The inspiration for this story came from several life altering dreams, over the course of many years. They were speaking to my efforts to find my place in life and address the disorientation I felt living in a time and culture where nothing felt like "home". Along with providing insight into how I needed to live my life, the vision behind this story has also guided, inspired, and sustained NHNE (www.nhne.org) since it first appeared online in 1994. Since many of today's seekers seem to be wrestling with the same issues I  am, I thought I would post this story on zaadz for those to find who might find it helpful.

............

The Hopping Stone Vision
By David Sunfellow
Winter, 1995
Sedona, Arizona

Deep in the southwest deserts, an old medicine man and young brave stand atop a great plateau. Together they silently survey all the Earth.

After what seems like ages of absorbing all that can be seen, the old man taps his medicine stick on the ground. From twelve different directions great streaks of lightning strike the Earth, and from each place the lightning strikes, twelve great stones begin to form. As the stones form, the old man begins to sing an ancient song.

Drawn, irresistibly, by the old man's song, the twelve great stones slowly weave their way through the vast obstacles that stand between them and the plateau. They pass over enormous mountains and vast stretches of water. They roll through dense forests and jungles. They cross great deserts and glaciers -- growing stronger, larger, and more powerful with each passing moment.

Finally, all twelve stones reach the mesa and silently gather around the old man and brave.

"You see these twelve great stones?"

"Yes, Grandfather."

"Build a sacred circle with them."

With prayerfulness and great care, the brave gathers the stones and places them in a sacred circle. "Do you know what you have done, my son?"

"I have built a medicine wheel."

"Yes. Go now and show me your place. Walk into the Sacred Circle and sit upon the stone that represents your position in the Great Circle of Life."

As the brave moves towards the Sacred Circle, the old man begins to chant -- and all twelve stones begin to glow.

For a few moments, the young brave prayerfully circles the medicine wheel trying to find the stone that represents his particular place: his personality and temperament, his strengths and weaknesses; but none of them feels right to him, so he chooses the one that best seems to fit: he chooses the Red Man Stone and sits on it. But after a few moments, his seat begins to smoke and he leaps off the great stone calling out in pain.

"The Red Man Stone is red hot!"

The old man looks at him and smiles mischievously.

"Perhaps you are not meant to be a Red Man this life. Try another stone."

Worried and confused now, the young brave stares at the glowing circle of stones.

For along time he stares and refuses to move.

He calms his mind. He concentrates. He carefully studies the texture, shape, color and size of each great stone, searching for the one that feels most like him.

Finally, the young brave takes a deep breath, asks the Great Spirit for help and walks over to the White Man Stone. But as soon as he sits upon the great rock, his seat begins to smoke, and he leaps off screaming again.

"The White Man Stone is red hot, too!"

Seeming to delight in the young brave's dilemma, the old man answers, "Then you are not meant to be a White Man this life. Try again."

More perplexed than ever, the young brave tries again, this time choosing the Oriental Stone -- with the same results: His seat catches on fire and he leaps up again!

"ALL OF THESE STONES ARE RED HOT!!! How do you expect me to find my place in the Great Circle if I cannot sit on any stone?"

The old man smiles and looks deeply into the young brave's eyes. "Perhaps you are not meant to sit on any single stone this life. Perhaps you are meant to hop from stone to stone."

"Then I shall have no place to sit in the Sacred Circle!"

"Perhaps your place is the Hopping Place -- which is no place, and all places; the last place we must master before we can leave this world and join the Great Spirit Who lives in the center of the Great Circle."

Stunned by the old man's revelation, the young brave is silent. As if struck by some great bolt of lightning, he cannot move or speak. He can only tremble as new thoughts and feelings rush into his mind and heart.

For a few moments, the old man leaves the brave to his thoughts. Then he speaks again.

"Listen."

The young brave listens and begins to hear the twelve stones arguing.

"Do you hear the stones arguing with one another?"

"Yes, Grandfather."

"And do you know why they argue so, day and night, age upon age, without ceasing?"

"Because they do not understand one another?"

"Yes. And do you know why they do not understand one another?"

"No."

"Because they sit in one place all the time and can not yet hop as you do."

The old man looks deep into the eyes of the brave and then continues. "Since you are a hopper, your job is to hop from stone to stone and help them understand one another. If you do this, my son, you shall find peace in your heart and help bring peace and happiness to the Great Medicine Wheel of Life. This is the task the Great Spirit has given you."

Another long silence descends upon the old man and brave. They both stare at the glowing red stones for a long time. At last, the old man turns to the brave and speaks again.

"Remember this vision, my son, and share it with those whom the Great Spirit sends to you. For this vision is not only given to you. It is also given to the other stone hoppers who have come to the Earth to unite the Great Medicine Wheel of Life."

Three Epiphanies
By David Sunfellow
June, 2005

1. When I was young (in my late teens) I realized that most people believe what they are told by their parents, religion, culture; they do not question authority or ask, deeply, where the ideas and practices that shape their lives come from, or how valid they are. They also seek, often ferociously, to silence others who dare to question and/or live outside the status quo. This realization led me to question everything I had been taught, to discover how wildly mistaken many of my/our core beliefs are, and to pay special attention to people, ideas, and practices that the culture at large ostracized.

2. After decades of questioning/exploring a wide variety of conventional and alternative perspectives, it became clear to me that I would not be able to unravel life's fundamental mysteries on my own. I did not possess enough time and resources to investigate everything, nor was I intelligent enough to fully understand many of the areas I did explore. I also became deeply conscious of how my personality, my imperfections, my cultural conditioning, even my genetics and biology hampered, biased, and polluted all my efforts, both inwardly and outwardly. This led me to conclude that the only way myself and others could ever hope to solve life's fundamental mysteries was by pooling our resources: people, from all over the world, with different strengths and abilities, from different cultures and belief systems, would need to join forces in a sincere search for the truth. This is what gave birth to NHNE (www.nhne.org).

