A deeper dive into the narrative self—its layers, neural basis, cultural variability, and possible deep-time origins via the Eve Theory of Consciousness.
Narrative Selves in Deep Time
How Did a Self-Aware Mind Evolve?
Meditations on mind, myth, and evolution. Cast the scales from your eyes!
TL;DR
- Symbolic thought emerged ~50,000 years ago, yet the universal human symbol, “I,” or the ego appears globally entrenched only in the Holocene ~10 kya.
- According to Eve Theory of Consciousness, women invented serpent-venom initiation rituals that reliably taught subject-object separation, producing powerful gene-culture evolution towards understanding “I am’” at a young age.
- The memory of this awakening is preserved worldwide in creation myths (cf. Lucifer, Nüwa, Quetzalcoatl) and was transmitted globally via bullroarer mystery cults (cf. the rites of Dionysus or Australian Dreamtime).
Topics
About
I’m Andrew Cutler, a Machine Learning engineer researching human origins. My work connects psychology, comparative mythology, and AI to trace how recursive self-awareness evolved. Snakecult.net is a place for me to put lightly-edited AI-generated essays that explore niche questions (usually produced with OpenAI’s Deep Research or latest reasoning model).
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How Wrong Would We Have to Be About Old World Contact?
A systematic look at how archaeology, genetics, linguistics, and disease ecology would all have to fail for substantial Old World settlement in pre-Columbian America to be real.
Book Of Mormon Anachronisms
A close look at New Testament and 19th-century doctrinal fingerprints in the Book of Mormon, and what they imply about its date and mode of composition.
Holocene Minds on Hard Mode: Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, and the Birth of Consciousness
Using ancient DNA and polygenic scores to imagine schizophrenia, bipolar, intelligence, and consciousness in early Holocene Europe through the Eve Theory lens.
Visiting Gods and Prophets: The Myth of the Traveling Civilizer in the Americas
A comprehensive exploration of the bearded god archetype across the Americas, from Quetzalcoatl to Deganawida, examining how indigenous cultures imagined civilizing visitors from distant lands.
White Gods and Feathered Serpents
A long, neutral tour through Quetzalcoatl, Viracocha, and the recurring American myths of civilizing strangers who came from across the sea.
Against the Myth of the Ancient, Finished Self: Why “We Haven’t Changed in 50,000 Years” Is Obviously False
Ancient DNA, polygenic scores, and psychiatric genetics all say the human mind has evolved dramatically since the Ice Age—contra the 50,000-years myth.
Golden Man as Control System: Cybernetics Before the Self
Before introspective consciousness, humans were control systems without a narrative self. This essay reconstructs Golden Man using cybernetics, animal cognition, and Eve Theory of Consciousness.
The Snake and the Syntax Tree: Why Language Had to Break the Garden
How recursive language, FOXP2, and fast-evolving regulatory DNA turned Golden Man’s mythic world into Eve’s self-conscious Garden exile.
The Y-Chromosome Bottleneck and the Bronze Age Mind: Why So Many Men Disappeared
What the Neolithic–Bronze Age Y-chromosome bottleneck reveals about male violence, patrilineal clans, and the evolution of the Bronze Age mind.