The Magical Mystery Tour

Roll up roll up for the Mystery Tour
Roll up roll up for the Mystery Tour

Roll up
That's an invitation
Roll up for the Mystery Tour
Roll up
To make a reservation
Roll up for the Mystery Tour

The Magical Mystery Tour
Is waiting to take you away
Waiting to take you away

Roll up
Roll up for the Mystery Tour
Roll up
Roll up for the Mystery Tour

Roll up
They've got everything you need
Roll up for the Mystery Tour
Roll up
Satisfaction guaranteed
Roll up for the Mystery Tour

The Magical Mystery Tour is hoping to take you away
Hoping to take you away

The Mystery Tour

Ah

The Magical Mystery Tour
Roll up
Roll up for the Mystery Tour

Roll up
That's an invitation
Roll up for the Mystery Tour
Roll up
To make a reservation
Roll up for the Mystery Tour

The Magical Mystery Tour
Is coming to take you away
Coming to take you away

The Magical Mystery Tour
Is dying to take you away
Dying to take you away
Take you today

Read Eric Lee’s tiddly on reformed Animism.

Hash it out, only this time, do it differently.

My director would say, very good, now do it differently.

Religion and Belief Systems: A Journey Through Time

Our journey begins with prehistoric and early religions. Animism is characterized/experienced by the belief that spirits inhabit all things, including animals, plants, and natural phenomena. The spirits and souls of humans and other beings are considered necessary for life. Animism arose from our need to understand and explain the natural world.

Conclusion
Ethnographies around the world show that animism is a way of relating and attributing sentience to other beings, forces of nature, things, and even technological items. This entry has explored anthropological approaches to animism, from envisioning it as a philosophy of religion to building upon distinct philosophical, theoretical, and ethnographic sources that suggest animism may be more than a distinct sensibility, tendency, or style of engaging with the world. It may be an ontology in its own right.
Animism is approached from numerous directions in anthropology. It is considered to be an immanent rather than transcendent form of sentience. It is a way of revealing and sometimes manipulating the consciousness, motivation, memories, and powers of animal spirits, animistic places, and items of technology. As an ontology, animism may blend and blur with other ontologies, opening it up to contradictions, humour, creativity, imagination, inspiration, and reflexive awareness. Due to the diverse forms of animism worldwide, anthropologists have asked whether certain animistic groups may have undergone a history of diminution or disenchantment, which made them only attribute certain beings with an animistic sensibility. They also relate to animism in distinct ways, as scholars who are not animists, as scholars who advocate identifying with animists, or as scholars who are animists themselves.
Cutting across these varied approaches are competing visions of how animistic life-worlds unfold through human, other-than-human, and beyond human sensibilities. These distinct visions raise important questions about how we might relate to animism as a particular sensibility that can be studied ethnographically, debated about as a philosophical and theoretical possibility, deeply identified with as a way of enriching one’s scholarship and life, or (possibly) taken up as a sensibility of one’s own. What these big questions do is shine a reflexive mirror onto our own humanity, pressing us to articulate what sentience is in the first place and why we relate to others in the ways that we do.

Shamanism is the practice of entering altered states of consciousness to communicate with the spirit world. Shamans often served as healers, diviners, and storytellers. These days, you have to pay to play Shamanic wisdom. The business of religion says a lot about our global culture.

Imagine sitting quietly around a campfire. Deep throated Native drums are playing softly in the distance and somehow remind you of the beat of your mother's heart. A Native flute echoes in the wind from tree to tree, and an uncommon peace begins to settle over you. A sage old Native Warrior, in the full wisdom of his years, is sitting with you ... and begins to speak ... and you close your eyes to listen. He speaks of the old ways, he speaks of the old honors, and he speaks of his love for his people and their devotion to the balance in Nature. His heart and his words are kind and gentle ... but the space between those words is filled with foreboding. He offers hope, but ..... "This is the way I would begin describe my waking vision ... a solo journey of four days and three nights alone, into the wilderness ... a Lakota style "vision quest" with no food and no water. It was a trail that would lead deep into the heart, and the mind, and the body, and the Spirit!" ......... Robin Miller

Ancestor Veneration is the belief that deceased ancestors can influence the living. Homo sapiens have a desire to maintain connections with loved ones and seek their guidance.

Google “Ancestor Worship” and aside from 2,260,000 results delivered in slightly over half a second, you will immediately find the following description: “Ancestor worship is a religious practice based on the belief that deceased family members have a continued existence, that the spirits of deceased ancestors will look after the family, take an interest in the affairs of the world, and possess the ability to influence the fortune of the living.”

Polytheism is the belief in multiple gods and goddesses, often associated with natural forces or human activities, allowing for a more complex understanding of the world and human experience.

The Rise of Monotheism and BIG BESPOKE GODS

Yahweh (Hebrew) is the single, all-powerful God of the Hebrews. Yahweh is seen as a personal God who made a covenant with his chosen people.

Yahweh is the name of the state god of the ancient Kingdom of Israel and, later, the Kingdom of Judah. His name is composed of four Hebrew consonants (YHWH, known as the Tetragrammaton) which the prophet Moses is said to have revealed to his people and is sometimes given in English as "Jehovah."
The meaning of the name has been interpreted variously as "I am", "He That Is", "He Who Makes That Which Has Been Made" (Yahweh-Asher-Yahweh), "He Brings the Hosts Into Existence" (Yahweh-Teva-`ot) and, according to the philosopher Rabbi Moses Maimonides (l. 1138-1204), denotes "absolute existence" or "the totality of existence."

