Speaker 1: This fall, we're doing something at Mythic Mind that we
Speaker 1: haven't done before. Over the years, Mythic Mind has grown
Speaker 1: in a lot of different directions. We talk about philosophy
Speaker 1: and theology. We read Tolkien and Lewis and other great
Speaker 1: works of literature. We talk about myths and stories across
Speaker 1: books and movies and video games. We publish essays and
Speaker 1: offer courses, and we gather together for conversations in the fellowship.
Speaker 1: And all those things are going to continue, but beginning
Speaker 1: this fall, we're going to start bringing them together in
Speaker 1: a new way. For the first time, we're organizing Mythic
Speaker 1: Mind around a common seasonal theme, a question or a
Speaker 1: set of questions that we can pursue across all these
Speaker 1: different worlds. And for our first organized season, we're turning inward.
Speaker 1: Mythic Mind is Exploring the Psyche. At the heart of
Speaker 1: this season is a simple question that may seem strange
Speaker 1: if you've never heard it asked before, if you've never
Speaker 1: encountered it. And that is, what does it mean to
Speaker 1: be a self? What does it mean to be this
Speaker 1: strange kind of creature who not only exists, but knows
Speaker 1: that he exists? Who thinks about itself, tells stories about itself,
Speaker 1: worries about itself, tries to understand itself, and wonders... Who
Speaker 1: it is that he might become, that he ought to become.
Speaker 1: What is anxiety? What is despair? What do our desires
Speaker 1: reveal about our nature and what it is that we
Speaker 1: are for? What does freedom actually mean? And how are
Speaker 1: we shaped by the stories that we tell ourselves? Those
Speaker 1: are some of the philosophical and theological questions that we
Speaker 1: are asking. But they're also the questions at the heart
Speaker 1: of some of our greatest stories. And that's exactly why
Speaker 1: I think there's such a natural fit for mythic mind.
Speaker 1: One of the convictions behind mythic mind has always been
Speaker 1: that we can pursue wisdom through both primary and secondary worlds. Indeed,
Speaker 1: that we must pursue wisdom in this way. And so
Speaker 1: sometimes this means we are reading a philosopher or a
Speaker 1: theologian directly. Sometimes it means that we're encountering the same
Speaker 1: problem in a novel or an ancient myth. Or we're
Speaker 1: seeing it embedded in a character on screen or We're
Speaker 1: experiencing it from the inside through a story-driven video game.
Speaker 1: Different worlds can approach the same human mystery from different directions,
Speaker 1: and that's exactly what we are trying to do this fall.
Speaker 1: In the Inkwell, we'll be publishing essays that explore the
Speaker 1: psyche through philosophy, theology, literature, and storytelling of various kinds.
Speaker 1: Across the Mythic Mind podcast, we'll follow these questions into stories, films, games,
Speaker 1: devoted conversations with professionals in the field, and we'll be
Speaker 1: dealing with thinkers who have tried to understand the human
Speaker 1: person across the ages. And so in the fellowship, we'll
Speaker 1: be continuing these conversations together through our live discussions and
Speaker 1: our ongoing community. But there's one thinker who's really going
Speaker 1: to play a particularly important role in this season, and
Speaker 1: that is Soren Kierkegaard, the great Danish Christian existentialist and
Speaker 1: the focus of my doctoral dissertations. I've already begun a
Speaker 1: series in the Inkwell on Kierkegaard's psychology, and beginning in October,
Speaker 1: we're going to be going much deeper with a new
Speaker 1: Mythic Mind Academy course, The Psychology of Soren Kierkegaard, Life
Speaker 1: in Anxiety and Despair. Kierkegaard is one of the great
Speaker 1: explorers of the inner life. He writes about anxiety and despair,
Speaker 1: freedom and possibility, identity and self-deception, faith and the difficulty
Speaker 1: of becoming the person we were created to be. And
Speaker 1: one of the things that I find so compelling about
Speaker 1: him is that none of this is merely abstract psychology.
Speaker 1: For Kierkegaard, the problem of becoming a self is ultimately,
Speaker 1: it's a religious and deeply existential problem. The self can
Speaker 1: only finally be understood in relation to God, or as
Speaker 1: Kierkegaard says in The Concept of Anxiety, the power that
Speaker 1: established the self. And so Kierkegaard will give us one
Speaker 1: of our major paths into the season, but he won't
Speaker 1: be the whole season. And that's really the idea that
Speaker 1: I want to emphasize here, that Exploring the Psyche isn't
Speaker 1: just the name of a course, and it isn't simply
Speaker 1: a series about Kierkegaard. It's a question that we're going
Speaker 1: to be living with for the entirety of our lives,
Speaker 1: and particularly so within the next few months. We'll be
Speaker 1: approaching it through philosophy, through theology, literature, movies, games, and
Speaker 1: through the conversations that we have with one another. Some
Speaker 1: of those connections will be obvious from the beginning. Others
Speaker 1: may surprise us along the way as we take some
Speaker 1: unique directions with this. That's part of what excites me
Speaker 1: about organizing Mythic Mind in this way. Instead of treating
Speaker 1: all of these different things as separate projects, we can
Speaker 1: allow them to speak to one another in this cross-media direction.
Speaker 1: A philosopher can help us understand a story. A story
Speaker 1: can reveal something that is difficult to express philosophically. And
Speaker 1: both can send us back to the fundamental questions of
Speaker 1: who are we, what are we for, and what does
Speaker 1: it mean to become a self? If you've been following
Speaker 1: Mythic Mind for a long time, then I hope that
Speaker 1: this gives you a new way to experience everything that
Speaker 1: we're doing. And if you've only recently found us, then
Speaker 1: this is a particularly good time to come along. You
Speaker 1: don't have to participate in everything. You can read an essay.
Speaker 1: You can listen to a podcast. You can join us
Speaker 1: for the Kierkegaard Study. You can come into the Fellowship.
Speaker 1: and take part in the conversation through whatever doorway most
Speaker 1: interests you. Or you can simply follow this question that
Speaker 1: we're asking, wherever it leads, and we're providing a number
Speaker 1: of pathways to do that. And so, this fall, we
Speaker 1: are exploring the psyche, and I hope that you'll explore
Speaker 1: it with us. Whether you want to become an active
Speaker 1: participant in these conversations, or you just want to follow
Speaker 1: along with what we're doing for free, then in either case,
Speaker 1: head over to mythicmindfellowship.com. and join the fellowship today. And
Speaker 1: I look forward to seeing you on the inside as
Speaker 1: we explore the psyche together.