Today we celebrate the International Day of Nonviolence. It is an exceptional moment to reflect on our collective destiny, as Mahatma Gandhi did a hundred years ago in India.
If Gandhi were alive today, he would be astonished by the fragmentation tendency we are globally experiencing. In fact, we find fragmentation is in all sectors of human activity, in politics, in culture, in Nation, in religions, in business, in families, and even in human beings as the mental health issues are increasing in populations around the world. Worse, there seems to be no solution to stop this tendency to fragment everything and the more we fragment and the more we fear and hate others as violent conflicts awaken everywhere on the planet.
Perhaps part of the solution to overcome the fragmentation tendency lies in our distant past. In her essay, An ode to human species reconciliation and the recovery of its original tendency of adaptation and evolution, Anne Farrell describes the original tendency of adaptation and evolution of the human species which began to enfolded 3 million years ago.
The original tendency of our ancestors generated a unique way to adapt to sudden changes in the environment. Unlike the lions, our ancestors did not develop great physical strength to protect and defend its offspring. Our ancestors did not have fur to protect themselves from the cold, like bison; they did not run fast, like horses, to escape danger; and they did not possess a keen sense of smell or sharp eyesight, like wolves, to hunt animals. But our ancestors acquired a unique inseparable living-being-environment tendency of growing adaptation and evolution, said Anne Farrell.
According to Farrell, the hearth (1) created 300,000 years ago was the cradle of the human species’ spiritual, social and mental original tendency. From the hearth unfolded the original tendency of adaptation (the record and memorizing mnemonic imprints) of our ancestors. This tendency was an inseparable structure which included both men and women adaptation process. In fact, this tendency was accompanied by a particular look in the field of attention. This particular look was linked to a primitive consciousness-world structure and data and information of the process of adaptation of both genders were formalized by this primitive structure (during the prehistory there were no predetermined roles between genders).
In my work I demonstrate evidence that the keys to unlock humanity’s future lie in the prehistory of our own species. It’s within the prehistory context that I orient my research, 99% of our species’ history lies in this period of approximately three million years. Thus, it seemed obvious to me that our species had developed significant interesting characteristics and attributes during this time in order to adapt, evolve, and avoid extinction, like their distant cousin Neanderthal, said Anne Farrell
Thus, the tendency of adaptation and evolution of our ancestors was accompanied by a look based on the collaboration of both species members. Farrell called that collaborative look the binocular look. Thanks to this collaborative look, the original tendency of adaptation of our ancestors shaped the fundamental inclination towards the protection of life as a whole. But through history a rupture damage the original tendency of adaptation of the human species.
By studying the original tendency of adaptation and evolution of our ancestors, I was able to pinpoint the moment of rupture. Per say the moment when a fragmentation was introduced and damaged the ability to adapt and evolve of our ancestors. This rupture occurred in the attentional field of our species more than 10,000 years ago. From this moment on, a process of fragmentation within our species advanced. Moreover it was at that moment that the expression of half of humanity began to vanish with the introduction of the discrimination against women, said Farrell.
Farrell explains how during the moment of rupture fundamental inclination information and data towards the protection of life as a whole structure were lost as the attention fields shrank to a monocular look. This shift in the attentional fields of our ancestors significantly increased the tension in the psychophysical structure of both men and women. In turn these tensions increased the activities of the instincts of self preservation (2) which took a certain control over the psychophysical structure of the species limiting free energy available for the psychism to formalized new evolutionary steps.
By losing the access to the original tendency of adaptation and evolution, the human species lost the freedom to elaborate new responses to adapt to a complex context. In short, figuratively speaking, by adopting a monocular look the fields of attention lost the access to the recording and memorizing mnemonic imprints located 30-degree depth in mental space, said the author.
Furthermore, Farrell explains that by losing the access of our primitive tendency of adaptation in the deep mental space we lost the fundamental adaptive skills to protect life as a global structure.
According to the author in critical historical moments, signals are sent from this primitive structure to various points of tensions into the psychophysical structure of the human beings. These point of tensions activate the activities of the self-preservation instincts and the impulses produce by theses instincts are interpreted and translated into images of contamination and devastation by a multitude of people who possess a certain personal and cultural sensitivity.
Signals come from the deep mental space of the human species. These signals are distress signals generated by the primitive and evolutionary spiritual, social and mental tendency that is still encapsulated. It’s a bit as if this tendency has remained hidden within our species – but in critical moments and when the entire structure of life is threatened this primitive is sending signals. These signals have percolated and penetrated the deep mental space of the human species from the beginning of civilization. In fact, it is not surprising to find large part of the ancient myths announcing disasters, floods, and contaminations. Even today, we have observe that for the last few decades, artists, writers, and producers have been presenting catastrophic and dystrophic future. Indeed, many are translating these signals emanating from the deep mental human space into narratives and stories. They translate these signals of the vital tensions of the human species through dystopias that present a devastating future with mass extinction. In fact, it seems clear to us that by interpreting these signals through a monocular look, things can only get worse, underline Farrell.
