A

Absolute
Acausality
Advaita
Akasha records
Akashic field
Algorithm
Allegory
Altered states of consciousness
Altruism
Anagamin
Anthropic principle
Apâna
Apocalypse
Archetypes
Arhat
Ascension
Atman
Attractors
Aura
Autonomous complex
Autopoiesis
Awareness
Axial period

 

Absolute

Word definition: standing apart from a normal or usual relation with other elements.

Etymology: late 14c., “unconditionally, completely,” from absolute (adj.) + -ly (2). From mid-15c. as “without reference to anything else, not relatively;” meaning “to the utmost degree” emerged by mid-16c. As a colloquial emphatic, 1892, American English.

Technical description: In philosophy, the concept of The Absolute, also known as The (Unconditioned) Ultimate, The Wholly Other, The Supreme Being, The Absolute/Ultimate Reality, and other names, is the thing, being, entity, power, force, reality, presence, law, principle, etc. that possesses maximal ontological status, existential ranking, existential greatness, or existentiality. In layman’s terms, this is the one that is, in one way or another, the greatest, truest, or most real being. (Wikipedia)
The Absolute transcends space and time.
See further: https://marinusjanmarijs.com/theodicy/the-absolute/ 

Phenomenological description: As according to many mystical philosophies, the Absolute is identical with consciousness, so even ordinary consciousness is direct contact with The Absolute. The state of flow is a more intense contact with The Absolute. Non-dual mysticism is pure/ empty consciousness. ( M.J.M.)

Synonyms: Also known as sunyata, void, emptiness, Parabrahman, Adi-buddha, Godhead, Brahman, supreme, Unchangeable.

Cross-cultural comparisons: One or more of the conceptions of the Absolute can be found in various other religions or philosophies. The following is a list of concepts of divine or absolute reality:
God in Abrahamic religions
The Kabbalah — Ein Sof
Ancient Greek philosophy — Monad (philosophy), Apeiron, Logos, Arche
Aristotelianism — Unmoved mover
Buddhism — Buddha-nature / Sunyata
Mahayana — Svabhavakaya
Dzogchen — Ground
Chinese philosophy — Wuji
Confucianism — Tian
Xuanxue — Tao
The Heraclitian — Logos
Hermeticism — The All
Advaita Vedanta — Brahman, Parabrahman
The North American — Great Spirit
The Parmenidean or Neoplatonic — The One
The Platonic — Form of the Good
The Pythagorean — Apeiron
Zoroastrianism — Ahura Mazda
Aldous Huxley’s — Ground of Being
F.H. Bradley’s — Absolute
(Wikipedia)

Relevance of the concept: The first cause, the prime mover, the ground of being, The origin of all that exist.

The concept in mythology: Chinese mythology — Jade Emperor, Pangu, Shangdi, Tian, Wufang Shangdi

Citations: Aristotle argues, in Book 8 of the Physics and Book 12 of the Metaphysics,

“that there must be an immortal, unchanging being, ultimately responsible for all wholeness and orderliness in the sensible world”  (Wikipedia)

Supporting evidence: the existence of consciousness, the cause of all existence, teleology……

Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:
J.J.Poortman: Tweeërlei subjectiviteit.

 

Acausality

Word definition: In Jungian psychology, acausal may be a synonym of synchronistic, i.e., related by meaning rather than causation

Etymology: a- +‎ causality

Technical description: A non causal but nevertheless not a random occurrence.

Phenomenological description: Meaningfulness.

Synonyms: synchronistic

Cross-cultural comparisons: Multiples

Relevance of the concept: In Jungian psychology, a synonym of synchronistic, i.e., related by meaning rather than causation

Citations:

Sir James Jeans an English physicist, astronomer and mathematician: “Radioactive break-up appeared to be an effect without a cause, and suggested that the ultimate laws of nature were not even causal”

Supporting evidence: The occurring of synchronistic circumstances 
 
Serial patterns in time: Seriality
Parallel patterns in time: Synchronicity

Cross connections: Acausality is within Jungian psychology as within quantum mechanics

Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:
Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle, by C.G. Jung

 

Advaita

Word definition: Advaita Vedānta is one version of Vedānta.
Vedānta is nominally a school of Indian philosophy, although in reality it is a label for any hermeneutics that attempts to provide a consistent interpretation of the philosophy of the Upaniṣads or, more formally, the canonical summary of the Upaniṣads, Bādarāyaņa’s Brahma Sūtra.
Advaita is often translated as “non-dualism”

Etymology: Advaita (Sanskrit) Advaita [from a not + dvaita dual from dvi two^] Nondual; the Advaita or nondualistic form of Vedanta [from veda knowledge + anta end] expounded by Sankaracharya teaches the oneness of Brahman or the paramatman of the universe with the human spirit-soul or jivatman, and the identity of spirit and matter; also that the divine spirit of the universe is the all-efficient, all-productive cause of the periodic coming into being, continuance, and dissolutions of the universe; and that this divine cosmic spirit is the ultimate truth and sole reality — hence the term advaita (without a second). All else is maya, in proportion to its distance from the divine source.

Technical description: The classical Advaita philosophy of Śaṅkara recognizes a unity in multiplicity, identity between individual and pure consciousness, and the experienced world as having no existence apart from Brahman.

Phenomenological description: The transcending of space and time

Synonyms: Non-dual mysticism, Turiya, Turiyatita.

Relevance of the concept: For classical Advaita Vedānta, Brahman is the fundamental reality underlying all objects and experiences. Brahman is explained as pure existence, pure consciousness and pure bliss. All forms of existence presuppose a knowing self. Brahman or pure consciousness underlies the knowing self.
According to the Advaita School, unlike the positions held by other Vedānta schools, Consciousness is not a property of Brahman but its very nature. Brahman is also one without a second, all-pervading and the immediate awareness. This absolute Brahman is known as nirguņa Brahman, or Brahman “without qualities,” but is usually simply called “Brahman.” (IEP)

The concept in mythology: The void.

Citations:
I am other than name, form and action.
My nature is ever free!
I am Self, the supreme unconditioned Brahman.
I am pure Awareness, always non-dual.

— Adi Shankara, Upadesasahasri 11.7,

Supporting evidence: independent similar descriptions of this state in other cultures.

Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/concepts-god/

 

Akasha records

Word definition: Akasha (Sanskrit ākāśa आकाश) is a term for either space or æther in traditional Indian cosmology, depending on the religion.

Etymology: Akasha (ākāśa आकाश) is the Sanskrit word for ‘aether‘ or ‘atmosphere’. Also, in Bangla, ākāsh (আকাশ) means ‘sky’.

