H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks!

[Tysyacha]

So, what would be H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks to you?

[True_Avery]

Are we talking, like, personal afterlife hell?

 

My personal hell would be dying and finding out there is actually a hell, satan, god, and heaven, or, rather that any religion gets proved right in the end. Even if I won my ticket into heaven by some offchance, I'd be ripping my eyes with one hand and flipping off god as hard as I possibly could. Seriously, I'd rather life just end than reach that conclusion, and for those wondering I am actually not joking. If "evil", "satan", "god" or any of that gets proven when the lights go out I will kindly ask to be deleted forever because I refuse to live in a universe such as that.

 

My personal heaven would be an afterlife that defies every single thing humanity has even assumed the afterlife and so on would be just so I could not only rub it in my own face, by the face of every single person I could possible get my hands on. Other than that, another life reset on earth would be nice since "paradise" isn't really appealing to me.

 

On a less spiteful note, a more personal, down to earth hell for me would be to end up as a washup and never get anything done with my stories. I'd be happy even if I at least managed to give it a swing, but freezing and not swinging ever is terrifying, mainly because I'm not sure what to do after that. I don't want/need to be famous or anything, but I at least want to try to accomplish my own personal goals.

[Ping]

Hell for me? Living on Earth again. Heaven for me? A simple, peaceful life after death, assuming that there is an afterlife.

[Alkonium]

I'm inclined to agree with True Avery on this one. That, or the realisation on my deathbed that my life has amounted to nothing.

[mimartin]

So, what would be H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks to you?

A family reunion.

[ChAiNz.2da]

A family reunion.

 

I agree. mimartin's family reunion would be hell for me

 

Second to that, my mother moving within a 50 mile radius of me...ugh. Love her to death, but talk about "clingy"... you'd swear I was 12 years old around her

[Pho3nix]

Probably being tortured in hell / trapped in a void of some sort never able to escape. That and living again.

 

Now, if heaven exists and I arrive at the pearly gates, meeting 'God' (in whatever incarnation he is in) for the first time, I don't think I would say anything to him or ask him anything. We would just smile, and nod at each other respectfully. I've always envisioned this field where I'm running towards my dog, and then finally reuniting with her.

[TKA-001]

Who cares?

 

@Avery: So, basically your personal hell would be the realization that after death, not only do people's souls or whatever still exist, but some are happy.

[True_Avery]

@Avery: So, basically your personal hell would be the realization that after death, not only do people's souls or whatever still exist, but some are happy.

I said a personal heaven would be an afterlife of which human imagination and conceptions of "religion" have no comprehension of, which would imply that I'd be ok with souls and an afterlife. Then again I don't know if it would be happy at all, but seeing as most of judeo-Christianity has me headed straight to hell when I die...

 

My personal hell would be, for example, finding out that Christians were right all along or, really any human religion. That the bible's "definitions" of "good" and "Evil" really exist, and that satan and god exist and feud over heaven and hell and all that jazz. Same goes for any other religion's conceptions quite frankly. I'd rather not exist than live with some truth pertaining to human religion, and really don't care how "happy" "some" people would be otherwise. People are "happy" now with their religion and that doesn't stop me from disliking the concept any less.

 

Essentially, I want to be wrong and I want the rest of you to be wrong as well.

[Darth Avlectus]

I can honestly say I don't have much preconception to go on as to what an afterlife would be like. Sure I wish I could see friends and family members and pets again that have passed away. Yet is it truly possible to experience joy without misery? It's hard to appreciate without the contrast, that's for sure.

 

Heaven and Hell, quite frankly exists on many levels. So far as an afterlife, perhaps hell is an eternal trap? I want to say numerous of the choices and yet more...and yet none of the above. Heaven...even more confusing.

 

"Since when does anybody know just what they want?"

--Morgan Freeman as God on Bruce Almighty

 

I am lost as to what an afterlife would be like...and I think that's how it is supposed to be. We're supposed to learn how to actually live and face uncertainty.

 

Personally I'm not counting on being one of the good guys when I leave here. That doesn't mean I stop trying to be honorable and ethical even if I fail at that. Did I ever say I was a hero or a good guy? I don't see myself that way.

