New Age Groups
Self-described "Gnostic" groups originating in the New Age movement and having little if any regard for the ancient sources of Gnosticism.

Thomasine Church

The Thomasine Church is an ecclesiastical organization formed in the 21st century in the US, and is not to be confused with Thomasines and Thomas Christians.

Mar Didymos
Mar Didymos

Associated Organizations 

  • The Thomasine Church
  • The Order of Friars Marcionite
  • The Rose-Cross Society


Associated Terms

  • "Wicked Ones"
  • Thomasine
  • Mar Didymos
  • Leitourgia
  • Illuminism
  • Illuminist Teaching
  • Fictitious Mind
  • Revelation

 

Doctrine: 

"These are the emotions and their effects.

"These too are mentioned in the Hymn and are called the “Wicked Ones” or the "Demons of the Labyrinth." Through these meditative techniques one acquires a state of apathea . The “Wicked Ones” directly influence the very way we think, and thereby, function in life. They are insidious and subtly make our minds move into keeping us comfortable and thus Ignorant.

"When the Hymn of the Pearl is taught thusly, a Thomasine Initiate can understand the allegory in a much clearer way. They see it from a completely psychological point of view. Here is an example of a practical application to such experiential knowledge. In dealing with certain people a Thomasine Initiate will sit and watch the effects which their thoughts, words and deeds create in others. We have found it easier to allow others to move with knee-jerk reactions. We skillfully get them to show their hand. By studying our own minds, we know exactly what emotive buttons to push in others. It is merely a matter of timing, distancing, posturing, and positioning. We allow them to fall into the veritable trap of their own Ignorance which is brought on by Arrogance. These are the “Dark Forces,” the “Demons of the Labyrinth,” or the “Wicked Ones” spoken of in the Hymn of the Pearl."

- Mar Didymos, Founder and Head of the Thomasine Church

 

"The Archons and the Wicked Ones? They have names, yes, and they’re quit palpable. Fear, Anger, Apathy, Despair, Regret, Depression, Self-Loathing, Jealousy, Envy, and Greed just to name a few. They, like the Demiurge, want to convince you that they are you. They want to keep you enthralled, to keep you eating their food and drinking their drink; they even want you to continue wearing the same ridiculous getup they do. Their goal is to convince you that there is no veil, there is no labyrinth, and there is no Pearl.

"They’re not you. They plague the labryinth and hinder the path of the Traveler, but they’re not the Traveler, waylaying him on his quest for the Pearl."

 - +Sar Shimun, Bishop



The Thomasine method of hesychasm is much like that of its orthodox counterpart. The initiate learns methods of detachment and contemplation which are prescribed by an approved master.

There are essentially three fluid stages of Enlightenment. The first stage involves detachment from the emotions and is called apatheia. The second is called hesychia or stillness, which requires detachment from the discursive intellect, the imagination, and opinions. The final step is an abiding state of illumination called reintegration or perfect union with the Light of Truth.

A Thomasine hesychastic teacher will prescribe a combination of very specific chants, meditations, and readings for the individual initiate. Rather than trying to obtain knowledge about Reality through emotive thought, the Illuminist is seeking to awaken the mind into higher levels of consciousness in which the object of inquiry can be interacted with directly without the intermediary of generalizations.

In many diverse religions around the globe one may notice a halo in their iconography. This light around the head is there not by chance or mistake. Illuminists say that when people give up their dogmatic stances and begin to listen to their inner voice again, they begin to radiate a glow about them. The Light of Truth seen by Thomasine hesychasts is the same as appeared at Christ's Transfiguration. He was reintegrated with the Light of Truth and everyone was able to see this Light physically manifest.

-source: Official Web Site 

 

Personal Claims:

"... +Mar Didymos continued his meditative practices and began to reach the states of Nipsis, Apatheia, and Hesychia. He also sought to integrate all that he had learned into a completely Western system. He found that the various Christian texts extant did not lend themselves well in this regard. He eventually stumbled upon a collection of thomasine texts. [3 texts with 'Thomas' in the title (the last being only a poem from a lengthy 'Thomas' text).] These texts did speak of the mind and of the method of how to reach Illumination.

"During one of his night time meditations, +Mar Didymos attained what hesychasts call a state of Illumination or Theoria. The next day he went to teach his students. One of them saw a physical illumination around him. When questioned by his students as to what that light was, he told them to not concern themselves with such things and to begin their normal studies."

 

"The Thomasine Church is the only ecclesiastical body reinstating the original teachings as set forth within the Gospel of Thomas, the Hymn of the Pearl, and Thomas the Contender.

"We do not know who changed the original doctrines but we posit that it was someone who came after those who were in Jesus’ family line."

-sources: Official Web Site



Conclusion

The connection to the Gnostic tradition is very tenuous, making use of only two Gnostic texts and a poem, and approaching these as indicating a method of more modern orgins.

