Gnosticism - The Forbidden Religion - Jose M. Herrou Aragon

[montalk]

They say the Gnostics were the ancient conspiracy theorists because of their unorthodox beliefs that set them apart.

Pretty much. They were fumbling around for "ultimate truth" and every gnostic sect had its own angle, just like different conspiracy camps today. The Church said, "how can they claim to know the truth, if they all contradict each other and change their position over time? The truth is immutable, the Church's canon is immutable, therefore the Church's cannon is truth and these gnostics are full of crap." Of course that's a logical fallacy and the proper reply is: "Better to keep improving your model of the truth than prostrate before a fixed lie."

They had their extremists though. I don't agree with the idea that all matter, the physical universe, space and time are fundamentally evil and solely the creations of an evil demiurge. I don't agree that the physical body is evil and full of sin. That's on the level of the 9/11 holographic plane theory. I think some gnostics lost the plot and went overboard with their interpretations. Even if they were shown things, they lacked the context to interpret it objectively. At least today we have the internet and libraries and each other to compare notes with.

As far as the view that the universe itself is evil, well it makes more sense to me that the demiurge, matter, energy, space, time, bodies are basically neutral --- but that they serve as the "rope" in a tug of war between divine and infernal forces. I'm reminded of Ephesians 6:12 "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

I mean just look around, everything good that is done in this world is done through the world, even if it has a divine origin. Everything evil done in this world is done through the world, even if evil in origin. The world is the chessboard. Even if you extend "world" to include the subtle energy realms, you still have demons emitting toxic subtle energy that makes us sick and weak, as well as positive beings (angels?) radiating positive subtle energy that can make us feel better. Or if you look within, you have your better side -- conscience, empathy, nobility, altruism -- and your worse side -- hateful, selfish, ignorant egotism.

So I'm in favor of the idea that the body and the world/universe can and must be conquered and transmuted by the divine impulse within and around us, rather than us trying to flee from the body and world. We can master it, or at least help it return to its rightful master. I think spitting on the body and the world and running away from it is like crawling back into the womb to hide. It's retrogressive.

[lycaeus]

Everyone brought up some good points. I don't think the physical world is inherently evil. But I'll admit was feeling a little victimized, not emotionally sober, I got excited and wanted to curse all of creation like that guy suggests. But that's not me. At the end of the day creation is a beautiful thing. Though there is a true need to connect with the higher aspects of ourselves for our own good. As evil as things are, even Satan, they are ultimately our spiritual allies giving us the catalyst to evolve as stronger people.

I'd have to agree that matter is essentially neutral and our world is a tug-of-war between the light and the dark. There are so many 'coincidences' or synchronicities here that you have to conclude there is some higher reality going on beyond this world. Maybe our world is like a movie and the cosmic battle is like a bunch of movie producers arguing over how to edit the final product?

Though Earth does seem fundamentally corrupt. Because we have to kill to live. Those are the rules of the game, that's how our reality is programmed. I was vegan for years but went back to eating meat because I'm utterly convinced it is necessary for my good health. My heart and mind were against the killing, but my body has to follow the rules here and do what works. But who knows, maybe in the future our DNA will evolve and we will get enough energy from just the sun and water, its possible.

What bothers me about the Demiurge concepts is that it will eat your soul forever. And that many religions, and mystical groups that talk of merging with the creator are unknowingly on the false path of the Demiurge being led to the slaughter as food. That's scary. But I can't accept that. I think if we don't evolve our souls well enough and soon enough, we'll probably have to reincarnate and experience more struggles to evolve, but not that an eternal spirit will be eternally damned. Though you could be tricked and evolve on the dark path. And there are obviously higher powers to tip the scales as well for us. We just have to show who's side we're on and if we're worth any help.

I don't know if I like the idea of merging into a homogenous ball of "Oneness" with the creator though maybe you'll have a different mindset at a higher level of existence about that. I don't know if that aspiration is a trick of the Demiurge, to 'lose yourself' in 'oneness' with nature, and connect with everyone, then finally the Demiurge. Or maybe it is dark forces trying to redirect positive spiritual impulses in the wrong direction by condemning good things. In the end its about finding the right balance between serving your self and serving others.

