KEYWORDS: road, kingdom, hill, people

Dark Kingdom, The

David Berg

Another Green Door?

—MOJuly 31, 1975GP—NO.365

1. REMEMBER THE "STRANGE TRUTHS" DREAM? Remember how the big house was situated on the hill?—Well, this dream was just like a continuation of that dream!—It's so strange! I don't yet know if it means anything, but I woke up and it's still all so clear I'm afraid not to tell you, because you know they often don't mean anything to me until I start telling them.

2. WELL, I WAS BUSY AT THE HOUSE ON THE HILL by the Fountain and Spring near the road, and there were so many people around I couldn't believe it!—Like we were having a convention or something! There were just people all over the place and everybody was happy and singing and laughing and talking.

3. THEY WERE FIXING A BIG BANQUET OUT IN THE FRONT YARD with big long tables like we were all going to eat out there together. But the funny thing about it was, the whole countryside was alive with people, just like it was a resort season. There were people, people everywhere, not only at our place but everywhere!

4. THE LITTLE OLD HIGHWAY WAS JUST PACKED WITH CARS—the little road that rounded the corner of the Dark Kingdom. It's the most amazing thing how you can continue a dream! It's been at least a week since I had the other dream.

5. THE CARS WERE LINED UP FOR MILES, clear out of sight, clear down the hill and around the curve at the foot of the hill and out of sight to the right as you faced the road from our house, bumper to bumper! Traffic seemed to be lighter going the other way coming from the left, but the traffic coming up the hill from the right was going so slowly you could walk between the cars! This big long line of traffic coming up the hill from the right was moving particularly slowly as it rounded the corner of the wall of the big Dark Estate.

6. SOME OF OUR KIDS WERE WALKING ACROSS THE ROAD between the cars to get to the other side of the road, and they were standing over there hitchhiking down the hill in the other direction to the left—the direction the big long column of cars was moving. The traffic seemed to move downhill a little faster as it rounded that corner and picked up speed down the hill toward a beach.

7. I DON'T EVER REMEMBER SEEING THAT BEACH BEFORE in my last dream, but as you went downhill now the way we had first come up the hill before from the desert, way way way down the hill at the bottom beyond the Dark Estate on the right hand side of the road was this big beautiful beach, and a lot of our kids were down there swimming. So these kids across the road were hitchhiking down there to tell them that the picnic dinner was ready out in the yard, and I got the sudden inspiration to go with them.

8. I THOUGH‚ "I'VE NEVER SEEN THAT BEACH BEFORE—I'd like to see it! It's strange‚ I didn't know that beach was there!" So I said, "I'm going across the road and I'm going to hitchhike down there too to see the beach and help bring back the kids." Down on the Beach everybody was swimming and laughing and playing and seemed to be having a good time. Everywhere now it seemed to be sunny and bright and cheerful. Everything seemed to be happy except the Dark Kingdom across the road, the big Dark Estate.

9. SO I WENDED MY WAY THROUGH THE CARS across the road to where some of our kids were standing, but just as I got there they caught a ride! They laughed and waved goodbye to me and said, "So long, Dad!—We'll see you down at the beach! Be careful!" They seemed to think it was quite amusing that I was hitchhiking and that it was all some kind of a lark. So I stood there and started to hold out my thumb to catch a ride, which seemed should be pretty easy because the cars were moving so slowly.

10. SUDDENLY I NOTICED FOR THE FIRST TIME THAT THERE WAS A GREAT BIG GATE IN THE WALL OF THE BIG DARK ESTATE right there at the corner! I looked at it and thought curiously, "It's funny I never noticed that before!" As I studied it this heavy set blonde woman like Gracie in her mid-forties or fifties walked up to the gate with two great big husky boys‚ two huge big bruisers carrying all these packages that looked like groceries‚ and she was unlocking the gate and letting them through into the Dark Estate!

11. THEY HAD GOTTEN OUT OF A BIG CAR around the corner‚ and they didn't seem very friendly. In fact‚ they didn't even pay any attention to me at all! They acted like they were trying to get through the gate as quickly as possible without too many people noticing them or attracting any attention. So I thought to myself, "Hummm!—So that's the kind of people that live there!"