Allah (Arabic) is the one God of Islam, similar in concept to Yahweh. Allah is seen as the creator and sustainer of the universe. Allah is bespoke yet universal.

The Qur'an and Questions
We recognize that this will be especially hard for Muslims because they are forbidden by the Qur'an to ask questions about their own faith! They are warned that if they start asking questions, they may lose their faith in Islam!
O ye who believe! Ask not questions about things
which if made plain to you, may cause you trouble.
Some people before you did ask such questions, and on
that account lost their faith." (Surah 5:101-102).
The following citations reveal that there is a general consensus among Islamic scholars that Allah was a pagan deity before Islam developed. He was only one god among a pantheon of 360 gods worshipped by the Arabs. Even if he was at times viewed as a "high god," this does not mean he was the one true God.
What The Prophet said about Allah

Our species seems to have been true believers for a long time, perhaps even as far back as prehistoric times. How could we know what Homo sapiens believed over seventy-five thousand years ago? It's a fascinating question, and unfortunately, we can't say for sure what Homo sapiens believed over 75,000 years ago.

Challenges

We have no written records. Writing didn't emerge until much later in human history (around 5,000 years ago). Anything from 75,000 years ago is prehistoric, relying on archaeological evidence. Beliefs are abstract. Unlike tools or bones, they don't fossilize. We must infer beliefs from indirect evidence, which is open to interpretation. Early beliefs were fluid. Early humans probably had complex systems of thought, but these might not have been organized into formal religions like we know today.

What Clues We DO Have

Intentional burials, sometimes with grave goods, suggest a belief in an afterlife or a spirit world. This is seen in Neanderthals (our close relatives) and early Homo sapiens. Cave paintings, figurines, and other symbolic artifacts hint at complex thought processes and possible ritualistic behavior. The meaning is debated, but they show abstract thinking.

Labeling something as the "oldest" is tricky but can be defined in a couple of ways: oldest figurative (depicting something recognizable) or oldest abstract markings. There is an old painting in the Leang Tedongnge cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. It’s known as a Sulawesi warty pig and is at least 45,500 years old. Uranium-series dating of calcium carbonate deposits that formed over the painting helps us guess its age. This method measures the decay of uranium isotopes into thorium to determine the age of the mineral deposit.

**A team of archaeologists from Australia and Indonesia has discovered two figurative paintings of the** **Sulawesi warty pig (*Sus celebensis*)** **— a species of small (40 to 85 kg), short-legged pig with** **characteristic facial warts** — in Leang Tedongnge and Leang Balangajia 1 caves on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The warty pig painting from Leang Tedongnge cave dates to at least 45,500 years ago, making it the earliest known representational work of art in the world.

Oldest Abstract Markings

Caves in Maltravieso (Spain), Ardales (Spain), and La Pasiega (Spain) contain red hand stencils, ladder-like lines, and a decorated stalagmite, which are thought to be at least 64,000 years old, possibly older. Again, uranium-thorium dating was used on the calcite formations that had grown over the pigments.

**A new study shows that paintings in three cave sites on the Iberian Peninsula — a red linear motif in** **Cave of La Pasiega, a hand stencil in** **Maltravieso Cave, and red-painted speleothems in** **Ardales Cave** — were created more than 64,000 years ago. These cave paintings are the earliest dated so far and predate, by at least 20,000 years, the arrival of modern humans in Europe, which implies Neanderthal authorship.

It's Complicated

New cave art is constantly being found, which can change our understanding of the "oldest." It can be challenging to date cave paintings directly. Scientists often date the layers of mineral deposits that have formed over them, providing a minimum age. Some pigments may fade or be obscured over time, making them difficult to identify and date.

Significance

These ancient artworks provide invaluable insights into the minds of our early ancestors. They demonstrate an ability for abstract thought, symbolic representation, and possibly storytelling, pushing back the timeline for these cognitive abilities in humans. We may have been believers and storytellers since the dawn of our species. It's an exciting field of study, and new discoveries continue to reshape our understanding of early human culture and creativity.

While not a perfect analogy, studying the beliefs of modern hunter-gatherer groups can give us possible insights into the past. Many have animistic beliefs, seeing spirits in nature. "Modern" hunter-gatherers exist in a world heavily influenced by other societies. They often have some contact with the outside world and may incorporate modern tools or practices. However, they still rely significantly on hunting and gathering for subsistence.

I visited Aka Pygmies in the Republic of Congo in 1971 with my parents. In 1971, the country was called the Republic of Zaire. Aka are known for their close relationship with the forest and their skilled hunting with nets. "Pygmy" can be considered outdated and even derogatory by some. However, it is still widely used to refer to various groups in Central Africa who share specific physical characteristics (such as short stature) and often a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. I knew then that my presence in the forest was contributing to the dissolution of their culture. My trips to Bali in the 70s and early 90s confirmed this intuition.

First published in 1937, Island of Bali has come to be regarded as a classic work on the Balinese people and their civilization. Written with remarkable clarity, Covarrubias describes the geography and nature of the island, along with the history of the people, providing a thorough account of the community, family, and individual in all spheres of Balinese life.Miguel Covarrubias (1904-1957) was born in Mexico City and was an author, painter, caricaturist, and professor of art history at the National School of Anthropology in Mexico City.

