Spirituality Guide

When we look around, the world seems further than ever from the kind of world envisaged by those who read the message of the Christ. Whether or not we accept the religion of the Church, or even profess to a Christian life, the words of the Christ and other avatars or messiahs lead to thoughts of a better world. The possibility of a world where Mankind loves without rancor, where we can trust one another and where we might all work towards a more enlightened life for all is enough to make most people fall silent as they have a brief moment of wishing.

Then we open our eyes and see a world where our leaders are greedy and venal, where lying is rewarded and the media tell us how most of us will crucify our fellow man for the slightest of advantages. We throw away food and resources while just over ‘there’ children die from need and illness we conquered a century ago rips families apart with death and horror.

And our leaders tell us obvious untruths, fabricate stories to get us to react a particular way and ignore our needs as they play their power games. Financial institutions make exhorbitant profits and then tell us how urgently they have to increase their fees – AFTER our governments legislated to make us use the electronic banking system instead of cash. We get charged to put our money in, to leave it there, to move it, to pay bills or to withdraw it.

These people make laws for us and break them almost before they are ratified – the latest such example I have seen can be found in the US site where people can supposedly trade in their old cars for money.

Add to all of that, the Essenes - the 3rd major religious group from before and shortly after the time of the Christ. For some strange reason they don’t get much of a run in the bible yet the major players seem to have been Essenes. The Dead Sea scrolls, a far more authoritative source than the second hand copies of copies of long lost texts from which we derive our modern bible, tell a different story of those times. The Essenes appear to have been a rather hidden group of manipulators and it isn’t hard to see them playing out some long-running scheme as they prepared the maids for the role of mother of the Messiah.

With the symbology talked about in Zeitgeist and other sources, along with the real histories we are finding in archaeology as well as the Dead Sea scrolls and those of the Nag Hammadi discoveries, the books found that show a different story of Judas and Mary, among others, the Pauline manipulations that supplanted the message of the Christ to substitute overlords between a soul and its’ salvation, it isn’t hard at all to take the next step in understanding.

What becomes apparent is a long running manipulation of societies, running back to at least Egyptian times and probably further. Given the nature of the manipulations, it also seems apparent there have been at least two sides running campaigns, and those strategies have been playing out across many centuries.

Look at things like the layout of the sacred sites around the world. The pyramids copy Orion’s Belt, there are those who can show the pyramids of Egypt can be linked into patterns found in the Duat, the Egypt ‘heaven,’ a very specific area of the night sky. The Anasazi ruins can also be shown to map to star pattern, as can the Mexican and South American ruins and monuments. The most recent is probably Ankhor Wat, built between about 800AD and 1000AD, laid out similar to Draco.

The strange thing is, several of these patterns are not as the skies were at the time they were built, but as they were when Orion was at its lowest point of crossing the meridian - circa 10,500BC

Another one to read is Ralph Ellis. Ellis has looked into the history of the Hebrews, of Jesus and the origin of the Judaic religions. What he finds is fascinating. Check out Ralph Ellis’ website

Egypt has no records of having a large number of slaves, nor yet of losing a number of them in at least the hundreds of thousands, so one has to wonder why the biblical story of Moses and the Hebrews escaping the Pharaoh has so little historic documentation. A slave race able to conjure up all those plagues by calling on their God would, you would think, have a profound effect on the slave owners. It doesn’t get a mention.

Another thing not found is any mention of a Pharaoh and a large part of the army going missing. Nor is there any signs of a large number of people wandering around in the desert on the other side of the Red Sea for 40 years. You’d think the water, food scraps and piles of shit would have dessicated and remained to show [i]some[/i] sign of their passing.

And there’s more - Abraham is supposed to be a simple hill shepherd patriarch, yet somehow he musters an army when it is needed. The Ark the Hebrews had, the design of the temples, the One God emphasis, even many of their rules and traditions, all have roots in Egypt - rather strange when you consider they are supposed to have kept their culture even while slaves. Look at the Jewish faithful today - still hold true to their traditions even after centuries in other places.

The Old Testaments smells strongly of a borrowed history, complete with change of names to show a glorious past for a group who had once held the prime responsibility for the Necropolis, kicked out when the Priests of the pan-theistic Egypt reasserted their dominance over the upstart One-God crew.

