For thousands of years the Adam and Eve story has dominated the lives of billions of people. Two small chapters! How is this even possible? With today’s social media we can see how an idea, no matter how ludicrous or absurd, can spawn and flourish in a matter of days resulting in riots and mass social upheaval. The same process worked thousands of years ago over longer periods of time but with the same net result. In many ways the old methods were more effective because they were backed up by legions of sword bearing devotees and enthusiasts or people just trying to make a buck.

It is time the story of Adam and Eve is reevaluated. How many people to this day still assume the story makes either perfect sense or no sense at all? Is there any value to this story whatsoever? Like it or not, this story is still controlling billions of people through corrupt politicians and their devoted base.

Of course, this story was considered by the Apostle Paul to be the very foundation of atonement theology and the basis of Christianity as we know it. It has been written in our minds and hearts for generations but I am going to do my best to overthrow all these ideas because these ideas have been the basis for genocide, ecocide, and repressive governments for ages. It will also result in the extinction of the entire human race as the failure of many cultures and societies in history have already testified. Then I will show how we are all connected to the universe and each other and that by loving ourselves we can love our neighbor also. These ideas have been the substance of most ancient cultures for thousands of years but they were destroyed by literalist fundamentalist religionists who “converted” the “heathen” and then stole their land.

First we will analyze the Adam and Eve story from a literalist perspective.
 
The Acquittal of Adam and Eve
If I was a good lawyer (a really, really good one!) I would charge God with real estate fraud, negligence, and lack of disclosure and ask that the expulsion of Adam and Eve be overturned thereby revoking the universal damnation of the human race. The lethal Tree of Knowledge was disclosed, so God is in the clear on that one. What was not disclosed, however, was the talking snake and the fact that God was holding out on the Tree of Life. Is it not a little problematic that this so called “Paradise” is full of talking snakes in the first place? I have had some real bummer vacations but I would not signup to go to a “Paradise” if talking snakes were disclosed.

There is another little problem here that I would like to point out. Even though Eve was accused and convicted, she was totally innocent. A little perusal of the fine print will show that Eve did not even exist at the time the command was given. It plainly states that God commanded the man not to eat. Therefore, Eve was not even aware of that restriction. Presumably, Adam explained the situation after she was made but that was hearsay and she did not hear it from the original source. Yes, literalist words have their own meaning and lawyers use them to their best efforts of obfuscation as their special art.

Furthermore, Adam was not the most forthright person himself and could not be trusted to convey important information to his own wife. When Eve was being harangued by the snake, why didn’t Adam just hit it with a stick? Did Adam step in and tell Eve not to listen to that hissing, overgrown spinal cord? Did Adam say, “Um, Honey there is something you should really ought to know before you do that. I know something you need to know real fast.” Adam said or did nothing. Absolutely nothing. She was set up. It is a clear case of entrapment. Both God and Adam had knowledge they withheld from Eve.

It seems rather obvious that Adam was pretty much a schmuck before he ever ate whatever the fruit was and there is no mention of an apple in the story. The snake didn’t even bother talking to the “man of the house”. Maybe Adam was too busy playing with his power tools!

The snake went to the only person apparently capable of having a decent conversation—the woman. Adam was a wimp. She ate the fruit and gave to the man and he ate. No questions asked, no argument given, maybe he whimpered, “yes, dear”. Maybe he knew what he wouldn’t get that night if he didn’t go along with her misdeed.

For thousands of years women have been condemned because of this story? Amazing! It’s really a story about wimpy men!

Is Adam even guilty? God said that the “day you eat of the tree you will die”. (Gen 2:17) Technically, and literally, speaking, Adam did not even eat “of” the tree. Maybe Adam knew of this technicality and was using Eve to find out if it was really true because she was the one picking the fruit. Eve gave him the fruit so he did not pull it off the tree itself and therefore did not really eat “of” the tree. Eve did not die when she ate it, so Adam thought it must be okay. Whatever their internal schemings were, they did not die.

Objection! This is imputing motives where there are none! Lawyers in paradise. Did lawyers turn Paradise into hell? Apparently! Many guilty people have been acquitted over much smaller technicalities than these.

Did Adam and Eve die? No. Maybe they would have been dead by the end of the day in keeping with the stated command. If that was the case why did God run Adam and Eve out of the Garden to till the soil outside if they were going to be dead in twenty-four hours anyway? Of course, literalists would say it’s not literal. How does that work again? Oh yeah, “they died spiritually, not physically!” they say. There was nothing written indicating such a difference. This is what literalism means! Only the words and nothing but the words! You can’t extrapolate or project an imagined scenario because that is allegory. Literalism is self-limited and can’t be extrapolated.

Someone got a wild idea and said that even though this whole scene is sketchy it referred to the death of the entire human race. Excuse me, where was that stated in Genesis, exactly? This is the entire basis and all the trouble with literalist Christianity! Was it ever mentioned that the penalty would be applied to the entire progeny of the human race? No, it was not. This conclusion was projected into this story by the Apostle Paul who used this story as an allegory to justify his thesis of the fall of the human race in order to support his other much larger allegory that Jesus was the personification of the passover sacrifice. Paul was complete allegory!

There is one final irrefutable argument of Adam’s and Eve’s innocence. It was said that they could eat of any tree in the Garden but God didn’t mention the Tree of Life or that there even was a Tree of Life. Just stay away from “that one there” referring to the Tree of Knowledge in the midst of the Garden. But, that was also where the Tree of Life was–in the midst of the Garden. The word “midst” means middle and the fact is there is only one “middle”. Two trees in the same place and they may have been so intertwined no one would have been able to tell them apart. Or, they were one and the same tree.

The Tree of Life was never mentioned to Adam and Eve before or after they were thrown out of the Garden. Adam and Eve didn’t even know about it the whole time! It even appears the Tree of Knowledge was used to conceal the Tree of Life. So, when the snake approached Eve, it asked a vague question, “Didn’t God say you shall not eat from any tree of the Garden?” Eve clarified that by saying they could eat any tree of the Garden but not eat of that tree (singular) in the middle of the Garden. Eve added to the restriction by saying “neither can we touch it” even though God did not say anything about touching it. (5.2c)  What had Adam been telling this poor woman? Fake news is old as rocks.

Which tree was in the midst (middle) of the Garden? Both the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge, but Eve and Adam only knew about one, the Tree of Knowledge. The snake was trying to blow the cover off this deception and say, “Look Eve, that Tree of Knowledge is actually the Tree of Life but God isn’t telling you that”. So when the snake said, “God does know that it is a tree desired to make one wise”, the snake was right! God did know this. So when the snake said “you will not die”, he was correct because the Tree of Life was also in the middle of the Garden. So when Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge she thought she was eating of the Tree of Life because that was what the snake was telling her. Thus, it is also true that the snake did not deceive her. The snake was only a snitch and leaked God’s secret about the Tree of Life. Even the snake wasn’t guilty and Eve wasn’t so stupid after all!  See! Literalism and lawyers. It’s them that dragged us down, not the woman! But there’s more.

After they were thrown out of the Garden it is written that there was a sword put only on the east side to prevent the way to the Tree of Life but nothing was done to protect anybody from the talking snake and that lethal Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil that was the source of the problem in the first place! (Gen 3:24) The trap was set for the next pair of innocents. Thus, the basis for the case for negligence is obvious.

It might appear that had Adam eaten of the Tree of Life first and then of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, he would have been set, at least if he had eaten of them both in the same day. He would have had his knowledge and lived forever too. However, the law does seem to say that if he ate of the Tree of Knowledge he would die within the specified period no matter what. So, eating of the Tree of Knowledge seems to preempt the Tree of Life. But he was thrown out of Eden so he could not eat of the Tree of Life and live forever in spite of the fact that he already ate of the Tree of Knowledge and had “died’. Huh? Something is definitely suspicious here. Ever read your contract agreement when you bought that microwave oven? Did you see that clause about the Tree of Life? Probably not.

Let’s go over this again in a literalist, lawyeristic way. If Adam ate of the Tree of Knowledge (which as I pointed out, he didn’t technically eat “of”) he would “die”, cease to exist, kaput, s.o.l. etc. Was it to be within the day he actually ate it or would it be the morning of the following day? All of this was totally undefined.

However, apparently, this entire ruling was a paper tiger because it could be reversed by eating of the Tree of Life and he would live forever. On the other hand, even if he had eaten of the Tree of Life, in contradiction to living “forever”, he would only live as long as eating of the Tree of Knowledge since that would result in “death”.  This is the legal contract determining the fate of the human race? Who signed this thing? Dogs help us. Explains everything! People believe this stuff literally? They haven’t even studied the case file.

