The evolution of our species

The evolution of our species In different historical moments, different people and cultures have translated human interiority as diverse and, on occasion, opposed poetic or mythical landscapes. In fact, since the beginning of time, human beings have used various ways to enter into the deep space within the mental and the spiritual dimension. Today many researchers in the field of phenomenological studies are asking various questions to understand our collective distant past. They are looking at human history and are creating links between moments of rupture of the mental space and the changing in human perspective; changes in the look upon external phenomenon. According to researcher Ariane Weinberger (“Investigation sur le Dessein d’Homo sapiens au Paléolithique supérieur : de la quête de survie à la quête de transcendance”, France, 2013) by questioning our distant past, we propels the consciousness to ask questions about our distant future and, conversely, we open a space and project ourselves into the future. These questions push us and help us to integrate our collective past. Ariane Weinberger studied the first Homo sapiens and their quest for survival, transcendence, and immortality ("Investigation on the Purpose of Homo sapiens in the Upper Paleolithic: from the quest for survival to the quest for transcendence"). Weinberger explained how the various myths of immortality may be the engine of human history. According to the researcher death appears as the greatest suffering related to our collective future. In the research she seeked to understand the quest and suspicion of transcendence of the human beings’ ancestors. Weinberger investigations were made from ground observation by using allegorical and symbolic methods of interpretation developed in these three books: Psychology Notes (Psychology I and II), Self-liberation and Morfologia, as well as in the light of Psychology IV. The researcher also made some observations and interpretations from visiting several caves in Dordogne, a region in France, several shelters and museums and also from data obtained through written documentation over a period and interviews with some prehistorians specialists. Weinberger explained that 700,000 years ago, the hominid, for the first time in history, disobeyed radically to the dictates of Nature and opposed its instinct by advancing towards the fire instead of fleeing it as do all animals. By doing so, the hominid transcends its animality and gives birth to its humanity, to the human being. This unpredictable act opened a new frontier into mental space. This experience was crucial for the evolutionary process of humanity. “By penetrating deeper and deeper into these caves, and creating the drawings of various animal homo sapiens left behind the reality of the everyday world with its variations radiant, thermal, phonic, olfactory, etc. In this silent space, darkness and stillness reign. Everything always seems the same, we lose the notion of time and the usual spatial references, perceptions of the external senses decrease, which is the ideal situation to enter in contact with its interiority, to explore the spatiality of consciousness (representation of space from within) (Weinberger p.28) “ In addition to the survival instinct, there will be an intention to survive, an aspiration continuity of life, transcendence, immortality. A "design" and a "direction" now printed in the memory of this to be a historical one whose mode of social action transforms its own Nature. (Weinberger, p.10, 2010) Is it possible, in witnessing the extinction of the man of Neanderthal Homo sapiens lived a major existential crisis ? Admittedly, the production of fire had ensured in some extent its survival as an individual and group. But what about its continuity? If Neanderthal could disappear, maybe he could also disappear. Neanderthat mastered the fire just like him, and possessed the same technology of hunting, then Sapiens, too, might disappear, and this,especially since the infant mortality rate was very high. Weinberger explained how, Sapiens facing the extinction of Neanderthal once again disobey the determinisms, by seeking new Experience of defying time. According to the researcher Sapiens give, his own existential questioning a "more advanced" spiritual response: transcending one's limits apparent, the most painful of which is the limitation of life through death, rightly called "finitude." His response was the translation of his impulse towards “finitude” in the production of Art, drawing in caves, and he will also seek to leave material traces of the intangible world that he has discovered, so that tangible productions can defy time forever. Weinberger explains how the experience in the caves changes homo sapiens perspective. In the exploration of the caves made possible for Homo Sapien to discover the spatiality of the consciousness. The discovery of the fire allows homo sapiens to explore new spaces in the world external, such as dark caves, and allows to explore new, deeper, more inspired, sacred spaces. Thus, the human being was born from an experience with the "deep of himself", of an inspiration that will become an aspiration: a purpose that goes beyond it and that pushes him to surpass himself in a transcendent direction. “What is striking about the caves is the desire to create perspectives, reporting on distances, producing the notion of volume, depth, the three-dimensionality, and to show the existence of the coordinated Z, such as the depth of the observation point. The leap of perspective allows for a global vision, a structured perspective. The use of convex and concave surfaces in the cave produces the volume effect and repetition of a form (animal) on different levels (plans) creating the effect of perspective, where depth and distance are omnipresent.” (Weinberger, p.39) A revolution in