THE FACTS, FICTIONS, AND THEORIES THAT CREATED THE ELOAH TRILOGY
The Eloah Trilogy (No Heaven, No Hell, and No Religion) and the short story prelude to the trilogy, The Druids, are fiction—fiction that clearly meets Stephen King’s definition: “Fiction is a lie. GOOD fiction is the truth within the lie.” As with many grand stories, the fiction is based upon or supported by facts, scientific theory, or conspiracies that carry a smidgeon of truth. In writing the Eloah Trilogy, I took artistic license with several of these themes to include the historicity of Jesus, conspiracy theories regarding his crucifixion, paranormal / supernatural studies, and, scientific theories and historical documents. The trilogy also leans heavily on a fictional (as far as we know now):
– Quantum physics… multiverse, entanglement, and string theories.
– Reincarnation… past life regression therapies developed by Dr. Michael Newton
– Aliens… not little green men with enormous eyes and skinny arms and legs; rather, visitors from other universes/dimensions that look like us but have talents and knowledge far beyond our own that have helped advance human evolution and technology for hundreds of thousands of years!
Without further ado, I’ll start with the main plotline… The Second Coming of Jesus (Eloah):
The Historicity of Jesus
All of the major religions of the world assert that Jesus was a living person of the first century Common Era (CE). Who he was and what he was about remains points of contention.
Christians believe him to be the Son of God and the Savior of humankind who sacrificed his own life in atonement for the sins of all.
Muslims believe him to have been one of four Major Prophets (Moses, David, Jesus and Mohammad) who were given a book by Allah and directed to accomplish tasks that would lead to Mohammad and the Koran.
Moses received and delivered the Torah and Old Testament Bible, David the Psalms, and Jesus the Gospels.
Typically, a Muslim believes that Jesus (or Isa as they know him in the Koran) was only a man and prophet sent by Allah to proclaim the coming of Mohammad.
According to the beliefs of Judaism, he was an ordinary Jewish man and preacher, executed by the Romans for speaking out against Roman authority and abuses.
The requirements of Messiah, as promised in the Torah, could not be attributed to Jesus. These are: 1) an observant Jewish man descended from the house of King David, 2) an ordinary human being, 3) (he would) bring peace to the world, 4) gather all Jews back into Israel, 5) rebuild the ancient Temple in Jerusalem and 6) unite humanity in the worship of the Jewish God and Torah observance.
Jesus failed to meet these criteria. Some argue that he met the first requirement and spoke often of the third; however, the remaining four were beyond his abilities.
There are, of course, those who believe that Jesus never lived at all. They will argue: “How could the Son of God, or a Major Prophet or a revolutionary Jew escape mention by the noted documenters of Roman and Jewish history – Tacitus, Eusebius and Josephus – among others?” The short answer is, “Hmmm…”
The Jewish historian, Josephus (37 to 100 CE) wrote in his famous work, Testimonium Flavianum, “the testimony of Josephus,” a subtitle within the Jewish Antiquities (written around 80 CE):
“At that time there appeared Jesus, a wise man, if indeed someone should call him a man; for he was a doer of startling deeds, a teacher of people who receive the truth with pleasure.
“And he gained a following both among many Jews and among many of Greek origin. He was the Messiah. And when Pilate, because of an accusation made by the leading men among us, condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him previously did not cease to do so.
“For he appeared to them on the third day, living again, just as the divine prophets had spoken of these and countless other wondrous things about him. And up until this very day the tribe of Christians, named after him, has not died out.”
NOTE! The italicized words in the verses above were so obviously interjected into the paragraph by a Christian scribe that even Christian apologists, after 1600 years of flaunting its authenticity and proof of Jesus as the Messiah, have acknowledged that it is likely a forgery and abandoned the verse. Though forsaken by the Church, the verse indicates the historicity of a Rabbi named Jesus, who was scorned by the Sanhedrin (Jewish ‘Supreme Court’) and turned over to the Romans as a rebel.
