An Overview of Gnosis

An Overview of Gnosis

excerpts from an article by Dean Edwards
[http://www.eff.org/pub/Net_culture/Consciousness/gnosis.overview ]
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Gnosis comes from a Greek word meaning 'to know' in the sense of to be acquainted.
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Gnosis in a more specific religious sense refers to the knowledge of God and the fullness of the true spiritual realms through direct personal experience.
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A gnostic is someone who has had such an experience or who has been initiated into a tradition which provides access to such personal revelations.)
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Gnosis is not simply a synonym for mysticism, paranormal, occult, metaphysics, esoteric or knowledge. It is a distinct category of mystical experience beyond the physical or psychic levels of being.
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A gnostic religious-philosophical movement flourished during the first several centuries of the current era.
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The effects of the presence of Gnosticism as a systematized religious and spiritual practice were felt throughout Europe, Asia and North Africa. These effects continue to be felt today.
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Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, Taoist, Buddhist, pagan and other versions are also present in the historical and contemporary record.
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Gnosis involves direct "knowledge" and experience of the sacred, rather than relying exclusively on faith, belief or study of sacred texts.
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Systems of gnosis often teach that only through the intercession of a messenger from the pure spiritual realms can the soul become acquainted with God. The original Greek word, gnosis, as noted above, meant knowledge in terms of being 'acquainted with'. The gnostic in any form is a 'friend of God'.
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Please note that soul in the above paragraph refers to the spark of individualized spiritual essence that dwells within the consciousness or mind. In some systems the word 'spirit' itself is used instead of soul. Soul then becomes interchangeable with mind. In Greek, for instance, the word 'psyche' means both mind and soul. 'pneuma' on the other hand means spirit, wind, breath, air.
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Today, new schools of gnosticism such as the Ecclesia Gnostica have emerged in the West. The ancient movement still thrives in several Sufi orders of Islam. (The Arabic term for gnosis is marifat.) There are also strong gnostic influences in Jewish Kabbalah, and in Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Similar patterns are found in India in the teachings of the Fifteenth Century poet Kabir
and in the Sikhism. There is also increasing interest in the marifat of Sufism in Islam.