Gnostic Insights

If 5.3 trillion planets are thought to support life, how many of them would recognize the Gnostic Gospel? This episode offers a form of logical proof that the universe must be teeming with Second Order Powers sent by the Pleroma--enough to counter the Demiurge.

This episode looks at "centering" from several perspectives. What is centering and why do people do it? Learn how to center using toroidal flow--a consciousness-studies favorite. You can also center using the sign of the cross and the Lord's Prayer.

A person's governing unit of consciousness nests in the Self and the toroidal shape of consciousness in our universe. The crossover between spirit and flesh occurs at the heart chakra. Mud moves upward, Spirit moves downward. Neighbors are side to side.

Ananda/joy exploding into cosmos from the middle. Metaverse/Father coming down the funnel at the top and pressing in from the outside; feels like love.

With arms outstretched we cooperate with others to build the next level up using the Simple Golden Rule of sharing information, assistance, and love.

The sign of the cross bridges spirit (top), mud (bottom), and our neighbors (side to side).

Continuing our discussion of fundamentalism in all its fractal forms with my gnostic friend, Adrian Smith. We delve deeper into his book, A Prison for the Mind. Learn how manufactured fear and demonization of the other drives us into the clutches of the powerful few where we look in vain for salvation. These saviors put on a face of piety and pretty promises, but their motivation is always power--the more power over your life, the better.

Visit Adrian's Autonomy Now blog by clicking here

In this interview, gnostic author Adrian Charles Smith shares his intimate understanding of fundamentalism as a fractal pattern that permeates all institutions, from literalist churches to corporate life to politics. An ex-pastor and lawyer, Smith defines fundamentalism as possessing the form of law yet lacking the spirit of truth, and its methods of control are ever the same, no matter where you find it.

Adrian Charles Smith

You can read more about these topics at Adrian's blog: Autonomy Now: – Gnosticism in a (Post)Modern World (aprisonforthemind.blog)

I also enjoyed Adrian's book, A Prison for the Mind: Reflections of a disappointed fundamentalist.

Adrian's writing is a pleasure to read, and his book is chocked full of great quotes that shed light on our current geo-political climate. Quotes like these:

"We have a predator which came from the depths of the cosmos and took over the rule of our lives. Human beings are its prisoners. The predator is our lord and master. It has rendered us docile, helpless. If we want to protest, it suppresses our protest. If we want to act independently, it demands that we don't do so." -- Don Juan of Carlos Castaneda fame, Mexican shaman

"If you would be a seeker after truth, it is necessary, at least once in your life, you doubt, as far as possible, all things." -- Rene Descartes

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms--to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances." --Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

Adrian uses broccoli as an example of how fractals work. It just so happens I have explained fractals the same way in the following video posted to my youtube channel --

Is there a qualitative difference between life forms and the potential consciousness of computers and robots? Why is it that "meat" levels up to make more complex, conscious assemblages, whereas "mud" can't rise above its molecular level aggregations? Hint: perhaps it's the difference between the Demiurge and the Pleroma.

Much to its chagrin, the demiurge cannot create life or imbue consciousness into dead matter. This episode examines viruses and organoids to uncover the fine line between living and non-living forms, and asks the question: what is life?

This brain organoid shows odd toroidal clumps of tissue. Organoids cannot level up to form organs.

Bacteriophage virus. This machine is a molecule. It is not alive.

SARS Covid-19 virus cross-section, displaying coiled RNA payload. A molecule. Viruses are not alive.

One cool thing about slime molds is that they are individual, single-celled organisms, yet when conditions call for it, they come together and form one fully coordinated body. Once in that aggregated body, the mold acts according to the Simple Golden Rule, with one mind, one will, and one goal, just like the Pleroma.

This is the donut-shaped geometric form known as a torus. This torus is the shape of consciousness, called a unit of consciousness in the Simple Explanation.

The hierarchy of the Pleroma of God resembles a slime mold colony that sits in Oneness, dreaming of Paradise

Our universe is comprised of fractal units of consciousness of the Fullness of God, each with their own point-of-view. These monads come into our universe with all of the original consciousness of the Father and the Son, however the knowledge contained is on a need-to-know basis.

In this ground-breaking episode, we take a close look at David Bentley Hart's recent translation of the New Testament, and how his more accurate rendering of the original Greek brings the New Testament fully in line with the concepts of Gnosticism. While Hart's translation clearly removes eternal damnation from Christianity, Dr. Ropp takes it a step further and suggests that the term "aion" should not be translated as a unit of time, an "Age," but rather as a unit of consciousness--an "Aeon" of the Pleroma. This single shift in translation changes everything!

Truth is truth. Gnosis is gnosis. And do you know what isn't gnosis? Academia.  We have no need of knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Knowledge should be used to inform your own gnosis. Knowledge should be weighed by the scales of your own discernment.  The purpose of reading, writing, and arithmetic is to aid your own recall of gnosis.  The purpose of scholarship, if you want to be a gnostic scholar, is to enhance your practice of gnosis. It is far better to be a gnostic with little formal education, than a scholar with little gnosis.