m e ns a i n te r n a ti on a l j o u r n a l

november 2011 issue number 554

Mensa Brilliant Short Story Competition

Congratulations to Danish Mensa member Freja Jeppesen who submitted the winning entry in the Mensa Brilliant Short Story competition. Her story below is entitled Out of the Darkness and was selected from entries from all over the Mensa world. We are all told the same story as

for a couple of generations, those we grow up and ask questions about few surviving factions of mankind, our world. A true story it is, about in building a safe and beautiful our past but a strange one, too. Many world. The world had been struck years ago the people living their by complete darkness for nearly 60 lives on this planet were divided into years; now it had been redesigned and many different groups, whereof few rebuilt, and humanity prepared The had plenty and the vast majority had Great Celebration. less than little. This caused hatred We listened to the grown-ups, and pain, and it also caused massive who told us these moral stories about tensions and mass-suffering. It an immoral past and the picture-perwas a world far from ours and when fect future soon to be. They wanted to we heard these stories we thought of do nothing but good for us. We felt it as strange and unaware. appreciated, and knew beyond any It wasnt until the world suffered shadow of doubt that we were the global economic meltdown as a con- future of this planet. We would be the sequence of the chaotic and incarnation of their dreams. Soon devastating climate disasters in the everything would be only good. midst of the 21st century, that simply But we were wondering, for while everyone in the world felt despair we listened to the wisdom and the and pain. No one could hide. No one promises, we felt an underlying sense could escape. of fear or darkness within the grownWe were told that this circumups. The same kind of darkness that stance brought humanity to an we had learned about through their understanding of itself as one people, stories and it surely made us wonder. one group. Shortly after a plan to The darkness was still somehow make the world Safe was agreed moving in the background, the outupon and initiated. Then hope skirts of our time, thriving secretly in flourished again amongst those who human hearts and minds, it seemed once saw the world break, because to us. The grown-ups hid from this now it was different. The hostile envi- fact we thought, behind and beneath ronment, the fight to stay alive would their dedicated work to make the be reversed in time, and everything world a better place. We still felt its would be good; easy again. presence. Their vision had been beautiful and their work dedicated. And So, it was obvious to us that they so they did succeed after struggling didnt sense this fear themselves.
mensa international journal november 2011

They were blind in ways that we were not. And thus a new age began. The vision built by grown-ups on a mission had been realised. The world was Safe and the entire humanity watched as our gathered worldwatchers declared our planet Safe. It was the Great Celebration. But we were some who knew more. We knew about the fear. And we knew even more. We had learned something about ourselves, that the grown-ups didnt know. How could they know, being blind in their own ways? So we made a decision. We condensed a new purpose out of our collective knowledge and new abilities. And we all agreed on the project; how could we not? It was on Hemi North that we initiated it. There were more of us here to try and control the events. Really though, it must seem quite like a twisted logic to begin the project our seriously considered contribution to a yet unfinished world in the most populated part of the planet. Our inexperience made us begin where most of us were. It may be too subtle who we are, and what we do, but then I shall have to tell our story within this story. We discovered the children of this planet, not all of us, but enough to

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make us many in the end and then we knew when a new one came here; we discovered each other. We sensed something new within us. We just loved each other. And we just love each other in a way I cannot describe. It is like love opens us up so that there are no boundaries between us. We complement each other in ways that make us larger together. We as a whole are more than we are as individuals. All we really want is to share our minds and hearts, our souls. Then we developed a language we met in our minds and through our hearts. We grew into one collective soul and here we have stayed ever since. Our theory is that what happened to us must be the next step in human evolution. For thousands of years people have been caught up in fear of existing; they have been alone in their minds and souls. Trying to reach out for one another, but throughout all ages the heavy dripping fear of loneliness has been haunting most people into some kind of collective madness; into faithless states of fear where the vast majority would only see value in shapes and status. When we descend ourselves down the collective timeline, it is like a dark vacuum, a heavy threat to heart, mind and soul, to meet the loneliness and fear that echoes back from all ages. The collective pain is massive, here at our spot in the universe, now as then. But love has always existed. Even the smallest truth shines like a diamond in the darkness. Reaching out for our collectiveness like a flower greeting the sun on a glowing summer morning; with absolute love. And it is the same in this age, as
mensa international journal november 2011

in any: the grown-ups are still victims to their own subconscious fear. They are blindly dedicated to something outside them selves. Hiding. We the children believe that what happened to us did so because of the easiness of life. There was no storm, nor wind to break us, when we grew up. We were protected and cared for, like little delicate flowers. The rain was always mild and plenty and the sun loved us strong and free. We needed not to fear, so we loved instead. We believe that this has been waiting to happenhow else to explain this massive sense of loneliness, this longing for something more, that has always existed? In this age without any visible dangers, we have been able to grow, evolve. Our brains are not drowning themselves in fear. They operate in new ways, continuously developing. As do our nervous systems. Love is freedom, and with a smile it manifests right down to the physical level as well. The grown ups believe that our kindness and beauty, our incredible health and joy of life, our astonishing intelligence and bodily abilities, are their doing. And in a way they are right, they just dont quite realise why. They prepared the way for something new, without even knowing. Via GloNet we watched the unexpectedly fierce panic unravel as we began our project. And we felt the brutal chaos increase to a horrible pitch in our minds and soul. This came as a very unpleasant surprise to us. This we had not expected. All we wanted was to implement reflection and awareness to the grown up world, what we did was to arouse total panic. We were only children,