Technical description: The Western religious philosophy called Theosophy has popularized the word Akasha as an adjective, through the use of the term “Akashic records” or “Akashic library”, referring to an etheric compendium of all knowledge and history.    (Wikipedia)
See further:  https://marinusjanmarijs.com/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/cosmological-planning/akashic-records/ 

This is reminiscent of a statement of the Kurt Gödel, who is generally seen as the greatest logician who ever lived, he described mathematical insight as extrasensory perception of the platonic realm.
 ( M.J.M.)

Synonyms: Book of life

Cross-cultural comparisons: Akasa (Sanskrit) Ākāśa [from ā + the verbal root kāś to be visible, appear, shine, be brilliant] The shining; ether, cosmic space, the fifth cosmic element. The subtle, supersensuous spiritual essence which pervades all space. It is not the ether of science, but the aether of the ancients, such as the Stoics, which is to ether what spirit is to matter. In the Brahmanical scriptures, akasa is used for what the Northern Buddhists call svabhavat, more mystically adi-buddhi (primeval buddhi); it is also mulaprakriti, cosmic spirit-substance, the reservoir of being and of beings. Genesis refers to it as the waters of the deep. It is universal substantial space, and mystically in its highest elements is alaya.

Relevance of the concept: Permanent impressions held in nature of everything that has ever occurred, i.e. “the memory of nature.” By means of awakening consciousness, it is possible to access past, present, and future events within these records.

The concept in mythology: Book of life.

Citations: The Book of Life is referred to seven times in the Book of Revelation (3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:12, 20:15, 21:27, 22:19) one of the books of the New Testament, attributed to John of Patmos. As described, only those whose names are written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, and have not been blotted out by the Lamb, are saved at the Last Judgment; all others are doomed. “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:15, King James Version). “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works”. (Rev. 20:12, King James Version) 

Supporting evidence: Extrasensory perception

Cross connections:
The concept of a Kosmic memory called Akashic field is to be found in Hindu philosophy, when Buddhists speak of Alayavijnana, they mean a storehouse in which the memories of all human beings—of their thoughts, feelings, wishes, and deeds
In Christianity and Judaism, the Book of Life (Hebrew: ספר החיים, transliterated Sefer HaChaim; Greek: βιβλίον τῆς ζωῆς Biblíon tēs Zōēs) is the book in which God records the names of every person who is destined for Heaven or the World to Come. (Wikipedia)

Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:
Ervin László in Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral Theory of Everything (2004), based on ideas by Rudolf Steiner, posits “a field of information” as the substance of the cosmos, which he calls “Akashic field” or “A-field”.

 

Akashic field

See: Akasha records

Algorithm

Word definition: An algorithm (pronounced AL-go-rith-um) is a procedure or formula for solving a problem, based on conducting a sequence of specified actions

Etymology: Word Origin & History: 1690s, from French algorithme, refashioned (under mistaken connection with Greek arithmos “number”) from Old French algorisme “the Arabic numeral system” (13c.), from Medieval Latin algorismus, a mangled transliteration of Arabic al-Khwarizmi “native of Khwarazm,” surname of the mathematician whose works introduced sophisticated mathematics to the West (see algebra). The earlier form in Middle English was algorism (early 13c.), from Old French.

Technical description: a set of rules for solving a problem in a finite number of steps, as for finding the greatest common divisor.

Phenomenological description: The storage of data, habits, and so on can be seen as algorithms.

Synonyms: Process, procedure, set of rules.

Relevance of the concept: The difference between unconscious and conscious processes:
Unconscious :                                       Conscious:
Algorithmic                                         Non-Algorithmic                     
Determinism                                      Indeterminism
Mechanical                                        Creative
Instinctual                                          Free will
Memory                                             Remembering
Habitual                                             Reflective
Automatically                                     Choices
Stored patterns                                  Qualia
Meaningless                                      Meaningfulness
( M.J.M.)

Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:
Roger Penrose: ” The Emperor’s New Mind”.

 

Allegory

Word definition: A representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another, a symbolical narrative.

Etymology: Word Origin & History: late 14c., from Old French allegorie (12c.), from Latin allegoria, from Greek allegoria “figurative language, description of one thing under the image of another,” literally “a speaking about something else,” from allos “another, different” (see alias) + agoreuein “speak openly, speak in the assembly,” from agora “assembly”  

Technical description: As a literary device, an allegory is a metaphor in which a character, place or event is used to deliver a broader message about real-world issues and occurrences. Allegory (in the sense of the practice and use of allegorical devices and works) has occurred widely throughout history in all forms of art, largely because it can readily illustrate or convey complex ideas and concepts in ways that are comprehensible or striking to its viewers, readers, or listeners.

Writers or speakers typically use allegories as literary devices or as rhetorical devices that convey (semi-)hidden or complex meanings through symbolic figures, actions, imagery, or events, which together create the moral, spiritual, or political meaning the author wishes to convey.  (Wikipedia)

Phenomenological description: The feeling of a deeper hidden meaning

Synonyms: Myth, Parable, Symbolisation, Legend, Fable, Saga.

Cross-cultural comparisons: Allegory, a symbolic fictional narrative that conveys a meaning not explicitly set forth in the narrative. Allegory, which encompasses such forms as fable, parable, and apologue, may have meaning on two or more levels that the reader can understand only through an interpretive process. (See also fable, parable, and allegory.)

The fate of allegory, in all its many variations, is tied to the development of myth and mythology. Every culture embodies its basic assumptions in stories whose mythic structures reflect the society’s prevailing attitudes toward life. If the attitudes are disengaged from the structure, then the allegorical meaning implicit in the structure is revealed. The systematic discipline of interpreting the real meaning of a text (called the hermeneutic process) plays a major role in the teaching and defense of sacred wisdom, since religions have traditionally preserved and handed down the old beliefs by telling exemplary stories;

Literary allegories typically describe situations and events or express abstract ideas in terms of material objects, persons, and actions. Such early writers as Plato, Cicero, Apuleius, and Augustine made use of allegory, but it became especially popular in sustained narratives in the Middle Ages. Probably the most influential allegory of that period is the 13th-century French didactic poem Roman de la rose (Romance of the Rose). This poem illustrates the allegorical technique of personification, in which a fictional character—in this case, The Lover—transparently represents a concept or a type. As in most allegories, the action of the narrative “stands for” something not explicitly stated. The Lover’s eventual plucking of the crimson rose represents his conquest of his lady.

