Brooks 1

Toney Brooks
Doctoral Dissertation
August 28, 2013

Evolution of Consciousness and the Emergent Aquarian Paradigm

Introduction
In this paper I put forward speculative, interdisciplinary framework for new theoretical
approaches addressing the problem of the evolution of consciousness. Infusing intuition and
imagination with existing perspectives from a number of disciplines, including biological and
physical sciences, psychology, anthropology and philosophy, I aim to increase understanding of
evolutionary theory, identify mechanisms driving the evolution of consciousness, and postulate
that consciousness itself is a nonlocal phenomenon, as well as identify external reference
mechanisms that facilitate nonlocal properties of human consciousness.1
Addressing the problem of whether consciousness evolves gradually in stages Darwinian
style, or spontaneously in fits and starts,2 I focus on three distinct periods in presenting a case for
the latter. The first of these periods dates to some 530 million years ago, the second to around
40,000 years ago, and the third to about 3,500 years ago. Additionally, I present an argument for
a fourth period of consciousness evolution that, by my reckoning, commenced in the 1960s and
is ongoing.
Irregular, spontaneous outbursts of evolutionary zeal are known in evolutionary theory as
punctuated equilibria (Gould & Eldredge, 1993). The theory of punctuated equilibria also has
been applied to other disciplines, such as cultural anthropology, where punctuations of rapid

Going forward the word consciousness refers to human consciousness unless otherwise stated.
That consciousness evolves is a largely undisputed notion, notwithstanding the ongoing creationism vs. evolution
religious debate.

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evolution prompted by natural forces or impermanent events resulted in cultural awakenings
marked by new ways of thinking and understanding the world. These social upheavals are called
paradigm shifts, a term coined by Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
(1962).
I further propose that geological and biological evolution, as well as evolution of
consciousness, indeed the evolution of the cosmos itself, occur within a holistic, symbiotic
system implicating a process known as autopoiesis a term borrowed from cellular biology but
applicable to systems theory, sociology and other disciplines. Simply stated, autopoiesis refers to
closed systems capable of self-creation. Evolutionary theorist Lynn Margulis (2000), once
married to Carl Sagan, is an advocate of this concept. The external, cybernetic reference
mechanism for autopoietic systems will be discussed in the section titled, The Vacuum.
Inimical to paradigm shifts are marshaled forces individuals and institutions
stubbornly resistant to change and determined to preserve old ways of thinking, e.g. their favored
zeitgeist or dominant worldview. However, as the great Indian mystic Sri Arobindo observed,
Man may help or man may resist, but the Zeitgeist works, shapes, overbears, insists
(Aurobindo, 1909). Yet human beings are organisms and like all organisms survive by
maintaining inner coherence, the innate drive biologists refer to as homeostasis. Naturally, this
accounts for an innately conservative psyche making most humans stubbornly resistant to change
(Zap, 2012).
Even so, throughout the ages inspired vanguards of visionaries and futurists, acutely
aware, committed rather than resistant to change, and boasting keen spirits of intuition,
imagination and manifest destiny, have agitated for a more enlightened and secure future.
Philosopher of history Arnold Toynbee termed these single-minded groups of individuals

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creative minorities (Toynbee, 1954). I assert the most powerful creative minority in history
exists today, as we shall see.
Agitating for and adapting to change are characteristics unique to Homo sapiens, as are
creative imagination and reflexive consciousness, atypical characteristics among other hominids.
For over 200,000 years, humankinds Neanderthal cousins lived in small isolated groups in
Europe and Asia. From generation to generation there were no perceptible changes in their diet,
hunting habits or toolbox. Moreover, unlike Homo sapiens, Neanderthals never developed a
culture, a vital characteristic of human environment and evolution (Klein & Edgar, 2002) .

Consciousness and Psyche

Some regard consciousness as the last frontier of scientific inquiry; more has been
learned about consciousness in the last 30 years than in the previous 300. Yet a solution to the
Mind-Brain problem3 remains elusive (Kelley, 2012a). On the one hand, many scientists, most of
whom advocate a materialistic worldview, remain hopeful that neural correlates of consciousness
(NCC) will eventually be discovered; on the other, a compelling metaphysical abstract has been
advanced in recent years propounding nonlocal consciousness, i.e. that not all aspects of
consciousness are located in the brain. The body of scientific evidence supporting this latter
hypothesis is increasing; evidence that also contributes to the belief that consciousness survives
bodily death.
Neurologist Karl Pribram maintains the brain works like a hologram, storing nearly
infinite amounts of information paradoxically everywhere in the brain and yet not in any
particular place, and that our brains mathematically construct concrete reality by interpreting

The Mind-Brain problem, which questions the relationship between consciousness and the brain, and the MindBody problem are one and the same.

Brooks 4
frequencies from another dimension, a realm of meaningful patterns, a primary reality that
transcends time and space (Pribram, 1991). Compelling also in the local vs. nonlocal
consciousness debate are theories such as quantum entanglement, as well as accounts of out of
body experiences (OBE), near death experiences (NDE) and shared death experiences (SDE), to
list a few (Kelley, 2012a).
If neuroscience eventually discovers neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) and they
account for the subjective experiences of the mind called qualia, or if consciousness itself is
proven to have nonlocal4 qualities (quantum consciousness), either revelation would be
incorporated into the scientific zeitgeist and likely advance a Culture of Consciousness free of
puerile superstition and appeal to supernatural agency. Such scientific discoveries also would
lead to a new anthropology of man carrying enormous sociocultural implications, as philosopher
Thomas Metzinger (2000) notes:
the social and emotional pressures on people who, for whatever
reason, have chosen to live their lives outside the scientific image
of the world will greatly increase. This may well lead to conflicts,
to cultural, and conceivably to civil, warfare. Even today
presumably more than 80 percent of the people on this planet do
not live their lives against the background of the scientific image
of man and, in their personal lives, do not accept even the most
general standards of rationality. Almost all of them have never
heard of the idea of an NCC, and many of them will not even want
to hear about it.

Quantum nonlocality is backed by numerous particle physics experiments and is fundamental to the quantum
worldview (Goswami et al.,1993).

