WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.759 So I want you to imagine, imagine you are an 00:00:02.759 --> 00:00:04.799 ancient king. Okay, setting the scene. Right, 00:00:04.960 --> 00:00:06.639 you're working the ceremonial garments, you've 00:00:06.639 --> 00:00:09.359 got the elevated throne, and your people are 00:00:09.359 --> 00:00:11.660 looking up at you with this absolute terrifying 00:00:11.660 --> 00:00:13.740 reverence. They think you're everything. Exactly. 00:00:14.580 --> 00:00:18.600 But there is a massive, massive problem. The 00:00:18.600 --> 00:00:21.800 harvest has failed. Completely. The rivers are 00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:24.559 drying up, the mud is cracking into those jagged 00:00:24.559 --> 00:00:27.219 little puzzle pieces, and the sun is just beating 00:00:27.219 --> 00:00:29.719 down on your village day after brutal day. A 00:00:29.719 --> 00:00:32.340 total disaster for an agrarian society. Yeah. 00:00:32.460 --> 00:00:36.159 And the craziest part is, your people. They aren't 00:00:36.159 --> 00:00:38.759 gathering in the town square to, like, pray to 00:00:38.759 --> 00:00:40.859 you for rain. No, they're definitely not praying. 00:00:41.020 --> 00:00:43.299 No. They are gathering to drag you out of your 00:00:43.299 --> 00:00:45.619 palace and literally execute you. It's a rough 00:00:45.619 --> 00:00:48.659 gig. It is. Because they genuinely believe that 00:00:48.659 --> 00:00:51.240 you simply forgot how to pull a mechanical lever 00:00:51.240 --> 00:00:55.159 that makes the rainfall from the sky. Welcome 00:00:55.159 --> 00:00:56.920 to the Deep Dive. We are so thrilled you're joining 00:00:56.920 --> 00:00:59.000 us today because we are unpacking what has to 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:02.280 be one of the most monumental, just mind -bending 00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:05.239 theories of human intellectual evolution ever 00:01:05.239 --> 00:01:08.340 put to paper. It really is a massive shift in 00:01:08.340 --> 00:01:11.280 perspective. It totally is. We're exploring the 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:14.299 extensive index of James George Fraser's seminal 00:01:14.299 --> 00:01:17.780 work, The Golden Bough. Specifically, we've been 00:01:17.780 --> 00:01:21.159 poring over that 12th volume, you know, The Index 00:01:21.159 --> 00:01:23.739 and Bibliography, which is basically this incredible 00:01:23.739 --> 00:01:26.519 treasure map to Fraser's whole intellectual universe. 00:01:26.760 --> 00:01:29.159 Right. It outlines his entire thesis in this 00:01:29.159 --> 00:01:32.579 really condensed, fascinating way. Exactly. And 00:01:32.579 --> 00:01:34.599 the core mission, the question we are putting 00:01:34.599 --> 00:01:38.159 in front of you today, is this. How did our ancestors 00:01:38.159 --> 00:01:40.739 go from believing they could literally, physically 00:01:40.739 --> 00:01:42.680 manipulate the universe with their bare hands 00:01:42.680 --> 00:01:46.260 to humbling themselves and bowing before invisible 00:01:46.260 --> 00:01:48.980 deities? Well, to answer that, we really have 00:01:48.980 --> 00:01:51.200 to completely dismantle how we currently view 00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:53.099 the world, right? Yeah, totally. Because Fraser 00:01:53.099 --> 00:01:56.099 posits this very specific and I should say highly 00:01:56.099 --> 00:01:58.879 controversial blueprint of human thought. He 00:01:58.879 --> 00:02:01.280 maps out this grand trajectory that passes through 00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:04.549 three distinct massive eras. The big three. Exactly. 00:02:04.930 --> 00:02:08.030 It begins with magic, transitions through religion, 00:02:08.389 --> 00:02:11.050 and ultimately moves towards science. And today 00:02:11.050 --> 00:02:13.530 we're going to look really closely at the intricate, 00:02:13.889 --> 00:02:16.750 incredibly messy, and deeply antagonistic relationship 00:02:16.750 --> 00:02:19.229 between those first two stages. The magic and 00:02:19.229 --> 00:02:21.969 the religion parts. Right. Fraser doesn't see 00:02:21.969 --> 00:02:24.770 magic and religion as isolated concepts just 00:02:24.770 --> 00:02:28.050 sort of existing in a vacuum. He identifies them 00:02:28.050 --> 00:02:30.990 as a sequential evolution of how humans try to 00:02:30.990 --> 00:02:34.669 understand, navigate, and ultimately control 00:02:34.669 --> 00:02:37.469 their reality. So if we're going to dive into 00:02:37.469 --> 00:02:39.169 that evolution, I feel like we have to start 00:02:39.169 --> 00:02:41.250 with the premise that just completely shatters 00:02:41.250 --> 00:02:43.330 all our modern assumptions. It definitely flips 00:02:43.330 --> 00:02:45.569 the script. Because, I mean, we assume religion 00:02:45.569 --> 00:02:47.969 is the oldest human institution, you know. We 00:02:47.969 --> 00:02:49.990 assume that the very first time an early human 00:02:49.990 --> 00:02:52.129 looked up at a thunderstorm, they immediately 00:02:52.129 --> 00:02:55.509 thought, oh, there is a big guy in the sky throwing 00:02:55.509 --> 00:02:57.330 lightning. That's the common assumption, yeah. 00:02:57.469 --> 00:03:00.069 That personifying nature came first. But the 00:03:00.069 --> 00:03:02.539 text argues the exact opposite. It says that 00:03:02.539 --> 00:03:05.719 magic is actually older than religion. Before 00:03:05.719 --> 00:03:08.460 there were any gods to pray to at all, humanity 00:03:08.460 --> 00:03:11.460 existed entirely in what Frazier calls the age 00:03:11.460 --> 00:03:14.520 of magic. Yeah. And in this ancient era, the 00:03:14.520 --> 00:03:17.580 whole concept of a conscious personal deity running 00:03:17.580 --> 00:03:21.219 the universe, it simply hadn't formed in the 00:03:21.219 --> 00:03:23.319 human mind yet. They weren't even thinking in 00:03:23.319 --> 00:03:26.280 those days. Exactly. Instead, humans operated 00:03:26.280 --> 00:03:28.219 under the assumption that the world was governed 00:03:28.219 --> 00:03:31.900 by impersonal, immutable forces. Impersonal being 00:03:31.900 --> 00:03:33.900 the key word there. Right. These forces weren't 00:03:33.900 --> 00:03:36.039 judging you. They weren't listening to your prayers 00:03:36.039 --> 00:03:38.539 or answering them. They were just phenomena that 00:03:38.539 --> 00:03:41.439 could be directly controlled, provided you possessed 00:03:41.439 --> 00:03:44.659 the correct formula. So it's like early humans 00:03:44.659 --> 00:03:46.620 were treating the universe like a giant machine, 00:03:46.620 --> 00:03:49.099 right? With hidden levers. That's a really good 00:03:49.099 --> 00:03:51.139 way to put it. If you want a specific outcome, 00:03:51.439 --> 00:03:53.460 You don't ask the machine for a favor. I mean, 00:03:53.479 --> 00:03:55.180 you don't negotiate with a vending machine, right? 00:03:55.240 --> 00:03:57.860 You just pull the correct lever. If I pull the 00:03:57.860 --> 00:04:00.080 rain lever, the rain gear turns and water falls. 00:04:00.599 --> 00:04:03.300 That mechanical analogy is absolutely central 00:04:03.300 --> 00:04:06.560 to Fraser's thesis. Magic, according to the text, 00:04:06.740 --> 00:04:09.740 operates on a strict physical basis. He describes 00:04:09.740 --> 00:04:11.759 it as being driven by, and this is his phrase, 00:04:12.020 --> 00:04:14.259 misapplications of the association of ideas. 00:04:15.080 --> 00:04:17.079 OK, break that down for us. What does that actually 00:04:17.079 --> 00:04:20.740 mean in practice? Well, The human brain is fundamentally 00:04:20.740 --> 00:04:24.319 an association machine. We are biologically wired 00:04:24.319 --> 00:04:26.899 to recognize patterns. When two things happen 00:04:26.899 --> 00:04:29.420 in sequence, our brains immediately try to link 00:04:29.420 --> 00:04:33.500 them with a causal arrow. Exactly. Magic is basically 00:04:33.500 --> 00:04:36.480 primitive humanity's attempt to systematize those 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:39.279 associations into a working science of survival. 