3. After years of comparing notes and life experiences with large numbers of people, it became clear to me that no one on the planet possessed all the answers -- no one religion, no one philosophy, no one master or guru, at any time in human history, past or present, possessed the whole truth. In spite of what humankind's most illustrious champions might proclaim, or how loudly humankind's religious and philosophical traditions declared that they, above all others, had a corner on ultimate truth, I discovered no one did. I also began to suspect that no one could know the whole truth for two simple reasons: 1. We, as a species, were simply too young and undeveloped to fully comprehend the depth, breadth, and ultimate purpose of life; 2. Evolution was moving at such breakneck speeds, in such unexpectedly dramatic directions, that no one, including our brightest scientists and most inspired mystics, could accurately predict where it was taking us.

Of these three epiphanies, the third one has been the most important one for me. It has helped me surrender the idea that any of us, in our current primitive, tiny-minded, excessively frail and limited homo sapien form, is going to figure out what life is really about in the foreseeable future. Instead of seeking the final big answer, I could instead focus on enjoying the journey and contributing to the adventure. My seeking wouldn't stop, but the desperate need to know, which was driven in part by a belief that I/we could find the answers now, was quieted. So, too, was the hope of finding anyone, past or present, who knew all the answers.

It also occurred to me that if humanity as a whole adopted this perspective, most wars would end overnight. Instead of clinging to the childish idea that we, or our particular masters, teachers, traditions, cultures, are perfect, we would realize that all humans beings, as well as all systems of thought and belief, are, at best, only partially correct.  This, in turn, would help us realize that we need the input of others who see things from different vantage points to create a truly whole picture.

Muddy Pools & Foolish Fish
By David Sunfellow

When foolish fish
find themselves
in muddy waters
they panic
and splash to and fro
trying to settle the mud
themselves.

Since fish can't breath mud,
foolish fish
live short lives.

When wise fish
find themselves
in muddy waters
they calmly control themselves
and float
and wait for the mud
to settle itself.

Since fish can't breath mud,
wise fish
live long lives --
and eventually
have the pool all to themselves.

Thoughts On Jesus & Mel Gibson's "The Passion Of The Christ"
By David Sunfellow
February 29, 2004

CONTENTS:

Christians Storm the Theater
Visions of Jesus
Holey Holy Books
Bloodthirsty Jews
Turning Jesus into Hamburger
Will the Real Vision of Jesus Please Stand Up
The Ghost of Jesus
Lightning Hasn't Struck, But You Can

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THOUGHTS ON JESUS & MEL GIBSON'S "THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST"
By David Sunfellow


CHRISTIANS STORM THE THEATER

I saw Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" on opening night in Sedona (2/25/2004). Having lived in Sedona for over 16 years, I have seen many movies at the local theaters. This, however, was the first time that I attended a movie where I was accosted, before and after the movie, by people handing out flyers about Jesus and pocket-sized copies of the New Testament.

Considering that Sedona has a reputation for being a hotbed of New Age ideas and spirituality, seeing so many "Christians" rallying at the local theater was something of a shock.

And so was the movie. I came hoping to see an inspiring portrayal of Christ's last hours, and left depressed and agitated. Not only had Gibson concocted an excessively violent, dogmatic, and uninformed portrait of Christ and his crucifixion, but he had driven dozens of long, rusty nails into my personal wounds around Jesus.


VISIONS OF JESUS

Yes, for those of you who may not know, Jesus has been a central part of my life. Early on, I met Jesus through a beloved grandmother who fervently watched Oral Roberts on TV and regularly hauled my little brother and I off to Sunday School at the local Baptist church. Later on, in junior high and high school, I met Catholic and Mormon versions of Jesus. And in college, I met the Jesus that lives in the Twilight Zone -- the Jesus of Sun Myung Moon, the Jesus of The Aquarian Gospel of Levi, the Jesus of The Masters of the Far East, the Jesus of space brothers, mediums, and psychics.

In the end, the Jesus that appealed to me most, was a composite Jesus: about 30 percent of him came from the New Testament; about 40 percent came from the psychic readings of Edgar Cayce; about 5 percent came from my own dreams and ponderings; and about 25 percent came from a hodge-podge of mystics like Brother Lawrence, saints like Saint John of the Cross, Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Francis, and Joan of Arc, Protestant rabble-rousers like Martin Luther and George Fox (the founder of the Quaker movement), Eastern masters like Yogannada, psychologists like Carl Jung and M. Scott Peck, and a host of Cayce-like psychics.

While I can laugh about it now, it was no laughing matter then. Cayce's apocalyptic earth changes were just about to hit the fan and the only sure way to survive the coming holocaust was to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Following after Jesus was also the best way to accomplish another important goal: to prepare the way for his imminent return. For me this meant reducing my worldly possessions to a backpack, living a celibate lifestyle, working for God, not money, in the hopes my meager financial needs would be met as miraculously as they had been for Jesus and his followers, sleeping outside, all year round, on beaches, in swamps, in forests, in churches, in abandoned houses, and spending lots of time praying, meditating, and paying close attention to my dreams. Conspicuously absent from my "following in the footsteps of Jesus regiment" were the kind of miracles that the Bible said were supposed to happen to Christ's followers (I didn't raise anyone from the dead, exorcise demons, or cure any blind or lame people). I also spent very little time feeding the poor and comforting the needy (mostly because I was the poorest person I knew, and also one of the neediest).

That didn't prevent me, however, from thinking I was following Jesus as closely as anyone I had ever met -- and encouraging those around me to get with the program. Sadly, I had a lot in common with the folks who were handing out flyers and Bibles at the Mel Gibson movie. In a word, I was clueless.

But like all visions that are not based on reality, my vision of Jesus eventually ran into trouble.


