Gnosis Not the Highest State!

The New Dictionary of Theology writes of Gregory of Nyssa (d. 385-ish), who observed the stages of the ascent of the soul:

Gregory is also noted for his influential mystical writings in which he traces three stages in the ascent of the soul from apatheia, freedom from passion, through gnosis, mystical knowledge in which the senses are left behind, to theoria, the highest stage in contemplation in which (since a created soul cannnot see God) one passes into the limitless ascent into the divine darkness.