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Jesus and the Essenes  By  cover art

Jesus and the Essenes

By: Dolores Cannon
Narrated by: Carol Morrison,Saundra Kaye,Ted Snow
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Publisher's summary

This extraordinary document represents a new form of historical research and straightens out many open questions and misinterpretations. It takes the form of direct dialogues between a modern researcher and a member of the Qumran Essene community. Alive around the time of Christ, this community has become the focus of ideas about the connection of Jesus' teachings to earlier traditions. This book gives a full description of the nature and purpose of the community and the birth and upbringing of Jesus and John the Baptist. Also, it gives Essene renderings of Key Old Testament stories concerning Moses, Ezekiel, Daniel, and others, plus startling insights into ancient history. This information is candid and for real, even about the Dead Sea Scrolls, and many Biblical images and statements are corrected and added to.

©2009 Ozark Mountain Publishing, Inc. (P)2018 Ozark Mountain Publishing, Inc.

What listeners say about Jesus and the Essenes

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everyone should read or listen to this

i will be giving this book as a gift to some. the voice issue of the male performer didn't bother me, at least no more than portraits of Jesus as a Caucasian have long concerned me, as he was born and grew up in the Middle East, so surely he didn't look Caucasian. i am White, and am not into Identity Politics, but am a proponent of accurate representations. so the disagreement about the male voice having a southern accent is merely a continuation of a typical religious misrepresentation. religion is personal and is equated, apparently, with familiar physical characteristics to relate to it better, for whomever is telling the story. but the complaints did prepare me for the voice discrepancy, and that is, perhaps, the reason it didn't bother me at all. the words of the story are what matters and not who spoke them. the idea of Jesus and what He represented is what matters and not what he looks like in portraits.

Dolores Cannon was obviously a sincere and gifted person for whom Truth was the goal. i sensed no personal vanity or agenda in her writing, only sincerity of purpose. i will not unfold her story behind Jesus and the Essenes in my review, because reading it was such a gift that others should experience as it unfolds for them. it goes beyond the Cayce Readings, serves to explain and add credence to the Cayce Readings, as a sort of overarching umbrella under which the Cayce Readings make sense. it all makes so much more sense to me now. God Bless Dolores Cannon. i thank her from the bottom of my heart, and plan to read more of her books, as well as the books she suggested in the last segment/chapter of this book. i am also hoping that every one of her books will be made available in both ebook and audiobook format.

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44 people found this helpful

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Great content. TERRIBLE Narrator

I’m a chill guy and few things get under my skin. The male narrator tho was flat out terrible. Talk about a death bullet to the most beautiful and intellectually jarring story.

I love a southern accent. Lived two years in the Deep South and adore that accent. This book is not the place for it. I found myself feeling so annoyed when his voice came on that it ruined the experience. This review is not the best because all I’m focusing on is his voice. It’s so bad I can’t continue and am just gonna buy the book. I recommend anyone buying the book cuz this voice is just too hard to get past.

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38 people found this helpful

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Again? BAD NARRATION - distracting Southern accent

This book is a fantastic work by Dolores Cannon and deserves Professional Narration. Checking the narrator names, I see why the same problem with the narration of Between Life and Death has cropped up again. Really, it is very distracting to have the very Southern voice of the male narrator portraying the Teacher of the Essenes. So distracting that it pulls me out of the book and back into the present - at times I shake my head and laugh at the jarring wake-up.

This medium-to-high pitched male Southern voice lacks the scholarly gravitas that would be associated with the words spoken by this teacher of old, and is more like . . . some stereotype voice associated with the name "Bubba." Unfortunately, I see that the male narrator is also listed as "Publisher" so I fear more of Dolores Cannon's works might feature this distracting narrator. Oh well.

The book is fantastic. I love audio books. I don't know why a more professional presentation of Dolores Cannon's very important work isn't done.

Some years ago John Wayne played the role of Genghis Khan in a movie. It was bad casting and didn't work. The whole point of an audio book is to narrate a book for a listener's enjoyment of the author's work. The wrong casting can ruin an author's work. Finding the right voices, with the skill set to enunciate, correctly pronounce words, to pause and emote, or even to change voice portrayals to define and differentiate characters within a book is part of creating an audio book. This is the fourth Dolores Cannon book converted to audio book and there is a learning curve happening. Get professional narrators. Please.

