Pneumatic (Gnosticism)
Encyclopedia
The pneumatics were, in gnosticism
, the highest order of humans, the other two orders being psychics and hylics
. The pneumatic saw himself as escaping the doom of the material world via the secret knowledge. Outsiders could only know these secrets by joining a gnostic group. To be a gnostic is to believe in three planes of existence: the pure unknown (demiurge), the material world of coitus and comfort, and the pure spiritual realm of ascension or escape.
Gnosticism
Gnosticism is a scholarly term for a set of religious beliefs and spiritual practices common to early Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco-Roman mystery religions, Zoroastrianism , and Neoplatonism.A common characteristic of some of these groups was the teaching that the realisation of Gnosis...
, the highest order of humans, the other two orders being psychics and hylics
Hylics
In modern usage "hylic" refers to anything that is slanted toward the thought of any illusory concept, or that which gives an unbalanced view of life. It does not just refer to things slanted toward materialistic pursuits but to anything that is out of order with the rhythm of nature. Nature, in...
. The pneumatic saw himself as escaping the doom of the material world via the secret knowledge. Outsiders could only know these secrets by joining a gnostic group. To be a gnostic is to believe in three planes of existence: the pure unknown (demiurge), the material world of coitus and comfort, and the pure spiritual realm of ascension or escape.