Viral Mythology

by Marie D. Jones

  In your research into the Dogon, you have found amazing commonalities between their worldview and cosmology and the most cutting-edge science of today. How do you believe they “got” the knowledge that they did?

  LS: The belief of the Dogon priests is that their system of knowledge was imparted to them in ancient times as a kind of civilizing plan by knowledgeable teachers. The Dogon cosmological tradition is a close match for the cosmology associated with a Buddhist stupa, and the Buddhists overtly credit the most “sacred” aspects of their knowledge to a “non-human source.” (See Adrian Snodgrass, The Symbolism of the Stupa, p. 3.)

  We see often such similarities in symbols, imagery, art, architecture, myths, and origin stories among ancient cultures that could not have possibly been in communication with each other the way we are today, with computers and the Internet and social networking. How do you think knowledge, wisdom, and information “went viral,” and was transmitted in ancient times?

  LS: If we go back far enough, this same belief in knowledgeable teachers seems to lie at the heart of many different ancient cultures. Based on that fact, it looks to me as if the knowledge was deliberately imparted in widespread regions, in an effort comparable to what the modern-day Peace Corps does in underdeveloped countries.

  Evidence suggests that cosmology typically p receded written language in ancient cultures, and was transmitted from generation to generation by way of a system of mnemonic symbols, themes, and ritual practices—essentially Jung’s archetypes. My research suggests that many of these symbols and their associated concepts were later adopted as the drawn symbols of the earliest written languages. For example, the base plan of the aligned stupa shrine, which derives from a stick with a circle drawn around it, defines the shape of a sundial—the same shape that came to represent the sun in the hieroglyphs of Egypt, Tibet, and China.

  In support of these viewpoints, I see widespread commonality of important cosmological symbols and terms from culture to culture about 3000 BC, and in how those symbols and concepts carry forward into written language. Cosmological shapes were often employed in very similar ways in the earliest written languages of these cultures. For example, a 10-day week was observed, both in ancient Egypt and in ancient China. In both cultures, the word for week was written with symbols that convey the meaning of “ten days.”

  In retrospect—and contrary to expectation—the earlier system of mnemonic symbols might be seen to have been a more effective mode of transmission of information than the later written word—comparison of similar cosmological traditions suggests that the cultures that did the best job of preserving their tradition were those such as the Dogon, who never actually implemented a system of writing.

  Laird Scranton, a software designer from Albany, New York, is the author of two books on African and Egyptian cosmology and language. His focus is on the study of comparative cosmology, which is the study of the classic myths, symbols, deities, cosmological concepts, rituals, and words of various ancient and modern cultures. His emphasis has been on defining fundamental similarities between the cosmologies of the modern-day Dogon tribe of Mali, ancient Egypt, and Buddhism. His recent studies have extended to the cosmologies and hieroglyphic languages of Tibet and China, with focus on the creation tradition of the priestly Na-Khi tribe. His current project is writing a book on ancient Chinese cosmology and language.

  Fields and Grids

  Science points to the Zero Point Field, a quantum sea of potentiality and infinite information from which all form and matter and energy come from and return to, which we’ve written about extensively in our earlier books and which may be equated with the religious kingdom of heaven—which is described as continuing everything within, yet invisible and all around and through us. Other similar terms come to mind: the Akashic Field, the Book of Life, the Sea of Quintessence, Morphic Fields, and, as we authors call it, the Grid. All of these are theories that involve a “grand, ground source,” as physicist Hal Puthoff once put it, which is the foundation of everything, according to The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe by Lynne McTaggart. This source, which later George Lucas equated with his Force in the Star Wars movies, is a sea of quantum superposition, where everything is waiting to be given form and structure, but exists until then as nothing but potential, or probability. We prefer to envision it as a Grid, because of the multi-dimensionality of our Universe, which theoretical and quantum physicists talk of when they discuss “the multiverse,” “parallel universes,” “M-branes,” “alternate dimensions,” and “bubble universes.”

  Theoretically, we exist in many of these other worlds, experiencing different time lines.

  In our many books, we’ve discussed our visual idea and ongoing theory of the potential infrastructure of reality, which might look like a three-dimensional Grid and contain within it all there was, is, and ever will be, including different levels of reality we might actually be experiencing when we have a mystical, religious, or paranormal encounter. The Grid, like the Zero Point Field, the Akasha, and the Kingdom of Heaven, is invisible, but, as with gravity, which is also invisible, we see the effects and influences of its presence all around us. We just cannot see the cause, at least not in our conscious reality. The collective unconscious operates the information in the Grid, which we access when we have an intuition, inspiration, hunch, or creative idea, or even when we find the solution to a problem we’ve been struggling with. We have this infinite field of timeless wisdom and information to tap into, this quantum sea of potentiality and possibility in which all choices—even the ones not taken—exist.

  Again, the Grid cannot be seen, but its influences and effects can be seen and experienced all around us, as our personal reality, and as the collective reality, and all other realities above and below and beside. We jump from level to level when we dream, get inspired, intuit something, create, and a host of other ways that perhaps our ancestors did as well to access wisdom and knowledge.

