Viral Mythology Read online

  VIRAL

  MYTHOLOGY

  * * *

  HOW THE TRUTH OF THE ANCIENTS WAS ENCODED AND PASSED DOWN THROUGH LEGEND, ART, AND ARCHITECTURE

  * * *

  MARIE D. JONES and LARRY FLAXMAN

  Copyright ©2014 by Marie D. Jones and Larry Flaxman

  All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press.

  Unless otherwise indicated, images are in the public domain.

  VIRAL MYTHOLOGY

  EDITED BY JODI BRANDON

  TYPESET BY EILEEN MUNSON

  Cover design by Zoe Shtorm

  Printed in the U.S.A.

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  Pompton Plains, NJ 07444

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

  Jones, Marie D., 1961-

  Viral mythology : how the truth of the ancients was encoded and passed down through legend, art, and architecture / Marie Jones, Larry Flaxman. -- 1

  pages cm

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  Summary: “Behind every myth, fairy tale, and legend--hidden within the art, song, and structures of ancient times--is an encoded layer of wisdom, science, and truth passed down throughout history. This book will examine how information went “viral” long before the Internet, and served as the foundation for mythology, sacred architecture, and symbolic imagery throughout the ancient world”-- Provided by publisher.

  ISBN 978-1-60163-295-1 (paperback) -- ISBN 978-1-60163-496-2 (ebook) 1. Myth. 2. Mythology. I. Flaxman, Larry. II. Title.

  BL304.J66 2014

  201’.3--dc23

  2013040943

  This book is dedicated to

  Max Jones and Mary Essa Flaxman.

  The information of the past and present

  is theirs to build a better future with.

  May they use it well.

  Acknowledgments

  Marie and Larry would like to acknowledge Lisa Hagan, our amazing agent, who is a superhero who makes things happen! Thank you, Lisa, for everything! To Michael and Laurie Pye and the team at New Page Books, you guys ROCK. Thanks for another chance to spread our gospel and have fun doing it! To the amazing team at Warwick Associates, you make us look so good! To all the people who contributed to this book, we appreciate your time and insights more than we can say. And to our fans and followers and friends and radio hosts and supporters, and even our enemies, you guys make it all worthwhile; we thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

  Marie wishes to also thank:

  To my mom, Milly, who never ceases to be there for me and is always supportive and loving, the best things a mom could ever be. What would I do without you? And to my dad, John, who watches from heaven, smiling, thanks for all you instilled in me and taught me. To my sister and best friend, Angella, you are my support column and confidante and so much more! To my brother, John, thanks for all your humor and craziness! To my dear friends, my writer colleagues, and my Wahines, what would I do without any of you?

  Let me once again thank Larry Flaxman, for the long conversations that lead to new ideas, for the laughs, the friendship, the sad times we picked each other up, the happy times we bubbled over with excitement, for the long and frustrating periods of hard work, and then waiting for the payoffs, for pushing me to think deeper and wider and bigger and challenging me to do better and be a better person, and for all the amazing good times that await us as we venture forth into new territory. I treasure it all, Larry. Are you sick of me yet? There is so much more to come!

  And to my son, Max, who is my universe, my sun, my moon, my heart, and my soul. Everything I do, I do it for you.

  Larry would like to thank:

  There are so many amazing people in my life that attempting to cram them all into a few paragraphs is impossible. With that being said, please know that I am eternally grateful, and would like to apologize in advance if I have failed to mention your name.

  Firstly, I would like to thank my mom, Sheila, and my dad, Norman, for providing such a loving, nurturing childhood and upbringing. Those formative years have absolutely instilled in me the qualities and traits that have served to mold and form me into the man I am today. I am so incredibly honored to be your son and learn from the best. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss seeing or hearing your voices. I love you both more than words, and look forward to the day that we will be reunited in “The Grid.”

  I would also like to thank my wife, Emily, for understanding (and tolerating!) my often-hectic working hours and crazy travel schedule. I can’t even imagine how difficult it must be!

  In addition, I am extremely thankful to all of my friends, fans, and associates that provide me with advice, comments, ideas, and motivation. You folks make the long hours and sleepless nights worthwhile!

  Marie D. Jones, I don’t even know where to start. I look back over the last six years and continue to be amazed at what we have been able to accomplish together. We absolutely make one hell of a team! Despite both experiencing profound loss last year, we have managed to rise above, and motivate, inspire, and encourage not only others, but each other. I am so incredibly thankful that you are in my life. You are truly a wonderful friend, and I am so honored to not only call you my friend, but to work exclusively with you. My mom always used to say, “To health, wealth, and happiness!” and I couldn’t agree more.

