The Influence of the Alternative Religious Tradition on New Religious Movements Part Two

Alternative Religious Traditions Continued...

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Before Christ, Gnosticism was popular and was defined as the quest for secret knowledge, search for self understanding and general enlightenment (Christensen). They believed we were all from a realm of spirits, here in a physical body and that this was a place of separation from divinity. Furthermore, that spiritual self was eternal and that that immortal self was divine, therefore to know oneself was to know God. When Jesus came, the Gnostics saw Him as the one who would bring gnosis (Wikipedia). The Gnostics believed also that to attain illumination would bring eternal life and that death could not keep Jesus after the crucifixion because He possessed the secret teachings and knowledge and was already immortal before He died (Christensen). In the late 19th century and 20th century, Aleister Crowley, whom some claim to be the true father of modern witchcraft and the founder of Thelema, would be influenced by Gnoticism (Wikipedia).

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