We probably each have a wish list. I know I have mine and I wouldn’t even venture a guess as to how big it is. There must be more than a million things I want. And I don’t just want them. I want them all to be a certain way.

Like, I don’t just want to go to the beach. I want the temperature of the air and water to be just right. I don’t want it to be too crowded because I don’t want too much noise. And I certainly don’t want mosquitos or greenhead flies. Because after all, being a tasty meal for a bunch of starving insects is no picnic.

Anyway, my list of desires is endless. I know I probably sound spoiled, but I’m just being honest. And besides, that’s the way the ordinary mind works. It just never stops. I’ve been practicing meditation, mindfulness and detachment from desire for over fifty years now and personally, I don’t see any signs of it letting up.   

Now, we all know that as the song says - you can’t always get what you want, but can you imagine what it would be like if you actually could? What if you could keep getting everything you want? And not just that, what if it stays that way forever. Sounds like heaven, right?

So, let’s take a minor little detour here, and let me tell you about a TV show I saw in April of 1960, that went right to the core of my being and has stayed there ever since.

I was in fifth grade and this science fiction show called The Twilight Zone had taken the country by storm. It could be incredibly spooky, but the stories often had some deep existential meanings as well.  

This particular episode was called “A Nice Place to Visit.” It starts out at night, in a darkened pawn shop. The shop keeper is lying unconscious on the floor and a thief is stuffing jewels into a bag as the narrator says:

“Portrait of a man at work, the only work he's ever done, the only work he knows. His name is Henry Valentine, but he calls himself Rocky, because that's the way his life has been - rocky; perilous and uphill, at a dead run all the way. He's tired now, tired of running and tired of wanting. Wanting the breaks that come to others, but never to him, never to Rocky Valentine, a scared, angry little man. He thinks it’s all over now, but he’s wrong. For Rocky Valentine, it’s just the beginning.”  

Suddenly a police siren is heard and the thief runs out the back door to a large metal fence behind the property. He starts climbing it and as he nears the top, the police show up. The thief pulls out a gun and shoots at the cops who return fire. The thief falls down from the fence and lying flat on his back, he’s dirty, disheveled and seems dead.

Then, out of nowhere, an elderly, heavyset man walks over. He has white hair with a white beard and is wearing a white suit. He calls the thief by name a few times and finally wakes him up. The man introduces himself as Pip, and says he is there to help.  

Paranoid, Rocky thinks Pip is trying to con him or he may even be a cop. But Pip assures him that he is only there to help. He pulls out a notebook with detailed information about Rocky – his favorite food and drink, his taste in clothes and women and on and on. Rocky is still skeptical but says if he’s really there to help, he should give him some money. Pip smiles and gives him 7 one-hundred-dollar bills and says and he can have all the money he wants. Rocky is impressed.

Pip then takes him to a luxurious apartment house. They go up to the penthouse floor and over to an apartment door that has Rocky’s name on it. When they walk in, Rocky is delighted. The swank palace is exactly what he’s longed for all his life.

Pip tells Rocky to take a shower and shave. He says that next to the bathroom, there’s a large, walk-in closet full of clothes made just for him. A little while later, Rocky comes out, but this is a new Rocky. Clean shaven with slicked back hair and dressed in an expensive handmade suit, he looks like a Hollywood movie star.

He says he’s hungry and Pip tells him to call room service and order anything he likes. Within moments, a full course meal is brought up. Smiling, Pip encourages him to eat, but his attitude makes Rocky suspicious. Thinking that Pip is trying to poison him, he insists that Pip taste the food first. Pip says he hasn’t eaten for centuries and refuses, which infuriates Rocky. He pulls out his gun and fires all six shots into Pip, who just stands there smiling, while the bullets pass through him.

Rocky has a sudden epiphany. He says gleefully that he must have died and gone to heaven, and that Pip is his guardian angel. Pip just smiles and says, “It’s something like that.” 

Rocky can’t believe his luck and suddenly his desires explode. “I can have anything I want, right?” he asks. Pip nods. “OK, I want a million bucks in the drawer of that desk over there.”

“Open it,” Pip responds.

To his delight, Rocky finds a million in cash and his pent-up desires go into high gear. “Alright, I want three gorgeous, stacked chicks who are in love with me and just dying to be with me.”

The doorbell immediately rings and three gorgeous women come walking in, looking at Rocky like he’s God’s gift to the world. Soon Pip takes them all to a casino and everything Rocky touches turns to gold. He hits an enormous jackpot in slots and wins every bet at the roulette table. And with each win, he keeps showering the women with money, making them love him even more.

