Chapter 6: The Greek Expression of the Creative Irrational

The Ancient Greeks followed the Ancient Egyptians in the final centuries of the Egyptian culture. Between 728 and 525 BCE the glory of Ancient Egypt was fading with the waves of invasions by the Nubians, Assyrians and Persians. It was during this period that the Ancient Greeks were learning at the feet of the remaining Egyptian teachers. Both early Greek philosophers ,Thales of Miletus[1] (circa 624 – c. 546 BCE) and Solon[2] (circa 638 – c. 558 BCE), journeyed to Egypt and met with Pharaohs, and were trained by priests.  Thales was considered by Aristotle as the first philosopher and the later was noted by Plato as the source of the tales of the sinking of Atlantis. It should not then surprise us to find a comparable spectrum of spirituality in the Greek tradition. 

Comparable to the Egyptians, the approaches of Parmenides, Plato and Plotinus provide us with a means for exploring the underlying human expression of our creative irrational and its striving towards spirituality at the highest levels.

Parmenides – As far as longing can reach

We begin with the lessons of the ancient Greek teacher Parmenides (circa 550 BCE) as presented by Kingsley[3]. His presentation helps us trace the possibilities for a new path to higher development.  In particular we note that Kingsley’s insights into the writings of Parmenides show a link from the practices of the Ancient Egyptians into what the Greeks saw as the attraction to the higher. 

Parmenides[4] was an early philosopher teaching in the town of Velia in Southern Italy. He was apparently an early priest of the worship of Apollo. While only a small amount of his original works has survived, one of his major works, entitled “On Nature” has survived. In this writing he provides a metaphor for the journeys to the edge of existence, the edge of our creative irrational. The first of the three sections of “On Nature” describes the undertaking of an initially spiritual journey from Parmenides’ ordinary life to the edges of this world to learn the great mysteries of life. He issummoned by the “Daughters of the Sun”.  

We quote:

“In short, the Daughters of the Sun have come along to fetch him from the world of the living and take him right back to where they belong. This is no journey from confusion to clarity; from darkness into light. On the contrary, the journey Parmenides is describing is exactly the opposite. He is travelling straight into the ultimate night that no human being could possibly survive without divine protection. He is being taken to the heart of the underworld, the world of the dead.[5]”

So what does Parmenides, an early Ancient Greek with Phocaean heritage, have to contribute to our understanding of the purpose and drive behind the human creative irrational? What would make Parmenides succumb to this exceptional journey to the “edges of existence”? Kingsley portrays his motivation as originating from “longing”. To quote Kingsley again: 

“The mares that carry me as far as longing can reach.”[6]

Parmenides is being dragged along by the power of allegorical horses at breakneck speed. This longing is no ordinary longing.  It is not the rational individual ephemeral desires, appetites and wants of food, shelter and sex. His longing cannot be any stronger. It is almost as if this longing is insatiable; that it seems beyond reach. It is core to his Being. Although this longing is personal to Parmenides, it appears of exceptional and unusual scale to us all.

A little later Parmenides’ poem states: 

“For it is no hard fate that sent you travelling this road - so far away from the beaten track of humans - but Rightness, and Justice.” 

This introduces the necessary balance between the high-level internal longing on the part of Parmenides and the external influences of higher morals. Rightness and Justice have put him on this extraordinary journey. They are not personal. They are basic properties of the World that are beyond the ownership of any particular individual. So his journey is the result of both an exceptional personal longing and one that is combined with the more-than-merely personal higher forces at work in him.

            The creative irrational pull that draws him is a central theme of the poem. But there is another aspect of his journey that cannot be missed. After he arrives in the presence of the goddess she provides him with insights. But there is an additional requirement paced on him. He is directed to “carry it away”.  It is not sufficient that he receives the higher knowledge, but he is compelled to return to life with this knowledge.  It becomes evident that this journey of his is not a one-way street. It seems that the return is an integral part of the motivation for the journey. There is a need for this knowledge to be delivered by Parmenides back to those who have not, or cannot, make the journey. There is something beyond the individual that is being satisfied by the experience.

So in Kingsley’s treatment of Parmenides we see the key elements of our personal creative irrational that includes an extreme internal personal longing as well as an external, more-than-merely personal influence to continue our existence beyond the rational biological, physical requirements. 

The Classic Greek Metaphor of the Spirituality Spectrum: The Allegory of the Cave

The difficulties of simultaneously understanding different states within ourselves, ones that constitute our more usual situation, and others that are transformed states that we know only in special moments, comprise the main theme of “The Allegory of the Cave”, contained in Plato's writing called “The Republic[7]”. This classic allegory is an extended metaphor; a comparative image intended to convey a deeper level of understanding. 

The second line of Table 2 describes in our own wording the description of the various stages in development of a human being according to the famous portrayal by Plato of his concept of the development of an individual’s movement from darkness into the bright light of the sun, as it is described in his essay the “Allegory of the Cave”. Plato, the archetypal classical Greek philosopher, thinker and writer circa 400 BCE, continues to be highly revered in the modern Western World for his contribution to our present day worldview. One of Plato’s it greatest works deals with levels of human existence. This “Allegory of the Cave” makes no sense if thought of literally in a physical world. It points to the need to see the levels of Being that are required for living consciously. 

As we can see from the first two lines in Table 2 there are strong similarities between Plato’s description and that of the much earlier Ancient Egyptian. They both contain descriptions of both the rational biological and physical bodies and the more-than-merely personal levels of higher existence. In keeping with our definition of the creative irrational as being “beyond reason”, they are both dealing with the creative irrational using their preferred language and images.

Plato's mental construct in the Allegory begins with his presentation of the lowest level of human existence. He likens it to that of prisoners who from earliest childhood have been chained so that they can only look at the back of a long cave. They sit in a row and in only one position, unable to turn their heads; thus constrained to look only ahead of them at shadows cast on the back wall of the cave by the light of a fire burning behind them. They see only the shadow images, cast from what moves behind them, between them and the fire, images that appear to move along the wall. If someone carried implements behind them between them and the light, they would see only shadows of the carriers and the implements. And if sounds were heard, they would think that they came from the shadow images. These images would be the whole perceptual basis for their concept of what is real.

Plato then asks that we picture what would happen if one of the prisoners was freed and compelled to stand up and turn around to look at the light of the fire. He would suffer pain at gazing directly at it, and be so dazzled that he could scarcely discern the objects that had cast the shadows, and which made the sounds. 

The story continues:

"What do you suppose would be his answer if someone told him that what he had seen before was all a cheat and an illusion, but that now, being nearer to reality and turned toward more real things, he saw more truly? And if also one should point out to him each of the passing objects and constrain him by questions to say what it is, do you not think that he would be at a loss and that he would regard what he formerly saw as more real than the things now pointed out to him?...

"...and if someone should drag him by force up the ascent ... into the light of the sun, do you not think that he would find it painful,...and when he came out into the light that his eyes would be filled with its beams so that he would not be able to see even one of the things that we call real?...

"There would be need of habituation, ... to be able to see the things higher up. At first he would most easily discern the shadows, ... later the things themselves, and from that he would go on to contemplate the appearances in the heavens and heaven itself .... And so finally, he would be able to look upon the sun itself and see its true nature, not by reflections in water or phantasms of it in an alien setting, but in and by itself in its own place.[8]"

By using such relatable physical items such as “cave”, “shadows”, “fire” and “Sun”, the story presents the very abstract, intangible concepts in a spectrum of spirituality from the lower physical to the highest level of being. The Allegory captures not only the various levels of spirituality but also the key point that progress up the spectrum involves great effort and pain for the person striving for the higher levels. The allegory also points out that the climb from the back of the cave into full daylight might take a rather long time and a great deal of effort. The allegory refers specifically to the need for what it calls a period of habituation for acclimating ourselves to what is encountered on the climb. This is consistent with the many statements in the Pyramid Texts that urge the central figure to rise, to continue on, to do what is difficult for an ordinary person – such as fly. Both sets of text make no secret of the difficulty in reaching the higher levels of experience. The texts speaks of the fact that in one state it is very difficult to appreciate what might be encountered in the others; the very objects accessible to sight are seen entirely differently in the different situations, so differently that experience in one state is insufficient preparation for understanding what is seen in others. To reach a "higher" state from that which determines our present outlook clearly requires a considerable effort of understanding and tolerance, both towards ourselves and towards others with whom we may be related. 

The allegory states in several instances that movement from the dark to the light is both painful and dazzling, so much so that it is questionable if it could be undertaken voluntarily by ordinary man. Plato suggests that the act could be undertaken only under duress or being forced by some outside power, perhaps an event or condition that might lead us to recognize an inner sense of great need. 

It is even suggested that if the possibilities were introduced without this help from our circumstances, and if we were able to apprehend it under ordinary conditions we would rather kill the urge than obey it. This follows the situation of Parmenides being drawn by forces both internal and external. Such dramatic language is not easy to appreciate until one encounters the resistance in oneself, such as our resistance to a re-interpretation of symbols with which we have been raised or have lived with for a long time. 

But the allegory doesn’t stop with the scenario of the person appreciating the highest levels of existence as represented by the image of the Sun. Plato goes on to discuss what would happen to the same person brought down again into the cave among the former fellow prisoners. What had been experienced in the bright light of the full strength of the sun would now make it impossible for the person to see and identify the shadows as well those who remained in the cave. The person would be laughed at and counted as one who had lost their sight if the person tried to tell them about it, and they would all conclude that it was clearly not worth even to attempt such folly in an ascent. In fact, they would actively resist exposure to the new interpretations. As Plato puts it, "If it were possible to lay hands on and to kill the man who tried to release them and lead them up, would they not kill him?" What is more, the person’s situation, having returned to their former world of illusion would be worse, not better.

"Do you think it at all strange if a man returning from divine contemplations to the petty miseries of men cuts a sorry figure and appears most ridiculous, if, while still blinking through the gloom, and before he has become sufficiently accustomed to the environing darkness, he is compelled in courtrooms or elsewhere to contend about the shadows of justice or the images that cast the shadows and to wrangle in debate about the notions of these things in the minds of those who have never seen justice itself?

"A sensible man would remember that there are two distinct disturbances of the eyes arising from two causes, according as the shift is from light to darkness or from darkness to light, and, believing that the same thing happens to the soul too, whenever he saw a soul perturbed and unable to discern something, he would not laugh unthinkingly, but would observe whether coming from a brighter life its vision was obscured by the unfamiliar darkness, or whether the passage from the deeper dark of ignorance into the more luminous world and the greater brightness had dazzled his vision. And so he would deem the one happy in its experience and way of life and pity the other, and if it pleased him to laugh at it, his laughter would be less laughable than that at the expense of the soul that had come down from the light above....[9]"

One of the principal attractions of Plato’s work in the current context is that it uses images from an everyday level of experience to cast additional light on states that are removed but that can be recognized in our ordinary life. It thus provides important further perspective on what is needed to bridge the gap that separates our ordinary life from other levels of understanding. Plato states in the very beginning of this dialogue that in developing his ideas he is not intending to describe man's situation in the exterior world, so much as using the imagery of social and political situations to enlighten our understanding of what takes place within us (emphasis added), when we are able to pay attention. The imagery captures much of what we can discern about our confused, lack of understanding between the vastly different states within ourselves - see Row 2 in Table 2.

In keeping with the theme of the creative irrational being “beyond reason”, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave presents us with a description of human life that is far beyond food, shelter and procreation. He presents a model of human existence that includes higher levels, each requiring effort and habituation to appreciate as well as a necessary return from full experience to assist our fellow “prisoners”.  Perhaps because of the great difficulty of seeing how these infrequent, hence unfamiliar insights depend on us, many religions have implied that they arise outside of us, in a consciousness that exists independently of us. In such a case insights might only be activated in special conditions of need, such as we presented in Chapter 1 regarding the car accident or the encounter with the aged “Mi’kmaw” woman.  Perhaps it is possible from comparable states of prayer. We do not wish here to enter into a debate on the impartiality or reality of religious beliefs. However, if we treat all such statements as symbolic in the same sense that the allegory of the cave is told, we might be able to agree that images of external influences are speaking of externality in the sense that they are external to our exoteric sense of reality. For instance who or what would force the prisoner to break their shackles and turn to the burning bright light of the fire at the back of the cave?

But is the same true for our esoteric parts? Such interpretation is consistent with the theory that they arise through an innate commonality of our individual unconscious. We can at least conclude that we seem to harbour within us a knowledge of influences and functions that are properly the characteristics of another level of being. For our level, however, they are the "secrets" told to initiates.

What matters most at the moment is to recognize that because of the way new understanding arises and works in us, certain ancient, traditional stories can be seen to have been deliberately intended to use metaphor and allegory to appeal to personal experience as the primary means of conveying the meanings of questions of quality and value. In this way, our new understandings may often seem to be a rediscovery of what has long been known. The insights provided by the ancient stories can nevertheless be seen as in some way essential to the continued development of the sense of coherence and unity that we individually seek. They contain influences that do not appear under the ordinary processes of learning in a context of an orderly elaboration of knowledge of external things. The sense that there is a direction towards a higher level of values in civilization, a change in level that might also be likened to our wish for objectivity, seems to depend on the existence within us of this common capacity to use characteristics to discriminate between levels of comprehension. It appears as a mode of knowing that we learn about in special circumstances and that may be evoked in metaphor.

Whether we accept the later views of Philo who thought that only a select few humans can attain the higher levels of connection with the divine[10] or the view of Saint Paul that all may reach the kingdom of Heaven, there is certainly agreement of the existence of higher spiritual levels in the spirituality spectrum. 

So we are dealing with a sphere of human interest that is not well communicated by common language. Throughout the history of human activities we have had to resort to metaphor and allegory to try and address our higher interest. Of course the greatest difficulty is that the lesson may be taken literally – missing the whole point of the artistic creation. As might be expected from the Egyptian lineage of Plato’s ideas, it is relatively easy for us to draw equivalence between the various levels found in each of the two traditions (Table 2). Each culture presents their understanding in different ways. It may also be expected that the representation of levels found in the Classic Greek version seems more approachable. The symbolism of fire, shadow and the sun connects more easily with our modern sensitivities than human-headed birds, disembodied hearts on scales and crocodile-headed gods. Yet the insights are the same: there is more to us than we normally attend to. 

Intellectual Principle – Plotinus

Plotinus, circa 200 CE, was a Neo-Platonic philosopher writing about 800 years after Parmenides[11]. His major works entitled the “Enneads”[12] developed ideas of levels of existence that included the soul (Psuchē), the Intellectual Principle (Nous) and the highest level of the One (Monad).  The third line of Table 2 names the levels according to the Plotinus. While his philosophy is linked to Plato, he is likely to have been influenced by Philo and the early Christian authors[13].

Plotinus believed that, “Everything leads to the One”. The One is the indivisible “All” containing the foundation of everything.  Below the One he identified a number of levels of existence showing increasing differentiation as they occur lower in the scale. The key challenge of life according to Plotinus is to find within the highest existence, the Nous, that has been variously translated from Greek as the Intellectual Principle, Divine Mind, Logos or Order. Although Plotinus’ writings are not as widely recognized today as Plato’s, they have greatly influenced many of the Western World’s religions and Christianity in particular[14].

In light of our discussions regarding the different levels of phenomena in our daily existence, and the creative irrationality in seeing beyond our common experiences in our inner world, we can with effort still approach the terminology of Plato or of Plotinus. Thus, for example, perhaps without directly experiencing what the ancients called a Soul, or being able to identify exactly what was meant by Spirit, we are still in a position to recognize in these expressions hierarchies of phenomena in the inner world that do not differ in principle from levels in the hierarchy of phenomena described in exoteric models. In this way we can, for example, be prepared to appreciate the intent of Plotinus’ terminology. We can understand such terms to describe what he has detected as the levels or stages of ascent in inner spiritual transformation, rather than immediately dismissing them as either personal or “merely” metaphysical abstractions. By realizing the analogy with our own models of exoteric hierarchical structures, we can begin to contemplate the possibility of structures in the inner world that, while inaccessible to us in our ordinary conditions, are nevertheless phenomena that can be appreciated by us from their description by Plotinus.

In his presentation the Nous is the God within us that is simply a part of the indivisible, ever-present Monad. Plotinus speaks of the essential attraction of that part of us, the Nous, towards the all-present Monad.  In his words:

“Any that have seen know what I have in mind: the soul takes another life as it draws nearer and nearer to God and gains participation in Him; thus restored it feels that the dispenser of true life is There to see, that now we have nothing to look for but, far otherwise, that we must put aside all else and rest in This alone, This becomes, This alone, all the earthly environment done away, in haste to be free, impatient of any bond holding us to the baser, so that with our being entire we may cling about This, no part in us remaining but through it we have touch with God. Thus we have all the vision that may be of Him and of ourselves; but it is of a self-wrought to splendour, brimmed with the Intellectual light, become that very light, pure, buoyant, unburdened, raised to Godhood, better, knowing its Godhood, all aflame then – but crushed out once more if it should take up the discarded burden.

“But how comes the soul not to keep that ground:

“Because it has not yet escaped wholly: but there will be the time of scission unbroken, the self hindered no longer by any hindrance of body.”[15]

This sounds very similar to the experience that Philo witnessed and reported.

Plotinus describes the Monad as a non-duality state that permeates everything. Its emanations establish all lower levels of existence. These ideas were developed a hundred years before Constantine formulated Christian beliefs of an omnipresent God[16]. Christianity later corrupted the concept of an all-present God into a concept of a separate, identifiable father figure that oversees everthing. In the Renaissance, 14th to 17th century CE, this “ever-present” God even became represented as an external old man sitting on a cloud surveying a physical world (Figure 28).

Figure 28. An image of the “Creation of Adam” painting by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City[17].

            While recognizing that the pictorial representation in Figure 28 is a piece of art created to convey complex higher level metaphysical thoughts to a general audience, we must also see that it unintentionally actually presents a vision of a separation into many parts – human from God, sky from earth, higher from lower. Quite a distraction from Plotinus’ urge to find the unity in our being that represents the Monad.

            So what does Plotinus have to offer our search for the creative irrational in Greek philosopy? He specifically refers to our true nature as the soul or Intellectual-Principle that is a shared aspect of God. He makes an awkward analogy with the “love of a daughter for a noble father” who falls as a result of being lured by a mortal love. He says, “But one day coming to hate her shame, she puts away the evil of earth, once more seeks the father, and finds her peace.”[18] We call this awkward because it still falls into depending on the duality of two separate and independent beings, father and daughter. Duality is a philosophical position that it is not easy for us to avoid. In the Western world we seem consumed by thoughts of good versus bad, you versus me, etc.

