This goes well with maverick neuro-historian Julian Jaynes` idea that around that period people also moved from what he called the bicameral mind , where people experienced themselves as receivers of messages/orders from gods which decided their every action,(ol` Jehovah being a classic example) to developing what he called `consciousness` which enabled them to meet the challenges of the changing realities of the world for which the old “wiring” was no longer suitable.
In this they/we started to become deciders of their own fate rather than basically slaves to the dictates of the gods (who are really just voices in your head, albeit experienced as “out-there”. All these teachers and teachings appearing independently of each other as guides for this process happened on the basis that they were responding to the evolutionary shift.

For example, “Be a light unto yourself” was an extraordinary, revolutionary and utterly new idea to people who had hitherto obeyed the voices of their rulers and gods that came to them from their temples which started as tombs of their earliest tribal leaders up to the god-kings of the larger bicameral cities and communities.

Another wacko history cum mythology?
Certainly, but it does attempt some clarification about how these guys all came up with something new, something less authoritarian,something essentially more human and more god-less independently without having access to the net.

btw It is amazing how much the `listening to the voices of the ancient gods` still holds sway.
Take for example male circumcision.
Literally billions are still having it done.
Despite medical opinion being against it,it is impossible to change(many have tried,even in secular countries) as the majority of humanity still prefer to take orders from a hallucinated voice heard by some Jewish guy in the desert a few thousand years ago!

Humanity eh?
Bloody `ell!

However, there´s something that keeps me busy…

There have been about times in history around the globe, where – without any ´internet´ global connections via algorithms or similar of our ´Technology Age´, former artists, philosophers or Masters of Wisdomhave had same wavelengths in their sharings, as if just the ´time´ was ripe for it.

Same about the big Death of cultural peaks, their deteriorations.

And contemporarily – by the very wars happening nowadays – common mankind is onto total destruction of centuries ancient cultural heritage of mankind, the material as also the immaterial; very painful to be a witness to that.

Madhu

The Old Testament is a mash-up of Israelite history and myth, which leaves it broad for countless interpretations, like all myths, stories and dreams.
I just don`t like the main man in it and let`s face it – with Jehovah, everything is all about him!

The example of the golden calf story.
If you read it as relevant to today`s world (materialism etc.), I would say that that is you exercising your mythical/imaginative creativity.
Is that what the guys who wrote it actually meant by it?

It`s unlikely because, enshrined in the Ten Commandments is the ownership of one half of humanity over the other. I certainly wouldn`t be taking any lessons about materialism from those guys!

The undoubted huge influence of Christianity on the world is, in my view, much less the result of the Bible than one (eg Shantam) would imagine.

In the 14th century, Christendom is a plodding, Bible-based society. Islam is well ahead of them. Probably China, too.

The Renaissance hits. The Renaissance is where first the southern Europeans then later the north start to rediscover the philosophy, art, knowledge and wisdom of the pre-christian, pagan, polytheistic classical cultures.

This exercise, in the matter of a few centuries, blasts Christianity to the top of the pile and eventually morphs into it the brand of Christian/humanist/secular mix which is in ferment as we speak.

My point is this:
Taking a golden age from the past and ascribing it a special place of special wisdom is an imaginative way of opening up your world-view/mind/creativity.
That is what the Renaissance was. It’s not about history, in the final analysis, it`s about the people doing it.

My view is that Gurdjieff and his crew were attempting a similar thing.
This is the regenerating of the golden age of wisdom by holding the view that a golden age of wisdom existed in the past.`

Osho was different to Gurdjieff in that he used the golden past approach to some degree but he leaned more towards the New Man, Zorba the Buddha and an idea of spiritual evolution.

Ultimately, rooting for a golden past or a golden future are not as opposed as they might appear, unless one makes the mistake of literality.

It`s all about firing the imagination and the spirit of humankind in the present.

Nobody talks about “non-judgemental” and surely you have the right to your own opinion.

I am surprised to hear that Frank writes off The Gospels just so. For me it is quite the opposite. It is not like I actually spend lots of time reading the Bible. I don’t. Nonetheless, I have to acknowledge that the Gospels are packed full of remarkable stories. The key to understanding them is to have the key.

Also other stories, like Noah’s Ark. This has nothing to do with lots of rain and a big boat filled with animals, washing up on Mount Ararat, and everything to do with the human condition, replete with three levels and a window on the top deck.

The flood refers to a peak in human ignorance wherein the mystery schools head for the hills with their teachings, there to await the abatement of the flood of ignorance, until a time when humanity is once again ready to hear about human potential etc. We actually live in such a time right now, therefore biblical teachings are as relevant today as they ever were. Of course these days we do not worship golden calves, but rather materialism in its myriad forms.

I am doubtful about the word “hymens”.

MOD: !!