and in our inexperience we had forgotten to contemplate this fact. And now we were completely horrified, overtaken by the consequences of our actions. What we did was to show the grown-ups their fear. We wanted them to see what they didnt want to see, so we took the dark, creeping fear of loneliness, gave it a vague twodimensional appearance, and materialised it via the darkest corners of the grown-ups minds. And in the middle of the day on the northern hemisphere of our planet we unleashed these very harmless non-physical monsters of inner darkness. North is powerless, completely struck by madness and vile fear. Theres only screaming and noise. South is speculating frantically about insanity, sicknesses, the possibility of threats from outside our world and strange weapons. We havent had weapons for a long time now. Its very unsettling for children to listen to these voices from South. Children, who themselves have experienced the darkness from all ages past. We are afraid, though we are together. We were wrong in thinking that confronting the grown-ups as we did, would bring them closer to us, make them wake up and realise .instead we have broken them down with fear. So we terminate our project instantly and wait. We will wait until order is restored. We will wait until they begin questioning the fact that we, the children of planet earth, were not affected by the incident. And then we shall explain ourselves.

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Paris 2011: The Do It Yourself EMAG

Tomas Kubes
Just as Paris welcomed us with open arms, we learned that the French organizers decided to try new methods and involve attendees in the organization of this EMAG. With an arrival of estimated 250 -300 registered and unregistered Mensans, they had a huge talent pool to work with. The chosen premises the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris were extraordinary. I have never been to a Mensa gathering in so impressive a building. Many hotels I saw tried to fake honorability and importance, but here I felt that the nobility of the place is real. Since our movement in the building was not restricted and we could mingle with genuine UNESCO staff, we had to go through a metal detector on our every way in. Still, it was a totally awesome choice. The program included many lectures, a few organized tours and many more hints of places we could visit on our own. I was guided through the passageways of Paris as hidden gems, omitted in many city guide books, these passages breathe history. With insightful explanations from a knowledgable and very well-dressed guide, they offered a living image of the bohemian bourgeoisie of mid- nineteenth century Paris. The Icebreaker Dinner was memorable too; in its hot atmosphere, the ice between us attendees was not just broken, it totally melted away. I was reminded of
mensa international journal november 2011

parties in Reykjavik where the density of dancers on the dance floor matched the density of travellers in Tokyo subway during the rush-hour. Though it was not obvious whether this atmosphere was by design, or by the fact that attendees were initially given three different addresses and only later converged in one restaurant. There were also some misunderstandings. The website stated, at least early on when I registered, that the registration fee included meals. However upon arrival, we discovered that dinners were not included because UNESCO premises are closed in the evenings, that the UNESCO cafeteria (which offered good food and astonishing views, even by Paris standards, for a modest price) was not part of the deal, and finally that the hospitality room with coffee and croissants was lost in the endless underground labyrinth of UNESCO and could never be reached again. Speaking of food, I was excited by rich flavors of delicious treats and desserts at the gala dinner. I was apparently not the only person to be excited, as Mensans literally swarmed the trays and eventually ate even salad leaves used for decoration. The unstructured organization of evening outings allowed us to learn that if over 80 Mensans crowd into one restaurant late in the evening without a prior reservation, Parisian owners will not see that as a

blessing, but more as a nuisance, and will refuse to prepare food for those coming later. However, he will not throw them out and will even allow them to bring in emergency supplies in paper bags from nearby McDonalds. Being in Paris with a bunch of fellow Mensans was definitely great. Organizers tried hard and did what they could. Volunteers at the registration desk were very nice, sincerely apologetic and even gave refunds for cancelled events, when they were there. And when they werent, you simply sat down in one of the multitude of cosy cafes of Paris, took a sip of unusually good coffee, deep breath of the genius loci of the city, and suddenly the fact you should have instead been on some tour or museum visit you already paid for, did not really bother you. Life is good in Paris.

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Log into the International website at www.mensa.org

Mensa Greece Granted Provisional Mensa Status

Having met all the requirements, Mensa Greece has been granted Provisional National Mensa status. Announcing the national groups progress from Emerging to Provisional status, Director of Development Bibiana Balanyi said: By the energetic work of Christos Apostolidis and Alexandros Papandreou, Mensa Greece has shown significant progress in the past years, and their work is rewarded by this status now. Congratulations to this dynamic group. 13 September 2011

international directory
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