Brooks 5
Metzinger goes on to add that, A rational consciousness culture will encourage
individuals to take responsibility for their own lives. It also will nudge individuals toward
increased awareness, increased use of innate intuitive abilities, foster keener perception and
pattern recognition, and engender other subjective experiences that typify higher consciousness
the quasi-spiritual experiential state known as flow in psychology (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997).
As previously noted, subjective experiences of the mind are called qualia. In
neuroscience, the difficulty of explaining qualia, e.g. experience of the redness of an apple or
painfulness of heartbreak, illustrates the so-called hard problem of consciousness. The easy
problem of consciousness concerns itself with biological functionality of the brain (Chalmers,
1995). Qualia are essential to understanding evolution of consciousness since qualia and Self5 are
mutually dependent and, therefore, coevolved. Qualia also facilitate symbolic reasoning, which
led to development of language (Ramachandran, 2004). Symbolic reasoning and aesthetics form
the essence of the experience of higher-order consciousness.6
Evolution of the structures of consciousness, according to many influential commentators
in the new field of consciousness research, proceeds in stages, e.g. from the Archaic (Primitive),
successively to the Magical, Mythical and Mental (Gebser, 1986). In many developmental
models the next evolutionary stage will be called Planetary Consciousness. In the anthropology
of consciousness, specific historical periods associated with these developmental stages are
somewhat arbitrary, as are the memes7 themselves, nevertheless all closely correspond to the
respective epochs discussed in this paper.

The most elusive aspect of consciousness is Self, which is defined as the totality of ones unique personality and
potential. (Damasio 2011).
6
Higher-order consciousness (higher consciousness) is defined as, conscious of being conscious and includes selfreflexivity, abstract thinking of past, present and future, and metacognition (knowing about knowing).
7
A meme is something that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission (Dawkins, 1989).

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Addressing confusion of when one stage ends and the next begins, it is noteworthy that
various stages of consciousness, however labeled, do coexist in culture simultaneously. This is to
say that as the higher stages of consciousness evolve the lower mainstream stages do not
disappear completely, rather their numbers and power decrease. This is the result of a dissipative
pattern called memetic drift.8 For example, its estimated 40% of world population today remain
in the mythic stage of consciousness even as an active creative minority, estimated to represented
by less than 1% of world population, are fully two stages higher and mark the threshold of
Planetary Consciousness (Wilber, 2000; Beck & Cowan, 1996).
For those constrained at the lower stages, the higher stages are not only inaccessible but
incomprehensible (Wade, 1996). An example might be someone devoted to a personal god at the
mythic stage, which Ken Wilber terms mythic membership, attempting to no avail to
comprehend the holistic but impersonal character of the Ground of All Being. Higher order
stages do not marginalize lower stage substrates; each is a fundamental ingredient of the
subsequent stages and thus each is to be cherished and embraced holistically (Wilber, 2000).
To continue defining terms, the word psyche describes the totality of consciousness and
self, which is comprised of the reflexive self-conscious mind, the personal unconscious mind,9
and the imaginal realm, which I define as an individuals conscious interface with the collective
unconscious.10
The self-conscious, thinking mind handles only about 5% of the cognitive activity of
daily life; the remaining 95% derives from the unconscious mind. This 95% includes decision

Memetic drift is defined as, spontaneous and continuous divergence of beliefs in a large social system (Heylighen
& Campbell, 1995). It is the cultural corollary of genetic drift in evolutionary theory.
9
For the purposes of this paper, personal unconscious and sub-conscious are one and the same.
10
Collective unconscious is a psychological term coined by psychologist C.G. Jung (1875-1961). Jung considered
the collective unconscious a physical faculty of the unconscious mind (although in this paper I proffer the viewpoint
it is nonlocal). Jung further theorized human psyches were linked together in some way both subtle and profound.

Brooks 7
making, actions, emotions and behaviors, as well as information from the collective unconscious
that manifests itself in dreams or moments of acute awareness. Interestingly, the unconscious
mind is one million times faster as an information processor than the conscious mind (Lipton,
2008).
Appreciation of that fact is important for several reasons. Its axiomatic that evolution of
consciousness is advanced by the minds awareness of the unconscious mind, its vitality and
transcendent faculties, e.g. when the human mind rises above (transcends) itself to connect with
a higher order imbued with numinous or anomalous qualities, e.g. the collective unconscious.
Other examples of transcendence include altered or non-ordinary states of consciousness,11 such
as the deep meditative-states achieved by Buddhist monks.
The collective unconscious is an invisible psychic energy field (Psi) just as gravity and
electromagnetism are invisible physical energy fields. Evidence of the latter, for example, is
easily observed with iron filings and a simple magnet from the five-and-dime. We may regard
the imaginal realm metaphorically as a magnet that, when awareness is keen and well focused,
facilitates personal experience of the collective unconscious. Some such experiences are
explained as experiences of the numinous, i.e. having metaphysical but not necessarily
supernatural qualities. These experiences are common in shamanic practices.
The term imaginal realm was coined by philosopher Henry Corbin to describe an order
of reality he referred to as imaginative consciousness or cognitive imagination. The word
imaginal refers first and foremost to an ontological reality rather than to something ambiguous or
imaginary (Corbin, 2008). Like the collective unconscious, the imaginal realm is experienced in
dreams and other altered states of consciousness, as well as conscious acts of creativity when

11

Altered states of consciousness include daydreams, ecstasy, hypnosis, hypnogogic trance, out-of-body
experiences, and various types of spiritual/religious experiences, including those induced psychotropically.

Brooks 8
nonlocal information from the collective unconscious is integrated into conscious awareness.
One familiar example of this is synchronicity, or meaningful coincidence, where psyche interacts
with matter. Another is an aha! moment, defined as unexpected inspiration, comprehension or
insight.
The collective unconscious, which is the agency of both, resembles a universal memory
bank that harbors mythological figures and themes from all cultures and all ages called
archetypes. This even includes those cultures of which we have no intellectual knowledge (Jung,
1980). Jung believed the collective unconscious was inherited, and perhaps various aspects of it
are. In any event, it provides the source code for panhuman archetypes, a term Jung coined and
defined as:
a preexistent, non-personally acquired information field in the
collective unconscious. The archetypes themselves can never be
fully known or seen, but only gleaned from their incarnation as
symbols, images, situations, and through synchronicity, etc. (as
cited in Conforti, 2003)
Archetypes, according to Jungian Jonathan Zap (2012), form the substrate from which
the basic themes of human life emerge. They are incarnated or made real in the imaginal realm.
The collective unconscious is an information field enfolded into a universal nonlinear feedback
loop that, like the geography of the space-time manifold, permeates the cosmos. Every living
organism and non-living dynamical system12 is connected to this feedback loop, which will be
explored in the following section.