During the time of Jesus’ life, magic was considered a major sin among the Jews and was punishable by stoning.
The miracles attributed to Jesus – turning water into wine, healing the sick, feeding thousands with a few loaves of bread and fish, and raising the dead would surely have resulted in his death, had Jesus not had a large following among his people, in particular the Jewish rebels of Roman occupation, the Zealots.
The Sanhedrin worried over Jesus’ influence among their people and feared condemning him to death would set him up as a martyr. A better way to get rid of him was to turn him over to the Romans. Assuming this an authentic piece of the puzzle… consider that the man turned over to the Romans wasn’t Jesus at all.
A well-known and oft repeated conspiracy theory states that Jesus was a twin. The Jesus that everyone remembers was a traveling rabbi who left Judea and travelled to Asia in order to study under Buddha monks. His twin brother, Judas Khrestus, was a rebel and Zealot fighting against the Roman occupation of Judea. He was the man crucified, not Jesus. True or not, it’s an interesting story. I didn’t include this specific theory in the Eloah Trilogy; but, I do refer to the birth of twins to Mary and the father, a Roman soldier named Panthera. Joseph took Mary as his wife to save her from being stoned for adultery.
The act of Simony has existed in the Catholic Church for centuries. It concerns buying or selling something spiritual or closely connected to the spiritual. Simony originated when Simon Magus endeavored to buy the power of conferring gifts of the Holy Spirit from the Apostles. (The Bible Acts 8:18). Among pagans, magic was greatly esteemed and they often considered the best magicians gods. Simon Magus, a Sumerian, is the best known among this small group and you’ll meet Simon Magus in book two, “No Hell.”
Mary Magdalena has been described as a whore or a magician, depending upon whose account you read. Even the Bible provides conflicting accounts of who she was and how she came to be a ‘disciple’ or wife of Jesus. Conspiracies abound she was a magician of sorts who came under Jesus’ protection. It is also widely believed (among non-Christians) that she was Jesus’ wife and that they produced a child.
The Swoon Theory
There are several variations on the sequence and details of the events, but all versions postulate Jesus did not die on the cross; rather, he was alive and unconscious when removed from the cross and secreted away to a private tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea (a disciple of Jesus and also a member of the ‘Seventy-One’, the Sanhedrin). Jesus recovered and was seen among his disciples or, left the country with a pregnant Mary Magdalena. In the latter event, his destination remains unknown, although India, England, and France are the most commonly discussed possibilities. There is a wealth of information about these theories on the internet. Artistic license is a wonderful thing for fiction writers, and this theory got full treatment in “No Heaven”by adding a completely new adaptation to the argument.
Paranormal / Supernatural Abilities
The history of humankind is full of stories about people who practiced or, were said to have demonstrated, fantastic feats that were considered to be in the realm of gods. Jesus was but one of these, except that in his case these acts were called miracles.
Today, examples of telepathy, telekinesis, astral projection, psychic healing and the actual existence of a spiritual entity in living creatures have been demonstrated and documented.
Okay, not always or necessarily scientifically proven, so let’s simply state that accounts have been published. Though rare, and limited to very few, the scientifically documented events, in particular in the areas of telepathy and psychic healing, are proof such things are at least possible. Could not these abilities have been clear two or ten thousand years ago? Of course, they could have. Could these abilities also be attributed to aliens or visitors from a parallel universe? With what we know today and the long strides being made in studies of quantum physics and human consciousness; the answer has to be yes, it is entirely possible.
The Institute of Noetic Studies, IONS, in California, USA, are world leaders in experimenting, examining, testing and documenting paranormal, psychically induced phenomena. The institute was widely publicized in Dan Brown’s, “The Lost Symbol” as having conducted experiments that prove the existence and departure of a soul after physical death. According to the fictional account, the spirit is energy with mass and weight. We can measure anything with mass and weight. The fictional experiment noted an instantaneous weight loss after physical death. Dr. Duncan MacDougall of Haverhill, Massachusetts conducted an actual experiment in 1907. His experiments were crude and largely disdained, but he discovered a measurable loss of weight – 3/4’s of an ounce – at time of death any that other physical activity could not explain. His conclusion: Proof of the existence of the human soul. Paranormal and supernatural phenomena occur throughout the Eloah Trilogy.
Assuming we can prove that “something” instantly leaves the body, and we can further postulate that “something” is the human soul—where does it go? All religions will tell you if the person/soul was “saved” or somehow blessed by that religions particular god; it will go to Heaven or Paradise. If not a person of favor, it was off to Hell or the equivalent.
Dr. Michael Newton will tell you differently. His “past life regression therapy” has revealed thousands of recorded cases where, through deep hypnosis, he has taken the patient’s subconscious back to previous lives and shown that reincarnation may be a fact. Reincarnation is another facet that plays a large role in the Eloah Trilogy.
Quantum Theory
To begin with… the definition of theory in layperson language is not the same in scientific environments. A scientific theory has been documented and proven to be fact or reality.
In the Eloah Trilogy, I take full advantage in expanding upon and artistically re-designing three quantum physics theories – entanglement, string and the many-worlds hypotheses a.k.a. multiverse throughout the Eloah Trilogy.
Rather than a detailed explanation of each of these theories, below are excerpts from innovative, unorthodox physicists – past and present – who are discovering no conflict at all between physics and belief in the paranormal and the afterlife.
Indeed they show that the phenomena we now call “paranormal” are normal and consistent with the laws of science.
Professor Fred Alan Wolf summed up [his] view when he wrote: I believe that the findings of quantum physics increasingly support Plato [who taught that there is a more perfect, non-material realm of existence].
There is evidence that suggests the existence of a non-material, non-physical universe that has a reality even though it might not as yet be clearly perceptible to our senses and scientific instrumentation. When we consider out-of-body experiences, shamanic journeys and lucid dream states, though they cannot be replicated in the true scientific sense, they also point to the existence of non-material dimensions of reality.
Professor Dr Ernst Senkowski—a professor of physics and electronics who conducted intensive paranormal and afterlife research for over twenty years repeatedly obtained positive paranormal and ‘afterlife’ results. He and several others have published books arguing that materialist science is incomplete and therefore unable to adequately account for positive paranormal evidence. They urge acceptance of a new paradigm or worldview which includes psychic phenomena and the existence of multiple universes including the so-called afterlife.
Professor John Bokris in his book The New Paradigm–A Confrontation Between Physics and the Paranormal Phenomena (2005) discusses the evidence for the paranormal, including telepathy, near-death experiences, out-of-body travel, reincarnation, apparitions, possession, distant healing, and other phenomena. He concludes that other concepts such as the paranormal, theories about consciousness, and interconnectedness must be integrated into science to enable a superior understanding of reality. His central proposal is that we are living in a “synchronized universe,” one layer of which we see and interact with and are synchronized with. This is what we identify as the “real” universe. There are other universes alongside this, he argues, which are just as real as this one.
This, he states, “offers a way to understand how the soul, the center of human consciousness, can exist in a permanent form, surviving human death. It offers a useful beginning to a deeper understanding of the universe and of ourselves.”
Dr. Claude Swanson, has collated the “best evidence” illustrating the inadequacy of our present scientific paradigm. In his book, The Synchronized Universe, he describes scientifically controlled remote viewing and ESP experiments, demonstrations of long-range healing, psychokinetic’s (mind over matter), scientifically controlled experiments in levitation, teleportation (quantum leaping) and out of body phenomena (OBE) (astral projection). *Heavily used throughout the Eloah Trilogy.
Dr. Larry Dossey MD, Healing Beyond the Body and Reinventing Medicine. “A historic development is occurring: compelling evidence is being produced by admirable scientific experiments revealing a dimension of consciousness which has been (largely) ignored within conventional science. This aspect of the mind functions infinitely – non-locally – beyond the body and outside the present moment. These findings are of incalculable importance because of their implications for the nature, origin, and destiny of consciousness.”