            Indeed Plotinus frequently espouses “love” as the driving force that underlies our desire for levels above the physical ordinary life. Elsewhere he expresses the shared components among God and ourselves as individuals.  He states:

“So it is with the individual souls; the appetite for the divine Intellect urges them to return to their source.”[19]

And

“It looks towards its higher and has intellection; towards itself and orders, administers, governs its lower.”[20]

The sharing of the aspects of God in ourselves leads us to a sense of loss in our ordinary lives and a desire to get back into contact with the higher. According to Plotinus, it is a shared love of a singularity that motivates us. Our preparation for this reconnection requires us to become disassociated from the distractions of our ordinary lives. The reconnection requires quiet preparation and waiting as well as the occurrence of God showing himself like an “eye waits on the rising of the sun”[21].

            It is important to point out that Plotinus also recognizes our inability to stay connected with the higher.   He says:

   “Many times it has happened: lifted out of the body into myself; becoming external to all other things and self-encentred; beholding a marvelous beauty; then, more than ever, assured of community with the loftiest order; enacting the noblest life, acquiring identity with the divine; stationing within It by having attained that activity; poised above whatsoever within the Intellectual is less than the Supreme: yet, there comes the moment of descent from intellection to reasoning, and after that sojourn in the divine, I ask myself how it happens that I can now be descending, and how did the Soul ever enter into my body, the Soul which, even within the body, is the high thing it has shown itself to be.”[22]

And from a translation by Hadot, Plotinus states:

“Often I reawaken from my body to myself: I come to be outside other things, and inside myself. What an extraordinarily wonderful beauty I then see! It is then, above all, that I believe I belong to the greater portion. I then realize the best form of life; I become at one with the Divine, and I establish myself in it. Once I reach this supreme activity, I establish myself above every other spiritual entity. After this repose in the Divine, however, when I come back down from intuition into rational thought, then I wonder: How is it ever possible that I should come down now, and how was it ever possible that my soul has come to be within my body, even though she is the kind of being that she has just revealed herself to be, when she appeared as she is in herself, although she is still within my body?[23]”

The attitudes developed in contemplating such testimonials can help us understand the intent of searches into the phenomena of the inner world by allowing the creation within us of a sympathetic impulse towards the sincerity of the messages they have undertaken to convey to our generations. Plotinus recognizes the need to connect with the higher as well as the inevitable return to the ordinary.

            He makes the point that the two states, the higher and lower, are naturally occurring and can be realized according to their circumstances:

“Souls that take this way have place in both spheres, living of necessity the life there and the life here by turns, the upper life reigning in those able to consort more continuously with the divine Intellect, the lower dominant where character or circumstances are less favourable.”

Critical to the distinction between Plotinian thought and the later Christian thought is the sense of who has access to the higher. In this quote the phrase “able to consort” strongly suggests that Plotinus saw a distinction between individuals who were prepared and able to access the higher and those who did not or could not access the higher. This is quite different from the modern Christian view espoused by Saint Paul that everyone who undergoes the process of baptism can expect access to the Kingdom of Heaven[24]. This distinction between those who expended significant effort and work and those who gain “entry” into heaven through a short, once in a lifetime ceremony certainly would have been seen and appreciated by Nietzsche.  

So to summarize, Plotinus saw in us a portion of the unified God that longed to extend beyond our physical body and return to a communion with the Higher. Individuals are required to see themselves, develop a calm, quiet waiting posture and be prepared for when the unity of God presents itself. The answer to the question of “why awaken?” found in Plotinus’ teaching is that we inevitably hold a share of the indivisible, ever-present Monad within us. With time, effort and patience, our work in our ordinary life opens up the possibility of seeing this part of the Monad in ourselves and calls us out of our limited, unsatisfactory lives to the higher. Returning to the quote that we have presented in the “Introduction” of this book, he spoke of the attraction of ourselves to the higher with these words: 

“I am striving to give back the Divine in myself to the Divine in the All”[25].

Consistency in the Creative Irrational of Greek Philosophy

The shared themes of Parmenides, Plato and Plotinus for a necessary departure and return to normal life are key. Parmenides was dragged away by “mares”, instructed by external powers and ordered to “carry it away”. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave what constitutes our awakening involves moving from the dark to stare into the sun before returning into the cave. He explicitly addresses the need and the challenges that a returnee faces upon descending back into the cave after acclimating to the bright light of the sun. The “Allegory of the Cave” doesn’t deal much with the reasons why a person would go through the pain and suffering of moving up and out of the cave to look directly at the bright sun. Following that difficult challenge, he doesn’t suggest a reason for a person’s actions in leaving the sun behind and returning into the depths of the cave in an attempt to unshackle those remaining in the shadows. But both the exit and the return seem essential parts of the process. Finally in our presentation Plotinus, in this same lineage of thought, refers to awe of experiencing Monad and the inability of the individual to maintain such a connection. One must inevitably return to “real” life. The distancing and return to normal life seems to be a part of a completing process in a full cycle of reaching for Being and then returning again to one’s usual existence.  Whereas there appears to be a deep-seated longing required for an individual to strive for higher consciousness, the return in our long-term personal development is also required by these philosophers as being obligatory.  The whole concept of such movements highlights the creative irrational of such great and influential thoughts in the development of Western culture.

Although we present this creative irrational as something intrinsically human, it is obvious that its strength varies greatly and its full potential is only ever realized in a very limited number of individuals. It is not clear from the Greek writings whether they were addressing something realized by a few select dedicated individuals or all humans. As reported by Plotinus, the difficult and fleeting ultimate goal of the creative irrational in connecting with the “ever present” occurs rarely and requires individual preparation and work to become open to the opportunities when they present themselves. Using a Christian phrase it is said that, “many are called but few are chosen.” Thus we do not present the creative irrational as a recipe for the attainment of higher consciousness, but as a potential work aid to help focus our attention on the internal more-than-personal movements within us.

            In summary, we appreciate from the points of view presented by Parmenides, Plato and Plotinus that they were struggling to provide insights into a process of individual development that while clearly irrational, is incredibly powerful in forming a human connection with the more-than-merely personal. All are obviously dealing with life beyond rational normal day-to-day existence towards the higher levels of existence and Being. All of them allude to a natural process of longing to be reunited with something that is more-than-merely-personal, something that is more than ordinary for most of us as individuals. Plotinus specifically points out that we are a part of something that is all encompassing in our world. The higher levels draw our interest in rejoining the higher. Parmenides made the point that there is great reward in experiencing the life at the edge of existence. But his view is that our initial encounters with the higher are unsustainable in our regular being. The creative irrational is a part of our existence; a longing for something that is beyond our ordinary lives, something more-than-merely personal in our consciousness.

———————— Chapter 7: A Modern Allegory of the Spirituality Spectrum: The Gurdjieff Work ————

————————- Table of Contents ——————————— 

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thales_of_Miletus

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon

[3] Kingsley, P. 2003. Reality. The Golden Sufi Centre Publishing. Inverness, California.

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmenides

[5] Kingsley, P. 2003. Reality. The Golden Sufi Centre Publishing. Inverness California.

[6] Kingsley, P. 2003. Reality. The Golden Sufi Centre Publishing. Inverness California.

[7] Hamilton E. and H. Cairns. 1980. Plato, The Collected Dialogues, including the letters. Bollingen Series LXXI. Princeton University Press. Princeton. 1743 pp.

[8] Hamilton E. and H. Cairns. 1980. Plato, The Collected Dialogues, including the letters. Bollingen Series LXXI. Princeton University Press. Princeton. 1743 pp.

[9] Hamilton E. and H. Cairns. 1980. Plato, The Collected Dialogues, including the letters. Bollingen Series LXXI. Princeton University Press. Princeton. 1743 pp.

[10] Sandmel, S. 1979. Philo of Alexandra: An Introduction. Oxford University Press. New York.

[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plotinus

[12] MacKenna, S. 1992. Plotinus The Enneads. Larson Publications.

[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo

[14] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plotinus

[15] MacKenna, S. 1992. Plotinus The Enneads. Larson Publications. IV.9 (9-10)

[16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_the_Great_and_Christianity

[17] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Creation_of_Adam

[18] MacKenna, S. 1992. Plotinus The Enneads. Larson Publications. VI.9.

[19] MacKenna, S. 1992. Plotinus The Enneads. Larson Publications. IV.8.4.

[20] MacKenna, S. 1992. Plotinus The Enneads. Larson Publications. IV.8.3.

[21] MacKenna, S. 1992. Plotinus The Enneads. Larson Publications. V.5.5.

[22] MacKenna, S. 1992. Plotinus The Enneads. Larson Publications. IV.8.1.

[23] Hadot, P. 1993. Plotinus or The Simplicity of Vision. M. Chase (trans.). Chicago. University of Chicago Press.

[24] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_the_Apostle - Basic_message

[25] MacKenna, S. 1992. Plotinus The Enneads. Larson Publications. Page 2.

Chapter 5: The Egyptian Bodies of a Human

            For more specific information about our concepts of the creative irrational and spiritual we begin with Ancient Egypt. Its literature was created about 5,000 years before the present but must have been well developed previously to have been so completely and eloquently captured in the writings. What did these cultures attempt to capture in their early writings? What were they trying to represent? What could Egyptian higher knowledge be dealing with? What would be of most importance for them to capture in this newly established form of communication: writing? In their literature they wrote explicitly about the creative irrational experience of the different levels of human existence[1].  Amazingly we see them dealing with distinctions between our different bodies, a fact that is clearly represented in the earliest of human written literature in the Pyramid Texts!

            Before we get into the specifics of the Ancient Egyptian view of the bodies of a human, there are a number of continuing modern day misunderstandings about Ancient Egypt that need to be addressed to allow an appropriate appreciation of their writing. It is first of all to point out that there is a false perception that the culture was solely concerned with death and the dead. As in the modern Christian world with its tombs, graveyards and cemeteries, they definitely created structures associated with their treatment of the dead. But it is critical to recognize that the pyramids are not tombs. While a number of Egyptian pyramids contain sarcophagi, it is questionable whether these ever held the mummified bodies of humans, as all of the tombs did. Like Christian cathedrals, which may contain the tombs of saints and other significant individuals, we need to consider that pyramids likely had purposes other than simply to house a few dead bodies. 

            To this end it is important to recognize that of the 100s of pyramids build in Ancient Egypt only eleven contain the collection of verses known as the Pyramid Texts. These texts are an extensive collection of verses or recitations carved onto the stone walls, gables and ceilings of eleven of the some of these oldest great pyramids. They were built earlier than the well-known Giza Pyramids that start around 2,500 BCE[2] and were located further south in Saqqara, Egypt[3]. The texts that they contain form the first complete recorded literature in human history. But the fact that they are presented as a complete, single extensive theme indicates that the thoughts and concepts that they represent had long been in development  - over centuries -preceding the construction of the pyramids themselves. The hieroglyphics are beautifully carved and provide an extensive and detailed text. There is no question that they represent the result of an incredible effort of development and execution by the culture.

            There is a second misconception of the Pyramid Texts that stands in the way of fully appreciating the knowledge that they contain; it is represented in the impression left by some early would-be students that they are only a collection ofsuperstitious “spells” intended to help the “deceased” develop in the “afterlife”. This problem arose at the very beginning of their discovery. The early investigators of the culture began their studies under the impression that Ancient Egyptians were a “primitive” people. About the time of publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species concepts of social evolution and a belief in the continual improvement of human cultures was developing. Thus a 5,000 year-old culture would be considered as necessarily primitive compared to the “new” thinking of the 19th century. Moreover, these early explorers would have been Christian with all of the preconceptions of the sole authority of Christianity. Declaring the texts as magic was consistent with the approach of Christianity towards foreign cultures and allowed these “new” explorers to maintain their superior attitude[4]. While they actually did great things in exposing this new world of the lost Ancient Egyptian culture, they also did a great disservice to the subtle and complex higher understanding and impeded acceptance of what this incredible culture would be able to teach them. 

            One final challenge to appreciating the Pyramid Text lies in the actual translating and presenting of their messages to our modern day understanding. Without a doubt what is written is in a highly abbreviated and stylized form by a people with a potentially much different mind-set from our own.  To get an insight into such challenges, we present here an example of a recitation carved onto the inner surface of the Pyramid of Pharaoh Pepi I, 2332 – 2287 BCE:

“Someone has gone to be with his Ka;

Osiris has gone to be with his Ka;

Seth has gone to be with his Ka, 

Eyes-Forward has gone to be with his Ka;

Pepi has gone to be with his Ka.

Ho Pepi! You have gone away that you might live; you have not gone away that you might die.

You have gone away that you might become Akh at the fore of the Akhs, take control at the fore of the living, become Ba and be Ba, become esteemed and be esteemed.[5]

            In this one single recitation we encounter references to what are three incredibly important concepts related to the bodies of a human:  the Ka, the Ba and the Akh.   While many of our readers may have encountered these words we ask their patience in readdressing what may seem familiar. Like translations from any language, we find it takes some effort to fully understand them.  Can we discern what they might mean to a modern reader?

            But in spite of all of these challenges, there an undeniable advantage in exploring the concepts and knowledge of the Ancient Egyptians over the constructions of the hunter gatherers of Göbekli Tepe. We can actually see and read their written words. We present here in Figure 21 a photograph of an alternative, shortened version of this same recitation from another pyramid, the Pyramid of Pharaoh Unas, built circa 2,500 years BCE. In this instance the recitation is translated by Allen as:

“Someone has gone to his Ka;

Horus has gone with his Ka; Seth has gone with his Ka;

Thoth has gone with his Ka; the god has gone with his Ka;

Osiris has gone with his Ka; Eyes-Forward has gone with his Ka

You too have gone with your Ka.[6]”

Or as translated by Brind Morrow:

“Go go with his spirit (Ka)

Go wild dog with his spirit (Ka). Go Thoth.

Say this four times:

Consecrate the fire with his spirit (Ka)

Go holy falcon with his spirit (Ka)

Go Osiris with his spirit (Ka)

Before the eyes of the holy falcon of old

With his spirit[7].”                                        

Figure 21. Screen shot of Recitation 20 from the Pyramid of Unas dealing with his Ka[8].

            The purpose of showing the image of the text is in no way intended to expect the reader to translate the text for himself or herself.  Rather our intent is to show how different the Ancient Egyptian text is from modern day English, and thus to highlight both the challenges and advantages of working with such material. For present purposes, we only invite the reader to note in scanning the photo that it is possible to easily recognize a number of key hieroglyphs, such as the two upraised arms that represent the Egyptian concept for the Ka, that occurs repeatedly in this translated text.  The Pharaoh’s signature cartouche is also found a number of times in the encircled oval in the image. The hieroglyph for Seth with his squared-ears and upraised tail is also evident. But the question is how do these simple images get turned into the translations that we are presented with in English?

            While there have been many translations of the Pyramid Texts by various authors over the years[9], a recent publication by Brind Morrow[10] does a marvelous job at presenting and addressing a direct approach to the Pyramid Texts. She provides what she calls “a new poetic translation and interpretation” of the Pyramid Texts from the pyramid of the Pharaoh Unas[11]. Her work helps us to better understand and appreciate the impulses and broader values held and developed by our predecessors. Her careful poetic and mystic approach to the material exposes us to an incredible level of sophistication and clarity that requires patience and work from us before we are able to give them appropriate meaning in our language.

            In her book, “The Dawning World of the Mind”, Morrow presents us with what she calls the “poetic rediscovery’ of the impulses and influences that led to the writing of these ancient and well-known but not fully appreciated texts[12]. Her enquiry is usefully supported by many photographic reproductions of extracts of the hieroglyphs from the texts. Her publication shows remarkably clear, detailed pictures of the inscriptions from throughout the passageways, ceilings and sarcophagus chamber, which is itself a treasure for study.  Her approach to the texts, both in their layout, depending on their location in the pyramid, and in their shamanic tone is consistent with the interpretations provided previously by Naydler[13]. In Brind Morrow’s book we are presented with remarkable efforts of transcription and translation that strengthen our appreciation of the spirituality theme as opposed to the false funerary “spell” interpretations.  The clarity and complexity of her results guides us to a more genuine entrance into a multi-level of sophistication in interpretation.  It also reassures us that we are being guided to taste, even savour, a level of understanding that for the first time is being made available to us from these ancient texts. They are presented to us with a direct insight into how these “ancients” perceived our world. They present us with an exposure that can only excite our own, relatively feeble understanding of the potential for transcendence beyond any ordinary level of understanding.  Here is a direct demonstration of the many dimensions that have been re-found and made available to us through her seemingly newly discovered appreciation of what is often called the “beyond”. 

            Brind Morrow interprets the hieroglyphs from many different points of view. She explores various literary tools such as the alliteration, use of puns and onomatopoeia.  She gives us images with repeated interpretation and comparison of the results with those at various other locations in the pyramid. It all gradually builds for us an image of their hidden meanings. Comparisons and interpretations that were made necessary as she observed them in relation to what is observed in the sky, add a dimension to our understanding of the night sky that has shined above human heads since the beginning of time.  We are led initially to observe easily recognizable stars such as the important Sirius and the North Star as well as groups of stars Orion, Taurus. The scene includes the large “Milky Way” that glows in its broad band of bright and dimstars that stream across our nighttime view.  From that point of beginning it becomes possible to assemble a concept of how this “on earth” scene appears to viewers who can picture themselves at higher levels of existence in the night sky.  Only gradually are we led to understand something that while it appears to have been well-known, may actually be new to us - because of our failures to be able to see it in its wholeness - in such a full complexity. We can begin to be able to see it on the broader scale on which this whole back-drop must be understood; but it requires patience and study from us.  

            We come to appreciate these concepts only if we patiently watch and remember the sequences of the rising and setting of the complex constellations and the immense scales on which this apparently intimate scene can really be understood.  We may even come to appreciate how the early observers began to place their perceptions and ours in the context of how our own true natures can appear as the base from which the really vast scales of interpretation that are being identified and shown to us are revealing this whole set of virtually multi-dimensions of existence at one instant.  All this, that we only gradually become able to see, comes to us so unexpectedly from this marvelous Ancient Egyptian text from the beginning of the written word. It is as a virtual testimonial of our own present ignorance or at least unknowingness.  Here, in this most ancient of the texts presented within the depths of pyramids of a period as old as 2,500 BCE, more than four and a half thousand years before we are here to try to understand it. It is, to us, a highly original inscription of texts that appear almost miraculous in their meaning and their tone.  Only now are we coming to fully appreciate the vast time and space scales of the phenomena that the ancients had understood and apparently wrote about or illustrated in a fashion that allows our modern scholarship to open for our contemplation.  There can be no misunderstanding of the vastness of the scope on which this ancient writing is now made known to us and has become available to be understood by us through these discoveries. 

