[ 2 ] I say that we go higher, but I really mean that we are taken up by
God. We have free will; we can use it to gain religious knowledge. When
we exercise our intellect and gain religious knowledge from the Word, we
smooth a pathway that God can use to come down and lift us up.
The concepts that can lift our intellect higher, and let God take us by
the hand and lead us, can be compared to the steps on the ladder that
Jacob saw. It was set up on the ground but the top of it stretched into
heaven. Angels were climbing up on it and Jehovah was standing above it
(Genesis 28 : 12 – 13 ).
When we lack these concepts or reject them with contempt, the situ-
ation is quite the opposite. Under these conditions, the reach of our
intellect can be compared to a ladder on the grounds of a magnificent
mansion, but the ladder extends only to a window on the first floor,
where people are staying, and does not reach the windows of the second
floor where there are spirits, let alone the windows of the third floor,
where there are angels.
If we lack or reject these concepts, we are limited to the atmospheres
and matter in nature that we experience with our eyes, ears, and noses.
From these sources we get only atmospheric and material ideas about
heaven and about God’s underlying reality and essence. Thinking on the
basis of them, we will never decide anything about whether God exists or
not, or whether there is one God or many, much less what the underly-
ing reality and essence of God are like. As a result, in ancient times, and
nowadays as well, people have come to believe in a plurality of gods.25 To these points I will add the following memorable occurrence.
One time just after I woke up from sleeping I fell into a deep medita-
tion on God. Looking up I saw above me in heaven an oval of intensely
shining light. As I fixed my gaze on the light, it gradually receded toward
the sides and merged into the periphery [of my vision].
Then, behold, heaven opened up to me! I saw magnificent things,
and angels standing in a circle on the south side of the opening, talking
to each other. Because a burning desire came over me to hear what they
were saying, I was allowed to hear it—first the sound of it, which was full
of heavenly love; then the conversation itself, which was full of the wis-
dom that goes with that love.
They were having a conversation about the only God, about being in
partnership with God, and about the salvation that results. What they