The Gospel of Thomas and

Death-Transcendent EHEs

          Recently I came across some fascinating scholarly texts* about the Gospel of Thomas, written within the first century A.D.  I have great respect for the gifts of all faiths and so feel admittedly a bit awkward recommending this to others [and I do, most highly], having grown up within the Judeo-Christian structure of beliefs because I am not at the moment equally prepared to offer similar references sourced in other religious traditions.  This is such a touchy issue with its volatile and maligned hirstory, not to mention all that was done to destroy, distort, and cover up actual events of those early centuries, something that has been much clarified only quite recently.  

          What many people have yet to realize is that the research of particularly the last less-than two decades into that early apocalyptic era of the first few centuries, A.D., has almost completely rewritten our understanding of that time.  What scholars of many disciplines and faiths are learning today about those times and events is bound to rock traditional Christianity and Judaism to the core, and that is indeed happening.  Individuals and religious institutions are beginning to integrate this new knowledge in ways that are [surprise!] respiritualizing the lives of religious and nonreligious alike.  

          Seeing a mythic religious icon, Jesus the Christ, transformed into the  actual historic and unparalleled revolutionary he was is indeed like a "Second Coming" for Christians these fulsome two millennia later and every bit as impacting on many Jews as well. For example, here's where the rubber meets the road in terms of anti-Semitism of that era and place.  One of the greatest and non-partisan Dead Sea Scroll scholars, Robert Eisenman says, "One attitude, particularly important in determining the historicity of Gospel materials, is the strong current of anti-Semitism one encounters living just below the surface.  ... One can assert with a fair degree of confidence that while Messianic agitation in Palestine could be sectarian, it would not be anti-Jewish or opposed to the people of Palestine.  This would be a contradiction in terms.  ...[F]or a popular Messianic leader (speaking of James, and by extension, his brother Jesus, who were highly regarded within their Jewish community) to be against his own people would be prima facie impossible and, one can confidently assert, none ever was -- except retrospectively or through the miracle of art."  Slight digression here, but I hope a useful one.

          This contemporary research largely focuses on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi texts, discovered in 1947 and 1945 respectively, that have until quite recently been withheld from any public scrutiny.  After a protracted struggle, a global scholarly community has finally won open and collaborative access -- about the time of the destruction of the Berlin Wall.  Their enormous detective work is anything but disappointing and is in fact every bit as fresh, revelatory and thrilling now as it must have been then.  Through their still unfolding discoveries you can't help but see just how and why the unique revolutionary life of the one familiar to us as Jesus, as well as that of his brother James, had such volatile and positively life-changing impact on the people of that time.  It also becomes clear why their work, in light of our increasing clarity about them and their close contemporaries has managed to have such far-reaching influence up to the present times. 

          By the way, the falling away of foundational structures will not be because this and related texts say, no, Jesus did not exist, or somesuch.  This work is an extraordinary window into the life of one of the most revolutionary, charismatic and powerfully affecting people of our recorded history.  When you look at all the archaeological and sociological evidence, there is no doubt [at least in my mind!] this man lived and with a mission many will find not unfamiliar in the way of recognizable signposts.  

          But his mission was and is exactly that which comes through those who have had any of an abundant assortment of death-transcendent experiences [e.g., near-death experiences, mystical events, out-of-body experiences, cosmic consciousness experiences ..], because they, as Jesus, have seen directly and most profoundly into the ‘other world’, the larger-life reality, little or much as that may have been for each one.  If you are familiar with their overall message and their electrified passion about it, you will easily recognize Thomas’ Jesus.

        All the balderdash has nothing to do with the actual Jesus but rather with all the fractious interpretations of who and what people and religious interests have imagined, wanted, or believed him to be, short of having had such experiences themselves.   It would be very comfortable to bring this up if this person was anyone – literally anyone – other than the historical Jesus.  But for the moment, if you are in any way put off about examining this material because of who it is purported to be about, forget all that and LOOK at this book!  Take in the content without any association to who the writer says it is about.  Because, unless you are already familiar with the contents, you are going to be totally amazed.  

          Think of this man as one who was exquisitely conscious of what he called "the kingdom" within and all about us.  We today are more familiar with terms like "the other world," "the other side," the summerland," and the astral and/or causal dimensions.  One of my favorite contemporary descriptors is Kurt Leland's "otherwhere."   The Gospel of Thomas, by the way, is almost totally about Jesus' explanations about this kingdom -- this larger-life reality we are today wakening to in such incredible numbers through the grace of these death-transcendent spiritually transformative experiences.  The larger-life reality IS the kingdom!  The supercharged knowing and impeccable  truth-saying of Thomas' Jesus  in turn electrified many people with its power.  But few if any of those who knew him understood the fullness of what he was conveying, and the endless attempts to make sense of his spiritual legacy we see today.  But look how many, many people this one person who "knew" from direct experience, with his clearly spiritually incarnational / EHEerly life and charged mission, has so affected over the course of 2000 years!   