Finally, dizzy from fine champagne and drunk on the high of winning tons of money, they return to the apartment, his new lap of luxury. Rocky takes the three women to the bedroom door, turns to Pip and says, “Okay, Fats, get lost. Now, it’s time for me to have some real fun.”

The scene shifts to a month later and it’s been a month full of days and nights exactly like this. Except something has changed and that something is Rocky’s state of mind. Some of the lower elements of his personality, like selfishness, arrogance and meanness have gotten stronger.  And a nagging sense of agitation has started to creep into him. What was once such a thrill is starting to become a bore.

He asks if any of his old hoodlum friends are around and Pip explains that this whole world was created just for him and they are the only real people in it. All the rest are just lifelike projections of images that have been taken from his mind.

The news only makes things worse for Rocky, so Pip suggests that maybe he should go hold up a bank or rob a store in town. At first, Rocky likes the idea, but he quickly realizes it wouldn’t matter because everything would just go his way.  Everything always goes his way. Trying to accommodate him, Pip says he can arrange for some percentage of risk if he’d like, but the idea just makes Rocky angrier.

Pip tells him that he has set up a new pool table in the big game room. They walk in and the balls on the table are all racked up. Rocky takes a cue and plays the break shot, and every single ball goes into a pocket. Disgusted, he throws the cue down and storms out.

That night Pip takes Rocky and the three ladies to the casino, but now, Rocky hates the place. When he hits the jackpot at the slot machine, he just lets the coins fall on the floor. Same thing with roulette and craps. His winnings mean nothing to him. Finally, when they get back to the apartment, the three women start lavishing him with affection, seductively begging him to take them into the bedroom, but Rocky can’t stand them anymore. Screaming, he throws them out of the apartment.

He then confronts Pip in the living room and tells him that he is sure that this whole thing is a mistake and he can’t stand it any longer.

“Somebody must have goofed,” he exclaims.  “If I gotta stay here one more day, I’m gonna go nuts.” He pauses, then earnestly pleads, “Look, I don’t belong in heaven, see? I want to go to the other place.”

“Heaven? Whatever gave you the idea you were in heaven, Mr. Valentine?” Pip asks. Then ironically he says, “This is the other place.”

Rocky suddenly understands where he really is and, in a panic, he tries to open the door to escape, but it’s locked. Pip laughs as he struggles helplessly with door knob. Malevolent music starts and the narrator says, “A scared, angry little man who never got a break. Now he has everything he’s ever wanted and he’s going to have to live with it for eternity – in the Twilight Zone.”

Now, this was a perfect example of the genius of the show, because once it was over, it really made you think. You knew from spending a half-hour with Rocky that he was basically a jerk, and you knew that he ended up in hell, which he probably deserved. That all made sense. But whoever thought hell could be like this?

In later years, during presentations about consciousness, I’ve used this show to prompt some deeper discussions. I would ask, “How is it possible that hell could be a place where you always get whatever you want, all the time. That sounds more like heaven. How could it be hell?

Generally, people have come up with three basic answers, each one connected to the other. 

The first one is that the situation has created incredible boredom for the guy. He always knows what’s going to happen, so there is no uncertainty left for him and it ruins everything. Which is funny because in real life, most of us are afraid of uncertainty. But without it, Rocky is condemned to absolute boredom for all eternity, and regardless of the trappings, that sure sounds like hell.     

The second answer is that he knows that none of the people there are real, except for Pip, who has become his nemesis. All the others are just make-believe. They might as well be robots. So, essentially, he’s alone with himself forever, which given his base character is a real horror show.

The last answer is that his life has no challenge to it. Everything is just given to him, requiring no effort on his part at all. He gets whatever he wants without having to do anything. Although this lack of challenge is a problem, it actually points to something deeper.

While challenges can be important, its growing from them that counts. Growth is the real prize of the game. And that’s the tragedy for Rocky. He will never have any opportunity to grow. Filled with darkly negative thoughts and angry emotions, his awareness will never expand. He’ll stagnate in his personal rut and be stuck with who he is forever. My God, what a nightmare!

On an even deeper level, many sources from science to spirituality tell us that inner growth is critical to our welfare. We don’t just want it, we need it. And this need is intuitive.

We each have an innate sense that we can become something far greater than we are. And it doesn’t matter how troubling our personal situation is or how many mistakes we might have made, because of our remarkable intelligence, we each have a chance to grow our way out of it. And maybe all we really have to do is choose the high road to begin. Who knows? Maybe that choice opens the difference between heaven and hell…

Well, its certainly something to think about, but we’ve reached the end of this episode. As always, keep your eyes, mind and heart open, and let’s get together in the next one.