Gnosis (chaos magic)

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article cites its sources but does not provide page references. You can help by providing page numbers for existing citations. (July 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "Gnosis" chaos magic – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Part of a series on
Chaos magic
Key concepts Sigils Gnosis Kia Servitor Egregore Cut-Up Playback Synchromysticism
Notable figures Austin Osman Spare Ramsey Dukes Peter J. Carroll Ralph Tegtmeier Phil Hine Genesis P-Orridge William S. Burroughs Grant Morrison
Organisations Illuminates of Thanateros Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth
v t e

In chaos magic, gnosis or the gnostic state refers to an altered state of consciousness in which a person's mind is focused on only one point, thought, or goal and all other thoughts are thrust out.^[1] The gnostic state is used to bypass the "filter" of the conscious mind – something thought to be necessary for working most forms of magic.^[2]

Since it takes years of training to master this sort of Zen-like meditative ability, chaos magicians employ a variety of other ways to attain a "brief 'no-mind' state" in which to work magic.^[3]