What is Hell?

Some preachers threaten hellfire, whilst others quench the flames
with divine love. In this Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogue, following a
suggestion of a regular listener, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark
Vernon ask what sense can, today, be made of hell. Is it
primarily a psychological state, in which people are locked up by
distress? Is it a region of reality that some people, many
people, or perhaps all people are at risk of traveling too? Does
experience now shape the experience of the hereafter? How does
the hell of the Greek and Judeo-Christian traditions relate to
the hell realms charted in Eastern philosophies? And what does it
have to do with purgatory, and with paradise?