The Essenes and the Dead Sea Scrolls

What does the discovery of these scrolls reveal about first century Judaism and the roots of Christianity?

L. Michael White:

Professor of Classics and Director of the Religious Studies Program University of Texas at Austin

PAGANISM IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

As you leave Jerusalem and go to the south and to the east, toward the Dead Sea, the terrain changes rapidly and starkly. You move off gradually from [the] ... rolling hillside, through the ravines, and it becomes stark and desolate. It's dry. It's arid. It's rocky, and it's rough. And all of a sudden, within a span of only about thirteen miles, the entire terrain drops out in front of you as you go from roughly 3400 feet above sea level at Jerusalem, to nearly 1400 feet below sea level at the surface of the Dead Sea. It is in that rugged cliff face, on the banks of the Dead Sea, in this arid, desolate climate, that the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered at the site known as Khirbet Qumran. The Scrolls were discovered, according to the story that, now, many people know, of a shepherd boy wandering along with his flocks and, as boys tend to do, throwing rocks in a cave. So the story goes that he heard a crack in one, went in to investigate and found a ceramic pot with what appeared to be pages inside. Those were then taken out and eventually found their way onto the market, and were only later rediscovered and deciphered as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Subsequent to that first discovery, eleven different caves have been found at Qumran. And new discoveries are expected even now. Among the caves were found, then, thousand of fragments of manuscripts and quite a number of whole, or mostly complete, manuscripts in scrolls stored in these jars. Among the cache of scrolls that we now call the Dead Sea Scrolls, are three distinct types of material. First, we have a collection of copies of the actual books of the Hebrew Scriptures. These people were copyists. They were preserving the texts of the Bible itself. Secondly, there were commentaries on these biblical texts. But these commentaries also show their own interpretation of what would happen. This is where we begin to get some of the insights into the way the Essenes at Qumran believed, because of the way they interpret the prophecies of Isaiah, or the prophesies of Habakkuk as well as the way they read the Torah, itself. So among the scrolls, then, we have a complete set of almost all the biblical books, and commentaries on many of them. "The Isaiah Scroll" is one of the most famous of the biblical manuscripts. And the commentaries on Isaiah is also very important for our understanding of Jewish interpretation of Scripture in this period.

The third major type of material found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, though, in some ways is the most interesting insight into the life of the community that lived there, because this material includes their own sectarian writings, that is, their rules of life ... their prayer book. Included then, is the book of the rule of the community or sometimes called "The Manual of Discipline", which talks about how one goes about getting into the community. The rules for someone who wants to be pure and a part of the elect community. We also have something called "The War Scroll" and the War Scroll seems to be their own battle plan for the war that will occur at the end of the present evil age. And so this is something that really is real in their mind ... that this coming end of the age will be a cataclysmic event in their view. Also was found something called "The Copper Scroll". Quite literally, with the letters incised, in Hebrew, into soft, burnished copper. And the contents of the Copper Scroll are still a source of great interest among many people, because people think it may be a treasure map of their own holdings.

Who were the Essenes?

The Dead Sea Scrolls are usually thought to have been produced by a group known as the Essenes. And the Essenes are a group that literally abandoned Jerusalem, it seems, in protest... against the way the Temple was being run. So here's a group that went out in the desert to prepare the way of the Lord, following the commands, as they saw it, of the prophet Isaiah. And they go to the desert to get away from what they see to be the worldliness of Jerusalem and the worldliness of the Temple. Now the Essenes aren't a new group in Jesus' day. They too, had been around for a hundred years at that point in time. But it would appear that the reign of Herod, and probably even more so, the reign of his sons and the Roman Procurators, probably stimulated a new phase of life of the Essene community, rising as a growing protest against Roman rule and worldliness.

You said they were preparing the way for the Lord. What exactly were the Essenes preparing for in their mind?

The Essenes are what we might best call an apocalyptic sect of Judaism. An apocalyptic sect is one that thinks of itself as, first of all, the true form of their religion. In fact, that's part of their terminology. Again, using the prophet Isaiah, they think of themselves as the righteous remnant ... the chosen ones ... the elect. But they're also standing over against the mainstream ... most of Jewish life, and especially everything going on at Jerusalem. So they're sectarian. They're separatists. They're people who move away.

The basis for that understanding is their reading of Scripture. They interpret Scripture, especially the prophets, Isaiah, the Torah itself, to suggest that the course of Judaism is going through a profound change. "Far too many people are becoming worldly," they would have said. The end, as they understood it, of the present evil age is moving upon them inexorably. And they want to be on the right side when it comes. In their understanding, there will come a day when the Lord revisits the Earth with power. And in the process establishes a new kingdom for Judaism. It will be like the kingdom of David and Solomon. A return to the golden age mentality. And this is part of that apocalyptic mind set.

...The Dead Sea Scrolls show us a lot about the beliefs of the Essenes. Now, we typically think of this language of the coming kingdom as reflecting a belief in the end of the world ... as somehow coming upon them or us soon. But in fact, that's not exactly what they thought. They use language like "the end" or "the last things" or "the last days", but what they mean is the present evil age is coming to an end. Now this "end time" language is what we typically call "the eschaton" or "eschatology" ... thinking about the end. But in Jewish eschatology of this period, what they usually seem to be talking about is an end of a present evil age and a coming new glorious age ... a new kingdom.

The Essenes had an apocalyptic point of view, and they believed in a new kingdom of some kind coming; would this necessarily bring a new Messiah with it?

The idea that the coming kingdom is always to be accompanied by a Messianic figure is not entirely accurate for Judaism in this period. We hear of some groups, for example, who expect the coming change, but never mention a Messiah, or a Messianic figure at all, either as a deliverer figure, or as some sort of heavenly agent. So some forms of Judaism in this period don't ever talk about a Messiah. At Qumran, on the other hand, among the Dead Sea Scrolls, we hear not of just one Messiah, but at least two Messiahs. Some of their writings talk about a Messiah of David that is a kind of kingly figure who will come to lead the war. But there's also a Messiah of Aaron, a priestly figure, who will come to restore the Temple at Jerusalem to its proper purity and worship of God. In addition to these two major Messianic figures, we also hear of a prophet figure.

And in terms of the quest for the historical Jesus, what does the story of the Essenes tell us? What light does it cast on his life and times?

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and our growing knowledge of the Essene community that produced them, gives us one of the most important pieces of evidence for the diversity of Jewish life and thought in the time of Jesus. Now, it has sometimes been suggested that Jesus, himself, or maybe even John the Baptist, were members of this group. And that can't be proven at all. But what the Essenes and the Qumran scrolls do show us is the kind of challenges that could be brought against some of the traditional lines of Jewish thought, and even the operation of the Temple itself. So if one of our perspectives is that there is this growing tension in Jerusalem, the Essenes are probably the best example of how radical that questioning of Temple life might become.

Shaye I.D. Cohen:

Samuel Ungerleider Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of Religious Studies Brown University

Who were the Essenes?

A good example of a group which separated itself from society at large and defined itself against the Temple in Jerusalem are the Essenes, or perhaps you might say, the people of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Dead Sea community, whom most scholars regard as Essenes. Here is a group of people who left Jerusalem, went to live in the wilderness, to live by themselves, totally isolated from other Jews, from the rest of the community, and as their Scrolls reveal, saw themselves as the new sacred community, waiting for the time, when ... they imagine that the Temple would be reconstituted and reconstructed and rebuilt.... and a new and better priestly group would take over the Temple in Jerusalem. And, in the meantime, while the wicked priests are still off in Jerusalem, following the wrong calendar, following the wrong purity rules and officiating improperly before the Lord, in the meantime, pure purity and true holiness resided only among themselves, in their own community, off near the Dead Sea.... The community itself was a surrogate temple....

The manuscripts that we call the Dead Sea Scrolls are a wide variety of texts. Some of these texts are hardly sectarian texts. These are texts that all Jews would have had, all Jews would have read. For example, the largest single category of Dead Sea text or Qumran Scrolls are text you and I call Biblical. No one is going to say the Book of Genesis was a Qumran document because fragments of the Book of Genesis were found in the Qumran scrolls.... We have to realize then that the Qumran scrolls contain a wide variety of text and we are not always able to distinguish clearly those texts which they simply read from those texts, which they actually wrote.

WAR SCROLL

What was their expectation of what would happen?

The Qumran Scrolls reveal a variety of scenarios for the end of days. The most conspicuous one or the best known one perhaps, is the scroll called the War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness. Where the Sons of Light, of course, is short-[hand]... for themselves. The group itself clearly consists of the Sons of Light... the Sons of Darkness are everybody else, apparently - Jews, gentiles, priests, plain people, all alike, lumped together, under the category of the Sons of Darkness, and at some point there will be a major battle, a cataclysmic struggle, not just between people, not just between the bad guys and the good guys, as we would say in America, but also between cosmic forces, the cosmic forces of evil and the cosmic forces of good. And, in this gigantic struggle, the angels will fight along side the Sons of Light, against the Sons of Darkness and the forces of evil. And, needless to say, this will end with a victory for the Sons of Light.... What will happen after the victory, the Scroll does not clearly spell out as carefully as or clearly as we might have liked. Other scrolls have different scenarios or different pictures, which downplay or minimize this battle aspect and play up instead other aspects.

COMMUNITY RULE

What does the book or scroll of Community Rules tell us about the way that people of this community actually lived their lives?

The Manual of Disciplineis a text that envisions a community living in almost total isolation, a community that is self-contained, that is governed very strictly by a Board of Governors, or a series of overlapping authorities, governing community in which everybody owes obedience to their superiors. There's an oath of entry; it is a very much monastic community, for want of the better word, a community with little or no private property. That point is debated in the text but it seems at least that you surrendered if not all, then at least some of your property to the kind of community pot; in turn, then, the community would look out for you and look after you. So, it is very much a community where the individual has somehow been merged into a communal group.... Like a monastic community, there is no private property and, most striking of all, there are no women, and as a result, there are few children. It is a group almost exclusively consisting of adult males, who are to spend their life following the rules of the group and acting out the theological principles and beliefs of the group....

SIGNIFICANCE OF SCROLLS

[What is the significance of the Qumran Scrolls?]

Even before the Qumran Scrolls were discovered, we knew that Judaism in the time of Jesus was a very diverse phenomena. After all, the Jewish historian Josephus gives us the names of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. We know from the New Testament of a group called Herodians - what they are exactly, we don't know, but there they are. Rabbinic texts add the names of yet other groups and then once the war comes around, in the year 66, we have the names of a whole slew of other groups.... Plus, we have a very wide ranging rich literature from this period which is impossible to imagine all coming from a single source, or all coming from a single school or a single class. The result was, even before the Qumran Scrolls were discovered, we knew or sensed that Judaism in the 1st century of our era was a very rich and varied phenomena. What the Qumran Scrolls do is to demonstrate clearly and unambiguously the truth of that which we always somehow felt or intuited....

