Lecture I.5.3 - Experiencing the Divine [New!]

When our guiding mythology corresponds to that of our culture, our dreams will be regarded, so to say, as visions. We will be experiencing the divine in the form in which our society regards and cherishes it. But if we are dislocated a little bit, our dreams will be rather bizarre and odd; those, however, are [nonetheless] the signals of our own myth. —Joseph Campbell

Joseph Campbell charts the historic evolution of our experience of the divine. He describes the views of early hunters on the open plains, who deified their animal providers; the different reality of denizens of tropical forests, whose sacrifice rituals reflect the world around them; and the desire of inhabitants of the first villages to harmonize daily life with the mathematical progression of planets and stars. Common to these mythic visions, he observes, is the idea that the divine is “out there” in some form.

Running time: approx. 60 minutes

PREVIEW: