However, the legacy of the Old History is not just an ethnocentric bias, as Thompson alludes, but also a sexist doctrine that maintains the Old History, as written by men and glorifying the roles and activities of men. Historian and scientist Piero Scaruffi, in his essay “For a New History of Prehistory,” notes:
The male bias in the disciplines of archeology and ancient history is even more pervasive and may account for several mysteries that archeologists never cracked. For example, archeologists routinely assume that the first tools were stone tools that require strong men to make and strong men to use, and mostly used for hunting and killing in general. . . . The first tool was probably invented by women to carry babies with them wherever they had to go. A baby can never be left alone, especially in the conditions of two million years ago. . . . If archeology focused on the lives of women, it might better understand ancient civilizations that were not as male-dominated as they have been in the last 3000 years.24
Beginning even before the broken promise to the Incan king Atahuallpa, that he would be released once the gold ransom was paid, and moving through centuries of the United States government’s broken treaties with North American native tribes, to more recent invasions of indigenous lands in Central and South American countries by oil, fruit, and other companies operating with impunity, the conquest lives on, all around us, and the Christian/ conquistador ideology remains in place long after Columbus, Cortés, and Pizarro are gone. It is seen in the modern colonization of Third World nations for resources and cheap labor, the continued domination and destruction of the last vestiges of native cultures in remote regions of the globe, and the relentless destruction of the environment to acquire (or should we stay, steal) the wealth of the planet for the benefit of the few.
In short, the conquest is still living among us.
17
Awakening a New History
He discovered traces of a culture older than recorded time.
DR. ZAIUS, HEAD OF THE APE ACADEMY IN THE MOVIE,
PLANET OF THE APES
My journeys and the records from scores of historians, epigraphers, archaeoastronomers, and researchers have confirmed a growing realization that here in America, the Old History was perpetuated to promote a white, male-dominated, Christian, Eurocentric outlook. I have come to realize we humans live in a lie, our true history shrouded by myth and amnesia.
I think that for each of us there is a greater story to discover, a greater connection to the past to realize, and a greater vision of humanity to embrace. In attempting to present a New History, I have sought to peel away the layers of lost connections to a disenfranchised and misunderstood past in a quest for understanding the shared present.
How then to wake up from this amnesia, this long dark dream?
A RETURN TO PLANET OF THE APES?
The manufactured reality we live within exists, largely, because of the failure of the mind to remember its past and, equally, the mind’s failure to comprehend our purpose in coming to this place. Such a predicament, which requires the mind to awaken in order to comprehend the magnitude of the illusion, is best communicated through metaphors. The original Planet of the Apes movie illustrated a “scientific” community conspiring to suppress artifacts that would contradict an old order and its self-serving ideology. The ruling ape, Zaius, was successfully hiding this secret, which was finally unmasked by the “New History” of Cornelius, an archaeologist chimpanzee, who informed Zaius that he has “discovered traces of a culture older than recorded time.” Cornelius’s evidence pointed to a more advanced civilization predating the current ape society. Toward the end of this epic science fiction movie, Zaius destroys and erases from memory the archaeological site proving early humans were the source of ape science.
A most curious and inexplicable question raised by Zaius, was, “How can scientific proof be heresy?” One does not have to revert to science fiction movies to learn the depth of the deceptions of the archaeopriesthood, which has been a dominant and reoccurring theme throughout history. In the introduction I examined the church’s suppression of Galileo’s empirical proof of a heliocentric solar system. On a smaller scale, we again witnessed scientific proof swept under the rug when John Wesley Powell declared that “[It] . . . is illegitimate to use any pictographic matter of a date anterior to the discovery of the continent by Columbus for historic purposes.”1 Or as Cyrus Thomas asserted about the mounds he excavated in Ohio, “I . . . will not admit or address the numerous instances in which European artifacts were found.”2
It is challenging to comprehend how open-minded scientists can totally ignore the interesting and significant bodies of diffusionist research that this book has attempted to review, let alone the details of the “hard” evidence of biological pre-Columbian worldwide diffusions of corn, sweet potatoes, and other flora that could not be included for lack of space.
The relevancy of a recasting of the telling of our history should not be underestimated. The conquest ideology, reinforced by the Columbus mythology, is carried forward in American daily life and a foreign policy that is based on exploitation, extraction, and domination. This warrior religion revolves around Christian evangelism and American “exceptionalism” as a justification for conquest. At the root of the archaeopriest’s presentation of history are two modern institutions, the church and the academic/anthropological/ scientific “priesthood.” To these pillars we must also add the vested economic interests that benefit from a brainwashed populace refusing to understand the mechanics of an ideological orthodoxy that cannot be contravened by the facts. This nonscientific mindset is more akin to that of the zealous priests of the Inquisition, where nonrational ideology and orthodoxy resulted in evidence being destroyed, suppressed, and dismissed, along with the elimination of everyone who came forward with “new” ideas.
A WORLD IN AMNESIA
The loss of our history is like losing our memory. How can one possibly comprehend our inner nature and purpose, much less our true history, without memory? But how do we restore memories that have been lost?
The ideas and suggestions of four major theoreticians of Western psychology—Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Ivan Pavlov, and Immanuel Velikovsky—reveal different approaches to this question.
Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung both examined dreams and ancient mythology to unravel the mysteries that cloud the human mind. Jung is credited with renewing interest in the journey of individual awakening through his explorations of alchemy, Eastern philosophy, and the “collective unconscious.” Like Freud, he believed that myths expressed themselves from the inner workings of the mind outward, and he focused on interpreting symbols from mythology and religion in order to uncover their meaning. However, neither Freud nor Jung’s work seems completely relevant to our quest, as they both dealt with internal phenomena.
In sharp contrast to Freud’s and Jung’s emphasis on individual repressed memories, Immanuel Velikovsky and Ivan Pavlov dealt with outer forces that may have have caused our present state of amnesia.
A name unfamiliar to many in the current century, Immanuel Velikovsky (1895–1979) deviated from both Freudian and Jungian explanations for the present historical paradigm and its dilemma. In his most famous book, Worlds in Collisions, he presented a thesis that numerous cataclysmic events throughout human history have been turned into myth, and this created a real subconscious trauma that we are still afflicted with. This repressed trauma, reinforced by society, holds humankind in a state of deep sleep, or “amnesia,” as he called it in a later book Mankind in Amnesia.” Velikovsky wrote, “As a psychoanalyst I returned many times to the problem of awakening the human conscious mind to the forgotten heritage of ages. The traumatic experiences that humans keep buried in oblivion possess enormous power over the destiny of nations. If the human race is not made able to face its past, the traumatic experience that caused cultural amnesia will demand repetition.”3
Despite becoming a bestseller, Worlds in Collision was banned from several academic instituti
ons, and Velikovsky’s theories on amnesia and many other more cosmological thoughts were rejected by mainstream academia. Thus, in his follow-up 1955 book, Earth in Upheaval, he relied on natural sciences and “stones and bones,” as he called them, to present geological evidence of terrestrial catastrophes that had a profound impact on the mythologies, writings, and beliefs of early mankind.
Unfortunately, in a fate similar to that of Barry Fell, Velikovsky made mistakes that gave his critics reasons to deny his central proposal that the catastrophes of human prehistory, in particular the worldwide “Great Floods” of many cultures, were due to meteor bombardments and the actions of planets and that these events were then turned into myths that still affect us in terms of the religions and dogmas that continue to entrap us. His thoughts on how to cure this dilemma will discussed in a moment, but in the meantime, it is important to remember that, despite initial protests, most of science now recognizes that a collision with an asteroid caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.4
A differing perspective on amnesia came from Ivan Pavlov, who pioneered behaviorism as a means of regulating behavior and who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904. While Freud is often credited today as the father of modern psychology, Pavlov would prove to have a greater influence on the field. He did this by organizing and directing experimental research in the 1890s that demonstrated the body’s natural response of shutting down when exposed to overwhelming stress or pain that he could cause by administering electric shocks. His investigations of how people responded to this in terms of temperament, conditioning, and involuntary reflex actions became the foundations of modern behaviorism, which emphasized the outward behavioral aspects of thought and dismissed the inward aspects of consciousness as items of legitimate psychological concern.
By extending the Pavlovian model, subsequent behavoralist researchers, including B. F. Skinner (1904–1980), the American psychologist and social philosopher, spawned the development of mental conditioning, memory implantation, and modern advertising. These have been further refined into brainwashing techniques, which are most relevant to addressing the spell cast over us by the archaeopriests. Pavlov’s behavior-control model also applies to the educational status quo by rewarding aspiring archaeopriests with tenure and influence, thus reinforcing the Old History, while discouraging those who challenge it by inflicting difficulties, such as blocking accreditation, publications, speaking engagements, and employment opportunities.
However, running contrary to the Pavlovian model of obeisance to the ruling paradigm are Velikovsky’s techniques to establish a New History by actively confronting the traumatic experiences of our ancestors. He advocated teaching the “facts of life” about early-age, deep-seated repressions by addressing the liberating value of a “historical reconstruction” in schools that would then smooth the “secondary shock” that results once the old paradigm is confronted and corrected.5
Identifying these repressed traumas and liberating the mind from them is no easy matter. A modern psychologist, Arthur Janov, Ph.D., suggested the primal scream technique, a gut-release of the disturbing and forgotten memories that physiologically and emotionally stifle individual growth, which offers individuals a pathway to recovery.6 However, as Velikovsky suggested, we must look beyond individual therapeutic approaches in addressing the repressed trauma faced collectively by humanity. These environmental stressors include economic insecurities and the threat of nuclear war, as well as socialization pressures through consumer propaganda and the advanced, media-induced Pavlovian behavior modification techniques whose delivery has dramatically increased as we rely more and more on the electronics of mass media and television.
Another source of mass anxiety and delusion lies in our wars. Although the human race has been impacted by war throughout history, the twentieth century marked a turning point with regard to the number of people harmed and the degree of destruction. Wars that predate 1900, including conquests by the Romans, Genghis Khan, and the church and the “holy wars” between Christians and Muslims often lasted for decades. Even the cruelty and “purposeful genocide” of the conquest in the Americas was not unlike other terror campaigns in history. However, as brutal as these events were, a relatively small number of people were impacted because smaller population bases were using relatively primitive methods to destroy each other.
With the growth of human populations and the development of more sophisticated munitions, the twentieth century has witnessed wars of unprecedented proportion, beginning with World War I (15 million casualties), followed by the Stalinist purges (20–60 million), World War II (40–70 million), and the campaigns of Mao Zedong’s (Tse-tung) (tens of millions). The discovery of atomic weapons allowed single bombs to destroy first Hiroshima and then Nagasaki, heralding the end of World War II and the beginning of a new age of possible mass annihilation.
With the dawn of the nuclear age in 1945, human development became shaped less by “natural” influences and more by technological advances and competitive rivalry encapsulated in the idea of the “arms race” and the “race to space.” War, or the threat of war, demands an increasing amount of human and financial resources as more and more countries strived to develop nuclear and biological weapon capabilities to protect their interests on an ever-shifting and unstable playing field that now includes what we conveniently call “terrorists” to mask their birthplaces in poverty and desperation.
Moreover, the defining moments of mass murder that ended World War II have inspired a new way of thinking and a new vocabulary typified by expressions such as the “military-industrial complex,” “shock and awe,” “go it alone,” and “friendly fire.” At the same time, an increasing number of events became muddled and obscured by the veil of protection afforded by categories such as “classified,” “top secret,” and “national security.“ As the whirlwind of controversy surrounding the heroic actions of Edward Snowden have shown, the government’s increasing influence over communication networks and the clever use of TV- and computer-generated propaganda are allowing those in power to rewrite history in a new age of disinformation while, at the same time, allowing the fear of war to be used as a weapon to squelch civil liberties and freedom.
Of course, the most famous analysis of these modern tendencies is George Orwell’s 1949 novel, 1984, which described Winston Smith as a rewriter of history in a future world locked in perpetual war, with an all-powerful government that employed mind control and oppressive rule in the name of a greater good.7
While many of Orwell’s notions have been incorporated into today’s lexicon, including “doublespeak,” “thought crimes,” and the word “Orwellian,” which is used to describe a world run by “Big Brother,” it is not generally acknowledged that humankind has already crossed the threshold to an age where the past has been recast to support a current ideology. While applying the analogy of 1984 to our present state of affairs can be taken only so far in pursuing a connection with the Old and New Histories, the consequences of ignoring the similarities only serve to reinforce our culture’s collective state of amnesia.
The rewriting of history often occurs in plain sight and with the support of the public and the news media. These major modern deceits include false justifications for going to war in Vietnam and Iraq; subversion of evidence in the September 11, 2001, World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks; concealment of advanced energy and transportation technologies; the Kennedy assassination cover-up; and deception regarding the United States’ and other governments’ involvement with so-called UFOs, to mention some, but not all, of the modern manipulations.
Our state of oblivion is as profound now as it ever has been. In short, the situation is just as I observed in the case of the Columbus mythology, where I came across a plethora of examples of altered or fraudulent material that has found its way into our national consciousness. The conquest-based ideology and the continuity of deceptions and treachery remain intact, even today, inexplicably when technology provides mor
e tools to accurately investigate our past and present environments than at any other time in history.
How long will these deceits, along with the Columbus myth, continue?
THE SEARCH FOR THE SACRED
Radical thinker Michael Cremo says it well in a research paper, “Divine Nature: Practical Application of Vedic Ethical Principles in Resolving the Environmental Crisis,” that, “Part of the problem lies with our modern scientific cosmology, which is mechanistic and reductionist. There is little place in modern science for the soul and God.”8
In other words, the focus of modern science in exploring only the material world has denied the existence of the sacred, which, it needs to be emphasized, was the primary guide of the ancients. In a world where it is easy to take for granted natural beauty, unfortunately we also do the same for the sacred elements that surround us. But the sacred is both personal and transpersonal. It is a core belief and harmonious inspiration that can be accessed, appreciated, and shared. It is continuity of consciousness, yet it transcends consciousness. The sacred connects us to something greater, an essence of heavenly spirit that we humans can be aware of and honor or, alternatively, that we can ignore, deny, and degrade.
Unfortunately, because so many of us believe that our Earth is merely a planet, a chunk of rock revolving around a medium-sized star, the sacred has been reduced to an old concept in a cold and heartless universe. Modern science has evolved into a mechanistic and reductionist cosmology that leaves little place for anything else. As a result, our own limited modern thinking blinds us. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Not only in American rock art, but also in many ways throughout the world, the ancients have left a record of their understanding and appreciation of the sacred. But to think of the records from antiquity as simply “archaeology sites,” “Indian petroglyphs,” or “rock art” conceals their true nature and importance. What is at stake is preserving the opportunity for the people in the future to experience our past. What we risk is losing our ability to consciously unfold and “become our future.” But what does this mean?
Secrets of Ancient America: Archaeoastronomy and the Legacy of the Phoenicians, Celts, and Other Forgotten Explorers Page 32