The path is not easy
From the Journal, 2/5/2006:
>> I had a really bad headache when I woke up this morning, so Kitty took notes and did most of the writing in my journal this morning. Because it is a little confusing to read my attempt at starting it, and her finishing of the account, I'll just write it fresh here.<<
> 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 they are all physical and required physical, or external effort of some kind. A person could not get through the cross simply because of his level of knowledge or understanding. He or she would have 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 are widely varied, but they 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
There was a little more to this dream than what I wrote in the journal entry reproduced above. The angel also said something about who made my dreams for me. She said that they were messages from beings like herself but each had his own style of communication. This explained the difference between my dreams that were literal representations of future events and symbolic dreams of the future.
According to the angel, each of the beings who communicated with me in this way had differing levels of knowledge and ability. Communication with the living was difficult for them. One could say it was an art form.
The literal views of the future came from the less experienced communicators. There are two problems with this type of dream. The first is that they contain so much detail that they are more difficult to remember upon waking, thus compromising the utility of the message. The other problem is that they lack focus. By showing an event as it unravels, with all its attendant detail, it is difficult for the dreamer to understand which parts of the dream are meaningful and which are trivial.
The communicators who use symbols, according to the angel, are the most experienced. They are able to compress a complex message into a few simple images. This makes the message memorable and more easily understood. The way she talked about them, I had the impression that the communicators capable of creating symbolic messages were the spiritual equivalent of highly skilled poets.
The idea of a physical trial that is appropriately represented by a symbol of the World Trade Center tragedy is daunting. My immediate reaction was to worry that everyone would eventually have to pass through a trial that was equally unpleasant and painful to reach this other, more beautiful place.
I’ve had other dreams that are consistent with this. In them, I am shown that the place we would call “paradise” or “heaven” is that way because the people (spirits) who are found there have achieved a kind of spiritual perfection through training and trials. The dreams are clear on the point that this is an exclusive environment, open to only a very few, because admission to anyone who fails to meet the standard would immediately change the character of the place into something different.
The way I think about it, is like a glass of the purest water. If any drop of something else is added, it is no longer pure water, regardless what the “something else” is. Therefore, paradise only exists because the entry requirement is strictly enforced. Without that bar to entry, there would be no paradise to enter. It would disappear.