12

The biosphere is an example of this concept. Gaia Theory, formulated by scientist James Lovelock in the 1960s,
asserts the biosphere, the thin sphere of the planet where all life is located, is a complex, self-regulating, living and
dynamic system (Lovelock, 2000).

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The Vacuum
For 200 years, scientists have sought a unified field theory termed a Theory of
Everything (TOE) that would close the mathematical gap between classical Newtonian physics,
which accounts for the tidy behavior of masses larger than atoms the big things and quantum
physics, which accounts for the untidy behavior of subatomic particles and waves the tiny
things. Since big classical things are made from tiny quantum things, it stands to reason a single,
unified TOE exists to explain both.
A promising new theory published recently purports to do just that, and also to reconcile
the gap between classical and quantum physics. The theory does not proffer solutions like the
mind-numbing superstring M-theory, which postulates 11 dimensions, nor does it invoke an
infinite number of weird parallel alternate universes, or invent unexplained forces in order to
patch equations, e.g. the strong nuclear force. The TOE detailed below is far simpler and it is in
this elegant simplicity that the melodic beauty of truth resonates. E.F. Schumacher, in a quote
often misattributed to Einstein, wrote, Any educated person can make things more complicated.
It takes a genius to make them simpler (1975).
This groundbreaking and already controversial TOE was published by theoretical
physicist Nassim Haramein. In it he demonstrates that 99% of the material world once
considered to be a void of empty space is, in fact, not empty at all but full of quantum energy
a measurable, fluctuating vacuum enfolded into a transcendent order of infinite energy. At the
center of every proton, explains Haramein, is a sub-subatomic miniature black hole singularity.
This singularity connects all protons to a web of energy that permeates the universe from the
cosmological level to the quantum level (Haramein, 2013).

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Concordantly, the Hubble telescope has proven black holes exist at the center of all large
galaxies and throughout the universe. Black holes play an integral, creative role in the formation
of the universe, as European Space Agency astronomer Duccio Macchetto presciently noted in a
2000 ESA publication:
Hubble provided strong evidence that all galaxies contain black
holes millions or billions of times heavier than our sun. This has
quite dramatically changed our view of galaxies. I am convinced
that Hubble over the next ten years will find that black holes play a
much more important role in the formation and evolution of
galaxies than we believe today. Who knows, it may even influence
our picture of the whole structure of the Universe... (Battrick,
2000).
It is beyond the scope of this paper (and my intellectual competence) to explicate either
Harameins theory or the cosmological role black holes play in the structure of the Universe.13
However, I will narratively highlight Harameins salient points.
In addition to unifying classical and quantum physics, Harameins TOE unites science
with rational spirituality. Science and spirituality, i.e. human meaning, became alienated during
the 17th century when the so-called Cartesian Bargain14 liberated science from the oppressive
clutches of the church an event that began a revolution in scientific thought, added momentum
to the then century-old Copernican Revolution, and fueled a new Age of Enlightenment in
Europe (Kelley, 2012b). The resulting mind-matter dualistic worldview, devoid of a rational
13

Harameins research institute produced a 4-part video series available on YouTube that retraces his steps in
conceiving the fractal-holographic universe. The series is titled, Crossing the Event Horizon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji8yXFwYxBg
14
The Cartesian Bargain stated the church would abandon all claims to scientific authority as long as scientists
refrained from influencing religious doctrines (Primack and Abrams, 2007).

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spiritual constituent, occasioned profound cultural repercussions in the years following Charles
Darwins publication of On the Origin of Species in 1849, as we shall see.
Harameins TOE builds upon the role of the mostly unfamiliar principle of quantum
nonlocality known as Bells Theorem. In 1964 John Stewart Bell demonstrated that two
particles, once correlated, would remain correlated regardless of the distance separating them,
even if positioned on opposite sides of the universe (Goswami et al., 1993). This phenomenon is
known as quantum entanglement. Consequently, space was no longer a barrier to the flow of
information as previously had been the case with the Newtonian paradigm (Hein, 2002).
Reuniting science with human meaning will be a welcome development for the planet.
The Cartesian Bargain was a medieval contrivance that never enjoyed a basis in reality.
Psychologist Jenny Wade (1996) observed, The Newtonian world of mechanical causality and
independent material particles existing in empty spacebecame an unexamined metaphorical
assumption. In The New Universe and the Human Future, cultural philosopher Nancy Abrams
and cosmologist Joel Primack offer this insight:
We cannot afford to have an accurate scientific picture on the one
hand while on the other being guided in our feelings, philosophies,
and views of the future by ancient fantasies that stand in for fact
but have long since been disproved because thats in fact what
weve been doing It is time to reconnect the two different
understandings of the word cosmology the scientific and the
mythic into one: a science-based appreciation of our place in a
meaningful universe (Abrams & Primack, 2011).

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In my view, Harameins theory of an interconnected vacuum field of quantum energy is
congruent with ancient philosophical traditions and affords an excellent opportunity to do just
that: reunite science with rational spirituality. This new, unified cosmology, as one might expect,
harmonizes with sacred geometry. The star tetrahedron,15 for instance, as well as the Platonic
solids, are all derived from a geometric pattern called the Flower of Life that was sacred to
ancient civilizations (Melchizedek, 1998). The star tetrahedron, formed from the most stable of
Platonic solids, the tetrahedron, is central to Harameins space-time geometry, as is vector
equilibrium, a term coined by Buckminster Fuller, who called it, natures blueprint for
forming energy into matter (Miller, 2012).
Harameins holistic theory of an energy field occupying empty space and connecting
everything in the Universe is not entirely new. It is, however, a theory that can no longer be
swept under the cosmic rug by physicists preoccupied with discovering the next smallest particle
of matter rather than investigating the more abstruse concept of a space-time manifold imbued
with vibrating energy. Heretofore, propositions that included such an energy field were puzzling
to scientists and thought to offer little of significance to scientific inquiry.
That Harameins theory obviates mathematical need of convenient patches such as the
strong nuclear force, dark energy, and the cosmological constant, should be welcome
developments since these patches were simply convenient inventions necessary to balance
mathematical equations. Haramein waggishly termed the practice, physics on the go.
Ironically, patches like the strong nuclear force enjoy no more bases in reality than do the
Cartesian Bargain. Science without a basis in reality is known as pseudo-science.
Harameins TOE also holds enormous implications for philosophy, as it radically changes
the way the world is seen. On a macrocosmic scale, the Vacuum has, at various times, been
15

A star tetrahedron is two overlapping tetrahedrons stellated to produce a three dimensional star.

