Photo: Ralph Buckley

Unless you’ve had your head under a rock, you’ve probably heard the world is supposed to end in 2012 (my apologies to those with rocks atop their heads).

Yep, according to many of the great minds throughout history, Nostradamus, the Mayans, the History Channel, it’s all gonna come tumbling down 12/22/2012. Damn, just three days before I turn 34. Oh, wait, maybe that’s a good thing.

Well, everyone from NASA to National Geographic to this guy is out to debunk this “myth.” All it takes is a much-hyped movie coming out on Friday for everyone and their mom to have their say.

So Discovery News got in on the action with the Top 10 Reasons Why the World Won’t End in 2012. The author, Ray Villard, rationalized some of the most common theories, including:

• The Earth’s magnetic field will reverse: “Don’t hold your breath. The last field reversal happened nearly 800,000 years ago. Fred Flintstone and our other ancestor cavemen survived.”
• The Earth’s rotation axis will tip: “An object the size of Mars would have to hit Earth to transfer enough momentum to knock us out of kilter. But Mars-sized protoplanets were kicked into interstellar space over 4 billion years ago. The solar system doesn’t make ‘planets-gone-wild’ anymore.”
• The Sun will align with the galactic equator on the winter solstice: “So what? These are simply coordinates in the sky. It has no physical reality any more than the intersection of Broadway and 7th Avenue at Times Square influences the geology of Manhattan Island.”

Ok, points taken, though arrogantly made. But what kills me is the smuggie, smug, smugness of statements like these:

Apparently the Mayans knew something about the heavens we don’t…our multi-billion dollar telescopes, space probes, and 6,000 professional astronomers somehow just can’t keep up with the mystic knowledge of an ancient superstitious culture.

Once again, we know so much more than those who came before us, right? Right.

Breaking it Down

Let me start off by saying that I don’t believe the world will end in 2012 with any sort of a bang. But I think there are some worthy arguments worth putting forward.

First of all, we don’t know for sure that the Mayans predicted the end of the world in 2012; we might be the only ones assuming because their calendar ends, it means the end of us. But, they did predict certain things with accuracy, such as eclipses.

Second, who said these predictions didn’t include the possibility of human-induced disasters? Yes, global warming is real (ahem), and might go further than any North-South Pole flip-flop. Don’t forget the economic meltdown. Plus, some believe WWIII is on it’s way, with 9/11 as the kick-off and Nostradamus’ accurate prediction of events.

Third, and most important to me, is that many believe 2012 won’t be the end of the world, but the end of the world as we know it. Which essentially means we will undergo a radical shift in consciousness, one which we have been building up to the last few years. What this means exactly is up for debate, but mostly includes the idea that humans will start being nice to humans. Imagine that.

Let’s just hope the consciousness shift comes before the nuclear button is pushed (or another 2012 movie makes it to the screen).

What do you think about the predictions – and their debunkers – around 2012? Share your thoughts below.

Photo: Eddi 07

Part III: Return

To see our lives in the poetic light of a heroic quest is empowering. It frames our experience in a creative context.

Imagining ourselves as heroes in the cause of our own lives is to embody timeless attributes. Far from childish fantasy, it’s a powerful and motivating vision for facing life’s challenges as champions of our own stories.

Yet every journey ends, and there comes the need for home. Outlasting the journey is a kind of impotence in fighting the return – a running away from connection. But re-entry is a challenging process, and perhaps a greater test of heroism than undertaking the journey itself. The unconscious bonds with home must be reaffirmed or recreated, and the experience of the journey translated into ordinary terms. If this isn’t completed, there is no Return.

Joseph Campbell’s Hero Monomyth details the themes of the mythic journey, reflecting the issues of mortal travelers who experience profound transformation in their own travels. Rediscovering home – wherever it may be – is the final leg of the journey, often taking longer to come to terms with than the time spent in travel.

The Six Stages of Return

1) Refusal of the Return: Reaching the end of journey and winning the spiritual prize, the hero may be tempted not to resume their life in the home they left.

Photo: h.koppdelaney

Campbell noted, “…the responsibility has been frequently refused. Even the Buddha, after his triumph, doubted whether the message of realization could be communicated, and saints are reported to have passed away while in the supernal ecstasy. Numerous indeed are the heroes fabled to have taken up residence in the blessed isle of the unaging Goddess of Immortal Being.”

The hero faces a kind of fatigue, a skepticism of meaningful placement within their original context. There’s a tale of a mighty warrior who refused home, asking to be granted eternal sleep. When his rest was disturbed, he had the choice of rejoining the world of men.

Again, he declined, and “retreated to the highest mountains”, and there dedicated himself to the ascetic practices that should finally release him from his last attachment to the forms of being. Said Campbell, “…in other words, instead of returning, (he) decided to retreat still further from the world. And who shall say that his decision was altogether without reason?”

2) The Magic Flight: Leaving “Dream World” for “Common World” is easier said than done; it’s difficult to convert the radical experience of initiation into a mundane plot. A hero may become trapped by the psychological impact of the transformation – and the abyss that has been stared into will stare back.

But all hope is not lost. According to Campbell, if the hero locates and grasps a sense of purpose in the prize of their journey, “the final stage of (the) adventure is supported by all the powers of his supernatural patron.” Yet, he continued:

On the other hand, if the trophy has been attained against the opposition of its guardian, or if the hero’s wish to return to the world has been resented by the gods or demons, then the last stage of the mythological round becomes a lively, often comical, pursuit. The flight may be complicated by marvels of magical obstruction and evasion.

3) Rescue from Without: “The hero may have to be brought back from his supernatural adventure from without. That is to say, the world may have to come and get him.” Heroes sometimes require some kind of prompt to escape the egoless Dream World.

