January 5, 2025 • 59 mins
I can't believe I had never heard about Mani! He was a prophet from ancient Iraq who expanded on the teachings Jesus, Zoroaster, and the Buddha.
Most interestingly he believed in looking critically at religious texts and trying to understand them from a logical perspective. One text he was most interested in was THE BOOK OF GIANTS- a lost scripture of the Bible.
Though we hardly hear about Mani, he left a long lasting impact on the religious world and there are traces of him everywhere.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:37):
The Hello, little girl. Welcome to Esoterica and
Nonsense, a podcast where we discuss myths, legends, folk
tales, fairy tales, supernaturalphenomenon and religions from
around the world. I am your host, Annabelle, AKA.
(00:58):
This is just story time. We're basically here to just
have story time. You know the drill.
If you're new to my podcast, welcome.
You're an OG. You're the best.
And yeah, I'm just really excited.
I'm going to burn some Palo Santo right now because I've
just been finding it's been verygrounding, especially when I
(01:22):
start to overthink. I'm starting to record myself on
video for my podcast because I have discovered that that's what
the algorithm wants. Now I'm trying to feed this
flippant algorithm people and I've learned today that the
first two episodes that I recorded on video just didn't
(01:43):
save to my camera. Fantastic.
It's like 3 hours worth of me talking to myself.
Don't worry, the audio is up. But I feel a little bit
defeated. I feel kind of nervous because I
don't know, I'm not really like technology literate and it's
taken me a few years to feel comfortable recording myself and
(02:06):
now adding the video component, I feel like kind of shy.
Like I feel like, I don't know. I feel like I'm like at a middle
school dance again. Also, is it just me?
But I feel like middle school affected me more than I
realized. And now that I'm thirty, I've
just been thinking back to like all these Mean Girls at my
(02:26):
middle school and how much theiropinion of me in middle school.
I feel like it's like still a voice in my head or something.
And yeah, like I feel like when I make my podcast, I'm like
thinking about all these assholes for my middle school,
like finding me and hating on meor something.
(02:47):
And I've just kind of been like unpacking that.
I feel like that's really sad. And and yeah, anyway, hello.
Welcome to 2025. I'm so I'm loving 2025.
I don't know about you, and today I have chosen an
incredible topic. Today we are going to talk about
(03:07):
Manic a ISM. I don't know if you can hear
these Peppers barking in the background, but I literally
waited 10 minutes to start recording.
And I was like, you know what? I'm going to let them bark.
I'm going to let them get it out.
And then I start recording and they're just back on the
bullshit. They're just back on it.
The Peppers love being on the. Podcast, we're going to have to.
Get a live interview. I don't really know their names
(03:30):
but I have seen their bodies through the window and they are
medium short legged round boys. One of them is kind of like a
hot dog dog, like he has like the the complexion of a hot dog.
And then the other one is like white with brown spots, but
they're very round, like almost square in their proportions, a
(03:53):
little bit longer than they are round.
They're very round. They have short legs, but they
are medium boys. That's why I called them a short
leg, medium round boy. And they just barked.
So I'm going to take that as agreement.
Medicaism, what is it you asked?I'm so glad that you asked.
(04:13):
Medicaism is a religion that I had actually never really heard
of until I started doing Wikipedia deep dives in the
middle of the night. Which is why I started this
podcast. And Manicheism is a religion
that in many ways has been forgotten, but has quite a large
(04:34):
legacy on the world and specifically on Christianity.
Now, if you have not listened tothe episode about
Zoroastrianism, I highly recommend that you do in a, in a
big way, manic A ISM is almost like Zoroastrianism Part 2 Part
(04:55):
D Like it's, it's similar in a sense to what Christianity is to
Judaism because in many ways Christianity is like an add on
to Judaism, but in another way, they like rebrand the whole
religion and has distanced themselves from like the culture
(05:17):
of Judaism and a lot of the original holidays.
And so like manicatism is like same, same, but different.
That makes sense. Let's let's get into it.
Let's get into it. Enough of me pontificating.
Also, I like to remind everyone,I've said it once and I'll say
it again. I grew up in the United States
of America and I have essentially like a peasant
(05:41):
education. So I'm researching this on the
Internet. I've also like, you know, been a
bunch of like my esoteric research, like on my own and
books and whatnot. But I always just want us to
look at the historical lens of any kind with a critical with a
critical mind, right? Because who's the one writing
(06:04):
these histories down? You know, like usually men who
have been colonized in some way.And often the history we read is
read by colonizers, right? So I don't know you, you already
know the drill. I, I go on this rant it seems
like every week, but I just wanted to just wanted to throw
(06:25):
that out there as a reminder. OK, So what is manicatism?
Manicatism was a religion that was actually started by a man
named Manny and Manny was born around the year 216 CE or as us
older folks were taught AD right.
(06:48):
But I think CE now means currentera.
So anyway he was born around 216and died in around 274.
So this is like this was before Christianity became the official
religion of the Roman Empire. This is this is like an
(07:10):
interesting time in the ancient world because from our
perspective, we consider this ancient, but this was the time
when the Egyptian Empire was nowbeing colonized mostly by the
Arab world and then in some points by the Roman Empire.
There was a lot of globalizationhappening.
And as a reminder, this is a good few thousand years after
(07:36):
Zoroastrianism was created, right?
So Manny, who's sometimes known as Manness or Manichaeus, was
the founder of Manichaeism. And Manichaeism is a dualistic
religion that grew quite popularin the ancient world and is
(07:59):
considered an add on or an expansion of Zoroastrianism.
Manny was a Persian prophet and a spiritual teacher who sought
to synthesize elements of various religious traditions
into a universal belief system. And this is, this is the thing
(08:22):
about Manny that is very visionary that I want to point
out. And, and I, we're going to get
into details, but from a, not necessarily from a religious
perspective, but from APR perspective, like a public
relations perspective. Manny created a blueprint which
was replicated time and time again, specifically by the
(08:43):
Christian megalith, really like the Roman Church, the Roman
Catholic Church really took a lot of his ideas on how to
spread a religion. And so from a, he's almost like
one of the greatest business minds of religion and you'll see
why. OK, so like I mentioned, Mandy
was born around 2/16. He was born in Babylonia, which
(09:07):
at the time was part of the Sassanin Sassanian Empire, which
is, from our perspective, like ancient Persia and is now the
modern day Iraq. And this is, again, a really
interesting overlap because it'snot necessarily super far from
(09:30):
where Zoroaster was believed to be born.
And, you know, just throwing it out there.
So Manny came from a family thatwas a Jewish Christian sect and
they were known as oh fuck. I looked up how to pronounce
this and I already forgot. No Oh yes, elka sites.
(09:58):
I'm pretty sure it's elka sites.I've I've looked up other
pronunciations that seemed very wrong.
So we're going to go with Elka sites.
And I feel like I've seen this word written down, but I
actually knew nothing about it. And I found this really
interesting because I, I, I feellike I just touched on this, but
I always kind of wondered why Christianity left behind so much
(10:22):
of the Jewish culture. You know, like Christians don't
celebrate Passover, Rosh Hashanah, young people or put
him like all of these like holidays and and thousands of
years worth of culture feels like it was erased, even though
they still like read the Old Testament, which is the Torah,
(10:43):
may I add. Anyway, so this religious group
known as the Elka sites were an ancient Jewish Christian combo
and they were their population was mostly located in lower
Mesopotamia in the province of the Azorisan, which was
(11:06):
basically a part of the SassaninEmpire.
This would again be in the areasof modern day Iran and Iraq.
And this group had most of its popularity between the years 100
and 400 CE. And a big part, I mean, I'm not,
(11:27):
I'm just, this is like a brief summary.
But an interesting part of theirbeliefs revolved around frequent
baptisms for purification and a lot of Gnostic orientation and
ideas. And Gnosticism is something that
I find also very interesting, which I actually need to do a
(11:47):
full episode on. But this is just like a brief,
super brief summary of Gnosticism.
And stay tuned. I promise you I am going to do a
full episode. But Gnosticism is a term used to
describe a diverse set of religious and philosophical
movements that emerged in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE,
(12:07):
primarily in the Greco Roman world.
These traditions are united by their emphasis on gnosis, a form
of esoteric experiential knowledge that leads to the
spiritual enlightenment and salvation.
Gnosticism heavily influenced early Christianity and Judaism,
(12:29):
as well as other philosophical traditions, although it was
later condemned as heretical by the Orthodox Christian
authorities, of course. But Gnosticism is a really
interesting branch of ancient religion and it's still
practiced to this day. It really focuses more on the
(12:49):
theology aspect of religion. And so it's very heavy on US
reading ancient religious texts and and really studying them
almost academically and working on things like translating them.
What do they really mean? What are the what are the
context of these? What are the interpretations in
(13:09):
a sense, what's happening? No dude, sometimes my recording
equipment tries to connect to mycell phone and it's like why?
Why would I be wanting to connect to my cell phone while
I'm recording through my microphone?
Hello. I feel like I'm taking crazy
(13:31):
pills. What was I talking about?
Gnosticism, interestingly. So like when I was in high
school, I was doing like late night deep dives and I stopped
studying my school work and I started like buying books at
(13:51):
bookstores and like going on crazy online tangents.
But I ended up watching a reallyinteresting documentary about
theology and how theology is like the grandchild of
Gnosticism and how that is what created the quote UN quote
(14:11):
Illuminati. And according to this
documentary, the Illuminati, really all it really was was a
group of Americans who we consider the Founding Fathers
who wanted to secede from Britain and primarily because
they wanted religious freedom. And essentially, according to
(14:34):
this documentary, the Founding Fathers and a lot of other
Americans, including George Washington or whatever, were
meeting in secret to have theology meetings and to
essentially like read ancient scriptures and unpack them
academically, which I do find aninteresting subject.
