“The cerebral cortex, the outer ‘skin’ of the brain, contains as many as ten billion neurons. This complexity is daunting. Yet it… — James David Lewis-Williams Consciousness Copy Share Image
“[Higher-order consciousness] involves the ability to construct a socially based selfhood, to model the world in terms of the past and the… — James David Lewis-Williams Identity Copy Share Image
“Shamanism is not simply a component of society: on the contrary, shamanism, together with its tiered cosmos, can be said to be… — James David Lewis-Williams Consciousness Copy Share Image
“The very idea of Palaeolithic art was deeply disturbing. Was not art one of the great achievements of high civilizations?” — James David Lewis-Williams Art Copy Share Image
“The Upper Palaeolithic figures known as ‘wounded men’ occur at Cougnac and Pech Merle, two sites in the Quercy district of France.” — James David Lewis-Williams Consciousness Copy Share Image
“Seeing’ two-dimensional images is therefore something that we learn to do; it is not an inevitable part of being human.” — James David Lewis-Williams Consciousness Copy Share Image
“It is the task of San shamans to activate their supernatural potency, to cause it to ‘boil’ up their spines until it… — James David Lewis-Williams Consciousness Copy Share Image
“The portable animal statuettes were therefore far more than decorative trinkets: they were reified three-dimensional spirit animals with all their prophylactic and… — James David Lewis-Williams Consciousness Copy Share Image
“I argue that the first image-makers were acting rationally in the specific social circumstances ... they were not driven by ‘aesthetics’.” — James David Lewis-Williams Beauty Copy Share Image
“In southern Africa, a great many figures are ithyphallic. This feature has generally – and rather vaguely – been taken to refer… — James David Lewis-Williams Altered states Copy Share Image
“Shamans submit to death in order to serve their communities.” — James David Lewis-Williams Consciousness Copy Share Image
“The elaborately executed art on the ceiling in the Altamira cave did not fit current notions of Palaeolithic ‘savagery’; it was too… — James David Lewis-Williams Art Copy Share Image
“Rock art sites were symbolic vaginas, and entry into the wall of a rock art site was thus akin to intercourse.” — James David Lewis-Williams Art Copy Share Image
“The behaviour of the human nervous system in certain altered states creates the illusion of dissociation from one’s body (less commonly understood… — James David Lewis-Williams Altered states Copy Share Image
“I believe it is reasonable to assume that higher-order consciousness developed neurologically in Africa before the second wave of emigration to the… — James David Lewis-Williams Consciousness Copy Share Image
“A shaman’s activities as a sorcerer, or his own conscious act of entry into the supernatural world, were a kind of “killing”.” — James David Lewis-Williams Consciousness Copy Share Image
“There were at least four contexts in which San shamans acquired insights into the spiritual world: – the trance dance, – special… — James David Lewis-Williams Art Copy Share Image
“Consciousness has evolved biologically and can therefore be explained biologically.” — James David Lewis-Williams Consciousness Copy Share Image
“Around 30,000 years ago, in the Aurignacian, at the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic, someone or some group in the Eyzies region… — James David Lewis-Williams Consciousness Copy Share Image
“Some researchers believe that dreaming is what happens when sensory input to the brain is greatly diminished: the brain then ‘freewheels’, synapses… — James David Lewis-Williams Consciousness Copy Share Image
“Primary consciousness is a kind of ‘remembered present’…” — James David Lewis-Williams Consciousness Copy Share Image
