Jesus Reincarnated in Jerusalem in 1909 A.D. as Doctor Dahesh

By Darrick Evenson

Salim Musa al-Ashi (1909-1984), who became known as Doctor Dahesh, was the most prolific worker of supernatural miracles in recorded human history.  He taught reincarnation, karma, and that heaven and hell were planets. He also collected art.  His followers believe he was Jesus in a past life. This is his story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dahesh Mission International
• Release date: Sep 30, 2025
• ISBN: 9798232516697

Book preview

PART I

Chapter 1

DEAR READER,

THIS BOOK IS NOT FICTION!  This is the true story of the either the greatest magician who ever lived, or the greatest worker of supernatural miracles in recorded history: Salim Musa El-Ashi (1909-1984):  a Man best known by His pen-name: Doctor Dahesh.  Hundreds of people still alive today (2021) have eye-witnessed one or more of His supernatural miracles.  I am one of them. Supernatural miracles performed without stages, or props, or walls, or sheet, or curtains, nor by CGI nor by trick photography.  Miracles done in the open, in the light of day.  Thousands of them. Tens of thousands of them.  Thousands of people alive today believe that Doctor Dahesh was a Prophet, and not only a Prophet, but the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

SALIM MUSA EL-ASHI (s’lim moo-saw eyl-’ash-ee) was born in Jerusalem in 1909, the son of Musa Elias El-Ashi and Shmooneh Hannoch El-Ashi:  Syrian Christian immigrants from the Tur Abdin mountains of southern Turkey near the Syrian border.  Musa was a printer, but could not find work in Turkey, so he moved himself and his wife to Jerusalem, hoping to find employment.  Musa spoke Soriye (a dialect of Syrian) and Turkish, but his Arabic was not good at all, so he could not find a job as a printer.  By the grace of God, he found work as a cook with the Presbyterian Mission in Jerusalem.

In 1909, Shmooneh gave birth to the first of eight children, and they named him Salim Musa El-Ashi.  In just a few years, the El-Ashi family moved to Beirut, Lebanon. Young Salim spent his Summers in Bethlehem with relatives, and the rest of the year in Lebanon: mostly in and around Beirut.  At the time, Palestine and Lebanon were part of the Province of Syria, part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. In 1914, the First World War began, and Turkey sided with Germany and Austria.  In 1918, the British invaded Palestine in their effort to take control of it from the Turks.  Musa Elias was drafted into the Turkish Army, and sent to an army barracks. Like so many at that time, he caught a disease (probably the Swine Flu) and died.  Shmooneh was left a widow with eight children to feed.  What man would marry a woman with eight children?  Most men under Turkish rule were in the Army, fighting the British and the Arab tribesmen like the House of  al-Saud.

Shmooneh had to work full-time to support her family, and her children were divided up among relatives.  Young Salim lived with an aunt and uncle in Bethlehem during the Summers, with other relatives in Turkey part of the year, and with other relatives in other parts of Lebanon.  Some months he lived with his mother. This was the only way his mother was able to feed and house all her children: by rotating them among relatives.  At age 11, Salim was sent for three months to an American orphanage in the south of Lebanon, where he went to the school for three months.  That is the only school Salim ever attended.  School was not free in the Turkish Empire. If you wanted your children to go to school, you had to pay for the schooling yourself.  The government would not help you.  The Turkish government took your taxes, and, in return, gave you nothing. No welfare. No free housing. No free public schools. 

Growing up young Salim had trouble learning Arabic. His family members all spoke Soriye in their homes, a dialect of Syrian.  The Palestinian and Lebanese children made fun of Salim’s poor Arabic, so he usually played with the Syrian children because they more or less spoke the same language.  Little by little did young Salim learn Arabic.  He could not write Arabic until those three months at an American orphanage. But, after that, he could read it.

