The Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original Jesus" a Pagan God? (Paperback)

To suggest that it only portrays one side of the argument is stating the obvious and it is a side of the argument, which is sorely needed. And to suggest that it use out dated reference material, can by a quick look at the notes section (which are extremely wide ranging and meticulous) shown to be incorrect. The breadth of material used to support their arguments adds strength to their whole standpoint.

It gives a glimpse of pre-Christian religions and shows them to be enlightening and bringing to humanity everything that Christianity claims to do yet blatantly has not. At last people are starting to break free of the Church's suffocating grip and quest to keep us all in the dark ages it enforced on us in the first place. It contains enough inspiration and promise to keep you reading further on the subject. Well worth a purchase.

Anyone who finds agreement in what they read might try "The Dark Side of God" which reaches a similar conclusion but by a different path. It's a weightier read but again concludes that the Chruch in Rome bears little resemblence to the orginal Nazarenes, Desposyni and Gnostics.

Together they have turned detective and with their extremely detailed and very careful research (all listed in Notes) and logical, clear thinking have come up with this book and explained in layman's terms what has actually been known to scholars for centuries:

- there is no evidence for the existence of a historical Jesus;
- for thousands of years Pagans also followed a Son of God;
- this Pagan saviour was also born of a virgin on the 25th December before 3 shepherds, turned water into wine at a wedding, died and was resurrected, and offered his body and blood as a Holy Communion;
- these Pagan myths have been rewritten as the gospel of Jesus Christ
- the earliest Gnostic Christians knew that the Jesus story was a myth;
- Christianity has turned out to be a continuation of Paganism by another name.

I was brought up as a Christian and have great respect for Christians and their belief in the Christian faith. I am certainly no theologian but I am interested in world religions and have a belief in God/higher power. I have attended Christian services in different churches from Roman Catholic to Church of England to URC and also attended services in a Hindu temple and a Buddhist temple.

However, although I respect Christians I can see that Christianity does seem to have lost its way somewhat. When the authors reviewed the very substancial evidence they concluded that the traditional "history" of Christianity was nothing less than the greatest cover-up of all time.

Christianity's original Gnostic doctrines and its true origins in the Pagan Mysteries had been ruthlessly suppressed by the mass destruction of the evidence and the creation of a false history to suit the political purposes of the Roman Church. All those who questioned the official history were simply persecuted out of existence until there was no one left to dispute it.

(Parallels with more recent history helped them to understand what had happened. At the beginning of the twentieth century a small handful of Communists took power in Russia. Yet within a few years huge numbers of people had joined the Communist Party. If you wanted to get on you had to be a Party member and if you associated yourself in any way with the past regime, you were branded an enemy of the people. Similarly with Christians in the Roman Empire - they were given preferential treatment.)

It is my belief that people have found God throughout the centuries without the need of organised religion. For example, Buddha was not a Buddhist, Krishna was not a Hindu. I believe that we are all capable of developing spiritually and finding God by spending time, twice daily, meditating for about 20 minutes each time. Close eyes and sit alone, undisturbed, on a chair with feet on the ground first thing in the morning and again early evening. Just concentrate on your breathing in and out. Thoughts come and go but return to concentrating on your breathing. You will go down from beta waves (busy mind) to alpha waves (relaxed mind) and then down to theta waves (deeply relaxed). The benefits of this simple meditation cannot be over-emphasised.

As regards this wonderful book, at the front, just before the Contents page of the book, the authors dedicate the book thus: "This book is dedicated to the Christ in you." I endorse that comment wholeheartedly.

At the end of the book the authors reiterate that their desire is not to attack Christianity, but to point to the possibility of it regaining something it has lost - the Inner Mysteries, which reveal the secrets of Gnosis. They do not feel that the Jesus Mysteries Thesis undermines Christianity, but rather that it reveals the ancient grandeur of the Jesus story.

No wonder the Daily Telegraph called this: "Book of the year" when it was published.