I don't necessarily trust that these white men had any
(14:55):
interesting hot takes, but I do really respect the practice.
I am very interested in the ideaof Gnosticism and the idea of of
academically understanding ancient texts from from many
perspectives. Shout out Carl Jung.
Carl Jung I feel like was gnostic, maybe knowingly or
(15:19):
unknowingly I I have no idea. OK so Manny who is the prophet
of Manichaism had a very interesting life and this does
kind of remind me of Zoroaster. OK wait one second, I need to
adjust my chair. I hope that it doesn't make a
loud noise. Please, please, please.
(15:40):
Oh yeah, there we go. We need, we need the full butt
cheeks on the the chair. We don't, we don't like the half
butt cheek situation. So at the age of 12, Manny
allegedly reported an incident where he received his first
divine revelation from a spiritual being, which he called
(16:03):
the twin, or sometimes he wouldn't call it, his heavenly
self. And essentially it was a figure
that guided him through throughout his life.
So this was at the age of 12. Fast forward to the age of 24,
he received another revelation instructing him to leave his
family's religious sect and to preach a new universal religion.
(16:29):
This is where the PR really comes in.
So like in a nutshell, Manny's teachings aim to reconcile and
transcend existing religions. So he combined elements of
Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Gnosticism.
(16:51):
Very interesting. The key doctrines of his
religion include one dualism. Essentially, a central aspect to
this religion was the struggle between light and darkness,
which does remind me a lot of Zoroastrianism and of course,
Christianity. According to Manny, the world is
(17:17):
a battleground for the two opposing forces of light and
dark or good and evil, and that the human soul, which is a
fragment of light, is trapped inthe material body which is made
of darkness. Interesting, interesting.
(17:37):
Another key principle of Manichaism was salvation.
Salvation involved a person liberating his or her soul from
the material world through knowledge or gnosis, aesthetic
practices and ethical living. Many viewed himself as the final
(17:58):
prophet in a line that included Zoroaster, Buddha and Jesus.
For me, that's always a red flag.
Like, I'm not, I don't know how I feel about prophets
necessarily, but when someone proclaims himself a prophet, I
feel like it's a red flag. And I think if somebody
proclaims himself the last prophet, I feel like that's a
(18:21):
huge red flag, right? Like that's when I'm, that's
when I start getting skeptical of you because you're going to,
you're going to like name drop yourself Zoroaster, Buddha and
Jesus and say you're the last one.
So like forever. There's never going to be
another prophet in your, in yourlegacy.
(18:44):
I, I feel like that, that's a crock of shit, right?
I feel like I'm right, OK? Another core principle that
Manny believed was the idea of universal religious practice.
He sought to create a universal belief system that could unite
diverse traditions. He the pieces of Zoroastrianism
(19:07):
he liked. It was obviously the dualistic
cosmology and also the idea of ethical dualism, the idea that
like your ethics and your actions could play into this,
this good or evil, this light orthis dark.
From Christianity he pulled fromthe elements of Jesus's
teachings, though he rejected the idea of Jesus's physical
(19:30):
incarnation. Interesting.
And from Buddhism he pulled the ideas of aestheticism and
reincarnation. And I I, I do actually think
that he is on to something here.I What I'm not sure about
though, like just reading a lot of this information, is that I
(19:55):
do. I'm not necessarily mad at the
things he's pulling from, but I'm almost wondering if he did
this to be famous. You know how like.
Some kids are like, I want to befamous.
And at this time, obviously there wasn't like movie stars.
So like, what if just what if this was actually like a young
person's plot to become a prophet for fame reasons, You
(20:18):
know? And like, maybe like, I'm just,
I'm just like talking out of my ass right now.
But the fact that he proclaimed himself a prophet and proclaimed
himself the last prophet in thisline, and he's, like, picking
and choosing from all these religions.
Like, what if this guy was actually just a public relations
(20:40):
visionary and this was his plan to fame?
That would be iconic. Let's make a movie about that
Hollywood smoke. Put that in your pipe and smoke
it. Hey, little Pepper, this is
Annabelle here reporting live from Pepper World HQ.
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(21:03):
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(21:24):
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(21:44):
I appreciate you so much. I made this podcast to connect
with cool freaky people like youso thank you so much.
Dude, these Peppers are just barking up a flip and storm.
This is their world. It's not mine, it is their
(22:07):
world. OK, Just here zoning out.
OK, so 1 aspect and OK, this is actually playing into my theory
1 aspect about Manny that reallykind of goes into this idea of
(22:29):
him being a public relations genius was his method of
missionary work. So he was all about preaching.
Manny would travel widely throughout the ancient world and
he would preach about his religion in ancient Persia,
Mesopotamia, and beyond. His teachings gained followers
(22:54):
and the Sasanian Empire along the and along the Silk Road,
reaching as far as India, Central Asia and the Roman
Empire. And think about that like that's
fucking visionary. He was going along the Silk Road
and preaching what that's that'siconic.
(23:18):
Another interesting aspect that Manny did, which again was
brilliant from a marketing perspective, is that he would
hire local artists in different places to do renderings of
himself as a prophet. So for example, like in India he
would have an Indian artist drawhim and in in Mesopotamia he'd
(23:43):
have a Mesopotamian artist. So along with his preachings,
people would get art that was localized to them.
Does this ring a bell? Because this is classic, classic
Christian methods of missionary work.
The Christian world is known fordoing this all around the world.
(24:06):
Wherever they spread. They have a local artist do
renditions of the Mother Mary and Jesus like it.
It feels like it's copy and pasted from Manny's vision.
Manny was also considered to be a prolific writer.
He was composing works in multiple languages including
Syriac and Middle Persian. His key texts included the Shabu
(24:31):
Ragan, which was written for King Shapur the 1st and this
summarized his teachings. It had a living gospel which was
a sacred text for Manichaeans, as well as a book known as The
Treasure of Life, which had the Book of Giants and many others.
And that is crazy to me because I have heard of the Book of
(24:57):
Giants, which I believe was a part of the Book of Enoch, and I
didn't realize that this was considered to be part of
Manicheism. And if you don't know, the Book
of Enoch, which includes many books, and also the Book of
Giants were found in versions ofthe Dead Sea Scrolls, or I mean,
not versions. They were found in the Dead Sea
(25:19):
Scrolls as well as some other religious, ancient religious
Christian texts that were found in the Middle East.
And I always wondered why they weren't included.
And obviously now it makes more sense to me that the, the Roman
Catholic Church was not having many.
But I, I do find this to be very, very interesting.
(25:42):
And I'm going to get into the Book of Giants in just one
second. So of course, as we expect,
Manny was a very controversial character.
People were not liking him. People, a lot of people who
(26:03):
weren't converting to Manikaism despised him.
Now, I wasn't there. I can't necessarily make a
personal judgement, but just like for me reading the facts
there, there is a part of me that thinks that Manny was more
business oriented than he was spiritually oriented simply
(26:25):
based on how much he was trying to spread the religion.
Like this almost feels like, yeah, like a business, you know?
But again, like, maybe his methods were just Co opted by
people like the Roman Catholic Church who used it more as like
a colonization tactic. Maybe many like really did this
(26:47):
out of the goodness of his heart.
Like I have, who am I to say? I'm not trying to destroy his
character right now, but from from the facts that I'm reading
alone, I'm just smelling like a little whiff of like I want to
be famous. I'm an entrepreneur, you know,
like that's the kind of guy thatManny's giving me.
I hate to say it. So without surprise, a lot of
(27:11):
people were really skeptical of him and didn't like him.
And interestingly, specifically,the Zoroastrians really didn't
like him, which is understandable because I'll
remind you from the Zoroastrianism episode, a big
aspect of the religious teachings of Zoroastrianism were
really about simplicity, right? Having kind intentions and doing
(27:34):
kindness for the sake of kindness.
So I could see why Zoroastrians may have an issue with Manny,
thinking him maybe to be a little ego driven and so focused
on converting followers and likefocusing less on charity and
just being kind, which are kind of like the cornerstones,
cornerstones of Zoroastrianism. So interestingly, while Mani was
(27:59):
tolerated under King Shapoor thefirst in now modern day Iraq,
Many's teachings were seen as a threat to the Zoroastrian
priesthood. So eventually under King Baram
the first, Mani was arrested andimprisoned.
Eventually Many died in the year274.
(28:20):
And if he was born in around 2:16, that makes him around 60
years old. And so he died after enduring
torture and imprisonment. There are accounts that he may
have been executed and some traditions believe that he was
flayed alive. Fuck, even though he died at the
(28:43):
age of 60, he left quite a legacy and after he died his
religion spread widely. I mean not a surprise.
I feel like once the prophet dies, that's when it really like
gains momentum. He did become one of the most
influential religions of the of late antiquity, which is crazy,
right? Like no one ever talks about
(29:04):
this stuff. And again, maybe I'm just a
conspiracy theorist, but I feel like the Roman Catholic Church
purposely wants to erase these religions, right?
Like why are we learning about this in school?
I want to learn about this. So after he died, Manichaean
communities flourished in the Roman Empire and in Central Asia
(29:27):
and China. A fun fact is, you know, like a
in Christianity, a nun's habit, how nuns have those like they're
called habits for some reason, but they're like those flowing
fabrics on their head that is directly derivative of
(29:48):
Manichaean priest attire. Specifically the ones like I'm
thinking about the ones like from the Sound of Music where
like in the front there's kind of like a square, there's like a
square thing over the forehead. So it kind of drapes in like a
square situation that is full onManichaean dress and it became
(30:09):
Co opted by Christian churches. But that it like comes from
Manichaean culture from from theancient world.
And like I that's what's so interesting to me about this.
