ABSTRACT
Assagioli was very particular about keeping psycho-synthesis and his professional work separate from his interest in the esoteric tradition: and also he was widely read in all the mystical traditions. But the direct descent of Theosophy from the gnostic tradition is significant in the whole of his thinking and affects the basic assumptions upon which psychosynthesis were founded. Neoplatonism, as its name implies, was initially a development in the first centuries AD of Platonic thought, though later its hellenic roots became imbued with Christianity. The gnostic movement was a religious movement in the Christian tradition. A striking feature of gnostic thought, as has already been indicated, is the emphasis on self-knowledge. Jonas comments that the gnostic insistence on the reception of truth either through sacred or secret lore or through inner illumination replaces rational theory and argument. The similarity of psychosynthesis to gnostic and neoplatonic thought is obvious, even without the intermediary of Theosophy and Jungian psychotherapy.
