{"id":5836,"date":"2013-07-14T18:07:23","date_gmt":"2013-07-15T00:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5836"},"modified":"2013-07-14T18:07:23","modified_gmt":"2013-07-15T00:07:23","slug":"upg-an-ugly-and-misguided-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5836","title":{"rendered":"UPG: An ‘Ugly and Misguided’ Term"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a Wikipedia article on Heathenry in Canada<\/a>, you will read, “The acceptance of such UPG can be a source of controversy among practitioners.”<\/p>\n

UPG here means Unverified Personal Gnosis <\/a>or Unusual Personal Gnosis or Unsubstantiated Personal Gnosis, defined (also in Wikipedia) as “the phenomenological<\/a> concept that an individual’s spiritual insights (or gnosis<\/a>) may be valid for them without being generalizable<\/a> to the experience of others. It is primarily a neologism<\/a> used in polytheistic reconstructionism<\/a>, to differentiate it from ancient sources of spiritual practices.”<\/p>\n

And as the entry notes, it is a derogatory term.<\/p>\n

Heathen\/Germanic Tradition writers seem to spend the most time evaluating the idea of UPG, as possibly “worth considering<\/a>” if certain preconditions are met or as highly suspect unless rigorously examined in the light of “the lore”<\/a>: “The key is that [UPG] has little to no basis in the lore as we have it. Most assumptions about the Gods, myths, and rites are based on careful research of the lore often involving years of study.”<\/p>\n

Based on limited discussion with practitioner-scholars, I see less concern about UPG among Germanic Tradition Pagans in Europe and little concern among Baltic or Slavic reconstructionists, for example. Perhaps this concern is largely a North American issue? More study is needed.<\/p>\n

Pagan scholar Sam Webster, in fact, goes farther, calling UPG an “ugly and misguided” label.<\/a><\/p>\n

Experience is the center of all spiritual and religious life. Text is at best derivative. By creating and using such a term as UPG, \u201cUnsubstantiated Personal Gnosis,\u201d we privilege text over experience. (This is a rather Christian move, and those who have been following my writing know how I feel about that. . .) Even more damagingly, by framing someone\u2019s experience as a UPG we dissociate ourselves from the primary data of spirituality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Good point. But not everyone respects phenomenology<\/a>, even in religious studies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a Wikipedia article on Heathenry in Canada, you will read, “The acceptance of such UPG can be a source of controversy among practitioners.” UPG here means Unverified Personal Gnosis or Unusual Personal Gnosis or Unsubstantiated Personal Gnosis, defined (also in Wikipedia) as “the phenomenological concept that an individual’s spiritual insights (or gnosis) may be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,130,5],"class_list":["post-5836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-religion","tag-heathenry","tag-paganism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1w8","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2111,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2111","url_meta":{"origin":5836,"position":0},"title":"Arguments without Evidence\u2014or without Ethos?","author":"Chas S. 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