Paleolithic Beginnings
Becoming Human
During the Paleolithic era, Cro-Magnon’s artistic expression reached a critical mass as seen in cave paintings all over Europe, Asia, Siberia, Australia and Africa
Creativity in Response to Crisis
The most intense artistic activity happened just as the Ice Age reached its most severe (approximately 40,000–15,000 years ago), then about 10,000 years ago, it virtually disappeared as the Ice Age finally ended.
The Use of Sound in Caves
Echoes were very likely understood to be the voices of spirits. Their reverberating sound appeared to come from deep inside the cave walls, themselves thought to be a portal to the spirit world.
Connecting with the Spirit World
Many images were likely created as part of a ritual that took place in the caves in which our ancestors re-created and re-worked their out-of-body visions.
The Neurophysiology of the Trance State and Our Concept of a Three-Tiered Cosmos
Throughout the world, Shamanic vision journeys display a similar pattern that cannot be accounted by communication or migration.
God 4.0
On the Nature of Higher Consciousness and the Experience Called “God”
By Robert Ornstein with Sally Ornstein
Review by Denise Winn
Contributing Writer
Countless research findings reveal the existence of a second network of cognition that transcends everyday consciousness. It is what people have tried to activate, from the earliest shaman-sages to Moses 3,500 years ago, to Jesus 2,000 years ago, to Muhammad 1,400 years ago, all the way up to the myriad of contemporary seekers. Read more
A Contemporary Look at the Nature of Religious Experience
Review by George Kasabov
Contributing Writer
People can persuade themselves of anything. Many believe that death is a transition to a transcendental world, that miracles occur through the will of God, or that our lives are ruled by immaterial spirits. How is it that, in our scientific age, when we have learned so much about the evolution of the universe and the nature of life, so many still cling to such beliefs? Why is it that faith – belief in the unprovable – is considered a virtue?
Returning to the Spirit in “Sacred Nature”
A review of Sacred Nature by Karen Armstrong
A staggering 33 million people have been internally displaced in Pakistan. Because climate change is likely to have played a role in the heavy rains, the displaced can be considered “climate refugees”— a term that the novelist Fatima Bhutto urges us remember, as we will all be impacted by climate change, and many of us will become migrants as a result, if we haven’t already.
Religious Evolution and the Axial Age
From Shamans to Priests to Prophets
Hardcover edition 2018
Reported by Sally Mallam
Contributing Writer
Why are there are so many different types of religion and how and why has religion evolved over time? The answer lies in both our biological and our sociocultural evolution.