Don S. Lemons Describes the Importance of Drawing in the Discovery of New Scientific Concepts

 

Drawing Physics: 2,600 Years of Discovery from Thales to Higgs – Don S. Lemons (2017)

 

            Small books are joyful books!  While I adore an imposingly thick reference work, dense and packed with information, I find great joy in the relatively small, concise, and engrossing books such as Drawing Physics, by Don S. Lemons.  The trick to these books is that they must be hyper-specific, or else the thread is lost and the writer loses focus.  Don S. Lemons cleverly designed this book to move forward, not only chronologically, but in the levels of scientific complexity.  The overarching idea explores the invaluable use of drawn imagery by scientists to either describe a previously unknown property of our universe, or to create a visual symbol of the scientific experiment or idea being described.  It is very clever, and builds upon itself, helping guide the reader through topics and ideas in the world of physics as they were developed and theorized, from antiquity to the modern day.

            If any book could claim to embody the old dictum, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” it is this one.  The simple drawings lead to very complex ideas.  Lemons succinctly describes each individual scientist’s life, and their educational and cultural backgrounds, providing a foundation for the amazing discoveries discussed in each chapter.  It is still eye-opening to understand how much our human ancestors managed to deduce and intuit, using just the observed details of the world around them.  We humans are a magnificent thinking creature.  Our ability to think is only rivaled by our ability to share our thoughts and conclusions.

            Whereas previously, humans only shared their knowledge orally, forcing students to memorize whole epic poems and philosophical treatises on nature, the advent of writing allowed humanity to pass on knowledge across time and distance.  The combination of drawn images and the written word?  It is likely the single greatest synthesis in human existence.  Much like the “thought experiments” used by scientists to imagine situations which are difficult to describe in words alone, the drawings in this book allow the reader to create a mental image, helping one understand the deeper meaning behind the formulas and theories described within.  Sometimes an image can provide an example of an inalienable truth of our universe, even though there are not yet words to describe the actual internal workings. 

            That is the beauty in art.  It provides communication between minds in an instant manner.  Even a simple doodle can express ideas so vast and complex that people could not understand them without the imagery.  Art also communicates across language barriers.  A beautiful painting or sculpture can be appreciated without language.  A diagram of a triangle, its angles, and the relationship between them, conveys knowledge across the centuries, much like Pythagoras and the theorem named after him.  Don S. Lemons has put together an amazing little book, valuable to anyone interested in the progress of scientific thought, and in the creative ways which scientists portray their discoveries.  I felt inspired and uplifted, in awe of the creativity and intellect of my fellow human beings.  Highly recommended.

(This book can be purchased here: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262535199/drawing-physics/ )

Wolfram Eilenberger Explores the Lives, Times, and Work of Four Great Philosophers

 

Time of the Magicians: Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Cassirer, Heidegger, and the Decade That Reinvented Philosophy - Wolfram Eilenberger, translated by Shaun Whiteside (2020)

 

            “Philosophy…is the talk on a cereal box.  Religion…is a smile on a dog.” – Edie Brickell and New Bohemians.

            The years between the Great War and World War II were a time of intense change for everyone, and nowhere was that change more evident than in the world of philosophy, specifically academic philosophy in Germany.  During those years, the four men listed in the title of this book achieved groundbreaking and deeply original work, publishing books that changed intellectual discourse and sought to dig into the core of what philosophy is, and how it makes any sense at all.  Like some sort of philosophical Great Attractor, these four men, and their lives and work, reached a critical mass of ideas and thoughtful inquiry in Germany between wars.

            Wolfram Eilenberger weaves an engrossing narrative out of the lives of these four philosophers.  He is masterful as he describes the early days of each man, their intellectual developments, and how they managed to elicit support, both financial and emotional, as they sought to grapple with ideas and thoughts so obscure, so esoteric, and so NEW, that they left little room for normal, human behaviors.  Each of these men sought to, in their own words and through their own original thought, not only understand the big questions in life, (Why do we exist?  What does it mean to “be?”) but also even more primal questions, such as “How are we able to discern truth?” and “How can we describe the infinite with our finite tools of language and words?”  These were heady times.

            Philosophers deal with pure thought.  Their lives are spent inside their heads, only occasionally popping up out of their studies and libraries to face other philosophers and engage in discourse about their ideas.  The life of the mind is a brutal and lonely one, especially if one is truly devoted to it.  These four philosophers and their lives shine a light on how difficult it truly is to not only achieve gainful employment as a philosopher, but to also have the time and resources needed for original, groundbreaking work.  If there is anything a philosopher despises it is a lack of originality, whether in their work or in another’s.

            One thing that struck me as I read about these four eminent thinkers, is that, no matter how orderly or precise their internal thoughts and writings present them to be, they are actually a hot mess of dysfunction, distraction, and human folly.  Several of these men sought to understand what the primal source of knowledge is, with some arguing for language, others arguing for the idea that the language represents.  In several instances, their ideological constructions come crashing down due to an aspect of life, seemingly not important to most 20^th century philosophers.  That one thing is Love.  Whether as young men or in middle age, once these philosophers discover true Love, real Love that is not tied to status, or money, or anything tangible, their lives are upended.  They did not account for the power of Love to rewrite one’s mind, to reconstitute what is important and not important, and to provide its own inherent satisfaction.  In many cases, it is enough just to be in Love.  Once this happens, their worldview begins to change.  For some, Love itself becomes the biggest mystery.

            I must heap some praise upon the translator of this work, Shaun Whiteside.  Having read many German books in their English translations, I can honestly say that Mr. Whiteside’s translation work is exquisite.  Ensuring that the information provided is correct is hard enough, but Mr. Whiteside also manages to convey the humor and wit found in German literature, which far too often is lost in the translation efforts to English.  I kind of wish he had translated Werner Herzog’s memoir.

            Either way, and I have stated this before on the Book Journey, most philosophy is a slog to read.  I find myself either agog at the obtuse mental gymnastics that much philosophical work consists of, or enraged by my inability to speak directly to the authors to point out the inconsistencies, errors, or plain delusions involved in their philosophical arguments.  Philosophy means “lover of wisdom.”  Sometimes, these philosophers act as if they were the one and only arbiters of truth and wisdom, excluding any other. They are always proved wrong.  No one has an irrefutable claim on what is Truth, Beauty, or Love, although nearly everyone who thinks themselves as smart or gifted will wish to assure you that they do in fact know what Truth, Beauty, and Love are. 

            I believe that studying philosophy is valuable, and can lead one’s mind into uncharted territories of thought.  I also believe that pure thought is just one aspect of human Truth.  Physical action also brings about Truth, Beauty, and Love, and does so without a single shred of philosophical thought, just pure human bodily experience.  Our Universe is one of constant motion and change, for, in a very real sense, we are all living within a giant, ongoing, nearly eternal (to our limited human timeframe) explosion.  To believe that, out of the myriad of possible consciousnesses arisen from within our Universe, one has reached a kernel of absolute Truth, is ego of the highest order.  Modern philosophers have a very tough road ahead, as they must contend with, and understand, all of the current scientific advancements before they can truly offer original thought.  Back in the old days, that would have meant reading 10-15 Greek classics, perhaps some Arabic masterworks, and some Latin works of literature.  Today, the world of thought is so vast, so splintered, that absolute Truth is a ridiculous concept, much less an actual possibility. 

Perhaps that is the brutality that confronted these four great minds, for not only was their world ending, with the imminent rise of totalitarian fascism in Europe and the terrors of WWII, but the very idea that the world is fully comprehensible purely by thought was soon to be deemed irrelevant and erroneous.  Physics soon showed how the vast microscopic structures of our Universe defy logic and human rationality.  Physics also showed how miniscule our initial ideas about our Universe were, for the Cosmos is far vaster than anyone ever dreamed it could be.  In fact, the Universe is so big that much of it is too far away for us to see, having expanded faster than light can travel.  It is facts like these, corroborated by evidence and bolstered by theory, that drive philosophers insane, for these truths are not reachable by the Mind alone.  I posit that the future of philosophy will no longer consist of individual minds, perusing the Universe and providing their ideas, but an amalgam of minds and thought, capable of including as much of the natural world as possible, and allowing for the differences in individuals.  If philosophy is a slow and steady path towards Truth, then it must include everyone and everything for it to be valid.  Let us hope humanity never runs out of lovers of wisdom.

(Thanks go to Dietmar Froehlich, Associate Dean, and Professor of Architecture with the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture at the University of Houston for the great recommendation.)