"Modern" hunter-gatherers exist in a world heavily influenced by other societies. When we met Aka in the forest, they wanted everything we had on us; they behaved almost like a Cargo Cult. I remember giving them my hat, a pen, and a notebook. They really wanted my cassette tape recorder! Contact with the outside world changes their way of life as they incorporate modern tools or practices. However, they still rely significantly on hunting and gathering for subsistence.

Africa

San people (Southern Africa): Perhaps the most well-known, with diverse groups like the !Kung, Ju/'hoansi. Famous for persistence hunting and intricate knowledge of the Kalahari Desert.
Hadza people (Tanzania): Live around Lake Eyasi, known for their unique click language and egalitarian society.
Pygmies (Central Africa): Several groups, including the Baka, Aka, and Mbuti, living in the Congo Basin rainforest. Skilled hunters and gatherers adapted to the dense forest environment.

Asia

Sentinelese (Andaman Islands, India): One of the most isolated groups in the world, actively resisting contact. Little is known about their beliefs and practices.
Jarawa (Andaman Islands, India): Also relatively isolated, though some contact has been made. Known for their hunting skills and knowledge of the rainforest.
Aeta people (Philippines): Live in various parts of the Philippines, with some groups maintaining traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyles in mountainous regions.

Americas

Awá-Guajá (Brazil): Live in the Amazon rainforest, facing threats from deforestation and contact with the outside world.
Pila Nguru (Spinifex People, Australia): Live in the Great Victoria Desert, known for their resilience and deep connection to their land.

Arctic Regions

Inuit (Canada, Greenland): Traditionally hunted marine mammals and caribou, adapted to the harsh Arctic environment. While many now live in settlements, some maintain hunting and fishing practices.

Hunter-gatherer groups are not monolithic. Each has its own unique culture, language, and traditions. Many face challenges from habitat loss, encroachment from other societies, and disease. Despite these challenges, many hunter-gatherer groups continue to thrive and maintain their cultural identity.

By 75,000 years ago, Homo sapiens had brains comparable to ours. This suggests a capacity for symbolic thought, language, and social complexity, all linked to belief systems. It's crucial to avoid projecting our modern ideas onto the past. Early humans likely had a very different worldview shaped by their environment and way of life.

New archaeological discoveries constantly refine our understanding. Studying modern hunter-gatherers provides potential parallels. Cultural anthropology is a fascinating subject. Ancient DNA might eventually reveal clues about brain development and cognition.

Margaret Mead was a pioneering American cultural anthropologist who gained prominence in the 20th century for her studies of Oceanic peoples, particularly in Samoa. Her groundbreaking work, "Coming of Age in Samoa," challenged traditional Western views on adolescence and gender roles. Mead was a strong advocate for cultural understanding and the acceptance of diversity. She believed that studying different cultures could provide valuable insights into human behavior and social organization. Her work significantly impacted anthropology and contributed to a broader understanding of human nature. Mead was also a public intellectual and social activist, using her platform to address issues such as women's rights, racial equality, and environmental conservation.

"Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder that which one would not have been able to guess."
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
"If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place."

Ruth Benedict was a prominent American anthropologist and folklorist who significantly influenced the field in the mid-20th century. A student of Franz Boas, she emphasized the importance of culture in shaping individual personality and behavior. Her renowned book, "Patterns of Culture," explored how societies develop distinct "personality types" based on cultural values. Benedict also researched Native American and Japanese cultures, famously authoring "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword" (I read this book in Tokyo in 1983 while practicing Aikido at Hombu Dojo) during World War II to help Americans understand Japanese society. Her work challenged ethnocentrism and promoted cultural relativism, arguing for the appreciation of diverse ways of life.

“The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences.”
"We are forced to choose among our roles. A role is not a completely rounded development of personality but a sort of canalization of it."

Bronisław Malinowski was a hugely influential anthropologist of the early 20th century, often considered the father of modern fieldwork. Born in Poland, he made his mark in Britain with his innovative approach to studying cultures. Malinowski emphasized the importance of immersion, living among the people he studied (particularly in the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea) to understand their culture from their perspective. This method, known as participant observation, became a cornerstone of anthropological research. He stressed the importance of "grasping the native's point of view" and understanding the function of cultural practices within a society. His work had a lasting impact on anthropology, shaping how we study and understand different cultures.

"The goal of ethnographic fieldwork is 'to grasp the native's point of view, his relation to life, to realize his vision of his world.'"
"Culture is a system of objects, activities, and attitudes in which every part exists as a means to an end."

Clifford Geertz was a highly influential American anthropologist known for his work in symbolic anthropology. He believed that culture was a system of shared meanings and symbols and that anthropologists should interpret these symbols to understand a culture's "webs of significance." Geertz emphasized "thick description," a detailed analysis of cultural practices and their underlying meanings, as illustrated in his famous essay "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight." His work moved anthropology from purely structuralist approaches towards a more interpretive understanding of culture. Geertz's writings are known for their literary style and insightful observations on human behavior, making him a key figure in 20th-century anthropology.

"Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun."
"The culture of a people is an ensemble of texts, themselves ensembles, which the anthropologist strains to read over the shoulders of those to whom they properly belong."

Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and arguably the most influential figure in structuralist thought during the 20th century. He believed that underlying all human cultures were deeply structured patterns of thought, particularly evident in myths and kinship systems. Lévi-Strauss analyzed these patterns, drawing comparisons across seemingly disparate cultures to reveal universal structures in the human mind. His work, including books like "The Elementary Structures of Kinship" and "The Raw and the Cooked," revolutionized anthropology, pushing it towards a more scientific and analytical approach. Though his ideas have been celebrated and debated, Lévi-Strauss's impact on the field and beyond is undeniable.

Lévi-Strauss postulates that the raw/cooked axis is characteristic of all human culture, with elements falling along the "raw" side of the axis being those of "natural" origin, and those on the "cooked" side being of "cultural" origin - i.e. products of human creation. Symbolically, cooking marks the transition from nature to culture, by means of which the human state can be defined in accordance with all its attributes. In mythological thought, the cooking of food is, in effect, a form of mediation between nature and society, between life and death, and between heaven and earth. The cook, in turn, can be viewed as a cultural agent whose function is to "mediate the conjunction of the raw product and the human consumer," the operation of which has the effect of "making sure the natural is at once cooked and socialized."
"The savage mind is logical in the same sense and the same fashion as ours." (Lévi-Strauss argued that human thought processes are universal, even in seemingly "primitive" cultures).
“The world began without man, and it will end without him.”

While we may never fully know the beliefs of our distant ancestors, the quest to understand them continues to be a source of fascination and exploration. People will continue to explore the fantastic nature of things and humans no matter what people say about Marjorie Taylor Greene on tubes and blogs. Underneath the competitive, noisy, lucrative nonsense we habitually pay attention to are profound stories about life and our Universe that can enrich our lives immensely.

What is the purpose of religion?

Religion answers fundamental questions about the universe's origin, the meaning of life, and the nature of good and evil; it offers solace in times of hardship and uncertainty and hope for a better afterlife; it creates social cohesion, a sense of community, and shared identity, and provides a framework for moral behavior; religion offers a sense of control over the unpredictable forces of nature and human destiny.

Religion relies on faith, revelation, and tradition. Its claims may not be testable or falsifiable through scientific methods.

Science

Science seeks to understand the natural world through observation, experimentation, and logical reasoning. It relies on empirical evidence and mathematical models to make predictions and test hypotheses.

Survival Instincts and Empiricism—Is it predator or prey?

Our ancestors relied on their senses and instincts to assess danger, but they also learned from their experiences and the knowledge passed down through generations. This process of learning from observation and experience is a form of empiricism, which is also a foundation of scientific inquiry.

Religion and science offer different ways of understanding the world. Religion provides meaning, comfort, and social cohesion, while science seeks to explain the natural world through observation and experimentation. Both have played important roles in human history and continue to shape our lives today.

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." —Albert Einstein
This quote is often used to show both Einstein’s religiosity and his belief in the compatibility—indeed, the mutual interdependence—of science and religion. But the quote is rarely used in context, and when you see the context you’ll find that the quote should give no solace to the faithful. But first let me show you how, in that same essay, Einstein proposes what is essentially Stephen Jay Gould’s version of NOMA (Non-overlapping Magisteria). Gould’s idea (which was clearly not original) was that science and religion were harmonious because they had distinct but complementary tasks: science helps us understand the physical structure of the universe, while religion deals with human values, morals, and meanings.
"Science tries to document the factual character of the natural world, and to develop theories that coordinate and explain these facts. Religion, on the other hand, operates in the equally important, but utterly different, realm of human purposes, meanings, and values—subjects that the factual domain of science might illuminate, but can never resolve." —Stephen Jay Gould
"The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it." —Neil deGrasse Tyson (This quote points to the objective nature of scientific knowledge, in contrast to the subjective nature of religious belief.)

Get yee to the card catalog or computer database in the library and take a nap. Don’t read the stories or absorb knowledge and information; it’s poison, it doesn’t matter—rake the rocks, whisk the tea, and be present. Above all, serve the King loyally and do your duty. You prattling, ignorant, idiot beast!

Learn from your meister how to do things properly so you can make a living.

When you argue with those who and that which sustains you, you die.

If you can, create your own Game-B community somewhere off-grid if there is such a place that is habitable and not so attractive that Big Civilization won’t take it from you. Be a member of a small indigenous tribe of hunter-gatherers and small-scale farmers with a few domestic animals. Live in harmony with the people you depend on and who depend on you. Pay attention to your watershed (natural habitat’s life support subsystem of systems embedded in systems.) And don’t worry too much; in time, after the catastrophe plays itself out and there are far fewer people, we’ll have a chance to do things differently.

As the environment changes, stay put and harmonize with the changes generation after generation until your environment can’t sustain your tribe. When Nature has shown you it can no longer provide the sustenance to maintain your group (it’s not your group’s fault; your group took care of its environment and only used what it needed, careful to ensure that all life could replenish itself and remain in healthy status) send an emissary to search for a new place (ecosystem/habitat) suited to your traditional customs. If a tribe already lives there, your emissary can ask the people there if the location can sustain another group of people. Your emissary will stay with the new tribe for five years (pick a number arbitrarily or based on constraints), learning about their culture, customs, and place while sharing stories about his (the emissary is a man for some reasons) culture and way of life. If that place’s people think they might be compatible with your group, the emissary will ask permission to join them. The emissary will return home with good or bad news.