I was suspicious of the Ra material because his channellings advise us to evolve and eventually merge with the Creator. Does he mean the Demiurge?... And Ra is known as an Archontic parasite in demonology accounts. He's also known as a UFO-piloting Nordic alien from ancient Egypt who demanded war and warship. The Christians are tricked into praying to (Amen)-Ra and the Satanic celebrity Lady Gaga chants to Ra. So Ra seems like an agent of darkness. Maybe he's an agent of the Demiurge who takes various forms? Though the channelings have a lot of good advice. These could be different beings using the same name. Aliens do that.

[lycaeus]

I had to share this part of the book here.

The author Jose M. Herrou asks for Gnostic initiations in another dimension when he sleeps. What he gets is strange light phenomena in his room. The next time he finds 2 men in his room who stick a needle into his brain, and inject him with fluid. The 2 men act as if they must appear as they are as there 'is no other way'. They say they have come as requested. But Jose is unfortunately scared.

The third initiation is more benign, and involves a shape becoming engraved into his head by a laser beam from the same guys with the same light.

What does it mean???

Not only initiations of the Spirit, but also those of the
soul can be received in other dimensions.

In my case, I searched the world over and for many
years for someone who could give me the true Gnostic
initiation. In the end, I found out that person had been
living all those years less then a hundred metres from my
house! I had been searching distant countries for that which
was within arm’s reach. When I went and knocked on his
door I was told that he had left this world a short time ago.

My disappointment was so great that I thought the only
way to get the authentic Gnostic initiation would be to
initiate myself during sleep, in other dimensions of the
created world.

Next I am going to relate some of the experiences that
have happened to me.

One night, during which I had been reading “The Green
Face”, a book by Gustav Meyrink, before going to sleep I
mentally repeated “I want the liberation of my Spirit” many
times and then I fell asleep. Half an hour had passed when
a bright light woke me up. I kept my eyes closed but could
see a bright light; everything around me was light. I slowly
opened my eyes and realized that this intense light filled the
whole room. I thought that someone had got into my house
and put the lights on. But no, the lights were out; this was
a different light, a strange light that I had never seen before.

Without moving, I looked around the whole room and
found that the light was coming from one of the corners. A
beam of light was flowing out from the corner and had
already filled the room, gushing forth like a bright mist
which engulfed everything. Faced with phenomena such as
these we must try not to be afraid and remember that fear
does not exist for the Spirit. The Spirit is not afraid of
anything because It is indestructible, immortal and eternal.

Another night, after reading a few pages of the book
“The Theory of Eternal Life” by Rodney Collin, I resolved
to mentally repeat the words “I want to receive the
initiation of the Spirit” until I fell asleep. Forty minutes
later, the same light as before woke me up but now there
were also two people in the room. I kept my eyes closed,
but “sensed” that there were two men there, next to my bed.

I thought “How could they have got in, if the doors and
windows are locked and only I have the keys to the house?”

I was afraid to open my eyes, afraid to look at them and
afraid they would notice I had woken up. I heard a strange
and powerful voice: “You called us and we have come, and
now you are afraid!” I kept my eyes shut and did not reply.

I wanted to escape, but I was afraid they would attack me
if I tried. Next, I heard “You weren’t fully prepared” and
then “There is no other way”. They immediately nailed into
my head a kind of needle, without giving me time to react
or defend myself. I felt that they were injecting a kind of
liquid into my brain, using what appeared to me to be a
kind of metal syringe or something similar. Then I fell
asleep. From that day on I felt within me a sort of distance
with respect to the world and I knew without a doubt
exactly what the goal was to which I had to dedicate all my
efforts for the rest of my life. I also noticed that my doubts
and uncertainties about the most direct path to the Spirit
had disappeared.

Fear in a man is a sign that he is still identifying with
the created world and its laws. A sign that he still loves
matter, his body and soul, and does not want to lose them.
For that reason his separation from everything created must
be gradual. As he progresses with his Spiritualization his
fear diminishes, at the same time as, as we have already
said, his hostility towards the impure and the ephemeral
increases. This is the proof that a man is becoming close to
his Spirit.

