The Primal Jump as a Bungee-Jump[1]
1
Where the real world turns into mere images, the mere images turn into real beings and into the effective motivations of a hypnotic behaviour.
Guy Debord (Die Gesellschaft des Spektakels, Thesis 18)
1
Lloyd DeMause clarified in his essay entitled “Die fötalen Ursprünge der Geschichte”[2] that certain information led him to the opinion that the human soul is moulded by prenatal experiences, that can be remembered and overworked later in life. Thus, I decided to confirm his theory in view of on-hand materials on bungee-jumping and the land-diving ritual.Bungee-jumping has been practised in Europe as an action-sport since the end of the 1970s. The first of these jumps occurred on the 1st of April, 1979 in Bristol[3], when members of the “Oxford University Dangerous Sport Society” jumped from the railing of a 230 feet high expansion bridge, simply in order to drop into the deep. The deadly landing which would normally await someone jumping from such a height was impeded by an elastic line, with its ends attached to the diver as well as the bridge. Shortly afterwards, this obscure exercise was shown on TV and in the tabloids and dubbed as “Bungee-Jumping”.[4] Meanwhile these happenings have established themselves in many places as a commercially exploited leisure time activity. It is offered not only as a fun-fair rumpus to a raucous crowd, but also in connection with luxurious adventure-trips, with jumps from helicopters, balloons or cable railcars. A single German supplier had 150,000 jumps carried out by 1995.[5]
Pacific-jumps
The first participants from Oxford, said that they had taken on the task of inventing new and dangerous types of sports. On their search for unknown and thrilling opportunities of exercise, they came across the land-diving ritual of the inhabitants of an island in the South Sea State presently called Vanuatu (at that time still called New Hebrides), which had been carried out for centuries. In this ritual, called gol in the local dialect, the natives from the village Bunlap in the south of the island of Pentecost build an 85 feet tall scaffolding with platforms at different levels. Some of the natives then jump head-first from these platforms. Just before the jumper crashes into the ground and breaks his neck, his fall is hindered by vines tied to both his legs and the scaffolding above. The divers sometimes touch the soft ground with their hands and even the hair on their heads just before they are jerked back into the air for a short moment. Then the cheering natives run up and help to remove the vine. This ritual found its way into scientific journals[6] as well as into Disney’s comics[7] and was very exciting for the “Dangerous Sports society” members. They could not be the inventors of this type of sport, but they wanted to imitate and cultivate it with modern materials. Since then these roots have been referred to many times. Since this sport became so immensely popular in the western world, the questions arose: “Why do they do it? Why do skilled workers in an industrial society spend up to a tenth of their monthly net wage so as to dive into the deep for a few seconds? What’s the use? Doesn't it hurt?”
Jumps into the world
Whereas bungee-jumping is often viewed as a type of excitement for dulled members of a decadent society of super-abundance or is explained with special hereditary factors by scientists,[8] it would definitely be interesting to examine whether the Land-Divers also had the same motivation and if they also drop into the deep due to boredom or whether they have similar genes. Answers to these questions can be found in DeMause's “Model of the Foetal Drama”, which represents to him the deepest level of meaning in every religious or political ritual.[9] Just as prae- and perinatal psychology[10] he assumes that a psychic life exists before and during birth. But after the analysis of research reports on the pre-birth state[11] he assumes that a foetus does not view its stay in the mother’s womb as a condition of continual and protected state of bliss.[12] In the course of a normal pregnancy the maternal organism is just not able to supply the foetus evenly and sufficiently with nutrient and oxygen at least during the last three months of pregnancy. The lack of oxygen results in prenatal experiences of great pain.[13] The foetus connects the resulting confused anger, fear and longing for relief to his environment, i.e. the uterus with umbilical cord and placenta. Depending on the course of pregnancy, the more constricted the foetus feels and the more threatening and painful the temporary oxygen deficiency is experienced, until the foetus is driven to the final act: birth. Due to the deformation of the skull and other circumstances birth itself is also experienced as very painful.[14] If a new-born really views the normal prenatal life and birth as painful but does not have the ability to integrate these experiences in more delicate explanatory pattern, then these memories must take on a deeply traumatic character[15]. Every ritual that is invented and practised over a longer period of time in the course of developing cultures can be applied in DeMause's model to this impressive foetal drama, so as to overwork the painful experiences in the womb.[16] The pains and trials, which makes many rituals appear extremely brutal, are also connected to a recidivism,[17] which in my opinion expresses the desire to be freed once more after a phase of suffering. Therefore, a rebirth provides oneself with the renewed ability to breathe freely and to continue to grow with an equally greater mobility. I am always reminded of a popular vernacular: “You know what’s wonderful? Wonderful is when the pain eases off.”
Jumping thoughts
One should be able to find elements of the foetal drama from a closer look at land-diving as well as bungee-jumping. In order to test this, I first studied thirty newspaper articles (mostly from the period 1990–92)[18] in which either the observation or the perception of bungee-jumpers was described. I am not a trained psychoanalyst, but I regard it as significant that the same fantasies and symbols seemed to characterise almost every article. Therefore I have changed my mind in the meantime and no longer believe that the elastic band for instance, that is not fastened around the waist, but to the feet, is only accidentally named the umbilical cord. A list of metaphors describing the impressions of one of these jumps can now receive additional meaning if interpreted as a fantasy of a previously experienced birth.
... a thrill grips you, first at your hairs and ears, so you fall headfirst ... a thick rubbercord swings upon his body like a mighty navel-string ... my last contact to the real world, to real life ... umbilical cord ... I’m falling down ... I’m falling headfirst into the void ... it's too much, time doesn’t, images don’t exist, I do not exist at all, nothing that can be remembered, then comes the scream, I don’t want it, my body cries, it cries out from me, I hear my cry like the cry of a stranger. I’m strange and very far away from myself ... my own voice seems strange to me, unreal ... primal scream ... feeling no ground under the feet ... new horizons in sight ... plop, not the slightest idea of up or down, I have left this world long before and will never return, than I lie on my back, fidget, struggle, the last convulsion, the most exciting one can imagine ... the longest seconds of my life ... until two helpers put him on a mattress and arrange the navel ... the cord brings the young lady back into life ... it seems familiar to me ... once again life starts ... slowly the ecstasy grows feeble ...
In comparison to the original articles on bungee-jumping, this shows no clear connection to bungee-jumping at all. These extracts only make up around 1 % of the complete volume of the texts and communicate more of a muddled picture, but exactly the picture one would expect according to DeMause's model. None of the articles mention the foetal drama, the pre- and perinatal psychology or anything of the sort and the jump is nowhere described as a conscious repetition of one's own birth. In spite of this, there is a noticeable suggestion of terms and feelings which can be connected to birth in a general way. The actual bungee-jump has no physical connection to birth but there seems to be a strong mental connection here. Upon stress the brain seems to compare new sensations with older experiences. If in the first instance nothing is found, it possibly primary memories such as birth are stirred. Only in emotional descriptions of the bungee-experiences the strong subconscious relation to birth turns up. Because in my opinion the birth-related perceptions of all new-borns are dominated by sensorial impressions and feelings and not by objective-logical insight. After already having started this examination, I made a jump myself. My personal memories are mainly emotional. For me Bungee-jumping is strongly characterised by anxiety, paralysis, temporary trance and later hectic unrest. Even two hours later I could hardly sit still for three minutes at a time. A strong heartbeat and hyperventilation would be the technical description of what happens to me when I am reminded of the dive. But I'm not certain about how much the texts that I had read before affected my feelings concerning the jump. A metaphor such as “umbilical cord” does not seem strange anymore and I too could develop a few other pictures in my fantasy. Whoever wants to know more about the emotions during a bungee-jump, can get the best observations by making one's own jump. Even though the subject is still fascinating for me, I'm not constantly yearning for another jump. I would like to comment on two passages from the articles, which fascinated me a lot. Often a scream is mentioned in connection with the jump. Two authors also describe how they experienced this screaming.
1.)... then comes the scream. I don’t want it, my body cries, it cries out from me. I hear my cry like the cry of a stranger ...[19]
2.)... my own voice seems strange to me, unreal. I want to put the experience into words, but I am unable ...[20]
These observations are hardly the product of a possible blood-clot in the ears or some other malfunctions that might occur during whip-lash.[21] The breaking during a bungee-jump is not a sudden jerk, as often supposed, but the shock is strongly absorbed by the elastic cord. The acceleration and braking ratios in an average big dipper can be judged as much higher.The authors do not say that they suddenly became hard of hearing or lost their hearing, they rather relate the observation of their own voices. At first I could not explain this picture of a strange voice. As soon as I began to view bungee-jumping as a repetition of birth, a conclusive way of explanation arose. The first experience of the individual voice when screaming occurs after birth. The term strange describes a certain confusion concerning the first instance the own voice is heard, which seems plausible to me and supports DeMause's theory.
Recent articles in daily and weekly papers are concerned more about technicalities.[22] The emotional experience is blended into the background. As already mentioned there are a lot of references to screaming. Nowadays there are even bungee-championships, where the divers try to perform certain numbers of aerial manoeuvres like the high-divers. While watching a TV-show of such an event I did not hear any screams. It seems as if bungee is starting to get more cultivated. Further away from its rough and wild roots towards a more civilised and pleasant form.
But how does this relate to land-diving?
