December 11, 2005

THE HISTORY OF WAR

(With a Critique of Lloyd deMause=s Position

that harsh Child Rearing Modes are the Cause of War)

Years ago:

8,000,000,000 The ABig Bang.@ (Previously thought to be 15,000,000,000 years ago) (UE p. 25; UE p. 320 footnote).

3,850,000,000 The origin of life. Prokaryotic cells appear spontaneously from pre-biotic organic molecules (Wilson p. 186).

3,500,000,000 Stromatolite (organism-topped rocks) ecosystems appear. All organisms are anaerobic. The aerobic pathways of metabolism, which are highly efficient means to obtain and deploy free energy, develop as an auxiliary adaptation (Wilson pp. 183-184, 186 and 188).

3,000,000,000 Microscopic organisms swarm in the water. A large fraction of them is generating oxygen through photosynthesis, but the oxygen produced is captured by the ferrous iron which saturates the seas. The resulting ferric oxide settles on the ocean floor and the organisms remain anaerobic (Wilson pp. 187-188).

The land is virtually devoid of life. It is uninhabitable. There is no ozone layer in the stratosphere, and the progenitor molecules of oxygen in the air below are too thin to create it. Short-length ultraviolet radiation travels unimpeded to the earth and beats down on the dry basaltic rocks, assaulting organisms which venture on land from the sea (Wilson p. 183).

2,800,000,000 The Aoxygen sink@ has partially filled and a few local habitats sustain low levels of molecular oxygen. Aerobic organisms, still single-celled prokaryotes, appear (Wilson p. 188).

1,800,000,000 The oxygen level is now about 1 percent of the atmosphere. The first eukaryotic (Ahigher@) organisms appear. They are alga-like forms, forerunners of the dominant photosynthesizers of the modern seas. Their DNA is enveloped in membranes, and the remainder of the cell contains mitochondria and other wellBformed organelles. Soon, single-celled eukaryotes give rise to more complex organisms composed of many eukaryotic cells organized into tissues and organs (Wilson pp. 186 and 188).

600,000,000 The first animals evolve in the seas. They are soft-bodied and typically flat (Wilson p. 188).

540,000,000 The supply of free oxygen in the atmosphere is near the 21 percent level of today. Animals increase in size and diversify explosively. Within a few million years, every modern phylum of invertebrate animals measuring one millimeter or more in length, and possessing skeletal structures, is represented. A large portion of present-day classes and orders also comes on stage. A strong ozone layer now exists and screens out lethal short-wave radiation (Wilson p. 188).

520,000,000 The ACambrian Explosion@ B newly abundant macroscopic animals, large enough to be seen with the naked eye, evolve in a radiative pattern to create the major adaptive types that exist today (Wilson p. 186).

500,000,000 Life in the sea has an essentially modern aspect (Wilson p. 188).

450,000,000 The first land plants appear. They are probably derived from multicellular algae. Land animals soon follow (Wilson p. 190).

400,000,000 Insects originate (Wilson p. 210).

440,000,000 Great extinction spasm #1 (in the Paleozoic Era, ending the Ordovician Period) sharply reduces biodiversity. Recovery to the original level of diversity takes 25,000,000 years (Wilson pp. 29, 31 and 189).

380,000,000 The pioneer plants form thick mats and low shrubbery widely distributed over the continents. The first spiders, mites, centipedes and insects swarm on the land B small animals truly engineered for life on land. They are followed by the amphibians (evolved from lobe-finned fishes), a burst of land vertebrates (relative giants among land animals), and eventually by reptiles, inaugurating the Age of Reptiles (Wilson p. 190).

365,000,000 Great extinction spasm #2 (in the Paleozoic Era, ending the Devonian Period) sharply reduces biodiversity. Recovery to the original level of diversity takes 30,000,000 years (Wilson pp. 29, 31 and 189).

350,000,000 Sharks appear in seas throughout the world (Wilson p. 113).

340,000,000 Coal forests replace the pioneer vegetation. They are dominated by towering lycophyte trees, seed ferns, tree horsetails, and a great variety of ferns. Life is close to the attainment of its maximal biomass. The forests swarm with insects, including dragonflies, beetles and cockroaches (Wilson pp. 189-190).

300,000,000 Insects have radiated into forms nearly as diverse as those existing today. (This is the Carboniferous Period of the Paleozoic Era). They have dominated world terrestrial and fresh water habitats ever since (Wilson pp. 133 and 210).

245,000,000 Great extinction spasm # 3 (in the Paleozoic Era, ending the Permian Period) sharply reduces biodiversity. Life survives more than the equivalent of a total nuclear war. Approximately 87 percent of all marine animal species are extinguished. Most of the coal vegetation dies out, with the exception of the ferns. Reptiles, distant ancestors of humanity, are devastated, only a few surviving. Insects and plants are less affected. Mosquitoes easily survive. The primary agent of destruction seems to have been long-term climatic cooling. Recovery to the original level of diversity from the Permian and Triassic extinctions combined takes 100,000,000 years (Wilson pp. 29-31,189-190 and 210).

210,000,000 Great extinction spam #4 (during the Mesozoic Era, Triassic Period) sharply reduces biodiversity. Recovery to the original level of diversity from the Permian and Triassic extinctions combined takes 100,000,000 years (Wilson pp. 29, 31 and 189).

100,000,000 The flowering plants sweep to domination of the land vegetation, reconstituting the forests and grasslands of the world (Wilson p. 190).

75,000,000 The Age of Reptiles. Dinosaurs arise among a newly constituted, mostly tropical vegetation of ferns, conifers, cycads and cycadeoids (Wilson p. 190).

65,000,000 Great extinction spasm #5, which ends the last period of the Mesozoic Era, the Cretaceous Period, and marks the beginning of the Cenozoic Era, sharply reduces biodiversity. The Age of Reptiles ends. The earliest primates and mammals make their appearance. The vegetation is essentially modern. Tropical rain forests are assembling the greatest concentration of biodiversity of all time. Recovery to the original level of diversity takes 20,000,000 years (Wilson pp. 29, 31 and 189-190; Encyclopedia).

40,000,000 Global diversity is at its all-time high (Wilson pp. 189 and 294).

6,000,000 The Archaic (Pleroma-uroboros) Stage. This stage would last until 200,000 years ago. It is the stage of pre-Homo sapiens: Australopithecus africanus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus. The pleroma-uroboros is the symbol of the primitive awareness during this period B embedded in physical nature (pleroma is an old gnostic term which signifies the potential of physical nature), and dominated by animal-reptilian impulses (uroboros, a serpent eating its own tail, that is, self-possessed, narcissistically all-enclosing). Man=s world and man=s self (the newly evolving center of his experience) are basically undifferentiated. Man has no conception of time (he is pre-temporal), and there is no real comprehension of death. This is the structure of consciousness which lies behind the universal myths of a Garden of Eden B a time before the Afall@ into separation and knowledge with reflection, a time of innocence (UE pp. 26, 32 and 65).

4,000,000 The earliest known hominids, members of the genus Australopithecus (man-apes), appear. They are bipedal and have an average cranial capacity of 525 cc. (Wilson pp. 49 and 52; Encyclopedia).

2,900,000 Lower Paleolithic Period (2,900,000-100,000 years ago). Stone tools. No evidence of warfare (Kelly, pp. 1, 2, 135, 148, 151, 155 and 159).

2,000,000 Humanity makes its appearance. The first member of the genus Homo, Homo habilis, a small gracile species, appears in East Africa. It has an average cranial capacity of 750 cc. (Wilson pp. 49, 52 and 189; Encyclopedia).

1,500,000 Homo erectus (the AJava man,@ Athe Peking man@) evolves in Africa from Homo habilis. Its cranial capacity is 975 cc. By 1,000,000 years ago, it will have dispersed into Asia. By 400,000 years ago, it will have dispersed into Europe and have begun to evolve into Homo sapiens. By 250,000 years ago, it will have fully evolved into Homo sapiens (Wilson pp. 48-49 and 53; Encyclopedia).

The sex ratio for Homo erectus and for Homo sapiens to the end of the Paleolithic Period, is, on the average, 148 to 100 in favor of men (cited by deMause).

700,000 Foraging (Hunting and Gathering) Societies. The world view is archaic, animistic. Magic reigns. Spirit is located Aout there,@ interwoven with the earth-body. The very earth is our blood and bones and marrow, and we are all sons and daughters of that earth, in which, and through which, Spirit flows freely (HE pp. 45-46, 53, 64, 173 and 322).

550,000 The human mind appears B in the later stages of evolution of the genus Homo (Wilson pp. 49 and 186).

400,000 Homo erectus begins to evolve into Homo sapiens. By 250,000 years ago, the transformation would be complete (Encyclopedia).

Early hominid parents decapitate and eat their children (cited by deMause).

250,000 Homo sapiens is fully evolved from Homo erectus. It has a cranial capacity close to the present world average of 1350 cc. (Wilson pp. 49 and 56; Encyclopedia).

200,000 The ATyphon@ (Body-self) Stage of Consciousness. This stage lasts until 9,500 B.C. Neanderthal man (200,000-50,000 years ago) arises. The self is still undifferentiated from the body, and hence is a body-self, but this body-self is now separate from the natural world. Moreover, this new focal self seems central to the natural world and must be defended against all odds. And thus, in this dim past of pre-history, there arises the awakening of a defended Aself-in-here@ versus Athe world-out-there@ (UE pp. 43-44 and 46).

Though the self is distinguished from the naturic environment, it remains magically intermingled with it. Cognitive processes confuse subject and object, and whole and parts. This is the primary process of dreams. It is the Aparataxic mode@ where the undifferentiated wholeness of experience (uroboros) is broken down into parts which are still not connected in any logical way, though they are connected by magical association and contamination (UE p. 45).

The increasing keenness of consciousness brings an increasing awareness of vulnerability. Our earliest certain evidence of religious ritual, the Neanderthal (early typhonic) graves and bear sanctuaries, point to an attempt to cope with the imprint of death. Time becomes both a means of repressing death (for to deny death is to demand a future in which man can project himself), and a substitute for eternity (time allows one the illusion of continuing). The typhon lives in the simple, passing present and knows that he is a separate individual living in the discrete present. The new self seeks to preserve the present and consciously carry it forward to the next present, and the next, and the next, as a promise that death will not touch it now. The typhon has a constant time demand, a demand that the present move perpetually to its successor. The daily hunt deals death so man can live. Groups consist of 40-50 individuals. There is no warfare as we know it (UE pp. 62 and 64-65, 67, 69, 72 and 95).

While the average mode of the sense of self is that of the magical body (the typhonic stage), and is ruled by the Aprimary process,@ certain advanced individuals develop and implement the earliest-known techniques of transformation into realms of the superconsious. These are the true shamans. They reach the psychic (Nirmanakaya) stage, the stage of ecstatic body trance and actual psychic capacity. Their explorations in transcendence could only have had an evolutionary impact on consciousness at large (UE pp. 87-88).

100,000 Middle Paleolithic period (100,000-35,000 years ago). Hunting and gathering. No archaeological evidence of warfare (pp. 1, 135, 148, 151, 155 and 159).

70,000 Language consists of intentional calls (UE p. 98).

67,000 The transition to Homo sapiens is complete. Fully modern humans become the single surviving hominid species (Encyclopedia).

50,000 Cro-Magnon man (50,000-10,000 years ago) arises (Encyclopedia).

Language includes modifiers (UE p. 98).

35,000 Upper Paleolithic Period (35,000-10,000 B.C.). Art begins. No archaeological evidence of warfare until the end of the Period (12,000-10,000 B.C.) (Kelly, pp. 1, 2, 135, 148, 151, 155 and 159).

Language includes commands (UE p. 98).

20,000 Language includes nouns (UE p. 98).

12,000 The first evidence of warfare: one burial site dating from 12,000-10,000, the ANubian site 117," near Jebel Sahaba, Sudan (Kelly, pp. 1, 2, 148 and 151).

10,000 Mesolithic Period (10,000-7,500 B.C.). Settled communities. No archaeological evidence of warfare (Kelly, pp. 2 and 159).

9,500 ALow Mythic-membership@ Stage, Horticultural Societies. This stage lasts until 4,500 B.C. Humankind discovers farming. The world view is magic. The religion is that of the Great Mother. Spirit is located Aout there,@ in the biosphere, and Heaven is Aup there.@ Spirit demands sacrifice B the central and pervading notion being that certain specific human steps must be taken to come into accord with Spirit, that there are steps on the way to having a more fully realized Spiritual awareness (HE p. 48, 53, 64 and 322; UE p. 93).

The world of farming is the world of extended time, of making present preparations for a future harvest, of being able to gear the actions of the present toward significant future goals, aims and rewards. Time is seasonal, cyclic (UE pp. 94 and 211).

Man pictures the future and apprehends his own mortality more vividly. Ceremonial graves are a common practice. Aggression and mass homicide, in the form of war, begin. Language, which has the capacity to represent a sequence or a series of events symbolically and project it beyond the immediate present, is the vehicle of man=s new temporal consciousness. By transcending the present in language, the new self also transcends the body. Cognition is mythic B a mixture of magic and logic. Immortality still resides in the invisible world of power (UE pp. 95-98, 110, 120, 122 and 296).

9,000 Simple agricultural practices appear simultaneously in several places in the Levant and Iraq. Towns are of around 200 people. Language includes the age of names. Kingship begins (UE pp. 98, 109 and 175).

7,500 the Neolithic Period (7,500-1,500 B.C.). Plants and animals are domesticated. Agriculture begins 7,500-7,000. In the Near East, the second generally accepted archaeological evidence of warfare dates from this period (7,500-7,000). Henceforth, warfare would spread throughout the world (Kelly. p. 1).

The cult of the Great Mother begins. Its early period would last to 3,500 B.C., in the Levant. The Great Mother is a simple biological nourisher and fertility token magically amplified to cosmic proportions. She reflects the early mythic-membership level of reality, which is close to the body, instincts and nature, and which, therefore, forms myths and symbols about those lower levels. The Great Mother demands human sacrifice B substitute sacrifices to handle Thanatos. Early Adivine@ kings are mythically viewed as her consorts and after reigning for a span of years, are killed (UE pp. 125-126, 130, 141-142, 153, 158, 177).

7,000 Innumerable farming settlements exist throughout the Near East (UE p. 110).

In Jericho, 7,000 B.C., children are sealed in walls, bridges and building foundations. Infants are decapitated (cited by deMause).

6,000 Food surplus allows the emergence of specialized classes, such as priests, administrators and educators, who are free for more detailed and specialized tasks than hunting or farming (UE p. 102).

5,000 In the Near East, between 5,000 and 4,300 B.C., warfare becomes generally prevalent, as evidenced by fortifications, garrisons and destroyed sites at a number of locations. Both population and trade have increased, and there is evidence of efforts to control strategic sites along trade routes. Hierarchical an decentralized forms of political organization evolve (Kelly, p. 1).

The Sumerian civilization begins as a pre-historic village culture in South Mesopotamia. By 3,000 B.C., it would be a flourishing civilization (UE p. 98; Encyclopedia).

Agricultural colonization has spread throughout the Tigris-Euphrates and Nile Valleys. Some cities have 10,000 inhabitants.

Soon the world=s high civilizations, with the greatest and most enduring classical mythologies, would arise B those of Sumer (c.3,500 B.C.), Egypt (c.3000 B.C.), Mycenaea (2,800 B.C.), Babylon (2,500 B.C.), the Indus Valley (c.2,500 B.C.), China under the Shang dynasty (c.1500 B.C.), the Maya (c.300 C.E.) and the Aztecs (c.1500) (UE p. 98; SG p. 112; Encyclopedia).

4,500 AHigh Mythic-membership@ Stage. This stage lasts until 1500 B.C. Civilization has begun. The city-states and theocracies of Egypt and Mesopotamia flower. Kingship blossoms. Egypt has mortuary cults, builds pyramids, and invents mummies and golden death masks. Immortality now resides in the visible world. Death is overcome by the accumulation of time-defying monuments (UE pp. 110, 121-122, 175 and 187).

3,500 The Sumerian civilization (c.3,500-2,350), is the first of the higher civilizations. The Great Mother has become a metaphysical symbol B the Great Goddess, the arch personification of the power of Matter, Space and Time, within whose bounds all beings arise and die. Everything that has form or name, including God personified as good or evil, merciful or wrathful, is her child, within her womb. Thus, in this mythic-membership period, certain individuals must have intuited the subtle realm of a Oneness which underlies and gives birth to all the lower levels B space, body, mind, time and world. These individuals must have understood that the manifest world is a great production, a mahamaya (from ma or matr in Sanskrit, meaning production), and, therefore, fundamentally One. Their actual vision must have empowered the supernatural image of the Great Goddess, the One whose body is all manifestation. The Great Goddess reflects a metaphysical truth B that all is One (UE pp. 141-142 and 153-154).

The membership level self has enough complexity to bind Thanatos and extrovert it B thereby fatefully converting Thanatos into murderous aggression. The original death terror becomes death-dealing. Thanatos, the pull of transcendence, the drive to return the separate self to Unity consciousness, arises whenever there is a boundary, and works for the dissolution of that boundary through transcendence. To the bounded self, however, it appears as a terrifying death impact B a death impact which, at the membership level, the self extroverts into the aggressive form of murder known only to humankind. Homicide is a substitute sacrifice to appease Thanatos while also avoiding transcendence. Violent hatred is almost entirely a cognitive and conceptual elaboration which extends quite beyond mere biological aggression which, by and large, is always in the service of evolutionary trends. The same can hardly be said of human murder and war. Beginning at the membership stage, the history of mankind is the history of the wholesale substitute sacrifices and murderous wastage that have specifically marked Homo sapiens (UE pp. 159-161 and 264).

3,200 Specialists have produced the alphabet, mathematics, writing and the calendar B the first truly and purely mental productions of humans. Money, a symbolic, mental form of material transfer, comes into existence. Labor is symbolized as wages (UE p. 103).

3,000 The earliest historical records appear. They document

a. Frequent warfare between neighboring Sumerian polities over land and water rights.

b. The unification by conquest of Upper and Lower Egypt (Kelly, p. 1).

Societies are agrarian. The world view is mythic. Agrarian societies invent mathematics, writing, metallurgy B and specialized warfare. Men begin building the first great military Empires, mythic-imperial Empires, which unify disparate and contentious tribes into biding social orders (HE p. 52).

In Sumer, among the early city-states of Ur, Uruk, Kish, Lagash and others, the war machine arises and modern, massive warfare of one state against another is born. The ability to wage war and impose collective human sacrifice has remained the identifying mark of all sovereign power throughout history (UE pp. 165-166 and 296).

Contemplative endeavors arise (deep subjectivity, interior awareness, meditation and contemplation) which locate Spirit Ain here.@ Steps toward a more fully realized Spiritual awareness are arrayed in a AGreat Chain of Being@ which is the universal sequence of hierarchic levels of increasing consciousness (HE pp. 52 and 64; UE pp. 10-11).

As long as physical labor (plowing) is necessary for subsistence, a premium is placed on male physical strength and mobility. No known agrarian society has the concept of women=s rights (HE p. 54).

Egypt becomes a unified kingdom under King Menes (3,110-2,884 B.C.) and a high mythic-membership civilization develops which would last 3,000 years, until 322 B.C., with the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great (UE p. 98; SG pp. 112-113; Encyclopedia).

On the mainland of Greece, the Mycenaean civilization begins (c.2,800 B.C.). It would last until 1,200 B.C., when it would fall to invasion by the Dorians (UE p. 98; Encyclopedia).

The Babylonian Empire would develop in South Mesopotamia (c.2,500 B.C.) and a civilization would arise which would include the states established by the city rulers of Ur, Uruk, Akkad and Lagash. In 1750 B.C. King Hammurabi (fl. 1792-1750 B.C.) would issue a code of law for the management of his large empire (UE p. 98; Encyclopedia).

In India, the mythic-membership Indus Valley civilization would arise (c.2,500 B.C.) and would last until c.1500 B.C., when it would fall to invasion by the Aryans (SG p. 112; Encyclopedia).

2,500 AThe Low Egoic Period@ (in the West B Europe and the Near East). This period lasts until 500 B.C. The egoic structure of consciousness emerges. The old cosmologies and mythologies of the goddess mother begin to be transformed in favor for male-oriented, patriarchal mythologies (UE pp. 187-188 and 192).

The ego B the unique individuality emerges. A new type of myth, the hero myth, now expresses this major development. The myth describes an individual hero who triumphs over the Great Mother (or one of her consorts, such as the old serpent-dragon-uroboros, or over a Great Mother derivative, such as Medusa with serpent-monster hair, or over a Great Mother offspring, such as Typhon). For the first time in history, these myths describe the new egoic structure of consciousness winning the battle with the Great Mother, not allowing itself to be sacrificially swallowed up and returned within her, in subconsciousness. The dragon guards the ego, and that is what the hero must liberate. For the Greeks, the victory of Zeus over Typhon, the youngest child of Gaea, the goddess Earth, secures the reign of the patriarchal gods of Mount Olympus over the Titan broods of the Great Mother.

In the East, the Great Mother begins to get transformed into the Great Goddess. In the West, however, the ego would dissociate (rather than differentiate), from the Great Mother, suppress her, and thus (except for Mary) leave her out completely from subsequent mythology. No Great Goddess arises in the West. The Judaeo-Christian-Islamic religions are patriarchal religions in the extreme, without a trace of the subtle level Goddess (UE pp. 192-198).

In the orthodox religions of the West, the spheres of the Divine and the Human would not evolve to the point where they would become one. They would stop at the subtle (Sambhogakaya) realm, and (except for a few individuals, of which Christ is an example) would never truly grasp the Dharmakaya. The Western orthodox world view, would split God from Man, without a higher synthesis to One, and in addition, split Man from Nature (mind from body) (UE p. 262).

In Sumer, the Adivine@ king convinces those around him that a substitute sacrifice of somebody else would do just as well as the sacrifice of himself. Man now has a visible god always present to receive his offerings, and for this, he is willing to pay the price of his own subjection. Historically, there has never been any fundamental change in the massive structure of domination and exploitation represented by the state (UE pp. 178, 181 and 183).

2,000 The Celts (2,000-350 B.C.) first arise in Western Europe. They speak Indo-European dialects, have iron weapons and ride horses. They spread in Europe and Asia Minor (UE p. 30; Encyclopedia).

Stonehenge is built (c.2000 B.C.), in Southern England. Young children have their skulls split by axes (cited by deMause).

1,500 In the Near East, the male-oriented, patriarchal mythologies of thunder-hurling gods are now the dominant divinities (UE p. 192).

The written records and mythologies of this period scream out in psychological anguish in ways never before voiced or recorded. Records explode in grief, doubt and sorrow. The moral problem of suffering moves to center stage where it would remain to and including the present time. For the first time, in both East and West, there occurs a yearning for release from what is felt to be an insufferable state of sin, exile or delusion. This is what the theologians ever since have called the Fall of Man. Factors contributing to this Fall include:

Man becomes aware of his own separation from nature, and this leads to a natural sense of guilt.

Individuals (egos) consciously feel their alienation from Spirit, as never before.

There is the possibility of additional guilt, due to neurotic disorders.

The very strength of the heroic ego leads it to the illusory assumption that it is perfectly self-sufficient and independent, and this it can do only by repressing, not only the lower levels of consciousness from which it has finally emerged, but also the higher realms, which should have been its destiny. There thus arises that peculiarly Western egoic mood B cool, rational, abstract, isolated, bravely over-individual, solid, shy of its emotions, shyer of God B an atmosphere of hubris (from the Greek hybris, the Apride that goeth before a fall@). This new ego B built upon a repression of the Below and a denial of the Above, upon a disdain of necessary Earth and a refusal of actual Heaven B this doubly defended consciousness, with its visions of cosmo-centricity, would proceed to remake the Western world and eventually underwrite an entire civilization (UE pp. 303-309).

By 1500, China has a unique and fairly uniform culture over almost its entire territory. The Shang (Yin) dynasty (c.1523-c.1027 B.C.) is the first historic dynasty. Society is agricultural and complex, with a bureaucracy and defined social classes. Writing is well-developed and the first Chinese calendar is in use. This is the great age of bronze casting (SG 112-113; Encyclopedia).

1,300 History as the chronicle of events in a society begins to exist. Because of the dissociation of the ego from both body and God (because the ego has dissociated itself from the body and thinks itself God), history becomes a chronicle of the ego=s power-laced feats, and not a chronicle of the evolutionary steps toward Atman B one of those steps being, of course, the death and transcendence of the ego itself (UE pp. 212 and 214-215).

1,250 In the Near East, Moses= revelation on Mount Sinai (c.1250 B.C.) has all the features of a subtle level apprehension B a numinous Other that is Light, Fire, Insight, and Sound. Moses does not claim to be one with or identical with that Being (SG p. 80).

In India, at about the same time, a subtle level religious insight is expressed in the Vedas (the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, the most ancient religious texts in an Indo-European language) (SG p. 80).

Ancient Jews, under Egyptian King Ramses II (d. 1225 B.C.), continue to Apass their children through the fire,@ despite the denunciation of the custom by Hebrew prophets (cited by deMause).

1,000 The egoic, heroic, individualistic period brings with it levels of murderous aggression yet unknown in the history of the world. The mass atrocities which Tiglath-pileser I (1115-1077 B.C.) inflicts on the Assyrians are an example. The new ego, even more self-conscious than its mythic-membership predecessor, is more vulnerable, more guilty, more death-terrorized, and therefore more willing to deal joyously in massive substitute sacrifices. It is not just that kings would crusade in wars, but that people would ecstatically support their wholesale slaughters. Joyful release would accompany the outbreak of war (UE pp. 296-297).

During the egoic area, the war machine would spin out of control. The sacred or semi-sacred restraints were gone (or perverted into Aholy wars@). Wars increasingly would be fought over ideas rather than simple property or goods, and hence the sheer destruction of all goods, people and property would become acceptable. Not goods but abstractions would now be the objects of war. The new sense of self, drunk with power and cut loose from its organic typhonic and membership roots, would secure its token Atman feelings by marching through piles of disfigured finite objects. At stake was the community=s immortality account, and the more you could rob others of immortality by killing them, the greater would be your own immortality account. Thus would proceed the new egoic Atman project, attempting both to gain cosmic self-esteem, and replenish (or avenge) the shortages in its immortality account (UE pp. 297-298).