The Qumran Scrolls show us the existence of a sect, a group that has separated itself from society at large, a group that defines itself against the Temple, the single central institution of Judaism..., and sees itself as the repository of everything that is sacred and true and sees all other Jews out there, including the priests, as wrong at best and at worst, irredeemably wicked. That is something which we had never previously seen....

The Qumran Scrolls also reveal a whole range of new books which we previously had not known, or had known about only in fragments or only in quotations, or perhaps in corrupted versions. We now have the original text. We have now a rich library of text showing that diversity was even greater than we had ever imagined and the range of possibilities for 1st century Judaism was far bigger than any of us had ever suspected.

More about the Dead Sea Scrolls: an excerpt from Hershel Shanks' forthcoming book The Mystery and Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls; translations of the Community Rule and the War Scroll, with commentary by Michael Wise; and Scrolls from the Dead Sea, an on-line exibit of the scrolls from the Library of Congress.

Introduction to the Ancient Essenes

We will consider the opinions of various scholars -- both ancient and modern -- on Essene origins. Most important, we will consider the opinion of the Essenes themselves in regard to their origin. We will begin with two ancient scholars, both of whom were contemporaries of the first century Essenes: Josephus Flavius and Philo of Alexandria. Josephus, born at Jerusalem in 37 A.D., was the greatest historian of the Jews in that period. Philo was the greatest Jewish philosopher of that period. Both men had personal knowledge of the ancient Essenes; thus, what they tell us has a high degree of credibility. In regard to the origin of the Essenes, neither Josephus nor Philo can give a specific date, but both make clear that the Essenian roots are incredibly ancient. Josephus declares that the Essenes have existed "from time immemorial" and "countless generations". Philo agrees, calling the Essenes "the most ancient of all the initiates" with a "teaching perpetuated through an immense space of ages". Josephus and Philo -- as well as several other ancient writers including Pliny the Elder -- are in consensus on two points in regard to the origin of the Essenes:

1. Their origin is lost in pre-history with certain ancient legends linking them with Enoch;
   
   
2. There was a major remanifestation of the Essenes by Moses at Mount Sinai.

Let us first consider the original founding of the Essenes by Enoch, then the later remanifestation by Moses. Enoch lived many centuries before Moses. In the fifth chapter of the Book of Genesis (the first book of the bible), Enoch is described as "the seventh from Adam" -- which means he was born seven generations after Adam. Since seven, in Essene numerology, is the number of perfection, it is no mere coincidence that Enoch represents the seventh generation of humanity: he represents perfected humanity. He lived on earth 365 years (the number of days in the solar year) and was so in harmony with the laws of God that he was taken from Earth to an Angelic realm without having to die first! There, Enoch was given the angelic name "Metatron", and given the duty of guiding other human beings into their angelic destiny. His main work on Earth was the founding of the Essene Church. The Essene Church is considered (by the Essenes) to be a doorway into the angelic realm, as many of the Dead Sea Scrolls make abundantly clear (see The Dead Sea Scriptures, translated by Theodore Gaster, for numerous references to the Essene belief that their order served as a doorway into the angelic realm). While much of the Enochian legend cited above is found only in Essene Kaballah texts, it stems directly from the Bible: Genesis chapter five verse twenty-four: "Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him."

The fact that Enoch was considered the "founder" or "initiator" of the Essenes can even be seen in his name; the word "Enoch" means in Hebrew: "founder", "initiator", "centralizer". A modern scholar, Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, in his excellent book From Enoch to the Dead Sea Scrolls, writes:

After the original founding of the Essenes by Enoch, many centuries passed in which the Essenes existed as a Mystery School, out of the eyes of the public. Finally, it was time for a major remanifestation of the Essenes, for their numbers had dwindled to the point of near extinction. Moses was the man chosen by God to guide the remanifestation of the Essenes. Both the ancient scholar Philo, and a modern scholar, Rabbi Harvey Falk (in hisAnother Look at the Jewishness of Jesus), informs us that Moses trained thousands of disciples as Essenes. The Essenes themselves describe that event in one of their most important texts: The Essene Book of Moses. In that text, God, at Mount Sinai, gave Moses the Essene Communions on a stone tablet. It was hoped that all the Jewish people would follow the way of life described on that tablet. But when Moses descended Mount Sinai and met with the people, it was clear that the majority were not ready to follow the esoteric Essene teachings engraved on that tablet. Heavy of heart, Moses again climbed Mount Sinai and asked God for an exoteric, easier set of teachings for the masses who were not ready to receive the esoteric Essene teachings. ("esoteric" means "inner circle"; "exoteric" means "outer circle".) God responded by giving the famous Ten Commandments on a second stone tablet; those commandments would be for the masses. Moses was to keep the esoteric Essene Communions for "the Children of Light," for only they could understand them. We read:

At that point, God then gave Moses the Essene Communions on the first tablet. Besides the Communions, that tablet included a synopsis of the main Essene teachings, including vegetarianism: "Thou shalt not take the life of any living thing." Our text then continues:

The reference above to "burnt offerings" is a reference to "animal sacrifice". When Moses returned he found the people offering bloody animal sacrifices to their golden idol. Although he knew that these people had not "the ears to hear" the esoteric Essene tablet, -- they were given the exoteric Ten Commandments instead -- Moses preserved the Essene teachings for the Children of Light (the Essenes became known as the "Children of Light"); we read:

It was at this time, according to both the ancient scholar Philo and the modern scholar Falk, that Moses trained 2,000 of the spiritual "elect" -- those Jews who had remained vegetarian and refused to participate in animal sacrifice and idol worship -- to be Essenes. AND FROM THIS TIME ON THE ESSENES EXISTED AS AN ESOTERIC MINORITY SECT. (Note: When modern scholars assert that the Essenes of Qumran were founded about 200 years before the time of Jesus, they are correct in regard to that one Essene group at Qumran; but the overall Essene movement is far more ancient.)

Although the Essenes began as an esoteric minority sect within Judaism, they went on to become the very first "Christians," called "Essene-Nazarenes" or "Ebionites". That happened as follows. Several hundred years before the birth of Jesus, the head priest of the Essenes, known as the "Teacher of Righteousness", had a vision: An Angel told him that a great Avatar, the Mashiakh (Christ Messiah), would come to Earth through the Essenes. But for this to occur, according to the Angel, the Essenes must follow certain disciplines in order to create a physical body capable of withstanding the powerful vibrations of the Christ Spirit, as well as a group energy powerful enough to open an "energy vortex" or "doorway" into this space-time dimension through which the Christ would enter. The prescribed disciplines were called the "Essene Halakoth". The group energy for the creation of an "energy vortex" was generated by forming Essene communal villages dedicated to practicing the "Halakoth" in a group context. In the Winter issue of "The Essene Path", Rev. Michael Robinson provided related information:

In the book, Edgar Cayce's Story of Jesus, edited by Jeffrey Furst, we read:

Again from Cayce:

In regard to the above references to the Essene headquarters at Mount Carmel and Jesus being affiliated with the Essenian sect of Nazarenes in the region of Carmel, there is much supporting evidence. Indeed, it is quite clear that the headquarters of the entire Essene movement was Mount Carmel in Northern Israel, not Qumran in Southern Israel, and that Jesus was primarily associated with Carmel. Equally clear is the fact that the Northern Essenes in the region of Mount Carmel were called "Nazarenes". The fact that nearly every major event associated with the life of Jesus occurred in Northern Israel, is strong evidence that Jesus lived most of his life in Northern Israel. Only four events of Jesus' life occurred in Southern Israel (his birth in Bethlehem; his visit to the temple when he was 12; his baptism by John; and his final journey to Jerusalem) and each of those events is clearly described as occurring after making a long journey from his home in Northern Israel. Mount Carmel, the Essene-Nazarene headquarters, was in Northern Israel; Qumran, the Essene Monastery where John the Baptist lived (and where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered), was in Southern Israel. THERE IS SOLID CONSENSUS AMONGST SCHOLARS THAT JOHN THE BAPTIST WAS FROM QUMRAN: the location on the Jordan river where tradition tells us John performed his baptisms is exactly where the Jordan river connects with the Dead Sea near Qumran, and everything we know about John matches up perfectly with what is known about the Qumran Essenes. When Jesus came to be baptized by his cousin John, The New Testament and other manuscripts tell us that John did not recognize Jesus; obviously, if Jesus and John lived together at Qumran, they would have recognized each other. This is strong evidence that Jesus was a Northern Essene associated with Mount Carmel, not a Southern Essene from Qumran. In Mystic Christianity, by Yogi Ramacharaka, we read:

While the New Testament does not include all of the esoteric information above, it does declare that John -- the Qumran Baptist -- DID NOT RECOGNIZE HIS COUSIN JESUS.

The fact that Jesus was not from Qumran DOES NOT MEAN HE WAS NOT AN ESSENE. Often, when orthodox Christian scholars are attempting to prove that Jesus was not an Essene, they point out certain differences between the teachings of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls. (They often point out that Jesus' doctrine is less strict in some matters than the 'Community Rule' of the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls; by doing so, they think they are proving that Jesus was not an Essene.) But they are missing the point: QUMRAN WAS ONLY ONE OF MANY DIVERSE ESSENE COMMUNITIES. Whereas Qumran was a strict monastic commune for celibate men, some other Essene communities -- such as Mount Carmel and the related Nazarene stronghold of Nazareth -- were for entire families and naturally had more relaxed rules. The teachings of Jesus were more a product of the Northern Essene environment of Mount Carmel than Qumran. I quote from Peter Lemesurier's The Armageddon Script:

Thus, the differences between the teachings of Jesus and the Qumran Essenes are due to:

1. Jesus was raised at the more ecumenical, family-oriented Essene community at Mount Carmel; and,
   
   
2. The Dead Sea Scrolls, wonderful as they are, were written by Essenes who were prayerfully preparing for the coming of the Universal Messiah, the Prince of Peace. Obviously, once the Messiah of the Universe came to earth, the words that came out of his mouth were far transcendant of even the best of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

When the holy family returned from Egypt after Herod's death, we are told they settled in Nazareth. Nazareth is very near Mount Carmel, the headquarters of the entire Essene movement. However, in those days, there was no town called "Nazareth"; rather, it was simply a cooperative village of Essene "Nazarenes". We read in The Armageddon Script:

Thus, the term "Jesus of Nazareth" was originally "Jesus the Nazarene", and a "Nazarene" is a "Northern Essene" associated with Mount Carmel. Which is why in the New Testament Book of Acts, the early Christians' are referred to as "the sect of the Nazarenes."

Having accepted Jesus as the Messiah they had been waiting for, the Essene-Nazarenes became the first Christians. These first followers of Jesus were still called "Essene Nazarenes" or simply "Nazarenes". They were not called "Christians" (which means "Messianists" or "followers of the Messiah") until many years later.