The Thomasine Church uses the term 'gnosis' in the most general sense as it occurs in Greek, making 'gnosis' merely synonymous with 'knowing from experience of any kind or type,' rather than the way the term is used in English and ancient Gnostic texts to denote a particular type of transformative/salvific knowledge based upon experience. This most basic and  trivial use of 'gnosis' goes with their use of the term "illuminism"  which is simply used to mean the world-view in use since the Enlightement, and in use by Gnostics in matters of religion to various degrees long before that. It does not seem to profess anything either identifiably Gnostic, or beyond what most would classify as "common sense," and therefore seems to be focused entirely on a method.

The method employed by the Thomasine Church, a process of exteriorization of emotions and the process of detachment from all that one experiences internally, is very reminiscent of the method employed in the Church of Scientology and related organizations. If one were to replace the terms “Archons” and “Wicked Ones” in Thomasine Church texts with “Body Thetans” the parallels become more apparent. While this does not imply anything about the origins of the Thomasine Church teachings, it does suggest a much closer connection to modern psychotherapeutic religions than to ancient Gnostic ones.
 
Sylvia Browne (Novus Spiritus)
Sylvia Celeste Shoemaker, 1936 USA
Sylvia Browne
Sylvia Browne

Associated Organizations 

  • The Society of Novus Spiritus
  • Gnostically Speaking


Associated Terms

  • Spirit Guides
  • Psychic Readings
  • Psychic Predictions
  • Om & Anza

 

Doctrines:

From the 21 Tenents:

  V - Turn thy power outward, not inward, for therein shines the Light and the Way.

XIII - God does not create the adversities in life. By your own choice they exist to aid in your perfection.
 
 XX - We believe that Our Lord was crucified but did not die on the cross and went on to live out His life in France with his mother and Mary Magdalene, his wife.

XXI - We, the Gnostics, kept this knowledge hidden that Christ's lineage exists even today and the truth, long-buried is open to research.

From commentary:

III - Purity  God is pure and constant in Their love. People are erratic and subject to petty behavior. Never ascribe to God such pettiness, for it is not in Their nature, only ours.
Negativity abounds in the world. Did God create it? No. Man alone is responsible for it. Through free will choice, some people invert good to make a negative. This is one aspect of your perfection, to choose a path of Light or Darkness.

IV - Creator  You are an actual part of God; you carry within your soul a spark of the Divine. This spark has marvelous abilities, largely untapped, and can perform miracles. The most pressing need in this world is to make it your heaven. Call upon the strength within. Allow this innate goodness and beauty to mold the world around you. Let your God-Center view life as a heaven. Control negativity. Do not allow it to control you.

XIII - Perfection  Does God send damnation and pain to you? Never. Do you send such things to yourself? Yes. And the reason is to provide obstacles which aid in perfecting your soul. People having many trials in life are perfecting faster, by their own choice, where others may want to take it slower. The end result is the same. We will all arrive at a point of self contentment. and remain with God in our home called the Other Side.

 Goals

Novus is dedicated to eliminating the false concepts of Satan, hell, sin, guilt, and the fear of God, all of which are contrary to our understanding of a benevolent Creator. We know that an all-loving God does exist, One who is infinitely concerned about our welfare and state of being. The pain of life is not punishment from God, rather it is a learning tool, and a very necessary one in the larger scheme of life.

In Short

  • God is all loving, never judgmental.
  • God is dual Beings, Mother AND Father.
  • Life on Earth is for our learning, to overcome the old, control-oriented concepts of guilt, sin and fear.
  • Because Mother and Father God love us, we are given many opportunities to live (Reincarnation).
  • Before and after each lifetime, our Home is on the Other Side, a place of peace, lightness and continued learning.  Prior to incarnating, we sit with our counselors and design our lesson plan (including Spirit Guide; life Chart with Themes and Option Lines; etc.).
  • While incarnated, we have support from a whole host of beings on the Other Side, so we are never alone.
  • The goal in life -- Sylvia's short version -- is to 'love God, do good, then shut up and go Home.'

 - Sources: Official Web Site

 

Self Description:

 KING: Sylvia, what do you do?

SYLVIA BROWNE: I feel that I channel most of what I get from God. I really do believe that. I don't think anybody can ever discredit the fact that we are tubes. I just happen to be born with it.

KING: Why you?

BROWNE: I don't know. It's the same thing as...

KING: When you get this channeling what do you do? What do you mean by channeling?

BROWNE: Channeling means that I just am like an open tube. What goes on with Sylvia is entirely different from what I get. I mean Sylvia can have her own problems but there's a side of me that's like a tube in which it just comes through.

KING: In which you see things about people?

BROWNE: See things about and I'm like with the rest of them, I'm much more into the whole idea of God's goodness and the survival of the soul after death.

Source: CNN LARRY KING LIVE, Are Psychics for Real?, Aired January 7, 2006

 

Fees:

Browne charges  $750 per phone reading. (Up from $400 in 2000.)

And an undisclosed but obviously much larger amount for personal reading.



