I don't enjoy saying this, but I think often the more uncertain some people are, the more they try to clutch onto ideas as absolute truths. They are apt to pick up a "holy book" and say to themselves, "This is all true" without any basis for it.
I could not tell you if every line in the Bible is true. I don't know. I've no way to judge that by my experience. If I did know for sure and could judge by experience, I'd have no need to read the Bible or any other holy book. What I can say is that I have seen some of the things mentioned in the Bible -- and the descriptions often match what I saw. Other parts of the Bible, I don't know about; and clearly too some parts can't be true, not if they contradict each other. This is not the place to go into the subject of forgeries and frauds however.
When I read that Jesus preached to spirits in prison, I asked if I could it too. I was given permission. (Be careful what you ask for, you might get it.) I did that two times -- and in two very different sections of hell. Neither worked well. No one wanted to hear what I said. Lucky for me, I was surrounded by the Light of God. I would have been attacked in both cases without it. My message of hope and love was not welcome.
I'll go into more detail about the worse case. I was in a dark gloomy place. Even the sky was dark and gloomy. There were trees of some sort that appeared dead being a pasty pale white. There was a small group people there. They had one person tied down and were torturing him. The people torturing the man weren't interested in what I said. They felt sure they had the upper hand. Why would they want to "repent" when they felt they were "winning"? I was asking them to give up what they saw as their "control". Then I got closer to the man who was tied down to talk to him. I told him he could come with me and get away if he wanted. (I knew instinctively this was true, that Jesus would get him out of there if I could get him to say he wanted to come with me.) He said he would leave with me if he got loose but only after he got revenge.
Then I realized something. These people were engaged in torturing each other. They took turns at it. If the tortured fellow could conspire with a few others there, they could execute a coup of sorts and the tormented would become the tormentor. They would do this endlessly. (It reminds me now somewhat of how politicians operate.) Somehow as time passed, the injuries to their bodies got repaired only to be savaged again. I was very sad when I turned away from him, realizing it was hopeless for me to continue trying to talk into giving up the idea of revenge.
At one point, a very big man approached me threatening me with a big fist in my face. Instinct preserved me again. I was protected by the Light and didn't flinch. He didn't touch me. He was trying to make me afraid. If I had been afraid, the Light of God would have left me. If I believed he could hurt me, then he could have.
(I could tell you other stories about how "demons" are afraid of the Light. Most demons are not what many people think they are. Buddhism is closer to the truth than the usual Christian ideas. Many of them aren't even that real. Have you heard of what Buddhists all tulpas? )
I think Jesus and Buddha are the best of friends. Buddha helped me find the right path. I started off as a Christian as a child. Then I became an atheist, then an agnostic. Then I started looking for some truth. I looked into Buddhism and did meditation. I was trying to visualize Gautama -- and was surprised when he showed up. Our conversation saddened me since he told me I was not meant to be a Buddhist. It made me sad since I felt a lot of love for him and from him. He was so kind when I asked if he would help me while I found my proper path. He said he would, and he did.
Speaking of Buddhism, I remember the first time I wanted to see what hell looked like. Could I visit it? Suddenly, I was in another place. People were standing by themselves alone -- no one was talking to anyone else. All their clothes were gray. It was dreary to be sure; but I had the idea of "fire" in my mind and wondered why I wandered into this desolate place. One man looked to be more important or maybe have more authority than the others. I went up to him and asked him about it. "I was trying to find hell and wound up here, but there's no fire. Is this hell?" He calmly told me, "Oh, you're looking for the Christian hell. This is a Buddhist one." My mistake, eh? So off I set again, this time looking specifically for a "Christian" hell with fire. Yes, I found it.
I agree with what William Blake said about Emmanuel Swedenborg. Both had many visions (both more than I have), and I like Blake was excited at first when I discovered Swedenborg's writings. Over time, I came to the same conclusion Blake about Swedenborg -- that to a very large extent he saw what he expected to see. If we expect something to be a certain way, odds are we'll be attracted to a spiritual reality where that is true. Swedenborg took his theological ideas too seriously and never saw things that would have contradicted them. Swedenborg can also relate something he saw in a vision and then go on with theological ideas that aren't related to what he saw and which I don't think are true.
By the way, Blake said he met Voltaire (in the spiritual world) -- and he considered him a saint of sorts. So do I. I believe Voltaire was born to do certain things in his life; and if he had been a devout Christian, he would have been reluctant to do them and probably not have succeeded in his mission.
I see I didn't really answer your question about helping people in hell. Let me get back to you on it since this post is getting long. There is hope for them. . . or for almost all of them anyway.
