The Story of Jesus: An Intuitive Anthology

© Copyright 2012 William H. Kautz.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Cover photo credit: Arcibiskuptcí Olomoucké, Czech Republic

The author wishes to thank the several intuitives who worked with him at the Center for Applied Intuition from 1980 to 1993 to produce the library of intuitively derived information presented in this and other books and articles.

isbn: 978-1-4669-1808-5 (sc)

isbn: 978-1-4669-1809-2 (e)

Trafford rev. 03/30/2012

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Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

BOOK I

ANOTHER WAY OF KNOWING

THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT:

A WORLD READY FOR CHANGE

BOOK II

THE INTUITIVE GOSPEL OF JESUS

JESUS’ BIRTH AND INFANCY

EARLY YOUTH

THE LOST YEARS I—FIRST HEALINGS

LOST YEARS II: TRAVELS TO THE FAR EAST

JOHN THE BAPTIST

LOST YEARS III: TRAVELS AROUND

THE MEDITERRANEAN

FINAL PREPARATIONS: THE GATE OPENS

JESUS’ MINISTRY I

JESUS’ MINISTRY II

JESUS’ LAST DAYS

RESURRECTION

EPILOGUE

APPENDIX A

INTUITIVE SOURCES

I. EXPERT INTUITIVES

II. INTUITIVELY INSPIRED WRITERS

III. SIMILAR SOURCES NOT USED

APPENDIX B

REINCARNATION AND JESUS’ PAST LIVES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ENDNOTES

This book is sincerely dedicated to

Ivana

in recognition of her own search for what is real and true and what is not.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author gratefully acknowledges permission to utilize selected text under copyright from the owners of the following published materials:

[ACE]: Emmerich, Anne Catherine, Klemens Brentano (Rec.) & Carl. E. Schmöger (Ed.), The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations (Rockford, IL: Tan Books and Publishers, 1979, 1986; original by Desclée de Brouwer & Co., Paris; 1914); four volumes.  expired.

[ACIM]: Anon, A Course in Miracles (Tiburon, CA: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975).  1975 Foundation for Inner Peace.

[AG]: Dowling, Levi H., The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ (DeVorss & Co., 1972; orig. 1907).  1907 Eva S. Dowling.

[CWG-1]: Walsch, Neale Donald, Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Vol. 1 (Hampton-Roads/Putnam, 1995).  1995 Neale Donald Walsch.

[EB-1]: Rodegast, Pat & Judith Stanton, Emmanuel’s Book: A Manual for Living Comfortably in the Cosmos (New York: Bantam Books, 1985).  1985 Pat Rodegast.

[EC]: Edgar Cayce Readings, available through ARE Press, Virginia Beach VA. © 1971, 1993-2007 Edgar Cayce Foundation

[GC]: Cummins, Geraldine, The Childhood of Jesus (London: Psychic Book Club, 1937, 1972).  1937 Geraldine Cummins.

[GCM]: Cummins, Geraldine, The Manhood of Jesus, Part I (1949), Part II (undated) (London: Psychic Book Club).  nil.

[JCM]: Morgan, James Coyle, Jesus and Mastership: The Gospel According to Jesus of Nazareth (Tacoma, WA: Oakbridge Univ. Press, 1989).  1989 Audré Morgan.

[JR]: Roberts, Jane, [JR-BB]: The Individual and The Nature of Mass Events (Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall, 1982); [JR-EE]: The God of Jane: A Psychic Manifesto (Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall, 1984); [JR-GG]: Session #880 (unpublished, Sep. 19, 1979); [JR-JJ]: Personal sessions 4, Jan. 23, 1978); [JR-KK]:The Magical Approach (Sept 15, 1980); [JR-NPR]:The Nature of Personal Reality: A Seth Book (Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall, 1976); [JR-SS]: Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul (Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall, 1972b); [JR-W]: Session #746 (unpublished, May 7, 1975); [JR-X]: Session #748 (unpublished, June 2, 1975); [JR-Z]: Session #811 (Personal Sessions 4, Sep. 26, 1977); all  Laurel Davies-Butts.

[JS]: Saramago, José, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (Harcourt, Inc, 1994)  1994 Harcourt Brace.

[KG]: Gibran, Kahlil, Jesus, the Son of Man: His Words and His Deeds as Told and Recorded by Those who Knew Him (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1928).  1928 Kahlil Gibran, renewed 1956.

