I first saw the movie "The Planet of the Apes" when I was about 11 years old and it had a big impact on me for several reasons. The one reason I want to talk about is how it changed my idea of the world we are living in.

For those of you who haven't seen the movie, basically its about some astronauts in the future who travel far into space and crash on a planet in the galaxy. One of the astronauts who survives is played by Charlton Heston ("Get your damn paws off me you dirty ape!") discovers the planet is run by talking apes who act like humans. The astronaut gets captured by the apes and he learns that there are other humans on the planet but they are mute and very primitive. It is a planet where the roles are reversed between man and ape.

The apes have a religion for which they worship an Ape God who they believe created the universe. But the apes are incredulous when they capture the astronaut because they have never seen a human that is so "ape-like" and able to speak. In the end, the astronaut discovers the planet he crashed on is actually Earth only hundreds of years into the future. It is an Earth where humanity destroyed itself by nuclear war and the apes evolved far enough along to take over the planet.

This is a brilliant movie for many reasons. After I saw the movie, it made me imagine what it would be like if evolution were true (I didn't know that evolution was true at that time) but more than anything it made me realize how fragile this world appears to be and how the wars over religion and material things could easily destroy this planet. And this is nothing new. According to Cayce, Atlantis was destroyed because their technical knowledge exceeded their spiritual knowledge and they destroyed themselves because their weapons fell into the wrong hands. The recent Cold War and our current nuclear age is a good comparison to the Atlantis situation except that Atlantis lost out. But according to Cayce, a vast number of souls who had prior lifetimes in Atlantis have been reincarnating in droves to America for over a hundred years. It is not hard to believe that America itself is actually a reincarnation of Atlantis and now, once again, the stage is set to see if humanity can finally get it right and take that final step to fully evolve from the beasts and become the spiritual beings we really are deep inside.

And the threat comes not only from this planet, but from outer space. Just two months ago, there was a "nine-hour crisis" where astronomers were very concerned that a devastating asteroid was about to hit the planet within 36 hours. And the odds of Earth actually being hit by an asteroid of the kind that killed off the dinosaurs is 1 in 65 million. But before you believe that this is a safe figure consider that according to JPL this means a 1 in 3000 probability of being hit by an extinction asteroid before the year 2200. So I say let's forget about exploring Mars and first deal with this asteroid issue. And while we're at it, let's end the religious wars that have been going on since the dawn of man. We could keep getting rid of more of our nukes and help other countries get rid of theirs. The evidence is beginning to show that this planet has a very long history of civilizations rising and falling that extends farther than conventional science is aware of. The last thing we need is another extinction asteroid to hit this planet and humanity to go the way of the dinosaurs. Then it WILL be only the meek who inherits the Earth - the insects.

Humanity may need a great revelation from on high that will make everyone drop their weapons and join together to fight threats such as asteroids and global warming. We need to learn that that we are all God's children and that love is universal. It may be through NDEs that this revelation may come - if it does.  

In one sense, it has already come. The visions of the future from NDEs do not look too good for the near future. According to a vision of the future by Howard Storm during his NDE, the United States is headed for serious disaster if it continues to export its culture of violence and war around the world. See the visions of the future link above for more on this.

An international war against religious terrorist/fanatics is now being fought. And on top of this, I am afraid that Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion, about the slaughter of Jesus will tear open old wounds - pun intended. Although I am sure Gibson's intensions were honorable, the movie couldn't appear on the world stage at a worst time. With the "martyrdom" of religious terrorists on Sept. 11 still fresh in our memories and the religious/cultural wars going on right now in America, I don't think religious martyrdom is something we should be praising right now.

Every movie that comes out of Hollywood goes all over the world and to places where the movie could easily be misunderstood in places where there is already intense anti-Semitism and eager suicide bombers. I heard one movie critic describe the movie as "pornographically violent" by which he meant there was just too much of a strong emphasis on the blood and gore. For those of us who have been strongly against Hollywood's flood of intensely violent and bloody movies, to have a two-hour Christian snuff film means that Christians have now lost their moral high ground on this issue. I must qualify my criticism by saying that I did not see the movie myself, but I have heard the non-stop buzz about it on television - especially about how it is straining Jewish and Christian relations. Here is an outstanding review of Gibson's movie by someone who did see the movie and which goes even further in its criticism.