(This book can be purchased here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/576741/time-of-the-magicians-by-wolfram-eilenberger-translated-by-shaun-whiteside/ )

Joan Halifax Elucidates the World of the Shaman for us Wanna-be's

 

Shaman: The Wounded Healer – Joan Halifax (1982)

 

            Sometimes the good books just keep coming!  Whether through synchronicity, plain coincidence, or just dumb luck, this amazing book found its way to my hands, and I am exceedingly glad it did.  Joan Halifax has managed that most-rare of feats, to write a slender volume packed with information and wisdom that is able to elucidate exactly what a shaman is, how they come to be, how their visions and experiences are seemingly universal, and how shamans themselves communicate about the experiences they endure for the betterment or benefit of the tribe around them.  It is eye-opening and quite a departure from the many other ethnographic and historical books I have read about shamanism and the role of the shaman in their respective cultures.

            In a very real and basic sense, the shaman is the one tasked with experiencing pain, death, and rebirth in order for them to understand and act upon the various otherworldly forces and powers that threaten, disrupt, or wrongly influence the tribespeople.  This is why this book is titled “the Wounded Healer.”  Only someone with the experience of death and rebirth can travel the worlds above and below ours.  Only they can talk to the spirits, travel through space and time, and come back to our mortal coil safely with their consciousness intact.

            Joan Halifax describes the various symbols which seem to be near-universal among shamans worldwide.  Some of them, such as the eagle, are emblematic of the shaman’s spirit rising to the world above.  Other symbols, such as the swan, or the water lily, serve as stand-ins for the shaman, for they not only inhabit, but thrive, in all three realms.  The Swan is just as comfortable flying in the heavens, walking around on land, and swimming on and in deep waters, just as the shaman is comfortable existing in our world, the underworld of demons and primal forces, and the aboveworld of the divine and beneficent spirits.  One universal symbol of shamanism is the World Tree, which serves as the Axis Mundi, or center of the world.  The roots of the World Tree reach down into the primordial lower world.  The trunk rises through our corporeal world, and the top of the World Tree reaches into the heavens.  It is this World Tree that shamans “climb” in their journeys and initiations.  The pictographs and artwork showing the World Tree are found everywhere humanity exists.

            One of the most profound statements in this book is a quote from an Iglulik Eskimo (Inuit) shaman told to the explorer Knud Rasmussen,

            “The greatest peril of life lies in the fact that human food consists entirely of souls.  All the creatures that we have to kill and eat, all those that we have to strike down and destroy to make clothes for ourselves, have souls, souls that do not perish with the body and which must therefore be (pacified) lest they should revenge themselves on us for taking away their bodies.”

            It is this truth that runs through all shamanistic activity.  If we have souls, then everything has souls, and because of that, everything has its own consciousness.  Shamans do not claim that a stone is as intelligent as a human, but they do claim that the stone has its inherent right to exist just as we do, and that it carries a form of consciousness which is far older than short-lived human creatures.  The same is true for everything we see around us, including mother Earth, and the Universe itself.

            Shamans know that the process of creation, the birth of the Universe and of Life, is always ongoing.  They also are aware that the process of destruction, of the end of things, is also constantly occurring.  They do not see Time as a linear, step-by-step process, like a recipe, or a list of Ikea furniture instructions.  Everything exists in the ever-present Now, and only our faulty human senses show the world to be past, present, and future.  This is how the energy of creation can be harnessed by the shamans, and how they lose the fear of inevitable destruction that we all experience as the fear of death.  It makes for a powerful, if lonely existence. 

Most shamans lead solitary lives, devoted to their calling, and do not interact much with the tribes they protect.  The wisdom and experience gained by their shamanistic initiations and study distance them from the everyday people they serve.  Many people fear the shaman and their powers, yet they are an invaluable and requisite part of human society.  Our modern world, with its emphasis on technology and scientific advancement, has turned its back on shamans, but even so, individual humans seek out and explore the shamanistic way.  Something in our nature is drawn to the unknown, to the rarely explored, and many of us are especially attracted to the inner life of the mind.  The shamans are still all around us, separating themselves from the day-to-day static noise we call human endeavor, exploring that which cannot be seen, and holding the forces of the universe at bay for the rest of us.

Fred Gettings Gives us Eyes to See and Ears to Hear

 

 The Occult in Art – Fred Gettings (1978)

            “Occultism is the study of the spiritual world which is hidden from ordinary vision.  The word itself is derived from the Latin occulta, ‘hidden things’, and implies that the visible world is not the only one of importance to man.”