HOLEY HOLY BOOKS

On the New Testament front, I began to learn how the New Testament was put together. Contrary to popular notions of infallibility, I learned that the New Testament didn't fall out of the sky engraved on stone tablets. Instead, it was put together by a messy, controversial, emotionally-charged process that spanned several hundred years. Here's a brief summary on how the New Testament was actually created:

"In the first three centuries of the Christian Church, there was no firmly established New Testament canon that was universally recognized. The first attempt at compiling a canon was made by Marcion, but this was rejected when Marcion was branded a heretic by the church. His canon included only ten of the thirteen Pauline Epistles, and a version of the Gospel of Luke which had been altered. Around 200 the Muratorian fragment was written, listing the accepted works. This list was very similar to the modern canon, but also included the Wisdom of Solomon (now part of the Apocrypha (1)) and the Revelation of Peter, which was dropped when it was discovered that it was not actually written by Saint Peter, the apostle. The New Testament canon as it is now was first listed by St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, in 367, in a letter written to his churches in Egypt. That canon gained wider and wider recognition until it was accepted by all at the Third Council of Carthage in 397. Even this council did not settle the matter, however. Certain books continued to be questioned, especially James and Revelation. Even as late as the 16th century, theologian and reformer Martin Luther rejected the Epistle of James; calling it chaff." (2,3)

To be perfectly clear on this point: a diverse, argumentative, and often politically motivated group of Christian men (women, as far as I know, were not included in the selection process) decided which books to include, and which books to leave out of the New Testament. They also decided what ideas to emphasize, what ideas to avoid, and how to silence those who refused to tow the party line. The Gnostic traditions (5), for example, which focused on attaining a direct, personal experience of the Divine -- and painted Jesus as a person who lived and advocated this path -- got axed, ferociously, even though the early Christian church was full of Gnostic thought and practice.

The relatively homogenized version of the New Testament we have today is nothing like the wild west that emerged in the aftermath of Christ's death and reported resurrection. Moreover, none of the four Gospels that emerged as cornerstones of Christian faith, were written during the time of Jesus. Most scholars believe the earliest Gospel accounts were written 40 to 70 years after the death of Jesus, by different people, with different perspectives. On some things they agree, on others they do not, and there are gaping holes in between. Some of the Gospels also borrowed large chunks of their material from each other and trace back to an as yet undiscovered Gospel (the Gospel Q). The books that ended up in the New Testament were also embellished and/or misreported by the authors and scribes who wrote them.

How much were they embellished and/or misreported?

The Jesus Seminar, an organization made up of over 100 reputable scholars, including such renowned experts as Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, and John Shelby Spong (4), estimate that 82 percent of the words attributed to Jesus in the Gospels probably were not spoken by him, including almost the entire Gospel of John. They came to this disturbing conclusion after reviewing 15,000 "parables, aphorisms, dialogues, and stories containing words attributed to Jesus" in the first three centuries of the Common Era.

Let me repeat that: 82 percent of the words attributed to Jesus in the Gospels probably were not spoken by him.

The events of Jesus' life, including the immaculate conception, the birth story, the miracles of Jesus, and his resurrection, are also hotly debated.

Assuming we are interested in knowing who Jesus really was, and what he really said and did, there are so many misconceptions and controversies whirling around Jesus that it is difficult to know what to believe -- let alone what to pass on to others as "the Gospel truth".

Which brings us back Gibson's movie.


BLOODTHIRSTY JEWS

Were the Jews as bloodthirsty as the movie (and the New Testament) make them out to be? In a recent interview with Dateline (February 20, 2004) , Biblical scholar and best-selling religious scholar John Dominic Crossan, had this to say:

CROSSAN: "It troubles me as a Christian to hear Christians say things like, 'Oh, the Jewish people are Christ-killers,' or something like that. That's outrageous. It's very wrong. It's bad theology. It's bad history. Most Jewish people didn't even know who Jesus was and never even heard about it, and would have been horrified at what happened to him in Jerusalem...

VOICE OVER: Where did this notion come from? Largely, scholars say, from the gospels themselves. If you read the four books in the order in which they were most likely written, Jewish culpability appears to increase with each revision. Take for example the scene with Pilate and that crowd:

CROSSAN: "You can watch the crowd not only expand but metastasize before your eyes, from Mark where it starts as a crowd, to Matthew where it goes from a crowd to crowds to all the people in ten verses, and then on to John where it becomes 'the Jews.'"

While Gibson has publicly stated that people who have trouble with the way he presents the Jews in his movie, are really having trouble with the way the story is told in the New Testament, the New Testament isn't the only source Gibson turned to for his movie. Another source is Catholic nun, mystic and stigmatist, Anne Catherine Emmerich. In an article posted on BeliefNet ("Hymn to a Savage God") Crossan explains:

"Before you see Mel Gibson's film, 'The Passion of the Christ,' read the script. I don't mean the film's actual script, or even the New Testament, upon which the film is based. Rather, I mean the hidden script: The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ from the Meditations of Anne Catherine Emmerich.

"Sister Anne Emmerich was an Augustinian nun and mystic who lived from 1774 to 1824 in Germany. Her life was one of poverty, hardship, and suffering, with its final decade spent bed-ridden in constant pain. During the last Lent of her life, she experienced visionary meditations on Jesus' passion, recorded by the poet Klemens Brentano and published in 1833."

"Emmerich's visions often describe Jewish mobs as 'cruel,' 'wicked,' or 'hard-hearted,' as in this chapter: 'the sight of [Jesus'] sufferings, far from exciting a feeling of compassion in the hard-hearted Jews, simply filled them with disgust, and increased their rage. Pity was, indeed, a feeling unknown in their cruel breasts.'"


TURNING JESUS INTO HAMBURGER

Crossan is also unhappy with the way Gibson portrays Christ's scourging and crucifixion. Still referring to the visions of Sister Emmerich, Crossan writes:

"Inspired by this work of mystical visions, Gibson has created a film that is two hours of unrelenting brutality. The fleeting flashbacks to the earlier life of Jesus and Mary serve more to intensify than alleviate the savagery. They do not explain how Jesus' life led inevitably to this death or why anyone wanted him dead let alone publicly crucified. He is victim, not martyr.

"Why did Mel Gibson do it that way? The answer is in his 'Dolorous Passion' script. The text describes 'the satisfaction which [Jesus] would have to offer to Divine Justice, and how it would consist of a degree of suffering in his soul and body which would comprehend all the sufferings due to the concupiscence of all mankind, since the debt of the whole human race had to be paid by that humanity which alone was sinless-the humanity of the Son of God.'"

