Mythology and Momentum

"The myth is this side of the truth. Myth stops right next to it. But, it leads us to it." -- Joseph Campbell

In February 1987, Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, discussed the importance of myth to humanity with the eminent scholar of mythology, the late Joseph Campbell. The discussion was part of the “Thinking Allowed” program which once aired on public television.

Campbell is the author of “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” Published in 1949, the work explores themes, symbols and archetypes from cultures around the world. Campbell reported each culture possesses a unique mythos, mythology expresses fundamental human experiences and desires. Myth and mythic narratives are variations of a single, great theme. To Campbell, myth is all about the future.

Dr. Mishlove is the first person to earn a doctoral diploma in parasychology from an accredited American institution — the University of California, Berkeley. Today he is affiliated with the California Institute for Human Science. He has written extensively on anomalous phenomena, including UFOs.

It may be that UFOs have played a historic role in shaping human beliefs. In addition to shaping our critical faculties, the intelligence behind the phenomena may be trying to teach us a lesson about what we could become.

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The Future Humanity Deserves

The great cellist Pablo Casals understood what the solution was for humanity’s chaotic state. Relating to our misplaced priorities, the Spanish exile wrote:

Each second we live in a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that never was before and will never be again.

And what do we teach our children in school? We teach them that two and two makes four, and that Paris is the capital of France.

When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them:

Do you know what you are?

You are a marvel. You are unique.

In all of the world there is no other child exactly like you. In the millions of years that have passed there has never been another child like you.

And look at your body — what a wonder it is!

Your legs, your arms, your cunning fingers, the way you move!

You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven.

You have the capacity for anything.

Yes, you are a marvel.

And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel?

You must cherish one another. You must work — we all must work — to make this world worthy of its children.

— Pablo Casals

Pablo Casals kisses the hand of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy during a performance at the White House on November 13, 1961. Watching the moment are Luis Muñoz Marín, Governor of Puerto Rico, and President John F. Kennedy.

After General Francisco Franco and the fascists overthrew democracy in Spain, Casals left his homeland to live in the United States Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. He was invited to perform a recital concert at a White House reception in honor of Governor Luis Muñoz Marín and his wife. Click here for the President’s remarks on the occasion.