Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, Vol. 2 - The Message of

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VHS Movie Reviews of Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, Vol. 2 - The Message of

Movie Review: Joseph Campbell
Summary: 5 Stars

Myths boil down to more than the common connotation of old fairy tales. They are like universal human engrams we don't create. They are within us. They are part of all humanity and have been since time immemorial. Like the number of times the human heart beats, the story of the hero -- the same hero, with a different name, in every culture since the dawn of man.

Joseph Cambell has an equal depth of understanding of religions and beliefs the world over. With this knowledge he is able to correlate startling similarities of myths held by disparate cultures thousands of miles or thousands of years apart.

He will blow you away and you will, like me, find in him a guru.

Movie Review: "And it's a bit hard on serpents, too"
Summary: 5 Stars

Movie Review: Our Mythical Relationships to and within our Universe
Summary: 5 Stars

In the previous video, "The Power of Myth" Moyers acted more as a prompter for Cambell's extemporaneous associational performance. Here in "The Message of the Myth" the dynamic between Moyers and Campbell really works to create a conversation between the mythology of western thought which Moyers brings out, and the mythologies of other cultures which Campbell brings out. At times I wish that Moyers would have participated even more in this video, but he seems to have occasionally been rendered mute by some sort of awe that he has for Campbell. Regardless, Moyers provided more of an appreciably creative role in this video.

Once again, Campbell zeroes in on the metaphorical signifiers within the mythology as the important messages that they give us. He sees more literal readings of the mythology as revealing physical truths to be a literary mistake, as he says reading poetry as if it were prose. Instead of dwelling on the realities of a hereafter, Campbell proceeds thusly, "Eternity isn't some later time, eternity isn't a long time, eternity has nothing to do with time, eternity is that dimension of here and now, which thinking and time cuts out. This is it. If you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere, and the experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life." I found myself really appreciating this more common sense and this-worldly approach to religion and mythology.

What Campbell places at the center of the metaphorical system seems to be an inherent duality at the base of our conceptual system which permeates our language. Campbell switches between the goal of transcending this duality, and the goal of successfully living within a system of such duality. Later he says this squarely in psychological and bodily terms by saying that dreams and myths are the manifestations of inner conflicts within us, even bringing it down to the conflicts between different organs. Here his thoughts became for me clearly reminiscent of the later day thoughts and revelations of Lakoff and Johnson in "Philosophy in the Flesh".

Campbell also challenges us to create new myths appropriate to our challenges today. "What the myth has to provide, on this immediate level of pedagogical life instruction, it has to give life models, and the models have to be appropriate to the possibilities of the time in which you are living." He makes some still-relevant issues about our relationship to our machines, which we can easily extend into issues relating to ourselves and the imminence of human genetic engineering today. We need to understand that when we alter our fundamental physiological makeup, we are potentially altering the very basis for understanding our language, metaphors and myths. Perhaps we should pause for a better mythological understanding of our place in this time, before venturing too far down that path.

Summary of Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, Vol. 2 - The Message of

General Video

• Genres > Documentary
• Special Interests > Religion & Spirituality > Mythology > Joseph Campbell
• Spirituality
• Special Interests - Religion & Spirituality - General
• Special Interests - Religion & Spirituality - Mythology - General