Deep synthesis of Tom Froese’s Ritualised-Mind Hypothesis and Andrew Cutler’s Eve/Snake-Cult Theory, resolving the Sapient Paradox through ritual-mediated recursion, female agency, and gene–culture sweeps.
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 o3-Pro).
Research Articles
Nüwa and Fuxi: The Serpentine First Couple and the Square-Compass Motif in Mythology
An exploration of the serpentine creator deities Nüwa and Fuxi in Chinese mythology and their parallels in world mythologies.
Pre-Columbian Trans-Oceanic Contact: Current Knowledge and Debate
A comprehensive analysis of evidence and scholarly debate surrounding pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact between the Americas and Old World civilizations.
Hermeticists of Fame
From Hermes Trismegistus to Carl Jung: the remarkable roster of scientists, mystics, and thinkers drawn to Hermetic wisdom across history.
When Symbols Get Real: The First Hard Evidence for Homo sapiens Symbolic Thought
A stricter audit of the archaeological record that only counts true symbols-ritual burial and figurative art-and shunts beads, ochre crayon-shavings, and doodles to the kiddie table.
Medici and the Americas: Foreknowledge?
Survey of speculative theories on pre-Columbian knowledge of the Americas and possible Medici foreknowledge.
Sages Who Sought Wisdom in Egypt: From Orpheus to Jesus
An exhaustive survey of legendary and historical figures who journeyed to Egypt to learn ancient mysteries, from Greek philosophers to religious leaders, showing how Jesus’s childhood sojourn fits into this longstanding tradition.
Y-Chromosome Haplogroup A00: Archaic Introgression or Deep Human Lineage?
A deep dive into Y-chromosome haplogroup A00, the oldest known human paternal lineage. We explore its discovery, its shocking age, and the debate over whether it represents a ‘ghost’ archaic population or an ancient, isolated branch of Homo sapiens.
EToC as a Gene-Culture Evolution of Recursive Attention
A reframing of the Eve Theory of Consciousness (EToC) as a gene–culture coevolutionary process that produced recursive, self-referential attention, leading to a phase transition in human consciousness.
Darwin And The Eve Theory Of Consciousness
A deep dive into how Charles Darwin might view the Eve Theory of Consciousness—a modern hypothesis on the evolution of human self-awareness—and what aspects of this theory would compel or surprise him.