Sirius and Nommos

We see from the earth Sirius, the Dog-star, move in a bit disorder, of which earlier scientists inferred there would be an invisible companion star, whose gravitation might make Sirius move on elliptical orbit in the Universe. Several decades after it, owing to development of science and technology, scientists found the star's companion Sirius B, the Pup, which has mass roughly equal to the Sun though has only the size roughly equal to the Earth, then which has large density and gravity but is invisible to the naked eyes, whose color is white and whose gravitation they verified effects on the orbit of Sirius. This discovery was in 19th century.


By the way, there is an African tribe who have a mythology about Sirius. The Dogons in Mali. The fact that Sirius is an important star for the Dogons is not amazing because that is explained by the prominent brightness of Sirius, but according to French anthropologists, astonishingly, the Dogons knew already the existence of the companion star in far earlier than 19th, ancient times. Furthermore they described in detail the fact that the Sirius B was very heavy in spite of its small size and was white, and the fact that Sirius A and B moved on elliptical orbit. The Dogon is a tribe who doesn't have the science and technology such as telescopes or advanced astronomy. That Dogons have the amazing knowledge about Sirius from ancient times, and moreover they knew that Jupiter had four large satellites, which is invisible to the naked eyes.


When the Dogons are asked why they knew these astronomic facts, they explain that the Nommos, the spirit who live in outer space, taught them the facts. And they describe the situation in which a spaceclaft carrying the Nommos were landing with spin before them.


How do we interpret this. In my personal observation, it is more real that we understand it as delusions or paranormal perception common to the Dogons, than that we interpret it as aliens's invading, that is pretty occultic. At this point I associate words of an American writer, who has a certain-degree grounding in science and philosophy. Aldous Huxley says that, though we human beings perceive events which happened far away in the universe, a brain and nervous system function as restriction or as the regulating valve so that all perceived contents don't appear on consciousness, because if appear all of perceived contents that may disorder our ordinary life. This view he reach by his mystical experience using drags, but if his view is true, we can explain the Dogons' having knowledge about astronomy. To say, those in the Dogons who have constitution of hallucination perceived directly things about Sirius or Jupiter in a trance, I guess. And Nommos appeared as the vision of symbol that told the truth of the universe in a trance.


According to Aldous Huxley, we experience as visions various things of the universe, which involve matters concerning religion or mysticism and things which are useless to or harmful to our daily life, due to disordered conditions of brain, for example a brain's trouble in fasting or dyschylia in taking drugs, rather than due to our higher function of brains or advanced technology. If that's the case, we can say that the normal function of a brain is to select useful perceived contents out of all ones (rather than to perceive things purely) and to make nerves concerning these images work then to make tissues move so as for us to live accommodating ourselves to daily life and reality. And that when this function's order is broken we perceive events of the universe which don't concern our reality is not astonishing nor mysterious, if we think that way.


It is true that we may not perceive in any paranormal situation things which don't concern human reality in any degree, but the Dogons, to whom mythology of the universe is important in living, place more direct importance on things about Sirius than we do, so when the valve relax in a trance the companion of Sirius appeared before them. To civilized people Sirius is no more than a scientific concern, but to the Dogons it is important to live. To say, useful perception was selected out. A brain and nerves can be said to be tools to select perceived contents useful to reality out of innumerable ones which life perceives unconsciously and to make use of these selected for our acting and living. A brain only select useful perception, and if I was allowed to say boldly, perception itself happen neither at a brains nor nerves......



References:

田井中英雄, 信田勇 and 岡本政治(2001-2004), "Sirius and Nommos"
,多読英語長文[改訂版2004], Sizuoka:Z会
Aldous Huxley, 河村 錠一郎(1995), 知覚の扉, Tokyo:平凡社
Hennri Bergson, 池辺義教, 飯田照明(2002), 哲学的直観, Tokyo:中公クラシックス