The word Gnosis was first ‘coined’ by the Greeks and is a derivation meaning “knowledge” in the same way as diagnosis, prognosis etc. but more than ordinary knowledge; a superior wisdom. Throughout time people have yearned to know the meaning of life. The timeless universal knowledge of Gnosis was taught in the ancient schools of mysteries across the world in Greece, Rome, Egypt, Mexico, India, Tibet, Russia, China etc. over centuries.
Many men and women, after searching for truth and actively taking steps to understand and know themselves founded different religions and schools of mysteries to share their knowledge with humanity. We know them as Jesus, Buddha, Blavatsky, Brahma, Krishna, Hermes, Zoroaster, Moses, Ormuz, Dante, and Quetzalcoatl, to name a few. They were all able to capture the transcendental essence, the Gnosis – they incarnated the knowledge within themselves. Each realised that man is the microcosm, or minor reflection, of the Macrocosm; ‘As above, so below’. In each case, the information was the same, but it was repackaged to present to the corresponding society of the time. Not surprisingly you will find Gnosis contained in elements from Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Aztecs, Toltec’s, Mayans, Incas etc. Christ’s doctrine was Gnostic, he was an Essene and Paul of Tarsus was a Nazarene, both Gnostic sects. The secret sciences of the whirling Dervishes contain Gnosis as does the doctrine of Daoism.
Many men and women, after searching for truth and actively taking steps to understand and know themselves founded different religions and schools of mysteries to share their knowledge with humanity. We know them as Jesus, Buddha, Blavatsky, Brahma, Krishna, Hermes, Zoroaster, Moses, Ormuz, Dante, and Quetzalcoatl, to name a few. They were all able to capture the transcendental essence, the Gnosis – they incarnated the knowledge within themselves. Each realised that man is the microcosm, or minor reflection, of the Macrocosm; ‘As above, so below’. In each case, the information was the same, but it was repackaged to present to the corresponding society of the time. Not surprisingly you will find Gnosis contained in elements from Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Aztecs, Toltec’s, Mayans, Incas etc. Christ’s doctrine was Gnostic, he was an Essene and Paul of Tarsus was a Nazarene, both Gnostic sects. The secret sciences of the whirling Dervishes contain Gnosis as does the doctrine of Daoism.
As humanity was enveloped by the dark ages the schools closed their external doors to protect themselves. The knowledge, Gnosis, was hidden amongst the four pillars of wisdom: Philosophy, Science, the Arts and Mysticism (Religion). The courses presented by the GCA refer to each of these pillars:
The scientific pillar is where we use techniques and tools to verify and experiment and live with what we are studying just like a ‘live’ experiment. These tools enable us to get to the proof of the doctrine. They include meditation, astral projection and alchemy. These lead us to establishing an ongoing dialogue with our Inner Being.
The Philosophical pillar gives us techniques and practises that encourage us to look for answers to where we come from, where we go from here and who we really are. What is the true nature of our being and understanding the reality of the present moment – to live in the moment – so we can change our existence for the better.
Mysticism / Religion Pillar - The source of all religions spring from Gnosis. It underpins sacred texts, books and scrolls in all cultures. Whether from the Celts, Greeks, ancient Egyptians, Romans, Hindus, Christians, Aztecs, Muslims, or Shamans; all mystical recordings in the form of sacred writings, codices, steles, legends, fables, myths and ancient rituals etc. describe heightened experiences with the divine and corresponding rituals which lead back to one path – to rejoin with the Inner Being. The derivation of the word religion is religare which means to tie, join with our Innermost part. Yoga is a Sanskrit word and means reunite (with the universal Spirit). Gnosis sets out to provide the synthesis – to rejoin with our Inner Being. Gnosis is not a ‘religion’ (as in the majority of religions of today) as the doctrine does not constrain people to dogmas and theories. Every school and religion has both an inner and exterior side. A lot of people are happy with the external side of contemporary religions; Gnosis is concerned with the internal.
The Pillar of Art – There is much hidden knowledge in pictures, sculptures and nature itself – the living art. The sublime images and sounds of the Arts throughout the ages hold cosmic truths and can have an impact on our consciousness with colours, form and symbolism. Gnosis gives us the keys to decipher and understand so we can be inwardly nourished.
Gnosis is the golden thread which runs through the purest forms of all these pillars, and forms the basis of all cultures, civilisations and religions. Gnosis is not a mixture of all doctrines, philosophies and ideas, instead it’s the reverse; all religions and beliefs contain different and various aspects of Gnosis. Gnosis has never belonged to any one time or place in history, which is why it’s timeless, universal and divine.
