What is hell like?

Few would want to find out first-hand.

But hell there is.

It's where the soul that rejects God gravitates: to a place with no direct Presence, where there is the frightening absence of God.

Mostly, we associate fire -- flames -- with sheol. The seers at Fatima, Portugal, saw it as such: roaring fires that flamed up into themselves. We all are familiar with the term "hellfire." This was also described at the apparition site of Medjugorje: fire into which a beautiful woman entered and came out half-human, half-beast (the classic depiction, too, of a demon).

The Bible described a netherworld called Gehenna. Jesus described the "outer darkness" (Matthew 22:13).

When one rejects the Light of God, there is darkness.

That darkness is often described both in the mystical literature of Catholicism as well as recent alleged near-death experiences as a place of pits, of caves, of dungeons.

We just viewed a video of a man who nearly drowned (his heart had stopped for nine minutes), and while they tried to revive him, found himself heading to a dark place and two torches. There was a heap of gold (coins, goblets) and sitting atop of this tall pile of gold was the devil or a major demon, with a bull's head but a human face, and curved horns.

It was a dungeon. So many describe a thick blackness -- more than flames.

One of the most sobering such accounts comes to us from the great doctor of the Church, Saint Teresa of Avila.

"I was at prayer one day when suddenly, without knowing how, I found myself, as I thought, plunged right into hell," she wrote in her autobiography. "I realized that it was the Lord's Will that I should see the place which the devils had prepared for me there and which I had merited for my sins. This happened in the briefest space of time, but, even if I were to live for many years, I believe it would be impossible for me to forget it.

"The entrance, I thought, resembled a very long, narrow passage, like a furnace, very low, dark, and closely confined; the ground seemed to be full of water which looked like filthy, evil-smelling mud, and in it were many wicked-looking reptiles. At the end there was a hollow place scooped out of a wall, like a cupboard, and it was here that I found myself in close confinement."

There was an "interior fire and despair" that were "the worst things of all."

Went on the saint: "In that pestilential spot, where I was quite powerless to hope for comfort, it was impossible to sit or lie, for there was no room to do so. I had been put in this place which looked like a hole in the wall, and those very walls, so terrible to the sight, bore down on me and completely stifled me. There was no light and everything was in the blackest darkness." This reminds us too of the account from a Protestant named Angie Fenimore, who said the darkness was "alive" and so thick she felt she could form things from it.

Darkness. Pits. Caverns.

There is also the amazing account (in Struck By Lightning) by the dentist Gloria Polo, who said after a life of materialism, lack of compassion, and sexual sin she found herself in a place of "emptiness" and "headed toward several tunnels that went down toward the bottom. At the beginning, there was still a little light, like a beehive in which there were many people: young and old, men and women who were crying and grinding their teeth with frightening screams... I roamed in those tunnels, in the frightening darkness, until I arrived to an obscurity that cannot be compared to anything else. I can only say that a comparison would be the darkest corner on earth compared to the full sunlight at midday. Down there, the darkness generates pain, horror, and shame. It smells terribly. It is a living obscurity, yes, it is alive."

How many people might we know who may be at similar risk (especially non-believers) -- and what can we do to inform them of that risk?

Are we ourselves cleansed?

Next, we'll take a look at more recent experiences.

[resources: Struck By Lightning (book) and Struck By Lightning (CD)]

[Note also: Michael Brown retreats: Philadelphia-New Jersey and Connecticut!]

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