Boulders in the Stream: The Lineage and Founding of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness

Feb 28, 2010

Boulders in the Stream: The Lineage and Founding of the Society for the Anthropology of Conscriousness

By Stephan A. Schwartz
ABSTRACT

The founding of what has become the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness (SAC) can only be understood properly in the cultural context of its heritage, and the world in which it came to life. The author is the last living founder from the an original group that included himself, Professor J. Norman Emerson, and Professor Joseph K. Long at the core, with a somewhat larger group advising. The roots of SAC began during the 1974 annual meetings of the American Anthropology Association in Mexico City, where the idea of the society that became SAC was conceived. {Who was in the original group besides you & Joe?}. This paper is an historical narrative tracing the intellectual lineage of the this effort SAC and how it came to be.up to the time of SAC’s affiliation with the AAA in 1990. It focuses particularly on seminal events at the 1974 annual meetings of the American Anthropology Association in Mexico City. It describes the conflicts, schisms, and often wrenching disputes that occurred as the organization struggled to define itself and the balance it wanted between the experiential and the intellectual. At The paper also places these events in a larger anthropological context, explaining that a world view which had evolved over decades was breaking down in the 1970s, and describing how painful this process was. The academic birth of SAC, the 1974 Rhine-Swanton Symposium on Parapsychology and Anthropology, AAA Session 703, was only one manifestation of this shift. those meetings a paradigm within anthropology begun decades before was shaken, and the process was painful. The immediate causeAn were was a series of symposia: The Rhine Swanton Symposium on Parapsychology and Anthropology, Session 703, and several even larger vortex of symposia onstruggle centered on the challenge to anthropology represented by Carlos Castaneda and his writings. Through a series of best selling books, including the publication of his dissertation for the anthropology department of UCLA, Castaneda, had attacked the way a critical part of anthropology was conducted. The argument in his own narrative was that one could not understand the s Shamanic world view, without becoming a shaman. No informant could ever convey this, because so much of it was experiential. And it could not be properly known unless one entered with sincerity into the experience, as a participant, not just as an observer. Implicit in this was the worldview that non-technological cultures can be as insightful as their technological counterparts; albeit in different areas of human functioning. Two insights central to this thesis are were particularly relevant to SAC: There is an aspect of human consciousness that exists independent of time and space that is susceptible to volitional control; and, there is an interconnection between all life forms which must be understood if the universal impulse humans feel towards the spiritual component of their lives is to properly mature. The SAC can be seen in pure Kuhnian terms as one response to the reassessment that Castaneda forced on anthropology.

Topic:
Originally Aired:
Host:
Original Link:

Stephan is currently writing the book which will go into great detail about what the Remote Viewers say is coming in the future. If you would like to be notified when the book is published, please just leave your name and email here, and we will notify you when the book is available.

What We Can Be Thankful For and Aspire to Become on Background Briefing with Ian Masters

Nemoseen Media

Nemoseen Media offers you print and electronic media concerning extraordinary human functioning, particularly Remote Viewing. All its materials are based on the latest laboratory research, yet they are presented in a way that is easily understood and can be used by everyone.

Schwartzreport trends that affect your future. Subscribe Today.

Schwartzreport is an entirely fact-based daily publication in favor of the earth, the inter-connectedness and interdependence of all life, democracy, equality for all, liberty, and things that are life-affirming. It also warns readers about actions, events, and trends that threaten those values. Our country now stands at a crossroads, indeed, the world stands at a crossroads where those values are very much at risk and it is up to each of us who care about fostering wellbeing to do what we can to defend those principles. Schwartzreport is designed to give you reliable information to help you in that.

In my lifelong skepticism regarding remote viewing and anomalous perception, I yield to no one. And yet this extraordinary book… has blasted the skepticism out of my skull.” –Nathaniel Branden, PhD
Six Pillars of Self-Esteem

“Stephan is a true pioneer in consciousness research and teaches you to tap into new abilities that can improve your decision making and transform your life. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn from him!” –Judith Orloff, M.D.
Positive Energy

The Gold Standard Course

Meditation for Modern Minds

Meditation for Modern Minds MP3 Cover