THOSE WHO ARE JESUS - people in the film

Sadat Miran Sufi
Julien Bareham
Rachel Govan

Sadat Miran Sufi: There is a middle aged Asian man living in E11 whose letter heading reads 'God's Prophet, Jesus Christ'. At the age of thirty-two years, nine months and eleven days (the exact age that Jesus died) Sadat Miran Sufi received a vision of an angel, who said: "We have made you, blessed you to all the worlds. You were Jesus Christ before and you were raised to life again and you are Jesus Christ. You have a mission in life." Later that year, 1992, Lyndan returned to his family in Pakistan. He told everyone of his identity and mission. Within months a death sentence was issued and he was forced to return to the UK, where he gained asylum status and was referred to a psychiatrist. "Psychiatrists insist that I have got a mental disturbance. I insist that I am not sick at all. I take anti-psychotic medication just to prove that they may not be right in my case".

Dr. Peter Fenwick - "Thirty percent of the population will have weak mystical experiences. Ten percent will have very deep mystical experiences - which means you see right through into the centre of the universe".

Julien Bareham writes epic letters daily to the Queen, President Clinton, the Archbishop and the Pope, stating that he is 'Father Time' and that as deity he commands them. One night in he had an astounding experience. He left his body and ascended to heaven, becoming "At one with the Father". He was shown the human soul, three hundred tubes of light (Jacob's Ladder) and how a universe is created. He was told that his soul was Time itself.

Can it also be argued that Jesus had a God complex? The messiah hospital in Jerusalem has had to open a new wing in anticipation of a surge of messiahs for the millenium. Might then this be latent in all of us - the recourse to become central or significant in the universe?

Rachel Govan is a prolific and visionary artist and researcher who says her hand is guided by an autonomous (unconscious) 'other' neural process. This allows Rachel to produce her art without conscious (motor) control; without preconceived ideas; with effortless ease; without correction, even against her conscious will.

In 1991 at her studio she went through an extraordinary neurocognitive (psychological) transformation via a religious ritual of her own unconscious devising, involving marking herself with the wounds of Christ and ritual masturbation. This ritual changed all aspects of her life dramatically including her creative ability.

The 'process' - what she terms her Christ consciousness or 'potential' - now enables her to intuitively paint structures such as cancer cells, the effect of methadone on the brain and the make-up of the H-bomb. Some scientists have verified that her works do correspond to these structures and further more could potentially provide further insights into several areas of science.

Recent research into brain states suggest that individuals such as Rachel might actually be tapping into deeper and more profound cognition. Neurologists argue that this accessing of unchartered areas of the brain is an experience analogous to encountering God.

to read more about Rachel click here

Whether these states - commonly termed 'delusions of grandeur' - are regarded as psychosis, social construction, religious phenomenon, shamanic insight, altered cognition, or merely fake, it is no longer so simple as to quickly bracket such people as mentally ill. The validity of their claims is dependent on our point of view. As Sadat says to his psychiatrist, "The fact remains, you are not exposed to such a thing, you are not me. You have not gone through this experience..."

In a climate of scientific and spiritual review, what do we understand of the divine connections certain individuals claim to have? With a captivating approach, Those Who Are Jesus enables the individuals to provide their own rationale for these experiences by allowing them to tell their story alongside of the professional they are determined to convince. The film asks, what can we learn from their explanations?