Man and Consciousness

While still an animal, before Man awoke, Man’s response to his (her) experience was limited to instinct.  Instinct, while thought to exist at lower thought levels than human thought, is nevertheless very sophisticated.  It requires interaction with not only the present, but also insists upon connection to the future as well as the past.  Instinct cannot arise out of a void.  Is it possible that instinct came into existence because of trial and error?  In other words, as a species made effort(s) to survive the present, the information about its attempts and correlated outcomes was encoded at the cellular level.  Eventually, the awareness of trial and error became a part of DNA.  This is the connection to the past.  In order for instinct to exist, there must be a (limited) consciousness about the future.  Instinct is, after all, about survival, and survival is always concerned with the future, in addition to the Now. 

When a pregnant elephant is ready to deliver her baby, she typically does so in the company of the herd.  Recently, Sixty Minutes produced a report on orphaned elephants.  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/19/60minutes/main4677338.shtml  The elephants are orphaned because of ivory poachers.  In the course of their investigative report, one of the female elephants was ready to deliver.  She separated herself from the herd and delivered her baby, safely, naturally, but alone.  Within a short time period, she and her baby were surrounded by six lions.  The lions enacted a highly successful approach, using distraction and strength in numbers.  The elephant calf did not have a chance at survival.  Research suggests that elephants mourn, that they grieve, and most scientists agree that elephants have some kind of memory that is above that which we usually connect to most mammals.  Perhaps this sophistication has reached a level where generations of genetic expression—trial and error—are no longer required for learning a lesson.  In the case of this particular elephant, the next time she was pregnant and the time of birth arrived, she remained in the protection of the herd, and thereby increased her calf’s likelihood of survival.  In a similar manner, the lions increased their own likelihood of survival by engaging in a group approach.  It is unlikely that, had it been only one lion attempting to win the elephant calf, that s/he would have returned at the next birth, with a group, as though a light bulb had illuminated over its head while lamenting its lack of dinner, “Aha!  Maybe next time I’ll bring the gang and we’ll have baby elephant!”  Yet, it can be assumed that, in fact, this is the thinking that eventually was relayed genetically through trial and error, so that now lions know to hunt in groups and coordinate their approach without having to convene a powwow first.  It is noted that the mother elephant engaged in typical elephant behavior with respect to the lions—stamping toward them, raising her trunk, trumpeting—all behaviors that typically fend off lions—as long as the elephant is not alone.

Every spring for the past six years, a male and female bird find the nest that was built on a pillar on my front porch.  This year, the couple seems to be some type of wren.  In years past, they have been swallows.  They attend to the nest, pulling out what they do not want (perhaps last year’s refuse) and bringing in new bits and pieces to adjust the nest to their liking.  To their liking?  To their genetically coded necessity?  While I have not been able to watch this couple enough to see if they engage in the same behavior as did the swallows, I do know that the survival of the babies depends on their ability to function in a way that most likely guarantees their success.  With respect to the swallows of past years, they have taken turns bringing food, taken turns leaving the nest to bring back sustenance, even though I have also often seen the male keeping watch while the female flits back and forth.  They are acting out of a historical understanding of all the birds that have come before them, as they act out their preparation for the future and the survival of their young.  They must be glad my cat cannot climb the pillar.  That is to say, he cannot climb it yet.

What is instinct’s relationship to Higher Consciousness?  Is instinct, as some Biblical Creationists claim, evidence that God created animals with a “knowing?”  (see http://www.creationmoments.com/)  Giraffes do not have a long neck because of having to find their appropriate food (acacia buds) up high; they eat acacia buds because God has given them particularly long necks along with—what a thoughtful creator—the appropriate high blood pressure needed to keep their brains alive.  While there are certainly those who discount evolution (entirely), the author assumes that the scientific community at large ascribes to the theory of evolution.   It is the search for the origin of Man—or perhaps more accurately the search for the origin of conscious Man—and not “just” the origin of human life in the Universe, that continues to provide opportunity for DNA transformation within Man. 

We only know that death is a part of life because we have a historical knowing that we will die.  Lives and deaths have been recorded in different ways in different places.  To the extent that we can decipher that history, we can discover what previous generations knew or believed about death.  Each generation does not discover death; however, each individual does discover his or her own relationship and understanding of death, and this understanding and relationship depends on many variables.  This week, archeologists uncovered tombs of mummies in Egypt; what they unearthed seems to be a veritable treasure chest of death.  Vivid colors adorn the wooden cases and one can imagine the excitement of those who found these mummies.   It is postulated that there may be some findings that will alter previous scientific assertions.  However, these mummies, ancient as they may be, are much closer to us in the present, on Earth’s timeline, than they are to historical Man.  Ancient Egyptians had a specific understanding of life, death, and the after life.    It can be argued that their understanding(s) of such things were highly dependant upon their ancestors’ experiences with life and death.  Man is conscious, and because of this consciousness, death has ceremony.

Hindus burn their dead (there are a few exceptions)  in order to release the soul from its connection to its earthly body, as it is believed that as long as the physical body retains a form, the astral body cannot leave.  (However, burning alone is sometimes not the only way the body is treated.  At a certain point, the skull may be cracked open in order to allow the soul to depart.) After cremation, there begins a days-long experience that includes disposing of the ashes into a river, and culminates in the crossing over and going beyond (for the departed).   There are ritual cleansings for not only the dead, but the family members, as well.  Zoroastrianism (Parsees) dictates that bodies must be disposed of in the way which is least harmful to those still alive.   The Zoroastrian funeral ceremony requires that the dead be exposed to sunlight and to flesh-devouring birds.  The deceased is carried to the Tower of Silence by specific individuals.  The body is left, not only to the elements (as are the funeral cloths in a pit) but, left to become only elements.  As the dead are offered to the birds of the air, and subject to the elements of time and weather, so are the dead returned to the basic chemical elements which comprise organic matter—whether through decomposition or ingestion. 

Funeral ceremonies are a manifestation of belief about the supernatural.  As such, funeral ceremonies belong only to evolved beings, but this does not mean that all evolved beings believe the same thing about the supernatural.  In fact, at this point in the consciousness of Man, it can be argued that our ideas about life, death, and the supernatural (or whether there even exists such a thing) are as diverse as the languages on our planet.  Yet one thing is sure:  When consciousness arose, God was discovered by Man.