What Myth Am I Living?
Are you living the life you want, or simply working off a script that was handed to you?
“The most important question anyone can ask is: ‘What myth am I living?” C.G. Jung
I don’t watch too many movies, but this year in July with all the social media buzz over Barbie and Oppenheimer turning them into an unlikely “must-see” double feature, I found myself inescapably drawn into the world of movies. And as the media pundits battled over the meaning and significance of the characters, I couldn’t help but reflect on the powerful way human action takes on mythic proportions in movies.
Not surprising though. Myths, stories, and rituals have been quite central to how not only societies, but also individuals create and effect key messages, values, aspiration, ethical contours. As Jung explained:
“Everybody acts out a myth, but very few people know what their myth is. And you should know what your myth is because it might be a tragedy and maybe you don’t want it to be.”
Like many of you when I watch a movie, it usually takes me deep into its drama. Much like dreams, it becomes real in the moment, although I know it is not. In those few hours, the story unravels through the cinematic experience—the series of images I see and the characters I hear. Watching a movie allows me a portal out of the world I live in and the innumerable things I am bound to. This liminality allows me an escape. And when I step out of it, I need to re-aggregate myself back into reality. Quite often I find myself feeling a little discombobulated as I walk out of a theatre, taking ten minutes or so to fuse back to the real world.
What exactly is the real world? And is what’s real to me, real to you?
Nietzsche said there is no absolute truth in the world, just an interpretation. He believed truth must be pursued, but it is impossible to realize. He further suggested that truth is a function of ‘power’ and not reality. That the truth handed over to us is often controlled by those in positions of power.
This is interesting and if we set aside such ‘facts’ as ‘Delhi is the capital of India’, and ‘There are 8 billion people in the world’, it may be the reason behind the cultural archipelago that exists in the world. Each country, for instance, has its own version of ‘normal’ or its distinct culture, which is based on complex set of variables that requires intense psycho-social-historical inquiry to understand even a fraction of its existence. The version of truth, which is often exhibited in terms of opinions, truisms (thou shalts…), dogmas, and ways of living can change dramatically if the context changes. For instance, if India had not been rich in resources, would it have been occupied by the British? If that had not happened, how different would the current culture, belief systems, and ways of living in India now be?
The cultural superego of countries, races, communities, families and even individuals is based on this stunning complexity. Hence, would we not benefit from keeping an open mind and looking at the world through multiple lens?
The boundless pursuit of truth, however, must be an ongoing tryst because it gives meaning and purpose to our lives, shaping our identity, continuously and dynamically. Without which, we may live a routine, which is all right if it is out of awareness, but may not be the best version of life we can have. A lot like Sisyphus, a mythological Greek character, who is immortal but cursed by the gods to push a rock over to the top of the mountain, only for it to roll back and begin again. And again. And again…
…making us question ‘What is the point of it all?’
Let’s take a closer look at our mind
Our mind is a powerful projector playing the reels of our thoughts repeatedly.
It makes up stories, some inherited and some created. It serves a very important purpose by creating a simple narrative to make sense of the complex world. But at times it traps us so deeply in these mental movies that it becomes the ‘only’ reality for us. Even when it is not serving us anymore. These repeating compulsions may lead to many dysfunctionalities.
Psychodynamically speaking, as individuals we may find ourselves stuck in autonomous patterns. Any change may feel irrational, inhuman, or pointless. We live by truisms and rules and a sense of wrongness and rightness that we have nurtured over the years. We build a tribe around these and look with suspicion or downright derision at any other way or thought. Our experiences even shape our identities and develop a sense of belonging with groups that think in similar ways. Changes and differences may unconsciously feel like a threat to our ‘identities’ and thereby our ‘self-esteem’. In a way, we chain ourselves to our perceived reality. It is comfortable.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave as a Metaphor for Transformation
Awakening (to anything) as a process is tumultuous and requires immense effort and courage. It is best elucidated in Plato’s ‘allegory of the cave’, one of the most well know philosophical concepts captured by him in The Republic. The allegory goes something like this.
Imagine a group of people chained and seated against the walls of an underground cave since birth. There's a fire behind the prisoners, and there are people carrying puppets or other objects between them and the fire. The prisoners believe the shadows of the things cast by the moving figures on the wall in front of them are the only things that exist. They believe in things that are visible to them. Because they have no other experience.
We often get stuck in psychic caves, “movies” of our own making that are a prison of sort that prevents us from seeing the other ‘reality’. We may be trapped with a certain way of thinking, our world view (how bad, how good!), our autonomous responses to things because it was handed over to us by our caregivers, society, media, schools and solidified through our experiences.
Now imagine a prisoner escapes from this cave. As he steps out of the cave, he experiences extreme discomfort in adjusting to the sunlight because his eyes are only accustomed to the darkness. Painfully but steadily his eyes will adjust to the light and slowly he will take in his environment. After experiencing shock and maybe disbelief, he will see reality the way it is. His entire world will come unshackled! The shadows he thought were real were, in fact, a mere impression of something else.
Any form of enlightenment is painful because the self-serving ego resists expanding in order to make us feel safe and worthy. Seeing another reality means allowing the feeling of vulnerability and going through the discomfort of unknowing.
Excited with this revelation, he finds his way back to the cave. He enthusiastically tells the other prisoners that what they see is not real, and that they must break out of their chains and go out of the cave to experience real life. The prisoners react as if this person has gone mad. They berate him for telling lies. They encourage each other not to step out of the cave, fearing loss of their own sanity. They may even try to extinguish this person from existence.
There are deeply rooted insecurities and fears of losing the comfortable world that makes people resist new knowledge. For some, the truth may not be worth seeking. Some may even feel threatened by those who challenge them. Not everyone will be on the path of growth. Growth is a choice; however it leads to immense discomfort at first. The status quo, hence, is appealing and the reason why people often vehemently protect it.
Back to the world of Barbie & Oppenheimer
Imagine you are watching Oppenheimer or Barbie. You are completely immersed in it. In a way, you are ‘one with it’, experiencing the emotions the story is generating within you. You are in a flow. In this state, you are not ‘thinking’. Once the show is over and you are out of the reverie, you ‘think’ over what you’ve just ‘experienced’. You give value to it—attributing some degree of like or dislike. You reflect on the story to give meaning to it, to evaluate it.
You cannot reflect on it unless you have truly experienced it.
But experience without reflection is ‘devoid of meaning’.
If we do not challenge and question our experiences and our thought processes, we will find comfort in our chains forever. But there is the possibility that we might become curious about the incredulous claims made by those who have escaped the cave and, by doing so, allow ourselves the possibility of contemplating our own ‘what if’. Maybe we aren’t finding meaning in our current life or maybe we have an intrinsic sense of adventure. Either way, if we follow this instinct, we will embark on the journey of creating a script for our own life—one richer in possibilities and far closer to our own unique calling.
Sources
Jung, C. G. 1973. Collected Works of C.G. Jung: The First Complete English Edition of the Works of C.G. Jung. https://www.amazon.com/Collected-Works-C-G-Jung-Complete/dp/0710089694.
“Forced Perspective—Man’s Reflection on Body of Water”, photo by Randy Jacob on Unsplash
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