The new powers of the ego accompanied by its new inherent terrors, would result in new, wildly exaggerated substitute gratifications (such as hedonistic over-indulgence), and new, wildly exaggerated substitute sacrifices (such as mass homicide, oppressive exploitation, massive slavery, class alienation and violent inequality) B all of which would cripple the levels of exchange both in oneself and in those who would happen to fall under one=s influence or power. Thus would be the ego=s attempts at token cosmo-centrism and symbolic immortality (UE pp. 298-299).

900 The sages of the Upanishads begin composing (c. 900 B.C.).

700 The Greek civilization (700-146 B.C.) begins. It would end when it would fall into the hands of Rome (Encyclopedia).

600 The great axial sages make their appearance B Zoroaster (c. 628-c.551 B.C.), Gautama Buddha (563-483 B.C.), Confucius (c.551- ?479 B.C.), Lao Tzu (fl. 550 B.C.), Parmenides (b. 515 B.C.), Socrates (469-399 B.C.), Plato (?427-347 B.C.) etc. . . All are men. Their insights show a realization of spiritual Truth and Reality infinitely richer and more sophisticated than those of their predecessors (HE pp. 53-54; EoS p. 55).

The notion of a historical fall from Eden is present, but the idea that humans are actually evolving toward Spirit is not conceived. History is viewed as devolution B a continuous fall from God. The world of manifestation is devolving away from Spirit. God lies in our collective past. The Garden of Eden is yesterday. The Golden Age lies on the road behind us (EoS pp. 56-57).

The societies are feudal agrarian with a mythic world view. Morality (that of the warrior, the duty-bound, and the ethnocentric) does not see the value of universal compassion, which it interprets as a sign of weakness. In mythic and mythic-rational syncretism, the three spheres of art, morality and science are in significant ways globally fused. For instance, a scientific Atruth@ is true only if it fits the religious dogma, and all true art depicts some aspect of mythic organization (SES pp. 398 and 401).

500 AThe Middle Egoic Period@ (in Europe and the near East). The period lasts until 1500 C.E. The dissociation of the ego (mental) from the typhonic and membership structures (body-bound), the mind from the body, is now a permanent element in the European tradition and the distinguishing mark of European and Western man. Reason and instincts are at war. The ego is the new self and pretends to be God B cosmo-centric and immortal. Permanent concepts have become substitutes for everlasting life (Eros). The body has become the thing sacrificed as a substitute for the death of the ego (Thanatos). The rational (static) ego devitalizes and mechanizes the (dynamic) body. Time is historical, linear and conceptual (UE pp. 188, 199, 200, 202 and 206-209, 211 and 225).

The Roman civilization (c.500 B.C.-476 C.E. ) begins. It would end with the deposition of the last Roman emperor by the Goths (Encyclopedia).

150 In India, Patanjali (c.150 B.C.) writes the Yoga Sutras, which, throughout South Asia, would become a general system for Hindu and Buddhist spiritual disciplines. It is directed at attaining higher consciousness and liberation from ignorance, suffering and rebirth (HE p. 53; Encyclopedia).

50 In India, Mahayana Buddhism emerges as a definable movement with the appearance of the Mahayana sutras, a new class of literature. Its main philosophical tenet is that all things are empty, devoid of self-nature. Its chief religious ideal is the Bodhisattva, who vow to postpone entry into nirvana until all other living beings are also enlightened (Encyclopedia).

C.E.

36 In the West, Jesus Christ, whose causal level apprehension is, AI and the Father are one,@ is crucified (SG p. 80).

In India, at about the same time, a similar causal/ultimate level understanding is being expressed in the Upanishads, with statements such as AThou art That,@ AThis Atman is Brahman,@ AI am Brahman@ (SG p. 80).

150 In India, Nagarjuna (c.150 C.E.), founds the Madhyamika School of Mahayana Buddhism. AThe other world is this world rightly seen@ (SES p. 356; HE p. 305).

200 In India, Mahayana Buddhism grows (EoS p. 55).

In the West, Plotinus (205-270), like Nagarjuna, teaches, AThe other world is this world rightly seen@ (HE p. 305).

300 In Southern Mexico and Central America, the Maya civilization flourishes (300-600). It would then decline and collapse by c.1100. The Maya live in small city-states based on kinship, with a religion centered on ancestor worship, not on universalist gods (UE p. 98; Encyclopedia.)

The Maya kill (Asacrifice@) children (cited by deMause).

350 The Trikaya doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism flourishes (Internet).

400 In the West, the abandonment of children, either emotionally or physically (to the wet-nurse, the monastery, nunnery, a foster family, or the home of other nobles either as a servant or as a hostage), is common, and would continue until around 1300. The child is beaten. Sodomy diminishes (deMause, pp. 51-52).

500 In China, Bodhidharma (c.500 C.E.) founds Ch=an (Zen) Buddhism. It is based on meditation. Its basic tenet is that enlightenment is the direct seeing of one=s original Mind, original Nature (EoS p. 56; Encyclopedia).

In China, Chih-I (538-597) founds T=ien T=ai Buddhism (EoS p. 56; Internet).

In the West, in 476, the last Roman emperor abdicates (Encyclopedia).

600 In China, Tu-shun (557-640) founds Hua Yen Buddhism. It holds that all phenomena arise simultaneously from the ultimate, universal principle of the Dharma realm. This universal principle and all manifested things mutually interpenetrate without obstruction. All phenomena both embody the Absolute, and reflect each other (EoS p. 56; Encyclopedia).

750 In Tibet, the Indian monk Padmasambhava (c.750) founds Vajrayana (Tibetan) Buddhism (EoS p. 56; Encyclopedia).

800 In India, Shankara (788-820) founds Advaita Vedanta, the non-dualist school of Vedanta, one of the six classical systems of Indian philosophy. Shankara views Brahman, the Self, which is pure reality, pure consciousness, pure bliss, as the ultimate reality. The world has come into being from Brahman and is wholly dependent on it. Brahman exists both without qualities (nirguna), as the Absolute, and also with qualities (saguna), as a personal god who presides over the world of appearance. Rituals are for those of inferior spiritual capacity. Spiritual liberation is achieved by attainment of knowledge of the Self, and eradication of the ignorance whereby the illusory multiplicity of the world is seen as real (EoS p. 56; Encyclopedia).

In the West, in 800, Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne Roman emperor, reviving the title of Roman emperor in the West by claiming that the Roman Empire was merely suspended, not ended, when the last Roman emperor abdicated, in 476 (Encyclopedia).

950 In India, Tantric Buddhism, with its complex meditation practices, develops (EoS p. 56; Encyclopedia).

In the West, in 922, Hussein ibn Mansur al-Hallaj (857-922), Arabic-speaking Persian, Muslim mystic and poet, whose causal message is, AI am the Truth,@ is executed (SG p. 104; Encyclopedia).

In the West, in 962, the Holy Roman Empire is formed with the coronation by Pope John XII, in Rome, of the German king, Otto I as emperor. It is a mythic empire which would last until 1806 (Encyclopedia).

1,100 In India, Ramanuja (1017-1137) argues against Shankara, advocating a qualified non-dualism (EoS p. 56; Encyclopedia; Internet. All these sources give the same dates for Ramanuja=s life).

1,300 In the West, Meister Eckhart (c.1260-c.1328), German mystical theologian teaches a non-dual view. He is wrongly charged with heresy and dies after his appeal is denied. In 1329, Pope John XXII issues a bull condemning as heretical seventeen of Eckhart=s propositions (SES p. 356; SG p. 104; Encyclopedia).

In the West, parents mold the child into shape, as they would soft wax, plaster or clay, by means of regular beatings and whippings. The child is still swaddled and its insides are examined by means of regular enemas (deMause, pp. 51-52).

The Aztecs found their capital, Tenochtitlan (c.1325) in Central Mexico. They achieve a high civilization which, in 1519, falls to invasion by the Spanish, led by Hernan Cortes (1485-1547) (UE p. 98; Encyclopedia).

1,500 AThe High Egoic Period@ (in Europe and the Near East). The period lasts to and including the present time (UE p. 188).

1,600 Industrial (in the West). The Enlightenment B from Rene Descartes (1596-1650), to John Locke (1632-1704), to Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) B sets in motion the development of Modernity, marked by industrialization and rationality. The approach to knowledge is the representation paradigm B ANewtonian,@ ACartesian,@ Amechanistic,@ Amirror of nature,@ Areflection.@ The paradigm leaves out the self who is making the maps of the world, the Amap-maker.@ The view assumes that the thought process is so basically different from the real world that it can either reflect the world accurately and holistically, or inaccurately and atomistically (HE pp. 53-54, 58-60 and 64-65).

Industrialization removes the emphasis on male physical strength, replacing it with gender-neutral engines. The women=s movement emerges for the first time in history B Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) writes her treatise, Vindication of the Rights of Women, in 1792 (HE p. 54).

Modernity recognizes evolution B the Great Chain of Being unfolds in evolutionary time (HE p. 323).

In Italy, Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), Italian philosopher, metaphysician, satirist and poet, is burned to death for heresy by the Inquisition (SG p. 104; Encyclopedia).

In Japan, Hakuin (1686-1769) revives traditional forms of Zen Buddhism (EoS p. 56; Encyclopedia).

1,700 The Age of Reason (in the West). Reason (the formal operational stage) emerges as the basic organizing principle of society. Two trends characterize the age:

1. ANo more Myths!@:

Based on this philosophical battle cry, the new egos of Modernity:

a. Achieve the differentiation of art (the AI@ sphere), morality (the AWe@ sphere), and science (the AIt@ sphere). In art, this means the beginning of portraiture [such as by Jan van Eyck (c.1395-1441)] and the birth of the novel (SES pp. 381-383, 392, 425 and 427).

b. Achieve the separation of church and state (SES p. 392).

c. Achieve an increasingly clear differentiation the noosphere and biosphere, which leads to the emergence of liberation movements (women, slaves, untouchables).

d. Legally, demand free and equal subjects of civil law.

e. Institutionally, demand morally free subjects.

f. Politically, demand politically free subjects as citizens of a democratic state B that is, subjects with more relative autonomy than the tightly bound mythic-membership roles in dominator hierarchies. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) defines autonomy as the courage to think for oneself and not rely on socially given rules and dogmas (SES pp 381, 389, 392 and 397-398).

2. ANo more Ascent!@:

Disillusioned by 1000 years of frustrated upward-looking, the new rational-ego lowers its sight to the glories of the manifest world (SES p. 380).

Based on the battle cry, ANo more Ascent!@ the Amodern West@:

Gives recognition as reality only to exterior, empirical, sensorimotor objects and thus converts the Kosmos from a Great Holarchy (the Great Chain of Being) to an empirical interlocking order of surfaces (pp. 384 and 425).

Derisively rejects church religion and refuses any pre-rational, anthropomorphic, mythic God figure B killing God, as summarized by the dictum of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), AGod is dead.@

Together with its denial of a mythic God, also denies virtually the entire corpus of mythological belief.

Assuming that the great contemplative philosopher-sages [from Plotinus (205-270 C.E.) to Meister Eckhart (c.1260-c.1328)] were mythic, since they were speaking out from mythically situated cultures, and missing the fact that these sages had themselves significantly transcended both myth and reason, the Amodern West@ also refuses virtually everything these sages have to say. It proclaims all gods dead, including any trans-rational, non-anthropomorphic, super-conscient God. ANo more Ascent!@ means AAscend to Reason, but no further!@ (SES pp. 405, 409 and 423).

The Amodern West@ increasingly knows and manipulates a Adisenchanted,@ Adisqualified@ and objectified world, dominated by an Ainstrumental,@ Atechnical@ rationality. The universe is a massive interlocking order, a great net of systems theory, merely empirical and physical, able to be seen with the senses or their extensions. In both the natural sciences and the religions, quality (interior depth) is measured in terms of quantitative fit with the great interlocking order (exterior span). Monological reason marginalizes all non-reason. Internal nature (interiors, the body) is repressed. Reason thus itself destroys the humanity it first made possible (SES pp. 427, 432-433, 452 and 465-466).

In the West (1700-1800), parents try to conquer the mind (will) of the child, in order to control its insides B its anger, its needs, masturbation. The mother nurses, toilet trains early, prays (but does not play) with the child, punishes for masturbation, hits the child, but not regularly, often being able to obtain obedience by means of threats and guilt (deMause, pp. 51-52).

1,800 Modernity. The idea of history as evolution, a growth toward God, slowly replaces the idea of history as devolution B a fall from God. Georg Hegel (1770-1831) and Friedrich Schelling (1775-1854) state this new conception explicitly. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) views evolution as a universal law. Charles Darwin (1809-1882) applies evolution to biology. Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950) gives the idea a profound spiritual context. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) makes this new view famous in the West. Adi Da Samraj (1939-, also known as Da Free John) and Radhakrishnan Sarvepalli (1888-1975) apply this shift to the understanding of evolution. Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) initiates a dialogue between physics and spirituality (EoS pp. 56-59).

The Aneo-perennial philosophy@ still has the One, timeless and absolute Spirit of which the entire universe is but a manifestation, but that world of manifestation is now evolving toward Spirit. God lies in our collective future. The Garden of Eden is tomorrow. The Golden Age lies down the road, in front of us. Evolution is Spirit-in-action, the stages of the return of Spirit, as Spirit, to Spirit. One of those stages is a humanistic-scientific-rational stage. This is in contrast to the wisdom traditions which rarely acknowledge evolution, much less cultural or spiritual evolution (EoS pp. 57 and 59-60).

In India, the Hindu mystic Ramakrishna (1836-1886) concludes that all religions are valid means of approaching God. Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) carries Ramakrishna=s message of universal religion to the West (EoS p. 56; Encyclopedia).

In the West, in 1806, the Holy Roman Empire comes to an end with the renunciation of the imperial title by Francis II (Encyclopedia).

In the West, in 1838, Auguste Comte (1798-1857) coins the term Asociology,@ thus for the first time fully differentiating the concept of Asociety@ from that of Athe state@ (SG p. 59).

In the West (1800-1950), parents train, guide and teach the child to conform. They socialize it and help it form habits. The guiding concept is sociological functionalism. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) conceptualizes the Achanneling impulses.@ B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) develops behaviorism. Children are struck and scolded. The father begins to take interest in the child (deMause, pp. 51-52)

1,900 In India, Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950), the greatest of all Vedantic philosophers, rejects the traditional ideal of world-renunciation and negation of physical existence. He bases his philosophy on the principle of the descent of divine force and consciousness into both the individual and the universal processes of nature and history. He describes evolution as the effect of progressively higher forces, of which the highest is the Asupra-mental@ force which initiates man=s final transformation into a state of perfection (EoS p. 56; Encyclopedia).

1,950 Informational (in the West). The world view is existential. The great post-modern discovery is that neither the world nor the self is simply pre-given. Beginning with Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) and running through Georg Hegel (1770-1831), Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911), Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), Michel Foucault (1926-1984) and Jacques Derrida (1930-), post-modern theorists attack the mapping paradigm. The mind forms the world more than the world forms the mind (Kant). The mind (the subject) can only be conceived as one that has developed. The self, Athe map-maker,@ is a product of that which it seeks to know and represent, and evolution itself is a spiritual unfolding (Hegel). Nietzsche develops a Agenealogy@ of world views. The consensus is that world views develop (Hegel, Karl Marx (1818-1883), Nietzsche, Heidegger, Jean Piaget (1896-1980), Jean Gebser (1905-1973), Robert Bellah (1926-), Foucault and Jurgen Habermas (1929-). The mind cannot deviate from the Current of the Kosmos. AThat which one can deviate from, is not the true Tao@ (Zen saying). At each stage of development, the world looks different because the world is different (HE pp. 60-61, 63 and 64; UE p. viii).

Post-modernity recognizes that humans are co-creators of their own evolution, their own history, their own world spaces B because nothing is pre-given. The world is not just a perception, it is also an interpretation.

In contrast, traditionalists (anti-modern religious thinkers) are trapped in the agrarian world view, denying the essence of both modernity (the differentiation of mind from body), and post-modernity (nothing is pre-given) (HE pp. 323-324).

In the West, around 1950, parents begin to listen to the child express what it needs. Both parents are fully involved emotionally in the child=s life, empathizing with it and fulfilling its expanding needs. They play with it, tolerate its regressions, interpret its emotional conflicts, and provide the objects which are specific to its evolving interests. They do not discipline, strike or scold (deMause, pp. 51-52).

1,980 Bare Beginning of the Psychic Stage (in the West). The mind, like the environment and the body before it, is starting to crystallize out in consciousness. We are collectively starting (but only starting) to break free of our own thought processes, cease identifying exclusively with them, transcend them, and thereby open ourselves to the next step in evolution (UE p. 323).

Working against the evolution of average consciousness into the psychic level, are the facts that:

c. Most of Humanity is still below the Egoic Level: A vast majority of humanity is not yet stable at the rational-egoic level, being still caught in uroboric, typhonic, magical, and mythical desires, bodily self-protective stances, and even refusing to recognize or respect other personal selves. One does not and cannot reach the transpersonal without first firmly establishing the personal (UE p. 343).

d. The Low Level of Consciousness in National Governments: National governments (which have a disproportionate hand in present and future history), are today, with a few exceptions, organizations of thinly rationalized typhonicism, animalistically self-protective, and therefore perfectly willing to destroy the entire world simply to prove their own cosmo-centric ability to do so.

e. The New Age Movement contains much Regression: In America and Europe, where the New Age is most loudly announced, a significant majority of individuals are suffering from the lack of support by their civilization for truly rational and egoic structures. Many are regressing to pre-personal, cultic and narcissistic pursuits, claiming all the while being actually pursuing transpersonal reality, or at least Ahumanistic freedom.@ The New Age movement is a mixture of a few truly transpersonal individuals and masses of pre-personal addicts (UE pp. 343-344).

