That Anyway, Is What I Have Learned

Knowledge is nothing until it is reflected on. Figures and facts are nothing more than information without the effort to draw upon past experiences to apply them to future situations. You must experience the knowledge for it to become useful and memorable. In classes, we are force fed information that we have to memorize. We have learned to take mental not of any points the professor prefaces with “know this for the test”, while tuning out anything that accompanies “this is extra”. But that isn’t learning—that’s cultivating the ability to fire particular synapses in the brain in response to particular stimuli in order to regurgitate an answer. What we have experienced in this class is the ability to forgo the cookie-cutter model for learning. We’ve had the opportunity to reason, reflect, rant, and revive our learning attitudes by having free reign for what we get from the material.

Where does this reflection lead us? It takes us through a metamorphosis. Reflection reveals the essence of who we are: layers and layers of mythological levels. These levels are formed by our past experiences. But as we add more experiences to our lives, we change into someone different. Wendell Berry puts it well as he says, "The past is our definition. We may strive with good reason to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it. But we will escape it only by adding something better to it." Reflecting on what we have learned allows us to become something new. The end goal of reflection is to become who we want to be.

Persephone experienced a lot of reflecting during her abduction. “The Pupil lost herself when her pupil saw its own reflection in the pupil that reflected her looking at a reflection of a reflection of a man who lost himself by looking at a reflection.” This is broken down on page 209 of Calasso. In this dizzying encounter with reflection, she reflected on two things. One, infinity was revealed to her—the reflection gave her knowledge. Second, the reflection gave her a new perspective—“she saw herself in the eyes of Hades—reflected to render the perspective of the one filled with desire—and she realized she wanted to be carried off to feel the gaze of passionate covet again.”

Reflection is the basis for gaining knowledge and perspective. It prompted the fate of where Persephone would go and who she would become

So what does this reflection mean for us? Where do we start? We have to determine where we came from. In studying the creation myths, it’s clear that each culture has defined where they have come from as the basis for who they are and where they are going. In every story, there was once conviviality where things were excellent. Nearly every story contains the idea of some deity. I did an extensive research project last year and concluded that a dependence on a higher power is actually programmed into our very essence. So where did we come from? What is the etiology of us?

In order to figure out where we are now, we need to figure out where we are going. What does the apocalypse look like? How does what we do now affect what happens when the veil is lifted and what was unseen becomes seen?

Where are we now? We have been initiated into a state of conflict. How does our current state of conflict reflect on our future? How will we use our conflict to become the person we want to be? We reside in a state of indifference, where no one cares about what comes next except for the next vacation days, the next promotion, and the next set of privileges. We need to live in the now by reflecting on our past and looking to the future to become who we want to be. And that starts now, pal.

Ultimately, where we once were, where we are now, and where we are going encompasses our worldview. It defines who we are and who we want to become. So the basis for reflection and the goal of learning should be to discover ourselves and how we fit into the bigger picture of existence. This class has given us the opportunity to think outside what we are told to think—to reflect on what we want to reflect on.

What else can we get from reflection? We can reminisce. Reminiscence invokes powerful emotions. Last Thursday, as Dr. Sexson was telling his story, a reflection was invoked. It had nothing to do with the story, but rather the way it was told. It brought me back, with such realism due to the emotions I experienced, to when my mom would read to my brother and me when we were kids. It was an emotion of memorable peace and enchantment.

Our narrator in The Storyteller experienced a reflective emotion such as this as he went from painting to painting in the art display of the Peruvian jungle. It brought him back to all the conversations he and Mascarita had together.

So reflection, besides invoking the power of knowledge and perspective, brings about strong emotions. These emotions define our memories which define where our story has come from.

Our lives need more reflection of experiences and less regurgitation of facts. This reflection is what defines our story (past, present, and future), our legacy, and our myth.

That anyway, is what I have learned.

My Air Quote "Proficiency"

I didn't realize it until "yesterday", but it turns out I use "air quotes" quite a lot, particularly when "tutoring". 

