the Beginning ...
Biblical Scholars generally agree that God would have created Adam somewhere around 4000 BCE, but the Biblical timeline clearly conflicts with that of science. There has been genetic evidence accumulating for years suggesting that modern science’s answer to Adam would have been born in Africa.14 This “out of Africa” theory takes into account the fossilized remains of man’s earliest hominid ancestors (family of great apes), discovered in Ethiopia as much as 5.9 million years ago. A trail of hominid fossil discoveries in East Africa confirms that the genus homo evolved through many different species, culminating in our own genus and species homo-sapiens (literally: “wise” or “knowing man”).
The remains of the oldest anatomically modern humans were discovered near the Omo River in south-western Ethiopia about 200,000 years ago. DNA testing confirms that these Cro-Magnon hominids should be more appropriately called Early Modern Humans (EMH). Theoretically, we know that “Y” chromosomes in men can be traced back to the first anatomically modern man. Therefore, by studying Y chromosomes from around the world, professors of molecular biology and evolution have determined that patterns of DNA, well known in India among man’s earliest populations, were found in the earliest form of that pattern in approximately 1000 breeding couples living in Ethiopia around 70,000 BCE. But, if mankind was traced back to a small Ethiopian population of 2000, then homo-sapiens appears to have been close to extinction.
In 1998, professor Stanley Ambrose proposed a theory that helps to explain this apparent catastrophe. In Sumatra, the super-eruption of Mount Toba caused the equivalent of a 6 year nuclear winter and may have started the last Ice Age.15 Mount Toba’s eruption initiated a 1000 year glacial period in an Ice Age that lasted from about 70,000 to 10,000 BCE. During this extended period there were alternating “glacial” and “interglacial” phases. Ice formed during cold periods and melted during warmer periods, dramatically affecting sea levels and climate around the world. Huge volumes of fresh water flowed into the ocean as a result of icebergs breaking off from glaciers during warmer interglacial periods, causing severe global climate fluctuations. These occurrences were named after the marine biologist Hartmut Heinrich.
Heinrich events, which occurred episodically throughout the last glacial cycle, led to abrupt changes in climate that may have rendered large parts of North, East, and West Africa unsuitable for hominid occupation, thus compelling early Homo sapiens to migrate out of Africa.16
During the last Ice Age, the climate of Northern Africa became colder, and the highest mountain peaks of equatorial Africa became glaciated, while the plains of northern Africa were transformed into the arid and uninhabitable Sahara desert. Sometime after 70,000 BCE, there was a migration from Ethiopia that crossed the Red Sea into Yemen at the Horn of Africa, heading through India toward Australia. This text, however, focuses on a second wave of migration, that made its way into the Middle East. It is this group that appears to have discovered science and religion and founded the sophisticated civilizations of Sumer, Egypt, and Harappa.
Important Middle Eastern archeological sites have been discovered yielding EMH skeletal remains and artifacts at Üçağızlı Cave (Turkey), Ksar ‘Akil (Lebanon), and Zar, Yataghyeri, Damjili and Taghlar caves (Azerbaijan). Physical characteristics that distinguish the transition of EMH to modern man deserve our close attention. The EMH were generally bigger and stronger, and had a larger cranial capacity, averaging about 1600 cm3 to 1750 cm3, as compared to the cranial capacity of modern humans, who average about 1450 cm3. A larger cranium might be considered appropriate for a larger, more robust homo-sapiens skeleton. When comparing different species, the ratio between brain weight and body weight clearly correlates with intelligence. But, when comparing the brain:body ratio within the same species, results appear to be inconclusive. For example, there has been no measurable change in cranial capacity over the last half of the 20th century, yet IQ points are believed to have risen by about 3 points per decade. It would be a mistake, however, to extrapolate on this data to presume that we must be smarter than our ancient EMH ancestors. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that the opposite might be true.
Discovering the Wisdom Practice
It is well known that early man survived the Ice Age by finding shelter in the numerous Middle Eastern caves. It is also safe to assume that the logistics of cave life would have imposed a new set of biological constraints that may have had a significant impact on the natural selection process across tens of thousands of years. For example, by living in darkened caves EMH appear to have evolved with eye sockets that were 15% larger than those of modern humans.17 That observation might help explain the discovery of ancient carved figures at different key archeological sites across the Middle East that exhibit greatly exaggerated eyes (see Figure 1b). It is also reasonable to speculate that life in a darkened cave implied staying isolated and quiet, especially when we consider that EMH tribes might be cohabiting in close proximity to their Neanderthal enemies. My hypothesis suggests that the natural constraints of day-to-day life in an Ice Age cave effectively imposed a meditative posture of isolation and quiet on the cave’s inhabitants. Himalayan monks still meditate within the seclusion of caves.
Perhaps these constraints had the unexpected result of enriching man’s “inner life.” Just as any bored student might resort to daydreaming, early meditators might have come to appreciate the “visions” of lucid dreaming. Or, perhaps, the first meditators may have needed to stay vigilant during sleep and found the happy medium in a hypnagogic state. Somewhere along the way, EMH learned that quieting their mind was an effective way of detaching from the harsh realities of their perpetual winter while still remaining “in the moment.” Meditation detaches the practitioner from stimuli that continually bombard the senses. Hindu yoga calls this Pratyahara, or sense-withdrawal. Thus, the limbic system’s pattern-matching algorithm is put on hold, preventing the release of hormones that cause stress and emotion. This allows brain waves to slow down to the hypnagogic state somewhere between waking and sleeping. In his efforts to explain meditation in more scientific terms, Zen practitioner and medical doctor, Dr. James Austin describes speculation that “... regular meditation was a kind of practice in developing a certain skill. The skill lay in freezing the hypnagogic process at later and later stages (first in the predominantly alpha wave stage, later in the predominantly theta wave stages).”18 This hypnagogic state can be characterized by a “loosening of ego boundaries ... openness, sensitivity...19 Modern-day studies of yogis and lamas who have entered this state have demonstrated that the hypnagogic state has given them a level of control over their autonomic nervous system and endocrine system.
The hypnagogic state has been the subject of much study, and is even discussed in the writings of Aristotle and the Neo-Platonist, Iamblichus.20 Around the time of the First Ecumenical Council, the Church did its best to dispense with the works of Iamblichus. However, the writings of Proclus and Stobaeus helped preserve his work.21 These writings, and other works of the Greek Stoics, shed an important light on our understanding of the ancient Greek meditation practice.
During the First Ecumenical Council, in 325 CE, the Church’s Orthodox position refutes the beliefs of the deacon Arius as heresy, linking him to Greek pantheistic thinking. The Arian heresy suggests that any man could become deified like Christ through the ascetic practices of the ancient Stoics. Plato called that practice theoria22 (contemplation). For the Greek Stoics, theoria brought sophia (wisdom). For the religious prophets of Scripture, it brought revelation. Arius maintained that Christ, like any man, could be “deified” by liberating his soul. Many modern Christians equate Christ with God, and Orthodox Christianity rejects any suggestion that Christ was just a man who became deified through meditation.
On-going MRI research into brain activity suggests that meditation creates additional electrical circuits within the nervous system. If new circuits channel additional electrical energy up the spine to “wake up” and expand brain capacity, then it logically follows that cranium size may have also increased over thousands of years. Archeological evidence