Years later, I had a similar experience after mental
repetitions prior to sleep. The same light and the same men
appeared. This time the same voice said: “Now there is no
fear”. And next they leant a strange instrument against my
head which emitted some sort of laser beam. A strange
rhomboid-shaped symbol was then engraved on my head
by the beam. After that second experience, less invasive
than the first, I noticed that I was getting closer to my Spirit
without looking back or around me. The path had been
completely smoothed, transformed into a direct path and
now I only had to walk down it.

The third initiation aims to ease and help with the final
transmutation, the True Salvation.

--The Forbidden Religion

Those experiences took place in his bedroom, not some psychedelic dreamscape. If someone wrote an experience like that on a forum like this most of the users would think it was an abduction right? Or was this really a spiritual initiation? Were they interdimensional beings who were forced to appear in a certain form? Was the form they appeared in dictated by the initiate's vibration? Because the initiation experience was less rough when he wasn't so scared. But it was men in his room using what seems to us like alien technology.

There is a lot of talk on the internet about aliens being advanced interdimensional beings who's form depends on your consciousness. Hinting that if your consciousness sucks, you get the bad experiences. But that's not entirely true as very good, quality people receive negative experiences. And there is so much physical evidence of aliens and human military black operations. They are definitely more physical than mere apparitions of your subconscious mind.... But why did those guys have to act so aggressive with the needles saying it was because Jose was scared? If you're an advanced being, or angel intitiating a spiritual person, why not just give them a hug, or bless them with your energy, or give them a vision or something? Why all the needle theatrics? Or maybe this was an incomprehensible, metaphysical/energetic experience, an alteration to this guy's body and soul that he's never experienced before. So his mind had no previous programming to display the truth of the situation, so the experience was translated into a scene that reflects the limited contents of his human mind?

It's really strange in my opinion what this guy experienced. There is a greater reality beyond ours and its like our reality is programmed. People are programmed like video-game characters. I wonder how many suspected abduction experiences are more spiritual, dreams, or astral and how many are hard and physical procedures.

Was Jose programmed by beings for an agenda? I think most of us here agree that some of his precepts stated in this thread are a little too much on the harsh or extreme side. Perhaps he was programmed to disseminate a negative perception of this beautifully-insane world we call creation? Maybe his opinions were those of the interdimensional characters who appeared in his room and altered his thinking. He said he was certain of his path after those experiences. So I think some interdimensional team from the world beyond ours basically recruited him. Any thoughts??

[montalk]

They are definitely more physical than mere apparitions of your subconscious mind.... But why did those guys have to act so aggressive with the needles saying it was because Jose was scared? If you're an advanced being, or angel intitiating a spiritual person, why not just give them a hug, or bless them with your energy, or give them a vision or something? Why all the needle theatrics? Or maybe this was an incomprehensible, metaphysical/energetic experience, an alteration to this guy's body and soul that he's never experienced before. So his mind had no previous programming to display the truth of the situation, so the experience was translated into a scene that reflects the limited contents of his human mind?

If there were no scars or bruises or red marks, no blood on his bedsheets, no soreness after the fact, etc. then it sounds like it was a symbolic interpretation of some energetic/nonphysical event. I once had a benign entity do some kind of healing thing on my head; it manifested in the dream as getting a head massage, but I had dual awareness of my dream environment and bedroom environment and could tell it was something in the room doing something, which was manifesting symbolically in a dream.

Maybe his opinions were those of the interdimensional characters who appeared in his room and altered his thinking. He said he was certain of his path after those experiences. So I think some interdimensional team from the world beyond ours basically recruited him. Any thoughts??

It's also possible this could be another mind-mangler situation. Let's say that theoretically he didn't put in the homework, wasn't ready, that he wasn't pulling his own weight and was just extending his hands for initiation like a lazy beggar out of some ego-based motive, that he lacked discernment and was in some way dupe-able enough to serve a negative agenda -- then his cry for initiation could only be fulfilled by forces that respond to that sort of thing. On the other hand, an earnest prayer/request from a place of wisdom, humility, integrity, need, and readiness gets the attention of benevolent forces too.

Was Jose programmed by beings for an agenda? I think most of us here agree that some of his precepts stated in this thread are a little too much on the harsh or extreme side. Perhaps he was programmed to disseminate a negative perception of this beautifully-insane world we call creation?

Well if he asked for initiation, got it, and wrote a book based on what he was shown, then its content should inadvertently reveal their agenda and possibly their nature. I'll read it and see if anything stands out.

[lycaeus]

Good points. It may have been symbolic, or a dream of his bedroom. Possibly some benevolent spirit beings or demons. Maybe even conspiratorial men in black types. Its hard to tell if its a highly psychic or technological being messing with your mind to get you to see whatever they want.

His book talks a lot about freeing the "Spirit" from the 'hell' of the body and soul. It says there are only 2 paths, either the path of the body and soul, or the path of the spirit. One leads to fusion with the Demiurge, and the other leads to eternal life as a free, eternal spirit. You either love creation, the body and soul, or you love the Spirit. If you love one aspect, you hate the other as these are two opposing poles, the soul and spirit are 'irreconcilable'.

The path it encourages is about freedom of the Spirit, saying nothing else in life is worthwhile. It minimalizes, even criticizes, in a way, love for the Earth, the animals and people because they are 'impure creations of the Demiurge'. At the end of the book it talks about having all trapped Spirits free themselves from the trappings of the physical universe, and in that way, the Demiurge will extinguish itself having no eternal spirits to move it forward or feed it.

When considering that men appear with technology used in abduction procedures, it puts his whole philosophy in a new light. Especially considering how he was instantly changed and sure of himself after the experience.

[mek]

Good points. It may have been symbolic, or a dream of his bedroom. Possibly some benevolent spirit beings or demons. Maybe even conspiratorial men in black types. Its hard to tell if its a highly psychic or technological being messing with your mind to get you to see whatever they want.

His book talks a lot about freeing the "Spirit" from the 'hell' of the body and soul. It says there are only 2 paths, either the path of the body and soul, or the path of the spirit. One leads to fusion with the Demiurge, and the other leads to eternal life as a free, eternal spirit. You either love creation, the body and soul, or you love the Spirit. If you love one aspect, you hate the other as these are two opposing poles, the soul and spirit are 'irreconcilable'.

The path it encourages is about freedom of the Spirit, saying nothing else in life is worthwhile. It minimalizes, even criticizes, in a way, love for the Earth, the animals and people because they are 'impure creations of the Demiurge'. At the end of the book it talks about having all trapped Spirits free themselves from the trappings of the physical universe, and in that way, the Demiurge will extinguish itself having no eternal spirits to move it forward or feed it.

I'd say it's quite not so in control of a person, what he sees and experiences in dreams. So the person, who gathers his belief from dreams might be slightly in control of some entity entities, if he does go along with their teaching. Of course personal experience gives a strong belief into the matter, which might be surprising, since sometimes reason doesn't work in these things, but only what one has experienced and what one feels about the experience.

There are entities in the unseen world doing this guiding of persons in this physical reality. It's quite nasty at times and people are being intentionally led astray by the spirits like in a similar way as people might lead each other astray. But when there is no real truth found it's like blind leading another blind.

I'd not take anyone's information as real, if it sounds simple as the example in the quote. Like that one gains eternal life through some certain path. It doesn't sound very well grounded idea. There is no path I'd say. It's more ordinary,like how one gets to live eternally is not trough a well planned path, but one has to work on the way and do things and leave things undone, that are not as simple as a decided path and the process from what I've learned isn't even, that one has to do certain things for salvation and for eternal life, which many seem to be wanting to achieve. I've learned that it's actually one's spirit's or soul's, what ever you want to call it, decision and some don't deep inside want to live eternally, but they want to do evil and become deceased when their spirit has become deceased due to it's life with such will. Some however wish to live eternally on the level of the soul and so they do manage to do such. It's so like decided already when the spirit is born, that will he live eternally or not.

