See what hell looks like. The stories of survivors of clinical death - there is heaven and hell. Life after death. Hell

Almost everyone likes to think about what paradise looks like. It's nice to dream of an eternally blue sky, without storms, clouds, hail. About animals that you can pet at any time without fear that they will bite off your arm or leg. Much less often people think about hell.

What does hell look like?

Of course, there is no reliable information about him, just as there is no evidence that he really exists. All religions agree on only one thing - this is a terrible place that it would be better not to get into. There are different types of hell in different beliefs:

  1. In Christianity, hell is the place where sinners go. It is believed that there they are boiled in cauldrons of boiling tar and are constantly subjected to terrible torture. Some biblical sources say that after the Last Judgment, sincerely repentant sinners will be pardoned and accepted into the Kingdom of Heaven. All the rest will be swallowed up by hell fire. It is important not to confuse the concepts of "hell" and "gehenna fiery." The first is a permanent place, and the second is that which will swallow the earth, including hell, after the onset of the apocalypse.
  2. In Islam, not only sinners go to hell, but also unbelievers. Moreover, it is said that after the Day of Judgment, sinners will be forgiven, and those who did not accept true faith while alive, will still writhe in hellish torments, drink boiling pus and wear garments of fire. Perhaps it is this hell that is truly frightening, since it does not leave the slightest hope of deliverance for a certain category of people.
  3. In Buddhism, hell is not a specific place, but rather the mental state of a person with negative karma. There he experiences various torments and sufferings due to his own perception. His soul will revolve in the whirlpool of sixteen circles of hell (eight cold and eight hot), like the wheel of samsara, until the karma is completely cleared, and he can again be reborn in a new body. The purer the soul, the faster it will be able to get back into the world and the higher its social status will be. People with highly polluted karma can only count on a subsequent incarnation in the body of an animal.
  4. In Taoism, hell is built on somewhat different principles, unlike most religions. In this belief, it is believed that a person has several types of souls: “subtle” and “coarse”. The first one gets into upper world, like a classic paradise, and the second to the lower one, where hell is the so-called "yellow springs". They represent a world of shadows, joyless and dark, where not a single ray of light penetrates. In his description there is a certain similarity with the kingdom of Hades among the ancient Greeks. Chinese legends say that even mortals can travel to the yellow springs, although many dangers await them there.
  5. 9 circles of hell according to Dante. Has no relation to any religion, but the theory spread very quickly. The description of hell is that in each of the 9 circles there are people distributed according to the type of their sins. First of all, the division there occurs according to known mortal sins.

How does the soul go to hell?

The principle of getting the soul into afterworld is not described in detail anywhere, but it can be imagined as follows: after death, a certain portal opens to hell or heaven, into which the soul is drawn. Then she gets exactly where she is destined, regardless of her desires.

The existence of life after death is in question. No one can say for sure whether such places as heaven and hell exist in reality, parallel world or anywhere else. But still, the benefits of these beliefs are undeniable. So, for example, there is a possibility that a person with criminal intentions will abandon their plans, afraid of falling into hell. And vice versa - will help others in the hope of a happy life in the afterlife.

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A person after his death can go to hell or heaven, it all depends on what kind of life he led on earth. By doing bad deeds and breaking the commandments, you can not expect to rise into the clouds. Since no one managed to return from the other world, what real hell looks like, one can only guess. Therefore, each of the existing opinions has a place to be.

What does hell look like in reality?

In Christianity, hell is considered a place where sinners bear their eternal punishment. The Bible says that God created it and sent Satan and others there. fallen angels. The most terrible violence is the moral torment with which sinners are punished. Hell is described as a place terrible torture where the sinner's soul burns eternally in fire.

What does hell look like in literature?

In Ireland in 1149 there lived a monk who is considered by many to be the chosen one. Higher powers. He wrote the treatise "Vision of Tundal", where he described exactly how real hell looks like. Based on his words, this dark place is a vast plain dotted with burning coals. On it are gratings where demons torment sinners. Even representatives of evil spirits use sharp hooks to tear the bodies of pagans and heretics. In his treatise, the monk describes a bridge passing over a pit where there are monsters who want to get another victim.

In 1667, John Milton, the poet of England, published the poem Paradise Lost. According to him, hell has the following types: complete darkness, flames that do not give light and deserts of ice, hit by hail.

The most detailed and popular image of hell is offered by the poet Dante Alighieri in his work The Divine Comedy. The author describes the place for the fallen souls as a pit to the center of the earth, which has a spiral shape. She appeared at the moment when Satan fell from heaven. The portal to hell looks like a huge gate, behind which there is a plain with souls that do not commit serious things. Then comes the river surrounding all hell. It, according to Dante, consists of 9 circles, each of which is intended for a certain category of sinners:

What does a real hell look like in painting?

Many artists tried to convey on their canvases the image of the most terrible place on earth. Seeing the pictures, you can try to imagine appearance hell. This topic was touched upon by a huge number of artists of different times in their works. Hell, for example, was a favorite subject of the Dutch author Hieronymus Bosch. He depicted terrible torment and a lot of fire on his canvases. It is worth mentioning the famous fresco by Luca Signorelli called " Last Judgment". This artist thinks making is hell

Mankind at all times believed in the existence of special worlds, where people go after their death. According to ancient beliefs good man at the end of his life he goes to heaven, but the road to hell awaits the sinner. What type are these two special places, no one can say. Therefore, it is not surprising that many people are interested in what heaven and hell look like. Roughly imagine these amazing worlds allow various photos and pictures that are placed in books and on the pages of Internet portals.

Paradise is the place where every person dreams of going when it is time to say goodbye to life. Adherents different religions had their own ideas about it.

  • Christianity. According to the Bible, it was in paradise that the first people, Adam and Eve, appeared. They lived here until they ate the forbidden fruit.

In Christianity, there are two concepts of paradise. It can be original or acquired. The first was the one where Adam and Eve ended up. No one is destined to get into it. The second paradise opens its gates for the souls that have left the earth.

Paradise is multi-layered. A separate tier is intended for a certain group of souls. Each of them can gradually rise to the top if it follows the laws of God.

  • Islam. In this religion, paradise looks like a fruit-bearing garden, in which everything blooms and smells sweet. There is no place for sorrow and pain. Paradise is surrounded by walls of beautiful stones. There are honey and milk rivers. Men who get here receive the beautiful virgins promised to them, and women turn into charming houris. In a word, paradise in Islam is beautiful world where wishes come true.

Heaven is made up of hundreds different levels which are separated by high walls. They are located at a distance of one century from each other.

  • Judaism. There are no sources in religion that give a complete or partial description of paradise. People do not receive a promise to stay in these parts forever after their death. It is believed that the righteous are resurrected after some time and gain eternal life on earth. But it is already changing its former appearance, becoming more perfect and harmonious.

Paradise in mythology


In ancient times, before the emergence of religions, people also believed in the existence of special worlds where the souls of people go. The following types of paradise were invented:

  • Iry. Existed in Slavic mythology. He could be Snake and Bird. The first has the appearance of a huge pit, where all the reptiles crawl away with the onset of winter. In this paradise there is a huge stone that helps the snakes not to die. Birds fly away in the second autumn. In the spring they return home with pure souls babies.
  • Valhalla. References to paradise can be seen in Norse mythology. These regions are made for brave knights. They were lucky enough to live in a large palace with a dome made of transparent material. Every day they kill the same animal that feeds them with its meat. In the evenings, the knights are visited by young beauties who fulfill their every whim.
  • Iaru. Belongs Egyptian mythology. This paradise is under the control of Osiris. To get into it, the soul needs to survive the judgment. On the basis of the deeds committed during life, the question of whether a person is worthy of receiving the right to live in paradise or not is decided.

Both in religions and in mythology, people are encouraged to strive to get into paradise. After all, only there they will be able to approach the Creator of all living things.

Hell is the exact opposite of heaven. This includes people who have committed heinous acts during their lifetime. And now they have to pay for it in the most cruel way for all eternity.


All religions talk about hell in different ways.