00:04:39.459 --> 00:04:42.259 They just got the associations entirely completely 00:04:42.259 --> 00:04:44.680 wrong. Very wrong. Which brings us to how they 00:04:44.680 --> 00:04:46.839 actually pull these levers, because the text 00:04:46.839 --> 00:04:49.839 breaks this early magic down into two massive 00:04:49.839 --> 00:04:51.920 branches. Right, the first being homeopathic 00:04:51.920 --> 00:04:54.879 magic. Or imitative magic, yeah. And the underlying 00:04:54.879 --> 00:04:57.750 logic here is, honestly... It's brilliantly simple. 00:04:57.990 --> 00:05:00.689 It produces like, if I want an effect, I just 00:05:00.689 --> 00:05:02.689 have to imitate that effect. It's imitation as 00:05:02.689 --> 00:05:05.949 compulsion. Exactly. So put yourself in the shoes 00:05:05.949 --> 00:05:08.769 of someone standing in that dry dying field we 00:05:08.769 --> 00:05:10.850 talked about in the intro. You don't know anything 00:05:10.850 --> 00:05:14.110 about atmospheric pressure or evaporation or 00:05:14.110 --> 00:05:16.329 meteorology. You just know what rain looks like 00:05:16.329 --> 00:05:18.410 and what it sounds like. So you look for the 00:05:18.410 --> 00:05:21.639 associated phenomena. And the index is practically 00:05:21.639 --> 00:05:24.579 overflowing with vivid global examples of this. 00:05:24.759 --> 00:05:27.040 It really is. Like, what were some of the wilder 00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:29.600 ones we saw? Well, we see extensive references 00:05:29.600 --> 00:05:32.620 to rainmaking ceremonies that rely entirely on 00:05:32.620 --> 00:05:35.100 imitation. People would mimic the gathering of 00:05:35.100 --> 00:05:37.620 dark clouds by wearing very dark, heavy clothing, 00:05:37.620 --> 00:05:40.399 or they'd burn specific smoking materials to 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:42.519 imitate cloud cover. They're literally playing 00:05:42.519 --> 00:05:44.980 dress up as a storm. Exactly. And they would 00:05:44.980 --> 00:05:47.259 imitate the wildlife associated with wet weather, 00:05:47.519 --> 00:05:50.259 too. If rain causes frogs to croak and ducks 00:05:50.259 --> 00:05:52.779 to splash and puddles, the homeopathic logic 00:05:52.779 --> 00:05:55.220 reverses that causal arrow. Right, so instead 00:05:55.220 --> 00:05:57.639 of rain making the frogs croak. The belief is 00:05:57.639 --> 00:06:00.040 that if you can force a frog to croak, or if 00:06:00.040 --> 00:06:02.040 you just perfectly imitate that croak yourself, 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:04.519 the universe has absolutely no choice but to 00:06:04.519 --> 00:06:07.300 produce the associated rain. The imitation compels 00:06:07.300 --> 00:06:10.240 the reality. It's a completely reverse engineered 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:14.620 reality. Right. It extends to everything, right? 00:06:14.680 --> 00:06:16.620 Not just the weather. Oh, absolutely. Like, if 00:06:16.620 --> 00:06:18.500 you want to injure an enemy from a distance, 00:06:18.980 --> 00:06:21.220 you don't just throw a rock blindly into the 00:06:21.220 --> 00:06:23.600 dark. You make a magical image of them. The text 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:26.000 talks a lot about fashioning wax figures. A classic 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:28.079 voodoo doll concept, essentially. Yeah, exactly. 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:30.040 You manipulate the imitation. Maybe you pierce 00:06:30.040 --> 00:06:34.600 the wax figure with a bone needle. And it produces 00:06:34.600 --> 00:06:37.439 like, the universe applies that physical manipulation 00:06:37.439 --> 00:06:39.959 to your actual physical enemy. And we also see 00:06:39.959 --> 00:06:42.259 this used for positive outcomes, like trying 00:06:42.259 --> 00:06:44.959 to win love. Right. You create an imitation of 00:06:44.959 --> 00:06:47.500 the person you're pining for. You bind the figure 00:06:47.500 --> 00:06:50.220 to yourself with a string or something, and the 00:06:50.220 --> 00:06:52.620 universe is supposed to mirror. that binding 00:06:52.620 --> 00:06:54.779 in reality. The internal consistency of this 00:06:54.779 --> 00:06:57.540 logic is what makes it so pervasive. It dictated 00:06:57.540 --> 00:07:00.240 entirely how early humans interacted with the 00:07:00.240 --> 00:07:02.800 animal kingdom too, particularly regarding the 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:04.660 acquisition of traits. Oh, the eating of the 00:07:04.660 --> 00:07:07.779 animal parts? This was wild. Yes. The sources 00:07:07.779 --> 00:07:10.480 note that diviners, warriors, and leaders would 00:07:10.480 --> 00:07:13.240 consume very specific parts of animals to gain 00:07:13.240 --> 00:07:16.000 their physical or perceived mystical attributes. 00:07:16.220 --> 00:07:19.500 They would eat the hearts of crows or moles or 00:07:19.500 --> 00:07:23.560 ox. Because a hawk has incredible, piercing vision. 00:07:23.980 --> 00:07:26.399 So the logic is, if you consume the core of the 00:07:26.399 --> 00:07:28.819 hawk, you are literally consuming the essence 00:07:28.819 --> 00:07:32.279 of that vision. Exactly. And furthermore, this 00:07:32.279 --> 00:07:34.860 mindset creates a deeply rigid set of rules for 00:07:34.860 --> 00:07:37.139 how people, especially leaders, could live their 00:07:37.139 --> 00:07:40.579 lives. The taboos. Right. Consider the historical 00:07:40.579 --> 00:07:43.160 examples regarding ancient kings who were strictly 00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:45.360 forbidden from shaving their hair or even cutting 00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:48.040 their nails for an entire year. Wait, a whole 00:07:48.040 --> 00:07:50.800 year. That sounds incredibly unsanitary. It was, 00:07:50.860 --> 00:07:53.519 but the reasoning was purely magical. Hair is 00:07:53.519 --> 00:07:55.959 a potent symbol of continuous growth, strength, 00:07:56.120 --> 00:07:59.160 and vitality. By the laws of homeopathic association, 00:07:59.399 --> 00:08:01.480 to cut the king's hair would be to sever the 00:08:01.480 --> 00:08:03.779 king's power. Which would then magically drain 00:08:03.779 --> 00:08:06.139 the vitality of the entire kingdom. Precisely. 00:08:06.540 --> 00:08:08.920 The imitation of cutting equals the reality of 00:08:08.920 --> 00:08:11.399 weakening. Man, that sets up a wildly stressful 00:08:11.399 --> 00:08:14.329 existence for the king. which we are definitely 00:08:14.329 --> 00:08:16.910 going to dig into more. But first, we have to 00:08:16.910 --> 00:08:19.050 look at the second branch of this primitive operating 00:08:19.050 --> 00:08:22.370 system. Contagious magic. Right. If homeopathic 00:08:22.370 --> 00:08:25.269 magic is about similarity, contagious magic is 00:08:25.269 --> 00:08:28.129 all about contact. The rule is, and this is a 00:08:28.129 --> 00:08:30.350 quote, things which have once been in physical 00:08:30.350 --> 00:08:32.730 contact with each other continue to act on each 00:08:32.730 --> 00:08:35.669 other at a distance, permanently, even after 00:08:35.669 --> 00:08:37.509 the physical connection is completely broken. 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:40.779 Contagious magic relies on this idea of a hidden 00:08:40.779 --> 00:08:43.659 sympathetic bond. A sympathetic bond. Okay, so 00:08:43.659 --> 00:08:46.220 how does that play out? Well, the physical separation 00:08:46.220 --> 00:08:48.639 of two objects does not sever the metaphysical 00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:51.460 tether between them. And this fundamentally altered 00:08:51.460 --> 00:08:54.059 how early humans approached medicine and injury. 00:08:54.720 --> 00:08:56.840 The text highlights this phenomenon that appears 00:08:56.840 --> 00:08:59.960 in wildly distinct cultures, from rural England 00:08:59.960 --> 00:09:02.259 all the way to the islands of Melanesia. It's 00:09:02.259 --> 00:09:04.539 everywhere. It really is. It documents the sympathetic 00:09:04.539 --> 00:09:07.100 relationship between a wound and the weapon that 00:09:07.100 --> 00:09:09.220 caused it. Okay, let's really visualize this 00:09:09.220 --> 00:09:11.120 for the listener, because it highlights just 00:09:11.120 --> 00:09:14.889 how alien this mindset is to us today. Right, 00:09:15.509 --> 00:09:17.750 so imagine a warrior gets stabbed with a rusty 00:09:17.750 --> 00:09:20.830 spear. In our modern scientific framework, all 00:09:20.830 --> 00:09:22.789 our attention obviously goes to the wound, right? 00:09:22.950 --> 00:09:25.490 We clean it, we stitch it, we bandage the arm. 00:09:25.809 --> 00:09:29.250 Biological cause and effect. Exactly. But under 00:09:29.250 --> 00:09:32.509 contagious magic, the weapon and the wound were 00:09:32.509 --> 00:09:35.340 in... intimate physical contact. So they are 00:09:35.340 --> 00:09:38.220 forever linked. The tether is established. Yeah. 00:09:38.519 --> 00:09:40.960 So the healer doesn't agonize over the bleeding 00:09:40.960 --> 00:09:43.779 arm. The healer takes the actual rusty spear, 00:09:44.460 --> 00:09:47.159 meticulously cleans the blade, applies soothing 00:09:47.159 --> 00:09:49.899 medicinal salves to the iron of the spear, and 00:09:49.899 --> 00:09:51.840 carefully wraps the weapon in bandages. They 00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:53.779 are treating the source of the contagion to heal 00:09:53.779 --> 00:09:57.019 the effect. It's a stunning display of treating 00:09:57.019 --> 00:09:59.279 the metaphysical bond rather than the biological 00:09:59.279 --> 00:10:02.399 reality. And this bond of contact creates a pervasive 00:10:02.279 --> 00:10:04.940 of kind of low level paranoia in everyday life, 00:10:05.139 --> 00:10:07.360 especially regarding a person's physical choices. 00:10:07.879 --> 00:10:10.299 The index is absolutely saturated with references 00:10:10.299 --> 00:10:12.860 to the magic of footprints. OK, wait, hold on. 00:10:13.100 --> 00:10:15.799 Because I can almost kind of wrap my head around 00:10:15.799 --> 00:10:17.860 the spear thing. I mean, it literally has the 00:10:17.860 --> 00:10:21.279 victim's blood on it. There's a tangible biological 00:10:21.279 --> 00:10:23.340 transfer there. A physical connection, yes. But 00:10:23.340 --> 00:10:27.129 a footprint. Yes. It is literally just. displaced 00:10:27.129 --> 00:10:31.070 dirt. How on earth did they justify a permanent 00:10:31.070 --> 00:10:33.429 magical connection to a hole in the mud? Well, 00:10:33.529 --> 00:10:36.399 you have to remember it is not just displaced 00:10:36.399 --> 00:10:39.679 boat to a mind operating under contagious magic, 00:10:39.899 --> 00:10:42.779 it is a physical impression of the self. Oh, 00:10:42.779 --> 00:10:45.220 I see. The foot touched the earth, and the earth 00:10:45.220 --> 00:10:48.159 retained the exact shape of that foot. Therefore, 00:10:48.379 --> 00:10:50.620 the earth at that specific location has absorbed 00:10:50.620 --> 00:10:53.100 a literal fraction of the person's essence. Wow. 00:10:53.340 --> 00:10:55.759 Yeah. The text documents practices where you 00:10:55.759 --> 00:10:58.220 could actually cripple or injure an enemy by 00:10:58.220 --> 00:11:00.220 striking their footprint with a weapon. You just 00:11:00.220 --> 00:11:02.740 stab the dirt. You stab the dirt. Or by dropping 00:11:02.740 --> 00:11:06.070 sharp glass or poison thorns to into the impression 00:11:06.070 --> 00:11:08.990 left in the soil. The belief is that the injury 00:11:08.990 --> 00:11:11.470 to the footprint travels right up that invisible 00:11:11.470 --> 00:11:13.649 sympathetic tether and physically strikes the 00:11:13.649 --> 00:11:15.669 person's foot no matter how far away they are. 00:11:15.889 --> 00:11:18.450 Which means you are constantly leaving vulnerabilities 00:11:18.450 --> 00:11:21.509 behind you wherever you walk. That is terrifying. 00:11:21.690 --> 00:11:24.070 It would be incredibly stressful, yes. And it's 00:11:24.070 --> 00:11:26.740 not just footprints either. The fear surrounding 00:11:26.740 --> 00:11:30.000 discarded body parts is intense in these cultures. 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:32.960 Very intense. The text explicitly mentions the 00:11:32.960 --> 00:11:36.879 deep anxiety over what happens to like cut hair 00:11:36.879 --> 00:11:39.960 or cast baby teeth. And particularly the navel 00:11:39.960 --> 00:11:42.340 string and the afterbirth. Yes. The afterbirth 00:11:42.340 --> 00:11:44.840 is a major focal point in many cultures. Right. 00:11:45.019 --> 00:11:47.559 Like in parts of Africa and China, the text says 00:11:47.559 --> 00:11:50.279 the afterbirth is not just biological waste. 00:11:50.799 --> 00:11:53.379 It is intimately bound up with a person's ultimate 00:11:53.379 --> 00:11:55.840 destiny. Because it was in ultimate contact with 00:11:55.840 --> 00:11:58.440 the person. Exactly. If a malicious sorcerer 00:11:58.440 --> 00:12:00.639 gets a hold of your cast teeth or your hair clippings, 00:12:00.960 --> 00:12:03.110 they don't even need to bother. making a wax 00:12:03.110 --> 00:12:05.269 figure of you. They have a piece of your actual 00:12:05.269 --> 00:12:07.610 essence. And this brings us to a really critical 00:12:07.610 --> 00:12:10.309 realization about the mindset of early humanity. 00:12:10.669 --> 00:12:13.830 They were not acting out of random chaotic superstition. 00:12:13.950 --> 00:12:16.490 They were just being crazy. No, not at all. They 00:12:16.490 --> 00:12:19.429 were acting out of a deeply rigid, highly structured 00:12:19.429 --> 00:12:22.629 belief in a universally connected system. So 00:12:22.629 --> 00:12:25.490 they actually had the right idea about a mechanical 00:12:25.490 --> 00:12:28.110 universe governed by cause and effect. Yes. The 00:12:28.110 --> 00:12:30.029 foundational logic is there. They just had a 00:12:30.029 --> 00:12:32.710 fundamentally flawed operating manual. They thought 00:12:32.710 --> 00:12:34.490 the lever was connected to the rain gear, but 00:12:34.490 --> 00:12:36.649 really it was just a stick stuck in the mud. 00:12:37.049 --> 00:12:40.549 That is precisely what Fraser identifies as the 00:12:40.549 --> 00:12:44.269 fatal flaw of magic. Magic postulates a strict 00:12:44.269 --> 00:12:47.889 natural order and immutable laws. The universe 00:12:47.889 --> 00:12:51.029 is not run by capricious entities who might suddenly 00:12:51.029 --> 00:12:53.409 change their minds. It's an automaton. Exactly. 00:12:53.769 --> 00:12:56.710 Magic simply misidentifies what the laws actually 00:12:56.710 --> 00:12:59.809 are. It assumes that similarity and contact are 00:12:59.809 --> 00:13:02.289 the foundational laws of physics. So if you are 00:13:02.289 --> 00:13:05.190 living in a society that believes this mechanical 00:13:05.190 --> 00:13:09.350 operating manual is absolutely 100 % real. The 00:13:09.350 --> 00:13:11.990 next logical step is figuring out who gets to 00:13:11.990 --> 00:13:14.570 hold the manual, right? Right. The social hierarchy 00:13:14.570 --> 00:13:16.769 begins to form around this knowledge. Because 00:13:16.769 --> 00:13:19.330 if you are the one person in the tribe who knows 00:13:19.330 --> 00:13:22.389 the exact chant to make the frog croak, or you 00:13:22.389 --> 00:13:24.610 know the exact salve to put on the rusty spear, 00:13:24.789 --> 00:13:27.809 you aren't just like a helpful local mechanic. 00:13:27.929 --> 00:13:30.870 You hold the keys to reality. And this initiates 00:13:30.870 --> 00:13:33.769 a massive shift in human social organization. 00:13:34.029 --> 00:13:37.549 The text heavily maps the rise of what Frazier 00:13:37.549 --> 00:13:40.529 calls the public magician. Right, because before 00:13:40.529 --> 00:13:43.309 this, magic was private. Exactly. Everyone was 00:13:43.309 --> 00:13:45.669 doing their own footprint magic, hoarding their 00:13:45.669 --> 00:13:47.809 own hair clippings, trying to protect themselves. 00:13:48.350 --> 00:13:50.990 But as society grows and becomes more complex, 00:13:51.389 --> 00:13:53.750 we see the emergence of what is arguably the 00:13:53.750 --> 00:13:56.230 oldest professional class in human history. The 00:13:56.230 --> 00:13:59.389 professional sorcerer. Yes. The division of labor 00:13:59.389 --> 00:14:02.570 is a hallmark of civilization. Not everyone needs 00:14:02.570 --> 00:14:06.059 to farm. not everyone needs to hunt. So a community 00:14:06.059 --> 00:14:08.500 will intentionally support an individual whose 00:14:08.500 --> 00:14:11.299 sole specialization is attempting to control 00:14:11.299 --> 00:14:14.019 nature for the public good. So you dedicate your 00:14:14.019 --> 00:14:16.720 entire life to perfecting the homeopathic rituals. 00:14:16.779 --> 00:14:18.899 You become the public magician. And honestly, 00:14:19.059 --> 00:14:21.240 this isn't some selfless civil service position. 00:14:21.259 --> 00:14:24.120 No, it's highly lucrative. Oh, incredibly. These 00:14:24.120 --> 00:14:26.580 magicians begin to accumulate extraordinary wealth. 00:14:26.740 --> 00:14:28.519 People are constantly paying them for protection, 00:14:28.879 --> 00:14:32.059 for rain, for successful hunts. And with that 00:14:32.059 --> 00:14:34.679 kind of wealth comes profound political power. 00:14:34.779 --> 00:14:37.179 They consolidate authority. Yeah, they evolved 00:14:37.179 --> 00:14:39.919 from just being the village eccentric into chiefs 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:42.600 and eventually right into kings. The transition 00:14:42.600 --> 00:14:45.299 from sorcerer to sovereign is heavily documented 00:14:45.299 --> 00:14:48.419 in the sources. The text specifically details 00:14:48.419 --> 00:14:52.000 how African rainmakers rose to absolute chieftainship. 00:14:52.120 --> 00:14:53.639 Which makes total sense. What do you think about 00:14:53.639 --> 00:14:56.779 it? It does. In an agrarian society where a single 00:14:56.779 --> 00:14:59.259 month of drought means mass starvation for the 00:14:59.259 --> 00:15:02.379 entire community, the individual who ostensibly 00:15:02.379 --> 00:15:05.580 controls the weather is undeniably the most important 00:15:05.549 --> 00:15:08.269 person in the hierarchy. Their political authority 00:15:08.269 --> 00:15:10.809 is entirely derived from their perceived magical 00:15:10.809 --> 00:15:13.490 competence. We call them magician kings. But 00:15:13.490 --> 00:15:15.389 let's go back to that scenario we opened the 00:15:15.389 --> 00:15:17.710 whole deep dive with. The king in the drought. 00:15:17.950 --> 00:15:21.690 Yes. You are the magician king. You rode this 00:15:21.690 --> 00:15:23.990 wave of homeopathic rain making right to the 00:15:23.990 --> 00:15:25.649 top, right to the throne. You were wearing the 00:15:25.649 --> 00:15:28.470 crown, and then a drought hits. And it doesn't 00:15:28.470 --> 00:15:30.889 break. Right. It lasts a week. Then a month. 00:15:31.259 --> 00:15:35.279 The crops turn to absolute dust. Your entire 00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:38.799 claim to power is that you control the levers 00:15:38.799 --> 00:15:40.879 of the universe. So you can't just release a 00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:43.980 press statement saying, sorry folks, we're experiencing 00:15:43.980 --> 00:15:46.320 unseasonable weather patterns. We cannot blame 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:48.360 the climate, because according to the social 00:15:48.360 --> 00:15:51.759 contract, you are the climate. Exactly. And the 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:54.379 text notes the grim reality of this arrangement. 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:57.740 These kings were held strictly accountable to 00:15:57.740 --> 00:16:00.600 their magical claims. In places like Savage Island 00:16:00.600 --> 00:16:03.340 or ancient Egypt, kings were severely punished, 00:16:03.539 --> 00:16:05.620 they were exiled, and routinely put to death 00:16:05.620 --> 00:16:07.860 if they failed to end a drought or a famine. 00:16:08.039 --> 00:16:10.500 The logic of the people is brutal, but honestly, 00:16:10.620 --> 00:16:13.019 it's entirely consistent. It is perfectly logical 00:16:13.019 --> 00:16:15.019 within their framework. If the machine of the 00:16:15.019 --> 00:16:17.100 universe has stopped providing, the machine operator 00:16:17.100 --> 00:16:20.019 is either intentionally malicious or utterly 00:16:20.019 --> 00:16:22.899 incompetent. Yeah. In either scenario, the operator 00:16:22.899 --> 00:16:25.860 must be violently removed and replaced. The psychological 00:16:25.860 --> 00:16:27.600 toll of that must have been just staggering. 00:16:27.779 --> 00:16:29.379 I mean, you were living in a constant state of 00:16:29.379 --> 00:16:32.399 performance anxiety where a dry spell means your 00:16:32.399 --> 00:16:34.919 literal execution. It's an incredible amount 00:16:34.919 --> 00:16:37.879 of pressure. And as these societies evolve, the 00:16:37.879 --> 00:16:40.620 text points out this really fascinating adaptation 00:16:40.620 --> 00:16:43.740 to that pressure. Fraser distinguishes between 00:16:43.740 --> 00:16:46.759 two different types of man gods that emerge during 00:16:46.759 --> 00:16:48.539 this timeline. Right. There's an evolutionary 00:16:48.539 --> 00:16:50.659 split. The first is what we have been discussing 00:16:50.659 --> 00:16:53.960 up to this point. The magical type of man god. 00:16:54.120 --> 00:16:56.990 The engineer. Yes. This is the sorcerer, the 00:16:56.990 --> 00:17:00.450 engineer. His power resides entirely in his technique, 00:17:00.830 --> 00:17:02.850 his knowledge of the spells, and his mastery 00:17:02.850 --> 00:17:06.250 of those hidden lovers. If the rain fails, it 00:17:06.250 --> 00:17:09.289 is a direct failure of his technique. But as 00:17:09.289 --> 00:17:11.569 the centuries progress, we see the emergence 00:17:11.569 --> 00:17:14.690 of the inspired or religious type of man -god. 00:17:14.789 --> 00:17:16.750 And this is just a brilliant political pivot. 00:17:17.289 --> 00:17:19.710 Because the inspired man -god isn't the engineer, 00:17:20.150 --> 00:17:22.920 they are a vessel. Precisely. This new type of 00:17:22.920 --> 00:17:24.940 leader claims that the power does not originate 00:17:24.940 --> 00:17:27.480 from within their own mastery of nature. Instead, 00:17:27.539 --> 00:17:29.859 they say they are possessed, inspired, or chosen 00:17:29.859 --> 00:17:33.140 by a higher external entity. They are merely 00:17:33.140 --> 00:17:37.180 a conduit. And this subtly but profoundly shifts 00:17:37.180 --> 00:17:40.559 the blame. If the rain doesn't come, it isn't 00:17:40.559 --> 00:17:42.640 because the king performed the ritual poorly. 00:17:43.119 --> 00:17:45.500 It is because the higher entity is displeased 00:17:45.500 --> 00:17:48.400 with the people or has its own inscrutable reasons. 00:17:50.650 --> 00:17:53.009 Hey, don't look at me guys. The sky spirit said 00:17:53.009 --> 00:17:55.410 no. It protects the sovereign. It completely 00:17:55.410 --> 00:17:58.589 protects them. And that exact shift from the 00:17:58.589 --> 00:18:00.769 arrogant engineer claiming to control the universe 00:18:00.769 --> 00:18:04.210 to the humble vessel channeling a higher power 00:18:04.210 --> 00:18:06.769 brings us right to the brink of what has to be 00:18:06.769 --> 00:18:09.329 the greatest intellectual crisis in human history. 