[Flalafuse]

cayce was a fundamentalist christian who was raised in strict nineteenth century bible tradition. when he discovered that his subconscious information declared the ancient mystic religions to be true and acclaimed jesus as their crowning glory, he suffered the greatest mental and emotional shock of his life. cayce had only a seventh grade education and consciously knew nothing of what he said while in a deep trance-like state. he was only versed in the bible and had no high school or college background of any kind. up until his revelations, cayce had never heard of the mystery religions. yet the cayce material agrees with everything about them that is known to be authentic. he spoke at length on christian gnosticism well before the gnostic writings were discovered after his death. cayce affirmed that christian gnosticism is the type of christianity that was taught by jesus. much of the information from cayce has solved some of the greatest mysteries of humanity, some of which were later validated after the discoveries of the dead sea scrolls and the early christian writings discovered in egypt. http://www.near-death.com/experiences/origen049.html

reincarnation and the early christians


in december, 1945, early christian writings containing many secrets of the early christian religion were found in upper egypt, a location where many christians fled during the roman invasion of jerusalem. undisturbed since their concealment almost two thousand years ago, these manuscripts of christian mysticism rank in importance with the dead sea scrolls. these writings affirmed the existence of the doctrine of reincarnation being taught among the early jews and christians. these christian mystics, referred to as christian gnostics, were ultimately destroyed by the orthodox church for being heretics. their sacred writings were destroyed and hidden with the belief that they would be revealed at an appropriate time in the future. the discovery in 1945 yielded writings that included some long lost gospels, some of which were written earlier than the known gospels of matthew, mark, luke and john.

brian a. bain, m.a., has this to say about the 1945 discovery:

"long considered to be heretical, ancient gnostic christian texts unearthed this century display compelling similarities between gnostic conceptions of life and death and modern near-death experiences. the gnostic texts devoted extensive tracts to what readers could expect to encounter when they died. other passages make numerous allusions to near-death-like experiences that can be realized in this life, most notably the human encounter with a divine light. the gnostic christian literature gives us one more example of ndes and similar experiences in the ancient world."

another interesting fact comes from edgar cayce (a near-death experiencer) who affirmed that gnosticism is the highest form of christianity.

the christian gnostics were regarded by some as a new jewish sect who believed they had finally found the long-awaited messiah and not a new religion. some of the apostles became gnostic and because of this, christianity could well have grown up as a gnostic religion had it not been for their eventual persecution by the organized church centuries later.

the secret teachings of jesus

an important christian gnostic teaching was the "logos" which in greek is translated as "the image of the word." it is an important concept found in the gospel of john:

"in the beginning was the word (logos), and the word was with god, and the word was god." (john 1:1)

logos is the part of god that acts in the world. it is the perfect unity of the human and the divine. this is affirmed by john when he wrote that "the word was made flesh and dwelt among us." when john stated that jesus is the logos, he is stating that jesus became the logos, the christ. the logos is the divine "spark" of god within humans that needs to awakened. everyone has the "image of the word (logos)" within them and it is for this reason that genesis describes humanity as created "in the image and likeness of god." the logos is the divine spirit in humanity. by using the christian gnostic idea of the logos, john is not only affirming the preexistence and divinity of jesus, but he is affirming that all sons of god created in the "image of the word" as jesus was, preexisted in spirit before being born. in other words, every human is an incarnation of the logos and every human has to potential of becoming like jesus, a manifestation of the human-divine unity. every human can be a "christ" and because of this, every soul will eventually be drawn back to god.

the roman church misunderstood what the logos was in john and incorrectly concluded from this that only jesus is divine - the word made flesh. the orthodox church either rejected or ignored this christian gnostic concept found in john. this may have been a factor when the gospel of john was almost rejected from new testament canon when it was being put together. this was during a time when christian gnosticism became an enemy of the organized church. nevertheless, it was the idea of the preexistence of the soul and its corresponding doctrine of reincarnation that the roman church had great difficulty with.

the christian gnostics emphasized spiritual knowledge rather blind faith as the road to salvation. they indicated that they possessed secret knowledge (i.e., "gnosis" in greek) concerning the hidden meaning of the "resurrection." this was a part of the secret teachings of jesus handed down to them by the apostles. this special knowledge was restricted to people who were given the public teachings of christianity before qualifying to be initiated and receive the secret teachings. in contrast, the very term "catholic" means "universal", implying that anyone could become a member of the church by adhering to the public teachings of faith and rituals. the christian gnostics were harsh critics of the orthodox church. the christian gnostics accused the church of watering down the gospel in order to popularize it for the masses. the orthodox church stressed salvation through faith alone and by the rituals of the church.

this secret gnosis emphasized spiritual "resurrection" (i.e,. spiritual rebirth) and physical "resurrection" (i.e., reincarnation) as opposed to a resurrection defined as people sleeping in their graves until it is time their corpses to crawl out of their graves at the last day. christian gnostics held the view that if spiritual resurrection was not attained in one lifetime, then the soul would be subjected to as many reincarnations as it takes until spiritual rebirth is attained.

one of the great church leaders was clement of alexandria in egypt (150-211 a.d.) who indicated that he possessed the secret teaching handed down from the apostles.

in the gnostic text entitled the secret gospel of mark, one of the christian gnostic texts discovered in 1945, describes jesus performing secret initiation rituals. before the discovery of this secret gospel, our only knowledge of it came from a letter written by clement. clement quotes from this secret gospel and refers to it as, "a more spiritual gospel for the use of those who were being perfected." he also states, "it even yet is most carefully guarded [by the church at alexandria], being read only to those who are being initiated into the great mysteries." clement mentions elsewhere that jesus revealed a secret teaching to those who were "capable of receiving it and being molded by it" he also affirmed that, "the gnosis (secret knowledge) itself is that which has descended by transmission to a few, having been imparted unwritten by the apostles." (miscell. book vi, chapter 7)

the existence of a secret teaching can be found in the new testament:

“the secret of the kingdom of god has been given to you. but to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, 'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding…'” (mark 4:11-12)

"he replied, "the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance." (matt. 13:11-12)

"we do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. no, we speak of god's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that god destined for our glory before time began." (1 cor. 2:6-8)

"so then, men ought to regard us as servants of christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of god." (1 cor. 4:1)

"at that time jesus said, "i praise you, father, lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. yes, father, for this was your good pleasure." (matt. 11:25-26)

paul wrote about teachings which are taught to spiritual "babies," teachings about righteousness for the more mature, and then teachings for the spiritually mature. paul reveals this fact immediately after equating melchizedek to jesus by stating:

"we have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. in fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of god's word all over again. you need milk, not solid food! anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. but solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (heb. 5:11-14)

according to tradition, after the roman invasion of jerusalem, the author of the gospel of mark established a church in alexandria, egypt. mark may also have been the author of a "secret gospel" containing more advanced teaching for those being initiated into the christian mysteries. this secret gospel contains passages portraying jesus teaching secret doctrines.

the champion for the secret teachings of jesus

as the orthodox church in rome gained more and more political power the more it viewed secret teachings as a threat to their own public teachings. but the church leader who made the final and greatest attempt to revive the secret teachings of jesus within the orthodox teachings was the first church father named origen (183-253 a.d.) of alexandria in egypt who was a disciple of clement of alexandra. origen was the first person since paul to develop a system of theology around the teachings of jesus. his effort was the first within the orthodox church to systematize a theology on so vast a scale. although origen defended orthodoxy, he included in his system the wisdom of the christian gnostics. his theology was a perfect synthesis of "orthodox" and "gnostic" teachings and came the closest to reviving the "lost christianity" of the original sects, communities and schools, at a time when the christian gnosticism was falling into disrepute. unfortunately, hundreds of years later, the church declared him a heretic and his teachings as heresy mostly because they affirmed preexistence and therefore reincarnation.

origen had this to say about the secret teachings of jesus:

“[jesus] conversed with his disciples in private, and especially in their sacred retreats, concerning the gospel of god; but the words which he uttered have not been preserved, because it appeared to the evangelists that they could not be adequately conveyed to the multitude in writing or in speech… and they saw… what things were to be committed to writing, and how this was to be done, and what was by no means to be written to the multitude, and what was to be expressed in words, and what was not to be so conveyed”. (contra celsus, chap. vi. 18)

concerning these secret teachings, clement stated:

“james the righteous, john and peter were entrusted by the lord after his resurrection with the higher knowledge. they imparted it to the other apostles, to the seventy…” (outlines book vi)

the theology of christian gnosticism

according to gnostic theology, a series of "falling away" from the whole that is god occurred in eternity which resulted in all that there is today. after the first "fall", the divine consciousness descended to the level of the divided consciousness; now after another "fall", it has fallen even further, into the depths of the unconscious; it has been "forgotten." it is now humanity's privilege to discover the potential realms of human existence and face the great challenge of the "ascension of consciousness" through the man-god-spirit transformation.

once souls fell into the lower levels of consciousness, they became enamored of it and burned with the desire to experience the pleasures of matter. the souls then no longer wanted to disengage itself from these lower levels. thus the world was born. from that moment souls forgot themselves. they forgot they original habitation, their true center and eternal being.

gnosticism proceeds from one fundamental insight: this world in which we find ourselves is thoroughly and irretrievably less than holy. the soul is trapped in a prison of flesh, and the flesh is intrinsically less than divine. according to gnostic theology, the creation of the cosmos came about as the result of a tragicomic mistake: the fall of the soul from god. thanks to the advent of christ in the lower realms of consciousness, the power of reconciling the fallen souls has been given to restore the one-ness and usher in the kingdom of light over the kingdom of flesh and matter. the unity of the godhead is assured thanks to the introduction of the new uniting force, the logos, the part of god who acts in the flesh and the material. it is important to distinguish the logos (christ) from the soul named jesus. any person has the potential of becoming a logos but it was the soul known as jesus who actually incarnated as a logos and therefore became a christ on earth.

we, as humans, cannot comprehend the omnipotent power available to us until we utilize the christ power. when we effectively use the divine "christ awareness" we have the ability to help in the liberation of the imprisoned "sparks of divinity" from flesh and rejoin them to the source. the divine plan of creation will become complete as the divine outpouring of christ gnosis liberates humanity from ignorance. the result of this will be the redemption of all human beings.

the christ power can only liberate souls through the call and revelation of christ gnosis to, "awake, remember who you are and where you come from!" but since the soul cannot by itself hear the gnosis, the christ power resorts to elaborate strategies to create the conditions for which all souls will be saved.

christian gnostics felt that initiation into the cosmic christ gnosis is inseparable from "the light which lighteth every person coming into the world." it is this light within, our higher self, which each individual must bring to at-one-ment with the divine source if liberation is to occur.

as more and more people hear the call to "wake up!" and attain the christ gnosis and become liberated, their souls are received back into the bosom of divine consciousness. the soul becomes free from unholy flesh and the cycle of birth and rebirth. christian gnostics seek to achieve this by cultivating the higher self within people to seek reunification with the godhead. but each soul returning to its divine source must, after death, pass through the various levels of consciousness. sometimes christian gnostics describe seven of these heavenly realms, other times ten.

http://www.near-death.com/experiences/origen06.html

omg, this makes so much sense!