Well, let’s start with a super scary place called Hell.
“Boo! Ha! Ha! Ha!” I laugh evilly.
Humans have been around by scientific proof for at least the past 4 million years. Two million B.C. is when we have our earliest documentation of intelligence. Archeologists have found stone tools dating of their use to that age. During the Earths formation; i.e.; the ice ages, man discovered fire around the time of 500,000 B.C. No one knows of any information pertaining to a creator until 20,000 B.C. This is when the first cave paintings were inspired. And everyone has their own interpretation on those. From angels, to Satanism, to the aliens, to the soul leaving the body when you sleep, to what ever you can imagine pretty much, such is art.
The last major ice age was around 10,000 B.C., which was located in the northern hemisphere; which made humans now migrate to places in the south areas such as, Africa, Asia, Australia, etc. and as the earth warmed up - up there, humans migrated there. Over time and to the last “little ice age” that occurred from AD1250 to 1850AD, mans belief system was based off of the slow changing environment. Scandinavians, the people of this land perceived hell as no other than that of a cold and foggy place where a Goddess of the Norse underworld ruled under the name of Nephilim, the icy land of the dead. This particular named interpretation sparked around the 900 A.D. time span. The only souls that went to this hell were the ones who died from old age or illnesses (weakness) or criminals (evil). All warriors went somewhere better.

Buhdda
Buddha declared there is no hell; however, Buddhist still perceives cold and hot hells. People who have an extreme amount of negative karma are reborn in Hell. There they stay until their karma is used up. Then they are reborn into other realms such as: the realm of ghosts, humans, animals, asuras, devas or demons. Their place of rebirth is based off of their karma just like the Hindus.
Hinduism is split is its belief. Some are universally minded, meaning they believe that no souls will experience Hell due to Gods Mercy. Others, well, in the book “Bhagavad-Gita Gita” (The song of the Lord), Hell has three gateways: lust, greed and anger.

Yama
This is a world ruled by Yama, the God of Death and King of Hell. Here Yama consoles with Chitragupta who is the record keeper of souls. Depending on ones deeds, Yama gives appropriate punishments such as being boiled in oil, burning in fire or being tortured with various tools. When one has filled his quota of punishment, then you are to be reborn according to your Karma.
Thankfully, Yama can be defeated. All you have to do is empty yourself so you can take on his form, thus you become Yamataka who is the terminator of Yama. Once you do this, you conquer all of your inner demons and transcend them by realizing how deluded your passions are by looking from the perspective of death itself. When you see death as illusory, you then know what ever it is you needed to know and can carry on.
All of this wisdom comes from the peoples of India in the 6th century B.C. They created a book per se of their Hell. There are 7 levels of Hell. The first is Samjiva. This is the Hell of Repetition. You go there for 500 years for killing living creatures. Many souls after death, experience this repetition. I heard through the grapevine it was because they didn’t realize they were dead and once they did, they moved on.
The second level of Hell is called Kala-sutra. Thief’s go to this Hell of black coils for one thousand years.
The third is Samghata, the crowded Hell of sexual deviants who will spend 2000 years there.
Number four is Raurava, the screaming Hell of drunks that last 4000 years.
Next is the Maha-Raurava, the great screaming Hell of liars that last for 8,000 years.
The fifth Hell is Tapana. It is a burning Hell full of people with wrong opinions or false perceptions. This Hell goes on for 16,000 years.
The sixth is Pra-Tapana. There you will experience a great burning heat. The sicko’s who sexually abused monks and nuns will endure this wrath for a half of a Kulpa.
And finally the last one is Avici, the Hell that has no end. This state is full of murderers.
Mahayana Buddhists of Tibet consider Hell to last for 49 days. This is the time between rebirths. Here you will face graven images. You should pray here, so you can go to Nirvana. I say here in this Hell, one should learn to be objective amongst the visions.
In Judaism, Gehenna is Purgatory, a place where souls await their judgment. The Kabbala describes it as a waiting place for all souls. Sheol is their Hell. It is a place of shadows and ghosts.
The moving of the sun and the moon and the stars are also woven into our history of Hell. For three thousand years the Egyptian culture reigned with their Hell beliefs. The Egyptian Book of the Dead has “Duat”, the underworld, where Ra the sun God goes at night including all the sinners. Light good, dark bad. Hulk mad.
Not only was the migration between the drastic climates that produced our perceptions of Hell, and the movement of the universe as well, so also was the Chinese perception of an intellectualized and least emotional Hell. Their whole concept of Hell is like that of their modern day government. You are a good worker, so you go here type of mentality. Everything seems to revolve around money. Did you know that when someone of this culture dies, the living burn what is known as Bank Notes in order to assure the dead to have some bargaining power in Hell? And whatever money he has left, he can spend however he desires to. Materialism is stupid trap.
In 5,000 B.C. farming was born in Mesopotamia. There were God’s of the harvest, death and rebirth. As time went on, the hierarchy of the masses switched and of the old God’s being cast to a hell, “the earth” since God is above. Hell is reflected in the evil essence of that culture.

