McCauley
05-13-2014, 06:32 PM
This is something I've been thinking about for a good while. If you wanted to put it in spiritual or superstitious terms, you'd say "past lives", I guess. Of course nowadays believing in past lives would probably just get you scoffed at if you tried to discuss it, but what if there is an explanation rooted in more than just superstitious fancy?
I'll try to be as clear as I can be, hopefully it makes enough sense.
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So say we have man who can't sleep. There's all kinds of fairly straightforward reasons as to why not. He consumes too much caffeine, his "internal clock" that regulates sleep patterns has become skewed some way or another (this is a common medical explanation I think), electronics keep him awake, he suffers from anxiety.... there is a plethora of medical explanations as to why he can't sleep. But it's often the case that none of those explanations quite cover it. He quits drinking soda, sets himself a strict bedtime schedule, reads before bed instead of watching TV, reduces stress in his life; he does everything the doctor tells him to. It don't cut it. The doctor is at a loss, gives him a prescription for some pills, and this all-too-common scenario progresses as it usually does- he gets addicted to pills, his sleep quality further declines and he grows more distraught than ever before.
Now why does no one ever think that this man was simply not meant to sleep at night? His body is just not inclined to rest while the sun is down? Going back far enough into this man's ancestral line, many thousands of years ago this mans forebear sat and watched over yon hills for the barely perceptible flitting in the shadows or the flicker of a torch. He trained his eyes to see the barely perceptible signs of movement under the dim light of the moon, or muffled sounds in near pitch blackness. He sat perched on a knoll on the side of a hill till the sun came up, completely alert with a stiff back, scanning eyes and keen ears.
His folk lived in this same valley for generations, and all his first forebear's sons watched the night just like their father did. Because over yon hills was another folk that had been prowling and stalking that land for as long as they knew, and they always had to be aware. They knew that the moment they all slept without pair of waking eyes and ears, they would be killed as they dreamt.
These same descendants became sentries on the battlements of some feudal lord's hall, they became scouts riding out ahead of an army, they were messengers riding through the night to bring news or gather a host of men, or they were just poor smallfolk drinking themselves into a stupor to get some rest at night.
So what I'm insinuating is just this: we behave, to an extent, according to the way our ancestors behaved. They had a literal impact on the minds of their posterity. You can call it genetically ingrained behavior. It can go so much further than this, and in my opinion, it logically explains the behavior of many people today who's behavior often seems inexplicable.
I'll try to be as clear as I can be, hopefully it makes enough sense.
______________
So say we have man who can't sleep. There's all kinds of fairly straightforward reasons as to why not. He consumes too much caffeine, his "internal clock" that regulates sleep patterns has become skewed some way or another (this is a common medical explanation I think), electronics keep him awake, he suffers from anxiety.... there is a plethora of medical explanations as to why he can't sleep. But it's often the case that none of those explanations quite cover it. He quits drinking soda, sets himself a strict bedtime schedule, reads before bed instead of watching TV, reduces stress in his life; he does everything the doctor tells him to. It don't cut it. The doctor is at a loss, gives him a prescription for some pills, and this all-too-common scenario progresses as it usually does- he gets addicted to pills, his sleep quality further declines and he grows more distraught than ever before.
Now why does no one ever think that this man was simply not meant to sleep at night? His body is just not inclined to rest while the sun is down? Going back far enough into this man's ancestral line, many thousands of years ago this mans forebear sat and watched over yon hills for the barely perceptible flitting in the shadows or the flicker of a torch. He trained his eyes to see the barely perceptible signs of movement under the dim light of the moon, or muffled sounds in near pitch blackness. He sat perched on a knoll on the side of a hill till the sun came up, completely alert with a stiff back, scanning eyes and keen ears.
His folk lived in this same valley for generations, and all his first forebear's sons watched the night just like their father did. Because over yon hills was another folk that had been prowling and stalking that land for as long as they knew, and they always had to be aware. They knew that the moment they all slept without pair of waking eyes and ears, they would be killed as they dreamt.
These same descendants became sentries on the battlements of some feudal lord's hall, they became scouts riding out ahead of an army, they were messengers riding through the night to bring news or gather a host of men, or they were just poor smallfolk drinking themselves into a stupor to get some rest at night.
So what I'm insinuating is just this: we behave, to an extent, according to the way our ancestors behaved. They had a literal impact on the minds of their posterity. You can call it genetically ingrained behavior. It can go so much further than this, and in my opinion, it logically explains the behavior of many people today who's behavior often seems inexplicable.