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The idea that the real may be unknowable is very old. Consider the creation hymn in the Rig Veda, composed around 1500 to 1000 B.C., called the “Nasadiya Sukta.” This verse addresses fundamental questions of cosmology and the origin of the universe. In a beautiful translation by Juan Mascaró, it asks:
Who knows the truth? Who can tell whence and how arose this universe? The gods are later than its beginning: Who therefore knows whence comes this creation? Only he who sees in the highest heaven: He only knows whence came this universe and whether it was made or un-created. He only knows, or perhaps he knows not.
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Around 30-35,000 years ago there was an explosion of symbolism in Paleolithic human culture around the world, primarily represented by cave art. This cave art is usually located in hard to access underground spaces that must have had significant meaning for the artists and those who would have experienced these strange images by torchlight. And strange they are.
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Many academics would be horrified to learn what all near-death experiencers have learned. A successful life is not measured by fame, prestige, wealth, or number of publications; it is measured by how we treat one another, by our ability to live according to the golden rule, and by growth in our ability to feel compassion for others. But try mentioning this at any professional meeting and you will be laughed out of the conference room, and those with the most power and prestige will be laughing the hardest.
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I do not believe we can go back to an age of simple belief. Many of the explanations once given by religion, especially those about the material world, have been shown to be scientifically invalid. The general denial of any possible spiritual reality, however, and the active ignoring of evidence pointing toward the reality of some sort of spiritual aspect of humanity, is scientism, not science. CHARLES TART, PH.D., INSTITUTE OF TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY
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