But what really surprises me is how devoid Gibson's movie is the teachings of Jesus which focused on unconditional love. I read a another review which mentioned that no sooner than 15 minutes into the movie does the bloody torture begin. I guess a movie about Jesus teaching love just does not draw box office revenue. I wouldn't be complaining so much if at least half of Gibson's movie was devoted to Jesus important teachings. A movie focused on his teaching would be far more interesting and life-changing. Especially because Hollywood just can't seem to make an accurate movie about Jesus. I can easily imagine a far better movie with all the action and thrill of Jesus calming the sea, walking on water, raising the dead, and especially and foremost, having Jesus mention that the way to eternal life and no more death is through the practice of unconditional love (Luke 10:25-28).

Jesus told his followers that by going to the cross he would draw worldwide attention (John 12:32). I am sure this was not an egotistical remark by Jesus. Certainly he wanted all this attention so that people would focused on his teachings of love rather than himself as a person. In other words, its the message which is important - not the messenger. Jesus was not an egomaniac - even when he said that he was "the way, the truth, and the life." Because even in this instance, I am sure he was referring to himself as an example to follow - the fully-evolved human-divine unity which is every human's goal. We must focus on taking up our own "crosses." It is foolish to just focus on Jesus' cross and thinking that is all it takes.

I hate to sound like the "Church Lady" on this but I believe America has more of a problem with violence in the media than with pornography. I would rather see Janet Jackson's breast on television than all the murder, killing, and violence that passes for entertainment. Gibson has an obvious fixation about portraying men who are pornographically fixated on being tortured such as in his films Braveheart, Patriot, We Were Soldiers, Road Warrior, Mad Max, the Lethal Weapon series, and now Passion. There is something very disturbing about such movies - even if it is about Jesus.

By the way, nobody killed Jesus. Let's set the record straight right here. Neither the Romans nor the Jews killed Jesus. And it is not true that "everyone killed Jesus." Jesus had a mission and a pact with God before he was born that he come here to teach love and become a martyr to advance his teachings. "Martyrdom" is a term which implies planning and voluntary suicide for the sake of a cause. The Bible plainly states that Jesus' death was planned by him before the universe was created. (see John 10:17-18; Matt. 16:21; Acts 2:22-23, Acts 4:27-28; Eph. 1:11)

If you assume that someone else was responsible for his death, then Jesus wouldn't really be a "martyr" at all. Jesus planned his death and made it happen. He was obviously looking for a fight with the religious establishment. Many Bible scholars believe that Jesus' act of creating chaos in the temple with the moneychangers was the real source of hostility. Another problem is that Paul and the gospel writers used a lot of anti-Semitic language when they attributing Jesus' death to "the Jews" as if the entire Jewish people were responsible. This is just as twisted as saying that "the Christians" killed all the Jews in Europe during World War II merely because Hitler and his goons were Christians. And this kind of bigotry has been a major problem for Jewish people for thousands of years. In America today, there is a growing tension because of the growing race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and religious warfare that is causing a lot of division in this country. The last thing we need on top of this is a Jesus snuff film and a debate about "Who killed Jesus?" And for God's sakes, let's support the institution of marriage by allowing gays and lesbians to participate in the wonderful institution of marriage!

In Jesus' day, society considered some people such as tax collectors, prostitutes, adulterers, homosexuals and prostitutes as outcasts and second-class citizens. Women had the same status as cattle, slavery was sanctioned, and so-called sexually immoral people were stoned to death. But Jesus didn't follow these social norms of those days and he made it a point to emphasize tolerance. Jesus hung out with prostitutes, "sinners" and tax collectors and even made some of them apostles. So this is the example we must follow - social tolerance.

We don't get to heaven by worshipping Jesus. We get to heaven by worshipping God within everyone through unconditional love. This was Jesus' whole point when he taught people that "ye are gods." So if we just go around and worship everyone as we would God, heaven would appear on this Earth very quickly.

By the way, if you want to read about Christ's crucifixion from people who were actually there (neither the gospel writers nor Paul was there) through a near-death experience, visit these NDE testimonies: Don Brubaker had a NDE where he was taken back into time to witness Jesus being crucified. George Rodonaia traveled back into time during his NDE and instantaneously lived in the minds of Jesus and his disciples. Gerard Landry actually saw Jesus on the cross in heaven during his NDE and I am sure it was nothing like in Gibson's movie. Click on these links for more about Jesus in NDEs and Christian NDEs in general.