I stressed much the same to
@Meandflower on her other thread concerning the topic of reincarnation (where she expressed some displeasure at traditional orthodox Christianity, because our conception of the afterlife does not affirm
metempsychosis or transmigration of the soul).
Over on that thread, I explained how quite a few second century heterodox Christian sects actually
did espouse a belief in 'reincarnation' but, crucially, they did not attribute the attachment cycle of birth and rebirth to the mercy, grace or 'divine plan' of the Supreme God.
The church father Origen (c. 184 – c. 253) attributed this phenomenon to the immortal soul and its choices from '
aeon to aeon', either 'restoring' itself to a higher spiritual good or descending to a lower material evil:
there were certain causes of prior existence, in consequence of which the souls, before their birth in the body, contracted a certain amount of guilt in their sensitive nature, or in their movements...we are of opinion that, seeing the soul, as we have frequently said, is immortal and eternal, it is possible that, in the many and endless periods of duration in the immeasurable and different worlds, it may descend from the highest good to the lowest evil, or be restored from the lowest evil to the highest good. (
De Principiis III.i.21)
Valentinus (c. AD 100 – c. 160) again, a gnostic preacher who nearly became Bishop of Rome, taught the same according to the fourth-century church father Epiphanius:
Valentinus and Colarbasus, and all gnostics claim that there is a reincarnation of souls, and that there are transmigrations of the soul of (spiritually) ignorant persons – as they themselves call them.... They say that the soul returns and is reembodied in each of the animals until it recognizes (the truth), and is thus cleansed and set free, and departs to the heavens
(Epiphanius, Panarion)
Valentinus's disciple, Theodotus, likewise taught as follows in regards to the liberating power of Christian baptism, by alluding to knowledge of prior lives/births accruing from it:
Theodotus (2nd century, Excerpta ex Theodoto 78)
78 Until baptism, they say, Fate is real, but after it the astrologists are no longer right. But it is not only the washing of baptism that is liberating, but the knowledge of who we were, and what we have become, where we were or where we were placed, whither we hasten, from what we are redeemed, what birth is and what rebirth.
More on their theology:
Valentinian Monism - Valentinus and the Valentinian Tradition
Valentinian sources describe God as containing all things within himself. An anonymous Valentinian quoted by Irenaeus claims that, "the Father of all contains all things, and that there is nothing whatever outside of the Pleroma..." (Irenaeus Against Heresies 2:4:2). Using virtually identical language, another author argues that God "contains in himself all things and is himself not contained" (Doctrinal Epistle quoted in Epiphanius Panarion 31:5:3).
The fact that we have come forth within the Father does not imply that we are acquainted with him. According to Valentinus, God is ultimately responsible for the creation of all things "It is he who created the entirety and the entirety is in him" (Gospel of Truth 19:8-9) However, the "entirety" i.e. those within the Father "were unacquainted with the Father since it was he whom they did not see"(Gospel of Truth 28:32-29:1). Being only a small part of reality, they are unable to perceive it completely on their own. In vain, "the entirety searched for the one from whom they had emanated" (Gospel of Truth 17:4-6). It is something of a paradox that we are within God, yet we do not recognize or know him. As Valentinus says, "It was quite amazing that they were in the Father without being acquainted with him and that they alone were able to emanate, inasmuch as they were not able perceive and recognize the one in whom they were" (Gospel of Truth 22:27-32)
Due to our ignorance of God we can fall into an erroneous or false understanding of reality ("error" or "deficiency"). According to Valentinus, "Ignorance of the Father caused agitation and fear. And the agitation grew dense like fog, so that no one could see. Thus error found strength" (Gospel of Truth 17:9-20). According to Valentinians, the material universe that we perceive is an illusion deriving from our ignorance of the Father. This is often expressed by Valentinians though the story of Sophia (Divine Wisdom). This myth describes Sophia's ignorance of God and the suffering that results. It is the suffering that results from her error that constitutes the material realm.