            As Brind Morrow found, these writings from Ancient Egypt, show us how lacking in imagination and vision other translators  have been, and how long it seems to have taken our society to learn of the need for the long time required to prepare ourselves before we can overcome the false superiority we have felt as we gradually come to understand how primitive were our own beginnings.  It gradually becomes possible for us to appreciate the near transformation of our own level of knowledge and understanding that is required to allow us to catch up to what we thought was known many years ago. 

            The sheer immensity of this task makes us begin to appreciate the role that poetry and vision can yet play as one begins to understand the importance of the title of her work “The Dawning Moon of the Mind”. Such a “dawning” alone permits us to come to a true unlocking of the Pyramid Texts, as true as we are likely to be able to appreciate, unless through her insight. We must find the unlocking of our own minds that has been necessary in order to allow us to enter the mind that in theory has been available for nearly 5,000 years but in fact has only now been opened to us on scales of perception that we rarely have been given the grace to comprehend.

            Let us look at one example of her insights. We believe that it highlights how her work can provide a fuller detailed description of the state of the Universe, and ourselves, from which this poetic, metaphoric, mystic perspective arises. In this process we turn to a word that Brind Morrow uses often in her treatment. We wish here to attend to the meaning of the word “tantric” that been generally misunderstood as originating in India, but is found in the worldview of the Ancient Egyptians. It is derived from two words of the Egyptian: “ta ntr, which has the meaning of “your land” or “sacred ground”[14]. This “land” is in fact the whole of the Nile delta from its source in the hills of the southern highlands of the Nubian region where we find the source of water and nourishment on which the whole of the Nile River and its Ancient Egyptian civilization depended. 

            The whole mystical story begins to unfold on the West Wall of the Entranceway into the Pyramid of Unas. It contains vivid descriptions of the physical world that are introduced as “primary forces in the night sky” in motion[15]. The rotation of the skies around the axis mundi terminating at the North Star marks time for humans. This turning of the sky is what Brind Morrow describes as “the unstoppable rising of the water” to the greening force of life rising on earth. The force of this water-flow is then conflated with the generative seed or semen, “the rising force that brings life”.  This sets the context for human existence in the stars and universe. There are many images of nature presented in the recitations. There are snakes, crocodiles, falcons, etc., etc..  Check Figure 21 above to see numerous birds represented in that recitation. But this is not a documentation of the nature and ecology of the Nile valley. It is not superstitious babble of ignorant people. After all they are contained within some of the grandest constructions ever made by humans. These selected images of nature require reflection and appreciation. As one example we may take the “crocodile”.  Definitely this species was well known to the Ancient Egyptians living in the environs of the Nile. But in the Texts it means much more than the animal species. It is representative of something more: something that is much more key to the full expression of life and human existence. Here the word for “crocodile” is introduced as the serpentine life force:  pure brilliant light, iabu in Ancient Egyptian, burning, shining light, the animating force of the energy of life. As Brind Morrow puts it, “this energy as it exists in the body is not only conjured but mapped.”  The crocodile shares visual traits of the curving snake. It shares the metaphysical traits of curled potential for quick striking energy. This is a masterful interpretation of the use of items in the natural world, the crocodile and serpents, to capture and express layers of understanding and experience that are available to humans. Such a methodology is key to appreciating the form and structure of the Texts.

            The text continues on the East Wall of the Entranceway. As it continues, the theme now turns the attention away from the outer body to the inner body.  The life force that can be seen in the sky above and in the water below is now to be found “within”. As Brind Morrow points out the language of this initial idea is clear and precise. Then it begins with a recitation dealing with the Generation of the Light Body:

                        Unas becomes the primary serpentine life force

                        That absorbs his seven serpents

                        That manifest as the seven yoked attributes of his seven vertebrae

                        Nine times three sanctified attributes obey these words

                        Unas comes back as he absorbs myrrh, he receives myrrh

                        He is blessed with myrrh, he is brought back with myrrh

                        Unas takes on your power sanctified attributes

                        As he turns he yokes your spiritual faculties.[16]

            She finds in the text recognizable instructions. They support our contention that this is ritual text. It performs a ritual purpose the mapping of energy of internal serpents, a mapping that recognizes the esoteric physics of tantra.  It employs the serpent metaphor an “esoteric” schemata of energy in the body arranged in seven primary chakra nerve centres. 

            This is, of course, a bare but striking example of the purposes of the Pyramid Texts that we are trying to understand as evidence for the creative irrational. It takes us into the realm of ritual prayers and spirituality that can lead us towards our aim of understanding the way towards our own purpose, better serving our own present aims of self-knowledge and self-understanding.  It leads us toward a new understanding that can hardly come to us without the intermediary of the talents of a modern poet linked so realistically yet imaginatively to the truly almost overwhelming visions recorded by the very first writers of literature.

            Brind Morrow’s transcriptions and translations present aspects of the Ancient Egyptian culture that broadens our understanding of their creative urges that includes that remarkable human phenomenon that we call a “sense of humor”.  Much needs to be appreciated about this early and ancient civilization before we can aspire to fully understand its level of sophistication. What do we understand as the elements that have led us beyond the level of necessity for food, shelter, procreation and immediate pleasures towards what we find expressed in various activities that we group under the general terms “art and architecture”?  A study of these activities can lead us to appreciate the importance of the new directions that were experienced and are displayed by what we believe to be the creative need for a broader and new perception of this world that they help us articulate.

            These primary themes of the Pyramid Texts concern the various states of human existence. Texts a thousand years later, circa 1550 BCE, written on papyrus entitled “Book of Coming Forth by Day” or “Among the Stars at Dawn”[17], more often incorrectly referred to as “The Book of the Dead”, are quite derivative of the themes found in the much earlier Pyramids Texts. Together the Pyramid Texts and later texts present supporting concepts concerning the different states of human existence. As we have presented in the quote above, throughout the Pyramid Texts the person is often advised:

 “You have not gone away dead; you have gone away alive.[18]”

or as translated by Brind Morrow:

“O Unis you will not go on to die, You will go on to live.[19]”

            The outstanding feature that attracts our attention in Morrow’s book is what we term its capturing of the creative irrational. It is striking that the incredible building accomplishments of the Ancient Egyptians realized in their pyramids are tied to an esoteric text that deals with much more than the day-to-day concerns of the society.  Yes, they built storehouses for grain. Yes, they built palaces for living in. They even built temples and tombs, but without a doubt they saved their most impressive structures for their pyramids.  We need to recognize that they are, as are we, dependent on the higher beliefs that we must come toward if we are to appreciate the full breadth and depth of life to encompass beliefs beyond the necessities of biological existence that have directed us to this point. 

            We see this Pyramid Text as the first written expression of the creative irrational leading to the spiritual. We, and others, see the Pyramid Texts as recitations, closer in nature to the purpose of Christian prayer, to be used by an initiate or aspirant to assist in their own internal development of Being. We see them as dealing metaphorically with the Ancient Egyptian understanding of our personal development and striving during life. The Pyramid Texts present one of the clearest and most explicit representations of the different levels of being within ourselves. Without a doubt we are dealing with what Brind Morrow says is the “earliest historical religious system”. It is now time to see what this system says about the bodies of a human.

The Bodies of a Human

            Throughout their writings over the thousands of years of Ancient Egyptian culture, there are many references to the different facets of human existence. The texts identify these facets with specific forms or “bodies” of humans. The characteristics of these bodies are most often presented by way of descriptions of the events in which they are involved. That is, they are not so much presented as a succession of bodies that can be entered one after another by an aspirant, as they are internal perceptions of a set of qualities of feeling and sensations that need to be found and allowed to develop by the “being” and can only be passed through by the expenditure of appropriate effort. As one important example, in an often-used theme where the initiate or central figure addressed in the recitation takes on the form of the resurrected god Osiris, the aspirant undergoes extreme changes in state before approaching Osiris in the Duat[20]. This person then takes on a new name, “Osiris”. This is indicative of a new state of being "re-membered,” as was Osiris by Isis as she found and reassembled his scattered parts[21]. In our reading of the literature it is difficult to distinguish the aspirant from the god named Osiris. This may be a result of the translation challenges from a 5000-year-old language into modern day English or it may be a deliberate technique used in the original to assist the reader not to become overly concrete in their understanding of these complex and ephemeral concepts. Nevertheless the further transformations of this body constitutes a progressive realization of the nature of the various bodies through which the literature implies that the arising of eternal life is to be comprehended. This is one of the most remarkable examples of the creative irrational in the history of human worldview. 

            The studies of levels of existence began in what the Egyptians called “the Al Khemi”[22] or alchemy. In fact the word alchemy itself derives from the Egyptian word Kemit, which refers to the Black Earth, the farmable soil of the Valley of the Nile. The study of alchemy was said to have been taught to humankind by the Ancient Egyptian neter of wisdom Djeuti, better known by the name Thoth as he was called by the later Greeks. In time this same neter, Djeuti, began to be known by the Greeks as Hermes Trismagistus.  The terms body, soul and spirit as levels of being were commonly used in philosophy and religious studies in the form of the alchemical teachings that were especially well-known during the Middle Ages of Europe. Here we are more concerned with their origins of writing in The Pyramid Texts. As can be seen in the example shown in Figure 21 and in Brind Morrow[23], the words body, soul and spirit are never explicitly used in the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic texts. We adopt them here as a structure on which to illustrate our understanding of the tradition that can be seen in what has survived from them through the millennia down to our present day. 

            In fact the Ancient Egyptians recognized a higher resolution of the different human bodies that one can experience within oneself. We present them here as:

The Physical Body – the Khat and the Sahu

The Soul – the Abu, the Sekhem and the Ka

The Spirit – the Ba, Khaibit and Akh

Fully Realised Human - Ra. 

            It may be difficult for us to differentiate between the psychological and spiritual contexts. We examined the attributes of the bodies as a means of using this scale to elicit a clearer recognition of the subtle observations of differentiation that need to be available in us for use to describe development in our own experience – distinctions and development that are not to be found in any other species - hominin or otherwise.

 

 

The Physical Body – The Khat and The Sahu

            The Egyptians distinguished two bodies at the level of what we call the physical body: the Khat and the Sahu. The first of these, the Khat, is perhaps best translated simply as the physical or sometimes carnal body. It is the material body that is destined to decay. Special chemical techniques of embalming were developed to preserve it. Chapter 17 of the Book of Coming Forth by Day refers to this as "the filth". Clearly, this is a body that is recognizable to us as that body that requires food, air, rest, etc. It is relatively easy to recognize in our ordinary states. It is of considerable symbolic significance to us, however, that in Egypt it was not represented simply as a body to be disposed of. They recognized in its materiality an essential base from which all else could flow. This point was especially emphasized in the ceremony called the "opening of the mouth", that took place at the time the preserved mummy was deposited in the burial chamber. The ceremony was regarded as necessary to allow the being that occupied it to have “communication” with other levels of being. We would perhaps not be amiss to interpret it as a symbolic recognition that finer functions of the body, particularly those associated with breathing and the formation of words, as well as the finer sensitivities lower in the solar plexus and abdomen, are always important in relation to the potentially higher levels of being found in it. It is likely that this physical body is that which can be found for any and all biological species in the world.

            The Sahu, or second body, while also an aspect of the physical body, identifies that particular part of it that gives it the power of sustaining life. It is thus called the "body that germinateth." It has been emphasized by Schwaller de Lubicz[24] that germination is not only a power that permeates a seed and begins the process of creating a living organic being, but it continue to operate as the seedling grows. The creative power represented by the Sahu can be metaphorically expressed by the mystical Golden Ratio and displayed as the Greek letter, phi, (φ)[25]. The Sahu gives to body the qualities that distinguish their expression as a whole body from the actions of the ordinary chemical compounds of which it is composed. The chemicals are reducible to earthly elements, but the body contains this remarkable property of self-promulgation and growth that is not simply liable to stagnation and decay. The science of biology offers a similar concept in its recognition of a part of the physical body called the "germ plasm". It consists of the cells that give rise to the sex cells, that are also seen to pass in a line of continuity from generation to generation, combining with similar elements from other bodies to convey both information and the "germ of life" to the progeny on which the continuity of generations depends. 

            In retrospect, it seems strange that science does not even suggest that there is any question about an additional indefinable quality of life associated with this special nature of the germ-plasm. This unique part of our body clearly represents the special qualities of the "everlasting". In the Book of Coming Forth by Day, the body that has the qualities of a Sahu is even able to associate with other souls, and to "have converse" with the Sahus of the gods. It therefore has qualities of the living physical body that are more available to those with a previously developed sense of our basically personal, hence unique, sense of being. A rough analogy might be the information on being that is passed on through the transmission of our DNA to our offspring that can persist in our lineage forever after the death of our physical body. It doesn’t take a genetic engineer to appreciate comments like “She looks just like her Grandmother!” or “Oh she has her Dad’s eyes!” An individual’s contribution of ½ of the DNA that passes to their children’s genetic makeup could potentially be seen as the Sahu’s ability to “communicate” with like stages or “levels” of being in others. Modern day genetics research has made us keenly aware of the Sahu body with our developing capacity for genetic engineering and manipulation of the DNA in living organisms.

            We see here an example of the advantages of conceptualization that are offered by the Egyptian texts. In our language we do not ordinarily distinguish this seemingly immortal germinating property of the Sahu as a separate property of "life", although it could legitimately be considered so, even in science. The limiting of our scientific concepts mainly to the material universe of "things," is thus made more evident through recognition of these fundamental and significant distinctions that our more usual habits of concept and language fail to make for us. The Egyptian view of levels of existence and Being begin to show something of the subtlety of attention that needs to be, and could be invoked, in relation to the real functions of our bodies that we so thoughtlessly take for granted.

The Soul – The Abu, the Sekhem and the Ka

            On the second level of existence that we shall call the soul, the Egyptians recognized three bodies: the Abu (the heart), the Sekhem (the image) and the Ka (often translated as the soul). They are perhaps to be thought of as psychical properties that relate to the physical properties of man. That is, they partake somewhat of the nature of the body while displaying additional special levels of sensitivity. They also have a certain independence from the physical body. What seems to us of particular value here is the further questions this raises about our usual assumption that what we perceive as properties of humankind are directly or entirely dependent solely on the material, physical body.

            The Abu in the ritual depictions of introduction to life in the “afterworld” is symbolized by the Egyptians as the physical heart of the body. It is treated by the texts as the seat of the power of life, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it is the seat of the attitude of our being to that power. For example, the Egyptians held it to be the seat of the arising of "good and bad thoughts" in living humans. We tend to associate heart with the origin of many of the finest sensations that arise in the course of our lives. What, for example, do we make of the feelings of transport that may be aroused by exquisite music? What is the source in us of the movement of appreciation of fine works of other art forms? In fact, the states in which we are cognizant of these factors may also be close to what we call "Love", that every school child learns to associate with the drawing of the heart. These well-known phenomena of our experience have a certain ethereal quality about them - feelings of lightness or transcendence. 

            The Egyptians had a strong recognition of the need for a balance in all factors of our being. Thus the heart is also seen as the seat of negative emotions or "bad thoughts". The enlivening feelings of love for another can easily become heartbreak and hate at the end of a relationship. On occasion we still speak of having a “heavy heart”.  The two aspects of the Abu, light and heavy, are qualities that we understand in common, even while we exist as seemingly separate individuals. They are functions that are tied to and dependent on the individual body. 

            If these contrary attributes, good and bad, are to be located in the heart, perhaps we too can understand why it is that the Abu is identified as the organ that is "weighed" in judgment. The Egyptians captured this concept in their representation of the “Weighing of the Heart” ceremony that is so dramatically illustrated on tomb walls and funerary papyri (Figure 22). The image shows a scale with the Abu on one side and the feather of neter Maat on the other side. According to the prayers repeated in the texts, the heart must be found to be lighter than Maat's feather if the "dead" person is to be acceptable in the "life" represented as the kingdom of Osiris in the Duat. Otherwise the heavy heart is fed to the crocodile-headed neter Ammit, the "devourer of the Dead". While the heart of the person might be heavy or light depending on their existence, the lightness of Maat’s feather is a constant unchanging standard against which it will be compared. Maat, neter of Justice and Truth, is an obvious direct symbolization of "abstract" qualities of one’s higher aspirations. The development of its qualities is clearly seen as something that is the responsibility of the incarnate person. It is beyond concerns with one’s body chemistry. It thus represents a property that is in the body but not necessarily "of" it. 

Figure 22. The Weighing of the Heart in the lower center of the scene. The Abu is on the left scale and the feather of Maat is on the right. Anubis steadies the scale on the right and Djeuti stands to the right of the scale recording the weight. The crocodile faced neter Ammit sits patiently behind Djeuti in the hope of devouring a “heavy heart”. The Ba bird can be seen as the human headed bird just above the scale with the heart. (Papyrus of Ani in the British Museum - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus_of_Ani).

            It is important to remember that the scene of the Weighing of the Heart is a metaphor for ourselves. Each aspect of the image is full of meaning. Even the scale can be seen as a representation of our attention that is required to distinguish and weigh our moods against our knowledge of our higher aspirations.

            The second part of the psychic body, the Sekhem is more abstract, and is often translated as the "image." It seems to "personify" an essential view of character that may even appear in the statue of an individual, before as well as after death. This unusual idea may be recognizable by us in the correlation we often find to exist between the "appearance" of individuals, and what we call their "character" in ordinary life.

            The idea of the Sekhem seems to centre on aspects of our nature related to what we call “personality”, that are seen and recognized by others but are not the same as our view of ourselves. Similar questions arise in attempting to understand the relation of the characters in the ancient story of Gilgamesh and Enkidu[26]. By considering the “image” as a body we are reminded that self-knowledge requires that we need to learn to deal with a wholeness of our attributes. This is a conception that we find very difficult to have of ourselves, separate from our changeable moods. Yet we are sensitive to a corresponding more general level of existence by our experiences with our fellow human beings. Through glimpses of what is implied by the word "image", we may be able to recognize that our views of ourselves are almost always "partial".

