Subj : Bible
To   : TODD HENSON
From : RALPH ZETTER
Date : Wed Nov 01 2000 11:18 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. 

I sneaked a peek at it to see what you were saying. They are as bad as
Voigt.

> 
> 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 sounds like what I read before.

> 
> 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.

Wow, that's an interesting perspective. I don't think I've heard that one.
Round these parts, we 
have some folks like that. I think they're a little crazy but I'm not a
Bible expert so I don't know 
what to make of it. But I do see the sense in saying they are too caught up
in the sensation. I'm 
no Christian but I know enough to think twice before someone tells me I
have to do all that just 
to be one, but then again I'm no expert.

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