Subj : Bible
To   : RALPH ZETTER
From : TODD HENSON
Date : Wed Nov 01 2000 07:23 pm

> Didn't the gnostics believe that we were pieces of God that become trapped
> in the world, and 
> that through their teachings we could regain our divinity?


You're new here, so maybe some new blood can inject some sanity into the
echo. :-) As you 
can tell, this has now become Holysmoke 2. 

Anyway, yeah, that's the basic idea. Different gnostic groups had different
paths which were 
supposed to accomplish the goal of overcoming the flesh and becoming one
with The One.

Some believed that the desires of the flesh must be completely overcome,
because they 
distract from matters of the spirit and hold us here in the material world.
They even 
subjected themselves to pain. Others believed that the only way to conquer
the flesh was to do 
the opposite, to endulge all of the earthly desires, because if those
desires are satisfied then 
they no longer produce tension from being denied. All kinds of orgy-istic
scenarios and ecstatic 
states were sought after. They were caught up in the sensory experience,
thinking that such an 
intense carnal experience was somehow touching God.

That's not unlike modern charismatic Christians, who are taught that in
order to commune with 
God you have to undergo some intense physical experience, where they hype
themselves into 
hyperemotional states of consciousness. That causes all manner of physcial
manifestations, 
like rolling around, falling dowm, "speaking in tongues", etc. These
experiences are said to be 
of God, but they are more a product of induced altered states. The same
thing happens in other 
religions too. I suppose the intense emotional experience can serve as a
kind of catharsis, and 
the person may feel relieved of some things, which simply reinforces the
idea that this is the 
Holy Spirit making them do this, rather than some practice which
philosophers and mystics 
have known about for years.

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