Other notable examples of personification allegory are John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678, 1684) and the 15th-century morality play Everyman. Their straightforward embodiments of aspects of human nature and abstract concepts, through such characters as Knowledge, Beauty, Strength, and Death in Everyman and such places as Vanity Fair and the Slough of Despond in The Pilgrim’s Progress, are typical examples of the techniques of personification allegory.

Another variant is the symbolic allegory, in which a character or material thing is not merely a transparent vehicle for an idea, but rather has a recognizable identity or narrative autonomy apart from the message it conveys. In Dante’s The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–21), for example, the character Virgil represents both the historical author of the Aeneid and the human faculty of reason, while the character Beatrice represents both the historical woman of Dante’s acquaintance and the concept of divine revelation. The symbolic allegory, which can range from a simple fable to a complex, multilayered narrative, has often been used to represent political and historical situations and has long been popular as a vehicle for satire. In the verse satire Absalom and Achitophel (1681), for example, John Dryden relates in heroic couplets a scriptural story that is a thinly veiled portrait of the politicians involved in an attempt to alter the succession to the English throne. A 20th-century example of political allegory is George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm (1945), which, under the guise of a fable about domestic animals, expresses the author’s disillusionment with the outcome of the Bolshevik Revolution and shows how one tyrannical system of government in Russia was replaced by another.

Allegory may involve an interpretive process that is separate from the creative process; that is, the term allegory can refer to a specific method of reading a text, in which characters and narrative or descriptive details are taken by the reader as an elaborate metaphor for something outside the literal story. For example, the early Church Fathers sometimes used a threefold (later fourfold) method of interpreting texts, encompassing literal, moral, and spiritual meanings. One variety of such allegorical interpretation is the typological reading of the Old Testament, in which characters and events are seen as foreshadowing characters and events in the New Testament. The character Beloved in Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved (1987) may also be considered an allegorical figure who carries the collective memory and grief of slavery.     (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Relevance of the concept:
Fable, parable, and allegory, any form of imaginative literature or spoken utterance constructed in such a way that readers or listeners are encouraged to look for meanings hidden beneath the literal surface of the fiction. A story is told or perhaps enacted whose details—when interpreted—are found to correspond to the details of some other system of relations (its hidden, allegorical sense). The poet, for example, may describe the ascent of a hill in such a way that each physical step corresponds to a new stage in the soul’s progress toward a higher level of existence.

Many forms of literature elicit this kind of searching interpretation, and the generic term for the cluster is allegory; under it may be grouped fables, parables, and other symbolic shapings. Allegory may involve either a creative or an interpretive process: either the act of building up the allegorical structure and giving “body” to the surface narrative or the act of breaking down this structure to see what themes or ideas run parallel to it.

By literally interpreting an allegorical story, the true meaning gets lost.( M.J.M.)
 
The concept in mythology: mythological stories are allegorical.
See further: https://marinusjanmarijs.com/archetypical-stories/allegorical-stories/

Citations: “Jesus walking on water is an allegory, not fluid mechanics. God destroying the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah is a warning, not a historical battle. Doubting Thomas is an example, not a person. The story of Noah, with all of its scientific and historical impossibilities, can be read the same way.” Kyle Hill

Supporting evidence: Intercultural research.

Cross connections:
Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:

Altered states of consciousness

Word definition: An altered state of consciousness (ASC) may be defined as a temporary change in the overall pattern of subjective experience, such that the individual believes that his or her mental functioning is distinctly different from certain general norms for his or her normal waking state of consciousness

Etymology: brought into common usage from 1969 by Charles Tart.

Technical description: An altered state is any mental state(s), induced by various physiological, psychological, or pharmacological manoeuvres or agents, which can be recognized subjectively by the individual himself (or by an objective observer of the individual) as representing a sufficient deviation in subjective experience of psychological functioning from certain general norms for that individual during alert, waking consciousness.

Phenomenological description: Altered state of consciousness any condition which is significantly different from a normal waking state.

Medical Levels of Consciousness

• Confusion: A disorientation regarding a person, place or time that makes it difficult to reason or follow commands. Causes include sleep deprivation, fever or drug abuse.
• Delirium: A fluctuating state between hyperawareness, and a state of disorientation and sluggishness. Causes can include intoxication or medications.
• Lethargy: A state of severe drowsiness, listlessness, apathy accompanied with reduced alertness. It may also be referred to as somnolence. Causes can include anemia, sickness, underactive thyroid and others.
• Obtundation: A more severe reduction in alertness than with lethargy, along with slow responses to stimuli, longer periods of sleep and drowsiness between these periods. Causes can include seizures and poisoning, among many others.
• Stupor: A severe level of impaired consciousness in which a person is unresponsive except to vigorous and regular stimulation that must be repeated. Causes can include stroke, drug overdose, lack of oxygen, brain swelling and others.
• Coma: A state of unresponsiveness, even to stimuli, and may lack a gag reflex or pupillary response.

 

• Autoscopy
• Anxiety
• Breathwork
• Coma
• Convulsion
• Daydream
• Delirium
• Depersonalization
• Derealization
• Dementia
• Ecstasy (emotion)
• Ecstasy (religious)
• Ego death
• Energy (esotericism)
• Euphoria
• Fear
• Flow (psychology)
• Hemi-Synch Technological Process
• Hydrogen narcosis
• Hypnagogia
• Hypnopompia
• Hypnosis
• Hysteria
• Kundalini syndrome
• Lucid dreaming
• Major depressive disorder
• Mania
• Mantra
• Meditation
• Music therapy
• Mysticism
• Mystical psychosis
• Near death experience
• Nitrogen narcosis
• Out-of-body experience
• Panic
• Peak experience
• Presyncope
• Psychedelia
• Psychosis
• Psychedelic drug
• Psychedelic experience
• Psychonautics
• Religious experience
• Runner’s high
• Sexual pleasure
• Sleep
• Sleep deprivation
• Sleep paralysis
• Syncope

·  Wakefulnes

(Wikipedia)

Synonyms:
Schemas / Maps: Glasgow Coma Scale

Although many such ALC tests take place in hospital settings, the primary evaluation of patient alertness is the Glasgow Coma Scale, which separates levels of consciousness from standard conscious awareness to a comatose state.

• Conscious: normal, attentive; oriented to self, place, and mind
• Confused: impaired or slowed thinking; disoriented
• Delirious: disoriented, restless, clear deficit in attention; possible incidence of hallucinations and delusions
• Somnolent: excessive drowsiness; little response to external stimuli
• Obtunded: decreased alertness, slowed motor responses; sleepiness
• Stuporous: conscious but sleep-like state associated with little or no activity; only responsiveness is in reaction to pain
• Comatose: no response to stimuli, cannot be aroused; no gag reflex or pupil response to light

This list can be completed by higher states of consciousness  ( M.J.M.):  ¯
See: https://marinusjanmarijs.com/mystical-experiences/siddhis/   

Illustrations:
Cross-cultural comparisons:
Relevance of the concept:

The concept in mythology: Altered states of consciousness allegorical described as a flying carpet

Citations: from William Blake‘s poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is: Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.

Supporting evidence: Cross-cultural similarities.

Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:
Charles Tart: ”Altered states of consciousness.”

Altruism

Word definition: the principle or practice of unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of others (opposed to egoism).

Etymology: Word Origin & History: 1853, “unselfishness, opposite of egoism,” from French altruisme, coined or popularized 1830 by French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798-1857), from autrui, from Old French altrui, “of or to others,” from Latin alteri, dative of alter “other” (see alter). Apparently suggested to Comte by French legal phrase l’autrui, or in full, le bien, le droit d’autrui. The -l- is perhaps a reinsertion from the Latin word.

Technical description: Altruism is when we act to promote someone else’s welfare, even at a risk or cost to ourselves. Though some believe that humans are fundamentally self-interested, recent research suggests otherwise: Studies have found that people’s first impulse is to cooperate rather than compete.

Phenomenological description: transcending egocentric functioning by putting ones focal point of consciousness on a higher ontological level. ( M.J.M.)

Synonyms: Selflessness, Benevolence.

Relevance of the concept: Altruism forms the basis for higher social and moral functioning. ( M.J.M.)

The concept in mythology:  The Hero myth.

Citations:
“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism
or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:
Max Scheler’s book; The nature of sympathy.

Anagamin

Word definition: In Buddhism, an anāgāmi (Sanskrit and Pāli for “non-returning”) is a partially enlightened person who has cut off the first five chains that bind the ordinary mind. Anāgāmis are the third of the four aspirants.
Anagamis are not reborn into the human world after death, but into the heaven of the Pure Abodes, where only anāgāmis live. There they attain full enlightenment (arahantship).

Etymology: The anagamin (“never-returner”), or one who will not be reborn in the human realm and will enter the realm of the+ gods at the time of death. The never-returner, however, is still not considered to have reached nirvana.

Technical description: A high subtle level mystic. ( M.J.M.)

Synonyms: see here below ¯ ( M.J.M.)

Cross-cultural comparisons:

Buddhist                    anagamin       
Hindu                         hamsa
Islam                          koetoeb
Christian                    the wise
Greek                         pneumatikos
Inuit (Eskimo)             kachaxpak
Tibetan                       rang sangyais
Christian symbolism   baptized with fire
Pythagoreans             teleiotes

Relevance of the concept:  Different mystical development levels.

The concept in mythology: The Swan.

Supporting evidence: Multicultural evidence.

Anthropic principle

Word definition: “Pertaining to a human being,”

Etymology: 1836, from Greek anthropikos “human; of or for a man,” from anthropos “male human being, man” (see anthropo-). Related: Anthropical (1804).

Technical description: Anthropic principle, in cosmology, any consideration of the structure of the universe, the values of the constants of nature, or the laws of nature that has a bearing upon the existence of life.

Clearly, humanity’s very existence shows that the current structure of the universe and the values taken by the constants of nature permit life to exist. Indeed, it appears that many features of the universe that are necessary for the evolution and persistence of life are the results of unusual coincidences between different values of the constants of nature—quantities such as the mass of the electron, the strength of gravity, or the lifetime of the neutron. The significance, if any, of these coincidences is not understood. What is understood is that, if these quantities were slightly altered, then no form of complexity or life could exist in the universe.   (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
See further: https://marinusjanmarijs.com/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/cosmological-planning/anthropic-principle/ 

Relevance of the concept: In physics and cosmology, the anthropic principle encompasses diverse explanations about the structure of the universe that open the question of whether it exists with the purpose to permit the emergence of human life. It regards as significant the surprising coincidence of physical features that are—or at least seem to be—necessary and relevant to the existence on Earth of biochemistry, carbon-based life, and eventually human beings to observe such a universe. It has led some to a reconsideration of the centrality of human beings—who can observe and understand the universe—despite astronomers having long ago pushed humans to the edge of insignificance amidst the vastness of space.

The ultimate question here is whether there is or was some special intention or plan for the appearance of humans in the universe, and, if so, was there or is there some intending entity or intelligence or being or “creator” existing “behind” or “over” the universe and the particular qualities that occur within it. As M.A. Corey put it:

… the chief question now centers around whether humans in particular were deliberately intended from the very beginning. This is a difficult question that strikes at the very heart of the human dilemma, for no one seems to know who we really are or what our position actually is in the cosmos. (God and the New Cosmology, 224)

If the universe or cosmos is purely mechanistic, consisting only of matter and physical entities (forces, energy, fields, etc.), then it seems that the answer to that question of an intending entity or intelligence or creator would be “no.” But then what is the source of those closely balanced features that are observed in the existing cosmos—are they just happenstance or fortuitous coincidences? Can coincidence or lucky happenstance be a sufficient answer to this problem?

There are many versions of the anthropic principle. At least one source has suggested that there may be as many as 30 of them. But they are all based on observation—or supposed observation anyway, because the question of the status and observational accuracy and neutrality of the observer is one of the points of discussion—of a number of facts of cosmology, physics, and other features of the known universe. Whether these facts are simple coincidences or whether they are evidence of something more, such as some kind of design or purpose or intention or teleology in the universe, is a central question of investigation and controversy.

The common (or “weak”) form of the anthropic principle is a truism that begins with the observation that the universe appears surprisingly hospitable to the emergence of life—particularly complex, multicellular life—that has the ability make such an observation, and concludes that in only such a fine-tuned universe can such living observers exist. If one accepts the Big Bang theory and the extreme simplicity of the universe at the start of the Big Bang, the friendliness of the universe to complex structures such as galaxies, planetary systems, and biological entities is unexpected by any normal model of turbulence-driven structuring that science has so far been able to derive.  (New World Encyclopedia)

The concept in mythology: Creation myths.

Citations: Weak anthropic principle (WAP): “The observed values of all physical and cosmological quantities are not equally probable but they take on values restricted by the requirement that there exist sites where carbon-based life can evolve and by the requirements that the Universe be old enough for it to have already done so.^”

If any of the fundamental physical constants were even slightly different, then life as we know it would not be possible and no one would be around to contemplate the universe we live in. Barrow and Tipler, among others, argue that the WAP explains the fundamental physical constants, such as the fine structure constant, the number of dimensions in the universe, and the cosmological constant.

