The Three Kinds of People There Are in the World According to the Valentinian Gnostics, by James Bean
The three kinds of people in the world: "The Valentinian threefold designation of people as hylics, psychics, and pneumatics (people of fleshly body, soul, and spirit)." (Marvin Meyer, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures)
Have always thought of this tripart view of humanity as being rather accurate. We have 1) the hylics ("matter", materialists), 2) the psychics (of soul), and, 3) the pneumatics ("spiritual", from Greek πνεῦμα, "spirit").
Psychics (of the soul) are sort of the in between, between the spiritual and material realms with some belief in supernatural possibilities, and this category also includes people following one religion or another. Mystics in the world are few but followers of religions are many. Pneumatics are in the mystics category, those who are knowers (Gnostics), experiencers, in addition to whatever their intellectual beliefs might be about God, heavens, universes, souls and whatnot.
My only concern with what might be said in old Gnostic texts is over the question of WHO has a soul. If some of those folks were espousing the view that not everyone has a soul or the same kind of soul, I would strongly disagree, believing that everyone has a soul, IS a soul incarnate. If they are saying that many people are stuck at the level of the five senses and the outer material world, believe only what they happen to see (the hylics) or are attached to various theological ideas but don't experience the things they believe (God, heavens) and so it's all just abstract theory to them (psychics), then I do agree with that. Gnostics weren't anti intellectual and had lots of ideas, but their goal was to experience, to know. One begins with faith but then moves on to gnosis, to be spiritual, pneumatic, through an initiation into The Mysteries gain access to one's spiritual senses which can have perception of the beyond, spiritual seeing, spiritual hearing. One becomes an explorer of heavenly realms. Gnostic texts are filled with descriptions of visionary and auditory experiences, and the ascension of the soul through the various heavenly realms.
I believe animals also have souls, which is one of the reasons why I'm vegan. Being heavily influenced by Neo Platonism and Pythagoreanism the gnostics were veg or vegan also. See the last verses of the Nag Hammadi book, The Prayer of Thanksgiving: https://medium.com/sant-mat-meditation-and-spirituality/two-vegetarian-prayers-of-thanksgiving-one-is-gnostic-the-other-from-jainism-f34f8e11a7cf
