Mark L. Prophet (1918–1973)

This book, by Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, wasn't what
I'd thought it would be. And it could have been, perhaps, if it had
been written by anyone else but these two.

See, the idea is that there has to be more to what Jesus had to say than
what is recorded in the New Testament. There are at least 17 lost years
of his life, from the age of 12 to 30. The last thing we heard of him
before that disappearance was that he was in the Temple with the rabbis,
teaching them and astounding them with his knowledge. It simply makes
no sense that a person with that capability and that much chutzpah would
simply go off and lead a quiet life and not say anything of importance
for 17 years. There's also all those hints throughout the Gospels where
it is said that Jesus taught the disciples and explained things to them,
but it doesn't tell us what those teachings and explanations were. They
were secret, to be passed along only from one disciple to another and
have been lost.

Ok, with that much of a teaser, this book mentions (but just barely)
that there are documents from the 1st Century throughout India, Tibet,
Pakistan and other places in Asia that relate how Jesus was there during
that mysterious 17 years and that most of his secret teachings are
directly related to what we know now as "Eastern religions." The whole
chakra, reincarnation, etc. thing. But the book never really quotes
from the documents, doesn't really pinpoint them and what they really said.

Instead, this is basically a compilation of sermons by these two
preachers who try to relate what the teachings had to say but without
documentation, this amounts to nothing more than a bunch of verbose
(VERY verbose) ramblings. I mean, these folks could put an army to
sleep. This was a very difficult book to read, and it was only by sheer
determination that I finished it, hoping that somewhere in it there
might be something that I could research elsewhere and further study.
No such luck. What drivel!… (more)