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Quote by James David Lewis-Williams

“Once human beings had developed higher-order consciousness, they had the ability to see mental images projected onto surfaces and to experience afterimages.”

Quote by James David Lewis-Williams

Book:The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

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The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

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James David Lewis-Williams

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“The first two-dimensional images were thus not two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional things in the material world, as researchers have always assumed. Rather, they were ‘fixed’ mental images.”

Consciousness Upper Palaeolithic Art

Book:The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

“For the makers, the paintings and engravings were visions, not representations of visions.”

Consciousness Upper Palaeolithic Art

Book:The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

“In Lascaux and other sites, hoofs are depicted to show their underside, or hoofprint.”

Consciousness Upper Palaeolithic Art

Book:The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

“Under certain social circumstances, which may have varied from time to time and place to place, certain people (shamans) saw a relationship between the small, three-dimensional, projected mental images that they experienced at the far end of the intensified spectrum and fragments of animals that lay around their hearths.”

Consciousness Upper Palaeolithic Art

Book:The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

“The portable animal statuettes were therefore far more than decorative trinkets: they were reified three-dimensional spirit animals with all their prophylactic and other powers.”

Consciousness Upper Palaeolithic Art

Book:The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

“I now argue that entry into Upper Palaeolithic caves was probably seen as virtually indistinguishable from entry into the mental vortex that leads to the experiences and hallucinations of deep trance.”

Consciousness Upper Palaeolithic Art

Book:The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

“Certainly, the sensory deprivation afforded by the remote, silent and totally dark chambers, such as the Diverticule of the Felines in Lascaux and the Horse’s Tail in Altamira, induces altered states of consciousness.”

Consciousness Upper Palaeolithic Art

Book:The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

“To understand the ‘wounded men’ of Upper Palaeolithic art, I now consider somatic hallucinations; these include attenuation of the body and limbs, polymelia (having extra limbs or digits), and, the one on which I focus, pricking and stabbing sensations.”

Consciousness Upper Palaeolithic Art

Book:The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

“Shamans submit to death in order to serve their communities.”

Consciousness Upper Palaeolithic Art

Book:The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

“The Upper Palaeolithic figures known as ‘wounded men’ occur at Cougnac and Pech Merle, two sites in the Quercy district of France.”

Consciousness Upper Palaeolithic Art

Book:The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art

Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art