DU_V4.htm

THE

DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

Volume Four

HISTORY

J. G. BENNETT

CLAYMONT COMMUNICATIONS

Charles Town, West Virginia

First Printed 1966
Copyright ® 1966 J.G. Bennett
Coombe Springs Edition 1977
Claymont Communications Edition 1987

Cover Photo by John Vavruska
Cover Design by Roni Toporovsky
and Jack Chromey

ISBN 0-934254-20-6

Claymont Communications

Box 112

Charles Town, WV

25414

(vol. 4)

PREFACE

This fourth volume of The Dramatic Universe completes, albeit only
in the sense that the game stops when the referee blows his whistle, a
task that has been with me for nearly fifty years. The task grew out of
the conviction that nothing less than a total and consistent account of all
our experience will ever give us peace of mind. Since a total explanation
of an unlimited situation can never be achieved, the search for it must
be unending. Peace of mind is not to be sought in the static security of
an end-point reached, but rather in the dynamic satisfaction of knowing
that one is on the way and will not abandon the pursuit. To pause from
time to time in order to assess what has been accomplished is a necessary
part of any undertaking; especially of one that has no end. To publish
the results of such an assessment is hazardous for it suggests a claim to
finality that is wholly unjustified. The dynamism of the search is in-
consistent with the static character of the written word. This is painfully
obvious when the publication of a work aiming at an unified presentation
extends over many years. The Dramatic Universe is a quest for a total
solution: for forty years this quest has continued and it is inevitable
that discoveries made since the first volume appeared impose revisions
and corrections that cannot be inserted where they belong—in the
volumes already published. This has thrown some of the burden of
rectification upon the last volume. It has also prevented me from
including some results recently obtained, because their inclusion would
involve very extensive revisions of the earlier volumes that I hope I may
be spared to make one day.

In short, this is not a completed undertaking; nor would another ten
years of hard and productive work make it so. The world is infinitely
complex; and, even if some of the principles that govern its existence
are simple, others, by their very nature, are so complex that no human
mind could ever grasp them. One such principle—that of the uniqueness
of the individual self—is of direct concern to our undertaking and this
is one reason why attempts to construct simple and comprehensive
'Systems of the World' break down before the problem of explaining
man himself.

I believe that the uniqueness of the Individual self is not an accident;
but is inherent in the character of Will. Every will is a fragment of the
Total Will and as such must be unique. Now, in Vol. III, I connected

PREFACE

the Individual Will with the Present Moment. All experience is con-
tained within the Present, so each separate will determines a Present
Moment that is unique. It follows that there must be as many 'Systems
of the World' as there are Individual Wills. By the principle that wills
coalesce to form Greater Present Moments, systems of explanation can
also coalesce; but they cannot be simplified, in the way that has been so
often attempted, by reducing them all to a common denominator. This
is why systems that start from universal principles alone, fail to give any
satisfactory account of individual experiences, especially of individual
wills. Pluralism of will is not inconsistent with a doctrine of evolution
towards Unity: one moreover, that is not merely the compresence of
many selves within a Great Self, but a coalescence of Wills that forms
a Greater Self. These notions are further developed in this volume,
and by their very nature, they must be incomplete.

Another factor that imposes incompleteness is the prodigious volume
of data, accumulating at an accelerated rate, in every branch of Natural
Science, in History and in the Social Sciences. Though the greater part
of this material has little relevance to the task of finding a total explana-
tion, it is not easy to tell without examining it whether a particular
discovery is significant or not. This kind of difficulty does not arise for
any specialized enquiry where the criterion of relevance is 'on the label'
as it were. New light on the history of the Mongolian conquests in the
thirteenth century may mean little to the biochemist who has made a
decisive step in elucidating the replication of a chromosome molecule;
but both discoveries may be very important for understanding the true
character of the historical process: the main theme of the present
volume.

The temerity of seeking for an explanation of all experience requires
that some account be given of the genesis of the undertaking. It arose
from the intense experiences that I shared with millions of others in the
First World War. The waste and horror of the war convinced most
young people that the static beliefs in which we had been nurtured were
no answer to the problem of human foolishness and ineptitude. In my
case, disillusion was tempered by my faith in natural science which,
at that time, seemed to offer hope of answering ultimate questions. I
could see clearly enough that the general belief that the laws of nature
were absolute and inviolable conflicted with the equally general, but
tacit, acceptance of human responsibility and hence of human free-will;
but I also believed that even this intractable problem would yield to
scientific research, and thought I knew where the solution would be
found. For some reason that I have never been able to discover, I had

PREFACE

vii

from early youth been devoted to Non-Euclidean Geometry. My
favourite reading in the trenches was Coolidge's Elements and I spent
most of my spare time in trying to acquire the power to visualize con-
structions not allowed in conventional space and time. In 1920, I found
what seemed to me the way to remove the incompatibility of free-will
and the laws of thermodynamics, by postulating a fifth dimension in
which change is possible without increase of entropy; that is, without
sacrifice of order. It was then that I conceived the plan of a great work
that would harmonize natural and moral science in a complete synthesis
of inner and outer experience.

When I returned to England in 1921, I tried to interest mathe-
maticians, including Sir Joseph Larmor and Professor Hobson, and
biologists, including J. B. S. Haldane, J. Huxley and T. H. Morgan,
in the undertaking, but soon realized that I had to do far more work
myself before I could hope to win the cooperation of scientists, who
were still looking for a solution in the conventional space-time world,
even as modified by Einstein and Planck. I was surprised to find so little
recognition of human ineptitude; the more so as I had, about that time,
met Gurdjieff and Ouspensky and had rapidly become convinced that
Gurdjieff was right in asserting that man is asleep and neither knows
himself nor what he does. I was, moreover, greatly impressed by evi-
dences of a Traditional Wisdom, that Gurdjieff claimed to have dis-
covered in Central Asia, whose custodians knew the secret of trans-
forming people from 'machines' into 'men'. Personal experiences, the
validity of which I could not doubt, had convinced me that there are
regions of experience inaccessible to the senses and the mental processes
of ordinary man. Though extraordinary insights might occur spon-
taneously and unpredictably to anyone, I accepted Gurdjieff's assertion
that what is really necessary is transformation of the entire nature and
that this is possible only by rightly conducted 'Work upon Oneself.
Admitting that the techniques of transformation might have been known
in the past and might even yet be preserved in 'Schools of Wisdom', I
could see that they would stand little chance of being adopted and
applied in the modern world, unless the principles on which they are
based could be restated in terms acceptable to scientific thought of the
twentieth century. This gave a new turn to my own undertaking. I
realized that it would be of little interest to find a theoretical explanation
of our experience, if this very experience is itself inadequate and in-
complete owing to the lack of practical techniques for transforming it.

In this fourth volume, I shall start with the concept of the Present
Moment as the locus of all forms of thought and expression as well as all

Vlll

PREFACE

decisions and actions. The present moment is in a constant state of
flux. It changes in content and form, as well as in extent and duration,
under the influence of elements that enter it from different directions.
It is the scene of unending strife between order and disorder, between
freedom and determination, between evolution and degeneration. The
outcome of these conflicts is uncertain on the scale of our own experi-
ence; and, so far as we can tell, it is so upon the universal scale also. This
uncertainty gives the Universe its Dramatic character and it also makes
our own individual lives significant and purposeful.

It is hard, indeed impossible, to make sense of all the conflicts and
contradictions of our experience within the fixed framework of space
and time in which human speculations about Reality have been im-
prisoned for centuries. This brings us to one of the central themes of
this work: the hypothesis of a Six-Dimensional Universe with its three
time-like conditions that I have called Time, Eternity and Hyparxis.
The changing content of the present moment derives from sources of
three kinds. The influences of what we call 'past' and 'future' are but
one of these sources. Our present moment is such that it always discloses
its dependence upon what is 'not-present'. The 'not-present' must be
also a Greater Present within which our own present is contained to-
gether with those of all other centres of experience like ourselves. One
way of describing the state of 'total explanation' would be to call it the
vision of all time and all existence; thus bringing our task into line with
that of Plato's philosopher. Two of the differences between our approach
and that of Platonism and its derivatives are that the notion of the Pre-
sent Moment preserves both Individual and Universal significance,
while the properties of time, eternity and hyparxis make our scheme
through and through historical.

This is why this last volume is devoted to History. I examine the
principles of history under the picturesque and not wholly misleading
title of the 'War with Time'. I then apply the results, first to the origin
and evolution of Life on the Earth, and then, to the origin and develop-
ment of Mind. The Dramatic Universe is an historical universe. The
human drama is the drama of history. The present moment with its
immensely rich and complex content cannot be understood without
reference to the content of the Greater Present Moment. But more
important still is the enlargement of our world picture beyond simple
'past, present and future' to include other modes of existence that I
have called the Eternal Fields and the Hyparchic Past and Future.
With these, I postulate Higher Intelligences able to appreciate and act
within a Present Moment of vastly greater duration and depth in all

PREFACE

dimensions than that of the human mind. I have tried in this volume to
show that as body evolves towards mind, so does mind develop to-
wards Intelligence and Intelligence towards some still higher Principle
that we can scarcely conceive. Conversely, this evolution and this
development depend upon help and guidance from Higher Intelligences
and Powers that are 'already there'. The main theme of this volume is
the role of Higher Intelligences in history, and here I include both
human and non-human agencies operating on a higher level of under-
standing, and within a Greater Present Moment, than those of ordinary
men and women. Closely connected with this theory is the Doctrine of
Transformation, according to which all men have the potential for
attaining the Higher Intelligence and so of participating consciously
and responsibly in the direction of the evolutionary process.

The main thesis and its corollaries are unfashionable, chiefly because
they appear to be a return to a doctrine of providential history that
disregards the Laws of Nature. This is certainly not true for the scheme
I have put forward. The operation of human Intelligence does not
violate the Laws of Nature, even when it results in changes in the course
of events. The Higher Intelligences that I have postulated must work
in the same way, though on a far greater scale of time and space. If this
postulate proves to give us a satisfying account of the traces of the past
that we call 'history', it should also guide us in our expectations of the
future and in framing our decisions for action within the present moment.
In view of the breakdown of non-intelligent schemes of explanation,
the postulate of 'Intelligence in History' deserves to be far more care-
fully examined that it has been in recent centuries. Intelligence differs
from mind in that it requires cooperation and not passive submission.
We can act upon material objects by reason of our mental powers and
our superior will, but a Higher Intelligence can act only by evoking a
response from the intelligence latent within the field of its operation.
Thus Intelligence in human history must mean intelligent cooperation
between man and the Higher Intelligence that seeks to help him. This
must be understood in the light of what I wrote earlier in this Preface
about the uniqueness of the Individual Present Moment. A two-way
communication must be established between the intelligence—perhaps
still unawakened—in our own small present moment and those Greater
Intelligences that can see and understand and operate within a far
greater Present Moment than our own. If this work, notwithstanding
its incompleteness and imperfections, succeeds in drawing attention to
this theme, it will have served its purpose.

It would have been still less complete and worse riddled with im-

D.U. IV—I*

II PREFACE

perfection!, but for the help I have received from many friends and
especially the students and members of the Institute for the Compara-
livo Study of History, Philosophy and the Sciences with which I have
been connected for more than twenty years. This last volume in par-
ticular owes much to three of my colleagues, Messrs. Anthony Blake
and John Bristow, both Research Fellows of the Institute, and Mrs.
Dorothy Chalmers, Editor of the Western Tradition. All three are
historically minded and have done much of the research that has given
some substance to the chapters on the History of Mind. Mr. Ian
McCoig who has redrawn the many diagrams used in this and the third
volume has done so with an insight into their purpose that contributes
much to their clarity. There are many others who have earned my
gratitude during the twenty years since I began to write the Dramatic
Universe.

I must acknowledge my debt to my publishers whose patience in
waiting so long for the completion of so hazardous an undertaking must
surely be rare. It was in 1946 that I first met Mr. Paul Hodder-Williams,
recently returned to the family business from the Second World War,
and to my surprise and delight found that he was prepared to sponsor
the publication of a work that was most unlikely to have a commercial
success or even a succe's d'estime, at least, within our lifetimes!

The four volumes make hard reading and I am well aware from
correspondence that very few readers have been prepared or able to
make much of them. I am all the more grateful to those who have not
only read, but grasped their significance and have drawn the attention
of others to the themes developed. I need hardly say, in conclusion, that
I take no credit for anything of value that the book may contain. It
would be like a visitor to the mountains taking credit for the beauty of the
scenery that unfolds itself to the onlooker.

J. G. Bennett

1st May 1966

CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

FIFTH BOOK: TIME AND MIND

PART SIXTEEN: PROLEGOMENON TO HISTORY

Chapter 42. the war with time

16.42.1. The Present Moment 13

The immediate experience of the present moment —traces,
immediate mental objects and expectations—part and whole
are equally the present moment—it has an indefinite range
and relative degrees of integration —latent mental objects —
invariant forms — connecting patterns — decisions and ex-
pectations—our description is wholly empirical—the six
elements of the present moment — dimensions of the present

— the present moment of objects — the content of experience.

16.42.2. Order Against Disorder 17

The thermodynamic connection between time and disorder

— order is created within the present moment —the order-
disorder state of the universe can never be determined —we
are concerned with the present moment of life on the earth —
the Sun-Earth-Life system is increasing in entropy more
than life is in order—the ordering mechanism of photo-
synthesis—life and the transformation of substances —the
maintenance of higher levels of order —the argument re-
stated in five propositions — the concentration of order —
orders of order —the relevance of Fantappie's distinction
between syntropic and entropic processes —the struggle
between the powers of order and the powers of disorder —
disorder enters from outside the present moment and order
from within.

16.42.3. Separation and Reunion 21

The present moment is unified by a fragment of the total
Will — the present attainment of a higher order is coalescence

— the unification of will against disorder and of being against

Xll CONTENTS

separation—memory as a device for overcoming separateness
and disorder—traces in enduring objects and in mind —the
balance of order and disorder in reversible processes—the
solar system as an example —super-conductivity —the
reversible states of our organism which maintain a con-
tinuity of the present moment.

16.42.4. The Endurance of Material Objects

Endurance is not restricted to solid bodies—how we use our
material bodies for the organization of our present moment
—the storage of potential energy—records and the extension
of our present moment.

16.42.5. Life, Sensitivity and the Self-hood

Life is at war with time —living organisms cannot stand still
— constant self-renewal is necessary in all levels of life —the
methods used by life against time are different from those of
enduring objects —all existence strives to overcome time.

16.42.5.1. Renewal

Unlike material objects life is able to continue for ever —
the cosmic significance of life —life does not conquer time.

16.42.5.2. Sensitivity

The anti-temporal properties of sensitivity —awareness of
presence —the will of living things —the will to live made
possible.

16.42.5.3. Self-hood

Selves and self-assertion —soldiers in the war with time —
selves can sustain an independent will—they are poised be-
tween order and disorder and can with the True Self enter
the War as free agents.

16.42.6. Influences Acting Upon the Present

Existence is not confined to our present moment—past,
present and future are relative to a centre of experience —the
relevance of the six laws of synchronicity—the law of com-
mon presence —every finite region has a certain ableness-to-
be— the law of mutual adjustment —every sensitive region
is associated with a pattern —connections are possible with
patterns of experience from distant times—the patterns of
the past are here and now—propositions on the present
moment given by the laws of synchronicity—the present
moment is open in seven ways —the temporal region of
causality and disorder—the eternal region of forms and

3°

CONTENTS

values—the hyparchic region of freedom—the zone of
material organization between time and eternity—the zone
of life between hyparxis and time—the supernatural zone
between eternity and hyparxis —the present moment must
have some extension in all zones and regions—active and
passive conditions of time, eternity and hyparxis —degrees
of hyparchic status of the past—the living past which can
undergo change —the common assumption that events are
precise in a factual way —facts require a knower—the event
includes potential elements —an illustration in the French
Revolution — conflicting interpretations—we see the event
in a totally different way to the protagonists —there were
several French Revolutions—the event is transforming
within the Present Moment that contains it —from the
perspective of a larger Present Moment we see the pre-
destined event more clearly than those who lived then—the
selective process whereby strong events grow in strength
and weak ones diminish—the complex existence of the past.

16.42.7. The Status of the Future

The relativity of expectation —causal interpretations of the
future are no longer tenable — the conditional existence of the
future —all that is possible exists —the relativity of the
present moment and states of existence — degrees of non-
actuality—the predetermined level—the unpredictable —
patterns in the present—predestined events—the evidence
at hand for the existence of the future — precognition —
F.I.P. phenomena —divinatory procedures—some con-
clusions—the connection between spatial and temporal
patterns—the necessity of a displacement in eternity for the
diviner —premonitions refer only to material events —pre-
and retro-cognition operate in the same way —contact
between two times is only possible between minds and
bodies —the problem is how the mind receives images —
nul-intervals — light signals —direct contact by the auto-
matic and sensitive energies — contact through the cosmic
energies of consciousness and creativity—thought-forms —
creative impulses come from the future—various ways in
which the future can influence the present —the coalescence
of present moments brought about by a will —coalescence
as excursion beyond the specious limits of the present
moment —excursions into the future and the challenges
of the unconditioned—three reasons for the apparent rarity
of excursions into the future —the sensitive apparatus of the
mind is occupied with impressions and traces —perhaps a
special mechanism inhibits contact with past and future —
possibilities of special training and its fruit —the problem
remains of how Time can be conquered.

XIII

XIV CONTENTS

16.42.8. Hyparxis and Time

To overcome disorder the future must be changed —in order
to evolve we need help from a higher order —anabolic trans-
formations in the biosphere—the three-fold structure of
transformations in the present moment —material trans-
formations and future time —life and predestination —
degrees of foreordainment and the cosmic energies — the
concentration and condensation of energies —the sensitive
energy that is in a mind —the selective concentration of
sensitive energy in events left in the past—the objective se-
lective transformation of events—eternity-blindness and
experiences of timeless moments—the timelessness con-
nected with will—hyparchic moments—they are connected
by their freedom from actuality —the hyparchic future as a
region of pre-actual creative activity —a model to illustrate
the notion—A-operator or self selecting from a delivery of
balls made by an apparatus —the situation of disordering
time—situation with a B-operator delivering balls according
to a pattern unknown to A—fate—further details of the
model—the selves of A and restrictions on the influence of
B by a planner C —A is in the local present moment —the
far side of the apparatus is the future hyparchic moment
— interpretation of the model—mind and the four selves —
the hyparchic nature of the Personal Individuality—the
present moment as a state of mind—the situation when
mind and Individuality are separated —the condition of
completed souls or D-operators in the hyparchic state—will
in the hyparchic future can influence and guide the mind
through pattern formation—how D-operators can influence
minds and gain co-operation in the realization of an anti-
temporal event—gradations of the hyparchic future —the
creative re-shaping of the patterns of destiny —the H-T
zone —our experience depends on the hyparchic integration
of the present moment —the hyparchic present where it is
possible to act —opening in hyparxis extends the other com-
ponents—the recognition of a living presence in certain
people.

16.42.9. The Greater Present 56

The notion of the present moment affects ontology—the
nature of the human present — choice and freedom—the
future is uncommitted — Individuality can act in the future —
in ordinary discourse will is referred to future time —our
view is that will must always act in the present —some
possible ways —in the Self-hood—will exercised by 'I' can
direct action outside the present moment of the lower selves
— the Personal Individuality can operate in the future of the
Self-hood—operations of the Universal Individuality —our

CONTENTS XV

future is 'now' within a Greater Present Moment — pure time
is outside the range of our experience—we approach time
from the perspectives of transcience and recurrence—the
situation of a self O within the Greater Present Moment of
the Personal Individuality—the direction of time—the
experience of O —the experience of the Individuality—
operations of the Individuality with respect to O —the in-
fluence of pre-existent patterns of energies —translation of
virtual patterns into eternal patterns —kinds of future region
from determination to ordainment.

16.42.9.1. PREDETERMINATION 62

This is approximated when events on quite different scales
are compared—there is a range of predictability.

16.42.9.2. PREDESTINATION 63

When there is an end-point in future time —it ranges from
the simplest element of life to cosmic destiny.

16.42.9.3. FREEDOM 63

The creative realm of free possibilities which do not violate
natural laws—the need for a regenerative action within
existence.

16.42.9.4. FOREORDAINMENT 64

Here acts of will are completely free of existence—the Plan
of Creation which is realized in History—the fore-ordain-
ment which intended the arising, evolution and completion
of mankind in the Greater Present Moment of the Biosphere.

Chapter 43. the structure of history

16.43.1. The Historian's Role 65

The historian studies a larger present moment in which the
future is also relevant—he is concerned with the living past
— a comparison between the work of the historian, the
scientist and the artist—the cyclical but expansive path of
science —expansive repetition within the present moment of
science—the artist seeks to express a value in a particular
present moment — reiterated concentration — the scientist
looks to the future while the artist seeks a living present
through elimination—the historian separates the deter-
minate from the significant elements of traces—he is con-
cerned with events or the realization of a present moment
—history has a structure that involves responsible actions —
the historian's criteria of significance—various views of
history—the providential, 'drum and trumpet' and others —
the difficulty of seeing the total structure of history.

XVI

CONTENTS

XV11

16.43.2. The Event

Stages in the study of an historical event —1. factual
analysis —2. interpretation according to the systems—3. as
the present moment of a society—4. as an episode in the War
with Time — 5. as a living present moment in its own right —
events as regions accessible by consciousness — they are
coalescences of many wills —historical significance arises
from influences from eternity and hyparxis —present
moments larger than those of ordinary selves —the integrity
of events is timeless —the hyparchic past is more than
eternal recurrence.

16.43.3. Human History—its Range and
Operations

The step from events to history—the need for a structure
that integrates all particular histories—the tetrad of activity 72
and the heptad of completion.

16.43.3.I. HIGHER MOTIVATIONAL HEPTAD
From vegetative life to Universal Harmony.

16.43.3.2. LOWER MOTIVATIONAL HEPTAD
From crystalline to demiurgic essence.

16.43.3.3. OPERATIONAL HEPTAD
Seven types of operation.

16.43.3.4. DIRECTIONAL HEPTAD
From a man to all human history.

16.43.4. The Operations of History

The spectrum of transformations within the present moment.

16.43.4.1. ACTION

Simple actions are reversible —the measurement of time —
cycles which play a part in history.

16.43.4.2. INTERACTION

To which thermodynamics applies —ageing and wearing out
—sharing and communication are possible—the environ-
mental element of history —interaction is the core of
existential time.

16.43.4.3. FORMATION 76

Orderly action and the formation of enduring structures —
its relevance to the history of the earth and man—the
material of history.

16.43.4.4. GROWTH 77

Directed activity—growth as selective operation —the
competitive aspect.

16.43.4.5. DEVELOPMENT 77

Open-ended operations —development is more than growth
by the hyparchic regulation between inner and outer
potentialities.

16.43.4.6. TRANSFORMATION 78

Cooperation between different orders of entity which
reverses the tendency of temporal actualization —the
difference between transformation and stimulation—the
action common to past, present and future.

16.43.4.7. CREATION 79

The free action in the hyparchic future that requires trans-
formation in order to penetrate into visible history.

16.43.5. The Seven Levels of History 79

How the motivational terms are taken in pairs to give seven
tetrads corresponding to seven levels of history.

16.43.5.I. MAN AND NATURE 79

The material ground and the goal of the preservation of life
— economic history and statistical prediction — the material
world as the common ground of all human activities—the
realm of Caesar—the connection between vegetative
history and climate—influence of man on vegetative life.

16.43.5.2. POLITICAL HISTORY 8l

The struggle for survival and political aspirations —the
ground of edaphic history—soil conditions and the migra-
tion of families —the stability of attachment to the soil—joy
—the goal of the ideal state —an example of the inversion of
political history from the reign of Louis XIV—political
ideals are doomed to failure in practice — the triad of
existential history —the states of the people and the condi-
tions of existence —the third force from the destiny of
human society.

XV111 CONTENTS

16.43.5.3. SOCIAL HISTORY 84

The ground of population history —the goal of mankind's
unification—nations—formation gives their coherence—the
state of a people is determined by their living conditions —
conservatism—the tetradic form that all social history
should exemplify—an illustration taken from the history of
the British Trades Unions—the motivations and the
formation of the instrumental terms—the connection
between the animal genera and human societies —societies
can be no better than reactional until the unification of the
Mind of mankind —the imperfect structure of present
human society.

16.43.5.4. THE HISTORY OF MIND 86

The four terms —through the evolution of mind, man is
becoming man —the visible history of mind is seen in
culture—the invisible realm—the history of mind will be a
central theme in the chapters to follow.

16.43.5.5. THE HISTORY OF SOUL 88

Soul history is the overcoming of incoherence in the soul-
stuff—the Epoch as a Present Moment characterized by a
direction of intent for all humanity—the development of
the understanding of mankind as an integrated whole—the
motivational terms of organized sensitivity and creative
responsibility—the importance of will on the level of soul-
history—soul-history is invisible—the importance of belief
in the soul in turning men towards destiny—the ordinary
man cannot distinguish soul-history from that of mind —the
pattern of the Epoch derives from an over-all intention —
changes of mental attitude are secondary consequences—the
seven histories and mind —for mind, all history is in the
present—the manifestation of essential history in cultures
and Epochs—the channel for the transmission of super-
human action—the influence of invisible history—the
evidence afforded by psychokinetic men and belief in the
soul—the reign of Akbar—his recognized achievements —
his unrecognized connection with Sufism—Akbar as an
instrument of conscious history—the present soul-life of
Humanity—soul-history and the work of the Psychokinetic
Group.

16.43.5.6. PROVIDENTIAL HISTORY 93

The region of the hyparchic future —the transformation
of man and the Great Cycles of Intervention—mankind is
foreordained to be a conscious agent of the Cosmic Purpose
—the guidance of mankind—belief in superhuman powers —

CONTENTS

the modern world has turned away from such notions —
providential history is alien even to modern theology—the
notion of Divine Operations in the Greek Church —Illumi-
nation as a co-working of Unitive and Creative energies —
the Demiurges are the Universal Individuality operating as
Intelligences —the neglected realm which we have described
in terms of operations in the hyparchic future —the gradual
transference of responsibility to man—how the Demiurgic
Intelligences can influence the present moment from the
hyparchic future and change the visible course of history.

XIX

16.43.5.7. SUPERNATURAL HISTORY

Historical theology —it requires a cosmic purpose and also
hazard —the significance of all history derives from the level
of supernatural history—it is grounded in religion and has
its goal in the Universal Harmony —creation and the total
present moment of the human race —supernatural history
redeems man from involvement in the cosmic evil —only
revelation can give man awareness of this action —super-
natural history is apprehendable only by the theological
virtues and is the domain of the cosmic energies—without it
man is defenceless against evil —the theme of the historical
chapters.

PART SEVENTEEN: HISTORY AS REALIZATION

Chapter 44. the history of life on the earth

103

17.44.1. The Start of History

The historical is not within our present moment—traces that
we encounter concern the earth —astrophysics is ahistorical
—history defined in terms of traces extends back beyond the
appearance of life—perhaps there is no history of the earth
itself—the earth is 'sub-creative' and directs history— Demi-
urgic Intelligence—the total activity of the arising of life
has probably been a present moment for the earth—the
earth as a conscious being higher than life—the history of
life is worked out within the mind of the earth—life fore-
ordained by the sun and predestined by the earth—the
origins of history and the notion of delegated creativity —
without this God becomes an inaccessible Absolute—the
Intelligence of the sun is an operation of Supreme Will.

103

xx CONTENTS

17.44.2. Evolution and the Predestination

of Life 106

State of our knowledge about the origins of life—only the
totality of the process can make sense —explanations of the
phylogenetic sequence—the notion of fortuitous origin —
the origin of the high degree of order of the Biosphere —
conservation of order — the constitution of the primitive
atmosphere and the formation of amino-acids—the prefer-
ence for simple theories based on chance combinations —the
complexity of the simplest elements of life—probability of
combination through chance—factorial improbability of the
accumulation of order—the sun-earth system is losing order
— application of information theory to calculate the prob-
ability of biological evolution reaching its present state —the
culminative improbability—an illustration of the high
degree of order in simple organisms —order as qualitative
as well as quantitative — human culture — calculation of the
total number of simple reactions originally possible com-
pared with the probability of life arising—the odds against
the evolution of life by chance mutations —implausability
of chance origins of human culture—when we consider uni-
versal evolution, the hypothesis of fortuitous origin becomes
meaningless —the problem of the origins of sensitivity, values
and purposes —notion of consciousness dispersed in matter
is unworkable — the growing interest in tackling problems as
a totality.

17.44.3. The Plan and the Pattern 114

Planets themselves are improbable— the unexpectedness of
life arising —the nature of the earth—the plan of life entered
from the hyparchic future—the act of the sun translated into
an eternal pattern—the affirmative and receptive natures of

the sun and earth—three explanations of how life was initi-
ated—contingency and an organizing potential —an Act of
Divine Compassion working through the Unitive Energy —
the hierarchical action—propositions on the origin of life —
the three primal acts of will —the appearance of the earth's
mind—actualization step by step through the essence
classes—the scheme avoids notions of special creation and
blind chance —natural laws are not disturbed—the scheme
cannot be contained in classical and commonsense notions
of space and time—the notion of the hyparchic future —
reconciliation of causal and purposive interpretations of the
past —hyparchic influences will result in step-wise progress
— eight stages of earth history,

CONTENTS , xxi

17.44.4. The Primitive Earth: Amorphous Stage 121

Arising of the earth with a composition totally different from
the sun's — the earth's high potential energy level — Masses
and solid fragments in random motion leading to simple
substances —dyad of essential spirit and existential material
fragments — projection of an eternal pattern into spatial
distributions —segregation into zones corresponding to the
essence-class of simples —the zone-structure was remark-
ably suitable for the arising and existence of life—land,
oceans and atmosphere —the four material energies
permeated the earth — presence of the vital energies — how
the plan was brought into realization — creative action in the
pre-existent hyle field—the dilemma of Earth as life's
mother and life's prison — translation into the eternal pattern
of the biosphere—projection into space — the visible and the
unseen earth —the three domains of existence — summary of
the scheme and conditions at the amorphous stage —
material and vital bases of life—the 'idea' of organized
sensitivity —the soul structure — the Unseen Earth as pure
Intellect.

17.44.5. The Formation of the

Earth Surface: Azoic Stage 126

Interaction between zones —the crystalline essence arising
in complex silicates — the first rocks—the appearance of
enduring forms —the andesitic layer compared to an epider-
mis—the crystalline state is extremely rare in the universe —
crystals lack the power of selective response.

17.44.6. The Soil and the Sea:

Transition to the Hypozoic 127

The basic requirement for self-renewal is exchange —the
conversion of rocks into soil — the production of the saline
ocean —a picture of the primitive earth with one vast conti-
nent and an atmosphere of cloud —the arising of soil essences
on land and in the sea—the plan at work — organizing influ-
ence of the eternal pattern — the usual theories of purposeless
insensitive transformations leading to life and purposes entail
an unscientific breach of continuity.

17.44.7. The Birth of Life: Hypozoic Stage 129

Life as both unexpected yet inevitable — the 'funnel' con-
ception of the history of life — self-renewal culminates in man
and history proper —conditions are only 'favourable' in terms
of the future —anthropocentric illusions—the totality of the
history of life is one Great Event with a value in terms of the
Plan of the Hyparchic Future—life entered actualization by

CONTENTS

stages —before self-renewal chemical complexes had associ-
ated energy in the hyparchic, sensitive state — the organiza-
tion of inorganic groups under an eternal pattern—reactions
of nitrogen —the disappearance of the cloud curtain—the
splendour of sight and sound at the birth of the Hypozoic
era—selection of chemical combinations suitable for life —
probability invoked—underlying unity of structures in
living forms suggest the notion of a common plan—por-
phyrin C —the small number of basic life elements require
either a common origin or a common purposive pattern —
the implausibility of the notion of a fortuitous origin for
life—nature deals in large numbers for safety —the evidence
points to an organising pattern —a phenomenological basis
for our theory —Teilhard de Chardin's and Maurice
Vernet's notions of pattern —summary of our scheme —the
translation of an act of Will into the realm of Being —the
notion of energies — the notion of a Plan as the most simple
account of the evolution of life.

17.44.8. The Organizing Patterns of Life:
Work of Demiurgic Intelligence

The functional and energetic requirements of life —the
problem of self-renewal solved by complex amino-acids—
energy stored as carbohydrates — the astonishing device of
chlorophyll —chlorophyll needs the combination of two
independent kinds of protein in order to be produced and be
stable —its structure and significance for energy transforma-
tions on the earth —the intelligence we can infer at work —
the powers responsible for producing the patterns of life —
the general hypothesis of Demiurgic Powers.

17.44.9. Vegetation and the Cell:
Transition to the Proterozoic

The production of living engines — vegetation provided the
material support for the basic energy transformations of life
—the primal life forms were based on the cell—the cell
could not have come into existence by degrees—the action
of Demiurgic Intelligence —properties of protein-carbohy-
drate complexes not yet discovered by man —the first plants
were probably in the form of algae existing in shallow water —
the prodigious age of the algae — their effect on the composi-
tion of the atmosphere—the conquest of the earth's surface
— changes in the atmosphere — origins of the sedimentary
rocks —the break up of the great continent and climatic
revolutions —at first only asexual self-renewal — an in-
sensitive and static immortality.

135

138

contents xx111

17.44.10. Sexual Reproduction and the Germ:
Proterozoic Stage 142

Sexual reproduction provided the basis for evolution —the
transition from blue-green to green algae —the origin of
the reproductive system — intentional work of master crafts-
men—with sex came self-creation and death —these require
a higher act than that of the demiurges—the archetypal
union of the sun and earth —perennial truth —the role of
demiurges in technical innovation—with sex appeared the
germinal essence—locomotion—first traces appeared 500
million years ago—previous 'dark ages' without traces —
natural selection has little to do with progress—large earth
disturbances — by the Palaeozoic Era most kinds of inverte-
brates are represented—the Arthropods—germinal essences
developed functions of life but not being—no organized
sensitivity (E5) —development of automatisms (E6) —life
through sex in search of a soul.

17.44.11. The Organization of Sensitivity:
Palaeozoic Stage 147

The Trilobites predominated in the Cambrian —the more
primitive Graptolites in the Ordovician and Silurian —
experiments with new tissues—the Palaeozoic Era and the
organization of sensitivity—the animal essence —coordina-
tion of action and perception through selective response —
nervous systems — appearance of the Chordata — origin of fish
and land animals —advantages of an interior skeleton —
circulation system of blood—sources of man's three
'brains'—the radical step forward — intelligent use of the
natural situation —adaptation to environmental change —
the Amphibia — coordination of perception and movement —
the psychological difference between amphibia and their
predecessors—the carboniferous age and the production of
our present material resources—the Reptiles—the sudden
extinction of many promising lines—the Permian Epoch
brought an end to the Palaeozoic Era.

17.44.12. The Organization of the Earthly
Symbiosis: Mesozoic Stage 151

Motions of the Earth's fluid interior and the migration of
the poles—the arising of the present continents—climatic
effects — desiccation of life on the earth —transformations
of the Permian—the mild climate of the Mesozoic—the
Cretaceous Period a time of harmonious and coordinated
development — changes in the terrain and new forms of life —
appearance of warm blooded animals—how to explain the
coordination of insects and flowering plants?—natural

CONTENTS XXV

Chapter 45. the advent of mind 165

17.45.1. The Hyperzoic Ira 165

With the addition of the cosmic energy of consciousness,
evolution enters the typernomic realm —seven elements
to help us construct a total picture of the present Era —
history as the history of progress—accelerated progress and
the evolutionary sequence—each major step was an equiva-
lent creative act—progress as a logarithmic function of time

— the additional power relationship due to the foreshorten-
ing effect of the observer's present moment —expression
only applicable for remote times —some conclusions from
the graph about the Hyperzoic Era.

[7.45.2. The Cycles in Human History 170

History as the life cycle of an organism —rhythmical struc-
tures of organic life independent of development or progress
—speculations and assumptions based on astronomical and
human cycles —duration of the hyperzoic—various cycles —
we are three quarters though the Human Era —its place in
the total realization of lie.

17.45.3. The Start of the Hyperzoic Era 172

Three aspects of the situation: non-living, living and beyond
life —the sudden formation of the great mountain chains —
the abruptness of the change of climate at the end of the
Miocene — the coming of the first Ice Age — the theory of Ice
Ages of Ewing and Donn —the migration of the poles due to
movements within the earth — cause of the crustal perturba-
tions—the shift of the N>rth Pole from the North Pacific to
the Arctic Ocean — the tine of easy thermal circulation in the
Arctic —snow and the fomation of glaciers —the closing off
of the Gulf Stream and warm climates —the repeat of the
cycle —the continuous ice of Antarctica —theories based on
changes in solar radiatior— the agreement on the prevalence
of severe conditions.

7.45.4. Chronology of tie Human Era 175

Sources of the traces of the Hyperzoic —need for a chrono-
logy of the major climate changes —controversies of dating

— radioactive dating — stratigraphy —traces of climatic
changes on land—the record of the ocean bed—the con-
fused traces of the glaciers—the simultaneity of European
and North American glaciations—the European sequence —
the African pluvials —the discovery of a complete record of
the period in the ocean bed—methods of dating—the dating
of the Lamont workers in comparison with conventional

xxiv CONTENTS

selection without inherent direction—no explanation of
progress — Naegeli's orthogenesis and Osborn's aristo-
genesis do not explain the zig-zag path of evolution—the
difficulty of explaining ecological harmony—inadequacy
of mutation and natural selection theories — the improb-
ability of complex interlocking cycles of growth —single
isolated lines theoretically explicable in Darwinian terms —
possibility that breeding was an evolutionary means —agree-
ment that mutation and selection are important —rejection
of vague trends—we cannot neglect the intelligence at
work—the earth a hundred million years ago —the richness
and variety of life—the invisible agencies at work skilled in
genetics and ecology—production of potential energy fields
— beauty and humour have a place—measurement, calcula-
tion and experiment — experiments which fail—the inherent
difficulty of the task—the reality of the vision —the un-
fashionable notion of discarnate intelligences —the develop-
ment of a sensitive unity of the Biosphere —the common
sensitivity of regions in the Mesozoic Era —life began to co-
operate with the guiding Intelligence.

17.44.13. The Refinement of Sensitivity:

Cainozoic Stage 157

Earth disturbances at the end of the Mesozoic—the devasta-
tion of life—the loss of forms with remarkable powers — the
emergence of the New Life —the survival of the mammals —
survival properties had developed before the severe changes
of climate—the first mammals—Australia isolated and
abandoned by the Guiding Intelligence—the period of the
spread of the mammals—the favourable climate of the
Miocene—the Golden Age of the Mammals—natural
mechanisms and geographical factors cannot account for the
rich diversification of the mammals—the peculiar pattern
at work in the mammalian order —the variety of forms of
sensitivity—mammals and birds together show every form
of human feeling —plants concentrate peculiar forms of
sensitivity —the imprintation of 'characters' in sensitive
energy over millions of years —Primates —the flourishing of
the Prosimii — development of the Anthropoidea during the
Eocene —they are relatively unspecialized but have powers
of grasping and visual and cerebral development —their
limited 'characterizations'—warm-blooded creatures and
feelings—the criterion of the capacity for experience shows
a convergence towards man —a major step made in the
transfer of responsibility into life itself—the demiurgic
powers working more within the present instead of entirely
from the hyparchic future—mammalian genera as vehicles
for the operation of the demiurgic intelligences — the end of
an evolutionary cycle.

XXVI CONTENTS

datings —the Lamont chronology —dating the Wurm
glaciations—the sequence of the Ice Ages and Interglacials
—the Wurm Ice Age—use of the data.

17.45.5. The First Men 181

The order of Primates —suborder of Anthropoidea — super-
family of Hominoidea — the Hominidae — the possible
ancestors of man and ape —the probable differentiation of
the Hominidae line in the early Oligocene —the Proconsuls
of the Miocene who could stand erect —Leakey's Kenya-
pithecus wickeri.

17.45.5.1. Mind Evolution 182

Our use of four stages in the evolution of man, which cor-
respond to the development of mind—the correlation of
creative steps with the emergence of new strains —the
ambiguity of man.

17.45.5.2. DATING THE TRANSITION TO MAN 183

The dating of discoveries in Africa—there were develop-
ments towards man before the first Ice Age.

17.45.5.3. MAN AND PRE-MAN 184

The australopithecines and ancestral man —types of
Australopithecus—the more advanced Homo habilis—the
contemporarity of Habilis with less advanced types of
Australopithecus — only in Africa do men appear to have
lived through the transition to the Hyperzoic —the present
convention of only two genera, Australopithecus and Homo —
the four groups of our scheme, Australopithecus, Homo
erectus, Homo sapiens, Homo sapiens sapiens — these are broad
morphological groups.

17.45.5.4. GROUP I AUSTRALOPITHECUS 186
They used implements —could not have had speech.

17-45-5-5- GROUP II HOMO ERECTUS 187

In Africa the Chellean culture developed out of the Oldo-
wan—Pekin man used fire and advanced in tool making —
the dispersals of the Pleistocene — H. erectus was able to
speak and protect himself with clothing —the completion of
the transition to true man.

CONTENTS XXvii

17.45.5.6. GROUP III HOMO SAPIENS 188
Evidence of the first people with traditions and ritual burial
—early traces of Homo sapiens—the true Neanderthalers —

the Mousterian culture —physical features of Neanderthal
man —traces of Homo sapiens akin to modern man—increas-
ing traces of modern-like men after the Riss-Wiirm inter-
glacial.

17.45.5.7. GROUP IV HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS 190
Theories on his origin—the sudden transition to creative
man.

17.45.6. The Origins of Man 190

The generally held view of the accidental origin of man —
Ericson and Wollin—the problem posed by purposeful ac-
tion—de Chardin's theory of the crucial stage of com-
plexification—but purpose and plan are evident before man
—the phylogenetic sequence — divergence of the line of
hominization from the anthropoid line cannot be explained
by mutation and natural selection —the step towards man —
freeing of the hands, use of tools and language —speech is
the crucial test of true man—recognition of speech requires
consciousness—an illustrative case —anatomical changes
followed speech—man acquired speech because he had
mind — the combination of consciousness, sensitivity and
automatism necessary for speech — difference between
human and animal communication —speech means mind,
mind means man —the three paths of consciousness,
sensitivity and automatism converged towards mind —
everyone accepts the transition to mind—the total absence
of consciousness in animals —consciousness cannot be con-
trolled by sensitivity—the theory that mind emerged from
the use of tools—the distinctive human power of forming
mental images cannot be explained genetically.

17.45.6.1. THE COMING OF MAN 194

Man was destined to be man before he became man —
Teilhard de Chardin's description—his unadmitted tele-
ology—the false hypostization of 'tendencies'—it is not
unscientific to admit the evidence for a guiding intelligence
— the refinement of the mammalian sensitivity was a pre-
paration for the advent of mind—the chosen vehicle was
guarded against specialization —the Hominidae walked erect
but with pre-mental experience—into them the Demiurgic
Intelligences could enter—they initiated the use of tools —
the australopithecine phase—tool-using prepared the
sensitivity for the later step to mental imagery—the step
from animal to man.

XXV111 CONTENTS

17.45.7. The Nature of Mind 197

Mind is the seat of intention, connection with past and
future and of the Self-hood —de Chardin's Noosphere —
mind as a great discontinuity of the natural order—mind as
an organized structure of energies—more than an increase
of complexity is involved—the pool of sensitive energy —
behaviour patterns of the automatism — explanation of
instinct —organization of automatism and sensitivity in
Australopithecus — the nature of consciousness and its absence
in a great part of our lives—psychology is the key to under-
standing the genesis of mind—mind could not have arisen
by means of life—man is different in kind and not merely
in degree from the animals —consciousness was injected
by the Demiurgic Intelligences—the tetrad of mind —the
preparation of Australopithecus for the fore-ordained arising
of mind —the act of the Universal Individuality in providing
will—the conflicting histories of mind and soul—the
Individualities of the first men were in the hyparchic future
—men could not acquire a soul —the entrance of con-
sciousness and the birth of mind—the transition to Homo
erectus — the slow emergence of speech and the formation of
a Mind-Stuff Pool —lack of Self-hood and the limited pre-
sent moment —ecstatic experiences of the early men —ex-
perience without any legacy from the past—the influence of
the legacy of mind in the sensitivity —guidance was even
more necessary at this stage —the six pools of energy in
which the MSP is separate from the general pool of animal
sensitivity —the MSP acquires content with the death of
men —the human will remained in the hyparchic future —
reason for the long preparation of the MSP in this stage —
the Demiurgic Intelligences had to work without the co-
operation of man —all of this was part of the fulfilling of the
Universal Purpose — progress towards eventual responsibility
— the three kinds of future were involved.

Chapter 46. the awakening of mind 207

17.46.1. The Four Ages of Mind 207

Our concern is with the History of Mind —correlation of our
four ages with agreed divisions of the Pleistocene.

17.46.1.I. THE INFANCY OF MIND 207

The first part of the Infancy of Mind corresponds to the
lower Pleistocene —the severe conditions at the onset of the
Gunz glaciation — Group I, Homo habilis, and the traces of a
new kind of intelligence—the second part corresponds to
the Middle Pleistocene—the Gunz-Mindel interglacial as a
period of transition from Group I to Group II — Group II
Homo erectus — development of the Chelles-Acheul culture
but, over the whole period, few signs of inventiveness.

CONTENTS

17.46.1.2. THE CHILDHOOD OF MIND

The disturbed period from the beginning of the Riss to the
end of the Wurm Ice Ages —Homo sapiens.

17.46.1.3. THE ADOLESCENCE OF MIND

Between the Gottweig Interstadial and the withdrawal of
the glaciers — Homo sapiens sapiens.

17.46.1.4. THE MATURING OF MIND

The last 11,000 years—this period is one whole with the
modern world.

17.46.2. The Infancy of Mind

The purposive nature of mind requires that we must look
to the future of mind as well as to its past —the purpose
of mind was present to some Intelligence—the creative work
of Demiurgic Powers—the Act of the Universal Individual-
ity—mind would have been established in anticipation of
the severities of the Ice Age —the vast perspective of higher
orders of Intelligence—rejection of such notions by con-
temporary people —the nature of consciousness—the
theoretical possibility of higher conscious Intelligences —
the building-up of the pool of mind-stuff—the dangers of
mind—transition to the human essence —the significance of
the human mind—vital significance and food—practical
significance and skills—personal significance and sensitivity
—biospheric significance and human destiny —cosmic
significance and the Universal Individuality—the signifi-
cance of man's diet for the development of mind—man
became a hunter for a psychological purpose —the Demi-
urgic task of mind-creation —problems of training early
men—experimentation with selected and specially guided
groups of Australopithecus —the progress of mind in Homo
erectus—the advent of consciousness meant that the human
mind was no longer under complete control—ordinary
men were taught by men possessed by Demiurgic In-
telligences—creation of the pool of mind-stuff—training —
the production of anatomical changes—evidence of in-
telligently guided sexual selection —development of the
mind through telepathic projection —the significance of
speech—speech is not acquired unaided—the enlargement
of brain capacity —the human mind makes connections
beyond the present moment—its structure requires a human
environment—how children develop mind through imitation
of adults —Demiurgic Intelligences embodied in individuals
of Homo erectus demonstrated the use of speech- and tools —
early men had no notion of past and future —no tradition of

xxix

209

210

XXX CONTENTS

knowledge or transmission of discoveries was possible—the
mind of any man of today is totally different from that of
Homo erectus—Homo erectus was incapable of conceptual
thought —evidence of an almost stationary culture —con-
ceptual thought with speech must lead to some progress —
he was like an animal and had to be trained by the Higher
Intelligences—the complexity and scale of the task—the
notion of a guiding Intelligence is necessary in order to make
sense of human evolution —the enigma of the Infancy of
Mind.

17.46.3. The Hiatus in Development

The survival of man during the climatic changes of the
lower Pleistocene—for more than 600,000 years human
culture was stationary—man seems to have had all the
functional requirements fitting him for making advances —
the brain capacity of H. erectus far exceeded that of any
animal—why did he make no progress? —anatomically and
as a craftsman H. erectus was truly man—the six steps
leading from Australopithecus to the man of modern times —
the graph of progress against time shows an interruption in
the curve —criticism of the thesis that man's development
is comparable to that of species of mammals—the real prob-
lem is how mind did not give rise to cultural progress —
possible explanations — Gurdjieff's notion of Kundabuffer —
the intervention of an evil power —it remains an open
question—the guardianship of men.

17.46.4. The Childhood of Mind

Signs of progress —the Mousterian culture —the Western
Neanderthalers — the industries and techniques of the
Middle Palaeolithic —signs of a social hierarchy —evidence
of a concern with life after death — the rituals of the Bear
Cult—the absence of artistic expression—man had been led
to a sense of the inner life of the mind—this development of
mind did not include creativity—the introduction of magic
and rituals was so designed that the human mind would
begin to develop itself—the traces need to be interpreted
through psychology—the organization of sensitive energy
in animals —the undeveloped state of the mind of Homo
erectus—the nature of mental imagery—three ways of
producing mental images—in Homo sapiens thought was
separated from the feelings —the analogy between this Age
of Mind and human childhood—the formation of the
'collective unconscious'—increase in brain capacity—new
modes of action by the Demiurgic Intelligences—magic was
intentionally introduced by Higher Powers as a method of
developing the power of reflection—demiurgic possession

220

226

CONTENTS

and the origins of Shamanism —the entrance of Demiurgic
Intelligence into a Homo sapiens would produce a complete
man with exceptional powers—the spreading of ritual
practices —the gradual psychological results —by the
Gottweig interstadial Neanderthal men were widely spread
—their abrupt disappearance—the possibility of their emo-
tional overdevelopment —the dimension of past and future
had been established.

17.46.5. The Adolescence of Mind

The transition to Homo sapiens sapiens included the estab-
lishment of the modern races of man—the blade and burin
culture of the Upper Palaeolithic—the new men who
entered Europe 35,000 to 40,000 years ago—their ana-
tomical type—the Aurignacian culture and the Cro-Magnon
peoples—the Gravettian culture originating in Southern
Russia—the 'Venus' figurines—the Solutrean culture —
culmination in the Magdalenian—technical innovations —
evidence of an intense artistic creativity—the origins of
Homo sapiens sapiens—the enigma of the rise of Western
Europe —as well as hunting magic there is evidence of
fertility magic—men became aware of the significance of
mating —the formation of the self-hood —anatomical
changes could not have brought creativity into man —a
merging of natures was required —a literal interpretation of
a passage in Genesis —the mating of demiurgic man with
Homo sapiens individuals—centers of experimentation —
the supremacy of the new men — Man acquired his own
will —consciousness as an instrument of intentional action —
the Demiurgic powers had to communicate with man
through his mind —Man's adolescence.

17.46.6. Four Regions of Transformation

Where did Homo Sapiens sapiens arise? —four regions of
transformation: East Africa, Western Europe, South West
Asia, the Far East —correlation of the event with a Great
Cycle of 25,000 years—the acceleration of progress —clock-
time and the time of mental progress—the influence of the
dual character of history on human culture —different
manifestations of creativity in different regions.

17.46.6.1. EUROPE

Europe was a total region integrated by creative centres —
the Dordogne centre.

17.46.6.2. SOUTH-WEST ASIA

The influence of the South West Asian region.

xxxi

234

244

245

246

XXX11 CONTENTS

17.46.6.3. AFRICA 246

The Fauresmith and Sangoan cultures in Africa —the
Lupemban culture in the Congo Basin —the Stillbay culture
in East Africa—possible influences from Arabia —the
Dabba culture in North Africa originating from South West
Asia—the native Aterian culture — the Oranians.

17.46.6.4. THE FAR EAST 248

The Ordos culture of Northern China —the Baikal culture
of Eastern Siberia—the Homo sapiens sapiens of the Upper
Cave at Choukoutien.

17.46.6.5. CREATIVE MAN 249

Our criteria of progress—the two levels of human society —
evidence in the High Stone Age of two compresent levels
of life — groups of consciously creative men — symbols in the
cave paintings demonstrating an intentional continuity of
tradition—the use of the fertility cultus as a bridge between
the special groups and the ordinary population—the
direction of whole regions by the magicians from creative
centres—protection and development of man's creative
mind —the dangers of creative power —the rising complexity
of human life—the next great step—man becomes aware
of his destiny through the Demiurgic Powers —the entry of
Egoism.

Chapter 47. the creative mind 253

17.47.1. The Problem of Evil 253

We must face the problem of the origin of evil—the freedom
of man to choose evil —evil cannot be of genetic origin—the
Age of Innocence and the hiatus in development—the falli-
bility of the Demiurgic Intelligences and the hazards of the
history of Mind—man was not the originator of the evil will
within him —C. G. Jung's help and hindrance in under-
standing the import of mythology —myths concerning a
higher evil power —the crucial moment of making the latent
human will effective —the Demiurgic Intelligences were
responsible for imparting their creative power into the
human mind —the Demiurgic Intelligences could interfere
with destiny within the limits of the fore-ordained plan —
sin as disobedience towards an experienced obligation —
man's responsibility for evil in human life — man's creative
power over nature—the supernatural bond with the Cosmic
Individuality—the suggestion made to man concerning his

CONTENTS

XXXlll

destiny —the choice of egoism —with creativity men had
become selves —the pool of mind-stuff was impregnated
with egoism —the inherent hazard in the Dramatic Universe
—man could now acquire soul — return to the historical
records.

7.47.2. Withdrawal and Language-Creation 259

The withdrawal of groups under obedient Guides—pre-
paration for the modern world —conceptual thought and
language—the construction of language as an instrument
for developing powers of reflection —man's understanding
of God — the primal notions of God presented as Images to
people —man's response and understanding—the origins of
modern culture in creative and responsive groups of the four
main regions — the cessation of the creativity of the Dor-
dogne centre — Mesolithic cultures after 10,000 B.C.—in
East and Central Africa regression began —withdrawal
from each of the four regions at the end of the Wurm—each
of the loyal groups created a language and evolved a set of
beliefs —those from Western Europe went into the Arctic
Circle —Africa, the Far East and South West Asia —other
centres —the Epoch of Withdrawal and Concentration.

.47.3. The Great Mother 263

The main region of the Great Mother cult in South West
Asia —earliest evidences in Anatolia—it originated out of
the procreation of the new Homo sapiens sapiens men —the
different emphasis on the Mother notion in other regions —
the notion of the Great Mother arose out of the ancient
fertility cults before agriculture came — agriculture began in
Asia Minor around 8000 B.C. —the Natufians—the settle-
ment at Jericho —the centre at Catal Huyuk — Hacilar —
settlements in the Aegean and Cyprus—the supremacy of
the Mother Goddess in the early farming settlements —the
cult at Cabal Huyuk and Hacilar —the Great Earth Mother
and the later funerary architecture of Europe —later ad-
mixtures of other notions —in the Great Mother region the
dominant concern was with practical techniques —only a
rudimentary language was required —the region became the
homeland for the other three cultures.

.47.4. The Great Spirit 268

Creativity as the Great Spirit— Tao — the animistic beliefs
of Oceania, Polynesia, South-East Asia, South India and
Central Asia—Mana — the Shaman —the theme of harmony
with nature —technical progress was slow in the Far East —
the difference between Northern and Southern China in the
transition to Homo sapiens sapiens—the continued practice of

D.U. IV-----2

XXXiv CONTENTS

magic in the Far East to this day—the significance of
ceremonial magic — concentration upon the present moment
and creative power — Nirvana—the corresponding aggluti-
native language structure created by the centre.

17.47.5. The Creator God 270

The ending of the pluvial rains —the psychological effect of
the sun in the East and North of Africa —symbol of the
Creative Power—probable choice of the Ethiopian Massif
for the location of the centre—the Lupemban, Stillbay and
Upper Kenya Capsian cultures made little progress after the
withdrawal—the nature of the African magician and chief—
the strictly organized tribal societies —the level of African
magic after the withdrawal of the Guides—worship of sun,
creator and king —the African contribution to the Egyptian
civilization and stock—the early Neolithic cultures of Egypt
—the Tasian, Badarian and Amritian cultures—the racial
elements that had combined in Egypt by the end of the
fourth millennium B.C. —reconstruction of the early Egyptian
beliefs —Re, Horus and Ptah—the Creator-God-notion and
Atum —the singularity of Egyptian beliefs—the Hamito-
semitic language structure was probably diffused before the
founding of Egypt — the complex level of Egyptian thought —
the power of the root-language from which Arabic and
Hebrew came.

17.47.6. The Saviour God 275

The open route from Western Europe into the Arctic —
legendary accounts—the evidence derived by B. G. Tilak
from the Rig Vedas —dominant impressions in the Arctic
regions — correspondences in the Vedic hymns and the
Vendidad —sacrificial fire —the significance of Ushas, the
goddess of the Dawn.

17.47.6.1. EVIDENCE OF FAVOURABLE

CLIMATES AND HABITATION 277

Climatic conditions from the Allerod oscillation to the
Atlantic phase—the North European Maglemosian cultures
— the Fosna and Komsa cultures and early settlements in
the Baltic and Northern Russia — possible relations between
the Gravettians and the Magdalenians in the movement
Northwards.

17.47.6.2. THE CREATIVE WORK 279

The originators of the Aryan Culture — postulate of a region
of very favourable climate —the main theme of the Hyper-
borean tradition —the creation of the Indo-European lan-

CONTENTS XXXV

guage was probably also achieved by the Arctic centre —the
task of creating a totally new linguistic structure within an
Epoch —it required Psychoteleios Guides closely linked with
the Demiurgic Intelligences —the immense influence of the
Indo-European linguistic structure today —the Arctic
conditions forced people into long periods of inactivity —
the physical environment was used to provide motivation
for the acquisition of a new language —the sagas of salvation
— good and evil and the Arctic day and night—Tilak's
interpretation of the myth of the exploits of Vitra-han —the
sacred language was shared by those who had proved their
merit —the prevalence of rituals—within a thousand years
the new language had been established amongst the Arctic
people —climatic conditions forced them to move South
about 8000 B.C.—the achievement of developing human
thought—men had not before had an apparatus for mental
reflection —relevance of the hypothesis of guidance from
Higher Powers."

17.47.7. The Epoch of Diffusion 284

The period of migration—the spreading of the new ideas and
languages—the hazard of the situation —conditions of social
life in this period—the narrow perspective of ordinary
people —the intentional education of the peoples of the earth
—patterns of distribution and movement of the four main
cultures.

17.47.7. I. THE GREAT MOTHER CULTURE 286

The early Neolithic phase in the Near East—the slow
spread of agriculture —towns and trade.

1A. Europe 286

Anatolia and South-East Europe —the Mediterranean —
the spread of the Danubian culture—the spread of the
Black Earth culture—the spread of the Western Neolithic —
Swiss Lake Villages and the Windmill Hill culture —the
Megalithic architecture constructed under guidance from
the Eastern Mediterranean —cult of the axe.

1B. Iran and India 288

Spread of agriculture to Iran —Baluchistan —villages north-
ward of the Indus —the foundation of Harappa and Mohen-
jo-daro.

1C. North Africa 288

Colonists from South-West Asia went to Libya and Egypt —
traces of the cult in Upper Egypt.

XXXVI CONTENTS

17.47.7.2. THE GREAT SPIRIT CULTURE 289

Extensive movements took place with the nomadic Asian
peoples.

2A. America 289

Mongoloids crossed the Bering land bridge into Alaska
during the Paudorf interstadial —the Palaeo-western and
Palaeo-eastern streams probably converged in Meso-
america before the movement into South America —the
Palaeo-eastern big game hunters —the Palaeo-western food-
gatherers—the later Archaic period —Great Spirit notions
and agglutinative languages of the Red Indians — Great
Spirit notions in South America—the mystery of the wor-
ship of Sun and Creator-God—the languages and beliefs of
the Eskimos.

2B. The Pacific 291

The great sea-migrations to the Polynesian and Melanesian
Islands —origins in South-East Asia—the diffusion of
Mongoloids into China—the great navigators —the early
writing and language-structure of the Polynesians — Great
Spirit notions.

2C. Western Asia and Scandinavia 292

Movements into the region of the Gobi and the Oxus —
prevalence of Shamanism—possible influences of the tradi-
tion on Scandinavia and Finland.

17.47.7.3. THE CREATOR GOD CULTURE 292

The northerly route into Egypt — the Hamito-semitic
languages — Berber and Libyan —Arabic—Abyssinian
languages — Chad and Cushiti tongues —the suggested
centre in the Congo —the migrations of the Bantus—the
mystery of Andean sun-worship.

17.47.7.4. THE SAVIOUR GOD CULTURE 293

Domestication of animals—the centum and sentum branches
of Indo-European language and culture.

4A. Northern and Central Europe 293

The region of the battle-axe peoples.

4B. Southern Europe 294

The origins of the Greek and Roman cultures.

CONTENTS XXXvii

4C. Western and Central Asia 294

Amalgamation with people of the Far East—movement
southward into Iran and Afghanistan.

17.47.7.5. THE HYPERBOREAN WORLD 294

The two separate worlds of the Hyperborean and the Great
Mother cultures—the Hyperborean community of thought
amongst Celts, Norse-peoples and Iranians —the hazardous
world—the Saviour-notion.

17.47.7.6. THE BEGINNING OF THE

GREAT TRADITION 295

The diffusions were not directed solely by environmental
pressures — the hypothesis of the intelligent guidance of
evolution —Demiurgic guidance in the distribution of
languages and cultures —the Great Work and its beginnings

— the arising of Initiates as Priests who were leaders of the
peoples —transmission of the new languages, myths and
rituals—what had been achieved by the beginning of the
fifth millennium B.C. — it demonstrates the work of a high
Intelligence —the Guides and Priests—the Great Tradition.

17.47.8. The Exoteric Epoch 297

Increase in the complexity of social life—the arising of an
exoteric group — the four cultures had come into contact
with each other —linguistic evidence —each culture made a
specific contribution towards the Great Work —the opposing
notions of the Creator-God and the Saviour-God traditions

— comparison of the Aryan sense of the Dramatic Universe
with the Egyptian notion of the Creator-God.

17.47.8.1. GREAT MOTHER CULTURE 299

The Great Mother notion leads towards practical and con-
servative communities —the impact of other cultures on the
notion.

17.47.8.2. GREAT SPIRIT CULTURE 300

The universal presence of the Great Spirit —it works from
within —the role of the Shaman —social harmony and the
attitude to death.

17.47.8.3. CREATOR GOD CULTURE 3OO

The certainty it offers — confidence in immortality—the
symbolism of the Neter —the importance of-manifestation—
the rituals and pageants of Egypt.

XXXV111 CONTENTS

17.47.8.4. SAVIOUR GOD CULTURE 3OI

The sense of insecurity— the recognition of sin and the need
for salvation—the search of the Hyperborean peoples —their
influence on other peoples and cultures.

17.47.8.5. THE PROGRESS OF THE EPOCH 302

The four cultures were developed independently and then
combined —some pure cases of each of the four cultures —
the meeting ground of South-West Asia — encounters be-
tween cultures were increasing—the intermediate group
appears —the chain of transmission — human responsibi-
lity for technical developments — interpretation of cultures
to each other —the isolation of America and Africa —appear-
ance of the great deserts and the fertile valleys —the pattern
of settlement —continuity of tradition in South-west Asia —
the development of irrigation in the Fertile Crescent—the
significance of the emergence of urban civilization —inven-
tions and economics —the invention of writing—the Sumer-
ian phonetic script—the effect of writing on the root
languages —the making of records — distribution of the
progressive cultures—trade and the rising importance of
specialized craftsmen—man became exposed to material
forces —social organization became a means for the expres-
sion of egoism—moral deterioration—the expansion of war-
fare— class-oppression—the end of the Epoch.

17.47.9. The Hemitheandric Epoch 307

The Hemitheandric Master Idea and its interpretation by
the four cultures —immortality was in the power of the
Hemitheandros — the doctrine of Hvareno —the sacramental
role of the Hemitheandroi — they were not ordinary men —
the testament of the old texts—great thinkers and guardians
of justice — Melchisedec—wisdom was the central charac-
teristic of the semi-divine ruler —the establishment of
administration —the reconciling role of the Hemitheandroi
in society—new ideas on man and his destiny—their influ-
ence on human motivations—the heroic search for true im-
mortality and the foundation of a religious attitude —pre-
valence of the practice of divination — its significance as an
instrument of selecting children with important potentiali-
ties—the different order of perception involved —selective
development of humanity's mental powers —the task to be
met was the construction of civilizations —experiments in
forms of government—the total disregard for human life
and suffering—the Homeric world—the creation of mathe-
matics and medicine —technological achievements —the
foundation of the scientific tradition—the absence of

CONTENTS XXxix

scientific speculation —the significance of the myth of
ancient science —the appearance of specific artistic styles —
achievements in design —the pattern of events around the
third millennium B.C. —the main civilized powers —the
Kassite dynasty —the Hyksos invaders of Egypt—the rise
of Cretan power —its destruction and Plato's account of
Atlantis —the imbalance created by Crete in the Eastern
Mediterranean and South-West Asia —the Israelites ab-
sorbed notions from three of the main cultures —the Exodus
of the Israelites was enabled by precognition of the pre-
determined future — changes in the total balance of power —
infiltration and conquest by Indo-Europeans — the founda-
tion of Iranian civilization—the wide-spread evidence of
disorder amongst the civilizations — the distintegration of
traditional Chinese culture—loss of contact with the hidden
groups—the coming of the Iron Age —the breakdown of
moral values —attempts to arrest the disintegration—the
spiritual darkness of the end of the Epoch —the beginning of
unnoticed preparations for a new Epoch.

CHAPTER 48. MIND AND LOVE 321

17.48.1. The Great Work 321

The nature of Epochs —man has become increasingly
able to recognize the prevalent Master Idea—man's increas-
ing responsibility towards the Epochal Work —the progress
made despite failure on the visible level of history —the
Plan for mankind—the situation at the end of the Hemi-
theandric Epoch — the Demiurgic Powers could not trans-
mit the energy of Love which mankind needed —a direct
contact between the Cosmic Individuality and the human
soul was not possible because of human egoism —egoism
is a substantial condition of the Soul-stuff pool —its effect
on the will of Man and the Great Work—the rebellion of
Demiurgic Powers against the Plan for mankind—Psychote-
leios men and how they appear to ordinary men —they are
connected both with the Hyparchic future and with psycho-
kinetic men—the Hidden Directorate—its origins at the
beginning of the Great Cycle which began 12,500 years ago
— the powers of the Hidden Directors — inference of the
reality of the Great Work —belief in Hidden Direction is
foreign to the mental atmosphere of today —certain work
of the Demiurgic Intelligences is being gradually trans-
ferred into the hands of visible men.

17.48.2. The Megalanthropic Master Idea 327

The Hemitheandric Epoch had brought the four cultures
into interaction—the disintegration of political and social

xi CONTENTS

history — the universal sense of disillusionment — assess-
ment of the Hemitheandric Epoch—the new Megalanthropic
Master Idea and the influence of Divine Love —the relative
power of the development of Mind and Soul —the humanist,
religious and synergic interpretations of the doctrine of
human greatness —humanism, religion and synergism arose
and developed almost simultaneously.

17.48.3. The Birth of Religion 329

Religion arose out of the ordinary people —signs in the
seventh century of preparation for the new dispensation —
the attainment of political stability in China, Rome, India
and Persia—the theocratic structure of Persia under the
Achaemenidae — in Rome and Persia the rulers made no
Hemitheandric claims — the proclamation of the way open
to all prepared to take it —preparation for the act of
Redemption —each of the four cultures made a contribution
to the total Revelation — Cosmic Action and the Creator
God, Great Mother, Great Spirit and Saviour notions —the
Idea of God and the four basic notions.

17.48.3.I. THE GREAT MOTHER 331

The mysteries in Greece, Syria, Asia Minor and Egypt —
the transformation of the cult in 600 B.C.—its influence
upon Pythagoras.

17.48.3.2. THE GREAT SPIRIT 332

Lao Tzu and Confucius — Great Spirit notions in India —
the Buddha, Kapila and other teachers —the Open Way.

17.48.3.3. THE CREATOR GOD 332
The 'Supreme Lord' of Jewish belief—Isiah.

17.48.3.4 THE SAVIOUR GOD 333

Zoroaster — notions of the Good Wisdom that overcomes
Evil—the new doctrine of the Saviour —the Zapotec
prophet —in Zoroastrianism fulfilment is beyond time.

17.48.4. The Drama of Revelation 334

The new sense of individual rights and the injunction of the
Buddha—the value of the human person was unanimously
proclaimed by Psychoteleios Prophets and Messengers —
the making of the modern world — on the mental level there
were bound to be contradictions and conflicts—the dramatic
structure of the Revelation —the birth of Religion as a new
bond between man and God —an example of preparation in

CONTENTS

the absorption of Zoroastrian notions by the Israelites
during the captivity —their Messianic hopes—the Hidden
Directorate were working in terms of the Future —the
Israelites as chosen people — dramatic events amongst other
peoples—scale and duration of the event of Revelation and
Redemption—the relationship of the human person to
God — Megalanthropy.

17.48.5. The Time of Christ

The historical interpretation of human sin and the Incarna-
tion of the Cosmic Individuality — the fall of man brought
about a concentration of sinfulness — the singular character
of the Redemptive Act on the Earth —it reproduces a Cosmic
Act — it must be commensurate with the total evolution of
life on the earth—religious interpretations based on the
experiences of individuals —the concreteness of the In-
carnation— need for a modern synergic interpretation —
humanism can make no sense of purpose in human life and
tries to avoid the central dilemma of human sin —progress
is not inevitable — the Christian faith must not be diluted —
many people come close to looking for a synergic interpreta-
tion of man's relationship to God—the false hypostization in
science which obscures the evidence for Intelligent Guid-
ance—the naive anthropomorphism to be found in all
religions —the identity of Jesus Christ with God pertains to
Will and not to Being—Jesus Christ was born a perfected
man and had no need of transformation—the Affirmative
Will of God cannot apply to any one specific region—the
Supreme Will is individualized as the Cosmic Individuality
— the further step of entering into history with the Incarna-
tion—the rebel Demiurgic Will could not but will man to
continue in sin—human soul-stuff was substantially im-
pregnated by egoism —by the first century B.C. there was a
universal feeling of man's inevitable suffering—the Hidden
Directorate were aware of the approaching Moment—in
order to redeem mankind the Power of Divine Love was
brought —the awakening to compassion and redemption in
Buddhism —preparation by the Hidden Directorate—the
mental preparation amongst the four cultures — the Mes-
sianic expectation of the Israelites formed the exoteric
aspect of the Christ-event —amongst the Hyperborean
peoples the notion of the Dying God was fostered—the
preparation in the Great Mother and Great Spirit cultures —
the coalescence of the different elements of the Christian
faith by the Unitive Energy in the esoteric field of action —
hints of the special work concerned with concentrating the
higher energies—the esoteric phase—the Annunciation
and the foreordained future — Mary's acceptance and the
d.u. iv—2*

xli

338

xlii CONTENTS

hyparchic present of humanity—the Decree of Man's
Redemption —even the disciples did not pass through the
hyparchic barrier and understand the sayings of Christ —
the Kingdom of God lay in the hyparchic future not in
future time — through the Unitive Energy all levels of society
were connected in Love—manifestations of the concentra-
tion of Unitive Energy in the Saints and martyrs—the Life
and Passion of Christ —action of Christ in the Hyparchic
Past—the importance for the exoteric domain of the Resur-
rection— the testament of the four gospels — we must under-
stand the Resurrection as being in the Hyparchic Present of
Jesus and those present with Him in Love—how Jesus
appeared to the women and the disciples and passed into the
Hyparchic Future —we can accept the Gospel narrative
literally—the transformation of the disciples at Pentecost
through the Unitive Energy—the completion of the doctrine
of the Incarnation.

17.48.6. The Missing Elements

The absence of methods in Christianity to enable us to
live the life of salvation — it has looked to other sources for
its completion —the doctrine of Christianity is imbalanced
and relies on an inadequate anthropology—the Church lost
contact with the Hidden Directorate at the time of Con-
stantine—the necessary practical knowledge was still extant
in regions affiliated to the Great Spirit Culture—what may
have taken place with the destruction of Jerusalem — the
construction of the Synoptic Johannine gospels to build up

by stages a foundation for Christianity—those who saw

directly the action of the Resurrection and understood the
mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven—what could be said
and what was unspeakable —the projection of an Image of
Christ and the action of the martyrs who gave substance to
it —those who saw the Truth had no need of psychological
methods —in Buddhism, work was necessary for trans-
formation—the Desert Fathers inspired by the Holy Spirit
developed techniques of transformation—the role of St.
Benedict and St. Gregory —the new transmission in the
Far East — Manichaeism — the totally unexpected rise of
Islam —the separation between the events of the life of the
Prophet and the appearance of the written Qur'an —his later
life and triumph—the rapid spread of Islam —the excellence
of the Prophet's Companions — how Islam redressed the
balance between the four essential elements of religion —the
whole structure of the events of the millennium of Revelation
was centred on the infusion of Unitive Energy into the soul
of humanity —the influence of the centre at Baghdad—the
significance of Balkh.

351

CONTENTS xliii

Chapter 49. MIND AND SOUL 360

17.49.1. The Rise of Humanism 360

The two actions of the contact with the Unitive Energy
and the entrance of the Megalanthropic Master Idea —
because of the taint of sin, man has failed to understand
that he should serve the Great Work—the action of the
Unitive Energy is slower than that of the development of
Mind —there should be signs of intervention from the
Hidden Directorate — the added complications of the period
due to the progress of mind—we shall study the parallel
development of mind and soul — the rise of Humanism at the
start of the Megalanthropic Epoch —it was strongest with
the Great Mother and Great Spirit cultures of the Eastern
Mediterranean and China—humanism puts mind as the
supreme human reality—the development of Greek philo-
sophy exemplifies the rise of humanism—the New Epoch
was visible in the changes in trade, government and philo-
sophy, taking place in China, India, Greece, Assyria, Lydia,
and Syria —by the fourth century b.c. humanism was
established in Greece and China — only in South-West Asia
did religion remain strong—the humanist discovery of the
independent creative power of the mind and its conse-
quences—humanism denies the reality of beings higher
than man and cannot see the reality of sin —the correspond-
ing fallacies of gnosticism —interjection by the Hidden
Directorate can prepare a wave of new ideas differentiated
by the disposition of those who are stimulated — an example
in the messianic expectations of the Jews and others who in
spite of misunderstanding prepared the way for the Re-
deemer to appear to man—in order to understand the nature
of such a process, the two notions of the Hidden Directorate
and the Hyparchic Future are necessary—the development
of humanism has been intentionally guided to provide the
setting for the deeper processes in action during the Epoch
— the three-fold process which can be understood through
the enneagram.

17.49.2. The Stage of Confusion 364

The stage of greatest deviation from the original course
reached by a.d. 700—spurious religious intensity and the
Dark Ages—the cultural centre of Baghdad and the rise
of Sufism — the entrance of the third impulse from the Great
Work —the three phases of the Megalanthropic Epoch —
the Master Idea —Revelation —the Great Work—the third
impulse intentionally completes the original undertaking —
the destruction of the established order in the Dark Ages

xliv

17-49-3-

17.49.4.

17-49-5-

CONTENTS

in Rome, Persia and West Africa—the invisible influences
coming from the centre at Balkh —traces of this in later
times —Egyptian influences through Dh'ul-Nun.

The New Influences a.d. iooo- 1500 367

The problem of the origins of Sufism —similar problems
of Zen and Tantra—they probably came from Balkh —
these movements accepted extant religious forms and were
concerned with techniques for awakening the True Self—
the rise of Christian monasticism and the Hesychast tech-
niques—the common feature of a chain of personal re-
sponsibility—the centres of wisdom —Balkh—the scientific
creativity of the region —the Khwajagan or Masters —
Mongol acts of destruction —some of the Masters went to
Tibet, China, India and Asia Minor —the great figures of
Bektash, Rumi and Nakshbandi —spiritual guidance—the
new principle of Group Activity—the vivification of Euro-
pean culture from the East —there was an intentional tradi-
tion concerned with doing rather than with knowing —the
practical significance of traditional wisdom was not under-
stood in Europe —the lack of significant progress in the
flourishing cultures of India and China —the sense of human
dependence on a Higher Power remained —the time was not
ripe for the transition to the modern world to be brought
about.

The Birth of the Modern World 370

The (transformations in Europe between 1450 and 1550
were paralleled by those in China, India and amongst the
Turks —the centre at Bursa —the new confidence in human
powers was coupled with a belief in an Asiatic source of
hidden knowledge —together, the beliefs of Europe, India
and China point to the Hidden Directorate in the region
of Balkh —the Italian Renaissance—the Platonic Academy
was directed by Pletho who had been trained in the centre at
Bursa —it was concerned with action—man's power over
Nature was expressed by the great buildings of the last
three centuries in China, Turkey, India, Spain and Italy —
all the main civilized regions seemed to be equally partici-
pants in the transition.

The Era of European Pre-eminence 372

The supremacy of European progress was due to the
selection of Europe for a special role—the prevalence of a
traditional symbolism in art, science and literature —the
parallel of Akbar's concern with religious syncretism —
Europe moved towards democratic government—the
influence of guided men upon the course of the Civil War —

CONTENTS xlv

last days of absolute monarchy and the declining power of the
Church —the influence of mystical and occult sources on the
major scientists —Kepler's criticism of Dr. Fludd —as a
totality the arising of modern Europe could not have
happened by chance —the interest in China during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in science and tech-
nology—the crucial factor in Europe was the belief in
Natural Laws and the principle of Sufficient Reason.

17.49.6. The Age of Science 376

The belief in a discoverable key to the hidden workings of
Nature—the transformation of attitude from belief in an
ancient wisdom to belief in man's power to find the key for
himself—in the European mind alone was implemented
the expectation of discovering this — Christianity protected
Europe from extreme results of materialism—the European
need to expand trade was associated with belief in progress
and Natural Expansion—it was foreseen that discovery
itself would eventually destroy the original Megalanthropic
attitudes — the elevation of human reason and the Aufklarung
—the doctrine of natural rights and Rousseau —the In-
dustrial Revolution and the rise of historical materialism —
conflict between authority and reason—the glorification of
human power —it is valid only in the material world —
Europe acquired capital through pillage for the develop-
ment of its industries—the causal aspect of the rise of
modern science and technology—the four sources of
modern science—cooperation as the ideal motivation —the
turning point in the mid-nineteenth century—social reform
and the minority who understood the need for the trans-
formation of man.

17.49.7. The Paths of the Soul 380

The lag of soul-progress behind mind-progress —by ob-
jective morality men are brought within the influence of the
Unitive Energy —custodians of the path of Objective
Morality—this path only rarely produces Initiates — the path
of Accelerated Transformation—the course of invisible
history —centres of wisdom in Asia Minor, Spain, Turkes-
tan, India, China and Japan —outward manifestations of the
transition in Europe —Dante, Pletho and the Italian painters
— St. Francis as a psychoteleios man —religious movements
and schools —the primary work is the transformation of the
higher energies—the nature of the cosmic energies—the
action of Divine Love—the action of Creative Energy —
alchemical symbolism—the transformation and concentra-
tion of energies and the transfer of merits —the
spiritual activity of St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of

xlvi CONTENTS

Avila and St. Ignatius Loyola —in the seventeenth century
mind and soul no longer progressed in harmony —the
decline of religion — groups for transformation still
working in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries —the
results of equating mind with soul —the build-up of material
powers —the nineteenth century —the apparent failure of
religion —prophets of the end of the world as signs of the
birth of a new Epoch.

17.49.8. The Synergic Epoch 385

The moment of transition —synergy and structural co-
operation—men were not prepared to sacrifice any part of
their independent existence towards a higher structure —
example of the French Revolution —expression of the new
Master Idea in various doctrines and beliefs —a new kind of
cooperation between levels of society is required —absolutist
ideas derived from the Megalanthropic Epoch are slowly
being superseded by realistic ideas and a search for struc-
tures—inertia carried on old ideas and assumptions even
in the face of evidence demonstrating their lack of validity —
ordinary man misunderstood the new Master Idea —an
illustration in the disaster of the Tai P'ing movement in
China—the rise of Bahaism —the Brahmo Samaj movement
and Ramakrishna — Soren Kierkegaard and existentialism —
the Communist Manifesto as an expression of the Synergic
Epoch—the accelerated development of cooperative research
after 1850 —the increasing scale of organizations—the burst
of new concepts in science—the significance of the rise of
spiritualism —its synergic character and the evidence it
provides for a possible development of direct communica-
tion between minds — the feeling of separateness and im-
permanence induced by the Megalanthropic Epoch —
changes in our notions of time have not yet produced a better
understanding of it — how the doctrine of Universal Progress
expresses a hope for permanence that is aligned to the New
Epoch.

17.49.9. The Present 393

The world situation during the transition of Epochs —
European dominance—the growing faith in the power and
authority of science—the impact of the First World War —
in general men were blind to its demonstration of human
inadequacy —the Second World War as a more effective
disillusionment—the emergence of synergic organizations —
the rapid growth of the supremacy of organized societies
over personal identity —in the Megalanthropic Epoch
egoism was expressed as religious intolerance — the change
of attitude in the present century which cannot be ascribed

CONTENTS xlvii

to reformers —in the future the conflict between belief and
unbelief will dissolve in a new understanding of true
religion —the deification of man by science which denies the
existence of a higher order of Intelligence—the collapse of
classical physics occasioned by the discoveries and theories
of J. J. Thompson, Einstein and Planck —the obscurity
and complexity of the physical world revealed by modern
science—in biology the discovery of the highly complex
organization of life has made scientists more prepared to
accept the notion of a creative Intelligence working in
Nature —psychology has destroyed the illusion that men are
responsible for their actions — Gurdjieff's picture of human
transformation —in certain fields the more realistic psycho-
logy has become effective—yet man is still regarded as a
conscious responsible being—the Greek influence on
Christian doctrine —the synergic anthropology developed
in Vol. III—man is very far from a sense of Biospheric
responsibility—lack of cooperation between groups —
historical discoveries and the prevalent notion that man can
direct his own evolution —failure to consider the main
problem which is egoism —how information theory can help
man to recognize the need for cooperation with the Higher
Intelligence—that man cannot exercise control over events
is increasingly recognized —the pessimism of modern art
and the destruction of the Megalanthropic image of man —
the intensifying problems of the Modern World—now is
the time for intervention by the Cosmic Individuality—the
rapid decay of goodwill after the Second World War —
growing tensions in the early 1950's—the major world crisis
during the Korean war—how the risk of war has steadily
diminished —this is inexplicable in terms of human action —
an intervention by a Higher Intelligence must have been
made—the connection of this with other evidence of a syn-
ergic action in religion —the invisible war between the
Synergic and the Disruptive forces in human nature—the
time scale of the birth of human creativity —the present
moment is a transition of Epochs and the mid-point of a
Great Cycle.

Chapter 50. THE NEXT AGE OF MIND 404

17.50.1. Visible History 404

The present situation is out of man's control —on the level
of economic history it appears that man should be able to
solve all his problems —the deepening crisis of the dis-
proportionate advance of the highly industrialized societies
as compared with that of the underdeveloped countries —
other kinds of problems which are not self-aggravating —the

xlviii CONTENTS

problem could be solved by acts of sacrifice—the im-
maturity of the human soul — destruction of the fertility
of the soil—the population explosion—voluntary control is
quite impractical as a solution—medical science and hygiene
are encouraging the degeneracy of the human stock —
political history —the fusion of regional political history into
world history —significance of this in terms of wars—the
complexity of world tensions —the explosion of organiza-
tions—beyond certain limits organizations begin to control
the men in them—they attract creative men —human
powerlessness in front of the situation —the history of
mind and the explosion of scientific research —it is by its
nature uncontrollable—the problems of education—the
spread of mass-media and the increasing suggestibility of
people —general psychological strain and drug-addiction —
creative power from the Demiurgic source has given man
dominance over the Biosphere without the corresponding
sense of responsibility —Man wishes to extend his power
and calls this progress.

17.50.2. A First Assessment 410

In spite of prevalent pessimism people are not disturbed
over the future —assessment in the light of the notion of the
Hidden Directorate —controllable and uncontrollable explo-
sions—the explosion of research is uncontrollable being mo-
tivated by human arrogance —possible disasters that will be
brought by new discoveries —discoveries which will bring
power over men's minds into the hands of a power-seeking
man—the greater danger from those who want to do good —
human salvation demands qualities in people that only a very
few possess.

17.50.3. The Evidence for a Hidden Influence 412

The postulate of a Higher Wisdom —increase of order in a
system can come only from an outside source of order — the
evolution of human society is evidence of a guiding Intel-
ligence—intervention in human life is through an organizing
pattern working on mind—economic forces on the large
scale are used towards a greater stability—protection
against the extreme possibilities of edaphic destruction —
an influence restricting Undesirable matings— men who
enter large organizations are of good quality—patterns in
scientific discovery —a comparison of the consequences of
the Michelson-Morley experiment and Mendel's work —
the progress of science has been intelligently guided —
generalization of the conclusion—we can only perceive
material transformations—the region of destiny and creative
opportunities —intervention must come from the hyparchic

CONTENTS - xlix

future and influence men's minds — an analogy in the eye and
the use of light signals —two modes of intervention—un-
conscious connections with the hyparchic future—the prob-
ability of irreversible disaster is so high that the postulate of
an unseen influence is necessary.

17.50.4. The Present Need 417

The Great Work reconciles the affirmation of the fore-
ordained future and the present moment of mankind—the
inadequate number of psychokinetic men and women —
the prevalent illusion concerning human freedom and
responsibility —two levels of transmission from the Hidden
Directorate—the immediacy of soul-action —ways in which
mind and soul are being transformed —the need for an
organized cooperation —psychokinetic transformation —the
future role of the creative energy.

17.50.5. A Further Assessment 419

The purposeful evolution and guidance of the human mind
— four bases for an interpretation of the future—the evid-
ence of visible history —the Synergic Master Idea —the
notion of the Great Cycles—the understanding of time and
destiny—the giving-way of the Megalanthropic emphasis
on the intellectual powers—the awakening of new emo-
tional and intuitive powers —structural insight and the key
men of the modern world —in the future the new powers
will be intentionally developed and creativity employed
with greater understanding—the highest enjoyment will be
found in creative activity —the Redemption has given man
the possibility of conquering egoism —it is not understood
that man must accept Redemption in order for it to become
effective—the flux of the Present Moment—people cannot
accept the reality of Supernatural Powers working in
Nature —the vast time-scale of changes in the human soul-
dramatic moments of special intensity—the Present Moment
is informed by the Second Coming of Christ —the Cosmic
Individuality intervening in human destiny —until the
Parousia the majority of mankind could not accept their
Redemption — a new kind of action was required — through
the Unitive Energy the Cosmic Individuality can purify
human selves—various manifestations result from the con-
tact— the Hidden Directorate is needed to regulate the
process—the process is dependent in part on human co-
operation—misunderstandings—why a special terminology
has been used in the Dramatic Universe—until man can
accept his powerlessness he cannot evolve.

1 contents

17.50.6. Acts of Will 425

The Will-element of our experience —Being conceptions
of God lead to confusion over the Trinity—the momentum
of anthropocentric notions —the will-action whereby the
surrender of man's will to the Supreme Will affords a total
Union—man becomes God as Will —God does not exist as a
man exists —a formulation which avoids pantheistic and
monistic absurdities — the universality of sin and the Act of
Redemption —Christology—the Nicene Creed —assertions
in the New Testament — Christ the only Begotten Son of God
—the Holy Spirit as the Universal Individuality—three
Wills that are one Will — God creates the Dramatic Universe

— Islamic theology —its rejection of a natural will —Mario-
logy—the contradictory interpretations of Mary's role in
Islam and Christianity—the similarities between Muham-
med and Mary —Jesus as Arm — Christian heresies within
Islam —Islam and Christianity agree when interpreted in
terms of Will —the link established by the roles of Mary,
Muhammed and Abraham between the three major religions

— their common ground with Buddhism—interpretations
in terms of Will reconcile dialectical materialism with
religion —differences remain between the various doctrines

— Christianity expresses best the Dramatic character of the
Universe—the surrender the Christian Church is called to
make in order to fulfil the Universal Church — Christ is
transforming the total human situation—the respective
roles of the Psychostatic, Psychokinetic and Psychoteleios
Groups —the true destiny of mankind must become ever
more manifest —the meaning of the Millennium — expansion
of the present moment of people to embrace the total
Millennium—the future manifestation of the Great Work as
the Word of God—the example of Christ —leadership in
self-effacement — supernatural intervention and human
cooperation.

GLOSSARY 436

INDEX

of titles of books and papers 442

of proper names 444

of subjects 447

INTRODUCTION

This last volume of our survey of the Dramatic Universe is devoted
to history, and especially to the history of the human mind. In a very
significant sense, History is the content of the mind; for all that has
happened since the world began is present to the mind, notwithstanding
that only an infinitesimal part can be discerned in any detail. Con-
versely, it can validly be said that without mind there would be no
history—nothing but an endless array of meaningless transformations
of matter and energy.

The intimate connection between Mind and History is made in the
Present Moment. The present moment is the totality-of immediate
experience both actual and possible. All that is experienced is present,
but it does not follow that what is not experienced is not present. As we
read a book only one page is directly experienced; but all the rest are
present and so too are the other unnoticed books on the shelves behind
us. The Present Moment is the one immediate certainty of our experi-
ence and yet it is vaguely outlined and its content varies in many differ-
ent ways. Moreover, the 'present moment' of one person is different
from that of another. Much the same can be said of both mind and
In lory. There are separate minds, partial minds, collective minds, and
there are also 'other' minds.

We are accustomed to associate history with the 'past' and indeed
as a convenient mode of description this works well enough. But we do
not directly experience the past, except in rare states of consciousness
when it appears to be present. The 'past' is a verbal fiction that, when
liken to refer to some actual object, can be very misleading. Without
mind, no meaning could be assigned to the word 'past', as all events
Would have an equal status within the 'Absolute World'. For mind, the
situation is totally different; so different indeed that mind cannot
conceive mindlessness, but unfailingly projects itself into the entire
content of its own experience. This makes it hard to realize that historical
reality is substantially different from the simple sequence of events.
Thus we fall into the two-fold illusion of supposing that we can con-
template history without mind and mind without history. This involves
us in the further error of supposing that we can contemplate anything
at all except the content of the present moment.

If we put aside this last error and accept that all experience is in the

4 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

present moment; we have to choose between solipsism, or the doctrine
that only 'my' present moment is real, and coalescence, or the belief that
the present moments of separate selves can be united within a Greater
Present. In the present volume, we shall adopt the second alternative
and take it as the foundation of a view of history that treats the real
world as a Chinese nest of present moments containing, and contained
by, others. This view agrees with our private experience that is always
'of the present moment and yet is constantly varying in extent, dura-
tion and content. The apparent incongruity of treating history as if it
were contained in the present moment, is due to the habit of thought,
prevalent for thousands of years among speakers of the Indo-European
group of languages, of treating experience as a linear sequence of
events. 'Time', according to this habit of thought, appears as an in-
dependent reality in which 'before and after' and 'past, present and
future' have objective meaning apart from the experience they qualify.
It is not easy for those who are conditioned by linguistic form to enter
into the experience of others who, though also conditioned by their own
modes of thought, are free from the illusion that the nature of time is
adequately expressed by the past, present and future tenses of the
Indo-European verb. The sense of the Present Moment is conveyed
with great force in the Semitic languages, which have no intrinsic verbal
forms for expressing the flow of time.

We cannot abandon our native languages, but we can seek to remedy
their defects. The habit of treating time as an objective reality has been
to some extent cured in modern physics by relativity and quantum
theory, which help us to put aside the illusions of an absolute time
and of continuous process. Experimental psychology has shown that
the duration and extent of the present moment can be measured for
different forms of experience and that it combines, dissociates and
changes with variations in mental state. We use forms of speech that
affirm the universal significance of 'here and now', such as when we say
'at the present moment' or, more rhetorically, 'we who are privileged to
share in this present historic moment'. The intuitive awareness that
present moments can coalesce into a greater present is no illusion but,
on the contrary, of great positive significance. The present moment does
undoubtedly change, contract, expand, divide and coalesce, and yet it
always remains unique and unlike any other kind of situation. The
point is that all actual experience is contained in the present moment
and it is not to be found elsewhere.

The usage of the term 'present moment' refers to periods of time
which vary from seconds to centuries and from the transient states of

INTRODUCTION 5

a single person to the common experience of many, even millions. We
must therefore look for some common feature and this we find in the
connection between the 'present' and the 'Will'.

The peculiarity of the present moment consists in that its uniqueness
does not imply singularity: but, that it is always experienced as the only
one of its kind. In this respect it resembles a formal property like
roundness. There is nothing like roundness—it is the only one of its
kind and therefore unique. But it is not singular for we meet with many
instances of roundness. This may give us the key to grasping the charac-
ter of the present moment. Just as roundness is the property common
to all round objects, so is the present moment the property common to
all centres of experience. We cannot write 'selves' for centres of experi-
ence, because we have seen that the present moment can be shared by
many. We can write Will, but the justification for doing so cannot be
developed here. It has been suggested in Vol. II in connection with
Individuality and Self-hood and it was reinforced in Vol. III in con-
nection with Human Societies. As the purpose of this Introduction is
to indicate the lines we propose to follow in our account of history, we
shall make the assumption that the apparent contradiction of the
uniqueness and non-singularity of the Present Moment is due to a
property of the Will that is not recognized in our usual modes of thought.

With this assumption we can say that the Will determines the extent
and character of the Present Moment. All that is outside the sway of
any particular will is also outside its present moment. It follows that
the present moment is perpetually being invaded, enriched, weakened,
strengthened, by the influx and efflux of elements extraneous to the
will. Among these elements are traces and memories that we refer to
the 'past'; expectations, fears, foresights, that we refer to the 'future';
forms and patterns that we relate to eternity and acts of separation and
coalescence conditioned by hyparxis. These various elements are all
experienced within the present moment, but they originate outside it.
An important group of these elements that enter and leave the present
moment gives rise to the experience that we interpret as Time. We do
not question the authenticity of the experience of successive changes in
the content of the present moment, nor the validity of the distinction
between traces and memories on the one hand and expectations on the
other. We do, however, question the common assumption that memory
refers to experiences that 'no longer exist' and expectation to experi-
ences that 'do not yet exist'. If the present moment is enlarged a
memory becomes a present experience. It can also happen that an
expectation becomes a present experience—for example in the pheno-

6 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

menon of pre-cognition. Since enlargement and contraction of the
present moment may occur to any degree—at any rate we know no
limits to the possibility—there is no justification for saying that there is
an absolute past or an absolute future or even that 'before and after' can
always be predicated of two events. Situations that, for our small present
moment, appear to be separated by the relation of before and after may,
for another and greater will than ours, all be here and now. The same
argument applies to separation in space. That which on one scale is 'at
a distance', on another scale is 'here'. My own house is here and now
for my personal life and other houses are 'at a distance'. But for my life
as a member of a community all houses in the village and all its inhabi-
tants are here and now. Such modes of coalescence are familiar to us,
but we do not recognize that they depend upon acts of will. They are
transformations of extent and content of the present moment brought
about by a shift of the interest or attention. This is, whether conscious
or unconscious, an act of will. The man who has no will to be a citizen
does not belong to the present moment of the city and is not even aware
of it.

The connection between space-like coalescence and will is not hard to
recognize. That which arises in time-like experience is harder to accept.
And yet it should be obvious that a 'past' moment can become 'present'
if we accept its present reality and do not thrust it away from us. We
live in a small world because we have a small will. Development and
evolution in the true sense involve coalescences of will, and so the en-
largement of the Present Moment. Coalescence of the will comes by
its exercise and this is possible because it is opposed by a disintegrating
or disordering tendency that invades the present moment. Here we
meet the true character of Time. Time is the name that we give to the
disruptive influence that enters our present moment. In so far as we
succumb to this influence, we find past and future separated from us
and from each other. We do not readily grasp that the disruption is
due to the weakness of our own will. Hence we treat time as an objective
reality and the temporal sequence as independent of man or of any other
mode of existence.

In the present volume, we shall start with an examination of the
various ways in which the present moment seeks to preserve its identity
against the disruptive influences that enter it. We refer to these collec-
tively as the War with Time.

Within the present moment, there is a state of change or flux. This is
of at least two kinds, that can be called causal and purposive. We can
distinguish also insignificant and significant change. The first kind is

INTRODUCTION 7

unrelated to the will that characterizes the present moment, while the
other stems directly or indirectly from acts of will. These two kinds of
change correspond to 'happening' and 'history'. In this way, we pass
from the study of experience as the given totality to the discrimination
of direction and purpose transcending the immediate present.

Significance cannot be predicated of a situation that has no recog-
nizable order. And since significance is certainly relative, there must
be more orderly and less orderly situations. The hierarchy of order cor-
responds to the series of multi-term systems introduced in Vol. II and
more fully developed in Chapter 37 of Vol. III. With the help of the
results obtained we shall set up a Systematics of History in Chapter 43.
In this way, we shall connect history with the present moment and the
struggle between Order and Disorder that we have called the War with
Time.

Having laid the foundations of our historical studies, we shall exa-
mine the story of this earth and the appearance and evolution of life
to the point where the organization of sensitivity in the higher animals
made possible the arising of Mind. The seven chapters of Part 17 will
be devoted to the History of Mind until it reaches the Present Moment
shared by the writer and the readers of this book. We shall end with
a survey of 'expectations' that will take us beyond the present situation
into the future of mankind.

The concept of the present moment as the total situation accessible
to the operations of a 'will' is decisive for understanding the Universal
Drama and its projections into the life of man. The concept is exceed-
ingly hard to seize and it is irreducible to simpler terms. In Vol. II we
devoted five chapters, 27-31, to the study of will. At that stage, we
identified will and relatedness, so making the triad the characteristic
system for the operations of the will. We do not find it necessary to
modify in any radical manner the conclusions then reached—particularly
those referring to Self-hood and Individuality—but the emphasis should
not be so exclusively placed upon the triadic property of relatedness.
Will manifests in every structure as the principle whereby the structure
is structured. In the tetrad, it is the principle of order and directed
activity. In the pentad, will means the principle of significance where-
by the present moment seeks to expand into the unpresent. The six-
lerm system of the will is the form of its coalescence. A coalescence is an
element of the historical process: it is directed, purposive and structured.
In coalescence, the present moment realizes its own pattern and
coalescence means a concerted and complex act of will.

From these notions, we come to that of progress as the transformation

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

of the present moment from a state of lower order organization to a
state of higher and more stable organization. The difference between
this view of progress and those commonly held is that it does not
distinguish between subjective and objective order. The entire present
moment subject to the sway of the will is the field of the ordering
activity. Inner and outer order are separable in theory but not in prac-
tice. In this light, history acquires an unique significance as the self-
realization of will. That which was fragmented and therefore transient,
is in process of coalescence whereby its unity will be restored. This
coalescence brings together fragments of will and builds them into a
complex, organized structure. The history of mind shows us how this
process operates. Understanding of the Historical Process resolves the
enigma of the Dramatic Universe and provides an answer to our initial
question as to the meaning and purpose of human life on the earth.
The study of history is thus the best and even the only possible final
stage of the enquiry to which these four volumes have been addressed.

Chapter Forty-two
THE WAR WITH TIME

16.42.1. The Present Moment

We live within the present moment. So far as we can have any
direct perception and sure knowledge, this present moment is all that
there is. Because its content changes, we tend to think of it as im-
permanent, a state of 'perpetual perishing' as Locke expressed it. But it
is also a state of perpetual renewal and neither perishing nor renewal
are so certain as the immediate experience of the present as always
here and now.

We are accustomed to think of our experience as consisting of a
series or succession of moments, one of which is present while the
others are either 'past' or 'future'. There is no justification for this way
of looking at our experience except that it is convenient to separate in
the present moment three kinds of elements that can be called 'traces
and memories', 'immediate mental objects' and 'expectations and hopes'.
All three are contained in the present and we can, if we find it conveni-
ent, label them as past, present and future; but there is an objection to
treating experience in this way, inasmuch as memories and expectations
are also 'immediate mental objects'.

A further and decisive objection to treating past and future as distinct
from the present moment is that this present moment is not fixed in
duration and extent any more than it is unvarying in content. There is
evidently in the present moment the relationship of parts and whole,
such that both parts and whole are equally describable as 'the present
moment'. We can speak of the present as the smallest interval of time
and the minimum content that we can be aware of: we can also speak of
it as the maximum duration that we can hold in our immediate aware-
ness. But we can and do go further and take as the 'present', the entire
field of our immediate concern. This field can range from a specific
action or event in which we are continuously engaged, to the entire life of
mankind over a century or more. Thus we speak of the 'present' century
or the 'present age of science'. All these uses of the words 'present' and
'present moment' are equally legitimate and they evidently imply and
require the relationship of part and whole.

14 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

One further preliminary observation is required. The extent and co-
herence of the present moment are evidently connected with the em-
brace of our awareness. We can say that the present moment for each
one of us is relative to the integrative power of our own will. For
subjective idealism, the present moment is nothing but the content
of the mind. For objective materialism, the mind is nothing but the
content of the present moment. The two viewpoints are in contradic-
tion only if we import artificial distinctions of past, present and
future, or here and now, there or elsewhere, into our interpretation
of experience.

The present moment contains what we may call 'latent mental
objects', that is objects whose existence is as certain for us as those we
perceive or think, but which are not directly present to our awareness.
The back of my head is a latent mental object within my own present
moment. Thus the present moment has an indefinite boundary between
the perceived and the unperceived. It also has what we shall describe
as 'invariant forms'. For example, in every present moment and every
part of it, there is the form of the circle or of the human body. These are
not necessarily immediate mental objects, nor are they latent, because
they can enter our experience only in company with a trace, a sensation
or an expectation.

We have also, as part of the furniture of the present moment, patterns
which are not invariant but which do not change in the same way as the
three main constituents. Patterns are related to traces and expectations
and serve to link them together. Thus the behaviour-pattern of a person
links the memory of mental objects associated with him to the expecta-
tion of mental objects also associated with him. The genetic pattern of
an organism accompanies it in the present moment and binds traces and
expectations, even though we have no immediate mental object of the
pattern or of its expectations.

Finally, we associate with the present moment decisions or acts of
will which we believe have the effect of changing its expectation-
content. The possibility of such acts is bound up with the duration and
extent of the present moment. We have to be aware—as immediate
mental objects—of more than one trace or memory and of more than one
expectation. This we call 'being faced with a choice'.

All of these elements enter our experience in such a way as to
make the present moment what it is and also convince us that
there is always a more extensive field beyond the present moment
and yet containing it. There are constant exchanges between the
present moment and the larger region which contains it. These

THE WAR WITH TIME 15

exchanges are the core of experience and our constant and almost sole
concern.

The description we have given is wholly derived from our immediate
mental objects; that is to say, it is wholly empirical. It makes no use of
our ideas about ourselves or the world, nor does it require or permit any
kind of verification or justification. It is not a matter of belief or demon-
scration. All of these become necessary when we begin to connect
mental objects with decisions and actions and find it necessary to take
latent objects, forms, patterns, traces and expectations, into account
without adequate understanding of the way in which they are all
connected.

One of the first steps is to sort the contents of the present moment
into classes. This we shall do in terms of the geometry developed in
Vol. I. We can represent the descriptions we have given by means of a
symbolical diagram.

The six lines with arrows are the six 'outer' elements and the circle
the circle marked is the immediate mental object or awareness of 'here
and now'.

It is easy to see that this is similar to our scheme of dimensions if
we write:

D.U. IV—3

The diagram serves to remind us that all our experience is of what
enters the present moment. The illusion that the present 'come out of
the future and 'goes into' the past is due to a wrong habit of thought
which confuses the different elements, and so treats the combination of
'forms' and 'immediate mental objects' as if they had some status
independent of the experience of the present moment. Thus, we think
of a 'chair' as 'existing in time and space' and we stigmatize as 'idealism'
the view that a chair is nothing at all apart from a moment of experience.
The chair has its own 'present moment' and it is what it is in its present
moment and in no other way. The present moment of the chair may be a
part of the present moment of some human mind, but need not neces-
sarily be so.

From such considerations we conclude that all that we need to under-
stand, in order to act successfully, is the way in which the present
moment is constituted and the way in which it reacts with the larger
region in which it is contained. Unfortunately, this does not get us
very far, for it leaves us with the entire content of our experience
to reckon with. We have, however, made a real step forward inasmuch
as we have a common framework for all our problems: the Present
Moment.

the war with time 17

16.42.2. Order Against Disorder

The Present Moment is the scene of an unending conflict between the
forces of order and disorder. It is only recently that the intimate con-
nection between disorder and time has been understood in quantitative
terms, thanks to the inspiration of Boltzmann who showed that time
and entropy, disorder and increasing probability are linked together
in the second Law of Thermodynamics. We have covered much of the
ground in Vol. I and therefore can go straight to the main point that
concerns our understanding of the present moment.

We can picture order being created within the present and disorder
invading it from without. The present is always here and now, but it is
under a constant disordering influence or action that, if not counter-
acted, would reduce it to meaningless chaos. A hundred years ago,
physicists could not imagine an ordering influence sufficiently uni-
versal in its operation to prevent the ultimate victory of disorder—the
'Heat Death of the Universe', in the picturesque phrase made famous
by Lord Kelvin's British Association address.

We are not concerned here with the fate of the Universe. It may be
that there is a continuous renewal of order upon the atomic or even
quantum level. It may be that the universe is moving towards a final
catastrophe. Or it may be that over vast cycles of tens of thousands of
millions of years order and disorder succeed one another, so that the
Total Present Moment of All Existence contains a balance of ordered
and disordered states or processes. It is very unlikely that mankind will
ever resolve these questions, for every new discovery discloses more
complex and unfathomable depths of structure and process upon scales
that make the million years of man's existence on the earth a very small
'present moment'.

Our task is to find guiding principles for the study of that part of our
experience that consists in recognizing 'traces' that have entered the
present moment from the 'past'. This is what we call 'history' and it is
the history of life on the earth that concerns us directly. We can posit a
present moment, large for us but small for the universe, that consists
of the total existence of this planet from the moment that the conditions
for life began to arise to the moment at which they will cease to exist.
Measured by the clock this may have a duration of between three and
live thousand million years.

Life on the earth—the Biosphere—is a very thin film of highly ordered
material upon a sphere that has, in its turn, a very high degree of order
compared with most of the matter of the universe. This order is pre-

l8 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

carious: according to the second Law of Thermodynamics, the energy
exchanges taking place between living and non-living matter must result
in a steady increase of entropy or loss of order. We know that this is
largely made good by the inpouring of high order energy from the sun.
The sun is losing order by radiating its high order energy made by the
production of helium from hydrogen. The increase in entropy of the
sun is certainly far greater than the increase of order on the earth, so that
the combined Present Moment of Sun-Earth-Life is losing order in
accordance with the entropy principle.

The mechanism whereby order is kept more or less constant on the
earth is well known. It is the photosynthetic reduction of carbon dioxide
to carbohydrate accompanied by release of oxygen. This is taking place
on a scale that is colossal compared with any human activity. Every
twenty-four hours, a thousand million tons of organic matter is synthe-
sized from the carbon dioxide and water vapour of the atmosphere,
drawing the necessary ordered radiant energy from the sun.

It must be understood that the level of order maintained by life on the
earth is enormously greater than that of the relatively simple com-
pounds that are the direct product of photosynthesis. Life itself is
constantly raising the level of order of the raw materials that it feeds
upon. This is the 'transformation of substances' that we discussed in
detail in Chapters 32 and 35 of Vol. II, where we introduced the
notion of Transflux Equilibrium* to describe the state in which the
order within a given present moment is maintained by compensating for
the loss of order due to the natural increase of entropy by drawing upon
an external source.

Now the significant point about life on the earth is its ability to main-
tain a higher level of order than that of the energies and substances on
which it feeds. It is this power, more than anything else, that dis-
tinguishes living from non-living matter. We can picture the present
moment of life on the earth as a city under bombardment in which the
buildings are constantly being destroyed. So long as the inhabitants can
maintain their strength they can rebuild what is destroyed; but if they
themselves are starving they must sooner or later abandon the struggle.
Life is confronted with a similar two-fold problem. It can maintain
order by drawing on the sun, but only on condition that it can renew
its own power of transformation.

This point is so crucial for the whole of the argument that follows,
that we must re-state it in precise terms.

* I.e. the chapters on Energies and on the Spiritualization of Existence.

THE WAR WITH TIME 19

1. The System Sun-Earth-Biosphere as a whole is undergoing
changes with steady increase of entropy.

2. The System Biosphere alone is undergoing changes without
increase of entropy and this is possible because the present moment of
the Biosphere is contained within the larger present moment of the
Solar System.

3. The order in the Biosphere is higher than that of the energies it
receives from the sun and the raw materials of the earth's crust and
atmosphere.

4. This higher order cannot be accounted for without postulating
an ordering action proper to life itself.

5. The level of order in the Biosphere within its own Present is
enormously improbable. The odds against its arising by chance are
thousands of millions to one.

It follows from these five propositions, that are indisputable, that the
Ordering Power of Life cannot be ascribed to simple chance. If to this
we add the supplementary order that man has produced in the million
or so years of his present moment within that of the Biosphere, we have
another improbable decrease of entropy of the order of hundreds, if not
thousands, of millions to one.* We can represent the situation thus:

Outer circle, U. The Universe. Order increasing, decreasing or
stationary? Unknown.

Second circle, S.E. Sun-Earth. Order decreasing on all measurable
levels. If the Biosphere is included, the situation is unknown.

Third circle, B. Biosphere. Order at least stationary. If biosphere is
still evolving, order is increasing.

Fourth circle, M. Man. Order certainly increasing.

It seems from these considerations that the ratio order-disorder is not
constantly decreasing in every relatively closed system as the second
* This argument will be amplified in Section 17.44.2. below.

20 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

Law of Thermodynamics would require, but varies according to the
'present moment' on which our attention is focused.

We can look upon life in general and human life in particular as a
struggle to preserve and increase order. Moreover, we can speak of
'orders of order' by which we mean the difference between quantitative
or thermodynamic order, organized or vital order and mental or
human order, to which we could add intelligent order and creative order
to make the progression clear. The higher the order of order, the remoter
the likelihood that it could arise fortuitously out of disorder.

Here we must return to the proposal of Professor Fantappie* that
we should distinguish between syntropic and entropic processes in
nature and postulate a balance between the principle of order (syntropy)
and that of disorder (entropy). This proposal does not bring home the
full significance of the order-disorder conflict; and it is preferable to
think in terms of the Present Moment with an outward tendency to lose
order and an inner tendency to build it up. Since the tendency to lose
order is undoubtedly associated with our experience of time, we can
say that the present moment is threatened with disorder by time and to
this we can add—making use of the conclusions of Vol. I—that the
Present Moment defends itself against the threat by the hyparchic
creation of fresh order.

We can now explain the title of this chapter—The War with Time—
as meaning that the powers of Life, Intelligence and Purpose are engaged
in a perpetual struggle to preserve, build up and create order within the
Present Moment and that there are contrary powers associated with
Time, Entropy, Probability and Causality that perpetually struggle to
break down order and reduce the present moment to a random, un-
structured chaos.

Eddington's dictum, 'the Second Law shows the direction of Time's
Arrow', misleads us by suggesting that time is pointing away from the
present moment towards a more probable or less ordered state. The
actual experience is that of disorder automatically invading the present
moment, whereas order does not appear unless there is a higher order
to make it possible. For example, sunlight alone cannot convert water
and carbon dioxide into cellulose. It is the highly ordered structure of
the chlorophyll in green leaves that, as it were, 'captures' the available
order and turns it to account, ** We can meaningfully say that chlorophyll

* Cited in Vol. I, pp. 135 and 498 with reference to his book Principi di una Teoria
Unitaria del Mondo Fisico e Biologico, Rome, 1945.

** This has already been discussed in Chapter 32 and is illustrated in Fig. 32.5.
Vol. II, p. 234.

THE WAR WITH TIME 21

is a weapon that life on earth has developed to enable it to wage war
successfully with the power of disorder. If this weapon were to fail and
could not be replaced, all life would soon disappear from the earth and
the level of order would collapse catastrophically to that of the Mineral
Kingdom.

16.42.3. Separation and Reunion

The Present Moment can be understood from another standpoint as
the Realm of a Will. It is the region within which a particular fragment
of the Total Will holds sway. The fluctuations, in duration and extent,
of our present moment are, on this view, the direct consequences of the
instability and impermanence of our will.* The relationship of 'con-
tained in and contained by' between present moments is one of Being,
but the unifying principle within the present moment is Will.

The separation of present moments is a limitation of Being. We saw
in Chapter 34** that Creation is partition and blending, and in
Chapter 35, we introduced the notion of the Spirit Reflux or
Counter-Creation. All Existence is perpetually flowing out from its
source and striving to return. But within the Present Moment there
is a process which is neither efflux nor reflux, but rather the establish-
ment of a Higher Order here and now. We shall refer to this immediate,
present action as Coalescence. It is this that makes the present moment
significant.

Coalescence is certainly a reunion of the fragmented Will. It is also an
enrichment of the separated Being. It is the very nature of History and it
gives the historical process an aim to be achieved. 'Time's Arrow' is the
direction from which disorder and separateness threaten: but it is also
the direction along which they are to be overcome.

Separation from the Present Moment occurs, in our experience,
actively, as the penetration of disorder that is in the form of successive-
ness in time, and passively, as the partition of existence that is in the
form of distance in space. There are also two kinds of reunion: that of
will that we associate with hyparxis and that of being that comes from
the eternal pattern.

Within our present moment we find various devices for overcoming
separateness and disorder. The first of these is memory. We are selves

• For the doctrine of the fragmentation of the Will, see Vol. II, Chapter 27, p. 84:
Postulate 'The Will is transmitted from Higher World to Lower World by a process
of self-limitation consisting in the mutual exclusion of incompatible triads.'

** Vol. II, pp. 261—282, Creation, especially section 12.34. 1., Creation as Partition,
Being takes on the limitations of existence by separating from its source. Each stage of
Creation comes by a further separation.

22 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

by virtue of the power to extend the present moment by experiencing
that which is not present in sensation as nevertheless present as an
immediate mental object. This power resides in the structure of the
human organism and it is the basis of our self-hood. The present
moment is that which we are now aware of together with that which we
can embrace in an act of will. For example, we turn our head and see
what a moment before was not visible: both the sights are embraced
in the act of looking. The field of the present moment is enlarged by
memory and the special quality of human memory is one of the charac-
teristics that distinguishes a man from an animal.

Memory as an immediate mental object is supplemented by traces
that connect the present moment with the larger region that we call the
'past'. The perception, recognition and interpretation of traces is
possible because of the interplay of various energies. We have enduring
objects which connect us with the material energies and we have mind
that connects us with mental objects. All of these can be regarded as
means for the preservation of order within the present moment. We can
bring all our experience into a coherent structure by relating it to the
notions of order, disorder, and coalescence.* In the present chapter we
shall examine those elements that are relevant to the study of history.

The first point to be considered is that of the fate of Existence itself,
if it is throughout subject to the creative action of partition and blending.
If there were nothing in Existence itself that at some point could arrest
the atomization of its content, all would disappear into a state of uniform
nonentity.

We do discover a state in which the progress of disorder is arrested,
namely that of reversible processes. The stability of every present
moment is maintained by a balance of order and disorder that, in the
limit, amounts to simple reversibility. The basic situation is that of
balance between disturbing and restoring forces, such as is present in
the harmonic oscillator where a body moves without resistance in a
centrally directed field of force. The nearest well-known illustration is
the bob of a pendulum swinging without friction in a vacuum. More
complicated systems can be described all of which have the property of
perpetual motion. This seems to have little bearing on our problem, as
everyone knows that no such thing as a perpetuum mobile can exist
in nature. There is, however, a remarkably close approximation of it in
the solar system. The sun and the planets move freely with exchanges
of energy that are negligible compared with their masses and their

* The term coalescence was first introduced in Vol. III as the attribute of the hexad.
Section 14.37.9.

THE WAR WITH TIME 23

motions are reversible. We could, for example, describe the motions
of the planets equally well if the direction of time were reversed. These
well-known properties of celestial mechanics are generally disregarded
in considering the problem of time; but, if we did not observe the
periodic motions of the earth and planets we should lack the basic
measurements of time by which life on the earth is regulated. The
alternation of day and night, the return of the seasons, the ebb and flow
of the tides, and other less obvious periodic changes caused by the sun
and the moon, all depend upon the fact that the solar system behaves,
upon the time scale of human experience, as if it were a perpetuum
mobile. Another example of balance of order and disorder is given by the
phenomenon of superconductivity. First observed at very low tem-
peratures, it now appears that certain complex molecules of organic
origin can show similar effects. Here we have something like time-
reversibility in systems which form part of the general temporal process.

Still nearer home are the effectively reversible states of our own
bodily organism. Our heart and lungs, our alimentary and digestive
organs, our nervous system—including the brain—all work by way of
cycles which closely resemble the swinging of a pendulum. These states
are certainly not perfectly reversible, or the body would never grow old
and wear out; but they give the basic continuity of our present moment.
They do this in two principal ways. Firstly, by renewing the life of the
organism they enormously prolong our possible experience. If any of
these rhythms were to come to a stop, the body would cease to be a
centre of experience in seconds, minutes or, at most, hours. The second
effect is that they connect and stabilize the experiences that are the basis
of bodily life. We feel ourselves to be living in the present on account of
these recurrent events. We do not notice this, for the very reason that
the cycles are maintained more or less regularly throughout life.

These illustrations help to show that our experience of time, as it
enters effectually into our lives, does not correspond to the abstract
view of time, according to which it is a one-way traffic with no halting
places. It is a balance of order and disorder that is not static, but dyna-
mic, losing and gaining equally so long as normal health persists. We
are tied to the present moment of our material bodies.

16.42.4. The Endurance of Material Objects

This brings us to another defence against disorder that nature uses
in the war with time; namely, the persistence of enduring objects. These
are so commonplace in our experience that we tend to disregard their
significance. We have many times drawn attention to the extreme rarity

D.U. IV----3*

24 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

of matter in the solid state.* Only under peculiar conditions do aggre-
gates of matter solidify and produce enduring objects of the kinds that
are so familiar to us, living on the surface of the earth, that we could not
imagine existence without them. Solid bodies are, of course, not the only
enduring objects of our experience; the oceans and the atmosphere
persist and have persisted for some three thousand million years. The
sun and the stars endure although they are not solid in the sense that we
commonly understand the word. Our own bodies are only relatively
solid, and their persistence is more than mere resistance to wearing out.
We have, thus, a variety of ways in which existence persists in organized
and structured forms. In the physical sense, endurance is always the
result of conservation combined with recurrence.

From the standpoint of our human experience, enduring objects are
one of the principal means available to us for bridging the stream of time.
We cannot carry our mental states about with us, but we can carry our
bodies and various kinds of records and messages that connect one
present moment with another. We have only to picture our bodies made
of matter in the state of gas or vapour existing in an environment
wholly gaseous, to realize the immense significance of enduring bodies
for the arising of souls. The soul-stuff in its native state has no coher-
ence; and, as we see in young children, almost no continuity of ex-
perience. It is only when they become aware of their own bodies and
of material objects that they begin to be aware of time. Until the soul
is completely organized and independent, it cannot hold its experience
together without the help of its own body and the solid environment of
the earth's surface.** The significance of this should be deeply pondered
by those who imagine that an unorganized soul could make progress in a
disembodied state of existence. ***

We have not exhausted the order-preserving properties of material
objects arising from various combinations of the four material energies:
dispersed, directive, cohesive, and plastic. Elasticity, for example,
as exemplified in a coiled spring, enables energy to be stored up and
brought into use in future time. This illustrates the significance of
material objects in connection with the storage of potential energy of all
kinds. Electrical energy can be stored thanks to the chemical properties

* Cf. Vol. II, p. 275.

** Immensely interesting experiments in connection with space travel have demon-
strated the disintegration of experience when the soul is deprived of contact with
material objects; for example by floating in darkness and silence in an isotonic and
isobaric medium.

*** Cf. Chapter 40, Section 15 .40.8.3.

THE WAR WITH TIME 25

of metals and acids; but this is only possible in an appliance made out of
enduring material.

An even more significant property of enduring objects is their ability
to preserve records. Traces of the past consist almost exclusively of the
records left in solid bodies; and our ability to predict the future—for
example, future positions of the earth and planets—is wholly dependent
upon the existence of more or less rigid bodies.

Thus, enduring objects not only preserve the present moment, but
enable us to go beyond immediate mental objects into the past and
future. This gives us, in effect, an extension of the present moment
without which human life as we know it would be non-existent.

16.42.5. Life, Sensitivity and Self-hood

We come next to the role of life in resisting disorder. Since time
immemorial, mankind has been aware that life is a war waged with time.
We must not, at this stage, look at the situation through our human eyes
—by seeking, for example, in the struggle of nature with time, an
explanation of man's religious beliefs and magical practices. Nor must
we look at the return of the seasons and the renewal of the activity of
life, as they affect our human hopes and fears. We must rather look at
life without man and ask ourselves whether the 'war with time' is an
objective reality or only a projection of man's longing for permanence.

The first observation we make is that all life is renewal. Life does
not endure as objects endure, it must be perpetually and instantly
renewed in order to maintain its existence. We have only to look at the
marvellous mechanism of self-renewal only recently discovered in the
auto-synthesis of proteins to be convinced that the significance of
renewal is no human projection. Life cannot stand still, but must either
renew its order or disappear. This proposition which is confirmed by
every possible observation of the life process and admits of no exception,
distinguishes in a radical manner the relationship that life bears to
order, from the relationships of material objects. We can conceive, and
perhaps even construct, self-renewing machines. There are many
simple devices that are constructed to renew their own state. A water
cistern controlled by a ball-cock is a familiar example. But all such
devices are able to stand still. A self setting mechanism when out of use
behaves like any other enduring object. Living organisms, from the
simplest to the most elaborate, are in a perpetual state of self-renewal.

