by Larry W. » November 8th, 2005, 1:47 pm
As I remember, the experience had been a dream, or so it seems. "I am caught by the morning and I am a ghost"-- I think that this is the form that Lewis took, although I am not certain that he really died in order to take on that form. "Do not ask of a vision in a dream more than a vision in a dream can give", said his teacher, George MacDonald. A dream can't answer if something really happened, e.g. the conversations or the reality of the people who were the ghosts. Lewis' experience just before he realized he was back in his study was just the end of his presence in that vision. I am not certain if the experience was reality, but visions are dreams which may not always be artificial, e. g. those in the book of Revelation in the Bible seem to have been actual events, though some of them are symbolic. The Great Divorce may have actually happened, and not just in Lewis' mind.
Larry W.