  So this Grid, filled with every idea and bit of information possible, every it and bit necessary to become a tree or a cat, build a car or a pyramid, photosynthesize, or engage in single cell division—because, again, it is that eternal data bank of wisdom as Jung suggested—could be the inspiration behind one man’s idea to build a huge monument to honor a God or Goddess, or a living human like a pharaoh. And, just as all of the innovators and creators and inventors of today, they did what no one else thought possible at the time. They, he, or she built the damn thing.

  Maybe the ideas came from the imaginations of men and women, and that is as simple an explanation as we can offer. Ideas spread via word of mouth by travelers, or throughout region after region until an entire continent catches on. They spread in writing and song and symbol. We dream ideas and often access information in dreams that is understood on a subconscious level. Sometimes we dream something into being or dream a solution or an invention or a story plot.

  We think that ancient cultures were sophisticated because they had advanced knowledge of this science or that field of medicine, yet we forget that many of these cultures were still, at the very same time, sacrificing humans and children to Gods and Goddesses, and anthropomorphizing everything in sight, not to mention engaging in strange and primitive rituals and rites that give away their lack of all-around knowledge and understanding. You can be brilliant and stupid at the same time! Today, we see amazing and brilliant minds coming up with ways to travel to Mars and rove about the landscape, create computers that are smaller than our fingertips and almost as fast as the speed of light, build skyscrapers that touch the heavens and bullet trains that link cities, and all sorts of mind-blowing innovations—and yet we are still going to war; killing each other; engaging in intolerant, racist, sexist, homophobic behavior; abusing animals and children and the environment; looting and pillaging and raping. As advanced as we like to think we are, perhaps our future offspring will look back at those behaviors and label us primitive.

  So it is possible to
make huge leaps in science and architecture, medicine and art, and every other good thing while still being a very backward culture as a whole. Understanding that, here again we ask: Are aliens necessary for great leaps in growth and knowledge? Could we have done it on our own simply by being receptive to the potential ideas that were out there to anyone daring enough to think outside the box? And all those stories and images of what sound and appear to be aliens wearing helmets and strange craft zipping about the sky—could our ancestors have actually seen just that, or were they seeing something they couldn’t understand and trying their best to describe it, and the onus of responsibility for interpreting it right or wrong is off them and on us?

  Or were they dreaming and envisioning archetypes that existed deep within their psyches, then sharing them with anyone who would listen?

  There is a ton of evidence to support the ancient astronaut/alien theory, and evidence to debunk it. There is a ton of evidence to support the Field/Grid theory, and evidence against it. There is a ton of evidence to support good old human ingenuity, drive, and ambition, and evidence counter to it.

  If you ask us, the only way to know for sure is to invent a time machine, go back thousands of years, and look with our own eyes. When that becomes possible, we’ll write a book on it. (Wait a second—we already did!)

  Aliens or ??? Look at the following three artifacts. Evidence of ancient aliens, or something else? Turn to page 242 to see what these are!

  Figure 7-1: Image courtesy of WikiCommons.

  Figure 7-2: Image courtesy of Richard Croft.

  Figure 7-3: Image courtesy of DedaloNur.

  Chapter 8

  The Stories of Our Lives: How Today’s Ideas Will Become Tomorrow’s Viral Mythology

  You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I’ve only ever had one.

  —Albert Einstein

  It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.

  —Aristotle

  Citizens of the nation: I shall not try to conceal the gravity of the situation that confronts the country, nor the concern of your government in protecting the lives and property of its people...we must continue the performance of our duties each and every one of us, so that we may confront this destructive adversary with a nation united, courageous, and consecrated to the preservation of human supremacy on this earth....

  —From Mercury Theatre on Air, War of the Worlds, 1938

  On Sunday, October 30, at 8 p.m., something happened that would send people all over the country into a panic. The year was 1938, and a radio broadcast came over the airwaves that would shock its listeners into running for the hills—well, those who weren’t able to tune in from the start and hear Orson Welles say that he, on behalf of the Mercury Theatre on the Air, was about to present War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, for their listening pleasure. The broadcast was done in a serious tone, with intense music and official sounding news bulletins. But many listeners tuned in a bit later, when Welles was past the introduction and deep into Wells’s story of a Martian invasion on U.S. shores—and took it seriously.

  Nuttiness ensued.

  Thousands of people called into their local radio stations, police stations, and newspaper offices. Many people in the New England area actually loaded up their cars with kids and a few goods they could grab, and fled the region. People flocked into local churches to pray and await imminent death. There were alleged reports of people having heart attacks, miscarriages, and early births. The panic was widespread as more and more people became hysterical, thinking the Martian invasion was real.

  Once word got out that it wasn’t real, and was just a pre-Halloween radio show meant to entertain, people became outraged and threatened to sue the program, and many people expressed their anger at Orson Welles for causing the panic.

  But what had really happened was something that happens all the time: People got a piece of information, made an assumption before getting all the information, and reacted accordingly.

  Mob rule. Hysteria. Riots in the streets. Contagious panic. Collective fear.

  As popular singer Adele might have sang during the chaos, “Rumor Has It....”

  Cut to 2013 and all over the Internet, across social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, the story is spreading like wildfire of an actual angel dressed in priestly clothing that turned up out of thin air at a terrible auto accident, and blessed the victims before helping rescue workers. Then he vanished into thin air, just the way he arrived. Everyone was flummoxed. Who was this mystery priest—this unidentified angel? The word angel, in fact, was everywhere, even before people took a breath long enough to wait for the real story to emerge.

  There really was a real priest there at the scene. He just didn’t want a lot of fuss made over his actions. His name was Reverend Patrick Dowling, from the Diocese of Jefferson County, Missouri, and he just did what God would have expected of him: He absolved and anointed the victim, 19-year-old Katie Lentz, and then got out of the way to let rescuers do their job. Simple.

  Just a few months before that, it seemed the entire nation was waiting breathlessly, anxiety mounting, collectively frenzied as social network sites BLEW UP with news of its coming—waiting and waiting, posting and waiting—until finally the moment came, when the SyFy Channel aired the premiere of Sharknado, starring Tara Reid and Ian Ziering, and a host of other less-than-B-list stars. The 90-minute movie was awful, to say the least, but it didn’t matter, because so many people tuned in that a sequel was ordered immediately. (In the original, the sharknado destroys L.A. The sequel moves to New York. Watch out Chicago—you’re next.)

  But it wasn’t the movie that is important here. It did, indeed, suck so badly, it would have scored a negative 10 on the list of the 10 worst films ever made. What was so utterly stunning to watch was the absolutely insane hype that spread like wildfire over Twitter and Facebook—any marketing firm’s dream—causing record-breaking numbers of posts that some say should have been reserved for major world events, like assassinations of presidents and terrorist attacks. Though it is highly doubtful that the next Sharknado will have that same effect, now that the novelty has worn off. But why?

  Why did so many people buy into the viral spread of this ridiculous campy motion picture?

  Going Viral

  In the case of viral ideas, there may indeed be reasons why certain ones thrive, while others can barely survive.

  When Malcolm Gladwell’s highly influential The Tipping Point (see Chapter 1) set the marketing world on fire, talking of the importance of “influencers” as the responsible parties for the contagious spread of ideas and innovations, he may have left a big chunk out of the viral equation. A newer book, published in 2012, called Everything Is Obvious: How Common Sense Fails Us by Duncan J. Watts, a professor of sociology at Columbia University, posits that influencers are not anywhere near as important as the receivers, the audience, and for an idea to go viral, that audience, especially when it comes to social networking, has to be enthusiastic or approving of the idea presented. And, he argues, rarely does common sense enter the picture.

  Watts found that although influencers are one end of the yardstick—and are indeed responsible for igniting the match that sets an idea viral and makes it contagious—what allows it to spread like wildfire is the receptivity of the people who then post, tag, spread, share, and endorse. If they collectively do not respond, the idea could hit a wall. So whereas Watts, in his research, does admit that highly influential people are more likely to trigger a social epidemic, it’s the receptors that make or break it, and the more easily influenced those receptors are, the wider the idea spreads. Often, subject matter, timing, and the topic of the idea or innovation counts as much, too, as an idea may go viral, but again may hit a wall at some point if the subject isn’t one that has widespread appeal and the ability to evoke collective enthusiasm (or repulsion, as what goes viral isn’t always positive; just see the spider bite posts o
n Facebook to know what we mean!).

  So, why do some ideas take on a viral quality and others fall by the wayside?

  It may be all in the presentation, and the power of persuasion. Say you are a vacuum cleaner salesman. You go door to door, trying to sell your product by telling people all its good qualities and how this hose is better than the old hose, and the floor settings contain two new ones over last year’s model, and look—it comes in green, too. You sell one or two if you’re lucky. Your colleague goes door to door and instead asks if their cat has ever emptied its food bowl onto the carpeting, or if the lady of the house has ever dropped coffee grounds on the floor, and then sets out to “solve a problem” by telling all the reasons why the vacuum can make the customer’s life so much better. He or she sells 10 in one day.

  One tries to sell on common sense, the other on emotional and personal impact.

  Getting Contagious

  According to Jonah Berger, assistant professor of marketing at Wharton School of Business, there are specific ways to make an idea or any kind of content or information viral, and the secret is in getting contagious. In a research paper he wrote with Katy Milkman called “What Makes Online Content Go Viral?” Berger came up with the following:

  1. Positive content is more viral than negative content. Yes, even in today’s environment of “if it bleeds, it leads,” we tend to spread further those things that make us feel better.

  2. Content that evokes any high arousal emotion is more viral than content without emotion. If it makes you feel something, whether fear, anger, or joy, and feel it strongly, you are more likely to respond, repost, re-tweet, and repeat.