In thinking about OPs vis a vis an STO reality, consider this: if the awake and aware individuals are in alignment with 4 D STO, then, in a sense, they become the STO interface between OPs and 4 D. In other words, they become the shepherds of a flock, so to say, responsible in a sense, for the spiritual growth of such individuals. It might even be thought that OPs constitute the muscles and bones of the "social body."
Does anybody know what percentage of a body is organ tissue, what percentage is muscle tissues, what percentage is bone, etc? I wonder if there would be analogies that could be drawn from such? After all, we understand that about 50 percent of humanity may be OPs and a small percentage of those may be pathological, i.e. psychopaths. The other 50% of potentially souled humanity is still another spectrum ...
Also, ya'll stop being obsessed with the idea of the 200 people in the forest and surviving some global infrastructure discontinuity. That was brought in just to get you to think in very basic terms, to try to look at and understand social structure in an organic way, to REALLY think outside of the box. For all we know, progression to 4 D STO will occur with no visible/apparent discontinuity.
I also suggested the watching of "The Trap" to get you to think about certain concepts such as "freedom" and "democracy" in a new way by observing what these ideas ultimately lead to. (Or can lead to if not modulated.)
Clearly, Free Will in the esoteric sense is NOT the same as "freedom and democracy" in the worldly sense. Recall Gurdjieff's description of the circles of humanity and the description of the inner, or esoteric circle. Freedom and democracy without Knowledge and Being is little more than bringing everyone down to the lowest common denominator resulting in: Babel.
I asked you to look at SkaraBrae because I hoped it would suggest where some answers might be found - in very ancient societies that managed to live for thousands of years without war or internal conflict. We need to ask: what were they doing?
From the modern point of view, the first recorded civilization in history appeared sometime between 30,000 and 40,000 years ago and spread throughout Europe and Asia. As it moved across this great expanse, the civilization preserved a basic unity and therefore must have had a network of communication and trade. Goods that were considered precious during the Ice Age – obsidian or certain seashells – show up in archaeological sites hundreds of miles from their place of origin. There was art everywhere in the form of statuettes or engravings on stone, ivory, or antlers - and Cave Art.
This ancient culture, though broadly similar, evolved differently in different places, developing distinct local customs, styles and traditions. Except for a few widely scattered instances, the only people who painted in caves lived in what is now southern France and northern Spain. Of course, in places like the steppes of Russia there were no caves to paint. But elsewhere, in Germany for example, there were plenty of caves, yet the people who lived nearby apparently neither explored nor painted them. It was the people who lived among the caves on either side of the Pyrenees who developed this powerful and enduring means of expression. One gets the impression that these caves were "cult centers" or initiatory centers for that entire civilization.
Having burst at once into full flower at Chauvet, cave painting remained much the same until it died out about 10,000 years ago. The changes that did occur were subtle. Lions and bears appear frequently in the paintings at Chauvet but are rare in the caves painted thousands of years later. Perhaps that means that those predators had been reduced in population, or were less of a threat. Styles changed subtly. Chauvet and Lascaux were painted by different artists who had different visions but these differences were so subtle that they only emphasize the essential similarity.
Horses, bison, human hands, reindeer, and various repeated and consistent geometric signs appear again and again in cave after cave. Horses are common at Chauvet and appear throughout the cave. At Lascaux, which was created 15,000 years later, horses are the dominant animal in the cave and constitute over half of the one thousand or so paintings and engravings.
There is also a strict consistency for 20,000 years in what is NOT pictured. Fish are rare. With one or two exceptions, there are no insects. There are no rodents, no reptiles and no birds except for a few owls. Also many species of mammals were excluded such as bats and common animals such as hyenas. The cave painters were not creating a bestiary or a zoological catalog. Nor were they attempting to re-create and record the world they saw around them in detail. The work portrays animals that the culture valued – and not in a practical way, but in an aesthetic or mythological or spiritual way.
There is never a tree or a bush or a flower. There are no rivers, lakes, cliffs, rocks, caves. There’s no sky either – no stars, no moon, and no sun. That’s a peculiar omission.
The caves are also very chaste. There are pictures of vulvas, penises that are occasionally erect, pregnant women and a variety of geometric shapes that suggest male or female genitals, but the animals are never actually mating and neither are the humans. One small, flat rock has an engraving of a man and woman having sex, but that is the only such representation ever found from these prehistoric times. Nor are there any animals giving birth. Fawns, cubs, or other young are extremely rare. So we think it was not a fertility thing.
The colors are consistent, too. The painters had a wide range of colors available to them, but the two that dominated were black and red.
The artistic techniques remained identical during the many millennia that cave painting lasted. This immutable similarity in themes, colors, and techniques, shows that the cave paintings were the creation of artists working in a cultural tradition that survived for more than 20,000 years. For that tradition to have endured essentially unchanged for so long, it must have been passed from generation to generation in a precise, clear, and memorable way since this expanse of time was before the invention of writing.
With painting being taught, it is also likely that, to preserve the culture itself, other skills were taught. Knowledge and beliefs were transmitted down the generations in a way that was more formal and rigorous than just telling stories around the campfire.
Musical instruments have been found, so it is also likely that music was taught, there was dancing, singing and chanting.
But because there was no writing, the undoubtedly elaborate mythology, the songs, the stories, are lost to us. The beautiful – amazing – carvings of animals on bone, ivory and stone, and the paintings in the caves, are all that remain from this cultural tradition that was so fulfilling and profound that it lasted more than 20,000 years.
When they painted or engraved images of people, they did so with very little care or effort – stick figures and/or crude faces that look like cartoons or caricatures. The contrast between these types of images and the realism of the animal paintings suggests that, for some reason, images of human beings were just “not done” for some reason. Some scholars have proposed that there was a religious or social ban on human images as there is in Islam today.
We know from observing hunter-gatherer societies that still survive that no matter where they live, whether in the desert or tropical forests or in the arctic, they have family groups of 10 to 20, then associated groups of 150 to 175, and then larger regional groups of about 500 individuals. It’s reasonable to assume that the first modern humans lived in a similar family and social organization of about the same size.
Let me repeat that all-important idea: this cultural tradition was so fulfilling and profound that it lasted more than 20,000 years.
I've written about the possible shamanic use of the caves in Secret History, as well as the original role of the shaman as the protector of the psychic integrity of the community AND the possibility that certain songs and dances performed by individuals in harmony with one another and being of the "shamanic" ilk, could conceivably have provided all the needs of the community in various ways.
We have had a few clues about Stonehenge, but a recent session provided a bit more insight:
Then, it was referenced again:
So, we have an idea that a cultural tradition that was so fulfilling and profound that it lasted more than 20,000 years with few signs of tribal aggression (no defensive fortifications), may very well have been one that was aligned with 4 D STO to some extent. We don't even know the real dates of these things because we know that, with repeated cometary bombardments, the dates have all been reset numerous times. We also don't know what other processes can reset organic clocks and if any of those processes may have been in play (they likely were over such a vast period of time.)
So, trying to figure out what was going on then, what was "normal society", might be very useful.
Of course, we might think that certain pathologies did not exist back then, they were mutations... and so, whatever we figure out will have to be adjusted with the knowledge of psychopathy and that it has infiltrated the genetics of many normal people and could pop up at any time.
Or, perhaps there were psychopaths back then, but far fewer of them and they were "handled" when detected. And perhaps that was part of the job of the tribal shaman - to detect pathology and either cure it, contain it, or deal with it.
After writing all of the above, it occurs to me that we might want to consider the role of the shaman/bard in an STO society?
Does anybody know what percentage of a body is organ tissue, what percentage is muscle tissues, what percentage is bone, etc? I wonder if there would be analogies that could be drawn from such? After all, we understand that about 50 percent of humanity may be OPs and a small percentage of those may be pathological, i.e. psychopaths. The other 50% of potentially souled humanity is still another spectrum ...
Also, ya'll stop being obsessed with the idea of the 200 people in the forest and surviving some global infrastructure discontinuity. That was brought in just to get you to think in very basic terms, to try to look at and understand social structure in an organic way, to REALLY think outside of the box. For all we know, progression to 4 D STO will occur with no visible/apparent discontinuity.
I also suggested the watching of "The Trap" to get you to think about certain concepts such as "freedom" and "democracy" in a new way by observing what these ideas ultimately lead to. (Or can lead to if not modulated.)
Clearly, Free Will in the esoteric sense is NOT the same as "freedom and democracy" in the worldly sense. Recall Gurdjieff's description of the circles of humanity and the description of the inner, or esoteric circle. Freedom and democracy without Knowledge and Being is little more than bringing everyone down to the lowest common denominator resulting in: Babel.
I asked you to look at SkaraBrae because I hoped it would suggest where some answers might be found - in very ancient societies that managed to live for thousands of years without war or internal conflict. We need to ask: what were they doing?
From the modern point of view, the first recorded civilization in history appeared sometime between 30,000 and 40,000 years ago and spread throughout Europe and Asia. As it moved across this great expanse, the civilization preserved a basic unity and therefore must have had a network of communication and trade. Goods that were considered precious during the Ice Age – obsidian or certain seashells – show up in archaeological sites hundreds of miles from their place of origin. There was art everywhere in the form of statuettes or engravings on stone, ivory, or antlers - and Cave Art.
This ancient culture, though broadly similar, evolved differently in different places, developing distinct local customs, styles and traditions. Except for a few widely scattered instances, the only people who painted in caves lived in what is now southern France and northern Spain. Of course, in places like the steppes of Russia there were no caves to paint. But elsewhere, in Germany for example, there were plenty of caves, yet the people who lived nearby apparently neither explored nor painted them. It was the people who lived among the caves on either side of the Pyrenees who developed this powerful and enduring means of expression. One gets the impression that these caves were "cult centers" or initiatory centers for that entire civilization.
Having burst at once into full flower at Chauvet, cave painting remained much the same until it died out about 10,000 years ago. The changes that did occur were subtle. Lions and bears appear frequently in the paintings at Chauvet but are rare in the caves painted thousands of years later. Perhaps that means that those predators had been reduced in population, or were less of a threat. Styles changed subtly. Chauvet and Lascaux were painted by different artists who had different visions but these differences were so subtle that they only emphasize the essential similarity.
Horses, bison, human hands, reindeer, and various repeated and consistent geometric signs appear again and again in cave after cave. Horses are common at Chauvet and appear throughout the cave. At Lascaux, which was created 15,000 years later, horses are the dominant animal in the cave and constitute over half of the one thousand or so paintings and engravings.
There is also a strict consistency for 20,000 years in what is NOT pictured. Fish are rare. With one or two exceptions, there are no insects. There are no rodents, no reptiles and no birds except for a few owls. Also many species of mammals were excluded such as bats and common animals such as hyenas. The cave painters were not creating a bestiary or a zoological catalog. Nor were they attempting to re-create and record the world they saw around them in detail. The work portrays animals that the culture valued – and not in a practical way, but in an aesthetic or mythological or spiritual way.
There is never a tree or a bush or a flower. There are no rivers, lakes, cliffs, rocks, caves. There’s no sky either – no stars, no moon, and no sun. That’s a peculiar omission.
The caves are also very chaste. There are pictures of vulvas, penises that are occasionally erect, pregnant women and a variety of geometric shapes that suggest male or female genitals, but the animals are never actually mating and neither are the humans. One small, flat rock has an engraving of a man and woman having sex, but that is the only such representation ever found from these prehistoric times. Nor are there any animals giving birth. Fawns, cubs, or other young are extremely rare. So we think it was not a fertility thing.
The colors are consistent, too. The painters had a wide range of colors available to them, but the two that dominated were black and red.
The artistic techniques remained identical during the many millennia that cave painting lasted. This immutable similarity in themes, colors, and techniques, shows that the cave paintings were the creation of artists working in a cultural tradition that survived for more than 20,000 years. For that tradition to have endured essentially unchanged for so long, it must have been passed from generation to generation in a precise, clear, and memorable way since this expanse of time was before the invention of writing.
With painting being taught, it is also likely that, to preserve the culture itself, other skills were taught. Knowledge and beliefs were transmitted down the generations in a way that was more formal and rigorous than just telling stories around the campfire.
Musical instruments have been found, so it is also likely that music was taught, there was dancing, singing and chanting.
But because there was no writing, the undoubtedly elaborate mythology, the songs, the stories, are lost to us. The beautiful – amazing – carvings of animals on bone, ivory and stone, and the paintings in the caves, are all that remain from this cultural tradition that was so fulfilling and profound that it lasted more than 20,000 years.
When they painted or engraved images of people, they did so with very little care or effort – stick figures and/or crude faces that look like cartoons or caricatures. The contrast between these types of images and the realism of the animal paintings suggests that, for some reason, images of human beings were just “not done” for some reason. Some scholars have proposed that there was a religious or social ban on human images as there is in Islam today.
We know from observing hunter-gatherer societies that still survive that no matter where they live, whether in the desert or tropical forests or in the arctic, they have family groups of 10 to 20, then associated groups of 150 to 175, and then larger regional groups of about 500 individuals. It’s reasonable to assume that the first modern humans lived in a similar family and social organization of about the same size.
Let me repeat that all-important idea: this cultural tradition was so fulfilling and profound that it lasted more than 20,000 years.
I've written about the possible shamanic use of the caves in Secret History, as well as the original role of the shaman as the protector of the psychic integrity of the community AND the possibility that certain songs and dances performed by individuals in harmony with one another and being of the "shamanic" ilk, could conceivably have provided all the needs of the community in various ways.
We have had a few clues about Stonehenge, but a recent session provided a bit more insight:
Then, it was referenced again:
So, we have an idea that a cultural tradition that was so fulfilling and profound that it lasted more than 20,000 years with few signs of tribal aggression (no defensive fortifications), may very well have been one that was aligned with 4 D STO to some extent. We don't even know the real dates of these things because we know that, with repeated cometary bombardments, the dates have all been reset numerous times. We also don't know what other processes can reset organic clocks and if any of those processes may have been in play (they likely were over such a vast period of time.)
So, trying to figure out what was going on then, what was "normal society", might be very useful.
Of course, we might think that certain pathologies did not exist back then, they were mutations... and so, whatever we figure out will have to be adjusted with the knowledge of psychopathy and that it has infiltrated the genetics of many normal people and could pop up at any time.
Or, perhaps there were psychopaths back then, but far fewer of them and they were "handled" when detected. And perhaps that was part of the job of the tribal shaman - to detect pathology and either cure it, contain it, or deal with it.
After writing all of the above, it occurs to me that we might want to consider the role of the shaman/bard in an STO society?