 

My father may be a reverend, but he is so because he's a non denominational wedding minister. He's the black sheep of the rest of the family. He also read things like Urantia, Zachariah Sitchen, things like that. He didn't want my sister and I growing up religious, but more spiritual and true to ourselves and the world around us. Which has done me rather well I think. My sister? We'll see. I'm a practical one, while my "little" sister (hah, right as she stands almost eye to eye with me) is the go-getter, sort of. Which reminds me I need to get to bed as I have a long day tomorrow and don't want to be falling asleep at her HS graduation ceremony--something which I am thankful to see.

 

Anyways, back to the matter at hand:

Heaven IRL? I'll file that away for another thread and another time.

 

Hell on a personal level in real life? It has changed and evolved so many times for me. Life that is too static and stale, life that is so dynamic you can't get a grip--both drive you nuts. Being around people because they betray and use you, but alas there are others whom you love so it could be loneliness. I suppose a combination of the worst of all that.

 

I've seen terrible things, so I suppose reliving the witnessing of that all, with a fluid reality that changes for the sole purpose of ****ing with you in a bad way could also comprise hell.

 

I suppose constantly reliving the worst sides of our lives constantly could be it. We all have our issues, after all. Mine were constant betrayals and using done by other people (to others and to myself) and their justifications for such cruelty and/or ignorance, and also some childhood traumas. The people part I have largely gotten over. I'm a BS'er and you can't BS me, manipulators and users included. The traumas (which I don't care to get into) I have learned to accept and over time come to terms with. I still get those reminders of them which torment me from time to time. Creep up, happen, then gone. No open wounds, just scars really.

 

Things I've done or haven't done that I regret, that either went unresolved or ended badly. But Whatever, it's the same old story, the fight for love and glory, eh? These are the things we carry.

 

Living forever? Dead forever? I couldn't tell you, really. If you're dead, you don't know it. Do you? If you're living...it sort of depends on what reality you are living that makes it hell and heaven. Afterlife, I have only presumptions about, but nothing for sure. Not knowing about that doesn't bother me.

[Salzella]

My personal hell would be, for example, finding out that Christians were right all along or, really any human religion.

Let's face it, that's not going to happen. Personally I think that when we die, we end as conscious beings so the concept of hell is a bit erroneous. Although if there is then hypothetically the 'trapped in a void' option sounds a bit grim. Perfect freedom - never a good thing.

[Q]

Nice plug.

 

What is Hell?

 

Imagine your undying soul being devoured and digested by a supernatural being for all eternity. And what exactly would that entail? Well, what is digestion? Put simply, it involves burning. To put it all into context, think of the burning bush that was aflame but didn't burn. Our souls never die, so it will be forever. Now, imagine this happening billions of times over. Why, it could take the appearance of a virtually endless pattern, or something...

 

Personally, I can't wait, because I'll get to witness a ****load of pretentious, self-righteous idiots getting exactly what they deserve. So, if you hear the sound of someone laughing hysterically in the afterlife, you won't have to guess who it is.

[Astor]

Assuming Hell is your worst nightmare, then mine would be being trapped, alone and blind in a library.

[Sabretooth]

H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks

 

This is hell.

[mimartin]

Heaven and Hell, quite frankly exists on many levels.

This is correct, it exists on tape, vinyl and CD.

 

Assuming Hell is your worst nightmare, then mine would be being trapped, alone and blind in a library.

Mine would to be trapped in a room with all my favorite recorded music, only to be deaf.

[urluckyday]

I voted the first one since it was a lot closer to what I think it's like. I don't think it's like a Dante's Inferno vision of hell, but I think that hell is like a personal place of suffering. Like, whatever you hated or feared in your life, you are surrounded by forever. I have an irrational and unhealthy fear of spiders...so that would be my hell.

 

Obviously I don't know what's in the afterlife, but I guess that's what I think hell would be like.

[Bimmerman]

I don't believe in hell/heaven/afterlife etc.

 

Although if there was one, it would be group projects ad nauseam with incompetent fools.

[Qui-Gon Glenn]

Harvey Keitel with a large pineapple, ready for work.

 

EDIT: Oops... this is Kavar's.

 

Group projects are a personal hell I too fear and loathe, Bimmerman.

 

Sartre said "other people". Thoreau never knew a worse man than himself. Hell might be listening to their debate, ad infinitum.

 

I am with TA in the respect that if any religion's afterlife vision is on the money, I will revolt. I will make a big big scene is whichever realm I instantiate in. Loud, obnoxious, etc.