            It is difficult to appreciate what further significance the Egyptians may have placed on this body, since the Sekhem seems at times to be a part that can leave the body and appear among the eternal aspects of man; that is, among the gods – that is on levels more-than-merely-personal. We recognize, again, an example of subtlety that pervades the texts and that needs to be appreciated if we are to believe that we understand the significance of the Egyptian literature for us. 

            The third of the qualities of the soul, the Ka, seems to hold out to us a curious blend of the literal and the abstract. It is represented in hieroglyphics as two arms with upraised forearms and hands (see Figure 21 above). Brind Morrow views the Ka as the “emanation body”[27]. The word has been recently translated as "spiritual essence," but is most often translated in scholarly works as the "soul," a term that raises questions about just what we mean by the word. A principal attribute of the Ka, evident throughout the texts, is its remarkable mobility and at least partial independence of the physical body. When paired with the twisted thread hieroglyph for “h”, Ka can be found in the word often translated as “magic”[28].  The Ka is represented as able to move about invisibly in the world, unrestrained by physical boundaries, such as walls or physical objects. In this sense our word, "ghost", invokes our associations more strongly than the term "soul". However, the Ka has subtle attributes that go beyond such simplistic ghostly designation.

            The Ka arises in the physical body or at least simultaneously with it, having been created separately but at the same time on the potter’s wheel of Khnum (Figure 23).  It apparently retains its essential separate "form" after death of the physical body. That is, it comprises a balance of all of the properties and sensitivities to be found in us. However, this state of the body does not simply exist, it requires maintenance. In Egyptian symbols, the Ka is dependent on a supply of the same "nourishment" as the living, physical body. That is not to say that the Egyptian beliefs are to be interpreted as a need of the Ka for chemical nourishment, although this has been the literal interpretation of the ritual inclusion of food and many other objects of everyday life in their tombs. The intention of such ceremonies seems to be symbolic recognition of the level of being that is our essential nature as an individual presence, and is dependent on the impressions or qualities that we are able to receive from our relationships to our environment, both external and internal.

Figure 23. Khnum seated on the right modeling the Pharaoh’s spirit on the potter’s wheel in the form of his Ka and Ba represented as two standing figures. The Ba is represented by the figure holding a bird in his hand. Both representations of the Pharaoh have hairstyles that are indicative of a young juvenile individual[29].

            The well-being of the Ka depends upon a nourishment that seems to take place through a form of self-awareness. That is, nourishment does not take place except when in the present moment we can have an impression of ourselves that we earlier called self-remembering. This is emphasized in the Egyptian symbolism by the idea that it is the Ka of the individual that meets the Ka of the god Osiris in the moments after the weighing of the heart. In this act, the “dead” person is also called Osiris and shares in his nature. Hence, in the literature of Ancient Egypt there are continual reminders that this aspect of existence depends on a special awareness of ourselves that is in accordance with the essential and special nature of the re-membered Osiris. There can be no confusion here between popular conceptions of a ghost-like continuance of a kind of ethereal personality, and the actuality of a sense of my own living presence, a life that exists in the rare moments when "I am", Being in the eternal NOW.

            Whereas the Ka appears to have a creation in a moment, it does seem to have a period of time external to the physical bodies where it is encouraged to move on, away from the physical body, up into the stars to join and be one with other surviving Kas. The Egyptians attributed special sensitive powers to the group of Kas that is referred to as “The Kas of the Ancestors.” They seem to be perceived in our world at the time in the morning just before the actual appearance in the sky of the disc of the sun. Similarly, this special place in the world of the neters, appears again at sunset, just after the disc has set, but the sky still shows the complexes of shades and colourations that characterize the brief appearance of this higher world in ours at this remarkable daily time of transition. It is through the moods or attitudes that can be felt to be engendered in us as individuals or as groups, that at these times we may be led to perceive particularly clearly the larger dimensions of being that can arise in our consciousness. This was especially known by the Ancient Egyptians who lived in a climate where, in particular seasons, weather conditions always allowed the sun to be observed arising above the horizon at morning.

The Spirit – The Ba, the Khaibit and the Akh

            At the third general level of man's possible existence, the Egyptians recognized two or perhaps three bodies that are completely independent of the physical body: the Ba, the Khaibit and the Akh. These bodies seem to be the only ones that can survive permanently beyond the death of the physical body, and come to exist in the realm of the gods/neters, while still having possible relationships with whatever else exists of the remnants of our natures. This is the basis on which we ventured the general name, "spirit".

            The best known and defined of the bodies at this level is called the Ba. Brind Morrow translates this as “soul”[30]. It has the mobility of the Ka, but is not restricted in the forms it takes, and is most often represented in the vignettes of the Book of Coming Forth by Day in the form of a small bird with a human head (Figure 22 and Figure 24). The Ba is distinctly different from the Ka in the fact that it is no longer dependent on nourishment from levels "below" it in the spiritual hierarchy. The Ba depends only on nourishment from the level of the neters and "eats" the same foods as nourishes the gods. With the Ba we encounter the first elements of human existence that can have eternal life, all the previously recognized forms being limited by mortality: that is, they exist in the lower dimensionality of ordinary time.

Figure 24. The Sacred Ba Bird, hovering over the Mummy of a dead Pharaoh (Papyrus of Ani, British Museum).

            In alchemical language a primary function of the soul is to form a bridge between body and spirit. The spirit is regarded as a phenomenon that "descended" from heaven into the life of us as individuals on earth. It seems appropriate to call the Ba the lowest representative of this spiritual level of being in us, simply from this apparent relationship to the Being. That is, the Ba partakes of our individual nature and yet transcends it. If we could call the part of us that transcends the purely personal and yet is most sensitive to the highest qualities of individual humankind, our specific “Consciousness”, perhaps we could say that the Ba in us represents an “Objective Conscience”. This places the idea of the creative irrational into the spiritual perspective. 

            There is another noun, Khaibit, used rarely in the Book of Coming Forth by Day, but which, when it appears, is used virtually as a synonym for the word Ba. According to Budge[31], it is used more commonly in the Pyramid Texts, although it is not separately identified by Allen[32]. On the walls of the Pyramid of Unas, it still appears as a body virtually inseparable from the Ba, or at least one that dwells very close to it. Some Egyptologists accord it separate status, and in translation, give it the name, "shadow," apparently in the belief that it has the same qualities as a "spirit" of that name mentioned in mystical Greek and Roman writings. The shadow has also found its way into modern psychology in the works of Jung. We have no basis here for clearly distinguishing it from the Ba, but at the least it appears as a go-between of the Ba and the higher body that is called the Khu , the Akhu, or simply the Akh. Perhaps the Ba casts a "shadow" when it appears in the spiritual light that pervades and emanates from the realm of the Akh.

            The final, truly eternal part of human existence is known as the Akh. It is first represented in the hieroglyphic carvings of the Pyramid Texts (Figure 25) and can be found throughout the later history of Egyptian writings (Figure 26). It is literally the "shining" or translucent one. It seems to lend itself more readily to the term "spirit", and is often translated as the "intelligence," in the sense that it is the "light" of an exalted state of independence and initiative in the universe of the bodies. The texts show this part as having its normal dwelling place in the “heaven” of the neters. The objective of the Akh of being human is to wend its way back into that central realm where it can dwell with the Akhs of the gods. This imagery is very similar to that of Philo and Plotinus that we present later in Chapter 11.

Figure 25. Akhs carved into the walls of the pyramid of Unas[33].

Figure 26. The Sacred Akh Bird, as represented by the Crested Ibis[34].

            In the Pyramid Text version on the Pyramid walls of the Pharaoh Teti, is written:

 "Horus has loved you and provided you;

Horus has painted his eye on you.

Horus has parted your eye, that you might see with it . . .

Horus has found you and has become Akh through you.

Horus has elevated the gods to you;

He has given them to you that they might brighten your face.

Horus has put you in front of the gods;

He has made you acquire all that is yours.[35]”

            Here we have an indirect reference to the battle between Horus and Seth. It deals with the reconstituted capacities following Osiris’ dismemberment and death. It is dealing with the spiritual level. The reference to the eye is thus a double reminder that in the place of dwelling of the Akh we are addressing the Teti's highest potential power as a whole, remembered being. If we can understand the Ba as an aspect of higher being corresponding to Objective Conscience, it would seem appropriate to name the Akh correspondingly as an “Objective Consciousness”.

            In summary of the extreme of the levels of human bodies there is a critical statement carved into the walls of the Pyramid of Unas:

 “Akh, to the sky! Corpse, to the earth![36]”

Or as Brind Morrow translates:

“The serpent goes to the sky. The centipede falcon under the shoe.[37]”

            There are natural venues for our bodies. While the Christian idea of “from dust to dust” is appropriate for our corpse, the Akh is appropriately assigned to the sky above.

 

The Great Sun God Ra

            The highest of all creative irrational conceptions of what might represent the full spiritual development of the potential of being alive is represented as the ultimate Egyptian God Ra (Figure 27). This represents the force that created everything. It is associated with the Sun, particularly at dawn and dusk. Ra knows many forms and can be seen sharing his nature with aspects of other gods when he takes the names Ra-Harakhty, Amon-Ra, Sebek-Ra, and Khnum-Ra. 

Figure 27. The Ancient Egyptian sun god in the form of Ra-Herakti https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra.

            Ra is closely associated with the Pharaoh. In a recitation from Pyramid Texts from the Pyramid of Pepi II we see that the tradition captures in the writing is guiding the Pharaoh to become more than his highest level of Akh:

"This Pepi Neferkare has gone forth to the sky and Pepi Neferkare has found the Sun waiting to meet him.

Pepi Neferkare will sit on (his) shoulders, and he will not set Pepi Neferkare down, knowing that Pepi Neferkare is his eldest son.

This Pepi Neferkare is elder to every god: Pepi Neferkare is in fact more Akh than the Akhs, Pepi Neferkare is more skilled than the skilled; this Pepi Neferkare is more lasting than the lasting.[38]"

            It is obvious that the initiate Pharaoh is reaching a level beyond the Akh.  The initiate is becoming the peak of the Egyptian concept of Being - Ra.

            In the Pyramid Texts of Unas the initiate Pharaoh becomes so powerful that he feeds on the other gods:

“Unas is the sky’s bull, with terrorizing in his heart, who lives on the evolution of every god, who eats their bowels when they have come from the Isle of Flame with their belly filled with magic.[39]”

or as Brind Morrow translates it:

 “Unas becomes the bull of Heaven.

His heart throbs as he lives in the form of every star

Feeding in their pastures as they come,

Their insides filled with spiritual power

From the encircling fire of the horizon.[40]”

            The key role of the Pharaohs in their lifetime was to develop themselves, on behalf of their subjects, to be able to join with the Ra in the heavens upon their death on earth, thence to reflect back to the aid of those seeking to rise from the lower levels. We see Ra in these Ancient Egyptian writings as the realization of the whole of life’s experience of “Being”. The struggle to find the level of Ra in us is the goal of our real existence in life.  The extensive instructions carved into the surfaces of the oldest of the pyramids as the Pyramid Texts guiding the initiate through the challenges of the Duat to reach his position in Ra points to how vital it was that the work and journey be successfully carried out. We see this as the oldest representation of what we develop here as our spiritual – the Being of Ra.

The Creative Irrational In The Bodies of a Human

            The observation that the Ancient Egyptians were concerned about the subtleties of human existence in their writing 5000 years ago is striking. They clearly lay out their perception of the levels of humans beyond the merely physical body. At this, the beginning of human culture, the Pyramid Texts do not deal with procuring more food or producing more babies or being better prepared to resist storms. They reflect a worldview that is much beyond that associated with the simple burials that have been seen with other hominins such as Neanderthals. One measure of the importance to the Ancient Egyptians of the knowledge captured in the Pyramid Texts is the amount of effort, both planning and execution, that went into creating the first pyramids with their highly refined carvings. Their creation is evidence of the exceptionally high value the culture placed on capturing and preserving these ideas. The ideas recorded inside the pyramids were essential to the Ancient Egyptian culture for the thousands of years that the culture persisted. The urgings in the Pyramid Texts for the initiate to reach higher levels of being can be seen as representing the all-important aspects of the spiritual in human existence. What they took such great pains to express was truly the result of the creative irrational. 

            Understanding that we are composed of more than one type of body is a challenge. But we can learn to experience various levels of existence, awareness or Being. These levels range from the lower levels, where we begin to pay attention to our ordinary states of consciousness that some traditions refer to as “waking sleep” in our everyday body, mind and emotions. We see them portrayed in the Ancient Egyptian writing where they recognized that there are different levels of perception in life that were seen as differences in the qualities of what can be opened to us. Critically they were dealing with esoteric aspects of human life where we now recognize that we especially require that we attend to this ability to give rise to and maintain a sense of ourselves. Knowledge of both the struggle and what it is we seek is instrumental in assisting us to return to the question of what is essential to our human nature: something we need to identify in relation to what can be seen about our Being. Their teachings help us recognize our own needs for a considerable knowledge of our developmental level.  In these Ancient Egyptian works we are offered models through which can personally explore our own possibilities. 

———————————- Chapter 6 The Greek Expression of the Creative Irrational ———————————



———————- Table of Contents ——————————

[1] Dickie, L.M. and P.R. Boudreau. 2015. Awakening Higher Consciousness – Guidance from Ancient Egypt and Sumer. Inner Traditions. Vermont.

[2] Naydler, J. 2004.  Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts: The Mystical Tradition of Ancient Egypt. Inner Traditions.

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Egyptian_pyramids

[4] Dickie, L.M. and P.R. Boudreau. 2015. Awakening Higher Consciousness – Guidance from Ancient Egypt and Sumer. Inner Traditions. Vermont.

[5] Allen, J.P. 2005. The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. Society of Biblical Literature. Atlanta. Page 108.

[6] Allen, J.P. 2005. The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. Society of Biblical Literature. Atlanta. Page 19.

[7] Brind Morrow, S. 2015. The Dawning Moon of the Mind. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. New York. P. 165

[8] http://www.pyramidtextsonline.com/Sarcnorth2RH.htm

[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_Texts

[10] Brind Morrow, S.  2015.  The Dawning Moon of the Mind: Unlocking the Pyramid Texts.  Farrar, Straus and Giroux.  New York.  289 pp.

[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_of_Unas

[12] Brind Morrow, S.  2015.  The Dawning Moon of the Mind:  Unlocking the Pyramid Texts. Farrar Straus and Giroux. New York, 239 pp.

[13] Naydler, J. 2005. Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts. Inner Traditions, Rochester, Vt.

[14] Brind Morrow, S.  2015.  The Dawning Moon of the Mind: Unlocking the Pyramid Texts.  Farrar, Straus and Giroux.  New York.  P. 53.

[15] Brind Morrow, S.  2015.  The Dawning Moon of the Mind: Unlocking the Pyramid Texts.  Farrar, Straus and Giroux.  New York. 

[16] Brind Morrow, S.  2015.  The Dawning Moon of the Mind: Unlocking the Pyramid Texts.  Farrar, Straus and Giroux.  New York.  p. 98.

[17] Brind Morrow, S.  2015.  The Dawning Moon of the Mind: Unlocking the Pyramid Texts.  Farrar, Straus and Giroux.  New York. 

[18] Allen, J.P. 2005. The Ancient Pyramid Texts. Society of Biblical Literature. Atlanta. p. 31.

[19] Brind Morrow, S. 2015. The Dawning Moon of the Mind. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. New York. p. 145.

[20] The early translators translated the Egyptian letters “ntr” into the more familiar word “gods”. Throughout this book we stick to the original word Egyptian word “neter” except the higher deities of Ra, Atum, Osiris and Horus.

[21] Dickie, L.M. and P.R. Boudreau. 2015. Awakening Higher Consciousness: Guidance from Ancient Egypt and Sumer. Inner Traditions. 

[22] VandenBroeck, A. 1987. Al-Kemi, Hermetic, Occult, Political and Private aspects of R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz. Inner Traditions/Lindesfarne Press, distributed by Harper and Rowe, Inc.

[23] Brind Morrow, S.  2015.  The Dawning Moon of the Mind:  Unlocking the Pyramid Texts. Farrar Straus and Giroux. New York, 239 pp.

[24] Schwaller de Lubicz, R.A. 1998.  The Temple of Man: Apet of the South at Luxor. (Two Volumes) Inner Traditions International, Rochester, Vermont.  1048 pp.

[25] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phi

[26] Dickie, L.M. and P. R. Boudreau. 2015.  Awakening Higher Consciousness:  Guidance from Ancient Egypt and Sumer.  Inner Traditions.  Rochester. Vermont. 

[27] Brind Morrow, S.  2015.  The Dawning Moon of the Mind:  Unlocking the Pyramid Texts. Farrar Straus and Giroux. New York, p. 38.

[28] Dickie, L.M. and P.R. Boudreau. 2015. Awakening Higher Consciousness: Guidance from Ancient Egypt and Sumer. Inner Traditions. Vermont.

[29] http://www.secretoftheankh.com/?p=157

[30] Brind Morrow, S.  2015.  The Dawning Moon of the Mind:  Unlocking the Pyramid Texts. Farrar Straus and Giroux. New York, p. 27.

  [31] Budge, E.A.W. 1967. The Egyptian Book of the Dead. (The Papyrus of Ani)  Dover Publications Inc. New York. 

[32] Allen, J.P. 2000. Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs.  Cambridge University Press, London and New York.  

[33] http://www.pyramidtextsonline.com/images/AnteeastGH.jpg

[34] http://www.egyptianmyths.net/akh.htm

[35] Allen, J.P. 2005. The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. Society of Biblical Literature. Atlanta. Page 80.

[36] Allen, J.P. 2005. The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. Society of Biblical Literature. Atlanta. p. 57.

[37] Brind Morrow, S.  2015.  The Dawning Moon of the Mind: Unlocking the Pyramid Texts.  Farrar, Straus and Giroux.  New York.  p. 134.

[38]Allen, J.P. 2005. The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. Society of Biblical Literature. Atlanta. p. 273.

[39] Allen, J.P. 2005. The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. Society of Biblical Literature. Atlanta. p.101

[40] Brind Morrow, S.  2015.  The Dawning Moon of the Mind: Unlocking the Pyramid Texts.  Farrar, Straus and Giroux.  New York.  p. 125.

Chapter 4: The Spirituality Spectrum

            For hundreds of thousands of years modern humans lived, reproduced, evolved and distinguished themselves from the other hominin species. They interbred with Neanderthals, Denisovan and likely other hominins. Like other hominins they created art and buried their dead. As we saw in the last chapter, only Homo sapiens began pursuing creative irrational activities, most notably the creation of megalithic structures, circa 12,000 BCE. The early megalithic constructions most likely were attempts to capture impulses higher than those arising from hunger or fear. The ubiquitous alignments of their stone structures with celestial markers, whether sunrise, sunset, the Milky Way and or star clusters strongly suggest their connections with the more-than-merely personal aspects of their lives. They were definitely working to receive and transmit the creative irrational in their lives.