Let's pause a moment and let this sink in: Gibson did not base his movie exclusively on the New Testament. He also included visions from nuns like Sister Emmerich and, reportedly, St. Mary of Agreda (see below for more information about these nuns and their visions).


WILL THE REAL VISION OF JESUS PLEASE STAND UP

Like it or not, much of our understanding of Jesus comes from visions (and other inner experiences). Beginning with the disciples and the Apostle Paul, and passing through the turbulent, vision-filled years of the early church, all the way to the present day, vast numbers of people have experienced visions of Jesus. While most of these visions have been fleeting -- they come and go in the blinking of an eye, some have been Hollywood-style productions that not only carried their visionaries off into the wild blue FOR YEARS, but also left thick volumes of written material for future generations to marvel over.

Since the current scriptural and historical record is such a mess, you'd think that these visions would tell us, once and for all, who Jesus was and what he really said and did. This, in fact, is what these visions often say is their purpose: to give the world a true record of the life, times, and teachings of Jesus. But in the end, they usually have the opposite affect. Far from clearing up the confusion, they add more mud to an already heavily polluted pond.

In my case, I was deeply affected by the visions of Jesus that came through the psychic readings of Edgar Cayce.

For those of you who may not know, the Jesus of Edgar Cayce does not magically appear, full blown, as a miracle-working Nazarene with supernatural powers. Instead, the soul that eventually becomes Jesus is the central figure of a much larger drama. He appears at the very beginning of human evolution, before humans show up on Earth. Then he incarnates as Adam (of Adam and Eve fame) and passes through 28 different incarnations, including such notable Old Testament personages as Joshua, Joseph, and Melchizedek. Finally, after having played instrumental roles in human history's most important events, he appears in Palestine as Jesus and becomes the first human to attain perfection.

Visions that constrain themselves to otherworldly and impossibly distant times and places are difficult to prove, or disapprove. If, however, they place themselves in historical times and places, they usually don't last long.

Cayce's worldview finally hung itself on elaborate tales of Atlantis, which came complete with flying machines, powerful crystals, and a secret Hall of Records. While the role that Jesus played in this time period was somewhat obscure (one reading suggested he designed and built the Great Pyramid), the time period itself was a central part of Cayce's worldview. According to Cayce, the fleeing remnants of the sinking continent of Atlantis were responsible for building the Great Pyramid in Egypt. The Great Pyramid, in turn, not only predicted when Christ would be born, but later served as the site of a special initiation that Jesus received with John the Baptist.

For me, the dominoes started falling when Mark Lehner, a University of Chicago-trained anthropologist who wrote a book championing Cayce's view on Atlantis and ancient Egypt , went to Egypt to search for evidence that supported Cayce's views. Unable to find ANYTHING that supported Cayce's fanciful Atlantean tales, Lehner, who is regarded today as one of the world's foremost experts on the Sphinx and Giza Pyramids, ended up renouncing all mythologies (including Cayce's) that claimed other civilizations (from this planet and elsewhere) created the monuments of ancient Egypt.

While I no longer believe Cayce's story of Jesus, I wouldn't go so far to say that everything he said about Jesus was wrong. He is, in fact, credited with scoring significant hits on the Essenes and the possible relationship that Jesus and John the Baptist had to them. The height and weight that Cayce ascribed to Jesus also closely matches the image on the Shroud of Turin. (For more information about Cayce, Cayce's vision of Jesus, and my adventures with his work, see the links at the end of this article.)

Having investigated many other visionary-based worldviews that were as elaborate as Cayce's, I'm no longer surprised to see how wrong they are about human evolution, ancient history, apocalyptic predictions, or historical personages and events -- or how enthusiastically people embrace them. I wish human beings (including myself), were more discerning, and less susceptible to wild flights of fantasy, but we aren't. Instead, most of us seem to go through phases that mimic the one I went through. If we are growing and paying close attention, we eventually begin to notice inconsistencies in our chosen path. This, in turn, leads us into deeper waters where it becomes uncomfortably clear that no one -- not Jesus, not Buddha, not Lao Tse -- has all the answers. Instead, we come face to face with the realization that we are a newly emerging species that still has a great deal to learn about ourselves and the universe that surrounds us.


THE GHOST OF JESUS

So who was Jesus? And what did he really say and do?

One thing we can be sure of: the Jesus of Mel Gibson (and other Christian fundamentalists) is not the Jesus that walked the Earth two thousand years ago. Nor are the cast of characters that these folks lift from the New Testament accurate representations of the historical personages they represent. Mary Magdalene, for example, was not a prostitute, nor is she referred to as one anywhere in the New Testament. This unsavory reputation was foisted on her in an Easter sermon by Pope Gregory the Great in the 5th century. And Pontius Pilate, who is regarded as one of the vilest proconsuls Rome ever produced, was almost certainly not the tender, conscientious fellow Gibson portrays him to be.

As for Jesus, the more I learn, the more I tend to believe that Jesus followed the same path that other religious figures before and after him did: beginning with an inspired message and some unusually high-powered healing abilities, he became a larger-than-life movie screen that billions of human beings could use to project their hopes and dreams on. If we were able to strip away all the personal and collective agendas that humankind has heaped on Jesus over the ages, I think we would probably find someone very much like ourselves -- someone who possessed special insights and gifts, but also wrestled with the same kind of human weaknesses and cultural ignorance and biases (ancient Jewish/Roman/Iron Age ignorance and biases in his case) that the rest of us do.

As Joseph Dillard, a PhD. and long-time friend who followed the same path I did in and out of the Cayce mythology, recently wrote:

"If I had to place a bet, I would give odds that Jesus was a product of his time and culture: a believer in a coming apocalypse in the near future; that this apocalypse was going to be a final judgment which would separate the quick from the dead; that the dead would be tormented in hell; that he was a believer that disease was caused by demons; a devout Jew, not a Christian; probably a strong believer in marriage, if not actually married; a strong believer in sin, damnation, forgiveness, and the division of the world into a dualism of good and evil, darkness and light. Just go to any on-line concordance and look at Jesus' own words on these issues. Look at how many times he mentions demons, for instance.

