinai; and a cloud covered her for six days, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from the midst of the cloud. To the Israelites, the sight of the Lord's glory was like a fire eating on top of a mountain. Then Moses stepped into the middle of the cloud and ascended the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. (Ex. 24: 16-18, NIV). Note that the Israelites perceived the glory of God as a terrible fire. But Moses saw it as a great cloud of glory - he walked right into the presence of God! This is the picture of what is hell and heaven for the believer. Byzantine Catholic theologian Rick Ballard writes about it this way: “Understanding God as the experience of Hell by those who reject Him makes the idea of \u200b\u200bHell an absolute act of mercy and love. I have even heard it described by some in our Eastern tradition as a place for those who cannot be healed, like our mental hospitals. This existence is not what God condemns them to forever, but it is the result of their own self-deception and their constant rejection of Him. By no means does He reject them, but rather we find them eternally rejecting Him. "
Friends, can you suggest that hell is not really a place of torment from the flames of fire, or the heat of a furnace, but a place of torment from the influence of God's love? And the suffering that people experience in hell is suffering and torment associated with the denial of His love? In fact, many of the early Church Fathers (Isaac the Syrian, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian) and Eastern Church Fathers, like Gregory Palamas, taught this very view of hell. In this case, we are talking not only about individual theologians, this is the teaching of the entire Eastern Orthodox Church. Look at her statement, which explains their point of view on this issue: “A common place in the teachings of the Holy Fathers of the Church is the position that heaven and hell exist only from the point of view of man, but not from the point of view of God. Of course, both heaven and hell really exist, exist as two different ways of being, but God did not create this difference. From the patristic tradition it is clear that heaven and hell cannot be regarded as two different places, but God Himself is heaven for the saints and hell for sinners. " Here is what Isaac the Syrian writes about this: “… hell is the scourge of divine love. I say that those who are tormented in hell are struck by the scourge of love. And how bitter and cruel is this torment of love! " Reading the church fathers, you will find that the sorrow of sin against the love of God is "more terrible than any possible punishment." It is agony to deny someone's love and go against it. In hell, people will not be deprived of divine love. God will love all people - both the righteous and the sinners, but not everyone will feel this love to the same extent and in the same way. “So he has mercy on whom he wants; but whom he will, he hardens ”(Rom. 9, 18). This difference between those whom He has mercy on and those whom He hardens is connected not with the choice of God but with the nature of man himself. “As the sun softens wax, and makes clay hard not by itself, but due to the difference in the substance of wax and clay, so God, the clay heart of Pharaoh, as they say, hardens.” (Theophylact Bulgarian) In other words, a person deprives himself of the love of God, hardening his heart. Basil the Great, interpreting the verse: "The voice of the Lord cuts out the flame of fire." / Psalm 28: 7 /, speaks of a miracle with Sedrach, Mesach, and Adenago in a burning furnace. Then the flame split in two, and although this flame scorched those outside the furnace, at the same time it watered the young men as if they were in the shade of a tree. Below he notes that the fire prepared by God for the devil and his angels "is cut off by the voice of the Lord." Fire has two powers: the power to scorch and the power to illuminate, it burns and enlightens. Gregory the Theologian believed that both heaven and hell are one and the same God, because everyone perceives Him in accordance with their state of mind. In one of his doxologies, he exclaims: "O Trinity, which one day will be known by all, some in radiance, others - in torment ..." The same God is both radiance and torment for people. Friends, I want to tell you again that hell is connected with God, and it is inappropriate to think that “sinners in hell are deprived of the love of God”. (Isaac the Syrian) Friends when we talk about the wrath of God it is not always what the Bible says. Unfortunately, the Greek word for "anger" in the New Testament was not conveyed in its full meaning, so people think that God is angry with them. In fact, this word can mean any strong emotion. It can describe intense passion, often bordering on anger, impulse, excitement, and the word orgasm comes from it. Friends, what if the wrath of God is not the wrath of revenge, or retribution, but fierce love? In fact, the parables say: "For in doing this, you are gathering coals of fire on his head, and the Lord will reward you." (Proverbs 25:22) The wrath of God is not an expression of hatred, contempt and rage, but a passionate expression of His love and grace, with which He reaches people. “The river of fire went out and passed before Him; thousands of thousands ministered to him, and those tendencies stood before him; the judges sat down and the books were opened. " / Daniel 7: 10 / Friends, what is this “river of fire” that flows from Him? This is the river of His love! Indeed, "the flames of heaven will be hotter for some than the flames of hell." (Dallas Willard) Truly grace and love is heaven for many, hell for some. The difference is in faith. The difference is in the heart. You cannot give up grace. You cannot stop His presence, His grace, or blessing over your life. You can only love or not love Him. He never leaves you, you can never leave Him. God never changes. He is love.
What is the stronger fire? The Flame of Christ's Love or the Flame of Hell? Friends The Bible says: “I will redeem them from the power of hell, I will deliver them from death. Death! where is your sting? hell! where is your victory? I will not have repentance for that. " (Hosea 13:14) There is no doubt that the flame of His love is stronger than the flame of hell. But if what Christ Jesus did on Calvary does not burn your heart, then even the flames of hell cannot crush it.
