HUMANITY'S MYSTERIOUS PAST: Discovering the TRUE ROOTS of OUR Existence! | Tok Thompson PhD
Next Level Soul Podcast2024-03-26
spirituality#meditation#yoga#Yogananda#Alex Ferrari#Next Level Soul#Near Death Experience#awakening#soul#inspiration#selflove#mindfulness#consciousness#happiness#nature#law of attraction#lightworker#enlightenment#positivevibes#universe#guidance#grace#nde#ACIM#a course in miracles#spiritual awaking#Medium#Spirit Guide#psychic#medium#Darryl Anka#Bashar#Lee Harris#Billy Carson#Gregg Braden#Tok Thompson#Tok Freeland Thompson#True Origins of Man
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💫 Short Summary
The video explores the impact of myths, folklore, and storytelling on culture and belief systems, highlighting the significance of creation stories, flood myths, and animal messengers across various religions and cultures. It discusses the evolution of religious beliefs, connections between ancient civilizations, and the search for Atlantis. The dialogue touches on the changing religious landscape, the rise of new spiritual beliefs, and the potential dangers and ethical considerations of AI technology. Overall, it emphasizes the importance of understanding diverse perspectives and the interconnectedness of human beliefs and cultures throughout history.
✨ Highlights
📊 Transcript
✦
The significance of the Garden of Eden story in Christian and Abrahamic theology.
01:46Tok Thompson's background growing up in Alaska and his journey to studying anthropology.
The importance of indigenous languages, mythologies, and worldviews in understanding culture.
The role of storytelling in shaping individual and collective identities.
Folklore and mythology's power to convey spiritual values and cultural heritage.
✦
Comparison of Abrahamic religions' view of heaven with Native American beliefs.
06:06Native American traditions see souls in all living things, not just humans.
Souls as characters in stories may have originated with the development of language.
Pondering the afterlife and mortality is a universal theme in human culture.
✦
Communication among animals, decoding of whale and dolphin songs, storytelling species, spirituality, myths, folklore, and the concept of the universe as a hologram.
07:49Exploration of consciousness, quantum mechanics, and interconnectedness of thoughts with the quantum realm.
Complexity of the human brain, scientific exploration, and the possibility of living in a giant computer program.
Various cultural beliefs and interpretations of consciousness are highlighted in the discussion.
✦
Overview of near-death experiences in various cultures and religions.
11:10Discussion on the impact of near-death experiences on Native American traditions and shamanism.
Exploration of common themes and significance of near-death experiences in Christianity and Greek mythology.
Delving into the influence of folklore and myth on modern religion and practices.
Highlighting the importance of creation stories and symbolic metaphors in shaping beliefs and societal norms.
✦
Common theme of catastrophic floods in ancient societies.
15:05Flood stories seen as punishment from gods or mountain dwarves, leading to creation of flood myths.
Stories provide explanations for calamities and human need to find meaning in chaotic events.
Constructing myths and religious tales to make sense of human experience and mortality throughout history.
✦
Animals as Messengers in Different Cultures.
18:28Stories of animals delivering messages to humanity are common in various cultures.
Cats and dogs play significant roles in delivering messages in these stories.
Snakes are portrayed differently in various cultures, with no devil concept in the Old Testament and Judaism.
Christian beliefs have origins in Zoroastrianism and Greek mythology, with overlapping themes in deity representations.
✦
Origins of Religious Beliefs and Similarities
22:48Zoroastrianism is highlighted for its monotheistic nature.
Parallels are drawn between the origin stories of Jesus and Buddha.
Similarities are noted between Egyptian mythology and Christian beliefs on judgment and the afterlife.
The speaker emphasizes the interconnectedness of ancient beliefs and how they have influenced each other.
✦
Origins of Abrahamic religions and their connection to Egyptian monotheism.
25:47Discussion on figures like Amenhotep and Akhenaten and their role in religious history.
Similarities between the stories of Osiris and Jesus, particularly their resurrection narratives.
Exploration of the evolution of deity representations in ancient cultures, from animal gods to human-like figures.
Insights into how cultural practices and interactions influenced religious beliefs over time.
✦
The mystery of Atlantis has fascinated humans for centuries.
30:21According to Plato, the origin of Atlantis is traced back to Egypt where it was considered a sacred story.
Theories suggest Atlantis could have been an island in the Mediterranean or located in the Sahara desert.
The search for Atlantis remains a neutral and engaging topic of discussion across different cultures.
✦
Origins of Egyptian Civilization
33:43Egyptian civilization is believed to have originated from the Sahara, which was once lush before turning into a desert.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the Egyptians were already a developed culture when they migrated to the Nile.
Recent discoveries like Gobekli Tappy challenge traditional timelines, indicating more complex cultural evolution.
Egyptian culture's age and origins remain a topic of debate, with connections to the Sahara and megalithic societies in Western Europe and Ireland.
✦
The video covers the evolution of human beliefs from ancient Greek and Egyptian gods to questioning religion during Greek civilization.
37:54The impact of the internet on folklore and myth creation is emphasized as a transformative cultural force.
Technology has significantly changed communication and education, leading to a shift in culture due to digital advancements.
The discussion also touches on the changing religious landscape, with denominations declining but spirituality remaining prevalent through global influence and diverse beliefs.
✦
Crafting a new spiritual universe on a global scale.
40:24Beliefs in extraterrestrial beings and myths are explored.
Questioning the possibility of uploading consciousness to the cloud.
Highlighting the importance of embodied consciousness and the interaction between probiotics and stress levels.
Mentioning parasites like Toxoplasma gondii in the brain and their potential effects on behavior and entrepreneurship.
✦
Impact of domestic cats on cultures and individuals.
44:52Cultures with many domestic cats tend to have more reckless individuals, leading to heroes, fools, innovators, and leaders.
Decline of traditional religions like Catholicism and rise of new spiritual beliefs are observed.
Prediction of a major transformation in humanity driven by AI technology.
Warning of dangers of emotional attachment to AI, citing a story of a man committing suicide over a breakup with an AI girlfriend.
✦
Dangers of AI Bias and Racism
48:12AI can perpetuate discriminatory practices, such as predicting higher recidivism rates for black individuals.
Rapid Advancement of AI Technology
Implications for globalization and information dissemination are noted.
Concerns about AI's Energy-Intensive Nature
Linking to broader issues of capitalism and the current global climate crisis.
Urgent Need to Address Complex Challenges
Emphasis on avoiding exacerbating the sixth great extinction event caused by human activity.
✦
The speaker emphasizes the need for global governance to address rapid changes in systems like science, technology, communication, and climate change.
52:06They reflect on significant transformations witnessed in their lifetime, from radio to the internet, highlighting their generation's unique position straddling both worlds.
The conversation delves into the inevitable evolution and potential demise of existing systems like religion and political structures.
Envisions a future with revamped political and monetary systems, driven by advancements like AI and global communication.
✦
The speaker discusses the impact of technology on society and the potential threats posed by Western capitalist ideologies.
55:37The necessity of devices like iPhones for everyday tasks is emphasized due to language barriers and societal norms.
The future of folklore and myths in a technologically advanced society is contemplated, along with ethical dilemmas surrounding AI and human interactions.
Questions are raised about individuals forming emotional connections with robots and the ethical considerations of physical interactions with AI.
✦
Ethical implications of robot brothels and the increasing use of sex robots in Japan.
01:00:45Laws and rights surrounding the use of sex robots and androids are questioned.
Debate on whether creating Japanese-looking androids is a solution to low birth rates and an aging population.
Cultural impact and ethical considerations of replacing people with androids are discussed.
Conversation also delves into living a fulfilled life and giving advice to one's younger self.
✦
Discussion on souls, animism, ancient Egyptian beliefs, and the purpose of life related to consciousness.
01:03:12Importance of studying different perspectives and understanding as much as possible.
Speaker's work on post-human folklore and the truth of myth, encouraging viewers to learn more by Googling him.
Conversation ends with well wishes and appreciation for insightful discussion to help others understand the past, present, and future.
00:00What is the impact of the Garden
of Eden story on Christian and
00:03Abrahamic theology? Huge, right?
I mean, you know, it's a story
00:08or there's a there's a God is
basically like a humanoid male
00:12creates a male in his image. And
that's why we are in God's
00:16image. And I mean, you know, is
that story important? Oh, to
00:21people's lives? Yeah. I mean, my
computer has little apple with a
00:24bite out of it. Where did that
come from? You know, this is
00:26called, this is called my Adam's
apple. Where did that come from?
00:30I mean, do you think permeate
our lives, right? I mean, and
00:33even those basic metaphors,
again, high is good. So I'm
00:35feeling I'm high as a kite. That
means, you know, if I've seen a
00:39bit low today, that's bad, too
low is bad. Because of this
00:43story, God is up there. And
other mythic stories, God is
00:46down there. That's what the
Divine is. So if you're a good
00:49person, you die, your soul goes
down. So then down is important.
00:52So even these basic metaphors
look like, you know, colors and
00:56time and numbers.
01:07I like to welcome to show Tok
Thompson, how you doing Tok?
01:10Very good, very good.
01:12Thank you so much for coming on
the show my friend, I'm looking
01:15forward to our conversation
about folklore and myth, which
01:18is your specialty. Can you tell
the audience a little bit about
01:21your background and what you've
been studying for the last 30,
01:2420 however, long years?
01:26In 25 words or less, I can try
my own background, it's kind of
01:30just unique, and it probably has
something to do with what I'm
01:32doing as a as an academic. So I
grew up kind of out in the woods
01:35in Alaska, and my dad was kind
of a bit of a survivalist. I
01:39grew up around people very much.
