"A Tour of Modern Hell Experienced During Sleep" Described by Ryuho Okawa

 

Above is shown the first of six more images from the movie "The Laws of Eternity"; Ryuho Okawa was screenwriter/executive producer.  Ryuho's films show how he was intent on expanding people's consciousness of metaphysical, spiritual and cosmological aspects of life even with entertainment media. 

 

Below is shown the cover photo from the Ryuho Okawa book Twiceborn (2020).

 

Many dilemmas are caused by the lack of progress of a human being failing to achieve correct metaphysical/spiritual knowledge during Earth life and manifesting the lessons learned in one's daily life.  Just as transcripts of 'channeled entity' orations sometimes necessitate 'reading between the lines' in relation to the nature of lessons being articulated and moral implications, dreamstate experiences also must be interpreted by an experiencer.  The dreamstate experience quoted in this article was reported to have occurred one night in November 2006 as chronicled in The Hell You Never Knew (2019).  This passage is verbatim from the English version of the book and shows the channeler's psychic gifts encompassed the ability to recall his unique 'Other World' experiences of visiting Hell.
 
Today an MSN News headline presented a recent example of a testimonial offered about a dreamstate visit to hell.  The correlating YouTube video is also shown.  There are many evident correlations between Pastor Gerald A. Johnson's description of his encounter with hell to the one published by Ryuho Okawa. 

 

Ryuho Okawa presented his interpretations and impressions about the progression and symbolism of events witnessed during his visits to hell; however, readers may find insights of their own about the meaning of the circumstances described.  Ryuho commented that he found warnings about the results of individuals engaging in or causing war or destruction or dominating others in various ways—such as through teachings of erroneous or false information, especially considering metaphysical/spiritual truths that when inaccurately elucidated have the effect of psychologically imprisoning others—or someone being in the predicament of being resentful about unfulfilled desires or goals after making the transition to the ascended realm.  The dreamstate occurrences made Ryuho aware that he personally had no personal control of the karmic forces being experienced by himself or the others with whom he interacted during the dreamstate experiences.
 
One night when Ryuho Okawa found himself having trouble getting into a peaceful sleep, he reported that 'my travel began' —
 

It was a journey into the spirit world, which started with the physical feeling of being spiritually dragged and I thought something was about to begin.  It often happens when I least expect it.  What's more, it usually happens at the most inopportune time.

The initial journey into the spirit world started around 11:30 pm and lasted for about two and a half hours until around 2:00 am.  It would have been fine if my destination had been a good place, but I was taken to the underworld on this occasion, and that is how my tour around the world of hell started.

The first place I was taken to was very different from the classic image of hell.  So I was at first a little confused about where I was.  Then I suddenly found myself in a place like the inside of a train.  From within the train-like place, I could see a European-like landscape outside.  In addition, passengers on the train looked European.  I was looking around, wondering what was going to happen.  Then I heard an explosion.  A bomb exploded inside the train, and a scene looking exactly like the Hell of Agonizing Cries unfolded before my eyes.  So I had arrived at a place where a tragedy was happening.

I guessed it was a kind of Ashura realm* (*In principle, Ashura Realm is formed as a result of war.  However, one does not have to be associated with war to go there.  Those who have a strong belligerent character or are controlled by their anger also go there.), a world of strife and destruction, which was combined with the Hell of Scorching Heat.  It was indeed extremely hot; a painfully burning heat pierced my right arm, which continued throughout my stay.  It was a place of fiery heat and agonizing cries.

Other than Europeans, I also saw people who looked Turkish and others who appeared Muslim.  I thus had witnessed a blast and the horrifying sight of the blood bath that followed.

Continuing the tour, I was then taken to various places that looked similar to where terrorism had occurred around the world.  I walked through sites, one after another, where tragedy had happened; they were places of repeated terrorist attacks.  It would be right to say that it was an ongoing hell, which parallels what had been unfolding on Earth.  Terrorism occurs in various parts of the world, where buses and trains are blown up, and then there are the suicide bombings in the Middle East.  Similar tragedies have taken place in the spirit world as well, though in slightly different forms, among those who harbor feelings of opposition, animosity, destruction, and murder.  Those who gather there do not seem to be aware that they are actually in hell.

I witnessed these sights and felt the misery amid bloodshed and scorching heat.  Helpful words would not provide any sort of relief there.  As far as I saw, I could not imagine any angel to possibly come and speak to these spirits and guide them to heaven.  Because of the primary reason causing these spirits to be there, it would take some amount of time before their memories faded away.  They were those who never listened to what others had to say.