[KR]: Ryerson, Kevin, & Stephanie Harolde, Spirit Communication: The Soul’s Path (New York: Bantam Books, 1989).  1989 Kevin Ryerson & Stephanie Harolde.

[ML]: LaCroix, Mary, The Remnant (Virginia Beach, VA: ARE Press,1981).  1981 Mary LaCroix.

[MFM]: Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn, Messages from Michael (Berkley Books, 1979; Cælum Press, 2005).  1979 Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.

[NK]: Kazantzakis, N., The Last Temptation (Simon and Schuster, 1960; Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1961).  1960 Simon & Schuster.

[NM]: Mailer, Norman, The Gospel According to the Son (New York: Random House, 1997).  1997 Norman Mailer.

[NN]: Notovitch, Nicolas, J. H. Connelly & L. Landsberg, trs. The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ (orig. 1890; Quill Driver Books, 2004).  Quill Driver Books, 2004.

[RG]: Gilbert, Richard S., The Gospel According to Jesus, http://www.rochesterunitarian.org/1997-98/980412.html.

[SL]: Lewis, H. Spencer, The Mystical Life of Jesus (San Jose CA: Rosicrucian Press, 1929).  1937 AMORC.

[TC]: Caldwell, Taylor, & Jess Stearn, I, Judas (New York: Atheneum, 1977).  1977 Taylor Caldwell & Jess Stearn.

[UB]: Anon., The Urantia Book (Chicago: Urantia Foundation, 1955).  1955 The Urantia Foundation.

INTRODUCTION

For nearly two thousand years the Christian religion has taken root, expanded and inspired the development of not only Western civilization but much of the rest of the world as well. It has set the paradigm and the pattern of social evolution for man’s governments, laws, territorial expansion and cultural developments. It is difficult today to find an aspect of life that has not been influenced significantly by Christian principles, morals, values and practices. Even science can thank Christian religion for an opponent against which to push as it separated itself from the latter’s conservative, non-empirical and sometimes superstitious stance.

The man Jesus is often credited with being the founder of this religion, but this is ridiculous, for even the most doctrinal portions of the Bible make it clear that he had no use for organizations, priesthoods and dogma. He taught that each individual must find God within himself and through his own contemplations and actions, not externally. He offered a set of living principles for actualizing this personal pursuit. It is fair enough to say he was the trigger that started off the social revolution which became Christianity. But even from this perspective we know today enough about his teachings to appreciate that many of them were disregarded or modified by the early church and never restored, a consequence of its efforts to survive as a religious institution during the first three centuries, and later as a powerful political body. This loss occurred for perhaps good reason at the time, but the teachings were obscured nevertheless. Only Jesus’ moral values and a few notions such as brotherly love, devotion to God and forgiveness were retained in the theology that now typifies Christianity.

This heavy Christian editing of Jesus’ words in its early history suggests further that Jesus’ most valuable spiritual teachings were probably communicated only to his apostles, who unfortunately recorded almost nothing for posterity. We find only a little in later writings by various early scribes, though they had their own agendas for propagating the gospel as missionaries of a new religion. The core of Jesus’ teachings were lost and are now gone forever—unless we can find a way to recover them.

. . . . .

Many Christians today suspect that there must be more to Jesus’ teachings than the few moral directives and principles presented in the Gospels and later historical and Christian doctrinal writings. Indeed, the prevalent legend and myths of Christianity, for all their symbolic and metaphorical value, do not speak well to contemporary Western life with its special challenges to find meaning and individual identity within a highly materialistic society. Indeed, this society is advancing in many ways but is losing more basic human values with each successive generation. Yet the hints are all there, in the fragmented and incomplete record of Jesus’ life and teachings we have today, that he understood these underlying universal issues very well, and he spoke about them to his followers, at least to his apostles. How can we retrieve this crucially needed knowledge and understanding?

. . . . .

The search to uncover the lost and deeper teachings of Jesus has gone through several stages. Some of the early Christian mystics stepped beyond the theological frameworks of their times and explored, through their own minds and direct personal experience, what Jesus must have been talking about. These findings are hinted at in certain passages in the New Testament Gospels and surviving apocrypha. They come through a little better in certain later devotional writings (referred to below) from which the major theological elements have been removed.

