Waking Up a Gnostic in 300 BC

 

Or whenever in the past...it doesn't really matter what the exact date is.  

One brain thought I've had over the past year is based on a passage I read about regarding Phillip K. Dick.  If you are reading this blog, you need to have no introduction to the author…

One if his past life memories/dreams was that of being a persecuted Christian Gnostic in the ancient world.  On the run from whatever authority existed at the time, his past life lived in terror for the beliefs his past persona held regarding the Universe.

Well, I’m not fortunate enough to be aware of any past lives, let alone have that type of dream.  Still, I wonder what the world would look like to me if I could travel back in time to the ancient Middle East, and hold a Gnostic worldview.

What would be familiar to me?

Well, I’d still be on Earth; the sun would be above me.  The stars, at night, would most certainly shine more brightly.  The moon would also be a constant monthly cog of the sky clock high above.

What else would be familiar to me? 

People.

Now, my “woke” sense at 46 years of age is that a) a minority group of people are good-natured and b) the vast majority of people suck.

Let me explain (briefly)…

I’m not perfect, by any means, but I always believe in the best in others.  I always take another person’s word and I trust the person if they give me a reason to.  I don’t think that is a bad mindset to have, but what has that gotten me the past 25 years of my life?  Well…

I worked at a company for 15 years, made the company $12 million - $15 million a year, and then was run out when the ownership group sold out.  No compensation – just a brain for a hire.  The ownership group, which was all about self-preservation and self-gain, sold the company for $1 billion and left people like me holding the leftovers.  Perfect.

Another life experience: I used to write a bit about some random esoteric stuff; I never believed in it, but it was picked up by other research personalities who looking to make some cash in the search for truth.  Again, I get it…it’s all about money and self-preservation…none of it was about me...all of it was about others' branding and self-promotion for the dollar. Do the work, get used for someone else’s gain, and then get left behind…yes, I am beginning to see the pattern.  Are you?

A more current example: I worked at another company for two years and befriended a VP of Operations, only to find out he was throwing me under the bus every moment he had with the owner/ Apparently, I was almost fired a few months ago too, much to my shock.  All of this was based on a two-faced individual who was all about self-preservation.  How did this one not backfire on me? I woke up and realized that most people, including this VP of Operations and alleged work ally, sucked.  The one story to my face was a lie; the real story was that this person was human garbage.

Sob story, sure, yet what does this tell me?  It tells me that most people view other people as liabilities and define their own being as the only thing that matters.  Now, if I were to go back in time, do I think people were any different than they are now?  ABSOLUTELY NOT.

So what does this mean with respect to the possibility of a demiurge and the realm that we live in?  

For one, I would argue that the demiurge is simply a symbol of an average person. Egotistical, self-absorbed, focused on only itself, driven by materialism and the accumulation of value, and ready to use others if beneficial and/or destroy the livelihood of others in order to preserve its existence.  Just like the majority of people that live on this planet.

That’s it.  That’s the drive of the vast majority of human beings, in my limited experience.

The whole basis of Gnosticism is ultimately the equivalent human experience.  Whether or not one wants to get into who created a demiurge (the idea it came before us and created us in its image, or that we created it through the collective unconsciousness…both fun ideas to think about at another date.) isn’t really what matters.  What matters is the fact that Gnosticism is the view that the Universe and reality were created by an average human being with average human desires, wants, and needs.  That "human", like most humans, sucks.  That’s it.

So, with all of that said…I would lean toward the idea that the Demiurge, whether real or not, is ultimately a symbol of the human species.  

What do you think?  Am I way off?  Or on to something of interest to you, the reader?  Let me know if so inclined!