00:18:09.430 --> 00:18:11.829 Because eventually the fatal flaw of magic becomes 00:18:11.829 --> 00:18:15.049 impossible to ignore. The text refers to this 00:18:15.049 --> 00:18:17.950 as the detection of the fallacy of magic. Right. 00:18:17.950 --> 00:18:19.890 And this realization doesn't just happen overnight. 00:18:19.980 --> 00:18:23.579 Oh, no. It takes millennia. The human mind is 00:18:23.579 --> 00:18:25.819 incredibly adept at protecting its core beliefs. 00:18:26.380 --> 00:18:28.240 When a frog dance is followed by a thunderstorm, 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:31.380 the belief is cemented. The system works. On 00:18:31.380 --> 00:18:33.940 formation bias. Exactly. But when a frog dance 00:18:33.940 --> 00:18:36.119 is followed by a month of drought, the magician 00:18:36.119 --> 00:18:38.940 will inevitably invent a thousand excuses. Oh, 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:41.759 yeah. Like, ah, I sneezed during the third chant, 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:44.660 or someone in the village was harboring negative 00:18:44.660 --> 00:18:48.660 energy, or, my favorite, a rival tribe is using 00:18:48.660 --> 00:18:51.160 countermagic. to block our rain lever. There 00:18:51.160 --> 00:18:53.960 is always an out. There is always a reason the 00:18:53.960 --> 00:18:56.759 magic failed that preserves the underlying theory 00:18:56.759 --> 00:19:00.059 of magic itself. But generation after generation, 00:19:00.460 --> 00:19:03.680 century after century, this creeping, undeniable 00:19:03.680 --> 00:19:07.220 realization begins to set in among the most observant 00:19:07.220 --> 00:19:10.099 minds of early humanity. The thinkers, the philosophers 00:19:10.099 --> 00:19:12.460 of the tribe. Right. They watch these kings get 00:19:12.460 --> 00:19:15.480 executed. They watch crops fail despite absolutely 00:19:15.480 --> 00:19:19.019 perfect ritual adherence. And they realize that 00:19:19.019 --> 00:19:21.119 the levers they have been pulling, they aren't 00:19:21.119 --> 00:19:23.160 attached to any gears. They are disconnected 00:19:23.160 --> 00:19:25.640 from reality. The homeopathic imitations and 00:19:25.640 --> 00:19:27.819 the contagious bonds are not actually compelling 00:19:27.819 --> 00:19:29.859 nature to do anything at all. The mechanical 00:19:29.859 --> 00:19:32.359 universe theory completely crumbles. And imagine 00:19:32.359 --> 00:19:35.150 the existential terror of that moment. You thought 00:19:35.150 --> 00:19:37.029 you had the steering wheel to reality and suddenly 00:19:37.029 --> 00:19:39.809 you realize you were just sitting in a box, hurtling 00:19:39.809 --> 00:19:42.190 through a dark, chaotic void with absolutely 00:19:42.190 --> 00:19:44.529 no control. It would be a profound psychological 00:19:44.529 --> 00:19:47.410 shock. It is out of this profound disillusionment, 00:19:47.549 --> 00:19:50.349 this terrifying crisis of faith, that the age 00:19:50.349 --> 00:19:53.190 of religion is finally born. Yes. As the belief 00:19:53.190 --> 00:19:56.210 in human magic declines, the belief in external 00:19:56.210 --> 00:19:59.759 deities grows to fill that void. And the text 00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:02.420 offers a very specific definition of religion 00:20:02.420 --> 00:20:04.720 for this framework. How does Fraser define it? 00:20:05.019 --> 00:20:07.759 It states that religion contains both a theoretical 00:20:07.759 --> 00:20:10.700 and a practical element, and crucially, and this 00:20:10.700 --> 00:20:13.500 is important, it is fundamentally opposed in 00:20:13.500 --> 00:20:16.220 principle to magic. This is where the paradigm 00:20:16.220 --> 00:20:19.640 entirely flips for humanity. Complete 180. Humans 00:20:19.640 --> 00:20:21.660 realize they aren't the CEOs of the universe. 00:20:22.019 --> 00:20:23.519 The machine doesn't care about their levers. 00:20:24.200 --> 00:20:26.670 So the human mind desperate for some kind of 00:20:26.670 --> 00:20:29.769 order, makes a massive new assumption. If the 00:20:29.769 --> 00:20:31.849 universe isn't a machine, it must be a kingdom. 00:20:32.029 --> 00:20:34.089 A kingdom ruled by someone else. Right. There 00:20:34.089 --> 00:20:37.269 must be invisible CEOs, gods, spirits, demons 00:20:37.269 --> 00:20:39.549 who are actually running the show. The theoretical 00:20:39.549 --> 00:20:41.950 element of religion is this projection of conscious 00:20:41.950 --> 00:20:44.710 personal agencies onto the natural world. Instead 00:20:44.710 --> 00:20:47.589 of impersonal forces of physics, the storm is 00:20:47.589 --> 00:20:50.490 driven by an angry sky god. The harvest is controlled 00:20:50.490 --> 00:20:53.740 by a temperamental Earth mother. Exactly. The 00:20:53.740 --> 00:20:56.640 practical element of religion is how humans respond 00:20:56.640 --> 00:20:59.480 to this new theory. Religion replaces the concept 00:20:59.480 --> 00:21:03.440 of compulsion with propitiation. Propitiation. 00:21:03.980 --> 00:21:07.400 Yeah. Appeasement. Begging. Basically, instead 00:21:07.400 --> 00:21:10.019 of pulling a lever, you are writing an email 00:21:10.019 --> 00:21:13.279 asking for a massive favor. That's a very modern 00:21:13.279 --> 00:21:15.220 way to look at it, but yes. You humanize the 00:21:15.220 --> 00:21:17.160 universe. You think to yourself, well, I get 00:21:17.160 --> 00:21:19.119 angry when people disrespect me, and I like it 00:21:19.119 --> 00:21:20.960 when people give me gifts. The sky didn't rain 00:21:20.960 --> 00:21:23.140 today, so the sky must be angry at me. I need 00:21:23.140 --> 00:21:25.200 to give the sky a gift. And so the methods of 00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:27.839 interaction change entirely. You abandon the 00:21:27.839 --> 00:21:30.920 imitative dances meant to force the clouds. Instead, 00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:34.160 you offer human sacrifice. You engage in prayer. 00:21:34.619 --> 00:21:36.480 You bring the first fruits of your harvest to 00:21:36.480 --> 00:21:40.000 an altar. Or you perform animal sacrifices, slaughtering 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:42.829 an ox to appease the rain god. The underlying 00:21:42.829 --> 00:21:45.329 assumption here is one of utter humility. You 00:21:45.329 --> 00:21:47.170 are officially admitting your own powerlessness 00:21:47.170 --> 00:21:49.130 and throwing yourself completely on the mercy 00:21:49.130 --> 00:21:52.170 of a conscious, albeit invisible entity. It's 00:21:52.170 --> 00:21:55.349 just a complete collapse of the human ego. I 00:21:55.349 --> 00:21:57.809 mean, we go from, I command the elements with 00:21:57.809 --> 00:22:01.109 my mind to please great spirit, spare our miserable 00:22:01.109 --> 00:22:04.400 lives. It's a humbling transition. But this transition 00:22:04.400 --> 00:22:06.880 isn't clean, right? It's not like the calendar 00:22:06.880 --> 00:22:09.599 flipped and suddenly everyone traded their wax 00:22:09.599 --> 00:22:12.299 voodoo dolls for prayer beads. Yeah. Human history 00:22:12.299 --> 00:22:16.440 is incredibly, incredibly messy. It is a protracted 00:22:16.440 --> 00:22:19.619 period of deep confusion, strange combinations, 00:22:20.059 --> 00:22:23.000 and eventually bitter conflict. The messy middle. 00:22:23.339 --> 00:22:26.599 Yes. The transition from magic to religion took 00:22:26.599 --> 00:22:29.359 millennia. The historical antagonism between 00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:31.700 the two, where religion actively hunts down magic, 00:22:32.039 --> 00:22:34.099 is actually a comparatively late development. 