St. Paul and George Adamski

The New York Review of Books [November 5^th 2015, Page 21 ff.] has reviews by G. W. Bowerstock of four new books on the Christian “saint” and Jesus promoter par excellence.

The books cover Paul’s political theology and stratagems, along with his contradictory stance on Jews and gentiles.

We all know that Paul had (allegedly) an experience on the road to Damascus whereupon he was (ahem) confronted by a resurrected Jesus who asked him why he (Paul) was persecuting him (Jesus).

This delirium (sensorial and persecutionis) was brought about by the guilt (I conjecture) that Paul felt after his “complicity in the stoning of Stephen in Jerusalem, the first Christian martyr, as reported in the Acts of the Apostles.” [NYRB, Page 21]

Paul, like Jesus, had schizophrenic tendencies, as Nietzsche intuited and elaborated upon in a book by Abed Azzam [Nietzsche Versus Paul, Columbia University Press, 2015].

My point here is that the episode is a bit like the meeting George Adamski had with his Venusian “friend” Orthon, that blossomed, like Christianity, into a mythos based upon a derelict mind-set, a neurological or psychological malfunction.

Paul made a career of his delirium just as Adamski did, one greater than the other but both sprouted by malfunctioning minds, not actual events.

(The Roswell incident is another example of furibundum delirium but that for another time.)

Madness in Civilization by Andrew Scull [Princeton University Press, 2015] covers the panoply of mental illness that has stricken humanity “from the Bible to Freud, from the madhouse to modern medicine.”

That Paul was “insane” (temporary or otherwise) is a given (for thoughtful persons).

That Adamski was also insane, in a like manner, is also a given (for thoughtful persons, even those who think Adamski was merely a conman).

Ufology, the “religion” of slightly off-kilter UFO buffs, is just as tainted as Christianity; the difference being that ufology is relatively harmless, whereas Christianity has become a generant  blight on humanity.

Paul and Adamski, two sides of an insane coin -- one causing great harm, the other making a phenomenon foolish.

N.B. Paul painting by Giordano, Adamski/Orthon photo from PhilipCoppens.com

RR