Esoteric Tortures

Even as a hunter, early humans remained prey. Even Homo erectus had to defend himself against predators and likely often lost struggles over prey to lions and hyenas. The simultaneity of diametrically opposed roles sharpened awareness and movement economy. The combination of attention, cooperation, timing, and the creative use of tools allowed the human hunter to advance in the food chain.

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“A complete disconnection not only from the body but from our fundamental skills and ways of living connected to our embodied existence is starting to devastate at a population level. Social connection built on sitting in front of a screen together ...” — palozzo.marcello, seen on Instagram

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“Language becomes the nervous system of humanity.” — Horst Tiwald

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The reconstruction of prehistoric attack techniques of early hominins requires a realistic understanding of their biomechanical capabilities. Unlike big cats, hominins possessed neither killing jaws nor extraordinarily strong gripping hands that would have enabled immediate killing of prey. Studies on the biomechanics of Homo erectus and related species show that bite force and grip strength were low compared to predators. From this emerged a strategy that used the entire body as a tool: mass, momentum, leverage, and coordinated movement replaced teeth and claws.

A central principle of these strategies lies in the use of kinetic chains and rotational power transfer. The spine acts as an elastic axis within a movement sequence that stores and releases energy, while trunk rotation channels force and transfers it to a target. In combination with coordinated muscle activation, this enables explosive movements that generate impact despite relative physical inferiority—whether to destabilize opponents, control distance, or use tools efficiently.

This mechanics demonstrates a central evolutionary principle: humans are not flight animals in the classical sense, but flight animals with an extraordinary ability for system integration. Effectiveness arises from technique, timing, leverage, collectivity, and tool use, while the nervous system regulates risk. Unlike a neurobiologically true predator, the pseudo-predator human does not need to kill immediately or strike with maximum force; human strategies are designed for efficiency, safety, and energy economy—the evolutionary master achievement of a flight animal that nevertheless stands at the top of the food chain.

The evolutionary logic behind these strategies becomes even clearer when considering consciousness and fear. For millions of years, our ancestors lived in permanent survival mode. Predators, climatic extremes, food competition, and interspecies conflicts threatened their lives. In this environment, vigilance was crucial. Fear activates the sympathetic nervous system, increases heart rate, muscle tension, and reflex speed, and creates a state of maximum readiness to react. This fear system links with cognitive processes. Vigilance, anticipation, and strategic planning interlock, creating an internal model of the environment that precisely guides action—from flight to hunting to tool use.

Human consciousness emerged from permanent threat. It is an adaptive mechanism that allows dangers to be recognized, risks avoided, actions planned, and scenarios simulated internally. The ambivalence of early humans—simultaneously hunted and hunters—selected not only physical adaptations but also mental flexibility, social cooperation, and precise timing. Fear becomes an evolutionary resource. It forms the foundation for escape, cognitive control, strategic action, and human innovative capacity.

Within an initiation ritual, the Orokaiva of New Guinea spread fear and terror among their descendants. Masked figures drive the children into total panic. They force the experience of being prey. These tortures mark the beginning of extensive instruction. At the end, the initiated receive their authorization to join the hunting community.

“The verbs of the warrior (to hunt, to kill, to fight) are the prelude to sexual relationships,” writes Pola Oloixarac in her novel Savage Theories. The founding of family and household follows in the next step.

The ego arrives with the spear

Oloixarac’s heroes Kamtchowsky and Pablo ask themselves: “What lies in the oldest chambers of consciousness?”

Where does humanity’s memory begin?

If one wants to name the beginning with a single word, then fear is that word. Kamtchowsky puts it succinctly: In tracing memory, we still today suffer the horror of the advanced “primate who, in transition to becoming human … becomes prey to predators.” The premium primate remains subject to animal processes, even though he has outgrown them.

“The fear of the ancestors provides us with key concepts. After humans were, for millions of years, a subordinate element on the menu of predators and therefore constantly on the run, they use ... weapons to strike the first blow against the power of the beasts.”

Movement and consciousness are two sides of the same coin. The spear becomes the ego. A good man is a good weapon. In the unleashed “we,” modern humans create superiority over the animal. Yet an untamable egoism repeatedly forces them into isolation.

Consciousness and Prey

Feinberg and Mallatt also developed a theory according to which consciousness is a function of hunting. Consciousness emerged “to enable the first predators to kill their prey and the first prey animals to escape them.”