I don’t know who the author of this article is, and I don’t want to know anything about him. But I can only say one thing about him: he is an ignoramus and does not know the Scriptures. I’m not going to prove now what hell is because even a scholar of the Bible school should know that hell is a grave .But I want to ask those who think like this ignoramus; where in the Scripture it is written that sin will be localized, that death will be localized. WHERE? In my Bible it is written that sin will be destroyed and nowhere will be, just as death will not be, nowhere will be .. About the localization of sin, death, and the sinner is not written anywhere. Where is it written that the bodies of the wicked will change in order for them to withstand these torments or can the imperishable soul smolder? The fact that the soul of every creation is blood is also a schoolboy should know. I think it's time to start studying the Bible and not to publish articles of all the ignorant in a row. Sorry for this tone.
Four ways of karma Kovaleva Natalya Evgenievna
Does hell exist?
Does hell exist?
"I was in hell itself"
Heaven and hell. Two cardinal concepts of almost all religions in the world. How many people brought up in a religious spirit were frightened by the prospect of finding themselves after death in hell! This fear of an unknown retribution was skillfully speculated by many cunning ministers of all churches and religions ... But does it really exist, this retribution? ..
In addition to religion, philosophy and literature, the problem of hell suddenly surfaced in thanatology, becoming a part of the clinical experience of resuscitation. Everyone knows that people who have experienced clinical death during their "disembodied" sensations experienced unearthly bliss and saw truly heavenly pictures. The impression of the unearthly beauty they saw was such that many of them did not want to return to earth, despite the efforts of resuscitators. But in addition to the "heavenly visions" experienced by most people who have been in a coma, resuscitators are also aware of cases of "hellish" impressions.
German actor Kurt Jurgens, who experienced clinical death during a complex operation, recalled his feelings: “I was looking at the large glass dome of the operating room. He began to change. Suddenly turned to hot red. I saw the twirling and grimacing faces looking at me ... I honestly tried to fight and defend myself ... Then it seemed that the glass dome turned into a transparent vault, which began to slowly descend on me. A fiery rain burst out, but although the drops were enormous, none touched me. They fell around, and formidable tongues of flame rose from them. I could no longer be deluded and not see the terrible truth: no doubt, the faces of the rulers of this fiery world were the faces of the damned. I was desperate, feeling unspeakably alone and abandoned. The horror I experienced was so great that I almost suffocated. Clearly, I was in hell itself. "
Another case of "hellish" visions occurred with a housewife from Rhode Island while she was still under anesthesia after surgery on the gallbladder. The doctor who treated her said that when the patient regained consciousness after anesthesia, her first words were: "I thought I was dead, that I went to hell." She repeated this several times with her eyes wide open with horror. After the doctor calmed her down, she told him about her stay in hell - how the devil wanted to take her away. The woman's story was interspersed with a listing of her sins and what people think of her. Her fear increased, and the nurses barely kept her lying down. She became almost insane and the doctor called her mother to the hospital to try to calm her down. The patient believed that God would punish her for her sins, especially since she had a long-standing feeling of guilt over her extramarital affairs. An interesting fact is that if the majority of "returned from the afterlife" patients experienced heavenly visions, then cases of "hellish" impressions are literally isolated. Does this mean that it is easier to survive after clinical death for those who sinned little and therefore received “support from above” at a critical moment in their life, while “candidates for hell” were deprived of this divine help?
Of course, the "hellish visions" presented to patients who are in an altered state of consciousness as a result of anesthesia does not mean at all that those who have experienced them will definitely go to hell after their death. Each of us has committed one or another unseemly act in life, but not all of them lead a person to the most terrible layers of the astral world, called hell in religions. It's just that sometimes spontaneous and uncontrolled exits of the subtle body of a person into the astral plane are able to transfer his consciousness to the lower spheres of another plane. What are these spheres, and where did the formidable and terrible world of retribution, called hell, appear in the other world, created by radiant, luminous, subtle matter?
Inferno in the lower astral
The astral world, in general, is the world of light: it is created from luminous rarefied matter. But the lower layers of the astral plane are deprived of light, since their inhabitants - the souls of criminals, traitors and evil people - do not have light in their matter. The reader will remember the words from Agni Yoga that each person creates his own energy bodies by himself: good, pure thoughts and actions attract light energies into the person's aura, which make our subtle bodies clean and light. And vice versa, thoughts of anger, greed, envy create vortices of negative, prickly currents in space, which fill our subtle bodies with heavy, low-vibration energy. After death, the subtle-material complex of a person takes a place in the astral of the planet, corresponding to his energy: the astral body, burdened with negative karma of bad thoughts and actions, descends into the lower, twilight, heavy layers of the astral, and light, pure souls soar up into the higher layers, or spheres , Of the Subtle World. We have already said that each layer, or plane, of space has seven sub-planes, the conditions of which differ from each other in the purity and spirituality of the energies that fill these layers. In the lower strata, the energy is more primitive, coarser, and in the higher, it is purer and more sublime. Accordingly, the souls of spiritually undeveloped people live in the lower strata of the Subtle World. The higher spheres are available to souls who have developed spirituality and creative abilities, carrying light, high energies.
The Higher Worlds of the Cosmos - mental and Fiery - are filled with harmonious, high-vibration energies. In these worlds there are no imperfections at all, there are only various stages of an even greater spiritual ascent. But this cannot be said about the astral world. The astral world is closest to the physical; it represents the most imperfect plan of the subtle world. And if the highest layers of the astral are similar to the higher worlds in their perfection, purity and spirituality, then the lower layers of the astral are in the full sense of the word hell - the very hell that is spoken of in religious teachings.