If a Holocaust engulfs us all, it will not prove that reason has failed, but that, for the most part, it has not yet been fully tried (UE p. 349).

Today, the most widespread popular theme of the newly emerging spiritual orientation is that of nature mysticism, Gaia worship, together with a considerably re-interpreted shamanism focused on ecological consciousness and gross realm unity (SG p. 39).

2,000 Great extinction spasm # 6, a result of human activity, sharply reduces biodiversity in almost a single generation (Wilson pp. 32 and 191).

MY CONCLUSIONS

Lloyd deMause=s Position: deMause presents war as the result of harsh child rearing methods. Abuse of a child, such as the killing of siblings, abandonment, physical violence, physical intrusion, such as swaddling or enemas, authoritarian means of control, and lack of empathy, lead to rage in the child which cannot be expressed at the time because of the child=s complete dependence on his parents for his physical needs. The rage is repressed but leads in adulthood to the need for an enemy on whom to vent it. Wars occur in cycles of approximately every generation and represent projected anger. Leaders tap into this anger, but do not engender it.

Critique of Lloyd deMause=s Perspective:

1. deMause= s Term AAntiquity@ is overly broad. deMause variously labels Aantiquity@ as Aup to 400 C.E.@ (AThe Evolution of Childhood,@ 1974, p. 51) and A35,000 to 0 B.C.@ (The Emotional Life of Nations, 2002, pp. 398 and 411). This period of time is overly vague, particularly in view of the fact that war arose with the invention of agriculture (7,500-7,000 B.C.), that is, toward the end of this period which spans thousands of years and during all of which, deMause reports, parents killed their children.

2. In AAntiquity,@ War had not yet been invented. War, as we know it today, arose with the invention of agriculture, 7,500-7,000 B.C. It became prevalent in the Near East between 7,500 and 4,300 B.C. deMause does not trace this rather abrupt advent of war to what would have had to be a rather sudden change in child rearing mode. On the contrary, he reports that parents killed their children throughout the whole antiquity period. He does not document, therefore, any correlation between war and child rearing methods. During Aantiquity,@ parents killed their children, and yet, there is no archaeological evidence of war.

The hallmark of war (including its most elementary form, the raid, and including feuds between families or clans) B the one characteristic which contrasts war from other forms of violence, such as the duel, capital punishment, brawls, riots and individual murder, is the concept of substitutability. Conceptually as well as behaviorally, war is between groups, and is underwritten by the principle that one group member is substitutable for another. An injured group holds a perpetrator group responsible for its injury, and hence, all of the latter=s members liable for retribution (Kelly, pp. 3-6; Keeley, p. 69c, photograph No. 2). Paleolithic societies (2,900,000-10,000 B.C.) did not have an ego sufficiently developed to accomplish this radical emotional displacement.

For example, early hominids, such as Australopithecus (4,000,000-1,000,000 B.C.), Homo habilis (2,000,000-1,500,000 B.C.), and Homo erectus (1,500,000-250,000 B.C.), did not have a sufficiently developed mind to differentiate themselves from their environment. This was the archaic, pleroma-uroboric stage of consciousness development. They could not have invented war.

Early Homo sapiens (250,000-10,000 B.C.), including Neanderthal Man (200,000-50,000 B.C.) and Cro-Magnon Man (50,000-10,000 B.C.), were able to differentiate themselves from their environment (Aself-in-here@ versus Athe world-out-there@), but they still did not differentiate their mind from their body. Their self was a body-self. This was the typhonic stage of consciousness development. Intentional calls developed around 70,000 B.C., and by 20,000 B.C., language also included modifiers, commands and nouns. Time was an extended present. Cognitive processes were at the level of dreams (the primary process), confusing subject and object, and wholes with their parts. It is unlikely that minds this primitive would have been able to conceptualize the idea of group revenge.

By 9,500 B.C., the low mythic (magic) stage of consciousness had developed. Society was horticultural. The concept of time was now cyclic (seasonal). Man was able to picture the future more vividly B and, by the same token, apprehend his mortality more vividly. Ceremonial graves became common. It is to this period that Wilber traces the first signs of aggression and mass homicide in the form of war.

By the time agriculture appears (7,500-7,000 B.C.), so does archaeological evidence of war. War then spreads rapidly, and by 4,300 B.C. it is generally prevalent, as evidenced by fortifications, garrisons, and destroyed sites at a number of locations in the Near East. The cult of the Great Mother (the Great Environment, the Great Surround) begins. She demands human sacrifice. According to Wilber, these are substitute sacrifices to ward off the death of the self. Civilization begins. The chronicle of history begins as time becomes linear. Wilber describes Man=s mind continuing to expand, the price being an increased apprehension of death. War spins out of control as Man becomes increasingly effective at delivering death to others to buy off his own, for the time being, at least.

3. deMause views Child Rearing Methods from his own Perspective of a well-developed Ego Stage. deMause does not seem to entertain the possibility that in Aantiquity,@ when people killed, sacrificed and abandoned their children, they did not have an ego. To diagnose early humans (AThe Evolution of Childhood,@ 1974, pp. 51-52) as Aprojecting@ their rage onto their children, or as Areversing@ the roles of child and parent, is to assume that they had an ego, with ego level defense mechanisms. This is not how they were.

Even after the advent of agriculture (7,500-7,000 B.C.) when the early period of the cult of the Great Mother begins (7,500-3,500 B.C.), this goddess is still a simple biological nourisher and fertility token magically amplified to cosmic proportions. She is the archaic mother from whom the child first differentiates, and who therefore, arouses both a desire for her (for the protection she can give), and a fear of her (because of the destruction she can inflict). When the self is a body-self which fears death, it will construct a goddess who will accept sacrifice of another instead of the death of the self who is worshiping her. These are lower, body-bound levels of consciousness, not a well-organized, intentional killing of a well-developed ego (mind).

4. deMause pathologizes earlier Levels of Consciousness Development. This is particularly true in The Emotional Life of Nations, 2002, pp. 381-431. (I have not summarized this pathologizing in the present document. I have only reproduced it as an Attachment). deMause diagnoses humans in the various historical periods as having the following personalities:

* Tribal Period (up to 33,000 B.C.): a Aschizoid@ personality.

* Antiquity (33,000-0 B.C.): a Anarcissistic@ personality.

* Early Christian Period (0 B.C.-1100 C.E.): a Alower borderline/masochistic@ personality.

* Middle Ages (1100-1500): a Aborderline@ personality.

* Renaissance (1500-1700): a Adepressive@ personality

* Modernity (1700-1950): a Aneurotic@ personality

* Post-modern Period (1950 to the present): an Aindividuated@ personality.

As Wilber makes clear (Up from Eden B a Transpersonal View of Human Evolution, 1981/1996, pp. 52-53), it is not that magic is a hallucinatory or primitive mis-perception of an otherwise clear and distinct reality, but rather that magic is a correct perception of a primitive and lower level of reality. It is not a distorted perception of a higher reality, but a correct perception of a lower reality.

5. deMause considers the Present Level of Consciousness Development as the last and highest One obtainable. deMause does not consider that there may be higher stages of consciousness, beyond our present egoic level. These are potentially available to all of us, and have already been achieved by unusual humans (saints, sages). These levels beyond the ego level are, according to Wilber, vision-logic, psychic, subtle, causal, non-dual. deMause does not place war in the context of the full spectrum of consciousness. His approach to the subject is representative of that of modernity (not post-modernity) B AAscend to ego and no further!@

6. deMause traces Child Rearing Methods within the Western World only. deMause does not integrate his data with child rearing methods in Eastern civilizations.

7. deMause does not consider the Four Aspects of the Holon which is AChild Rearing.@ Like everything in the Kosmos, child rearing is a holon B a whole which is also part of another whole (SES pp. xiv, 25, 28-29 and 247; HE p. 226; SG pp. 44-45).

Holons arise either as subject or as object, and in either singular or plural form. Each individual holon, therefore, has four domains (aspects, facets, dimensions):

* Subjective singular B the AI@ sphere, the interior, introspection.

* Subjective plural B the AWe@ sphere, the culture, morality.

* Objective singular B the Ait@ sphere, surfaces, behaviorism.

* Objective plural B the Aits@ sphere, structural functionalism, systems theory.

The four domains of holons evolve concurrently, and an integral study of child rearing must include all four. For instance, the mother (the AI@ sphere ) cannot deviate too much from her culture (the AWe@ sphere). If the child is about to fall off a cliff, she must consider the child an object which will follow the law of gravity (the Ait@ sphere), and should the child be hungry, she may either kill a rabbit, if she is tribal, or open the refrigerator, if she lives in modern times (the Aits@ sphere). Child rearing is not solely a relationship between the mother and child, or even between the parents and child, but rather an integral relationship in which all four facets of the child rearing holon participate.

