Arthur Versluis is Professor of Religious Studies at Michigan State University. He has published numerous articles and books on the intersection of religion, the humanities, and politics. He is the editor of JSR: Journal for the Study of Radicalism and serves as president of Hieros Institute, a non-profit organization devoted to understanding the sacred.
In this compelling book, Arthur Versluis looks at many aspects of modern America in terms of the neo-gnostic world view. In it, we encounter multidimensionality, hyperspace, immortal avatars, sexual magic, Tibetan Buddhism, Shambhala, psychedelic drugs and much else. American Gnosis is a heady rollercoaster journey that leaves the reader pondering profound questions about the struggle for freedom of the human spirit and the challenges that it faces in the present age. * Christopher McIntosh, Author of The Rosicrucians, Beyond the North Wind and Occult Russia * In American Gnosis, Versluis searches the modern Americas for the paradoxes and syncretisms of gnosis freed from its ancient roots. Versluis is the Sherlock of contemporary Gnosticism, and his sleuthing has paid off! * April DeConick, Author of The Gnostic New Age: How A Countercultural Spirituality Revolutionized Religion From Antiquity to Today * Versluis's new book bursts the bounds set by more timid scholarship, with a cast of characters at the limits of respectability-as some Gnostics have always been. Its exhibition of neo-gnostic attitudes in politics, philosophy, and popular culture is a feast of curiosity and erudition, anchored by a sense of what true gnosis could mean in a desperate age. * Joscelyn Godwin, Author of The Golden Thread: The Ageless Wisdom of the Western Mystery Traditions *