Secret History #11: Dawn of the Human Imagination

So today we start a series on the

entirety of human history. We'll be

going very fast and again what's

important is for you to understand the

concepts

and so if there are ideas you don't

understand it's very important that you

raise your hand challenge me and ask for

clarification.

So we start off with the dawn of

humanity

and

um this is Charles Darwin

and arguably he is the most influential

thinker of the past 20 years and the

reason why is he wrote a book called the

origin of species and he presents to us

the theory of evolution

and you all know the theory of evolution

because they teach this to you in school

and is embedded in our everyday lives.

And there are three main ideas to the

theory of evolution. The first is that

it was all accidental. So you have these

genetic mutations and the mutation that

is best fitted to survive in environment

would win out. Okay? So it's all a

random accidental process. That's the

first thing. Second thing is that it is

materialistic meaning everything that

you can see is all that exists. And the

third thing is it is emergent meaning

that feel things build on top of each

other. It is a bottomup process. Now the

the fear of evolution

marked a turning point in in human

history because before

um European countries were Christian and

Christians believe that there was a

divine God who created us and as such we

were all equal before the eyes of God.

Therefore you cannot go and enslave

other people. You cannot go and kill

other people as well. There were three

main ideas to Christianity. Okay. Okay.

The first idea is one omniscient and

omnipresent God.

The spirit, the Holy Spirit is what

infuses

uh life. It's what gives meaning and

purpose to life. And the world is a

mystery. We have to hold faith. There

are things that we cannot understand.

God has a plan, but it is a mysterious

plan. And so, we must uh be humble and

serve the purpose of God. Okay? And the

theory of evolution destroys this

concept conception of the universe and

introduces a more materialistic one. So

why did this happen? Well, it happened

for three reasons. The main purp the

main reason is that we live in an in the

19th century when Darism came into being

Europeans were engaged in a process of

imperialism. They were going around the

world and conquering other people and

colonizing other people and essentially

committing genocide. So they needed a

theory to explain why this this

happening and Darwin's theory of

surround the fittest was the most

appropriate theory and the idea is that

the world is divided into races and of

and the white race is superior to

everyone else and therefore the white

race um has reason has legitimacy in

colonizing other people. Um and

evolution would give rise to racism and

eugenics. Okay. So before Darwinism, we

didn't really have a concept of race

because everyone was equal in the eyes

of God. And now with the rise of

Darwinism, the world is divided

according to race as well. Because of

evolution theory, people started to

believe in eugenics, which is the idea

that stupid people, people who are not

white, they should be sterilized because

if we if we let them live, they would

just all they would do is dilute the

genetic pool. Okay? And even today,

guys, there are still many people who

believe in racism and eugenics. The

thing about evolution that's very

important is that it's a theology. Okay?

What does that mean? means that it's a

theory of human progress about God. So

even though evolution thinks that

genetic mutation is an accident, the

theology is that well the strong survive

and that's what's right. Okay, so might

makes right. So in many ways evolution

is a rejection of Christianity. So you

would think that Christians would oppose

Darwinism and evolutionary theory. But

what was surprising is that when the

book came out in 1859 only in 20 years

the theory of evolution would come to

dominate the entire western world. It be

it became the dominant idea in schools

in universities in the sciences. And

even today evolution is a dominant

paradigm meaning that you cannot

question evolution. If you question

evolution it means you're crazy. Okay

but I'm crazy. So we're going to

question evolution today. All right. So

you've said this in school all but

evolution means we came from monkeys,

apes and then there were different

species of humans and eventually the

best our species the homo sapiens won

out. Okay.

So what evolution says is that we are

just a monkey guys. Okay. We're just a

monkey. And what do monkeys do? Monkeys

like to have sex. Monkeys like to eat.

Monkeys like to fart. That's all we are.

We're just monkeys. All right.

And this is the evolutionary tree of

primates.

The but there are certain problems with

this theory. Okay. The first problem is

if you look at evolutionary theory, what

you should have is tremendous diversity

as the species develops. But so why is

it that we only have one human species?

Okay, why aren't there many different

ones? Well, the argument is that um

there are there were many different

species before but we want out. Okay.

Okay, that's fine. But another problem

is

why are we going all around the world?

Okay. So all species of human beings

like to migrate

but primates don't do that.

Why is that? Humans like to migrate. And

so the explanation often is well because

of climate change, because of war,

because humans are chasing game. Okay,

bisonens and and and food. But then how

do you explain these people? Okay, the

these are people who went to populate

the Pacific islands, Micronia. That's

kind of weird. First of all, it's really

dangerous to go out the Pacific for

months and months, right? Also, like,

how do they know that there'll be

islands waiting for them in the Pacific?

So, that's something that's very odd

about human beings. In fact, there are

lots of things that are really odd about

us that other animals don't do. For

example,

we're very religious. Okay.

Okay. So, the Neanthods are supposed to

be before Homo sapiens. But as you can

see, what we've discovered are these

religious ritual sites, the Neanthals

where the anthos engage in religious

ritual practice. That's kind of weird.

What does religion have to do with

survival? In fact, you can argue that

religion is a waste of time. Why aren't

they hunting? Why are they using so so

much resources and time in building

these uh ritual sites? Okay,

Homo sapiens

did cave paintings and these cave

paintings I will show you later on.

They're very extremely elaborate. As you

can see, it's very time consuming

uh to actually do these paintings.

Also, these paintings are in caves, deep

inside caves that's very cold and where

there isn't much ear. So, it's kind of

dangerous actually to be in these

places. But we know that homo sapiens

spend a lot of time in these deep wet

caves drawing these paintings. That's

not very utarian. Why would we why would

we do that?

So, that's a mystery. Okay. Also, um,

when we drew on caves, we figured out

how to make it artistic. So, we figure

out that red ochre would give us red

yellow pigment on the caves. We also use

charcoal to use black. Okay? So, we were

very creative. We were very we

resourceful.

All right? So we know a lot about the

ice age because as you can imagine

during the ice age things freeze over so

they can be easily preserved and

actually for most of human history uh we

were in the ice age period.

Okay and as you can see during the ice

age the entire world was basically

frozen over. So how did we survive? We

survived by using the resources around

us. Okay, so this is a mammoth and so

they killed a mammoth and they turned

the mammoth into a house.

Okay, now the question is how did they

know how to do that?

How did they figure it out? And we've

been trying for a long time to figure

this out. But my answer to you, and this

is a theme that I will

uh keep on emphasizing for the rest of

the rest of semester, is they just knew

it. Okay. So, let's do a thought

experiment. Let's just say that we

there's 10 of us and I give you this

wall, right? And I say to you, you

cannot talk. You cannot communicate with

each other. All I want you to do is draw

a picture. Now, you would think that the

picture would be disgustingly ugly. It

would be incoherent.

But if you actually to do this

experiment, something weird and

wonderful would happen. Okay, there's 10

of you. You're not communicating. You

don't have a plan. There's no draft. But

one of you would draw something. Okay?

And then the rest of you would see that

something and then you would draw

something else. Okay? So for example,

maybe you draw a sun, then you draw a

tree, then that other person draws a

mountain. Okay? It's almost like

telepathy.

And that's how we are. If you put humans

in a group, they would know instantly

how to work together. They would know

how to share ideas together. And so

that's the idea I want to present to

you. All this stuff is all all this is

because of intuition. Okay? No one said,

"Hey, there's a mammoth. Let's go kill

it for food and for housing and for

clothing." But if you walk together and

you saw a man, you all of you together

had the same thought. Oh, that could be

a source of food and clothing and

shelter for us. and you all knew how to

work together. That's the beauty of the

human imagination and the human empathy.

And that's something that back then they

practice a lot, but we've lost because

of civilization.

Okay? Does that make sense to you guys?

All right.

Um, and as you can see, back then,

humans were just very good at working

together.

No, there you didn't have need to have a

boss to say, "Okay, you should go and

hunt bisons. You should go and you

should make clothes. You should go and

you should feed kids." Everyone knew

exactly what to do and you didn't have

to communicate. But also, what's really

interesting about this time period is

the diversity of human organization. So,

what I meant by that, what what I mean

by that is that in different times of

the year, in different locations, humans

would form different organizations. So

most of the time maybe there'll be

groups of like five to 10 would go and

get food. Okay. But then you have some

times of the year when you have these

religious festivals where hundreds

possibly thousands got together and you

celebrated your god together. It was all

intuitive. You didn't have communication

but they all knew at what time what

organization would best fit them. If you

didn't like the situation, guess what?

You'd go somewhere else and start your

own organization. Okay? So mo early

human history it's a very diverse very

dynamic very creative period in our

lives even though we've forgotten about

it. Okay. And the third example of our

creativity are these cave paintings that

that were discovered uh recently but

which date back 30,000 40,000 years.

Okay. You can see how beautiful these

paintings are. Whoever painted these

paintings put a lot of care and devotion

into them. Okay, it was it's not just

kids playing. It's adults who spent a

long time purposefully ensuring that

every detail is exact. Okay, then the

question then is how do they do this?

Because there's no paper, there's no

planning. And again, I present to you

the idea the imagination. They dreamt

this. They had a dream. They saw the

picture in their heads and they went and

drew this in a cave because they wanted

to express themselves. They wanted to

leave a legacy. They wanted to leave a

memory. There's a calling in you to be

creative and to be imaginative.

Okay.

All right. So, and you can see there's a

lot of diversity. Um, this is a story,

right? Because you have these uh horses,

but then you have these predators,

lions. Okay. So this picture is telling

a mythology. It's a telling a story of

how nature works. Okay? So people are

observing nature and what they see is a

cycle of life and death, of destruction

and renewal. We're all

together. We're all unified. We're all

one. It's balance and harmony. And

that's why

if you were to kill these animals, you

also had to commemorate them. Okay, does

that make sense? Okay, because this this

is a word of balance and harmony. If you

kill these animals and you eat their

food, you must thank them for the

sacrifice by commemorating them. The

same thing as later on uh when humans

fight in battles, we build monuments to

celebrate those those who were fallen,

right? Because we want to create balance

and harmony in the world. We want to

commemorate those who made our lives

possible. Okay. So in this world, what

matters are these animals because these

animals are what gives humans food

um and clothing.

Okay.

Okay. You can see how beautiful these

pictures are. Like you do you see how

lifelike the animals are? Okay. So

clearly we humans had all this creative

potential

back then.

All right.

Okay. This is in Spain

when Alamera.

This is a bison. And you can see the red

ochre how beautiful it is. Okay.

Okay. And you can see how it's not meant

to be realistic. It's meant to be

surreal. It's meant almost to be a

mythology. There's there's there's a

story being told in these pictures. We

don't know what the story is, but you

can imagine that there's story of life

and death, destruction and renewal.

Okay? And you can see

the struggle of humanity

to get food from nature, but also a

willingness to celebrate those who have

fallen.

Um, and there's religious significance

to everything these campaignings. How do

we know? Because this is clearly a

shaman, right? What we call a leper man.

This dates back to 40,000 years in

Germany. So we believe that in the early

societies the shamans were the leaders

because they had the most wisdom because

they had a connection to the vine. Also

what's really important is that music

okay this instrument was really

important to these to these

civilizations. Now there's a lot of

mystery as to how we first spoke and as

I said actually we don't really need to

speak because we can all understand each

other. So why do we speak? Because we

want to sing. Okay, does that make

sense? Singing, creating music was a way

to express ourselves in the same way as

painting was.

And music once you add words, it becomes

storytelling. And that's why we created

language. Okay? Not for economic

reasons, not in order to create a

hierarchy, but for creative reasons to

celebrate our humanity together.

And these pictures as you can see there

are um religious elements. Okay. So you

can see how there are two almost bird

figures and um back then the bird

signify mother earth. Okay. So the bird

figure is very important. You can see

almost like the bird figures are leading

the animals

uh hurting the animals across. So then

ask yourself why are they why are these

paintings appearing in caves? Well

for these people they all believe that

um nature was connected right and the

spirit world and material world were

connected together. So then the question

then is how does the spirit world

connect with the material world? Well

through caves right through portals

rivers caves mountaintops. And that's

why these places were considered

appropriate sites for religious ritual.

Okay? And that's why you painted these

pictures in caves because these caves

you it's almost like you're summoning

the spirit of these animals to return,

right? You've killed these animals. How

do you get them to return? By calling

for them in these caves, right? Right.

So, as you can see, it's a complex but a

complete mythology of how the world

works. And for them, this was very real.

Okay?

And you can see how these shamans would

actually turn themselves into these bees

in order to better communicate with

them. Okay? Because these bees, these

animals, these bisonens were the basis

for all life on Earth. If you didn't

have them, then you would die off. So

you dressed up like them in order to

better communicate with them in the

spirit world to draw them back.

Okay.

Okay. So this is another religious

depiction.

All right. So these cave paintings,

there's always three questions

associated with these cave paintings.

The first is how are they painting

caves? What are they painting? And where

and why are they doing this? Okay. And

I've I I've explained to you there is

religious significance to what they're

doing. They're trying to complete the

cycle of life and death. If you kill an

animal, you have to you have to thank

the animal. Okay? You do that by making

a religious sacrifice. Okay? By sorry,

by making a religious ritual. Um what

are they painting? They're painting the

story of life itself, right? They're

trying to paint a picture of how life

works. a cycle of death and life,

destruction and renewal and everything's

connected together. The stars, the caves

are portals into the spirit world and

that's why you celebrate them. Okay? And

um how are they painted in the caves? Um

they're painted together and they're

using um red ochre and charcoal. What's

most important is that

because these caves actually lack oxygen

when they're painting when they're

painting these uh paintings, it's almost

like they're in a trans state. Okay,

does that make sense? Because you don't

have enough to um um breathe. So, it's

almost like you're you're you're on the

precipice, the edge of life and death.

And it's almost as though you are

actually communicating communicating

with the spirit world as you're doing

this. So it's all divine inspiration,

all divine intuition. Okay. So what they

believe is that when they paint, they're

channeling the power of the spirit

world. It's not about us using our

experience to paint. It's we are

channeling actually the divine when we

do so. Okay. And the same thing when we

sing or when we tell stories. We're not

doing this out of our own will. We are

we are only a portal or a mechanism or

channel for the divine to communicate

with everyone else. Okay. So, does this

make sense?

>> Yeah.

>> Okay.

All right. The other thing that's really

interesting about these cave paintings

is um we find symbols inside these cave

paintings. So this is Genevie von Piter

who is a Canadian archaeologist and she

spent decades going to different uh

caves in Europe and she cataloged all

the different symbols.

Okay, so these are not pictures, they're

symbols and as you can see

there's a lot of them. Okay, so why

would they have these symbols?

And also what's interesting is if you

think about it this is a writing system.

In other words, they had the capacity to

write, but they chose not to write. Why?

Because if you think about it, in this

world, writing is a corruption, right?

When you speak, you're channeling the

vine. So when you are writing something

down, you're actually counterfeiting the

divine. Okay? Also

remember that for them, what's stop

talking is really like singing, right?

And you cannot capture music in the

written form. So it's almost like a

corruption of the song. Okay. And and

also for them, this is really important.

All everything is meant to be a communal

experience. When you sing, when you

talk, when you paint, we do it together.

Okay? But you when you write, it's a

solitary experience. And that's why even

though we humans from a very um like

right from the beginning we had the

capion to write we chose not to write.

Okay, this is really important for us to

understand. Writing was a conscious

decision. It was not something it was

not a technology that was invented later

on. We just chose not to do it because

we thought it was a corruption of the

natural world. Okay. All right. Does

that make sense? Okay. So this is a um

these are all the geometric signs of of

ice age Europe. It's very similar to

alchemy. Okay, alchemy is trying to

figure out the secrets of the universe.

So the question then is where do they

get these signs? And the answer of

course is it came to them in a dream or

they were inspired with these signs.

Okay, this is a world of inspiration, of

intuition, of imagination. It's not

something that's deliberate. They don't

plan this out and discuss it. It just

comes to them and when they draw it out,

it makes sense to people. Oh, I know

what this means. Okay.

All right. So, uh let's summarize. Okay.

Why are the symbols in art? Well,

because there are certain abstraction,

certain concepts you cannot draw out,

right? So, for example, energy is a very

important concept. Life force, cycle,

repetition. Well then you have to use

symbols in order to express uh these

ideas if you want to tell the story.

Okay. Second is you are trying to

visualize the language of the spirit

world. Okay. So the spirit world is

talking to you but they come to you in

images. So you use the symbols in order

to express what what what they're

talking about. Um, and when you draw the

symbols on a stone, you're making the

stone

divine and sacred, right? You're storing

a memory inside the stone. Maybe

something wonderful happened here. Maybe

you gave birth to a child here, right?

Then you commemorate the stone with a

symbol.

Okay, does that make sense?

Okay.

So, why you're doing this is well, first

of all, you're trying to bring beauty to

the world. That's that's why we're we

humans were created, right? To make this

world a more beautiful place, a more

imaginative place to celebrate the

divine. Um we're showing God or the

spirit world or the underlying soul of

reality. Okay? We're trying to figure

out how the spirit world works inside

our reality. The third reason is we're

trying to tell a story about who we are.

Okay? We're trying to combine our

imagination together to create society,

to create belonging, to create

community. Okay? Okay. Does that make

sense?

>> Yeah.

>> So,

>> sorry.

>> So, you said about human trying to

connect with the divine spirits, right?

So, do they come?

>> Okay. Sorry. Sorry. Let me clarify.

Okay.

>> This is really important. We're not

trying to connect with the divine

spirit. Why? Because divine spirit is

all around us.

>> We we coexist with the divine.

>> Okay? Everything everything around us is

divine. But what what we're trying to do

is we're trying to be in harmony with

the divine.

>> Okay.

>> Okay. Do you understand?

>> Yeah.

>> Okay. Because because in this world

there's no separation between the

material and the spiritual. It's all one

world together. The spiritual is all

around us. But there are certain things

that we do in order to reconcile our

existence with the spirit world. For

example, we kill an animal. We need to

commemorate the animal through paintings

and through songs. Okay. Does that make

sense?

>> Yeah.

>> Okay.

Does that answer your question? Yeah.

>> Okay. Good. Okay.

All right. And we even today we still do

this. Okay. So, so let's see examples.

This is graffiti. Okay. Street art. But

you can see what's happening where uh

this is Spain and you can see how

beautiful this is. Okay. It's the same

concept as the K paintings where we're

trying to give meaning to our community.

We're trying to tell story of who we

are, where we came from, and where we're

going. Okay. And it's and it's designed

to um build a common imagination. Okay,

no different from the cape paintings. We

still do this today.

And this is another example. And you can

see different communities might have

different focus. But you can see how the

painting what it does is it unifies the

imagination of the people. Okay. So for

this community what matters is the

family. Okay. So the matriarch, the

mother is the cornerstone of this

community and that's what you do with

this painting.

Okay? You can see how beautiful

these buildings have become because of

the paintings. So that's what art does.

Art gives purpose, meaning

to our world.

All right.

Okay. So, some really important concepts

I need you guys to understand. Okay. And

we'll go over this as a semester

progresses. And these concepts are going

to be counterintuitive for us. Okay? But

the first concept I want you to

understand is preiterate people. Okay?

People who could not read and write.

They were more intuitive. They were more

imaginative. And they were more

empathic.

Okay? Meaning I can know your emotions

right away. I don't have to ask you

anything. I don't I don't have to ask

you how you're feeling today. I know

exactly how you're feeling right away.

Okay. All right.

So we can see this. This is Inuit art.

Okay. So this is art um by native

people. So even in communities of today

that have hold to this tradition, you

can see how they perceive the world,

right? They perceive the world as

unified. The gods are with us. In fact,

everything we do is a celebration of the

gods. So our house is our temple. Okay?

The temple is not a place you go and and

um celebrate the gods. You celebrate the

gods in your house. If you if you have

enough faith to turn your house into a

temple, okay? So this is inward art.

Okay? And if you go to like many native

communities, communities that maintain

the traditions of the ice age, they're

all like this. Okay? In their

perception. But the problem is they

cannot communicate it using modern

language. So we just think they're

stupid. Okay? They can't write essays.

They can't give speeches. And so

therefore we we think they're stupid.

But they're not stupid.

It's just that they're focusing their

energies on empathy, on imagination, on

intuition.

All right. So let's give examples of

empathy in action. And this is this is

true for the entire world. Okay? So once

there was a horse in America that could

do math. All right? So the horse would

go on stage and then the trainer would

ask the horse a question like what's 2

plus two? And the horse would be like

nay nay

nay

nay. And it would be like oh the horse

can do math. Okay? So the horse cannot

do math. Okay? I'm telling you right

now, the horse cannot do math. So what

the what what the horse is doing, you

think about it, is the horse is reading

the room, right? Because the people who

pay the money to go into the theater,

watch the horse do math, obviously

believe the horse can do math. Okay? So

what happens is when the trainer says to

the horse, "What's 2 plus two?" The

horse is nay nay. And the horse is

watching everyone. Okay? And as the as

the horse comes to the answer, the horse

sees that the peoples are like really

excited. Okay, their eyes are bulging,

their breathing is faster because people

are anticip anticipation, right? The

horse is, "Oh, now I know the answer."

Okay, this is empathy. Animals can do

it. We can do it as well. It's actually

our super superpower. Okay, does that

make sense? Right. Second example is

telepathy. So in America right now

there's a very popular pro podcast

called the telepathy tapes. You might

have seen it. You may you may have heard

of it. Okay. The idea is that kids with

autism are able to read the minds of

their parents. Guys I'm telling you

right now kids the autistic kids cannot

do that. They do something else. Okay.

So let me tell you a story of how they

do this. In China there's also a a

similar case where a mother in the

countryside. Okay. So she's not

educated. She has no money but her son

is autistic. It's an autistic boy,

doesn't really speak. Can I make eye

contact? Okay, lots of issues. Can I go

to school? So, one day the mother

contacts CC CCTV, the national

broadcaster, says, "Hey, my son can read

my mind." And you know, these are TV

people. She like, "Okay, this will make

a good documentary." So, they fly all

the way down to this village, this poor

village, and the mother is, you know,

doesn't speak great Chinese. So, they

have to film this process. Okay. So what

happens is the boy is put into a room by

himself. And then the mother is given a

number, okay? Like maybe five. Then the

mother goes and asks the boy, "Please

read my mind." And the and the boy says,

"You saw the number five." And it's

pretty amazing. And of course, it's not

really believable. So this documentary

team spent days and days figure out what

happened. Okay. finally brought on they

brought in artificial intelligence AI.

What the AI AI figured out is

it's the pitch of the voice that gives

the answer. Okay. So now they're saying

read my mind. Read my mind. Okay. And

the difference in the pitch there's a

different number in that pitch. But the

problem is it's so subtle that only the

boy can hear the difference in pitch. We

humans ordinary humans cannot hear the

difference. And so the documentary crew

confronted her and says, "Listen, we the

AI artificial intelligence system tells

us that what you're doing is you're

cheating. You are uh using pitch to give

signals to your son. Is that true?" And

the mother is like, "Yes, I'm sorry.

Yes, it's all a lie. We're poor. My son

is autistic. I want my boy to go to

school. I want my boy to get

professional help." And that's why we

devised this scheme in order to trick

you. So we we can get some television

coverage and then maybe we can get some

donations. Maybe some people will help

us. Okay? And that's why we did the

scheme. And so that's it. But think

about this. Think how amazing it is that

the two together were able to deise a

scheme, right? Think of how think of how

amazing is that they were a that they

were able to devise a scheme that was so

creative that it tricked people. Only an

artificial intelligence system could

figure the system out. Okay, they so

this mother is not educated but she

loves her son and she wants the best for

her son. So she figure out what her

son's special ability is pitch. she able

to hear different sounds and devis a

scheme to make full use of the sun's

ability.

Okay, so that tells us the power of the

human imagination if we truly love

someone.

Okay, so they created a hidden emotional

language together which again is amazing

and it's it's something that that you

will see when two people actually love

each other. they will create their own

language that that only they can

understand.

Like in the last example is some

cooperative painting, right? So we

discussed this where if I put 10 of you

in a room and I give you a blank wall

and I ask you to draw the pictures

you're going to create are going to

pretty be going to be pretty amazing.

Okay? You're not allowed to speak.

You're not allowed to cooperate. You're

not allowed to plan it ahead. But I

guarantee you when the two 10 of you get

together and you start drawing together,

you will draw a great picture. And the

reason why is not because

you want to draw a great picture. It's

because you all want to help each other.

You don't want to let each other down.

Okay? Because of cooperation, because of

empathy, you want to be at your very

best. You want to be at your creative

best. That's the secret to creativity.

Okay? When you're able to find a purpose

and meaning in other people, your

creative potential will be fully

released. Does that make sense?

Okay.

All right. Um, so back to the horse

horse example. If you ride a horse, one

thing that you will learn over time is

the horse can read your mind. Okay. And

so this is a polo game. And if you watch

a polo game, it's pretty amazing because

you're not you can't speak to the horse,

right? But the horse will know exactly

instantaneously what you want to do. If

you want to turn right, the horse knows.

Turn right. Even before you think the

thought, the horse will know.

Okay? And this is why throughout human

history,

warriors on horseback were the greatest

warriors. They were invincible. Why?

Because what happened was basically the

men had four legs. Okay? Because because

in these um uh pneumatic societies where

people fought on horseback, they were

born on horses and they were riding

horses since they were early or since

they were young. And so they developed

this emotional connection with the

horse. So the horse knows exactly what

you think even before you think it.

Okay? And there are lots of examples

like this. If you have a dog, you know

that dogs have telepathy, right? So you

go away for a week and then and when you

come back, the dog is waiting for you at

the door. Then the dog knows you're

coming back. That's the emotional

connection. That's telepathy. Okay. So

te telepathy exists, but it's an

emotional connection. There's no way

that I can actually read your mind, but

I know how you feel even at long

distances.

Okay, does that make sense?

All right.

Um, another important fact about human

beings that is not really understood is

we are obsessed with being creative and

expressing ourselves. That's who we are.

Okay? We are the imagination

personified,

manifested,

made tangible, made visceral. Okay? We

are imagination itself. Our imagination

is resilient and will always find a way

to shine.

Okay? So you may know of people who lose

uh sense right so if you can't see your

hearing improves or these people are

deaf okay so they can't hear but then

able to see much stronger okay and they

use sign language to communicate and one

thing that I've noticed in China is that

when I go to restaurants

now and then there'll be groups of deaf

people communicating with with each

other They're always happier. In fact,

they're the happiest people you will

ever meet in China. And it's not because

they're doing sign language. It's

because deaf people have a deeper

emotional intelligence. And so when when

they're together, they're communicate

emotionally and that brings tremendous

joy and comfort to them. Okay? Does that

make sense? All right. Let's give

another example. This is a great

composer, one of the greatest composers

in human history, Beethoven. His music

is startling. Okay, his famous, his

music is extremely famous. Problem is,

he was deaf.

That's kind of strange. How is it

possible for you to be deaf at the same

time compose some of the world's

greatest music? The answer is he saw the

music. Okay? The music came to him in

dreams and was able to see the picture.

Okay? Because what is music? Music is

vibrations, right? So,

[Music]

but they're like vibrations. They're

waves, right? So, you can actually see

for yourself a movie of vibrations.

And the more symmetrical these

vibrations are, the more beautiful the

music is. Does that make sense? So

because he saw the music, he was able to

create music that was unique in human

history. Others hear the music, but he

saw the uh music and it turned into a

movie. Okay. Of movement.

All right.

This is John Milton. He wrote Paradise

Lost. Problem is he wrote it while he

was blind. Okay. How did he do that?

Because he heard the songs. Okay. He

turned

Paradise Lost into a musical, into

music. So he actually didn't need to

speak it out. He just heard it out.

Okay. So he had um secretaries who wrote

out whatever he sang out. And that's why

when you read periodiz law, it's

actually like music. It's beautiful. One

of the most it's probably the most

beautiful poetry ever composed in the

English language. So you can see how

resilient the human imagination is. If

you want to express yourself, you'll

find a way. Okay? It's all about will.

Do you really want to express yourself?

Because if you do, you'll always find a

way.

Okay.

All right. So, this is another lesson

that you will learn the semester. We are

socialized into mundanity. Our true

selves are divine. Okay? You're normal.

You're boring. You're not talented

because you believe what others tell

you. Okay? Society does not want talent

people. Society does not want

interesting people. Society just wants

robots and slaves. So schools,

companies, organizations socialize you

into mundanity. Okay? Into nothingness.

But if you look at your true self, it is

divine. And I'll give you examples of

this.

Um, a lot of people have Alzheimer's. So

what literally happens is they're losing

their minds. And this is um a

self-portrait of a artist who documented

himself losing his mind. So when he was

first diagnosed, he drew a picture of

himself. Okay? And then a year later, he

drew another picture of himself and on

and on and on. As you can see, by this

time, he's completely lost his sense of

being. Okay?

So you can use this picture as a

metaphor for Alzheimer's and and you can

see for yourself what it means to lose

your mind. But there's another way to

understand this picture which is what's

really happening is that the artist he's

shedding his artifice. He's shedding his

clothing and revealing his true self.

Okay. What Alzheimer's is is losing your

socialization because you're losing your

ability to speak. You're losing your

ability to verbalize your ideas. You're

losing your ability to communicate with

others. And what what's left behind are

three things. First is your spiritual

desires. So, a lot of people with

Alzheimer's for for whatever reason,

they go to church suddenly, okay?

They're not religious. Maybe that maybe

they they're they grow up in an atheist

household. They don't have any

association with religion, but once they

develop Alzheimer's, they have this

spiritual desire to go to church and

pray. It's really amazing. Okay, that's

number one. Number two is they love to

sing. Okay, they don't talk, but they

sing. The third thing is they draw.

Okay, this is a painting by a

Alzheimer's patient. Okay, not great,

but guess what, guys? He did this when

he was like eight years old and he never

painted before.

Okay, that's pretty amazing. Never

painted before. But the moment he had

Alzheimer's, his true divine self opened

up and he wanted to express himself.

Okay. So, what they say about

Alzheimer's is you hear voices, you see

things that aren't there. It's a

hallucination.

But guess what guys, I told you this.

During the ice age era, we all did this.

We all believe that we were we co

coexisted with ghosts, with spirits,

with fairies. Okay? And this was true

throughout most of human history. So

even though yes, medically speaking,

psychologically speaking, these people

with Alzheimer's, they are hearing

voices, but then the reason why is the

voices were always there. We just forgot

about it because we're socialized to

forget about the different forces, the

different voices that exist along along

us. Okay,

this is a person who used psychedelics.

Okay, he's like she's an artist, but

she's using psychedelics. And the thing

about psychedelics is it's almost

similar to um having Alzheimer's where

you shed away your socialization. You

almost enter a spiritual realm. Okay, as

you can see, this is a picture of a cat.

What she's doing is she's drawing a cat

that's the divine cat. Okay? She's

seeing the energy field of the cat.

She's seeing the memory. She's seeing

the aspirations. She's seeing the

intuition, the imagination of the cat

and embedding it into the artwork.

This is another person on psychedelics.

What's interesting is there's no time

and space in art in this art. So, it

becomes almost incomprehensible to us.

Okay. Why is there a helicopter? What's

a cat? Okay. Well, that's how we truly

are. Okay. We don't have a concept of

space and time. We see things as they

are. And and this picture shows you

that. And we can see how the pictures

are. It's a heightened reality. Okay.

Much more vibrant colors.

Okay. Another psychedelic painting.

Okay. As you can see, no concept of time

and space.

Okay, it's all just one unity of things.

Ventang go, okay, the greatest painter

who's ever lived. His paintings are

utterly unique in human history. This is

Star Night. Um, and this is Sunflower.

Okay, but you can see how he has shed

away his socialization. He doesn't care

what this how this is communicated to

other people. All it cares is about the

picture itself.

Okay? So it glows with life.

All right? So let's summarize the

concepts that we've learned. Okay? So

you've been brainwashed into thinking

certain ideas about who we are. They're

not true. The first myth is we humans

are driven by material desires. Okay? So

why do we want uh so what do we want? We

want a lot of money. Okay? Okay, we want

to pass on our genes. We want to marry a

lot of beautiful women who are young and

so they can give us a lot of lot of

babies because we want to pass on our

genes. Okay, and we want to maintain our

status. All we care about is power.

Okay, fundamentally we we we humans are

fundamentally imagination and we care

about three things. The first is we want

to express our religion through art,

music and rituals. We want to know where

we came from, why we're here, where

we're going. Okay, that's who we really

are. That's that's the first thing.

Second thing is we are diverse and want

to differentiate ourselves. Okay, we

want to stand out. We want to be

different. We want we want to be

creative. The third thing is we are

curious and want to explore. And that's

what explains why we go everywhere.

Okay, this has been true throughout

human history. We may not have documents

saying that we were traveling, but we

were traveling because there's always

some of us who want to go and see a new

world, even though it may not exist.

That's who we are fundamentally.

So don't believe people when they say,

"Okay, you just care about money. You

just care about power. You just care

about sex." That's not who we are. We

what we are are fundamentally

religious spiritual beings that want to

create and to love

and to connect. Okay, that's the first

myth. Second myth is the most natural

unit is a family and men want to protect

their property which includes women.

So you maybe you've been taught that

okay men are in charge and women are

just uh animals to

breed babies. Okay, that's not true for

most of human history. It was women who

had control of their bodies. Women could

choose who to sleep with and how many

men to sleep with. And they often chose

to sleep with everyone. Why? Because

sleeping with other men, first of all,

women enjoy it. Okay? But second of all,

it allows women to create social co

cohesion. So for most of human history,

early civilizations, women were the core

and center of all societies. And the

third thing is

there's actually a strategy in sleeping

with many different men because now

everyone is responsible for raising a

child. Does that make sense? If I if I'm

this father and I know exactly who my

children are, then I'm going to protect

my children and and discard everyone

else. Okay? But if no one knows who the

fathers are, everyone responsible for

caring for for taking care of every

single child and that's the best

strategy that they can have. Okay,

because that ensures that every child

becomes um successful. Okay, does that

make sense? Okay, so the second myth

that we will discuss later on. Third

myth, humans follow the iron rule of

nature, survival of the fittest. Okay,

that's that's taught by Darwin. That's

what evolution is. But that's wrong.

Okay. Throughout most of human history,

humans cared for each other. We were

compassionate, empathy, right? We

believe that every cre creature has

divinity and those who are weakest have

the most divinity.

That's why when we kill an animal, we

still thank the animal because we're all

part of the same life cycle. All right.

Number four, humans have gotten smarter

over the centuries. Civilization is far

superior to primitive cultures. Again,

this is wrong. Okay.

The truth is that with the development

of civilization, the human imagination

has decreased. Our brains can be

supercomputers if we allow them to be.

But if people are more creative, which

means they have they have better

memories than we do. Okay? They're able

to recall more stuff. They're able to

store more information. They're more

sensitive, more sensitive perception,

they have more empathy. Okay? They know

exactly how you're feeling, why you're

feeling it, and how to make you feel

better. and uh greater emotional

resilience. Okay, so they're much more

mature than we are.

Number five, we evolve from apes. The

truth is that we are uniquely

imaginative and we can choose our own

evolution. Don't believe we're apes.

Okay, if you believe you're an ape, then

you're an ape. Okay, if you're an ape,

then you like to go beat people up and

like have sex with with like a lot of

women. Okay, but we're not apes. We're

imaginative first and foremost. And as

such we have control over our lives and

something that you have to like learn

for yourself. All right. So let me give

an example of this to conclude the

class. Um this is Roma 2 and we

discovered him 10,000 years ago um in a

bureau site. Okay, this is an ice age

bureau site. He's a dwarf guys.

Okay, he's a dwarf. You can see how

small he is. He's a dwarf.

And you would think that dwarfs don't

really contribute to the community. So

maybe, you know, he's born. It's clear

he's he's um uh deformed. So just kill

the guy, okay? Because he's not going to

have a great life anyway. Instead, what

we found is first of all, he lived to a

pretty old age and he was buried with

um jewelry.

He was buried elaborately. And you only

do that for people you really prize.

That's kind of strange, right? The

people who we think that are most

worthless dwarfs that actually don't do

anything, they actually thought was

divine and deserved a extremely

elaborate ritualized funeral. Why? Okay,

so this is a book um that done

everything by David Grabber and David

Wangro. Great book. Okay, so what they

say is this. When archaeologists

undertake balance appraisals of

huntergather burials from the p

paleothic, they find high frequencies of

health related disabilities, but also

surprising high levels of care until the

time of death and beyond. Since some of

these funerals were remarkably lavish,

this is an amazing idea to think about.

But if you were deformed, if you were

ill, they didn't throw you out. They

spent a lot of time to take care of you.

Even though from their perspective it

was a waste of time and energy because

you're going to die anyway.

So why would they why would they do

that? Well, there are three

possibilities. Okay.

The first possibility is it's really

about maintaining cosmic balance and

harmony. Effing is a cycle. Meaning

what? Meaning we're all part of God. And

if you suffer then we have to make you

better because we're all part of God

together. Okay. So the concepts are

unity of all as above so below. Set a

good example to others. Okay. So that's

the first possibility. Second

possibility is because this is a

pre-iterate society, people have a

stronger sense of empathy and morality.

So they didn't want to see others

suffer.

Okay. And the third possibility is

they appreciate diversity and difference

in a way we don't anymore. Okay. Our

entire school system is designed as

survive the fittest. If you can't do

math, goodbye, you're worthless. If you

can't get 100 on on a test, goodbye,

you're worthless. Okay? But back then,

they saw difference and diversity as

gifts from God. Right? So, if you're a

dwarf, it meant you had something

special to offer. If you're strong,

yeah, you can go hunt animals and you

can protect the the family. But if

you're a dwarf, it meant that you might

have something else to offer. And if we

just celebrate you as someone who has

something special to offer, then you can

offer it to us. Okay? And often what

they could do is well, they could

probably seen better. They could

probably tell better stories. They had

more wisdom. They were have more

intuition. The connection with the

divine. Okay? That's true even today

where the best storytellers, the best

musicians often those who are

marginalized from society, those who are

strangers, who are those who are

outsiders, those who society persecutes.

They probably have greater imagination,

greater intuition, greater empathy. And

today we don't celebrate these things.

But back then they did celebrate those

things. So if you are different, if

you're deformed, if you were ill, they

saw you as blessed rather than cursed.

And that's what we've forgotten today.

Okay. All right. So that's it. This is

just introduction into the entirety of

human history. Okay. We're going to go

pretty fast. Any questions?

Yeah.

>> So would you say that because you made

the examples using um let's you said

Alzheimer's um autistic people. So would

you say that people with um cognitive

disability in like modern age are like

closer to the divine where like we're

returning to the divine by uh abandoning

our cognitive so-called like um you know

the like um logic and everything that

the civilization is. Would you say that

makes us closer would bring us

closer to the divine?

>> Yeah, good question. Okay. Yeah. So, um,

first of all, we're all connected to the

vine. But we just choose to forget we're

connected to the vine. Okay? Why?

Because society, mass society, needs you

to be obedient, needs you to be a

machine, needs you to work, to be

obedient. Okay? So, so the entire point

of school is to separate you from the

divine. Why? Because at an early age,

you're removed from your parents.

Okay? And in school you're taught all

sorts of like really strange knowledge

like 1 plus 1 equals 2. Like what? Who

cares? 1 plus 1 equals two. Okay. But

you're taught this is what matters. Um

and before we would just let kids run

around nature and learn resilience,

learn courage, learn creativity. Okay.

So the entire point of society is to

brainwash you or remove you from the

divine. But there's certain members of

society who can't be um removed from the

vine because we don't want them, right?

So kids who are autistic, uh kids with

disabilities, kids who are just

different. Okay. Once you discard it,

they actually return to the vine. Does

that make sense?

>> Yeah. So is like for example a lot of

people develop cognitive disabilities

after a lot of um like you said being

put into schools um being uh kind of um

limited by the civilization. Would you

say that in that circumstance by

developing or be given a cognitive

disability we're actually reconnecting

with the divine?

>> Okay. Yeah. Okay. So let's clarify.

Okay. So in China, in United States,

everywhere in the world, we're seeing a

massive surge in mental illnesses,

right? So depression, eating disorders,

um suicidal tendencies,

um

>> anxiety,

>> anxiety, fear. Okay. So, so I mean like

it's just an explosion these past 20

years, especially with the uh advent of

mobile phones, social media, the

internet. Okay. So kids lives suck.

Okay. So why are kids so miserable? And

the answer is that when you're born, you

have an automatic connection with the

vine. Okay. So and as you lose this

connection,

you grow more and more confused which

lead leads to anxiety and doubt. And

over time if this confusion is not

addressed properly, then it will lead to

depression. Okay. So another simple way

of saying another simple way of saying

this is we we crave human connection. We

crave

um knowledge of the divine. We crave

purpose and meaning in our lives. But

the social media system has created this

fake system in which we're in prison.

Our imagination is imprisoned in

pursuing activities that absolutely have

no purpose. Right? So on social media

all you care about is likes. How do I

get my friends to like me? like me, like

me. Okay, so you do a sort of silly

things like I don't know post pictures

of you dancing in Hawaii or whatever

even though it g it gives you no

meaning. Okay, so what's happening is

before we cared about what makes us

happy and now we care about what we

think would make other people happy.

Okay, and that's not who we are. Okay,

once you lose that connection to the

vine, then you you can only get lost. So

if you deny your intuition, if you d if

you deny your emotions, then you'll just

become more and more miserable. Okay.

Does that make sense? Okay.

>> Uh like the strong empathy that you just

mentioned, I thought that I'm curious

where the strong empathy come from

because I usually thought that the

empathy is our empathy is shaped by the

socialization and social norms by the

society.

>> Yeah, actually that's a really good

question. Okay. So empathy just means

our connections with others. Okay. And

this something we are born with. So a

mother is born with a emotional

connection with a child, right? And a

child has has emotional connection with

a mother. And over time as this

connection grows their empathy develops

and this empathy almost becomes

telepathic. So that even if the child is

is in school and the child is bullied,

the mother is doing is washing her

clothes. She's like, you know, I don't

feel right. Maybe I should call the

teacher and ask how my child is doing.

Okay. Okay. So, that's what empathy is.

Empathy just means a natural emotional

connection that we're all born with. But

it's entirely possible

um and we know this from our society to

break that connection by setting the

child off to school, by having a child

online too much, by having a child watch

television too much. Okay? Severing

breaking that emotional connection. And

once the emotional connection is broken,

remember empathy, we crave empathy. We

crave emotions more than we crave food.

So it's as though we're becoming zombies

almost, right? If you don't have

empathy, you don't feel connected with

other people. It's as though you become

a zombie. You don't you don't have any

you don't have any direction. You don't

have any purpose. You don't have any

meaning in life anymore. And that's what

leads to tremendous depression. Okay?

Does that make sense? So we are not

socialized into empathy. We are

socialized out of empathy. We're born

into empathy.

Okay.

All right. Great questions. Okay. Any

more questions?

Okay. Great guys. So, I will see you

next time. All right. We'll continue

this next time. Okay. So, I'm just

introducing these concepts, but we'll

expand them and use more examples and

learn more about human history from this

framework. All right. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.