Gnosis

Gnosis - a Greek term, translates directly into the English term "Knowledge". In context with the western Gnostic philosophy and mystagogy,however - it implies a personal and intimate "knowing" or acquaintance with existing things (ref. Bentley Layton and his treatment of the Nag Hammadi text
"The Gospel of Philip" (B.Layton:The Gnostic Scriptures,1992,Harper&Row), which in turn imparts salvation or liberation.

The Gnostic mystical paradigms as they are found within and on the periphery of Christianity,a number of scholars of comparative religion have contended; has corollaries in the Vedantine and Buddhist Jnana, the `ilm, irfahat and Marifaat of Islam and many other religious and philosophical traditions and their respective cultures.

Vision, Revelation, Myth in its formative stages, ecstacy, trance and to a certain extent intuition - are all under the dominion of Gnosis since all these share the common characteristic of mediating an "intimate knowing of existing things" from a transcendent, hidden or subtle source, which traditional religious terminology calls Divine.

The plural of Gnosis - only necessary if we deal with distinct expressions and contexts - is sometimes referred to as Gnoses.