About GnosticShock.com
Launched February 18, 1996, GnosticShock.com (formerly “the Gnostic Friends Network) is one of the oldest continuously maintained gnostic websites on the internet (see archive.org). We transitioned away from the domain enemies.com and relaunched with new branding on February 1, 2016.
Mission Statement
The GnosticShock.com mission is to encourage the individual exploration of the gnostic mythos through unique, entertaining and engaging resources and media. GnosticShock.com is also chartered to do original research on projects that have bearing on one or more aspects of gnosticism or otherwise communicate the good news of gnosis:
- The exploration and mapping of non-ordinary spacetime through illustration, collage and textual cut-ups
- Psychic archaeology and the revelation of a contemporary visual vocabulary for Gnostic myth based on pop culture, advertising and dream imagery
- Research and print media articles examining gnostic myth in terms of “modern” scientific hypotheses (especially those grounded in paradox) and the appropriation of symbol sets from contemporary cosmology, psychology, evolutionary biology, etc.
- Instantiations of the gnostic counter-myth as a creative “mind game” played according to the binary-fractal method proposed by Ioan Culianu
- An examination of Gnosticism as the “shadow side” of Christian theology
- An exploration of Forteana and the unassimilable in Christian heterodoxy
- An escape from the entropic One God Universe of Western monotheism into an “Anything Goes” multiverse of infinite parallel worlds
Core Values
When the site was first launched, we never could have dreamed that gnosticism would penetrate popular consciousness to the extraordinary degree it has, let alone become the dominant motif of seemingly all new Hollywood science fiction films. Twenty years on, gnosticism is perhaps better known than it has been in many hundreds of years, with recent discoveries and trends in academic scholarship (see Miguel Conner’s excellent anthology “Voices of Gnosticism” for an overview) providing many exciting new directions for consideration.
At the same time, we are saddened to find that with the explosion of popular interest in this topic, the field of amateur scholarship has been virtually overrun with an endless parade of cranks, creeps and crass opportunists of the lowest sort – hucksters, shills, and snake-oil salesmen, ethnosupremacist doomsday cults and shameless new age sex gurus (see The Curious Case of John Lash).
Our pledge to you, dear reader, is to remain true to the guiding star of our pleromatic inspiration, steering deftly between the Scylla of sterile, secular skepticism and the Charybdis of crazed and cancerous conspiratology to deliver you material which is thoughtful, humorous and respectful of your intelligence, resisting always the temptation to literalist concretization in favor of whimsical indeterminacy and the magic of experiential metaphor.
SELECTED WORKS
- Fringe Science & the Gnostic Heresies : Article Series (2005 – present)
- Creepy Cartoons (2001-2004)
- Cryptic Collages (1998 – 2000)
- Ouroboros : The Gnostic Webring (1998-2004)
- Wash Your Own Brain : Stickers (1997)
- Yaldabaoth’s Witnesses : Postcard Set (1996)
- Various iterations of the GnosticShock.com website (1996 – present)
SEE ALSO
- Press (1998 – present)
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“…[M]ind games have necessarily similar mechanisms (because the way the mind works and its capacity have remained unchanged for at least sixty thousand years), and therefore systems that have been sufficiently run in time… tend to overlap not only in shape but in substance. With complex data at hand, we should be able to demonstrate…
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Interesting
A very worthy mission! 😀
Dear Sir/Madam
My name is Mini.
I would like to know if you could add http://www.gnosticjudas.com to your website:
Description:
Discover the real Judas Iscariot, incredible information on the Gospel of Judas, Gnosis, Gnosticism, the Gnostics, the life of Jesus and the disciples, the real image of Jesus and more
Unravel the mystery behind The Gospel of Judas, the divine mission of Judas Iscariot, the ancient Gnostics and the real meaning of Jesus’ life.
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For further information please contact me on links@gnosticjudas.com
Yours sincerely
mini
Hi there! Your site came up high when I googled for ILLUMINATUS art, so I decided to drop you a line.
I did the ILL! comic way back when, and have put some of the art used in author Wilson’s Meme-Orial (at his daugher’s request) on my myspace site.
