"Alternative History"

See Metahistory.org for the full article:

Nearly all scholars maintain that Gnosticism arose historically with Christianity, but I take a different view, as follows: Gnosis was a spiritual path of millennial duration, closely related to, yet distinct from, well-known traditions of Pan-Asian mysticism, including Indian yoga and Buddhism. Gnostics were telestai, initiates in the Mystery Schools who broke their vows of anonymity to come out in the open and protest Judeo-Christian doctrines of Salvationism — doctrines that provide the ideological frame for the patriarchal/dominator agenda. Because the initiates emerged into the public eye during the first centuries of the Christian Era, scholars assume that Gnosticism must have been devised then and there.

I also depart from orthodox scholarship in looking outside the genre to develop an historical profile for Gnosticism. No scholar would say that Gnostics were from the Mystery Schools, because there is a disciplinary fence between Gnostic studies and Mystery School studies. Thus, Elaine Pagels insists flatly that there is no evidence (by which she means textual evidence) of such a link. But pioneer researchers, such as Theosophical scholar G. R. S. Mead, assumed Gnosis to be the core teaching of the Mysteries. “Gnostic forms are found to preserve elements of the Mystery-traditions of antiquity in greater fullness than we find elsewhere.” (The Gospels and the Gospel , p. 210.) This statement was written in 1901.

Even the earliest evidence on Gnostics, such as the polemics of Hippolytus, state that the "heretics" drew their views from the Greek Mysteries. This link to the entheogenic cult of the Eleusinian Mysteries confirms my view that Gnosis was a refined form of psychedelic shamanism, a visionary path dedicated to the Earth Goddess. Such links are totally ignored by Gnostic scholars.

There is ample historical evidence for cross-cultural exchange between Gnostics and Asian mystics, such as Brahmins and Buddhist monks. From the 4th Century BCE Alexandria was a melting-pot where diverse cults met and mixed. The Church Fathers attest the presence of Druids and Brahmins in Egypt at the dawn of the Christian Era. Gandhara art from the Hindu Kush demonstrates the fusion of Greek and Indian cultures from the 4th Century BCE, and Buddhist scholars such as David Snellgrove and Paul Williams see Gnostic ideas affecting early views of Mahayana. In a hallmark essay published in 1967, renowned Buddhist scholar Edward Conze outlined 17 key similarities between Buddhism and Gnosticism. But comparative studies of this kind are totally out of fashion today, and comprehensive historical perspective on Gnosticism is non-existent.

The result is, a fog of ambiguity. On approaching Gnosticism, we naturally want to locate and label this movement, to get a sense of where Gnostics were coming from, culturally, historically, and geographically. Not a chance. Narrow-mindedness and denial dominate the subject. We must approach Gnosticism knowing beforehand that its origins are under-researched and misrepresented.

To make matters worse, my claim that Gnostics came out of the Mystery Schools throws the entire issue into perplexity, because no one knows what went on in the Mysteries! When I make this link, I set myself up to explain what the Mysteries were, which is about as difficult as explaining what Gnosticism is. (Actually, it is not so difficult, but building an adequate picture takes time.) I cannot fail to link Gnosticism to the Mysteries, even if this leaves people in bafflement. These abstruse matters are crucial to recovering the lost spiritual heritage of Europe (i.e., the West), and it takes a lifelong commitment. It is not just an obscure episode in history we’re contemplating here. What Gnosis really was, and what happened to it, determined the most decisive shift in the moral and spiritual life of Western civilization. The story of the Gnostics is the crucial missing chapter of that part of our collective story.

Both sides seem to make sense to me. There is speculation the Jesus Christ visited the far east to recieve Taoist/Bhuddist instruction or at least recieved such from proponants or branches thereof. The closest to this I have read of in Mainstream Gnostic history was the assertion that there was at least one branch of the Gnostics that held the idea the the God of Jesus Christ was different from the God of the Jews and that the Salvation Jesus Christ spoke of was for the Jews and indeed all so inclined to a warlike culture. That the Pharisees & Sadducees were those same proponants of the Tribe of Benjamin which became the Priests at the Council of Nicaea, Knights Templar, Illuminati, (Pandora's Box, Alex Christopher) etc.

Although In studying this alternative history I'm getting the clear impression that there are one set of 'Good guys' and one set of 'Bad Guys'.

The core theme of the Good guys being peace, ascension, enlightenment, knowledge, truth, personal Spirituality, and Freedom of Knowledge.

Where I see this theme of the 'bad guys' being War, Domination, Theological Subversion, Occulted Wisdom, Persecution of Heresy, and namely Human Sacrifice in a attempt to employ the hermetic tradition of 'rising on the pendulum' to avoid the sway and compensate to validate the loss. The Goal being the compensation in society to adapt to the theology. Where the theology dictated war, human sacrifice, and persecution of Heretics to create and preserve an occultation of wisdom amongst 'the masses'.


In this I've come up with some really whacked out theories. Like for one, The knights templar, pirates, and the Illuminati being of the goal to destroy the Evil Church and share knowledge with all mankind.

These people going insofar as to do what bush has done and be blatantly obvious about the NWO proposition. Perhaps they take what is the inevitable culmination of war (World domination) and try to blatantly throw it in the face of the public while acting like such blatantly retarded liars that the public would stop accepting it and revolt in rejection of a world domination. Getting on the inside, being the face, and then blowing their cover so to speak.

The NWO is like a drug dealer. Their agents can have their cover blown, exposed (Like Hitler, Marx etc.), demonized and then used as the reason to go to war and install exactly that which we have been fighting against for so long.

Except now, Bush has done to us what Stalin and Lenin did to Russia in terms of World view. The same thing Hitler did to Germany.

Generate Cultural hate from both side, incite war, then commit genocide. Now I'm moving into the realm of Conspiracy although The Occult, Spirituality/Consciousness, Alternative History and Conspiracy are all related topics.

Chakravanti wrote:Except now, Bush has done to us what Stalin and Lenin did to Russia in terms of World view. The same thing Hitler did to Germany.

Although there are strong similarities, conflating them may sacrifice crucial distinctions of ideology and demeanor.

Yeah, Hitler was a lot more Charismatic. And I don't think it matter what color it is...world domination is world domination. 6 one way half a dozen the other.

All roads lead to Rome.