A few courageous Biblical scholars in nineteenth century Germany began the task to distinguish the historical record of Jesus’ life and teachings from the larger theological context in which they were embedded.¹ This heretical endeavor gradually expanded, and after a theological hiatus moved to (mainly) U.S. universities.² It culminated recently in the Jesus Seminar, a body of about eighty modern religious scholars, who carefully retranslated the Gospels and completed the task of separating history from theology.¹

This was an admirable undertaking, though the effort to ground the Jesus story in historical reality has left us with only a thin skein of historical support on which to try to reconstruct the original Jesus. The Gospels’ main story is preserved well enough as events, though many of the traditional ones had to be excluded; namely, Jesus’ miraculous conception and birth in a Bethlehem stable, many of the miracles, his resurrection and after-death appearances, etc.—all were found to be lacking a factual basis. This does not mean that they did not occur, of course, but only that they are not historically supported and cannot rightly be proclaimed authoritatively from the pulpit as the gospel truth, at least according to modern ecclesiastical standards. Within the Christian tradition they constitute only a vague set of possibilities and probabilities, always in question.

. . . . .

It is clear now that we will never learn about Jesus’ daily life, original spiritual teachings and answers to the fundamental questions of human existence from Biblical sources alone, and not even if we include first-century Judaic studies and some surviving Gnostic texts discovered during the last century. Another way of knowing must be employed to access the truth. We must find a means of generating knowledge that does not depend so heavily upon man’s rational faculty and his passion for accumulated evidence, formal documentation and proof. These are very useful when searching for certainty but are not sufficient in themselves when the crucial data are missing, and when no historical substitute is at hand for replacing them.

The modern scientific age in which we live today has impressed upon all of us an underlying belief that the truth of any matter is to be found through critical analysis and rational thinking. It is only too easy to forget that our ancestors had no such expectation or criteria of validity. Our predecessors relied upon more internal, non-rational ways of knowing as their main means for understanding the world in which they lived. The did this long before modern science arrived on the scene.

Science’s contributions to common knowledge and our present way of life, beginning in the seventeenth century, are impressive indeed, but they pertain almost entirely to the material world of matter, energy, space and time, not to the human being inhabiting this world. Accumulated scientific knowledge on non-material matters is weak indeed. If science is ever to encompass these human-related areas then it must be supplemented with means of access to the deeper knowing obtainable through contemplative, intuitive and even mystical approaches. It is not presently capable of doing so because it is constrained by a set of root assumptions about the nature of the real world. These assumptions are not satisfied by intuitive, arrational, non-sensual, subjective and experiential approaches, nor by several recent discoveries in physics and biology, two of science’s strongest branches. Not only are science’s assumptions limiting but they are to a large extent incorrect as representations of reality.²

In the Western world inner modes of knowing have by now been almost totally eclipsed by the rise of science. Our society has sunk into a heavy reliance upon scientific values and methods and the associated societal paradigm, or world-view and way of thinking. We have become slaves to the limited, materialistic model of the real world and its ever-growing disregard of human values.

. . . . .

Exploration of the intuitive and mystical alternative is fundamental to resolving the greatest mysteries of our existence. We are deeply compelled to learn: Where did I come from? What am I doing here, trying to live a life? Where am I going? Will I continue to exist after my death? What is the point of it all? Why is there so much suffering and apparent injustice in the world, and why isn’t God doing something about it? These basic questions sit quietly in the back of our minds as unknowns, sometimes taken to be unknowable, yet our most important daily decisions, life choices and actions depend crucially upon the answers.

These questions are faced by every human being at some level of his awareness. If human history is any indication at all it is telling us that we cannot continue to neglect them, and must find another, perhaps less visible and less acknowledged, realm of knowing and being. This is indeed the realm lying behind and beyond our sensual and rational faculties and materialistic values. We must turn inward for the answers we seek. Moreover, these answers include the deeper, lost and obscured teachings of the man Jesus who, we know now, addressed these basic issues head-on.

Some of the great wisdom teachers who have arisen out of devotional Christianity during the past two millennia claim they have found answers to these fundamental questions in Jesus’ deeper teachings.³ They generally agree on their content. Unfortunately, their explanations are phrased in the language of their times and are hard for us to understand today. They are usually abstract, unspecific, incomplete and not very applicable to modern life without considerable interpretation and a selective filling-in of the gaps.