The true climax of the Hero’s Journey is not in the winning of the boon, but in re-participation. Returning home is about regaining the ties that bind; the emphasis here is that the connection has always been within reach, though perhaps disguised. It is “paradoxical, supremely difficult” – but all Dorothy needs to do is click her rubied heels together.

4) The Crossing of the Return Threshold: The hero returns home intact with their knowledge of the other side – an awareness that spans barriers which must be kept ever separate.

Photo: Eddi 07

The hero has passed through something which cannot be defined in Common World, but which must yet find a voice. For example, when someone speaks of a powerful vision of love, they speak of timelessness, inner conviction and need that swallow other needs.

How can love be made into an easily-related symbol? Its unexplainable nature shows “the reality of the deep is not belied by that of common day.” Even more unnerving: the artifacts from the journey are seemingly more potent than those of the Common World, operating from a primordial energy with its own inscrutable logic.

More than the bravery of confronting the inner fears and entering the incongruous Dream World, “The returning hero, to complete his adventure, must survive the impact of the world.”

5) Master of Two Worlds: The hero now embodies both worlds, no longer fully of one or the other. Harmonizing one domain with the other is the cosmopolitan challenge of mastery – deciphering a mystic experience without defeating it.

The difficulty is that the discoveries cannot be represented simply – and this is the problem with understanding myth in general. As Campbell explained, “The problem… is to keep [the] symbol translucent so that it may not block out the very light it is supposed to convey.” The hero must find a context for interpretation, relate their unrelatable experiences as a form of mastery.

Keeping this doorway open is “freedom to pass back and forth across the world division… not contaminating the principles of one with those of the other.”

6) Freedom to Live: After witnessing the relationship of oneness that all things are part of, the hero shifts beyond the narrow confines of ego into a selfless existence.

Photo: h.koppdelaney

The meeting with the unknown dispels “the need for such life ignorance by effecting a reconciliation of the individual consciousness with the universal will.”

It’s to abandon mere preference for a greater connection, a surrender of staunch certainty to admit the absurd – to accept the indefinable as a natural condition. Casting off these demands frees the perception of life to include many more possibilities to meet the unknown flexibly.

Entering adventure and returning home is to share with others the greater kingdom beyond that of the little king. Campbell understood why myth continues to resonate in the modern heart: because it is a cord tethered to the past, a link to the basic elements of the human equation and our common nature. More than that, they can be used as stepping stones to our own potential – a path we can follow in the steps of the hero.

Have you had a hard time reintegrating at home after your own Hero’s Journey? Share your thoughts below.

Read the series:

• Part I, Heroic Travel: Joseph Campbell and the Power of Mythic Journey
• Part II, Heroic Travel: Navigating the Mythic Journey.

Photo: gadl

It’s a tough day for travelers who like to explore outside of “acceptable” countries, as Iran charged the three American backpackers detained in July with espionage. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with them.

So I was glad to come across something a bit positive happening in the world.

Project Explorer, who provides free cultural education programming for kids and teens, is posing the question, “What does it mean to be a global citizen?” They are asking that people make and upload a video answering this question with their own thoughts or experiences.

So far, the likes of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Russell Simmons, and Ziggy Marley have posted their answers. Also, many other lesser known – but just as important activists – such as Scott Harrison of charity: water and John and Charles of…well, Chelsea, add their two cents on “possibility and action” and the importance “being nice.”

Find more videos like this on ProjectExplorer.org’s Good Global Citizen

Now comes your turn. We’re challenging BNT readers to make a video and add their own take on what it means to be a global citizen.

Where To Go For Answers

Need some inspiration? Beginning with desire in the form of a journal entry or a video can ultimately lead us to answers. As Valerie Ng explained in her article, Why I Disobeyed My Family and Traveled the World:

I documented my grand plans for international travel in a Spanish essay in high school…[after traveling abroad] it became increasingly apparent that the world was a fascinating place, and I wanted to acquaint myself with the myriad of cultures inhabiting the earth.

Or, look no further than Daniel Harbecke’s piece, How Travel Will Save The World. In it, he explains, “The belief that humanity is encompassed within a single community is called cosmopolitanism…[it] has come to mean “worldly” or “sophisticated,” but in the original sense meant a universal love for all people that rejects borders.”

And, if you have kids in tow, or plan having them in the future and hope to make them a global citizen, check out Karen Banes’ piece, The Educational Value of Long Term Travel with Kids. In it, she notes:

Kids on the road learn naturally. They learn about physical and human geography, world history, religion (although not just the dominant one in their country of birth), wildlife, nature, environmental issues, campcraft, cooking, art and science. They also learn manners, tolerance, and respect for other cultures. They learn to make friends, and say goodbye.

After you make the video and upload it to Project Explorer site, be sure to post the link in the comments section below.

Photo: Ferne Millen

If you’ve seen the Dalai Lama live, or even online, you can tell right away he’s “real.”

By real I mean he offers no reason to treat him any different than “a simple monk” as he’s fond of saying. His tradition is Buddhism, but his religion is “kindness.”

You’d think his message of universal peace would be enough to warrant his popularity. Yet as Stephen Schettini writes in The Metropolitain, perhaps the real reason for the Dalai Lama’s superstar status is actually: Buddhism.

Visitors to Asia may perceive Buddhism as old-time religion, complete with invisible beings, superstition and intolerance, but scratch beneath the gaudy veneer and you find a thoughtful, healing and wholesome system of thought and daily practice.

In an age when religious faith is on the decline and people are having trouble swallowing its hollow residue, Buddhism offers a spiritual path that’s compatible with scientific enquiry, and perhaps even with twenty-first century realpolitik.

I’m reminded of a recent scene from the awful “Angels and Demons” film – when Ewan McGregor’s priest character is pontificating to the other church clergy about how “science and religion don’t have to fight! They can work together!” However clumsily, the message is meant to answer the age-old dilemma that is suffered by the Abrahamic religions: how do maintain “blind” faith in the age of Reason.

Buddhism, at least in the form popularly adopted by the West, doesn’t have this dilemma. There is no schism between science and religion – and this is key to understanding Buddhism’s popularity. As Stephen Schettini points out:

The Dalai Lama noted three crucial parallels between the Buddhism and modern science. They 1) share a deep suspicion of any notion of absolutes, 2) believe in universal natural laws of cause and effect and 3) depend on an empirical method. You can go a long way on those three premises.

Add to this the Dalai Lama’s brand of inner peace and simple wisdom, and it’s likely he’ll be in the spotlight for some time to come.

As one blogger says “He’s a religious guy who doesn’t support killing or hating people for God. It’s a big improvement.”

Photo: smokeonit

For me, going abroad – admittedly with a bit of trepidation and fear – my junior year of college was something I decided to do in part because several good friends had already done the same thing. And they loved it.

Tons of wine, endless pasta, bread, and cheese, and gorgeous surroundings in Florence? This did not sound like a problem.

But, as Nomadic Matt recently noted, I find myself in the minority. He questions why Americans still aren’t traveling overseas, a subject he first tackled in a post last year.

Yes, 21% of Americans have their passports now as compared to 15% a few years ago (obviously, still a pathetically low number). But travel off of the North American, and higher areas of the South American, continents has actually decreased. According to Matt, more people have passports because you need them to get to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, where travel has increased.

Less About Money, More About Ignorance

Photo: Capture Queen ™

His reasoning? It’s not so much that people don’t have the money to travel, even in these hard economic times, but it has more to do with cultural ignorance, as in “not knowing about other cultures” and not “Americans are ignorant buffoons.”

Other factors include fear, priorities around work, and lack of awareness – especially politically.

Despite the rise of China, Brazil, and India, our politicians tell us everything in America is the best (yet #38 in healthcare). Countries will always do what we want. America is the leader. We are the city upon a hill. An when you are the best, why go to “godforsaken” countries where they hate you for being American and might rob you?

Last year, Julie Schwietert asked if Americans are afraid of travel after the not-so-excited reaction to Obama’s Middle East and Europe trip in July 2008. She noted, “It’s a trip that should make America proud (particularly given the geographic and diplomatic gaps in the current president’s consciousness), but Americans’ response to Obama’s trip has been curiously tepid.”

And we all know how media loves to stir up our fears of the “other.” As Sarah Menkedick wrote in response to the media shitstorm blaming the three Americans held in Iran, “There are two themes here. One is that travel (outside of the U.S and perhaps Western Europe) is dangerous, reckless, and stupid. The other is that only starry-eyed, pot-smoking hippie backpackers are dumb enough to try it, and they get what they deserve.”

The Flip Side

On the other side of the argument, you have a few people noting that “Americans are still traveling abroad,” despite the economic downturn. Not sure if this Forbes Traveler piece makes a good argument, though; yes, travel only slipped less than 1% from 2007 to 2008, but the 2009 numbers up until May showed a 7.7% decrease compared to the same time last year.

Or, as Katy Steinmetz stated in a piece she wrote last year, Behind the myth that few Americans have passports, not only is the accepted statistic wrong (the number is really more around 30%), but that economics and poverty really are at play. On top of the high cost of passports, taking care of your family, buying food, and paying for that healthcare plan, people are left with few dollars to go anywhere, even with a good deal on Orbitz.

Do you think Americans don’t travel abroad because of ignorance and politics, or does it have more to do with money? Share your thoughts below.

Photo: yosoyjulito

Part II: Initiation

Travel is a fundamentally human activity, practiced around the world for thousands of years. It’s about discovery – the passion of following where an unknown road will lead us – and it can reshape how we see the world and ourselves within it.

The same can be said about myth. The reasons for travel are identical to why we study myth: to explore new ways of life, to learn more about the world, and to better understand the nature of human imagination.

What no mythologist before Joseph Campbell recognized was the relevance of myth to issues of contemporary living. He was keenly aware that myth can speak to the modern world. The key is to view myth as a metaphor of spiritual instruction, rather than historical fact. Campbell believed fixating on literal readings leaves us blind to underlying messages. Myths provide existential signposts to navigate by, and they should be read symbolically, not factually.

For example, imagine a man getting ready to go to work in the morning. He kisses his wife and says, “I’m off to slay the dragons.” Certainly we understand his meaning – he’s going to face the day’s challenges, not to chase down oversized lizards. He casts himself in the metaphoric role of a hero.

However, if he walks out the door with a sword in hand, he has taken the metaphor literally. The problem isn’t only that this is inappropriate for the office, even on casual day. By recreating the image literally, he misses the point of the heroic image – the deeper meaning of the figurative message.

Where the Mythic Road Leads

Campbell’s hero endures mythic themes in their journey, and some of the most profound are encountered in the world outside home, or “Dream World”. Echoing the spiritual experiences of many travelers, Initiation to the mystery involves six stages:

Photo: h.koppdelaney

1) The Road of Trials: The Dream World represents the proving grounds of the hero’s aptitude. Marked by a fair amount of stumbling, the hero faces surface challenges of every kind: mental, physical, emotional, ethical, devotional, and so on.

The trials of the volatile dream realm are preparation, a chance to learn the rules. Heroes may suffer the return of doubt, but facing these obstacles proves the hero’s worth. Only those who “talk the talk and walk the walk” can progress to future stages.

2) The Meeting with the Goddess: “Woman,” wrote Campbell, “in the picture language of mythology, represents the totality of what can be known.” A common feature of the Hero’s Journey is to encounter divine feminine insight, interpreted as “true seeing”.

