A.H. Almaas - Love & Emptiness

This is a very cool series of videos. Periodically, I get interested in the work of Almaas, but I have never really spent enough time with all his many books to get his full project. What I have read, however, is pretty cool.

Love & Emptiness

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Tags: Buddhism, Psychology, personal growth, A.H. Almaas, Love & Emptiness, philosophy

Buddhist Geeks Episode 114: Different Types of Jhana: Sutta, Vishudimagga, & Vipassana

A very cool episode of the Buddhist Geeks, as usual.

Episode 114: Different Types of Jhana: Sutta, Vishudimagga, & Vipassana

We continue our discussion with insight meditation teacher and author, Richard Shankman. In this episode we continue to dissect the different kinds of samadhi and their respective fruits--what in the Theravada tradition are called jhana (or "meditative absorption"). According to Shankman there are two ways of approaching the attainment of jhana, one as was taught in the original canonical texts of the Theravada, the Pali Suttas, and the other from the later commentaries on the Buddha's teachings, the Vishudimagga. As a result we get two different forms of jhana--one called Sutta jhana and the other Vishudimagga jhana. This two-fold understanding, though geeky, shines light on the different methods of practicing both samadhi and vipassana meditation and offers a unitary model for understanding the two together.

We also briefly touch on a term called "vipassana jhana," which is used by notable Burmese and American insight meditation teachers, and relate the development of insight (via vipassana) to these two jhana systems. For those folks who have experience practicing or studying in the Theravada tradition you will likely find your understanding of the tradition deeply enriched. For those in other traditions you will almost certainly find this an interesting glimpse into the detailed intricacies of a one of the oldest Buddhist traditions of meditation.

This is part 2 of a two-part series. Listen to part 1, The Power of Samadhi.

Related Links:

• Support Buddhist Geeks with a Donation
• Free AudioBook Offer for Buddhist Geeks Listeners
• The Visuddhimagga
• The Pali Suttas
• RichardShankman.org
• The Experience of Samadhi: An In-depth Exploration of Buddhist Meditation

Tags: Buddhist Geeks, Episode 114, Different Types of Jhana, Sutta, Vishudimagga, Vipassana, Buddhism, meditation

Life's Cognitive Edge: The Role of the Mind & What it Means

A cool little lecture from the U of Arizona collection. Yes, it's evolutionary biology, a field under attack from the more "hard" science folks, but it's still interesting.

Life's Cognitive Edge: The Role of the Mind & What it Means

On February 13, 2008, Dr. Anna Dornhaus, Assistant Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, gave lecture at the College of Science The Edges of Life Lecture Series: "Life's Cognitive Edge: The Role of the Mind and What it Means to be Human." Dr. Dornhaus says " Our human mind distinguishes us from other animal life-or does it? Recent research has revealed culture and social learning, tool use, complex communication, self-recognition, and planning for the future are not unique to the human experience. With these new findings, science is finally getting closer to understanding exactly what makes us human."

Unfortunately, I can't embed the video, but you can watch it in large form at YouTube.

Tags: Life's Cognitive Edge, The Role of the Mind, What it Means, brain, evolution, consciousness, Dr. Anna Dornhaus, evolutionary biology

Venerable Phra Dhamma Theerarach Mahamuni - Sixteen Stages of Insight

~C4Chaos mentioned this link someplace, and I enjoyed it so I am passing it on.

There are a variety of maps of the enlightenment process, so this is only one, but it seems to me a good one, from what little I know of the process. Others who are more advanced on the path can let me know how accurate this map is.

This article is the work of the late Venerable Phra Dhamma Theerarach Mahamuni, one of the most renowned vipassana teachers of his time. The original booklet was produced in 1961 by the Division of Vipassana Dhura at Mahadhatu Monastery, Bangkok, and translated by Helen and Vorasak Jandamit. A revised English version was reprinted in 1988. It is also presented, with commentary, in the book, Insight Meditation: Practical Steps to Ultimate Truth, by Achan Sobin S. Namto (Sopako Bodhi Bhikkhu). In a few places the text has been edited and augmented by the Vipassana Dhura staff.

Contents

Note To The Reader
The Sixteen Stages of Insight
1 - Namarupa Pariccheda Nana
2 - Paccaya Pariggaha Nana
3 - Sammasana Nana
4 - Udayabbaya Nana
5 - Bhanga Nana
6 - Bhaya Nana
7 - Adinava Nana
8 - Nibbida Nana
9 - Muncitukamayata Nana
10 - Patisankha Nana
11 - Sankharupekha Nana
12 - Anuloma Nana
13 - Gotrabhu Nana
14 - Magga Nana
15 - Phala Nana
16 - Paccavekkhana Nana

Note to the reader: Some meditation teachers feel that the following information should not be made available to the general public. That isn't because these teachings are for members of a select group, must be specially transmitted, or are in any sense esoteric; but because, due to the tricky nature of the mind, learning about these insights before acquiring personal meditation experience might cause you to anticipate results, thereby slowing your progress. That's why Mahási Sayádaw wrote, "It is not good for a pupil who meditates under the guidance of a teacher to get acquainted with these stages before meditation begins" (Practical Insight Meditation, p. 35).

Nevertheless, the Sayadaw agreed to the publication of his own book, The Progress of Insight, that deals with these stages. He acknowledged that the information may be helpful for many students who practice in isolation. So we decided to follow a middle path by publishing the present essay, but including a cautionary note as the Sayadaw did.

Generally speaking, we do not recommend that beginners read this article. We offer the following descriptions for those students who have no access to an instructor and are trying to make sense of a meditation experience they have had, or for those who have already reached a fairly advanced stage of insight.

Although it is natural to want to know what level you have reached and what will happen next in meditation, it is quite difficult to evaluate your own experience, even with a written guideline. You should always be aware that, no matter what you come to believe as a result of reading this article, your self-assessment may be incorrect. Besides, the mind likes to play tricks. If you cling to something you've read about, wanting it to happen, the mind may subconsciously try to mimic the experience. Without a teacher you may not be able to tell the difference between the illusion and the real thing. In order to avoid the trap of self-deception it is important to use the information given here intelligently, with continuous self-examination and scrupulous honesty.

If you are reading this because you are wondering if you have reached enlightenment, please realize that you probably haven't, although you may have reached an earlier stage of insight-knowledge. Achan Sopako Bodhi explains that when the first level of enlightenment is reached there can be no doubt about it. You would not need to ask if you'd attained it. In the words of another bhikkhu, "It cannot be missed."

The Sixteen Stages of Insight: A Manual for Checking Vipassana Progress

This manual is intended for advanced students or vipassana teachers rather than beginners. It is not meant to substitute for the personal guidance of a meditation teacher.

There are sixteen levels of vipassana-knowledge or nana ("nana," pronounced "yah-nuh," is a Pali word for "knowledge.") In each level the student realizes a more advanced insight. This knowledge is a direct vision, not a matter of thinking. The meditator who undergoes an intensive meditation retreat will usually progress through the stages more or less in order, sometimes falling back to an earlier stage, or going back and forth between several levels before passing on to the next. A student may sometimes get stuck at a certain stage, at which time the help of a competent teacher is invaluable.

The meditator does not stay at each level for an equal period of time. Some stages may last days, weeks, months or longer, others mere hours. Some of the higher stages take only a few mind-moments, or even one moment, to pass – less than one second of time. Not every student will undergo all the experiences described here, nor in the exact order presented.

As you read these pages remember that, without exception, no matter what stage has been reached or what new phenomenon has been experienced, this tenet of insight meditation applies across the board: just go on with the work of noticing mental and material phenomena as they appear, without evaluating or naming those things; then let them go. Don't cling to any experience. Whatever happens, don't be swayed or impressed by it, no matter how blissful or terrible. This advice is pertinent even to those who have reached the first level of enlightenment. If you honestly follow this rule and don't let the mind talk you into making exceptions, you can be assured your practice will be correct and you will reach the end of the path as soon as possible.

The Sixteen Stages of Vipassana Knowledge

1. Knowledge to distinguish mental and physical states (namarupa pariccheda nana).
2. Knowledge of the cause-and-effect relationship between mental and physical states (paccaya pariggaha nana).
3. Knowledge of mental and physical processes as impermanent, unsatisfactory and nonself (sammasana nana).
4. Knowledge of arising and passing away (udayabbaya nana).
5. Knowledge of the dissolution of formations (bhanga nana).
6. Knowledge of the fearful nature of mental and physical states (bhaya nana).
7. Knowledge of mental and physical states as unsatisfactory (adinava nana).
8. Knowledge of disenchantment (nibbida nana).
9. Knowledge of the desire to abandon the worldly state (muncitukamayata nana).
10. Knowledge which investigates the path to deliverance and instills a decision to practice further (patisankha nana).
11. Knowledge which regards mental and physical states with equanimity (sankharupekha nana).
12. Knowledge which conforms to the Four Noble Truths (anuloma nana).
13. Knowledge of deliverance from the worldly condition (gotrabhu nana).
14. Knowledge by which defilements are abandoned and are overcome by destruction (magga nana).
15. Knowledge which realizes the fruit of the path and has nibbana as object (phala nana).
16. Knowledge which reviews the defilements still remaining (paccavekkhana nana).

Read the whole article.

Tags: Buddhism, meditation, insight, Venerable Phra Dhamma Theerarach Mahamuni, Theravada, Vipassana, Sixteen Stages of Vipassana Knowledge

The Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw - The Progress of Insight

Another cool article today on the Vipassana approach to meditation - not my own practice, but the original practice (or am I wrong?) from the Theravada tradition.

(Visuddhiñana-katha)
A Modern Treatise on Buddhist Satipatthana Meditation
by The Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw

Translated from the Pali with Notes by Nyanaponika Thera

For free distribution. This work may be republished, reformatted, reprinted and redistributed in any medium. However, any such republication and redistribution is to be made available to the public on a free and unrestricted basis and translations and other derivative works are to be clearly marked as such.

Contents

• Translator's Foreword
• Introduction
• I. Purification of Conduct (sila-visuddhi)
• The Method of Insight in Brief
• II. Purification of Mind (citta-visuddhi)
• III. Purification of View (ditthi-visuddhi)
• 1. Analytical Knowledge of Body and Mind (nama-rupa-pariccheda-ñana)
• IV. Purification by Overcoming Doubt (kankha-vitarana-visuddhi)
• 2. Knowledge by Discerning Conditionality (paccaya-pariggaha-ñana)
• 3. Knowledge by Comprehension (sammasana-ñana)
• 4. Knowledge of Arising and Passing Away (udayabbaya-ñana) in its weak stage, involving the Ten Corruptions of Insight
• V. Purification by Knowledge and Vision of What Is Path and Not Path (maggamagga-ñanadassana-visuddhi)
• VI. Purification by Knowledge and Vision of the Course of Practice (patipada-ñanadassana-visuddhi) (including mature Knowledge of Arising and Passing Away)
• 5. Knowledge of Dissolution (bhanga-ñana)
• 6. Awareness of Fearfulness (bhayatupatthana-ñana)
• 7. Knowledge of Misery (adinava-ñana)
• 8. Knowledge of Disgust (nibbida-ñana)
• 9. Knowledge of Desire for Deliverance (muncitu-kamyata-ñana)
• 10. Knowledge of Re-observation (patisankhanupassana-ñana)
• 11. Knowledge of Equanimity about Formations (sankhar'upekkha-ñana)
• 12. Insight Leading to emergence (vutthanagamini-vipassana-ñana)
• 13. Knowledge of Adaptation (anuloma-ñana)
• 14. Maturity Knowledge (gotrabhu-ñana)
• VII. Purification by Knowledge and Vision (ñanadassana-visuddhi)
• 15. Path Knowledge (magga-ñana)
• 16. Fruition Knowledge (phala-ñana)
• 17. Knowledge of Reviewing (paccavekkhana-ñana)
• 18. Attainment of Fruition (phalasamapatti)
• 19. The Higher Paths and Fruitions
• Conclusion
• Notes
• The Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw

Translator's Foreward

To present to the reading public a treatise on Buddhist meditation needs no word of apology today. In wide circles of the West, Buddhist meditation is no longer regarded as a matter of purely academic or exotic interest. Under the stress and complexity of modern life the need for mental and spiritual regeneration is now widely felt, and in the field of the mind's methodical development the value of Buddhist meditation has been recognized and tested by many.

It is, in particular, the Buddha's Way of Mindfulness (satipatthana) that has been found invaluable because it is adaptable to, and beneficial in, widely different conditions of life. The present treatise is based on this method of cultivating mindfulness and awareness, which ultimately aims at the mind's final liberation from greed, hatred, and delusion.

The author of this treatise, the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw (U Sobhana Mahathera), is a Buddhist monk of contemporary Burma and an eminent meditation master. A brief sketch of his life is included in this volume. The path of meditation described in these pages was, and still is, taught by him in his meditation center called Thathana Yeiktha, in Rangoon, and is also set forth in his lectures and books in the Burmese language.

The framework of the treatise is provided by the classical "seven stages of purification" (satta-visuddhi), just as in Acariya Buddhaghosa's famous Visuddhimagga. On gradually reaching these stages, various phases of insight knowledge (ñana) are developed, leading on to the stages of ultimate liberation. The approach followed is that of "bare insight" (sukkha-vipassana) where, by direct observation, one's own bodily and mental processes are seen with increasing clarity as being impermanent, liable to suffering, and without a self or soul. The meditational practice begins with a few selected subjects of body-contemplation, which are retained up to the very end of the road. With the gradually increasing strength of mindfulness and concentration the range widens and the vision deepens until the insight knowledges unfold themselves in due order, as a natural outcome of the practice. This approach to the ultimate goal of Buddhist meditation is called bare insight because insight into the three characteristics of existence is made use of exclusively here, dispensing with the prior development of full concentrative absorption (jhana). Nevertheless, and it hardly needs mention, here too a high degree of mental concentration is required for perseverance in the practice, for attaining to insight knowledge, and for reaping its fruits.

As stated in the treatise itself (p.5), it is not the author's purpose to give a detailed introduction to the practice for the use of beginners. The foremost concern in this work is with a stage where, after diligent preliminary practice, the insight knowledges have begun to emerge, leading up to the highest crest of spiritual achievement, arahantship. Of the basic exercises, the treatise gives only a brief indication, at the beginning of Chapter I. Detailed instruction about these may be gathered by the student from the author's Practical Insight Meditation or the translator's book The Heart of Buddhist Meditation. Also a knowledge of the Buddha's original "Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness" (Satipatthana Sutta) will be indispensable.

This treatise was first written in the Burmese language and later, in 1950, a Pali version of it was composed by the author. As the treatise deals chiefly with the advanced stages of the practice, it was originally not intended for publication. Handwritten or typed copies of the Burmese or Pali version were given only to those who, with some measure of success, had concluded a strict course of practice at the meditation center. For the use of meditators from foreign countries, only a few cyclostyled sheets in English, briefly describing the phases of insight knowledge, were issued instead of the treatise itself. This was done to enable the meditator to identify his personal experience with one or other of the stages described, so that he might direct his further progress accordingly, without being diverted or misled by any secondary phenomena that may have appeared during his practice.

In 1954 the Venerable Author agreed to a printed edition of the Pali version in Burmese script, and after this first publication he also permitted, at the translator's request, the issue of an English version. He had the great kindness to go carefully through the draft translation and the Notes, with the linguistic help of an experienced Burmese lay meditator, U Pe Thin, who for many years had ably served as an interpreter for meditators from foreign countries. The translator's gratitude is due to both his Venerable Meditation Master, the author, and to U Pe Thin.

— Nyanaponika Thera

Forest Hermitage
Kandy, Ceylon,
On the Full-moon Day of June (Poson) 1965.

Introduction

Homage to the Blessed One, the Worthy One, the Fully Enlightened One

Homage to Him, the Great Omniscient Sage, Who spread the net of rays of His Good Law! These rays of His Good Law — His very message true — Long may they shed their radiance o'er the world!

This treatise explains the progress of insight,¹ together with the corresponding stages of purification.² It has been written in brief for the benefit of meditators who have obtained distinctive results in their practice, so that they may more easily understand their experience. It is meant for those who, in their practice of insight, have taken up as their main subject either the tactile bodily process of motion,³ evident in the rising and falling movement of the abdomen,⁴ or the tactile bodily process based on three of the primary elements of matter⁵ evident in the sensation of touch (bodily impact). It is meant for those who, by attending to these exercises, have gained progressive insight as well into the whole body-and-mind process arising at the six sense doors,⁶ and have finally come to see the Dhamma, to attain to the Dhamma, to understand the Dhamma, to penetrate the Dhamma, who have passed beyond doubt, freed themselves from uncertainty, obtained assurance, and achieved independence of others in the Master's dispensation.⁷

Read the whole article.

Tags: The Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw, The Progress of Insight, Buddha's Way of Mindfulness, satipatthana, Modern Treatise, Buddhist, Satipatthana Meditation, Buddhism, meditation, insight meditation, Vipassana, Theravada

Jack Wellman - Jesus and His-Story

[image source]

This article from Ovi Magazine claims to be a look at the secular evidence for the existence of Jesus and what it might tell us about who he really was, aside from the dogma-generated stories in the Gospels. I'm doubtful that this is any more accurate than the Gospel stories based on what I have read - this material seems cherry-picked to support a Christian point of view.

Jesus and His-Story
by Jack Wellman

Perhaps most people don’t believe in Jesus Christ because they think that the only written record of His life is restricted to the Bible and many people see scriptures as less than 100% convincing. In fact, some go so far as to say that He never even existed! This is hard to believe, since even the non-religious or other world religions have heard of Him. And there are enormous amounts of secular history from secular Historians who were contemporaries’ of Jesus and that go into great detail in writing about Him that are most convincing. And these Historians included almost every culture in the world at that time. Here is what they wrote.

Thallus is perhaps the earliest secular writer to mention Jesus in his writings….even though his writings are so ancient, that no copies exist but those of Julius Africanus, who writing around 221AD quotes Thallus. Thallus and Africanus both explain mention a strange darkness that occurred at the point of Jesus’ crucifixion. And these stories of a “strange darkness” were written about far and wide on the earth. They all coincided with around 32-33AD.

Africanus writes that “Thallus in the third book of his histories, explains away this darkness as an eclipse of the sun…” This record of Thallus, confirms that Jesus lived, and was crucified and that something highly unusual and unexplainable happened on that day. There were many reports of various earthquakes, destruction, and a “strange darkness”.

Africanus also mentions a historian named Phlegon who wrote a chronological history around 140AD. In this history, Phlegon also mentions the darkness surrounding the crucifixion in an effort to explain it, but even more interestingly, he mentions Jesus’ ability to foresee the future in describing the life of our Savior.

Josephus (AD 37 – c. 100), born of a priestly and royal ancestry, survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 [*]…and he was a prodigy. At age 13, he was already a consultant for the Jewish rabbis, by 16 he became a Galilean military commander and a Roman Citizen. And being under the rule of roman emperor Vespasian, he was allowed to write a first-century history of the Jews. Being a devout Jew and Roman Citizen, Josephus could hardly be described as a hostile witness. He wrote more about Kings the Messiah’s, but Josephus makes references to the Sadducees, the names of Jewish High Priests of the time, the Pharisees and the Essenes, the Herodian Temple, Quirinius' census and the Zealots. He also writes of such figures as Pontius Pilate, Herod the Great, Agrippa I and Agrippa II, John the Baptist, James the brother of Jesus, and to Jesus. He even describes the death of John the Baptist, mentions the execution of James. All of which are described in the New Testament.

People, groups, times and events written about are corroborated in the New Testament by Josephus’ history. He describes the death of John the Baptist, and calls James the brother of “Jesus the Christ“. In his final passage he writes that Jesus was a wise man and the Messiah, and there is a retelling the resurrection story! All of which is described as such in the Bible. Josephus writes in his Antiquities of the Jews (18.63-64; 3.3).

“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”

The interesting thing is that the Historian Origen states that Josephus was "not believing in Jesus as the Christ" [1.] "he did not accept Jesus as Christ" [2.], but Josephus’ declares in the Jesus to be Christ (in the Testimonium). The manuscript evidence in support of the iron-clad, "pre-accretions" reference to Jesus in Josephus is very strong and accepted by the great majority of professional historians [of which I am one]. Between the New Testament and Jospheus, there is no serious reason whatsoever to doubt the historical 'existence' of the Jesus of Nazareth behind those references.

All the relevant non-Jewish historical sources of the time mention Jesus! It is nearly universal. Not just in the books, but common knowledge of Jesus life and death among the people. This was not done under cover, but out in the open as much as could be possible. The Crucifixion was done on a hill, and always by a man thoroughfare, for all to see, far and wide. The list is enormous: Tacitus (Annals, AD 115-120), Suetonius (Lives of the Caesars, AD 125), Lucian (mid-2nd century), Galen (AD 150; De pulsuum differentiis 2.4; 3.3) Celsus (True Discourse, AD 170), Mara Bar Serapion (pre AD-200?), Jewish Talmudic References (AD 300).

Jesus historicity and story became known from the Mediterranean to Africa to Asia-Minor, and into most of the known world at the time. One example was around 70AD, when a Syrian philosopher named Mara Bar-Serapion, writing to encourage his son, compares the life and persecution of Jesus with that of other philosophers who were persecuted for their ideas. He used Him as an example of being persecuted for your belief. The fact that Jesus is known to be a real person with this kind of influence is important. It should not surprise us that Mara Bar-Serapion refers to Jesus as the “Wise King” and was held in high esteem but most of the known-world religions, save Judaism.

Additionally, Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, and Eusebius of Caesarea, who was a third century theologian who used the library in Caesarea for much of his research. Tertullian wrote about Christian worship and persecution that is consistent with New Testament accounts. Justin Martyr, a Gentile who lived in Palestine and later became a Christian records the many doctrines of the church, like the Sacraments, Salvation, etc. “Resources for Philo of Alexandria” who was a Jewish philosopher and historian that lived in the first century.

I have a BA in History from the highest accredited institution ( at least at the time) in the state from[Cardinal] Newman University, in Wichita, Kansas, and I myself have seen great numbers of historical accounts, one after the other, throughout ancient historical references and authors. During my course-work, book after book have returned to the account of this Great One of History. A thread intricately woven throughout the following 2,000 years of human history (from AD32). And, as we have seen and read, and I have seen with my own eyes in a multiplicity of sources, Jesus is historically indisputable. What more can be said, other than He did live, He did many wonders, He did die from crucifixion for the Redemption, (John 3:16), He did rise again, He was known as The Messiah, and as The Christ. This man and His story….is History, incontrovertibly.

1. Origen, Against Celsus, i:47
2. Origen, Commentary on Matthew, x:17
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_on_Jesus

Here is a very good comment on the article:

Emanuel Paparella

2009-03-22 18:28:27

Indeed Jack, your article makes the valid point that to doubt the historical existence of the man from Palestine called Jesus is quite erroneous. It is usually attempted by pseudo-scholars whose interest is in transforming the historical record into a myth of sort and therefore a fraud. Of course to do that you need to have an abysmal view of what a myth is all about, given that there may be more truth in a myth than an historical event. That having been said, we still need to explain the mosaic figure of Christ on the Basilica of St. Vitale in Ravenna which shows an unbearded Christ as a shepherd carrying a sheep on his shoulders. Even more scandalous is the figure of Christ judging the world on the wall behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel. The figure hardly reminds one of the historical Christ with a beard going around in Palestine doing good; to the contrary it reminds one of a Greek Apollo, almost naked and without a beard. To any Christian of any denomination those figures ought to theologically suggest that while it is true that there was an historical Christ who came into the world at a particular time, in a particular place, from a particular people, it is also true that there was also Christ as the second person of the Trinity which John calls the Word. The two are not distinct or contradictory but emblematic of the Divine and human nature of this unique historical personage within time and space. The doctrine is called the Incarnation and, as Chesterton points out in his “The Everlasting Man” Christianity is unique in postulating it on an historical basis, albeit there are myths that talk of gods coming into the world and resurrecting after death. When Caligula declared himself a god everybody understood that he was crazy. Nobody, even atheists have ever branded Christ a crazy lunatic.

Tags: Religion, culture, history, Jesus, Jack Wellman, Ovi Magazine, Emanuel Paparella, Gospels, secular

SciAm Mind - Forget Survival of the Fittest: It Is Kindness That Counts

Scientific American Mind posted this article a week or two ago, but I'm just getting around to posting it.

Forget Survival of the Fittest: It Is Kindness That Counts

A psychologist probes how altruism, Darwinism and neurobiology mean that we can succeed by not being cutthroat.

Dacher Keltneer

Why do people do good things? Is kindness hard-wired into the brain, or does this tendency arise via experience? Or is goodness some combination of nature and nurture?

Dacher Keltner, director of the Berkeley Social Interaction Laboratory, investigates these questions from multiple angles, and often generates results that are both surprising and challenging. In his new book, Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life, Keltner weaves together scientific findings with personal narrative to uncover the innate power of human emotion to connect people with each other, which he argues is the path to living the good life. Keltner was kind enough to take some time out to discuss altruism, Darwinism, neurobiology and practical applications of his findings with David DiSalvo.

DISALVO: You have a book that was just released called Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life. What in a nutshell does the term “born to be good” mean to you, and what are you hoping people learn from reading the book?

KELTNER: “Born to be good” for me means that our mammalian and hominid evolution have crafted a species—us—with remarkable tendencies toward kindness, play, generosity, reverence and self-sacrifice, which are vital to the classic tasks of evolution—survival, gene replication and smooth functioning groups. These tendencies are felt in the wonderful realm of emotion—emotions such as compassion, gratitude, awe, embarrassment and mirth. These emotions were of interest to Darwin, and Darwin-inspired studies have revealed that our capacity for caring, for play, for reverence and modesty are built into our brains, bodies, genes and social practices. My hopes for potential readers are numerous. I hope they learn about the remarkable wisdom of Darwin and the wonders of the study of emotion. I hope they come to look at human nature in a new light, one that is more hopeful and sanguine. I hope they may see the profoundly cooperative nature of much of our daily social living.

DISALVO: You’ve said that one of the inspirations for your work was Charles Darwin’s insights into human goodness. Because most people equate his name with “survival of the fittest,” it’ll probably be surprising to many that Darwin focused on goodness at all. What were a few of your take aways from Darwin’s work that really inspired you?

KELTNER: What an important question. We so often assume both in the scientific community, and in our culture at large, that Darwin thought humans were violent and competitive and self-interested in their natural state. That is a misrepresentation of what Darwin actually believed, and where the evolutionary study of human goodness is going.

My take aways from Darwin are twofold, and as you suggest above, I was surprised as well in arriving at an understanding of Darwin’s view of human nature. The first take away is found in Descent of Man, where Darwin argues that we are a profoundly social and caring species. This idea is reflected in the two quotes below, where Darwin argues that our tendencies toward sympathy are instinctual and evolved (and not some cultural construct as so many have assumed), and even stronger (or perhaps more ethical—see his observation about the “timid man” below) than the instinct for self-preservation:

“For firstly, the social instincts lead an animal to take pleasure in the society of his fellows, to feel a certain amount of sympathy with them, and to perform various services for them. … Such actions as the above appear to be the simple result of the greater strength of the social or maternal instincts than that of any other instinct or motive; for they are performed too instantaneously for reflection, or for pleasure or even misery might be felt. In a timid man, on the other hand, the instinct of self-preservation might be so strong, that he would be unable to force himself to run any such risk, perhaps not even for his own child.”

The second take away comes from close study of Darwin’s Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals, published one year after Descent of Man. There, Darwin details descriptions of emotions such as reverence, love, tenderness, laughter, embarrassment and the conceptual tools to document the evolutionary origins of these emotions. That led me to my own work on the physiology and display of these remarkable emotions, and to the science-based conclusion that these emotions lie at the core of our capacities for virtue and cooperation.

DISALVO: You recently wrote an article with the provocative title “In Defense of Teasing.” Because we’re ostensibly a society set against teasing in any form (school, workplace, and so on), what do you think teasing has to offer that we might be missing?

KELTNER: Teasing is the art of playful provocation, of using our playful voices and bodies to provoke others to avoid inappropriate behaviors. Marc Bekoff, a biologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, has found in remarkable work with coyotes that they sort out leaders from aggressive types in their rough-and-tumble biting. The coyotes that bite too hard in such provocative play are relegated to low status positions. We likewise accomplish so much with the right kind of teasing.

Teasing (in the right way, which is what most people do) offers so much. It is a way to play and express affection. It is a way of negotiating conflicts at work and in the family. Teasing exchanges teach children how to use their voices in innumerable ways—such an important medium of communication. In teasing, children learn boundaries between harm and play. And children learn empathy in teasing, and how to appreciate others’ feelings (for example, in going too far). And in teasing we have fun. All of this benefit is accomplished in this remarkable modality of play.

DISALVO: Your team at U.C. Berkley has done a lot of interesting research on the vagus nerve and its association with altruistic feelings. Tell us a bit about this research and its implications for better understanding the nature of altruism.

KELTNER: The vagus nerve is part of the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system. It is a bundle of nerves that originates in the top of the spinal cord, it activates different organs throughout the body (heart, lungs, liver, digestive organs). When active, it is likely to produce that feeling of warm expansion in the chest, for example when we are moved by someone’s goodness or when we appreciate a beautiful piece of music. University of Illinois, Chicago, psychiatrist Steve Porges long ago argued that the vagus nerve is a care-taking organ in the body (of course, it serves many other functions as well). Several reasons justify this claim. The vagus nerve is thought to stimulate certain muscles in the vocal chamber, enabling communication. It reduces heart rate. Very new science suggests that it may be closely connected to oxytocin receptor networks. And it is unique to mammals.

Our research and that of other scientists suggests that the vagus nerve may be a physiological system that supports caretaking and altruism. We have found that activation of the vagus nerve is associated with feelings of compassion and the ethical intuition that humans from different social groups (even adversarial ones) share a common humanity. People who have high vagus nerve activation in a resting state, we have found, are prone to feeling emotions that promote altruism—compassion, gratitude, love, happiness. Arizona State University psychologist Nancy Eisenberg has found that children with elevated vagal tone (high baseline vagus nerve activity) are more cooperative and likely to give. This area of study is the beginning of a fascinating new argument about altruism—that a branch of our nervous system evolved to support such behavior.

DISALVO: Oftentimes we learn about intriguing academic work being done on emotions, morality and related areas, but are left asking, “OK, but how do we do any of this? Is there anything we can make actual use of here?” Looking down the road, what do you want the impact of your work to be out in the world?

KELTNER: I have always felt that our science is only as good as the truthful rendition of reality that it provides and the good that it brings to our species. In summarizing the new science of emotion in Born To Be Good, I was struck by how useful this science is. The ancient approaches to ethics and virtue—for example, found in Aristotle or Confucius—privileged things such as compassion, gratitude and reverence. A new science of virtue and morality is suggesting that our capacities for virtue and cooperation and our moral sense are old in evolutionary terms, and found in emotions that I write about in Born To Be Good.

And a new science of happiness is finding that these emotions can be readily cultivated in familiar ways, bringing out the good in others and in oneself. Here are some recent empirical examples:

Meditating on a compassionate approach to others shifts resting brain activation to the left hemisphere, a region associated with happiness, and boosts immune functions.

Talking about areas of gratitude, in classrooms, at the dinner table or in the diary, boosts happiness and social well-being and health.

Experiences of reverence in nature or around morally inspiring others improves people’s sense of connection to others and sense of purpose.

Laughing and playing in the face of trauma gives the person perspective upon life’s inevitable difficulties, and improves resilience and adjustment.

Devoting resources to others, rather than indulging a materialist desire, brings about lasting well being.

This kind of science gives me many hopes for the future. At the broadest level, I hope that our culture shifts from a consumption-based, materialist culture to one that privileges the social joys (play, caring, touch, mirth) that are our older (in the evolutionary sense) sources of the good life. In more specific terms, I see this new science informing practices in almost every realm of life. Here again are some well-founded examples. Medical doctors are now receiving training in the tools of compassion—empathetic listening, warm touch—that almost certainly improve basic health outcomes. Teachers now regularly teach the tools of empathy and respect. Executives are learning the wisdom around the country of emotional intelligence—respect, building trust—that there is more to a company’s thriving than profit or the bottom line. In prisons and juvenile detention centers, meditation is being taught.

Are you a scientist? Have you recently read a peer-reviewed paper that you want to write about? Then contact Mind Matters editor Jonah Lehrer, the science writer behind the blog The Frontal Cortex and the book Proust Was a Neuroscientist. His latest book is How We Decide.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
David DiSalvo is the science, technology and culture writer behind the blog Neuronarrative.

Tags: altruism, evolution, Psychology, culture, David DiSalvo, Scientific American Mind, Dacher Keltner, Forget Survival of the Fittest, It Is Kindness That Counts, Darwinism, neurobiology

'Consciousness signature' discovered spanning the brain

Very interesting what gets discovered when people are looking for something else. Consciousness is more than the sum of its parts, spread over the whole brain. The PLoS link at the end of the article links to the whole study, which is very cool.

'Consciousness signature' discovered spanning the brain

• 00:00 17 March 2009 by Anil Ananthaswamy

Electrodes implanted in the brains of people with epilepsy might have resolved an ancient question about consciousness.

Signals from the electrodes seem to show that consciousness arises from the coordinated activity of the entire brain. The signals also take us closer to finding an objective "consciousness signature" that could be used to probe the process in animals and people with brain damage without inserting electrodes.

Previously it wasn't clear whether a dedicated brain area, or "seat of consciousness", was responsible for guiding our subjective view of the world, or whether consciousness was the result of concerted activity across the whole brain.

Probing the process has been a challenge, as non-invasive techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging and EEG give either spatial or temporal information but not both. The best way to get both simultaneously is to implant electrodes deep inside the skull, but it is difficult to justify this in healthy people for ethical reasons.

Brainy opportunity

Now neuroscientist Raphaël Gaillard of INSERM in Gif sur Yvette, France, and colleagues have taken advantage of a unique opportunity. They have probed consciousness in 10 people who had intercranial electrodes implanted for treating drug-resistant epilepsy.

While monitoring signals from these electrodes, Gaillard's team flashed words in front of the volunteers for just 29 milliseconds. The words were either threatening (kill, anger) or emotionally neutral (cousin, see).

The words were preceded and followed by visual "masks", which block the words from being consciously processed, or the masks following the words weren't used, meaning the words could be consciously processed. The volunteers had to press a button to indicate the nature of the word, allowing the researchers to confirm whether the volunteer was conscious of it or not.

Between the 10 volunteers, the researchers received information from a total of 176 electrodes, which covered almost the whole brain. During the first 300 milliseconds of the experiment, brain activity during both the non-conscious and conscious tasks was very similar, indicating that the process of consciousness had not kicked in. But after that, there were several types of brain activity that only occurred in the individuals who were aware of the words.

Lost seat

First, there was an increase in the voltage levels of the signals in their brains. Second, the frequency and phase of neurons firing in different parts of the brain seemed to synchronise. Then some of these synchronised signals appeared to be triggering others. For example, activity in the occipital lobe seemed to cause activity in the frontal lobe.

Because this activity only occurred in volunteers when they were aware of the words, Gaillard's team argue that it constitutes a consciousness signature. As much of this activity was spread across the brain, they say that consciousness has no single "seat". "Consciousness is more a question of dynamics, than of a local activity," says Gaillard.

Bernard Baars of the Neuroscience Institute in San Diego, California, who proposed a "global access" theory of consciousness in 1983 agrees: "I'm thrilled by these results."

He says they provide the "first really solid, direct evidence" for his own theory. He also says that having such a signature will make it easier to look for signs of consciousness in people with brain damage, infants and animals with the help of non-invasive techniques such as EEG.

Journal reference: PLoS Biology, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000061

Tags: brain, consciousness, Psychology, Consciousness signature, spans the brain, Anil Ananthaswamy, Raphaël Gaillard, neuroscience, epilepsy, intercranial electrodes, Bernard Baars, global access

A. C. Grayling - Brain science and the search for the self

A cool article from New Scientist. Here is a brief synopsis of the book in review here: "Our sense of self is a virtual simulation within a larger simulation of an external reality which is larger still. This idea is cashed out in the rather forgettable metaphor of the ego tunnel."

Sounds pretty interesting, and like more than the usual neuroscience BS that passes for a study of mind. This vision includes the perceived world as the host of an embedded consciousness - with the Buddhist idea that the self does not exist. The reviewer is dismayed that the author seeks to use metaphor to suggest what science can only intuit - but the book sounds interesting. I'll have to read it to know for sure.

Brain science and the search for the self

• 20 March 2009 by A C Grayling

AFTER John Locke published his Essay Concerning Human Understanding in 1690, he sent copies to various savants of his acquaintance, asking for comments and in particular for advice on whether he had left out anything essential - for if so, he could add it to a second edition. His correspondent William Molyneaux of Dublin replied that Locke needed to say something about personal identity: that is, what makes a person the same person throughout their life.

Belief in the idea of a substantial soul - a "you" that is separate from your body - was waning. In the absence of this metaphysical entity as a convenience for underpinning personal identity, what, asked Molyneaux, makes the retired general continuous with the eager subaltern of 40 years before, and he with the red-cheeked baby in his nurse's arms 20 years before that? In response, Locke added a chapter to his second edition which instantly caused a storm of controversy and has been famous ever since in the annals of philosophy.

In that chapter Locke argued that a person's identity over time resides in their consciousness (he coined this term, and here introduced it to the English language) of being the same self at a later time as at an earlier, and that the mechanism that makes this possible is memory. Whereas a stone is the same stone over time because it is the very same lump of matter - or almost, allowing for erosion - and an oak tree is identical with its originating acorn because it is the same continuous organisation of matter, a person is only the same through time if he or she is self-aware of being so. Memory loss interrupts identity, and complete loss of memory is therefore loss of the self.

The divines, represented by Edward Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester, took umbrage and attacked Locke for ignoring the immortal soul. In 1712 The Spectator magazine ran a front-cover demand that "the wits of Kingdom" should get together in conference to settle the matter of personal identity and selfhood, because the controversy was getting out of control. In 1739, when David Hume published the first volume of his Treatise on Human Nature, he stated that there is no such thing as the self, for if one conducts the empirical inquiry of introspecting - looking within oneself - to see what there is apart from current sensations, feelings, desires and thoughts, one does not find an extra something, a "self", over and above these things, which owns them and endures beyond them.

Thus in 50 years the unreflective idea that each individual has an immortal soul as the basis of their selfhood had changed utterly. For millennia before Locke, no one had so much as raised the question. But it was no surprise that the question should suddenly become urgent as the Enlightenment dawned, with its central idea of the autonomous individual who is a bearer of rights and responsible for his or her own moral outlook; such an idea needs a robust idea of selfhood, and the philosophers eagerly tried to make sense of it.

Hume's sceptical view did not prevail. Kant argued that logic requires a concept-imposing self to make experience possible, and the Romantics made the self the centre of each individual's universe: "I am that which began," wrote Swinburne in Hertha, "Out of me the years roll, out of me God and Man." Without a deep idea of the self there could be no Freud or psychoanalysis.

So fundamental is the idea of the self to modern human consciousness that one would expect developments in neuroscience to have a direct bearing on it. And as Thomas Metzinger argues in his stimulating new book The Ego Tunnel, reviewed on page 44 of this issue, that is exactly what is happening - with surprising and often disconcerting results.

A C Grayling is a philosopher at Birkbeck, University of London

With that excellent introduction, here is the review of the book, which is now on my wish list at Amazon.

• Book information
• The Ego Tunnel: The science of the mind and the myth of the self by Thomas Metzinger
• Published by: Basic Books
• Price: $27.50
• ISBN:

WHAT is the self? One answer is that it is the diamond in the rough that is you, the unique, immutable and indestructible jewel that makes each person who they are, the being amidst the becoming, the unfluxable within the flux. Kant called it the Transcendental Ego, which stands behind experience as the condition of its possibility. An alternative view endorsed by Buddha, Heraclitus, John Locke, David Hume and William James is that the self does not exist.

Naturalists tend to agree - we each have our own and only our own experiences thanks to the way organisms are designed. The consensus among contemporary philosophers and mind scientists is that the self is a forensic concept, not a scientific one, and therefore not a member of the ontological table of elements.

Surely, though, there is the experience of psychological continuity and first person-ness that makes me feel like I have a special relationship with myself. What lies behind this selfy feeling? In The Ego Tunnel, Thomas Metzinger offers this explanation: "The phenomenal Ego is not some mysterious thing or little man inside the head but the content of an inner image... By placing the self-model within the world-model, a center is created. That center is what we experience as ourselves, the Ego." Our sense of self is a virtual simulation within a larger simulation of an external reality which is larger still. This idea is cashed out in the rather forgettable metaphor of the ego tunnel. "What we see and hear, or what we feel and smell and taste, is only a small fraction of what actually exists out there... The ongoing process of conscious experience is not so much an image of reality as a tunnel through reality." All of this is created behind the scenes by the brain. If you think you have a self, Metzinger says, it is because you are tricked by your psycho-biology, which keeps track of your states, preferences, memories and so on.

This is pretty much the whole theory, "a stunningly original exploration of human consciousness", according to the book jacket. Given the consensus among scientists and philosophers that there is no self, one wonders why Metzinger applauds his own view as radical (authors approve book jackets). He adds that coming to terms with the non-existence of the self is required if we are to solve the philosophical problem of consciousness. This makes it sound as if consciousness researchers are in the grip of the self illusion - they are not.

Even if there are people who still believe in the existence of a self, I doubt they believe in the dopey idea that the self is an actual homunculus, the straw man in the skull whom Metzinger relentlessly targets. More widespread than the self illusion is the view that humans have souls, but Metzinger does nothing to explain how belief in personal immortality may or may not be tied to views about the self.

The best parts of The Ego Tunnel are those where Metzinger surmises about where and how our virtual realities are created in the brain. The worst are when he makes vague yet grandiose statements, weaving metaphor upon metaphor, then decorating it with an acronym or two.

Grandiose philosophy is so 19th-century, and it is particularly unbecoming at a time when the problem of consciousness requires the efforts of many worker bees, what Locke called "underlabourers". There is no need for a "stunningly original" theory for now, especially one that isn't the slightest bit original. Nothing is gained. Trees are harmed. And all for the sake of offing that little man in the mind who hasn't been spotted since the publication of Gilbert Ryle's The Concept of Mind back in 1949. Pitching the idea that "we are self-less ego machines" gets Kant off Metzinger's back, but the rest of us were already content with the notion that there is no transcendental ghost in our heads.

Owen Flanagan is a professor of philosophy and neurobiology at Duke University in North Carolina

Tags: consciousness, brain, Psychology, Philosophy, A C Grayling, John Locke, The Ego Tunnel, The science of the mind, myth of the self, Thomas Metzinger, New Scientist, Owen Flanagan

In Washington D.C.

[image source]

I'm in the capital city for a week, or more precisely, I'm in Maryland right now (very beautiful!) and spending time in DC this week, then at a conference in DC on Thursday through Sunday.

Anyway, being social, as is not my tendency, precludes much blogging for now - so I'll post when I can.

Cheers!

Tags: travel, blogging, Washington D.C.

Science Daily - The Human Brain Is On The Edge Of Chaos

[chaos theory]

Interesting article.

The Human Brain Is On The Edge Of Chaos

ScienceDaily (Mar. 19, 2009) — Cambridge-based researchers provide new evidence that the human brain lives "on the edge of chaos", at a critical transition point between randomness and order. The study provides experimental data on an idea previously fraught with theoretical speculation.

Self-organized criticality (where systems spontaneously organize themselves to operate at a critical point between order and randomness), can emerge from complex interactions in many different physical systems, including avalanches, forest fires, earthquakes, and heartbeat rhythms.

According to this study, conducted by a team from the University of Cambridge, the Medical Research Council Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit, and the GlaxoSmithKline Clinical Unit Cambridge, the dynamics of human brain networks have something important in common with some superficially very different systems in nature. Computational networks showing these characteristics have also been shown to have optimal memory (data storage) and information-processing capacity. In particular, critical systems are able to respond very rapidly and extensively to minor changes in their inputs.

"Due to these characteristics, self-organized criticality is intuitively attractive as a model for brain functions such as perception and action, because it would allow us to switch quickly between mental states in order to respond to changing environmental conditions," says co-author Manfred Kitzbichler.

The researchers used state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques to measure dynamic changes in the synchronization of activity between different regions of the functional network in the human brain. Their results suggest that the brain operates in a self-organized critical state. To support this conclusion, they also investigated the synchronization of activity in computational models, and demonstrated that the dynamic profile they had found in the brain was exactly reflected in the models. Collectively, these results amount to strong evidence in favour of the idea that human brain dynamics exist at a critical point on the edge of chaos.

According to Kitzbichler, this new evidence is only a starting point. "A natural next question we plan to address in future research will be: How do measures of critical dynamics relate to cognitive performance or neuropsychiatric disorders and their treatments?"

Journal reference:

1. Kitzbichler et al. Broadband Criticality of Human Brain Network Synchronization. PLoS Computational Biology, March 20, 2009; 5 (3): e1000314 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000314

Adapted from materials provided by Public Library of Science, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Tags: brain, Psychology, chaos, physics, Science Daily, Self-organized criticality, Manfred Kitzbichler, Broadband Criticality of Human Brain Network Synchronization

Druids Committed Human Sacrifice, Cannibalism?

Contrary to our popular image of early peoples, many were not so peaceful and in-tune with their world as anthropologists might have us believe. Many were violent and warring people, not simply singing odes to the beauty of nature.

The lastest myth to fall is that of the nature-loving, peaceful Druids, who also seemed to love a little human flesh.

Druids Committed Human Sacrifice, Cannibalism?

James Owen in London
for National Geographic News

March 20, 2009

ON TV Secrets of the Druids airs Sunday, March 22, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel. Details >>

Recent evidence that Druids possibly committed cannibalism and ritual human sacrifice—perhaps on a massive scale—add weight to ancient Roman accounts of Druidic savagery, archaeologists say.

After a first century B.C. visit to Britain, the Romans came back with horrific stories about these high-ranking priests of the Celts, who had spread throughout much of Europe over a roughly 2,000-year period.

Julius Caesar, who led the first Roman landing in 55 B.C., said the native Celts "believe that the gods delight in the slaughter of prisoners and criminals, and when the supply of captives runs short, they sacrifice even the innocent."

First-century historian Pliny the Elder went further, suggesting the Celts practiced ritual cannibalism, eating their enemies' flesh as a source of spiritual and physical strength.

But with only the Romans' word to go on—the ancient Celts left no written record of their own—it's been easy for historians to dismiss such tales as wartime propaganda.

Until now, that is.

Gruesome Druid Discoveries

Recent gruesome finds appear to confirm the Romans' accounts, according to Secrets of the Druids, a new documentary airing Sunday on the U.S. National Geographic Channel.

VIDEO: Caesar Meets the Druids (Dramatization)

Perhaps the most incriminating evidence is the 2,000-year-old, bog-mummified body of Lindow Man, discovered in England in the 1980s. Lindow Man's manicured fingernails and finely trimmed hair and beard suggest that he may have been of high status—possibly even a Druid himself.

At least one thing appears nearly certain about the ancient twentysomething: He was the victim of a carefully staged sacrifice. Recent studies have revealed that Lindow Man's head had been violently smashed and his neck had been strangled and slashed.

Druid Fountain of Blood

"You've got a rope tightened round his neck, and at the moment where the neck was constricted, the throat was cut, which would cause an enormous fountain of blood to rise up," said archaeologist Miranda Aldhouse-Green, an archaeologist at Cardiff University in Wales and an expert on the Druids.

Another clue lay inside the body's well-preserved gut: pollen grains from mistletoe, a plant that was sacred to the Druids. (Romans wrote that Druids cut mistletoe from trees with golden sickles.)

Lindow Man's death is dated to around A.D. 60, when the Romans launched a new offensive in the island of Great Britain, currently part of the United Kingdom.

He may have been sacrificed to persuade the Celtic gods to halt the Roman advance, Aldhouse-Green said.

"Something had to be done to stop them in their tracks," she said in the documentary. "And what better way than sacrificing a high-status nobleman?"

The idea jibes with something Julius Caesar wrote: In times of danger, the Celts believed that "unless the life of a man be offered, the mind of immortal gods will not favor them."

VIDEO: Lindow Man, Druid Sacrifice? (With Dramatizations)

Mass Druid Sacrifice?

Other grisly clues come from a cave in Alveston, England.

Skeletons belonging to as many as 150 people and dating back to about the time of the Roman conquest were discovered in 2000.

Druids may have killed the victims—who show evidence of skull-splitting blows—in a single event. It may have been the Roman invasion itself that escalated the Druids' ritualized slaughter, researchers say.

Mark Horton, an archaeologist at the University of Bristol, thinks the pile of bodies suggests savage resistance to the Romans, either on the battlefield or through deadly ritual.

"Maybe the whole thing is a gigantic sacrifice ... an appeasement to the gods in order that they will get ultimate victory against the Romans," Horton said.

The Alveston cave bones hint at something even more sinister—cannibalism.

A human thighbone in the cave had been broken open in exactly the same method people use to get at the nutritious bone marrow of nonhuman animals.

But if the bone is proof of Celtic cannibalism, the practice was probably extremely rare, Horton said. It may be evidence of increasing hunger and desperation as Roman invaders closed in, he added.

"Least Bad Evidence"

Researchers have struggled in the past to link any archaeological evidence to the Druids, let alone signs of human sacrifice or cannibalism, said archaeologist Simon James of the University of Leicester, U.K.

"There has always been a suspicion that what the Romans were saying was atrocity propaganda. But some recent finds like Lindow Man suggest that there were dark and bloody goings-on," said James, who was not involved in the new documentary.

The mistletoe pollen from Lindow Man is the "least bad archaeological evidence we've got that fits in with these stories about the Druids," he added.

"Maybe mistletoe plants had been dusted on his food ritually, a bit like spraying holy water around, or dunked in his drink," James said.

If Lindow Man and others were in fact sacrificed in a bid to stop the Romans, their lives were lost in vain.

By the early centuries of the first millennium A.D., the Celts' defeat and absorption into the Roman Empire was nearly complete across Europe.

Today, their once wide-ranging culture lives on mainly in the traditional languages of Ireland, Wales, and Brittany, France.

(Read "The Celtic Realm" from National Geographic magazine.)

Tags: Druids, Human Sacrifice, Cannibalism, National Geographic, anthropology, history, Lindow Man, Secrets of the Druids, Romans, Miranda Aldhouse-Green, archeology

Julian Walker - The Masks of God: New Introduction to My Forthcoming Book!

Pretty damn cool - Julian Walker is a very interesting man. I look forward to seeing the book.

The Masks of God: New Introduction to My Forthcoming Book!

Posted on Mar 19th, 2009 by Julian

Introduction: Masks of God

masks of god

Spirituality has to do with the core of our lives, with how our minds and hearts experience meaning, create values and open themselves to expansive states of consciousness. Throughout human history spirituality has been infused with mythology and this serves a dual purpose:

1) It attempts explain what is mysterious to us, and
2) It attempts to bring us into a sense of deep communion with our society, our inner depths, and the natural world as doorways into and awe-filled experience of that mystery.

Mythologies are the dream-like stories used by different cultures to explain what is beyond their knowledge. Myths exist in relationship to ritual. Rituals can be ways both of:

1) Enacting an attempted control of both the scary and beautiful faces of the mystery, and
2) Opening us to a sense of insight, healing, expansion or freedom.

But myth and ritual are man-made. They rise out of the collective psyches like elaborate, vividly remembered dreams. They carry our darkest fears, our deepest longings, our hidden secrets, highest potentials and most creative imaginings. They are in equal measure light-filled and shadowy – because spirituality is the mirror to both self and culture.

Mahakala

All religion, story-telling, literature, visual art (including cinema) and philosophy can be traced back to myth, and all spiritual practice, psychology, music and dance can be traced back to ritual.

The church service, the wailing wall, the graduation, ceremonial prostrations, the yoga class, the nightclub, the meditation hall, the rock concert, the Academy Awards, the therapy couch, the candle-lit bedroom are all examples of arenas in which contemporary humans still participate in forms of ritual. But for many of us the mythologies of the past no longer serve their function – they don’t feel relevant or impacting, and we have either given up on conventional ritual altogether or sought out alternative forms because the old traditions began at some point to feel empty.

yoga-class

The spiritual dimension of our human lives has to do with the meeting place between our inner and outer, personal and collective worlds. Mythology - like a collective dream, carries potent symbolic energy and information back and forth. Ritual has served to take us into the state of mind where we have access to that inner language – one of rich feeling and imagery, symbol and metaphor, insight and meaning. Myth gives the tribe a story and ritual allows the tribe to enter a shared experience of that story.

One more thing though - from the heightened state of consciousness created in the ritual the story will, over time, keep transforming to meet the needs and reflect the reality of the tribe. Or so it should.

This introduction takes you on a short journey through the evolving history of the spiritual dimension of human life. Great mythology scholar Joseph Campbell called myths the “masks of God.” He said “when myths function correctly they become transparent to transcendence.” We start then with the earliest known forms of myth and ritual and follow a thread all the way to our present spiritual situation. Think of it as a creative tour of the evolving perspectives, concerns and experiences that have held central meaning to human societies and individuals.

In this creative offering you will experience some remarkably consistent themes as well as others that will be quite different. You will also see ideas and practice disappear and then return. This is not intended to be a complete and final history, but it does include many of the most significant expressions of our evolving spirituality. As such it includes both the sublime and the grotesque, for such are the forces we have always been seeking to reconcile. It is also not a strictly linear process, as growth evolution occurs in part through both a kind of spiral motion and the punctuated equilibrium of sudden change.

As you take the journey consider humanity’s ongoing relationship to four essential things:

Nature
Tribe/society
Death
Transcendence

The Swiss Alps – 49, 000 B.C.E.

cave bear skull

We gather in the cave as the sun rises, before the bones of the bear. The light comes in through the high opening and casts shadowy figures on the wall. We are alive and the animals offer their meat and fur, but we have to fight hard for it. We open the stone chest to reveal the seven bear skulls, muzzles facing the cave’s opening, and thank the Great Sky Bear as we sharpen our thrusting spears and stone axes – preparing for the hunt. We survive mainly on meat from the red deer, bear, bison, and occasionally – the great wooly mammoth. We speak in a simple sing-song cadence and wear hide coverings. Ours is a world of instincts, primal needs, magical forces, animal spirits, and a spirituality that deals with the hunt and the animals we depend on for life.

France – 20,000 B.C.E.

Lascaux

I go down into the deep cave. The paintings on the wall tell the story of my journey into the spirit world. I fly there. Fly to the place where the animals gather, to find out where they will be when we hunt. The paintings are about the shaman - the birdman, and our tribe’s sacred relations with the animal-people. The animals are our friends - they bleed like us and cry out in pain like us, our faces are not so different. We must honor the deer and bison and put their bodies back together after we have taken them apart. When we gather in the cave we sing and dance with the animal spirits. In this way we know it is good that we eat them and feel strong when we go out to hunt. When we bury the dead we include the body of a sacrificed animal – for we will still be together in the world beyond.

Kenya – 15,000 B.C.E.

The invading gods have taken us from our mothers. Taken us from the village to this strange place. They looked like monstrous animals and our mothers wailed and clutched us close – but they dragged us away. I know the other boys are in here with me, but it is pitch black and we have been told not to make a sound. We can hear the screams of individual boys who have been dragged from the hut to be killed as the deep loud songs are sung. When I feel the rough hands on me I go limp, surely I will die now and never see my mother or the village again. My eyes are covered. The pain is unbearably intense, but right when I am convinced the end is near and I will be food for the hyenas on the way to the spirit world – they pull the blindfold from my face. The men of the tribe take off their scary masks and lead me in procession to where the other boys are standing, blood still drying on their thighs, exposed swollen penis heads, fresh burn scars – one on each cheek. You are a man now, a warrior - says my uncle’s voice close to my head as I join the others. You have survived the death of your boyhood, you have a new face and a new penis. Now you can hunt and fight and take your place in the tribe – and you are worthy to be with your bride.

Circumcision History 4

Egypt - 8,000 B.C.E.

karnyak pilars

We gather in the stone circles of the temple, surrounded by pillars carved with animals, insects and birds. It is time for the sacrifice. The priests have used the stars to calculate the Winter Solstice and we know we must give sacred blood back to the Earth to participate in the arrival of Spring. The ritual dagger and bowl lie in wait on the north-facing altar. The goats are led in to be slain. They will be cut up and buried in the earth. The sacred bowl is used to pour warm blood first on the hearth and then into my priestess mouth taking me into the trance. Then we feast and dance. We survive by agriculture, our spirituality has to do with the cycles of the Earth, fertility and the growing of crops.

Go read the whole interesting post.

Tags: history, anthropology, Integral, Psychology, Julian Walker, The Masks of God, Introduction, Spirituality, Mythology