But we may take a clue for a fresh approach from these early saints, prophets, visionaries and mystics. They all relied upon their intuition, that inner-knowing capacity of the human mind that allows access to new information and knowledge directly, without recourse to reasoning, bodily senses (words, pictures and other sensory experience) and ordinary memory. This universal mental faculty, strange to us nowadays, was man’s prevalent means for gathering knowledge about his world before the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century.

Intuition used to be highly respected and trusted, not a questionable new-age phenomenon or the exclusive provenance of psychics and astrologers (and perhaps women!), as it has become today. Intuition was an accepted way of knowing.

. . . . .

In this book we will be relying upon the twentieth century rediscovery of intuitive practice to obtain new and revealing information on Jesus’ life and teachings. It will enable us to fill in the large gap left over from traditional sources. We know now it is not necessary to struggle so hard and suffer such anguish as did the mystical explorers in their day. Intuitive inquiry, essentially a kind of formalized, modern-day mysticism, is a universal gift. Everyone has the ability to develop and use it for his and others’ benefit. And it is not all that hard to do so.

Is intuitive information trustworthy? Studies in parapsychology, transpersonal psychology and remote viewing, in conjunction with various practical experiments in intuitive inquiry, have established conclusively that accurate, reliable information can be accessed with the help of skilled intuitive individuals, called here expert intuitives for lack of a better term. The information they provide is not limited to what is already known but may be that not yet discovered or known to anyone alive. It may be highly specific and technical, totally lost historical knowledge, secret information only in certain people’s minds, complex knowledge about how things or processes work and the predictable portions of future events. The full breadth and depth of intuitively accessible knowledge is not known but it appears to be unlimited and subject only to the motives and receptivity of the one who wants it, the skill of the intuitive who retrieves it and possibly some ethical constraints regarding its subsequent application.

. . . . .

There is naturally a question of the extent to which one should accept and believe the intuitives’ accounts offered in this anthology, particularly since they often contradict the familiar Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life, the scholars’ conclusions and occasionally one another. It must be understood from the start that these variations and contradictions in the intuitive reports are not errors but are a built-in feature of intuitive information in general. Their role is similar to the varying historical fiction accounts published about a particular person or period of history. The writer rounds out the original, incomplete and typically ambiguous historical record with additional fictitious persons, events and details in order to make the result seem more full, realistic and appealing. It then serves as a suitable vehicle for the more sensitive and subtle, and less factual and objective, content contained within it. In this fashion the author is able to bring out underlying qualities and a sublime message not possible in a purely historical report.

This present story of Jesus life and teachings is similar. My purpose in presenting it is not to supply factual, authoritative and proven information about the man, such as a religious scholar or scientist would do and we would all like to obtain, but rather to offer a rich and inspiring narrative possessing various credible options that can be a carrier for his deeper teachings. As you read this new biography of his life you will be free to use these options to help resolve for yourself the uncertainties, omissions and contradictions in the traditional Jesus story. You will do this in large part through your own inner knowing, your own intuition. You will be utilizing this process to access the deeper spiritual messages being carried by the story. These will add depth and fresh perspective to your on-going contemplative search and your inner understanding.

The ambiguities and contradictions in the narrative account of the events in Jesus’ life are fairly obvious, but they are almost completely absent from the descriptions of his teachings. This is probably because the latter form a self-consistent whole and are not as controversial as are the event data provided by early reporters and historians and by the intuitives here. I suggest this image: that you regard the teachings as a precious essence being carried on top of the event-related and fragmented information beneath it, like the lessons in Jesus’ parables relative to the parable stories themselves, and like valuable goods being carried to market in a old cart.

As you read this story I also encourage you to question your beliefs. You may do so by regarding the intuitive descriptions in this anthology as viable alternatives to whatever beliefs you are bringing to the table. These descriptions are not to be taken as commandments, of course, nor are they appeals that you accept them as facts from a source which you may assume to be authoritative. Rather, you are asked to use them as a starting point and platform for your own thinking, your own inner search, so you may better uncover your own personal truth through them. More will be said in Chapter 1 about this process of belief updating.

. . . . .