Like the the Roman Catholic Church hasn't even existed by
the time he died, Rome was spreading its borders fast, but
(30:30):
didn't have an official like religion, religion.
They were just kind of doing what is now called Pagan stuff,
but, you know, like the ancient Roman religion.
And so there was practicing Manichaeans, people who were in
priesthoods, people who were, like, converting and practicing.
Like, what? I never knew.
(30:52):
Eventually, the practice of Manichaeism declined, mostly due
to persecution by Zoroastrians and Christians and eventually
Muslim populations. And over time, this just led to
a decline in Manicheism, similarto how Zoroastrianism declined
eventually. By the 14th century, Medicaism
(31:15):
had largely disappeared as an organized religion.
And and that's actually not bad though, because he was born in
the year 200. So that's almost a little over
1000 years. That's not a bad run.
That's not a bad run. I feel like he succeeded.
If his dream was to be famous, 1000 years of fame is not bad at
all. So even to this day, Manny did
(31:40):
really make an influence. And specifically, Manny's ideas
influenced the Gnostic traditions of Christianity, and
they may have indirectly shaped early Christian and Islamic
ideas. His cause, his cosmological
myths and dualistic worldview resonate with certain
philosophical and religious systems to this day,
(32:01):
specifically the Book of Giants.What?
So allegedly Manny wrote the Book of Giants, which I just
really want to emphasize is a huge deal.
Like, I had no idea a lot of these books of the Bible slash
the Torah. No one knows who really authored
them. And allegedly Manny himself
(32:24):
wrote the Book of Giants, which is wild.
The Book of Giants is an ancientapocryphal text, and it's
traditionally associated with Manicheism and earlier Jewish
traditions, such of those found in the Book of Enoch.
Enoch, the Book of Giants explores the story of the
(32:46):
Nephilium. The Nephilium were offspring of
a giant race. They were known to be fallen
angels, and they were alleged they were they they were said to
have sex with human women. And so their offspring were
known as the Nephilium. The Book of Giants expanded on
(33:07):
themes of their sin, their punishment, and their eventual
destruction. What?
So just to be clear, even though.
Oh, OK, OK, OK, wait, wait, wait, I'm wrong.
Manny did not write the book of giants Manny wrote about.
(33:28):
OK, this makes so much more sense.
No wonder the Book of Giants is likely to have originated in the
Second Temple of Judaism around the 3rd to the 1st century BC.
OK, so this is like a good few thousand years, few 100 years.
My bad. Before Manny, that makes so much
(33:49):
more sense. But Manny really was like
writing a lot of scripts, scriptures about this and
talking about the Book of Giants.
OK, OK, we're caught up to speed.
Whoa. So Manny wrote elaborations of
the events described in the bookof Giants and the book of
Genesis and the book of Enoch. The book of Giants describes the
(34:14):
actions of the quote UN quote watchers who were fallen angels
who descended to earth. They were known to have
corrupted humanity and of course, eventually father the
Nephilium. According to Manny, the text he
modified and changed the text tofit his dualistic worldview.
(34:36):
According to Manny, the giants are a symbol of the conflict
between the forces of light and darkness.
Like what? Like, I'm just so sad that so
many of these books haven't beenlike, they, they, they feel like
they've been seemingly erased. I just feel like it's so
(34:57):
frustrating. OK, so a Plot Summary of the
Book of Giants is that the Book of Giants recounts the story of
the Nephilium, who are the offspring of these fallen angels
and human women, and they talks about their violent reign on
planet Earth and their ultimate destruction of the Earth.
(35:18):
Allegedly, not all of these texts have survived.
And I say allegedly because sometimes I don't believe that.
I feel like the Vatican has copies of this and they don't
share. I would put money on it.
Come for me. But these are the themes that
are known to be mentioned withinthe Book of Giants.
(35:39):
So one is the corruption of Earth.
The Watchers, who are like the rebellious angels, descended to
Earth, and they took human wives, producing monstrous
offsprings known as giants. This is known to have been the
corruption of Earth. Naturally, these giants were
(36:00):
known to wreak havoc. They consumed human and animal
life, and they spread sin and corruption.
OK, pause. I'm just going to put this
through like an Anunnaki lens because of course the ancient
Mesopotamian history, not religion, because allegedly
ancient Mesopotamia didn't have a word for religion and they
(36:23):
considered their writings to be history.
But according to the Mesopotamians, there were gods
who came out of the sky who weregiant, and some of them took
human wives and many of them fathered children who eventually
became the kings and queen of Earth.
(36:43):
From their history, those were great kings and Queens.
However, allegedly some of theserulers were from the from the
human peasant perspective, were considered to be brutal, cruel.
And so perhaps I'm just like, playing the devil's advocate
right now, but perhaps this story of the Book of Giants is
(37:07):
actually about the Anunnaki and the children that they fathered
with humans and how they were Dicks.
You know, I'm just, I'm just throwing out a theory here, OK?
Also mentioned in the Book of Giants are the dreams of the
giants. According to the Book of Giants,
these children of the the fallenangels and humans began to have
(37:29):
apocalyptic dreams foretelling their destruction as punishment
to their actions. One giant, one giant known as
Oya, dreams of a divine flood that will annihilate them.
Another, known as Mawe, dreams of a heavenly tablet describing
their doom. Java, did you know that humans
(37:55):
are made mostly of water? Something like 80% or something?
I don't, I don't remember the stats.
But water is crucial you guys. Water is crucial.
Have you been drinking water today?
I highly recommend it. You can also add a little bit of
like pink salt or or Celtic saltor some nice like Real Salt to
(38:20):
your water to help your electrolytes.
You can do a cucumber infusion. You could add some mint in
there, some chia seeds like I'm.I'm inviting you to be creative
here, but I'm also here to remind you, drink your water,
baby boy. Drink your water really helps
with the function of the nervoussystem, the function of the
(38:42):
bowels. We're talking optimal
functioning here. Drink your water, baby.
I do really wonder how much is in the Vatican, how much like in
the Vatican Library. I don't, I don't know if any of
(39:05):
you have listened to my first episode, which is about
labyrinths, but there's a portion of that episode where I
talk about a priest who was employed by the Vatican who was
hired to spend like 20 years of his life or something in
northern India and Nepal and literally just kept extensive
journals. And apparently this was like a
(39:27):
common practice in the Vatican for hundreds and hundreds of
years. They would send priests around
the world to keep detailed journals of all kinds of things,
history, local customs, religious beliefs, and, and
specifically ancient history. And specifically in the
(39:48):
labyrinth part there, there was this priest who was spending
time in Nepal at least 1000 years ago.
And he talks about a local legend where there was a, a
castle in the area whose walls were surrounded by a labyrinth.
And allegedly this was in Gorakhpur, which I've actually
(40:09):
been to. So they say that like the the
palace. Had a city around it and around
it a giant labyrinth and according to the local legend,
the word labyrinth was also interchangeable for the word
castle and eventually the wall. Somebody jumped the walls and
(40:35):
the overtime like the walls weredisassembled, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. But I just like what I would do
to get my hands on these journals that this priest was
writing and sending back to the Vatican, like 20 years of
traveling through northern Indiaand Nepal.
Like what? And like think about all the
(40:56):
other priests in other parts of the world and what they were
writing down like truly wild. And I, I would like I said, I
wouldn't really bet money that the Vatican has the book of
Edom, the book of giants. I, and that would be so cool if
if for any reason anyone listening is associated with the
(41:17):
Vatican, I would like to love, Iwould love to interview someone
from the Vatican. I would, I mean, who knows that
they they wouldn't probably be truthful with me.
I'm skeptical. I feel like they would lie.
And I'm sure like a lot of people don't know all the deeds,
you know, but OK, one, one last tangent.
If you haven't seen the 1999 film Stigmata starring Patricia
(41:41):
Arquette, I'm telling you, you are in for a sweet treat.
Stigmata is an incredible film. It is so much fun.
I love that film and there is actually like some aspects of
the film which is like based in reality which was that when the
(42:01):
Dead Sea Scrolls were found there were gospels that were
translated and not added to the Bible.
Like even though they are considered part of the OG Bible
slash OG Torah the the Vatican deemed them as heretical which
(42:22):
is crazy. How can you deem scriptures that
are older than your own religionand deem them as heretical?
Like, that's crazy, you know what I'm saying?
This is the kind of stuff that keeps me up.
And are you guys OK, back on track.
So according to the book of Giants, there was an aspect
(42:46):
mentioned that was really about the themes of seeking
forgiveness. So in the Book of Giants there
is a section where these giants who started becoming terrified
of their dreams and visions of like the world ending.
Basically they seek advice from Enoch who is a righteous prophet
and scribe. And if I'm not mistaken, I do
(43:08):
believe that Enoch is a ancestorof Noah according to Enoch.
Or according to the texts I should say, Enoch handwrote
letters to God on their behalf, but the giants pleas for mercy
(43:28):
were ultimately rejected. And interestingly again I want
to mention that according to ancient texts, Enoch did have
Anunnaki blood. So like let's say Enoch, if his
name started with an EN, he was probably the son of Enlil,
(43:49):
right? I'm just like looking at this
with an Anunnaki perspective. But like Enoch I'm assuming was
the son of Enlil based on his name.
And these other giants who are quote, UN quote half breeds,
could have just been bastard children of other Anunnaki and
therefore didn't have claim to their Thrones, but just had a
bunch of power over human beings.
(44:11):
So the fact that Enoch wrote a letter to God could have been
Enoch writing a letter to his dad asking basically for his
cousins to have mercy, right? And his dad was like, no, your
cousins are a liability, right? That's that's just like what I'm
picking up on this. Maybe I'm nuts.
OK. Another aspect of the book of
(44:31):
Giants was divine judgement. In the book of giants, God
decrees that the giant's destruction.
