Please read the Glossary of My Terms to be able to follow this post.
There is this brand of religious doctrines that has fewer blindfolds, Gnosticism. What these doctrines have in common is the belief that a purely good (‘Divine’) and a coarse impulse are active in the universe, that earthscheme comes from the latter, but that humans carry within them a Divine chip.
Gnostic groups practice a ritual or rituals, endorse and/or generate an assortment of scripture, and have some hierarchy (albeit on a smaller scale than other religious groups). In these respects Gnosticism is like every other religion.
As I mention in the sketch of my life, I have had two experiences of gnostic nature; a feeling of transcendent ease and love and joy; free of every preoccupation most notably mortality; with neither hide nor hair of my normal consciousness. ‘Death’ is for me now the end of only a physical existence. In my first experience, which lasted four days, I had the sensation of my heart yawning open. The second experience was shortlived because I opted to get on with something that was pressing, with the expectation that the experience would visit me again; there was a pronounced being outside of my normal consciousness, with an exultative charge. I have not, in these states been privy to a shred of – esoteric – information. And I have not been left with a desire to hook up with another who has had similar experiences … no group wish whatsoever.
In 15th century Italy Giovanni Pico della Mirandola attempted to promote ideas that have been cast by some as Gnosticism … man has free will, can shape himself, realise his fullest spiritual potential. But Gnosticism comes from a yearning of the soul … will is an alien here. “Let a certain holy ambition invade our souls, so that, not content with the mediocre we shall pact up to the highest, and since we may, if we wish, toil with all our strength to obtain it, full of divine power, we shall no longer be ourselves, but become he himself who made us, for he who knows himself in himself, knows all things, as Zoroaster first wrote.“ Gain seeking – even “holy ambition”(what could this mean, actually ??) – is, in spirituality, a non-starter. Whatever notion the Conte had, I wonder if it was born of an experience that could be described as gnosis. He was immensely scholarly; driven to derive satisfaction from knowledge. In my perception persons of this mould are not likely to savour gnosis.