[ WP ] A Man dies and expects to go either Heaven or Hell , only to be told by an Angel that he already was in Hell and now his punishment is over

“ Well what is this then? ” I asked not knowing what to expect. It all seemed quite surreal. If you have ever bumped your head so hard that you temporarily black out, and I don ’ t mean you are unconscious but you black out – you lose some time an hour, a minute a day or whatever and suddenly it is as if you wake up only you were awake the whole time you just don ’ t remember it. That is exactly how I felt but instead of losing an hour I had lost 26 years. 
 
 My whole life felt like a distant dream that you forget not long after waking up, but instead this was the reverse situation. Slowly but surely my life was coming back to me. Not in a chronological way it was more like bits and pieces along the way. 
 
 “ Think of this as a midway station, like when you are at the airport waiting for a connecting flight ”. Airport? Yes, where airplanes transport people. Airplanes? These concepts seemed foreign to me but as the fog lifted from my mind it all got a bit clearer, bit by bit. 
 “ So am I dead? ” I asked again not knowing what to expect; “ Technically yes, you are dead ” he said “ But try not to think of death the opposite of life, think of it as a way of existing. Death and life are equal for all intends and purposes but they are not the same ”. 
 
 “ Are you an angel ” I asked “ You can call me that. It depends on what you believe, what idea you subscribe to I guess ” “ So was it all real or was it just an illusion? ” I asked. “ It was an illusion, but that does not mean it wasn ’ t real. All your planes of existence are an illusion so to speak, even this one ” he said “ What do you mean? ” “ Try to forget the confusion you feel right now. I can not give you the answers because you are not ready to understand them. You are not – for lack of a better word – old enough ”. 
 
 “ So if my life was Hell… What came before it? What did I do to deserve to go to Hell? ” “ Don ’ t think of Hell as a punishment ” he explained “ Hell is simply life. You call it one thing I call it another. In the same way as Hell or ‘ life ’ is coming back to you, in time what came before that will also come back just like what came before that, and before that ”. “ So how many existences have I been through at this stage? ” “ I don ’ t know ” he said looking very serene “ That ’ s part of what I like about it. You are the only one who knows, you just don ’ t remember it yet. For each new existence you add to your combined consciousness, from your creation and until you reach the end your consciousness grows with each plane of existence until you reach the end ” the angel said “ you mean until I die? ”. The angel sighed “ No, I mean until you reach the end. Remember, life, death, all are stages of your consciousness. Each are a way of experiencing the world from a different angle, you, your consciousness, it grows until you reach the end ”. 
 
 “ And what happens then ” I asked nervously “ I don ’ t know ” he said “ I have never myself known anyone to make it to the end yet. Even my form now is a plane of existence for my consciousness ” the angel said looking curiously at me “ So you were through Hell as well, you were a man like me? ” the angel smiled “ Well I experienced Hell if you want to call it that, I prefer to think of it as a stage of consciousness where we experience the 3 dimensions you have just gone through. As for the second part: no, I was never a man. ” 
 “ You were an alien? ” I said surprised “ You could say that ” he said “ Remember, that Hell, Life or whatever you call it is a stage that all consciousness ’ in the universe must go through, it is experiencing the universe from a 3-dimensional perspective which adds to our pool of experience. If you are a human from Earth or something else, it does not matter. Deep down we are all the same – we are an individual consciousness, and there are a lot of us. I don ’ t know how better to describe it ” 
 
 “ So if you are the same as me, but at a different stage in your.. erhh.. Life ” “ journey ” he interrupted “ right, journey.. How can I be talking to you? I certainly didn ’ t see any ‘ consciousness ’ floating around experiencing a different stage of their ‘ journey ’ when I was in Hell ”. The angle looked very thoughtful for a moment, I could not determine if he was trying to figure how best to explain it or whether or not to explain it at all. “ In my current stage ” he began “ I experience the universe from a perspective that overlaps multiple dimensions. Space and Time they become more of a… Flexible concept... when you reach a certain stage in your journey ” “ You can travel in time ” I interrupted excitedly, I could not help but get excited about the prospect of one day be able to do so myself “ In essence yes ” he said “ and space as well.. The best way to describe it to someone in your stage is that the universe becomes much more obvious to you, you figure out how things work.. I can interact with you, through the dimension you are in now, similarly I can interact with people in Hell because I can interact with their dimensional space and time – you however can not because from the perspective you are in now, you experience only certain parts of the world ”. 
 
 “ Ok, I think I get it ” I started “ No you don ’ t. Not yet. But you know what you need to know, you know as much as your consciousness can understand ” he said and I could not help but feel a bit insulted. It felt as if he was calling me stupid. “ It is time for you to move on. This is your current stage ” “ How do I move on from here ” I asked “ You should know I can not tell you that. In fact, the only reason I am talking to you is because of the circumstances under which you transitioned from your last stage ” “ you mean how I died? What about it ” I asked him “ your ‘ death ’ if you want to call it that was under circumstances so traumatising that it may leave a permanent scar on the consciousness. I am here to assess if you are ready to move on or if you need to go back ” 
 Go back? He means to ‘ Hell ’? I didn ’ t even remember what that was like. I remembered bits and pieces but nothing concrete. “ Do I get a choice ” I asked. “ No ” he said “ the choice is mine ”. “ So what will it be ” I asked. “ Well, you are still here aren ’ t you? ” he smiled. 
 Like that, he was gone. I was alone in the empty space. I did not know what was up, down, in out left right or anything. The spatial dimensions my consciousness had grown accustomed to were all irrelevant now and all that was left was emptiness and fear. The darkness was overwhelming and I felt a need to get away but away from what? I cried out or rather, at least I think I did – I did however not hear anything. I felt frightened, confused, overwhelmed and yanked out of what had been a familiar existence for my entire ‘ Life ’. 
 
 And then it hit me, the irony of it all. I felt exactly like a baby that had just been born must do. 

