The story goes that Wallace had found an 'additional' component to humans, besides the usual organic ingredients, which he called the Paranormal. If I'm not mistaken and am remembering correctly, it seems this man was the first to coin the term. Wallace found that humans could communicate telepathically, have OBEs and NDEs which they reported on later, among other Metaphysical experiences. He found this added another dimension to the theory of evolution, at which time he and Darwin had a falling-out, and Cremo states this is why science refuses to mention Mr. Wallace. It takes away from the case of Charles Darwin's theory.
As an interesting side-note, many people have told Cremo they think he is the reincarnation of Darwin. He said on the interview that, if it's true, he has come back to correct his mistakes. From the gist of his statements, I gather he believes spirit is involuted into matter, and matter is evolving back to spirit, thereby calling his theory "Human Devolution". It is more the devolving of spirit, rather than of man, and is the evolving of man into the higher spiritual consciousness. To me it is a contacting of our Spiritual True Self or Angelic Twin, and a melding with Such.
Cremo is a Vedist and makes no small mention of this. I do not know if the Vedic Puranas contain all Truth or not, but am mainly interested in sharing on this forum about the partner Darwin is said to have had. His scientific and archaeological findings that seem to verify the antiquity of the earth, and which place its age at billions of years old, with human life existing for almost that long, has led him to believe that the Vedic Puranas could be accurate. He does admit that much more research is necessary to definitively prove this.
To quote from the Cremo website, which is mainly an overview of the book Human Devolution:
'Using the work of Wallace as a starting point, I proceed in the remaining chapters of Human Devolution to develop a Vedic alternative to the Darwinian account of human origins. I propose that before we ask the question, "Where did human beings come from?" we should first of all ask the question, "What is a human being?" Today most scientists believe that a human being is simply a combination of the ordinary chemical elements. This assumption limits the kinds of explanations that can be offered for human origins. I propose that it is more reasonable, based on available scientific evidence, to start with the assumption that a human being is composed of three separately existing substances: matter, mind, and consciousness (or spirit). This assumption widens the circle of possible explanations.'
So to me, "matter, mind and consciousness" equates to "body, soul and spirit".
He goes on to say:
'I define mind as a subtle, but nevertheless material, energy, associated with the human organism and capable of acting on ordinary matter in ways we cannot explain by our current laws of physics. Evidence for this mind element comes from scientific research into the phenomena called by some "paranormal" or "psychical". Here we are led into the hidden history of physics. Just as in archeology, there has been in physics a tremendous amount of knowledge filtration. For example, every physics student learns about the work of Pierre and Marie Curie, the husband and wife team who both received Nobel Prizes for their work in discovering radium. The account is found in practially every introductory physics textbook.
'What we do not read in the textbooks is that the Curies were heavily involved in psychical research......
'Evidence for a conscious self that can exist apart from mind and matter comes from medical reports of out of body experiences.'
Much later in the Introduction to his book it says:
'Having established that the human organism is composed of the elements matter, mind and consciousness (or spirit), it is natural to suppose (this is Cremo speaking, not Swandancer
) that the cosmos is divided into regions, or levels of matter, mind and consciousness, each inhabited by beings adapted to life there. First, there is a region of pure consciousness which, as we experience it, is individual and personal. This suggests that the original source of connscious selves is also individual and personal. So in addition to the individual units of consciousness existing in the realm of pure consciousness, there is also an original conscious being who is their source. 'Distance healing by prayer and other miraculous cures provide another category of evidence for paranormal modification of biological form.....
'Psychiatrist Ian Stevenson has conducted extensive investigations into birthmarks that appear to have some relationship with wounds a person experienced in a past life. Persons who died of gunshot wounds in previous lives sometimes display on their present bodies birthmarks of appropriate size at the positions of the entry and exit wounds. This suggests that when such a person's soul and mind enter the present body, they carry with them impressions that appropriately modify the body's biological form....
'Yet another category of evidence consists of reports by prominent scientists who have witnessed mediums produce human limbs or complete human bodies. A particularly striking case was reported by Sir Alfred Russell Wallace who, accompanied by others, saw a clergyman medium named Monk produce a complete human form. ......
'Chapter 11 outlines the concept of human devolution, bringing together the various lines of evidence presented in the previous chapters. We do not evolve up from matter; rather we devolve, or come down, from the level of pure consciousness.
'Originally, we are pure units of consciousness existing in harmonious connection with the supreme conscious being. When we give up our willing connection with that supreme conscious being, we descend to regions of the cosmos dominated by the subtle and gross material energies, mind and matter.'
I would be interested in an exchange of pov's on this. I'm open to any responses and comments anyone may have.
