Humanity has always tried to give a divine explanation to those events whose nature is unknown. In this way, it is not strange that religions and sects arise that seek to take advantage of human weakness, suffering or ignorance. One of them is Gnosis. With its pros and cons, religion has become a perfect pretext to exercise good or evil , regardless of the God to which it is worshiped.
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What is Gnosis?
If we look for the meaning of Gnosis in the dictionary, we will find the following answer: “Science par excellence or supreme wisdom”. This definition has little to do with the one practiced by the sect that has been established in Spain for a few years and has already attracted hundreds of thousands of followers. Gnostic ideas substitute the words of God for that of the human being and prefer a personal redemption before the Redemption of Christ. In other words: belonging to this sect demands a profound personal sacrifice .
The Gnosis movement arose in Colombia at the end of the 1950s and its main promoter was the healer Victor Manuel Gomez, although he preferred to be called Samael Aun Weor.. On October 27, 1954, this writer of esoteric books declared that Samael, the Genius of Mars, had incarnated in him to transmit his teachings. In the following years he dedicated himself to spreading his work and spreading the “supreme knowledge”.
“Gnosis is the essence of all religions and spiritual traditions of the past”, can be read on his website.
After his death in 1977, his followers split up and the movement spread across all continents and countries, until it reached Spain. The sect was registered as the Gnostic Institute of Anthropology Samael y Litelantes, based in Sant Salvador de Guardiola, a municipality of Barcelona. Currently, they hold talks throughout the country and have dozens of Gnostic centers. As a curiosity, correspondence courses can also be taken to be initiated into religion.
The disappearance of Patricia
The sect jumped into the media because of the case of Patricia Aguilar, an 18-year-old girl living in Alicante who decided to be one more insider. The latest evidence placed her in Peru, within a Gnostic group. To be part of the movement, Patricia had to leave everything behind, a life full of memories that faded on the way to Peru. That is the sacrifice that requires entering the Gnosis: seeking knowledge by getting rid of everything else.
After many months of searching, Patricia’s father went in person to Peru to ask the authorities to open an investigation. At that time, Felix Steven Manrique, who called himself Prince Gudjeff, was already suspected .
Patricia’s father’s efforts have borne fruit: Patricia was located in a dangerous area of the Peruvian jungle frequented by groups of drug traffickers. The police found, along with a malnourished Patricia and the baby she had with Manrique himself , two women and several other children who had been victims of the alleged kidnapper’s submission.
The patriarch of this harem, Felix Steven Manrique, has entered provisional prison. The first hypotheses are that he captured morally unstable girls andThrough laborious and patient brainwashing, he convinced them that he was God’s messenger with a mission to repopulate the planet.
The victims were indoctrinated to assume his role: await the imminent end of the world with the master , provide care, pleasure and offspring to repopulate the planet. The police are now investigating him for human trafficking for the purpose of exploitation.
The Gnostic community stands out
The Gnostic Institute of Anthropology (IGA) is the world headquarters of the Gnostic institutions that work around the world. As such, it is considered as the bearer of the messages of Master Samael and their dissemination throughout the world for humanistic purposes.
According to these principles, man is composed of three psychological elements: Personality, essence and ego . The essence presides over the soul of man when he is a child, in the age of innocence, but as his ego evolves and his wickedness appropriates his being. Personality is acquired, unlike innate essence.
That is why Gnostic psychology defends the need to educate these three parts of the individual to achieve unity: the intellect, the soul and the instincts . The ultimate goal is that the individual, through Gnostic standards and practices, undertake a “work on himself” for the “intimate self-realization of his being.”
Although the message is clearly humanist and reminiscent of certain Eastern “peace doctrines”,the name of the gnostic church has inevitably been tarnished by the Patricia case. That is why the institution itself has hastened to distance itself from the mystic master Felix Steven Manrique.
The Gnostic Church assured in a statement that, in effect, Manrique was part of the group and attended its meetings, but seeing his manic and aggressive character, he was expelled . Therefore, they say, all the actions carried out by him after his expulsion have nothing to do with gnosis and contradict his doctrine.
However, it is evident that some leaders of dangerous sects use gnosis as a doctrine, so everyone can draw their own conclusions about whether these types of structures are really aseptic or innocent, or the true nest of snakes.
