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| | Gnosticism |
 | | Gnosticism is, depending upon one's point of view, either an alternative type of Christianity, true Christianity, a generic term for Pagan mystery religions contemporary with the beginnings of Christianity, or a precursor to the Western World's major religions. |
 | | Lewis Spence, in The Encyclopedia of the Occult, defined Gnosticism as "an admixture of Indian, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Christian creeds, astrology and magic, with much of the Jewish Kabbalah also." |
 | | According to Lewis Spence, some gnostics converted to Islam and became Dervishes, i.e., Sufis. |
| www.worldspirituality.org /gnosticism.htm (510 words) |
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