If you must stay where you are, do what you can to survive while waiting for conditions to improve or not. After thousands of generations, you may evolve, under natural pressures exerted within nested systems, into another life form that can take advantage of the new environment. The “old you” will pass away. With the right predators or mindset (proper animism as defined by the wisest Shaman who can interpret what systems within systems as part and parcel of BIG SYSTEM is communicating to Homo storyteller), you will live peacefully within natural constraints and continue to evolve until your “KIND” becomes extinct for one set of reasons or another. Remember, you are part and parcel of a subsystem of subsystems within BIG-NATURE-SYSTEM, and all things making up all systems are sacred, so smile and understand that when new conditions gradually arise that lead to the death of ninety percent of your band, nation, civilization, they still constitute animate and inanimate systems within systems in different forms, performing their roles as part of The System of Great Big Nature A.K.A., The Universe.

Thou Shalt!

Peace be with you.

It broke my heart in San Francisco, in Bali, in Africa, in Ireland, in Japan, in China, in Thailand…we visit, we pollute, we corrupt and destroy because we are there, and then, we climb mountains and take rocket ships to Mars—we buy bars and inns and swimming pools. It’s a fun investment. We boot out the locals and rent the historic district to wealthy tourists who can properly appreciate destinations and experiences. We share them on social media platforms, showing all who click how well-traveled, experienced, and worldly we are. The locals would be in awe of us and our purses if they still lived there. If we want to see a local, we can go online, find a village, and get an Uber to take us there. Uber drivers know where to have an authentic lunch.

"Impermanence is a principle of harmony. When we don't struggle against it, we are in harmony with reality." —Pema Chödrön
Pema Chödrön is a highly respected American Buddhist nun and author known for her down-to-earth teachings on mindfulness and compassion. Ordained in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, she emphasizes the importance of facing our fears and insecurities with kindness and courage. Chödrön's books, such as "When Things Fall Apart" and "The Places That Scare You," offer practical guidance on navigating life's challenges and cultivating emotional resilience. Her teachings are deeply rooted in Buddhist philosophy but presented in an accessible way that resonates with people from all walks of life. Chödrön's wisdom and compassionate approach have made her a beloved figure in the world of contemporary spirituality.

A long time from now.

Please remember, long ago, our ancestors believed in science and told stories about evolution.

We still tell some of their stories to remind ourselves of our ancient past until the stories fade, and there is only our watershed (local living system/Nature) to listen to—and maybe no one to hear.

There is no precise timeframe for how long one hominid evolves into another. Hominids are life forms, not things, and are less permanent than atoms and molecules—the building blocks of matter, or for that matter, fragments of energy. Homo sapiens used to tell science stories based on evidence, a kind of ancient Nature listening that required specialized processes, tools, and mental frameworks (ways of thinking about Natural systems.) Our ancestors were overly curious (by some moral standard).

Suddenly, for some odd reason, those types of people with those types of capabilities arose from the processes of evolution. Blasphemie! God IS evolution, God is everything, and God is THE self-sustaining ruler. Shhhhhhhhh!

At one moment in the past (we don't know exactly how many ticks a moment is because moments flow or something), science whisperers thought that it is hard to define what a "first hominid" is because clean cut-offs between one genus or species and another don't exist because systems are melded together and flow, through energetic relationships that often change depending on levels of energy and types of systems within systems making all kinds of "things" and “laws” and interactions emerge over time and under various circumstances, locations and many other factors manifesting this, that, and the other thing. Our ancestors had a domain called Physics, but we won’t go into that now.

The history of the Living–Earth system can be divided into five ‘energetic’ epochs, each featuring the evolution of life forms that can exploit a new source of energy. These sources are: geochemical energy, sunlight, oxygen, flesh and fire. The first two were present at the start, but oxygen, flesh and fire are all consequences of evolutionary events. Since no category of energy source has disappeared, this has, over time, resulted in an expanding realm of the sources of energy available to living organisms and a concomitant increase in the diversity and complexity of ecosystems. These energy expansions have also mediated the trans- formation of key aspects of the planetary environment, which have in turn mediated the future course of evolutionary change. Using energy as a lens thus illuminates patterns in the entwined histories of life and Earth, and may also provide a framework for considering the potential trajectories of life–planet systems elsewhere.

Our ancestors understood that the more one listens to Nature using sophisticated tools and mental frameworks, the more complex Nature seems to be. Is Nature fully comprehensible?

"Happiness does not depend on what you have or who you are, it solely relies on what you think." —Buddha
“The greatest wealth is to live content with little.” —Plato
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." —Leonardo da Vinci
"Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts." —Buddha
"It is better to travel well than to arrive." —Buddha
"There is no fear for one whose mind is not filled with desires.” —Buddha
Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet." —Thich Nhat Hanh

But anyway, our ancestors liked complex and complicated inquiries and stories because their processes, tools, and mental frameworks required evidence and a constant search for new evidence, which demanded more evidence to make sense of increasingly complex stories. The quest for evidence/proof involves innovating new tools and technologies to help us find more data to feed our understanding of Big-Great-Narure. They were not tranquil people; a lot was happening in their minds, and they couldn't be satisfied with turtles on the backs of turtles all the way in, out, down, sideways, up at whatever speed, form, energy use per physical unit of output whether purposeful or random. (What is a human construct? What is a human construct? A construct. A construct. All too human. All too human.)

"The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception."
"He who despises himself nevertheless esteems himself thereby, as a despiser."
"Ultimately, man finds nothing more beautiful than himself."
"Every tradition grows ever more venerable the farther its origin lies in the past, the more it is forgotten."
"At the bottom of all the great, splendid, immoral deeds one finds the same motive: man wants to become master over something."
"The vanity of others offends our taste only when it offends our vanity."
"No one is very keen to learn anything new about the things he knows."
"The greatest events - they are not our loudest but our stillest hours."
"Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself." —Friedrich Nietzsche

Is the Universe only math, or is the Universe only consciousness? Is the Univers I and I?