Where did the layer called hell come from in the astral world? One should not think that hell was created by any natural forces, especially God, in revenge on humanity. Even the densest and lowest in the energy sense layers of the astral plane were not hellish in their original nature. These spheres were made by their inhabitants - the souls of people who come to another world after death on earth. It was the souls weighed down with vices and their receptacles - the astral bodies of people - that poisoned the lower spheres of the astral with their negative energy, turning them into a real hell. After all, people bring all their spiritual qualities, including passions and vices, with them to another world after their physical death.
The lowest "hellish" layers are considered not by their location in space, but by the quality of the energy that fills them. The existence in these layers is really terrible, and, moreover, the energy of the lower astral plane is much heavier than the darkest, most damned places on earth. In earthly life, villains and sinners live in the midst of ordinary people, which inevitably “dilutes” the energetic effect of their auras. In the Subtle World, however, there is no such confusion - all its inhabitants live in layers of space strictly delimited among themselves. It is easy to imagine what kind of energy a layer of space has, filled with the souls of some murderers, thieves, haters and other people with burdened karma.
What prevents the captives of hell from escaping from it into the higher and purer layers of the Subtle World? All the same single law of the Cosmos: the law of energy correspondence. If the dark, subtle body of a murderer or an evil person, saturated with negative energy, wanted to ascend to the lighter layers of space at will, it would immediately be scorched by the pure energy of the higher spheres of space; the astral shells of the captives of hell filled with dense, low-vibration energies cannot stand the touch of the pure, luminous energies of the higher layers of the astral plane.
Karma of witchcraft
What vices and sins can lead a person's soul to the dungeons of the hellish spheres?
The lower astral is the natural habitat of a special kind of dark spirits that never incarnate on earth, as well as the disembodied souls of black magicians and sorcerers of all stripes and types. The influence of black magic is such that the astral shells of sorcerers, "pumped up" by unnaturally pumped energies, cannot sometimes be thrown off for thousands of years. Sorcerers and magicians for a significant period of time can lose the ability to reincarnate on earth and exist only in the lower astral plane of the planet. They continue to do their favorite business there, luring inexperienced inhabitants of the Earth into the network of black magic, who do not know about the treachery of darkness and turn to another world in an attempt to master the techniques of black magic. Lovers of spiritualism and contacts with "extraterrestrial civilizations", but in reality - with the lower strata of the terrestrial astral, often become victims of their activities. And woe to those who really begin to hear the calling voices of the Subtle World after such attempts! These voices in the overwhelming majority of cases are like mythical sirens, luring unwary travelers to ruinous places.
Followers of spiritual teachings (especially true Yoga) also use the subtle energies of the Cosmos, but in a completely different way. The basis of yoga is love for all that exists, natural, open, pure. Such love in itself attracts subtle energies from the Cosmos and uses them for the good of everything around. Magic, instead of naturally attracting natural energies, pumps them up in an artificial, violent way. Forcing some subtle energies and forces to serve their egoistic, dark, harmful designs, black magicians upset the natural balance. Naturally, those subtle energies that they attract from space turn out to be inferior in quality. Thus, magic multiplies spatial chaos, and sorcerers are the enemies of the entire creative and bright natural environment of the Cosmos.
"Thou shalt not kill!"
In addition to magicians and sorcerers, a huge part of the prisoners of hell are murderers, traitors and everyone who during their earthly life was guilty of the death of people. Murderers after death will relive the nightmare of the crimes they have committed again and again. Moreover, in a posthumous state of consciousness, they may find themselves in the position of not only murderers, but also victims: in subjective sensations that arise in their minds like painful hallucinations, they themselves will turn into killed or tortured, experiencing all the suffering of their victims. As the follower E.P. Blavatsky A. Besant in the book "Ancient Wisdom", in these layers you can sometimes find the soul of a person "relentlessly pursued by his victim, unable to get rid of it, despite all efforts to escape from the terrible persecution, with stubborn persistence everywhere reaching him. At the same time, the consciousness of the killed, unless he belonged to people of the lowest level of development, is in a state of unconsciousness, and it is this unconsciousness that gives special horror to his purely mechanical following of the killer. " As for the so-called. serial killers-maniacs or professional killers, the horror of their position in the other world defies any description. But their posthumous suffering will still not redeem their heavy karma to the end: incarnated on the physical plane, these people will one day take the place of their former victims, being killed or betrayed by other villains like themselves.
The ethical law of the Cosmos, expressed in the formula: "Thou shalt not kill!" - comes into effect not only when life is taken from an innocent person, but also when the person himself deprives himself of life. As already mentioned, a person has no right to deprive himself of what is given to him by his own karma - life.
