I have, in the past, described UPG (Unverified Personal Gnosis) as an essential aspect to religion as a whole, not just within Hellenismos. There are those who reject UPG as not being valid, especially within reconstructionist religions, but those people seem to forget that UPG is what called many of us to the Gods. It was UPG of the Gods’ will that we began to reconstruct the ancient Greek religion, and it is UPG that continues to motivate our actions.

What is UPG?

UPG is Unverified Personal Gnosis or, in other words, spiritual knowledge gained through contemplation or mystical experience that cannot be reasoned or externally validated as true.  Sounds kinda technical, doesn’t it? An example of UPG would be having a dream that some particular deity wants you to worship them, and the best way to do that is every morning hop on one foot (the right one) for five minutes while patting your head and rubbing your tummy in a counterclockwise motion. Is that silly? Maybe, but not too dissimilar things happen. There is no way to verify this information. Your acceptance of this call is done purely on faith. This information is typically only valid to you.

Beyond UPG is UGG or Unverified Group Gnosis. Again, this is spiritual knowledge gained through contemplation or mystical experience that cannot be reasoned or externally validated as true, but it is information provided through either a group experience or multiple independent experiences. An example of UGG would be that during a group ritual the participants receive a vision that some particular deity wants them to worship by hopping on their right foot for five minutes while patting their heads and rubbing their tummies in a counterclockwise motion. Is this information now verified because it was shared as a group? No, it is not. There is still no way to verify this information beyond the experience of the group, and the acceptance of this call is still done purely on faith.

Is gnosis necessary?

No, not at all, it tends to be rare. So rare, in fact, that any claim of divine knowledge needs to be looked at as suspect. There are those who are only concerned with position, power, or prestige. These people will do what they can to convince you that they are special and have been granted special insight. They set themselves up to be spiritual leaders, but have no real concern with your spiritual or emotional welfare. What you need to completely understand is that a lack of personal gnosis does not make you inferior. If you are pious in your devotion, keeping your eyes and heart open to the signs, the Gods will make their presence known to you without any direct communication.

How does one verify gnosis?

There are really only two legitimate methods for taking UPG and UGG to VPG (Verified Personal Gnosis) and VGG (Verified Group Gnosis). Those are the reasoned method and the scientific method.

A person proclaiming, “I reason this to be true” does not make the gnosis verified. The reasoned method uses correct principles of reasoning, focusing on analyzing the nature of the information gained and how it relates to similar notions such as truth, belief, and justification using formal systems of deduction and through the study of arguments in both the positive and negative. This is a long philosophical process using the power of deduction attempting to verify the actuality of the information provided by a spiritual source. Unfortunately, too many lack basic reasoning and critical thinking skills to even attempt this method.

The scientific method is a process of comparing and contrasting the information gained with in-depth examination of ancient traditions, history, literature, music, and arts in context. This method uses techniques for investigating new knowledge, or correcting knowledge, based on the gathering of observable, empirical, and measurable evidence subject to principles of reasoning. Basically, you are attempting to find a precedence in ancient sources to validate or clarify your gnosis. The problem one will run into here is that there are people more than willing to quote out of context of documents, or out of context of the culture, to validate their gnosis or to set their experiences above others.

Not being able to validate your own personal gnosis does not mean that one has to reject it. It just means that information can only really be seen as valid to you, and should not be considered to have any impact on the greater religion. Do not be shocked if you start spouting off that the Great God So-and-So wants worshipers every morning hopping on their right foot for five minutes while patting their head and rubbing their tummy in a counterclockwise motion is scoffed at. While it is nobody’s business to judge how you practice, don’t make it people’s business by proclaiming your personal practices as important or valid to the greater religion.

Is their Danger in accepting gnosis as true?

Yes, there absolutely is, especially if you accept the gnosis of another person. There are those who have no concern with your spiritual and emotional well-being, and are perfectly willing to spew spiritual sounding rhetoric in an attempt to place themselves in a position of power or authority over you. At the very least, they want to be seen as special by having their opinions more respected then others, and some actually will collect followers to control with both subtle and not-so subtle manipulation. Still, others are just down right delusional, dangerous, insane freaks of nature. Jim Jones, David Koresh, Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles (Heaven’s Gate) are only a few examples where personal gnosis became very dangerous. Personal gnosis has been used to validate physical and emotional abuse, terrorism, and murder. They all started out sounding harmless and spiritual to slowly seduce the weak minded. Be guarded about what you are willing to accept as true.

Tags: Gods, reasoning, thought, Unverified Personal Gnosis, UPG