We have now concluded our overview of ancient Essene origins and history. As promised in the introductory paragraph, we will next consider Essene cosmology and theology. Since the Essene cosmology and theology reached its pinnacle in the teachings of Jesus -- he being the Messiah they had prepared for -- our focus will be the Essene cosmology and theology articulated by Jesus.

Does the reader -- YOU -- understand the meaning of the terms "cosmology" and "theology"? The terms are interrelated but have different meanings. COSMOLOGY is the study dealing with the origin and structure of the universe. THEOLOGY is the study of religious beliefs. Thus we will first consider Essene cosmology; for, the theology of any religious group is an outgrowth of their cosmology.

In a future issue of "Essene Path", an entire article will be devoted to the topic of Essene cosmology. But in the article at hand -- a general overview of many topics -- we can only touch on several main aspects of Essene cosmology. We have defined cosmology as "the study of the origin and structure of the universe." According to Essene Kaballah mysticism, the universe originates with God. God creates the universe in a series of four emanations, each of which becomes a particular realm:

1. `ATSILUTH: The first emanation from God creates a realm called "`Atsiluth". This is the realm of the Divine Archetypes. It is a spiritual realm, not a physical realm. These archetypal representations are the perfect ideals or models for all things created in the physical world. The Divine Archetypes for humankind are the masculine ADAM KADMON with his feminine counterpart SHEKHINAH. (Jesus is considered to be a messianic incarnation of Adam Kadmon; thus he is called "the first child of God". And since only the realm of Divine Archetypes was created directly by God -- all further steps of creation being accomplished by Adam Kadmon and Shekinah united as "THE WORD" -- Jesus, as Adam Kadmon, is also called "the ONLY BEGOTTEN son of God". Jesus himself stressed that we are all children of God, but only Adam Kadmon and Shekhinah -- by virtue of being Divine Archetypes -- were DIRECTLY BEGOTTEN by God.)
   
   
2. BERI'AH. Whereas `Atsiluth, the first realm, (described above) is a direct emanation from EN SOPH (the unmanifest God), the second realm, BERI'AH, is a direct emanation from `Atsiluth. Beri'ah is the realm of the HIGHEST RANKING ANGELS OF THE UNIVERSE. This realm contains no ordinary physical matter, only PURE SPIRITUAL ENERGY. Another term for this realm is "THE HIGHEST HEAVENS".
   
   
3. YETSIRAH. The third realm, Yetsirah, is an angelic realm, but not as high as the above described Beri'ah. The angelic beings of light in this realm are higher in spiritual development than human beings, but lower than those of the Beri'ah Higher Heavens. Within the realm of Yetsirah are seven sub-realms called "The Seven Heavens". Only when a being has progressed through these seven heavens of Yetsirah -- via spiritual evolution over long duration -- is that being able to ascend to the archangelic realm of the Beri'ah Higher Heavens. Yetsirah is not as physical as our realm, nor as subtle as Beri'ah. The lower regions of Yetsirah are more physical than the higher regions of that realm.
   
   
4. ASIYAH. The fourth realm, Asiyah, is the physical universe that we currently live in. Within Asiyah are countless sub-realms, some extremely dark and dense, some relatively light and subtle. Through our thoughts, words and deeds, we rise to the higher regions of Asiyah, or fall to the hell-pits of Asiyah.

The above cosmology can best be described as a sort of "COSMIC SCHOOL SYSTEM". The origin of thisUNIVERSAL SCHOOL SYSTEM FOR THE TRAINING OF SOULS is God. The ultimate GRADUATION DEGREE IS CONSCIOUS UNION WITH GOD. Having "graduated" -- attained the highest heaven -- a being does "graduate studies": goes on missions to the lower realms to perform works of love and mercy. These "graduate students" work under the guidance of TEACHERS and MASTER TEACHERS. The ultimate Master Teacher -- the "Chancellor" of the Cosmic School System -- is THE CHRIST, the Adam Kadmon, known on earth as Jesus the Christ (Yahshua ha Mashiakh).

Before leaving the topic of Essene cosmology, a bit more needs to be said about HEAVEN AND HELL. According to Essene cosmology, both Heaven and Hell are VERY REAL. However, our understanding of the nature of heaven and hell is quite different than the orthodox Christian doctrine you are probably familiar with. In our ancient Essene holy scriptures, Jesus teaches the following main points in regard to Heaven and Hell:

1. There is not only one Heaven and one Hell; rather, there are countless Heavenly realms and countlessHellish realms. Jesus said, "In God's house are many mansions" and "various realms". He describes"higher heavens" and "lower heavens"; he also describes "higher hells" and "lower hells". According to Jesus, the universe is a vast cosmic school system for the training and evolution of souls. There are various levels of the cosmic school system and each level consists of many planets, spheres and realms inhabited by sentient beings. SOME OF THOSE REALMS ARE SO VIOLENT, HATEFUL, DARK AND MISERABLE, THEY CERTAINLY DESERVE THE TERM "HELLISH". SOME REALMS ARE SO PEACEFUL, JOYFUL, LIGHT AND LOVE-FILLED, THEY CERTAINLY DESERVE THE TERM "HEAVENLY."
   
   
2. According to Jesus, each being lives in the realm of the universe they deserve to (including the planet they live on) -- according to the universal law of karmic justice (CAUSE and EFFECT). Jesus said, "And as they have sown in one life, so shall they reap in another." Beings who live in harmony with universal law -- the laws of God -- will progressively ascend to ever-higher, more-heavenly abodes of light and love. Beings who do not live in harmony with the laws of the universe will progressively fall into ever-lower, more hellish realms of darkness and pain.
   
   
3. Jesus teaches that Heaven and Hell are experienced first inwardly -- as inner states of being -- and then become manifest in our outer circumstances as well. Jesus said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." But he also said, "What is on the inside will become manifest on the outside." In other words, if you create a heavenly consciousness via harmony with universal law -- heaven within -- you will later experience a more heavenly outer-realm -- including the planet you live on -- as well. Again, Jesus said: "And as they have sown in one life so shall they reap in another." (It should be noted that some angelic beings who are entitled -- according to karmic law -- to live in more heavenly realms, CHOOSE to take incarnation in a more hell-like realm in order to perform loving service for the benefit of other beings.)

The orthodox Christian teaching is that, based solely on this one brief incarnation, you will either go to "Heaven" forever or will BURN IN HELL FOR ETERNITY. They teach that the vast majority of humans will BURN IN HELL. We reject that false teaching, as did Jesus himself. The notion that a SUPREME BEING would send the majority of human beings to BURN IN TORTUROUS AGONY FOR ETERNITY based solely on their status in this one brief incarnation is ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS! Such a "God" would actually be a "Devil"!

Speaking of the "Devil", I should inform you in regard to our beliefs about "Satan". Jesus, in our ancient Essene manuscripts, does not teach the existence of ONE EVIL COUNTERPART TO GOD; however, he does teach the existence of various demonic beings including a particular "fallen angel" called "Satan". So, there certainly is a"dark brotherhood"; there are demons and archdemons of various ranks and potencies; BUT NONE OF THESE DEMONS -- INCLUDING THE GRAND DRAGON SATAN -- are powerful enough to be considered a dualistic counterpart to God. They are simply lost souls in need of heavy-duty repentance.

Having concluded our overview of Essene cosmology, we will now examine several main aspects of Essene theology: REINCARNATION, VEGETARIANISM, and FATHER-MOTHER GOD.

In the ancient Essene New Testament, Jesus teaches the following five main points in regard toREINCARNATION:

1. Jesus teaches that souls reincarnate in order to gain experience in their quest for perfection. We read in The Gospel of the Holy Twelve:
   

   "The soul is purified through many births and experiences."

   
   In another passage of the same manuscript, Jesus states:

   "So through many births will ye be made perfect."

2. Jesus teaches that all creatures -- not only humans -- must continue to reincarnate until sufficiently purified. Jesus said: 
   

   "As all creatures come from the unseen into this world, so they return to the unseen, and so will they come again till they be purified."

3. A third point made by Jesus on reincarnation is that there is a time of rest and reflection between lives: 
   

   "... and to them will be given space to consider, and amend their lives...."

4. Jesus taught that what we do in one life will follow us into our next life:
   

   "The body that ye lay in the grave, or that is consumed by fire, is not the body that shall be, but they who come again shall receive other bodies, and as they have sown in one life, so shall they reap in another."

5. According to Jesus, once we are sufficiently perfected we need not reincarnate anymore:
   

   "Blessed are they who suffer many experiences, for they shall be made perfect through suffering: they shall be as the angels of God in heaven and die no more, neither shall they be born anymore, for death and birth have no more dominion over them."

Once we reach a certain level of spiritual evolution we will have angelic bodies that never die. At that point, we will have no need to reincarnate anymore. That does not mean we will be done learning and growing -- the universe is infinite and we will always have new lessons to learn. But, at that point, we will have graduated from the level of the cosmic school system in which birth and death have dominion over us: WE WILL HAVE TRANSCENDED THE WHEEL OF REQUIRED DEATH AND REBIRTH. However, in order to be seen, touched, and considered "real" by physically incarnated beings of a lower evolutionary level whom we wish to help, we may sometimes CHOOSE to incarnate physically, even after we have transcended the need to reincarnate. Such aCHOSEN incarnation motivated by divine compassion rather than bondage to flesh is the act of an "AVATAR". This explains why Jesus, the SUPREME AVATAR, takes physical incarnation even though not bound to the wheel of birth and death: DIVINE COMPASSION!

We will now consider another aspect of Essene theology: VEGETARIANISM. The ancient Essene New Testament makes clear that JESUS WAS A VEGETARIAN, and that vegetarianism was a central aspect of his doctrine, an ABSOLUTE REQUIREMENT OF DISCIPLESHIP. Vegetarianism was REQUIRED by Jesus of any person who wanted to become his disciple. In "Holy Twelve" we read:

Jesus said:

In another verse of the same manuscript, Jesus declares:

So, according to Jesus, vegetarianism is one of the "lesser mysteries" of the spiritual life, an ABSOLUTE REQUIREMENT for becoming a disciple of Jesus, and a prerequisite to being trusted with the "greater mysteries" of the universe.

In another verse from "Holy Twelve", Jesus makes clear that flesh-eathers are to be welcomed into our "outer-circle" church activities, but cannot participate in "inner-circle" activities until they become vegetarian:

Of course, Jesus practiced what he preached: he was himself a vegetarian:

Jesus said:

Those readers familiar with the New Testament story in which Jesus miraculously fed 5,000 persons with but a little bread and a few fish, might ask: "Didn't Jesus eat fish?" The answer is: NOT IN THE ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC NEW TESTAMENT! In the original, unadulterated version of the New Testament (The Gospel of the Holy Twelve), Jesus fed those 5000 persons with but a little BREAD AND GRAPES! The vegetarian teachings of Jesus were removed by merchants of death -- persons who earned money from the flesh of animals -- after they forcibly took over the early Essene-Christian church and established a State-run religion.