Some of the patients who went through a state of clinical death, describing their sensations in another "dimension", mentioned that on the way to the light spheres with unearthly colors and sounds, they "flew" some dark, twilight layers of another world, in which they saw discouraged, desperate people looking for something and cannot find in any way, as if lost in another reality. At the same time, the reanimated vaguely flashed the thought that in front of them - those who themselves took their own lives on Earth - are suicides. We already know the reasons for the difficult state of consciousness of these people. When a person deprives himself of life at his own will, and not because of karmic circumstances, the energies given to him in earthly life remain unlived, unused. They, like a magnet, bind a person to the earth, preventing him from ascending to the higher, luminous spheres. A person turns out to be a prisoner of the circumstances that he created for himself. Therefore, in Agni Yoga it is said that no matter how bad a person is on earth, he will be even worse if he takes his own life. Of course, if during his lifetime the suicide was a good person and broke under the weight of unbearable circumstances, the Light Forces are actively trying to help him in his posthumous state. But no one can escape the energetic effect of the law of karma; one can only ease it to some extent. The heavy karma of suicide is carried over to the next incarnation of a person. In his next life on Earth, the suicide will have to die no longer of his own free will. And at the same time he will be deprived of life in the happiest period of his existence, when he least of all wants to die. Will he have a chance to avoid the consequences of the heavy karma of a crime against his higher self? There is only one way to extinguish the karma of the past: to overtake it with accelerated spiritual self-improvement ...
Hungry Ghost World
Not only terrible crimes against other people and suicide can lead to hell. Strange as it may seem, but people can create hell for themselves with their immoderate "fleshly" attachments and passions. All kinds of excesses and moral licentiousness are costly to their carriers after the loss of the physical body. Excessive physical needs such as gluttony, addiction to alcohol, etc. are inherent not so much even to the physical body as to the astral principle - the bearer of the emotional-sensual principle of a person. People who control their passions and control their needs do not experience any particular difficulties in the posthumous state, quickly getting used to the new conditions of incorporeal existence. But those who, during their life, followed the lead of their astral, after death find themselves in painful circumstances for them: after all, their astral body remains the same, with the same habits and addictions.
In the structure of the infernal layers there is a special place, called in Tibetan religious sources "the world of hungry ghosts." What drives people's souls into these layers? One and only circumstance: the impossibility of satisfying previous sensory needs in the posthumous state. After death, the feelings and desires of a person remain the same as before, but they no longer have a physical body - an instrument for satisfying these desires. People who are immoderate in their physical needs, accustomed to gluttony, sexual excesses, drunkenness, etc., suffer greatly from the inability to experience the pleasant sensations that food or a portion of alcohol gave them. In the "Faces of Agni Yoga" about the preservation of astral feelings and desires after the transition to another world it is said: "Gluttony, lust, drunkenness, smoking and other purely bodily negative qualities of the spirit and lust associated with them cannot be satisfied after liberation from the body, but they can be taken with them into the Subtle World, if not outlived on Earth. If on Earth desires burn a person, where there is an opportunity to temporarily satisfy them, then what about the Supermundane, where their burning sensation cannot be quenched for a moment?
Experiencing a constant need for primitive, animal, pleasures, the disembodied slaves of their desires "get stuck" for a long time in the lower spheres of the astral plane, close to the Earth, as this gives them the opportunity to "pick up" the energetic bursts of emotions experienced by the inhabitants of the earthly plane, whose level of development and, accordingly, the needs are similar to the souls of these people. Moreover, the souls of drunkards, libertines, and gluttons hover around the entertainment establishments visited by embodied lovers of booze and other similar pleasures. The emotions and feelings of vicious people living on the physical plane attract the disembodied captives of their own passions, and they literally "stick" to their "friends in misfortune", trying to merge with their consciousness and astral body in order to re-experience their favorite gross, animal sensations. inaccessible to them now due to lack of a physical body
Often, spiritually undeveloped people who have committed suicide also take the path of vampirism in the lower astral plane. Unrealized karmic energies inevitably attract them to the lower layers of the astral plane, and they cannot resist the temptation and not succumb to the coarse animal passions prevailing in these layers.
The striving to satisfy the lowest needs in the Subtle World can cause further personality degradation. In search of any path to former pleasures, the soul can descend into the lower layers of the astral, which are in the full sense of the word waste. The inability to fight with their animal inclinations, the inability to replace them with something lofty, calling for spiritual progress, dooms the astral bodies to further degradation, the consequences of which, of course, affect their subsequent incarnation. The slaves of their passions can even physically lose their human appearance, approaching the animal state. Agni Yoga says: “Even among modern forms one can find animal-like people. Such horrors are usually attributed to the fright or shock of the mother. But among many reasons, the main one is often overlooked. One can imagine that in the Subtle World some individuals are subject to fits of lust. At the same time, Agni sinks so much that animal principles take possession of the fallen. Of course, over time they can rise again, but the animal touch is so powerful that it can be transformed into an animal form during incarnation (...) It is very instructive how the lowering of Agni allows access to animal states. "
The animal-like faces of some people are the result of close contact of their astral shells with those lower layers of the subtle world where animal elementals, that is, animal spirits, live. Attracted by its unrequited passions into the world of animal forms that is in tune with them in energy, the astral body of a person receives, as it were, an energetic stigma of an animal form, reflected in its structure and visible appearance. The visible form of the astral body is transferred to the physical body, and thus the latter receives the corresponding animal-like form.
Alcoholism, drug addiction and the astral plane
Special mention should be made of the posthumous state of the victims of alcoholism and drug addiction. Usually, people who have given up the struggle with their destructive habits are counting on one thing: sooner or later, death will put an end to everything, including the addictions that ruined them. However, not all so simple. Death as the destruction of intelligent existence does not exist, with the exception of rather rare cases of the death of the highest personal principle of man - the soul. But even in this case, the final nonexistence does not come instantly, and in the posthumous state a person will have to experience all those karmic consequences, the causes of which he himself laid down in his earthly existence.
