Jason Reza Jorjani, PhD, is a philosopher and author of Prometheus and Atlas, World State of Emergency, Lovers of Sophia, and Novel Folklore: The Blind Owl of Sadegh Hedayat.

Here he points out that, while the term Gnosticism is very popular, few people really understand what it means. While it is a very loose religious movement, it does have certain common elements. Among these are the idea that our world is under the sway of a malevolent deity who is served by powers and principalities. He traces Gnostic movements such as Manicheism, Mazdakism, and the Cathars. He also discusses the rebirth of Gnosticism in our age, due to the rediscovery of the Nag Hammadi library.

New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is a past vice-president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology; and is the recipient of the Pathfinder Award from that Association for his contributions to the field of human consciousness exploration.

(Recorded on April 5, 2018)

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