I think this trend is very important as we view the evolution of Mythic Imagination Institute's mission and relevance in the world, but it also strikes me as a bit Machiavellian. To convince people to turn to myth and story for their own financial well-being seems like a paradox. There are more enduring and far more meaningful reasons to embrace our sources of wisdom. I think the trends are heading in our direction here too.
More important than any of the economic factors listed above, is a deeper trend that we see emerging. In the words of the preacher Phillips Brooks:
"The great danger facing all of us is not that we shall make an absolute failure of our life, really that's not going to happen.
Nor that we shall fall into outright viciousness. Most are not going to do that. Nor that we shall be terribly unhappy. Nor that we shall feel that life has no meaning. No, not any of these things are what we need be afraid of.
The danger is that we shall fail to perceive life's greatest meaning, fall short of its highest good, miss its deepest and most abiding happiness, be unable to tender the most needed service, be unconscious of life ablaze with the light of the Presence of God, and be content to have it so.
Content with the ordinary, mediocre, useless life -- that's the danger. That some day we may wake up to find that always we have been busy with husks and trappings, really having missed life itself. Satisfied too soon with too little -- with a life that falls short of the best."
Ultimately, we know that all of the human motivators discussed above represent vehicles through which we search, both individually and collectively, for meaning. We are meaning-dependent beings, and although modern materialism has cut us off from many sources of meaning and convinced us that only what we can touch is real, all of the statistics indicate that this model is crumbling. We are seeking easy answers and not finding them. We publish 3,500 new self help books each year. You can find 339,467 "self help" books and 157,752 "how to" books on Amazon.com. We are on a treadmill to consume more and more. We sleep an average of 3 hours less per day than in the 60s; doctors report 80% of their patients suffer from TATT (Tired All The Time), and we work 320 hours per year (8 weeks) more than 30 years ago. When the books and products don't solve our problems, we just try and numb the pain. 10% of us are clinically depressed, we prescribe � of the world's anti- depressants, 65% of Americans are "obese." In a 65-year life span, we spend 9 years glued to the TV and watch 2 million commercials. As a result, we spend 3.5 minutes per week in meaningful conversation with our children, and 54% of 4 to 6 year olds, when given a choice between watching TV and spending time with their fathers, chose TV. On the other end of the spectrum, we see a radical rise in global extremism, literalism, fundamentalism, and terrorism.
People are lost and need a renewed sense of purpose, meaning, context, and creativity. We need to reconnect to the wisdom stories that have provided this fundamental infrastructure for a meaningful life for millennia, and have been warped and manipulated for centuries in the name of rationalism and materialism. We need to re-imagine and renew the myths in our lives. A meaningful life is as relevant as it gets.
Michael Karlin
Michael Karlin is founder and President of the Mythic Imagination Institute, producer of the Mythic Journeys Conference and Performance Festival. Michael is also the founder and Chairman of the Atlanta Mythological RoundTable of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, sits on the Board of Directors of the Alliance for a New Humanity and the National Black Arts Festival, the Board of Visitors of Emory University, the Board of Trustees of the Greenfield Hebrew Academy, and on the Advisory Board of Comedy for Peace and Creating Pride. Michael is currently participating in the Wexner Heritage Foundation's National Jewish Leadership Institute.
Michael is an active investor in mobile home communities and is on the Board of Directors of Outweb, Inc., a strategic consulting and technology development company and Magnolia Credit, a South Carolina finance company. Michael was co-founder of Security First Network Bank, the world's first Internet bank, and S1 Corporation, Inc. (NASDAQ: SONE), the world's leading provider of financial portal solutions. He was president of Security First Network Bank at its inception, and was responsible for setting up the Internet operations, defining the original product offering, and receiving all regulatory approvals.
Michael is married to Ann and they have three children, Benjamin, Rose, and Dov.
The goal of Mythic Journeys is to create a community, a critical mass whereby we ignite a fire that warms our world.
Imagine that you're hosting a dinner party. You know that everyone on your guest list loves a good story, is thrilled by ancient as well as modern traditions and adores the way the skin tingles in the presence of a profound mystery. Who would you invite to keep your guests mesmerized? What relevant issues would you surface to stimulate conversation, captivate attention and stir the spirit? What delicacies would you offer as food for thought?
Mythic Journeys is just such a gathering. This summit conference and performance festival includes the finest minds in psychology, religion, science, literature, education, entertainment and the arts. Each gathering is a one-of-a-kind moment in time. Every two years, a diverse group of people convene to share our findings, insights and feelings regarding the myths, stories and archetypes that leave their imprints on our lives, shaping our inner and outer landscapes.
How does this happen? By mixing powerfully alive and articulate people who share their stories in presentations, conversations and performances, exhibitions and workshops. This is where the issues that really matter take center stage. We discuss war, peace, unity, spiritual growth, creativity, suffering...and joy! Previous guests have spoken of -- joy in intimacy, joy of insight, discovery, the joy of elegant thought, the experience of empathy, being struck by the beauty of music or wisdom or wit or Variety of form and venue abounds: concerts, dance, theatre, and parties -- in ballrooms, in floor cushioned hide-aways, in a wide range of restaurants. For a week, our community gathers and then returns home laden with wealth.
Mythic Journeys has presentations and performances by 100 speakers and performers over a five-day period. The Main Conference runs June 9 through June 11, beginning with a performance on Friday night and ending with a performance on Sunday afternoon.
During the Main Conference you have the opportunity to select from seminars and workshops given by our entire roster of speakers, as well as attend all of the Main Conference's ballroom presentations and performances.
Preceding our Main Conference, is Mythic Journeys in-Depth. It begins on Wednesday, June 7 and seamlessly segues into the Main Conference on June 9. Limited to only 250 participants, the In-Depth Conference allows you an extraordinary opportunity to meet with the presenters in smaller gatherings. Performances, dialogue, bar-hopping, all take place on an intimate scale. All of your meals including a beautiful banquet are included for the In-Depth portion of Mythic Journeys (June 7 - 9).
To make this affordable for all who wish to attend, from now until November 1, 2005, we offer the Main Conference for a Special Rate of $250.
Friday, June 9 will be a special All-Day Educator's Conference that will then join the opening of the Mythic Journeys Main Conference Friday through Sunday.
Please check our confirmed guest speaker list to see who is coming. It's growing all the time. And remember, every life is a story, and a story can change the world.
More important than any of the economic factors listed above, is a deeper trend that we see emerging. In the words of the preacher Phillips Brooks:
"The great danger facing all of us is not that we shall make an absolute failure of our life, really that's not going to happen.
Nor that we shall fall into outright viciousness. Most are not going to do that. Nor that we shall be terribly unhappy. Nor that we shall feel that life has no meaning. No, not any of these things are what we need be afraid of.
Content with the ordinary, mediocre, useless life -- that's the danger. That some day we may wake up to find that always we have been busy with husks and trappings, really having missed life itself. Satisfied too soon with too little -- with a life that falls short of the best."
Ultimately, we know that all of the human motivators discussed above represent vehicles through which we search, both individually and collectively, for meaning. We are meaning-dependent beings, and although modern materialism has cut us off from many sources of meaning and convinced us that only what we can touch is real, all of the statistics indicate that this model is crumbling. We are seeking easy answers and not finding them. We publish 3,500 new self help books each year. You can find 339,467 "self help" books and 157,752 "how to" books on Amazon.com. We are on a treadmill to consume more and more. We sleep an average of 3 hours less per day than in the 60s; doctors report 80% of their patients suffer from TATT (Tired All The Time), and we work 320 hours per year (8 weeks) more than 30 years ago. When the books and products don't solve our problems, we just try and numb the pain. 10% of us are clinically depressed, we prescribe � of the world's anti- depressants, 65% of Americans are "obese." In a 65-year life span, we spend 9 years glued to the TV and watch 2 million commercials. As a result, we spend 3.5 minutes per week in meaningful conversation with our children, and 54% of 4 to 6 year olds, when given a choice between watching TV and spending time with their fathers, chose TV. On the other end of the spectrum, we see a radical rise in global extremism, literalism, fundamentalism, and terrorism.
People are lost and need a renewed sense of purpose, meaning, context, and creativity. We need to reconnect to the wisdom stories that have provided this fundamental infrastructure for a meaningful life for millennia, and have been warped and manipulated for centuries in the name of rationalism and materialism. We need to re-imagine and renew the myths in our lives. A meaningful life is as relevant as it gets.
Michael Karlin
Michael Karlin is founder and President of the Mythic Imagination Institute, producer of the Mythic Journeys Conference and Performance Festival. Michael is also the founder and Chairman of the Atlanta Mythological RoundTable of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, sits on the Board of Directors of the Alliance for a New Humanity and the National Black Arts Festival, the Board of Visitors of Emory University, the Board of Trustees of the Greenfield Hebrew Academy, and on the Advisory Board of Comedy for Peace and Creating Pride. Michael is currently participating in the Wexner Heritage Foundation's National Jewish Leadership Institute.
Michael is an active investor in mobile home communities and is on the Board of Directors of Outweb, Inc., a strategic consulting and technology development company and Magnolia Credit, a South Carolina finance company. Michael was co-founder of Security First Network Bank, the world's first Internet bank, and S1 Corporation, Inc. (NASDAQ: SONE), the world's leading provider of financial portal solutions. He was president of Security First Network Bank at its inception, and was responsible for setting up the Internet operations, defining the original product offering, and receiving all regulatory approvals.
Michael is married to Ann and they have three children, Benjamin, Rose, and Dov.
The goal of Mythic Journeys is to create a community, a critical mass whereby we ignite a fire that warms our world.
Imagine that you're hosting a dinner party. You know that everyone on your guest list loves a good story, is thrilled by ancient as well as modern traditions and adores the way the skin tingles in the presence of a profound mystery. Who would you invite to keep your guests mesmerized? What relevant issues would you surface to stimulate conversation, captivate attention and stir the spirit? What delicacies would you offer as food for thought?
Mythic Journeys is just such a gathering. This summit conference and performance festival includes the finest minds in psychology, religion, science, literature, education, entertainment and the arts. Each gathering is a one-of-a-kind moment in time. Every two years, a diverse group of people convene to share our findings, insights and feelings regarding the myths, stories and archetypes that leave their imprints on our lives, shaping our inner and outer landscapes.
How does this happen? By mixing powerfully alive and articulate people who share their stories in presentations, conversations and performances, exhibitions and workshops. This is where the issues that really matter take center stage. We discuss war, peace, unity, spiritual growth, creativity, suffering...and joy! Previous guests have spoken of -- joy in intimacy, joy of insight, discovery, the joy of elegant thought, the experience of empathy, being struck by the beauty of music or wisdom or wit or Variety of form and venue abounds: concerts, dance, theatre, and parties -- in ballrooms, in floor cushioned hide-aways, in a wide range of restaurants. For a week, our community gathers and then returns home laden with wealth.
Mythic Journeys has presentations and performances by 100 speakers and performers over a five-day period. The Main Conference runs June 9 through June 11, beginning with a performance on Friday night and ending with a performance on Sunday afternoon.
During the Main Conference you have the opportunity to select from seminars and workshops given by our entire roster of speakers, as well as attend all of the Main Conference's ballroom presentations and performances.
Preceding our Main Conference, is Mythic Journeys in-Depth. It begins on Wednesday, June 7 and seamlessly segues into the Main Conference on June 9. Limited to only 250 participants, the In-Depth Conference allows you an extraordinary opportunity to meet with the presenters in smaller gatherings. Performances, dialogue, bar-hopping, all take place on an intimate scale. All of your meals including a beautiful banquet are included for the In-Depth portion of Mythic Journeys (June 7 - 9).
To make this affordable for all who wish to attend, from now until November 1, 2005, we offer the Main Conference for a Special Rate of $250.
Friday, June 9 will be a special All-Day Educator's Conference that will then join the opening of the Mythic Journeys Main Conference Friday through Sunday.
Please check our confirmed guest speaker list to see who is coming. It's growing all the time. And remember, every life is a story, and a story can change the world.
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