They had desires for destruction and violence; they were filled with hatred and wished to thoroughly crush their opponents.  These desires were immensely strong.  This fierce desire to utterly destroy the enemy had turned into the heat of the Hell of Scorching Heat.  It was so hot while I was there, that it felt as if my right arm would catch fire up to my shoulder and burn off.

Considering our afterlife in the spirit world, we must prevent acts of murder, violence and destruction from spreading in this world on Earth.  What I saw during my visit was similar to the areas where acts of terrorism occur in this world.  But should a war break out on Earth, an even more massive amount of horrible events would occur, with extremely prolonged aftereffects in the spirit world.  It would certainly bring about much greater problems and tragedies.  When even acts of terrorism can bring about such horrific situations, it is all the more imperative that a war should be taken very seriously.

War immediately creates a realm in hell* (A realm of hell was formed in the other world when the Gulf War broke out in 1991.  For more details, refer to My Journey through the Spirit World [New York; IRH Press, 2018]), deeply embedding hatred in the souls of many.  It will create karma in people's souls that will be carried out through reincarnations, resulting in them repeating their atonement and revenge for many lifetimes.  The experience of a massive trauma in life through destructive acts and murder will have an immense impact on people's souls, and its memories will last for about one to two thousand years.

In the modern world the development of gunpowder, explosives and other new weaponry has advanced, enabling us to carry out various destructive acts and slaughter from afar without ever having feelings of guilt.  In this era, a single push of a button would enable the killing of a massive amount of people, so the feelings of guilt is minimal.  As a result of this mass destruction, however, a Hell of Agonizing Cries will be formed just as it did in the past.  We must recognize that terrorism and war will create a serious karma on the individual level, as well as for group karma.*  (*Group karma is an inescapable common destiny shared by all people who belong to the same group or age, such as a society, a nation or humanity as a whole.)

As far as I have observed these tragic scenes in the spirit world, it was impossible even for angels to persuade the spirits there; these horrific situations would probably continue for some time.  They will most probably experience the same scenarios of destruction from acts of terrorism over and over again.  People who committed suicide, for example, would repeat their self-destruction again and again on the same spot even after they had become spirits.  In the same way, in the underworld I visited, after such destructive acts of murder and terrorism occur, everything returns to a normal state after a while, only to have a similar event happen again.  In this way they repeat the same experience again and again.  This will continue until a majority of the inhabitants awaken to the spiritual truth and willingly try to receive guidance to lead a truthful way of life.

Having returned from my initial visit to the spirit world around 2:00 am, I was struggling to sleep with its lingering memories, when, once again, I was dragged away for a second experience that started at around 3:00 am.  This time I appeared in the middle of slightly brighter and more colorful scenery, so I was initially relieved to find myself in an apparently better place.  However, I soon found out that it was also a part of hell.

The kind of place I had arrived at for my second round was the Realm of Lust, yet a little altered from the traditional one, just like the Ashura Hell.  The common image of the Realm of Lust in Happy Science films is often portrayed as a Hell of the Bloody Pond where people suffer in a lava-like bath, but that is a slightly outdated image and the current Realm of Lust does not necessarily take that form.  The place I visited had nice scenery that initially made me mistakenly feel that I had arrived someplace like the Astral Realm.

There I found a large building of Western design, which had an orange roof and typical windows.  It seemed to be the residence of about ten women of different nationalities, including European, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese.  They wore colorful clothing and their appearance varied; they were rather good-looking.

Initially I didn't realize I was in hell; I was just struck by the diversity of the women.  But as I was observing the place, I soon began to sense something odd.  It seemed to me that the women situated there were imprisoned and unable to escape.  They were in a relatively nice Western-style building, but it was actually a kind of brothel.  I realized that it was a building to confine women who were working as prostitutes, or who would have been called geisha in olden times.

Among them was a girl of only seventeen or eighteen years old.  She looked Japanese and was wearing white attire.  It was not a dress, but rather like the long undergarment of a Japanese kimono.  Since the girl still looked innocent, I thought I might at least be able to quietly help her get out of there.  So I secretly guided her out of the building.

The building was surrounded by an open field with some flowers, and seemingly, there was nothing else.  However, about five to ten minutes (15 — 30 feet) from the building, we came up to a river.  It was a transparent river, the sort of which can never be found on Earth.  It was a flowing river, yet transparent and invisible to the normal human eye.  When we tried to cross it, the girl's attire became so heavily drenched that she almost drowned and we were unable to cross through it.  So we returned to the building to try another route, which again ended in failure.