12. JUST AS GRACIE WAS USHERING THE BOYS THROUGH THE GATE she gave me a slight glance, more like looking at my feet, showing that she was conscious I was standing there, but not meeting my eyes at all‚ like she didn't want to be bothered with talking to anybody or even meeting their gaze and communicating by a look.—You know how some rich people are: They'd rather just ignore you than even share a look!

13. SHE LOOKED A LITTLE GERMANIC or Nordic with those typically heavy features of the middle-aged matron who has gotten a little too stout, with a rather florid face, pug nose and sagging jowls. Come to think of it: She looked a little bit like a pig! She had short blond frizzy hair in a fuzzy style that used to be popular with girls when she was a girl. These two big burly bruisers with her looked like bodyguards that she had carrying her groceries.

14. WELL, SHE'D UNLOCKED THE GATE AND THEY'D GONE THROUGH and she'd slammed it behind her and they'd all disappeared. But you know me!—I was dying to see what was on the Other Side! Besides‚ I don't like people to ignore me and give me the brush off that easy, especially ladies that age who are usually quite fond of me. So I walked up to the gate and was trying to look through the cracks to see what was on the other side.—You know me: I'm so curious about everything!

15. I LIKE TO PEEK INTO OTHER WORLDS, EVEN IF IT'S HELL ITSELF!—And this place across the road did indeed seem like a Kingdom of Darkness! It always seemed to be dark and cloudy over there, while everywhere else it was bright and sunny. So it seemed like from the first time I ever saw that place I was curious to know what was in there, even if it was the Kingdom of the Devil himself! I'm always curious, and I never did like high walls I couldn't climb over or gates I couldn't get through, especially when they're slammed right in my face when I'm trying to take a peek!

16. IT WAS A HUGE BIG MASSIVE WOODEN DOOR in the wall, a real heavy thick thing with giant iron hinges, and it opened inward with no handle or anything on the outside, nothing but a keyhole. So I was feeling around all over the outside of it trying to find some crack or something I could see through like the keyhole, but everything inside seemed to be dark even through the keyhole.

17. BUT JUST AS I WAS STANDING THERE trying to peek in, dying to know what was on the other side, I suddenly found out!—The earth beneath my feet suddenly began to give way in front of the door so that I fell feet-first almost straight downward right under the door and went sliding down this hill on the other side on the seat of my pants, until I came to an abrupt halt when my feet landed on a couple of rocks with my legs spread apart, still sitting on my backside against the side of the hill! I had landed in sort of a sitting position with my feet propped against a couple of rocks that had stopped my descent.

18. I WAS IN ALMOST TOTAL DARKNESS! You know how it is when you go inside into a dark room after having just been outside in the bright sunlight. That's the way it was. But as my eyes began to adjust to the darkness I could see it wasn't totally dark. It was just very very dim, like it was nighttime in this place, but even nighttime is never totally dark, as you know. There's always a little light it seems, just enough to distinguish houses and trees against the sky. So I began to look around me.

19. IT GRADUALLY BECAME APPARENT THAT THE WHOLE DARK ESTATE SLOPED DOWNWARD from the road and the wall, down down down into a deep dark valley. I had landed right in front of this great big ominous looking dark dark gray old castle‚ not 100 meters away‚ and I was precariously perched on a sort of a ledge. I couldn't see what was directly beneath me, but all around were dark bushes covering the hillside I'd slid down, and the big castle was surrounded by huge dark gloomy looking trees.

20. THERE WAS JUST A LITTLE BIT OF WEE DIM LIGHT shining in some of the windows and I could faintly hear voices, but I was afraid to move from my perch because I couldn't see well enough to climb down. For, as you know, it's always harder climbing down than it is climbing up, `cause you can't see where you're going. I looked back up at the big door behind me about 100 meters up the steep slope and I could dimly see some steps that led along the wall to the left of it and down along some other route to the castle, steps which I had obviously missed as I came sliding under the door and down this steep ravine to where I had landed on the rocks—feet first, thank the Lord!