But if this argument isn’t enough, it is written, “so God sent forth the man out of the Garden …So he drove out the man.” (Gen 3:23-24)  In other words, even Adam wasn’t buying it! He saw the situation as it was and he was not taking some chummed up plea bargain but he was thrown out anyway.  Somebody seems in a real hurry to hide some evidence! Case closed. No final arguments your honor. It is a clear case of entrapment, negligence, and railroading.

“Acquittal granted!” sayeth the judge!

I’m so literal! If we want to be literal we must use words like law. In law, words are clearly defined and there is no bending them for an undefined metaphor or allegory. Likewise, in law there is more than banter about semantics. All of the legal arguments are presented in order to determine the intent and motive of a person for their actions. So, even law is beyond pure literalism and seeks to get at the substance of which words are the mere expression.

We will now see the wonders that the key of allegory can open up.
 
Eve as Anima and the Foundational Structure of the Psyche
The first part of the second chapter of Genesis is very strange. It basically says that what happened in the second and third chapter actually happened prior to the first chapter and is a clarification of it. (Gen 2:4-6) This suggests that the second and third chapters are dealing with internal psychological principles at an archetypal level not yet manifested as physical reality. The archetypical level of not yet manifested physical reality is the foundation of our unconscious mind at many levels.

We did, indeed, inherit the unconscious mindset from our predecessors for which Adam is the allegory. The mindset we inherited consists of three billion years of chomping and slashing and fighting and trying to survive. It’s the original reptile, not original sin that made us what we are! As Mlodinow points out, our survival instinct never stops even if we are a billionaire. The same person looking for a scrap of garbage to eat could be the same person thinking they just have to have a private jet to survive. Paying their fair share of taxes to the superrich is about as appealing as getting into a bed infested with bedbugs, fleas, and lice is to any sane person. The survival instinct never stops no matter how much we may have.

In the first chapter of Genesis, God tells the male and female they can eat of every tree yielding seed that is on the surface of the Earth but there is no mention of the Tree of Life or the Tree of Knowledge. It was not until the second chapter that Adam is told he can eat of any tree except the Tree of Knowledge which as we have seen was in the same place as the Tree of Life. In the first chapter there is no mention of a cultivated Garden but it is mentioned in the second chapter. It is also significant that both the Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge were in the middle (the midst) of the Garden and not some dark corner. It is also written that the man was put in the Garden to till it and “keep it” which means “maintain” it. Adam was never given the right to destroy and sell it in spite of what some fundamentalists claim who have been sucked into the “Dooms Day” cult and the “gospel” of prosperity. True prosperity is a healthy environment and a vibrant biosphere populated with sane humans who know who and what they are. Fundamentalists keep looking for heaven to come but its all right here, right now, if they could only see it.

When Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden they were still supposed to cultivate the ground from which they were taken but in another place, that of the physical realm. Maybe when Adam ate of the Tree of Knowledge he realized, “Hey! you know what? This place actually has a lot of weeds and thistles in it. I should give names to plants too!” That’s kind of what happens with knowledge. We become aware of many new things.

In addition to being thrown out of the Garden, it was said to Eve that Adam would rule over her. It should be pretty logical that up to that time Adam was subservient, or at least equal, to Eve. This is where this story fits right in with Jungian psychology and evolution! One of the big pillars of Jungian psychology is that we have consciousness and unconsciousness and they are a continuum of polar opposites. The unconsciousness of a man is represented in dreams by a woman and vice versa. To get to the point, Adam represents the consciousness of the normal waking state of the ego and Eve represents the unconsciousness (anima) in a male.

Isn’t it interesting that here was Adam in Paradise but wasn’t happy. Typical guy, whine, whine, whine. Then something truly strange happens, at least according to the literal interpretation. God figures out Adam is lonely so what does she/he do? God brings him a bunch of farm animals. (Gen 2:18-20) Huh! Farm animals? Was this a Freudian slip and God prefers farm animals over women? Dogs forbid and cows too! Some people have suggested that this refers to the domestication of animals in the beginning of our patriarchal fixed agricultural economy. I can’t argue with this except it still doesn’t explain why Adam domesticated farm animals when he was lonely.

What it does explain is that when we live solely in our normal waking state consciousness and repress our unconsciousness we become neurotic. Adam was left brain oriented and very capable at classification, organizing and taxonomy as represented by him giving names to all the animals. He could focus most intently on details. However, as the case was then, so it is now, we cannot live by our normal waking state consciousness alone. We need to spend a third of our life sleeping and dreaming to stay connected to our unconscious self. Go for three days without sleep and you’ll be seriously messed up and won’t know who you are anymore. It’s a lot of hard work to be a self-conscious particulate being dealing with a world of chomping fishes.

We must connect to our higher self to feel whole again. In this regard cathedrals and holy places are very profound and are designed to elicit the transcendent of the mind. This does not require beating ourselves with sticks and praying while fasting until we pass out. Well, that could be interesting but it’s not for everyone. Some cultures do some self-afflicting things trying to achieve some awareness of their deeper self which is fine. The problem is when literalistic legalism forces people to do things they don’t really understand such as walking on nails and glass or whatever. Then it turns into a mere martyr complex.

The aspect of Adam being “lonely” explains the source of all evil. It is the sense of separation that is the darkness that is never ending. There is something called, “The Theory of Mind” which suggests that once consciousness reaches a certain level, awareness of other minds also being aware results in our ability to realize that other minds must be able to feel and think like we do. This state of mind is also called compassion. Absence of compassion results in the psychopath.

At this point, Adam was a psychopath. He gave names to all the animals. So what? He was not impressed. He still felt separation. This is not a revolutionary concept. Most people understand that children need acceptance and love. Adam did not know acceptance and love until he met Eve. All the talk about Eve and the apple–what a waste of a good love story! It goes much further, however.

How is Eve represented in the story? God realizes Adam is still lonely and the animals just weren’t working for him so God decides to make someone capable of making Adam happy. Eve came from within Adam during a deep sleep. The connection between unconsciousness and dreaming should be obvious! Eve is formed from his internal structure (bones) which means she actually is his internal structure. This is the structure of the Psyche.

Eve is the ‘Inner Fish’ as portrayed by Venus, dolphins and mermaids in art and literature. Eve represents the unconsciousness archetypical structure and foundation of Adam’s physical body and mental consciousness. This is also true of all humans and other animals. Our inner fish evolved long before our outer mammal and our primate neocortex evolved much longer after that. Our consciousness is very new but our unconsciousness is very old. Our unconsciousness resides in the memory of our body and contains all the knowledge necessary to maintain itself and exists mostly in our brainstem and spinal ganglia. The unconsciousness “knows” all about blood chemistry and neurology. However, it is only in the last hundred years this knowledge has been integrated as conscious knowledge which is primarily focused in the neocortex as “modern medicine”.

Adam finds his unconsciousness as represented by Eve and falls in love. This is the “sacred marriage” of falling in love with ourselves when we integrate our conscious mind with our unconscious mind. Our unconscious mind contains many levels of mind which are memories of our evolutionary past. It is these memories of our evolutionary past which provides the understanding that we are all brothers and sisters and we are part of a much larger animal community. It is this internal sense of unity that is the basis of a true spirituality which many cultures have understood for centuries until they were destroyed by patriarchal fixed agricultural societies and their literalist fundamentalist religions. This is the history of Hawaii and every other culture that was invaded for land in the name of religion.

We read we’re supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves. We can only love ourselves if we understand our connection to everyone and everything else. This is how compassion comes about. Without the knowledge of unity, self-love is just narcissistic, self-righteous hypocrisy that leads to all the abominations that such people inevitably lead to. If we don’t love ourselves, we certainly will not love our neighbor. If we hate ourselves, we will hate our neighbors too and just use them in some form of economic exploitation. Narcissistic self-love ultimately leads to self-hate. Remember the thing about the dinging bells and the clanging cymbals? (1 Cor. 13:1-13)

The unconscious also contains our “shadow”. That place in our not so secret mind where we visualize revenge for things real or imagined. The dark cave of our mind where we go to bury the bones of failed relationships, dead pets, and other regrets. This dark cave is usually repressed and eventually becomes a neurotic complex out of which comes scary dragons and monsters that try to tell us what to do.

How many times have we heard of someone “snapping”? “Oh, he was really a nice and quiet guy. I don’t get it”. This also comes under the subject of self-knowledge. We have things in our unconsciousness of which we basically have no clue. The only way to avoid being taken by surprise by our unconsciousness is by constant self-evaluation. This requires a great deal of self-honesty. We may be able to realize that there is something lurking there and that we really need professional help to figure it out.

This can also be referred to as meditation and “looking within”. When we realize that we even have an unconsciousness we can begin to recognize that certain emotions are conditioned reactionary responses that have been imprinted upon us. These are the “button pushing” issues. Most of these were imprinted on us before we developed the consciousness of adulthood. Just because we have certain feelings doesn’t mean we have to act on them. Apparently, ninety percent, or more, of what we are has developed by the time we are five years old. That is downright unfair but it is the nature of reality and the reality of nature. Carl Jung said the only hope of human survival is if the human race begins to understand their own unconscious.

We should not blame Adam anymore than blaming our parents and siblings. They were all trying to survive and claw their way to the top along the path of evolution. We don’t need to blame them and we don’t need to blame ourselves. Lets just get rid of the religious guilt imposed mindset and set ourselves free and fix ourselves! “Physicians heal yourself!” (Lk 4:23)

Our Cambrian-age habit of snapping at food when it walks in front of us is no longer appropriate at dinner parties. Using the process of self-evaluation and recognizing our inappropriate behavior is also known as “confession and repentance”. Yet, the religious world has made a monstrosity out of this normal psychological function of evolving hominids who are trying to survive. This, in my opinion,  is what “ruling over Eve” means. The unconscious needs to be understood and sorted out.

Thought is a basic form of energy just like heat and light. When unconsciousness thought power is ignored and repressed, it builds up pressure. It will eventually make itself known as a despised lover, thus the Eve connotation. Eventually, as in the story of Job and Noah, a catharsis of enlightenment may result. In  contrast, without a catharsis, a repressed unconsciousness can result in mass death and suicide. We hear all too many of these tragic stories.

It is unfortunate the pharmaceutical corporations have been so successful in pushing their antidepressant and opioid drugs. The result has been a repressed unconsciousness of society and an extremely violent and chaotic one. This situation is made much worse through the poisoning of our food supply by corporate food destroying companies. Chemical additives, excessive sugar and salt, low nutrient content, and gluten intolerance are no friend of a healthy consciousness. The industrialization of our food supply has been expounded on by Michael Pollan.

Back to the story. Just because Adam and Eve got thrown out of Eden doesn’t mean that it ceased to exist. Indeed, it’s said a cherubim has a flaming, swirling sword to block the way to the Tree of Life in the Garden. (Gen 3:22-24) The Garden of Eden is an allegory of the archetypical mind which currently exists in our unconscious and we can cultivate it by engaging in creativity such as art, music, poetry and other things. Science and business also draws upon our imagination as a creative endeavor.

What the flaming sword is I can’t say but I suspect one should know the right password and be good friends with the cherubim. A hint is that a cherub is depicted as an infant with wings in ancient art. It probably has something to do with becoming like a little child again as Jesus said. (Mt 18:1-6) So, if you happen to meet a winged baby flinging around a flaming sword I suggest that you don’t tell it to behave itself. Try playing with blocks instead.

Adam chose to leave the Garden of the Archetypical level of a higher mind so he could cultivate his physical reality as well. This is another example of mind before matter. The external manifestation of eternal unconsciousness thought. This is the real interpretation of the Adam and Eve story, in my view. We actualize our dreams in our physical life. I don’t think this idea is all that strange. It happens every day, except when it doesn’t happen and we are shut down and excluded because of our race, religion, nationality, and many other things such as economics and politics.

The idea of archetypal unconsciousness thought being grounded in physical existence is further suggested by Adam and Eve being given skins. After the screaming was over, God made garments of skins for them.(Gen 3:21). It was cold out in the thistle fields and they were naked. God felt sorry for them and clothed them. What is interesting is that there is no mention of killing any animals to get them. It was not until after the Noah’s flood, another story of unconsciousness catharsis, that killing and eating animals was even allowed.

In view of the idea that “the Garden” is allegorical of Archetypal reality (i.e. is unconsciousness), the obtaining of skins represents an actual physical manifestation into a lower dimension requiring physical bodies. This is the trip Adam went on as urged by his unconscious anima named Eve!

Part of the experience of physical reality is the reality of physical death. There is too much to learn than can be acquired in just one life time. Mortality and reincarnation were part of the package Adam bought into. This is why eating of the Tree of Life was hidden and kept from Adam. If he had eaten of the Tree of Life and lived forever in the same body, that would have been the worst hell imaginable. Think about it. Ten thousand years of the same psychopaths claiming power to the detriment of the “commoner” again and again! A mortal life is very stressful and it takes time to assimilate one. This is why we need to sleep so much. I can barely stand to read the news anymore and I thought I had seen a lot already but it just keeps getting worse. Reality is a harsh field of thorns thistles. It is not reality that are the thistles, it’s the fascist industrial/military/religious complex that has turned paradise into hell. I am not exaggerating. Read the history of South and North America.

The whole story of the Garden is summed in the phrase, “and the man became a living soul” (Gen.2:7) The first chapter said the male and female were made in God’s image but the second and third chapter explains how Adam became a living soul. Adam didn’t become a living soul until he was differentiated from his unconscious (Eve), thrown out of the big Garden (Eden),  given a physical body (skins), and got a job in a field dealing with weeds and thistles. It was only after all that, Lord God said Adam had finally become like them. (Gen 3:21)

Pretty much sums it up. It takes a lot of experiencing to become a living soul. There is a reason that the musical genera called “the Blues” has soul and it’s the same story–that of abuse and harassment and survival. Bless the soul of the “Blues” yet, we should recognize and change the injustice and racism that caused it.

 

The Snake! The Snake! Who is the Snake?

Which story does one prefer? The literalist farm animal story or the Jungian archetype one? It gets even better. So then, who is the snake? The unconsciousness operates in the realm of electromagnetic waves and is much faster than the conscious mind which operates with molecules and neurotransmitters and is very slow. (Kahneman) The unconsciousness picks up all available information from the Zero Point Field and passes it on to the consciousness, if the consciousness will allow it. So, the snake is allegorical of the wave form of all available knowledge expressed as a light beam.

It is written that as a result of enticing Eve to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the snake would be punished by crawling on the ground with its belly. (Gen 3:14) Excuse me, um… thats what snakes already do! A snake with wings is more like a dragon and a snake with legs is more like a corporate lawyer.

The fact that Adam and Eve were talking to the snake before the snake was crawling on the ground clearly indicates a pre-incarnate reality of all of them. It was mental archetypes (unconscious) prior to become a physical reality. The snake was yet another clue put there by the writer to clearly indicate that this story was not meant to be literal but allegorical and denotes a higher level of reality.
 
The Two Trees as Polar Opposites
The trees represent the electromagnetic field which is the ultimate form of knowledge and explains why there are two trees that are polar opposites in the same place. They represent, in my opinion, the mental equivalence of the dual and complementary behavior of light. The Tree of Life pulsates from its waveform of multidimensional thinking to the particle form of the relativistic state of literalism and linear thinking represented by the Tree of Knowledge which knowledge consists of “good and evil”. This idea is consistent with the polar nature of physical reality. The sum of the universe is zero and only exists as the result of positive and negative particles at many different levels and dimensions.

Eve as unconsciousness, gets the information from the snake, the electromagnetic wave form, and passes it off to Adam who is manifesting his physical reality. This is the way it works. This also explains why the snake did not talk to Adam as, “the man of the house”. Only the unconscious can perceive the whispers of the snake. It’s called “Intuition” and it seeps into the consciousness unless it is repressed.

This may sound a bit far fetched but according to Iian Mcgilchrist, there is an updated explanation for the fact our brain has two hemispheres like the kernel of a walnut. The left side is focused on detail, literal thinking, and short term gain. The right side is in the big picture mode and understands context, allegory, and long term sustainability. The right is left and the left is wrong after all. Imagine that! The main point is that in a normal sane person we use both modes of thought simultaneously and constantly. It is not only humans that have this capability but every living animal must focus on food and at the same time focus on not becoming food for something else.

All existence is a bimodal form; small and great, wave and particle at the same time. This concept is the basis of our very life as it beats in our chest. Our heart expands and contracts to pump the blood. When the heart contracts it is in “particle” form and when it expands it is in “wave” mode. The so called “straight and narrow way” consisting of being both particle and wave simultaneously.

We had to eat of the Tree of Knowledge first to provide us with the tools for our evolutionary survival–strength. But now we are on the verge of destroying our own environment just as the uncontrolled population growth of any species will do. Now it’s time we eat of the Tree of Life in order to understand beauty and transcend our literalist based thinking and avoid blowing ourselves back to the Precambrian and having to start all over again. It is time we look within. As Jesus said, “The kingdom of Heaven is within you.” (Lk 17:20)
 
References
Jung, Carl Gustaf; Aspects of the Masculine; Princeton University Press;
Kahneman, Daniel; Thinking, Fast and Slow; Farrar, Straus, and Giroux; 2011
Mcgilchrist, Iian; The Master and His Emissary–The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World; Yale University Press; 2009
Pollan, Michael; The Omnivore’s Dilemma–The Search for a Perfect Meal in a Fast Food World; Penquin Press; 2006
Mlodinow, Leanord; Subliminal–How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior; Pantheon Books, New York; 2012.