DVD Review – God Kings: The Descendents of Jesus

Title: God Kings – The Descendants of Jesus
Genre: Documentary – Ancient History, Religion,Occult
Production Company: Reality Films

Is the Jesus story an ancient Roman marketing plan? Did Christ have a wife and daughter? A twin brother? These and other controversial questions are posed in God Kings: The Descendents of Jesus, a new DVD by Philip Gardiner.

Borrowing from the Gnostic Gospel of Philip (which was discovered near the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945), retired professor Hugh Montgomery openly challenges mainstream Christian belief by arguing for an alternate history of Jesus and the Christian Church.

Legend has it that Constantine, the very first Christian Roman Emperor, conquered the pagan Romans in the name of Christ. Apparently Constantine was empowered by a vision (in some accounts, a dream) of a cross in the clouds that he encountered on the road to Rome, just before the Battle at Milvian Bridge.

On this and similar points Montgomery believes he’s dispelling 2,000 years of Church propaganda by suggesting that Constantine was a clever manipulator, seeking to control the lives and afterlife beliefs of the masses. Montgomery says that important details of Jesus story were allegedly fabricated and sold to the public to ensure Constantine’s complete control over their temporal and eternal aspirations.

But not only that. Jesus also had a wife and daughter, Montgomery says. And he interprets certain key Coptic words in the Gospel of Philip to support his idea.

Not every scholar would agree with Montgomery’s translation of the Coptic terms in question. But that doesn’t deter him from saying that Jesus’ powerful descendents can be traced along the bloodlines of the Germanic Odin and biblical David. Those of Odonic and Davidic lineage are said to have a quiet, inner power not necessarily exerted over others but which nonetheless can be sensed. And Montgomery, funnily enough, says he’s one of them.

Montgomery then proceeds to speak out against The Da Vinci Code, claiming it’s a work of plagiarism and, except for the idea that Jesus was married and had children, is largely hogwash. Montgomery also offers some seemingly Freudian influenced comments about language, rhythm and musical preference and presents a vision of God that fits with the idea of naturalistic pantheism—that is, God is everything and everything is God.

This is an entertaining video but it’s doubtful that all contemporary scholars would agree with Montgomery’s claims. However, he does point out – and I think rightly so – that the Jesus stories we’ve been told are not necessarily the whole story, and that power and politics may have played a part in their formation and promulgation.

Montgomery is a well-spoken man with not a few credentials to his name. Having said that, my main reservation with his work is that it might lead some non-experts to hastily replace one set of assumptions with another. Instead of leaping from one position to the next, it seems a better way to approach the history and, perhaps, heart of Christ’s life and teachings is to carefully study the existing evidence. True, a difficulty arises here in that it’s virtually impossible to read everything that’s been said about Jesus. But with the power of the internet, we can at least check to see if different perspectives can be found within surviving textual accounts.

And I highly doubt that Jesus would object to this. After all, he did advocate personal responsibility and the freedom to choose.

—MC (revised from 2009)

Related articles

• Only God is King! (ireport.cnn.com)
• “How God Became King” by N. T. Wright (Indescribable! Brilliant! This is N. T. Wright at his best! (haroldcameron.wordpress.com)
• Who Is In Charge? (spiritenabled.wordpress.com)
• The simple gospel (wordsofgrace.wordpress.com)

Review – Europe’s Roswell: UFO crash in Aberystwyth (DVD)

Title: Europe’s Roswell: UFO crash in Aberystwyth
Genre: UFO, Paranormal, Conspiracy
Production Company: Reality Films

Have you ever wanted to see a UFO? Well, this just might be your chance. Mark Olly’s new DVD, Europe’s Roswell: UFO crash in Aberystwyth, tells the story of a 1983 UFO crash in a remote Welsh village.

