Джером Биксби - The Man From Earth

JOHN: Oh, no. That’s the medal they pinned on Jesus to fulfill prophecy.

DAN: The crucifixion.

JOHN: He blocked the pain, as he had learned to do in Tibet and India. He also learned to slow his body processes down to the point where they were undetectable. They thought he was dead. So his followers pulled him from the cross, placed him in a cave… His body normalized as he had trained it to… He attempted to go away undetected, but some devotees were standing watch. Tried to explain. They were ecstatic. Thus, I was resurrected, and I ascended to central Europe to get away as far as possible.

EDITH: You don’t mean a word of this, John. My god, why are you doing this?!

ART: Let me see your wrists.

JOHN: I don’t scar. Besides, they tied me…but nails and blood make better religious Art.

HARRY: (laughing) All the speculations about Jesus. He was black, he was Asian, he was a blue-eyed Aryan with a golden beard and hair straight out of Vidal Sassoon’s, he was a benevolent alien, he never existed at all…Now he’s a caveman. (laughs)

DAN: The Christ figure goes all the way back to Krishna— Hercules, of course.

HARRY: Hercules?

JOHN: Born of a virgin: Alcmene. A god for a father: Zeus. The only begotten. The savior— The Greek? "Soter". The Good Shepherd, the Prince of Peace, bringing gentle persuasion and divine wisdom. He died, joined his father on Olympus a thousand years before Gethsemane.

EDITH: How can you compare Pagan mythology to the true word?

HARRY: Pretty damn closely, I’d say.

DAN: The early Christian leaders, they threw away Hebrew manuscripts and borrowed from Pagan sources all over the place.

EDITH: Do you realize how…inconsiderately you’re treating my feelings?

DAN: About as inconsiderately as we’re treating John’s.

EDITH: Well, he does— he doesn’t believe what he’s saying!

SANDY: Do you believe literally everything in the bible, Edith?

EDITH Yes!

…N— Uh— Before you say it, I know it’s undergone a lot of changes, but God has spoken through man to make his word clearer.

HARRY: He couldn’t get it right the first time?

EDITH: We-we’re imperfect! He had t-to work to make us understand.

HARRY: He couldn’t get us right the first time, Edith?

DAN: Taken alone, the philosophical teachings of Jesus are Buddhism with a Hebrew accent— Kindness, tolerance, brotherhood, love… A ruthless realism acknowledging that life is as it is here on earth, here and now. The Kingdom of God, meaning…goodness, is…is right here, where it should be. "I am what I am becoming." That’s what the Buddha brought in.

JOHN: And that’s what I taught. But a talking snake make a lady eat an apple, so we’re screwed. Heaven and Hell were peddled so priests could rule through seduction and terror…save our souls that we never lost in the first place. I threw a clean pass…they ran it out of the ballpark.

EDITH: This is blasphemy. It’s horrible! Who else were you? Solomon? Elvis? Jack the Ripper?

DAN: It’s been said that Buddha and Jesus would laugh or cry if they’d known what was done in their name.

HARRY: And if there is a creator, he’d probably feel the same way.

JOHN: I see ceremony, ritual, processions, genuflecting, moaning, intoning, venerating cookies and wine.

And I think…it’s not what I had in mind.

EDITH: But that’s Vatican flapdoodle. It doesn’t have a thing to do with God.

DAN: As you said, John. Everywhere, religions…from exalting life to purging joy as a sin. Rome does it as grand opera. A simple path to goodness needs a supernatural roadmap.

HARRY: Supernatural…

ART: A stupid word, I mean…anything that happens, happens within nature, whether we believe in it or not.

JOHN: (looks up)…Like a 14,000-year-old caveman.

The sound of a car approaching… John heads outside to receive Will.

WILL: I–I— I drove for a while, and then I sat for a while. I’m so ashamed. (Shivering) And I’m freezing!

JOHN: Well, come inside.

WILL: I still don’t believe you, of course. You need help.

JOHN: Everybody needs help.

WILL: Yes, well, some more than others.

Fade out

Fade in, Will is warming himself in front of the fire, it is darker.

WILL: From the Buddha to the cross, I have always imagined both as entirely mythic. Ye— but I would like to hear more. May I lie on the couch for a moment? I’m not as young as I used to be. (plonks himself on the couch) Ohh! Hah, so! You were Jesus. Well, perhaps somebody had to be, for better or for worse. The jury is still out.

When did you begin to believe you were Jesus?

JOHN: When did you begin to believe you were a psychiatrist?

WILL: Since I graduated Harvard medical school and finished my residency, I’ve had that feeling. Oh, I sometimes dream about it.

JOHN: Have you acted upon this belief?

WILL: I had a private practice for a while, and then I taught. Nothing unusual— Oh, until one day, I met a caveman who thought he was Jesus.

JOHN: Do you find that unusual?

WILL: Very. I would stake my reputation he is as sane as I am, so why does he persist in such a story?

JOHN: There must be a reason, though.

WILL: Unless I imagined it all? Is that possible?

JOHN: I think you’re as sane as he is.

WILL: Oh, god, I— (laughs) No.

Did you ever find it prudent to worship yourself rather than be thought a heretic? That would be something!

JOHN: At the time Christianity was considered heresy, I had to pretend other faiths.

WILL: And what does Jesus have to say to those present who find it difficult to believe in Him?

JOHN: Believe in what he tried to teach, without rigmarole. Piety is not what the lessons bring to people. It’s the mistake they bring to the lessons.

(slowly getting up and putting on his jacket)

Well, it’s getting to be night. I still have stuff to carry and a long drive.

SANDY: I’ll help.

DAN: John, do you have a destination in mind? Never mind. I won’t ask.

JOHN: Thank you.

(exits with Sandy, carrying boxes)

WILL: Anyone mentally ill can imagine a fantastic background— Even an entire life— and sincerely believe it. The man who thinks he is Napoleon does believe it. His true identity has taken a backseat to his delusion and the need for it. If that’s the case with John, there is a grave disorder.

ART: Organized brilliantly. He’s got an answer for everything.

WILL: It might involve rejection of his father, of his entire early past, replaced by this fantasy.

HARRY: He says he can’t remember his father.

WILL: Precisely. Why?

LINDA: You said he was sane.

WILL: Did I?

DAN: Do you think that perhaps our caveman has a monkey on his back?

EDITH: Drugs?

HARRY: No, no, no, no. I’ve done a lot of consulting work with the narcotics division. I’ve seen people…tripping, strung out— Whatever’s up with John, it isn’t that. I’ve looked for signs— None.

LINDA: Could cavemen really talk?

DAN: We think that language came into existence sixty thousand years ago. The structure of Stone Age culture is evidence of the ability to communicate… verbally.

Harry wolf whistles, clicks his tongue.

HARRY: Oh, shut up.

John is looking at the stars.

JOHN: Maybe it’d be easier if I were.

SANDY: Crazy? No.

Coyote howls. John then looks at Sandy.

DAN: That is fascinating, though, isn’t it, a brave attempt to teach Buddhism in the West. It’s no wonder he failed. We’re not ready for it.