I then held my arm around the girl to carry her, trying to escape through the roof.  As I flew higher, however, the ceiling grew larger and taller, with no way of going through it.  And while we were making our escape attempt, others started to notice that I was trying to take the girl away.

Among them was the proprietress, a woman who reminded me of a witch.  Her face was somewhat familiar to me.  I'm sure she was a sorceress or a witch; her large bulging eyes, long hair, and immensely strong psychic power indicated as such.  As a witch, she looked rather like the old mountain hag that appears in Japanese folktales.  She looked to be in her fifties.  Although she did not look so evil, she had a frightening face with the traits of a witch — large eyes that gave strength to her gaze.

I quickly understood she was the one in charge, or mistress of the house.  Then I gradually came to see that this dominating witch was using her magical power, or some kind of psychic power, to imprison the women and prevent them from escaping.  The women were bound by her psychic power.

I tried once again to escape through the ceiling, but then another woman with long hair in black Chinese attire came after us.  She initially looked like a normal, attractive woman, but when she started chasing after us, her face turned into something horrific as her mouth suddenly widened to her ears with fangs showing out, and her eyes narrowed with a mysterious glitter.  The old mountain hag witch and other women chased us down, preventing us from escape.  Thus, nobody was allowed to leave, and should anybody try, or if an outsider tries to help one of them escape, they will pull her back again to keep her inside.

I didn't see any men in the place at the time.  But it was obvious that the women had to serve as "sex slaves" and were unable to escape.  The existence of such a realm in the underworld means there is an equivalent world on Earth in which women are treated as commercial property and unable to flee from sex slavery.  This happens not only in Japan, but also around the world.

There reportedly are cases, for instance, in which women are lured from the Philippines or other Southeast Asia countries with the promise of good-paying jobs, such as hostess in drinking places or dance performers, only to find themselves being forced into the sex trade as security for taking out loans, but with no way of escape.  Such illegal practices have been carried out all across the globe.  And there is a place in the underworld for these women, who have been held captive in this way and turned into sex slaves, to go after death.  In the other world, too, they are confined in a separate place and apparently put under a spell of "no escape."  I'm not sure if these women understand that they are actually in hell.

So there was no escape no matter how hard we tried.  Even if I could successfully remove her from the building, an invisible river would block our way out, and we could neither escape through the ceiling nor the windows of the building.  This is how we struggled to break out.  I tried to speak with this girl of about seventeen, but it was in vain because she just kept silent.  A beautiful young woman, she resembled the Japanese actress Miho Kanno.  I was able to talk with the other women a little, but not with her because she said nothing at all.

As we made efforts to escape from those chasing us, I was yanked several times by the silver cord attached to the top of my head like a puppet string, which pulled me up several times like an astronaut bobbing in space.  I thus got pulled out of that place and was drawn back to the earthly world.  I think I had been taken for my second visit around 3:00 am and was returned at around 4:30 am.  After I came back, I was able to continue monitoring the scene by using my spiritual sight, rather than my physical eyes.

I could not help anybody get out of this Hell of Lust, just like in the previous Ashura Realm.  In order to help inhabitants get out of there, we have to study their individual circumstances, how and why they had ended up there, and work out the way for each individual to escape.  There are many such "spiritual fields" in the underworld.  Angels cannot just go and swiftly help the inhabitants out; these stranded inhabitants are under a kind of magical power or spell, making it impossible for them to leave.

Hell is not all necessarily like a bowl-shaped crater or an inescapable bloody pond.  There are also places like the one I've just spoken of.  The women there had probably carried some prisonlike burden while they were alive. For example: one could have had unpaid loans, one could have broken a law and was unable to return to mainstream life, one could have had negative feelings toward one's parents or siblings, or one could have lived under threatening conditions.  Even after they died, they have retained such constrictive fears and been unable to free themselves from such bondage.  This is an example of how fear and oppression experienced during one's lifetime can strongly constrain the human soul, preventing one from getting free.
 
It sometimes happens that some of the women who are forced into sex trafficking, made to do illegal work, and unable to escape from this underground network, are killed while carrying out their undesirable labor.  But it seems these women have not received appropriate guidance in the other world after they have died.