After the crash was witnessed by a local farmer, reported in a major newspaper and investigated by the Ministry of Defense (MOD), a civilian team goes in to see what they can find. Strangely enough, the MOD didn’t investigate an area where treetops had been visibly clipped. And this is where the civilian team collects alleged debris from the mysterious craft.

The DVD is particularly refreshing because it’s not just a lot of talk. Instead, we see actual pieces, up close, of the… well, whatever it is. This points to another endearing feature of Europe’s Roswell. No definitive conclusions are presented. Instead, we’re compelled to ask if the fascinating, honeycombed fragments are remnants of an advanced fighter plane or, perhaps, a bona fide UFO.

Olly also tells of his own UFO sighting and presents some interesting theories about life on other worlds – or possibly from mankind’s future – connecting with us in the here and now. Meanwhile, other experts in UFO lore are consulted to round out the overall picture.

Along with a balanced and intelligent commentary the DVD offers some sublime scenery of Wales, set to an innovative soundtrack. The fact that Reality Films productions just keep getting slicker and slicker at an almost exponential rate seems to suggest that the company is going somewhere. Perhaps somewhere important.

Europe’s Roswell is a real breath of fresh air for those willing to think out of the box. And the DVD comes with lots of extras, which is always nice!

—MC (revised from 2009/01/29)

Review – Finding God: The Enlightenment (DVD 3 of 3)

Title: Finding God: The Enlightenment – Disc 3
Genre: Body Mind Spirit, Religion, Meta-Physics
Production Company: Reality Films

(Review for Disc 1 is here; Disc 2 is here)

Philip Gardiner’s Finding God: The Enlightenment is a three DVD set including Quantum Mind of God, Science of Soul, and Ancient Code.

Disc 3, Ancient Code: The Movie is a welcome departure from other films using the word “code” in their title–e.g The Bible Code and The Da Vinci Code.

Skeptics who haven’t seen this film might hastily dismiss it as a jump on the bandwagon, the concept of the “code” having a good pretty track record in New Age marketing.

This movie, however, speaks to a code far deeper than mere opportunism. And the writers, artists and thinkers involved in its production are clearly passionate about their beliefs.

The film revolves around several themes found in other Reality Films, such as the divinity of nature and the interconnection of all lifeforms by virtue of the idea that, at bottom, we’re nothing more than nested patterns of light and dark energy.

It’s a compelling position, one prefigured by Baruch Spinoza‘s naturalistic pantheism (and later nuanced by the likes of C. G. Jung and Carl Sagan) to portray spirituality as the human response to a numinous power that isn’t necessarily out there but, instead, exists inside oneself.

Not everyone agrees with this view. But the curious and those genuinely open to learning will find several innovative ideas that some traditional religious and scientific frameworks may overlook or, at least, underemphasize.

By way of example, Ancient Code questions the entire notion of progress. The film doesn’t deny that humanity has made great technological strides, but it asks just how much we’ve developed as a sentient species located within the greater cosmos.

Excessive Western greed, individualism and cultural fragmentation are also addressed, in contrast to more holistic Eastern paradigms sharing a deep appreciation for the old adage–for every action there’s a reaction.

Observations on the roots of crime, a live pagan Horn Dance and a psychological interpretation of the Grail Quest make this DVD a veritable smorgasbord of alternative perspectives about the essential connection and need for balance among body, mind and spirit.

–MC

(Review for Disc 1 is here; Disc 2 is here)

Related Articles

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Review – The Wildman of Kentucky: The Mystery of Panther Rock (DVD)

Title: The Wildman of Kentucky, the Mystery of Panther Rock
Genre: Bigfoot, Supernatural, History
Production Company: Reality Entertainment

Is Bigfoot real?

This is the question that The Wildman of Kentucky† asks, featuring on-site interviews and an investigative team’s foray into the night woods in search of the unknown.

Some might think Bigfoot (aka Sasquatch) is just a North American myth but, as the song goes, it ‘aint necessarily so.

