On Vision and Being Human: Exploring the Menstrual, Neurological and Symbolic Origins of Religious ExperienceVisionary and religious experiences are ubiquitous among human beings, but why do we experience them as coming from a hidden reality beyond the senses? Why should we believe in the existence of deities despite the mundane evidence of our own eyes? Why do we as intelligent primates ascribe any importance to these 'imaginary' realities at all? This creative and speculative thesis seeks to answer these questions in a new way, gazing into the content of visions themselves and exploring the various inner realities that gave rise to these transformative and meaningful aspects of our humanity. Focusing upon symbolic cognition as a fundamental organising principle of human experience, a diverse series of musings upon the nature of reality, consciousness, and our evolutionary origins seeks to transcend our modern artificial boundaries to arrive at a holistic, and delightfully playful, human image for the twenty-first century. An original visionary thesis illustrated with 30 beautiful drawings. |
Contents
Acknowledgements | 8 |
1 | 17 |
3 | 25 |
5 | 35 |
Emergent Objectivity and the Noumenon | 45 |
8 | 51 |
11 | 73 |
12 | 83 |
Other ThreeTier Visionary Systems | 197 |
Object Permanence and the Noumenon | 199 |
On Menstrual Synchrony | 200 |
Handaxes and PreSymbolic Cultural Behaviours | 202 |
On Menstrual Migraines | 206 |
On Phylogenetic and Ontogenic Archetypes | 208 |
On Music | 210 |
The Goddess Kamakhya and the Queen of the Night | 213 |
14 | 95 |
15 | 107 |
17 | 117 |
In The Darkness I Can See My Own Brain | 125 |
19 | 139 |
20 | 149 |
22 | 159 |
24 | 173 |
25 | 183 |
Definitions of Symbols and Symbolism | 189 |
On Pareidolia | 195 |
Defining the Art Artefact in a Middle Palaeolithic Context | 215 |
On the Coopting of Menstruation and Male Power | 216 |
Ainu Relationships Between Humans and Gods | 220 |
Forward into the Prehistoric | 221 |
Timeline of Relevant Features of Human Evolution | 224 |
Notes References | 226 |
List of Illustrations and Commentary | 294 |
Bibliography | 303 |
326 | |
Common terms and phrases
Acheulean Africa animals archetypal artefacts aspects Barasana become behaviour Blombos Blombos Cave blood brain Campbell Cave chapter Chris Knight collective complex consciousness considered context cosmos creative dance Darwinian Darwinism deity Desana Dorze Eliade emerging Endnote entheogenic entoptic entoptic phenomena essay eternal evidential evolution evolutionary evolved example existence Female Cosmetic Coalitions function fundamental handaxes Henshilwood hominid Hugh-Jones insight intensified trajectory interpretation Knight Kohn kYa B.P. language Lewis-Williams literal magical male Mandukya Upanishad menstrual Middle Stone Age migraine Mithen modern human myth mythical mythology narrates nature neural neurological notion noumenon object observed one’s Palaeolithic pareidolia passim perception perhaps phenomena phenomenon Power & Watts pre-frontal cortex quantum mechanics quote realm red ochre Reichel-Dolmatoff religion religious resonates retrieved Rimell ritual sacred seen sense sexual shamanic signals social speculate suggest Summarised symbolic cognition symbolic culture synchrony theory vision visionary experience visual visual cortex World-Beyond-Worlds