From Roger Penrose:

Is there something special about our particular location in the universe, either in space or in time? These are the kinds of question that are addressed by what has become known as the anthropic principle. This principle has many forms… The most clearly acceptable of these addresses merely the spatiotemporal location of conscious (or ‘intelligent’) life in the universe. This is the weak anthropic principle. The argument can be used to explain why the conditions happen to be just right for the existence of (intelligent) life on the earth at the present time. For if they were not just right, then we should not have found ourselves to be here now, but somewhere else, at some other appropriate time. This principle was used very effectively by Brandon Carter and Robert Dicke to resolve an issue that had puzzled physicists for a good many years. The issue concerned various striking numerical relations that are observed to hold between the physical constants (the gravitational constant, the mass of the proton, the age of the universe, etc.). A puzzling aspect of this was that some of the relations hold only at the present epoch in the earth’s history, so we appear, coincidentally, to be living at a very special time (give or take a few million years!). This was later explained, by Carter and Dicke, by the fact that this epoch coincided with the lifetime of what are called main-sequence stars, such as the Sun. At any other epoch, so the argument ran, there would be no intelligent life around in order to measure the physical constants in question—so the coincidence had to hold, simply because there would be intelligent life around only at the particular time that the coincidence did hold! (From The Emperor’s New Mind)

“Scientists are slowly waking up to an inconvenient truth – the universe looks suspiciously like a fix. The issue concerns the very laws of nature themselves. For 40 years, physicists and cosmologists have been quietly collecting examples of all too convenient “coincidences” and special features in the underlying laws of the universe that seem to be necessary in order for life, and hence conscious beings, to exist. Change any one of them and the consequences would be lethal. Fred Hoyle, the distinguished cosmologist, once said it was as if “a super-intellect has monkeyed with physics”.

To see the problem, imagine playing God with the cosmos. Before you is a designer machine that lets you tinker with the basics of physics. Twiddle this knob and you make all electrons a bit lighter, twiddle that one and you make gravity a bit stronger, and so on. It happens that you need to set thirtysomething knobs to fully describe the world about us. The crucial point is that some of those metaphorical knobs must be tuned very precisely, or the universe would be sterile.

Example: neutrons are just a tad heavier than protons. If it were the other way around, atoms couldn’t exist, because all the protons in the universe would have decayed into neutrons shortly after the big bang. No protons, then no atomic nucleuses and no atoms. No atoms, no chemistry, no life. Like Baby Bear’s porridge in the story of Goldilocks, the universe seems to be just right for life.”
― Paul Davies

Four centuries after the scientific revolution apparently destroyed irretrievably man’s special place in the universe, banished Aristotle, and rendered teleological speculation obsolete, the relentless stream of discovery has turned dramatically in favor of teleology and design, and the doctrine of the microcosm is reborn. As I hope the evidence presented in this book has shown, science, which has been for centuries the great ally of atheism and skepticism, has become at last, in the final days of the second millennium, what Newton and many of its early advocates had so fervently wished – the “defender of the anthropocentric faith.”
― Michael Denton, Nature’s Destiny: How the Laws of Biology Reveal Purpose in the Universe

Supporting evidence: Mathematical data.

Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:
Barrow, John D.; Tipler, Frank J. (1988). The Anthropic Cosmological Principle.
Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-282147-8. LCCN 87028148

Apâna

Word definition: Apāṇa; this universal energy is considered responsible for  bodily functions is one of the types of prâna, collectively known as the vāyus.

Etymology: Apâna (outward moving energy), One of the earliest references to Apâna is from the 3,000-year-old Chandogya Upanishad, but many other Upanishads also use the concept, including the Katha, Mundaka and Prasna Upanishads

Technical description: Down and outward energy, most notably the digestive systems. It resides in the hips and gut.
See:  https://marinusjanmarijs.com/subtle-energies/nadis/

Phenomenological description: Apāṇa is located in the pelvic floor, it spreads upward into the lower abdomen, helping to regulate digestion and reproductive functions. and is red in colour. ( M.J.M.)
 
Relevance of the concept: Apana (Sanskrit) Apāna [from apa away, off, down + an to blow, breathe] Down-breath; one of the vital airs, life-currents, or pranas which vitalize, build, and sustain the human or animal body. As apa indicates, it is the prana which ejects from the system material which it no longer requires, such as wastes, etc.

The concept in mythology: Tree of life.

Apocalypse

Word definition: An apocalypse (Ancient Greek: ἀποκάλυψις apokálypsis, from ἀπό and καλύπτω, literally meaning “an uncovering”) is a disclosure of knowledge or revelation.

Etymology: Historically, the term has a heavy religious connotation as commonly seen in the prophetic revelations of eschatology and were obtained through dreams or spiritual visions. Also, it is the Greek word for the last book of the New Testament entitled “Revelation”.

Technical description: The revelation may be made through a dream, as in the Book of Daniel, or through a vision, as in the Book of Revelation. In biblical accounts of revelations the manner of the revelation and its reception is generally described.
Fasting, mainly as part of a spiritual discipline, can lead one into an apocalyptic prophetic vision. One example of this is found in the Book of Daniel which is the first apocalypse in the Protestant Bible. After a long period of fasting, Daniel is standing by a river when a heavenly being appears to him, and the revelation follows (Daniel 10:2ff).

The term is also included in the title of some non-biblical canon books involving revelations. Today, the term is commonly used in reference to any larger-scale catastrophic event, or chain of detrimental events to humanity or nature. In all contexts, the revealed events usually entail some form of an end time scenario or the end of the world or revelations into divine, heavenly, or spiritual realms. For more specific examples of apocalypses. (Wikipedia)

Phenomenological description: The Apocalypse is an allegorical description of a mystical transformation process.  ( M.J.M.)

See further: https://marinusjanmarijs.com/archetypical%20stories/New%20Testament/

Synonyms: Armageddon, day of reckoning, Judgment Day, end of the world.

Cross-cultural comparisons: The seven seals of the Apocalypse, are the seven chakra’s.

Relevance of the concept: The story is a thematic description of a great number of visions and revelations.

Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:
See: https://marinusjanmarijs.com/archetypical-stories/new-testament/ 
Click on nr. 23. The Apocalypse

Archetypes

Word definition: The original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies : prototype

Etymology: The word archetype, “original pattern from which copies are made”, first entered into English usage in the 1540s and derives from the Latin noun archetypum, latinisation of the Greek noun ἀρχέτυπον (archetupon), whose adjective form is ἀρχέτυπος (archétupos), which means “first-molded”, which is a compound of ἀρχή archḗ, “beginning, origin”, and τύπος tupos, which can mean, amongst other things, “pattern,” “model,” or “type.”   (Wikipedia)

Technical description: C. G. Jung (1875–1961) introduced the concept of archetype into psychology and psychotherapy. In his work with patients Jung was struck by the similarity of personal ideas and fantasies (Imagination) to images and motifs that occur in fairy tales and myths and that have been for centuries the themes of meditation and practice in ritual festivals, visions, and sacred pictures and texts. Such images and motifs have been handed down as tribal lore, creation stories, stories of the end of the world, mystery cults (Mystery Religions), or depictions of the gods.
According to Carl Jung they are the structuring principles of the psyche.

According to Theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli they are also the underling structuring principles of matter.

Phenomenological description: Archetypes manifest themselves in dreams, stories, myths, visions.

Synonyms: Prototype, ideal form.

Schemas / Maps: The question is what is the relation between Jungian Archetypes  and Platonic Archetypes:

Jungian Archetypes                          Platonic Archetypes
Developmental                                  Eternal.
Biological                                          Transcendental.

See further: https://marinusjanmarijs.com/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/cosmological-planning/archetypes/  

Cross-cultural comparisons: From his research, Jung found that the concept of archetype was already in use at the time of St. Augustine in De deversis quaestionibus, which speaks of “ideas…which are not yet formed…which are contained in the divine intelligence.” His studies revealed that archetype was synonymous with the “Idea” of Platonic usage (arche, “original”; typos, “form”). The Corpus Hermeticum from the third century describes God as to archetypon phos—the “archetypal light”—expressing the idea that God is the prototype of all light. Jung also found expressions of the archetypes in his study of tribal folk lore, mythology and fairy tales, as well as through his travels to Algiers, Tunis, New Mexico, Uganda, Kenya, Mount Elgon, Egypt via the Nile River, Rome and India. (New World Encyclopedia)

Relevance of the concept: Archetypes are structuring patterns of the psyche.

The concept in mythology: Archetypical imagery is at the heart of mythology.

Citations: Archetypal World or Universe [from Greek archetypos original pattern] Either an abstract type in the divine mind, or a subtle form which is the model for a grosser form. In the processes of cosmic manifestation, forms are built by the builders working on a particular plane from abstract models already existing on a higher plane. In order for ideation to pass from the abstract into the concrete or visible form, the creative logoi see in the ideal world the archetypal forms of all and proceed to build upon these models forms both evanescent and transcendent (SD 1:380).

Supporting evidence: Cross-cultural similarities.

Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:
The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious  (Jung’s Collected Works #9A) by C.G. Jung.

Arhat

Word definition: Theravada Buddhism defines arhat (Sanskrit) or arahant (Pali) as “one who is worthy” or as a “perfected person” having attained nirvana. Other Buddhist traditions have used the term for people far advanced along the path of Enlightenment, but who may not have reached full Buddhahood.   (Wikipedia)

Etymology: Arhat, Sanskrit: “one who is worthy”

Technical description: low-causal mystic.  ( M.J.M.)
See further: https://marinusjanmarijs.com/mysticism/b-five-mystical-levels/

Synonyms: see here below ¯ 

Cross-cultural comparisons:
Buddhist                         arhat 

Hindu                              paramahamsa

Islam                               nabi

Jainism                           tirthankara

Chinese                           lohan

Christian                         prophet

Greek                              teleios

Inuit (Eskimo)                (he or she who will become hlamchoua )

Tibetan                           changchub semspa (bodhisattva)

Christian symbolism       baptized with blood

Pythagoreans                   epiphania
        ( M.J.M.)

Relevance of the concept: describes a level of mystical attainment.

The concept in mythology: The Seeker.

Citations: From Jainism: Tīrthaṅkaras are arhats who after attaining kevalajñāna (pure infinite knowledge) preach the true dharma.

Supporting evidence: : independent similar descriptions of this state in different  cultures.

Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:
The Meditative Mind: The Varieties of Meditative Experience
by Daniel Goleman.

Ascension

Word definition: The Ascension, the bodily ascending of Christ from earth to heaven.

Etymology: Word Origin & History: c.1300, “ascent of Christ into Heaven on the 40th day after the Resurrection,” from Latin ascensionem (nominative ascensio) “a rising,” noun of action from past participle stem of ascendere “to mount, ascend, go up”

Technical description: Ascension (mystical), the belief in some religions that there are certain rare individuals that have ascended into Heaven directly without dying first.

Phenomenological description: The concept of a physical ascension, as believed by some traditionalists, leads to some conceptual difficulties:
How can a physical body survive out of the earth’s atmosphere, without oxygen, in a temperature of 270 degrees below zero Celsius. And so on.
If one takes the ascension serious, than the only alternative is an out of the body experience. Be it in Christ’s situation an ascension to a much higher ontological level than what would be possible for normal humans.  ( M.J.M.)

Synonyms: Rising

Supporting evidence: modern research into Near Death Experiences.
See: https://marinusjanmarijs.com/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/out-of-the-body-experiences-and-near-death-experiences/near-death-experiences-2/ 

Atman

Word definition: Ātman (/ˈɑːtmə/) is a Sanskrit word that means inner self or soul. In Hindu philosophy, especially in the Vedanta school of Hinduism, Ātman is the first principle, the true self of an individual beyond identification with phenomena, the essence of an individual. In order to attain liberation (moksha), a human being must acquire self-knowledge (atma jnana), which is to realize that one’s true self (Ātman) is identical with the transcendent self Brahman. (Wikipedia)

Etymology: in Hindu philosophy, the self or soul, 1785, from Sanskrit atma “essence, breath, soul,” from PIE *etmen “breath” (a root found in Sanskrit and Germanic; source also of Old English æðm, Dutch adem, Old High German atum “breath,” Old English eþian, Dutch ademen “to breathe”).

Technical description: Atman, (Sanskrit: “self,” “breath”) one of the most basic concepts in Hinduism, the universal self, identical with the eternal core of the personality that after death either transmigrates to a new life or attains release (moksha) from the bonds of existence. While in the early Vedas it occurred mostly as a reflexive pronoun meaning “oneself,” in the later Upanishads (speculative commentaries on the Vedas) it comes more and more to the fore as a philosophical topic. Atman is that which makes the other organs and faculties function and for which indeed they function; it also underlies all the activities of a person, as brahman (the Absolute) underlies the workings of the universe. Atman is part of the universal brahman, with which it can commune or even fuse. So fundamental was the atman deemed to be that certain circles identified it with brahman. Of the various systems (darshans) of Hindu thought, Vedanta is the one that is particularly concerned with the atman.  
(Encyclopaedia Britannica)
See further: https://marinusjanmarijs.com/mysticism/atman-and-brahman-paradox/

Phenomenological description: The focal point of consciousness.  ( M.J.M.)

