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The development of a new drawing method proves that therapy can rewire the brain.For over twenty years Raymond Lane has developed superpsychology as both an individual and social psychology, and as a tool for exploring the evolution of the human species.
For more information, contact:
Raymond Lane
Superpsychology LOP
http://superpsychology.tripod.com
24 Prince Street, North Parramatta 2151
Sydney Australia
email: superpsychology (at) yahoo (dot) com (dot) au
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The Discovery of a Recurring Revolutionary Cycle indicates an Ice Age Cro-Magnon Empire.
The discovery of a revolutionary cycle that has recurred several times in history provides a clearer view of how Cro-Magnons lived life during the last Ice Age, as well as a new method of understanding human evolution.
Sydney, Australia, August 17, 2005 -- New research into human evolution has uncovered a revolutionary cycle that has recurred on three occasions. The research was conducted by Raymond Lane (founder of superpsychology) and published in an article on his website. The cycle relates to a cultural explosion that formed a transition stage from a lowlier cultural era to a more advanced cultural era. Those stages occurred from 40,000-10,000 years ago (Ice Age Cro-Magnon Europe), 800 BC-AD 500 (the Greco-Roman Classical Age), and AD 1300-1914 (the Western European Renaissance up to WWI). By making comparisons between the latter two cultural transitions, Lane found numerous similarities--especially four main revolutions occurring in sequence (each fuelled by its predecessor's achievements): artistic, scientific, philosophical, and technological.
Other similarities in the lead up to the latter two transitions include a dark age, rule by an aristocracy, conflict between church and state, increase in seafaring trade, warfare and plagues, and study of an older culture. During the transition itself, the similarities included colonisation, subjugation of religion by the state, use of perspective in art, the compilation of law codes, increased urbanisation, and a period of democratic rule. Lane said, "This similarity in events occurring in cultures 1,000 years apart is one of the most amazing things of history".
After identifying the factors characteristic of a transition stage, Lane then examined the last Ice Age when it is known from archaeological evidence that a cultural explosion took place. He found that Cro-Magnon developments show the same signs of going through a transition. There was a lead up period of a possible dark age through conflict with the Neandertals over Middle Eastern territory from 65,000 years ago, development of (limited) seafaring (probably using rafts) and trade, and invasion into Europe from 40,000 years ago that provided an opportunity to study Neandertal culture. Then there were four discernable revolutions of art (cave art employing perspective, figurine sculpting, and tool art), science (interest in fertility, and recording of constellations and the moon's phases in caves), philosophy (the cave perceived as Mother Earth's womb that gave birth to animals, and the reorganisation of society by adopting a division of labour), and technology (several successive tool technologies, including composite tools, nets, and traps). So the ingredients for a Cro-Magnon empire undergoing cultural revolution were all present in Europe during the last Ice Age.
Human evolution naturally divides into four eras, each with a specific World
View: prehistory (animism), antiquity (polytheism), the Middle Ages (monotheism),
and the Modern Age (evolutionism). The first three World Views were changed
by the three intervening transition stages. Lane believes that an Establishment
uses the World View to build culture, create laws, interpret environmental events,
and provide services to try to heal physical ailments and psychoemotional suffering
(obsessions, compulsions, addictions, nightmares, etc.) As an era progresses,
though, the World View becomes out-of-date and less adept at healing suffering,
but its Establishment clings on to it and suppresses new views to protect its
privileged status. Eventually, public frustration boils over into a cultural
explosion necessary to overthrow the Establishment, and replace its World View
with a more realistic version, along with more up-to-date knowledge, fairer
laws, and more effective healing practices. Interestingly, all three transition
stages occurred in Europe, which has proven to be a fractured centre of social
development. In conclusion Lane said, "The identification of a recurring
revolutionary cycle now proves beyond doubt that history really does repeat
itself".
For over twenty years Raymond Lane has developed superpsychology as both an individual and social psychology, and as a tool for exploring the evolution of the human species.
For more information, contact:
Raymond Lane
Superpsychology LOP
http://superpsychology.tripod.com
24 Prince Street, North Parramatta 2151
Sydney Australia
email: superpsychology (at) yahoo (dot) com (dot) au
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Neolithic Humans Studied Insects to Master Farming
At the end of the last Ice Age-and with a large extinction of animals-humans studied insects to master farming, in much the same way that today's scientists study genetics for the same purpose.
Sydney, Australia, December 20, 2004 -- A reexamination of the work of archaeologist James Mellaart--conducted by Raymond Lane (founder of superpsychology)--has found that within the period 10,000-4,000 BC, humans may have studied the insect's role of plant pollinator to understand farming. Architecture and artifacts indicate that humans also adopted some aspects of insect lifestyles--via sympathetic worship--in an attempt to improve their own working lives. At Khirokitia, for example, "Several compounds were found consisting of one large beehive house, and several others used as kitchens, workshops for grinding corn, etc… The general impression is one of great efficiency and good organization" (1965, p. 54).
At Çatal Hüyük, shrine VII has a wall relief of a goddess with two red rings around her pregnant abdomen and a triangular belly button (1967, p. 76)-imitating a bee's abdomen and stinger, and suggesting that she was equated to the queen bee. Shrine VI.B.8 has a wall painting (1967, p. 123) with many handprints on the bottom, three bull heads at the top and a middle section displaying "…the life-cycle of the bee in a honeycomb with closed cells on the left, from which, in the middle, the bees [indicated by white circles] emerge to fly freely in a field of flowers on the right" (1967, pp. 91, 162). The honeycomb is enclosed within two rows of four-fingered hands that Mellaart believed represented crops. This shows intimate knowledge of the beehive and that bees played a role in fertilising crops. Lane believes that the entire theme suggests a spiritual hierarchy of humans on the bottom, gods on the top, and bees as the intermediary between the two. A wall painting of the city itself, in shrine VII (1967, p. 133), is composed of clear cell-like units--suggesting that the honeycomb may have been its inspiration. Sympathetic worship of insects also seems to have continued on in the later Hacilar settlement. Here, the mother goddess figurines (1965, p. 108) had definite insect eyes: large ellipsoids that stretch round to the sides of the head. (Similar examples also come from Can Hasan and Urartu.) And one example of pottery painting (1965, p. 110) has a stylised bee head, and four red rings around each of two bulging sides with handles-in imitation of bee abdomens and stingers.
Lane believes that insect sympathetic worship may have begun as early as 35,000 years ago. This is when human social behaviour changed to include division of labour, artwork, and the noting of natural cycles. Termites, bees (honey), and some ants would have been used as food sources, and the people would have realised that the large insect society with its queen resembled their own society with its queen (and mother goddess). And the bulging, pregnant Venus figurines--some even with segmented bodies--may have represented the fertile qualities of the insect queen and its bulging, egg-filled body.
So for a short period of history, humans engaged in sympathetic worship of insects to learn farming. This may seem like strange behaviour, but it was their way of studying nature. After mastering the complexities of farming--by about 4000 BC--sympathetic worship of insects subsided, bees were domesticated, and newer advances fueled social growth. Lane says, "Up till now archaeologists have concentrated on how humans related to animals--as in tool development, artwork and domestication. But humans' relationship to insects may have been just as important--if not more so, since you can not only learn about farming from insects but also about a more intense form of social organisation (from superorganisms). So this is a valuable area for further research".
Bibliography:
Mellaart, James, Earliest Civilizations of the Near East, Thames and Hudson,
London, 1965.
Mellaart, James, Çatal Hüyük: A Neolithic Town in Anatolia,
Thames and Hudson, London, 1967.
For over twenty years Raymond Lane has developed superpsychology as both an individual and social psychology, and as a tool for exploring the evolution of the human species.
For more information, contact:
Raymond Lane
Superpsychology LOP
http://superpsychology.tripod.com
24 Prince Street, North Parramatta 2151
Sydney Australia
email: superpsychology (at) yahoo (dot) com (dot) au
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Hominids learnt their skills from birds
The human species would not exist today if not for a clever group of young Australopithecines who followed birds to food sources 3 million years ago.
Sydney, Australia, December 6, 2004 -- Raymond Lane (founder of superpsychology LOP) has discovered that hominids learnt their skills from birds from about 3 million years ago. This was established by studying bird and fire symbolism in Ancient religions, then extrapolating back through prehistory to match them up to archaeological findings and bird behaviours. Lane believes that our ancestors were knocked off the normal path of ape evolution due to Australopithecine stick fights becoming more violent. This culled the adults of the losing group, leaving the remaining young needing to search for food themselves to survive. Normally this would have led to starvation. But they cleverly "latched onto" vultures because of their ability to find food (and signal this by circling overhead). From then on, hominids learnt from birds rather than from apes. A string of prehistoric developments can be explained by hominids following birds and adopting their behaviours:
Meat eating--of brains and marrow--was learnt by watching the lammergeyer taking bones into the air and dropping them onto rocks below, then feeding on the marrow. Fire use was learnt by following the grasshopper buzzard-eagle, woolly-necked stork, and black kite as they hunted around the edge of fires for fleeing and dead creatures. When migrating, hominids mimicked the bird of prey's lifestyle by selecting cave sites in mountainous areas overlooking valleys where herds would graze. Meanwhile, few birds appear in cave art because humans were seeing themselves as akin to birds. For example, a deceased bird-headed man was depicted at Lascaux Cave, and an owl-faced anthropomorph at Les Troi Frères, Ariège, France.
After the last Ice Age—10-15,000 years ago—the Indo-European peoples emerged as cultural leaders. At Catal Hoyuk the dead were exposed to vultures to strip clean of flesh. Later Indo-European-derived cultures--like the Hindus, Persians, Greeks and Romans--were also strong bird and fire reverencing cultures. For example, Prometheus was the Greek vulture god who gave fire to mankind. Meanwhile, Egyptian royalty wore vulture headdresses. Even in early Christianity Mary and Jesus were associated with the vulture and eagle respectively.
In the modern world there is the Mohana "bird people" of Pakistan, who live in houseboats on Manchar Lake. They tame birds, get them to catch fish, and use them as decoys for catching other birds. Children grow up with their own bird and go to "bird school" to learn birdcalls. Since they have lived this lifestyle for 6000 years it provides direct evidence that earlier humans used birds to get to food sources and adopted bird behaviours. Also, there is the Parsi community of Iran and India, who still expose their dead to vultures and keep a sacred fire alight.
In the Ancient world, people were farmers and could make fire at will so they had no need to reverence birds and keep sacred fires alight. They continued this reverencing because it was passed onto them down the generations from prehistory. "The only place where these reverences and rituals could have originated from was a time when hominids were dependent on birds and fire for their survival", Lane said. He added, "This is a key discovery because it provides a psychological profile of our species. Such a profile will help to establish why humans fight in wars when other apes do not."
For over twenty years Raymond Lane has developed superpsychology as both an individual and social psychology, and as a tool for exploring the evolution of the human species.
For more information, contact:
Raymond Lane
Superpsychology LOP
http://superpsychology.tripod.com
24 Prince Street, North Parramatta 2151
Sydney, Australia
email: superpsychology (at) yahoo (dot) com (dot) au
###
Page last updated December 2007
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© copyright Lane R., 1997
Superpsychology LOP
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