You can read all of the posts in the Vision Quest Journal Series here.

The first round of tears has come and gone. The sorrow came over me instantly, from out of nowhere that I could determine. From that sorrow came the start of this conversation.

God, why have we created a world with so much pain and suffering?

In order to have a context from which to fully experience your joy.

But what about advanced cultures? I can’t imagine they choose to perpetuate pain and suffering the way we do.

No, they choose to perpetuate the memory of the pain and suffering in order to have a context for experiencing peace and joy.

But what about those who are born into a world without suffering? How do they experience or “remember” pain and suffering?

Through the collective and through a conscious transference of memories.

So instead of choosing to perpetuate the actual physical experience of pain and suffering they create mechanisms to keep it present within their consciousness?

Yes.

And what if a culture does not keep those memories alive?

They usually cycle back down into darkness. That is why those of you who have said, of your holocaust for instance, “never forget,” are on the right track. Not that you should remember this to bang the drum of what you don’t want – thereby creating more of it. But so that you can remember the experience, the sorrow, the pain and the anguish in order to have a psychic and emotional context from which to fully step into and appreciate your joy. That’s why your Memorial Day holiday has the potential to be such a powerful force for good in your world.

You mean if, instead of using it as an excuse for another 3-day weekend, we actually used it as an opportunity to drop into grief and experience the pain and sorrow of the world?

Yes. Exactly.

Is that one of the ways advanced cultures keep the memories alive?

It is the beginner’s version. There are more direct ways of transferring the memories. But yes, most of them do have “holidays” when they collectively remember. As you have experienced with some of your recent tragedies, the experience of pain and grief is amplified when experienced collectively.

Yes. Thank you God.

You can read all of the posts in the Vision Quest Journal Series here.