“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
“There were at least four contexts in which San shamans acquired insights into the spiritual world: – the trance dance, – special curing rituals, – viewing rock art, and – dreams.”
“A shaman’s activities as a sorcerer, or his own conscious act of entry into the supernatural world, were a kind of “killing”.”
Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art
“The principal aim of a vision quest is to ‘see’ a spirit animal that will become the quester’s animal-helper and source of his power.”
Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art
“Entering a cave” or rock was a metaphor for a shaman’s altered state; therefore, caves (and rocks more generally) were considered entrances or portals to the supernatural world.”
Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art
“Tis in ourselves that we are thus
or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which
our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant
nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up
thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs, or
distract it with many, either to have it sterile
with idleness, or manured with industry, why, the
power and corrigible authority of this lies in our
wills. If the balance of our lives had not one
scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the
blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us
to most preposterous conclusions: but we have
reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal
stings, our unbitted lusts, whereof I take this that
you call love to be a sect or scion.”
Source: Othello
“Rock art sites were symbolic vaginas, and entry into the wall of a rock art site was thus akin to intercourse.”
Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art
“Sexual arousal and penal erections are associated with both altered states of consciousness and sleep.”
Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art
“In southern Africa, a great many figures are ithyphallic. This feature has generally – and rather vaguely – been taken to refer to ‘masculinity’, but the painted contexts of the figures seems to confirm that, as in North America, sexual arousal was a metaphor for altered states of consciousness.”
Source: The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art