Interestingly Jesus gets tied into the Pharonic lineage, and there are other stories of his travel to India and Tibet, along with tales of whom he might claim as family.

There’s a problem with Hell. No, it isn’t about how bad it is, nor about how it is the home of Satan nor even how all us bad boys and girls are going there.

The problem with Hell is that, by the bible in its original form, it simply doesn’t exist!

Hell is a creation of the church. In the bible there are numerous places where, in the interpreted and re-written version, Hell is mentioned, but it turns out to be faked. The original words used do NOT mean what the Christian world has come to think of as Hell. About the worst version means the place the body goes when we die. Look it up; there are numerous sites online that will go through the various words and their real meanings.

Hell is a punishment for all the bad people who don’t toe the line as scratched in the ground by the church. Hell is the big stick for those who need the guilt goad, for those who might inadvertently wonder about the con-job that is Original Sin. The ‘if you don’t do as you are told you will suffer forever for your sins’ guilt whip is reinforced by making sex an evil thing – everyone thinks about sex, it is a natural impulse to look at a member of the opposite sex and wonder. So they make it evil and by pushing the message into us while we are very young they ensure that, just as we start to move out into the world and find out who we are, we feel the pangs of guilt which brings the fear of Hell and eternal damnation.

And right there is the church, ready to hear confession or pray for your forgiveness so you get your shot at Heaven.

From the texts of old, the ones that DIDN’T get manhandled by those with an agenda, and from the world of the Gnostics, it is clear that, not long after the time of the Christ, there was a Church of James, the brother of Jesus. This church wasn’t the sort that required large buildings or authoritative messages from ‘superior’ ministers.

The Council of Nicaea comes into this. Constantine, Emperor of the Roman Empire remnant, had a problem. As we see even today, the Christians were intolerant of any other belief. It was bad enough that the mores of the Empire were being ignored by Christians berating anyone who wouldn’t accept their God as the one and only, they were even fighting among themselves as to whose version of God and which version of how to be a Christian was right. Any who weren’t of precisely the beliefs of the one speaking were heathen, sinners and non-believing scum who needed to convert or die.

Constantine got everyone together and hammered out an agreement that would be enforced by the Empire. It ratified the Pauline concept of the Church and selected books for the new bible that confirmed the Christ as the Son of God rather than as a Man. The Christ told us we could do as He did, that we could grow from who we are and even exceed His works, but making Him the miracle Son of God removed that from us and legitimized the Church as the guardian of our souls.

From that moment on, the church ruled. Any who disagreed were excommunicated, thus losing their spiritual future and being condemned into a life away from the Light.

Not long after that, the church invented Hell.

The biggest wrong of the modern churches, the most galring way in which it is obvious they are NOT the inheritors of the teachings of the Christ, is something read out in every Christian church of which I’ve heard. The message of the Christ is that salvation is personal. It is a covenant or relationship between a person and God the Father.

It is very clear in the bible that the only help a person needs in getting close to God is the Holy Spirit. There is no mention in the message from the Christ of anyone being a teacher of groups of people, of anyone needing to listen on God’s behalf to the sins we wish to confess, or of any man being the one to decide what punishment we deserve for our ‘sins.’

In fact, the Christ makes it quite clear there is no penance or need for recompense for sin – all we need do is ask the Father to forgive us and it is done.

So what has happened that these things are seen to be part of the normal way of doing things? While the confession/penance idea might be the province of the Catholic churches, the intercession of an oversight of some kind is common to all the Christian churches.

How did it come about that a personal relationship between human and God got so rapidly entangled in authoritarian oversight and expert interpretation of things that were meant to be personal to each person? Why is it accepted by people all over the world that some fallible human can tell them what to do and how to think about their personal relationship with the Sublime?

Did he really exist? Again the issue is the bible. It is the only real testimony to the existence of a man who might have been a visitation of God. But the bible has reliability issues.

Some claim Josephus mentions the Christ and so is an independent confirmation. A problem here is the writings of Josephus were interpreted by exactly the same people who translated the bible several times. Back in the centuries after Christ, most people could not read. They certainly couldn’t read the Hebrew or Greek of the Old and New Testaments if they didn’t live in either of those places.

The folk who did the record keeping, the writing and copying, and the translating were exactly those who had very good reason to maintain the version of the bible they had inherited after the Council of Nicaea and also an overwhelming purpose in adding a touch here and there to Josephus to ensure an ‘independent’ confirmation of someone mentioned nowhere else.

