Nothing Else to do in Heaven

Clara reports in her Salt Island Diary that she dreams of being in Heaven, a society whose customs and practices she slowly discovers in successive dreams. In an early dream, she asks an angel, “Why are you so kind to me?”

The angel replies, “This is Heaven. There is nothing else to do here.”

This was a deep psychedelic insight. This is what a good trip is, whether or not drugs be involved.

Clara wanted to know why she had been chosen — what about her made her worthy of angelic attention. The answer is nothing. Worthiness has nothing to do with it. The mere fact that her attention was on Heaven made her adventures possible.

The dreams reported in the Salt Island Diaries are taken largely from my own dream diary. Over a period of 18 months, I came to understand that Heaven is not a place one enters. It is an endeavor. It is a field that one creates around oneself, and which might or might not mesh with the fields of others. Heavenly fields mesh harmoniously; the others do not mesh with each other harmoniously.

There are many versions of human society which are disharmonious, but only one that is harmonious. That is the one that operates according to the principles of poles of attraction and management of similarity. That might seem an audacious statement to make, but think about it. Try to imagine a society without a system of control, which is nevertheless capable of getting things done.

In the waking world, we are very much interested in other questions. Is my lover or house or job worthy? Am I valued? Am I properly valued? Much more rarely do we ask, am I creating the heaven I want? That question can be answered without knowing anything about one’s circumstances. It is a matter of will and intent.

Clara decides to not stay in the heaven she dreams of, and opts to create her own within her waking life. Heaven, she realises, is no reward for a life well-led; it is the act of leading a life well.