The posthumous state of victims of alcoholism is very difficult. It is aggravated not only by the fact that in the Subtle World they are tormented by habitual urges for alcoholic potion, which cannot be satisfied, but also by the fact that the alcohol they take throughout their life causes a spatial fire on their astral bodies in quantities that the victims of their addictions can process can not.
The same, only to an even greater extent, applies to drug addiction.
Not many people know that alcohol and drugs attract and concentrate spatial fiery energies in the human body. The pleasant sensations experienced by drunkards and drug addicts are caused precisely by the partial separation of the astral from the physical body and the attraction of the fiery energy of space. But since such an attraction of energies is carried out not by a natural way of spiritual development, but artificially, the results are destructive for both the physical and astral bodies, not to mention the spiritual level of a person. “Alcoholism and opium are ugly attempts to approach the Fiery World. If samadhi is a natural manifestation of the Highest Fire, then the alcohol flame will destroy the Fire. "
“Nothing represents such a misfortune in the Subtle World as these unnatural attempts to evoke Fire without appropriate purification. One can imagine that a drunkard in the Subtle World not only suffers from cravings for alcohol, but he suffers even more from the unnaturally manifested Fire, which, instead of strengthening, devours tissues beyond the time limit, ”says one of the books of Agni Yoga.
We will return to the problems of alcoholism and drug addiction from the point of view of the psychospiritual and energetic aspects of these phenomena.
Can a soul die?
The depths of the moral decline of some people, their inability and unwillingness to change anything in their posthumous existence inevitably raise the question of whether the human soul can be destroyed and, along with it, the self-conscious principle of man. At first glance, this question seems to contain a contradiction in itself. For most people, the very concept of the soul is associated with the immortal principle of man. But in reality it is not the soul that is immortal, but the spirit.
The soul, as we remember, is closely connected not only with the eternal, individual principle of man, but also with his personal, mortal nature. If, however, formed by four principles (physical, etheric, astral and mental) and possessing self-awareness lower, personal principleperson chose the path of depravity and lack of spirituality - it may come into conflict with the highest spiritual principlehuman being - Monad, or grain of spirit(represented by a combination of the sixth, Buddhi, and the seventh, Atma, principles). This is what happens if the free will of a rational creature chose to sink into the snare of evil.
The path of degradation cannot continue forever, from incarnation to incarnation. What happens to a person who has reached an extreme point in his moral decline? His spiritual principle - the Monad - finally leaves the personal principle, which has lost the ability to evolve. After death, the astral shell of such people "gets stuck" in the lower layers of the astral, in tune with their animal passions and inclinations. After some time, it completely disintegrates, and together with its disintegration, the last grains of personal consciousness, still warm in a half-decayed astral form devoid of spirit, are destroyed.
The astral body must sooner or later be thrown off by all disembodied human souls during their transition from the astral world to the mental one. At the same time, throwing off an obsolete astral shell, the spiritual principle of a person is preserved and continues rational existence both in other, higher planes of the subtle world, and on earth, in a new incarnation. However, if there was a separation of the spiritual principle from the lower principles of a person that form his personality, the situation is different. As we remember, the human being consists of two foundations: the immortal individuality - the Monad - and the mortal personality, represented by the four lower principles and their corresponding bodies. The uniqueness of human nature lies in the fact that he carries in his own being an element of the highest spiritual principle of the Cosmos - the Monad, superconscious and superpersonal. On the nature of the Monad E.P. Blavatsky wrote in The Secret Doctrine: “... it does not belong to this world ... and can only be compared with the inviolable star of divine light and fire, cast down on our Earth like a saving board, for the individuals in which she lives(emphasis mine .- N. K.). It is these latter who must cling to it and, thus, through participation or communion with its divine nature, achieve immortality. "
If a person's personality has chosen the path of degradation and depravity, it will not be able to join its immortal spiritual principle due to the elementary discrepancy between the high-vibration nature of the Monad and the “personality complex” oversaturated with negative energy information. As a result, the physical death of a person in the last incarnation can become the death of his individuality in general. The Monad, dwelling in the depths of his subtle-material complex, will disconnect from his personal consciousness and begin the path of its cosmic evolution anew, successively going through new circles of incarnations in the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms of nature, before it accumulates a new individual consciousness and becomes the core of a new human soul. And the astral shell of its former vicious owner, abandoned by the monad, will soon decompose completely, thereby forever extinguishing the spark of his individual consciousness, not to mention the personal beginning. This terrible phenomenon represents the complete and final destruction of the consciousness of a particular individual, a transition into nothingness, while the death of an ordinary person is only a transition of his consciousness to another plane of existence.
If the Monad of a vicious person leaves his astral shell, the latter can lead a painful, semi-conscious existence in the lower layers of the astral for some time. Since the lower, mortal essence of man consists of various elements, then such vicious souls, devoid of a spiritual principle and consisting of only lower elements, are called in esoteric doctrines elementaries... Elementaries are half-decayed astral shells that exist exclusively due to vampirism.
Sensual attachments of the lower plan and moral vices can drag a person's soul into an abyss from which it will be impossible to get out. As they say in esoteric sources, the souls of people who suffered from severe forms of alcohol and drug addiction, after physical death, can lose their spiritual origin and exist for some time in the lower astral as elementaries, in order to then be completely destroyed. The same can happen with essentially soulless people who, during their earthly life, indulged in debauchery. After their death, their astral shells become "incubi" and "succubus" (vampiric creatures of male and female nature).