The next aspect of Essene theology we will consider is GOD AS BOTH FATHER AND MOTHER. In the Essene manuscripts used by our church, Jesus teaches that God is both Father and Mother, and that all of nature is created in the divine image and likeness of Father-Mother God. In The Gospel of the Holy Twelve, Jesus states:

In other words, God is a perfect balance of the masculine (Father) and feminine (Mother) aspects. But do not get the wrong idea: When Jesus speaks of the masculine and feminine aspects of God, he is NOT speaking about physical sexual gender: he is not describing God as having both a penis and vagina! Rather, Jesus teaches that the masculine and feminine aspects of God are SPIRITUAL ATTRIBUTES such as the masculineASSERTIVENESS and its feminine counterpart RECEPTIVITY, or the masculine JUSTICE and the feminineMERCY. Jesus is describing COMPLEMENTARY ASPECTS of God which are in such perfect balance they form a ONENESS. In "Holy Twelve", Jesus makes that point very clear:

The key thing to remember is that the masculine and feminine aspects of God form a ONENESS, aHARMONIOUS WHOLE. To illustrate that idea, think of a tree. The branches are an aspect of the tree. The roots are another aspect of the tree. So is the trunk an aspect. But the tree itself is a ONENESS made up of many complementary aspects.

Now let us look at how this teaching relates to each of us. In other words, according to Jesus, what is our own relationship to God? Jesus said:

From the above excerpt we learn several important things about our relationship to God. First and foremost is the fact that we are each a Divine Child of God, created in the EMBRYONIC image and likeness of the eternal Father-Mother. I emphasize the word "embryonic" to bring home the point that though we are created in the image and likeness of God, we are neither quantitatively nor qualitatively the equal of God. An acorn is created in the embryonic image and likeness of Father-Mother Oak Tree; but the acorn is not yet quantitatively or qualitatively the equal of Father-Mother Oak Tree. Likewise, a drop of ocean water consists of the same elements as does the ocean itself. But while the ocean can truly claim to contain every drop of ocean water, the individual drop of ocean water cannot truly claim to contain the entire ocean. Such is our relationship to God: we are One with God; we are created in the image and likeness of God; YET GOD IS SENIOR TO US BOTH IN TERMS OF QUANTITY AND QUALITY.

The essential nature of God is a Oneness. And that Oneness has a name: "I AM". The One God chooses to manifest both a masculine and feminine aspect for the purpose of creation. That which is created is a spark of the Creator: You are THAT.

Masculine, causative energy, must be balanced by feminine, receptive energy, if harmony is to be experienced. If you are out of balance in EITHER direction, you will experience PAIN. You must find that place of balance at the very core -- CENTER -- of your being. That center is where you will find your true Self.... It is where you will find God.... It is where you will find Peace and Joy. It is where "I AM".

It is home.

Having established what the ancient Essenes believed about life, we will now consider how they actually lived. While some Essenes lived in private homes in towns and cities, most of them lived in communal villages. There were many Essene communal villages in Israel, and several in Egypt. As described previously, Jesus was primarily associated with the Essene Nazarene communal village near Mount Carmel. Many pie-in-the-sky utopian communities have been very short-lived due to their failure to adequately address such basic human needs as food, employment and health care; but the ancient Essenes created communal villages that thrived for centuries. Although they were advanced mystics with profound cosmological and theological beliefs, they obviously must have mastered the practical aspects of daily life, as well as the philosophic. We now ask four very practical questions: How did they organize themselves? How did they feed themselves? How were their members employed? What type of health care did they practice and provide for their members?

HOW DID THEY ORGANIZE AND GOVERN THEMSELVES? We will first examine the Essene community at Qumran. After doing so, we will consider some other ancient Essene models of communal living.

While other Essene communities were for entire families, Qumran was an all male monastic community. The community at Qumran regarded itself as a church and was organized along the lines of an esoteric "Mystery School", with various levels of initiation. Their word for 'church' was the same used by the first Christians: 'edah. And their organizational structure was identical to that used by Jesus and the first Christians. Theodore Gaster, in his The Dead Sea Scriptures, writes:

In regard to Gaster's mention of the twelve 'men of holiness' and their three superiors, he is referring to the following. Qumran was governed by a system called "One, Three, Twelve and The Many" (patterned on certain principles of Sacred Geometry and Kaballah). The "One" was the chief priest or "Teacher of Righteousness" (in Hebrew: Moreh Zadik). The "Three" were, after the Teacher of Righteousness, the highest-ranking priests of the community. Together, the "One" and the "Three" made up what today would be called "The Board of Directors", with the "One" obviously being the Chairman of the board. There was also a Council of Twelve Overseers; as Gaster pointed out, the Hebrew word for "overseer" is "mebaqqerim" which is the exact equivalent of "Bishop". The Council of Twelve Bishops were advisory to the four person (the "three" and the "one") "Board of Directors". Gaster pointed out the remarkable correspondence between the above Qumran model and that of Jesus' immediate circle: Jesus corresponds to the "One" or "Teacher of Righteousness". James, John and Peter to the "Three High Priests", (In the New Testament, Jesus often takes only James, Peter and John with him for important "inner circle" events; after his crucifixion those three are referred to as "the three pillars of the church.") and "The Twelve Apostles" to the "Council of Twelve". But very important also is the Qumran term "The Many"; for, the One, Three and Twelve permitted "The Many" -- ALL MEMBERS IN GOOD STANDING -- to vote on any issue that was not considered the domain of the "Mystery School". In other words, the basic daily affairs of the community were decided not by the spiritual hierarchy BUT BY THE COUNCIL OF THE MANY. In this way, Qumran was governed by a unique blend of spiritual hierarchy and direct democracy. The spiritual hierarchy protected the esoteric teachings from being watered down by novices and made sure that the overall purpose, plan and constitution were followed. But the daily affairs of ordinary life were decided according to direct democracy via "The Council of the Many." In the words of Theodore Heline, "Theirs was a democratic society functioning under highly disciplined hierarchical order."

If the term "spiritual hierarchy" seems negative to your modern sensitivities, consider the following. The Essenes believed that their Mystery School was a doorway into the ranks of angelic beings. They believed that the angelic realms were divided into ranks or hierarchies of angels: lower angelic beings on up to archangels. And so they patterned their Mystery School on the angelic pattern of ranks and hierarchies. They also made sure that promotion through the ranks was completely fair in that it was based on the progress made by the student within the context of the curriculum of the Mystery School.

Before leaving the topic of organizational structure at Qumran, let us look at how one became a part of the Qumran community, how one joined the organization.

In his excellent book titled, The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Essenian Forerunners of Christ, Theodore Heline writes:

Like Qumran, most of the other Essene communal villages practiced a 100% communal economy; that practice was continued by Jesus and the first Christian-Essenes. We read in the New Testament "Book of Acts":

A few verses later we read:

Likewise, we read in The Essene Humane Gospel Of Jesus:

In regard to the organizational and governmental structure of other Essene communities, we have new information on the Mount Carmel Community in Northern Israel and the Lake Mareotis Community in Egypt. In a manuscript soon to be published by Essene Church of Christ, we learn that the Carmel and Mareotis Essenes followed the same "One, Three, Twelve and The Many" format as Qumran, BUT WITH A FASCINATING TWIST: they patterned it on the Essene Tree of Life! If the reader is familiar with the drawing of the Essene Tree of Life on page 50 of Edmond Szekely's book From Enoch to the Dead Sea Scrolls, you will recall that there are seven branches and seven roots. The center branch represents God, the center root "Mother Nature". The other six branches represent various spiritual forces, the other six roots various natural forces. And at the very center of the Tree of Life is a human being seated in a meditation posture.

The Carmel and Mareotis Essenes use of the "One, Three, Twelve" was linked to the Tree of Life as follows: the "One" (the "Teacher of Righteousness" or, in Hebrew, "Moreh Zadik") was linked to the human being in the center of the Tree; the "Council of Twelve" were linked to the six branches and six roots (minus the center branch and center root); the "Three Highest-Ranking Priests" were linked to the three branches of the upper left portion of the Tree: Love, Wisdom, and Power. Each New Year, the Teacher of Righteousness announced the names of those Essenes who would serve as "The Council of the Tree of Life". When the Teacher of Righteousness and Council of Twelve held meetings, a specific person represented each of the six branches and six roots; for instance, James may have represented the branch of Wisdom, John the branch of Love, Peter the branch of Power (Power is "manifestation"). Meetings began with beautiful songs, chants and recitations based on the Tree of Life Communions. One such song seems to have been the basis for the Gnostic "Hymn of Jesus": the twelve move in a circle around the Teacher of Righteousness, who is seated in the meditation posture at the center (just like the Tree of Life drawing). We also find a reference to this in The Gospel of the Holy Twelve, in regard to the 'Last Supper':

After the Tree of Life songs and rituals, the "business meeting" was held. In prayer, the group asked that the Center Branch -- God -- and the Center Root -- Mother Nature -- be with them and guide all of their decisions at the meeting. In this way, all fourteen of the branches and roots were represented at the meetings: twelve by human beings, two -- God and Mother Nature -- by their own spiritual presence. The Moreh Zadik ("Teacher of Righteousness" or "Chief Priest") represented the human being at the center of the Tree. The Moreh Zadik was a lifelong position; the others served one year terms but could be reinstated at the New Year Naming Ceremony for another year term. Often, they served many years, sometimes until death, as there was no limit to the number of consecutive one year terms they could serve. We are told that the Moreh Zadik would isolate himself for several days at the end of each year and do a fast. He would then invoke the presence of the Center Branch -- God -- and the Center Root -- Mother Nature -- and ask their guidance in the selection of the persons for the Council of Twelve for the upcoming year. Then, using advanced yogic techniques, he went into a deep Communion with God and Mother Nature which culminated in the writing down of twelve names. (Until publication, we are not permitted to give direct quotations from the Alexandria/Carmel manuscript, but one thing is very clear: the manuscripts translated by Edmond Szekely which he supposed were from Qumran were actually from Carmel and Mareotis: not a single mention of the Tree of Life Communions or Sevenfold Peace are found in the Qumran Scrolls BUT THE CARMEL/ALEXANDRIA MANUSCRIPT -- which also describes Mareotis -- IS FULL OF REFERENCES TO THE TREE OF LIFE AND SEVENFOLD PEACE.)

Like the Qumran group, the term "The Many" was also very important at Carmel and Mareotis. Like at Qumran, the spiritual hierarchy at Carmel and Mareotis handled the church matters, BUT PERMITTED "THE MANY" -- all members of the community in good standing -- TO MAKE ALL THE DECISIONS IN REGARD TO DAILY LIFE AT AT THE COMMUNITY.

