The Mystical Life of Jesus
About This Book
The Mystical Life of Jesus is Sylvia Browne's investigation into the hidden and esoteric dimensions of Jesus of Nazareth — drawing on her claimed psychic perception, on the growing body of historical research into the period of Jesus's life, and on the alternative traditions (Gnostic, Essene, and various channelled sources) that present a very different picture from the canonical Gospel account. The specific areas that Browne investigates include the 'missing years' of Jesus's life (the period from his appearance in the temple at age twelve through the beginning of his ministry at around age thirty, about which the canonical Gospels say nothing), his connection to the Essene community and its specific spiritual practices, his possible travels to Egypt and India during the missing years period, and the esoteric dimensions of his teaching that the official church has systematically suppressed or reinterpreted.
Browne approaches the question with the characteristic confidence of her psychic tradition — she claims access to information about the historical Jesus through her spirit guide Francine and through her own direct clairvoyant perception, and she presents this information alongside the available historical and textual evidence without always distinguishing clearly between the two types of source. The book is therefore best approached as one perspective among many rather than as a definitive historical account — but as a perspective it is consistently interesting, consistently serious in its engagement with both the historical materials and the spiritual significance of the questions it addresses, and consistently attentive to the dimensions of Jesus's life and teaching that have been most neglected or most distorted in the mainstream transmission.
What You'll Learn
• Understand the missing years investigation: Browne's exploration of the period of Jesus's life from age twelve to thirty that the canonical Gospels omit — what she claims happened during this period (including travels to Egypt and India for spiritual training), what the available historical and extra-canonical evidence suggests, and why this period may be important for understanding the full range of spiritual understanding that Jesus's later teaching reflects
• Grasp the Essene connection: how Browne develops the claim (which has significant scholarly support as well as esoteric backing) that Jesus was deeply influenced by or possibly a member of the Essene community — what the Essenes believed and practised, how their specific spiritual orientation (including their interest in healing, their communal life, their apocalyptic expectations, and their use of ritual immersion) shaped Jesus's teaching and practice
• Recognise the alternative resurrection reading: how The Mystical Life of Jesus addresses the central event of the Christian narrative — the resurrection — from an esoteric perspective that differs from both the orthodox supernatural reading and the rationalist sceptical reading, and what Browne says about the actual nature of what occurred and what it signifies
• Learn the suppressed teachings dimension: which aspects of Jesus's actual teaching Browne identifies as having been most significantly suppressed or distorted in the official transmission of Christianity — including teachings on reincarnation, on the divine nature of every human being, and on the relationship between inner spiritual development and outer religious observance — and how these suppressed dimensions change the overall picture of what Jesus was actually teaching
• Appreciate the source transparency: how to read The Mystical Life of Jesus with appropriate critical awareness — understanding which claims are based on historical and textual evidence, which on alternative esoteric sources (Gnostic texts, channelled material), and which on Browne's own psychic perception, and what the different epistemological status of these different types of claim implies for how one holds the overall argument
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