Heaven and Hell is Other People

A friend of mine is working on a project for varsity. She asked us a question for her project, "What does heaven and hell look like to you?" I sat and pondered this for a while. What is heaven and hell in the first place? Heaven is a happy place. Hell is full of torture and grief. A sentence kept popping up in my mind. "Hell is other people." Those famous words came from Jean-Paul Sartre's play "No Exit". I am not going to refer to philosophy and existentialism here. All the information is freely available elsewhere. Perhaps his meaning and the interpretation of others is different. I will tell you what my heaven and hell look like.

Many people will opt for world peace, the just treatment of animals and the solution of global problems when they are asked what they would change in order to create "a heaven on Earth". I agree but that is not where I am going to start.

I don't need to know what's going on in the world yet. I need to start by understandng my world. The people around me define my world. Are they happy or depressed? Do we live in a nation of love and forgiveness, or are we tormented by wrath and hatred? It is a group consciousness. The place in which we live and the people who surround us define who we are. They are a part of us and we are a part of the whole.

Consciousness begins inside of me. It is the amount of awareness that I hold. In turn, the more awake and aware I am, the more I am able to accept more from others and influence others. It spreads to my close circle of friends and family, thus also infiltrating into theirs. Eventually we can put all the circles together and they form a community, country and global society. This principle is similar to the one depicted in the movie Pay It Forward.

Therefore, I am opting to start small and expand. Everything begins with me. Once I am sorted, the energy around me begins to transform and change begins. I create my own heaven or hell.

I define my heaven by looking at the people around me. If they are smiling, growing, progressing and happy, I feel joy because I see it in them. I am a part of them so their happiness is my happiness. We share in the euphoria and I can see myself in their eyes. Of course, I am referring to whole-hearted and natural joy that does not diminish or harm anyone. it's a win-win situation. From then on, we continue to spread the love. A group of happy and awakened people can create a nation, and eventually a world with the same consciousness.

What does heaven sound like?

It sounds like good music. I love music. Any music can make me feel like I am in heaven, although different types of music depict different "heavens". I selected the Ever After Title Theme because I enjoy it. It encapsulates the feeling of joy and love for me.

Heaven can also be silence. Silence is pure.

Hell is fear. It is looking in the eyes of people I love and seeing only heartbreak and pain. It is walking in the streets and seeing only dead and angry eyes. It is apathy, indifference and neglect. It is a widening crisis much like that which we are experiencing today. I see images of famine, death and decay. Everybody sees them on a global scale but in actuality, they start with you. You - the person who looks at it and turns the page. That fuels it more than those who are directly responsible because we neglect to create a force against it so it continues.

What does hell sound like?

It sounds like noise. It sounds like a whole bunch of people screaming, crying and making no sense at all. It sounds like gun shots and fleeing. It sounds like animals wailing. It sounds like a maddening tone that I don't want to hear. It is the deafening clash of regression.

I don't know what is beyond death. It does not matter. If you live your "heaven" on Earth, you can sleep well at night and you will "sleep well" in that ever after as well. If you create "a heaven" on Earth, I think it is fair to believe that it will continue into your next life or afterlife. It does not matter what religion or philosophy you belong to, if any, nobody can deny nature. Nobody can deny true human emotion.

I do believe in a spiritual world - a heaven and a hell. However, who can say that the principles that govern that heaven and hell differ from those which govern the Earth? It may just be the same and all life, the hereafter and everything involves is a gradual progression. Perhaps, it is only a mere evolution from who we are as individuals to who we are as a whole that creates heaven and hell.

© Maja Dezulovic 2011