The activity of elementaries may consist not only of vampirism and the ability to negatively influence living people, "inciting" them to various vices. Sometimes elementaries prefer to feed themselves on the energy of low-spirit people not through the astral plane, but directly, settling for some time - until their destruction - into their astral body. Such phenomena are called obsession.
Ethics of life
It is not only immoderate physical needs and desires that become a source of suffering for disembodied souls in the Subtle World. The lower layers of the astral plane become the lot of those who, during their earthly life, have poisoned their consciousness with negative feelings and thoughts: anger, hatred, envy. But any feeling and thought, as we already know, are energies of a certain quality, acting primarily on their source - the person who radiates them. And that is why people who are accustomed to living in anger and irritation, “loose nerves”, in constant discontent, anger, irritability, who do not consider it necessary to control and restrain their negative emotions - such people become real “generators” of negative energy during their lifetime. And what happens to them after death? Naturally, they carry all their "energy baggage" into another world. After crossing the line of earthly existence, the consciousness and astral body of each individual undergoes spatial purification. The negative karma burdening the astral body of the deceased must be cleansed and reworked. And therefore, as soon as the astral body devoid of a physical shell passes into the Subtle World, spatial energies surround the subtle-material complex "polluted" with dark energy in order to cleanse it, thus preparing it for the next incarnation. If the astral body of a person is not heavily burdened with negative energy, then the process of cleansing for him is painless and quick. But spiteful and irritable people, as well as everyone who often experienced negative emotions and thoughts during their physical life, in the full sense of the word burn in the spatial energies approaching them, as in hellish fire. The most difficult feeling, causing special suffering in the afterlife, is the feeling of anger, hatred. The fate of evil people is unenviable, to be sure. The transition to the subtle world for them will mean, in the full sense of the word, hellish torment, and this fire, on which their anger is destined to burn, was caused not by someone, but by themselves.
It is no coincidence that the spiritual teachings of antiquity paid so much attention to the ethical norms of human behavior and thinking. The ethics of a person's life position completely determines his subsequent being in another phase of existence, his spiritual level and the circumstances of his future incarnation.
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Everyone heard about Hell and Paradise at least once ... at least in childhood. And I all know what it is - two "branches" of the afterlife. Paradise - with beautiful gardens and angels playing golden harps, sitting on the clouds - for the righteous. Hell - with boiling resin and horned devils roasting people who got there in pans - for sinners. Everything is so simple and clear. Some people also like to quote the well-known dictum of F. Voltaire that the climate in Paradise is better, but in Hell society is more interesting (of course, it is not easy to imagine a person who will like the society of Hitler and Chikatilo - but eventually, everyone has different tastes).
And now - attention: such an idea of Paradise and Ade exists exclusively atheists! It is based on medieval "pictures", and looking at them, one must remember that they never claimed to be "photorealistic". Even in "socialist realism" the cow in the painting "symbolizes the successes of Soviet livestock breeding" - medieval art was symbolic to the limit, never displaying reality (even earthly) literally. Even Dante (who, as you know, was not only the "first poet", but also the "last poet of the Middle Ages"), with his extremely naturalistic depiction of hellish torment, did not think that beyond the edge of earthly Existence there is a Stygian swamp or rivers of boiling blood, a stinking swamp, where the angry are immersed, even there they continue to show aggression, or hot blood that burns killers - this is a symbol, an allegorical image of the state of mind of these people.
And in this the “divine Florentine” (as his contemporaries called him) is absolutely right: both Heaven and Hell are a state of mind ... what?
Yes, such, in which a person was during his lifetime - and in which death found him. The question is how it will exist in this form without a material body.
Just imagine: a drunkard died, to whom a bottle replaced everything - family, friends, I don't even have to talk about God - the whole meaning of life is to get drunk, he no longer knows other joys ... but in an incorporeal form of being you can't get drunk - a person is not able to satisfy his only need! Hell? Undoubtedly! Or - the dictator died, there is no longer a country that he could dispose of at his own discretion, there are no "licking boots" close associates who can be sent to a dungeon at any time if tired ... Or - a libertine who "made love" like a sport all his life - and there you can't "make love", there you can only be in love - and this is something he does not know how ... Examples can be continued indefinitely - but the essence is the same: having got used to sin, with "animal" existence, a person after death will suffer from the inability to satisfy his habits. If love and striving for God were a “habit”, then now, when all obstacles have fallen, when he is in the very crucible of Divine Love, with the Creator, to whom he has been striving all his life, he will be happy.
And what will happen in this case to those who have avoided God all their lives, preferred not to think about Him, or even actively denied His existence? Will not such boundless Love burn him, for which he is not ready to meet? A person who avoided God during his life continues to do this even after death - and although it is quite difficult to avoid the Omnipresent God, the state of being forsaken by God still exists - this is Hell ...
What does it all look like? We do not know ... for the simple reason that no one returned from there (people who survived clinical death do not count: medicine cannot revive the really dead, these people still had a living nervous system - so no one can argue that the separation body and soul took place). There were, however, a few who were resurrected by the Savior - but for some reason they preferred not to talk about it (or maybe no one listened to them). So it is hardly worth saying that Hell and Paradise are invented by man - about what is invented, everyone usually knows everything ...