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theorized as dark energy, zero point energy, Higgs field, ether, Akasha field, the matrix and the
implicate order, among other names. On a planetary scale, the Vacuum accounts for the
mechanism of the collective unconscious, psi-field,16 morphic resonance,17 the noosphere,18 Gaia
Theory, and certain aspects of consciousness itself.
Harameins equations demonstrate how a constant exchange of information can exist
between the vacuum structure and the atomic structure of the universe. Years ago, physicist
Fritjof Capra noted that, Gaia Theory demonstrates that Earth's feedback loops interconnect
living systems with non-living systems. In other words, life and the planet have co-evolved
(Capra, 1997). Going forward, I refer to Harameins TOE simply as the Vacuum, with a
capital V.

The Cambrian Explosion

The first period of punctuated evolution examined in this survey occurred 530 million
years ago when all organisms on earth were unicellular creatures roaming the seafloor, as had
been the case for over 3 billion years (Jeltsch, 2013). Over the ensuing 20 million years,
precursors of all animals alive today about three dozen phyla -- evolved during what is called
the Cambrian Explosion (Marshall, 2006). The questions raised by such immense, unprecedented
change over a relatively short period of time (geologically speaking) have daunted scientists.
This novel burst of biodiversity is sometimes referred to as Darwins Dilemma. What triggered
the Cambrian biodiversity, which saw worms, suctorians and urchins evolve into weird looking,

16

The Psi field was developed by Ervin Laszlo who describes it as, A subquantum field containing a holographic
record of all events that have happened in the phenomenal world (Grof, 2008).
17
Morphic resonance is a theory concerning the evolution of biological forms and telepathic interconnection
developed by Rupert Sheldrake (2009).
18
The noosphere is a conscious, psychic sphere of thinking substance outside and above the biosphere, a theory
developed by paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1964) and geochemist Vladimir Vernadsky.

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complex multicelluar organisms with spiraled shells, skeletons and limbs in the wink of a
geological eye?
Certainly, among the Cambrian Explosion triggers were changes in the Precambrian
environment: the oceans became oxygenated and mineralized; atmospheric oxygen increased
dramatically, and the Earths surface cooled (Jeltsch, 2013). Other factors include the evolution
of vision, which punctuated the need to avoid detection by predators, and the evolution of
primitive consciousness (what scientists refer to as sentience), a gradient of awareness.
Additionally, the new science of epigenetics is contributing greatly to the understanding of
evolutions triggers. Epigenetics, which means above the genes, hypothesizes that
environmental signals are the primary regulators of gene activity (Tollefsbol, 2010; Lipton,
2008) .
Another trigger may have been primitive consciousness. Unicellular organisms in the
Precambrian period are not considered to have had sufficient tubulins19 to account for primitive
consciousness. This does not hold true, however, for the multicelluar organisms that followed
and were responsible for the Cambrian Explosion, according to Stuart Hamerhoff (2004), well
known for his studies of consciousness. Hamerhoff asks the rhetorical question, Did primitive
consciousness accelerate evolution and precipitate the Cambrian explosion?
If so, it could be an early example of what is called a metasystems transition feedback
loop between the Field and Earthbound primitive consciousness.20 I personally subscribe to the
theory that this feedback loop mechanism, impelled by primitive consciousness, kindled the

19

Tubulins are proteins essential to cell shape, function and division.

For additional detail on punctuated equilibrium and metasystems transitions see (Powers, 1995). The positive
aspect of a feedback loop produces instability, resulting in change the punctuation. The self-regulating negative
aspect mitigates change and reintroduces stability the equilibrium.
20

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Cambrian phylum. Scientist William Powers, who developed Perceptual Control Theory, claims
the first sparks of planetary life did indeed ensue from a metasystem transition feedback loop:
Certain

metasystem

transitions

may

have

preceded

this

development, but after it the progression of evolution toward

greater and greater control, and toward vastly more complex
metasystems, would have taken a completely new turn. What I
visualize is this: the evolution of a system that internalizes
evolution. Instead of waiting for the external world to impose new
and more threatening kinds of blind variation, this system
instigates such variations spontaneously. It does not wait for
failures, but detects them before they can result in extinctions. It
retains the basic power of the evolutionary principle: the use of
random change to break out of local minima and discover illogical
and improbable but superior solutions to the problem of accurate
replication (Powers, 1995).
Powers hypothesis was later reinforced by a team of scientists from the Potsdam
Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany: The Cambrian explosion was so rapid
because of a positive feedback between the spread of biosphere...and a consequent cooling of the
climate. The environment itself has been actively changed by the biosphere maintaining the
temperature conditions for its existence (Bloh, Bounama, & Franck, 2003).
At first blush it may appear the evolutionary radiation that defined the Cambrian
Explosion undermines Darwins theory of evolution. Indeed, some Intelligent Design
proponents, unsurprisingly, choose to view it through that lens. However, punctuated

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equilibrium, metasystems transition, and the Fields biospheric interconnectedness all provide
firm footing to sustain and embellish Darwins theory and the science of evolution.