Gnosis does not belong to any one person, culture or race; it cannot be bought or sold under one sole ownership. This is why our courses are free of charge. Gnosis provides the methods, tools and information about how we can investigate what we think, feel and act, so we can recapture our true purpose in life. The course is about self-discovery and applying practical steps to investigate ourselves and our life and so acquire true knowledge. Gnosis is the wisdom of the heart – true objective knowledge.
We are born, grow-up, eat sleep, belong to family, move within our own social circles and then die – WHY? Do you ever stop to ask who are we, where do we come from, where do we go we go when we die? These questions have been asked by mankind for millennia.
People start to search for more in their life when they are not happy even when they have more or less everything they could desire – food, job, home, security etc. They become uneasy, restless and disenchanted. They become desperate and board, fed up with the constant daily repetitions of their life. They become disillusioned and feel trapped in the hum-drum / rat run / rut and feel their life is at a loss. Even if everything is ‘nice’ they sense that there is still something missing…
Have you ever gone further and asked yourselves, why do we suffer, why do we have emotions and habits, obsessions, cravings, wants, needs and desires?
Why do some people seem to help us in our lives and some seem to be such a hindrance?
Even silly little things get to us, the urge to eat a whole packet of biscuits instead of just one, we moan when we are asked to wash-up again when it’s not our turn. Someone’s parked in our parking space, how annoying is that?
If only we looked better, younger, fitter. If only we could earn more money to get that luxury item we feel we deserve.
The list of desires is endless and the grass is always greener on the other side. Perhaps the desire to get noticed so we can get a promotion or the desire to manipulate someone to get our own way…. The desire to earn more money versus the desire to spend more time on holiday – people end up on the beach with their company laptop - they have created a false life.
We are all striving for happiness, we have dreams and desires which we feel will help us achieve this for example, a new car, new house, move to a different country, yet still we are missing something. We have a nice life, but what is that car, boat, beer - these things don’t last - still we die in the end…
How is it that the associations attached to a roomful of objects can remind us of an unpleasant situation we went through with a friend, even though they have long since left, or the argument been forgotten. Why do we distrust politicians and condemn our football team at the slightest hint of failure even though, up till then they had been our heroes?
As all of our thoughts, feelings and actions occur we may think and feel we are powerful and in control of everything. Yet how easy it is for the most basic things to knock us side-ways and upset us! If Great Aunty Josephine phones just as we are settling down to watch our favourite TV programme, or the person in front of us in the queue at the checkout has forgotten her money – how do we feel, what do we think and has our pleasant evening just become a torture?
Taking this further into the world; human injustice, genocides, starvation, pollution and exploitation of nature have become accepted as the way the world, yet we think we humans are more civilised than ever. We think we are the ‘Kings’ of nature, yet a flame still burns and drop of rain can ruin our day.
Over the years, science and technology have made a huge impact on our lives. Science is neither good nor bad, it’s just the way it is used. We need to see that the current theories of science are limited by interpretation and subjectivity. Science is based on theories and dogmas – just because what we see with our 5 sensual senses may correspond to this or that concept or idea doesn’t mean that it is the whole truth, the reality of the situation.
Sometimes just by observing something changes it – as has been shown in sub atomic research. What is needed is direct experience to totally understand something.
No chemical formulae or equation describes direct experience to us – Gnosis teaches us to gain true knowledge and understanding instead of just information and data. People get answers from the mind but the mind is just a tool – we are more than the mind – we need to utilise our consciousness. Theories alone can never enable us to understand or live wisely.
If we wrap ourselves up in scientific dogmas, theories, counter theories and opposing schools of science, we can only get so far. If we don’t learn about how we operate internally - psychologically - and bring about a radical change, we will not gain access to superior truths and knowledge either. This is what was meant by the Statement “Man Know thyself and you shall know the universe”, which came from the Ancient Temple of Delphi in Greece. Theories are not bad, they are still needed but there is more…
It seems that we can be grand and happy one moment and then a simple toothache reduces us to being bad tempered and grumpy in the next .We have to become aware of our mental and emotional and physical states.
Gnosis is the knowledge of things through ones own, direct, conscious objective experience without any input from mechanical feelings, thoughts or actions. Its teachings and doctrine give us a set of tools whereby we can learn to live wisely. It explains why we are here, our purpose in life, and gives us clear and concrete answers to many issues and the means to find out the answers to many of our own questions.