"I don't think Jesus would like you or me or our world views because they would be extraordinarily threatening to most if not all of the above beliefs. I believe that he would see us as enemies to all he held sacred and might well try to do to us what he did to the moneylenders in the temple. In other words, I don't think Jesus was a warm and fuzzy guy to those things and people that he saw as a threat to his belief system. He was a product of a Iron Age culture; to remake him as an advocate of 21st century perspectives, values, and mores is preposterous, yet this is what we inevitably do. Jesus an advocate of equal rights for women? Jesus an advocate of equal rights for Gentiles? Jesus ecumenical? What lovely myths."

That said, three things continue to haunt me about Jesus:

1. The message of Jesus (Love one another, forgive your enemies, do good to those who abuse you), including the way he boldly championed it in an ancient, narrow-minded culture that institutionally marginalized women, the sick, the poor, sinners, tax collectors and other borderline people, was truly revolutionary. It required guts, vision, and, in my opinion, a Herculean connection to something greater than himself. It also happened to change the world more dramatically than any other vision that has ever set foot on this planet.

2. Jesus continues to appear, both inwardly in the form of visions and voices, and outwardly in the form of flesh and blood bodies, to people all over the world. Assuming these encounters are accurately reported, are they produced by the minds of the people who experienced them, or has Jesus himself come a knocking? I tend to believe that these kinds of experiences are primarily produced by the minds of the people who report them, but I can't dismiss the possibility that Jesus, in some form, might also be involved.

Encounters with Jesus

3. Finally, there's the Shroud of Turin. Assuming it is the authentic burial cloth of Jesus, it bears witness to his existence, to his crucifixion, and to something remarkable happening after his death. In the final analysis, it is the Shroud of Turin, more than anything else, that prevents me from dismissing Jesus. In it, there is not only physical proof that Jesus lived, but that his life and teachings may well have some lasting significance above and beyond the other great teachers that have passed through this world.

NHNE Shroud of Turin Report

Shroud of Turin Website

(A side note: while the man pictured on the Shroud was brutally beaten and crucified very much like the New Testament says Jesus was, he was not beaten to a pulp like the Jesus in Gibson's movie. The nails were also driven through his wrists, not his hands, which is a common misconception perpetuated by the New Testament and uninformed Christian artists.)


LIGHTNING HASN'T STRUCK, BUT YOU CAN

A few years ago I joined with a close friend of mine (Robert Perry) and created a website that was dedicated to nailing down a lot of the issues I have outlined in this report. Our hope was to gather together information about Jesus from a wide variety of sources -- scriptural, historical, archeological, mystical, psychic, personal stories and encounters, even hoaxes and myths -- and see if greater insight would emerge. But after creating the website, and adding data to a few of the sections, I could go no further. The topic of Jesus was so overwhelming, so full of wildly differing perspectives and discouraging dead ends, that I couldn't see a way to solve the riddle through gathering information.

While the website (and a sister mailing list) continues to remain online, I've been looking for another way to tackle this exceedingly important topic. So far, lightning hasn't struck. But after watching Mel Gibson's movie, I felt an obligation to share with you what I have learned, as incomplete as it is, in the hopes that it might deepen the discussion.

Now it's your turn. Have you seen "The Passion of the Christ?" If so, what was your reaction? And what are your thoughts about what I've said in this report? If you will take the time to share your thoughts, I will include them in a followup report...

With love and best wishes,
David Sunfellow

------------

REFERENCES:

1. The Apocrypha

2. Wikipedia Quote: The Canonization of the New Testament

3. More Wikipedia Sources About Jesus

4. The Gnosis Library

5. Biographies:

John Dominic Crossan

Marcus Borg

John Shelby Spong

............

CATHOLIC JESUS VISIONARIES:

The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ
from the Meditations of Anne Catherine Emmerich:

Link One

Link Two

St. Mary of Agreda

The Poem of the Man-God
The Life of Jesus in the Visions of Maria Valtorta

.............

OTHER JESUS VISIONARIES:

The Aquarian Age Gospel of Jesus, the Christ of the Piscean Age
Transcribed by Levi H. Dowling

Edgar Cayce Books on Jesus

The Urantia Book

A Course in Miracles

Eva Pierrakos on Jesus (from the Pathwork Lectures)

Link One

Link Two

"Speak, Shining Stranger"
Ray Stanford on Jesus (Psychic Readings):

The Book of Mormon

............

CAYCE-RELATED RESOURCES:

NHNE SPECIAL REPORTS & ARTICLES:

The Lost City of the Pyramid Builders (11/27/2001)

Pyramid Builders' Village Found in Egypt (8/7/2002)

NHNE Special Report: Earth Changes & Millennium Fever

A Review of Scallion's Predictions for 1995

Pole Shift Torpedoed by Author

The Great Pyramid & the Sphinx

The Lost City of the Pyramid Builders

Easter Island

High-Tech Origins Challenged - Again

Edgar Cayce: An American Prophet

CAYCE-RELATED WEBSITES:

The Association for Research and Enlightenment

Ancient Egypt Research Associates
(Outlines Mark Lehner's early work with A.R.E.)

Here's another "blast from the past" -- this one written ten years ago, in 1997, to help set the tone for NHNE's newley emerging network. Also, in case it isn't obvious, the primary intent behind these posts is not to promote NHNE, but rather, to share ideas, perceptions, and life experiences that others of like mind might find helpful.

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Consumer Protection for Spiritual Seekers
By David Sunfellow
From Smorgasbord 4
Friday, December 5, 1997

Little is known about the true origins of the world's major religions -- or for that matter, their founders. On the one hand, we have scriptural accounts that have been passed down, often inaccurately, through countless generations. And on the other hand, we have the founders themselves -- mysterious figures like Krishna, Lao Lzu, Buddha, Moses, Jesus that left little, if any, "first-person" accounts of their lives, teachings, perceptions, intentions, struggles, innermost thoughts. And yet, billions of human beings regard these faiths, and teachers, with awe, reverence, and in many cases, infallibility. How can so many human beings, from so many different cultures, invest themselves so fervently in religions that are thousands of years old without knowing how, exactly, they came to be?

