REVISTA & ESCOLAS DE MISTÉRIOS

  Man: Machine, Prisoner, or Free Spirit? A Comparative Investigation into Jakob Lorber, Gnosticism, the Cathars, Vedic Literature, and Cutting-Edge Neuroscience on the Nature of Consciousness and Free Will Introduction Since the dawn of human civilization, humanity has sought to answer one of existence’s most profound questions: Why are we here? The answer to this question shapes nearly every philosophical, religious, and scientific view of human nature. Depending on the tradition being studied, human beings may be understood as creatures destined for divine service, souls trapped in a material universe, eternal spirits undergoing a process of learning, or simply the byproduct of the brain's physicochemical interactions. Throughout history, these interpretations have given rise to radically different religious and philosophical systems. In ancient Mesopotamia, sacred texts asserted that man was created to work for the gods. Gnosticism later developed the idea that humanity...