The chapter following this Introduction explains the nature of intuition and the process of intuitive inquiry more fully, including the role of expert intuitives, various prior efforts at validating the accuracy of intuitive information obtained through them, and the role of personal beliefs when interpreting and utilizing intuitive information. Chapter 2 describes the political and cultural context of first-century Palestine—the locale of the story, the social forces involved and Judaic background—all suitably rounded out with new intuitive input. Chapters 3 to 13 present the promised intuitive version of the entire Jesus story as a biographic narrative account, woven together from a multitude of threads. It draws upon a dozen expert intuitive sources, with lesser contributions from a few inspired writers to add perspective and continuity and fill in residual gaps. The text is interpolated with non-intuitive comments by this author to help clarify complex or controversial issues and to point out Jesus’ teachings when these tend to be obscured by the drama.

. . . . .

This book arose incidentally as a byproduct of a much larger series of intuitive inquiries at the Center for Applied Intuition (CAI) in the 1980s. In the course of generating totally new information in science, history, the social sciences and practical fields, several fascinating examples of intuitive accounts on the life of Jesus and his teachings emerged from literature being consulted. CAI’s staff of expert intuitives offered further contributions of their own. While this material did not fit into on-going CAI studies at the time it seemed too valuable to neglect, so it was saved for possible use later. Only in 2005 did an opportunity arise to synthesize it into the present anthology.

Examples from the twelve intuitive sources relied upon for The Story of Jesus vary considerably in their depth of detail, mode of generating intuitive information, historical authenticity, spiritual orientation, personal appeal and overall credibility. Some are touching and moving in their pathos, while others appear more factual and biographical. (A few are evangelical!) Still, the collective picture they present is broadly coherent and rich in possible interpretations for personal study. Taken together they are well suited to providing you with inspiration and options for understanding the messages of Jesus‘life and the opportunities for your own belief change.

. . . . .

These twelve intuitives and the eight other intuitively inspired sources are identified in the text simply by bracketed initials such as [XX] so as not to divert attention from the primary narrative. All twenty and a few others are described more fully in Appendix A and referenced in the Bibliography.

A prior CAI book, A New Jesus: Rediscovering his Deeper Teachings through Intuitive Inquiry, parallels the present publication but utilizes just a single contemporary expert intuitive [KR] instead of twelve from the twentieth century and earlier. While its narrative is less complete it emphasizes Jesus’ teachings more strongly than the events in his life and is therefore a fitting companion to the present anthology. An earlier book, Opening the Inner Eye: Explorations on the Practical Application of Intuition in Daily Life and Work, describes CAI’s research on the intuitive process and a dozen applications of intuition in science, history, medicine, history and other fields.

. . . . .

In the text to follow questionable, unknown and filled-in words and interpolated references are inserted in brackets [. . .]. Paragraph and long sentences in text taken from recorded speech have occasionally been broken and punctuation added. Footnotes have been included throughout for cross-referencing and explaining possibly unfamiliar concepts and terminology. References to Biblical, historical and other supportive sources are cited in the Notes and Bibliography.

I use the term Jesus in these pages rather than the common designation Jesus Christ as a reminder of his humanity, relative to his much argued divinity as a god walking on earth, and to distinguish his personal name Jesus or Jeshua from his assigned title, the Christ. (Many Christians do not know that the term Christ is simply the Greek word for Messiah.) The name Jesus the Christ might be better, though this designation carries an unfortunate apocalyptic connotation. And Christ is certainly not Jesus’ family surname, as some folks choose to use it.

I employ the term God here only broadly to designate an omniscient, ubiquitous and all-compassionate presence and omnipotent creative force, without any supernatural personalization or particular religious or secular definition. (The contributors to the anthology have their own interpretations of God.) Sometimes I defer to the frequent and fairly neutral expression the Deity or divine to signify this presence. Each reader is free to retain his personal concept of God, even as a definition he then chooses to reject.

Finally, the pronouns he, him and his as well as man and one are intended to embrace both male and female genders except where particular males are indicated. God is assumed to be genderless but is called He by convention.

BOOK I

CHAPTER 1

ANOTHER WAY OF KNOWING

³

"Throughout history, human beings have had the experience of knowing more than what was given them by their senses… The existence of such a channel, operating outside the intellect and sensory pathways, seems impossible to Western science, because there is no place in its cosmology or psychology for any means of knowing other than rationality or sensation. We cannot imagine any other process at work… We have not been motivated to challenge scientific rationalism or to look for other avenues of knowledge. After all, what else is there? The answer to that question is intuition." [Arthur Deikman⁴]

We discovered in the Introduction above that a number of Christian saints, prophets, sages and mystics sought and found deep revelational knowledge within their devotional searches. These singular individuals were able to attain an unusually deep understanding of the origin, purpose and meaning of human life. Some claim to have won a measure of personal transcendence as well. The accounts of their discoveries contain valuable insights about Jesus’ teachings, well beyond the Christian religious tradition.

To be sure, their experiences were often highly personal and their explanations bordered on the ineffable as they tried to express, in words not able to hold them, what they discovered in these deeper realms of their minds. Nevertheless, their insights offer valuable testimony today to the spiritual wisdom that lies in the awkward religious package through which they were forced to seek their understanding, and in the core of human consciousness.

The same story is repeated in spiritual writings from other religions and cultures of the world. The best of them parallel the Christian experience and compare well with it. This body of illuminating literature is still accessible today in books and on the internet for those who wish to explore it.⁵

The Nature of Intuition

How did these prophets and others achieve such an exceptional state of comprehension and high state of consciousness? Their approaches varied but we know now that they were all early examples of the use of an innate and universal human mental capacity for obtaining hidden knowledge and understanding. Some opening and cleansing of the mind is normally necessary but the heart of the opening lies in an age-old mind process for acquiring knowledge and insight directly, by bypassing ordinary thought, religious practice, reasoning, ritual prayer, physical hardship, personal sacrifice and other hurdles. This human ability to acquire knowledge directly, apart from reasoning, sense perception and ordinary memory, is called intuition. Moreover we now know that to open oneself to intuitive knowing is not all that difficult.

Since the concept of intuition, along with the intuitive mind-process (how it works) and its applications, are not well known, and in fact have often been distorted in past publications, it will serve us well here to spend some time in learning more about it. We need especially to discover how to work with information received from a skilled intuitive in order to gain new personal understanding about Jesus’ life and his teachings—and, for that matter, new understanding on any knowledge-based subject worthy of serious inquiry.

Intuition over the Ages

Intuition was known even in ancient Grecian times, when it was called nous (later gnosis), a term which referred to innate or direct knowing as distinct from knowledge acquired through observation and rational thinking. Intuition has been prevalent and practiced throughout the world and through most of history as the most familiar and accepted way to know things. Starting with the surge of intellectual thought in the 17th century, however, it gradually fell into near obscurity in the civilized Western world; science took over as the preferred alternative for generating new knowledge, at least about material matters.

The active practice of intuition is still alive today in small cultures which escaped modern civilization, and among a minority of Westerners who chose to recover their lost intuitive skill. Even though intuition is not much acknowledged today we all practice it—usually weakly, inadvertently and unconsciously—as an invisible part of what we consider to be ordinary thought.⁶ Intuition is an essential partner to intellectual activity and a major factor in the small and large decisions we all make as we live our daily lives, and experience and interpret the consequences of these decisions. We may believe we make these decisions through reasoning and sensing alone but this is impossible: human reason alone is not that powerful.

Intuition is also the mental faculty responsible for occasional insights into our deeper nature and the greater order of things. This includes personal knowledge about our closest relationships, how our bodies, minds and hearts function, the complex tribulations of our societies and the particular concept of God each person fashions for himself (to accept or reject).

In fact each person’s intuition is his personal communication link with the deeper realm of his own being, his unconscious mind, wherein lies the spiritual center where he recognizes (normally only sporadically) his origin, his true identity and his unity with the greater Reality of which he is a part. This inner realm of being is not a modern idea but has been known to the world’s wisest teachers throughout human history. Intuition gives each individual direct access to this core Self, thus to his personal truth and all world truths.

Intuition at Work

"Of all the hard facts of science, I know of none more solid and fundamental than the fact that if you inhibit thought, and persevere,

you come at length to a region of consciousness below or behind thought… and a realization of an altogether vaster self than that to which we are accustomed… So great, so splendid is this experience that it may be said that all minor questions and doubts fall away in face of it." [Edward Carpenter]

While everyone possesses intuition as a given capacity, only a few choose to develop it into a workable skill and apply it deliberately to assist themselves and others. The collective experience of these expert intuitives demonstrates clearly that they are able to provide totally new knowledge on almost any topic and to a depth that appears to be limited only by the inquirer and a few ethical considerations.⁷

These expert intuitives will be our means of choice for obtaining the supplemental information we seek about Jesus and his teachings, and especially the portions not readily accessible by more familiar means. Of course, there is much more to intuition than inquiries for specific information, for it is also a resource for achieving profound understanding that cannot necessarily be packaged neatly into words.