Lots of people have read whole libraries of books and believe they have obtained knowledge, but really this is the subjective wisdom of the eye (what they have only read). Gnosis encourages the wisdom of the heart or objective knowledge, where they have experienced truths through all their faculties, senses and personal experiences.
If we truly understand ourselves as individuals and accept we need to change ourselves for the better, we can change the world and society, after all society is made up of individuals who determine the nature of society and Government in the first place.
Through Gnosis we also come to understand the link between inner state and external event. Our psychology is our reality – not the outside world. We view the world through spectacles tinted with the colour of our moods and thoughts. How a person behaves and thus a situation he attracts is flavoured by his psychology. The outside is only a reflection of the inside and so the outside doesn’t really exist. It’s how we perceive it and this may be far from the reality. For example, two sides in a fight/war consider themselves both justified and right.
An example: A friend turns up at the door at 9pm, I have not seen him for ages, so I go out and have a few drinks with him. After a bit of drinking and reminiscing, I crawl home late, slightly worse for wear. I forget to set the alarm and wake up late for work. I realise forgot to put petrol in the car too, which makes me more late, I rush and get caught in a traffic jam, get irritable, lose my concentration and in that split second drive into the back of the car in front. Eventually I arrive late at work only to be told that I had booked this day off!
We eat without tasting. We dress for work, but turn up with our slippers on…
At the root of all our errors and mishaps lay our psychological defects called ‘egos’, which we can state without any argument cause us misery.
Every human beings psychology is made up of ‘egos’ and Essence (defects and consciousness). We can experience pure consciousness express itself in a baby or a small child – beauty, sweetness and innocence. As the child grows its personality develops through which the two components Essence or egos can manifest.
Gradually the egos strengthen themselves and form to make the characteristics of this boy or that girl. A small boy may be very angry and suffer tantrums all the time, a young girl may be shy and reserved because she is afraid to speak. In time a very large quantity of our consciousness represented by the Essence is entrapped or bottled up within these egos. The remaining un-trapped Essence is so ‘overwhelmed’ by the dominance of the egos, it goes to “sleep”. We then become totally mechanical in our behaviour. We are like puppets of the egos, we react in whatever way they have conditioned us.
Because we are more or less unable to control the mechanical nature of our actions thoughts and feelings we are unaware of the way they operate – it is said that we are psychologically asleep. We need to stimulate the un-trapped consciousness. We need to awaken this Essence and using this start to look into our psychology to see how we really are. This is the beginning of our journey to discover reality.
Obstacles to the awakening of our consciousness include the fact that we feel we already know what life is about. We feel comfortable and do not want to do something more with our lives. Perhaps, even, we do not want the responsibility of trying to awaken.
If we make the effort to awaken the free consciousness and start to look inside ourselves, we can eliminate the egos and radically change our inner states and ourselves. Gnosis gives us the tools and techniques to do this.
We are scared of our boss; why? How do we act in relation to him/her? Observe, change, become more confident…
Once we have begun to observe the effects of the egos working, we can eliminate them with the technique of the psychological or ‘mystical’ death. We have to wake up to notice the egos act. When we have observed them and totally understood how each ego operates we can ask our Inner Being to eliminate it and release the entrapped consciousness from within. The Essence can be liberated.
This cleansing of our psychology is accompanied by the purification and rejuvenation of our physical body within the Gnostic doctrine. This is done by transforming our creative energies. Similarly Gnosis shows us how to develop our internal vehicles to explore ourselves inwardly, just as a boat is needed to explore the sea and a plane is required to travel in the air, so different vehicles are needed to explore different parts of our psychology.
The third fundamental aspect of the Gnostic teachings is to take the opportunity to share knowledge, understanding and the doctrine with others.
So, we need to carry out a revolution of our consciousness we need to:
- Die (instigate the psychological death - elimination of our egos)
- Be born (learn to transform the creative energies correctly to rejuvenate and purify ourselves)
- Sacrifice oneself for humanity – make a conscious sacrifice for others.
Summary
Gnosis has always been in existence and will continue to exist, because it’s a universal knowledge of life. Gnosis does this by focusing us on the Innermost Self-realisation of the Being, where we can learn to develop our human potential to the maximum. Gnosis does not require followers. Instead Gnosis provides the means for people to find themselves – practically – by application – by working upon themselves. Gnosis deals with facts and not beliefs. It is about changing ourselves and not others.
Best place to start is inside. We need to search for ourselves and directly experience. We must swim against the current, battle against ourselves Every thing is within us we need no external equipment to do this work.
By studying how we think feel and act and to start to see that these aspects have common origins will start to generate a positive change within ourselves and we will start to view life in a better way.