Cultures around the world have reported sightings, recorded hairy giants in folklore and shared stories about attacks and abductions at remote camps. Some paranormal investigators even link the Bigfoot phenomenon with UFOs, Atlantis, and who knows what.

So where does this leave us? Is Bigfoot just a lot of Big Bunk? Or is there something more to the story?

It’s easy to dismiss Bigfoot as a product of wishful thinking, overactive imagination or hallucination. I might have done so a few decades ago.

But let me tell my own true story.

While driving from Toronto to Ottawa I saw a man hitchhiking on the side of the highway. I rarely if ever pick up hitchhikers but this one seemed different so I stopped to give him a ride.

The hitchhiker and I started talking. I was a Ph.D. candidate in Religious Studies and he, for all intents and purposes, was a homeless wayfarer.

After a few minutes of conversation, I quickly realized that he was an intelligent, God-fearing man.

Our talk drifted to matters of religion and spirituality and I asked why he left society for the life of a traveling man. At that point he told me he’d seen a Sasquatch in a forest.

What really “did it” for him, he said, was seeing the large beast running straight through the trees–not around but right through them.

Bigfoot skeptics note that no actual specimen, living or dead, has ever been produced, despite a $100,000 reward offered by a Canadian publishing house in 1973.

The paranormal researchers John and Anne Spencer admit that some reported cases may be true but believe most are an “American myth” (The Encyclopedia of the World’s Greatest Unsolved Mysteries, Headline, 1995: 55).

The Spencers say that if Bigfoot were as widespread as many claim, we’d no longer have a mystery but a well documented phenomenon with lots of hard evidence.

That might sound good to hardheaded debunkers who just can’t envision the world beyond today’s acceptable paradigms. But is the universe really that simple?

If the story I heard from the hitchhiker was as genuine as it seemed, it’s possible Bigfoot-like beings might live somewhere between this and another world. An alternate reality?

This might sound strange. But considering we’re smack dab in the middle of a great mystery called life, it would be arrogant to dismiss all Bigfoot accounts without first considering alternatives.

And that’ s exactly what The Wildman does–consider alternatives without getting hooked on any particular one.

–MC

† This film now comes in a Two DVD set:  BIGFOOT IS REAL!: Sasquatch to the Abominable Snowman.

Review – Archetype of the UFO (DVD)

Reality Films

The psychiatrist Carl Jung once said that UFOs might be real but a good portion of eyewitness accounts may also be psychological projections from the collective unconscious.

Jung was writing in the 1950s during a veritable UFO craze, a time when most UFOs were depicted as disc shaped flying saucers. So Jung felt that many UFO reports were projections of the archetypal mandala, an ancient Sanskrit word for “circle” with profound spiritual and cosmological connotations.

Archetype of the UFO clearly borrows from Jung. For Jung, the archetype points to the interface of genetic, cultural and spiritual aspects of the human self. And as an archetype of wholeness, the self is often portrayed as the center and circumference of a circle.

As Jung put it:

The self is not only the centre, but also the whole circumference which embraces both conscious and unconscious; it is the centre of this totality, just as the ego is the centre of consciousness (CW 12, par. 44).

Archetype of the UFO, however, isn’t just a wrap up of Jung’s views. Rather, it extends Jung’s theory to the world of contemporary UFO theory and evidence.

The DVD offers a penetrating and intelligent analysis of diverse metaphysical issues often passed over by lesser lights within the realm of ET, UFO and paranormal debates.

While emphasizing the possible misinterpretation of so-called ‘physical’ sightings, Archetype of the UFO concedes that in many instances there may be no difference between inner and outer ET and UFO encounters. That is, the very notions of reality and truth are questioned.

Most of the DVD features an interview with Nick Pope, a respected figure in UFO lore. Pope and interviewer Philip Gardiner probe deep and compel us to think for ourselves about ETs, UFOs, mysticism, YouTube videos, disinformation, acclimatization, social power and the role of individual interpretation.

