A vision in a sleepless sleep, in a dreamless dream.  I saw a marvellous court, with splendid buildings of marble and all sorts of stones, full of statues – idols – as if someone had made a collection of all the greatest statues in the world.  It seemed like Rome but with styles from all ages of man, from all religions and mythologies.

In the court stood strange people, almost like statues, somehow robotic or drugged.  In the middle of the court, I saw a great throne, lifted up above all things on earth, set at the top of 12 or 13 mighty steps and upon the throne, someone seated, but I was only allowed to see him from the waist down.

With my mind, I had an impression of his face, smiling and self-satisfied, as though he had attained all his dreams.  The waves of power radiating from him were fantastic, utterly overpowering, demanding worship and mindless obedience.  It was not just the vision, but the whole experience was extremely traumatic, but some power either in me, or with me, was shielding me, lest I should be hypnotised and lost.

I tried to walk towards the steps.  Every move was as if in quicksand, every minute seemed like an hour.  I seemed to want to say something, to bear witness to something.  The whole vision was as if I was seeing everything including myself at a distance through someone else’s eyes.

From the figure on the throne emanated cruel amusement.  The outcome of the encounter remained hidden from me…  Was this to be the end of my life on this earth?  The vision suddenly faded like a television screen switched off.

WARNING!  DO NOT LOOK UPON THE FACE OF THE BEAST when he is revealed on world television. “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world WONDERED after the Beast.” (Rev 13:3). And “The Beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall WONDER, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, WHEN THEY BEHOLD the Beast that was, and is not, and yet is.” (Rev 17:8)