A Sleeping Dream and Waking Up

Last night I had this remarkable dream.

I am at some sort of a conference, and then we are leaving. I am riding in a car with Ramona and Monty, Monty’s driving. Suddenly, he drives off the road, I mean really off the road, and we are in the air looking down at the ground a couple of miles away. Somehow we have become separated from the car and we are slowly floating to the earth.

The thing is there is absolutely no fear, no apprehension, we are just falling to the end of this particular existence.

I did not experience the impact of hitting the ground; the next thing is that I am walking around looking for Monty and Ramona, and I run into Ramona and we are so happy to see each other, and she says, “Isn’t that amazing, there are no regrets.” Then we run into Monty, happily embracing.

Then I look around and see other people in the same situation, and there is a sense that we are gathering for whatever is next, and there is only joy.

I am writing this the morning after the dream. After reading today’s lesson, Now will I seek and find the peace of God, (Lesson 230) I decide to open the Text at random and read a section. I opened to The Temple of the Holy Spirit. (T-20.VI) “At random”. . . highly unlikely. These sentences, in particular, caught my attention, still basking in the memory of the dream.

Then lay aside the body and quietly transcend it, rising to welcome what you really want. And from His holy temple, look you not back on what you have awakened from. For no illusions can attract the mind that has transcended them, and left them far behind. (9:5-7)

Ramona’s comment, “Isn’t that amazing, there are no regrets” is echoed in this phrase, look you not back on what you have awakened from.

The fact that we are walking around in bodies at the end of the dream reminds me that we are in the world but not of the world. At every moment in this world, now, we have an opportunity to remember the truth of who we are, the holy Sons of God, even though we are tempted to believe that the body is real. The moment of remembering is the holy instant, and in this moment we are free to look for each other with the eyes of Christ and see in our brother’s face the face of Christ.

You who are learning this may still be fearful, but you are not immobilized. The holy instant is of greater value now to you than its unholy seeming counterpart, and you have learned you really want but one. This is no time for sadness. Perhaps confusion, but hardly discouragement. Perhaps you fear your brother a little yet; perhaps a shadow of the fear of God remains with you. Yet what is that to those who have been given one true relationship beyond the body? Can they be long held back from looking on the face of Christ? And can they long withhold the memory of their relationship with their Father from themselves, and keep remembrance of his love apart from their awareness? (T-20.VI.12)

Finally, the dream is especially powerful because of the irony that it is a fall into eternity, unlike Adam’s fall to earth, as described in elementary school primers,

“In Adam’s fall,
we sinned all.”

. . .Then I look around and see other people in the same situation, and there is a sense that we are gathering for whatever is next, and there is only joy.

The song of rejoicing is the call
to all the world that freedom is returned,
that time is almost over, and God’s Son
has but an instant more to wait until
his Father is remembered, dreams are done,
and only Heaven now exists at all.
W-p11.2. What is Salvation? 5:2