ORIGINS OF MYTH AND DEITY -
Upper Paleolithic Europe - Hunting on the Future Time Track in the Amazon

When did human kind first talk to the gods, walk into other dimensions of universal reality and return sane to tell the tale? When did the deity first talk to us, ask to be loved and given nourishment, ritual and power in return? When did Pan first play his flute, and the Ancestors first walk into the Deamtime? When was the first sacred geography established, when did the first kami descend and when did early bicameral minds smile and sing poetry to the gods? How did mythology, the sacred dance, and ritual poetics begin? Assuredly we will never know because mythic poesy need not take froms that provide an archeological record. If the elders do not live forever, there is always a great danger that reality will be lost and that the future that comes upon us is not ours but an alien and cruel thing.

As recently as the 1980s, many men of the Amazon jungle tribe known as the Matse were able to open up additional dimensions of reality, most importantly the time track into the future. Catalyzed by mind expanding drugs derived from rare species of tree frogs, Matse hunters were able to talk with plants and animals and project a three dimensional anima into the future. Because each male hunter had such access, there was little need for a single, exceptional shaman in which to concentrate the sacred for the village and the tribe. The Matse experience was so complete, so whole and fulfilling, that they had almost no linguistically, articulated philosophy or mytho-poetics. Mystics of all ages have repeatedly told us that direct experience of 'God' is beyond words and needs no words; theology, philosophy and the intellect are but essential meditation and preparation. The Matse have almost no conception of the deity. All things to the Matse have spirit, some stronger than others, and Matse spirit is the strongest.

Mystics of all persuasions, particularly Buddhists, maintain that when ultimate spirituality is achieved, the union with the Void, Great Bliss, or Adamantine Absolute eliminates the need for thought or conceptualization. God's will has been found and humans are but a non-local manifestation of the Ultimate Ground. Duality evaporates and all individuality then ceases. Such Truth is the product of millennia of experience and has achieved a wide second hand dissemination via Tibetan Buddhism in recent decades. The Matse, by contrast, are not philosophers, are not intellectual mystics and are not seeking an adamantine fusion with the Utimate. They never give up their individualities and they return from the future with specific, practical hands-on knowledge that is quickly put to good use. The future has told the Matse hunters exactly which trails lead to a tapir whose meat will feed the village for many days.Philosophical discussions about the meaning of life and the universe cam be left to others.

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"Origins of Mythology ..." makes extensive reference to Alexander Marshak's extraordinary study -
"The Roots of Civilization". Click here to buy from amazon.com:
The Roots of Civilization: The Cognitive Beginnings of Man's First Art, Symbol and Notation