HOW DID THE ANCIENT ESSENE COMMUNAL VILLAGES FEED THEMSELVES? First, we must remind ourselves that the ancient Essenes were STRICT VEGETARIANS. Many of them ate only raw fruits, vegetables, and sprouted grains, along with raw dairy products, never eating cooked food. Although raw foods were recommended, the only requirement was NO MEAT. But our question now is not WHAT they ate but HOW they got it. It's one thing to invite a thousand people to come live together on your land; it's quite another thing to feed all of them! A study of the various source materials provides us with the answer: THE ESSENES WERE MASTER FARMERS AND ARBORICULTURISTS (an "arboriculturist" is one who "grows trees"; in the case of the Essenes, nut and fruit tree orchards). Edmond Szekely, in From Enoch to the Dead Sea Scrolls, writes:

In regard to the reference above to "a minimum of labor", excavation of the ruins of the Essene community at Qumran has revealed that the Essenes made use of sophisticated drip irrigation systems to water their gardens and orchards. During the short rainy season they channeled the rain water that poured down the surrounding cliffs into huge cisterns to save for watering their gardens the rest of the year. They were masters of mulching and composting, the greatest organic gardeners to ever grace the earth. In another section of the same book, Szekely makes clear that they not only were able to feed all their own members, but often had enough surplus food to feed the poor of neighboring cities:

While many of the members of the Essene communal villages worked in the gardens, not all of them did.

And that brings us to the next question: HOW DID THE ANCIENT ESSENE COMMUNAL VILLAGES EMPLOY THEIR MEMBERS? In his excellent book The Mystical Christ, Manly Hall reports:

We see above that a new member of an Essene community could keep his old job IF IT WAS IN HARMONY WITH THE ESSENE TEACHINGS. If the old job could not be kept for reasons of conscience, the new member either worked on the communal farm, performed general labor for the community -- laundry, carpentry, kitchen work etc. -- or learned a new trade. Hall goes on to inform us that some Essenes had been quite wealthy before joining the communes:

Some of the Essenes worked as teachers. Hall writes:

Some Essenes worked as doctors. Hall reports:

Another author, Robert Chaney, agrees that many Essenes were healers. In his fascinating book, The Essenes and their Ancient Mysteries, he informs us that one Essene community was especially famous for its skilled healers:

Having established that the Essene communal villages had many skilled healers living amongst them, now is a perfect time to answer the question promised earlier: WHAT TYPE OF HEALTH CARE WAS PROVIDED FOR THEIR MEMBERS? Hall makes clear that the most important ingredients of the Essene "health-plan" for members were love and commitment:

But what form of healing was used? Amazingly, the ancient Essenes twenty centuries ago were practicing what we today consider "new" and call "holistic medicine." Daniel Maziarz, in his outstanding book, The Angelic Way to Love, informs us:

Robert Chaney, in his aforementioned book, describes the Essene healing practices:

In an ancient Essene scripture published by the Edenite Society, The Essene Humane Gospel of Jesus, we read:

Two more questions must be asked in regard to Essene communal villages. How did they treat children? How did they treat the elderly? The heart -- or lack thereof -- of any community or nation is revealed in the way they treat their children and old folks.

HOW DID THE ESSENES TREAT CHILDREN? Hall writes:

Even the celibate Essene community loved children and cared for orphans. Hall tells us: "The order adopted orphans and reared them with all tenderness."

HOW ABOUT THE ELDERLY? How were members of the Essene communal villages treated when they were too old to work anymore? After all, there was no such thing as Social Security checks back then! Hall reports:

The Essene communal life was based on a set of rules of conduct, spiritual disciplines and lifestyle practices called the "ESSENE HALAKOTH". The Essene Halakoth was given by their line of chief priests calledTEACHERS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS and reached its zenith with the ULTIMATE MASTER TEACHER, YAHSHUA HA MASHIAKH (Jesus the Christ). The Essene Halakoth was in fact a YOGA SYSTEM; it united seven basic yoga systems in a grand synthesis. ESSENE YOGA included: RAJA YOGA (silent meditation);HATHA YOGA (physical postures and breath work); BHAKTI YOGA (love and devotion to God); GNANA YOGA(spiritual study and discourse); LAYA YOGA (the science of using the chakras to bring about higher states of spiritual realization); KARMA YOGA (creative work for the uplift of all); MANTRA YOGA (verbal prayer, singing and chanting). Central to Essene Yoga was a lifestyle practice called THE SEVENFOLD PEACE which included a meditation practice called COMMUNIONS WITH THE TREE OF LIFE. (Specific details on how to perform the various aspects of Essene Yoga -- including the Sevenfold Peace and Communions -- are provided in books and videos available from our catalogue.)

It is of major importance to realize that the Essene exodus from decadent, "worldly" cities to form Essene communal villages DID NOT MEAN THAT THEY TURNED THEIR BACKS ON THE WORLD or abandoned the people left behind in cities. One of the main purposes of leaving the worldly cities to form Essene communal villages was to become LIVING CELLS OF NONVIOLENT SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION, examples for the rest of the world. Also, part of the Essene practice of "Tikkun Olam" ("to actively participate in the healing and transformation of the world") was to send Essene teachers and healers into the cities. In his excellent book From Enoch to the Dead Sea Scrolls, Edmond Bordeaux Szekely writes:

It is truly said that you can judge a tree by the fruit it bears. Based on the reports of writers who were contemporary to the Essenes, we must conclude that the Essene communal villages were very effective "Trees" for the production of beautiful, wonderful human beings. Consider the praise of contemporaries such as Pliny, Josephus and Philo; these men actually knew the Essenes and said of them:

Manly Hall sums up the lifestyle of the ancient Essenes in very moving terms:

Probably no religion system ever produced such a group of saints so eager for purity and spiritual attainments as the Essenes, forerunners of Christianity, who founded not only a new sect but almost a new religion. This indeed was a fascinating, unique group of mystics, men and women whose chief purpose in life was to become temples of the Holy Spirit that they might receive a special revelation, and thus be the means of bringing the promised Messiah into the world. History declares that their desire was fulfilled, that Jesus, for whose coming they made very definite and painstaking preparation, was born in the fold of their organization, that Mary and Joseph were Essene initiates, and that their son, with John the Baptist, his cousin, with many other biblical characters were members of the Essene communities, both in Palestine, Greece, Egypt, and many other lands.

The Freemasons find pure Christianity in Essenism and consider the "Brethren of the White Clothing", or Mystic Order of Essenes, to be the most important fraternity the world has ever seen. The women - the wives, mothers, daughters, and other females of the Essene communities, were associate members. Those not caring to marry brought up orphan children for organization. This group dates back to Moses and even to more ancient days, and was designated at various times and places in history as Nazarites, School of the Prophets, Hasidees, Therapeutae ( healers) , Contemplative Ones, Nazarenes, Ministers fo Peace, Friends, and the Pure and Silent Brethren.

The designation "Essene" was not popularly known, with accounts for the omission of the word in many of the popular histories and writings of the time. The Essene attire was so distinctive and unique that among the populace these mystics were known as "Brethren of the White Clothing" - each member after initiation adopting a robe of white composed of one piece of material, such as the " seamless garment " worn by Christ Jesus, and their salutation was, "Peace be unto you".

Besides preparing for the birth of the Messiah, this group distinguished itself in many other ways, such as the proclaiming of the equality of all mankind and the denouncing of slavery. They were the first socialists to organize a community high above the standards of their times. They were the first collectivists to encourage the ownership of all things in common, as mentioned in the book of Acts in our Bible, and were also the first mystic sect in all Jewish history.

Although historians differ in details, they generally agree upon the major facts concerning the Essenes. For example they agree that this pioneer group of mystics was of "dateless antiquity", as Pliny declares. The Talmud speaks of the brotherhood as the "Holy comunity in Jerusalem", while Strabo mentions "the Essenes in Heliopolis with whom Plato and Eudoxus consulted". Josephus, a member of the organization for a time, writes of Jesus as a member, and considers the Essenes to be the oldest of ascetics, tells us the resurrection or continuity of life after so-called death, in communication with angels and declared that it was from Egypt that their doctrines spread abroad. Philo calls the mystic group "Champions of Virtue", a people by themselves more remarkable than any other in the wide world".

According to Josephus, every Jew had to belong either to the Pharisees, Sadducees, or to the Essenes. Though speaking scathing words against the two former groups, Christ Jesus never uttered a word against the latter group. Solinus affirms that " the Essenes who differ from all other peoples in their marvelous constitutions" ( being vegetarians and living many of them far beyond a hundred years of age ) " have according to my opinion been appointed by divine Providence for this mode of life. They renounce money, connubial pleasures, yet are the richest of all men."

Among representative modern historians is Dean Prideaux , who declares in his book on the descendants of the Essenes, The Old and New Testaments Connected, that the Essenes absolutely antedate the Holy Scriptures and absolutely condemned slavery which both Old and New Testaments allow, and that they anticipated the true spirit of Christianity and the philosophy of the twentieth century .

Dr. Graetz in his book, The History of the Jews, says, " The Essenes first proclaimed the kingdom of heaven", that John the Baptist lived the life of a Nazarite, belonged to the Essenes, and took up his abode with other Essenes near the waters of the Jordan, awaiting penitents, who when baptized joined the Essenic Order.

The historian Ginsburg in his book, The Essenes, Their History and Doctrine, says," The purpose of Jesus, the Essene, was to effect a great moral revolution. From the age of twelve to thirty he was in the Essene colonies and conceived the plan which he intended to carry out. There he was educated until he was sent out by his order to effect a great moral revolution. It cannot be doubted that our Saviour Himself belonged to this holy brotherhood". A most painstaking historical researsh , The Essenes by A. A. Schultz, compiled from the numerous records of the Literary and Philosophic Society of Liverpool in 1896, finds the above statements confirmed in documents written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic.

Of all the sects of ancient times, the Essenes were the most exclusive, coming out as they did, from among those of dying civilization, that they might the more effectively build a new and better world for mankind. They usually located their secret societies in small towns or on the border of the desert, away from the crowded hives of humanity with their barter, Temple sacrifices, noise, and attention to things of the body. In these communities each family had its own house and garden. A chamber in each house was devoted to prayer and meditation. These "silent ones", "seers", "healers", during the week lived and worked apart, but on Saturday they prayed and worked in common. Their so-called feasts, where no flesh was used and only cold water was served - particularly those held on the eve of Pentecost - were famous and formed a contrast to the ordinary Greek and Hebrew revels. At such feasts the philosophical discourse was the chief feature. This was followed by hymns and by antiphonal and joint singing, with choral dancing in imitation of Moses and Miriam at the Red Sea.

The Essenes did not repudiate marriage, but the couples had to be approved by high officials of the Essene community. The most advanced of the groups refrained from marriage. "Some", as Jesus explained, " made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake".

