Myth

Myth is a word used often in world culture. Lets take a conscious look at this image and some of its aspects.

"A myth is defined as a sacred narrative explaining how the world and humankind came to be in their present form," is the basic definition from Wikipedia. I would say that its mostly accurate except that we fail to notice the scope of the would sacred. I would expand the normal meaning of sacred from only that which we revere religiously to all that which we actually believe. A belief in God could be perceived from an outside culture as a myth. Similarly if I believe what you say then I am including your information in my myth albeit only minor details.

Many great philosophers have communicated their impressions of what myth is and its importance.

Carl Jung's archetypes described an unconscious set of images which every member of a civilization carried with them. He attempted to discover images which are universal across all cultures.

Joseph Campbell's study of myth and his theories on cultural myths defining the characteristics, motives, purposes, endeavors, and art of the culture.

Similarly Oswald Spengler viewed cultures as organic super-beings whose vision or mythos was manifested to its fullest during the lifetime of the culture.

Marshall McLuhan expounds the ideas that the actual medium of the content of a culture's art and communications affects the ratio of the human sensory apparatuses which is fundamental in the formation and morphology of the mythos itself.

With all this knowledge now available to be synthesized what is possible now? Along with the synthesis of all these ideas, is your general synthesense. Attention to attention, or attention to all simultaneously constantly evolves a single image of our perception of All-That-Is.

Conscious Creation of Personal Mythos

I believe it is important to have a mythology. A lot of people nowadays don't have anything to believe in or their choices are limited to old rigid systems which no longer meet their spiritual and emotional needs. A hopeful vision for the future even if improbable is a sustaining force for a person. I see people hopeless and depressed, searching, seeking somebody to tell them, anything, to believe in. Why not create your own hope? Why do we need some "important person", guru, some intellectual, some priest to give us hope? Is there not enough wondrous sights, amazing scientific observations, an entire universe full of galaxies, to create a hopeful vision, a wild hypothesis, of what it all means, what all there is, and where we might fit in?

The important thing to become personally conscious of is first what myth is currently integrated in your being. Second, who created this myth? Myth is naturally integrated into the being of a human beginning at birth. Sensory data of all source is acquired even in the womb. All the images of all then senses (in)form the brain and nervous system. Now as we learn language and their corresponding images we fall under the influence of our parents, friends, and cultures. Most images are passively received unconsciously and when we do actively integrate images generally we trust the source whether naively or not. As we become adults we must attend to this process consciously and understand the process of integration, the images we integrate, and the source of these images.

Don't only let your parents, friends, society, mass media, government, or basically anyone contribute your your beliefs, your myth, without your conscious attention of the total field of all images in all mediums.

I would suggest that it is possible for the individual being to conscious create his own mythos, his own foundational image structure, of the basis of his understanding of the world or universe and his role in it. If one realizes the images which form the basis of one's current understanding, understands their causes, their sources, their patterns, and their combinations and organizations one can begin to form structures to be used as tools. Anything that you can see and understand can be used as a tool. Anything you don't understand or objectify is part of the background, the environment.

I believe that this process is happening on a widespread basis across the globe. Although many people associate with hierarchical belief structures and many devotedly, there are quite a few people around this world who think for themselves and depend on their senses to receive factual data. They then use this data to grow their own evolving mental "map" of the universe, its meaning, and their place in the universe. Our imagination has blossomed with potentials beyond our planet.