The main purpose of devastation and desolation is to
shatter the veneer of self-serving dogmatism. Another
purpose is to make it possible for people to receive a perception
of goodness and truth, which they cannot do until
the self-serving dogmatism is softened up, so to speak.
A state of distress and grief that intensifies to the point of
despair accomplishes just that. We cannot tell precisely
what is good, or even what is blissful or happy, without
first going through a phase that is not good, blissful, or
happy. From the experience we develop a field of sensitivity,
and the worse the negative phase has been, the more
sensitive we become. The perspectives we form through
actual experience create the field of perception and determine
how far it reaches.
—Secrets of Heaven 2694:2
