Christianity teaches that Jesus “rose from the dead” in a physical body. That those who witnessed this were amazed, disbelieving and doubtful. I was taught that the events surrounding this event were more dramatic. Yet, more believable.

That is, He did, indeed, rise from the dead, but not in His physical body, but in one of His subtle ones. He was visible, but of such a fine substance, it made Him appear ghostly, as an apparition or hallucination. So fine was this self-lit form, that Thomas was able to put his hand through it.

And yet, scarier. An old Scripture tells of people fainting, in addition to displaying great disbelief; and even dying of fright. Yet, there it was: “persistent personality and continuous memory” beyond physical death. Has this not been the wish, belief and hope of many of us?

In the years after Jesus’ Crucifixion, his Resurrection, in some sort of “miraculous” light or spiritual body, seemed so incredible to religious scribes that they decided to write of the Resurrection of this man, relatively unknown to his contemporaries, as occurring in a physical body.

These men did not understand that Jesus’ life was the “efflorescence of generations of men,” or the pathway to conscious higher dimensional existence; the proof that we later humans possessed the same potential.

So, they degraded the Resurrection to one accomplished in a physical, corruptible and perishable body.

Raphael O’Suna

Ha’ikū