Origin of Conscious Life on Earth
65 million years ago an enormous impact with a body from outer space caused a catastrophe
of unimagined proportions, leading to the disappearance
of existing life forms and shortly afterwards the emergence of new creatures. But what has this to do
with our spiritual journey towards Transition?
The Catastrophe
The history of the earth in geological terms is divided into ages, each spanning several million years,
and separated from one another by some geological event, which may be a gradual one
(e.g. the movement of land masses) or may be sudden, for example an impact with another mass. The
last such impact occurred at the end of the Cretaceous age (the last of the ages of the large reptiles) and
caused an unimaginably swift change in the state of the earth and its inhabitants. After a few months of
cold and darkness a greenhouse effect led to overheating, and the carbon dioxide in the earth's
atmosphere increased to 20 times its present level. Very few life forms could survive these changes
- the dinosaurs who had dominated the sceene were wiped out completely.
Emergence of a new mammal
The next geological age, called Tertiary, was characterized by the emergence of mammals in a great
diversity of forms. There had been mammals previously, small, insect-eating creatures, but they had also
not survived the great impact. Investigations by Dr Jan Smit of the Department of Earth Sciences,
Amsterdam, especially in the area where impact took place (near Yucatán on the Gulf of Mexico)
revealed that in the period shortly after the impact a proliferation of a small rat-like creature, called
Protungulatum donnae, had taken place. This creature, characterised by pointed front teeth and knurled back
teeth, was ideally suited to survive on the existing vegetation and reproduced quickly, evolving within a
time span of thirty thousand years (short in geological terms) into eight distinct species including the first
primates.
This sole surviving creature of the disaster is thus the ancestor of the apes and of all of us.
The Question
It is of course possible that the Protungulatum was a species that had already evolved prior to the great
impact and survived in such numbers merely due to the lack of competitors. But why in such large
numbers? And why especially near the site of the impact?
Speculation
On a far planet an ageing civilization, far in advance of ours both technologically and in the evolution of
consciousness, realizes its existence is coming to an end, threatened by some natural disaster.
It has, as we all have, the mission to ensure the continuation of the physical manifestation of
consciousness.
It scans the heavens in search of a planet with suitable conditions for bearing life, and prepares a
projectile in which genetic material can be transmitted in a way that can survive the impact using
technologies unimaginable to us.
With remarkable precision the projectile is fired to its destination (a few seconds, or a few miles, either
way, and the effect would have been completely different). The impact is designed to take place in such
a way that the competitors for survival are destroyed leaving an environment suitable for the development
of the new arrival.
The missile arrives there near what is now the Gulf of Mexico and causes its predicted environmental
damage. Gradually in a planned manner the coded material held in a safe area within the depths of the
projectile decodes and develops itself, and these modest creatures, destined to evolve into humans and
beyond, make their first tentative appearance.
The Mission
We will maintain ourselves and our planet in an optimal way. We will control our urges to destroy the
planet by violence, overpopulation or disrespect for the environment. We ourselves will evolve as much
by conscious volition as by Darwinian selection. And sometime in the future our successors will realize
that we can no longer survive here, that it is time to take off again. We will search the universe for a
suitable home and then, like a common cold virus, with a cosmic sneeze we will project our genetic
material to this new world. And so the material realization of consciousness will be guaranteed for another
few million years...
Acknowledgement
Dr Smit's work first came to my notice in an interview he gave on a Dutch chat-show on March 18th 1995,
synchronously with the revelation of the Axioms. He kindly supplied more information including reference
to an article in Elsevier's Magazine (Dutch) dated 17th December 1994. The speculations are, however,
entirely the result of my wild imaginings!
PIERS
Clement
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