Table 1 (p. 33) presents war as a holon. With only the one annotated exception, the causes of war which it comprises, are summarized from those in my own analysis, AThe Causes of War B A Sample of Western Views,@ August 13, 2005.

8. A high Sex Ratio in Favor of Men should not be considered Evidence of Infanticide. The sex ratio in Apre-historic@ times cannot be considered evidence of female infanticide because many women died in childbirth. Until the advent of agriculture, and with it, the mechanization of the means of food production and hence the favoring of men for their strength, men and women were relatively equal. Each had their role B women around the abode, men at the hunt. Even in horticultural societies, women were responsible for much of the food production and could do this at the same time as caring for the children. deMause suggests (AThe Evolution of Childhood,@ 1974, p. 27) that the sex ratio 148 to 100 in favor of men for Homo erectus (who first appeared 1,500,000 years ago) and for Homo sapiens to the end of the Paleolithic Period (10,000 B.C.), may indicate more infanticide of female than male babies. But among the many factors which could be responsible for this ratio, is the high death rate of women in childbirth. Many factors other than the infanticide of female babies could account for this ratio which, in any case, encompasses an enormously long period B 1,490,000 years!

As Wilber notes (A Brief History of Everything, 1996, p. 54), Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) wrote her treatise, Vindication of the Rights of Women, in 1792. It is only when industrialization removed the emphasis on male physical strength, replacing it with gender-neutral engines, that women realized they had rights, and formed a women=s movement for the first time in history.

9. deMause claims that in the Modern West, Parents use a AHelping@ Mode of Child Rearing. deMause describes modern parents in the West as listening to their child and attempting to meet its evolving needs (AThe Evolution of Childhood,@ 1974, pp. 52-54; The Emotional Life of Nations, 2002, pp. 430-431). In my experience, this is true for only a relatively small percentage of the population. It is perhaps not even the norm or average. It is too optimistic and perhaps simplistic to propose, as deMause does (The Emotional Life of Nations, 2002, p. 431), that the helping mode of child rearing, as a single, sole force in society, will put an end to war.

My View

My own view is that both war and child rearing methods are expressions of the level of consciousness achieved by humans. It may be that at the present time, in the high egoic level of consciousness, fear of death is at its most acute because of the acuity of the ego=s ability to visualize the future B and therefore, its own death. Perhaps for that same reason, because the ego can visualize the future with acuity, it also tends to visualize the future of the child and aim to provide the child with a good future. Some parents, mostly conservative, do this by means of authoritarian methods, and indeed do punish the child. Other parents, mostly liberals, do this by means of empathy and nurturing. Everyone sees their own child rearing methods as best for the child.

As George Lakoff points out (Moral Politics B How Liberals and Conservatives think, 1996/2002, p. 110), both the Strict Father and the Nurturant Parent models assume that the system in which a child is raised, will be reproduced within the child. In the Strict Father model, discipline of the child becomes self-discipline and ability to discipline others. In the Nurturant Parent model, nurturance of the child becomes the ability to take care of oneself and nurture others.

Table 1: War as a Holon

Intentional, Subjective, AI@ Methodology: Dialogical, Interpretive Validity Criteria: Truthfulness, Sincerity, Integrity, Trustworthiness Example: Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) From the Inside: AI like (or want) to kill.@^(a) AKilling helps me better my position (have a job, go to college, be a hero, etc. . .).@ From the Outside: AWar is an end in itself.@ AWar is instrumental, a means to an end.@ AFighting traumatizes soldiers.@

Behavioral, Objective, AIt@ Methodology: Monological, Empirical Validity Criteria: Objective Truth, Correspondence, Representation, Propositional Truth. Example: B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) From the Inside: AWar is in the nature of man.@ ALife is a struggle between the instinct for life and the instinct for destruction.@ ASelf-defense is natural.@ From the Outside: AWar is a vestigial defense against ancient fears.@

Cultural, Inter-subjective, AWe@ Methodology: Dialogical, Interpretive Validity Criteria: Cultural Fit, Mutual Understanding, Justness, Rightness Example: Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996) From the Inside: AWar is the will of God.@ AWe only fight just wars.@ AWars are generated by leaders, not by the people.@ AWars stave off boredom, give meaning to life.@ AWar germinates in the sinews of our every day life.@ AWar originates in alienation from the unity of the universe.@ AWar is the sacrifice of others, to bolster the denial of our own death.@ From the Outside: AWars are a substitute for the love of God.@ AWars imply the failure of reason.@ AWars are proof of man=s humanity.@ AWars are rooted in emotional conflicts.@ AWars are engendered by the state=s appropriation for itself and re-direction in its favor, of the force behind people=s rebellious thinking.@

Social, Inter-objective, AIts@ Methodology: Monological, Empirical Validity Criteria: Functional Fit, Systems Theory Web, Structural-functionalism, Social Systems Mesh Example: Karl Marx (1818-1883) From the Inside: AWar brings the possibility of increasing a society=s power (energy supply).@ AWar helps group definition and cohesion.@ AWars are essential for societal health.@ AWar is the price of progress, the agent of historical achievement.@ AWars keep us (or our values) from being destroyed.@ AWar is a component of human development.@ From the Outside: AConflict is a principle of nature.@ AWars serve evolution.@ AWar is the ultimate adjudicator of differences.@ AWars are due to too much (or not enough) trade among nations.@ AWar is a means by which the few exploit the many.@ AWar reflects a nation=s abuse of reality B reality being its good intentions.@

^(a) This is not a popular stance. This cause of war is not one that appears in my analysis of the stated reasons for war, AThe Causes of War B A Sample of Western Views,@ August 13, 2005.

REFERENCES

Columbia Encyclopedia. 2000. Sixth Edition. New York: Columbia University/Gale Group.

deMause, Lloyd

1. 1974. AThe Evolution of Childhood.@ In Lloyd deMause, Ed., The history of childhood. Northvale, N. J.: Jason Aronson.

(Summarized by Francoise Hall, August 30, 2003, ATo Enheduana@).

2. 2002. The emotional life of nations. New York: Karnac/Other.

(Summarized by Francoise Hall, October 14, 2003, AHistorical Personalities and Violence@).

3. References cited by Lloyd deMause:

(Summarized in Francoise Hall, August 8, 2004, AThe Origin of War B Archaeological Evidence of Warfare@).

The sex ratio for Homo erectus (Pithecanthropus):

Vallois, Henri, 1961. AThe Social Life of Early Man: The Evidence of Skeletons.@ In Sherwood Washburn, Ed., The social life of early man, Chicago, IL, p. 225; cited in Lloyd deMause, 1974. AThe Evolution of Childhood.@ In Lloyd deMause, Ed., The history of childhood, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, p. 27.

Early hominid parents decapitate and eat their children:

Simons, E., 1989. AHuman Origins.@ Science 245, p. 1344; cited in Lloyd deMause. 2002. The emotional life of nations. New York: Karnac, p. 299.

Jericho:

Children are sealed in walls, bridges and building foundations:

Five sources cited in Lloyd deMause,1974. AThe Evolution of Childhood.@ In Lloyd deMause, Ed., The history of childhood. Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, p. 27.

Infants are decapitated:

Von Cles-Reden, Sibylle. 1962. The realm of the Great Goddess B the story of the megalith builders. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, p. 21; cited in Lloyd deMause. 2002. The emotional life of nations. New York: Karnac, p. 299.

Stonehenge:

Taylor, Timothy. 1996. The pre-history of sex. New York: Bantam, p. 189; cited in Lloyd deMause. 2002. The emotional life of nations. New York: Karnac, p. 299.

Ancient Jews, under Egyptian King Ramses II (d. 1225 B.C.):

Abt-Garrison, H. 1965. The history of pediatrics. Philadelphia, PA: W.B. Saunders, p. 29; cited in Lloyd deMause. 2002. The emotional life of nations. New York: Karnac, p. 298.

The Maya:

Carey, Celia, 1999. ASecrets B The Incas appeased Mountain Gods with their Children=s Lives,@ Discovering Archeology, July/August, pp. 44-53; cited in Lloyd deMause. 2002. The emotional life of nations. New York: Karnac, p. 299.

Keeley, Lawrence. 1996. War before civilization B the myth of the peaceful savage. New York: Oxford University.

Kelly, Raymond. 2000. Warless societies and the origin of war. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan.

(Summarized in Francoise Hall, August 8, 2004, AThe Origin of War B Archaeological Evidence of Warfare@).

Lakoff, George. 1996/2002. Moral politics B how liberals and conservatives think, 2^nd edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

(Summarized in Francoise Hall, January 24, 2005, AMoral Politics B How Conservatives and Liberals think@).

Wilber, Ken.

(The following seven books summarized in Francoise Hall, November 5, 2005, AA Transpersonal View of War B War as a Substitute for Cosmo-centrism and Immortality during the Egoic Stage in the Development of Consciousness@).

1977/1993. The spectrum of consciousness. 20^th Anniversary Edition. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books. (Abbreviated as SC).

