Harmonizing with Humanitarians Vol. 4: Graham Hancock

Photo by Cpt.Muji

At no other time has this statement been more true for humanity. Here we are, with roughly 6,000 years of written history at our fingertips, still quibbling over the truth. Countless lessons from the past are available to us, yet we’ve failed to relieve ourselves of war, disease and poverty. Even now, despite evidence that our activities have trashed the environment in under 300 years, we haven’t paused to make the necessary changes. Observing such stubborn resistance to improvement, in the face of mounting crises, one has to wonder — what gives?

If you’re having trouble remembering what we’ve forgotten, here’s an abbreviated look at our global blank account:

• To this day, all our theories and technologies have failed to arrive at a concrete resolution for how or why ancient civilizations built megaliths like the pyramids. The logistics and precision of such everlasting structures appears near-impossible, even by today’s standards. Adding to the confusion is the persistent theory that the pyramids were exclusively built as tombs for pharaohs, despite the lack of evidence. For instance, the “burial chambers” of the three pyramids at Giza are mummy-free and completely devoid of the splendor befitting a pharaoh — unlike the tomb where Howard Carter and team discovered King Tut.
• We don’t really know how or when humans arrived in North America. Recent discoveries of artifacts — such as those from Cooper’s Ferry in Idaho — challenge the long-held consensus that we arrived first by the Bering Land Bridge. Considered impassable at the time these tools were made (15,000–16,000 years ago!), the bridge theory has closed in favor of re-opening seafaring theories.
• Though COVID is the pandemic-of-the-present, it’s far from the first humanity has faced. There have been periods of widespread disease since ancient times, including the (Typhoid?) Plague of Athens in 430 BCE. Knowing full well the possibility of pandemics as a recurring phenomenon, it’s hard to believe how woefully unprepared many countries were for this one.
• Taking and talking is not a sustainable model for humanity, but day after day it’s what we do. The dominance of extractive lifestyles and the refusal to listen to indigenous wisdom — or any differing viewpoint — has led us to our current crises. With the advent of cities, cars and computers, we now live behind a veil of anonymity that disconnects us from our fellow humans and the environment we’ve buried under buildings. We are more than unconscious consumers who scramble for toilet paper at the first sign of trouble.
• Bottom-line thinking betrays our humanity, making us forget our sentience and sacred purpose. We’re sold single-use products we don’t need, overpriced food poisoned with pesticides, and pills for a mounting menagerie of so-called conditions. Our education and government systems cater to careers and cash, but not compassion — the original communal impulse. We’ve sacrificed true wealth and happiness for advantage and convenience.
• The ongoing debate about what happens after death runs the gamut of theoretical discussion, from the logical to the fantastical. Despite their differences, many of these theories share the idea that there is a cycle we undergo. In scientific terms, it’s decomposition and reintroduction into nutrient cycle through soil. In spiritual terms, some traditions believe we reincarnate as another entity back on Earth, at a station dependent on our particular karmic loop. In either case, we have only fragmentary memories of the past if at all (again, depending on your beliefs) — déjà vu, divination, past life recall, intuition, etc.

Now, where was I?