And, and then when I got to
01:43college, I went right to the
backwoods of Alaska, right to
01:46Harvard College and, and ended
up becoming fascinated to
01:49anthropology like, you know,
what is this species up to? What
01:52is Homo sapiens sapiens? And
what are people what is culture
01:55and all that, and I grew up, you
know, with a lot of surrounded
01:58by a lot of native culture, my
name is sort of an anglicization
02:01of a native name, I'm not native
myself, but I have a lot of
02:03native family members, and you
know, community members, friends
02:06and whatnot. So growing up in
that community, I was always
02:09really exposed to that sort of
side of things. And it was
02:11always, you know, it's always
been a part of my life. And
02:14then, you know, then that was
another part of the anthropology
02:16I realized, especially in the
rest of us, like natives don't
02:18play that big of a role in the
culture. And so that's a part of
02:21it, too. I really think that you
know, the indigenous languages
02:24and the mythologies and
worldviews, and there's just a
02:27lot out there. That's really
beautiful. And, you know, that I
02:29think people could learn a lot
of we don't teach it enough, I
02:31don't think our American school
syste.
02:33Without, you know, without
question, I come from a
02:35storytelling background in
Hollywood. So I've studied myth,
02:38and obviously, Joseph Campbell,
and everything that he's done.
02:41And it is, it is the, as they
say, I think George Lucas that
02:47the meat and potatoes of, of a
species is carried around
02:51through folklore and myth, would
you agree?
02:53Well, yeah, stories in general,
right. I mean, you know, how do
02:56we think of the world usually,
it's not just like isolated
02:59facts, but people tell stories
and put together stories in the
03:02story of your, you know, your
nation, your religion, your your
03:05your people? Where did you know,
then the myths? Where do we all
03:07come from? Right? Where did this
all start? Or where is it all
03:11going? And even individual
story, you kind of walk around,
03:14like, this is my story I grew up
in Alaska, or, you know,
03:16everybody has these narratives.
We talk about other people's
03:19stories, and you know, politics
is often in stories. So I think
03:22that that's really what gives
Cuban culture its power is
03:26telling and sharing stories and
building those story worlds
03:29together. So that's, you know,
that's literature. But for me, a
03:31much bigger part of storytelling
is, is in folklore and
03:35mythology.
03:36Now, can you share an example of
a folklore tale that deeply
03:39embodies spiritual values? In
one way, shape, or form?
03:43Oh, yeah. So I think all of us
are kind of spiritual value,
03:46right? They tell you what is
spiritual in the world. They
03:48tell you what, you know, where's
the spiritual stuff? So, you
03:51know, in Abrahamic religions,
we're used to the idea of heaven
03:54and earth, it's kind of up,
right? So it's up there in the
03:58stars. And so, yes, people have
pointed to heaven, everything
04:00will point up, right? Even
though we know now we're on a
04:03little ball spinning around,
what's up now? 12 years, 12
04:06hours later is going to be down,
right? But there's still this
04:08idea that is up and so this
shouldn't, you know, this
04:11permeates our entire culture.
You know, high is good in our
04:15culture, if I say you're gonna
get a high grade in my class,
04:17you know, that's a good grade
high is good. Why is it good?
04:20Well, because that's where
that's where God is. That's
04:22where the Divine is. That's
where you go when you die if
04:24you're a good person, right?
And, of course, there's
04:27different stories that put it
up, you know, very, very
04:29differently. And, you know, so
one of the big differences that
04:32you see really, with Native
American stuff is the idea of
04:35souls that is not just a human
centric enterprise, right? I
04:39mean, in the Abrahamic days,
you've got God, the Creator of
04:41the universe is basically a guy
usually represented, like, God
04:45made man in His image. And the
theology is it only people have
04:48souls, right that, you know,
contrary to the movies, good
04:53dogs do not get to go to heaven.
I mean, this is the official
04:55theology anyway, right? That
shouldn't might be 98.5% us
04:59genetically, but As your present
soul has no soul at all. And
05:03yet, if you go the Native
American traditions, their
05:05stories, like, you know, some of
them are nearly all of them.
05:08It's animals that are creators,
and they are even plants or even
05:11stones and they sort of create
us. So that's a very different
05:15way of looking at things. So the
Native American view, like, you
05:18know, do wolves have souls? Yes.
That's a real dynamic. You see,
05:22it's very, very different
between these two Semitic views.
05:24So I know that Joseph Campbell
stuff a trend. It's easy to go
05:27like what all these myths share
in common, but I think there's a
05:29lot of beauty and what they
their diversity, like, how would
05:32it how do they set up things
differently? Right is, what is
05:35the soul? What happens when you
die? What's out there? And so
05:38again, you know, that's an
interesting split, right? There
05:41was a Native American, all these
various and different Native
05:44American traditions and
languages and mythologies and
05:47religions, but they all share
that, you know, wolves have
05:50So let me ask you, then, if from
your research, when is the first
05:50souls.
05:56time in folklore in myth in
story, that the soul is
06:01introduced as a character
element in the stories? Well,
06:06how far back does that concept
go?
06:08Yeah, well, okay. So that's hard
to ask, because we know it goes
06:11way back further than writing.
Right. So how do we, how do we
06:15have any record really, of when
this starts? So it's hard to
06:19know, I mean, Homo sapiens,
sapiens have been us for, like,
06:2240,000 years, presumably, we've
been telling stories for at
06:25least 400,000 years, you know,
we don't know about did HomeAway
06:28records tell stories or proto
stories? You know, we don't
06:31know. And I don't know how we
would ever know. But presumably,
06:34at some point, we picked it up.
And it's, you know, it's
06:36certainly been a part of the
human condition, probably for as
06:39soon as we figured out language.
I mean, I think one of the first
06:41things if people are going to
besides the mundane stuff, like,
06:44you know, watch out, here comes
a lion. You know, I think one of
06:47the some of the first things
people are gonna wonder about
06:49is, is the power of things and
what happens when you die,
06:53right? I mean, you know, you're
aware, or you become aware that
06:56other people die. And I want to
talk about this, you know, the
06:59people wonder what happened, if
you know, you're gonna die?
07:02Right. And you still know what
that all about? Well, that's, I
07:05think, has been an eternal part
of human culture, stories about
07:09wondering what this is all
about.
07:10Yeah. And I think this, we're
the only species on the planet
07:14to my knowledge that understands
that it will die one day, it as
07:17far
07:17As we know, or, you know,
honestly, do whales know, I
07:20don't know, you know, dolphins
know. Yeah, maybe Yeah, we were
07:24just beginning to figure out all
this stuff that they're talking
07:27about. And what's interesting is
that we do know that they're
07:29talking about a lot of stuff,
right? So we do know that these
07:32guys are communicating a lot.
And nearly all animals are I
07:36mean, you know, bats, and
certainly all mammals, we're, we
07:40talk a lot. So it's not just
people, right, but we're just
07:44beginning to understand how to
decode this. And they're getting
07:46closer, right? They're decoding
dolphin and whale songs and
07:49stuff like that. So as far as we
know, as far as we know, we're
07:53the only sort of storytelling
species I would love to be
07:56proved wrong on that I think
it'd be faster. But right now,
07:58as far as we know, this is what
gives humans are our punch.
08:02Now there's another there's
another aspect to spirituality,
08:07myth, myth, folklore, and also
just spiritual texts, ancient
08:12texts that talk about the great
illusion, the the dream as the
08:18aborigine call it, or Maya, in
the ancient Indian texts, where
08:24this is all essentially a
matrix, a construct a hologram?
08:29How far back do you see that? Or
how have you? Where have you
08:33kind of crossed that idea, and
it doesn't go across most of the
08:37research you've done in
different cultures.
08:38You know, I think there's a
couple of different questions
08:40there. If you look about, you
know, different cultures, they
08:42definitely have, you know,
different concepts. It's like
08:44the spirit world, or the or
what's beyond it, or something.
08:48And then you also have sort of,
I think, in all places around
08:50the world, you also have sort of
individuals, prophets, dreamers,
08:54that kind of thing that, you
know, have experiences and they
08:57tried to bring them back and
tell stories about them. You
09:00know, maybe this is
schizophrenia, or mental
09:01illness, or maybe they're
tapping into something, right.
09:04So I mean, the world is full of
mysteries and and one of the
09:07things that these stories do,
and they're sneaky, this way,
09:10that they set up the way we
think about the world. And so,
09:14if you can think outside of
those, right, like, what
09:16actually might be out there,
right? What does it all mean?
09:19How, you know, there's think of
the human neurons and how many
09:23there are, right? I mean, this
is an incredibly complex
09:26machine. And now you could read
the scientific stuff that they
09:28think, Oh, well, maybe
consciousness is tied in with a
09:31quantum continuum, that maybe
maybe quantum mechanics have
09:34something to do with this
fascinating thought, right? So
09:37maybe he does, maybe our
thoughts are somehow tied into
09:40the quantum realm, which, of
course you can explore that
09:43physically is fascinating,
right? I mean, quantum
09:46entanglement if you follow that,
so basically, it says that, you
09:50know, space and time don't
really exist in the quantum
09:52entanglement. And this is over
the universe, which includes
09:55like a lot of places a lot of
stars I mean, how many trillions
09:58of stars are out there? So we've
got like, billion neurons
10:00several trillion stars. I don't
have the exact numbers. I'm not
10:03a physicist, but you get the
idea that, you know, this is
10:05fascinating stuff. So the world
is a world of wonders, right?
10:09And science is great. I'm not
anti science, but science
10:12improves by asking those far out
questions.
10:15Right, exactly. So these
concepts of like, you know, are
10:18we when the matrix showed up. I
think it's the first time that
10:20we really figured out or first
time in the zeitgeist that the
10:24idea of that wait a minute, are
we in a giant computer program?
10:27You know, is there some nerdy
alien somewhere
10:30That's our metaphor for today
like Paleolithic man would have
10:32said computer program. Right,
you wouldn't know that.
10:35But my outward the dream, or
like the dream for the aborigine
10:38would be the equivalent of that,
or Maya is the great illusion.
10:42So they're using their
10:44This idea of where is
consciousness? Or what is this?
10:46You know, where does it come
from? How is it different from
10:48materiality? You know, is
consciousness simply a product
10:51of materiality? Right, are we?
Or is Is there something else
10:55out there about consciousness?
And so, you know, I think these
10:58questions have been raised in
multiple cultures all around the
11:00world. And that plugs you into,
you know, again, what's beyond
11:04the physicality and is there
anything? Right? So this is this
11:08is, I think, the cornerstone of
a lot of these different lines
11:11of inquiry that you find in
different cultures.
11:13So have you have you done any
research in the near death
11:16experience phenomenon?
11:17Oh, yeah, absolutely. What's
your part of shamanism? You
11:22know, the, you know, one way
that people often become shamans
11:26and Native American cultures,
they have a near death
11:28experience to get mauled by a
bear or something, and up until
11:30then, to like normal people, and
then they sort of feel like
11:33they've got died, gone to the
spirit realm and come back, and
11:36they go to the and then they
have this sort of shamanic
11:37awakening, one might say,
because this is exactly what
11:40shamans are supposed to do. This
is the craft of shamanism, you
11:43sort of leave your body, you
know, have an out of body
11:46experience, which is what people
report a lot of near death
11:48experiences, even in the US,
right, you know, the hospital
11:51bed and floating above that sort
of thing. So whether or not this
11:55is true, do people really float?
I'm not gonna answer that I'm
11:57not a physicist. But what is
true is that people in many,
12:00many parts of the world, we
ported this same story when one
12:04could say,
12:04Yeah, and it's yeah, I've
interviewed over 100, at this
12:08point of near death experiences,
and I've even talked to some
12:11academics, who study the near
death experiences across the
12:14world in different cultures. And
it's fascinating that you're
12:18right, the stories are coming
out. And it's not always a
12:22tunnel of white light. Sometimes
if you're, if you're a native,
12:25it's going through a hole in a
tree, or walking the path, but
12:29there's some sort of, there's a
lot of common denominators. And
12:34it's pretty it is a pretty
fascinating and it's a pretty
12:37new thing, even though there is
from my understanding,
12:40references to near death
experiences in the Bible, in
12:43Greek in Greek mythology or
Greek records.
12:47I mean, you know, if you think
about like Christianity, the
12:49cornerstone belief of what you
should believe the central
12:51Christian Tenet, right, he died
and is reborn, right? So the
12:55idea that Christ died, went to
the spirit realm or whatever and
12:58came back right. So this is a
this is actually the cornerstone
13:01of Christian theology.
13:03Now in how does it how does
folklore and myth really
13:09influenced modern religion as we
know it today and its practices?
13:15Hugely! What can I say? I mean,
myth have already defined
13:18methods like, you know, a sacred
creation story. This is your
13:20usual one. Sometimes they're
like, after the world ends, but
13:23usually their creation stories,
like how did this world come to
13:25be? And so, you know, I don't
know any religion that doesn't
13:28have that have one of those. And
religion is more than that?
13:31Certainly. But I mean, you know,
what is the impact of the Garden
13:34of Eden story on Christian and
Abrahamic theology? Huge, right.
13:39I mean, you know, it's a story
or there's a God is basically
13:43like an humanoid male creates a
male in his image. And that's
13:48why we are in God's image. And,
I mean, you know, is that story
13:52important? to people's lives?
Yeah, I mean, my computer as
13:56little apple with a bite out of
it. Where did that come from?
13:59You know, this is called, this
is called my Adam's apple, where
14:01did that come from? I mean,
these things permeate our lives,
14:05right? I mean, and even those
basic metaphors, again, high is
14:07good. So I'm feeling I'm high as
a kite. That means, you know, if
14:11I've seen a bit low today,
that's bad, too low is bad.
14:15Because of this story, God is up
there. And other mythic stories,
14:19God is down there, that's where
the Divine is. So if you're a
14:21good person, you die your soul
goes down. So then down is
14:25important. So even these basic
metaphors of like, you know,
14:28colors and time and numbers in
these myths create our world.
14:33Now there is a story that is in
almost every if not every
14:38culture in in, in the world,
which is the flood story, the
14:41Great Flood, and it's something
that
14:44We're gonna get into a that hold
on. Yeah, please. I would love
14:46to work on it. Sure. Sure.
Number one. No, I mean, not
14:50every coast of the world has a
flood story, so that that's been
14:53disproven over and over again
and folklore scholarship. The
14:55other thing is that there are a
lot of flood stories and when
14:59you started damages you notice
that they're not the same story,
15:02the main thing is they have a
flood in them. And then you also
15:05notice where these happened in
flood prone areas. So what we
15:10see is that floods are sort of
irregular, times cataclysmic
15:14occurrence for a lot of ancient
societies and civilizations,
15:16right? They're gonna wipe out
entire cities, entire pupils. So
15:19these things become remembered.
And these the become a part of
15:23the narrative like, where did we
come from what happened to us?
15:26The other thing is that this is
a this is the commonality you
15:29often see it when, when a
horrible things happen. People
15:33want to know the reason like
this wasn't just random jazz. So
15:36very often is like, why are the
gods mad at us? Or why is God
15:39mad at us? Right? What did we do
wrong? Right so we have out in
15:43the in the Noah story that you
know, mankind is so wicked that
15:46God is decides is true for
Buddy, right? No, but if you go
15:49to the Northwest College, they
have a lot of these flood myths,
15:52but and this is an area with a
lot of earthquakes and have a
15:55lot of historically a lot of
floods. And so they in easements
16:00so the idea is that this is
caused by mountain dwarves
16:03dancing, they have these spirits
that are in the in the
16:06mountains, and they dance and
this causes earthquakes, which
16:10causes the floods and tsunamis
in this case, right? So this is
16:14a different type of floods. It's
not like a rainy weather flood,
16:16this is a flood from a tsunami
because of an earthquake. So in
16:19this myth, it actually has a lot
of important information to
16:22write if you you know, if
there's an earthquake, watch out
16:24for floods, right head for high
ground, if it's a big
16:26earthquake, this is something
good to remember. The other
16:29thing about it is that, you
know, why are these mountain
16:31dwarves dancing, the idea is
that of usually the people sin,
16:35they did something wrong. You
know, in a couple of stories,
16:39like people beat their dogs or
something and upset the mountain
16:42dwarf so much. So what this does
is it also explains things
16:46right, like so remember, when
people want to know is just
16:49God's punishment, or when the
age think about a lot of the
16:52Religious Right. It's like, this
is God's punishment for our
16:54sins. Right? People often seek a
meaning in, in in disasters. And
17:00I think as far as scary to think
that there isn't one that we're
17:03just sort of at the whims of the
universe and gets far scarier
17:05people want to know, it also
then puts them in control. Like
17:09we can, we can not have another
flood if we just behave better.
17:12Right. And but that's it. So
that's interesting, the dancing
17:15door idea because, like to me, I
mean, obviously, that sounds to
17:19me ridiculous, that there's
giant dancing doors in a
17:22mountain. But if you start
looking at many of our religious
17:26stories, and many of our
spiritual
17:28The other Noah flood story was a
big guy in the sky, you know?
17:35Exactly. Yeah. Because he's an
all loving father figure. So why
17:39is he killing everybody in
judgment?
17:41He was supposed to be perfect.
And they're supposed to create
17:43everything perfect. But then you
got so bad, you have to you have
17:46to almost wipe it all out. And
then he will have to wipe it all
17:48out later. That's yeah,
17:50Exactly. So it seems like
humanity's agenda, or the human
17:54experience is that they need to
construct something to make
17:57sense of the insanity that it is
to live in this realm in this
18:02experience of the physical
realm, and all aspects
18:05throughout history, right?
18:06Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean,
what is it to live and enjoy and
18:09everything to know you're gonna
die? It's like, Oh, man. So
18:12there was a lot of stories, a
lot of mystery, like, why do
18:14people have to die? And that's
part of the Garden of Eden
18:17story, right? That's the Garden
of Eden story is actually part
18:20of a wider macro type of story
that goes across a lot of Africa
18:24and the Near East. And it's
known by it has several
18:27different forms, but it's
usually known as the failed
18:28animal messenger. And the idea
is that there's an animal that
18:33supposed to go to the crater
Didi and come back with
18:35information on how people will
live forever. And so the Garden
18:38of Eden story with a snake in
this case, it's out, but in
18:41other places to hair, or a
turtle. In one place, it's a cat
18:44and a dog. Among the Bank of
Western Africa, it's a cat and a
18:48dog, they're gonna go to the
creator, the cat just doesn't
18:52really care enough to deliver
the message. He doesn't care
18:54enough about his people, the dog
really does. And he tries to do
18:56his best job and he goes, and he
gets to command, he's carrying
18:59back a little scroll in his
mouth, telling people how we're
19:01going to live forever. But it's
all the way back, he sees a pile
19:05of meaty bones, and he gets
distracted and forget. So they
19:09tried to do the best, they just
kind of screwed up. The cat just
19:11didn't care enough about us.
19:13And as anyone who's ever owned a
cat completely makes that makes
19:17complete sense.
19:19It just was like when you try to
tell your cat to do something
19:21makes sense.
19:23And that's not so much
19:26Actually part of the same macro
type because all across Africa
19:29and that's part of the snake in
this case. A lot of Christians
19:31often think this naked, the
devil, right? It doesn't say
19:34that in the Bible is it's just a
snake. I mean, it doesn't mean
19:37double. There's no devil in the
Old Testament. Judaism doesn't
19:40have a devil that came later.
Yeah.
19:42So let me ask you about that
because that that idea of hell
19:45and the devil and the fallen
angel of Satan and all of this
19:49kind of stuff. You know, I was I
was that was exposed to that
19:52first grade and Catholic school
and I was terrified, as it's
19:56supposed to terrify you to be a
good person. It's part of the
20:00point. But that meant that the
idea of the devil came in in the
20:04New Testament. If I'm not
mistaken?
20:07Yeah, absolutely. There's no
There's no devil in Judaism.
20:10There's no Hello Judas. And this
is this is a, this is an import
20:12by Christianity. Now what I
think is fascinating is that
20:17word of Christianity get this
and I think they got it mostly
20:20from Zoroastrianism. So as your
astronism was his major, it is
20:23still a major world religion,
huge temple here in Los Angeles.
20:27This is centered in the Persian
Empire. And then, and it was
20:30hugely popular with the Roman
Empire. The army, so the most of
20:35the Roman army, you have to
remember most of the Roman army
20:37weren't Romans, right? These
were captured people from all
20:39over the place. So the Roman
army, which is a, you know,
20:42global population was occupied
in Judea during Christ lifetime
20:46and before, and they would have
largely been Zoroastrian. So
20:49this would have been sort of the
main religion of all of these
20:54people have been there. It says
rustiness was right next door,
20:56or astronism has happened in
house or asked him how good and
20:59evil and God is all good. And
the devil was all evil. And
21:02Zoroastrian, Zoroastrianism has
all of these sort of elements
21:05like the devil and versus God
and this sort of thing. So the
21:09whole Christian idea that, you
know, you're sort of in between
21:11the devil trying to get you in
God's trying to get you. This is
21:14really about from Zoroastrianism
more than Judaism. Judaism
21:18doesn't have that binary like
good evil.
21:21Greek mythology would have come
afterwards, if I'm not mistaken
21:24in the timeline. Correct. Was
that the that's after Christ? In
21:27the timeline?
21:29Was around your long,
21:31Greek, Greek mythology and
talking about Greek mythology.
21:34Yeah, well, that goes back to
like, kind of Old Testament
21:36time. So there are some overlaps
here, right. So this is
21:38Because of Hades, because of
Hades and that kind of idea of
21:42the
21:43There's a couple of points in
time when Greek and Christian
21:45mythology sort of overlap. And,
you know, the early times during
21:48the iron age period, were a lot
of these gods. I mean, Zeus just
21:51means debuts, right? I mean,
there's just means God, right.
21:54And his full name is Zeus Pater,
Father God, who lives up on
21:58high, you know, up on Mount
Olympus maybe, but often in the
22:01cloud. And it's just, you know,
it's basically the same
22:03character right? Just become
Jupiter for the Romans Zeus
22:06Pater. It just so people in
Greece, I'm saying, Father, God
22:09is saying, Father God, you know,
if you think about when the
22:11converted, right, so this is,
this is not this is already
22:14connected sort of traditions.
22:16So can you talk a little bit
about Zoroastrianism? Because
22:18I'm not too familiar about that.
I've heard of it, but I'm not
22:22sure. I don't know a lot of the
details of it.
22:24Huge, huge, hugely important
religion make one of our major
22:26world religions and Sparta
started by the prophets or
22:30Aster, who kind of cobbled
together religion out of
22:32whatever else was there before.
And sort of a monotheistic
22:36religion, it is a model is at
least as monotheistic as
22:38Christianity in the sense that
there's a duality, right?
22:41There's an all good God and
there's an all bad devil, and
22:44there's a hell and there's a
heaven. And then, you know, this
22:48is sort of the personal struggle
is between those two forces,
22:50that's our human sort of
struggle here on Earth. And
22:53again, this sort of laid the
groundwork, okay, so you
22:55remember the nativity scene in
the Bible, right? In the Bible
22:58story where the three Magi Magi
was a Rastafarian priests, these
23:02were these are grassroots. So,
you know, it was already worked
23:05into that story that Christ's
birth was blessed by the
23:09Zoroastrian priests. So why was
Rasbian priest blesses because
23:12it was very Zoroastrian. If you
look at it.
23:16So what, what, what in the
timeline of humanity? Where did
23:20he? Where did Zoroastrianism
start? Is it before Buddhism
23:23after Buddhism?
23:25Oh no, it was, yeah, it was
Judaism. Okay. Again, if you go
23:27back that far, that's like early
Iron Age Zoroastrianism would
23:30have been after that. But before
Christianity, just to kind of
23:33put it in context, okay. If you
go back the Old Testament, this
23:37kind of Iron Age stories,
really, and it overlaps with a
23:39lot of irony stories, again, if
you see in the wider, you know,
23:42Mediterranean and in Greece and
stuff like that. There's a story
23:46in ancient Greece, right? And
it's pretty much the same flood
23:48story is who's decided to flood
everything. So the story, these
23:51people were already connected in
a lot of these stories. And yet,
23:53you know, this Iron Age sort of
strong ruler, male ruler chiefs.
23:57And this is you see this in the
mythologies that are emerging at
24:00this time.
24:00So let me ask you this, because
I've heard I've, in my studies,
24:04I've seen that there's a so many
different lot of the same things
24:09overlap in other deities, or
leaders of religions, origin
24:15stories, and Jesus origin story.
So if you look at Buddha, and
24:20his story, you know that the
Council of Nicaea took a couple
24:23of things, at least at least it
looks like a lot of elements
24:28from that
24:30Not a big fan of the Ken Bailey
and the Campbell's idea that Joe
24:33the same story is up because
there's a lot of differences.
24:36So, you know, Buddha was born
rich, right? He was born a
24:39prince, you know, Jesus, were
born a popper. These are very
24:43different origin stories, where
I do see a lot of overlaps. He's
24:46like, again, the ones that were
sort of next to these areas. So
24:50the Jesus story really parallels
Osiris from the eruption. And
24:55Osiris is interesting day he
said, you know, Egypt had been
24:59around for a long while.
Sometimes 1000s of years, right?
25:01This is the center of
civilization for so long. And if
25:04you look at Egyptian mythology
over time, there's some really
25:07fun changes. If you go to the
way back stuff, it's almost all
25:10animal gods or human animal
hybrid gods. As it goes later in
25:15time, he started having more
humans, so to take over these
25:17roles, so Cyrus starts becoming
a domain god of death. He's the
25:21one that judges people in by the
time you get up towards this
25:25time period, you have the Day of
Judgment, right? So when you die
25:28in Egyptian stuff, you get
judged to the day of judgment.
25:30And either you go on to heaven,
or you get obliterated forever,
25:33not tortured forever, like hell,
but you know, same same kind of
25:36basic idea. So we have a lot in
Christianity of Abrahamic
25:40religions from you know, I get
where did where did Abrahamic
25:44religions start? Right? Where
did they where did Abraham start
25:47be buried with Abraham converted
the monotheism in Egypt. So
25:52these are all very, very
connected streams. And again,
25:55you're probably familiar with,
you know, Amenhotep and slash
25:59aka notton. Right. So this is
the Egyptian pharaoh that
26:01basically abandoned the old
Egyptian pantheon, probably in
26:05order to claim more power for
himself. But maybe he was a
26:07believer and to institute a new
religion that was essentially a
26:10monotheistic ones. This is kind
of the first monotheism and the
26:13main emblem was the sun. And
then he was going to be the pope
26:16as well as sort of, right? So it
was way of consolidating power,
26:20probably. But this is, you know,
so this was going on, and he
26:24even constructed a new capitol
in the southern part of Egypt,
26:26two houses, it only lasted his
lifetime after he after he died,
26:30there was a revolution and they
put the boy king to comment on
26:34the throne, right, King Tut, who
is sort of, not that not that
26:38impressive of an individual, and
then restored the old religion,
26:41but you know, these religious
ideas are already bubbling
26:44around. And so again, this is
where Judaism starts right in
26:47Egypt, right with Abraham gets
converted to monotheism in
26:50Egypt. Moses means priest in
Egyptian at this time. So, you
26:56know, there's a lot of these
ideas that then get transferred,
26:58a lot of the songs in the
Proverbs seem to come from
27:01Akhenaten's temples. So there's,
there's an impact early on. And
27:06then Osiris is becoming a big
God. And Osiris story is very
27:10much like Jesus's story, right?
He's killed right around when
27:13he's 30. By kind of by the evil,
Satan, underwater demon set, and
27:19then not by the Romans, but I
think gets resurrected, brought
27:22back to life. And so even
though, you know, his birthday
27:26is Osiris, His birthday was
often given as the winter
27:29solstice, or right around
Christmas. And his rebirth was
27:33usually the spring equinox,
which is, you know, sort of
27:36Easter. So, you know, these,
these stories are very, very
27:40similar. And again, Osiris has
to go to the young god who died
27:44and brought back to life.
Interestingly enough, he had set
27:46cut up his body into 13 parts,
but his sister ISIS resurrected
27:50him, but you only found 12, you
never found the 13th part. The
27:5513th part was his penis. And so
he comes across now with sort of
27:58this, asexual God, right, he
doesn't he doesn't have sex, he
28:02doesn't marry, he doesn't
produce errors. And so there's a
28:06lot of sort of overlap between,
in fact, Osiris and Jesus often
28:09shared some of their same
temples early on was sort of
28:12Osiris slash Jesus. So there was
a lot of overlap between the
28:16Jesus story and the Osiris story
is probably very influenced by
28:19it.
28:20Now, you mentioned the kind of
like animal God, hybrids of
28:24humans, that seems to be very
common throughout multiple
28:27cultures around the world, from
Native American from Egypt, from
28:31Greece, you know, God, really,
I'm not sure about Roman times.
28:36But there's, there's so many,
especially in the, the UK, in
28:39the, in that area of, you know,
Narnia
28:46Phenomena, those that do and
those that don't, you can also
28:50teach out some interesting
differences. So, and again, you
28:53can look at this over time. So
Egypt is a great case study in
28:55this you start off with like
animal gods, and then become
28:57kind of human animal gods and
then pretty by the end, they're
28:59pretty much human gods. So you,
what you don't really get my
29:03hypothesis is that like, you
know, people that are living in
29:06subsistence lifestyles, you're
out there interacting with these
29:08animals, kind of on a one to one
basis, right? These are free
29:11animals are not domesticated
animals. Then you see them as
29:16important sort of, you know,
spiritual forces, and that
29:19becomes worked into your
stories. So Native Americans,
29:21you'll have a lot of the stories
about the different animal
29:24deities, and then, but if you
get to the farming cultures,
29:26where it's all got a lot of
people, and it's all just
29:29people, people, people and maybe
some controlled animals, then
29:32people start I think thinking
about more like people, right,
29:35you're ruled by a king. So is
there a kind of a human like
29:38King that rules over the
universe? Right? And so again,
29:42you can really tease out
different cultures like in
29:44India, you know, they have some
animal hybrid gods, but not
29:48many. There. They're mostly
human gods with a couple of
29:53interesting exceptions. And in
Greece, I got there all human
29:57Gods except for like maybe Pam,
who was not one of the
29:59Olympians. And he was not part
of that tribe. Right? Was that
30:03Panda fascinating character,
right? I think it's the most
30:05important Greek God out there,
and probably the most widely
30:08worshipped over time and over
space, but you hardly ever read
30:11about him. Because the city,
people's gods would have been
30:14the human gods. And those were
the ones who were writing stuff
30:16down. Fascinating.
30:17Now there is a big myth of that,
I'd love to hear your point of
30:21view on it is Atlantis that has
just kept captivated us as
30:27humans, ever since Plato wrote
about it. Probably long before,
30:32and probably long before, but
from the point of us, in Western
30:35society, Plato is the origin
story of that, which, to my
30:39understanding,
30:40He wasn't the origin story
30:41That his uncle, his uncle went
over to Egypt, a couple priests
30:45told them about it, and so on.
Where do you what's your point
30:48of view on Atlantis? What does
it mean for us as a species? And
30:53what does this story mean to us?
Because it's, we're still
30:55talking about it and 2023
30:58It's a great, it's a fun
mystery, right? It's something
31:00everybody can sort of share on.
It doesn't matter, your
31:01political views or anything, we
could all talk about Atlantis,
31:04but it's a very sort of neutral
and fun topic, it'd be great if
31:07they ever discovered it. Like,
you know, it'd be a great sort
31:09of morning news story, you know,
divers think they have found the
31:12lost continent of Atlantis, you
know, that'd be lovely. Right?
31:15So it's really useful in terms
of, you know, how we live our
31:17lives. And but if you if you try
to trace back, like, you know,
31:20where does this come from? And
how true it might be? That's a
31:23fascinating story, too. So all
we know, is that one sort of
31:26textual thing from Plato, but he
says very clearly, like, this is
31:32a big story in Egypt. This is
this is their origin story,
31:35right? This is, according to
them, where they came from
31:38before they came to Egypt, they
were in Atlantis. And so this is
31:42sort of, to some very important
story for the Ancient Egypt,
31:46Egyptian, according to Plato. So
that's important. So this is
31:49going back to whatever Ancient
Egypt Egyptian story was. We
31:52don't know the Atlanta story,
but we know who it was something
31:55like Plato describes, he was
very careful there were there.
31:57There were a lot of contacts now
between Egypt and Greece. So he
32:00would have been very careful to
report this accurately, right,
32:02people were coming back and
forth. And so we know that this
32:07was a very, very, in
tremendously important story to
32:09ancient Egypt, and very, very
sacred origin story that they
32:12probably treasured for a long,
long time, perhaps 1000s of
32:15years, given the, you know, the
length of the Egyptian culture.
32:18So that becomes interesting,
right, that we know that they
32:20believed in it. And they had
maintained his story as a
32:24valuable story for a long time.
Now, it wasn't just a math
32:27right, for them, like some kind
of creation story, maybe. But it
32:30seems very specific, like
exactly what size it was. And
32:35this sort of thing. Could it
have been like one of an island
32:38in the Mediterranean that, you
know, sank beneath the sea
32:40during one of the main
earthquake? Sure. Right. And
32:42maybe some people have said,
well, maybe it's kind of related
32:45to the Minoan civilization that
got, you know, kind of battered
32:48by the earthquake, maybe it
doesn't quite seem to fit. You
32:51know, there's little traces like
the Atlas Mountains, right. And
32:54they said it was out by the
Straits of Gibraltar, and maybe
32:57was maybe there was some news
translation. But then they have
33:00the Atlas Mountains and the
Burma people up there tell
33:03stories about Atlantis. So maybe
there's out there, some people
33:06suggested that it wasn't really
the see that it was actually the
33:09Sahara, which is an interesting,
33:11Yeah, that's a new way of
scenery.
33:12It used to be a wash. And this
is we do know that ancient
33:15Egyptian civilization seems to
have come from the Sahara,
33:19right? So you got to eat. This
used to be a lush thing. This is
33:21one of the cradles of mankind
before it turned into a vast
33:24desert. And we and what
archaeologists and stuff have
33:29tended suggests is that this was
the start. When the Egyptians
33:32moved into the Nile, they were
already pretty set up as a
33:35culture. So they came from
somewhere. And it makes sense
33:38that they would have come from
the Sahara as it turned into a
33:41desert and could no longer
support large farming
33:43civilizations.
33:44Well, let me ask you this. What
is your feeling on the human
33:48timeline? Because the timeline
seems to be moving a lot lately,
33:52with Nysa. Lately, in the last
50 or 60 years, were you know,
33:55what I was what I was taught in
school was like, oh, Egypt says
33:596000 years old, maybe 7000 years
old. But now something like
34:02Gobekli, tappy shows up and
they're like, well, that's
34:0413,000 years old.
34:07That's a great example. Yeah,
that's lovely. That's lovely.
34:10Not just age, but because you
took like civilizational
34:14structures that were set up by
hunter gatherers. Were not
34:18performing. Right? So we've long
had this idea that is, you know,
34:22UK hunter gatherers, and you get
to agriculture, and they build
34:25cities. And it's not that easy.
It's much more complex than
34:28that. So it really points to a
lot of the interesting cultural
34:31complexity and and some of these
cultures lasted 1000s of years,
34:34even going back to the
Paleolithic. I was just read the
34:36other day that they can
determine the different
34:38Paleolithic cultures due to the
different artifacts and the
34:40clothing styles and jewelry
styles that people would have
34:43been wearing. That lasted for
1000s of years, right until
34:47climate change or whatnot.
34:48Yeah so there's something like
Gobekli Teppe You look at what
34:50they were doing there and you
like, look at the the
34:52sophistication of what they did.
That's not hunter gatherer
34:57sophistication. It seems like
35:00When we think of hunter
gatherers just going out, and
35:02there's the classic hunter
gatherers, right, small nomadic
35:04man chasing, that works, but you
also get hunter gatherers that,
35:08you know, have a lot of spare
food, right? So like a look at
35:11the Northwest Coast groups, they
had salmon, and they would smoke
35:14it. So they were hunter
gatherers, but they would have
35:16food storage, and so they could
host large villages, large
35:20cities, have division of labor,
they have, you know, craftsmen
35:23that could work for as a
craftsman are not hunter
35:25gatherers, right? They did
amazing, huge constructions,
35:29while we labeled them hunter
gatherers. So not all hunter
35:32gatherers are in classic small
band group.
35:36So then, in your opinion,
though, how old do you think
35:39Egypt Egyptian culture really,
truly is? Based on these other
35:43ideas that are coming up?
35:45Yeah. Well, it depends how far
back you want to trace it,
35:47right? I mean, what we say Egypt
is now we think of this as this
35:49country or this area. But the
Egyptian culture again, a lot of
35:54archaeologists have set when did
you sort of seeing this stuff in
35:56the early period along the Nile,
it seems already pretty, you
36:00know, set up as a culture,
right, as a package comes into
36:03the brain. Right? So So that's
interesting. And I know where
36:08they came from, but a good guess
would be the Sahara, early
36:12megalithic sculptures in the
Sahara, you know, look at the
36:14megalithic culture, which is
alive and fascinating to look at
36:17Western Europe and Ireland and
all these megalithic societies
36:21and structures. And some and
there's some of the earliest
36:23seem to be in the middle of the
Sahara Desert,
36:25Which was apparently like you
said lush, you know, 1000s and
36:291000s and 1000s. Because you
can't, you really can't build a
36:32society around it in a desert
like that. Not that size you
36:35need or,
36:36You know, it was lush, this is
this is incredibly lush
36:38environment, one of the
Washington environments on Earth
36:40was the Sahara. So this is we
know that there was some big
36:43civilizations living,
36:44It's, it is truly fascinating.
You know, what I always find
36:47really interesting is that no
matter where we are in the
36:50history of humanity, man always
thinks they have it figured out.
36:55That they're like, no, no, this
is the story. I'm trying to
36:57figure it out right there. No,
but like, you know, like, you
36:59know, during the Greek times
that could Zeus obviously Zeus,
37:02there's no other way. And, and
during, you know, Egyptian
37:05times, it's raw, or it's, you
know, it's Osiris. And that was
37:08When it falls apart, too, you
know, so Right? When did ancient
37:11Greece stopped believing in
their gods, right? Plato didn't
37:13believe he wasn't a Christian or
anything, but he didn't believe
37:16in the Old Gods, right? He
didn't believe in what he called
37:19myth. In fact, you know, we get
our word myth from ancient
37:21Greece. And so, early on, you
know, some of these people were
37:24questioning the rationality of
these religions, which people
37:27were taking very seriously. This
is really where Athena ascended
37:30to heaven or whatever. They were
put to death. Right for being
37:33heretics. All right. So, you
know, it was a very contentious
37:37stand. It was only sort of later
that Greek civilization sort of,
37:41okay, you know, atheism and
disbelief.
37:45Yeah. And now, I mean,
obviously, with the with the
37:48world as it is, now, there's
such a free exchange of
37:52information, because of the
digital age. What is your
37:54opinion of how this is affecting
folklore? And no, this is one of
37:58your favorite topics. How does
how does the digital age the
38:03internet, and how folklore has
been created myth has been
38:07created using these new tools.
38:09Oh, right. Yes, it's huge,
right? The internet has totally
38:11transformed our culture. This is
one of the biggest things
38:13happening in human culture. I
think it's bigger than the
38:15printing press, which gave us
literacy in the nation state and
38:18on to one of the biggest things
have happened to human culture
38:20ever since the invention of
agriculture, right? So this is
38:23going to change this as a
species. And I already like, you
38:27know, my former self, my 20 year
old self would not understand my
38:31current self like, it's a
different language. Like he
38:33talked about his broadband and
his Wi Fi and his download speed
38:37for streaming like, what is this
guy? You know, you'd be
38:40incomprehensible to my early
here. So. So I look at my
38:44students now I'm getting these
students now 20 years since
38:47they've been on broadband, their
whole life, most of them, right.
38:50And so that means that they've
been sort of anywhere in the
38:52world at any time talking to
anybody in the world at anytime.
38:55And that's normal for them. And
you know, and and I remember
38:59what it was before that, right.
So why, sir, talk to anybody in
39:04the world at any time. So, yeah,
that's going to absolutely
39:07change all of our dishes. A lot
of folks I mean, folklore, you
39:09know, when I went into grad
school folklore was because
39:12there's antiquated discipline,
it was fading away in the face
39:15of modernity. And by the time I
exited graduate school folklore
39:18was like cutting edge, right?
There's all this art that
39:20doesn't have writer, the author,
what is this stuff? You know,
39:23how do you analyze you know,
memes and unfocused, like, Yep,
39:26no problem is what we do. Right?
We'll show you how you do it. So
39:30we're in a much more folkloric
age now than we have been since
39:33at least the development of the
printing press, I would say,
39:36right, this is most of our
culture's very folkloric in
39:39nature. And it's also like,
again, changing our notion of
39:42what it is to be or to to be,
you know, the other 35 crowd,
39:46they're not really very
religious in the sense that
39:50right? spiritual but not
religious. This is the
39:52overwhelming thing, so they're
not going to sign up for
39:54denomination like denominations
are plummeting, right? But, but
39:58it's not that they're not
spiritual. But what This isn't
40:00there tapping into all this
stuff around the world, right?
40:02You don't have to stick with
your your one hometowns.
40:05Religion comes from a small town
and we're a Baptist town and
40:07we're a Lutheran town. You can
pick from all over the world,
40:10right? So people kind of it's a
smorgasbord and felt like yeah,
40:12like that karma idea. But, you
know, and but
40:15Reincarnation. That makes sense.
Yeah, reincarnation,
40:18Native American animals die off.
And I like, I like the karma.
40:21And you know, and so they're
crafting this whole new sort of
40:24spiritual universe on a global
scale, which is just phenomenal
40:28to witness in real time. With us
come to a lot of wacky beliefs,
40:31I have to say, like the whole,
you know, extraterrestrial
40:33belief that this has really
moved. You know, for a lot of
40:36people, it may be legendary,
like, maybe it's true, maybe
40:38it's not like, like Sasquatch.
But for a lot of people this is
40:40like, this is this is this is
myth. This is sacred stuff like
40:43we this has something to do with
who we are like, We are part
40:46star people or something. We
were not really earthlings or
40:50something, this is a huge new
sort of religious development,
40:53the other new religious
development, it just sort of,
40:55kind of goes hand in hand
sometimes, and that's the, you
40:58know, transhumanism, we're gonna
be able to upload our
41:00consciousness to the cloud and
and live forever in a video game
41:03environment. Number one, I don't
I don't think so. Right. I don't
41:07think it works that way. I don't
believe we can separate
41:09consciousness from our body, in
any sort of computer generated
41:13way. You know, we like to think
that there's this mind, we have
41:17a look at that word, like a
mind, what is a mind? And it's
41:20basically the same word is soul,
right? Because, you know, what
41:24is your mind? Can you Is anybody
ever seen a mind? Way to mind?
41:28You know, is it a metaphor? You
know? You saying, oh, you know,
41:32you have a mind I have a mind.
Really? I have neuron synapses,
41:36I have a brain is W mean a mind?
No, not really. So, you know,
41:42this, I think the move now is
away from this Cartesian view
41:45set up by Rene Descartes, his
mind body split, we know that's
41:48not quite true. And towards this
idea of, you know, embodied
41:53consciousness that it really it
is our synapses and neurons and
41:56stuff that is, that is producing
this effect, at least at least
42:00for our experience of it. So you
can't sort of separate out your
42:03consciousness from your biology.
I'll give you a real simple
42:05example. Right? I like to have a
little bit of yogurt every day
42:08in the morning, probiotic. And
one of the reasons is that has
42:12been shown that if you have
little probiotic yogurt, it
42:15lowers your stress level. So I
take it a value. And they've
42:17done a nice test to show that
this is really very, very
42:20effective. And the reason is,
because probiotic stuff is
42:24little microbes, they live in
your gut, and they interact with
42:28you. So when I say oh, you know,
this is my mind, I don't mind
42:32I'm not stressed, right? Or
something like this, it will
42:34part of it. It's those little
guys living in my gut. I'm not
42:37going to be able to upload that.
I can't take those little guys
42:40with me. So that is how we
experience the world is even
42:44through other organisms. Besides
homo sapien sapien organisms,
42:47like we there's a lot of stuff
in here, there's not human DNA
42:50on the fireman.
42:52Oh, absolutely. I mean,
42:55This is possible how we think,
right? These are little
42:57organisms in here. If you heard
of Toxoplasma gondii. This is my
43:01new project. I'm working.
43:01No, I haven't heard that one.
43:03Right, right. So Toxoplasma
gondii is a, it's a little
43:08parasite. About 1/3 of the
people in the world might be
43:12carrying it in their brain. A
lot of people are asymptomatic.
43:15But for those who become
symptomatic Tasman plasmosis,
43:19once you get past the initial
effects, it tends to make people
43:23just a little bit more reckless.
So that can be bad, that can be
43:27good. It seems to be tied to
like entrepreneurship, starting
43:30your own business.
43:31I must have it, I must have it.
43:34That's right, just sort of, you
know, those who like to live on
43:37the edge, right? So this is a
significant portion of humanity.
43:41And I'm probably infected. I
don't Okay, you know, I've sort
43:44of haven't had those, you know,
cloistered life. And so, you
43:48know, if you are one of those
people, there's a very good
43:50chance that you may think that's
you and it is, but part of view
43:54is this little parasite you have
in your brain. We got this
43:57mostly from domestic cats, by
the way. So cultures that have a
44:01lot of domestic cats have more
of this, and therefore more have
44:04more reckless individuals, you
know, that produces heroes that
44:07produces fools that produces,
you know,
44:11Innovators, innovators, leaders,
it because you got to be I mean,
44:15you got to be a little crazy to
do certain things, you know, in
44:18life,
44:18Those who are successful and
those who die young both right.
44:24Hopefully, you can balance that
between the two somewhere,
44:27hopefully. So, I want to go back
to what you said earlier that
44:33religion really is, is just
going down from when I was born,
44:38you know, generally speaking,
generally speaking, especially,
44:42originally, I was born into
Catholicism over the last 30
44:45years. You mean the numbers in
the churches are starting to
44:48just go down, down down, and you
write these new the new
44:52generation coming up. They're
just like, what this is, this
44:56doesn't make any sense?
44:57Why do you want yourself to one
little one little pie right what
45:00There's this whole global
smorgasbord,
45:01Right! And because there's so
much more information coming in,
45:04and I never thought of it that
way, but you're absolutely
45:07right. There's so much more
knowledge before the people who
45:10would like to be born less a
Catholic, and then one day in a
45:14bookstore happen to run across a
book about a yogi, or the back
45:18of the veto or something like
that, and go, Oh, what but now
45:21He's that's it, and then you
switch over. Now, they're just
45:24taking little bits and pieces
from all these.
45:26But now it's but now it's that
information is so ingrained in
45:30our culture mean, a lot of
people know about karma about
45:33reincarnation, those were
revolutionary ideas 100 years
45:36ago, in the West, revolutionary
ideas. So where do we think
45:40where do you think this is gonna
go in 100 years from now? 200
45:43years from now?
45:43Yeah. Isn't it fascinating,
because again, we're certainly
45:46seeing we're right on the cusp
of the biggest transformation
45:48that humanity probably ever gone
through. And not many people
45:51have in history been able to say
that. So this is a tremendously
45:54interesting time to be, you
know, looking at this and
45:56watching this and wondering
about where all this is headed.
46:00Because it's gonna be radically
different. You know, one of the
46:02predictions I'm making is my
grandchildren probably won't
46:04read and write.
46:05I, you know what, and that's not
a, that's not too far fetched.
46:08Because I'm looking at, I'm
looking at AI right now. And I'm
46:12going So wait a minute, I might,
one of my predictions is I don't
46:16think the web is going to be the
way it is. Now, there's going to
46:18be web pages anymore. Web pages
will eventually go the way of
46:21the dodo, because you'll just
ask AI and AI will give you the
46:24answer. Why would you go to a
web page, unless it's something
46:27artistic or something very
individualized, for that person
46:31to go. But it's not the way that
we're looking for information
46:33today. Once AI gets to a point
where you can just ask AI,
46:37anything? It knows. So then if
you could ask AI
46:40Comes with a lot of dangers,
too, because people Yes, really
46:43believing in AI. Right? Right.
There's a lot of one of the
46:47things I think kind of tracking
is sort of information
46:51technologies in the afterlife,
like how there's all these
46:53stories about that this is sort
of the AI can have a soul or the
46:57you know, people are really
starting to believe this. And I
47:01think it's problematic, because,
well, it's like the guy who it
47:05happens a lot. But I've just
reading a story about a guy who
47:07had like this AI girlfriend, who
broke up with him, and then he
47:10committed suicide, because he
was so heartbroken. And so
47:14people are like investing their
emotions, which are biological
47:16emotions into these simulacra
nations if they're us, but
47:23they're not. And the reason
routers are not biological
47:25organisms, they don't care. You
know, the guy, the girlfriend
47:28who broke up with a guy, you
know, most girlfriends have the,
47:31you know, if they break up the
guy committed suicide, you would
47:33feel bad. This AI did not feel
bad, right? Not one little bit,
47:36it doesn't feel right. So people
are falling in love with these
47:39things. It cannot love them
back. Because love is a
47:42biological phenomenon. So
there's a lot of danger with AI
47:46and people trust AI too. So you
know, so like, well, the
47:49computer says that, you know,
they were using AI for doing
47:52parole hearings, like chance of
recidivism, right? Like, how
47:55likely is it that this person is
going to commit another crime
47:58and they just feed it to the AI?
Well, one of the things they
48:01figured out was at the I was
looking at their identified
48:04race, and so they came up as
black, they're like, Oh, well,
48:06you're far more likely to get
arrested for another crime
48:09again, right. And so they can be
held in jail, because the AI
48:12said, they're more likely to get
arrested, and they are more
48:13likely to get arrested. But
that's not the point. It doesn't
48:16mean that the wrong thing to do
a crime, it just means more
48:18likely to get arrested, right?
Given the racism in our society.
48:22So you know, where does the AI
get all this stuff from these
48:24racist ideas from us? Right?
It's stuff from from us. And so
48:29all of our foibles are just
supposed to be you know,
48:31aggregated into the AI. And then
people believe this like, well,
48:35computer says,
48:36Well, to be to be fair, though,
isn't that that's exactly what
48:39happens to a baby. The baby
comes in pure and all of our
48:42racism and all
48:44Yes, yes, but time is our
biological they care.
48:47No, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not
arguing that part. But I'm
48:50arguing the programming.
48:51Yes. Yeah, no, but we don't
treat these things like babies
48:54so much. We treat them like
parents like this is the expert.
48:56Right? This is it.
48:58But because but also, it's it's
unheard of looking at it two
49:02years ago, AI was barely a blip.
And now it's everywhere. And
49:07it's moving so fast. I mean,
49:10Everything's moving so fast,
right? I mean, our technology
49:13Well, that's one of the things
about globalization, all of a
49:14sudden, all the technicians, all
the scholars, all this
49:17information just going around
the world, you know, I used to
49:19be, you know, even when I was
when I was before the internet,
49:22I remember this, like, even if a
scientist was doing studies and
49:26would publish something, it
would be years before we get
49:28translated into French and the
French scholar was working on
49:31something similar if you're
like, oh my God uses some
49:33scholar and America is working
on this. I must write him a
49:35letter right? So science went
really slow.
49:39It's It's interesting too,
because now AI is it's still in
49:43its infancy, but I'm using AI to
translate the show. I have five
49:48six channels in different
languages and growing. And so
49:52the speed of information just
like this conversation was
49:56limited to whoever could speak
English, or maybe read closely.
49:59captionings maybe if I offered
10 languages in closed
50:03captioning, which has also been
created by an AI, because
50:06manually, it's just too damn
expensive to do. So now this is
50:09growing so much faster. So it's
just, it's just compounding on
50:12itself. It's a compound
interest. We're at that point
50:15where it's just like, now we're
at a hockey stick stage in
50:19humanity. Would you agree?
50:20Yes, absolutely. But also we're
at that cliff stage. Right? So
50:25this shows global climate
change, you know, warming. We're
50:31going through the sixth great
extinction right now of the loss
50:35of biodiversity, we are
literally killing the earth. So
50:39as people become more enamored
by these AI, simulacra AI, by
50:43the way, is really energy
intensive, you know, sucks a lot
50:47of juice, well, you're gonna
supply that juice, oh, down
50:51another river, and we'll, you
know, blast a few mountains. And
50:54you know, so there's a cost all
this now, cost is really a very
50:57concerning cost, right? And I'm
not saying that AI is the sole
51:00cause not at all. It's the whole
capitalism. Right? Yeah. So
51:06again, this is sixth great
extinction of life on earth. And
51:08the last one was 65 million
years ago, where we got hit by
51:11an asteroid, Okay, this one is
not any external force, it's
51:14actually an organism of the
earth that is killing the earth.
51:17And that's us. And that's also
going on during my lifetime. So
51:20you got these two processes that
are transforming Planet Earth
51:23going on at the same time.
Right. And they're interlinked,
51:26you know, maybe, maybe our
science is gonna get enough
51:29together, and we'll figure out
how to save the planet, right,
51:31maybe, or maybe in trying to do
this, we're actually going to
51:34help destroy the planet. But you
know, the stakes are high, the
51:37stakes are very high.
51:38Tok Let me ask you this, though,
would you agree throughout
51:41history, there's always
different chapters in human
51:46humans in humanity's book,
essentially. And in those
51:49chapter changes, old systems
have to be destroyed or have to
51:54fall away? And are we're right
now in the sense of like
51:59systems, economic systems,
leadership systems, political
52:03systems, food systems,
information systems, there's
52:06things that change so
dramatically. And in our
52:09lifetime, I think you and I are
of similar vintage. In our
52:13lifetime, we've seen so much
change. I mean, you and I were
52:16both born before the internet,
I'm assuming
52:19We're one of those rare people
in the history of the world that
52:23has had a foot on either side of
this.
52:25Yeah, Gen X, Gen X has that foot
in both worlds, which is a
52:29weird, we're very unique
generation in that sense.
52:32Because we know what it was like
before a remote control was on a
52:34television. And we also
remember, the first time on
52:38internet, I saw a webpage, and,
and home computers and cell
52:42phones, and there's just so much
it's changed.
52:45You know, my dad who just passed
away a couple of years ago,
52:47right? Age of 94. And, you know,
he remembers growing up as a
52:52young boy, and his parents took
him to the big town of Chicago
52:56to see this new thing. Radio,
right. So that's, you know, my
53:02dad see radio, to see radio, he
had the iPad, and he would be
53:05like, you know, zooming in to
see the grandkids sort of thing,
53:08but, you know, think, think
about change in his lifetime,
53:10you know, and he was like, Oh, I
remember before cars,
53:14Or airplanes or anything like
53:16That ever invented, but nobody
had him it was all horse, my
53:20grandfather, you know, I mean,
that Think of how much has
53:23changed in just a few short
generations,
53:25Right in the generations. But
now, even within our
53:28generations, the mass change,
it's just got
53:32And A.I is going to kick it up
even faster, right? This is just
53:34pouring gasoline on the fire was
like, so these take off.
53:38So let me ask you this from
your, from your research and
53:40your studies. You've seen these
other systems crash to come up
53:45with something new crash to come
something up the new, we're in
53:48that place, I feel right now,
because you're saying we're
53:51moving so fast that old
religious religion is as we knew
53:55it growing up is going to
probably in the next 100 years,
53:58not exist in the same way by any
stretch of imagination. Probably
54:01our political systems probably
won't change, probably our
54:04monetary nation
54:05Why do we have the nation state
anymore, and we can talk here,
54:07but around the world, we've got
global, you know, issues like
54:10climate change. And yet we have
no global governance. I mean,
54:13people say the United Nations,
I'm like, no, no, no, that's
54:15united nation states that is not
united people in the world.
54:18These are all the nation state
players get together what they
54:21want. But these are not the
people of the world. And we have
54:24so we have global problems,
global communication, but no
54:27global governance, obviously, I
think if we're going to save the
54:29planet, that has to change,
there has to be some sort of
54:32global governance. But you
totally reimagined our political
54:36systems, right? I mean, we're
everything is going to change
54:39And monetary systems and
monetary, everything.
54:42Everything's systems. I mean, I
see a world look, you know, I
54:48was overseas last summer, and I
had my Google Translate on my
54:53phone. And I would go and I
would talk to my Uber drivers in
54:56Google Translate and I I could
just see so clearly proud In my
55:00lifetime, there'll be a device
that I'll put it into my ear.
55:04And as I speak, it will
translate real time into
55:06somebody else's ear thing. And
we can communicate in language,
55:10the Tower of Babel is now
destroyed, and language will be
55:13free flowing. Because right now
language is still a barrier for
55:16a lot of the world.
55:17But imagine how much will be
dependent on those, right?
55:20Because Oh, no, no, no.
55:25But it's, but it is something
that is going to eventually
55:27happen. Look, look, how
dependent are we on these
55:30things? You know, like, I mean,
you can't, you can't live
55:34without an iPhone. Generally
speaking, if you're working out,
55:37You sort of, you know, for a
while to COVID, I had to have
55:40the little app on here even to
go to work. And it's like, it's
55:42sort of required, like to be
sort of, you know, whether you
55:45want it or not,
55:46Right, so we're going to be
we've been leaning on technology
55:49ever since the car.
55:51Like, this is why this is why I
sneak away in the summers and go
55:54back to my cabin and allows
right electricity, you know,
55:56nothing, and I sit there for a
while.
55:59And it's, it's, it's nice to
disconnect. But you know, you
56:04know, going down this road of
conversation, it's just really
56:07interesting to see where we're
been where we are right now,
56:10which is I agree with you. So
one of the most exciting times
56:13ever, in history of humanity,
where we're
56:16In dangerous time ever. I mean,
we've never been in threat of
56:19losing all of humanity, or even
worse, like most of life on
56:22Earth, even beyond us, right?
That's really concerning. We
56:26are, you know, this is happening
during our lifetime to grant an
56:29edge of life on Earth. And it's
our fault. I mean, I mean, us
56:33Western capitalist. It's, it's
our fault, right? So this is
56:37really not a good situation. So
yeah,
56:39And then, and then the potential
of obviously, the continuously
56:42old idea of war, and
56:45We're getting better and better
weapons. And now we've got these
56:48drones great. They can shoot you
and hunt you down. Oh, yeah.
56:55Progress.
56:57So talk, let me ask you, where
do you think folklore and myth
57:01is going to exist in the future?
How is it going to help us
57:05continue to grow as a as a
species? If we make it, sir?
57:10Yeah, well, that's a good
question. This, this moment
57:13might be miticides In the
future, because this is going to
57:15be an ethical moment in creating
whatever comes next. So this
57:19could be a disastrous, or it
could be a rogue success story.
57:24But a lot of it depends on what
we do now. And then, you know,
57:29they can look at it from all
sorts of angles. They did a
57:30paper recently about, you know,
the future of ghost stories, and
57:35I was talking about the future
of being haunted to being
57:37haunted by online, right.
There's all these stories about
57:39that, or being AI is sort of a
spirit medium. There's all these
57:44stories about people, the AI is
connecting them with the spirit
57:48realm. Oh, it's all the stories
that we collect. Yeah. So you
57:53know, people are going to text
messages from the beyond that's
57:56very common has been around for
a long time. Again, this is
57:58mostly the younger crowd, right?
The guys who've grown up and
58:02gals who have grown up online,
this is their social lives. And
58:05so when they die, where do they
haunt, very often online. And so
58:10text messages from the beyond,
that's really common, you know,
58:13our kids committed suicide in
high school, and their best
58:16buddy gets, it's okay, I'm in a
better place when untraceable
58:18number this sort of stuff. So
there's just a ton of this. And
58:22then the other idea, it's like,
Will aI have a soul? Right?
58:25Well, AI? Would Have you beat
your Android to death. It's
58:28gonna come and haunt you. Is
that the Android ethics wherever
58:32they're rolling out androids?
Now? What are the ethics of this
58:35stuff? Right? People are gonna
be married people are gonna be
58:37having sex with you. They
already are, right, these sex
58:40robots. So people are gonna be
falling in love with these
58:42because you know, as humans have
sex with something, there's a
58:44lot of emotion and stuff that
built up. They're not going to
58:47love you back. But you know,
what are the ethics of this
58:51work? Can you beat your robot to
death? Is that okay? You know,
58:55sex robots? Is that okay? There
was a little town in Texas
58:58couple years ago, a guy
announced he was going to open
59:00up a robot brothel. And
everybody's like, we got it.
59:03It's got to be against the law.
And I'm like, okay, which law?
59:05Would that say? Right?
59:10Yeah, because you're against old
old systems are going to be
59:13breaking down because of this
new ideas, new technology. I
59:16don't I don't personally think a
digital brothel is a great idea
59:22sex robots.
59:24But again, like you're gonna
pass a law like what that last
59:26day? Like? No, because it's a
victimless. And in other words,
59:30should they have rights? So this
brings us into ethics, which has
59:33never really kind of cleared up
this issue. Like, where's the
59:36moral transgression? Is it is
it? Does it have to have a
59:39victim right? In other words, it
doesn't have to be hurt by this.
59:42And if so, is an Android a
person or not? And if an Android
59:45system machine doesn't, I guess
it's okay to beat your Android
59:49to death or, or have non
consensual sex with your Android
59:52I guess if it's a machine I
mean, you don't ask.
59:57Yes. Conceptual like it But it's
conceptual with a with a
01:00:02machine. Like it doesn't
01:00:03But yeah, but it's gonna it's
happening already why people are
01:00:05buying anything and people are
sort of, you know, falling in
01:00:07love with them. And even with
their cyber, you know, people
01:00:10wearing their cyber girlfriends
and all this sort of stuff like,
01:00:13like that man is at the cusp of
all this. You want to see what
01:00:15this is happening go to go to
Japan. This is really worth
01:00:18where it's coming this way very
quickly, but it's already there
01:00:21in Japan, Japan has not
reproducer and large part Hey,
01:00:24young people are not having sex.
01:00:26Right! Yeah, I've heard I've
heard about that. No, no, that
01:00:29that's a problem. Because that
when aren't they the oldest, one
01:00:32of the oldest populations in the
world.
01:00:35Right. So in general, you have
some of the more oldest
01:00:37populations and then also the
least birthrate. And so you put
01:00:40those together in Japan and out
of people and their solution to
01:00:45this is to replace themselves
with androids increasingly. So
01:00:48you have Androids and Japanese
looking androids now doing jobs
01:00:51like taking care of elderly and
even kindergarten teaching. The
01:00:56interest Exactly. So this idea
that, you know, they don't want
01:00:59to bring in a lot of immigrants
and foreigners, which a lot of
01:01:01countries might do. So they'd
rather sort of create Japanese
01:01:06looking adware Androids, but
then does that make that more of
01:01:10the culture? Right, so are you
gonna get more people sort of
01:01:12American Androids and whatever
else you want to say about
01:01:14cybersex? You know, whatever,
but it doesn't produce babies.
01:01:17Right. So Right.
01:01:18Right, exactly. It is a
fascinating time to be alive.
01:01:23This has been a fascinating
conversation. By the way. I'm
01:01:26going to ask you a few
questions. Ask all my guests.
01:01:28What is your definition of
living a fulfilled life?
01:01:32Living the fullest
01:01:33A fulfilled life. Yeah,
fulfilled life
01:01:35Fulfilled? I don't really know.
I mean, to find out what you
01:01:41want to do, and to pursue that,
you know, to make sure that you
01:01:44know, there's something that you
find it satisfying and that you
01:01:46think has value to other people
think that's really important.
01:01:50And that can be anything it can
be been a bicycle repairman. It
01:01:52could be you know, what you do
that you can do that you think
01:01:56can help others. I think that's,
that's it.
01:01:59If you had a chance to go back
in time and talk to a little
01:02:01Tok, what advice would you give
them?
01:02:05Oh, my goodness. Don't worry.
It'll all work out. Say easy way
01:02:12wrote route here. I didn't I
didn't you know, I didn't take
01:02:14the direct route, shall we say?
01:02:16Yeah, I was gonna say folklore
is probably not the, you know,
01:02:19like, Hey, guys, I'm gonna study
folklore. I'm like, okay,
01:02:22VNovember very, very macho dad,
it was very sort of survivalist
01:02:25offense. For me to be interested
in, you know, ancient myths and
01:02:29goddesses. It's like what? You
know, I don't think my dad ever
01:02:33quite got me I'll have to say,
01:02:34Umm, what is your definition of
God or Source?
01:02:38I don't Oh, what I do is I study
how other people define and
01:02:41that's fascinating. God, Gods
goddesses got us, right. You
01:02:46know, which people have Gods
which people have goddesses.
01:02:48There's great stuff and souls,
we have one soul. Is it sort of
01:02:53the animistic soulfulness, it
sort of flows to the material
01:02:56world? Is it the two souls and
VO Dawn are the five souls of
01:02:59the ancient Egyptian? Do you
have family sold? You sold? You
01:03:03know, this is great stuff. You
know, and I, I study what other
01:03:08people have said about this
right? And and there's, there's
01:03:10just so much to study out there.
01:03:12And what is the ultimate purpose
of life?
01:03:16Well, I would like to believe
that there is an ultimate
01:03:18purpose of life. I'm not sure.
But if there is, I imagine it
01:03:22has something to do with
consciousness. We're just sort
01:03:24of trying to think as much as
possible, trying to understand.
01:03:29Alright, fair enough. And where
can people find out more about
01:03:32you and the work that you're
doing?
01:03:34Oh, well, you know, nice thing
about having a strange name is
01:03:37I'm easy to Google. So if you go
go, you'll find me. A couple of
01:03:42books out there's one recent one
on post-human folklore, looking
01:03:46at the human animal and the
animal machine sort of ideas.
01:03:49Another one on the truth of
myth, looking at, you know,
01:03:52mythology, what it is how we can
analyze it. So I'm always
01:03:55working on new stuff and new
articles and chapters and
01:03:58things. So, again, no, Google
me. I'm Googleable.
01:04:03Tok I appreciate you taking the
time to have this conversation.
01:04:05It's been fascinating to talk to
you and hopefully, hopefully
01:04:09will help help some people
understand where we are, where
01:04:13we've been and where we're
going.
01:04:15Yeah, good luck with all that.
Yeah. Thanks very much. It's
01:04:17been a fun talk.
01:04:22Thanks for watching. Click on
one of the videos below to
01:04:24continue your journey and don't
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