BristolRob
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2006
- Messages
- 349
If under psychedelics the ego moves towards dissolution - and we experience this great fluidity of association that we tend to appraise positively - then why has the ego happened?
In evolutionary terms, there must be something about the ego-less state of consciousness that wasn't as favourable to survival as the "ego-full" state of consciousness.
According to some theories, the ego probably developed to constrain behaviours and curtail actions that threatened the cohesion of the clan - these behaviours were probably punished quite freely through death or castration (in case of males).
According to this theory, the idea of original sin is correct - "in the beginning was the deed" - psychedelics take us back to the Garden of Eden prior to the commiting of the act - prior to the evoltionary development of the ego and repression to cover and curtail the primary state of consciousness in which these actions occured
This is based on Freud's ideas as an extention of Darwin's
One major problem with this theory is the question of whether our actions are more primitive and less constrained under psychedelics - I would be tempted to say they aren't - but I do think they can go that way - and might be even more inclined to do so if there was no ego-full state with which to judge the ego-less state
In evolutionary terms, there must be something about the ego-less state of consciousness that wasn't as favourable to survival as the "ego-full" state of consciousness.
According to some theories, the ego probably developed to constrain behaviours and curtail actions that threatened the cohesion of the clan - these behaviours were probably punished quite freely through death or castration (in case of males).
According to this theory, the idea of original sin is correct - "in the beginning was the deed" - psychedelics take us back to the Garden of Eden prior to the commiting of the act - prior to the evoltionary development of the ego and repression to cover and curtail the primary state of consciousness in which these actions occured
This is based on Freud's ideas as an extention of Darwin's
One major problem with this theory is the question of whether our actions are more primitive and less constrained under psychedelics - I would be tempted to say they aren't - but I do think they can go that way - and might be even more inclined to do so if there was no ego-full state with which to judge the ego-less state
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