The Essenes not only wore a common type of dress, but, also engaged in common labor, united in common meals, deposited their earnings in a common treasury, and devoted themselves to works of charity, for which each had the liberty to draw from the common funds, at his own discretion, except in the case of relatives.

The Essenes served their fellow man as minister, prophet, and physician. They interpreted dreams, exorcised devils, and performed miracles, bringing peace to the soul, healing to hte body, and guidance through the predictions which never failed.

For example, history relates that an Essene, Menahem, once met Herod as a boy going to school, and addressed him as "King of the Jews". Herod thought the man who did not know him jested, and told him of his common origin with no chance of becoming king. But Menahem smiled at him, clapped him on the shoulder, saying, "Thou wilt, nevertheless, be king and wilt begin thy reign happily, for God has found thee worthy of it. Remember the blows that Menahem has given thee as a symbol of a change of thy fortune. For this assurance will be salutary for thee when thou wilt love justice and piety toward God and equity toward thy citizens. However, I know thou wilt not be such a one, for I can preceive it all. Thou wilt obtain an overlasting reputation, but thou wilt forget piety and justice. Thou wilt not be concealed from God, for He will visit thee in His wrath for it, towards the end of thy life"

Judas, the Essene, was another example. One day in the temple surrounded by his pupils whom he initiated into the apocalyptic art of foretelling the future, he saw Antigonus pass. Judas then and there prophesied a sudden death for him at a definite hour on a certain day, in a very special place - all of which came to pass as predicted. Likewise, Simon, the Essene, probably the one mentioned in the second chapter of Luke's Gospel, was a very holy man whose prophesies also came true. There were many others. So devoted to the laws of God and to holy living were these vegetarians of the Mystic Order, that they not only developed exactness in prophecy, but also magnetic personalities, and had such wonderfully beautiful, radiant auras that on some occasions these auras were perceived by the profane. No wonder their lives wereexemplified in the words of Christ Jesus when He said , "He that loseth his life for My sake shall find it, but he that saveth his life shall lose it". In renouncing the temporal side, they won the glory of that which is eternal.

Every adult member of the Brotherhood was assigned at the time of his initiation a definite mission in life, and this mission had to be adhered to regardless of all obstacles and temptations, even to the sacrifice of his own life. Some chose to be healers, physicians, farmers, teachers, missionaries, carpenters, translators, scribes; others chose the feeding of flocks and rearing of bees, preparing of food, making articles of dress, or weaving. Whatever the occupation, it had to be something constructive, not destructive. There were never allowed in the organization any gunsmiths, slaughterers of cattle or sheep, or any practice or business that deliberately destroyed the least of any living thing.

History emphasizes that no maker of arrows, darts, spears, swords, helmets, breastplates or shields, no manufacturer of arms or engines of war, or any man whatever that made things belonging to war, or even such things as might lead to wickedness in times of peace, could ever be found among the Essenes, "Ministers of Peace", who realized with Christ Jesus that "he that taketh the sword shall perish by the sword". Again, no trading was allowed or anything by which money was made, only barter. Pliny, among other historians, declares that the Essenes would "not even dream of carrying on traffic, innkeeping, or navigation, for they repudiate every indulcement to covetousness ". But all peaceful, non-commercial occupations were in keeping with their purpose in life. Every member worked from sunrise to sunset, and devoted the evening hours to the study of the mysteries of Nature and of revelation and the celestial Hierarchy. Abundant time was possible, since each member took his share of the work in the department in which he excelled, and since they toiled only for their necessities and not for laying up sums of money.

In each city there were "Essene Gates" where the poor could receive food and necessities, also places called "Bethsaida" for the sick. We find in this feature of their work the origin of the hospices and hospitals which became well known some centures later. A special staff fo workers were connected with these places and were calle "hospitalers". The Essenes likewise had their rescue homes in various communities, and places where strangers could not only be cared for physically, but could also be guided in their problems.

Those Ministers of Peace elected their own president, judges, and officials, and considered themselves free to act only in service to others. They believed in passive obedience to powers ordained of God. Their essential beliefs and practices included a conviction that fate governs all things, an absolute confidence that Jehovah's will must manifest in all that comes to pass, although free will was not denied; an unqualified belief in prophecy and the ability to see coming events; a belief in pre-existence or reincarnation, survival, and communication.

They were outstanding in their uniformly holy and unselfish life; their abstinence from visiting the Temple or taking part in bloody sacrifices; their unbounded love of virtue and their contempt for earthly fame, riches, pleasures; their industry and temperance, the latter including a vegetarian diet and abstinece from intoxicants; their modesty and simplicity of life; their contentment of mind and cheerfulness of temper; their love of order and truth and their abhorence of falsehood; their benevolence and philanthropy ; their following peace with all men. Known to all was their hatred of slavey and war, their aversion to oaths, wearing of wool, or using of oil, their tender regard for children and for the aged, their attendance of the sick, and readiness to relieve the distressed, their investigation of plants and minerals for healing, and their miraculous cures. Their beliefs and practices have no duplicate in the history of mankind. The Essene converts after the preaching of Christ Jesus became the good Christians or good Jews who started on the long trail of gradual loss of identity into the harmonious background of universal Christianity.

"Jesus was educated by the Essenes and reached a very high state of spiritual development during the thirty years in which he used his body. It may here be said, parenthetically, that the Essenes were a thity sect which existed in Palestine, besides the two mentioned in the New Testament - the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Essenes were an exceendingly devout order, widely different from the materialistic Sadducees and entirely opposite to hte hypocritical, publicity seeking Pharisees. They shunned all mention of themselves and their methods of study and worship. To the latter peculiarity is due the fact that almost nothing is known of them, and that they are not mentioned in the New Testament."

- Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception by Max Heindel, 1908

What is a vegetarian? Someone who eats no mammals, birds (chickens, turkeys, pheasant), or fishes. A vegan in addition eats no dairy products or eggs. A fruitarian wishes not to kill plants and eats the fruits of plants, trees, and vines. There are many reasons people make a gradual or immediate transition to meatlessness.

1. Nonviolence, Reverence For Life
2. Spiritual or religious belief
3. Health
4. Environmental protection
5. Energy conservation
6. Provision of food for the hungry
7. Esthetics
8. Human Rights
9. Public Safety
10. Fire Prevention
11. Consciousness

I. NONVIOLENCE OR REVERENCE FOR LIFE OR AHIMSA (Sanskrit for nonviolence)

The desire not to cause suffering, not to be involved in slaughter of innocent creatures, is the cause of the meatlessness of Buddha, of Hindus such as Mahatma Gandhi, of Susan B Anthony, Harriet Beecher Stowe, DaVinci, G B Shaw, and many others.

Slaughterhouse suffering has been documented in many books such as The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and Animal Liberation by Peter Singer. Mammals do not happily give up their lives when forced. When one person decides to become vegetarian, he or she saves the lives of thousands of fishes and chickens and many mammals.

Electric shocking rods are often used to goad unwilling animals into slaughterhouse chutes. Conditions of death by thirst have been documented in hearings before Senator Lowell Weicker. Dr. Michael Fox of the Humane Society of the United States has spoken of the 4D animals which arrive at the abbatoir. 4D means dead, diseased, dying, debilitated. The average egg represents, says Art Margolis, 32 hours a chicken was confined to a cage which is 3 ft. by l ft. Willie Nelson and Farm Aid have criticized new plans to make Ohio a factory farm state.

II. SPIRITUALITY

There are hundreds of millions who are vegetarian because of religious belief.

HINDUS, BUDDHISTS AND JAINS

The Hindus, Buddhists and Jains of the East are known to be flesh abstainers. The word Hindu is an over 20,000 year old Sanskrit word meaning away from violence. Buddha's prayer was "May all that have life be delivered from suffering." The Jains desire to live without causing harm to any living creature. The Sanskrit term phalahari means a fruitarian. It is considered that fruitarians cause the least suffering since they kill fewer plants, whose consciousness has been documented by the laboratory research of Dr. Chandra Bose, Clive Baxter, Luther Burbank and others. Dr. Bose invented a crescograph which studied plant feelings. For this research he was knighted by Queen Victoria.

MOSLEM

The Moslem Druses of Lebanon have long been vegetarian. Many Sufis are vegetarian. Sufism is a mystical Moselm religion. (Casey Kasem, a Moslem Druse and therefore a vegetarian, has been a cosponsor of the Great American Meatout which offers free information to anyone calling 1 800 MEATOUT). It is said that Mohammed once cut a portion of his cloak away so that he would not disturb a cat sleeping on the remaining cloth. Moslems do not eat pork.

JEWISH

The Jewish Vegetarian Society 855 Finchley Rd. London Nw11 England or Box 1463 Balt Md 21203 includes hundreds of thousands. Kosher slaughter was originally intended to reduce suffering to the animal. Former Chief Rabbi of Ireland David Rosen, Dr. Alex Hershaft, coordinator of the Vegetarian Information Service, Mark Braunstein, Piers Anthony, and Vic Sussman, and Raymond Avrutis are Jewish vegetarian authors.

Yehudi Menuhin, CHAI (Committee Helping Animals In Israel) are actively promoting the ancient Jewish love of animals and of the earth. Dr. Richard Schwartz and Louis Berman have written two of many books on Jewish vegetarianism. Dr. Alex Hershaft, concentration camp survivor, has used German reparations money to advance a meatless world.

Genesis 1:29, Behold I have given you herb yielding seed. To you it shall be for meat.

Ezekiel 3 and 4: My body has never been defiled by animal flesh.

Isaiah 65: The wolf shall lie down with the lamb.. they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord. (many other passages of Isaiah speak of nonviolence to animals)

Proverbs: The wise man is concerned for his beast. Isaiah: He that slayeth an ox is as he that slayeth a man. Daniel l: Daniel was put in prison by Nebuchadnezzar. He ate only pulses (beans) for 10 days while others ate flesh. Nebuchadnezzar noticed that he fared better than the others.

Methusaleh: This longest lived of Biblical heroes is said to have been a vegetarian. (Jeremiah: The Lord offends the mind to reveal the heart)

The Biblical command "Thou Shalt Not KIll" which J J Price cites as a reason to change diet.. is not asterisked "to include humans only". The wisdom of the Jewish dietary laws is upheld as shellfish cause hepatitis and food poisoning, the trichinella worm remains in pork not totally cooked, and the mixing of dairy products with meat multiplies the chances of food poisoning.

CHRISTIAN

Many Biblical scholars believe that Jesus was a vegetarian and that the incident of his temple temper was created by the slaughter of animals there.

