New Age and Gnosticism, a reflection
Due to an oversight in the selection and insufficient prior knowledge, two participants were included in the study who actually included a more Gnostic worldview. This was something that only became apparent late in the analysis work. These people did match the selection criteria, that is to say they would believe in "reincarnation, karma and the idea that the individual evolves towards perfection", etc., but they did this in a slightly different way.
Gnosticism is a spiritual doctrine that already existed at the time around the birth of Christianity and from which early Christianity chose to distance itself. According to Gnosticism, there is an all-powerful, perfect god, but he is not fully responsible for our world looking the way it does. This is instead explained with a kind of "helping god" who is not perfect. That the world looks the way it does is ultimately due to its faults and shortcomings and to the fact that we humans have traits of the latter. The view of the state of humanity and the way forward, as presented by the respondents, seems somehow "darker" and more mysterious in comparison to how the other respondents described it.
Some authors (Kärfve, 1998, p. 21) want to compare the new spirituality with Gnosticism. This is possibly fruitful from a religious studies perspective, but from a psychological or psychoanalytical perspective it can probably lead to errors. One impression is that the respondents with a Gnostic worldview have answered more "religiously" and in some sense more meekly than the rest of the group. They have not expressed the same strong belief in progression and the sovereignty of the individual, for example, which can probably be something healthy. The most heartfelt description of God was given by one of the Gnostics in the group, although he too wrestled with the personal-impersonal duality. Gnosticism seems to be a middle ground between traditional religion and new spirituality, also psychologically.