Self-renewal is met with at every stage. The raw materials of life such
as the proteins, fats and carbohydrates from which living bodies are
constructed, require to be in intimate connection with the nucleic acids

26 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

and their derivatives which constantly renew them as they are used up.
Cells renew themselves by division and regeneration. Tissues are
constantly regenerated by the reproduction of cells of the appropriate
kind. Organs are renewed. There is a continuous flow of vital fluids:
sap in plants, blood in animals and sera in micro-organisms. Every
organism is constructed for self-renewal: some asexually, some by sexual
reproduction. Whenever renewal ceases—whether in families, species,
individuals, organs, tissues, or cells, right down to the basic proteins—
the particular present moment collapses and the element ceases to live.
Life is not simply more successful than inanimate objects in the battle
with time: its method is totally different. The longest lived organisms,
the great redwoods of California, live for two thousand five hundred
years. A rock can endure a million times longer. All life on the earth,
that has existed for perhaps two thousand million years, has been
outlasted by the oldest rocks. On the other hand, neither rocks nor any
other inanimate objects we know, have the power of renewal, except for
special devices constructed by man for the purpose. All this will no
doubt appear to be obvious but unimportant. So it is, until we realize
that it has a profound bearing on our understanding of time. We are
familiar with the evolutionary principle of the 'struggle for survival'
and also with the vitalistic notions such as the elan vital. The complete-
ly mechanistic doctrine of dialectical materialism requires the assump-
tion that there is a 'tendency' towards synthesis. All these doctrines are
half-hearted steps towards the more radical principle that the whole of
existence is involved in the war with Time. This may seem to be an
anthropomorphic expression, but not more so than the 'struggle for
existence'. The point of the principle is that it applies equally to in-
animate objects with their property of endurance and to living beings
with their properties of self-renewal and reproduction.

16.42.5.1. RENEWAL

The difference between the two ways of waging war with time—
endurance and renewal—is not measured by success in terms of dura-
tion, but by the prospect of winning the war. At its first appearance, a
new weapon is mainly efficacious by surprise and terror—the bow and
arrow continued to win battles for a hundred years after the first gun
appeared—but in the long run, the more intelligent weapon carries all
before it. Material objects may last for millions of years, but their
eventual wearing out and disappearance is a certainty from the start.
If nature had been compelled to rely on endurance alone, the battle with
disorder would have been lost before it started. Life offers a totally

THE WAR WITH TIME 27

different prospect. Renewal can, in principle, go on for ever. So long as
the earth is habitable we may expect that life will continue to renew
itself and to develop new and more viable forms. We can even entertain
the thought that life on the earth could produce a species capable of
migrating to other planets and even to other solar systems before the
earth ceases to be habitable. This reminds us that life meets spatial
separation far more effectively than inanimate objects and does so with
increasing success as it advances on the path of evolution.

The step from endurance to renewal is indeed immense. Life can
hold its own with disorder and separation. Individual organisms, even
entire species and genera may perish, but life continues. The impor-
tance of life is immeasurably enhanced by the probability discussed in
the previous volumes, that it is a cosmic phenomenon spread throughout
the universe, though in forms, no doubt, quite different from those we
know on the earth.

In an earlier chapter,* we treated life as the middle term of the triad
composed of Material, Vital and Cosmic structures. We saw in it the
instrument of the spiritualization of the Material Universe. We are now
looking at it from a new standpoint: that of its role in the war of Nature
against Time. In this role, it cannot be said to conquer. Life holds its
own by renewal, but time continues to bear its sons away. For life, the
past is dead and gone, and the future is non-existent. Life lives in its
present moment which must be renewed perpetually in order to be
anything at all. After all, Time is still the conqueror and life its per-
petual victim. Claude Bernard who invented the phrase Velan vital, also
left us the aphorism vivre c'est mourir. The living body disintegrates and
its atoms are dispersed: so space also conquers life.

16.42.5.2. sensitivity

We, as living beings, know only too well that disorder has the last
word; and this it is that drives us to seek for other weapons than simple
self-renewal in the hope that we may hold our own. Let us recall our
formulation of the 'first law of biology':

Organic sensitivity is the first necessary condition of the arising and
existence of life, **

In this general statement, sensitivity is a combination of energies that
can be regarded as the precursor of mind. It can be said that life has
an aversion to disorder and that this is due to its ability to distinguish,

* Cf. Vol. II, Chapter 33. The middle place occupied by life is one of the main
themes of this work.

** Cf. Vol. I, Chapter 19, The Bases of Life, p. 357.

28 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

by means of sensitivity, between order and disorder. Again, sensitivity
is awareness of the present moment and this distinguishes living from
inanimate forms which have their own present moment, but are not
aware of it.

We should here take note of an apparent inconsistency in the use of
the word 'sensitive' in this and earlier volumes. Sensitivity is one of the
critical properties of Existence that makes it impossible to reduce the
phenomena of life and consciousness to motions and changes of inert
matter. Nevertheless, we accept the view now widely canvassed, that
there are non-living states of sensitivity. We ascribe sensitivity to hyle
under the condition of hyparxis, and distinguish three states: actual or
time-like, potential or eternity-like and sensitive or hyparchic. There is,
however, a decisive step from monomorphic sensitivity of inert matter
operating as interaction and coupling and dimorphic or organized
sensitivity.*

We also distinguished twelve levels of energy of which four—the vital
energies—are characterized by some degree of sensitive organization
and we assigned the descriptive label 'sensitive' to the highest of the
vital energies E 5.** The use of the term is justified by the property
possessed by the sensitive energy of allowing the will to be exercised
independently. This comes from the coalescence of the three states of
actuality, potentiality and sensitivity that characterizes the living
organism. On lower levels, the states are compresent, but do not coalesce
to produce a self-renewing structure. Sensitivity cannot be predicated
of the four higher or cosmic energies which are not subject to the
determining conditions, but to a more general law of Universal Order. ***
Hence the sensitive energy (E 5) can be regarded as the maximum
manifestation of the sensitive state of hyle.

Sensitivity plays a special role in Nature's struggle with disorder.
This role consists in giving to every living being awareness of pres-
ence. We know very little of what this may mean in plants and animals
and we shall confine ourselves to the consideration of human sensitivity.

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 370. 'Organized sensitivity is life itself, and the gradations of life are
distinguished by the ableness-to-be formed in and through the organized sensitivity'.
Again, ibid 'The threshold of life is crossed when sensitivity is organized.'

** Vol. II, Section 12.32.5., cf. p. 229. 'The plus-plus energy of life is characterized
by sensitivity . . . sensitive energy makes choice possible.'

*** Cf. Vol. II, p. 121. 'In World VI, order does not imply the distinctions of time,
space, eternity and hyparxis; it is a single law of universal consistency by which
Existence is kept "within the bounds of possibility".' Consciousness (E 4) is subject only
to the distinction of transitive and non-transitive order: it can 'know' and it can 'act'.
Creativity (E 3) is not subject to this distinction: its knowledge and action are not
separated. Both are free from the limitations of sensitivity.

THE WAR WITH TIME 29

The awareness of presence involves both duration and extension.*
We are aware of ourselves 'here and now'. We have seen that the sen-
sitivity (E 5) in its native state is like a formless mass with little or no
coherence. It is associated with automatic energy (E 6) and is linked
with the body through the vital energy (E 7) and the constructive
energy (E 8). On account of the coherence of sensitive energy in living
things, it can be said that each has a will of its own that determines its
present moment.

Sensitivity is, indeed, one key to our problem. With the appearance
of organized sensitivity, existence can participate directly in the War
with Time. Enduring objects do not make themselves, nor can they
renew themselves: they cannot produce order. Organized sensitivity
makes possible the will to live. Here is the truly characteristic prop-
erty of life that we have met with again and again in different forms.
It enables Life to occupy the central place in the structure of the existing
universe.

We have referred to memory as a means whereby the present mo-
ment can reach out beyond immediate mental objects. It was formerly
supposed that only men and animals can be said to remember: but
recent discoveries have shown that memory is present at the very root
of life in the organic super-molecules that direct the synthesis of the
materials of life.

16.42.5.3. SELF-HOOD

What, in terms of the war with Time, is a Self? Selves do not exist
solely by enduring, nor by self-renewal, nor by sensitivity; but by a
combination of these three with a fourth property that consists in a
direct resistance to the disordering and destroying action of time. This
property can be called 'self-assertion' and we can associate it with the
character of hyparxis described as 'ableness-to-be'.**

Self-assertion plays an enormous part in the fight with time that is
waged in the soul of man. It is something different from self-preservation
which concerns only the self-renewing impulse of life. As is so often
said, a man will give up his life in order to assert himself, so that evi-
dently self-assertion is a deeper and more significant property than the
instinct of self-preservation.

The step we are now making is even more extraordinary than those

* This has been argued on quite different lines in S. Alexander's Space Time and
Deity, where he insists rather upon the active character of space-time as if it were an
entity in itself. This is wholly opposed to our view of space and time as conditions.

** Cf. Vol. I, Section 3.8.5.

30 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

that went before. Material objects, living beings, sensitive regions are
all means of maintaining existence in time: but they are all passive
contrivances that we have compared with different kinds of weapons.
We now, for the first time, meet with the soldiers. Selves may prove to
be poor, bloody infantry; but at least they know that they are in the
front line of the fighting. They may not have been told what the war
is about; but they know that a soldier's first duty is to stay alive.

Compared with the other modes of existence we have considered,
selves represent an unattainable summit. This is because they are able
to sustain and respond to an independent will, which neither animals,
nor plants, nor any material object can do. But they are also the lowest
organization in the scale of Being which can have free awareness. This
is why they occupy a position that is unique in the struggle between
order and disorder. Selves are embodied or incarnated wills, and they
are not able to liberate themselves from this condition without attaining
a superior level of organization. They are equally poised between the
forces of order and disorder, and so stand at the mid-point in the scale
of Being. As we pass beyond this point, the balance shifts from pre-
dominance of disorder to ever-increasing mastery on the part of the
powers of order.

The state of incarnation can, for our present purposes, be regarded
as one in which the Present Moment is balanced between order and
disorder. This gives to the Self-hood the sense of impermanence and
the kind of time-experience that is described as a 'perpetual perishing'.
In its normal state—that of the True Self*—there is an awareness of
different levels in Eternity and hence of the reality of an Unchanging
Order that accompanies the present moment. Thus, the awakened True
Self centred upon its own 'I' can be aware of the meaning of the conflict
of order and disorder and engage itself in the War with Time as a free
agent. This is the Great Work which we shall meet in our survey of the
History of Mind.

16.42.6. Influences Acting upon the Present

We are accustomed to thinking of the past as 'having ceased to
exist'. This implies that existence is confined to our own present
moment. But this is not a permissible attitude. We know that there are
other present moments besides that in which we are centred. We know
also that our own present moment is not a fixed region, but fluctuates
according to our state of consciousness. We can go further and admit
the possibility of a 'larger' present moment which would include much
* Cf. Vol. II, pp. 155-157 and p. 178 and Vol. Ill, pp. 140-1.

THE WAR WITH TIME 31

of what we regard as 'past' and 'future'. From such considerations, we
should be prepared to reopen the question of what we mean when we
speak of 'the past'.

In some sense the past must exist now. It has left its traces and these
traces are the certificate not only that it once existed, but that something
of it remains today. In the representation of physical events in space-
time, the coordinates xx x2 x3 x4 are referred to a point O which is the
'here and now' of a hypothetical observer. There is no privileged moment
in space and time that distinguishes one O from another and so, for
such a representation, past, present and future have exactly the same
status: they are all 'relative' to the point we happen to designate as O.
This suggests that the 'passage of time' is a reality only for centres of
experience; that is, for selves. Before we accept this suggestion, we must
see how it looks from the perspective of the six-dimensional geometry
we have been led to adopt from the study of force-fields and interactions.

We have, first of all, to remember the six laws of synchronicity formu-
lated in Chapter 25.* These have not the rigour of scientific general-
izations nor can they be demonstrated experimentally. They belong,
indeed, to the region of experience where the very character of time and
space differs from that of sense perception, and yet they do define the
hidden character of the Present Moment.

Firstly, we should notice that the Law of Common Presence describes
the character of the Present Moment as a finite region. The law as we
formulated it in Vol. II, runs: 'spatial togetherness induces a common
presence in the eternal patterns in a given region, and this common
presence emerges as a recognizable quality that is shared by all entities
in the region.'** We should also cite (loc. cit., p. 49). 'The common
presence of a given moment has its own complexion and this may change
slowly or suddenly, continuously or discontinuously into another pres-
ence.' When this common presence is associated with sensitivity it
produces the experience of the 'finite region of the present moment'.
The Law of Common Presence suggests an important additional notion,
namely, that 'common presence' is associated with ableness-to-be, and
hence with Will. The common presence is not only a composite whole,
but also the activity within that whole. This involves an eternal com-
ponent to give 'inner togetherness' as well as a spatial distribution to
give 'extension' and also temporal 'duration'. The outcome is to give a

* Vol. II, p. 47. The six laws are: (1) Common Presence, (2) Mutual Adjustment,
( 1) ()rganization and Disorganization, (4) Multiple Existence, (5) Connectedness and
Independence, and (6) Normality.

** Vol. II, p. 47.

32 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

certain degree of ableness-to-be, i.e., an hyparchic component. The
activity communicates itself to other present moments as an influence,
usually observed as memories or traces of the past. This formulation
has an obvious bearing on the status of the past, for it asserts that the
past is not all of a piece, but differs in its hold on existence according
to the strength of common presence associated with a particular region.
Again, to interpret in the language of this chapter, the stronger the
event, the more can it resist the force of disorder.

The Law of Mutual Adjustment introduces the notion of pattern:
'There is in every region of space a mutual adjustment of the regulative
influences of diverse entities such as to produce an overriding pattern
that is more or less independent of the separate entities present.'*
We can draw from this law the significant notion that eternal patterns
can remain in the present moment even after the entities producing
them have disappeared. Connecting this again with the properties
of the sensitive energy, we can say that the pattern of an event can
be stored up as sensitivity in the virtual state. From this it would follow
that not merely the traces of the past remain, but also the possibility of
renewing the experiences of the past. If this conclusion is correct, we
should have evidence of it. Here the present writer can offer his own
personal testimony. The following example is one of many where a
contact with the experiences of past events seems to have occurred. In
1938, visiting for the first and only time the Chateau de Poitiers, he
was shown into a chamber under the battlements to wait for the return
of the guide. In a few moments, his cheerful mood changed into a
state of anguish and terror. Nothing had happened, nor did he remember
anything which could account for this terror unlike anything he had
previously experienced. Shortly after, the guide entered and began his
tour by explaining that they were now in the former torture chamber of
the castle. There seems little doubt that the pattern of experience
of events long past had communicated itself to at least one person
present. At least a score of equally striking experiences could be cited,
in several of which the hypothesis of suggestion by living people
knowing the history of the place is excluded. It is possible to explain
such experiences, assuming them to be veridical, by supposing that
some 'substance' attaches itself to the material objects and preserves
the 'trace' of past events. This would, however, not account for instances
where no trace remains of any buildings or other objects connected
with the event. It seems, therefore, reasonable to regard all such 'con-

* Vol. II, p. 47.

THE WAR WITH TIME 33

tacts with the past' as instances of conservation of a pattern of virtual
sensitivity as predicted by the Law of Mutual Adjustment.

The conclusion to be drawn from these observations—it must be
remembered that veridical post-cognitional experiences are by no means
rare—is that, in at least one sense, the past may be said to exist—in the
form of virtual patterns—here and now. These are different from traces
left in objects, inasmuch as there is continuity of existence of matter in
the virtual state.*

From the point of view of entities, within the present moment,
centuries separate the experiences in Poitiers described above. But from
the point of view of non-actualizing virtual experience there is no
separation at all. This idea is no harder to grasp than the idea of a nul-
interval that has become familiar from the special theory of relativity.

We can interpret the laws of synchronicity as ways of saying that:

1. The Present Moment is relative to the particular centre of experi-
ence.

2. There can be Greater Moments which include and connect lesser
moments.

3. The Present Moment is a pattern of actual and latent experiences.

4. The latent experiences of the Present Moment correspond to
different states of sensitivity and consciousness.

5. Multiple Existence means that there are different conditions of
Order-Disorder and that it is possible to be aware of the difference
between these conditions all within one and the same Present Moment.

6. Within the Present Moment there is a normal pattern that can be
more or less completely realized by Acts of Will.

7. The normal pattern is the maximum order compatible with the
content of the Present Moment.

We can make these notions clearer with the help of the symbolical
diagram introduced at the beginning of this chapter. We make use of
the property of openness that characterizes the present moment.

1. It is open from here to not-here, i.e., towards the surrounding
regions of space.

2. It is open to the determinate past by way of traces and memories
and this is causal openness.

3. It is open to various degrees of determination towards the future.
This includes the notions of Fate and Disorder.

4. It is open to the ordering influence of eternal forms.

5. It is open to eternal patterns that exert an organizing influence.

* There is a null-vector connecting two virtual moments just as there is a null-vector
connecting the points of emission and absorption of a photon.

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

6. It can open into the present moment that is its own living past.

7. It can open towards the present moment that contains its own
destiny.

We should need a seven-dimensional model to represent these as
independent terms, but they can be grouped according to our determin-
ing conditions and the space term omitted as its contribution to the
present moment is different from the rest. We can distinguish:

a. Causal or determinate influences on the present moment. Time.

b. The influences of forms and values. Eternity.

c. The influences of the Will, or freedom to choose within the present
moment. Hyparxis.

In this diagram, the line marked 'hyparxis' properly should not enter
between those of time and eternity, but quite independently, and should
be represented by a line passing vertically through the plane of the
paper. Nevertheless, the diagram serves to illustrate many significant
points.

1. There is a determined region of strict causality in which the past
is fixed and the future predetermined. It is coterminous with the basic
material level of the Present Moment. This region is 'Time' as ordinarily

THE WAR WITH TIME 35

conceived. It is an incomplete state of existence which cannot preserve
its own order except at the price of cessation of all change. This is the
region that is 'open' to the disordering influence that we associate with
'Time's Arrow'.

2. There is a region in which there is no actualized hyle but only
the forms of objects and all the levels of potential hyle. Its condition is
thus wholly potential and it corresponds to our definition of Eternity.
Since nothing is or can be actual in this region, it is free from the dis-
ordering influence of Time; but, on the other hand, it is also devoid of
action and therefore cannot increase or change its order.*

3. There is an undetermined region where matter is in the sensitive
state. Here there is freedom to create order. It corresponds to hyparxis.
In this region, the will is perfectly free. A very significant characteristic
of the hyparchic region is that there are no barriers at the boundary of
the Present Moment, and 'past' and 'future' are equally accessible.

4. There is an intermediate zone between time and eternity in which
there are varying degrees of order and organization. All entities capable
of resisting disintegration occupy this region. Thus reversible states,
enduring objects and living organisms are located here. Order is con-
served to a degree corresponding to the level of organization. Matter is in
one of the four states of material energy: dispersed (E 12), directed
(E 11), cohesive (E 10), plastic (E 9). Here the resistance to disorder is
only in the structure of things, not in their activity. There is no life in
this zone, only the material structures of living things.

5. There is a second intermediate zone between time and hyparxis.
This is characteristically the zone of Life and matter is in the state of
one of the vital energies: constructive (E 8), vital (E 7), automatic
(E 6), and sensitive (E 5). There are varying degrees of determination
and relative freedom of action.

6. There is a third intermediate zone between eternity and hyparxis.
Here only the cosmic energies can enter: so it can be called 'super-
natural'. The energies are: consciousness (E4), creativity (E 3), unity
(E 2) and transcendence (E1). Existence in this zone is exempt from the
influence of disorder. The highest characteristic here is that of Fore-
ordainment, which can be interpreted as the creation of the Eternal
Pattern which the Great Present Moment of Existence is called to
realize. At the other extreme—where the zone touches the region of
hyparxis, we can picture the intervention of the higher cosmic energies
as the means of enabling beings to fulfil their destiny. It can be regarded

* Cf. The conclusion of Vol. I, pp. 158—9 where the concept of Virtue or negative
entropy is introduced and found to be stationary for displacements in eternity.

36 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

as the channel through which Grace can enter the souls of men and
of societies. The present moment is contiguous with the hyparxis-
eternity zone; but there is only a one-way traffic, for the energies of
mind and body cannot penetrate the barrier that separates them from
the cosmic energies.

Nevertheless, it is not right to say that mind has no place in the zone
Hyparxis-Eternity. There is within mind an element of creative freedom
that is within the present moment. This is because the present moment,
to exist at all, must have at least a minimal extension into all zones and
regions.

The complexity of the situation for human experience is enhanced
by the dyadic character of our perceptions and indeed of the human
mind as an instrument. Because of this, each of the determining con-
ditions operates both in a closed and limited manner and also in an
open and unrestricted manner. We shall call these active and passive
conditions. The distinction can readily be understood in the case of
Time as that of past and future. With Eternity, there is form as
limitation of potentialities, and pattern as the opening of potentialities.
Hyparxis presents us with a more difficult task of interpretation because
we cannot associate a passive state with a condition that, by its very
nature, is the region of positive activity. The distinction is between the
act of commitment and the act of recreation or redemption. The first
brings the power of choice into the present moment. It can be compared
with a pre-selective system that opens a path. The second hyparchic
condition allows for the correction of mistakes.

There is a most significant difference between the passive time and
the pre-selective hyparxis. The one is the determination that enters
the present moment and that we call 'past'. The other is also 'past',
but it is not determined, but selective. At one extreme is the material
situation governed by the law of maximum probability converging to
certainty. At the other extreme is the spiritual situation governed by
the principle of free creativity and converging towards the supernatural
action of the Transcendental Energy (E1).

Within this range, the 'past' is in different states of existence. There
are areas that have fallen outside any present moment and can be called
'dead'. Others are within the present moment of living beings and can
therefore be called 'living'. The 'living past' is not a fixed state—any
more than the present moment—but a state of existence in process of
transformation towards a fuller and richer structure.

It has often been suggested that the past, in some way, continues to
exist and even to undergo change, but the notion has never been con-

THE WAR WITH TIME 37

vincing. This, indeed, is inevitable so long as we hold to the notion that
there is only one kind of time. There is no place in determinate time for
the past to change, let alone to be susceptible of being changed from
the present.

Our starting point, is the recognition of varying combinations in the
action of the determining conditions. Between hyparxis and time, there
is a zone of varying freedom of action and the passive or pre-selective
segment of this zone is the living past. But there is, of course, always an
element from this zone within the present moment. We can picture
an Event P that is no longer within our experience, but is known to us
by traces or records.

When we seek to reconstruct P as it has been described by historians
in succeeding centuries, we find that there have been remarkable
changes, not only in the significance attributed to P, but even in the
supposed factual details. The obvious explanations are that historians
err, are biased, discover new facts and that, in general, the past is more
effectually veiled from us than we like to suppose. No other explana-
tions are possible if we take it that P occurred in so precise a manner
that it could have been recorded in all its detail and transmitted to
posterity undistorted. This is the tacit assumption that underlies all
historical research: the facts are there, but we do not know them fully
because the records are defective.

The reality is totally different. There are no such precise 'facts', for the
simple reason that facts are known and no one either knows or ever did
know all about P.* There were certainly phenomena, but only some of
the phenomena were experienced as present moments, and they were
differently reduced to fact by each of the selves who experienced them.
No total factual situation ever existed or ever could exist. Moreover,
even the phenomenal situation was never wholly actual. There were
potential events that were included in the present moment. One obser-
ver would see one event and another observer a different event at the
same place and time.**

At first sight, it seems absurd to say that phenomena are really indeter-
minate, and not merely apparently so, on account of the practical im-

* Cf. Vol. I, Chapter 5, Knowledge. Seven kinds of knowledge are distinguished:
non-discriminative, discriminative, relational, subsistential, effectual, structural and
revealed. We cannot go beyond discriminative or polar knowledge without direct
experience of the object known: consequently, historical 'knowledge' cannot be sub-
sistential, that is, tell us how things really are. The reader is referred to the whole of
Chapter 5, for a fuller elucidation of the limitations of human knowledge.

**This is why the accounts of eye-witnesses may be sincere and even accurate and
yet contradict one another.

38 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

possibility of attaining exact knowledge of them. And yet this is just
what we have to accept.

Let us consider, as an example of our event P, the French Revolution.
This event has left its trace on human life and society throughout the
world. It also has taken shape in people's minds as a series of events and
actions united by a recognizable common characteristic. They also are
confident that it actually happened. So far, everyone would be agreed.
In the light of our own views we should add that there is also a con-
tinuing presence of the event in a state of virtual sensitivity.

For several generations, historians and others have debated the
French Revolution: what it was and what it signified, what actually
happened in France between 14th July, 1789, and Napoleon's election
as First Consul; who were the principal agents and how were they all
connected? Very different—almost unrecognizably different—pictures
have been drawn by different authorities at different times. Nevertheless,
a general picture of what the French Revolution was and what happened
during it has formed in the minds of people of the present day. In
many respects, this picture would astonish those who were contempor-
aries or even eye-witnesses of the event. We look upon the French
Revolution as a necessary, inevitable precursor of the modern world:
a world as different from that which the revolutionaries dreamed of, as
it is from that which they destroyed. This is only a matter of viewpoint:
we look back through the events of the Industrial Revolution, the World
Wars and the arising of modern science and technology; we cannot
see things as they were seen in 1789. The real question concerns the
event itself. Which is the real event: the one as seen by eye-witnesses or
the one as it appears today? It is quite certain that many incidents and
actions that appeared decisively important to the participants have been
completely lost. Others that did not occur within the knowledge of
anyone living at the time are taken to be facts and recorded in history.
All this is quite apart from any falsification of records or suppression of
evidence and it goes far deeper than even the most sceptical historian
would imagine.

What is the explanation? The French Revolution had an enormously
rich potential for actualization as history. Some of this potential was
actualized on several different levels, so that there were in reality
several French Revolutions. Moreover, the unactualized events were
and are also part of the reality: they remained in the state of virtuality.

All this means that the French Revolution was, is and will continue
to be, a living mass of experience undergoing change. It is not fixed,
frozen out in the past; but moving, changing, developing and acquiring

THE WAR WITH TIME 39

ever new depths and qualities within the present moment that contains
it. That Present Moment—which measured in astronomical time, lasted
five years, included all France and touched the whole contemporary
world—has its place in the zones of fate and destiny. It was both
causally determined and selectively predestined and it had form and
pattern that were out of time and space.

Certainly, an event so significant for mankind continues to live in the
hyparchic past. It not only lives but transforms. As we look back upon
it after five generations have passed, we do so in the perspective of
centuries. This is equivalent to saying that the present moment that
contains the French Revolution has expanded. What we can discern
today is nearer to the predestined or pre-selected event, than anything
that contemporary eye-witnesses could have observed. We speak of
the 'judgment of posterity' and take this to mean that as the event
recedes into the past, personal passions and prejudices die down and a
sober assessment becomes possible. This is by no means the whole
story. As the present moment expands, the event itself takes shape and
its true nature becomes more and more apparent.*

We have taken to illustrate the thesis, an event that has grown
clearer and stronger, which will be remembered as long as the present
human culture lasts. There are also events that fade away and disappear
from memory and even from the records. Thus, there is a kind of filtering
or concentrating process by which happenings are sorted out. A very
small proportion gain in their power to influence mankind and the
greater part diminishes until it ceases to exist.

Our picture of the past is now reasonably complete. It is as real now
as it ever was. It is only past for our present moment. Moreover, it is
constantly changing and evolving in the H-T zone. It projects itself
into different times and places and each projection is different. It is con-
nected with other times and places by the pattern of its virtual sensitivity.
In this way it is possible to make direct contact with it.**

We do not perceive all this and we find it hard to accept: we are
conditioned to equate reality with sense perceptions which belong to

* Jung, in his autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, describes an experience
of 'dying' which vividly illustrates our theme: 'I had the feeling that everything was
being sloughed away ... an extremely painful process. Nevertheless, something re-
mained; it was as if I now carried along with me everything I had ever experienced and
done ... I consisted of my own history' (p. 271).

** For example, a man may find that he has a vivid memory—as if he had actually
been present at an event that occurred a thousand or two thousand years ago. He
feels that he must have 'been there'. This seems to justify belief in reincarnation: but
the memory refers to the trace stored in the Soul-Stuff Pool (Cf. Chapter 40) and
he has touched it by way of a null-vector, as he might 'touch a star'.

40 THE DRAMATIC UNlVERSE

our own present moment and cannot connect us with anything else but
the content of this present moment.

16.42.7. The Status of the Future

The future exists, but in a different way from the past, and within
another present moment. There is an obvious way in which the future
can be said to exist. We expect with greater or less confidence that
various kinds of events will occur in the future, but we can never be
certain. Expectation is relative. Some events are very likely indeed to
occur: only a cosmic catastrophe can stop the sun from rising tomorrow.
Some events are so improbable that we do not take their occurrence into
account in our preparations for the future: a giant meteorite may fall
on London tomorrow and obliterate all its inhabitants, including the
author of this book and all his works, but we take no precautions against
such hazards. Between the two extremes are the events that form the
thread of our daily lives, containing much that we expect, but always
something we do not expect.

The usual explanation for our expectations regarding the future comes
from the doctrine of causality. The present moment is presumed to have
its causes in the past, so future moments have their causes in the present.
It is theoretically possible to know all the causes and calculate their
exact effects and therefore to know the future for certain. This point of
view was given its extreme expression in the famous dictum of Laplace:
'Let me know the coordinates and moments of all the masses in the
universe and I will predict the future of the world.' We can see today
that such a claim is not even theoretically tenable, and our views of
causality have radically changed. Most philosophers of science prefer
to speak of probability rather than causality, and some have seen that
this requires a change in our attitude to time. Yet, in spite of the
success of relativity theory and the disturbing consequences of recent
discoveries in sub-atomic physics, nearly every scientist and philosopher
continues to think about time in an absolute manner.

It is exceedingly hard to picture to ourselves existence that is neither
here and now, nor elsewhere and now; but in the still unactualized
future. That the future, as future, exists and therefore must have a
material content, follows from the picture we have drawn of time and
hyparxis. The state of existence must evidently be quite different from
the present state, but it certainly cannot be nothing at all. The notion of
conditional existence is not totally strange, for we also speak of what
'might-have-been' and if this means anything at all, it must signify a

THE WAR WITH TIME

conditional existence directed from the present moment towards the
past. If we could turn a 'might-have-been' into a 'has-been' we should
be acting from the future upon the past. The point is that the zone E-H
contains existence as a pattern that is 'really' there, but not actualized
in terms of material energies.

We have now come to the crux of the matter. The homogeneity of
experience does not allow some parts to 'exist' and others not to 'exist'.
All that ever has been or ever will be experienced and all that could have
been experienced, in short, all that is possible, exists.* This doctrine,
formulated in Vol. II, in the process of tracing the stages of Creation,
is also implicit in the Law of Order, which operates differently on
different levels of being. We have already concluded that the 'Present
Moment' has the limited transient character to which we are accustomed,
only on the level of Self-hood, World XXIV.**

We have, thus, strong grounds for supposing that the apparent non-
existence of past and future may be due to some limitation in our own
modes of perception; and that, for a different and more comprehensive
vision, all that has been or will become actual would be seen to exist.
It does not follow that all exists in the same way. There are three states
of existence that we can recognize: the past, the present moment
and the future. Our present moment has a reality of its own and is a
region of experience in all dimensions. But there are also 'longer
moments' that have their own character and contain our own. For us
they are past and future, but in themselves, they are present.

The relativity of the Present Moment is different for all the seven
types of openness described before. If we confine the use of the word
'actual' to mean that with which we are connected by an 'immediate
mental object', there are different degrees of non-actuality. Let us
consider a few examples of non-actual connection with the present
moment.

1. Tomorrow's sunrise, though now non-actual, is almost certain to
be actual tomorrow. The probability is so great that it is practically
causally-predetermined. Most physical phenomena are similarly pre-
determined by causes existing in the past.

2. The state of mind in which you will find yourself in twenty-four
hours is also non-actual but it is also almost unpredictable. Apart from

* Cf. Vol. II, p. 269, 'Existence is the sum of all possibilities of Being according to
Law'. Again p. 264, 'Existence is possibility divested of impossibility'.

** Cf. Vol. II, Chapter 30, p. 173, 'There are no events in the higher worlds'. The
transitive order of World XII unifies time and hyparxis, thereby removing the distinc-
tions of past, future and present, ibid., pp. 148-150. For Individuality the Present
Moment is not divided; but this does not imply that disorder is removed.

42 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

the small (we hope) uncertainty about whether you will be alive, there
are no causes that can be known with sufficient accuracy to predict a
future experience. Moreover, there is at least some element that cannot
in any case be predicted, because your freedom of choice allows you
to intervene in the situation and your intervention will falsify any
possible foreknowledge.

3. The child that is to be born from a conception is still non-actual.
Apart from influences of the first kinds (high probability of embryo-
logical laws and uncertainty due to freedom of parents) there is the
eternal pattern of the child due to its genetic constitution and the other
factors discussed in Chapter 40. 'The child is father to the man,' can
be interpreted to mean that the eternal pattern preconditions the future
in a non-causal way. This kind of determination is different from either
of the previous cases, because it accompanies actualization and does not
precede it.

4. An event of decisive importance is to be enacted in a particular
time and place. The event may not occur at all, or it may fail to achieve
its purpose. Nevertheless, it pre-exists in a manner that is different from
any of the other three cases. It belongs to the destiny of those who are
to take part in it. If it fails, or if they misunderstand what is required
of them, they miss their destiny. Their lives continue to become actual
in their own present moment: but they do not become real.

Here we have four ways in which the future is linked to the present
moment. Have we any grounds for using the word 'exist' in the literal
sense of 'standing out from nothingness'? Evidently this is not a field
in which we can ask for 'experimental' evidence for we can make experi-
ments only in the present moment. We must therefore rely upon obser-
vations and these obviously will be not reproducible and only partially
verifiable.

Nevertheless, there are several ways in which the existence of the
future can be tested. The simplest of these is precognition, that is
knowledge in the present of a future event that cannot be calculated in
advance and yet is perceived in such a way that chance coincidence can
be ruled out. Here the subject is passive, though in some cases his or
her precognition affects the course of events. So many and so varied
instances of precognition and premonitory phenomena have been in-
vestigated, and found to be inexplicable by accidental coincidence, or
prediction from pre-existing causes, that we are justified in concluding
that there must be some sense in which the future already exists.

The subject has been exhaustively investigated many times. The latest
and in many ways the most convincing is to be found in J. B. Priestley's

THE WAR WITH TIME

Man and Time* Priestley distinguishes precognition from F.I.P.
(future-influencing-present) phenomena. This refers to cases where a
sequence of events can be explained only on the supposition that some
influence of a later event produced a certain pattern of behaviour in an
earlier event.

Another class of phenomena, not investigated by Priestley, concerns
intentional precognition, that is to say, divination, and all kinds of
fortune-telling. It seems very probable that it is possible by various
procedures to foretell certain kinds of future events. That this is not
only possible, but does frequently occur, has been believed for thousands
of years by the most cultured nations of the old and new worlds.
Oracles, soothsayers, diviners, seers have been accepted and believed so
widely and so consistently as to make it improbable that authentic
prediction of the future never has occurred; but we have no studies of
prediction as thorough and reliable as those which have been devoted to
telepathy and precognition. There are, however, certain striking features
in the various accounts of precognition and the procedures of divination
that provide indirect evidence of both the reality and the relativity of
future existence.**

1. Divinatory procedures are almost invariably based upon the obser-
vation of spatial patterns. Tea leaves in a cup, the livers of sacrificial
animals, the flight of birds, the arrangement of yarrow stalks thrown at
random are typical and well-known examples. By various conventions of
interpretation, a spatial pattern in the present is used to predict a
temporal pattern of events in the future.

2. Divination usually requires some change of consciousness on the
part of diviner or medium. There is a suppression of normal sensitivity
in favour of a different level. In other words, divination seems to involve
a shift in the direction of eternity.

3. Premonitions almost invariably refer to the visible behaviour of
objects and people. A study made forty years ago of hundreds of pre-
monitions of the 1914-18 war, brought to light little except stories of
material objects such as guns, bombs, cities in flames and soldiers in
uniform. There were virtually no premonitions regarding the fates of
particular people, or of course of the war.

* Published 1964, with a wealth of examples and references to a far larger number
of cases elicited by an interview on the BBC programme Monitor, The whole of
Part III, Examples and Speculations, pp. 190, 309, should be studied by anyone who
is doubtful about the weight of evidence in confirmation of precognition and allied
phenomena.

** By 'real' we should understand 'within a Greater Present Moment', and by 'rela-
tive', linked with our own present moment in varying degrees.

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

4. Precognitions and retrocognitions are very often linked. The latter
usually go unnoticed, because it is assumed that we can know the past
only by the traces left in the present moment by past events. System-
atic studies, as made by Soal and Rhine, indicate that their subjects
tended to guess cards or other symbols both pre- and retro-cognitively.
Many reported cognitions of the past which are interpreted as evidence
of reincarnation, may be retro-cognitive in which the modus operandi is
apparently the same as that of precognition.*

5. Contacts between minds at different times do not seem to occur.
This is striking because telepathy, i.e., contact between minds within
the same present moment, even when spatially separated, seems to be
well established. It seems equally clear that contact between bodies at
different times does not occur; if it were to do so, the conservation laws
(energy, momentum, etc.) would be violated. Contacts seem to occur
between minds and bodies or between bodies and minds. The first
comes in precognition and the latter in divination.

In order to make sense of all observations such as those cited in
studies of parapsychology and divination, we must ask ourselves how
we could know anything without messages received through the senses.
As Professor Price** and many others have shown, the problem is really
that of showing how we receive images in the mind. These involve a
jump from material energies (electrical impulses, etc.) to vital energies
(automatic and sensitive). This jump does not involve movement in
time and space, but rather a null-interval of the kind we found in our
studies of the physical world.*** Our framework allows for nil-intervals
by combinations of space and eternity, with time and hyparxis. Similar
combinations can be formed within the mind, because the mind is
already in contact by way of consciousness and creativity with pools of
universal energy that are not limited in time and place.****

Three kinds of cognition are possible.

1. The direct contact of material systems by nil-vectors allowing
energy exchanges without movement. This occurs, for example, with
light signals, which are transferred to the mind by the sensitive energy.

2. Direct contact of the automatic and sensitive energies. This in-
cludes sympathetic and empathetic communication between minds and
bodies such as the phenomena of telepathy and precognition.

3. Contact by way of the universal energies of consciousness and

* C. D. Broad in Lectures on Psychical Research, London, 1963, refers to retro-
cognitions as 'Post-presentative veridical hallucinations',
**H. H. Price, Perception, Oxford, 1932.
*** Cf. Vol. I, Section 5.13.7. and Appendix II, pp. 499-502.
**** Cf. The theory of the human Soul-Stuff Pool developed in Vol. Ill, Chapter 40.

THE WAR WITH TIME

creativity. This is always in operation, but we become aware of it only
when there is a transfer into the mind. This appears to occur spon-
taneously and unpredictably, because we cannot trace the operation
beyond the limits of the mind. This third kind of contact can give
knowledge of past and future because the universal energies are not
subject to the distinction of virtual, actual and conditional states. This
also explains why consciousness appears to have the power to project
'action to a distance.'

Consciousness can 'pick up' energy patterns in a virtual state and it
can also form such patterns with the help of an influx of creative energy.
This explains what are called 'thought-forms', which in reality are not
thoughts, but patterns.

It should be noted that most accounts of premonitory phenomena do
not include precognition of events on a higher level of order than the
material world. Are they to be excluded from contact with the present?
The answer to this question is far more important and more astonishing
than the elucidation of premonitions of events. It seems that creative
impulses received in the present moment may—and perhaps always
do—come from the future. When a scientist has a flash of insight into
the workings of Nature, or an inventor sees how an hitherto unknown
device can be constructed, they are in momentary contact with the
future outcome of the discovery or the invention. This can account for
the well-known observation that the same flash of genius will occur to
more than one person at a given time, though usually most who have it
fail to follow it up. Again, a military genius like Alexander or Napoleon
acts with supreme confidence in the success of a manoeuvre which
occurs to him in a moment on the battlefield. Why? Because his height-
ened awareness brings him into immediate contact with the future
situation that he himself is about to create.

There are, thus, several ways in which the future can influence the
present. Creative insight, though the highest open to man, may not be
the highest possible. Similarly, purposes consciously entertained may be
linked to the pattern of future moments; but there can also be some kind
of sensitive connection with the future that produces instinctive actions
as in animals. Within the region of possible connections, instinct, expect-
ation, precognition, predestination and creativity all have a place and
all can be accounted for in terms of the scheme we have outlined. It
all turns indeed upon the simple notion of coalescence of present
moments.

This notion is derived from one of the most certain and invariable
features of our experience, namely, that the embrace of the present

46 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

moment is always changing. As a new object enters the mind it 'coalesces'
with the existing content. As we open our eyes what we see is embraced
into the present moment. Less obvious and certainly less frequent, but
equally striking and decisive, is the encounter of minds in the act of
mutual understanding. Two present moments coalesce into one. Even
more powerful is the sexual experience of coalescence of total experience
into a common present moment, so that two souls become one. Taking
these immediate, personal and indubitably real, experiences as the
starting point, we extend the notion of coalescence to the present mo-
ment of societies ranging from a family of three generations to that of
the entire human race over a million years. Clearly all these can be
regarded as present moments on condition that we can specify the
consciousness and will that makes them so. If there is to be a Great
Man-Soul such as we postulated in our study of man,* and if this soul
is to be conscious and exercise a single Individual Will, then we can
certainly refer to the experience of that Great Soul as its Present
Moment.

Since innumerable intermediate states can be postulated, we can use
the notion of coalescence as a simple and comprehensive way of speaking
about pre- and retro-cognition and of the future-influencing-present.
There are not only different degrees, but also quite different kinds of
coalescence or excursion beyond the specious limits of the present
moment. Every one of the seven directions** is open to the Will that is
strong enough in its union with Being and Function to respond to the
invitation.

There is, for example, clearly a decisive difference between creative
impulses and precognitions. The latter do not depend upon any present
action—otherwise they would not satisfy the requirement that they
could not be foreseen by any ordinary kind of knowledge or foresight.
The former depend upon the ability of those who receive them to recog-
nize and act upon them.

'Harp and carp, Thomas', she cried
'Harp and carp along wi' me.
If ye dare kiss my rosy lips
Soon of your body will I be.'
'Harp and carp', true Thomas cried
'That wierd shall never daunten me.'
Soon he hath kissed her rosy lips
All underneath the eildon tree.

* Vol. Ill, Chapters 39-41.

** Vide supra, p. 33.

THE WAR WITH TIME

And so he was borne off out of his present moment and was not seen
again of men until they caught up with his time. His excursion into the
future was made possible because he accepted the challenge of the un-
conditioned.

There is more than fantasy in the tale of 'Thomas the Rhymer'. The
future can be a realm of creativity into which the soul can enter, when it
is delivered from the conditioning of the past. Here we stand before a
very great mystery that we shall refrain from probing until we reach the
end of our journey.

It only remains to answer the question: why is it that excursions into
the future occur so seldom if they require no more than a null-vector
of the same kind as the proper-time of light? There are three parts to the
reply. Firstly, excursion into the future is probably not so rare as might
be supposed. Immense credit for emphasizing this is mainly due to
Dunne.* Secondly, messages from the future are received by the one
and only receiving apparatus available to us: the sensitive structure of
the mind. This apparatus is almost continuously occupied with receiving
messages through the senses, and, even in the absence of sense-impres-
sions, it is taken up with mental images and traces of the past which
have been stored up in the memory. Thirdly, there is probably a special
mechanism built into man's nature to prevent him from directing his
apparatus towards the past or the future. The result is that only when
this mechanism is accidentally inhibited in its action that such contacts
can be made. Nevertheless, it does seem that it is possible by a special
kind of self-training to acquire control over this mechanism and use it
to connect with regions of space, time, eternity and hyparxis which are
within the present moment and yet out of reach of the senses. This
amounts to the power to expand the present moment. It also seems that
such training can greatly increase the sensitivity to creative impulses
coming from the hyparchic future and thereby, ensure a far more
productive and successful life than would otherwise be possible. This
doctrine presupposes a real power to 'change the future' and this must
be the case if the responsibility of man or any other intelligent creature
is a reality. If all were predetermined, there would be only one kind of
time and the present moment would be embedded in a total World
Event in which there could be no choice: hence no moral action and
no responsibility.

The scheme we have developed may seem complicated, but reflection
will show that it is the minimum that will account for all the elements

* Particularly in his Experiment with Time. His scheme of the indefinite regress
comes near the mark but fails for want of an adequate framework.

D.u. IV—4

48 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

of our experience. We have still to show how, in this scheme, disorder
can be overcome—or, in more picturesque language, how Time can be
Conquered—and not merely held in check.

The central problem for any understanding of our situation is to show
how the limited Present Moments associated with separate selves, can
be significant for the entire Human Race and how, in its turn, the Present
Moment of Humanity can be significant in this great Universe.

16.42.8. Hyparxis and Time

The problem of disorder has been identified with the problem of Time.
The present moment which we wish could last for ever, will indeed last
for ever, because it is timeless: but it is threatened with progressive loss
of order that will leave no place for life. This disorder threatens out of
the future and if it is to be averted, the future must be changed. So
long as the future pours disorder into the present moment, we can do
no more than resist by the various means discussed in earlier sections.

But we want more than to hold back the flood: we want to reclaim the
present moment. We want not merely to endure, but to evolve. We
know from our own experience that it is possible to increase order within
the present moment by exercising our power to choose; but this pre-
supposes a higher order already present that enables us to choose. We
do not increase the total order, but only that which is upon the levels
accessible to our intentional action. We can, indeed, 'put ourselves in
order' up to a certain point; but, as we saw in our study of the trans-
formation of man,* help from a higher level is always needed. We are
now faced with the problem of giving this observation an historical
interpretation.

We are now as confident as we can hope to be about anything, that
order has increased on the earth during the last thousand million years
and that it has done so by the Evolution of the Biosphere. We saw,
at the beginning of this chapter, that this victory over disorder has been
accomplished without violating the second Law of Thermodynamics,
because the increase of order or virtue in the Biosphere has been at the
expense of a greater decrease of order in the system Sun-Earth. This
could not have occurred without a generator for anabolic transformation**
and a source of higher energy. This is the crux of the matter, for upon

* Cf. Vol. Ill, Chapter 40, pp. 193, 194-5.

** Cf. Vol. II, Chapter 32, p. 233. 'The transformation, in any kind of generator, of
energy from a lower to a higher quality is anabolic' Also p. 220, Proposition VI: 'Every
generator converts one quality of energy into another through the action of a third.'
The third energy in our present case must come from beyond life: i.e. it must be
conscious or creative, probably both.

THE WAR WITH TIME

the soundness of this conclusion turns the entire question of whether
evolution can be regarded as a natural process or whether a supernatural
agency must be invoked. This question is decisive for the interpretation
of History.

We can form a picture of the present moment with a three-fold
structure of transformations.

1. Predetermined or quasi-determinate material transformations.
These belong to future time and are successive, predictable and sub-
ject to laws of causality and probability.

2. Predestined transformations that are within the zone of life. They
are not predictable because they depend upon acts of choice and deci-
sion. There is a transition, not strictly continuous, but unbroken, from
determination to destiny. At one extreme there are causal processes
with no pattern to guide them. At the other extreme, there are purposive
processes guided towards a predestined pattern.

3. A foreordained plan which is the ultimate purpose of all exist-
ence and every separate existence. Hence it enters into every present
moment, though only conscious energy (E 4) can provide awareness of it
and only creative energy (E 3) can act according to it. The act comes
from the Personal Individuality in so far as it concerns the life-aims of
the human person, from the Universal Individuality for all mankind
and the Cosmic Individuality for the whole creation.

The Present Moment is the scene of an incessant transformation of
energies. This transformation acquires direction and purpose with
Life; it becomes self-directing with Mind and creative with Soul.* The
energies that are associated with the present moment of Self-hood in
the embodied state are necessarily localized and condensed into a region
of space. They must also be condensed within a corresponding duration
of time. The highest energy that can be condensed in this way is the
sensitive energy (E 5) that is at the upper limit of the vital energies.
From the concentration of sensitive energy an action is initiated that
reverberates in space and time, but only in those areas that are accessible
to the embodied self. Outside these areas there is the 'past' of the Self.
This is not accessible to material energy transfers—as must be obvious
from the laws of conservation. Nor is it accessible to the vital energies
except in the very special case of sensitive energy associated with
consciousness (E 4) that we call Mind. The sensitive energy that is 'left
behind' in past events, concentrates in some and weakens in others.
Hence we have the well-known phenomenon whereby some moments

* For an explanation of these terms see Vol. Ill, Chapters 39 and 40.

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

in the past stand out in sharper and sharper relief as we recede from them
while others disappear and are forgotten.

Thus, the 'transformation of the past' makes itself felt as the enrich-
ment of a few moments, and the impoverishment of the great majority.
We should ordinarily interpret this as a trick of memory by which what
is well recorded and remembered is all that remains. This interpretation
fails to account for the fact that events almost totally overlooked by the
contemporary world—the supreme example is the foundation of Christi-
anity—are seen in the course of time to contain a far higher concentra-
tion of conscious energy* than events that, at the time, seemed to be
far more important and were far better recorded and for a few genera-
tions, far better remembered.

The notion of an objectively transforming and developing past is
so strange that it can be accepted only if it is found to give a more
consistent, more complete and convincing explanation of the past than
the usual one that treats the past as non-existent and ascribes 'existence'
solely to the present moment. The difficulty is enhanced by our eternity-
blindness.** So long as our experience is dominated by exchanges of
energy, the present moment appears to be a 'moment of time.' But we
can sometimes be aware of timeless moments and these are found on
careful examination to be states of minimum energy exchange. For
example, respiration stops and even the pulse may be arrested. Again
artificial states in which sense-stimuli are almost entirely eliminated are
always associated with a profound change in time-perception. These
timeless moments are explained in terms of conscious energy (E 4) which
is not subject to the 'flow of time'.***

There is, however, another kind of timelessness connected with Will.
We find that attention fluctuates by timeless jumps. Decisions are taken
timelessly. The experiences of Individuality reported by those who have
attained soul-completion, are invariably timeless. They are not, however,
the same as 'time standing still.' We must clarify the notion of 'hypar-
chic moments'. We can 'know' the temporal past from its traces in the
present moment and we can forecast the temporal future from the same
data: but we cannot enter into the temporal past and future because
they lack the conditions for conscious experience. Hyparchic moments
can be experienced by those whose consciousness is not limited by
actualization: i.e. by the vital energies.

* How this cosmic energy can be 'concentrated' is explained in Vol. Ill, Chapter 41,
Section 15 .41.6.

** Cf. Vol. I, pp. 145-6, Section 5.13.9. The simplest example is our inability to
perceive potential energy.

***And hence can see time for what it is.

THE WAR WITH TIME 51

The hyparchic moments are interconnected by their freedom from
the requirement of being actual. There are past hyparchic moments
and events and there are also future hyparchic moments and events.
We have looked into the hyparchic past in connection with the notion
of the 'growing and changing past'. We must now see what the hypar-
chic future has to offer.

The hyparchic future consists of non-actual and yet real events.
They are not potential in the sense of being patterns of what might be:
but are in a state of creative activity that must be wholly virtual.*
It is probable that only three cosmic energies—consciousness (E4),
creativity (E 3), unitive (E 2) can be in the hyparchic future state, **
The hyparchic future is the place of creativity, so it can be regarded as
the region in which the purposes of existence are given shape and sub-
stance prior to their actualization. This is possible, because the hyparchic
future has a degree of freedom that the temporal future does not possess.
This can perhaps be grasped by an illustration.

Suppose we have an apparatus S that delivers coloured balls in
pairs and that the operator, A, must take one of the two balls to make a
sequence.***

When a ball is taken from its receptacle, it is replaced by another
from a hidden storage vessel. The operator wishes, let us say, to make a
blue sequence, but does not know if he will have blue balls delivered—
because, we may suppose, the balls are of seven different colours. He is
obliged on the average to discard six out of every seven taken. The same
would be true whatever pattern he wished to form. This can be taken
to represent the temporal tendency towards disorder.

Now let us suppose that there is an unseen operator B on the other
side of the apparatus, who does not feed the balls out at random, but
has his own pattern that he is trying to realize 'on the other side'.
Operator A has one plan and operator B another. It is now probable
that instead of wasting six out of seven, A will waste far more. Here there
is a conflict between two 'orders' with the result that an excess of dis-
order occurs. If, on the other hand, A happens to hit upon B's plan and
accepts it, he will be highly successful.

This can be said to represent the 'successful man of destiny'. It is
not necessary that B should be present as a person; because a pattern

* The notion of the 'virtual creation' of particles, important for nuclear physics, is a
useful parallel to our notion of the creativity of the hyparchic future.

** The Transcendental Energy (E 1) is associated with 'pure' hyparchic and eternal
states and can be controlled only by the Cosmic Individuality.

*** The model is to represent man able to make a choice of 'yes' or 'no' to two alterna-
live paths. This corresponds to the ordinary working of the will in man as a self.

52 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

could be 'programmed' into the machine. This corresponds to Fate,
where the pattern is fixed once and for all. Here there is a direct corre-
spondence between two patterns: that of intention behind the machine
and that of actualization in front of it. This does not take into account
factors that do not directly concern A's fate.

Now, suppose that there is a planner C of a higher authority than B
and that B is no longer free to offer balls to A only but must distribute
them to a number of A's, say At A2, A3, etc.* We are now nearer to
the situation of our ordinary experience. We have only to add one more
notion and this is that B cannot intervene all the time, but must allow the
machine to work according to its own programmed system of distribu-
tion, except when there are gaps or 'unprogrammed moments'. This
produces a situation analogous to the world of sense experience where
causal explanations can account for events on a single line of time, but
not for interactions between lines, such as occur in most biological
phenomena.

We shall call the near side of the machine 'the local present moment'
and the far side, the 'hyparchic future moment'. The temporal future
evidently lies on the near side of the machine and it includes events that
we confidently expect. Let us suppose that we have never known the
machine to fail to deliver a thousand balls an hour and we call our
expectation that 24,000 balls will be delivered in the next twenty-four
hours a 'well-established scientific generalization'. It may also be that
we find a statistical constancy in the number of balls of each different
colour. This is an 'empirical observation' that enables us to make predic-
tions and direct the course of events. All this is called 'gaining control
over Nature'. The A operators do not suspect that they are dealing
with an apparatus whose function is to keep their activity within
predetermined limits and so to fulfil a certain purpose.

The far side of the machine is totally different. This is the input side.
What appears from one side as a random distribution of balls governed
by statistical laws, is seen from the other side to be the creation of a
pattern that gives a particular place to each ball. The 'randomness' of
the output is due to the failure of the A operators to recognize the
pattern. The statistical regularities are due to the construction of the
machine. The pattern—which is what really matters—is seen only by
those who are on the input side.

Now let us translate this simile in terms of man's psychological
structure.

* These represent the various selves of A, only one of which is able to actualize at
any one moment.

THE WAR WITH TIME

The apparatus is the human mind,* which includes energies from
automatism to consciousness. It receives impressions (coloured balls)
through the senses and it also receives impulses from the higher centres
(arrangements of colours in patterns.) The A-operators are the selves
of man and his personality or personalities. The B-operator can be
identified as the Personal Individuality, which is the Will unattached to
an existential support. The C-operator may be the Universal Individuality.

The Self-hood of man is predominantly connected with immediate
mental objects. This makes it aware of time as passing and also of a
connected pattern in its experience. We can, with some reservation,
regard the four Selves as existing on different levels in eternity. Only
one self is normally aware of the Present Moment. When one Self is
dominant in this way, the others are latent mental objects. The mind is
the locus of the Selves and that part of the mind that we call 'conscious'
is the content of the immediate Present Moment. This is more or less
fragmentary according to the power of embrace of the Will. So we may
associate the Personal Individuality with hyparxis as the will to realize
destiny. Only with the four cosmic energies can hyparxis and etern-
ity be brought into direct contact and this agrees with the observation
that, in their ordinary states, the Selves have no awareness of Individu-
ality.

The Universal Individuality is 'beyond consciousness' and therefore
can act both within and beyond the mind without the latter being aware
of it.

The next stage of the argument can best be followed by returning to
the simile. We shall speak of the 'near' side of the machine and the
'far' side. On the near side is the present moment of a particular mind.
On the hyparchic side, there is no actualization and therefore all events
are reversible. On the near side of the machine, activity produces the
past, on the far side it produces the future. This suggests the very im-
portant conclusion that there is no 'present moment' except in minds:
from which it would follow that the present moment is not a part of time
but a state of mind arising from an act of Will.

Our immediate concern is with events on the far side of the machine.
So long* as there is an Individual Will but not a mind, there is no
personal present moment. The Individuality is a pattern of possible
relationships in the Greater Present Moment. The arrangement of
colours of individual balls corresponds to the destiny of the Individual
Will; but there is neither communication nor cooperation between the
two sides. The Self-hood is isolated from the Individuality, within a

* Reference should be made to the author's A Spiritual Psychology, p. 128-130.

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

THE WAR WITH TIME

present moment that appears to it to contain all experience, although
in reality it is only a small region of indeterminate extent.

The state of the completed soul is in the hyparchic future. This state
is quite different from that of the temporal future which is on 'this'
side of the machine and can therefore be precognized in varying degrees.
Let us consider the situation of a completed soul that has reached the
Psychoteleios state.* Such a soul is able to enter the hyparchic future
because it is an Individualized Will. It brings its mind with it. This
introduces operators of a new kind that we shall call D-operators.
These are perfected souls that have left the limited present moment and
entered the hyparchic state. A soul—which combines mind and will—
situated in the hyparchic future, can influence the present. We have here
a consistent and natural explanation of the condition of saints.** We
can also see that the saint has conquered time for himself, for he is
exempt from successiveness and irreversibility. Moreover, since in him
consciousness and sensitivity are independently organized, he also is
free to move in the direction of eternity and become aware of Values as
part of the Foreordained Plan of Creation.

We can now ask ourselves just what is and what is not possible in the
hyparchic future. The hyparchic state is not in this present moment,
hence it cannot act directly upon it by any material agent. The influence
upon the human present, of a mind in the hyparchic state must consist
in pattern formation. We may have experience of this but do not
recognize it. It occurs in the spontaneous arising in the mind of patterns
of action that are not the result of previous thought or of influences
received from outside. These patterns of action probably come from the
Personal Individuality. They do not enable us to conquer time, but
they can be of great significance for understanding and fulfilling our
destiny. The conquest of Time requires effective action outside of the
personal present moment. This is possible only in the hyparchic future.
It should by now be clear that there is no other condition open to a finite
Individuality in which anything can be done. The activity of a perfected
soul in the hyparchic future can include the creation of patterns that
will balance and so counteract the consequences of temporal actualiza-
tion.

This can be illustrated by the apparatus. We suppose that the
D-operator is aware that a particular combination of events-—for ex-
ample, the concentration of conscious energy (E 4) within a certain
group of people—will bring about an increase of order, that is, an

* Cf. Vol. Ill, Chapter 41, section 15 .41.5.

** Saints are a sub-group of the Psychoteleios Group, loc cit., Section 13.41.5-2.

evolutionary development contrary to the trend of probabilities, within
the human society at a certain time. Such a concentration may be
obtained by a particular pattern of coloured balls, and the D-operator
can manipulate the apparatus so as to give a strong bias in favour of the
desired pattern. If we suppose that there is an A-operator (i.e. a living
person) who can recognize what is required, he will respond to the
indications and an effective cooperation between his present moment and
the Greater Present Moment will be set up. So long as this lasts, the
result will be to introduce into the present moment of ordinary people
unexpected and improbable factors, of such a nature as to appear to go
against the stream of time.

We may further suppose that the hyparchic future has its own
localizations. These localizations can be aligned with respect to the
present moment in such a way that the nearest differs very little from the
temporal future. At each stage, there is a greater degree of freedom,
enabling the creation of patterns to be directed towards the highest
attainable degree of order or the maximum exclusion of disorder.

The hyparchic future is a region of patterns of events, not of events
themselves. Patterns can be created and are created by souls in the
hyparchic future. There is an overriding pattern of Destiny. The
hyparchic future contains the destiny of mankind, of races, societies and
individuals. This destiny is not fixed, but is in process of being created.
There can be a feed-back between the small and the large present
moments: but this takes place on the level of the cosmic energies of
consciousness, creativity and unity and therefore cannot be observed by
the human mind. This feed-back enables destiny to be adapted to the
course of events. Unless it were possible, failures would be irredeemable.

The hyparchic future cannot determine the present. Predetermina-
tion belongs to time alone. If predetermination were absolute, there
would be no hyparxis. This corresponds to the state of unconstrained
motions, which can be described without any reference to hyparxis.*
The future motions of a system of unconstrained bodies can be pre-
dicted with absolute certainty from full knowledge of its present state.**
As soon as there is interaction, predetermination ceases to be absolute.
It follows that the enlargements of the Present Moment which we can
observe and study must lie within the H—-T zone.

The hyparchic future appears to be a strange notion wholly alien to
our experience—which is always in the restricted present moment. The

* Cf. Vol. I, Section 5.14.1, 'Non-interacting Relatedness'.

** By the Principle of Stationary Action. Laplace and Lagrange showed this in the
eighteenth century; but mistakenly supposed that it would be true for all motions.
D.U. iv—4*

56 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

same is true of the hyparchic past. Are we then to conclude that hyparxis
is a mysterious concept that belongs only to mystical experience in the
rare cases of direct knowledge of past and future events? By no means.
We should have no experience at all unless there were an hyparchic
component within every present moment. It is this that enables us to
live and move 'within the present' by enabling a more or less extensive
region of space, time and eternity to be integrated as 'here and now'.
The eternal element in the present moment is experienced in the separa-
tion of the mind from its objects; and, to an enhanced degree, when
consciousness and sensitivity are separated in the mind. But this
separation would only produce a state of subjective trance (samadhi) if
there were no hyparchic component to hold the elements together.

We can, therefore, say that the 'present moment' is also the hyparchic
present. If it were only a temporal present it would be a vanishing
instant of time without duration. If it were a spatial present only, it
would have no motion. If it were only an eternal present, it would be
trance.* The present moment within which it is possible to act, must
have an hyparchic component. When this is very strong we can pass
beyond the simple 'yes' and 'no' of the illustration given above, and act
according to our destiny, **

The fully developed man who has attained Individuality has, like
everyone else, his own present moment, but he can also enter into other
present moments and act within them. This means according to the
views developed in this chapter that when the Present Moment opens
in the direction of hyparxis, it also gains in duration, extent and in the
perception of Eternal forms and values.

Even for ordinary selves, hyparxis is a necessary condition of experi-
ence. Nor is it totally imperceptible. We do not observe it directly; but
we have an intuition of 'presence' in those whose hyparchic nature is
strong. This means that they do effectively live in the space that con-
tains and surrounds their physical body. Though the notion of hyparxis
as a determining-condition like space and time is unfamiliar, the mani-
festations connected with it are there for us to experience, when we know
how and where to look for them.

16.42.9. The Greater Present

We cannot leave the subject of disorder and separation, without con-
sidering how it affects our notions of existence and being. Ontology in

* The experience of nirvikalpa samadhi reported by Yogis such as Ramakrishna
show that this is possible.

** The A and B operators become one and the same.

THE WAR WITH TIME 57

philosophy has been concerned only with an ill-defined instant or with
a timeless, 'Eternal Now'. We need an ontology of all present moments
including past and future states. To make this clear we shall have to
return over some of the ground already traversed. As we have said,
past, present and future, both temporal and hyparchic, all exist; but
they do not all exist in our present moment. What exists for us is our
present moment, and this is different according to the state of our being.
The present moment is an intersection of seven regions and zones
which range from the existing and actualizing world to the worlds of
Will and Value which are not subject to existence. When these meet,
there is experience. In the ordinary way, experience is of that which is
now being actualized, namely the content of the present moment with
its traces of the past and expectations of the future. Within the personal
present moment, freedom is limited by the commitments of the past and
the patterns of the future. These have the effect of turning the present
moment into a tramline in which the driver—or the Self—has little
power of choice. It is, however, possible to get away from the commit-
ment by abandoning attachment to present existence and thereby
entering a larger Present Moment.

The future exists: but it does not exist within this present moment.
It exists in our future. The future is not yet now, but it is already
future. We cannot say that the future is 'in' the future for this means
nothing. What we can say is that an event that will occur in the future is
already present in the future. But it is differently present from 'here and
now'. This is the difficult idea that has to be grasped. The future is not
actual and so not yet committed to being what it will be. That which is
being actualized at the present moment—the words I am writing on
this piece of paper—are being as we so aptly say 'committed to paper'.
The commitment is irreversible. 'What I have written, I have written',
as Pilate said, with deeper significance than he imagined. The words
were inscribed in the Present Moment of the whole Christian Era and
are still present.

It is useful to make ourselves a partial representation with the help of
other conclusions reached earlier in our investigations. We have re-
peatedly said that Will does not exist, and Individuality, a pure Will does
not exist either. We have seen Individuality acting in the future.*
There is also existence, but in a present moment that is beyond our reach.
The Individual Will has power over existence in the future. We have
called this action pattern-creation and we supposed that this is occur-

* We must be on our guard against thinking of Individuality as existing in the
future.

58 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

ring in a present moment which includes both 'our' present and 'our'
future.

The usual way of thinking about Will, is to regard it as a power
directed from the present towards the future. If I say: 'I will go', the
intended meaning would probably be: 'A decision has been taken in my
mind that will at some future time result in the act of going and at some
still later time will validate the statement "I went". 'Whatever sense we
may ascribe to the word 'will' in this statement, it certainly refers to
future time. This is equally true for those who deny Will any reality and
for those who assert that man has will and that he can exercise it freely
and so can 'change the future'.

We take an entirely different view of the situation. Will is exercised
exclusively in the present moment and its operation is inseparable from
such exercise. We can only change the future if we can act in it, and this
is only possible if we can bring it within the present moment. This,
according to the ideas developed in this chapter, is possible in several
ways.

1. The simplest and most immediate situation is that of the Self-
hood. This is contained within a present moment of finite duration,
occupying a finite region of space, with some separation in eternity*
and some degree of hyparchic freedom. The self-hood can be aware of
alternative possibilities within the present moment and act in such a way
as to realize one and reject the others. This act only influences the
future to the extent that there is a determinate connection. Trivial
choices leave no trace and might as well not have been made. Serious
and effectual choices are rare and they seldom produce intended results
for lack of power to calculate their consequences or to precognize the
future directly. This is the ordinary state of the Self-hood.

2. The Will is exercised by the 'I' of the True Self. This stands be-
tween the vital and cosmic energies. The mind reaches out into the
future and the present moment includes the act and its consequences.
This is the state of the truly responsible will. The 'I', associated with
conscious energy, stands apart from the sensitivity and other vital
energies, and can determine action outside the present moment of the

* Cf. Vol. I, Chapter 8, Section 3.8.3, pp. 160-4 for a discussion of the apocritical
intervals that separate levels in eternity. The point is that, although all existing entities
must have some degree of organization and hence some 'depth' in eternity, only
conscious energy in Selves can give direct awareness of this separation.

** The equivalent status of the Universal Individuality and Demiurgic Intelligence
was implicit in our discussion of Psychoteleios Society, Vol. Ill, Chapter 41, Section
15.41.7.6. It is made explicit in the next chapter and will play an important role in
our account of the evolution of mind.

THE WAR WITH TIME

lower selves. The separation of 'present' and 'future' is momentarily
overcome by an expansion of consciousness. In this state it cannot be
said that the Will is directed towards the future, for it is able to act
along the direction of the hyparchic present and future which is time-
less. This is a state that man can experience, but usually does not
recognize.

3. The Will is exercised by the Personal Individuality which is able
to pass freely out of the present moment of the Self-hood into the
Greater Present. It does so by way of Consciousness and Creativity. In
this case, the act of will is in the future of the Self-hood. It works against
Time and brings creative order into the present. This mode of willing
is possible only when the Individuality has entered into the Self-hood.

4. The Will proceeds from the Universal Individuality or Demiurgic
Intelligence.** It is wholly free from the limitations of Self-hood. It
operates in the zone that connects Eternity and Hyparxis. Here the
action creates the pattern of events that still lie in the future of the Self-
hood. The mode of willing is also outside the limitation of number.
One act of will in the Hyparchic future may influence the present mo-
ments of thousands of selves.

In using such expressions as 'future moment', 'hyparchic future' or
even simply 'future', we run the risk of treating the future as if it were
now; that is, in some way 'alongside' of our personal present moment.
The future lies within a Greater Present Moment that also contains
our own and for that moment, both our present and our future are now.
Nevertheless, there is a true sense in which one moment can be said to
succeed another. This is correctly given by Eddington's description of
'Time's arrow' as pointing in the direction of maximum entropy in-
crease; or, as we should put it, the direction from which disorder
penetrates into the present moment. This direction is that of predeter-
mination and so it is also that in which time can be measured by clocks.
The two properties are quite distinct and their interpretation in terms
of our hypothesis is exceedingly instructive. The direction of 'pure'
time is inaccessible to the life energies and therefore cannot produce
any immediate mental objects. In plainer language, the state of absolute
determination and absolute disorder is incompatible with any kind of
mental structure. It is wholly 'materialistic' and outside of any possible
experience.

We cannot reach, but we can approach, the direction of pure time.
This we can do from two directions: from the zone time-eternity and
from that of time-hyparxis. The first makes us aware of transience and
hence of the threat of disorder. The other makes us aware of recurrence

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

and hence of metric measurement. If there were no perception of levels
of existence, we should be wholly involved in the probabilistic actual-
ization of maximum disorder; i.e. of maximum degeneration. If we had
no contact with hyparchic ableness-to-be, our present moment would
collapse into durationless instants and there would be no observation,
no measurement, no awareness of succession.

We may now see how the lesser present enters into the larger in such
a way as to preserve the distinction of past and future, and yet allow the
past and future to exist for the experience that embraces them. We can
show the situation by means of a diagram. We can start with a human
self O, who has a present moment embracing his capacity for immediate
experience. Although this present moment is always 'now', O, identify-
ing the present with its material content, observes that the latter changes
and describes this as the perishing of the present. In doing so, he treats
the situation as if the only direction were that of pure time and identifies
all existence with inert matter obeying absolute 'laws' of simple causality.
Narrow causality is obsolete, because it is no longer possible to think in
terms of Absolute Time and Absolute Space as the sole determining
conditions; but it remains true that there is one unique direction for
which past, present and future are a succession of point-instants. In
the diagram this is shown as the horizontal line TP-TF (i.e. time past to
time future).

P, N and F are the past, now and future content, of the present
moment of the observer O in so far as he is confined to the perceptions of

THE WAR WITH TIME

his Self-hood. The larger circle marked GPM is the greater present
moment of the Personality Individuality.

1. For O, experience is always now. The material content under-
goes change and in doing so conforms to laws of conservation and
entropy increase. But O remains at N.

2. When O interprets his experience in material terms, he takes P
to be past and F to be future and he draws the line PT-FT using it to
define successiveness, irreversibility and the other properties he as-
cribes to time.

3. Associated with every present moment are the regions of eternity
and hyparxis marked E and H on the diagram. The present moment has
non-vanishing components in these regions and in the intermediate
zones. This makes it possible for O to sense, to know, to think and to
act. These powers are all associated with 'now' and they have no past or
future. The situation is that of the mind.*

4. The Individuality is independent of Existence and does not change
with the change of content of the present moment. It can therefore
embrace past, present and future in the Greater Present Moment
represented by the circle GPM in the diagram.

5. The present moment marked P, though past for N, does not cease
to exist for the GPM for which it is now. Nor does it cease to exist
in its own right. This is the 'living past' that we have discussed in an
earlier section. Its present moment is vivified by its own coherence
and energies, but it is subject to disorder and hence to disintegration if
it does not continue to evolve.

6. The present moment marked F includes the 'hyparchic future' of
N. Within this zone, the Individuality can create the pattern of events:
but only on condition that its Will is integrated with a corresponding
level of Being. In other words, F must be a 'living future' with both
time and hyparchic elements if it is to be changed.

7. Both P and F are outside the now of 0, but not of the Individu-
ality I. This is the crux of the matter and it explains the peculiar working
of the Creative Energy that injects notions into the mind of O, 'from
nowhere'.

8. The future of the self-hood allows for intervention by the Indi-
viduality—or by another Will that is not limited by Self-hood—within
its here and now. Thus the future can influence the present by an in-
tentional action.

* Mind is a region of ordering activity. Cf. Chapter 39, Section 15 .39.5.4. With the
overcoming of separateness mind becomes soul—an organized structure of vital and
cosmic energies. Cf. Chapter 40, Section 15.40.5.3.

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

It can also influence it through the pattern of energies that are the
future content of N. These energies must include the material and vital
energies. The former can exist only in the state of virtuality and the
latter as latent mental objects.* The pattern pre-exists the moment of
its actualization, providing it is capable of pre-existence, and this holds
only if it is associated with energy free from disorder—that is the creative
and higher cosmic energies. These are associated with the Higher Indi-
viduality which can thus create destiny. The pre-existent pattern is
not able to influence the present except through some intermediate
state in the form of a bridge between Will and Being. The virtual
hyparchic pattern is an act of Will, which can be associated with creative
energy but not the lower energies. By an act, that is apart from Being
and yet directed towards it, the virtual or creative pattern transforms
into a potential pattern that is eternal. This eternal pattern is the same
as we have already found as the directive and organizing factor in
development. It acts upon the actualizing present moment to bring
order and organization and so 'change the present'.

We can take as an example the human mind. The will-pattern is in
the creative state. It can modify the consciousness and be translated into
the potentiality of the present moment. If the sensitivity and conscious-
ness are separated, the pattern can be translated into the sensitive state
as a mental image. For our later studies on the evolution of life this is
of some importance, for it shows how patterns of pre-existence modify
the organization of the present moment through the conscious state.
Contrast this with the genetic pattern of the organism that does not go
beyond sensitivity in its structure. This is why the genetic pattern
must accompany the organism in its present moment and explains why
we find it only in the zone eternity-space as an organizing influence.

Within the three regions and intermediate zones, together with the
regions of space, there are several distinct future regions of the Greater
Present. These range from determination to freedom, and from freedom
to ordainment, and they include accident, fate, destiny and the Cosmic
Plan among their possible patterns. We shall consider each of these
future states in turn.

16.42.9.1. PREDETERMINATION

The wholly determined future is that in which nothing new or un-

expected can occur. Its type situation is the perpetuum mobile. A

* The term virtuality was introduced in Vol. I as the condition of energies constitut-
ing the eternal pattern of an entity. In the course of further researches, it has turned
out necessary to reserve this term for the purely hyparchic state, reserving the term
potentiality for the content of the eternity region.

THE WAR WITH TIME 63

near approximation is met with when events on totally different scales
are compared. We observe the galaxy from the earth: its general pattern
remains unchanged for millions of years. The constellations observed
thousands of years ago will remain the same thousands of years hence:
but they only remain so relative to the earth and relative to the duration
of human cultures. Nearer home, we confidently expect that conditions
of existence on the earth will remain substantially unchanged for a long
time. All that depends upon and is governed by large-scale laws is
more or less determined on the small scale. Through our bodies, we
are governed by the condition of the earth and by many smaller, but
nevertheless relatively unchanging influences. Events so governed can
be described as predetermined. Predetermined events vary in the
degree and completeness of their determination and we must therefore
remember that we are dealing with a class that has a range of predicta-
bility.

16.42.9.2. PREDESTINATION

We can define a quite different class of events distinguished by having
a destination or end-point lying in future time. All life belongs to this
second class. The simplest living thing has a pattern that it tends or
seeks to realize. The most complex and also the vaguest human aims and
purposes are associated with events of the second kind. We shall describe
these as predestinate to indicate that they are always recognizable by
having a destination that may or may not be reached. Here again,
relativity applies and we recognize a range of destinies from simple
pattern through purpose to the realization of a cosmic role.

16.42.9.3. FREEDOM

We can suppose that the future exists as a field of creativity where
nothing is predetermined or even predestined. This third kind of
future is free from all commitments: even in the shape of patterns to
guide actualizations in its past. Nevertheless, such a future cannot be
an empty void, for where there is nothing, nothing can happen. The
free future must not be a state in which there can be arbitrary or caprici-
ous events that violate the laws of nature. It can only be a state in
which there are free but legitimate possibilities.

Without such a region, Existence would be cut off from the potenti-
alities for recreation that are in the unlimited state of Being. The
distinction between determination and freedom would then be sharp
and therefore absolute, and the present moment of any existing entity
would be subject to the play of order-disorder and nothing else at all.

64 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

Without a regenerative or recreative action, the present moment would
sink into chaos and lose all its meaning. The natural remedy for such
a situation lies in the possibility of free actions that remain within the
conditions of existence. Since we reject the notion of arbitrary provi-
dential intervention against nature, we need to postulate a state of
affairs where it is possible to create new possibilities to make good
those that have been lost or wasted. This goes further than the creation
of patterns. It must make it possible to change the course of already
committed events and yet do so without violating natural laws.

16.42.9.4. FOREORDAINMENT

We have, finally, to consider the zone in which there is no tendency
towards disorder—or no time-component—and in which patterns can
be created without corresponding material structures. This is possible,
because we are in a zone occupied only by matter in the states of Cosmic
Energy and dominated by the Transcendental Energy which connects
Existence with Infinite Being. The acts of Will that are possible in this
zone are Creative in the highest sense of being independent of pre-
existing matter or form. We shall call this Foreordainment, to express
the notion that we have here the Plan of Creation.

The Plan of Creation is realized in History. This comes with the
progressive expansion of the present moment so that separateness can
be overcome. But this is not enough, for the very nature of Existence is
to be subject to the threat of annihilation in disorder. This threat must
be overcome, or integration would be futile.

As with individual man, purification and integration must go hand in
hand if he is to achieve perfection; so on the vast scale of history the
overcoming of disorder must go together with the overcoming of
separateness. We cannot hope to come closer to the purpose of our
existence than to start from the premise that the human race did not
arise on the earth by predetermination or even predestination alone;
but by a foreordainment which intended that mankind should evolve
into a conscious, creative power able to bring order to the earth, perhaps
to the entire Solar System, and to establish a Greater Present Moment
of the Biosphere that will integrate the entire history of this planet.

Chapter Forty-three
THE STRUCTURE OF HISTORY

16.43.1. The Historian's Role

History is the study of that which lies outside the present moment of
the historian, but within the larger Present Moment of the region of
experience he selects for his activity. Thus, the history of Europe is
concerned with a present moment of nearly three thousand years, united
by continuity of tradition, culture and environment. Since we are in the
midst of this greater Present Moment of European history, what is to
come is as significant for understanding it as what has gone past, but
we cannot know it in the same manner for the lack of traces and signals.
Nevertheless, the historian cannot be indifferent to the expectations of
the future that he derives from the traces and their interpretation.

The historian is not concerned with the determined past that can be
exactly known by measurement and calculation. He works in the zone
that links determination and destiny, though one may interpret these
conceptions very differently from another. According to the views
developed in the last chapter, the status of the past varies according to
its content. Whether he recognizes it or not, the historian is concerned
with the living past. The greater Present Moment associated with any
centre of experience must be living and transforming; just as the lesser
present moment associated with our private experience is living and
transforming. We must see how the greater Present Moment is to be
studied and understood.

We can do this best by comparing the work of the historian with that
of the scientist or the artist. All three deal with experience. All three
select from experience certain elements which are significant for their
aim and seek to give these elements some kind of expression: verbal,
symbolic, plastic or musical. The similarity ends when we examine the
criteria according to which each makes his selection. The scientist is
concerned to find regularities in phenomena that he can reduce to Fact
and express in the form of general laws. His concern is to add to the
sum of human knowledge and power. This dictates each stage of his
procedure from observation to experiment, from experiment to analysis
and generalization, thence returning to observation and experiment to
verify and extend; finally, he goes on to predict the course of some future

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

series of events, and finds, in .successful prediction, the justification of
his procedure. When new observations enter his present moment and
seem to falsify his generalizations, a fresh cycle of scientific activity is set
in motion. In this way a growing body of well-attested facts and success-
ful hypotheses comes into being and takes its place in the world picture
accepted by natural scientists within the scientific present moment in
which they all share. The world picture within the present moment
constantly changes, but over the centuries its progress resembles a
helix, that is, as we follow it outwards from its beginning, increases in
radius but returns again and again to point in the same direction.

In one sense, it gets nowhere, because after thousands of years since
men began to leave traces of their observations and speculations, science
is no nearer to final answers to any of its questions than were the
Egyptian and Babylonian sages. In another sense, science is not only
progressing, but doing so at an accelerated pace. The volume and com-
plexity of known facts is constantly growing. Hypotheses are being
refined and made more general in scope. The very nature of scientific
knowledge is better understood: we see, for example, how much our
picture of the world is influenced by our human perceptions and modes
of thought. All this is real progress; yet science is also repetition: the
confidence it inspires is largely founded on the ability to repeat and
reproduce experiments. The subject matter remains apparently con-
stant. For thousands of years man has observed the stars, the earth,
living things and every kind of material object and forms of energy and
has made experiments to extend his knowledge of this apparently
unchanging 'objective' world. The repetition is not circular, fixed in its
scope, but expands in a spiral. So we could describe the scientific method
as Expansive Repetition. The entire process takes place within the
present moment of science, which is expanding and complexifying. We
cannot tell if it has an end-point, but it has a goal: the complete know-
ledge of Nature and her operations and the liberation of man from the
limitations imposed upon his power to do whatever he wishes. So science
includes within its present moment expectations of the future, although,
by the very nature of research, it cannot predict what will be discovered.

The artist deals with experience by a very different procedure. He
recognizes a pattern which for him represents a Value and he is moved
by the urge to give it expression. To this end, he proceeds to eliminate
all that is irrelevant, in order to bring into his present moment the
particular pattern of qualities that has attracted his interest. His concern
is wholly with the particular, even if his form of expression is abstract,
and even if the 'particular' is some universal truth or cosmic value.

THE STRUCTURE OF HISTORY 67

He has a definite, immediate objective that cannot be reached by
hypothesis or generalization: he must express in a work of literature,
painting, sculpture, architecture, music or even dance and mime, the
infinitely rich content of an aesthetic present moment. When the
work has been done, the artist turns to another experience and begins
again. Every work of art is thus an end-point beyond which there is
nothing. It can never be complete or perfect, for the content of the
present moment is rich beyond the possibility of expression, but there
must be an end to the attempt. If it is 'successful', there is a sense of
fulfilment that attaches itself forever to that particular work and can
never be destroyed. For better for worse, with all its imperfections, the
work is finished with. Its 'present moment' remains, but that of the artist
grows and opens to another start. Nevertheless, the life of the work of
art is not ended; it will either rise or fall in the scale of significance in
just the same way as any other present moment. The work of art links
the past and the present in a present moment of its own. It is a constantly
renewed experience that we may describe as Reiterated Concentration.

Neither the scientific activity nor the artistic are historical in the
usual sense of looking back towards the past. The work of the scientist
is wholly directed towards the future. He builds on the past, but he has
his back to it. The artist lives and works in the present. His task is to
endow the present moment—as represented by his work—with such a
pattern of sensitive and conscious energies that it will live. The paintings
of Polycleitus still live for us though the material objects have long
since perished. The acting of Mrs. Siddons or the playing of Chopin
are still present in their own present moment. The immense significance
of the artist's achievement does not concern us here, except to note that
he creates by elimination.*

The historian also eliminates, but his aims and his procedure are
quite distinct from those of the scientist or the artist. His concern is to
strengthen the link between his own present moment and that of the
region of experience he studies. He surveys the traces left in the present
moment and separates the determinate and therefore insignificant, from
the living and therefore non-determined and significant. If he were to
confine himself to the Domain of Fact, he would not find the living
content. But if he remains in the Domain of Value, he cannot touch the
traces. The true historian is not an archivist interested in the preserva-
tion of material records; nor is he a writer of romantic fiction expressing,
in terms of traces of the past, no more than his own subjective states.

We have distinguished between traces of the course of determinate
* As Michelangelo well understood. Cf. Rime, particularly No. XV.

68 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

actualization and evidences of purposeful actions guided by the pattern
of destiny. When these traces can be put together to form a present
moment, we shall refer to the first kind as happenings and the second
as events. The content of history is composed of events. Remembering
that every event is a present moment within a greater present moment,
we can say that the historian is concerned with the way in which the
present moment is realized. This involves activity and order (the tetrad)
potentiality and significance (the pentad) recurrence and coalescence
(the hexad) and structuring or completion (the heptad). He must use
his powers of intuitive perception to penetrate beyond the visible traces
to discern the hidden structure.

Without structure, there would be no History. Structure of the living
present must take patterns and voluntary actions into account. The
historian is as much concerned with Eternity and Hyparxis as with
Time. So we have to include in our notion of history that it is concerned,
in part at least, with voluntary and responsible actions. No amount of
automatic activity, nor any quantity of sensitive experiences, will pro-
duce historical events unless there is also a leaven of conscious and even
creative action. This is one of the reasons why there are so many views
as to the nature and meaning of history. Every historian must apply
criteria that seem to him to be valid in order to eliminate the irrelevant
traces of the past and discover the structure of events. His criteria come
from the Domain of Value as his material comes from the Domain of
Fact. In combining them, he himself does something to the past; and
possibly, the past does something to him. He cannot enter the Domain
of Harmony and come out again the same man as he went in.

The historian must work in his own present moment. He is the child
of his time and he is the product of the activity that has given content
and shape to his own nature and environment. One consequence of this
is that there are as many views of history as there are historians.

The 'providential' scheme of history, that dominated European
historical studies for a millennium, was based on the Judaeo-Christian
belief in the intervention of the Divine Will in Jahveh's adoption of the
Seed of Abraham and in the doctrine of election. The 'drum and trum-
pet' notion of history, as the record of wars, conquests and expansion,
is based on the axiom that the will of rulers is more significant than that
of the ruled. One historian sees the significance of history in the evolu-
tion of jurisprudence, another in economics, a third in forms of govern-
ment or society, a fourth in culture, humanism, science or religion. In
all cases, there is a criterion of selection and elimination given by the
doctrine of significant harmony that the historian adopts. The structure

THE STRUCTURE OF HISTORY 69

is so rich, that every interpretation has its merit. The hard task is to see
the working of history as a complete structure in which all elements have
their place. We must begin by a study of events.

16.43.2. The Event

An event is a present moment associated with significant experiences
that link it with other moments. It is built up from elements, but it also
has an overriding unity that makes it a coalescent structure or hexad.

We can distinguish five stages in the study of an historical event.

1. The event is taken as a set of knowable facts within a larger nexus
of knowable facts; partly antecedent and partly subsequent. The factual
material is put into order with the help of a set of premises or principles
of historical interpretation. From the 'premises' and the 'facts', a
logically consistent scheme is sought for. This corresponds to the first
stage, where concepts and inferences are the instruments of analysis.

2. The known traces of the event are grouped according to system-
atic principles. There are as many 'principles of explanation' as there are
relevant systems.* There are conflicts and contradictions to be studied as
dyads. There is a dynamism to be interpreted by the triad. There is an
ordered activity requiring the discernment of motivation and instru-
mentation. There is a central process of significance with a 'master',
'nourishment' and an 'inner life.' There is the 'coalescence of the event'
to be studied as a hexad. Each of these systems contributes to the
construction** of the event.

3. The Event is also a part of human experience. It is associated with
a particular society composed of various groups. It may occur, for
example, within a particular civilization or nation and involve the
various subordinate societies and groups within the totality. This pre-
scribes the dynamism of the event: for example, a revolution is to be
seen as the interaction of the ruling oligarchy, the masses and the
revolutionaries. It also enables the event itself to be recognized as a
present moment. It is the Present Moment of the society within which
it occurs. In looking upon the event as a social phenomenon, we must
take into account the non-human environment which sometimes appears
as one of the sources of the dynamism.

4. The Event is an element of order within the greater Present Mo-
ment of human existence on the earth. Every historical event is an
episode in the War with Time. It takes place on the levels of human

* A full description of the systems was given in Vol. Ill, Chapter 37.
** Cf. Vol. Ill, Chapter 41, Section 15.41.1.

70 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

experience and it is a coalescence of Wills whereby it gains a degree of
unity that mere happenings do not and cannot achieve.

5. Finally, we have the Event as a Present Moment in its own right.
We sometimes express this by referring to the Moment of Decision or
the Moment of Destiny. We see the event as an independent fragment
within the greater whole.

We may not be able to recognize the full significance of past events;
but we can certainly agree that in our everyday experience we do
encounter 'bundles of activity' that have some at least of the character-
istics of events. The problem before us is to decide what we mean by
'past events'. We can make a start by referring to the laws of synchron-
icity.* The first law will give us a starting point. We have seen how the
togetherness of entities in a given region of space and time produces
the experience of the present moment.** We may go further and say
that every event is a present moment that can be entered by any mind
whose consciousness is free to travel outside its own bodily presence.

This leads to an extension of the notions we have hitherto developed
of the lesser and greater present moments of selves and societies. The
definition given in the last chapter of the Present Moment as the sphere
of operation of a single Will must now be extended and include the
coalescence of Wills that makes the Event. In some cases, we can
recognize a personal Will in the Man of Destiny who dominates the
Event, but this is not obligatory. The Unity of the Event derives from
its significance for the spiritualization of Mankind; or, what is equi-
valent, to its place in the 'War with Time'. The stronger the event, the
more does it live and evolve and the more do we recognize in it the
character of a Will. This is sometimes expressed as the 'Spirit of the
Time' the Zeitgeist that is the Will-pattern of the Event.

We do not compromise the significance of an event if we describe it
as a present moment of history. The present moment, as we saw in the
last chapter, is not just a region of space-time, but a region of experience
into which different influences penetrate. Some enter, it is true, from
what we call space and time; but those that are historically significant
arrive from the regions and zones of hyparxis and eternity. ***

We are accustomed to regard private experience as more authentic
and 'real' than collective experience. We do not enter into the experi-
ence of a nation or a culture and would regard this way of expressing it
as figurative rather than literal. The truth is that our notions of the

* Vol. II, Chapter 26.

** Chapter 42, Section 16.42.6, p. 31.

*** Cf. Chapter 42, pp. 33, 35-9. 54~5.

THE STRUCTURE OF HISTORY 71

nature of experience need to be revised even more than those of time
and space. If every event is a present moment, then we must modify
our usual notion that the 'present' is a private experience of minimal
duration. We must suppose that there can be a 'group present' which is
not experienced by the individual members, yet has a collective reality
in which they all participate. If, within the event, there is a 'Man of
Destiny', he may be aware of it as a whole and he may be able to seize
its timeless pattern. It is also possible to conceive a Higher Intelligence,
able not only to see the duration of the event as a single moment, but also
to discern as a single structure all its parallel actualizations: even those
that escape the notice of all the human participants.

Before we leave our examination of the Event we must clarify what
we mean by its being a fragment of reality. We are not to look upon
events as the sum of the actions of all the participants, together with all
the material changes that occur. It is not even enough to bring in the
personal experiences, the motives and characters, of the human actors.
Nor is it sufficiently described by reference to its historical context,
its antecedents and its consequences. There is something more, which
is the Integrity of the Event itself. Although the participants and
material objects, together with their changes and transformations, are
all real enough in their own way, their existence is temporal, whereas
the event in the integrity of its significant pattern is eternal. Men
and things are confined to their own present, but events belong to a
larger whole. Events are not successive: they are, in their intrinsic
nature, timeless. They do not continue as things endure or as life
renews itself. They are like a caravanserai. Individual travellers and
caravans come and go, but the resting place remains. The simile is not
adequate, for we picture the inn as a material object. If we look upon
it as an experience: the place of rest, security, refreshment, where tales
are told and memories renewed, we can evoke the picture of a constantly
changing and yet always present life. The caravanserai is its ever
flowing life. An Event is to be conceived in some way analogous to this.
Because of its unceasing flux, it sometimes appears to go round and
round in a circle. Hence the notion of 'eternal recurrence' has been
introduced as an improvement upon that of the 'dead unchanging past' ;*
but this notion is defective inasmuch as it reduces the event to a succes-
sion of instants. It is a present moment that, by being present, is not to
be treated as a process in time, or even as a recurrent process in eternity.
The simplest way of looking at it is "to use the notion of the 'hyparchic
past' introduced in the last chapter.

* Cf. P. D. Ouspensky, New Model of the Universe, Chapter 11.

72 the dramatic universe

16.43.3. Human History —Its Range and Operations

We must now turn to the study of the Greater Present Moment
which is the theme of history. Events are not history, but the elements
of the historical process. In order to pass from knowledge of particular
events to an understanding of history, we must develop a theory of
historical structure. Events concentrate significance and interest upon
particulars. History expands significance into universals. The step from
event to history requires a new set of relevances connected with the
purpose or Plan within which and towards which the process is directed.

Few would dispute that there are different histories. Economic, social,
political and religious history are commonly distinguished. There are
histories of each special field of human activity: the history of art, of
language, of invention, of science and so forth. Any attempt at establish-
ing a total history must not only find a place for each kind of history
but also show how they are related. Much has been written on the
philosophy of history, since Giambattista Vico founded the discipline
in his Scienza Nuova. We quote from a well-known work to illustrate
the need for a criterion of relevance in order to bring all histories into
one history. Professor Cohen writes: 'The question of relative importance
might conceivably be regarded from the point of view of what is more
important in explanation. If war and politics could not explain the art,
science and literature of the Greeks, while the culture consisting of
these elements could explain the military and political events, the more
primary elements would, for logical purposes, be the more important.
It would, however, be difficult to prove that this is the case. The attempts
to show that the geographic or the economic factor is primary in one
absolute sense are, like all controversies about absolutes in human
affairs, interminable because in essence inconclusive.'*

History regarded as a tetrad of activity involves motivations and
instruments. Regarded as the completion of the present moment it has
seven qualities or levels. To characterize it adequately we need four
heptads. We shall draw upon our study of essence classes and human
societies to describe the levels and set them down without explanation
at this stage.

16.43.3.1. HIGHER MOTIVATIONAL HEPTAD

We must look to the highest essence class within the existing world—
the Universal Harmony. We then find that the human essence class

* Cf. Morris B. Cohen, The Meaning of Human History, La Salle, 1947, p. 237.

THE STRUCTURE OF HISTORY

7.1

in occupies the central position in a heptad at the base of which is the
vegetative life of the Biosphere. The scheme is set out in Fig. 43 .1.

Goal

Supernatural History

Providential History

History of Soul

History of Mind

History of Human Societies and Institutions

History of Conflicts, Conquerors and

Achievements of Man
History of Man's Relationships with the

Biosphere and the Earth

Essence Class

Universal Harmony

Cosmic Individuality

Demiurgic

Human

Animal

Germinal
Plant

Fig. 4.3.1. Upper Motivational Heptad

16.43.3.2. LOWER MOTIVATIONAL HEPTAD

The lower motivational heptad will be obtained by starting from the
lowest essence class that enters directly into human experience. This is
the crystalline essence or solid state condition of the earth's surface.

If we are to confine ourselves to history as it is knowable to man, we
must take the seven essence classes from the Demiurges to the Crystals.
We obtain the following scheme:

Essence Class	Ground
Demiurgic	Religious History
Human	Cultural History
Animal	Social History
Germinal	Political History
Vegetable	Population History
Soil	Edaphic History
Crystalline	Economic History

Fig. 43.2. Lower Motivational Heptad

16.43.3.3. OPERATIONAL HEPTAD

We now turn to the instrumental terms of the tetrad. We have to
distinguish seven types of operation by which the present moment
undergoes changes and transformations. These range from mere actual-
ization to creativity:

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

Monadic Operation
Dyadic Operation •
Triadic Operation
Tetradic Operation
Pentadic Operation
Hexadic Operation
Heptadic Operation

Action

Interaction

Formation

Growth

Development

Transformation

Creation

Fig. 43.3. Seven Operational Terms

16.43.3.4. DIRECTIONAL HEPTAD

Finally, we come to the instrumental term that fixes the scope and
character of the present moment. This must be derived from the indi-
viduals, groups and societies that can participate in human history. We
have nine levels from man to the Biosphere* of which the two highest
belong to the history of the Biosphere as a whole and fall outside the
present moment of humanity.

Scale of the
Present Moment

All Human History

Great Cycles

Epoch

Civilization

Nation

Family

Man

Directive
Influences

The Plan of Human Existence
Stages of Human Evolution
Master Ideas

Cultures and Value Groups
Regions, Races, Linguistic Units
Clans and Localities
Personal History

Fig. 43 .4. The Directive Groupings

This scheme will be explained later. Each of the seven terms of the
heptad characterizes a type of present moment in history.

16.43.4. The Operations of History

We shall now consider the operational scheme as this has not previously
been discussed and there will be no appropriate moment later.

The seven operational terms enable us to distinguish various ways in
which we can act within the present moment. These range from pre-
determined changes, transferred into the present from the temporal
past, to free creative acts that are wholly without antecedent causes.
The seven terms can be regarded as a spectrum lying between the direc-
* Cf. Vol. Ill, Chapter 41, Section 14.41.7.

THE STRUCTURE OF HISTORY

tions of time and hyparxis. Owing to the property of the material world
of being predominantly 'empty', there is room for all kinds of trans-
formations. The diversity and rich complexity of historical events are
due to their participation in all the seven modes of operation. We shall
now briefly examine each of them in turn.

16.43.4.1. action

All simple unconstrained motions can be called stationary actions
because there is no change of either energy or entropy. It follows that
all simple actions are completely reversible. There is no way of telling
the 'direction' of time, for positive time and negative time are both lost
in the laws of motion.

It might seem that simple action is a wholly artificial notion with no
relevance for history. This is not the case, for we live upon a planet which
is part of a solar system in which the motions are very complex but,
nevertheless, closely approximate to simple action: upon the scale of
our observation. They would appear quite differently if we could
observe them over tens of millions of years. Time is measurable chiefly
because there are many operations in nature that closely correspond to
simple actions. In constructing clocks, we seek to reproduce as closely
as possible the conditions of stationary action, by introducing compensa-
tion for the loss of energy and increase of entropy.

In the study of history, we discover cycles that, in the last analysis,
are due to the existence in nature of close approximations to simple
action. The agricultural cycle of the seasons in Northern Latitudes
illustrates the simple operation. We shall see that there are cycles of
long periodicity that play a great part in the history of mankind.

16.43.4.2. INTERACTION

This includes all exchanges of energy which are not exactly reversible.
It is characterized, therefore, by increase of entropy. In fact, the laws
of thermodynamics—conservation and entropy increase—apply strictly
only to the second gradation of operation.

With interaction changes occur, but they are all of one kind—tran-
sitions towards the most stable condition. Boltzmann's interpretation
of entropy as the transition towards a more probable distribution of
energies belongs to this second mode. Interaction is manifested as the
ageing and wearing out of all that exists. It is expressed in the dictum
of the Buddha: 'Impermanent are all component things, nothing cometh
into existence but bears the seeds of its own dissolution.'

The positive aspect of interaction is to be seen in communication. At

76 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

the first stage of simple action, communication is impossible: the
perpetuum mobile is in perpetual isolation from the rest of existence.
Interaction makes sharing possible. This allows more or less stable
combinations to be formed. We have seen how 'composite wholes' can
arise only if there is sharing of hyle between two particles* and this
requires an hyparchic component having the dimensions of action.

In our experience, interaction provides the environmental element
in history. We are concerned in the transformations of the earth's surface
that produce and maintain the soil: the basis of terrestrial life. Climatic
changes are the consequences of interaction. Within the Biosphere,
interaction is seen in the ecological balance of different forms of life.

The vast and complex group of actions that come under the present
heading are all dominated by the successiveness and irreversibility of
time. The hyparchic component plays no other part than in coupling.
The eternal pattern is simply the condition which makes interaction
possible—as in the case of the atom which has a limited group of
interactions determined by the nuclear structure—but it is not trans-
formed by interaction. This is why interaction is the fundamental
characteristic of existential time.

16.43.4.3. FORMATION

Where there is a pattern, there can be orderly action. This is typically
seen in crystal formation. The third gradation of operation yields
enduring objects. These have form and for this reason we designate
the third mode of action as formation. In psychological experience,
formation includes the activity of language and distinguishes linguistic
communication from a mere expression of feeling. Through formation,
there can be a build-up and preservation of traces of the past. Thus,
a new element of immense significance marks the transition from
wholly passive modes of will-action, to modes that allow some degree of

intention.

We can describe action and interaction with the help of higher modes,
but we could not set up a descriptive framework if we were wholly
restricted to these two. For example, no signals could be received, nor
transfers from past to present be made, unless there were objects
having recognizable forms. In terms of the war with time, formation
represents the first step towards the ability to overcome the limitations
of successiveness and irreversibility.

The history of the earth is made possible by the solid shell that is the

• Cf. Vol. I, Chapter 18.

THE STRUCTURE OF HISTORY

permanent formation upon which life has come into being and passed
through the transformations that have led to our present moment of
history. The solid shell itself has under gone processes of formation that
have concentrated the chemical elements in the stable structure of the
oceans and the rocks. The relative permanence of geological formations
has allowed traces to be preserve including those of animal and vege-
table organisms. Nearer to the present, man himself has produced
innumerable artefacts including written records.

All these collectively are the material of history as interaction was
the condition of history.

16.43.4.4. growth

The fourth gradation of operation comprises all kinds of directed
activity. Changes that are related to a destination or end-point, are to
be distinguished from those that are related to fixed pattern or form.
We shall designate them as growth operations.

Growth is typical of living organisms. Growth is an aggressive
operation, inasmuch as it must always be at the expense of some cor-
responding diminution. The organism grows by drawing nourishment
from its environment. Growth as mode of operation raises the local
significance above that of the environment as a whole. This higher
significance cannot be obtained by any of the first three kinds of opera-
tions and this introduces a very important new element: that of selec-
tive operation. It seems that the limitations of time cannot be over-
come or even diminished without it.

Selection is impossible without rejection. Consequently growth also
implies decay. Where the potential for growth is unlimited, as it is in
all living forms, selection must led to competition. We have here the
elementary state of 'survival of the fittest'. It is necessary, not only to
grow, but to grow successfully.

16.43.4.5. DEVELOPMENT

Growth is directed towards a definite end-point: the maximum
expression of a particular form. There is a higher mode of operation
which comes through adaptation and response. Here the end-point is
not fixed but open, and the operation is called development.

The kind of operation at this stage is analogous to the life of a city-
state governed by a constitution, or that of an organism governed by a
genetic pattern or a game of skill governed by a set of rules. In each

78 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

case, there is no fixed end-point, but rather an activity with un-
limited possibilities of variation. The game does not 'grow', but rather
'develops'.

This is not to imply that growth and development are mutually
exclusive: on the contrary, each mode of operation arises out of the next
simpler mode. With growth there is an ableness-to-be that unifies a
multitude of simpler operations. Development is the realization of the
potentialities present within a given situation. Since this must take
account of the potentialities outside the situation, there must be a
regulating factor. Thus, development is more markedly hyparchic in
character than growth. Growth is an operation characterized by its
direction and end-point; but development is significant in its own right,
for at every stage it is dramatic. Each successive situation that arises
presents a problem to be solved. There may be failure; or partial or even
total success. These distinctions are possible because of the hyparchic
present. Thus, development is far more than a mere process in time.

16.43.4.6. TRANSFORMATION

The sixth mode of operation occurs when there is cooperation be-
tween entities of different orders. It permits the arising of potentialities
that were not initially present. This kind of action makes it possible not
merely to resist the conditions of temporal actualization, but to reverse
them. Instead of a diminution of potential, there is an increase. The
'arrow of time' no longer points towards decay and dissolution, but
towards a higher degree of organization and effectiveness.

Transformation cannot be obtained merely by bringing two situa-
tions into contact. Normally, such contract will only increase the rate of
growth followed by inevitable and accelerated decay. This kind of
contact is not transformation but stimulation. There can be growth
stimulation and there can also be stimulated development: but these arc
totally different from true transformation.

Transformation, as we said, requires cooperation and this, in turn,
requires consciousness set free from sensitivity. The typical operation of
transformation is seen in the relationship of an artist to his work or that
of a teacher to his pupils.

With transformation, the War with Time ceases to be a defensive
action. Time is used to obtain a result that requires time and yet is free
from it. In transformation the hyparchic past, present and future are
brought into a common field of action. Where there is true transforma-
tion, the past is alive and the future is active.

THE STRUCTURE OF HISTORY

16.43.4.7. CREATION

The seventh and highest gradation of operation is that of the free
creative power working in the hyparchic future to restore and hold the
present moment to its predestined pattern.

Here we have the action of the unconstrained will free from the
limitations of existence in the present moment and yet directed towards
it. Within the Greater Present Moment that includes past and future, an
interpenetration of activity is possible for the four cosmic energies that
are not subject to the restrictive conditions of time and place.

Consequently, the creative operation must find a conscious response
at the sixth level of transformation in order to penetrate into the visible
history of human experience. This notion will prove of the utmost
significance in our final attempt to assess the present situation of man-
kind.

16.43.5. The Seven Levels of History

We shall take the motivational terms in pairs to give, in effect, seven
tetrads each with its own 'ground' and 'goal'. The first pair is given
by the opposition of vegetative and material forces.* This gives us the
history of man's natural life. The highest pair shows how the purpose of
human life is a combination of obligation to rule and to order, derived
from the Demiurgic Essence, and of the hope of becoming united with
the Supreme Reality.

We shall take each of the seven pairs to define seven levels or stages
of history.

16.43.5.1. MAN AND NATURE

The basic activity of history consists in the immediate contact
between man and his natural environment. By this his present moment
is nourished, enriched and expanded. See Fig. 43.5 on p. 80.

The material world is represented in the essence classes by the
crystalline forms of the earth's crust and what man makes of them in the
form of material objects. The goal of man's contact with Nature is the
preservation and transmission of life represented by the plant essence.
The process at this level is not organized, but comes from the action
between each human being and his environment. In this action, man is
the directive term and his natural powers are the instrumental term.

Basically, man's life in nature starts with the use of tools that dis-

* Vide Figs. 43.1 and 43.2 for the higher and lower motivational heptads from
which the pairs are taken.

D.U. iv—5

THE MATERIAL WORLD

Fig. 43.5. Natural History of Man

tinguishes him from the animals. This is the origin of material history,
that has now become economic history. The natural laws that govern
the properties and behaviour of material objects are statistical, that is to
say, they are based on the probable distributions of large populations.
The larger the population (in the sense of a group bearing a measurable
character) the more accurately can the future course of events be pre-
dicted. In the limit, we come to the wholly determinate future that
can be known in advance in terms of the traces of the past.

Although material objects belong to the hyponomic world and are
passive in all their relationships, they have a peculiar place in the
dynamism of human activity. The plastic energy (E 9) that charac-
terizes material objects gives them the endurance that we so readily
mistake for strength. From time immemorial, men have come to rely
upon material objects as the mainstay of their existence. The possession
of material objects is taken to be a guarantee of security against the
'future'. The existential relationships of mankind are based upon their
material bodies and upon the sharing and exchange of material objects.
Even when higher values are present, the medium or instrument of
relationship is still in the material world.

All this produces a particular kind of history. The ownership of land-
in Roman law res nobilis—and of chattels and money—res vilis-
influences all historical events. It is the part of Caesar.* The dynamism
of money scarcely needs elaboration.

The aim of the basic history is to enable man to live successfully

* Cf. Matt. 22.21. 'Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and
unto God the things that are God's.' Here the tribute money that can be seen and
touched stands for the visible history. The contrite heart of the psalmist (Ps. 50, v. I8)
is a symbol of the invisible history.

THE STRUCTURE OF HISTORY 8l

in his natural environment. Memories and traces serve this purpose and
are soon systematized in language and behaviour patterns.

The vegetative history is below the level of sensitivity and is domi-
nated by the constructive (E 8) and vital energies (E 7).* There is no
historical sense, no transmission of experience in the manner required
to connect the small present moment of the individual with the greater
present moment of past and future. Man on this level of history does
not know himself as an historical being.

Vegetation is the living, self-renewing source of the natural activities
of man's life on earth including food, shelter and clothing. Vegetative
history has been significant for all periods of great climatic change. The
time-scale of major changes on the vegetative level is very long. It is
more than ten thousand years since people were introduced to agri-
culture. A long way further back men were fruit gatherers in the
equatorial regions. We are now passing through another major change
in which man is intervening in plant life to produce great changes in
the distribution of vegetation, and even the species of plants that grow
in immense cultivated areas in all parts of the world.

16.43.5.2. POLITICAL HISTORY

The tetrad is given by:

GERMINAL STRIVING

THE SOIL
Fig. 43.6. Political History

The upper term of the tetrad is derived from the germinal essence
and the lower from the soil. We have thus the history of the struggle for
survival turning into political history.

'I'his history lies between the constructive and automatic levels. It is
external to man's private experience and he knows it only in its mani-
festations. It is the history of conflict and also of relatedness.

* The twelve levels of energy are discussed in Vol. II, Chapter 32.

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

Political history is always connected with the soil. It is associated
with man's need for food and shelter. But it is also connected with man's
need to change, to evolve towards a more integrated condition. These
two characteristics come from the soil and the germinal essences.

The history of man's connection with the soil will be called edaphic
history.* No one doubts that human life, and therefore human history,
is intimately connected with the fertility of the soil. It is always operative
in the present moment.

Sometimes great events, such as the migrations of peoples, have been
decided by changes in the fertility of the soil. A migrating people has
the coherence of the families that make it up. The seasonal variation of
temperate climates has made their history quite different from that of
the tropical regions. The cycles of high and low productivity that occur
with several distinct periodicities are reflected upon all the other levels of
history. It is also to be noted that small differences in the nature of the
soil produce differences in populations; and social structures are influ-
enced by migration routes imposed by soil conditions.** Through the
soil man is linked to the planet. He participates in the 'fate of the earth'.
The soil is like the breasts of Mother Earth at which man feeds and
from which he draws comfort and the assurance of a protective care.
This influence is felt in history. The cruelty of forced migrations is like
the suffering of a child wrenched from its mother's breast. The present
writer well remembers the sufferings of more than a million Greek
refugees from Asia Minor after the exchange of populations of 1925
and their desperate efforts to reattach themselves to a soil so unlike
that of their native Anatolia. Ever since Neolithic times, the soil has
been a family concern and such experiences belong to the present
moment of families.

Attachment to the soil has been the greatest stabilizing factor in
history. This would make it appear that edaphic history is necessarily
static, marked by man's resistance to change. More important than
attachment is the joy of life. Though men are not always aware of it,

*stood in ancient Greece for the meagre coating of soil that enabled them

to cultivate their inhospitable rock. The transition from crystal to soil in the early
history of the earth gave life its solid foundation—edaphos—on which all subsequent
progress has been erected.

** Edaphic factors occupy an important place in the work of Frederic le Play and his
followers. Cf. Edmond Desmolins, Comment la Route Cree le Type Social. I cannot
here refrain from paying tribute to the insight of the late Prince Sabaheddin of Turkey,
with whom, between 1919 and 1923, I had many stimulating discussions on the subject
of the different levels in history, and who introduced me to the work of Frederic le
Play.

THE STRUCTURE OF HISTORY 83

their enjoyment of life comes from the soil.* Joy is the highest of the
natural values.** Man shares it with animals and birds, and maybe even
with ants and bees. Joy is the experience of the normal activity of life.
It is derived from interaction with the environment. This enjoyment is
not only momentary, but also historical. All men are drawn towards
the enjoyment of life and their actions in the family society are influ-
enced by its appeal.

Political history has as its goal the creation of a politeia or state,
that includes all the members of a nation, and eventually of all mankind,
in such a way as to ensure that the material and spiritual—or existential
and essential—needs of all are as well satisfied as the economic and social
conditions will allow. The right balance of the two conflicting demands
is only then very briefly achieved, in that political history always fails
to realize its objectives. As an example we may consider the reign of
Louis XIV. Mazarin appears as a calculating politician intent only
upon the aggrandisement of France and his private vendetta with the
Pope. But we must also look at his dream of Europe reunited under a
most Catholic king, with an integrated economy drawing upon the wealth
of the new world and the Orient. We must look at the transformation
of agriculture and the picture of a world united by new means of
communication. This was, perhaps, the ideal outcome of the long reign
of the Roi Soleil. That it led instead to the French Revolution is charac-
teristic of the inversions of political history. As the Politeia of Plato
proved a disaster in practice, so did Mazarin's concept of the spiritually
guided king. In both cases, the failure was due to the inability of psycho-
static man to liberate himself from existential motives. We can see in
these failures the inevitable result of the mode of operation we have
called interaction. There is no short cut to the ideal society of the three
orders. Political history cannot become free of the disordering of time.

The structure of the triad of existential history is profoundly in-
structive. The general rule is that the affirmative influence is concen-
trated in individuals or small groups and the receptive influence works
in the situation as a whole. So here we have the contrast between the
fluctuating states of the people and the general conditions of existence.
The state of the people proves, in the long run, to be the affirmation
in existential history, and the land is the medium through which it acts.
In the ideal history, the invisible influences of man's destiny eventually

* It is no accident that we speak of the 'pleasures' of the city and the 'joys' of the
country. City-dwellers may have other satisfactions, but they are not, on the whole,
joyful people.

** Cf. Vol. Ill, Chapter 38, Section 14.38.2.4.

84 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

to achieve a social order founded on justice and spiritual values, is the
ever-present third impulse that initiates freedom and order. The move-
ments of evolution and involution are balanced in such a way that the
Psychostatic, Psychokinetic and Psychoteleios groups can sustain and
supply one another's needs.

We may believe that such a political history is destined to be realized
by humanity; but, hitherto, it has never been even approximately
exemplified in any actual human situation.

16.43.5.3. SOCIAL HISTORY

The third level of history can be recognized in the proverb: 'birds of
a feather flock together.' The third stage of human social groupings is the
nation characterized by a mutual recognition and acceptance analogous
to that of animal species. The goal of this history is the organic unifica-
tion of all mankind. We have described the lower motivational term as
'population history' to draw attention to its source in the spread of the
human race by breeding and interbreeding. The tetrad is given by:

operation

The instrumental term 'formation' indicates the basic
which is the association of people into coherent groups.

Vegetative history determines the 'state of welfare'. It is constantly
fluctuating and it is not equally distributed. We are well aware, at the
present time, of the distinction between developed and underdeveloped
countries: the haves and the have-nots. These differences primarily
concern the availability and distribution of food and other necessities
of life. A country may have excellent soil conditions like Java and parts
of China and yet, owing to over-population and bad communications,

THE STRUCTURE OF HISTORY 85

be seriously undernourished. The condition of the country is deter-
mined by the vegetative and not the edaphic history. Indeed the two
may be in direct conflict: attachment to a fertile soil and favourable
climate may prevent a redistribution of population that would relieve
much want. Thus Java and Sumatra, two neighbouring islands, part
of the same state of Indonesia, are populated, the one in the ratio of 1, 1 00
per square mile and the other less than 200. Attempts to resettle the
Javanese excess populations have always broken down in face of their
attachment to the soil.

It now becomes apparent that vegetative history is the history of
living conditions. Because these are different in different regions, a
potential is created and aims and purposes are awakened.

Man shares with most of the animals dependence upon his fellow-
men for his existence. He also needs them for the attainment of his
essential destiny. There is a tetrad that prescribes the form which social
history should exemplify. The motivational terms are destiny and
necessity. The instrumental terms are man's knowledge of the existential
world and his understanding of the essential values.

We have already seen that the structure of society is based upon the
three tetrads of the Psychostatic, Psychokinetic and Psychoteleios
Groups. Large and small societies reproduce the basic form of opposing
motivations and instrumentations. This structure, being that of an
activity, lends itself to the historical development of humanity on all
levels.

We can take as an illustration the structure of the productive sub-
group in the United Kingdom in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The British Trade Unions were brought into existence by causal
influences stemming from the Industrial Revolution; but they were also
the precursors of a new social structure towards which the world is still
painfully feeling its way. Their motivation was, in part, the quest of the
ideal of social justice and in part immediate self-preservation. The
instrumental terms of the tetrad were at first lacking, as demonstrated
by the collapse of Chartism. Gradually leadership developed on the one
hand and loyalty, obedience and better deployment of technical skills
on the other. The movement attracted men of the Psychokinetic Group
ready to devote themselves and their special abilities to the socialist
ideal.* Though almost entirely existential in its outward activity and

* The Webbs were both historians and actors in the event. A. R. Orage, guild
socialist, journalist and pupil of Gurdjieff, one of the apostles of the psychokinetic
movement in Europe of the 20th century, is one of many who served the movement in
its formative days.

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

though drawn into the stream of political history with the rise of the
Labour Party at the turn of the century, the Trade Union Movement
was also in its hidden essence a part of social history. Notwithstanding
its defects and the general failure of its avowed aims, the movement will
leave traces in the future and will be recognized as a significant event
for many centuries to come.

The connection between the social structures of man and the animal
essence arises from the structure of the Biosphere in which all the animal
genera make a specific contribution to the activity of the whole. The
animal genera have developed the various characters that enter into
the Divided Self of man and determine his social potential. Moreover,
the animals are the organizers of sensitive energy* (E 5). They stand in
the scale of existence at the point where life begins to be aware of itself.
Similarly, the social history of man stands at the threshold of experi-
enced history. We are aware of the social activity of mankind as the
framework of our daily lives. It thus far more intimately concerns us
than political history. The characteristic energies of social history range
from the vital (E 7) to the sensitive (E 5). Although individual men and
women can be conscious, societies are automatic and reactional. This
explains the discrepancy between the human behaviour of individuals
and the animal behaviour of societies.

Certainly, we can conceive an ideal social history which will create
for humanity an instrument of activity that will serve the unified Mind
of Man that one day will emerge. When this stage is reached, man will
be in full harmony with the Biosphere, and the lower or animal nature
of the human essence,f will be able to understand and assure the
needs of all animal life. Meanwhile, the social history of man is the
gradual penetration into the present moment of various social structures.
The three main groups of Psychostatic, Psychokinetic and Psychoteleios
men and women are still very imperfectly represented. Man cannot
occupy the place destined for him until his social organization cor-
responds to his essential nature. ***

16.43.5.4. THE HISTORY OF MIND

We come now to the central point of human history where the goal
is that man should become man. We call it the history of mind; because
it is by the evolution of mind that man is moving slowly towards

* An important fact for the studies of the next two chapters,
** Cf. Vol. II, Chapter 35, Section 13.35.12.

***The groups and sub-groups and other features of human society were discussed
in Vol. Ill, Chapter 40.

THE STRUCTURE OF HISTORY 87

the realization of his essential pattern. The ground out of which mind
comes is the germinal essence in which the sensitivity that is the pre-
cursor of mind begins to be organized. The instrumental terms are
civilizations and growth. The tetrad is given by:

The term 'civilization' used to designate the directional term of the
tetrad refers to the greater cultural unities which share in a system of
values and social structures and modes of life.

Mind is both psychological and historical. We recall the notion of a
Soul-Stuff Pool from which minds are formed at conception.* We now
must look out from our present moment to mind as the central place of
human experience. The history of mind is also the history of human
culture. Since man has been man, and so long as man will remain man,
the human mind will be the scene of the development by which eventu-
ally the entire human race will be endowed with common understanding
and a consciousness in which all will share. The visible history of the
mind is seen in art, science, philosophy and literature. The invisible
history is the slow maturing of man's power to understand himself and
his destiny.

The two aspects of the history of mind are associated with the
energies of automatism (E 6) and consciousness (E 4). The history of
mind is the story of the building of a bridge that is to connect the world of
Life with the world of Spirit. Mind stands astride the gulf that separates
these two.

At the present time, the gulf is spanned only by rare minds that
develop powers that remain latent in almost the whole of mankind.

* Cf. Chapter 40, Section 16.40.3.
D.u. iv—5*

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

People in general are unaware of the powers and responsibilities of the
mind; or, at best, see them in terms of its visible manifestation in all
forms of culture.

Nevertheless, the history of mind is there and we all have a part in it.
In the study of human history that we shall undertake in later chapters,
the origin, development, maturing and ultimate destiny of mind will
occupy a central place.

16.43.5.5. THE HISTORY OF SOUL

The soul of man is the seat of his power of choice; it is mind trans-
formed by creativity and integrated by a single will—that of the Per-
sonal Individuality. Until this change is complete, the soul-stuff is
fragmented into many localizations each with its own 'will' and therefore
its own present moment. It follows from this that the history of the
soul of man must be the history of all mankind. We have passed beyond
the stage of local and partial histories, but we have not reached that of
total history. We shall use the term Epoch to designate those greater
Present Moments in which all humanity is united by a community of
will and a creative activity directed towards broadly similar purposes.
We have described the unifying characteristic of the Epoch as the Master
Idea.* This expression will serve, providing we recognize that the
qualifier 'Master' is to be understood in terms of will. The Idea is not an
abstract mode of thought, but a focus of Intelligence. When this is
present, there is a present moment. At our present stage of evolution,
the human soul-stuff is incoherent and can only sustain a very diffuse
'direction of intent'; yet this is enough to colour the actions of all people
to the extent of their capacity to respond.

The evolution of the human soul consists in acquiring of the ability
by mankind to understand and to act as an integrated whole. Therefore,
the form of action appropriate here is that of the fifth level that we have
called development. The motivational terms are suggested by the
characteristics of the animal and demiurgic essences. These can be inter-
preted as organized sensitivity and creative responsibility.** The
pattern of sensitivity is the ground from which both the personal soul of the

* Cf. J. G. Bennett, The Crisis in Human Affairs, London, 1948, p. 211. 'An epoch
is characterized by a grand conception, a Master Idea, which inseminates the whole
life of Mankind for a new harvest of temporal activities.' When this book was written
in 1947 the connection between Will and the Epochs had not been discovered.

