Enter the gate
From the journal, February 3, 2006:
I see a broad plateau below me. It is supported by a narrow column protruding from the earth, extending miles and miles into the air. The diameter of this column, which appears natural by the way, not a work of architecture, is narrower than that of the plateau. For this reason, it is impossible to walk, run, climb, or drive to the top of the plateau. Because of its height, it couldn't be flown to with any type of aircraft. Despite all this, there are people on the plateau, myself among them.
There are two prominent landmarks I make note of: the first is a beautiful large building, like a huge courthouse, sitting to the back of the plateau. The other is a large cross that stands before the courthouse. The cross is unlike the sort of cross found on churches, or the more realistic crosses used in the movie The Passion. Instead, it makes me think of the cross made of a pair of freestanding sections of broken girders left in the remains in the World Trade Center after the two towers were destroyed. My impression is that I saw it this way so that I could understand the connection between a severe earthly trial, death, and their purpose.
While I wonder how people are supposed to get to this plateau, I am told that the cross is a step, the final step, that all who aspire to be in this place must pass. It is like a doorway from earth to this place, which is infinitely more beautiful. The cross is a final job, or obligation that all must undergo before their job is done.
In one sense, the cross was the same for everyone in that it was something they all had to pass through, narrow as it was (like going through a keyhole), to gain entry to this beautiful place. It was different though because for each person the trial they would have to pass, would be individually suited to their exact situation. This is why I saw the cross as the one left at the World Trade Center, because that was a great trial for a great many people. It resulted in death, and in some cases, people passed through the trial and the cross to arrive here in this place.
The angel then tells me that very few people ever manage to get within sight of the cross. In other words, their level of awareness, or their performance of their various obligations is so poor that they aren't even in a position to attempt the challenge presented by the cross. Of those who do know of it, and are in a position to attempt passage through the trials represented by the cross, many will fail. Those who did pass through the cross, this final challenge, will have achieved a great thing.
The angel describes to me the types of challenges faced by those who would enter through the cross, the only point of entry to this place, and one characteristic shared by all of the trials. It is that the trials are all physical and required physical effort of some kind.
A person could not get through the cross on the basis of knowledge or understanding. He or she had to actually do something with their life to put their knowledge into action. If they know charity is good, they have to practice charity, or the knowledge is wasted. If they know to love one's neighbor as oneself is good, it is not enough. That person has to actually follow through and prove it by doing it in his life. The trials represented by the cross vary, but all require physical action of some kind, with an external result.
The angel then brings me into the building. Inside, she tells me that I am asleep and my body is on earth. She shows me my sleeping body, but it is separated from me by a kind of barrier. She tells me that my dreams are created in this place and then they are sent to me. This surprises me a great deal, because the way she describes it, many of my dreams are direct communication between this place, which I understand to be heaven, and me on earth.
The angel stressed that what I considered to be "my" dreams, were not actually mine. They were made for me, and given to me for a certain purpose, though I don't remember what that purpose was. She then told me that when I pass "this trial of the cross" I would be fully awake and never dream again.
Comments:
It has been years since I read this dream. Until I read it just now, I had forgotten about the last line, which now seems a bit chilling.
Overall, when my dreams cross into territory considered proprietary to some religions, they are invariably more consistent with the Old Testament of the Bible, or the Torah, than the New Testament. This can be disturbing to Christians who believe that they are “saved by grace, not works.” My dreams indicate that one’s actions, or “works” are important.
There was more detil to the dream that I didn’t write in the journal. One of those items is worth mentioning here. When the angel told me that my dreams were created in this place as messages to me, she gave a little detail about how it was done. First, she didn’t say that all of my dreams were messages created for me. My impression was that less than half fit that description. Second, I was told that whoever made the message for me would have their own personal style when it came to crafting the message. This is why some were literal, some symbolic, some short, and some long.
Last, the most skilled message-makers favored visual symbols because they are capable of compressing more information into an easily remembered single image. The more complicated messages are weaker, even if they are literal, because they are less easily remembered. Words and numbers are avoided because they are themselves an abstraction, making them twice removed from the thing itself.