Doorways to Nowhere | 1

Structuring a Nonsensical Reality from a Megalithic Perspective

Disclaimer: I will level with you. We are heading down a confusing, perhaps nonsensical track. If you follow me, I promise you will not be hurt. Not physically, anyway. What I cannot promise is a light on the horizon guiding us home. We are heading into nowhere, and nowhere is what we might find and where we may be forced to stay. Got that? Okay good, let us begin.

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Over a decade has passed since reading Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods. Yet, I still cannot get the word-induced vision of the world's megalithic works being spread out like the name suggests: an obvious yet elusive set of prints. Very ancient; very large. But much of this scene is nonsensical. Each from a different finger on the same hand; from a different arm of the same body. But the prints are slightly off and, whilst the body is clear for all to see, the consciousness directing it is not. Having since visited sites from Mexico to Sri Lanka, Peru to France, a first hand account of these architectural phenomenons and many conversations with local guides and inhabitants of the area has not dampened this print-like perspective. It has also not shed light on the nonsensical elements to these sites. In fact, most conversations I have had about these places, in a roundabout, convoluted sense, agree with this latter premise: they do not make sense!

Megalithic works constitute massive (mega) stone (lithic) constructions. Averaging many multiple tonnes, exceeding tens if not hundreds of tonnes in some extreme cases, these sites still baffle international construction professionals and local experts alike. Why? We still do not understand how the stone was cut to such precision. We still have no idea how they were positioned in such a way where one cannot pass a piece of paper through the gaps between. We cannot comprehend how no mortar was used in the joinery, or how polygonal shapes were meticulously carved and connected on such a grand scale. How they were hauled hundreds of kilometres over mountains, across valleys, only to then be dragged back up to even more dizzying altitudes. 

Us, with our modern tools and technology, still fail to grasp the what, the why, the how. We still understand so little. Because of this, many elements of these sites often appear to us as nonsensical. Unfunctional staircases, sometimes inverted; grooves and “scoop” marks carved at random intervals; doorways that lead to nowhere. For so long these nonsensical elements have been seen as just that: parts of advanced megalithic architecture that we cannot draw imperical, logical conclusions from. Of course, there is the meta-physical, mythological component. The layers of myth have encrusted their presence onto the sites and kept cultural traditions alive over millennia. But I am talking about that bead, that dense nodule of pure wisdom, however nonsensical, buried beneath. The mastermind assemblers no doubt knew this truth, their meaning. But this record has been lost in the destructive equation of humans x time = new rulers = new history. Nonsensical elements get wrapped into abstract mythos or left as parts of a whole that do not need to make sense.

Making sense is not everything, but it is a lot. It is not the end of the world if purpose remains elusive, yet something keeps calling from the shadows. Is it not worth thinking a little more about those reticent spaces in-between? 

One thread that weaves its way through each of these megalithic sites is picked at by the local guides and, if coaxed out, expanded in fruitful abundance. It relates to a concept that, for most of us who have grown up in a modern techno-capitalist Western culture, is hard to palate. It becomes dry and chewy because it has no clearly defined boundaries. It is fuzzy at best, odd to handle, abstract and indigestible for the rest. It has to do with the megalithic architecture's fundamental relation to something else. Another space that coexists alongside ours. Many relate it to meditative practices. Others relate it to communication with others (Gods, Mother Nature, the Divine Spirit, spirits of those that once existed). Some relate understanding it to a fleeting mastery of the physical realm. This is what many people report feeling at these sites: the presence of something other. Lacking the proper nomenclature, for now I will just label it as: energy. And it is here where our journey to nowhere begins, with energy.

| Door 1: Structure

Given the fact that almost every continent has unexplainable megalithic structures, it would not be wrong in assuming some latent, innate form of global interconnectedness has existed for thousands of years. What do I mean by interconnectedness?

Intelligence, expressed through megalithic architecture, appears to interconnect across the geo-global expanse. Precision and scale are one common tie binding these connections. Cosmological alignment appears as another, as does the type of rock selected for quarrying and construction. But the interconnection I am talking about sits at a deeper level than these surface-level similarities. It sits at a level so deep we can barely see it. It sits at the level of ideas, of mindspace, of consciousness, of shared reality. This generates the tense-knot of interconnection within the opaqueness of the past. Hope being we loosen the knot long enough to see what is released from beneath.

Physical connection has long since been argued as possible (i.e. the pre-European information-trade route hypothesis or the lost “seeding” civilisation hypothesis). Physicality here, however, does not matter. We are not focussed on the physical, per say. What we are imagining instead is a system of interconnection that uses a structure beyond the physical to operate across space and time. 

It takes energy to transmit intelligence. Thus intelligence: knowledge and the wisdom to wield this knowledge correctly, would need to be transmitted through a structure across space and time via a proto-form of energy. Maybe this is what we are getting a glimpse of when we observe nonsensical elements at megalithic sites: the fingerprints of an energetic-intelligence that we now fail to recognise, a system of interconnection, archetypes that flow between global cultures, their architectural wonders, beliefs, their fundamental reality. If that is a hypothesis we care to humour, more questions arise, like what could the structure of the operating system generating this energetic-intelligence look like? Nonsensical elements may require a non-standard, nonsensical perspective. Just like the doorways, each branch of possibility we go down may be nonsensical and lead nowhere. And maybe that is exactly where we need to look. As to look into nowhere is to look into the heart of structure itself. 

Ontic structural realism is a weird way of saying that there are objective, “real” structures at the level of ontology - the level of our base existence - woven into the fabric of our reality.  Before we move any further, there are two dualities within the concept of structure that need addressing. First, the “In-Out Duality” posits quite an obvious but overlooked premise that all forms of structure feature that which is with-in, and that which is with-out. The relationship between the in and the out is important but, fearing getting lost in the philosophical weeds, I will just say that remembering things can be “inside the outside” and “outside the inside” will help facilitate a more holistic interpretation of the function and form of whatever particular structure you are observing. And when there are structures within structures, understanding what is “out” and what is “in” across multiple layers is helpful. For example, the tesseract (or the hyper-cube) seen below is a great visual example of the In-Out Duality at play and the importance of understanding the ins and the outs of structures embedded within structures.

You can see a cube sitting within a larger cube, connected by all corner points into one unified structure. If you were to place yourself on any one of the segmented plains, your view of what was inside and outside of your position would change. What you could observe would change. Your entire perspective on your physical reality would change, position to position. 

Anthony Giddens, a leading figure in modern sociology, has noted how, in a societal system, structure represents both a “constraint” and a “resource for action”. From this idea of limitation versus support our second structural duality emerges. Focused around the question of whether our future is determined by our own individual actions (resource for action) or by the structures we knowingly and unknowingly inhabit (constraint), Gibbons developed this concept within the sociological context. However, this duality is a useful framework when thinking about the type of structure that could a) transmit an energetic-intelligence across space-time and b) allow us to receive and utilise it in the development of our own civilisations. In the sociological sense, constraint suggests there is a pre-structured structure that we follow, societal norms and rules we are conditioned to follow, power structures that we are born into or embed ourselves (or get embedded) within as time passes. Seeing structure as a resource for action suggests agency, being able to step outside of our surrounding structures and from this vantage point re-structuring them to our own wants and needs, shared values and common goals. 

Framing the nonsensical elements of megalithic architecture within such a structuration-based framework provides a new means of observation. You can begin to imagine the “space” that these sites were built within. By visualising the space, you are able to slowly begin to imagine the necessary mechanisms, the types of gears needed to first imagine, then coordinate, then assemble these nonsensical megalithic elements. 

Noticing our boat has drifted into those dreaded weeds and weary of time, we need to return to the task of finding nowhere. Just keep these structural dualities in mind when we explore the next space. For understanding how structure influences us, we might notice the enigmatic energies that enter within, and hide outside of the structures embedded into our everyday reality. Our ancient ancestors seemed to notice them, perhaps even worship them through what we now see as nonsensical elements. No worship is required here. But I will require your imagination. For we will now contemplate what form these spaces, these structures, this energy, could have once taken, and may continue to take, today.

| Door 2: Spheres Within Spheres Within…

My recent Ancient Origins article “Use of Quantum Sensors at Megalithic Sites”  attempted to convey a certain model of the world in which quantum sensors may begin to find themselves at the forefront of investigations into anecdotal feelings of “energy” and high strangeness reported at megalithic sites. (High strangeness being either an anecdotal or objective experience outside of the ordinary human experience i.e. precognition, possession, paranormal encounters, divine intervention).

To explain this world model I used a heuristic which envisioned the merging of two spaces: the technodigital space and the biophysical space. I define the first space as the world of bits and qubits, the artificial spaces generated by modern technology (“online”, or via blockchain or cloud systems, through artificial intelligence and augmented reality), and the second space as being the natural environment of a particular geographic location. This heuristic imagined both spaces (A) as if they were two circles pushed together to form a Venn Diagram (B). I suggested that quantum sensors, originating from the technodigital space, could reveal interesting insights into hard to access parts of biosphysical space - the shaded area that appears after such a mergence. 

