Until I read "split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there." in the Gospel of Thomas I had found no references to the state of mind I was in during my original religious conversion experience. Three full days of non-stop synchronicity experiences, one right after the other, and all of them bearing religious meanings. I literally could not look at anything without an immediate connection forming in my mind relating everything to God or the Spirit of Christ. A split piece of wood meant the Cross. The stone uncovered showed Jesus gone, the stone picked up to kill the adulteress whom Jesus saved, the cornerstone that was rejected, the millstone tied around the neck of those who would harm children.
Other Thomas sayings also bear witness of a remarkable mind but one couched in Jewish lore, e.g., "For there are five trees for you in Paradise which remain undisturbed summer and winter and whose leaves do not fall. Whoever becomes acquainted with them will not experience death." i.e., the five books of Moses and/or a reference to Yeshu ben Pantera, the historical Jesus's five disciples. Here is another Thomas reference that points to the
Talmudic Yeshu's story as bastard son of Joseph Pantera and adulteress Miriam: "Jesus said, 'He who knows the father and the mother will be called the son of a harlot."