Conclusion

Browne's idiosemantic use of the term "gnostic" is an addition to a New Age world view with no connection to the Gnostic tradition. Although her group claims to favor gnosis over faith, this 'gnosis' is one individual's, Browne's, and so there must be faith in her. This is typical of the revealed religions that use the terms "gnostic" and "gnosis." Faith in someone else's Faith, becomes faith in someone else's Gnosis. Changing words without changing pragmatic meanings.

 All of Browne's other claims rest upon her claim of "psychic" abilities. However, she is very much the performing "stage psychic": charging enormous amounts for her readings, and making many public predictions that are false. Her doctrines also seem to contain little that might be mistaken as challenging, and certainly there is nothing that would injure it's marketability. Seemingly another form of religion as a defense against a spiritual experience.

Although entirely focused on Browne, her son is the chosen successor as head of her church: as she claims that her powers are hereditary.

 
Ramtha (JZ Knight)

Judy Z. Knight (Judith Darlene Hampton), 1946 USA

JZ Knight
JZ Knight

Associated Organizations 

  • Ramtha's School of Enlightenment (RSE)
  • Ramtha's Gnostic School
  • The American Gnostic School
  • JZK Inc
  • JZK Publishing


Associated Terms

  • Ramtha
  • 35,000-year old ascended warrior
  • Atlantean warrior king
  • out-of-body
  • Lemuria
  • Ascended Master
  • Chanelling
  • What the #$*! Do We Know!?
  • What the Bleep Do We Know!?

 

Doctrines


Where does Ramtha come from?

Ramtha has been commonly referred to in the media as a 35,000 year-old warrior from the lost continent of Atlantis. Some have referred to him as a Neanderthal or Cro-Magnon man due to the time period. This is not entirely the case. In Ramtha's cosmology, he very boldly states that mankind has been in existence a lot longer than the current conventional view held by science and that in fact mankind is millions of years old and that very advanced civilizations coexisted with lesser ones.

-Source: RSE FAQ

What is an ascended master?

An ascended master is one who learns to become one with the godhead. Through their experiences and/or study, they overcome the limitations of the human experience. Their bodies actually begin to vibrate at a high rate of speed, a vibrational frequency that is one of universal and unconditional love.  When a great being "ascends," he or she actually takes their body into a frequency and dimension that vibrates more rapidly than the human eye can see. They literally take their bodies with them.

-Source: RSE FAQ

The Great Work

The Great Work of Ramtha's teachings is literally manifesting dreams and desires. In essence, the Great Work requires reaching maximum potential of the mind. The key to manifestations lies in the cerebrum, which, according to Ramtha, has the power to make dreams a reality. In the past, humans would hold a dream or desire in their mind, and it would manifest. Today, humans play a passive role to manifestations. They absorb the world around them in their mind, and this then becomes reality. In a sense, they are trapped in the present reality. Ramtha desires to teach students the power to manifest any desire and make known the unknown.

-Source: New Religions Web Site

 

Self Claims

"No religion wants to acknowledge my time because it was the time of the Gods, before Jehovah. If Jehovah would have lived in my time, he wouldn't have stood a chance."

"So you love something and you are listening to something that is older than Moses and older than Abraham. You are listening to the first God who understood how to ascend, a human being that was never a cross with that which is termed the Atlatians but a pure stalk of an Atlatian group that used us as slaves, the true heritage being Lemurian. Those who came from beyond the North Star are the giants that are buried in myth, that one day they will rise up again. Don't you know that the giants who come out of the Earth are part of me? I am a giant rising up from the grave of antiquity to deliver truth that will bring the world into chaos and to help create a new paradigm to which all people can celebrate not their heritage but their spiritual history."

-Source: "Rising up from the grave of antiquity to deliver truth" Pamphlet

 JZ Knight has also successfully enforced her copyright on Ramtha in the Austrian Supreme court in 1997, preventing a woman from making claims to chanel Ramtha.

-Source: The Guardian (6/1997) 



Fees

RSE charges thousands for a few days of group activities and a Ramtha apearance on stage.

Reportedly, Knight also charges undisclosed  large amounts for individual consultations.

 

Conclusion

In general, the doctine of RSE is a part of the New Age milieu, containing such standard elements as, you create your own reality and physical immortality. The elements that have been described as "Gnostic" seem to be involved with the complex cosmology and mythology of Ramtha, and do not seem to have any real influence on the nature of RSE's doctrine.

Ramtha asserts that hell and the devil were "created through religious dogma for the purpose of intimidating the masses into a controllable organization." And yet within the same world-view needing to believe in a channeled 35000 year old Lemurian warrior king turned "ascended master" is not dogma, doesn't require faith, but is "Gnosis." A very idiosemantic notion of Gnosis indeed.

Actually, the possible use of the term "Gnosticism" as a description of some of RSE's doctrines was  from an article by J. Gordon Melton in Gnosis magazine. This resulted in a late (and from our view, unfortunate) addition of the word "Gnostic" to the Ramtha/Knight teachings.

Even approached from a standpoint that accepts Knight's claims about her experiences with Ramtha, there is no reason to believe any of the Ramtha claims and many reasons not to do so.