Many say it’s time for a collective course correction to save our planet at the advent of the 21st century. If so, Archetype of the UFO should be standard-issue for every seeker on the brink of making exciting discoveries about self, society and the beyond.

–MC

Review: The Rosslyn Frequency (DVD)

Reality Films

The Rosslyn Frequency looks at Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, which some say has secret links with the Knights Templar. Author Brian Allan also says the chapel could be a mystic portal to another world.

Allan tells how he and a team of investigators set up an audio frequency modulator to play an augmented fourth based on their reading of esoteric symbols found within the chapel itself.

The results of the experiment left Allan firmly believing that something strange is going on at Rosslyn, something so unusual that one of his colleagues became too emotional to continue the investigation.

Essentially, Allan believes the chapel is a kind of architectural amplifier for spiritual powers. And his own unique experiences within the building seem to support the idea that it’s structurally tuned to something out there–just what, he’s not sure.

Although one might be tempted to dismiss this as sheer nonsense, instead of coming across as a woolly-headed mystic Allan appears to be an intelligent, level-headed investigator seeking to get at some mysterious truth within the chapel.

Allan’s reflections on quantum physics, gnosis, DNA and the mediation of otherworldly powers suggest he’s a serious thinker using everything at his disposal to try to make sense out of the paranormal experiences he’s had within the chapel walls, recounted in this fascinating DVD.

The Rosslyn Frequency doesn’t give all the answers but, then again, it doesn’t try to. Like all good science and alternative history, different theories are presented for further research and analysis.

Some of Allan’s ideas may irk traditional religious persons–for instance, his assertion that prayer and magical spells are identical. But those who don’t mind calmly reexamining their beliefs – instead of becoming defensive and angry – should come away from this film feeling better informed about what’s happening in the world of parapsychology today.

–MC

Review: Gardiner’s World 2, The TV Show (DVD)

Reality Films

Gardiner’s World: The TV Show, Series 2 is a great introduction to various metaphysical ideas, alternative histories and holistic psychologies.

This is the second in a new series for Sky TV (UK) hosted by the acclaimed and controversial investigator Philip Gardiner.

First up on the show is Hugh Montgomery, a retired professor whose views about Jesus not dying on a cross, possibly traveling as far as India and apparently having two wives will no doubt raise a few eyebrows among the Christian orthodox.

Next, author and journalist Philip Coppens talks about connections among the New Pyramid Age, (which he believes began in 1994), the Grail Story and Sacred Stones. Among other unconventional ideas, Coppens says the Grail shouldn’t be viewed as legend but as a family history.

Third, visionary musician and artist Nick Ashron appears unplugged live after talking about the healing properties of music. This is a classic instance of theory and practice working together. One can literally feel the peace as Ashron works his magic on the guitar.

To wrap up the program, the international author and speaker, Brian Mayne, discusses the power of positive thinking, suggesting that looking on the bright side of life increases serotonin levels, which in turn activates the whole brain. With all of our cerebral cylinders firing, Mayne says we can solve problems better.

This DVD is testimony to Gardiner’s versatility. Part scholar, mystic, film producer and now TV host, it seems there’s practically nothing he won’t try. And perhaps it’s that innovative, “can-do” spirit that keeps Reality Films fresh.

–MC

Review: Alien Origins by Lloyd Pye (DVD)

Reality Films

Lloyd Pye is no ordinary researcher. In Alien Origins he proposes that human beings were in part created by extraterrestrial intervention.

The two presentations in this DVD differ from most due to Pye’s persuasive style of argumentation, backed by well-researched claims.

Agree or not with his conclusions, this DVD compels us to look again at several of the assumptions passed on by Darwinian theorists.

To touch on a few points, Pye questions the glossy magazine recreations of Mankind’s supposed forerunners, along with the very notion of a “missing link.”

For Pye, there simply is no missing link, and the whole idea is a clever fabrication developed and reproduced by those hell-bent on believing in Darwinian theory, and who wish to keep Creationists at bay.

