KNOWLEDGE

LIKE all life on earth, we human beings are part of a continuing evolutionary process. On the physical level, we have evolved as we should. Our body and brain have adapted over time to the environment we now live in. Our mentality however, has not. Sure, we have learned a lot of things since our cavemen days. We have improved in leaps and bounds intellectually, but that’s not evolution, that’s knowledge learned from trial and error.

Humans with the biggest brains lived 20,000 to 30,000 years ago in Europe. Known as Cro-Magnons, they were tall with barrel chests and large jaws and teeth. Most impressive, however, were their brains, with males averaging a volume of 1500 cubic centimetres!

The human brain has since become smaller, now averaging 1350cc, a decrease equivalent in volume to a tennis ball. One scientist remarked that, “We may have smaller brains than early humans but that does not mean we are less intelligent.”

There are many assumptions for this decrease in brain size, but it is quite possible that – because we no longer need so much survival information – our brain no longer needs to be so big. Our physical makeup also is making allowances for the fact that it is no longer necessary to be always ready for fight or flight… now it is up to our mental outlook to catch up.

Physical evolution of our species is progressing along nicely, our mental evolution however, is not. We live in a time of great turmoil. There are problems of ecology that involves the fact that we are making the world uninhabitable, the problems of overpopulation, violence, racial tensions, alcohol and other drugs.

What are we to do? The old instinct of survival based on violence has lived largely unconsciously in us since mankind took his first steps. Now the time of our adolescence has past and so has unconscious evolution become inadequate if we are to survive!

Knowledge is now not enough. Conscious awareness is urgently needed if we are to continue to evolve – which means we have to wake up and become acutely aware of the detrimental effects we are having on ourselves and our environment…

Dan’s Quote: “Man’s task is to become conscious of the contents
_____________that press upward from the unconscious.”- Carl Jung

Inspiration for this chapter came from the writings of Joel Kramer, Eckhart Tolle and others.

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