I bought this book thinking it was a historical book based on the timeframe that Jesus grew up in...was I ever wrong. This book goes by another name "The Occult Life of Jesus of Nazareth." This book claims to be a reprint from 1899 where the author Alexander Smyth used a Medium to contact the spirits of Saul of Tarsus (Paul) and Judas. The spirits told the "true" story of the life of Jesus as well as their participation in the rise and downfall of him. For a Christian this book is straight Blasphemy. Jesus was a normal man who might have some type of minor healing power. Saul was a schemer who saw Jesus as an object to gain his popularity and wealth based on a new religious movement. And Judas was a knowing confidant of Saul who set up the "miracles", created the fervor that made people believe that Jesus was the Messiah and helped with the arrest and Crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus preached that the God worshipped by the Jews (Jehovah) is a false God, a figment of the tyrannical imagination of Moses. The true God lived in the center of the Universe. The book flows along with the New testament but changes everything completely around. The book is written for the UNARIUS Brotherhood (Universal Articulate Interdimensional Understanding of Science). They are a UFO cult/religion based in El Cajon CA, not to be confused with the sect that committed mass suicide in 1997 called Heaven's gate. Also in the back third of the book is a supposed Essene document translated to English called "The Crucifixion and The Resurrection/Resuscitation of Jesus by an Eye-Witness". This part tells how Jesus joined the Essenes in his youth. The doctrine that he preached was based on the Essene beliefs (which kind of goes against the first part of the book.) The Essenes noticed that Jesus was alive but fainted on the cross, was able to get him down and revived while protecting him to make everyone think he died. I personally do not like the book but I was able to make my way through it. I made it seem, in my mind, like it was an alternate universe version of Jesus, otherwise I would have thrown the book away after the first 10 pages.

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