  So this brings us to the last and most significant person that I would like to thank: my daughter, Mary Essa. I am so proud to call you my daughter. Words cannot even describe how much you mean to me. Every time I look in your eyes I see a window to my own soul. Your sense of wonderment mirrors and parallels my own, and I look forward to many more exciting adventures with you. I love you more than life itself!

  Contents

  Foreword by Heather Lynn, PhD

  Prologue

  Introduction: Going Viral

  Chapter 1:

  Information, Please: How We Spread It, How We Get It

  Chapter 2:

  Every Picture Tells a Story (Don’t It?): Image, Art, and Symbol

  Chapter 3:

  Of Gods and Goddesses: The Rise of the Written Word

  Chapter 4:

  Once Upon a Time: Story, Lore, and Legend

  Chapter 5:

  Archeoenigmas: Things out of Time and Place

  Chapter 6:

  Hidden Wisdom, Secret Truths

  Chapter 7:

  Outsourced: Ancient Aliens, Invisible Fields, and Other Outside Information Sources

  Chapter 8:

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

  Conclusion

  Bibliography

  Index

  About the Authors

  Foreword

  Collective Consciousness and Cloud Computing by Heather Lynn, PhD

  Consider for a moment a smartphone, laptop, and a desktop computer. Though individually different in appearance and function, these devices can often communicate with one another. In recent years, there has been a move toward cloud computing, whereby
varying electronic devices can share and retrieve data through a remote source. In my point of view, this is somewhat analogous to the way information seemed to “go viral” among humans during ancient times. I call it the “Cosmic Cloud Computing” theory. However, by only looking at the material evidence that is found in the archaeological record, we may actually limit our understanding of how information spread in the ancient world.

  First, we must establish how truly limited our knowledge of history is. Though primary schools may imply otherwise, our narrative of ancient cultures has only recently been written. Apart from a handful of religious texts, comparably few primary sources exist in the historical record about the lives and cultures of some of the earliest civilizations. Our current understanding of these civilizations is due in large part to the careful reconstruction of evidence from excavations and the subsequent analysis of artifacts. The greatest majority of this research has only been in the past few hundred years—just a speck on the time line of the history of man.

  Originally seen as a hobby, antiquarianism, as it was initially called, has been around since at least the first millennium BCE, as noted in ancient Greek texts that ponder lost technologies based on stone. Inquiry into the past has likely always been a part of human interests. People have searched for missing treasures and artifacts since prehistory and have routinely looted graves. However, the transformation of this informal activity into a science did not take place until the 17th and 18th centuries CE.

  The first systematic archaeological excavations are considered to have taken place in the 18th century, beginning with three significant sites: the Roman cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii in 1738, Thomas Jefferson’s excavations in Virginia in 1784, and Napoleon’s famous Egyptian excavations in 1798. The study of these sites eventually led to a boon of discoveries in the years ahead, from the Sumerian discoveries in 1899 to the discoveries of the Minoan, Olmec, and so on.

  Organizational efforts started to occur with the formation of antiquarian societies in the 19th century. Many of these societies observed basic guidelines regarding the classification of artifacts, the use of field notes and photography to record excavations, and the publication of results. It is also in these societies that we see the beginning of cooperative excavation and concern for the rights of indigenous people.

  Upon reflection, it becomes shockingly apparent just how new archaeology is. The science of archaeology and related discoveries hit critical mass in the early part of the 20th century and has snowballed ever since. This has led to some of the most important and magnificent archaeological discoveries ever made. Still, archaeology continues to develop both as a science and as a profession, as does our understanding of our collective past. So how does archaeology explain the transmission of common themes in myths, legends, art, structures, and belief systems of the ancient world? Not adequately and certainly not conclusively. As our knowledge of the past is continuously changing, so are our theories and explanations.

  The best place to begin examining the transmission of communication in ancient history is in Mesopotamia. This encompasses the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now Iraq. By at least the fourth millennium BCE, the first urban cultures started to form. These early civilizations included the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. A substantial amount of knowledge has been gained from these civilizations due to their meticulous record-keeping.

