Continuity with pre-history

Progress in science (the god of the pathway to learning in the Western world in recent times) is generally triggered by the speculative thinkers in each of the academic disciplines. These are the lamp-lighters for those who want to know about our Universe (even a multi-verse Cosmos) and why it is all so; as well as our place in it , and what we seem to be (apart from stardust).

Since the capacity to speculate freely is unlimited, by time, space and even theology (in both religion and the prevailing explanatory paradigms of the various disciplines of knowledge-seeking), a range of possible doorways to knowledge can be theorised; these may lead to pathways of probable relevance.

However, is there a man-made constraint about accepting continuity through historical time? I instance the continuity of learning; and thereby to the apparent continuity of civilisational features through time – through now extinct civilisations.

In the light of the precise geometry of construction and the accuracy of the geodesic placements of the pyramids of the ancient Egyptians, it would be fatuous to believe that late-arrival Greeks discovered geometry. Earth’s positions against the constellations of the zodiac at a particular period of time, and the alignment of our planets in that period as evidenced, or linked in ancient mythology, may assist in dating the construction of the Pyramids and the Sphinx more accurately; as well as certain events mentioned in the Veda’s of Hinduism.

The history of mankind seems to go far beyond 3,000 BC, long before the cultural ancestors of Europeans (Greece) and their religious ancestors (the Israelites) could make any kind of impact.

Our current civilisation seems to date from about 13,000 BC, after the abatement of the Universal Deluge, with its almost total destruction of everything on Earth. That Quetzalcoatl and Viracocha should arrive in oar-less boats in Central and South America suggests the survival of pockets of an earlier (pre-Flood) civilisation of high achievements.

Let us not try to sound clever by muttering ‘Where’s the evidence?’ Modern day speculative cosmologists like Einstein do not seem to have been challenged about their lack of evidence.

So-called Caucasians in Central Asia in an early historical period; skeletons of tall (up to an estimated 12 feet) humans in North America; ‘African’ heads in Central America; ‘black’ people in China; clearly brown people in Taiwan (now in Polynesia); constructions such as Nan Madol and other massive stone buildings in various parts of the globe, components of which cannot be moved by modern equipment; mind-over-body, and other psychic phenomena, exhibited in diverse parts of the globe; ‘thumbnail’ and other psychic or spiritual healers; artefacts displaying high technology having been dug up from great depths; and so on! There is so much we cannot explain.

Are we then in a position to deny the probability of the existence of advanced civilisations on Earth in so-called pre-history? Nature, in conjunction with huge space-objects and powerful electromagnetic flows of cosmic rays and particles is able to bury or drown whole human civilisations now and then. Large segments of the continents, such as Fennoscandia, are now under water.

Just as reincarnation can enable the continuity of souls through time, via a succession of Earthly lives, so the memories contained in mythology and some artefacts of humanity may indicate the continuity of human civilisations over vast swathes of time.

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On religion -probable origins

“I have long wondered how a religious belief could have come about, looking way back into Man’s social history. Before seeking an answer to that question, I had to define what I consider to be religious belief. My conclusion?

A sense or feeling of awe about something or events so powerful, so beyond our control or understanding, so ubiq­uitous, more often than not very frightening, yet uplifting at times. Since our primordial emotional state is anxiety, that is, uncertainty mixed with a degree of fear about what might happen, it is only natural that we would seek to reduce our sense of trepidation or fear.

Normally, when confronted by either an ethereal or a tangible source of anxiety, one either flees or fights. When thunder and lightning, torrential rain and floods, earth­quakes and tsunamis, and such like terrorised primitive Man, did he conjure up or imagine spirits of indefinable form, with malevolent intent, as causing his terror? Indeed, are not beliefs of an animist nature still held in the more simple soci­eties in the world? Did Early Man then also attempt to pro­pitiate the unknown and unseen causes of his terror in some way? Did he subsequently come to conclude that propitia­tion can at times be effective, especially after experiencing a period of relative peace?

Then did some opportunistic fellows set themselves up as competent intermediaries? That is, to intercede between the fearful and the feared – and perhaps for some small reward, price or benefit, which progressively led to control over the fearful? Was this how the shamans, the witchdoctors, the ‘brahmins’, and all other priesthoods came into being?