          The only thing that is going to stop the arguing -- the only thing -- is for people to have their own such experiences and conscious awareness of this larger-life reality, which, as the research makes clear, inevitably unifies people in their knowing.  The religious and other divisiveness falls away and is replaced by a spiritual inclusiveness that at the same time reverences the individuating process we experience in this physical 'particulative' existence together.

        My personal qualms stem from the way people from then to now have been so easily convinced through certain people’s beliefs and often loaded prejudices about this remarkable person and being, and so it’s extremely hard to meet on the same page so-to-speak about his life.  It helps to erase everything you thought you knew and simply allow yourself the pleasure of reading this material in order to discover this incredibly fascinating person, whoever he might be, and what he has to tell us. 

The GoT is considered by Western and Middle Eastern scholars of many disciplines to be one of the great archaeological finds of our time.  

          The very first lines make two things quite clear:  The person who said these things spoke directly out of the kinds of exceptional experiences we are living and exploring and being similarly transformed by today.  The second thing is, Thomas' Jesus is not the Jesus I grew up with from church.   To me, this has nothing to do with theology and everything to do with a kind of experience we all may share in.  Thomas's Jesus is an experiencer who tells us in no uncertain terms:  this and greater things shall ye do [also]. 

          Here are the first few lines of this extraordinary document, attributed to the ‘living Jesus’ by its author:  

 

1And he said:  "Whoever finds the correct interpretation of these sayings will never die."   2Jesus said:  "The seeker should not stop until he finds.  When he does find, he will be disturbed.  After having been disturbed, he will be astonished.  Then he will reign over everything.”

 

          With this quote in mind, think of someone you know or whose near-death experience you are familiar with [maybe it's yours, even].  One of my favorites is that of Howard Storm who was definitely not religiously or spiritually inclined, who had what was initially a very disturbing, hellish NDE.  He was totally confused and surprised that he was even alive, since he was supposed to be 'dead'.  He had believed all beings literally die, that we are these bodies and none other.  So, part of coming to terms with his 'dying' in the first place was the shock to be conscious at all and in this pitch dark place he found himself after the body ceased functioning.  He was frightened and frustrated in feeling at the mercy of this strange and uncomfortable situation.

          After what felt like an endlessly prolonged sense of being stuck in this dreadful state with others similarly confused and disturbed and in darkness, he sought and found help:  he thought to cry out to God or to the Christ.  As a consequence a tiny spark of a light soon appeared far off, but coming at him, a light that eventuated in his being met by this great light being who began to help him understand all that was happening to him and all that this 'new world' was about, which he clearly found most astonishing, given his original beliefs about death.     

          Through this process, including a life review, he had a total change of heart, for now he knew, directly from his conscious experience, a Great Truth he could not have imagined before.  Through the help he had asked for, he gained a more expansive knowledge in his other-dimensional sojourn.  In essence he acquired a whole new awareness of Life-writ-large, which gifted him with a new reign over and within his own life.  

          Last and first, referring back to the quote from the Gospel of Thomas, you could say this man 'found the correct interpretation' through his direct experience, such as the Jesus of Thomas' Gospel suggests:  He came to know through living, in spite of his body's temporary demise, that he / we can never 'die'.  

          Every death-transcendent spiritually transformative experience, each in its own unique way, re-enacts this timeless understanding and encouragement expressed in the GoT:

           Thomas' Jesus got that AHA and clarity in a BIG way, during a time when almost no one else did or at least they did not openly express this kind of knowing.  He really flaunted it, apparently, meaning, he lived openly out of this awareness as the unique revolutionary he was.  If it hadn't been for all those ingenious parables, he may not have been around long enough even to become an historic footnote to be remembered, passionately debated and adored these two millennia later!     

          Until very recently, within the last less than 20 years, people in the United States could be and were institutionalized for 'flaunting' or even admitting this kind of knowing.   One of my biofeedback clients in the early '90s totally repressed a powerful near-death experience from a few years before we met because of a fear of this sort.      

          If the historic Jesus did indeed comment out of his greater awareness that 'this and greater things shall ye do,' I fully believe we are together coming to terms with this promise in a big way as more and more of us from the world over are wakening to this higher and clearly Unifying, Humanizing consciousness.  One of the natural outcomes of death-transcendent EHEs is what would be considered supersensory abilities, such as being conduits of healing, seeing/knowing what is to happen in the future, talking with the so-called dead, coming back with talents and abilities not at all apparent before the experiences, and many other paranormal gifts.  We are living another round of the spiral, moving into this greater collective awareness, a "Consciousness rEvolution" like no other in our recorded hirstory.  What a joy to be witnesses in our time to this Event we are sharing and to also be privileged to be exposed to clarifying scholarship of materials like the Gospel of Thomas that so corroborate and further light our way to our growing collective recognition of exactly what Thomas' 'living Jesus' said 2000 years ago: