Spark: gnosis, practices and the sauna

In December 1945, farmers in Upper Egypt dug up a sealed clay jar. Inside were twelve papyrus codices.

The Nag Hammadi find gave a voice to the Gnostics, who until then had been known mainly from the writings of their opponents. The Greek word gnōsis means knowledge, but not knowledge of facts. It is a recognition that happens within, the way you recognise a friend’s face. The question of the fourth issue is simple and old: what in me is truly mine, and what has been programmed?

The spark and the programme

The Gnostics told of a spark from a farther light sleeping in every person, and when it wakes, the person remembers who they are. A modern person describes the same feeling in other words: upbringing, advertising, roles and desires that are not our own.

In the sauna this question becomes simpler. The heat strips away what is superfluous, and after the great whisking, when the mind goes quiet, it is easier to hear which desire is really yours.

An honest map

We talk about yoga, reiki, sound and hands-on work calmly and precisely. For each practice we drew an honest map: what people feel and what has been measured.

• Yoga for chronic back pain: many studies, less pain and better movement.
• Music before surgery: a Cochrane review of 26 studies, less anxiety.
• Chiropractic for chronic back pain: as good as other recommended methods.
• Reiki: small studies; the effect of expectation is hard to separate.
• 528 Hz “healing frequencies”: a beautiful story, no research.

Experience is real as experience. Experience is not a diagnosis. A practice that tells you to give up treatment is not a good practice.

The sauna as a temple

Most practices come with one instrument. In the sauna they are all already there: steam is breath, the whisking is touch, song and the rustle of whisks are sound, warmth loosens the spine, silence on the bench is meditation. The ancestors did not call it a holistic approach. They simply called it the sauna.

On Midsummer night the sun barely sets, and fires burn on the hills until morning. That is when the spark rises highest. On herb day the sauna was heated with oak branches, and whoever stays awake meets the morning by the fire.

LD 32891Īsa īsa Jāņu nakts
Par visām naksniņām:
Te satumsa, te izausa
Pie Jānīša uguntiņas.Short, short is Midsummer night, shorter than all the nights: here it grew dark, here it dawned by the little fire of Jānis.

Sources: J. M. Robinson (ed.), The Nag Hammadi Library in English (1977); E. Pagels (1979) The Gnostic Gospels; Li Y. et al. (2023) Front Public Health 11:1155225; Bradt J. et al. (2013) Cochrane Database Syst Rev CD006908; Rubinstein S. M. et al. (2019) BMJ 364:l689.