Sunday Morning Musings...

Sunday morning musings... of a more fanciful variety this morning. I enjoy entertaining the idea that "humankind" has a far more interesting history - pre-history - than currently allowed for in our modern historical, anthropological and scientific world views. However, even the cold, hard scientists are discovering the ancient past was more interesting than their forerunners once allowed.

We now know homo sapiens were living alongside other forms of humanity, up through the last ice age. We've found "hobbits" - Homo floresiensis ("Flores Man"), "dwarves" - Homo naledi (newest discovery, in 2015!) and possible giants - Homo denisova* (*pending - "Denisovans"). Discovered the previously discovered Neanderthals were more interesting than we knew. And discovered homo sapiens also interbred with at least two of the above, Neanderthals and Denisovans.

All this leads me to believe our "myths" and "tall tales" from the distant past MAY have the echo of real truth behind them, that the stories told by our ancestors could be far more authentic than we smug modern humans have led ourselves to believe. For now, it seems the "folktales" that inspired "The Lord of the Rings" and the like, with humans working alongside - and fighting with - giants, dwarves, elves, hobbits and other races, could have actually taken place!

I hear some of you already, protesting - "to a degree... What about the Magic? That wasn't there." Ah, yes. Now, here's where I'll truly get fanciful... Until very recently, we had no idea how contemporaneous some of these other races were with nascent homo sapiens sapiens, and, at least with Neanderthals, it was KNOWN they were older, and not part of our gene pool: "To suggest the reality of many races alongside each other is nonsense!" But now, it's not. And Magic is still impossible. Right?

Well... Parapsychologists have been studying humankind's latent telepathic abilities for decades, doing provable, repeatable science demonstrating extra-sensory abilities are part of our human makeup. Philosophers studying the nature of consciousness suggest our intentions shape the reality we live in when we use the power of our imaginations. Some Psychologists have suggested our minds may have perceived reality in different ways at different stages of our human development. The concept of Consciousness itself is now gaining ground in the scientific world, where the very idea that there could be more to the mind than the brain and its chemicals and cells is still hard for many scientists to accept. All this adds up, for me, to the possibility we may be capable of more than we know. Perhaps they knew how to harness a power of the human mind and will that we no longer have access to, that we might call "Magic"?

We would not be able to see the magic when we dig up the bones. But we can't hear the songs they would have sung, or know the pre-written-word language they spoke, either - and yet assume they did these things, because that's what we do. We *don't* do "magic", and assume for them the same.

Some things about the ancient past seem ridiculous or impossible, until they are found to be true - like the idea dinosaurs were brightly feathered! Did you know our previous concept of them with just skin is wrong? The discovery of the relationship of birds and dinosaurs has turned all that on its head - and yet, a correct picture of a feathered dinosaur will still look "wrong" to many.

And maybe we CAN see the Magic. Maybe we see proof of its work every day, but discount it, because we don't know it? One last leap, here - we look at megalithic architecture and marvel at the abilities of those in the distant past to move HUGE blocks of stone, and line them up ridiculously close, tight and well. And? We have no evidence of any technology that would have allowed them to do this. Of course, this is where the History Channel mystics step in with "Ah! Must be Ancient Aliens!" I disagree. Sure, it could be. But what if it was all us, and our fellow hominids, using abilities now closed off to us within ourselves? What if it isn't a "visible" technology?

What if we can do magic? I'm sure if we discover how, it will be amusing to look back on this unenlightened era and laugh. That is, if we haven't all turned each other into newts by then...