Avichi

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Avichi

A theosophical concept of hell, deriving from the Sanskrit word for "isolation." Although it is a place of torment, it differs in great degree from the dominant conception of hell. Its torments are the torments of fleshly cravings, which for want of a physical body cannot be satisfied. People remain after death exactly the same entity as before, and, if in life an individual has been obsessed with strong desires or passions, such obsession still continues, though in the astral plane the satisfaction of these desires or passions is impossible. These torments are of infinite scope, whether it be the confirmed sensualist who suffers them, or more ordinary people who, without being bound to the things of the flesh, have nevertheless allowed the affairs of the world to loom too largely in their lives and are now doomed to regret the small attention they have given to higher matters.

Avichi is a place of regrets for things done and things un-done. Its torments are not, however, eternal, and with the passing of timeof which there is no measure in the astral plane they are gradually discontinued at the cost of terrible suffering.