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Volume 11: Number 4: Article 6
The Archaeology of Consciousness
Paul Devereux, International Consciousness Research Laboratories,
4 Crossway Road Hudson View Park, Beacon, NY 12508, U. S. A.
It is suggested that ancient sacred places provide the opportunity
for consciousness study — if we know how to approach them. The emergence
of a new discipline, "cognitive archaeology," is noted, in which archaeologists
are learning to overcome intrinsic Western assumptions in the study
of ancient sites and landscapes. The nature of place is then considered:
it is argued that place can be expressive and evoke and organize memories,
images, feelings and imagination. The curious notion of "sacred place"
is next addressed. The concept of treating prehistory as being analogous
to the unconscious mind is presented. Sacred places, it is suggested,
may be those which yield greater information than secular ones; locations
where information is received more effectively by the unconscious mind.
It is argued that we can never fully understand an ancient sacred site
by use of modern rationalism alone. Plato's distinction of two kinds
of space, chora and topos, is considered, and the accessing of chora
by "dreaming with our eyes open." A detailed description of such a process
is offered, and unfamiliar ways of approaching ancient monuments described.
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