            Thus begins the most enlightening and insightful book on the occult images and ideas hidden in classical art I have ever come across.  This Library I work for is a GOLD MINE!  Born in 1937, Fred Gettings wrote extensively on occult and symbological matters, publishing many works before his death in 2013.  This book deals specifically with artists who embedded hidden imagery or knowledge within their artwork, and how to best “read” these works to understand the occult information conveyed within.

            First, I must define the “Occult” and what it means in this context.  As stated in the quote above, occult knowledge just means hidden knowledge.  Too many people buy into the lie told by christian leaders that occult knowledge is inherently evil, or satanic.  This is how they scare the deluded idiots into not asking questions or making their own decisions.  For example, when telling very young children about procreation, the story of the stork is often used.  This story occults the true process of procreation (carnal fornication, male ejaculation inside the female, and the coming together of two zygotes to form a living cell, which then splits and splits, cells differentiating, until a baby is popped out the vaginal tube, ready to breathe the good air of this world), replacing it with an inert and inoffensive tale of a stork that delivers all new babies to their mothers.  Until the child grows up and is taught, or discovers, the actual truth of procreation that knowledge is willfully occulted.  The reality has been hidden from children for their own good, or so many parents used to think.  This is also how religious and political leaders think of the great unwashed masses of humans outside their castles, temples, and private mansions.

            Fred Gettings was exasperated with the state of art criticism and art history at the time of his writing this work.  He was adamant that to understand the art of the past, historians and critics must take into account the intended purposes and meanings portrayed in the art itself, many of which related to the occulted knowledge shared by mystery schools, secret religious orders, and others who seek to retain and disseminate these ancient ideas.  Gettings’ complaints about art critics and historians still ring true today.  Too many art critics analyze work from the past through a very modern lens, one that places importance on modern artistic ideals, instead of the ideals of the artists in question.

            For example, one may view a 300-year-old painting of the crucifixion, which, through modern eyes and ideas, can be analyzed structurally, compositionally, and emotionally.  It is a valid form of criticism, but it leaves out the most important part of the artwork, the theme and subject, as well as the artist’s personal connection to the image he or she created.  William Blake was a well-known mystic and weirdo, yet many of the modern analysis and critiques of his work ignore that most salient point.  Each of Blake’s artworks come from a place of deep wonder and exploration into the metaphysical and spiritual inner mind of man.  In order to share those ideas in a visual medium, new symbols and metaphors must be created.  These symbols and the compositional elements are what Fred Gettings masterfully describes.

            Occult knowledge has a deep human past.  Initially drawn from the ancient Mystery schools that kept the advanced knowledge of our world and universe secret and safe amongst chosen initiates and away from the ignorant and violent masses, this knowledge has reached our modern world, surviving the past two thousand years of omnipresent suppression by the Catholic Church.  Many of the early christians had deeply symbolic and mythical ideas about the trinity, the divinity of Jesus, and the role of man in the cosmos.  It is man’s place in the world that many of the artists in this book analyze and explore.  Because of this, great insight is gained into the work of William Blake, Max Ernst, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, and other masters.  It is impressive how occult knowledge influenced the creation of abstract art, something modern critics fail to recognize, even as it stares them in the face.

            The main way to maintain occult knowledge and to share it with subsequent generations is through architecture.  It lasts much longer than written texts, or painted images.  The modern fraternal organization of Freemasonry is one of the descendants, at least in spirit, of the early secret societies.  During the first thousand years of organized christianity the builders of the churches designed and decorated them with many occult symbols and ideas.  If the wisdom is displayed in stone, it is available to any and all, even the illiterate and uneducated.  Including esoteric teachings and wisdom in images and architectural details ensured that only those “with eyes to see and ears to hear” understood the message, preserving the hidden knowledge from those that seek to destroy it, namely, the catholic church that styles itself as the supreme arbiter of what is real, important, christian, holy, etc. 

Fred Gettings is clear and concise in his explanations, and astute in his observations.  His attempt to share the hidden world of art serves to expand the mind, and open it up to new ways of seeing, of learning, and of understanding the artistic creations of our ancestors.  I look forward to digging up some more of Mr. Gettings insightful books, and sharing my thoughts about them with my readers.