Though traditionally depicted as male, literal translation of the hero’s gender is not the message. Spoken in today’s dialect, the theme of this stage is to harmonize masculine action with feminine mystique, uniting both aspects of the hero’s identity without one facet overwhelming the other.

For a hero too soft or gruff to the union, the journey becomes anti-heroic. Execution and essence must be balanced to bring the hero’s identity into accord, without losing grace or potency. Vigor becomes brutishness, charm becomes conceit, if one side overshadows the other.

Only by display of the “gentle heart” do heroes and heroines court their “missing half” – a step which affirms the full range of the engendered psyche.

3) Woman as Temptation: Arguably not part of every journey, this stage refers to the ever-present libido. Campbell regards the issue of sexuality as critical: heroes mustn’t be lured either from the journey or their own identity. Embracing the goddess of knowledge, a hero is also made conscious of the “impurity” or “carnality” of contact across borders – movement is sexual.

Often a prelude to union (some might say reunion) with the goddess, the hero must deal with enticement from the path. Like a flame with the power to help or harm, respect for the union must be paid. Walling off the dark side creates stress, while contact with the radiant source of life burns and corrupts the hero’s higher self. The conflict is to stay in control – resisting the siren’s lure is freedom to choose, versus servitude to personal demons.

4) Atonement with the Father: This stage begins the climax of Initiation: to amass the final powers needed to assume the mantle of the role model. In simpler terms, it’s to say, “I can do it myself” – to change potential into confidence.

By incorporating the symbolic position of father (or mother, if female), the hero also integrates a model of the “law” – the law of how to live on one’s own terms. Campbell described this stage as developing the vital wisdom for the final prize to complete the Initiation. He saw it as a form of atonement (“at-one-ment”) with one’s potential, to see the parental figure as a mortal keeper of wisdom, not an unapproachable warden.

Photo: h.koppdelaney

“The hero transcends life with its peculiar blind spot and for a moment rises to glimpse the source. He beholds the face of the father, understands – and the two are atoned.”

5) Apotheosis: Apotheosis means “to become godlike”. The responsibility earned in the previous stage opens the hero to a new way to relate to life, the final step needed to face the “shadow-self” – the greatest threat to the hero’s character.

This is an encounter with a kind of death: a death of innocence, of “what-was”, similar to the passing on from home into the Dream World itself. The “way things were” is shattered and reintegrated; the ego dissolves and recrystallizes in a new awareness – a rebirth. The hero encompasses their naïve past, the present of their new role, and direction of the future with the fresh power they now control.

6) The Ultimate Boon: In the rebirth, the hero wins a spiritual prize. Often depicted mythically as a magic elixir, cup or device that grants immortality, endless food and water, or healing, it may also appear as treasure or a powerful new awareness. Yet these are still symbols of the boon’s real meaning: an end to suffering, to mend a rift or heal a wound. The prize supports the sense of harmonious life, and the true essence of the reward is to move beyond symbols to revelation.

A gift to be shared, the boon confirms myth as a means to link individuals to the causes of their communities. But the revelation presents a new barrier: how to connect the new self to the life left behind. The journey becomes a mirror of itself: having translated Dream World, the hero must relate their insight to the departed Ordinary World. The journey is not yet complete – the decision of where to establish home is considered in the next phase, Return.

Have you experienced travel similar to Campbell’s mythic journey? Share your thoughts below.

Read the series:

• Part I, Heroic Travel: Joseph Campbell and the Power of Mythic Journey
• Part III, Heroic Travel: The Mythic Art of Homecoming.

The grieving angel / Photo: Theodore Scott / Feature photo: L’enfant terrible

By most accounts, the state of the world is in dire shape. The collective madness of humanity seems unable and perhaps unwilling to change its destructive habits, both on the environment and each other.

But what if we could dig deep into our psyche, to understand the root causes of many of our behaviours on a psychological, spiritual, and cultural level?

That was the goal set forth by Patrick Shen, a documentary filmmaker who set out to uncover the source of “death anxiety” and how it influences our lives on a daily basis. The result: Flight From Death: The Quest For Immortality. (watch the trailer).

I caught up with Patrick to discuss the film, the nature of death anxiety, and how to make our own lives a work of art.

BNT: How did you come up with the concept for Flight From Death?

PATRICK SHEN: I stumbled upon Ernest Becker’s monumental, Pulitzer Prize-winning book Denial of Death one day at a used book store. I had never heard of it, but the title intrigued me and and I had been asking a lot of the same questions that, according to the back cover, this book seemed to address; so I picked it up.

I was totally awakened by it. Reading Denial of Death marked a major intellectual shift in my life. I wanted everyone to know about the ideas in this book and immediately began exploring the possibility of translating it into documentary form. Making the film and getting to explore it more in such an intense way, marked yet another major shift in my life.

You mention the shoot took 4 years. How did the length of the shoot impact your vision of the film? Further, how did you change from the beginning to the end?

The whole production, inclusive of post-production, took about four years. We shot the film over a period of about two and a half years. I remember feeling like the scope of the film kept expanding with every month that went by. The more time we had to think about the movie, the more we wanted to include in it and the more ambitious we became.

Director Patrick Shen

I love that one film critic in Australia would later refer to Flight from Death as “one of the most ambitious movies ever made.” Four years gave us a lot of time to painstakingly craft what is possibly the most thorough introduction to Becker’s ideas that our little brains could possibly muster at the time.

The events of 9/11/01 certainly had an impact on the vision of the film. 9/11 gave us an opportunity to examine Becker’s ideas within the context of a current event that the entire world was now discussing and attempting to process.

As devastated as we were, not to mention distraught over having lost a friend and fellow crew member that day, I knew we needed to act quickly to incorporate it into the movie.

In the film we focus on the work of three experimental social psychologists who created Terror Management Theory based on the ideas of Ernest Becker.

In a nutshell, the theory states that humans, in order to function properly in light of our impending death, need to feel like we are a significant participant in a meaningful worldview. Without the meaningful context within which we live out our lives, we are stripped of all things that make us feel human and must confront the possibility that we are no more significant than an ant or a fern.

Naturally, an attempt to weaken or to suggest that one’s worldview is invalid, is not taken lightly. At the time, the trio of psychologists had already conducted close to 300 experiments to substantiate this claim. After the events of 9/11, we found ourselves in the middle of a terror management theory experiment taking place on a grand scale.

It allowed us to show that Becker’s ideas were as relevant then as they were when Denial of Death was first published in 1973.

I changed pretty dramatically throughout the course of making the film. I began the journey of making Flight from Death with a predominantly academic and intellectual point of view. I was a man of scientific thought and logical inquiry and it was exactly those elements of Becker’s work that had resonated most with me initially.

Upon a closer and more honest investigation of Becker’s work, I began to see that he asks much more of us, beyond just a scientific approach, in our exploration of the problem of the human condition. Many people mistake Denial of Death for being an atheistic text – as I did in the beginning – and often use Becker’s ideas to bolster an atheistic point of view. Becker was not interested in debunking religion, though I think he probably had his doubts.

In fact, I think Becker was very curious about religion, judging by his documented correspondence with a priest for many years and his fondness for reading Psalms. In addition, Becker’s work borrows heavily from Kierkegaard, a devout Christian.

It’s very possible that Becker considered the religious solution as a viable means to combatting our anxiety. I’m not suggesting that we all run out and go to church, but I am suggesting that we approach the problem of death anxiety – of the human condition – with a multi-disciplinary approach, just as Becker had done with his work and just as we should approach all things so significant in scope.

You assert that all culture can be attributed to dealing with death anxiety. Can you elaborate further on your point?

From anthropology we learn that a culture, or shared set of beliefs about the nature of reality, is specific to a particular region or people group. There may be some underlying general commonalities (i.e. Most cultures have a creation story) but the particular beliefs and practices of one culture can differ significantly and often even appear contradictory to those of another.

Filming an interview

As the film points out, a gifted basketball player whom we shower with fame, fortune, and praise in the United States has much less relevance in another culture which might value more the ability to catch a fish or sustain hours of uninterrupted meditation. Success, or heroism, in one culture clearly does not necessarily translate to another.

Becker theorizes that it is our shared set of beliefs that make it possible for us to feel like we are significant participants in a meaningful universe and that without them, we are confronted with the possibility that we are nothing more than a living, breathing, decaying piece of meat no different than the next life form.

Culture then essentially elevates us beyond the physical world – and its limitations along with it (i.e. death) – and provides definition for our symbolic world, the world within which we truly live out our lives.

In the physical world, we’re doomed. We can’t win. We’ll die someday and there’s nothing we can do about it. Culture provides us the rules and the formula by which we can win, at least symbolically.

There are two general methods we employ to do this. Heroism is our attempt to transcend the natural order of things. When we achieve more than what others have, effectively transcending the natural order, we enter into the super-natural. The hero stands out amongst the crowd and achieves a sense of symbolic immortality for now he is more than just that decaying piece of meat and also stands a better chance at never being forgotten.

The other method is to immerse ourselves in a cause or belief system that is larger and more permanent than we are. Organisms often have a better chance at survival when they stick together (i.e. strength in numbers). As symbolic creatures, we do the same to survive.

The more people we surround ourselves with that believe the same things we do about the nature of reality, the more confident we can feel that what we believe is true. More importantly, when we are a part of something that will continue on long after we have gone, we too feel like a part of us will go on after we die.

Gabriel Byrne makes a poignant comment about how editing a film is made up of choices: such as a person walking, or a bird taking flight. He compares these disconnected moments as much like life itself. What are your thoughts on his comment?

I think what he meant was that life is inherent in everything around us. Our mental capacity as humans allows to see that life is an incredible phenomenon and if we take the time to notice it, there’s evidence of this phenomenon infused in every movement we make.

Some immortalists believe that science will eventually eliminate aging and death altogether. In the film, you insist that ending “natural death” may actually increase death anxiety, as we can never eliminate accidental death. What do you say to futurists like Ray Kurzweil who continue to pursue immortality through science?

I think it’s an interesting endeavor for sure and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious about what it would be like to live forever.

As you point out in your question however, the potential for us to be robbed of our immortality because of an accidental death is even more terrifying than if we are being robbed of say 50 years. I worry that if we have not found a way to constructively process our death anxiety then we aren’t ready to live forever.

In the film, there is a lot of evidence and experimental data to suggest that much of our aggressive behaviors and the violence in the world stems from our inability to reconcile with death anxiety. If this is true, what will happen if our death anxiety is increased even two-fold, let alone ten or twenty?

How has the film been your own attempt to deal with death anxiety? How has meeting your death head on affected your outlook on life?

Admittedly, this film and all films I make, serve a vital role for me in dealing with my own death anxiety. It is certainly my way of leaving my mark on the world.

Flight From Death / BUY DVD

It’s an attempt at heroism. It’s proof of my existence and that maybe I mattered in some way. The creative solution to the problem of death anxiety is an intriguing one. Van Gogh, and his longing to make his mark, left us with many great works of art.

I think transferring our anxieties onto creative works whether they are artistic endeavors or not, can be a very satisfying, and at the same time, constructive way to deal with death anxiety.

Making Flight from Death and dwelling on death for so many years both heightened my anxiety and at the same time soothed it. Because I’m perhaps more aware of death and how it lurks in every shadow and around every corner, I’m more careful. Because I now have a family, that awareness has heightened even more. It’s sometimes troubling how much it influences me.

The challenge for me is to take that anxiety and rather than let it discourage me from fully engaging the world around me, use it to fuel my passion for living.

I have developed a real passion for creating a masterpiece out of life, which is probably the ultimate creative endeavor. My level of appreciation for the opportunity to continuing living each day has evolved into a genuinely overwhelming sense of gratitude. A healthy awareness of death – surely a constant work-in-progress for us all – has given each moment in my life, on most days, a whole new dimension that is now impossible to ignore.

It struck me that much of what you call “death anxiety” in the film is really what Buddhists would call “ego death anxiety.” Further, Buddhists offer a concrete method, meditation, to transcend the ego and acheive a profound inner calm. I’m curious why you never explored this connection in the film?

It’s an intriguing solution for sure. We actually interviewed two Buddhists in the film, David Loy and a close friend of Becker’s, Ron Leifer.

In Buddhism as you might know there is this notion of “no self”. If our ego does not exist and if we can train ourselves to realize this through meditation and essentially disconnect from our-selves, there will be no death anxiety to contend with. I think the problem lies in the meditation.

To achieve that kind of discipline and consistency of focused (or should I say un-focused?) meditation can take most of us a lifetime to master. Also, the ego and the threat of losing our egos to death, has driven humanity to do great things, to innovate, and achieve great feats. What happens to this spirit of progress and creation when the ego is removed from the equation?

These are all really interesting things to continue discussing.We didn’t explore this nor any other religious solutions in the film because it would have required that the film be twice as long and twice as more expensive to make. It’s really deserving of its own film.

Why have humans continuously chosen a “life destroying illusion” for so many years? What is needed to shake us out of our collective dellusion?

Humans are a pretty immature form of life in the grand scheme of things. We’re like a five year-old being handed the keys to a Corvette.

Our brains are capable of incredible things that are both beautiful and horrific and we haven’t quite figured out how to stay out of trouble. We take the lives of others because we’ve convinced ourselves that killing is a viable means of solving our problems.

Generation after generation, we’ve inherited this belief. It is the animal inside the human that is merely trying to survive and dispose of any threats. If mice had the capacity to build a tank and an atom bomb, I’m sure there would be no cats left in the world. We are, as Freud calls it, a “sick animal”.

In my opinion, what needs to happen is a re-examination of our definition and our relationship with truth. To prove one set of beliefs more true than another is not only unknowable but un-winnable. We’ve tried that route and have created enemies out of one another and have left billions dead in our path.

Our notion of truth, or perhaps we should call it belief, is nothing more than an estimation of reality. There may sometimes be accurate estimations, but they are speculative nonetheless. What we believe to be true as five year-olds is not always the same as what we believe as 70 year-olds.

If belief can change, then belief cannot be absolutely true. It is as James Carse writes in his book The Religious Case Against Belief, “belief is not privileged over knowledge, it is fully open, unfinished, and tentative.”

In other words, truth is a work in progress. Rigid belief leaves no room for our worldviews to be inclusive of other people. We would all forever remain “the other” to one another each living within the context of our exclusive and flawed worldviews.

Learn more about the film at Flight From Death.

What do you think on death anxiety’s influence on each of us? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Community Connection

For further reading, check out an interview with Jason Silva on how science will make you live forever. Then explore Further Conversations On the end of death.

Photo: Lauren Close

Always ones to stir up controversy about our long-held beliefs, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner have a new book out, SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance.

Along with arguing that the world is actually experiencing a cooling trend, which has been hotly contended all over the net, there is also a less debated chapter on prostitution.

In it, Levitt and Dubner compare two women – “call girls” if you will – who brought in two very different brackets of money. One, “LaSheena,” worked on the streets on the South Side of Chicago and made about $350 a week; the other, “Allie” worked in her apartment in a “chic” Chicago neighborhood and made the same amount per hour. Why the difference?

Well, according to an excerpt from the book:

[Allie] is the kind of person who sees something good in everyone — and this, she believes, has contributed to her entrepreneurial success. She genuinely likes the men who come to her, and the men therefore like Allie even beyond the fact that she will have sex with them.

LaSheena, on the other hand, doesn’t like “turning tricks.” Her reasoning? “Cause I don’t really like men. I guess it bothers me mentally.”

You don’t have to read far into this excerpt to see that Levitt and Dubner make Allie’s life out to be some sort of Cinderella/Pretty Woman/Business Week character (she “she represents the ideal wife: beautiful, attentive, smart, laughing at your jokes and satisfying your lust“), while LaSheena barely necessitates a mention, except to open up the piece for comparison value.

Blaming the Victim

But something deeper is at work here, as Sady Doyle notes in her rebuttal piece, Prostitution, for fun and profit.

Photo: Capitan Giona

For one, “the fact that Allie is probably white, and that LaSheena is probably not, is never once addressed,” along with the reality that we learn about the inner workings of Allie, while no real history of LaSheena’s life is outlined.

Did LaSheena have no other choice but to be a prostitute? Was she beaten by some of the men she had sex with? Doesn’t really seem to matter to the authors.

The overwhelming feeling that comes off the page is that LaSheena’s poverty is LaSheena’s fault.

Doyle adds:

Hey, here’s an interesting thought: Maybe LaSheena doesn’t like men because she’s trapped in a cycle of poverty, and one of the only ways for her to stay alive is to have sex with men, whether or not she really wants to. Maybe that’s enough to make LaSheena dislike men.

Interestingly enough, although Allie “enjoyed her work,” she got out of it because she was tired of hiding it from her family and friends, and, most importantly, she understood “her commodity was perishable.” I think that statement just took women back 200 years.

Probably my absolute favorite part of this whole damn story is the moral that Levitt and Dubner end with:

So the real puzzle isn’t why someone like Allie becomes a prostitute, but rather why more women don’t choose this career. You have to like sex enough, and be willing to make some sacrifices, like not having a husband (unless he is very understanding, or very greedy).

Thanks, Levitt and Dubner, for your amazing insights on prostitution and what it means to be a woman.

What do you think of Levitt and Dubner’s take on prostitution? Share your thoughts below.

Illustration: alicepopkorn

I’ve been meditating regularly for about ten years now. I have to say, I’m much more relaxed than I used to be. I don’t worry as much, and I’ve become more patient.

I’m also more aware of how my mind works. I see patterns in the way I think and approach things. This makes me more aware of faults that I previously hadn’t noticed. I’ve also become more comfortable with who I am.

There are many different meditation techniques. The goals are generally the same; however, the methods for reaching that goal vary widely.

Meditation is a way to change your attitude towards life. As you practice, you gradually become more relaxed and feel more connected to other people around you. But even though it sounds easy, it’s harder than it seems.

How it works

In the type of meditation I practice, Vipassana, the basic idea is to teach you to accept things the way they are. When you meditate, you actually practice accepting reality, and like anything, the more you practice the better you get. Gradually you become more able to accept the things you cannot control while working to change the things you can.

When you meditate, you try to do two things.

First, you try to pay attention to the breath going in and out of your nose without controlling it. You just watch it. When you notice that your mind has wandered and you are thinking about something else, you bring your attention back to your breath.

The second thing that you try to do is to accept how you are doing. If you can barely pay attention at all, you just try to accept it without getting annoyed. This is contrary to the way we’ve thought our whole lives. When you try to do something, if you do it well, you are happy. If you do it badly, you become unhappy.

While you are meditating, you may accept how you are doing for a while, but inevitably something will come up in your mind that you don’t accept. You may become bored, or tired, or uncomfortable, or you will want to feel differently than you do.

You just have to try to accept these feelings. Of course you won’t be able to do this. But by practicing regularly, you gradually improve your ability to accept whatever you experience.

Practicing Acceptance

Being able to accept things for what they are effects many different aspects of your life. You become more accepting of people not acting how they’re “supposed to” act.

Photo: roshnill

These are the main causes of anger in life — you become less angry in circumstances that tend to make you angry and gradually anger begins to wash out of you. Instead of allowing the emotion to boil up inside, you say to yourself, “Whatever happens, happens. I’ll deal with it.”

This helps remove the fear of the unknown which tends to keep people from having a full life because they’re afraid of uncertainty. In the same way, meditation helps diminish people’s fear of change. As you become less fearful of the unknown, you become less fearful of the future being different from how you want.

And when you aren’t afraid of the future, you can enjoy the present more fully.

How to Practice

After a meal, you tend to be more tired and less alert. That’s why I’ve found it’s better to meditate on an empty stomach. You can sit with your legs crossed, but it’s not necessary. If you do, you should sit on an incline or put a pillow under your butt. This will help keep your back straight.

A comfortable position is crucial. You shouldn’t lie down because you’re a lot more likely to fall asleep. I meditate with my eyes closed to reduce distractions, but there are people who meditate with their eyes open. There are different schools of thought on this. Both work, so just pick whichever one feels right.

Try to pay attention to the breath going in and out of your nose. If your breath is deep, that’s fine. If it’s shallow, that’s fine. If it’s relaxed, that’s fine. If it’s not, that’s fine.

Your job is not to judge or control, simply to observe. If you can feel the breath touching the inside of your nostrils, then you should feel it. If you can’t feel anything, just notice when it is entering your nose and when it is leaving. It doesn’t matter how well you can pay attention, only that you keep trying to pay attention.

Your mind will wander, and it’s shocking how quickly it will wander, often after less than one breath. When you notice this, bring your thoughts back to your breath. When it wanders again, bring it back again.

The goal is to work without caring how it goes. However, you will find that you do care how it is going. As you practice, you will improve and you will become more accepting of how you are doing.

After years of practice, my mind often wanders as much as it did when I started. The big change is that I am much more able to accept this fact. THIS IS THE ONLY MEASURE OF PROGRESS.

Dealing with Frustration

There are many different ways you may not like how your meditation is going. You might get frustrated at your awful concentration; you might get bored; you might feel angry, sad, upset or annoyed; you might want the meditation to relax you and get frustrated that this isn’t happening, or countless other things.

But you have to realize that this is how meditation works. It’s supposed to bring up these feelings so you can learn to accept them. When you work out, you use weights that are difficult to lift because that is what makes you stronger.

It’s the same way with meditation. It’s designed to be difficult.

Sometimes when you are meditating, you can have strange experiences. You might experience emotions for no apparent reasons. You might see lights, or your body may feel like it’s a single point. You might have visions pop into your head.

There are countless different things that can happen, and they all make it harder to pay attention to your breath. If they do happen, you should treat them like every other distraction and try to pay attention to your breath as well as you can, regardless of the distraction.

As well, the way you are meditating can change from minute to minute and from day to day. It can be frustrating to have what you consider an acceptable meditation one day and one that you are unhappy with the next. Try to accept that this is just how it works. If you cannot accept this and are still frustrated, try to accept that your mind is frustrated.

Practice Regularly

It is important to keep a regular practice. I would suggest starting at no less than fifteen minutes and gradually increase the time as you progress.

Photo: el photopakismo

As time goes on, you will develop a more relaxed form of concentration. This may seem paradoxical because we normally associate strong concentration with a tense, furrowed brow.

Meditation changes the way you view the world, so many of the analogies people use to describe it can at first seem contradictory. As you begin to practice, these examples begin to make more sense.

Let’s say you are in a situation that makes you upset or angry. Try to accept the situation. Just by trying to accept it, you are practicing accepting things, which gradually improves this ability.

If you are too agitated to accept the situation, notice the effect that the situation is having on your body. In the same way that fear creates a sensation in your stomach, all strong negative emotions create noticeable sensations in your body. Observe how the anger or frustration affects you physically and try to accept the physical feeling.

This is something more concrete to work with than the abstract emotion. In addition to helping improve your ability to accept things, you begin to use negative experiences to recognize the positive side to them. They begin to have purpose in your life, just as much as joyful events.

Meditation and Faith

It should be evident that you don’t need to follow any religion or believe in God to get the benefits of meditation. However, every major religion incorporates some form of meditation. I think this is because meditation can help deepen you faith.

The reason many people are atheists is that they look at all the awful things in the world and cannot see how there could possibly be a God who cares about people. However, people who have a faith tend to say that everything happens for a reason that we cannot always understand God’s plan.

There are different levels of faith. When something awful happens, like the death of a loved one, a person of faith is able to cope because they feel like it is part of God’s plan, or at least derive a reason from the loss. However, someone without faith can be easily upset by minor setbacks because they cannot accept that every event can be learned from.

As you use negative events in your life to develop your ability to accept things, you begin to find a purpose in them. This makes you feel more like negative events are just as important as positive events. As you progress in meditation, your faith will deepen. You will also begin to understand how religion is connected to meditation.

There’s an old saying, “Prayer is like talking to God, and meditation is like listening to God.”

Many meditation schools teach that if you want meditation to have an effect on your life, it is important to live in a moral way. One of the main reasons has to do with the attitude you cultivate through meditation. It helps you feel more connected to people.

When you act selfishly and screw people over, you act as if you are only accountable to yourself. When you act selflessly, you are working to develop an attitude of awareness and compassion, enhancing the attitude that meditation develops.

Free meditation courses

One great way to progress in your meditation and delve deeper into your mind is to attend a free ten-day course given in over 20 different countries at a Vipassana Meditation Center.

They put you up for ten days and feed you for free. They operate only on donations given by people who’ve taken a course, but they don’t pressure you to donate. The catch is that it’s incredibly hard work. Their students meditate for ten hours a day (not in a row) for ten days straight.

When I first heard of the course, I thought there was no way in hell I could meditate for ten hours a day — I could barely sit for 30 minutes. But after talking with some people who had taken the course, they explained the hardest part was deciding to do it.

I gave it a shot. It surprised me when I learned that that 90% of the students finish the course and many are experiencing meditation for the first time. But I made it through, and I highly recommend the course for anyone willing to challenge themselves.

For a list of centers and course dates, visit www.dhamma.org

Community Connection

Waiting around for the best time to meditate? Think again. Read Why You’ll Never Find the Perfect Time To Meditate. And check out 20 Basic, Fun, Sexy Resources For Beginning Meditators.

Photo: takomabibelot

So what if Michael Jackson has made over $72 million since his death? Turns out even if you’re a saint, sometimes it pays more to be dead than alive (along with the possibility of even being called a saint).

AOL’s Daily Finance decided to take a look into the top-earning saints of all time.

Not surprisingly, Jesus’ mom ranks number one. The Virgin Mary’s got all those medals, statues, and candles going for her. Plus, think about all the many pilgrimages to places that are often far from home, including “Lourdes, Fatima, Medjugorje, and Guadalupe.”

But, lest we forget, the movie industry does enjoy its saints just as much as the next good Catholic, so when it comes to film, Joan of Arc rocks the big screen money. She’s been the subject of over 16 movies, plus, lest we forget, that TV show with Amber Tamblyn.

Also in the mix are St. Christopher, best known for safe travel (who apparently is also invoked by “bachelors, teamsters, epileptics, gardeners, porters, sailors, and toothache sufferers”), and someone you may have heard of even if you’re not Christian: St. Nick. A bit of sketchiness surrounds the history of the fat, jolly man, though; was he truly based on St. Nicholas of Myrna, Norse God Odin, or the Slavic “dark” and “light” Gods of Czernobog and Byelobog?

Either way, ‘ole St. Nick is making a killing. Or, at least all of the people selling toys in his name are.

The Mother of all Teresas

Which made me wonder about more recent saints, ones who have lived in our lifetime. First person that pops to mind (well, mine at least) is Mother Teresa. I wondered if she actually made any money in her life, and assumed she has made a lot more since her death.

Photo: runran

So I was a bit taken aback at this piece by Michael Parenti. In it, he claims that Mother Teresa received:

…Vast sums from wealthy and sometimes tainted sources, including a million dollars from convicted savings & loan swindler Charles Keating, on whose behalf she sent a personal plea for clemency to the presiding judge…she also accepted substantial sums given by the brutal Duvalier dictatorship that regularly stole from the Haitian public treasury.

Parenti continues, saying her hospitals were often nothing more than “human warehouses,” while she personally enjoyed state-of-the-art treatment when sick. He also contends that she fudged numbers of how many poor her services fed, and that during floods and cholera epidemics, her outfit was often nowhere to be found.

Possibly most damning were diaries found several years after her death and fast-track canonization (there is usually a five-year waiting period before investigations into sainthood can begin). Published as Il Segreto di Madre Teresa (Mother Teresa’s Secret), Teresa said:

In my own soul, I feel the terrible pain of this loss. I feel that God does not want me, that God is not God and that he does not really exist.

I’m not sure that this quote in any way suggests or proves she was a money-grubber; instead, it seems that she was human, and had doubts, just like the rest of us. Yet, it still makes you wonder if being an ultimate giver in the time of Hollywood riches and people desperate for a “perfect” savior is a bit impossible. Look, we’ve even turned all those dead saints into huge profits.

Or maybe, it was never possible to be a “true” saint in the first place.

What do you think of our beliefs about sainthood and holiness when it comes to money? Share your thoughts below.