The Dream Culture of the Neanderthals: Guardians of the Ancient Wisdom

During all my life I have tried to answer many questions related to religion, violence, sexuality, and human nature in general. This is the first time I find all the answers compiled in a single book that also explains the origin of what we are are as a species. I can't understand why isn't this author more acclaimed and famous. I will definitely look for and read the rest of his books. The Goddess bless you, Mr. Gooch!

Reading this book was like a validation for many ideas I've had about our prehistoric past. Finally I have found a scholar who sees what I see in the depths of prehistory! Woodwoses, ogres and trolls.... dwarves, sidhe and fay...all come from real encounters some 35,000 to 10,000 years ago. And Neanderthal was not completely exterminated from the face of the Earth, but did indeed breed with homo sapien. Only the most extreme neanderthals, the classic neanderthals of inner europe, actually became extinct. Though the book is somewhat dated, a student of modern anthropology can easily gain great insight by allowing that Gooch's definition of "neanderthal" is much broader than what we currently define as such. Gooch understands that we're hybrids, and bolsters the arguement for multiregionalism. If one were to change his Neanderthal 1 to Heidelberg and Sons, (Heidelberg, Idaltu, Neanderthal, Classic Neanderthal, etc) and his Neanderthal 2 to Erectus and Sons (the asian ones, not ergaster), and his Northern Indian cro-magnon ancestors to Antecessor and Sons, then we might have a more updated version of the theory. Personally, I'd like to add that all of the above could have very easilly been hybrids; not just us. Hybrids of hybrids of hybrids. Because erectus was mating with antecessor was shagging ergaster was loving habilis, and they might even invited rudolphensis every third month on the full moon. We are a species that likes to do other species, and not even always just primates, so it shouldn't be so surprising to these scientists. It's going to happen, and every once and a while it's gonna work in a reproductive sense, because all these species of hominid are very close to one another. We just had too many chances for it not to work sometimes with one brand of hominid or the other. What's more we're pack animals; nomadic, sometimes even herding. We've been migrating out of Africa along the coast to Sundaland and then getting flooded out and sent back to Africa for millions of years, and to Europe and back for almost as long do to the shifting glaciers. Europe and Sundaland were and are natural evolutionary machines. Yes, somewhere there was a bottleneck, and some other as of yet unknown anomalies, that make it hard for us to figure out the genetic trail. But if our mother is only 180,000 years old, then she had at least a little bit of all of the above in her. When genetics discounts neanderthal man, it doesn't account for any crossover before 180,000. It doesn't consider that only one sex of a species may have survived. When comparing modern man's DNA to that of a 27,000 year old hominid, they don't consider that traces which are extinct today may not have been extinct 1000 years ago, or 10,000. Genocide happens repeatedly throughout history. But this book is not so much anthropological as cultural and psychological. The author provides us with observations that only one of his varied disciplines could summon. For in addition to bri

I haven't quite finished this book, though I am thoroughly awed by the genuine and probing look into the world through the gifted prose of Mr. Gooch. I was told that Mr. Gooch is probably going to be posthumously appreciated AND my hope is that that person is wrong. I see a great wisdom printed on these pages. I also sense a deep humility underscoring his means of emphasizing the implications of his take on our shared course of events, from the ancient to the present. I reccomend this book to any who are interested in one man's view; a view that could shed light and awaken a new and more compassionate treatment of humanity. Even with all the reasons to condemn our current circumstances and the means by which we have sought remedy, I am inspired by Mr. Gooch and the clarity of his sight. I see the world with new eyes and look forward to reading more of his books as they find their way into my hands. I am not addressing the actual content because I believe it will either be of interest, OR hopefully you will heed my words of endorsement. Either way, for me, there is much more to understanding where we have come from than I had earlier surmised. For this understanding and clear transmission, I am relieved from some of the burden, and am now charged with bringing my heart to the world, undefended and honoring of all parts that has brought me this far. Now is the most important time...what do you choose above all else? If Mr. Gooch is still living and occasionally checks out the reviews, I bless you and am letting you know that you have made a difference in one man's life. 'nough said!

History has shown an inexhaustible capacity for conflict. Its hypnotic pendulum motion is often brilliantly described but rarely explained. Stan Gooch has spent a lifetime understanding the pre-historic dynamics that have impacted on our historic past. This exceptional scientist, psychologist, linguist, philosopher, writer, is one of the few people who has made sense out of the confusion of our inheritance. The Dream Culture of the Neanderthals is a much appreciated reprint of Guardians of the Ancient Wisdom that first appeared in 1979. In it, Gooch further expounds on the enigmatic pre-history of the Neanderthal people and their cultural legacy that forms the submerged mass to Europe's, tip of the ice burg history. Essentially, modern people are a dualistic hybrid of two pre-historic species; the older moon worshipping, matriarchal, black Neanderthal and newer sun worshipping, patriarchal, white Cro-Magnon. Gooch reveals Neanderthal's psychic understanding of the moons influence on the menstrual cycle of women, and its direct connection with fertility that resulted in an omnipresent reverence of the blood of life and death; holy blood. Yet we are wonderfully reminded that this is at least 50,000 years BP (before present). No doubt such elemental power doesn't come without sinister overtones of human sacrifice, cannibalism and the drinking of human blood (werewolves and vampires); yet on the positive side of the ledger there is an extraordinary range of intuitive creativity, paranormal phenomena and cosmic understanding. Many of the iridescent myths and legends that have come down to us evoke a tropical paradise of wonder that finally becomes historic with the Egyptians, Minoans, Greeks and Celts. Here is a sample of what you should let yourself in for...`In the eastern Mediterranean, sacred trees became formalised as stone pillars! A Greek temple, then, is a stylised forest grove.' `It seems possible that magic mushrooms were available to the Druids, the contents of the mystical Celtic cauldron were also said to grant inspiration.' `Regarding the origin of mazes, it is thought they arise from increasingly complex movements of ritual dancers-probably of a `womb dance' that leads symbolically to the origin of life and out again.' `The witch burnings of the middle ages and earlier were `menstrual murders.' Such persecution is a punitive reaction to those aspects of the female that are most in evidence during menstruation.' With the appearance of Cro-Magnon (the Indo-European!) in about 35,000 BP, Gooch argues that although there would have been systematic slaughter of Neanderthal by this warrior species, they were not exterminated but interbred, resulting in the unstable yet dynamic hybrid of modern people; hence the eclipse of the moon religion and it's thirteen month lunar calender by the dominant sun religion, and eventual repression of both by the combined energies of monotheism (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), adding to