According to Farrell, there are others, such as Gandhi and mysthical people that interpret these signals as the need to protect the human species against future threats, that is, to protect them from this fragmentation and destructive tendency which discriminate, exclude, eliminate, or annihilate human beings.
We live in a globalized world and some of our attitudes and above all our way of being in the world doesn’t support an increasing adaptation to a complex context with various psychosocial, economical, religious, political, technological and cultural factors. Powerful evidence leads us to comprehend that a monocular look increases our inability to develop adaptive responses to protect life as a whole when facing collective threats such as nuclear annihilation, climate change and a possible global annihilation by AI agents out of control. In fact, this inability lies essentially in our institutions which were built from a monocular perspective. But there is good news, today millions of people are seeking ways to open the future; they are searching for a direction. We believe this quest for meaning comes from the signals sent by the primitive tendency of adaptation of the human species which may be awakening within the minds of hundreds of millions of people around the world. We believe the human beings have the opportunity to reconcile with our species and by doing so could regain access to the record and memorize mnemonic imprints of this original tendency of adaptation and evolution buried deep within the collective mental space, said Farrell.
Anne Farrell, will be hosting a webinar on October 7 with the presentation of our research. The book, An ode to human species reconciliation and the recovery of its original tendency of adaptation and evolution will be available online later in October.
About the author
In our research Farrell blends perspective from the social sciences communications (psychology, anthropology and archeology). Her research focuses primarily on the field of attention(5) and the mechanism of the intentionality of the consciousness. In 2008, she published a research on the sensation of immersion, presence, and co-presence felt by gamers in virtual environments. Drawing on several concepts from the psychology of Universalist Humanism, she describes how to the illusion of “being there” inside a virtual space is activated by the shifts of attention in the fields of presence and co-presence.
In 2024, she published the book A meaning of life defying the inevitability of mass extinction. In that work, she explains how the human consciousness cannot amplify its freedom of operation and transform the subject-consciousness-world structure to adapt to a globalized world under the present social an cultural conditions. Consequently, humanity’s capacity to adapt to an increasingly complex context is limited. Thus immersed in a world dominated by a form of vegetative consciousness, the experience of meaning projected toward a new future becomes lost.
In that work, she explains how the accumulation of valid actions allowed to order the inner world chaos. Valid action is central to her quest for meaning. According to her experience, the Golden Rule ultimately helps others to overcome suffering while allowing the one who has performed the action to experience inner growth and transcend the self-absorption tendency.
Finally she underlined how she was able to reach a Sacred inner space—through various meditative practices and in this space received the revelation of a profound meaning of life which activate images of a new future.
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Notes:
(1) According to Karen Rhon research, the original system of imagery was formed from the matriarchal social structure and the hearth – (first basic technology applied in mastering the conservation of fire). This primitive structure and system of imagery allowed our ancestors to adapt and survive harsh and hostile conditions. For millions of years old, the hearth prepared the ground for the successive emergence of the various historical actors of the Neolithic period. All of this came to life thanks to the rudimentary technology of the oven (and of course to the preservation and production of fire) and the matriarchal social structure.
(2) The activities of the instincts of self preservation – vegetative consciousness is characterized by what the Universalist humanism psychology calls diffuse vitality, where everything is oriented according to the needs of the psychophysical structure which is regulated by the vegetative center. It regulates the body’s internal activity by providing balancing responses to imbalances produced and by sending signals to other centers, so that they mobilize to satisfy its needs, to avoid the pain that one feels or to prolong the pleasure that one experiences.
(3) Attention – the mechanism of the primitive consciousness that allows our ancestors to shift their attention to the moving senses while maintaining the act of representation within the field of perception. The primitive consciousness possesses an aptitude for observation, which was attention. The operations of attention allow this primitive structure to observe both internal and external phenomena. Thus, hearing a noise without the participation of my intention differs from actively seeking out a specific noise. Silo defines the act of apperception as the faculty of consciousness to direct itself, by means of attention, toward its sources of sensory information. (Notes of psychology, Silo)
(4) Psychism emerges as a function of life in growing adaptation—and in evolution. Through time and adaptation the psychism (apparatuses of response, which include the senses, memory and the primitive consciousness) became more specialized; for example, the neurohormonal centers will develop from their original vegetative function until producing an intellect of increasing complexity. Depending on its degree of work (internal or external), the consciousness has gained levels from deep sleep to semi-sleep and subsequently an increasingly lucid level of alertness. (Notes of Psychology, p.17, Silo)
(5) Fields of attention – when we speak of the field of attention, we are referring to the field of presence and copresence as defined in the psychology of Universalist Humanism. The field of presence is related to perception. Thus, everything that does not appear strictly linked to the central object is diluted in attention, accompanying the presence of the object through associative relationships with other objects that are not present but are nonetheless related to it. This phenomenon of attention is called the field of copresence and is related to memory.
References
Silo, 2011, Notes de Psychologie, Paris: Éditions Références, 347 p.
Rohn Karen, 2018, Reflections on a text in a personal letter from Silo, Parks of Study and Reflection Punta de Vacas, Argentina, 23 p
