Gnostic Academy of Chicago

Gnostic Academy of Chicago “Only life intensely lived provides lasting wisdom.” —Samael Aun Weor

​The Gnostic Academy of Chicago is a specialized school of esoteric knowledge where students learn the teachings of universal Gnosticism, consisting of meditation, yoga, consciousness, psychology, self-transformation, esoteric anatomy, alternative medicine, the Hebraic Kabbalah, alchemy, sacred sexuality or tantra, Kundalini, energy work, chakra activation, intuition, clairvoyance and psychic pow

ers, dream yoga and astral projection: otherwise known as out of body experiences or lucid dreams, spiritual initiation, tarot, runes, astrology, Buddhism, the great world religious scriptures, and many other spiritual subjects.

​We study the wisdom of both east and west in a comprehensive, didactic way, unlike many other forms of spirituality that focus on one specific religion alone. At the Gnostic Academy of Chicago, we draw upon a wide body of resources for a very specific spiritual practice: that of radically transforming our consciousness, so as to reunite with divinity and procure the alleviation of suffering for all sentient beings.

​Gnosis is a vast and profound science for actualizing deep, lasting internal change, and—as we seek to demonstrate in our lectures—has been present throughout all mystical traditions. We study the nature of the complete human being through a variety of perspectives and subjects, for each religion complements, educates, and guides through the rich diversity of inner principles and forms. Through study and practical exercises, one identifies, comprehends, and intuits the universal thread connecting all religions, which is the experiential wisdom of an awakened consciousness.

​This ubiquitous knowledge has been taught by innumerable teachers and spiritual guides throughout antiquity. At our center, we study and practice their essential instructions in a balanced way, so as to achieve profound transformation and the mastery of our true potential. These practical teachings are available to all people, regardless of language, culture, race or gender. We welcome people from all religions and denominations to learn, discover, and personally experience their inner divinity and true possibilities with a group of like-minded individuals. To learn more about Gnosis, you can study the following lecture:

https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/the-spiritual-seed

The Greek brother-deities Hypnos (sleep) and Thanatos (death) symbolize the deep significance of these phenomena in rela...
06/23/2025

The Greek brother-deities Hypnos (sleep) and Thanatos (death) symbolize the deep significance of these phenomena in relationship to spiritual awakening. By learning about the ways humanity is unenlightened or unconscious, it becomes possible to develop our complete potential and awaken to the realities of the spirit beyond death. See how through an exploration of four states of consciousness as well as many practices for understanding our internal mechanisms of distraction, delusion, and spiritual sleep.

https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/spiritual-sleep-and-mystical-death-why-we-are-unconscious-and-how-to-positively-awaken

New Lecture: Psychological Equilibrium To enter spiritual initiation, one must have inner balance, fortitude, and wisdom...
06/16/2025

New Lecture: Psychological Equilibrium

To enter spiritual initiation, one must have inner balance, fortitude, and wisdom from practical experience, because the ordeals for proving one’s candidacy in the mysteries are arduous. Without psychological equilibrium, any adversity, accidental or ordained, will throw a person into chaos and disarray. This is why Gnostic students are always taught how to maintain serenity and balance their three brains: intellect, emotions, and actions, for even without the challenges of initiation, life presents difficulties that quickly disorient, disturb, and disable. See how to take advantage of difficult circumstances by harmonizing body, heart, and mind, acquiring deep insights into the psychological causes of affliction, thereby procuring personal knowledge for the alleviation of humanity’s suffering.

https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/psychological-equilibrium

“Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well.” —Sylvia Plath, “Lady Lazarus”​Little do people ackn...
06/06/2025

“Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well.” —Sylvia Plath, “Lady Lazarus”

Little do people acknowledge that before physical death, we first die in thirds (in bodily capacity, emotions, and mind—one at a time, or two to three if we’re reckless and daring). This depends on how often, quickly, and intensely we exhaust our resources through the abuses of everyday life, the latter which have produced an epidemic of physical and mental illness. However, healthy living is also an art, and a more preferable one with verifiable guiding principles, practices, and results. See how through an exploration of diet; religious observances around meat and vegetarianism; the five tattvas of esoteric Hinduism (or the energetic, spiritual elements in food); the three gunas of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras; the three brains and their proper and improper functioning within Gnostic psychology; the symptomologies and spiritual causes of physical, emotional, and mental illness; the imbalances of body, heart, and mind in ultramodern living; meditative exercises for conscious management and optimal self-maintenance; the nature of and need for true inner equilibrium to attain high initiation; relevant practices for developing greater personal and social harmony, and much more.

