Revelations From A Dream

Can a dream reveal the ultimate mystery of life and death?
 
As Charlotte Bronte states in one of her novels, there are dreams that bring “the hue, the mien, the terror, the very tone of a visitation from eternity.” That’s exactly how my last night's dream felt like. A secret was revealed to me in a strange, but meaningful way. A secret I would like to share with you. I might not succeed in conveying its intensity and its unreal tone, but I can try to make you aware of its significance.

Sometimes, when I go to bed I put my headphones on and I fall asleep on the rhythms of music. It is always an incredible experience. Music seems to melt into my dreams, becoming one with their substance. Last night I went to sleep on Christian music. Next, I found myself travelling on paths no one has walked before, looking for an answer. As I went on deeper and deeper, I realized what the question was. What happens to us after we die? Almost in the same instant, the answer came, too, as clear as a whisper into my ear.

It was like someone said to me: “Don’t you know? It is all written there.” Nothing more. No other explanations. There was no need for any. In the glimpse of a moment, the answer started growing within me. I understood everything and it all made perfect sense.

The key to the riddle is in two symbols found in the Bible: the vineyard and the wine. What happens to us after we die is somehow similar to the process of turning grapes into wine. The difference between life and death is the difference between the vineyard and the wine. Grapes are alive, like we are alive. They are connected to the ground, they receive the sun’s blessing and the sweet touch of the rain. They are growing things.

Then the farmer picks them up from the vine and crushes them into a mixture that has little to do with the fruit of earlier days. Dying is like that. We are taken from this life, we go through moments of agony as we linger between two worlds, but in the end, we become something more meaningful. Wine is not alive in the sense a plant or a tree is, but it’s got a richer significance. Its symbolism is stronger, and so is its power of transforming both the physical and the spiritual. Wine has a great significance for Christians. It symbolizes Christ’s blood, which is poured for us to give us eternal life and fellowship with the Father. But there is no wine without the grapes having to die first.

The idea can be found in another passage of the Bible, too : “The seed you plant doesn't come to life unless it dies first.” My dream is on the same wavelength, but it uses different symbols to illustrate the truth that death is a necessary step in the process of reaching a higher spiritual level.