Thomas II

So what we see here is SYMBOLISM...and if properly understood it has great value. As an introduction of what is yet to come cause I inted to get into these symbols even more as we go along, here is an introduction to this aspect of the puzzle we are ALL putting together:
http://www.gianfrancobertagni.it/mat...de/remarks.htm

Regarding the "actual" going up in the sky this is my humble opinion...
"Jesus" was an expert magician...Oh,common,don't tell me that the water into wine was not a magic act!! He could have learned to be a very good "mentalist"...He manipulated either a material object,like water,and make everyone believe that it was wine,and good one at that...or he could have transmuted water into wine...Wasn't Moses a magician too? And Salomon? Jesus could have learned these arts sooner that I am ready to believe other "accepted" alternative. The key word here is MANIPULATION.
I am not saying that he was a con artist, I am saying that Jesus could have learned occult arts, and obviously practiced them at home because mary knew about it and it was she who actually pushed him to do it...
"Common,make them believe that they are drinking wine, and make it be THE best one ever...Common,dear,just like you did at home the other day..."
Jesus answering with a grumble "Oh,mom...do I have to?...(sigh)"
And Mary to the helpers "Do what he tells you to do,ok?"
So,the way I see it, going by what we read in the Gospel, it was magic or illusionism. And I am not putting it down for it, simply saying what it looks to me.
Other so called "miracles" look to me like the same issue.
In the cross I have my doubts about the death actually happening...so maybe not. But I consider the cross as an initiation ritual, so he accomplished what he was trying to accomplish. What died on the cross was his human ego. This whole thing was planned and provoked. Joseph of Arimathea had the money, the political connections, and the place. Then there is a centurion
involved in the story...Didn't Jesus saved a centurion's servant from dying soon before? I think he "owed" Jesus...a life.
Then there is the issue of blood and water flowing from the cut on the side,
the lung. Can this happen when one is dead?
Is it possible that Jesus did not die?
Is it possible that his "death" was an organized act?
Is it possible that Jesus created the illusion of "ascension", besides the symbolic meaning of "advanced to a higher level of mastery"?
He had told the apostles that they could not follow him anymore...
If he would have gone anyway but UP they would have followed him...

John Kesler

Ah, but there are variant versions of the life of Jesus which also are incompatible. The difference is that Christianity, after some wrangling to determine the "orthodox" position, declared some versions "heretical," while alternate versions of the life of Romulus, Osiris, etc. remain.