You’re probably wondering what this subject has to do with a producer in the entertainment industry. Beyond producing major concert touring stars throughout the U.S. and abroad, I am also a writer. I have been developing a treatment for a feature film entitled “The Children of Mons Olympus”. The film involves the subjects of the ancient Maya, the U.S. and Russian space programs, time travel and the ethereal music of the Mayan culture. More on that project later.

There is a Mayan guide (American) in Akumal not far from where I stay in Puerto Morelos in the Yucatan Peninsula. I’ve used him a couple of times. He was married to a Mayan girl and lived in their village for 13 years before they divorced. He speaks perfect Yucatec Maya (one of 28 languages – not dialects – from the Mayan legacy). His Mayan/Mexican name is Helario. This guy is a character. He is ADD x 10 (he said it) and almost impossible to keep on point for a given subject. I’ll ask him a question and he’ll give me 10 seconds of feedback and then float off to another subject. He is also a genius which is probably linked to how his mind works. Any way, we were driving down the road together, and out of the blue he said these words:

“THE MAYA PAINTED THEIR MUSIC
AND PLAYED THEIR PAINTINGS”

I’m only just now beginning to grasp the profound nature of this statement. Helario is also a master diver who goes down 100’ in caves with no light, turns off his light, and does sensory deprivation like the Mayan kings used to do. Except the Mayan kings did it in a tiny space atop the pyramids which barely had enough of a crack in the stones for air. They would use indigenous hallucinogens. I think the shamans did the same thing. He says he has the most incredible clarity of mind and connection with the spirituality of the ancients when he is in these caves.

The Maya are the most incredibly complex society I have ever encountered. Thus, I avail myself of people like Helario and some scientists I have come to know (archaeologists, epigraphers – people who de-code glyphs, paleontologists, archaeo-astronomers – real astronomers who study ancient pottery, paintings and glyphs that are ripe with astronomical events which coincided with social events where Mayan tribes would come from hundreds of miles around to commune. The Maya were brilliant at astronomy (predicted eclipses 200 years in advance to the day, built cities and buildings where celestial events lined up perfectly with light going through a small window to illuminate something and more), time keeping (p.s. the Mayan calendar stops December 23, 2012. It began around 3112 BC – none of the scientists feel this is an apocalyptic event), mathematics (their buildings are built on geometrical designs that are dead on perfect to existing geometrical shapes (the 3:4:5 ratio of the interiors of some of their buildings), writing (the world has worked for 70 years to de-code the glyphs. They are about 80% of the way there. The big breakthrough came when one epigrapher realized the glyphs were phonetic more than words). I got hooked on this in 1978 on my first trip to the area to Chichen Itza, one of the top 6 sites around Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and Belize). I felt a “presence” – very subtle but very strong – while at Chichen Itza. The more I read and learn, the more I realize I don’t know. It goes on and on.

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