Jan. 14, 2000
Austin, Texas, USA

6:02pm. I’m typing at the coffee table in Samantha’s apartment. I’m determined to get this journal online so I can be out of here in two weeks. I’m going to leave ready or not.

Sam gave me a book King of Travelers - Jesus’ Lost Years in India, written by Edward T. Martin. Last night, she shared a few passages from it that she found interesting:

"This is an unusual book. Part of the focus of this book is about the missing 18 years in the life of Jesus Christ, or, as I believe, he was actually called Jmmanuel. The missing 18 years are from the age of 12 until the age of 30, when he began his ministry. I have reason to believe that most of the 18 years were spent as a student and teacher in India, Nepal, Tibet, Iran, and Egypt."

"A second part of the focus of this book is about the intriguing possibility that Jesus did not die on the cross, that he was in a state of near-death, and later recovered. And that he later returned to India, married, and lived a long life. And was buried there. At first I completely rejected even the possibility that such a thing could have happened. Because I did not want to believe it, despite the evidence I was finding. It was more comfortable, back then, for me to cling to what I had been taught as a child, even if I sensed it was false. I later learned about a most remarkable book, "The Talmud of Jmmanuel," which sheds an entirely new light on the subject of Jesus in India."

"Many people overlook a very important historical point: Jewish boys and girls of that time were normally expected to get married at the age of 12 or 13 years. That was a powerful social and cultural part of expected, proper behavior. The expectation was even stronger for a very intelligent, good-looking, healthy boy from a decent family."

"They say that Jmmanuel was a human being like you and I. He was very spiritually advanced and possessed great knowledge and wisdom. He was thus able to perform what we call "miracles." He did not wish to be worshiped or treated as a God. He was not paddling salvation, scaring people with hellfire, or demanding money. He did want people to listen to his teachings about creation and its laws. He wanted people to think for themselves, to use logic and reason, and to seek knowledge and wisdom. He wanted people to learn from their mistakes and grow spiritually. He wanted people to get in touch with their eternal souls which are omnipotent. Jmmanuel wanted to be an example for people."

"When we make Jesus the Son of God, we immediately set him up to be worshiped as God. Of course, this means we put Jesus on a very, very high pedestal. Which means, his value as am example is largely destroyed. In other words, when people exalt Jesus to God-status, his human being status becomes confusing for a lot of people. Many people say something like: "Jesus could forgive and do so and so because he is the Son of God, but I’m and ordinary human so you can’t expect me to forgive or behave like Jesus."

To be fair to Ed, who no doubt wishes to sell his books, I won’t give away further details.

Ed referenced the following books :

The Second Life of Jesus Christ, by Nelson T. Bruknaer
Christ in Kashmir, by Aziz Kashmiri
Jesus lived in India, by Holger Kersten

Ed’s book also mentions UFOs and Eduard Albert "Billy" Meier, "a man in rural Switzerland, who has been meeting with human beings from the Pleiades, a cluster of stars almost 500 light years away." This morning, Samantha was surfing Billy Meier’s web site: http://www.figu.ch/. She read me a few things that sounded pretty far out.

Enough writing. Time to transcribe.

6:58pm. "I like his songs and the way Elvis does his stuff," Jack answered why he is watching Blue Hawaii for the fifth time in two days. Samantha said she used to watch it as a child to "escape" dreary, grey Kokomo, Indiana.