Counterfeit Spirit — The False Self
The Apocryphon of John describes a 'counterfeit spirit' implanted by the Archons in each human — the false self that competes with the divine spark for dominion over the soul.
The Apocryphon of John describes one of Gnosticism's most psychologically sophisticated teachings: alongside the divine spark (pneuma) implanted in humans from the Pleroma, the Archons implanted a 'counterfeit spirit' (antimimon pneuma) — a false spiritual principle that competes with the genuine pneuma for dominion over the soul. This counterfeit spirit generates the false self: the ego-structure that identifies with the material world, responds to the Archons' enticements (wealth, power, status, pleasure), and keeps the soul bound to the cycle of reincarnation. The Gnostic path is therefore a battle between the true pneumatic self (the divine spark) and the false psychic-material self (the counterfeit spirit). This teaching anticipates many later spiritual traditions' descriptions of the ego-illusion (Hindu Maya, Buddhist no-self, Sufi nafs) — the constructed self that must be seen through before the true self can be recognized.
The Archons planted their seed in humanity — the counterfeit spirit — that it might distract those who belong to the Light.
Psychoanalyst Carl Jung's concept of the persona (the social mask) and the shadow (the repressed contrary self) together constitute what the Apocryphon of John calls the 'counterfeit spirit' — the false self-constructions that prevent access to what Jung called the Self, the Gnostics called the divine spark.
Nag Hammadi Library
Written about in
- What Gnosticism says about knowing yourself
The Apocryphon of John describes a second self, planted in you by the rulers of the world, that answers to status, wealth and appetite. Self-knowledge here includes learning to tell the two voices apart, which is the most practical thing in the whole scheme.
- What Gnosticism says about illness and the body failing
The Apocryphon of John says the Archons planted a counterfeit spirit that answers to wealth, status and pleasure and competes with the real spark for the soul. Illness dismantles most of what the counterfeit spirit runs on. The texts would call that a clearing, which is easier to write than to live through.