            It was not for another 7,000 years after the beginning of the Göbekli Tepe constructions that humans developed a new method of expressing themselves. The cultures of the Sumerians and Egyptians circa 3,000 BCE establish writing. An expression that we take for granted in our modern day societies providing the societies with further opportunity to express their higher complex thoughts. As a result, the writing that we have found provides much greater insights into their motivations and worldviews. Indeed while these two advanced cultures produced megalithic architecture and art it is through writing that they were able to provide metaphor and allegory to address the more-than-merely personal aspects of life. As our discussion moves from the pre-literate period of human development to a time when human consciousness was recorded in words, phrases and literature we find evidence of more than day-to-day concerns. We can recognize a continuing development of interest in the higher, creative irrational, leading toward spiritual, aspects of human existence.Although time and culture separate us from the scribes there is a shared commonality that allows us to still appreciate and learn from their efforts[1].

            Between the two extremes of human existence from purely physical to that of our highest spiritual expressions there are various levels of existence available to humans. We capture this range of existence in what we see as the “spirituality spectrum”. It is an effort to connect our most mundane, ordinary, day-to-day existence, associated primarily with our rational animal sides, with the highest spiritual expression. The spirituality spectrum as presented in Table 2attempts to capture our rational aspects in the left-hand side while the highest levels of human existence are on the right-hand side. 

Table 2. Spirituality Spectrum showing a comparison of a selection of classifications of the levels of human consciousness relating to the irrational and spiritual.

            We begin the Table with the oldest description of the various levels of human existence. It comes from the Ancient Egyptians initially in the Pyramid Texts circa 2,500 BCE and elsewhere in their literature and art. They first captured this range of human existence in their presentation of the various “human bodies”. Our interpretation of the Ancient Egyptian bodies is presented in the first row of Table 2 from its purely physical body form on the left, through to the existence in Ra on the right. The following rows in the Table represents a “rough” mapping of the various stages of Being as conceived of by cultures and individuals onto the structure provided by the Ancient Egyptians. We find very similar representations in a selection of later traditions from the ancient Greeks to the 20th century teacher Gurdjieff and the psychologist Jung. This presents a gross summary of the results from the many approaches followed throughout the history of human culture. In the remainder of this book we explore all of these interpretations of the human condition in more detail. The reader needs to be aware that there can be no exact equivalence drawn among the different traditions – some traditions that extend over millennia.  Over such a period human consciousness and individual Being are likely to have been experienced in so many different personal ways as to defy simple classification. Yet, we need to recognize that humans have been examining and attempting to express such thoughts since the very beginning of modern human societies. As we see it, these are just different formulations of a worldview that is ultimately irrational and strongly linked to the spiritual aspects of humanity. As a result, these few examples help us to recognize expressions of the creative irrational in many traditions that have evolved over the past 5,000 years.

————————— Chapter 5: The Egyptian Bodies of a Human ——————————

———————- Table of Contents ———————-

[1] Dickie, L.M. and P.R. Boudreau. 2015. Awakening Higher Consciousness: Guidance from Ancient Egypt and Sumer. Inner Traditions, Vt.

[2] MacKenna, S. 1992. Plotinus The Enneads. Larson Publications

[3] http://www.gurdjieff.justwizard.com/all&ever.html & http://ae.gurdjieff.org.gr/chapters/en50/chapter47.htm

[4] http://gurdjieffbooks.wordpress.com/tag/body-kesdjan/

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centers_(Fourth_Way)

Chapter 3: Pre-historic/Pre-Literate Human Irrationality

            Modern day humans, Homo sapiens, are a result of the biological evolution that has been underway since the beginning of life on earth. They/we are the last surviving hominin species of many that have evolved over the history of the planet. Early hominins existed for millions of years as hunter-gatherers – small groups of individuals who harvested from their surrounding environment, and likely made infrequent kills of other animals. They moved amongst a number of locations as the resources in the local area became depleted. It is important to recognize that such life styles are still successful, as they are known to persist on the globe even today (Figure 10) [1]. It is unclear how well these present-day cultures compare with hominins of millions of years ago, nor exactly how we began the evolutionary process that distinguishes us from other primates, but it is important to note that present day hunter gatherers, as well as our distant hominin relatives, are much more like ourselves than the other animals on the globe.

Figure 10. Members of the present day Pirahã people of Amazonian Brazil one of the many existing hunter-gatherer cultures that continue to exist in the world today[2].

            There are millions of years of history between the time of the split between the great apes and the resulting hominins. The greater part of this time predates any kind of literature that would help us to understand the success and failures of hominins over time. In this chapter we look for evidence of the creative irrational in the pre-literate cultures. We need to look at activities and behaviours such as working with fire and the start of megalithic constructions that need to be seen as reflecting characteristics that express the creative irrational and possibly a sense of the spiritual.

Why the Need for the Creative Irrational in the Human Success Story?

            In this book we are asking the question “Are humans the only irrational species?  Is this unique characteristic the key to our success and dominance in the world?” We are interested in this essential creative irrational that can be attributed uniquely to modern Homo sapiens. It is in this sense of “beyond reason” that we find the critical piece of the human development puzzle that distinguishes us from all other organisms.

            To be clear: it is not a question of whether or not modern humans express irrationality, but is our level of irrationality the key to the success of our species? With irrationality as the purview solely of Homo sapiens, is it that which sets us apart from all other species – including the other hominins? In particular, we can see that the positive, creative irrational has been expressed throughout the history of humankind from the first effective control of fire to the building of the first megalithic structures on to modern day quantum physics. This creative irrational can be seen in the initiation of many, if not all, of the more concrete accomplishments of modern humans.  Such outbursts of the irrational may help explain our success over time. For us to see a trait as essential in human development, we must be able to trace it back to the beginning of our separation from other species. 

            Many theories have been proposed for the development and “success” in terms of survival and multiplication of the modern human. One author suggests it was the ability of hairless modern humans to run down prey on the savannas of Africa that was primary[3]. Some authors suggest that modern humans evolved bigger brains that facilitated communication and abstract thought[4], although since it is now recognized that Homo neanderthalensis had a slightly larger average brain size than modern humans, that seems hardly enough by itself [5]. It is still unclear how and why the hairless, slight-of-build, modern humans bred with and out-survived several of our more physically robust cousin species such as Homo neaderthalensis (Neanderthals) and Homo sapiens subspecies Denisovan (Denisovan) through the end of the last Ice Age to become the dominant species on the planet[6]. 

            As discussed in the last chapter, all biological species need to address their needs for food, shelter, procreation and immediate pleasures. Everything from single-celled bacteria up to and including human beings need to provide for these immediate living requirements. As early as 2 million years ago, like many other animals, we find a number of early hominins[7] that worked stones into tools that made their lives easier. This was the case with Homo habilis[8]. A later hominin species, Homo erectus certainly used both very practical stone tools and fire to enhance their procurement and use of food. There is even some evidence for their creation of rudimentary art[9]. They persisted for over a million years to as recently as 70,000 years ago[10]. In comparison to the relatively short 300,000-years of existence for modern humans, Homo erectus certainly qualifies as successful[11]. Yet they too became extinct. 

            We now know that not only did modern humans coexist on the planet with several other closely related hominin species such as Neanderthals, Denisovans and possibly others, but they also interbred with these other hominins. So what characteristics did Homo sapiens express beyond those of its close relatives that allowed them to survive while other species became extinct? Could the creative irrational have been essential to getting humans through the many hardships of living endured through the warm and colder cycling of the last 100 million years and eventually to have led them to inhabit all of the World’s ecosystems except Antarctica?

            A milestone in the development of Homo sapiens has been found in the archeological research in South Africa where 100,000 years ago a population of humans occupied an area on the southeast coast[12]. Food from the coastal ocean was plentiful and their environment was far from the warm and cold cycles of ice ages in the more extreme northern latitudes. They certainly were not living  “The life of man [is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” as suggested as an aside by Hobbs[13] in 1651. Even at this early stage of human cultural evolution the residents of this South African site were readily meeting their requirements for food, shelter, procreation and immediate pleasures that would have allowed for a diversion of attention to “non-essentials”. In addition to the rational activities represented in the creation and use of tools, the site contains artifacts that undeniably represent art, reflecting the early importance of the irrational. Shells with holes made in them for stringing and the use of ochre as decoration of individuals at the site go beyond what might reasonably be thought of as being purely for food, shelter, procreation and immediate pleasures. Here we see an early example of the importance of the irrational in human development; the beginning of the all-important creativity shown by individuals “thinking outside of the box”.

            It was fifty thousand years after the encampments in South Africa flourished that one branch of modern humans is known to have co-habited with Neanderthals in Western Europe. They interbred with the Neanderthals who had survived there for 600,000 years until as recently as 24,000 years ago. There is also evidence of interbreeding among Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovan in South Asia[14]. Yet despite the evidence for occupation by all three species across much of the Eurasian land mass, in a relatively short time period following the end of the last glacial maximum, all other hominin species became extinct and only Homo sapiens remained. We are left with the question of “Why?” How and why did modern humans outlast robust and successful Neanderthals and Denisovan and why have they since become the dominant species on Earth? We see that several other hominin species have expressed their creativity by use of tools and displayed other talents that promoted their access to food, shelter, procreation and immediate pleasures. But humans somehow have become unique and different through their evolution.

            When do we first see the creative irrational in hominins? The movement to follow our irrational impulses in art, architecture and all other aspects of the creative, including the spiritual, may be more than just a hidden side of humans that needs to be tolerated. Maybe it is essential to our ongoing success. It is critical that we consider it in our present and future possibilities both individually and also as a species on Earth. Of particular interest here is our wish to undertake a critical review of the role of the irrational in the success of humans and what it might mean for understanding and evaluating spirituality in our modern day society.

 

Background

            There are a number of activities and behaviours that distinguish us from other animals and other primates. As we have seen in the preceding chapter, rational use of simple tools is widespread in many, if not all, animals so this doesn’t separate “us” from “them”. Certainly our evolutionary tree does contain close cousins who excelled at the development of highly refined tools[15]. The early hominin species Homo habilis is so named to reflect its development and use of stone flakes as tools that they could then use to cut up animals for food and skins[16].  Hominin creation and use of tools certainly helped to promote their success over those species that had limited tool use.  But there are other developments in hominin development that surely contributed more to their long-term success than did simple tool use.

            In this chapter we look at some of the characteristic behaviours that must have developed very early in our cultural evolution, behaviours that can be viewed as being more important than those that we appreciated in relation to the many rational behaviours exhibited by other animals.  We presented some of them in the last chapter. Although language can be seen as both a rational and irrational activity in hominins, the lack of any hard evidence for the initial timing of its use and its effects on the success of hominins makes it impossible to include it here in our discussion of the essential irrational in human development. It certainly must have had an important impact, but there is little hard evidence that we are able to consider here. We do have suggestions of behaviours that provide us with evidence of a growing need for expression of the irrational in human behaviour that includes their need to deal with fire, as well as for their creation of art and ultimately the building of megalithic structures.

Containing Fire – the Initial Irrational?

             Fire – that which can cook our food and burn our flesh. Fire in nature is certainly common and often becomes dangerous to life and limb. Forest fires in the temperate zones or grass fires in equatorial zones can almost eliminate most forms of biological life, although in most cases some species always survive. Over time through regeneration and/or immigration the ecosystems recover. Some species of trees now even require fire to perpetuate themselves.  But to most animals, including hominins, fire is mostly to be feared and may result in death when it is uncontrolled. How did early hominins make the leap from fearing fire like all other animals, to taking advantage of its ability to cook food to improve its taste and nutritional value?

            First, it is important to note that as in the situation with tools, there is no strict distinction between the reaction of hominins and other animals. Our close cousins the chimpanzees have been observed to benefit from the effects of fire in the wild. They have been observed to follow fire started naturally in the wild, and benefit from eating any toasted animals that remain once the fire has moved on and the ground has cooled down. But they will not approach it directly while it is burning[17]. Although they do not seem to approach fire carelessly, they don’t seem to be afraid or stressed about it.  They are able to predict and respond to the progress of the fire[18]. But very importantly, they have never been observed to start fires.

            Bonobos have come even closer to the use of fire - once they have been guided by their human trainers. In captivity they have been coached to use matches to ignite a fire. One Bonobo, named Kanzi, has been videoed setting up a campfire, starting it burning, then roasting a marshmallow[19]. While this is an impressive task, the examples given required a lot of support from humans – in conceiving the task, imagining, understanding and producing matches as well as instructing Kanzi on how to put it all together. Without a doubt such complicated tasks are not observed in the wild. Thus they certainly can follow the directions of modern humans to in some way replicate our irrational creativity, but as a species they have not made the use of fire a natural key of their survival strategies.

            Moving closer to the Homo sapiens spp., there is evidence that other hominins made use of fire. Neanderthals apparently used fire, but it is unclear as to whether they ever actually initiated fire or if they just made opportunistic use of it as it occurred in nature[20]. Certainly their use of it is evidence that they didn’t fear fire and, at times benefited from its actions. 

            But Homo sapiens is the only species known to irrationally approach, create and contain fire. Is it the systematic use of fire as an aspect of their activities that conferred such an important advantage on them[21]?  They did this at many different scales of their activities, from individual use in intimate and personalized settings such as campfires, to the social use of large fires set at particular times in the open savannah to encourage new and more vigorous subsequent growth of the grasses in the fields on which they did much of their hunting and where they later must have herded these creatures. Once they had control of fire, they were enabled to vastly expand the range of their social interactions to promote their joint activities, not all of which were strictly required for immediate use.  They also anticipated future needs in the ingenuity they displayed in their means of moving and storage of the means for fire-building throughout their range of travel.  It eventually led them towards the creation of special places is which ritual fires might be built, apparently in aid of rituals associated with their spiritual practises.

Blombos Cave and Pinnacle Point Discoveries – South Africa’s contribution

            The Blombos Cave[22] and Pinnacle Point[23] sites in South Africa were used by humans around 100,000 years ago. They display a major advancement in the lives of hominins as the initiation of truly Homo sapiens development. At these sites there is extensive evidence of far-reaching “leisure” activities including the creation of art in the form of special shell assemblies and the use of ochre for personal decoration. Archaeological evidence has shown that these people had access to abundant food sources allowing them to indulge in leisure activities in their local coastal environment. There are numerous modern day tribes on the west coast of Canada such as the Haida and Coast Salish whose continued existence is based on the abundant resources of their coastal ocean environments[24]. They are only one small sample of the many “traditional” peoples that survive today[25]

            To return to the South African situation, these people had no problem finding adequate food so there was no need to migrate out of the area. It has been speculated that this luxury of resources played a significant role in their ability to shift some of their attention away from the rationale of food, shelter, procreation and immediate pleasures toward the irrational. One example of their creative processes is found in their use of fire to create silcrete for hunting arrow heads[26]. Although others of their groups were creating hunting points from flaking and flint knapping of naturally-formed materials found in their environment, in this case the early humans discovered, developed and implemented a complex multistep process to turn naturally occurring materials of surface sand, gravel and dissolved silica into a material usable for flaking into points. This level of use of fire for tool creation is far beyond that seen in other primates and hominins. With evidence for a slow and rational development of an advanced pyrotechnology, we see in this development the first significant presence of the creative irrational in humans.

            A second less tangible use of fire in the early South African cultures involves the potential impact of fire control on their social and communication skills. For example, spending time around a stable and controlled campfire would lend itself to communicating and developing their language skills. While there is ample evidence for their development of art in the two sites, and it follows that they had adequate luxury to use language, it is impossible to know to what extent their use of language could have diverged from interactions concerning these essential rational needs, such as “a predator is near”, to holding conversations that would be more than “beyond reason” involving subjects of the past and the future. There is much to be spoken about that is additional to the rational activities of procuring food, shelter, procreation and immediate pleasures. Thus one can imagine that ancient South African humans would have discussed topics in addition to those in keeping with present day discussions of the weather, the food, etc. The presence of personal adornments made from shells may have elicited comments such as “nice, pretty thing you have there.” There is no way of knowing when they might have reached broader topics, such as those concerning life, death and the spiritual, but these additional subjects are important enough to have soon demanded their share of a wider human attention, much of which was devoted to these further abstract questions about their lives. 

Cave Paintings in the Dark

            In our initial exploration of the creative irrational in the behaviour of hominins we consider briefly the many incredible paintings found in the dark depths of caves. The earliest examples are found in Indonesia. There we have found the outlines of hands made using mouth-sprayed paint (Figure 11). These may simply be expressions of self-awareness stating “I am here”. But this dates from 35,000 to 40,000 years before present when Southeast Asia was occupied by all three hominin species Homo sapiens, Homo neanderthalis and Homo denisovan[27]. It is unreasonable to think that this effort would not offer significant aid for the marking of one’s territory. It is even more likely that the work, found in such an inaccessible location, would not only have required control of fire for lighting, but must surely represent a group effort at recognizing and marking their existence in a manner beyond that required for survival, a sure sign of the creative irrational.

Figure 11. Cave of Pettakere, Bantimurung district (Kecamatan), South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Hand stencils estimated to be made between 35,000-40,000 BCE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_painting#/media/File:Hands_in_Pettakere_Cave_DYK_crop.jpg).

             A little later in time and ten thousand miles away from the initial Indonesian work are the extensive naturalistic paintings deep in the caves of Chauvet, France[28] and at Altamira, Spain[29]. Both of these earliest European sites of hominin creations have handprints painted on the walls of deep caves, incredibly similar to those seen in Indonesia (Figure 12). But the artwork goes far beyond simple handprints. Here there are black lines that outlined or more broadly filled-in, smudged drawings that date to a period 33,500 to 37,000 years before present (Figure 13 and 14) accompanied by more complex sketches along many stretches of the caves[30].

Figure 12. Handprint from Chauvet Cave (http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/hands/index.php).

Figure 13. Animal paintings from Chauvet Cave (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki.com).

 

Figure 14. Early black pictures from Chauvet Cave (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauvet_Cave - /media/File:Paintings_from_the_Chauvet_cave_(museum_replica).jpg).