Those who had no knowledge of the truth about the spirit world or spiritual truths while they were alive would have no clue of understanding, upon returning to the spirit world after death and find themselves in such a modern type of hell.  They would not realize what exactly has happened to them, why they have found themselves in such a place, and how they could get out of there.  Additionally, they would be bound by the spells of a witch-like being who had stronger power than they did.  It would be extremely difficult to break through these spells and escape.  This is the impression I had.

If, despite the oppressive life of confinement, they had found a single light of salvation and had some connection to the Truth while they were alive by coming across a Happy Science monthly magazine, movie, lecture, or book of Truth, for example, then they would most probably find a way to escape.  If the person, even under restriction, had the chance to go out and attend some kind of a gathering at a local temple of Happy Science to make a few Dharma friends or learn the Truth while alive, he or she would certainly get a chance to escape the current underworld.  But if they had no knowledge of the Truth, they cannot flee, because a psychological wall would appear in many ways to prevent them from doing so.

I'm not sure how long the situation would continue for them; I assume it would be for quite a long time unless something happens to change the situation.  As time passes, some will make attempts to escape, while new arrivals are continuously dragged down. 

There are probably many similar kinds of hell other than the one I happened to see.  In all these places, the inhabitants are made to believe that there is no other way of life, so they cannot leave there.  It is actually what I experienced; we could not even proceed more than five or ten meters from the building because an invisible river would prevent us from going further.  The confined women would drown, so were unable to cross it.  We could not go out through the ceiling either.

This kind of hell does exist, but it is highly likely that the inhabitants there are not aware that they are actually in hell.  They probably just think they have been captured by some kind of powerful mistress.  So, "knowing" is immense power.  If they know where they truly are, they will begin to desire to leave their confinement.  Then we can help them out.

When it is time for a chicken egg to hatch, for example, that chick will peck at the eggshell with its beak from inside the egg.  Meanwhile, the hen pecks at the same place from outside the egg.  Then the egg breaks and the chick hatches.  This is called "simultaneous pecking in and pecking out" in Buddhist terms.  In the same way, an effort to save somebody from the outside (outside power) alone is not sufficient for one to be saved; the effort to break out on one's own power (power of the self) is also essential.  No matter how hard people outside may try to save somebody, if the person in question does not at least try to leave the situation behind, it is fairly difficult to do so.  This is obvious from the fact that the girl I tried to save kept silent and did not say a thing.  She was probably unable to understand what was going on.

From this we can say that the spreading of the Truth is extremely important.  People do not necessarily need a lot of information.  Even a small amount of Truth will do.  They just need a clue to find a way out.  To that end, we must strive to approach people from all walks of life.  This is what I came away with after my second journey to the underworld.

With the first ordeal by fire and the second by water, I wanted this experience to be over so I could get some rest because I had to make some important decisions and go to headquarters to hold meetings later on that day.  Contrary to my wishes, however, a third trip started around 5:00 am when I was once again pulled into the spirit world.

Looking around this time, I found myself to be in an open space like a soccer field.  Around me I saw many people, both adults and children.  At first I couldn't figure out where I was, but it seemed to be like a soccer field.

Shortly, a very tall foreign man over 190 centimeters in height (6 feet) came and stood in front of me, blocking my view.  He looked Australian.  Nearby there was also a youngster, perhaps a fifth or sixth grader in elementary school who looked Japanese.  The younger was holding a slice of toast with something spread on it, perhaps butter or jam.  Then the tall man suddenly grabbed away the boy's toast.  The child jumped up trying to get it back, but it was in vain; the man was too tall and kept it out of reach.  The man ate the toast that the boy wanted to eat.

As this scene played out before my eyes, at first I couldn't recognize what kind of place I had been brought to.  As I looked around, I saw other similar situations of children holding some kind of finger food, like sandwiches or hamburgers, or holding a toy or plaything, which were then taken away by large adults.  Initially, I only had a vague impression that this must be some kind of hell, but I didn't really understand what sort of place it was.  In fact, it was the Hell of Hungry Ghosts* (*The hungry ghosts are traditionally considered to be the spirits of the dead who suffered from starvation or thirst.  They are so thin that they have protruding ribs and bloated bellies.)  Like the previous two scenarios, this was also very different from how the Hell of Hungry Ghosts was usually envisioned.

For the children, as they are about to take the first bite into their food, it is suddenly taken away by a tall adult and held up unreachably high.  So they burst into tears.  They cannot have what they were just about to eat.  They cannot play with their toys because they were taken away just as they were about to play with them.  And no matter how hard they tried to retrieve them, they could not because the adults were too tall.  This is one type of the Hell of Hungry Ghosts.  Here, the normally-used images of ogres are replaced by large men who take things away like food and toys from children.
 