In a wider sense, to fit with what is observed naturally, I imagine these spaces as spherical when attempting to consider how they form and structure the reality around us. However, it would be wrong to assume these spaces appear as neat spheres (that is just to grasp the heuristic used in this particular model). In reality they can be imagined more like bubbles - constantly morphing, changing shape, expanding or shrinking, sometimes expanding too far and bursting, other times colliding with others to merge or pop. 

Keeping this heuristic-based world view of the structure of space in our reality, a sociosphere is defined as such a space containing the formation of groups of people, generating the underlying structure of human connection. When combined with the technosphere, tools for creative innovation and the space for future advancement begin to layer themselves within the internally merged spherical spaces. That space in between acts as fertile ground; mindspaces aligned and coordinated provide the human-based energy - the intelligent consciousness - to push new models and ideas out of this space, often stumbling, emerging into the light like Bambi on ice.

Combining both spaces, then, the techno-sociosphere became the ancient operating space that allowed our ancestors to produce marvels of engineering, cooperation, coordination and a fleeting symbiotic understanding of the natural world, as expressed through remants like megalithic sites. Structurally, these spheres continue to provide the means to generate the advanced world we sit within today. (“Advanced” italicised because clearly we are very advanced in modern material sciences but also quite clearly we have lost a sense, a sort of attunement, to the natural world). 

In this model, these spherical spaces allow any intelligence within them, human or otherwise, to expand, to whizz and whirl into the engines of creation that we praise and marvel over today. Transmitted around these spaces, an energetic-intelligence transforms such a benign structure into a complex assembly space. One example is how the process of reality moving over time used the structure of the biosphere - the geo-physical space that other spheres grow within (such as the socio or technosphere) - to assemble large numbers of complex combinations (e.g. through dissipative structures) to produce objects like DNA and Life. Our earliest ancestors evolved in this space. Using this pre-structured structure, they went on to form their own spheres and, harnessing the power of these spaces, combined with the energetic-intelligence appearing to be already hardwired into their membrane, assembled things that still baffle us to this day. But we have since forgotten what it means to inhabit these spaces. Modern existence means we take them for granted. Our context has changed, and so with it our method of observation and sensemaking. We are getting somewhere, but it is not nowhere yet. 

To accomplish these feats, the techno-sociosphere has to physically interact with the biosphere. Historically, the sociosphere (A), the technosphere (B) and an amalgamation of both (AB) sit within a localised biosphere (C). Planet Earth is of course one giant biosphere, which can be further reduced into a holarchy of smaller panarchical-like systems, each containing their own pockets of reality - the spherical spaces of this model. Once these internal spheres expand over time with complexity and scale (D) they begin to encroach upon the limits of their localised biosphere (E). Anthropocentric encroachment on the boundaries of natural spaces can push localised biospheres, as well as the larger global space, out of equilibrium. Following this historically, civilisational over-extension (e.g. stagnated trade-networks), such as the case with the Third Dynasty of Ur and of Mycenaean civilization (Tisdell & Svizzero, 2015), or general resource depletion (pushing to the edge of carrying capacity), as with the Únĕtice society during the central European Early Bronze Age (Ibid), or the Mesopotamians and the Mayans during their infamous peaks (Janssen & Scheffer, 2004). Whilst such calamitous expansion has occured throughout history, clearly Goldilock zones were found along the way. Otherwise we would not have consistent evidence of advanced civilisations across the planet. And this evidence all points to interactions between techno-sociospheres and the biosphere at an impressive scale.

By interacting with the biosphere I mean literally removing pieces of it to relocate those pieces elsewhere. Like a scene out of Minecraft only made that much more impressive because someone has had to use their hands to meticulously select stone from sites (in some cases in excess of 100 km away) to then remove and somehow transport it (whilst weighing many tens of tonnes each) across mountain ranges and deserts, down winding waterways and through dense jungles, to end up in a very specific, predetermined location. Usually, very high up. Why this location? Maybe protection. May be sacred highstrangeness. Maybe a touch of both. Someone knew, but it has since been lost to the destructive force of humans over time. This stone was then carved. How? We still cannot agree. Fitted together in such a way only the most cataclysmic disasters could break it apart. This stone, through its pilgrimage, through the intelligence that removed it from its natural setting and the energy that transported it across space, became part of something bigger than itself. It became one component of a whole that we still cannot conceive today. But even if a doorway has nothing to show it is worth pressing your ear against and listening to what it has to say.

Ignoring the question of why the classic megalithic structures (e.g. Picture 1: global stepped-pyramids, Picture 2: variations of the “henge” structure, Picture 3: various polygonal masonry styles) have existed in their various forms across the expanse of geographical space and the deep millenia of time, the fact that they do all exist suggests some shared reality across this space-time, indeterminate of this space-time. Perhaps such a shared reality is generated by a form of energetic-intelligence that exists in the structure of reality, coming and going from these spheres as it pleases. I have stated before that “whether it is tapping into the Jungian collective unconscious, or Teilhard de Chardin and Vernadsky’s noösphere—a naturally occurring information-network—or Dr. Whitely’s universal Earth language, I speculate that in some way ancient megalithic sites helped accomplish this” - whatever this is (Use of Quantums Sensors at Megalithic Sites, 2024).

One possible explanation could be a form of interconnectedness. For interconnection at such a scale to exist, there must be a connection to something. And that something  could be an energetic-intelligence. Why do we struggle to comprehend this? Why do more of us not attempt to interact with this energy?  Even if all the doorways lead to nowhere, they have nowhere in common. Nowhere is a good place to begin.

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In Part 2 we will discuss the role of “relevance-sorting” in this nonsensical structure, told through a personal account of strange experiences at the Peruvian sites of Machu Picchu in 2019 and Ñaupa Iglesia in 2024. We will learn how the ancients observed, recorded and systematised this energetic-intelligence, comparing this to what two top-tier modern intellectuals had to say about collective intelligence and the underlying structures that govern our reality. All this to say, nowhere is where we set out for and we are not there yet.

Part 2 will be released in the coming weeks.

Images

All images are referenced left to right, top to bottom. 

Set 1: 

1) Doorways to Nowhere at Tambomachay, Peru (Pierre André Leclercq/ CC BY-SA 4.0) 

2) Doorways to Nowhere at Alba Fucens, Italy (ImagePerson/ CC BY-SA 4.0) 

Set 2: 

1) Doorway to Nowhere at Yazilikaya, Turkey (Thecatcherintherye/ CC BY-SA 4.0) 

2) Doorway to Nowhere at Aramu Muru, Peru (Jerrywills/ CCA BY 3.0) 

3) Doorway to Nowhere of Khufuankh, western cemetery in Giza, Egypt (Mohammedani Ibrahim, June 26, 1914. Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition. Giza Archives. Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Colorised using DeepAI) 

4) Doorway to Nowhere near Ishi-No-Hoden, Japan (Saigen Jiro/ CC0) 

Set 3:

1)  Scoop marks in the Aswan Quarry, Egypt (Olaf Tausch/ CCA BY 3.0) 

2) Scoop marks at Sacsayhuamán, Peru (Apollo/ CCA BY 2.0) 

Set 4: 

1) Staircase symbology - xicalcoliuhqui or "step-fret" motif - displayed at Mitla, Mexico (Bobak Ha'Eri/ CC BY 2.0) 

2) Staircases of Chand Baori, India (Ajay Parikh/ CCA BY 3.0) 

3) Staircases at the “Etruscan Pyramid”, Italy (Alessandra C84 - Shutterstock) 

4) Staircases on a monolith at Sayhuite, near Abancay, Peru (IncaTrailMachu) 

Set 5: 

1) Stepped pyramid at Chichen Itza, Mexico (courtesy of the author)

2) Stepped pyramid at Koh Ker, Cambodia (Peaceofangkor/ Public Domain)

3) Stepped pyramid at Djoser, Egypt (Vincent Brown/ CCA BY 2.0)

Set 6: 

1) Henge at Thornborough, England (Tony Newbould/ CCA BY 2.0)

2) Henge at Stonehenge, England (Ewin Newman/ Public Domain)

3) Henge at the Ring of Brodgar, Orkney Islands, Scotland (Chris/ CCA BY 2.0)

Set 7: 

1) Polygonal masonry at the Temple of Seti I at Abydos, Egypt (Merlin UK/ CCA BY 3.0)

2)  Polygonal masonry at Sacsayhuamán, Peru (courtesy of the author)

3)  Polygonal masonry near Arykanda, Turkey (Dosseman/ CCA BY 4.0)

References

Giddens, A. 1984. The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. (Cambridge: Polity Press) 

Hancock, G. 1995. Fingerprints of the Gods.

Janssen, M. A. & Scheffer, M. 2004. Overexploitation of Renewable Resources by Ancient Societies and the Role of Sunk-Cost Effects. Ecology and Society 9(1): 6 (available from: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss1/art6/)

Svizzero, S. & Tisdell, C. 2015. The Collapse of Some Ancient Societies Due to Unsustainable Mining Development in ECONOMIC THEORY, APPLICATIONS AND ISSUES (available from: https://hal.univ-reunion.fr/hal-02152043/file/WP72.pdf)