Book of Vivifying the Soul Forever - fiction?

[cj.23]

OK, here is an interesting one. A number of the webpages alleging links between Horus and Christianity cite often lengthy passages from a text supposedly called the Book of Vivifying the Soul Forever. (odd title to start with.) I can find no trace of this book, and note a lot of people suspect as I do that it never actually existed. Any sceptic with good google-fu or access to a good library and a bit of time care to try and track down the earliest mention or any bibliogrpahic details? ANET knows no such text.


cheers
cj x

[Hokulele]

I would recommend PM'ing GreNME, as he has put a bunch of time into researching the Horus thing. Most of it can be found on the Zeitgeist threads over in CT (sorry in advance), and he has a website posted up somewhere. Give me a few minutes and I will try to find some links.

[cj.23]

Cheers Hokulele - I should talk to him. :) I spent a lot of time a few years back responding to Tom Harpur's claims, and of course Freke & Gandy. I'm more of a Mithras nonsense debunking chap myself as you may have gathered, but I have had a lot of run in with Acharya's people :)

Interestingly I think the book referred to is the Papyrus of Ani, a Book of Going Forth by Day or Egyptian Book of the Dead. Unfortunately I can't find the passages ascribed to it in the text of the ms! Still it's a start I guess?

cj x

[LibraryLady]

It is not listed on the Library of Congress catalogue or on Worldcat. I checked the 14 volume Encyclopedia of Religion with no luck. It is not mentioned in the Handbook of Egyptian Mythology or the Dictionary of African Mythology, The Ancient Gods Speak: A Guide to Egyptian Religion, or Legends of the Egyptian Gods.

I have a friend whose hobby is Egyptology (he also reads 14 languages). I'll ask him if he knows this book.

[cj.23]

Thanks Library Lady, very much appreciated. I'm wondering if it might actually be a chapter title from E Wallis Budge's somewhat fanciful translation of an Egyptian Book of the Dead - sounds like his kind of chapter heading to me! It must be one of the most cited non-existent books, up there with HPL's Necronomicon, which at least had the decency to be admittedly fictional! :)

The original request came from Jeffersonian-Marxist over at www.richarddawkins.net/forum I'm just following it up as best I can for him.
cj x

[Wolfman]

Actually, the book exists...I wrote it myself in one of my ancient past lives. However, as no major publishers would pick it up, I had to self-publish. It became something of a cult classic among a select minority of followers, but soon faded into obscurity.

However, if it is being re-published in modern times, in any form, I will have to take steps to ensure that I receive the appropriate royalties.

A little tidbit of trivia about it...it was originally intended as a cook book, entitled, "Book of Vivifying the Soup Forever"; however, an unfortunate (or fortunate?) typo led to the current title. Amazingly, everything I'd said about how to vivify soup turned out to be applicable in vivifying one's soul (in a very metaphorical sense, where the soul is equated to lumps and chunks of various food products floating in a savoury broth).

It was, you might say, the very first "Chicken Soup for the Soul (http://www.chickensoup.com/)"

[LibraryLady]

Thanks Library Lady, very much appreciated. I'm wondering if it might actually be a chapter title from E Wallis Budge's somewhat fanciful translation of an Egyptian Book of the Dead - sounds like his kind of chapter heading to me! It must be one of the most cited non-existent books, up there with HPL's Necronomicon, which at least had the decency to be admittedly fictional! :)

The original request came from Jeffersonian-Marxist over at www.richarddawkins.net/forum I'm just following it up as best I can for him.
cj x

I'm at work, so I jaunted over to the shelf to get Budge's translation, but it does not appear in there, either in the table of contents or the index.

[Hokulele]

OK, here is the post where GreNME first jumps into the Horus/Christ fray.

http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?postid=2975320#post2975320

There is some good stuff for the next several pages, and then all heck breaks loose (metaphorically speaking). I found another post where he lists his recommended reading. Be right back.


ETA: Here is the list of recommended reading. Oof!

http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?postid=3571990#post3571990

[LibraryLady]

I checked the Invisible Library (http://www.geocities.com/nodotus/hbinvisiblelibrary.html) but it doesn't appear there.