By interposing themselves as intermediaries able to reach fearsome spirits, and by appearing to appease them, as well as purporting to obtain guidance for the gullible, did the intermediaries then extend their power by subtle threats against both unbelievers and competitors? Were shrines then con­structed as places for placation? Did gifts, ostensibly to bribe the spirits (now possibly described as gods), then lead to the enrichment of the ‘priests’? Did they then begin to conduct ceremonies of some kind to convey the dead to their resting places, to welcome the newborn to the living, and to join in marriage those wanting to create new life?

Did these clever intermediaries use rituals they had devised; accompanied by allegedly explanatory mumbo-jumbo they had also concocted, to subjugate in superstition the fearful? Was this the process which engulfed not only primitive Man, but also the members of the simpler soci­eties which subsequently developed? Claiming to reach the Under-world, or the Over-world, or the mystical domains of those who allegedly have power over mankind must have been persuasive – especially if accompanied by some evi­dence of ill-luck for non-belief or non-compliance!”

The above are extracts from my book ‘Musings at death’s door: an ancient bicultural Asian-Australian ponders about Australian society’ 

 

The question of credibility

I asked in a recent post whether the scenario I painted of Earth having been tilted (to about 45%) about 13,000 years ago is credible (ie. plausible). This tilt seemingly caused the great Universal Deluge, attested by so many cultures throughout the globe. This Flood destroyed most of Earth and its population, with a new civilisation commencing about 8,000 to 10,000 years ago.

There is no denying the Flood, or when it happened. Did a tilt of Earth cause it, and the sudden end of the so-called ice age? Ice ages do not end suddenly.

Further, did Earth’s Golden Age, reported by ever so many cultures, end then? How explain this Golden Age? Did not this Age enjoy equable temperatures throughout the year? How could that happen today? Then, why did Siberia and Antarctica suddenly become frozen?

Is the scenario I postulated by calling upon sundry scientific researchers credible? What responses did I expect?

The science-oriented sceptic would ask: Where is the evidence? Yet, in the realm of science, how many speculative unproven hypotheses masquerade as facts? I instance the Big Bang Theory of cosmology; Darwin’s Theory of Evolution; and Punctuated Equilibrium (seeking to explain the appearance of fully-formed new or modified species). There is a more plausible alternative explanation available for each of these.

Another category of sceptic includes: those who claim (without proof) that our current civilisation is the most advanced ever (let us then ignore the great monoliths which we cannot explain or replicate); and those who claim to be the Chosen People or the Nation of Exceptionalism (how nice!).

The third category denying plausibility, much less probability, includes those who respond immediately thus: “I don’t believe it”; when the question is simply “Is this scenario plausible?” I am not sure if any of us is competent to go beyond plausibility. Then there are those who want to argue about the scenario, based on what they consider to be ‘first principles.’ But do look at how far religious, or even scientific, dogma has taken us in understanding human origins, our place in the Cosmos, and the origin and nature of the Cosmos.

If we want to know, we need to open our minds. Consider how many Ages (Suns) have been destroyed (according to the Mayans). From another framework, are we on the way to the Sixth Extinction (while murmuring ‘That could not have happened’)?

Dragon quotes

You were born in the (Chinese) Year of the Dragon. In the absence of a foolish St. George, the alleged and misled dragon-slayer, how could you, a mere human, be described? A metaphysical ‘dragon,’ or a confused person flitting between sky and sea, or a ‘wannabe’ dragon hoping to burn your enemies? Speaking for myself, in the latter circumstances, I would prefer to dislodge my enemy’s ‘family jewels’, and wait for the tinkling sound as they hit the ground. Is this dragon-speak?

Here are a few thought-provoking quotes.

O to be a dragon,

a symbol of the power of Heaven — of silkworm

size or immense; at times invisible.

Felicitous phenomenon!

MARIANNE MOORE, O To Be a Dragon

 

If you want to conquer the world, you best have dragons.

GEORGE R. R. MARTIN, A Dance With Dragons

 

If the sky could dream, it would dream of dragons.

LLONA ANDREWS, Fate’s Edge

 

Never laugh at live dragons.

