Gnosticism, Jesus Christ & consciousness

Jesus Christ, Shroud of Turin, AI image, 2024.

The true Jesus

During April 2026 the present writer had a revelation. For the previous 2-3 years he had been undertaking a deep dive into the subject of consciousness, and along the way encountered the concept of the Cosmic Consciousness. This was presented as nothing less than fundamental, i.e., as the thing before which there was nothing. Elsewhere it was variously referred to - by everyone except Atheists - as God, the Creator, Source, The One and the origin of the universe and all things contained therein, both material and non-material or metaphysical. The writer did not give it much thought at the time as the focus was then on aspects of one's own individual consciousness, namely: what it was and how it came to be. The problem the scientific fraternity had faced since the latter part of the twentieth century and into the present day in dealing with the subject of consciousness was notable and stirred the writer on to come up with his own solution. But by the end of 2025 that had been achieved and it was time to move on to other things, which seemed both unrelated (e.g., What is Islam?) and directly connect (e.g., Who is Jesus Christ?). The latter was of special interest as the writer had been raised a Catholic during the 1960s and 1970s, though had subsequently lapsed in his belief and practice. A turn towards Buddhism during the early 2000s gave rise, for a decade, to thoughts of higher beings, the meaning of life, and how best to live it, with the Tibetan Buddhist chant Om mane padme om ("Help me be the best I can") and the writings of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama the most impactful.

Finally, in October 2025 a reading of the Qur'an suggested that Jesus Christ was simply a human man, a prophet, and nothing more. In the months following, and leading up to April 2026, another deep dive into the idea of Jesus as God and Jesus as man revealed much of import relating to the initial query around consciousness. And it was this which opened up to the writer the reason why there had always existed in his mind doubt and skepticism around the manner in which the Catholic Church had dealt with the concept of Jesus Christ. This was in a very human way, as though he was just like one of us, though of course they all the while said he was God. This confusion between the concept of a human man and of an almighty God was dispelled when the following video on the topic explained the primary difference between the Catholic Church version of Jesus Christ - which the author was ever sceptical about, and which presented him very much in a human manner - and the so-called Gnostic version which arose shortly after his death and which ultimately tied in with what the had come to believe was closer to the truth, namely, that Jesus Christ, like the God that he was, was ultimately a mystical being, far removed from that of human beings, and frankly beyond understanding and comprehension.

Church Jesus versus Gnostic Jesus - the truth they hid, The Lost Gospel, 23 April 2026, YouTube, duration: 33.21 minutes.

The difference, as noted in the video, was this: The Gnostic Jesus was a teacher of the individual truth which it is possible for all human kind to know personally and directly from his teachings; on the other hand, the Catholic Church had presented Jesus as a manipulator, a rule maker, a tool of an institution which sought power and control over human beings - like many other religions - but was more human in its operation than God-like. In other words, Jesus offered a clear solution in regards to how we can save ourselves, without the need for Church or State; the Church, on the other hand, demanded obedience to its ideology and theology in order for one to be saved. Concepts such as eternal damnation, heaven and hell and the end of time were introduced to instill in one fear and obedience. One concept was right, and one was wrong, and it was obvious to this writer in April 2026 that the former ticked the box, and not the latter. Gnosticism was closer to the teachings of Jesus and the importance of consciousness, rather than the rules and regulations of the Catholic Church as imposed through texts such as the heavily edited and censored Bible. It was within some of those "deleted" texts, such as within the Nag Hammadi scrolls discovered in 1945, that those early Christian teachings now known as Gnosticism were rediscovered and revealed. The following extract from a Wikipedia definition of Gnosticism perhaps best explains its core elements:

.... Gnostic groups generally emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) above the authority, traditions, and proto-orthodox teachings of organized religious institutions. The Gnostic worldview typically distinguished between a hidden, uncorrupted supreme being and a flawed demiurge responsible for creating material reality. Gnostics held this material existence to be evil and believed the principal element of salvation was direct knowledge of the supreme divinity, attained via mystical or esoteric insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment.... (Wikipedia 2026)

This emphasis on individual conscious thought, as opposed to dogmatic teachings, is core the Gnosticism and its variance with other forms of Christianity. The present writer would also view it as more in alignment with the teachings of Jesus Christ during his period on Earth between 4BC and 125AD, as noted in the author's blog Jesus Christ - a chronology of God on Earth. In fact, the present writer's own investigations around the issues of consciousness tie in with core elements of Gnosticism. Whilst there is still a very "human" element in its analysis of God and Jesus Christ, that Cosmic Consciousness connection brings together aspects of understanding the presence of both Jesus Christ as both God and man during his presence on earth during the aforementioned period. A good example in revealed in one of the Nag Hammadi texts where Peter records standing on a hill next to Jesus and looking down towards the hill of ... where Jesus Christ the man was being tortured and crucified. In that instance three elements of Christ are revealed, as they were revealed in the present writer's previous analysis of the three elements of consciousness present in Jesus during his time on earth, namely:

The normal, localised, individual (Jesus Christ as man) consciousness which supports the organic machine that is the human body as given birth to by the Virgin Mary, his mother;
The greater, external and eternal individual (Jesus Christ as man) consciousness that is non-material and exists outside of the human body but is connected to it and assists that body in its journey through life on earth or elsewhere; and
The divine (Jesus Christ as God) Cosmic Consciousness which is that of the Creator, Source, the One and the origin of the Universe. It is from this Cosmic Consciousness that, through a process of fractalization, all subsequent individual consciousnesses in existence and present in the universe derive, including that of Jesus Christ as man. That divine consciousness was also part of the Blessed Trinity, as in God the Father, God the Son (Logos) and God the Holy Spirit / Holy Ghost.

An understanding of these three conscious elements of Jesus Christ help explain different aspects of his teachings, but also of his activities. Without this, there is much mystery in regard the life of Christ on earth and as present within the Bible as published. The Nag Hammadi and other texts are vital in revealing the truth around who and what Jesus Christ was. The early adoption of Gnostic beliefs by Christians following the death the resurrection of Jesus Christ around 33AD is understandable when all of these texts are taken into account. At the end of the day there is no real conflict between the orthodox Jesus and the Gnostic Jesus - both are God, both were present on earth during the years indicated, and both taught and presented in the ways described therein. How individual human beings interpret those actions and events in connected with the belief system which lies at the heart of every religion. This is not a science; this is not about dealing with the physical world alone. It is about dealing with both the physical and metaphysical / spiritual realities, and it is the latter which human beings will forever have difficulty in coming to terms with or fully understanding, for, at the end of the day, God is the ultimate mystery, and rightly so.

When a social media comment recently called the Old Testament section of the Bible a "local history", and a reading of the New Testament reveals that it presents the life if Jesus Christ in a number of narratives / stories / Gospels which are easily consumable, it is therefore reasonable to classify that text as a God / Jesus Christ for Dummies-type publication rather than a deeply philosophical text. It is the latter that we find in the Nag Hammadi scrolls and which were therefore meaningfully excluded from the Bible as compiled in the 4th century AD. Some of the latter are extremely difficult to understand and therefore it is understandable why they were excluded and, less so, why they were called heretical. In 2026 we can used both sets of text to better understand God and Jesus Christ, and that is a good thing.

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References

Barnstone, Willis and Marvin Meyer (editors), The Gnostic Bible, Shambala, 2009, 896p.

Gnosticism - The Gospel of Mary Magdalene - Salvation through Self-Knowledge of the Soul & Mind, Esoterica, 8 October 2022, YouTube, duration: 31.05 minutes.

Jonas, Hans, The Gnostic Religion, 1958.

Klavan, Andrew, Letter #117: A face in the Shroud, The New Jerusalem, 26 August 2004.

Meyer, Marvin, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus: The Definitive Collection of Mystical Gospels and Secret Books about Jesus of Nazareth, HarperCollins, 2005, 368p.

-----, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The revised and updated translation of sacred Gnostic texts. Complete in one volume, HarperCollins, 2009, 864p.

Solomon, The Complete Ethiopian Bible, 88+ Book Apocrypha, Books of Enoch (1-3), Dead Sea Scrolls & Nag Hammadi Scriptures: Including the Watchers, Giants, ...  Old Testament - With Extensive Commentary, Ken Ringze, 2026, 2462p.

The books banned from the Bible - What are the Gnostic Gospels?, Alex O'Connor, 13 May 2024, YouTube, duration: 69.16 minutes.

The Gnostic Gospels: The forbidden teachings of Jesus, hocelaga, 30 October 2025, YouTube, duration: 39.01 minutes.

The Gnostic Jesus vs the Biblical Jesus - The difference changes everything, The Gnostic Eye, 25 April 2026, YouTube, duration: 21.05 minutes.

The Gnostic story of Jesus: What you were never told, Occulys, 4 December 2024, YouTube, duration: 13.25 minutes.

The Gospel of Mary - a lost Gnostic text?, Let's Talk Religion, 7 April 2023, YouTube, duration: 21.59 minutes.

What is Gnosticism?, Let's Talk Religion, 3 October 2021, YouTube, duration: 40.12 minutes.

What the Gnostic Jesus actually taught is way more dangerous than you think, Primeval Archives and Primeval Mythology, 29 March 2026, YouTube, duration: 47.00 minutes.

What is Gnosticism? - Bart Erhman, More Alex O'Connor, 23 December 2024, YouTube, duration: 19.09 minutes.

Wikipedia, Gnosticism, Wikipedia, accessed 28 April 20626

-----, List of Gnostic texts, Wikipedia, accessed 28 April 2026.

Williams, Micah, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The Revised and Updated Translation of Sacred Gnostic Texts Complete in One Volume. Bible Apocrypha and Gnostic Gospels Collection, Grapevine Press, 2026, 812p.

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Last updated: 5 May 2026

Michael Organ, Australia

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