Synonyms: Monad.

The concept in mythology: Divine spark.

Citations: Atman (Sanskrit) Ātman Self; the highest part a human being: pure consciousness, that cosmic self which is the same in every dweller on this globe and on every one of the planetary or stellar bodies in space. It is the feeling and knowledge of “I am,” pure cognition, the abstract idea of self. It does not differ at all throughout the cosmos except in degree of self-recognition. Though universal it belongs, in our present stage of evolution, to the fourth cosmic plane, though it is our seventh principle counting upwards. It may also be considered as the First Logos in the human microcosm. During incarnation the lowest aspects of atman take on attributes, because it is linked with buddhi, as the buddhi is linked with manas, as the manas is linked with kama, etc.

Attractors

Word definition:  Mathematics A value or set of values toward which variables in a dynamical system tend to evolve.

Technical description: In the mathematical field of dynamical systems, an attractor is a set of numerical values toward which a system tends to evolve, for a wide variety of starting conditions of the system. System values that get close enough to the attractor values remain close even if slightly disturbed.

In finite-dimensional systems, the evolving variable may be represented algebraically as an n-dimensional vector. The attractor is a region in n-dimensional space. In physical systems, the n dimensions may be, for example, two or three positional coordinates for each of one or more physical entities; in economic systems, they may be separate variables such as the inflation rate and the unemployment rate.

If the evolving variable is two- or three-dimensional, the attractor of the dynamic process can be represented geometrically in two or three dimensions, (as for example in the three-dimensional case depicted to the right). An attractor can be a point, a finite set of points, a curve, a manifold, or even a complicated set with a fractal structure known as a strange attractor (see strange attractor below). If the variable is a scalar, the attractor is a subset of the real number line. Describing the attractors of chaotic dynamical systems has been one of the achievements of chaos theory. (Wikipedia)
See further: https://marinusjanmarijs.com/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/cosmological-planning/attractors/

Relevance of the concept: Self-organisation.

Supporting evidence: Scientific data.

Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:
Attractor From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attractor

Aura

Word definition: a subtly pervasive quality or atmosphere seen as emanating from a person, place, or thing.

Etymology: 1350–1400; Middle English < Latin < Greek: breath (of air)

Technical description: a colored emanation that encloses a human body or any animal or object. In some esoteric positions, the aura is described as a subtle body.  (Wikipedia)

Phenomenological description: On this website there are elaborate descriptions and airbrush paintings of aura fields.
See: https://marinusjanmarijs.com/subtle-energies/aura-fields/ 

Relevance of the concept: The subtle, non-physical energy fields that are called the aura, constitutes the non-physical element(s) that aren’t mortal and are the carrier of consciousness after death (usually identified as “The soul”) ( M.J.M.)

Citations:
Albert Einstein: “It is possible that there are human emanations of which we are ignorant. You remember how sceptical everyone was about electric currents and invisible waves? Science is still in its infancy” —-Albert Einstein, to his biographer, Antonia Valentin.

Supporting evidence: Subtle energies are described in at least sixty different cultures.

Cross connections:
Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:
C.W. Leadbeater: Man visible and invisible.

 

Autonomous complex

Word definition: A complex is a core pattern of emotions, memories, perceptions, and wishes in the personal unconscious organized around a common theme, such as power or status. Primarily a psychoanalytic term, it is found extensively in the works of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud.

Etymology: The term “complex” (German: Komplex; also “emotionally charged complexes” or “feeling-toned complex of ideas”), was adopted by Carl Jung.

Technical description: Autonomous complexes have the capacity to resist conscious intentions, and to come and go as they please. Such psychic entities of the unconscious possess the following characteristics:
(a) The autonomous complex can only “think” superficially and unclearly, i.e., symbolically, and the end-results (automatisms, constellations) which filter through into the activity of the ego-complex and into consciousness will be similarly constituted
(b) Autonomous complexes appear most clearly in dreams, visions, pathological hallucinations, and delusional ideas
(c) Because the ego is unconscious of them, they always appear first in projected form
(d) The complex interferes with the conscious will and disturbs its intentions. That is why we call it autonomous
(e) In dreams they are represented by other people, in visions they are projected, as it were, into space, just like the voices in insanity when not ascribed to persons in the patient’s environment
(f) In a neurotic or insane person, we find that the complexes which disturb the reactions are at the same time essential components of the psychic disturbance. They cause not only the disturbances of reaction but also the symptoms. I have seen cases where certain stimulus-words were followed by strange and apparently nonsensical answers, by words that came out of the test-person’s mouth quite unexpectedly, as though a strange being had spoken through him. These words belonged to the autonomous complex
(g) When excited by an external stimulus, complexes can produce sudden confusions, or violent affects, depressions, anxiety-states, etc., or they may express themselves in hallucinations. In short, they behave in such a way that the primitive theory of spirits strikes one as being an uncommonly apt formulation for them
(h) Every affect tends to become an autonomous complex, to break away from the hierarchy of consciousness and, if possible, to drag the ego after it
(i) An unconscious tendency makes the autonomy of the complex unreal by giving it a different name, an example of “apotropaic” thinking, which is quite on par with the euphemistic names bestowed by the ancients, a classic example of which is the `hospitable sea.’ Just as the Erinyes (“Furies”) were called, cautiously and propitiatingly, the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”), so the modern mind conceives all inner disturbances as its own activity: it simply assimilates them.   (ARAS).

The concept in mythology: psychological complexes are represented within mythology in a great variety of ways: Sea monsters, dragons, the minotaur, Grendel, medusa and so on.  ( M.J.M.)

Supporting evidence: Complex existence is widely agreed upon in the area of depth psychology, a branch of psychology that asserts the most significant parts of your personality are derived from your unconscious. It is a way of mapping the psyche, and are crucial theoretical items in therapy. Complexes are believed by Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud to influence an individual’s attitude and behaviour.   (Wikipedia)

Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:
·  Jung, C.G. (1971) [1921]. Psychological Types. Collected Works. 6. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01813-8.

• Jung, C.G. (1969) [1960]. The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. Collected Works. 8. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN0-691-09774-7.
• Shultz, D.; Shultz, S. (2009). Theories of Personality (9th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

 

Autopoiesis

Word definition: Proposed by biologist Humberto Maturana and cognitive scientist Francisco Varela, autopoiesis refers to the “self-production” or

“self-making” of an organism.