21. I DIDN'T SEEM TO BE HURT—at least nothing but my pride perhaps—for being so surprisingly and unceremoniously dumped into the Kingdom of Darkness for the look I'd wanted so bad. It was almost as though someone was saying: "Well, you wanted a look, so here you are!—Now what are you going to do?" Well, there wasn't much I could do but call for help, because I was still dying to know who lived in that huge big old Dark Castle. There must be somebody besides the lady and her two bruisers.

22. AND IT'S A FUNNY THING: As I sat there I looked at that great big dark fortress and thought, "My!—What a good school building that would make!" We're always looking for Colony housing‚ and I though, "Wow!—That would really make a nice big school!"

23. SO I WAS DETERMINED TO FIND OUT WHO LIVED THERE. Since I couldn't figure out how to get down from my perch I finally decided it would be a good excuse to call for help‚ so as to arouse the people in the castle and see who was there. So I finally decided to let out a yell for help and cried‚ "Help! Help!" as loud as I could—which is pretty loud!

24. A FEW MORE DIM LIGHTS BEGAN TO GO ON INSIDE THE CASTLE and pretty soon the front door opened and a man and a woman stepped out with a torch. By the light of their torch I could see it was the same woman I'd seen above and I presumed this was her husband, so I called out‚ "I'm sorry, but I'm stuck up here and I've had a fall and I can't get down.—Could you please help me? I just need a little light so I can see how to find my way down."

25. SO THEY SHINED THEIR TORCH up to where I was and I picked my way through the rocks and scrambled down to where they were and we stood there looking at each other in the light of their torch.—They looked at me as though they resented the intrusion and wanted to know what I was doing there, and I was a little embarrassed as I tried to explain how I'd accidentally fallen in. But they acted as though they didn't believe my story that I'd actually slidden under the door! But neither one of them would look me in the eye!

26. HER TALL HANDSOME GREY-HAIRED DISTINGUISHED-LOOKING HUSBAND looked a little disgusted that I'd intruded on their privacy and he sat down on a nearby bench in the garden while the lady went into the house to serve us tea, as though she were trying to keep up the surface appearance, at least, of customary hospitality to a stranger, a lost traveller who had accidentally wandered in.

27. BUT THE MAN HADN'T INVITED ME TO SIT DOWN TOO so I decided I would have to put forth a little more effort to show myself friendly. So I walked over to him and put out my hand and said, "My name is So-and-so‚" giving him one of my customary aliases. I never like to tell people my full name, and some times I don't like to tell them my real name at all, because you never know who you're talking to when you're talking to strangers.

28. BUT HE NEVER TOOK MY HAND. He just said rather brusquely and to my surprise, "I don't care what your name is, whether it's So–and-so or So-and-so or whatever you want to call yourself! You've got no business being in here! You don't belong in here and you shouldn't have come!" I was so startled when he already knew my real name! I thought, "Oh my! Have I met this fellow before and given him my other name, and now I'm giving him a different name?"

29. IT CAN BE RATHER EMBARRASSING if you've met someone and given them one name and you meet them later and have either forgotten them or what name you gave them and you give them another name! Well, I always like to tell the truth, so I usually give people one of our real names at least, but it gets a little confusing sometimes when you can't remember which one you gave them.

30. SO I STOOD THERE QUITE EMBARRASSED wondering what to do next, when I suddenly woke up! Anyway‚ I never did get my tea or get to flirt with his wife or meet the two big burly bodyguards or find out who else lived there, for when I got caught and exposed I apparently just vanished with my dream! But as I think back over it‚ it was rather remarkable, since I don't often dream a continuation of another dream.

31. BUT THIS WAS DEFINITELY THE SEQUEL TO THE "STRANGE TRUTHS" DREAM—perhaps I should say "a" sequel, for there may be more! But some of the things which impressed me most about this sequel were that it seemed to be a considerable length of time later, and there were so many people there this time, so many more of us and so many more of the outside world on the highway.

32. THERE WERE SO MANY MORE OF US at the house and all around on the hill and even down at the beach where the ever-flowing waters of the big Spring had evidently formed a huge lake in which the kids were all playing and swimming and having a good time, clear down the road beyond the Dark Kingdom, the road up which we had originally ascended the mountain following the stream.