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32 people found this helpful

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Excellent

The only complaint I had was the narrator of the male portion had a southern accent. When trying to engage in the character whom is from Isreal, the southern accent was difficult to get past.

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25 people found this helpful

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Amazing

Incredible, I’m not a Christian but I am hooked on Dolores’ books so I left this one for last. I was quite amazed of the history and story. I wish all of her books were on audible. On the other hand, the narration was not my favorite. I love a southern accent, however when the character is from the Middle East, the accent is not appropriate.

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21 people found this helpful

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Unmatched Accent Took Away From Story

Overall, I found this book to be very intriguing and insightful. The female narrators performance was excellent. However, the narrator who played out the male part had a Southern American accent that took away from the experience of that time, considerably. I would redo the audio book with someone who can play the part.

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19 people found this helpful

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The Gospel according to Dolores

Nothing remarkable here. An entire book dedicated to the life of a man who was a teacher of the youthful Messiah, a man who taught Jesus the mysteries of life... and yet, not one word from those intimate lessons from the lips of Jesus Christ himself. Not one snippet of a conversation with him. No new illuminating insights.
This book is more or less a description of the lifestyle of the essenes... and a postulation by Dolores Cannon on what the message of Jesus Christ is to the world, and what it all means.
I did appreciate the history lesson afterwards about what happened to Joseph of Arimathea and the 3 Mary's after the crucifixion.
The main narrator, Carol Morrison, was wonderful. The man with the Southern drawl, Ted Snow, not so much. However, I was able to overlook his narration in hopes the story would get better. It didn't. Saundra Kaye was painful to listen to.
If only Delores Cannon herself could have narrated her own books. I just love listening to her old talks where she is speaking about her books.

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12 people found this helpful

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Audio is terrible

Normally, I love Delores Cannon books, and I have listened to or read several. Inexplicably, the reader for the character representing a biblical times Essenes man is someone with a heavy Southern accent who reads in an extremely stunted and awkward cadence. I am a teacher, and if I had a student read in that manner, I would say he wasn’t a fluent reader. It was literally painful to listen to it and I could not finish the book.

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10 people found this helpful

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  • AS
  • 05-10-20

Not Biblical Christian

This is about reincarnation and past lives. clearly not Christian. We listened to 2 chapters and had to shut it off. nothing was mentioned of historical Jesus or the Essenes.

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7 people found this helpful

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Thought Provoking

I would have given this book 5 stars, and would encourage anyone to explored this challenging subject matter.

The narrative is compelling and raises many questions that are worthy of exploration. The main narrator has an excellent speaking voice, however, I had to deduct stars due to the poor choice of voices for the two voices chosen for the main character. Hearing the voice of first century learned Essene, with the accent of a country bumpkin was a unbearable strength, it made listening to this book border on the ridiculous. Thankfully, the story made up for this poor casting, and is well worth the time.

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  • MxHarris
  • 09-21-18

I've listened to this so many times

One of my favourite audiobooks of all time. I enjoy Dolores' work immensely and always feel like I've had my brain stretched every time. Fascinating and incredible.

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  • Ian Delaney
  • 05-03-20

A reassessment of biblical history

Many years ago I recall having read a book about someone who, under hypnosis, recounted a past life as one who lived in the Essene community. It wasn't until I came across this audio book that I realised it was the same title by Dolores Cannon, and I found it every bit as stimulating as the printed version.

This book is essentially one that is divided into two parts. The first section details the customs, beliefs and practices of the Essenes as they were recalled by a subject under hypnosis. It is intriguing that Dolores was able to extract a number of details about what life was like in that particular time period, as little is known about the Essenes and information from both archaeology and the Dead Sea Scrolls only provides a limited picture.

The second half of the book focuses on the life and ministry of Jesus and challenges a number of popularly accepted and dogmatic concepts, in particular the true origins of Christianity and the need to accept him as a guide and not a deity. The connection that Christ had to the Essenes has not been widely acknowledged, for which there may be reasons to do with how the church has attempted to control the narrative about his life and purpose. This book will make you rethink what you have been taught.

