While reference to subjects like reincarnation, past life regression, and Atlantis might seem too strong a dose of woo-woo for people looking at Wilson and Prentis's The Essenes: Children of the Light for information on Jewish sects or just plain enlightenment, I recommend they soldier through such prejudices as this book provides both valid historical details and spiritual insights galore.
How about this visual tidbit about a group, the Therapeutae, barely mentioned by Philo, the first-century philosopher, and Josephus, the Jewish historian (Page: 105): "The library at our community at Lake Mareotis near Alexandria was the finest I have seen - even bigger than Qumran. It was a large building with windows right along the south side. Outside there were awnings, so you could adjust the amount of light coming through each of the windows. And all along the south wall were tables for the scholars to sit at. It was a most practical place to study. The tables had deep half-rounded channels in them, so that the handles of the scroll were put down into these when one had unrolled it to the desired place."
Or this spiritual gem that corrects a major human error in perception of the Divinity: (Page 325) What was unique about Jesus was the way he shifted the focus from “God in the Heavens to God in the Heart.”
While the book may have aspects that might be best left behind, it has many more that readers will want to ponder and savor as they recast the Christ story into the larger history of humanity than most of us who heard it from childhood--and likely rejected as fairy tale or nonsense--have thus far conceived. Be ready to be surprised.