Art Reboot

62 Harmony, the Age of Intellectual Disharmony and the Age of Reacquired Harmony. In the first stage, prior to the advent of fully-functioning self- consciousness, relatively intelligent life forms lived by instinct in a timeless and harmonious state, like lizards basking in the sun. Once we acquired the ability to separate self from environ- ment and consider each independently, we entered the Age of Intellectual Disharmony, an age characterised by the presence of the ego, the inevitable result of the recognition of a separate self. Able to recognise individuality, we were also able to selfishly plan for its benefit, thus creating an environment for dis harmony, both with the self (unfulfilled aspiration, fear of the future, fear of loss; in particular, loss of life) and with others (the concept of ‘mine’). Consciousness thus acquired disharmony as an inevitable part of its evolution, a fact that is almost certainly the inspiration for the pan-cultural myth of a fall from paradise into a world of hardship, pain, sin, decay and mortality. In the monotheist myth of the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve nibble on forbidden fruit; in Greek mythology, a curious Pandora opens a box of troubles which plague hitherto harmonious humanity. The aspiration for harmony and unity, and the awareness of its absence or loss, seems to be inherent in humanity. Carl Jung was convinced that the search for meaning and wholeness lay at the heart of human life, and that our mythologies dramatise profound truths inexpressible in any other way. It is reflected in our religions, with their attendant concepts of paradise, and in our legends and myths, with their noble searches for some symbol of perfection that seems to hover forever just beyond our grasp. It is also