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I felt like Ezekiel—

Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

I felt like Jesus—

And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John in Jordan, and straightway coming up out of the water he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him, and there came a voice from heaven, saying, "Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," and immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness, and he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beasts, and the angels ministered unto him.

I felt like Er—

He was slain in battle, and ten days afterwards, when the bodies of the dead were taken up already in a state of corruption, his body was found unaffected by decay, and carried away home to be buried. And on the twelfth day, as he was lying on the funeral pile, he returned to life and told them what he had seen in the other world.

I felt like the prisoner who emerged from the cave, saw the sun, and returned—

Yes.

Like this most of all—

This—

Imagine once more such an one coming suddenly out of the sun to be replaced in his old situation; would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness…and if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the cave, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady…would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending….and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world…. My opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally either in public or private life must have his eye fixed….