If I could, I would like to visit these ancient faiths and meet their founders. And I would like to take the rest humanity with me. Together, we could ask questions, poke around, see what really happened, and what didn't; we could brush aside centuries of embellishment, biased story telling, and inaccurate record keeping; best of all, we could view these ancient visionaries and legendary events through the eyes and minds of 20th century human beings who know a great deal more about our planet, human psychology, other religions, philosophies and cultures, and life in general than our isolated, often very primitive-minded ancestors did.

Would humankind's great religions, masters, teachers, and prophets survive such a visit? Would ancient seas still part with the tap of a stick, manna still fall from the skies, virgins still give birth to glorious babes, the dead still rise from their graves? Perhaps. And perhaps not. The only thing that is certain in my mind is that we would come away with a very different view of what really happened than the ones we have been spoon fed, through multitudes of middlemen, over the ages.

One of the reasons I think that ancient history would see some dramatic revisions if it could be revisited today, is because of how modern history has been made. In the last few hundred years numerous religious movements have emerged, gathered believers, and begun to shine like mighty suns in the eyes of their believers -- even though many of these new faiths, and founders, were far from divine. Indeed, while some of these movements were genuinely inspired, the success of many contemporary religious movements has had less to do with clear blue bolts of divine inspiration, and more to do with the passage of time, the glorification of real and imagined events, and gullible seekers who didn't do their homework.

All of these movements, even those that are outright fabrications, are, of course, meeting needs and feeding souls. The fact that so many people are drawn to them is evidence of this. But how truly inspired are they? How reliable are they as vehicles of human transformation? How can you and I discern which ones to hang our spiritual hats on?

One of the central purposes of NHNE is to help create a global network of spiritual seekers that can discern the true nature of spiritual claims, promises, predictions, practices, ideas, movements -- and make this information available to everyone in the world. While evaluating all aspects of human spirituality might seem like an impossible task, I believe it is only a matter of time before we have the resources we need to thoroughly scrutinize whatever claims and/or belief systems are put forth -- both past, and present. Beginning with a simple, no-holds-bared search for the truth, we will be able to find out if the stories and/or events that various religions base themselves on are true. Does a tribe of aboriginal metahumans really exist in the outback of Australia (as Marlo Morgan claimed in the early editions of her best-selling book, "Mutant Message"), or did Morgan make the whole story up (as she later confessed)? Did Joseph Smith, the Founder of MORMONISM, really transcribe The Book of Mormon, which claims to be "another testament of Jesus Christ," from gold plates given to him by "a glorified, resurrected being" named "Moroni," or did he concoct this new gospel himself? 1. Is SCIENTOLOGY, which is based on the belief that 75 million years ago there was a galactic confederation of more than 70 planets that solved their population problem by chaining people to volcanoes on Earth and blowing them up, a bona fide religion (as its faithful proclaim), or is it primarily a money-making machine concocted by a troubled science fiction writer (as TIME MAGAZINE, FORBES MAGAZINE, and numerous other sources claim)? 2.

When it comes to contemporary spiritual movements, we can answer these questions with little difficulty (if we really want to). And once we have answered them, we can document our answers for future generations, sparing them from falling into the spiritual sink holes some of us fell into.

Ancient spiritual movements are another matter. Aside from relying on current archeological research, modern scholarship, personal experiences and intuitions, we might have to wait a few more decades, or centuries, before ancient claims can be effectively evaluated. But someday, there will probably be ways that legendary cities can be reconstructed from fragmentary ruins, prehistoric bones can be transformed into flesh and blood, genetic material can provide detailed personality profiles, ancient conversations and events can be revisited by Star Trek-like manipulations of time and space. Even more likely, we will probably be able to see how various belief systems affect our minds, emotions, physical bodies, and relationships. And when that day comes, religion as we know it today will cease to exist. Holy books, and codes of human conduct will no longer be necessary because it will be clear to everyone what kind of thoughts, and beliefs, align us with the divine, producing peace, happiness and fulfillment, and what kind of thoughts and beliefs don't. In the meantime, good detective skills can help us determine the validity of most spiritual claims. And so can knowing a little bit about human nature and human history.

While most of humanity continues to cling, unquestioningly, to all kinds of dubious notions, religious and otherwise, a growing number of people are waking up and beginning to ask hard questions -- which brings me to the point of this article:

In 1936 an organization called "CONSUMER REPORTS" was created to test, compare, and evaluate new products that were beginning to flood the American marketplace. Now, 61 years later, CONSUMER REPORTS tests everything from cars, computers, and stereos to wine, fast food, and cocoa mixes. It has state-of-the-art laboratories, major offline and online publications (see "News Watch" for information about their new website), and a long history of blowing the whistle on dangerous, bogus, and sometimes potentially life-threatening products, as well as providing thoroughly researched recommendations as to which products consumers should buy, or avoid, and why. Our planet desperately needs an organization, composed of caring, open-minded, non-judgmental, objective, truth-loving spiritual seekers, that can tackle the volatile, ever-changing world of spirituality in the same way. NHNE is seeking to rise to that calling.

There are, of course, other organizations that are seriously investigating spiritual and paranormal claims. One of the most well-known is THE COMMITTEE FOR THE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION OF CLAIMS OF THE PARANORMAL (CSICOP), publishers of the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. Composed of both lay people and well-known scientists (like the late Carl Sagan), CSICOP has a global network of supporters, numerous affiliate centers in the United States and around the world, and growing contacts and influence in the mainstream media. Unfortunately, as the name of their flagship publication implies, CSICOP is an organization of "skeptics." Indeed, with close ties to secular humanism, they are not only skeptics, but they don't believe that God or other supernatural forces exist -- and they're putting their money where their beliefs are by doing everything possible to debunk every kind of far out claim, belief, and group they can.