  In Mesopotamia, as well as in Egypt, there was a quickening of cultural development and a population increase in the last centuries of the fourth millennium BCE. In a blink of an eye (about 300 years), we see complex structures, theologies, and written languages emerge. The reasons for this quickening remain a mystery and are still being debated by scholars. However, one school of thought is that advances in these civilizations were brought about by incursions of people from Western Asia. Some researchers believe in the existence of an “Asiatic Invasion” that transformed an earlier African culture and established the foundations on which the dynastic state was brought about. However, this view has no firm support in the archaeological record. This is not to imply that there was no contact. There is little doubt about the cultural relations between Egypt and Western Asia. Many researchers believe that relationships in these regions were greatly intensified over this short amount of time due to increased contact brought about by the development of sturdier seagoing ships.

  Another explanation for the rise of civilization in both Mesopotamia and Egypt is the irrigation hypothesis. This theory suggests that competition for water resources increased the need for laborers and spurred the development of a bureaucracy to manage the growing labor force. This ultimately led to the rise of a state superstructure evident in the building of temples and administrative centers. Increasing centralization of economic activity demanded the development of a complex recording system, as we find in the Sumerian cylinder seals and the thousands of cuneiform tablets that record business transactions of local and long-distance trade.

  In turn, the need for job specialization such as professional scribes, craftsmen, managers, priests, and others at high levels of government illustrates the necessary shift from the use of tribal laws toward more centralized state governance. This shift is often referred to as the “Urban Revolution” and could be responsible for creating a more unified culture in the region.

  These seem like logical theories to explain how information could travel among a diverse cross-section of people. That is, until you consider that at approximately the same time on the other side of the globe, other cultures experienced similar rapid advancements in technology, art, and society. Take the Olmec, for example. According to the archeological record, the Olmec civilization just suddenly appeared from around 1200 BCE. There seems to have been no gradual sequence of local growth in the region. Clearly there has been no simple explanation for Olmec origins or their evolution. What we do know is that it expanded rapidly between 1200 BCE and 800 BCE, and that the Olmec symbols and artifacts are present in several distinct areas such as Honduras and Costa Rica. Did artistic and creative elements of Olmec civilization develop somewhere else and get transported to Mexico?

  Some researchers believe this may be the case, and have even pointed out some similarities in art and myths between Mesoamerican and Mesopotamian culture. A minority of them have theorized that the spread of information in these regions was so rapid that an invisible hand of an invading civilization must have been responsible. However, this could be viewed as too speculative or presumptuous because, for as many similarities as we may find, there are just as many, if not more, differences. For example, many ancient writing systems were similarly pictographic, but upon in-depth study, clear differences can be identified.

  So what does archaeology teach us about the spread of information in the ancient world? Not as much as mainstream archaeologists and historians would have us believe. Ultimately, the majority of history is still a mystery. According to Thomas Edison, “We don’t know one-millionth of one percent about anything.” I would venture to say that this is a fair assessment. We can only gain a more holistic understanding of human history by using an interdisciplinary approach to study, like what is being done by Marie D. Jones and Larry Flaxman in this book. My passion for cooperative research is why my personal theory on the viral transmission of communication in ancient history leans more in the direction of the spiritual or philosophical, rather than purely archaeological.

  This leads me to my personal theory of “Cosmic Cloud Computing.” Admittedly not entirely supported by the archaeological record, it is partially supported across a number of other fields such as metaphysics, psychology, biology, and quantum theory. Rene Descartes believed there was only one conscious mind. Carl Jung expanded on this thought by introducing the concept of the collective unconscious. Modern scientists, such as Rupert Sheldrake, have suggested that nature, in general, has memory that can be described as telepathic. All of these theories point to the idea that there is interconnected
ness among all living things and possible collective memories within each species.

  Aristotle said, “Nature operates in the shortest way possible.” Rather than trying to reconstruct the past by filling in the blanks, let’s use Occam’s razor to dissect the complex creations of past civilizations and try to recognize basic underlying concepts. Take the example of the “Golden Rule.” Most are familiar with this basic ethical tenet. It tells us to treat people how we would like to be treated. Following is a table that illustrates some of the numerous recorded versions of this tenet, spanning cultures, time, and geography.

  The Universality of the Golden Rule

  Confucianism

  “What you don’t want done to yourself, don’t do to others.”

  —Analects 15:23

  Buddhism

  “Hurt not others with that pains thyself.”

  —Udana-Varga 5: 18

  Hinduism

  “Do naught to other which if done to thee would cause thee pain.”

  —Mahabharata 5:1517

  Zoroastrianism

  “Do not do unto others all that which is not well for oneself.”

  —Shayast-na-Shayast 13:29

  Ancient

  “That which you hate to be done to you, do not do to another.”

  Egyptian

  —The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant, 109–110, translated from a Late Period (c. 664 BC–323 BC) Egyptian papyrus