ever-present origin
| Title | ever-present origin |
|---|---|
| Original title | Ursprung und Gegenwart |
| Author | Jean Gebser ; authorized translation by Noel Barstad and Algis Mickunas. |
| Publication | Ohio Univ. Pr. |
| Size | XXXII, 614p |
| Language |  ENG |
| ISBN | 9780821402191 |
| Topics |
Civilization--History Civilization--Philosophy Intellectual life--History Civilization--Western Civilization Civilization |
| Notes | A Review Essay on Jean Gebser : Toward a New Consciousness by Georg Feuerstein. === Gebser's monumental work The Ever-Present Origin is an outstanding contribution toward the archeology of consciousness. Basically, Gebser illustrates, using a wealth of cultural-historical data, a) that our human species has traversed a series of cognitive leaps, or restructurings of consciousness, and b) that we are currently witnesses to, and participants in, a fifth major reorganization of our cognitive field—the emergent arational structure of consciousness.* Gebser further argues c) that the modern psyche is the aggregate of all historically preceding structure and d) that these must be lived according to their own particular valency and in integrated harmony. * Mental Structure : The mental structure of consciousness, as the name suggests, is the domain of mens, the thinking mind, of reasoning in its different forms. It is a cognitive style, or paradigm, that operates on the principle of duality, of either/or. It implies a conscious subject that experiences itself as standing apart from the objects, or contents, of awareness. According to Gebser and other historians, this style of cognition is a relative latecomer in the noetic evolution of humankind. It made its appearance around the middle of the first millennium BC—the age of Pythagoras, Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato in Greece, Gautama the Buddha and Mahavira in India, and Leo-Tzu and Confucius in China. What we see in all these thinkers is an astounding ability to reason, though without sacrificing the mythical dimension of existence, which pertains to values and feelings. Only with the European Renaissance do we see the seedlings of a new rationality that is at once more egocentric and demythologizing—the kind of rationality that has led us into the cul-de-sac of the nuclear arms race and the ecological devastation of our planet. * Mythical Structure : Representing a degree of consciousness (and of subjectivity) that is less focused and more diffuse than the mental structure is the mythical structure of consciousness. It is a cognitive style that operates with polarity rather than duality, and unfolds through symbol rather than calculus, myth rather than hypothesis, feeling or intuition rather than abstract thinking, and value-creation rather than fact-finding, as well as interpersonal sensitivity rather than interpersonal (egoic) dialogue or conflict. It is the type of consciousness that has been and still is responsible for the world's immense variety of religious traditions, art, and literature. * Magical Structure : A still more diffuse (pre-egoic) awareness is represented by the magical structure of consciousness. It operates on the principle of identity, as it is expressed in analogical "thinking". This is the kind of mental activity that, through a gut-level (archetypal) response, relates apparently disjointed elements into a whole—but a whole that does not necessarily make sense from a rational, logical point of view. We see this style of cognition in action in the marvelous hunting scenes depicted in the stone-age cave paintings. These early works of art are really signposts of a primitive hunting ritual: They anticipate the death of the animal to be slain, its heart pierced by an infallible (because magically guided) spear or arrow. * Archaic Structure : The simplest and earliest identifiable cognitive style is that of the archaic structure of consciousness. It has the least degree of self-awareness, and is almost completely instinctual. Historically, it predates the Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. For Gebser, the archaic consciousness represents a consciousness of maximum latency and minimum transparency. That is to say, it contains the possibility of further evolution but is itself dim. Gebser referred to a cryptic remark by Chuang Tzu (circa 350 BC) who said that the "true men" of earlier times slept dreamlessly. This suggests that they had no self-awareness sufficient to generate dreams. While the statement is mythological and probably wrong (since apparently apes and even dogs dream), it nevertheless contains a significant clue to the general psychic condition of pre-Neanderthal humanity. For Gebser, the archaic structure of consciousness is closest to the "ever-present origin". Indeed, we may postulate that it shares certain features of the transspatial/transtemporal origin, such as synchronicity. The arational-integral structure, which is trying to constellate itself in our epoch, is an integrating type of consciousness that transcends all preceding (but still co-present) structures of consciousness. |
901
GEBS 5
27818
Available
© Auroville Library |
2014-2025