I sat down with Gabriel D. Roberts, Reality Sandwich contributor and author of three books on esotericism and spirituality. His latest work, The Quest For Gnosis, is a syncretic-gnostic amalgam of interviews with over a dozen modern day occultists, psychedelic researchers, historians, witches and religious historians exploring the meaning of “gnosis” in their life and practices. These include the likes of Graham Hancock, Rupert Sheldrake, Maja D’Aoust, David B. Metcalfe, Abby Martin and many others. I was delighted to be featured in Gabe’s book for an interview, and recently exchanged a few emails with Gabe to reflect further on the vast and diverse gnostic download that is The Quest for Gnosis.
Your book, The Quest For Gnosis, comes out this month in March. What inspired you to put this one together? What got you on a ‘gnosis kick?’ And secondly, leaning into that question: could you define gnosis for us laymen?
First off, I’ll define Gnosis in two parts. First, Gnosis is an ancient Greek term for experience based knowledge of spiritual nature. The very definition of the term asserts the value of doing something to achieve an understanding of it, rather than just conceptualizing it as a stand alone theory. It is one thing to talk about ice cream, but it is Gnosis to have actually tasted ice cream. The second definition is slightly more difficult to define. In the East, the term Samadhi describes a state of non-mind. This state of mind (or non) refers to that state in which all mental chatter ceases and one enters into a space in which they may focus their purpose and intent in a singular direction. In Western magical traditions, this is called Gnosis. Most interestingly, this second state can be found everywhere from a Pentecostal tent revival, to a football game at the height of an intense moment, to a Reggae concert. There are innumerable ways in which Gnosis can be achieved and because of this, it serves as a bridge between us. If this could be properly understood, it would have the potential to shed a lot of dogmatic garbage in which groups assert that they are the keepers of the ‘one true way’ in spiritual terms.
Is there any difference between between the gnosis of someone living 2000 years ago, and someone today?
Unfortunately, I can’t recall what happened back then. I can only make assumptions based on what documents have been left behind. What I do know is that the early Gnostic Christians were literally killed off and died for the principles that they stood for. Today, we only have to suffer uncomfortable online debates. I’d say that the fight now should be for observing how others pursue this path and learn from everyone’s own take. Gnosis is an individual path tailor made for each of us, but it must be based on active learning through participation. So if it’s a Tantric path, do it! If it’s a Buddhist path, go for it! If it’s Shamanic, or magical, give it your best!
Who did you pick for this book and why? Obviously, there’s a interviewer bias here — I know I’m in one of the chapters! But please go into your selection process. Is there anything you can say in general about the list of people in this book? Is there an emergent ‘outline’ of a contemporary gnostic counter-culture?
I owe many people a great debt of gratitude in relation to my own personal renaissance. Many of the names in the book are the people who have contributed most to a development of my current perspective. Graham Hancock wrote Supernatural and led me to half a dozen other authors whose work blew my mind. Dr. Rick Strassman wrote DMT: The Spirit Molecule and laid a groundwork for a practical, yet inquisitive approach to the modern serious psychedelic perspective. David Metcalfe, Yourself and Dr. Aaron Cheak have grown to be my friends and closest sounding board in esoteric, magical, gnostic and traditional perspectives. Maja D’Aoust has provided me with such an inspired perspective on modern western magical practice, while Hamilton Morris has often impressed me in his Scientific Materialist perspective. On the other side of the coin, Dr. Rupert Sheldrake has provided much food for thought on questioning the monolithic authority of the mechanistic scientific perspective and has a legacy of openness to what his friend, Terence McKenna referred to as ‘funny ideas’. Every single individual has something to offer despite radically different perspectives, levels of credentials, social standing and ideas about how we are supposed to best achieve modern Gnosis. The nice thing about Gnosis is that it can be spotted anywhere if one looks with the right pair of eyes. This has led some to speculate that I have chosen to appropriate the term for this purpose and you know what? They are right! It is the perfect term to unite us all and in fact is only known in counter culture for a lack of understanding of the term.
What are some of the largest divergences of the gnostic landscape in your book?
Psychedelics, modern magical practice, the accepting of personal responsibility for spirituality by way of logic as well as spiritual discipline and ancient interpretations of Gnosis modernized. This book covers an awful lot of ground, material wise. It can only be taken in properly if one is willing to broaden their horizons and be able to listen to perspectives that may not only be new, but might actually be offensive, or scary to them. My promise to the reader is that there is a reason to this madness and in the end, they will find that they have gained a massive amount of new information from a broad spectrum of experts.
Is gnosis something you attain, or is it on-going? Is it experiential? Intellectual? Something more? Gnosis connotes ‘knowledge,’ but also something more.
