Secret History #12: Heaven on Earth

So we continue our run-through of human history today. So last class we did cave paintings, and what I will do from now on is I will highlight some YouTube comments for us to review what we learned last class, but also as a chance for us to better engage the YouTube audience. Okay. So this comment comes to us from Gary Zorakiski and he talks about the cave paintings. He says that it is possible they created art everywhere, and the paintings only survived in the caves, and the answer is absolutely.

So back then during the Ice Age they made these cave paintings as a ritual, as a celebration of their religion, to express their imagination. They really didn't care about leaving a legacy; that comes later. Okay. So that's a very important comment. So thank you. This man says that when I was talking about Beethoven, he points out that Beethoven wasn't born deaf. He became deaf much later as an adult. And that is true. But one thing about Beethoven that people don't really discuss is that he probably had Okay? And this is just a fancy word meaning the mixing of senses.

So some people are born with a special talent and so what happens is that their senses get mixed up. So when people hear things they actually see things. Okay. So the classic example is that they have perfect pitch. So there are some people, musicians, when they hear something they know exactly what the pitch is. Is it C minor, D major? Okay. And the reason why is when they hear something they see a color. Okay. So they mix the audio sense with a visual sense and that's part of the situation with Beethoven as well.

So a lot of really talented people in life, what happens is that they mix up their senses. Okay. Another person is Leonhard Euler, who was a mathematician, and this YouTuber, the Pirate Bay, says that he probably did his best work after he went blind, and the reason why is that when you go blind you're able to imagine much more strongly and much more deeply. Okay, so he's able to see the math in his head. Okay. This man says that I also learned from indigenous people that they don't produce trash and garbage.

And that's something that's very true for most of human history. For most of human history, we saw ourselves as part of nature. And so when you go to someone's house, you don't leave trash. Same thing for primitive people, okay? They saw themselves as interconnected with nature. And so they had to respect nature and therefore they had to keep it clean. Okay. All right. So from now on we'll just highlight some YouTube comments. Okay. So let's talk about heaven on earth. So we did the Ice Age and now what's happening is that the planet is warming up and allows for agriculture.

It allows for settlements. Okay. So now we will discuss today what happens during this time as the population grows and as we settle down to form cities. Okay. So let's review what we learned last class, because in this class we don't learn facts or places. We learn about ideas and concepts. So if you want to understand human history, you need to internalize certain concepts. So in history class in our culture, you're taught certain myths about who we are. Okay? So I'm going to go over some of these myths and show you they're wrong.

Explain why we have these myths. Okay? So the first myth is that we are materialistic. We like money, sex, and power. Okay. The truth of the matter is that throughout most of human history, we had three goals or three concerns. The first is that we have a religious impulse and we want to express this religion through art, through music, through dance. And when I mean by religion, I mean that we have three questions in our heads. The first question is where do we come from? The second question is why are we here?

And the third question is where are we going? That's why we had religion, to answer these three questions. Okay? And that's why we still have religion today. The second thing about us is that we're all diverse and we want to differentiate ourselves. We want to stand out. The last thing is we are curious and we want to explore. That's fundamentally who we are. Then the question is why are we telling you that we're materialistic? And the answer is it's better to control you. Okay. So in a society there's a hierarchy and the people in charge want you to work hard.

They want you to be obedient. But if you believe that you want to explore then you're not going to be obedient enough. Okay. Does that make Okay. The second myth, this is going to be hard for you to understand. What you're taught is that the nuclear family, father, mother, children, is the most natural human unit. And it's not true. Actually, if you look at most ancient societies, the most natural organization is that women are usually in control. Why? Because women have complete autonomy over their bodies. So they can choose who to have sex with.

And that's where the power comes from. They control access to sex, which gives men pleasure. And with this power, they often choose to sleep with as many men as possible. Okay? And there are three reasons why they choose this strategy. The first is it's fun. Okay? It gives them pleasure to have sex with as many men as possible. That's number one. Number two, women are really good at negotiating politics and they use sex as a political strategy. So if two guys are fighting each other, she has sex with both and then voila, they're best friends now.

Okay? So women are very good at managing emotions through sex. Okay? And then number three is the most important. If you're a woman, you want to make sure that all your children grow up successfully. They don't die, okay? And they're happy and they're healthy. So from your perspective, it's to your advantage to hide paternity, to hide the fact of who the father is. Why? Because now all the men in the village, in the community, are responsible for raising a child because no one knows who the real father is. So everyone assumes that I could be the father.

Okay. And this is how societies are usually organized, with the woman in charge, and as such societies tend to be very egalitarian because women don't really care about status and power. They care about harmony and balance. And the question then is why did we change? There's actually a very simple reason. The simple explanation is in order to produce more children. Because if you're a woman, you don't want to have too many children. You want to make sure that all your children have access to resources, but you also want to stay healthy, right?

If you have too many children, it's possible you could die in childbirth. It's also possible that your children die in childbirth as well. So women have always practiced population control. But when we switched to a patriarchy, now we can have as many children as possible. Okay? Because now women basically become slaves and their main duty is to have as many children as possible. And that's why after this transition from matriarchy to patriarchy, a lot of women started to die. Okay, so that's number two. Number three is humans believed in survival of the fittest.

And that's not true. Historically, if you look at how societies are organized, we tend to be compassionate. We look after the ill. We look after the elderly. We look after the weak. Okay, that's who we are. We have empathy. We care about other people. So why do we believe in survival of the fittest? It should create fear and anxiety. Okay. If you have fear and anxiety, you work harder, but also it's easier to control you. Any questions so far? Okay. All right. Let's continue. Number four. Humans have gotten smarter over the centuries.

And one thing that you will learn in this class is that's not true. Humans have always been smart, but we've expressed our intelligence in different ways. So primitive cultures, they expressed themselves through art. They had better memories. They were more sensitive and they were more resilient than we are. So why are we taught that we're smarter? The answer is confirmation bias, because everyone likes to believe that we're smarter than the people who came before us. Okay, so now let me give you an example of how smart they were.

So let's just say that you have a boat and you want to navigate the Pacific. Okay, that's very hard to do and you usually need a computer. Why? Because there's so much information that you need to process in order to navigate the ocean. Okay, so let's go over some of the information. All right, so these are the Polynesian people. What's amazing about them is they settled the entire Pacific. Wherever there's an island, they had a settlement. And this is a testament to our desire to explore the world. Okay.

What is fascinating is how they did this, because if I were to put you in a boat in the Pacific, you'd probably die. Okay. And that's true for most people. So the question then is how did they navigate the Pacific? Well, what they did was this. They built boats that allowed them to navigate the Pacific. But as you can see, these are not large boats. Okay, so they had to get to an island fairly quickly. So what they needed to do was read the stars. So in their heads, they were able to map out the stars and from the stars figure out exactly where they were.

They also had to memorize oceanic currents, okay? How the oceans were moving in order to better navigate the ocean. Also, every island has its own distinct oceanic ecosystem. Okay? So there's so much information that they have to take in. They have to look at the wind. They have to look at the oceanic currents. They have to look at the stars. And that's why we have computers to do this for us today. But back then, they didn't have computers. So they had to do this all in their heads. Okay? And they had some maps that helped them.

Okay? So this is a map of the stars and this is a map of the oceanic currents. But they were all doing this in their heads. And what's really amazing is while they were out at sea, they couldn't sleep. Okay? They had to keep track of all this information to know exactly where they were. If they fell asleep, if the navigator fell asleep, they got lost and then they died. Okay? That's the power of the human Okay, the last myth. We evolved from apes. And the truth is that we are imaginative and we can choose our own evolution.

Okay? So you're taught in school about the theory of evolution, how we evolved from apes. And maybe our bodies evolved from apes, but our minds did not. Our minds come from somewhere else. So why are you taught we evolved from apes? It's to justify the power hierarchy. Okay? Right? All right, the people in charge are just stronger and better and more fit than we are. All right, so having revealed that last class, let's now talk about the religious imagination. Okay, so these are the pyramids.

It was built 2400 BCE and today it's the same pyramids. This is one of the most Yes. Yeah. Go ahead.

We think that we're smart and everyone before was stupid. Okay? And what you'll learn in this class is that these people had an imagination that allowed them to build the pyramids. Okay? So I'm going to show you how they built the pyramids. All right? So as you can see, the pyramids are extremely complex structures. Okay? And first of all, there's debate as to what the pyramid is. What are you taught in school? What the pyramids are? What is it? Come on. You guys are taught all this in school, right?

The pyramid is what? It's a tomb, right?

All right. So again, it's hard for us to imagine that they would do this because it's like, wait, you don't have a pen, so you couldn't write it down. You don't have a computer so you can process all the information. They did it all in their heads. And that's the power of the human imagination. Okay. All right. And as you can see it was a massive undertaking, a huge organization. It took about 20 years and lots and lots of people. And then the question is how were they able to organize in such a manner?

And the answer again is empathy. The imagination. Someone had a vision and this vision was so compelling that everyone knew exactly what part to play. What's really important is that in school, you're taught that the pyramids were built because the pharaoh is God and there's a tomb for the pharaoh. Okay? That's really insulting to the Egyptian people.

Like all cultures, the pharaoh wanted what's best for his people. Okay? So the pharaoh would in his lifetime undertake a lot of public works projects, okay, including canals. Okay. So the pyramids were just a public works project, a temple.

What's amazing about the pyramids is that we could not do the pyramids today. Okay? Back to your point. We have computers. Guess what? We have all these machines. Okay? And guess what? We cannot build the pyramids. Why? Well, because the way we work is different from the way they worked before. Let's go over the differences. Okay? In ancient times people had religious devotion when they worked on a project like the temple, like the pyramids or whatever. The point was to bring heaven to earth, to bring God to earth, to create eternal peace.

They felt that my dedication, my sacrifice would make my children, my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren all more prosperous. Okay, that's why they worked so hard. Today it's to make more money. Okay, the second thing, vision. People back then had bigger brains. Okay, not bigger brains, but a stronger imagination. So in their heads, they were able to see the entire vision in their heads. And this vision was able to pass on to other people as well. It was almost like they had telepathy. It was almost like they could see the same thing.

Okay. The structure of the pyramid was designed in a way that people saw the same image and they worked towards that image. Today we focus on something called top-down, process-oriented management. Okay. The idea here is rather than work together you just go and work on a particular part and then once you do that part you go away. Okay. So an example is maybe art class. Now I'm not sure if you take art class but you guys know, to produce a great piece of art you stay in a room and you work really hard at it.

Okay. But in school what do we do? Well, the first thing we do is make you write a plan, right? And you do the plan well, I give you 10%. Then after you do the plan, what do you do? You write the outline. Then you do a draft. Then you do an iteration. Okay? You understand? We break it down in a process. And you think that this would lead to better results. It actually leads to worse results. Okay? Because you're no longer focused on the vision. You just focus on the process.

And that's why today everything we do sucks. Okay? I can give you the greatest computers in the world and you really couldn't do the pyramids. Okay? I can give you the best machines, the best computers. It wouldn't matter because you lack that vision. The last thing, this is most important, is when you have vision, when you have religious purpose, everything you do is careful. Okay? You put your best effort into doing it because you're trying to create eternity. Today you try to do the least amount of work for the most amount of pay.

Right? So the idea today is to do it as fast as possible, as cheap as possible, to maintain the budget. Okay? So do you understand? It's not about how smart you are. It's about your purpose in working. It's about how you work. And that's why everything we do today is just crappy. Okay.

All right. Let's go over some examples of tremendous human achievement. Okay. This is the Hagia Sophia, and this was built in 532 in Constantinople. It's still intact. You can actually take a plane, get on a plane and fly, and it's still there, guys. Okay, this is a modern picture. So you can see the amount of attention and care put into architecture back then. Okay? Because it's about bringing heaven to earth, creating heaven on earth. And you can see inside how beautiful it is. Okay? And so every inch, every piece of the church is just beautifully constructed.

Everyone who worked on it was working with the same vision and working with the same dedication. This is the Aachen Cathedral, built in 1790. Okay? And guys, this is what it looks like today. No different from what it looked like when it was first built. And guys, no one said this was built by aliens, okay? No one said this was built by the Atlanteans. So the idea that the Egyptians couldn't build the pyramids by themselves and had to rely on aliens, that's just a racist comment. Okay. Also Charlemagne, the first Roman emperor, the first Holy Roman Emperor, he was buried, he's buried inside this cathedral, but no one's saying this is a tomb.

Okay? We all know it's a church. So the pyramids are a church, a temple to their gods. And once you understand that, then we can better understand how they built the pyramids. Okay? Does that make sense?

Okay. And this is what it looks like inside. Okay? Again, this is today. You can actually get a plane, go to Germany, and go walk inside this church and see for yourself how beautiful it is. Back then they put care and love into everything they did because they believed that what they did was to make a more godly, spiritual world.

Okay. The Manhattan Project. Okay. This is probably the greatest achievement of humans in the 20th All right. And there were 100,000 scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project to build the nuclear bomb. Same concept, where they believed that they were creating eternal peace on earth, heaven on earth. And that's why they worked so hard. And guess what? They were right. Right? Because now with the atomic bomb, nations are afraid to go to war. Before the atomic bomb, World War I, World War II killed tens of millions of people. And even though there are still wars, they're not as devastating as All right.

So this idea of bringing heaven to earth, it goes way back to the beginning of humanity. This is Göbekli Tepe. It was first built in 9600, 9,600 BCE. And this is considered the world's first temple. It's the first temple that we discovered. We can assume that wherever humans go, they will build temples because, as I mentioned last class, humans are first and foremost religious. They express themselves, especially religion, through art, architecture, music, dance. Okay? And it's an amazing achievement because these pillars, okay, they're really tall. So we don't know how they were able to move these pillars into place.

Okay, you can see how small people are, how big this is. But if you think about what we said about having a vision and then working together to achieve this vision, then it makes more sense. Okay, so let's discuss how they were able to build Göbekli Tepe. And this process is important for us to understand because it repeats itself throughout human history. Okay, so let's go over the process. Okay, the first is that there's always a charismatic leader. It could be a man. It could be a woman. But he or she has a vision for creating a temple, a place of God.

Okay, that's what a temple is. It's a place for God to live on earth. And he shares this vision with everyone and everyone works hard to achieve this vision. Okay? But then the leader dies and now you have different people competing to be the new leader. Okay? Why? Because a temple, and this is really important for you guys to remember, a temple is always the most valuable real estate on earth. Okay? If you are in a temple, people come to pray to you, right? So they have to give you gifts.

They have to give you tribute. So what's happening at this time is that they would organize a religious festival once or twice a year and people would have to bring gazelle, had to bring food as a tribute to the priests, and then they would celebrate it together and then they would feast. Okay. So if you're able to control this temple you lived a very good life. You were a very powerful person. Okay. And so when the first leader died, you would have a succession crisis and they would vote on who the next leader would be.

And so what happened is they would have these trials where they proved to each other who the gods favored. Okay? So it's possible maybe there are two hills. Okay? You stand on one hill, I stand on another hill and we'll see where the bird lands. If the bird lands on my hill, then the gods favor me. Okay? Because at this time humanity believed that the mother goddess ruled over all, because as humans at this time you're concerned about two things, right? You're first concerned about farming, agriculture, fertility, and then you're concerned about having babies. Okay, so that's why the mother goddess was important, because the mother goddess provided fertility for everyone. Okay, but then over time what they realized is, you know what, we'll just cheat. Okay, and how do you cheat?

You cheat by forming secret societies, okay? By getting people to follow you and then you swear a blood oath to each other and you also maybe have sex with each other and you become a faction, okay? And this led to conflict. And the way they often settled this dispute or debate is by human sacrifice. Okay? So if your faction lost, you'd all be sacrificed. And we know this because under Göbekli there are tombs, okay, of human remains. So we assume that these people lost a power struggle and as such they were all sacrificed together.

Okay. So in other words, power struggle, political conflict, religious dispute, human sacrifice, secret society, they go all the way back to human society. Okay. All right. So this is Göbekli Tepe today. Again you can get on a plane, fly to Turkey and then go visit Göbekli Tepe. Now one thing that's really important for us to understand is that with our architecture there's mythology in place. Okay. And here we assume the mythology is the mother goddess with a bird in the sky and this might be a human skull.

Okay. So there's a very complex, diverse mythology in place. We don't know what it is. Okay. But they had a sophisticated mythology and also remember humans are diverse. So once the mythology becomes established, new people come to establish a competing mythology. Okay. So this place is called Karahan Tepe and as you can see the mythology of this place is different but these places are very close to each other. Okay. So this is maybe the cult of the skull. The idea here is when people die, you can still communicate with them in the spirit world if you have their skull.

Okay? Almost the skull becomes a portal into the afterworld. Okay? So you can draw on their wisdom. You can draw on their spirit with the skull. We see this in many ancient cultures including in China. Okay? It's what we call ancestor worship. And as you can see, this is a cult of the skull. Okay, the Tower of Jericho. The Tower of Jericho is another settlement and we just assume that, okay, if it's a tower, it's for defensive purposes. Okay, it's to ward off invaders. But there's actually a much better explanation for the Tower of Jericho.

It's a religious temple. Why? Because during the solar equinox, the sun hovers above the of the temple and it causes the temple to flood this area with shadow. Okay? So if you are a religious person, you feel as though heaven is coming to you directly. Okay? So you have a ritual, you have a celebration when the solar eclipse happens and you can feel as though you're ascending to heaven or heaven is coming down to you. Okay? That's a Howard Jericho. Okay. Çatalhöyük. Çatalhöyük is one of the first settlements that we found.

Remember, Göbekli Tepe is just a temple. So they would go there maybe once or twice a year for a religious celebration but then they would leave. Okay. Çatalhöyük is where they decided to settle down permanently for decades. Now in school you're taught that we started farming because it allowed us to access more food and so we could grow the population. We would become healthier and stronger. Okay? But if you actually dig up bodies of hunter-gatherers as opposed to farmers, what you'll realize is, one, hunter-gatherers are taller, a lot taller than farmers.

Hunter-gatherers are stronger, live longer, healthier, they have better teeth. Why? Because if you're a farmer, you, so sorry, if you're a hunter-gatherer, you have access to lots of different food, right? Meats, and getting the food is actually pretty easy. Okay, you can just pick fruit off a tree. As a farmer, you have to work really hard to grow food that's not very nutritious and often the food is just similar. Okay, you're just eating one vegetable, one crop, okay? It's a very limited diet. And also because of starch, your teeth get really rotten really fast.

Okay. Also, because you're living together in close quarters, it's really easy for diseases to spread. Okay. So it's hard for us to appreciate this, but being a hunter-gatherer, it's an easy, happy, healthy life. Being a farmer sucks. So the question then is why did they become farmers? For religious purposes, right? So that they could settle down and be with their religion. Okay? Be with a charismatic leader. Okay? Does that make sense? All right. So this is Çatalhöyük. This is the religion of the mother goddess. Okay.

And accompanying the mother goddess is the bull. Okay. Because if you think about it, a woman cannot give birth by herself. She needs a male. And this male god is the bull, who represents virility, energy, strength. Okay. So they worshiped both. As you can see how people are worshiping the bull.

This is an image of Çatalhöyük. It's a very sophisticated community. It's also very egalitarian. And each house is a temple unto itself. Okay. So they have these paintings in order to bring in the energy of the gods that they worship, and that's why they want to stay here, because they want to be with their gods even though it meant a harder life for them. Okay, this is Çatalhöyük.

As you can see, it's beautiful. This is what it looks like today. Okay. This is another rendition of Çatalhöyük. Okay. As you can see, each house is a temple unto itself and they bury the dead underneath. Okay. So they're trying to practice a religion like here. Okay. As I mentioned, each house is a temple unto itself. As you can see how each house is elaborately decorated with, you know, the bull with ornaments to their gods and to the religion.

This is a gazelle. So they hunt gazelle for food. But as you can see, it's really a dance, right? So they're hunting the gazelle, but they see it more as a dance, as a celebration. The reason why is at this time in history, we feel an obligation to the animals we kill. We have to thank the animals that we kill. We have to celebrate the animals we kill in order to maintain balance and harmony in the world. Okay? It's almost like a contract. Before you can kill animals, you need to pray to the gods and ask for permission.

After you kill the animals, you must fete the animals for sacrificing their body to you so you can eat. Okay. All right. You guys got it? All right. So let's go over the pattern of human settlements. Okay. And I need you guys to remember how this process works. So let's look at how Çatalhöyük came together and I'll explain to you why it fell apart. Again, you have a charismatic leader who has a messianic vision. He takes us to this place and says this is where the gods are.

This is a divine place and let's settle down here, and as such we can bring heaven to earth, and then they become a creative, artistic community. Okay. And they often choose a place where the climate is very nice and allows them to farm to supplement their hunting and gathering. Okay. And over time as the population grows they become much more dependent on farming. Okay. So it's a gradual process that doesn't happen overnight. In the early days there's lots of social mobility in that all leaders are elected and also it's very egalitarian.

Does that make sense? But over time the system breaks down. What happens? Well, the first thing that happens is because of overpopulation, there's too much stress on the environment and so you have the land, you're not able to grow as much on the land. Then you have climate change happening as well. Okay. Another big issue is that the hierarchy becomes hereditary. Before, the leaders were elected, now they are just inherited. Okay? And this leads to corruption where the elite bully and exploit everyone else. And people forget the memories of the first days.

And so what do people do? People just get up and they leave. Okay? Do you understand? You can always choose to leave. And so if you don't like the community anymore, you and your family just get up and you go to another place to build a new community based on your principles. Okay?

All right. So based on today's lecture, I want you to remember three things about how we humans come together in a community. Okay? And these three basic principles are almost like laws. I want you to remember them. And these laws will help you better understand how societies rise and fall. Okay? The first important principle I want you to remember is societies are fluid and dynamic. They're always changing over time. Okay? They're never still. The second thing is that diversity within societies is greater than across societies. So another way of saying this is, yes, there's a conflict between the United States and China.

But actually if you look at differences in diversity, the diversity within China is greater than the difference between China and the United States. Okay, does that make sense? Okay, the third law is communities exist in opposition to each other. Okay, so think about the cities in China. Okay. Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, they're all different. Why? Because they want to be different from each other. Okay. But also within Beijing, you have Haidian, Chaoyang, different districts, right? They're all different from each other because they want to be different. Okay? So these three laws will help us better understand how societies form, thrive, and ultimately die.

Okay. All right. So I'm going to go over some books to highlight certain issues that we discuss in this class. This is The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow, who are both anthropologists. Okay. And they've looked at different societies and what they emphasize is diversity, the dynamism of different societies. Okay. So let's look at one particular society, which is the native people of the Canadian northwest coast. Okay. These are the native people and what's really interesting is throughout the year they have different social structures. So during the winter everyone comes together and they form a hierarchy where there are palaces where there's an and where they're divided into different classes.

Okay. But then what's really interesting is during the summer people will just go away and start new Okay, this is really interesting, how in different times of the year when the needs are different people will choose different social organizations. Okay, people actually adopted different names in summer and winter, literally becoming someone else depending on the time of year. Okay. So a metaphor that you can think of is think about how when you play World of Warcraft or a different video game, you adopt a different identity. You adopt a different persona and that's fun for you.

Okay? So what's common in the ancient past is for people to adopt different social structures and they can choose what social structure to go to. Okay? And certain communities still practice it today.

Okay, this is The Wayfinders by Wade Davis. One of the best books I've ever written, sorry, I've ever read. He is looking at also primitive communities, native tribes throughout the world. Okay. And he's looking at specifically the Amazon people. If you go to the Amazon, you'll have many different indigenous tribes.

Okay, so let's look at the religion. And one thing I will show you is that even though these people look simple, like you know they wear the same clothes and their life looks very simple, spiritually they're very complex people and they have a very complex and sophisticated mythology. Okay. So these are people of the anaconda. Okay. In the beginning, before the creation of seasons, before the ancestral mother Romi Kumu, woman shaman, opened her womb, before her blood and breast milk gave rise to rivers and her ribs to the mountain ridges of the world, there was only chaos in the universe.

Okay? So they have this very complex mythology. I'm not going to go through all of it, okay? But I will show you the picture of it. This is a universe that they've created from themselves. It is complete. It's unified. It's very complicated. And that's true for all mythologies.

One thing that's really important for them is to maintain balance and harmony in the world. Okay. So like most primitive people they believe there are different and their role is to maintain harmony across these dimensions because that is what guaranteed a happy and prosperous life. Okay. So let's read this together.

The people living today in the forest of the Pirá-Paraná, which is the Amazon. The entire natural world is saturated with meaning and cosmological significance. Every rock and waterfall embodies a story. Plants and animals are but distinct physical manifestations of the same essential spiritual essence. Okay. So every plant, every rock has a life force and they appreciate the diversity, the complexity, the sophistication of different life forces. Okay. So even though they can express themselves, they don't have a written language. Their minds are extremely vibrant and dynamic and energetic. At the same time, everything is more than it appears.

For the visible world is only one level of perception. Behind every tangible form, every plant and animal is a shadow dimension. A place invisible to ordinary people, but visible to the shaman. This is the realm of the hood spirits. A world of diaphsores where rocks and rivers are alive, plants and animals are human beings, sap and blood, the bodily fluids of the primordial river of the anaconda. Hidden in cataracts behind the physical veil of waterfalls. In the very center of stones are the great moleculus of the hus where everything is beautiful.

The shining feathers, the coca, the calabash of tobacco powder, which is itself the skull and brain of the sun. Okay, you can see how the mythology is very complex and how they imbued it, embedded it into their everyday life. Every day when they wake up and they see the world, they see a world of color, of energy, of change.

He continues, "Among the Barasana, such renewal is the fundamental obligation of the living. In practice, this implies the Barasana see the earth as potent, the forest as being alive with spiritual beings and ancestral powers. To live off the land is to embrace both its creative and destructive potential. Human beings, plants, and animals share the same cosmic origins, in a profound sense are seen as essentially identical, responsive to the same principles, obligated by the same duties, responsible for the collective well-being of creation. There's no separation between nature and culture. Without the forest and rivers, humans would perish.

But without people, the natural world would have no order or meaning. All would be chaos. Thus, the norms that drive social behavior also define the manner in which human beings interact with the wild, the plants and animals, the multiple phenomena of the natural world, lightning and thunder, the sun and the moon, the scent of a blossom, the sour odor of death. Everything is related, everything connected, a single integrated whole. Mythology infuses land and life with meaning, encoding expectations and behaviors essential to survival in the forest, anchoring each community, each maloca, to a profound spirit of place.

Okay, so you can see how sophisticated their imagination is. Okay, so one thing that I discuss continuously because it's a very important concept is how everything is a harmonious whole. And so when you kill something, you first need permission. You need to have a contract. Okay, this is true through most of human history. So these people are no different. When going into the forest to hunt or fish, it is never a trivial passage. First, a shaman must travel in trance to negotiate with the masters of the animals, forging a mystical contract with the spirit guardians in exchange based always on reciprocity.

Okay. Reciprocity. If you kill an animal, you need permission. Now, if you kill the animal, you must thank the animal through ritual sacrifice. Okay. The Barasana compare it to marriage, for hunting is a form of courtship in which one seeks the blessings of a greater authority for the honor of taking into one's family a precious being. Meat is not the right of a hunter, but a gift from the spirit world. To kill without permission is to risk death by a spirit guardian, in the form of a jaguar, anaconda, tapir or harpy eagle.

Okay. So the concept here is karma, right? If you do evil, evil will come to you. Okay? So it's important to maintain harmony. All right? And this is no different from the cave paintings. Okay? So you go back way back to the dawn of humanity. We believed the same thing. Okay? We believed that these animals came from the spirit world. And that's why you paint it. That's why you express art, to thank the animals for coming from the spirit world to feed and nourish us. And after we kill them, then we pray that they return to us.

Okay. And this goes back, you know, tens of thousands of years. All right. Let's go to Africa. So we were in the Amazon. Now let's go to Africa. And in Africa, there are some people called the forest people. Okay. This is a book by Colin Turnbull, who spent a few years with them. And these are the pygmies. They live in the forest. And guess what? Even though the mythology is a bit different, they have different names, they have different structures, it's still the same essence. Okay, so let's go over this. This is called the molimo, which is a musical instrument that they use to communicate with the spirits of the forest.

Okay. All right. So one thing that's really important for these peoples is the idea of ritual. You are a member of the community if you participate in all their rituals. If you believe in the mythologies, if you honor their ancestors and their traditions, okay? If you refuse to honor their traditions, then they will ostracize you or they might even kill you. Okay? So the pygmies are having a religious festival and Colin Turnbull says this. I was told however that everyone had to eat just as no adult male was allowed to sleep but had to sing while molimo singing was in progress.

Apparently one of the greatest crimes that a Pygmy can commit, if not the greatest, is to be found asleep when the molimo is singing. If you refuse to participate in the ritual or if you break the seriousness of the ritual, then you are a threat to the community and they will kill you and they will forget about you. Okay?

So once they kill you, the women would be told that the molimo itself, the great animal of the forest, had carried off one of their number. But like the men, they would ask no questions and would never again mention the missing men. So if you disrespect them, they would not only kill you, but they would forget about you forever.

This is how they explain why they do what they do. Why do they practice these rituals? Why are these rituals such an important part of their lives? Normally everything goes well in our world. But at night when we are sleeping, sometimes things go wrong because we are not awake to stop them from going wrong. Army ants invade the camp, leopards may come in and steal a hunting dog or even a child. If we were awake, these things would not happen. So when something big goes wrong like illness or bad hunting or death, it must be because the forest is sleeping and not looking after its children.

So what do we do? We wake it up. We wake it up by singing to it. And we do this because we want it to awaken happy and everything will be well and good again. So when our world is going well then also we sing to the forest because we want to share our happiness. Okay. So their idea of God is heaven on earth, where you're connected to the environment around you. Everything that you do impacts the environment. The environment also impacts you as well. So you practice these rituals in order to maintain balance and harmony in the world.

Okay. The world is a script. Living, you must follow certain practices in order to respect the traditions of the world, and that's what brings harmony and heaven to the world. And this is something that for most of our history we've understood and we've appreciated. Then the question is, what did we change? Okay, and we'll be discussing this as the semester goes on. Okay, so that's it. Are there questions before we end?

Yeah.

Okay, so the question is why can't we build the pyramids? Okay. All right. So there are different factors in place. The first is the resources that are required to build the pyramids. It is tremendous. Okay. So, to give you an example, the stone that, sorry, let me just bring this up. Okay, the stone that they used to build the pyramids is enough to build a wall around France. Okay, so the size, okay, is beyond our imagination. Okay, that's number one. Where do we find the resources to do this?

Second is the question of will. Why would we want to do this? Like, do you want to rebuild the pyramids? Okay, well, yeah, that's another problem. Okay, the third problem is organization, which is how would we organize the people in a way as to build the pyramids, because back then it was a massive undertaking, but again people were united by a similar vision, which is like, we're bringing heaven to earth. Once we build the pyramids, the gods can rest in peace. The gods can come down and shine a divine light all over us.

So that's the end of history. We're done. Okay? Just work hard for 20 years and then there'll be heaven on earth. Okay? That's what drove them. What inspires people today? There's nothing that inspires people today. Okay? Like, oh, make a billion dollars. Make a trillion dollars. Okay? That's what inspires people. But you know what? To make a billion dollars, it doesn't mean you have to work hard. It just means you have to cheat and lie and steal. Okay. So does that make sense?

We don't believe in divinity. We just believe in numbers, in computers, in process. Okay? Does that make sense to you? Okay. It's hard to understand because you live in a time of complete materialism. So you don't understand what it means to live a life of spirituality, of divinity, of trying to bring heaven to earth. Okay? But if you did do that, then you'd be a very different person. There were things that you could do that would be unimaginable to you. Okay. For example, if you go visit a temple or a monk, they could meditate for months and months and months.

They could walk barefoot in the cold for years and years and years. We can't do that. Okay? Because the moment I say, "Hey, meditate for a whole month. Just don't eat," you can't do that. And you're like, "What's the point?" And then their answer is, because I want to be with God. Okay? Because I want to feel as though it's heaven on earth. So it's not just a question of how smart you are. It's a question of faith and purpose and meaning as well. The reality is that not only do we not live a life of purpose and meaning and spirit, we also think these things don't matter.

Okay. Does that make sense? All right. Any more questions? So I do agree that we cannot be permissed nowadays, and I'll definitely die if you just put me on a pathetic, but for more than people, we also can do a lot of things that previous people cannot. So how do the building of a pyramid, these things, demonstrate that the previous people are smart?

Okay, and that's why ideas suck. Back then, it was just like, it doesn't matter what my idea is. What matters is this idea is expressed to other people. Okay. When you have that spirit, when you have that heart, when you share who you are, then God comes into you and gives you ideas. You understand? But if you're like, "Nope, all I want to do is make money," God leaves you.

Do you understand? There's no sense of individualism. There's no sense of capitalism. There's no sense of private property. It's all like, let's just work together to build a better world. Okay? And yes, the people who worked on it were getting paid, but that's not what mattered to them. What mattered was achieving this vision together. Okay. So it's hard for us to understand, but once you have this mentality of common sacrifice, you are able to do tremendous things together. Okay. And I'm sorry, but I can't think of an example of wonderful things that we do today, like ChatGPT.

Give me a break. Okay.