In that culture of the Babylonians Hell, there are seven gates with demons guarding each entrance. Negral, lord of the underworld set them there. His wife is the true ruler. She is a demon Goddess named Ereshkigal, princess of the kingdom of shadows. She invited her husband to rule with her. She quickly got bored with him and set her sights on Tammuz, God of the harvest, who is her brother-in-law and married to Ishtar, the Goddess of love and lust. Eresjkigal kidnapped Tammuz and took him to Hell so she could have him all to herself for her pleasure. Tammuz’s wife was not okay with this so she descended to hell to save him from Eresjkigal’s grip. Ishtar failed in her attempt and was killed by Ersjkigal. At this point the God Ea stepped in and he made it so Ishatr spends Hell in the spring and summer time, while Tammuz spends Hell in the winter and fall. This separation of the couple is the reason the seasons were created.
In the English tongue, the word Hell comes from Teutonic Hel, which originally meant, “to cover or to conceal.” In the Old Testament of the Bible, (2nd Kings 23, 10) the word Gehenna is used. In Hebrew it means “Gorge of Hinnom”. This word is known to be a valley near Jerusalem. Originally this valley was used to sacrifice children to the Ammonite God Molech. Later it was used as a landfill. This landfill was extremely unsanitary, so in order to make clean of the land every so often, the “Gov’t” would burn it down. And as a scare tactic, the early church would try to control the masses by saying that Hell is like this burning garbage dump, a place of fire that is ruled by Yahweh. Where your evil doings and your soul will burn in torment. So obey or beware. Ironically in today’s time, the valley of Gehinnon is a public park. What a way “to cover or conceal” the past, isn’t it?
Another word to depict Hell was Hades. Hebrews translation of the word Sheol in the Septuagint is Hades, the Greek Mythological name of the underworld. You can find this word in Luke 16:23 the word Hades in Greek means “unseen.”
Ponder this: what is unseen? Other cultures so far have described Hell as the environment. That is seen. So what is unseen, undetected, hidden, unnoticed, un observed?
I once heard a tale about an Indian tribe that lived by the ocean. For what ever reason they were by the water and the people noticed that the waves were coming in strong as if there was a very strong wind on this calm day. They pondered how this could happen. Then the Shaman stood up and said, go on with the day and I will stand here to try to solve this mystery. So the people went on with their day and then finally the Shamans eyes could see a boat form from thin air right in front of him; now the shaman never saw a boat before, let alone know what to call it. All he knew that there was a new object with other humans on it in the water that was causing the waves. The shaman gathered the people to show them, but they could not see the boat. As the Shaman described it to them, some of them could see; then they all could. See what I said, the mind can only perceive what it knows in its own environment and any thing new there is unseen, unknown.
How many people do you know that see demons, fairies, ghosts and shadows? This doesn’t’ include the drug addict’s perspective either. How many people do you know that confess to seeing these things? I have met quiet a few actually, and all of them are in fear or awe, but at least they are on their way to understanding “evil”. Those who don’t see don’t perceive because it has not been a regular part of their experience. The lack of experience [belief] or ignorance of the experience is unseen, i.e. Hell.
“Ignorance is the mother of all evil.”
Jesus said in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Greeks did not view Hades to be the all in all of Hell. Hades is a place like that of Purgatory. Then there is Tartarus (prison), a place where conquered Gods and evil spirits are punished. Hades has a bright side too, it is called Elysium. This is where all the virtuous souls gather to live in Asphodel fields.

Ferryman
Romans borrowed their Hell from the Greeks, save Hell being located underneath Italy. Those who enter the cave are the poor or people who were not properly buried. The living places a coin in the deceased mouth. Then it’s up to the dead to give morsels to a dread hound that guards the gate. Then they pay the ferryman. He either takes you to the left if you’re gong to Hell, or to the right, which is Heaven. Before I learned of this culture, I once dreamt of being a passenger in a ferry boat that was traveling around in watered caves. I went to a room of stone and left with the ferry man back into bigger waters.

