What is Hell?

[God'sFist]

I would say hell is watching as those around you get converted to a cult like ideology and then turn on you to make you join them. Hell is watching your country devolve into madness and hysterics while having those rights under attack. Hell is being in a school where their religion is paramount and you must swear of the world or else.

Unfortunately, I'm currently living and have lived through it.

 

[happyninja42]

...Or where is it, to you, or what does it look like? What/when is the closest you think you've ever been to Hell?

Are you talking about the mystical hell of various religions, or the metaphorical hell of the real world where something really sucks?

If it's the first, it's nothing, it doesn't exist. The second, I don't know...church? That's pretty hellish to me.

 

[sageoftruth]

While I don't believe in either, to me, it's the people that would make heaven and hell what they are.

Heaven would be filled with altruistic, kindly people who would not hesitate to help me if I needed help. If I did not look my best, I would feel secure in knowing that I would not be judged for it. No one would ever deliberately tell a lie, and everyone would consider others when making decisions. I would feel safe, comfortable, and welcome no matter where I went.

Hell on the other hand, would be filled with selfish and cruel people who would not hesitate to steal from me the moment I turned my back, or attack me if it looked like I was unable to guard something they wanted. There would be no friendships, only pragmatic alliances, and betrayal would be expected behind each handshake.

I guess everyone who fits under neither of these categories would just go to purgatory.

 

[Fox12]

Atlanta traffic. Seriously, it consistently ranks in the Top 10 US cities with the worst traffic every year. There have been times it took me 30 minutes to go a few miles. And I swear it's getting worse. When you're as patient as me (read: not at all) that is Hell.

And navigating Atlanta is a close second.
"It's on Peachtree Street."
"Which one? There's 14!"

When a driver in Atlanta sees a single snowflake

 

[Sonmi]

Hell is other people.

(Seriously. Glad I'm not in retail anymore. Now if only I could get a job that involved being locked in a vault with zero human contact....)

Screw you, Garcin, I wanted to make my Sartre-quoting smart-ass but you went ahead and beat me to it.

Well, I still get to point out that that quote only implies that others are only "hell" in that they are a mirror to yourself should you not be sufficiently self-actualized. Man is defined by his interaction with the world, and whatnot.

 

[Saltyk]

Atlanta traffic. Seriously, it consistently ranks in the Top 10 US cities with the worst traffic every year. There have been times it took me 30 minutes to go a few miles. And I swear it's getting worse. When you're as patient as me (read: not at all) that is Hell.

And navigating Atlanta is a close second.
"It's on Peachtree Street."
"Which one? There's 14!"

When a driver in Atlanta sees a single snowflake

To be fair. That single snowflake represents all the snow that driver has seen in a decade.

 

[sageoftruth]

Hell is Walmart on Black Friday.

Heaven is the smug self-satisfaction of not being there on a Black Friday.

 

[BitterRebel]

Cluster headaches everyday for 13 years is hell! (

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Every trauma, bad memory and slightest nuisance you've ever experienced, from getting gassed during the holocaust to getting chemotherapy to accidentally stepping on a lego, repeated until the end of time. Apparently, also retail jobs, which makes me conclude that heaven must be the satisfaction of having an engineering degree and finding work in your field, specifically work that doesn't include customer service.

Alternatively heaven is finding a porno you can keep coming (ba dum tss) back to and still have a good time.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

Overwatch's Battle.net forums.

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

I wasn't cautious, and now I spend my time arguing with idiots. I can't stop, even though I know I should...

 

[Fox12]

I don't know why I laughed, but I loved seeing the thread beneath yours.

"What is Hell? An acquired taste."

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Whatever the mind can conjour and then trap itself it, allowing only death as the single reasonable solution.

Orrr, Hmm, spoiler tags needed for boring waffling bollocks.

Spoiler: Orrr...

A bad acid trip if you're completely on your own. Not sure there are any words available in any human language that can describe it. It isn't anything as visual as many seem to assume, just a mess of every negative emotion and sensation available swirling into and amongst each other in incomprehensible despair, unable to function, to sleep, to escape. Not much I can distinctly remember of it other than shrinking into a foetal position in the dark, making whimpering noises the whole time in the vain attempt that it would fade away. Time crawled to a non-existence, just one continuous moment that refuses to end, to savour each and every personal horror. But, I guess that was just it concentrating the emotional problems at the time and throwing them into a blender to splat them against a spinning canvas. Certainly a hefty learning curve. But not making the same mistake again. All physical pain i've ever had couldn't even come close to that. At least you can always attempt to alleviate and explain, even form coherent thought patterns to help.