For example, when explaining how the membrane potential of nerve cells change during local and action potentials, I liken the concept to a "battle". The membrane permeability to a particular ion is the "voice" of the ion in this "power struggle", while the electrochemical gradient is the "degree of unhappiness". For an ion to be "happy" the electric gradient must be equal and opposite that of its concentration gradient, so that the net flow of ions across the membrane is equal. The ebb and flow of the membrane charge is a carefully maintained balance, with the leader in the war changing depending on when it "finds its voice" to be able to convey it's "unhappiness" and shift the tide of the "struggle".

It seems that air quotes not only put things in another contexts to give people that not-so-nice-uneasy feeling that I'm not actually their "friend", but they also draw from someone's past knowledge to transpose an abstract concept into a more familiar one. 

Clues to the Story

If you all had been paying attention, you would have noticed...

The names: each of the names of the characters started with the same letters. Alison - Ariadne, Thomas - Theseus, and Mike - the Minotaur.

Alison had a problem with an older brother: Mike got everything he wanted, just like the Minotaur.

Alison elected help from a studly man to deal with her problem: This is the role that Theseus played for Ariadne.

Alison and Thomas dealt with Mike: Ariadne and Theseus dealt with the Minotaur.

Alison and Thomas started liking each other: Ariadne and Theseus fell in love.

Thomas dumped Alison: Theseus dumped Ariadne.

Drinking was what promised to take care of Alison: Dionysius pursued Ariadne and promised to love her.

But drinking let Alison down and her life was seemingly over: Dionysius dumped her and killed her. 

A Displaced Story of Ariadne and Theseus

Alison was just a regular girl with regular problems. Drama on her soccer team, issues with grades, and no boys seemed to like her. 

But there was one thing that irked Alison the most: her older brother. Mike was the most obnoxious individual to walk the planet, he demanded everyone's attention, and the worst part was that he always got what he wanted. Everyone seemed to like him, or at least tolerated his jerk side to be in with him. This left Alison as the shadowed sister with few friends. That is, until she decided to bring him down a level. 

You see, Mike got people to like him because he was the school drug dealer. He had all the goods. Alison knew this, but the school authorities didn't. All the teachers, staff, and school officers loved Mike and thought he was the most stellar of guys. So Alison decided to take this power away from him. But she couldn't do it on her own. She got her friend Thomas to help her. Thomas was a cool, standout guy by most standards and Alison had secretly had a crush on him since the 6th grade. 

People had tried to reveal his drug dealing before, but Mike had always found out who the snitch was and exacted some kind of revenge that would get them suspended while all the while maintaining the golds stars he had from all the school officials. The trick would be to destroy his power without getting caught. So Alison and Thomas carefully sketched out their plans and this is how it went down. 

There was a new chemical that smelled exactly like marijuana, but if you were introduced to it in small enough amounts, you quickly could not smell it all. It was fairly easy to synthesize and Thomas could do it with the access he had to the labs at the school. After Thomas made a few batches of it, he gave it to Alison who started slipping bits of it into Mike's room while he slept. After a few nights, the receptors for that chemical were adequately desensitized and the big play was ready to be dealt. Thursday was marijuana dealing day for Mike. So Alison smothered his bag with this chemical to give off the intense stench of Mary Jane. Needless to say, even the school officials had to give Mike's bag a search and the appropriate punishment was dealt.

All of Mike's influence was gone and Thomas even started to seem to like Alison. Things were going great. But it wasn't meant to last. Thomas dumped her to go out with her best friend. So Alison turned to drinking. Alcohol promised to love her and stay with her and satisfy her forever. But it too lied. Alison's life seemingly came to an end on the night she got arrested for a DUI. 

Some kids are just never going to have it go right for them.

The Readiness Is All

We need to embrace the concerns of death. There are two kinds of people who accept death: those who are ok with what happens after death and those who are ok with what doesn't happen after death.

But first, and perhaps more importantly, what about those who don't accept death? Indeed, many avoid the topic like the plague. We can see this in culture today: death has risen to a great level of taboo as we strive to avoid offending those who can't accept death! It's the elephant in the room that effects everyone whether they embrace it or not. I would go so far as to suggest that those who can not or will not meditate on the topic of passing stoop to a level of immaturity. Instead they meditate on drama, the next party, and getting that promotion. But the significance of these superficial themes will fade away with the realization that they will soon defend to meaninglessness. King Solomon sought to experience all the world had to offer in the way of superficial experiences (the man had 1000 women after all), and he made the conclusion that EVERYTHING IN LIFE IS MEANINGLESS. He summarizes his findings in the book of Ecclesiastes. And yet those who can't accept death dwell on this as the end all, be all of life.

But what of those who can accept what comes after life? Can life ascend to joy? King Solomon would say the only way to accomplish that is to look beyond the world to the fear of God. He was one who embraced and was ready for what came after death and could thus enjoy life. The fear of God drove him to faith. And that faith was what made I'm both ready to live and ready for what came after life.

And for those who can accept that nothing comes after death? After we fall beyond this life

"The readiness is all"

We have to be ready to go...wherever that is.

Sad Benjamin

In light of the death stories we talked about in class yesterday, I would like to share my most traumatic death experience.

The greatest affection that has been ripped away from me was attached to a fictional dog. His name was Old Yeller.

Despite vowing to never read the story again so as to avoid reliving that experience, the vivid details that were etched into that ten year old mind have stuck with me ever since that fateful day.

I used to read every good fictional story available to a young, blossoming elementary student. From Where The Red Fern Grows to the Hardy Boys, I read a lot, to say the least.

Enter: Old Yeller. 

I loved the story. I grew to love the dog. And then the author gored him. 

I was laying in my parent's bed, reading, as I love to do. After Old Yeller's abdomen was ripped open, the tears started flowing. But I kept reading. I held onto hope that he would survive. Then my mom came in the room, saw me in my saddened state and suggested I come downstairs. I complied and cooled down. 

But of course I had to go back to the story. So I did. And Old Yeller was shot. 

Young Ben was beyond crushed. 

Maybe Storytellers are a Good Thing

I was startled to glean from The Storyteller that it seems there is a lot of emphasis put on stories and the place they have in culture and life. This may be hardly news to any of us, and certainly came upon me slowly as a multi-week startling process, but it’s shocking to me that the storyteller seems to be highlighted as the pinnacle of human achievement.

Now obviously, the book puts much emphasis on the storyteller. Mascarita recounts the day he realizes his new-found position on page 210.

”So there I was -- the storyteller. I was thunder-struck. There I was. My heart was like a drum. Banging away in my chest: boom, boom. Had I met my destiny? Perhaps.”  (Llosa, 210)

Maybe I was startled when I read this because I, deep down, think that we all have a purpose that must be “greater” than one who tells stories. But upon inward reflection, I realized this faulty thinking process within myself. In an achievement driven culture, it seems that we could all use a dose of the reality that we need to slow down and think about where we have come from—because that is what determines where we are going, pal.

So perhaps we need more storytellers in this world.

That, anyway, is what I have learned. 

Saul the Hypocrite

The main message of The Storyteller puts a lot of emphasis on the importance on oral traditions within cultures while maintaining purity of those cultures. Saul Zuratas advocates this, and yet his actions seem to be contradictory of his beliefs. He infiltrates himself as an outsider into the Machiguenga culture and becomes a person of extreme influence. 

Saul's opinions on the matter of keeping the tribes pure are clear and strong from the beginning. Perhaps the clearest statement he makes regarding the matter is issued during a conversation where Saul was worked up about the civilized world imposing on the native tribes.

"And the only way to respect them is not to go near them. Not touch them. Our culture is too strong, too aggressive. It devours everything it touches. They must be left alone. Haven't they amply demonstrated that they have the right to go on being what they are?" (Llosa 98-99)

And yet this is just what Saul does. It may have been with the motives to maintain the culture--to keep the stories pure--but this doesn't make his actions any more reflecting his beliefs to leave the culture alone any more than the missionaries or Spaniards he so despises.

But perhaps this is the Llosa's way of inserting dramatic irony into the plot to make the more striking point: that contamination of all cultures on this point is inevitable. Any culture is simply not able to keep alone.

Boys2Men

Initiation. We all experience it. Initiation is the moving from one context to another. It involves leaving behind the old self and adopting a new existential condition. A major initiation category is the passing from puberty into adulthood. In all cultures, boys become men and girls become women. But I think that, in America, we are blurring those lines and, as a result, our initiations have become watered down.

For thousands of years, men and women have had very different roles in society. Men have, historically, been the breadwinners and providers of the family, while women have been the breadcookers and the caregivers. To be a man was to adopt attributes such as rejecting passivity, accepting responsibility, and leading courageously. To be a woman was to adopt all things feminine: being beautiful, having an incredibly considerate personality, and being a helper and an encourager. These attributes were not only set by society, but have also been hardwired into the genome. Men and women have very different body structures, thought processes, desires, needs, and abilities. I’m not saying there is, nor should be, no overlap, but I do think that, in our culture that puts so much energy into equality in all things, a balance has been offset.

I don’t want this to become a sexist post, because that doesn’t reflect me or my opinions at all. But I do want to focus on what has happened to men. The point I want to make is that our society has lost something vital in its quest for equality: differences. To be initiated into either manhood or womanhood looks the same. No longer are we challenging men to be men and, as a result, we have a breed of men that is watery and lazy. I realize that there are many different viewpoints out there for what it means to be a man, but men should be strong leaders who don’t make excuses or whine about circumstances. And we have lost this because we have lost initiations.

In the older days, it was the father’s job to raise his sons to be the men, but that doesn’t happen all across the board anymore. Fathers should challenge sons and not allow them to be lazy just “because they feel like it”. I don’t exactly agree with many of the ceremonial initiations of many cultures that either mutilate boys or cause pain for no good reason, but these cultures have made men. These men are expected to be strong—not show signs of weakness.

And we no longer have those expectations for our boys. 

Initiation into Internalization

My original plan was to give a presentation on the initiation into the Hindu religion—playing off how they would have to renounce all possessions and talk about how painful that is. But during my research, I found the story of Shiv Shivabalayogi Maharaj. He was a master of meditation in the traditions of the ancient yogis. He achieved “self-realization” after a 12 year meditative journey of “tapas”.

Tapas means “deep meditation” and is derived from the Sanskrit word tap. Tap has several meanings, but some definitions include “pain, suffering, and mortification”. I knew that I must talk about this in light of painful initiation.

Shivabalayogi began his journey at the age of 14 in 1949. He was chilling on the banks of a river with his buddies, eating a palmyra fruit, when his body began to convulse and a bright light was emanated from the fruit. He fell into a deep meditation that neither his friends, nor the people of the village could rouse him from.

Many thought his antics were acting for attention or money. Some even abused the boy. They hit him, poured sugar water on him so that ants would bite him, and even threw a burning gasoline rag on him. But no matter. The boy understood that tapas was a personal endeavor to achieve a goal—foregoing whatever bodily pain and suffering came along the way.

He retreated to a cemetery outside of town where he could meditate in peace for 23 hours a day, enduring insect, rodent, and cobra bites as well as the rotting of skin. Every night at midnight, he would be roused from his meditation to feel the pain his body was enduring.

After 12 years of this all I can ask him is, “Was it really worth it?”

Carried on Traditions

The Nacirema were a tribe living in North America. Little is known about these people, but one thing that is known is their fascination with the mouth. They believed it has supernatural implications for the soul and relationships and thus did their best to keep it maintained by brushing and yearly or biyearly visits to the “mouth medicine man”. American (Nacirema spelled backward) people also seem to have carried on this tradition.

The Nacirema’s daily mouth rite involved inserting a bundle of hog hairs and powders into their mouth and stirring them around in an organized series of movements.

Americans use nylon hairs attached to a stick to mix a paste into a froth, using the smooth faces of the teeth as a makeshift stirring surface.

Nacirema also visited a special medicine man who dealt with teeth, specifically. This man would poke at their gums with needles and use special probes to clense the mouth of evil. This often involved tortuous pain for the client.

Americans also visit a “mouth man” known as a “dentist” to some and “Satan” to others. This man also uses various tools for probing, poking, and provoking pain to rid the mouth of an evil spirit known as “Halitosis”.  

It seems some mythological traditions never die.

Calasso Translated into Christian Mythology

Conviviality, rape, and indifference.

Calasso uses these three phases to explain the passage of time and the metamorphosis of the relationship people have with the gods. He uses these to describe Greek mythology, but it can be extended to include the current state of man.

With the old convivial familiarity between god and man lost, the ceremonial contact through sacrifice impoverished, man's soul was left exposed to a gusting violence, an amorous persecution, an obsessional goad. Such are the stories of which mythology is woven: they tell of how mortal mind and body are still subject to the divine, even when they are no longer seeking it out, even when the ritual approaches to the divine have become confused. (Page 53)

This is our situation. So how are we to reconcile with the divine? I love how Calasso describes our efforts: "the ritual approaches to the divine have become confused." With the number of religions and worldviews man has contrived, I would say that "confused" is a good way to put it. But is there a method that works?

Personally, my belief system resides in the mythology of Christianity. I hold to it as the True Story (Mytho-Logy) so I would like to make a parallel between Calasso's philosophical parts of every story: separation, initiation, and return.

In the beginning was…conviviality. God created man and experienced community with him in the Garden of Eden. But then separation came. Eve was tempted by the serpent to do that which God told them not to do (those women and snakes). The result of this "sin" (literally "missing the mark", an archery term) was that conviviality with the divine was broken: people were "dirty" and God was too "clean" (the church might use terms more like "holy", but sometimes Christian-ese is overused).

This separation was the initiation of the current state of being: pain, suffering, and (ultimately) death. The Bible describes death as "separation from God" (by that definition, it would seem that a part of initiation would be death even in life).

So is there a way out? According to the Bible, only one: through faith in Jesus Christ.

John 14:6 - "Jesus answered, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

This describes Jesus as the only way to "return" to the state of how things once were: conviviality with God. But how does that work? Salvation based on faith alone is a strange concept and one that, frankly, is unique to Christianity: every other religion requires dutiful practices to reconcile with the divine. The only ticket in Christianity comes in the form of faith.

Ephesians 2:8-9 - "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works so that no one can boast."

This clearly expresses that there is nothing that people can do to "be saved", but it is a divine gift.

The reason it's a gift is because of the reason for separation in the first place: people. People can't maintain good deeds because we always fail. If we could be perfect (like God) then we wouldn't need to be saved. But the fact is, we blew that. I don't know any perfect people, do you?

It was God who gave us a way out (even though we didn't deserve it). This is why it's a gift that we have received by grace. It was because of God's love that we have an option of being reconciled. This love is outlined in the verse that anyone who has even seen a church has likely heard.

John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

In summary, we can't achieve reconciliation with God based what we do, because it's never good enough. Even with our best efforts, it's not perfect. So what does all this have to do with Jesus?

According to the Bible, Jesus came to earth and lived a perfect life. Throughout the Old Testament, people would have to give animal sacrifices to "atone" for their inability to live perfect lives. But even that wasn't a permanent fix. Jesus was the permanent fix. He lived a perfect life and died an undeserving death in our place. He died for us.

So what does faith have to do with that? What it takes for people to return to conviviality with God is faith.

John 1:12 - "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."

The result of that faith is that Jesus Christ's righteousness (perfection) is substituted (consistent with a sacrifice) for our own righteousness (or lack thereof) so that when God looks at us, he only sees the perfection of Christ. It's pretty slick. All a person has to do is put their faith in what Jesus did and to repent of their selfish ways. And then boom, reconnection with God and eternal life.

The alternative to getting our deeds paid for?

Romans 3:23 – “For the wages of sin is death [eternal separation from God].”

Crazy.

But that's the story.

A Reflection on Page 209

Page 209 can be summed up with the following statement:

Kore was looking at a narcissus.

What is a Narcissus? Calasso describes it as a flower named after a man of intense beauty. He was so beautiful that he fell in love with his reflection in a pond. Unable to lose sight of his own beauty, he died of starvation. The flower represents this story.

Kore was looking at a reflection of a reflection of a man who lost himself by looking at a reflection

Who is Kore? She is the daughter of Zeus and the goddess of springtime. And, as Calosso points out, Kore means "pupil".

The Pupil was looking at a reflection of a reflection of a man who lost himself by looking at a reflection

Kore is a girl whom Hades was intent on abducting (same old story).

The Pupil lost herself while looking at a reflection of a reflection of a man who lost himself by looking at a reflection

Kore lost herself by looking into the eyes of Hades.

The Pupil lost herself when her pupil saw its own reflection in the pupil that reflected her looking at a reflection of a reflection of a man who lost himself by looking at a reflection

This page emanates mythological poetry. It brings ideas around full circle and displays mythology within mythology. It goes to a higher philosophical level than other pages (if only by the mention of Socrates). But the question remains: what did Kore see in the pupil of Hades?

I believe she saw two things.

For one, she observed a dizzying picture of infinity. Much like the repeating image on the Land O’Lakes butter packaging, Kore found herself in an infinite zoom loop. A deer in the headlights, she was rendered helpless and immobile—easily snatched up by her abductor.

But another thing she saw may put a different spin on the “kidnapping”. Perhaps, and just a perhaps, she looked and saw herself in the eyes of Hades—reflected to render the perspective of the one filled with desire—and she realized she wanted to be carried off to feel the gaze of passionate covet again. The craving of Hades seduced her so that she went with him willingly—an attempted abduction becoming an eloping.

A reflection gives the exact opposite perspective. 

It's All How You Look At It

In thinking about what I do as a ritual, I've realized the task that I most enjoy is something that really is considered pointless by much of the human population. On days that I don't spend time reading my Bible, I feel like I've missed out on a great opportunity.

So what makes a task that is, at best by some, a required task by religion an essential, joy-filled event for me? It's about why I do it. The myth has taken over my life.

As a "believer", I hold onto Jesus Christ's teachings as truths. These truths are meant to transcend into all parts of life. They are meant to give us true joy and purpose. They are meant to reveal the true nature of God. They are meant to give us the ticket to eternal life. 

If there is something that is designed to do that, why wouldn't I want to seek it out with everything I have? It sounds like a recipe for success.

One parable that Jesus tells of involves a man who stumbles upon a field and finds a valuable treasure. Upon finding the treasure, he goes home and sells all he has in order to buy that field. Jesus is comparing the treasure to the Kingdom of Heaven, which can be equated to the Bible.

That's what reading the Bible is for me. It's like a treasure meant to be sought after because it gives life and purpose. And that's how I make a seemingly pointless task a true delight.

A Need for God

Common to nearly all stories we heard today and last time is some kind of deity. Why?

People all over the world have realized (with no influence from other cultures) that they are clearly imperfect beings, so they must be inferior to something. This idea seems to be programmed into our minds.

Toward the end of the 18th century, the scientific minds hypothesized that religion would soon perish from the earth. As higher criticism and scientific method became more prevalent means to evaluate the world, the “scientific elite” believed that any idea that could not be proven by naturalistic means (such as religion) would become irrelevant. However, more than 200 years later, religion is still well established in modern culture and has not shown signs of disappearing from the earth.

In his book The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, sociologist Emile Durkheim said, “A society has all that is necessary to arouse the sensation of the divine in minds, merely by the power that it has over them”. Thus, society defines what kind of religion it will promote. Because the people of that society will be nurtured into having the needs of the society, they will be drawn to the religion that is promoted to fit those needs. Therefore, many religions are dynamic: changing in order to continue to satisfy the needs of the culture. This means that a mind will be programed to rely on religion.

Dr. Andrew Newberg, Director of Research at the Myrna Brind Center for Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Medical College, has been on the leading edge of exploring the neurophysiological correlate of religious experiences. In 1998, Dr. Newberg and Dr. Eugene G. d’Aquili published their research on mental activity during such experiences.

Newberg and d’Aquili propose, in a paper published in 2000, that a key part of religious experience is self-transcendence. This often occurs in the form of what they call a state of Absolute Unitary Being (AUB). In this state, “people lose all sense of discrete being, and even the difference between self and other is obliterated”. In Christian traditions, this is often referred to as a “union with God”, while in Hindu traditions it is described as a “manifestation of God”. This state of transcendence is a part of every major religion in the modern world. 

Newberg and d’Aquili postulate that the state of AUB comes from the holistic operator which produces the perception of mystical states, often accompanied with the feeling of an ultimate transcendent “other”. This holistic operator can be simulated by a model proposed by Newberg and d’Aquili. They propose that if either the ergotrophic system (“extended upward to include dominant hemisphere”) or the trophotropic system (“extended upward to include the nondominant hemisphere”) were saturated, it would stimulate the other system, giving a feeling of wholeness. This state is described by the experience of “beauty”, “religious awe”, or “religious exaltation in the perception of unity”. Thus, the AUB state is a state of intense consciousness.

Religion has been shown to have social benefits to aid in its survival. A paper, written by Ara Norenzayan and Azim Shariff, discussed the benefit of religious prosociality. They showed that major religions that are centered on a moralistic god facilitate altruist tendencies. Those who claimed religious affiliation were shown to be more likely to engage in behaviors that were not beneficial for the individual but beneficial to the group. However, they quote empirical evidence to show that religious individuals are selective in their prosociality. “Religion’s association with prosociality is most evident when the situation calls for maintaining a favorable social reputation within the ingroup”. The authors also state that religion is not the only prompt that will induce prosociality. Secular institutions such as courts and policing forces have also been shown to induce the same effects (such as donating to charity) as religious associations.

Religion is still present in the modern world because it offers benefit to society and to many individuals of that society. It appeals to basic needs that many humans have. It has also been shown to be one method to promote prosociality (among other secular methods). Studies in spiritual neuroscience have also shown religious traditions to have benefits for many individuals.

The future of religion and belief in deities lies in the hands of what culture determines to be its needs. As long as aculture defines needs that are met by neurological and social benefits offered by religion, I predict that religion will continue to manifest itself in that culture.

So is there a divine design to our desire to need a god, or did it arise spontaneously? And so the debate rages on...

Zuni Creation Myth

Awonawilona is the god and creator of everything. In the beginning, the earth was covered with hills and streams, but no one to offer prayer sticks to Awonawilona. So he sent his two sons down to the fourth world deep in the depths of the earth where the creatures were crowded. 

Once there, they planted four seeds and four trees quickly grew. The brothers made four prayer sticks out of these trees. They drove the first into the ground and a tree ladder grew up into the third world. The creatures were led up there and stayed there four days. The brothers then drove the second prayer sticks into the ground and another tree ladder grows up into the second world. The creatures stayed in the second world for four days. Again, the brothers drive a prayer stick into the ground and another tree ladder grew up into the first world. A dim light could be observed in the first world and the people were recognized as having horns, tails, webbed hands and feet, no mouths, and no anuses. After another four days, the final prayer stick is driven into the ground and another tree ladder grows up into the daylight world.

Now that they had led the people into the daylight world, the brothers decided to show the the people how to grow corn. So the men would harvest the corn and bring it back to their families. But the brothers were sad because the people could only smell the corn because they had no mouths. To fix this, the brothers took sharp knives during the night and gave the people mouths. The next day, the people were able to enjoy the taste of the corn, but quickly became uncomfortable because they could not defecate. So the brothers took knives again during the night and gave all the people anuses. The next day,the people were made comfortable and prepared the corn in many ways, but were unable to wash the corn because of their webbed hands. So again, the brothers took their knives and carved digits into the people's hands and feet. The next day, the people were able to wash the corn. The following night, the brothers decided now to make one more change. So they took their knives once more and cut off the horns and tails of the people. 

And that's how people became how they are today.

I Began Now

Reflection reveals the essence of who we are: layers and layers of mythological levels. These levels are formed by our past experiences. But as add more experiences to our lives, we metamorphosize into someone different. 

"The past is our definition. We may strive with good reason to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it. But we will escape it only by adding something better to it." - Wendell Berry

Adding "better" (or worse) things to our lives make us new.

So where did it all begin?

By this logic, it all begins right now. As I am having the experience of writing this blog, I am metamorphosizing into a new Ben. I'm building muscle mass in my forearms, learning how to write and articulate better, and getting hungrier--and I'll never be the same. I'm beginning right now, with a fresh start and limitless possibilities. I got to this chair because of my past, but I want to embrace the responsibilites of tomorrow, not the regrets of yesterday. The beginning becomes irrelevent; we escape it by looking to the future. Perhaps Christian author Rick Warren says it best:

"We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it." 

Small Trees Don't Get Enough Love

Behold, the Awesome Power

Greek mythology and Christianity share the element concerning the imperceptible nature of the divine. In each case the God or gods are unable to show themselves in full glory.

As we talked about in class today, Semele couldn't take the breathtaking power of Zeus in all his glory when he revealed himself to her. And so she exploded.

In the Bible,  Moses was physically affected by being in the presence of God. His face would glow so much that it would frighten the people of Israel to the point where he had put a veil over his face.

In the book of Isaiah, Isaiah tells us of a vision of the throne room of God. The seraphim (interesting looking creatures with six wings) flew around the throne with a pair of their wings covering their face for they were humbled before the glory of God, even as perfect beings. In the same vision, Isaiah is terrified at seeing the glory of God.

The prophet Ezekiel had a similar reaction in that he fell on his face when he saw the glory of God in a field.

Moral of the story, being in the presence of God is a pretty awe-inspiring event.

Unconscious Arguments

In class today, we spoke of the collective unconsciousness. It encompasses the idea that, in addition to our personal consciousness and personal unconsciousness, we all share an unconsciousness that links all individuals of a species together. The link is in the form of a seemingly inherited "shape" of the human mind that is similar to a species. I can see this definition being explained as in two different ways: genetic or spiritual.

From a physical standpoint, the thesis checks out. It is true that members of a species have very similar genes and these genes have been proven to dictate many social norms. As humans, we all have a natural propensity to have friends, procreate, gain knowledge, and so on. These are dictated by genetic factors. Our genetics predispose us to what sets apart as our species and what sets us apart is common to all (collective unconsciousness). Thus, we share an unconsciousness because of genetics. The assumption that must be made, however, is that because we share things as humans, that makes our minds connected. Because of this, we must separate the physical from the non-physical, which weakens the argument somewhat. 

Another explanation would be a metaphysical one. In order for this to be explained, certain assumptions need to be made. For one, our conscious unconscious minds must both be connected to the soul because our soul is the essence of ourselves. Thus, it encompasses all parts of us. Now, in order for there to be an unconscious that is collective to all of us, we must have our souls connected to something common--i.e. a god, an energy, etc.. If we are all connected to this common "entity", it would follow that we would share in many of the same experiences. The main problem that people have with this idea is that it is largely unverifiable from  a physical standpoint--it takes faith.

Is one of these explanations true and the other a myth? Are they both true or both a myth? And so the debate rages on...

Order of Operations

An apparent chronological order to the story in chapter 1 is absent, so the following is my attempt to make sense of what happens before what:

- Io is a priestess and begins having tormenting dreams telling her of Zeus’s love for her

- Io goes crazy with torment and turns into a cow, until Zeus touches her and she is turned back into a girl

- Io gives birth to Epaphus (son of Zeus?)

- Io is abducted from Argos (Greece?)

- Zeus abducts Europa

- Pasiphae (daughter of Europa) has Asterius (half-man, half-bull)

- Pasiphae has a daughter with Minos, Ariadne

- Theseus becomes friends with Peirithous. They abduct Helen. They plot to abduct the queen of Hades. They get glued to a couch. Hercules rescues Theseus

- Ariadne notices that Theseus seems to be good at handling bulls

- Ariadne helps Theseus kill Asterius

- Ariadne falls in love with Theseus, but ends up getting dumped on an island

- Dionysus seduces her, courts her, kills her, then turns her into a constellation

This is by no means a complete or exhaustive outline, but it gives some of the key points to be expounded upon as the story is further cultivated.