About Us

There is one mythology in the world.

                                                             —Joseph Campbell

After spending his lifetime studying the myths, wisdom traditions, stories, cultures, art forms, and depth-seeking practices of humanity throughout the world, Joseph Campbell came to the conclusion that, "There is one mythology."[i]

Professor Campbell understood that the first and primary function of the one myth, in all of its countless manifestations, was and is to connect us individually and collectively with the One Mystery that cannot be expressed in words or thoughts and is beyond human concepts of time and space.  It is this encounter with the Mystery of Ultimate Reality that is the transformative element in human experience.[ii]It is this "encounter" that is the experience and the practice of "contemplation." [iii]

The Transformative Encounter: Contemplation – The Practice

Yet in the current age this transformative encounter, the practices that deliver us to this encounter, and the personal connection, power, guidance, nurture, healing, and illumination that flow from this encounter, are seldom the focus of our lives.  Much of humanity wanders disoriented through life, often on a self-destructive path, in a world seen, understood, and measured primarily in externals.  We are disconnected from the One Myth.  We are disconnected from the interior depth to which the One Myth might deliver us.  Ironically, we have come to understand "myth" as a "lie" rather than a symbolic gateway into a deeper truth.  [iv]  The "mythic language" that connects us with our own personal depth and allows us to communicate and connect with one another beneath the surface of life is impotent.  The mythic language most of us use, regardless of the depth-seeking tradition we claim or repudiate, is rooted in a two-story scientific cosmology or world view that is at least 4000 years old.[v]

This "old myth" or "supporting myth" that has delivered us to the current moment is full of Truth but can no longer communicate through the archaic scientific model contained in its mythic language; it cannot communicate with the 13 year old teenager "wired in" to a digital, quantum scientific world where everything is clearly energy, clearly connected, and clearly One Reality.  

Professor Campbell illuminates:  "Science is always a working hypothesis in progress which changes from decade to decade.  The problem of mythology is to relate that actual found truth (of science) to the living of life.  The myth has to deal with the cosmology of today and it is no good when it is based on a cosmology that is out-of-date."[vi]  

Contemporary Mythic Language – The Quest

The curriculum of Interior Mythos Journeys and the on-line forum and exchange of this website, the Storywarrior Institute, is a quest to articulate and explore  contemporary mythic language – a communication context of depth that is in harmony with the 21st Century, Global, Quantum Scientific, Universal Reality in which we all actually live.  

The poetry of a contemporary mythic language is being generated around us every day.  This new "jargon" of depth experience is arriving in our world from areas we might not expect including:  athletics, Hollywood, astrophysics, science, medicine, depth psychology, economics, and, in fact, the cutting edge of nearly every field of human endeavor.  In many exciting new ways humankind is inventing and grasping contemporary language to facilitate our connection with depth.  

Yet, the journey to a relevant contemporary mythic language is long and the forces of resistance are great.  

Joseph Campbell was clear he did not know when or if a "New Myth" would arrive.  The one value he was certain of regarding a New Myth was that it would be global or planetary in scope.[vii]

Today we are sharing a "Time Between the Myths." [viii]   In the absence of a shared mythos, the primary depth human endeavor, solitarily and collectively, is the search for a relevant contemporary mythos.   The objective of this website, the curriculum of Interior Mythos Journeys, and the on-line Storywarrior Institute is to provide a cyber infrastructure for this vital exploration.

Authentic Life Experience – The Connection

As we solitarily and collectively claim the force of a relevant contemporary mythos, we are delivered to the possibility of life-lived-in-depth; the possibility of "authentic life."  This is the path beneath the surface.  

There is an alternative way to live a life.

There is an alternative relationship we can choose.

There is an alternative understanding, posture, practice, and resulting experience of life lived in the perpetual embrace of Ultimate Reality.   In contemporary language we can talk about this enhanced experience of life as "life in the Flow" or "authentic life."  This authentic experience of life is a life connected to the Real.   The mythical struggle in our moment is no different than that of any other point of the human journey: it is the struggle of choosing a relationship to Reality that is fundamentally ego-centered or fundamentally Mystery-centered; one path leads to illusion and fantasy while the other delivers us to essential Truth.   It is this incessant struggle, this journey to balance and harmonize the intersection of time and timelessness, the manifest and the Unmanifest, the visible and the Invisible that gives rise to the contemporary Storywarrior.  It is within each of our own interiors that we unceasingly choose and re-choose our fundamental relationships to life.   It is this transforming power of the struggle of synthesis that leads to authentic life experience.  

As Professor Campbell reminds us:  "I am not searching for the meaning of life;  no, no, no.  I am searching for the experience of being alive".[ix]

The Four Questions

The authentic life requires choosing a personal relationship to Reality.

A fundamental objective of this website is to promote conversation within four foundational questions:

1) "What is Reality?"  "What is Ultimate Reality?"

2) "What is the Inner Journey to a personal relationship with Reality?"

3) "How do I live in Flow in harmony with Reality?"

4) "How do I Serve others and the world from a base of Reality?

Dedication

This website, the curriculum of Interior Mythos Journeys and The Storywarrior Institute is dedicated to continuing the work in the 21st Century of the following recent teachers of Truth and the more ancient masters upon whose wisdom their journeys were informed:  

Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813 – 1855)

Nikos Kazantzakis(1883 – 1957)

Joseph Campbell (1904 – 1987)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 – 1945)

Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910 – 1997)

Joseph Mathews (1911 – 1977)

Thomas Merton (1915 – 1968)

Zachary Paul May (1981 – 2008)

The faculty and families of The Ecumenical Institute and The Order: Ecumenical(1962 – 1987)

Program Objectives and Services

The intent of this program includes:

•To promote the quest to articulate and explore a contemporary mythic language of depth

•To nurture and promote contemporary contemplative practices

•To nurture and promote intentional interior life 21st Century practices  

•To catalyze and support Story Circles (small substantive discussion groups)

•To provide on-line infrastructure for a global forum and exchange of depth

•To promote and support the authentic life discovered in paradox, mystery, and the refining struggle of synthesis

Program Services include:

Interior Life Video Documentary Creation. 
During the second decade of the 21st Century a series of video documentaries are planned to explore practices supporting the sustenance of an intentional depth interior life within the context of a global, contemporary, quantum scientific world.

 A collection of short "video snipits" and full-length "video messages" on subjects pertaining to the intentions outlined above and the Four Questions addressed by the Interior Mythos Journeys Curriculum are shared on this website.

Storywarrior Interviews. 
Interviews with individuals pioneering in the depth of the contemporary human journey are shared in full length and in selected curriculum modules on this website. 

Discussion group materials not dependent upon translation from a scientifically archaic mythic language (of any tradition) are challenging to find.  One of the primary intentions of this website is to serve as a source for materials requiring no translation and devoid of potentially divisive language.  A Story Circle is simply a small group of individuals who come together to share in a conversation of depth.  The Story Circle is a universal dynamic of humankind arising from our earliest origins when we lived in caves and gathered around the fire at the end of day to reflect on personal life experiences, communicate wisdom, and share in awe over the encounter with That-Which-Cannot-Be-Spoken.  Story Circles can manifest in any culture, in any community or village, anywhere on this planet, including your neighborhood or home. Interior Mythos Journeys is a curriculum resource for small discussion groups.

 Since the turn of the millennium, elements of Interior Mythos Journeys Curriculum have been shared in programmatic form with high school and collegiate athletic programs, corporate business gatherings, social services, and small and large depth-seeking community settings.  Upcoming programs are announced on the "Coming Events" section of this website. 

Join Us

Every village and neighborhood on this planet today hungers for the presence of a contemporary contemplative, one who sees through to the depth of all life’s events, encounters, and relationships.  It is the contemporary contemplative who in transparency reveals the One Infinite, Ever-Present, and Invisible Mystery that shines through every dimension of visible created reality.   It is the contemporary contemplative who awakens others to this Presence in their own lives and invites them through example to pursue an inward journey.  

If you have not symbolized to yourself the decision to pursue this path in your own life, do so today by joining The Storywarrior Institute.  Please view our website orientation video to get started:
http://www.storywarrior.net/public/first_time_visitor.aspx

Register now.   Join us.  

Join the contemporary quest to connect with and demonstrate authenticity – a  journey of depth nurtured through an intentional interior life.  

Return to this site often and share in the Storywarrior Forum.   Invite friends to connect with you here as well.  The Forum represents a place to post a question of depth, connect with others in communications of substance, or share profound personal reflections.  My Interior Mythos Journal is a method by which you can capture, preserve, and deepen your own solitary reflections from wherever you may be on the globe whenever you wish.  As you pursue a journey of depth and wish to share the path with others a Story Circle may become a meaningful structure to join or start.  Whatever the form of participation you choose, we are grateful to welcome and celebrate your presence on this universal path we share.

Thank you for being here.

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[i] Campbell, Joseph.  The Hero’s Journey.  DVD. Silver Springs, MD. Mythology Ltd. and Joseph Campbell Foundation.  1987.  Chapter 6.

[ii]  Campbell, Joseph.  The Hero’s Journey.  DVD. Silver Springs, MD. Mythology Ltd. and Joseph Campbell Foundation.  1987.  Chapter 3.

[iii  Interior Mythos Journeys, "Nurturing the Infinite Addiction," Bloomington, IN, May, 2009, Message IV, Module 20.

[iv]  Campbell, Joseph.  The Hero’s Journey.  DVD. Silver Springs, MD. Mythology Ltd. and Joseph Campbell Foundation.  1987.  Chapter 1.

[v]  Interior Mythos Journeys, "Nurturing the Infinite Addiction," Bloomington, IN, June, 2009, Message V, Module 25.

[vi]  Campbell, Joseph.  The Hero’s Journey.  DVD. Silver Springs, MD. Mythology Ltd. and Joseph Campbell Foundation.  1987.  Chapter 3.

[vii]  Campbell, Joseph, Moyers, Bill.  The Power of Myth.  New York, NY: Broadway Books/Random House, 1988. p 22.

[viii]  Campbell, Joseph, Moyers, Bill.  The Power of Myth.  New York, NY: Broadway Books/Random House, 1988. p 22.

[ix]  Campbell, Joseph, Moyers, Bill.  The Power of Myth.  New York, NY: Broadway Books/Random House, 1988: p xvi.