When I first saw this film in 1998 I remember feeling ill at ease. I'm sure what made me feel so disquieted was the reminder that someday I would leave my body. The viewer realizes almost right away that the film is centered on the challenge of incredible loss and death. Many years later I watched it again with my husband, who had also initially felt ill at ease on the first viewing. We had a totally different experience. Where we once saw only loss, we now were able to see the beauty of knowing how much we are responsible for our 'dream' and how this knowing can open us up to choosing again - with Love. 

A physician Chris Nielsen [Robin Williams]meets an artist Annie [Annabella Sciorra] while vacationing in Switzerland. They both feel as though they have known each other forever. They marry and have two children, Ian and Marie.

We are taught in the Course that there are no accidents, and that we meet those we are ready to join with in a potentially holy relationship:

There is no one from whom a teacher of God cannot learn, so there is no one whom he cannot teach. However, from a practical point of view, he cannot meet everyone, nor can everyone find him. Therefore, the plan includes very specific contacts to be made for each teacher of God. There are no accidents in salvation. Those who are to meet will meet because together they have the potential for a holy relationship. They are ready for each other. ACIM.OE.MNL.3.1 

We see this illustrated so poignantly here, as these two Soul mates have come together to awaken to the truth of Who they are.

Their life was good and happy until one day both of their children perished in an auto accident. Afterwards, Annie, their mother, plunges into a severe mental breakdown, blaming herself totally for the accident.

In addition to their being no accidents, we are also taught in A Course in Miracles that death is a decision that we make:

No one can suffer loss unless it be his own decision. No one suffers pain except his choice elects this state for him. No one can grieve nor fear nor think him sick unless these are the outcomes that he wants. And no one dies without his own consent. Nothing occurs but represents your wish, and nothing is omitted that you choose. Here is your world, complete in all details. Here is its whole reality for you. And it is only here salvation is. ACIM Lesson 152.1 

However, these ideas were very far from how Annie and Chris were thinking or believing.

It is almost unbelievable but on the anniversary of their children's' death, Chris, their father, 'dies' in a horrific car accident. One wonders how much pain could this mother endure.

I have witnessed many times the synchronicity between major occurrences in my life and others' and the dates on which they happened. I had often spoken with my mother about our having a choice on which auspicious day we will die. Several years later, she chose to leave her body, from a massive brain hemorrhage, on the morning of her 56^th Wedding Anniversary. Two years later after her passing, a clairvoyant brought me a ROSE from my Mother, which was our 'plan'. My Mother was to bring me a rose through an Intuitive. What was amazing is I had forgotten about the 'plan' and was there to ask about Romance. After receiving the message from my Mother, I cried and then cried even more when I realized what day it was. It was May 5^th. The day my Mother passed away!

Remember that no one is where he is by accident, and chance plays no part in God's plan. ACIM.OE.MNL.9.1 

In the movie, after his death, Chris' Soul remains close to his wife's on earth and he tries desperately to communicate with her. During these attempts, he begins to feel the presence of a Spirit Guide, who tells him that these attempts at communication with Annie will only confuse her more.

As Chris decides to move on, he awakens into HEAVEN - A world which is quite literally and immediately of his own making.

This is described in the following Spirituality and Practice Film Review of What Dreams May Come:

"This afterlife reflects the idea that 'belief creates experience' or 'thinking makes it so' common in today's pop psychology circles. To move through the heavenly realm, all Chris needs to do is see those desired images. This may seem strange to rationalists, but such movement will be quite familiar to those who have practiced waking dreams, lucid dreaming, shamanistic traveling, and other experiences in the imaginary realm."

And this concept of 'seeing what we believe' is also a major principle in the Course.

LESSON 17 I see no neutral things.

¹ This idea is another step in the direction of identifying cause and effect as it really operates. You see no neutral things because you have no neutral thoughts. It is always the thought that comes first, despite the temptation to believe that it is really the other way around. This is not the way the world thinks, but you must learn that it is the way you think. If it were not so, perception would have no cause and would itself be the cause of reality. In view of its highly variable nature, this is hardly likely.

We are learning that 'thought' precedes perception. I see what I believe is there.

In the film, Chris learns how to navigate in this new 'imaginary' world, with the help of his 'guide' who Chris thinks he recognizes as his mentor 'Albert' from his days in medical residency. In this new world, whatever he 'imagines' becomes real.

As I review this part of the movie, I think of the world I have 'imagined' here, in this 3-dimentional world I am experiencing, and I recall what I have read in the Course:

Into eternity, where all is one, there crept a tiny mad idea at which the Son of God remembered not to laugh. In his forgetting did the thought become a serious idea and possible of both accomplishment and real effects. Together, we can laugh them both away and understand that time cannot intrude upon eternity. It is a joke to think that time can come to circumvent eternity, which means there is no time. ACIM.CH.27.79 

• Starring: Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding Jr, Annabella Sciorra
• Directed by: Vincent Ward 
• Runtime: 1 hour 53 minutes
• Release year: 1998