This is quite difficult to understand perhaps, since it's not very clear to me really how it all works of course. But I wanted to note that simple 2 path decision is way too simplified and the difference between such two spirits soul and spirit is also not very sound in my opinion. What makes the difference? The other is the Demiurge's was the idea, but well it's just like someone invented the whole matter and now I have to believe there is Demiurge and that I need to choose my path. I'd ask then why? Because I will not then live eternally, if I don't believe this. Well I rather then leave the believing from my part and do what I like and not believe into all sort of inventions to trap my own spirit into believing what I don't feel as truth.

Sorry for the negative sound, I wanted to put some pressure on the concept sort of and I don't believe it's even close to the real idea of living eternally, I repeat this living eternally concept, since it's what its all about in the spiritual side of things. I think it's common thing in all religions and I believe it's a real thing for some spirits to live eternally so there is some truth in my opinion to the matter, but not very clearly.

This is interesting to ponder about.

[montalk]

Well I finished the book "The Forbidden Religion." It's short, simply written, and easy to understand. But it's also a shining example of luciferian disinformation in the tradition of Aleister Crowley's philosophy. It's a good chunk of truths interwoven with inversions, sophistry, and rationalization of demonism.

It's as if the author asked for gnostic initiation and liberation of spirit, but didn't specify what kind of gnosticism (the true one, or the luciferian/demonic kind), initiation by whom toward what ends (demons toward spiritual disinformation), or liberation of spirit from what constraints (constraints of the evil demiurge, or constraints of actual divine laws). So maybe he got what he asked for... which may have been what he secretly wanted.

If you're familiar with Rudolf Steiner's concept of Christ, Lucifer, and Ahriman, this book essentially rails against Ahriman and offers Lucifer as the solution, and in being binary to a fault, it throws Christ out with Ahriman since it must be only one thing or another and three options 'does not compute.'

It also uses the straw man fallacy to link various traits of Yahweh/Jehovah/Demiurge to the actual True/Good/Creator and encourage the reader to reject some aspects of the latter that should not be rejected. In other words, there are things that are of the divine, that he says are of the demiurge and should be fought, ignored, hated, rejected. Such as love, which he says is a phenomenon of the soul and not spirit. You can tell he hates love, and is motivated only by hate, anger, revenge, and revulsion. He exemplifies a luciferian escapism combined with demonic hatred of all rules and frameworks. It seems he has rejected true Spirit and instead elevated his ego to its place by giving it a kind of "holy war" paint, which is no different from what Catholics did when they went after the Cathars, the Native Americans, the Muslims, etc.

Another straw man was using the New Age / Theosophist conception of the "great white brotherhood" or "great white lodge" (similar to the modern day "Galactic Federation of Light") at face value (even though these are straw men, as in distorted misrepresentations of the real things) and in calling out their obvious stupidity, says therefore they are the bad guys and, by binary logic, the Black Lodge or Black Order must therefore be the good guys. Then he has the audacity to say that the ghoulish appearance of these Black Order "warriors" is because they are beings of Spirit who are suffering the torment of putting up a fight against the demiurge, and anyone in pain will obviously look contorted. Yeah right, nice try, that's on the level of "anal probes are good for you, they are stimulating and rejuvenating" that I read in an alien disinformation book once.

It's one of those books where it's easy to dismiss the truths it contains because of the lies, or accept the lies because of the truths. It gives gnosticism a bad name. If I had a sharpie marker and blacked out all the lies in this book, what's left would be pretty good and I would have no problems recommending it!

[lycaeus]

Well I finished the book "The Forbidden Religion." It's short, simply written, and easy to understand. But it's also a shining example of luciferian disinformation in the tradition of Aleister Crowley's philosophy. It's a good chunk of truths interwoven with inversions, sophistry, and rationalization of demonism.

