The Magic We Lost - Carter Jobe

 I was inspired to write this blog post by Dr. McIntos, who included a quote by Russian philosopher Ouspensky in his presentation that read: "There was a certain knowledge, once commonplace in the human family, that is now completely lost, and modern science and religion provide no avenue for its restoration." It prompted me to think of the difference between ancient man and modern man, and what we lost as we conquered the world. 

Ancient man was free; they were one with nature, they were far more animalistic than the modern people, who live indoors, engage in politics, and have access to all of the knowledge in the world at their fingertips. However, with the absence of modern commodities came a much different ease to their lives, a simplicity that brought them bliss. The pressure of society didn't weigh down on them, and they didn't have to conform to made-up definitions of what it meant to be civil and "human."

There's a common idea that ancient humans were stupid, yet there is no scientific proof that their comprehension power was any different than ours, as the brain structure of people who walked the Earth tens of thousands of years ago is exactly the same as that of people today. The difference is that the ancients didn't undergo schooling through which they were fed a scientific view of the world. While it is certainly not a negative aspect of our society that we have such a great understanding of this planet, it is certainly ironic that when we did not understand this planet, we didn't do things to hurt it. The bliss that came with this ignorance is that, rather than discover the world in a classroom, the people thousands of years ago discovered the world firsthand, and defined things as they saw them, not as they read about them. 

This mysticism is the magic we lost as we grew as a species. It is reminiscent of the biblical story of Adam and Eve in the garden, who lost their innocence as they developed worldly knowledge through the forbidden fruit. Today, the internet and vast sources of knowledge are the forbidden fruit; they rob us of the experience of nature and the natural discovery of our soul. 

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