“If man spends his life without distinguishing between ‘A’ influences [society/culture, lies/illusions that are the basis of the Matrix, keeping man asleep, including corrupted spiritual teachings, etc] and ‘B’ influences [true esoteric/spiritual knowledge with the the aim of “awakening”], he will end it as he started, one could say mechanically, driven by the Law of Accident. However, according to the nature and the intensity of the resultant forces to which he is subjected, it can happen to him to make a brilliant career, in the meaning the world gives to this expression. Yet he will come to the end of his days without having either learned or understood anything of Reality.

Man can delude himself and, believing he is absorbing ‘B’ influences and making the necessary selection all the while, he in fact absorbs ‘A’ influences. This will put him into contact with people who possess magnetic centres of the same nature: who are themselves duped or who dupe others, and who have no direct or indirect link with the esoteric Centre. What guarantee can man have that he will not dupe himself and that he will not fall into the latter situation? The answer is simple. The purity of the magnetic centre must be scrupulously maintained from the start and all through his evolution.

The void, which can only be crossed at the cost of considerable effort or even of super-efforts, operates selectively. The character and the quantity of effort necessary differs for each person, depending upon the nature and degree of deformation of the mind of each exterior man; an individual factor…Man was compared to a cell of organic life on Earth. Because he belongs to this organism, man is subject to the General Law [i.i Hyperdimensional Matrix Control System], and it is only when he has escaped it that he is elevated to the Law of Exception.

We are not aware of how much we are bound by the action of the General Law. Acting on us as it does on our cells, this law immobilizes us or constantly tends to bring us back to our place. Its strength leaves us little freedom of action outside the limits of its direction and scope. It acts in various ways. One can say that if man lives ‘like everyone else’, if he does not venture off the beaten track, he will never perceive the existence of this force, or rather this force will ignore him.

But if his enterprises are out of the ordinary, no matter what field they are in, but especially in esotericism, this force begins to act, and stirs up all sorts of obstacles in order to bring him back to the point where — according to the General Law — he must reside. Even without knowing this force, we have an intuition of its existence and of the many forms which clothe it. Thus, if this conservative force, which is the servant of the General Law, does not succeed in ‘calming’ man by acting directly upon him, it tries to reach him indirectly through the people of his household, either through the feelings they invoke or the coolness and ontempt they openly show him.

Economy of energies too is a must, as the walk to and on the Way demands their total mobilization. Any unjustified expenditure can lead in the end to failure. We must always keep this in mind. In general, the reaction of those around towards someone who begins to search for the Way is negative. This negative attitude is the result of the action of the General Law, which, as we know, tends to keep man in his place. Not being able to do this directly by the action of Illusion, the General Law, when it loses its dominion over the man who ‘moves’, acts indirectly by the mediation of those around him.

It is a classic situation. From his side, after having passed through moral bankruptcy, he who seeks the Way becomes different from men who continue to live within the limits permitted by the General Law, and thus take mirages for reality. Due to this, he will feel himself more and more isolated. The centre of gravity of his interest will progressively turn to esoteric work, which will end by absorbing him completely. But it is entirely in his interest not to show the new attitude which he has taken towards exterior life. The ‘World’ will be hostile to him, because its own purposes are different; it is not in his interest to provoke this tendency, and even less to keep it alive. The day will come — if he remains in the same milieu — where, apart from rare exceptions he will be openly or secretly hated.

If we ponder this in depth, we shall understand that psychologically this hostile attitude of the ‘World’ towards someone who carries on esoteric work is not only a normal phenomenon but is so to speak, a necessary one. If he who lives in the wilderness — and is satisfied to be there, were to approve of the attitude of one who walks on the track, it would be equivalent to recognizing his own bankruptcy. That is why the ‘World’ considers the latter as a failure. The more he progresses with his work, the more he becomes an object of hate. That is why it is said that: ‘no prophet is acceptable in his own country’ and also: ‘A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, among his own kin and in his own house.‘”

As long as it is not mastered, the force of illusion keeps each one of us in his place, obliging him most often to mistake the false for the true. Submerged in unreality, instead of advancing, man marks time; one step forward and two steps backwards; two steps forward and one step backwards, and so on. We generally agree to recognize the existence of the danger of Illusion, but rather theoretically; most often, we see its action on those round about us, but not on ourselves. We continue to live day by day in the same old way, so that the power we know as “the Devil” still triumphs. Whatever name we give it, it remains ever-present.

We live in an artificial, illusory world.The power of illusion which chains us exerts its action individually on each one of us, as well as collectively. Each mind is falsified in a way peculiar to it. What can be the outcome of such a situation? If we keep quietly to our place, human careers open to us … just as long as we stay far away from the void. We may have a happy or unhappy life; a family life; a life of loves; we may make discoveries, travel, write. Then comes the end. Our reasoning starts to become more realistic if our attention is concentrated on this end. Everything can happen to us in life; or nothing.

The Way is a one-way street. Meaning that whoever begins to walk it is forbidden to turn back. This is not because of some kind of external imperative, but due to the fact that each step forward on the Way irrevocably modifies the content of whoever has started walking it. It follows that he will become more and more of a stranger to his surroundings; that he will lose more and more interest in exterior life, in which only yesterday he participated fully. The appearance of things, and especially of beings, undergoes a deep change in his eyes. He will one day be surprised to constate that certain faces which only yesterday he found very beautiful now reveal to him marks of bestiality behind their features: not all, but many of them.

The more man progresses on the Way, the more his feeling of being a stranger is intensified. Soon he will become boring: later still he will become unbearable, and finally, odious. That is why ‘the prophet is despised in his country, among his close relations and in his own house.‘ That indication is precise and leaves no room for doubt. He who wants to start esoteric studies is invited to think it over twice, and weigh it all, before he rushes to cross the moat-threshold. We repeat that it will not be possible for him to return to exterior life and to find his place, his pleasures and his satisfaction there as in the past.

However, as well as the difficulties which are the first results of his evolution, such a man will receive comforting impressions, especially in his human relations. He will be surprised to perceive one day that certain faces which only yesterday appeared to him ordinary, today shine in his eyes with a bright beauty. It is because his sight, sharpened by esoteric work, has acquired the faculty of penetrating beyond the external crust. It is amongst these brighter beings that he will find his new friends. Their society will welcome him as one of their own. He will be understood among them, and their community of common aims and interests will be a stimulus and a help for all.“

– Boris Mouravieff, Gnosis