The primary question of paleopsychology is: how do we as a species reflect upon our own evolving consciousness and effectively re-member and enliven ancient wisdoms for use in the present as a means to shepherd ourselves, by catalyzing and co-creating conscious collective evolution, into a more viable future?
The highest purpose of this discipline is: to gain insight, awareness and understanding of the evolution of human consciousness and to apply this understanding to the co-creation of our future prospects as a species and as a vital part of a much larger planetary and cosmic being.
I first encountered the term paleopsychology in 2002 in a book called Dreamgates by author and teacher Robert Moss. Chapter 5 of the book is entitled Paleopsych 101. In the second section of Chapter 5, The Challenge of Paleopsychology, Moss writes: “Frederic Myers, the great Victorian psychic researcher (…) coined the term Paleolithic psychology as an erudite joke, to describe ‘the habits of thought of the savage who believes that you can travel in dreams’ (1998, p.87)”.
I have been enchanted with Robert’s teachings and the term paleopsychology since that time. A bit of research reveals that a Dr. Howard Bloom created a Paleo-Bio-Social-Psychology, known as paleopsychology, but Bloom’s vision is enormous. In 1997 Dr. Howard Bloom and his colleagues established the science of Paleopsychology as the transformation of sociality, perception and mentation, from the big bang to the present; a vehicle for mapping out the evolution of behavior, sociality, and the physiology of proto-mentation. Just for perspective, that’s an evolutionary study of a time-frame covering roughly 13 Billion years by our scientist’s best estimates, give or take a few million years.
In general, Paleopsychology is a very broad interdisciplinary study of the evolution of consciousness. I find Bloom’s vision to be compelling and consider it an ideal framework upon which my own more narrowly focused approach to paleopsychology can solidly rest. My primary focus is the evolution of human consciousness as evidenced by an examination of the knowing ways of pre-historic and indigenous cultures, how these have changed over time in different areas of the world and through various cultures, and what might have catalyzed these changes.
In pursuit of such a discipline, my academic course of study thus far has included paleontology, anthropology, history, pre-history, social psychology, eco-psychology, transpersonal psychology, mythology, depth psychology, philosophy, ecology, world religions, and a current social change perspective called The Great Turning. I am now also interested in pursuing lines of inquiry into cognitive archeology, energy psychology, phenomenology, ritual process and alchemy.
Applied paleopsychology is embodied in two related acts:
1) Cultural Healing Modalities and 2) Indigenous Advocacy. The first involves the act of synthesizing the results of paleopsychological research into specific cultural healing modalities and making them experientially available to modern humans. The second involves taking actions to advocate for the rights and preservation of indigenous cultures globally and taking actions that cultivate and catalyze widespread awareness and support of indigenous rights and cultural preservation the world over.