For example, suppose a basketball trajectory is that of a beautiful buzzer-beater that wins you the game, and that you later want to describe what it looked like to a friend. Since the ball is made of elementary particles (quarks and electrons), you could in principle describe its motion without making any reference to basketballs:
Particle 1 moves in a parabola.
Particle 2 moves in a parabola.
…
Particle 138,314,159,265,358,979,323,846,264 moves in a parabola.

So these lines of evidence led them to think at one moment that the earliest hominids, like Sahelanthropus tchadensis, date back around 6-7 million years ago. Over ticks (random units of time. What is time?), our species started showing traits that differentiated them from other apes, primarily bipedalism. Anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens, emerged around 300,000 years ago—so the story based on evidence gathered with processes, tools, and mental models goes.

Language is the tool that presents illusion. Dreams are what life’s made of. Tell me now how it works.

"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment." —Buddha
"The trouble is, you think you have time." —Buddha
"Every morning we are born again. What we do today matters most." —Buddha
"Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace." —Buddha
"Time is what we want most, but what we use worst." —William Penn
"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." —Albert Einstein
"Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time." —Marthe Troly-Curtin
"Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door." —Coco Chanel

But our ancestors' stories weren't as simple as ours today. Our ancestors were too curious, and as we discovered, curiosity kills, but it didn’t kill us.

And so there were caveats. Human evolution wasn't a straight line. Many different hominid species existed, some co-existing, some going extinct. Homo sapiens is the only surviving member of this diverse family tree.

“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.” —Carl Sagan

"Oh Great Spirit, who dwells in the whispering wind and the rushing river, in the soaring eagle and the crawling ant, in the towering mountain and the smallest grain of sand, we give thanks for your presence in all things.
We honor the spirits of this land, the guardians of the forests and the waters, the ancestors who walked before us.
Guide our steps and open our hearts, that we may live in harmony with all creation. May we always remember our connection to the web of life, and treat all beings with respect and kindness.
We offer this prayer with gratitude and humility." —Animist Prayer

Our noisy, curious ancestors knew that "hominid" evolved from other forms of life (systems within systems, Russian Dolls all the way down, in, out, up, sideways at the speed of this, that, or the other thing across or through time and so on and so forth.) Hominids used to refer only to humans and their extinct ancestors. Later, it included chimpanzees, gorillas, and bonobos, making the timeline even longer, going back to the last common ancestor we share with those apes, around 10 million years ago.

But for some, it includes the whole thing. We can have broad definitions of things.

Why do we define "first hominid?"

You can refer to graphs that our “Master” has included in his anti-prattle blog or find them yourselves after your nap at the library of devices and AI tools.

We are the aping apes. The cacophony is mostly noise as we sing what we don’t understand.

If you can't walk Nature's local watershed, you can wander the streets of your city or suburb, listening to modern stories (Natural constructs of Homo sapien dreams) and marveling at the utility of dirty jobs and fever dream interests, addictions, and desires.

"The quieter you become, the more you can hear." —Ram Dass
"Silence is a source of great strength." —Lao Tzu
"Your calm mind is the ultimate weapon against your challenges.” —Bryant McGill
“The mind is like water. When it's turbulent, it's difficult to see. When it's calm, everything becomes clear.” —Prasad Mahes

Populations change gradually over long periods, driven by natural selection and other factors. There is no endpoint until the BIG SYSTEM containing all systems cools to where energy is no longer available to drive systems (or so they say.) Some ancestors called this the “Heat Death of the Universe.” Our ancient ancestors had a name for no energy, no stuff, and many stories about non-state-of-no-affairs that they constructed with their social systems and rituals using scientific processes, tools, and mental models, whether primitive or not.

"The universe is the mind; the mind is the universe." —Huang Po
"With our thoughts we make the world." —Buddha
"Form is emptiness, emptiness is form." —Heart Sutra
"A human being is a part of the whole called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." —Albert Einstein
"The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself." —Carl Sagan
"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love." —Carl Sagan
"Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine." —J.B.S. Haldane
"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science." —Albert Einstein
John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Great Nature, BIG SYSTEM changes all the time. Homidid is a fuzzy concept and somewhat arbitrary based on noticing, categorizing, and classifying significant differences that accumulate gradually over long periods. (What is time? What is time?)

"Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week's value out of a year while another man gets a full year's value out of a week." —Charles Richards.
"By time, the fire burns; by time, the sun gives light; by time, the wind blows; by time, the moon moves; by time, the earth supports beings; by time, the rivers flow." (Maitri Upanishad 6.14)
"He who knows time, knows Brahman." (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.17)
"This is the truth: Time is Brahman." (Maitri Upanishad 6.16)
"Time devours all beings and all worlds." (Maitri Upanishad 6.15)

The more we use our tools and mental constructs, the more we accelerate changes in the living systems we depend on. Modern Techno-Industrial culture is a light-speed/mind-speed accelerator of change we can't control or predict, affecting every nested and emergent system. Population size, mutation rates, and generation time are all affected by the environment and our ancestors' imagination and will to learn, “know,” and create. Our ancestors were great environmental and technological change accelerators, even as their cultures didn't change much over their perception of time. Our ancestors were the apex of artificial-natural, technological, industrial change that affected all nested and emergent systems within Earth's BIG SYSTEM of life over thousands of years. (What is life? What is life?)

