Blog #14 - A Timeline of Consciousness with Great Thanks to Graham Hancock
As readers may know Graham Hancock has published a number of excellent books exploring human history and existence. His research, evidence and thoughts provide significant challenges to a number of mainstream scientific fields including anthropology, archaeology and history amongst others. Without a doubt readers should be aware and familiar with Hancock’s insights so as to be a part of present day re-examination of where we have come from and where might we be going. He proposes that humans, and all living beings, are connected through our DNA to a consciousness that transcends a single, physical existence. Readers are encouraged to explore his original books as well as much additional material that he provides on his website: https://grahamhancock.com.
In this blog we attempt to summarize a number of Hancock’s thoughts into a condensed single history. It includes a number of additional references to connect his work with other sources of information.
1) 4,500,000,000 years ago - Earth is formed 4.6 billion years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Earth.
2) 4,400,000,000 years ago - 100 million years later the Earth’s oceans formed and there existed an atmosphere: http://www.ecology.com/2011/09/10/earths-beginnings-origins-life/.
a. Hancock quotes 3,900,000,000 years ago as the date for a solid crust.
3) 4,100,000,000 years ago early life formed. In 200,000,000 years simple forms of life developed and was active on the planet: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/life-on-earth-likely-started-at-least-4-1-billion-years-ago-much-earlier-than-scientists-had-thought. Abiogenesis is the process where non-living chemicals begin taking on living characteristics of self-replication (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis).
a. Hancock quotes 3,800,000,000 years ago as the date for abiogenesis which is only 100,000,000 millions years between the formation of the earth’s crust and the time that life formed.
b. Hancock correctly points out in his book Supernatural that this is a very short timeline for development of life from scratch. He points out that there exist the chemical building blocks for life elsewhere in the Solar System and elsewhere in space. He proposes that the placement of DNA on the planet Earth was the result of intention and actions of “extraterrestrials”. Whereas it is highly likely that there were extraterrestrial chemical contributions to the generation of life on earth through the impact of comets and asteroids, it is hard to identify intelligent action.
c. Hancock reports that Dr. Crick, one of the discoverers of the double helix structure of DNA, predicted the probability of independent DNA evolution in the relatively short 200-million year time period between a stable environment and the existence of life as being very low at only 1 in 10260. Although this is a very low probability, it doesn’t mean that it was impossible.
4) 3,480,000,000 years ago - 620,000,000 years after initial life developed, microbial mat fossils such as stromatolites existed in Western Australia.
a. Roughly the same date that Hancock quotes in Supernatural.
5) Sometime between 12,000,000 to 5,000,000 years ago – the chimpanzee-human last common ancestor (CHLC) lived and the Homo species line started to distinguish from the Pan species - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimpanzee–human_last_common_ancestor
6) 3,500,000 years ago stone tools were made by ancient hominids before the existence of Homo sapiens (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_tool).
7) 1,500,000 years ago Homo erectus were making use of fire (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_of_fire_by_early_humans).
8) Between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago Homo sapiens became distinct from other early hominoids.
9) 170,000 years ago Homo neanderthals create stone circle in cave: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/05/neanderthals-caves-rings-building-france-archaeology/
10) 100,000 years ago ancient Homo sapiens in Blombos Cave on the coast of South Africa were using red ocher and drilling shells representing modern human behavior in South Africa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blombos_Cave.
11) 60,000 years ago Homo sapiens realized the most recent, large exodus out of Africa.
12) 50,000 years ago Neanderthals were burying their dead.
13) 45,000 years ago Homo sapiens, Homo neanderthal and Homo sapiens ssp. Denisova interbreed.
14) 40,000 years ago Venus statues are produced in Europe (Figure 1) and cave paintings created in Indonesia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_art).
Figure 1. Venus of Hohle Fels figurine from 35,000 years ago (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_of_Hohle_Fels).
15) 30,000 years ago the cave paintings in France and Spain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_art).
a. Hancock in his book Supernatural explores the implication of the cave paintings in great detail as representations of a world experienced by shamans under the influence of a hallucinogenic – likely mushrooms. The many cave paintings have frequent representations of therianthropes, part animal and part human figures such as the Sorcerer in the Cave at Trois-Frères, France: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sorcerer_(cave_art) (Figure 2).
b. According to Hancock, this represents a time when humans began to quickly develop into more modern society.
Figure 2. The Sorcerer from Cave at Trois-Frères, France with the ears of a wolf, the eyes of an owl, the antlers of a stag, the tail of a horse, the claws of a lion, and the feet, legs and body of a human being.
16) 28,000 years ago Neanderthals die out from their last refuge in Gibraltar.
17) 20,000 years ago the Last Glacial maximum was reached in the Northern Hemisphere and the climate began warming up. Sea levels began to slowly rise up from their minimum levels of 122 meters/400 feet below present day resulting in the flooding the World’s coastal zones.
a. This could be the time of the Mesopotamian Apkallu (demi-gods) and Annunaki (giants) all therianthropes represented with “handbags”.
b. This could be the time of the Hebrew Nephilim.
18) 16,700 Human use of Gunung Padang, Indonesia begins.
19) 14,000 years ago there was a meltwater pulse and seawater levels rose relatively quickly by 40 meters/130 feet. This could be the event within human memory that gave rise to Flood myths around the world as coastal lands that were previously occupied became flooded.
