You’ve likely heard of the “Hero’s Journey.” Joseph Campbell, in his book, “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” recognized this pattern, which is nearly ubiquitous in myths, movies, stories, fairy tales, games, tarot, and all sorts of things. Carl Jung’s process of individuation is eerily similar to the hero’s journey. Joseph Campbell published this book in the 1940’s. It re-invigorated world mythology and gave structure to an ideal story arc that remains a foundation for understanding this structure today.
Star Wars, The Matrix, Avatar, Titanic, and just about every great story and myth follows this pattern. The reason it resonates so strongly with us is because it reflects an important shift in our own life’s journey, a key piece of each of our stories. It’s something we all yearn to embark on and complete if we haven’t already.
This mythic structure highlights the elements of the experiential part of our self-discovery as human beings, and it can be reflected in the psychedelic journey. After going through this journey and bringing what we find further into the world, we live into the best possible version of our lives. This is how we operate from different values, perspectives and aligned with our true nature, which if we move from will change the people and culture we interact with.
Outline Of the Hero's Journey
The Hero’s Journey typically involves around twelve stages and moves through three distinct overarching acts: The normal world, the special world (where the journey takes place), and the return. This reflects the three stages to the psilocybin journey: The preparation, medicine, and integration portions.
This will get into specifics of the stages. While every story uses every step of the hero’s journey, and will at times switch some minor order of the pieces. But the general framework of the elements can be seen repeatedly through a variety of stories of transformation.
Act 1: The Ordinary World
We first find the hero in the ordinary world, or the world they know. It’s steeped in the way of life grew up in and have come to know. They understand it, and can engage with it to a certain extent. But they know there is more to the world, and themselves, than the way they see it.
There is also a certain amount of turmoil in the (soon-to-be) hero’s everyday life. They have problems that seem to be more than they can deal with, given where they are at. These issues can be encapsulated by one person or situation, and it’s tied to the larger structure or world in which they are immersed.
In real life, this can seem like an endless current of recurring issues. And these problems are moving our hero towards a breaking point.
Call To Action
The unlikely hero starts in a particular place in their life. Then, there is some type of call to action. Think Neo in his office getting the phone call, Luke on the farm when R2D2 shows him the message from Leah, or you finding this weird website. While they don’t typically know it, their whole world is about to be turned upside-down.
Refusal of the Call
The hero is usually unwilling or unable to go on the journey at first. Luke is worried about leaving during harvest. Neo got scared, dropped the phone off the building, and turned himself in to Agent Smith. More, he couldn’t find a way out of the matrix.
But things typically escalate to a point where they do commit to the adventure. Jake Sully in Avatar was chased by that black panther-type animal, forcing him to leave his team and spend the night in the Pandoran Jungle. He wouldn’t have made that choice on his own.
It’s not always our choice when we get called to move forward in our lives, but it’s up to each of us to step into it. Today, a lot of people are stuck at the start of their journey to self. The call isn’t always obvious, especially in this modern world where cultually we aren’t teaching each other ways to enter into it.
Maybe you are at a point where you know there’s more to what you see. Maybe your path has been thwarted. But you need help moving worward. This is when the hero meets the mentor, or guide.
Meeting The Mentor
The Mentor is a huge piece of the journey. Luke Skywalker met Obi-Wan Kenobi, who saved him from the sand people and eventually took him off of the planet. In “The Matrix”, Neo’s mentor was Morpheus. He gave neo the choice between the pills, and the training to do all that he could in the matrix world.
The mentor guides the hero across the threshold of the journey and as far as they can take them. They also give the hero tools that prove necessary for their quest. Without the intervention of the Mentor, the hero wouldn’t know how to venture beyond what they already know. That’s why Evolve Wild was created.