Let's think about this primal immersive event. The main elements are contained space and symbols representing life activities. This is an abstract space. It exists and has meaning because it is different from normal life. It is a space at once physical in the grandiosity of the cave and immaterial in the glyphs. However the intention is to alter the awareness of the group or individual. The result occurs not in the immersive space but upon return to normal life. It is an imprint and it is permanent.

Several other complex factors may have been in operation in this primal past. Knowing the natural tendencies of humans to groupings of families, tribes, nations and so forth one must assume a social order of some sort. Within this order there is indeed repeated, ritual behavior in the form of dance, various solar commemorations, courtship, marriage and so forth. In our modern religious practices these are fundamental. I cannot imagine a young couple crawling down into a cave to be married in an immersive glyph environment. It seems inappropriate, even in a primal past. No, I believe the descent into immersion was an event unto itself.

What was the awareness one returned with? We have no way of knowing. My sense is that humanity discovered an abstract universe of thought different from normal life. The presentation of the animal glyphs, the hunters and so forth in the immersive environment was not the main event. It is a mistake to fetishize the art object/ event while eschewing the experience which powers it. this is the dilemma we face at the end of the 20th century. Our society in America and indeed the world cries out for transformative situations. This is the power intrinsic to the art experience. What we get instead is the display of commodities, the latest fashions in art to purchase and large scale entertainment events. The artists is given one choice become a commodity or perish. Understand this, a tranformative event is not entertainment.