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The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.           
Black Elk

Every society has its own defining, foundation myths that provide a sense of distinctiveness. For the Christian world that cornerstone myth is the Garden of Eden, as told in the book of Genesis. The power in any myth lies in the universality of the themes that allow the reader a glimpse of their own reflection in the story. The Garden myth also serves as a Creation myth, and as such provides an understanding of the evolving growth process in the life of a human. Combine the role of mirror with the creative function and you are left with the real Garden story as a tale of the neurological unfolding of the human brain/psyche, in which Adam and Eve represent the masculine and feminine lobes of the cerebral cortex.

The early Christians knew that the Scriptures, whether written in Hebrew or Greek, were allegories, parables or fables based on the human body, fearfully and wonderfully made’.
George W. Carey

Though the explosive topic of allegory deserves an essay alone, suffice it to say Adam and Eve are in good allegorical company; the ‘Sacred’ journey begins at the base of the spine, at the sacrum and travels up the spine through the land of ‘milk and honey’; the white core of the pituitary gland and the yellow of the pineal. And the holy grail represents the stem-shaped ventricle, filled with liquid to cushion the two lobes of the cerebral cortex. The reason for the use of allegory could be as simple as the need to provide an outer expression for an inner phenomenon, for the purpose of storytelling.

To the ancients it was soul and not body that held the essential being of existence; the one uppermost objective in religious literature was to devise ways to represent the pilgrimage of the soul.    
Alvin John Sails

In the animal kingdom, leaving the nest can be measured in weeks. For humans this can take years, since the development of the child’s brain is a drawn out, three staged process that begins in the cerebellum, progresses to the cerebral cortex, and finally in the teen years, includes the frontal lobes. The cerebellum, which triples in size in the first year, is located at the back of the brain, thus providing protection and direct access to the brain stem, and as a self sufficient unit, is often referred to as the ‘little’ or ‘animal’ brain. It is composed of three interconnecting lobes in one. It is this state of ‘oneness’ that connects the child to a state of godliness, as witnessed in the eyes of a smiling child. (rendering an atheist someone who hates kids).

Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden, not because they disobeyed God’s rules, but because when self-consciousness was born, they could no longer live in childlike dependency.
John Shelby Spong

At age nine for girls and eleven for boys, the split cerebral cortex takes over. In Garden symbolism this is the point when Eve is conceived of Adam’s rib. It is this moment of duality that ushers in self- consciousness and is the beginning of the end for life in the Garden, since expulsion is merely a natural extension of this new duality, and needs no sinful act or disobedience.

Kabbalists, who can claim the original version of the Garden (neurological), maintain instead of punishment, expulsion represents an ‘opportunity’. Biblical scholar/allegorist Dr. George W. Carey points to the 21^st letter in the Hebrew alphabet ‘Schin’ which means to ‘fall short of completeness or understanding wisdom’, leaving the only sin Adam and Eve guilty of is an incompleteness.

In truth sin is just a measuring stick. And the true focus should be upon remedying the gap through growth back to a state of oneness, know thyself, wisdom.   
Fredrich Neitzsche 

The first step in Jung’s Individuation process begins with a separation from the soul.  Again Dr.  Carey refers to the cerebellum as ‘the seat of the soul’. Although Jung doesn’t make the Garden, connection, it is this neurological development, when the cerebral cortex assumes consciousness from the cerebellum, that this separation occurs. Jungians speak of some magical departure of the soul from the body, but the soul is a state of being, an essence, and remains in place, to be reconnected with, or better still re-engaged, as the second step of the journey. Proof the soul doesn’t wander far can be seen in the arts especially, where the creation becomes a vehicle for a soul connection.

