What is your vision of hell? I think I had one in a dream. (Long)

[LucreziaBorgia]

Last night I had a dream, and not just any regular dream. It was incredibly vivid, and it was about hell. It was unlike anything I have ever seen.

 

I found myself in a house drawing water for a bath for someone standing in the hallway. I can still picture the guy very vividly. He was tall, thin, pale, had a fairly bad complexion, and had sandy longish hair. He was watching me and said... its ok, go to the other room and start the bath for me. So, I did. The water was loud enough to drown out what he was doing in the other room. When I turned to tell him that it was ready I was horrified to see that he had put a gun in his mouth, pulled the trigger, and left his mind - literally, blown out across the floor. I could see the tiniest details: the puddling on the hardwood floor, the soaking of the dingy white shag rug in the hall, the look on his face, the faintest smile of triumph as he had tricked me into turning my back.

 

I walked out of the hall and the next room opened up into a cavernous labyrinth of rooms, hallways, stoops, porches - pretty much a cobbling together of every type of setting, time period and culture you can think of.

 

The first person I saw appeared to be in a late Victorian setting, and was standing in a parlor, eating something from a dish he had set on a little wooden side table by a closet door. He started to choke, then vomit, then he turned a dark red and fell to the floor foaming at the mouth and died. I was terrified at this point and went to help him, but a hooded white figure came and touched the man gently on his shoulder, reviving him, and helping him stand. The figure put some more of whatever it was he was eating on his plate, and the man simply repeated what I had seen. Again, and again. Each time the hooded figure came and helped him up, and refilled his plate.

 

I turned away and the next scene was a set of porch steps. I walked up them, and there was a woman there screaming at two toddler boys, one slightly older than the other. She was screaming until spit was flying out of her mouth and her veins were popping out all over her forehead. I could see in such awful detail the matted parts of her hair from too much hairspray. The dated style of clothing the two boys had. Their terrified whimpers. She began to beat them then, and choking them, kicking them, shaking them until they were dead. Then she collapsed crying in a heap over their bodies. Wailing. A horrible sound I don't ever want to hear again. A hooded white figure came then, and carefully pulled her up and touched the boys. They stood, apparently unharmed. The woman blinked, looked at the boys and fury overcame her again as she began the cycle again.

 

I turned away, and walked through other rooms. Through other settings. Living rooms, front yards, street corners, alleyways - all patchworked together like a three dimensional quilt that you could walk through. I saw suicides, beatings, accidental deaths, murders, car accidents, self harm - all sorts of things repeated over and over.

 

My daughter was with me and she and I walked through watching the people cycling through their self destructive actions, and the hooded white figures patiently and impartially helping them set the stage so that the could continue to repeat and repeat and repeat.

 

Somehow my daughter and I got split up and I wandered through this Boschian landscape looking for her and calling her. I would find her, and grab her to me only to find that she had transformed into a wooden doll (one of those artist models) in my arms. Another time I found her, only to have someone snatch her from me, hide her from me and kill her so that I would only find her body. The hooded figures were not a part of this. They only watched as these malicious residents (not the repeating ones - these were different) did everything in their power to keep me searching, screaming, crying.

 

So, I did what I do best. I got pissed off. Royally. I decided that if someone was going to f*ck with me, I was going to turn hell itself on its head. I went first to the vomiting man. I took his plate of tainted food and dumped it on the floor. He was shocked at first, but grateful when I handed him some untainted food. He ate it, did not vomit, and smiled. The cycle was broken.

 

I went next to the screaming woman. When she began her cycle, I took her aside and spoke quietly to her and told her some secret things I won't recount here. But, she turned to her boys and took them into her arms. Her cycle was broken.

 

I found my way back to the man at the beginning and when he asked me to draw his bath, I said no, found the gun and spoke to him some secret words that again I won't say here. He smiled, put his clothes on and the cycle was broken.