CATHOLIC

The vegetarianism of Francis of Asissi, of St. Martin de Porres, of St. John Chrysostom is written of by biographers. Vegetarian Catholic orders include the original Benedictines, Cistercians, Trappists, Franciscans whose founder believed that plants too have feelings. The meatless Friday was the last vestige of early Christian vegetarianism. George Cornell, Associated Press religion writer, wrote that pretzels were originally a symbol of arms folded in prayer.. and like Lenten lentils.. were meatless alternatives. Fr. Ron Lengwin, a Catholic priest who has a talk show on KDKA, postulates that the apple Adam and Eve ate was actually the 1st heart of a slaughtered animal in violation of Genesis 1:29. Fr. Ron Pickarsky, a vegetarian chef, works toward institutional diet change.

PROTESTANT

Protestant vegetarian sect founders or promoters include John Wesley, the first Methodist, Ellen White of the Seventh Day Adventists, General Bramwell Booth of the Salvation Army, and Mary Baker Eddy of the Christian Scientists. John Wesley, considered the founder of modern Pentecostalism, wrote in v 6 of his collected writings about the advantages of the vegetarian diet he practiced. Ellen White, the prophet originator of the Seventh Day Adventist movement, has created a church whose followers today are 15% to 50% vegetarian. General Bramwell Booth published as head of the Salvation Army a pamphlet on 19 reasons to be vegetarian. This pamphlet is published by the London Vegetarian Society. Mary Baker Eddy wrote "The Deity is not carnivorous".

MODERN CHRISTIAN GROUPS

1. The Edenite Society of Imlaystown NJ publishes a book entitled WAS THE MASTER A VEGETARIAN?

2. The Trinity Broadcast Network has several Christian vegetarian programs.

3. The Dominican nuns at Crown Pt. in Akron have disseminated vegetarian information.

4. Ken Hamm's ministry in Florence Kentucky.

5. Peter Marshall, the chaplain of the U.S. Senate, subject of A MAN CALLED PETER, was instrumental in swinging a U.S. Senate vote on a key environmental protection issue, which he considered to be part of the Genesis ministry. Revelation speaks of the 5th angel who protects all green living things. Romans: If meat offends your brother, do not eat it.

III. HEALTH

A. LIFE EXPECTANCY

Would you like to add 7 years or longer to your life? A government study comparing the nondrinking nonsmoking Mormons to nondrinking nonsmoking vegetarian Adventists was done over many years. The Adventists lived on the average 7 years longer. The National Geographic reported that the 3 longest lived tribes in the world were centenarian vegetarians. They are the Hunzas of Tibet, the Azerbaijans of the Caucusus and the Villcabamba of Ecuador.

B. HEART

What is the heart beat of a vegetarian? An average 20 beats per minute less than that of a nonvegetarian. The vegetarian heart pumps the same amount of blood with 20,000 fewer beats per day. What is uric acid? It is the pre-urine present in the muscle cells of animals. It is the poison which would have been excreted had the animal lived. Uric acid, like caffeine, is an oxypurin correlated to arthritic deposits, to quickened heartbeat.

C. IMMUNITY

What is the relationship between immunity and diet? Just as having more than one sex partner places additional stress on the immune system, in the same way one must adapt to the immune system of each animal he or she eats. Leukemia is called leukosis if a chicken has it. Yet it is the same cancer. The USDA allows cancers the size of grapefruits to be cut out of cows and allows the rest of the carcass to be passed.

D. BACTERIA PREVENTION

What about food poisoning? 97% of all food poisoning fatalities, as reported in a Knight Ridder wire story, were caused by animal products. Those who eat frozen meat are trusting to proper freezing at the slaughterhouse, in transportation trucks, warehouses, grocery freezers, and at home. Thermophilic bacteria can survive temperatures of 300 degrees or more. Creiophilic bacteria can survive freezing temperatures in meat.

How many diseases can be transmitted to humans from animals? As early as 1905 the USDA was saying that over 100 diseases could be contacted by humans eating the flesh or products of animals. Now the number is in the thousands. Brucellosis, trichinosis, toxoplasmosis, ptomaine poisoning, E coli bacteria are some of these. Histoplasmosis, present in bird waste, is a special health hazard near factory farms' water supply.

Knock Knock Who's There? San and Ella. Sam and Ella who? Salmonella food poisoning. This St. Elsewhere line refers to a bacteria which can be contacted in restaurants or kitchens in which animal products come into contact with other food.. through human fingers, counter tops, etc. Ohio Wesleyan University has found heightened levels of salmonella bacteria in Southern Ohio near massive factory farm operations. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, MD found that within a few hours of slaughter, the colon bacteria in a carcass have multiplied into the billions per oz. Newsweek Magazine reported that had George Wallace not eaten a hamburger right before he was shot, the bullet would not have spread peritonitis throughout his system. The second cause of hepatitis is the eating of shellfish which eat unprocessed human waste dumped into the Atlantic by New York City, Baltimore, and other communities. Restaurants which throw out fruitarian coffee the afternoon it is made will keep much longer the much mor e perishable meat. Is 'fresh shrimp' an oxymoron?

One case in point is the Mad Cows' Disease created by the feeding of sheep brains to cows in Commonwealth countries. Sixty Minutes did a report on the protein molecules of Mad Cows' Disease cows which are ending up in bone meal and animal feed. These proteins survive even radiation treatment. J Ritchey has spoken of the E Coli bacteria's survival in wet dish rags for several weeks. E Coli bacteria are picked up from counter tops on which animal products have been laid.

Cannibals who eat humans contract a lethal disease known as Kuru. It seems that the more conscious the being, the greater the ill effect from consuming him or her. Mammals are more harmful to eat than birds.. birds more than fishes etc.

E. WEIGHT LOSS

What about weight? Dr. Hardinge conducted a Harvard University study and found that the average dairy vegetarian weighs 12 pounds less than the average nonvegetarian. Vegans or nondairy vegetarians weighed an average 22 pounds less.

F. ADDITIVES

Insecticides, hormones, antibiotics What kills an insect can kill us. Since a thousand lb. cow has eaten an average 21,000 lbs of food before slaughter, there is a 21 times higher incidence of insecticide in animal flesh than in fruit. Other harmful additives include female hormones, given to animals so that they will gain water weight, which can cause gynecomastia (swelling of male breasts), breast and prostate cancer etc. There is a large bibliography on the problems of antibiotic resistance in animals which is passed onto their human consumers.

G. CANCER PREVENTION

The McGovern Committee, the American Heart Association, The American Cancer Society, The National Cancer Inst. and others have done studies on the relationship of diet to health. The countries with the most meat consumption have the highest rates of intestinal cancer. These are Australia, Chile, Argentina, Canada, and the U.S. Countries with the highest dairy consumption have the most breast and prostate cancer. These are the Scandinavian countries, Israel, and the U.S. Countries with the highest fish consumption have the highest rates of stomach cancer. These are Korea, Japan, Norway, coastal countries. Life and Health Publishing of Maryland reported that at least two carcinogens are created by the heating of animal flesh over 300 degrees. One is malanaldehyde and one methylcholanthrene. In addition, Dr. Samuel Epstein, formerly of the Cleveland Clinic, reported before Congress on the carcinogenic properties of benzopyrene, created by charcoal broiling steak.

H. FUNDING

Dr. William Harris, MD, author of SCIENTIFIC BASIS FOR VEGETARIANISM, found a relationship between major money interests and nutritional teaching. Nutrition departments in major universities receiving dairy industry funding are more likely to be silent about lactase intolerance and the many other hazards of dairy consumption.

I. ENZYME PROTECTION

New research indicates that one cause of cancer is enzyme exhaustion in the body. The cooking of fruits and vegetables destroys many enzymes. A tomato has one enzyme when green, a second when redgreen, and a third when red. If a tomato, as Dr. Ann Wigmore has said, is cooked and placed in a windowsill it will rot. If it is redgreen and uncooked it will ripen in the sun because of enzymes. The Wigmore Foundation on Commonwealth Ave. in Boston has had as its clients a Prime Minister's wife, former Secy of the Interior Rogers Morton, and many others, and has achieved great success in healing cancer and a host of other diseases through 100% raw or uncooked vegetarian diet. The Hippocrates Health Inst. of W. Palm Beach Fla is another institute doing raw food therapy.

IV. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Because of deforestation to provide grazing land, meat or the raising of cattle is the most destructive to the environment. Second would be dairy products, then vegetables. The only food group which helps in reforestation of the planet is fruit. Every time you eat an apple or a walnut or an avocado, you are voting for orchards. Slaughterhouses dump billions of gallons of raw sewage and urine into our waterways. The Sahara was originally caused by the destruction of trees and their replacement with grazing animals.

SLAUGHTERHOUSE MEAT OR ORCHARD FRUIT

1. The sound of screams or silence with occasional birdchirps and beebuzzes
2. The smell of blood, urine and feces or fragrant peach and pear blossoms
3. A food yield of 100 to l000 lbs per acre or a food yield of 400,000 lbs. per acre not including trilevel agriculture which multiplies the yield
4. 80 kilowatts of energy per production lb. l kilowatt of energy per production lb.
5. A final yield of bones a final yield of life containing seeds
6. Desertification reforestation of the world
7. Sweat, blood and tears in production dropping a random seed.. watching nature do the work
8. The most violent food the only food which does not require killing or theft from animals or plants
9. Wastefully packaged wrapped by Mother Nature in walnut shells, banana peels, coconut husks
10. Produces human disease produces human health

Fruit has polysaccharides, disaccharides, and monosaccharides. Fruit has time released natural sugar molecules. Fructose bypasses the pancreas and so can be used by diabetics (Marian Burros of the Wash Post and NY Times), whereas sugar in the United States is processed using charcoal bones which cause cancer (Jay Dinshah American Vegan Society Box H Malaga NJ 08328).

FLOOD PREVENTION

Recent 1997 flooding in both Arkansas and Ohio is directly related to massive tree cutting both for the money the wood would bring in and to clear land for intensive poultry and pig farming. Much of the hardwood forest of Arkansas was cleared and sold to a multinational lumber corporation. Each tree which was killed would have provided a root system which could hold several hundred pounds of flooding river water. Bayard Webster of the New York Times has reported that the average tree evaporates 40 gallons of moisture into the atmosphere daily.. moisture critical to the creation of rainclouds around the world. Trees prevent both drought and flood. They are nature's air conditioners and weather stabilizers. While lumber companies claim they are creating more forest land, the thousand and three thousand year old trees of the temperate rainforest and tropical rainforest are irreplaceable. Honduras has trees whose trunk diameter covers an 11ft by 11 ft area. The U.S. Forest Service has mad e the United States a land of skinny trees, as compared to the beautiful several hundred year old oak forests protected by the United Kingdom.

V. ENERGY CONSERVATION

What is the energy ratio of meat to fruit? Dr. Don Meyers found that l pound of meat takes 80 times the production energy of a pound of fruit. Animals are fed, watered, given veterinary care, slaughtered, frozen in warehouses, on transportation trucks, in freezers at grocery stores and in homes. Then animal flesh is cooked at high temperatures. Compare this to a pear from a tree in your front yard which can grow from a casually tossed seed.

