Description
Book SynopsisReveals how spirituality and the collective unconscious of all of humanity originated in Africa • Examines the Oldawan, the Ancient Soul of Africa, and its correlation with what modern psychologists have defined as the collective unconscious
• Draws on archaeology, DNA research, history, and depth psychology to reveal how the biological and spiritual roots of religion and science came out of Africa
• Explores the reflections of our African unconscious in the present confrontation in the Americas, in the work of the Founding Fathers, and in modern psychospirituality
The fossil record confirms that humanity originated in Africa. Yet somehow we have overlooked that Africa is also at the root of all that makes us human--our spirituality, civilization, arts, sciences, philosophy, and our conscious and unconscious minds.
In this extensive look at the unfolding of human history and culture, Edward Bruce Bynum reveals how our collective unconscious is African. Drawing on archaeology, DNA research, depth psychology, and the biological and spiritual roots of religion and science, he demonstrates how all modern human beings, regardless of ethnic or racial categorizations, share a common deeper identity, both psychically and genetically--a primordial African unconscious.
Exploring the beginning of early religions and mysticism in Africa, the author looks at the Egyptian Nubian role in the rise of civilization, the emergence of Kemetic Egypt, and the Oldawan, the Ancient Soul, and its correlation with what modern psychologists have defined as the collective unconscious. Revealing the spiritual and psychological ramifications of our shared African ancestry, the author examines its reflections in the present confrontation in the Americas, in the work of the Founding Fathers, and in modern Black spirituality, which arose from African diaspora religion and philosophy.
By recognizing our shared African unconscious--the matrix that forms the deepest luminous core of human identity--we learn that the differences between one person and another are merely superficial and ultimately there is no real separation between the material and the spiritual.
Trade Review“The scope of the author’s knowledge is simply awesome. . . . For those who entertain notions of collective unconscious and deep-structure racial messages, I cannot think of a better text that navigates such thinking.” * William E. Cross Jr., Ph.D., author of Shades of Black *
“Human biology originally found its footing in Africa and spread geographically outward. Bynum makes a comprehensive argument for Africa’s primal influences on human consciousness evidenced in the spiritual outlook and practices of ancient cultures worldwide.” * Laird Scranton, author of Sacred Symbols of the Dogon *
“What Bynum has accomplished in pulling together such a mammoth body of knowledge and research into one cogent volume and theme is remarkable. . . . A contribution of this magnitude seldom comes once in a decade.” * Linda James Myers, Ph.D., author of Understanding an Afrocentric World View *
“
Our African Unconscious is indeed a daring work and a unique contribution to African diasporic studies. It is a must for all students of human psychology” * Rowland Abiodun, coeditor of The Yoruba Artist *
“I read with awe this passionate, billiant, epic work. . . . One of the most exhuastive and revealing studies of Black and human origins I have ever seen.” * Lee S. Sannella, M.D., author of The Kundalini Experience *
"The author of this book does a very comprehensive and compelling job of revealing the all too often neglected role that Africa played in the earliest stages of humankind’s development. And that would not be just in regards to the fossil record evidence, but also our very humanity, of the emergence of civilization itself – that while Western thought tends to emphasize how civilization was spawned from the Greeks, Egypt, and various other Mediterranean cultures, we all have a deep connection to what he describes as a kind of primordial African unconscious." * Alternative Perceptions Magazine *
"All in all, Bynum has made a comprehensive case for the need to rekindle the connection to our African unconscious, which has not just been lost, but actively repressed. I’m deeply impressed with the objectivity Bynum maintained while writing so passionately about this subject. With a topic that could run high with tension and volatility, Bynum has taken a measured, level approach to present this information, and I admire how he calls for honoring and celebrating common roots, rather than further separation among humankind. I will absolutely be integrating Bynum’s wisdom for a while and I know I will be returning to
Our African Unconscious time and again, as I’m sure there’s more to absorb with each and every read." * Alanna Kali, Musing Mystical *
Table of ContentsFigures
Foreword to the 2021 Edition by Linda James Myers, Ph.D.
A Note from the First Edition by Allen E. Ivey
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Diaspora, or the Great DispersionPrologue: The African Origin of Human Consciousness
Waves of Hominids and Their Stock
Diaspora into the Ancient Americas
The Rise of Civilization: The Egypto-Nubian Legacy
The Emergence of Kemetic Egypt and Its Contact with Other Peoples: Asia, Mesopotamia, “Olde Europe,” and West Africa
The Diaspora into the Americas during Early Civilization
The Dark Ages and Medieval Europe
Dispersion, Genetics, and the Mother Tongue
Summary
2 The African UnconsciousOldawan: The Ancient Soul
The Nature of the Unconscious
Some Basic Tenets of the African Unconscious
Summary
3 The Roots of Modern Science and Religion in Ancient EgyptMedicine, Mathematics, and Astronomy
The Rise of the Modern Religions in Ancient Egypt
Contemporary Science and the Ancient Ideas of Fire and Energy
4 Kundalini and the Spread of African MysticismKundalini and the Religious Traditions
Kundalini in History and Science
History and the Neters of Egypt
The Bodily Perception of the Living Current
Psychoneurology and the Solar Logos
5 The Osirian ComplexTo Bind Them in Myth
The Family of Human Myths
The Osirian Myth, the Osirian Journey
Implications of the Osirian Complex in Culture
Summary
6 The African Religions in Their Diaspora to the WestRoots in Kemetic Egypt
West African Religions in Their Diaspora
Ethnic Diaspora to the West
Ifa, the Unconscious, and the Implicate Order Storehouse Memory
A Science of Divine Communion: The Psychospiritual Dynamics of Embodiment or “Possession”
The West African Psychology of Religion
Mediums, Diviners, and Their Forms of Spirit Possession
Training and Initiation
Summary
7 Freud, Judaism, and the Limits of Psychodynamic InsightThe Jews of Ancient Egypt: Three Theories of Origin
Jews in the Americas
Familial Patterns and the Cognitive Style of Psychodynamic Thinking
Root Techniques of Psychoanalysis and Mysticism
Insights of Psychoanalysis
Some Parallels between Jewish Mystical Thought and Ancient Kemetic Egypt
Summary
8 The Present Confrontation in the AmericasThe Milieu of Race in the New World
Reflections of Black Imagery in the New World
Nurturing Images of Blackness in Eurocentric Cultures
Menacing Images of Blackness
Blacks’ Perceptions of Whites in the Americas
The Seeds of Black Spirituality in Slave Religion and Philosophy
Our African Unconscious as Expressed in the Work of the American Founding Fathers
9 The Rudiments of Kemetic Philosophy in African/Indian Yoga ScienceThe Serpentine Symbol and the Solar Consciousness
Yoga Discipline, the Living Darkness, and the Light
Basic Principles of the Transcendental Discipline
The Evolutionary Force Operative Today
A Paradigm of Spiritual Energy: Body, Breath, and Cosmos; The Km Wirian Synthesis
The Multiplicity of Paths
Our Unfolding Afrogenetic Paradigm
Nexus: The Living Earth, the Body, and the Stars
APPENDIX A
Principal West African Yoruba Deities (Orisha) and Their Expressions in the AmericasAPPENDIX B
The Ten Plagues of MosesAPPENDIX C
Partial List of Dances of African American OriginReferences
Index
About the Author