Oh, sorry, God decrees that the giants must endure destruction.
And that's what sets off the catastrophic flood.
(44:53):
And that actually is interestingbecause that is a change of
narrative, right? Because the catastrophic flood
in the Bible is said that God isbasically tired of humans and
how selfish they are, whereas inthis story God is tired of the
giants and how entitled they are.
(45:16):
At this point, the parents of the giants, who are the fallen
angels, were imprisoned by God and the earth was cleansed of
their offspring and their corruption.
Dude this is honestly sounding alot.
This is like sounding deeply Anunnaki and coded.
If you don't really know exactlywhat I'm talking about, I highly
(45:36):
recommend to check out Introduction to Aliens Part 1.
I also feel like I should just do a full episode on the
Anunnaki. I believe me.
I've like started notes so many times I've gotten overwhelmed
because it's like, where do we even start?
There's so much to cover. Like do I talk about the whole
(45:57):
pantheon? Do I like talk about the
pantheon and relationship to allthe religions in the world?
I start getting stressed. My brain starts going
everywhere. I'm really just trying to really
just trying my best here. You guys.
I'm just one guy. So that I just gave you a brief
summary of like what the Book ofGiants says, but this was like
(46:17):
Manny's take on it. So Manny made certain
adaptations to the text of the Book of Giants, and he really
kind of takes it more to a cosmic dimension.
According to Manny, the giants symbolize the chaotic mixing of
light and darkness in the material world.
He believed that the destructionof the giants represents the
(46:40):
ultimate triumph of light over the forces of darkness.
Manny also uses the story to emphasize the moral and
spiritual consequences of sin and corruption.
Interesting. So yeah, it does seem like he's
taking more of a Gnostic view, like he's trying to interpret
these ideas as symbols, which, you know, makes sense to me.
(47:03):
So. OK, I'm so sorry.
My notes are insane. I am insane.
OK, so the last thing I really wanted to touch on was other
(47:26):
greater impacts that Manny had on the religious world.
And I did talk on this earlier. I did speak on this.
Oh yeah. But Manny really did make a huge
impact on the modern world, evenif we don't know his name or
hear about his religion. And so a really big aspect of
(47:49):
Manny's visionary prowess was the idea of creating a universal
religion. Manny envisioned Manikaism to
reach all people of the world, regardless of their culture,
ethnicity, previous religious background, and he wanted it to
appeal to people anywhere. That is part of why he
(48:10):
integrated elements of Zoroastrianism, Christianity,
Buddhism, and Gnosticism, and many created a religion that was
both accessible and adaptable. His teaching focused on the
cosmic struggle between light and dark, and he often would try
to simplify his teaching so thateveryone could understand them.
And of course, his missionary efforts were really kind of what
(48:32):
makes him such a visionary. Or like a colonizer, perhaps.
But because he travelled so muchand he travelled through the
Silk Road and major trading routes, it really reached so
many people. He also focused on translating
his texts so that everybody could read his writings.
(48:53):
And like I mentioned earlier, hewas very dedicated on art.
He believed that art could help translate theological ideas, but
also art made by local artists would make certain visuals more
digestible to a lot of people. This is really what helped him
gain so many followers and also I think why he received so much
(49:20):
attention from other religions. I think a lot of other religions
saw him as someone poaching their followers and like perhaps
as like a schemer. But if his intentions were in
fact kind, it is pretty sweet, you know, to be able to be
translating your text into many languages, having local artists
(49:42):
like, right? Pay your local artists.
I'm down with that. I'm down with that.
I just, it just makes me so sad I haven't learned about this,
you know, it makes me sad that Ihave to like research this
myself and that I didn't hear about this like in school or
something. Interestingly, little fun fact,
(50:06):
when manic Aism became a when itgrew to its biggest in
practicing population. It was very popular specifically
in China specifically during theTang dynasty.
Mostly because it blended very well with the Buddhist and
(50:28):
Taoist traditions and it wasn't really received so well in the
West. I think a big part because once
the Roman culture made the head of Christianity the Pope, they
pretty quickly shot Manicheism down as heretical and against
(50:51):
the church. And one of the biggest legacies
Manicheism left is on the practice of Gnosticism, the
theological practice of interpreting text.
And Manny is often regarded as one of the most prominent
Gnostic teachers of antiquity. His dualistic cosmology, which
divided the universe into realmsof light and darkness, became
(51:13):
the cornerstone of Gnostic thought.
Manny's emphasis on esoteric knowledge as the key to
salvation aligned with earlier Gnostic traditions, but he also
systemized these ideas into a cohesive theological framework.
And I do think that's like really important to think about
(51:33):
because Gnosticism did really shape a lot of the minds of the
early 19th century and, and the 18th century.
Actually a lot of the men who started the United States of
America, who again, were like, not necessarily good people, but
(51:55):
I'm just saying a lot of those people were studying Gnosticism.
And also a lot of the scientistsof the age were studying
alchemy, which does tie into this quite a bit.
And I was mentioning also in my last episode about the French
Revolution and people starting to question authority and
interpret religious texts for themselves.
(52:17):
And that's really kind of what Gnosticism is about.
It's about asking questions and doing your own research to try
to interpret these ancient texts, which is truly
revolutionary. And if you haven't listened to
the episode on Johnsonism, one could claim that the the
movement of trying to understandwhat the just text on your own
(52:39):
in big part created the atmosphere which led to the
French Revolution. And fuck my knowledge about the
what is it called when you studythe planets?
Astrology. My astrology knowledge isn't
extensive, but what is it like? Neptune and Saturn are in the
(53:02):
same placements they were duringthe French Revolution, right?
Am I right? I think I'm right.
Oh fuck, I don't remember. Don't quote me on that.
Don't quote me on that. OK, so a lot of influences that
Manny made on the Christian Church.
(53:23):
One of them I mentioned was justlike the simple nuns habit that
comes from Manichaean culture, but also through the lens of
Christianity. Manny positioned himself as an
apostle of light, and he claimedto be the final prophet in a
lineage right that I mentioned include Jesus or Esther and
Buddha. And he reinterpreted Jesus
(53:46):
solely as a spiritual figure. So Manny did not believe that
Jesus actually incarnated into human form, that he was only a
spirit. And of course, the orthodox
Christian beliefs were not having that, and that was
another big reason why they couldn't stand him.
But a lot of his written texts about dualism did actually
(54:09):
affect Christianity quite a bit and it did inspire writers like
Saint Augustine. And again, Saint Augustine was a
really big influence for the Jansenist movement.
So this really is like all like a trickle down theology, trickle
down economics, trickle down theology.
(54:34):
And of course, like I mentioned earlier, Manny adopted a lot of
like basic ideals from Zoroaster, the idea of like
light versus dark, which in Zoroastrianism the light is
referred to as a Hooda Mazda andthe dark as Angra Mainu.
(54:54):
And again, the Zoroastrians werenot really having Manny.
They did not like him and they did not really see him as adding
on to the religion. And so this again, is really
what created the the the settingfor him to be hated by a lot of
people. And but again, what I do find
(55:17):
really interesting is that I think part of why he caught on
so much in China is because their primary religion at the
time was Buddhism, and they werevery interested in Daoism, which
in many ways are less about being religions and more about
being spiritualities or even philosophies.
And so I think they appreciated Manny as a thinker and someone
(55:38):
who really focused on the simplicity of dualism and of
course, aestheticism and like living as a monk.
I just find that so interesting.So, oh, I feel like I can go on
forever. OK.
(55:59):
I, I, I have more in my notes, but I, I feel like I'm like
beating a dead horse here. I feel like I'm like, I'm like
almost like repeating certain things.
But I'll just do a couple honourable mentions.
So one of them is that Manny wasremembered as a prophet and his
(56:24):
teachings were sometimes conflated and related to the
teachings of the Sabians, who are a group that were actually
mentioned in the Quran. Also, the Sabians are known to
be the original inhabitants of the city of Rome before Rome
kind of became the ancient Australia.
I should do an episode on that. So basically what I'm saying is,
(56:48):
according to some people, it is believed that Manny was actually
pulling from even more ancient religions, specifically of the
native group known as the Sabians, who inhabited parts of
ancient Rome and as well as parts of the ancient
Mediterranean peninsula. Also, Manny and his illustrated
(57:12):
texts inspired very many later religions and art traditions,
particularly in Central Asia andChina.
And I also think it's really important to think about his
legacy on art. Like I think many inspired more
local people to do their interpretations of different
(57:32):
prophets or what have you throughout history.
And more than anything, I think Manny's biggest legacy was that
he left an academic and theological legacy.
People were inspired that he wasa writing about his
interpretation of texts and it left a legacy going on.
(57:53):
And many religions, regardless if they believed him or not of
this this theme of having your own ideas about a religious text
and writing about it. And of course, perhaps his
biggest legacy is the idea of universalism.
He really did try to create a universal religion.
(58:13):
And this you could claim as it was replicated by the Christian
Church to try to make the religion appeal to everyone.
And you know, I guess in from the Roman Catholic perspective
to enforce the religion on everyone.
But he had some really interesting PR techniques that
were very, very effective. And that, my dear friends, is
(58:39):
manic a ISM I I, if I was to seea Hollywood movie, like I, I
would love to see a Hollywood movie about this guy.
This seems so much more controversial to me and so much
more interesting than like thesestories that we keep hearing
like they keep trying to make movies about Jesus or whatever.
(59:01):
Like I would love to hear the story about Manny told
dramatically so opera fashion inan ancient setting.
Make that. Hire me.
I'll write the movie. Damn it.
Thank you so much. You're the best.
Have a beautiful evening.