00:22:34.480 --> 00:22:36.799 For centuries, they were thoroughly and bizarrely 00:22:36.799 --> 00:22:38.920 combined. The text gives us some really wild 00:22:38.920 --> 00:22:41.460 examples of this overlap. Look at ancient Egypt, 00:22:41.480 --> 00:22:43.319 for instance. A prime example. You have this 00:22:43.319 --> 00:22:45.339 massive religious structure with temples and 00:22:45.339 --> 00:22:47.740 complex gods, but you still have these magicians 00:22:47.740 --> 00:22:50.079 operating within that system who claim they can 00:22:50.079 --> 00:22:52.559 actually, literally, compel the deities. They 00:22:52.559 --> 00:22:55.619 aren't just praying. No. They are threatening 00:22:55.619 --> 00:22:58.960 the gods. It's like saying, hey, I'm humbly asking 00:22:58.960 --> 00:23:01.099 you for rain, but if you won't give it to me, 00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:04.220 I know the secret ancient magic word that will 00:23:04.220 --> 00:23:07.400 physically force your hand. The Egyptian magicians 00:23:07.400 --> 00:23:10.519 represent a perfect hybrid of the two eros. They 00:23:10.519 --> 00:23:12.500 acknowledge the conscious deities of religion, 00:23:12.839 --> 00:23:15.420 but they apply the mechanical compulsion of magic 00:23:15.420 --> 00:23:18.799 to control them. It's wild. Furthermore, the 00:23:18.799 --> 00:23:21.279 gods themselves were often conceptualized as 00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:24.440 ultimate sorcerers. They didn't just rule by 00:23:24.440 --> 00:23:27.019 divine fiat, they ruled because they possessed 00:23:27.019 --> 00:23:29.940 superior magical knowledge. Even the gods use 00:23:29.940 --> 00:23:33.140 magic. Exactly. The text also notes how the worship 00:23:33.140 --> 00:23:35.599 of the dead in places like Melanesia and even 00:23:35.599 --> 00:23:37.460 throughout modern Europe was heavily blended 00:23:37.460 --> 00:23:39.900 with magic. People would pray to their ancestors 00:23:39.900 --> 00:23:42.660 for guidance, but simultaneously use magical 00:23:42.660 --> 00:23:44.980 charms to bind those same spirits or force them 00:23:44.980 --> 00:23:47.349 to act. It's humanity just hedging its bets, 00:23:47.410 --> 00:23:49.250 you know? I'll pray to the river god just in 00:23:49.250 --> 00:23:50.710 case, but I'm also going to do the frog dance 00:23:50.710 --> 00:23:53.170 because why risk it? Use every tool available. 00:23:53.369 --> 00:23:55.809 Right. But eventually this coexistence breaks 00:23:55.809 --> 00:23:59.089 down and a massive turf war erupts. And if you 00:23:59.089 --> 00:24:01.430 look at the sociology of it, it's entirely about 00:24:01.430 --> 00:24:04.410 power and authority. Religion becomes inherently 00:24:04.410 --> 00:24:07.309 hostile to magic. The hostility is inevitable 00:24:07.309 --> 00:24:09.450 when you examine the figures leading these two 00:24:09.450 --> 00:24:12.640 camps. Consider the priest. The priest derives 00:24:12.640 --> 00:24:15.460 his entire societal status from his role as an 00:24:15.460 --> 00:24:18.500 intermediary. He stands before the people and 00:24:18.500 --> 00:24:21.740 openly admits he has no inherent power. He is 00:24:21.740 --> 00:24:24.140 merely a servant begging the gods on their behalf. 00:24:24.740 --> 00:24:27.099 His authority requires the populace to accept 00:24:27.099 --> 00:24:29.279 their own powerlessness. Right. He needs them 00:24:29.279 --> 00:24:31.420 to be dependent. Then consider the magician. 00:24:31.799 --> 00:24:34.019 The magician stands in the exact same village 00:24:34.019 --> 00:24:36.940 and claims to control the forces of nature independently 00:24:36.940 --> 00:24:39.220 without needing the god's permission at all. 00:24:39.319 --> 00:24:41.940 The magician is a walking, talking existential 00:24:41.940 --> 00:24:44.559 threat to the priest's monopoly on reality. I 00:24:44.559 --> 00:24:46.740 mean, picture it. The priest tells the village, 00:24:47.279 --> 00:24:50.019 we must humble ourselves, wear sackcloth and 00:24:50.019 --> 00:24:52.519 fast for three days so the gods might pity us 00:24:52.519 --> 00:24:54.599 and cure this plague. And the magician is standing 00:24:54.599 --> 00:24:56.339 in the back of the crowd shouting, or you could 00:24:56.339 --> 00:24:58.160 just give me a lock of the sick guy's hair and 00:24:58.160 --> 00:25:00.559 a wax doll and I'll have the problem solved by 00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:03.180 midnight. The magician represents a rebellious, 00:25:03.200 --> 00:25:05.500 dangerous arrogance in the eyes of the new religious 00:25:05.500 --> 00:25:08.960 order. To the priest, the magician's claim to 00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:11.859 independent power is not just foolish, it is 00:25:11.859 --> 00:25:15.099 profound blasphemy. It undermines the whole system. 00:25:15.180 --> 00:25:17.839 It undermines the absolute authority of the divine. 00:25:18.900 --> 00:25:22.019 This ideological clash necessitates a historical 00:25:22.019 --> 00:25:25.579 campaign of eradication. The old ways, the mechanical 00:25:25.579 --> 00:25:28.559 levers, had to be violently stamped out to consolidate 00:25:28.559 --> 00:25:31.349 the new religious worldview. And the text doesn't 00:25:31.349 --> 00:25:33.529 shy away from how dark this eradication gets. 00:25:34.190 --> 00:25:36.410 It heavily references the Christian Church's 00:25:36.410 --> 00:25:39.410 treatment of witches as this ultimate expression 00:25:39.410 --> 00:25:41.730 of religion trying to annihilate magic. The witch 00:25:41.730 --> 00:25:44.990 hunts. Yeah. But there is a detail in the index 00:25:44.990 --> 00:25:48.130 that is so highly specific and honestly so deeply 00:25:48.130 --> 00:25:50.630 ironic it's almost hard to believe. It talks 00:25:50.630 --> 00:25:53.910 about Sfringer, this famous and utterly ruthless 00:25:53.910 --> 00:25:57.349 inquisitor. Yes. Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sbringer. 00:25:57.500 --> 00:26:00.519 They were instrumental in the European witch 00:26:00.519 --> 00:26:03.220 hunts. They wrote the Malleus Maleficarum. Right. 00:26:03.759 --> 00:26:07.279 And the text highlights a really specific interrogatory 00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:10.119 practice of his. When Springer was preparing 00:26:10.119 --> 00:26:12.720 to interrogate or torture an accused witch or 00:26:12.720 --> 00:26:15.420 wizard, he mandated that the prisoner's head, 00:26:15.839 --> 00:26:19.279 and often their entire body, be completely shaved 00:26:19.279 --> 00:26:21.900 of all hair. Every single hair. And you'd think, 00:26:21.960 --> 00:26:24.180 OK, maybe that's for hygiene in a medieval dungeon 00:26:24.180 --> 00:26:26.579 or just a psychological intimidation tactic to 00:26:26.579 --> 00:26:28.059 strip them of their dignity. That would be the 00:26:28.059 --> 00:26:30.759 logical assumption. But no, the text explains 00:26:30.759 --> 00:26:34.119 why he did it. Springer did it because he genuinely 00:26:34.119 --> 00:26:36.500 believed that a sorcerer's magical strength was 00:26:36.500 --> 00:26:38.799 physically bound up in their hair. It is the 00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:41.299 exact same homeopathic magic we discussed earlier 00:26:41.299 --> 00:26:43.039 regarding the ancient kings who couldn't cut 00:26:43.039 --> 00:26:46.880 their hair. Yes, the Inquisitor, the ultimate 00:26:46.880 --> 00:26:50.480 representative of pure submissive religion. is 00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:53.980 utilizing ancient contagious and homeopathic 00:26:53.980 --> 00:26:57.210 magical logic to defeat a magician. He believes 00:26:57.210 --> 00:26:59.869 the hair is a physical lever of power. It's mind 00:26:59.869 --> 00:27:02.410 -blowing. He is literally using magic to fight 00:27:02.410 --> 00:27:05.230 magic. Yeah. All while claiming to be entirely 00:27:05.230 --> 00:27:08.089 reliant on God. It perfectly demonstrates just 00:27:08.089 --> 00:27:10.970 how deeply ingrained the magical mindset was, 00:27:11.269 --> 00:27:13.190 even in the very people dedicating their lives 00:27:13.190 --> 00:27:15.609 to destroying it. And eradication wasn't limited 00:27:15.609 --> 00:27:18.190 to just the violence of the Inquisitions. The 00:27:18.190 --> 00:27:20.670 religious authorities also engaged in a massive 00:27:20.670 --> 00:27:23.170 systemic campaign of cultural assimilation. They 00:27:23.170 --> 00:27:25.589 absorbed them. Yes. They realized they could 00:27:25.589 --> 00:27:27.759 not entirely stopped the populace from engaging 00:27:27.759 --> 00:27:30.200 in ancient magical rites, so they aggressively 00:27:30.200 --> 00:27:33.400 rebranded them. The text documents how the church 00:27:33.400 --> 00:27:36.000 deliberately timed its great festivals to displace 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:38.980 and absorb heathen magical ones. It was a hostile 00:27:38.980 --> 00:27:40.759 corporate takeover of the calendar. Very much 00:27:40.759 --> 00:27:43.059 so. The text lists them out. Christmas wasn't 00:27:43.059 --> 00:27:45.539 just randomly assigned to December. It was strategically 00:27:45.539 --> 00:27:47.880 placed to overlay the Mithraic winter solstice 00:27:47.880 --> 00:27:50.710 festival. Right. The ancient celebration of the 00:27:50.710 --> 00:27:53.630 rebirth of the physical sun was rebranded as 00:27:53.630 --> 00:27:56.230 the birth of the religious son of God. And Easter 00:27:56.230 --> 00:27:58.869 was directly superimposed over ancient vernal 00:27:58.869 --> 00:28:01.150 festivals that celebrated the cyclical death 00:28:01.150 --> 00:28:03.569 and homeopathic resurrection of the vegetation 00:28:03.569 --> 00:28:06.430 gods. Exactly. And the midsummer festivals, which 00:28:06.430 --> 00:28:09.710 were ancient, deeply magical fire festivals, 00:28:10.230 --> 00:28:12.690 meant to homeopathically encourage the sun's 00:28:12.690 --> 00:28:15.890 heat and contagiously purify the crops they were 00:28:15.890 --> 00:28:18.440 merged with St. John's Day. Because the priests 00:28:18.440 --> 00:28:20.319 couldn't stop the European peasants from lighting 00:28:20.319 --> 00:28:22.680 the mass of bonfires anyway, right? Right. So 00:28:22.680 --> 00:28:25.180 they simply declared that the bonfires were now 00:28:25.180 --> 00:28:28.859 lit in honor of St. John. Problem solved. But 00:28:28.859 --> 00:28:31.440 despite all of this, despite the burnings at 00:28:31.440 --> 00:28:34.319 the stake, the head shaving, the calendar rebranding, 00:28:34.599 --> 00:28:36.779 the absolute societal dominance of the priest 00:28:36.779 --> 00:28:40.200 over the sorcerer, the deep dive reveals a shocking 00:28:40.200 --> 00:28:43.009 conclusion from Frazier. The persistence of magic. 00:28:43.150 --> 00:28:45.470 Magic never actually died. It is perhaps the 00:28:45.470 --> 00:28:47.650 most profound sociological statement derived 00:28:47.650 --> 00:28:50.369 from Frazier's index. The text suggests a reality 00:28:50.369 --> 00:28:52.809 that makes modern religious institutions deeply 00:28:52.809 --> 00:28:55.589 uncomfortable. Oh, they hate this idea. The belief 00:28:55.589 --> 00:28:58.690 in magic and witchcraft is fundamentally more 00:28:58.690 --> 00:29:01.670 permanent, more deeply rooted in the human psyche 00:29:01.670 --> 00:29:04.609 than the great historical religions. That is 00:29:04.609 --> 00:29:07.529 a massive statement. It is. Empires rise and 00:29:07.529 --> 00:29:10.170 fall. Pantheons are completely replaced. Theological 00:29:10.170 --> 00:29:12.680 doctrines are re - written over and over, but 00:29:12.680 --> 00:29:16.019 the underlying primal belief in sympathetic magic 00:29:16.019 --> 00:29:20.400 remains stubbornly quietly entrenched. The index 00:29:20.400 --> 00:29:23.440 shows how European peasants, for centuries after 00:29:23.440 --> 00:29:25.700 they had been officially baptized and considered 00:29:25.700 --> 00:29:28.980 themselves devout Christians, were continually 00:29:29.620 --> 00:29:32.019 actively using magic in their daily lives. And 00:29:32.019 --> 00:29:33.720 they never stopped. They were lighting those 00:29:33.720 --> 00:29:36.339 midsummer fires. They were carrying holed flints 00:29:36.339 --> 00:29:38.880 in their pockets to ward off evil spirits. They 00:29:38.880 --> 00:29:41.000 were ringing church bells during thunderstorms. 00:29:41.059 --> 00:29:43.019 And they weren't ringing them to call the village 00:29:43.019 --> 00:29:46.650 to prayer. No. They were using the sheer sonic 00:29:46.650 --> 00:29:49.549 force of the consecrated bell as a literal magical 00:29:49.549 --> 00:29:52.069 weapon to physically drive away the witches they 00:29:52.069 --> 00:29:54.329 believed were causing the lightning. Or consider 00:29:54.329 --> 00:29:57.430 the reliance on botanical magic. The text references 00:29:57.430 --> 00:30:00.069 the meticulous gathering of specific herbs like 00:30:00.069 --> 00:30:02.950 St. John's wort, mugwort, or fern seed. These 00:30:02.950 --> 00:30:05.430 were not gathered randomly. They were harvested 00:30:05.430 --> 00:30:09.029 on highly specific, magically potent nights like 00:30:09.029 --> 00:30:12.509 Walpurgis night or Halloween, specifically to 00:30:12.509 --> 00:30:15.450 serve as protective wards against demons. And 00:30:15.450 --> 00:30:18.349 these peasants experienced no cognitive dissonance 00:30:18.349 --> 00:30:21.849 about this. They attended mass. They took communion. 00:30:22.069 --> 00:30:24.710 They prayed to God for their eternal souls. But 00:30:24.710 --> 00:30:26.769 when a physical threat appeared when the crops 00:30:26.769 --> 00:30:29.990 were failing or a cow suddenly fell ill, they 00:30:29.990 --> 00:30:32.369 reverted instantly to the old levers. They practiced 00:30:32.369 --> 00:30:34.470 magic. They trusted the priest to get them into 00:30:34.470 --> 00:30:36.690 heaven, but they trusted the mugwort to save 00:30:36.690 --> 00:30:38.589 the cow. The old operating system was always 00:30:38.589 --> 00:30:41.049 running in the background. Always. So let's step 00:30:41.049 --> 00:30:43.269 back and look at this grand timeline Frazier 00:30:43.269 --> 00:30:45.849 lays out. We have magic, the flawed machine of 00:30:45.849 --> 00:30:47.950 cause and effect. Then we have religion, the 00:30:47.950 --> 00:30:50.849 era of bowing to the invisible CEOs. But Frazier 00:30:50.849 --> 00:30:53.390 says there's a third stage. Yes. How does science 00:30:53.390 --> 00:30:56.109 fit into this? To understand the final destination 00:30:56.109 --> 00:30:59.390 of human intellectual evolution, the text references 00:30:59.390 --> 00:31:01.230 the philosopher Hegel's thoughts on the matter. 00:31:01.160 --> 00:31:03.759 concluding that the grand movement of thought 00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:07.420 flows from magic to religion to science. And 00:31:07.420 --> 00:31:10.839 here is the crucial deeply counterintuitive insight 00:31:10.839 --> 00:31:13.960 Frazier offers. Okay, lay it on us. Magic, despite 00:31:13.960 --> 00:31:16.740 its fatal flaws, despite the bizarre rituals 00:31:16.740 --> 00:31:19.480 and the wax dolls and eating hawk hearts, is 00:31:19.480 --> 00:31:21.880 what actually paved the way for modern science. 00:31:21.980 --> 00:31:24.980 Hold on. Because I am looking at this timeline. 00:31:25.309 --> 00:31:27.630 You have a guy eating a mole's heart to see in 00:31:27.630 --> 00:31:30.170 the dark and doing a homeopathic dance to make 00:31:30.170 --> 00:31:32.450 a cloud weep. And you were telling me that is 00:31:32.450 --> 00:31:34.849 the intellectual grandfather of the scientific 00:31:34.849 --> 00:31:37.170 method. That is what the text argues. That feels 00:31:37.170 --> 00:31:39.710 like a massive leap. Honestly, religion feels 00:31:39.710 --> 00:31:42.410 closer to science because at least Theology requires 00:31:42.410 --> 00:31:45.589 structured philosophical debate and complex written 00:31:45.589 --> 00:31:48.410 doctrine. It feels like a leap until you examine 00:31:48.410 --> 00:31:51.250 the epistemology, the underlying theory of knowledge. 