Valentinus describes the "realm of appearance" as an bad dream as "when one falls asleep and finds one's self in the midst of nightmares" (Gospel of Truth 29:8-10f). The author of the Treatise on Resurrection similarly describes the material world as follows, "Suddenly the living are dying - surely they are not alive at all in this world of apparition! - the rich have become poor, rulers overthrown: all changes, the world is an apparition" (Treatise on Resurrection 48:19-27cf Irenaeus Against Heresies 2:14)....
In contrast to the reality of the Father, "those things which are 'outside' of the Fullness have no true existence... These things are images of those which truly exist." (Irenaeus Against Heresies 2:14:3). The things we perceive in the physical world are often described as "images" or "shadows" of the divine realm. (Valentinian Exposition 36:10-13, Irenaeus Against Heresies 1:5:1,2:6:3, etc.) This is a reference to the famous Platonic parable which compares the physical world to shadows cast on the back wall of a cave. God is the only reality. However, we who are ignorant of the true situation mistake the shadows for reality. We construct an illusory false reality for ourselves because we are ignorant of the overall picture.
Just as the illusion arose as result of ignorance, it will be dissolved through knowledge (gnosis). Upon knowledge (gnosis) of God, the world of multiplicity vanishes. As an anonymous source puts it, "Since deficiency and suffering had their origin in ignorance, the entire system originating in ignorance is dissolved by knowledge (gnosis)" (Irenaeus Against Heresies 1:21:4 cf. also Irenaeus Against Heresies 2:4:3).
The illusion of multiplicity vanishes once the person knows the true reality. According to Valentinus, "Inasmuch as the lack came into being because the Father was not known, from the moment the Father is known, the lack will not exist...lack passes away in completion, and so from that moment on, the realm of appearance is no longer manifest but will pass away in the harmony of unity...It is by acquaintance (gnosis) that all will purify themselves out of multiplicity into unity, consuming matter within themselves as fire" (Gospel of Truth 24:28-25:19 cf. also Treatise on Resurrection 48:38-49:4, Valentinus Fragment 4). The material world is an illusion that is dissolved by knowledge (gnosis) of God.
Not only does the realm of multiplicity pass away through knowledge (gnosis), so does the distinction between the self and God. To know God is to be God. According to the Gospel of Philip, "People cannot see anything in the real realm unless they become it...if you have seen the spirit, you have become the spirit; if you have seen Christ, you have become Christ; if you have seen the Father, you will become the Father" (Gospel of Philip 61:20-32 cf. 67:26-27). It represents a restoration to the syzygy, that is, the reestablishment of the link between the self and the divine.
Once you understand that reality, your perception of multiplicity is gone. The duality vanishes since it was never really there in the first place. According to the Gospel of Philip, "The world has already become the eternal realm (Aeon), for to this person the eternal realm is Fullness. As such, it is manifest to him or her alone, not hidden in the darkness and the night, but hidden in perfect day and holy light" (Gospel of Philip).
It implies that for the person who has gnosis, there is no longer any distinction between the world and the Pleroma. Through gnosis one can participate in and experience the divine realm. As a result, "the Valentinian and his or her world have been completely absorbed by the divine fullness or entirety" (Dawson 1992).
So as one can see from the above, for Valentinian Christians the material world of 'multiplicity' and 'becoming' represented nothing more than an illusion, a 'bad dream' one must wake up from caused by a deficiency that consisted in ignorance of God the Father (a lack of knowledge/awareness of Him) who is the "
Entirety".
Suffering (death) was considered to be an illusory condition and evil (ignorance) naught but a "deficiency" that needed to be "filled up", that is overcome through saving truth of the gospel.
Thus, upon being baptised and liberated through the
gnosis (knowledge) of Christ the Saviour as the incarnation of God, one's perception of anything existing outside the
Pleroma (Divine Fullness) would just 'vanish' like sunlight dispersing a fog of error, as the 'pneumatic soul' discovered its true self and what was truly "real" behind the realm of mere "appearances".
This kind of solipsistic-esque monism would seem to be a common assumption in many religions that believe in some variant of "soul transmigration", so far as I can tell (even in early Christianity of all places!).