Intuitive knowledge transcends the limitations of ordinary language and thought. We cannot always justify intuitive information with reasons and arguments, nor do we need to as individuals; we just know it, just as we know that dogs exist, our children love us and the sun rises in the East. The most profound inner experiences and insights by the world’s most inspired seekers can be credited to this opening of the intuitive gate, so that deeper knowledge could be attained. It was not proven to them, and it was not a matter of belief; they just knew it when they reached it. In religious terms intuition is one of the meanings of the term faith, in the sense of certain knowing.

When intuitive information is received by expert intuitives it comes to them mainly through their feelings (though most feelings are not intuitive at all). The practice of intuition may be recognized as the underlying non-rational process in the best meditation, solitary prayer, inner attunement and dreams, also some psychic experiences and revelations and the serendipitous insights that may accompany both crisis and ecstasy. Besides the prophets and mystics, many renowned artists, philosophers, businessmen and scientists acknowledge intuition for their best discoveries and ideas. In these cases the insights typically burst suddenly into consciousness without prior thought, sensual input or stimulation of memory—truly direct knowing.

Intuitive insights need not occur only spontaneously, however. They may arise intentionally by establishing a receptive state of mind, removing the blocks to reception and asking the right questions. Intuitive skill is readily learnable by anyone who has a serious intention to do so. A small amount of training and usually some emotional clearing are all that are needed to awaken your natural intuitive faculty, then bring it under conscious control and focus it with intention on whatever you wish to know. This is exactly what expert intuitives have learned to do.

This strong claim on the power of intuitive inquiry for acquiring new knowledge has been demonstrated many times over for a wide variety of topics, inquirers and conditions of inquiry.⁸ The specific information expert intuitives have brought forth has been used constructively for their own purposes, to assist other persons, in support of group projects and for the greater human welfare. When scientific or other means of validation have been at hand, and new intuitively derived information was sufficiently specific to be tested, it has been consistently verified to be accurate. There appear to be few limits on the kinds of information one may obtain by intuitive inquiry.⁹

Intuition and Belief

"Unless there is a gigantic conspiracy involving… highly

respected scientists in various fields,. . . the only conclusion the unbiased observer can come to must be that there are people who obtain knowledge existing in other people’s minds, or in the outer world, by means yet unknown to science." [H. J. Eysenck]

Before you can internally accept any new information, intuitive or another, you must integrate it into your personal base of pre-existing knowledge and life experience. Your unconscious mind does this very well, for it is continually comparing new fragments of information and experience against everything you already know, checking for consistency. Your conscious mind also plays a role here because it must give permission for corrections to be made whenever contradictions are encountered. These discrepancies float to the surface of consciousness and challenge your existing beliefs. When your conscious mind is unwilling or unable to reconcile the new with the old, intellectual and/or emotional conflict results, demanding conscious resolution.

A common consequence of receiving new information, especially intuitive information, is therefore to force you to examine your beliefs, for the most part consciously, and then choose what is valid and acceptable and what you prefer to reject. This choosing is the primary role for intuitive information, and the main reason why such information is often rejected out of hand.

The majority of the core beliefs people carry with them are acquired early in life and typically reside outside of ordinary awareness. They are regarded as a fixed part of the personality, if they are regarded at all, and appear to be not a choice but a necessity for personal well being and security. They reside mainly in the subconscious mind, and as we all know they tend to solidify there, become difficult to recognize and remain unresolved, They strongly influence behavior, and most persons choose to defend them in argument and dissent. Since they differ from genuine, accurate knowledge about the real world, they are responsible for much human misery, as is obvious from the long history of human conflicts that arose out of very unreal beliefs.

It is certainly better to have some beliefs rather than none, of course. You adopt and continually revise your beliefs as you mature, but you are probably not aware of some of your oldest beliefs because they stay unchallenged for years until a contradiction brings them to light. For example, people can survive for decades believing that their death is the end of their existence, or that they are entirely the product of their parents’ genes, or that Jews cannot be trusted; or at the extreme, that they are justified in killing others who do not honor their God. Such contradictory beliefs can produce great suffering before they are changed.

