Mental restlessness

Still in South America, the Mayas had an official and obligatory astrology system. Every child was born and given a specific calendar. This calendar would tell the child its future: when he would find a job, when he would get married, when he would be injured, when he would die. The calendar would be sung to the child whilste still in its craddle, he would learn it by heart and he himself would then sing it to know  at what moment of his existance he is.
 This horoscopic system used to work quite well as the Mayan astrologists would make sure that some dates would coincide. If a young man had in his song a meeting with a certain girl a certain day this event would happen as the girl in question would have been told the same song in her horoscopic life song. The same thing would apply for buisness transactions: If a part of the song announced that one would buy a house that day, the seller of the house would have the obligation of selling his house on that day. If a fight was to break out on a certain day, the participants would be informed ahead of time.
 Everything worked out perfectly, the system reinforced itself. The wars were announced and perfectly detailed. One would know the winners and the astrologists would inform how many casualties there would be after the battle. If the number of casualties didnt reach the predicted number the prisonners would be slain.
 These horoscopes seemed to really facilitate life. Nothing was left down to luck. Nobody was afraid of the next day. The astrologists would count every life from start to finish.

 Everyone knew where their life led, and where the other's life led. The Mayas were so sure about their predictions that they even predicted...  the end of the world. This would happen on the day of the 10th century which nowadays would be called the christian era. The Mayan astrologists all agreed on the exact hour. This frightened so many citizens that rather then endure the catastrophe, the men set the towns on fire, killed themselves and their families then commited suicide. The small amaount of survivors would then live in the plains.
 Although this may seem absurd, this civilisation was far from being the act of simplistic individuals. The Maya's knew of the zerio, the wheel, they built roads; their calendar, with its 13 month system was much more precise than ours.
 When the Spanish arrived in Yucata in the XVI century, they didnt even have the satisfaction of destroying the glorious mayan civilisation since this one had already self destructed long ago.
 

 A little something that does makes historians smile though is the fact that in our days, there are still some indians claim to be of Mayan decendance (called the "Lacandon"). The lacandon children sing an ancient song telling the story about of a life... no one knows its precise meaning.

 In the 1970s two american ethnologues discovered a primitive tribe in Malasia called the Senois. These people organised their lives around their dreams. Hense were called the "dream people".
 Every morning during breakfast, around the fire, everone only spoke about their dream of the previous night. If a Senoi had dreamt about being mean to someone, he had to offer a gift to the offended party. If he had dreamt being hurt by someone, that certain person had to apologise and give him a gift to be forgiven.
 In the Senois tribe, the dream world was richer intellectualy then the real world. If a child had dreamt that he had seen a tiger and had run away, the tribespeople would tell the child to dream of the tiger again the next night, to fight with him, and to kill him. The wisemen would teach him how to do so. If the child failed to kill the tiger, the whole tribe would reprimand him.

 In the Senois value system, if one dreamt of sexual relations this person would have to reach an orgasm and then go thank the lover with a gift. If faced with an adversary that made a dream a nightmare, one had to vanquish him/her in the dream and ask for a gift in reality so as to become friends.
 The dream that was the most saught, however, was the dream of flight. For a child to announce that he had flew for a first time was just like being christned. He would be given many gifts and the tribe would try and explain how to fly further towards unknown lands and how to bring back exotic gifts.
 The Senois left a deep impression on the occidental ethnologues. This society knew not of violence or mental illness. It was a society that was totaly stress-free and was without any ambition of military conquest. The tribe only produced the strict minimum for survival.
 The Senois disapeared when a part of the forest where they inhabitted was subject to land clearance. However, we could all start to apply their knowledge. Firstly, acknowledge the dream of your previous night, name it, date it. Then, speak of your dream with your family or friends... at breakfast for example.
 Try and push yourself to set the rules for a dream world. Before going to sleep try and make mountains grow, modify the colour of the sky, explore unkown lands, meet any animal...
 In dreams, everyone is free. The first test for a dream world is to manage to fly away. Spread your arms, glide, dive, go back up: everything is possible.

 The dream world demands a progressive learning curve. The number of hours you "fly" bring confidence and the ability to express oneself. Children only need 5 weeks to manage to control their dreams. For adults, many months are sometimes necessary...