Memories & Visions of Paradise: Exploring the Universal Myth of a Lost Golden Age

by Richard Heinberg

Explores the universal myth of Paradise across cultures, uncovering its personal message and social consequences. Companion video.

Genres: Spirituality, Mythology, Philosophy, History

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Richard William Heinberg is an American journalist and educator who has written extensively on energy, economic, and ecological issues, including oil depletion. He is the author of 13 books, and presently serves as the senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute.

Reviews

[Skallagrimsen]

The "Golden Age" is a universal myth, with the Garden of Eden of the Abrahamic traditions being only the most familiar example. You can find variations of the story in cultures all over the world, from the Chinese to the Romans to the Native Americans. The global ubiquity of this theme is intriguing. It demands an explanation.

Some posit the myth of a golden age is an organic feature of developmental psychology: repressed memories of infant or even prenatal bliss, they suggest, reformulated as the legend of a prehistoric world of peace and plenty. This line of thought finds expression in the writings of the Hungarian psychoanalyst Sandor Ferenczi. He proposed there exists an innate human desire to return to the euphoria of the womb (regressus ad uterum). If this is true, the Golden Age less a memory than a projection of a profound longing for safety and plenitude

Others, however, maintain the myth encodes a more literal truth. The Golden Age, according to this view, reflects distorted recollections an an actual lost epoch in which happiness was the general state of humanity, before hierarchy, conflict, cruelty and greed intruded to immiserate our sorry existences. This idea is best associated with the Swiss-French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Through his enormous influence, it permeates post-revolutionary secular thought.

In Memories and Visions of Paradise Richard Heinberg makes a case for the literal interpretation. I read his thoughtful musings with interest and sympathy. I find a grain of plausibility in them. Humans evolved to live in different material conditions from the industrial civilization in which we now find ourselves. Our neuropsychology may be optimized for small-group, subsistence conditions. Perhaps our reward systems, stress responses, and communal instincts are maladapted to contemporary circumstances. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that most people in ancestral circumstances enjoyed greater average life satisfaction than those in modern times.

But on the whole I didn't find Heinberg's argument convincing. To extrapolate that primitive life was paradisiacal stretches plausibility far beyond the breaking point. Extraordinary animals we may be, but animals we remain. As we all must prey to survive, so are we subject to predation. Fear and pain are strategies evolved over billions of years to be indispensable to our survival. Life is not paradise for any other organism. Why conclude that humans just happen to recapitulate, purely through culture, a dilemma that all other animals inherit by nature? The Buddhists, I still believe, were correct on the essential point: our phenomenal world has always been samsara, or suffering.

[JJ Aitken · Rating 4 out of 5]

I devoured this stunning thesis. Very rarely is one able to pick up a book that discuss's a handful of the most profound possibilities of all time. Not only did it fill so many holes for me about our past, present and future. It also made my heart pound with excitement for the ever possible re-discovery of this glorious and enlightening memory. This book was pure boundless joy for me.
To briefly quote the last pages, Are we presented therefore with the apparently paradoxical likelihood that the examination of ancient and seemingly irrational stories may be one of the most practical pursuits available to us in the modern world.
Nothing rings more true for me.

[Dáithí's · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this little book on a whim. At first glance, I thought it was one of those crappy new age thought books (not that all new age books are bad, mind you...there is just a lot of crap out there). I was pleasantly surprised when I began reading. One of my favourite subjects is critical reading of The Book of Genesis, so this wonderful little book taking on creation issues and the visions of paradise head on was a nice surprise.

The author has a wonderful way without being too wordy to illustrate how man's (women's) quest for paradise is a cross cultural and cross-theological quest. Using many examples from popular Holy Books, as well as obscure Native American and other smaller cultural stories and myths, Heinberg draws the reader in and takes one on a grand adventure that transcends time and location.

He provides wonderful wisdom and illustrates nicely how we as life, had paradise, lost it, and now are trying ever so desperately to regain it. Much lip-service is paid to this, as we want paradise again, but our actions stomp all over what beauty we have. Like with most things, we are our own worst enemies.

Beautiful illustrations throughout. This is a quick read and one that will not disappoint.

[Sohail · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book consists of two parts. The first, larger part, in which different Paradise myths from different countries, cultures, and religions have been discussed are quite good.

The few final chapters (in which the author tries to prove that Paradise really exists and proposes ways of reaching it) however, are utter bullshit.

[Tricia Thompson]

Very interesting cultural anthropology, comparative religion, and folklore piece. I wasn't too crazy about the author's update at the end. To me, it was less objective and politically-slanted.

[Reid Burroughs · Rating 5 out of 5]

A survey on archeological and anthropological studies searching for a historical proof for paradise. There are intelligent discussions on Eden and some of the lost continents the loss of paradise and the difference between paradise and heaven. This last needs a little more clarification in my opinion. They are somewhat inter active in the authors thesis. Also some discussion on the psychology of needing a return to a paradise. It’s not completely exhaustive but there are great pointers. It’s scholarship on the topic.