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(More customer reviews)For devoted fans who cannot get enough of Joseph Campbell's thoughts, I highly recommend THE FLIGHT OF THE WILD GANDER. Although the book was first published in 1969, Campbell's thinking on the subject of religion and shamanism was well formed by then, and many of the ideas he discussed with Bill Moyers in the famous PBS interviews are more fully developed in this text. Also, if you have read his HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES you will find much of what he has to say in GANDER further distills and elaborates those ideas. GANDER includes several related essays. Essays of greatest interest to me were also the most difficult to follow - `Primative Man as Metaphysician' `Mythogenesis' and `The Secularization of the Sacred' the latter essay summarizing and complementing the earlier essays.
Campbell describes first step of the process of individuation, as a growing awareness of a higher power accomplished by traveling a singular path versus merely accepting and acting on the teachings of a `religious' tradition associated with one's social group. He suggests that truly coming to know God is a frightening prospect(other people may persecute you as a heretic to say nothing of the sheer awe of the experience) and lonely experience(no one, neither priest or medicine man/witch doctor can do it for you) that one can only carry out by letting go through a `Shamanistic' experience comparable to those expeienced by American Indians, Eastern yogis, and other traditional people. Even after you have got yourself out on a limb, so to speak, you will only know finite things because `that which stands behind' the Masks of God is unknowable by humans.
Any summarization of this text I might provide is trite. You owe it to yourself to read this book and find your own path. BTW, if you are searching for more material to continue your "Da Vinci Code" experience you will find that Campbell was aware of the search for the grail long before many of today's popular writers.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Flight of the Wild Gander: Explorations in the Mythological Dimension: Select Essays, 1944-1968
In these essays, Joseph Campbell explores the origins of myth and their role in everyday life — from Grimm fairy tales to Native American legends. He explains how the symbolic content of myth is linked to universal human experience and how myths and experiences change over time. Included is his acclaimed essay "Mythogenesis," which examines the rise and fall of a Native American legend. "Campbell has become one of the rarest of intellectuals ... a serious thinker who has been embraced by the popular culture." — Newsweek
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