Amber is Both an Object of Beauty and a Time Capsule of Ancient Flora and Fauna

 

Amber: Window to the Past – David A. Grimaldi (1996)

 

            Sunlight solidified.  That is how ancient man saw amber, initially discovered washed up on sea beds and beaches, reflecting the bright sun with its rich, often golden hues.  It must have seemed like such a magical material.  Sometimes completely transparent, sometimes opaque, this material came in a wide range of colors, from green to bright red, and possessed seemingly magical properties.  It felt warm to the touch, unlike other stones, and built-up static electricity. One of only two items used as gemstones that arise from natural, biological processes (the other being pearls), amber remains highly prized and very beautiful.  My fascination with amber has been lifelong, and because I am not fortunate enough to reside in an amber-rich location, I adore books such as this one by David A. Grimaldi, for they bring me not only a deep and considered history of the precious material itself, but also countless amazing photographs and reproductions from collections worldwide.  My jealousies abound.

            This wonderful book is divided into two sections, Amber in Nature, and Amber in Art.  The first chapter of the Amber in Nature section details exactly what is considered amber, its origins, and its properties.  True amber is very old.  Starting out as the resinous sap from a variety of trees (many of which are extinct), amber is created when this sap drips or falls to the ground and is covered by either water or oxygen-poor soil.  This allows the highly volatile chemicals found in the resins to either dissipate or break down while preserving the resin itself, sometimes for tens of millions of years.  Erosion and other factors work to bring up these deposits, oftentimes breaking off pieces and washing them away with the tide.  This is how early people found amber on beaches near ancient deposits.  In a world with very few transparent substances, it makes sense that amber was highly prized and divine.

            While prized for millennia for its gem-like qualities, in modern times the greatest value of amber lies in the inclusions found within.  Humans have always prized amber specimens with visible animals or plants trapped inside, often using these for jewelry or decoration.  Most did not know or understand how old the amber was, or the included animals and plants.  Scientists began to understand that the animals and plants in amber were sometimes tens of millions of years old, which led them to use the old amber collections for taxonomy purposes.  In even more recent times, the rise of scanning electron microscopy and other even better microscopes helped us see how much detail and preserved material was actually available within the amber itself.  Whereas most fossils found in rock strata are compressed, flattened through time and pressure, the fossils inside amber often retain their three-dimensional structure.  It has been found that the chemical composition of the amber not only sealed the specimens away from harmful oxygen, but the process of desiccation within the amber preserved many soft tissue organs, such as the brains, muscles and lungs of a hundred-million-year-old fly, all plainly visible under the microscope.  Amazing.  Even more insane is that individual mitochondria have been preserved.  These are some of the smallest constituents of any living animal’s cells.  I cannot imagine the glee and shock whenever a scientist first laid eyes on hundred-million-year-old mitochondria.  Those moments are truly singular, and are what scientist dreams are made of.

            Reading about the history of amber in art and decorative pieces was also enlightening.  While most amber is ancient, it is not an inert material.  Exposure to the atmosphere and bright lights can cause the usually shiny amber to be covered in cracks and crazed bits, rendering the outer “skin” of the amber opaque.  Because of this, many of the oldest art pieces do not glimmer or shine as they did originally.  If left alone, the amber would eventually crumble to dust.  Due to its fragility, amber was rarely used as a showpiece gemstone.  It did find much use in bead form, and as accent pieces for large, crafted items.  In fact, one of the most widespread uses for amber was in crafting rosary beads, meant to be touched one by one as prayers are recited.

            My fascination with amber has increased ten-fold due to this book.  It is a magnificent reference work and includes maps detailing the many places on Earth where amber is either found in situ or mined.  The closest location to me would be around El Paso, Texas, a 12-hour drive away.  Seeing as how I have family living there, I will someday go hunting for amber among the desert plants and animals.  If I am lucky my wife will come with me, although her loathing of dust may preclude such adventures.  Either way, this book entertained and enlightened me, and I highly recommend it to anyone seeking an expansive exploration of amber and its many uses.

(For a very informative website about Amber, click here: https://amber-fossils.com/ )

Early Humans and their Fantastic Art Help Us Understand the Rise of Human Consciousness

 

The Mind In the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art – David Lewis-Williams (2002)

 

            Yet again, my employment and its proximity to amazing books yields delicious fruit.  As a sojourner into the mind and an avid reader of books studying and exploring consciousness, I am always on the look-out for seminal works in this field.  This book is one such tome.  Reading countless references to it in other works spurred me to keep a mental note, should I ever come across this book at a bookstore of library.  I was ecstatic when I saw The Mind in The Cave while perusing the shelves at my workplace.

