Egyptian cult.
(media.communities.win)
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Agreed. Western media and pop-culture tends to pretend Eastern religions either don't exist, or amount to quirky worship of weird-looking statues by the resident "funny foreigner" sitcom character. Same goes for meditation, yoga and tai-chi being treated as cool and fancy health routines, without any attention to their spiritual underpinnings or the overall lifestyle that goes to them.
I suspect westerners just aren't comfortable with the fact that there are not just other religions, but completely different paradigms of spirituality, compared to Judaeo-Christian monotheism and all its own quirks. Heathen gods are all well and good (well, bad, usually), but the very concept of religion where gods aren't central, of morality that's mandated by one's actions, rather than divine judgement; or of rebirth that's universal rather than offered only to the righteous - that simply does not compute.
So were gnostics right that there is reincarnation of all souls? This would be a huge revelation.
Hard to say if it's true or not, like with many religions assertions. But it does make for a dangerous proposition to Judaeo-Christian societies, since it takes their ultimate leverage - the fear of damnation - and just does away with it. Much like how a Buddhist has no fear of losing their soul or suffering in hell - since in their view, the "soul" is itself an unwanted artifact of previous lives, and suffering is a state of internal being, not external circumstances.