Spoiler: More crap, uninteresting stuff very necessarily spoilered :)

Being prescribed SSRIs of a significant dosage can do something very very unpleasant to the mind if suddenly stopped for any reason. They may take up to a month to start working, but they do not waste time letting you know you missed a dose. The first sign is the nightmares, the subconscious is a sensitive one for noticing change. Then the panics and fears, weird electric zap feelings in your head every few seconds that don't seem to have a formal term I'm aware off yet, could be the physical vertigo from anxiety manifesting. Everything feels hostile and the only desire is to retreat into darkness away from people and external influences, sounds, lights. Turning the head makes more of the unpleasant zaps occur. Its hard to describe just how much it renders you useless, afraid and despairing. Am hoping the eventual weening off will be much gentler and during a happier time. Really hate these stupid perceptions, so very overpowering yet impossible to portray.

Other than those subjective anecdotes, being immortal till the heat death of the universe. Floating through the endless black void of space, helpless, silent, spinning. And spinning. Nowhere. Forever. Nothing to hold on to. Forever. Cold. Alone.

Joy!!

Consolation otter to counteract negativity;

Should take a break now from this. Sorry!

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I'm seeing a lot of kidney stones and it makes me very nervous...I mean, I've experienced a sensation much like someone was powering on a generator that shot electricity through my teeth and gums at one point and that was physically what I would consider to be a living Hell.

A more after life-ish concept of Hell for me would just be waiting rooms. Tons of waiting rooms. Not even like the one from the end of Beetlejuice but there are no other people, just a disembodied voice which tells you that someone will be ready to see you shortly. The rooms would be bare with an exit on one wall and a plain door on the other. In a corner of the room would be a small TV that just plays back events from my life on repeat. Every time I work myself up to consider leaving, the voice sounds again assuring me that if I leave and come back I'll have to begin the wait again from the beginning. Hell is knowing that I will finally be able to move on if I can just wait another five minutes but that five minutes never ends.
...
I guess that's more of a limbo than it is a Hell but Hell doesn't necessarily have to be fire and brimstone.

Atlanta traffic. Seriously, it consistently ranks in the Top 10 US cities with the worst traffic every year. There have been times it took me 30 minutes to go a few miles. And I swear it's getting worse. When you're as patient as me (read: not at all) that is Hell.

And navigating Atlanta is a close second.
"It's on Peachtree Street."
"Which one? There's 14!"

I live about 2 hours away from Atlanta (we're allowed to have ice a few times during the Winter) but that Peachtree thing is just as relevant here. Peachtree and mention of Lake Lanier.

 

[Cold Shiny]

Well, I'm glad you asked.

Aside from the edgelords on this thread stating all Christians are idiots, Hell is...

Console Fanboyism
Preorder Culture
Gearbox
dry Chicken
Attractive women who are dumb
Politics
Anarchists
College classes
Driving on the highway in a snowstorm
Gun Rights Activists
Any game made by Microsoft ever
Overwatch fanboys

 

[Ryallen]

Because I love sleeping so much, to me, Hell is spending all night doing homework or just fucking about, then having more than one project or test the next day that you weren't able to properly prepare for, then having to drive over half an hour to your first class at 10 in the morning without having taken a shower, sitting through not being able to hand in the assignment or failing the test, then accidentally hanging out with your friends and seeing a movie that you've wanted to see for so long only to miss most of it because you haven't gotten any sleep since the day before only to get home after midnight and realizing that, even though it's really late and you haven't slept in a stupidly long amount of time, you still have to get up early in the morning for your next class.

 

[FalloutJack]

Please, you think these First World Problems are hell? (Nah, you're probably all just kidding.) Even horrendous politics isn't really hell.

Hell is being brainwashed Clockwork Orange style so that all that gave you pleasure is pain, and that all that gave you pain is worse. Hell is raw nerves and no endurance, so every horrible sensation is without deliverance, not even by going into shock or going insane. Hell is insanity without the benefit of going to your happy place. Your mind explodes and you're consciously aware of it, all of it.

Hell is all of these things and more, because what I just said is limited by human vocabulary and understanding, whereas those things would be meaningless in the hereafter.

(Sorry to go all grim and doomy, but I figured a more accurate notion needed to be said. And for the record, nothing I've done has ever come close.)

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Getting a Genetic Diesease?

The idea that you are born with a Cancer that will pop out at a certain age is horrifying.

Its like destiny, knowing you will die at a certain time because you were fated to develop a diesease that runs through the family line.

Its fuckin depressing.

 

[Michel Henzel]

It's that place were all those people life that do things that god does not like

Spoiler

 

[CaitSeith]

It's that place were all those people life that do things that god does not like

Spoiler

No, it's that place where humans are forced into an existence that they detest because of the actions of some who existed first.

Spoiler: In other words...