Since there were a lot of children there, I observed them to see what kind of children they were.  The conventional inhabitants of the Hell of Hungry Ghosts are children who died from starvation due to lack of food and suffer as hungry ghosts.  But the children I saw this time were different from that situation.  Their real problem was not about food.  Food was a symbol, representing the desire to acquire something and the feeling of not being able to obtain the thing they wanted.

So I asked the young boy who had his toast taken by the large man in front of me, "Who on earth are you?"  The child answered, "I am a student studying for an exam."  From his age, I could see the youngster was a student apparently preparing for an entrance exam to a prestigious junior high school.  The reason the student suffered was because, although he tried hard to pass the test, he had failed.

This was a new discovery; I had never imagined that children who suffered greatly in preparation for entrance exams would find themselves in the Hell of Hungry Ghosts after they die.*  (*Even children can be attuned to the spirits in hell and get possessed by them if they are in a bad state of mind.  Juvenile delinquents are in fact often under negative spiritual influence by these spirits.  Therefore, academic learning alone is not enough in educating children, they also need to learn the religious truths including the existence of souls, heaven and hell, to cultivate their sentiments.)  It was surprising to see how they would be considered hungry ghosts.  There are many children in this world who study so hard to successfully gain entrance to a prestigious junior high school, high school or university to meet the expectations of their parents.  Among them are some who, despite desperately wanting to pass the exams, commit suicide because of the severe stress or due to the heartbreak of failure, while others may die of unfortunate causes like childhood illnesses.  These children, who leave behind some kind of resentment when they die, find themselves in this kind of place.

They are children who passed away without being able to fulfill their parents' hopes and dreams.  Many of them, I imagine, have committed suicide in modern times.  There are also children who worked to achieve some goal under pressure from their parents and the stress it involved, but died without completing the goal and left behind some resentment.  These children are in the Hell of Hungry Ghosts of the modern style.  In this place, each child holds a different thing in his or her hand—food, a plaything, or other object of attachment—but they all cry and scream after having the object they crave being taken away from them by a large adult.  The location was like a soccer field, which gave me the impression that there were plenty of children.  This was the experience I had.

The large Australian man did not look like a typical ogre.  I was somehow able to converse with him in English, and I tried to persuade him saying, "Why don't you give back that piece of bread to the child?"  But he replied, "What right have you to say that?"  So I admonished him stating, "I am a sort of judge.  Children must be protected, and I must secure children's rights.  This is the child's food, so give it back to the child."  However, he did not believe me, replying, "I've never heard of anything like securing rights for children.  And I've never heard of any judges who have such a role."  I encountered this kind of place in the underworld, and once again I couldn't settle the case.

*

Ryuho's commentary about his 'Tour of Modern Hell Experienced During Sleep' includes mentioning "one of the central teachings of Buddhism are the Three Poisons of Mind, namely greed, anger and ignorance."  Ryuho appraised:

. . . it is very sad that people do not know the important Truth that even people in primitive times knew.

A time will certainly come, years or decades later, when you have to pay the price of not knowing the Truth; you will have to make up for any negativity that resulted from living without knowing the Truth.  You will definitely be made to experience it for yourself.  It will come in the form of an "underworld tour."  People create different realms of hell within their hearts and, in most cases, they will experience each one of them.  And their study will continue until they graduate from the world of hell.

There are people who are quick to use violence or lie, or even kill other people, for example.  In any case, those who had been ignorant if their inner problem will have to face it for themselves and cannot leave the underworld until they fully learn their lessons.  This will determine the period of time they need to stay in hell.

There have been two other recent blog articles about Ryuho Okawa (1, 2).  As this account of hell is from the year 2006, there hadn't yet been witnessed the recent tragic pestilence, war, economic and deteriorating ecosystem events that have been occurring on the contemporary physical Earth plane.  This blog has been addressing this subject of humanity's 21st Century predicament since May 2022 with such articles as "Overcoming Silence and Entertainment Trance Will Allow the Joyful New Age to Unfold", "What Has Been Happening In Ukraine Is a World War", "The Current Phase of Life on Earth (Illustrated In Review)" and "2022 was the Year Heralding that 'Babylon Is Coming'".
 
The preceding article is "Reflections about a Channeled Description of Hell" and the first part of this article is "Journeys to the Spirit World As Described by Ryuho Okawa (1956-2023)".