Rocket Science for the Soul

In 1949 Swiss social anthropologist Jean Gebser detailed five very general stages of the average mode of cultural development: archaic (foraging), magic (horticultural), mythic (agrarian), rational (industrial), and integral (informational). Thus, current variations of premodern worldviews (mythic/agrarian) originated over 9,000 years ago and simultaneously exist with modern (rational/industrial), and emergent postmodern (integral/informational). The global dynamics between these three main worldviews fuel current social, economic, religious, political, and spiritual challenges.

The scale of complexity is unprecedented, and many writers have detected emerging postmodern worldviews in this frothy mix. For instance, Joseph Campbell’s The Hero of a Thousand Faces, Michael Murphy’s The Future of the Body, Paul Ray and Sherry Anderson’s Cultural Creatives, Willis Harman’s Global Mind Change, Peter Russell’s Waking Up in Time, Marilyn Ferguson’s Aquarian Conspiracy, Mark Woodhouse’s Paradigm Wars: Worldviews for a New Age, Don Beck and Chris Cowan’s Spiral Dynamics, Ken Wilber’s Boomeritis, and many, many more (some are featured throughout). Sethnet Journal

As human history unfolds, old myths calcify and new ones emerge. This has been chronicled by anthropologists (Mead), mythologists (Campbell), and social psychologists (Gebser, Graves, Beck, Wilber). In premodern cultures we find consistent evidence of a Causal Consciousness. While there are variations on Its Origin, Purpose, and Nature, many traditions claim this Casual Consciousness is interpenetrated – holistically nested – within a “Great Chain of Being” that extends from body to soul to Causal Spirit. Many also suggest that Causal Spirit isn’t really “out there” or “up in the sky” somewhere, but literally a part of you, me, and everything around us. In other words, It is simultaneously in the world (immanent) and not of the world (transcendent). Jane Roberts used the term All-That-Is to express this fundamental paradox. Robert F. Butts

In Seth’s theology, God is not a giant old white man with a big belly, gray beard, and occasionally nasty temperament that lives in the sky where he rules over His dominion. Nor is God a wise elder woman dressed in flowing robes communing with Nature. Both are premodern projections of anthropomorphized God-As-Human-Beings. The former was an often dysfunctional paternal authority figure, the latter often demanded human sacrifice to insure fertility, good crops, and sun/moon cycles. We cannot fully understand the origins and nature of the All-That-Is, the psyche, and universe from the limited picture of reality presented by our five senses, third person perspectives, and intellect alone. We also need to incorporate our deep intuitions, first person perspectives, and our emotions to gain deeper conceptual understanding (can you say, “inner senses” or “psy-time?”). The Seth Material