The first video by Terence McKenna linked here is a brief overview of the Gnostic cosmology of Sophia. I don't take any of the Gnostic creation myths literally but I do believe they are pointing to a profound truth. Having said that, I don't dismiss altogether the idea of a personal deity, and that part of the myth has the male and female principle embedded in the universe right from the get-go...The Monad divided itself into two, etc...
The second video here although dated in look and style documents the gnostic Cathars in France in the 11 Century. So this story continues to resurface time and time again. I won't get into the intrigues surrounding these events as you can watch the documentary to get the gist of what happened.
What previous gnostics didn't know was what we do now: computer technology and possible extraterrestrial involvement here. There were those in antiquity who alluded to a computer like idea in the Akashic--the hall of records in Hindu mythology. If we put these two ideas together from a modern perspective filtered through a gnostic lens we get something like HBO's Westworld. Only the demiurge is an alien named Elohim/Anu., etc. And we are its creation and slaves and are being manipulated via memory technology similar to what was alluded to by the Hindus; except we don't have a soul, or maybe we do, but I'm a skeptic regarding that particular aspect of spirituality. Hey, after all, I describe as an agnostic gnostic. That aspect aside, the alien view on this is usually associated with a cosmic warfare between varying E.T. races with this planet and race of humans caught up in the drama. This view gets more complicated, however, if there is dimensional spirituality involved in all this drama and I think there very well may be. On a personal note, I would suggest that I'm only here as an independent observer just taking notes! I get that my non-attachment to any particular religion or cosmology can be really off-putting for those with strong religious or cosmological attachments. I'm also a fan of the words, "I DON'T KNOW!"
I don't buy into all the idiosyncrasies of the Cathars when it comes to the human body, sex, sin, etc., because I view all of this as universally inconsequential; as we don't have a universal free will, because of how we've been made or manipulated. I view this aspect of humanity similar to Buddhist concepts of desire and aversion--all a part of the suffering within saṃsāra. Simply attempt being calm in the eye of the hurricane while embedded within this chaotic maelström. But I do share the view that love is more powerful than hate and that true love, from a spiritual perspective, doesn't seek to control--it seeks freedom of expression--not earthly political control and power or a heaven that's really hell as described literally in Revelations. See the Youtuber, Underlings, correct portrayal of what the Christian heaven really is here.
I'm not a fan of the Torah (most Gnostics are not) but I always liked the idea of sackcloth and lamentations and never more so in an era of the ethics of cocaine and hookers via the coarsest system of unnecessary exploitation and coercion ever to come into existence! And those Cathar's had a sublime understanding of The Golden Rule and didn't buy into an economic system premised on treating everyone and everything as nothing but objects of financial exploitation; yes, everyone is gaming everyone here and it's not a pretty or sustainable picture.
Of course, the best idea in that book is the Jubilee--the thing we need most and get last!
A Gnostic themed tune:
