“The gods exist”, says Epicurus, “but they are not what the rabble, suppose them to be.” And yet Epicurus, judged as usual by superficial critics, is set down and paraded as a materialist. But neither the Great First Cause nor its emanation – human, immortal spirit – have left themselves “without a witness.”
Mesmerism and modern spiritualism are there to attest the great truths. For over fifteen centuries, thanks to the blindly-brutal persecutions of those great vandals of early Christian history, Constantine and Justinian, ancient WISDOM slowly degenerated until it gradually sank into the deepest mire of monkish superstition and ignorance.
The Pythagorean “knowledge of things that are”; the profound erudition of the Gnostics; the world and time-honored teachings of the great philosophers; all were rejected as doctrines of Antichrist and Paganism, and committed to the flames.
With the last seven wise men of the Orient, the remnant group of the Neo-platonists, Hermias, Priscianus, Diogenes, Eulalius, Damaskius, Simplicius and Isodorus, who fled from fanatical persecutions of Justinian to Persia, the reign of wisdom closed.”
H. P. Blavatsky
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 