** Cf. Vol. II, pp. 306—316. It is worth noting that we connected the Demiurgic
Creativity with the introduction into human life of Existential Images that work through
the Power of Ideas (p. 316). The Demiurgic Intelligences create Images that direct the
human will towards the Cosmic Harmony.

THE STRUCTURE OF HISTORY

individual and the Great Human Soul develop historically. The goal
towards which this development is directed is the attainment by the
human race of the power of Creative Responsibility that at this present
time (the twentieth century of the Christian Era) is reached by very few
souls.

We can now set down the tetrad of soul-history.

We must emphasize the importance of the element of Will in this
tetrad. We have left functional history behind. The mind of man, al-
though functional, is also the root of his being; but it has no will of its

own .

The soul is 'within' the mind. It is composed of finer energies that the
mind cannot perceive directly. It goes beyond consciousness to the
creative energy (E 3). Hence the soul-history is necessarily invisible
history; we perceive it only in its consequences as they enter the mind
and influence behaviour.

Belief in the reality of the soul connects man with the workings of
human destiny. Without this belief—or its equivalent expressed in other
words—man's attention is inevitably drawn towards the determinate
levels of the material world. Those who deny the existence of the soul
as a substantial—though potential—element in human nature also
deny the reality of human destiny as a pattern created by a power higher
than man himself.

There are always evidences of the reality of the soul; but, since they
manifest in behaviour, they can be attributed to the mind. This is why it
seems that the mind is the crown of man's nature and also why those
who deny or disregard the reality of the will cannot distinguish between

9°

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

the automatism of the nervous system, the sensitivity and consciousness
of mind and the creative will that resides in the soul.

We have in this tetrad the key to one of the central enigmas of history:
that is the tendency of the greatest events to conform to a general pattern.
The pattern is not explicable in causal terms, because its most striking
feature is that it is discernible only if we examine the process on the
right scale. At the present stage of human evolution the Epoch has a
duration of some 2000—3000 years.* It is characterized by an attitude
or intention that influences all peoples living within it. This intention
has a pattern which influences all activities, including thought, and
therefore produces also attitudes of mind: that is, ideas and attitudes
of feeling directed to the value system of the Epoch. These detectable
'signs of the times' are the secondary consequences of a step in the
development of the soul-stuff of mankind; whereby it slowly grows to
be responsive to the Universal Will. The true history of the soul is
beyond the mind; or rather so deeply and subtly hidden in the depths
of the mind that it cannot be perceived by men of the Psychostatic
Groups and the two lower Psychokinetic Sub-groups.** For undeveloped
man, all experience is referred to his own present moment which is the
content of his mind. This is influenced, without his being aware of it, by
all levels of history. The soul-history is contiguous with mind history
and can be perceived by those whose consciousness is awakened. We
can set out the seven histories from the natural to the supernatural,
with the history of mind as the link between the visible and the in-
visible. This is shown in Fig. 43.10.

* Cf. Chapter 47 below. ** Cf. Vol. Ill, Chapter 41, p. 68.

THE STRUCTURE OF HISTORY 91

For the mind, all history is in the present moment. It is known by its
traces, judged by its values and realized in action. The mind is the
instrument of realization; but it cannot be a self-directing instrument
for the realization of values until it is transformed into a soul.

The projection of essential history into the existential life of man is
to be recognized in the rising, flourishing and transformation of cultures
and in the succession of Epochs. Behind the visible history of civiliza-
tions, is the hidden work of the psychokinetic groups. Behind this work
again is the motivational influence of Guides and Prophets.

Soul-history stands at the limit of man's power of action. It is also
the channel through which superhuman action is transmitted. In all the
great and decisive events of history there is a creative element that is
unrecognized on the existential levels. We touch here upon a matter
that lies outside the scope of the historian who puts his trust only in the
visible traces of the past. The idea of invisible influences exercised by
men or groups of men on a higher level of being, is totally at variance
with most accepted views of history. The historian may recognize that,
in the past, poets have indeed been the 'unacknowledged legislators of
the world.' He may admit the decisive influence of cultural develop-
ments upon political and social history and agree that the creative artist
often proves to be more important in retrospect than he appeared at the
time. But he draws the line at any suggestion of an 'invisible' history.
Nevertheless, good evidence can be brought forward of its reality. For
example, Dante Alighieri or Goethe were more important historical
personages than their contemporaries suspected; but their importance
lies in the realm of creation rather than action.

Evidence of such a nature cannot be conclusive, but there is a more
general and more important line of argument to be considered. It is easy
to show that in all periods and among all people there has been an
awareness of the reality of the soul-nature of man and a sense of a need
to find ways of accelerated transformation. There have always been men
of the Psychokinetic Group—a minority no doubt in numbers, but
immensely significant in their influence—of the types represented by
Gilgamesh, the wanderer, or Socrates the proponent of questions, who
have devoted themselves to the search for the imperishable Reality.
There have always been Psychokinetic Societies. The influence of the
Psychokinetic Group has always been to redress the balance lost through
the attractions of material objects and the forces of life.

Essential history is mostly unseen by the world. When it is visible
it has usually been associated with religion and called religious history.
Sometimes, it takes the form of a reaction against a false theocracy. A

92 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

classic example is given by the reign of Akbar (1556-1605), the best
known of the Mogul Emperors. His immense conquests, his administra-
tive ability, his endeavours to create an unified Indian society are well-
known. So also are his hostility to the Muslim Ulema—the pseudo-
theocracy that was a legacy of Baghdad—and his convening of the Great
Congress of Delhi at which Jesuit Fathers, Buddhist Monks and Muslim
Ulema were invited to debate the unity of religion. What is less well
known is Akbar's connection with the Sufi Masters of Balkh, Bokhara
and Kashgar. The Jesuit eye-witness account of the proceedings
describes a square hall with Christians, Buddhists and Muslims in three
corners and Sufis from Central Asia in the fourth, with Akbar on his
throne free to turn in all directions. The Emperor was inspired to attempt
the unification of religions by the advice of 'Wise Men from Kashgar'
in the furthest point of his Northern conquests. Later, he helped the
Jesuit explorers to make the journey to Cathay, which demonstrated
that the Cathay of the Arabs was identical with the China of the
Portuguese travellers. Thus, new routes were opened, new channels of
communications established and new ideas brought into the open that
were to have an immense influence in shaping the modern world. The
conquests and the empire of Akbar soon collapsed, but the achieve-
ments on the levels of mind and soul history have remained. The
point is that the contemporary world saw Akbar the Conqueror. We
today can see beyond this: Akbar the instrument of creative history.

The reality of Soul History cannot be demonstrated by its traces,
but by the character of its Present Moment. There is a spiritual life
that cannot be accounted for in terms of causes transmitted from the
past. This life is that of the Collective Soul of Humanity. This soul is
present here and now, though still little more than embryonic in its
development. It lives by a creative action that constantly overcomes the
disruptive action of the material world. We do not see its source, but we
feel its working. It is a natural working, but not a mechanical or even a
vital one.

Soul History is a decisive element in the war against time. At the
present time, relatively few men are able to participate jn this working
or even to be aware of its operations. Much that is due to reactive acts
appears to be either accidental or providential. The Psychokinetic
Society in which Soul History should be fully operative remains for
the most part fragmented. Psychokinetic men and women seek their
own salvation or endeavour to serve humanity: but do not understand how
these two operations are linked to one another and how both require the
conscious deployment of the creative powers that are latent in all men.

THE STRUCTURE OF HISTORY

There is a significant distinction to be made between the history of
development, which is the course of human evolution towards the
natural destiny of man, and the history of transformation which is the
action whereby man can transcend the limitations of destiny and enter
superhuman states of being. These latter belong to the next level.

16.43.5.6. PROVIDENTIAL HISTORY

We now go beyond man's own part in history to that region where
history is made possible. This is the region of the hyparchic future
discussed in the last chapter, or rather the zone that links the hyparchic
future to the Destiny of Man. We can start by setting down the tetrad:

This is the history of man's transformation, not from animal to true
man; but from man alone and apart, to man united with the Cosmic
Individuality. The reference to Great Cycles will become clear in a later
chapter.* They are in the very Great Present Moments of the inter-
vention of the Cosmic Individuality in the destiny and evolution of
mankind. They affect not only the mind and soul; but the essential
status of the human race.

We now pass beyond destiny as the pattern of man's existence in the
solar system, to the foreordained state to which man is called. Man is
not only predestined to be a responsible agent of the Cosmic Purpose,
but a direct participant in its creation. This is not for the individual but
for the race. It is for the World Soul: but until this is matured and
awakened, man cannot understand this total significance of human life,
and therefore must be helped and guided towards it. The guidance is not
visible to those who are guided, and providential history is usually left
* Cf. Chapter 45, Section 17.45.3, below.

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

out of account. Nevertheless, from man's first awakening to the notion
of destiny* he has left evidences of his belief in superhuman powers that
intervene within the natural order. Temples and pyramids, tombs and
steles, inscriptions and tablets from before the dawn of history, testify
to the strength of this belief.

These doctrines evolved and changed until, about two thousand
five hundred years ago, they were merged into revealed religion. We
use the expression 'merged' because they did not disappear but were
sandwiched between Nature and God. They persisted in the form of
beliefs in superhuman beings, such as Devas, Asuras, Angels, Jinns
and others, having varying degrees of obedience to the Divine Decree
that allotted a special destiny to man. These beliefs remain to this day
in all religions; and, in some, for instance in Islam, they are an integral
part of the dogma.

We shall see later that these beliefs can be traced back at least twenty
thousand years before the present and are at the root of all our modern
cultures. The modern world has almost entirely repudiated them. They
were questioned by eighteenth-century rationalism, rejected by nine-
teenth-century positivism and put aside as trivial and almost forgotten
by twentieth-century modernism. Not only, however are the Demi-
urges** relegated to the age of superstition; but the very notion of
Psychoteleios Men capable of insight and powers far beyond those of
ordinary people is equated to belief in magic.

The inclusion of Providential History in our scheme, goes against
nearly all modern trends of thought. It is foreign not only to philosophy
and science, but also to modern theology that concentrates all religious
significance in the relationship of God and Man and pays little attention
to the operations and intelligences that are the instruments of the Divine
Will.

At one time—for example in the Greek Church by St. Gregory
Palamas and his school—the doctrine of Energeiai or Divine Operations
was introduced into Christian theology from Neo-Platonic and Persian
sources. We can interpret these operations in terms of our scheme of
energies as a co-working or synergy of the Unitive and Creative Energies,
that enter human experience as Illumination *** and result in the transform-

* Which we assign to some period between 30,000 and 40,000 years before the
present. Cf. Chapter 46 below.

** Our name for the class of entities concerned with harmonizing planetary existence
with the Cosmic Plan. Cf. Vol. II, Chapter 35, p- 315.

*** Illumination was taken, in Vol. Ill, Chapter 41, Section 15.41.4.4, to be the
action whereby psychokinetic man achieves Initiation.

THE STRUCTURE OF HISTORY

ations characteristic of Providential History. We shall use the word
Illumination to designate this operation.

The symbolism of Light and Light-bearing Essences is familiar;
but there is a tendency to confuse the operation of Illumination with its
effect, which is the state of Illumination. We shall use the term only in
the first, or operative, sense. This connects it with the Demiurgic
Powers, whose role is both to transmit Illumination and also to supervise
the action that it produces in History.

Illumination involves the coalescence of Love and Creativity, as
Intelligence requires that of Creativity and Consciousness. In either case,
it is necessary to recognise that something more than energy is at work.
There is an element of Will that gives both Intelligence and Illumination
their operational character.

The Demiurges, however, are neither supernatural nor immaterial.
Their conditions differ from ours in that they operate in the hyparchic
future, rather than the present. In Chapter 28, we distinguished
between the Universal and the Personal Individuality and assigned
the former to World VI which is the state of 'pure-existence'. We
can now go further and distinguish the between Universal Individu-
ality as Will and its operations as Intelligences. Will combined with
Intelligence is a mode of Being with which we are not acquainted except
when associated with a living animal body—that is in man. Will exer-
cised through intelligence can be effective within the conditions of the
hyparchic future. This is what we understand by 'Demiurgic Power',
which can be regarded as a quasi-personal state of the Universal
Individuality. Of the Universal Individuality we said that it 'pervades
all worlds and is the source and origin of all finite self-hood'.* The point
here is that the Universal Individuality exists within nature as the
working of the Cosmic Individuality that is beyond nature.] There is a
void space in current thought that divides science as study of nature
and theology as enquiry into the supernatural. The gap is really there,
but it is not empty, for it is the region of the hyparchic past and future.
This is the region in which destiny is adjusted to fate and fate to destiny

* Cf. Vol. II, p. 131.

** The Universal Individuality must be very carefully thought of to avoid falling
into the error of gnosticism. It is not to be understood as an emanation but as a working
or energia of the Divine Essence. St. Gregory Palamas, the greatest exponent of the
hesychast tradition, associated the Divine Energies with the manifestation of the
Power, the Love and the Providential guidance of God within the Creation. The
energies are thus natural in their operation though supernatural in their origin. This
agrees with our conception of the Universal Individuality as the Unity in Multiplicity
of the Demiurgic Intelligences and Powers.

96 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

—purpose to cause and cause to purpose.* In this region, the Demiurgic
Intelligences work, but they can do so only with the cooperation of the
Present Moment. Mankind existing within the 'Present' cannot discern
the pattern of the future and therefore acts in many ways contrary, not
only to its ultimate good, but even to its immediate interests. This can
be understood from an example: humanity is a collective entity slowly
evolving towards an integrated Identity. This Identity is destined to
act as a vehicle for the soul of the Biosphere; but in our present state
of immaturity, we pillage and destroy the life entrusted to our care.**

We do not see that the very pattern of our existence is that of a
Reciprocal Maintenance *** which involves us in a complex structure of
mutual dependence not only with all life on our planet; but also with the
materials of the earth's crust and atmosphere.

Providential History can be regarded as the action whereby man
enters into his true destiny as the Soul of the Biosphere. He arose from
the biosphere as an animal endowed with mind. Within mind came soul
and within soul Individuality is to be realized. In the early stages the
action was wholly directed and guided by the Demiurgic Intelligences.
Stage by stage, a greater share of responsibility has devolved upon man
himself; but we are still far from being trustworthy guardians of the
earth's living treasure: and, at all times, the Demiurgic Intelligences
keep watch over world affairs, intervening when necessary to rectify our
mistakes or nullify our destructive impulses.

The common notion of Providence as the suspension of natural laws
is unacceptable in the light of our present knowledge. We can, however,
draw upon the conclusions reached in the last chapter and picture to
ourselves the Demiurgic Intelligences operating in the hyparchic future
from which the 'empty places' in the present are discernible and can be
used to inject new influences. Again and again, tensions have un-
accountably been released and now we can explain how it happened.
We can ascribe the action to an influx of creative energy that acts directly
within the consciousness of all who can respond to it. The results are
not always effectual or even favourable; but on the whole, they bring-
about decisive changes in the visible course of history.

* We mentioned in Volume III the role of the Prophetic Circle in adjusting the place
of human evolution to the opposing forces of materiality and spirituality. Cf. Chapter
41, Section 15.41.5.3. The notion of the adjustment of destiny in the hyparchic
future has been discussed in Chapter 42, pp. 54-5, 62.

** Cf. Chapter41, Section 15.41.7.8.

*** Cf. Vol. Ill, Chapter 41, Section 15.41.7, where we sketched the structure of
the Biospheric symbiosis. The notions are taken up again in Chapter 44 and are im-
plicit in the succeeding chapters.

THE STRUCTURE OF HISTORY

I6.43-5-7- SUPERNATURAL HISTORY

Our scheme requires that we should go beyond the existing world to
seek for the Source of man's arising. We may or may not believe in
a Transcendent Creator and we may or may not accept the possibility
that man was created to serve a purpose: but at least we should establish
the linguistic distinctions to enable us to speak consistently about such
matters. Thereby, we enter the domain of theology rather than that of
history and, in doing so, give expression to a very definite theology:
namely, that which postulates a purpose in the Creation and therefore an
ultimate meaning in history. This interpretation of the total experience
of mankind is already implicit in the results we have reached in the
earlier chapters.

Historical theology requires not only a purpose in Creation, but also
uncertainty as to its attainment. If the outcome of the world process
were wholly predetermined, there would be no history, but only a single
creative act the meaning of which could not possibly be discovered with-
in the creation itself. On the other hand, non-theological history also
breaks down, for history is distinguished from mere happening only
by its significance; and there could be no partial significance unless
there were a Total Significance. Since total significance must transcend
the existence it informs, it cannot be contemplated without acknow-
ledging a Spiritual Power beyond Existence—that is beyond nature.
This is why we have called the seventh level Supernatural History.

We do not need to particularize the character of the supernatural—
to distinguish, for example, between a Personal God and a Supra-personal
Will—but we must, if our historical scheme is to hold together at all,

98 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

postulate a Goal towards which the creation is directed. Since humanity
is a part of the Creation, mankind is involved in this history and hence
in the realization of the Universal Harmony. We have designated the
seventh level of the lower motivational heptad* as Religious History.
We can say that religion is the root in human experience of that which
grows out of experience and reaches beyond nature to the Harmony of
Infinite Being. The Tetrad is completed by Creation, and the Present
Moment of all mankind from our first arising on the earth to our final
withdrawal. These four terms contain the entire history of the human
race, and yet they are beyond the greatest Present Moment that we as
men can experience.

Religion is the experienced ground of the supernatural activity where-
by mankind is created and drawn towards fulfilment of the foreordained
plan. The inner, invisible reality of the Supernatural History is known
only by Revelation: but is experienced in any human soul that is liber-
ated from egoism and united with the Individuality.

We should draw here an important distinction between ignorance and
sin. Providential history is directed towards the correction of ignorance;
but not to the redemption of mankind from sin. Such an action would
exceed the powers of the Demiurgic Intelligence! and calls for an inter-
vention from beyond Existence itself. Our connection with that Source
is the Cosmic Individuality. Supernatural History concerns the means,
whereby the consequences of man's involvement in the cosmic evil are
redeemed. The process of redemption is always in operation and without
it the entire human race would rapidly degenerate and lose contact with
Individuality. Nevertheless, men are not aware of the process and have
recognized it only when it has been made manifest in specially con-
trived or created events. These events are Revelations, though not all
such events are, strictly speaking, 'manifestations' for only small
numbers of people become aware of them.

The reality of Supernatural History cannot be demonstrated as fact,
nor is it possible to infer it as we did in the case of Providential History.
It is invisible history apprehended only by the theological virtues of
Faith, Hope and Love. These virtues can be exercised in their real
character only when the Unitive Energy (E 2) is present. The Super-
natural History is wholly contained in the zone that connects hyparxis
and eternity** and its operations are in the Cosmic Energies.

The upper motivational term of the tetrad is the Transcendental
Decree that establishes the Harmony of the Creation, and its lower

* Cf. Fig. 43.2 where it is derived from the Demiurgic Essence Class.
** Cf. Chapter 42, pp. 35-6.

THE STRUCTURE OF HISTORY

motivational term is :he creative and religious urge latent in the human
soul. These are given by the energies E 1 and E 3. The instrumental
terms are the inner and the outer workings of the Divine Love.

Without the operations of Supernatural History mankind would be
defenceless against the evil forces that are involved in the existing world.*
If we admit the reality of sin, we must also postulate the means of
redemption and this requires the Supernatural Operation that is pos-
sible only on the seventh level.

We shall not pursue further the systematics of history, but use the
results so far obtained in an attempt to build up a consistent and reason-
able picture of the Great Present Moment which includes not only the
existence of mankind, but that of all life on the earth. The History of
the Biosphere and that of Man are indissolubly linked and we must go
back to the origins of life if we are to understand the history of the
human race.

* The notion was first introduced in Vol. II, Chapter 36. It will require further
examination in connection with the Fall of Man, Chapter 47 below.

Chapter Forty-four
THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH

17.44.1. The Start of History

The content of history lies outside our present moment. All that is
contained in the present moment is non-historical. This includes the
messages we receive by light signals from other planets, stars and
galaxies. All these are in immediate contact with our present moment,
because light travels in a null-vector. We know the past only by traces
that we find in the present, and when there are no traces there is no
past for us.

Almost all the traces of the past that have reached us are on the earth
and concern the earth. An exception is Tycho Brahe's star, seen in 1572
and rediscovered with modern telescopes as a shell of fragments that
are undoubtedly the relics of the catastrophe first seen as a supernova
four hundred years ago. We have here an elementary 'historical occasion'
inasmuch as the traces (Brahe's records) reach the present moment
together with the signal (null-vector of light) that connects us with the
star. In nearly all other cases, we have only the light signal which is non-
historical. The achievements of astrophysics in the past forty years
are among the greatest triumphs of the scientific genius and the volume
and variety of data relating to the present state of stars and galaxies is
such that no one mind can assimilate it all. But it is all knowledge of the
same moment—for it is all directly connected with our present. From
knowledge of the present physical condition of tens of thousands of
stars, various hypothetical lines of development have been proposed,
such as the 'main sequence' to which our sun belongs. These are no
more history than if we were to classify, by observing their appearance,
tens of thousands of men chosen at random in a great city and from the
regularities found were to construct a 'main sequence' of bodily condi-
tions and imagine that thereby we were arriving at human history.

Without traces of the past, there can be no history. Until recently,
the only traces taken into account were the written records; and so
history was supposed to have started with the earliest inscriptions on
stone or clay made five or six thousands years ago. All that went before
that was 'pre-history'. This is a convenient, but artificial, distinction.
The earth's history written in the rocks and ocean bed can be deciphered

104

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

by geologists—by different means, but no less well, than archaeologists
decipher hieroglyphs or cuneiform. The first condition of knowing
history—the availability in the present of traces of past events—is
satisfied, so far as our earth is concerned, for a period that extends back
before the first appearance of life itself.

However, it is only on a very broad interpretation that we are entitled
to speak of the 'history of the earth'. The earth is a hypernomic entity,
which means that its existence is of a higher order than life. Although,
for our observation, the earth appears to be actualizing successively and
irreversibly—or in the usual language, it appears to exist 'in time and
space'—this is true only from our human standpoint. We cannot imagine
how time appears for bodies like the planets and sun: their cosmic
significance is still a mystery.

By a hazardous speculation, we have assigned to the planets the role
of 'sub-creation'.* This becomes much more comprehensible in the
light of the conceptions of chapter 42. We can look at the earth as the
director of history rather than an actor upon its stage. It would be wrong
to regard the earth as the author of the plan of history for this role
must certainly be played upon a still higher level. This suggests that the
Earth is to be treated as a Demiurgic Intelligence, or possibly as the
support of a society of such Intelligences.

It is probably nearest the truth to say that the entire period of the
preparation, emergence and development of life has been a 'present
moment' for the earth. What appears to us as a succession of events is
probably one total experience. The analogy of our own experience
makes this plausible. Within the present moment of an act of perception
millions of events occur upon the scale of existence of the cells of which
our body is constructed. An incomparably greater number occurs in a
few seconds on the scale of atoms and quanta. A single act of perception
involves a complex and irreversible succession of impulses passing
through millions of nerve cells. This involved process occurs wholly
within our present moment.** Now, we have found that the region over
which the present moment extends is a function of the degree of inte-
gration of the experiencing entity concerned. The present moment of
the earth is likely to be much nearer to a totality than it is for the

ordinary man. This view is strongly supported by the association of the

* Cf. Vol. I, pp. 215 and 442—3. On p. 443 we gave the analogy of teacher and pupils
to illustrate creation and sub-creation. Reference should also be made to Section
9.23 .2, in which we draw the picture of the earth as a sub-creative whole. On p. 452
we speak of 'the earth's history' but this refers specifically to its role as the creator of
a plan to be executed.

**fCf. Scientific American, Nov. 1964, p. 116 in the article on Psychological Time.

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH 105

novempotent plants* with the ninth level of energy—that is Conscious
Energy (E 4).

We find that all our lines of approach lead us to the conclusion that
the earth is an Intelligent Being on the next level of existence above life.
Intelligence is not subject to the determination of time in the same
way as are the lower energies and so we can perhaps venture to reach the
conclusion that the history of life on the earth works itself out in the earth's
present moment.

Although, on this view, history starts within the earth's 'mind' and
works itself out according to the determining conditions as they apply
to life—not as they apply to the earth—this does not mean that history
is started by the earth. The Intelligence of the earth links the operation
of Consciousness (E 4) and Creativity (E3); whereas the sun spans
Creativity (E 3) and Unitive Energy (E 2). We have assigned the role of life
creation to the sun.** We shall for the time being regard this, not so much
as an hypothesis, but as a convenient way of distinguishing between life
as foreordained on the earth and the forms of life as predestined. *** We
may say that the appearance of life on the earth was foreordained by the
Unitive Energy working in the Sun and that the pattern according to
which life has developed was predestined by the Creative or Demiurgic
activity of the earth. There remains the predetermination of life
upon the level of the material energies. This we shall reserve to the next
section.

Before passing on, we must revert to the scheme of Creation outlined
in Vol. II.**** With our present knowledge of the immensity of the
Creation, it seems reasonable to interpret the doctrine of creation as
described in Genesis as referring specifically to the earth and not to the
whole universe. This would require, in turn, that some measure of
delegated creativity must be invoked to link the Supreme Act where-
by the Universe was brought into existence with the detailed working
out of the consequences. Delegated creativity implies the separation of
agent and instrument without denying the instrument of some of the
powers that are proper to the agent. Thus St. Gregory Palamas who

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 216 and pp. 430-2.

** Cf. Vol. I, pp. 442—4, Creativity and Sub-Creativity:' that which is distinctively
solar is the hypernomic, creative element by which the sun exists as a manifestation of
the universal affirmation.'

*** The three kinds of future region were discussed in Chapter 42, pp. 89-93.

**** In Chapter 34. We refer particularly to Section 12.34.3, the Second Tetrad of
Creation. There is much in this section that requires revision in the light of researches
undertaken since Vol. II was written in 1957. Nevertheless, there is some merit in the
Hypothesis of Existential Creativity (Vol. II, p. 273) according to which the 'Sun is
the image of the Primal Creation'.

106

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH

treats the working of the Divine Power as a complex of energies such as
love, goodness, etc., allows these energies to pass into the Creation
which thus receives a secondary deification.* Similarly, in our present
study, we see that the creative and unitive energies, though properly
referred to the Cosmic Individuality, nevertheless enter into the sun,
and appear again in the Demiurgic Activity of the Earth and even of
Man when he enters the Psychoteleios Order.

It is difficult to reject the view that there have been subordinate
creative acts within the immense freedom with which Existence is
endowed by and from its Source. If this notion is rejected, the whole
universe either becomes a mechanism set in motion at its inception
and preordained to work itself out inexorably and perfectly; or it becomes
an even less acceptable faulty mechanism that can go wrong, but cannot
be put right except by setting aside the laws of its own creation. On
either interpretation God becomes a remote, inaccessible Absolute and
theism and atheism are rendered, for all practical purposes, identical
doctrines.** The notions of determining conditions and energies lead
to the conclusion that the Creative Will of the Sun is not a wholly in-
dependent power, but rather a mode of operation of the Universal Will.

When, therefore, we say that life on the earth is foreordained by the
Creative Will of the Sun, we are not saying anything other than that the
appearance of life on the earth is the result of an activity in which the
Sun transmits the Unitive Energy (E 2) and the Earth the creative
energy (E 3).

We now have to see how far these notions can be reconciled with
accepted views as to the origin and evolution of life.

17.44.2. Evolution and Predestination of Life

The history of life on the earth is a recent addition to man's know-
ledge of himself and his world. Until the nineteenth century, life and
man's place in it, were studied with little or no attention to the sig-
nificance of the past—that is, of traces. Since Darwin, the study of
traces has assumed a dominating importance. New and improved
techniques are giving man new and astonishing ways of studying traces
—radioactive dating is perhaps the most unforeseeable from the stand
point of the last century. As this chapter is being written, new develop-
ments are taking place in almost every field connected with the origin

* Cf. J. Meyendorff, A Study of Gregory Palamas, 'the idea that creatures participate
in the divine energies', p. 223. The subject was shortly discussed in Vol. II, pp. 273—5
in the general context of the 'Creation of the World.'

** This has always been the objection, insurmountable to the religious conscience,
against all philosophical doctrines of Absolute Monism.

107

and development of life; and, by the time it is read, much will be out-of-
date.

We cannot hope to put forward a definitive array of facts. In some
fields, such as the origin and cause of great climatic changes, the facts
themselves are altogether in confusion. In other cases, they are so rich
in their content and implications that only a few specialists can discuss
them with any confidence. We can do no more than offer a scheme of
interpretation, in accordance with the guiding principle that all must
make sense or nothing does. It seems that our notions of time—and its
extension in eternity and hyparxis—can provide a framework into which
both presently known and not yet known facts will find their place.

Few fundamentalists are left today to dispute the general picture
drawn by geologists and palaeontologists of the succession of events
that have led to the existence of the Biosphere as we know it at the
present time. Disagreements appear, however, as soon as we seek an
interpretation or explanation of the picture. The phylogenetic sequence
is written in the sea bed and in the rocks but the phylogenetic mechan-
ism is not so certainly established. Nevertheless, most biologists are
satisfied that organic evolution by the mechanism of genetic variability
and the operation of natural selection will account for nearly all the
traces of past life on the earth. If this mechanism is to be taken as the
sole means whereby life has arisen from the elementary substances of
the earth's surface, it is necessary to invoke the principle that any pos-
sible event however improbable will occur if a large enough number of
chances are offered to it.

Since nearly every biologist—and in the wake of the biologists, virtually
all others, including philosophers and theologians, who discuss these
questions—assume that the doctrine of the fortuitous arising of the pre-
sent world situation is at least plausible, we must examine the arguments
very carefully. The only satisfactory way of deciding the question is by
considering the probability a priori that a particular explanation will
work. The basic notion is that of order-disorder that we took as our
starting point in Chapter 42. It is indisputable that the biosphere
is a state of matter that is very highly ordered compared with the rocks,
oceans and atmosphere of the earth. The question is whether this high
degree of order could have arisen accidentally—remembering always
that ordering requires an action contrary to the second law of thermo-
dynamics which states that random changes lead to a more probable
and less ordered state.

Now, if order is to increase, there must be some means of conserving
the order already gained. Otherwise order accidentally arising will be

108

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

accidentally lost again. The experience of physical science shows that
order fluctuates over a very small amplitude about a state of disorder.
In all our experience, we find that, left to themselves, complex struc-
tures tend to disintegrate and revert to simpler forms. On principle,
therefore, the spontaneous arising of a very high degree of order by
random processes is highly improbable.

Before we examine the question more rigorously, let us summarize
the present position of experiment, observation and theory concerning
the origin of life. It is assumed that the primitive atmosphere was very
different from today, containing appreciable concentrations of am-
monia, methane and other hydrocarbons as well as water vapour and
nitrogen; but very little oxygen. It is also assumed that the solar
radiation may have been more intense and have included more active
wavelengths and that there were far more frequent and varied electric
discharges. All these conditions would favour the synthesis of organic
compounds including amino-acids known to be intermediate stages in
the formation of proteins. Such reactions are in most cases endothermic
and therefore improbable; but the earth's crust at that time could have
furnished metals and oxides that could act as catalysts and enable even
very improbable reactions to develop successfully.

All these assumptions are plausible and some of them have been
verified experimentally, and it has been widely supposed that this is
enough to demonstrate that the arising and evolution of life by for-
tuitous combinations is at least theoretically possible. Involving, as it
does, the simplest and most natural possible mechanism, this is to be
preferred to complicated and artificial accounts that invoke super-
natural agencies. When we examine the situation more closely, however,
a very different picture emerges.

In the absence of a direction, random processes tend to iron out
distinctions and level down structures. The hypothesis of the fortuitous
origin of life postulates the formation of very complex molecules by the
polymerization and combination of simpler forms. The simplest self-
reproducing substances known—the deoxyribunocleic acids—involve
the combination of thousands of elementary groups each of which is
unstable in isolation and far more likely to disintegrate than to find
the appropriate partner for combining—even if the groups are present
in fairly high concentration. In the diagram, each line represents a
possible step.

Given the first group A and assuming it is equally likely either to
disintegrate or to meet group B, the disintegration likelihood of A + B
before meeting C is 2: 1 and so on. The combination of seven groups is

chance in 5040. When there are a thousand combinations to be made,
the probability of a thousand consecutive steps being made is 1 in
1,000!, a nimber so large as to be outside the bounds of possibility
within the existing universe. We may ask why order varies inversely in a
factorial ratio. There has to be an accumulation of order. Not all the
order can come by one and the same process. Synthesis of nitrogen
compounds under electric discharge, polymerization at catalytic sur-
faces, structuring owing to the steric advantage of one type of molecule
over another and the various other mechanisms that have been sug-
gested may all be operative: but they are also mutually opposed. Con-
sequently, all the order that is built up is vulnerable and the greater
the order the greater the probability of regress. It is this that leads to the
factorial formula rather than the familiar exponential of simple 'yes or
no' choices.

It may be objected that once self-reproducing organisms are produced,
the probability of continuation is greatly increased and that the fac-
torial should be replaced by an exponential ratio. This may be true, but
the required number of chances remains forbiddingly large. This can
be seen from calculations made by Professor Harold Blum starting
from the consideration that order corresponds to negative entropy
on the one hand and to information on the other.* There are the
verifiable, and indeed obvious, facts that the biosphere as we know
it today repesents a very high state of order and that human culture
represents ; further immense increase of order. This is maintained
through energy transformations at the expense of the solar energy. The
Sun-Earth system as a whole is losing order owing to the radiation of
energy at lover levels than that of the source. The energy for photo-
synthesis is provided by an inflow of radiation and an equal amount is
being radiated away, but in the form of far larger numbers of quanta
at lower energy than those received. The changes in the Sun-Earth
system can be represented by:

* H. F. Blum, Form and Structure in Science, 1964, and Dimensions and Probability
of Life, Nature, 1965, Vol. 206, pp. 131-2.

109

110

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH

III

where W is the number of arrangements representing the degree of
disorder and P the probability of the state. If AS represents the change
of entropy in an increment of astronomical time, e.g. time measured
by the rotation of the earth, W2 is greater than W1 and by the second
law, P2 is greater than P1.

The order lost by the system, Sun-Earth, is, in part, gained by the
system biosphere. Moreover, we know that over the ages the order of
the biosphere has increased with time. Our problem is to assess the
probability that this increase of order—or increase of information—can
have occurred by random combinations. We can draw some guidance
from the operation of a digital computer to which is presented a succes-
sion of questions, each requiring the answer yes or no. If each question
can only be asked on condition that all the preceding questions were
answered affirmatively, the selection of answers is an increase in order
with corresponding decrease in probability. We may describe this
relationship by:

• (44-2)

where J stands for virtue* and represents the amount of order attained
and b is the number of questions answered; b2 is greater than b1 so that
delta J is positive and corresponds to negative entropy.

Let us now consider changes in the structure of an array of atoms
resulting in mutations or steps capable of being transmitted. Here
again each step (a) is an increase of order and (b) depends upon the
previous steps not only being made, but preserved. Mutations that undo
any of the earlier steps break the phylogenetic sequence. We can
postulate 'elements of order' that must be accumulated in the right
sequence and preserved all the way through. In this case the increase
of order in terms of the number of elements accumulated is given by**

(44-3)

where f is the number of elements of order that correspond to a stage in
the process. Here f2 is greater than f1 and the probability ratio p2/p1
is less than unity. In other words, increase in virtue or order grows less
and less probable as the number of elements of order is increased.
When the number is very large the probability of reaching the end

* Cf. Vol. I, p. 159-

** Based upon Blum, loc. cit., equation 3.

point is very small indeed. Blum* estimates that a thousand million
elements of order, at the very least, have been accumulated in producing
the state of order now existing in the Biosphere; and this leaves out of
account the chemical and bio-chemical stages before sexual reproduc-
tion started and also the conscious and creative stages by which present-
day human culture has reached its prodigiously complex structure.
Blum assumes that the change in probability is inversely proportional
to the number of elements and hence that 'the probability of biological
evolution having reached its present state would be 10^-9.' This is
certainly an optimistic figure, for it does not allow for the accidental
extermination of mutants that had already accumulated a high degree
of order.

The prodigious amount of order represented by these figures is very
hard to grasp and assess in terms of our common experience. It is, in-
deed, so unusual as to be unthinkable and we had best supplement the
numerical data by a specific example. We shall consider the order that is
stored up in the reproductive mechanism of a very simple living creature,
the bacterium Escherichia coli. This is less than a ten thousandth of an
inch in diameter and it would take thousands of millions of millions of
bacteria to make up the bulk of a single human body. Its reproduction is
controlled by a single chromosome that consists of a single molecule of
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that has the property of reproducing an
identical replica of itself from protein, including the base thymine that
can be made radioactive by replacing hydrogen by tritium. The mole-
cule will then take photographs of itself (autoradiographs) at different
stages of its reproduction. The bacterium under favourable conditions
of nutrition can reproduce by fission in twenty or thirty minutes, and in
this time the replication of the chromosome must be completed.

All this seems simple enough, until we learn something about the
chromosome and its structure. Escherichia coli has been studied for
many years and it has recently been shown that the chromosome con-
sists of a double spiral chain joined to form a continuous ring that is a
thousand times longer than the bacterium itself and must therefore be
coiled up tightly to fit in.** This single molecule contains more than

* Loc. cit., p. 132, 'About a million species of living organism are recognized today,
and we may conservatively estimate that at least one thousand mutations were con-
cerned in each one.'

** These details are taken from an article The Bacterial Chromosome by John Cairns
in the Scientific American January 1966, pp. 37-44. The illustrations in the paper
greatly help in following the description and the interested reader is advised to study
it and also reports on the work of Meselson and Stahl at the Californian Institute of
Technology, that of Kornberg at Washington University and that of Cairns himself at
the Australian National University.

D.U. IV—6

112 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

200,000,000 atoms, arranged in most beautiful intricate patterns, every
one of which has its precise place and function in the entire process of
reproduction, nutrition and life-cycle of the bacterium. This pattern
must be exactly reproduced in the minutest detail every time the
bacterium divides and it must be the same in millions upon millions of
little creatures of the same species. It is unimaginable that such an
extraordinary mechanism could have come into existence without some
organizing and directing influence. The amount of order present in a
single chromosome of one cell of Escherichia colt is so great that Blum's
estimate of a thousand units for a species needs to be multiplied ten
thousandfold to give a true picture. But this is not really the point.
Not only is there a great quantity of order, but also order of a very high
quality—that is to say, a most intricate and beautifully contrived
pattern. If this is true for a simple bacterium, the complexity of the
reproductive system for the higher animals cannot even be rightly
regarded as a 'mechanism', but rather as a supremely beautiful work of
creative art. The more we learn about the way life 'works', the less
plausible does it become to regard this working as the product of an
undirected array of chance happenings.

When we further consider the development of human culture on the
assumption that it has been due to blind chance—that is the processes
of random variation and natural selection—another enormous improba-
bility confronts us. Blum's cumulative probability for (a) the origin of
life (b) the evolution of the Biosphere and (c) the development of human
culture is 10^-18 or a million, million, million to one against the occur-
rence. Even this extremely small likelihood is, according to our calcula-
tions, far too optimistic, for it does not give due weight to the hazards
of the pre-biological stages of synthesis, where the likelihood of degener-
ation increases with each added element of order.

We can now test numerically the argument that however improbable
the present situation may be, there have been enough chances to make
it conceivable. If we assume only 100 steps in the accidental synthesis
of a self-reproducing protein the odds against its occurring by accident
are 1:100! The remaining steps may be 10^-15 as suggested by Blum.
This makes a cumulative probability of less than one in 10^100. The
total mass of the earth's atmosphere is estimated at 10^21 grams equiva-
lent to 1040 simple molecules of nitrogen, methane or ammonia. Assum-
ing chemical transformations occurring throughout the atmosphere and
reactions occurring at the rate of a million a second, there would be
some 1023 reactions in a thousand million years. The total number of
reactions theoretically possible is 1063 against the 1085 required to

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH 113

produce one viable self-reproducing protein molecule. This gives a
likelihood of one in a hundred thousand million million, which makes
the process inconceivably improbable. If it is suggested that surface
catalysts could both accelerate the process and protect the reactants
from disintegration: we must reduce the number of molecules to those
able to be in contact with suitable metallic or oxide surfaces. The
figure of 1040 falls dramatically to 1015 and the probability remains far
too low to allow random reactions to be regarded as a conceivable
mechanism for the arising of life.*

This is not to say that random reactions could not produce polymers
of high molecular weight: but that such polymers would be only one
stage in the whole process. In later stages, the disintegrative influences
of random energy discharges would be more and more likely to break
the entire structure down and long before a viable self-synthesizing
molecule was obtained, the regressive trend would swallow up any
hopeful combinations.

When we turn our attention to the evolution as distinct from the
origin of life, we have to think in terms of far smaller numbers of units:
in this case organisms capable of sexual reproduction. Against the num-
ber of elements of order, i.e., 10^9 according to Blum, we have a
maximum of 10^10 generations with an average successful mutation of
one in a million: so here the odds against the success of random variation
and natural selection are at least a hundred thousand to one. But, as
we saw, a large proportion of successful mutations disappear, so that
the true odds run into hundreds of millions. Up to now, we have
considered only a single line of evolution. If we take into account the
delicate adjustment of different kinds of organism to each other in the
Biosphere, the odds become astronomical.**

The development of culture by random processes and natural selec-
tion is a far-fetched notion that need not detain us. At the very least,
it can be regarded as extremely improbable that the present state of
human culture could have been reached by a sequence of undirected
and purposeless steps.

The conclusion that we are bound to draw from all these considera-
tions, is that the fortuitous origin and evolution of life and human culture
on the earth must be rejected as contrary to the well-established laws
of probability and thermodynamics. So far we have considered only the

* Cf. Majorie Grene, The Knower and the Known, London 1966. A detailed critique
of the doctrine of fortuitous originism given in the appendix. In spite of several studies
exposing the weakness of the statistical 'demonstration'"that fortuitous originism is at
least tenable, it continues to be widely and uncritically accepted.

** Cf. Infra, p.

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

earth as it existed when life appeared. From the larger standpoint of
universal evolution, the hypothesis of fortuitous origin is not so attrac-
tive—even from an atheistic standpoint—as it appears at first sight. It
has to take the condition of the primitive earth as a datum. Presumably
the earth also appeared by a series of chances. But, however far one
pushes the problem back, sooner or later the question of origin arises
in a form where chance is no longer meaningful. It is meaningless to
say that the existence of the universe is 'more likely than not'.

This is, as is well recognized even by mechanistic biologists, not the
only serious difficulty. Inert matter is insensitive, life is sensitive; when
and how did sensitivity arise from insensitivity? Again, man is conscious
and entertains ideas of value and purpose. Inert matter is unconscious
and the whole argument in favour of mechanistic theories is that they
do not require any assumptions as to conscious purposes at the origin of
life. How then could consciousness and purposefulness have arisen in a
world from which they were previously totally absent?

The usual reply to these objections is that there must be some kind
of consciousness even in inert matter—even, as some say, in the atom.
All that has happened is that this atomic dispersed consciousness has
accidentally got itself organized into men and women. The least that
can be said is that such arguments are evidence of a negative faith in
atheism as remarkable as the positive faith of the theist. The one believes
that mere chance can work miracles and the other believes that God did
it all, without the slightest idea of how it could have been done.

In our time, both theist and atheist are equally in a quandary before
the progress of science. We see before us a world so incredibly rich and
complex that neither naive atheism nor naive theism can account for it.
We need a world picture that may not satisfy our insatiable human need
for certainty, but that will at least make some sense of the totality of our
experience. One unmistakable sign of the times, and, as we should say,
a message from the future, is the unwillingness of men to close their
eyes to difficult or unpalatable data of experience. We do not want to
sweep our intractable problems under the carpet. The aim we have set
ourselves in this book is to develop a world picture adequate to include
not only all we know but also our inexpressible intuitions of Truth. We
must now submit this world picture to the verdict of history.

17.44.3. The Plan and the Pattern

Planets are improbable modes of existence. If our experiences were
associated with a star lacking a planetary system, we could scarcely
imagine that such bodies as planets could exist. If we were accustomed

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH 115

to temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees and upwards—which,
contrary to popular ideas of hell-fire, would not incommode the soul—
we could not conceive matter in the solid state, nor bodies in any way
resembling those of plants or animals.

If we could place ourselves in imagination at the centre of our galaxy
and so enlarge our field of vision and change our time scale that we could
examine its structure, we should see two hundred thousand million
stars in complex motions, prodigious intensities of energy, and countless
millions of other galaxies spreading out through space. We should see
no solid matter, for planets would be too small and too dark to be
visible. What we find on one scale is quite unpredictable from another.
We would no doubt regard the hypothesis of planetary existence as
wildly improbable. As wildly improbable, perhaps, as the suggestion
that life could exist on a planet would appear to a visitor who happened
to alight upon a barren satellite. Remembering the conclusion we reached
in Chapter 42 that unexpectedness is a mark of the hyparchic future,
we are encouraged to look for an improbable and unexpected plan*
that might have entered the mind of our planet.

The earth's 'present moment' is a conception that we must now
explain. It embraces a range of energies extending beyond those orga-
nized in mind, for the earth is not only conscious, but creatively con-
scious. The earth can be conceived as a Higher Intelligence and so
associated with the notion of the Demiurgic Powers that are to play a
decisive role in the development of our theme. The 'mind' of the earth
is in process of evolution and this process may be said to have started
with the implanting of the 'pattern' of Life. Again, this 'mind' is a
'greater present moment' and the history of life is being enacted within
the Present Moment embraced by the Great Mind of our planet. Before
the plan was conceived, the mind of the earth slumbered: its conscious-
ness was not organized and its creative powers were exercised by the
superior Intelligence of the Sun.

Let us start then with the hypothesis that life appeared and developed
on the earth in response to a plan that arose in the hyparchic future of
the earth's mind. The plan was not produced in time; it was rather
a work of pure Illumination.** We said also that it must be an act of the

* Cf. Jellaluddin Rumi, Mathnawi Ma'nevi, Book II, v. 1796: 'How often will
they say when the cover is lifted: this, verily, is not what we expected.' Rumi and other
great Sufi poets and mystics had, and gave expression to, intuitions of what we call
eternity and hyparxis that have been for the writer both signposts and encouragements
in pursuing these hazardous speculations.

** The term Illumination was introduced in Chapter 43, Section 16.43.5.6, to
designate the co-working if the Unitive and Creative Energies.

116

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

Creative Will of the Sun. As we have seen, the operations of the will in
the hyparchic state of non-potential virtuality have no power to bring
about their own realization in the present moment of time.* For this,
they must take shape as an eternal pattern. This transformation of the
solar act takes place in the mind of the earth.** The virtual pattern is
effectual only if it is associated with potential energy, thereby passing
into the eternity of the present moment.***

We have at this stage two elements. First, there is the Illumination of
the sun. We may even say that the nature of the sun is to be affirmative
since it is centred upon/the creative energy (E 3). Second, we have the
Intelligence of the earth. This also is the very nature of the earth, which
is centred in consciousness (E 4). It still remains necessary to account
for the initiation of a causal process within the present moment of time,
corresponding to the first appearance of life.

Three entirely different explanations can be envisaged:
1. As we are concerned with history, we must have an element of
value as well as of fact. This immediately suggests the category of
contingency, **** the first in the scale of values and the one that corresponds
to dispersed energy (E 12) in the scale of energies. We can, therefore,
invoke an action that has some of the character of blind chance postulated
in the mechanistic theories. But we must introduce another element as
well. We can imagine that under the influence of an organizing pattern
of potentialities, the chemical combinations necessary for the auto-
synthesis of nucleic acids or whatever may have been the first self-
reproducing protein, could have taken place.|| This suggestion has

* Cf. Chapter 42, p. 55.

** This is why we regard the earth as a sub-creative entity. Cf. Vol. I, p. 447. Vol. II,
p. 274.

*** The reader must remember that these are not arbitrary statements, or the result
of an 'inner illumination'; they follow directly from the character of the geometry of
six dimensions. It is true that the application of these results to the sun and earth are
suggested by observations unconnected with the geometry. Fechner in Tagesansicht
gegen Nachtsansicht made similar suggestions in 1877. Jaquetta Hawkes in Man and
the Sun describes the many beliefs associated with the creative role of the Sun God. She
does not venture to connect the ancient myths with modern science though she comes
near to it in the end.

**** Cf. Chapter 38, Section 14.38.2.1. The value involved here does not lie in the ran-
dom distribution of atoms and energies as such, but in the opportunity this randomness
offers for a constructive process to be set in motion.

****We recall here the third law of Synchronicity: the Law of Organization and Dis-
organization, Vol. II, p. 53. Reference is made there to the connection between this
law and the processes of life. 'Life would have no special quality if it were wholly
determined by existential laws. It is the feeling for the essential quality of life that
touches us when we contemplate the struggle of organization and disorganization and
its outcome in the will-to-live.'

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH

117

nothing strange in the light of the theory of organizing force-fields
that some embryologists have postulated to guide the development of
the organism from the fertilized ovum. According to this explanation,
the energies of life remain latent and only enter step-by-step as
suitable material bodies develop.

2. We may invoke, on the contrary, a very high action. Assuming that
life is necessary for the Cosmic Harmony,* we may say that Divine
Compassion in order to permit the Creation to triumph in the War with
Time, enters directly into the material world as the Illumination
which brings about a mutual action of inert matter, wholly subject
to time, and the pattern of life, wholly virtual in eternity. According to
this hypothesis, Love acts as the Immanent Divinity that unites the
Creativity of the sun which the Intelligence of the earth.**

3. We can also see the action in hierarchical terms, whereby Divine
Compassion releases the power of Illumination to awaken the Intelli-
gence of the earth to the task of providing itself with a Mind that is
eventually to arise in the Biosphere by the advent of Man. 'Divine
Compassion' here is to be understood as the highest operation within
the existing world; that is, the coalescence of Transcendent (E1) and
Unitive (E 2) energies with the Will of the Cosmic Individuality.
The Earth-Mind is in the Hyparchic Future and, as before, issues as the
potential pattern of Vital energies by which the evolution of the Bio-
sphere is directed.

Let us put the various suggestions into the form of a comprehensive
hypothesis. This can take the form of a series of propositions.

1. The existence of life on the earth is the realization of a plan, the
fulfilment of which is ordained out of time—past, present or future—
by the Creative Will of the Sun: an operation of the Supreme Will.

2. The Will of the Sun operating in the hyparchic future of the earth
conceives the plan of a self-reproducing mode of existence capable of
sustaining sensitivity and eventually organizing it to provide the earth
with a mind that could be transformed into Soul. The plan requires
that its realization should be progressively more and more self-directing,

* One of the main conclusions of Vol. II. Cf. p. 337: 'We have reached the conclusion
that Life, in all its multitudinous forms occupies a central place in the pattern of all
Existence.'

** Love and Wisdom stand beside the Creator as His hand maids. Cf Proverbs 8.22:
'The Lord made me His when first He went about His work, at the birth of time before
His Creation began. Long, long ago before the earth was fashioned, I held my course.
Already I lay in the womb, when the depths were not yet in being, when no springs
of water had yet broken' (R. Knox translation). The whole of this passage gives an
almost uncanny picture of the situation we are trying to evoke.

118

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH

119

and therefore the arising of beings capable of acquiring Individuality
was inherent in the plan.

3. The earth in a state of pure Intelligence, but without a mind,
accepted the plan and converted it into a pattern of life capable of
evolving from the simplest beginnings to become eventually its own
Mind.

4. The three acts of will do not take place within Life's own present
moment. They are entirely in the hyparchic future of the sun and the
earth. There is no actualization and no material event.

5. The present moment appears when the virtual pattern becomes a
potential pattern and so 'begins to exist'. This requires a finite apo-
critical interval that varies according to the strength of embrace of the
earth's Intelligence.

6. The actualization begins at the lowest level of the material energies
and works its way step by step through the essence classes. At the start
there is the highest degree of consciousness—that of the earth—and the
lowest level of materiality—that of random motions. The actualization
gradually builds in the intervening levels. In this way the direction of
the event—that is, the appearance, development and realization of life-
passes into life itself.

The hypothesis propounded in this form may appear to be the wildest
speculation if not simple fantasy. It must be said, however, that we have
constructed a scheme that accounts for the history of life on the earth
without invoking either creation ex nihilo, or blind chance. It is neither
theistic nor atheistic, for it does not assert that life on earth comes
straight from the hands of a Supreme Being, Creator of the Universe,
nor does it deny that such a Supreme Being exists. The scheme allows
for the undisturbed operation of the laws of nature. This, from the
standpoint of scientific enquiry, is perhaps its most valuable feature. It
is not an invented notion, but a structure built up step by step from the
properties of the fundamental geometry of Vol. I. It allows for deter-
mination and causality wherever these are found in the material world,
and it also leaves scope for free choice and responsibility within the
world of life.

It is fair to emphasize that no such scheme could be constructed in
terms of classical notions of space and time. There would be no room
for the Illumination that is postulated as the initiating factor. Modern
atheism largely bases its case upon the contradictions between any
notion of a supernatural will and the obvious realities of nature, science
and commonsense. The suggestion that there could be a non-temporal
act of will appears to be either an absurdity or a misuse of language.

This kind of objection has not the same force as it appeared to have
fifty years ago. Then it seemed as if natural science was riding home on
the tide of mechanistic explanations that eventually would include life
and consciousness, and set mankind free once and for all from the super-
Ititious belief that there is a tod. The successive crises in theoretical
physics and the belated recognition that no simple mechanical explana-
tion (i.e. one that invokes noting but atoms and fields of force) would
work in biology, and perhaps also the prodigious achievements of
astrophysics, have made scientists cautious in asserting that they know
even the kind of explanation oinatural phenomena they are looking for.

The principle we have followed is that the only kind of explanation
that can be accepted is a total explanation. We are very far indeed from
claiming to have found it; but at least we can say that by reasoning
from simple geometrical premies, we came to the conclusion that there
must be a condition—that we have called the hyparchic future—in
which the Will can operate without being involved in actualizations in
time and space.

The hyparchic future has hitherto interested us as the condition of
creative activity. It is also the condition that enables us to reconcile
conflicting elements in our immediate experience. In our study of the
War with Time, we saw how the present moment with its ever changing
content also contains traces of a past that does not seem to change at all.
We concluded that there is an hyparchic past that is in process of self-
realization; but this does not tell us what 'self-realization' means. We
can partially interpret the traces of the past in terms of the structures
and regularities we observe in the present; but only partially, for the
present does not provide us with an integrative principle. Its very
nature is disintegral and we are driven to search outside the present for
an understanding of what it means. Hitherto, this search has been
confined to the traces of the pat. We look for explanations of the past
within the past. Such explanations must invoke some kind of causality:
absolute, relative or statistical The last implies that randomness is
ultimate and the first that there is a structure in the world that is
guaranteed by the past and known from the past. It cannot be satis-
factory to derive the notion of progress from the past alone and so we
return to the future—the hyparchic future—and look for a purpose and
a plan. We must not forget that purpose and plan have not meaning
unless they are projected into a future that exists. So we are brought
back to the hyparchic future as;he region in which transformations are
independent of time and therefore can reconcile causal and purposive
accounts of one and the same situation.
d.u. IV—6*

120

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

We shall, therefore, start our enquiry by postulating a structure that
includes both purpose and plan. A plan implies a sequence of actions
that will transform a possible situation into an actual one.

We can conceive a temporal process as developing continuously under
the influence of pre-existing causes. When there is an eternal pattern,
there will also be different levels of actualization; but not necessarily
discontinuities. When, however, the process is fully subject to hyparchic
conditions, it will be impregnated with periodic or cyclic features. When
projected into time this results in the step-wise transition with which
we have become familiar in such diverse fields as quantum mechanics
and genetics. The property of step-wise or discontinuous progress must
certainly be operative in the history of the earth, if we are right in our
supposition that it is predominantly conditioned by an overall hyparchic
plan. Now everyone will allow that the traces of the past do show un-
mistakable evidence of progress by stages and so we have at least an
agreed starting point. Nevertheless, though they can be known from
the traces of the past, they can only be understood with regard to the
hyparchic future.

The stages will be studied in time-sequence and we shall need a
suitable nomenclature for distinguishing them. For this purpose we shall
adapt and extend the terminology favoured by most geohistorians which
refers to forms of life rather than to rock formations. The following
scheme will suit us.

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH

121

The meaning of the stages and the explanation of their characteristics
and durations will be developed in the succeeding chapters. The table
is set out at this point, for convenience of reference only. Stages 4-7
are recognized by geologists. Stages 1-3 are speculative as to duration,
but are in general agreement with commonly held views. The term
'hyperzoic' is used to indicate the entry of a factor that goes beyond
life itself: that is, consciousness.

17.44.4. The Primitive Earth: Amorphous Stage

So far as is known to us at present, the earth and other planets of our
solar system were formed between 3,000,000,000 and 4,000,000,000
years ago—the higher figure being more probable. The material from
which the earth is made is so different in composition from the sun, that
it seems likely that it was formed independently. Some astronomers
believe that suitable material may be dispersed throughout our galaxy
in the form of dust and fragments and that the sun has swept them up
in its travels. Others believe that we are made from the debris of a
star that exploded catastrophically as a super-nova, for only the con-
ditions of inconceivable intensity of energy concentration so obtained
could have produced the heavy atoms that are fairly abundant on the
earth. The generally agreed, and very important, conclusion is that a
very high level of potential energy must have been present when the
earth was being formed. There must have been, for example, a far higher
proportion of radio-active elements than there are now, including trans-
uranic elements whose half-life is too short to have left traces after
four thousand million years.

It is reasonably certain that at first there was no material in the
crystalline state—no rocks, no mountains and oceans as we know them
now—but gases and fragments of solid material moving at random and
slowly forming simple chemical substances like nitrogen gas, water,
sodium chloride, and carbon dioxide. We can say, then, that in the scale
of essence-classes, the earth started at the bottom of the scale, and can
call this the Amorphous Stage.

Now we have seen that the first two essence classes—dispersed energy
and simples—cannot form pentads.* There would be no reflux of the
spirit, no arising of more complex forms, without some pattern-forming
influence. At this stage, there is no possibility of response on the part

* Vol. II, Chapter 35, p. 297: 'In the ground-state, there is no pattern or quality.'
Again, p. 298: 'It is the emptiness, the void, of the ground-state that gives it the force
to attract the essence-qualities that it needs.' We have here the essential counterpart
of the suggestion made in the last section that contingency can allow the eternal
pattern to penetrate into the random motions.

122

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

of the existential component of the dyad. The spirit of the earth was
pure essence; the fragments of its future body, mere existence.

Nevertheless, this first stage was of decisive importance for all future
events. The eternal pattern now begins to project itself into a spatial
distribution recognizable in energy gradients, or the distribution of
materials in zones or layers. The material distributed itself in spherical
layers, thereby allowing a gradient of conditions and substances from the
central core to the outer atmosphere. There was much greater material
mobility than now, so that the dominating condition was that of random
motion and heat energy, the latter liberally supplied by the radioactive
elements in even greater quantity than the radiant energy received from
the sun. In the rapid currents and vortices created by the potential
energy gradients within and surrounding the condensing earth, stable
combinations would not be formed for a very long period of time.

During the stage of relatively free motions, both radial and zonal,
there would be a segregation of the elements and their elementary
combinations, corresponding to the essence-class of 'simples'. This does
not mean that no simple substances existed in the first stage, but that
they were not segregated. Thus, the segregation into zones would have
been the main characteristic of the second stage. This included the
formation of the predominantly iron core and the various layers up to
and including the solid crust. This would apply whatever the hypothesis
adopted regarding the origin of the earth itself.

The formation of zones is a necessary precondition of the appearance
of life. We have no grounds for supposing that the segregation of simples
was brought about under the influence of the 'life pattern' we have
postulated. The most that we can say is that the earth could have formed
in a different way. Instead of the polyspherical pattern of core, mantel,
lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and cosmosphere, the elements of
which the earth is made could have made other compounds that would
have retained the water and most of the gases in the solid state. There
would have been little or no water on the surface and much less atmo-
sphere—in fact a condition such as appears to obtain at present on the
planet Mars. Had this happened, life as we know it could not have arisen.
Life requires fairly narrow limits of temperature and protection from
the full intensity of the sun's ultra-violet radiation. Without oceans and
atmosphere we should have had neither.*

* According to some views, the early earth may have had little free water, most of it
being combined with solids as hydrates. The formation of the oceans would then have
been a special process and its occurrence at the opportune moment would be even
more suggestive of a plan.

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH

123

These considerations are inconclusive for we can say that because
the earth developed as it did, life was able to come; or we can say because
life had to come, therefore the earth took the form that it did.

The more we know of the process (and it is still very little) the more
remarkable does its exact regulation appear. The earth's crust had to be
just what it is and not a thousand other kinds of surface that might
equally well have formed. The amount of free water to form oceans had
to be neither too small to regulate temperature, nor so great as to cover
the whole earth and produce continuous tides and currents in the
molten magma beneath the crust. No stable form could have developed
under either set of conditions.

We have as the first stage in the history (or rather pre-history) of life
on the earth, the formation of concentric spheres or zones of differing
constitution, but all on the first four energy levels. In other words, we
have the earth as a material body permeated by the four material ener-
gies. Where, if anywhere, were the energies of life? The obvious difficulty
of believing that sensitivity and consciousness could be produced by
chemical reactions of inert matter, has led materialistic and mechanistic
scientists to make the assumption that these properties must be associ-
ated with all matter and only make themselves apparent when living
bodies having a high degree of organization have evolved.* Such
hypotheses are unsatisfactory inasmuch as they do not account for the
transition from the 'atomic' to the 'organic' state of consciousness. They
must be made more precise and the mechanism of integration must be
formulated if they are to be convincing. This is just what we are able
to do by recognizing four vital energies and assuming that they have
been present with the material of the earth since it was first formed.

The mechanism whereby the plan of life-creation was first converted
into an eternal pattern and then realized as a structure in time and
space can be conceived somewhat as follows.

The Creative Energy (E 3) penetrates into the pre-existent hyle field**
in the unextended, non-successive state of virtuality. It imprints upon
this field a system of periodicities that corresponds to the total plan to

* This idea is inherent in all emergist doctrines of evolution, including those which
admit of a 'syntropic trend' in the universe. The idea of the 'sensitivity' of matter goes
back at least as far as Maupertuis in the eighteenth century. It was proposed again by
the mathematician Clifford at the end of the nineteenth century, and is current today.

** Hyle does not enter into existence unless it is associated with all four determining
conditions. In Vol. II, pp. 30-32, we suggested the addition of a 'seventh degree of
freedom' to our six-dimens:onal geometry, which 'would allow transformations differ-
ent in kind from those of presence, actualization, potentiality and recurrence, and yet
interconvertible with them' (p. 31). Our intention was to avoid the mutual exclusion
of Fact and Value.

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THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

be realized. This can be accomplished only under the condition of
hyparxis where the action of the will upon existence can be direct and
unmediated by existence. This gives us the link between the two aspects
of the earth's nature as Life's Mother and Life's Prison.*

We could conceive 'living machines' without the possibility of soul
and we could conceive 'living spirits' without the possibility of trans-
formation. The first are wholly Fact and the latter wholly Value. The
purpose of the creation of life is evidently far more subtle and far more
difficult than either of these: it is to make possible the arising of inde-
pendent, responsible Individuals able to do what no machine and no
spiritual entity (or 'Angel') could accomplish. The contradiction between
the two natures is so complete that it can only be resolved in non-
existence. The pre-existent state of hyle could apparently just serve
the purpose. There the plan of life could escape the dilemma of being
imprisoned in matter or failing to be born. Hence the phrase used in
Vol. II 'Life's Mother and Life's Prison'. The operation is performed by
the Demiurgic Intelligences associated with the Earth.**

The next stage is the projection of the pre-existent pattern into the
eternal or potential state of hyle. This gives the pattern of the biosphere. ***
As this pattern is wholly potential, it is independent of time and there-
fore accompanies life throughout the thousands of millions of years of
its history.

The pattern bears the stratification of existence that we found to be
all-pervasive. **** This stratification of levels in eternity projects itself into
a stratification of zones in space. We have already noted that this
stratification began at some very early stage in the earth's history. There
were concentrations of the material energies from the earth's core to the
outer atmosphere: and there were also concentrations of vital energies
not yet associated with living forms and therefore still in states of
potentiality.

At this stage there was an almost complete partition between the
existential and the essential components of the future Biosphere. The
six 'lower' energies from heat to vitality belonged to the 'visible earth'

* Cf. Vol. II, Chapter 34 and especially section 13.34.4., pp. 275-7.

** Ibid., p. 277, where the Demiurgic Intelligences are called the Heavenly Host. The

'Second Creation' of Section 12.34.4. is the very process which we are now seeking

to elucidate.

*** Cf. Vol. I, p. 420: 'The eternal pattern of the Biosphere contains all the potentiali-
ties of autonomic existence actualized over a period of many millions of years.' Again,
ibid.: 'The biosphere should represent the transition from autonomic to hypernomic
existence . . . hypernomic existence penetrates into life at the point of contact between
two phases.'

**** Cf. Vol. I, Chapter 9.

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH 125

and the six 'higher' energies to the 'Unseen Earth' of Section 12.34.4.
These correspond, mutatis mutandis, to the distinction of Fact and
Value without the intervening Domain of Harmony. This Domain
comes into realization as the vital energies begin to interact and build
up structures capable of self-renewal. From two hexads, we pass to the
three familiar tetrads of Hyponomic or Material, Autonomic or Vital
and Hypernomic or Cosmic Existence. The Autonomic world is that
of the four energies: constructive, vital, automatic and sensitive.

The creative action of the Demiurgic Intelligences thus falls into
four phases:

1. The transfer of the plan from the hyparchic future into the pre-

existent hyle-field.

2. The projection of the field as a pattern in Eternity. This is the
formative and regulative pattern of the Biosphere.

3. The projection from eternity into space to produce the multi-
spherical zone system of earth energies.

4. The initiation of the temporal process of realization by the appear-
ance of the first self-renewing forms of life.

We have at this stage four distinct elements:

1. The Material Basis of Life. The chemical elements and energy
concentrations of the earth's surface and atmosphere and the special
conditions induced within the polyzonal system by the sun's radia-
tion.

2. The Vital Basis of Life in the Eternal Pattern. Energies E 8 to
E 5 in potential states.

3. The Sensitive Structure of Life that at first is present only as an
'idea' in the Earth's Intelligence.

4. The Soul Structure which is wholly virtual and takes no direct
part in the actualization. The earth is not born with a soul;
although it is the 'Abode of the Heavenly Host'.* The Intelli-
gences of the Demiurgic Powers transmit the Creative Plan that
originates in the sun, and could not originate on any lower level,
for it requires the Illumination that recognizes the need and the
means of satisfying it.

We can picture the 'Unseen Earth' as 'Essence' in which no contact
with the material world has yet been made. This 'Essence' bears the
sensitive image of the Pattern of Life History. Gradually 'Essence' will
acquire the content that will lead to the birth and maturing of the World-
Soul. There are many stages to be passed and two thousand million

* Vol. II, p. 277

126 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

years of history before Individuality and Soul begin to come together

in man.

17.44.5. The Formation of the Earth Surface:

Azoic Stage

The first stage of life's history may have lasted for hundreds of
millions of years until the formation of the crust was complete. Then
began a gradual transformation by interaction between the different
zones. Lavas seeped through the solid crust and liberated water and
gases to produce the early atmosphere and oceans. No doubt there were
free gases and water vapour in the first stage, but it is likely that most
of the elements entered into chemical combinations and that the primi-
tive ocean was of far less extent than it became in the second stage;
which corresponds to the appearance of the crystalline essence.

It has been estimated that the rate of percolation of lava through the
inner crust of the earth is about 0.8 millimetres a year. Assuming that
this rate has not greatly changed, the present crystalline outer shell of
the earth—which is some thirty miles in thickness—would have taken
several hundred million years to form. The combination of complex
silicates (the predominant constituent of the fluid interior), under the
action of water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and sunlight—from which the
ultra-violet radiation would be effectively filtered—produced the first
true crystalline substances which were the primitive rocks.*

The crystalline essence is characterized by the possession of an
actualized pattern. This was an immense step in the evolution of the
earth, for it means that the organizing pattern—which in the first stage
could produce only a separation of zones but no structure—was now
producing specific forms upon the scale required for the future arising
of life. A new zone had appeared that was able to produce enduring
forms, the precursors of things. These, as we saw, are the first weapon
to emerge in the War with Time.** It has proved a marvellously success-
ful weapon within its own limitations, for it has preserved to this day
traces of its own origin.

These traces are the most ancient azoic rocks and particularly the
andesites that predominate in the earth's crust. We shall speak of the
andesitic layer as the characteristic manifestation of the crystalline stage.
It is not wholly fanciful to compare the andesitic layer to the epidermis

* Ice-crystals are probably present everywhere, even in outer space, but water
belongs to the essence-class of simples and ice is not a true crystalline essence according
to our definition (Chapter 35, Section 13.35.7) since it cannot be transformed into
soil (Vol. II, p. 300).

** Cf. Chapter 42, Section 16.42.4.

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON-THE EARTH 127

of an animal body for it has analogous functions. Firstly, it is a protective
coating over the molten and mobile magma that lie below the inner shell.
Secondly, it is a regulator of temperature through the absorbtion and
release of water. Thirdly, it is an excretory organ, enabling the interior
lavas to make their way to the outer surface. It may be that the hydro-
carbon oils and petroleum that play so great a part in the present moment
of man's history were already being produced in the crystalline stage.
Fourthly, it is the support of the sensitive and vital energies and in this
way performs a function analagous to the skin which is the support of
the sensitivity of the animal body. All our organs of perception are
modifications of the epidermis and all life on the earth is derived from
the material of the andesitic layer.

In order to assess the truly historic significance of the rising of
crystalline essences, we must take into account their extreme rarity in
the universe. Not more than one million millionth part of all the masses
of the known universe is likely to be in the crystalline state. Not only
is it absent in all stars (and, probably, in the great planets like Jupiter)
but even on planets like the Earth and Mars, it is contained in a
layer on the outer surface which has passed through the organizing
action that converts simples into crystals.

Its quantitative rarity does not diminish its cosmic signficance. A
crystalline body endures and has an actualized form. This is the first
step towards life. But as we shall frequently find in our study of history
a step back must be made in order to go forward. The crystalline struc-
tures cannot have the capacity for selective response that is one of the
conditions of life. They are restricted to certain definite forms..*

17.44.6. The Soil and the Sea: Transition to The
Hypozoic

Life joins battle with time by the weapon of self-renewal. The first
condition of self-renewal is exchange and before life could come on
the earth there had to be conditions that allowed a free exchange of
materials and energies between bodies. Such conditions cold be pro-
vided either by the crystalline rocks or by the fresh waters of the primi-
tive ocean.

The problem was solved in two entirely different and complimentary
ways. On solid land, the rocks were converted into clays ad the clay
became soil. The ocean became saline by the leaching from the rocks of
soluble salts. On land, colloids, and in the ocean, ionized sals, provided

* Cf Vol. II, 13-35-7: 'Crystalline solids have a fixed pattern but lack power to
change from one form to another' p. 298.

128 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

two media of exchange of incomparable versatility and effectiveness.
It is possible to picture the situation that existed on the earth about two
thousand million years ago. There was very little oxygen in the atmo-
sphere, only thick blankets of cloud. A vast continent was probably the
parent of nearly all the present land masses of our earth. The ocean
covered nearly all the southern hemisphere and the present Pacific.
There was no Atlantic ocean, for the continents of America, Africa,
Europe and Asia were all one. There were probably high mountains,
arid and windswept, on the surface of which the soil was being formed
by erosion and by the seepage of water and hydrocarbons through the
crust. Heavily charged and sluggish rivers carried silt and salts into the
seas surrounding the primaeval continent. We will refer to this as the
Hypozoic stage. On all the earth and in the oceans there was no life;
but a new kind of existence was coming into being. Slowly, slowly for
about five hundred million years, colloids, with their active surfaces,
were forming on land and in the sea. Salts were dissolving and ionizing
the waters. The new form of existence is that which we called the
essence-class of the soil or 'edaphos.' Its outstanding characteristic is its
adaptation to exchanges of materials and energies.* As we contemplate
the half milliard years that preceded the arising of life, we cannot help
asking if all this was mere accident. Air, earth and ocean were being
groomed for their role as the steeds of life. Was there no groom, no
guiding intelligence behind all the preparations? Or are we to believe
that it all happened fortuitously and that life and consciousness appeared
because the conditions happened to be favourable?

According to our hypothesis, the wholly natural sequence of physical
and chemical transformations was directed and guided by the eternal
pattern of potential energies that was present (as it is always present)
in the present moment of the earth's own Mind. A very long time
was required for the transformation because of the relatively feeble
coupling of the potential energy field and the actual situation in the
crystalline surface of the earth.

Let us compare this with the usual views. Nearly all current theories
of the origin of life assume that the earth itself is, and always has been,
indifferent to life. These theories presume that, for two or even three
thousand million years, all transformations on the earth were governed
solely by the laws of physics and chemistry and that there was no kind

* Cf. Vol. I, Section 4.10.6: The Transitional Hypothesis of Active Surface,
p. 199: 'The step in the hierarchy of existence made in passing from composite exist-
ence to active surface turns mainly upon the new and enhanced significance given to
energy by its partition between different constituents of the system.'

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH

129

of plan and purpose in it all. Since it is generally agreed that life processes
cannot be described without reference to their purpose, we are asked to
believe that there was a transition from a terrestrial existence devoid of
direction, or purpose, or sensation or consciousness to the Biosphere as
we know it today (in which all of these are inalienable characteristics)
and that this transition was made by accident. This is to ask us to
accept a breach of continuity, a violation of the homogeneity of the
natural order, that should be as repugnant to the scientific conscience
as it is to common sense.*

17.44.7. THE Birth of Life: Hypozoic Stage

The arising of self-renewing entities provides a convincing demonstra-
tion of the influence of a guiding pattern. But we must take all aspects
of the event into account. More than a thousand million years ago
(possibly nearly twice as long) life made its appearance. There is no
reason to doubt that it did so in the form of a chemical compound that
had the power of self-renewal or reproduction. We have said that
unexpectedness is a mark of the hyparchic future. We may add that
inevitability is a mark of the eternal pattern. In retrospect, it seems
inevitable that life should have arisen as it did. Seen in terms of the
pre-vital earth, life must be taken as wholly unexpected!

The usual view can be called the 'hypothesis of environmental in-
difference'. This requires that life should explain itself. Having no
parentage and no friends, life appears on earth as a lonely orphan. The
orphan develops in a strange way, to become unrecognizable. This is
what we may call the 'funnel' conception of history. At first, life is an
insignificant and inexplicable phenomenon lost in the ocean of inert
indifference that surrounds it. All is inert: all terrestrial matter and all
solar energy that activates it. The germ of life, in the form of some self-
synthesizing nucleic acid derivative, lays the foundation of genetic
reproduction. The necessary factors of variability and natural selection
come on the scene and organic evolution gets going. Ignoring, for the
moment, the still unresolved difficulties of accounting for the appear-
of 'new' genes, one dominant form of life succeeds another. The 'lower'
forms are eliminated or relegated to a state of stagnation and eclipse.
The funnel grows narrower and narrower. From the innumerable

* Cf. L. S. Henderson, The Fitness of the Environment, New York 1913 Hender
son's argument is intended to demonstrate that life on the earth must be almost if not
quite, unique in the universe, having regard to the precise adjustment of physical
conditions that are indispensable for life as we know it. See also E. Huntington
Mainsprings of Civilization, New York, 1945, pp. 16-26. '

130

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

species of invertebrates, one or two pass on to the chordata, thence to
mammals; out of mammals, primates, and from primates to man. At
this point, history proper begins and purpose, significance, conscious-
ness and free-will appear, unheralded upon the earth.

Some such view is almost inescapable if we deny a priori that there
can have been any purpose or plan already existing. The accidental
concurrence of favourable conditions at the right moment could be
admitted without postulating any direction or purpose. But we are
entitled to ask what 'favourable' means in this context. How are we to
say that conditions are favourable, except in terms of what happens later?

There is something suspicious in any view of history that makes one
moment the culmination of the evolutionary process. It is scarcely
plausible to hold that three billion years of earthly history had no
direction or purpose until man appeared. To find oneself at the centre
of some vast circle, usually means that one is the victim of an optical
illusion. Rather than believe that significance began with man, we should
prefer to regard the entire history of the life on the earth as one Great
Event that is significant above all else in its integrity and relevance to
a Plan that originates beyond the earth itself. Within the total event,
every subordinate event represents a contribution to the whole. If we
suppose that the Plan requires the overcoming of separateness, then we
should say that the value of the contributions is not to be assessed by
their actual future results, but by their place within the Plan that is
conceived outside Time itself—in the Hyparchic Future.

We can make here a clear distinction between the Plan and the
Pattern and hence between two doctrines of Creation. The commonly
held view is that Creation means one of two things: either complete
and detailed fashioning by the Creator of the entire universe and every
part of it; or else, the launching of a process that, after its inception, is
governed by law without renewed Intervention, or at most Intervention
of the very special kind exemplified in the Incarnation of God as Man.
The second alternative is preferred by Christian theologians such as de
Chardin who seek to reconcile Christian faith with belief in mechanistic
evolution. The first doctrine states, in effect, that the detailed Pattern
of the Creation is foreordained, and the second restricts the Divine
Act to the creation of the Plan. According to our view, neither of these
is adequate. We hold that there are both Plan—in the Hyparchic
Future—and also Pattern—in the Eternal Potential Energy field.

This seems to be the only way to give a reasonable account of the
transition from material to vital structures required for the origination of
life. We can see the complexification of inert structures leading to

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH 131

active surface and organic complexes. These are accounted for by the
properties of the four material energies from heat (E 12) to plastic
energy (E 9) Then we see living matter capable of self-reproduction.
This require a new kind of energy that we call the constructive energy
(E 8). Here ;he pattern must have been intelligently created on the
level of the material energies. We can understand this only if we allow
an intervention of the Demiurgic Intelligences to take place at the stage
of the specific construction of self-reproducing molecules. The work
must be done at the point where it is required, by the formation of a
potential energy field having the complexity necessary to catalyse the
formation of the particular molecule.

The two operations are quite distinct. The Plan links the hyparchic
to the eternal by the WILL-BEING creative act. The Pattern links the
eternal to the temporal by the BEING-FUNCTION creative act. The
Demiurgic Intelligences thus become involved in Existence in order to
accomplish their task of enablement. The Enabling Act is required to
enable the non-living to acquire the organization needed for life.

We shall now attempt to set up a descriptive model to assist in clarify-
ing the stage by which the Transcendental Will brings about the arising
of living forms endowed with organized sensitivity. We can distinguish
four ascending and four descending stages that meet upon the level of
the sensitive energy (E 5) The ascending stages are:

1. Transition from active surfaces to active structures. The con-
structive energy E 8 is organized by coalescence with the vital energy
E 7 that caries the pattern of the organic complex to be constructed.

2. The active structure acquires the power of self-renewal. It is
organized by the automatic energy E 6, as an actualized complex.

3. The self-renewing molecular complex acquires form and function
by the organizing influence of the sensitive E 5 which carries the pattern
of the speck to be actualized.

4. The sensitive energy is organized by the conscious intervention
of the Demiurgic Intelligence.

The four descending steps bring about the situation wherein the
Demiurgic intelligence can act effectively.

1. The Source of all life is the Creative Operation ordained or
decreed upon the level of World VI by the Universal Individuality.
This is transferred from the Transcendental Energy (E 1) which is not
committed ) any form of Existence and the Unitive Energy (E 2)
as an Act of Love. This act can be called the 'Evocation of the Possibility
of Living Forms'.

2. The Creative Operation is transformed into the Foreordained

132

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH

Plan on the level of World XII by coalescence of the Unitive and
Creative Energies. It is wholly virtual: that is an Act of Will.

3. The foreordained Plan is transformed into an Eternal Pattern by
coalescence of the Creative (E 3) and the Conscious Energy (E 4).This
is the level of Intelligence and at this stage the Demiurgic Powers
assume responsibility for the realization of the Plan within the existing
world. The Grand Present Moment of earthly history is now set up,
but only as a potential pattern. It is not yet in actuality: but it is in
direct contact with the earth situation as a creative influence.

4. The creative influence is transformed into an Organizing
Pattern. It is now a field of potential energies produced by the coalesc-
ence of the consciousness (E 4) and sensitive energies (E 5). Here we
meet and combine with the fourth stage of the descending series so that
there are seven in all. The level is that of World XLVIII in which there
is a distinction of universal and particular determining conditions.*

The operation depends upon the coalescence of consciousness and
sensitivity effected by the Demiurgic Will. This operation continues
throughout the present moment of earthly history. Our immediate concern
is to see how it brought about the formation of living matter at a
particular moment of time.

It is pretty certain that the attributes of life entered into actualiza-
tion by stages and our scheme provides for such a progressive actualiza-
tion. Even before there was self-renewal, there must have been some
kind of sensitivity. Chemical complexes not capable of auto-synthesis
could nevertheless be associated with energy in the sensitive (hyparchic)
state.** The extremely implausible hypothesis of a direct transition from
inorganic matter to entities capable of self-renewal or even- reproduction
can be replaced by a more convincing scheme of organization of
inorganic groups through energy in the sensitive state under the influence
of an eternal pattern. In the process, the sensitive state of hyle is brought
into organization—the 'properties of life' emerge. ***

We can now make an attempt to reconstruct the great event that was

* Cf. Vol. II, pp. 204—206. There is a partition due to the distinction between the
descending or universal process and the ascending or particular process. 'We have
universal time, and particular time. The first ... by which the cosmic scheme works
out its grand pattern. Particular time is a single time of actualization."

** Cf. Vol. I, p. 356-7: 'There is no sensitivity either in the actual or the potential
states of matter, but only in the third or reconciling state.' Also, 'since the condition
of hyparxis is imposed on all existence, it follows that everything that exists must have
its measure of sensitivity, but there is a qualitative difference between sensitivity with
and without organization.'

*** The 'sensitivity' of life is a being-property, cf. Vol. I, p. 355. In Vol. II we
associated Being with structures of energies cf. Chapter 32.

133

the emergence of the first true living form on the earth. The secret
must be connected with the unique properties of the element nitrogen
that can reverse its role in chemical combination, so that it can be either
electro-positive or electro-negative. Nitrogen gas is stable and almost
inert in the atmosphere as it is today, and it is only brought into an
active state by ionizing radiation. This must have been almost absent
during the long second period of preparation; but it is probable that
when the ocean was stabilized, the cloud curtain disappeared and a
great part of the carbon dioxide was dissolved in the water. It is quite
possible that the sea was alkaline due to ammonia in solution and this
would enormously increase the amount of carbonic acid it could fix.

The result would be that the veil of the sky was drawn aside and the
sun's radiation of all wavelengths poured down. The ionosphere, no
longer isolated by water vapour and carbon dioxide, would enter into
active electrical exchanges with the lower atmosphere. A scene of un-
imaginable splendour must have presented itself if only there had been
eyes to see it. Those who have witnessed the aurora borealis in its full
magnificence can attempt to picture the whole surface of the earth
bathed, not only in all the colours of the rainbow, but also in the infra-
red and ultra-violet spectrum. Not only the sight but the sound also
must have been awe-inspiring, for the discharges of lightning must have
been continuous and of an intensity unknown in our time. It was the
dawn of the Hypozoic era.

Under such conditions, nitrogen becomes the most active of elements*
and can enter into combinations of the most varied kinds with the
other elements of life: carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. The organizing
potential would tend to select and stabilize those that corresponded to
the requirements of life. The 'threshold of self-renewal' would be
approached in countless ways.

There then occurred a phenomenon, familiar in nature, of a jump
over the threshold. Here probability can rightly be invoked. The jump
into self-renewing existence is so unlikely that countless millions of
near misses must have been scored until finally living forms appeared.

Here we meet with one of the great perplexities of life when we try
to understand it without reference to any plan or purpose. If life had
arisen from random, undirected chemical combinations, we should ex-
pect to find innumerable living forms unrelated to one another, instead
of which, we discover an underlying unity of structure that can be

* We have only to remember that all the high explosives until the advent of the
atom bomb, nitro-glycerine, T.N.T. and the rest, are nitrogen compounds and that
all life processes turn upon the versatility of this remarkable element.

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

accounted for only by a common origin or a common plan. However
great may be the differences in form and function between acellular, sub-
cellular, unicellular and multi-cellular plants and animals that developed
later; we find that they are all maintained and renewed by mechanisms
which, though immensely complex, are yet remarkably similar. Chloro-
phyll is the great agent of energy fixation. Haemoglobin is the great agent
of oxygen transfer. One haemoglobin molecule contains more than ten
thousand atoms of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur and
four atoms of iron. A chlorophyll molecule consists of a few hundred
atoms centred on magnesium. Yet the active agent in haemoglobin—
the substance haemin—and chlorophyll are both intimately connected
with porphyrin C which enters into all living tissue. It is impossible to
doubt that these immensely complex structures were built up from a
common pattern. There are only two ways of accounting for this
situation: one is to postulate a common causal origin; the other is to
postulate a common purposive pattern.

On the assumption that a self-reproducing form arose fortuitously,
only one of the alternatives is possible, and it is the answer that we find
in the textbooks of biology. Only one single self-reproducing molecule
was produced initially and from this one tiny being—probably a spiral
assembly of amino-acids less than a millionth of an inch in diameter-
all life has descended.* Truly a miracle if there ever was one! And yet,
on the hypothesis of fortuitous synthesis of a self-synthetic protein, no
other answer is possible. The odds against one such synthesis happening
fortuitously are so great as to make the hypothesis in any case very
dubious. But the odds against two identical or almost identical molecules
appearing separately are quite prohibitive. Not a thousand million years,
but a million million years and many million planets would be need to
give such a coincidence a chance of occurring.

But the hypothesis itself does not ring true. Throughout life as we
know it, we observe the tendency to seek safety in numbers. A hundred
million spermatozoa to fertilize one ovum is the method on which life
relies in nearly all its operations. Why should it have been otherwise at
the most crucial moment of all?

Moreover, it is most unlikely that the crucial step—if it was possible
—should have been made once only. We all agree that prodigious num-
bers of combinations must have been thrown up under the conditions
described. It is unreasonable to suppose that one, and only one, self-

* None of the recent work on the synthesis of organic molecules, such as those to
be found associated with living entities, vitiates this picture. The crucial point is the
arising of a self-reproducing molecule—for that is the inception of living processes.

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH

135

reproducing molecule was possible. If one, why not a hundred or a
million? But each one would have been different—some so completely
different as to have led to self-reproducing forms unlike anything we
can imagine.

We must therefore explain how a particular kind of chemical struc-
ture was produced and continued to be produced in large numbers all
over the Earth. For this must have been what actually happened—
it is indeed necessary in order to account for the survival of the creatures.
There is only one possible explanation: all the forms must have been
produced according to a pre-actual pattern.

It is hard to imagine a much more important conclusion than this.
If it is correct, then it provides decisive factual evidence in favour of
our hypothesis of an organizing potential pattern. This in turn gives
our account of the origin of life the phenomenological basis that it
has previously lacked.

17.44.8. The Organizing Patterns of Life: Work of
Demiurgic Intelligence

We have been concerned, hitherto, to demonstrate the need to postu-
late an organizing pattern to account for the arising of the immensely
complex structures that have the property of auto-synthesis or self-
renewal. We have still to consider what kind of structures were required
for life to have developed as it has done. Two main needs must be
satisfied. First, there must be bodies to enable the functions of life to
operate; and, second, there must be supplies of energy to make the
bodies work. The first has been met mainly through nitrogen com-
pounds, particularly proteins; the second by means of carbon com-
pounds, mainly carbohydrates and fats.

It is impossible to doubt that the two problems were found independ-
en solutions, yet solved in combination. It would have been useless to
produce a self-renewing organism dependent upon food and not also
ensure that food supplies were available.

The solution of the problem of self-renewal was found in amino-acid
structures of such complexity that we had to invoke the organizing
pattern to account for them. The problem of energy was solved by a very
simple reaction—the separation of the hydrogen and oxygen of which
water is made and the use of the hydrogen in conjunction with carbon-
dioxide to make carbohydrates—that is sugars and starches. The diffi-
culty in this case comes from the fact that a high concentration of energy
in the right place and in the right form is needed to bring it about. The
only source of energy readily available in sufficient quantity was solar

136 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

radiation. Now water can be split into hydrogen and oxygen by very
high temperatures, but then the hydrogen will not make a stable com-
pound with carbonic acid gas. A strange, almost unbelievable, way
round the difficulty was discovered. An extremely complex and most
improbable compound of magnesium with nitrogen and the other
elements of life—the chlorophyll that gives leaves their green colour—
brings about an intricate dance of the elements in the sunlight and the
dance ends with carbohydrates and free oxygen gas. This astonishing
process is the support of almost all life on the earth.* Without it, life
would disappear within a generation, for the dead bodies of plants and
animals would soon be used up and there would be nothing to replace
them.

If chlorophyll has always been necessary to support life—and all
evidence goes to confirm this—where did the first chlorophyll come
from? Chlorophyll is synthesized in the leaves of plants by special proteins
and it has to be combined with a protein to give what is known as
chloroplastin, without which it is destroyed by light and so is useless
for its purpose. It was, therefore, not enough that the chlorophyll-
making protein should come accidentally into existence; it also had to
be fortunate enough to meet the right kind of protein to preserve it:
and the two proteins are completely different. If anyone imagines that
the production of chlorophyll was a lucky accident, he cannot have
studied its structure. We have tried, in this exposition, to avoid difficult
technicalities that might confuse the non-specialist reader, but the
structure of chlorophyll is such an important factor in understanding
the origins of life, that we shall show it in the conventional shorthand
of the organic chemist.

This remarkable structure, so reminiscent of the tetrad with its four
nitrogen atoms each linked with entirely different kinds of groups, can
perform operations that surpass all the resources of modern science to
emulate. It converts, with high efficiency, the energy of sunlight into
chemical energy and constructs the building materials of which all
living bodies are made. At the same time it sets free the oxygen so tightly
bound up in water and maintains the composition of the atmosphere in
exactly the right proportions to sustain life. It works on so prodigious
a scale that three hundred thousand million tons of carbon compounds
are produced every year. The turnover of carbon dioxide and water is so

* A few bacteria and slimy algae can do without chlorophyll, and substances like
carotin can rather ineffectually extract carbon from the air. Cf. Vol. II, Section 12.32.7
for discussion of the r6Ie of higher energies in the anabolic transformation of the lower

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH

great that the oxygen of the atmosphere is renewed by green vegetation
about once every century.

No chemist, whatever his genius and his persistence, could have
guessed that the structure depicted in Fig. 44.3. could perform such
marvels. Even knowing how it is put together, chemists have not yet
found out how to make it.

When we remember that chlorophyll alone is helpless to perform its
operations—it needs to be combined with a protective protein and
supported on a suitable body—the hypothesis of fortuitous arising seems
more untenable than ever. We can confidently assert that some organiz-
ing influence was at work.

Hitherto we have assumed that an organizing pattern in eternity
could be invoked to account for the improbable events that initiated the
life story of the earth. But now we seem to stand before a special kind
of intelligence. So far from finding any evidences of a supernatural act
that sets aside the laws of physics and chemistry, we find an uncanny
insight into the almost limitless possibilities they offer for brilliant
manipulation of the material forces.

138 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

It seems that we must look for something more than a static pattern
merely existing forever in the eternal present of the earth's mind—
a more versatile agent is required. We can picture an intelligence of a
high order, able to see both what is required, and also the resources
inherent in the situation, producing the required pattern of potentiali-
ties at the time and place that it is needed* We have already, in Volume
II, postulated such intelligences in the Demiurgic Essences.** We put
forward the view that 'the Demiurges are the sources of the essence-
patterns of the Biosphere.***

What we postulated in Vol. II on a priori grounds (the need for a
seventh pentad between man and the Cosmic Individuality) now be-
comes a necessary principle of explanation of the very practical question,
how the two life processes were initiated: protein auto-synthesis and
carbohydrate photo-synthesis. We shall put the explanatory principle
into explicit form:

Demiurgic Powers associated with the earth were responsible for produc-
ing the potential patterns upon which life was constructed.

Here we can recall the conscious direction postulated at the beginning
of this chapter. Such direction requires a deep insight into the proper-
ties of earth existence combined with a freedom from its limitations.*

It will be remembered in connection with human experience, that
we have postulated a Higher Wisdom.**** We may economise in concepts
by uniting the notions of Higher Wisdom, the consciousness of the earth,
the Demiurgic Intelligences and the production of organizing patterns
into a single hypothesis which is that of the participation of Demiurgic
Powers in the initiation of the processes of life.

17.44.9. Vegetation and the Cell: Transition to the
Proterozoic

Before life could develop its full powers and functions, a further stage
of preparation was needed. Independent locomotion and the power to
change the environment are conditions for the exercise of the Will in

* Cf. 16.42.9, p. 62. This can be seen as a 'reconciliation of causes and purposes'
within the present moment.

** Vol. II, Chapter 35, Section 13 .35 .13 : 'The Demiurges are the essences that bear
the responsibility for regulating the operation of universal laws' (p. 315). Again,
'evolution would stop if there were no agencies to provide for the conscious renewal
of the process wherever and whenever it is threatened', ibid.

*** Ibid. p. 315.

**** Cf. Chapters 42 and 43 where we have described a mode of existence in which will
combined with intelligence could operate in the hyparchic future, yet intervene in the
present moment.

***** Especially in Chapter 41, Section 15.41.3.5.

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH

139

the existing world. Before they can come, there must be means of
storing, releasing and using the appropriate energy (directed energy
E 11). This calls for engines and sources of energy that the engine can
carry about with it. These requirements are so well catered for in all
vertebrate and most invertebrate animals, that we take them for granted.
We shall not go through the same detailed analysis as we have just
devoted to chlorophyll and photosynthesis; but here again we have the
evidence of pattern.

Before life appeared there was no combustible material and probably
very little oxygen. Under the intense electrical conditions described
earlier, all metals and other elements that could form stable oxides
would have done so. Hydrogen would be in the form of water and most
carbon exist as carbon dioxide. We have just seen how the means of
extracting hydrogen and oxygen from water was provided, but not the
material support required to enable chlorophyll to do its work. We
know now—in retrospect—that this was supplied by vegetation. From
the study of calcium carbonate formations of the hypozoic period and
other evidences, palaeobotanists have become convinced that a primitive
form of vegetable life existed in the oceans, and perhaps on land also,
which was the only form of life for many hundreds of millions of years.

There are indirect evidences of life in rocks about two thousand
million years old—from the beginning of the Hypozoic Era. Carbon has
been found in forms that indicate an organic origin. Primitive limestones
have been found in many parts of the world that are at least as old.
Plant bodies in which the carbon has been replaced by silicon have even
been found—with traces of proteins—in rocks that are two thousand
five hundred million years old. The archaean algae, corycium enigmati-
cum, and the cryptozoon (probably wrongly believed at first to be an
animal) belong to a time some 1,400,000,000 years before the present.

The development of this life depended upon another decisive step,
no less extraordinary than those that went before: the appearance
of the first living cell. The simplest cell contains a hundred thousand
million atoms of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and special
elements like iron, magnesium and sulphur, and these are built into the
most complex interacting structures. We begin to realize that we cannot
lightly say, 'a living cell came into existence'.

Cells, as we saw in Volume I,* are a very remarkable stage in the
ascent of the scale of existence. They stand at the threshold of inde-
pendent existence in virtue of the property, not possessed by any lower

* Vol. I, Chapter 20, Section 8.20.3. Cells are there defined as sexipotent entities
capable of reproducing an existence similar to their own.

140

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

form, of 'having a well defined distinction of an inside and an outside'.
Electron microscope studies have shown how the inside and outside of
a cell is subtly divided by a complex and dynamic boundary. It estab-
lishes sharp potential gradients, while allowing a very free exchange of
substances. For this reason alone, it is exceedingly difficult to see how
a cell could have come into existence by degrees or by accident. The
point is as important as any of those that have gone before, because the
first cell was the ancestor of all living things.

We are not suggesting that the first cell was made in the way that a
team of bio-chemists might attempt to make one.* We are committed
to the rule that everything that happens in nature obeys the laws of
nature. This means that innovations—unexpectednesses—cannot arise
from pre-existing causes. But we reject any kind of anti-natural interven-
tion. So once again we are left with the organizing influence of potential
patterns under the guidance of the Demiurgic Wisdom. This suggestion
is particularly applicable to the problem of the first cell; because it is
generally agreed that something like an organizing potential must
operate in cell-division and reproduction.

It appears to us that the real problem in accounting for the appear-
ance of cells is two-fold. First, there is Virchow's dictum—omnis
cellula e cellula—to the effect that we have never found cells to arise
from non-cellular material. Second, there is the property of 'within-ness'.
How could a 'droplet of protoplasm' create a potential energy barrier
that acts selectively on the passage of chemical substances, rejecting
some and accepting others? The simplest explanation seems to be that of
a Demiurgic Intelligence making use of properties of protein-carbo-
hydrate complexes that biology and biochemistry have not yet dis-
covered.

The next step is to suppose that a living cell was not only provided
with means of nutrition and reproduction, but also with a nucleic acid
derivative that could synthesize chlorophyll and combine it with the
protective protein to make chloroplastin. We then have the first plant.
It was, no doubt, a primitive form of algae and it was almost certainly
produced in the shallow water near the shore of the primaeval ocean.

The algae that are familiar to us are the seaweeds and lichens. More
than 18,000 species of algae have been identified. They are probably
more varied and fantastic in appearance than any other form of life. It
inspires awe to look at the fronds of seaweed still clinging to the rocks

* Cf. Fox, A Theory of Macromolecular and Cellular Origins, Nature, Vol. 205,
for an account of 'evolutionary experimentation'.

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH

141

of every shore in every climate and reflect that what we see has descended
directly from ancestors that lived two thousand million years ago.

Throughout these long ages, algae have been the principal hosts of
chlorophyll and produce hundreds of thousands of millions of tons of
vegetable matter every year and release proportional amounts of oxygen
into the atmosphere.*

We can picture the first algae appearing as a blue-green patch that
survived the hazards of its birth. The patch would gradually spread and
diversify. At first it would draw from an atmosphere poor in oxygen
and rich in carbon dioxide and possibly hydrocarbon gases like methane
that have since disappeared. In the course of time—millions of years—
the patch would have grown to spread all over the earth, invading the
deep ocean and the dry land where it would find the beginnings of soil
in clays and schists. All the time it would be drawing in carbon and
releasing oxygen until it had changed the face of the earth. The air
would have acquired more or less its present proportion of oxygen,
nitrogen and carbon dioxide. Methane, ammonia and other combustible
gases would have been burned away in flashes of electric discharges as
soon as the oxygen concentration increased beyond three or four per
cent. Also, during this time the primitive soil, consisting of clays and
granitic detritus, would begin to collect humus from the dead algae.
To this day, algae penetrate where no other life can go—to high snow
mountains, to the arctic regions and to bare exposed rocks and desert sands.

Thus the humble algae conquered the earth and transformed its
surface and atmosphere, accomplishing in two or three hundred million
years the most prodigious tasks—unconsciously, and with the rudi-
mentary sensitivity that is confined to the single cell. The years passed,
millions upon millions. New kinds of rocks were formed by the con-
centration of calcium and magnesium carbonates. The floor of the
ocean stored up the never-ending rain of algic remains that floated down
through the waters, and so prepared for the future sedimentary rocks
with which we are familiar. The ocean bed rose and fell. The great
central continent began to split up and its fragments migrated south and

* It has been seriously suggested that if the human population of the world continues
to grow at its present rate, we shall be reduced to feeding upon algae as the most proli-
fic and efficient source of edible matter to be found on the earth. It may be also that
when coal and petroleum and even fissionable material to produce atomic energy are
all exhausted, algae will enable us to exist indefinitely upon solar energy and we shall
then kill off all other kinds of animals and plants to make room for ourselves and our
food supply. To complete the fantasy we may imagine that mankind will become ex-
hausted and indifferent to life and allow the algae to spread and spread over the earth
until it reverts to the condition of a thousand million years ago, and everything starts
all over again.

142

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

west. The great magnetic currents under the outer shell twisted and
turned the surface about the earth's axis bringing the poles now over
land now over ocean, and the climate changed from torrid to glacial and
back again. Still the algae continued their indomitable work, perhaps
rejoicing unconsciously in the new fantastic forms and conditions of life
that they were creating about them.

At first, all reproduction was asexual. The blue-green algae (the
cyanophyaceae) which were, perhaps, the earliest living complexes,
were and are clusters of cells of the simplest kind. They contain proto-
plasm and a small sac which shelters the precious chloroplastin. Under
a microscope, they look like formless masses of jelly. Taking in simple
substances from the surrounding medium and making their own carbo-
hydrates by photosynthesis, the cells grow until the cell wall is stretched.
It then pinches in two and produces a pair of new cells wholly inde-
pendent of one another, but made from the same mass of protoplasm.
Their cells renew themselves endlessly and they have no birth and death
as we know it.*

The protoplasm of the algae has been in continuous existence by
self-renewal for about two thousand million years; and, having won its
private war with Time, will no doubt continue—perhaps even after all
other forms of life, including man, have disappeared. The algae came
into existence endowed with their own kind of immortality and it is
there for us to witness today.

It was a static immortality that could not manifest the higher powers
of life. Unconscious, insensitive and scarcely even automatic—the algae
lived on and on performing a prodigious service for all the forms of life
that appeared later, and which were to overtake and pass them.

17.44.10.

Sexual Reproduction and the Germ:

Proterozoic Stage
The seeming stability of algaic life was to be shattered by one of the
great unexpectednesses of history: the arising of sexual reproduction.
By this stroke, the mechanism of evolution was provided and an entirely
new situation was created. New species could arise through the re-
distribution of hereditary characters, and all the varieties of living
things could develop without disturbance of the order of nature. An
even more significant transformation was concealed in the apparently
trivial transition from reproduction by mitosis to reproduction by

* Cf. Vol. I, pp. 377-9. The section on the sexipotent cell entity is relevant here,
e.g.: 'It is very necessary to bear in mind the relativity that attaches to being-words such
as "birth" and "death" ' (p. 378).

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH 143

meiosis. By this simple means, the possibility arose that living forms at
some future time would become responsible for their own progress.

The separation of sexes in plants and animals took place a thousand
million years ago at least and possibly a few hundred million years
earlier. The great event has left no trace to tell us when or how it
occurred. The step from the blue-green algae to the green species
involved a most complicated reorganization of the cell structure. The
blue-green algae have an almost structureless cell adapted for the one
function of capturing sunlight and making food. The green algae cells
have a nucleus with the marvellous reproductive system of chromo-
somes and genes that has continued to serve its purpose for a thousand
million years and is much the same in the humble seaweed as it is in man.*

To judge by the still living species of algae, there were probably
various false starts. In some cases, a number of cells join together to
invigorate the stock. In others, buds and sex organs are almost in-
distinguishable. Nevertheless, the step, when made, was decisive and
has determined the whole course of subsequent history. How are we
to account for it?

Since natural selection depends upon the variability that only sex
will allow, it cannot be invoked here. Natural selection came from sex,
and not sex from natural selection. Apart from the difficulty of proposing
a causal mechanism, such as variation and natural selection, the extra-
ordinary and complex structure of the reproductive cell can scarcely
have arisen by chance. The recent discovery of the role of deoxyribo-
nucleic acids and their derivatives has helped us to see how the heredit-
ary mechanism works, but it makes its arising more baffling than ever.
These protein complexes are of unimaginable ingenuity—evidences of
a master-craftsman indeed. Such an idea appears to be either fantasy or a
figure of speech as applied to a world peopled only by seaweed. For this
reason, no doubt, it is rejected in favour of the almost impossible act of
faith that asserts that genes, chromosomes, cell nuclei and all the
mechanism of self-reproduction arose by chance.**

* One difference is in the relative size of the gametes, which in the algae are almost
identical, whereas in man the ovum is thirty-five thousand times greater in volume than
the spermotazoon. The inner structure is also more complex in the higher animals,
but the similarities far outweigh the differences. Sex always exemplifies the same basic
pattern.

** This may read like special pleading. Most biologists would say that some kind of
organizing principle was at work but deny that there was intelligence or consciousness.
This is dishonest reasoning. No 'organizing principle' could have done what was re-
quired unless it has the very supernatural attributes that the mechanistic biologist
rejects. There is really no middle way between admitting a conscious intelligence and
postulating a Demokritan dance of senseless atoms.
D.U. IV—7

144

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

Our solution follows the same lines as before. The mechanism of sex
was fashioned by the Demiurgic Intelligences through the arising of
organizing patterns in the 'present moment' of the blue-green algae.
But this is not a complete solution, because with sex, a self-creative
power entered into life. With sex also came death, for with sexual
reproduction the parents' substance is not simply transmitted, but
transformed into the body of a new entity. Birth, sex and death came
into existence together.

These are cosmic realities of too high a rank to be created by the
Demiurgic Intelligence alone. There must have been a higher mandate
that preordained birth, sex and death, so that life might become con-
scious and that beings might arise in whom an independent will could be
established. How high a rank, and how far up the scale of Being we must
go to find the origins of these three elements we cannot say—but we
must certainly go at least as far as the Creative Will of the Sun.

We ascribed the Creative Act by which life on earth was preordained
to the union of the Affirmative Will of the Sun with the Receptive Will
of the Earth. This union is the archetype of every act of sexual union
that takes place on the earth. As innumerable myths confirm, men have,
from before the dawn of history, been aware of this union and its
significance. In one form, it enters into all fertility cults and worship
of the Earth Mother. In another it is at the centre of all sun worship and
all identification of the sun with the Creator God.* Myths contain a
perennial truth that each age must express again in its own language.
The dominant language of our day is that of natural science and any
truth that is not expressed in scientific language is likely to be ignored or
rejected. Fortunately, in recent years, the language of science has thrown
off some of the narrow and rigid concepts of the nineteenth century.**
The principal changes that we ourselves have introduced concern the
determining conditions and the relativity of Being. In developing our
account of the origins of life, we have not gone beyond the limitations
of our own language.

We shall say, then, that birth, sex and death entered the pattern of
life on earth with the translation of the plan, decreed by the will of the
sun in the hyparchic future via the pre-existent hyle field, into the eternal
present of the earth. The three characteristics could not be realized

* Cf. Jaquetta Hawkes, Man and the Sun, London, 1964, where the creative role
of the sun is shown to have occupied men's minds at all ages and in all cultures.

** Our debt is mainly to physical scientists like Einstein and Planck, whose relativity
and quantum theories have imposed changes not only of language but of logic, and to
psychologists like Freud and Jung who have shown that myths express realities that
science has to rediscover and restate.

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH 145

until life was ready for them. Life had to learn to live before it could
learn to be born and die. These are technical or functional develop-
ments. Once life was well established—and the blue-green algae had
peopled the earth, and filled the air with oxygen and the soil with
humus—the next step was a technical innovation which established the
sexual function. We shall find the same combination of Will-plan,
Being-pattern and Function-technique at every stage.

Sex appeared probably more than a thousand million years ago—
more or less simultaneously in the protozoa (unicellular animals) and
the protophyta (algae). What really appeared was the germinal
essence that is common to all forms of life reproducing sexually. We
should add a fourth character to the three cited and that is the power of
locomotion that is naturally associated with sex since the two gametes
have to move towards one another in order to mate.

The first abundant and clear traces left by plants and animals belong-
ing to the essence class of the germs were left in rocks of the Cambrian
period that began about five hundred million years ago. By that time,
differentiation had made great progress. Until more delicate methods of
detecting early forms of life in the pre-Cambrian rocks are discovered,
we shall remain with a 'dark age' of more than five hundred million years
during which animals and plants learned how to be born, to mate and
to die.

We need not go into detail in explaining the well-known mechanism
of meiosis whereby the two parents contribute equally to the new
eternal pattern. There is no reason to doubt that the mechanism of
genetic variation and natural selection came into operation during these
long ages and that it singled out the most successful animals and plants
for survival. What is more doubtful, is whether it had much to do with
progress. No form of life has survived so long as the blue-green algae.
In their own way, they are wholly successful. Why should they have
been superseded by sea-breeding plants, and why should animals have
appeared? Diversification in itself is not progress. We all agree that
mammals are the most 'advanced' animals and that vertebrates are more
advanced than invertebrates. And yet there is incomparably greater
variety and viability in the invertebrate phyla than in any other form of
life.

The truth seems to be that natural selection weeds out the function-
ally unfit, but it does not do more than this. Progress must be due to
some quite different factor, which will admit transformation of Being
and reconstitution of Will.

It is very likely that the earth underwent terrible convulsions at the

146 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

end of the pre-Cambrian period, the rocks of which lie quite differently
from the older rocks beneath. This is no doubt one reason why we have
almost no traces of the animals and plants of the Proterozoic stage.
Another is that they all had soft bodies which would be preserved only
if they happened to be fossilized.

By the time traces began to be left—which brings us into the Palaeo-
zoic Stage—all the great divisions of the invertebrates were represented.
The most important in number, variety and effectiveness are the
Arthropoda, whose bodies are constructed in segments which can form
appendages serving as jaws, antennae, legs and claws. They have
simple nervous and respiratory systems and can adapt to the most
varied conditions of marine and land life. They can swim, crawl, fly,
burrow. They live sometimes singly and sometimes in huge colonies,
such as the ants and termites. If any form of life is 'fit to survive' this
can be said of the Arthropods; and, indeed, they have survived and
continue to be by far the most numerous kind of animals, and the most
varied. In spite of their relatively small size, the combined mass of all the
Arthropods outweighs all other animals from the elephant to the worm.
Why should the supposedly purposeless and undirected working of
natural selection have produced other and less robust forms of life?

As we look at the situation, we should say that the role of the germinal
essences was to develop the functions of life and to leave being alone.
This task was successfully performed. The functions of the germs taken
in their totality are more varied than anything that went before or fol-
lowed after. But they have not even the beginning of a mind—because
they have no organized sensitivity. They are born and they die, count-
less millions every minute. The economy of the biosphere depends upon
their activity. They have the most varied powers of locomotion and
astonishing skills as weavers, builders and chemists. They can even
communicate effectively as has been demonstrated in the colonizing
insects. Their sexual instincts are as powerful as in any form of life and
they use magnificent devices to bring the sexes together as we see in the
beauty of butterflies and dragonfiies.

Yet, in all this, there is no organized sensitivity (E 5). All that is
organized is the automatic energy (E 6) and we know from the observa-
tion of our own behaviour and experience that the most intricate and
skilled actions, including effectual communication, can be obtained
with automatism alone. This does not mean that sensitivity is absent—
all life is sensitive—but that it is not organized, so that there can be no
'experience' as we know it. There is no 'mass of sensitivity'—or sen-
sorium—on which experience could be registered.

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH 147

The picture we form of the germinal world is that of life without a
mind. But it is also life in search of a soul* and this search is to be
attributed to the separation of the sexes. The creative powers entered
into living forms and they were bound to go towards its Source. This is
the true explanation of progress. The Plan is at work and its Demi-
urgic Agents are preparing the next step.

17.44.11. The Organization of Sensitivity:
Palaeozoic Stage

Hitherto, our time scale has been measured in hundreds of millions
of years and the traces these ages have left us are so meagre that we can
reconstruct them only by conjecture. Soon after the end of the Pro-
terozoic Era, with the Cambrian Epoch which began about 600,000,000
years ago, there are abundant traces of plant and animal life. It is so
abundant and so diversified, that it is evident that we are meeting life
with a long and successful history.**

The predominant germinal forms in the Cambrian rocks—the
Trilobites—were very akin to the Crustacea, which had quite an elaborate
body-structure. Their eyes had many thousands of separate lenses and
their bodies were furnished with numerous appendages for free-swim-
ming and for grasping and eating the algae that abounded. In this early
period, there were already highly developed arthropods and we might
have expected this phylum to be the leaders of life into its new phase.
Instead of this, in the succeeding Ordovician and Silurian strata, the
prevalent fossils are of a more primitive kind: invertebrates with almost
no functions but eating and reproduction such as the Graptolites (which
were once thought to be a sub-class of the Coelenterata). The Grapto-
lites, though mere jelly-fish in body, had elaborate skeletons of which
millions have been preserved by transfusion with iron sulphide. Life
was preparing for the organization of sensitivity and for this a new kind
of body was required. The Graptolites were in themselves a dead end
and their present-day descendants are the most insignificant and help-
less of creatures: but they had a true skeleton and we may conjecture
that they were an experiment made to enable new kinds of tissue to be
developed.

To interpret the next event that occurred about five hundred million
years ago, we must endeavour to visualize the Plan of the Creation of life.

* Cf. Chapter 39, Section 15.39.6.4. The germinal essence is the source of the
human ipseity.

** Cf. Lake and Rantell, Geology, 3rd edn., p. 310: 'The most remarkable feature of
the Cambrian fauna was its complexity. Though the earliest known to science, it was
by no means primitive in its constitution.'

148 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

We see it emerging from the hyparchic future to evoke the pattern of life.
We see it in the mind of the earth itself as an infinitely complex pattern.
And we see it in space and time as the actualization of the work of
evolution. The Plan is that the earth should develop its own soul
through the soul-stuff of mankind. This plan requires and will require,
more and more, living beings capable of attaining Individual Souls.
The Pattern of development is an organizing field of potential energies
which is, step by step, realizing itself in the 'present moment' of time.
One of the great steps was the organization of sensitivity in order to
prepare the way for the arising of minds. This step belongs to the
Palaeozoic Stage.

The animal essence has not the kind of mind that man has acquired,
nor can it acquire such a mind. But it has one of the principal ingredients
of the mind, in the form of organized sensitivity. This comes with the
coordination of perception and action through a mechanism that allows
for selective response. In fully developed animals, this is achieved
through the nervous system and the brain. The nerve ganglia, as we
know well from our experience, are points of concentration of sensitive
energy (E 5). Without them the organization of sensitivity would not
have been possible.

The step made is recognized by zoologists as the appearance of the
Phylum of the Chordata, of which the sub-phylum of Vertebrata is by
far the most important. Even the most primitive chordata had a central
nerve cord, that distinguished them from all other forms of life. It ran
dorsally and was hollow, containing spinal fluid. No traces have been
left of the earliest chordata: the earliest specimens found in the Silurian
rocks—the marsipobranchi—were already quite specialized. Among the
millions of fossils found in the Cambrian rocks there are no chordata,
and so we cannot identify even the class of invertebrates from which
they developed.

As has happened in every case, we are before an 'unexpectedness'. We
may conjecture that the Demiurgic Intelligences were able, at every
stage, to make fuller use of the already actualized situation. The first
chordata were small fish-like creatures whose nearest surviving de-
scendants are the lampreys. From these, two main great branches
separated: one produced the true fishes and the other all kinds of land
animals. It seems clear, however, that some kind of organized sensitivity
appeared as soon as the nerve cord was developed. Almost at once the
chordata developed an interior skeleton including a skull.

The interior skeleton has a great advantage over the segmented body
of the arthropods because it supports the soft parts of the body during

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH

149

growth. This not only allows the vertebrates to attain much larger sizes,
but also gives time for the development of the power to coordinate the
functions. The third great advantage enjoyed by the chordata was the
acquisition of independent blood vessels and a heart to circulate the
blood.* Thus, from the start, the chordata were endowed with the three
elements: interior skeleton, nervous system, and circulation of the blood,
that eventually were to enable man to develop his three 'brains'.**

It seems hard to escape the conclusion that the organization of
sensitivity, as it later developed, was foreseen from that moment,
500,000,000 years ago, when a new kind of creature began to swim in the
Cambrian seas. We cannot help being struck by the radical nature of the
change that marked the new step forward and by the absence of any
trace of the parental forms. And yet it is as certain as anything can be of
which we have no direct evidence, that the chordata came from some
branch of invertebrates. Here, once again, the hypothesis of an organiz-
ing pattern and of guidance by higher intelligences seems the most
reasonable explanation. These intelligences would certainly have
selected the form most capable of undergoing the necessary mutations
and the right moment when environmental conditions were favourable
for the change. It is the intelligent use of the natural situation that
distinguishes our theory of evolution from both supernatural inter-
ventionism that sets aside the laws of nature and the mechanism of blind
causal laws. This point is particularly well illustrated in the emergence
and development of the chordata.

As soon as vertebrate animals appeared, life began to take a hand in
its own evolution. The possibility of selective response given by the
cord meant that there could be adaptation to environmental change,
and the diversity of forms possible in the chordate phylum opened the
way to natural selection and survival of the fittest in the Darwinian
sense. This could not have happened before the notochord evolved:
to suggest otherwise is to put the cart before the horse.

Good evidence of this is provided by the appearance of the Amphibia,
the first of the chordates to succeed in living at least part of their lives
out of water. They came during the Devonian period whose old red
sandstone gives evidence of a time when living conditions on the earth
were dry and difficult. The retreat of the oceans from many areas was
an environmental factor conducive to the survival of forms of life
capable of adapting themselves to the new conditions. On the whole,

* This also involved the development of haemoglobin — dispersed in other forms of
life. Metabolism became far more efficient and integrated.

** Cf. The brief description given in Chapter 39, Section 15.39.4.2.

150 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

the period is poor in fossil remains. Some of the older groups such as
the trilobites became rarer and less diversified. The soil was enriched
by the exposure of the ocean beds with age-old deposits of limestone and
clay. Vegetation advanced to new forms, including an immense variety
of ferns and primitive trees, some of which-—the eospermatopteris—grew
to a height of a hundred feet with slender stems crowned by a great head
of branches and slender leaves. The Devonian period lasted for fifty or
sixty million years and by the time it ended animals with true sensitivity
were well established in most parts of the world.

The heroes of the time were the amphibia: true vertebrate animals
with a three-chambered heart, well-coordinated functions and con-
siderable ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Some,
such as the frogs, that survive to this day, exemplify to a deceptive
extent the outward form of a warm-blooded animal. Their importance
for our theme derives from the well-coordinated development of sight,
hearing and smell with locomotion and other uses of the four limbs.
With this coordination, the amphibia are capable of independent behaviour
that breaks away, if only to a very small extent, from simple automatism.

Although the amphibia differ both anatomically and physiologically
from their predecessors, their true significance should be called psycho-
logical—that is, a matter of sensitivity. The frog is a very different
kind of creature from, say, the spider or the crab. If we intently observe
the behaviour of these three—a chordate, an arachnid and a crustacean—
we cannot doubt that the first has some degree of organized sensitivity
(including perceptiveness and selective response) that the other two
lack. We are not surprised, therefore, to learn from the palaeontologists
that the earliest amphibia—the Embolomeri—had twelve cranial nerves
and that its skull enclosed an authentic brain.

The Devonian period was succeeded by the moist warm climates,
in most parts of the world, of the Carboniferous period, when the oceans
again advanced and vegetation made one of its spectacular steps forward
to produce the great swamp forests from which our coal measures were
formed. The vegetation at this time, produced concentrations of
deposits—sometimes of enormous extent—of metallic oxides and sul-
phides. These were very probably concentrated by the selective action
of the sap and root cells of carboniferous vegetation.* The material
resources upon which modern industry is based owe much to the remote
carboniferous age—300,000,000 years before the present.

Whereas the hard conditions of the Devonian period called forth the

* V. M. Goldschmidt, Lecture to Research Staff of B.C.U.R.A., 1943, Coombe
Springs.

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH 151

power of adaptation latent in the vertebrate pattern of life, it was the
luxuriance of the Carboniferous that permitted the early animals
slowly to develop their varied powers and functions. The Reptilia
developed—probably from ancestral stock among the labryinthodont
amphibia soon to become extinct. The seed ferns were the dominant
form of vegetation and they also were to disappear from the scene.

These abrupt endings of many promising lines coincided with the
Permian epoch that brought to an end the Palaeozoic Era—that, as we
have seen, was not by any means the start of life. The major achievement
of the Palaeozoic Era was the establishment of the chordata and the
beginning of organized sensitivity. The Era lasted almost 370,000,000
years and ended when profound changes occurred in the state of the
earth's surface and climate.

17.44.12. The Organization of the Earthly Symbiosis:
Mesozoic Stage

The earth is not, on our hypothesis, indifferent to the life it bears,
and its material structure has been an important element in the history
of life. It undergoes profound transformations; most of them deep in
the interior, but some affecting the outer surface. According to views
now generally accepted, the solid shell floats upon a fluid middle region
that in turn surrounds a quasi-rigid inner core. The fluid region is in
constant motion. Enormous energies, mostly from radioactive decay,
are absorbed in this motion; at times, the energy is imparted to the
outer shell so that it begins to rotate. The result is to move the north and
south poles to new positions. When the poles are over the oceans, the
winter cold is dissipated by ocean currents and the world climate is
generally equable. When the poles are over continental regions (as they
are effectively at the present time) polar ice-caps are formed and there
are marked contrasts between the seasons in all but tropical zones.

From the palaeomagnetic evidence, it seems that during the great
wanderings of the poles between 500 and 250 million years before the
present, there existed two great land masses. During the 30,000,000
years of the Permian these began breaking up to form the continents, and
drift into their present positions.*

* It has been suggested that these land masses —'Gondwanaland', including Africa
and South America, and 'Laurasia', including Europe, most of Asia, and North
America—were, some 450 million years before the present, part of one great land-
region called 'Pangaea'. According to one hypothesis, the Earth was originally about
one eighth of its present volume. During expansion, the primal crust became part of
the first land mass. Measurements do indicate that, during the Permian, the earth's
radius was less than it is today.

d.u.iv—7*

152 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

The poles eventually wandered into positions in the North Pacific
and the South Atlantic oceans.