When I started examining land-diving, I obviously allowed myself to be deterred through an incorrect idea of the matter. The fact that I could not find any material on this subject which had been written before 1950 led me to the idea that it might only be an imitation of military paratrooper training.[23] During the second world war, enormous military installations were set up on individual islands of present-day Vanuatu. On the island of Espiritu Santo (a neighbouring island of Pentecost) a military base with landing strips, movie theatres, warehouses, harbours, dry-locks, hospitals, cantinas, bars, radio and radar stations was installed in only 9–12 months. 1944 the crew in this base is supposed to have consisted of up to 100,000 men.[24] During the course of the war, a training center for the allied air forces was set up.[25] There are certain exercises at the beginning of paratrooper training which have a startling similarity to the land-diving ritual. In these the soldiers are required to jump from high wooden towers, with only a line attached to them.[26] On the island of Tanna the contacts between the native people and the military forces were not without consequences. The John-Frum Cult is still active there today, whose members imitate different military parades of various arms of the service.[27] Although there is a report from a native of Espiritu Santo, who thought a god-like creature had floated down to earth after seeing a paratrooper for the first time[28], I’m quite sure that even after the inhabitants of Pentecost had witnessed plane crashes on their coast[29] and have had similar experiences, this had not led them to the invention of the land-diving ritual. Also in the meantime, I have found a description of the custom dating from 1926[30], which proves that it had been exercised since before the second world war.
Jumping texts
Unfortunately, this material that I gained access to is of a completely different nature than the bungee articles. I had to pay special attention to three elements in order to find out if similar backgrounds can be found in these texts.
1. Some of the details of the texts – mainly in French or English – could have lost their clarity during translation.
2. Only one author had written about his own jump.[31] All other authors are merely passive observers. (Margaret Jollys records must be seen as an exception.[32] She stayed in the village Bunlap on many occasions and was regarded as a member of the tribe by the natives. During this time she took an active part in the social activities of the community and was also a participant in one of these rituals. She had to take a passive roll in the ritual like all women of the tribe. They are neither allowed to participate in the building of the scaffold nor are they allowed to jump from it).
3. The texts are mostly of scientific standard frequently quoting from other sources. Although this makes it easier to discern between the authors individual observations and hear-say, the tendency to repeat the given canon as precisely as possible seems to impede an emotional way of expressing one's self. Of course there is also the possibility that the specific use of words in the bungee-texts has been deliberately copied, but a more emotionalised way of expression is more usual found in the tabloid papers. Scientific literature usually endeavours a more or less unified and objective mode of expression.
Land-diving is brought into connection with a legend, from which the earliest available version is as follows:
The legend of this native feast tells of a man married to a woman, who is afraid of conjugal duties and who soon flees into hiding into the bush. The man sets out to look for his wife. The woman realised that she would be discovered sometime and she tried to think something up to wreck her husband. After she was discovered, she climbed into the treetop of a coconut palm. Her husband asked her to climb down and return to the marital hut. The woman didn’t move. The man then started to climb the tree himself so as to force his wife down. She had already tied a liana to her feet and the palm tree and lets him climb up. When she saw that he had nearly reached her, she drops herself. The man follows her, but while she is held by the lianas tied to the tree, he is shattered on the ground.[33]
After telling a version of the story, most of the men add: “But men have learnt women’s tricks and now we jump from the tower and they dance underneath.”[34] Judging by this additional statement, the essential reason for the men of Bunlap to continue with this ritual is the conquering and repeating of a task which in an earlier conflict a woman had already conquered alone. As already mentioned, the land-diving ritual is called gol by the natives. The word gol also means “body”. The tower from which they jump is called tare be gol or “the whole body”. Singular wood planks are called sirintam or “ribs”, which hold the tower's skeleton, lon de gol or “the inner body”, together. A spirit is supposed to breathe life into the tower during the building phase whose presence can be made out through crackling sounds of the wood or through the men's temporarily racing heartbeats. The individual levels where the jumping platforms are attached are named corresponding to various parts of the body, for instance head, eye, shoulder, stomach, knee, or shin. Certain wooden poles of the diving boards are called penis and vaginal lips. Only one author comments on the name for the lianas: airi, which he translates into French as corde tabou.[35] The term taboo goes back to the Polynesian word tupua, which also means “menstruation”.[36] And if the word menstruation" is replaced by the word “female blood”, which is the main element of menstruation, one can easily find a connection between the “female blood-cord" and the umbilical cord. In another respect, the gol also has a connection to a successful vegetable harvest (e.g. yams).[37] In my opinion, the actual connection is not an agricultural fertility ritual, but rather in a jump out of a body. The symbolism of this jump becomes even clearer when it is taken into account, that only nowadays do paediatricians favour a reclining position for child-birth. Almost all other native cultures utilise a vertical position of the mother, in which she kneels, squats or even stands completely upright[38] while giving birth, so that the baby could actually fall onto the ground. The dropping and being held in a gol-jump could also be the definite repetition of an individual earlier experience, i.e. the primal jump during birth.