            A later period of European occupation, from 31,000 to 28,000 years ago, produced extensive paintings of other animals in many caves in Southern France, Spain and Portugal. There are many sites including Pech-Merle[31] and Cougnac[32], France. Again these caves contain handprints on their walls (Figure 15). This is just at the end of the last glacial maximum around 26,500 years before present when temperatures were as low as they had been in this period and were just starting to warm up to present day levels. It was a time of great change for the hominins. Homo denisovan had died out and the Neanderthals were reaching the end of their survival. Although the exact dates of the Neanderthal extinction continue to be actively researched, by 18,000 BCE Neanderthals had died out in their last refuge in the coastal areas near Gibraltar just south of Spain and Portugal - and only modern Homo sapiens remained. The cave paintings from around this time, such as at Rouffignac[33] and Lascaux, date to around 17,000 BCE (Figure 16). They continued to express handprints as well as the more filled-in paintings. If we take the starting date for this activity to be in the Indonesian caves, handprint painting had been expressed for over 20,000 years. This longevity of a cultural activity appears to have occurred over wide-spread areas throughout the time span of the occupation by the three major hominin groups. 

Figure 15. Handprint from Pech-Merle cave in France circa 25,000 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pech_Merle).

Figure 16. Complex paintings from Lascaux Cave (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux).

            In addition to the cave paintings, humans were producing abstract carvings of stone throughout the period[34]. Carved “Venus figurines” have been found over a wide geographic area from France in the west to Russia in the east. But the creations were generally small pieces, such as the finely carved Venus of Brassempouy (Figure 17). It is only 3.6 cm high. This particular example is dated to the same time period and found in the same geographic area as the site of the Pech-Merle cave paintings. Definitely these hominins were expressing the creative irrational in many forms.

Figure 17. Venus of Brassempouy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_of_Brassempouy).

          What do all these ancient artistic expressions indicate about hominins? Only hominins are known to create such works. The creations are all located in areas that are difficult to reach. They all require working with fire for light. They don’t seem to be immediately related to the direct concerns of the day. Some authors have considered the paintings to be shamanic[35].  The objective may have been to help hunters by enhancing their chances of success or actually may have been representative of the expression of higher levels of awareness and of a sense of spirituality. But that in itself is irrational according to present day thought. Certainly the cultures that created these incredible pieces had to have the necessary luxury of time for the creators to divert effort from food to art. This work would have to have been seen and valued by the others in the communities, some of whom would be required to feed and house the “artists”. It is important to note that the simple creation of handprints using paint persisted from 38,000 BCE down to at least 5,000 BCE. They are found on all continents[36]. Could they have been considered sufficiently valuable to be supported for the making of these illustrations in spite of the fact that not all members of the culture would get to experience – or fully understand them? They are enduring evidence for the cultural importance of the creative irrational. With more information and insights into these peoples we might be able to confirm them as evidence for an awareness of a need for the spiritual in their lives.

            The key question about the cave paintings is how they relate to the rational or irrational of hominins. For the most part they would have been created with great difficulty for non-immediate benefit. If they were created by shamans in connection with some benefits to hunter gatherer’s success at procuring food, then they can be seen in the same light as creating a more efficient spear point. But the time and effort required for cave painting could also have been seen as deliberately diverted from the practical efforts required for tool creation. Moreover, their presence implies sufficient cultural support to enable the creators to realize their dreams, images, visions, or whatever. As such this is an example of the early creative irrational in hominins. It is an activity that does not necessarily translate into immediately rewarded activity. Yet it must have been sufficiently valued by the culture to feed, house and shelter the artists.  The extent of their production over such large geographic and temporal scales couldn’t have been produced by isolated secretive individuals. It must have been a societal endeavour.

Göbekli Tepe Humans’ First Megalithic Constructions

             There is much archaeological evidence of the creative irrational beginning from 35,000 until 13,000 years ago. But it is around 12,500 years ago that we see a major shift in the creative expression of humans as displayed at the Göbekli Tepe site in Eastern Turkey. Here the creative irrational takes on a totally new scale of construction. Its purpose can’t be confirmed, but it was not a site of human long-term settlement. While some remnants of human skulls have been found there, it was not a site of the interment of the dead as has been seen for tens of thousands of years by both humans and Neanderthals[37]. Here we see, for the first time, large-scale stone manipulation and carving that some authors have claimed to be of spiritual origin, or at least as representative of cult objects. The site was first appreciated and described by Professor Klaus Schmidt an archaeologist from Germany[38].  While others had previously encountered the site, it was left unexplored until it caught Schmidt’s attention. In the following two decades he led a group of researchers in uncovering an extensive site with many unique megaliths carefully and precisely positioned in up to 30 separate circles of large stones. The site is now becoming more widely known through the writings of Collins[39] and Hancock[40] who have described it in some detail. The structures are immense. There are 30 roughly circular enclosures of dressed stones some of which are up to 6 metres/20 feet in height. There are many aspects of this amazing site in addition to its size, its careful alignment and the fact that it was created at a time when only hunter-gatherers were thought to be living in small isolated groups around the world.  We focus here on only three features that relate specifically to the fact of the site being illustrative of the creative irrational in this culture: 1) its location is distant from water sources so it could not have served as a place of dwelling, 2) the precision and beauty of the stone carvings is exceptional indicating a more than casual occupation and 3) its deliberate decommissioning and burial was carefully undertaken and designed to completely erase any easy evidence of its existence without actually destroying it.

            The first irrational feature of the site is its distance from water sources. This is one of the primary reasons that Schmidt considered the site as a “temple” rather than any kind of human settlement[41]. Typically hunter-gatherer groups would establish themselves close to water sources to meet their daily needs. Göbekli Tepe is situated on the top of a hill about 10 km from known water sources. Its construction would have required a large workforce and there is evidence for the consumption of large amounts of food during what seems to have been communal feasts. There are numerous animal bones at the site; they appear to be associated with short-term intense feasting events. The coming together of such large numbers of individuals would have required the transport of both food and water some distances. While the reason for the situation of the site so far from water sources can’t be confirmed, but it is highly unlikely that these builders would have chosen it for its ease of occupation. It must have been selected for other irrational reasons that would have supported the diversion of extensive expenditure of time and energy away from the tasks of procuring food or shelter and devoted to other important purposes.

            The second aspect of the site that is associated with the creative irrational is the many highly-refined images carved or embossed on the stones as depicted in Figure 18 and Figure 19. The skill of the constructors at creating such exceptionally fine images on such hard stone surfaces is most unusual for this early time period. Many of the large megalithic stone T-pillars at the site are carved to represent highly stylized human forms. In addition many of the stones have images embossed on their surfaces. Many of the images are simply embossed onto the surfaces of the structure such as the fox in Figure 18. Some of the images are presented in an incredibly detailed 3-D embossed form on the stones (Figure 19). Keeping in mind that only a fraction of the site has been excavated, there is certainly the expectation that many more such creations will be found in the future. Throughout the site the standing structures provide representations of many organisms including snakes, scorpions, or other larger animals such as mastodons and aurochs. There are numerous birds, some of which are well known, but there are also some that are quite unknown.  Among the animals, foxes are especially common. So much so that it has been suggested that the erecters of the whole construction may have been a cult that venerated foxes as especially important animals[42].

Figure 18. Embossed image of a fox on one of the T-pillars at Göbekli Tepe (http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/Go_Tep_launch.htm).

 

Figure 19. Embossed image of a panther at the base of one of the T-pillars at Göbekli Tepe (https://www.ancient-code.com/15-mind-boggling-images-of-gobekli-tepe/).

            In addition to producing exquisitely detailed representations on the stone surfaces a most marvellous stone totem has also been found on the site (Figure 20). This piece is about 2 metres high and was embedded in one of the walls of the constructions. The totem is made up of a number of images stacked one on top of another. The top image of the totem is an animal, possibly a bear. Just underneath are arms and hands that are notably human in form. Thus we see their mixing of animal and human forms in a non-naturalist manner, perhaps a little like the totem poles of present day traditional structures in western Canada. Appearing to be held in its arms, is another “person” with a face and arms reaching down. Reaching up from the bottom, on the sides of the totem are snakes wriggling up the sides, as portrayed elsewhere at Göbekli Tepe. This is a fantastic creation. It contains aspects of animal and human forms arranged in a vertical fashion. It is typical of later mythical themes where individuals, likely shamans, take on animal forms for experiencings in other worlds. The possible representation of a mythical birth in the lower image is certainly consistent with such experiences. Of importance here is that this is certainly not simply a rational, naturalist representation of the world of the hunter-gatherers. What were they trying to represent by the mixture of the animal and human forms? Why would often-feared snakes be placed in such an intimate representation with the human image? The size of this totem gives weight to the argument that it was not the result of an idle time-filling activity on the part of the creator/creators. It must represent something of great importance to the society – something beyond food, shelter and procreation.

Figure 20. Various aspects of the stone-carved totem found at the Göbekli Tepe site. (https://tepetelegrams.wordpress.com/2017/03/01/the-gobekli-tepe-totem-pole/).

            The third and last amazing aspect of the site that we will deal with here is it’s decommissioning when great effort was expended to stop the further use of the site by burying it in rubble. It needs to be appreciated that while these structures required a very considerable effort at composition and arrangement in their creation and execution, they were eventually deliberately hidden. For reasons of which we have no idea at all, thousands of years after construction began, the structures were covered with mounds of debris around 8,000 BCE.  This could have been carried out by representatives of the builders or by some later group of people. But it is notable that they did not destroy the site, which would have been relatively easy. Instead they invested significant additional effort and resources in hiding it essentially protecting it from its natural degradation over time. 

            The reason for this remarkable ending of the period of their construction and use is totally unknown!  We have no reason at all for why this was done.  Only that it was obviously an operation of closing an elaborate structure that was agreed among them.  There is no evidence of any prior negative attitude to it; simply it appears that someone or group in charge must have decreed an ending and that then the whole structure was closed to view. This closure was done with an eye to totally clogging up all access to the structure or even of knowledge of its former use and appearance.  Its modern-day discovery was an event that seems to have been quite without prior knowledge of anything being there earlier.  Its closure presents us with a mystery of immeasurable proportions.  We have no explanation for why it was closed and why its former presence should have been so carefully obscured. Such a sense of time and purpose by hunter-gatherers is curious. Their appreciation that the site no longer fulfilled its role and should be terminated reflects an irrational, non-present-moment sense of life. The obscuring rather than burial or destruction suggests a connection with future time. 

            While the reason for creation of the complex and all of its incredible structures is still not known, we see it as a significant pre-literate expression of the human creative irrational. Their motivation to the erection of such great monumental detailed structures is plain evidence of what was considered to be worth their veneration.  That is a much more than casual interest in complex arrangements of objects was displayed. This is quite apart from those essential interests and concerns with food, shelter, procreation and immediate pleasures. Here we are shown significant attention directed to objects that played a much more than incidental role of distraction or free-time play. They appear instead to display an intense, directed interest in values that required considerable efforts in both the planning and displaying stages of their activities. This unmistakably important site clearly indicated the presence of questions beyond those representing and dealing with their or our current lives. In them we are presented with an appearance of something that was of foremost significance to them; one that expressed a strong wish for some kind of continuity that could only be captured through manipulating massive stones, hence a sense of the “higher” meaning in their lives.  These remarkable structures seem to mark a distinctive importance given to symbolic representations of the subjects towards which humankind of the time was directing their efforts. Their efforts amounted to a devotion of attentions and actions to a whole new and broader approach to life. 

            How can we see for ourselves the full extent of the creative irrational in these great works at Göbekli Tepe? It was created 12,000 years before present when ancient humans were living in small isolated hunter-gatherer bands. Many believe that they were scraping out a hard life from the limited local resources. The site’s creation using highly skilled techniques of rock quarrying and carving over an extended period of time in an area without evidence of either agriculture or water, suggests a high degree of organization and coordination. 

             One final significance of this site is its impact on how we look at other accomplishments of early humans. Until its discovery much of human accomplishments up until that time were dismissed as the result of random chance of a few isolated individuals. It is only in recent years that modern humans have begun to appreciate the capacities for thought and cooperative action by early human. Göbekli Tepe construction and decommissioning required cooperation, planning and long-range intentions that cannot be denied. With this prominent example of human skills recorded in stone, it allows a re-examination of other accomplishments. Such organizational coordination and creative thought is now being appreciated to have played a role in the accomplishments of Homo floresiensis in sailing to the Island of Flores in Indonesia about 60,000 BCE[43].  That early sailing trip might be viewed as a rational action to find improved living conditions or irrational as a trip of pure discovery. A second example of early coordination can be found in what is now also becoming evident in the populating of North America. By 15,000 BCE humans were migrating by sailing down along the now submerged west coast[44].  The accomplishments of great deeds by early humans through cooperation and planning are just now being fully explored.

Humans’ first city of Jericho

            At around the same time as Göbekli Tepe was constructed, humans were also occupying an area not far away near the springs in Jericho. They lived here in small semi-permanent settlements before the initiation of agriculture. The site is marked by the presence of volcanically produced obsidian glass that is not native to the area. Several sources for obsidian have been located at a distance in northerly Anatoly area and elsewhere.  Its presence in the Levant suggests that humans, who were still hunter-gatherers, were mining and moving their products over large distances throughout the region[45].

            Eleven thousand years ago the early settlements near Jericho were made up of small circular homes. This is the time when the climate was warming up from the last glacial maximum. As temperatures rose and stabilized, the residents of Jericho were taking on a permanent lifestyle. By 10,000 years before the present the site had the massive stonewalls 3.6 m high and 1.8 m wide at the base. Inside the large enclosure was a tower 3.6 m high that is reported as being for ceremonial purposes[46]. In some ways the construction of such a massive tower for unknown, and likely irrational, purposes had some similarities to what has been found at Göbekli Tepe.

            At the Jericho site, 9,000 to 8,000 years before the present, civilization was pursuing a curious and mysterious practice of “last rites” in the treatment of dead bodies. In a number of cases, although the bodies had been placed in the grave, the skulls were removed, covered with plaster and shells and kept in their living spaces.[47]. Through this device of removal and enhancement, the head of the deceased would apparently have been kept closer to human activity and in a more life-like state. For what reason the burial was modified is totally unclear, although it is likely that the altered skull effigy could have been regarded as a memorial to any expression of the former revered person. It is obvious that the culture took this remembrance very seriously. Hence the effigies illustrate to us the earliest evidence of the alteration of human remains in practices that we might understand as reaching toward a spiritual order. We regard it as indicating another appearance of the irrational impulse, but this one signifying the possibility of a quite new conception of transcendence beyond ordinary life. Perhaps their actions were a recognition of a perception of the arising within oneself of another sense of one’s own individuality? 

Summary of Pre-literate insights into the Creative Irrational

            It is evident that humans lived on this earth for hundreds of thousands of years working out the basic necessities of meeting rationally their life requirements. They started out using tools much like many other animals use. Eventually their skills at tool development, production and use, reached levels still not seen in other primates. Evidence that humans overcame their fear of fire, and began creating and controlling fire, is still being sought and discussed. While fire appears in close association with human occupation for possibly a million years, it is not until much more recently, around 125,000 years ago that we see consistent and conclusive evidence of its use[48].

            There is evidence that hominins buried their dead least 100,000 years ago. As Philip Lieberman suggests, it is apparent that burial of deceased bodies may signify a "concern for the dead that transcends daily life.[49]" This most certainly fits our definition of the creative irrational that extends beyond the rational. Coincidentally, this is about the time that the human occupants in South Africa were using decorative red ochre, carving shells and manufacturing silcrete arrowheads. 

            It is not until Göbekli Tepe that we find humans exercising their creative and organizational skills to construct truly inspiring places. Their work was not an isolated event. It appears to have started a lineage that continued in places like Jericho and Çatal Höyük[50]. While there is no literature from this time, it is evident that humans were behaving and expending effort in ways not seen among other animals. More and more of their efforts appear to have been placed on what we often call the non-essential. While this may be the result of an expanding luxury of time and resources, it is striking that so much attention was going to the irrational, thence quite likely spiritual aspects of life. It is impossible for us to say whether the megalithic structures at Göbekli Tepe would have been created without the irrational. One can scarcely imagine all of the work and organization of such a site going only to increase their food intake, but it doesn’t appear to have been so. There is also the possibility that it was built to predict alignment with the stars and predict the changing of the seasons, but it is way “out of scale” for such a simple task in a time when the hunter-gatherers would have many other natural indicators of the changing seasons and weather. Some authors have proposed that the site offers a record of a major world disaster and a warning of future catastrophes[51]. We leave it to the reader to decide which would be more amazing in the consciousness of early hunter-gatherers: On one hand would be the recording of major climate changes or, on the other hand, realizing that there is more to life than simple food, shelter, procreation and immediate pleasures. Our ancient ancestors seem to have had the capacity for awareness of both.

            But while the irrational may be relatively easy to see in humans, we are more interested in that special expression of the irrational that is tied to the spiritual nature of humans. The consistent expression of the spiritual in all of the world’s cultures over the full time-period of our cultural evolution may be tied to the underlying irrational functioning. But in modern day over-rationalized Western societies both are inadequately appreciated. By recognizing the importance and connection between the irrationality and the spiritual in humans, we raise questions about the possible implications for our future.  These are questions that we shall need to consider more fully in what follows. 

—————————— Chapter 4 - The Spirituality Spectrum ———————-

————————— Table of Contents ———————

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirahã

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/22/books/a-new-book-and-film-about-rare-amazonian-language.html

[3] McDougal, Christopher. 2009. Born to Run, A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. Alfred A. Knopf.

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_human_intelligence

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal

[6] Harari, Y.N. 2016.  Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.  McClelland and Stewart. 450 pp.

[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominini

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_habilis

[9] http://johnhawks.net/weblog/archaeology/lower/trinil-shell-engraving-2014.html

[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_erectus

[11]http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/06/world-s-oldest-homo-sapiens-fossils-found-morocco

[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blombos_Cave

[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan_(book)

[14] Fenton, B. 2017. The Forgotten Exodus: The Into Africa Theory of Human Evolution. Ancient News Publishing.  http://brucefenton.info/into-africa-theory/

[15] http://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-we-became-human.html

[16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_habilis

[17] http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/congo-a-group-of-chimpanzees-seem-to-have-mastered-fire/

[18] https://www.livescience.com/5946-chimps-master-step-controlling-fire.html

[19] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQcN7lHSD5Y

[20] http://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/neanderthal-fire/

[21] https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/neanderthal-fire/

[22] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blombos_Cave

[23] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinnacle_Point

[24] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potlatch

[25] Diamond, J. 2012. The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? Viking Adult.