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  • Peace
  • 07-24-19

Excellent

It has changed my view of the bible and Jesus. Quite life changing. Highly recommend.

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  • Stephen
  • 07-23-21

Feels Authentic

Content is probably 80% on the Essenes and 20% (the last 20%) on Jesus. The conversation between Dolores and the Essene comes across as natural and believable. Plenty of interesting relevations and things unlikely to be made up.

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  • Lil
  • 07-21-20

Absolutely fantastic!

If you are thirsty for new fresh perspectives, but based in experience and expertise, not fairy tales, this is a must read. Love it!

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 06-14-23

You will want to listen to this many times

This is a brilliant book. I have listened to it so many times. Only criticism, and this can spoil so many books, is the choice of the person who speaks as Sadee. I'm from the UK so not familiar with all American accents but I think one a bit more neutral would have been easier on the ear. He sounds a bit like a hill-billy.

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  • M FRASER
  • 01-14-23

Full of fascinating details

Great story. Love Delores Cannon. Poor choice of male narrator for the part of Sadee. Heavy southern accent did not match well with the character in my opinion.

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  • J. S. Stevens
  • 02-08-19

An eye opener

loved it will be listening again and again. can't wait to read more of her books. how can you not believe in reincarnation after listening to this.

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  • P. Kemp
  • 07-10-23

interesting. but spoilt by the narration

I find the subject utterly fascinating. it's just a same the narration is so awful, especially the male.

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  • Charalampos Voidis
  • 06-17-23

Fascinating. interesting revealing book.

One of my favourite moments for attention on that moments on time . Recommended to those who search with an open mind

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  • Halena
  • 10-11-20

Fascinating!

Absolutely fascinating but unfortunately the readers were hard to listen to. The male voice didn’t match the character.

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  • Cbelle
  • 01-03-19

Astonishing amount of detail

Very interesting listen. The only thing I'd mention was the sometimes lengthy explanations by the author, though admittedly helpful to add context.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 12-31-20

The Essenes and Jesus

should have been the name of the book, as its a lot more about them than Jesus. Jesus's part takes maybe 25 percent of the book. great book otherwise

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  • Lisa Minner
  • 12-20-20

The narration ruined this

I don't like to leave negative reviews but the narration of this book is nowhere near the quality it should be. If you are competing for people's credits/$$$, (and to do justice to Dolores' work) you need to employ excellent narrators. I gave this about 20 minutes and could not continue. The male voice/accent was jarring and diminished the plausibilty of the character. I was truly looking forward to listening, having read many of Dolores' books years ago.

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  • Kindle Customer
  • 09-17-20

Jesus and the Essenes

A phenomenal book resonating so much truth. This book provides so much clarity to assist consciousness raising.

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  • Lindy Hall
  • 04-01-20

Wonderful!!

An absolutely fascinating narrative!!
Deeply profound and insightful, the teachings and perspective of the Essenses and Jesus presented here are beautiful and filled with light, I didn’t want it to end...

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  • linda goodall
  • 08-30-19

Fascinating book.

I couldn't wait to get to the next chapter to see what it reveled. I have so much respect for the work Doreen Cannon has done and has passed on to the world.

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  • Jessie W
  • 11-13-18

Dolores' work is incredible

I can't get enough of Dolores work, however the narrator's didn't do it justice whatsoever. especially the man narrating. he ought to at least try having a thick middle eastern accent, not a not an American accent which is painful to listen to!

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  • Anonymous User
  • 08-01-23

Mind blown

I thought this would be boring, but I was so wrong! One of the most intriguing pieces of work I’ve had the pleasure of digesting. So fascinating to understand how the Essenes lived, their principles, values and how much of this influenced Jesus. I grew up Christian but became disillusioned by the dogma and indoctrination of religion. This book restored my faith in the work of Jesus and what he truely stood for which seems to have been manipulated and distorted somewhat by the programming of the church.

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  • Suzanne Jammal
  • 06-04-23

The best book I’ve ever read

The content in this book is groundbreaking, touching, and thought provoking. The detail and depth of description of the times of Jesus is just incredible. Read and enjoy and keep an open mind. A must read for all starseeds and light workers.

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