Even as a child, young Salim became known as a worker of miracles.  At the age of 5, in Beirut, in the year 1914,  he saw a boy get run over by a truck and the boy appeared to be dead. A crowd gathered around the boy, saying prayers.  Young Salim ran over and grabbed the boy’s hand saying: Be healed and live by the permission of God and he pulled the boy to his feet, much to the amazement of the crowd.  There are many more examples of this, but, unfortunately, no living eye-witnesses.  However, Salim continued to work supernatural miracles all of his life: which was 75 years. So, there are hundreds of eye-witnesses to his miracles, and I am one of them.  There are hundreds more still alive today (2021).

Salim Musa El-Ashi worked so many miracles that he received the nickname of Dahesh (Arabic: Wonderful or Astonishing).  In the year 1930, at the age of 20, Dahesh was invited to Paris by the International Psychic Society, and tested as to his abilities. They were so impressed with him, that they gave him an Honorary Doctorate of Psychic Studies.  After that time, he became known as Doctor Dahesh.  He never claimed any degrees of any kind.  He had only three months of schooling.  Yet, he healed thousands.

While in Paris Dahesh took a fancy to the art museums, and especially Orientalist art: paintings done by the talented students of the French Art Academies in Paris.  Orientalist art are paintings that depict romantic scenes of  Egypt, Arabia, and Turkey.  Realistic scenes. Dahesh did not fancy impressionist or modern art.  He loved Orientalist Art, and, over many decades, became the greatest collector of Orientalist Art in the world.

What did Doctor Dahesh do for a living?  The answer is: nothing. He worked miracles.  In return, people gave him gifts. Often he was given art by Lebanese and Egyptian artists. He would trade this art for Orientalist art, and often keep it.  He also had his own newspaper, which contained excerpts from his 150 books which he published.  When journalists and others asked him how he made his living, he would take some paper, cut it into the size of a Lebanese lira (one dollar note), ask that person to write their name on the blank piece of paper, and then fold it and hold it in their hand.  Then Dahesh would say a special prayer, and he would say to the person holding the blank piece of paper (with their name written on it) to Open your hand and unfold the paper.  They would do so, and see a Lebanese lira, with their name written on it, in their own hand-writing. This was done literally thousands of times, from at least 1930 to 1975: when Dahesh moved from Beirut, Lebanon, to New York City.

Many people reported later that when they held the folded black paper in their fist, and Dahesh said the prayer, they could feel the paper moving or trembling in their fist.  Dahesh would tell people that this is how he made money: by making it in this manner.  People would ask Dahesh to make money for them, and he would: one dollar Lebanon liras. People would ask for 100 liras or 1000 liras or 10,000 liras, but Dahesh would always tell them that God would not make anyone rich whose karma was not to become rich.  Our karma determines if we will be successful in life or not, and by how much.  Our current life is our Day of Judgment for our last life.  Our actions (karma) in our last life, determined our fate in this life.  If will fill our life with mercy and charity towards those in real need, in our last life, then in this life we will have good fortunate and wealth. However, if in our last life we lived a life of selfishness and greed, and oppressed workers, for our own gain, then, in this life, we will have bad fortunate: and one failure after another.  We cannot change our current  karma.  All we can do is live our life filled with good words, good thoughts, and good deeds, and mercy and compassion, and then our next life will be filled with good health, long life, and good fortune.

Doctor Dahesh wrote 150 books: poetry, prose, social commentary, parables (from the very long to the very short), and Books of Divine Revelation.  His books did not sell well. That was not the point.  He did not make money from writing books. He wrote books to teach people, to teach Humanity what we need to know: how to live, how to treat other people, how to avoid negative karma: the truth about God and the Cosmos.  If Dahesh needed money he would put blank sheets of paper, the size of Lebanese liras, into his hand and offer a prayer, and the blank sheet would tremble and turn into a Lebanese Lira.  Not a 10 Lira bill. Not a 20 Lira bill. Not a 100 Lira bill. Not a 1000 Lira bill. Just a one Lira bill.  When asked about this, Dahesh would reply that God provided for him what he needed,