by Sylvia BrowneEver since Sylvia announced the existence of this book I’ve been on the waiting list at the library. It’s been over two months and I finally am the chosen one! My excitement lasted until I opened up the book. I was crestfallen at the font. The hardback 2005 version from Hay House includes a font that is a stumbling block for speed-readers. I don’t recognize it, could be Garamond. I realize that I did not set out to critique graphic artists but I mean come on! Give me Arial or Times New Roman over this mess any day.
I am a devoted Sylvia Browne fan. I read everything she puts to paper and try to catch her on Monel Williams as often as possible. She is by far my favorite psychic. That’s why it pains me to say that this book was a difficult read. This is the first time I’ve seen her go it alone (on the cover it says "Sylvia Browne" and stops there, usually she has a friend’s name following hers) and it was a struggle. She writes like she talks, and I’ve discovered that she interrupts herself a lot and likes to clue you in to her outline. I prefer writers to just go for it.
Also, her explanations or possibly more accurately, reflections on secrets and mysteries of the world left me with more questions than answers. I am going to make a copy of the table of contents and immerse myself in a research project. I do appreciate her introducing me to new mysteries. I’d never heard of the crystal skulls or the Leviathan (besides the philosophical treatise by Hobbes).
All of that aside, I am thrilled with the book, absolutely ecstatic! She blew my mind when it came to Jesus Christ. First of all, she said that Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons were actually worthwhile reads and furthermore she confirmed his theory on the Holy Grail. Then she went on to say (brace yourself) that Jesus didn’t die on the cross, instead he went on to live until he was 80 years old. He spent the end of his life in France with his wife Mary Magdelane and their children. I won't get started on his lost years, I'll just say wow, it all started coming together for me.
As always, Sylvia encourages you to take what you like and leave the rest. As a skeptic herself she asks you to research and come to conclusions by yourself. The two themes I saw emerge in the book were the existence of intelligent life beyond this planet that attempts to communicate with us and help us, and the re-emergence of Atlantis and Lemuria when the current polar tilt is complete. Keep an eye out for aliens and lost continents!
Length of time to read cover to cover: 16 hours
General consensus: Recommended for content and brain stimulation
10 comments:
Have you done any research on the "swoon theory" re: Jesus' crucifixion?
I just paroused some internet articles on swoon theory and boy, people think it's the dumbest thing ever! I'm on the fence because to get an educated opinion I'm going to have to do more than parouse. I'll keep you posted if I find anything interesting.
First item of interest: I found an article that says the Koran claims that it was not Jesus that was killed but a man in his likeness. I'm very skeptical of that.
Good deal! Best place to start might be physiological details of crucifixion -- how the body is stretched, how one dies, what one must do to take each breath. Secular members of the medical community have done good research into this... the amount of detail we have on how death by crucifixion occurs is what has led most critics to give up swoon theory.
Another promising route for research is to look indirectly at the event. Start with research on the historical reliability of the New Testament (if it's not reliable, then you can't use it in your research), then compare/contrast the attitudes and personality of Jesus' disciples pre- and post-death and resurrection.
Let me know if I can be of any help! I've done a fair bit of research on this lately, out of personal interest. Good luck!
I like your second idea for research a lot. The reason I'm so confused is because I don't know how much of what is in the Gospels to use as factual, historical information. Have you done any research on the lost years?
I haven't done much research on the time between Jesus' birth and the start of his public ministry, mostly because of a lack of authoritative documents that describe anything from that period. I've mostly been interested in the historical reliability of the accepted books in the New Testament -- if those aren't true, then (like you said) there's not much to go on. However, if you can establish the reliability of the texts and their authors, that gives you a good starting point on which to build your beliefs.
One of the common criticisms of the Gospels' reliability is that their religious nature opened them to being changed and modified over time as the early church built up "the Jesus legend". The early date (and large number of copies) of documents within a generation or two of Jesus' life helps the case for the Gospels' historical reliability, though -- as do the letters of Paul, which were written at a time where the recipients would have known Jesus before his death. (In 1 Cor he's so sure of his message that he challenges his recipients to go talk to people who could verify or discredit what he's saying.) This is important because myths and legends generally take several generations to come into being... those who remember the actual happenings have to no longer be around to set the record straight. (Gospel of Luke states its purpose as doing exactly that -- setting down on paper an ordered, researched account of this Jesus guy.)
On the other hand, the apocryphal gospels stand out like a sore thumb compared to the sober-mindedness (almost to the point of tedium) of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The early church took care to denounce them as myth and legend -- which is interesting, since if they were true, the many miraculous signs etc documented in them would be all the more documentation to rely on when convincing unbelievers. It's also worth noting that much of the apocrypha was written to support the early heresy of Gnosticism -- so that's one place where we can observe intent shaping literature rather than the other way around. In light of the early date and small number of texts that are accepted as authoritative, the early church seems to have been pretty serious about sticking only to what they knew was historically valid.
Something that just occurred to me about the lost years between Jesus' infancy and the start of his public ministry is that, to the public, he was a nobody during that time. Since it appears that only famous people had biographers keeping track of their every move (eg the Caesars), who would have known to take note of Jesus' comings and goings before he performed his first miracle? If he had gone somewhere and done something that was formative in his life, I'd expect him to have shared it with his inner circle of disciples/confidants... but without any data, it's difficult to support the theory that he went and did anything besides the mundane. Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence :-)
Not to get all ad-hominem, but is the author this Sylvia Browne?
Matt, that's Sylvia but I wouldn't agree with what was written about her.
Cool -- it sounded pretty far-out so I wanted to check, since you've read her book and I haven't.
Sylvia would be considered far out to a lot of people. I don't care how crazy someone may think she is, she's only spreading good. My life has become so much more positive and easy since I found her and her books. I've been bothered ever since I read that article you found! I should have known better. Sylvia helped me realize that criticizing others really isn't helping anybody. I should have just ignored it when I realized it was criticism. Oops!
P.S. I'm not disregarding your huge post, I'm just putting it aside until I have time to give it the attention it deserves. =)
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