Human self-consciousness emerged out of the pre-egoic consciousness of nature. Out of an oceanic, unreflective soup of consciousness, came ideas of ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘mine’. This emergence of the self concept led to the fall of man into the misery of history. There are signs we are starting to transcend our ego-separateness, writes Steve Taylor.

Almost all of the ancient cultures of Europe, the Middle East and Asia have myths of a Golden Age or Paradise, an earlier time when life was easier and human beings lived in harmony with nature and each other. Some of these myths describe a sudden and dramatic ‘Fall’ from grace, as in the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden. Other myths speak of a long and slow degeneration over many eras, like the Greek and Roman myths of a Golden Age, or the Hindu story of a ‘perfect age’ before the present age of darkness (or Kali Yuga). In China, there is the myth of the ‘Age of Perfect Virtue,’ when human beings lived in harmony with the Dao. Since human beings lost contact with the Dao, they have been dominated by selfishness and acquisitiveness.