What Jesus Never Said

For years, when attempting to explain how I view Jesus as one of the world's great spiritual teachers rather than a religious figure, I've said, "Jesus wanted us to emulate his teaching; he never said, "Start a religion and name it after me!"

Now, to my amazement and joy, Pam Grout, author of E2, echoes and validates my perspective in her hugely funny, on-point book about how we can prove our thoughts create our reality. The book is an easy read and a hoot: Jack Canfield (of Chicken Soup fame) says, "Pam has combined the humor of Ellen DeGeneres with the wisdom of Deepak Chopra."

 Here's the juice on Jesus, p. 34:

"The FP (Field of Potential or Possibility) is a force field that's equally available to everyone. It's a natural capacity in all of us, not an exclusive gift bestowed upon a few. In fact, that is the primary lesson Jesus taught.

"To worship Jesus the way we do is a little like worshipping Benjamin Franklin because he first discovered electricity. Ben Franklin sent that kite up in an electric storm so we could use the principle he demonstrated. He didn't do it so we'd build temples to him, paint pictures of him, and wear little commemorative keys around our necks. He wanted us to take the principle of electricity and use it — which we do to run radios and computers and air conditioners. Had we stopped with Ben's discovery the way we did with Jesus's discovery, we'd all be sitting in the dark.

"Benjamin Franklin didn't invent electricity any more than Jesus invented spiritual principles. Lightning and the resulting electricity have always been available. We just didn't realize it or know how to access it. Galileo didn't invent gravity when he dropped the wooden ball off the leaning tower of Pisa. He just demonstrated it.

"Likewise, Jesus demonstrated spiritual principles that he wants us to use and develop. We've wasted 2,000 years worshipping this idol of him instead of using the principles he taught us. Look through the Bible and nowhere does Jesus say, 'Worship me.' His call to us was 'follow me.' There's a big difference."

So get out your BF key and electrify your life with the Jesus principle: greater things than these shall ye do!