After Christians killed off a lot of the pagans and deemed the survivors as evil after taking over the Pagan land, Western Christianity also formed the idea of having this left, right concept and has Hell mapped out as a place where the souls of sinners will burn in hell fire for eternity as some Christians perceive. To accompany the lost souls, are the infamous Lucifer and all of his Angels who also will endure the eternal wrath of God. These entities are truly damned. The only way one can avoid this pit of despair is to repent and receive Jesus Christ as your personal savior, but Lucifer and his gang will never get in. If you do not bow down after the final judgment, then it’s off to the sea of fire and sulfur where you will be tormented by demons that will gnash their teeth on this dead and decaying earth. Of courses, all this misery is your own free will, so remember to repent, accept Gods Mercy and humbly accept what lessons you have learned of yourself. So basically, Hell seems to be your own choice of destination according to the bible.
“The mind not be changed by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.”
John Milton, Paradise Lost.
Eastern Orthodoxy has Hell depicted as a state of mind rather than a place. The interesting part is that in Hell, those there are tormented with love instead of hate. For God’s love to them is the worst experience they could possibly endure. I have noticed that some people I know are like this, the more love you send them, the more they seem to hate you, but as soon as you cut off your love, that’s when they come around looking for that same love you quit sending so loud. I guess there can be no denying of God’s love. It truly is omnipresent. Thanks be to God.
Personally, I listened to the way hell was described to me by a loyal Muslim who is living in America during the years of 911. He is my Mom’s second husband. In Islam, jahannam means to do with hotness. Jannath means paradise. Heaven and Hell has many levels to experience according to your personal following of Allah. The souls in Hell are not damned forever. All will live in paradise after the final judgment of God. Get this; Muslims believe that the moment of your death is very important because the moment of your crossing weighs much in what you will receive in Heaven or Hell. You can be the nastiest person alive, but if in your moment of death is in the service of love, you will be rewarded that same love in heaven. If you are “goodie-two-shoes” and die in hate, so to Hell you will go when you die until the final judgment. If you happen to be a nasty and did a good deed when younger, you will wait until final judgment to go to heaven. Simple and logical and best of all, no one is damned for eternity.

The Latter Day Saints have what is called a spirit prison. This is a temporary hell where one can repent and be reborn. The permanent hell for the purely evil is called outer darkness.

The writer Dante construed his imagination into rivers. His Hell has four rivers. One is the river Styx, a.k.a., and the river of hate. The second is the river of Acheron, which imbues sorrow. The third is the river of Phlegethon, The River of fire, violence. The fourth is the river Lethe, The River of forgetfulness. My son Derrek at the ripe old age of five described this to me once in story time and gave warnings directly to me or else! He described the river of fire. Not too long after or after what I have done (I cant quite remember) I held someone’s life with two fingers and a thumb. You will read about that later. Ya know what? I am feeling rather nervous right now.

Native Americans knew of no Hell. They did recognize an underworld of ghosts of those who did not die in battle. Their heaven is called the Happy Hunting Grounds, where food is plentiful.

The Mayans of South America has a Hell that started in 1519, the time period when the white man arrived. Imagine that. Their Hell consists of periods of time. There are nine cycles (generations) that last 52 years each. What happens in 2044? A revolution to kill “whitie” perhaps?

The Aztecs homed in Mexico until the arrival of the Spaniards in 1520. Their Hell was called Mictlan. When the Aztec folk died they were cremated with their dogs and their souls were carried across a river to go to Hell. The trip takes four years. I read that this Hell is not a place of torture. It is dark, gloomy and depressive though. To me, that is torture.

The Japanese religion Shinto has no Hell. They believed that evil resides in the Earth in a region called Yomi-T’sukuni. This evil includes Nature Spirits, darkness and all wicked misfortune. I could believe this; to me Hell is on Earth. It is us; it is having the moment of joy that only measured a second and then the rest of your time in pain, and having this cycle of lessons unlearned continued. To me, this is Hell. It is funny how one event can change your perspective though. Change you to be able to see the forest through the trees, to find the beauty in the hate, the light in the darkness, the fortune in Yomi-T-sukuni.

Aborigine’s have no Hell what so ever. The Angel Raquel insures that all souls go to God in peace
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