But even those who doubt the existence of Hell and Paradise are often concerned about the question of how to avoid the first and get into the second (in any case, many ask the question: can an atheist get to Paradise). It’s very simple: you have to live in earthly life as in Paradise! Imagine Paradise - a state of universal perfect happiness ... is it possible to imagine that there would be someone insulting, hitting, deceiving, so that someone would be left alone there - abandoned by everyone and useless, etc. etc.? Of course, on the ground It’s not easy to live like that - living by the “hellish standard” is much easier ... so there is no need to say that “cruel” God “tortures” people in Hell: we choose hell ourselves!
One of the most natural doubters questions is why is there a hell? If God is Love, why does He doom sinners to eternal torment?
The answer to this seemingly intractable question is actually not that difficult. The most important thing here is this: Christianity did not come into the world with the news that hell exists. No, hell - the dark realm of the dead - is known to almost all pre-Christian cultures. By His Resurrection, Christ revealed to people the secret of life, not death - the secret of Paradise.
Unfortunately, our ideas about hell and heaven are far from Christian ones. The word “hell” in many contemporaries recalls pictures from the magazine “Krokodil” of Soviet times: frying pans, the sides of which greedily lick the tongues of hellfire; sinners, suffering in boiling oil in these pans, and horned devils, mercilessly poking sinners. I dare to say that these pictures, for all their clarity, have little in common with the Christian understanding of eternal torment.
And if we talk about images, then I would suggest turning to ... contemporary Russian cinema! In one of the last paintings by Valery Todorovsky, "The Country of the Deaf", there is a scene that perfectly conveys the Christian nerve of the sensation of hell.
For those who have not seen the film, let me explain: the main character is a young girl. Her favorite boyfriend - a gambler - owes a huge amount of money. Risking her life, the girl collects the necessary amount for her beloved, but he (the player!), Before repaying the debt, decides to try his luck again. And… again he loses every penny.
And then the scene is stunning in strength and soulfulness: not a single reproach, not a single word of accusation, all the girl is trying to do is to calm her beloved. She says that he should not be upset that money is not the main thing, that she still earns. The main thing is that they love each other, so everything will be fine.
In response, the guy “explodes” and begins to drive the girl away from him. He shouts that he cannot be near her, that it hurts him from the realization that he - the last bastard - lost the money she earned, and in response from her - not a word of reproach, but only a promise to love him, no matter what he did ... But such love is beyond his strength, since he cannot be with her, feeling his meanness! He HURTS HER KIND, and he drives her away.
Of course, it will only get MORE EVEN. Having chased away his beloved, he will suffer all his life, because such love is one and for life. But, you must admit, it is difficult in this situation to blame the girl, to reproach her for the fact that it is she who dooms the guy to torment ...
This image, in my opinion, quite in a Christian way describes the feelings of the soul of a sinner meeting God - the One Who is Love. Love that burns, but without which there is no life. So a person who has sat for a long time in a dark room and refused to go out into the light will inevitably go blind when the sun's rays first touch his face. And who is to blame that he refused the constant call to go out into the street, towards the light? .. And the eyes, meanwhile, lost the ability to perceive light, that is, life. Therefore, it is man himself who condemns himself to eternal darkness, eternal torment.
And yet - I repeat once again - Christianity is the Good News (Greek. Gospel) about Life, not death. And all that is required of us is to open the door and step out into the light before it's too late. We still have time.
Vladimir Legoyda
Fortunately, our philosophical thoughts are rarely visited. But sometimes people think about what awaits them after death. This question is especially acute for those who are guilty of sin and understand it. Priests of all confessions promise them hellish torment. You can, of course, brush it off and sin for your pleasure. Only not everyone succeeds. Terrible unknown fears. What is hell? What are we being asked to fear? Let's figure it out.
Common folk interpretations
Let's try to understand what hell is from the stories of ignorant people. After all, they often talk about him in vain. It is believed to be a very scary place. In it, the soul of the sinner is eternally tormented. Grandmothers enthusiastically tell their grandchildren about large pans and boilers standing on the fire, in which those who do not keep the commandments of the Lord are fried. Imagining this, of course, is quite difficult. After all, we all face death. A person loses his body. It remains in this world and rests in the ground. How will it be cooked in a boiler? This is the first question that comes to grandchildren trying to understand what hell is. In fact, we are not talking about bodies, but about souls. That part of a person that cannot be seen or touched is probably immortal. Terrible torments are prepared for her, if a comrade sinned during his lifetime. And who and how will plunge the soul into suffering? It's hard to imagine. After all, man has not yet decided on the concept of the soul. She is something ephemeral, without a physical image. How to torture her? So it turns out that, apart from pans on fires and devils, nothing goes into the heads of believers. They try to explain what hell and death are based on earthly experience. And this is not true. After all, the soul passes into another world, which most likely obeys other laws.
Where did all these pans come from?
It should be noted what hell is, people have always tried to imagine and understand. Moreover, the clergy kept telling them about him. And in the literature there is a mention of fiery Gehenna. The very phrase excited the imagination of the common people. They just did not know his origin, so they came up with all sorts of fables. Gehenna was called in ancient times a garbage dump near Jerusalem. By the way, the place is also unpleasant. She was constantly swarming with worms and rats, stinking, burning. Since the local population was well acquainted with this unpleasant image, they decided to cite it as an example of the eternal habitation of sinners. Believe me, no one wanted to be in a landfill oozing infection for a long time. It was impossible and very scary to live there. This is a kind of "anti-advertising" for the ancient inhabitant of Jerusalem. Since the phrase is included in the sacred texts, it has been preserved, having lost its connection with the prototype. Now Gehenna of Fire is a terrible place in which the soul of a dead sinner suffers.
