Author: Derek Beres / Source: Big Think
- The famous academic will forever be known for his message to “follow your bliss”.
- George Lucas admitted that Star Wars was heavily influenced by Campbell.
- The Power of Myth remains one of the most popular public television series of all time.
Very few biographies can be described in three words, yet the entirety of mythologist Joseph Campbell’s career has often been summed up in one simple message: follow your bliss. Problem is, this catchphrase has been stripped of much of its intended meaning.
You’ll find the hashtag, #followyourbliss, on too many Instagram posts featuring yogis on beaches and mountaintops to count. Campbell would have said that’s the wrong track.Literally, as you’ll read in the first passage below. Campbell spent his life sharing the epic stories of the world to rapt audiences. Ironically, his debut on the bestseller’s list was posthumous. By the time The Power of Myth, a book based on his interview series with Bill Moyers, was published in 1988, the scholar had passed of esophageal cancer.
His wife, Jean Erdman—still alive at 102—said that Joe would never have liked the fame. In fact, scrolling through the many highlighted pages of Campbell’s works in my library, I was struck by how often he notes the tragedy of the modern era is our pivot toward individualism. Many of the ancient agricultural rituals he cites were specifically designed to destroy the ego in favor of community, a message lost in the Instagram age.
Yet his words are not lost. In one of his final interviews, at the Director’s Guild in Hollywood in May, 1987, Campbell was speaking about the documentary film, The Hero’s Journey. During a panel discussion following the film he elucidated what he meant by following your bliss. We’ll begin with that quote at length, for it is a powerful reminder that the things we value most must, by necessity, come at a cost.
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“I have a firm belief in this now, not only in terms of my own experience, but in knowing the experiences of other people. When you follow your bliss, and by bliss I mean the deep sense of…
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