“It seems to you, in your time, that the Christianity you know is the inevitable form taken by Christianity. It seems that Christianity as you know it was the result of a more or less single line of development, beginning, say, with Christ’s birth.” (Pause.)

“This is far from the case. During those times, and prior to Christ’s birth as you think of it, there were many attempts to initiate the kind of religion that was later called Christianity.”

“There were many, many individuals in various parts of the then-known world who had similar concepts, visions, and psychic experiences. Any one of these could have served as the focus of the religion that finally emerged as Christianity.”

“There were many differences between your world and that one. The import of dreams, visions, and psychic events was considerable. You must remember that science had not yet defined the limitations or boundaries of reality in those days. A man was not considered insane if he received a mystical vision; and the literature of the Jews is, of course, filled with such instances. Mystical experience provided an inner, rich pageantry against which the most miserable of daily physical existences could somehow seem redeemed and meaningful.”

“In your day, ordinary people may pray to God to punish a despot, but their practical actions will more likely involve them in actions of revolution. They do not expect God to come out of His heaven, for example, and overturn the government for them. Not in your time.”

“In the days of which I am speaking, however, the lives of many people were involved with psychic content. People looked for a new God, a new Messiah who would, by His might, put them in their rightful place of power. Most people did not read or write. The world myth took the place of television.” (Long pause at 9:29.)”

“ ‘Supernatural events’ had a place in that world, and the heritages of many peoples were carried down orally, in dramatic form. The use of exaggeration and hyperbole was expected. ‘Supernatural events’ were psychic facts to those people. There was not the same kind of distinction made between the material world and the spiritual one that you make. The most skeptical worldly rabbi in those times still looked over his psychic shoulder now and then, lest Jehovah be watching.”

“The world believed in the intervention of gods into human events in a way that seems quite unacceptable in your times. The same kind of following—the same kind of followers—that Christ had also found many other men, and all of the followers hoped that their messiah would be the Messiah. The outcome was not inevitable, but the expression of psychic need and desire was.”

“Now, look to the present. A woman wrote that she was involved with ... correspondences in which I was communicating with her; and she was certain that this would prove beyond a doubt my own independent nature, since I [would have given] messages to another medium besides Ruburt. The woman was quite convinced of that.”

“Other people have written that I have given them such messages. Another woman dreamed of me, and had an experience in which a child was definitely healed. Now, I did not communicate with those women—but their belief in me helped each of them use certain abilities. One woman has done some writing—not very good—but still, those abilities came to the fore. The other woman was able to use her own healing abilities.

“Now: Back in those times of which I was speaking, generally events more or less of the same nature occurred frequently, and some were far more outstanding. But the results were attributed to the various individuals who aroused their followers’ hopes and abilities.” (Pause.)

“You must remember that without books, magazines and newspapers, television and radio, information and social discourse all had to come from personal contact—and rumors ran wild.” (Long pause.)

“The man who was crucified agreed to the execution because he did believe he was a messiah who had to be crucified. He sought the experience on the one hand, while dreading it on the other. Some of those early Christian ideas were a conglomeration of other beliefs, even while they served to build upon Jewish lore most deeply.”

“There were, indeed, several ‘Christ’s,’ several people whose preaching and exploits merged to form the composite figure historically known as Christ. There are all kinds of contradictions in the Bible, and in Christ’s own attitudes as depicted, because there were more Christs than one.”

“Some of the [Christian] heritage was of Indian origin. Reincarnation was definitely a part of those early beliefs. The Sermon on the Mount is probably the closest interpretation of the best Christianity had to offer—but the tenets of that (underlined) Christ, who gave the Sermon on the Mount, did not suit some of the people involved who looked for an earthly king. ‘Blessed are the meek’ did not fit them or their idea of political power. The Christ who gave the Sermon on the Mount also said that the kingdom of heaven was within—and that dictum did not fit in either with those who wanted a politically effective Sire.” (9:54.)

“Another Christ was the one who cursed the fig tree.”

“Give us a moment... You must remember, also, that in those days one person was often talked about as being a new incarnation of a past prophet in Jewish tradition. People were being converted to one faith or another all the time. A man would have a vision, attain a new spiritual identity, and change his name accordingly.”

“The spirit of the prophets was said to touch the souls of other men. So a person ‘inspired by Christ’ could speak as Him; and his words, in that tradition, would be considered Christ’s words.”

“The individuals whose existences added up to the composite picture of the historic Christ overlapped in time, both preceding the time given for Christ’s birth and following the time given for His death. Those who felt themselves inspired could alter the records with immunity.” (Long pause.)

“The Roman Empire had served its purposes for itself, and for the species. A new kind of organization was needed politically—one that would be strong enough to enlarge even Rome’s sway, and move into new areas more competently. In those times, religion was the basis for politics, and Rome’s religious base was weakened. Few believed in its gods any longer. Rome was tolerant then. But people were not ready for tolerance.” (Long pause at 10:04.)

“Christianity was, then, a rather rich blend of beliefs that were gradually weeded out You had many probable roads that Christianity could have followed. Each of them represented various probable developments in culture and philosophy; and each of those developments, of course, would have given you a different present. Each of those alternatives has happened also.”

“Behind the power of Christianity lies the unending reality of man’s inner source, which he continually tries to explore, express, and define. And from that attempt emerges all religions, civilizations, sciences, and philosophies.” (A one-minute pause at 10:08.)

“The New Testament marked the beginning of Christianity, but in a form that brought an end to the continuing saga of the Jewish traditions—for there were no new prophets after that. To that extent, (underline twice!) the Bible ceased to be a living document of a people’s spiritual search, a gathering together of psychic events, myths, historical wars, people’s fears and yearnings. With the coming of the Christ, no more was added to that book. There were many records that could have been added, but they did not correlate with the version of Christ that was settled upon.”

“The composite [historical] picture of Christ is based upon the settled upon events taken from the lives of three people in particular, though there are a few events that simply do not apply. Any events that happened to those people that did not fit the picture were hidden or [evidence of them] destroyed. You must understand that an ‘event of the psyche’ was considered a fact. Saul heard God’s voice—or rather, Paul heard God’s voice. To him, that was a fact.”

“There was a God who spoke, who could send flashes of light to blind men—people tried to take psychic events and turn them into literal facts. (Long pause.) But the very term ‘literal fact’ adds a different meaning. Exaggerations were expected in those times. They were not thought of as lies.”

“That is enough. I sneak this [kind of material] in now and then. Do you have any questions?”

(‘‘Was part of this based on your own observations when you lived in the first century A.D. ?”)

"Christianity gained its VITALITY because its roots SUPERSEDED the world of fact, and formed the legend of a man called Christ, who within himself contained the most divine attributes that man could imagine, and gave birth in an historical context to an understandable picture of man’s greater reality. Men believed what they wanted to believe, and so from the lives of several men they formed a legend – each believing the legend to be true. One of the men, Paul, was a charlatan. Yet he was a miracle-worker, for he inflamed men’s imaginations and in his deception proved the validity of a vision in which he himself did not believe.

"Now, the story of Paul comes down to you, and the story of his miraculous conversion — yet there were numberless unknown others as “legitimately” struck by God — awakened into truth, who followed OTHER Gods, other pathways that were NOT accepted in your historic line of continuity. None of this contradicts the existence of the Christ spirit — which ALWAYS EXISTED despite, or separate from, the individual or individuals involved.

"There were miracle-workers all over Jerusalem. Rome was dead already, and no FIRE was burning. That fire became Christianity, but it burned messiahs in its wake. Early Christianity was filled with fire, and only its ORIENTAL connections gave it touches of mercy.