What is hell in the Bible
It should be noted that not much attention is paid to death in the sacred book of believers. From some texts it can be understood that the soul will await the Last Judgment. The Lord will call and pass judgment on everyone who has ever lived on earth. This statement suggests that the soul is immortal. What, by the way, is said in the texts. After all, after the terrible judgment, people are destined for eternal life. And its purpose is also described. Everyone will study the infinite varieties of the Lord as embodied in the world. But not much is said about where the soul will await the call for judgment. Hell is a place where sinners will suffer. It is filled with "crying and gnashing of teeth ...". This is what the scripture says. And this is no longer a hint of physical suffering, which causes screams and groans, but of pangs of conscience. After all, just such a reaction in a person is caused by thoughts about a wrong, unjust act, an offense inflicted on someone, or some other sin.
Differences in interpretations of Catholics and Orthodox
It should be noted that people of different confessions imagined in their own way what hell and heaven are. In general, they read the same sacred texts, but interpreted them in accordance with their experience and worldview. Hell is called purgatory by Catholics. They believe that souls are not just tormented. In this way they work off sins, are cleansed. There is something "capitalist" about this approach. Do you agree? Pay with negative emotions for the right to go to heaven someday! This is a pragmatic approach. Orthodox Christians are another matter. They talk about ordeals. The soul is in darkness, far from the Lord, that is why it suffers. This resembles the fate of an outcast, a person cut off from his homeland and family. He feels bad not from physical or mental pain, but because the most valuable thing has been taken away - closeness with the Lord. Agree, a slightly different approach. However, it is unlikely that the real fate of the soul after death depends on the interpretations of individual confessions.
Esoteric opinion
Religious ministers are not alone in trying to explain what hell is and where it is. There are many schools dedicated to the spiritual growth of the individual. Their luminaries and creators also relate to the issue described. They represent the soul as a bunch of energy. It is clear that frying it in a pan will not work. Therefore, we chose a different coordinate system. The universe, they say, is made up of many worlds. In earthly life we \u200b\u200bknow only a small part of it. But after death, we are destined to exist in another part of the grand universe. It can be imagined as a string of built-in worlds from dark to light. Some even levels describe them. Depending on the sinfulness of a person's life, his soul moves to the place that he deserves. If he was a terrible villain, he would be at the lowest level. There he will be in the dark, without communication and creativity. The inability to study and receive information is what hell means in their interpretation. Probably, such a theory has a right to exist. Imagine what will happen if you are put in a deaf cage, deprived of communication with the outside world? Will you last long?
Where is hell?
This question is also of interest to many. People in past centuries even tried to find it. It is clear that all experiments were unsuccessful. After all, to get to this terrible place, according to beliefs, is possible only after death. And there will be no one to tell about this experience. After all, no one has yet been able to return from the other world, except Jesus. And he, of course, did not get into purgatory. So inquisitive people have to try with the help of imagination to understand what hell is. They gave him a definition. This is where the soul suffers. But, naturally, no one knows anything specifically. And experiments are not yet allowed by the level of development of science. One thing is clear: fiery Gehenna, unlike its prototype, is not on our planet. By the way, a couple of centuries ago they tried to place it on Mars. But with the development of astronomy, this idea was abandoned. Now science has confirmed the multivariance of the universe. No one argues anymore that our world is not the only one. Therefore, it is customary to place hell in a parallel universe or other space, closed from people by an impenetrable barrier.
More about different worlds
Eternal attempts to understand the human psyche have led to the emergence of various gurus in society, trying to expand our understanding of the universe. They do this, unlike scientists, from an energetic point of view. They came to the conclusion that there are a lot of inhabited planets. Souls alternately incarnate on them. But they didn't stop there. Discussing the conditions of existence in different worlds, some interpreters have come to an original idea. They argue that the real hell is not somewhere in a parallel universe, but here on Earth. That is, we are all invited to consider that sinful souls have been gathered on our planet, experiencing certain difficulties due to past crimes. Each of them, of course, their own. Therefore, on earth, people live in different conditions. Just wondering why the world's population is growing so fast? Is it possible that in the higher worlds they will never learn to fight against sin?
Why is death given to us?
Speaking of hell or heaven, this issue cannot be left out. After all, it is death that brings us closer to the knowledge of another world (or dimension). It is in itself a very important phenomenon for humanity. Despite its unconditional naturalness, which we constantly encounter, people are afraid of this transition. Fear is inherent in us from the very beginning. No one frightens death from childhood. People themselves fear her, instinctively. Although in the holy scripture it is stated that eternal life is prepared for man. Therefore, death is given to us as a lesson. Since ancient times, people have been fighting against it. Some are trying to find ways to prolong their physical existence, others - to leave their mark on this world. There are many examples: from rock paintings to the finest works of art. All paths lead to creativity. Man wants to continue indefinitely in this world. That is, death is a stimulus for creativity, including the birth of a new life.
Conclusion
In fact, it is not difficult to understand what hell is. This idea is inherent in each of us, so to speak, genetically. It is embodied every time a person's conscience speaks. Indeed, it is at this moment that the soul begins to experience torment. Strengthen them many times in your imagination and you will understand that there is fiery hell.