 

I did this for every single scenario I saw, breaking the cycle as I went along. The hooded figures were confused, dismayed at the scene as every cycle ground to a halt. I found my way to the apparent center of the place - where the hooded figures had huddled in a circle, hiding something or someone in the middle. I walked up to the barrier and shouted over to them that they had better find my daughter and return her to me, or they would see no end to my destruction. The hooded figures parted, and in the middle was, for lack of a better word a dragon. Though the word doesn't quite fit what it was. It was red. Part snake, part dragon. Definitely reptilian, but sentient as well as sapient. It turned to me, and spoke without words saying that I could have my daughter as long as I agreed to leave, as I was not supposed to be there.

 

Apparently my dream had opened a door to a place where I was able to visit, but was not supposed to be in. I looked to my side and saw my daughter there, and we grasped hands, and walked away.

 

That was my dream, but I can see how that would be hell. A place where people repeat their most painful defining moments in life, aided by impartial beings who simply give them what they need to continue repeating for eternity or until the cycle is broken and the penitent moves on to another plane of existence. The giant reptilian thing was not evil, or angry. I did not get the idea that it was there to punish people so much as it was simply the 'person' in charge that kept the events/settings organized as they were added to the labyrinth, and kept the hooded figures in order. In other words, if there is a hell for us - we create our own hells that we suffer in, and our hells are simply added to a patchwork of suffering that is run impartially by objective outside forces, neither good nor evil.

 

Crazy, eh?

 

What are your visions of hell? What do you base your visions on?

[Kamille]

Woah crazy dream but very... literary. And perceptive. Hell is making the same mistakes over and over again.

 

I never read Dante's Inferno but now I would be intrigued to see if there are parallels.

 

Off-topic but:

Last night I dreamt that we stopped for a smoke-break in the middle of yoga class.

 

Hell?

[Ronni_W]

Too cool, LB!

A few years back I did a 'dream analysis' assignment, where students got to, well, analyze a fellow-student's dream. But I didn't get to work with anything as vivid and filled with imagery as yours!

 

Your dream kinda echoes my ideas about hell, though -- it's different for everyone...and there's a bit of choice in the 'hell' that we experience (if we choose to experience it.)

 

What I love about your dream is (what I'm taking as) the message that ONE person can make a positive difference in the experiences of a whole lot of people, of all shapes, ages, sizes, backgrounds, etc. Good for you, for being that one person!

 

Thanks for sharing

[LucreziaBorgia]

I rarely, if ever have dreams with that amount of clarity. It was almost a lucid dream, but not quite.

 

I am fascinated by how people believe and what they believe in. Looking forward to some more ideas of hell.

 

I recently flipped through a book about a man who had a NDE and recounted a vision of hell he saw. Interesting stuff.

[Ronni_W]

How did you feel once you became consciously aware of your dream?

 

The more often I read the dream, the more I'm "finding" that is interesting -- obviously through my own filters and beliefs, but still.

 

Could I ask about the "secret things" that you said to some of those you encountered? -- not to repeat them here...but...maybe...what is the significance that you're placing on them, or what about them is feeling "not right" to reveal. Was it the same message given to everyone? If not, how did you 'know' what to say to whom?

 

It that makes sense...looking for possibly...I dunno, some insight into that, I guess, maybe. Cos I think it would be cool if there ARE certain "secret" words/phrases that can help people make choices about getting out of their self-designed hells.

 

And I also understand that you may not have anything further to be able to share...that's perfectly fine, too

[nopainnogain]

They wonder if im hell bound,

well hell cant be worse than this cause im in hell now

[LucreziaBorgia]

Could I ask about the "secret things" that you said to some of those you encountered? -- not to repeat them here...but...maybe...what is the significance that you're placing on them, or what about them is feeling "not right" to reveal. Was it the same message given to everyone? If not, how did you 'know' what to say to whom?