            I first became fascinated with prehistoric art as an art and art history student.  The images ancient humans drew, painted and etched into the walls of caves are amazing and as beautiful as anything created by us in the past thousand years.  Checking out books on the art found in the caves of Lascaux and Chauvet opened my mind to the vast stretches of pre-history lost to us, and to the inherent artistic sensibilities and beautiful works of our ancient brethren.

            While the actual images and artworks created by early humans are indeed beautiful and moving, David Lewis-Williams’ focus is not on them.  Instead, the author seeks to use these early artworks to explore the how they detail the rise of what we term human consciousness.  By a careful, deliberate, and wide-ranging analysis, Lewis-Williams weaves together the story of how modern humans, Homo sapiens, developed our specific mind/consciousness, and how it differed from our nearest ancestor, Homo neanderthalensis, who co-existed with Homo sapiens for quite some time in what is now Western Europe.

            It may be hard to imagine but the uproar caused by the discovery of ancient human artworks in caves was virulent, and for a time, it stifled the proper scientific and art historical study of the cave art.  In a world where people blindly believed what con-artist priests told them, the idea that the earth was older than 6,000 years old was seen as a blasphemy of the highest order.  Everyone “knew” that god created the world, and everything on it, very recently.  They “knew” this because it was told to them as irrefutable, divinely-inspired fact.  To think this was around one hundred years ago, after Isaac Newton, Galileo and Darwin, baffles me.  The human drive to remain ignorant and accept the simplest explanation, regardless of evidence or counter-evidence, drives me insane.  It took decades for anyone to take the primitive art seriously, for, much like in today’s world, you always have idiots and the willfully ignorant railing against evidence of deep time such as fossils, claiming them to be placed in the earth by their exceedingly stupid and malevolent god to “trick” us and to “test” our faith.  What a hopeless well of stupidity.

            David Lewis-Williams describes the many ways this knowledge was resisted and ignored.  Not only did people think the artwork found in the caves could not be as old as it seemed, but they also did not wish to allow that ancient man was the equal of modern man.  Humans have an innate need to self-aggrandize, and to consider the present day to be a pinnacle of sorts.  Many people still think this way.  They truly believe that the entirety of existence, the billions of years-old Cosmos, and the near infinite expanse of galaxies around us, was created by a god whose sole purpose in doing so was forging the human race in its image. 

Another obstacle was that humans always sought a superficial understanding of things, leaving them mostly ignorant.  It is in this way that many humans at the time, and even today, inferred that what Darwin posited when he proposed Natural Selection as the means by which life evolves on Earth was that us humans are the pinnacle of evolution, that the billions of years of preparation and shifting forms of life were all in anticipation of the masterpiece that is the human race.  This is as asinine, destructive, and egotistical an idea as any created by the human race.  It is the sole basis for much of the entrenched racism found in the world, for the ignorant and self-proud racists obviously put themselves at the top of creation, closest to god, while everyone else was “obviously” beneath them.  Seemingly sensible people would expound on how the “natural order” of things meant that anyone not of pale skin was closer to the animals than to divinity.  Even in a document created by enlightened minds, such as the US Constitution, the value of a non-white male was seen as 3/5 of what a white male was.  Systematic and entrenched racism spoils much of scientific discovery and human advancement.

            Having discussed the topic at length, and how the ignorance was overcome, the author explores the differences between the artwork created by Homo neanderthalensis and that created by Homo sapiens, and how this shines a light on the rise of human consciousness.  Using the data gathered by archeologists and anthropologists, Lewis-Williams differentiates between Neanderthal and Human consciousness in a very clear manner.  While the debate concerning whether consciousness is an inherent part of life still rages, it is plain to most humans that the living creatures around us exhibit self-awareness of a sort, and awareness of their environment.  It is clear that other animals plan, strategize, and experience a wide range of emotions, just like humans do.  What is also clear from neurological and neuropathological studies is that the other consciousnesses around us lack something we humans all share.  This is the ability to “see” ourselves in a detached manner, to self-analyze, and to understand that the current moment will, if certain actions are made, lead to specific outcomes in the future.  One of the key pieces of evidence for this is that for over three hundred thousand years, Neanderthals thrived without agriculture.  The sowing, care, and harvest of plants for food and other uses requires the ability to step outside of the immediate moment, and posit a future that exists solely in the imagination.  The seasons must be considered.  The appropriate soil and needs of the crop must be noted and remembered.  This is a purely human characteristic, something lacking in the neanderthal record.  There are very few Neanderthal burials found, and they are rudimentary.  Quite a big difference from the elaborate, and ritualized human burials of early man.  Lewis-Williams posits that early man, able to step outside of his immediate mind-state to experience all the higher-consciousness effects we take for granted, began to understand that life is temporary, that the world existed before, and will continue after, we die.  Neanderthal man did not have this capability, which seems to arise from our specific neuronal structure. 