Gnosis begins the day you are born. We learn by experience and build our model of the world upon those experiences. As we mature, this complexifies exponentially and the nuances and subtleties of our experience either turn us away from the deeper notions of life, or draw us in. Gnosis is not a destination, but recognition of the ongoing journey we all take to achieve understanding of the magic and mystery that surrounds our lives. A modern gnostic in my opinion is simply a person who understands the illusion of our consensus reality, but also recognizes that we are here for a purpose. What we achieve is precisely in tandem with what we try. In other words, there is no substitute for hard work.
A personal link for me on the subject of gnosis is from the writings of Jean Gebser, who often argued that the future of human consciousness and its continuing unfoldment would be going beyond the rational mind, and overcoming the contracted ego. He called this ‘integral’ consciousness. Not to destroy the ego or the individual but to envelop it in a larger cosmic constituency. This is considered not something beyond-human, per se, but more human. Integrality seems to tie deeply with the discussion of gnosis we are having, and more succinctly, gnosis to me seems to be speaking about wholeness. Can you speak to these ideas a little?
There is something about understanding and accepting the concept that we are here to learn that is integral to me. Dr. Aaron Cheak once said, “The arrow has already struck the target, pulling back the bowstring and letting go are mere formalities.” To me this is a representation of Gebser’s concept of an unfolding consciousness, a kind of upgrade. The plan is already in the works, the blueprint is set like a microcosmic fractal that is exponentially expanding in its pattern. Things already have become, but we are in the process of becoming something that we were not before. If we walk circumspectly on this life path, we will find that a willing heart and mind will draw us toward a quickened sense of our humanity and the unlimited potential that lies ahead. Again, it comes back to practice and personal responsibility. The most ‘whole’ I’ve felt is when I was walking and acting within that intrinsic sense of purpose that pulls the center of my heart as if by an invisible string. This is also a key to intuitive magic, in my opinion.
Let’s speak a little bit about gnostic culture. Can we build community out of gnosis? Can we evolve a sense of fellowship to include, or embody, a gnostic integrality in community building — heck, even building a social movement? I’d like to get your sense of this after having spoken to so many different people, identities, and particular cultures they find themselves in.
The community is already built; we simply need to recognize that if these ideas resonate with us, we are the community already. The only real thing that needs to be done is to end the fruitless bickering and intellectual showboating that are benchmarks of little minds with little imagination feigning wisdom. The Buddha said that understanding breeds compassion. You might tell a wise man/woman, or a community of wise people by their compassion. People with compassion are slow to anger and judgment, because they’ve likely already been through the ringer many times over. If we associate with these types, we will find a robust and colorful community of people whose perspectives can enrich us and keep us learning from one another many lifetimes over.
Here’s a question for readers to follow-up with your Quest. What books do you recommend newcomers to check out? Where would we start? Are there particular writers or gnostics you’d recommend highly?
One of the core ideals for my book is to show people 20+ great thinkers that they can find out more about. Any of them provide insight that I believe is world-class. I may not agree with everything said by them in my book, but It’s not my job to police ideas for everyone. I want people to see WHO resonates with them in my book and look them up, find their books, follow their social media and get their minds blown over and over. I’ve provided this rich selection of great thinkers for this precise purpose.
Who are your ‘gnostic’ rockstars? I mean, the gnostics, in the present or historically, who really inspired you?
Giordano Bruno set a standard for every mystic since 1600 AD. The man had his flaws, but his boldness to think so differently than the crowd even at literal pain of death sends him towering over Gnostic history as a legend. In modern terms, Graham Hancock has championed the cause for Gnosis in the modern context by using his skills of research to get to the bottom of so many mysteries that I couldn’t begin to list them. Not only that, but he has been integral in introducing me to the work of Dr. Lew Graham and Anthony Peake as well as selflessly reaching out to me as a new author and supporting my earlier work. He wrote a book with Robert Beauval called The Master Game. This book reads like the history of Gnosis and is a must read.
Will you be doing a follow-up book exploring more identities, ethnicities, and religious concepts of gnosis? For instance, off hand I can think of the Ismaeli Gnosis that Henry Corbin and Tom Cheetham examine. Where will you continue your Quest?
I’m not sure where my quest leads. I only hope to pass along anything that I learn as I go. I always feel like I am totally behind the curve, like I’m the biggest dummy in the room, but I do know that what I’m offering has the potential to change people’s view of the world and for that it’s the only quest I care to go on at present. After a year of compiling and toiling and weaving this work together, the last thing I want to think about it making another one! That said, the road is open and so is my will. I can only promise to continue to push myself to growth in understanding, compassion and beneficial practice.
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See Gabe’s bookstore for more information about The Quest for Gnosis and other publications.