Saturday 23 January 2016

Let Me Now Praise An Unsung Woman


I will preface this eulogy with a little background.  Some of you longer-term readers of my blogs will know this story, but many of you won’t.  You of the former category, bear with me.  It’s important that I say this.  Because it gives proper depth to my brief story, of a life that touched mine very deeply, and which I wish to honor here, now.  

The background: 

Around the middle of my Junior year in university I had a ‘spiritual experience’ which caused me ultimately to drop out of school before the end of that school year and go on a search for capital-t Truth.  All I knew at the time, from said experience, was that I had received ‘a message,’ the gist of which was, as put in my words in my mind: ‘The universe has Purposes; and that Purpose is Good.’  The rest was up to me, to find out what that Purpose was - to find out ’what it is all about’.  

I grew up in the Christian ‘religion’ - was born into a Mormon family, and so started my life itself out on that ‘foot’ (but. for various reasons that I don’t need tis go into here, that particular angle never finally took for me), and so my search for spiritual answers began with the Christian religion in general, but quickly extended to all religions, and spiritual teachings.  Plus ESP, and Spiritism, and UFOs, and a whole host of other angles, on the big ‘What’ question.1  

The search began in earnest when I moved - all the way across the country, from my home in Southern California - to New York City, where I figured I would find ‘the biggest public library in the Western world,’ to aid me in my search.  Which very quickly led me to the surprising discovery that none of the earliest New Testament books had been written in Aramaic, which I assumed would be the case.  After all, Jesus and his disciples would have spoken, and written, Aramaic; wouldn’t they have???  (I was all prepared even to learn how to read Aramaic, as part of my search for answers, untainted by all the inevitable errors that would/could have crept in down through the ages.)  What I discovered was that the earliest of the original manuscripts were in Greek; and fortunately for my poor brain, I didn’t have to learn that language either, because some German scholars (whose research had been translated into English by that time; this was circa 1955-56) had done my work for me.  And what they had uncovered was a mindblower.

It turned out that there was nothing original in the Christian story, with all of its themes - a virgin birth; born on the winter solstice; having twelve ’disciples’; tempted in the desert; three days in the tomb; resurrection in the spring; etc. - having already appeared in the historical experience, in other cultures in the Mediterranean area, with other ‘god men’ just like the person, or at least figure (allegorical archetype), of Jesus.  What is this?? I wondered.  What in heaven’s name is going on here???  

I didn’t have time then to dig any deeper into the historical record to try to find out the answer to that question as well, because fate intervened, in the form of a letter from the U.S. government ‘greeting’ me into two years of service, under The Draft. (Still in place then, after the Korean War Armistice of 1953,)  Which I served in South Korea, as a c.o. - conscientious objector2 - and continued my search for answers (to religions and life) upon my release back in the States, in late 1958.

My life story has taken various roundabout routes since then, but the essential theme has been the same: the search for What is it all about.  Fast forward to the recent past, and my return - in 2012 - to live out my retirement years in my former home town, in Southern California; where I have come across the books of a woman named D.M. Murdock, aka Acharya S (‘acharya’ being a word meaning ‘teacher’).  Who has completed for me my search into original-source materials on the Christian story.  In a most satisfying way, for an avid seeker of truth, and Truth.  

I highly recommend her various works;3 including (but far from limited to):

‘The Christ Conspiracy; The Greatest Story Ever Sold’ (publ. 1999);

’Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha, and Christ Unveiled (publ. 2004);

‘Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ’ (publ. 2007);

‘Christ In Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection’ (publ. 2009). 

The author - a former Christian, who took the time and trouble to research the deepest roots of her religion, and became an impeccable scholar in the course of her life’s journey (including learning Greek.  A truthseeker after my own heart) - died, it has turned out, this past Christmas Day, of breast cancer.  Another of our modern afflictions laid at the feet of Untruth.

D.M. - whatever your ‘real’ name was:4 It was good to know you.  If only indirectly, through your life’s work.  But still,

of your essence.

Thank you. From the bottom of my heart.  For,

you helped me immeasurably to complete my search.

Before I myself

run out of time.    


P.S. That I supported Christians/Christianity in my last blog especially is due to the Voltairean thought, that, as paraphrased: ‘I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’   And, with Thomas Jefferson: I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
   Because, you see:
   The universe has Purpose; and that Purpose is Good.                   
  

footnotes:

1 Including a search into the human record in general, of our history on this planet.  Which soon led me to a book about the Sumerians, and their ‘take’ on their gods.  Which included depicting/identifying them - on their cuneiform scrolls and tablets - with a star above their heads.  Obviously indicating that their gods came from the heavens.  I hadn’t been taught that in my Western Civ course in my Freshman year.  What’s going on here?? I remember thinking at the time.  It was as plain as day what they meant by that depiction.  How come more wasn’t being made of this in our schools???
   The first of many such ‘how come’s.  
      
2 which meant that I was able to make sufficient of a case, about my spiritual feelings, that TPTB accepted it, as reason to let me serve my time as a medic, i.e., not a weapon carrier.  
   (I had choices: 1) refuse to go into the military totally, in which case I would ‘serve my time’ in jail; 2) serve two years stateside in a hospital as an orderly; or 3) go into the Army as  c.o.  I chose the latter option; figuring that we still need to defend ourselves until people like me could help bring about a better world, where there would be no more wars.)  
   Which was fine by me.  I had been a pre-med in university anyway.  And also, in the event, I ended up ‘serving my time’ in a cushy job in Special Services, writing soldier shows and organizing touring USO troupes in my 7th Infantry Division area.  A pleasant way to spend the better part of a year-and-a-half in hiatus from my intended life’s vocation. 

3 stellarhousepublishing.com; truthbeknown.com

4 I have just discovered it: Dorothy M.

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