            Even in the relatively short period where Neanderthal and Homo sapiens lived alongside each other in what is now Europe, a period lasting over 20 thousand years at least, it is evident that Neanderthals did not understand their Homo sapiens neighbors.  Interbreeding happened, as is now evident by the genetic testing showing that most European people have between 1-4% neanderthal DNA in them, something that none of the human populations in Africa have.  What did not happen is the migration of ideas and knowledge.  Neanderthal tools never improved once they mingled with modern humans.  They may have seen the proto-agriculture and animal husbandry practiced by early humans, but they did not assimilate it.  They also would have seen the burial rituals of early Homo sapiens, but they never assimilated the concept.  The author’s claim is that the Neanderthal were physically unable to do so, their brain structure preventing the development of higher consciousness.

            This ability to create metaphor and symbolism led humans to explore deep, dangerous cave systems, and to leave behind the amazing artwork we are in awe of today.  While too many people try to explain and analyze these images through the prism of modern art and art theory, the author instead seeks to understand the mental state of the cave artists themselves.  In this way he explores why the art was made, and how the caves were used for ritual purposes.  One of the enlightening parts describes how the entrances of these caves, the areas that may still get some outdoor natural light, were used communally by ancient man, not as living sites or shelters, but for communal ritual purposes.  The excavation of these caves shows that while they were used repeatedly, they were never a place for habitation, apart from purely temporary use as emergency shelters.  This flies in the face of the accepted and ignorant idea of the “caveman” that suffuses modern thought.  Ancient Homo sapiens built homes and structures, just like modern humans do.  The caves were, from the start, living symbols of the cosmos, the womb of the Earth Mother, and were used by the shamans and shamanistic humans for specific ritual purposes.

            The author posits that the artwork created in these caves should be seen as the end result of the neuropsychological effects which arise in all humans through either trance, ritual, or psychoactive substances. This hypothesis fits the data we have, and avoids the pre-judged dogma that most archeologists and historians bring to the study of ancient man, which presupposes that the reasons ancient man created the artworks is of the same motivation as that of a modern human creating art.  The fallacy that the author counters forgets that the world we currently live in is an aggregate of the collective human experience, and that the making of images to a current human is filled with suggestion and analogy of which ancient man would have never conceived.  Lewis-Williams explains how the imagery, from dots, dashes, chevrons and lines, to the representations of animals, or animal “spirits,” all arise from the workings of our extremely complex neurological processes. 

For the most part, the individual artworks were created in private and remained private.  Very few humans actually ventured deep into the caves themselves, for they were and are fraught with danger.  In this manner, Lewis-Williams suggests that the creation of art was done by those either designated as or seeking to be, shamans.  The artwork was not on public view, and was never intended to be communicative.  The primitive art, consisting mainly of a specific group of deified animals (bears, bulls, ibex, horses) served the shaman’s purposes, and not the tribes.   Comparing the types of images created by our ancestors with the images seen by those who hallucinate due to mental illness, or the use of psychoactive substances, is where the author truly shines.

It is this skill to imagine form, and find meaning in such forms, that modern Homo sapiens acquired or developed, and which the hominids predating Homo sapiens (Homo neanderthalensis, Homo habilis, Homo erectus) did not.  This innate ability we have, and which we cannot seem to find in any other creature, led us to create Art, and Language, the two greatest and most valuable developments leading to the modern world we all share.  The ability to think symbolically allows for anyone to enjoy art and literature, and for humans to pass on acquired knowledge and wisdom to the subsequent generations.  We all contain the inherent mental hardware which allows such thought, purely because of our shared humanity. The skill to imagine, to hold a thought for longer than the current moment, differentiates us from any preceding creatures, and make us unique.   I am so glad I found this book, and I cannot wait to explore more of our primate ancestry through the beautiful, exquisite artwork they created.

(This book can be purchased here: https://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/books/mind-in-the-cave-consciousness-and-the-origins-of-art-softcover )