1980/1996. The Atman project B a transpersonal view of human development. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books. (Abbreviated as AP).

1981/1996. Up from Eden B a transpersonal view of human evolution. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books. (Abbreviated as UE).

1983/2005. A sociable God B (1983 subtitle: a brief introduction to a transcendental sociology), 2005 subtitle: toward a new understanding of religion. Boston: Shambhala. (Abbreviated as SG).

1995/2000. Sex, ecology, spirituality B the spirit of evolution. 2^nd edition, Revised. Boston: Shambhala. (Abbreviated as SES).

1996. A brief history of everything. Boston: Shambhala. (Abbreviated as HE).

2000/2001. The eye of spirit B an integral vision for the world gone slightly mad. Boston: Shambhala (Abbreviated EoS).

Wilson, Edward. 1992/1999. The diversity of life. New York: W.W. Norton.

(Summarized in Francoise Hall, March 19, 2005. AAsk the Mosquitoes@).

ATTACHMENTS

1. Table 2: Francoise Hall, Summary, AChild rearing Modes,@ August 30, 2003.

From deMause, Lloyd. 1974. AThe Evolution of Childhood.@ In Lloyd deMause, Ed., The history of childhood. Northvale, N. J.: Jason Aronson, pp. 51-52.

2. Table 3: Francoise Hall, Summary, AHistorical Personalities and Violence,@ October 15, 2003.

From deMause, Lloyd. 2002. The emotional life of nations. New York: Karnac/Other, pp 381-431.

3. Table 4: Francoise Hall, Summary, AThe Origin of War B Archaeological Evidence of Warfare,@ August 8, 2004.

From Kelly, Raymond. 2000. Warless societies and the origin of war. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, pp. 1, 2, 135, 148, 150-151, 154-155 and 159.

4. Table 5: Francoise Hall, Summary, AArchaeological Evidence of Child Murder,@ August 8, 2004.

From deMause, Lloyd. 1974. AThe Evolution of Childhood.@ In Lloyd deMause, Ed., The history of childhood. Northvale, N. J.: Jason Aronson, p. 27.

And deMause, Lloyd. 2002. The emotional life of nations. New York: Karnac/Other, pp. 298-299.

August 30, 2003

Table 2: Child rearing Modes (*)

Antiquity - 400 A.D. Parents kill children

Infanticidal Surviving children project their rage onto their own children

The child is seen as the parent (reversal) and is sodomized.

400 - 1300 Parents abandon the child emotionally or physically (to the wet-nurse, the

Abandoning monastery, nunnery, a foster family or the home of other nobles either as a servant or hostage). The child is full of evil and must always be beaten (projection). Sodomy (reversal) diminishes.

1300 - 1700 Parents mold the child into shape, as they would soft wax, plaster or clay, Ambivalent by regular beatings and whippings (projection). The child is still swaddled and its insides are examined by means of regular enemas.

1700 - 1800 Parents try to conquer the mind (will) of the child in order to control its Intrusive insides B its anger, needs, masturbation. Projection diminishes and reversal disappears. Mother nurses, toilet trains early, prays (but does not play) with the child, punishes for masturbation, hits but not regularly, often obtaining obedience by means of threats and guilt.

1800 - 1950 Parents train, guide, teach the child to conform, socialize it, help it Socializing form habits. The guiding concept is sociological functionalism. Freud conceptualizes Achanneling impulses.@ Skinner develops Abehaviorism.@ Children are struck and scolded. The father begins to take interest in the child.

1950 - Parents listen to the child express what it needs. Both parents are Helping fully involved emotionally in the child=s life, empathizing with it and fulfilling its expanding needs. They play with it, tolerate its regressions, interpret its emotional conflicts and provide the objects which are specific to its evolving interests. They do not discipline, strike or scold.

_________________________

(*) Summarized from deMause, Lloyd, Ed., The History of Childhood (Jason Aronson, Northvale, New Jersey), 1974, pp. 51-52.

October 15, 2003

Table 3: Historical Personalities and Violence

Historical Period	Mode of Child- rearing	Personality	Ideal	Mother/God	Sacrifice	War
Tribal 33,000 B.C.	Early infanticidal	Schizoid	Shaman	Devours, seduces, abandons child.	To animal alter spirits. Creator gods are too remote and uncaring to be prayed to or addressed.	Tribal warfare against alter containing enemies.
Antiquity 33,000 - 0 B.C.	Late infanticidal	Narcissist	Hero	Kills, punishes. Child is evil.	To human alter gods. Soldiers killed in battle seen as sacrifices to mother=s/god=s bloodthirsty appetite.	Wars to restore men=s potency (prevent them from switching permanently into their mother alter and losing their self).
Early Christian ^(a) 0 -1100 A.D.	Abandoning	Lower Borderline/ Masochistic	Martyr	Forgives, if the child punishes himself.	Self-torture. Hope to get mother=s/God=s love if child shows her his pain and gets her pity.	Wars fought for masochistic purposes. Warriors glory in their wounds.
Middle Ages 1100-1500 A.D.	Ambivalent	Borderline	Vassal	Dominates, beats. The price of closeness is total devotion.	Subservient clinging. Mother loves if the child does not self-activate.	Witch hunts of the Renaissance and Reformation due to earlier psycho-classes decompensating from the rapid societal changes.
Historical Period	Mode of Child- rearing	Personality	Ideal	Mother/God	Sacrifice	War
Renaissance 1500-1700 A.D.	Intrusive	Depressive	Holy warrior	Disciplines. Empathy begins. Swaddling ends. Child must be obedient.	Obeying. Melanie Klein B merger of the good and bad breast split. Shakespeare=s Hamlet B a melancholy philosopher.	AReligious@ wars (wars organized by religious groups) are between psycho-classes, earlier ones afraid that change will unchain demon alters. The warrior sacrifices himself for Christ.
Modern 1700-1950	Socializing	Neurotic	Patriot	Manipulates. Parental needs and goals supersede those of the child as he attempts to separate.	Incomplete separation.	Wars, organized by nations, result from people switching into their social alters and forming national group fantasies. The soldier sacrifices himself for the mother/nation B the motherland. Leaders are chosen from earlier psycho-classes.
Post-modern 1950-	Helping	Individuated	Activist	Trusts, loves child.	No sacrifice of real self.	Wars not necessary. People want to disarm.

Saint Augustine (354-430 A.D.), born in Algeria; was Doctor of the Church, one of the four Latin fathers, bishop of Hippo, Algeria. His Confessions is considered a classic in Christian mysticism. He described the Amania for self-destruction@ of early Christians.

August 8, 2004

Table 4: The Origin of War B Archaeological Evidence of Warfare

Time Period/Date	Evidence of Warfare
Paleolithic Period Lower Paleolithic 2,900,000-100,000 B.C. (Stone tools) Middle Paleolithic 100,000-35,000 B.C. (Hunting & gathering) Upper Paleolithic 35,000-10,000 B.C. (Art) Date: 12,000-10,000	None None One burial site The ANubian site 117" (near Jebel Sahaba, Sudan)
Mesolithic Period 10,000-7,500 B.C. (Settled communities)	None
Neolithic Period 7,500-1,500 B.C. (Domestication of plants & animals) Date: 7,500-7,000 (Agriculture) Date: 5,000-4,300 (Population increase, growth of trade, efforts to control strategic sites along trade routes, the evolution of hierarchical and centralized forms of political organization) Date: 3,000 (The earliest historical records)	Yes The second generally accepted evidence of warfare, at first in the Near East and then throughout the world. Fortifications, garrisons and destroyed sites at a number of locations in the Near East, indicate a more general prevalence of warfare. These records document (1) Frequent warfare between neighboring Sumerian polities over land and water rights, and (2) The unification by conquest of Upper and Lower Egypt.

August 8, 2004

Table 5: Archaeological Evidence of Child Murder

Time Period/Date	Hominid or Site	Evidence of Child Murder
Paleolithic Period Lower Paleolithic 2,900,000-100,000 B.C. Date: 1,600,000 -400,000 Date: 400,000-250,000 Middle Paleolithic 100,000-35,000 B.C. Upper Paleolithic 35,000-10,000 B.C.	Homo erectus (Pithecanthropus) Homo erectus evolves into Homo sapiens	The sex ratio for Homo erectus and for Homo sapiens to the end of the Paleolithic Period, is, on the average, 148 to100 in favor of men. Early hominid children are decapitated and eaten by their parents.
Mesolithic Period 10,000-7,500 B.C.
Neolithic Period 7,500-1,500 B.C. Date: 7,000 Date: 2,000 Date: 1,500 B.C.-900 A.D. Date: 1,250	Jericho Stonehenge The Maya Ancient Jews, under Egyptian King Ramses II (d. 1225 B.C.)	Children are sealed in walls, bridges and building foundations. Infants are decapitated. Young children have their skulls split by axes. Children are killed (Asacrificed@). Ancient Jews continue to Apass their children through the fire,@ despite the denunciation of the custom by Hebrew prophets.