the space of representation In the research, “The space of representation as a psychosocial experience”, Silvia Bercu-Swinden explained the various changes in human perspective throughout history. Swinden studies the possibilities that human beings may have expanded their consciousness through deeper experiences that may have modified their beliefs. “It is not possible to imagine all the possible situations that our hero might have encountered (surely more than one and over a long period of time), but it is possible to surmise that what made him go to the fire was something that happened in his imagination, even if his ability to imagine was probably rather rudimentary. However the reasons that led him to reject the mechanical and habitual are not as significant as the act itself: "The most important thing in all this is that act of consciousness to overcome the resistance that was leading him to flee in the presence of such external phenomenon. Since that time, overcoming (surmounting obstacles, difficulties) is an act of consciousness that begins to change the way we view the world.” (Silvia Bercu-Swinden,p.3 2017) According to Swinden, a revolution took place when the human being began to put the images found in his mind on the walls of caves. Then humans started giving names to things in Nature, they started to transform Nature and to transform their own Nature. “A revolution necessarily contemporary to the facts we are describing in the evolution of consciousness took place when the images were externalized, when the human being began to put the images found in his mind on the walls of caves, in his language, giving names to things that in Nature have no name, transforming an image of a bowl into a clay bowl to carry embers from one point to another. This clay bowl was then transformed by fire into a brick-coloured bowl that is more resistant to water, but not yet impermeable, until different types of ovens allowed it to increase the temperature until producing ceramic, the first experience of irreversible transformation of matter by fire made by the human being. Fire would then become a factor of evolution from the work not only utilitarian but also artistic of ceramics, reaching today's highly technological production going through metals, glass and energy production.” (Silvia Bercu-Swinden,p.5, 2017) Swinden explained that the human being is immersed in their consciousness-world structure that can only be glimpsed when becoming aware of their space of representation and its underlying mechanisms. Swinden study various works and explain how the Space of Representation in itself as the explanations given by Silo in Psychology Notes, Contributions Thought (Psychology of the Image) and Silo Speaks (The Riddle of Perception) as well as those found in Self-Liberation by Luis Ammann and the works produced by the network of Psychology of New Humanism treat the subject with due depth. The process of acquiring consciousness of consciousness has not been easy, or linear, if the historical thread is followed, just as it is not for any individual who undertakes such a task. “Perhaps the most significant study of the spatiality of consciousness and its representations found in antiquity corresponds to the Buddha. He was already describing in his beginnings as the creator of a new spiritual doctrine the nonexistence of a permanent I and the need to free oneself from the illusory mind, in general the world of perception, in order to reach the True and Transcendental Mind, or Nirvana.” (Swinden, p.9, 2017) Today on this planet of ours, in which societies are becoming globalized, in which our future is more and more jeopardized by various global threats such as global warning, pandemic episode, and nuclear war. It seems like a perfect timing for the renewed experience of the contact with the transcendent element in our species, and which many times in history has fostered a recognition and spiritual encounter between the peoples of the world. Maybe it’s time to change our perspective on the world by letting go of our illusory mind The renewed experience with the transcendent element and the meaning of life will become an important theme in the next decades. These themes have occupied many philosophers through the ages. Why ? Because in the midst of global chaos interesting questions appeared : What should we do facing global chaos ? What could happen if the experience of transcendence and meaning of life were experiences gained by all humanity, just as the domestication of fire in its time? In our next blog we will take a deeper look into the question. This is the rapture of those beings not understood in their deepest nature, great powers who made all that is known and even all that which is still unknown. This is the rhapsody of the external nature of the gods, of action seen and sung by human beings who could place themselves in the watchtower of the sacred. This is what appeared as a sign fixed in eternal time, capable of disrupting the laws and order, and feeble reason. That which mortals desired, this the gods made—that which the gods spoke through human beings. _________________________________________________________________________ Source: Ariane Weinberger, “Investigation sur le Dessein d’Homo sapiens au Paléolithique supérieur : de la quête de survie à la quête de transcendance”, France, Parc La Belle Idée, 2013. Silvia Bercu-Swinden, “The space of representation has a psychosocial experience”, France Parc La Belle Idée, 2013. Ariane Weinberger and Swinden are Silo school members and have studied at the Parks of study and reflection “La Belle idée” in France. There are various Parks similar to La Belle Idée around the world. The Parks of study and reflection are gateways to the mental world and the Profond. In these Parks, a set of studies and practices allow one to carry out experiences with the internal world.