  • Christianity. In Hell, sinners and fallen angels experience eternal punishment. One of the concepts of religion says that once there were not only souls bad people but also the righteous who did not deserve it. But they managed to ascend to Heaven thanks to Christ.

Not a single sinner is afraid of physical punishment in hell. Therefore, they are overtaken by moral punishment. And there is no end to this torment.

Hell is led by Lucifer, the deposed angel of light. It is he who acts as the executioner of people. By punishing others, he atones for his own sinful act.

  • Paganism. It just so happened that the adherents of this direction had no hell. It arose after the advent of the Christian faith. People believed only that after death the soul of a person goes to another world, in which all conditions are created for its further existence outside the earth.

Many writers liked to talk about hell in their works. This place is especially vividly described in Dante's book "The Divine Comedy". Whoever is familiar with it knows that hell in this interpretation has 9 circles. In the very center is its ruler Lucifer, imprisoned in eternal ice.


Aristotle had his own thoughts about the existence of hell, which he outlined in the Nicomachean Ethics. Great Philosopher divided the mysterious world for sinners into several separate categories. In his opinion, hell looks like a funnel, the end of which rests on the center of the earth. Souls are placed in it in the following order:

  • The beginning of hell is reserved for people who have not been able to know God.
  • Below are the souls of gluttons, upon which rain and hail fall.
  • Next is a place for misers and spendthrifts.
  • Then come heretics, suicides and murderers.

The ninth circle is reserved for the worst criminals, including Brutus, Cassius and Judas. Lucifer personally punishes them for their misdeeds.

Each person has their own ideas about what hell and heaven should look like. The most interesting thing is that even those people who have never attached any importance to religion, towards the end of their lives, begin to think about exactly where their soul will go. They begin to rethink the actions committed earlier, make attempts to correct their sins. And all this in order to earn a place in paradise. After all, no one wants to be in a real hell, where the soul will have to spend eternity in torment.

The concept of "hell" came into our everyday life from Christianity. But ideas about a part of the afterlife as a place where dead sinners will experience torment exist in almost all major religions and mythologies of the world. The uncertainty of what awaits beyond the threshold of death, and most importantly, the complete helplessness of the soul in the afterlife to somehow change its fate, frighten everyone. Therefore, people tried, if not to know for sure, then at least imagine what the underworld looks like and what awaits them after death.

The first and perhaps the most important description of hell can be found in the Bible. Of course, it doesn’t say exactly what he looks like, but this book gives us full view about what it is. AT Holy Scripture It is said that God created the underworld and sent Satan and his minions there. Subsequently, Satan began to take the souls of sinners from the earth there.

In Christian treatises of the 5th-7th centuries. ekov, a description appeared of the first and most important characteristic feature of hell - fire. Blessed Augustine, one of the first Christian theologians, described the underworld as " real fire who will burn and torment the bodies and souls of sinners."

The Scandinavians have an icy hell, while the Jews represent it as fiery.


In 1149, a monk from Ireland described hell in his treatise The Vision of Tundal, where main character had the opportunity during his lifetime to see the afterlife. On his journey through hell, the hero of the work saw many horrors, monsters and fire. Huge plains were covered with coals, on which the devils roasted the bodies of sinners, and the rivers flowing there were teeming with terrible freaks.

Blessed Augustine and Satan. The right outer wing of the Altar of the Church Fathers, 1471-1475

The idea of ​​hell has been used in art more than once. The most famous literary works describing what the real hell looks like are Dante's Divine Comedy and Milton's Paradise Lost.


According to Dante, hell consists of nine circles


According to Dante, hell consists of nine circles that go deeper and deeper and end at the center of the earth. In the first circles, the widest and closest to the surface, there are more tolerable conditions for the existence of souls. The heavier the sins, the lower the level of the underworld falls the soul. At the very bottom, in the center of hell, is Satan. The underworld is separated from the world of the living by the Acheron River. The landscapes of hell are diverse - from deserts and rivers with sewage to fiery lava. Gluttons are tormented by rain and hail, people who during their lifetime are subject to the sin of anger get bogged down in a swamp, suicides lead a peaceful but helpless existence of trees. The illustrations for The Divine Comedy were made by such famous artists as Gustave Dore, Salvador Dali and Sandro Botticelli.


