WHAT IS A TRUE GNOSTIC/MYSTIC

Mystic Gnosis should be the goal of every person.

A 'believer' has faith in the unknown - faith in doctrines - faith in a church, synagogue, mosque or temple - faith that what they believe is not only the truth, but the whole truth.

Unlike the believer, a Gnostic/Mystic is a person who has so surrendered his life to Truth and Light - and has successfully evolved beyond the level of faith and belief - and has thus received from God the ability to see and perceive beyond the natural barrier of this physical three-dimensional world, and observe the parallel dimensions that causes all events in this realm - and ultimately what the Bible refers to as the Kingdom of Heaven and God.

The authors of genuine Spiritual Scriptures were all Gnostics/Mystics. Yehoshua (Jesus) taught the Truth, the Light, and the Way, because he revealed to man what they must do in order to enter the Kingdom within. A Gnostic/Mystic is a genuine disciple of the Messiah/Christ, because he is willing to follow in Yehoshua's/Jesus' footsteps into the Kingdom. A Gnostic/Mystic is a person who knows that an inner door exists within all people. He is not limited by faith and belief, because he knows the Kingdom within by virtue of his own first-hand Spiritual experiences. By living a consecrated life in absolute dedication to the Most High God the Gnostic/Mystic is able to reach beyond the limitations of the organic physical mind and senses. Thus are genuine Gnostics/Mystics able to open the inner door, enter the Kingdom, and communicate directly with God.

This is the true PATH - the true WAY - for all seekers of LIGHT.

I think you are right moving past the barrier of structured belief systems allows a person the absorb truth on its own merit.

But I always wonder how some of the great mystics of history still stayed within the body of the Church? Two examples that come to mind are St John of the Cross and St Terese of Avila. These contemporaries managed profound spiritual growth and knowledge and managed to avoid being branded heretics. Also, St Francis of Assisi was amazing. They are all three some of my favorite historical mystics. I have read The Dark Night of The Soul by St John and it is so positive and uplifting, yet he wrote while imprisoned by fellow monks. And yet he was not eventually killed but released.
St Terese was actually instructed to put to paper her experiences by the church and is the only woman named Doctor of the Church. St Francis disdained writing and Bible study altogether.
I think my point is, it can be easier to find gnosis on your own but it is not required to be separated from a belief structure to be successful.

Teri, I think it isn't a strict requirement to be separated from the belief structure. For some people though, it may be a requirement.

The culture and the church during the time of St. Francis and the others you mention is not the same as the culture and church institution of today. Then again, to me, the Catholic church has always had more room for the aesthetic and mystical experience. They are not so tied down to the Bible. For them it is important, but tradition is also of equal importance. The Catholic church has assimilated some of the paganism of the people it has converted IMO.

From my own experience the protestant church as I have known it has been unhelpful. As a child I can remember feeling very close to Christ in my Methodist background. I think I knew him in a natural, mystical way. Then my spiritual life was gradually ruined when my parents started attending a fundamentalist, literalist Baptist church and made us kids attend. If you are continually told you must literally believe a written text or suffer eternal punishment it makes quite an impression on a young, sensitive mind.

It took me about 25 years or so to realize that there are Masters, Adepts other than Christ, that slavish belief of a written text is not spiritual and the church is not a necessity.

I have not yet recovered that spiritual sort of sense that I had as a child, but I can only hope to. I have found some things that don't work, and one of them is intellecutally analyzing a text trying to realize truth. Some texts by Masters can be helpful, but they can only point the way.