The Hello, little girl. Welcome to Esoterica and
Nonsense, a podcast where we discuss myths, legends, folk
tales, fairy tales, supernaturalphenomenon and religions from
around the world. I am your host, Annabelle, AKA.
(00:58):
This is just story time. We're basically here to just
have story time. You know the drill.
If you're new to my podcast, welcome.
You're an OG. You're the best.
And yeah, I'm just really excited.
I'm going to burn some Palo Santo right now because I've
just been finding it's been verygrounding, especially when I
(01:22):
start to overthink. I'm starting to record myself on
video for my podcast because I have discovered that that's what
the algorithm wants. Now I'm trying to feed this
flippant algorithm people and I've learned today that the
first two episodes that I recorded on video just didn't
(01:43):
save to my camera. Fantastic.
It's like 3 hours worth of me talking to myself.
Don't worry, the audio is up. But I feel a little bit
defeated. I feel kind of nervous because I
don't know, I'm not really like technology literate and it's
taken me a few years to feel comfortable recording myself and
(02:06):
now adding the video component, I feel like kind of shy.
Like I feel like, I don't know. I feel like I'm like at a middle
school dance again. Also, is it just me?
But I feel like middle school affected me more than I
realized. And now that I'm thirty, I've
just been thinking back to like all these Mean Girls at my
(02:26):
middle school and how much theiropinion of me in middle school.
I feel like it's like still a voice in my head or something.
And yeah, like I feel like when I make my podcast, I'm like
thinking about all these assholes for my middle school,
like finding me and hating on meor something.
(02:47):
And I've just kind of been like unpacking that.
I feel like that's really sad. And and yeah, anyway, hello.
Welcome to 2025. I'm so I'm loving 2025.
I don't know about you, and today I have chosen an
incredible topic. Today we are going to talk about
(03:07):
Manic a ISM. I don't know if you can hear
these Peppers barking in the background, but I literally
waited 10 minutes to start recording.
And I was like, you know what? I'm going to let them bark.
I'm going to let them get it out.
And then I start recording and they're just back on the
bullshit. They're just back on it.
The Peppers love being on the. Podcast, we're going to have to.
Get a live interview. I don't really know their names
(03:30):
but I have seen their bodies through the window and they are
medium short legged round boys. One of them is kind of like a
hot dog dog, like he has like the the complexion of a hot dog.
And then the other one is like white with brown spots, but
they're very round, like almost square in their proportions, a
(03:53):
little bit longer than they are round.
They're very round. They have short legs, but they
are medium boys. That's why I called them a short
leg, medium round boy. And they just barked.
So I'm going to take that as agreement.
Medicaism, what is it you asked?I'm so glad that you asked.
(04:13):
Medicaism is a religion that I had actually never really heard
of until I started doing Wikipedia deep dives in the
middle of the night. Which is why I started this
podcast. And Manicheism is a religion
that in many ways has been forgotten, but has quite a large
(04:34):
legacy on the world and specifically on Christianity.
Now, if you have not listened tothe episode about
Zoroastrianism, I highly recommend that you do in a, in a
big way, manic A ISM is almost like Zoroastrianism Part 2 Part
(04:55):
D Like it's, it's similar in a sense to what Christianity is to
Judaism because in many ways Christianity is like an add on
to Judaism, but in another way, they like rebrand the whole
religion and has distanced themselves from like the culture
(05:17):
of Judaism and a lot of the original holidays.
And so like manicatism is like same, same, but different.
That makes sense. Let's let's get into it.
Let's get into it. Enough of me pontificating.
Also, I like to remind everyone,I've said it once and I'll say
it again. I grew up in the United States
of America and I have essentially like a peasant
(05:41):
education. So I'm researching this on the
Internet. I've also like, you know, been a
bunch of like my esoteric research, like on my own and
books and whatnot. But I always just want us to
look at the historical lens of any kind with a critical with a
critical mind, right? Because who's the one writing
(06:04):
these histories down? You know, like usually men who
have been colonized in some way.And often the history we read is
read by colonizers, right? So I don't know you, you already
know the drill. I, I go on this rant it seems
like every week, but I just wanted to just wanted to throw
(06:25):
that out there as a reminder. OK, So what is manicatism?
Manicatism was a religion that was actually started by a man
named Manny and Manny was born around the year 216 CE or as us
older folks were taught AD right.
(06:48):
But I think CE now means currentera.
So anyway he was born around 216and died in around 274.
So this is like this was before Christianity became the official
religion of the Roman Empire. This is this is like an
(07:10):
interesting time in the ancient world because from our
perspective, we consider this ancient, but this was the time
when the Egyptian Empire was nowbeing colonized mostly by the
Arab world and then in some points by the Roman Empire.
There was a lot of globalizationhappening.
And as a reminder, this is a good few thousand years after
(07:36):
Zoroastrianism was created, right?
So Manny, who's sometimes known as Manness or Manichaeus, was
the founder of Manichaeism. And Manichaeism is a dualistic
religion that grew quite popularin the ancient world and is
(07:59):
considered an add on or an expansion of Zoroastrianism.
Manny was a Persian prophet and a spiritual teacher who sought
to synthesize elements of various religious traditions
into a universal belief system. And this is, this is the thing
(08:22):
about Manny that is very visionary that I want to point
out. And, and I, we're going to get
into details, but from a, not necessarily from a religious
perspective, but from APR perspective, like a public
relations perspective. Manny created a blueprint which
was replicated time and time again, specifically by the
(08:43):
Christian megalith, really like the Roman Church, the Roman
Catholic Church really took a lot of his ideas on how to
spread a religion. And so from a, he's almost like
one of the greatest business minds of religion and you'll see
why. OK, so like I mentioned, Mandy
was born around 2/16. He was born in Babylonia, which
(09:07):
at the time was part of the Sassanin Sassanian Empire, which
is, from our perspective, like ancient Persia and is now the
modern day Iraq. And this is, again, a really
interesting overlap because it'snot necessarily super far from
(09:30):
where Zoroaster was believed to be born.
And, you know, just throwing it out there.
So Manny came from a family thatwas a Jewish Christian sect and
they were known as oh fuck. I looked up how to pronounce
this and I already forgot. No Oh yes, elka sites.
(09:58):
I'm pretty sure it's elka sites.I've I've looked up other
pronunciations that seemed very wrong.
So we're going to go with Elka sites.
And I feel like I've seen this word written down, but I
actually knew nothing about it. And I found this really
interesting because I, I, I feellike I just touched on this, but
I always kind of wondered why Christianity left behind so much
(10:22):
of the Jewish culture. You know, like Christians don't
celebrate Passover, Rosh Hashanah, young people or put
him like all of these like holidays and and thousands of
years worth of culture feels like it was erased, even though
they still like read the Old Testament, which is the Torah,
(10:43):
may I add. Anyway, so this religious group
known as the Elka sites were an ancient Jewish Christian combo
and they were their population was mostly located in lower
Mesopotamia in the province of the Azorisan, which was
(11:06):
basically a part of the SassaninEmpire.
This would again be in the areasof modern day Iran and Iraq.
And this group had most of its popularity between the years 100
and 400 CE. And a big part, I mean, I'm not,
(11:27):
I'm just, this is like a brief summary.
But an interesting part of theirbeliefs revolved around frequent
baptisms for purification and a lot of Gnostic orientation and
ideas. And Gnosticism is something that
I find also very interesting, which I actually need to do a
(11:47):
full episode on. But this is just like a brief,
super brief summary of Gnosticism.
And stay tuned. I promise you I am going to do a
full episode. But Gnosticism is a term used to
describe a diverse set of religious and philosophical
movements that emerged in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE,
(12:07):
primarily in the Greco Roman world.
These traditions are united by their emphasis on gnosis, a form
of esoteric experiential knowledge that leads to the
spiritual enlightenment and salvation.
Gnosticism heavily influenced early Christianity and Judaism,
(12:29):
as well as other philosophical traditions, although it was
later condemned as heretical by the Orthodox Christian
authorities, of course. But Gnosticism is a really
interesting branch of ancient religion and it's still
practiced to this day. It really focuses more on the
(12:49):
theology aspect of religion. And so it's very heavy on US
reading ancient religious texts and and really studying them
almost academically and working on things like translating them.
What do they really mean? What are the what are the
context of these? What are the interpretations in
(13:09):
a sense, what's happening? No dude, sometimes my recording
equipment tries to connect to mycell phone and it's like why?
Why would I be wanting to connect to my cell phone while
I'm recording through my microphone?
Hello. I feel like I'm taking crazy
(13:31):
pills. What was I talking about?
Gnosticism, interestingly. So like when I was in high
school, I was doing like late night deep dives and I stopped
studying my school work and I started like buying books at
(13:51):
bookstores and like going on crazy online tangents.
But I ended up watching a reallyinteresting documentary about
theology and how theology is like the grandchild of
Gnosticism and how that is what created the quote UN quote
(14:11):
Illuminati. And according to this
documentary, the Illuminati, really all it really was was a
group of Americans who we consider the Founding Fathers
who wanted to secede from Britain and primarily because
they wanted religious freedom. And essentially, according to
(14:34):
this documentary, the Founding Fathers and a lot of other
Americans, including George Washington or whatever, were
meeting in secret to have theology meetings and to
essentially like read ancient scriptures and unpack them
academically, which I do find aninteresting subject.
I don't necessarily trust that these white men had any
(14:55):
interesting hot takes, but I do really respect the practice.
I am very interested in the ideaof Gnosticism and the idea of of
academically understanding ancient texts from from many
perspectives. Shout out Carl Jung.
Carl Jung I feel like was gnostic, maybe knowingly or
(15:19):
unknowingly I I have no idea. OK so Manny who is the prophet
of Manichaism had a very interesting life and this does
kind of remind me of Zoroaster. OK wait one second, I need to
adjust my chair. I hope that it doesn't make a
loud noise. Please, please, please.