20) 12,800 years ago the Younger Dryas geological period began ending 10,000 years of gradual global warming since the end of the last glacial maximum.
a. In Magicians of the Gods, Hancock proposes that this period is the result of a comet hitting the Laruentide Ice sheet and a catastrophic melting of the 3.2 km/2 mi thick layer of ice.
b. According to Hancock this was sufficient to shut down the thermohaline global ocean circulation resulting in global cooling. There is evidence that this circulation was weaker during this time period.
c. Researchers have found nanodiamonds in the sediments of this period. They could only have been produced at that time by the high temperatures resulting from a extraterrestrial impact event.
d. The beginning of the Younger Dryas period is roughly the time of extinction of the megafauna in North America.
21) 12,500 years ago
a. According to Hancock, Robert Bauval and Schoch this is the date of the alignment of the Great Sphinx, Giza, facing the rising of Leo on the Spring Equinox indicating a specific date in the precession of the equinoxes.
b. Construction on Gobekli Tepe is initiated by hunter-gatherers.
22) Between 12,800 to 11,600 years ago in the Younger Dryas global temperatures declined by about 5 °C/10 °F. There are indications that the mean annual temperature in the UK during this period was only −5 °C/23 °F. The cool climate lasts about 1,000 years.
23) 11,600 years ago the Younger Dryas period ends and the climate begins to warm again.
a. Hancock suggests that a second impact with the comet, or its remaining debris field, somewhere into the ocean results in a greenhouse effect, global warming and the reestablishment of global warming and the thermohaline circulation.
b. Work on the “most important” levels of the Gunung Padang megalithic site are initiated.
c. This is the date reported by the Ancient Egyptians/ Solon/Plato for the loss of Atlantis.
c. Hancock proposes the end of a historical Atlantis and the global migration of the survivors to South America, Indonesia and Turkey. The survivors carried with them the technology for megalithic constructions and the foundations of farming and metalworking.
d. The earliest image of a feather serpent therianthropes in Mesoamerica, the “Man in Serpent” image, including “handbag”, is created: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Venta ?
e. Mesoamerican Quetzalcoatl – a therianthrope represented with “handbags”.
f. Kon-Tiki Viracocha “arrived” in Bolivia?
24) 11,000 years ago - Initial wooden posts established at Stonehenge.
25) 5,000 years ago - The world’s most famous therianthrope, The Great Sphinx of Giza was built prior to the wet period in Egypt at this time (Figure 3).
Figure 3. The Great Sphinx of Giza with the head of a human and the body of a lion.
26) 5,000 years ago Sumerian and Egyptian writing begins.
27) 4,600 years ago large stones are installed at Stonehenge.
28) 4,4000 years ago the first 11 great pyramids are built in Ancient Egypt that have the Pyramid Texts inscribed on their inner walls and ceilings. This is the first full literature recorded.
a. Dickie and Boudreau write in support of these texts, and the pyramid complexes, being intended for a living person being initiated into the shamanistic tradition connecting with non-ordinary worlds.
29) According to Hancock in Supernatural, there have been many writings documenting encounters with non-ordinary worlds that include recurring images of:
29a. flying ships (for example Ezekiel’s Wheel, UFO sightings and ayahuasca experiences such as presented in Figure 4).
Figure 4. Painting by Pablo Amaringo as a result of an ayahuasca experience showing some similarity with UFO sightings including lighted floating disc and pale weak humanoid figures. https://grahamhancock.com/galleries/supernatural-amaringo/.
29b. Snakes as shown in Figures 5 through 9.
Figure 5. Snake representation from Siberia pre 12,000 years ago.
Figure 6. Snake Pillar, Göbekli Tepe, circa 11,600 years ago.
Figure 7. Snake representation in Ancient Egypt circa 15,000 years ago.
Figure 8. North American Indian petroglyph of a snakelike image, Arizona. Date of creation unknown.
Figure 9. Painting by Pablo Amaringo as a result of an ayahuasca experience showing the prevalence of snakes. https://grahamhancock.com/galleries/supernatural-amaringo/ .
29c. Therianthropes showing beings with a mixture of human and animal such as the Great Sphinx shown in Figure 3 above and the following figures.
Figure 10. The Ancient Egyptian god Djueti/Thoth represented as a therianthrope with the head of an ibis and the body of a man.
Figure 11. Painting by Pablo Amaringo as a result of an ayahuasca experience showing therianthropes of winged humans at the top of the painting. https://grahamhancock.com/galleries/supernatural-amaringo/.
29d. Occupying a “place in the sky” (such as described in the Egyptian Pyramid Texts) and myths and stories of the North America Indian).
29e. Small delicate, illuminated non-physical humanoids such as is shown in Figure 4 above, the many fairy encounters of Western Europe and the British Isles and more modern UFO reports..
30) Hancock in his book Supernatural does an excellent job of documenting and linking all of these various recurring themes through the history of man. He builds a thesis that they all result from the action of an increased amounts of dopamine in the brain. He argues that 2% of the human population naturally experiences such states but they can be brought on by intense activity or depravation such as associated with ceremonial dancing as well as by the use of hallucinogens such as naturally occurring ayahuasca or psilocin. He proposes that these states involve retuning the human brain to receive contact with other realities that exist in parallel with our more common world.
31) In summary, Hancock’s books represent a new and interesting way of conceiving of human history and development. Although some of his points, such as the scientist Crick using LSD to discover the double helix structure of DNA is very unlikely, he introduces many new and useful points that need to be considered and evaluated carefully against the established history. For that we are greatly indebted to him for his work. Readers are strongly recommended to read his work: https://grahamhancock.com.