Why did our civilizations decline?

[polaris]

I've been pondering the reason why all the civilizations on earth went into knowledge decline in the 'recent' past...including:
- Egyptian
- Sumerian
- Indian
- Asian
- Amyan (indigenous Americas)
Each timeline would have unique characteristics but the end result was the same. Modern day descendants have no idea of who, when, how or why the aliens were here (even if there were aliens).

What say you about this statement:
In order to preserve knowledge, it has to written and taught to every generation - so they in turn can teach it to their children - and thus knowledge is preserved.

Now if you accept that statement then looking back in time, why weren't our ancestors (human) passing down their knowledge.

Could it be that we didn't have it to begin with??

[Dr. Z]

Why weren't our ancestors (human) passing down their knowledge.

Language as we know it is relatively new. Without a written language, oral history and art was the only way to pass down information. Art unless it is preserved does not last. And oral history is only as good as long as the civilization can continue to tell the story...though it is very likely to change a little with each passing generation.

Record keeping really took off with the invention of the movable type printing press, and jumped leaps and bounds with computer storage archives. Had the printing press been invented 2,000 years ago, much of what is now lost would be archived.

[Moon]

Polaris, many other researchers ask the same questions about ancient civilizations. They seemed to pop up with great knowledge and as they went along it deteriorated. They show the ancient monuments of Egypt as opposed to the ones built later as evidence pointing this out.

Also, the ancient Americans in Central and South America had amazing civilizations and yet they never improved on them. They all learned the knowledge by rote as they passed it down. Why was that the case?

Add to it the Dark Ages and there are a lot of questions that need to be answered.

[Caveman In Space]

Personally, I think there is a strange "complacency" that happens with a "long running" civilization, in that we, as a society, don't think about "not" being around forever and that keeps us less innovative, less motivated, and basically just stagnent. Except for the egyptians.. they seemed to be a knowledge hungry civilization.

[polaris]

Polaris, many other researchers ask the same questions about ancient civilizations. They seemed to pop up with great knowledge and as they went along it deteriorated. They show the ancient monuments of Egypt as opposed to the ones built later as evidence pointing this out.

Also, the ancient Americans in Central and South America had amazing civilizations and yet they never improved on them. They all learned the knowledge by rote as they passed it down. Why was that the case?

Add to it the Dark Ages and there are a lot of questions that need to be answered.

Yes it is an important question and likely sparks interest in AAT,
The Amya and Egyptian declines are well documented, the Sumerian decline was equally dramatic...
The Indians and Asians record similar events...

Rote and storytelling are the only means to pass on knowledge if writing is non-existent.
It wasn't always the case, their knowledge decline went to an illiterate state when they stopped teaching the written word, hard to believe!!
Just realized that their respective Dark Ages have one thing in common - the perpetrators are the same.

[timeTraveler]

I think that two essentially different things get mixed.

I try to separate those two issues and give my opinion of them.

1) The communication of important event over generations: The fact is that there is enormous amount of write descriptions of the astronaut humans encounters and collaboration ( Sumerians: Gilgames (see Zecharias Sitchen: for example The 12th planet, The Stairways to Heaven, The War of Gods ans Men etc.), Jewish: Old testament, Egyptians: a lot of hieroglyphic texts.

The problem in the cause of time with these texts (in my mind) is that for some unknown reason the connections and collaboration with astronauts ended. So after a few generations ( lets say 3 – 5 ) the texts were in so bad contrast with their realty that they could not any more believe that the stories described real and actual things and events. So gradually people started to believe that these text were fantasy and as they were copied many times in sequence. SO now we have a lot of nearly first hand evidence that almost no-one believes any more.
2) The decline of these culture is in my mind more than natural. The pure existences was heavily dependent on these extraterrestrials. When they left for some unknown reason the complex function of these society could not be run only by humans and thus they collapsed.

[Foxlike Mulder]

In almost any relationship, communication is the key. That holds true for larger relationships as well, e.g., society and its people. As we see civilization breaking down today, I like to think a large part of it can be blamed on communication and lack thereof. Obviously, there are many other things wrong too, but communication is the first step in correcting those other problems.

Common goals and maintenance of general welfare are traits hard wired into many if not all species, including humans. Yet, somewhere in our evolution, we broke away from some our inherent capabilities. This will be "way out there" for some, but I firmly believe we have telepathic capabilities or a collective consciousness that can be tapped into. It exists in other species in some form or fashion; ants, birds, fish, elephants etc.. The fact of the matter is, we really don't know what we don't know when it comes to communication between entities within any species. However, anyone can clearly see communal action and behavior which indicates considerable communication necessary for those actions and behaviors to be manifested. In the wild, it's also rare to see groups of lions fighting against other groups of lions, or any other intra-species fighting amongst groups. I believe they have a collective consciousness that overrides most individual behavior for the benefit of group (and species) welfare. Again, I believe we lost that.

I know this jumps around a bit, please bear with me. For those of you who believe we've been visited, it's a common experience amongst abductees to experience telepathic communication. It also appears ETs telepathically communicate amongst themselves. Okay, this makes sense as these entities are highly evolved. I believe in order for us to evolve, we need to develop (or re-develop) these capabilities. One of the more impactful benefits of telepathic/collective consciousness capability is the reduction, if not elimination, of ego driven (and self-centered) behavior. This is the second reason I see the decline in civilization. Not only are ego driven behaviors poorly communicated (if at all), they often conflict with the general welfare of the group (clearly we see this with humanity and all of our wars). Yet imagine, in a world with telepathic mind readers, hidden agendas and bad intentions would be completely exposed, and therefore eliminated before they occur.

So, IMO, our civilizations decline because we have either lost our natural capability to communicate properly and/or we haven't evolved enough to overcome the innate obstacles/frailties of human behavior (ego). I did fail to mention that meteors and rising waters don't help!

[Moon]

There was an old book out there which claimed the decline in civilization was caused by the use of lead in cooking and eating utensils which was written by H A Waldron:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1081502/

I am wondering if they used lead in the ancient Americas as this could be a major reason why civilization declined.

[polaris]

I think that two essentially different things get mixed.

I try to separate those two issues and give my opinion of them.

1) The communication of important event over generations: The fact is that there is enormous amount of write descriptions of the astronaut humans encounters and collaboration ( Sumerians: Gilgames (see Zecharias Sitchen: for example The 12th planet, The Stairways to Heaven, The War of Gods ans Men etc.), Jewish: Old testament, Egyptians: a lot of hieroglyphic texts.

The problem in the cause of time with these texts (in my mind) is that for some unknown reason the connections and collaboration with astronauts ended. So after a few generations ( lets say 3 – 5 ) the texts were in so bad contrast with their realty that they could not any more believe that the stories described real and actual things and events. So gradually people started to believe that these text were fantasy and as they were copied many times in sequence. SO now we have a lot of nearly first hand evidence that almost no-one believes any more.
2) The decline of these culture is in my mind more than natural. The pure existences was heavily dependent on these extraterrestrials. When they left for some unknown reason the complex function of these society could not be run only by humans and thus they collapsed.

So - if we do not know how to use or understand the technology, that knowledge will be lost and it evolves into myth? I think we agree.

And the Amya (indigenous Americas people) were using lead solder for their tin cans to store their food - maybe their kids were eating the paint too...

[Corcaigh]

My take on it is that people didn't realise the impact of what they did "echoing in eternity" (to paraphrase Gladiator)

In the last 150 years or so humans have started to realise that we can preserve our knowledge for future generations.

[polaris]

My take on it is that people didn't realise the impact of what they did "echoing in eternity" (to paraphrase Gladiator)

In the last 150 years or so humans have started to realise that we can preserve our knowledge for future generations.

The advent of writing is also tied to recognizing the need to pass on volumes of knowledge,
Having had some time since the initial post, I've come across some information that population expansion rates play a significant role in educating the new populace...The variablity among those that sprang from Sumeria is probably a good case study...

[Justanotherstarchild]

Modernized Religion is a major cause of why we dont know what caused the decline of most ancient civilizations. Its not that these ancient civizilations just stop documenting their history, its the fact that when explorers and or a world power that discovered or came acrossed what was left of these people most of their religious text, artifacts, and technology was taking back to rulers and or head of church and then they were either locked away or destroyed completely to make sure their secrets were never revealed to the general population at the time.

Knowledge was power at one time. Now its the almighty dollar ha.

~Andrew

[homeworld]

Now if you accept that statement then looking back in time, why weren't our ancestors (human) passing down their knowledge.
Could it be that we didn't have it to begin with??

Our knowledge declined and increased over time because everything in the universe (and I do mean everything) is cyclical. A good demonstration of this would be the Kondratiev wave. It is how it is - civilizations go through periods of great technological advancements, followed by recession and "dark" periods of stagnation.

[AnuAtlantian]

Hi everyone, on the subject as we are yes very advanced compared to 100 years ago, we still have the technology to get around in sky ship cars. Recycle refine drinking water, and reserve the wildlife and forests of the earth. But because of the greed of the few, we are not allowed to get more advanced in technology like we should. We are destroying the forests and depleting the wildlife. We are forced to still use and buy oil and paying for utilities, still drive 110 year old technology cars in new fancy shells. electricity and water can be free, new electric motor and magnetic motor fast energy free car technology exists, with technology invented by the likes of Nikola Tesla, and others. Not including also advanced technology with monatomic elements.