About Hell-Planes as Places of Self-Punishment

Places of Self-Punishment

Mankind creates its own hell, here as well as in the world beyond, wherever it may be. Humans create their hell in their own consciousness and also make others lives hell. We tend to believe that God punishes people for their evil deeds. This is not the case. Hell is a state which is created by the people themselves. Because of the fact that on the astral plane inner states will be visible outwards as environment (as has been explained in the article Features and Rules of the Astral Planes) there exist very ugly and dreadful places in the astral, but in reality they are nothing more but a mirror of the psychic states.

Why do people with similar characteristics and qualities find together in these otherworldly places? This is easily explained. They are not brought together, but they are finding each other automatically. Even on earth, people tend to come together with like-minded. In the world beyond, this phenomenon is even stronger; ‘places’ or ‘spaces of consciousness’ of like-minded beings are formed and in the case of such places we are talking about in this article, these spaces of consciousness are named "hells". These places derive from the collective auric quality and imagination of the people living there. They are not places of punishment. For those people, these places are normal, which is why they feel neither punished nor show any tendency to search for something different. At least there is no outside entity that would punish in some dogmatic "justice" any people with attitudes that do not fit the religious category (that is our opinion).

There is the question why people who have led a malevolent and unscrupulous life do also end up in hell spheres and not elsewhere, if there’s really no ‘heavenly judgment’. The answer can be found – again – in the law "like attracts like". After their passing, these people land in places where other people of the same quality are gathered. They are not "punished" there. But the egoistic behavior of all these like-minded people gives rise to strife, oppression etc. and so the ambiance of a hell or hellish place is created.

Unnecessary Remorse and Self-Punishment

During their life, many people have accumulated feelings of guilt. The belief of having to be punished for guilt is deeply engraved in the minds of the people through religion and worldly jurisdiction. This leads to the incorrect notion that guilt has to be atoned for – everywhere, also in the world beyond. In order to restore their inner peace, many people do initiate this mechanism of retribution for guilt unconsciously, because it is so present in their minds. Out of their imagination, these people create places of agony where they can pay off their feelings of guilt. How much better it would be if these deceased in the world beyond would try to make up for their former mistakes through good deeds and kind acts, in order to find an inner peace again in this way.

This mechanism of self-punishment is even more tragic as there often exists no real ethical offense, but only a violation of a temporary worldly or religious idea of morality. We know from psychoanalysis how destructive such an inner conflict can be. All these ill, psychological patterns are carried into the world beyond when the person dies, and sometimes they take effect in the first short period after death. Certainly, otherworldly helpers will do their best and try to free these people from their self-created mechanisms, but unfortunately this turns out not to be so easy in many cases.

What these self-punishing people over there really need is a helping hand with a lot of psychological understanding. Occasionally, such feelings of guilt can be cleared through symbolic religious acts (e. g. requiem masses, light candles, prayers etc). These positive thoughts which are sent to the deceased do certainly reach them, because now that their physical senses have gone, the subtler possibilities of spiritual communication are better developed. Help offered by otherworldly guides – through encouragement or therapeutic conversation – is often made difficult because of the fact that these souls avoid any contact and are often unresponsive, which can really be a problem and keeps up their unnecessary suffering.

The following experiences may give an idea of this kind of hell.

"The chained woman"

Translated from: "Die andere Welt", vol. 14 (1963) II, no. 8, pp. 609-610

"Finally I encountered a deplorable woman here, and I hope to be able to help her over time. I’ll try to tell her story to you. I saw her, entangled by countless of nodes of thin threads. She would have well been able to tear them apart, but she imagined to be chained and incapable of moving. Her guardian angel – the existence of whom she did not even suspect – was not able to reach her in this state. Her nature did shy away from the tiniest and even from the most unimportant trouble, which spoiled her whole life on earth. A very timid nature! I guess I will need a lot of patience until I can help her to break free from this situation."

"Imagined Poverty"

Translated from: "Die andere Welt", vol. 14 (1963) II, no. 8, pp. 609-610

"This is the case of a man who was very rich for the most of his life. Finally, an economic crisis came and took from him the greatest part of his assets. But he was left with enough to live a modest life. You and I – we would have coped fine with that. But he was weighed down mentally by this feeling of poverty. He felt like a poor devil and this burden of his supposed poverty depressed him so much that his health was affected by this. His body lost vitality and recently he died of influenza.