The Great Leap Forward

If the Cambrian Explosion represented a punctuation in punctuated equilibrium, then the
interregnum during the next 500 million years was an equilibrium. Steady, slow, and continuous
Darwinian gradualism occupied center stage in the Phanerozoic during this period that saw
hominids gradually evolve into various pre-human species, all now extinct save one: Homo
sapiens sapiens.
Anatomically modern humans were evident as early as 120,000 years ago in Africa. Then
around 60,000 years ago, migrating groups departed for Europe, Asia and Australia to colonize
the world. By 40,000 years ago, perhaps earlier, they arrived in Europe.21 What then followed
was a second punctuation spanning 30,000 years, a historical period referred to as the Great Leap
Forward (Klein, 1995). All aspects of modern human behavior and culture, i.e. language, music,
aesthetics, symbolic art, self-ornamentation (mobile art) and burial rituals were fully present as
this punctuation culminated with the end of the last Ice Age.
During this 30,000-year punctuation event, the species Homo sapiens sapiens emerged to
mark the dawn of human culture. I and others argue the Paleolithic proto-culture also included
what could be termed the first religion,22 which was shamanism. Anthropologists discovered
human evidence of early shamanism in the cultures cave art.
Chauvet cave (France), as well as the Cave of El Castillo (Spain), both claim artwork at
least 40,000 years old, which makes them examples of the oldest known art in the world. Perhaps
21

This migration schema is known as the Out of Africa hypothesis. Although the most widely accepted, other
plausible hypotheses exist.
22
Religion defined as widespread shared cultural beliefs and practices as opposed to institutionalized dogma.

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coincidentally, but perhaps not, the art dates from around the time Homo sapiens first arrived in
western Europe (Pike, Hoffmann, & Garcia-Diez, 2012). Unsurprisingly, the role of
consciousness and symbolic reasoning in the anthropology of Paleolithic cave art went largely
ignored for years. At that time art was thought of Eurocentrically, as the high achievement of
advanced civilizations. Quite naturally, researchers were disturbed by the implications of cave
art.23
In his book, The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art (2002),
archaeologist David Lewis-Williams argues that, Most researchers have consistently ignored
the full complexity of human consciousness and have concentrated on only one slice of it and
made that slice the defining characteristic of what it is to be an anatomically and cognitively
fully modern human being.
Returning to shamanism, to the metaphysicians eye one particular representation in
Chauvet provides a compelling example of an altered state of consciousness, endogenous or
otherwise, commonly associated with shamanic practice. In the deepest chamber of Chauvet is a
painting of a therianthrope a half-animal, half-human creature with the head of a bison and
body of a man an artistic rendering of the archetypal sorcerer depicted as a horned god. At
Lascaux, one of the better known Magdalenian24 caves, similar art takes the form of a bird-man.
Then again, at Les Trois Frres, another Magdalenian cave in the French Pyrenees, the Sorcerer
bears the antlers of a stag and legs of a human (Thurman, 2008). This figure is described by
cave-art specialist Denis Vialou:

23

As no evidence of cave art predating arrival of Homo sapiens in Western Europe exists, its reasonable to assume
the practice was indigenous to Homo sapiens culture exclusive of Homo neanderthalensis involvement. European
Neanderthals were extinct by 28,000 years ago. A recent scientific study suggests Neanderthals may have been
extinct as many as 50,000 years ago.
24
The Magdalenian culture existed toward the end of the last Ice Age from around 17,000 years ago to 12,000 years
ago. The name is taken from the La Madeleine rock shelter in Southwestern France.

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The body is uncertain, but is some kind of large animal. The hind
legs are human, until above the knees. The tail is a kind of canid, a
wolf or a fox. The front legs are abnormal, with humanlike hands.
The face is a bird's face, odd, with deer's antlers. In a manner
unusual for Upper Paleolithic images, the sorcerer is staring
directly out of the wall, a full-face stare that transfixes the
spectator (Leakey & Lewin, 1992).
Cave art continues to fascinate humans today. Ethnographic and archeological studies in
such disparate locations as Siberia, Central Asia25, South Africa, Australia, Iran and the
Americas have discovered shamanistic rock art as petroglyphs (rock carvings) in addition to
European cave paintings (parietal art). Esteemed scholar of prehistory Jean Clottes remarked in a
2008 interview with The New Yorker magazine:
You can advance a scientific hypothesis without claiming
certainty. Everyone agrees that the paintings are, in some way,
religious. Im not a believer myself, and Im certainly not a mystic.
But Homo sapiens is Homo spiritualis. The ability to make tools
defines us less than the need to create belief systems that influence
nature. And shamanism is the most prevalent belief system of
hunter-gatherers (Thurman, 2008).
Religion develops from efforts to interpret and communicate an ineffable mystical or
spiritual experience deemed supernatural in origin by a person or persons (James, 1902). Such is
the case with the narrative art of Paleolithic shamans the propensity to believe is one of 350
human (or cultural) universals (Brown, 1991).
25

Siberia and Central Asia are often referred to as the Cradle of Shamanism (Price, 2001).

Brooks 19
In 1911, not far from Chauvet in Southwestern France, the skeletal remains of
Magdalenian Woman were discovered in a conspicuous location in the sanctuary of Cap Blanc
cave. She had been interred beneath a magnificent sculptured frieze, which led immediately to
speculation she was its sculptor, or at least one of them. Whoever Magdalenian Woman was, she
was someone clearly identified with the Cap Blanc cave, perhaps a shaman-artist. A likeness of
her created by paleoanthropologist Elisabeth Daynes is widely viewable over the Internet.26
Perhaps the Magdalenians most remarkable legacy is their evolved symbolic reasoning,
which enabled them to found one of Europes first cultures of higher-order, magical
consciousness. Commenting on Paleolithic cave art, anthropologist Ian Tattersall writes, we
can be secure in the knowledge that those ancient people of Altamira and Lascaux and elsewhere
were us in all essentials, imbued with the same remarkable human spirit that animates us today
(Tattersall, 2013).
Another period of equilibrium followed the Great Leap Forward and lasted until the
Axial Age, which is discussed in the next section. This interregnum saw the shamans magical
relationship with the unseen world gradually evolve into cohesive, Bronze Age mythical
consciousness characterized by storytelling, mythmaking and cyclical reckoning of time.
Renowned cultural anthropologist and pioneer of symbolic anthropology Clifford Geertz
offers a poignant thought on the metaphysical imperative that drives the evolution of
consciousness:
The Ice Age appears to have beena time in which were forged
nearly all those characteristics of man's existence which are most
graphically human; his thoroughly encephelated nervous system,
26

In 1926 Magdalenian Womans remains were purchased by the Field Museum in Chicago, where they are on
permanent exhibit (Cap Blanc, from http://fermedetayac.com/cap-blanc/). Daynes reconstruction of Magdalenian
Womans facial appearance can be viewed at the above linked webpage.