During the Carboniferous age, the continental areas were low and
widely flooded by shallow seas. During the Permian, great mountain
ranges were forced to heights greater than the present Himalayas.
There were harsh climatic conditions with deserts in some regions and
glaciers in others. These conditions resulted in a tremendous destruction
of life. Not only did innumerable species and genera disappear, but even
major orders among plants and animals, such as the seed-bearing
mosses and the placoderm fishes. The tribolites disappeared forever
with many another form of life prominent in the early seas.

The Mesozoic Stage which followed, lasted for 170,000,000 years,
ending some 60,000,000 years ago. It was one of the glorious periods
in the history of life on the earth. The climate recovered slowly. The
great mountains subsided or were eroded and once again a regime of
mild climates without winters, and land areas mainly flat and marshy
was established.

Roughly half of the period, corresponding to the geological Triassic
and Jurassic periods, was occupied in laying the foundations of the
great step forward that was to be made. If we accept the notion that the
pattern of life has been present throughout history in the mind of the
earth, we can imagine that the earth created the exactly appropriate
conditions for the next stage in the organization of sensitivity.

The Cretaceous Period—especially the last twenty million years—
was one of the most favourable climatically that the earth has known.
The impression we gain in contemplating the traces it has left is, above
all, one of harmonious and coordinated development. A brief
survey will illustrate the point.

At the end of the Jurassic, relatively mild orogenic activity had raised
mountains like the Alps and Himalayas and drained some of the swamps.
After conditions had settled down there was a long period of exception-
ally mild climates. During this time the insects reached their maximum
development and at the same time the flowering plants—the angio-
sperms—became the dominant vegetable life of the land areas. The
dinosaurs and other reptiles dominated the animal scene, but also were
evolving the first flying reptiles and then true birds. Most important of
all, the first warm-blooded animals were beginning to flourish and
diversify, producing both the marsupials and the mammals.

It is obvious that insects and flowering plants are closely linked; but
mammals, also, found their most appropriate foods among the angio-
sperms—grasses and leaf-plants. The question we have to ask and try

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH 153

to answer is whether these developments are best interpreted in terms
of blind natural selection or guided natural selection. We should re-
examine this question here, although for earlier periods when life first
appeared—and was followed by birth, sex and death—it seemed clear
that no blind mechanism could account for what happened. The arising
of insects, flowering plants and mammals and their subsequent develop-
ment is generally regarded as providing the most conclusive evidence
for the adequacy of the theory of natural selection—in the Neo-
Darwinian form which combines it with variation and mutation.

Let us consider then the usual argument. The theory of random
variability by gene mutations with natural selection by the environ-
mental conditions is the most widely held by mechanistic biologists.
According to this theory there is no 'direction' in evolution except that
induced by selection pressure. Breeding, or the crossing of hereditary
characters also acts at random, but can produce systematic changes.
It can easily be shown that this mechanism, given sufficient frequency
of mutations, can produce new species and that a new species may be
stable—i.e. able to resist the effect of disruptive mutations.

What the theory fails to explain is progress as a concept intelligible
in itself. This is frankly recognized by its leading proponents such as
Julian Huxley and Dobzhansky.* To meet this difficulty, both biologists
and philosophers have evoked some kind of notions of inherent direction
as in Naegeli's Orthogenesis and Osborn's Aristogenesis. These are
doubly unsatisfying for they neither explain themselves nor the tendency
of life to diversify in zig-zag manner rather than move in straight lines.
The completely mechanistic explanation has the merit of avoiding un-
explained and mysterious 'trends' and 'forces' but it makes nonsense of
progress.**

The difficulty of explaining progress is not the only objection. Another
equally important one is ecological—that is, the evidence of coordination
and harmony in the development of the Biosphere as a whole. There
is not the slightest reason why this should come about by minimal
chance mutations of genes in individual animals. Mutations take
time to give results. R. A. Fisher has calculated that a favourable
mutation giving a one per cent advantage to the mutant and occurring
with the usual frequency of one in 100,000 fertilizations, may be

* Cf. J. S. Huxley, Evolution, the Modern Synthesis, London, 1942, and T. Dobzhan-
aky, Genetics and the Origin of Species, New York, 1951.

** A recent article by a biologist (Prof. H. Sandan, New Scientist, Vol. 29, No. 489)
makes this quite explicit. 'The route is, in reality, more like the drunkard's walk—a
series of random steps, each one of which makes the chances of reaching any particular
goal more remote.'

154 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

expected to establish a new species of animal in half a million to a
million years.*

The observed changes over fifty million years, in many genera well
represented by fossils could be interpreted in terms of this mechanism;
but it does not account for the coordination of development as between,
let us say, flowering plants and insects. There are many extraordinary
features of this coordination, such as the complex interlocking life
cycles where the larval stage of an insect must exactly correspond
to the flowering cycle of a plant, or the extremely varied forms of
protective mimicry and coloration. For such developments to have
come by independent lines of random gene mutation would scarcely
be possible in ten thousand million years. There are well-established
lines of development such as the step-by-step transformation of the
Ammonite Lyperoceras to the Pleuroceras. But this does not involve
coordination with any other line. The same is true of the oft-cited
family tree of the horse from Protohippus to Equus. But it is not at all
certain that these examples require mutations. They might have been
achieved by selective breeding,"** based on the variability of the genetic
constitution that goes beyond what is actually ever observed.

The observed fact of evolution is accepted by all. The great part
played in it by genetic mutation and the selective influence of the
environment both living and non-living is also unquestioned. That this
eliminates weak strains and even species ill-adapted to the environment
or to a change in environment is also common ground. We should also
agree with the strict mechanists in rejecting vaguely defined agents such
as the 'elan vital', or 'trends' such as orthogenesis. We do, however,
affirm that no mechanism without intelligence will account for the
facts in their totality. The mistake consists in arguing from a particular
instance of adaptation to a general principle of blind, undirected
evolution.

We have said that this principle cannot be made to account satis-
factorily for progress. Nor will it account for coordinated develop-
ment. Both of these required a directive intelligence, if the results
observed were to be obtained within the time available and within the
conditions that existed.

Now let us look at the situation from the other viewpoint; that which

* With plants and insects the time is much shorter. The ecological harmony of the
Biosphere introduces another order of improbability for a 'chance' evolution.

** Darwin based the main conclusions of the Origin of Species on the observed parallel-
ism of selection by man in breeding plants and animals and selection by survival of the
fittest in nature.

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH 155

sees the earth itself as the bearer of the pattern of the life that is develop-
ing, and the Demiurgic Intelligences as guiding the process within the
limitations of the laws governing the transformations of energy.

We place ourselves in our imagination on the earth exactly one
hundred million years ago. We see about us endless vistas of marsh and
upland covered with vegetation, flowering tree, shrubs, grasses, and
marsh plants. The air teems with insects: far more and in far greater
variety than we have ever seen in our day. There is a feast of colours and
fantastic shapes. In the swamps the dinosaurs are still dominant and in
air flying reptiles and some birds—though mostly still with teeth. If we
know where to look we shall see small mammals and marsupials enjoying
the damp warmth of a perpetual summer.

There is an immense harmony of life here on land and also in the
ocean. The zooplankton teems as never before or since, producing
countless millions of tons of skeletons that are later to make the chalks
and limestones from which the period has gained its name Cretaceous.
In the sea, there are all the main families of fishes also brilliant in colour
and fantastic shapes.

All is beauty and fantasy, and there is no one to see it but we imaginary
visitors from a distant future. But let us endow ourselves with eyes that
can penetrate into the unseen levels of eternity, and an intelligence
that can know what is hidden in the hyparchic future. We find other
onlookers besides ourselves: Demiurgic Intelligences whose bodies are
made of consciousness and are therefore invisible to the eye of man.
These Intelligences are not only watching, but working. They are
supremely skilled in what we call today genetics and ecology. They
know how to produce potential energy fields that will bring about the
mutations required for the pattern of life they are engaged in realizing.
But they are also saturated with the love of beauty. Some of them have
also a lively sense of humour that expresses itself in form and colours
that have no 'survival value', yet contribute a most needed element to
the aura of sensitivity in which the earth is bathed.

They are no blind, nameless hands drawing random genes out of the
nuclei of tiny cells. They are Mighty Intelligences that can survey the
whole world scene. They weigh the atmosphere and see that the con-
centration of carbon dioxide and water vapour, and of other special
constituents still unknown to science, must be changed to meet the
needs of the new forms of life. The foraminifera in the ocean are set to
accomplish the task by the simple miracle of draining the carbonic acid
of the ocean into their own skeletons. They calculate the time available
before the next migration of the poles, knowing that the Mammalian

156 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

Order must be brought to such a state of differentiation and develop-
ment that it will survive the rigours to come.

If we have the discernment that our imagination endows us with:
we can see that these Demiurgic Intelligences, though immeasurably
more powerful than our own, are not infallible. Some of their experi-
ments fail and the lines of development die out. These are later to be
called by learned biologists 'non-adaptive' trends. Some experiments, as
with the molluscs, are made to obtain definite information about the
transformations of proteins.

So we might go on, fascinated by the marvels and the beauty, but
awe-struck and amazed by the Intelligences that make it possible. We
should also recognize the limitation of these powers which operate under
the determining conditions of space and time. They have to realize
through actualizing and this is an infinitely difficult art—so difficult
that it can never be perfectly accomplished.

But we have to leave the scene and return to the twentieth century of
the Christian Era, to the age when human science begins to draw aside
some of nature's veils, and ask ourselves if we have seen a delightful
mirage or a reality. Was that world of a hundred million years ago
created by Intelligences or by blind chance? The answer we give will
probably be determined by our prejudices, for we have not been able
in very truth to place ourselves in the perspective of the distance past and
we remain the slaves of the Zeitgeist that rules our present. The idea of
discarnate intelligences was for a time popularized by Maxwell's Sorting
Demon* but it has long ceased to be fashionable. That, for most people,
is the end of the story.

Yet the earth of a hundred million years ago, was not a meaningless,
senseless dance of mutating genes and a posturing of unseen beauties.
Somewhere in it all there was a germinal awareness. This is the term
that evolutionary scientists use for our 'organized sensitivity',** and there
is no doubt that it made a great step forward during the Mesozoic Era.
The developing sensorium within life was to be the foundation of mind,***

* Maxwell showed that energy could be concentrated by an immaterial being able
to open and close a weightless, frictionless door so as to trap the faster moving molecules
of a gas at uniform temperature and so produce a temperature difference between two
regions. Though intended only to illustrate the principle that intelligence can get the
better of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the present writer has long been con-
vinced that the 'sorting demon' corresponds to a real mode of existence.

** Cf. Julian S. Huxley, On Living in a Revolution, London, 1944.

*** Cf. Chapter 39, Section 15.39.5 .4. The human mind is a combination of sensitivity
and consciousness, and, ultimately, extends into the subconscious regions of the
automatism and the supraconscious region associated with creativity. The developing
structure of mind is the theme of the following chapters.

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH

157

within individual organisms as distinct from the total mind of the Earth
We get, for the first time, the impression of the sensitive unity of the
Biosphere. The interrelations of plants, insects and other arthropods
reptiles and the early mammals, had become organic and necessary for
the total functioning. We can begin to speak of ecological sensitivity

Ecology is the science of the interrelations of plants, animals and their
total environment, living and non-living. It is 'science in depth' inasmuch
as it embraces all the essence classes: crystals, soil, plants, germs ani-
mals and men. The visible manifestations of the ecological unity of life
are the so-called 'food web',* the stratification of populations from
below the soil up to shrubs and trees and the periodicities of diurnal
and nocturnal activities. The entire life in any region is an integrated
whole. This integration must have been completed in Cretaceous time
and it entitles us to attribute a common directive pattern to every re-
gion.f It seems to us that this is a strong argument against the atomic
uncoordinated evolution that is required by a purely mechanistic theory
The coordination of activity of thousands of millions of organisms arising
independently cannot be accounted for by causal mechanisms alone.
Some integrative principle must be evoked, and whatever form it may
take, it is incompatible with causal mechanism being the sole agent.

If, however, we are allowed to postulate the organization of sensitivity
or preparation for mind, then we may be permitted to regard the
Mesozoic Era as one in which life was developing a sensitivity so
organized that it could respond cooperatively to the guiding patterns
offered to it by the Demiurgic Intelligence.

17-44-13. THE Refinement of Sensitivity: Cainozoic
Stage

Our time scale makes another change as we reach the seventh stage
of our journey and approach the Cainozoic or New Life Era. We
plunge again into the rigours of a transition period. The Mesozoic Era
ended with powerful disturbances of the earth's crust probably associ-
ated with a fresh migration of the poles. The climate deteriorated, prob-
ably because of the reforming of the polar ice-caps. There was a
considerable regression of the oceans accompanied by a sharp reduction
of the tropical zone. All life was submitted to a severe test and most of it
was found wanting. In the oceans, the ammonites and many genera of
ancient fishes died out. On land, the great saurians failed to make the
grade and rapidly lost their dominating position. Vegetation, too, was

* Cf. W. C. Allen et al: Principles of Animal Ecology, 1949.
** Cf. The Law of Common Presence, Vol. II, p. 47.

158 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

severely tested: flowering trees and plants gave place in the northern
climates to ericaceous genera and even tundra. There was, almost cer-
tainly, a tremendous devastation among the arthropods.

During the Cretaceous Period, when the earth was almost free from
seasonal changes, insects and arachnoidea could live for years and
develop powers of which only traces remain in the species that are now
living. We observe strange skills among the insects, such as the language
of the bees and the ability of a moth to recognize and find its mate at a
distance of several miles, but we do not know how these skills were
acquired. It may be that skills more extraordinary, and insects and other
arthropods nearer to conscious beings than those that have survived,
were among the victims of the climatic change. It is certain that entire
phyla, known only to specialists because they left no descendants, such
as the creodonts, titanotheres and the uintatheres became extinct.* The
stage was set for the emergence of the New Life that was to prepare the
way for the arising of conscious beings.

One class of animals—the mammals—was successful in adapting to
the harsh environment, though not without casualties. The Allotheria,
rodent-like mammals with absurdly prominent teeth, failed and dis-
appeared. The marsupials became extinct in the northern latitudes.

The emergence of the mammals as the dominating form of life in
the Cainozoic is often cited as evidence that genetic variability and
natural selection were the only mechanisms operative. The argument is
that the severity of the conditions put a high survival value on warm-
blooded, fur-bearing animals and that chance mutations which pro-
duced the required genetic characters would lead to a fairly rapid spread
of the favoured strains. This argument is hard to accept in view of the
evidence that warm-blooded fur-bearing animals arose during the
favourable climates of the Cretaceous period. The mutations had already
done their work before the conditions that favoured the new forms of
life had made their appearance. This seems to have happened again
and again in the phylogenetic sequence and no mechanistic explanation
has ever been put forward that would account for it. It is tacitly assumed
that whenever a new strain has established itself, it must have been
endowed with a survival value superior to its competitors. It is hard to
see how the climatic conditions of the Cretaceous, that favoured the
survival of the great saurians, could also have been responsible for the
natural selection of marsupials and mammals. None of these difficulties

* These are not cited only for the fascination of their names; they are of interest for
our theme inasmuch as their structure was not adapted for the refinement of sensitivity
and they were, therefore, unwanted in the next stage of evolution.

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH 159

arise if we accept the theory of predestination from the hyparchic
future. The mammals appeared according to a directive pattern that
gave them a future survival value.

The earliest mammals were egg-laying, breast-feeding little creatures
whose descendants are still with us in the duck-billed platypus and the
Australian ant-eater. From them descended the marsupials with their
three-way vaginal passage that gave protection to their tiny young.

Early in the Cairozoic Era came fresh catastrophes that decimated life
in the Northern Hemisphere. The Continental drift, or other causes,
cut Australia off from the Eurasian mainland—also it would seem from
the attention of the Demiurgic Intelligences, concerned with the future.
So we have almost direct evidence of the way life develops when it
is left to the operation of genetic variation and natural selection alone.
The marsupials underwent a series of mutations to produce the great
range of animal life that dominated the Australian continent before
continental animal; were brought from the West. There was, however,
no progress remotely comparable to what happened in Asia and Africa.

The placental mammals probably first appeared in the region that is
now Central Asia. There is no apparent reason why they should have
come in the Palaocene between fifty and sixty million years ago. It
was not until the dying up of the land areas in the Eocene period that
the placentals were forced to migrate and populate the earth. Few fossil
remains were preserved (hence the name Oligocene) over a period of
about twelve million years of dry hot climates when vegetation suffered
as badly as animal life.

Half the Cainozoic Era up to the present had passed before conditions
really favourable for Mammalian development made their appearance.
This was the Miocene Period when the earth enjoyed climatic conditions
of exceptional mildness with a very extensive tropical zone and immense
areas of grassland and steppes. There were probably no polar ice caps
and the poles wen probably situated in the North Atlantic and South
Pacific. This allowed free movement in the Arctic Regions, so that the
spread of animals and plants was greatly facilitated. The friendly
climates lasted for nearly twenty-five million years, interrupted by
violent earth movements that occurred about twelve million years before
the present.

Such were the environmental conditions in which most of the Mam-
malian genera known today were established and flourished. The dom-
inating mammals were massive beasts such as the Mastodon, Dino-
therium and Rhinoceros. Large carnivores flourished, hunting the vast
herds of aurochs, bison, deer, sheep, goats, suids and giraffids. In the

160

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THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH

161

forests both monkeys and apes were gaining in size and variety. There
were also many genera of rodents, insectivores and other arboreal
mammals. Of the reptiles, only those which could take to water such as
crocodiles and snakes survived.

If we look back seven million years from the present, we see a world
not so very different from that seen by the men of our kind who lived
seven thousand years ago.* The main difference would be the almost
total absence of great mountain ranges and a higher proportion of
shallow waters. It was the Golden Age of the Mammals. Some of the
mammals best known to us, such as the horse and the elephant, had not
yet developed their characteristic features. Hipparion, the forerunner of
the horse, was an insignificant little creature with three toes. On the
other hand, the sabre-toothed tiger must have been a more terrible
animal than any modern man has had to meet.

Genetic variability and natural selection alone could not have resulted
in the diversification of mammalian genera and species. The specializa-
tion of the mammalian genera certainly goes beyond the needs of
survival. Natural selection gives a directive towards uniformity by
eliminating in the population all that is less than the most successful.
There is an almost limitless potential for variation in the genetic con-
stitution of every species together with the effect of random mutations.
But it is well known that in a large and freely moving population the
tendency is to breed towards uniformity and not diversity, ** The
natural diversifying factor is the geographical distribution of environ-
mental influences. These certainly acted to separate varieties adapted to
local conditions, but they cannot account for the generic differences that
are so remarkable throughout the mammalian order. In any case, during
the Golden Age of Mammals the earth's climate was for nearly twelve
million years remarkably uniform. There were few mountains, high
plateaux or other orographic features to favour speciation. These argu-
ments are not decisive, but they certainly encourage us to seek beyond
the operational and environmental factors for an explanation of the
peculiar pattern of mammalian form and function.

Even today, after the Ice Ages and Man have eliminated so many
species of animals that flourished in the Pliocene, we are struck by the
wealth of life in the great game reserves of Africa and Asia. Why
should there have arisen several genera of herbivorous animals, several

* 7000 b.p. was the post-glacial climatic optimum with a wide tropical belt not
unlike the middle Pliocene.

** This argument is cogently developed by M. Vernet in the Evolution of the Living
World and La Grande Illusion de Teilhard de Chardin, 1964.

genera of predators to hunt them, and many genera of arboreal
mammals?

An evident distinction between mammals and reptiles is in the form
of sensitivity. Every mammalian genus and even species is unique in
its perceptions and feelings. The same is true for the birds—perhaps to
an even greater degree. With reptiles and fishes, there is no such
uniqueness; we use the term 'cold-blooded' with good reason to
designate the reptilian character. It would not be true to say that reptiles
and fishes are without sensitivity; the point is that all the many genera
of cold-blooded vertebrates have the same pattern of feeling, whereas
among the mammals the differences are far more striking than the
similarities. Among the predators, the tiger and the wolf, the eagle and
the owl, are as different as human beings in their perceptions, feelings
and behaviour. The mammals and birds reproduce the whole gamut of
human feelings: courage and timidity, gentleness and ferocity, curiosity
and indifference, restless activity and sleeping indolence, patience and
excitability, love of solitude and love of the herd, submissiveness and
domination, perseverance, irritability, adaptability, conservatism and
every mode of sexual activity: all are to be found in one or another of
the mammalian or avian genera.

According to our hypothesis, this is no accident nor is it the result
of environmental influences. It is a necessary stage in the realization
of the predestined Plan of life on the earth. In the mammals and birds,
sensitive energy is more highly organized than in any of the earlier forms
of life. It also appears to be organized in a totally different manner in
certain plant extracts which can produce specific changes in sensitivity
in birds and mammals as well as in man. Now, we know that sensitive
energy (E 5) retains the imprint of experiences even when it is separated
from the influence that arouses these experiences. This is seen, above
all, in the phenomena of memory and recall—though recall is only
possible with a true mind.

The process of refinement probably began at a very early stage and
resulted in the slow disengagement of sensitivity from the earthy sub-
stratum. With vertebrate animals, the organization of sensitivity was
highly developed, but no differentiation was yet possible. With the
mammals and birds, sensitive energy began to acquire a range of
characteristics. The process is somewhat analogous to the diffraction of
white light by a grating. If the lines are randomly distributed in direc-
tion and spacing, the transmitted light is grey. If they are regular, we
obtain the colours of the spectrum. We can regard the mammals and
birds as a diffraction grating and the sensitive energy as white light that

162

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

is separated into its constituent colours. The analogy breaks down be-
cause light does not 'remember' its past whereas sensitivity has precisely
that property of retaining imprints.

Our psychological experience shows us that the retention of images
is very weak compared with their reception. It takes years for a child
in the state of maximum sensitivity to acquire images that can be re-
called as abstract concepts. The traits of character imprinted from con-
ception on the mind-stuff are scarcely affected by an entire lifetime
devoted to changing them. The permanent fixation of characters in
free sensitive energy—that is sensitivity not associated with a self—
must take an incomparably longer time. Life probably required not
hundreds, but thousands or even millions of generations to produce the
highly differentiated mind-stuff that is needed for the formation of
human selves. We are, thus, back in the scale of geological time. The
twenty million years of the Miocene and Pliocene periods were probably
not more than enough to prepare the ground for the arising of man.

This argument is reinforced by study of the traces left by the early
Primates, the precursors of the human organism. Primates were prob-
ably evolved before the end of the Mesozoic Era. They were certainly
present in the early Cainozoic, when the Prosimii, or Lower Primates,
nourished over most of the world. These were generalized little animals,
who lived mainly in trees and ate fruit and insects, but they seem also
to have lived on the ground and to have had a variety of diets, like
squirrels and other small rodents today. Their modern representatives
are the tree shrews, lemurs and lorises and the spectral tarsius—which
has a more highly developed brain than any other animal of the same size.

It is from some basic prosimian that the Anthropoidea, or Higher
Primates, began to develop during the Eocene. From the end of that
period and the beginning of the Oligocene, fragments of fossil jaws have
come from Egypt, Burma and Europe, which strongly suggest experi-
ments towards the higher primates. Oligocene fossil remains of small
generalized apes have been found in Egypt, and from the beginning of
the Miocene onwards ape-like fossil jaws and teeth of the 'Dryopithecus
group' have been found in Europe, Africa and Asia. These primates
were relatively unspecialized. But they are distinguished by ability to
grasp with hands or feet, by a tendency to develop the sense of vision at
the expense of the sense of smell, and by a general propensity to cerebral
development. It is, however, most important to observe that primates,
such as apes and monkeys, lack many human characteristics which are
strongly marked in other families of mammals. Thus, there are wolf-like
and sheep-like men, but we do not find wolf-like monkeys or sheep-like

THE HISTORY OF LIFE ON THE EARTH 163

apes. In man alone, the many subjective characteristics observable in
all the genera of mammals and birds are combined with characters.

All warm-blooded creatures are linked by a common and highly
organized sensitivity. This sensitivity is both adaptive and stable, and it
enables animals to feel in a way that is almost entirely absent in reptiles
and fishes, not to mention the lower forms of life. It seems plausible
to suppose that the pattern of sensitivity common to mammals and
birds is derived from a common structure. This point is commonly
overlooked because of the use of morphological and functional charac-
teristics for purposes of classification. Morphologically, mammals and
birds have diverged from a common reptilian stock. Functionally, they
have differentiated in response to environmental pressures and oppor-
tunities. There is, however, a third and more important criterion and
that is the capacity for experience. Applying this criterion we
observe, not divergence, but convergence towards the type of experience
that we find integrally in man alone.

The theory of Demiurgic Intelligences and the Hyparchic Future
can now be carried a stage further. We can see in the Age of Mammals
the first clear indication of the intention to secure the cooperation of
life in its own evolution. It is very commonly said in these days that
we are entering a phase of evolution in which for the first time life
will cooperate in a process hitherto blind and purposeless.*

Our view is totally different from this, inasmuch as it ascribes both a
purpose, and a plan for its realization, to the entire history of the earth
in all the seven stages studied up to this point. The conscious direction
of the process is, initially, wholly exterior to the present moment-
it is in the hyparchic future. Step by step, it enters the present and,
with this, the present moment itself expands. The organization of
sensitivity (Stage 7), was an immense step towards the transfer of
responsibility into the present. Its refinement and differentiation was the
last stage before the appearance of man on the earth. We see in this
stage, evidences of a more intimate participation of the Demiurgic
Essences within the present. The mammalian genera are more than
collections of individuals, they are concentrations of mind-stuff, **

* Cf. P. Teilhard de Chardin, The Future of Man, Eng. trs., 1964, p. 212, 'The
Darwinian era of survival by Natural Selection (the vital thrust) is thus succeeded by a
Lamarckian era of Super-Life brought about by calculated invention (the vital im-
pulse). In Man, evolution is interiorized and made purposeful . . .' This implies, as de
Chardin does in many other passages, that evolution prior to man was purposeless: a
doctrine directly contrary to our own.

** Cf. Vol. II, 13.35.11, on the Animal Essence Class: 'Each animal transforms
life-energy into a particular quality of experience.'

164 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

Each animal genus, as a whole, is to be regarded as an entity having a
mind of its own. This mind is made 'Intelligent' by the penetration of
the Demiurgic Power which is thereby enabled to use it as an instru-
ment of action. We may say—with appropriate reservations as to what
this means—that the Demiurgic Intelligences can be 'embodied' in the
animal genera even though individual animals exist below the level of
mind—i.e., they are not conscious. The Golden Age of the Mammals
was a great 'Present Moment' of twelve million years. It came out
of the past by way of genetic transmission and other causal mechanisms.
But it also came out of the hyparchic future by way of a plan. Thus the
Cainozoic Era of Life on the Earth completed a cycle. The gradual
entrance of the Demiurgic Powers into the present by a series of
astonishing innovations has been the path of progress. The eighth
stage that we are about to study was the beginning of a new cycle.

Chapter Forty-five
THE ADVENT OF MIND

17.45.1. The Hyperzoic Era

Our first task must be to explain what we mean by the 'Hyperzoic
Era'. In Vol. I we divided existence into the Hyponomic, Autonomic
and Hypernomic realms. Life lies entirely within the second. In Vol. II
we similarly distinguished three tetrads of Energies: Material, Vital
and Cosmic. Consciousness (E 4) is the coarsest of the four cosmic
energies. Sensitivity (E 5) is the finest energy of life, so that the separa-
tion, organization and refinement of sensitivity all fall within the Auto-
nomic Realm. When, however, consciousness is added we enter the
Hypernomic realm, and for that reason the stage of evolution in which
consciousness appears will be called the Hyperzoic Era—not because
it leaves life behind, but because it adds something that goes beyond life.
We retain the form '-zoic' to indicate that we are concerned with a stage
in the evolution of life; but from henceforward, the emphasis will be
upon mind leading to soul. The immense significance of the penetra-
tion of consciousness into the sensitivity of living organisms is not only
that this makes possible the arising of selves, but that it is an awakening
of the Mind of the Biosphere. Through the human mind, we see that
the Biosphere begins to acquire the faculty of reflection, so that the
earth becomes related to itself in a new way that goes beyond life
alone.

The study of the Hyperzoic Era presents us with a new problem
inasmuch as we are in the midst of it, and therefore cannot study the
totality of this stage of evolution through its traces, as we have done with
the others. We have adopted the view that the part cannot be under-
stood without reference to the whole. We must, therefore, make at least
some attempt to construct a picture of the whole Era, even though we
cannot say how events will turn out.

We have a few elements to help us:

1. The concepts of hyparchic plan and eternal pattern.

2. The notion of Demiurgic Intelligences working in the Hyparchic
Future.

3. The traces of earthly life during the last few million years.

166

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

4. An estimate of time-scales from our knowledge of the past.

5. The evidence that sensitivity developed by differentiation and
refinement in the Cainozoic Era.

6. Man and his nature as they can be studied in the present.

7. The course of events in the historical period.

Out of these seven elements we shall attempt to construct the history
of the present Era without undue emphasis upon the immediate past
and present that are, inevitably, the most powerful subjective influence
upon our modes of thought.

We shall start with the problem of time scales. Within the last cen-
tury, history has come to mean the History of Progress. Old ideas of
static history (Greek and Roman), of cyclic history (Vico and Spengler)
or of history leading to a stable state of affairs (Hegel, Marx and Engels)
have all been swept away by the growing belief in Universal Evolution-
ary Progress. Still more recently, a new and startling idea has come to
the fore: that of Accelerated Progress. No one doubts that there is
evidence of sustained accelerated progress in many fields. Statistics
show that the output of science and technology has for a long time been
increasing at an accelerated pace. Industrial productivity even outstrips
the growth of the world's population, which as everyone knows, is also
advancing at an accelerated and alarming pace.

Moreover, accelerated progress seems to be a law of nature.* From
Fig. 44.3, we can see that each of the great Eras since the earth was
formed was shorter than its predecessor. This has not escaped the
attention of scientists and is emphasized by writers on Evolution. The
time-scale of Evolution is not that of the clock marked by equal intervals,
but more like that of a stone falling to the ground.

If we are to make an estimate of the probable duration of the Hyper-
zoic Era, we cannot simply calculate the lengths of the preceding Eras
and make an average. We cannot even assume that each succeeding Era
is a fixed fraction of the previous one, for this requires an untested
hypothesis regarding the law that governs progress. But we have to
make some assumption as to the 'measure' of progress. We shall take
each major stage as representing an equal evolutionary increment. This
is probably justified by the observation that each stage is a Creative
Act proceeding from the same Source and therefore is likely to involve
equal increments of creative energy (E 3). There can be no possible
doubt that the Evolution of Life on the earth has moved ahead at an

* Cf. A. Bertalanffy, one of the founders of General Systems Theory, Year Book,
No. 1, 1950. He gives exponential growth as one of the basic laws of nature.

THE ADVENT OF MIND 167

accelerated pace. Even if our identification of the seven steps is seriously
at fault, the acceleration remains. We could have taken the existential
hypotheses of Vol. I: these would also have given eight steps. The
Essence Classes of Vol. II would have given six steps from dispersed
energy to man. We should have used the accepted classification of zo-
ology and botany if these could give us recognizable steps or stages;
but, as is well known, no measure of evolutionary progress has ever
been proposed, let alone generally agreed. On the whole, our eight-
term scale seems to fit the data and it has the decisive advantage of
agreeing with the generally accepted views of geo-chronologists.*

The simplest accelerated motion is that of a falling body where the
increase of speed is proportional to the time since it began to fall. If
we suppose that progress, P, obeys a law of this kind, we should have:

{

(45.1)

where k could be described as the creative impulse. This law would
apply if the impulse were continually at work. Now this does not fit our
hypothesis of successive impulses given to a process that has its own
principle of evolutionary advance. The situation can be compared to
the law of compound interest: the more you have the more you receive.
In such situations, the time taken for equal increments of progress
diminishes more rapidly than if the rate were constant. This gives a
relationship of the basic form

(45-2)

t is time before present and t0 is the time of starting. When t = t0
P = 0, i.e. no progress has yet been made.

We can test this relationship by plotting equal increments of progress
P against the logarithm of the time. Taking the time-scale of the table
in Fig. 44.1, we obtain the curve of Fig. 45.1 overleaf.

If (45.2.) had been the correct form of the relationship, the curve
would have been a straight line. It has, however, the shape of a power

curve:

(45-3)

*Absolute geo-chronology is a new science based entirely—so far as geology is
concerned — upon the decay of radioactive substances, particularly the potassium-argon
ratio for very old and carbon 14 for very recent ones. This method of dating is equiva-
lent to using a clock that ignores subjective states.

THE ADVENT OF MIND 169

This suggests that there are two distinct factors at work, one of which is
connected with the process itself—the logarithmic relationship—and the
other with the conditions of observation—the power relationship.
The three constants would thus be interpreted:

t0 = time when the earth began

Po = unit of progress

n = foreshortening effect of present moment of the observer.

The last constant is of special importance as it indicates that the assess-
ment of progress depends upon the 'power of embrace' of the mind that
makes the observation. For a small mind, there is no progress as the
time-scale is reduced until all appears stationary. For a very great
mind, the entire life of the earth is converging at an accelerated pace
towards the fulfilment of its plan. This can be called 'objective
eschatology.'

On account of the arbitrary character of the exponent n, we cannot
use the expression (45.3) to measure progress except for times remote
from the present. This condition is satisfied when time is measured in
millions of years, but not when we count in centuries, which are periods
of time commensurate with a single human life.

Notwithstanding this limitation and the considerable uncertainty in
fixing the dates at which the early Eras began, the expression does yield
some valuable information.

1. A real acceleration of progress has always characterized the develop-
ment of life on the earth.

2. Progress cannot be assessed objectively for times near to the present
moment because the 'subjective exponent' n will falsify our evaluation.

3. The advent of mankind on the earth can be identified with the
beginning of the eighth Era about 1,500,000 years before the present.

4. The history of man on the earth is likely to develop at an acceler-
ated pace according to the law expressed by (45.3).

5. After making due allowance for the 'subjective exponent' we should
expect the completion of the eighth Era within the next half-million
years and perhaps very much sooner.

In connection with the last observation, we should make it clear that
we cannot, in any case, extrapolate the curve of Fig. 45.1 back to the
present moment. The logarithmic curve has no zero. The point is that
we do not find an eighth step of progress intercepted by the curve
within the last 100,000 years, and may therefore suppose that this step
is still to be realized.

170

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

THE ADVENT OF MIND

171

17.45.2. The Cycles in Human History

We must distinguish between cycles and stages. The latter belong
to the working out of the plan of life on the earth. They are not cyclic
and as we have just seen, they do not occupy equal intervals of time.
There is a totally different way of looking at history which is to regard
it as the life cycle of an organism—in this case the whole of mankind.
Every living organism has a rhythmical structure: we pulsate, breathe,
sleep and wake, we have our seasons and our years. These rhythms
remain more or less constant in their periodicity even though the tempo
of living may change. This is true of the individual man or woman who
develops progressively and yet retains the rhythms of life and functional
activity.

This consideration is important because it helps us to reconcile three
views of history: the progressive, the static and the cyclic. Each of the
three is valid but applicable only to one aspect or department of life.

As we have no records of cycles of human activity for much beyond
five thousand years ago, we have to act on the principle that the wildest
guess is better than blank ignorance. We can, for example, make assump-
tions as to the periodicities of human activity that are too long for
observation and see if they suggest shorter rhythms falling within re-
corded history and therefore susceptible of verification. Since all the
rhythms of life are directly connected with the rhythms of the earth—
including those due to its motions with respect to the sun and the moon
—we shall make the further assumption that the major astronomical
rhythms are reflected in the cycles of activity of the Human Race.

To complete our set of 'wild guesses', we shall suppose that the
pattern of activity of mankind is analogous to that of individual man.
Some processes—mainly instinctive—continue day and night. Others
have a diurnal rhythm. Some are influenced by the seasons and the years.
Others again seem to follow longer cycles variously estimated at seven,
eight or nine years. There are also the organic rhythms of the heartbeat
and respiration measured in seconds, and rhythms of perception measured
in milliseconds. All these—we may suppose—are reproduced in the
Human Race as a whole, but on an immensely greater scale of time.

We shall now translate our 'wild guesses' into a series of assumptions.

1. The total life of mankind will be the duration of the Hyperzoic
Era. The curve of Fig. 45.1 indicates a maximum of 2,500,000 and a
minimum of 1,500,000 years for its duration. We shall take 2,000,000
years as the best available guess.

2. The life of mankind—hereafter to be called the Human Era—will

be divided into as many 'Great Years' as the life of individual man is
divided into small years, i.e., about eighty.

3. The Human Era will be divided into about ten Ages each lasting
200,000 years. These are suggested by the eight-year periodicity of the
individual discussed in Chapter 40.

4. There will be eighty cycles corresponding to the year. These have
a periodicity of 25,000 years, which will be recognized as approximating
to the period of the precession of the equinoxes—about 26,000 years.
We shall call these 'great years' Great Cycles.

5. Minor cycles corresponding to the lunar month of 28 days should
be discernible. The period is almost exactly one thousandth of 80 years
and the equivalent for the Human Era would be 2,000 years. This can
be identified with the Epoch to which we have assigned a period of
2,000-2,500 years.*

6. Sub-cycles equivalent to the diurnal cycle of individual life would
last about 65 years. This corresponds to no well-defined periodicity in
human life. It must not be forgotten that day and night is a local
phenomenon and that the distinction almost disappears if averaged for
all mankind. It does not quite disappear because the distribution of
population is not uniform. Most people are awake when it is midnight
on the International Date-line that runs through the Pacific Ocean.
We shall find that short-term interlocking cycles of local activity do
occur all over the world, especially in nations and other human societies.

7. None of the cycles can be related to the realization of the pattern
of the Human Era. This latter is likely to follow the law of acceleration
given by the expression (45.3). This agrees with human experience
which shows that the transformation of Self-hood into Individuality
starts slowly; but, if not interrupted, gains speed until the final stage is
almost instantaneous.

We have now constructed a scheme in which the Human Era is one
of the major stages of the realization of life on the earth—and also a
complete cycle in itself, having its own periodicities and rhythms. The
scheme must stand or fall by its usefulness as a means of interpreting
history. At least we have a picture of human life on the earth as a
whole. Assuming it began 1,500,000 years ago, three quarters of the
nice has already been run. We should be entering a stage of acceleration
that is still far short of the maximum. If the pace seems too hot for us
today: it may become hotter still for our descendants.

We have to remember the basic assumption that the Eighth Era is

* In the present work, the term was first used in Vol. Ill, Chapter 41, Section
15.41.7.4. The notion of Epochs is extensively applied in the last four chapters.

172

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

that of the transition from sensitivity to consciousness. This is the best
expression we can give at this stage to the Pattern of the Era. The
destiny of mankind is to become an Intelligent entity. We must now take
up the story from where we left it in the last chapter: at the end of the
Golden Age of the Mammals.

17.45.3. The Start of the Hyperzoic Era

The period we are now about to enter was formerly called by geolo-
gists the Quaternary or Recent period from the character of the alluvium
which is its main contribution to the rocks on the earth's surface. This
nomenclature has been abandoned by most authorities in favour of the
Pleistocene, which means life closest to our own. We have chosen to call
it the Hyperzoic Era because it has been associated with one of the very
great stages in the development of life on the earth. The three names:
Quaternary, Pleistocene and Hyperzoic correspond to three ways of
looking at the situation. The first looks at the material world, the second
at the world of life and the third looks further to see, in the coming of
man, a factor that transcends life itself. Each of the three terms repre-
sents a valid and important interpretation of the traces of the past and
the pattern of the future.

The Cainozoic Era ended, according to our views, with the Pliocene.
As with each of the major stages, the eighth was heralded by major
crustal perturbations. Mountains and plateaux were raised high above
sea level. The oceanic record shows that the change was sudden and
that climatic changes occurred abruptly. Many great mountain ranges
which seem to us an almost inevitable and permanent feature of the
earth's surface—the Alps, the Himalayas and the Caucasus—were still
insignificant a bare two million years ago. The former Tethys sea which
ran from present-day Malaya to the Caspian passed through the region
that now supports the highest mountains in the world. The Andes and
the Rocky Mountains date from the end of the Cainozoic.

It is hard for us to picture the tremendous upheavals, the almost
continuous earthquakes, innumerable volcanic eruptions and tidal waves,
lasting certainly for thousands of years, that must have accompanied the
orogenic catastrophes. The sunlit peaceful earth of the Miocene had
been growing colder and the crustal disturbances began to make them-
selves felt at least five million years ago: but the powerful thrusts that
altered the face of the great continents came so suddenly that it is hard
to understand how such great changes could have occurred so rapidly.

It can well be imagined that animal life suffered severely during this
time of catastrophe—but there was more to come. In the midst of the

THE ADVENT OF MIND 173

crustal disturbances, a profound climatic change brought on the first
Ice Age for two hundred million years. Since then, Ice Ages have come
and gone, producing climatic changes more dramatic and rapid than at
any earlier period that has left such clear traces.

We are not directly concerned with the geological history of the
earth itself, apart from its role in the history of life; but the glaciations
have played so great a part in the history of mankind that we must pause
to consider their origin and the probability of their return. There is,
unfortunately, no agreement among geologists, climatologists and geo-
physicists as to the cause and origin of the Ice Ages. A very interesting
theory put forward by Ewing and Donn has not been accepted by the
majority of workers in the field. This theory is in two parts: it ascribes
the major change of climate to the migration of the poles and the
fluctuations of glacial and interglacial conditions in the Northern
Hemisphere to the opening and closing of the Arctic Ocean.*

The migration of the poles, formerly regarded as impossible, is now
seen to be a normal state of affairs on account of the intense energy
gradients in the molten magma on which the outer crust floats. Enorm-
ous quantities of energy are liberated by the radioactive decay of long-
life radioactive elements like Potassium-40. Since the masses are not
uniformly distributed, convection currents are set up. Thus the interior
of the earth, supposed until recently to be more or less motionless, is
now believed to be far more active than the surface. It is altogether plau-
sible to suppose that the great crustal perturbations that have left their
traces all over the earth were the accompaniment of a shift of the entire
crust that brought the North Pole over the Arctic Ocean and the South
Pole over Antarctica—that is, to their present positions. This shift need
not have occurred with extreme rapidity: we have ten million years of
the Pliocene during which—as we know from palaeobotanical evidence—
the climate of the Northern Hemisphere was steadily growing colder.

Let us suppose—as the evidence of the lines of magnetic force in old
rocks seems to indicate—that, in the Miocene, the North Pole was over
the North Pacific at a latitude, by our present reckoning, of 750 N.
This would suffice to dissipate the winter cold by ocean currents and
produce the equable climate of the Golden Age of Mammals. To reach
its present position, the pole would have to travel a distance of some
1,400 miles. If the migration began at the beginning of the Pliocene—
and of this there is climatic and other evidence—it would have had some
ten million years to cover the distance. This means an average motion of

* Maurice Ewing and W. L. Donn, Science, Vol. 123, 1956, pp. 1061-6, A Theory
of Ice Ages I and Vol. 127, 1958, pp. 1159-62, A Theory of Ice Ages II.

174 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

about nine inches a year. The energy required for this is within the
estimated limits of the magmatic currents. Thus there is nothing im-
plausible in the theory of polar migration.

The Arctic Ocean one or two million years ago was certainly different
from what it is today. We have seen that great mountain-building pro-
cesses were about to occur. It is likely that the Arctic Ocean acted as a
reservoir which received warm water from the Atlantic far more abund-
antly than the present Gulf Stream and that it poured out enormous
quantities of icy water down the present coast of Greenland. In summer
the combination of continuous Arctic sunlight and warm water would
produce enormous evaporation and this would be precipitated as snow
over Greenland and Western Europe. In this way, the glaciers would
build up as long as they were fed with snow from the Arctic.

This could not continue indefinitely because the withdrawal of water
in the form of ice would drain the Arctic reservoir and eventually the
entry of the Gulf Stream would be closed. Then the Arctic would soon
freeze over and the supply of snow would cease. The Atlantic Ocean
would suddenly warm up and being cut off from the Arctic would warm
the American Eurasian continents, thus bringing about a period of
warm climates.

In due course the Glaciers would melt, the oceans would rise and the
Arctic again become open. A new cycle of glaciation would set in. But it
would not be so severe nor so lasting, for mountains would, meanwhile,
have risen in the oceans: the Lomonosov ridge that shields the Arctic
Ocean would reduce the time taken for the closing of the gap through
which the warm waters entered from the Atlantic.

We have not considered the South Pole because it does not affect
our history so directly; but the theory explains admirably why it is that
there has been continuous glaciation of Antartica as against intermittent
glaciation in the North.

Such approximately is the ingenious theory of Ewing and Donn. As
we have said, it has not been well received by other workers in the field.
Two colleagues of Dr. Ewing, whose work will greatly help us in our
next stage, consider that the best explanation of the Ice Ages is to be
found in postulating a variation in the intensity of solar energy. This
also is quite plausible but, as Sir George Simpson has shown, it runs
into difficulties. If the sun sends less heat to the earth, evaporation of
the oceans must diminish and, if that happened, where did all the snow
come from? Simpson, therefore, made the remarkable suggestion that
Ice Ages are caused by an increase in the sun's heat.* But this does not
* G. C. Simpson, Ice Ages, Nature, Vol. 141, 1938, pp. 591-8.

THE ADVENT OF MIND

175

agree with recent evidence that the equatorial regions had grown
colder during the last ice age.* It seems likely that the Ice Ages were
produced by a complex action to which many factors contributed.
Suffice it to say that the Hyperzoic Era has been one of the most dis-
turbed periods in the history of the earth's crust. We happen to be living
in a very quiet period and find it hard to imagine that our remote ancest-
ors had to contend with conditions before which modern man with all
his technical resources would find himself helpless. It is against this
environmental background, that we must look at the origin and history
of the human race.

17.45.4. Chronology of the Human Era

The traces we have of the Hyperzoic Era come from four main
sources: geological, climatic, organic and cultural. The radioactive
materials in rocks and organic remains are sources for absolute dating.
Climatic changes are recorded in rock and ocean-bed, and indicated in
the remains of living forms. The location of fossil remains in rocks which
can be dated give us the temporal sequence of species, upon which we
rely for our picture of evolutionary changes. Remains of artefacts are
traces of past cultures, and indicate the stage of the development of
mind.

In order to construct a picture of the stages of man's evolution we
need to know first of all about the major climatic changes which influ-
enced its course. We require as accurate a chronology of these changes
as is possible. The duration of the main climatic conditions—especially
those of the Ice Ages—is an important clue to the processes at work de-
veloping the rudimentary powers of the early men. Unfortunately,
agreement on dating is difficult to find.

Estimates of the duration of the Pleistocene—or, as we call it, the
Hyperzoic Era—have varied from 300,000 up to 2,000,000 years.** It
is only very recently that reliable figures have become available. This
may seem surprising since this is the period nearest to, and indeed
including, our own time. But the methods normally used for dating

* Cf. J. A. Coetzee, Evidence for a Considerable Depression of the Vegetation Belts
during the Upper Pleistocene on the East African Mountains, Nature, Vol. 204, pp.
564-6.

** The lower figure of 300,000 years is based on oceanographic studies by Emiliani
published in 1961. It is now clear that he failed to reach the earlier glacial sediments.
The commonly accepted date for the start of the first glaciation of Gunz has until
recently been 500,000 years before the present. Evidence is rapidly accumulating to
show that this also is far too short. Major surprises may still await us and the chronology
of the present section must be taken as the best that can be made of a difficult job
(November 1965).
D.U. iv—8

176 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

geological strata of earlier periods prove too inaccurate for more recent
times.

We have radiocarbon dating, but unfortunately it cannot stretch
much beyond 30,000 years before the present. Although potassium-
argon dating can easily reach back beyond the onset of the first great
Ice Age, at the moment experimental techniques are still undergoing
refinement and standardization. This means that datings are often
subject to revision. The radioactive decay of potassium-40 occurs in
igneous deposits, whereas the decay of carbon-14 is found in organic
remains. Potassium-argon dating is therefore applied to basalt and vol-
canic ashes, and can give indications of the age of associated fossil
remains. Geology and palaeontology provide stratigraphy—that is an
ordered sequence of strata of rocks and remains. This amounts to
an unsealed chronology. Radioactive dating is providing a scale, but
the uncertainties which arise in the stratigraphy often render dates
ambiguous.

There are many kinds of trace of climatic changes, but only a few can
be directly dated. Pollen analysis will give a clue as to the kind of
vegetation associated with remains, and hence the kind of climate.
Fossil remains will indicate the climate by the predominance of animals
which flourished within a certain range of temperatures—though this
can vary from region to region. Then the glaciers scratched, polished
and eroded the rocks over which they moved, and left deposits. These
traces can be valuable clues to the movements of ice-sheets and their
order of duration.

In the deep ocean bed, the sediment stores a record of the major
climatic changes. Continuously, sediment rains down to the ocean
floor. It is partly mineral, and partly organic. The minute animal and
plant skeletons which have gathered on the floor prove excellent record-
ers of the major climatic changes associated with the Ice Ages. The habits
of these creatures are known—some are warm and some cold-water
dwellers, some became extinct at the onset of the Ice Ages, others
evolved new species at specific and known times.

The traces left by the glaciers are confused. This is not surprising as
each successive wave of glaciation obliterates almost all the traces of its
predecessors. The messages left by the glaciers are so hard to interpret
that until recently the greatest experts have been in doubt as to the
number and duration of the glaciations. The two kinds of trace—
the erosion or scratching of underlying rock surfaces by the moving
mass of ice and the composition and physical state of the material
transported by the ice—have been superimposed upon by successive

THE ADVENT OF MIND

177

waves of ice and subsequently weathered, covered by alluvial deposits or
entirely eroded by wind and water. It is, indeed, astonishing under the cir-
cumstances that a remarkably consistent picture has been built up, show-
ing among other features that the Ice Ages on the American and Euro-
pean continents were contemporaneous and passed through similar phases.

Palaeobotanical and palaeozoological investigations show that the
mean annual temperatures in Europe and North America had been
steadily falling over the last 60,000,000 years—since the time of the
Palaeocene. The curve begins to oscillate as it enters the Pleistocene,
showing the traces of the great glaciations. The picture we can draw
from the evidence is far from simple: there were probably seven oscilla-
tions between cold and warm and back again which are usually grouped
into a scheme of four main Ice Ages. None of these was continuous. An
intermission of warmth within a major glaciation is called an interstadial;
while one between major glaciations is called an interglacial. Authorities
variously ascribe a phase of warmth to either of these categories.

For Europe, four main periods of cold are distinguished, the last three
of which are associated with extensive continental glaciation.

Wurm (Glaciation)

Eem (Warm interglacial)

Riss Complex (Glaciation with warm period)

Holstein (Warm Interglacial)

Elster Complex (Glaciation with warm period)

Cromerian (Warm Interglacial)

Kedischem Complex (Periods of cold and warm)

Fig. 45.2. European Climate in the Pleistocene*

The classical 'Ice Ages' (the Gunz, Mindel, Riss and Wurm) are
variously correlated with the palaeobiological findings.

In the lower latitudes there is clear evidence of pluvials roughly con-
temporary with the European and American glaciations.** The task of
interpreting the traces of pluvials is formidable. The position and extent
of ancient lakes and river terraces, the composition of fossil soils and
evidence of the raising of sea beaches due to the withdrawal of water
have all to be taken into account. Conditions can vary enormously over
a very short distance. Investigations in Africa have revealed four main

* Data taken from Butzer, Environment and Archaeology, Table 2, pp. 22—3.

** Cf. Sonia Cole, The Prehistory of East Africa, Chapter 2. '. . . many attempts have
been made to correlate pluvials in low latitudes with glacials in high latitudes, agree-
ment has by no means been reached. It does appear probable, however, that the pluvial
periods in the tropics were broadly contemporary with glacial periods elsewhere,
though it seems most unlikely that they fit exactly', pp. 59-66.

178 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

pluvials, but there are signs of other fluctuations giving a variety of
climates.

Land evidence could not establish a reliable chronology. The recent
investigations of the ocean bed have proved more fruitful. For a long
time it was assumed that the ocean bed carried an undisturbed deposit
of silt and organic remains, but only in 1948 were the first deep cores
obtained. More recently, it has been found that the ocean bed has not
been free of disturbances. Slow moving 'turbidity-currents' caused by
the slumping of silt on ocean hills can drastically affect the continuity
of the record. In many places, actual tectonic disturbances have left
their mark. Many years of patient correlation between hundreds of
incomplete cores were needed before a complete record became visible.
Eventually, a few complete specimens were recovered which verified
the picture. The remains of organic life which we mentioned before
mark the major climatic changes. In this way, a complete map of the
Pleistocene has been constructed by the workers at the Lamont Geo-
logical Laboratory and elsewhere.*

The entire period has been dated by extrapolating rates of accumula-
tion of deposit derived from radioactive dating on recent periods to
cover the whole of the Pleistocene. Different textures in the cores are
correlated with different rates of accumulation. At different locations
and different times, the rate varies considerably. Comparisons between
the datings from contemporary cores gives a check on the method.
Extrapolation of this kind is, however, never completely free from
uncertainties.

The results of these oceanic studies confirm the generally held belief
of geologists that there have been four main glaciations, but their
identification is far from agreed. The Lamont workers place the onset
of the first great Ice Age 1,500,000 years ago. Potassium dating of
igneous material in Africa associated with the beginning of the Pleisto-
cene puts it 2,000,000 years before the present. Discrepancies increase-
but in the opposite direction—when we consider the later Ice Ages.
Thus the Mindel is dated by the potassium-argon method c. 400,000
years before the present by workers in Africa, whereas Ericson-Wolling
place it 1,200,000 years ago.

The traces investigated by the Lamont workers are well fitted to show
up only the main features of the climate of the Pleistocene. Much of the

* The scientific results and the story of the sixteen years of research that led up to
them are admirably described in The Deep and the Past (1964) by David B. Ericson and
Goesta Wollin of the Lamont Geological Laboratory, Columbia University, of which
Maurice Ewing is Director.

THE ADVENT OF MIND

179

detail available in the land record is lost. As the Holocene is approached,
extrapolations from the data of the curves proves increasingly inaccur-
ate. The situation from the Mindel to the Riss glaciations remains an
open question. With the Wurm, however, we are forced to adopt the
conventional time-scale that begins the glaciation between 70,000 and
80,000 years b.p. and not the 115,000 years b.p. of Ericson and Wollin.
This unfortunately makes the dating of the Eemian or Riss-Wurm inter-
glacial almost indeterminate beyond some neighbourhood of 100,000 b.p.

We shall adopt the broad chronology of the Lamont workers up to
the time of the Eemian interglacial.* Because of the intricate correla-
tions between stratigraphy and dating we shall then revert to the con-
ventional datings for the Wurm as outlined by Oakley.**

The first Ice Age of the Pleistocene, the Gunz—probably the same as
the Kedischem complex of mid-latitude Europe—began about 1,500,000
years ago and lasted about 125,000 years. When the period is designated
by the fauna we have the Villafranchian which represents fauna tran-
sitional between the Pliocene and the Pleistocene. It begins towards the
end of the the Pliocene when it is known as the Early Villafranchian
The Early Pleistocene then corresponds to the period of the Gun and
is correlated with Late Villafranchian. It would appear that the onset
of the Gun was much more gradual than previously assumed and some
authorities now extend the Pleistocene backwards to correspond with
the Villafranchian. We shall keep the beginning of the Pleistocene at
1,500,000 b.p. following Ericson and Wollin—and in fact this would
seem to represent the beginning of the actual glacial period—and term
'Villafranchian' the period of gradual onset between that date and the
end of the Pliocene. In other respects, we shall adopt the proposal of
Woldstedt, followed by vertebrate palaeontologists, and place the begin-
ning of the Middle Pleistocene at the start of the Gunz-Mindel inter-
glacial and the beginning of the late Pleistocene at the start of the Riss
glaciation.

The Gunz-Mindel interglacial lasted for about 170,000 years and was
followed by the longest period of glaciation in the two phases of the
Mindel Ice Age or Elster Complex. It prevailed for 145,000 years until
1,060,000 b.p. The Holstein or Mindel-Riss interglacial that came after
was the longest period of temperate climate in the whole of the Pleisto-
cene. At times, the climate was as warm, and the tropical regions reached
as far north, as in the Miocene. It lasted for 640,000 years until 420,000
b.p. when began the Riss-comptex. The 'Riss-Wurm' or, 'Eemian'

* Ericson and Wollin, loc. cit., p. 209.

**Cf. Frameworks for Dating Fossil Man, p. 21 and p. 44.

180

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

interglacial that followed can be dated to some interval about 115,000-
70,000 b.p.

The final Wurm emaciation was one of the most severe in its impact
both on fauna and on the eco-systems in which man found his material
support. It is also known in much greater detail than the others. It falls
into three phases separated by interstadials. Early Warm lasted from
about 75,000 to about 45,000 b.p. interrupted by temporary retreats of
the ice-front when came the main Gottweig interstadial which allowed
much greater movements of fauna and men than were possible under
severe glacial conditions. It was the prelude to the main Warm glaciation
when severe conditions prevailed over most of Europe. The South of
England and the main continent remained relatively free of ice but
suffered under severe temperatures—the annual mean was less than—2° C.
—especially in central Europe which lay between the Scandinavian and
the Alpine glacial sheets. The conditions were tempered by the Paudorf
interstadial around 28,000-26,000 b.p. In Late Warm came the most
intense period of cold during the Brandenburg stage ca. 20,000 b.p.
It began to fall off with the Boiling interval ca. 13,000 b.p. and between
12,000 and 11,000 b.p. came the temperate interstadial of the Allerod
oscillation. By this time, the ice-sheets in Northern Europe had retreated
into central Sweden. For convenience, we take 11,000 b.p. as the agreed
ending of the time of glaciation.

Phase

Gunz Ice Age
Interglacial (Cromerian)
Mindel Ice Age
Interglacial (Holstein)
Riss Ice Age
Interglacial (Eem)
Early Warm
Gottweig Interstadial
Main Warm
Paudorf Interstadial
Late Warm
Allerad Oscillation

Years b.p.

1,500,000-1,380,000
1,380,000-1,200,000
1,200,000-1,060,000
1,060,000-420,000
420,000- ?
ca. 100,000
75,000-45,000
45,000-35,000
35,000-28,000
28,000-26,000
26,000-12,000
12,000-11,000

Fig. 45 . 3 . Chronology of the Ice Ages

No one can pretend that any scheme yet put forward is satisfactory
and the working compromise we have adopted is justified only in
reference to the broad chronology of the human species. With the end
of the Warm we reach the beginning of the historical period, for traces

THE ADVENT OF MIND l8l

were left which enable us to build up a fairly continuous story of human
history concerning the past 11,000 years. Such, then, is the main
physical background against which we have to construct a picture of the
time and the manner of man's first appearance on the earth and the
subsequent development of his mind.

17.45.5. The First Men

As with all other progressive transformations, the arrival of man on
earth was a gradual process that began very slowly and gained momen-
tum at an increasing rate. In the form of prosimians, the Order of Prim-
ates had made its appearance at the beginning of the Cainozoic Era and
was thus contemporary with the ancestors of other great mammalian
orders that survive to this day, such as the Insectivore, Rodentia,
Carnivora and the odd and even-toed Ungulates from which deer, horses
and cattle have descended. The Suborder of the Anthropoida, to which
monkeys, apes and man belong, probably began to evolve from some
basic prosimian about fifty million years ago and came into prominence
during the Golden Age of Mammals more than thirty million years
later. It was like each of the other mammalian groups it having its
own characteristic sensitivity, in which curiosity and adaptiveness
played a major part. Apes and men are classed in the Su>erfamily of
the Hominoidea, containing the families of the Pongidae, represented
today by the gorilla, chimpanzee and orang, the Hylobatida* or gibbons,
and the Hominidae or man.

By the end of the Oligocene times, about 25,000,000 years ago, most
of the prosimians had disappeared and at least three distinct trends in
the Hominoidea had probably developed: one towards the Pongidae, one
towards the Hylobatidae, and one towards ape-like creatures called
Proconsuls who differed from pongoids in the structure of their teeth,
absence of simian shelf and other features. It is not impossible that a
fourth trend towards the Hominidae had already appeared Remains of
a small generalized ape called Propliopithecus have been bund in the
Oligocene deposits of the moderately hot, wooded area of the Fayum,
and it is thought possible that a group at the Propliopithcus level of
evolution may have been the direct ancestors of apes and men.* It is
even probable that by early Oligocene times species ancestral to living
man had already differentiated from those which led to Dryopithecus
and subsequent great apes.**

By early Miocene times, several groups of hominoids were certainly

* The Evolution of Man, edited by Sol Tax, 1960, Vol. II, p.17.
** Nature, 1965, Vol. 205, No. 4967, p. 139.

l82

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

represented in Africa. These included true pongoids, whose remains
have been found with, those of monkeys and galagos and who may have
lived in forests; two types of ancestral gibbon, which had not yet de-
veloped the excessively long arms with which they now swing from
branch to branch; and the proconsuls, who were capable of standing
and walking more or less erect part of the time, and who varied in size
from small to almost as large as gorillas. Many proconsuls and one of
the gibbon types were found in association with fossil flora and fauna
assemblages which showed that these creatures had once lived in open
grasslands and between forest galleries, along the rivers that flowed into
an ancient Miocene lake. In the Lower Pliocene deposits of East Africa,
Dr. Leakey found fragments of a creature he named Kenyapithecus
wickeri and which he believes should be regarded as an ancestral member
of the Hominidae. Although—possibly due to climatic causes—no fossil
remains of primates are known in Africa from the Middle and Late
Pliocene or earliest Villafranchian, there is no doubt that the primates
continued to multiply and evolve* there, and it is now accepted that the
more fossil remains of the Hominidae are discovered, the more complex
will the morphological picture of man's evolution become.

17.45.5-1. MIND EVOLUTION

The four stages which we shall use for our explanation of the evolu-
tion of the Hyperzoic Era, are stages in the development of mind.
They are not the same as stages of morphological development—where
so much controversy is rife on the taxonomy of man and his ancestors.
Nevertheless, the development of mind cannot be separated from the
development of man's physical body. Hence we shall make use of dis-
coveries which reveal the existence of different kinds of hominid at
different times over the last two million years. Since we shall be arguing
that the development of man involved a subtle intervention by the
demiurgic intelligences—and even embodiment in hominid existences—
we have to take conscious (E 4) and Creative (E 3) energy into account.

* 'In some suitable area or areas, their ability to stand erect became so rewarding that
strong adaptation for such a gait took place, probably rapidly. That is, the opposable
toe was lost so that the muscles of the leg could work on a stiff arched foot, and effec-
tively push the running animal forward. The gluteous muscle of the buttock was
repositioned somewhat by changes in the pelvis, adding power to the leg at the hip
joint. Holding the body erect was eased by a curving back of the lower spine and a
broadening and strengthening of its vertebrae. The beginnings of such trends in the
pelvis, spine and trunk, however, were old, and had been a help in the original tendency
to stand or walk erect . . . these transformed animals, fully erect, were widespread in
the Old World by the end of the Tertiary.' Mankind in the Making, William Howells,
1960, p. 336.

THE ADVENT OF MIND 183

Iking beyond life, these act independently of genetically conditioned
life. The various species—or sub-species—of man will be used, there-
fore, only to indicate the stages. In certain places, we will even go so
far as to identify provisionally a stage with a particular species for a
certain period. We recognize, however, that there is as yet no coherent
picture of anything like an 'evolutionary sequence' for man. This is
to be expected since in the Hyperzoic Era, progress lies in the develop-
ment of minds, the organization of consciousness, the construction of
selves, and the preparation of man for union with Individuality. In all
this, taxonomy serves only as a distant trace. We shall have to rely
very much on our understanding of the structure of the human totality
in order to construct a sequence of development which we can link with
what evidence we have.

Throughout the evolution of life there have always appeared specific
visible manifestations of the great creative steps—which in some way
or other, persist into the Present. A creative step can never be limited to
the emergence of some specific form of life: it concerns the totality and
its progress towards the future destiny of life in the establishment of
Personal Individualities on the earth. Nevertheless, specific forms have
appeared as if to mark the transition. In the case of man, and the evolu-
tion of man, we repeatedly see a transition in the progress of hominiza-
tion reflected in the appearance of a new strain of hominid. The new
strain emerges later than the step made invisibly in the psychic realm.
This we would expect, the creative energy producing results at all
levels, but the 'higher' responding more 'quickly' than the 'lower'.
These two facets of the emergence of new strains and the development
of mind should be kept constantly before us.

17.45.5.2. DATING THE TRANSITION TO MAN

Before we attempt to assess the character of the specifically hominine
transition, separating man from ape, we must look into the matter of
dating. Until comparatively recently, it was commonly supposed that
man appeared after the beginning of the first glaciation of Gunz, and
that this gave him an antiquity of about 600,000 years. Both these
suppositions have been upset by the new chronology of the Hyperzoic
Era discussed in the last section and by the dating of undoubted hominid
fossils, notably those discovered recently by Dr. Louis Leakey at
Olduvai Gorge in Tanganyika. These could be dated within definite
limits by the potassium-argon method, thanks to the presence both below
and above them of volcanic ash. The K/A method can be applied only to
igneous rock and gives the time since the rocks were heated to the

D.U. IV—-8*

184 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

temperature at which argon is driven out. It will not work with sedi-
mentary rocks and is therefore usually restricted to very ancient strata.
The presence of volcanic ash at Olduvai must be regarded as an unusual
stroke of fortune. The upper bed gave an age of 1,550,000 and the lower
of 1,850,000 years before the present.* Evernden and Curtis estimated
the age of the first Olduvai hominid to be found, as 1,750,000 years,
which makes him nearly a quarter of a million years older than the
beginning of the glaciation of Gunz about 1,500,000 years ago; and he
does not belong to the very first stage of hominization. The point of
this evidence is that the Ice Age cannot be invoked as a causal agent. The
deterioration of climates in the later Pliocene was certainly too gradual
to exert a 'survival pressure' that would account for the change of
habits implied by hominization.

17.45.5.3. MAN AND PRE-MAN

The first fossil remains of a genuine early hominid to be discovered
was a skull found in South Africa by Dart in 1924, which he recognized
as that of a 'man-ape' and named 'Australopithecus'. It was not for a
further twenty years, however, that, in consequence of numerous finds
by Dart and Broom in the Transvaal, the australopithecines were finally
established as creatures to be regarded as ancestral men rather than as
apes. Later finds, especially in South Africa, have added greatly to our
knowledge; but it must always be remembered that such fossil remains
are scarce and fragmentary and that much is still obscure and under

discussion.

The australopithecines were fully erect and lived in open grassland
country. Their brains were small, but they used sticks and stones as
weapons and implements and some of them appear to have fashioned
primitive stone tools. Their diet was varied and seems to have included
meat. Several types of Australopithecus are known. One, A. africanus,
stood from 3 ft. 4 ins. to 4 ft. high and had a smooth brow but rather a
monkey-like face. A second group, known as Paranthropus, was larger
and had a crest or ridge along the top of the head and enormous jaws.
Members of these groups had a cranial capacity of from 450 to 550 c.c.
The skull of one, found at Olduvai, larger and more like man in some
respects, was called by Leakey ' Zinjanthropus boisei.' Remains of a
juvenile hominid and an adult female were found on the same site in

* 'The reliability of K/A dating at Olduvai has been questioned. Thus the under-
lying basalt has been dated at 1.8 m.y. but as it has normal geomagnetic polarity,
it is most unlikely to be less than 2.5 m.y. in view of the considerable evidence that the
geomagnetic field has reversed polarity between 1 m.y. and 2.5 m.y.' McDougall and
Tarling, Frameworks for Dating Fossil Man, Oakley, 1964, p. 292, note.

THE ADVENT OF MIND 185

1960, which included enough of one skull to enable estimates of its
cranial capacity to be made; these estimates ranged from 642.7 to
723.6 c.c, and all were greater than any known australopithecine and
less than any known type of man. These were the remains dated at
1,700,000 years before the present. Bones and teeth apparently belong-
ing to the same species were later found in five other places. This species,
which was considerably more 'human' than other australopithecines,
was named 'Homo habilis' or man of skill.* No facial remains have yet
been found, but H. habilis had a receding chin, was probably about 4 ft.
tall, and walked like man although not with man's distinctive striding
gait. Fragmentary remains of a hominid of early Middle Pleistocene
date, found in South Africa, are so advanced that they have been thought
to represent a type of Homo erectus. This type has been named 'Telan-
thropus capensis', but it is now suggested that it may prove to be a form
of H. habilis. Remains of the latter found by Leakey in East Africa vary
in date from Villafranchian to early Middle Pleistocene.

Now, the interesting fact emerges that although some of these kinds
of primitive man are so much more advanced than others, they must
have been contemporaneous. Two of the sites where Homo habilis was
found are geologically earlier than that which yielded the Zinjanthropus
boisei skull and one was of the same period—the late Villafranchian or
Early Pleistocene. All known remains of Australopithecus africanus are
also of this time. So all three must have existed at the same period and
have evolved during the Pliocene. But Paranthropus and Telanthropus
in South Africa, a Zinjanthropus jaw found at Lake Natron in 1964, and
H. habilis found in three places at Olduvai in 1963, all date from the
earliest part of the Middle Pleistocene, that is, from the Gunz-Mindel
interglacial. Thus Australopithecus and Homo habilis must have lived
in Africa for at least 320,000 years and possibly very much longer. Man,
in his early forms, certainly lived through the transition from the Caino-
loic to the Hyperzoic Era. But it seems probable that he existed only in
Africa during that transition, for very primitive stone tools like those
discovered at Olduvai and in South Africa are found on open sites in
several other places both north and south of the Sahara in association
with Villafranchian fauna, whereas neither tools nor hominid remains
have yet been found on Villafranchian sites in Europe or Asia.

Human remains from the early Middle Pleistocene have been found
elsewhere, especially in Java and China. Unfortunately, great confusion
prevails in their classification, due partly to their fragmentary character

* Leakey, Nature, Vol. 202, p. 5. But see the controversy over the status of H.
habilis, Nature, Vol. 209, p. 953f.

186

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

and partly to a tendency in discoverers of new sites to interpret them as
evidence of a distinct species or even genus. We could not hope to deal
with all the evidences of early men, especially in the light of recent
discoveries. No total picture is yet possible. According to present con-
vention there are only two valid genera of the Hominidae: Austral-
opithecus and Homo* According to this view, all the types of very primi-
tive or 'pre-human' men—such as Australopithecus africanus, Paranthro-
pus—and even Homo habilis—are classed as Australopithecus, and the
various Pithecanthropines are regarded as a single species, Homo erectus.
For the purpose of our further investigations, we shall postulate
four main groups in the development of human organization, using as
our framework the usual broad classification of man into: Australopithe-
cus, Homo erectus, Homo sapiens and Homo sapiens sapiens. Though these
by no means represent a morphological chain, one evolving out of the
other in temporal sequence, they do seem to indicate definite phases in
the development of man. With the present state of evidence, we can only
broadly indicate their antiquity and the specimens which belong to
them. We have, in fact, a cluster of morphological types for each stage,
rather than a set of species. Indeed, modern taxonomy is tending more
and more to take into account the variety and complexity of the forms
of life by dealing in clusters, individuals, denes, populations, groups,
etc. In the Hyperzoic Era, we would expect to find, relative to what
went before, a rapid succession of a whole variety of morphological
groups. Our four groups will be briefly surveyed:

17.45.5.4. GROUP I. AUSTRALOPITHECUS

In all probability, australopithecines were the 'field of action' for
the arising of true men, and we have seen that this genus lived through
the transition from the Cainozoic to the Hyperzoic Era. The numerous
remains discovered indicate that the group was large and this is con-
firmed by the number of species and sub-species reported. Their brain
capacity was less than half that of modern man. They were fully erect
and used sticks and stones as weapons and instruments, even if they
did not actually fashion these. But, although Leakey mentions that
Zinjanthropus boisei had a type of palate associated with articulate
speech,**they could not have possessed human speech. We will pro-
visionally ascribe the date of 3,500,000 years before the present to the
origination of this precursor of early man. No remains of the A. africanus
type are known later than the Lower Pleistocene, but the larger,

* Campbell, 1963, Oakley, 1964.

**The Evolution of Man, Vol. II, edited by Sol Tax, University of Chicago, 1960.

THE ADVENT OF MIND 187

Paranthropus type was certainly still living in the early part of the
Middle Pleistocene.

17.45.5.5. GROUP II. HOMO ERECTUS

As we have said, Homo habilis and Meganthropus of Java probably
mark the actual transition to true man. It seems fairly certain that the
former originated the earliest culture, known as the Oldowan, which is
characterized by pebbles roughly worked to make cutting and chopping
tools. These primitive types of Homo erectus are known from the
Villafranchan and survived into the Middle Pleistocene, for a time
overlapping the next grade of man—who may have killed them off.
Tools of the Oldowan culture have been found in South and East
Africa, Abyssinia, Morocco and Algeria, and there is little doubt that
their makers spread over the African grasslands and savannah in a
comparatively short time. In the earlier Middle Pleistocene a few
pebbles at Olduvai began to be worked all round to form the first hand-
axes of the Chellean culture: there is little doubt that this culture evolved
directly ou1 of the Oldowan.

Peking Man possessed quite useful tools. He had choppers and chop-
ping tools, employing some of the flakes left over from fashioning them
as other instruments and sometimes reworking these to form scrapers
which were probably used to remove flesh from bones and for wood-
working. He hunted and killed large animals, and the first definite evi-
dence of firemaking comes from the Choukoutien cave, where fires were
used not only for warmth but also for cooking and for hardening wooden
spears. Some progress was made in tool-making here, but it was ex-
tremely small in proportion to the thousands of years during which the
cave was occupied.

The early Middle Pleistocene was a time of dispersals. Probably
the first of these was into South-East Asia, but tools and fragmentary
human fossils are also found in Northern India, the Near East and
Europe.

Only ore important European fossil is known from this period
however: this is the Mauer mandible, or 'Heidelburg Jaw', that dates
from the Gunz-Mindel interglacial. It resembles neither Pithecanthropus
of Asia nor contemporary African jaws, and looks rather modern in
some respects, but without more of the skull it is impossible to tell
whether its owner was Homo erectus or Homo sapiens.

This complex group constitutes evidence of the first true men—able
to communicate by speech, make and use instruments and live in
colonies fa shelter and protection from their enemies. In various

188

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

transitional groups Homo erectus lived through the period of the Mindel
glaciation and the immensely long interglacial of Mindel-Riss. It is
almost certain that he had techniques of constructing shelter and, by
some means, learnt how to prepare and use animal pelts to protect
himself from the damp and cold. It appears that around 1,000,000 years
ago the main transition was completed and Homo erectus dominated the
field of action—true man.

17.45.5.6. GROUP III. HOMO SAPIENS

In the Upper Pleistocene, the period of the Riss-Wurm Interglacial
and the first part of the Wurm glaciation provides abundant evidence
of the first men known to be capable of cultural traditions, and of
religious beliefs of some sort evinced by ritual burial of the dead. We
shall call them Homo sapiens; the best-known type of which is neander-
thalensis. They had forerunners.

In Europe, traces of Homo sapiens have been found dating from the
Mindel-Riss interglacial. At that time, southern and western Europe
were hot regions that man could have reached from South-Western
Asia, or from Africa, by way of the Near Eastern land bridge. Similar
specimens have been found dating from the very warm Riss-Wiirm
interglacial. But the later part of this interglacial shows a change. Skulls
appear with features which foreshadows the true Neanderthalers. At
the same time, other discoveries show the existence of a slight people
with low skulls and heavy brows, but with round heads, like those of
many Central Europeans.

The true Neanderthalers were as a rule short and large boned, with
long, low skulls, sloping foreheads, heavy undivided brow ridges and
large, pointed faces with big projecting noses and small or receding
chins. Their brain capacity was as large or larger than that of modern
man. They dwelt in caves at times, and their culture was the Mousterian
or Levalloiso-Mousterian, a complex of earlier tool-making techniques
which they learned to render more efficient. This people flourished from
the beginning of the Early Wurm glaciation into the first part of the
warm Gottweig interstadial, which was succeeded by the Main Wurm
glacial period. As might have been expected, they preferred the warmer
areas, and their traces are found chiefly in western and southern Europe,
the Crimea, the coasts of Lebanon and Palestine, parts of Iraq and
Iran, Soviet Central Asia, Afghanistan, and—from a late period—North
Africa.

The Neanderthalers of western Europe appear to have been an

THE ADVENT OF MIND 189

isolated population, possibly with a thin line of communication from
Germany across Czechoslovakia and Hungary to the Black Sea.

In Italy, the Mousterian culture has been traced back to the period
of Riss and may have evolved then. Despite regional variability, all the
known western Neanderthalers are much alike, and it is they who
represent the famous 'Neanderthal Man', although they were far less
apelike and brutal looking than their popular image. Probably in part
through isolation and in part through adaptation to cold, their earlier
characteristics became accentuated. Their bodies grew more squat and
powerful, with deep chests, short necks and broad hands and feet; their
noses and brow ridges became still larger, and their heads longer and
more globular at the back. They were not short, however—the males
averaging about 5 ft. 4 ins. or 5 ft. 6 ins.; they were strongly right-
handed, and their cranial capacities were about 1,525-1,640 c.c. in
males and 1,300-1,425 c.c. in females. But they seem to have become
over-specialized or crystallized and by about 30,000 b.p. they were
extinct.

This exaggerated type of Neanderthaler was not exclusively confined
to Europe for it has been found in Uzbekistan and Northern Iraq.
But most of the Neanderthal population remained less specialized, and
during the period of the Early Wurm glaciation and the beginning
of the ensuing interglacial, included Neanderthalers of a less extreme
form and others whose appearance was scarcely Neanderthaloid at all
but more like modern men of the 'Caucasoid' type, such as were found
at Muqharetes-Skhul on Mt. Carmel, Palestine.

Returning to the Far East and Africa, we find that Homo sapiens had
arrived there also. As has been remarked already, low skulls, small chins
and heavy brow ridges are fairly general in primitive types of man and
may still be seen today in some parts of the world. When these are found
in fossil skulls with fairly large cranial capacities, however, they are
usually termed Neanderthaloid; but this does not mean that their
owners were necessarily connected racially with the true Neanderthalers.
After the Eemian interglacial, more and more traces accumulate of a
whole variety of human beings far nearer to modern man than the
European late Neanderthalers. We shall group all this variety under
Homo sapiens and set its beginning towards the end of the interglacial
which came about 120,000 years ago according to Ericson and Wollin.
This group will include all the hominines who made a step beyond the
H. erectus phase, with the exception of the late extreme Neanderthalers,
nor it is generally agreed that this sub-species is one that eventually
deviated from the progression towards modern man.

190

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

17.45.5.7. GROUP IV. HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS

The origin of creative man, or Homo sapiens sapiens in current
terminology, is still unknown. One theory is that he arose as a single
independent line; another that he was descended from all the men of the
earlier Pleistocene, evolving independently in widely separated parts of
the world; and there are many variations of these theories. Again, some
authorities think, not without grounds, that the less specialized Nean-
derthalers or Neanderthaloids developed into Homo sapiens sapiens
somewhere in western Asia or northern India, others, pointing to the
Kanjera fossils, believe that he first appeared in Africa. In any case, it
is certain the Group III increased in complexity up to the middle of the
Wurm glaciation, and that around that time a whole variety of hominies
co-existed. Then, suddenly, from about 35,000 to 40,000 years ago,
men physically like ourselves appeared and spread rapidly throughout
Asia, Africa and Europe. The rest were extinguished.

17.45.6. The Origins of Man

The generally accepted view of students of human origins is that the
emergence of men took place by a happy accident. All books on the
subject start with this premise: we shall cite from one or two to bring
the point home. In their study of Pleistocene cultures, Ericson and
Wollin, whose brilliant pioneering work on dating the Ice Ages has
won our admiration, write:* 'It must have begun as a chance mutation
that favoured a tendency to rise on the hind legs and thereby to free
the fore-limbs. In most animals, such a muta:ion would have come to
an evolutionary dead end . . . But the prehuman primate had already
passed through a stage of tree-climbing during which selection had
strongly favoured the ability to grasp. Thus by pure chance the mutant
gene which favoured the freeing of the forepaws, or hands, of a certain
primate fell on fertile ground. It was a portentous event and has had
repercussions throughout the world of living things.'

The doctrine of evolution by blind chance, that we rejected as in-
competent to account for any of the great forward leaps in the ascent
of life, encounters a new difficulty in explaining the genesis of human
kind. Man is a being who not only entertains purposes but acts in order
to realize them. If such activity is totally absent in preceding nature, how
are we to account for its appearance at such a late stage?

Teilhard de Chardin seeks to reconcile the two by postulating a
'critical stage of complexification' at which biological purposiveness
* loc. cit., p. 229.

THE ADVENT OF MIND 191

makes its appearance. In a lecture on 'The Human Rebound of Evolu-
tion', he said:* 'It then appears that if the neo-Darwinians are right (as
they possibly and indeed probably are) in claiming that in the pre-human
zones of life, there is nothing but the play of chance selection to be
detected in the advance of the organized world, from the time of man,
on the contrary it is the neo-Lamarckians who have the better of the
argument, since at this level the force of internal arrangement begins to
be clearly manifest in the process of evolution. Which amounts to saying
that biological purposiveness (as with so many other physical parameters
of the universe) is not everywhere apparent in the living world, but that
it only shows itself above a certain level.' This passage, which is charac-
teristic of de Chardin's thinking, implies acceptance of blind chance,
not only up to but including the appearance of man, as the main if not
the only agent of progress.

It would be very hard to avoid some such conclusion as this if we had
not seen purpose and plan in all the earlier stages; and if, in addition,
we had not seen the emergence, the organization and the refinement of
sensitivity. We must now put our scheme to the supreme test: the
elucidation of the step from animal to man.

There is no dispute as regards the morphological sequence. Even if
the details are still obscure and some stages may have to be modified
and others inserted we shall agree that the human organism was deve-
loped by normal evolutionary stages from some ancestral primate. We
can represent the phylogenetic sequence somewhat as follows:

Up to the stage of the Australopithecus, a genus already destined for
hominization, the development of the primates is not unlike that of
other orders such as the Ungulates which, in the Cainozoic, produced
many genera such as Equus, the horse, that developed in seven stages
by unaccountable jumps from the little three-toed Eohippus of the
Eocene. With the Primates, as with other Mammalian orders, there was
a progressive differentiation of sensitivity and a high degree of refine-
ment by the Pliocene. The line of unmistakable hominization probably
began to develop independently of the great anthropoid apes as far back
as the Miocene—some twenty million years ago, or even earlier.** This
bifurcation cannot readily be accounted for by the usual mechanism of
speciation: favourable chance mutation and natural selection operating
through harsh environmental conditions or population pressure. We
have already given our reasons for doubting that anything can be found
in the geological or climatological record to suggest that there was any

* P. T. de Chardin, The Future of Man, Eng. trs., p. 200.
** Nature, Vol. 205, p. 139.

192 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

environmental influence that would 'select' ancestral anthropoids with
hominid characteristics for preferential development.

We must stop here to decide the question: in what did the step or
steps from ape-like creatures to man consist? There must have been
several steps; the first was probably the freeing of the hands* by a
predominantly erect posture. Next, would come the use of tools and
weapons. Third, would be communication by language. This last must
be considered the decisively human step, for without it man would not
be man. Skills as great as those required for making tools are possessed
naturally by other mammals, such as chimpanzees and beavers; or can
easily be learned, as by porpoises and dolphins.

Are we to suppose that a chance mutation induced an early Austra-
lopithecus to express itself by means of an artificially constructed set of
noises? The point here is that recognition of speech does not come
by sensitivity alone, but requires consciousness also. Over a period of
three years, the present writer had the opportunity of closely studying an
aphasic youth whose power of speech had not developed owing to a
brain injury. His sensitivity was fully normal. He could recognize and
distinguish objects and sounds. He could use his hands not only to feed
himself but to open boxes and arrange objects to his liking. But three
years' patient effort could elicit only one recognizable sound: the
monosyllable ta which had to serve for every kind of request. It was also
very clear that the consciousness had been in some way isolated from the
sensitivity.

Without such a personal experience, it is hard to appreciate the
extent to which human language differs from the 'grunts and groans
of the forest'. Considered in abstraction from direct experience, language
seems to need no explanation; it can be supposed to come 'naturally'
to creatures accustomed to use their hands to make weapons and to
hunt in groups. This is perhaps why the discovery of the use of flints
and fire is cited as evidence of progress and little is said about language,
except that its acquisition has been accompanied by changes in the shape
of the skull. These changes are commonly supposed 1o have followed
rather than caused the acquisition of speech.

Let us now formulate a simple hypothesis: Man learned to speak
because he had a mind.

This implies the rule: 'no mind, no speech!' This rub is not arbitrary.
With human beings, the mind may fail to develop from some congenital
deficiency, or it may be put out of action by disease or drugs: in all

* Cf. The work of W. Koehler on The Mentality of Apes, Berlin, 1922. Probably all
the Hominoidea could use their hands for purposes other than climbing,

THE ADVENT OF MIND

193

cases speech goes with it. The sound of words may remain, but the
necessary element of communication is lost. Let it be recalled that
we have given a specific definition of 'mind': it is the combination of
sensitivity (E 5) and consciousness (E 4) which makes our subjective
experience possible.* Together with the necessary automatisms, this is
the combination that must be present if there is to be speech.

It may be objected that all animals are able to communicate and that
human speech is only a development of the grunts and groans of the
forest. This disregards the special character of human speech that
consists in storing impressions and reproducing them by a structured
combination of sounds. There is no evidence that any animal communi-
cates in this way or can be taught to do so. It may again be objected
that we have no evidence that early man was capable of verbal com-
munication as we understand it. To this we would reply: 'no speech,
no mind; no mind, no man.' Mind is the mark of man and speech is the
mark of mind. The anatomy of Homo erectus is consistent with the belief
that he was capable of true verbal communication. The great step from
Australopithecus with a brain capacity of 600 c.c. or less to Homo erectus
with one of 900 to 1,000 or more would scarcely have been made without
a mind to use and enjoy the added power that a large brain has to offer.

It cannot be said that this argument is decisive. If we had been satis-
fied that all the previous stages in the evolution of life gave no evidence
of the coming of mind, we might well be prepared to agree with Teilhard
de Chardin that mind appeared after man himself—and slowly at
that. But we have seen how, stage by stage, there has been three-fold
evidence that mind was on the way. The evidence of conscious guidance
by Demiurgic Intelligence strongly suggested that the intention was to
bring consciousness into life. At the same time within life itself, we
have seen sensitivity emerging, organizing and being refined in pre-
paration for some future event. Thirdly, we have seen the development
of a variety of automatisms all of which have later proved to be sig-
nificant for the formation of the human being.

The three paths of Consciousness (E 4) Sensitivity (E 5) and Auto-
matism (E 6) converge towards Mind, that is, towards man. No one
disputes that man, as we know him today, differs in a radical manner
from any other animal or that the difference consists precisely in the fact
that man has a mind. Those who would strenuously oppose the idea of
Involution guided by any form of High Mind or Intelligence, would
assent to the doctrine that if evolution has been a matter of blind chance
up to the advent of modern man, it can and must now become intentional
* Cf. Vol. Ill, Chapter 39, Section 15.39.5.4.

194 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

and conscious. This doctrine would be meaningless if minds as we know
them had been present in the animals of the Cainozoic whether Primates
or not. Whatever way we look at it, we must all agree that a very great
and decisive step has been made at some time. It is surely reasonable
to suppose that this step was made when man first became man.

It is, of course, possible to retain the hypothesis that consciousness is
the ingredient of mind that distinguishes man from the animals. We
could suppose that conscious energy is attracted by sensitive energy as
it attains a certain degree of organization and that, in this way, mind
evolves as a consequence of the evolution of body. The fatal objection
to this supposition is that we find in animals and birds plenty of examples
of highly organized and exquisitely refined sensitivity: but never a
trace of true mind. Another objection is that we can verify in our own
experience that sensitivity will not attract consciousness. We cannot
'make' ourselves conscious, nor can we 'keep' ourselves conscious, by
any action made with sensitivity alone. These facts of observation are
confirmed a priori by the nature of consciousness. It is not a vital but a
cosmic energy and it can be concentrated only by the higher energy of
creativity (E 3). The gradual emergence of mind from a non-mental
starting-point is sometimes said to have occurred through the use of
tools.* Those who hold this view place the beginnings of mental
imagery very early. This really will not do. The mind of man is a totally
different instrument from the sensorium of an ape. This has been
proved again and again by workers in animal psychology. Mental
images are quite different from sense perceptions. The human child
forms mental images from an early age, but animals never do.

17.45.6.1. THE COMING OF MAN

We must hold fast to the recognition that man was destined for
manhood millions of years before he became man. Let us quote again
from Teilhard de Chardin: 'The fact was noted long ago: what has
enabled man zoologically to emerge and triumph upon earth, is that he
has avoided the anatomical mechanization of his body. In all other
animals we find a tendency, irresistible and clearly apparent, for the

* For example, by Ericson and Wollin, loc. cit., p. 229. 'Until fairly recently, it has
been rather generally held that man evolved almost to his present structural state
and then discovered tools and the new ways of life to which they are the keys ... as
we see the matter now, it seems obvious that the mechanical perfection and fine
nervous control of the hand could not have evolved without long and powerful selective
pressure, something which only the use of tools could provide.' Again, ibid., p. 230.
'His chance combination of genes had given rise to a brain that could follow through
from accidentally broken stone, to stone broken by design . . . perpetuate the genetic
strain of a hominid who could form a mental image, etc.'

THE ADVENT OF MIND 195

living creature to convert its own limbs into tools, its teeth and even its
face. We see paws turned into pincers, paws equipped with hooves for
running, burrowing paws and muzzles, winged paws, beaks, tusks and
so on—innumerable adaptations giving birth to as many phyla, and
each ending in a blind-alley of specialization. On this dangerous slope
leading to organic imprisonment, man alone has pulled up in time.
Having arrived at the tetrapod stage, he contrived to stay there without
further reducing the versatility of his limbs.'* This passage is charac-
teristic of the brilliant but confused thinking of Father Pierre de
Chardin. 'Man' is said to have done various things long before he
existed. 'He pulled up in time.' Yes, indeed—millions of years before
he appeared on the earth in human form. The vice of hypostatization
thus constantly creeps into accounts of the evolutionary process. Not a
single author is exempt from it. If they would impose on themselves
the discipline of referring at all times explicitly to the only agent that
they will admit—blind chance—the absurdity of many statements
would be apparent. If one wishes to repudiate teleology, one must not
use teleological forms of speech. It is probable that if forced to give an
explicit answer to the question whether he sees no agent whatever
except blind chance in the processes of nature, almost every biologist
would hedge and refer to 'tendencies', or even to a 'tendency', for
processes to go in such a way as to produce more complex—that is
'higher'—forms. All this is still confused and dangerous thinking, that
comes from an unconscious fear that the foundations of the scientific
activity will be undermined if any kind of supernatural agency is ad-
mitted. This fear is unjustified. There is a legitimate scientific faith
which requires us to accept the world as we find it with complete
confidence that however disconcerting a discovery may be at first, it
will eventually take its place in a consistent and satisfying world-picture.
If we discover that the traces of the past cannot be discussed—let alone
understood—satisfactorily without reference to a purpose and a guiding
intelligence, then it is not unscientific freely to admit it. Indeed, it is
right and proper to go further and accept what we see exemplified over
and over again as the basis of a generalization or even a hypothesis.
For convenience of discussion we have expressed this generalization in
terms of the Demiurgic Intelligences. Looked at objectively, this hypo-
thesis does no more than put into explicit and limited terms the vague
notions of 'tendency' and 'directiveness' that are implicit in current
thinking about Evolution. It can be said to express the Neo-Lamarckian

* The Future of Man, p. 169. 'The Formation of the Noosphere'. The reference in the
first sentence is to Edouard Le Roy Les Origines humaines et le Probleme de l'Intelligence.

196 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

element that is never wholly absent even in the reasoning of professed
Darwinians.

Let us then press boldly ahead to see how the hypothesis of Plan,
Pattern and Demiurgic Intelligences applies to the origin of man. Surely,
it is obvious that everything fits beautifully into place. The advent of
mind was foreseen from the start—this is what Evolution was all about.
The advent of mind required a specially developed sensitivity. This was
prepared stage by stage until, with the Order of Mammals, sensitivity
fine enough for the formation of mind was available.

We now stand at a moment of time—say ten or fifteen million years
ago—when the choice of the vehicle of mind had to be made. Teilhard
de Chardin is perfectly correct in saying that this called for an arrest of
anatomical specialization. He is wrong only in being unwilling to admit
that this must mean that there was Intelligence before Mind. The
choice having been made, it was necessary to protect the future human
organism from the tendency to specialization. We assume that the
Demiurgic Intelligences were wholly concentrated upon the phylo-
genesis of man. There is a remarkable standstill throughout the rest of
the Biosphere. No new families of animals developed during the Pliocene,
no old families died out. We have to make an imaginative leap to the
vast savannahs and grasslands of Africa* which several families of the
Hominoidea had by now exchanged for the forest and woodlands of their
ancestors, and see the refinement and transformation of sensitivity in
one obscure family—the Hominidae, who walked erect. The hominid's
experience was still pre-mental because there were no mental images
that could connect the present moment with other moments and yet the
progress made was very great. After nearly four thousand millions years,
the Demiurgic Intelligences had at length succeeded in producing a
living organism into which they could begin to enter. The highly organized
sensitivity of the hominid could receive direction from a higher con-
sciousness.

The first step made was almost certainly towards the use of tools.
This was no lucky accident but an inspiration from the Demiurgic
Intelligence working within the sensitivity. With that step, the transition
to the australopithecine phase was made. Let us suppose that it hap-
pened three to four million years ago. We have now reached the 'missing
link' that played so great a part in Darwin's 'Descent of Man'. According
to our picture of the event, the first tool-using hominid appeared long
before the earliest human artifacts yet discovered. This is wholly in

* Evidence appears increasingly to point to this, although it is still suggested in
some quarters that the transition occurred in Asia.

THE ADVENT OF MIND

197

keeping with the supposition that the preparation of mind was, at first,
confined to relatively small numbers of carefully selected varieties—
perhaps a definite sub-species of the Hominoidea. Why do we postulate
so great an antiquity to the first tool-using hominid? Because we agree
that the use of tools preceded the advent of mind. By using tools the
sensitivity is developed and organized in a special way. It is prepared
for the formation of mental images. Tool-using requires recognition
of natural objects and their transformations: but it does not require the
conscious recognition necessary for the development of new and
better instruments.

We have now returned to our threshold-man. We accept the view
now widely held that this was a sub-species of the genus Australopithecus
although this is in no way necessary for the argument. There must, in
any case, have been a stage at which conscious intelligence stood on the
threshold waiting for a suitable vehicle to be prepared. We also accept
the view that the first men appeared between one and a quarter and two
million years ago, though this also is not a matter of primary significance.
The really important point is to decide what the step from animal to
man essentially requires.

17.45.7. The Nature of Mind

Mind is primarily a field of experience and action. All that we call
deliberation and intention is accomplished in the mind. Mind is a field
of experience of the present moment, memory and the anticipation of
the future. It is the seat of the Self-hood of man, if not the very stuff of
Self. We are entirely committed to the materiality of mind. Mind is
made of the same basic stuff, hyle, as everything else that exists: only
it is in very fine states of energy. The mind-stuff is no doubt every-
where and in everything; but it only becomes a mind when it is com-
posed and organized in a particular way.

The view is commonly held that there has been an evolution of mind
parallel to the evolution of body, but little or no attention has been paid
to the organization that this requires. T. de Chardin in his Phenomenon
of Man develops the theme persuasively, but far too vaguely. His
Noosphere is not mind, but a consequence of mind. 'In mass, as though
by a stroke of genius on the part of life', he says, 'heredity, hitherto
primarily chromosomic becomes primarily Noospheric—transmitted,
that is to say, by the surrounding environment.'* Apart from the
objectionable and so often repeated hypostatization of 'Life', this kind of
statement misses the whole point. What we need to know is what Mind

* Loc. cit., p. 163.

198 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

or Nous is, and how it came to be organized to give in man a form and
experience so different from that of other animals.

The place of mind is at one of the two great discontinuities of the
Natural Order—the other being the transition from inert matter to
living forms. Historically, the appearance of mind is an event equal in
significance to the appearance of life. This is generally agreed, but its
importance is obscured by the tendency to regard evolution as a con-
tinuous process in which each new development emerges out of those
that came before.

The elements of mind were certainly present before the appearance
of the mental structure of man. Sensitivity developed throughout the
Cainozoic Era and produced a vast pool of differentiated and refined
sensitive energy (E 5) with qualities suitable for forming human minds.
Consciousness (E 4) was also present—not localized in living beings,
but rather as a field of universal energy, concentrated in the Demiurgic
Intelligences, but otherwise without organization.

Mind is not simply a degree of complexity within a continuous process
of complexification as de Chardin and other evolutionary theorists
suppose. It is a structure of a special kind that differs from others. It
has properties that are not observable elsewhere. This does not mean
that mind is a 'special creation' outside of the evolutionary process, but
rather that it is a major point of discontinuity reached and, in its
turn, transcended by the discrete steps or jumps which can be found in
all developmental processes. The arising of mind required a very special
step, namely, coalescence into organized structures of the energies of
life and the cosmic energies within the transition region E 4-E 5. Until
this connection was made there were no personal minds and there
could be neither Self-hood nor Individuality within the Biosphere.

In the pre-mental stages, many of the attributes of mind were clearly
present in combinations of the sensitive and automatic energies.

Less specific attention has been devoted in the foregoing pages to the
automatism within life than this important property merits. Every
animal uses automatic energy (E 6) to coordinate its functional activity.
The automatic energy must in the process acquire a certain degree of
structuring—though not of the same kind as the experiential impregna-
tion of sensitivity. The immense field of animal instinct which we have
scarcely glanced at, is most easily made comprehensible by supposing
that the automatic energy can produce patterns of activity that are
transmitted by heredity and yet not reducible to physico-chemical
mechanisms. We can conclude from such a hypothesis that habits of
life repeated over a very large number of generations will 'organize'

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199

the automatic energy of a given animal genus. This may well be the
simplest expression of the neo-Lamarckian thesis. Be that as it may, we
should not find it difficult to agree that, in one form or another, the
behaviour patterns of the hominid Australopithecus had been well
organized by prolonged practice in the use of tools and probably also
of non-verbal communication. The development of the hands alone
would bring about a high degree of organization of automatism. The
refinement of sensitivity in addition would pass beyond the limitations
of fixed instinctive behaviour to reach the power to acquire skills by
practice. This again would bring Australopithecus to the threshold of
mind.

There remains the third and most significant element: conscious-
ness (E 4). In our scheme of energies, consciousness belongs to the
Tetrad of Cosmic Energies. It is not one of the vital energies and it is
not necessary for life. We cannot demonstrate that animals are without
consciousness, but we can very easily prove to ourselves that a great part
of our own lives—including nearly all our vital activity—proceeds with-
out the participation of consciousness.* The clear recognition that con-
sciousness is something over and above the pattern of life is the key to
understanding the problem before us. After all, the study of the mind is
a problem of psychology; or rather it is the whole problem of psycho-
logy. Psychology begins and ends with mind. Therefore, we must
necessarily turn to psychology in order to study the genesis of mind.
Thus it happens that we are better equipped to understand how man's
mind arose than how his body evolved. But for this, we must really
know mind. Mind can be understood by mind. We cannot recognize
mind through bodily behaviour. And it is impossible to tell whether
a man is conscious at a given moment, though it is not difficult to say
whether or not his sensitivity is concentrated or dispersed.

These observations apply to all kinds of men, at all ages and of every
degree of culture or lack of culture. The distinction between sensitivity
and consciousness is an objective property of existence, and it is totally
independent of time and place. It must, therefore, have obtained when
man first became man as completely as it does in our experience today.
Once this cardinal point is established, we are bound to conclude that
the mind of man could not have come into existence by the processes
of life alone. This should not surprise anyone, since it is universally
agreed that man is a new kind of phenomenon. The difficulty has lain
hitherto in reconciling the undoubted fact that the human organism

* Cf. Vol. Ill, Chapter 39, Section 15.39.5.2. In the ordinary state of man con-
sciousness is 'collapsed' into sensitivity.

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THE ADVENT OF MIND

201

has evolved out of an animal organism with the conviction that man is
different in kind, and not merely in degree, from any animal we know.
We can now see that the difference is not in the organism, but in the
mind, of man; and that it consists in the presence of conscious energy
(E 4) associated with the sensitivity (E 5) that man shares with the other
animals.

It remains to consider how consciousness entered.
If it did not come from the Autonomic World, that is, by the develop-
ment of life itself, it must have come from the Hypernomic World. The
means for this were already available—the Demiurgic Intelligences.
We shall picture an injection of consciousness into the premental sensitiv-
ity of selected Australopithecines. This can be pictured as a kind of
'possession' by the Demiurgic Intelligence, whereby a pre-human
could begin to think in a human manner. Once the contact was made,
men with true minds could begin to breed and transmit the mental
structure by heredity.

We must now attempt to describe the genesis of personal minds.
The Demiurgic Intelligences had seen that the Predestined Moment
for the arising of mind was approaching. A vast pool of suitably refined
and differentiated sensitive energy had been produced during the
Golden Age of the Mammals. The australopithecine finally selected
to be the vehicle for the advent of mind had developed the requisite
automatisms of head and eye. They were endowed with a quantum of
sensitive energy more free of the automatism of behaviour-patterns
than ever before. Under the influence of the Demiurgic Intelligences,
operating through consciousness, they acquired skills, thereby producing
a rudimentary organization of the sensitivity in preparation for the direct
impact of the conscious energy. Sexual selection was guided by the
demiurges who also channelled their innate curiosity into exploring the
use of tools.

At this stage we must mention the Universal Individuality. No
lesser will can be the master of Creative Energy (E 3) which is only
two stages removed from the Prime Mover, or Transcendental Energy
(E 1), that sustains all existence. The Universal Individuality does not
transform, but rather maintains, the Cosmic Harmony* through the in-
strumentality of the Demiurgic Powers.** At this point, two mutually

* Cf. Vol. II, Chapter 35, pp. 316-320, where Cosmic Harmony is defined as that
essence-quality in which culminates the static self-completion of the Creation.

** Ibid., p. 319. 'The Demiurges are the guardians of Universal Law, and, in the
fulfilment of their responsibilities, the demands of the whole must inevitably take
precedence over the needs of the parts.'

conflicting requirements arise: on the one hand, thinking beings able
to act within the natural order are needed to assume responsibility for
the evolution of life; and, on the other, intelligent beings are needed who
are capable of attaining Individuality and thereby transmitting the Plan
of Creation from the hyparchic future to the present moment. These
two needs are quite distinct. Mind can develop without soul—though
not completely—and soul can develop without mind—though not
effectively. In our study of the Spiritualization of Fact and the Realiza-
tion of Value, we distinguish two series of essences, one static and the
other dynamic* The one culminates in the Cosmic Harmony which
can be conceived as the perfection of Mind and the other in the Ultimate
Realization which is the perfection of Soul.

Mind has thus a two-fold cosmic significance. It is the self-ordering
principle within existence by reason of its place between sensitivity and
consciousness. This combination makes possible a two-fold awareness
of what is and what might be and hence of responsible action. Mind is
also linked with creativity (E 3) and automatism (E 6). Creativity
makes soul-formation possible and hence union with the Individual-
ity, which can exercise its will in creative action. Automatism makes the
power of presence possible, without which mind can only dream.

The ordering activity of mind enters at an earlier stage of evolution
and we find it present for a very long period of time before man began
to acquire soul-powers. This raises the question of the place of the
Personal Individuality in the absence of soul. The situation is not like
that of the human child as we know it today, for we have the soul-stuff
in us from conception, ** It is also different from that of the idiot or
defective mindless human adult. The minds of early men were the
minds of 'thinking animals' incapable of transforming into souls. The
state of the Personal Individuality could only have been within the
hyparchic future; and this is an important conclusion for it suggests
that the Individuality remained united with the Universal Individuality
and yet could exert a creative influence upon the mind. This may be
the origin of the traditional belief in the pre-existence of souls in Para-
dise, which would need to be modified only by substituting the non-
existential Individuality for the unformed Soul. This condition must
have continued for long ages until the mind reached the degree of
maturity needed for soul-making.

* Vol. II, Chapter 35, p. 318. The distinction appears in the life-cycle of man by
way of the dilemma of self-hood and soul-hood. Cf. Vol. Ill, Chapter 39, Section
15.39.6. on the human Spirit.

** Cf. Vol. Ill, Chapter 40, Section 15.40.3.

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THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

Before these developments could begin, human children had to be
born with minds which were conscious but not yet creative. For this
there had to be a fusion of the conscious and sensitive energies accom-
plished by the agency of the Demiurgic powers.

There was no bodily change in this transitional phase at first. Only
over thousands of generations did Homo erectus begin to emerge as a
distinctively human group. There were the same inherited aptitudes for
the use of tools, the same curiosity and the same restless activity—but
these were now the instruments of a human mind. The work, at this
stage, had made a great step forward, but it was not complete. Consider-
able organic changes were needed before the essentially human power
of verbal communication could be developed. It was also necessary to
convert the pool of sensitivity associated with the primal man into the
Mind-Stuff Pool that we have postulated as the source of all human
minds and the potential source of all human souls. Both these must
have been very slow processes.

We must not forget that the human beings we are now studying
had no accumulated experience of a long human past. The Mind-Stuff
Pool was still almost wholly composed of animal sensitivity combined
with uncontaminated conscious energy and automatic energy with very
limited aptitudes. Minds formed from such material would have a very
limited present moment. They would not have been able to look back
far into the past or foresee much in the future. There were no human
selves.

The situation was indeed a strange one, for the minds were, in their
main constituent—sensitivity—almost wholly animal experience and the
bodies were almost wholly animal bodies. There could be no separation
of consciousness and sensitivity and therefore the experience of these
primitive men must have been an animal experience transformed by
wonder and the ecstasy of knowing that they were alive. This assertion
may seem to border on romantic fantasy; and yet it follows of necessity
from what we know of the conscious energy. When there is no conflict
in the self-hood, consciousness produces a state of enhanced well-
being. This euphoric condition is obtained, as we well know, when
there is a dissociation of sensitivity by the action of drugs or alcohol.
We also well know the ecstasy of communion with nature, when the
Self empties itself of self-hood and the consciousness comes into direct
contact with Life. Such experiences are not sensitive but conscious.
When sensitivity is not loaded up with the content of self-hood the joy
of life is easily awakened.

Here were men with almost empty child-like minds and yet capable

THE ADVENT OF MIND 203

of conscious experience. Probably half-a-million years passed before
the Mind-Stuff Pool became charged with human experience and before
the external life of mankind began to become complicated. During that
long period, there can have been no suffering but that of the animal
body. It is not surprising that the experience of this period deeply
impregnated the Mind-Stuff Pool when it was most receptive and has
left with all the peoples of the world vague memories and longings that
look back to a Golden Age when life was good.

This is not to say that there was no strife between men or that the
early races lived in Paradisaical state all the time. The heritage of sensi-
tivity bequeathed by millions of years of mammalian experience had
its predatory and its libidinous elements.

The characteristics of wolf and tiger, of rat and rabbit are not suitable
for the mind of man and yet the sensitivity from which man's mind
was formed must have been impregnated with these as with all other
animal patterns. This cannot be described as 'original sin' for no
responsibility attaches to men who draw their sensitivity from the
common pool. Nevertheless, the effect must have been to bring about a
sharp differentiation between men (of the Homo erectus group) and their
cousins the untransformed australopithecines. Men must have learned
to fight and to destroy, tasting blood and changing both their diet and
their habits in a manner that would not have been possible for apes.
We shall also see later that the experience of consciousness may well
have resulted in uncontrollable and dangerous excitements.

Are we to suppose that having initiated the transformation, the Demi-
urgic Intelligences withdrew from the scene? This is most unlikely.
Their presence was needed to avert the many disasters that must have
threatened the new race, drunk with the wine of consciousness and
lacking in experience to adjust themselves to their new powers. It seems
most probable that consciousness could have been transferred to man
only by slow degrees in proportion to the development of the mind.

A strange, but significant, question arises at this point. We referred
in the last chapter to a pool of sensitivity common to the mammals
and birds and said that this was being prepared for the needs of mind.
In the present chapter, we have roundly declared that this sensitivity
was used to create the mind of man. But we have also referred back to
the Mind-Stuff Pool. Are these all one and the same thing? Is the mind
of man still linked to the sensitivity of the animal world? Is the human
Mind-Stuff Pool a part of a greater pool which contains all the sensitive
energy of the Biosphere? We must also remember that the Mind-Stuff
Pool is destined to become the Soul-Stuff Pool by infusion of the

204 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

Creative Energy.* This raises the whole question of the manner in
which the human soul is related to the Biosphere.

It will not escape the perspicacious reader that this amounts almost to
asking whether we believe in transmigration—as, according to tradition,
it was taught by Pythagoras and the Babylonian magi—or whether we
believe that the human mind-pool is totally isolated from the sensitive
energy-pool of the animal world. Obviously, this question cannot be
answered on evidential grounds, but it does seem probable that once
sensitivity has been blended with consciousness it will not return to the
same state as before. If we suppose that the reservoirs of energy are
in a state of potentiality they will be in the dimension of eternity. It is
most probable that these states are on different levels. So that we should
have a situation somewhat as represented by the following diagram:

On this view, the animal nature of man is associated with level D
and draws its sensitivity from this level; but the mind of man—that is
the ground of his Self-hood—is associated with level E and draws and
returns its substance from the specifically human pool. We have added
a sixth level marked 'Free Conscious Energy' to suggest that Demiurgic
Intelligences work on this level and inject consciousness into level E
as it is required and useful.

We can picture the level E as initially empty and gradually acquiring
content with the death of human beings having minds composed of the
three energies. In the diagram, the Creative Energy (E 3) is not repre-
sented. This we may suppose to be associated with the Demiurgic
Nature and to enter, not from Eternity, but from the Hyparchic Future.
So long as the Will remains uncontaminated by conscious acceptance
of the lower states of existence, it must return to its source—that is the
* As it was described in Vol. Ill, Chapter 40, Section 15 .40.3.

THE ADVENT OF MIND

205

Universal Individuality in the state of the Hyparchic Future. Thus the
Will, in the initial stages, always 'preceded' man, leading him on to the
fulfilment of his destiny.

At this stage, man was without access to the creative energy. He had
no individual will—that was yet to come. Obviously, the transforma-
tion we discussed in Chapter 40 was also out of the question. Man had
developing powers, new levels of experience, but no 'I'. The work
now concentrated on the development of these powers of the newly
created human mind—preparation for the joining of will with existence
in complete human beings.

Now we can understand better why a very long period of time was
needed before the next stage in man's journey could begin. It was
necessary that the Mind-Stuff Pool should be established without the
interference of the separate human selves, before man could begin to
develop his personality and from this set out upon the quest for a per-
sonal soul. But, as we shall see later, it appears that progress was slower
than it need have been.

Throughout this period, the Demiurgic Intelligences were obliged
to work entirely without the conscious cooperation of the men whose
destinies they were guiding. This is a wholly possible situation in view
of the condition of the primitive mind. We are dealing here with true
primitives, not the degenerate survivals of former cultures that are
commonly called primitive. We cannot emphasize too strongly that
early man was from birth to death in the state of a young child. Indeed,
he was in a far more 'childlike' state than a newborn babe of our times,
for we carry from our conception the burden of a million years of human
experience. Man's true Age of Innocence has gone for ever and will
never return upon this planet.

We can scarcely fail to recognize that all is proceeding according to a
plan, the main lines of which we are beginning to discern. Life did not
come on the earth by accident, nor by the working of some mysterious
'vital urge' or 'tendency to complexification'. It came in order to make a
contribution to the Universal Purpose. We can see further that the
contribution required the assumption by the Biosphere of responsibility
for its own realization. A necessary stage was the arising of conscious
beings capable of free action based on understanding. Such beings
could not develop accidentally at each step, and therefore, the process
bad to Be guided. At each step, there has been an unmistakable advance
towards eventual responsibility.

We do not suggest that the entire process was predetermined: on the
contrary, it has taken shape as it has developed. The three kinds of

206 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

Future: the Foreordained, the Predestined and the Predetermined have
made their appropriate—and necessary—contributions to the process.*

* Cf. G. Gurdjieff, All and Everything, pp. 762-5- These passages are couched in
Gurdjieff's difficult idiom and cannot be understood in quotation. They are, neverthe-
less, remarkable as containing the definite statement of a 'Divine Plan'. The transition
from beings capable of locomotion (i.e., animals) to beings 'with the inherent possi-
bility of acquiring Individual Reason' was deliberately fostered by 'Our Common
Father Endlessness' with the 'Divine Idea of making use of it' (i.e., Individual Reason)
'for Himself, in the administration of the enlarging World.' The blending of sensitivity
and consciousness, as the means of bringing about the transformation, is described in
striking terms on pp. 764—5.

Chapter Forty-six
THE AWAKENING OF MIND

17.46.1. The Four Ages of Mind

In this chapter, we shall cover a million and a half years of human
history and cannot hope to give an adequate account of the greatest epic
of them all: the vicissitudes of the human mind in its long march towards
maturity. The subject matter is in such a state of flux at this time
(November 1965) that not even a fool would venture to rush in and make
definitive pronouncements. Experts disagree upon almost all the facts
and their interpretation. Fortunately, we are not engaged in a critical
analysis of the conflicting views on dating or taxonomy, but in an
attempt to trace the History of Mind.

We shall distinguish four Ages of Mind, from the time of its con-
ception and birth to our present moment. These may conveniently be
related to the divisions of the Pleistocene proposed by Woldstedt and
generally accepted by students of the vertebrate fauna of the Ice Ages.
We begin with mind newly arisen at the coming of the first Ice Age.

17.46.1.1. THE INFANCY OF MIND

This may be divided into two parts. The first part corresponds to the
lower Pleistocene, or the Gunz glaciation, and the Upper Villafranchian
—which represents the long period of its gradual onset. Although no
ice accumulated on continental land masses before the Gunz glaciation,
the climate grew intensely cold in certain parts of the world, while in
Others there was very heavy rainfall. We know that during the Lower
pleistocene new mountains arose, great volcanic eruptions occurred,
and earthquakes caused vast cracks such as the Rift Valley, the Jordan
Valley and the Dead Sea. It was thus a time of change and catastrophe,
and life on earth was subjected to one of the severe tests that have come
periodically.

It was. the period when members of our Group I lived—Australo-
j'liliecus—including Homo habilis. They were already present when it
began and they survived it. It was Homo habilis and perhaps other
members of this Group, who, by fashioning the first 'pebble tools' of the
Oldowan culture, left behind them traces which reveal to us the birth of
D.U. iv—9

2o8

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

an intelligence different in quality from that of any other earthly
creature.

The second part of the Infancy of Mind corresponds broadly to the
Middle Pleistocene. This began with the warm interglacial of Gunz-
Mindel, and was followed by the longest and most severe glaciation of
Mindel, which attained two peaks and lasted for about 150,000 years.
Vast sheets of ice formed over much of Europe and parts of Africa,
Canada and America, with smaller ice caps in more southerly mountains.
This was succeeded by the immensely long Mindel-Riss or Holstein
Interglacial, which included periods of exceptionally mild weather not
unlike that of the Miocene.

The first interglacial was the period of transitional types between
Groups I and II: of advanced Homo habilis and Telanthropus in Africa;
Pithecanthropus IV in Java; and, in Europe, of the owner of the mysteri-
ous Mauer mandible and his unknown relatives. Their tools were still
very primitive; but, as we have seen, a few began to be worked all round
to form the first handaxes of the Chellean or Abbevillian culture. This
culture evolved in Africa; but, by the opening of the Mindel glaciation,
it had spread widely and had even been carried to Europe. It should be
said that these very early tools were fashioned in a more or less hap-
hazard way; their makers could not repeat standard shapes or forms
designed for definite purposes.*

The Mindel Glaciation and the Mindel-Riss Interglacial comprised
the period of dominance of Group II or Homo erectus. 'Chellean Man'
appeared early in this period and improved his techniques later, adding
a new flaking technique known as Acheulian. In Europe, a different flake
culture known as the Clactonian appeared. Towards the end of the
glaciation or at the beginning of the next interglacial the pithecanthro-
pines—'Java Man' and 'Peking Man'—came upon the scene, followed
many thousands of years later by the transitional early Neanderthaloid
of Europe Homo steinheimensis. Although he existed for so long, Peking
Man does not seem to have developed tool-making beyond the haphazard
stage. The peoples of the Chelles-Acheul culture, however, developed
a well-defined tradition in the fully evolved hand-axe, and presumably
some specialization of function is represented by the simultaneous use
of hand-axes and flake-tools; moreover, the evidence suggests that they
often took pride and pleasure in fashioning their tools as beautifully
as possible. They probably improved wood-working skills; and certainly
they became daring and efficient hunters. But in view of the immense
length of the period, the most striking feature of the cultural remains of
• Jaquetta Hawkes, Prehistory, Vol. I of the History of Mankind, p. 143.

THE AWAKENING OF MIND

209

Homo erectus is the lack of evidence of inventiveness or enterprise. This
is, of course, an important observation for our reconstruction of the
History of Mind.

17.46.1.2. THE CHILDHOOD OF MIND

The Upper Pleistocene began with the glaciation of Riss, continuing
on through the Riss-Wurm or Eemian Interglacial and the glaciations
of Wurm, to the final withdrawal of the glaciers. It was characterized
by extremes of cold and heat, damp and drought, by high and low sea
levels, and even by great crustal movements such as produced the Rocky
Mountains and the Andes. During this tumultuous time, the animal
kingdom was severely shaken, and many of the older species died out
and were replaced by new. Faced with every kind of threat and hardship,
man began to grow up.

The Childhood of Mind corresponded to much of this period, but it
may be said to have ended at some time during the Gottweig Inter-
stadial—between the first two main glaciations of Wurm. This was the
period of Group III men—of Homo sapiens. It was a time of develop-
ment in which, perhaps most noteworthy for the History of Mind, man
began to concern himself with questions of life, death and the Beyond.

17.46.I.3. THE ADOLESCENCE OF MIND

This corresponds to the later part of the Upper Pleistocene, from
the Gottweig Interstadial to the withdrawal of the glaciers, that is,
from about 45,000 to 11,000 years ago. It was the first period of Group
IV, of Homo sapiens sapiens or modern man: the most dreaded hunter
on earth; the highly skilled craftsman; the painter and sculptor.

17.46.1.4. THE MATURING OF MIND

The fourth age of Mind corresponds to the period called 'Recent' by
geologists and 'Holocene' by palaeontologists. So far, it has lasted 11,000
years, and we may still be at its beginning. Compared with the hun-
dreds of thousands of years in which the earlier ages are measured,
this is deceptively short. But we must not forget the Law of Accelerated
progress that warns us not to look too much at the clock —not even the
atomic clock—when we are seeking to understand the workings of
Mind. It may be that Mind has covered more ground in the last ten
thousand years than in much longer periods of the past.

The fourth age leads up to the Modern World, and the face of the
earth has changed little since it began. This history of later times is a
recognizable, coherent whole, inasmuch as men settled on the land and

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THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

became cattle breeders and farmers, built cities and began to leave
intentional traces of their doings for the benefit of posterity. In the work
of man from the Neolithic period onwards, we can recognize people like
ourselves, with more or less the same interests and values, and quite
the same abilities and weaknesses. This is not to say that there has been
no progress. On the contrary, it has been a period of astonishing ad-
vances in many fields and equally astonishing stagnation in others.
The point is that it forms an integral whole with our modern world and
should be studied as such. We shall therefore separate it from the first
three periods and treat it in another chapter.

17.46.2. The Infancy of Mind

Applying these notions to the Genesis of Mind, we must look ahead
as well as backwards. We see man today with a potential for Individual-
ization and we agree that this potential must have entered somewhere
along the path of hominization. We can scarcely doubt that when mind
was being formed, the purpose of it all must have already been present
to some Intelligence and we have, therefore, to ask just what this
implies. It means, firstly, that the Intelligence must have initiated and
directed the process of Noogenesis up to the time when mind could
begin to direct itself. And it means, secondly, that an Act of Will must
have been accomplished whereby the potential for Individualization
was implanted in the nascent mind.

We ascribe the first part of the process to the Demiurgic Intelligence
working on the level of creativity (E 3) and the second part to the
Universal Individuality operating in the sphere of the Unitive Energy
(E 2) which we identify with Universal Love.

If we believe that the Universe is intelligently ordered and that life
on earth has been guided by high, though limited Intelligences—those
of the Demiurgic Powers—we must use our own intelligence to re-
construct the event of mind's first appearance. Assuming a certain
degree of foreknowledge—perhaps definite as regards the material
world—we would expect the Demiurgic Intelligences to foresee the
coming Ice Ages. They would be aware that severe and tumultuous
conditions would be both a threat and an opportunity to the new kind
of being that was to come into the world. Would we expect them, under
the circumstances, to wait for the Ice Ages before endowing the austra-
lopithecine chosen race with mind? In their place, we would await clear
indications that the Time of Trouble was on its way and then—perhaps
a thousand, perhaps ten thousand generations in advance—make the
decisive step and take every precaution to ensure that mind-bearing

THE AWAKENING OF MIND

211

hominids were well-established before severe conditions arose which
might destroy entire populations.