 

You know how when you are dreaming, and something you read or say makes sense in the dream but upon waking are garbled, or non-sensical? It is sort of like that. I knew in my dream that I was saying something that unlocked their cycles so to speak, but it was almost as if I were watching myself say something and eavesdropping at the same time. They were secret words in the sense that they may only make sense in images rather than words. Hard to explain.

 

They were different messages for each person, I know that much.

[Ronni_W]

You know how when you are dreaming, and something you read or say makes sense in the dream but upon waking are garbled, or non-sensical?

Yeah, I do know...have journals filled with that kind of thing, written "under the influence" of meditation. But then there's another level that senses that, just maybe it is profound.

 

Thanks for taking the time to respond. Interesting that it was different for each. Perhaps that our "wake up call" is unique and personal...maybe that's how you got the sense that you were 'eavesdropping'? Quite fascinating.

Thanks again.

[Eve]

*Eve is highly annoyed that her post has vanished and cant be bothered to write it again in totality*

 

Abridged version follows.

 

Greatly detailed dream! Hope you find the dream has answered something you needed answering if not, seek more. My version of hell, not being connected to others and spirit. Yes, I do believe in hell. Ultimate hell would be for God to chuck people in who when they see Him they are intrigued by Him. Then for me to go off with Him to live in eternity without saying anything. Couldnt do that. End of post looked at my ultimate trust in Him because I have not heard any believers say that God mugged them or anything. Also my silly versions of hell included having to go back downstairs for something which I have forgotten, getting distracted and then having to repeat the process - because it is really annoying. Reference was then made to the famous writer, Virgina Woolf who had seven floors to her home. I could not have coped with forgetting stuff in her house. Man!

 

Final version of hell. No body lotion in the whole world.

[quankanne]

I did this for every single scenario I saw, breaking the cycle as I went along.

 

at first, I kind of wondered if this was tied into your exp. with cancer, about how you have had to reinvent yourself as you've learned to live with the disease. Then this: I looked to my side and saw my daughter there, and we grasped hands, and walked away ... as if you've walked through fire, knowing here is where you are meant to be, and not completely succumbed to the cancer.

 

but everything together? Definitely hellish.

 

I've wondered about hell in a detached way, and I think I experienced the answer when I was a teen: An image of a cold, dark, detached place with no line of communication to the love OR the loving God I know. Almost like floating adrift without reason for existing except selfish ones. And I did not like it one bit. Not because I was scared, but because I understood that I had no center, no meaning without my identity as a child of God.

 

still makes me shudder ... and truly grateful to be graced with a strength of faith.

[Trialbyfire]

Your dream isn't about Hell. My guess is that it's about self-empowering to the point where you made a difference and took control of your own life.

[Explorer]

Your dream isn't about Hell. My guess is that it's about self-empowering to the point where you made a difference and took control of your own life.

 

Ha..who are you to conclude this?

[Trialbyfire]

Ha..who are you to conclude this?

Refer to the words "my guess"...

[Explorer]

Refer to the words "my guess"...

 

I was referring to the words, "Your dream isn't about Hell."

[Trialbyfire]

I was referring to the words, "Your dream isn't about Hell."

Try to stay on topic and offer your own insights unless you're solely trolling.

 

My apologies to the OP for straying off-topic.

[Taramere]

In times of stress, I tend to dream that I'm in a maze of dark tunnels leading to unfamiliar rooms underground. In that respect, a little similar to this dream of all sorts of different unfamiliar places that you're walking into.

 

Generally, I'm trying to find my way out, back to the surface. I'll often bump into people I know in real life. Some I'm very close to, others are casual acquaintances. I'll let them know I'm lost. They'll usually seem to know where they're going, but for whatever reason I don't follow them. I decide I'm going to find my own way out.

 

In one particularly lengthy and tortuous dream, I had all kinds of horrible adventures and misfortunes in that underground maze. It was 5 years ago now that I had that dream, and the moment I woke up from it with a jump I had absolutely no doubt that it was an extremely important dream that was going to be highly prophetic. I feel stupid saying that, because I don't normally believe in these things at all....but with that dream, there just wasn't any doubt in my mind. It wasn't hell, as far as I was concerned. It was simply a series of tests I was going to have to face.

