 According to Quispel, gnosis is a third force in western culture, alongside faith and reason, which offers an experiential awareness of this Self.According to Ioan Culianu, gnosis is made possible through universal operations of the mind, which can be arrived at "anytime, anywhere".A similar suggestion has been made by Edward Conze, who suggested that the similarities between "prajñā" and "sophia" may be due to "the actual modalities of the human mind", which in certain conditions result in similar experiences.