Master Ryuho Okawa, Founder and CEO of Happy Science, gave a lecture in late July entitled “The Initiation of the Soul” at El Cantare Seitankan.

Happy Science is a new religion that started in Japan, and it teaches that humans are souls who descend to Earth to undergo soul training. A person who lives in this world filled with negative thoughts like greed and anger would temporarily return to Hell after death for self-reflection.

Of course, this idea is nothing new: it is prevalent in many religions. In his lecture, however, Master Okawa went beyond what is explained in existing sacred texts, and revealed the existence of a recently created realm in Hell that closely resembles our modern society.

For example, there are religious paintings of hell where demons are depicted chasing their victims with a weapon. This sort of hell does exist, but recently, instead of demons we see a modernized version, such as surgeons slicing open their victims. Hell is a projection of the person’s state of mind, so when society on Earth changes, so does Hell.

Master Okawa mentioned the “Subterraneous Hell” as an example of a Hellish realm that reflects our society.

Let us say that a person lives solely between work and home, is completely tired of how society functions, and his/her relationships at work and at home. If this person ends his/her life filled with this loneliness, they will return to a world that reflects it. This is a world where people trap themselves in what could be seen as an underground hollow or a one-room apartment.

Master Okawa recently published a book “Stories of Hell You Never Imagined Could Be True” in Japanese that details what is happening in Hell in our modern era.

“I make contact with the spiritual world and converse with spirits on a daily basis, so from my eyes there is no question about the existence of such as world [Heaven and Hell],” Master Okawa said in his lecture, lamenting the state of society that ridicules all matters spiritual.

If a person who denies the existence of the spiritual world dies, they do not realize that they have gone to Hell. In Hell, no matter how many times you kill others or commit suicide, you won’t die. These lost souls continue this endless cycle until they realize the mistakes they have made in their mind. Until then, they remain unable to explain why and what they are experiencing in Hell.

Master Okawa said that whether a person will go to Heaven or Hell has nothing to do with their level of education, their social position, or how prestigious their job is. In fact, it is more often the knowledgeable people with academic excellence who tend to dismiss matters regarding the spiritual world.

Master Okawa explained the importance of getting in touch with knowledge of the spiritual world while we are still alive.

 
In the lecture Master Okawa also discussed the following points:

• Why highly educated people tend to deny the afterlife
• Do suicide attackers go to Heaven or to Hell?
• Why some religions forbid idolatry
• Why we must become humbler the more we succeed
• The true meaning of holding memorial services for ancestors (Buddhist tradition)
• The Umbrella Revolution and the importance of faith