 

The dream predicted a job loss scenario where I left my workplace building taking a route suggested by my boss. This took me through a room where I saw, the bodies of three people hanging from beams on a ceiling. I knew that these were people who'd already been fired that year. The bodies were a warning to me not to take any action against the company in the event that I got dismissed. That if I did, I'd end up hanging myself.

 

Anyway...in real life I got dismissed and ignoring the advice of the dream (and everyone around me) I did take action against the company. Then an important relationship broke up....again, in circumstances very close to the dream's prediction, which quadrupled (at least) my distress about the break up. Five relatives I was close to died in the space of a couple of years. I lost my ability to manage money and developed a serious problem with speculating (very badly) on the stock market. So I lost all my money. Basically I was in that dark tunnel in real life, and it was going on and on and on. Just as it had in the dream.

 

In that dream, the ultimate conflict was where I had to destroy an evil face that I knew represented all my worst fears and my biggest weaknesses. Everyone who had ever hurt of obstructed me marched endlessly round this face. They were all dressed in grey, and looked completely listless. I felt completely powerless in front of this face. It was Voldemort, and I was Harry Potter on a broom without a wand. Suddenly I realised I had a gun in my hand. I didn't think it would help, but I thought "worth a try at least". So I shot the face and destroyed it.

 

Then I found my way up to the earth's surface and emerged in Rome. I looked down, saw I had no shoes on, and told a woman standing nearby that I felt ashamed to be out in public. She was very kind. Told me not to worry - that everyone was focused on a carnival that was taking place, and that if I ran quickly nobody would notice I wasn't wearing any shoes. Which is pretty much where I'm at now, I think.

 

LB - I wonder if some aspects of your dream relate to your feelings of protectiveness towards your daughter. Internal fears related to the knowledge that you will have to give her the freedom to find her own way and make her own mistakes in life. That there will be times you'd desperately want to intervene for her own good, but that ultimately we must all find our own way. Even if sometimes that means making - and repeating - certain mistakes until it reaches the point where we've learned and can break the pattern.

[flavius]

Beautifully and powerfully written!

 

Yes it sounds like torment, but the fact that you were able to intervene suggests that it wasn't about the hopeless infernal hell of Dante, but about the hell of real life hopelessness.

 

It reminds me of the work of Christ:

 

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because [God] hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bound, and to preach the time of the Lord's favor."

 

And remember what Jesus said: "As the father has sent me into the world, likewise I send you."

[Rooster_DAR]

Organized religion and bible thumpers are pretty close!

[Moose]

Because I think it's extremely important that this is explained.....

 

This idea that hell is literally a, "Lake of Fire" has caused numerous people to question the fairness and justness of God. It's also a grist for numerous atheist critiques.....

 

Hell is actually more of a state than a place, and it is a state of shame, of exclusion from God's honor and presence, not a place of torture. (Although, it would be for me)

[Adunaphel]

LB, I'm dropping in just to say that I found your dream extremely compelling and fascinating. Thank you a lot for sharing it!

 

Taramere, your post was really interesting and very nice to read, too!

[EnigmaXOXO]

Sounds like the missing chapter from Dante’s Inferno ... the Hell for incurable ‘fixers’ and co-dependants! Or maybe you’ve just been spending way too much time reading all the horror stories here on the Shack.

 

All kidding aside, you’ve got a wonderfully creative and imaginative side to your intelligence. You could be the next Stephen King if you’d put this stuff in writing.

 

Meanwhile (getting back to your original question ) I think the worst kind of Hell might be to suffer an eternity with all the pain, injury and suffering you caused others during your short time here on Earth. Could be an easy sentence or d*mn hard time depending on how you lived your life.

