Summary: The Zhodani development of a form of gnosis led to their
acceptance of psi.

Explication: If I have understood my reading/research on gnosis and
gnosticism properly, it can be viewed as being a concern with the dichotomy
between 'world' and 'self'.  On Terra, where the environment and the
physical body are compatible, the 'self' portion of the dichotomy became
concerned with specifically the spiritual aspects of 'self', largely
relegating the physical aspects of 'self' to being included with 'world'.

On Zhdant, this dichotomy would have developed differently. The environment
being more clearly incompatible, the dichotomy between 'self' and 'world'
would reasonably have included the physical aspects of 'self' alongside the
spiritual.  In essence, the physical 'self' represents a manifestation of
the spiritual 'self', rather than representing a part of 'world' that
'self' uses as a vessel for a time.

This leads to two possible views of death - in the first view, the death of
the physical self represents the end of all manifestation of 'self'; the
physical 'self' and the spiritual 'self' are inextricably linked, and the
state of the physical 'self' always is an accurate manifestation of the
state of the spiritual 'self'.  This leads to a culture which would mourn
death, and which might very well lead to the technologies of mummification
and memorialization, as with, for example, the Nile valley culture.

In the other view, the death of the physical 'self' represents a new
manifestation of the spiritual 'self', one which no longer feels a need to
manifest physically, and is hence 'more developed' and more unrestricted.
This leads to a culture which would celebrate a death rather than mourn it,
and which would likely lead to a dynamic culture willing to push the limits
of knowledge, in a quest to develop beyond the need for a physical
manifestation.

Although my gut feeling says that what follows is more likely with the
second culture than with the first culture, it would be possible under both
cultures that development of psi powers - specifically those dealing with
_self_ (the Awareness group, the Clairvoyance group and teleportation-self)
- would be viewed as spiritually favorable, representing a different level
of control over the spiritual 'self' and therefore its manifestation of the
physical 'self' than most people have.  Other social/religious phenomena
that might be expected to develop would include those that show tolerance
for extremes of conditions or strong control over the physical self -
firewalking, living burial, and so on - many of the things that we normally
associate with Indian fakirs or other forms of mysticism from that part of
the world, whether we believe that they actually happen or not.

If, parallel to the development of the Awareness talents, a rudimentary
telepathy or telempathy also develops, there are other directions that the
(proto-)philosophy/religion can go, while still remaining within the
framework of gnostic thought:

 * The limited detection of thought or emotion might be interpreted as the
   Presence of Immanence - that is, confirmation of the reality of
   deity/deities. Those in whom the ability is stronger are perceived as
   more spiritually developed, and 'closer' to deity, either in the sense
   of "being in the presence of the god(s)", or "being more like the
   god(s)", thus encouraging the further development of these talents.

 * Alternatively, it might be interpreted as remembering incidents or
   emotions from past lives. In line with the idea that the physical self
   is a manifestation of the status of the spiritual self, this could lead
   to the idea of reincarnation as further opportunity for spiritual
   self-improvement, and one's present station in life being a result of
   one's spiritual preparation in a previous life (comparable to the ideas
   of karma and samsara in Indo-Buddhist thought). The further development
   of these talents could be encouraged, as better knowledge of one's past
   lives might allow one to make better choices in this one, leading to a
   better reincarnation in one's next cycle, or perhaps leaving the wheel
   of karma entirely.

In either case, the development of a society where those with stronger
psionic talents - thus, more spiritually developed - are considered "more
fit" to guide others toward spiritual completeness is not unreasonable.
From there, increasing secularization of a society with such an underlying
framework might well lead to an organization such as the Tavrchedl' (as
described in the Zhodani Alien Module), and the division of society into
franchised Nobles (with psionic ability) and disenfranchised Proles
(without psionic ability).

Comments/discussion?  Can anyone flesh this out better?  Should they?

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