[26] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silcrete

[27] Fenton, B. 2017. The Forgotten Exodus: The Into Africa Theory of Human Evolution. Ancient News Publishing.  http://brucefenton.info/into-africa-theory/

[28] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauvet_Cave

[29] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_Altamira

[30] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauvet_Cave

[31] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pech_Merle

[32] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grottes_de_Cougnac

[33] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rouffignac_Cave

[34] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_figurines

[35] Hancock, G. 2006. Supernatural - Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind. Disinformation Books.

[36] http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/hand-stencils-rock-art.htm - oldest

[37] http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/6/e1700564.full

[38] Schmidt, K. 2015. Premier temple (Le): Göbekli Tepe. CNRS.

[39] Collins, A. 2014.  Göbekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods: The Temple of the Watchers and The Discovery of Eden.  Inner Traditions Bear and Co.

[40] Hancock, G. 2017. Magicians of the Gods: The Forgotten Wisdom of Earth's Lost Civilisation. Hodder & Stoughton.

[41] https://tepetelegrams.wordpress.com/2016/05/18/who-built-gobekli-tepe/

[42] Collins, A. 2014.  Göbekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods: The Temple of the Watchers and The Discovery of Eden.  Inner Traditions Bear and Co.

[43]  Fenton, B.R. The Forgotten Exodus: The Into Africa Theory of Human Evolution (Kindle Location 864). Ancient News Publishing. Kindle Edition.

[44] http://www.ibtimes.com/did-americas-first-immigrants-travel-land-or-sea-scientists-weigh-2610237

[45] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian

[46] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho

[47] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastered_human_skulls

[48] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_of_fire_by_early_humans

[49] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burial

[50] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Çatalhöyük

[51] Hancock, G. 2017. Magicians of the Gods -The Forgotten Wisdom of Earth's Lost Civilisation. Hodder & Stoughton.

Chapter 2: The Rational in Non-Humans

In our effort to distinguish humans from other biological organisms in terms of irrationality and spirituality it is critical to establish a baseline for comparison. While it is difficult to discuss spirituality in humans, it makes absolutely no sense to project measures of spirituality on other animals. But one can examine the extent to which their actions appear rational or not. So we begin our exploration of the importance of the human irrationality by looking at its opposite – the rational. That is, we can to establish what other general animal behavior is like. Is it primarily rational or irrational? Specifically we need to see how animals        behave in their routine lives. 

To do this we start with a definition of the rational objectives of all animal species as being concerned with food, shelter, procreation and immediate pleasures.  The success of any species is tied to these four necessary aspects of life.  They are what will ensure that their genes will survive to be passed on to their offspring. Although across the animal kingdom the actual requirements for a species survival are incredibly diverse, they all need to be achieved within the lifetime of the individuals of the species. While the requirements for one species’ existence may need to be found within a very narrow range of environmental conditions, such as giant pandas that survive only in bamboo forests, in other species, such as the tardigard (Figure 4), that can actually survive for periods of time in the harsh environments such as in the vacuum of outer space[1].

Figure 4. Tardigrade that measures 0.5 mm / 0.02 inches and is one of the hardiest animals known. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade).

For our examination we focus on higher order animals and their rational behavior patterns. They meet immediate needs and result in tangible benefits. We look here at a select number of examples of non-human animals that represent the broader rational approach to to meet survival requirements. In particular we explore the use of tools in animals.

Food 

Of course there are many behaviors that animals use to acquire their food. These could involve complex strategies for hunting and gathering food items. Many predators have developed complex coordinated action and social interactions for stalking and killing prey, such as can be seen with the archetypical actions of a pride of lions picking out a wildebeest on the African savanna. But in addition to highly evolved actions, many animals are known to select and modify items from their surroundings and use these items in their procurement of food[2].

We start with an example from the bird kingdom. While parrots are thought to be fairly intelligent through their well-known and amusing ability to mimic the voice of humans, in the bird world, crows, ravens and rooks better display traits indicating high intelligence in birds. Most critically this is reflected in their intelligent, ingenious use of tools. For example, ravens are known to drop walnuts in front of passing cars to get the nuts cracked and the meats made accessible. They have been observed using sticks to reach food that is beyond their grasp. They have also been observed to actually select specific objects for use in displacing water in a container to more efficiently access articles of food. This selection process can be quite complex.  That is, they choose objects that meet their needs on the basis of both their size and weight (Figure 5).  Another notable example of tool use by birds is that of the Egyptian vulture. It manipulates rocks with its beak to pound them onto the shell of an ostrich egg until it cracks (Figure 6).

Figure 5. The 'water displacement' tasks (pictured) were all variations of the Aesop's fable in which a thirsty crow drops stones to raise the level of water in a pitcher (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2590046/Crows-intelligent-CHILDREN-Study-reveals-birds-intelligence-seven-year-old.html).

Figure 6. Juvenile Egyptian vulture breaking egg with stone (http://www.arkive.org/egyptian-vulture/neophron-percnopterus/image-G30003.htm).

Moving to mammals, whales and dolphins are known to be especially intelligent for their communication and learning of human-taught tricks. But they also express their abilities when it comes to acquiring food. For example, a pod of bottlenose dolphins in Australia has been seen tearing off pieces of sponge and wrapping them around their noses, apparently to prevent abrasions while they poked about the sea floor hunting for buried animals as food.

Even the strong jaws of the sea otter aren't always enough to pry open a tasty clam or oyster. That's when this charismatic marine mammal gets wise. The otter makes use of stones. They might use one on its belly as an anvil or they might uses one to pound open its mollusk meal[3].

If we consider primates, there are many examples of animals modifying objects for procuring food. Capuchin monkeys make stone knives by banging flint against the floor until the pieces are sharp.  Primates also pick up or break off sticks and after some alteration stick, poke, or jab them into holes in various situations to acquire bush babies, ants, honey or other food sources. One case of such alterations of an object for purposes of getting food can be found in the Senegal chimpanzees[4]. In one reported case sticks were not only selected and stripped of their leaves, but the ends were sharpened by the chimpanzees by chewing them down to a point. Once pointed the “spears” could be jabbed into holes in trees to acquire bush babies that would otherwise have been inaccessible.

Shelter

Many higher animals are known to manipulate their environment and produce tools to enhance their use as shelter. For example, the octopus is heralded as the most intelligent non-human invertebrate on the planet. Octopuses have been observed carrying shells that can be used to protect them when threatened (Figure 7). Hermit crabs are the archetypal example of an animal that has a shelter made from materials in its environment. It also uses the shells from other species as its mobile home (Figure 8).  The Blanket octopus has been known to use “tools” for shelter from attack[5]. They tear off tentacles from a jellyfish and wield them as a weapon. Both of these uses of “tools” show the application of inventive rational activity to the task of procuring shelter.

Figure 7. An octopus using a bivalve shell for its own protection (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool_use_by_animals#In_cephalopods).

Figure 8. Hermit crab “housed” in the shell from another species (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermit_crab).

Nests in birds and primates provide one of the many, many examples where materials are fashioned to improve their use in life situations in very rational ways. In the world of mammals, for simplicity and ease, chimpanzees select large leaves to shelter themselves from the rain. Elephants use available sticks as back scratchers and for swatting flies making their lives more pleasant.  Many animals have developed consistent methods for creating very complex, amazingly detailed constructions with minimum tolerance on the form of the final product (Figure 9). In all cases the use of the tool is clearly related to the specific, rational intent and purpose. 

Figure 9. Intricate nest construction of a weaver bird’s nest[6].

Procreation

  All higher animals must mate to give rise to future generations that will continue the species. Of course each species has its own mating process. Whether it is the notable tail feathers of the peacock or the relatively over-sized human genitalia, successful attraction of a mate is critical to the species success[7]. But in addition to the way animals are built and how they behave, non-human animal species have also been seen to actually make use of objects to enhance their attractiveness and thus procreation success[8].

The rationality in animals for use in procreation can easily be seen in the usage by some animals of decoration for attraction. Magpies are believed to acquire shiny objects that will attract other ravens. Bearded vultures add color to their plumage by rubbing against certain soils[9].

Looking at modern human’s closest relatives bonobos and chimpanzees, they have been observed making "sponges" out of leaves and moss to suck up water and use the result for grooming, apparently resulting in increased attractiveness to mates.  In wild bonobos, tool use is mainly for personal care, cleaning and social purposes. It is to be noted that in both of these primate species tool use is more predominate among the females.

Immediate Pleasures

Finally, in addition to animal’s rational use of tools for food, shelter and procreation, there are also instances of animals making use of tools for immediate pleasures and apparent amusement. While such activities border on the irrational, the results of the tools use is immediate and closely tied in time to activity. Crows actually create toys for their pleasure.  Orcas kill for non-food use, possibly in relation to training and practicing their essential life skills in non-life-threatening situations. In addition to humans, a number of primate and non-primate animals have been observed to masturbate[10]. Mammals that masturbate include elephants, bats and marine mammals. In the bird world penguins masturbate. In the reptile world both turtles and lizards have been observed to carry out this kind of activity. In most of these cases other objects in their environment, such as a rock, may be made use of to help self-satisfy. We mention these examples of behavior here as evidence for the use of tools by animals that don’t immediately meet the needs of food, shelter and procreation. 

Summary

All these activities can be seen as totally rational - for the specific purpose of enhancing the survival of the fittest in a direct and immediate manner. Poking for food, building shelters, and adorning nests to attract a mate all are limited activities that are widely seen in the species of interest without much individual creativity, variation or abstraction. It is impressive to see how highly evolved are the diverse behaviors of animals. But it is important to note that, as we proceed to explore human rational and irrational characteristics, that all of these activities are expressions of rationality and that it is almost ubiquitous in the animal kingdom. And as humans are ultimately biological species, they too express high levels of rationality for their survival. Our tool making is highly refined and without a doubt a function of our success in occupying almost all areas of the globe.

But it is impossible to see the irrational in the behavior of non-hominin species. It is important for modern humans to recognize that much of our world is the result of rational mimicking of the outburst of a creative irrational discovery.  For humans this creative irrational is the basis of the application of our rationality. Together the rational and irrational may be shared essential characteristics that differentiate humans from the other animals and hominins, allowing H. sapiens to out-survive many and to propel us to dominate the globe. As we shall see later, the addition of the creative irrational opened up possibilities of development for both our collective as well as individual consciousnes.

—————— CHAPTER 3: PRE-HISTORIC/PRE-LITERATE HUMAN IRRATIONALITY ———————————

———————— Table of Contents —————————

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool_use_by_animals

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool_use_by_sea_otters

[4] http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070222-chimps-spears.html

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanket_octopus

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool_use_by_animals

[7] Morris, D. 1994. The Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal. Vintage Press.

[8] http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/150610-animals-camouflage-decoration-bugs-science/

[9] https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/150610-animals-camouflage-decoration-bugs-science/

[10] https://gizmodo.com/9-animals-that-masturbate-other-than-humans-1723592357

Chapter 1: Humans - Essentially Irrational and Spiritual?

We exist in this world only to the extent that we are aware of ourselves in it. For humans we picture an awareness beyond simply “I am cold” or “I am hungry”. Our worldview includes an image of ourselves that encompasses a connection with the dimensions we term: past, present and future. We sense an existence at different levels of consciousness - both higher and lower. These multiple levels of awareness are the basis for our sense that we exist as individuals. 

Our connection with these different levels of awareness represents our consciousness of “Being”, in fact, they make us human. So what is human and what is not-human? In spite of the general view of modern day Western civilization that humans are ultimately rational, much of these experiences of reality are definitely irrational. Morality, with concepts of good and bad, reward and punishment and ultimately good outcomes from good behavior is irrational.  The irrationality of spirituality allows humans to connect with what are called “higher” levels of existence, representing one of the most fleeting and powerful experiences of humans. It too is irrational yet its effects are undeniable in our world. We, the authors (Figure 1), explore in this book our understanding that humans are basically irrational and ultimately spiritual beings. This irrationality is evident in the very earliest of human development. It is evident in the earliest  modification of rock and bones into the early traces of artwork and in processes that remain of the burying of the dead, which give us clear evidence of human activity. Irrationality of humans is evident in the remains of the earliest development of megalithic structures. It continues today in the irrational goals of space exploration and travel. Modern day economics is just now recognizing the large role the irrational plays in our present-day modern behavior.  Whether it is seeing our irrational action in the purchase of needless consumer products or in better understanding the sides of ourselves that strive for higher awareness and consciousness, this book will show how humans are ultimately and essentially irrational and that it is critical for us as individuals and as a society to clearly examine its power and impact in our lives. It is the key to human success in the past and for our future.

Figure 1. The authors in the crypts of the Eastern Cemetery below the Great Pyramid, Giza, Egypt.

Irrational versus Rational/Creative versus Destructive

P.W. Martin, following the analyses of C.G. Jung[1], presented a model of modern human psychological types along two primary axes: the rational and the irrational (Figure 2)[2]. Along the rational axis he distinguished the “thinking” from the “feeling” aspects of human psychology. Along the irrational axis he saw the “sensation” and “intuition” aspects of humans. 

Figure 2. Jungian psychological types as described by Martin showing the two major axes rational (horizontal) and irrational (vertical) (from Martin (1955)).

The thinking and feeling aspects of the rational axis share many common traits, such as their “yes or no”, “good or bad”, “like or hate” results. Tracing back to the Greeks, the modern Western World has highly valued the rational side of humans in its ability to measure, analyze and manage its activities. Logical, additive, progressive development of modern cultures is often seen as the basis of its present day state. Much of modern day training is based on this rational exposure to progressively difficult challenges to build a framework for modern-day living. As for our opposing feeling functioning, the emotional aspects of human psychology, the affairs of the heart, have always been a driving force in the lives of humans. The comedy and drama themes of theatre throughout modern history offer only one of many examples of our feeling side.

Along the perpendicular irrational axis, in a different dimension, Jung and Martin identified the opposing functions of sensation and intuition. The sensation or physical side of humans is well represented in many aspects of modern human activity, such for example as the thrill of sport. It is also seen in the highly refined work of people involved in crafts, music and various creative arts. What has been less recognized in Western cultures is the other aspect of the irrational that Martin and Jung called the “intuitive”. It could be roughly defined as “operating without conscious reasoning”. It is captured in the concept of our “sixth sense” or “gut feeling”. 

  In this book, we use the word “irrational” in a very specific way. The general paradigm of the modern Western World, largely based in its Christian roots that distrust the natural, magical uncontrollable impulses of their congregation, is that the irrational is less reliable and less valuable than our more explicit rational sides. We do not use it in the pejorative sense relating to stupidity, dangerous or un-understandable actions. It is used here in the sense of being beyond logic. In particular we see the irrational as a functioning that is not directly connected to immediate benefits. Wikipedia includes in its explanation that "Irrationality is thus a means of freeing the mind toward purely imaginative solutions, to break out of historic patterns of dependence into new patterns that allow one to move on."[3] Jung clarifies his use of the term irrational as “not to denote something contrary to logic, but something beyond logic, something, therefore, not grounded on logic.[4]” We extoll the thoughts of Jung where he declares, “I have even found that men are far more irrational than animals”[5].  We will explore this in more detail in the next Chapter.

In this book, to clearly distinguish between the rational and irrational we look at the essential needs of biological life as being related to the rational: food, shelter, procreation, and immediate pleasures. But as we shall show, humans go far beyond these four rational objectives of other animals. For the purpose of exploring what makes humans different from animals, we define the rational as being related to these needs, while the irrational can be related to factors beyond immediate interests.  To make the point clearer one might say that the irrational is outside what is required for day-to-day survival operations. It is always associated with directions of humans’ belief and behavior that could not have been anticipated from the original initiatory impulse. 

It is important to recognize that both rational and irrational functioning can have positive and negative outcomes. In Table 1 we provide some examples of human behavior that help to clarify this. Starting with the rational, it is evident that rational thought has resulted in major contributions to modern day society. The example in Table 1 of modern day engineering is unquestionable. Its ability to calculate the physical, biological and chemical state in our world allows us to drive cars across safe bridges, grow incredible amounts of food, fly to the moon, etc., etc.. This aspect of human endeavor is for the most part related to the not-so-creative replication and implementation of existing ideas, essentially the copying of the end results of the creative irrational breakthroughs. Without a doubt our present day success is tied to the successful application of the scientific method of “testing the hypothesis”[6]. This includes research endeavors, mathematics and engineering. It is what allows the possibility for the majority of humans to live in very dense populations with most food imported and most of our waste products exported from urban centers. Most things that we take for granted in our world are the result of mass-producing successful products or processes. The replication of new and useful ideas is as important today as in our very earliest stages of stone tool development. A single ancient hominin with a stone ax would not have left much of an impression if the idea hadn’t been appreciated and copied by innumerable followers. It is as true today with the Internet technology as it was with the original stone axes.

Table 1. Examples of the Rational and Irrational as aspects of human nature.

  The outcomes of the rational to quantify observations and replicate past successes is also evident in its negative outcomes. We see these negative aspects as those that result in outcomes that go contrary to our primary needs for food, shelter, procreation, and immediate pleasures. War engineering that continues today with nuclear weapons demonstrates a very high level of human technical competency, but also has the potential to severely impact on life as we now know it. We take it for granted that the reader is well trained in both the positive and negative aspects of the rational.

Similarly the irrational can also result in negative destructive outcomes. The extermination of other human societies such as has appeared in conflicts and wars over the last millennia is unheard of in other species. Suicide is another example that is ultimately irrational and is only observed in humans. Modern day paranoia that contrasts with proven scientific medical benefits of vaccine use is just one of the many less extreme negative irrational expressions in today’s society. The negative irrational is comparable to Koestler’s “Ghost in the Machine”[7]. While the negative irrational adds support to our exploration of the uniqueness of the irrational in humans, we prefer to not dwell here on its destructive aspects. Yet it is important to appreciate that the destructive aspects have not been sufficient to impede human’s continuing development and success. 

On the plus side, the irrational is unmistakable in many of humanities developments and outcomes. As we shall see in this work the irrational is associated with all of the greatest breakthroughs in human development. For Philo of Alexandria and other early Greek philosophers Logos spermatikos has as one if its meanings “seed-bearing reason” which yields new insights in a person[8]. Such insights and breakthroughs that result from this human quality, as for example the active application of fire, distinguish us from other animals. They have been essential in making us human. While human art is undervalued in the modern world in terms of the economic support it receives compared to the amount given to the war machine, it has been a function of human life since our very earliest distinction from other animals. In science the creative irrational is associated with the initiation of a hypothesis that is totally different from the later formalistic steps in testing and validating a hypothesis. As we shall present in Chapter 10 this is still a very subjective and mysterious step in the overall scientific process. The creative irrational is what makes us modern day humans.