For modern man, a process that requires hundreds of thousands of
years for its accomplishment seems an undertaking that no finite
intelligence could guide and see through from start to finish. But we
have been accustomed to regard man as the highest order of finite
intelligence that participates in the history of the earth. The ancient
doctrine of Angelic Powers has gone into abeyance even among theo-
logians who give lip service to it without considering its implications,
and it is totally disregarded by scientists and philosophers to whom it
savours of 'magic' and 'superstition'. It is strange that we, who have had
our minds opened to the immensity of the visible universe should have
closed them to the immensity of the invisible. Scientists and philo-
sophers who seek to base all explanations upon laws derived from sense-
perception, are faced with the irreducible reality of consciousness. It
cannot be denied that consciousness is related to time in ways that are
different from the behaviour of material objects or even living organisms
lacking consciousness.* There should be no theoretical difficulty
in admitting the possibility that there are conscious Intelligences whose
Present Moment so far transcends our own that they can embrace,
within their awareness, an operation that requires half-a-million
years to accomplish. Nor should we find any theoretical objection to
such Intelligences having the power to act also within the smaller
present moment of individual organisms.

We shall follow through our argument and examine the consequences
of the theory of the conscious genesis of mind. We have already
proposed a scheme whereby the Demiurgic Intelligences brought mind
—through the gift of consciousness—to a selected group of australo-
pithecines (possibly Homo habilis), and the Universal Individuality
endowed each mind so prepared with a latent Individuality. We left the
story at the point where we saw that it would be necessary to form a
special reservoir of the new 'blended substance' from which minds are
made."]" This was bound to take a very long time, and several thousand
generations would not be excessive.

We have also to remember that Mind is a two-edged weapon able to
work destructively no less than constructively. As the new-born human
child, is wholly dependent upon its nurse or mother, so the new-born
human* mind must have been wholly dependent upon its Demiurgic
sponsors. This assertion is revolutionary, for it implies that mind, so far

* Cf. Chapter 42, Section 16.42.5.3. ** Of- The diagram of Fig. 45.4, p. 204.

212

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

THE AWAKENING OF MIND

213

from having survival value, was so dangerous to its first possessors that
they could not be left to their own devices.

In the last chapter, we surmised the euphoria of the early men,
but did not emphasize the dangers of their psychological condition.
Imagine a child's mind in an adult body—we see such a situation in
many spastics. We can see for ourselves how consciousness associated
with a disorganized sensitivity is disastrous for its possessor and those
around him. It is certain that a creature such as Australopithecus born
with consciousness (E 4) in addition to a sensitivity (E 5) organized
only to the point of being able to use tools and weapons, would be liable
to uncontrollable states of fear and rage that would expose him to the
danger of racial extinction.

Skill had to be related to a social behaviour pattern. The activity of
the mind required diversified sensitivity and this in turn called for
changes of diet from vegetable to germinal sources. The nascent mind
had to be trained from without and it also had to be guided from within.
All these transformations correspond to the transition from an animal
essence to a human essence.*

The transition is primarily one of significance and potentiality and
therefore best represented by the pentad. The mind of man cannot be
understood if we consider it only from the standpoint of its construction
and activity. It is, pre-eminently, an instrument of integration that
connects past, present and future, the human and the non-human and,
most significantly of all, different levels of existence. Man, by the pos-
session of mind remembers, recognizes and anticipates, he knows him-
self and his world and within this world he responds to influences of

different kinds. The organized complexity of the human mind has slowly
developed through the ages; but its essential features were present even
before it first arose. We can represent the situation as in Fig. 46.1.

These five modes of significance are related to the five energise
ranging from vitality to creativity that directly characterize the life of
man on the earth.

Vital Significance. Energy E 7 Vitality. Food and its transformation.
The connection between man and the germinal forces of nature. The
'Life Force' in the mind of man.

Practical Significance. Energy E 6 Automatism. Man the Maker. The
acquisition of skills and behaviour patterns. Man's bodily powers
developed and guided by the Demiurgic Intelligences embodied in
human form.

Personal Significance. Energy E 5 Sensitivity. Man as a potential person.
The pre-personal state developing through sexual selection and
imitation towards Self-hood.

Biospheric Significance. Energy E 4 Consciousness. Man destined to
rule all life on the earth. The action of the Demiurgic Intelligences
within the mind. This is a telepathic contact not to be confused with
the acquisition of skills and behaviour patterns.

Cosmic Significance. Energy E 3 Creativity. Man as potential soul.
Contact with the Universal Individuality. The destiny of man as pre-
ordained.

This scheme of significance and potentialities can be recognized as a
re-statement of man's characteristics as an essence class.* Starting from
the bottom, we find the essence linkage of food and eater. Man does not
become man until he frees himself from the restricted diet of his anthro-
poid ancestors. The change of diet disturbs the animal sensitivity, but
also makes it capable of responding to conscious influences. Curiosity,
self-assertiveness, sexual diversification and selection, coupled with loss
of highly specialized sense-perceptions and their replacement by a more
complex reflex structure are all precursors of the human Self-hood.
The transition from animal sensitivity to human mind, seems to have
been fostered by the inclusion of animal marrow in the diet, as is in-
dicated by the frequent occurrence, in early settlements, of bones broken
to enable the marrow to be extracted.

Man became a hunter in order to increase the supply of the kind of

* Cf. Chapter 35, Section 12.35.7.

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THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

food he needed—food, be it noted, that his non-human predecessors
did not need so that they continued to be fruit eaters. Man also at a very
early age learned to eat fish, a very strange diet for Primates none of
whom for a hundred millions years had learned the value of a fish diet.

Our early men are in front of a two-fold problem: they must have more
food and it must have a far greater variety than their ancestors had been
accustomed to eating. Anthropologists are well aware that progressive
societies invariably have a mixed diet and that societies eating only
one kind of food remain stationary. The deep connection between
psychology and diet is a recent discovery of modern science: how is it
that these early men behaved as if they knew all about it?

We return to our Demiurgic hypothesis with, perhaps, an increased
awareness of the immensity of the task involved in bringing the human
mind to birth. It had taken five hundred million years from the first
invertebrate animals to make a human body. It took several hundred
thousand years to make a human mind.

The early men had little or no skill. They probably had very little self-
control compared with animals whose behaviour is chiefly regulated
by instinctive patterns. Limitless patience would be needed to wean
them away from animal behaviour run wild with the strong wine of
human consciousness, to teach them skills that would enable them to
increase their food supply and vary their diet and also induce them to
submit themselves to the genetic control necessary to prevent the human
stock from being diluted with non-human races among whom they lived.
We can only make guesses: but the following account seems to agree
both with the traces of the past and with what we know of the energies
and their operation in man.

There were several centres of experimentation. So far three have
been discovered: in Africa, Indonesia and China. In all cases, the
starting point was a hominid group either australopithecine or of very
similar characteristics. These groups had already learned to use simple
instruments such as the pebble-tools thoroughly investigated in South
and East Africa and quite widely known from surface finds elsewhere.
These tools consist of stones with one end chipped to give a cutting
edge. Useful in themselves, they are still more useful in the development
of the human hand. We assume that the entire development is watched
by the Demiurgic Intelligences who use sexual selection to breed, in the
genetic pattern that will enhance the upright stance and the efficiency of
the hand and eye.

The progress of Homo erectus towards the fuller possession of a
human mind was more psychological than anatomical and that is why

THE AWAKENING OF MIND

215

it cannot be discerned from the study of fossils alone. Once a number of
groups had been truly hominized by the acquisition of mind, the worst
part of the task then began. No other animal had reached such a
degree of adaptability nor discovered the limitless potentialities of the
fore-paws when used as hands. Once this sensitivity organized in mind
began to be conscious of itself it could no longer be brought under
the direct control of the Demiurgic Power. This is the price paid for
consciousness and it has since proved for mankind to be a stiff one.
Although we are looking back more than a million years, we can verify
the assertion from our own observations. It is well known from the
study of hypnotism and mediumistic phenomena that another mind can
take possession of the sensitivity only when the consciousness is in
abeyance or dissociated from it.

Man had become a mind capable of being taught, and communica-
tion was necessary. For many reasons, some of which will become
apparent in the course of this chapter, we shall postulate a further
application of the technique already proposed: that of Demiurgic
Possession. Associated with the human stock and outwardly indis-
tinguishable from them were the unchanged hominids. The Demiurgic
Will, armed with creative energy (E 3) and consciousness (E 4), would
enter the sensitivity of new-born babies and pretend to be men. They
would recognize one another as men recognize one another today, by
the light of their consciousness. This probably began at once; but it
would not be discernible from the anatomical characters.

Three distinct processes went in parallel. The first, and from our
point of view the most important, left no material traces. It was the
development of the mind and the creation of a pool of mind-stuff.*
This, we say, took half-a-million years. The second process was the
training of skills and behaviour patterns. Traces of this are left in tools
and associated remains showing how animals were hunted and that fire
was used. The third was anatomical and was probably achieved by
breeding within the limits of genetic variability of the existing stock.

These three processes must have developed concurrently and it is
hard to see how this would have been possible if they had not been
intelligently directed. Anatomical changes can occur by mutation or
breeding. When the former are regulated only by survival value, a
single step needs hundreds of thousands of years for its completion. The
rapid changes with which we are here concerned could only have been
achieved by selective breeding. Sexual selection is not natural within a

• We do not yet refer to it as 'soul-stuff' because there is still a step to be made
Before man could acquire a soul.

d.u. iv—9*

2l6

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

species and we can see for ourselves that it does not occur in man even
with all the knowledge that has accrued to him in twenty thousand
years. In ancient customs still preserved in all parts of the world, there
are traces of a time when human mating was regulated on some forgotten
principle of selection. It is plausible to suppose that these customs
originated under the direction of demiurgic intelligences. The acquisi-
tion of skills requires ostensive demonstration and this is possible only
by human contacts. The development of mind, on the other hand, could
come only by an action within the animal sensitivity and this would
have called for the power of telepathic projection. When all these con-
siderations are taken together we find it hard to account for the trans-
formation towards Homo sapiens otherwise than by the hypothesis of
Demiurgic possession as a bridge towards communication by speech.
Speech had to come together with mind and not after it.

The key to the use of mind is speech. There is a surprising extent
of agreement among palaeo-anthropologists that the peoples we have
classed as Group II of Homo erectus were probably able to speak. This
can help us to understand the arising of the use of fire, and the increasing
variety of diet. According to our hypothesis all these arts and behaviour
patterns were taught by the Demiurgic Guiles in human form. This
must have been the case for the development of speech—the prime
instrument of teaching. Perhaps the genesis of mind was only the mo-
ment of conception of humanity. We should, rather, place the birth of
mankind at the time when human speech was acquired. Speech is the
mark of the operative mind.

The question we have to answer is whether man could have learned
to speak unaided. Both inherited ability and learning are essential for
speech. The meagre evidence available suggests that human children of
H. sapiens sapiens stock who have been brought up by animals not only
cannot speak but cannot even be taught coherent speech apart from
words equivalent to gestures.* It is also certain that all human com-
munities even the most primitive or the mot debased have language
and elaborate language at that. It has also been found that although all
the living anthropoid apes have jaw, tongue, larynx and the necessary
set of nerves and muscles for producing articulate sounds, they cannot
be taught to speak. This is true even of chimpanzees who can use many
kinds of tools and even paint pictures!

* A few words can be learnt, depending on the age when taken from the animal
foster-mother. Cf. Wolfchild and Human Child, A. Gesell, 1941. After more than ten
years of care, 'Kamala' the wolf-child could say only forty-five words in not more than
three-word sentences.

THE AWAKENING OF MIND

217

It is certain that anatomically the human structure is particularly well
adapted to produce a wide variety of sounds and to articulate clearly.
This adaptation was certainly the result and not the cause of speech.*
Now the brain of modern man contains a hundred thousand million
cells connected in a communication network of inconceivable com-
plexity. It is by no means certain that breeding—i.e., crossing of genes-
could have produced the change from the 600 cc brain of the austra-
lopithecine to the 1,000 cc of Peking man without the aid of genetic
mutations. These cannot yet be produced to order in man—though
they can be induced in fruit flies—but it does not seem beyond the
power of the Demiurgic Intelligence to induce favourable mutations
with no more violation of the laws of Nature than what T. H. Morgan
did in his laboratory with Drosophila. It is not the kind of anatomical
modification that can be elicited by selective breeding: as, for example,
experts can breed canaries that can sing louder, more clearly and with
a greater variety of sounds than the wild canary.

The essential character of human speech that distinguishes it from
the many varieties of animal and insect communication, is that it can
make connections beyond the limits of the actual present moment. Here
we come back to the unique character of the human mind. Whereas
sensitivity can give only present awareness, consciousness connects the
present with the non-present. Does this not apply also to man's tool-
making? Is not man fundamentally different from the chimpanzee who
uses sticks or builds a structure to secure the banana that he sees before
him here and now? Even language cannot be called decisively human,
for all animals have means of communication by sound and gesture
and these means often include groups of sounds of not inconsiderable
complexity. The distinctive character of man lies in his ability to ex-
tend the present moment by mental images of past and future, of
distant and even of non-existent objects. This ability requires a mental
structure that does not arise from the anatomy of the brain, but from
contact with a human environment. This can be expressed in the
dictum: omne humanum ex homino: all that is human comes from
man. Child development demonstrates at every moment the truth
of this dictum. The characteristic human powers are not innate: all
develop by contact with the human environment. In the absence of
this environment, there are no speech, no use of tools, no mental

* 'The reason a chimpanzee cannot learn to talk is that the necessary cortical areas
are either not present or not sufficiently differentiated. Those areas of the cortex
associated with persistent motivation, memory, anticipation, and imagination are
greatly expanded in the human brain', Washburn and Howell: Human Evolution and
Culture, The Evolution of Man, Chicago, 1960.

2l8 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

images of past and future. The very nature of mind is such that it
could not have been generated without conscious guidance. We see a
projection of this guidance every time a child learns to speak and to
perform other characteristically human functions. The guidance is not
consciously recognized by the child and usually not consciously exer-
cised by the adult. Its instrument is imitation. All animals imitate, the
Anthropoidea (including monkeys as well as anthropoid apes), do so
most of all. But imitation without mind will not produce the human
powers evidenced in tool-making and in speech. Hence, we reach once
again the conclusion that mind entered into man rather than that mind
grew in man as a result of using tools and learning to speak.

The best, because the simplest, explanation is that Demiurgic
Intelligences entered into some of the children of Homo erectus and
began to make sounds that could be recognized as having meaning and
to fabricate implements and demonstrate their use. In this way, the
significance of looking beyond the present moment would eventually dawn
upon some of the 'natural' people in contact with them. Slowly and
patiently, the rudimentary procedures of instruction would be esta-
blished until 'natural' parents began to show their own children how
to act with foresight in simple matters. The process must have taken a
very long time, because to begin with there were no true human per-
ceptions, and no concepts such as we have. For example, the first men
must have had almost no notions of past and future. These are far more
sophisticated notions than are involved in speech directed to immediate
practical ends. We can suppose that the notions of 'tomorrow' and 'not-
tomorrow' were acquired. But it is doubtful if there was any idea of
'yesterday', so there could be no traditions, no handing on of knowledge
as we understand it.

We are faced with enormously long periods of time when counted in
human generations. For men without time-scales and without knowledge
of counting, one year is the maximum unit. Time goes in uncounted
cycles and no generation can look beyond its beginning and its end.
Accidental discoveries—like genetic anomalies—would tend to be lost
within a generation. It is most improbable that, under these conditions,
there could be any transmission of new concepts.

This point must be emphasized, because we so easily forget that we
are trying to understand minds totally different from our own. Often
reference is made to the Tasmanian and other aboriginals who were
discovered still in a stone-age culture and it is supposed that we can
learn from them what man was like fifty thousand generations ago.
But all men of our time, whether of aboriginal or advanced culture,

THE AWAKENING OF MIND 210

carry both in their transmitted heredity and in their 'soul-stuff', the
consequences of a million years of human experience. Even so, we learn
from anthropologists that the most 'primitive' aboriginals have no idea
of times beyond a year and are unable to transmit anything new that
they learn to their children.

We can be pretty confident then that Homo erectus could only transmit
the skills that he acquired from childhood and for which he had a strong
mental predisposition. This accounts for the extreme conservatism
of the early human cultures. Conversely, the comparatively stationary
state of the tool-making and tool-using art for thousands of generations,
is evidence that the human mind had not yet acquired creativity—nor
even the power of conceptual thought.

The assumption that H. erectus was capable of conceptual thought is
totally incompatible with the unquestioned and universally agreed
observation that for hundreds of thousands of years the cultural achieve-
ments of these men that have left any traces amounted to a few minor
improvements in shaping flints. Of course they may have achieved
advances in working wood and leather and in social organization of
which no traces remain: but, judging by what happened later, it is
certainly safe to conclude—as every expert does—that there was re-
markably little progress in thousands of generations.

Now this simply would not have been possible if men had really been
capable of 'conceptual thought'. If there is one thing we can be sure of
it is that conceptual thought aided by human speech leads to progress.
The unequal distribution of abilities which is inevitable on genetic
grounds alone, makes it certain that, if not in every generation, at least
in every ten generations, a man of exceptional ability will appear. Such
men would be bound to make improvements in the everyday activities
of life: and these improvements, in a society capable of verbal com-
munication, would be adopted and spread. Again, if conservatism pre-
vailed ten times and a new invention was rejected, the eleventh time the
new idea would fall on fertile ground. We have, at the very least, forty
thousand generations from the earliest true men to the men of the later
Palaeolithic cultures who began to make real progress.

At the outset, man had, we may say, a 'self-less mind'. This does not
mean that he was a faultless 'Adam before the Fall'. On the contrary,
he was an animal, with animal passions and differing from other animals
solely by the possession of some measure of consciousness. He would
fight, kill, destroy, love and fear: but nearly all his actions would be
indistinguishable from the instinctive behaviour of animals. Nearly all,
but not quite all: for by slow degrees mind was gaining structure and

220

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

parents could teach their children what they themselves had learned.
But how had they learned it? Not by a creative, synthetic leap of a mind
endowed with human reason. All that was still hidden in the hyparchic
future—a destiny to be realized in descendants inconceivably remote.
Whatever was learned had to be taught to them. The teachers were not
only wiser than the pupils: they were wiser than we modern men would
have been in their place. We cannot resist the temptation to hurry.* We
could not contemplate a task that would take a thousand years, let alone
a hundred thousand.

A considerable effort of mental adjustment is needed in order to form
any adequate concept of the working of Demiurgic Intelligences over
periods of time a hundred times longer than the entire historical period.
Only with difficulty can we grasp the notion of a directed process so
slow that there is no perceptible change in ten thousand years and yet
so rapid that it can intervene in the conception of individual human
beings.** We should be entitled to refuse to make the effort if the concept
were not indispensable.

As with a modern infant, everything has to be taught, and speech is
the gateway to the learning of childhood. The Childhood of Mind will
see men able to accumulate and transmit experiences through
language and symbolisms. Before we move on, however, we should
pause and consider the great enigma of this immensely long period—
which was abnormally stagnant.

17.46.3. The Hiatus in Development

We shall go forward on the hypothesis that the Demiurgic Intelli-
gences maintained their care of the infant human race throughout the
Lower Pleistocene and into the first Interglacial. During the height of
the glaciations enormous quantities of water are frozen into the glaciers
and the level of the ocean falls. River valleys are left high and dry and
new valleys are opened. The climatic changes force migration upon all
animals that can move. With their small, weak bodies not much larger
than modern pigmies—these earliest men lived through all the vicissi-
tudes of that period of catastrophe and held their own against its desper-

* Witness the disastrous results of trying to transmit 'culture' to tribes who for
thousands of years have been fixed in a way of life. Thus the Russians are destroying
the Tungus and other races of Arctic Siberia; the Australians are destroying their
aborigines: even the American Indians, far higher in the scale of development, are
being destroyed by haste.

** In our description of Providential History we pointed out that by using an influx
of creative energy, the Demiurgic Intelligences could statistically alter the general
trend of events. Cf. Chapter 43. It is the creative energy, of course, which is instru-
mental in the arising of any human totality also. Cf. Chapter 40.

THE AWAKENING OF MIND

221

ate predators. Probably very few survived; but it seems unlikely that
any would have done so without intelligent guidance.

In the Middle Pleistocene they were succeeded, as we have said, by
men of an anatomy more like our own. Throughout the whole of the
period of the Mindel-Riss interglacial—some 640,000 years—there is
hardly a sign of any advance in tool-making. Neither have we found any
other traces of human culture. This enormously long and relatively
stationary period has always puzzled students of pre-history. Most
anthropologists hold that if certain anatomical requirements are satis-
fied, development of true human culture should follow automatically.*
These requirements consist of erect posture, stereoscopic vision, fully
opposable thumb, and a brain capacity exceeding 1,000 cc. Since nearly
all authorities agree that such attributes were present in Homo erectus,
his lack of progress becomes a crucial question.

For all his clever hands; his upright posture, his keen stereoscopic
vision, and his magnificent head, Homo erectus, in all his varieties con-
tinued to live upon the same level as that upon which he began his
career. The great cranial capacity of H. erectus—three times that of the
highest apes—suggests the possession of mental powers, potential if
not yet actual, beyond what was needed for the simple life of tribes of
food-gatherers and hunters. The capacity of a wolf-pack for concerted
action is achieved with a cranial capacity a tenth of that of H. erectus.
Beaver colonies in their use of timber and the flow of water are engineers
of no slight technical ability and yet not even the giant beavers of the
Villafranchian period could boast a brain one tenth that of a man. Birds
have keener sight and no less capacity for emotional sensitivity than
man and yet the bird's brain is a simple structure compared with the
humblest primate—let alone man. The power of communication pos-
sessed by insects and their capacity for social organization including the
most efficient division of labour do not depend upon the possession of
a large brain, nor upon an upright posture and a pair of hands.

Wherever we turn in search of some clearly superior power associated
with the brain of man, we find that one or other of the animal phyla
can show us functional powers not inferior to those we associate with

• Cf. McCurdy, Human Origins, p. 431. 'Given their physical complex, a culture
that we call human would follow as surely as does the day the night.' R. Carrington,
loc. cit., pp. 58—9, quotes six main characteristics of man: (1) a limb structure suitable
in an erect stance and the manipulation of objects; (2) an exceptionally well-balanced
brain: (3) highly specialized social habits; (4) the power of speech; (5) the ability to
make and use tools; and (6) the faculty of conceptual thought. Since, in his belief, all
six were possessed by Homo erectus (loc. cit., chapters 7 and 8) we are left to wonder
why the latter made so little of them.

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THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

H. erectus. Such considerations serve to heighten the strange impression
produced by the long stagnation of man under conditions that might
have been expected to favour the development and use of his mental
powers in the characteristic human manifestations of memory, learning
from experience and applying experience in the arts of invention and
construction.

The first answer that suggests itself is that hominization was not
complete. A 'mutation' was required to bring about some anatomical
change that would produce true man. But at least some of the men of
this period were fully 'human', as evinced by the skulls from Swans-
combe and Steinheim whose cranial capacities were quite as great as
that of modern man. There is also the evidence of the artifacts them-
selves. We have said that these showed little progress, but they do
show wonderful skill and satisfaction in good workmanship. One has
only to examine the collections of tools in the Musee de l'Homme in
Paris or the Natural History Museum in London to be convinced that
they were the product of a human mind with consciousness as well as
sensitivity. Yet the traces left to us can be no more than an infinitesimal
part of the work of these people, most of which must have been in
perishable materials. Animals were certainly trapped by ingenious
devices. And stone balls, found on many sites, may have been attached
to wooden handles to form dubs, or to short thongs to be thrown. At
least twelve sets of balls in groups of three have been found by Leakey,
who suggested that they may be 'bolas' like those used by some American
Indians. Bolas* consisted of three balls, held in bags made of hide, tied
together with twisted thongs of different lengths, which were hurled at
the legs of running animals and entangled them so as to bring the quarry
down. A much lighter form of this device is used by certain Eskimos
for hunting birds.

Both in his anatomy and in his works, Homo erectus proclaims him-
self a true man. Why then, we ask again, did he achieve so little in hun-
dreds of thousands of years? Also, if we accept the Law of Accelerated
Progress, the third stage of development from Homo erectus to Homo
sapiens lasted far too long in proportion to the earlier and later stages.

Let us here anticipate conclusions to be reached later and set down
the stages which man has covered in his progress up to the present time.
Starting with Australopithecus, we can distinguish the following main steps.

1st step. Some hominoid stock selected for organization of sensitivity
corresponding to characteristics of man. Development of

* L. S. B. Leakey Exploring 1,750,000 years into Man's Past. Nat. Geog. Mag.,
Washington, 1961. Sonia Cole The Prehistory of East Africa, 1963, pp. 155-6.

THE AWAKENING OF MIND 223

biped habit and increasing use of fore-paws for rudimentary
skills. Leads to Australopithecus 3-4 million years b.p.

2nd step. Australopithecus endowed with consciousness. Appearance of
first true men 1.25 to 1.75 million years b.p. leads to Homo erectus.

3rd step. Homo erectus produces many sub-species and varieties. Con-
structs tools and has a basic speech. Development of sapiens
with full cranial capacity 150,000-180,000 years b.p.

4th step. The appearance of Homo sapiens sapiens with individual
creativity. 37,000-42,000 years B.P.

5th step. Homo sapiens sapiens develops social consciousness, agri-
culture, settlements, and a complex language structure.
11,000 years b.p.

6th step. 'Modern Man' comes forward during the time of the great
Revelations. 2,000 years b.p.

This gives us six points on a scale from early ape-like primates to
modern man with obviously accelerated progress. When we plot 'units
of progress' against the logarithm of time, as was done in Fig. 45.1.
we obtain the curve of Fig. 46.2.

The dotted line between stages 2 and 3 indicates the hiatus in deve-
lopment. Had progress followed the same curve as for the total progress
of life (Fig. 45.1.) we should have reached our present stage of develop-
ment in the height of the last glaciation. This is shown by the chain-
dotted line which reaches the sixth unit of progress 28,000 years before
the present.

We do not claim evidential value for the curve of Fig. 46.2. Its use
is rather in helping to visualize a fact that is accepted and indeed
emphasized by all authorities though very differently interpreted. On
the assumption that the mind of man made no difference to his progress,
it is reasonable to invoke mutation and natural selection and to allow a
very long period for the emergence of a new species.

Let us follow up this point. The ancestor of our elephants, Eliphas
meriodinalis divided into two groups E. antiquus that was adapted to
forest life and E. primigenius that lived on the steppes and was ancestor
to the mammoth. After the Biosphere had passed through the exacting
test of the first glaciation of Gunz, the two groups, which previously had
been subject to wide variations, had evolved into two sub-species. After
two more glaciations the distinction was clear and definite: elephants
and mammoths were as different as any two species of the same genus
can be. This transformation took about a million years: why, it may be
asked, should not the same have happened to man?

THE AWAKENING OF MIND 225

There are several conclusive reasons why the development of man
cannot be compared to that of the elephants, horses and other mammals
who have been his contemporaries.

1. There has been no separation of forest-living and steppe-living
species of Homo. On the contrary, early men in the northern and south-
ern hemispheres were remarkably alike.

2. There is no indication of any selective action before, during or
after either the first or second glaciation.

3. As we have shown earlier in Chapter 45, there were men of highly
developed anatomy (H. sapiens in the opinion of many experts) before
the intermediate Neanderthal man first appeared.

4. It is inconceivable that natural selection would act upon man in
the same way as for horses and elephants. He must have been able from
the start to adapt to very slowly changing environmental conditions so
that sexual selection would always outweigh survival selection.

5. The mind of man has always been a disturbing element in his
response to environmental pressures and opportunities. We see this
under all conditions of existence from the Arctic to the Equator and
from Bushmen to dwellers in modern cities. Our concern, at this stage,
is with man as he was during the period that we have called the Infancy
of the Mind and our problem is to discover how a mind that was
furnished with eyes and hands and speech could not make more of its
opportunities even without mutating into a new species.

This last point is the crux of the matter. The craftsmen who could
make the Chelles-Acheulian hand-axe or the Clactonian scraper could
have done many other things as well. The problem is not anatomical
and therefore not to be solved by invoking genetic transformations. It
is wholly psychological and can be solved only if we can place our-
selves in the mental situation.

The infancy of the human mind was prolonged beyond what was
required for its normal development. We can suggest some possible
explanations:

1. The Demiurgic Intelligences foresaw the future course of the Ice
Ages and held back man's development so that it would mature during
favourable climatic conditions. This explanation is not very plausible,
as the Gottweig Interstadial that lasted 10,000 years would have given
man at least as long to develop as he has had since the end of Wurm.

2. The Mind-Stuff Pool took so long to form that the transition from
H. erectus to H. sapiens had to be delayed. This is unlikely as presum-
ably the process would conform to the needs of the species.

3. The humanized sensitive energy produced by early man was

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

required for some other purpose and human development had to suffer
in consequence. This strange thesis was propounded by G. Gurdjieff in
his doctrine of the Organ Kundabuffer.*

4. There was a malevolent intervention by an Intelligence hostile to
the plan and purpose of man's evolution. Here we have an expression
of the theme of Milton's Paradise Lost. It is an old theme, for it is to
be found in some of the earliest religious literature: the Zoroastrian
account of Ahriman the evil power who seeks to destroy the creation of
the Good God Ahura.

5. The period of stagnation is a figment of the imagination. Man
developed normally: but we cannot gauge the time required to bring
the new species Homo sapiens into a position of dominance.

It must be said at once that we have neither traces nor traditions that
will help us to decide between alternative explanations; nor shall we
attempt to do so in psychological terms. At a later stage we shall have
to consider the problem of evil and its subjective manifestation as sin.
We may then find it necessary to return to the period we are now about
to leave—the period we have called the Infancy of Mind and also the
Age of Innocence. Let us not forget that we started the present section
with the psychological deduction that when consciousness first blended
with human sensitivity it must have produced a condition of euphoria
that would require careful supervision by the Demiurgic Intelligences.

If this supervision was there at the outset, there is no reason to
suppose that it was withdrawn during the much prolonged period of the
Infancy of Mind. We may hope, as more traces of this period come to
light, to discover indications of the way, or ways, in which H. erectus
adapted himself to the great climatic changes he had to endure. This in
turn may enable us to test the hypothesis of Intelligent Guidance.

17.46.4. The Childhood of Mind

We have already said that this phase took place during the Upper
Pleistocene and began with the Riss glaciation. What interests us prim-
arily is that man begins to move again at last. New techniques appear.
Evidences of an incipient human society come to light.

We have described the anatomical features of Homo sapiens and must
remember particularly his large brain and great physical strength. His
culture is generally known as Mousterian, from the site at Le Moustier

* The theme is developed in great detail in G. Gurdjieff, All and Everything, 1950.
It is usually taken by his pupils such as A. Orage and M. Nichol as a psychological
allegory, but he himself insisted that it was an historical fact that man's development
was deliberately retarded by a 'higher power'.

THE AWAKENING OF MIND

227

in the Dordogne where it was first identified. For a very long time, the
limestone caves of this part of central France were the main source of
our knowledge of prehistoric man. Some were occupied as shelters over
tens of thousands of years, and the successive layers of occupation are
marked off by barren ones so that experts are able to identify the cultures.
Important as they are, it must be remembered that the fact that these
caves were the first to be excavated has given undue prominence to the
Western Neanderthalers as compared with the less specialized peoples of
Group III who lived in other parts of the world.

It is unnecessary for our purpose to discuss all the types of Group III,
however. We shall keep to the Neanderthal species, whose bodily re-
mains are widely known in Eurasia and parts of North Africa and whose
culture was the Mousterian. This culture is sometimes known as
'Middle Palaeolithic' to distinguish it both from the earlier cultures and
from the 'Upper Palaeolithic' by which it was succeeded. The Mousterian
may have been derived from the Clactonian or Tayacian flake industry,*
which extended from France to Palestine, but it included both flake-
tools and hand-axes. Smaller and more specialized tools and weapons
were made, and new methods of flaking and edge chipping produced
more efficient knives and points. The practice of attaching stone
implements to wooden shafts may have commenced. Hunting will have
grown more efficient and organized and skin tents used for shelter during
the summers and in the warmer regions. An interesting point is that
dental and other evidence shows that the Western Neanderthalers of
the Early Wurm period chewed skins to soften them,** in the same way
that the Eskimo use their teeth in preparing skins for clothing: so that
warm clothes and possibly some sort of leather foot covering enabled
them to survive the bitter cold. Yet none of these achievements put them
notably ahead of Homo erectus.

More important is evidence of some sort of social hierarchy, division
of labour and consideration for the old. Although the exceedingly worn-

* Broadly speaking, flake industries—with their knives, scrapers and points—were
better adapted to cold climates where the skinning, cutting up of meat and preparation
of hides formed so important a part of life; whereas hand-axe cultures were better
adapted to forested country and warm climates—since the hand-axe was used for
chopping trees, wood-working and digging up roots. Thus regional differences between
the type of tools employed may often have been due to environmental factors rather
than to differences of cultural tradition. In the same way, different techniques of flaking
are suitable for different kinds of flint or other stone, and the average size of implement
may merely reflect the average size of nodule or pebble to be found in a given locality.
Hence, many of the numerous 'cultures' so carefully distinguished in the past may in
fact represent no more than different methods of tool-making used by groups of the
same cultural tradition in accordance with varying climate and raw material.

** Coon, The Origin of Races, pp. 541-2.

228

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

down state of the teeth of all but very young people shows that strong
teeth were highly important to Neanderthalers, one man found buried
could not have chewed at all due to a severe arthritic condition; while a
second had only two teeth and was both arthritic and very old, so that
he could not have hunted for many years. These men must have been
cared for and their food softened and brought to them. Moreover,
despite their apparent uselessness, both were sufficiently important to
be buried; for all who died in caves during winter cannot have been
buried or quantities of skeletons would have been found, whereas only
seven are known in western Europe.

This brings us to man's great advance, for there are highly significant
indications that he now possessed a far wider horizon in time and space
than the races of Homo erectus. Homo sapiens was the first known to bury
his dead, and he did so in a manner suggesting belief in some kind of
survival or resurrection, for the dead were supplied with tools of stone
and sometimes with other goods.* They were usually laid in an attitude
of sleep, and at times with red ochre, generally supposed to represent
the properties of blood. He almost certainly had a bear cult. The first
example of a Neanderthal Bear Cult sanctuary to be found was in the
cave of Drachenloch, in the Swiss Alps, 8,000 feet above sea level,
where the skulls of cave bears and a number of femurs were found
arranged in a recognizable pattern facing the entry. The ledge or kist
behind which they were placed is apparently an artificial construction,
and, if so, it is by far the oldest known example of a building operation
undertaken by man. It is remarkable that it was evidently built in
honour of a quasi-religious cult and not for shelter or other utilitarian
purpose. Several more sanctuaries have since been discovered, indica-
ting that the Bear Cult was widespread.

Similar cults exist today among the Ainus of Japan, and various
Siberian aboriginals, notably in the lower valley of the Lena—a region
as desolate as ever the Ice Age could have given man to live in. Thanks
to the Swedish explorer Ivan Lissner,** we have detailed accounts of
the way the bears are both honoured and slaughtered. The sense of
kinship with the bear and respect for his superior wisdom is a point that

* In 1938 a cave in Uzbekistan was found to contain five successive habitation layers
with hearths and Mousterian implements. Underneath the top layer was the shallow
grave of a boy, whose remains were carefully encircled by five pairs of ibex horns; a
situation which suggests some ritual to concentrate sensitive energy, of the kind prac-
tised in the same area until recent times.

** Ivan Lissner, Man, God and Magic, London, 1961. The author reaches the con-
clusion that the cult goes back to the Ice Ages and is evidence of an unbroken tradition
some 40,000 years old.

THE AWAKENING OF MIND

229

would scarcely have occurred to anyone who possessed the prehistoric
evidence alone.

One notable deficiency of Homo sapiens was his apparent lack of
artistic feeling. This is particularly striking in view of his immediate
successors. Once again we have the question: why did men with brains
fully equal in size to our own, show so comparatively little initiative in
tool development and no apparent creativity in art? How in the absence
of an organized mind did they develop beliefs in religious—or if not
religious, at least in magical—rituals?

We have our answer ready. All these pieces fit into a coherent inte-
grated picture if we regard this period as the Childhood of the Human
Mind and suppose that the Demiurgic Intelligences made a definite
step towards transferring responsibility for man's destiny to man him-
self. This accounts for the beginning of a regard for the inner or hidden
life of the mind. This step did not include the release of creativity. This
accounts for all the negative facts—lack of initiative, absence of artistic
feeling. Before man could move forward, his sense of the present
moment had to be expanded and extended. He needed to take the past
and future seriously. To us this seems simple enough. For Homo erectus
as we have pictured him, it would have been impossible. It was neces-
sary to develop memory. We can scarcely picture to ourselves what a
revolutionary step this must have been. H. erectus did not remember the
past, he merely learned how to deal with the present and the immediate
future. Neanderthal man could certainly think of past and future and he
would form traditions. This is proved by the Bear Cult.

As we see it, neither hunting magic nor the quasi-religious practices
of Neanderthal man were ends in themselves, but means used by the
Demiurgic Intelligences to develop the mind. If we ask ourselves how
we, as Intelligent Beings, would have set about the task of developing
the powers of memory, and with it, of abstract thinking, among men
whose lives were entirely bounded by the animal needs and animal
passions of the present moment, we shall quickly realize that this could
not be achieved by imitation—the instrument by which the previous stage
was accomplished. In order to develop mental powers as distinct from
bodily skills—and be it understood that speech concerned with con-
crete communications is primarily a bodily skill—it is necessary to get
the mind to work for itself.

We have reached yet another crucial test of our interpretation of
history. The traces of the past can provide no more than confirmatory
or negative evidence: they cannot tell us what actually happened. This
is because we are dealing with men and not with inanimate nature or

230

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

even with animals without mind. The second can be interpreted by
means of general laws, providing we have enough facts. The third can
be understood in terms of physico-chemical laws, vital mechanisms
and behaviour patterns. But man can be understood only as the possessor
of mind. This is why psychology must be the principal instrument
of interpretation. Anthropological studies that deal only with behaviour
patterns can yield positive results providing no mental transformations
are involved. Whenever we are confronted with the development of the
mind, we must rely mainly upon mental evidence.

We must, therefore, turn our attention back to the mind of man as
we know it, and see how it is constructed. Its instrumental material is
sensitive energy (E 5) the highest energy associated with life. This
energy, in its undifferentiated form, enters into all living organisms.
In animals it begins to be organized—in the mammals it is differentiated
and specialized to give the various subjective attributes that we observe
in the mammalian genera. This produced a pool of sensitivity, but not
mind until consciousness was added. Then came Homo erectus the first
possessor of true mind; but we may be confident that he did not have
true human memory with its power to form mental images of events
outside the present moment and to recall and recombine such memories
with the help of abstract symbols.

If we set ourselves to observe the work of mental image formation
we can see that there is an inner objectification brought about by a
separation of consciousness and sensitivity. We then see pictures or hear
sounds within the mind in the same way as if they were produced by an
objective stimulus arising through the eyes or ears. Similarly, memories
of the past present themselves as objects, distinct from ourselves as
subject.

This is possible in several ways. We can produce mental images by
the exercise of our creative will. This is the highest form and is not
common even among modern men and women. Again, it can come by
an emotional stimulus which divides our attention between what we
feel and what we think. Yet again, there are mental images produced
by bodily states, proprioceptive impressions and fantasies similar to
dreaming.

The first mode was certainly beyond the power of Neanderthal man,
the third is not exclusively human: for example, animals certainly dream.
It follows that what H. sapiens had to acquire and did acquire, was the
separation of the image building faculty—or power to organize sensitive
energy—from the feelings.

We may conclude that in this way a task was undertaken and achieved

THE AWAKENING OF MIND

231

by the Demiurgic Intelligences during the period we have called The
Childhood of Mind. The reason for this appellation will now be
apparent. Between the ages of six and thirteen, the average human child
develops in just the same way. The parallelism of ontogeny and phylo-
geny—of the development of the individual being and the development
of the race—is genuine enough, especially as applied to the mind.

It will also be apparent that the new step forward would make a very
heavy demand upon the brain of man. It was called upon to acquire
during each separate lifetime a store of mental imagery and memories
that would gradually change the character of the Mind-Stuff Pool and
produce what Carl G. Jung has called the Collective Unconscious of
mankind. It may well be that the Demiurgic Intelligences either engin-
eered a genetic mutation or took advantage of mutations occurring
naturally to breed a race of large-brained men. It seems improbable that
the great increase of cranial capacity observed at this stage could have
been achieved by cross-breeding alone.

Before we leave the childhood of mind, we must try to picture the
way the Demiurgic Intelligences operated. They could not communicate
with men except through the channel of mind and body. We have already
decided that in the previous stage, when teaching was by Example and
Imitation, the Demiurges had, first of all, to enter the newly created
minds and teach them how to work. The same procedure at the second
stage, where we now are, would not succeed unless means were found
of impressing new ideas upon the already humanized minds. This
was the origin of Magic.

All authorities agree that magic was the earliest cultural agent in
human life: but no one can explain how magic started. It is simply
ridiculous to suggest that the thought of claiming magical powers popped
into the mind of some gifted Neanderthal youngster. One must make a
determined effort to visualize the situation. Hunters are notoriously
superstitious: why not Neanderthal hunters? Why should they not have
had, spontaneously, notions of sympathetic magic and only later have
looked among themselves for a suitable operator to perform the rites.
Again, this is obvious nonsense. It is totally impossible to picture the
origin of magic except through some deliberate action of a man who
knew what he was doing and why. This does not mean that we are forced
to believe in magic—it may all be infantile superstition—but the point
is that no Neanderthal man, or any other man, could have stumbled on
the idea unaided.* Those who think otherwise merely project their own

* Cf. R. Carrington, A Million Years of Man, p. 106, 'Neanderthal man was a
hunter and a savage, but like ourselves he was already quite capable of reflecting on

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

mentality on to that of men who had no antecedent experience remotely
resembling our own. The evidence, which seems conclusive, that magic
appeared before modern man, is as clear a proof as we can hope to find
that some higher intelligence intervened. The continuity of history
that we have observed all through our studies, requires that this inter-
vention should not have been made arbitrarily at one point only. It
must have accompanied man throughout his slow march to the attain-
ment of Individuality. So far, then, from appearing as an inexplicable
aberration, Magic is seen to be a necessary means for action by the
Demiurgic Intelligence.

The technique is almost obvious. Demiurgic Intelligences took pos-
session of selected youths; and, by demonstrating magical powers-
such as predicting the weather and the movements of the herds on which
the tribes depended for their food—were able to gain an ascendancy
over the tribe. We have to this day, distant memories of this social
structure in the Shamans of Siberia. There is good reason to believe
that all stages of past history are reflected into the present.* The shaman
and his followers believe that, by certain ritual practices, he can open
himself to possession by a Great Spirit whose mouthpiece he becomes
for so long as the state of possession persists. Most probably, shamanism
has for centuries, if not millennia, become no more than the empty shell
of a once authentic mode of action of the Demiurgic Power: though it
is also likely that it has been grossly misunderstood by anthropologists.

The first magicians were authentic wonder-workers. They were men
like the other men among whom they lived; but they were conscious of
their Demiurgic Nature. Here we must recall that the nature of man is
three-fold: the higher nature being on the level of the Demiurgic
Essence. When the Demiurgic Intelligences entered men—whose minds

his own nature and his situation in the world. He must certainly have been deeply
conscious of his loneliness and apparent insignificance in a hostile or, at best, indifferent
environment, where wit and cunning were his only weapons against the savage forces
that sought to destroy him. To placate the wild beasts on which he preyed, and to
help him overcome the panic which must often have assailed him when he contem-
plated his own precarious position, it is not surprising that he sought refuge in the
supernatural.' This passage makes no sense at all as an explanation of how it all started
It is simply not permissible to say that Neanderthal man was 'already quite capable of
reflecting' when the problem is to explain how the reflective faculty arose. It is not
permissible to use terms like 'deeply conscious' or 'supernatural' without explaining
how man could ever have formed the concept of the natural order, let alone the super-
natural. We do not wish to belittle the admirable achievement of Mr. Carrington in
giving an account of man's arising and development in a single volume. His approach
to the subject of the human mind is not better or worse than that of other authorities:
all equally miss the central point of explaining the genesis of mind.

* As in the marvellous instance of the blue-green alga who reconstruct for us to this
day the state of affairs before birth, sex and death came to the earth.

THE AWAKENING OF MIND

233

had not until then acquired self-hood—the result would be to form a
Complete Man. In the midst of men with child-minds, the Demiurgic
Magicians would possess perceptions, knowledge and understanding
that would give them a complete ascendancy over their community.
Communities lacking such leaders would be at a serious disadvantage
and the belief would grow and spread that the magicians were beings of
a higher order.

The ritual practices of which only the barest suggestion is left to us
in the 'Bear Cult', would be accepted as necessary conditions for deserv-
ing to enjoy the benefits of magical protection. In this way, the minds of
the ordinary men would be inclined towards new subjective experiences.
Memory would become a treasured power. Very probably there were
runes or incantations to be learned and transmitted from generation to
generation.

By such procedures, the differentiation of the psychic qualities of
sensation, feeling and thought would be developed in the mind. The
sensitive energy would, little by little, become impregnated with the
traces of the new modes of experience. From simple 'mind-stuff' there
would be a gradual transition to 'self-stuff'. Notwithstanding all these
developments, the creative power that characterizes Homo sapiens
sapiens was still lacking. This is why there were no startling advances in
the Mousterian industries nor any artistic creativity.

The scheme we have outlined helps us also to understand the wide
distribution of Neanderthal man. Under the leadership of their Magi-

* The diagram is based on that of Vol. II, Fig. 35 .10, but modified in accordance
with the improved presentation of Chapter 39.

234

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

cians, groups would readily undertake migrations even if they had to
pass through regions where food was scarce or travel dangerous. By the
time the first severe phase of the glaciation of Wurm had ended, there
were Neanderthal settlements in North Africa, Asia and Europe. During
the mild interstadial that ended less than 35,000 years before the present,
the new powers acquired by Neanderthal men had time to flower and
make a further step possible.

Once again, the unexpected happened. This remarkable sub-species
of Homo, sapient but not creative, courageous but not enterprising, that
had surmounted the rigours of the first glaciation of Wurm was soon
and with startling rapidity to disappear from the face of the earth.

There is no apparent reason why the men who had learned to feel
and to remember could not also have learned to create and to take
their destiny into their own hands. We can only hazard a guess that
their emotional development had outstripped their capacity for the
creation of mental images. This guess is supported by various traditions
not less ancient than those of the Siberian and Finnish Bear-Cult. It
may be that, notwithstanding his lack of initiative and creativity, H.
sapiens became a threat to the true purpose of human existence and had
to be removed.

We have completed our hasty survey of the second period of human
development—the Childhood of Mind. Man has acquired the distinct
powers of sensation, feeling and thought. He has, with their help, gained
the ability to remember and recall past events and to look forward
into the future. He has thus added a new dimension to his experience—
a dimension that no living creature on the earth had yet entered—the
dimension of past and future time. With this new experience, there
is no doubt that hope and fear gained new significance: but these were
the consequences, not the causes, of the step forward which had been
made.

17.46.5. The Adolescence of Mind

The next transition brings man into complete possession of the
human situation, though not yet of the earth. If we agree that Neander-
thaloid and Neanderthal men were already sapiens in the possession of
a triple mind, we must say that a new sub-species appeared. We have
agreed to call this Homo sapiens sapiens. The title correctly designates the
classification: (1) Homo or mind possession; (2) Homo sapiens or memory
possession; (3) Homo sapiens sapiens or man with both memory and
creativity. The transition was made once and for all and the new sub-
species has not changed observably since its appearance. The new men

THE AWAKENING OF MIND 235

were anatomically indistinguishable from man as we know him today;
even the different races—Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Australoid and Cap-
oid*—are represented among the skeletons of the period of the last
glaciations. We have seen that our Group III included many unspecial-
ized Neandenhalers—in the Near and Middle East—and Neanderthaloids
—in the Far East and in Africa—and it would seem very possible that
the races of Homo sapiens sapiens developed separately within these
groups. In any case the true Neanderthalers were broadly Caucasoid
in type, and the regions they occupied seem to have been Caucasoid
territories during most of the Middle and Upper Pleistocene; moreover
the white, Caucasoid race of Homo sapiens sapiens appears to have
evolved somewhere in those regions. In Europe, the Middle Palaeolithic
ended sharply between 35,000 and 40,000 years ago and the new age of
the Upper Palaeolithic began equally abruptly.** There was a new culture
and the first great acceleration of progress, and the peoples who achieved
this advance were physically identical with modern Europeans of the
Caucasoid type.***

The material aspect of the new culture was distinguished by knife-
like blades of flint or obsidian made with an elastic punch of fresh bone
or antler, and since these blades could be trimmed into many specialized
tools and weapons, its invention had enormous consequences. One of
the most important of these tools was a small chisel known as a burin or
graver, for it enabled advances to be made in working wood and bone,
which in turn led to the appearance of new tools in those crafts. It is not
known for certain where this revolutionary 'blade-and-burin culture'
originated, but the evidence points to South-West or West Asia and to
the Riss-Wu:m period.

Our knowledge of the Upper Palaeolithic is still restricted mainly to
Europe, and especially to the limestone country of South-western France
and Northern Spain where man's first great works of art were created.
The new men, with their 'blade-and-burin' tradition, entered Europe
about 35,000 years ago, bringing the Chatelperronian**** culture which

* Carleton S. Coon, loc. cit., pp. 3, 4.

** The suddenness of the transition impressed both pre-historians and anthropolo-
gists long before the advent of radio-carbon dating. Cf. W. E. le Gros Clark, History
of the Primates! 'At the end of the Mousterian phase of Palaeolithic culture, the
Neanderthal inhabitants of Europe were abruptly replaced by people of completely
European type.1 Also R. R. Schmidt, The Dawn of the Human Mind. 'The sudden
appearance of this erect lofty-browed genius Sapiens.

*** Carleton S. Coon, loc. cit., pp. 577 and 582-5.

**** We shall usethe nomenclature of 'Chatelperronian', 'Aurignacian' and 'Gravettian'
which have replaced that of 'Lower, Middle and Upper Aurignacian' employed by the
Abbe Breuil. The Chatelperronian and Gravettian are both called Perigordian by
some people, since they are believed to be basically the same culture.

236 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

may be traced over much of the Upper Palaeolithic area. It was charac-
terized by curved blade points and foreshadowed in Palestine.* They
seem to have been slight, with long narrow heads and small foreheads,
perhaps ancestral to the Mediterranean type. One of their skeletons was
found in a rock-shelter at Combe Capelle, near Les Eyzies, Dordogne,
and dated at approximately 35,000 b.p. They dispossessed the Neander-
thalers, whose valleys they hunted and whose caves they occupied,
although some prehistorians believe that the two species co-existed for
a time and may even have interbred.

Some three thousand years later, another people brought the true
Aurignacian culture, which can be traced back to the Middle East and
may have originated on the Iranian plateau.** These men, who spread
widely in Europe, were first discovered a hundred years ago by Lartet
in a rock-shelter at Cro-Magnon (also near Les Eyzies), which con-
tained the skull and bones of an old man and parts of five other skeletons,
together with skilfully worked flints. The Cro-Magnons*** were rather
tall people, slender but very muscular, with narrow but high-vaulted
heads giving a large brain capacity, short, broad faces and high-bridged
noses. Clever and artistic as well as great hunters, they fashioned beauti-
ful implements, and first introduced true bone working into Europe,
with delicately fashioned objects such as bone spearheads and little
pins and awls. They made paint impressions and stencils of their hands
in some of the limestone caves, and line drawings on clay covered walls
by running sticks or fingers over them. Most of the cruder paintings
and engravings of animals (and it is now thought some of the later
paintings with modelling and perspective) were their work, which repre-
sented the earlier phases of a single great traditional art among the
hunting peoples of western Europe, the seeds of which may have been
sown by the Chatelperronians.

A third culture—the Gravettian—was adapted to the cold of the
Main Wurm glaciation. The Gravettians physically resembled the West

* By the Amudian, during the Riss—Wiirm Interglacial. At Jabrud, in Syria, a
blade-and-burin industry dating from about the same period has been found. A
similar and approximately contemporaneous industry, believed to have come from
South-west Asia, has been discovered in the Haua Fteah cave in Cyrenaica. (S. Cole,
loc. cit., pp. 256—7.)

** Oakley, loc. cit., p. 157. Professor Carleton S. Coon discovered typical Aurignacian
scrapers in a cave in Afghanistan at a level dated at more than 34,000 B.P.

*** The present writer made his first contact with this culture in a visit to Les Eyzies
in 1947. The impact made by a personal impression is totally different from all that
can be learned from books. Everyone who has the opportunity should visit and
study the head of the 'Old Man of Cro-Magnon' in the Musee de l'Homme in Paris.
A peculiar dignity and power invests this skull of a man who lived some thirty thousand
years ago.

THE AWAKENING OF MIND

237

European Chatelperronians. This culture is best represented at Pred-
most in Czechoslovakia, but appears to have originated in South Russia.
Gravettian mammoth hunters flourished in the steppes lying between
the Carpathians and the Alps and the northern ice sheets, and their
traditions were carried as far east as Siberia and as far west as Derby-
shire. These people built the first-known huts (one of which was sur-
rounded by a circular wall of limestone and clay) and constructed
dwellings sunk well into the ground, with timber-riveted walls and log
roofs piled with soil.* They modelled in clay and curved bone and
ivory figurines, many of which were of fat or pregnant women, clearly
of magico-religious significance and often referred to as 'Venuses'.
Probably about 20,000 b.p., a wave or waves of these more easterly
people abruptly superseded the Aurignaceans in western Europe. Later
again, a culture known as Solutrean appeared in France, which special-
ized in a technique of 'pressure flaking' and produced flint tools which
show the best workmanship of the entire Stone Age. Finally, in the last
glacial period, the finest flowering of the Upper Palaeolithic began with
the Magdalenians.**

In those days, the open grasslands and tundra of South-west Europe
abounded in herds of reindeer, bison, mammoth, wild horses and cattle
and other game. The Magdalenian hunters were now to be greatly
assisted by the invention of long distance weapons: first, by the spear-
thrower and, later, by the bow and arrow. Fish, too, were plentiful;
and harpoons with wooden shafts and detachable barbed heads of bone
were used as well as the straight bone gorgets that preceded the fish
hook. Fur hoods and robes were worn, and, since the Magdalenians
possessed eyed needles, less bulky kinds of leather clothing must have
been neater than in the past. A love of personal adornment is shown by
the ivory and bone pendants, the necklaces, bracelets and leg bands
made of shells, animal teeth and beads found with many skeletons,
some of which also had elaborate headdresses of shells. They had the
oldest known lamps—shallow stone saucers similar to the larger ones of
the Esquimo—in which animal fats and possibly seal blubber were

* Jacquetta Hawkes, loc. cit., pp. 134-7.

** It is often suggested that these people were ancestral Eskimo, a suggestion based
partly on aspects of their culture and partly on the skull of a short Magdalenian found
at Chancelade. While there may be some truth in this theory, it would appear probable
that the similarities mainly represent cultural and physical adaptations to intense
cold, the second enhanced by heavy chewing of food and of hides. A number of
Magdalenian burials listed by Oakley are described as of 'Cro-Magnon type'. But all
these peoples were basically of Caucasoid stock and the same Upper Palaeolithic
culture, almost certainly with some intercultural exchange and interbreeding. Then, as
now, the Caucasoids showed wide individual variation.

238 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

used for fuel, with moss for wicks. Apart from minor variations, such
as different postures and richer grave goods, Upper Palaeolithic burials
resembled those of the Neanderthalers and also included the ritual use
of red ochre.

All this was remarkable enough, but the outburst of creativity in the
visual arts was amazing. Weapons, ornaments and other objects were
engraved or beautifully carved in high relief—usually with animal
figures—and numerous pieces of bone, ivory, antler and stone have been
found embellished in the same way. There must also have been models
in clay and paintings long vanished, and certainly a wealth of exquisitely
carved wooden objects. At a few sites, carvings have been found on the
walls of inhabited caves or rock-shelters—notably the magnificent horses
of Cap Blanc—but by far the greater part of the surviving parietal art is
deep in the recesses and underground caverns of the French and Spanish
caves. Here, the best of the lifelike sculptures and paintings of animals—
so vital in movement and expression—rival anything of the kind that has
since been achieved.* The facts brought to light by prehistoric research
are so strange and remarkable that only a visit to the sites can bring
conviction of their authenticity. Within at most twenty thousand years,
man accomplished incomparably more than in the preceding eight hun-
dred thousand.

Let us return to the problem that concerns us here: what do these
remarkable achievements teach us about the history of the human mind?
Obviously, the first question to be answered is: how and where did it
all begin? It has been said that the origin of Homo sapiens sapiens remains
obscure, but that he had forerunners in several parts of the world and
that when he appeared decisively he seems already to have been divided
into the chief racial types of modern man. Furthermore, we have sug-
gested that these developed within the various unspecialized Neander-
thaler and Neanderthaloid groups. The Caucasoid race of Homo sapiens
sapiens appears to have originated in the Near or Middle East, as did
the blade-and-burin culture.** Yet the important Upper Palaeolithic
advances appear to have centred and flowered in Europe.

* Cf. A. Coates, loc. cit. 'It may indeed be questioned whether any subsequent
people have been more artistic than the Magdalenians, or whether the highest examples
of Magdalenian art have ever been surpassed in their kind.'

Also, Jacquetta Hawkes, loc. cit., p. 186. 'This earliest painting and sculpture illumin-
ates the truth that essentially there is no progress in art ... But that true imaginative
expression (as distinct from decoration) should have appeared so soon, that truly is
astonishing.'

** Carleton S. Coon, loc. cit., p. 482. 'In Europe we have a succession of remains
from the start of the Middle Pleistocene which are apparently Caucasoid. But it is
hardly likely that Europe was the centre of Caucasoid evolution because the succession

THE AWAKENING OF MIND

239

Until recently, prehistorians pictured hordes of the new race sweeping
into Europe from Asia and Africa, driving out and slaughtering the
slow-witted Neanderthalers, and they wondered how and where these
hordes could have developed. But it is now known that North Africa
was not widely inhabited by Caucasoids until near the end of the
Pleistocene, and that, even by that time, the entire human race was
probably no more numerous than the population of London today. The
new Caucasoid 'invaders' from western Asia can only have been small
groups: perhaps merely a few families organized under some form of
central leadership. Hunting peoples cover great distances and it is not
really surprising that they should have travelled so far. Neither is it
surprising that they should have supplanted the Neanderthalers who
were less advanced and not so well equipped, who probably possessed
little social organization beyond the family unit, and whose population
—always sparse—will have declined or weakened during the long rigours
of the early Wurm glaciations. The area of France and Spain known as
the Franco-Cantabrian must have been very healthy and pleasant during
the temperate Gottweig Interstadial and the game plentiful, while the
limestone country afforded excellent winter shelter. Thus it became a
headquarters and continued to be such throughout the Upper Palaeo-
lithic era, possibly hallowed as the land of the pioneer forefathers. All
this, however, does not explain why these peoples so greatly surpassed
their relatives in the homelands of western Asia.

Our interpretation of the problem requires that we return, as the
reader will have suspected, to the role of the Demiurgic Intelligences—
by now well established as magicians. Can we find any positive evi-
dence that they may have taken a hand? Yes, indeed, and unexpectedly
convincing.

that we find is disorderly. The changes in tool industries are in some cases too abrupt
to have been the product of local technological evolution; yet the tools all emerge from
a single set of traditions. By the same token, successive changes in skulls and long
bones, when we have them, reflect incongruities in what seems to be a single evolu-
tionary line." And p. 488, 'It is possible that the Neanderthals of period 3 (Early
Wurm) evolved uniquely out of the population of period 2 (Riss), but the Upper
Palaeolithic people of period 4 (Middle and Late Wurm) could not have evolved in
Europe out of local Neanderthals.'

Jacquetta Hawkes, loc. cit., p. 82. 'Nevertheless, in spite of the richness and com-
plexity of the European Upper Palaeolithic, it appears almost certain that the blade
tradition did not originate there. The picture given by the great series of classic cultures
of the French caves is rather that they were brought in when they were more or less
fully developed, even though later new groups evolved locally. Europe can show no
transitional cultures suggesting the evolution of either the latest Acheulian or the
Lavalloisio-Mousterian tradition towards the earliest known blade culture, the Chatel-
perronian. Father, as has been said, it was brought in by modern man and superseded
the Western Neanderthal Mousterian with a sharp break.'

D.U. iv—10

240

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THE AWAKENING OF MIND

241

There is no doubt at all that Palaeolithic art had magico-religious
functions. Life was entirely dependent upon success in hunting and the
spears and darts depicted on so many animal figures show that a form
of sympathetic magic was used to bring about a kill, while numerous
examples of pregnant cows and mares indicate a second form designed
to increase the game herds. The extraordinary fidelity and beauty of the
animal studies—unknown in later types of cave art—show that the
artists were inspired by reverence and communion with nature and with
the beasts among and upon whom they lived. As we have seen, evidences
of a bear cult show that Neanderthal man practised some form of hunting
magic, and this was certainly deepened and elaborated by the Upper
Palaeolithic peoples. But something new is shown by the Gravettian
'Venuses'. In these, the artists' approach is entirely different: there is
no naturalistic detail or movement, the faces are featureless and the
poses static. They do not represent real women, but express the idea of
procreation or fertility. So different are they from Magdalenian art as
a whole that they would appear to be quite unconnected with it were
it not for a few carvings—notably that of three female figures next to
those of animals, executed by Magdalenian artists at Angles-sur-l'Anglir.
There seems no doubt that hunting magic was supplemented by fertility
magic. Thousands of years before the beginning of agriculture, the
magic of the Upper Palaeolithic peoples included fertility
rites.*

The obvious explanation is that man had become aware of the im-
portance of mating and that sexual selection had become a major
factor in his social life. It is hard to see how and why this should have
happened unless the magicians had decided that it was necessary. Now
the magicians, on our view, were Demiurgic Intelligences in disguise.
We are not departing from the theme that runs all through the history of
life in general, and man in particular, if we adopt the hypothesis that
magicians living among the Neanderthal and Neanderthaloid groups
and possessing the knowledge and ability required to control the mating
of selected men and women, could produce and permanently establish
new races with well-defined anatomical and physiological character-

* Cf. A. Coates, loc. cit. 'Perhaps the greatest puzzle is provided by the female
figurines which are the most characteristic feature of the Gravettian culture both in
Russian and in central and western Europe, as well as forming part of the Siberian
culture of Malta . . . Certainly they were fertility charms of some sort, like the cowrie
shells of the 'Aurignacians': many of them seem intended to represent a woman in an
advanced stage of pregnancy ... It is hardly conceivable indeed that even the most
primitive kind of agriculture was practised by palaeolithic females right up under the
edge of the ice-sheet.'

istics.* The skeletal remains,** however, do not tell the whole story, for
the evidence of external achievements points unmistakably to a psycho-
logical no less than to an anatomical transformation. We cannot account
for such achievements in terms of time alone, for without consciousness
of eternity and understanding of the hyparchic future, they could not
even begin. The particular significance of the transformation lies in the
fact that it established in man the foundation of the Self-hood, and so
prepared him to take the first step towards filling his true role in the
Cosmos as a responsible being. ***

Let us see just what our hypothesis amounts to. There were men of
the Neanderthal and other sub-species of Homo sapiens spread all over
the inhabited world. It is certain that in the genetic constitution of the
genus Homo there is a range of variability that would permit all the
known races of men to be obtained by breeding from a common stock.****

This would, however, serve only to elicit anatomical and to some extent
functional differentiation. It would not achieve the greater purpose;
which was to endow men with independent creativity.

We have reached one of the crucial moments of our enquiry, equal in
importance to that of the birth of mind. It can be compared with
puberty in the individual, when the creative power of sex is brought
from virtuality to actuality. This change is distinct from simple growth
and development for it connects the human self to a source of energy
that transcends the life of the organism and connects it to the cosmic
process of transformation of energies. Nevertheless, puberty is also
accompanied by anatomical modifications and in this also the analogy
holds. Homo sapiens sapiens is different anatomically from man of the
previous stages; but he is even more different in his creative powers.

* The hard core of fact in Darwin's Origin of Species lies precisely in evidence of the
effect of breeding in the emergence of new races. In his Descent of Man, Darwin
devoted fourteen out of twenty-one chapters to the effect of sexual selection and took,
as a sub-title of his work, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. This
is an interesting commentary upon our present thesis.

**Cf. A. M. Carr-Saunders, The Population Problem, Oxford, 1922. 'At one bound
we seem, when looking at the fossil remains from this epoch in Europe, to have passed
into the modern period as far as human bodily form is concerned.'

*** Cf. A. S. Toynbee, A Study of History, London, 1935, Vol. 3, 'This transfiguration
of the human type in the middle of the Palaeolithic Age is possibly the most epoch-
making event that has ever yet occurred in the course of human history up to date;
for at that moment Sub-Man succeeded in turning himself into Man, while Man, in
all the time that has elapsed since Sub-Man's achievement made him human, has never
yet succeeded in attaining the superhuman level which is the goal of our human
endeavours.'

**** Cf. T. K. Penniman, A Hundred Years of Anthropology, quotes Dobzhansky: 'A
case is made for regarding the whole hominid line as a genetic matrix or common pool
out of which modern races have obtained.'

242

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

Here we are obliged to make a speculative leap in the dark and
postulate coalescence of Demiurgic and Human natures. To endow man
with creativity and to enable him to acquire Self-hood, he had of neces-
ity to be transformed on three levels: bodily, psychologically and
spiritually. The first could be achieved by breeding and the second by
magic; but the third could come only by a blending or coalescence
of natures.

It would seem that this could be achieved through the sexual union of
Demiurges in human form and women of the Homo sapiens races. This
suggestion is strangely reminiscent of the very ancient tradition re-
corded in Genesis: (Chapter 6 vv. 1-4) 'And it came to pass, when men
began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born unto
them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair
and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said,
My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh:
yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. There were giants in
the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came
in unto the daughters of man and they bare children to them, the same
became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.' This remarkable
passage has a ring of authenticity and it agrees perfectly with the
suggestion that creativity entered the human mind-stuff by a direct
blending of Demiurgic and Human natures.

Let us assume then that the magicians, already Demiurgic in them-
selves, were mated with ordinary human beings to produce a new race
of men—this time essentially different from all that had gone before:
for they would be, for the first time, true men with a higher nature able
to respond to the Individual Will that had so long remained latent. The
Demiurgic Intervention would, on this hypothesis, have stupendous
results, for it would mean that men could now attain Personal Indi-
viduality and acquire a soul.

Let us suppose that men of the new nature, H. sapiens sapiens, were
developed independently in several centres. As they would have initia-
tive and creative powers quite different from the conservative Neander-
thalers they might well be viewed with suspicion and need the protec-
tion of the magicians to save them from extermination. Even this would
not always avail. So probably only a few of the experiments would
succeed and in each case a different variety of the new sub-species would
be produced. All would be H. sapiens sapiens, but each variant would
have its own characteristics.

Once established the new sub-species would not depend upon natural
selection, for interbreeding and their superior abilities would enable

THE AWAKENING OF MIND

243

them to multiply rapidly. Within a hundred generations—say 2,500
years—they would be able to challenge the men of the old race. This
would account for the abrupt disappearance of Homo sapiens in different
parts of the world at the same time.

From the moment that man acquired his higher nature, he became a
Self with the possibilities and also the dangers of Self-hood. He could
no longer be directed from within his own mind except by the consent
of his will. This meant a fundamental change in the relationship be-
tween the magicians and the ordinary men and women. Up to this time,
men were directed by an action that could reach their minds directly.
From now on, the action had to come through their perceptions.

Direction in the human mind is by the consciousness.* We must
remember, also, that throughout the evolution of life, the Demiurgic
Powers had exercised control through vehicles made of conscious
energy. As we pointed out, the ecstatic experiences of the early chosen
australopithecines could well have been a source of destructive or even
'insane' tendencies. The development of the powers of memory arose
through the inner direction of the mind by the Demiurgic Powers, and
an outer instruction through rudimentary speech; and, with the
Neanderthaloids, through the practice of ritual magic. In that stage,
simple imitation was superseded by the practice of recurrent experiences
in which thought and feeling were segregated. With such a separation,
myth became a possibility, and social life could be based on images.
That this was established is evident from the burials and the Bear
Cult. Throughout all this gestation of the human mind—some million
years or so—the consciousness acted simply as the means of developing
the rudimentary powers of the mind, directed by the Demiurgic
powers. Man did not have creative energy (E 3), whereas the Demiurges
did. It is the presence of creative energy which enables the individual
to employ his consciousness in purposive action.

With the gift of the creative energy, man is in control of his own mind,
and can only be influenced by his perceptions, or by the arising of
mental images or thought-forms in his mind through the action of the
creative energy.| These influences have to enter the mind through the
gateway of conscious experience. Previously, the direction of the Demi-
urgic powers had been from behind the veil of consciousness. Now, they
had to speak to man in terms that he could grasp with his own mind.
This is why we have called this stage the Adolescence of Mind.

* Cf. Tetrad of energies, Vol. Ill, Chapter 39-, Sections 15 .39.5 .2 and 15.39-5 -4-

* Cf. Chapter 42, p. 45. It is in this way that we can be connected to the hyparchic
future, and also be 'spoken to' by higher energies.

244 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

Adolescence is the period wherein a human self becomes responsible
for his or her own life. We are now entering the phase of history when
man began to be responsible. Nevertheless, he was still in a phase of
development and of profound ignorance of himself and of the purpose
of his existence.

17.46.6. Four Regions of Transformation

In the next chapter, we will be studying the emergence of modern
man. Before we can deal with the great events of the past 12,000 years,
we need to complete our picture of the coming of the first creative men.
We decided that the transition to Homo sapiens sapiens and the establish-
ment of the new races took place in the midst of the sapiens population
they were to supplant. In concentrating on how the step from conscious-
ness to creativity was made in the human mind, we did not seek to
determine where this was actually achieved. The localization of the
action is, however, inherent in the change that was taking place. It was,
for the first time, a personal action, between men and women within a
restricted community. The first stage was concerned with breeding by
sexual selection. This need not have taken more than two hundred
generations, that is 3,000-4,000 years.

We have traces of Homo sapiens sapiens in Europe, Africa and South-
West Asia. Though at present we have none for the Far East before
25,000 b.p. we suppose that there also was a localization of the trans-
formation. For 5,000-10,000 years, the work of establishing creative men
went forward throughout the Old World of Europe, Asia and Africa.
In the course of this duration, definite regions were established inhabited
by creative men. To help the reader in following the complicated story,
we shall begin with a statement of the conclusions we hope to establish.
The transition was made principally in four distinct regions: East
Africa, Western Europe, South-West Asia and the Far East. Within each
of these regions, the work of transforming man required the develop-
ment of his new powers. We shall refer to concentrations of transforma-
tion within these regions as centres.

Dating is not possible to any close approximation, but there is some
indication that the great cycles defined in Chapter 45 now begin to
correspond to the events. The Cycle of 25,000 years which began
about 37,000 years ago and ended 12,000 years before the present can
be regarded as the Implanting of Creativity in Man. After the first
three sub-cycles, or Epochs, the task of establishing H. sapiens sapiens
had been completed, and there were several Epochs during which
human creativity was able to become operative.

THE AWAKENING OF MIND

245

We are entering an era of accelerated progress. Hitherto, we have had
no clear evidence of the way in which the accelerated time-scale of
progress is related to the uniform time-scale of cosmic rhythms. Very
probably, the rhythm of life followed the Great Cycles during the ages
of the birth and childhood of the human mind, but we have no data to
go on. From the time that creativity entered the human mind, man's
works began to be differentiated so markedly that the sequences can be
discerned.

We shall observe that, although the cycles remain constant in their
periodicity, the events move more and more rapidly. Thus the cycles
may be related to clock-time and the processes of the material world;
whereas the activity of the human mind follows the law of accelerated
progress except at times of failure when there can be stationary or even
regressive states. This two-fold character of history becomes more and
more apparent as we begin to penetrate into the workings of the mind.
Unless it is taken into consideration, our attempts at interpretation will
be confused, if not vitiated.

There were, for example, undoubtedly different lines of development
of human creativity. Some moved faster than others: but all were subject
to the general periodicity of the cycles of human life. This resulted in
an ebb and flow of mutual contacts. At one stage, the various centres
were far apart, both geographically and in their activity. At another
stage, they came together.

17.46.6.1. EUROPE

The Chatelperronian (Perigordian I, II) and the 'true' or 'Middle'
Aurignacian, which together extended from about 34,000 b.p. to 20,000
b.p., were the prelude to the specialized development of Europe. The
period from about 18,000 to about 12,000 b.p. saw the rise and flourish-
ing of the Magdalenian culture in South Western Europe with un-
mistakable evidences of an unprecedented artistic creativity and
technical ingenuity. In other regions, creativity took different forms.
Throughout the span of this great period in human history, there were
stirrings of creative activity from China to North Africa, from Russia
to Somaliland. The traces that we have can only reflect the general
cultural progress. Around the magicians, were formed training groups
in which men were initiated into practices designed to develop the
new creative powers. Only in the Dordogne region in France have we
so far found evidence remaining of such an organization. However, the
Magdalenian, together with the other cultures of Europe was also a
part of a total community or great region of transformation. We saw

246 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

that the Gravettian (Perigordian III to VI) cultures of central and
eastern Europe attained a high standard of skills, and were distin-
guished by the female statuettes or ' Venuses' indicating a cult of fertility.
Since these figures are most plentiful in South Russia and only found
sporadically in the west, it would seem that the Gravettian people or
their culture spread from that direction.* The important conclusion to
be drawn is that the whole region of Europe was an integrated whole
whose unity came not by shared techniques so much as from the influ-
ence of a number of creative centres. The cultural traces in South
Western Europe—especially those of the famous sites of the Dordogne
—indicate a concentration of interest which suggests that it was recog-
nized as an important centre for the peoples of Europe—and even, per-
haps, for those from further regions. We can imagine that this was a
centre of pilgrimage where the spiritual leaders of the new creative
groups were gathered.

17.46.6.2. SOUTH-WEST ASIA

In South-West Asia, developments are not so clear at present since
comparatively little excavation has been undertaken in these regions.
No cultural centre comparable to that of the Dordogne has been dis-
covered, and visual art would seem to have been limited to a few carved
or modelled objects. However, various Upper Palaeolithic cultures
developed out of the ancient blade-and-burin tradition. Groups from
the Levant founded colonies on the North African coast and elsewhere.
Indeed, it might be said that these Asiatic Caucasoid peoples laid the
foundations of the white Mediterranean culture which later became so
important.

17.46.6.3. AFRICA

It is difficult to unravel events in Africa. South of the Sahara, two
chief cultures evolved during the period of drought which broadly
corresponded to the Gottweig Interstadial: the Fauresmith, a develop-
ment of the ancient hand-axe tradition, on the open grasslands and
plateau of the east and south; and the Sangoan, which originated in
Uganda with techniques largely devised for cutting trees and scrub

* The Kostenkian culture of south Russia probably dates from about 33,000 B.P.
No less than 43 'Venuses' were found at Kostenki-on-Don, and there were 6 at
Gargarino, 4 at Ardecvoi (Desmond Collins, Prehistoric Art, Discovery, May, 1965).
These eastern cultures produced other small works of art, while individual instances
of rock pictures occur in the area of Melitopol, Sea of Azov.

THE AWAKENING OF MIND

247

and for wood-working. These lasted until about 40,000 b.p. and are
associated with the Rhodesoids—African equivalents of the Neander-
thalers. A little earlier than this, at the beginning of the Gamblian
Pluvial which approximately corresponded with the Middle and Late
Wurm glaciations, men started to move into previously uninhabitable
areas of the centre and south.

A culture known as the Lupemban then developed out of the Sangoan
in the Congo Basin, and spread among peoples ranging the equatorial
forests and the low-lying river basins and lakesides. To what extent the
Lupembans were Proto-Negroid cannot be said, but it is thought that
the Negroids evolved on the fringes of the Congo Basin, rather later
than other races.

Meanwhile, the Fauresmith had evolved into a culture known as the
Proto-Stillbay. About 25,000 b.p., a 'developed' Stillbay appeared,
which was apparently influenced by the Lupemban and overlapped it in
Uganda and the Rhodesias. In the Kenya Rift Valley and northern
Tanganyika, the Stillbay was associated with a blade-and-burin culture
of controversial origin which may date from as early as 32,000 b.p. and
is known as the Kenya Aurignacian (or Lower Kenya Capsian).

The area around Lake Victoria and Lake Edward and including
Abyssinia seems to have been a centre of transformation, independent
of the events in North Africa, though possibly still connected with the
Congo Basin. The Stillbay culture was also associated with an early
blade-and-burin culture in Abyssinia. It has been suggested that the
blade tradition was brought into East Africa by Asiatic hunters, by
way of a land-bridge existing between Arabia and Somaliland during
the early part of the Gambian Pluvial.

In North Africa, communication with South-west Asia began very
early;* and a blade-and-burin culture known as the Dabba was founded
in Cyrenaica about 38,000 b.p. probably by Levantine colonists. How-
ever, a Mousterian-type tradition, existing on the coasts of Morocco
and Tunisia, was replaced about 30,000 b.p. by a native flake culture—
the Aterian—which achieved a high standard. This resembled the

* There are indications of faunal exchange between the Levant and Cyrenaica during
the Upper Pleistocene, and this would have been practicable at some periods such as
the last advance of the Wurm glaciation, and it is probable that rafts and skin boats
were used, in any case human communication certainly took place between the two
regions. Two true Mousterian levels in the Haua Fteah cave, Cyrenaica, have been
dated to about 45,000 and 41,000 b.p. respectively (carbon—14), and a 'Pre-Aurignacian'
blade-and-burin industry believed to come from South-west Asia has been found
beneath them which is probably at least a hundred thousand years old. (Cf. S. Cole,
loc, cit., p. 256—7.)

D.U. IV—10*

248

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

Stillbay in some respects, but in its later stages included exquisitely
worked implements and tonged and barbed points, and it was probably
men of this stock who created the earliest rock art of Africa. They
penetrated deeply into the Sahara, and into Libya as far as the Nile
Valley. Aterian human remains are scanty, but their culture indicates
a transformation to H. sapiens sapiens. About 15,000 b.p. Morocco and
Tunisia were occupied by people with an Upper Palaeolithic culture—
the Oranian or Mouillian. They resembled Cro-Magnons, and may have
come either from the Near East or from Spain. The Oranians replaced
the Aterian culture with their own, but it is believed that they interbred
freely with the natives, producing a hybrid population.

17.46.6.4. THE FAR EAST

Little is known about the Far East; but, apart from one area, there is
no evidence that it progressed much beyond the cultural stage of
Sinanthropus and the crude chopper-chopping tools that he used in the
Choukoutien cave. However, in North China and South Mongolia,
there are traces of creative man. Here, especially in the area around the
Yellow River (Huang-ho), numerous Palaeolithic sites have been found
showing advances from the earliest tradition, through an eastern type
of hand-axe culture (Tientsun) to an Upper Palaeolithic one known as
the Ordos. The Ordos culture combined Choukoutien-type choppers
made on pebbles, Mousterian-type scrapers and points, and simple but
efficient blades and burins. It appears to have been widespread and its
makers Chinese Neanderthaloids.

A culture of Eastern Siberia, known as the Baikal, shows exactly the
same mixture of old and new techniques, but with a strong Gravettian
influence. Its best-known site, Malta, was late—about 12,000 b.p.—and
here that influence is shown by rich ornaments and many bone and ivory
implements, including eyed needles and bodkins. There are also carved
ivory figurines of women, but these, unlike the Gravettian Venuses, are
slim and fully dressed in hooded trouser suits of fur. It seems certain
that these people of Malta must have been Homo sapiens sapiens.
Finally, in the Upper Cave at Choukoutien, inhabited rather later—
perhaps as late as 10,000 b.p.—stone implements were found with bone
flakes and an eyed-bone needle, and burials with bead head-dresses,
necklaces and pendants, and shells and mother-of-pearl imported from
the coast for ornaments. The burials, and probably the pendants—
worn as amulets—must indicate belief in survival. In addition, the
unburied skeletons of an elderly man and two young women were also

THE AWAKENING OF MIND

249

discovered there. These people, who had been murdered, were definitely
Homo sapiens sapiens and probably Mongoloid.*

17.46.6.5. CREATIVE MAN

Here we must pause and examine our criteria of progress. We have
agreed with the authorities that the early stages of man's evolution
were marked by advances in the use and manufacture of tools. We also
agree that traces of art and social customs are proper indications of the
development of mind. But at this stage of creativity we cannot assume
that industry, art or even burial customs are sufficient criteria of pro-
gress. For, with creative mind, man could practice worship, and could
deliberately try to understand the world in which he found himself.
The first enters out own present moment of history as the great myths
and spiritual beliefs of the past. The second has come down to us
through the languages that we speak and think with, which enable us to
reflect upon the world and its meaning. We will return to this notion
later.

Human society began to acquire a two-level structure: corresponding
to what later were to become the Psychostatic and the Psychoteleios
orders.** The middle order—the Psychokinetic—could not yet appear.
The two-level society consisted of men directly connected with the
Demiurgic Intelligences on the one hand, and men connected only
indirectly, by way of speech and action on the other. In other words,
there were men conscious of their Demiurgic nature and men un-
conscious of it. The former were regarded as magicians and wonder-
workers and their ask was to develop the creative powers of the
ordinary people.

We find confirmation of this speculative theory in the outpouring
of creative activity in the period from 25,000-15,000 b.p. which we
call the 'High Stone Age'. When we survey the achievements of this
phase of human history and remember that it coincided with the rigours
of the last Ice Age, we cannot help being struck by the vast difference
between two levels of life simultaneously present. On the one hand we
find surpassing genius in the guidance of human progress and in the in-
troduction of the new techniques. As against this, we are forced also to
take into account the primitive conditions of ordinary existence as shown
in the cave-settlements of western Europe and the primitive dwellings
* The man seems to have been definitely Proto-Mongoloid. The two women have
been described as Esquinoid and Melanesoid respectively; but Professor Coon believes
that all three skulls are Mongoloid, those of the women being deformed through
crushing at death (Coon loc. cit., p. 474).
** Cf. Vol. Ill, Chapter 41.

250 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

in Asia. The common life of existential mankind, throughout this
brilliant period, could not have differed greatly from that of the present-
day Eskimos and the nomad tribes of Siberia. We find the masterpieces
of cave-painting within a few miles of primitive settlements which can
be identified as contemporaneous not only by the implements but by the
animals, such as reindeer, whose skeletons are to be found in the settle-
ments, and whose forms are depicted in the caves. These cave-dwellers
lived on what we should now regard as a level of primitive savagery. The
discrepancy in the levels of culture simultaneously present can only be
accounted for if we ascribe the cave-paintings to the work of groups of
creative men living in quite a different manner from the surrounding
primitive tribes.*

The painted caves show evidence of many centuries of use, sometimes
with several drawings superimposed upon the same surface. Here there
can be no question of individual men of genius or magicians transmitting
their art to one single successor. We are in the presence of the work of
creative men organized to preserve the continuity of their traditions
over long periods of time. The disposition of the caves shows clearly
the precautions that were taken to deny access to the profane. They
were centres of initiation and the drawings of animals were symbols
used in the cults. For example, at Lascaux and Altamira hundreds of
deer are depicted with antlers at various stages of development, many
clearly showing signs of additions later than the original drawing.**
These are to be interpreted as personal symbols, representing stages of
development attained by members of the creative group, all owing
allegiance to a common ideal. There is some evidence that the fertility
cultus was shared by the common existential people and was the link
between them and the creative groups. For example, most of the
figurines that have been found in cave settlements represent pregnant
women and animals, and were probably the instruments of magical
contact.

A creative centre—such as that in the Dordogne; or the one in South
Russia, where the majority of the Gravettian 'Venuses' are found, or

* Cf. R. R. Schmidt, loc. cit., 'The matured artist of the Magdalenian period was
the first to attain to the concentration which for him made greater compositions pos-
sible. Such a gift could no longer be a common possession. These masterpieces of
colour are the creations of artists of special gifts—of magicians, whose hand is shown
by the great truthfulness of the pictures: they are the work of sorcerers.'

** The date of the earliest Lascaux paintings is assigned by the Abbe Breuil to some
30,000 B.P. The only radio-carbon dating, made from a specimen of charcoal found
in the floor, gives I5,5oo±9oo years b.p. The occupancy of the caves may have been
intermittent, but the continuity of culture—persisting for perhaps 20,000 years—
makes the antiquity of Egypt seem but as yesterday.

THE AWAKENING OF MIND 251

again, perhaps those in the Congo Basin or in Abyssinia—would consist
of a small central group operating within a few intercommunicating
areas. From such centres the whole life of a region was directed by those
initiated into the secrets of magical operations, the ordinary people still
living as hunters or food gatherers with little understanding of the change
that had come over them. We are safe in assuming that the ascendancy
of the magicians and their associates was complete. They formed separ-
ate groups within the society of the new races. Although creativity had
entered into all who had received the contact with Demiurgic Intelli-
gences in human form, it remained latent unless evoked by special
training which only the magicians knew how to impart.* They were the
Guides of mankind.

There would have been two main concerns. First, the mental stability
of the general population had to be assured. The rigours of the period
provided a steady environmental challenge to match the new kinds of
aggression stirring in man. Second, the new creative powers had to be
fostered. We suggested that this was restricted to training groups around
the magicians. Such groups later served as intermediaries with the
mass of the people. In the beginning, there would have been mam
experiments with methods of development.

Untrained creativity cannot produce good work. At best, it manifest:
in play: when ostensibly engaged in a positive activity we call untrained
creativity dilettantism or amateurism. At worst, it excites the mind to
visions of grandeur and dominance and leads it to seek personal satis-
factions and power at the expense of the happiness and even the lives
of others. Nor can we say that these dangers threaten only minds un-
trained and untutored. Powerful minds, infused with creative energy
can in our day do untold harm to themselves and to others. It cannot
have been very different 15,000 years ago.

Many different situations must have arisen. The presence of creativity
must have resulted in a far greater diversification of behaviour patterns
Life that had hitherto been dominated by food, sex and self-preservation
was complicated by new impulses: intellectual curiosity and the need to
understand himself and his world, the urge to express and to fulfill

* Here we are on safe ground psychologically, because our own experience show;
how rarely the creative power in man develops spontaneously and how necessary, ever
in such cases, it is to train the instrumental terms of the tetrad—sensitivity and con-
sciousness —if creativity is to give positive results. It must also be obvious that creativity
in an untrained mind is a most dangerous possession even more likely to destroy than
to build up. The normal outlet for untrained creativity is in play. It is likely that music
and dancing were practised by all these people—as they are by cave-dwelling Gypsies
even today.

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

himself, the desire for power and perhaps even for possessions, and the
need to find new kinds of relationship reaching towards a social struc-
ture—these and other characteristic human impulses—must all have
entered Homo sapiens sapiens with the advent of creativity.

Creativity must by its nature complicate life and there has been no
lack of complexity in the history of the past 25,000 years. There must
have been failures and there must also have been successes that went
wrong. Though still far less complex than at any time within recorded
history, the affairs of the earliest human societies must have created
serious problems for their leaders. It was to the few who underwent the
special training that the destiny of man first became apparent. By the
thirteenth millennium b.p. the human mind had been sufficiently trans-
formed for the next great step to occur.

Each major step has occurred within limited groups—yet accom-
panied by a synchronicity of advance amongst many regions. Our
expression of global synchronicity is the Epoch. The will of man now
had the power to act within the present moment. Corresponding with
this came the presentation to his consciousness of the destiny of man
to become responsible for the governance of the whole Earth. To present
to the human mind—laden with the traces of a million years of semi-
animal existence—the theme of human destiny, must have been an
almost impossible task. Yet man was creative, and what he could not
understand could yet enter his awareness by a direct communication
with Intelligence. The Guides were responsible for the delicate regula-
tion of man's awakening. In their hands, was a large part of the balance
of success and failure. Man was not yet directly connected with the
source of Love which could enable him to come of himself to an under-
standing of man as destined for union with his Source. Between him
and the Cosmic Individuality came the link of the Universal Will,
operating through the Demiurgic Intelligences. Some time during this
period, an act of will occurred that was to prove almost irrevocable
and disastrous. This was the entry of Egoism into the human soul-stuff.

Chapter Forty-seven
THE CREATIVE MIND

17.47.1. The Problem of Evil

No account of man, whether anthropological or historical, that fails
to consider the problem of evil is worthy of serious consideration.
Whatever may be his proposed beliefs or philosophical views, no man
can escape the reality of the evil will. We have now reached a stage of our
enquiry when the problem of the origin of evil can no longer be post-
poned. We cannot accept the facile view that reduces evil to mal-
functioning of the human organism or the anti-social consequences of
inherited animal characteristics.

To deny the reality of evil is to reject human responsibility. We cannot
avoid the dilemma by the argument that, while the sense of responsi-
bility may subjectively be real, it is objectively an illusion. The difficulties
to which such doctrines lead are well known and in any case they do
not concern us here. We are committed to the doctrine that man has a
real freedom of choice and that when conscious of his actions and their
consequences he can make an act of will that is evil both subjectively
and objectively.* If we admit the reality of evil, then we must be con-
cerned with the question of its origin: not in the metaphysical sense
of seeking a rational account of evil in a world created by a Good God;
but in the historical sense of showing when and how the transition
was made from animal innocence—for everyone agrees that animals are

* Without its opposite, 'goodness' has no meaning. This is overlooked by those who
try to set up a naturalistic ethic. Cf. R. Carrington, loc. cit., p. 302, places goodness at
the head of his list of values and seeks to define it 'scientifically' by saying: 'Goodness
may perhaps be defined as beauty in action —a process by which an awareness of
something greater than the individual mind is translated into terms of creative move-
ment.' The author of A Million Years of Man never refers to the problem of evil and
in this he does not differ from the great majority of those who believe that 'evolution
explains everything.' Even Father Pierre de Chardin can write: 'Evil, in all its forms —
injustice, inequality, suffering, death itself—ceases theoretically to be outrageous from
the moment when, Evolution becoming and Genesis, the immense travail of the world,
displays itself as the irreversible reverse side—or better, the condition, or better still,
the price—of an immense triumph.' (The Future of Man, Eng. trans, p. 90.) This passage
is characteristically muddled thinking as is the whole of the article (dated 1946) from
which it is extracted. It begs the question of responsibility—which indeed in our
moments of cowardice all of us would like to beg.

254

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

THE CREATIVE MIND

free from evil—to human depravity—for everyone agrees that at least
some men are sometimes depraved.

We can scarcely subscribe to the theory that evil arose through a chance
mutation of genes and worked its way into human nature because of its
survival value. There is nothing logically impossible in such a view if we are
prepared to agree that Will is a matter of genes and chromosomes; but it
would raise very awkward questions indeed for evolutionary philosophers
and, so far as we are aware, no one has seriously maintained it.

As we subscribe without reservation to the evolutionary principle
that man, as we know him today, has developed stage by stage from a
material sub-stratum, with the sole exception of his Will that comes
from a Source outside time and place, we are faced with a two-fold
problem. We cannot say that evil has accompanied man from the hypo-
zoic world of the sexless blue-green algae which (or who) must surely
be exonerated of any malice. But we can scarcely say either that the
Universal Individuality endowed Australopithecus with an evil, or at
least a mixed will. We shall not go back upon our description of the time
of Homo erectus as the Age of Innocence when man did no worse than
follow his animal passions and enjoy life when it was good.

We had our suspicions, however. The Age of Innocence lasted too
long.* Did something go wrong? So far we have treated our Demiurgic
Intelligences as impeccable though not infallible. Why so? In Vol. II,
we reached the conclusion that the whole of Existence is fallible because
it is limited by conditions that make the full realization of its potentiali-
ties impossible.** The Demiurgic Essences were found to be human in
their lower nature: perhaps all zu menschlich! There is nothing in our
entire scheme of the cosmic order that requires that the Demiurgic
Intelligences should be exempt from error. Perhaps there were mis-
calculations. Once history begins to penetrate into the level of con-
sciousness it ceases to be predetermined and therefore it ceases to be
predictable. It may be that sufficient allowance was not made for the
exuberance that consciousness must have imparted into the australo-
pithecine sensitivity. It is possible that the retardation of human
development was imposed by circumstances of a higher order even than
the destiny of man.*** The delay, not evil in itself, may have produced an
imbalance in the mind-stuff. Consciousness may have been too firmly
embedded in, or inextricably mixed, with sensitivity to make it easy to
elicit responsible actions from H. sapiens sapiens when creativity came.

* Vide supra, Section 17.46.3. ** Vol. II, Chapter 25 and Chapter 36.

*** This is the explanation suggested by Gurdjieff in All and Everything in the chapter
entitled 'Why Men are not Men', p. 87.

255

Such considerations could account for the attachment of man to sense
experience and his tendency to see the material world as substantial and
consciousness as a shadow; but they do not account for the evil will.
If we accept the principle omnis voluntas ex voluntate sola 'Will comes
from Will alone', we cannot expect to find an explanation for the origina-
tion of an evil will within man, except by postulating an evil will outside
man. This simple argument which evidently occurred to the author or
authors of the second chapter of Genesis, has become unfashionable,
but it has not been proved fallacious.

Carl Jung has both helped and hindered our understanding by draw-
ing attention to the supreme importance of ancient myths for the inter-
pretation of human experience. He has helped by destroying the illusion
that myths are no more than fanciful inventions having no connection
with any real situation. We have been made to see that myths express
very deep realities indeed—so deep that they hold good equally for
civilized men and savages, for men of our day and men of the remote
past. On the other hand, the Jungian interpretation has tended to lead
us astray by suggesting that we need not take myths as having any
historical significance. This is unfortunate, as we know that ancient
folk-lore, many legends and even myths have been shown by archaeo-
logical research to have a solid historical foundation.

We have to decide now if we are to take seriously the myths that
associate the presence in man of propensities towards evil with the inter-
vention of a hostile but superior Intelligence. Such are: the myths of
Lucifer the light bringer, of Ahriman the Opponent of Ahura and of
Satan the Tempter of Adam. In every case, the source of evil is an
Intelligence, limited and not Divine, but of a far higher order than, and
possessing powers superior to, those of the human race. Evidently, we
can fit our Demiurgic Intelligences into this picture and ascribe the
'Fall of Man' to the jealousy of the powers that were charged with
endowing him with creativity.* Before we lightly dismiss this idea as
fantasy, let us pause to ask ourselves how and when sin could have
entered the life of man. There is only one possible moment: when the
Will of man was made effectual by contact with the creative energy.
Before this moment, man could not have been responsible and therefore
he could not have been sinful. Nor can we suppose that sin came later,
for this would require the existence of creative and yet sinless men,
whose will was free from evil dispositions. Such men could only have
fallen into sin by a cruel and unmerited intervention, that moreover

* Which can, of course, be identified with the 'Apple' of the temptation plucked
from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 3).

256 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

would have been totally gratuitous since such men would not have
been in need of help for which such a price might have been exacted.*
One of the objections—both moral and psychological—to the doctrine
of Original Sin is that it cannot be seen to be in accordance with Divine
Justice.

When the problem is studied historically, and not theologically or
ethically, it falls into a far more reasonable perspective. The evolu-
tionary account of human development implies stages. At each stage,
there is some transfer of responsibility into the creatures destined for
hominization; and, finally, into man himself. At some point the latent
Will is set free. It could not be free from the start, for it required a
Mind through which its powers were to be exercised. The will could be
linked with mind only through the Creative Energy (E 3). But this
energy was lacking in early Homo sapiens. It could not be plucked from
the Tree of Life, for creativity is beyond life itself. In plain terms,
creativity could not be acquired by genetic mutation.

So we come to the conclusion that Creativity had to be imparted to
man by the Demiurgic Intelligences whose very nature is to be creative.
Why should they give men the possibility of reaching their own level—or
even surpassing it, because of man's link with the Cosmic Individuality
— except as an act of obedience? But why, it may be objected, should
there have been many or even one disobedient Demiurge?

The answer to this objection lies in understanding our definition of
the Demiurgic nature. Referring back to the scheme of Essence Classes**
we have:

* We refer here to the argument that sin is a necessary condition for self-perfecting;
since only the overcoming of sin can create the merit required for the possession of
Individuality.

** Adapted from Fig. 34.11, Vol. II, p. 313.

THE CREATIVE MIND

257

The quintessence or central characteristic of the Demiurgic Nature
is Creativity.* Now creativity implies spontaneity and spontaneity
requires freedom. The Demiurgic Nature is not to be regarded as a
passive instrument whereby the Divine Will is inexorably and impecc-
ably put into execution; but rather as a Creative Intelligence with an
immense freedom of action. This freedom is conditioned by Fore-
ordainment, that is, by the total requirement of the Plan and Purpose
—in the present case the evolution of free responsible beings on the
earth. But within these limits, we postulate an indefinite number of
possible paths of realization. Working in the hyparchic future, the
Demiurgic Intelligences** can interfere with the patterns of destiny but
not with the Plan of Creation.***

So far we have used the word evil. Since we must admit that sin is
also a reality, we are compelled to account for it. We are seeking to set
up a complete system of explanation of all human experience and from
such a scheme no consideration so highly relevant as that of man's
sinfulness can be excluded. It may even be that, by facing resolutely
the problem of evil and sin, and the way in which they entered the
human mind, we shall find the most direct confirmation of the system
we have been working out. Sin is an act of wilful disobedience to an
obligation of which we are conscious.**** If we are to impute sin to man,
either now or from the time that his will was set free, we must be
satisfied that he was aware of obligation. This is a delicate, almost
theological question. It seems clear enough, however, that the Will of
man was, from the start, linked through the Universal Individuality
with the Cosmic Individuality: that is with Christ. Once he acquired
Intelligence, he could not be wholly unaware of his Ultimate Destiny
to be reunited with his Source. This being so, he could not be wholly
absolved from responsibility if he accepted the 'evil suggestion' that
he could become an independent creator in his own right.

So much for the abstract ethical considerations. Our concrete picture

* This is, indeed, why this descriptive name was chosen, rather than Angel; for
Angelos, a messenger, represents quite a different role. It will be recalled that the name
was suggested by Plato's 'Great Artificer of the World', Timaeus, 41.

** Vide supra, p. 95, Chapter 43 for the description of Divine operations. It will
be recalled that among the Demiurgic Attributes we assumed that a sense of humour
and even of the absurd was needed to account for some of the freaks of nature: Chapter
44, P-155-

*** As beautifully conveyed in the ancient and marvellous story of the temptation of
Job.

**** But in this form, sin can be derived from Kant's principle of the Categorical
Imperative without introducing the notion of Divine Ordinance. Man is conscious of
obligations and he is also aware that to disregard or disobey them is a sinful act.

258

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

THE CREATIVE MIND

259

of what happened does not run counter to it. Man by his natural bond
of sexual intercourse with the Demiurgic Intelligences was given a
share in their creative energy. With this his mind was set free to con-
quer Nature. At the same time, his Will remained connected by a
supernatural* bond with the Cosmic Individuality. The mind of man
is his own mind; within it, his will is intended to work creatively and

consciously.

This mind, newly awakened to its own creative power, but weakened
by its prolonged—over-prolonged—infancy and so excessively drawn
towards the objects of sense, was confronted with the suggestion that
its destiny was to become Master of the world. This suggestion was
made by Demiurgic Intelligences acting in disobedience to the task they
had undertaken. In his confusion, his weakness—but also in a false
estimation of his own creativity—man chose the Path of Egoism. No
one can deny the significance of egoism in human life. Those who deny
that egoism is sinful and not merely socially undesirable, must test their
beliefs against their own sense of obligation. In the long run, this is a
personal question, indeed the most personal of all questions to which
every human self must give its own answer.

We have set down our account of the occasion and manner in which
evil entered the world of men and the manner in which men succumbed
to evil and became subject to sin. The next question to be considered is
that of the immediate consequences.

The combination of creativity and consciousness produces in the
mind-stuff a structure that we know as the self-hood. In other words,
with the advent of creativity men became something more than 'animals
with minds': they became selves. The response of the self to the 'idea'
of the destiny of human mind would either bring Egoism or Individual-
ity into the mind. We cannot suppose that all who were tempted by the
lure of independence betrayed their awareness of obligation: those who
did not, would, on the death of the body, pass straight into the state
we have called the Hyparchic Future.

As far as the remainder were concerned, all would be affected, because
all minds draw from the same pool of mind-stuff. There could not
therefore be some regions where the evil influence of the disobedient
Demiurgic Intelligence failed to penetrate. Each new generation would
be born with a predisposition to egoistic impulses. So mankind would

*'Supernatural' because not limited by existential conditions. The Will—as we
have so often insisted — does not exist and its operations are only natural insofar as it
depends upon nature for the exercise of its powers. But a direct communication of
will can occur outside existence altogether.

eventually acquire the characteristics with which we are only too familiar
today.

The conclusions we have reached are consistent with our notion of a
Dramatic Universe. Hazard is inherent in the Drama of Existence.
We are coming to know a world that is neither a clockwork mechanism
wound up ab initio to work out a predeterminate programme; nor a
blind, meaningless chaos that, by sheer chance, happens to have thrown
up complex physico-chemical structures with capacity for thought and
feeling. It is a world that is through and through dramatic, and therefore
through and through interesting. There can have been few moments on
this earth more dramatic and interesting than the offering of Pandora's
gift of Creativity.

When hazard entered the human mind-stuff, it was transformed into
soul-stuff. From that time on, men began to be selves and being selves
could become souls. Since soul-making was certainly foreordained, we
must suppose that hazard also was and is within the Plan. But, as we
have seen, foreordainment and predestination are different modes of
future reality. Man was not foreordained to Egoism: he was free to
choose. His choice was very far from being wholly evil: but it was a
sinful act and as such exposed him to the hazards of a two-fold contra-
dictory nature the conflict of which could be resolved only by the
attainment of Individuality.*

Let us not forget that we are seeking to establish an historical
account of the human situation. The Universal Drama cannot be
understood except in an historical context. The same is true for the
Human Drama. We must consequently return to the historical situation
and endeavour to decipher the enigmatic record of the Epoch within
which the last Glaciation ended, some 11,000 years ago.

17.47.2. Withdrawal and Language-Creation

The human situation had developed in such a way as to expose the
whole undertaking to the risk of failure. We may surmise that the
communities that had grown up under the direction of magicians
disobedient to their task had gained the dominant position. Those who
remained faithful to the task of maturing the human mind were obliged
to withdraw.

During the Epoch 10,500 to 8,000 B.C., we enter the second Great
Cycle of human creativity and a time when the truly progressive work

* Cf. Chapter 39, Section 15.39.6.

260

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

THE CREATIVE-MIND

26l

amongst mankind had become separated from the main areas of human
activity. The Intelligences concerned with human progress were work-
ing in terms of the hyparchic future, not in terms of technical advance.
The result was a seeming conservatism or absence of progress. Man's
creative energy was channelled towards preparing for the future of the
human mind—when man would populate the whole world, found
civilizations and come to religion.

Early technology, art and even husbandry and seafaring, could all
have developed without much advance in conceptual thought.
Technology and art represent a development of the sensory-motor and
feeling powers, rather than the intellectual. We have argued that speech
was the first crucial manifestation of mind. In this later phase, language,
once again, assumes major importance. Here we shall be concerned with
conceptual language, rather than with the rudimentary concrete
language of early man. A conceptual language has a complex structure
with embodied basic notions of process, space and time, categories of
differentiation and so on. It is no accident that throughout the history of
philosophy, attention has always been focused on the phenomena of
language and its uses, with the aim of clarifying or redefining the
components of its conceptual framework, and the ideas which can be
produced from it. Though Galileo could well say that just by giving
a thing a name we do not understand it the better, at least we are able
to think about it.

Early man, we said, can have possessed but few notions of past and
future, of scale, or of different levels of activity. He could not have
thought conceptually because he had no language which embodied
intuitions of time, space or eternity. Language was linked to the opera-
tions of the present moment. When language became free of the im-
mediate activity it could acquire 'superfluous' elements such as notions
of time. We have repeatedly emphasized that intellectual reflection
could not have emerged before the apparatus with which men could
reflect had been developed. In our eyes, this demands an Intelligence
working 'ahead' of man, in man's hyparchic future—rather as a parent
today ideally works in terms of the expected future of his child.
The construction of a conceptual language was directed by the Demi-
urgic Powers with the purpose of providing an apparatus wherewith
man could learn how to reflect upon his origin and destiny. Man
must understand the working of nature so that, in time, he may become
responsible for the regulation of the Biosphere. This purpose is still in
process of being worked out, but—as we all too easily witness—it has
come to contradict the higher aim of reaching an understanding of God

and the Great Plan. In our own Epoch, man's understanding of nature
has led him to distort and deny deeper conceptions of his destiny and of
God which also must be carried forward and developed. This dilemma
reflects the contradiction we met in Chapter 45 between the static
and the dynamic lines of evolution. Man's understanding of nature
leads towards the static end of Demiurgic Intelligence. Man's under-
standing of God has its end in the Cosmic Individuality, with man as
conscious servant of the Great Purpose.

It is clear, therefore, that the creation of language wherewith man
could come to reflect and to think about the Universe was one of the
most important moments in the whole of our history. It is this which
stands at the beginning of the history of social man.

Simultaneously with that particular and highly specialized develop-
ment, the world saw the arising of the Great Notions of God and the
Spiritual World. They were given to ordinary man at first as images
evoked by direct experience rather than as ideas or mental concepts.
Men came to live within the context of a vision of the invisible powers
in all that they saw and did and this vision was an Image shared by all.
In later times, these Sacred Images were to be refined and others con-
structed—yet the principle would remain the same. They were the
ultimate inspiration in human life, and guided men in their everyday
lives as well as in the organization of their societies. In front of these
Great Images, man was left free to respond. This was to be the pre-
cursor of man's response to the Messengers of the Great Religions,
when he would be addressed more or less directly.

The two factors of response and understanding were the means
whereby man entered actively into his assumption of responsibility.
We have to make sense of the limited traces of human culture in these
terms. Our starting point is the thesis that the whole of our modern
culture has stemmed from a few great centres. By the time of the
first civilizations, the various cultural streams are already intermingled.
We are now concerned with the critical period at the end of the Wurm
glaciation. Amongst the responsive creative groups who withdraw
from the general sphere of human activity in each of the four main
independent regions were the pioneers and guardians of the future of
the human mind.

The brilliant Magdalenian culture of South-West Europe lasted about
5,000 years and then rapidly declined. Cave painting and sculpture
ceased while the aesthetic quality and decoration of objects deteriorated.
About 10,000 B.C. the great ritual centres of the Dordogne were
abandoned. Some groups of Magdalenian hunters followed the game

262

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

northwards.* Other developed the Azilian microlithic culture, which
was fully established by 8000 B.C. and lasted for several thousand
years in the more open areas of South-West Europe. This, and other
more widespread Mesolithic cultures descended from the same tradi-
tion, mark a clear discontinuity with the creativity centre of the Mag-
dalenian peoples. It seems as if the outburst of creativity either dried
up or changed into different channels.

In central and eastern Africa, we can detect an even greater change.
After about 10,000 B.C., there are signs of a regression which continued
until the Shaheinab Neolithic stage, about 3000 B.C. Even then there is
evidence of little progress. Only the Ishangian culture which nourished
around 8000 B.C. shows any sign of creative activity—significantly
after the Epoch of Withdrawal. Our thesis is that the withdrawal took
place in all four main regions of human population: the Far East, Africa
and South-West Asia as well as in western Europe. The withdrawal was
necessary in order to make the next step forward in isolation
from the confusion which was sweeping over mankind. As we have
said, the key to the nature and location of these new creative centres is
given by the four major cultural streams of mankind. Associated
with each of these was a set of beliefs and a peculiar language
structure.

Two or three thousand years are none too long for the creation and
establishment of a great root-language, or a new set of notions. The
work depended on right environmental conditions which could offer the
necessary challenge to stimulate human initiative, and at the same time
provide the perceptions to invest the new beliefs with a substantial
form. We will attempt, as far as it is possible, to find a plausible location
for each of these four main centres, even though we may be exposing
ourselves to the risk of making big mistakes due to the difficulty of
reconstructing these remote events.

For reasons that will appear later, we believe that 'loyal groups', as

* Many Gravettian peoples followed the reindeer herds as the ice-fields withdrew,
and long retained an essentially Upper Palaeolithic type of culture—such as the Ham-
burgian of North Germany and Denmark. In pre- and early Boreal times, similar
hunters occupied Schleswig-Holstein, while others roamed territories from the Oder
to the Volga. In the warm period beginning about 7700 B.C., these northern peoples
developed the Maglemosian and Kunda cultures from Denmark to Estonia, and occu-
pied parts of eastern England and the east coast of Ireland. Though adaptable and
creative in practical ways, such as the introduction of deep sea fishing and whaling,
they seem to have been hardy and adventurous rather than artistic and imaginative.
They decorated objects with geometrical patterns and formalized figures of men and
animals, and carved animal figures in amber; but none of their art forms approach the
splendour of the Magdalenian.

THE CREATIVE MIND 263

we shall call those who obeyed the directions of the true Guides,* and
their initiated followers, went from western Europe far north into the
Arctic Circle and remained there for 2,500 years: that is the length of
an Epoch according to our system of cycles. We shall follow their
fortunes in a later section.

We have little material to guide us in reconstructing the history of the
Centres in Africa, and the Near and Far East. We assume that loyal
groups under the leadership of their guides withdrew into regions where
they could pursue their aims undisturbed by the psychostatic societies
of men led by egoistic though creative minds. The loyal African groups
may have moved into the highlands of Ethiopia. The Far Eastern centre
remains an enigma: but the spread of cultures and languages in the
next Epoch demonstrates that it certainly had its own withdrawal and
concentration. Finally, we have the South-West Asian centre of trans-
formation which probably concentrated somewhere in the mountain
regions of Anatolia and the Caucasus.

We leave out of account other centres such as the Andean centre of
culture in South America. Though this was probably as significant
and as creative as the other four, it did not interact with them in the
same way as they did between themselves. We suggest that the Andean
centre withdrew but did not return. We have, thus, common to all
humanity a period of Withdrawal to Centres of Wisdom.

The Epoch of Withdrawal and Concentration lasted from 10,500 to
8000 B.C. After that time, the four cultures diffused over vast areas and
intermingled with each other. It would have been impossible to re-
construct the situation during the Epoch of Withdrawal without the
existence of evidence in our present moment which allows us to discern
four primary cultural traditions. These we are about to study.

17.47.3. The Great Mother

The traditions of the Near and Middle East bear witness to a time
when the Great Mother was the fount of life and the originator of the
arts, especially of agriculture. Cybele of the Phrygians, Innana of the
Sumerians, the great Earth Mother of the Cretans known to the Greeks
as Gea, Rhea of the Greeks and Ishtar of the Semites define approxi-
mately the same region as that of our middle eastern centre of trans-
formation. This region contains traces of the very earliest permanent
settlements and of the origins of agriculture. It has also been the birth-

* These, were psychoteleios men in the sense of Chapter 41, that is men who had
achieved Personal Individuality and could therefore be guided by the Plan of the
Hyparchic Future.

264 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

place of religion as we know it today.* To this day matriarchal institu-
tions survive in remote regions.

How far back does the Great Mother cult carry us into antiquity? It is
well attested five thousand years before the present by inscriptions and
temples. It was already ancient when the Creation Hymn of the Sumer-
ians was composed—perhaps 6,000 years ago. Conclusive evidence of its
antiquity has recently come from the Anatolian plateau where the
excavations at Catal Huyuk reveal the cult in full activity 8,750-9,250
years before the present.** The Phrygian myth suggests its origin. The
Great Mother Cybele accepts human consorts, but in their union with
her they die as men and are raised as demi-gods. Let us make a bold
guess and refer this myth to the time when the Demiurgic Intelligence
entered into the body of a woman—or perhaps many women—and by
mating with selected men of the earlier Group III races gave birth to
Homo sapiens sapiens.*** It may be that such an exceptionally brilliant
manifestation of the Demiurgic power left so strong a mark upon the
new-born race that it persisted in their traditions for thousands of years.
There is nothing unusual in the enduring quality of tradition and myth.
They appear to have been introduced into human life from the time that
creativity entered. We may even see in these eternal elements in human
experience, an action complementary to the temporal achievements.

It cannot be said that the cult of Goddesses is exclusively found in
South-West Asia. Matriarchal systems dominated among the North
American Indians, in Polynesia and in parts of Africa. Female goddesses
are found in all ancient pantheons. There are, however, very significant
differences. The American Indians do not regard themselves as des-
cended from the Great Mother, but from the Great Spirit. In the Far
East and Africa, the female goddesses are the consorts of the gods—
rarely the Mother of Gods and Men.§

At the beginning, the Great Mother was not so much a goddess as

* This will be discussed at length in Chapter 48.

** Vide infra, pp. 266—7.

*** We refer of course to the small early groups of transformation. The myth may
also refer to a later action whereby men of exceptional creativity were born who were
necessary for the Great Work. In Chapter 46, we suggested that Demiurges in male
human form mated with human women, but the converse may also have occurred, as

suggested here.

**** The remarkable Bantu legends of the Mother Goddess Ma and her consort, the
Tree of Life, show evidence of earlier elements of Creator God notions; but the primal
creator has 'withdrawn' from the universe leaving it to Good and Evil forces. Since
the Bantu probably originated around the Niger they may well have been influenced
by Northern colonists belonging to the Great Mother tradition. The legends are,
significantly, associated with an agricultural people. Cf. Indaba my Children by Vusa-
mazulu C. Mutwa,

THE CREATIVE MIND 265

a manifestation of the female principle of generation, and most authori-
ties agree in seeing her as the continuation of fertility cults of the
greatest antiquity.

Our justification for ascribing the origin of the Great Mother cult
of the Near East to the Demiurgic birth of human creativity is similar
to the argument already several times invoked. What exists must have
originated somewhere. If it has great power to impress itself on the
minds of men, it must have originated in a very notable event or come
from a very powerful source. The usual accounts of the Great Mother as
originating with agriculture and being no more than an expression of
man's hopes for a successful harvest, probably put the cart before the
horse. It is more reasonable to suppose that the people whose traditions
were centred upon a miraculous birth would readily take to agriculture
when they were shown what to do.

It is generally agreed that agriculture began in the Near and Middle
East, and that the first important human settlements belong to this area
especially in Asia Minor. Unlike the other centres, that of the Great
Mother cult maintained continuity of occupation and development from
the time of the transformation until the start of the historical period.
Some time after 8000 B.C. the first settlements showing signs of agri-
culture and stock-breeding appear in South-West Asia. Wheat and
barley were indigenous to South-west Asia, and so were the ancestors
of the moufflon sheep and the urial—believed to have formed the earliest
domestic herds.

A succession of cultures had developed out of the old blade-and-
burin industries,* leading to Mesolithic forms—the best known of
which is the Natufian of Palestine. The Natufians lived partly in rock-
shelters, fishing and hunting gazelle and other game. But since they
possessed flint sickles, they must also have reaped corn. At first, this
will have been the wild emmer wheat that grew on the hillsides; but
soon they began to cultivate it, and at Jericho, in the Jordan valley,
they developed a true farming economy.

Jericho is an oasis, watered by a perpetual spring. Here, Natufian
hunters made a shrine, dated by carbon 14 at about 9,800 years before
the present. Later, they built clay and wattle huts and founded a
settlement described as Proto-Neolithic. The beginning of a full mixed
farming economy at Jericho dates from at least 7000 B.C., and the little

* In Palestine, the Upper Palaeolithic Atletian and Kebaran. In Iraq, several sites
yielded a sequence ranging from Late Palaeolithic onwards, including Sharidar and
Zani (Oakley, loc. cit., p. 262). Traces of Mesolithic cultures are known in the Lebanon,
Syria, Iraq and Iran. They will doubtless be found in South Anatolia.

266

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

settlement progressively developed into a true Neolithic town, with
houses of sun-baked brick defended by a masonry wall and a round
tower. Other large farming communities existed even earlier in Anatolia,
notably at Catal Huyuk, and in the Tigris area at Jarmo.

It was in South Anatolia that techniques were first improved enough
to produce sufficient surplus food to allow leisure and specialization.*
It is difficult not to believe that there was a centre at or near to
Catal Huyuk, and to imagine that the leaders may have been or have
inspired women. Certainly some very remarkable people must have
been born to the women here. The core of the site has not yet been
excavated, and it may be found that its history goes back to late Palaeo-
lithic times. Whoever they were, these people created the first Medi-
terranean civilization, soon to reach the Aegean. The same culture in
Late Neolithic stage was found at Hacilar, a small site 150 miles to the
west. Abandoned by an early farming community, several centuries
before, it was reoccupied about 5700 B.C.

It seems very probable that there were links between the cultures of
Syria and farther east and the Hacilar culture, and between the latter
and the Late Neolithic and early metal using (Chalcolithic) cultures of
the Balkans and Greece. Neolithic villages existed throughout Thessaly
and central Greece by 5000 B.C., and Khirokitia, in Cyprus, possessed
a full Neolithic culture as early as 5500 B.C.

All the early farming communities practised some form of Mother
Goddess cult, as shown by the innumerable female figurines which have
been found in them. As in the Upper Palaeolithic, emblems of fertility
included carved phalli as well as these. In primitive communities hunt-
ing and war, politics and commerce are predominantly masculine
activities, whereas agriculture, spinning and weaving, and the making of
pottery are predominantly feminine ones. For such reasons, no doubt,
the feminine principle predominated among Neolithic peoples, and
women were powerful. In some early Neolithic cultures at least, the
Mother Goddess—later the Great Earth Mother—was supreme. This
was certainly the case at Catal Huyuk and Neolithic Hacilar. Here, the
Mother Goddess cult possessed power and depth. A quarter of the

* Excavations of the great site of Catal Huyuk were begun by James Mellaart in
1961 and still continue. The highest inhabited level there dates from about 6000 B.C.,
when the town was abandoned, and the part excavated up to now covers the seventh
millennium B.C. Revelations have been astonishing. In 1964, Mellaart wrote: 'Catal
Huyuk deserves the name of city; it was a community with an extensive economic
development, specialized crafts, a rich religious life, a surprising attainment in art
and an impressive social organization. Cf. 'A Neolithic City in Turkey,' by J. Mellaart,
Scientific American, April, 1964.

THE CREATIVE MIND 267

town reserved for sacred and purely residential buildings included richly
decorated shrines containing burials. These shrines reveal a religion of
life and death, the whole aim of which was the comprehension and
influencing of these mysteries and the continuity of life in every aspect.

The Mother Goddess represented continuance of life through fecund-
ity, many that of men and animals. But with the spread of agriculture,
the idea of analogy between burial and growth of the seed and man's
death, burial and rebirth arose, and she became the Great Earth Mother
whose cult was largely funerary and endured for millennia in Late
Neolithic Europe. Megalithic and gallery tombs were always dark and
subterranean—often artificially made so—and very many of them had
stylized carvings of her head or breasts.

While nothing so spectacular as Catal Huyuk is known in connection
with the Mother Goddess farther East, she was nevertheless present
in all the early Neolithic settlements and is found in graves and shrines
—usually in conventionalized form. In later times, the Great Mother
no longer appears alone. The death and resurrection of the seasons
portrayed in the death of the 'king' or the sacrifice of the god show the
influence of other traditions. In Sumeria and Babylonia the transition—
if it can so be called—from Nin-tu, the wise and inexhaustible source
of all lifi to Tiamat, the primal, undifferentiated being dismembered
by the great gods, is an unmistakable sign of the increasing predomin-
ance of alien cultures. All the later beliefs show an amazing conceptual
complexity, but this should not be read into the original notion. Already
in the Epoch of Diffusion, which was to begin some 10,000 years before
the present, the Great Mother is often rivalled by a son-lover 'who begot
upon her his own rebirth'.*

Surveying the archaeological evidence we can detect the rapid acceler-
ation of lechnical advance after 8000 B.C. Before that time we can read
a typical story of the Epoch of Withdrawal. The communities conscious
of the significance of creativity had withdrawn from active contact.
Their return brought a new understanding of the Mother Principle to
many groups living in South-west Asia. Perhaps, even then, the creativ-
ity of the region was deployed in discovering and applying new tech-
niques rather than in a search for the meaning of existence. It is probable
that there was little progress in language beyond words connected with

* Cf. Ja:quetta Hawkes, Prehistory, p. 343, 'For if the female principle is taken
seriously as the First Cause, the male principle must of necessity derive from it, and
the god is, in this view, the child of the goddess.' Applying such an abstract analysis is
obviously out of place for the Great Mother culture, but it illustrates how a variety of
notions follow from the confluence of two pure traditions.

268

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

the new crafts—for, as we shall see in the next section, the principle
root languages of the modern world developed elsewhere and were
brought into this region later. It is probable that there was a largely
ostensive language in which sounds were linked to gestures and were
equivalent to 'showing' what was meant.* Such languages could suffice
for agricultural and technical communications and they could well allow
the Great Mother cult to be taught and practised. They would be un-
suitable for conveying abstract ideas and therefore were absorbed into
the languages of the three other centres when these reached the Near
East. Yet, as we shall see, the people of the Great Mother tradition had
a peculiar destiny in providing the foundations of civilization. In the time
of the desiccation of present areas of desert, man found an ideal home-
land in the comparative mildness of the South-West Asia region. So,
too, in his mind, man understood the universal community of life
through the Great Mother.

17.47.4. The Great Spirit

We can affirm with confidence that the new creative men in the Far
East were taught to regard Creativity as the Great Spiritual Power. In
its most sophisticated interpretation, the spiritual Power is Tao from
which, according to the Tao Teh King, come the Yang and the Yin, or
the male and female principles, which in their turn give rise to the Three
and so to all the diversity of Nature.** As Chinese culture must be very
ancient indeed, we may be sure that the notion of the Great Spirit
originated long before the earliest records.*** In a debased form the same
doctrine is to be found in the endless variety of animistic beliefs that
have been held, and in many places are still held, in Oceania, Polynesia,
South-East Asia, among the pre-Aryan Dravidian people of South
India and in Central Asia. Mana the unseen spirit power, the secret of
the magicians, the moving force in all non-living and living nature is an
expression of man's awareness that he is subject to a spiritual power that
cannot be overcome by his own will.

We have already noted that Shamanism must have originated with
the Demiurgic magicians of the transformation. The Shaman is pos-

* Sir Richard Paget based his Gestural Origin of Language on this observation: but
his views have not been accepted by philologists. They probably hold for what we
might call 'pre-creative' languages.

** Tao Teh King, Chapter 2, v. 42.

*** The Shih Ching or Book of Odes goes back little farther than the confluence of the
Yu, Hsia and Chou peoples in the Fen River valley and the east bank of the Hwang Ho.
This was probably no earlier than ca. 2000 B.C. Their easy unification signifies a
common heritage dating from before any settlement near the Hwang-ho.

THE CREATIVE MIND 269

sessed by the Spiritual Power that enables him to prophecy, to direct
the lives of people and to work wonders.

It is safe to say that the total body of beliefs and practices of the Far
East must have had a different origin from the Great Mother beliefs
of the Near East. The effect upon the lives and customs of the people
has been totally different. In the Near East, the emphasis was upon the
practical life. In the Far East, it was in the direction of a mystical com-
munion with nature.

As we have seen, the development of new techniques certainly lagged
behind over most of this vast region. Are we to conclude from this that
the transformation to H. sapiens sapiens had not taken place and that
the animistic beliefs of the region were relics of the hunting magic of
the Neanderthal period? The answer might be 'Yes' for southern areas
of the Far East. This was the cradle of the Australoid racial group,
whose descent from Pithecanthropus IV can be traced in Java to the
Neanderthaloid 'Solo Man', and a skull of the latter type was also found
in Borneo and dated at about 39,000 b.p. Between 12,000 and 10,000 b.p.,
industries in the South were still of the primitive chopper-chopping
type, and the Australoid transition to Homo sapiens sapiens remains
obscure.* But, as we have also seen, matters were very different in
parts of North China and South Mongolia. Here, both culture and
skeletal remains show that Proto-Mongoloids were H. sapiens sapiens by
this time. Yet, here too, progress was relatively slow and the peoples
continued to live as hunters and food-gatherers long after agriculture
had developed elsewhere.

The significance of these observations is suggested by the continued
practice of magic long after it had ceased in the West. Even to this day
magicians operate successfully in the forests and jungles of the Far East
and in the remote regions of Mongolia, Siberia and Tibet. The emphasis
upon the Creative Energy as such, rather than upon its transforming
influence in the human mind, would be bound to lead to beliefs in its
universal presence and so to animism and shamanism.

Was this all that the Far Eastern centre of transformation could
achieve? Here we have less to go on than in the three other cases. We
believe that the positive contribution is in the establishment of traditions
connected with 'ceremonial magic' that were the precursor of the ritual-

* They were driven out of Southern China later by Mongoloids from the north or
absorbed by them. Today, they are represented by Australian aborigines, Melanesians,
Papuans, Negritos of South Asia and Oceania, and some of the tribal folk of India. It
has even been suggested that the Australian aborigines never fully achieved the transi-
tion, and certainly brain capacities of less than 1,000 cc are far from unknown among
them. (Cf. Coon, loc. cit., pp. 410—11.)

270

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

istic practices that, in their turn, prepared the way for the advent of
sacramental religion.. Moreover, the belief in the Great Spirit does not
look back to the past, as the Great Mother doctrine tends to do; but
concentrates attention in the present. This is no doubt why the higher
manifestations of spirituality in the Far East are chiefly directed to the
liberation of consciousness in the eternal present of Nirvana*

We shall conclude that the creative Centre of the Far East developed
techniques connected with consciousness and magic. They also certainly
developed new linguistic forms. In the agglutinative and polysynthetic
languages of Central and South-east Asia and Polynesia we have evi-
dence of a common cultural centre of diffusion existing in the very
remote part. These languages are psychologically suited to people who
feel their bond of union in a common affinity with the Great Spirit.
They are so ancient that in some cases, as with Chinese and Mongolian
or Tartar, very few words or roots are common and the literary forms
have diverged widely. Yet, in all cases, there is a non-individualized
character '-hat allows notions to be built up without the distinction of
noun, verb and adjective to which we are accustomed.

Holding fast to our principle that everything that exists or has existed
must have had a determinate origin: we shall assume that this advanced-
language originated by design in a creative centre.

17.47.5. The Creator God

The African centre appears to have withdrawn more resolutely from
the scene of general transformation than the other three. We know
nothing of it or its activity until the next stage. Reconstructing the earlier
stage from the later, we can recognize the influence of the environmental
changes. Whereas in northern latitudes all else was dwarfed by the
melting of the glaciers, in the equatorial regions the transition was from
pluvial to dry climate. Anyone who has witnessed the end of the Mon-
soon in India or the change in Africa from unending tropical rain to
burning sunshine can form an idea of the psychological effect of the
ending of a long pluvial period in which the rainfall exceeded 200 inches
a year. We would expect that the dwellers in the forests of the west would
have been far less affected than those who dwelt more in open land. In

* Some of the purest expressions of the Great Spirit notion are to be found in the
descriptions given by the Indians of North America. Thus, speaking of the spiritual
men of the past, an Osage Indian said, 'They searched for a long time for the source
of life, and at last they came to the thought that it issues from an invisible creative
power to which they applied the name "Wa-Kon-Da" ' (quoted in Collier, Indians
of the Americas from Le Flesche, The Osage Tribe: Rite of the Wa-Xo-Be).

THE CREATIVE MIND

271

the east and the north of Africa, the sun predominates over all other
phenomena.

Associating the change with the flowering of creativity in man him-
self, the Sun would certainly be hailed as the visible manifestation of the
creative Power. Since this response had in it the germs of a true religious
disposition to be acquired at a later stage, the Creative Groups would
adopt it as the foundation of their activity. For this, it was necessary
to move to a region where the power of the Sun was most evident.
The choice was, no doubt, also influenced by precognition of the future
fertility of the Nile Valley and of the part that Egypt was to play later
in the development of mind and society. It might appear that a region
such as that of Libya was ideal. But at this time ancient Libya was very
much in contact with Eastern Mediterranean populations, so that,
because of its active cultural life, there would have been little possibility
of a prolonged withdrawal and concentration. In the rugged environ-
ment of North-east Africa all the necessary conditions were satisfied.
The location may well have been on the Ethiopian Massif where a group
of people could have remained undisturbed, and almost invisible, for
thousands of years. In the light of the evidence we have to date, this is
at least a plausible hypothesis.

As with all other regions of the populated world, those who did not
follow the Guides into the selected region were not deprived of creativ-
ity. No man has been deprived of it since it became connected with the
pool of human soul-stuff. But they were left to exercise it in a relatively
stationary society.

It would seem, for example, that the Lupemban people kept within
their forest zone and their culture remained purely African. It was centred
upon the Congo Basin, and it may well have been here that the compli-
cated rhythms of Negro music and dancing began to develop. But on
the fringes of the Sahara they will have come into contact with North
African groups, and in Uganda and Rhodesia the Lupemban culture
overlapped the Stillbay. As we saw, an interesting centre of exchange
must have existed on the shores of Lake Victoria, where peoples of the
Lupemban, Stillbay and Upper Kenya Capsian cultures—black, yellow
and white—must have met. Broadly speaking, these cultures made little
further progress and the people remained essentially hunters and fishers
until the coming of iron in the first millennium a.d. or later.

We do not suggest that Africa was without spiritual guidance. On
the contrary, all the evidence confirms that magicians continued to
flourish and in some cases these magicians had authentic communication
with the Demiurgic power. There are profound differences between

D.U. IV—11

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African magic and Far Eastern magic. The latter is mainly concerned
with nature and the former with people. We can see how the distinction
goes back to the Epoch of Withdrawal. The African magicians repre-
sented the Creative Power: they could kill and bring to life; they could
make their presence felt at a distance; when they died they went to a
different state of existence from that of the ordinary man. Most impor-
tant of all, they were often the rulers or chiefs of the community. The
transmission of the creative secret was the guarantee of succession from
the Chief to his son or his chosen successor. All this is very different
from the Asiatic Shaman who did not claim any permanent power, but
only that which entered him when he was possessed by the Great
Spirit.

Associated with the Creator Image was the formation of highly
organized social structures such as existed until recent times in parts of
Africa. This ensured a moral order based upon reward and punishment,
such as that of the Bantu peoples up to the last century. This, again, is
very different from the social structures derived from Great Spirit beliefs.

It seems likely that, with the withdrawal of the true Guides from most
of the African communities, their ruling chiefs became more magicians
than prophets. We cannot compare the situation of even two thousand
years ago—recounted still by witch doctors and story-tellers in Africa
today—with that of the Epoch of Withdrawal and Concentration.
Traces remain of an ancient tradition of magical practice aiming at the
evolution of man's mental powers. Without any doubt, much was
known of man's psychic energies and how to control them.*

In the creative centre, sun-worship, creator-worship and king-
worship developed together with the newly created language. The
creator god had the attributes of supreme authority and omnipotence.
Authority corresponds with kingship and omnipotence, with the power
of the sun over life.

We suggest, then, that from the African continent came an immense
contribution—mainly through Egypt—to the progress of the human
mind. We have postulated that this contribution was prepared by com-
munities living in the Ethiopian massif. From the later traces, there
seems little doubt that the proto-Hamitic peoples, remains of whom have
been found in this region, contributed to the Egyptian stock. Many of
the early carvings and paintings portray aristocratic figures remarkably

* In time, the motivation turned increasingly towards gaining control over the
forces of nature. This combination of mental development with the desire for power
over nature corresponds to the 'Way of Function' which we briefly referred to in Chap-
ter 41. Cf. Vol. Ill, Chapter 41, p. 251.

THE CREATIVE MIND

273

similar in facial bone structure to the Upper Kenya Capsian type who

flourished in East Africa about 8000 B.C. In the same works of art, we can
see man of proto-Bushmanoid type. When the marshes of the Nile
valley began to dry up, peoples must have come from the region of
Libya into the newly fertile land. Perhaps others came from Mediter-
rinican Europe, or from around Syria.

Although farming began about 7000 B.C. in South-west Asia, it did
not appear in Egypt until some three thousand years later. The oldest
Known Egyptian farming community is usually considered to be the
Tasian culture of Upper Egypt, but records in the Delta region are
Very incomplete because the earliest settlements there were abandoned
owing to desiccation and very many were swept away by changing
watercourses or buried by sand. The early Neolithic cultures of Upper
and Lower Egypt always differed yet had much in common. Although
most probably Asiatic elements were present in the early farming com-
munities—especially in Lower Egypt—there must have been a large
native element in their populations and cultures. This is indicated by
certain fine pressure flaked tools which might have developed from the
North African Aterian or the Stillbay, and this native influence contri-
luted towards the distinctive character of Egyptian civilization and to
the Hamitic element in Egyptian stock and language.

In Upper Egypt, there were three successive cultures, all purely
Neolithic and in some respects distinctively African. The earliest is
represented by encampments at Tasa, near Badari, on spurs at the foot
of high cliffs on the edge of the valley.

The next culture, probably developed from the Tasian, was the
Badarian. This was much more wealthy and extensive. The Badarian
culture apparently developed into the Amratian which approached true
civilization.

In Badarian times the stock was apparently much the same as in
East Africa, that is proto-Hamitic and Bushmanoid, but as the water
level sank and the Nile valley itself became habitable Libyans, Semites
and Nubians moved in and a mixed population spread along the river,
chiefly concentrated in the Fayum and south of Asyut. Then, at the
start of the Nagadeh II period, probably about 3500 B.C., a new wave of
Semites arrived with a higher culture and at least an elementary know-
ledge of metal. They settled peacefully in Upper Egypt and introduced
the Chalcolithic phase, colonizing Lower Egypt later. By the end of the
4th millennium B.C. a hybrid population had developed which was
neither Libyan nor Semitic but Egyptian and which spoke a Hamitic
language with Semitic elements.

274

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

THE CREATIVE MIND

We have to rely on the later symbols of dynastic Egypt in order to
reconstruct the early beliefs of the Egyptians. Symbols of the supreme
gods Re, Horus and Ptah show the formulation of notions unexpressed
in the previous millennia dominated in appearance by totemism.*

Horus was the supreme 'sky-god'—embodying the notion of the
celestial or spiritual region. Ptah was obviously the supreme Intellect at
work in the design of the Universe. Re the Sun-God was the visible
presence of the creative power. There was a concern with the inter-
section of eternity with time—as shown by the cycles of the sun, and
represented by Aker as the joining of two front halves of a lion together,
guarding the two horizons. Later, Aker represents past and future. The
animal forms of many of the gods were a symbolic convention to repre-
sent powers, qualities and principles.

The Creator-God notion found expression in many of the representa-
tions. One of the most important was Atum who created the universe
from himself. King worship found expression in Horus.** The image
of the sun was the central symbol of all these notions. According to our
thesis, it was so thousands of years earlier in the creative centre of
Africa. Why? Because no traces of such a conception are to be found in
Mesopotamia or Syria—the regions which deeply influenced the thought
of Egypt in so many other ways.***

The emergent Egyptian civilization of 4000 B.C. provides the strong-
est evidence for our suggestion of a Creator-God centre, which had
begun to influence African cultures some four thousand years earlier.
Throughout all its vicissitudes and conflicts, in Egypt the Creator Sun-
God was to remain the supreme authority in creation. There was nothing
comparable in the beliefs of Sumeria.

We have also to take into account the creation of the Hamito-Semitic
language system. The first traces of language in Egypt show that an
hamitic tongue was spoken by the people. It is evident that the language-
system had been diffused before the founding of Egypt. This suggests
other regions in North Africa—such as that of Libya—also Syria and
Iraq in South-West Asia may well have been using kindred languages
at about the same time. The cultural exchanges at the time make this

* Totemism is now recognized as a mnemonic device, useful for a people who have
a complex ancestral lineage that must be recalled in various rites.

** According to Flinders Petrie, the triad Horus-Isis-Osiris predated the enneadic
pantheon by millennia and Horus represented an African 'king' who lived about
7500 B.C. This interpretation is now generally rejected. The point is that the Creator-
God notion, however it was brought into Egypt, was essentially African.

% The Indo-European sun-symbol was not associated with the notion of 'hvareno'
or the divine power of kingship until the rise of Mithraism.

275

highly plausible. Between 8000 and 4000 B.C. points of contact could
easily have been established all over the total region now associated with
the Hamito-Semitic language system. As we shall explain later, the
'high' new language would at first be the prerogative of the few, and
only gradually pass into general use. By the time of the early civiliza-
hiins, the process of education would have been far advanced. It seems
that the Creator-God image was not so widely transmitted as the
bi- and tri-literal language system. In the insularity of Egyptian think-
ing, the notion was carefully developed and only later found a really
new form of expression in the monotheism of the Israelites.

The Hamito-Semitic language structure could not have arisen from
practical demands. In South-west Asia, the early Neolithic peoples
who appeared before the growth of Egypt would have had no need of
more in a language than a terminology to deal with the events and objects
of sensory experience. Behind the pantheon of Egyptian deities we see
expressions of intuitions of fundamental modes of operation which work
throughout the universe. The ambiguities and contradictions dealt with
by the priests confirm the conceptual power of their language. Thus
God is One in his authority and power, but Many in his workings.

It is not without reason that the ancient Egyptians and after them the
Hebrews and later still the Arabs claimed that their language was of
Divine origin. Such a structure could not possibly have existed before
man was endowed with creativity and even then it must have been the
work of Psychoteleios men of a high order. These languages were
originally based upon the combination of two consonantal breaks in a
sequence of vowels. Later they developed a tri-literal structure. The ex-
treme artificiality and at the same time the immense power of expression
given by the bi- and tri-literal root system was later to be responsible for
developing a mode of thought that has contributed mightily to the
progress of the human soul.

17.47.6. The Saviour God

We must take up again the story of the loyal groups in Europe who
moved northward about 12,000 or perhaps 13,000 years ago. The glacia-
tion of northern Europe was still extensive, but there was a route that
was open and attractive. This was the sea route of the Gulf Stream past
Spitzbergen into the sheltered regions of the Arctic Ocean. Many
ancient legends attest that this route was known long before the begin-
ning of history. Hesiod, who would seem to have caught the echo of
the Demiurgic Intelligences in his myths of demi-gods and Titans, tells
us that when Zeus the son of Chronos had gained the mastery, the Titans

276 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

went north and lived 'their hearts free from anxiety in the Islands of the
Blest on the shores of the Ocean where the great maelstrom whirls.*
All references to the far north—and certainly Iceland was known and
had been visited by the navigator Pytheas of Marseilles—extol the mild
climates to be found near the 'petrified sea', i.e. the ice-pack.

We cannot devote much space to this fascinating theme; but must
see if there is any positive evidence that men of high culture lived in the
shores of the Arctic Ocean in remote antiquity.** We must rely chiefly
upon the hymns of the Rig Veda, the most ancient scriptures of the
Aryan people who came to India from the North about 3,500 years ago.
Eighty years ago B. G. Tilak, a great Sanskrit scholar, put forward the
theory that these hymns with elaborate descriptions of sacrificial rituals
could only have been composed by men of very high culture living
within the Arctic Circle.***

The unchanging altitude of the constellations make it appear as if
the heavens were revolving round an axis: the stars do not rise and set
as they do with us. In some ways the most moving spectacle is the long
drawn dawning of the sun which lasts a whole month, during which the
warm glow of the dawn travels round the horizon every twenty-four
hours. No one ignorant of astronomy who has not visited the Arctic
regions could possibly imagine such phenomena. Another, less exclu-
sively arctic but very typical impression, we should add, is the spectacle
of the Aurora Borealis.

If we find in literature references to a night and day of six months,
to the sky turning like a wheel, to a procession of thirty dawns and to
the sky in flames and to great mountains of ice and snow: we cannot
possibly doubt that the author's home was in the Arctic regions. All
these occur again and again in the Vedic hymns. Some of them are also

* Works and Days, 172-3.

** The theme of the present section is developed at length in a paper by J. G. Bennett,
Arctic Origin of the Indo-European Culture, Systematics, Vol. I, No. 3, 1963, pp. 203-32.

*** B. G. Tilak, The Arctic Home of the Vedas, 2nd edn., 1901. It should be said,
however, that it is generally accepted by most authorities that the Rigveda was cer-
tainly not composed in its present form until much later. Woolley maintains that the
Vedic hymns do embody elements which may be as early as 1200 B.C., in which the
actual invasion of North-west India is 'rather vaguely remembered', but that it is
impossible to say what stage of culture had been reached by the Aryans at 1200 B.C.
... 'a description based on the Rigveda and applied to the period 1500-1200 B.C.
would be an anachronism unsupported by any evidence whatsoever; the culture
reflected in the Rigveda is itself that of a later period' (Sir Leonard Woolley, loc. cit.,
pp. 406—7). The Aryan invaders of India were mainly nomadic pastoralists, with no
knowledge of building at all, and apparently without writing. The Indus Valley script
died with its civilization. Although the Aryan knightly grade were also spiritual leaders
and sometimes poets and philosophers, their works, together with the Aryan epics,
must have been orally transmitted for hundreds of years (loc. cit., p. 658).

THE CREATIVE MIND

277

to be found in the Vendidad in the first and second Fargards, of which
the antiquity—in terms of the oral tradition—is incalculable.

We should add the important place of sacrificial and sacred fire in
Indo-European tradition. In the arctic region, fire would have a sig-
nificance incomprehensible to people of the southern latitudes.

We have space for one detail. Ushas the Goddess of the Dawn is one
of the favourite deities of the early Vedas; she is celebrated in twenty
hymns and mentioned more than three hundred times. The importance
given to her would be quite out of place for people living in sub-tropical
regions where the day comes so suddenly that the dawn is seldom noticed.
But the Vedas go further and describe the Ushas as thirty sisters who
go round in five groups before the sun rises. This is just how the dawn
would appear to priests on the shores of the Arctic Ocean.

17.47.6.I. EVIDENCE OF FAVOURABLE CLIMATES
AND HABITATION

The evidence of the Indian and Persian hymns and myths is con-
firmed and amplified by those of the Celts and the Nordic peoples. It
has been disregarded for half a century because no one imagined that
the arctic region was habitable. The theory of the Ice Ages put forward
by Ewing and Donn* requires that the Arctic Ocean was open to the
Gulf Stream and remained relatively warm. It is plausible to suppose
that movements in the ocean bed about 12,000 years before the present
increased the flow of warm water and would encourage the pilgrims to
undertake the voyage to the North.

Have we any grounds for supposing that the circumpolar regions were
habitable? Plant remains from late glacial moraines, 11,000-9,000
years B.C., indicate a warm phase with continental summers in the far
north of Finland.**

Finally, we have evidence that in northern Siberia the forests pene-
trated farther north at the end of the Ice Ages than in recent times.
There was a relatively short period, lasting just over 1,000 years,
during which European climates were generally warm. This coincided
with earth movements and the so-called Allerod Interstadial that has
been accurately dated by radio-carbon as having started about 12,200
years ago.

* Vide supra, Chapter 45, the theory has not been generally accepted by geologists
us explaining the causation of the Ice Ages; but the evidence that the Arctic Ocean
was unfrozen during the last glaciation remains convincing.

** E. Hyyppa, The Climate and Forestry of late Glacial Times in Finland, 1933 and
Late Glacial Development of North Finland, 1936. Cited in Zeuner Dating the Past,
3rd edn., 1952.

278 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

With the end of the Allerod about 8900 B.C. came a brief readvance
of the ice known as the Younger Dryas which was over by 8300 B.C.
In the Preboreal—8300-7500 B.C.—and Boreal—7500-5600 B.C.—
phases the climate became steadily warmer, and in the Atlantic—5500-
3600 B.C.—brought about conditions such as we know them today. At
the time of the Allerod the northern coast of Finland and Norway and
nearly the whole of the Siberian coast were free of ice and largely
occupied by tundra. Thus, from about 12,000 years ago, there were
definitely regions where human survival was not only possible within
the Arctic Circle, but may well have been, during the Allerod and
Younger Dryas, easier than in most regions of continental Europe.

We need not insist upon the hypothesis of a northerly sea-route from
South-western Europe. As the ice receded, Upper Palaeolithic reindeer
hunters, such as the Hamburgians, occupied lands from North Germany,
Denmark and Scandinavia to the east Baltic, frequenting the more
northerly parts of these areas during the summer and retreating south-
wards in the winter. They were contemporary with an early stage of the
Late Magdalenian culture. During the Allerod Interstadial, they devel-
oped Maglemosian cultures, such as the Ahrensburg and the Swiderian,
whose peoples roamed the North European Plain from East Germany
to the Volga. During this warmer period the frozen Baltic Sea ('Great
Ice Lake') melted and drained, and the sea came in, to form the Yoldia
Sea. It is not wholly inconceivable that a group or groups may have
made the voyage by raft, or even in skin boats. They might either have
set out from Jutland, on the north of the continental shelf or from the
east Baltic and through what later became the White Sea.

It is known that peoples of Upper Palaeolithic stock did in fact live
in the Arctic during the warm Boreal phase, and flourished there in the
still warmer Atlantic climate. They were of the Fosna and Komsa
cultures, derived from the Maglemosian, thought to represent a coastal
spread from the Baltic region to beyond the Arctic Circle in northern
Norway. It has been suggested that these cultures represent a still
earlier coastal adaptation whose traces in the Baltic area have been
submerged.* Very early settlements have also been found within the
Arctic Circle in northern Russia, west of the Urals.

* Cf. Professor J. G. D. Clark quoted respecting E. Fround's treatment of these
Scandinavian cultures in Ada Archaeologica, xix, pp. 1-68 — Jacquetta Hawkes, loc.
cit., p. 185, note. The Maglemosian cultures and their Mesolithic derivatives —
especially the more easterly Swiderian and its derivative the Komsa—are believed to
have descended from the Late Gravettian, coming originally from South Russia.
'Arctic' rock engravings resembling the Aurignacian (some as late as 2000 B.C.) are
mainly associated with the Komsa culture, and may reach back to the Upper Palaeolithic

THE CREATIVE MIND 279

The important point is that the Arctic group had withdrawn from the
Cultural activity of the rest of Europe, and certainly from that of Asia.
There was no sign in the eastern Gravettian of the purposive develop-
ment of creativity which we noted in the Magdalenian. Technical
advances were made, but this need not mean an intentional guidance of
Creativity. However, the two streams were interrelated in South-West
Europe, and it is not impossible that loyal groups of Magdalenians went
northwards to join the Maglemosians when the rest of the clans were
making their way southwards. They would have been led by their
Guides, whom they accepted as sacred beings.

17.47.6.2. THE CREATIVE WORK

The people of the Arctic centre were the Aryans, as they have been
called from the name given in the Vendidad. Let it be clear at once
that there is no such thing as an Aryan race, but that there is very
definitely an Aryan culture. The elite who founded the Arctic centre
were, we suggest, the creators not only of a linguistic structure which
has fixed a pattern of human thought for thousands of years, but also
the originators of a special set of beliefs that have been no less significant
for the moral progress of mankind.

The selected group came to a region—foreseen from the start by their
Guides—somewhere on the Siberian shores of the Arctic Ocean where
we may suppose that volcanic action caused by crustal radioactivity
would have produced zones of favourable climate as they do on a smaller
scale in Iceland to this day. The effect of a more powerful Gulf Stream
penetrating into the Arctic Ocean and pressed against the coast by the
easterly flow of cold water towards Greenland, would be to produce
exceptionally mild winters and short hot summers. Such conditions
would be highly favourable to the discovery of leisure, and, under
Intelligent guidance, to the realization that leisure of body gives the
opportunity for activity of mind.

The Sanskrit and Zend hymns must come from the Arctic Circle, or
at least have been based upon myths which originated there. In our
view, the Arctic Centre—however created—must have been the source
of sacrificial religion and various Indo-European traditions. Their core

in Russia. They are not, as sometimes suggested, directly associated with the Upper
Palaeolithic art of South-west Europe, but they may be indirectly related to it, since at
least the Middle and Late Aurignacian of the west is closely related to the east Gravet-
tian, and, in addition to the small works of art and the 'Venuses' characteristic of the
Gravettian culture, individual examples of Palaeolithic east Gravettian rock pictures
are known in the area of the Sea of Azov (see J. Mariner and J. H. Bandi, Art in the
Ice Age, 1953, pp- 161-3).

D.U. IV----II*

280

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

is the theme of the hazardous and dramatic universe in which man
is called upon to co-operate with the God in order to overcome the
forces of darkness and chaos.

There remains the question of the Indo-European language. We
have suggested that this originated from the Arctic Centre. Assum-
ing such a centre, it is difficult to imagine an independent region being
concerned with the creation of the language which was to accompany
the transmission of the Hyperborean culture. However, the evidence
is far from conclusive.* Guided by the myths of the ancient writers and
thinkers, and by our interpretation of the traces of the Magdalenian
culture, we will proceed on the assumption that the people who com-
posed the Zend hymns had come from, or been influenced by, a
Northern Source. Conditions in the Arctic were ideal for the creation
of a complex analytical language structure. As we shall see later, the
probable mechanisms of diffusion make it highly likely that the trans-
mission of language would be dependent upon the spreading of magical
beliefs and practices.

The purpose of the journey was thus to establish a culture and a
tradition and to create a new language—all of which required a long
period of isolation from the material activity of Europe and the South.
The time available was 2,500 years or a hundred generations. The history
of languages teaches us that this length of time is required to transform
a language within an already existing structure. But this applies to
language solidly established by usage. We are assuming that the pil-
grims had only the very primitive ostensive language of the late Palaeo-
lithic culture and were quite unable to express abstract notions or even
to describe actions outside the immediate present. The new language
was to do all this and more. Let us not forget that notwithstanding its
immense power, the Semitic group of languages has only very inade-
quate means for expressing relationships and actions in time and space.
The Turanian or agglutinative languages were in the same situation
until they borrowed from the Indo-European.

During the millennia of recorded history, no case is known of any
entirely new language having been created. The development of any
language, and especially one of the great basic languages, must have
required not only a long span of time; but a capacity for consecutive
far-sighted endeavour of which no culture of the present day would

* It should be remembered that whereas some authorities believe that the 'battle-
axe' cultures spread southwards and eastwards from northern Europe, others believe
that they spread in the opposite direction — from South Russia. There may well have
been a centre of great antiquity in the area of the Sea of Azov.

THE CREATIVE MIND

281

be capable.* We are reminded of the time scale of Demiurgic plans and
actions and indeed we are forced to the conclusion that language creation
must have required Demiurgic intervention. The Guides, whom we
can picture as Psychoteleios men transformed under the inspiration of
the Demiurgic Intelligence, were also the recognized leaders of the
colonists. These Guides would, however, be different from the men of
Individuality of later Epochs for they were formed from a soul-stuff
that had not been charged with a thousand generations of human
experience. They could not have known what later men could know,
but they were able to see what men have lost the power to see. They
could have a far more conscious and intimate communication with the
Demiurgic Intelligences. Without this they could not have undertaken
and carried through such tremendous undertakings as the exodus to the
Arctic, the creation of the Aryan root language and the formation of the
Aryan tradition of the Saviour God.

If we are in any doubt about the reality of the exodus, we cannot
dispute the second part of the undertaking. The languages descended
from the original Aryan are with us today, and they are spoken by 40
per cent of the earth's population. No one who has studied the amazing
construction of the older languages like Sanskrit and Lithuanian can
doubt that the parent of them all must have been the creation of men of
surpassing genius and farsighted understanding of human needs.

We now have to picture the life of our cultural ancestors during their
sojourn on the shores of the warm Arctic Sea. They must have enjoyed
ample food supplies. Reindeer abounded wherever lichen grew. In
warmer zones there were deer and horses. There were seals and the seas
teemed with fish. Algae provided the elements lacking in flesh and fish
food. Life was geared to the rhythm of hot summers with continuous
sunshine and the long dark winters of the Arctic. This meant long
periods of forced inactivity which provided ideal conditions for the
creation of a new linguistic form and the elaboration of a refined culture.
We can even, with some confidence, reconstruct the procedure.

The colonists could speak only the non-structural language of their
former home. This language must have been entirely pragmatic,
appropriate for dealing with the immediate situation. This we deduce
from the consideration that mankind had not hitherto been placed in a
situation where reflection was either desirable or possible. Such
language could not be converted into a new form capable of expressing

* The attempts in our time to create new languages have led to very little. In any
case, they are not authentic new tongues but eclectic constructions built up from
existing roots and grammatical forms.

282 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

abstract ideas or even of referring to situations not perceived by the
senses. To introduce a new form of language, a motive powerful enough
to attract and hold attention was needed. This was supplied by the
overwhelming sense of human impotence in face of the prodigies of
nature enacted before people day and night.

Most philologists agree that languages and myths have developed
together. This is certainly true of the Indo-European family. The long
nights and the procession of the dawns rosy and beautiful, the break up
of the ice-floes when the sun reappeared, the turning of the wheel of
heaven: all these were made the theme of the saga of the salvation of
the home of gods and men from the jealous serpent power lurking in the
south. We find the saga in one of its oldest forms in the Vedas in the
ritual that celebrates the conquest of the Saviour God Indra over the
serpent power Vritra who has taken the sun captive in the nether regions.

The myth takes on an added poignancy in the light of the colonists'
escape from the evil powers that had taken possession of their home-
land. Thus the notion of human good and evil became linked with the
Arctic day and night. We cannot, unfortunately, in this volume, work
out the marvellous theme in all the details. We find it over and over
again in Indo-European mythology, folklore and ritual. It is the central
theme of the Vedic religion—almost certainly the oldest religion of
mankind. The following passage* makes remarkable reading when we
reflect that the two decisive factors that made life possible in the
Arctic were the hot summer sun and the return of the warm waters of
the Gulf Stream: 'The conquest over the waters was something grander,
something far more marvellous and cosmic in character than the mere
breaking up of the clouds in the rainy season; and under these circum-
stances it was naturally considered to be the greatest of Indra's exploits,
when, invigorated by a hundred nightly Soma sacrifices, he slew with
ice the watery demon of darkness, shattered his hundred autumnal
forts, released the waters of the seven rivers upstream to go along their
aerial way and brought out the sun and the dawn from their place of
confinement inside the rocky caves, where they had stood still since the
date of the [war of the Gods] . . . which commenced in higher latitudes
every year on the 40th day of Sharad or autumn and lasted till the end of
winter.. . . The story of the release of captive waters is an ancient story;
for Vritra appears as Orthros in the Greek mythology, and Vritra-han,
as Verethraghna, is the God of victory in the Parsi scriptures. Now this
Vritra-han may not have been originally the same as Indra, for the word
Indra does not occur in European Aryan languages, and it has, there-
* B. G. Tilak, be. cit., pp. 295-6.

THE CREATIVE MIND 283

fore, been suggested that the conquest of waters, which was originally
the exploit of some other Aryan deity, was probably ascribed to Indra
in the Vedic mythology, when Indra became the principal deity in the
Vedic pantheon. The fact that Tishtrya, and not Verethraghna, is said
to be the releaser of waters and light in the Avesta, lends some support
to this theory. But whichever view we adopt, it does not affect the
explanation of the Vritra legend. Clouds and rain cannot constitute the
physical basis of the legend, which is evidently based on the simple
phenomenon of bringing light to the people who had anxiously waited
for it during the darkness of the long night in the Arctic regions. . . .
Indra may have become a storm-god afterwards; or the conquest over
Vritra, originally achieved by some other deity, may have come to be
ascribed to Indra, the rain-god in later times. But whether the exploits of
Vritra-han were subsequently ascribed to Indra, or whether Indra, as the
releaser of the captive waters, was afterwards mistaken for the god of
rain, like Tishtrya in the Avesta, one fact stands out boldly amidst all
details, viz., that the captive waters were in the . . . nether world, and
that their captivity was associated with the annual struggle between light
and darkness in the original home of the Aryans in the Arctic regions.'
The theme of the war of the Bright and Dark powers was sung in
hymns and enacted in ritual, designed to associate man with the
Saviour God. For this purpose, a new language was created, a sacred
language, to be used only for sacred purposes. To be initiated into the
use of the sacred language man must start by proving his worth. Hence
the subsidiary myths and legends of heroes and their exploits. The new
language could be as artificial and as difficult as the Guides and their
Specialist* helpers might wish. The people did not expect to use it for
their current needs and respected it all the more because it was reserved
for sacred ceremonies and the recital of the sacred hymns.

Generation after generation passed. Gradually the new language
became familiar. The entire life of the community turned upon the
ritual practices. The Guides were replaced by priests: though no doubt
they continued to instruct and direct selected groups of Initiates. Finally,
after perhaps a thousand years, the old language went out of use and
after another thousand years it was completely forgotten. The miracle
of the creation of the Aryan root language had been accomplished.

Meanwhile the climate had changed, and the Arctic Ocean no longer
received the beneficent waters of the Gulf Stream. To East and to

* This is an anachronism, for the structure of society of Chapter 41 did not exist at
that time. The term is used to draw attention to the role of men who were candidates
for initiation.

284 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

West, the glaciers were melting, but the Arctic Ocean was freezing over.
To the South, the routes of the great rivers, the Ob, the Yenisei and the
Lena were opening a way of escape from conditions of life that were
growing too severe for all but the hardest of men to endure.

Climates were changing everywhere Round the shores of the conti-
nents the waters were rising and submerging the continental shelf. The
prevailing wind systems of the whole earth were profoundly modified
by the disappearance of the glaciers, the tropics grew drier, marshes
previously impassable drained, lakes died up, new routes were opened
and with them a new Epoch began.

So we must leave what must have ben one of the greatest periods of
human history. It was the age when men learned to think. The mind
of man was never again to be occupied exclusively with the immediate
concerns of his bodily life: his eyes had been opened to some of the
mysteries of Creation. This had been he accomplishment of the great
beings who, in human form, directed be work of language creation and
the arousing of thought. No doubt, thought was still the privilege of the
few, but it was human thought—the activity of the human mind.

We, who today live by thought and take it for granted, must needs
make a very special effort to place ourselves in the situation of men
who could use their senses, who had desires and impulses like ours, who
could communicate by speech and who could accomplish great practical
tasks and yet who could not think in the way we think by means of
symbols, sounds and signs that represent ideas. For such men, life
must have had a vividness that in our day is reserved for children and
for those favoured few who retain the direct perceptions of childhood.
Without thought, there can be no puposes, no programmes of action
directed towards the future. Without thought, men were like children
dependent upon the guidance of adult minds.

If once this state of affairs is thouroghly grasped and penetrated by
deep reflection, the conviction is inescapable that, at the start of the
Great Cycle that we have called the Maturing of Mind, the ordinary
people of the world must have been dependent upon beings of a different
kind from themselves. The hypothesis of Demiurgic Intelligences ceases
to appear as an unnecessary multiplication of entities, condemned by
William of Ockham, and takes its place as the only reasonable account
of human development.

17.47.7. The Epoch of Diffuson

The changes of climate following he retreat of the glaciers affected
all mankind, as spring did in Chaucer's day and does still. All the

THE CREATIVE MIND

285

world seems to have been taken by a wanderlust that spread mankind
throughout the inhabitable world. It was by no means always forced.
Areas which now lie under desert sands or sea were still rich in food
supplies. Nor can it be attributed entirely to the conservatism of peoples
unable to adapt themselves to changing conditions. Men were going
forward into new lands—spreading into virgin regions, reaching towards
the river valleys and gathering on fertile plains.

From the four Centres of Transformation, men came, endowed with
the gifts of language and insights into the secrets of nature and the
creation. They made their way among the moving populations of the
world, conveying to those who were most responsive the new ideas,
rituals and forms of speech. Amongst the groups who had remained
within the area of the great confusion there were loyal Guides ready to
receive the message from the sacred beings who had led the withdrawal.
A. slow process of education was now under way.

The work was fraught with hazard. The disintegration of the pre-
ceding Epoch had left the loyal populations amidst groups who had lost
contact with the pattern of the future. Some of these small bands would
not have been lacking in initiative and forms of expression. For all that,
so much was achieved that we can trace the movements of the people
who were influenced by the 'missionaries' from the four centres. To a large
part of mankind, the techniques and ideas necessary for the next great
step forward were transmitted within a few centuries.

At first, they remained in the mind of man. Only over many thousands
of years were they to penetrate into the social and technical activity of
people. We must remember that human society was quite unlike our
own. Authority was exclusively the prerogative of the magicians. Cohe-
sion was achieved through relationships of sex and heritage within a field
of common ritual. The step from the 'tribe' to the 'nation' was to take
more than six thousand years.

Technical advances were limited by the degree of social organization.
Exoteric instruction in specialized arts can hardly have begun. Pro-
grammes of constructive work were not possible among people who
could not have grasped the extent of man's power to transform his
environment, beyond the mere provision of shelter. The stage of
gathering and protecting continued to dominate the lives of nearly all
peoples. The exceptions, as we have seen, were those who came under
the influence of the Great Mother culture.

The technical achievements of the first Neolithic people, remarkable
as they were, should not over-occupy our attention. The Epoch
of Diffusion was not simply a time of transmission through contacts but

286 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

an intentional action of education. This was its essential nature corres-
ponding to the existential movements initiated by environmental and
edaphic forces. A link was being formed between the hidden Guides
and responsive men. The redistribution of peoples influenced by the
four centres was itself organized. From each of the four main cultural
'homelands' people moved in definite directions. The following sum-
mary suggests what may have occurred—the routes followed and the
points reached by successive waves of migration. In many cases, we
shall have to follow the cultures right up to the end of the next Epoch
in order to grasp the pattern of distribution which emerged at the end
of the Epoch of Diffusion, about 5500 B.C.

17.47.7.1. THE GREAT MOTHER CULTURE

The Near East entered the Neolithic phase more than 9,000 years
ago.* The non-structural language we postulated for this culture was
sufficient for the requirements of small agricultural communities. It can
be readily understood that the Great Mother Culture tended to expand
slowly since it tied people to the land. However, the spread of agri-
culture was induced by exhaustion of the soil. Before crop rotation and
manuring—such as we find, for example, in the later Danubian cultures
of Europe—this was common everywhere apart from a few exceptional
valleys and alluvial plains. When farming had been permanently
established in an area, towns grew up with astonishing rapidity and the
increasing density of population inevitably led to fresh expansions of
cultivated land. In the earliest settlements, too, we find evidence of
trade between communities hundreds of miles apart. The spread of the
Great Mother Culture appears to have gone in three main directions.

1 A. Europe

It is beginning to be understood that Anatolia and South-east Europe
were an integral part of the region in which farming began. Very early
farming cultures have been discovered in central Bulgaria and north
and central Greece.** From the Aegean and possibly Syria, the new
arts spread westwards along the Mediterranean. Inland, the Balkan
tradition expanded to the middle Danube and Transylvania, to form
the beginnings of the Danubian Neolithic culture, which, with remark-
able homogeneity, extended west, along the valleys and surrounding

* It is interesting to compare this with the evidence from a site — Tehuacan —in
Mexico. Traces in a cave show continuous occupation from 10,000 B.C., but cultivated
corn did not appear until around 5200 B.C. and a full Neolithic culture until ca.
2ooo B.C.

** Cf. Robert J. Rodden, 'An Early Neolithic Village in Greece', Scientific American,
April, 1965.

THE CREATIVE MIND 287

loess, roads from Hungary to North Germany and from Galicia to
Belgium. Eastwards, the same Balkan tradition led to the Black Earth
culture which spread from the Carpathians to the Dnieper.*

The Western Neolithic culture began in Spain, southern France and
northern Italy. It was then taken northwards in two streams: one up the
Rhone valley, the other by sea up the Atlantic coasts of the Iberian
peninsula to France and Britain. The best known of these two branches
are the Swiss Lake villages and the Windmill Hill culture of Britain.
Crude figures of the Mother Goddess have been found in camps of the
Windmill Hill people—the most westerly sign known of her cult.
Carbon 14 dating indicates that France and Britain were extensively
settled 5,000 years before the present.

Almost without exception, images found in their settlements have
shown that the early Neolithic peoples of Europe practised a cult of
the Mother Goddess. But at first there is no evidence of organized
ritual, priests or temples among the simple peasants and herdsmen of
Central and Western Europe. Later, the great Megalithic tombs began
to be built often with portals and forecourts designed for ritual use and,
later still, the circular sanctuaries and alignments of Brittany and
Britain were added to the common tombs.

This Megalithic architecture is found from the east Mediterranean to
Scandinavia and the Orkney and Shetland Islands. Its coastal distribu-
tion indicates that its practice was diffused by sea. It has frequently
been suggested that the religious ideas and rituals which it represented,
as well as the knowledge and direction needed for its execution, were
spread by sea-going 'missionaries' of much higher culture than the
peasant peoples to whom they carried their message of rebirth.** The
Megalithic funerary cult may have incorporated some form of ancestor
worship. And a cult of the axe, perhaps a masculine symbol,*** is fre-

* The Danubian was a peaceful, self-supporting peasant culture, with few permanent
settlements. The Black Earth was better able to maintain permanent villages owing to
the richness of the soil, especially in the region of the Lower Danube.

** Gordon Childe has suggested the chamber tombs belong to a tradition which
dates back to the cave-dwelling Natufians of Palestine. We should also add that there
is evidence of an indigenous Megalithic architecture in southern Jutland independent
of the funerary culture. It is the Earth Mother notion, however, which concerns us
here.

% It is perhaps not without significance that one of the very few Neolithic peoples
not known to have been associated with the Great Mother cult seems to have shared
in that of the axe, and that this was the Trichterbecher people of the First Northern
culture, who reached Denmark and Sweden before 3000 B.C.—probably from Poland.
It has been suggested that the absence of traces of the Great Mother among this
people might conceivably be linked with the later male sky deity of the battle-axe
peoples of the North.

288

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

quently associated with the Great Earth Mother. Axe-amulets were
often worn, and in Denmark axes carved in amber and ceremonial axes
were sometimes placed in bogs as votive offerings.

IB. Iran and India

The Neolithic economy spread very early to Persia, notably at Sialk.
In Northern Iran, important farming settlements developed round the
south-east corner of the Caspian. From these, the new arts were taken
slowly on either side of the central desert, the two streams converging
in Baluchistan. Many farming villages then began to develop on the
uplands west of the Indus. They had a strong native element, and the
very early appearance of the 'Zebu' shows that indigenous cattle must
have been domesticated, and were probably crossed with cattle brought
from Persia. Large numbers of these hill villages were established before
3000 B.C., but the Indian farmers retained links with Iran and Iraq,
especially the former. It was from among these villages that pioneering
groups later went down to settle in the plain and to found the great
civilization of the Indus Valley and the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-
daro.*

IC. North Africa

The Mother Goddess cult was taken from South-west Asia to Libya
and Egypt by colonists bringing with them the seed grain and sheep
or goats with which they introduced farming to Africa. Her images have
been found in the early settlements of Upper Egypt and will certainly
have been present in the first settlements of Lower Egypt which have
long disappeared.

By the 5th millennium B.C. the pattern of diffusion is discernible.
From the beginning, some 10,000 years ago, there has been a single
culture specializing in the arts of agriculture and domestication. Amidst
these, the diffusion of the Great Mother Image went on, leading to an
organization, art and set of customs which were quite distinctive. Such

* There is no doubt that the Mother Goddess was worshipped in this civilization.
Her figurines often resemble those of Mesopotamia and India, but she is represented
in other forms —from aniconic stones to naturalistic terra cotta figures. She was also
Mahadevi, the consort of Siva —the male principle represented by the linga. A seal
from Harappa shows Siva as a three-faced god seated on a low stool in an attitude
typical of Yoga. These gods were introduced into the Aryan pantheon after the destruc-
tion of the Indus Valley civilization. An interesting discussion of the religion of the
Indus Valley civilization and Dravidic India may be found in Sir L. Woolley, The
Beginnings of Civilization, pp. 748-52.

THE CREATIVE MIND

289

we find in south-eastern Europe and Anatolia, moving into Iraq, Iran
and the Turkman, entering into Africa and concentrating in the eastern
Mediterranean.

17.47.7.2. THE GREAT SPIRIT CULTURE

The peoples influenced from the Great Spirit centre lived mainly
by hunting moving herds. Already very mobile under the rapidly
changing conditions at the end of the glaciation, they undertook by far
the boldest and most extensive migrations. Within three thousand years,
the Great Spirit Culture had spread over a third of the land surface
of the earth. The following appear to have been the main movements.

2A. America

During the last phases of the Ice Age, one or more groups of pre-
dominantly Mongoloid stock crossed from Siberia and South-east
Asia to Alaska over the land bridge that is now the Bering Straits, for
Alaska was only glaciated in its mountain regions. The bridge must then
have been a broad plain with good grazing, and it is known that animals
such as mammoth, bison and antelope entered America at the same time
as man.* Two routes were used, following the Pacific and Arctic coasts
free of the ice which blocked the higher regions. The Paudorf Inter-
stadial was the most probable time of the height of the migration.

These later Palaeolithic hunters followed the Mackenzie River into
the northern plains. From there some went on up the Missouri, crossing
Snake River Valley and thence southwards on the Pacific side of the
mountains, whence it is thought that they passed eastwards into the
Rio Grande. Others went east of the Rockies, early freed from ice, and
slowly spread south. The two streams may have converged in Central
America before the entry into South America where they settled—
probably reaching the southern tip by about 6000 B.C.—and developed
the great civilizations of the Andes. The two branches are known as the
Palaeo-western and the Palaeo-eastern traditions, but both were present
in the Great Basin region of South-west U.S.A.

The Palaeo-eastern branch were essentially big game hunters. They

* According to recent investigations, the spread of fauna and flora requires the
existence of a vast plain between the two continents open for many thousands of years.
Soundings show a region of up to 1,300 miles in breadth not more than 300 feet under
water. The warm Arctic Ocean of the glacial period would have provided an equable
climate for this region exposed by the withdrawal of water into the glaciers. Cf. W. G.
Haag, Scientific American, January, 1962, 'The Bering Strait Land Bridge.'

** Cf. Butzer, Environment and Archaeology, pp. 394-5.

290

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

hunted mammoth and bison, possessing spear-throwers* like the
European Upper Palaeolithic people, and their way of life much
resembled theirs. Finds have shown that they reached the valley of
Mexico before 10,000 B.C. and probably earlier. They must have been
not unlike their descendants, the Red Indians. The Palaeo-western
branch depended largely on food gathering, and collected vegetable
foods. They were inventive, for at Danger Cave, Utah, they were making
basketry by 9000 B.C., the earliest known in the world. By 7000 B.C.
their considerable use of milling stones show that flour from wild plants
was a main element in their food, although mammoth, horse and bison
were still being hunted. By the Archaic period—from about 1000 B.C.—
there had evolved the bewildering complex of distinctive cultures which
we can trace among the Red Indians today.

Throughout we find the Great Spirit tradition—in the sacred dances
of the Pueblo, in the thought of the Cheyenne** and in prevalent
Shamanism—used for example in musical composition. The many
languages of North America are predominantly, but not entirely,
agglutinative and throughout lacking in abstract notions of time and
space.

The great civilizations to the south remain a mystery. In the notion
of Viracocha— 'ancient foundation, lord, instructor of the world'*** —
the most ancient god, we have a hint of the primal Great Spirit tradi-
tion. Yet there can be no doubt of the influence of Creator God notions
having a strange parallel with those of Egypt. Sun-worship—towards
the God Inti—was a powerful force amongst the Incas.**** This is about
all the evidence we can muster for the existence of an Andean Centre of
transformation referred to in Section 17.47.3 above.

We must not forget the remarkable culture of the Eskimo, stretching
from Greenland across to North-east Siberia. The 'communist' social
organization of the Eskimo—in which, for example, a man's status is
assessed by the number of dependents he can support—is an unique

* Some authorities hold that projectile points were developed in America out of the
late chopper-chopping tradition of East Asia, others suggest that the eastward spread
of the Upper Palaeolithic blade-and-burin tradition into the Lake Baikal region of
Siberia was earlier than is generally believed, and that elements of this great European
culture were among the early migrations to Alaska. In any case, it is probable that
early American cultures were mainly developed after the migrations.

** 'Indians know nothing of the beginning, nor will they say there is to be an
ending. It is here,' explained the late Alfred Wilson, head of the Native American
Church. Cf. Collier, Indians of the Americas, pp. 140-2.

*** Collier, loc. cit.p. 38.

**** In Peru, Viracocha was the Creator God of the aristocracy incarnate in the Inca
Emperor.

THE CREATIVE MIND

291

expression of Great Spirit notions and complements the social con-
sciousness of the Chinese peoples. The language is polysynthetic but
involves a great complex of inflexions—suggesting the possibility of a
Hyperborean transmission from the Arctic centre. However, the
culture is undoubtedly of the Great Spirit Tradition and Shamanism
appears to have reached great spiritual heights.*

It. The Pacific

To South and East people moved into Burma and India; southern
China; and, eventually, into Indonesia, Polynesia and the Pacific
Ocean—including, apparently, New Zealand but not Australia. They
appear to have arisen in South-east Asia. While still in Asia they were
dominantly Caucasoid, later amalgamating with a Mongoloid strain
ruining from Central Asia. The coalescence of a genetically stable
racial group was further complicated by an Oceanic Negro strain which
can be associated with the Australoids.** The southern Mongoloid
diffusion is dated between 8000 and 6000 B.C. By the 2nd millennium
B.C. the Chinese were essentially Mongoloid and the 'sea-faring' peoples
were already in the Pacific. *** The mythical homeland of the Polynesians

llawaiki—suggests, on linguistic grounds, the island of Java. How-
ever, Java was only one stage in the long and complicated migration.
The great movements across thousands of miles of ocean suggest a high
degree of cultural development also shown in the long-extinct struc-
structured writing system they brought with them. The Polynesian and
Melanesian languages are rich in terms of relationship and closely
connected with the earliest Indonesian and South-East Asian proto-
languages that can be deduced. Many ancient compositions still exist
in the remarkable memories of the priests highly trained in the ancient
oral tradition. The sense of a beneficent spiritual power in all things
pervades the whole way of life. They share this sense of cosmic joy
with the Indians of North America.

* An Eskimo, speaking of his tradition said: 'I believe in a power that we name
Sila and which cannot be explained by mere words. It is a spirit which maintains
Order in the universe, which allots the seasons. . . . No one has ever seen this spirit.
Its haunts are mysterious. It is at the same time quite close and infinitely far from us.'

**The movement of Australoids into Australia is assumed to have been made some-
time around the end of the last glaciation. During a glacial fall of sea level, the maxi-
mum sea-distances to be crossed are only of the order 100-200 km. The Australian
aborigine appears to have acquired certain elements of the Far Eastern tradition before
his migration.

|; As late as a.d. 600 dark-skinned sea-faring people were known in southern China.

292 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

2C. Western Asia and Scandinavia

A third main movement included the area now covered by the Gobi
Desert and what is for us the Oxus (Amu Darya). Most of central Asia
was influenced by the ancient Shamanist culture. The wave may have
carried through into Europe where the Finno-Ugrian group of languages
is still associated with distant memories of Great Spirit worship. The
Finnish and Scandinavian myths appear to have a double derivation
from the Hyperborean and Far Eastern sources. If this view is correct,
the Great Spirit culture virtually girdled the earth, since the Scandi-
navians eventually crossed over to America. Certainly, the extensive
Shamanism of northern Europe suggests a link. From Scandinavia
across to North America there is the same tradition of the Seer who is a
link between the human community and the spiritual world.*

17.47.7.3. THE CREATOR GOD CULTURE

Assuming that the African centre was in Abyssinia as we have sug-
gested, it is possible that only a northerly route was directed by Guides
who understood the purposes for which the Creator God notions had
been developed. We have not devoted to the development of the Tri-
literal language system the attention that this tremendous achievement
merits. Perhaps the native Bushmanoid strain may have some underlying
connection with the essentially rhythmic character of the Hamitic
languages.

Guides will have been among the founders of Egypt, and almost
certainly had much to do with the remarkable homogeneity achieved
by this country which, as we have seen, included several different stocks.
The Ancient Egyptian language—now extinct—was one form of
Hamitic. The influence of the Guides in Libya spread throughout
North Africa and into the Sahara; and the whole of this area once
spoke the Berber form of Hamitic, which in ancient inscriptions is
known as Libyan. That influence also extended eastwards into adjoining
areas of Asia, where the Semitic-Hamitic languages included Arabic.
Certain Abyssinian languages are also of this type, including Amharic—
the language of the Emperor. In Abyssinia, too, Cushiti-Hamitic is
spoken. To some extent, the influence of the Guides extended eastwards
into Somaliland and southwards into Kenya and Lake Victoria. The
Chad languages now spoken in northern Nigeria and the surrounding
area also belong to the Hamitic group, but the origin of this is unknown.

* The initiation ceremonies are much alike for the Eskimos, American Indians
(including those of Meso America) the peoples of Siberia and of Scandinavia and north
of Central Europe. Cf. Marcia Eliade, Shamanism.

THE CREATIVE MIND

293

Speakers of Chad and Cushitic forms are predominantly negroid, while
peoples speaking other forms of Hamitic are—and always were—
predominantly white.

It would appear questionable whether the Abyssinian centre greatly
influenced the forest peoples of the Centre and West. There may have
been some other—purely African—centre. We tentatively suggested
earlier that this may have been situated in the Congo Basin. Yet the
Bantu languages and the Bantu peoples are believed to have originated
in the Nigeria-Cameroon region. This language came to be spoken in
the Congo Basin and Angola. But it was not until about two thousand
years before the present that the Bantu began a general south-easterly
migration. Their invasions progressively displaced the Bushmen, whose
primitive culture may date back to the pre-creative Age, and who at the
last were driven into the Kalahari Desert by Bantu and Boer combined.

According to a strong South American tradition, men from the West
brought the Sun-God and Sun-King worship to the Andes. It seems to
he altogether unlikely that men of the stone age could have found their
way across the Atlantic. We must remember, however, that the evidence
we have shows nothing of this form of worship earlier than a few
centuries B.C. The origin of Andean sun-worship remains an unsolved
mystery.

17.47.7.4. THE SAVIOUR GOD CULTURE

Apart from the linguistic and intellectual achievements of the Arctic
centre, the peoples influenced by the Hyperborean notions may be
credited with the highest skills in the domestication of animals. It is
noteworthy that the root word for horse— Sanskrit asva, Lithuanian
aszwa, Greek hippos, Latin equus, Celtic ech, Anglo-Saxon ehu, Tocha-
tian* yakwe—is one that is common to every branch of the Indo-
Kuropean family. The centum group—Celtic, Italic, the Germanic in
part, Greek, Illyrian and Ligurian—show one main stream of influence
in Europe. Also included is the Nashili dialect of Hittite though some
scholars made it representative of an independent branch. The sentum
group—Baltic and Slavic, Armenian, Iranian and Sanskrit—show a
connection of peoples in the Baltic regions with those moving around
the Caspian Sea.

4A. Northern and Central Europe

We have seen that the Maglemosian hunters and fishermen of
North Europe and Russia, and their Mesolithic descendants, were

* A 'dead' language, the only one of the centum group found in the Far East (at
Sinkiang).

294

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

culturally linked with South Russia; and that these peoples were
ancestral to the early Indo-European speaking 'battle-axe' cultures who
ranged between the North Sea and the Volga, and inhabited Cis-
Caucasia. These were 'Aryan' tribes, and it would seem that their
language and beliefs must have been diffused among them from the
Arctic centre.

4B. Southern Europe

Nomadic herdsmen came south-west of the Urals, passing north of
the Caspian Sea. These eventually gave rise to the southern Indo-
European cultures from central France to Greece.

4C. Western and Central Asia

Another stream entered the Central Asian plateau—through the Ob
and Yenisei river valleys—and met and blended with peoples from the
Far East to produce a variety of cultures. The main body was eventually
obliged to move south again as the dry period of 7000-6000 B.C.
desiccated the plains. They had a great influence in the Oxus-Jaxartes
region of the Turkman and probably filtered into Iran and Afghanistan
even before the later destructive Indo-European invasions—to produce
the Iranian, Median and Bactrian cultures.

17.47.7.5. THE HYPERBOREAN WORLD

The evidence suggests that, while the Great Mother people were
spreading south of the Caspian Sea, the Indo-Europeans, infused
with the Hyperborean culture, were moving just to the north. As yet,
the two were living in totally different worlds—geographically, technic-
ally and mentally. In the next Epoch we enter a time of confluence that
was to culminate in the seizure of power in Anatolia and northern Iraq,
Persia and India.

Wherever the Hyperborean influence spread we find notions of a
hazardous universe. The Celts, the Norse people and the Iranians
possessed visions of the end of the world that though quite distinct in
every detail share in a common idea. A maleficent power threatening
to break loose from its bonds and bring destruction to the world figures
in all of them. Ancient memories were, no doubt, incorporated in the
Eddic account of creation beginning with the formation of great ice
in the void. The images often suggest the Arctic home, where the heat
of volcanic action clashed with the cold of the winter ice and snow.
Above all, we find the moving theme in Norse lore of the Saviour-God

THE CREATIVE MIND 295

Odin who sacrifices himself upon the world-tree Yggdrasill 'myself
given to myself'.*

17.47.7.6. THE BEGINNING OF THE GREAT TRADITION

Such is our speculative attempt to combine the general views of
linguistic and ethnological scholarship with our basic thesis of the four
Centers of Transformation. We have, perhaps, not laid sufficient stress
upon the need for leadership in such enterprises as language creation
and the dispersion of cultures. It is often assumed that these things
happen by themselves, without intention or foresight, under the action
of environmental pressures. Such assumptions are disproved by the
evidence of history. All the known migrations—the hordes that invaded
South-West Asia and Europe from Central Asia, the movements of
colonization—whenever we have known the details, prove to have
been conducted by resolute leaders. The migrations we are studying
in this section, were not mass movements of entire populations—lack
of food supplies would have effectively prevented that, quite apart from
the unlikelihood that any form of social organization existed outside the
ties of consanguinity in tribes of hundreds or thousands at the most.
Yet out of them emerged the pattern of the modern world.

If we accept the hypothesis, that runs like a connecting thread
through the whole of our reconstruction of the evolution of man on the
earth, of guidance by the Demiurgic Intelligences; we must suppose
that, in the complex movements of groups and communities, by which
languages and cultures were distributed throughout the world, Demi-
urgic Guidance played a decisive part. We must not fall into the error of
projecting modern conditions of life into the remote past. In the course
of ten thousand years, the responsibility for man's destiny has been
slowly but surely placed in his own hands; until, at the present time,
modern man carries a heavy burden. The Demiurgic Intelligences are
still concerned in human affairs, but much less directly .**

These remarks had to be made in order to introduce the notion of the
Great Work that will occupy an important place in our further re-
searches. By Great Work we mean the Intelligent, creative activity by
which the Foreordained Plan of life upon the earth is executed. We have
been studying the Great Work—the Magnum Opus—from the moment
we agreed that Evolution is intelligently guided. It is, however, con-

* From the Havamal. Cf. Ellis Davidson, Gods and Myths of Northern Europe,

p- 144.

** This anticipates some of our conclusions in the last chapter and must be taken
only to emphasize the difference between modern and ancient conditions.

296 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

venient to use the term in the narrower sense to mean the contribution
man himself makes to the Magnum Opus. It can be said that, in this
restricted sense, the Great Work began about 35,000 years ago with the
entry of the creative energy into the human mind.* At that stage, the
initiative and guidance must have been entirely the responsibility of the
Demiurgic Intelligences acting through Guides in conscious contact
and union of will.

The Epoch of the Creation of Language—the first Epoch of the
present Great Cycle—enabled a new class of men to be formed: that
is Psychokinetic men developed by their own endeavours, though helped,
of course, by the Demiurgic Guides. These were the first Priests and
they superseded the Magicians of the preceding Great Cycle. The
Priests of the Migrations were leaders of their people, morally, socially
and technically. They were the visible manifestation of the Creative
Power by which mankind was energized. They were also the first
self-made servants of the Great Work. These priests corresponded to
the Initiates of our twelve-term social structure, **

The transmission of the secret rites and linguistic formulae depended
on memory developed to an extent unknown in our modern world.
Many observers have remarked on the accuracy with which ancient
legends and rites must have been preserved in many parts of the world,
even until recent times. There is little doubt that sacred hymns and
epics could have been transmitted from generation to generation over
many thousands of years without serious distortion. The sanctity of the
new languages assured their transmission over vast areas. Gradually, the
ordinary people, instead of just listening and receiving, began them-
selves to speak in the new languages. In the beginning, however, the
sacred speech was the sole responsibility of the priestly caste.

When we survey the world scene at the dawn of the historical period-
say seven thousand years before the present—we cannot help being in
wonderment at all that mankind had already achieved. The greatest
marvel was the creation of at least three radically different linguistic
structures, an achievement altogether beyond the power of modern
man. They had domesticated more species of plants and animals than
man has done in the subsequent seven thousand years. They had pene-
trated into almost every habitable region of the globe and adapted
themselves to conditions of existence from the Arctic to the Equator.

* According to a Sufic tradition preserved in Central Asia, the Schools of Wisdom
have existed for 40,000 years. This shows remarkable agreement with our conclusions
reached from independent premises.

** Cf. Vol. Ill, Chapter 41, Section 15.41.4.5.

THE CREATIVE MIND

297

No one contemplating this situation without fixed preconceived notions
of 'early man' can doubt that very high intelligences had been in action.
In formulating the notion of the Great Work and of the Psychoteleios
men who direct and the Psychokinetic men who serve it, we have done
no more than state this as a working hypothesis that will help us
in our further research. The hypothesis is not reducible to a scheme that
postulates men of outstanding natural gifts of creativity and leadership.
It stands or falls on the assumption that there are Intelligences of a
higher order than human and that these Intelligences have at all times
been concerned in the evolution of life on the earth. The Guides of the
Epoch of Diffusion are assumed to have been Psychoteleios; that is,
completed Individuals conscious of their Demiurgic Nature. The
Initiates or Priests were Psychokinetic men seeking, through service to
the Great Work, to qualify for Individuality.

This was the start of the Great Tradition which is the expression of
the aims and activities of the Great Work in forms that could be under-
stood in each Epoch. The Great Tradition is also called the Philosophia
Perennis, the declaration of human destiny that is uttered in new forms
from age to age. There can be no doubt that the principal reason for the
creation of new languages and the mythology that accompanied them
was to enable the Great Tradition to be transmitted from the Guides
through the Initiates and Priests to those men and women whose minds
were prepared to look beyond the immediate present.

17.47.8. The Exoteric Epoch

The price that had to be paid for the diffusion of the four great
cultures amongst mankind was a tremendous increase in the complexity
of social life. Migrations and technical advances brought with them new
stresses—especially in the regions where people of different traditions
came into contact. In these regions we find traces during the next Epoch
of a transference of authority and responsibility to men not connected
in consciousness with the Psychoteleios Guides. The Epoch began about
7,500 years ago and its completion can be conveniently dated by the
unification of Egypt about 3000 B.C. The outstanding theme, or Master
idea, of this stage in human development was the exteriorization of the
Great Work. For the first time, an exoteric group—or 'middle class' —
appeared who, without initiation, could make an intelligent contribution
to the progress of mankind. This step was a direct encouragement
of initiative and at the same time made necessary by the changed condi-
tions of life which emerged with the birth of civilization.

The stage we have just left coincided with the post-glacial climatic

298 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

optimum which lasted until about 5000 B.C. on the Atlantic coast, but
turned into dry climate with violent duststorms and the spread of
deserts in central Asia and the Sahara. Favourable conditions for the
slow movement of tribes of hunters and herdsmen and the still slower
movement of agricultural communities had made it possible for all
four cultures to meet.

Linguistic analysis shows that, before writing began, there was an
interaction between the inflected or Aryan languages, the triliteral or
Africa-S.W. Asian group, the agglutinative or Great Spirit family and
the gestural or Neolithic languages. Because of these interactions we find
a limited interchange and sharing of roots. It is very significant that this
sharing concerns abstract and mythological notions rather than words
for material objects and bodily actions. One example must suffice: the
root KRR which appears in all the Indo-European languages with
meanings similar to that which it has in our word Creator, appears also
in all the triliteral languages from ancient Egyptian to Arabic to signify
decision, destiny and creative activity. In the Turkic or agglutinative
languages the root conveys the notion of irreversible actions such as
staining or graving on stone and hence the idea of the visible world as
the trace or manifestation of the spiritual.

We cannot dwell on these evidences, or upon the equally interesting
but exceedingly complex indications of the mutual influence of the
myths and legends that the four centres had built up, to give form and
permanence to the ideas of the Great Work that were needed for the
future.

We must consider what each tradition had to contribute. There is
little doubt that the notions of the sun as Creator, of the sun as King
and hence of the King as God came from some African centre. The
oldest Indo-European myths are without any such concepts. There the
Sun God Indra is not the Supreme Creative Power; but rather the
Saviour God who puts his own existence in peril to save the world. No
two conceptions could be more opposed than these.* The central theme
of the Vedas is the tremendous struggle with the powers of darkness
in which man has to play his part. Even when a supreme God is referred

* In her brilliant study of Man and the Sun, Jacquetta Hawkes tries to make out a
case for the universality of sun worship among early people. She admits difficulties
with the Indo-European tradition. Thus: (loc. cit., p. 171): 'His faint solar aspect
appears in the Rig Veda where he "smiles through the clouds", yet already he is vague,
he has no hymns devoted to him alone—he, too, has been kicked upstairs.' She admits
much the same of the Sumerians (loc. cit., p. 78): 'In early Sumeria he (the Sun God)
occupied a relatively small corner of the pattern of national theology.' China and the
Far East are not even mentioned and indeed there are no traces of sun worship in the
regions of the Great Spirit culture.

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299

to, as in te famous Creation Hymn; we find that, after enquiring
what this reation is for and whither it is bound, it answers its own
question in the last two lines:

'He who surveys it in the Highest Heaven
He alone knows—and even He may not know!'

The Drama of the Universe was the magnificent theme of the hymns
of the Aryans—even those borrowed so late in the day by Homer.
Nothing resembling this is to be found in the Egyptian inscriptions.
This hymn is quoted by Jacquetta Hawkes:*

'Sol torch taking captive all lands every day,
As one beholding them that walk therein;

He makes the seasons by months

He: when he desires, Cold when he desires.

He makes the limbs to languish when he unfolds them

Every land is in rejoicing

At is rising every day, in order to praise him.'

These hymns obviously belong to a much later period than the Epoch
that we are about to study, but the differences initially were certainly
even more narked. Let us set down what we can reconstruct of the
beliefs of the four groups before the beginning of history.

17.47.8.1 GREAT MOTHER CULTURE

Man originally came from woman without a father. The role of man
in procreation was little understood. Children belonged to the mother's
clan. The Great Mother is also the Breast of Nature from which all life
is nourished. The special place of woman in agriculture gives her pre-
eminence i the home. The culture is essentially practical and in-
numerable local cults are connected with seedtime and harvest, with rain
and sunshine. . The sanctity of the home makes for a closely knit and
conservative society. It is not surprising to learn that these people were
the first householders. The Great Mother not being identified with a
supreme God or Spirit takes different form and different name in
different places. Later she begins to acquire a consort or even many
husbands—but this is the result of the impact of other cultures. The

* Loc. cit., p. 112. The chapter entitled 'Sun of Life' is a magnificent account of the
place that th Sun and Sun Worship occupied in Egypt from start to finish of its
long history.

3°°

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

primitive notion is that of the Virgin Mother who is impregnated by the
Life Force that has brought animals and plants to the earth and chose
the Great Mother in order to bring man.

17.47.8.2. GREAT SPIRIT CULTURE

Here there are no personal gods either male or female. The Great
Spirit is everywhere the same. When it takes a more sophisticated form
as Tao it produces everything: but not as Creator. The coming of life,
and of man also, is the spiritualization of matter. Nothing is 'made',
because everything already is.

There are no problems here like those of the Hyperborean nor is there
the Triumphant Sun God of Africa. The Spirit power is omnipresent
and almighty, but it works from within. It does not reign in Majesty like
Re or Atum; nor does it have to struggle and suffer like Indra and Mitra.
Since the Spirit works invisibly and within man and nature, the all-
important need is to secure this working for oneself and one's commun-
ity. Those who have this working—the Shamans or Guides—are the
indispensable link between the community and the Great Spirit. They
are neither rulers nor a sacramental priesthood: they are men chosen
by the Spirit to be its vehicle; therefore they are nothing in themselves
and yet they are to be feared and followed because of the Spirit Power
that works through them. This accounts for the immensely wide dis-
persion of the Great Spirit culture and its ability to resist change even
to our own time.*

The effect of the Great Spirit culture upon the external life is to
produce closely-knit communities united by a common spiritual action.
This made the long migrations possible. It also may account for the
fixed social structures of the Far East and the interest taken later by the
Chinese and other Far Eastern nations in doctrines of the social order.
The cult of ancestors and the sacredness of the family can also be
traced to the sense of continuity of existence that the Spirit Power
produces in a society. We might also add that the attitude towards
death in all cultures which have originated from the Great Spirit centre,
and which is so incomprehensible to those of other cultures, is also to be
ascribed to the mystical sense of perpetual renewal that the Spirit gives.

17.47.8.3. CREATOR GOD CULTURE

In marked contrast to the Hyperborean anxiety for the welfare of
gods and man, the Southern folk are confident that the Creator God
* For example, among the Pueblo Indians of western U.S.A.

•

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301

is immortal, omnipotent and able to endow his earthly counterpart
with the same qualities. Not only is the God endless, but man also is
destined for immortality. Immortality is attained through the King.
If the Divine law is not violated, a man dies to rise again 'beyond the
mountains' where the Sun-God will take him directly into his care. The
sun was the Father of the people as well as Creator and his role as the
supreme Father was enacted by his representative on earth. Authority
and responsibility was always in a 'vertical' direction, from higher to
lower, and never between equals.

It might appear that we are overlooking the 'polytheism' of the
Egyptians. The assumption that the Egyptians believed in a Pantheon
of divine and semi-divine beings, has been discarded by serious
Egyptologists. It is now agreed that the various Neter formerly called
'gods' are symbols of various natural and moral qualities by which the
creative power is manifested in the world. The idea of manifestation
occupies an important place. This is just the opposite of the Far
Eastern belief which holds that the Great Spirit never manifests, nor
takes any kind of visible or even imaginable form. The Creator God
culture turns on the obligation to manifest.

This led to the doctrine of Divine Kingship and to the need to build
great structures and create imposing works of art. The splendid pageants
and elaborate rituals of Egypt probably descend from a very ancient
belief in the need to make the Divine Power visible to all people.

17.47.8.4. SAVIOUR GOD CULTURE

In this stream, far more than in any other, we find the recognition
that existence is itself a problem. Not only the hazards of human
existence, but also the insecurity of the gods were powerful formative
influences upon the receptive minds of the Indo-European culture.
So strong was this feeling, that it has continued to influence thought
and action to this day.

Recognition that existence is dramatic cannot be discerned in any
of the other three traditions. It seems also, that the people of the North
were the first to grasp the significance of sin as the voluntary acceptance
of evil. With this awareness, comes the acute need for salvation that we
can recognize in the Zend Avesta, in the Norse Sagas, and even in the
Vedas though less clearly.

Because of their sense of insecurity, the Indo-European people were
seekers. Initially, they sought security by going south to find the sun.
When they discovered that the people of the sun could not understand
their problem, they turned upon themselves and looked for security in

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

transformation.* Their beliefs and practices were so powerfully
affected by the cultures through which they passed in their wanderings
that we cannot do much more than guess at their state during the time
of their wanderings. What we must recognize is the powerful influence of
of the Hyperborean language and beliefs—although they were trans-
mitted to several distinct races.** These have been the people who have
hastened forward the development of the human mind, seeing more
clearly than any other that Creativity is the distinctively human charac-
teristic.

17.47.8.5. THE PROGRESS OF THE EPOCH

This most inadequate sketch of the four great cultures must serve
as an introduction to the study of their mutual impact in the Exoteric
Epoch that began some 7,500 years ago and ended with the foundation
of city states in Mesopotamia and the Indus valley and dynastic rule in
Egypt.

It was, perhaps, within the Plan of the Great Work to produce the
four basic cultures under conditions that would allow them to reach a
maximum degree of differentiation of beliefs and specialization of
language before they were allowed to meet. If so, it was a rare stroke
of genius and example of foresight.

Each culture had great value in its own right. China developed a
magnificent civilization by progressive refinement of the Great Spirit
Culture. The American Indians and the Polynesians produced variants
the value of which was unfortunately not perceived by those who
destroyed them. Egypt gave the world the example of the most prolonged
manifestation of a single line of culture in history. In Africa powers were
acquired that would have been of great value to the human race if,
unfortunately, these also had not been first debased and then destroyed
by invaders. In the far West, the Nordic and Germanic cultures were
prematurely overtaken and failed to give the fruits of a very special
insight into the Drama of Existence of which they touched the fringes.
The Great Mother culture probably survived in the Mediterranean
until the catastrophe to be described in the next section.

* The 'creation of the world' from the combination of the heat and light (of the
South) and the cold and dark (of the North) that we find recounted in the Prose Edda
and other mythologies of northern Europe is a wonderful record of this period in
Hyperborean history. Between Muspell in the south and the ice and snow of the north
was the emptiness of Ginnungagap wherein the heat and the cold produced the primal
giant Yonir. Cf. Ellis Davidson, Gods and Myths of Northern Europe.

** The Mediterranean, the Nordic, the Caucasian and the Indian are as different as
races of Homo Sapiens Sapiens can be, but they are amazingly similar in the cultural
formation they have received from the Arctic source.

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303

These few illustrations refer to the four cultures in their 'pure' form.
Of much greater interest are the 'hybrid' forms. The mutual impact
came in South-west Asia and made this area the birthplace of civiliza-
tion and of the great religions. It also became and has remained the
principal centre from which the Great Work of the creative evolution
of mankind is guided and helped.

The human population was rapidly increasing and the early small
communities bound together through kinship grew into scattered,
loosely-knit units. At the same time, different cultures were coming
into contact—not only people supported by different techniques but
also people inspired by different beliefs. In Europe, Africa and Asia
there must have been numerous encounters. We can scarcely doubt that,
at the beginning, the various groups would have been kept from open
confrontation—until the necessary work of intentional diffusion had
been achieved. The time had now come for the organization of social
life to be partially dependent on men having intelligence but little
contact with Individuality.

The rise of Neolithic settlements and the spread of herdsmen and
bands of hunters was balanced by an intermediate group of men being
given a special position of responsibility. Until this third Epoch, men
were of two kinds: the Guides and their chosen helpers destined for
Individualization; and the ordinary people destined to return to the
Soul-Stuff Pool. The new social structure may at first have corresponded
to our three-fold scheme of Psychostatic, Psychokinetic and Psychote-
leios groups of men. The forms which the new middle group assumed
depended on the cultural traditions. There came the exoteric priesthood
acting as representatives of the sacred guides and cooperating with the
authentic Initiates. In this way, the 'paths of transmission', leading
from the Psychostatic to the Psychoteleios groups were brought into
being. But not only priesthood was involved—men were assuming
responsibility in all branches of specialized activity. The accelerated
pace of the Chalcolithic phase is an indication of the presence of men
acting not simply from instruction and guidance but from their own
intelligence and initiative as well.

Men of the middle group assumed increasing responsibility. The
compresence of different peoples required a degree of social organization
unnecessary before. Sharing of land and exchanges of techniques had to
be regulated to avoid general confusion. There was also the need for
interpretation whenever two streams of culture met.

The course of events in many regions of the world remains obscure.
The Bering Straits had again become impassable, and the Americas

D.U. IV—12

304

The dramatic universe

were left to develop independently for six thousand years. Travel into
Africa became impossible in the hot, wet period known as the 'Atlantic
phase': the dark continent was cut off from the North until the third
century a.d. and the Arab penetration began thousands of years later.
Even central Asia, that must have been for twenty thousand years the
home of hunting tribes with no fixed dwellings, had been rendered
almost uninhabitable by the great winds and dust storms. Deserts
were appearing in the Sahara, the Gobi, around the Red Sea, in the
Punjab, in Arabia and in North America. At the same time the great
river valleys were becoming inhabitable.

There began a great process of construction in geographically de-
fined regions. In the fifth millennium B.C., we have evidence of great
works in Upper and Lower Egypt and by the fourth millennium the
beginnings of Sumer. We find traces of undertakings in Norway and
Denmark and then evidence of the Danubians who probably came from
the south to occupy large areas of western Europe.

The sites in South-west Asia show a remarkable cultural continuity.
The earliest shrine at Eridu in Sumer was rebuilt and enlarged through
succeeding occupations until we find records explaining its dedication
to the god Ea, interpreted in later times still as the 'Lord of Wisdom'.
At Sialk in southern Iran we see continuous development from early
settlement to occupation by a colony of literate Elamites who had
developed civilization in the alluvial valley of the Kerkha. We must
remember, in this context, that the agricultural communities of the
Great Mother Culture had been settled in these regions for several
thousand years before this time.

The whole region of the fertile crescent from Egypt to the Persian
Gulf was the scene of a tremendous work of construction. Here, the
confluence laid the foundations of our present cultures. A potent
factor in the development of a social structure was the invention of the
irrigation system whereby the yield of crops and, in consequence, the
density of population could be increased several-fold. Irrigation was
probably first introduced in the steppes of Iran and Iraq. In the fourth
millennium B.C. the swamp and marsh of the Mesopotamian delta was
brought under control by a vast labour of drainage and irrigation. Even
today, traces of the old channels are still discernible: reflecting on the
technical skill and organization that must have gone into them, one can
become aware of the Intelligence then at work. We must not under-
rate the power of appreciation that could see the potentialities in the
situation. The step towards urban civilization came as a planned
development. Europe at this time was suitable for settled agriculture

THE CREATIVE MIND

305

and urbanization, but they did not come for more than a thousand
years—and then from the East! With settlement, came ownership of
land. With the specialized development of the practical arts, came the
exchange of goods; and with large communities, came the need for the
maintenance of order. Behind the magnificent achievements of the time,
was the plan of transferring responsibility to the human mind for its own
progress and, eventually, for its contribution to the Great Work.

The technical advances of the fourth millennium were truly astonishing.
Even before this time, observations were being made of the cyclic
behaviour of the stars, the sun and moon. A calendar—in the sense of an
organized system of reckoning long durations—must have been operative
a thousand years and more before the so-called 'historical horizon'
marked by written texts.* A cluster of inventions could be enumerated
such as the potter's wheel, the use of the motive power of oxen, the
plough and so on. There was also developed a true money economy and
systems of weight and measures that gave commerce a powerful impetus
to expand. The innovation which was the most far-reaching, however,
was the invention of writing. Without writing, the complexity of com-
munications and records necessary to very large settled communities
could not become organized. At the beginning, there appear to have been
two kinds of representation: symbolic and indicative. The symbolic
pictures were records of the ideas of the culture, whereas the indicative
pictograms were records of concrete events. By the end of the Epoch,
they had come together as a means of recording expressions in the
languages of the peoples.

By the accidents of climate and the use from the start of burnt brick,
we have far more copious traces of the history of Sumer at the end of the
Epoch than of any other part of the world. There is no doubt that the
Sumerian script was phonetic. Succeeding peoples speaking Semitic
tongues adopted the notation on settling in Sumer. Later, the Elamites also
look over the method. In this way, the languages of the various cultures
began to influence each other. It is interesting to note that in Egypt the
words for the numbers one to five and ten were African whereas the
numbers six to nine were Semitic—a sure sign of borrowing. The settlers
In the Indus valley and those who later founded the early Chinese
civilization in the valley of the Huang Ho, were not slow in acquiring
the art of writing. What did this mean for the structure of the languages?
obviously, the language of the Great Mother culture was well suited to
the phonetic system of the Sumerians and may have been a major

* Santillana suggests the calendar was evolved 'between 4000 and 6000 B.C.', The
Origins of Scientific Thought, p. 13.

306 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

ingredient. For the great root-languages, however, there must have been
a large amount of simplification. It is no accident that the vast majority
of the early texts were concerned with commerce and day-to-day
administration. With the coming of writing, the spoken languages
themselves must have lost much of their original subtlety.

One important result was that man could bequeath to future genera-
tions records accessible to exoteric levels of society. The literate
part of the community, though small, was a late manifestation of the
'middle group' which was assuming greater and greater importance.

We must pause and consider the overall distribution of progressive
cultures. In the Nile valley, the major powers of Upper and Lower
Egypt had formed. The valleys of the Indus and the Yellow River were
being settled and urbanized. We find advanced cultures in Iran and
Syria, and the whole of the eastern Mediterranean appears to have been
dominated by the Great Mother culture and was making its way into
Europe through colonization. We come to the time of the megalith
builders—beginning in northern Europe around 3000 B.C., and the
grave-passage people spreading to Malta and Iberia. In central Europe,
the expanding Danubian culture was being threatened by the Westerners
spreading throughout western Europe. Trade connected Asia Minor
with Mesopotamia, Sumer and Akkad, with India and even, perhaps,
China. In the north, the Indo-Europeans were developing in ways
which have left almost no traces.

In the central region, people from the nomadic tribes were probably
involved in carrying the trade of the emergent civilizations. At the same
time, it would appear that specialists in the new arts roved far and wide
in the exercise of their skills. There were also peoples relatively un-
touched by the revolution in progress, but nevertheless destined to
make significant contributions during the next Epoch. The great
achievements of the Exoteric Epoch are now the heritage of mankind;
but so also is the price that had to be paid. This was the exposure of
man to material forces. The pursuit of wealth and possessions for their
own sake, that had played no part in the life of the migrants, or of the
groups of farmers who no doubt moved from place to place as the land
lost its fertility, now began to dominate men's minds in all parts of the
oikoumene.

With property and money, the latent egoism of the human soul-stuff
found an instrument of self-expression that has been a major factor in
determining the course of subsequent history. There were no doubt
evil men, and men more or less tainted with evil, from the first con-
tamination of the soul-stuff. Violence of the kind vividly portrayed in

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307

the story of Cain and Abel must frequently have been unleashed in the
meetings of cultures with different notions of man and his destiny.
Egoism could cause jealousies and hatreds, disobedience to the author-
ity of the guides, selfish disregard for the needs and sufferings of others:
but it could not deploy all its potential for harm until mankind acquired
a social organization.

It may well have seemed that mankind was paying with moral deteri-
oration for material progress. We have faint echoes of the moralist's
lament in the oldest literature. It may indeed be true that the exoteric
society could not understand its responsibility and that the world of
5,000 years ago was in a state of disorder.

We find an increasing preponderance of implements of war amongst
the traces. The early Danubian settlements had been without fortifica-
tion—now protective devices predominate. The two kingdoms of
Egypt were in armed conflict and in Mesopotamia we find signs of
settlement through conquest. In all probability, the stories of the
'Flood' record an upsurge of violence and social disintegration amongst
the city-states. Reading back from the records, we can see the origins of
class-oppression on the part of the exoteric priesthood. The middle
group which had been given authority had established the relation of
'masters and slaves' in order to preserve social coherence in the face of
the stress of the meeting of cultures and the expansion of population.
The visible fruit at the end of the Epoch was exploitation and a weaken-
ing of the chain of transmission necessary for the psychokinetic life.
Undoubtedly, the 'way of initiation' became, at this time, a hidden
mystery and remained so until the great events of the stage of
Revelation.

17.47.9. The Hemitheandric Epoch

The response of the Guides of Mankind was not to withdraw re-
sponsibility from the Exoteric Society but to increase it. The means used
were to present to the people the picture of men like themselves in
appearance who were nevertheless superhuman, or godlike in their true
nature. It was not intended that these men should be mistaken for gods.
They were not Divine Incarnations though, at first, they were no
doubt Initiates destined to achieve Individuality. To express the special
status accorded to them, we have used the term Hemitheandros: half-
god, half-man. Because their role in human societies is the dominant
theme of the next two thousand years, we call this cycle the Hemi-
theandric Epoch. The theme developed according to the prevailing
cultures. In Egypt the Hemitheandros was almost at once identified with

308 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

the Sun God Re. In regions of the Great Spirit Culture—particularly in
China—he was the wise man wholly possessed by the Spirit-Power
known as Shang-ti. In the regions mainly influenced by the Aryan
beliefs, he was the Hero who associates with the higher powers and risks
or even sacrifices his life for his people. In the Great Mother regions
of the Near East, the Hemitheandros was the son of the Great Mother:
as Zeus was the son of Cretan Rhea.

A deeply significant and almost universal attribute of the Hemi-
theandroi is that they were believed to have learned the secrets of
immortality—the duraosha haroma 'from whom death flees'—and could
enable others to enjoy the benefits of their achievement. This was part
of the general doctrine of Hvareno* according to which the Hemi-
theandros was vested with a sacred power which he alone could dispense
and which therefore made him indispensable to his people. In an early
Sumerian tablet telling the story of the Flood, we learn that, at the
beginning of civilization, 'the exalted Tiara and the Throne of Kingship
had been lowered from heaven.' In old Norse, kingly power is described
as 'the Licence from the Great Bear'.

Generally, the Hemitheandros was not a priest, although his actions
had a sacramental character. In Egypt, the flooding of the Nile depended
on his due performance of the sacred rites. The early Sumerian and
Akkadian kings and governors are portrayed as the executives of the
great gods. The Hemitheandros took over the fertility cult that belonged
to an earlier Epoch and transformed it into an act of service or kingship
that assured the return of the seasons.** Even in the later Hittite empire
the king would leave foreign campaigns to his generals in order to
perform his sacramental duties in "his kingdom.***

The new image entered into human society towards the end of the
fourth millennium B.C. We may be sure that the rise of kingship and the
great Social changes, were the result of the intentional work of the
Initiates and Guides. The rise of kingship might be explained in terms
of human love of power among the few and the equally human desire
to shirk responsibility among the many. But these were not ordinary
tyrants; they were—especially at first—lawgivers, healers, sages and

* The term used in the Avestan hymns for the sacred power that invested the true
king.

** The great New Year Festival of Babylon involved complex rituals in which the
king enacted ritual humiliation, triumph over chaos and mating with a goddess.

*** The Hemitheandric idea though not the reality, was still alive in the time of
Hattusilus III (ca. 1275 B.C.) who wrote: 'The goddess, my lady, always held me by
the hand; and since I was a divinely favoured man, and walked in the favour of the
gods, I never committed the evil deeds of mankind.'

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3°9

symbols of an ideal theocratic society. The men themselves were not
ordinary ran. Making all allowance for the halo cast by a remote
antiquity, we cannot doubt that the white Emperor of China was re-
membered as a man saturated with the sacred power of the spirit.* The
oldest Uparishads tell us of Brihadratha the king and sage, of Ikshvaku
the saviour of the Aryan people, of Manu their lawgiver. These may be
half-mythical figures but the high stature and achievements of some
Hemitheandroi are certainly historical. Menes, the first king to rule over
a united Egypt, was the creator of new social structures, and Imhotep
(ca. 3000 EC.) the astronomer, architect, sage and physician, later
worshipped as a 'hero', and even as the god of medicine, established new
sciences. Long before the great legal code of Hammurabi, the kings of
Sumeria were concerned with the dispensation of humane justice. We
can mention Urukagiva and Gudea of Lagash as well as Ur-Nammu of
the Third Dynasty of Ur.** We must add the enigmatic figure of Mel-
chisedec, tie Priest King of Lagash who blessed Abraham (probably
ca. 2000 B.(.) and whose name has left such a deep impression on the
Christian tradition.*** It may be that we have a glimpse here of a higher
figure than he Hemitheandros—that is of a Messenger, a Psychoteleios
soul in direct touch with the Demiurgic Intelligences.

Behind the steps taken, we can discern the guidance of the Demiurgic
Intelligence that is never violent nor hasty. One principle of the Great
Work that must already be clear is that it operates entirely within the
framework of the natural order and according to its laws. The Hemi-
theandros was—at least in theory—not a capricious autocrat, deciding
the destiny of his people to suit his pleasure or intervening arbitrarily
in the course of nature, but the pre-eminently wise ruler who could do
what no one else could do because he was endowed with a special power.
That this description ceased to be valid after the end of the second

* Huang Ti, who ruled Eastern Honan and Shen Nung who ruled Western Honan
were remembred, together with Fuhi, as the bringers of pictorial writing, marriage,
agriculture, medicine and many arts. They probably lived at the beginning of the
third millennium.

** The beneficent influence of the early Hemitheandric rulers can be gauged from an
inscription at Kish of about 2,400 B.C., in which Urukagiva refers to the re-establish-
mciit of the ancient laws and says that as a result of his administration 'the maid was
the equal of her mistress, and master and slave consorted together as friends, the
powerful and he humble man lay down side by side, and in place of evil speech only
propitious words were heard; the rich man did not wrong the orphan, nor did the
strong man oppress the widow.' Quoted by L. A. Waddell in The Makers of Civiliza-
tion in Race ad History, London, 1939. Ur-Nammu (ca. 2050 B.C.) has given us the
earliest formulation of a legal code. It seems that the early law was even more humane
than that we fad in Hammurabi.

***He is mentioned eleven times in the Old Testament.

310 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

millennium B.C. does not diminish its importance for our understanding
of the purpose behind it all.

Two objectives can be discerned in the decision to launch the cult of
the Hemitheandros in its various forms. The first was to create an
authority that would regulate the activity of the exoteric society. This
was achieved partly by the establishment of a governing section within
the exoteric class. These administrators, reflecting the Sacred Power of
the Hemitheandros, ruled the people in his name.* Exoteric priests and
scribes in effect ran the great cities. The system gave scope for in-
justice and the hemitheandric men had to intervene to redress the
balance. They stood outside the exoteric society and were able to miti-
gate the class-conflict which threatened the social stability of the city-
states. In many regions, written codes of law were promulgated. Some
of these were so farsighted that many of their provisions are to be found
in the jurisprudence of our own age.

The second objective was the formation of notions about man and his
destiny that would prepare for a more responsible participation of the
people in the Great Work. We have referred to the belief that the
Hemitheandros had the secret of immortality. This was certainly a
factor of decisive significance. Not only was immortality promised to
those who linked their lives with that of the hero; but it was a superior
immortality, not a descent into the shades which was the fate of ordinary
people. We can discern this teaching everywhere: in China, in Egypt,
in Sumeria, in India and in the distant echoes given by myths of the
Celts and Norsemen.

By communicating to the exoteric society belief in the soul and its
immortality, a sanction was given to the moral order and to theocratic
institutions in general. This was of vital importance to the Great Work,
for it helped to awaken the people to motives for action that might
conflict with their egoism and animal passions. Until that time, the
foundation of the social order was the lack of initiative on the part
of the masses and their consequent faith in and obedience towards the
Guides and their helpers. From the start of the Hemitheandric Epoch a
profound change of attitude was apparent. Men were no longer depend-
ent upon an unseen source of strength and help; but upon a visible
man. He was the guarantor of the social order and the link with im-
mortality, ** Similar ideas were germinating all over the world. The

* In Sumeria, the city-governor was the 'tenant-farmer' of the 'God' of the city.
In China, the king ruled by the mandate of 'Heaven', the t'ien-ming.

** Cf. J. Murphy, The Origins and History of Religions, p. 200. 'In a way that is very
striking, for many hundreds of years in this civilization, the higher religion of an ap-
proach to the gods or the attainment of immortality had no existence except for the

THE CREATIVE MIND

311

THE CREATIVE MIND 311

mythology of Sumer and Akkad is full of concern with the mystery of
the secret of immortality. The passion of the heroic search of Gilgamesh
is a reflection of the awakening of human reason to the possibility of a real
immortality—not mere persistence in the underworld. Later, scepticism
abounds—but out of this was to rise the truly religious sense of a per-
sonal bond between God and man. The failures of the heroes were a
preparation for the notion of the God of Salvation, brought by the Indo-
European tradition. Taken as a whole, the Epoch we are studying shows
the signs of the awakening of an exoteric religious sense. Peoples in
whom the main cultures fused were the bearers of the seed of religion
which was to be born in the Age of Revelation.

We should also note the importance of divination in this Epoch. The
omen literature of Sumeria and Babylonia is extensive—celestial pheno-
mena, physiological signs and the flight of birds were used. In China,
there is evidence of a form of astrology being practised perhaps as early
as the fourteenth century B.C. Nowadays, it is taken that astrology as we
know it did not develop in western Asia before the Seleucid period. Yet
for millennia astronomical observations had been accumulated and
systematized—especially in Babylonia. The Ziggurats and Bittmarti or
'houses of observation' were undoubtedly used for this activity,
but more than the construction of a calendar was involved. There
was an understanding of the significance of synchronous patterns
and their influence upon the course of events both personal and
social.

We must return to the conclusion reached in the last chapter that the
magicians guiding the human population had brought the modern races
of man into being by the genetic control of mating. The belief that
mating is a secret science persisted into historical times and is still held
in many parts of the world. In our view, this secret science really existed

king . . . The privileges of religion were confined to the royal gens or caste, to the
aristocracy which ruled the country; and these privileged ones might number about
five hundred.' The author does not see that the Egyptians distinguished between the
active religion of the Pharaoh and the passive religion of the Plebs. Both were valid
and equally necessary, the one to the other. James Blaikie, writing of the creed of the
Egyptians, asserts that 'The idea of immortality has been nowhere more tenaciously
held than in ancient Egypt, and the documents relating to it have an overwhelming
preponderance in the religious literature of the nation.' The essential link between
the Hemitheandros, represented by Osiris, and the existential man seeking the immortal
essence is expressed in many passages; for example, in The Book of the Dead the dead
soul recites 'Homage to thee, O my divine father Osiris! Thou hast thy body with
thy members. Thou didst not decay, thou didst not become corruption ... I shall not
decay, I also shall not see corruption ... I shall have my Being, I shall live, I shall
germinate, I shall wake up in peace' (Erie, of Religion and Ethics, Vol. IV, p. 243).

D.U. IV—12*

312

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

THE CREATIVE MIND

and was a powerful influence in human development.* According to
some traditions, the candidates for admission to the psychokinetic
society in ancient times were selected even before birth, from knowledge
of the characteristics of their parents and the circumstances and time
of their conception."**

Whereas the visible priesthood indulged in the complex rules and
formulations of hepatoscopy, the power of divining the crucial patterns
at the conception of children of good heritage was probably confined to
counsellors and initiates.*** The power would have depended on the
exercise of finer perceptions. It is very probable that in the Hemi-
theandric Epoch the human mind could develop sensitive perceptions
far more easily than it can today.****

These 'rumours of the past' are not without their importance for us
today. The maturing of the human mind is not a one-way traffic along
a well-marked highway. At certain stages a particular power or group of
powers is developed ahead of others. This may be needed under the
conditions of a particular historical period: later these powers may be
allowed to go into abeyance in all but a small minority. The main stream
is then developing other powers upon which all attention is concen-
trated. Thus development follows the same zig-zag pattern in the human

* Although astrologers are regularly consulted about marriages by hundreds of
millions of people, in Asiatic countries especially, little authentic knowledge remains
of the way in which the selection of mates should be determined. It may well be that
this science will have to be revived to save the human race from serious deterioration
due to the survival of the unfittest.

** Cf. Vol. Ill, Chapter 41, Section 15.41.4.

*** We have not given a detailed account of divination. In Chapter 42, pp. 43—45
we mentioned the importance of correspondences between spatial and temporal
patterns. This is brought into experience through the zones and regions of eternity
and hyparxis. The state of consciousness of the diviner brings the two patterns into
his present moment. Through the hyparchic component, he is able to recognize the
significance of the patterns. As we pointed in Vol. II, Chapter 26, synchronicity is a
Paraesthetic reality on the boundaries of fact and value. Since it cannot be reduced to
fact, causality cannot be applied nor the presence of the observer abstracted. We
might add that causality as an over-riding principle of explanation was not
introduced until about the sixth century B.C. and then one of the key thinkers was the
Buddha.

**** Cf. Gurdjieff, All and Everything, pp. 471-2, where he speaks of the 'sensibility
of perception' 'deteriorating century by century' during the 'Babylonian civilization'.
Also p. 1235, 'The general life of mankind has been divided into two streams since
the time of what is called the "Tikliamishian civilization" which directly preceded the
"Babylonian civilization". It was just from then on that there gradually began to be
and ultimately was finally established that organization of the life of mankind which
as every sane-thinking man ought to constate, can now flow more or less tolerably, if
people are divided into masters and slaves.' The Tikliamishian era, as can be inferred
from other parts of the book, corresponds to our Exoteric Epoch and the Babylonian to
the Hemitheandric. The 'division into masters and slaves' refers to our 'exoteric society'.

313

mind as it has been observed to do in nature. This is overlooked and so
we make serious mistakes in evaluating the past.

The aim of the secret divination was to select for special training
men capable of dealing with the immense tasks in hand. The Great
Work had need of men with certain highly developed mental powers
for the setting up of the social structures which were to maintain human
life for four millennia.

These structures are what we call civilizations.* The greatest
achievement was the establishment, first, of stable city-states and, later,
of empires, deploying great resources. Material achievements ranged
from shipbuilding and navigation to metallurgy and the introduction of
copper, bronze and iron into the life of man.

During the Epoch, intercourse between the most remote centres of
population proceeded regularly, and, on the whole, safely. Experiments
were made with almost every known form of social organization, from
the communism that prevailed in Egypt from the 9th to the nth
Dynasties to the nearly contemporary theocratic monarchy in Lagash.
Hundreds of thousands of clay tablets bearing records in cuneiform,
papyri inscribed with hieroglyphs, and inscriptions on stone and metal
have been preserved, and, as they are being deciphered, we can form
the picture of a mode of life that seems strangely like our own. But the
differences are more significant than the similarities. For example,
throughout the Hemitheandric Epoch, respect for human life was almost
completely lacking. Side by side with an advanced jurisprudence-
belonging to the social level of history-—we find inscriptions in which
kings, and even priests, boast of cruelties that modern man can scarcely
bear to contemplate. For the contrast of high virtues and a low regard
for human life we need to go no further than the Homeric poems,
which give a picture of life towards the close of the Epoch on a level
intermediate between the civilizations of Egypt and Babylon and the
contemporary Neolithic societies of Europe. Homer succeeds in con-
veying to us a feeling of the superior and semi-divine status of the Heroes
and of the still deeper respect accorded to the spiritual beings who
stood above the hierarchy of exoteric authority. Thus the prophet
Tiresias alone, among the dead encountered by Odysseus in his descent
into Hades, retains the full power of speech and sense-experience. The
Heroes of the Hemitheandric Epoch were inspired by a passionate force
of life such as we can scarcely picture.**

*Cf. Vol. Ill, Chapter 41, Section is.41-,7.3.

** The hero-king, Agamemnon, who stands weeping before the walls of Troy 'like
a fountain of black water pouring in dark stream from beetling crag'; Odysseus, the

314 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

The Hemitheandric Epoch was marked by another great flowering
of science and technology. Babylonian civilization is renowned for its
development of astronomy and mathematics. Old-Babylonian texts,
dating from 1800 to 1600 B.C. reveal a fully developed set of techniques
corresponding to an algebra in all but formalism. Around the same time,
we find, during the twelfth dynasty in Egypt, the amazing series of
papyri which demonstrate a highly integrated tradition of medical
practice and great achievements in arithmetic and geometry. In all
probability, most of the innovations were, in fact, made by 2800 B.C.
Strangely enough, the earliest megalithic constructions in Europe date
from about 3000 B.C. or a little before—the period of the inception of
pyramid building.** The accuracy of the Egyptian constructions was
astonishing—to within 1 in 4,000 for the Great Pyramid. Even more
astonishing is the social organization implied by such undertakings:
the control of thousands of workers on a single site, for example, is
evidence of an effective administration. In Harrappa and in northern
China under the Shang dynasty we find traces of an organized techno-
logy geared to public ends. We can add that, by the end of the second
millennium, systems of weights and measures were in general use from
Egypt to India.

Notwithstanding spectacular archaeological discoveries, we are still
far from appreciating the achievements of the Epoch. Egyptian and
Babylonian writers show a capacity for observation and systematic
technique that was unsurpassed for millennia. They laid the foundation
of the scientific tradition which was to reach Europe about three
thousand years later after passing through the Greeks and Arabs. The
first steps were empirical and technical. There was no suggestion of man
being able to find out about the structure of the world through his
mind and his senses. That was why so little progress was made, for
example, in Egyptian medicine after the first major creative phase at the
start of the Epoch. 'Chaldean' speculation properly belongs to the next
major episode in human history. 'Theoria' did not yet exist, but when
it came with the Ionian philosophers, they drew on the cosmological

wisest of the Greeks, who throws himself on the floor and howls like a spoilt child
when he is told to visit the Underworld — in short, all the Homeric heroes, with their
emotional upheavals, their childish vanity, their lust and their cruelty, seem to us to
be strange monsters. We can equally understand the agony of the young Simone Weil
reading the scriptures of the ancient Hebrews and asking whether she is expected to
find in their barbaric practices a prior revelation of Christian faith.

** With Zoser of the 3rd Dynasty, the architect being Imhotep. This is variously
dated, but is probably very early in the third millennium B.C.

THE CREATIVE MIND 315

notions of Babylon and Egypt and availed themselves of their vast fund
of accurate data.

In the perspective of our own present moment of history, the science
of the Hemitheandric Epoch appears as a single phase of technical
achievement. We should remember that it was a whole cycle of trans-
formation. At the end of the cycle men looked back towards the first
great thinkers and their traditions with some awe and reverence. The
separation of exoteric society from the esoteric groups was almost
complete. A powerful myth was created and carried eventually into
Europe—the myth of the 'ancients' who 'knew the true science'. This
was as important a contribution as the techniques actually evolved. It
led people to search for something which they themselves had to create.

The penetration of creative activity into the middle order of society
during this Epoch has left its traces in works of art. These are not only
more abundant than those of the preceding age; but also of far higher
skill and variety. Until this time, art was mainly esoteric and magical:
but in the Hemitheandric Epoch it was first used as a means of express-
ing the value system of cultures.

The architecture of Greece no longer stands before us as something
unprecedented, but rather as an offshoot of Egyptian and Assyrian
creativity. Karnak is to this day the world's masterpiece of majestic
building. The refinement of the goldsmiths' and the jewellers' arts as
executed in the cities of Mesopotamia, goes back to the third millennium.
By the start of the second it had already spread to Crete and to the Far
East. Such skill had the weavers and designers of women's costumes
achieved, that the ladies of Minoan Crete and of the 18th Dynasty in
Egypt can well be called the best-dressed women in history.

We must turn from this general survey of characteristics of the
Epoch to the general pattern of events. By the third millennium B.C. the
whole of the eastern Mediterranean was dominated by the Great
Mother tradition and colonists were entering into Europe—Iberia,
southern France, Malta and Great Britain. In the Far East the Great
Spirit tradition was concentrated in the emerging Chinese nation on the
banks of tributaries of the Huang Ho. Probably, it was then that the
Polynesian and Melanesian travellers were embarking into the Pacific.
In North America, the Indians were entering their 'Archaic period'
with the articulation of a complex tribal structure. The middle third of
the period appears to have been a time of troubles—we have evidence
of a discontinuity in the dynasties of Egypt, conflict between northern
and southern China, and the wars of Sargon of Akkad. By 2000 B.C.
Crete has risen to a dominant position. It is about the time of Ham-

316 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

murabi in Babylon. Civilization flourishes in India, Elam, Syria and
China. To the north, just south of the Caucasus, Indo-European
peoples infiltrate into the settled communities there. To the south,
Egypt is giving full expression to the Creator-Sun-God dogma. The
whole region bears the traces of a magnificent time of achievements in
art, science and government. Abraham is leading his people into their
homeland and the Semitic-speaking peoples throughout South-west
Asia are developing their own traditions out of the impact of the great
cultures. Babylonia is at the cross roads of the world and her influence
is widespread. Even at the time of Akkad there was trade with India, and
there may even have been connections with China. Egypt has colonies
in the eastern Mediterranean and seems secure in her own region in
North Africa.

By 1700 B.C. Sumeria is controlled by the non-Semitic power of the
Kassite dynasty—coming from the East—bringing elements of the
Hyperborean and the Great Spirit cultures. Egypt has entered one of her
'Intermediate Periods' which are a sign of a time of troubles. Later,
about the middle of the second millennium B.C., a remarkable event
occurred. This was the sudden destruction of Crete and elements of
the entire culture of the eastern Mediterranean. We know that Egypt
had been invaded by a mysterious people, the Hyksos, and that Crete
had the greatest sea-power the world had yet known. We have Plato's
account of Atlantis which almost certainly refers to Crete and the Ionian
civilization of the second millennium. The Cretans are credited with
some of the greatest technical achievements of the Epoch, such as the
making and casting of bronze, the fast dyeing of textiles and the use of
the loadstone for navigation. They probably had weapons that we do
not know about, for their striking power far exceeded their number.
The Cretan power at its height dominated the whole of the Mediter-
ranean, and probably the Mediterranean coast of Europe, until 1447
B.C. In that year a prodigious submarine volcanic eruption in the Island
of Santorini wiped the entire fleet and nearly all the population off the
face of the earth, devastated their cities and blotted out their history. Only
in the last few years has it been realized that these were probably the
famous 'Atlanteans' of Plato's Timaeus and Crttias: We have shown
elsewhere,* that this almost certainly coincided with the prodigious
events of the Exodus described so vividly in Genesis and in the Ipuwer
papyrus.

* For a detailed discussion of this identification and its connection with the exodus
of the Israelites from Egypt, see J. G. Bennett's Geophysics and Human History,
Systematics, Vol. I, p. 127, 1963.

THE CREATIVE MIND

317

The reader may be wondering why these events, remarkable enough,
and yet a small part of 2,500 years of history, should be given such
prominence here. The reason is that they mark a very significant turning
point in the maturing of the mind of man.

Two totally different trends were developing in South-west Asia and
the Mediterranean: one was represented by Egypt and Crete and the
other by Babylon and Lagash. The first was derived from a combination
of the Sun-God and Great Mother cultures and the other from a
combination of the Saviour-God and Great Spirit cultures. These were
predestined to become reconciled and united in Christianity; but in the
second millennium before the time of Christ, they stood in open conflict.
The technical advantage lay with Crete: then the main centre of activity
of the technical groups that had sprung from the Great Mother culture.
This had become so strong as to be a threat to all the other groups, and,
if we are to believe Plato's account, and if we identify the hated Hyksos
of Egyptian history with the Cretans, they were a materialistic and
cruel power intent only upon domination.

The destruction of Crete put an end to this threat and restored the
Great Mother culture to its proper role of providing a meeting place
for the interaction of the other three.

At this point we meet with the extraordinary role of the Children of
Israel. According to their own traditions they had come from Meso-
potamia and had spent several centuries as rayas in Egypt where they
had acquired a form of the Egyptian tri-literal language. Before the
sojourn in Egypt they belonged to the Great Spirit culture as witnessed
by their use of the word Elohim for the Deity. In Egypt they had adopted
their own form of the Sun-God belief in the name of Jahweh. During
the Hyksos rule in Egypt, they had taken up and afterwards rejected the
Great Mother cult. They were thus the first people in the world to
combine notions derived from three out of the four great sources of culture.

Are we to regard the destruction of the Cretan power and the crippling
of Egypt, when her conquests under Thothmes III had reached their
greatest extension and were threatening the Mesopotamian city states, as
a miraculous intervention as Plato seems to suggest and as the Israelites
certainly believed? It is more in accordance with our thesis to suppose
than the Santorini eruption belonged to the 'predetermined future' and
could therefore be foreseen. Those who could tell what was going to
happen could act as seeing men among the blind. We may well believe
that Moses was a Prophet who was a member of the Psychoteleios
Society of his time and could bring off his tremendous coup under the
very nose of the most powerful monarch the world had yet known.

318 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

Throughout the civilized world forces were at work changing the
whole balance of power and the character of states. The mountain tribes
and pastoral peoples which surrounded the areas of civilization on every
side began to gather strength. There was a remarkable impact of the
Indo-Europeans through infiltration and conquest. The Aryan invasion
of India took place at about the same time as the exodus from Egypt.
Mahenjo-daro and Harrappa fell to people who brought the Vedic
tradition with them. The result was a fusion of cultures when they came
into contact with the Great Spirit societies influenced from the East.
South of the Caucasus mountains, the Mitanni Kingdom (founded
about 1450 B.C.) arose out of infiltration of the same cultural groups;
wherever they went they brought with them their symbols of the horse
and sun.* The deities Indra, Mitra and Varuna were worshipped among
the Mitanni and in India, and their names are to be found in writings
from the Kassite rule in Babylon. By about 1200 B.C. Thraco-Phrygian
tribes had entered into Asia Minor and founded the Phrygian and Mush-
ki kingdoms. But it was in Iran that the Indo-European infiltration was
to prove most significant. At the beginning of the first millennium B.C.—
almost simultaneously with the Nordic advances into Italy and parts of
western Europe—Iranians began to assume power amongst the dis-
persed states of the Iran Plateau. This resulted in a transformation
which was to lead to the Persian empire, destined to make a major
contribution to the human mind and play a major role in the invisible
reaches of history.

Nevertheless, wherever we turn, we see a decay of the Hemitheandric
ideal. Around the twelfth century B.C. the old great civilizations of
Egypt and Mesopotamia were losing their social coherence in the rising
battle for power. The end of the Bronze Age in the Near East was a
dark period, and traces are few and confused. Rameses III (ca. 1198-
1166 B.C.), the last of the great Pharoahs, wasted the strength of a
declining Egypt in wars against the Achaeans and other rising barbarian
forces who overthrew the Mycaenean civilization in Greece. While
science, art and religion continued to be practised in the old ways,
Babylon went through a decline with the downfall of the Kassite
dynasty (ca. 1171 B.C.).

In the East, the great Chinese civilization which had slowly matured

* The famous treatise by Kikkali of Mitanni on the training of horses, which
probably dates from the fourteenth century, was written in a language akin to Sanskrit.
Undoubtedly, it was from the Indo-Europeans that the art of horse-breeding was
brought to western Asia and eventually spread to Egypt and Babylonia. In northern
Europe, the horse-cult —associated, for example, with Freya — persisted into the
Christian Era. The sun became the symbol of Mitra the 'god of co-operation'.

THE CREATIVE MIND 319

over two thousand years in the Yellow River valley was also poisoned.
Its association with a single culture had enabled it to build up a social
order of extraordinary diversity and yet stability. For millennia, China
had maintained its basic confidence in the Spirit Power and the family
structure of society. The seizure of power from the Shang dynasty by
the barbarian Chous marked the disintegration of the old social and
cultural harmony. The collapse was accelerated within the next few
centuries by the influx of new agricultural techniques and expansion into
the Yangtse valley.

Exoteric history had lost its coherence. Throughout the oikoumene
the merchant-classes had established their claim to an independent
status, but the expansion of commerce was motivated only by the search
for gain. The guided exchange of cultural influences was replaced by
collisions due to political forces. The contact between the visible
priesthood and the hidden groups had become weakened and had every-
where lost its power to revitalize society.

The Iron Age brought about a dramatic revolution in the civilized
world. Within a few centuries, techniques were shared from Spain to
China. The Celts of western Europe and the Scythians of the Eurasian
Steppes were soon to be stimulated by the penetration of material
progress. Other events more than offset this advance.

War, revolution, the misery of enslaved and deported populations
were the last fruits of an Epoch that had seen the awakening of man to a
destiny beyond his present life. Man had begun to see that with his
creative mind he could master the material world and even the world of
life. He had acquired a new sense of his own value: but all seemed to be
threatened by the breakdown of moral values. The sense of sin was vivid
enough—and not only among the Israelites—but the power to put things
right was lacking.

Yet noble attempts were made to restore man's sense of relationship
to the Divine Power. Prophets and sages sought to restore the true
relationship between the three levels of society and to base it again
upon the sacredness of food and hence agriculture. In the early Hebrew
scriptures and the Avestan Gathas, we find allegorical presentations of
the secrets of human destiny of incomparable aptness and beauty, but
they breathe the spirit of reform rather than that of regeneration. The
heroic Epoch was ending and there was nothing to show where or how
a new start could be made. The profound piety that had built the
temples of Karnak and Luxor in Egypt had given place to the shameless
simony of the last dynasties. In India, the sacred rites by which the
different Varnas—castes or levels of society—were able to share in the

320

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

experience of creative mind had degenerated into an empty ritualism
that had become the prerogative of a professional priesthood. Babylon,
the most pious of cities in the second millennium, had yielded its author-
ity to Nineveh, capital of the ruthless Assyrian Empire, whose wicked-
ness still reverberates in the denunciations of the Hebrew prophets.
The Prophets of the Captivity addressed themselves ostensibly to
Israel, but they were preaching the lesson of the whole of their con-
temporary world. The exoteric levels of society had let slip the slender
thread linking them to the spiritual groups of the esoteric level and were
living without purpose and without hope. In the terrible seventh century
B.C. the divorce of the mind of man from the soul was almost complete.
Not the Jews only, but all mankind was in captivity.

For us, who can look back over the perspective of a hundred genera-
tions, the significant events were not those of the political history of
cities and empires nor even the technical achievements of the Age of
Iron. The enforced transportation of whole populations under the
Assyrians and the spread of colonization in the Mediterranean brought
about a mutual impact of cultures in which the patterns of the future
were to be realized. We approach the dawn of a new Epoch. Cut off
from the guidance of the psychoteleios groups, suffering under cruel and
power-hungry kings, men were ready to respond to a fresh presentation
of human destiny. But the new understanding of human responsibility
did not come easily.

We must pass on to the next chapter of our study of the History of
Mind, well aware that the immensity of the subject must make our
treatment appear ridiculously inadequate. It will appear more so as we
enter a period the history of which is contained in a million books and
innumerable traces of which meet us at every turn.

Chapter Forty-eight
MIND AND LOVE

17.48.I. The Great Work

We have emphasized the reality of evolutionary progress and even of
accelerated progress; but we must not forget that acceleration depends
upon the way time is measured. The task to be accomplished has its
own time for which acceleration has no meaning. The goal to be
attained is in the hyparchic future. The event is in the hyparchic
present and it reverberates within the total harmony. These various
aspects of the Epoch are united in the Master Idea. In the early stages,
awareness of a total Plan for life on the earth was confined to the
Demiurgic Intelligences and perhaps was not known to all of these. As
we approach nearer to our present moment and as we look towards the
future; we can see a progressive unveiling of the significance of history.
As Epoch has succeeded Epoch, each Master Idea has been a little more
recognizable to contemporary humanity than the preceding. The Mind
of Man grows towards maturity and can respond to new demands and
opportunities. Each phase of human history has only a definite duration
for its realization. All transformations must take place within that present
moment.

Man in his activity, commitment and understanding is not alone on
the earthly stage. The pattern of history is created by Intelligences far
beyond his own. Man has the special role of coming to understand
the part he has to play. He is not to be forever a puppet in the hands of
superior forces. It is by human understanding that the higher Intelli-
gences can become effective. By his activity, man provides the field of
transformation wherein the realization of the Pattern may be achieved.
But it is through his commitment to the Event, that man makes possible
the coalescence which establishes it in the Timeless Present. That
remains: as one Epoch succeeds another, the reality of man's commit-
ment does not vanish. So, too, the taint of egoism remains in our history
—for it is in our very acts of commitment. That is why, as we shall see
later, the Redemption of man included an action in the hyparchic past.

Every cycle holds out a promise. On the visible levels there is always
failure: the Master Idea is misunderstood and distorted. The Present
Moment must continually change; at every stage something new is made

322

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

possible by what man has lived through. He learns responsibility by
having to exercise it—however badly. Throughout, he is accompanied—
and anticipated in the hyparchic future—by superior Intelligences. The
task accomplished is the contribution made by each cycle to the advance
of the Great Work.

We must make more explicit the hypothesis of Intelligent Guidance
as it applies to the historical period. The Great Work means the creative
activity by which the evolution of life on the earth is helped towards
the foreordained Plan. When translated into terms of events and history,
the goal appears as Destiny and when Destiny is understood as the
form of the future, it is to be accepted as a Goal. The pattern for man-
kind is not wholly beyond our conception, for we can see its traces in the
history of the past and its operations in the nature of man and human
societies.

We can attempt, at this point, to give an outline of the plan as it
would have appeared to an Intelligence that surveyed it at the end of the
the Hemitheandric Epoch. We have seen the slow, but accelerating,
evolution of life towards Mind, and recognized that this evolution is
inexplicable except upon the hypothesis of Intelligent Guidance; which
we expressed in terms of the Demiurgic Powers. We traced the deve-
lopment of mind and saw the evidence that responsibility for human
affairs is being transferred by degrees from the Demiurgic Intelligences
to man himself. Turning back from history to our excursion into the
notion of the Hyparchic Future, we can see that much that is strange and
unaccountable in human life, begins to make sense if we suppose that
some great Cosmic Purpose requires the development of intelligent, but
free, Individualized Beings united in the structure of a total Human
Society capable of entertaining purposes and accomplishing tasks,
measured not in years, but in millennia. Such Beings require to be
endowed with consciousness and creativity, but they cannot form a
structured intelligent organization—such as our ideal human society—
without the cooperation of the Unitive Energy (E 2) which alone can
generate Impartial, Objective Love.

Creativity could be transmitted by the Demiurgic Power because it is
inherent in the Demiurgic Nature. Love may operate within the
Demiurgic Essence, but not as an inherent attribute that can be trans-
mitted by the kind of fusion that we postulated as having occurred
some 35,000 years ago.* The necessity for impartial love has increased
progressively through human history and the manner of its transmission
is probably the most wonderful episode of all. Without Love, the
* Cf. Chapter 46, Section 17.46.5.

MIND AND LOVE 323

Foreordained Plan for humanity could not be realized, for Love alone
enables man to subordinate his personal creativity to the service of a
higher purpose not of his own choosing.

The normal evolution of humanity would no doubt have provided for
the contact, at an opportune moment, between the human soul and the
Cosmic Individuality, enabling an infusion of Unitive Energy (E 2) to
transform the whole race. The 'normal' situation did not and could not
arise on account of the taint of egoism. We came earlier to the very
important conclusion that egoism is not a private defect to which some
or most men are prone by accidents of birth or environmental influe nces;
but a condition in which all men necessarily share by participating in the
common Soul-Stuff Pool. By the end of the Hemitheandric Epoch, the
Soul-Stuff Pool was already charged with the traces of a thousand
generations of experience all having the taint of self-centred egoism
foreign to the true nature of man.

This atavistic taint is not an abstract idea that expresses a quality
observed in human behaviour; but a substantial condition. If food is
poisonous and we discover that this is due to polluted water used in
cooking, we do not say that the condition of the food is a matter of
personal taste, but a substantial condition due to the pollution of the
water. We must remember that, on our interpretation, all existence is
material. Matter is a form of energy, or aggregation of the prime sub-
stance hyle. This can be in one of three states: actual, potential or
virtual.* According to this view, the very existence of mind and soul of
man is drawn from a vast and growing reservoir of energies in the state
of virtuality. These energies are complex, ranging from the vital
energy (E 7) to the creative energy (E 3) and so spanning the region
between living and cosmic states of hyle. The Soul-Stuff Pool is certainly
not homogeneous. It varies according to the traces of past experience;
but all of it is affected by the tendency towards egoism. This tendency
is, however, confined to the soul-stuff: the Personal Individuality is not
touched by it. Nevertheless, the Will, residing in the Personal Indivi-
duality, depends upon the mind for the exercise of the powers associated
with the body. Man's will is not free and egoism intervenes even when
the mind wishes to put it aside. The normal evolution of mankind has

* We have somewhat modified the terminology of Vol. I where the three states were
described as actual, virtual and sensitive. This is partly to avoid confusion due to the
use of 'sensitive' with two meanings, and partly to draw attention to the special pro-
perty of the hyparchic state which allows acts of freedom by means of the uncommitted
state of virtuality. This agrees, moreover, with the use of the concept of virtuality in
Chapter 42 in connection with the hyparchic future.

324

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MIND AND LOVE

325

been obstructed by this disability and the Great Work must take this
into account.

The central task of the Great Work is to enable humanity to fulfil its
destiny as a creative agent in the Cosmos. The Great Work, during the
period we are studying, had to take into account the two-fold problem
of assuring the evolutionary progress of the human mind and of liberat-
ing the soul-stuff from the taint of egoism. The primary task was fore-
ordained for the Demiurgic Intelligences, associated as we may surmise
with the Solar System. The secondary task was made necessary by the
failure—in part at least willful—of some of the Demiurgic Powers to do
what was required of them.* The Demiurgic Intelligences are required,
but not compelled, to serve the Great Work. They are not compelled
because they are free beings—freedom being a necessary condition of
creativity. They were tempted to depart from the plan because they
are conscious and consciousness must bring awareness of the imper-
fection of the world, without necessarily the ability to see its total signi-
ficance and hence its Tightness.

These powers and these limitations reappear in men whose Demiurgic
Nature has been awakened—that is in the two lower groups of Psycho-
teleios Humanity. These groups when organized for the service of the
Great Work are able to/cooperate with the Demiurgic Intelligences and
to receive direction from the higher Psychoteleios sub-groups of Pro-
phets and Messengers who are in direct communication with the
Hyparchic Future, ** The human intelligences engaged in the Great Work
have seldom been known to men and women of the Psychostatic Order
except through the results of their intervention. Although their presence
in the world is not deliberately disguised, they are not recognized because
their activity differs from that of other people only in Hyparchic Regions,
which ordinary man cannot perceive. They have appeared as magicians
and soothsayers, as heroes and hemitheandric rulers, as prophets and
priests: but, their true nature never becoming apparent, they have soon
been transformed into legendary images. In our present day, they
are regarded as either wholly mythical, or as ordinary men and women
superstitiously endowed by their admirers with super-human attributes.

We shall hold firmly to the hypothesis that, since man was endowed
with creativity, there have always been people who could see into the
Hyparchic Future and discern the destiny of mankind; and that these
people have intervened in history to avert dangers and to make possible

* Cf. Chapter 47 where the notion of 'rebel angels' was re-stated in terms of our
conceptual scheme.

** These notions are explained in Chapters 41 and 42.

advances towards the goal of human evolution. These people belong to
the Psychoteleios order of society, but they must have a link with the
generality of mankind by way of the Psychokinetic groups.

We shall use the term Hidden Directors to designate those who are
aware of the purposes pursued in the evolution of mankind and know
the action that has to be taken.* We assume that there is some kind of
organized structure by which the Hidden Guides cooperate and transmit
their influence. We shall call this structure the Hidden Directorate.

The task of the Hidden Directorate is to help mankind to develop
both individually and socially to the point at which man can assume
responsibility for his destiny and the fulfilment of his mission on the
earth. The Hidden Directorate is presumed to have developed out of the
groups of Guides and Initiates who took charge of the diffusion from the
Four Centres. These in their turn were the descendants of those who
established these centres at the beginning of the Great Cycle that started
12,500 years ago and of which about one half has now been completed.

If we postulate the reality of the Great Work, we must allow that it is
directed by Intelligences whose time-scale is measured in thousands if
not tens of thousands of years. We are to assume, then, that the Hidden
Directorate can see ahead and make plans that will take a long time to
mature; but we are not to assume that they are supernatural beings able
to interfere with the operation of natural laws. This does not mean that
they have no powers beyond those of ordinary people. Modern man
knows very little about energies finer than the material tetrad, ** and
therefore powers that are natural and subject to natural laws can well
appear to him as supernatural or perhaps magical. The Hidden Director-
ate, possessing knowledge of a high order, would be a centre for the
transformation and concentration of energies. That such centres have
existed and do exist is verifiable by anyone who is willing to undergo
the training necessary to recognize the working of 'higher energies'.

We, therefore, regard the reality of Hidden Guides and of the Hidden

* The choice of a non-committal descriptive title is dictated by the need to avoid
any preconceived notions as to the structure of the agency that is responsible for
directing the Great Work. Terms like 'Inner Circle of Humanity' (P. D. Ouspensky,
In Search of the Miraculous, p. 310), 'Mystery Centres' (Rudolf Steiner), 'The Hierarchy'
(Alice Bailey), 'The Masters' (H. P. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine), have been misunder-
Ntood and misused. This is almost tragic as nearly all serious students of History and
Of the Origin of Religions have come to regard such notions with suspicion and usually
have come to disregard them entirely as the equivalent of space fiction. This makes
it more hazardous than it should be, to put forward an interpretation of history that
postulates the work of Hidden Guides.

** I.e. The four energies associated with the existence and transformations of non-
living entities: heat, directed, cohesive and plastic states of hyle.

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MIND AND LOVE

Directorate as more than a conjecture. The reality of the Great Work
is another matter. It is not perceived as such by any external marks,
but must be inferred from the character of observed events. There is
nothing surprising in this. We do not perceive the working of another
man's mind, but we infer its presence from two lines of evidence: one
is analogy with our own experience of mental processes and the other is
comparison of his behaviour with our own. If we could see no evidence
of a hidden intelligence working in history, we could dismiss the hypo-
thesis of Hidden Direction as superfluous. But if we see evidences of
foresight, purpose and coordinated action, analogous to similar processes
in ourselves, and if we find that this action could not originate with, and
is not directed by, the visible leaders of mankind, then it is reasonable
to draw the conclusion that there are Great Minds at work behind the
scene of human history.

These considerations acquire an ever greater significance as we
approach our own time. It is by no means easy to recognize the working
of Demiurgic Intelligence in contemporary history. The humanistic
revolt against providential interpretations of history has been so success-
ful that even religious people have come to accept the view that belief
in Providence is no longer permissible in the light—the blinding light! —
of scientific discovery. There is a deeper reason why belief in Hidden
Direction now seems implausible and out of date. This comes from the
very character of the Epoch recently ended. We call it the Megalan-
thropic Epoch because it has been a period dominated by the sense of
human greatness.* The idea that mankind is still in need of direction
and guidance by a Higher Intelligence seems to be an affront to the
grandeur of human nature attested by man's achievements in gaining
mastery of the earth. These achievements are, at least in part, attribut-
able to the liberation of man from superstitious fears of nature and
nature powers, personified as gods and demons.

According to the concept of history that we have developed in this
book, the Demiurgic Intelligences are concerned in human affairs only
to the extent that is necessary to ensure progress towards eventual
assumption by humanity of complete responsibility for the destiny of
all life on the earth. The great progress made during the Hemitheandric
Epoch towards the externalization of the Psychokinetic Group made it
possible to transfer to Specialists known to the generality of mankind,
activities previously undertaken by the Hidden Groups. These included

* We can distinguish the Meganthropic or Great Man notion that dominated the
Hemitheandric Epoch from Megalanthropy or belief in the greatness of mankind as a

327

technical and economic undertakings which have led to the scientific
society of our time. The consequent withdrawal of the hidden groups
meant a considerable change; but not their dissolution. We indicate
this by adopting the modified terminology of Hidden Directors and the
Hidden Directorate. We are now to study the moment of transition to
the Megalanthropic Epoch which occurred about 600 B.C.

17.48.2. The Megalanthropic Master Idea

The time was one of great confusion and uncertainty about human
destiny. The grand sweep of events with which the Hemitheandric
Epoch brought about a sense of total interaction in human life, by the
intervention of the Hero or Demigod, had drawn humanity into a
complex social structure. The four cultures had not only met, but merged,
so that there was an immense variety of beliefs and practices. At the
end of the Hemitheandric Epoch, intercourse between peoples was easier
than it had ever been. The Assyrians, for all their faults, had opened
trade routes by land and sea that brought China and India, Bactria and
Arabia, Europe and Africa into economic contact, as is proved by the
diffusion of industries and products.

Economic and technical progress were in contrast with political and
social degeneration. There was not one political history in the Far East,
in India, Central and South-west Asia, in Egypt and the Mediterranean,
or in Europe, but many unrelated cycles. Traces have also been left
of this time of disintegration in South and Central America. Some cycles
were of quite short duration, as in the Far East where China was passing
through a time of disintegration. The common pattern of human
existence was the thirst for conquest of the degenerated Hemitheandroi
—now demigods only in name—and the sufferings of the common
people. We meet the note of disillusionment as we pass from the
Hebrew Chronicles inspired by the sense of the Jewish mission, to
Homer and Hesiod, or from the Zoroastrian themes of the Avesta to
the Mahabharata.

Such were the consequences of confronting mankind with the doctrine
of the Superman. Was the Epoch to be accounted a failure, because
heroes failed to be heroes? Not at all. The human mind was not ready
to grasp the very difficult notion of a Supernatural Reality that is
Individual and yet not a self. The Hemitheandric doctrine was a step
towards religion. It prepared men to approach ideas that, even today,
twenty-five centuries later, are too subtle for the logical mind.

We have, at this point, to distinguish between two major influences
that entered human experience after the Hemitheandric Epoch had

328 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

ended its cycle. One was the idea of human greatness or Megalan-
thropy and the other was that of Divine Love manifesting through the
Cosmic Individuality. The first was the Master Idea of the New Epoch
and the second can best be understood as the counterpart of the events
that occurred some twenty-five thousand years ago and involved
humanity in the taint of egoism.

The coincidence of two very different actions was no doubt a part of
the Great Plan and was foreseen many thousands of years earlier by
those who could read the hyparchic future. It complicates our task of
interpretation because of the different time-scales involved. It is very
obvious in mid-twentieth century that man has responded more rapidly
and more successfully to the Megalanthropic Master Idea than to the
revelation of Divine Love. We may be inclined—as so many at the
present time are—to account for this by accepting the reality of human
greatness and denying the reality of Divine Love. The events of the
past two thousand years point grimly towards such a conclusion. But
if we pause to reflect that a fundamental change in the condition of the
human soul-stuff is likely to require many hundreds of generations of
men, we shall not be surprised to find that the progress of Mind
appears to have outstripped the development of Soul.

The Doctrine of Human Greatness—Megalanthropy—is by no
means incompatible with belief in a Great Work to be served. It can
be interpreted in two opposing ways. One can be called the existential
view for it looks at man only in terms of what he actually is. The other
can be called the essential view of Human Destiny, for it refers to
man's higher nature and his potential for transformation. The first
way emphasizes the importance of the Mind and the second that of
the Soul. Since mind and soul merge in the complete man and become
the instrument and vehicle of the Individuality there is a third way of
looking at human greatness which is to see man as the bearer of an
Individual Will. The first interpretation leads to Humanism, the
second to Religion and the third to Synergism or the doctrine that
man is destined to cooperate in the Cosmic Plan. Humanism sets human
significance in the Domain of Fact. Religion looks towards the Domain
of Value. Synergism is equivalent to asserting that man's significance
lies in his ability to work and to serve the cosmic purpose in the Domain
of Harmony. Yet again, we could say that humanism is interested in
time, religion in eternity and synergism in hyparxis: though in each
case this would be an over-simplification. Evidently, for a complete
understanding, humanism, religion and synergism should be one
indivisible structure,

MIND AND LOVE 329

Historically, both humanism and religion made their appearance at
the beginning of the Megalanthropic Epoch. These two trends have
developed side by side for two thousand five hundred years; sometimes
independently and even in opposition, sometimes in such close agree-
ment that the distinction has been lost to view. Synergism too was
openly proclaimed in regions as far apart as Persia and Mexico,* but
its implications were beyond the understanding of men accustomed to
suppose that only kings could cooperate with the gods.

17.48.3. The Birth of Religion

In its social aspect, religion is a revolt against Hemitheandry. By the
seventh century B.C., men had grown sick of their dependence upon
Divine Rulers and Priests claiming sole access to the Supernatural
World. The great religions of the world appeared and developed—in
nearly every case—in a proletariat avid for the assurance of its own
significance that religion alone could offer.

By the sixth century, social and cultural conditions in nearly every
part of the oikoumene had grown favourable to a new dispensation. The
profound unrest that had overtaken the world in the preceding centur-
ies, gave place to a new kind of activity. This was particularly observable
in South-West Asia, the central region of the new tradition. Even the
Assyrian kings turned to the arts of peace. We owe to Ashur-bani-pal
the preservation of priceless records that are still our chief link with the
early centuries of the Hemitheandric Epoch. We can detect evidences
of intervention by the Hidden Directorate in preparing men's minds for
the new dispensation that was soon to come.

When we look at the situation in terms of the change of Epoch, much
that would otherwise be incomprehensible begins to fall into place in
the total structure of events. At such moments, communication between
previously separated communities is very necessary. The Assyrians
played their part in opening new channels of commercial and cultural
exchange between East and West and then disappeared from the scene.

By the end of the seventh century the Assyrian Empire had collapsed,
and among the scattered communities from China to western Europe
during the next four hundred years, we can recognize a subtle new
alignment of national histories which halted the reckless, destructive
wars that had swept over the whole oikoumene like a plague. Human
history, on the political and social levels, was moving into quieter waters
than it had known for centuries. By the end of the third century in the
Far East, the Ch'in rulers had integrated an empire which under the
* We refer to Zoroaster and the Zapotecan culture of Oaxaca.

33°

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

MIND AND. LOVE

331

Han was to spread its influence westward to reach the outposts of Persia.
In India, kingdoms such as that of Magadha, were bringing about a
stability that would lead to the age of the Mauryas.

The core of the oikoumene was dominated for two hundred years
by the newly triumphant Persian Empire—which was genuinely theo-
cratic* The Achaemenidae had a very different attitude towards
conquered lands from that of the Assyrian rulers whom amongst
others they had displaced. We may well believe that they sought to
establish a relationship between the levels of society corresponding to
the true Hemitheandric ideal. The establishment of the new Persian
Empire and the rise of Greece and Rome were the great events of the
West: because we see for the first time rulers who made no Hemi-
theandric claim. The Great King was the protector of religion and not
its head. The same can be said of Servius Tullius (578-534 B.C.), one
of the founders of the social structure of the New Epoch.

The transition from the Heroic to the Humanistic Age was made in
most parts of the world simultaneously. For the most part the signifi-
cance of the change was unnoticed. During the sixth century B.C., new
voices were heard throughout the inhabited world proclaiming the
significance and even the sanctity of the human individual. The an-
nouncement took many external forms; but the inner content was un-
mistakably one and the same. We can understand what happened only in
the context of the Great Work. The time had come to open the path of
Individualization to all who could take it. But the human soul was
tainted and could not achieve true Individualization unless this obstacle
was removed. In the past, this had been done for selected men and
women who came into direct contact with the Hidden Directorate. This
is called the Way of Initiation and this way was the only one open to
men of the Hemitheandric Epoch. The new way was to be freely open to
all, and therefore it would have to be revealed. The 'new voices' of the
Epoch were the voices of Revelation. But this alone would not accom-
plish the intended purpose, for knowledge alone will not remove egoism.
Therefore, Revelation had to be supplemented by Redemption. For
this, again, human understanding had to be prepared, and to this task
were allotted the five centuries before the Coming of Christ. Without
preparation, there could have been no response to the intervention of the

* Cf. The inscription of Darius (521-486 B.C.). 'This kingship that I hold, from
Scythia, which is beyond Soghdiana, to Kush, from India to Sardia, was bestowed on
me by Ahura Mazda, the greatest of the Gods.' The Persian Empire was genuinely
theocratic only under Cyrus the Great. After Darius, it rapidly degenerated, until
Cambyseus attempted to restore the Hemitheandric image.

Cosmic Individuality in human history; for no less an Event was already
foreseen from the time that the human soul-stuff was first tainted with
the ineradicable taint of egoism, the root of which is pride.

The first public utterance of the new theme occurred almost simul-
taneously in many parts of the world. But there is no doubt that it was
foreseen and prepared thousands of years earlier when the four cultures
were created. Each of the four cultures made its own necessary and
distinctive contribution to the Revelation. A new idea of God had to
enter human understanding and it was a conception so profound that
the half-matured mind of man could not grasp it in its entirety.*

The Idea of God that begins to emerge from the combination of
the four cultures is that of a Cosmic Action proceeding from an
Ineffable Source represented figuratively as the Sun which the eye of
man cannot look straight into without going blind. The action takes
place within the Creation represented by the Great Mother, without
whom nothing can be born. The two-fold Instruments of the action are
the Word and the Spirit. The Word is represented by the Saviour or
Dying God of the Hyperborean culture and the Spirit by the Great
Spirit of the Far Eastern culture.

Only by the combination of these four terms in the Unity of the
Tetrad do we reach the Cosmic Action which is the Idea of God. The
Great Work is a reflection or projection of this Cosmic Action in the
sub-totality that we call the History of Mankind.

We shall suppose, then, that the Hidden Directorate, aware of what
was to come, brought about a world-wide operation that we may call the
'Opening Chord' of the Revelation. This was accomplished through the
simultaneous appearance of Prophets and Messengers who announced
various combinations of the four basic Notions. We shall give a brief
summary under each head.

17.48.3.1. THE GREAT MOTHER

The Great Mother cult was associated with the mysteries in Greece,
Syria and Egypt; but its chief centre was still in Asia Minor where it
came to be associated with the Phrygian Cybele, and underwent a

* We should remind ourselves here of the progression of the systems. Man has not
progressed beyond the dyad in his power of thought and expression. The triad and
tetrad seem to be comprehensible, but our grasp of them is never wholly concrete.
The Reconciling Cosmic Impulse in the triad seems easy to understand, but Gurdjieff
was perfectly right in saying that man is still 'Third-force blind'! The Tetrad as a
cosmic reality eludes us, although we may very usefully project our notion of the tetrad
into situations and by doing so understand them better. This does not mean that we
understand the tetrad as it really is.

332 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

profound transformation about 600 B.C. The mystical formula of Union
with the Great Mother, repeated in human marriage, was then put into
Greek as the tetralogon or four-word symbol
'I foreswore the bad and found the better.' The Great Mother culture
did not make its active contribution to the Revelation until much later.
We may include Pythagoras (560-480 B.C.) among those affiliated to the
Great Mother culture, although he was less influenced by it than the
Ionian philosophers of his time.

17.48.3.2. THE GREAT SPIRIT

Two great prophets of China, Lao Tzu and Confucius represent two
extreme forms of the Great Spirit Culture. Lao Tzu (ca. 604-510 B.C.)
taught the pure doctrine of the Spirit Tao as the source and end of all.
Confucius (551-479 B.C.) emphasized the social responsibility of those
who possess the Spirit Jen or goodness. According to a Taoist legend
the two are said to have met in 517 B.C., when the Old Master, then aged
86, gazed upon the young teacher aged 35 and burst into inextinguish-
able laughter.

In India, the mutual impact of the Great Spirit and Hyperborean
Cultures was given form by a number of remarkable teachers. The best
known is Gautama Buddha (560-480 B.C.), but the earliest was certainly
Kapila the founder of the Sankhya school, the first exponent of the
triad.* Mahavira Jain and Makkali Gosala were both reformers whose
reactions against the orthodox Hyperborean priesthood were influenced
by Great Spirit notions.

All these Prophets and Reformers had, in common, the proclamation
of the Open Way. All men could follow Tao or Jen, or enter the Noble
Eight-fold path that leads to Buddhahood.

17.48.3.3. THE CREATOR GOD

The Egyptian Hemitheandric Sun-God had been taken over by
Horus and played little part in the new dispensation. But the Semitic
belief in the One Supreme Lord is wonderfully expressed in passages
of the Prophets before the Babylonian Captivity. Thus, Isaiah (45.6
and 7): 'I am Jahweh and there is none else. I form the light and I
create darkness. I make peace and I create evil. I am Jahweh that doeth
all these things.' But the same Isaiah (40) could proclaim the new mes-
sage of hope to the human person: 'Ho, everyone that thirsteth come ye
to the waters, and he that hath no money come ye buy and eat' The
* Cf. Vol. II, Chapter 27, pp. 87-9.

MIND AND LOVE

333

Creator God was no longer personified in the Sun-King, but was now
the Supreme Being, the Father of all men.

17.48.3.4. THE SAVIOUR GOD

We come last to the earliest and, in many ways, the greatest of the
Messengers of the sixth century B.C. This was Zoroaster, or Zarathushtra,
whose very existence was uncertain until recently; but who now, largely
thanks to the researches of Professor Zaehner, is established as an
historical figure who probably lived from 628 to 551 B.C.

It seems that a distinctive addition was made to the tradition by
Zoroaster himself in the doctrine of Vohu Manah* or the Good Mind.
This is the first statement of the Logos or Word-God belief that associ-
ates the Saviour with the Wisdom by which God overcomes the evil
spirit Angra Mainyu. Later, this developed into the doctrine of the
Saoshyant or Saviour who was to appear at 'the end of time' and com-
plete the work of deliverance. Thus, from the start, Zoroaster gave to
the world the first expression of the Salvation Creed, that is the belief
that man has failed God by sinning and is in need of redemption. The
theme of the Vedic hymns is made into a definite theology for the first
time with the perennial struggle between Ahura Mazda the good God
and Ahriman the Adversary who seeks to mar His Creation. In the
Zoroastrian teaching, man is heeded in the struggle which cannot be
won without his help. This notion, so entirely at variance with all
Creator-God and Great Spirit beliefs, was evidently the direct precursor
of the Christian doctrine.

At a time roughly contemporary with Zarathushtra, a new religion was
founded in Mexico by the Zapotec Prophet. So far as this creed has
been reconstructed, it attaches primary importance to cycles of 260
years each of which ends with the world in peril of destruction. The
Zapotec religion resembles that of Zoroaster in the insistence upon the
obligation under which man is placed to help the God in the struggle
with the powers of evil.

As with all the other Prophets, Zoroaster proclaimed the right of all
men to participate in the Great Work by which salvation is secured.
Nevertheless, we must emphasize the eschatological character of Zoro-
astrian belief. It is not here and now, nor simply at some future time,
but 'beyond time' that all will be fulfilled. It is hard to resist the con-
clusion that Zoroaster and those who understood his teaching had

• Cf. R. C. Zaehner The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism, London, 1961,
pp. 40-9, and for the Saviour doctrine, pp. 58-9 and 317-8.

334

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

grasped what we mean by the 'Hyparchic Future' but could find no
language to express their intuitions.*

17.48.4. The Drama of Revelation

Such, very briefly, was the astonishing wave of new ideas that spread
over the world within one short century and changed the course of
human history. Until that time, the ordinary men of the world had no
rights. Justice was a gift freely conferred, but also freely withheld, by
the semi-divine beings who stood between him and the Supernatural
Power: whether Sun-God, King or Priest, whether Chieftain or Shaman.
With the new dispensation, justice became a right, and this right was
never wholly disregarded, even by the worst tyrants of the Megalan-
thropic Epoch. There was also a deep but subtle change in the sense of
personal destiny. Men had longed for immortality before, but they did
not expect to find it except under the protection of the Hero or Priest-
King— and he looked for it by way of an action that he could not per-
form himself. Now, all the prophets, in more or less clear language, re-
peated the last message of Gautama Buddha: 'Work out your own
salvation with diligence.'

Who and what kind of men were these who appeared from nowhere
to transform and renew the world? We have called them 'Prophets',
without special reference to our eleventh social category. However, there
is no doubt that some were not only Prophets, but even Messengers in
the sense of being men of the Universal Individuality who were the
bearers of a Message sent out of the Hyparchic Future to create a new
Force in the world. But it would be invidious, or require a very detailed
examination, to attempt any assessment of the rank of these Messengers
and Prophets. The most significant feature of the entire event—apart
from its suddenness, contemporaneity and universality—was the unan-
imity of the central message: the value of the human person. The
doctrine of the universal perfectibility of man was new and it was by
no means grasped in its full significance. This is the Master Idea of the
Megalanthropic Epoch in its original and pure form. From the working
out of this idea the modern world has come. It is the foundation of our
religions, our societies and politics: even for those who repudiate religion
and indeed the very existence of the soul, it still remains as the central
dogma of evolutionary progress.

Was the unanimity fortuitous or planned? Tradition tells us that more
than one of these Messengers met, but it also usually records disagree-

* Cf. Zaehner, loc. cit., p. 28, 'the Zurvanites raised the principle of Infinite Time
above the two principles thereby imposing some kind of unity.'

MIND AND LOVE

335

ment and the triumph of one over the other. We have here one of the
enigmas of the Great Work. The unity and universality of the Work
was affirmed by all—though in very different terms—and yet each
expression of its nature and operation claimed exclusive validity. We
are bound to ask ourselves if such narrowness and prejudice are com-
patible with our concept of a truly great Being—especially one whom we
regard as a Messenger whose Will is united with that of the Universal
Individuality. Here we must take account of the special character of the
human mind. This wonderful instrument—of all created things that
we can study intimately, the most extraordinary, both in its powers and
in its potentialities—is nevertheless a limited instrument that works by
selecting a very small part of the total presentation in order to form its
'present moment'. Not even the most powerful mind can be aware of
enough of the world process to see things as they really are. Above and
beyond the mind are the energies of Creativity and Love, and these
energies penetrate where mind cannot follow. The great Prophets and
Messengers entered the Supernal Realm, not with their minds, but
with their higher faculties. They themselves assure us that the 'mind
cannot know and the tongue cannot utter' the mysteries of the world
beyond. The mind is held within its limitations and for the purpose of
action this is not merely unavoidable but a positive advantage. The
tragedy of Hamlet is to see too much and so to lose the power to act.
The Prophets frequently trembled on the verge of this paralysing vision:
but their very greatness consisted in the ability to reject all that did not
directly concern their own Message. This rejection was bound to
include rejection— on the mental level—of any Message formulated
in terms different from their own.

If once this is grasped; the engima proves to be the key to a deeper
understanding. The communicating of the Message is a vital part of
the Great Work, but it is not the whole of it. One may, without irrever-
ence, compare the great Sages, Prophets, Messengers of the sixth
century B.C. to actors whose task it is to present a dramatic episode to the
public. Each must know his own part and express, with all his skill and
force, the character he represents: in doing so he may say and do
things that are in conflict with the other actors. The very nature of
Drama is the experience of hazard and hazard arises out of separation.
And yet the unity of the drama must be preserved and this is the work
of those who remain behind the scene: the director, the scene shifters,
the prompter and even the wardrobe-keepers. These correspond to what
we have called the Hidden Directors and their cooperation to the Hidden
Directorate.

D.U. IV—13

336 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

The extraordinary Drama was no less than the Birth of Religion.

We may refer to the 'religion of ancient man' or to the 'religions of
Egypt under the great Pharaohs' but these were not religions in the
true sense of the word: that is the Bond between Man and God.
In the Hemitheandric Epoch, there was a link, but not a bond* The
message of the New Epoch was the assurance that all men in this visible
world are joined by a bond to the invisible Reality and that this bond
is personal.

In order to make the message effectual, much had to be done behind
the scenes. We can look at the best-known example of this hidden work
in the history of the Israelites. Before the captivity in Babylon, the
people of Israel were more or less loyal to Jahweh their God and their
own Prophets had taught them to believe in the Unique and Supreme
status of Jahweh as the Lord of all the worlds. They had no idea of sin
except as disobedience to the commandments of Jahweh, and conse-
quently they had no conception of the doctrine of salvation. Jahweh
could arbitrarily forgive or punish and, if he chose to forgive, man was
washed 'whiter than snow'.** We have cited Isaiah as a Prophet of the
Creator God who bestows religion upon His people in his mercy and
so 'binds' all the chosen people to himself. But religion so conceived
remains Hemitheandric. Jahweh is still pictured as the Sun of Righteous-
ness. The Jews of the Captivity were brought into contact with the
Hyperborean culture and the teaching of Zoroaster. The Prophets of
the Captivity and especially Ezekiel are aware of the need for a redemp-
tive act: they have learned that man has a part to play in the Divine
Plan and that he is not merely the slave of Jahweh from whom nothing
is expected but obedience. It may even be argued that the Jews drained
the spiritual content of the Zoroastrian and hence of the Hyperborean
culture, which then started to decline and never recovered its independ-
ent significance.***

And so, we find, written after the captivity, the amazing story of
Adam and Eve, and the promise of Redemption. From that time on, the
Israelites were expecting the Redeemer and by their expectation made
His coming possible. The Redeemer was to be born of a Virgin. This

• No one is sure of the origin of the word religion but it certainly is connected with
the idea of a tie or a bond that restores a contact between man and God that has been
broken and must be renewed.

** Psalm 51; 7.

*** Cf. Zaehner, loc. cit., p. 171, 'One is tempted to say that all that was vital in
Zoroaster's message passed into Christianity through the Jewish exiles, whereas all
that was less essential was codified and pigeon-holed by the Sassanian theologians, so
that it died of sheer inanition.'

MIND AND LOVE 337

was already hinted in the prophetical writings, but its full significance
belonged to the Great Mother cult and did not enter the Christian
tradition through the Jews at all, but by way of the Phrygians in
Antioch.

In writing this, we anticipate events by nearly half a millennium:
but this is not anachronistic. The whole point is that the Future and its
needs were foreseen and prepared for. This was the work of the Hidden
Directorate. To demonstrate that this is how it all came about is im-
possible; but if we can succeed in holding before our attention the
extraordinary pattern of events that prepared the world for the Coming
of Christ, we cannot escape the conviction that a High Intelligence
must have been at work.

This conviction runs counter to the 'causal' interpretation of history
which would explain it all as a set of coincidences. It also conflicts with
the 'providential' interpretation that postulates a supernatural interven-
tion outside the laws of nature. At first, no one likes the idea of a Hidden
Directorate: it is an affront to our sense of human dignity that requires
that if anything important is going on we should know about it. Or if
not 'we', at least 'they', that is those 'in the know': the leaders of
thought, the high priests of religion and all the great ones of the world.

And yet, if one is prepared to look intently and without prejudice at
the marvellous coordination of the events that brought the Israelites
into contact with each of the four great cultures in turn, one can scarcely
avoid the conclusion that they were indeed a chosen people; chosen,
perhaps, because they were strong-minded enough to stand up to the
tremendous strains and stresses involved in being the crucible in which
the four cultures were fused. Unfortunately for the crucible, it could
not get itself melted and incorporated in the ingot when it was cast.

We have dwelt at length upon the history of the Jews. But those of
the Greeks, the Persians, the Phrygians, the Indians and the Chinese
were not less extraordinary. For instance, the concatenation of circum-
stances that made Buddhism a world religion through the conversion
of two powerful monarchs—the grandson of Chandragupta, King
Asoka (270 B.C.) and the Greek King, Menander of Sagala (180 B.C.)—
and enabled its missionaries to convey some very much needed concepts
of man and his nature to all parts of Asia just a century before the
time of Christ, is a dramatic story not less amazing than that of the
Jews.

The long arm of coincidence will not reach far enough to explain all
this and the hypothesis of a Hidden Directorate begins to appear the
more plausible the more we look at events from the total perspective

338 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

implied in the very notion of the Epoch. Recognition of structure always
depends upon seeing things on the right scale. We should not recognize
the structure of the human body from a single bone or an isolated organ.
We should not recognize the structure of a symphony from the part of
a single instrument or from a single bar of the whole score. So both
duration and size must be right if we are to see the structure of history.
The birth of religion was neither an isolated note nor a moment of
time. It was a long-sustained symphonic utterance and its structure
cannot be grasped except in its eternal and hyparchic entirety.

The essential character of religion is a personal relationship between
the individual human soul and a Divine Person. This type of relation-
ship was unknown to mankind in earlier periods. It is a valid and neces-
sary stage in the evolution of man towards Individuality, but it is only
to be understood in the perspective of the Hyparchic Future where
human destiny is prepared. Personality is a mode of existence that must
be transcended, but not destroyed. It is the state of relatedness that
emerges from the dyad and leads into activity. When mankind began to
be aware of relatedness as universal, religion was born. This awareness
is personal and is associated with the sense of the significance of the
human person that characterized the Megalanthropic Epoch. Man in
this state must worship a Personal God. Such worship is, however,
liable to turn into the self-worship of the Human Person. We shall
have later to return to the Megalanthropic Master Idea and see how it
appears when viewed from the side of man's existential nature. Mean-
while we must continue our quest for an understanding of the problem
of evil and sin and its resolution in history. This leads us to the moment
rightly called 'The Time of Christ'.

17.48.5. The Time of Christ

We have now to interpret in historical terms the suggestion made at
the end of Volume II, that the Cosmic Individuality is the Logos or
Word of God, the Son of the Father incarnated as Jesus Christ.* We
have seen three ways in which the Master Word of the Megalanthropic
Epoch can be understood: humanist, religious and synergic. We shall
endeavour to show that the irreconcilable conflict between humanist

* Vol. II, p. 339, 'It is hard to resist the conviction that the Incarnation of God in
Jesus Christ is a manifestation, on the infinitesimal scale of earthly life, of the total
descent of the Cosmic Individuality into the Existing Universe.' Again ibid., 'Upon
every planet in every age, the Cosmic Individuality enters life, and so makes it possible
for the Self-hood that pervades existence to carry the burden that is beyond its own
strength to bear.'

MIND AND LOVE

339

and religious views is due to the rigidity of both; and ceases when
we place the events in their historical setting as a phase in the evolu-
tion of humanity necessitated by the sinful taint of the Soul-Stuff Pool.

According to the hypothesis of universal hazard put forward in Vol. II,
the Cosmic Individuality alone is able to redeem Existence from the
consequences of sin. This redemptive act, which is a sacrifice of Being
by involvement in Existence, is not restricted to any time or place. We
must, however, suppose that there have been and are what may be called
local concentrations of sinfulness. Otherwise, all Existence would
be equally and indifferently committed to revolt against the Cosmic
Purpose and there would be no reason for it to be redeemed. Our own
experience shows that sinfulness is unequally distributed and it must
be so throughout the cosmos. The fall of man amounted, then, to an
undue concentration of sinfulness: not its catastrophic penetration into
a previously sinless state. Once the concentration began, it was bound to
increase, for every sinful act makes more sin inevitable.

These considerations make it plain to see that a redemptive act by a
non-sinful agent within humanity was necessary and that this act had
to be directed towards the specific situation of mankind and not to Ex-
istence in general. We thus reach the conclusion that our interpretation
is consistent with the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation and Redemp-
tive sacrifice of the Son of God as an event unique in human history.
It is free from the geocentric limitation of the mediaeval doctrine as
expressed in, say, St. Ambrose's famous treatise Cur Dens Homo, which
is no longer meaningful in the light of the cosmological revolution of
the present century. We can no longer seriously entertain the notion that
this earth is of unique significance for the Creator of the Universe. The
vast scale of cosmic events obliges us to treat human history as micro-
cosmic: that is as the reproduction upon a very small scale of the
Drama of All Existence.

The problem of space-scale is different from that of time-scale. The
Christian Doctrine of the unique significance of the Incarnation cannot
be sustained unless it can be shown to be reasonable in the light of
three thousand million years of earthly history before Christ and two
thousand years after. The difficulty is insuperable if we insist upon a
religious interpretation—understanding the word 'religion' in the sense
of the last section as the personal relationship between man and God of
which mankind first became aware only a few centuries before the time
Of Christ. The difficulty grows greater with every advance in our know-
ledge of the Natural Order and is the principal reason why modern
Christians have felt obliged to disclaim any literal interpretation of the

340

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MIND AND LOVE

341

doctrine of the Incarnation and of the Redemptive Death and Resurrec-
tion and Ascent into Heaven of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. To replace
this central dogma of the Christian faith, they rely upon the inward
sanctifying Grace of Christ working in the individual soul and the beauty
of the Christian ethic. Such interpretations—and many similar schemes
have been proposed by sincere Christians—avoid the historical enigma;
but, in doing so, they lose the essential content of the Christian faith.

If Christ is present only in the spirit and has never been otherwise
present, we part company with the faith of the Apostles who were, above
all, certain that the Son of God came in the flesh* and dwelt among men
as a man. Nor can we reconcile an exclusively spiritual Christianity with
belief in the evidence of the dual nature of Christ.** It is not going too far
to say that unless we can satisfy ourselves that Jesus is both Man and
God, we must either abandon reason or not call ourselves Christians.
This is a dilemma that the mediaeval philosophers resolved in their own
way for their own time and which we must resolve in our own way for
our own time. The scholastic solution required too lofty a view of man
and too low a view of the Universe to be tenable in the light of twentieth-
century psychology and cosmology. It is an historical dilemma and it
must be resolved in accordance with our understanding of history—
that is, in terms of the synergic doctrine that man was destined to
cooperate in his own creation. We shall return to this theme several
times before our task is accomplished.

When we turn to the humanistic interpretation of Christian origins,
all seems plain sailing. Nothing is to be believed that cannot be verified
by sense perception and preferably by repeatable experiments; and
nothing is to be accepted that does not conform to human reason and the
world picture of modern science. The Christian doctrine fails to pass
either test and is to be relegated to a mere episode in man's progress
from nature-worship to nature-mastery. This progress was until recently
believed to be the inevitable consequence of natural selection: but now it
appears that man may himself have eliminated, by his increasing power
of survival, the very instrument of his own evolution. Humanism finds
itself confronted with its own dilemma of cause and purpose. Denying
the reality of a Creative Purpose, or any aim in existence other than that
entertained by man himself, there can be no question of 'sin'. Man may

* John, 1st Epistle 4.3. 'And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is
come in the flesh is not of God: and this is the spirit of antichrist . . .'

** Ibid., 1.5.9 and 10. 'For this is the witness of God which He hath testified of
His Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that
believeth not God, hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that
God gave of His Son.'

make mistakes from ignorance, immaturity or psychological disturbance,
but he cannot sin—for there is no Higher Law by which sin can be
recognized. And yet humanists invariably speak as if sin were a reality,
treating their own prejudices as the Higher Law that must be obeyed.
The truth is that the sinfulness of man is such an unmistakable element
in all human experience that, even when it is rejected as illusory, it
remains as an unnoticed attitude that colours all our behaviour. This
inescapableness of sin makes the Christian doctrine of atonement a
necessity and, as we have seen, the need for salvation was realized long
before the start of the Megalanthropic Epoch.

The humanistic dilemma has recently been aggravated by the realiza-
tion that progress is not inevitable. The Marxist doctrine of dialectical
materialism is no longer seriously regarded as a guarantee of the limitless
perfectibility of human society. The Darwinian doctrine of natural
selection even in its modern forms is seen to break down when man is
able to prevent the elimination of the unfit. The standstill in human
evolution is regarded by humanistic scientists as unavoidable unless man
himself can assume responsibility for his own transformation. But
there is no evidence that it is possible for man to do this nor even any
clear idea of what it means. Mankind is to make 'progress' towards a
goal which man himself does not know, yet which, according to the
humanistic view, cannot be known to anyone but man.

The full weight of the fallacy of atheistic humanism is by no means
appreciated; but there is, at the present time, a widespread uneasy
feeling that the blind are leading the blind. This feeling has led many
to ask themselves if it may not be wise to turn back to Christianity and
see what the Doctrine of Divine Providence has to offer. This tendency
would certainly be much stronger if it could be shown that the anachron-
isms of Christian teaching are unnecessary to the essential Gospel. But
lor this, the message must not be watered down and its supernatural
character denied. This is why we must carefully re-examine the situa-
tion in the light of our theory of Consciously Guided Evolution. We shall
have not only to study the origins of Christianity but also the far more
delicate problem of Christology: that is the meaning to be given to the
statement that the only-begotten Son of God was incarnate as Jesus
Christ and died for the salvation of all mankind. We must not forget
that this question touches not only the meaning of the 'Will of God', but
even more intimately the way we are to understand the 'Person' of
Jesus.

Not many people have the gift of religious faith that accepts without
doubting the reality of man's relationship to the Unseen God. Nor are

342 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

there many who can entirely convince themselves that there is no
Wisdom greater than that of man. Those who are neither truly religious
nor convinced humanists may ask themselves questions that are not
far from the synergic hypothesis that man exists to work for a High
Purpose and that he can do so only in cooperation with a Wisdom and a
Love infinitely greater than his own. We are concerned in this work
with such questions and at this particular stage of our enquiry with their
bearing upon the origin of Christianity.

There are two errors that we must try to avoid. We shall call them
false hypostatization and naive anthropomorphism. The vice of
false hypostatization is the bane of much scientific reasoning. While
denying a personal God, a scientist will refer to 'Nature' or 'Time' or
'Life' as if they were all-powerful, omniscient Beings with most of
the attributes—except Love—that a theist would ascribe to God.
Auguste Comte and others before and after him have tried to create a
humanist religion without God; but they invariably hypostatize some
'Principle' that makes the world work and they do so without recog-
nizing or perhaps without acknowledging that the 'Principle' is being
treated as a non-human Intelligence. Such terms as the Vital Urge,
Creative Evolution or the Entelechy have gone out of fashion; but the
use of other words like 'orthogenesis', or the apparently harmless
'trends' and 'tendencies', are disguised forms of the same fallacy. If
any principle of directedness is to be admitted, then we imply purpose
and a purpose implies a Person to entertain it. If we deny directedness
and purpose as realities, then we must resign ourselves to the alternative
of total anarchy and refuse to admit that there is any intelligence any-
where and this rejection must apply to man himself. Thus it turns out
that hypostatization cannot be avoided if we wish to make sense of the
world: but that the false hypostatization, which asserts that a principle is
impersonal and then treats it as a person, has been the cause of a wholly
unnecessary alienation of science from religion.

The corresponding theological vice is the naive anthropomorphism
which consists in describing the nature and actions of Deity in human
terms while at the same time ascribing to God attributes such as infinity,
omniscience and omnipotence which cannot possibly be associated with
man. For Islamic theologians, whose source is the Qur'an with its
passionate rejection of anthropomorphism and its insistence upon the
otherness of Allah, the problem should not arise. Yet so strong is the
tendency to identify the notion of person with that of human self-hood,
that we constantly meet with literal acceptance of the passages of the
Qur'an that attribute face, eyes, hands, the seat upon a throne and

MIND AND LOVE 343

human mental processes to Allah. Even those theologians like Al Ghazali
who deny that God has a body, still compare the spiritual nature of God
with the spiritual soul of man and retain for God all the attributes of
a Being.

We have enlarged upon the difficulties of avoiding anthropomorphism
in Islam, as a starting point for our enquiry, because it becomes far
harder in Christian theology on account of the doctrine of the Incarna-
tion with which we are immediately concerned. The incarnation of
God in the human person of Jesus is significant precisely, and only, if
it is not interpreted in anthropomorphic terms. This seems to conflict
with passages like John 14 where Jesus assures his disciples that seeing
Him, they also see the Father and knowing Him they know the Father.
These passages, however, make no sense if we take 'Father' to refer to
a Being: but they are quite clear if we understand the Father as Will,
e.g., 'I speak not of Myself: but the Father, that dwelleth in Me, he
doeth the works'. And even more cogently: 'If a man love me, he will
hear my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto
him and make our abode with him.' This promise can be understood as
a transformation of the Will—the union of the Personal Individuality
with the Supreme Will—but not as human deification by fusion of
Being.

We have not space for a full discussion of the Christology of God as
Will, but will simply state the doctrine as it follows from our investiga-
tions in Volume II. Every man has a Personal Individuality and every
man born on earth has a Body-Mind complex. The two are incompatible
in nature and can be united only if mind is transformed into soul and
Self-hood into Individuality. The need for transformation comes partly
from the atavistic taint of sin; but even if man were sinless, he would
still be subject to the limitation of existence and perfect Union of Will
and Being would be impossible. If, however, the Will is not personal but
that of the Cosmic Individuality the situation is totally different. The
Incarnation of the Cosmic Individuality is possible only in an already
perfected body-mind and therefore transformation is unnecessary. The
very incompatibility of God-head and Man-hood precludes any process
of change. Therefore any doctrine that suggests a development or growth
in Jesus misses the essential point.*

* This doctrine is common in theosophical and similar writings. A special form of
the doctrine is to treat the Incarnation as having taken place at the Baptism of Jesus
and to identify his Divine Nature with the Holy Spirit. All these notions have some
element of value but they miss the essential point that the Cosmic Individuality could
not Incarnate by stages. The Cosmic Individuality corresponds to our intuition that
there must be a Supreme and yet Individual Will beyond all possible existence. There
D.U. iv—13*

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MIND AND LOVE

345

The thesis that God Incarnates as Pure Will is open to the objection
that the Will of God must be present everywhere and in everything.
The Supreme Affirmative Will is beyond all determination and such
terms as 'present' or 'absent' have no kind of meaning as applied to it.
The same is true for all the Cosmic Impulses and is equivalent to the
proposition that World III is outside history. It is not only outside
history; but free from every other limitation of existence.

This suggests a key to the theological interpretation of the Cosmic
Individuality. To enter existence the Supreme Will must individualize.
This corresponds to the Christian dogma that the Son was 'begotten
before all worlds'. The Son is the Cosmic Individuality and does indeed
enter all Existence to redeem it; but does not in general do so historic-
ally. The historical Incarnation is necessitated only by the special
circumstances of man's sinfulness. The distinction between the three
conditions of the Cosmic Individuality: firstly, the Unbegotten Cosmic
Impulse, secondly, the Begotten Son of God, and thirdly, the Incarnated
Christ, is totally necessary for our understanding of the historical event
we are about to study.

The situation that confronts us with the awakening of man to the
value of the human person was the inevitable consequence of man's
original sin. Man could not escape from temptation because the rebel
Demiurgic Will had become the slave of its own revolt and had—and
still has—no power to do otherwise than will the downfall of mankind.
Secondly, the human mind-stuff, now become soul-stuff and therefore
impregnated with Self-hood, was tainted—though not equally—with
sin. This condition is a state of being and can be represented as a tetrad.
The activity could not change its own nature. In other words, there was
no way for man to be freed from sin except by ceasing to exist. This
explains why the doctrine of Liberation preached by the Buddhist
missionaries of the first century B.C. appealed to a world burdened with
the dawning realization that man's weakness lay within himself and
not in the power of Nature outside him. The doctrine that all existence
is suffering was echoed in Stoic philosophy of the same period and even
communicated itself to the writers of the prophetic Wisdom literature
of the Hebrews.

The time was ripe for an Intervention that would not have been
possible at any earlier moment. If we accept the theory of cycles, we

cannot be a period of time when such a will is partly present and partly absent for
this would imply division of the supremely indivisible. Therefore, if we are to accept
the Incarnation at all, it must coincide with the moment of conception in the womb of
the Blessed Virgin Mary.

note that 12-13,000 years had passed since the last major action that
had inaugurated the Four Cultures. These had now met and their
mutual action had led to the expectation of a new Dispensation. We
may suppose that the Hidden Directorate was well aware of the times
and seasons and also knew that the Event that was being prepared was
beyond the power of human or even Demiurgic Intelligence to under-
stand. Not even the highest concentration of Creative Energy could
restore to humanity the essence nature that had been forfeited.

The Event was beyond understanding, chiefly because it belongs to
the Realm of Impossibility that lies outside Existence itself. To unmake
what had been made and to redeem mankind, an act of Will was needed
that would not destroy Existence or even the smallest part of it.* Within
the empty places of Existence a new power was to work and this was to
be the Unitive Energy (E 2) or the Power of Love concentrated within a
living man. The Unitive Energy is not concentrated by the Demiurgic
Power and did not enter the human soul-stuff together with creativity.
It has been said that Love entered the soul-stuff of humanity with the
Incarnation. This is a very profound truth and when it is better under-
stood we can grasp the character of the Event. It is not to say that there
was no love before the time of Christ: the Incarnation being hyparchic,
its effect would be felt in all history. Nevertheless, it is very noticeable
that the significance of love did not penetrate into the human mind-
stuff until the time of Christ. This can be noticed in non-Christian
traditions such as Buddhism. All Buddhist texts earlier than the first
century a.d. emphasize the ideas of causality and liberation, but not of
compassion and redemption.** The same is true of the Hebrew Scriptures
which, with one notable exception, never ascribe love to God, but do
require it of man.*** Nevertheless, the prophets foresee the coming
Redemption and in this they differ from their Buddhist and Hindu
contemporaries.

The concentration of the Energy of Love is not the same as the

* Thus Jesus (Matt. 5. 17), 'I am not come to destroy but to fulfill.'
** Late pre-Christian texts such as the Nine Sanskrit Dharmas never refer to Love
or even compassion. The Saddharma-pundarika is a good illustration. Cf. Chapter 14,
describing the Bodhisattvas of the future: it refers only to docility, obedience and libera-
lion. There is no sign that they were moved by love of humanity. In Mahayana texts
of post-Christian date the compassion of the Buddhas is strongly emphasized. Christian
commentators are probably wrong in ascribing this to external imitation. The reality
is deeper and far more significant.

} The exception is, of course, Hosea, the 'prophet of love'. But the love of Jahweh
for Israel is by no means the universal love of God for all His Creation: 'I will love
them freely for mine' (14: 4).

346 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

Incarnation, nor could it be effectual without the Redemptive Sacrifice.*
We should, therefore, distinguish between the preparatory activity
and the Incarnation. The first was the work of the Hidden Director-
ate and the second an Act of Will whereby the Cosmic Individuality
in an unique manner entered Existence in time and place.

The preparatory work can be seen in the historical traces and it was
totally necessary. Without preparation, it would not be possible to bring
enormous energies into play without disturbing the natural order. A
very remarkable feature of the Origin of Christianity is that it is placed
firmly within an historical context by those who recorded it in the
Gospels. The insistence upon the Event being the fulfilment of prophecy
is not, as usually thought, in the hope of overcoming Jewish scruples,**
but to reassure those who were aware that the Event could not be
authentic, unless it had been foreseen and prepared long in advance.***

We have abundant evidence of preparation: though never complete
in any one place. The Hebrew scriptures point to the Messiah and even
to the Virgin birth, but less clearly to the death and resurrection of the
Chosen One. The God who dies to save mankind and rises again in
glory is a common theme of the mysteries in the centuries before Christ.
The Perfected Man rejected and done to death was prefigured in
Socrates and others. We have seen how these themes can be traced back
to the origins of the Four Cultures; but it was not until the second and
first centuries that they began to create a climate of thought that would
make possible the acceptance of the incredible doctrine of the Incarna-
tion and the foundation of Christianity.

The complex pattern of ideas and actions can scarcely have emerged
fortuitously as a result of unconnected lines of causal actualization; but
bears rather clear signs that High Intelligences were at work behind the
scenes.

We should distinguish these fields of action that also determine three
phases of the Event. The first is that which we have just been consider-
ing. This was the creation in the minds of people in S.W. Asia, N.E.
Africa and S.E. Europe of a pre-disposition to accept the Christian
faith. This was a complex action, for it had to combine the very ancient
tradition of the Saviour God, which we have traced back to the Hyper-

* Cf. Hosea 14, where the love of God can return to Israel only after the chosen
people have been humbled and repented.

** This is evident in Romans 15: 8-12, where St. Paul is at pains to convince the
Gentiles that the prophecies concerning Christ included them also.

*** It was: propter veritatem Dei ad confirmandum promissiones patrum — 'because the
Truthfulness of God requires that the promise made to the first men must needs be
fulfilled.'

MIND AND LOVE 347

borean Culture, with the new notions of the value of the human person.
It was also necessary to change, in a very fundamental way, men's
attitude to time. The expectation of a better future was almost wholly
absent from men's minds in the first millennium B.C.; with the one ex-
ception of the people of Israel. The promised Messiah was to inaugurate
a new world. This expectation was the most important exoteric notion
connected with the Event and it was no doubt for this reason that it
was implanted in the people among whom and of whose race Christ
was to be born. They alone of the contemporary cultures were able to
see beyond their present moment to the significance of the future.

On the other hand, the notion that the Messiah was to be God Him-
self was unthinkable. Nothing in the Jewish scriptures had prepared
their minds for such a revolutionary doctrine and when Christ came
they could accept Him as Prophet or Messiah, but not as the Son of God.

For the Greeks, the Incarnation presented no special problem. Nor
was the Dying God unfamiliar in Syria, Egypt, Greece or Rome. The
fundamental doctrine of Redemption by the Saviour God was already
the heritage of the Indo-Europeans.

The doctrine of the birth from a Virgin had been foreshadowed in
the Great Mother Culture and played a vital part in fixing the literal
truth of the Incarnation of God as Man in the minds of the Eastern
Christians. Similarly, the Great Spirit Culture predisposed men's minds
to accept the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit and to accepts Its role
in the Incarnation.

Thus, in a marvellous manner, all the elements of the Christian faith
were already present in the human soul-stuff, but they could not coalesce
until the Event itself was realized. Christ must come in the flesh, God
and Man, and thereby confound all who clung to one of the elements
and rejected the others.

The coalescence required the working of the Unitive Energy. The
concentration of this energy was the second or mesoteric field of action.
This work by its very nature does not leave traces in the historical
record. We have no direct evidence of its operations during the pre-
Christian Era. There is the slenderest of indications in the strange story
of Matthew 2 of the Wise Men who came from the East after the birth
of Jesus. The suggestion that the Hidden Directorate was concerned to
make a direct contact with Jesus on the physical plane has often been
put forward and it fits our general thesis that the concentration of higher
energies had to be undertaken by specially prepared people. The one
certainty is that from this time, men began to connect Love with God and
with the Divine Purpose for mankind as a whole. The unitive energy

348 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

once liberated brought about the coalescence of the diverse and seem-
ingly incompatible doctrines out of which the Christian faith was forged.

The third field of action was entered with the Annunciation and the
dialogue between Mary and Gabriel. This was the esoteric element that
runs through the Gospel story. We must pay special attention at this
point, to the eschatology of the gospels. It cannot be doubted that Jesus
preached the Gospel of the Kingdom and that He assured his followers
the Kingdom was 'at hand'. The difficulty of reconciling this teaching
with the actual course of events is well known.* It cannot be ignored
and it cannot be explained away. This should not occasion any surprise
to us who have seen that the temporal future and the hyparchic future
are distinct modes of transcending the present moment. Reading the
Gospel narrative in the light of this distinction, everything falls into
place. Jesus in all his references to the Kingdom of God is concerned
with the Hyparchic Future and not with the temporal or predetermined
future.

The distinction is important for the entire Gospel and not for the
eschatology alone. The Annunciation refers to the Hyparchic Present
that unifies the entire Event and connects it with the past and future
of the human race. The fiat mihi spoken by Mary at that moment is
rightly taken to have made possible the transformation of human nature.
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is not to be interpreted as
implying that the soul of Mary by its purity was non-human, but that
it was drawn from the hyparchic past before sin entered. Thus the
Immaculate Conception connects with the first human soul as the
Annunciation connects with the final purpose of the creation of man.

There is one act of Will that is unrestricted by the condition of
temporal succession. This act is manifested in time as complex, un-
certain and dramatic. In hyparxis, it is single and complete—the Divine
Decree that mankind should be redeemed.

When the Act is transferred into time, misunderstanding is inevitable
and the Gospel narrative emphasizes the inability of even the nearest
disciples to understand. Jesus warns His disciples that He must go into
the future and prepare a place for them. His utterance makes perfect
sense in terms of the hyparchic future and none at all in terms of the
temporal, predetermined future. His kingdom is 'not of this world' of

* Cf. Albert Schweitzer's The Quest of the Historical Jesus, 2nd Edn., 1911, and The
Mystery of the Kingdom of God, London, 1925. It is weakly treated by many Christian
theologians. Cf. Abbot Anscar Vonier in The Teaching of the Catholic Church, London,
1952, p. 1138. 'There is in all these passages ... a blending of the near future and the
mysteriously remote future which is truly unparalleled.' The author fails to explain
what this blending could possibly signify.

MIND AND LOVE 349

time and temporal actualization. Where then is it? All are bewildered,
from Pilate to Peter—from worldling to the rock on which the Church
is to be built—all are equally at sea until Pentecost, when the hyparchic
barrier is to be removed and the providential design launched in time

and space.

The Kingdom of God was not to materialize in time and space. It is
the scene of an action. Not only is the Risen Lord to prepare a place;
but the disciples have roles to play. They are to 'sit on twelve thrones
judging the tribes of Israel'. The apparent dilemma of the early parousia,
promised by God and yet unrealized, comes from confusing future time
with the Hyparchic Future. The parousia cannot be realized in the
predetermined future, which will never be ready for it; but in the
Creative Future from which it has, does and always will act upon
every Present Moment.

We could go so far as to say that the interpretation of the Christian
faith in terms of the four determining conditions seems to be the only
way in which it can be reconciled with experience. The three domains
or phases of the Event—the exoteric or functional, the mesoteric or
transformational and the esoteric or volitional correspond to the three
orders of society. They represent, therefore, a very significant stage in
human evolution when the Unitive Energy first began to link the social
orders in a relationship of mutual love. This is very strikingly illustrated
in the Acts of the Apostles. When the Christian faith spread, it reached
all strata of society, but especially the lowest and the highest. The
Unitive Energy was manifested over a period of three centuries in the
incredible feats of the Christian saints and martyrs.

We can touch only briefly upon the Life and Passion of Jesus. The
Incarnation was accompanied by an unprecedented concentration of
Unitive Energy. This makes it impossible to apply ordinary rules of
energy transformation to the Event. The miracles of Jesus as recorded
in the Gospels are all such as would be possible without violating the
laws of existence. The parables of the Kingdom all make sense in terms
of the Hyparchic Present and Future. The Last Supper can be seen as
the concentration of Love and its transmission to the disciples to enable
them to participate in the Resurrection.

By the Crucifixion Christ disappears from the temporal present
moment and re-enters the Hyparchic State. The descent into Hell,
though of doubtful scriptural authority, was accepted by the early
Church as can be seen from the Didaskalia Apostolorum which declares
that Christ descendit in infernos in order to give the good news to
Abraham, Isaac and the prophets and so ensure their resurrection. This

350 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

doctrine, which makes little sense in terms of any view that places Hell
in the present moment, fits very well with that of the Hyparchic Past
that can be changed. We should even regard it as necessary that the
Redemptive Act should include an intervention in the past as well as in
the present and future.

The New Testament books and the patristic writings leave us in no
doubt that in the exoteric domain, that is visible history, the Resurrec-
tion of Jesus was the decisive factor in establishing the faith. All agree
in insisting upon the bodily appearance of Jesus to the women and to
the disciples, but not to the people of Jerusalem at large. We must see
if the accounts can be reconciled with our interpretation. Since this is
a crucial matter, we must examine it carefully.

The accounts in the four gospels agree upon several points.

1. The women saw Him first but did not recognize Him.

2. The disciples—e.g., on the road to Emmaus—did not recognize Him
until He showed by a gesture who He was.

3. The presence of the material body of Jesus impressed the disciples
above all else.

4. None saw Him but those who loved Him.

5. He ascended into heaven and was seen no more.

Acceptance of the main elements of the narrative as historical truth
has always been regarded as necessary for a believing Christian. Since
it seems to contradict the laws of physics and biology; its literal truth is
denied by non-believers and also by many who claim to remain Christians.

It is not hard to see how the literal interpretation can be retained and
even strengthened. The Resurrection takes place in the Hyparchic
Present shared by Jesus and those united with him in Love. The Hypar-
chic Present varies in extent and duration according to the degree of
integration of the Beings present. Since that of Jesus was incomparably
greater than those of the women and the disciples, his comings and
goings would be incomprehensible to them. They could Perceive Him
to the extent that He chose that they should.* The Presence was fully
substantial, the body was a physical body, and it was in that place and
at that time. Nevertheless, only those able to perceive the hyparchic
depth could participate. The final transition into the Hyparchic Future
would seem like a movement in space.**

The interpretation here given is significant only if we agree to accept
the Gospel narratives as factual accounts of events reported by those who

• The gospels tell us that the power to be seen or not seen was with him during his
ministry and particularly in the last period.

** We saw in Vol. I that action in the sixth dimension appears as rotation in space.

MIND AND LOVE 351

were actually present. Subject to this proviso, it can be said that in.
removing the objection to a literal acceptance of the Christian dogma
of the Resurrection, the concept of Hyparchic Present and Future
has shown itself to have an extraordinary integrative power.

We leave the story with the final Event at Pentecost. This is to be
understood as an influx of the Unitive Energy that transformed the
disciples into men of Love, Authority and Power. The Christian doc-
trine tells us that the Holy Spirit is the manifestation of God as Love.
We have, then, once again a consistent interpretation of what appears
to be a mystery or a myth.

The final point concerns the Redemption of Mankind. It was left to
Witnesses and Initiates such as St. Paul and St. John to proclaim
the deeper significance of the Mission of Jesus. The first reaction of the
disciples was to act as we are shown in the Acts of the Apostles. Only
when their action had brought the new force of Christian faith into
contact with the Syrian and Grecian traditions were all the elements
integrated into the supreme doctrine of the Incarnation. The ancient
hope of salvation that had taken so many forms over the preceding Epochs
was at length to be broadened and deepened to include the souls of all man-
kind. This must refer to the Soul-Stuff Pool which is the common desti-
nation of all selves not integrated with their own Personal Individuality.

We must now go forward passing rapidly through the three centuries
up to the adoption of Christianity as the State religion of the Roman
Empire in a.d. 323.

17.48.6. The Missing Elements

It has been said that Christianity teaches us that we are saved, and
by what means we are saved and it calls upon us to live the life of
salvation; but it does not teach us how to do it. We are taught that
salvation is by faith and that the works of faith are not ordinary works,
but we are not shown how to perform them. Again, and more bitterly,
it is said that Christianity is the religion of Love: but it has not taught
men how to love.

Almost from the first, the Christian Church has looked for help
outside itself. It looked to Judaism for its past, to Rome for its institu-
tions, to Greece for its ethic, to the Arabs for its metaphysics and to the
Persians for its spiritual techniques. It never discovered an adequate
anthropology and its teachings about man and his nature have been
inadequate and misleading.* Its ethic is based upon a false psychology

* For example, no one can be sure if Christianity holds that man is a two-natured
being compounded of body and soul; or a three-natured being body, soul and spirit.

352 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

according to which man is at all times responsible for his actions. And
yet it also holds that man can do no good thing of himself. It has never
decided between Augustine and Pelagius. The consequences of inade-
quate anthropology and ignorance of spiritual techniques have come
near to being disastrous for mankind.

Christian theology is the most daring and wonderful attempt man has
ever made to express to himself the Nature of God and His works; but
even this suffers from serious defects. There has been an excessive
emphasis upon the Second Person of the Trinity with the result that
the Fatherhood of God is treated lightly and with a distressing anthropo-
morphism. Most serious of all, perhaps, is the inadequacy of the theology
of the Holy Spirit. And yet it is precisely the Holy Spirit whose Mission
was and is concerned with the how of the Christian life.

How did these deficiencies creep into a religion founded by God
Himself and derived from the greatest Event in the history of man?
It seems that the connection between the Church and the Hidden
Directorate was broken at the time of Constantine the Great. The
Council of Ephesus rejected advances from those of the East Syrian
Church who were in touch with the Hidden Directors. This is not to say
that Nestorius was right and Cyril wrong—at least not the 'Nestorius'
in which the Church would have us believe. The events that occurred
at the beginning of the fifth century are seen today in a distorted
perspective and to understand them we should need to delve into the
early history of the Assyrian and Armenian Churches. It might then
appear that practical knowledge of great importance was lost to the
Church at the very moment when its political triumph made it most
necessary to strengthen its spiritual armoury.

Where was this practical knowledge? It was certainly available in
Buddhism as we can see from the profound anthropology and psy-
chology of the Pali Pitakas and the early Sanskrit texts. It was also
available in the authentic Zoroastrian tradition—though not in the
debased Mithraism of the Roman Empire. It was known in China and
Turkestan as we can see from Mencius and Chuang Tzu.

In a word, practical knowledge of the working of the Spirit was
available in those regions where the Great Spirit Culture had been
developed. The religions of the East have been, as a whole, far stronger
in their anthropology and psychology than the religions of the West.*

* An important exception is the Sufi psychology developed by the Arabs in Spain
and by the Persian schools in Baghdad. These schools are certainly Western in our
sense, and they influenced European metaphysics and natural science: strangely enough,
their psychology was ignored.

MIND AND LOVE 353

It is also possible that some link was broken at the time of the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. The mother church of Jerusalem disappeared
so suddenly and completely that the massacres alone cannot account for
it. Many Jews escaped to Alexandria and it seems that some early Chris-
tians were Zealots who elected to fight to the death in the hills. It is
more probable that they obeyed the warning of Jesus that when the
abomination of desolation was seen, the elect were to disappear from
view. It is even likely that many migrated to the East; less to escape
from the sacrilegious Roman legions, than to find the Hidden Direc-
tors they knew of in the East.

We must remember that at the time of the diaspora, the Synoptic
Gospels were already being prepared and that they were constructed to
project a definite Image of Jesus, of His Ministry and of His Teaching
that would make it possible for Christianity to establish itself in the
West. Once this was done, the profounder message of the Johannine
gospel and the Apocalypse was sent out into the world. None of this was
accidental. They are evidence that the origins of Christianity were
beyond human understanding and had to be brought by stages within
reach of those whose eyes had not been opened.

When Christ was resurrected in the flesh, only a handful of people—
the Virgin Mary, the twelve Apostles and two or three women—knew
what was really happening. They were enabled to see into the Hyparchic
Future and understand the 'mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven'. The
puzzling eschatology of the Gospels was no puzzle to them, for they
could see that they were assured of a totally different state of existence.
The Resurrection and the Ascension were direct evidence to them of the
reality of the Kingdom of God that we have assigned to the Hyparchic
Future. But this could not be proclaimed to the world for there were
no modes of thought, no language, no symbolism, by which it could be
grasped by the mind or communicated to others.

Only those who were the intimate and loving companions of Jesus
could know who He was and where He had gone. They had to 'bear
witness', but only to what they had 'seen or heard'—the resurrection
and the preaching of the Kingdom—they could not bear witness to
what transcended sight and hearing and even understanding. They had
been made aware of a Reality beyond Existence itself, and this was
unspeakable.

This confronted those who knew with a special task, which was to
create an Image of Christ and His Mission that the world could picture
and take hold of. The image was, therefore, of necessity both anthro-
pomoiphic and eschatological. The 'Second Coming' was to be the

354 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

Son of Man in Glory at a moment of future time. Those who had seen
knew that He had already come again and that the Hyparchic Future
was near at hand. Because they saw, as Stephen saw, Martyrdom was a
welcome, because an early, entry into that State. But martyrdom is an
action and it creates a new element in Existence. The confessors and
martyrs of the first seven generations not only created but gave sub-
stance to the Image that is communicated in the Gospels and other
documents of the New Testament. We can see them at work through the
Epistles of St. Paul and St. Clement.

Those who had direct experience were not concerned in knowing
how they had come to it. So they ignored the psychological questions:
'What in man can see and know the Truth?' and, 'How is it to be
awakened?' They had been awakened by direct contact and did not
sufficiently realize that future generations would have to be brought to
that state by some other means.

If we compare this with the experience of the early Buddhists, we can
see how for them the need for techniques was paramount. There was
no contact comparable to that of the early Christians and if they were
to be transformed, they had to work. All early Buddhist texts agree
on this point; insisting on it perhaps more than did the Buddha
himself.

Nevertheless, even after the Church's compromise with the Empire,
the need for personal transformation was not forgotten; but techniques
of transformation were developed, not in Rome or Byzantium but in
North Africa and Syria among those extraordinary men we call the
Desert Fathers. It is likely that the renewal came from the Hidden
Directors, but was manifested in the personal experience of men in-
spired by the Holy Spirit. An exception was St. Benedict (a.d. 480-547)
whose life and teaching show that he was directly conscious of the
Hyparchic Future and aware of the immediate Presence of God. In the
next generation, the necessity for spiritual techniques was again brought
home to the Church by one of his monks, Saint Gregory the Great
(a.d. 540-604): but the techniques available were still not psychologically
adequate.

If we turn our attention for a moment to the Far East we see Bud-
dhism lost in metaphysical speculation and the practice of techniques
that had lost their transforming power. Then came a new action
attributed to Hui Neng (a.d. 638-713). A verse attributed to the Patri-
arch Bodhidharma, the Apostle to China, sums up the new dispensa-
tion, which through the Mahayana was to give rise to Zen Buddhism
that attracts so much interest in our time.

MIND AND LOVE

355

'A special transmission outside the scriptures;

No dependence upon words and letters;

Direct pointing at the soul of man;

Seeing into one's own nature and the attainment of Buddhahood.'

Within the Sassanian Empire, a new voice had been heard. Mani, a
Persian from Babylon, came forward in a.d. 241 to announce a creed and
a way of life designed to reconcile the opposing forces of zealous
Christianity and the rigid Zoroastrianism of the Persian state. Though
the founder was soon to be executed, Manichaeism continued in Baby-
lon—to influence Rome—in Khurasan, and in Samarkand, whence it
reached into eastern Turkestan and China.

During these centuries, the world was in confusion. It seems as if the
Hidden Directorate was withdrawing its guidance to test man's capacity
for understanding and responsibility. Then, in the seventh century
came the remarkable and unforeseeable transformation brought about
by the rise of Islam. This was one of the innumerable unexpectednesses
that characterize true history. It was so unforeseeable that even after
the Event had occurred and the Prophet had returned in triumph to
Mecca (a.d. 630), the surrounding world—Christian, Mithraic, Zoro-
astrian, Buddhist and Vedic—had no inkling of the immense force
that had been released which was soon to transform the world scene.

It is sometimes said that there is no mystery in Islam. We have de-
tailed 'lives' of the prophet and we have the Qur'an preserved, reputedly
verbatim as it was first uttered. There are, however, no Islamic docu-
ments older than a century after the death of Muhammad. The Sirah
of ibn Ishaq was composed in Baghdad for the Abbasid Caliph al
Mansur, at least a hundred and twenty-five years after the death of the
Prophet—and much of it has been lost or tampered with. The commonly
cited works of ibn Hisham and Tabari were written two and three
hundred years after the events they chronicle.

All these accounts have a political bias and depict Muhammad as an
astute politician albeit a deeply religious man. The subsequent spread of
Islam became an Arab war of conquest quite opposed to the teaching of
the Qur'an. The transcendental, and indeed sublime, character of the
new world religion only became apparent when it had conquered Persia
and was taken captive by the Persian mystical genius.

How did it all happen? According to ibn Ishaq, Muhammad was born
in a.d. 570 the son of an Arab notable of Mecca, Qasim al Tihami
who died before his birth. His mother-dying in his sixth year, his uncle
Abu Talib became his guardian and eventually his protector. Muham-

356

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

MIND AND LOVE

mad was in early youth a shepherd, and later became a caravan leader
who performed his duties so scrupulously as to win for him the title of
Muhammad-al-Amin; that is, the Faithful. His first marriage at the
age of twenty-seven was with a wealthy widow, Khadidja, fifteen years
his senior, who bore him two sons and four daughters. Traditions agree
that, until the age of forty Muhammad was known as an honest trader
who frequently went alone into the hills surrounding Mecca to pray and
to meditate, and that he was influenced by the Harrifs—a group of
Arabs who are claimed to have returned to the pure monotheism of
Abraham.

His first mystical experience occurred on Mount Hira about the year
a.d. 610, five hundred and eighty years after Jesus began to preach
and almost exactly twice that length of time after the illumination of
Gautama Buddha. He was terrified by the experience, but being com-
forted and encouraged by Khadidja to believe that he had indeed
received the Divine Afflatus and the mission of Prophet, he began to
preach the simple message 'God is One and He alone is to be wor-
shipped'. After several years, he had succeeded in converting only a
handful of men, mostly slaves or intimate friends. The Meccans,
jealous for the reputation of the Kaaba as a centre of pilgrimage for all
the Hedjaz, were at first contemptuous and later openly hostile. Soon
after the revelation on Mount Hira, Muhammad began to receive trance
communications which he uttered aloud. A doubtful tradition, based on a
phrase in the Qur'an, holds that he wrapped himself in a blanket before
each revelation. The entire Qur'an was revealed in this way over a
period of some twenty years.

The later history is better known—repeated failures to win support
in Mecca; bitter persecution of his followers, some of whom fled to
Abyssinia; an abortive visit to Taif from which he barely escaped with
his life; and, finally, an invitation to go to Yathrib to mediate between
opposing factions. The Hedjira in September a.d. 622 has been taken
as dating the Islamic Era. Yathrib was renamed Medina-al-Muneverra,
the Enlightened City. After driving out or exterminating the Jews of
Medina, and creating an army of his own followers and Arab tribes
hostile to Mecca, he finally returned in triumph to his native city and
began the military operations that made him, by the time of his death
on June 8th, a.d. 632—the thirteenth day of the third month in the
eleventh year of the Hedjira—the recognized chief power in Northern
Arabia.

We may well ask how, from such a sequence of events, a new world
religion has arisen and spread more rapidly than any in human history.

357

Within a few generations after the death of Muhammad, the Shahada
or declaration of faith; 'I bear witness that none is to be obeyed but
Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His prophet',
would be heard from Spain and North Africa to India and China.

The exoteric situation is plain for all to see. Muhammad showed a
rare genius in his choice of 'Companions'. These able men were also
wholly convinced that the sole purpose of their existence was to serve
Allah by spreading the faith. Abu Bakr and Omar his successors in
authority, Khalid the military leader, Othman and Ali his sons-in-law
were men of great ability whose qualities exactly suited the roles they
were called upon to fill. They continued the tradition of social reform
so successfully that, even today, the observer who first encounters a
true Islamic society is impressed by its freedom from the conflicts of
sects, classes and races that have been such distressing features of
Christian communities.

For his followers, Muhammad is the supreme example of the Perfect
Individual whose will is wholly surrendered to the Will of God. His
religion is closer to the Creator God Tradition than to any other. He
tried to adjust himself to both Judaism and Christianity and even to the
Great Mother Culture which was dominant in Mecca.*

It seems that Islam was inspired by the need to redress the balance
between the four essential elements of religion:

* The original of Surat liii, 19—23, is believed to have approved the veneration of
at-Lat al-Uzza and Manat. In any case, Surat xvii, 75: 'Verily, they had well nigh
beguiled thee from what We revealed to thee . . . ' makes it clear that he had been
tempted to compromise over the Meccan Mother Goddesses.

358 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

which had been distorted by the almost exclusive emphasis of Christen-
dom in the seventh century upon the role of Christ and the insistence
upon the equality of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity.*

We may surmise, but certainly cannot prove, that the rise and spread
of Islam was no accident, but a necessary completion of the Era of
Revelation that had been inaugurated 1,200 years earlier by Zoroaster
and Gautama.

As we look back over this wonderful period we can see how its
significance centres upon the Energy of Love. Just as creativity had
entered thirty-five thousand years earlier to raise mind into soul, so now
the intervention of the Cosmic Individuality which brought the human
soul-stuff into direct contact with the Power of Love or the Unitive
Energy (E 2) was producing its results slowly and indeed imperceptibly.
So far from being released from Egoism, the atavistic taint found new
and more powerful expression in the doctrine that man exists to serve
himself alone.

By the end of the eighth century of the Christian Era, the Moment
of Revelation had been completed. Mankind as a whole had learned to
look beyond the limited Present Moment and to see salvation and
destiny in a wider context. With the establishment of the great centre
of Islamic culture in Baghdad, a new influence radiated into nearly all
parts of the world: Europe, North and East Africa, India, the Far East
and Central Asia were brought into trading and cultural relations with a
centre that was, in its turn, under the guidance of the Hidden Director-
ate. The remarkable family of the Barmecides, the spiritual and political
advisers of the Caliphate, were very probably the link with the centre
situated already at the crossing of the trade routes that joined Europe to
China and India to Central Asia.

The development of responsibility comes with opportunities for
exercising it. These were presented both to Christendom and to the
Hindu world by the appearance on their boundaries of the new dynamic
faith which proved to have an unusual power to assimilate and transform
the cultures into which it penetrated. So we find that before very long,
Islam began to exercise a powerful influence upon Christendom, bring-

* This has little scriptural authority. The interpretation of 'I and My Father are
One' as implying equality cannot be sustained on any ground. The Union of Will is
not the same as equality of Being. And yet 'subordinationism' was condemned as
heretical. We may agree that Muhammad was misinformed about the true beliefs of
the Christian Church and still hold that it was necessary to reaffirm the Infinite
Transcendence of the Source in which the Trinity has its Ground. In the last chapter
of this volume, we show how the notion of will can reconcile the conflicting assertions
of all religions.

MIND AND LOVE

359

ing new life to its philosophy, psychology and even its theology. The
cultural explosion that made Baghdad, Balkh and Bokhara centres of
science, art and literature was no ephemeral flower, for, as we are becom-
ing increasingly aware, European science and industry owe more than
they realize to the Arab culture. The revival of Christian spirituality
among the palamite, hesychast and other movements in the Eastern
church was due to contact with Islamic spirituality in Asia Minor.
Various explanations have been proposed for the amazing transforma-
tion of some of the most backward peoples of the inhabited world into
leadership in almost every field. Nothing comparable happened when
Rome under the Antonines was mistress of the world, nor later when
Spain, France and England successively were at the height of their
power. Each of these four was evidently dependent upon antecedent
cultures and foreign importations; but the Islamic science, art and
spirituality of Baghdad and Spain also drew very much from Jewish and
Christian sources. There was a very fruitful interaction between the four
streams of Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam that, until the
end of the first millennium, mainly showed itself in the Islamic world:
but soon afterwards spread widely throughout the oikoumene.

We have insisted upon these peculiar characteristics because it seems
here that we can detect the action of the Hidden Directors and even form
some idea of its geographical location. There must have been a centre of
diffusion not far from the place where Zoroaster had first given mankind
religion such as we know it today. This is the ancient Chorasmia which
after many centuries had regained its importance under the Samanid
rulers of Balkh and Bokhara (a.d. 874-999). This little-known centre
was certainly a meeting place of the four traditions and it is very
probable that the Hidden Centre was established near Balkh.

We have now to trace the course of events after the withdrawal of the
Higher Spiritualizing Influence.

Chapter Forty-nine
MIND AND SOUL

17.49.1. The Rise of Humanism

In this chapter, we shall trace the course of the two great Actions
initiated two thousand five hundred years ago and observe the way in
which their combined operation has produced the situation in which we
live today. The first action, whose time-scale is measured on our inter-
pretation in millennia, was the direct contact between humanity and the
Unitive Energy through the Incarnation of the Cosmic Individuality.
The second, measured in centuries, was the impact of the Master Idea
of the Megalanthropic Epoch proclaiming the unique significance of the
human person.

According to the virtual pattern of human evolution, predestined in
the Hyparchic Future, the two actions should have developed harmoni-
ously to bring man to understand and accept the task of serving the
Great Work of integrating all life on the earth towards creative Unity of
Function, Being and Will. The apparent failure of the task as we survey
our short present moment should not dishearten us if we take account of
the difference of time scales and the inevitability that the penetration of
Unitive Energy (E 2) should be a far slower process than the develop-
ment of Mind. The hazard of the situation comes from the continued
taint of sin in the Soul-Stuff Pool and the still immature stage of develop-
ment of the human mind. Mankind as a whole is manifestly unready for
the responsibility that is implied in the Megalanthropic valuation of
human greatness. Under these circumstances, we should expect to find
evidences of intervention by the Hidden Directorate to redress the
balance between fate and destiny.

Added to these sources of complication, we have the consequences of
the progress of mind which has enabled the human race to exercise its
creative power in a thousand ways not necessarily connected with true
human destiny. Among other consequences has been the rapidly grow-
ing interpenetration of cultures, and increase in scale of the events
of history, so that at the present time all mankind can be involved in
events in any part of the world.

We cannot hope to show the functional structure of so large and so

MIND AND SOUL 361

complex an event as the history of the past two thousand years; and we
shall, therefore, direct our attention mainly to the progress and activity
of Mind. This is a legitimate simplification inasmuch as mind is the
primary characteristic of Man; but we must also look deeper into the
human situation and search for the less evident and certainly more
tardy development of Soul. Indeed, the period we are about to study
can best be understood as the parallel development of mind and soul,
a development often divided and even conflicting in the visible levels
of history; but, for a more penetrating insight, converging towards
the awakening of man to the true significance of his existence on
earth.

In the last chapter, we carried the story to the end of the Age of
Revelation of the Working of Divine Love; that is, to the seventh
century of the Christian Era. We must, however, retrace our steps to
the start of the Megalanthropic Epoch in order to find the origin, and
trace the development of, the second main stream in the progress of
mind that we have referred to as Humanism.

In the sixth century B.C., the four cultures had not as yet merged so
completely as to lose their distinctive character. The Great Spirit and
the Great Mother Cultures were the remotest from the notion of a
Personal God, loving, and concerned in, the welfare of mankind and
we should expect the regions still influenced by these cultures to respond
rather to the Megalanthropic Master Idea than to the doctrine of
Redemption. We do indeed find China and the Eastern Mediterranean
the two foci of nascent humanism. Confucius in the Far East and
Solon in the West are the types of philosopher-reformer responding
wholeheartedly to the Megalanthropic message and establishing
humanistic systems in which little place was left for belief in the Love
of God.

We shall understand by 'humanism' all theories of man that exalt
the mind at the expense of the soul. Since mind is the seat of our
conscious experience, humanism tends to empiricism and confidence in
the delivery of the senses. It interprets man's social life in terms of the
opportunities it affords for extending and deepening his experience
and strengthening his power to act successfully in the material
world.

We can trace these tendencies in the rise of Greek philosophy and
political theory. From Anaxagoras (500-425 B.C.), who drew his in-
spiration from Persian sources, to Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) and from
Aristotle to Archimedes (287-212 B.C.) we see the flowering of practical
humanism. With Plato, we see the traces of the soul-tradition probably

362 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

transmitted through Pythagoras who was believed by his followers to
have been admitted to the Centre of Wisdom in Persia.*

Similarly, we can recognize the humanistic trend in China. In the
sixth century B.C. China was technically far in advance of every part of
the world except the Near East. The new Epoch gave a fresh stimulus
to the creative powers in the human mind. India under the Mauryas
(322-184 B.C.) was not behind Greece and China in philosophy, tech-
niques and social organization. It is in character with the presiding
genius of the new Epoch, that, throughout the world, men's minds were
turning from conquest to trade. Solon was a true prophet of humanism
in his policy of Seisachtheia, or the 'shaking off of burdens', that enabled
Athens to become a focus of material prosperity. The Assyrians under
Sargon and Sennacherib, the Lydians under Gyges, Alyattes and
Croesus, the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians were opening the great
trade routes by sea and by land that were also to become channels for
the diffusion of cultures.

It was not until the fourth century that humanism established itself
as an independent stream within the great current of human progress.
Its birth in the West can be identified with the Periclean age of Athens.
In thirty-four years (462-428 B.C.) the foundations were laid of a man-
made tradition that was to dominate the European mind for the rest of
the Epoch. In the same period, a humanistic tradition was being
created in China under the Chou dynasty and in India under the
Mauryas. Only in South-West Asia from Persia to Egypt was the
religious tradition maintained. We may see in this situation the prepara-
tion for the coming of Christ and the long-term action that was to
persist far beyond the Epoch.

In the regions where humanism gained the upper hand, a very great
advance was made in man's grasp of the power of the human mind.
Whereas the Egyptian, Chaldean and early Chinese cultures had seen
human creativity in terms of useful discovery, the new humanism
realized that man could speculate upon the very nature of Reality and
the destiny of man and do so without the help of the traditional wisdom, **
This discovery marks the distinction, to cite the best documented
example, between Plato and Aristotle. The exhilaration of the discovery
of creative power in the human mind was shared in many places; and,

* Greek philosophy was, as a whole, inspired by Persian wisdom. Zoroaster was the
predising genius. Cf. Review of Metaphysics, No. 71, A. H. Chroust, Aristotle and the
Philosophies of the East and R. Afnan Zoroaster's Influence on Greek Thought. We will
return to the 'Zoroastrian tradition' when dealing with modern Europe.

** Cf. Chapter 47, p. 315.

MIND AND SOUL 363

in most, it led men into the idolatry of mind-worship. When mind and
soul are confused—as they were for example by Aristotle—mind appears
to be the highest principle of man's nature and a personal relationship to
a Higher Power ceases to appeal.

The weakness of humanism lies not only in disregarding man's
continuing dependence upon an Intelligence higher than that of the
mind, but also in ignoring, and so failing to come to terms with, the
taint of sin. Humanism can acknowledge man's immaturity and yet
regard him as supremely important, by refusing to contemplate the
existence of any higher state of being. Thus it was inevitable that a
disagreement should arise between those whose minds were wholly
turned to the Megalanthropic Idea and those who were aware of the
reality of human sin.

This is not to suggest that aberration occurs only in the one direction.
Almost contemporary with humanism was the arising of gnosticism
which looks for Reality wholly outside the senses and beyond the mind.
Gnosticism fails to appreciate the significance of evolutionary progress
and the intimate connection between sensation, mind and soul. It
draws upon the traditional wisdom, but distorts it by a faulty use of the
creative power of the mind.

We shall notice similar situations arising again and again through
the Epoch. The Hidden Directorate injects ideas into the mind of the
Psychokinetic Specialists. These are then transmitted into the prevailing
mental atmosphere to prepare for a new step in human progress or to
restore the course of events to its right direction when some danger
threatens. The new ideas, by their nature and origin, exert a powerful
influence upon all who can respond. The results vary according to the
understanding—that is the disposition of will—of those who receive
them. This is why we observe exaggerated, distorted and sometimes even
contrary manifestations originating from a stimulus that, often quite
unnoticed, is acting to produce a most important positive action.

As an example, we can take the messianic expectations of the Jews
in the Centuries surrounding the time of Christ. It was most necessary
that the human mind-stuff should be prepared for the coming of the
Redeemer, for without this preparation the Event could not have
penetrated into human consciousness. The idea itself almost certainly
originated in the Babylonian captivity where it was introduced by the
adherents of the Great Work. It was misinterpreted by the Jews; but
it produced the required state of mind. Moreover, in other forms, the
idea of the Dying God who saves his people was independently intro-
duced among the Great Mother people of Asia Minor, and the Creator

364 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

God people of Egypt. Apollonius of Tyana exemplifies a wrong inter-
pretation of the idea in history, as do the various dying gods of Egypt,
Syria and Greece in the religious consciousness. Here again, the required
result was secured: the gentiles were prepared to accept the Christ that
most of the Israelites had rejected.

Such interpretations would, of course, have no meaning unless we
could postulate a source from which the seminal notions could be in-
jected into the human mind-stuff at the right time and place. Even
postulating a centre of high wisdom, we could not give a rational account
of the Great Work without the idea of the Hyparchic Future or its
equivalent in some other form of language. It is, therefore, scarcely
surprising that peculiar patterns of events exemplified in the Messianic
expectation and the Dying God myths have received so many uncon-
vincing interpretations from both believers and sceptics.

According to our understanding, we should regard the rise and
progress of humanism as an indispensable factor in the evolution of
Mind and ascribe it to the intentional action of the Hidden Directorate,
and this notwithstanding the historical fact that humanism has been in
the last few centuries the main obstacle to the recognition of man's true
place in the Great Work. Our own study of Systematics has shown us
that a specific aim can only be achieved either by accident or by the
cooperation of three independent processes.* We may regard the
humanistic stream of thought that continues throughout the Epoch as
the 'natural' process which provides the denying factor in the soul-
creation of Mankind.

17.49.2. The Stage of Confusion

We shall pass over the centuries from the time of Christ to the rise of
Islam which we have already studied in the last chapter. By a.d. 700,
the Megalanthropic Epoch had run half its course. The current of
humanism was running feebly, while that of religion had acquired a
fictitious ascendancy, the weakness of which was soon to become
apparent. The situation corresponds to that of the mid-point of the
Enneagram where only two processes are operative and there is the
maximum divergence from the original direction. Looked at in humanis-
tic, European terms, the period a.d. 600-900 deserves the name of the
Dark Ages given to it by classical historians. It also corresponds to the

* Cf. especially, the nine-term symbol of the Enneagram discussed in Chapter 37,
Section 14.37.11.

MIND AND SOUL 365

penetration of humanistic values into Islam, Hinduism and the religions
of China.*

Baghdad was the scene of one of the great cultural explosions of
history, becoming in the space of three generations the centre for the
whole world of art, science, literature as well as of commerce and
exploration of distant lands. Baghdad was also the main centre, for a
time, of the rise within Islam of Sufism, a movement with greater affinity
to Christian mysticism on the one hand and Buddhist self-perfectionism
on the other, than to the main stream of orthodox Islam.

We can detect here the beginning of a third stream of activity that
was to complete the triad whose affirming and receptive impulses were
Religion and Humanism. The third impulse, as we concluded in the
last chapter, was to come from the Great Work. It remained hidden until
the first two streams were fully established. According to this view, the
Megalanthropic Epoch had three distinct phases:
1st Phase. The Announcement of the Master idea ca. 550 B.C. This is
the stream of the progress of the human mind-stuff.
2nd Phase. The Incarnation and the Rise of Islam. The Revelation of
Divine Love a.d. 0 - a.d. 630. This, as we have seen, was an action the
outcome of which requires a Great Cycle for its manifestation. It re-
mains, therefore, as a more or less stationary factor over shorter periods
of time.

■yd Phase. The Great Work. The development in man of the capacity
for a non-egoistic responsibility. This began to manifest about a.d.
1000 and differs from the first two phases in its more specific action as
befits a manifestation of the Reconciling Impulse.

According to the structure of the Enneagram—the symbol associated
with the harmonization of diverging trends—the third action is mainly
directed towards the completion of the undertaking initiated by the first.
We have, therefore, an exceptional opportunity of testing the hypothesis
of the Hidden Directorate. We shall devote an otherwise dispropor-
tionate space to the remarkable period that connects the end of the Era
of Revelation with the start of modern times.

On the levels of visible history, the Dark Ages were marked by the
disruption of existing institutions, like the Byzantine and Persian Em-
pires, by hordes coming from desert regions and regarded by the settled
populations as barbarians and destroyers. It is probable that ancient

* The change from the fanatical Ommayad Caliphate of Damascus to the humanistic
Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad is one of the strangest transformations in history, coming
so soon, as it did, after the founding of Islam as an 'other-worldly' religion which
denied the reality of any Value except in Allah alone.

366 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

cultures in East Africa were destroyed by the Arab invaders and slave-
traders. Many visible links with the Hemitheandric Epoch were des-
troyed with the last vestiges of the Hero-King. As we look back from the
perspective of fifty generations, we can see that the destruction of well-
established societies and cultures made possible the extraordinary
achievements of the second millennium.

But this was not the whole story. There was certainly also an unseen
action that emanated from the central region of the oikoumene. We
have already referred to the probability that the main centre of the
Hidden Directorate was originally situated in the ancient kingdom of
Bactria on the banks of the River Oxus where Zoroaster established the
first religion in the sixth century B.C.* Bakdi, the fourth sojourn of the
elect according to the Vendidad, later became Balkh, which though for
most Europeans an almost unknown city destroyed long ago by Genghis
Khan, was for more than two thousand years the nerve centre of the
trade of China, India, Central and South-west Asia. After the Muslim
conquest of Persia, Balkh became a point of contact between the
principal religions of the world. It had well-established Eastern Christian,
Buddhist, Jewish and Hindu communities in addition to the 'official'
religion of Islam and the 'popular' cult of the ancient Shamans.**
Trans-oxanian commercial enterprise was the greatest economic factor
in the opening up of communications; but it may safely be concluded
that the religious and spiritual attractions of Balkh also made it a centre
of pilgrimage and therefore a particularly suitable centre from which
new ideas and techniques could be spread throughout the world. We
have the evidence of Buddhist and Muslim pilgrims to show the in-
tensity of spiritual activity in this region when the religious life in
most regions of the world was passing through periods of crisis or
stagnation.

We shall find evidence as we reach later centuries that the course of
all human history has been profoundly influenced by the traditional
wisdom associated with a Source believed to have existed from the
earliest times in Central Asia, but never exactly located. This is not to
deny the importance of Egypt as a source of wisdom. According to
tradition, Islam drew upon Egyptian influences through Dhul Nun, one
of the Followers of the Prophet. Nevertheless, it does seem that the

* Cf. Chapter 48, pp. 78-79.

** Cf. Arnold Toynbee, A Study of History, Vol. II, p. 383, for a description of the
extraordinary position occupied by Balkh in the period a.d. 700-1000 when it was
the principal centre of exchange for the caravan traffic between China, India, Turkestan,
Arabia and Europe.

MIND AND SOUL 367

practical wisdom was concentrated and preserved in the central
region.*

17.49.3. The New Influences a.d. 1000-1500

We have already referred to the appearance of a spiritual, mystical
movement known as Sufism in the Islamic world. Scholars are not
agreed as to how and where Sufism arose. According to Islamic tradition
it goes back to the companions of the Prophet either Abu Bakr or Ali
according to the Sunni or Shiah leanings of the authority concerned. It
is improbable that there was a psychokinetic society in early Islam
and we are on fairly safe ground in connecting Sufi origins with Persia
and Turkestan.

Similar difficulties surround the origins of Zen Buddhism and the
Tantric schools of North India and Tibet. Chinese authorities are
agreed that Zen did not originate in China. Its connection with Bodhi-
dharma is more traditional than historical; but all are agreed that it
arrived from the south-west. The assumption that it came from India is
contradicted by what is known of Indian religious life at the end of the
first millennium. It seems most plausible that Zen came to China by the
trade route from Balkh and that it has a common origin with Sufism and
the Tantra.

All these movements have two significant common features: first,
they offer no new dogma but accept the religious beliefs of the com-
munity to which they are addressed; and, second, they are mainly
concerned with psychological techniques for the awakening of the
consciousness of the True Self. These features are still more strongly in
evidence when the same notions, by gradual diffusion, reached the
Christian world by way of Asia Minor and led to the extraordinary
revival of monasticism based upon the psychological exercises later
known as 'hesychast', or 'palamite' after their great exponent St.
Gregory Palamas.

One little noticed feature of all these movements is their common
tendency to establish a chain of personal responsibility. The exercises
themselves are intimately personal; but they cannot be practised success-
fully, or even safely, without the guidance of a spiritual director.

The location of the Centre of Wisdom cannot be identified with our
present knowledge. Indeed, there were probably several such centres,

* Cf. Gurdjieff's remark that schools of wisdom were different in the three regions:
'In India philosophy, in Egypt theory and in what is now Turkestan and Afghanistan
practice.'

D.U. IV—14

368 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

each engaged upon a particular task, and doubly linked by peripatetic
Counsellors and by direct communication of conscious experience.
There is ample evidence that special powers were attributed to wise
men in this part of the world and these powers were described in almost
identical terms among the Lamaists of Tibet, the Muslim Sufis and the
Eastern Christians. One of the centres was certainly in Balkh, the
'mother of cities' for two thousand years and more. Situated at the
crossing of some of the chief trade routes of Asia, Balkh had been in
early days the meeting place of Great Spirit (Shamanist) and Saviour
God (Zoroastrian) cultures. Later it brought together Eastern Christians,
Jews, Lamaists, Buddhists and Muslims. Not only the religious but
also the scientific life of this region was marked by the interaction of
streams from many sources. The mobility of individuals at that time was
remarkable and there were many routes leading to the central regions.

Between a.d. 874 and 999 the Samanid dynasty ruled on both banks
of the Oxus (then simply called 'The River' en Nehir and now the
Amou Darya), and had contacts with China, India, Central Asia, Arabia
and Byzantium. Mathematicians, Astronomers and Physicians from
Trans-oxiana and Khorasan, such as Al Khwarazimi (780-c. 850), made
notable contributions to the progress of science. They became known
and translated as far away as Sicily and Toledo and even England by
men such as Adelard of Bath and Peter Alfonso. These achievements
were made possible by a combination of creative genius and access to
many sources: Greek, Syrian, Indian and Chinese as well as Arabic.
Scholars from all over Asia travelled to Balkh and Samarkand and they
were almost certainly attracted by the knowledge that the Masters of
Wisdom had their schools in this region.

Here we have some historical material to help us in the extensive
records in Persian and Turkish of the Masters of the Sufis tradition.
The term Khwaja (plural Khwajagan) or Master was first used in the
tenth century to designate men of extraordinary powers whose influence
on the social and political life of Central Asia was no less than their
contribution to science and medicine. The first man to be known by the
title of Master was Yusuf of Hamadan (born a.d. 1048 died a.d. 1140)
in the early period of the Seljuk power which was spreading from the
Himalayas to the Mediterranean.

The Masters had their chief centres in Balkh and Bokhara until the
Mongol invasion of Trans-oxiana in 1220. The Masters played a great
part in preserving the structure of Asiatic society during this devastating
period. Some remained at the centre and others emigrated to India,
Turkey and probably also Tibet and China. Hadji Bektash and Jellalud-

MIND AND SOUL 369

din Rumi, both of Balkh, set up their schools in Asia Minor. The great
Naqshbandi order, which has spread throughout the Muslim world
remained in Transoxania where Khwdja Bahauddin Naqshband lived
and taught. Behind these well-known names were the secret Masters
who were visited and consulted both by rulers and by the spiritual
leaders of the time. The Masters remained active until the fifteenth
century when the fall of Constantinople and the Mogul conquest of
India created a new situation and started a new phase in the history of
the Epoch. Their work was accomplished partly through the creative
power of ideas and partly through the unitive action of the energy of
Love. All descriptions of the men themselves agree upon these points.
They also established the principle of Group Activity long before the
need for this became apparent in the rest of the world. We must now
turn our attention back to Europe, remembering that the events of the
Middle Ages were powerfully influenced by what had happened in
Asia in the preceding centuries.

Historians of European culture acknowledge the influence of Eastern
sources on the revival of learning, art and science in the Middle Ages.
Formerly, the sources were identified with the Greek culture of
Byzantium. The debt that European thought owes to the Jewish tradi-
tion has also been recognized by scholars. More recently, the contribu-
tion of Islamic culture through Spain and as an indirect result of the
Crusades has been given prominence.* Although the influence of
Eastern sources is acknowledged, few historians are prepared to recog-
nize a definite tradition and moreover a tradition in the custody of men
who released and transmitted ideas and methods for the purpose of
guiding the course of events towards the aim of human responsibility.
One reason for this reluctance is that the emphasis has always been
placed upon knowing rather than doing. Knowledge could evidently be
preserved in books and transmitted by scholars. But practical doing
requires a personal action that is possible only within an organized
structure; that is, a group or society.

If we examine some of the outstanding events of the thousand years
from a.d. 600 to a.d. 1600, we can convince ourselves that more than the
transmission of knowledge was involved. The Carolingian Rennaissance
of the ninth century and the contemporary flowering of classical culture
in Saxon England, did not change men's relationships either to the
natural order or to one another. When, three hundred years later,
Roger Bacon (a.d. 1214-1292) known as the father of modern science, tried

* Cf. Sayed Idries Shah, The Sufis, London, 1964, and numerous works on Persian
and Moorish Sufism that have appeared since 1950.

37°

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

to awaken his contemporaries to the practical significance of the traditional
wisdom, his counsel fell upon ears which could listen only to the Aristo-
telian idiom and could not detect, even in that, the practical undertones.

The unrealistic attitude to learning was not confined to Europe. The
Rajputs in India looked back to their Vedic heritage much in the same
way as the Carolingians to their Greek origins. Al Biruni, a Muslim
pilgrim of the eleventh century, was deeply impressed by the flowering
of culture and the social conditions of the Rajput empire. The T'ang
dynasty in China reached the highest pinnacle of culture in the eighth
and ninth centuries. Art, literature and technology made unprecedented
progress. The T'ang capital city Ch'ang-an, was more magnificent, more
diversified in its culture even than contemporary Baghdad. Yet no
stable society emerged and after the great persecution of a.d. 843, all
had to start afresh. When the Sung dynasty restored peace and unity to
China, another period of magnificence was opened; but it was more
restricted than the T'ang and made no real progress. With the Tartar
invasions of the thirteenth century, new exchanges with the West
became possible; but there was still no advance in understanding the
creative potential of the human mind.

Men capable of gaining and exercising power did so—as always.
Men capable of creative activity found scope for achievement in art,
literature, medicine, science and even technology. Nevertheless, the
ancient sense of human impotence in the face of nature and of man's
consequent dependence upon a higher protective Power remained
almost unaffected. Even when able men, professed humanists, such as
Han Hu (a.d. 786-824) or Caesar Bardas (floruit a.d. 857-67) tried
to establish cultures free from supernatural beliefs, in communities as
far apart as Ch'ang-an and Byzantium, they only succeeded in reviving
interest in the forgotten ethos of an earlier culture.

The conclusion to be drawn from such examples—which are of course
little more than random samples—is that the evolution of the human
mind is conditioned by the historical cycle. Except at the right time and
place, a step forward cannot be taken, even by those who recognize its
value and possibility. For the deeper understanding and longer vision
that we ascribe the Hidden Directorate, there can be no haste, just
as there can be no use of force. When the time was ripe, the appropriate
moves were made and, as if by a miracle, the world was transformed.

17.49.4. The Birth of the Modern World

For a long time, it was wrongly supposed that the main factor in the
transformations that occurred between 1450 and 1550 was the revival

MIND AND SOUL

371

of Greek learning through the agency of scholars exiled from Byzantium
by the Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453. This explanation
would, at most, account for the Italian Rennaissance. It is irrelevant
for the extraordinary wave of new ideas that swept from end to end of
Asia at the same time. India in the same century saw the rise of the
Moghul Empire and an explosion of culture no less remarkable than that
of Europe. An even more striking example is the development of the
Osmanli Turkish power in Asia Minor. There are strong grounds for
believing that a centre of, wisdom was established at the time of Timur
Lenk in Bursa, the capital of the Osmanli Sultans until 1453. The
Osmanli sultans before the conquest of Constantinople had developed
a most remarkable culture which was to explode into magnificence in
the following century on the banks of the Bosphorus. No less remark-
able were the transformations in China under the Ming dynasty (a.d.
1368-1644).

In every case, the change was in the direction of increased confidence
in man's ability to solve his own problems. This confidence was linked
with the belief that a High Wisdom had been preserved in Asia and
conferred upon its fortunate possessors the secrets of life and of domi-
nion over nature. It is noteworthy that in the fifteenth century these
beliefs were widely held to be fully compatible with the Christian faith
and practice.

Whereas in Europe the High Wisdom was traced back through
Pythagoras and the Babylonian magi to Zoroaster and other still un-
identified personages such as Hermes Trismegistus and Orpheus, in
India the Source was believed to be in the North-west, and by the
Chinese Wisdom was regarded as coming from the West. All the direc-
tions point to the region bounded by the cities of Balkh, Bokhara and
Mosul within which we have situated the headquarters of the Hidden
Directorate.

In attempting to test our hypothesis, we must remember that we are
not concerned only with learning, but with action. We should apply
this criterion to the Italian Rennaissance commonly regarded as the
revival of learning followed by the explosion of culture. The Platonic
Academy founded by Cosimo dei Medici in Florence in 1450, was
Platonic only in name. The real interest was in the advancement of a
realistic culture foreign to the Platonic ideal. Now, according to Marsilio
Ficino, the impulse which launched the Medici on their extraordinary
undertakings came from Georgios Gemistos, nick-named Pletho, who
played an enigmatic but decisive role in the Reunion Council of the
Churches of 1439 in Florence. Pletho had spent some years in Bursa at

372

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

the school of Wisdom already referred to as advisory to the Osmanli
Sultans. We have here a direct link both with the Sufi emigres from
Balkh and with a centre in Bokhara. Many other instances could be given
of intimate connections between the little-known teachers of the Ren-
naissance and centres of wisdom in South-west Asia.*

As we move on to the seventeenth century we can observe the con-
sequences of the suggestion, adroitly disseminated throughout the
oikoumene, that man through his intellectual powers is stronger than
nature. One interesting manifestation was in the art of building. Few
things are more satisfying to human self-esteem than to erect great
monuments that seem able to extend the Present Moment far into
the future. Between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, rulers
throughout the world left buildings that are among the greatest of the
last three thousand years. The Imperial Mausoleum at Nanking, the
Taj-i-Mahal, the Mosque of Suleiman the Magnificent in Istanbul,
the Church of St. Peter in Rome, the Alhambra in Granada stretch
right across the inhabited world as a string of jewels unsurpassed in any
age.

As we survey the half dozen or more great centres of culture of the
sixteenth and seventeenth century we can see no reason why all of them
should not have participated in the great step forward that has created
the modern world. In all the arts: painting, literature, architecture,
science, medicine, social and political economy, the great civilizations
of the seventeenth century were equal in creativity and accomplishment.

17.49.5. The Era of European Pre-eminence

We must seek an explanation for the collapse or stagnation of other
cultures and the progress of Europe alone. Only uninformed prejudice
could suppose that the European peoples had a higher proportion of
men of genius and ability. On the whole, the condition of Europe was
less promising than that of other regions—especially in respect of
political and social coherence and stability. We have no space for the
detailed enquiry that the question requires and deserves and shall
simply state our own conclusion that Europe was selected for a special
role and provided with the instruments for fulfilling it. In other words, we
postulate a special intervention from the Hidden Directorate to inject
into the stream of European thought the seminal ideas that would lead

* Cf. A most valuable study has been made by Desiree Hirst, Hidden Riches, London,
1964, from which many of the details given in this section have been taken. Also
Sayed Idries Shah's The Sufis, which draws attention to many unsuspected connections
between Europe and South-west Asia in the period A.D. 1200-1600.

MIND AND SOUL 373

to the science, technology and socio-political organization of the modern
world. These ideas made their appearance under the guise of traditional
wisdom, usually transmitted through an elaborate symbolism which
acted as a safeguard against attempts to trace them back to their origin.

If this suggestion appears to be far-fetched we should point to the
extraordinary power exercised upon men's minds from the fourteenth
to the eighteenth century by symbolism in art, literature and science.
The position is admirably stated by Desiree Hirst*: 'practically every
aspect of European civilization was in some way affected by this tradi-
tion ; the symbolic language used by the great artists, the efforts towards
a syncretism of belief which occupied the minds of many brilliant
philosophers and theologians, the practical decisions made by politi-
cians, the art of ballet, new fashions in architecture, a whole apparatus
of imagery for the poets, the beginnings of modern astronomy, medicine,
chemistry and science in general, and finally the religious enthusiasm of
seventeenth and eighteenth century England.' This passage refers
specifically to England: but much of it would be true of Europe as a
whole. Some parts indeed are applicable to the Ottoman Empire of that
age, the India of the Moghuls and to Ming China. One example is the
search for religious syncretism of which the most famous instance is
Jallaluddin Akbar's conference of the four religions in Delhi in 1592.
This example may also serve to remind us of the most important differ-
ence between European and Asiatic history in the seventeenth century:
namely, the rise of democratic government. The Moghuls failed
because they could not produce a succession of rulers fit to exercise
absolute power. The same was true of the Ottoman Turks and the
Ming dynasty in China. It was also true of Europe; but Europe found
a way out of the dilemma in the establishment of the 'Three Estates'.

The key to the transformation was given by the Civil War in England
that set the seal upon Parliamentary Government. It is, to say the least of
it, remarkable that the course of the Civil War was strongly influenced
by men closely connected with the traditional wisdom. The best known
is, of course, John Milton, but there were others such as his friend
Samuel Hartlib, who, with two other Europeans, John Dury and the
Bohemian scholar Comenius, exercised an influence not easily ex-
plained, on the policy of Cromwell and the Parliamentary Party during
the period of its formation.**

* loc. cit., p. 168.

** Cf. H. R. Trevor-Roper, 'Three Foreigners and the Philosophy of the English
Revolution', Encounter, 1960 and Marian Kaminski, Systematics, Vol. IV, No. 2,
June 1965.

374

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

MIND AND SOUL

375

The repercussions of the Civil War in England upon Europe were
only temporarily disguised by the triumphs of the Grand Monarque.
Louis XIV was the last successful exponent of Absolute Monarchy
before the social and political changes that helped to provide the condi-
tions in Europe—rather than China, India and Turkey—for the step
forward that the mind of man was due to make. The stability, which for
five centuries, had been maintained by the power of the Christian Church
had been compromised first by the Crusades and later by the Thirty
Years War and the effects of religious schism. We shall, however, in the
next section see the all-important role played by Christian, Jewish and
Islamic spirituality in sustaining the soul-life of mankind at a time when
the triumphs of mind were drawing all attention to the Megalanthropic
Master Idea: but doing so under the distorted image of human self-
sufficiency.

Notwithstanding distortions and deviations we can see behind the
seemingly chaotic strivings of the European rulers for power and behind
the prejudices, poverty and disease of the common people, clear evi-
dence of a Pattern that was never made explicit nor understood either by
the Church or by seventeenth-century rulers.* We cannot reach positive
conclusions from the interest and attention that men like Kepler and
Newton, Boyle and Harvey devoted to the traditional sources as repre-
sented in the works of Boehme, Fludd and Glanvill. Innumerable
though the instances are of an indirect influence coming from a Hidden
Source upon the writers, artists, scientists and politicians of the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries—they could all be dismissed as super-
stitious aberrations.** This rejection of any objective value in the tradi-
tion is reinforced by the attitude of some of the great minds of the time.
Thus Kepler, though greatly impressed by Dr. Fludd's Utriusque Cosmi
ended by casting aside the doctrine of spiritual essences and angelic
powers in favour of belief in natural laws. Thus in Harmonices Mundi, he
wrote: 'It is obvious that he derives his main pleasure from unintelligible
charades about the real world whereas my purpose is, on the contrary,
to draw the obscure facts of nature into the bright light of knowledge.'***

* It should be remembered that in the Middle Ages, the Church was well aware of
the obligation to prepare a wider circle of people for responsibility. From the eleventh
to the fifteenth century, we can observe a persistent, conscious activity directed to the
education and enlightenment of Candidates for the Psychokinetic Order both inside
and outside the Church.

** As, of course, most historians of the period have done.

*** Kepler: Harmonices Mundi, Appendix to Book 5. Taken from Arthur Koestler's
The Sleepwalkers, London, 1959, p. 402-3. The thesis of this book is to show that the
founders of modern science stumbled upon the laws of nature and that the presiding
genius of the creation of the modern world was Blind Chance.

There is nothing unusual and certainly nothing wrong in the sight
of the intelligent pupil who believes that his teacher lives in the past
and is no more than a stepping stone to be left behind: but it does not
always follow that the pupil is the more farsighted.

Those who see in the rise of the modern world no more than the play
of blind chance, do not look at the human situation in its totality.* Why
did the great step forward come in Europe? During the period from the
publication of Descartes' Discours de la Methode in 1637 to the appear-
ance of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859, China was enjoying her
longest period of peace and prosperity under the Manchu Emperors,
two at least of whom K'ang Hsi (a.d. 1662-1723) and Ch'ien Lung
(a.d. 1736-1796) were really great rulers. Early in this period Chinese
learned men turned towards natural science and technology unknown
to and ignored by their contemporaries in Europe. Yen Yuan (1635-
1704) led the attack on Neo-Confucian idealism popularized by Wang
Yang-Ming. But this was only a change of emphasis for Wang was one
of the first to advocate an educational system based on science and
technology. The Manchu Emperors encouraged this trend and brought
experts from all parts of the world to enrich the cultural resources of
China. It would be absurd to suppose that China did not produce, during
the two centuries, men of genius equal to Newton, Lavoisier, Linnaeus,
Faraday or Darwin; or to suggest that the Ch'ing dynasty was less
interested in scientific technical progress than the Bourbons or the
Hanoverians.

There are obvious factors such as the dependence of Europe on
maritime trade, the influx of gold from conquest in America and Asia,
the decentralization of Government combined with the unity of culture
and religion: but none of these conclusively distinguish Europe of the
seventeenth century from other regions and periods. The decisive
difference seems to lie in the mental atmosphere created by the belief
in the principle of sufficient reason** and the related notion of Natural
Laws. We are so accustomed to these notions that we overlook their
novelty and forget that they have not—even in the twentieth century—
reached more than a small part of the human race. Moreover, these

* Cf. H. A. L. Fisher, A History of Europe, 1936, p. v. 'I can see only one emergency
following upon another as wave follows upon wave; only one great fact with respect
to which, since it is unique, there can be no generalizations; only one safe rule for the
historian: that he should recognize in the development of human destinies the play
of the contingent and the unforeseen.' This play is indeed present and it is that which
distinguishes history from science; but the very play of contingency is what makes
destiny possible.' Cf. Chapter 42, supra, and Vol. Ill, Chapter 38, Section 14.38.2.1.

** Though mainly associated with Leibniz (1696-1716) and his school, the principle
had entered European thought through many channels.
D.U. IV—14.*

376 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

ideas which have transformed the entire situation are seen—in the
second half of the twentieth century—to be far less certain and far less
universal than was supposed a hundred or two hundred years ago. As
we have seen in earlier chapters, notions of structure and system are
taking the place of the belief in laws and the principle of sufficient
reason.

17.49.6. The Age of Science

If we look for the origins of the notions of universal law and sufficient
reason, they are found to have arisen from the belief that there is a
discoverable secret the possession of which will give man control over
nature and his own destiny. Now it is a remarkable fact that this notion
had no place in the thinking of the 'ancients' from whom it was popu-
larly supposed to have been handed down. The belief in a Hidden
Wisdom, that exerted such a powerful influence on the Rennaissance
thinkers and their successors in the sixteenth century, was imperceptibly
transformed in the seventeenth into belief in the power of man to
discover the secret for himself. It is not reasonable to regard this
transformation as fortuitous and yet we cannot observe that those
concerned were aware of what was happening to them until long after it
had happened.

Now, we have seen that this phenomenon of time reversal is charac-
teristic of action emanating from the Hyparchic Future,* which in this
context means the Hidden Directorate. We reach the conclusion that the
expectation of finding the Secret of Nature was deliberately implanted
into European thought at the beginning of the seventeenth century,
together with vaguer but equally powerful ideas of man's supremacy in
the Natural Order. This explanation seems to be the only one that
accounts for all the facts including those relating to the situation in
Asia and Africa. It resolves the strange paradox of China, whose rulers
and thinkers were wholly devoted to the practical affairs of life and
where mystical notions had long ceased to have any hold, proving unable
to make the step from random search to scientific method; while Europe
infected with mystical, magical and occult notions, in the throes of
religious controversy and political experiments, developed science,
technology, democratic government and organized industrial produc-
tion.

We should see something more than the advance of Mind. The
Christian faith was still strong enough to protect Europe from falling

* Cf. Chapter 42, Section 16.42.8.

MIND AND SOUL

377

into the worst excesses of egoistic materialism notwithstanding the
temptations and the lapses of the Industrial Revolution. A far more
sinister outcome might have resulted had science and industry devel-
oped in the Far East where religion had almost ceased to have a spiritual
significance.

There is another factor that made Europe the right locus for the new
development, resulting from its limited area and resources which have
compelled Europe to develop as a maritime community. Side by side
with acceptance of the doctrine of Natural Law we find belief in
Natural Expansion and the idea of Progress. These doctrines can be
seen as the consequences of the Megalanthropic Master Idea of human
greatness. Unconnected with a sense of man's dependence upon the Love
of God, they could lead to disaster. Indeed, if they were as universally
true as the eighteenth century believed them to be, they would leave no
place for the Love of God to operate. The far-sighted Wisdom that
encouraged the European mind to look for Universal Laws that would
bring power and fulfilment, could also foresee that the same search
would eventually lead to discoveries that would destroy confidence as to
both the laws and the mental attitude that led men to seek for them.

The basic error, that was also the source of the ephemeral triumphs
of mechanistic science, was the assertion of the self-sufficiency of human
reason. This began to appear in the seventeenth century with men like
Grotius (1583-1645) and Hobbes (1588-1679): that is with jurists and
philosophers who accepted the mind in static terms inconsistent with
the awakening sense of Progress. The Aufklarung (Enlightenment) is
generally taken to represent the final break with the belief in a tradi-
tional Great Wisdom. Its leaders, such as Voltaire and Lessing, claimed
to be not so much anti-clerical, as hostile to superstition whether within
or outside of Christendom. It was not until Turgot's Les Progres
Successifs de l'Esprit Humain (1750) that expansion and progress were
clearly identified with the evolution of the human mind.* This view of
human destiny led to the theory of 'natural rights', and hence to such
doctrines as Rousseau's Contrat Social (1762): 'that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable

* The transition from faith in God to faith in human nature is discussed by A. N.
Whitehead in Science and the Modern World, Cambridge, 1927. Comparing the Middle
Ages with the eighteenth century, he says: 'The earlier period was the age of faith,
based upon reason. In the later period, they let sleeping dogs lie: it was the age of
reason based upon faith. To illustrate my meanings: St. Anselm would have been
distressed if he had failed to find a convincing argument for the existence of God, and
on this argument he based his edifice of faith, whereas Hume based his Dissertation
on the Natural History of Religion upon his faith in the order of nature' p. 71.

378 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happi-
ness. . . .'

Into such an atmosphere of thought came the Industrial Revolution
that, starting in England in the mid-eighteenth century, rapidly trans-
formed the material situation of Europe and created new inequalities
and new injustices, but only strengthened the belief in Natural Laws
and Natural Expansion. Turgot's doctrine of progress developed into
Hegel's inevitability of progress and hence to the Marxist doctrine of
historical materialism that guarantees man's ultimate conquest of the
world and the establishment of a perfect social order.

As we look back from the mid-twentieth century to the period that
ended with publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, we are astonished
to see a mental landscape completely foreign to us. So much so, that a
considerable effort is required to grasp the then prevailing modes of
thought. There was a conflict between 'authority' and 'reason'. But
authority meant the assumption that men could know what God had
revealed and reason meant that men could know how Nature works.
One attitude implied confidence in our interpretations of past events
and the other confidence in our expectations of future events.

Both attitudes were the consequences of a misplaced megalanthropy.
We have seen man endowed, perhaps thirty-five thousand years ago,
with creative powers and proclaimed the Lord of Creation. He has
marked himself out as an extraordinary being, able, by the power of his
mind, to dominate many of the natural forces he encounters on the
surface of the earth. It is scarcely surprising that, in wonderment at the
revelation of his own powers, man has in recent centuries come to
overestimate his ability to solve his own problems. He has been led
again and again into the fatal mistake of confusing what is only a poten-
tial destiny for a present reality. From this mistake, the transition to the
glorification and even the deification of human nature is only too easy.
The mistake is not absolute, but relative to man's own status in the
Scale of Being. In the material world, man has the power to create and
to legislate. Swinburne was only half wrong when he wrote:

Glory to Man in the Highest
For Man is the Master of Things.

Mind is indeed the highest mode of existence in the natural order,
but it is the lowest in the world beyond nature and it even owes its pre-
eminence to the 'borrowed' energy of Creativity.

Before we leave the theme of 'mind over matter', we must consider

MIND AND SOUL

379

the very relevant rise of modern economy.* This goes back to the six-
teenth century with the expansion of productive capacity in Europe
due to the influx of gold and silver from the Americas and the Orient.
Once the lust for gold ceased to be the prerogative of princes to become
the passion of the people, Europe, stifling all scruples of conscience, set
itself to pillage the world. The dominance of economic motives first
became obvious with the Battle of Plassey on June 23rd, 1757. The
wealth of India was to provide capital for the mills of Lancashire and the
ironworks of the Black Country and to make London the financial
centre of the world. These were consequences of conquest very different
from those of the Spaniards, Portuguese or even the French of the
seventeenth century.

The wheels of the Industrial Revolution turned with energy derived
from English coal: but its trade was made possible by British sea
power. Superficially, the whole event appears to be explainable in
causal terms alone. From century to century, we can trace the growing
influence of material and the decay of edaphic forces. We see in the
flight from the land and in the rise of money-power the working out of
easily recognizable forces. We tend, however, to overlook the problem
of accounting for the advance of science and technology which cannot
be explained in the same causal terms. Nor can we say that the pioneers
had any well-defined purposes beyond the increase of human know-
ledge and human power.

The economic element has been, since the sixteenth century, the
ground upon which the modern world has grown. The goal of human
striving has outwardly and explicitly been freedom from dependence
upon natural processes expressed in the formula: 'Freedom from want,
freedom from fear.' The unseen aim of the undertaking was to enable
the human mind to develop towards the organized cooperation that is
the condition of further progress. We can represent the activity as a
tetrad as shown on p. 38.

The upper motivational term is connected with the transition to a new
Epoch that occurred towards the middle of the nineteenth century. We
must not forget that this period witnessed not only the rise of science
and the industrial revolution, but also very great efforts towards social
reform. For the first time in history the responsibility of power was
associated with the needs of the Psychostatic Group of Society. It was
a time of maximum opposition between the belief in the greatness of
man as he is in his psychostatic or unregenerate state and the realiza-

* Cf. Chapter 43, Section 16.43.5.1 for a description of the characteristics of this
level of history.

380

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

tion by a small, obscure minority, of man's potential for trans-
formation ; and hence his dependence upon a spiritual action that he is
powerless to initiate. This minority included social reformers like
Elizabeth Fry, Wilberforce and Buxton, and religious reformers like
John Newman and James Martineau, to mention only a few English
names. There were also figures less well understood like Fabre d'Olivet
and R. W. Emerson who worked through ideas and were directly influ-
enced by the traditional wisdom. Out of this confused situation, a new
Epoch was to emerge unheralded; and, for nearly a century, unrecog-
nized.

17.49.7. The Paths of the Soul

The Great Work is not concerned with mind alone: but with the
total evolution of humanity towards unity of Function, Being and Will.
The Hidden Directorate, if it has continued to operate in recent
centuries, must have been aware of the failure of soul-progress to keep
pace with mind-progress. We should here recall the distinction made
between the Path of Objective Morality and the Path of Accelerated
Transformation.* This distinction has no doubt existed since the
Creative Energy (E 3) first entered the human mind-stuff. It was not
explicit until the coming of religion at the start of the Megalanthropic
Epoch. We can look upon Objective Morality as the primary require-
ment of the human soul-stuff. Without it, there would be no defence
against the canker of Egoism. The distinction made by St. Paul between
the law that killeth and the spirit that quickeneth, and his insistence
upon the abrogation of the law for those who are saved in Christ, is to be

* Cf. Vol. Ill, Chapter 41, Section 15 .41.3 .1 on Candidates for the Psychokinetic
Group.

