Cave of Forgotten Dreams (film notes)

“The paleolithic world was suffused with fluidity and permeability . . . . there were no barriers between man and animal.”

-Jean Clottes


Clottes suggests that humans are best thought of as religious beings — homo spiritualis; for Paleolithic man, “no barrier [existed] between the world where we are and the world of the spirits."

Book by David Lewis-Williams and Jean Clottes:
The Shamans of Prehistory: Trance and Magic in the Painted Caves

Gilles Tosello - Artist/Archeologist (find his layered tracings of Chauvet Cave walls)

Origins of Art essay from Encyclopedia of Science and Religion

Article Notes:

Environmental Variability over Time = Evolution of a Species with Flexible Cognition = Species Collective Consciousness Perceives Flux, Fluidity, and Permeability in World-Truth-Reality. Therefore, the World as we fundamentally experience it is unstable and indeterminate. World-Truth-Reality is stabilized by different vehicles for materializing story-myth-ideas (art-religion-science). Stabilization invites confidence in success/survival, which in turn benefits chances of success/survival of Species.

The most Successful ("Universal") story-myth-ideas (art-religion-science) resonate across generations, due to continuities in our genetics and the consistencies in our fluctuant environment.

Short lived (topical) story-myth-ideas (art-religion-science) resonate only within the span of Time in which they are consistent with the transient character of genetic/environmental factors that affect our cognition.

All story-myth-ideas (art-religion-science) may, in fact, be "topical" relative the Immensity of Time.

Unsuccessful story-myth-ideas (art-religion-science) lack even immediate resonance as a result of perceived artificiality or inconsistency in the context of the current Species Collective Consciousness. These unsuccessful materializations are permanently discarded unless they find resonance later in Time, due to specific shifts in the Species Collective Consciousness that increase their relevance/benefit to this fluctuant Evolution of our Species.