(15:40):
Oh yeah, there we go. We need, we need the full butt
cheeks on the the chair. We don't, we don't like the half
butt cheek situation. So at the age of 12, Manny
allegedly reported an incident where he received his first
divine revelation from a spiritual being, which he called
(16:03):
the twin, or sometimes he wouldn't call it, his heavenly
self. And essentially it was a figure
that guided him through throughout his life.
So this was at the age of 12. Fast forward to the age of 24,
he received another revelation instructing him to leave his
family's religious sect and to preach a new universal religion.
(16:29):
This is where the PR really comes in.
So like in a nutshell, Manny's teachings aim to reconcile and
transcend existing religions. So he combined elements of
Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Gnosticism.
(16:51):
Very interesting. The key doctrines of his
religion include one dualism. Essentially, a central aspect to
this religion was the struggle between light and darkness,
which does remind me a lot of Zoroastrianism and of course,
Christianity. According to Manny, the world is
(17:17):
a battleground for the two opposing forces of light and
dark or good and evil, and that the human soul, which is a
fragment of light, is trapped inthe material body which is made
of darkness. Interesting, interesting.
(17:37):
Another key principle of Manichaism was salvation.
Salvation involved a person liberating his or her soul from
the material world through knowledge or gnosis, aesthetic
practices and ethical living. Many viewed himself as the final
(17:58):
prophet in a line that included Zoroaster, Buddha and Jesus.
For me, that's always a red flag.
Like, I'm not, I don't know how I feel about prophets
necessarily, but when someone proclaims himself a prophet, I
feel like it's a red flag. And I think if somebody
proclaims himself the last prophet, I feel like that's a
(18:21):
huge red flag, right? Like that's when I'm, that's
when I start getting skeptical of you because you're going to,
you're going to like name drop yourself Zoroaster, Buddha and
Jesus and say you're the last one.
So like forever. There's never going to be
another prophet in your, in yourlegacy.
(18:44):
I, I feel like that, that's a crock of shit, right?
I feel like I'm right, OK? Another core principle that
Manny believed was the idea of universal religious practice.
He sought to create a universal belief system that could unite
diverse traditions. He the pieces of Zoroastrianism
(19:07):
he liked. It was obviously the dualistic
cosmology and also the idea of ethical dualism, the idea that
like your ethics and your actions could play into this,
this good or evil, this light orthis dark.
From Christianity he pulled fromthe elements of Jesus's
teachings, though he rejected the idea of Jesus's physical
(19:30):
incarnation. Interesting.
And from Buddhism he pulled the ideas of aestheticism and
reincarnation. And I I, I do actually think
that he is on to something here.I What I'm not sure about
though, like just reading a lot of this information, is that I
(19:55):
do. I'm not necessarily mad at the
things he's pulling from, but I'm almost wondering if he did
this to be famous. You know how like.
Some kids are like, I want to befamous.
And at this time, obviously there wasn't like movie stars.
So like, what if just what if this was actually like a young
person's plot to become a prophet for fame reasons, You
(20:18):
know? And like, maybe like, I'm just,
I'm just like talking out of my ass right now.
But the fact that he proclaimed himself a prophet and proclaimed
himself the last prophet in thisline, and he's, like, picking
and choosing from all these religions.
Like, what if this guy was actually just a public relations
(20:40):
visionary and this was his plan to fame?
That would be iconic. Let's make a movie about that
Hollywood smoke. Put that in your pipe and smoke
it. Hey, little Pepper, this is
Annabelle here reporting live from Pepper World HQ.
If you enjoy the podcast, it would help so much if you could
(21:03):
follow me. You could write a comment.
Give me 5 stars. Perhaps.
Also, I would love to hear from you. e-mail in at
esotericaandnonsense@gmail.com. I'd love to hear about your
stories. I'd love to hear about
suggestions. I would love to hear about any
kind of weird freaky thing that comes to your mind.
(21:24):
Also, if you would like to support my podcast, you can
follow me on Patreon. It's Patreon back slash
esoterica and nonsense. I will also have a YouTube page
coming at you so soon and I alsosell merch.
You can look up my merch. It's in the show notes for every
single episode as well as the show notes for my show.
(21:44):
I appreciate you so much. I made this podcast to connect
with cool freaky people like youso thank you so much.
Dude, these Peppers are just barking up a flip and storm.
This is their world. It's not mine, it is their
(22:07):
world. OK, Just here zoning out.
OK, so 1 aspect and OK, this is actually playing into my theory
1 aspect about Manny that reallykind of goes into this idea of
(22:29):
him being a public relations genius was his method of
missionary work. So he was all about preaching.
Manny would travel widely throughout the ancient world and
he would preach about his religion in ancient Persia,
Mesopotamia, and beyond. His teachings gained followers
(22:54):
and the Sasanian Empire along the and along the Silk Road,
reaching as far as India, Central Asia and the Roman
Empire. And think about that like that's
fucking visionary. He was going along the Silk Road
and preaching what that's that'siconic.
(23:18):
Another interesting aspect that Manny did, which again was
brilliant from a marketing perspective, is that he would
hire local artists in different places to do renderings of
himself as a prophet. So for example, like in India he
would have an Indian artist drawhim and in in Mesopotamia he'd
(23:43):
have a Mesopotamian artist. So along with his preachings,
people would get art that was localized to them.
Does this ring a bell? Because this is classic, classic
Christian methods of missionary work.
The Christian world is known fordoing this all around the world.
(24:06):
Wherever they spread. They have a local artist do
renditions of the Mother Mary and Jesus like it.
It feels like it's copy and pasted from Manny's vision.
Manny was also considered to be a prolific writer.
He was composing works in multiple languages including
Syriac and Middle Persian. His key texts included the Shabu
(24:31):
Ragan, which was written for King Shapur the 1st and this
summarized his teachings. It had a living gospel which was
a sacred text for Manichaeans, as well as a book known as The
Treasure of Life, which had the Book of Giants and many others.
And that is crazy to me because I have heard of the Book of
(24:57):
Giants, which I believe was a part of the Book of Enoch, and I
didn't realize that this was considered to be part of
Manicheism. And if you don't know, the Book
of Enoch, which includes many books, and also the Book of
Giants were found in versions ofthe Dead Sea Scrolls, or I mean,
not versions. They were found in the Dead Sea
(25:19):
Scrolls as well as some other religious, ancient religious
Christian texts that were found in the Middle East.
And I always wondered why they weren't included.
And obviously now it makes more sense to me that the, the Roman
Catholic Church was not having many.
But I, I do find this to be very, very interesting.
(25:42):
And I'm going to get into the Book of Giants in just one
second. So of course, as we expect,
Manny was a very controversial character.
People were not liking him. People, a lot of people who
(26:03):
weren't converting to Manikaism despised him.
Now, I wasn't there. I can't necessarily make a
personal judgement, but just like for me reading the facts
there, there is a part of me that thinks that Manny was more
business oriented than he was spiritually oriented simply
(26:25):
based on how much he was trying to spread the religion.
Like this almost feels like, yeah, like a business, you know?
But again, like, maybe his methods were just Co opted by
people like the Roman Catholic Church who used it more as like
a colonization tactic. Maybe many like really did this
(26:47):
out of the goodness of his heart.
Like I have, who am I to say? I'm not trying to destroy his
character right now, but from from the facts that I'm reading
alone, I'm just smelling like a little whiff of like I want to
be famous. I'm an entrepreneur, you know,
like that's the kind of guy thatManny's giving me.
I hate to say it. So without surprise, a lot of
(27:11):
people were really skeptical of him and didn't like him.
And interestingly, specifically,the Zoroastrians really didn't
like him, which is understandable because I'll
remind you from the Zoroastrianism episode, a big
aspect of the religious teachings of Zoroastrianism were
really about simplicity, right? Having kind intentions and doing
(27:34):
kindness for the sake of kindness.
So I could see why Zoroastrians may have an issue with Manny,
thinking him maybe to be a little ego driven and so focused
on converting followers and likefocusing less on charity and
just being kind, which are kind of like the cornerstones,
cornerstones of Zoroastrianism. So interestingly, while Mani was
(27:59):
tolerated under King Shapoor thefirst in now modern day Iraq,
Many's teachings were seen as a threat to the Zoroastrian
priesthood. So eventually under King Baram
the first, Mani was arrested andimprisoned.
Eventually Many died in the year274.
(28:20):
And if he was born in around 2:16, that makes him around 60
years old. And so he died after enduring
torture and imprisonment. There are accounts that he may
have been executed and some traditions believe that he was
flayed alive. Fuck, even though he died at the
(28:43):
age of 60, he left quite a legacy and after he died his
religion spread widely. I mean not a surprise.
I feel like once the prophet dies, that's when it really like
gains momentum. He did become one of the most
influential religions of the of late antiquity, which is crazy,
right? Like no one ever talks about
(29:04):
this stuff. And again, maybe I'm just a
conspiracy theorist, but I feel like the Roman Catholic Church
purposely wants to erase these religions, right?
Like why are we learning about this in school?
I want to learn about this. So after he died, Manichaean
communities flourished in the Roman Empire and in Central Asia
(29:27):
and China. A fun fact is, you know, like a
in Christianity, a nun's habit, how nuns have those like they're
called habits for some reason, but they're like those flowing
fabrics on their head that is directly derivative of
(29:48):
Manichaean priest attire. Specifically the ones like I'm
thinking about the ones like from the Sound of Music where
like in the front there's kind of like a square, there's like a
square thing over the forehead. So it kind of drapes in like a
square situation that is full onManichaean dress and it became
(30:09):
Co opted by Christian churches. But that it like comes from
Manichaean culture from from theancient world.
