Gnosticism

Discussion in 'Comparative Religion' started by Darth Behemoth, Mar 29, 2013.

  1. Greatest I am Valued Senior Member

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    Read it again. Belonging to what or whom?

    To yourself. Right?

    Would you want it any other way?

    Regards
    DL
     
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  3. Ruiy Registered Member

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    It is not quite easy to synthesize in a unit or unravel the complex system that is Gnosticism and his derivatives. Especially since we found influences of other religions and philosophies, some parallels and ideas from here and there.
    Personally, I think that it is a stream rather diffuse, with little limits clear, and concepts that result from a syncretism, at least to me, I find a simple amalgam of various things and some any intention of categorical description would lead to nothing.
    I stay only with the idea of ​​the "unknowable".
     
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  5. Sithsaber Registered Member

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    People forget that gnosticism is a loose grouping kept together mostly be their shared status as heretics. For every progressive gospel of Mary Magdalene, there are three insanely misogynistic tracts calling women soulless servants of the demiurge.
     
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  7. Aqueous Id flat Earth skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    Interesting. Welcome to the site. This thread has gone stale, but I'm not sure it got the attention it deserves. Gnosticism is genetically linked to the modern incarnations of ancient Christianity, and rarely gets elevated to anything more than the status of a passing curiosity. The piece that strikes me as most relevant to this lineage is the impersonal Jesus seen in the Gospel of Thomas, who resembles the post-Resurrection Jesus of the canon, as well as the bizarre impersonal Jesus of the quasi-hallucinatory Book of Revelation.

    If not for some freak accident, or turn of historical events, Gnosticism might have been the religion defended by, say, the Tea Party.

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  8. Sithsaber Registered Member

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    Do you really think the tea party would support the worship of knowledge?
     
  9. Aqueous Id flat Earth skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    They would continue to worship stupidity dressed up as knowledge, I suppose. Of course gnosticism in the modern context would have lost touch with its ancient ideology, so I guess anything is possible.
     
  10. wellwisher Banned Banned

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    If you work under the assumption of atheism, and assume God is a product of the imagination, this create a context for religion, but does not deny the fact that the religious POV can be a source of unique motivation and drive. Rather the dynamics are real and would be based on the operation of the brain. The Gnostic keeps his eye on the ball with respect to religious triggers, while also thinking in terms of the brain reacting to these triggers, so one unravel the mysteries of higher human potential. One uses religion triggers to gain internal experiences from which one can explain the mind.

    In other words, whether your agree with religion or not, many religious people have more will power over impulses. They don't have to water it down to make it easier so they can look better. They can also have a unique drive which can be used to help humanity; Saint, or can be used to manipulate on a wide scale like a demagogue. The Gnostic is respectful of the rituals and triggers of various eastern and western religions, but is also looking for ways to harness this in a more intellectual sense. The esoteric nature of their writings is connected to trying to explain right brain spatial data organization, in the context of left brain language. Language is not processed in the right brain, and therefore is limiting when used to describe spatial data organization; esoteric.

    The Gnostic sees that although religion may be considered irrational, it nevertheless creates unique drives in people. They don't throw out the baby with the bath water, but accept the rituals and use these to act as triggers for self observation. The hope is higher human potential. In the end one builds a respect for the rituals of religion because the ancients had this mind thing figured out. This is still a final frontier in science.
     
  11. kx000 Valued Senior Member

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    I have seen knowledge in nature. I saw trees light up and turn so beautiful it became knowledge for something more. In my imagination I saw a Man in this beauty.

    I learned beauty matches up with conciousness and other lights. When you shine you are thoughtful or wise.
     
  12. river

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    Then when you investigate Gnosticism you will be more deeply enlightened

    There is further to go , but its a start
     
  13. wellwisher Banned Banned

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    This comes from the imagination and includes experiences of the personality firmware which are often personified. These are higher than the ego, being part of the brain's consciousness control system. From these we can learn the ways of nature and higher human potential.
     
  14. kx000 Valued Senior Member

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    Brother I am enlightenment. When my word comes to me again.

    Something's about established Gnosticism offends my enlightenment. I embrace both the spiritual world, and the material world. I believe they are becoming one through evolution. The spirits are largely un palpable, but can fly and teleport and do magic. As humans we don't know magic, but we are flesh and bone, able to be touched. So may the spirit reside in our flesh.
     
  15. river

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    In Gnosticism we all can know god through knowledge
     
  16. kx000 Valued Senior Member

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    When you know you know. Knowledge is God.
     
  17. sscully Registered Member

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    Do you practice Gnosticism? Have you ever considered Hermeticism? I was looking into both recently and I felt Hermeticism was a more fundamental teaching than gnosticism but that they both had the same overall recognition of how the universe works. That said, I didn't do much research into Gnosticism, so don't be offended if those were falsely spoken, it was just my personal interpretation at this time. I am genuinely interested if you have compared the two and what may have made you resonate more with Gnosticism, if so?

    "As above, so below." In time, this phrase will come to be understood as the most enlightening words ever uttered. Again, my personal interpretation at this time ;-D

    (Sorry, if you think this is derailing the Gnostic specific thread, please ignore me!)
     
  18. river

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    No worries

    You are exploring both , this is a good thing
     
  19. sscully Registered Member

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    Any thoughts on how the two compare then with regard to what I said?! ;-D
     
  20. river

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    Not right now

    I have moved. And both of these books are in storage , unfortunately

    But please , continue with what you have learned

    I will always be interested

    river
     
  21. sscully Registered Member

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    It's a long story, but it ultimately arrives at me believing that hermeticism is the way to the Philosopher's Stone, which is metaphorical for a mental connection to God that allows for material world manipulation mentally. I think hermeticism describes the mental manipulation of the material world most accurately, and I think this is the skill that anyone who wrote or is written about in the Bible had at least a degree of mental connection to God through hermetic understandings of the universe. I don't know what gnosticism teaches, the best text to refer to for hermeticism is the Kybalion where they teach the seven principles.

    One of them is the Principle of Correspondence: As above, so below. This is what drew me to hermeticism the most. I don't know if you are into cosmology, but my Theory of Everything in the Alternative Theories subforum led me to realize that the universe operates by a principle of correspondence; all levels are observably the same if the observer is composed of the level below and lives on that level. Planets are planets, but so are stars (to observers composed of planets) and black holes (to observers composed of stars) and nuclei (to observers composed of electrons) etc etc. Stars are stars to observers composed of atoms, but planets are stars to observers composed of electrons whose planet is an atom's nuclei, and someone on an electron would observe that nucleus as their star and the planet, say Earth, as their black hole. There are an infinite number of such "levels of existence", because the universe is infinite and eternal. Very long story to explain how this is so, but after realizing it I started to research Isaac Newton's occult studies and I was very taken aback by how ACCURATE hermetic teachings were to my realized structure of the universe.

    That's why I'm very interested in the differences in gnosticism and hermeticism; does gnosticism teach the same general thing as "as above, so below"?
     
  22. river

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    The only thing I can say is this , Gnosticism promotes the idea that you can understand god through knowledge

    For knowledge brings you closer to god
     
  23. sscully Registered Member

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    Ha got it, I'll have to look into it more closely as well. Are there any specific gnostic teachings you would suggest reading?
     

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