Tonight I actually did dream about Hell, but only in the most tangential manner. I dreamed that I was in class, college or at least the final year of high school judging from the age of my fellow students (I did not think of it while the dream lasted, so I don’t know for sure.)  Our teacher asked us if we knew what “helvete” meant. (That is really the Norwegian word for Hell, and the whole dream was in Norwegian. The word means the “realm of Hel” or “punishment of Hel”, Hel being the Norse goddess of the boring dead, those who die by sickness or old age rather than in war.  Corresponds largely to Greek Hades.)  I explained the etymology of the word, but in the dream my communications skills were insufficient: The teacher asked the class again, even though I had already answered his question.  The students then came up with various theories, and soon several people were talking at once.  The teacher looked like a liberal, by the way. I don’t think anyone considered that he might be asking for the classical definition of Hell as taught by several of the world’s great religions.

I had several other dreams this night, because I slept in.  The first of them was about the death of someone I have known quite well in waking life. It was kind of sad but dignified. I will not give any details of this because this would give away who it was.

There were a couple more dreams, but they were lost in the hour of delta brainwave entrainment that followed.  They seemed less poignant anyway.