R. R. TOLKIEN, The Hobbit

 

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you art crunchy and good with ketchup.

ANONYMOUS

 

If you see the dragon fly,

best you drink the flagon dry.

GREG HAMERTON, Second Sigh

 

Were there ‘black’ people all over the globe historically?

When I read that the first emperor of China, Chin (Qin) Shi Huang Di (Di identifying him as emperor) had been black, I began to wonder whether the word black meant coloured; and that coloured might have covered all shades of brown (to black). The theory that modern Man had ‘come out’ of Africa may have led to the erroneous belief that, as African, he had to be black in colour.

In New Zealand, I discovered what seems to be officially accepted – that the Maori people had originated in Taiwan. That sounded improbable until I read more recently that there had been a tribe of ‘black’ people in Taiwan. I can only assume that these people were also brown in colour, judging by the skin colour of the Maori people, and their Polynesian neighbours. These peoples may have been escapees from the drowning Sundaland.

The infusion of European genes into ‘black’ Africa and ‘brown’ India has not altered the colour of the resident populations to any substantive extent. Moving into and out of freezing terrain in northern Europe, caused by the so-called ice ages expanding and retreating, has apparently not altered the skin colour of the affected populations.

I have also read that there have been ‘black’ communities in southern China. They had to be brown, not black as in negroid – unless an ancient negroid population (the Olmec?) had somehow spread itself all over the globe. If so, they would have to have been extraterrestrials, or transported by  extraterrestrials.

Sensibly, one would have to conclude that brown (in a variety of shades) was the original colour of mankind; and that the precursor of white people was a natural genetic mutation which, over thousands of years, led to whitish people (with blue eyes). A significant blast of cosmic radiation, about 40,000 years ago, along the surrounds of the Tropic of Cancer would, more credibly, explain the skin-whitening of the affected people.

Since great artistic ability, displayed in cave paintings and on decorated stones, had apparently arisen about 40,000 years ago, a vast cosmic radiation cannot be ruled out as a skin-colour changer. Beauty can flower from the ashes of death. The original colour of mankind, according to yet another report, was described as honey to milk coffee.

How then did the black people arise? Indeed, couldn’t some extraterrestrials have been jet black, since the sun cannot make brown jet black, any more than a lack of sunlight can turn brown skin to white?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are there inherited tribal fears?

Baby monkeys have been observed to cry out in fear when sighting a snake for the first time. The explanation? Instinct! No denying that. How did that instinct arise? Through its ancestors’ learning, and which has been transmitted through the generations without affecting the genome; through epigenesis. This is comparable with Lamarck’s theory about the inheritance of acquired (learned) characteristics, generation by generation.

In a somewhat comparable manner, an older relative of mine in Malaysia placed a large handkerchief on his head when very, very slight rain fell. No other relative present at the funeral we were attending did that. Since I had played hockey through cold winter drizzles in Melbourne, and (once) through a light fall of snow in colder Hobart in Tasmania, I too ignored the Malaysian drizzle.

Yet, I remembered that, in my boyhood, I and my cousins were never allowed out even in the lightest of rain. On the other hand, we had watched with envy Indian boys playing happily in the rain. Since my handkerchief-relative had (so I believe) been born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), I have wondered whether there is a tribal memory within the older Ceylon Tamils which associates pestilence (or disease) with rain.

I can understand that (perhaps) some of us will fear an unspecified danger from the sky, while the majority know nothing about this danger – except that one might catch a cold or fall ill by becoming wet. The idea of a collective amnesia is not persuasive; what you do not know cannot be blamed for some allegedly deep collective wish not to remember. This is not comparable to an instinct.

Was there a tribal fear underpinning the claim by some Australians in the 1950s that the Martians will attack us? Or, was that fear triggered by the Roswell Incident – an alleged ET crashing in Mexico? The claimed fear that Indonesia will attack Australia one day; is that any more than the projection of prejudice by many Christians against Islam?

Indeed, is there any substantive evidence of an inherited (not a learned or taught) tribal fear, comparable to the instinctive fear of snakes displayed by baby monkeys?

Universal memories speak for themselves

David Talbott, an American mythologist, developed a method for comparing the myths of far-flung cultures. ‘… according to Talbott, there are hundreds of common themes in world mythology in which different words and different symbols point to the same remembered events. The more peculiar the points of convergence, the more unreasonable it is to dismiss them.’

‘When allowed to speak for themselves, these universal memories tell a coherent and detailed story, Talbott claims. … what the ancients worshipped and feared as powerful gods were planets positioned extremely close to Earth. … Their instabilities and unpredictable movements gave rise to … the wars of the gods. In these dramatic stories, the gods pounded each other with cosmic lightning while fire and stone descended on Earth. If the gods were planets, then the thunderbolt of the gods were nothing less than interplanetary lightning discharges.’ (Mel & Amy Acheson in Thunderbolts of the gods in Forbidden history, edited by Douglas Kenyon)

‘Hebrew tradition has remembered well the lightning of the gods. Psalm 77 proclaims ”The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: lightnings lightened the world: the Earth trembled and shook.” From India, the Mahabharatha and Ramayana relate that lightning of the gods filled the heavens like a rain of fiery arrows. From ancient Egypt, Babylon, Scandinavia, China, and the Americas, myths and legends describe the conflagrations attributed to thunderbolts from the gods.’

‘These stories of cosmic battles provide much of the content of the myths we know today … But Talbott reminds us that if there is anything to these global memories, the physical evidence should be massive. … a call for objective investigation of the surface features of planets and moons.’ (Mel & Amy Acheson, above).

Steve Parsons in The perils of planetary amnesia (see previous post) states that Talbott has shown ‘… the way that Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and Venus were intimately tied to human experience during primordial times. These planets traveled very close to Earth, actually assuming a stable and symmetrical, colinear configuration immediately prior to the myth-making epoch. The “Age of the Gods” … harkens both to the stable/peaceful period and to the violent/dramatic period when the colinear configuration destabilised and collapsed completely.’

What caused this destabilisation, the war in the heavens, and the withdrawal of the planets to safer distances?

Could myths not reflect reality?

This conclusion seems undeniable: that there were (highly) advanced cultures in existence on Earth before the Universal Deluge of about 13,000 years ago. The Deluge has been attested to by a very large number of widely-separated cultures – about 500. That some stakeholders in the physical sciences treat such tribal (oral) histories as myth is irrelevant. Traditionally, so-called myths were accepted as attempted explanations by earlier societies of events then inexplicable to them.

But where tribal memories of experienced events are involved, in the form of tales passed from generation to generation, it would be extremely foolish for us now to assert that such tales must refer to non-events; that is, made-up stories. Why would these people do that? There is a great deal that we do not know. Denying that is equally foolish.

Worse still, so much of what we are told are scientific facts seem, so often, to be only plausible speculative conclusions; the best possible explanations. I instance 2 theories which are posited as reliable, if not proven: the Big Bang theory of cosmogony, and Darwin’s theory of evolution. These are only tentative conclusions which, in time, may be seen as myth (attempted explanations).

“Graham Hancock, in his book Underworld:The mysterious origins of civilisation, visits the remains of a prehistoric, worldwide civilisation using the monuments it left behind. He posits that this worldwide culture was brought to an end by superfloods. Robert M. Schoch, Ph.D. contends in Voyages of the pyramid builders: the true origins of the pyramids from lost Egypt to Ancient America that the geological, linguistic, and geographical evidence associated with the worldwide megalith monuments demonstrates the actual existence of such a prototype civilisation, a civilisation that was dispersed around the globe by rising sea levels caused by a flurry of comets.”

So says Peter Bros in The case for the flood: exposing the scientific myth of the ice age in Forbidden History, edited by Douglas Kenyon. Bros is the author of ‘a multi-volume exposition that sets forth a consistent picture of physical reality and humanity’s place in the universe’ titled The Copernican Series.

In passing, Bros is critical of Charles Lyell’s theory of uniformitarianism (that geological processes occur only gradually), and of Louis Agassiz, the inventor of ice ages (both now challenged by others as well). Where uniformitarianism can accommodate sporadic interventions from the sky, ice ages may qualify as a modern myth which explains nothing.

A cosmic ‘collision’ affecting the tilt of Earth or its distance from the sun could surely explain the sudden emergence of ‘snowball’ conditions such as the Younger Dryas.

Culture-heroes post-Deluge

“It is surely pertinent that almost all traditions which refer to culture-heroes (virtually every one of whom was active immediately after the Deluge) describe them as white, tall, bearded and invariably superior to the aboriginal peoples among whom they appeared – often suddenly – to impart laws, crafts and useful information.

One such culture-hero, Caboy by name, allegedly brought the ancestors of the Brazilian Karaya Indians out of a ‘subterranean world’ following the Great Flood. Elsewhere, another culture-hero, using a spade-like implement, dug Amerindian Deluge survivors out of a blocked-up cavern. The hill tribes known as the Pankhoos and Bungogees, who inherit the Chittagong area of Bangladesh, preserve a similar tradition. They recall how, after the recession of the Deluge waters, ‘… their ancestors came out of a cave in the earth, under the guidance of a chief named Tlandrokpah.’

The early post-diluvian activities of this culture-bearing white race are chronicled in numerous traditions distributed globally.”

“Statements like those of the Mandan Indians, who aver that shortly after the Deluge their forefathers were visited by a mysterious bearded white culture-hero who arrived in a huge wooden ship made with ‘metal tools,’ appear as valuable if fragmentary confirmation of prehistoric technological abilities.”

“Strangely enough, there is a large corpus of evidence, both circumstantial and factual, indicating that civilised communities existed on Earth before the shocking calamity.

Many of the previously-cited traditions refer unmistakably to various antediluvian structures (for example, houses, temple, towers, canals), land vehicles (carts, chariots), aquatic vessels (rafts, canoes and arks) and implements (ploughs, bows, arrows, spades).”

The above extracts are from ‘Cataclysm’ by Allan & Delair (refer also my earlier posts).

All this is suggestive – but not conclusive – that before the Great Deluge killed almost all life, somewhere between 11,500 and 13,000 years ago, most of the capabilities and skills allegedly triggered and enabled in humanity by a sudden burst of a massive cosmic radiation about 41,000 years ago (refer my earlier posts) had eventually resulted in high civilisations all over the globe.

Is there any purpose in denying the probability of such development, having regard to the so-called myths of ancient history? Are our predecessors to be denied the right to tell their stories through folklore?

Intervening ‘gods’ – myth or history?

“Three of Earth’s primary ancient civilisations share common themes in their creation myths. In each case, gods descended from the heavens to create human beings and to give humanity the gifts of civilisation. After creating humans in their image, the gods then instructed the embryonic race on how to live and left behind a theocracy based on the idea that the king was descended from the gods or had been appointed by the gods.”

Comment: For years I sought unsuccessfully to discover how kingship had originated; and why kings tended to be deified. The above extract from Will Hart’s ‘The genesis race’ is therefore interesting.

More from Hart: In relation to the Inca, the following quote by him tells about their origins and how Viracocha led them to civilisation. ‘… people lived like brute beasts without religion nor government, nor towns, nor houses, without cultivating the land nor covering their bodies … (Viracocha) sent a son and daughter to give them precepts and laws by which to live as reasonable and civilised men, and to teach them to dwell in houses and towns, to cultivate maize and other crops, to breed flocks, and to use the fruits of the earth as rational beings …’

Hart continues: “No disembodied gods, angels, or spiritual forces could have done that. Viracocha is always described as a man who stayed with the people and taught the arts of civilisation, much as the gods clothed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and sent them out to cultivate the land.

Moving from Peru to Mexico, we find that the Aztecs and Maya held a similar belief. Quetzalcoatl (Kukulkan) – a white bearded man with a long cape and an entourage who came ‘on a boat without oars’ – brought them the gifts of civilisation.

The Sumerians tell the same story. Our modern Western civilisation is an offshoot of the ancient Sumerian civilisation, via the branch of ancient Greece and Rome.

… all of the accounts of the gods who intervened agree that these gods were human.”

Hart concludes: “If we accept the genius of Sumerian innovation in mathematics and agriculture, in their ability to build great monuments, invent the wheel, and know the planets in the solar system, can we dismiss their own history of their creation and acquisition of this genius? We may ask the same question relative to the Aztecs, Incas, Egyptians, and Olmecs.”