Dietary stipulations for enhancing and supporting spiritual practice.

https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/how-to-properly-nourish-body-heart-and-mind-or-else-die-in-thirds

Genuine spiritual healers are rare. Likewise, the process for finding and vetting them is also arduous, uncertain, and t...
05/31/2025

Genuine spiritual healers are rare. Likewise, the process for finding and vetting them is also arduous, uncertain, and time-consuming, usually without positive results given the prevalence of charlatans and “wolves in sheep’s clothing” (Matthew 7:15) who are eager to provide their services for a good buck. This is why it is more practical and beneficial to become one’s own healer, doctor, and master, since it is not only difficult to find uncorrupted traditions and practitioners with proven track records, but that real divine healers are not to be found primarily in the physical world, but in the internal worlds. Likewise, by awakening consciousness in the inner dimensions we inhabit during the normal hours of sleep, we also have more direct means of accessing and knowing the source of legitimate healing, which does not come at any price except a life of virtue and sacrifice for humanity. Discover and apply verifiable, reliable, and effective techniques from the Gnostic tradition of Samael Aun Weor to treat the spiritual causes of illness, thereby transforming oneself into a true Gnostic priest, magician, shaman, or healer.

https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/spiritual-healing-through-divine-medicinal-masters

The Mayans were not only advanced in astronomy, astrology, and mathematics, but also spiritual psychology. Explore the n...
05/18/2025

The Mayans were not only advanced in astronomy, astrology, and mathematics, but also spiritual psychology. Explore the nature of our internal universe and the way to awaken consciousness through Mayan symbolism, mythos, and principles, beautifully demonstrated within The Flight of the Feathered Serpent, a revolutionary book of Mayan esotericism.

https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/mayan-principles-of-being

While modern occidental medicine recognizes and treats physical symptoms of disease, such prescriptions often fail to ad...
05/03/2025

While modern occidental medicine recognizes and treats physical symptoms of disease, such prescriptions often fail to address the internal causes of illness, primarily since health is not merely a physical reality, but a multidimensional problem. The Gnostic tradition, on the other hand, offers deeper remedies for the psychological, metaphysical, and internal causes of sickness that can safely complement the work of medical professionals without causing serious complications. This is because complete human beings are not merely material, but energetic, conscious, and spiritual, and by simultaneously correcting both external infirmities and their internal causes, symptoms are alleviated and the root of disease can be comprehensively cured. See how through an exploration of the Tree of Life: a map of our body, psyche, and mind; the three brains of esoteric psychology; and the art and science of meditation.

https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/the-five-causes-of-illness

Kundalini Awakening? Think Again! How Most People Experience Kundabuffer InsteadNumerous spiritual traditions speak abou...
03/30/2025

Kundalini Awakening? Think Again! How Most People Experience Kundabuffer Instead

Numerous spiritual traditions speak about the miraculous power of Kundalini, the transformative energy and intelligence of the Divine Mother. However, much propaganda abounds regarding its requirements, effects, manifestation, and evolution within the individual. What people don’t realize is that the widespread psychological imbalances, confusion, and dangers attributed to Kundalini is actually its opposite: Kundabuffer, symbolized by the tempting serpent of Eden (Genesis 3:1), the fiery serpents that afflicted the Israelites in their desert sojourn (Numbers 21:6), and the inverted tail that characterizes demons (Revelations 12:4). Kundalini is different: the brazen serpent of Moses that redeems and heals (Numbers 21:8-9); the prudence, serpentine wisdom, and dove-like harmlessness that guides authentic initiates (Matthew 10:16); the sacred power that uplifts the Son of Man (John 3:14) and the Pentecostal tongues of fire or Holy Spirit that descends upon the inspired apostles (Acts 2:3). The way to know and experience the difference depends on a person’s ethics, purity, and cooperation within a perfect matrimony, not expensive workshops, fees, or blessings from a “guru.” By fulfilling spiritual laws through the qualifications of the heart, it becomes possible to work with the real power of divinity, the sexual force that allows one to be truly born again (John 3:5).

https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/kundalini-awakening-think-again-how-most-people-experience-kundabuffer-instead

**ra **ra **rayoga **ramassage **rameditation

Learn the facts, fictions, and realities of astral projection and dream yoga from your own experience. A free online cou...
03/26/2025

Learn the facts, fictions, and realities of astral projection and dream yoga from your own experience. A free online course with accompanying podcast, transcriptions, and videos, sequential and didactic practices for experiencing, remembering, and awakening within dreams, common obstacles and their remedies, questions and answers, and more. Final transcriptions have been uploaded. We hope that these classes aid you in developing your complete and divine potential!

https://chicagognosis.org/dream-yoga-and-astral-travel.html

Spiritual Nights and Gnostic Soteriology in Fidelio (Act II)Every disciple of the straight and narrow way that leads to ...
03/16/2025