Beliefs can be upgraded to fit the world into which one has matured by first recognizing them—bringing them into awareness. Religious beliefs are often the hardest to detect in oneself because they were adopted so easily and naïvely at a young age from parents, teachers and one’s culture. They can lie quietly and undisturbed within the subconscious mind for decades, or one’s entire life, typically assumed to be not beliefs but incontrovertible fact. Once identified and confronted, however, religious beliefs are easier to upgrade into genuine knowledge because the contradictions with reality are so blatant. Once recognized, the holder is then strongly compelled to change them.

Beliefs and Knowledge

"You are finding out who you are. You are altering the beliefs that brought you into this world. But it is you who have brought them in, who created them [out of the raw material provided], and it is you who are learning to correct them." [EB]

It is important here to distinguish between beliefs and genuine knowledge. We do not believe in trees or electricity or the love from our parents—we know these things exist and they are real to us—but we might believe in the gold standard, UFOs, the virgin birth, that the number thirteen is unlucky or that Muslims are evil. Beliefs play the role in the mind of tentative, temporary and candidate knowledge. We hold them conditionally and under consideration for later acceptance, but still doubted and uncertain. They await upgrading—deeper insight, reflection, testing from further experience—before we are willing to correct and integrate them into our personal knowledge base. Yes, beliefs lead to knowledge, at which point they are no longer tentative and do not need to be tested, explained, argued for or defended. They are no longer beliefs, for you simply know.

When the eminent psychologist Carl Gustav Jung was asked if he believed in God, he replied, "I don’t need to. I know God."¹⁰ His answer reminds us that we are always capable of identifying our erroneous beliefs and upgrading them into knowledge. Appropriate to this present book, we may come to know God for ourselves, for example.

Genuine knowledge is inherently valid, permanent, supportive and never a real danger. It is as close to truth as is humanly possible at any point in your growth. Most of your knowledge is so familiar that you do not need to question or examine it, so it may be as unconscious as your beliefs. Beliefs, on the other hand, while also familiar, are always a bit of a threat. They are always subject to change, they compel you to defend them and they entail a fear that you will be misled. They are always a compromise with the truth.¹¹

While beliefs are powerful they fall under your conscious control as soon as you become aware of them. After all, they are not imposed upon you; you created them and you can change them as soon as you choose to do so. As your beliefs grow into knowledge, your attitudes and behavior cannot help but change for the better, because your behavior now is a response to the real world rather than a reaction to the random workings of your mind.

Beliefs also affect clear intuitive reception because they can easily contradict, modify or block newly received intuitive information. To be a competent intuitive you must first convert potentially interfering beliefs into knowledge—or at least leave the relevant matters in an acknowledged and innocent ignorance. It is this cleared state of mind that characterizes expertness.

Accessing Intuitive Information

I did not arrive at my understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe through my rational mind… Invention occurs as a constructive act… The really valuable factor is intuition. [Albert Einstein¹²]

As mentioned in the Introduction we utilize in this book the abilities of several intuitives for our inquiry into Jesus’ life and teachings.

These intuitives do not possess the information they provide, like an encyclopedia or a scholar who has accumulated a life-full of it. Rather, they are vehicles or channels who transmit the new information from a higher source of knowledge outside of their acquired experience and personal memory.

What is this mysterious reservoir of knowledge? Every major religion and philosophic system has a name for it: God’s Book of Remembrance, the Akashic Records, the Book of Life, the superconscious mind, the collective unconscious and others. It is not known in scientific or psychological terms what this huge knowledge base is nor exactly how it works. There is no doubt that it exists and can be accessed, however, for centuries of intuitive experience testify to it. In present times this evidence includes hundreds of modern expert intuitives who have demonstrated their ability to tap into this rich source for knowledge of all kinds. The information they provide can be very broad in content, cover many fields and given to profound depths and in great detail. It can extend into the remote past and the far future (to the extent that the future is predictable), and it need not be known beforehand or by any living person. These intuitives have shown conclusively that the information they provide is consonant with the highest human values and concerns. There is abundant evidence for this strong claim.¹³

Most expert intuitives access this huge reservoir of knowledge by setting aside their thinking minds and relaxing into a quiet and receptive meditative state suitable for intuitive inquiry. Some enter a partial or full trance, though this is a personal preference not inherent to competent intuitive reception. The intuitive then posits his own questions, or accepts questions posited to him, and either writes down or recites the answers. If he is in a trance he may use terminology and concepts for which they have no conscious familiarity, and afterwards he has normally little or no memory of what transpired while he was not conscious.

The information provided by expert intuitives who work