Ilya Soloveychik, PhD in Computer Science, former Professor of Statistics at Hebrew University and postdoctoral researcher at Harvard School of Engineering

The author has devoted over 30 years to the study of religions and their connection with the human psyche, including 5 years of study at leading Yeshivas in Israel. His deep background in Biblical studies, ancient history, and close familiarity with orthodox religions make him uniquely qualified to tell a story that unifies these diverse branches of science and spiritual practice into a single narrative about the developing human psyche. His extensive experience in education and the exact sciences allows him to transform this complex and diverse body of knowledge into a clear, colorful, and logical story that captures the attention and inspires the general audience.

We live in an age of identity crisis. Most people in the Western world are trying to find their purpose in life, make sense of it, and understand the causes of the accelerating changes around them. The problem is exacerbated by the rapid development of AI, which threatens to displace millions of jobs, making the future unpredictable and unsettling. This is clearly reflected in the growing number of people suffering from neuroses, depression, and other psychological disorders. As people search for meaningful guidance and solutions to these modern challenges, Lucid questions the status quo. By offering a compelling alternative to the conventional narrative about the evolution of the mind and psyche – their structure and functions – this TV show helps the audience make sense of the world around them and forge a deeper connection with their own psyche.

The modern evolutionary narrative holds that behaviorally modern Homo sapiens have undergone little change since their exodus from Africa some 100,000–70,000 years ago – aside from cosmetic traits such as eye color or lactose tolerance. However, this assumption is seriously challenged by the evident cognitive and emotional development of humankind over the past tens of thousands of years, which has given rise to the entire spectrum of technological and spiritual achievements and emergence of religions that define our world. To this day, there is no cohesive theory that explains or precisely tracks the evolution of the human psyche in sufficient detail.

Lucid reexamines and reinterprets archaeological findings from the Upper Paleolithic onward, including cave paintings, figurines, megalithic structures, ornaments, burials, and early written sources preserving Stone Age memories. This fresh perspective offers a radically different narrative about the development of human language, emergence and evolution of consciousness, and the origins and transformation of religions, tracing their impact from ancient times to the modern era.

Lucid aims to radically shift the way people perceive their own psyche. It shows how symbolic cognition and language initially shaped the unconscious mind. The series brings to life the ideas of Freud and Jung through a captivating journey across time and space, visiting Stone Age sites that preserve the earliest traces of the deep structures of the human psyche. The Lucid TV series journeys through Ice Age Europe, from the caves of Swabian Jura in Germany to those of Occitanie, Dordogne, and Cantabria in France and Spain, showcasing the earliest art created by European Homo sapiens. Throughout, Ilya Soloveychik supports his interpretations of the psyche’s development with ancestral memories preserved in myths and legends.

Lucid demonstrates an extensive collection of artifacts in natural history and art museums worldwide. Ilya explains the origins and timing of shamanism, reasons behind creating cave paintings and carving statues and figurines with exaggerated sexual features, and the significance of ancient burial practices, where individuals were often adorned with jewelry crafted from only special types of bone and shell. With the end of the Ice Age and the beginning of the Holocene, the narrative moves to the Fertile Crescent, tracing the development of sedentary Homo Sapiens – their skull cults, early cities, temples, and, most notably, megalithic constructions in regions such as present-day Turkey and Greece.

To this day, no consistent explanation exists for why such massive structures – requiring thousands of participants – were built long before the advent of agriculture. Why do these monuments feature such an abundance of sexual symbols and animal imagery? What functions did they serve? Lucid presents a new theory that addresses these questions and offers a comprehensive account of how, when, and why religions emerged. Why did ancient people feel such an urgent need for gods and myths, to the extent that they offered precious cattle – and at times even human lives – in sacrifice? What changed with the advent of the Axial Age, when polytheistic religions collapsed and gave way to philosophy and monotheism?

With these new ways of seeing the world, a new era begins. The Common Era introduces a shift in values and in the structure of human consciousness itself. These psychological changes have enabled extraordinary technological progress and creativity in science and the arts. Yet this progress came at the cost of losing a deep sense of spirituality. Following in the footsteps of the Biblical prophets, we feel that God has abandoned us. In search of the lost divine, humanity has produced great paintings, sculptures, music, and literature – yet the empty space remained unfilled. Will the other Biblical prophecies come true? What can offer salvation in an age of despair and epidemics of depression? Where will our evolving psyche lead us next? How might rapidly developing artificial intelligence affect us – not just by taking our jobs, but by reshaping our inner world at its very core?