Spiritual Nights and Gnostic Soteriology in Fidelio (Act II)

Every disciple of the straight and narrow way that leads to life (Matthew 7:13-14) must inevitably experience the afflictive consequences of their former actions. The question becomes if they do so with resignation, acceptance, and perseverance, so that by consciously and patiently paying what one owes before the divine law, spiritual debts are reconciled and wisdom is cultivated. However, the process is a prolonged and grueling one, designated by some authors as “dark nights of the soul.” In such moments of despair, loneliness, and abandonment, the practitioner lacks inner illumination to guide them forward in the psychological work, or as Christ exclaimed on the cross: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). While spiritual nights are painful and experienced by everyone in the Gnostic path, they are a necessary step towards self-realization, for ordeals and tests are fundamental for proving one’s candidacy in the mysteries. As Beethoven demonstrated in his life and his only opera, the initiate can overcome the punishment of the law through tenacity, negotiation, forgiveness, and supreme faith in divinity. See how in the conclusion of Beethoven’s only opera, whereby Florestan seeks his liberation from the prison of karma with the help of his courageous wife Leonora, the divine soul that descends like an angel from heaven to redeem the fallen Sophia.

https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/spiritual-nights-and-gnostic-soteriology-in-fidelio-act-ii

Theophany and Spiritual Descent in Fidelio (Act I)How Christ manifests within and redeems the initiate:Disguised as Fide...
03/06/2025

Theophany and Spiritual Descent in Fidelio (Act I)

How Christ manifests within and redeems the initiate:

Disguised as Fidelio, a male prison guard, Leonora seeks access to her incarcerated husband’s secret cell in the effort of freeing him. Like other metaphors in religion, the gnostic mythos describes the descent of divine light into the prison of the mind, seeking to liberate and elevate Pistis Sophia (the revolutionary consciousness) back to her rightful spiritual hierarchy. In the same manner, Leonora (the “light of Leo,” Helios, the Sun, Christ), disguises herself within the world of forms to perform a very sacred mission: the redemption and liberation of her forsaken husband Florestan, wrongly imprisoned due to political rivalry. Don Pizarro, the corrupt politician who governs the prison and Florestan’s persecution, symbolizes the gnostic archons, karma, and metaphysical laws that punish and oppress Pistis Sophia’s efforts towards self-realization. Discover how our own inner divinity (Leonora, the divine embodiment of the Christic light) makes super-efforts to orchestrate the greatest work in the cosmos: the liberation of the psyche from suffering and the complete development of our human potential.

Mastery is not the end of spiritual development, for while an individual can acquire, cultivate, and express their soul ...
02/19/2025

Mastery is not the end of spiritual development, for while an individual can acquire, cultivate, and express their soul in this physical world, such a laudable achievement does not signify perfection in mastery. While many masters exist in Nirvana, heaven, or bliss, few are willing to renounce their happiness, return to this physical world, and guide humanity out of suffering. However, this is the essential requirement for incarnating Christ, the divine forces of boundless, enlightened compassion represented in many religions. Discover superior stages of initiation symbolized by Christ’s mystical life in the Gospels, or how a developed human being enters a true inner revolution against their own psychological defects, thereby performing a tremendous humanitarian mission.

See how Christ rises within the initiate as serpents of light:

https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/the-venustic-initiations

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The Gnostic Academy of Chicago is a specialized school of esoteric knowledge where students learn the teachings of universal gnosticism, consisting of meditation, psychology, esoteric anatomy, the Hebraic Kabbalah, alchemy, sacred sexuality or ta**ra, dream yoga and astral projection, otherwise known as out of body experiences or lucid dreams, initiation, tarot, astrology, Kundalini, yoga, Buddhism, the great world religious scriptures, as well as many other spiritual subjects. We study the wisdom of both east and west in a comprehensive, didactic way, unlike many other forms of spirituality that focus on one specific religion alone. At the Gnostic Academy of Chicago, we draw upon a wide body of resources for a very specific spiritual practice: that of radically transforming our consciousness, so as to reunite with divinity and procure the alleviation of suffering for all sentient beings. Gnosis is a vast and profound science for actualizing deep, lasting internal change, and—as we seek to demonstrate in our lectures—has been present throughout all the great religions and mystical traditions. These practical teachings are available to all people, regardless of language, culture, race or gender. We welcome people from all religions and denominations toward the study of actualizing our intimate potential! We hope that in coming you may find what you seek. Interested in learning more? Listen to a lecture: The Spiritual Seed with an accompanying PowerPoint presentation, or view the video version.

For more information, please visit our website: http://chicagognosis.org