There is an esoteric explanation to this—a deeper meaning, the kind that Jesus reserved for his closest disciples. Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you so that where I am, you may be also.” The afterlife is a complex region of consciousness into which our spiritual body “ascends.”

There are many “mansions” there. They’re called “egregores”—mental constructs created by the advanced beings who live in that realm. As we attune ourselves to Jesus—not just his teachings but his living presence—we are drawn automatically to that place when we die. This is what he meant by “I am the door.” Buddha said something similar: “The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon.” Today, we say, “The map is not the territory.”

So, esoterically speaking, this is very real. The physical plane is not the only place we exist. It is our temporary abode, into which and out of which we pass over and over again. You may have read about “ascended masters” in the writings of Blavatsky. Jesus is principal among them. That’s why he is called “the Son of God.” It just means that he is the point man for all of us—the mediator between us and God—which is the highest station in the spiritual realms, at least as far as we are concerned.

It is a place of high honor. Exoteric Christians—those who “believe”—have trouble with these teachings, but then so did many of Jesus’ disciples in his time, the ones who left him when he said something they didn’t like. There’s no doubt that if Jesus were to take on another physical body and try to teach today, the exoteric Christians would reject him outright. But that’s always been the case. The Muslims did the same to Halaj that the Jews did to Jesus, along with all of the Hebrew Prophets. But then, “A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country and in his own house.” Today, Jesus’ “own country” is mainstream Christianity.