00:31:51.890 --> 00:31:54.009 Religion fundamentally interrupts the search 00:31:54.009 --> 00:31:56.710 for natural laws. How so? Religion says that 00:31:56.710 --> 00:31:58.970 the universe is governed by conscious entities 00:31:58.970 --> 00:32:02.410 who possess free will. If a God has free will, 00:32:02.509 --> 00:32:05.230 the universe is inherently unpredictable. Water 00:32:05.230 --> 00:32:08.130 boils today because God allows it. Tomorrow, 00:32:08.130 --> 00:32:10.430 if God is angry, water might freeze when you 00:32:10.430 --> 00:32:13.809 heat it. Oh, wow. Yeah. Religion relies on miracles, 00:32:13.890 --> 00:32:16.430 which are, by definition, suspensions of the 00:32:16.430 --> 00:32:18.829 natural order. OK. I see exactly where you're 00:32:18.829 --> 00:32:21.730 going with this. If a miracle is possible, physics 00:32:21.730 --> 00:32:24.470 isn't a rule. It's just a suggestion. Exactly. 00:32:24.869 --> 00:32:27.349 Magic, on the other hand, strictly denies the 00:32:27.349 --> 00:32:30.700 miracle. Magic taught humanity to look for a 00:32:30.700 --> 00:32:33.819 consistent natural order. It posited that the 00:32:33.819 --> 00:32:36.420 universe was governed by immutable laws. Cause 00:32:36.420 --> 00:32:39.019 and effect. Yes. If you perform action A, result 00:32:39.019 --> 00:32:41.460 B will happen every single time, without exception. 00:32:41.839 --> 00:32:43.980 It stripped away the unpredictable whims of the 00:32:43.980 --> 00:32:46.559 personal gods. Religion said, the universe is 00:32:46.559 --> 00:32:49.599 a kingdom. Pray for mercy. Magic said, the universe 00:32:49.599 --> 00:32:51.980 is a machine. Figure out how it works. Magic 00:32:51.980 --> 00:32:54.019 just had the wrong rules. Exactly. They were 00:32:54.019 --> 00:32:55.700 operating on the assumption that the fundamental 00:32:55.700 --> 00:33:00.660 laws of physics were like produces like and things 00:33:00.660 --> 00:33:03.259 once in contact stay in contact instead of you 00:33:03.259 --> 00:33:06.400 know gravity electromagnetism or thermodynamics. 00:33:07.099 --> 00:33:09.779 But that underlying bedrock assumption that there 00:33:09.779 --> 00:33:12.740 are blind discoverable rules governing reality 00:33:12.740 --> 00:33:15.660 is the exact same foundation that all modern 00:33:15.660 --> 00:33:18.619 science rests upon. That is incredible. Science 00:33:18.619 --> 00:33:21.119 takes the fundamental premise of magic a universe 00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:24.519 of consistent impersonal laws and finally replaces 00:33:24.519 --> 00:33:26.779 the flawed associations of the primitive mind. 00:33:26.640 --> 00:33:29.720 with empirical observation, mathematics, and 00:33:29.720 --> 00:33:32.460 rigorous testing. So magic was the intellectual 00:33:32.460 --> 00:33:34.839 chrysalis from which science eventually emerged. 00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:38.420 It just required a long, painful, necessary incubation 00:33:38.420 --> 00:33:40.920 period during the age of religion to refine human 00:33:40.920 --> 00:33:43.480 thought. Man, so what does this all mean for 00:33:43.480 --> 00:33:45.759 you listening to this deep dive? I mean that 00:33:45.759 --> 00:33:48.420 magic wasn't just foolish superstition or chaotic 00:33:48.420 --> 00:33:51.740 nonsense. It was humanity's very first rough 00:33:51.740 --> 00:33:53.799 draft of physics. That's the perfect way to phrase 00:33:53.799 --> 00:33:56.890 it. It was our ancient ancestors looking out 00:33:56.890 --> 00:34:00.750 at a terrifyingly random violent world and bravely 00:34:00.750 --> 00:34:03.630 attempting to impose order on it. They were trying 00:34:03.630 --> 00:34:05.630 to figure out the rules of the game so they could 00:34:05.630 --> 00:34:08.809 survive. It represents the absolute dawn of the 00:34:08.809 --> 00:34:11.349 analytical human mind, however misguided its 00:34:11.349 --> 00:34:13.969 initial desperate conclusions were. This has 00:34:13.969 --> 00:34:15.869 been just a massive journey through the source 00:34:15.869 --> 00:34:18.519 material. We started with the physical levers 00:34:18.519 --> 00:34:21.699 of contagious and homeopathic magic, where treating 00:34:21.699 --> 00:34:24.280 a bleeding arm meant you carefully bandaged the 00:34:24.280 --> 00:34:26.360 rusty sword that stabbed you. And we saw the 00:34:26.360 --> 00:34:28.420 rise of the very first public professionals, 00:34:28.559 --> 00:34:30.940 the magicians. Right, accumulating power until 00:34:30.940 --> 00:34:34.280 they became magician kings, carrying the literal 00:34:34.280 --> 00:34:36.019 crushing weight of the weather on their shoulders. 00:34:36.239 --> 00:34:38.500 We observed the humbling birth of religion when 00:34:38.500 --> 00:34:41.820 those magical levers undeniably failed, leading 00:34:41.820 --> 00:34:45.440 to an era of propitiation, where humanity projected 00:34:45.440 --> 00:34:48.090 its own emotions into the heavens and begged 00:34:48.090 --> 00:34:51.070 invisible entities for survival. And we tracked 00:34:51.070 --> 00:34:54.510 the messy violent turf wars between the intermediary 00:34:54.510 --> 00:34:57.460 priests and the independent sorcerers. Only to 00:34:57.460 --> 00:34:59.920 discover that the old magical instincts never 00:34:59.920 --> 00:35:02.880 really left us. They just hid behind church bells, 00:35:03.079 --> 00:35:05.739 midsummer herbs, secretly keeping the concept 00:35:05.739 --> 00:35:08.460 of a rule -bound universe alive until the scientific 00:35:08.460 --> 00:35:10.519 revolution could finally take the reins. Which 00:35:10.519 --> 00:35:13.079 leaves us with a final lingering question to 00:35:13.079 --> 00:35:15.519 explore on your own. Oh, I love these. Fraser 00:35:15.519 --> 00:35:18.559 shows us that magic was based on a mistaken association 00:35:18.559 --> 00:35:22.099 of ideas that felt completely 100 % rational 00:35:22.099 --> 00:35:24.539 to the people practicing it. The healer thought 00:35:24.539 --> 00:35:26.340 treating the weapon instead of the wound was 00:35:26.340 --> 00:35:29.099 just obvious, empirical reality. It was simply 00:35:29.099 --> 00:35:32.280 how the world worked. Right. So as we sit securely 00:35:32.280 --> 00:35:34.199 in our modern age of science, armed with our 00:35:34.199 --> 00:35:36.460 data sets, our algorithms, and our peer -reviewed 00:35:36.460 --> 00:35:40.219 methodologies, what deeply held, perfectly rational 00:35:40.219 --> 00:35:42.619 associations in our current worldview might future 00:35:42.619 --> 00:35:45.260 generations look back on as our very own version 00:35:45.260 --> 00:35:48.059 of sympathetic magic? Man, that is a thought 00:35:48.059 --> 00:35:51.130 that is going to stick with me. Will historians 00:35:51.130 --> 00:35:53.769 in 500 years look at our current theories of 00:35:53.769 --> 00:35:57.789 economics or sociology or even psychology the 00:35:57.789 --> 00:36:00.409 exact same way we look at guy eating a hawk's 00:36:00.409 --> 00:36:03.170 heart to improve his eyesight? It's entirely 00:36:03.170 --> 00:36:05.269 possible. Will they see us pulling invisible 00:36:05.269 --> 00:36:07.389 levers completely confident that we know how 00:36:07.389 --> 00:36:09.789 the machine works while we're entirely missing 00:36:09.789 --> 00:36:12.309 the actual gears? It really makes you look at 00:36:12.309 --> 00:36:14.630 the entirety of human understanding with a lot 00:36:14.630 --> 00:36:17.300 more humility. It certainly does. Well, thank 00:36:17.300 --> 00:36:19.380 you for joining us on this deep dive into the 00:36:19.380 --> 00:36:22.539 source material. We hope exploring Fraser's timeline 00:36:22.539 --> 00:36:25.079 gave you some clarity on how we got here, and 00:36:25.079 --> 00:36:27.059 we encourage you to keep questioning the hidden 00:36:27.059 --> 00:36:29.039 roots of your own beliefs. We'll catch you next 00:36:29.039 --> 00:36:29.199 time.