It's as if the author asked for gnostic initiation and liberation of spirit, but didn't specify what kind of gnosticism (the true one, or the luciferian/demonic kind), initiation by whom toward what ends (demons toward spiritual disinformation), or liberation of spirit from what constraints (constraints of the evil demiurge, or constraints of actual divine laws). So maybe he got what he asked for... which may have been what he secretly wanted.

If you're familiar with Rudolf Steiner's concept of Christ, Lucifer, and Ahriman, this book essentially rails against Ahriman and offers Lucifer as the solution, and in being binary to a fault, it throws Christ out with Ahriman since it must be only one thing or another and three options 'does not compute.'

It also uses the straw man fallacy to link various traits of Yahweh/Jehovah/Demiurge to the actual True/Good/Creator and encourage the reader to reject some aspects of the latter that should not be rejected. In other words, there are things that are of the divine, that he says are of the demiurge and should be fought, ignored, hated, rejected. Such as love, which he says is a phenomenon of the soul and not spirit. You can tell he hates love, and is motivated only by hate, anger, revenge, and revulsion. He exemplifies a luciferian escapism combined with demonic hatred of all rules and frameworks. It seems he has rejected true Spirit and instead elevated his ego to its place by giving it a kind of "holy war" paint, which is no different from what Catholics did when they went after the Cathars, the Native Americans, the Muslims, etc.

Another straw man was using the New Age / Theosophist conception of the "great white brotherhood" or "great white lodge" (similar to the modern day "Galactic Federation of Light") at face value (even though these are straw men, as in distorted misrepresentations of the real things) and in calling out their obvious stupidity, says therefore they are the bad guys and, by binary logic, the Black Lodge or Black Order must therefore be the good guys. Then he has the audacity to say that the ghoulish appearance of these Black Order "warriors" is because they are beings of Spirit who are suffering the torment of putting up a fight against the demiurge, and anyone in pain will obviously look contorted. Yeah right, nice try, that's on the level of "anal probes are good for you, they are stimulating and rejuvenating" that I read in an alien disinformation book once.

It's one of those books where it's easy to dismiss the truths it contains because of the lies, or accept the lies because of the truths. It gives gnosticism a bad name. If I had a sharpie marker and blacked out all the lies in this book, what's left would be pretty good and I would have no problems recommending it!

Thanks for the analysis. I can't believe I was buying into this guy's philosophy. I should have at least finished the whole book before I started this thread. I feel like an idiot for seriously considering it. But stuff like this screws with your mind. There are a lot of good and true things, then some really bad things mixed in. This kind of material will attract an egotistical person, allowing them to indulge their anger and hate under a guise of spirituality. I've been dealing with a lot of anger lately, which is not normal for me, so maybe that's the main thing that hooked me to this philosophy. I've also seen tall white things moving around in my room at night with my peripheral vision. So there could be a negative entity around polluting my thinking and emotions. I think it might be related to some people, who have signs of attachments, getting angry at me. One of whom which loathes me and has every sign of having a heavy demonic attachment. I'm making efforts though to clean out my space and calm my mind.

I'm sort of in awe now of how your mind can play tricks on you and get you to fall for certain things you really should already know better about. How your mind can conveniently pull specific pieces of information and examples together while ignoring key aspects to justify whatever your current intent is. For me, I think I was trying to justify the heavy anger that has been bugging me lately and I used this book as an excuse. I'd also heard of John Lash who talks about Gnosticism say we need a certain amount of hate to spiritually improve ourselves and the world. But I'm sure he's not as hateful as this Jose guy, and doesn't mean it in such an extreme way.

I guess the lesson to be aware of deceptions in this world and know yourself. And think carefully about things before getting excited and accepting something when there are bad signs.

I even wonder if some of the same guys who visited Jose have visited me because I've had similar, vivid dream experiences like he had with those guys and lights in his bedroom.

[montalk]

I even wonder if some of the same guys who visited Jose have visited me because I've had similar, vivid dream experiences like he had with those guys and lights in his bedroom.

If the entities who visited him were legit and benevolent, then the author must have misinterpreted the dreams to fit his biases.