33. I DON'T QUITE GET WHAT THIS DREAM IS ALL ABOUT, really. Maybe you can understand it. Maybe the Lord will give you the interpretation. But one thing for sure, there were certainly a lot more of us! We were just everywhere, all happy and laughing and singing and playing and working in the sun and seemingly totally unworried about the huge Dark Kingdom across the road that sloped down that side of the hill to the deep dark valley below.

34. WE DIDN'T EVEN SEEM TO MIND ALL THE TRAFFIC TOO MUCH. They even seemed friendly, giving us rides down the road to the beach and back, and I didn't mind them so much now that they were moving so slowly and there were no more speeders and reckless drivers and it was safer to walk across the road now than it had been before, because everybody was driving so slowly and cautiously.

35. MAYBE THAT MEANS THEY'RE THE FRIENDS who have come out of see us—our outside friends whom we've helped to slow down and drive more cautiously in their daily lives along the road of life, even if not many of them actually stop in with us.

36. BUT THERE SURE HAD BEEN A LOT OF TIME AND WATER GONE UNDER THE BRIDGE in more ways than one, forming this huge beautiful lake on the other side of the road at the foot of the hill with this lovely beach where even the Systemites were enjoying themselves. Maybe this means they enjoy reading the Lord's letters too, His water of Life, now that we're getting out so many of them to the whole world so everybody can read them.

37. REMEMBER FROM THE OTHER DREAM THAT THE WATERS REPRESENTED GOD'S WORDS, so this huge lake had formed a gigantic reservoir of the waters of the Word that nearly everybody seemed to be enjoying‚ playing on its beaches‚ some basking themselves in the sun alongside and enjoying looking at the water‚ others wading along the shore in the shallows‚ while still others were plunging into the deeper waters, "waters to swim in!"

38. BUT LEAVE IT TO ME, I'M NEVER SATISFIED!—I always want to see more, know more, see what's on the other side of the fence, the other side of the mountain, even get a peek into the Forbidden Kingdom of the Enemy! Well curiosity nearly killed this cat as I got too close to the door of the Kingdom of Darkness, treading on its shaky uncertain ground so that I accidentally slipped under!

39. IT REMINDS ME OF THE TIME MARIA AND I WANDERED THROUGH THE GREEN DOOR! By the way, this door was green!—But I never thought about that, because that's usually the colour of all garden doors.—And come to think of it—my inhospitable host of the Dark Gray Castle within did look a lot like Mr. Coosa of the polished Hell beneath the Green Door!

40. I WONDER IF THIS TIME I WAS SEEING THE OUTSIDE OF THE BUILDING, that awful hospital filled with its suffering inmates that we explored beyond the Green Door in that other dream?—Or was it a dream? What do you think? What does it mean to you? I quite obviously couldn't conceal my identity from its well-informed Host, and when I got caught by my own curiously there wasn't much else I could do but vanish with my dream!

41. ALL I CAN SAY IS I'M AWFULLY GLAD I'M BACK here with you on the hilltop in the Happy Land of sunshine and fresh clear waters and multitudes of children and friends and a whole lake of His Word now to swim in! Have you had a swim lately in deeper waters? Have you dived in for some of the precious gems or old golds? There are a lot of beautiful old gems there on the bottom if you'll just search for them, and there's plenty for all!

42. DON'T JUST SIT THERE IN THE SUN ADMIRING THE WATER or barely dipping your toes along the shallow shore.—Dive in! Swim! Revel in the deep that God has given! Enjoy yourself in the depths of the deep crystal lake of His Word! Enjoy yourself!—It's later than you think!

43. WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T GO PEEKING INTO THE DEVIL'S KINGDOM where you don't belong, or you may slip and fall in the get caught like I did! At least he had enough sense to know he shouldn't shake hands with me. Thank God I could vanish back into the Kingdom of Light and sunshine and be with you again by the crystal clear stream of His Word in the fellowship of His Children.

44. FOR GOD'S SAKE BE SATISFIED WITH CHRIST'S KINGDOM OF LIGHT and don't go poking around in the Kingdom of Darkness just to see what you can find, or you may fall back in again and be sorry!—And watch it crossing that road!—There's a lot of traffic now, even if it's moving more slowly.—And while hitchhiking with the system out there don't get carried away!—You never had it so good! Don't lose it! God bless and keep you in His Kingdom of Light!