While Pye agrees there’s convincing evidence for microevolution, he says it’s invalid to extrapolate these findings to support the myth of macroevolution.

And while he concedes that we possess incomplete fossil records, Pye counters that this, alone, is not enough to account for the many gaps – not exactly popularized by Darwin’s believers – in the alleged evolution of species.

Next, Pye argues that standard evolutionary theories attempting to explain the jump from quadrupeds to bipeds don’t make sense.

As an adult I’ve always questioned Darwinian theory, not because I wanted to believe in the Creation story outlined in the Jewish and Christian traditions, but because I probed on more than one occasion the mind of a respected zoologist who admitted just what Pye is saying–there are gaps and counterexamples in Darwin’s theory, and not too many people know about it.

Not only that, the zoologist agreed that the whole taxonomic scheme of Biology is really quite arbitrary. Sure, taxonomy is usually in Latin and sounds impressive. It has an authoritative ring and associated legitimizing effect. But the question remains–just because something is in Latin, does it reflect reality?

To get at truth means throwing away the assumptions we’ve been taught as children and reassessing in the light of reason, careful study and, when possible, direct observation. This often leaves us with more questions than answers but, to my mind, it’s better to admit uncertainty than to fall victim to regimented, authoritarian or facile thinking.

Along these lines, Pye touches on the idea that the Sumerians were somehow genetically engineered by the Annunaki or some other such beings, and duly notes ancient cuneiform passages that some believe support this view.

Part 2 of the DVD gives a detailed account of Pye’s passion, this being the 900 year old Starchild Skull, discovered in a cave in Mexico and brought to Pye’s attention by its inheritors.

Here we find a fascinating glimpse into a mysterious being with unusual eye sockets and half the skull thickness and weight of a normal human adult skull.

Pye outlines other anomalies about the skull, noting that at some places it appears more like hard tooth enamel than regular bone tissue. Moreover, odd fibres seem to exist within, almost like today’s fiberglass but with strands not nearly as dense and on a much smaller scale.

Whether one sides with Pye’s conclusions or those of his critics, the value of this DVD lies in its tendency to shake the cage and question conventional thought.

How often we forget that theories are just theories. Be they Darwinian or Einsteinian, popular theories are still just theories.

For those interested in the backstory and considerable details of Pye’s argument in support of Intervention Theory, Alien Origins is a must. Meanwhile, scientific studies on the intriguing Starchild Skull continue, as do debates about the meaning of their results.

–MC

• “Starchild Project Research Coordinator Lloyd Pye briefly covers the most unusual features of a 900 year old skull undergoing extensive scientific investigation since 1999″ (This YouTube video is not in the DVD, Alien Origins).

Review – Tarot Stripped Bare (DVD)

Tarot Stripped Bare - Reality Films

Tarot Stripped Bare is a comprehensive guide for learning about or further developing skills in reading tarot cards.

The DVD is clearly and logically arranged into sections that encourage learning through hands-on practice.

Perhaps most refreshing is this DVD’s lack of emphasis on divination–that is, fortune telling.

Tarot Stripped Bare takes a practical approach, advocating reflection on personal responses to the cards to find out ‘where we are now’ and how to get what we want out of life.

Put differently, the program favors an active over a passive technique. Instead of asking, “What will happen?” the DVD suggests we ask “How can I make this happen?” which seems a far more positive and healthier strategy.

Skeptics may write off the tarot cards as a sheer gimmick but when taken as a synchronistic mirror to the self, the cards could be helpful tools for self-knowledge and the achievement of personal goals.

Not only does this DVD present excellently, it also contains a bonus section outlining various spreads and a complete reference guide to each of the cards within the Major and Minor Arcana.

Tarot Stripped Bare is an extremely useful All-in-One video, in keeping with the holistic spirit of the tarot that adherents have enjoyed for centuries.

–MC