The Lost Art of Resurrection

Zusatztext This is a breakthrough work that topples not only church dogma but a century of pyramidiots stumped by Egypt's elusively empty sarcophagi. No mummy there! No! it's all about the round-trip journey to the spirit world and what our ancestors were really doing in their secluded temples. Fabulously illustrated! this important book is as much about the cosmogony of the ancient wisdomkeepers as it is about the hidden chambers of the human mind. Informationen zum Autor Freddy Silva is a leading researcher of alternative history, ancient knowledge, sacred sites, and the interaction between temples and consciousness. He has appeared on Discovery Channel, BBC, and Coast to Coast AM radio. He is the author of 5 books and lives in Portland, Maine. Klappentext Reveals the radical ancient practice of living resurrection, in which initiates ritually died and were reborn into a state of higher consciousness Leseprobe What Is Initiation? There is a familiar tenet throughout shamanism and the spiritual traditions of aboriginal cultures: that an altered state of consciousness facilitates a mystical experience capable of imparting special knowledge. In fact it is one of the oldest shared beliefs among esoteric sects such as the Druids of Gaul, the Chaldeans of Syria, the Samaneans of Cactria, the Magi of Persia, and the Gymnosophists of India, all of whom devoted themselves to out-of-body exploration with the aim of achieving personal illumination through spiritual resurrection. And the way neophytes experienced it was via a rigorous art called initiation. Initiation into the Mysteries was a privilege open to a select few but not necessarily restricted to a social elite. Only a handful made it past the gates of the temple because few applicants were up to the task. To quote Pythagoras when turning enthusiasts away from his own academy at Croton, not every kind of wood is fit to be carved into the likeness of Mercury--Mercury being the Roman regeneration of Djehuti, the Egyptian god who guides souls to the Otherworld. Those who did make the grade first underwent a period of observation; the early Christian author Tertullian describes a period of probation lasting up to four years, essentially to gauge the candidates' level of trustworthiness and responsibility. During this period they were given general instructions and taught great truths hidden within obscure parables. Upon successfully completing the trial period, candidates were admitted into an inner group, and initiation into the fuller Mysteries ensued. Initiation means to become conscious. It is a technique that serves to guide higher, more penetrating frequencies into the body, which is believed to operate at one of the densest vibrations in nature. Because out-of-body experiences can be dangerous, only those with a firm grasp of the body's electrical field were admitted into the process. Instruction was often conducted from temple to temple and performed in stages to prevent the body's nerve centers and electrical circuits from burning out, each step slowly raising the vibration of the individual. Seekers learned to still their habits, condition the minds, and practice directing the body's life energy consciously; they were also required to develop greater resistance to physical impulses, particularly the control of emotion. Increasing degrees of initiation tested the candidates' mettle in the face of fear, revealing the weaker participants' desire to continue and thus thinning out their number once more. Mechanical means were employed to simulate experiences that mimicked the candidates' eventual out-of-body experience. Those who passed such ordeals congratulated themselves on advancing toward the higher degrees of the Mysteries, only to be faced yet again with new forms of psychological preparation. Once the candidate maste...

Autorentext
Freddy Silva is a leading researcher of alternative history, ancient knowledge, sacred sites, and the interaction between temples and consciousness. He has appeared on Discovery Channel, BBC, and Coast to Coast AM radio. He is the author of 5 books and lives in Portland, Maine.

Klappentext

Reveals the radical ancient practice of living resurrection, in which initiates ritually died and were reborn into a state of higher consciousness

Zusammenfassung
Exploring the practice of living resurrection in ancient Egyptian, Phoenician, Greek, Persian, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Celtic, and Native American traditions, Freddy Silva explains how resurrection was never meant for the dead, but for the living--a fact supported by the suppressed Gnostic Gospel of Philip: “Those who say they will die first and then rise are in error. If they do not first receive the resurrection while they live, when they die they will receive nothing.” He reveals how these practices were not only common in the ancient world but also shared similar facets in each tradition: initiates were led through a series of challenging ordeals, retreated for a three-day period into a cave or restricted room, often called a “bridal chamber,” and while out-of-body, became fully conscious of travels in the Otherworld. Upon returning to the body, they were led by priests or priestesses to witness the rising of Sirius or the Equinox sunrise. Silva describes some of the secret chambers around the world where the ritual was performed, including the so-called tomb of Thutmosis III in Egypt, which featured an empty sarcophagus and detailed instructions for the living on how to enter the Otherworld and return alive. He reveals why esoteric and Gnostic sects claimed that the literal resurrection of Jesus promoted by the Church was a fraud and how the Church branded all living resurrection practices as a heresy, relentlessly persecuting the Gnostics to suppress knowledge of this self-empowering experience. He shows how the Knights Templar revived these concepts and how they survive to this day within Freemasonry.

Leseprobe
**What Is Initiation?

There is a familiar tenet throughout shamanism and the spiritual traditions of aboriginal cultures: that an altered state of consciousness facilitates a mystical experience capable of imparting special knowledge. In fact it is one of the oldest shared beliefs among esoteric sects such as the Druids of Gaul, the Chaldeans of Syria, the Samaneans of Cactria, the Magi of Persia, and the Gymnosophists of India, all of whom devoted themselves to out-of-body exploration with the aim of achieving personal illumination through spiritual resurrection. And the way neophytes experienced it was via a rigorous art called initiation.

Initiation into the Mysteries was a privilege open to a select few but not necessarily restricted to a social elite. Only a handful made it past the gates of the temple because few applicants were up to the task. To quote Pythagoras when turning enthusiasts away from his own academy at Croton, “not every kind of wood is fit to be carved into the likeness of Mercury”--Mercury being the Roman regeneration of Djehuti, the Egyptian god who guides souls to the Otherworld.

Those who did make the grade first underwent a period of observation; the early Christian author Tertullian describes a period of probation lasting up to four years, essentially to gauge the candidates’ level of trustworthiness and responsibility. During this period they were given
general instructions and taught great truths hidden within obscure parables. Upon successfully completing the trial period, candidates were admitted into an inner group, and initiation into the fuller Mysteries ensued.

Initiation means “to become conscious.” It is a technique that serves to guide higher, more penetrating frequencies into the body, which is believed to operate at one of the densest vibrations in nature. Because out-of-body experiences can be dangerous…