Another organization that shared similar goals, but used cruder, less ethical tactics, was THE CULT AWARENESS NETWORK (CAN). Originally created to track, hound and hopefully sink various organizations that it considered to be cults, CAN eventually went out of business due to lawsuits filed by people its organizers helped kidnap and "deprogram." Ironically, CAN's trademark rights and stylized logo, ended up being sold to a SCIENTOLOGY-related law firm, which was CAN's most bitter enemy.

NHNE, of course, has no desire to go after anyone as CAN did, nor are we interested in debunking anything and everything that suggests there may be more to life than meets the eye as CSICOP does. Believing that we are spiritual beings pilgrimaging through a confused world, we want to separate lies, distortions, and guesses from the truth; once and for all, we want to know the true nature of our existence and God's plan for us, and our world.

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1. Joseph Smith & The Mormons
2. Scientology

The Vision of Twelve Stones
By David Sunfellow
Winter, 1995
Sedona, Arizona

There is blackness, everywhere. Nothing to see. Nothing to hear. Nothing to touch, or taste, or smell. There is only blackness and a silence so profound it cannot be described.

Suddenly, without warning, there is a tremendous explosion. Blinding light and deafening thunder shake the deepest recesses of darkness. Stars, moons, planets, stellar nebulae, solar systems, galaxies and universes all come whirling into existence.

As the universe gradually takes recognizable form, we see our solar system develop. We see our sun and planets. We see moons, asteroid belts, and comets. Then our planet fills our mind's eye. We watch it evolve through its many stages: Primal gases whirl around, volcanoes erupt, vast oceans of water form, land rises from the tumultuous seas -- and then begins to cool. Now, for the first time, life begins to form in the oceans and in the thick, gaseous air. Creatures come into being and begin their long journey to ever-increasing consciousness. We see the first one-celled creatures and watch them slowly transform themselves into new, more complex and aware creatures: plants, ferns and trees; fish, amphibians, and animals that can live on land, in the sea, and in the air. Ages pass and vast numbers of species come and go. Some disappear in the twinkling of an eye, the result of some global catastrophe, while others slowly evolve into other forms. Finally, after eons of growth, we see the Earth as she exists today. From the deep recesses of space we look at her and are stunned by her magnificent beauty. And we are also shaken by how fragile she seems floating all alone in the vast darkness of space.

Looking closer, our hearts begin to ache with a pain so deep we can scarcely bear it. Silently we cry out, "What has happened to our mother?!" Her once brilliant skies have become dull and toxic. Foul stenches rise from her tortured waters, lands, and skies. Holes form in the blue canopy she has clothed herself in, allowing the deadly rays of the sun to penetrate her inmost recesses and destroy the creatures she has so long protected, nurtured and loved. Tears come to our eyes. An unbearable sadness wells up within. We pause and solemnly reflect on how this could happen. And as we reflect, we begin to hear the faint beating of a drum. Like the sound of some primal heart beat, it calls to us and we are pulled down through the earth's atmosphere to the surface of the planet.

Silently we pass over shimmering oceans and lush continents; across vast deserts and sparkling glaciers; through forest-covered mountains; down wild rivers and dense life-filled jungles.

Then we pass through the places that man has touched: Through densely populated cities and sparsely populated towns; through seemingly endless places of deforestation, pollution, and man-made desolation. And as we do, we begin to see, hear, and feel hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, and other natural disasters -- all of which have been caused by man's abuse of the Earth.

And all the while the drum continues to beat and grow stronger, deeper, and more powerful. As we approach the origin of the drum, an ancient chant, made by a multitude of beings we cannot see, softly joins the drum. Day turns into night and the desolation of man is left behind. A panoramic view of starlit skies comes into view. One mountain range, dominated by jagged cliffs, draws our attention. On one seemingly inaccessible cliff we see a fire burning and notice two Native American figures -- an old Medicine Man and a young brave -- sitting silently around it. Slowly, we circle them and study their faces in the flickering darkness. Lost in some deep reverie, we realize they are watching the same vision we are watching.

We move closer. The deep wrinkles of a long life, well lived, cover the old man's face. He seems as old and strong as an ancient redwood and as full of life as a new sapling. Entranced by the power of his presence, we find it difficult to look away. Beside him, the young brave is equally captivating. A purity seems to emanate from him. Somehow we know he has a powerful dream buried deep in his heart -- a dream that he will someday find and fulfill.

Suddenly, the old man takes a deep breath and slowly opens his eyes. For a moment, he quietly stares at the young brave. And then he speaks.

"Did you see?"

The young brave opens his eyes. His face is flushed with deep concern and unsettled feelings. "Yes, Grandfather, I saw."

"What do you think it means?"

Painfully, the brave answers, "Our Earth Mother is dying!"

There is a long silence. The stars seem to call to us and for a moment we gaze off into the heavens and ponder what we have seen and heard. Then we turn back to the brave who seems somehow connected to us. Somehow we know he feels the same way we do and seeks the same answers.

"The earthquakes and volcanoes. The raging waters. The wars. The sick and starving people. The weather. The world is coming to an end isn't it, Grandfather?"

The face of the old man fills our mind once again. We watch as he patiently soaks up the young brave's tortured questions, but does not answer. Instead, he looks compassionately into the brave's questioning eyes.

"Grandfather, I have heard the old ones talking and I know the wise ones among our people are gathering in the sacred places. What am I to do? Where am I to go?"

"Before doing and going, you must understand."

"Understand what, Grandfather?"

"Why the Earth Mother suffers."

There is a long, thoughtful pause, while the brave studies the old man's face and patiently waits for him to explain.

"Put your hand upon the Earth Mother, my son."

Tenderly, the brave places both hands firmly against the earth. To him, she is a living being. He feels the life force pulsating through her immense body.

"Now listen. What do you hear?"

A few moments pass. He searches the Earth, and himself, for some sound. Startled, the brave looks deep into the old man's eyes. "I hear the sound of her heart beating! It is everywhere!"

"Yes. Now listen again, even more deeply."

