This answer came in response to a question about a man in Australia who claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus. And why so many people claim to remember past lives as Jesus or other famous people.
BEN: Quite literally, in an earthbound, 3 dimensional sense, there is no Jesus. He was a thought that was so thoroughly thought he became thought form that was thought so thoroughly he became a physical being that was so thoroughly thought he became a rock star who was thought so thoroughly that he became a superstar. Hence the musical of the same name. The musical could not have been written in the first century AD (CE) because it took centuries of people's energy being poured into him to make him into a larger-than-life being who has inspired millions of people to do all sorts of things to which he would have been adamantly opposed had he but known.
It's true that the times call forth leaders and heroes. The collective need of the people of that time and place created a hero. The needs of millions of people since then have enlarged and illuminated who and what he was.
DW: So Jesus was created retroactively?
B: In a sense, yes. Of course since time is an artificial construct, that is not as difficult as it sounds.
DW: So what about this guy our friend is asking about? Is he really Jesus?
B: He may well have been part of the energy that comprised the original first-century Jesus. Many many many people have been participants in that personality. However that does not qualify them to be spiritual leaders in this time and place. Living in the past is not healthy whether it be reliving your high school glory days as a football hero or over-identifying with a person you were in a previous lifetime. That was then; this is now. Sort of. Not really, but for you it is. Anybody who uses a real or imagined past life to claim entitlements, honors, authority etc in this life is unclear on the concept. Being a Rockefeller in a past life doesn't make you a Walmart heir in this life. More likely the contrary.That's my advice for today. If anybody claims any authority based on a past life, flee. Or at least go find somebody else to hang out with. Don't mess around with anybody who can't show you his credentials from this life. If you were Mozart, let me hear you play now. Or better yet, just get on with living this life.
B: Did I answer that?
DW:I don't know. I'm still confused.. You said he was a thought form that became physical. But you didn't say anything about his pre- life plan.
B: We're all thought forms that become physical. What did you think; the stork brings us?
DW: But there was a plan?
B: Of course. The plan was for an especially charismatic man to respond to the need of the time and be a courageous and inspirational teacher. A bunch of us volunteered for the job. Like when you take up a collection at the office and people chip in to buy someone a really nice wedding present.
There really are a lot of people with authentic memories of that life time. But fortunately most people don't consciously remember those memories or if they do they just glance at them once in a while, like going through the old photo album, and move on.
I.N.: I understand that JC was 'collective construct" so to speak... but why then there are so many versions of his story? He dies on the cross, he escapes to India, he moves to France with Mary Magdalene etc etc
B: Are you familiar with the verb "Christmas-tree?" Christmas treeing is what members of congress do when there is a bill before them and they start adding amendments, many of which have nothing to do with the original bill and many of which might be in conflict with the spirit and intent of the original bill. Jesus is the most Christmas treed individual in history. People keep adding amendments, most of which have nothing to do with the original intent of the originators of the original Jesus.
Donya and I heard an interesting discussion On Public Radio about memory. The essence of the message is that we don't actually remember anything. We reconstruct our memories. We fill in the missing parts; we reinterpret. Listen to two siblings who meet for the first time after twenty years. To hear them talk you would never believe they grew up in the same house. If individual people reconstruct their memories how much more so would societies, and cultures and organizations.
Being Jesus
From Facebook group
24 December 2012
B: Now I want to finish telling about being Jesus.
D: I'm not delighted about this. Aren't you afraid people will think you are crazy?
B: I should worry. You're the one who talks to the dead Rock Star.
D: Yeah. That's really what I was thinking.
B: It's not that big a deal. Remember I told you that people who start religions don't think they are a big deal. It's just the people who come after them who get all weird.
D: Still, claiming to be Jesus Christ is a bigger ego trip even than claiming to be Napoleon.
B: I don't see why. Somebody had to do it. Why not me? And it isn't as if I were the only person who was ever Jesus Christ.
D: I'm sure you are not only person who ever claimed to be JC. And most of the others are in psychiatric facilities of one sort or another.
B: Well of course I'm not claiming to be Jesus in this life. But back then.
D: You're not the only person who WAS JC?
B: Right. Infinite variations on every possible theme. Any number of souls who have been any number of people in any number of other life times could have been Jesus in some variation of that life time. You can be Jesus if you want to. In your next Life Between Lives you can sign up.
D: But Jesus was 2000 years ago.
B: You are imagining time as a unidirectional flow. But you should know better by now. From the Timeless, Spaceless place the past is just as accessible as the future or what pretends to be the present.