The Meme Machine

182 THE MEME MACHINE
experiences, and ask how particular experiences are created by natural and
memetic selection.
From alien abductions and near-death experiences we can glimpse a general
formula for certain kinds of successful memeplex. Take a highly emotional
naturally occurring human experience with no satisfactory explanation, provide
a myth that appears to explain it, and include a powerful being or unseen force
that cannot easily be tested. As optional extras include other functions such as
social coercion (the O1d Hag gets you when you do wrong), reduction of fear
(you’ll live forever in heaven), use the altruism trick (good people have this
experience or believe this myth) or the truth trick (this explanation is The Truth).
Until recently, no one designed such memeplexes on purpose. They were
designed by memetic selection. ‘We may imagine that hundreds of thousands of
myths and stories have been invented over the millennia and passed on by
thousands and millions of people. The few that survived were the ones that had
all the good tricks to aid their recall and propagation. Modern culture is the
legacy of thousands of years of memetic evolution.
Divination and fortune-telling
From magic crystals and Tarot cards to the healing power of aromatherapy and
homeopathy, memeplexes spread using the tricks I have described, and some of
their carriers get rich at other people’s expense. Take Tarot cards, for example.
Imagine you go to a Tarot reader and have the unnerving experience that she
seems to know all about your life and personality and can give you advice over a
problem that is troubling you. She seems to understand you uncannily well and
gives details you think she could not possibly have known. Perhaps she says
something like this (as you read this, try to imagine it is being said directly to
you by a sincere looking, sympathetic woman who gives every sign of caring
about you and your troubles, and looks deeply into your eyes between glances at
the cards in front of her).
You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be
critical of yourself. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be
worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times you have serious doubts as to
whether you have made the right decision.
I see from this card that you love animals. You have a cat, and the cards tell
me you went to France last year. I know you are worried about the pain in your