Personal Experiences of The Irrational

It is critical for this exploration of spirituality and irrationality to address the negative bias associated with concepts of the irrational. The starting point of any personal understanding of the topic is our personal direct experience and knowledge of it. Our irrational functioning can be found in our own existence: the phenomenon of being truly aware of oneself at the same time as experiencing impressions that arise from the external as well. This results in “direct” knowledge. It is associated with the condition of being awake to what is experienced at this particular present moment, giving it an immediate personal validity. 

That different levels of experience and understanding are present in us from very early in our lives can be accessed through remembrances of childhood experiences. Whether they are associated with early experiences of danger and emergency or of love and connection they reflect an unsuspected knowledge of quite different dimensions of reality. We can best illustrate their scope by re-telling some personal experiences.

The first personal example of direct experience of our higher awareness relates to our “sense of time”. Throughout our daily lives, we rarely question our experience of the flow of time. With effort we can note that routines as common as the drive to work every morning can leave quite different impressions. Some days one arrives at work without any noticeable passage of time; it is like not even having done any driving. But on other days each mile is an eternity. Neither of them is likely to be specifically remembered. By contrast a third possibility can be experienced where the commute is a relaxed peaceful drive when the sun is shining, the colours of autumn leaves are brilliant, the air smells fresh and the wind blowing in the window is invigorating. Although one may think at the time that these pleasant moments will always be remembered as special and in great detail, they almost always fade into indistinct memories of a general mood. All three states can emerge from the same daily drive, so the variety comes from within me. An awareness of these different experiences verifies different degrees of what we take to be reality in the passing of our lives. Is it automatic? Or does it depend on parts of our unconscious nature; something that is clearly a part that we do not know about - until we enter such an experience?

In the particular situation we wish to present here there arose a quite different perception of time in a moment of “waking up” in the face of a mortal threat. We relate here a particular car accident experienced by a young driver, PRB, out on an innocent summer’s evening’s drive. Such experiences are invariably individual, so it is appropriate to tell the story in the first person:

“It began as an uneventful drive with friends in my father's car towards a narrow causeway along a mostly dirt road, much like many similar trips that summer, but this one is still recalled as a specific, stand alone, event. The car bumped as it dropped from the pavement onto the dirt road that led to the causeway and “short” bridge, just as expected. The back tires gently slid sideways, a moment of thrill that always brought smiles to the faces of the friends. All is relaxed and the young driver enjoys the easy corrections of the steering along the causeway to the bridge. But suddenly the world takes on an enormously different appearance! The moments of pleasure are suddenly transformed into a frightening threat to life, when, in an instant, the car’s movement onto the bridge changed from controlled to uncontrollable - perhaps the result of an unrecognized, involuntary turn of the drive wheel, or a slight bump from an undetected small rock in the tire-track. The sudden lurch changed the whole perspective!

“But in the same inexplicable instant, time suddenly began to move much more slowly. The world took on a peaceful, deliberate feeling. Nothing is rushed or rushing. Everything is suddenly seen in a much broader perspective and there is an abundance of time; time to feel the car's movement, time to plan the next few instants of action. In this moment the impressions of events and surroundings is crystallized, now broadened to include the low guardrail of the bridge, that diverted the car from a plunge into the water below, the gasp of friends inside, and the drivers instant prayer to a God for protection.”

“Then the moment was over, deflected by the guardrail, and the violent shake of a friend to grab the wheel and steer! Back in regular time, the car "miraculously" was still on the narrow causeway going straight down the centre of the road. Then an eerie silence contrasted with the strange sounds of the newly damaged car. The driver felt himself to be back in his regular world with a regular car, regular time and eventually regular father!”

If not for this moment of experience of a different kind of time, the day would have been as little memorable as other summer days with friends heading for the beach. But this one was different. I still remember the sudden change in perception of time to a previously unknown level of what has only much later been seen as the reality of being alive in a moment, a special instant in which time seemed to stand still. It is a moment that in the re-experiencing now helps me to understand what can be meant by the eternal.”

Our second illustration of early awakening is found in the childhood memory of a brief encounter with a very old Mi'kmaq First Nations, "Indian", woman by LMD as a young boy. This example recalls a moment of intense connection without the sharing of any spoken words. The other person is still vividly remembered with a mixture of wonder, reverence and fear:

"I remember her sitting in a 'wigwam' made of vertically arranged spruce poles in the middle of the summer encampment that was set up regularly outside the village where I was born and lived as a child. I could not have been older than seven or eight at the time of the event in question. The memories are in the form of emotionally tinged images.

"The summer encampment was at the edge of a vertical red sandstone cliff. It faced east towards the rising sun, and was situated just to the south of the deeply eroded gully of a small stream that spilled out through a cleft in the cliff face. The gully provided the encampment with fresh water as well as with access to the beach and salt waters of Minas Basin, Nova Scotia, at the head of the Bay of Fundy. The site looked out over the beach and water towards Cape Blomidon that the Mi'kmaq say was the home of the great god, Glooscap. Perhaps because of a quality of the cool, damp mists that often arose from the stream, especially in mid summer, the white villagers knew the place as 'Ghoul's Hollow'. Visits to the site in recent years still have the capacity to invoke images of the spectacular beauty of the stream-cooled surroundings and of the remembered event itself.

"I didn’t know where the band spent its winters, but I remember the small, family-like group that regularly arrived in our village on the local train in late June or early July. They would unload their belongings, packed in real "Indian" baskets, and with little fuss or conversation, pick them up and trudge the mile or two along the dirt road to the quiet and beautiful site, now, despite the subsequent erosion of the cliff, still occupied by a few lucky cottagers.

"On the particular day I remember, my uncle had taken me and a younger cousin to visit the encampment. There, after walking guardedly through the strange surroundings, I watched from a vantage position near the entrance to the wigwam as a scantily-clothed young brave, probably fourteen or fifteen years old but seemingly very grown-up to me, finished whittling a wooden arrow. He then fitted it to a bow, and walking purposefully to the edge of the cliff, with a slight flourish shot it up into the air, over the water. I remember the adults, my uncle amongst them, exclaiming about his shot, and caught a glimpse of myself also murmuring with them, but then suddenly stopping when I realized my situation. What is left in my memory was the brief glimpse as though from outside myself, of making the impulsive murmuring sound in copy of others around me, but how it was in sharp contrast with my actual lost feeling of frustration and of missing something because although standing where there was a clear view of all in front, I had not seen the arrow after it left the bow!

"What I particularly remember at that moment, however, was how my attention was suddenly taken by the quiet look that the women seated in the shade of her wigwam gave me and the young man. The look on her rugged face was almost without reaction, rather like a faint smile of knowing observation, that seemed to my childish impressions to show that she saw more of all of us than the actions of a young brave and me as part of his audience. I think I was a little afraid of her unfamiliar quietness and the sense of the vast scope of her vision. It was consciousness of her that suddenly caused me to internally "stand back" and notice the contradiction in feelings at what was happening inside and outside of me, almost as though to someone else - perhaps helping me to remember it.

“In retrospect, I have a sense of recall of the whole ambience of the camp at that moment, especially a feeling of the quiet and reverence with which the other Mi'kmaq always watched and approached her, even the very young ones.

"I have no doubt that this short-lived but timeless image from my childhood has provided important colouring for my concept of a ‘wise person’. The event itself: the arising through her quiet glance of the internal “standing back” and observing the contradiction between the feeling of failure inside me, my copying of the outside murmur, and my simultaneous realization of my failure to see. The combination, occurring in her presence, seemed to touch something important in me that had not been active before. The state induced was clearly not part of my usual, everyday self. The memory still holds the flavour of a special moment – a brief participation in a state that transcended the particular place or time, and more than seventy years later still elicits an instinctive model of a wise person."

One final story illustrating an awakening comes not from the authors’ lifetime but from 2,000 years ago at the time of Christ by Philo of Alexandra[9]. He was a leading Jewish philosopher trying to deal with the apparent dichotomy between scientific laws and theology, between deterministic divine creation and man’s free will. Although possibly not on the same level of existential experience as above, there are definitely hauntingly similar tones in Philo’s story:

“There was once a time when by devoting myself to philosophy and to contemplation of the world and its parts I achieved the enjoyment of that Mind which is truly beautiful, desirable, and blessed; for I lived in constant communion with sacred utterances and teaching, in which I greedily and insatiably rejoiced. No base or worldly thoughts occurred to me, nor did I grovel for glory, wealth or bodily comfort, but I seemed ever to be borne aloft in the heights in a rapture of the soul, and to accompany sun, moon, and all heaven and the universe in their revolutions. Then, ah, then peering downwards from the ethereal heights and directing the eye of my intelligence as from a watchtower, I regarded the untold spectacle of all earthly things, and reckoned myself happy and having forcibly escaped the calamities of mortal life.[10]”

  Philo’s story sounds remarkably like the themes the Ancient Egyptians captured in the Pyramid Texts that we will present in Chapter 4. Possibly the Christian Saint Paul had a similar experience during his “Conversion on the road to Damascus”[11]. Whether in our personal stories or those of the greater traditions, there is a consist sense of encountering something beyond our personal ordinary life. The occurrences come on quickly as a great surprise. It is as if something extraordinary touches us.

What is it? The answer is beyond our ordinary knowledge or our control. The power and unexpectedness of such moments may however, give rise to similar memories in the reader, in which case the reality of the described experience will not be in doubt. It is an instance of experiencing properties in myself, and my perceptions of them, that results in direct knowledge that are beyond those typically discussed in everyday conversations, such as that of my Uncle at the moment of my connection with the old woman. The difference between the lack of connection with my Uncle and the strong connection established by the “look” from the woman was undeniable. Words were not a necessary component of the knowledge that the old lady seemed to offer. What was conveyed remains an aspect of learning and understanding that is quite outside the avenues of the rational, clearly depending as much on the state of the very young observer as it was on what was observed. The moments show that we are able, especially when quite young, to recognize that our day-to-day world lacks a comprehensiveness that is naturally invoked in us by special conditions. This type of experience has provided us the authors with a basis for a lifelong appreciation of the different levels of Being. They have given rise to a strong desire in us to encounter such a state again in life.  They hold the key to appreciating our irrational side.

At other times and for other individuals, the experience of the irrational might be more or less intense. It may just include moments of heightened flavours or aromas during a meal. It might contain moments of “waking up” from our usual state of sleep-walking through our daily lives. But although they are generally short-lived, these brief moments leave their mark. They raise questions about how can we live through such different levels of existence and still consider ourselves as single, homogeneous, unified individuals?

These examples of our direct experiences describe phenomena that played an essential role in our development. In those moments we experienced different sides of ourselves: the observer and the observed, both within ourselves. Such experiences open us up to a world with extra-dimensionality in addition to our ordinary sense of connection and time. There is here a taste of what Blake saw in a grain of sand and an hour[12].

Whether the paradox is stated in ancient myths such as posed by the story of King Solomon[13] or in modern times by the insights of physicist, Niels Bohr[14], into the irreconcilable duality of the wave and particle nature of light energy, these examples are indicative of the innate capacity of the observer in us to approach questions about the irrational aspects of life. We can be aware of an extra-dimensionality with which in some part of our organism we seem to have direct contact. Unfortunately, the reality of such experiences is either soon forgotten or actually blocked out by other demands for a sense of the comprehensible. As we grow older, they seem to be less and less frequent, to the point where in retrospect the seemingly timeless event may even seem to have been an illusion!

As humans we spend most of our time on earth asleep and unconnected to our higher possibilities. The moments we recall when we perceived our other states of awareness point directly to the possibilities in the elusive irrational, spiritual aspects of Being. The fact that we are not often connected with these more-than-merely physical moments is, of course, not news to anyone who has attempted to appreciate one’s human nature and/or spirituality. This book deals with humanity’s efforts to observe, remember and present a coherent representation of this higher Being. Therein lies the key. We strive to be more than our sleeping selves. This human longing can be understood as both a collective human motivation and, more importantly, as a primary force in our own personal lives, one that we define as our “essential irrational”.

These experiences of the more-than-ordinary lead us in our efforts to be more aware, more awake; that is to develop our irrational, spiritual aspects. 

The Spiritual

In common with the concept of the irrational; spirituality has been given many conflicting and confusing interpretations. It can be viewed in many ways for example from the routine behavior of regular attendance at religious service to what has been described by some authors as the direct experience of God[15]. It is most difficult to write directly of either irrationality or spirituality and to link these concepts to other traits of living beings.

The lack of a direct lexicon for sharing and exchanging about the essential human experience of spirituality has persisted throughout our history. While the actual word “spirituality” can be traced back to only the 5th Century, Middle Ages Christianity, its recognition and meaning can certainly be seen at the beginning of human writing in the first-known literature of the Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts[16]. Phrases that draw on physical experiences have always been coopted in an attempt to represent non-physical experiences.  Religious writings are filled with references to being “lifted up”, “His glory shone down”, “carried up into heaven”, “thrown down into hell”, etc., etc.. For many, such phrases are interpreted literally in spite of the lack of individual, personal observations of such physical lifting up to the heavens. It is not only in literature that humans have difficulty expressing the more-than-physical realm of the spiritual. The gloriously painted halos that surround the heads of blessed ones in Christian paintings are a good example of our inability to directly represent our awareness of the spiritual in others (Figure 3). Maybe the saints glowed literally with light, or maybe these are just attempts to represent that which cannot be represented in the solely physical domain.

Figure 3. Image from 1305 painted in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy as one early example of a halo to represent spiritual figures(https://daydreamtourist.com/2015/05/18/visiting-scrovegni-chapel/).

So at face value, spirituality has to be recognized as related to something beyond the physical, rational aspects of our world. Human lexicon and grammar is still firmly grounded in the physical. It is not surprising that powerful topics such as love, hate, and the spiritual are difficult to deal with directly, without metaphor and symbolism,  in our literature and thus in our worldview.

Spirituality may, in our view, be defined as the quality of an experience of the divine in our immediate present-moment existence. It is recognized by us as the perception of an impulse that is above our usual and ordinary levels of perception. It is that which makes us aware of the more-than-merely personal. It is a state that we can cultivate in ourselves and recognize in others that raises and assists us in appreciating the mysterious, sometimes ephemeral, but ideally permanent sense of being a taste of a “higher level” of being. In the words used by the 1st Century philosopher Plotinus to describe the spiritual aspirations of humans, “I am striving to give back the Divine in myself to the Divine in the All.”[17] It is a “beyond the fringe” experience that is ultimately irrational. There is nothing here that can be applied to the seeking of the spiritual that could be considered equivalent to the learning of mathematics.

The Link between the Creative Irrational and the Spiritual

As we have explored in our previous work there are various levels of human existence that relate to the spiritual[18]. Many sages, philosophers, religious and secular authors have worked to describe the spiritual. We wish to emphasize that there are a number of critical traits that we see shared between the creative irrational and the spiritual. First: they are both irrational; that is they both reach beyond the extensive analysis by our ordinary minds.  Second:  they both originate in a very few individuals who are then followed by others. Whether it is stone axes or awareness of higher levels of consciousness, they both seem to be discovered by individuals, appreciated by others and then become representative in a population. Finally, both traits move humans from living like all other organisms on the planet to what is widely accepted as being less animal and more uniquely “human”. In this work we find that it is easy to see the role of the creative irrational in the history and present day activities of humans. We build on what we see as the strong linkage between our creative irrational and our spiritual sides in order to explore them in our evolution and in our present day functioning. In the present case it appears that they may be what make us human. 

  If we return to the model of human psychology provide by Jung and Martin, with both a rational and irrational axis, we can begin to appreciate that the connection between the irrational and spiritual will lead us to find our spiritual nature as an aspect of our sensation and intuition functions. The “spiritual” thus involves the experience of a powerful sensory and intuitive movement. This aspect of our spiritual Being is quite outside of our thinking and feeling functions. We need to learn to appreciate that the spiritual is outside rational processing, beyond thought and emotion. Although experiences of the spiritual are often reported as being felt with great emotional energy, this likely results from a lack of discrimination between our intuitive and our feeling sides. We will return to this in later chapters where we consider its relations to the whole of our psychological nature. The common phrase “gut feeling” often used to refer to our intuition also exemplifies this lack of clarity and is now being actively explored in modern day economics research. The spiritual is definitely related to the more mysterious irrational, not the later rational, perhaps more ordinary side of the human.

So with these concepts properly defined we are ready to explore the question of what it means to be human. What is it about Homo sapiens that distinguishes them from all other biological organisms? When did this differentiation begin? How has the human worldview, particularly the creative irrational and spiritual, led to our success as a species and what does it mean for our present day self study as individuals and as a society? 

================ CHAPTER 2 - THE RATIONAL IN NON-HUMANS ==========


———————- Table of Contents ——————————

[1] Jung, C.G. 1921. Psychological Types (Jung's Collected Works #6).

[2] Martin, P.W. 1955. Experiment in Depth: A study of the work of Jung, Eliot and Toynbee. Pantheon. New York.  276 pp.

[3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrationality

[4] Jung, C.G. 1976. Psychological Types. Princeton University Press.  (p. 454, par. 773).

[5] Jung, C.G. 1999.  Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Princeton University Press. Page 119. 

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method

[7] Koestler, A. 1967. The Ghost in the Machine. Macmillan, New York.

[8] Wright, R., 2009. The Evolution of God. Little, Brown and Company. New York.

[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo

[10] Goodenough. 1986. An Introduction to Philo Judaeus. University Press of America. p. 5. quoted in Wright, R. 2009. The Evolution of God. Little, Brown and Company, New York.

[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_of_Paul_the_Apostle

[12] http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/blake/to_see_world.html

[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgment_of_Solomon

[14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Bohr

[15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirituality

[16] Brind Morrow, S.  2015.  The Dawning Moon of the Mind: Unlocking the Pyramid Texts.  Farrar, Straus and Giroux.  New York.  289 pp.

[17] MacKenna, S. 1992. Plotinus The Enneads. Larson Publications. Page 2.

[18] Dickie, L.M. and P.R. Boudreau. 2015. Awakening Higher Consciousness: Guidance from Ancient Egypt and Sumer. Inner Traditions. Vermont. USA.

Egyptians nailed mathematics long before the Greeks.

Of course the Ancient Egyptians were competent in mathematics - long before the Greeks: http://www.awhico.com/blog/2015/2/4/egyptianmath.

How else could they construct what they constructed???