And like I that's what's so interesting to me about this.
Like the the Roman Catholic Church hasn't even existed by
the time he died, Rome was spreading its borders fast, but
(30:30):
didn't have an official like religion, religion.
They were just kind of doing what is now called Pagan stuff,
but, you know, like the ancient Roman religion.
And so there was practicing Manichaeans, people who were in
priesthoods, people who were, like, converting and practicing.
Like, what? I never knew.
(30:52):
Eventually, the practice of Manichaeism declined, mostly due
to persecution by Zoroastrians and Christians and eventually
Muslim populations. And over time, this just led to
a decline in Manicheism, similarto how Zoroastrianism declined
eventually. By the 14th century, Medicaism
(31:15):
had largely disappeared as an organized religion.
And and that's actually not bad though, because he was born in
the year 200. So that's almost a little over
1000 years. That's not a bad run.
That's not a bad run. I feel like he succeeded.
If his dream was to be famous, 1000 years of fame is not bad at
all. So even to this day, Manny did
(31:40):
really make an influence. And specifically, Manny's ideas
influenced the Gnostic traditions of Christianity, and
they may have indirectly shaped early Christian and Islamic
ideas. His cause, his cosmological
myths and dualistic worldview resonate with certain
philosophical and religious systems to this day,
(32:01):
specifically the Book of Giants.What?
So allegedly Manny wrote the Book of Giants, which I just
really want to emphasize is a huge deal.
Like, I had no idea a lot of these books of the Bible slash
the Torah. No one knows who really authored
them. And allegedly Manny himself
(32:24):
wrote the Book of Giants, which is wild.
The Book of Giants is an ancientapocryphal text, and it's
traditionally associated with Manicheism and earlier Jewish
traditions, such of those found in the Book of Enoch.
Enoch, the Book of Giants explores the story of the
(32:46):
Nephilium. The Nephilium were offspring of
a giant race. They were known to be fallen
angels, and they were alleged they were they they were said to
have sex with human women. And so their offspring were
known as the Nephilium. The Book of Giants expanded on
(33:07):
themes of their sin, their punishment, and their eventual
destruction. What?
So just to be clear, even though.
Oh, OK, OK, OK, wait, wait, wait, I'm wrong.
Manny did not write the book of giants Manny wrote about.
(33:28):
OK, this makes so much more sense.
No wonder the Book of Giants is likely to have originated in the
Second Temple of Judaism around the 3rd to the 1st century BC.
OK, so this is like a good few thousand years, few 100 years.
My bad. Before Manny, that makes so much
(33:49):
more sense. But Manny really was like
writing a lot of scripts, scriptures about this and
talking about the Book of Giants.
OK, OK, we're caught up to speed.
Whoa. So Manny wrote elaborations of
the events described in the bookof Giants and the book of
Genesis and the book of Enoch. The book of Giants describes the
(34:14):
actions of the quote UN quote watchers who were fallen angels
who descended to earth. They were known to have
corrupted humanity and of course, eventually father the
Nephilium. According to Manny, the text he
modified and changed the text tofit his dualistic worldview.
(34:36):
According to Manny, the giants are a symbol of the conflict
between the forces of light and darkness.
Like what? Like, I'm just so sad that so
many of these books haven't beenlike, they, they, they feel like
they've been seemingly erased. I just feel like it's so
(34:57):
frustrating. OK, so a Plot Summary of the
Book of Giants is that the Book of Giants recounts the story of
the Nephilium, who are the offspring of these fallen angels
and human women, and they talks about their violent reign on
planet Earth and their ultimate destruction of the Earth.
(35:18):
Allegedly, not all of these texts have survived.
And I say allegedly because sometimes I don't believe that.
I feel like the Vatican has copies of this and they don't
share. I would put money on it.
Come for me. But these are the themes that
are known to be mentioned withinthe Book of Giants.
(35:39):
So one is the corruption of Earth.
The Watchers, who are like the rebellious angels, descended to
Earth, and they took human wives, producing monstrous
offsprings known as giants. This is known to have been the
corruption of Earth. Naturally, these giants were
(36:00):
known to wreak havoc. They consumed human and animal
life, and they spread sin and corruption.
OK, pause. I'm just going to put this
through like an Anunnaki lens because of course the ancient
Mesopotamian history, not religion, because allegedly
ancient Mesopotamia didn't have a word for religion and they
(36:23):
considered their writings to be history.
But according to the Mesopotamians, there were gods
who came out of the sky who weregiant, and some of them took
human wives and many of them fathered children who eventually
became the kings and queen of Earth.
(36:43):
From their history, those were great kings and Queens.
However, allegedly some of theserulers were from the from the
human peasant perspective, were considered to be brutal, cruel.
And so perhaps I'm just like, playing the devil's advocate
right now, but perhaps this story of the Book of Giants is
(37:07):
actually about the Anunnaki and the children that they fathered
with humans and how they were Dicks.
You know, I'm just, I'm just throwing out a theory here, OK?
Also mentioned in the Book of Giants are the dreams of the
giants. According to the Book of Giants,
these children of the the fallenangels and humans began to have
(37:29):
apocalyptic dreams foretelling their destruction as punishment
to their actions. One giant, one giant known as
Oya, dreams of a divine flood that will annihilate them.
Another, known as Mawe, dreams of a heavenly tablet describing
their doom. Java, did you know that humans
(37:55):
are made mostly of water? Something like 80% or something?
I don't, I don't remember the stats.
But water is crucial you guys. Water is crucial.
Have you been drinking water today?
I highly recommend it. You can also add a little bit of
like pink salt or or Celtic saltor some nice like Real Salt to
(38:20):
your water to help your electrolytes.
You can do a cucumber infusion. You could add some mint in
there, some chia seeds like I'm.I'm inviting you to be creative
here, but I'm also here to remind you, drink your water,
baby boy. Drink your water really helps
with the function of the nervoussystem, the function of the
(38:42):
bowels. We're talking optimal
functioning here. Drink your water, baby.
I do really wonder how much is in the Vatican, how much like in
the Vatican Library. I don't, I don't know if any of
(39:05):
you have listened to my first episode, which is about
labyrinths, but there's a portion of that episode where I
talk about a priest who was employed by the Vatican who was
hired to spend like 20 years of his life or something in
northern India and Nepal and literally just kept extensive
journals. And apparently this was like a
(39:27):
common practice in the Vatican for hundreds and hundreds of
years. They would send priests around
the world to keep detailed journals of all kinds of things,
history, local customs, religious beliefs, and, and
specifically ancient history. And specifically in the
(39:48):
labyrinth part there, there was this priest who was spending
time in Nepal at least 1000 years ago.
And he talks about a local legend where there was a, a
castle in the area whose walls were surrounded by a labyrinth.
And allegedly this was in Gorakhpur, which I've actually
(40:09):
been to. So they say that like the the
palace. Had a city around it and around
it a giant labyrinth and according to the local legend,
the word labyrinth was also interchangeable for the word
castle and eventually the wall. Somebody jumped the walls and
(40:35):
the overtime like the walls weredisassembled, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. But I just like what I would do
to get my hands on these journals that this priest was
writing and sending back to the Vatican, like 20 years of
traveling through northern Indiaand Nepal.
Like what? And like think about all the
(40:56):
other priests in other parts of the world and what they were
writing down like truly wild. And I, I would like I said, I
wouldn't really bet money that the Vatican has the book of
Edom, the book of giants. I, and that would be so cool if
if for any reason anyone listening is associated with the
(41:17):
Vatican, I would like to love, Iwould love to interview someone
from the Vatican. I would, I mean, who knows that
they they wouldn't probably be truthful with me.
I'm skeptical. I feel like they would lie.
And I'm sure like a lot of people don't know all the deeds,
you know, but OK, one, one last tangent.
If you haven't seen the 1999 film Stigmata starring Patricia
(41:41):
Arquette, I'm telling you, you are in for a sweet treat.
Stigmata is an incredible film. It is so much fun.
I love that film and there is actually like some aspects of
the film which is like based in reality which was that when the
(42:01):
Dead Sea Scrolls were found there were gospels that were
translated and not added to the Bible.
Like even though they are considered part of the OG Bible
slash OG Torah the the Vatican deemed them as heretical which
(42:22):
is crazy. How can you deem scriptures that
are older than your own religionand deem them as heretical?
Like, that's crazy, you know what I'm saying?
This is the kind of stuff that keeps me up.
And are you guys OK, back on track.
So according to the book of Giants, there was an aspect
(42:46):
mentioned that was really about the themes of seeking
forgiveness. So in the Book of Giants there
is a section where these giants who started becoming terrified
of their dreams and visions of like the world ending.
Basically they seek advice from Enoch who is a righteous prophet
and scribe. And if I'm not mistaken, I do
(43:08):
believe that Enoch is a ancestorof Noah according to Enoch.
Or according to the texts I should say, Enoch handwrote
letters to God on their behalf, but the giants pleas for mercy
(43:28):
were ultimately rejected. And interestingly again I want
to mention that according to ancient texts, Enoch did have
Anunnaki blood. So like let's say Enoch, if his
name started with an EN, he was probably the son of Enlil,
(43:49):
right? I'm just like looking at this
with an Anunnaki perspective. But like Enoch I'm assuming was
the son of Enlil based on his name.
And these other giants who are quote, UN quote half breeds,
could have just been bastard children of other Anunnaki and
therefore didn't have claim to their Thrones, but just had a
bunch of power over human beings.
(44:11):
So the fact that Enoch wrote a letter to God could have been
Enoch writing a letter to his dad asking basically for his
cousins to have mercy, right? And his dad was like, no, your
cousins are a liability, right? That's that's just like what I'm
picking up on this. Maybe I'm nuts.