The only path to peace and happiness comes from looking within, from learning where our imbalances lie and bringing these areas back into balance and harmony.   
Grey Wolf

There are no recorded statements in Genesis of the reaction of Adam and Eve to expulsion. There exists however an ancient book entitled ‘The Life of Adam and Eve’, thought to be Judean or Egyptian, the opening of which, in every other line either one of them is in tears. Expulsion from the Garden can take a back seat only to the earlier shock of expulsion from the womb, but unlike with the womb, the memory of this eviction is retained in the subconscious, and serves to affect behaviour, personality, balance in the psyche, and hopefully will act as motivation for a return. 

Since there are two opposing passive and aggressive sides to the cortex/psyche, there will be two conflicting reactions to expulsion experienced by the individual. One reaction will be a form of indignation, and the other a despair, or any combination depending upon the imbalance in the psyche. This is confirmed in Genesis when God promises sorrow for Eve.

Bitterness: Anger that forgot where it came from.  
Alain de Bottom

But the greatest shock of what amounts to a separation from the spiritual world, can be seen in the incredible fact this society in no way acknowledges this dramatic moment in the child’s development, leaving children with an inner bitterness they can’t even identify the source of.

Ironically this was how the Orthodox version of the myth was designed, to include the notion of sin judgment and guilt. A guilt which provides a buffer that oddly enough dampens the shock of separation. Perhaps along the lines of having no one but oneself, as a sinner, to blame.

Jesus said unto him; When you make the two one and make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside and the above like the below, and that you might make the male and female be one and the same, so that the male might not be male nor the female be female…then you shall enter the kingdom.    
Gospel of Thomas saying 22

All of this neurological referencing and at the end of the tale, awaiting at the gates of Eden is the pure symbol of a fiery sword, which it would appear is guarding against re-entry. But this particular sword turns in all directions and instead should be taken as a key to getting back in. From the Gospel of Thomas comes the promise of heaven for those who can turn ‘two into one’, and make the masculine into feminine and visa versa. This whole directive could be viewed as a guideline for meditation, corresponding to the yin/yang symbol of balance with its opposing dots. Turning ‘two into one’ is the act of reversing the Garden experience where one was turned into two, and becomes a formula for a return.

The Thomas line goes on to include above, below, inside and outside. It is these directional parameters that correspond to the sword that turns in every direction.

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has torn down the wall of hostility by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man in the place of two, so making peace, and reconciling both of them to God in one body through the cross by which he extinguished the hostility. Ephesians 2:15

In the New Testament the sword is replaced by the cross and Paul speaks of the same ‘two into one’, but this time with a cross, to eliminate the hostility. This is the same hostility generated at the moment of expulsion. Thomas promises heaven and Paul promises peace. A return to the Garden is no different; its all about a spiritual re-connection made.

The real issue with Paul’s promise in Ephesians however, is the call to extinguish the hostility. That hostility is the fuel that keeps the fiery sword at the Gates of Eden aflame, if properly identified and channelled.

If one does not understand how the body that he wears came to be, he will perish with it…whoever does not understand how he came will not understand how he will go… 
Gospel of Thomas

Jung referred to the individuation process as a second half of life endeavour. When in fact the return to the Garden begins at the moment of expulsion and those most affected by getting off on the right foot, on this journey, for whom the impact is the most immediate, and who if taught an awareness of the universal truth, transcending race and religion, would understand how their psyches were designed, in the Garden of Eden. In aboriginal societies it was initiation rituals that softened the shock of expulsion, and in Christian society it was the blanket of guilt. One is gone and the other is fading fast, leaving teen suicides in its wake, and increased opioid usage.

The repercussions of a new awareness would be both spiritual and social. As for the spiritual, even with this information it still requires a life time of focus. A life Plato would agree ‘worth living’.

This suggests that the new mythology, which is to be of the whole human race, the old New Eastern desacrilization of nature by way of the doctrine of the Fall, will have been rejected.
Joseph Campbell 

In his vehement rebuttal of the Fall version of the Garden, Joseph Campbell fails to recognize the plausible second option, which in its neurological interpretation would satisfy a world format, since the science transcends any and all belief. And instead of any new mythology, all that is needed is a return to the original Garden myth, with a renewed outlook.