Now he’s dressed in rags! As soon as he sees someone approaching, he hides from shyness. Oh, how much I would like to tell him that he is only poor in his imagination! But the time when he will understand what I mean has not yet come for him … What do we learn from this? Anyone who drowns in feelings of misery here on earth will awaken it on the other side, and most commonly, he has to remain in this state until he can’t take his situation any longer. Then, from his innermost the deep longing will arise – our sole savior!"

"Son and Mother" (Gauri)

"I was still in the room, when a young man entered. Only from his demeanor I could tell he was criminal all through. At first his behavior did not show his criminal intents. I saw that he was hiding a small knife in his hand, unfortunately I saw that too late. The young man traversed the room and headed towards the adjoining room in which a few young women, my aides, sojourned. I was frightened and ran after the man because I realized his murderous intents. When I arrived it was already too late. He had killed the four women silently one by one. From this point on he chased me down the streets. It was a true nightmare. I could keep him away from me for a long time but he didn't give up and it seemed like he had a good time since he had this cold grin on his face. I continued running for my life through the narrow street, bleeding from several stab wounds.
At some point I hid in the corner of a room and hoped that he wouldn't find me. I was completely exhausted.
The murderer found me and there was no escaping from him anymore. With this devilish cold grin on his face he raised his arm ready to stab me to death. Suddenly, a strange voice came out of my mouth and said: “Look at me!”
The killer looked in my face as if he was somehow forced to do what the voice has told him. He seemed startled, toke a few steps back and dropped the knife.
I was totally confused about this turn of events. Then I left the body of the being I was with the whole time and found myself standing next to perpetrator and victim. I understood what was going on: They were mother and son. It was the personal tragedy and hell of this man. He was a criminal during his lifetime and had done lots of horrible things. But he hasn't always been like that. It was his own mother that made him into such a corrupted soul. She was a dominant person with a dark heart. She always had him under her control and manipulated him. Her motherly love was her argument. The son loved his mother. In fact she was the only one he loved. That's why she was so important to him. He would have done anything to make her happy and to earn her love. The mother wanted him to become a 'strong' man that would take what he wants without thinking of others. That's what he became, murderous and heartless. He ended up on this dark plane and relived this chase over and over again. He chased after his wounded victim and as he wanted to kill it, he had to come to the horrifying realization that he was in fact after his own beloved mother and that he had injured her badly.
So it was that mother and son were bound to this horrible fate caused by their own actions. It was their hell existence from which, it seemed, was no escape.

The story went on. I observed the young man for some time. Because time doesn't exist on other planes it is possible to observe a development for a long time like in a time lapse. At some point he couldn't stand it anymore because the dramatic scene was taking a lot out of him. From then on there where first stirrings of change. He didn't wanted to chase and kill anymore. At the very moment he came to that decision, he was transferred to another plane where it wasn't always nighttime. This new plane was covered in snow and there was also daylight. The light was cold and it was often foggy. The sun was nowhere to see.”

"The hell of self-punishment" (Corra)

"I lay in my bed in the morning, half asleep, and several images and scenes were appearing and vanishing again before my inner eye. But there was a moment, at the brink of falling asleep, when I was suddenly drawn into a scenery (spontaneous astral projection). I was not really conscious at first, I was in some room where I was talking with someone I can’t remember, I just know this person wanted to show me something. And then my awareness increased as I stepped through a door. I found myself in a kind of bathroom or lavatory. Everything was very real, I really felt like being there with all my senses. What made me more aware was that aura of dread which hit me. I was absolutely shocked when I saw a human body lying on a plank bed, all mutilated and with encrusted skin, and a horrible aura was emanating from it. I looked into another cabin, and there too laid a person, exhausted and curled up, broken inside. The room was dirty white and the people had a very dark skin, which must have been an expression of their dark inner state. Somebody told me in my head that everyone of those people had a ‘knife’ with them, so as to hurt themselves. It was not a detailed explanation, and it was shockingly emotionless. It was rather a kind of thought that explained itself. With the ‘knife’ there was not meant a knife as such but rather the self-punishing attitude of these poor creatures.

Until I could fully realize what I was seeing, I was drawn back into my physical body. I am totally sure to have visited a place of self-punishment. I was totally shocked and moved, and the sight of it repelled me in some way, I could not look at this for long. The people there were absolutely pitiful and dreadful to me at once. I think the place was a kind of dirty lavatory because it fit the self-humiliating and ‘dirty’ feeling of these people, ‘dirty’ because of some imagined guilt, I guess. The whole experience lasted only for seconds, but it felt like at least twenty minutes."