Brooks 20
his incest-taboo-based social structure, and his capacity to create
and use symbols. The fact that these distinctive features of
humanity emerged together in complex interaction with one
another rather than serially as for so long supposed is of
exceptional importance...because it suggests that man's nervous
system does not merely enable him to acquire culture, it positively
demands he do so if he is going to function at all (Geertz, 1973).

The Great Transformation

Religious historian Karen Armstrong chose as subtitle for The Great Transformation, her
seminal treatise on the Axial Age, The Beginning of Religious Traditions (Armstrong, 2006).
The age, defined as the period between 800 and 200 BCE, was termed Axial because it
profoundly represents a pivotal turning point, another sociological revolution and a new stage in
the evolution of consciousness still apparent today.
During this relatively compressed punctuation period, the peoples of four major cultures
in four distinct geographical regions remarkably created the worlds great religious traditions:
Confucianism and Daoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in Israel,
and philosophical rationalism in Greece. The great classics were written during this period: the
analects of Confucius, the Bhagavad-Gita, teachings of the Buddha, the Hebrew canonical texts,
and the philosophical writings of Heraclitus, Plato and Aristotle. The Axial Age also witnessed
the birth of the first democracy.
But the most important Axial Age development, in the opinion of philosopher Karl
Jaspers who coined the term in 1949, was emergence of the capacity for reflexivity and forms of

Brooks 21
thought that transcended the daily lives of the Axial peoples, who could now reflect upon and
give expression to a world with potential to become a global community, a world far more
complex than the Magdalenians could possibly have imagined. Human existence was now
characterized by reflexive, mental consciousness (Arnason, Eisenstadt, & Wittrock, 2005;
Gebser, 1986). Jaspers, using the lexicon of religion, described the Axial Age as that time when
man becomes conscious of Being as a whole, of himself and his limitations, and experiences
absoluteness in the depths of selfhood and in the lucidity of transcendence (Jaspers, 1953).
One reason often articulated by historians, notably Karen Armstrong (2006), for the Axial
Ages cultural awakening writ large was in answer to the unprecedented violence of those times.
Others theorize Axial Age cultural diffusion may have been more widespread than once
assumed, thus facilitating exchange of new ideas and intercultural dialogue on ethics. However, I
believe we must look beyond historical conjecture to appreciate fully the forces inspiring the
ideas that transformed human consciousness in the Axial Age, as well as in other evolutionary
punctuations.
Largely ignored in academic theorizing are generative periods that give root to
evolutionary progress in the case of the Axial Age, the metaphysical contributions made by
previous civilizations whose religious thought was magical and nature-based. These
immeasurable contributions symbols, archetypes, forms, ideas were then amalgamated into
humanitys collective unconscious where they assumed specific energetic attributes and
informed the future.
To assume the Axial Age was primarily about new religions or evolution of religion is to
miss the point. It was, instead, a transition in spiritual ideology from the mythos to the logos
about how the Axial peoples viewed the world. Mythos refers to a cultures mythology,

Brooks 22
symbology and metaphors that communicate the meaning of life through narrative, whereas
logos refers to the mental, logical and rational thought that enables one to function in the world
(Armstrong, 2000).
Robert Bellah (2011), author of Religion in Human Evolution, describes a logos culture
(which he terms a theoretic culture) as one with the ability to think analytically rather than
narratively, to construct theories that can be criticized logically and empirically. Axial Age
rationality and critical thinking skills were supposed to bring the age of mythical consciousness
to an end, as Karl Jaspers explains:
For the first time philosophers appeared. Human beings dared to
rely on themselves as individuals. Hermits and wandering thinkers
in China, ascetics in India, philosophers in Greece and prophets in
Israel all belong together, however much they may differ from
each other in their beliefs, the contents of their thought and their
inner dispositions. Man proved capable of contrasting himself
inwardly with the entire universe. He discovered within himself the
origin from which to raise himself above his own self and the
world (Jaspers, 1953).
The battle between mythos and logos is one Armstrong examines in her book, The Battle
for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam (2000). She asserts denial of logos
is the denial of modernity itself; an attempt to resacralize the world along mythical lines. This
ongoing, unresolved conflict pits mythos as religious certainty against logos as secular
modernity.

Brooks 23
Another sociocultural theory bears mentioning as it might shed light on Axial Age
violence. It was developed by vascular surgeon Leonard Shlain and presented in his book, The
Alphabet Versus the Goddess (1999). Shlain notes a shift from partnership models of social
organization, which existed from the Upper Paleolithic through Bronze Age civilizations, to a
dominator model that ascended in the Iron Age some 3,000 years ago a model that can describe
many societies today.
Partnership societies were characterized by egalitarian relations
between the sexes, goddess worship and life-affirming values. The
emblematic object of this era was the chalice, which symbolized
abundance, feminine values and the goddessthe Dominator
model is characterized by strict hierarchies, men dominating
women, and death-centered values represented by the sword the
new iconic, emblematic object (Zap, 2012; Shlain, 1999).
In his theory, Shlain asserts the switch to dominator cultures was coincident with the
advent of written alphabets, which, in turn, led to an imbalance in the human brains hemispheric
lateralization skewing it from right to left hemisphere. Jonathan Zap observes that, Correlation
does not mean causation, but it does seem striking how much worship of the written word and
hatred of images [iconography] and women seem to converge (2012).
Shlain may subtly knead history to shape theory, but his convincing body of evidence
greatly exceeds the attention I can devote in this discourse. Axial Age spirituality, as taught by
the various founders of its religious offspring, was based upon humanistic and holistic ideals, the
centerpiece of Aldous Huxleys Perennial Philosophy (1945). Ironically, todays religions that

Brooks 24
trace ancestry to the Axial Age seem more concerned with (left-brain) dogma and doctrinal
conformity precisely those things the founders of Axial Age religions sought to avoid.
Cognitive theorists refer to Axial Age consciousness as the mental stage, as I previously
noted. It is characterized by rationality, dualism and linear time, and is skeptical, if not
disdainful, of other structures of consciousness. George Feuerstein, commenting on Jean
Gebsers work, offered this observation regarding mental consciousness, Faith in reason has led
to a fragmentation of the individual, a devaluing of the body and of feeling, to a complete
negation of all structures of consciousness other than the rational (Feuerstein, 1987). This
observation underscores the need for a unifying paradigm, which is the subject of the next
section.

The Aquarian Paradigm

It is impossible, of course, to date with precision the initial evolutionary phase of
Aquarian punctuation, just as it is impossible to date (owing to precession of the equinoxes) in
what year the Aquarian Age actually began, if indeed it has. Its unimportant: humanity is either
now living in the Age of Aquarius or on the cusp of its influence. Historiographically, it is
possible, however, to surmise when groundwork for this new paradigm began to unfold.
I enumerate three noteworthy social movements that provided the nascent groundwork
for the Aquarian worldview, which arguably has been consolidating for at least 50 years. These
are the Human Rights-Civil Rights Movement galvanized by the Sharpeville Massacre in South
Africa in March 1960, and the sit-in at a Woolworths lunch counter in Greensboro, North
Carolina a month earlier; and the Transpersonal Movement27 whose origins can be traced to

27

I use the term Transpersonal Movement as an umbrella. It also includes the Human Potential Movement and
Transcendental Meditation Movement of the 1960s.

Brooks 25
salon-style gatherings in the mid-60s at the Palo Alto, California, home of psychologist Anthony
Sutich.28 Tangentially related to the Transpersonal Movement, but apart from it, is the
psychedelic counterculture inspired by Timothy Learys August 1960 trip to Mexico. In
Cuernavaca, Leary, famous for the phrase, turn on, tune in, drop out, induced an altered-state
of consciousness by ingesting psilocybin mushrooms.29 And lastly, the Ecology Movement that
followed Rachael Carlsons publication of Silent Spring in (1962).
These movements gave definition and lent impetus to other social agendas in the 60s,
including the anti-war movement, the modern era feminist movement, inspired by Betty
Friedans 1963 book, The Feminine Mystique, and the environmentally conscious New Age
Movement, with its intuitive acceptance of holistic notions, secular humanism and Eastern
philosophy. Today the New Age movement continues to insist Mind, Body and Spirit are
interrelated, and seeks to promote a worldview that includes both science and spirituality
(Drury, 2004).
Turning our attention from sociology to the frontiers of science, President John
Kennedys 1961 Moon Speech galvanized national support for the space program and spurred
a renewed interest in science in U.S. homes and classrooms. The subsequent scientific
breakthroughs over the next 50 years were no less stellar than the parallel sociocultural
achievements, as Stanislav Grof notes:
As scientific progress continues to lift the spell of the outdated
17th century materialistic worldview, we can see the general
outlines
28

of

an

emerging

radically

new

comprehensive

Transpersonal psychology was originally called humanistic psychology.

Leary is quoted as saying he learned more about...(his) brain and its possibilities...[and] more about psychology
in the five hours after taking these mushrooms than...in the preceding 15 years of studying and doing research in
psychology (Sirius, 2013). Learys Psilocybin Project at Harvard University is today considered a milestone in the
history of consciousness studies.
29

Brooks 26
understanding of ourselves, nature, and the universe we live in.
This new paradigm should be able to reconcile science with
experientially

based

spirituality

of

non-denominational,

universal, and all-embracing nature and bring about a synthesis of

modern science and ancient wisdom (Grof, 2008).
The unseemly duel between outdated paradigms in science: Newtonian, mechanistic,
reductionist and materialistic; in religion: irrational, atrophied, unyielding and fideistic is a
double-edged Sword of Damocles threatening to impede the next advance in the evolution of
consciousness. These two incommensurate paradigms, both bloated products of the Cartesian
Bargain, are chiefly to blame for the profound separateness human beings experience toward one
another and the planet they mutually inhabit. Since 1960 the tension fostered by this aberration in
world affairs and the domains of everyday life has been palpable.
The accelerating rate of evolutionary change in technology, the primary factor that drives
modern civilization, also contributes to tension in humanitys collective psyche, which
consequently is extant in the collective unconscious. Jung said as much in a different way when
he speculated that emotional tension is created by the relative spiritual vacuum and lack of a
ruling myth characteristic of the Twentieth Century (Zap, 2012; Jung, 1970).
The presence of this inordinate degree of collective tension activates an innate archetype
in the collective unconscious, according to a theory developed by Jonathan Zap that I support.
Manifestations of the archetype can be observed in phenomena such as Mayan 2012 prophesies,
crop circles, UFO sightings, apparitions warning of divine wrath, widespread anticipation of an
eschatological End of Days, and so on.30 Such archetypal expressions are culturally influenced

30

This is not to suggest these subjective and in some cases anomalous experiences are meaningless or unreal. Only
that it is often difficult to interpret their meaning within a greater context.

Brooks 27
iterations that proceed from and prefigure the supreme archetype. For example, Jung recounted
that many of his German patients in the 1930s reported dreams of the Germanic god Wotan,
described as a wandering archetype who stirs up unrest and creates strife (Jung, 1970).
The archetype Zap refers to has been present in the collective unconsciousness since
humankind first evolved reflexive consciousness and began to ponder that end-of-life event
horizon from which no one escapes. It has been present at all stages in the evolution of
consciousness from the Paleolithic shamans magical experiences with the unseen world, to
Axial Age mythologies preached by sages and prophets, to emergent Aquarian planetary
consciousness today.
In the parlance of a macrocosmic paradigm shift, this supreme archetype is known as a
Singularity Archetype, a name implying critical mass at a tipping point.
As with encounters with all archetypes, individuals and groups will
attach idiosyncratic material to it, such as particular end dates and
scenarios. But the Singularity Archetype cannot be located in
linear time and is not reducible to a premonition of particular
outcomes or predetermined futures. It could, however, be viewed
as a strange attractor,31 a not fully formed pattern associated with
the future that is affecting individual and species in past and
present. Another way of defining the Singularity Archetype (in its
collective form) is as a resonance, flowing backward through time,
of an approaching Singularity at the end of human history (Zap,
2012).
31

Jonathan Zap borrowed the term strange attractor from Terrance McKenna and chaos mathematics. Strange
attractors function as focal points for persistent, accelerating change. Zap (2012) describes it as an event in the
future that is able to bend and warp causality toward it.