"Map of Hell" by Sandro Botticelli

John Milton describes hell as a desolate plain burning with eternal fire. The action of Paradise Lost takes place during the time of Adam and Eve, so it is not known what Milton's hell would look like after not only demons, but also sinful souls began to live in it.


Milton describes Hell as a desolate plain burning with eternal fire.


Of course, it's easier to understand what the underworld looks like just by looking at it. No, not independently, but through the eyes of great artists. On the fresco of Luca Signorelli from the Last Judgment cycle, hell is the decision of the fate of sinners.


"Resurrection in the flesh." Fresco by Luca Signorelli, 1499-1502

The most famous "hell singer" was and still is Hieronymus Bosch. In his triptychs, hell is written out in such detail that it costs nothing to see it in all its details. There are rivers of fire, and archaic buildings that threaten to collapse on the heads of sinners, and terrible tormentors-demons, frozen in the middle of a metamorphosis from a humanoid image to an animal.


The most famous "hell singer" was and still is Hieronymus Bosch


As a true son of the Renaissance, with his love for symbolism, Bosch filled his work with double, and even triple meaning. Symbolic details are piled on top of each other: as soon as it seems to you that you have understood the true essence of the work, a second, third series of subtexts appears, and as a result, this phantasmagoria creates an eerie impression of the complete trampling of the divine order by the forces of chaos. For example, in the third part of the Garden of Earthly Delights triptych, musical instruments turned into instruments of torture are symbols of voluptuousness, and the bagpipe, like other pointed objects in the picture, denotes the masculine principle in medieval symbolism.




"Garden of Earthly Delights" Hieronymus Bosch, 1500 - 1510

Naturally, hell is different for everyone, and for everyone it is different. But no matter how different the descriptions of the underworld, it is safe to say that this is the most terrible, creepy place, where it is still better not to go.

Instruction

Paradise is understood as immortal life. Whereas hell is a place where a person is doomed to torment. The concept of hell does not exist in all religions. This Naraka is one of the six spheres of being. The pain here is not eternal. After overcoming the results of bad karma, a person can be reborn and even reach nirvana. Although the Buddhist hell is considered not the most favorable place for rebirth. A Buddha or a bodhisattva can out of compassion relieve anyone from being there.

The torment is addressed to those who neglected the commandments and did not forgive insults to their neighbors. There is a long sin for which a person after death will be doomed to eternal torment in hell. And the pain will be endless. But this is not so much physical as moral torment. In Orthodox literature, there are several examples of divine revelations about the structure of hell and paradise. For example, "The passage of ordeals by St. Theodora of Tsaregrad". Here a detailed picture of torment is created. The terrible spiritual and physical trials through which the soul passes to the highest court, accompanied by two angels, are picturesquely depicted. Orthodoxy, unlike Catholicism, rejects the existence of purgatory, where the soul can be forgiven.

Islam interprets Hell as the place of residence of sinners not forgiven by Allah or those whom Allah has not forgiven. According to the Qur'an, hell is guarded by 19 formidable angels, led by an angel named Malik. A person can go to heaven or hell only after Judgment Day. For those who disbelieved, severe and cruel torment is prepared in hell. For example, a drink from boiling water, ice water torture, iron clubs, fire collars and much more.

There is no concept of hell in Judaism. According to this religion, a person cannot do anything so that in the future he will suffer endlessly. But in the view of Judaism, there is a paradise. This is the heavenly garden, which is located inside the seven heavenly spheres. In order to get into it, the soul needs to go through a certain spiritual path. The believer knows that for this he needs to keep his body and soul clean. After the end of the world, the soul and body of a person must unite. God will not be able to do this if it turns out that in life the Jew did not look after his body.

In Islamic tradition, it is generally accepted that paradise is something that a person cannot even imagine. Unimaginable bliss that must be earned by good deeds and thoughts. Christianity also encourages man not to seek heaven on earth or in heaven. According to Christian doctrine, everyone should find heaven in their own heart. To do this, throughout life, you need to try very hard to refrain from sinful thoughts and actions.