Taking a deep breath, the brave closes his eyes again. Listening with all his might, he follows the sound of her heartbeat to another sound, which startles him even more. Again his eyes open in amazement. "I hear another heart beating! Whose heart is this?!"

"The Earth Mother is pregnant. The old world and old ways are dying. A new world, with new ways, is preparing to be born."

Puzzled, the brave searches himself for some kind of answer, but can find none. "What is this new way, Grandfather? How is it different from the old?"

The old man taps the ground with his medicine stick and blue sparks splash out in every direction. A cascading roar echoes through the mountains and valleys. Flying across the ground, up the trees, and leaping into the air, the blue sparks search for and find twelve smooth, polished, well-rounded stones. All twelve stones are then carried in the crackling current to where the old man and brave are sitting. The stones form a circle around the fire that is burning in the midst of the brave and old man, and the dancing, crackling energy softens to a quiet glow.

"Do you know what these twelve stones are, my son?"

"No, Grandfather."

"They are the Twelve Races, the Twelve Religions, the Twelve Paths, the Twelve Tribes of Man."

Pausing a moment to let his words sink in, the old man gazes into the fire. "Ages ago, the Great Spirit scattered them to the four winds. For eons now they have grown wise and strong, but they have not united. They have held to themselves, and their own ways, as they were intended to." The old man pauses again, and then looks deeply into the brave's eyes. "But now, my son, the time has finally come for them to unite and be as one; the time has finally come for one people, one nation, one path to arise among the many."

"This is the new world and new way that is being born?"

"Yes." The old man looks off into the starry sky. Then he turns back to the brave. "But it cannot be born alone. The Earth Mother, and these twelve stones, need help."

"What kind of help, Grandfather?"

"Someone to gather the stones together and help them learn the new way."

"Who will do this great thing, Grandfather?"

The old man looks back into the fire and answers, "Many will do this great thing." Then he looks kindly into the eyes of the brave. "And one of these many shall be you, my son."

"But I know nothing of gathering stones, Grandfather."

"You know more than you remember, my son. Reach out and touch the stones."

The brave does as he is told and as his hand approaches the stones the blue current explodes to life again. It flies back and forth forming a luminous stream between the brave and the stones. Soon all twelve stones are crackling with the blue current and the brave is shimmering from head to toe.

The old man smiles and asks the brave, "What do you feel?"

Astonished, the brave answers, "I feel the heart and know the way of each stone." Still shimmering with blue currents of electricity, the brave searches for a fuller answer, and then speaks again. "It is almost as if I have lived each one."

The old man smiles and nods, "Yes. You are one of many who have learned the path of each stone."

The brave removes his hand from the stones and the blue current dims to a glow again. "But, Grandfather, I am still a child. I do not know how to gather these stones together, nor do I know the new way you speak of."

"You will learn."

"How?"

"There is only one way." The old man pauses and gazes towards the edge of the cliff. "You must jump, my son."

"Jump? Off this cliff?!"

"Yes, my son. Throw yourself off this cliff into the arms of the Great Spirit Wind. It will carry you where you need to go and teach you how to gather and unite the Twelve Great Stones."

There is an uncomfortable silence as the Brave considers the old man's advice, and deeply searches himself for another, less literal meaning.

"If you wish to help the Earth Mother through her time of travail; if you wish to help a new world be born; if you wish to help all beings find greater happiness, there is no other way."

The young brave looks trustingly into the eyes of the old man. "If you say so, Grandfather, I will jump. I will leap into the arms of the Great Spirit Wind without hesitation. I will fly like an eagle!"

"No, my son, you will fall like a rock, and tumble like a wounded crow. You will be tossed and thrown about like a feather in a storm." As the brave's face begins to pale, the old Indian moves closer and puts his hand upon his shoulder. "No, no, do not let fear enter your heart. I will tell you a secret that will make you brave."

"What is that, Grandfather?"

"There is no bottom."

"No bottom?!"

"You will fall and be tossed about. You will be scratched and bruised. You will be thrown into storms and collide with things you know not of, but you will not die. No bottom will silence your quest. It is your destiny to fly!"

"I am glad to hear this, Grandfather." The brave pauses a moment to collect his thoughts. "But how long must I be tossed and blown about? How long will it take me to learn to fly?"

"Long enough."

As the old man answers, all twelve stones begin to hum. Their strange noise ignites the blue current which then carries them to the feet of the brave. The brave looks questioningly at the the old man.

"They will go with you. They will teach you about the Circle of Life and remind you of your purpose."

Then the wind begins to blow, the trees begin to sway, birds begin to circle overhead and a host of animals appear at the edge of the forest. The brave notices all these things and again turns to the old man for answers.

"Mother Earth, and all her creatures, will pray for you. They long for the world to be made whole -- and know their fate is in your hands."

Overhead, clouds begin to form and take the shape of old chiefs and wise people, ancient spirit guides and powerful Kachinas. The brave watches, spellbound.

"Wherever you go, they will be with you. They will share their wisdom and strength with you."

Marveling at all that has happened, the brave turns and looks gratefully into the eyes of the old man. "And you, Grandfather, you have given me these powerful visions and spoken to me of all things. I shall never forget this day."

"Words and visions are inspiring and instructive. Prayers are uplifting and protective. And nothing can withstand the power of the spirit brothers and Kachinas. But by themselves, none of these things are enough for this difficult journey."

Puzzled, the brave looks deeply into the old man's eyes. "What else is there, Grandfather? What else could I possibly need?"

The old man pauses a moment and then smiles. His love for the brave is almost too much for the brave to bear. "You need other beings, clothed in flesh and blood like yourself, to make the journey with you."

"And where shall I find these other beings?"

Quietly, the old man turns and gestures out beyond the cliff's edge. "They are out there, my son, tumbling through the air like wounded crows."

The young brave looks out beyond the cliff's edge and pauses. He lets the old man's words sink in. And then he answers, "Then I, too, will jump. I will join my spirit with theirs."

"You shall, indeed, my son. Together you, and yours, shall learn to fly. And all things will be drawn together in a joy unknown since the beginning of time."