[GPFan]

LucreziaBorgia,

 

I find your dream inspiring and empowering. How did you feel upon awakening?

[LucreziaBorgia]

I felt really odd. When I have a dream that strikes me like that I usually write it down.

[marinemom5740]

Last night I had a dream, and not just any regular dream. It was incredibly vivid, and it was about hell. It was unlike anything I have ever seen.

 

I found myself in a house drawing water for a bath for someone standing in the hallway. I can still picture the guy very vividly. He was tall, thin, pale, had a fairly bad complexion, and had sandy longish hair. He was watching me and said... its ok, go to the other room and start the bath for me. So, I did. The water was loud enough to drown out what he was doing in the other room. When I turned to tell him that it was ready I was horrified to see that he had put a gun in his mouth, pulled the trigger, and left his mind - literally, blown out across the floor. I could see the tiniest details: the puddling on the hardwood floor, the soaking of the dingy white shag rug in the hall, the look on his face, the faintest smile of triumph as he had tricked me into turning my back.

 

I walked out of the hall and the next room opened up into a cavernous labyrinth of rooms, hallways, stoops, porches - pretty much a cobbling together of every type of setting, time period and culture you can think of.

 

The first person I saw appeared to be in a late Victorian setting, and was standing in a parlor, eating something from a dish he had set on a little wooden side table by a closet door. He started to choke, then vomit, then he turned a dark red and fell to the floor foaming at the mouth and died. I was terrified at this point and went to help him, but a hooded white figure came and touched the man gently on his shoulder, reviving him, and helping him stand. The figure put some more of whatever it was he was eating on his plate, and the man simply repeated what I had seen. Again, and again. Each time the hooded figure came and helped him up, and refilled his plate.

 

I turned away and the next scene was a set of porch steps. I walked up them, and there was a woman there screaming at two toddler boys, one slightly older than the other. She was screaming until spit was flying out of her mouth and her veins were popping out all over her forehead. I could see in such awful detail the matted parts of her hair from too much hairspray. The dated style of clothing the two boys had. Their terrified whimpers. She began to beat them then, and choking them, kicking them, shaking them until they were dead. Then she collapsed crying in a heap over their bodies. Wailing. A horrible sound I don't ever want to hear again. A hooded white figure came then, and carefully pulled her up and touched the boys. They stood, apparently unharmed. The woman blinked, looked at the boys and fury overcame her again as she began the cycle again.

 

I turned away, and walked through other rooms. Through other settings. Living rooms, front yards, street corners, alleyways - all patchworked together like a three dimensional quilt that you could walk through. I saw suicides, beatings, accidental deaths, murders, car accidents, self harm - all sorts of things repeated over and over.

 

My daughter was with me and she and I walked through watching the people cycling through their self destructive actions, and the hooded white figures patiently and impartially helping them set the stage so that the could continue to repeat and repeat and repeat.

 

Somehow my daughter and I got split up and I wandered through this Boschian landscape looking for her and calling her. I would find her, and grab her to me only to find that she had transformed into a wooden doll (one of those artist models) in my arms. Another time I found her, only to have someone snatch her from me, hide her from me and kill her so that I would only find her body. The hooded figures were not a part of this. They only watched as these malicious residents (not the repeating ones - these were different) did everything in their power to keep me searching, screaming, crying.

 

So, I did what I do best. I got pissed off. Royally. I decided that if someone was going to f*ck with me, I was going to turn hell itself on its head. I went first to the vomiting man. I took his plate of tainted food and dumped it on the floor. He was shocked at first, but grateful when I handed him some untainted food. He ate it, did not vomit, and smiled. The cycle was broken.

 

I went next to the screaming woman. When she began her cycle, I took her aside and spoke quietly to her and told her some secret things I won't recount here. But, she turned to her boys and took them into her arms. Her cycle was broken.

 

I found my way back to the man at the beginning and when he asked me to draw his bath, I said no, found the gun and spoke to him some secret words that again I won't say here. He smiled, put his clothes on and the cycle was broken.