I had a dream once where a purple cloud / miasma was slowly sweeping the country side. I was running to a barn in the country to get away from it. Inside was a farm woman who handed me a pitch fork. I asked why. She said when the cloud hits, it would transform me and open my eyes, and I would be able to see everyone for who they really were. I would see that some people weren't people but demons hiding in human bodies, and I wouldn't be able to keep myself from destroying them.

If I were hateful of other people and had a thing for violence and weapons, I could use this dream as a sign to arm myself and become the next mall shooter. Or I could keep it real and understand that yes, some people are probably fully possessed, but like Logion 57 / Matt 13:24-30 says: "Do not pull up the weeds yet or you might pull the wheat along with it. On the day of the Harvest the weeds will be obvious, and then they will be pulled up and burned."

I guess the lesson to be aware of deceptions in this world and know yourself. And think carefully about things before getting excited and accepting something when there are bad signs.

Agreed. I get the picture of cheese on a mouse trap. If you don't eat, you die of starvation. If you eat, you die from the trap being sprung. If you carefully separate the cheese from the trap, you live. I never understood the practice of swallowing something whole because it has some good parts in it, or rejecting something whole because it has obviously wrong parts. Truth is Truth and B.S. is B.S. and even when they're mixed up together they can still be detected if you go piece by piece.

For me, I think I was trying to justify the heavy anger that has been bugging me lately and I used this book as an excuse. I'd also heard of John Lash who talks about Gnosticism say we need a certain amount of hate to spiritually improve ourselves and the world. But I'm sure he's not as hateful as this Jose guy, and doesn't mean it in such an extreme way.

I'd agree if it's stated as: hate for the proper things, in the proper amount, and in proper balance with love/hope/compassion/devotion. Hate for tyranny, injustice, corruption, delusion, debauchery, etc. seems reasonable and necessary to me, but the people I've known who tried to live only on these feelings... well they just became bitter, defeated, cold, egotistical, mechanical beings. It seems the soul/spirit cannot live on hate alone, and by losing its warmth and heart, it becomes the very darkness that it hated. You have to be motivated just as much (if not more) by your love of truth, discovery, and creativity, liberty, justice, love for the Spirit in other humans who have it, for the divine layer behind what the 5 senses perceive, etc.

So it makes sense now what I observed about some Fourth Way schools (Gurdjieff stuff). When you join, as a newbie you're just a man off the streets, therefore you supposedly haven't put in the development yet to develop a "soul" or "higher emotional center." Thus any intuition, heart-based feelings, or love you feel is just an illusion of the real thing and you should ignore it. And so you have to work at "self-remembering" and other deprogramming techniques for a long time before you can even hope to attain a soul and real higher emotions. Of course, by assuming that these positive things are non-existent within yourself and out of reach, you ignore them and don't develop them (even though they are there and sporadically activate) and over the years they end up atrophying and you end up a cold, mechanical, self-aware ego and that's it.

Now compare that with what "The Forbidden Religion" says about the True God and his kingdom -- that it's so far removed, so unknowable, and has such a hard time penetrating this world in any capacity, that you're pretty much S.O.L. and surrounded everywhere by nothing but horrible torture and control, thus don't even try connecting with it directly as it's too far away. Now compound that with the idea that the soul is completely evil and therefore love is evil too, and you no longer have a reason to listen to your heart, feel love for others, or uplift yourself emotionally (this cuts off your resonance uplink with the divine). Then it would seem the only way out is to receive luciferian gnosis, which is a cold light (knowledge divorced from love and wisdom) and what do you end up with? A cold, mechanical, self-aware ego and that's it. Same ploy, same agenda, same end-effects.

So by exaggerating some things, oversimplifying some things, and leaving other things out, this book did a good job skewing gnosticism in a luciferian/demonic direction. Without that skewing, I'm in agreement with this book. I think the author settled himself comfortably into one type of evil as a means of opposing another kind of evil, all the while ignoring the good right in front of his face. He looks pretty grim on the back cover posing in front of that H.R. Giger painting.

Well, thanks for sharing this book, it was fascinating food for thought. I'm going to put it on my digital shelf right next to "Matrix V" and Kyle Griffith's War in Heaven.