Prime Time Replay:
Paul Devereux
on Earth mysteries
MsgId: *high_strange(6)
Date: Tue Oct 29 22:14:42 EST 1996
From: Dennis At: 206.127.4.132
Paul Devereux, welcome! Our guest is the author of a new book, Re-visioning the Earth, former editor of The Ley Hunter, and longtime student, for want of a better word, of "Earth mysteries." Paul, as a matter of curiousity, you grew up in a country widely regarded as possessing one of the most spiritual landscapes of all -- Stonehenge, etc. -- and move to upstate New York, a country devoid, save perhaps for Yankee Stadium, of any spiritual landscape whatsoever. Howcome?
MsgId: *high_strange(9)
Date: Tue Oct 29 22:17:51 EST 1996
From: Paul At: 206.80.181.176
There were many reasons for the move across the Atlantic, but in fact I still divide my time in upstate New York and southern England. Although there aren't any Stonehenges in New York, there are nevertheless many weird ancient features in the prehistoric landscapes of America. I spend quite a lot of my time studying these ancient places.
MsgId: *high_strange(11)
Date: Tue Oct 29 22:19:44 EST 1996
From: Dennis At: 206.127.4.132
The title of your latest work is Re-visioning the Earth. What's wrong with the present vision?
MsgId: *high_strange(13)
Date: Tue Oct 29 22:22:12 EST 1996
From: Paul At: 206.80.181.176
The problems we have with our vision of the world in modern times is that we see it as only something to be exploited and we have lost respect for ways of relating to it. In the new book I explore the world views of traditional and ancient peoples and try to create ways of using their kind of perception and incorporate them into techniques that we can use to subtly but significantly change how we see things.
MsgId: *high_strange(14)
Date: Tue Oct 29 22:24:35 EST 1996
From: Dennis At: 206.127.4.132
I notice you part ways with even some of the feel-good environmentalists who maintain that we ought to save the planet and become better stewards. Could you explain?
MsgId: *high_strange(16)
Date: Tue Oct 29 22:26:31 EST 1996
From: Paul At: 206.80.181.176
Yes. There is a view that we can somehow save the world and that we are stewards of the planet. In fact, this is a very egocentric (anthrocentric) way of thinking about things.
MsgId: *high_strange(17)
Date: Tue Oct 29 22:27:23 EST 1996
From: Dennis At: 206.127.4.132
In fact, what you say is that the Earth is a big girl and can take quite good car of Herself, thanks all the same. What really needs healing is our own Western world view. What's a first, practical step?
MsgId: *high_strange(18)
Date: Tue Oct 29 22:29:43 EST 1996
From: Paul At: 206.80.181.176
The originator of the Gaia theory, James Lovelock, has pointed out that Earth has survived the impact of many meteorites and has still continued. There is nothing we can do that could damage it as much as that. What we really should understand is that we could damage the environment that supports ourselves and other life forms. If that happens, then the problem will be self-correcting -- we will simply die off. The planet will have the ages that belongs to her to recover and perhaps experiment with a whole new life form. So ecology matters not for the planet, but for ourselves.
MsgId: *high_strange(19)
Date: Tue Oct 29 22:32:28 EST 1996
From: Dennis At: 206.127.4.132
One of your prescriptions is that we need a new ecopsychology. Could you briefly define that term and explain?
MsgId: *high_strange(22)
Date: Tue Oct 29 22:37:19 EST 1996
From: Paul At: 206.80.181.176
Yes, some people are calling for a psychology that can help us find a better way of living with the world. Ecological procedures such as recycling, etc., are fine but more of a bandaid measure dealing with symptoms rather than causes. If we can engineer an ecopsychology, perhaps we can get inside the problem and literally change our minds about how we think of the Earth. Some of the best teachers for us to look towards are ancient cultures and societies.
MsgId: *high_strange(23)
Date: Tue Oct 29 22:39:36 EST 1996
From: Dennis At: 206.127.4.132
A concept you've pioneered to a certain extent is that the straight lines found in ancient cultures around the world, ley lines and so on, represent spiritual paths associated with a shamanism. But straight lines are rarely found in the natural world. How do you think this concept, against the natural grain, so to speak, originated and why?
MsgId: *high_strange(25)
Date: Tue Oct 29 22:48:28 EST 1996
From: Paul At: 206.80.181.176
There are many of these straight line features in the Americas. For example, Chaco Canyon in New Mexico was the cult center of the lost Anasazi Indians. Radiating out from there across the desert are 30 foot wide dead straight roads linking ceremonial buildings called Great Houses. It is thought this sytem reaches into all the states of the Four Corners region. Nobody knows what these roads or buildings were for. The Anasazi had neither horses or wheeled transportation, so why did they need such a system?Further work by archeologists and NASA surveys have revealed straight roads and desert markings throughout all the Americas. A famous example are the Nazca lines in Peru. Recent research has shown these straight line features to occur in the territories of Native American societies who long ago had shamanic religions. My book explains the evidence we now have which shows that these mystery lines are sort of maps of the out-of-body journeys made by shamans while in their entranced states.
MsgId: *high_strange(27)
Date: Tue Oct 29 22:53:32 EST 1996
From: Dennis At: 206.127.4.132
Time is so short and this interface is so slow! Paul, toward the end of your book you say that the Earth, or at least nature and the landscape, literally speak to us, if we would but listen. How can that be?While Paul is composing his final thoughts, let me say first, thanks, Paul, for staying up this late with us. Secondly, let me say that I found Re-visioning the Earth immensely pleasurable and stimulating reading. One aspect that we weren't able to get into tonight is that the book isn't just a discursive tract, but contains a number of practical exercises that you can try on your own, ones that have to do with perceptions of space, and inner and outer mapping. A really enjoyable read, and, no, I don't get a cut of the royalties. Thanks again, Paul!
MsgId: *high_strange(29)
Date: Tue Oct 29 23:02:20 EST 1996
From: Paul At: 206.80.181.176
To the Apache Indians every place literally tells a story and places and the stories were woven deep into their social fabric and their tribal memory. Much the same thing happened with the Australian Aborigines who when they walked through the outback simultaneously relived the ancestral myths. This is a far cry to the way we now experience the environment. But we can learn to appreciate the world around us again in this ancient manner. My book gives specific instructions how we can use sacred monuments, powerful places like waterfalls, and the landscape in general to provoke deep levels of our mind, and the centers of our language and memory.
MsgId: *high_strange(30)
Date: Tue Oct 29 23:06:32 EST 1996
From: Dennis At: 206.127.4.132
Paul, thanks again for sharing your time, research and insights with us! And welcome to the New World!
MsgId: *high_strange(31)
Date: Tue Oct 29 23:07:20 EST 1996
From: Paul At: 206.80.181.176
Thank you, Dennis, for those kind words. It was a pleasure. Those who read the book will learn how they can take even ancient monuments like Stonehenge back into their dreams and actually use them to help build this new ecopsychology we refer to. Sweet dreams, everybody.
Home || Prime Time || Live Science || Machine Dreams || Project Open Book || SF-Fantasy-Horror
Continuum || Antimatter || Mind-Brain Lab || Interactive IQ || Gallery || OMNI ToonsQuestions, comments and suggestions can be mailed to the webmaster.
Copyright (C) 1997 by Omni Publications International, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.