I’m almost done with Elaine Pagel’s The Gnostic Gospels, and came across a point that illustrates very nicely some of what I’ve been trying to express in these posts on Ken Wilber, and in other places. Pagels says:

The gnostics understand Christ’s message not as offering a set of answers, but as encouragement to engage in a process of searching: “seek and inquire about the ways you should go, since there is nothing else as good as this.”

…

But non-gnostic Christians “do not seek” … Those who merely believe the preaching they hear, without asking questions and who accept the worship set before them, not only remain ignorant of themselves, but “if they find someone else who asks about his salvation,” they act immediately to censor and silence him. (p. 112)

This is a topic she hits a lot of times from a lot of angles. Another nice passage on it:

Gnostic sources often do depict Jesus answering questions, taking the role of teacher, revealer and spiritual master. But here too the gnostic model stands close to the psychotherapeutic one. Both acknowledge the need for guidance, but only as a provisional measure. The purpose of accepting authority is to learn to outgrow it. When one becomes mature, one no longer needs any external authority. The on who formerly took the place of a disciple comes to recognize himself as Jesus “twin brother.” (p. 131)

… Whoever achieves gnosis becomes “no longer a Christian, but a Christ.” (p. 134)