A written version–not a verbatim transcription–of my 2012 International Association for Near-Death Studies conference presentation, “Untangling Hellish Visions,” has just been added to the Articles page here. Essentially, the article, like the talk, is a quick trip through Western ideas about hell, with a very preliminary suggestion of an alternative view. Lots more to be said in blog posts to come!
The slides that went with the actual presentation were terrific, as you can sample in the article, proving yet again that human beings have no end of ways of scaring themselves blue, not to mention being unspeakably vicious to each other and then blaming it all on God. You can see them on the DVD, which is available, along with other conference talks, at the website, http://iands.org
Before you write to comment that this proves how horrible religions are, you might want to pause to consider a) the uses of secular ideologies such as Marxism and American Exceptionalism and b) what you think might encourage better behavior.
More to come. I do so appreciate your being here!
Robert who refers to himself as my brown son, Forget biology, he is, is living in the Hell of a maximum security prison facing 25 years.
I’ve created a phone link into the jail so he can call me. He’s exited about his life, and evolving spiritually. In there, this is his main persuit. He’s exited about his life.
Concerning Hell, last night he said “you know, prison is what you make of it”. That goes for the rest of us where our “Hells” are concerned.
*Very* educational and interesting. A wonderful overview of the history of Hell. Lovely use of language — you sum things up with panache.
What a surprise that “apocalypse” literally means “the making wonderful.”
That’s really shocking about the Biblical mistranslations. It reminds me of Bruno Bettelheim’s claim in “Freud and Man’s Soul” that the standard Strachey translation of Freud’s works into English seriously misrepresented the theory as more rigid and harsh than it actually was.
Ha ha! God in violation of the Geneva Conventions! Love it!
So fascinating that afterlife punishment is a late development in human history. Not what I would have predicted. So, life was nasty, brutish, and short, but early peoples didn’t envision the violence continuing into their afterlife. Maybe this is because the earlier, hunter-gatherer people had nature-based, feminine-divine religions? And then came agriculture, metallurgy, property….uh oh, we become one big patriarchal cargo cult. Why does power corrupt so easily? Why do we get so scared and therefore sadistic? Why is it so hard for we humans to feel lovable and self-compassionate?
Fabulous questions! I wish more people were as interested in them as are entranced by telling other people their ideas are wrong.
“Apocalypse” = “the making wonderful” is really lovely, isn’t it? A whole ‘nother spin. And yes, well, Geneva Conventions; it’s all so plain when it’s said outright. I had just been thinking about hell and Guantanamo and endlessness, when that occurred to me; and no sooner thought than up came the comment from elsewhere. Great timing! I didn’t footnote in this article but will do that in the larger article.
The whole linear sequence becomes more and more and more violent as history continues. My concluding questions turned out to be, “How come we don’t hear about this, and isn’t there some way we can we turn things around?”
Finally–oh, wow–panache! I’ve waited my whole life for that! <3
This last paragraph really hits the nail on the head. As I see it, unconditional love runs all the good stuff, and fear runs all the bad stuff.
A woman always knows who her kids are because she gave birth to them. A man only has his trust in the woman.
As property, and material posessons came about, dominating the woman and stripping her power was the only way a man could insure that his material wealth, and its destination could be controlled. The Great Mother became the Great avenging father.
The more material wealth of any kind one has, the greater the fear of losing it. This is why the materially rich have to acquiring and controling far more than they’ll ever personally need at the expense of others. Their gifts to charity are one of many effective tax write offs.
The very thought of losing their material insulation is frightening. Those who are without, are regarded as inferior because that way they and their reality can be disregarded
Oh, good point, David, about the socio-biological fact that only a woman knows for sure which her offspring are. If you live in a small, communal group with little property, all adults tend to see all children as belonging to them. I think you see this in tribal languages, where every elder is called aunt, father, grandmother, etc. When there is food surplus, the group gets larger, less intimate, and it becomes human nature, alas, to want to control the surplus.
But, there was probably jealousy, envy, possessiveness, and fear even before food surplus. Maybe it is just so threatening to have a perishable body. It’s easy to be trusting when you’re in spirit.
Love this! The unnoticed perils of that perishable body.
Big synchronicity — a couple of hours after commenting, I stumbled across this in my local newspaper. A new documentary exploring ideas about punishment and God, called “Hellbound?” and mention of a 2011 hell-questioning book “Love Wins” —
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/19/hellbound-questions-hell-as-place-of-eternal-torment_n_1898567.html
“A growing number of people are increasingly uncomfortable with the notion of a God who calls us to love our enemies but who will one day vanquish his enemies to hell…”
I’m going to be posting about Hellbound very shortly. Thanks!
With whom can I speak of my distressing N.D.E.? It happened in 2008 and it doesn’t scare me as much as it once did. I don’t have as many flash backs but some visual and auditory stimuli still to this day catapult me back to those visions. I feel by processing my experience and sharing it with others who understand will the the catharsis I need to make sense of it all. Thank you./
Joel, you can email me at nanbush11 at gmail dot com.