[ Settings: A small hill overlooking fields of wild flowers; then a coral reef ]
ADAM: So this is it. My own personal slice of heaven. This is nice, and it is amazing to meet an angel.
ALLEGENTIA: Nice to meet you too. And yes, you did create a slice of heaven in your soul and this is a single image of it. But as I said in my introduction we are on our way to heaven; we’ve not yet arrived.
ADAM: Yes, I understand. But to me just being alive on the other side of death is the beginning of my reward. I am delighted. You said my body was left back on Earth and that you would be generating this environment. How are you doing this?
ALLEGENTIA: I am taking what is familiar to you from images I glean from your soul-mind. Your soul is unique because of your individual thoughts, choices, actions, and experiences.
ADAM: So we are not really standing here talking?
ALLEGENTIA: The soul-mind is capable of very rapid communication. This conversation is, in fact, telepathic, yet it appears as if we are talking with each other in the normal way.
ADAM: It seems to me telepathic communication would be more efficient, quicker.
ALLEGENTIA: There is a faster means of speaking using concept symbolism but that method is in your future. You are accustomed to communicating in short bursts, so we must converse as usual. Let me show your what I mean. I will change the setting to a scuba dive you did.
ADAM: Whoa, we’re under water! And I don’t even need air tanks. I feel like a fish. Can you still hear me?
ALLEGENTIA: Loud and clear.
ADAM: Then why are we using words? I mean, couldn’t you just download the answers to my questions and I would get it all at once?
ALLEGENTIA: You can send me your question as a single thought instead of in word packets but I cannot send you more of an answer than you are able to receive. It would be too much for you. Even though your soul is capable of grasping whole concepts, I can only give you what you are ready to understand. If I try to give you more, I would run up against your limits based on the level of your accomplished learning and soul growth.
ADAM: I figured it would be like in those science fiction stories where the new brain would be cram-packed with the total knowledge of the universe.
ALLEGENTIA: Knowledge is a bit different from information. Information, data, can be downloaded to a mechanical brain and I have been on very advanced planets where some assembled information can be download directly into the brain of these genetically superior mortals, but it is only information. Even if I could give you all the information, say, in the Library of Congress, you would still have to access it, assemble it, and formulate it into a cohesive and coordinated system having some meaning to you before it could be considered applied knowledge. And knowledge is not experience, much less wisdom.
ADAM: But I want to know everything. I was really looking forward to the knowledge reward.
ALLEGENTIA: I am, of course, familiar with this myth people believe about being given all knowledge as some form of automatic reward for the simple act of surviving physical death but I am interested in how you came to believe it.
ADAM: I don’t know, I guess it was something my parents taught me. I figured God would make everything available when I died. My folks gave me pretty much anything I wanted. No matter how old I got I was their “precious little boy.” They always said I was smart and I never needed to study much to get good grades. Life was pretty easy for me.
ALLEGENTIA: Well, you are right about one thing: God does make as much as possible available. Thus inside of time you have access to a wide range of information, and therefore understanding and wisdom. But everything is, in fact, infinite. I know a great deal but I do not know it all, and I cannot make you all-knowing. Only God knows everything but he also has perfect wisdom in order to put that knowledge to the very best use. Of course, the Father does want to share everything with you, and will – first in time and then beyond time. You began acquiring the first part of everything while on Earth. The rest of it will be delivered to you as you seek it and earn it.
ADAM: So how do I earn knowledge and wisdom?
ALLEGENTIA: Everything is acquired either as a building or a growing process. You can build knowledge with more information. But even then, you have to put the bits of fact and truth together so they make some unified sense to you. This is what we call a concept frame. Yours, mine, and everyone’s are different, to some degree, but we all operate within a universal frame. In each individual frame there is the ability to envision other and higher frames of thought and possibility. Advancing understanding is always in the offing.
Wisdom is a higher quality of understanding. Its main foundation for humans is a depth of experience rounded out with insight, intuition, and foresight. But it is perfected only when it touches the higher cosmic realms of harmony. Before there is wisdom there must be truth beyond facts, faith beyond reason, and a subjective view aligned with a true objective reality.
ADAM: Okay, just show me what is in store then.
ALLEGENTIA: I can tell you about what will be coming, but I cannot show you. That would be depriving you of the surprise and the delight of first-hand experience – personal discovery. We can talk about things you understand but if I give you information beyond your current level of understanding it can only be processed in your current concept frame. That is where you begin to make sense of it and make it yours.
For example E=mc2 is elegant, straightforward, and profound but if you have not learned the math, physics, and cosmology behind it you will only understand it to be a basic equation. You may trust it to be true and you can use it as a complete piece of valuable knowledge – in a limited way – but you cannot possess its true scope and depth without learning what it really means.
ADAM: Since those advanced aliens you spoke of have figured out how to input information there must be some better ways of doing so in heaven.
ALLEGENTIA: Yes, it is true there are more direct ways of absorbing spiritual reality, but mostly it is acquired pretty much the same way as factual knowledge. I can tell you God is Love. And it is true, but God’s love is infinite and it will take a long time before you begin to understand how profound this simple truth really is. Even then you will only have grasped a time-bound understanding of the unconditional Absolute. But you can, right now, without all of the intervening, yet inevitable stages of appreciation, know you are loved by an Infinite Being. Advancement in spirit status is attained by slow, steady growth even if it is first comprehended by a sudden faith-grasp.
His plan for us all is to share in his nature and we are always moving toward this sublime state. Therefore, there is no final enlightenment because there is no end. There is only becoming.
ADAM: Are you saying I will continue to learn and grow but never get there?
ALLEGENTIA: It depends on what state of existence you call “there.” You will continue to achieve advanced states of consciousness, more powerful levels of control, greater capacities for wisdom, wider and deeper realization of the truth, and most especially a grander sense of who God is. But since you are destined to be an eternal being, your growth will reach plateau after plateau but never reach a final state. And, Adam, would you really want to gain only the low level of enlightenment based on your current limited human ideas of what is possible? You have lived a short life, be patient, much more is to come. Soon, very soon, you will be exposed to the next step of your universal career. It will feel like an explosion of insight, possibilities, and adventure without end. But in fact it is only the continuation of an eternal expansion of wonder.
ADAM: Well, that sounds pretty good … but I always thought my place in heaven would grant me complete understanding.
ALLEGENTIA: This is a common error but do not allow it to frustrate you. Your eventual understanding will in fact go beyond your wildest expectations. You can only move closer to the truth from where you are. The things you have decided to believe cannot be changed by me, no matter what I say to you or what visions I give you. We angels know many short-cuts to acquiring knowledge and we have devised very good learning techniques, but enlightenment is a personal experience between you and the Father. Only those things having real value can be experienced as real soul growth.
Truth is set down in your mind as well as in your soul, both are real. Your mind will continue to use the familiar intellectual/meaning technique; but your soul can grasp whole value concepts when you are ready. Neither of these can be bequeathed or given away; they must be chosen and earned.
ADAM: I guess my ideas need some adjusting. When I wake up will I see what you mean?
ALLEGENTIA: Indeed you will; at least a bit more. And your presupposed disappointment will be washed away before it can take root as a thousand new possibilities open up.
Each person has worked out their own view about the nature of the other side of death but things are set up as they should be and you will eventually see the wisdom in their unfolding.