VI. PROVISION OF FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY

The ethical command to feed the hungry given by Jesus, by Krishna, by Buddha, by Mohammed, by Isaiah is not confined to any religious system. What is the food ratio of meat to fruit? According to Dr. Faust, former chief of the Fruit Labs of the USDA, centenarian fruit trees have dropped two tons each of free food. Fruit yields 250,000 to 400,000 lbs. of food per acre as compared to 100 to 1000 lbs. of meat. In between these two extremes are the yields of dairy (10,000 lbs per acre) and vegetables (80,000 lbs per acre). Some international relief scholars feel it is impossible to feed 5 to 6 billion people if many consume meat. It was reported to Dr. Kissinger recently that for China to double its egg production would require the grain of 15 countries.

VII. ESTHETICS

The butyric acid in animal fat has a distinctive odor which many find unpleasant. The smell of cooking animal flesh in contrast to the fragrance of apple orchard blooms has made some 'esthetic vegetarians'.

VIII. HUMAN RIGHTS

Ohio Pirg, The Equal Justice Foundation of Toledo and others are involved in a lawsuit against AgriGeneral of S. Ohio, whose owner Anton Pohlmann supplied l/4 of the German egg market and who has been forbidden by the Lower Saxony courts to administer his operation. Workers are subjected to insecticides of nicotine base which have nearly caused fatalities. Guatemalan, Mexican, and other migrant workers are exempted from 8 hour shift protection. They must work long hours in what some claim is substandard housing.

The Ohio Farmers' Union, Farm Aid (Willie Nelson's group) of Cambridge, Ma, and Consumer Action of Akron have all taken stands against factory form operations' treatment of humans. The Food and Commmercial Workers' Union has picketed the Purdu treatment of workers. Slaughterhouse operations have extremely high turnover labor rates because of

1. possible injury from terrified animals
2. injury from the knives and electric shocking rods used on the animals
3. the ear damage from animals' screams
4. exposure to freezing temperatures
5. a revulsion to killing the animals

IX. PUBLIC SAFETY

Research has indicated a relationship between the adrenal poisons secreted by frightened, terrified animals during slaughter and aggressive behavior. Adrenalin is a long protein chain enzyme, some of the links of which are destroyed by cooking. Enough remain intact that humans who eat the animals' flesh are eating the biochemical equivalent of fright and anger. Restaurants which serve a high percentage of meat meals are correlated to crime. Many communities have successfully fought to exclude fast food chains from their communities.

X. FIRE PREVENTION

Animal fat or grease fires are the major cause of restaurant conflagration and can be reduced by using olive and vegetable oils and substituting nonanimal foods.

XI. CONSCIOUSNESS

There is a mysterious link between brain biochemistry and consciousness. Linus Pauling, the only man to win two Nobel Prizes (one for biochemistry one for peace) established The Center For Orthomolecular Research and defined an orthomolecule as a fruitarian or fruit=based molecule. His research on vitamin C established fruit as the best source of vitamin C. Fruitarians have the highest proportion of vitamin C in their diet. Pauling found that fruitarian biochemicals are similar to the neuromolecules in the brain and discovered that vitamin C speeds the flow of thought across the brain's electrical synapses. (It is also the body's bouncer, escorting toxins and free radicals out of the body). Vegetarians report the senses are more acute when there is less animal fat shrouding the nerves.

Lauric acid, an enzyme unique to raw coconut, is helpful in achieving a meditative state, many Hindus believe.

YOUR FLAME ENTIRE CAN ENKINDLE OTHERS' FIRE WITHOUT DIMINISHING YOUR OWN

If you stood at Times Square and handed out flyers for the rest of your life, perhaps you would not reach as many people as in spending one day calling national talk shows. You can change the world from the privacy and freedom of your home.

Would you like to organize a vegetarian potluck dinner weekly or monthly? Or write a letter to the editor, call a talk show, tell a grocery store manager items you want him or her to carry, give a guest class at a school, tell your friends you are considering a vegetarian diet? Linden Hill asked his teacher "How can I love God more?" and his teacher replied "Each Is All". Whatever you are doing to make this world a better place, God bless you.

FROM OTHER PENS

Leonardo Da Vinci: One day the world will look upon the eating of animals as it now looks upon the eating of humans.

William Shakespeare in Twelfth Night: He is a heavy eater of beef. Methinks it doth harm to his wit.

Vincent Van Gogh in a letter to his brother Theodore wrote: Since visiting the abbatoirs of S. France I have stopped eating meat.

Mark Braunstein: When one eats cow's tongue, who is tasting whom?

Sherry Kelley: Pray, don't spray.

Syndee Brinkman: I went snorkeling and noticed how gently the fish welcomed us into their world.. as compared to the violence with which we welcomed them into ours. I became a vegetarian.

Buddha: May all that have life be delivered from suffering.

Bhagavad Gita: He is closest to God who harms no living creature.

Isaiah: He that slayeth an ox is as he that slayeth a man.

Edith Bunker: Archie.. do you want eggs for breakfast?

Archie: I'm not going to eat anything that was in a cow's mouth. Fix me eggs, Edith.

Winston Churchill: When I find a ladybug I ask the butler to take it outside instead of killing it. (paraphrased)

 Source~http://www.essene.com

Essene Prayer Said by the Virgin Mary

Within the Most High, my soul blossoms, Leaps for joy at the sight of the ascendant path. What is on high came to meet what is below, And the Most High has impregnated my soul through his radiant look. Out of all the generations, mine is blissful, For the Almighty did great things for me; He impregnated my soul. Holy is his name, through the centuries runs his blessing For those who, because of love, remain faithful to Him.

Sublime and untouched is the Most High, Almighty is the power of his arm; He scatters the proud, destroys those who only think of themselves, Turns down the throne of those who only believe in their own power, And lifts the humble, the simple, the pure and loving hearts up to his Kingdom. He showers with his gifts those who remain silent before him. The Most High never gives up his children who serve him with wisdom and love. Amen. (Gospel according to St. Luke 1.46,55).

It’s an ancient word, a prayer said by the Virgin Mary. It was not only said by her, but also by all the women who were pregnant in the Essene community.Actually, one must become aware that the Essene, Nazarene community gave a communal Teaching, a Teaching for the entire humanity, and that the Virgin Mary was not regarded as a superior woman. She had important responsibilities, but she was not regarded as a woman other than an other woman. All the women who were expecting were respected and practiced the same Teachings than the Virgin Mary. “Nazarene” means “consecrated to God”, and also “the one who knows the hidden things”. This universal brotherhood, which is not characteristic of the Jewish people, knew the secrets of the impregnation of the soul, and regarded the fact that a woman was pregnant as something deeply mystical. They didn’t fix their attention on the fact a woman was expecting; for them, the woman represented a much higher secret than the woman as human being. For them, the woman represented the soul, the hidden soul, the pure soul, the virgin soul, and also the Earth—the Earth which is like a soul, reflection of the universal soul, in which all the souls (for example, the souls of the flowers, of the trees, of the animals, all the souls, even the souls of the angels) can appear as a unity of one same substance, which is the universal soul. This substance is like impregnated by rays of the Very-High, like rays of the sun. This soul was called “Ma” in the ancient mysteries, and gave the name “Maya” -- that is, the great illusion; it gave also the name “Mary”: “Ry”, “Ra”, or “Re” is the Ray of the universal Mother. So, in this Essene brotherhood-sisterhood, the woman, and notably the pregnant woman, was regarded, not only as a pregnant woman, but as the symbol, the writing, and the hieroglyph of the mysteries of the entire cosmos, and even of the mysteries of Universe and evolution. All the secrets, the secrets of Isis and of the woman were contained in the pregnant woman. St. John, who was Lazarus the Essene, reveals these secrets in the Book of Revelation when a being comes and tells him: "I will show you the mysteries of the woman." Then he talks about the great prostitute and about the spouse for the wedding of the lamb. The great prostitute is the soul that has given birth to the personality, the ego, separated from the Very-High and doing as it pleases. So you see, this was an entire universe, not only made of words, but much more of realities: one didn’t need to talk about it, one just had to see a pregnant woman, and straightaway one had all these mysteries of the cosmos in front of oneself. In the same way, one now just needs to see the letters of the alphabet to know the word; one doesn’t need to talk about it, this is something which lives within the soul. This Essene prayer is all the more important for our time since things happen in the atmosphere of the Earth. And one should know them, as the saying says: “Forewarned is forearmed.” Things happen, things that are in connection with this prayer, with the mysteries of the woman -- which concern men also of course. “Within the Most-High, my soul blossoms, leaps for joy at the sight of the ascendant path. What is on high came to meet what is below, and the Most-High has impregnated my soul by his look full of light.” You see, this is so beautiful… “Out of all the generations, mine is blissful, for the Almighty did great things for me; He impregnated my soul by his ray.” The question is: “Who can say this at our time?” Of course, a woman in order to become pregnant is impregnated by a ray. But here, the prayer talks about the soul which is in the deepest; all things considered, about our soul, which, turned toward the Most-High, leaps for joy and sees the ascendant path. This is not an illusion, the path of awakening, ennoblement, and transformation is not an illusion. I see it or I don’t see it, but there is no illusion, there is no belief; it is the experience of a soul that tells what it lives. “Holy is his name; throughout the centuries runs his blessing for those who, because of love, remain faithful to Him.” Here, the Essene community says: “Throughout the centuries, we incessantly become incarnate, not by a dead filiation, but because we are faithful to the Very-High and because we dedicate our lives to Him. We dedicate our lives not in order to find something, but because we cannot do it in another way, because we see the reality: the Very-High, Love, Wisdom, and Intelligence fill the cosmos. He is the Source of existence, I am within Him, by my life. I am not the Master of my life, I am not the one who has created my life.” Now I am going to deepen the meaning of this prayer, beyond the mysteries of the soul I have talked a little...

Essene Gospels Of Peace

The Essene Gospel of Peace Book 1 "The Essene Gospel of Peace" 
The Essene Gospel of Peace Book 2 "The Unknown Books of the Essenes" 
The Essene Gospel of Peace Book 3 "Lost Scrolls of the Essene Brotherhood"
The Essene Gospel of Peace Book 4 "The Teachings of the Elect"

Other Essene Writings

From Enoch to the Dead Sea Scrolls
The Essene Science Of Fasting
Banus The Essene 
EsseneMoses
Essene Revelation
Essene Holy Streams
Essene Seven Fold Peace
Essene Seven Fold Peace II
Essene Seven Fold Vow
Vision Of Enoch

Morning, Noon, and Evening EsseneCommunions to Follow

Day Contemplative Force

Seek Peace With:

MORNING COMMUNIONS

NOON CONTEMPLATIONS

EVENING COMMUNIONS

Go to Essene-Nazarean

The Nazarenes of Mount Carmel
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The Essene Numerology Chart | Ministerial Training Course