"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." —John Lennon

"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." —Confucius

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving." —Albert Einstein

"The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience." —Eleanor Roosevelt

"Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like." —Lao Tzu

"Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale." —Hans Christian Andersen

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life." —Steve Jobs

"Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved." —D.H. Lawrence

"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well." —Robert Louis Stevenson

"A person is a person because of other people." (Ubuntu philosophy, Southern Africa)

"Knowledge is like a garden: If it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested." (Akan proverb, Ghana)

"The world is like a chameleon's tongue - it catches only what it wants." (Yoruba proverb, Nigeria)

“We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home.” —Jimmy Smith

And you don’t have to live like an aborigine!

… We did somethin' we both know it
We don't talk too much about it
Ain't no real big secret all the same
Somehow we get around it
Listen it don't really matter to me, baby
You believe what you want to believe
You see, you don't have to live like a refugee (don't have to live like a refugee)

… Somewhere, somehow, somebody
Must have kicked you around some
Tell me why you want to lay there
Revel in your abandon
Honey, it don't make no difference to me, baby
Everybody's had to fight to be free
You see, you don't have to live like a refugee (don't have to live like a refugee)
Now baby, you don't have to live like a refugee (don't have to live like a refugee) No

… Baby we ain't the first
I'm sure a lot of other lovers been burned
Right now this seems real to you
But it's one of those things
You gotta feel to be true

… Somewhere, somehow, somebody
Must have kicked you around some
Who knows, maybe you were kidnapped
Tied up, taken away and held for ransom, honey
It don't really matter to me, baby
Everybody's had to fight to be free
You see, you don't have to live like a refugee (don't have to live like a refugee)
No, you don't have to live like a refugee (don't have to live like a refugee)
You don't have to live like a refugee (don't have to live like a refugee)
Oh, oh, oh

Aboriginal:
The land is my mother, my mother is the land. Like a baby I am born from the land, like a seed I will return to the land."
"Every creature on earth has as much right to be here as you."
"We are only a small part of the whole. The land, the animals, the plants, the sky, the stars – they are all our relations. We must live in harmony with them all."
"Our old people tell us that the Dreaming is still happening, that the ancestors are still here, in the land, the water, the sky. We must listen to their stories, for they hold the wisdom of life."
"Caring for Country is not just about looking after the land. It's about caring for each other, for our families, our communities, and for future generations."

Based on various lines of evidence, BIG-NATURE-LIVING-SYSTEMS on Earth during given ticks experienced environmental pressures, different population sizes for various “reasons” under multiple circumstances, mutation rates, longer or shorter generation times, and so on.

Don’t look!

Our ancestors had fossil records and other lines of evidence they could discover and analyze with energy-intensive technological tools: clean room labs; protective clothing; specialized kits containing DNA; silica-based methods for removing stuff from samples and the stuff needed to do that; special enzymes and the stuff needed to make or gather those; polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and the stuff to control that and stuff; quantitative PCR (qPCR) and the stuff to make that stuff happen…

Get your stuff to do that stuff here:

DNA sequencing with its next-generation sequencing technology and its high-frequency sequencing platforms and the stuff and resources you need to do that; bioinformatics and data analysis with its specialized software, computational resources, databases, and all the things and resources you need for that and to maintain and operate those systems within systems; authentication and contamination control with its contamination detection stuff, its statistical analysis, and all the procedures, resources and systems to do and maintain that aspect of things; imaging and microscopy and its scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and its computed tomography (CT) Scanning...

Google/AI/Read/Study/Explore these ways of listening to Nature yourself if you want more complex information about the tremendous omnicidal accelerator system within systems within the BIG-NATURE-SYSTEM we know as evolved to this tick-time-place Homo sapiens global culture...and so you “know.!” Or, you think you do. AND NOW! WE HAVE BECOME GOD! No, sorry, HE HAS BECOME GOD AND IS GOD. (What is consciousness? What is consciousness?)

"Consciousness is the way things are." —Satipatthana Sutta
"There is no self, no I, no me." —Anatta doctrine
"Consciousness is the greatest mystery. It is probably the largest outstanding problem in science." —Sir Roger Penrose
"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." —Socrates
"To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge." —Benjamin Disraeli
"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." (Exodus 20:2)
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." (Deuteronomy 6:5)
"Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you." (Deuteronomy 16:20)

Scientists, way back when, understood that reproductively isolated Homo sapiens would take millions of years before a new species would emerge in time.

Autopoiesis

Autopoiesis means "self-creating" (from the Greek auto for "self" and poiesis for "creation"). It's a concept used to describe systems that can produce and maintain themselves by creating their parts and organization. An autopoietic system continuously regenerates and sustains itself through its own internal processes. It doesn't rely on external forces to maintain its structure or function. The system's components interact in a way that creates and maintains the overall organization of the system—self-organizing. It's like a self-governing entity. The system defines its boundaries and what constitutes its internal versus external environment—self-defining.

The term autopoiesis (self-creation) is a neologism coined in 1972 by Varela and Maturana, Chilean cellular biologists and systems theorists, to describe the capacity of living cells to reproduce and organise themselves. The term was picked up and deployed by Niklas Luhmann (1927 – 1998), a German sociologist and philosopher, to capture his conception of society as composed of closed systems of self-referential communication that constantly reproduce and evolve themselves via the repetition of their own operations. When used in reference to social phenomena, autopoiesis is usually deployed as a short-hand reference to Luhmann’s theory of society. This post outlines the concept and its place in systems theory. Its critical potential for law is discussed via two recently published examples, and its limitations are expressed vis a vis the turn to ecological thought.

Cells take in nutrients, synthesize proteins, replicate DNA, and divide—all processes contributing to their maintenance and reproduction. From single-celled organisms to complex multicellular beings, life exhibits autopoiesis by continually regenerating and repairing itself. Some theorists apply autopoiesis to social systems like language or law, arguing that they create and maintain themselves through communication and self-reference.

Autopoietic System

According to Luhmann, such is also the nature of modern society. Modernity is functionally differentiated into a variety of incommensurable function systems, like law, economy and education. These function systems operate autonomously (i.e. autopoietically) on the basis of their own 'code', a vital distinction, like legal/illegal for law or profitable/unprofitable for the economy. Modern society is characterised by difference all the way down. There is no unity over and beyond this differentiation, no meta-narrative which commensurates the various function systems. As such, Luhmann presents a picture of the modern social system which stresses radical difference: an element that flows from the self-referential nature of the autopoietic system itself.

The components of the system are both produced and produced by the system, creating a closed loop—circular causality. The system's operations are self-contained, meaning they are determined by its own internal structure and not by external forces—operational closure.

Autopoiesis offers a way to understand how systems, especially living ones, maintain their identity and organization despite constant change and interaction with their environment. It has implications for biology, cybernetics, and social systems theory.

Gaia Theory: Between Autopoiesis and Sympoiesis

Abstract:The article discusses the development of the Gaia Hypothesis as it was defined by James Lovelock in the 1970s and later elaborated in his collaboration with biologist Lynn Margulis. Margulis’s research in symbiogenesis and her interest in Maturana and Varela’s theory of autopoiesis helped to reshape the Gaia theory from a first-order systems theory to second-order systems theory. In contrast to the first-order systems theory, which is concerned with the processes of homeostasis, second-order systems incorporate emergence, complexity and contingency. In this respect Latour’s and Stengers’s takes on Gaia, even defining it as an “outlaw” or an anti-system, can be interpreted as specific kind of systems thinking. The article also discusses Haraway’s interpretation of Gaia in terms of sympoiesis and argues that it presents a major reconceptualization of systems theory.

Presently, the caveperson movement is well underway. We will manifest conditions that facilitate removing most people from the Gaian System within BIG-SYSTEM-GREAT-NATURE. In the future, if the past is buried deeper and deeper over time, future generations may forget all the things that came before the great catastrophe and believe again that everything happened on the whim of Spirits or Big Nature Big God(s).

The Thing works, and it is mysterious.

Small bands of people will live peacefully as part and parcel of Big Nature in their habitats until extinction.

WORD! Peace be upon you.

Forgive me, Master, I have sinned. I used info from here and there to prattle on and tell a story. There can be only one storyteller, Big Nature, and the Shaman, who talks about it properly, with much confidence and authority.

I can't stop telling stories, so what is my punishment?

Will I be the last man in my world, listening to Big Nature, finally silenced by solitude and able to hear the watershed, listening and not sharing my thoughts, ideas, and feelings because all companions are gone, absent, extinct, either naturally or wilfully? Bareft, finally able to hear. Will I unplug and find a refuge in my thoughts or the final nightmare? Will I volunteer at the local misericord? No more listening, speaking, or fondling card catalogs or keyboards when I am gone. No more listening. So what!

What is, is.

Stop your imagination! It's all an illusion.

So what should we do now? We can discipline ourselves and try to do nothing or continue to do what we do until we can't.

This is your life! Live it!

"Someday this war's gonna end." —Colonel Kilgore

We have no way of knowing what will happen next. Doing anything adds to the white noise of prattling on about omnicidal civilization, which will accelerate towards its demise.

Self Terminating Systems

The idea of civilization being self-terminating proposes that societies, even highly advanced ones, possess inherent flaws or tendencies that ultimately lead to their collapse. This can manifest in various ways. Overexploitation of resources, pollution, and climate change can destabilize ecosystems and undermine a civilization's foundation. Extreme disparities in wealth and power can create social unrest, conflict, and, ultimately, societal breakdown. Unforeseen consequences of advanced technologies, like artificial intelligence or bioengineering, could pose existential risks. A loss of creativity, adaptability, or a failure to address fundamental challenges can lead to decline and eventual collapse.

Civilizations may have a "life cycle," similar to organisms, with growth, maturity, and eventual decline periods. It raises questions about human societies' long-term sustainability/habitability and the potential for self-inflicted destruction.

“Forgive them, Father, for they know clearly and in great detail what the problems are and what to do about them but find it near impossible to do anything to take power from people stricken by the seven deadly sins, dark tetrad traits and dark psychology.” —Josh from the East Side

Privileged platform no more.

Listening to parrots in echo chambers wax on incessantly about our problems and pathologies may not be the best use of our vital time.

Live and Breathe with your People!

Interact face-to-face and conquer your addiction to understanding what’s wrong so you can fight against the pathological, stubborn, and wilful ignorance demonstrated daily by our leaders who are only following their cultural programming.

You know what’s right through practice and listening to feedback.

You have one life to live, so relax and listen to your people, be there with them, and care for them.

Wisen up yourself!

Eu já não sou a guerra. —Narrador

Tell the “Master” to shut up. He'll appreciate that.

I have become Koan.

"What is the sound of one life lived?”

Nature knows nothing.

Thoughts Inspired By Lee’s “Animism Reformed”