What If You Slept

And what if in your sleep you dreamed

And what if in your dream you went to Heaven

And there plucked a strange and beautiful flower

And what if when you awoke you had that flower in your hand

Ah, what then?

– Samuel Taylor Coleridge, date unknown

WHAT IF AND SUPPOSE

In Tribute to Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Suppose near-death experiences are exactly what they seem to be…

 

…in full consistency with Ockham’s famous razor, so adored

by scientists, because it insists the simplest, straightforward

option must surely be the truth…just about always…nearly

 

And that this universe resides within a veiled-off, adjacent,

vast realm some call Paradise, Heaven, Happy Hunting Ground,

 which Is the domain of, and vibrates with the infinite energy of,

the Everything Creator some call Dios, Gitchi Manitou, God

 

And suppose you really are an Eternal Spirit—as religions

insist—dwelling by choice, for a mortal lifetime, in this body

that is Evolved Up from the elements of universe, sun and

Earth—as science insists—and that religion and science are

both right in principle but grievously, doctrinally, in detail,

 both Wrong about what Energy Is and what your Purpose Is

 

And suppose all those thousands of experiencers told you

God wants us all to attain knowledge and seek understanding,

to learn to love each other, every one, and to help each other, ensuring

that every one of us has adequacy of food-clothing-shelter-lifeneeds,

to love and protect our Earth and all its little creatures and

the verdant habitats on which their precious lives depend,

to grow in spirit, and find our way back home at last.

 

Ah, what then?

 

Wm. D. Coffey, 2024