Late Paleolithic Period

January 20, 1996

Q. Some people have come to regard the late Paleolithic period as a time when humans lived in a far more spiritual, egalitarian, ecological and peaceful manner than in the various civilizations which arose following the agricultural revolution. What is your assessment of life and culture in the late Paleolithic era? Was it a golden era, of sorts?

  In this period, human beings thrived and increased in numbers. They lived in simple villages in the main. And though they performed some agricultural tasks, mostly the land provided for them as all creatures were in abundance at that time and the human population was relatively small. So these villages were also mobile, they could be moved depending on the season and the movement of the herds. The life was simple, clean and pure. The training of the young was done in the family and human life was quite nice. But I would not say it was a golden age for human beings of that age did not know so much of the great, not in the main. Only in those places where the great mysteries became unfolded by the holy priestesses did there come to be a more developed society and in the main that occurred in the Mediterranean area. There was also development in some other regions but that is another topic.

     So it was not idyllic because the human beings, though their life was simple and pleasant, did not have the full opportunity for spiritual wisdom. Their philosophy was undeveloped. Their understanding of the cosmos was not sufficiently improved, their relationship to their own existence was not fully understood except in certain parts of the world where culture became quite advanced and where spiritual development was more. But in other parts, the life of the people was very simple. So in the main, it may be said it was a simple time, a peaceful time when there was much harmony with nature that is now disrupted in modern society. So modern human beings might look back with a kind of longing for the simplicity and harmony with nature that was at that time. But the deficits at that time in human development, in philosophical development, in spiritual and technological development, are not to be dismissed. So I would not call it a golden era. As for those more developed societies of that time, it is a different matter.