Technical description: In Integral Theory, it is derived by looking at the biological phenomenology of an organism. A first-person approach to a third-person singular reality.

The inside view of the exterior of an individual (i.e., the inside view of a holon in the Upper-Right quadrant). Exemplary of azone-#5 methodology in Integral

Methodological Pluralism, along with other approaches like cognitive science, etc.

Cross-cultural comparisons: Many North American Indians, have a process oriented language.

Relevance of the concept: Modern western cultures have an object oriented language. Theoretical physicist David Bohm has suggested that
“the notion of a permanent object with well-defined properties can no longer be taken as basic in physics … Rather, it is necessary to begin with the event as a basic concept, and later to arrive at the object as a continuing structure of related and ordered events.”

(David J. Bohm, Problems in the basic concepts of physics: An inaugural lecture delivered at Birkbeck College 1963 (London: Birkbeck/J W Ruddock and Sons, 1963), p.6.)

Bohm argued that our language was far too object oriented, or noun based, and argued that this was making us see a world of static objects instead of dynamic processes.

For Bohm as we shall see, the question of shifting focus from objects to processes was a critical first step in resolving not just the problems of physics, but also the broader environmental crisis that he saw as fundamentally connected to these bigger epistemological errors in the ecology of human cognition.

Bohm tried to develop an experimental approach to language – a “new mode” of using existing languages – which he called the rheomode – from the Greek ‘rheo-’ to flow. This approach was based upon his thesis that it might be possible for “the syntax and grammatical form of language to be changed so as to give a basic role to the verb rather than the noun?”

Einstein in his famous thought experiments, used a first-person approach as well as a second-person (process) approach and a third-person (object) approach to develop his relativity theory. ( M.J.M.)

 

Awareness

Word definition: the state or condition of being aware; having knowledge; consciousness.

Etymology: Word Origin & History: 1828, from aware + -ness.

Technical description: Awareness is the ability to directly know and perceive, to feel, or to be cognizant of events. More broadly, it is the state of being conscious of something.

Synonyms: Consciousness, Alertness.

Supporting evidence: Introspection.

Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:

 

Axial period

Word definition: of, pertaining to, characterized by, or forming an axis

Etymology: Karl Jaspers introduced the concept of an Axial Age in his book Vom Ursprung und Ziel der Geschichte (The Origin and Goal of History), published in 1949.

Technical description: The Axial Age (also called Axis Age) is the period when, roughly at the same time around most of the inhabited world, the great intellectual, philosophical, and religious systems that came to shape subsequent human society and culture emerged—with the ancient Greek philosophers, Indian metaphysicians and logicians (who articulated the great traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism), Persian Zoroastrianism, the Hebrew Prophets, the “Hundred Schools” (most notably Confucianism and Daoism) of ancient China….These are only some of the representative Axial traditions that emerged and took root during that time. The phrase originated with the German psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers, who noted that during this period there was a shift—or a turn, as if on an axis—away from more predominantly localized concerns and toward transcendence. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
See further: https://marinusjanmarijs.com/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/cosmological-planning/axial-period/ 

Cross-cultural comparisons: The Concept of the Axial Age is based upon Cross-cultural research.

Relevance of the concept: Axial Age thinkers displayed great originality and yet exhibited surprising similarity with respect to their ultimate concerns. Indian thinkers came to think of karma, the residual effects of past actions, as having direct impact upon human life, and they proposed solutions for how human beings could attain liberation (moksha) from karma’s effects. In ancient Greece Socrates was the exemplar of thinkers who emphasized the use of reason in the relentless investigation of truth, and his student Plato (arguably the father of Western philosophy) adapted his teacher’s insight in theorizing how the world of everyday existence and the eternal world of the ideas interrelate. Chinese thinkers striving to unify the kingdom and avert civil war disputed and debated the appropriate “way” (dao) for human society; the disciples of Confucius, for example, argued that the dao consisted in promoting a humane civilization, while the disciples of such thinkers as Zhuangzi took the Cosmic Dao as a guide for life. The Hebrew Prophets came to view the god of their nation, Israel, as the God who created heaven and earth and who shaped the destiny of all people. In all cases, the representative thinkers saw themselves as postulating solutions to life’s questions and problems not only for themselves or even for their cultures but for humankind as a whole. As local and tradition-specific as their investigations may have begun, their concerns were global, even universal. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

The concept in mythology: Voyage to another land.

Citations: People who lived on the early side of the axis, some scholars believe, lacked much self-reflection and lacked the concepts, ideas, and thoughts related to such awareness. People who lived on the later side of the axis were essentially contemporary in those aspects of their psychology.

Before the Axial transformation, human beings told one another myths and other stories about how they came to be. The stories were not regarded as true or false; rather, their truth did not require questioning.  Such was the state of human beings, Jaspers believed, because of a lack a self-reflective, fully conscious self-understanding.  Under such conditions, abstract truths matter not.

During the Axial-age, however, some scholars argue that dramatic shifts took place in human thought across four geographically distinct regions of the world: India, China, the Middle East, and Greece.

New ways of thinking emerged that defined the world’s psychological culture for all time since. Jaspers wrote:

What is new about this age…is that man becomes conscious of Being as a whole, of himself and his limitations. He experiences the terror of the world and his own powerlessness. He asks radical questions. Face to face with the void he strives for liberation and redemption. By consciously recognising his limits he sets himself the highest goals.

Big questions that were specifically psychological in nature emerged: “Who am I?” and “Why are people different?

Perhaps as a consequence of this questioning, a new generation of wisdom teachings emerged across the four geographic areas affected. In India, new Hindu doctrine included a greater degree of reflection and analysis. Buddhism and Jainism both emerged, similarly self-reflective and analytical. China saw Confucianism, Taoism, and the “Hundred Schools.” Iran saw Zorastrianism. In the Middle East, Judaism coalesced, and changed from its non-reflective earliest writings, to a more human-focused perspective epitomized by the later books of the Hebrew Bible and by Rabbinic Judaism. Greek philosophy explored the human mind and argued for self-knowledge.  
John D Mayer Ph.D.: The Significance of the Axial Age (the Great Transformation)

Supporting evidence: intercultural evidence.

Serial patterns in time: 425 years pattern. ( M.J.M.)

Parallel patterns in time: The Axial Age is a parallel pattern in time.

Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:
Karl Jaspers: Vom Ursprung und Ziel der Geschichte (The Origin and Goal of History), published in 1949.

 

 

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