“The soul is a captive of the body, a fragment of the divine light imprisoned in the dark matter created by the prince of darkness, awaiting the gnosis that will set it free.” — Jason David BeDuhn, The Manichaean Body: In Discipline and Ritual
the soul (as a particle of divine light) is trapped within the material body (associated with darkness and created by adversarial forces), requiring salvific knowledge (gnosis) for liberation.
Library of Light Edition 1.0 — Last revised: February 2026