Just thought you might want to know. Thanks! 🙂
I heart you!
I just found this site and it it pure genius! I am going to tell all my friends about it. I am involved in a Gnostic Synod in Atlanta GA and was consecrated a priestess a few weeks ago as part of our ongoing work. I can also see the hand of my beloved Eris at work here! Keep up the Good Works.
Hello there, Reverend. I thought I’d stop by after all these years and say, “Hello.” I first came upon your site when I was 15/16 years old…you may remember me as Redkor or Jackal-Ra.
Where is the Gnostic Films section?
I seem to remember reading an article comparing the birth of the Demiurge to the split of the ten-dimensional universe into a six-dimensional universe and four-dimensional universe as described by Michio Kaku1. Please direct me to this article.
1http://mkaku.org/home/?page_id=423
Hey Rev. Max,
remember a guy whose username was synesius on your site, saturated in Gnosticism, a self-confessed Bokor in Haitian Voudoo & M. Betriaux’s “Gnostic Voudon Workbook?”
You discussed Palo with me and I elaborated on “Esoteric Voudon.”
Would you care to correspond again from time to time again?
sincerely, your former/current friend,
~Marcus
Reverend. I urgently need your help. Is it possible you could contact me via my email address.
It concerns contacting our past selves via meditation.
Please.
Many thanks
Maybe there’s a spiritual concern with too much extreme caustic humor on Gnostic Friends Network.
I mean that beyond just saying the funnier the better Gnosticism embraced tradition. Its own traditional involved the antinomian inversion of Jewish & Christian tradition, but that was still to a higher purpose. Modern man has no purpose and sees tradition of any kind as a target for ridicule, cynicism, and profane (as in the opposite of sacred) humor with yukking it up all the way to the liquor store to get back home for a good buzz and juicy internet porn. Anyway, in a world where people turn inward to free something within the Wasteland of ensouled passions and self-exalting mind games all this is very understandable. Anyway Max maybe what I’m saying about Tradition is something to add some food for thought in relation to your artist’s statement.
Hi Rev. Max,
I have to say, I’ve been a fan of your website for a number of years ever since I was introduced into the vast and vexing subject of Gnosticism through it. I always enjoyed your writing and articles.
Thank you for your work,
– AeonEye
Well Max,
without a doubt, you’re fulfilling your Mission Statement and then some. Forget my spurious concerns about any “spiritual concern with too much caustic humor.” You continue to excell at writing intelligently informed & very humorous articles with style & verve. And you fulfiill an important role within the ‘gnostic community’ as a teacher in the best sense of the word — teaching Gnosticism 101 while putting a grin on your students. Bravo!
drop me a line when you have the time brother,
sincerely,
~Marcus the Apostate
Hey people,
I’m Marcus and I am a 21st century practicing radical antinomian gnostic who’d love to chat with anyone who feels liking dropping me a note about anything gnostic. Here’s my email address: finnmark555@yahoo.com Personally, I go all the way to ancient Alexandria within the elect circle of initiates taught by Carpocrates. Yeah, I realize that I’m making a pretty far-out claim here, and if you think its bullshit that’s A-OK by me. So don’t let that stop you from having some pretty “far-out” but thought provoking conversations. I’ve been ”Marcus” centuries. And if there’s one thing you can say about Gnosticism it’s that is pretty far-out. I promise you I’m just not some deluded flake. I’ve been a Gnostic for a long time and I ‘know’ my stuff is what it amounts to, and in the spirit of community & friendship involving all things “gnostic” I’d love to here from you merely by virtue that you’re into this site. Gnostic Enemies is a heretic’s harbor that consistently does the heart good to all who who are lucky enough to click onto ( and no such thing as “luck” by the way).
Hasta la vista babies,
~Marcus
PS: please ignore any typos and poor grammar on my part here, I’m all thumbs.
This has been a favourite website of mine for either side of a decade. I’m interested in the possible use of your art Rev Max, we briefly had an exchange way back when there was a forum here. I assume you get my email address when I enter this reply, could you either send me a prank or post here to let me know you got this? Cheers, and congrats on the longevity of your site!