Edward Bruce Bynum - Our African Unconscious: The Black Origins of Mysticism and Psychology

To my Father, my fathers, and

the memory of my father.

To my sons, their sons,

and their daughters.

To the spiritual destiny

of the Human Race.

OUR AFRICAN
UNCONSCIOUS

What Bynum has accomplished in pulling together such a mammoth body of knowledge and research into one cogent volume and theme is remarkable.... A contribution of this magnitude seldom comes once in a decade.

LINDA JAMES MYERS, PH.D., AUTHOR OF UNDERSTANDING AN AFROCENTRIC WORLD VIEW

Our African Unconscious is indeed a daring work and a unique contribution to African diasporic studies. It is a must for all students of human psychology

ROWLAND ABIODUN, COEDITOR OF THE YORUBA ARTIST

I read with awe this passionate, billiant, epic work One of the most exhuastive and revealing studies of Black and human origins I have ever seen.

LEE S. SANNELLA, M.D., AUTHOR OF THE KUNDALINI EXPERIENCE

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to make special mention of his debt to the following people for their work, support, and inspiration in the creation of this book:

My editors at Teachers College Press who believed in this book from the first, for their meticulous attention to detail and for keeping me on track; Sandra Martin of Paraview, for her steady patience, humor, and support; Professor Allen Ivey, Ed.D., scholar, gifted teacher, and explorer throughout all his work, who brought me to the attention of the first publisher; Professors Rowland Abiodun, Olasupo Olaosebikan, and Wande Abimbola, who helped me both in intimate and intellectual ways, here and in Africa, to see the world of Ifa;

My gracious supporters at Inner Traditions & Bear Company: Jon Graham, the visionary acquisitions editor, who came to this book with a fire in his belly and helped ignite it again; Jeanie Levitan, editor in chief, and Mindy Branstetter, project editor, who had faith in this project and made it happen; Megan Rule in marketing and audio books and Manzanita Carpenter in publicity, who never missed an opportunity to publicly support and spread interest in it; Patricia Rydle, assistant to the editor in chief who caught every one of my clumsy errors; and Kelly Bowen, who kept everything on track;

Professor Linda James Myers, Ph.D., for her scholarship and vision of an optimal world for the human spirit; Runoko Rashidi, who looked deeply where few others would; and Richard D. King, M.D., who opened the door for me with his scholarship and insight, that to this day still holds me in awe and wonder;

Brother Bill Jones and Sister Kefa Nephthys of First World Alliance in NYC, who gave me a warm audience and house to speak in;

My oldest friends and fellow writers, William Boylin, Ph.D., and Ernest Stableford, M.F.A., who keep me afloat and steady in this work; Natercia Teixeira, LICSW, and Kent Poey, Ph.D., who kept my counsel and shepherded and sustained me in my day-to-day work; and my wife, Alyse Carol Bynum, who, after more than four decades and two sons with me, remains still the most beautiful.

Figures

Foreword to the 2021 Edition

By Linda James Myers, Ph.D.

When Bruce first honored me with his request to write the foreword to his magnum opus two decades ago, my immediate question was, How do I help place this work for the reader in a meaningful context in light of its extraordinarily vast scope and depth, and the uncommon holistic and integrative mindset from which it emerges? Having spent most of my career as a psychology professor at a large university in the heart of America, publishing my first book introducing a theory of human development grounded in the wisdom tradition of African deep thought some twelve years prior to the request, I was very familiar with that optimal mindset. The compendium Edward Bynum produced provided comprehensive historical evidence and transdisciplinary support for essential premises of my theory of optimal psychology. Therefore, I also understood the challenges associated with pushing the boundaries of human consciousness beyond the limitations of the prevailing hegemonous mindset, fragmented and bound to assumptions and principles no longer supported by the heights of science and wisdom.

Compounding the challenge is the resistance characteristic of that suboptimal mindset, which, for centuries of systemic racism, still demonstrates bias when issues of race and African culture are added to the mix. Not to worry, I determined. We have now come to the stage in the evolution of humanity when a transformation of consciousness, a substantive change in our understanding of the nature of reality and our relationship to it, is mandatory for flourishing survival. Despite over the decades progress having been made toward acceptance of the findings of quantum physics and neuroscience yielding further validation for precepts from an ancient African wisdom tradition across cultural groups, mainstream cultural and educational lag still persists. So being, Bynums phenomenal work is as relevant today as ever, if not more so, particularly for those wanting a more complete knowledge and deeper understanding of the historical backdrop for the transdisciplinary unification of knowledge over time and space. Further Our African Unconscious offers a brief foray into the quantum potential at conception and on entering the after death state. Also some new data on anthropology is included, in which, for example, the Book of the Dead is shown to imply the quantum potential, although it does not use the modern term quantum.

The prevailing quality of mind in the West, and now throughout the world, has been masterful at creating technological wonders, but at the expense of overwhelming social and ecological crises. The type of thinking that has created the dilemma is extremely limited in its capacity to solve it. In the face of this suboptimal mindsetone fostering the intellectual and cultural hegemony of White supremacy (among other things) and fear regarding that which is not understoodthe challenge put forth by Our African Unconscious is a monumental and loving one, assuredly invaluable to those who would seek to meet it.

Centuries of systemic anti-Black racism and cultural imperialism has limited access to the truth about the best of our collective African cultural heritage and its long-standing wisdom tradition. Research supportive of much-needed findings extant outside of the cultural worldview dominant in mainstream American society remains quite uncommon. Most often marginalized, if not ignored, as a holistic, integrative, harmonizing yet competing mindset does not thrive well even in formal educational systems and popular media.

Despite the challenges, we have come to the stage in the evolution of humanity when a transformation of consciousness must come to be more readily understood as requisite. A substantive change in our understanding of the nature of reality and our relationship to it is mandatory.