solipsistic hell

(from wikipedia) In Mark Twain's "The Mysterious Stranger," the character Satan makes the following statement of solipsism at the end of the novella, "In a little while you will be alone in shoreless space, to wander its limitless solitudes without friend or comrade forever—for you will remain a thought, the only existent thought, and by your nature inextinguishable, indestructible. But I, your poor servant, have revealed you to yourself and set you free. Dream other dreams, and better!...You perceive, now, that these things are all impossible except in a dream. You perceive that they are pure and puerile insanities, the silly creations of an imagination that is not conscious of its freaks - in a word, that they are a dream, and you the maker of it. The dream-marks are all present; you should have recognized them earlier. It is true, that which I have revealed to you; there is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream - a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought - a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!"

This gets me to wonder if Twain, an atheist, may actually be quite close to the mark, so to speak. At times, it seems the road to hell is paved with solipsistics, but perhaps the lost human soul in eternity comes to a situation thinking much like what Twain describes. Alone, homeless, wandering, never to have reconciliation, or communion again.

two weird dreams

I've always had vivid and powerful dreams. Lately, this is no exception. Within 10 days I had two dreams where someone who had died came back and spoke to me. If I was the creepy and conspiratorial type, I could take this as an ominous sign, but I think it may rather represent spiritual transition for me.

Because dreams carry so much symbolism for me, it seems they help me to circumvent the over thinking I may tend to do in waking life, by showing me something that represents something I will understand later upon reflection and prayer. In waking life I can tend to end up in circular reasoning, and more questions than resolution, or direction.