 

Was Q talking about a Sarlacc? Long burning digestivization seems awful enough.

 

As much as it pains me, as the hardline agnostic I am, my hell would be to recognize, if only for an instant, that life simply was an organic process, and that all of the experiences I have had, good and bad, were eternally inconsequential, dying with my dead organic brain. That would mean that life, as I assume, really did have no meaning whatsoever, that everything actually was just random chance, there was no design, no greater intelligence, that anything of "fantasy" was nothing more than that, that life had no lesson for me that I could take away, you know, as a parting gift?

 

I can't wrap my head around that hell though.... It just never makes sense to me. I cannot fathom what purpose we serve trudging through life if our collection of experiences has no value to ourselves beyond the organic frame. Live to an old age, have many people who love you, your name and legend lives on after your passing... that is not what I am talking about. I am not talking about other's memories of you, I am talking about YOUR memory of you.

 

EDIT 2: Vuvuzela horn for the record... I have no idea what that horn is, but it seems awful and any long-running horn of any sort will make my ears bleed.

[Darth Avlectus]

^^^Yeah, I have a hard time believing that a life of dishonesty and unjust actions (not punished or in some way dealt with) are totally inconsequential. Some could argue there are people who have gotten away with everything. Still, as much as we are material beings, we are energy beings as well, are we not? How do people in a hopeless situation on the verge of death manage to pull through? An old man washed out of a channel into sea in mere minutes and he was able to hang on for 3 days and nights swimming until he finally came close enough to shore that a boat rescued him.

 

Then again, I don't expect much to make sense anymore.

[Samuel Dravis]

Hell is living with the knowledge that your are the sole individual responsible for your actions, that this responsibility cannot be put off on anyone else, and discovering you don't think very highly of your own character.

[Qui-Gon Glenn]

^^ Much like Thoreau: "I have never known a worse man than myself." ~Walden

 

I live in that world sometimes... hard to be honest with yourself otherwise.

 

Love the avatar Sam.

[Q]

Hell is living with the knowledge that your are the sole individual responsible for your actions, that this responsibility cannot be put off on anyone else, and discovering you don't think very highly of your own character.

So, it's like everyday life for people who can't lie to themselves?

[Samuel Dravis]

Thanks, Qui-Gon Glenn. I've been watching the original series the last few days and it's getting to my head. The inspiration for my post was not Thoreau, however, but existentialists like Kierkegaard and Camus. They are similar on this point, though.

 

So, it's like everyday life for people who can't lie to themselves?

Assuming that both points from my other post hold, then sure. Doubtless there are plenty of people who don't care about their character, or are convinced they are not in control of their actions. Also, the experience of "hell" I spoke of is more of a continuum than the simplistic binary state I previously implied, since I can live with myself doing some things I consider wrong, but not others.

 

Of course, as you say, there are some people who have a different conception of what they are and what they are supposed to be as human beings, so they may indeed consider my everyday life, if it was lived by them, hell. I don't really think it is necessarily so, or even often so, myself, but that's fine. The existence of a difference is natural-- I am not them.

 

I suppose the sum is that the gap between who you think you should be, and who you are, causes anguish if you believe yourself responsible for it. Interestingly this seems to be the principle form of punishment - the "pain of loss" - of those in a Christian hell. The fiery stuff is somewhat afterthoughty in comparison.

[Qui-Gon Glenn]

...existentialists like Kierkegaard and Camus. They are similar on this point, though.

Old S0ren, a little confused, but what a mind...

I suppose the sum is that the gap between who you think you should be, and who you are, causes anguish if you believe yourself responsible for it. Interestingly this seems to be the principle form of punishment - the "pain of loss" - of those in a Christian hell. The fiery stuff is somewhat afterthoughty in comparison.

Smells like dasein... as good a summary of the general concept as I have seen.

 

Yeah, I don't really know how hell gets worse than life can be. Unless you start painting in allegory and fantasy, which is perfectly acceptable in a discussion where no one has a real clue, but still stands far short of sensibility let alone logical review.

[Tommycat]

Honestly, I always figured Heaven and Hell would be different for everyone. I mean I might not exactly enjoy being surrounded by Christian Fundies, Jehova Witnesses, but rather a bunch of groovy people who happen to enjoy sex. Some might think of that as hell. I honestly don't believe in hell. Hell is just someone else's heaven.