The Higher Self is not God. It is a part of God and our connection to God. Many references in the New Testament that people think are made to God are actually references to this Higher Self, often called the Father. Notice that it is capitalized, like a reference to a deity. In the preceding chapter we looked at several Bible verses in which Jesus instructed his followers to consider themselves as children and the Higher Self as a parent.

To further illustrate how the Essenes and Huna, the root of the Essene teachings, affected the teachings of Jesus and his followers consider the many references to light and shadow as well as to a separate entity known as ‘the Father‘. In James 1:17 James tells us, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

In James 1:27 there is a clear reference to God and the Father. “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this…” (King James Version) This is a clear distinction between God and another Higher Being referred to as ‘the Father‘. In the Aramaic translation it is “God the Father.“

In John 20:17, Jesus says, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father: and to my God, and to your God.“ The King James version and Aramaic translation are in agreement on this verse. Once again the wording is important. It is my Father and God, not my Father, God. Both the Eastern and Western Bibles agree on this point and it is a very important point. It is stating that there is a higher parental figure that is with God, but may be seen and experienced separately. In other words, a part of God that we communicate with and that is between us and God, though we are in that Higher Self and it is in God.