MIND AND SOUL 381

understood in terms of the transformation of the human soul-stuff
by contact with the Unitive Energy or Love of God. This transformation
penetrates the entire existence of mankind; but in order to benefit by it,
we must enter into the Present Moment in which it is operative.
This is the purpose of Objective Morality, which appears to fail, owing
to human egoism, but nevertheless operates to enable the higher energies
to reach the human soul-stuff.

The custodians of the Path of Objective Morality are the 'Chosen
People' which, in its full significance means all who are united in the
bond of religion.* This has been the situation throughout the Megalan-
thropic Epoch when organized religion took over the responsibility
previously carried by the Divine Rulers and their priesthood. It was
not until the nineteenth century that the doctrine of an exclusively
humanistic Objective Morality was proposed by Auguste Comte and
his followers.

As we saw in Chapter 41, the Path of Objective Morality leads
into the Psychokinetic Group where selves are transformed into
souls; but it does not often produce souls capable of creative activity
during their middle life. In other words, it does not bring forward men
and women who can enter the sub-group of Initiates** capable of direct
communication with the Hidden Directorate. Since this communication
is an indispensable element in the guidance of human destiny, means
must always be provided to ensure that it is maintained. For this there
exist the many ways that collectively form the Path of Accelerated
Transformation.

We have traced the progress of these 'ways' up to the Middle Ages
when there was an outpouring of knowledge and method East, South
and West from the centre in or near Balkh. We saw that a sub-centre
was probably established in Bursa in the fourteenth century and there
was almost certainly another in Moorish Spain. We must now endeavour
to follow the course of 'invisible history' through the centuries, remem-
bering that its very nature is to leave no direct traces in our present
moment.

Asia Minor and Spain were the two principal centres of diffusion of
the traditional wisdom for the West. Bokhara in Turkestan was for
centuries the centre of Sufi spirituality. There were centres in North
and South India which have retained their spiritual preeminence to
the present day. The easterly diffusion produced two points of concentra-
tion in China and Japan and possibly a third at Angkor.

* Accepting the etymological meaning of religion as the link with the Source.
** Cf. Chapter41, Section 15.41.4.4.

382 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

We cannot hope to trace the operations of these various concentra-
tions of Creative Energy that were, no doubt, associated with Schools of
Wisdom, that is, with groups under the direction of men of the Psycho-
teleios Group. We shall, therefore, restrict our enquiry to South-West
Asia and Europe, since the first continued to be the source of the action
and the second its locus.

One of the rare outward manifestations of the traditional wisdom is
the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), a symbolical and
psychological compendium of many of the principles that have guided
us in our study of the Dramatic Universe. The tradition reappeared with
Georgios Gemistos to whom we have already referred as a known link
with the centre in Asia Minor. Many Italian painters of the fifteenth
century, especially Botticelli, were Specialists of the Psychokinetic
Group. Pico della Mirandola may have been a Candidate prevented by
his early death from developing into the Initiate for which he seemed
destined from childhood. Side by side with the schools of art, literature
and learning, we must recognize the Franciscan Order as a probable
link with the Great Work. St. Francis himself made two visits to Muslim
countries during the Crusade and may be regarded as one of the rare
Psychoteleios men to play a prominent part in visible history. From
Italy, there was a diffusion northward which led to the movements in
Germany and the Netherlands, some of which, like the Brethren of the
Common Life, were outside organized religion and others, such as the
great German mystical movement known as the Friends of God of the
Oberland and associated with men like Meister Eckhart, were of dubious
orthodoxy.

These movements were primarily spiritual and practical. We must
also note the cabbalistic schools of Germany and the Netherlands with
human representatives such as Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535) and
Jacob Boehme (1575-1624) and should probably also include Benedict
Spinoza(1632-1677).

The names and movements we have cited cannot convey the true
extent of these spiritual activity, nor its influence upon events. For one
person known to be associated with such activity, ten are indirectly but
decisively influenced. The influence is by no means confined to the
impact of ideas or techniques. There is an even more important action
in the concentration of energies. Since this is usually disregarded in
assessing the significance of the spiritual movements connected with
the Path of Accelerated Transformation, we must give special attention
to its place in the Great Work.

The four 'Cosmic' energies, Conscious (E 4) Creative (E 3) Unitive

MIND AND SOUL 383

(E 2) and Transcendent (E 1), are taken as being 'omnipresent' which
means that they are not confined to any particular 'present moment' but
pervade all Existence. The two 'lower' energies of Consciousness and
Creativity can be concentrated in individuals and groups, whereas the
two 'supernatural' energies which can be called Divine Love and the
Power of God are beyond the reach of any existential will. We cannot
discuss the supreme energy by which the Being of the Universe is
sustained—that is the Transcendental Energy E 1—because it is the
Instrument of the Divinely Foreordained Cosmic Purpose that we can
know only in its operations as Universal Law. The Transcendental
Energy can be regarded as the vehicle of the Logos and also in Islamic
terms as the Amr or Commanding Power of God. At this point, Islam
offers a bridge to the doctrine of the Incarnation that is central for the
Christian faith. The Unitive Energy has, according to our interpretation,
been brought into a concentrated action with the human soul-stuff
through the Incarnation and Passion of Jesus Christ—the Cosmic
Individuality.

There are, thus, three great actions possible for mankind in the sphere
of Cosmic Energies.

1. The Action of Divine Love for the perfecting of the soul and its
union with the Cosmic Individuality.

2. The Action of Creative Energy for the completion of the soul and
its union with the Universal Individuality.

3. The Action of Conscious Energy for the awakening of the soul and
its union with the Personal Individuality.

All three actions are sought after in the Path of Accelerated Trans-
formation. We can recognize them in the alchemical and theosophical
symbolism of the Renaissance tradition and this indicates that among
those who followed the tradition there must have been Psychokinetic
Schools of Accelerated Transformation.

This is not the most important conclusion. The real significance of
the traces left in art, literature, architecture and the beginnings of
modern science is that they show men understood the need to transform
and concentrate energies for the purposes of the Great Work. This
understanding is one of the principal reasons for the contemplative life
whether solitary or in monastic communities. It is expressed in the
doctrine of the 'Transfer of Merits', according to which energy concen-
trated beyond the needs of a given community becomes available for
the redemption of sinful souls.

This aspect of the Path of Accelerated Transformation was most

386 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

changes. An immense inertia binds the great majority of people, of the
psychostatic orders of society, to their prevailing conditions of existence.
Nevertheless, the influx of a new and immensely powerful influence can
be recognized as having reached its maximum intensity in the year
a.d. 1848.* In the midst of a tense and uncertain political and economic
climate a new Master Idea began to find expression in ways that the
contemporary world almost totally failed to recognize. Only those whose
attention is directed to the total human situation are likely to discern
the Message of the Age. For others, the Master Idea takes many different
forms and may be expressed in ways so different as to appear contra-
dictory. We use the term Synergy to express the notion of structural
cooperation and we shall refer to the Synergic Epoch as that which
began in the middle of the nineteenth century and will probably con-
tinue to dominate history for the next two or three thousand years.

The term structural cooperation should not require much explana-
tion. It represents a stage of integration in which the parts of a whole
surrender some of their independent existence, in order to partici-
pate in a higher gradation of being. The ideal marriage in which husband
and wife are merged in a common soul exemplifies structural coopera-
tion. The healthy organism is another example where we can see that
more than functional unity is involved. The mind of humanity con-
ditioned by a hundred generations of Megalanthropic individualism, and
still dominated by the taint of Egoism in the soul-stuff, was far from
prepared for the change. The premature explosion of the French
Revolution, with the slogan Liberty, Fraternity, Equality, demonstrated
the inability of people, however well-intentioned, to live by the principle
of Structural Cooperation. Nevertheless, once the moment arrived, the
new Master Idea began to influence the minds of men in new and
unexpected ways.

As we look back over the short period of one hundred and twenty
years since the change of Epoch, we can recognize several forms in
which the Idea has already found expression. These include the doctrine
of Universal Evolution and the Unity of Life, the theory of Relativity
and the rejection of Absolutism, the belief in Cooperation and the need
for large-scale organization and the gradual and so far scarcely per-
ceptible transition from emphasis upon man's individual greatness to
emphasis upon the greatness of man's collective destiny.

* This was the year in which a wave of revolution overcame nearly the whole of
Europe. Within a year the revolutionaries—urging the destruction of the old class
society and the implementation of democratic reforms — found themselves defeated
after an enthusiastic triumph.

MIND AND SOUL 387

The Synergic Epoch is a stage in the evolution of Mankind marked
by a new kind of cooperation between levels, requiring and made pos-
sible by, new forms of communication and organization of human
societies. The responsibility for human destiny should in future be
rather a matter of cooperation between the Orders of society than of the
intervention by the Hidden Directorate. For this to be achieved great
changes are required.

The Megalanthropic Master Idea had lent itself to absolutist doc-
trines in politics, philosophy, religion and even natural science.* The new
Master Idea tends to encourage the synthetic search for structure rather
than for analysis of situations in terms of things and laws. The belief in
Natural Law gives place to confidence in the structural unity of the
Universe, Life and Matter. This, in its turn, leads to relativistic doc-
trines and practices in all domains of human thought and action. The
Megalanthropic quest of the Absolute led to contradictions and absurd-
ities in thought and to monarchy, dictatorship and revolution in society.
It was a passing phase in the development of the human mind and it is
now giving place to a new phase made possible by the enhanced powers
of communication and concerted action that are among our legacies from
the Megalanthropic Epoch.

The synergic impulse began to make itself felt in the middle of the
nineteenth century and it did this in so many different forms that no
contemporary observer could possibly have recognized their common
relevance. The difficulty of seeing what was happening and about to
happen was enhanced by the inertia of the old ideas. Although the
Doctrine of the Absolute may be said to have died with Hegel (1770—
1831), it continued to haunt philosophy like a ghost until well into the
twentieth century. Though untenable from the moment that translations
of the Sacred Books of the East demonstrated to impartial European
students the profound significance of all the religious traditions, and
from the time that the literal truth of revealed scriptures could no longer
be sustained in face of the progress of science from Copernicus to
Darwin, absolute and exclusive claims continued to be made by nearly
all the world's religions, including the most insignificant sects and cults.
Although belief in the possibility of establishing an ideal social order
could scarcely survive the collapse of monarchic rule and the social
disasters of the Industrial Revolution, the realization that no functional
reform could yield anything but relative and transient benefits to man-
kind did not come in spite of the accumulated evidence yielded by
historical research and by current events" alike.

* Cf. Newton's, 'Absolute Time flows uniformly on.'

388 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

The Master Idea did not take root by intentional action on the
part of rulers or ruled, of scientists and philosophers, of reformers and
religious people, most of whom, on the contrary, resisted it tooth and
nail. Many were aware of the need for change, but this was so grievously
misunderstood as to produce results quite contrary to the synergic
principle. This is strikingly exemplified in the Tai P'ing Movement
in China, initiated in 1850 by a member of the Triad Brotherhood,*
Hung Hsiu-ch'uan, who claimed revelations that were to found a new
religion and a new society derived from Christianity and Taoism. The
Tai P'ing rebellion cost China 20,000,000 lives and untold suffering
until suppressed—chiefly by Gordon's 'ever-victorious army'. It would
indeed have been a discerning eye that could see in these events the
germs of a synergic structure; and yet, after a hundred years, we can
see that the intellectual climate of the Far East was already moving
away from the absolute and isolationist principles that had for so many
centuries cut the region away from the rest of the world.

Another movement—on the face of it, a disastrous failure—was
initiated in the Middle Eastern region that we have associated with the
presence of the Hidden Directorate. This movement, now known as the
Bahai Faith, was founded in 1844 by Mirza Ali Muhammad of Shiraz
who was given the title of the Bab or Portal of Paradise. The martyrdom
of the Bab in 1850, the cruel persecution of his followers and the remark-
able teachings of his successors Abdul Baha and Bahaullah concentrated
a force that has led hundreds of thousands in all parts of the world to
believe that in the Bahai Faith all the religions of the world have found
their consummation and their unity. The Bahai teachings are eminently
synergic and may be destined to contribute an important element to the
New Epoch. It cannot be said that Bahaism has made any considerable
impression on those outside the faith. The same is true for a third move-
ment which originated at the same time as T'ai P'ing and Bahaism; this
was the Indian Brahmo Samaj, founded in 1828, which gathered mo-
mentum in the 1850's and 1860's, as a syncretistic fusion of Hinduism
and Christianity. The greatest exponent of the synergic doctrine was the
outstanding Indian Saint Ramakrishna (1834-86). Ramakrishna can be
recognized as a forerunner of the New Epoch in his declaration that,
having penetrated to the heart of Hinduism, Islam and Christianity,
he found them to be one in their essence and their origin. His ecstatic

* The Triad was the Taoist Trinity of Heaven, Earth and Man, and it developed
into a fanatical combination of starving peasants and scholars seeking the salvation of
China in a dream-state part religious, part communist.

MIND AND SOUL 389

love of the Divine Mother can be interpreted as a foretaste of an age in
which the unifying role of the Mother of God will become apparent.

In Europe, a younger contemporary of Hung, the Bab and Rama-
krishna preached to an unresponsive world the doctrine of existential
relativity and the necessity of hazard. This was Soren Kierkegaard
(1813-1855) who unexpectedly has come to be known as the founder
of the existentialist philosophies and the 'dialectical theology' of Karl
Barth.* The significance of Kierkegaard lies not so much in his break
with Megalanthropic notions of art, ethics and religion; as in his insist-
ence upon human responsibility as a necessary and yet impossible
contribution to the 'Stages on Life's Way'.** He saw that man is obliged
to accept a responsibility for which he is not fitted, and this led him to
reject Hegelianism together with all easy-going interpretations of the
Christian message. The full significance of existentialism in all its forms
is not yet apparent, but it can already be seen to be far more in keeping
with twentieth-century modes of thought than with those of the 1840's.

This brings us back to another premature document: the Communist
Manifesto of 1848, which, because of its association with the revolu-
tionary movement, turned out to be a programme-statement of the
Communist League founded in London in 1847. The Manifesto was
on the visible level a reaction to the Industrial Revolution and the rejec-
tion of nearly all the attitudes of the Megalanthropic Epoch; but it was
also an expression of a new and essentially synergic mode of thought.
The responsibility of man for his own future and the necessity for
stages in the realization of the communist society, though expressed in
revolutionary terms, are ideas that correspond to the conditions of
human progress towards the New Epoch. *** In so far as the Communist
Manifesto was a declaration of the Synergic Principle, its contents have

* Cf. S. Kierkegaard, especially Either/Or (1843), The Concept of Dread (1847) and
Sickness unto Death (1849). The characteristic feature of existentialism, whether philo-
sophical (Husserl), protestant (Barth), orthodox (Berdyaev), or Semitic (Buber), that
connects it with the change of Epoch, consists in (a) the emphasis upon Existence as
the only starting-point in the search for real values and (b) the realization that reliance
upon Existence alone must lead to despair. It is a revolt against the megalanthropy of
the preceding Epoch and cannot be likened to the earlier subjectivism (e.g. of Des-
cartes).

** The demands of the Infinite being irreconcilable with the conditions of finite
existence we experience: 'the edification of the thought that before God we are always
in the wrong'. Cf. Stages on Life's Way, Appendix: 'What it Means to Seek after God,'
trs. W. Lowrie, 1940, pp. 462-3.

*** Cf. Karl Marx in The Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875) condemned the
demand for suddenness and put forward the famous definitions of the two stages of
socialism as 'to each according to his work' and of true and ultimate communism
'from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs'.

390

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

been widely accepted in the modern world. Its incidental character of
revolutionary materialism is losing ground even in communist countries.

The synergic trend leads to the recognition of organization and
structure as elements of Reality. It makes itself felt in the growing sense
of human responsibility. The provision of conditions for synergic
activity developed with amazing rapidity after the critical period of
1844-51. The latter year was that of the great Hyde Park Exhibition,
when Britain threw open to the world her new discoveries in science,
technology and industry. Progress in science and technology was acceler-
ating under the influence of bodies such as the Royal Institution
(Fd. 1801). The middle of the nineteenth century saw the founding of
the London Mechanics' Institution (1823) and the Government School
of Mines and of Science Applied to the Arts, university laboratories
such as the Cavendish (1872) and specialist societies. The new spirit
was strong in Germany—as in the great chemical centre at Gressen. In
France the new Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes was devoted entirely
to scientific research. Switzerland and Scandinavia were not far behind
in the new wave of organization and reform. Under leaders inspired with
the new synergic spirit such as Davy, Faraday, Liebig and Pasteur,
nineteenth-century science was transformed from megalanthropic isola-
tion to a synergic cooperation. The solitary men of genius of the eight-
eenth century, who conducted their experiments either in strict privacy
like Henry Cavendish (1731-1810), or with the help of unskilled assist-
ants like A. L. Lavoisier (1743—94), gave way to the activity of organized
teams or schools. The resulting transformation was the principal factor
in the immense acceleration of scientific progress since 1850.

In industry and commerce, the private manufacturer or trader was
losing ground to the limited liability company.* The Age of Adventure
reluctantly gave way to the Age of Management. With these changes,
came the increasing assumption of organized responsibility by the State
for services which in previous centuries had been provided for by
individuals or guilds.

So much for the indications that a new Master Idea was taking posses-
sion of the human mind in the spheres of practical life. We can detect
a similar movement in the development of new basic concepts of which
Evolution, Relativity and Probability are the most important. The
History of Mind shows that such powerful notions arise within two or

* The joint stock company was given legal recognition with the Limited Liability
Act of 1855 a few years after the start of the New Epoch. The Companies Act of 1862
established the synergic principle as a permanent feature of Industrial, commercial
and banking operations and was copied in all parts of the world.

MIND AND SOUL

391

three generations only at a change of Epoch. The impact of the Scientific
Revolution of the twentieth century upon the entire life of humanity
has been emphasized so often and in so many ways that we need not
elaborate it here.

The change of climate was certainly not confined to science and
technology. It was, indeed, most clearly apparent in Art. During the
preceding Epoch, there were great periods of creative art followed by
periods of decadence and renewal; but it was generally possible to regard
the cycles as alternations of romantic and classical influences with the
common search for the Absolute. In the second half of the nineteenth
century, the Master Idea of the Synergic Epoch began to influence
painting, music and literature. The Impressionist School of painters
broke away from both the conventions of romantic and classical art to
show the essential unity of the artist and his subject matter.

The outstanding characteristic of the aesthetic revolution of the
twentieth century has been the discovery that the artist, the work of art
and the spectator can be brought into such an intimate unity, that
creation and enjoyment are made one whole. The separation of the
three elements was typical of the Megalanthropic attitude that separated
man from nature and from his fellow-men. In earlier Epochs the separa-
tion had not yet occurred; but this is not the same as the synergic
reunion of the separated. In much modern art, the work of art in isolation
from the artistic experience is nothing at all. The same is true of the
best modern poetry and prose writing. Modern music is in process of
breaking away from the megalanthropic exaltation of the composer
and virtuoso to search for the shared experience in which personalities
cease to dominate the situation.

This is not to say that modern art has achieved the goal, or even that
the goal is recognized by those who seek it. The action of the Master
Idea of the Epoch is for the most part without the cooperation of the
mind that gives it external form. The work is in the Intellect where
Consciousness and Creativity coalesce to produce the Pattern or Zeitgeist
of the Moment. From this pattern, the aesthetic expression draws its
inspiration.

There have been other, less noticed, but very significant developments
outside the fields of economics, politics, science, art, philosophy and
religion. One example is the rise of Spiritualism which, in its simplest
form, is the belief that two-way communication is possible between the
living and the dead. By a remarkable coincidence—or perhaps it is
evidence of the pattern of human destiny—modern spiritualism dates
from 1848, the very year to which we assign the transition of Epoch.

392

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

The Fox family in Hydesville in up-state New York began in that year
to receive spirit communications by the strange technique of 'table
rapping'. From this unlikely beginning, the spiritualist movement has
grown, until, according to a recent unbiased estimate, it has more than
fifty million followers throughout the world. Derivatives of spiritualism
have led to the establishment of 'Psychical Research' and 'Parapsy-
chology' which are regarded by many authorities as border-line sciences
deserving of serious investigation. The significance of these develop-
ments is two-fold. In the first place, they are synergic in character.
Spiritualism claims to make a contribution not only to all religions,
but to all human experience and to be a bond that will eventually unite
all men, not only those living on the earth but also those in discarnate
states of existence. The second point to be noted is the evidence of the
emergence of new powers hitherto latent or developed in a few, rare
Specialists, of overcoming the limitations of space and time and of
communicating with the 'future'. Mediumistic and other parapsycho-
logical phenomena, if established as authentic, would compel us to
abandon notions of space, time and matter that have been held almost
without criticism for centuries. They would also strengthen our confi-
dence that the hopes of the Synergic Epoch may be fulfilled, for it must
be evident that the structural cooperation of all mankind cannot come
by the development of Function alone, and that the transformation of
Being must include the power of direct communication between minds.
We should here note the change in understanding of the Present
Moment that is implicit in the doctrine of structural cooperation. The
belief in the essential separateness of human selves or 'monads', united
only in God, dominated the Megalanthropic Mentality. With loss of
religious faith, the separateness became complete. The Epoch was thus
peculiarly sensitive to the impermanence of existence in time and space.
It is not hard to see that the fear of dissolution and the consequent
emphasis upon the destructive rather than the creative character of time
were shared by thinkers, poets and artists of the Megalanthropic Epoch.
The promise of religion, to show man the way to immortality or the
liberation from time and change, continued to exert a hold on men
until the Master Idea itself had spent its force. In the New Epoch, it is
evident that religion must offer a different hope more in keeping with
the Synergic Ideal.*

* It is noteworthy that this hope has always been included in the Christian profession
of faith in the dogma of the Communion of Saints. This dogma was largely incompre-
hensible to theologians and laymen alike so long as the human soul was regarded as a
self-contained entity capable only of external communications.

MIND AND SOUL

393

In a very remarkable manner, the Synergic Epoch has transformed our
notions of time. Geology and Cosmology have taught us to think in
millions and even thousands of millions of years. Relativity requires us
to see time no longer as an independent entity containing and controlling
events, but as an integral part of the framework of existence inseparable
from space, energy and fields of force. This could not remove man's
fear of death nor has it noticeably changed our ways of thinking about
time as independent of our experience. As the great majority of people
had lost the religious belief that Time is subject to the Power of God, the
need to find some other guarantee of permanence gave spiritualism its
peculiar hold upon the minds of so many people. Another and quite
different way of escape was offered by the Doctrine of Universal Pro-
gress. Men have been taught to think and even to believe that the im-
permanence of private existence can be compensated by the permanence
of the race; and obvious present ills, by the guarantee of future goods.
These and other searchings for a new kind of hope can be seen in
perspective as a new stirring of the human spirit and a preparation for
a further stage in the development of the human mind.

17.49.9. The Present

The assignment of the transition to the Synergic Epoch to the seven
years from 1844 to 1851 is somewhat of a convention. There was no sud-
den or spectacular 'End of the Age' confidently predicted in so many
quarters during the preceding half-century. The history of the end of
the nineteenth century was visibly the outcome of trends already
established long before. The domination of Europe over the rest of the
world was complete, economically and politically, with the sole excep-
tion of North America which was already gathering its strength to take
its turn of leadership. Culturally, the dominance was not less marked
than upon the material and social levels. The whole world was abandon-
ing its own traditions to copy or to emulate those of Europe. It was,
above all, European science that was transforming the world scene. At
this time, it first began to be suggested that science was destined to
supplant religion as the final arbiter of human destiny. The impact of
the visible achievements of Natural Science had much the force of the
miracles of the Age of Revelation. Men saw happening before them
incredible things: vast sources of power released, new means of loco-
motion and communication, a prodigious expansion of productive capac-
ity, the conquest, or at least the promise of conquest, of infectious
disease. All these things opened for the common man opportunities
previously reserved for the fewest of the few. With it all, there was an

394

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

intoxicating sense of opening the casements of infinity to gaze upon
worlds both minute and vast, the very existence of which had lain
unsuspected by our grandfathers. Small wonder that men began to
'believe in' science without any clear understanding of what their faith
amounted to, beyond the expectation of more and more marvels some at
least of which would make life more secure, more comfortable and
spread its benefits more widely.

The First World War 1914-18 was a shattering disillusionment:
especially for those who were looking forward to an indefinite period of
European domination of the inhabited world. The war was, for Europe,
an internecine suicide pact that in four years destroyed the supremacy
slowly built up through the preceding centuries. The destruction of
eight million lives, mostly in early manhood, should have brought
home to the survivors the helplessness of man before his own folly.
The immaturity of the human mind stood revealed for all to see, but
such was the inertia of the Megalanthropic idea of human greatness that
few were able to learn the lesson. The Second World War went some
way towards completing the destruction of the vestiges of the illusion
that man is ready to assume responsibility for his destiny. It certainly
gave a powerful impetus to synergic developments of which the United
Nations (founded with the signature of the charter in San Francisco on
June 26th, 1945) is the most spectacular if not the most successful.
Great organizations, little known to the general public, such as the
Universal Postal Union, the World Health Organization, the Inter-
national Telecommunications Union and the International Monetary
Fund, which have made possible extremely complex operations involv-
ing the welfare of the entire world population, have come into existence
during the twentieth century. They are the tangible evidence that human
history has entered upon the Synergic Epoch.

The changes that have taken place in this period have been so contrary
to what was expected in the nineteenth century that their significance is
still not grasped. Two world wars and a succession of economic crises,
the sudden conversion of the colonial empires into clusters of independent
states and the prodigious transformation in the speed of communication
and transport have combined to create an entirely new world picture.
The conclusion plainly to be drawn is that we must abandon the
Megalanthropic image of individual man as an end unto himself. We
see our dependence upon a complex network of highly organized
societies, that can exist only at the price of surrendering many of the
claims of personal identity.

The change of climate has been very evident in the religious life.

MIND AND SOUL

395

Throughout the nineteenth century, intolerance, sectarianism and
isolationism were the outstanding vices of nearly all religious com-
munities and institutions throughout the world. These defects came
from a false interpretation of the Master Idea of the Megalanthropic
Epoch, which encouraged an egocentric attitude towards every kind of
situation. We have seen that egoism is far deeper than the Epochal ruling
concept and goes back to the time when the human mind was endowed
with creativity and man misled into believing that his creative powers
were his own private possession. Nevertheless, Egoism certainly mani-
fests differently in different ages. In the Hemitheandric Epoch, it took
the form of disregard and even contempt for the weak, resulting in the
fiendish cruelties that so deeply shock us as we learn of them from
historical documents. This is characteristic of emotional egoism. In the
Megalanthropic Epoch, egoism became predominantly intellectual and
manifested as arrogance and the conviction of 'being in the right'.

This characteristic of Megalanthropic Egoism has begun to dissolve
and we can see in each of the great religions of the world a tendency for
sectarianism to give place to a genuine search for common under-
standing. Intolerance is less violent and certainly less vocal: new and
unforeseeable attitudes have begun to arise as between groups that even
as late as the first decade of the twentieth century regarded one another
as infidels destined for Hell or the endless cycle of hopeless Samsara.
It is by no means easy to account for the transformation, which has
occurred in spite of the opposition, both active and passive, of the
conservative elements that still hold the reins of power in every religious
community. Nor can the change be convincingly ascribed to the work of
reformers or modernizers. The religious communities of the world are
still far from seeing the ultimate extent of the transformation that has
started and cannot be reversed. Some of the most firmly established
beliefs in theology and anthropology will have to be abandoned and
when they go the beauty and the glory of True Religion will begin to
manifest as it has never done hitherto. It will become apparent that the
conflict between belief and unbelief came, not from an objective dichot-
omy of truth and falsehood, but from equally erroneous attempts to in-
terpret human experience in Megalanthropic terms.

This can be seen in the conflict between religion and science that
has marked the first century of the New Epoch. As religion has every-
where seen God in human terms, so has science seen Man in divine
terms. Religion has made God in the image of man and science has made
man in the image of God. Modern science grew out of the axiom that
there are Laws of Nature that man can understand and use for his own

396 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

purposes without limit. The axiom, even if disguised in less arrogant
terms, ascribes to man the attributes of Deity. Closely associated with it
is the attempt to avoid the unacceptable notion of a Higher Intelligence
by hypostatizing Nature. There is scarcely a philosopher of science or
exponent of scientific theories that does not at some point treat 'Nature'
as intelligent or purposeful. This is as true for professing atheists as for
deists.* It was by no means obvious that scientists were 'creating
Nature in their own image', until it was noticed that the 'Laws of
Nature' prove to be, in the main, projections of human forms of percep-
tion and thought.

The nineteenth century expectation that simple mechanistic explana-
tions of all the phenomena of nature were on the way, collapsed under
the impact of new discoveries—especially those that demonstrated the
inadequacy of the classical notions of space, time, matter, causality and
the very nature of 'explanation' itself. Among the crucial steps were:
J. J. Thompson's demonstration that electricity is atomic and that
electrons are minute compared with atoms; the Michelson-Morley
experiment leading to Einstein's relativity; Planck's quantum hypo-
thesis and the resulting development of quantum mechanics. These and
related discoveries have led to the present strange situation in physical
science, where man sees that operations are possible that do not fit into
any imaginable picture of the physical world. Physical science presents,
in 1965, a very different picture from what it offered in 1905 when
Einstein published his famous Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Korper.
The changes have been invariably, and more and more unmistakably,
away from simplicity. Not only is this an era of relativistic physics:
but it is one which has seen the end of all expectations that the universe
can be reduced to a 'cognizable system'.

What is valid in physics, is no less true of the biological sciences.
As more and more detailed evidence of the reality of evolution comes
to light; it also becomes more and more apparent that no simple mech-
anism will account for it. The truly marvellous discoveries of bio-
chemists in the field of protein chemistry and especially the mechanism
of biological synthesis and the hereditary transmission by genes and
nucleic acid derivatives have only served to demonstrate the uncanny
complexity and unexpectedness of the structures. We have discussed
the origin of life in an earlier chapter, ** and concluded that all the data

* Of whom the most notable example in recent years has been Father Teilhard de
Chardin, S.J. The theory of Evolution by random mutation and natural selection is a
survival of the Megalanthropic belief in 'Natural Laws'. We have seen in Chapter 44
that it is no longer tenable.

** Cf. Chapter 44, Section 17.44.2.

MIND AND SOUL

397

are consistent with the hypothesis of Intelligent Direction. This hypo-
thesis would have been totally repugnant to biologists of the late nine-
teenth century and it runs counter to the conservatism that still holds
us back from facing the complete revolution that must come in all
our thinking—scientific as well as religious and social—before we can
rightly call ourselves children of the New Epoch. Although scientists
are still unwilling to consider the idea of non-human intelligences of a
far higher order than our own, the idea is closer at hand than it was sixty
years ago. One cogent reason is that the entire structure of life presents
all the characteristics of intelligence and creativity that we find in the
most brilliant human inventions: but multiplied a hundred- or a thou-
sand-fold in depth, comprehensiveness and coherence. It has become
totally implausible to attribute these brilliant achievements to blind, pur-
poseless chance; but it is no solution to hypostatize 'Nature' without
admitting that this must lead to the notion of Directive Intelligence.

The revolution against Megalanthropic illusions has already gone far
ahead in the third domain to be considered: that of psychology. The
undermining of the Megalanthropic fallacy of the independent human
personality can be dated from 1819 when Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
published The World as Will and Idea. Out of the pessimistic philosophy
came the professed optimism of Hartmann's (1842-1906) Unconscious*
and then the impact of Siegmund Freud's (1856-1939) doctrine of the
'Unconscious Mind'. By the early years of the twentieth century, it
was already clear that anthropological notions that had remained almost
unchanged since they were developed by the Greek schools of philo-
sophy would have to be abandoned. The assumption that man, in a
normal state of health, is responsible for all his actions, had become an
axiom of ethical theory, the foundation of criminal law and the pre-
supposition of the political doctrines of universal suffrage and respon-
sible government. It had been adopted uncritically by Christian theo-
logians in spite of being in evident contradiction to the Pauline doctrine
of Grace.** A more spiritual interpretation of the irresponsibility of the
human psyche was given by Gurdjieff in his theory of man as 'asleep'
and 'mechanical', but nevertheless capable of 'waking up' and acquiring

* The Philosophie des Unbewussten was published in 1869 and was followed by a flood
of books in which he sought to reconcile philosophy with science by the principle of
evolutionary optimism, that being teleological in its very foundation can be regarded as
a contribution to the expression of the New Master Idea. Nevertheless, Hartmann
refused to admit the notion of non-human Intelligence. Cf. his Selbstzersetzung des
Christianismus und die Religion der Zukunft (1874).

** The doctrine belongs to the Epoch and appears not to have arisen before the
fourth century B.C. The older notion of retribution need not imply responsibility as is
obvious from Greek drama as exemplified in Oedipus.

398 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

his own T. Gurdjieff's picture of transformation as coalescence belongs
to the New Epoch.

The personal and social consequences of the realization that man is
not a simple being with an unique, undivided will and always conscious
during his waking hours, have only recently begun to make themselves
felt. Though they have scarcely penetrated into religious or philo-
sophical thinking, they have led to profound changes in the treatment
of criminals and socially maladjusted people. Their bearing upon the
condition of 'normal' human beings has resulted in a very strange situa-
tion. It is widely recognized that people can be influenced through their
unconscious processes and modern commerce and politics are largely
based upon 'brain-washing' procedures of varying thoroughness. And
yet ostensibly man continues to be regarded as a conscious being, able
to make judgments and act upon them by his own intention.

The Greek humanistic conception of every human psyche as an
unique, unalterable entity, has been responsible for theories of the
immortality and infinite worth of the soul. These theories, which have
played an important part in the development of Christian doctrine, have
no sound scriptural authority and they lead to impossible consequences.
The new anthropology developed in Volume III may be lacking in
coherence and simplicity, but it looks forward to the New Epoch in
emphasizing the necessity for structural cooperation both within man's
own nature and also in his social organizations. One of the great weak-
nesses of the anthropology of the past Epoch was its tendency to isolate
man from nature. Even that nature which is closest to human life—the
Biosphere of our planet—has been treated as something alien, to be
conquered and turned to human use. The true situation of the human
essence as expressed in the doctrine of the Reflux of the Spirit* has
been almost wholly disregarded. Indeed, even at the present time, there
are no signs of a general change of attitude. Man regards himself as
entitled to exploit, destroy and disfigure nature upon this planet and
even entertains the hope of spreading the wings of his space-ships to
go and do the same on any other planet that will offer suitable condi-
tions. It seems probable that the sense of Biospheric Responsibility must
wait for some later Epoch. It will be a great step forward in the develop-
ment of the human mind, if our race succeeds in reaching a conviction
of global unity and interdependence translated into a total human
society on the earth.

* Which is the same as Gurdjieff's 'Reciprocal Maintenance of all that Exists' com-
bined with his Iraniranumange (All and Everything, pp. 759, 774-5). Cf. Vol. II,
Chapter 35.

MIND AND SOUL 399

Synergy implies not only co-working within each level of history,
but also an interpenetration of different levels. At the present time, there
is little cooperation between groups concerned in economic, edaphic and
vegetative activity and those active in the fields of science, society and
religion.

The interpenetration of histories has been in progress since the middle
of the nineteenth century. Before that time, there were sharp divisions
between economy and agriculture, between social and political history,
between science and philosophy on the one hand and religion on the
other.* The human race had no idea of its own antiquity nor of the
sources and origins of the human body. We are now as certain as we
are of anything that man has existed on the earth for a million years and
more and that he arrived by way of an enormously long evolutionary
process that began more than a thousand million years ago. This dis-
covery should have made man aware of his solidarity with nature —
but it has not even made him feel one with his fellow men. We all
realize that we are living in a changed world, but the significance of the
change is felt rather than understood. Nearly all attempts to forecast
the future of our race are based upon the probable rate of advance of
science and technology and the possible achievement of world govern-
ment. Some thinkers, such as Huxley and de Chardin, have speculated
upon the part that man will be able to play in 'directing the course of
Evolution'. Others have suggested that man may be developing new
powers of perception and thought. But no one seems to take into account
the central problem of Egoism and its hold upon the Self-hood of man.

We have seen the very important part that Information Theory is
likely to play in reconciling scientists and philosophers to the belief in
Demiurgic Intelligences.** The interpretation of order-disorder in
thermodynamic terms, when given quantitative expression in terms of
information theory, makes it as certain as anything can be that very
high degrees of order, such as we find in life on the earth, must have
been the work of intelligent agencies. We repeat this argument here
although it has been fully developed in Chapter 44, because it is crucial
for the next stage in human destiny. Man has reached the limit of the
illusion that he is alone in the world of Intellect, and the time is rapidly

* The separation of theology and philosophy reached its height with Hegel who
completely ignored the essential elements of the Christian faith and yet claimed to
have elucidated the nature of the Holy Trinity and the status of the Christian Church.
Cf. Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (Collected Works, Vols. I and II) and the
unfinished Proofs for the Existence of God (1831).

** Cf. Chapter 44, Section 17.44.2.

D.U. iv—15

■

400

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

approaching when the need for structural cooperation with the Higher
Intelligence will become apparent to all.

This will not come until we can admit the operation of a Structured
Intelligence of a higher order than that of the unaided human mind.
This will probably be brought about through the realization that
mechanistic schemes fail everywhere to explain the observed pheno-
mena. It will be a very significant moment when biologists acknowledge
that mechanistic explanations have broken down, both in accounting for
the origin of life and the evolution of species, and also in the face of the
evidence of intelligence in the construction of every living thing. Once
this step is made, it will not be so hard to admit the reality of the Great
Work, and with it the existence of Intelligences higher than human
with whom we must learn to cooperate.

It is not to be expected that such a total surrender of man's preten-
sions to self-sufficiency will easily be made. We may expect even more
extreme claims if man succeeds in producing living tissue in the labora-
tory or in exploring the planets and finding there no life comparable in
development to our own. But such claims will ultimately fail before the
growing realization of their absurdity. Man's inability to control events
on any scale is becoming increasingly obvious and there is even a strong
tendency towards an unjustified pessimism as to the future of the human
race.

This pessimism seems to be most strongly expressed in modern art
and literature. But we should be careful to observe that the activity of
the artist exerts a salutary and most necessary influence. We can see
this in every branch of literature, music, sculpture, drama and painting.
We are witnessing in the twentieth century an irreparable shattering of
the Megalanthropic image. It is enough to mention J. P. Sartre and
Franz Kafka, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso, to see that the revolution
in art has outstripped that in most other fields. In music, the develop-
ment of jazz gave expression to the revolt in a way that escaped the
neo-classical trend of a Stravinsky or a Hindemith, or the experimental
schools such as those of A. Schonberg and the followers of Webern.

Mankind, at the Present Moment, is aware of an immense urge to
find totally new forms of expression and new modes of action. The
Technological or Managerial Revolution is creating a new society that
is unable to speak for itself and takes refuge in the cliches of a past age.
This new society sees that the problems of the future are gathering
momentum. The situation would be alarming indeed, if the malaise of
the world were dependent solely upon human agencies for its cure.
According to our reading of the situation, the time has come for a fresh

MIND AND SOUL 401

intervention of the Demiurgic Intelligences acting under the Direction
of the Cosmic Individuality. This, or its equivalent stated in different
terms, is apparent to every discerning eye that surveys the two decades,
from 1945-65, that followed the Second World War. The period began
inauspiciously. The gruesome end to the war in Germany and the horror
of the first atom bombs left the world stunned and dismayed, longing
above all that there should not be a third World War. The blunders of
the Potsdam Conference of June 1945 and the resulting bitter hostility
between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. were a poor start for the United
Nations.* The wonderful surge of brotherly love and mutual charity
that occurred among all the peoples who suffered worst in the bombing
and hardships of war, did not endure beyond the first year of peace.
It was succeeded by a scramble for material satisfactions that demon-
strated to every impartial observer the persistence and universality of
the egoistic taint in the human soul-stuff.

By 1950, a very dangerous world situation had developed. Fear and
distrust had led the two most powerful nations of the world into the
ominous 'arms race' that in the past has always presaged the outbreak
of war. In Washington, the doctrine of early 'preventive' war was openly
and vehemently advocated by soldiers and politicians. In Moscow, an
immense army was held in readiness to invade western Europe at the
first sign of the expected economic and political collapse of France and
Italy. The crisis in the Far East was even more desperate. The Korean
war of 1950-1 and the French wars in Indo-China postponed disaster,
but did nothing to relieve the growing tensions.

The seriousness of the situation was apparent to the best informed
observers, many of whom had lost hope that war could be averted. The
appalling prospect of atomic warfare was undoubtedly a deterrent
factor; but no guarantee against a disastrous accident. Looking back
after a mere fifteen years, we tend to forget the sense of doom that hung
over the world. Between 1950-1 and 1951-2, the U.S.A. increased its
military expenditure from 55.3 to 68.5% of the total budget. The Soviet
Union in the same period increased by 35% the proportion of industrial
manpower wholly engaged in preparation for war.

Warlike actions and serious errors of judgment such as had precipi-
tated two world wars in 1914 and 1939 occurred also in 1950 and 1951.
One such critical moment was the crossing of the 38th parallel in Korea

* The charter of the U.N. drafted by Jan Smuts was signed on June 26th 1945.
Smuts himself came away from San Francisco with serious misgivings and declared
later (cf. J. G. Bennett, Witness, p. 235) that the only hope for the world lay in the
restoration of European supremacy for at least a century.

402

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

by American troops. After the disastrous retreat, General MacArthur
was advocating open war with China and President Truman issued a
statement that looked like a declaration that the atom bomb would be
used against Manchuria. The entire world was in disarray. The Chinese
invasion of Tibet on October 20th had demonstrated the helplessness
of the United Nations in the face of determined aggression. The deepest
misunderstandings, based upon almost total ignorance of what was
happening, obtained between Truman, Stalin and Mao Tse-Tung.

Out of this perilous situation, the world was led slowly, painfully
and uncomprehendingly back to the paths of peace. The next fifteen
years have seen crises such as Suez, the Berlin Wall and Cuba; but the
risk of war has steadily diminished, until now, in 1966, other dangers
to the human race such as widespread economic collapse and revolution
in the under-developed countries; are seen to be even more ominous than
the likelihood of armed conflict.

How did this transformation come about? The human elements have
not changed. No individual of superior wisdom and courage has taken
charge of the situation, which in any case could not have been controlled
from any one capital or country. The arms race did not slow down until
after the worst tensions were released. Indeed, national susceptibilities
have grown more acute as the dangers receded and countries not
previously in the atom-bomb club began to develop their own weapons.

We have not access to the detailed and mostly secret information
required to demonstrate the impossibility of ascribing the detente to the
wisdom and courage of the world's rulers. The true course of events
may not become apparent until long after the present generation has
left the scene. We shall, therefore, simply set down our own conviction
that no other explanation is possible except that of intervention by the
Hidden Directorate aided by Demiurgic Intelligences. The destiny of
mankind did not require a third World War and so, in spite of human
foolishness, total war has been averted.

If we had to judge by political history alone, this conviction would be
mere guess-work: but we can observe a synergic action in literally
all departments of human life. One illustration, already outlined, must
suffice: the ecumenical movement in Christendom and the rapprochement between the Christian and non-Christian religions. The spectacular
change of heart that has been evident in recent years has occurred in
spite of the conservatism and narrowness of outlook of the leaders of all
religious communities. It has been convincingly ascribed by these
leaders themselves to the working of Divine Grace.

Our conclusion can be carried further to the recognition that the

MIND AND SOUL

403

twentieth century of the Christian Era has witnessed, and is still in the
presence of, an invisible war between the Synergic and the Disruptive
forces in human nature. This is by no means the same as the so-called
'cold war' between the capitalist and communist powers. It is a war
more intimate even than civil strife or the struggles of conscience by
which movements of reform are initiated. It is a war of the mind, in
which Time and Hyparxis are the antagonists. It is a war in which
human responsibility for human destiny is at stake. We may either
literally or figuratively call it a war between opposing Demiurgic
Intelligences, the ones seeking to help man forward and the others striv-
ing to hold him back. The war is not being waged by man against man
upon an external battleground. The battleground is within the human
soul-stuff itself.

According to our reckoning, between thirty and forty thousand years
have passed since the human mind-stuff was endowed with creativity
and became soul-stuff. We have postulated the operation of Great
Cycles in each of which mankind undergoes a deeply significant
transformation. The postulate is supported by the scantiest evidence
and may eventually prove to have no substance. Nevertheless, it is
useful as an aid to setting our world-picture in a perspective commensur-
ate with the well-established and now universally accepted antiquity of

man.

According to this supposition, we stand at the conjunction of two
transitions. One is the change of Epoch that began, on our interpretation,
in the middle of the nineteenth century. The other is the start of the
second half of the Great Cycle that began twelve thousand five hundred
years ago with the Epoch of Withdrawal Language Creation.* If this
supposition is anywhere near the truth, we are passing through one of
the most significant moments of human history.

* Cf. Chapter 47, Section 17.47.2.

Chapter Fifty
THE NEXT AGE OF MIND

17.50.1. Visible History

The Present Moment of mankind has now started to acquire a
coherence upon levels that have hitherto been divided into many partial
presents. We are living, in the second half of the twentieth century, in
a present moment that, as regards both extent and content, is beyond
the power of any individual mind to grasp and to integrate. The visible,
and indeed obvious, consequence of this is that the human situation is
out of control. It can be compared to an explosion that cannot be con-
tained or directed. This assessment, though based upon ascertainable
facts, is by no means recognized by all, nor is it accepted by those who do
recognize it. We must, therefore, consider the visible levels of history
with special reference to the question of man's ability to direct the course
of events.

Starting with material or economic history, we see that mankind is
marvellously well equipped technically to solve almost any kind of
material problem that is likely to arise within the next hundred years.
Never in known history has mankind disposed so freely of the four
material energies. Moreover, progress in science and technology is
accelerating so that we now have at our disposal a great excess of
techniques over and above what we can use in practical life. In science,
engineering, industrial production and distribution, there is no shortage
of new discoveries calculated to lighten the burden of labour, to facilitate
travel and communication, to provide shelter, clothing, refreshment and
entertainment beyond the dreams of earlier generations.

On this showing, man should be free from problems on the level
of natural history—which concerns his action in the material world.*
In fact, the situation is totally different, looked at in terms of the
economic ground. There is an endemic crisis that grows more and more
intractable from decade to decade. This is due to the imbalance of econo-
mic advance as between the highly industrialized countries of the West
and the euphemistically-called 'developing' countries of Asia, Africa
and South America, which between them contain four-fifths of the
world's population. In spite of the efforts of governments and inter-

* Cf. Chapter 43, Section 16.43.5.1.

THE NEXT AGE OF MIND 405

national organizations to advance development in these regions, they
continue to lose ground. The annual increase in material wealth per
head of population in the United States is ten times greater than it is
in India or China, which between them have nearly one third of the
people of the world.

Other economic problems, such as those of currencies, the control
of cycles, raw materials, energy supply, the redeployment of labour
made redundant by technical progress, though serious, are certainly
not insoluble. This is because they are not explosive, that is, self-
propagating; whereas the problem of imbalance aggravates itself. Im-
balance is like a forest fire, that can to some degree be contained but
not controlled until great destruction has reduced the supply of com-
bustible material.

This is not to say that the economic problem is inherently incapable
of solution. If the industrial nations were to refuse themselves material
advances until all other people had been brought to the same standard
of living and if, in addition, the educational resources of the advanced
countries were made available equally and without distinction to all
people of all parts of the world: the situation could be put right within
a generation. But no one could seriously propose such a solution. People
in general are unwilling to give even of their surplus to those in need.
Only very few would be ready to deny themselves the fruits of their
own labour and inventive genius so that others should enjoy them. Thus,
the economic explosion is due to the immaturity of the human soul,
which cannot do much to overcome the egocentric impulse. This is true
of nations even more than of individuals.

When we turn to the ground of political history*—that is the history
of man's connection with the soil and the production of food—we find
another explosion. The 'rape of the earth' is a theme brought home in
many striking books** and the facts are not disputed. The soil is being
overworked for food production. Fertile areas are being made barren
or used for industrial development. A world shortage of fresh water
threatens within two or three generations. This is partly due to deforest-
ation, which also results in irreparable damage to the soil in many
tropical areas. The explosion has not reached its maximum violence
and much is being done to contain it; but once again there is an in-
herently intractable element that comes from humanity's demand for
more and more food and other vegetable products, especially cellulose.

* Cf. Chapter 43, Section 16.43.5.2.

** Such as : Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.

406 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

The third level of history is grounded on population history.* Here
the explosion is apparent to all and a present source of anxiety: it is
nothing less than the growth of the world's population which is pro-
ceeding at an accelerated pace. Within the present century the popula-
tion has more than doubled, and if no catastrophe intervenes, it will
reach 6,200,000,000 by the end of the century. Apart from the obvious
risk of failure to provide food for so vast a family, there are quite
intractable problems of education, social organization and living
space.

A very remarkable feature of the population explosion, is that it
could obviously and immediately be brought under control if people
were prepared to restrain their sexual impulses. Yet no one in his senses
would suggest that such a solution is worth proposing. Even those who
do not wish to have more children are unable to regulate their sexual
life so as to keep the numbers down. The main difference here between
the advanced and the backward nations is that the former have available
a variety of contraceptive procedures that enable them to gratify their
sexual impulses with relatively small likelihood of increasing the popu-
lation. Here then we have another instance of a world-wide explosion
that is evidently not under human control.

On the vegetative level, there is another significant uncontrolled
trend. This is due to the advance of medical science and hygiene that
has enabled large numbers of men and women to survive and breed who
would, in a natural society, perish from disease or mental incapacity.
Under present conditions, human breeding is anti-genetic, tending to
perpetuate degenerate forms. Not only could selective breeding remove
this condition; but it could within a hundred generations produce a
race of super-men, physically, emotionally and intellectually far superior
to modern man. Yet no one would dream of suggesting that such a way
of life could be introduced anywhere on earth, either voluntarily or by
compulsion.

The germinal essence corresponds to the goal of political history. It
is the struggle for survival and domination and it is also the response of
mankind to the need to change his situation and evolve towards a fuller
way of life. The germinal essence is the ground of the history of the
mind of man.** Political history is that of heroes and leaders, of dynasties
and oligarchies. It is the history of war, conquest and the subjugation of
peoples and the forced migrations that result from the struggle for
survival. But it is also the history of the unquenchable thirst of mankind

* Cf. Chapter 43, Section 16.43.5.3.

** Cf. Chapter 43. Compare Sections 16.43.5.2. and 16.43.5.4.

THE NEXT AGE OF MIND

407

for self-realization, though this is looked for on the level of the mind
rather than that of the soul.

Until the present century, political history has always been regional.
Even world conquerors, like Genghis Khan, or world traders, like the
Arabs and the English, did not influence political life far beyond the
regions to which they themselves could penetrate. We are now in a new
situation where all political history is fused into world history. Material,
edaphic and vegetative influences each make their contribution to this
interpenetration. Communications, industrial and commercial tech-
niques, the new weapons of destruction, the shortage of land and water,
growth and population combine to intensify the interaction of political
histories. But there is also an inherent political explosion. The germinal
essence enters man's mind to give force to the Reactional Self with its
tendency to desires and aversions, to exaggerate all dualistic features of
man's experience. Pom this comes the bellicosity that man inherits
from his animal forebears, but converts into useless and destructive
manifestations under the influence of his human egoism. These tenden-
cies remain in the Soul-Stuff Pool and all men have their part in them.
So long as human groups lived in relative isolation, they could be
neutralized by local conflicts or feuds controlled by social custom. Only
the structuring influence of more advanced cultures, and especially of
religion, produced large-scale and prolonged states of war. Even these
were confined to manifestations associated with the driving force: as
exemplified in the was of religion which usually spared the sources of life.

Now a new kind of situation has arisen. The structuring influence of
mass media of communication and the pressures of economic, edaphic
and population stresses act upon all people without discrimination. In
the present century, mankind has witnessed two world wars and a
prolonged state of world tension. Despite the concerted efforts of
governments and people, driven by the fear of nuclear war, the political
situation grows more complex and difficult to handle from decade to
decade. No one dares to claim that it has been brought under human
control. This is the more remarkable inasmuch as fear of war and longing
for peace are shared by more than three thousand million people and
rejected by very few indeed.

We come next to the most remarkable explosion of our time and that
is the growth of social organizations. This, according to our scheme of
essence classes, corresponds to the animal level. It is remarkable because
of its connection with the Master Idea of the Synergic Epoch. Structural
cooperation is playing a decisive part in the transition from the Megal-
anthropic individualist to the 'organization-man'.

D.U. IV—15*

In every field of human activity, there is a tendency for organizations
to grow larger and larger. In spite of restrictive legislation, industrial
and financial concerns are constantly growing. Smaller organizations
cannot hold their own against the massive strength of the large corpora-
tion. Organizations can reach the scale of nations. Governments and
International Agencies grow and acquire more and more power. All
this would be in keeping with the Synergic spirit, if man were in control
of the situation. Closer inspection shows that there is only the illusion of
control. Beyond a certain size, an organization either breaks down or
becomes an independent entity living its own life: no longer being con-
trolled by, but controlling, those who purport to administer its affairs.
Men become the slaves of the organization they appear to control. This
is the more remarkable inasmuch as those who administer the very largest
successful organizations are the most highly creative men of the age and
the most effective in taking difficult decisions. There is no escape from
the situation as the welfare and even the lives of millions may depend
upon keeping the large organizations going. All the intelligence and
creative energy that is drawn into this activity has no result except to
feed the explosion.

In former times, man's inability to control events was either taken
for granted or else it seemed to be disproved by the success of 'Great
Men' in achieving their aims. Now it is no longer possible to ignore a
situation that affects everything and everyone in the world. We may
recall H. A. L. Fisher's verdict on History: 'I can see only one emer-
gency following upon another as wave follows upon wave, only one
great fact ... in the development of human destiny: the play of the
contingent and unforeseen.'*

Next we come to the characteristic human history of the mind. It is
the history of culture and of its transmission from generation to genera-
tion. In our time, this level of history has been dominated by the ex-
plosion of scientific research. The manpower absorbed by science in
the most advanced countries constantly outstrips supply. The effective-
ness of research under modern conditions is so great that the output of
scientific work is doubling every few years. It is already impossible to
keep track of it as a whole. The truly remarkable feature of it all is
that it is neither controlled nor controllable. Scientific research, as a
whole, has no aim, no direction except that determined by new tech-
niques and materials or by the prevailing fashions. No one knows where
science will lead us in the next fifty years. The present situation would
have been totally unpredictable fifty years ago: and the pace is ac-
* H. A. L. Fisher, A History of Europe, 1936, p. 5.

THE NEXT AGE OF MIND

409

celerating. This may or may not be dangerous: the point is that here
again we have an uncontrolled explosion which man has no intention
of even trying to control.

There are several other explosions in human culture. Education
illustrates the point. Not only is the demand for education increasing
all over the world; but the amount that has to be taught—or rather that
educationists suppose to be necessary—is increasing out of all pro-
portion to the ability of the human mind to assimilate. To educate the
500,000,000 children of the world to the standards believed to be
necessary, all the men and women in the world capable of teaching
would have to be withdrawn from other 'necessary' professions. And
yet the education explosion continues unchecked.

A far more sinister cultural explosion is that of mass communication.
Within a few decades half the world's population has been brought
under the influence of mass media—books, newspapers, radio, television,
cinema—all able to exercise a powerful suggestion upon undeveloped
minds. Mass communication has come to be the principal instrument of
government, commerce and entertainment. Here the explosive character
of the process is obvious to all. It is uncontrolled: chiefly because those
who could control it find it too useful or profitable and fear the loss of
influence that the abandonment of mass suggestion might entail. In
this case, the effect upon the human mind-stuff is direct and progressive.
From decade to decade the world's population grows more suggestible
and less able to make independent acts of judgment.

Closely allied to this explosion is that of psychological strain. People
require stimulation, sedation and stronger forms of psychological treat-
ment. There is an explosive growth of people requiring psychiatric
treatment—especially in the most advanced countries. More and more
people turn to the use of drugs—harmless, harmful and wholly destruc-
tive—in the search for relief from the tensions of modern life.

If the two explosions—mass suggestion and drug addiction—con-
tinue unchecked we shall indeed reach within, at most, two generations
the condition of Huxley's Brave New World.

In many instances, we can connect the explosive tendency of the
present state of humanity with the powerful idea of the New Epoch.
This can be seen in terms of the level of soul-history.* The Demiurgic
Essence, according to our interpretation, is the instrument of Cosmic
Order. When it enters into human nature it endows man with creative
power and also with responsibility for the order of the Biosphere. In
the past, the effect has been to produce men of creative ability in
* Cf. Chapter 43, Section 16.43.5.5.

410

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government, art, learning and religion. Their activities have sometimes
been beneficial, sometimes destructive, according to the relative domin-
ance of the forces of spirituality and egoism. In the new Epoch, the
demiurgic force in man has led to the domination of the Biosphere to a
degree never before contemplated. Man can use, change, destroy life
and the materials of the earth's surface and does so on a prodigious
scale in consequence of his new-found capacity for large-scale action.
Man has become the ruler of the earth: but he has no idea why and how
he should use his power. The sense of responsibility that should accom-
pany the demiurgic nature is almost wholly lacking. Here again, there
is an uncontrolled explosion. Man is installed upon a demiurgic throne
from which he can issue commands to Nature. Within limits, that man
himself does not perceive, Nature obeys.

As the Present Moment of humanity expands in all directions, man's
self-importance and pride expand with it. The thirst for power grows
with its exercise. This explosion, secret in its source in the higher
nature of man, is visible in its action in his animal nature. From decade
to decade, man's oppressive domination of the material of the earth's
surface, including all forms of life, doubles and doubles again. Man
cannot restrain this explosion for he does not even wish to do so. On the
contrary this is labelled 'human progress' and many look forward to its
indefinite continuation: though possibly not at the present accelerated
pace.

17.50.2. A First Assessment

In terms of visible history, the Present Moment of humanity is
threatened with hazards that invite pessimism as to the future. No one
denies that the present trends, if they continue unchecked, would
create within a hundred years an impossible situation. But it is also
widely believed that common sense will prevail and human ingenuity
will find a way out, as it has done at all critical stages of the past. On
the whole, mankind is so intoxicated by the triumphs of science and
technology that the voices of despair and even of doubt are drowned in
assurances. Those writers who have painted lurid or depressing pictures
of the next twenty or hundred years are regarded as warners of what
might be, rather than as prophets of what is predetermined by the content
of the Present Moment.

We must, therefore, attempt an assessment on the basis of the visible
data, before we look more deeply into the possible action of the higher
Wisdom of the Hidden Directorate.

Explosions are of two kinds. One comes from a sudden release of

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411

pressure and the other from a chain reaction that builds up from small
beginnings. The first kind may not be destructive: the internal com-
bustion engine that works on this principle is our main source of power
for locomotion. It is controllable, providing the necessary 'engine' can
be constructed.* If our historical explosions were all of this character,
it could rightly be asserted that common sense and ingenuity must find
the way to bring them under control. The population explosion is a
fair example. It is quite likely that educational and administrative pro-
cedures combined with new discoveries in bio-chemistry will lead to the
universal regulation of families before an impossible state of affairs is
reached.

The same is not true of the cultural explosion. It is difficult to con-
ceive a situation in which mankind will voluntarily abandon research
into the secrets of nature or cease to apply new discoveries in technology.
So long as human nature remains what it is, man will not cease to lust
for power and will seek ever new fields to conquer. The cultural ex-
plosion is a true chain reaction. Every new discovery sets in train activi-
ties that lead to more discoveries. Only a widespread emotional revulsion
against science and technology could arrest the progress of man's domin-
ation over material and living essences. As this domination will give
him power to destroy all forms of life not useful for human purposes
and to use up the reserves of the rarer elements of the earth's crust;
there is need for a far-sighted, noble, self-restraint of which, in the
Present Moment of visible history, there are few signs. A more ominous
possibility is that the control of energies may develop to the point when
means of destruction so powerful and so easy to use may be discovered
that a few ruthless men could threaten the entire human race. There
are many dangers of this kind in the accelerated progress of science.
Finally, there is the threat of mental enslavement of the kind pictured
in Huxley's Brave New World. This picture of the future falls far short
of what is actually possible. There will be great advances in the media
of mass communication. Insight into the human mind-stuff and the
ways in which it can be controlled and moulded will lead into fields so
far scarcely imagined. Chemical substances will be discovered that will
change the behaviour and even the character not only of individuals
but of entire communities. The temptation to use such powers will
be almost irresistible both to those who seek power and those who wish
to do good.

Our assessment at this stage must be made in terms of man such as

* For a discussion of engines and their part in the transformation of energy see
Vol. II, Chapter 32.

412

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

he is. We have seen the structure of the self-hood and the mind. We
have seen the condition of the soul-stuff pool from which all human
minds are drawn. We cannot, under these conditions, expect that the
endemic egoism that accompanies all human beings from their concep-
tion will be eradicated by any means known to science, or likely to be dis-
covered by scientific research. The conclusion we are bound to draw,
is that sooner or later the growing power that man has over nature will
pass into the hands of unscrupulous men. The evidence of history shows
that power seldom associates with virtue and that those who condescend
to destructive means will find the way to use them. In terms of visible
history, it is mere chance that Hitler did not acquire the atom bomb
before the Allies, and in his hands it might have given world domination
to a ruthless oligarchy. It is true that no tyranny has ever prevailed for
long and that the real danger is from the well-meaning people who seek
to control others in the name of good. It is by no means inconceivable
that human progress and even human existence on the earth could be
brought to a standstill by an activity initiated with the highest motives,
but predicated upon qualities that mankind does not possess. This is
no idle imagination, for we see before us organizations that cannot
work because people cannot work them.

The conclusion to be drawn is that the threats to human progress are
not all fatal; but some of them cannot be met upon the levels of visible
history. While it is necessary for salvation that man should exercise self-
control and sacrifice his personal short-term interests for the sake of a
greater future, it is a false optimism that believes that these qualities
will be manifested, except by very few men and women; and that, to be
effective, these should enter and work in the psychokinetic group.

17.50.3. The Evidence for a Hidden Influence

The central theme of this volume has been the need to postulate a
higher wisdom in the evolution of life and the arising and development
of mind. Our assessment of the present situation must be decisively
influenced by our acceptance or rejection of this postulate.

The problem of evolution turns upon the concept of order. Order is a
property of all that exists and it is the simplest and most reliable criterion
of level. Biological evolution is the increase of order in the Biosphere.
Human evolution is the increase of order in the Mind. The evolution of
human society is also a progress of order, from the state in which man
could not be responsible even for himself, to one in which the entire
human race can regulate its own affairs and accept responsibility for the
order of the Biosphere. In every case, the increase of order within the

THE NEXT AGE OF MIND

413

system considered is possible only if order enters from without the
system. Random exchanges without direction or purpose can become
orderly only if there is a source of order available to feed order into the
system.

These considerations are applicable not only to material and vital
systems; but also to those in which the Cosmic Energies play a part. It
follows that no process initiated and continued wholly within any situa-
tion can increase the order. Thus we arrive by a priori reasoning at the
conclusion that the order we see in human society can increase only if
there is a Source of Order outside human society. We identify this
Source with the Intelligence at the disposal of the Hidden Directorate.

Approaching the problem from another direction, we can see that the
intervention of the Hidden Directorate cannot take the form of overt
action, perceptible to all. It must come by way of an Organizing Pattern
on a higher level in Eternity than the actualizing, and visible, situation.
This pattern works in the realm of mind, where consciousness opens the
way to innovation and freedom. Its working depends upon being recog-
nized by mind and hence requires an Evolution of Mind to lift it out of
the realm of cognizable and explicable events. This does not mean that
every mind that contributes to the increase of order—or to the avoidance
of disorder—does so with a clear understanding of what is going on.
Only those who have eyes to see can see it. They may not be able to
convey to others what they have seen; but it will be apparent in their
behaviour.

We shall test out these conclusions in the light of our hypothesis of
Intelligent Guidance. They should be applicable upon all levels in
which the mind of man is directly involved.

Firstly, upon the level of economic history, it is easy to see that the
power of money could be used to control economic progress. It is some-
times suggested that there is a sinister body of international financiers
that seeks to dominate the world. So far from this being true, all the
evidence shows that economic forces are chiefly used to maintain
stability and relieve tensions. Since this is not likely to be due to the
actions of men dominated by egoism, we may conclude that there is
some benign influence at work. There is no way of connecting this
influence with our supposed Hidden Directorate. Indeed, it may be
due to a non-human Demiurgic or even higher wisdom. The evidence
for a benign and wise influence comes by combining the conclusion
reached earlier that the economic situation of the world is out of visible
control with the observation that it appears to be moving towards
stability and order.

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THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

The edaphic situation is extremely significant. The dangers of soil-
erosion, deforestation, failure of water supply and the rest are not under
control. Major catastrophes could have occurred through sheer ignor-
ance, as when, in a laudable attempt to produce valuable crops in the
African equatorial regions, forests were cut down, and the land became
totally and permanently infertile by the hardening of iron oxides. It was
not until long after that the nature of the risk was understood. In this
and many other instances, it seems that some beneficent power has
limited the damage that man does to the soil.

The next striking instance is to be found in the population explosion.
On statistical grounds alone, we should expect the indiscriminate
preservation of degenerative strains to result in a speedy decline of the
human race. The more so, as many degenerates are prolific and sexually
unrestrained. Here we have to argue from a negative: but it does seem
as if some very general, but unseen, influence inhibits a large proportion
of undesirable matings.

We come next to the size-explosion that has produced the immensely
complex organizations of government, industry and international co-
operation. One might expect that the opportunity afforded by such
organizations for the acquisition and exercise of power would have
attracted egoistic and dangerous men. It is a remarkable and most
hopeful sign of the times that precisely the contrary has occurred. Al-
though, as we have said, the men who nominally control these giants are
in fact their servants or even their slaves it remains true that they have
great opportunities for evil and for good. To a remarkable degree, this
power is exercised for good and this is, perhaps, the most striking
evidence of some benign influence reaching from the Hidden Director-
ate and working within the ranks of Government and big business.

On the level of human culture, we have the hardest assessment of all.
Scientific research has no direction nor can fundamental scientists fore-
see where their work will lead. The flashes of insight that lead to dis-
coveries, great and small, are unpredictable and outside the control even
of those to whom they come. If, therefore, we can discern a pattern and
evidences of purpose in the progress of science; these must be attributed
to some intelligent agency other than the scientist as such.

To establish a pattern, we should have to show what would be hap-
pening if scientific discovery were really the random undirected process
that it is assumed to be. A whole book would need to be written to do
justice to this question: so we can only consider a single illustrative
example. The experiment made by Michelson and Morley (1887) to
determine the earth's motion through the ether received widespread

THE NEXT ACT OF MIND

4I5

notice and led to Einstein's special relativity and the mass-energy
equation: thus, indirectly, to the release of atomic energy at a crucial
moment of history. The discovery has been a most powerful factor in
restraining action that might have led to a third world war. Some
twenty years before the Michelson-Morley experiment, Mendel did his
beautiful work on genetic transmission (1858-65). This and other sig-
nificant discoveries in biology remained unnoticed and, in consequence,
biological science failed to make in the first half of the twentieth century
the same spectacular progress as physics. One result of this has been to
leave unsolved the problem of nutritional insufficiency throughout the
world which has also been a factor in preventing war.

In one direction, spectacular and widely publicized progress has been
a factor of stability; and in another, failure to notice the significance
of a discovery has had the same effect. Hundreds of such instances
could be cited. Taken together, they strongly suggest that the progress
of science has not been a random matter due to the accidental idio-
syncracies of scientists and stimulated only by short term material and
social pressures; but rather that there has been an unseen and very
intelligent guidance which has seen to it that the right discoveries are
made at the right time and, when made, brought forward or held back
according to the needs of human evolution.

Obviously, this suggestion cannot be regarded as established by the
evidence we have outlined. It is put forward rather to indicate the way in
which the scientific explosion could be contained and directed. If a
higher Intelligence working on the level of the creative energy directs
the attention of scientists to this feature and diverts it away from that:
then evidently that Intelligence is directing the entire process of human
development at the present time.

Remembering that, by definition, we are discussing invisible
history, we can do no more than suggest ways in which the undirected
explosion of the visible process could be converted into directed and
useful operational forces for the evolution of mankind. At this point,
we must seek to answer the question always put to those who affirm an
unseen influence in human history: why does the influence have to
remain unseen and would it not be more effective if it came into the
open?

The answer to this question is implicit in the distinction we have
made between predetermination, predestination and foreordainment.
Only transformations of the material energies give results perceptible
to the senses. In human terms, we can say that all that can be perceived
is behaviour. By recognizing the different levels, we can interpret

416 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

behaviour as results applying to one or several of the seven histories we
discussed in Chapter 43. What is perceived as behaviour remains
in the zone of material energy transformations. As modern science
has established, these transformations are never wholly predetermined
for there are uncertainties, or 'holes', on every level. As we approach
the region of destiny, the uncertainties turn into opportunities and these
acquire an increasingly creative and free character. Taking an oppor-
tunity is not a visible action: for the very nature of an opportunity is to
offer something more than the predetermined future.

There is only one way in which the course of history can be adjusted
to the hazards of disorder and the threats of malevolent powers and that
is by the unseen actions of those who take their opportunities in the right
way. The Zone of Destiny is that part of the Present Moment in which
there can be an intervention from the Hyparchic Future. According to
the notions developed in the last two chapters, the Hidden Directorate
is in contact with that region where the Foreordained Plan of human life
is constantly taking shape. Those who serve as channels of transmission
of the influences coming from that region can work only in the zone of
destiny. If they were to appear and act in the material or behavioural
region, they would be as helpless as everyone else to bring about
significant changes. Indeed, they would be more helpless, for they would
be aware that changes initiated on the material level can only increase
disorder.* The only effective intervention is that which touches the minds
and not the material natures of men.

That can very simply be illustrated by the working of the human eye.
There are a hundred octaves of electro-magnetic radiation from cosmic
rays to the longest radio waves. All of these may carry signals: but the
eye can pick up signals only over the three octaves of visible light.
Those who can see and recognize the signals can act over a wide range:
but without their cooperation the signals are useless.

There are at least two ways in which there can be an intervention.
One is by the overt behaviour of those who inwardly are awakened to
the signals that reach them from higher levels. The second way is by
direct action upon minds that are accidently tuned in to the correct
'wave-length'. It is very probable that the higher powers intervene in
both these ways and in others that we do not know.

How often do we observe 'inspired' actions for which the actor

* In more familiar terms, one can say that violence cannot be overcome by violence
or that consciousness cannot work by destroying anything whatsoever—even what has
gone wrong. In yet other language, we can say that 'good' powers cannot condescend
to use means that 'evil' powers can employ, just because the means are evil.

THE NEXT AGE OF MIND 417

himself is quite unable to account? How often do we meet with ideas that
spread through human thinking like a ferment while no one knows their
source, and few see that they have a purpose? It is highly probable that
there are more men and women in the world who are serving as channels
for the transmission of influences from the hyparchic future than either
they themselves or the world is aware of.

Obviously, to demonstrate an action of this kind would be impossible,
because demonstration can apply only to that which has already entered
into material transformations. Nevertheless, we have one indirect con-
firmation of an invisible action and this is the very great improbability
that the situation of mankind, would be as favourable as it is today,
if only the visible agents were operative. Great forces have been released,
the speed of events has accelerated, yet man remains what he has
always been: weak, egoistic, self-indulgent, and quarrelsome. The
possible sources of disaster are innumerable and anyone might release a
chain of events that would devastate the world. In terms of probability,
the likelihood of a breakdown of human order vastly outweighs the
likelihood of its progress towards a higher degree of synergic integration.
This is a fact that is open to verification, because it concerns visible
behaviour. If it cannot be accounted for in terms of visible factors, we
are compelled to postulate some unseen influence. All that we have done
in this volume is to show how such an unseen influence could have
operated from the beginning of history and how it may be operating
today.

17.50.4. The Present Need

As the eye is the link between the invisible signal and the visible
action, so does humanity require minds and souls capable of responding
to the enabling influences that are constantly flowing into the Present
Moment from the Hyparchic Future. Two elements of the triad are
established: the affirming impulse that is the predestined pattern of
history, and the receptive impulse that is humanity in its present
moment. The third, reconciling impulse, is what we have called the
Great Work.* This is the weak element, because it requires people of
whom at the present stage of human evolution too few are being
produced. If there were a sufficiency of men and women of the Psycho-
kinetic Group,** they could enter as Specialists into all branches of
human activity and operate as Counsellors in the direction of all human

* Cf. Chapter 47, Section 17.47.7.6." and elsewhere in Chapters 48 and 49.
** Cf. Chapter 41, Human Societies in Vol. III.

■

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

affairs. The tetrad of activity and order in the Biosphere would be firmly
established* and the Psychoteleios Group acting solely as a channel of
communication with the Hyparchic Future could enable the fulfilment
of the Plan that the Biosphere has been created to serve.

The situation of our present moment is very different. Only a small
proportion of people are drawn into the psychokinetic stream. Con-
sequently, so much effort must be devoted to their training and pre-
paration that little remains for the needs of the immediate situation. In
this sense, it may be right to say that we must work for the future: but
we must not forget that our future is within the larger Present Moment
of all mankind. The difference, once again, is between those who can see
and those who cannot see.

For those who still believe that human affairs can be ordered and
guided rightly by action solely within the visible level, the suggestion
that the greatest need of our time is for awakened men and women,
is meaningless. They regard themselves and others like them as already
awake. They accept the promptings and guidings that arise within the
minds of some people as chance combinations like a lucky sequence of
heads-and-tails. When things go wrong they fall into pessimism, for
they can see no redemptive action. When things go well or promise
well they attribute the event to human wisdom or prudence.

Our concern is not with those who would deny any reality to the
notions of transformation and of a Hidden Directorate; but with those
who at least accept the possibility of these things and seek to understand
what is required.

It is possible to offer something to those who seek in this way. First,
it is necessary to grasp the notion of the Great Work and understand
why it must act from within people and not from without. Second, it
must be realized that all turns upon transmission. Only those minds
that have acquired the ability to recognize the working of the cosmic
energies and to receive 'signals', can respond directly to the guidance
that comes from the Hidden Directorate. For others, it is necessary to
receive their guidance indirectly. This is the difference between the
upper and lower parts of the Psychokinetic Group, ** and it may be
expressed as the distinction between mind-action and soul-action. But
we must be careful not to confuse direct mind-action with verbal com-
munication. The latter can operate on all levels, but it cannot serve for

* Cf. Chapter 43 in this volume.

** Candidates and Specialists (sub-groups 5 and 6) believe in the reality of the Great
Work but can receive guidance only indirectly from Counsellors and Initiates (sub-
groups 7 and 8) who are able to communicate with the Psychoteleios Order.

THE NEXT AGE OF MIND

419

the creative act that must be done here and now at the moment of
opportunity or opening. The sensitive mind receives its guidance
directly: but it does so from another mind. The harmonized soul is
guided by the pattern of destiny. It does what is required without an
intervening stage of perception and decision.

Returning to the need of the present moment, we can say people must
be found and transformed both in mind and in soul. This is happening
in many ways. Some of these ways are explicitly directed towards the
psychokinetic transformation and their role does not usually go beyond
the stage of preparing Candidates.* Other ways operate within the
complex organizations of modern society, unrecognized even by those
who respond to their influence. Others again are concerned with the
soul-transformation that enables the human self to become the vehicle
of the Universal Individuality.**

The actions required range from educational procedures, social
betterment and the preservation of peace, to the most hidden working
within the Psychoteleios Group who constitute the Hidden Directorate.
In the past, these actions have been conducted largely in isolation from
one another, by persons and societies bearing quite different labels.
Now, in the Synergic Epoch, this kind of separate working must give
place to organized cooperation. This is the need of the present moment.
But it is still not possible for the Hidden Directorate to 'come into the
open' as people demand. Unless this is understood, nothing can be
understood. Every kind of action depends upon conditions. Freedom
and creativity are impossible in the conditions of material existence and
predetermined changes. The transmission of the highest cosmic energies
requires more than a sensitive mind: it needs souls strong enough to be
the instruments of the Universal Will.

As these things come to be understood better and more widely, the
creative energy will play a greater part in human life and prepare the
way for a direct contact with the Unitive Energy, that is, with Divine
Love.

17.50.5 A Further Assessment

The history of mind takes shape and meaning if we see it as the evolu-
tion of man towards responsibility for his own destiny and for that
of the Biosphere: possibly of the entire solar system. This evolution

* Cf. Vol. Ill, Chapter 41. The Candidate may be drawn to the psychokinetic society
in many ways: religious, artistic, scientific, social, as well as by a feeling for the hidden
and esoteric content of human experience.

** See Vol. II, Chapter 25 and Vol. Ill, Chapter 41.

42O

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

THE NEXT AGE OF MIND

421

could not have started without a creative impulse and could not have
been sustained without a directive pattern. It would have come to grief
as a result of the contamination of the soul-stuff with egoism and the
consequences of sin, but for the intervention of the Cosmic Indivi-
duality made manifest in the Incarnation. At every stage, we have found
evidences of guidance, first by non-human Demiurgic Intelligences and
later supplemented by men transformed into Individual Souls.

If this guidance played a decisive part in the remote past, and if it
can still be recognized in the Epoch recently ended—it must continue
in our own day also. We have seen, in this chapter, some evidence of
its working and have considered once more the objection that if real,
it should be apparent to all. We must now go further and try to lift the
veil of the future. We have four groups of elements from which to make
our assessment.

1. The trends of Visible History and the search by man for a solution
of his problems in visible history alone.

2. The Master Idea of the Synergic Epoch which is drawing men,
whether they understand or not, towards organized cooperation in every
field.

3. The stage of the Great Cycle of 25,000 years that began 12,000-
13,000 years ago with the transition to the modern world.

4. The Destiny of Man and his place in the War with Time. In this
group we include our notions of the Present Moment and the pre-
determined, the predestined and the foreordained future.

All four elements have come to light in the course of our long enquiry
and have been discussed at various stages: we shall not examine them
again but set down the conclusions to which they point.

During the past Epoch, man has developed and exploited his in-
tellectual powers and has neglected his powers of inner and outer
perception. He has also neglected his emotional nature which remains
at a more primitive stage of development than his power of thought.
With these trends, has gone that tendency to over-emphasize the value
of man as a person which we have called the Megalanthropic Fallacy.
These trends continue by momentum in our present culture. Our educa-
tional procedures are mainly directed to the intellectual function and
neglect the emotional nature and the working of the conscious and crea-
tive energies. Our culture is predominantly an intellectual culture: but a
revolt against intellectualism in art, literature and social intercourse is in
progress. The individualism of the past Epoch is rapidly giving place
to the cult of the organization. These trends have only begun to make
themselves felt. It is probable that within two or three generations

intellectual powers and skills will be rated no higher than manual skills
are today. This probability is disregarded in most attempts to forecast
the future and indeed it is hard to see what will take the place of our
present mind-worship.

A deeper tendency, so far scarcely perceptible, is towards the awaken-
ing of new powers. These will be emotional and intuitive rather than
intellectual and analytical. They are necessary for both the visible and
the invisible progress of mankind. The work of very large organizations
demands a capacity for synthetic grasp of structures and for intuitive
communication that is at present rare. The few men who possess it are
the key men of the modern world. It is widely recognized that such men
are in short supply, that they are born not made, and yet that they can
develop their powers only under favourable conditions. We have also
seen that the guidance of human destiny depends upon men who can
communicate with higher sources of wisdom and 'tune in' to the waves
or vibrations of cosmic energy that carry the pattern of human
destiny.

We shall conclude that the new powers of which indications appeared
more than a century ago* are symptomatic of the New Epoch and that
they will appear more frequently as time goes on. It is probable also that
techniques for developing and using them will form part of the regular
educational procedure of future generations; taking the place of much
of the present factual curriculum. Creativity will play a far greater part in
human life. At present much of man's creative energy is used in play—
because he does not know how to employ it for any constructive purpose.
Creative steps are largely made by chance. There is hope that man will
soon discover that creative activity is the highest form of enjoyment
and will not use his leisure for artificial stimulation of his Reactional and
Material Selves, but for the development of his creative powers. New
social structures will arise to meet these needs.

Within a few generations, men will look back to our present transi-
tional age with astonishment to see that for all our marvellous technical
achievements, we had almost forgotten how to enjoy life. When creative
energy is rightly used, the sexual life becomes normal and we may
expect that the, at present intractable, population problem will resolve
itself. Men will find their keenest enjoyment in creative activity and will
wish to restrict their procreative powers to the conception of gifted
children endowed with higher perceptions and abilities.

These optimistic forecasts will founder on the rocks of human egoism
unless there is a profound change in man's attitude towards his destiny.
* Cf. Chapter 49, pp. 391-2.

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THE NEXT AGE OF MIND

Here we come to the interpretation of the Great Cycle and man's
relationship to the Cosmic Individuality. Neither man himself nor the
Demiurgic Intelligences can overcome egoism. We believe that man was
set free from the consequences of the atavistic taint, by the Incarnation
of the Cosmic Individuality, by the death and resurrection of Jesus and
by the coming of the Holy Spirit. But the purpose of the Redemption
was to make possible the conquest of egoism, not to ensure it. The
conquest of egoism must be accomplished within the soul of man, where
it has established its mastery. If it were done from without, the very
purpose of man's creation—to become a responsible being—would be
stultified.

During the past two thousand years, it has been established beyond
dispute that humanity cannot accomplish the task unaided. This has
foolishly been called the failure of Christianity or indeed the failure of
all religion. It was necessary that two things should be understood:
first, that though man cannot redeem himself he can be redeemed
through the Love of God; and, second, to be effective, man must accept
the reality of redemption and that even this is beyond the power of
most human minds. It required a thousand years, from St. Paul to St.
Anselm, for the first truth to be grasped in the Christian world. It has
taken nearly another millennium to make the second obvious. This can
be accounted for by the dominant attitude of the Megalanthropic
Epoch: it is easier for man to believe that God has Incarnated to offer
man the gift of eternal life; than to admit that man himself is incapable
of accepting the proffered Gift.

Meanwhile, the Present Moment must continue to change and to
evolve. The creative power has flowed into many channels producing
schisms and sects, conflicting creeds, churches and societies all claiming
a superior validity. This too has been a consequence of human egoism
given form by the belief in human greatness. With the coming of the
New Epoch, new forces are at work. There are oecumenical movements
and dialogues between the great religions. These can be accounted for
by the dominant attitude of the Synergic Epoch: they are no evidence
of a change in human nature.

The visible consequence of man's inability, during the last thousand
years, to accept the implications of the Christian gospel, combined with
the overwhelming triumph of science and technology which have arisen
within the Christian world, has been a widespread repudiation of belief
in Providence, that is, in the working within Nature of a Supernatural
Power. There is no sign of any change in this respect as a consequence
of the transition from Megalanthropy to Synergy. In place of the deifica-

423

tion of the human individual, we have passed to the apotheosis of the
Greater Society.

Today, fewer people than in the past believe in the Great Work, or
take seriously the assertion that human destiny is influenced by a
Higher Wisdom. This assertion, which is the central theme of the present
volume, is likely to prove the chief obstacle to its acceptance even by
those who are aware that it is imperative to search for a total meaning
in the existence of man on the earth.

The explanation is to be found in the great time-scale upon which the
evolution of the human soul is to be measured. The great Present
Moment of the awakening and maturing of the human soul must
embrace more than one of the great cycles which began 37,000 years
ago. We must look forward at least another 12,000 years for the com-
pletion of the cycle of which this Epoch is the mid-point. Even allowing
for the accelerated pace of change, the transformation of the human soul-
stuff is bound to take a very long time.

It does not follow that there have not been dramatic episodes of short
duration: the most intense and extraordinary was the earthly life of Christ.
We are once again at a dramatic moment, perhaps no less significant,
though not of the same kind. We shall endeavour to state our convictions
in the light of the four elements described at the beginning of this section.

We are now in the midst of the Parousia or Second Coming of Christ
promised by the Redeemer to his followers. This is taking the form of
the envelopment or overshadowing of mankind by the Unitive Energy
(E 2) as an act of will of the Cosmic Individuality. The Unitive Energy
is universal and omnipresent: but it is not always associated with the
Will. When it is so associated it is Personified. To put it in specifically
Christian terms: the Love of God, which is the Holy Spirit, has always
been present and its operations never cease. The Son of God in heaven—
that is in the Hyparchic Future—never ceases to redeem mankind. The
Holy Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—never fail to redeem the
promise to 'come and dwell with him' who is united with them in Love.
There is, however, a profound change in the Present Moment, when
the Word of God, the Cosmic Individuality, enters into the Unitive
Energy and so returns to the existing world. This return is quite distinct
from the Incarnation, for it remains within the region of the Cosmic
Energies—Transcendent, Unitive, Creative and Conscious. By this
act, the Cosmic Individuality intervenes in human destiny. This is quite
a different matter from the redemption of the past which required the
Incarnation. It is aptly described in the phrase 'come again in Glory'
for the Cosmic energies are the Glorious Energies.

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THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

Until this Act was made, the situation of mankind remained as it
has been since the Incarnation: the possibility of liberation from egoism
was assured; but, for most people, the ability to accept liberation was
lacking. This was equally true for Christians as for those who repudi-
ate the Christian doctrine of Redemption. Muslims are assured of
salvation if only they will accept the promise of the Qur'an, and this
they are almost all incapable of doing. The same is true for all men
whatever form the promise may take.

Why is it that men in general have been unable to accept the gifts
freely offered to them? It is evidently because the human mind cannot
become aware of the Gift and its reality. Even in the ages of faith, there
have been few who have seen the Truth for themselves. Second-hand
faith, taught or affirmed by others, does not produce the required
contact nor open the channel through which the Unitive Energy can
flow. An additional help was necessary; but it could be given only when
it became obvious that man could not be saved without it. There is
abundant evidence that some new action is occurring in the world at the

present time.

The Unitive Energy gives the human soul the possibility of union
with Christ. This is the perfecting of the Individuality. But it can do so
only if the soul is free from egoism. Therefore, a purifying or purgative
action is necessary. This comes about by a contact between the self-
hood of man and the will of the Cosmic Individuality. This contact
can be made in thousands of ways, because the Unitive Energy is every-
where and can adapt itself to any kind of response. Thousands of men
and women throughout the world experience the contact and are trans-
formed : but the completeness and purity of the transformation depends
upon their own nature. Some take the influx of energy to be their own
power to use and misuse. Others undergo a private change and do not
manifest. Some, again, become aware of the working and believe that
they are called to a special mission. Some go mad and believe that they
are the Messiah. Some are changed in character but not in understand-
ing.

So powerful and so varied an action requires regulation. In part, it
may be responsible for the explosions described at the beginning of this
chapter. The task of regulation and adjustment falls to the Hidden
Directorate and those who can communicate with it. There is thus a
two-fold action. The first is direct and supernatural: it is the working of
the Love and Power of God to enable mankind to evolve. The second is
indirect and natural, it is the Great Work that has from the beginning
guided the destiny of humanity. Those who can only see external

THE NEXT AGE OF MIND 425

behaviour patterns find it hard to make sense of what they observe. For
a more discerning eye, Destiny and Divine Providence have entered into
an action that is changing the entire situation of mankind.

This does not mean that the evolution of man is assured against all
hazards. The problem of communication remains. There is always
something that man must accomplish within the limitations of his own
self-hood. He must understand that what formerly was almost impossible
because of the obstruction of egoism has now been made easy for those
who can perceive the working. There are many who partly perceive,
but do not understand. They can respond only imperfectly to the new
working. A great obstacle is man's attachment to external forms of
belief, of worship and of organization. We have used, in this book, a
terminology intentionally remote from the theological and philo-
sophical languages of the past. We have referred to the Cosmic In-
dividuality instead of the Logos or Son of God. We have referred to the
Unitive Energy or Cosmic Love rather than to the Holy Spirit. We have
referred to the Cosmic Reconciling Impulse as the source of our in-
tuitions of Deity.

These changes have been made to avoid associations either positive
or negative. Whether they are acceptable or not, it remains true that
very great changes in our understanding of the Supernatural Order will
have to come. As we said in the Introduction to the first volume of this
work; it is imperative that we should liberate ourselves from the geo-
centric and anthropomorphic language in which our religious beliefs are
still expressed. A far more difficult and revolutionary requirement is that
we should see that we are in the midst of the Parousia and realize that
this is not the end of the world, but the beginning of a New Age.
Hardest of all for modern man is to admit his own complete helplessness
and dependence, upon all levels above that of his bodily organism. Only
when he can make this admission can he become a channel for the
transmission of the energies that will enable human evolution to make a
step towards true responsibility and not imaginary dominion.

17.50.6. Acts of Will

Without the element of will in our experience there would be no
history, only a determinate sequence of changes in a world without
a present moment. Because there is a Supreme Will, there is a Total
History which is the Drama of the Universe. As all else that exists, we
are involved in the Act of Will whereby the Universe exists. This is a
present act for the Totality: but we may conceive it as having occurred
in the remote past or as constantly present according to the way we

426 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

interpret our experience. The distinction is objectively meaningless for
it imputes time to an Act that creates time. It is a remarkable charac-
teristic of twentieth-century modes of thought that we are able without
difficulty to accept the idea that 'long ago' and 'now' can be the same.
In this, and in many other ways, the Master Idea of the Synergic
Epoch is beginning to change our modes of thought more profoundly
than at any other time in the last two thousand five hundred years.

This applies to supernatural history; which, from age to age, man has
understood in very different ways. In the Megalanthropic Epoch, it was
almost inevitable that anthropomorphic images of the Supreme Creator
of the Universe should have suggested themselves. The Cosmic In-
dividuality was most profoundly described in the Christian creed as the
only-begotten Son of God consubstantial with the Father; but this
doctrine has been understood by nearly all, Christian and non-Christian
alike, as affirming that God is an existing Being who engendered the
Son as a distinct Person, but nevertheless uniquely and wholly united
with Him in a single Godhead. Even the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity
is understood in terms of Being, as if there could be three Persons in one
Being. As mankind emerged from under the influence of the Megalan-
thropic Master Idea, anthropomorphic conceptions of Deity began to
look wrong. We are now in a transition period where the new Idea has
not become fully operative, and old modes of thought continue by mo-
mentum to occupy men's minds. The new Synergic Master Idea is mis-
understood as signifying that human cooperation will enable man to
dispense with providential guidance and help. Thus, the Present
Moment is threatened with humanistic and atheistic doctrines that are
totally foreign to the reality of human destiny.

The resulting confusion does not stem from a breakdown in the
religious experience of mankind; but from the new mode of will-action
to which men are still quite unaccustomed. The clearest and strongest
experience of the Supernatural History is that of Union in Love of Man's
creative will with the Supreme Will. This union, and the complete
certainty that accompanies it, is made possible by the operation of the
Unitive Energy (E 2), but it is still an act of will. The creature annihilates
its own separate claim upon existence to find that it need not exist; for
the Will to which it has given itself can equip it with all it needs of both
Being and Function.

The chief point of the experience—and this is neither new nor rare—
is that there is no sense of union with Being but of Will alone. Deified
man does not become God in the sense of Being, but in the sense of
identity of Will. This is the only possible interpretation of the Christian

THE NEXT AGE OF MIND

427

doctrine that the sanctified man becomes the son of God 'by adoption',
for adoption can be nothing else but an act of Will.

We return, then, to the conclusion reached in Vol. II,* that the
pitfalls of pantheism, atheism and anthropomorphism can be avoided
only if we put away the notion that God 'exists' in the way that we exist:
that is, in a state of dependence upon some kind of material support.
Arguments for the 'existence' of God nearly always disregard the obvi-
ous objections that any kind of existence is limitation and that the
Creator of the universe cannot be a part of the creation; which, by
definition, is all that exists.

God, understood as the Supreme Will, creating and sustaining the
universe to be both vehicle and instrument of a Purpose that no creature
can apprehend, is a notion free from contradiction and from unaccept-
able pantheistic implications of the kind expressed in the formula Deus
est omne quodest; or monistic absolutism that makes no sense of the world.
It must satisfy the central religious conviction of man that God is One and
that there is an intimate relationship between God and the soul of man.

We must take into account the conclusion reached, step by step, that
the universe, by its very existence, is involved in evil, and that the soul
of man has taken on the universal taint and that by the Act of Will that
we know as the Incarnation, man was redeemed and given the possibility
of a transformation that will take him beyond the limitations of existence.
This conclusion, almost self-evident if our major premise of Guided
History is accepted, has serious theological implications, for it identifies
the Cosmic Individuality with the Divine Logos and so with the Second
Person of the Holy Trinity incarnated as Jesus of Nazareth. It requires
that the Redemption of mankind be regarded not as a unique act of
will made solely in the context of human history on this planet earth;
but as part of an Act totally present within and throughout the entire
existing universe, that is within the Cosmic Present Moment in-
formed by the Will of God. These implications make it incumbent upon
us to state unequivocally our Christological position.

The Christian faith, as stated in the Nicene Creed, requires belief in:

1. One God, Father and Maker of all things visible and invisible.

2. One Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God consubstantial with the
Father.

* Chapter 27, pp. 80-82. 'God is beyond the highest and also eternally present in
every manifestation of will as the Reconciling Power in every triad.' In Section 11.27.4,
we considered some of the objections to any doctrine of God as a 'Triple Being'.
Without suggesting that this doctrine correctly represents Christian theology, it must
be admitted that expressions are constantly used that do imply that God is 'a' Being
and even that He has functions by which He can be known.

428

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

THE NEXT AGE OF MIND

429

3. The Incarnation for us men.

4. The Crucifixion, Death, Resurrection, Ascension and Return.

5. One Holy Ghost.

6. One Holy Catholic Church.

Eusebius who produced the first draft of this Creed at the Council
describes Christ firstly as the Word of God and after other assertions
of identity calls him Son and first-born before all ages. The term
homoousios inserted as a safeguard against the Arian heresy has become
a central notion for Christian theology and we must accept it.

The notion of sonship is derived from Our Lord's references to His
Father and consubstantiality from John 10:30 'I and my Father are one.'
But we must interpret this in the light of John 17:11, 21 and 22 where
Jesus prays for his disciples that 'they all may be one as thou Father
art in me and I in thee that they may also be one in us.' No reasonable
account can be given of these utterances in terms of existence or even
being; but they are satisfying, conclusive and wholly convincing if we
understand the unity as that of Will.

The relationship of the Son and the Father is not that of creature
and creator, for that would be applicable only to existing beings. It
arises from an Act of Will: hodiegenui te—this day have I begotten thee.
The reference to the Logos or Word of God in John I is wholly compat-
ible with this. But we are not obliged to invoke only Johannine theology;
since any and every passage of scripture, as well as the inspired wording
of the creed, can best be understood if we take God the Father as the
Supreme Creative Will and God the Son as the Individualized Cosmic
Will—consubstantial with the Father as the same will and yet distinct
from the Father as the Individual is from the Unique. The Holy Spirit
proceeding from the Father and the Son—if we accept the version of the
Western Church—can be understood as the Universal Individuality
not involved in Existence. Here we must recognize some ambiguity in
our earlier accounts of the Universal Individuality. We have associated
the Holy Spirit with the Unitive Energy (E 2) partly because in Christian
theology, the third person of the Trinity is the Love of God. But the
Unitive Energy exists and can therefore only be an instrument or a
vehicle for the Will that can direct it. No natural will can encompass
the highest cosmic energies and we can therefore, without contradiction
identify the third Person of the Christian Trinity with the Universal
Individuality 'the Lord and Giver of Life' and also the Power that
'spake by the prophets'. This identification comes down on the side of
the Western Church in the filioque controversy; for the Universal
Individuality, though supernatural, unlimited by existence and Being,

does 'proceed from the Father and the Son'; if by Father we understand
the Supreme Will and by the Son, or Word of God, the Cosmic In-
dividuality. All three are one Will and all are free from every possible
limitation, and in particular those that are inherent in Existence; but
each exemplifies in a distinct manner, the Will that both creates and
sustains the Universe and also sets before it a task to be accomplished.
Thus God as Will creates the Dramatic Situation inherent in the very
existence of the Universe, redeems it from the consequences of its own
failure and restores to it the possibility of fulfilling its task. These three
Hypostases, though necessarily distinct are nevertheless wholly within
the One Undivided Will that is God.

The Human Nature of Christ is by no means less significant than His
Divine Nature. As the Perfect Man—wholly grounded in Existence-
He is the Exemplar standing as the eternal evidence that perfection is
possible even within the limitations of the existing world. He demon-
strates that without ceasing to be Man, it is possible to 'conquer death
with Death' and to overcome sin without destroying the sinner. The
role of Exemplar would be meaningless unless Jesus were wholly Man
with all the limitations of our human nature except the atavistic taint of
sin. This is clearly stated by Paul in Philippians 2.6-7: 'Who being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but
emptied Himself taking the form of a servant,' etc. Not only was Jesus
a man, but he was meek and humble, the stone which the builders
rejected. His 'voiding' of His Godhead made it possible for Him to
perform two necessary operations: that of redemption and that of
exemplification. The first is possible eternally, out of time and place
because He is God and the second was possible historically at a particu-
lar moment of time and place because He was Man. No one else could,
ever has or ever will perform the two-fold operation. But all who are
'called to be saints' are destined to be exemplars according to their kind
and degree. Thus the Godhead of Christ is unique but not localized in
time or place; whereas His Manhood is historical and localized, and yet
not unique inasmuch as it communicates to all those to whom 'He gives
power to be made the Sons of God' (John 1.12).

Throughout the Historical Event, of which we are now witnessing the
promised consummation, the Will of God remains transcendental, unique
and ineffable. Even in the Incarnation, it is not made manifest and
Jesus Himself by reason of His Manhood cannot comprehend it. The
Unity of God, affirmed in the Creed, remains inviolate. The three
Divine Hypostases are not three Beings; but three Characteristic
Operations of the One Will.

430 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

It would seem that this interpretation should be acceptable to Islamic
theology which insists upon the Unity and the Otherness of God (e.g.,
in Qur'an Surat al Ikhlas verses 1 and 4) and yet affirms that God is
nearer to man than his own jugular vein (Surat Qaf verse 16). Only Will
can combine the three-fold property of oneness, otherness and im-
manence. The apparently irreconcilable conflict between Christianity
and Islam seems to come from the affirmation by the one, and the denial
by the other, of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the Sonship of
Christ. The real opposition comes from misunderstanding the role of
Nature. Islamic theologists who are not connected to the tradition of the
Work—that is, those who reject Sufism—tend to disregard nature
including the nature of man himself. The presence in man of a personal
will is grudgingly admitted in the doctrine of the iradeijuz'i or 'minute
will' compared with the iradei qulli or total will of God. The creation
is represented as no more than a means whereby God tests man's belief
(Surat Ibrahim verses 28-34). The significance of Nature as the seat of a
created and yet free will is lacking. This is found in Christianity in the
role of Mary, who in the words fiat mihi, 'be it done unto me according
to thy word', consents to the Working of the Holy Spirit by which the
Incarnation is accomplished.

From the point of view we are developing, the most significant feature
of the role of the Virgin Mary is that it is by an act of will that she fulfils
her role. As she is a natural being, created with the freedom of choice,
she exemplifies the essential character of the relationship between
Nature and God. This is where there appears to be an incompatibility
between Islamic and Christian doctrine. In the Qur'an, (Surat Maryam
verses 16-22) there is no suggestion that Mary's consent had any sig-
nificance or was even asked. The Spirit of God (Rouhana) which appears
to Mary says: 'it is a matter decreed and then she conceived him'. The
Qur'an returns again and again to the expression kun fa yakunu, or a Be and
it was as the unique mode of God's action in the world. This has led to
the extreme predestinarianism of some Islamic theologians and a result-
ing disregard of the role of Nature as the receptive element without
whose consent the Divine Purpose could not be fulfilled. The Surat of
the Bee, which describes Nature as a wholly passive factor in the all-
important relationship of Man to God, seems to support this view
There is no kind of suggestion that there is any freedom in Nature.*

* The phrase kun fa yakunu, 'Be: so it is there!', appears in many passages of the
Qur'an. It asserts that Allah creates and annihilates. In the Surat of Cow, vv. 117-21,
the decree of God in the phrase kun fa yakunu refers to the transformation of human
existence that is to come from the Message brought by Muhammed.

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431

Nevertheless, the same Surat emphasizes the freedom of man to accept
or reject the Messengers of God. The pre-eminence of Muhammad came
from his perfect obedience and submission (Islam) to the Divine Com-
mand. We cannot but see here a parallel between Muhammad and Mary
and indeed some have gone so far as to assert their identity, which is
seen to be in the role of transmission. Both Mary and Muhammad
were channels or vehicles through whom the Divine Operations were
made manifest in the world. The same is true of John the Baptist
who is so closely linked with Mary in the manifestation of Christ.
There are very great differences of degree; but there is a characteristic
role that has to be filled in every manifestation. This is one of the
ways in which we can recognize the pattern which history is destined
to realize.

Whatever views we may hold as to the doctrinal differences, it would
be quite inconsistent to equate Muhammad and Jesus as co-equal
prophets in the manner of Islamic theology. The Prophet of Islam
based his claim upon his perfect submission to the Amr or Will of God.
Jesus claims to be the Incarnation of that very same Amr. The Amr
is not the command (trade) but the will that commands. Jesus is the
Will or Logos of God by virtue of his Deity and the Amir or Commander
by virtue of his humanity.

The strict monotheism of Islam rejects the Christian heresies that
were current in Arabia in Muhammad's day: but it does affirm that
God is to be understood as Ahad, Amr and Zat: that is as One, as Will
and as Essence. There is an immense difference of emphasis as between
the Islamic and Christian orthodoxies: but a remarkable concurrence of
religious experience towards awareness of the Power and Love of God
within the human soul. More than one Islamic mystic has been
accused of Christianizing tendencies in references to Jesus as the Amr of
God, for such references identify Jesus in his spiritual nature with the
second hypostasis of the Trinity Ahad-Amr—Zdt.

The overt conflict of theological doctrines would disappear if both
parties were to think of the Divine Nature in terms of will.

But it is also necessary to come to terms with the Will that operates
in the Creation. This is why the roles of Mary, Muhammad and
Abraham can be seen as the common focus of the three religions of the
West. Remarkably enough, we can find common ground also with
Buddhism if we consider the paradox of the doctrine of non-self, anatman
and that of moksha, liberation, as self-attained. This doctrine requires
belief that man has a central will but not a central being or self, and it also
Implies that there is an act of will by which man can pass beyond the

D.U. IV—16

432 THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

limitations of existence. This act which is no other than the abandon-
ment of the craving for existence, can be placed alongside the Islamic
surrender of separateness and the Christian 'Be it done unto me accord-
ing to thy word'.

Religious dogmas which, interpreted in terms of Being and Function,
are incompatible and even mutually exclusive, are seen to be different
ways of stating the same ultimate truths about Will. We can go further
and see a reconciliation between the dogmas of religion and those of
dialectical materialism providing the latter are understood in theory—
as they must of necessity be in practice—in terms of Will. Dialectical
materialism in effect postulates a cosmic affirmation of progress by
thesis—antithesis—synthesis and a human freedom to respond to and
cooperate in the process, or to reject and oppose it. This is the conflict
of revolution and counter-revolution which would have no meaning
unless understood as acts of will. Upon any strict mechanistic inter-
pretation, which by reducing all experience to behaviour alone
rejects the reality of will, the conflict disappears and with it all
purpose or direction either in private life or in the human community.
Humanism is nothing at all, unless man is credited with the power of
choice.

This is not to say that all religions are one and that there is no differ-
ence between theism and atheism. There are all-important differences
in the Acts of Will postulated in the various doctrines of Man and the
Universe and God. The central theme of the present work is that of the
Dramatic Character of existence and we have seen that this arises
from limitation and the possibility of failure, evil and sin. Since the
Christian faith most explicitly recognizes these features of human
experience, and their necessary concomitant in the Supernatural
Redemption of the world—it would seem to express most fully the needs
and the obligations of mankind. There is, however, a very great step
to be made before the New Dispensation can fulfil its purpose. We are
in the Synergic Epoch, within which humanity is to enter into the
experience of a total Present Moment. This requires the surrender
of all separateness. The Christian Church must surrender its claim to the
exclusive possession of revealed truth. It must be accepted that the
custody of a fuller Revelation confers neither moral superiority over
others nor the right to assert authority. It is as hard for the Christian
believer as for the Muslim or the Jew to surrender the belief that he
belongs to a chosen people, to enable the nobler vision of a true Univer-
sal Church to be realized. This and no less, is the Act of Will that we are
called upon to make: and it could not be made by man's unaided under-

THE NEXT AGE OF MIND 433

standing. On the side of God, it is the Holy Spirit, that enables us to
love; on the side of nature, it is the quality exemplified in Mary and in
Muhammad that enables us to surrender our self-will.

These high Acts of Will would not avail if the present moment were
not ripe. This is the last point we have to make before ending the
present work. Here and now, in the latter part of the twentieth century
of the Christian Era, a supernatural action is taking place. It comes from
beyond Nature and it does not wholly enter into Nature—that is into
the world of earthly life. It is the Presence of the Cosmic Individuality,
that is Christ, transforming the entire human situation. All people are
called to the act of will that will enable the human soul-stuff to be im-
pregnated with the Unitive Energy that is the Love of God. Not many
are able within the present moment to be aware of the Destiny that
leads mankind forward. Untransformed man lives within the small
present moment of his subjective experience and can neither understand
what is occurring upon a far greater scale nor see what is required of
him. This is not to say that psychostatic man has no place in the Great
Work of human progress; but that he must depend upon those who can
see to guide him. The psychokinetic order is open to all; but only some
can reach the degrees of Counsellor or Initiate and so become aware,
in their own experience, of the true character of the event. They can
serve the Great Work consciously; but they, in their turn, depend upon
the radically different insights that are accessible to psychoteleios men.
They alone can be channels of communication between mankind and
those regions of Experience that belong to the Hyparchic Future.
They transmit not only knowledge, but the power of action without
which the world would be held in the fetters of causality and
chance.

Within the present moment of modern man—that is the twentieth
century of the Christian Epoch—few outside the Hidden Directorate are
aware of the true situation; but the destiny of mankind towards a high
and responsible task requires that more and more should become
known. It is in the character of the Synergic Epoch upon which we have
now entered that much should be revealed that has hitherto been hidden.
It is in this sense, that we understand the Parousia or Manifestation
of the Cosmic Individuality. As our last task, we must seek to express
something of the nature of this Manifestation as it emerges from our
long study.

We have the notion of the Millennium that has so plagued the ima-
gination of the Christian world since apostolic times. The meaning of the
term has changed in the minds of people since the early days when it

434

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

stood for the early End of the Age and the coming of Christ in glory.
At the height of the Megalanthropic Epoch, the notion had changed to
that of a humanist paradise won by man and created by his own power.
Nowadays, it has become a term of ridicule attached to those obscure
sects and individuals who believe that some supernatural catastrophe
will bring the world to an end. None of these interpretations correspond
to the picture of Human Destiny that we have drawn in this last volume
of the Dramatic Universe. There is, however, another and far more
remarkable way of looking at the Millennium as a change in the time-
scale of human experience. The pace of events is so accelerating
that, by the end of the present century, major changes in the present
moment will occupy decades instead of centuries: this will compel man-
kind to abandon the present attachment to a single generation or even a
lifetime as a unit of experience. The unit of the present moment must, of
necessity, change so as to restore the sense of stability and integrity that
is threatened by the explosion of progress. Men will begin to think in
millennia and no longer regard their own lives as so important as they
seem now. It may well be that the life-span of people will be greatly
lengthened. Some men may begin to live in full possession of their
powers for five centuries or more. This will bring about a drastic change
in man's sense of the Present Moment. The Millennium will no longer
be regarded as a period of time to be experienced successively by genera-
tions of men and women; but as a Present Moment to be embraced and
experienced as a whole. This in its turn will call for powers of perception
and memory that may now be latent in the genetic constitution of man,
but will have to be released by selective breeding and developed by the
methods and under the conditions of the Psychokinetic Group of
Society.

Then, and then only, can the Great Work come into the open and
be manifested as the Word of God. That self-denial and undemanding
service that Jesus showed in his earthly life will be seen as a necessity
of the new Epoch. Self-effacement will be seen as evidence of merit; and
ambition and the desire for popular acclaim as evidences of a defective
mind. The Christian world will again remember the words of Jesus at
the Last Supper when he washed the disciple's feet, saying: 'Ye ought
to wash one another's feet, for I have given you an example, that ye
should do as I have done to you.' The leadership of self-effacement is a
condition of man's entry into the promise of the New Epoch. This
requires so profound a change in the attitudes and actions of mankind
as to be impossible by any natural process of evolution or even by the
devoted work of the nascent Psychokinetic Order of Society. It can be

THE NEXT AGE OF MIND

435

achieved only by an Intervention from beyond the natural order. This
Intervention, now in progress, takes innumerable forms and calls for
our cooperation to the extent of our powers and understanding. This
makes the present moment of history one of the most interesting and
most important since man was first endowed with Mind.

The Universe is nothing if not interesting; and it is interesting be-
cause it is the scene of a prodigious Drama, of hope and hazard, of a
marvellous harmony and of an equally amazing uncertainty and disorder.
We men are entirely involved in this Drama, but we are not and we can-
not be alone. Intelligences of a higher order are intimately concerned in
our destiny as we should be concerned in that of the humblest forms
of life that share with us the surface of the Earth. The bond of Love that
unites the visible and the invisible is created by our acceptance of mu-
tual dependence. This dependence is not to be understood rightly within
the Present Moment of our mental activity. The contradictions and
absurdities of life as it presents itself to our experience can never be
reconciled within the narrow limits of space and time. That is why we
regard the chief contribution made in this Essay to a better under-
standing of Man and his Destiny as consisting in the extension of our
framework in the dimensions of Eternity and Hyparxis and in the central
theme of the present volume: the Intelligent Guidance of History.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Used with Special or Technical Meanings

ACCELERATED
PROGRESS, Law of

ACTION

AMORPHOUS

AZOIC

CENTRES OF
TRANSFORMATION

COALESCENCE

COMPRESENCE

COSMIC

INDIVIDUALITY

The empirical observation that equal incre-
ments of progress in the Biosphere require
diminishing durations of time according to a
logarithmic law. (pp. 166-9)

The simplest kind of change in which there is
no gain or loss of either energy or order, (p. 75)

The state of the pre-crystalline earth. The first
stage of evolution towards life. (pp. 121-2)

The time of formation of the earth's crust and
the oceans, (pp. 126-7)

The four hypothetical regions where 35,000 to
40,000 years ago the human mind was endowed
with creativity and man became Homo sapiens
sapiens. Withdrew 12,000 years ago in Epoch
of Language Creation (pp. 259-63). Sources of
the four main cultures: Creator God (q.v.),
Great Mother (q.v.), Great Spirit (q.v.), Savi-
our God (q.v.). (pp. 244-52)

The result of an act of Will whereby compre-
sent elements are fused into a substantial unity.
(pp. 4-8)

The mode of togetherness where the bond is the
result of an external action as when the energies
of mind are brought together in the early stages
of life's evolution, (p. 28)

The Supreme Will manifesting in the Universe
as an Independent Source (cf. Vol. II). In this
volume, is identified with Christ, the Son of
God. (pp. 338-44)

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

437

CREATION

CREATOR GOD
CULTURE

CYCLES, GREAT

The operation whereby the Cosmic Energies
harmonize Destiny with the Foreordained Plan.
(p. 79)

A body of traditional beliefs and practices
probably developed in Africa and based on
Sun-Worship and the sense of the Unity and
Absolute Supremacy of God. (pp. 270-5)

In Human History. Periods of some 25,000
years in which decisive transformations of man's
nature are observed to occur, (p. 171)

DEMIURGE, A level of being superior to man in conscious-

DEMIURGIC ness and creativity. The instruments of the

INTELLIGENCE, Universal Individuality whereby the evolution

DEMIURGIC POWERS of life on the earth has been aided and guided

within the framework of natural laws. (pp. 94,
131, and 295)

DEVELOPMENT

DIRECTORATE,
HIDDEN

EDAPHOS, EDAPHIC
HISTORY

EGOISM

ENABLEMENT

EVENT(S)

A process within the present moment (q.v.) that
is directed towards a definite end-point and the
maximum expression of a particular pattern of
potentialities, (p. 77)

(see Hidden)

The soil and its development and transforma-
tion with special reference to its place in man's
evolution on the earth, (pp. 82-3)

The central defect of human nature on account
of which man rejects his r61e of service to the
cosmic purpose in order to satisfy his own im-
pulses. The atavistic taint in the human Soul-
Stuff (q.v.). (pp. 252-9)

The operation whereby Will in the Hyparchic
Future (q.v.) and unattached to Existence makes
possible transformations within the Present
Moment (q.v.). (pp. 131, 418-19)

The coalescence of a group of happenings to
give a significant pattern that is more than
temporal. The building bricks of history,
(pp. 68-71)

438
FOREORDAINMENT

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

FORMATION

GREAT MOTHER
CULTURE

GREAT SPIRIT
CULTURE

GUIDANCE, GUIDES

HEMITHEANDROS,
HEMITHEANDRIC

HIDDEN
DIRECTORATE

The plan of creation that takes form as the
hyparchic creative plan and becomes effectual
as the eternal pattern. Foreordainment com-
pletes with Predestination and Predetermina-
tion the three modes of the 'Future', (p. 64)

Change in the Present Moment (q.v.) that con-
forms to an orderly pattern and yields enduring
objects, (p. 76)

(see Hyparchic Future)

A body of traditional beliefs and practices,
originating in S.W. Asia some 10,000 years ago,
according to which man descended from a com-
mon mother who also endowed him with all the
arts of life. (pp. 263-5)

All ways of life founded on belief in a supreme
—generally impersonal—Spirit Power that is
the Source of order and that can be invoked by
magic and ritual: originated in the Far East
and spread to America and most parts of the
world, though usually combined with other
beliefs, (pp. 268-70)

Change within the Present Moment {q.v.),
where the activity is selectively directed to-
wards a destination, (p. 77)

The doctrine that the evolutionary progress,
including that of mankind, requires and has re-
ceived help and direction from superhuman
Intelligences {q.v.). (pp. 193, 251, 325)

Man believed to have superhuman attributes
and powers enabling him to act as intermediary
between the gods and ordinary people. The H.
Epoch from 3200 to 800 B.C. is that of Heroes
and Priest-Kings, (pp. 307-10)

Hypothetical group of Psychoteleios men in
contact with the Hyparchic Future {q.v.) and
able to influence without overt intervention the
course of historical events to assure the orderly
progress of mankind, (pp. 325-7)

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

439

HYPARCHIC FUTURE

(also Past and Present)

ILLUMINATION

INTELLIGENCE

INTERACTION

MAGIC

MEGALANTHROPIC,
MEGALANTHROPY

MENTAL OBJECTS

MIND

MIND-STUFF POOL

A region of experience in which the Will is free
from the limitations of existence and yet can
operate to produce transformations {q.v.). Has
the characteristic of the Future, except that it is
free from all pre-determination (p. 51). Equated
to the 'Kingdom of Heaven' (p. 348). The same
condition can also be experienced within the
present moment (ecstasy or transformation),
and can remain in the Past (the Living Past).

The state of the supraconscious soul aware of
Destiny in the Hyparchic Future, (pp. 94-5)

The coalescence of consciousness and creativity
to produce 'Higher Mind' or Higher Wisdom.
(p.95)

The simplest kind of change which involves
exchanges of energy, (p. 75)

The operation of Will whereby transformations
of Mind can be produced. The work of Intelli-
gence in the material world, (pp. 231-4)

The ascription of over-riding significance and
value to the human person. The Epoch from
550 B.C. to A.D. 1850 during which this attitude
dominated mankind, (pp. 328 and 360)

The content of the present moment. They can
be immediate, that is, actual; or latent, that is,
in the state of potentiality, (pp. 15-62)

The compresence of consciousness with sensi-
tivity and automatism. The field of immediate
experience in man. The precursor of soul {q.v.).
The history of mind is the history of man.
(pp. 197-204)

The compresence of the accumulated sensitive
energy that has preserved the experiences of
animals and men through whom it has passed.
The precursor of the Soul-Stuff Pool {q.v.).
(pp. 202-4)

FUTURE

GROWTH

440
ORDER

PATTERN

PLAN

POOL(S)
PREDESTINATION

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

The compresence of compatible elements. The
eternal component of any present moment.
There are 'orders of order' (p. 20). Increase of
order is a criterion of progress, (pp. 412-13)

The structure of potentialities that sets up an
organizing field in the Present Moment (q.v.).
The link between the hyparchic plan and its
temporal actualization, (pp. 32 and 123)

The foreordained structure which all Existence
is set to realize, also applied to any finite situ-
ation including human destiny, (pp. 49,114-20)

(see Mind-stuff and Soul-stuff)

The plan of history taking form in the Hypar-
chic Future (q.v.) in response to the Fore-
ordained (q.v.) Purpose of Creation, (p. 63)

PRESENT MOMENT

PROGRESS

SAVIOUR GOD
CULTURE

The field of operation of a Will. The Present
Moment is a state of incessant flux under in-
fluences entering from sources that we call
'past', 'future', 'form', 'pattern', 'decision',
'freedom', i.e. the determining conditions of
Time, Eternity and Hyparxis. The present
moment varies in extent and duration according
to the strength or weakness of its presiding will,
(p. 41, etc.)

The transition from a less to a more ordered
state within a given Present Moment (q.v.) is
the progress of that moment. Progress in one
Present Moment may be at the expense of re-
gress in another. Progress is also the way of re-
turn to the Perfectly Ordered Source, (p. 147)

A body of beliefs and practices believed to have
originated in the Arctic Circle about 12,000
years ago and based on the sense of dependence
on a Divine Being to deliver the world from the
darkness of winter. This afterwards evolved to-
wards a doctrine of Divine Salvation and hence
to the Christian doctrine of Redemption, (pp.
275-84)

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

441

SCHOOLS OF
WISDOM

SIN

SOUL

SOUL-STUFF
POOL

SYNERGIC,
SYNERGY

TRANSFORMATION

UNEXPECTEDNESS

WAR WITH TIME

WILL

WORK, THE
GREAT

Groups of men of the Psychoteleios and Psycho-
kinetic orders engaged in the transmission of
Higher Energies and wisdom to mankind.
(p. 382)

The rejection by man of his obligation to serve
the purpose of his existence. The misuse of
freedom latent in the human will. (p. 257)

The coalescence of the elements of the human
Mind-stuff to produce a stable entity inde-
pendent of the physical body. (p. 165)

The compresence in a state of compatibility,
but without organization, of the sensitive and
conscious energy that has passed through the
experience of mankind. From this is drawn the
material for the formation of new human selves.,
(pp. 204, 323)

The state of co-operation between the lower
and higher natures of man. Also the social
state of co-operation between man and the Uni-
versal Individuality, (pp. 340, 386)

The kind of process in which there is co-opera-
tion between entities of different levels to pro-
duce a higher degree of order within the com-
mon Present Moment they share, (p. 78)

A distinguishing mark of hyparchic operations
that have no temporal antecedents, (p. 115)

Picturesque description of the operations by
which the disordering effect of temporal suc-
cession is diminished, neutralized or overcome,
(pp. 6-7)

The active principle in the triad Function-
Being-Will. The mark of Individuality. The
sole power able to convert a compresence into
a coalescence (q.v.) (p. 14)

The operation whereby the deviations and dis-
tortions in humanity's progress towards fulfill-
ing the aim of Existence are rectified and the
evolution of mankind sustained, (p. 295)

THE DRAMATIC UNIVERSE

J. G. Bennett

J. G. Bennett (1897-1974) devoted his life to unravelling the mysteries of
human existence and the secrets of human transformation. Taking the ideas
and methods of G. I. Gurdjieff as a starting point, he set himself to discover,
in a practical way, the means whereby a man could attain the freedom that is
the aim of all religions and philosophical systems. Although his life was
very much a 'work in progress', Bennett did come to certain conclusions
concerning the universal drama and he set forth these conclusions in his
four-volume work, The Dramatic Universe.

In this great work, Bennett presents a unified vision of God, man, and the
universe in which Fact and Value are reconciled through the Doctrine of
Reciprocal Maintenance. The latter is one of the 'crumbs from the ideas
table of Gurdjieff, but The Dramatic Universe is more than a presentation
of Gurdjieff's ideas. It is a systemization of all human experience,
combining science, religion, history, and philosophy into a realistic picture
of man and his world accessible to everyone.

The breadth of J. G. Bennett's vision is clear in reading The Dramatic
Universe. Volume I is concerned with the world of Fact, based on the idea
that all knowledge cannot be contained in space and time alone, and that it
is necessary to take into account the unseen inner dimensions of eternity
and hyparxis. In Volume II, Bennett presents a systemization of Value,
going beyond the knowable into the realms of Being and Will. Volume III
concerns man and his nature, and in the final volume, Bennett applies the
conclusions previously reached to a study of history. He presents evidence
that the evolution of life on earth has been guided by a high but limited
intelligence, and discusses the implications this has for the fulfillment of
human destiny, both that of the individual and of societies.

The Dramatic Universe is an astonishing and inspiring work. Through it,
readers can become acquainted with the tremendous vision given to J. G.
Bennett, a vision he shared with others throughout his sojourn in this world.

"In these days when even specialists can keep abreast of work in their fields
only by means of abstracts, it is an awe inspiring spectacle to find a man who
takes all knowledge for his province. Such a man is J. G. Bennett."

The (London) Times Literary Supplement

"Bennett...is not simply giving us Ouspensky with different terminology.
After leaving that starting-off place, he has made full use, on the way to these
conclusions, of his own knowledge and expertise. And I for one am grateful to
him."

J. B. Priestly, Author Man and Time

Claymont Communications

Box 112
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