OK. Another aspect of the book of
(44:31):
Giants was divine judgement. In the book of giants, God
decrees that the giant's destruction.
Oh, sorry, God decrees that the giants must endure destruction.
And that's what sets off the catastrophic flood.
(44:53):
And that actually is interestingbecause that is a change of
narrative, right? Because the catastrophic flood
in the Bible is said that God isbasically tired of humans and
how selfish they are, whereas inthis story God is tired of the
giants and how entitled they are.
(45:16):
At this point, the parents of the giants, who are the fallen
angels, were imprisoned by God and the earth was cleansed of
their offspring and their corruption.
Dude this is honestly sounding alot.
This is like sounding deeply Anunnaki and coded.
If you don't really know exactlywhat I'm talking about, I highly
(45:36):
recommend to check out Introduction to Aliens Part 1.
I also feel like I should just do a full episode on the
Anunnaki. I believe me.
I've like started notes so many times I've gotten overwhelmed
because it's like, where do we even start?
There's so much to cover. Like do I talk about the whole
(45:57):
pantheon? Do I like talk about the
pantheon and relationship to allthe religions in the world?
I start getting stressed. My brain starts going
everywhere. I'm really just trying to really
just trying my best here. You guys.
I'm just one guy. So that I just gave you a brief
summary of like what the Book ofGiants says, but this was like
(46:17):
Manny's take on it. So Manny made certain
adaptations to the text of the Book of Giants, and he really
kind of takes it more to a cosmic dimension.
According to Manny, the giants symbolize the chaotic mixing of
light and darkness in the material world.
He believed that the destructionof the giants represents the
(46:40):
ultimate triumph of light over the forces of darkness.
Manny also uses the story to emphasize the moral and
spiritual consequences of sin and corruption.
Interesting. So yeah, it does seem like he's
taking more of a Gnostic view, like he's trying to interpret
these ideas as symbols, which, you know, makes sense to me.
(47:03):
So. OK, I'm so sorry.
My notes are insane. I am insane.
OK, so the last thing I really wanted to touch on was other
(47:26):
greater impacts that Manny had on the religious world.
And I did talk on this earlier. I did speak on this.
Oh yeah. But Manny really did make a huge
impact on the modern world, evenif we don't know his name or
hear about his religion. And so a really big aspect of
(47:49):
Manny's visionary prowess was the idea of creating a universal
religion. Manny envisioned Manikaism to
reach all people of the world, regardless of their culture,
ethnicity, previous religious background, and he wanted it to
appeal to people anywhere. That is part of why he
(48:10):
integrated elements of Zoroastrianism, Christianity,
Buddhism, and Gnosticism, and many created a religion that was
both accessible and adaptable. His teaching focused on the
cosmic struggle between light and dark, and he often would try
to simplify his teaching so thateveryone could understand them.
And of course, his missionary efforts were really kind of what
(48:32):
makes him such a visionary. Or like a colonizer, perhaps.
But because he travelled so muchand he travelled through the
Silk Road and major trading routes, it really reached so
many people. He also focused on translating
his texts so that everybody could read his writings.
(48:53):
And like I mentioned earlier, hewas very dedicated on art.
He believed that art could help translate theological ideas, but
also art made by local artists would make certain visuals more
digestible to a lot of people. This is really what helped him
gain so many followers and also I think why he received so much
(49:20):
attention from other religions. I think a lot of other religions
saw him as someone poaching their followers and like perhaps
as like a schemer. But if his intentions were in
fact kind, it is pretty sweet, you know, to be able to be
translating your text into many languages, having local artists
(49:42):
like, right? Pay your local artists.
I'm down with that. I'm down with that.
I just, it just makes me so sad I haven't learned about this,
you know, it makes me sad that Ihave to like research this
myself and that I didn't hear about this like in school or
something. Interestingly, little fun fact,
(50:06):
when manic Aism became a when itgrew to its biggest in
practicing population. It was very popular specifically
in China specifically during theTang dynasty.
Mostly because it blended very well with the Buddhist and
(50:28):
Taoist traditions and it wasn't really received so well in the
West. I think a big part because once
the Roman culture made the head of Christianity the Pope, they
pretty quickly shot Manicheism down as heretical and against
(50:51):
the church. And one of the biggest legacies
Manicheism left is on the practice of Gnosticism, the
theological practice of interpreting text.
And Manny is often regarded as one of the most prominent
Gnostic teachers of antiquity. His dualistic cosmology, which
divided the universe into realmsof light and darkness, became
(51:13):
the cornerstone of Gnostic thought.
Manny's emphasis on esoteric knowledge as the key to
salvation aligned with earlier Gnostic traditions, but he also
systemized these ideas into a cohesive theological framework.
And I do think that's like really important to think about
(51:33):
because Gnosticism did really shape a lot of the minds of the
early 19th century and, and the 18th century.
Actually a lot of the men who started the United States of
America, who again, were like, not necessarily good people, but
(51:55):
I'm just saying a lot of those people were studying Gnosticism.
And also a lot of the scientistsof the age were studying
alchemy, which does tie into this quite a bit.
And I was mentioning also in my last episode about the French
Revolution and people starting to question authority and
interpret religious texts for themselves.
(52:17):
And that's really kind of what Gnosticism is about.
It's about asking questions and doing your own research to try
to interpret these ancient texts, which is truly
revolutionary. And if you haven't listened to
the episode on Johnsonism, one could claim that the the
movement of trying to understandwhat the just text on your own
(52:39):
in big part created the atmosphere which led to the
French Revolution. And fuck my knowledge about the
what is it called when you studythe planets?
Astrology. My astrology knowledge isn't
extensive, but what is it like? Neptune and Saturn are in the
(53:02):
same placements they were duringthe French Revolution, right?
Am I right? I think I'm right.
Oh fuck, I don't remember. Don't quote me on that.
Don't quote me on that. OK, so a lot of influences that
Manny made on the Christian Church.
(53:23):
One of them I mentioned was justlike the simple nuns habit that
comes from Manichaean culture, but also through the lens of
Christianity. Manny positioned himself as an
apostle of light, and he claimedto be the final prophet in a
lineage right that I mentioned include Jesus or Esther and
Buddha. And he reinterpreted Jesus
(53:46):
solely as a spiritual figure. So Manny did not believe that
Jesus actually incarnated into human form, that he was only a
spirit. And of course, the orthodox
Christian beliefs were not having that, and that was
another big reason why they couldn't stand him.
But a lot of his written texts about dualism did actually
(54:09):
affect Christianity quite a bit and it did inspire writers like
Saint Augustine. And again, Saint Augustine was a
really big influence for the Jansenist movement.
So this really is like all like a trickle down theology, trickle
down economics, trickle down theology.
(54:34):
And of course, like I mentioned earlier, Manny adopted a lot of
like basic ideals from Zoroaster, the idea of like
light versus dark, which in Zoroastrianism the light is
referred to as a Hooda Mazda andthe dark as Angra Mainu.
(54:54):
And again, the Zoroastrians werenot really having Manny.
They did not like him and they did not really see him as adding
on to the religion. And so this again, is really
what created the the the settingfor him to be hated by a lot of
people. And but again, what I do find
(55:17):
really interesting is that I think part of why he caught on
so much in China is because their primary religion at the
time was Buddhism, and they werevery interested in Daoism, which
in many ways are less about being religions and more about
being spiritualities or even philosophies.
And so I think they appreciated Manny as a thinker and someone
(55:38):
who really focused on the simplicity of dualism and of
course, aestheticism and like living as a monk.
I just find that so interesting.So, oh, I feel like I can go on
forever. OK.
(55:59):
I, I, I have more in my notes, but I, I feel like I'm like
beating a dead horse here. I feel like I'm like, I'm like
almost like repeating certain things.
But I'll just do a couple honourable mentions.
So one of them is that Manny wasremembered as a prophet and his
(56:24):
teachings were sometimes conflated and related to the
teachings of the Sabians, who are a group that were actually
mentioned in the Quran. Also, the Sabians are known to
be the original inhabitants of the city of Rome before Rome
kind of became the ancient Australia.
I should do an episode on that. So basically what I'm saying is,
(56:48):
according to some people, it is believed that Manny was actually
pulling from even more ancient religions, specifically of the
native group known as the Sabians, who inhabited parts of
ancient Rome and as well as parts of the ancient
Mediterranean peninsula. Also, Manny and his illustrated
(57:12):
texts inspired very many later religions and art traditions,
particularly in Central Asia andChina.
And I also think it's really important to think about his
legacy on art. Like I think many inspired more
local people to do their interpretations of different
(57:32):
prophets or what have you throughout history.
And more than anything, I think Manny's biggest legacy was that
he left an academic and theological legacy.
People were inspired that he wasa writing about his
interpretation of texts and it left a legacy going on.
(57:53):
And many religions, regardless if they believed him or not of
this this theme of having your own ideas about a religious text
and writing about it. And of course, perhaps his
biggest legacy is the idea of universalism.
He really did try to create a universal religion.
(58:13):
And this you could claim as it was replicated by the Christian
Church to try to make the religion appeal to everyone.
And you know, I guess in from the Roman Catholic perspective
to enforce the religion on everyone.
But he had some really interesting PR techniques that
were very, very effective. And that, my dear friends, is
(58:39):
manic a ISM I I, if I was to seea Hollywood movie, like I, I
would love to see a Hollywood movie about this guy.
This seems so much more controversial to me and so much
more interesting than like thesestories that we keep hearing
like they keep trying to make movies about Jesus or whatever.
(59:01):
Like I would love to hear the story about Manny told
dramatically so opera fashion inan ancient setting.
Make that. Hire me.
I'll write the movie. Damn it.
Thank you so much. You're the best.
Have a beautiful evening.
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