 

I did this for every single scenario I saw, breaking the cycle as I went along. The hooded figures were confused, dismayed at the scene as every cycle ground to a halt. I found my way to the apparent center of the place - where the hooded figures had huddled in a circle, hiding something or someone in the middle. I walked up to the barrier and shouted over to them that they had better find my daughter and return her to me, or they would see no end to my destruction. The hooded figures parted, and in the middle was, for lack of a better word a dragon. Though the word doesn't quite fit what it was. It was red. Part snake, part dragon. Definitely reptilian, but sentient as well as sapient. It turned to me, and spoke without words saying that I could have my daughter as long as I agreed to leave, as I was not supposed to be there.

 

Apparently my dream had opened a door to a place where I was able to visit, but was not supposed to be in. I looked to my side and saw my daughter there, and we grasped hands, and walked away.

 

That was my dream, but I can see how that would be hell. A place where people repeat their most painful defining moments in life, aided by impartial beings who simply give them what they need to continue repeating for eternity or until the cycle is broken and the penitent moves on to another plane of existence. The giant reptilian thing was not evil, or angry. I did not get the idea that it was there to punish people so much as it was simply the 'person' in charge that kept the events/settings organized as they were added to the labyrinth, and kept the hooded figures in order. In other words, if there is a hell for us - we create our own hells that we suffer in, and our hells are simply added to a patchwork of suffering that is run impartially by objective outside forces, neither good nor evil.

 

Crazy, eh?

 

What are your visions of hell? What do you base your visions on?

 

that is so true about hell but my dreams of hell are more vivid dark and yes i did see a pit and fire and brimestone smoke etc,, hell is real and the devil and demons and imps are real so people let's get it togeather and live for jesus amen

blessings

[flavius]

Hi Marine Mom. I just wondered after you said about hell and demons being real, and connected it directly to serving Jesus...I'm assuming you are a Bible person. (Cool.) But are you aware that the idea of some underground empire ruled by the devil just is not in the bible at all?

 

Jesus makes reference to it once, when he says "the gates of Hades (translated as hell) will not withstand the church." Hades was a Roman myth, that this hoofed goat-man named Hades (or Pluto, same guy) with a tail and a pitchfork rules over the world of the dead. Jesus was mocking the notion! He was actually at Caesarea-Phillipi as he spoke. It was a Roman city near his Galilean home, and there was a huge temple of Pan, a goat-man, beside a rock formation known as the Gates of Hades. They did pagan rituals there, with goats, that you really do not want to hear about! But the fact that Pan was a half goat fertility god may give you a disturbing clue. An inscription there dated 148 AD suggests that an organized priesthood was still offering women to Pan at that time. If you're interested: http://www.followtherabbi.com/Brix?pageID=2067

 

All the other times Jesus says "hell" it was translated from the actual word he spoke, "Gehenna". Gehenna was a real place, the valley on the SW side of Jerusalem where garbage, including carcasses of animals and of people not worth burying, were burned. It was the town dump since it was kind of a cursed place, since in old days people used to burn children there as human sacrifices to Molech, a death god in the image of a fly. Jesus mentioned Gehenna 12 times in the gospels -- most famously he said "Do not fear those who can kill the body, but fear the one who is able to destroy both body and soul in Gehenna."

 

I am not suggesting that there is no day of judgement, or no punishment of evil, nor am I saying there is no satan or demons.

 

But if it is Jesus you serve, then it is Jesus you should be listening to. Not some ancient Roman pagans, or some medieval poets who wrote allegories about hell. Don't let other people and traditions and superstitions fill in the blanks for you.

 

Listen to Jesus. His gospel is not about hell, it is about the coming of the Kingdom of God, "on earth as it is in heaven". So don't get it mixed up just because other people do. Just read what Jesus said without adding a bunch of stuff to it. That's the Word of Life.

 

If you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehenna