“The elaborately executed art on the ceiling in the Altamira cave did not fit current notions of Palaeolithic ‘savagery’; it was too ‘advanced’ for the period.”
Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art
“I argue that the first image-makers were acting rationally in the specific social circumstances ... they were not driven by ‘aesthetics’.”
Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art
“The picture of change in human society that emerges from this recent research throws new light on that aspect of the Transition that has been called the ‘Upper Palaeolithic Revolution’ and the ‘Creative Explosion’ – that time when recognizably modern skeletons, behaviour and art seem to have appeared in western Europe as a ‘package deal’.”
Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art
“Habits stay with you even when you don’t have the motivation.”
Source: Procrasdemon - The Artist's Guide to Liberation from Procrastination
“Art was not simply a foregone conclusion, the final link in a causal chain. It was not the inevitable outcome of an evolving ‘aesthetic sense’, as some writers suggest.”
Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art
“The first point to notice is that the Transition cannot be explained by climatic change alone: human change was not the direct result of marked environmental change. The crucial period did see a colder climate peaking at about 35,000 years ago, but Neanderthals had survived previous climatic instability.”
Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art
“According to Martindale’s view, as we drift into sleep we pass through: – waking, problem-oriented thought, – realistic fantasy, – autistic fantasy, – reverie, – hypnagogic (falling asleep) states, and – dreaming.”
Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art
“In altered states of consciousness, the nervous system itself becomes a ‘sixth sense’ that produces a variety of images including entoptic phenomena.”
Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art
“The behaviour of the human nervous system in certain altered states creates the illusion of dissociation from one’s body (less commonly understood in hunting and gathering shamanistic societies as possession by spirits).”
Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art
“San religion is built around belief in a tiered universe. As do other shamanistic peoples throughout the world, the San believe in a realm above and another below the surface of the world on which they live.”
Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art