The opening page of my upcoming book, From Egos to Eden: Our Heroic Journey to Keep Earth Livable, quotes physicist Albert Einstein (1875-1959) as saying that we need a substantially new manner of thinking in order to see ourselves as part of the whole of Nature and the Universe. Without this, he says, we live in a kind of delusion in which we see ourselves as separate from the rest.
MultiEarth’s ways spin a mesmerizing delusion. New technologies gush into our awareness with assurances of new convenience and status. Yet, entrancing as MultiEarth living is, this book explains why I believe we can do what we must: break out of the trance. Doing so requires journeying into a larger topography of consciousness where we see Earth-size ways of living as more enticing than we’ve ever seen them before. In Earth-size consciousness, we can reverse climate change and other ecological crises we’ve inflicted on ourselves, on Earth, and on other species.
When we doubt that our species is capable of this tall order, it is because we have not yet come to believe how great a change happens to us when we move into larger topographies of consciousness. It is no exaggeration to say that in larger topographies of consciousness we become new humans. Our souls have what it takes to get us there, but civilization has not called us to such greater capacities. Now, however, Earth calls us there. She speaks to us through extremes of weather and changes to fresh water supplies, oceans, and air quality. Her speech calls us to get into our greater capabilities. From Egos to Eden guides us on the journey to being new humans, a journey that is at once heroic and completely doable.
Joseph Campbell’s book on what he called the hero’s journey, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), lies in the background of this book through the work of Christopher Vogler. Campbell described how the hero in myths takes the challenging and dangerous journey into greater consciousness, and then returns with the treasure that the folks back home need in order to live in peaceful wellbeing. Upon reading Campbell’s book, Vogler realized that myths describing a hero’s journey all had essential elements, and that these structure the sequence of the myth’s storyline. That discovery led him into giving Masterclasses to movie script writers and producers on using the sequence of the heroic journey to make better movies—ones that move us, even change our lives. Vogler has written The Writer’s Journey (2007) as a guide for script writers. His succinct summary of the hero’s journey is what I have loosely followed in developing the chapters of this book. Key stages in the story are capitalized:
The hero is introduced in his ORDINARY WORLD where he receives the CALL TO ADVENTURE. He is RELUCTANT at first to CROSS THE FIRST THRESHOLD where he eventually encounters TESTS, ALLIES and ENEMIES. He reaches the INNERMOST CAVE where he endures the SUPREME ORDEAL. He SEIZES THE SWORD or the treasure and is pursued on the ROAD BACK to his world. He is RESURRECTED and transformed by his experience. He RETURNS to his ordinary world with a treasure, boon, or ELIXIR to benefit his world.
I believe that Vogler’s succinct summary of the heroic journey provides the storyline for our heroic journey to keep Earth livable. I tell why and how in this upcoming book.