I’ve also read a pretty solid theory that Josephus was in reality Saul of Tarsus; now there is a character who needs careful examination. The founder of the modern version of Christianity, the tax collector who originally persecuted the Christians suddenly became the champion of them, yet his conversion isn’t witnessed by anyone, his moment on the road to Damascus is evidenced only by his own story.

The Pauline Church was the model on which the Roman Church was built, but in the early days, as we’ve since found out, there were other models and those models seem to follow the original teachings of the Christ far more closely

Given the uncertainties of the writings that have come down to us, it is unfortunately necessary to examine whether there was ever a Christ. One of the problems we have is the main text, the bible, is not only full of allegory, metaphor and parable, it is quite likely written from a mystical point of view, it has obviously borrowed heavily from a variety of other religions, creeds and myths, and in recent times (the last 2000 years or so) it has been picked over, altered, translated and interpreted until it is likely the Christ would never recognize most of it as anything to do with his message.

Is it factual? Well if it is, Christians and most others have some startling facts to absorb. Men and women from the Old Testament lived extraordinary lives. Many pre-Flood lived for hundreds of years; Methuselah lived till nine hundred and sixty-nine years, Noah began to build the Ark when he was six hundred and even after the flood, Abraham’s wife fell pregnant at ninety.

And speaking of pre-Flood, we have the strange story of the Nephilim – beings who were the progeny of human females and (fallen?) Sons of God who found our women attractive enough to come mate with them. Their children were supposedly giants and men of might who rampaged at will through the world pre-Noah.

The story of the flood itself seems to be unsubstantiated if we accept the biblical story. At the time we can work out for the bible’s version there is no evidence of a huge Flood. There is, however, considerable evidence for a Flood that might even have been truly worldwide set in a time thousands of years earlier – in fact there may have been several instances.

This is a vexing question for most people who have an interest. The problem is, there is no solid evidence of such a person. The bible has no direct writings of the Christ, no books, nothing we can point to and say ‘He said that’ – all we have is 2nd hand reports of things he may have said. In fact, all we really have is 3rd or 4th hand hearsay.

You see, the problem is, until recently when some ancient texts were found, the only evidence of the New Testament was to be found in texts that were copies of texts written well after the time of the Christ. Even in our corrupt system, it is difficult to get people to accept hearsay evidence, yet for some reason the established churches demand we accept not only hearsay as being true, but that it is the unchanged and unchallengeable word of God.

Adding to this is issue that the recent texts, from both the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi suggest that our books as found in the bible are, to say the least, a limited selection of those available back when the bible was put together. And unfortunately for the established churches, these sources are far more authoritative than the bible – they have been in situ for almost all the two thousand years, they have not been translated and preferentially chosen to further control of an empire, and at least some of them appear to have been written by direct participants of the time.

Sadly, the modern version of Christianity is as little able to adjust to new information as were the times when any slight differences brought Inquisition, torture and death.

When a people are lost, when their society fails to provide needs that are basic to their lives, they look around for what will provide those needs. Our society has fallen a long way from an optimal path - we risk destroying our world in the name of greed and power over others - it is ironic because those seeking most the power over others have not yet begun the journey of power over self that would relieve them of the burden they are trying to relieve.

The Cult of Conformity and Consumerism fails us in many ways - it derails our awareness of things other than the latest model of the most recent time-waster, it destroys our sense of aesthetics but programming us into the flashiest, the hippest etc. and it subverts our goals towards the non-material, towards the areas most people here are seeking.

Many religions and cults are and have been aware of this for a long time now. They have down to a fine art the procedures for seducing and subjugating their congregations, for ensuring that most will never stray from the fold and the best ones even prepare their flock so they will defend themselves against any attempt to open their eyes.

As an example, the Christ taught that salvation is a personal thing, a journey and compact between the being and the Father; somehow however, the bodies representing the Christ message have managed to negate that entire message into one that says salvation comes from listening to an interceder, from following the dictates of a person who, of their own nomination, stands between the being and the Father. That’s a total reversal of the message and the message is still in the book they use for a reference and that they proclaim as the Word of God, yet somehow none of the congregation calls them on it.

That’s how cults work - they are VERY good at it and follow a long tradition of working on the fears and awareness of people to ensure compliance.

There are some problems with the bible. First, if we apply some basic psychology to the early days, it is clear God is at the least, schizophrenic and sadistic. At worst he could be psychotic. The way he creates Man, then sets them up to fail his test so he can kick them out is either very poorly explained or fits the Sadist role quite nicely. Why sadist? Because He has then visited the punishment on every human ever born – the bible makes that quite clear with it’s whole ‘born into sin’ dogma.

Another problem has to do with Adam and Eve. Never mind that even a generous measure of when they lived directly contradicts what we’ve dug up of real history, the Creation story has a gaping hole through it.

God made Adam, then apparently took a rib and made Eve. Genetics denies this, and further, men have nipples.
Some rather strange people have tried to make out that this is due to redundancy – in case women somehow came to be unable to suckle babies, men could take over. Pardon me while I spit coffee over my keyboard.

Genetics tells us that females predate men. If God made us, She made Eve first, then made Adam as a match.

How can I say this?

Well, when looking at genes, the X and Y chromosomes stand out as the major difference between male and female. Females have 23 pairs of chromosomes, all of similar size and conformation. In men, chromosome 23 has been stunted, losing a large amount of the DNA that makes up the normal type. It is quite clear that the Y chromosome was formed from the X, not the other way around.

In genetic terms, the Battle of the Sexes seems to have been quite literally just that. One life form invaded another & they were so nearly equal a compromise was reached where the offspring shared genetic parts from both parents. The compromise was such a good deal in terms of survivability that the lifeform dominated to the point where virtually all life is now sexual to one extent or another.

I’m fairly sure this is how it came about because looking around at all forms of life there is every possible variant of the battle results. In some the female is barely more than host genetically while in others it is the male who lost most inheritance.

As a child in the Pentecostal church I was encouraged to accept the bible as the literal word of God. It was true, I was told from the pulpit, every word of it inspired by God, and great enthusiasm was shown in recounting stories or evidence to ‘prove’ it correct.

They were better at so doing than others – I was taught of the two creations of Man, neatly solving the riddle of ‘who did Cain marry’ and of how the Pyramid at Giza was a confirmation of the message of Christ – I was always a little hazy on that one but there was something about a line inscribed along the wall that corresponded exactly to the British inch.

Other stories included the British-Israel theory – how the Ten Lost Tribes migrated first East, then North and across to England, forming new nations as they went. How the Tribe of Dan became Denmark and how after the Romans, all the conquerors of England were remnants of the Lost Tribes, making Britain a ‘pure’ Israelite race.

Then there was the story of Jacob’s pillow, how the stone of Jacob (from the Ladder Dream) came across from Israel to Ireland, then to Scotland to finally rest under the Queen’s throne in Westminster, proving beyond doubt her relationship to King David, the ruler promised by God that there would always be a descendant of his on the throne of Israel.

It’s a wild mix of reality and fantasy, with wish-fulfillment making up for any short comings in the evidence. I wondered about things – if a million Hebrews wandered across the desert for forty years, I could understand God providing their food and water, but where is their waste? How come archaeologists hadn’t found a trail of poop and other discards, bones of sheep, goats and cattle, or even of people who died along the way?

The bible is arguably the most influential book we have. It has been behind the development of the modern world, even if more in the lack of observance than in the following of the precepts written in there.

Followers of the bible have done wondrous things across the world, documenting healings and miracles to match any found within the texts, and the central miracle, the crucifixion and resurrection of the Christ holds many to a faith that might otherwise seem to have little to do with their lives in the modern world.

Followers of the bible have also done horrendous things across the world, slaughtering innocents, plundering the wealth of people who’d welcomed them, stealing land from under dying peoples and creating havoc and war on the slightest pretexts.

Can this book really be a guide to a spiritual life? If it is, why does it lend itself to so many bad results? How can people quote the bible as justification of the evil they do?

I was raised in a charismatic church, a Pentecostal creed that preached the truth of the bible, that tried to bypass interpretation and accept the Word as Truth. They preached belief in speaking in tongues, healing of the sick and the signs of the spirit. So I was exposed from an early age to a regular quoting from source, with explanations to fit the text into context and to help us understand what was meant.

Even at a young age I was unsure how this differed from interpretation, but the adults didn’t seem to understand the question.