Brooks 28

The Singularity Archetype may be regarded as an archetype with creator-trickster

attributes like the Norse Loki or Roman Mercurius (Hermes to Greeks and Wotan to Germanic
tribes). Jung (1953) described the duality of Mercurius as, metallic yet liquid, matter yet spirit,
cold yet fiery, poison yet healing draught.32 In other words, the Singularity Archetype may be
said to demonstrate attributes of unity through the negation of opposites.
Utilizing Jonathan Zaps description of the Singularity Archetype as a resonance
flowing backward through time, the Singularity Archetype as a symbol of unity may be directly
linked to episodes of punctuated evolution. The archetype represents both the energy at the
Alpha Point, the beginning of an evolutionary cycle of time, and at the Omega Point, the ideal
point at infinity where consciousness and complexity achieve critical mass and the cycle ends. It
then renews itself beyond the event horizon is some inconceivable form.
Humanity shoulders a unique, co-creative responsibility for the evolution of intelligent
life and consciousness in the universe. Still, like any other species, it must accept responsibility
for its own survival and evolve a consciousness equal to the task at hand, as noted by Ervin
Laszlo:
How can we evolve a more adequate consciousness? The question
is not as arcane as it may seem: when people sense that a core
belief system is a threat to themselves and their children, they
search for alternative ideas, values, and beliefs. This is happening
today. Despite the persistence of outdated myths and illusions in
the established layers of society, there is an impassioned search for
alternatives at the marginsThe old order is breaking apart, and
32

Healing draught is an alchemical antidote for poison.

Brooks 29
its coming demise motivates young people, and open-minded
persons of all ages, to look for better and more reliable visions and
values (Laszlo, 1997).

Conclusion
The Cambrian Explosion punctuation was measured in millions of years; the Great Leap
Forward in thousands of years; the Axial Ages Great Transformation in hundreds of years, and
the present Aquarian paradigm in mere tens of years. Time and inordinate events seem to
accelerate parabolically as elongated cycles, such as the present cycle, approach their event
horizons.
An argument can be made, ironically, that humanity has grown inured to accelerating
change and rapidly multiplying social challenges, normalizing them as, just the way things are.
Such familiarity, its said, breeds complacency; continued exposure to most things will reduce
sensitivity and awareness of its presence. Its an attitude that flirts with inherent danger. Many of
todays global challenges, for example, concern sustainability issues: Malthusian population
pressures; energy consumption and depletion by the haves; energy availability and injustice by
the have-nots, and planetary ecological degradation. Since 1960 alone, for example, the worlds
population has more than doubled.33
Today over 34% of it is online, a five-fold increase since 2000.34 Availability of the
Internet and increased usage are factors contributing greatly to the grassroots organizational
structure of the emergent paradigm (Hossain, 2012; Kelley, 2010). For example, there are now
over 1 million organizations worldwide working toward ecological sustainability and social

33
34

World population stands at 7.1 billion, according to the World Population Clock, U.S. Census Bureau.
Most recent Internet World Stats, June 2012, (from http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm).

Brooks 30
justice. Most rely upon the Internet, according to environmentalist Paul Hawken, author of
Blessed Unrest (2008). Hawken refers to this creative minority (as Toynbee might term it), as the
largest social movement in all of human historycoherent, organic, self-organized
congregations involving tens of millions of people dedicated to change.
According to one of the originators of Earth Day, Jos Argelles (2011), this impulse to
evolution was spontaneous and is driven by technology, and its pace is likely to quicken until
humanity becomes conscious of itself as a single organism and divert the energy of the
human race from a path of destructionto a new harmonic order of super-organic reality based
on an entirely different state of consciousness than has yet existed on Earth.
At the heart of the quickening pace is computational speed in computers, which is
doubling every year. Its estimated that by 2020, computers will have reached speed and memory
capacity on par with the human brain. Futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts by 2020, It will become
increasingly difficult to draw any clear distinction between the capabilities of machine and
human intelligence, and expects an Intelligence Explosion35 to be apparent by 2029 and then to
accelerate parabolically, thus paving the way to artificial intelligence and artificial superintelligence (Kurzweil, 2000).
In addition to synthesizing modern science and ancient wisdom, as Stanislav Grof
phrased it, the Aquarian paradigm presages a sea change in the way we view the universe. The
influence of that segment of the planets population who regard the universe as dead a barren
and inhospitable place, comprised almost entirely of non-living matter and empty space (Elgin,
2009) must decrease, while the influence of those who regard the universe as a living organism
filled with boundless life, limitless potential and infinite energy must increase. Elgin continued:
35

The term Intelligence Explosion was coined by mathematician I.J. Good in (1965). It should be noted, however,
that not all neuroscientists draw a straight line between computer computational speed and human intelligence. It
depends on how the word intelligence is defined.

Brooks 31
Where a dead-universe perspective generates alienation and
despair, a living-universe perspective generates inspiring and
resilient visions of a higher pathway for humanityfrom a path of
separation and differentiation to a path of connection and
communion.
Paradoxically, the old materialistic, dead-universe paradigm served humanity well for
four centuries. A product of the Enlightenments Cartesian Bargain, it freed humankind from the
grips of superstition and intellectual oppression. In my view, the Aquarian paradigm will author
new narratives and new mythologies oriented to a universe co-created by human intelligent
designers here on Earth and on other planets.36 In this regard, the Aquarian paradigm involves a
Great Rebalancing that will diminish the influence and power of dogmatic religion. Religious
dogmatism, although not completely at odds with the concept of a living-universe, remains in
many respects tethered to the Middle Ages and is as wary of new science as it is insistent on
creation theology.
Harameins TOE predicts a multiverse comprised of an infinite number of universes and
continuous creation events (big bangs). Our universe, according to multiverse theory, could well
have been mothered by a black hole irrupting from another universe and creating our own (the
Big Bang). Our universe, consequently, mothers other universes herself.
Planetary-scale rebalancing requiring acceptance of an holistic worldview is unlikely to
be a simple or painless endeavor. But to recall Sri Aurobindos words, Man may help or man
may resist, but the Zeitgeist works, shapes, overbears, insists.

36

Carl Sagans analysis of the Drake formula, used to assess how many intelligent civilizations exist in a galaxy or
universe, anticipates in the Milky Way alone there are as many as one million intelligent civilizations (Gardner,
2007).

Brooks 32
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