The power of story
The “power of story” is a phrase that you hear more and more. Most of us know what it means superficially — that a good story can take you out of this world into its own time and space. That's why we love movies, books and TV.
And it's part of the story, but there's more.
At the beginning of Journey to Mythaca there's a quote by the poet Muriel Rukeyser, “The universe isn't made of atoms; it's made of stories.” Then an old man, the story-teller, begins the story. Later In the book, the boy, Ivan, loses patience with the old dragon Paracelsus's tales of the villain, Maya. He says, “Why should I believe you? Have you ever seen her? Everything you know is just stories!” to which Paracelsus replies mildly, “Stories? It's all stories, Ivan. Our lives are stories. We live stories.”
Paracelsus is talking about what Tom Atlee of the Co-Intelligence Institute calls ”story-reality,” the reality we understand when we realize that everyone and everything has a story, and those stories overlap and interact in countless ways, connecting us to each other through a network of beliefs. Story-reality is always with us. Most people don't pay much conscious attention to it; instead, we live it. Atlee talks about story-fields, the area of influence of stories that are believed by groups of people. The media is very aware of the idea of story-fields and makes good use of them. The different spheres of influence of the stories believed by fundamentalists of all creeds is an example of the power of a story-field. The people who believe the extremist stories believe them to the core of their souls and act on them in ways that swing the pendulum of our whole psycho-social system.
In Journey to Mythaca, the two children receive magical gifts. Ivan gets a sort of hat called the Perspectus that lets him see from the point of view of anyone or anything, and Marianna is given the Gift of Languages: when she learns to use it, she can understand what anyone or anything is saying. The key to living co-intelligently, in harmony with our surroundings, is to become sensitive to our own stories and the stories of others. When Ivan learns to see from the point of view of others, he solves the riddle that opens other worlds. When Marianna learns to understand the non-verbal language of everything around her, she truly becomes part of that other world.
The real trick is to recognize story-reality and to co-create it consciously. It's easy to get stuck in one of your own stories, a victim story, for example, or an “I'm right/you're wrong” story, and to live your whole life in that story, especially when everyone around you believes in the same story. Realizing that it's a story isn't easy, but once you step away from it enough to do that, you can start to change it. That's the basis of both cognitive and narrative therapy, and the reason that mythology is so central to depth psychology.
Once we recognize the stories we believe in, we can change our personal stories and, with a little cooperation, the planetary story. It isn't too late. All it takes is a Perspectus and a willingness to learn other languages.
And it's part of the story, but there's more.
At the beginning of Journey to Mythaca there's a quote by the poet Muriel Rukeyser, “The universe isn't made of atoms; it's made of stories.” Then an old man, the story-teller, begins the story. Later In the book, the boy, Ivan, loses patience with the old dragon Paracelsus's tales of the villain, Maya. He says, “Why should I believe you? Have you ever seen her? Everything you know is just stories!” to which Paracelsus replies mildly, “Stories? It's all stories, Ivan. Our lives are stories. We live stories.”
Paracelsus is talking about what Tom Atlee of the Co-Intelligence Institute calls ”story-reality,” the reality we understand when we realize that everyone and everything has a story, and those stories overlap and interact in countless ways, connecting us to each other through a network of beliefs. Story-reality is always with us. Most people don't pay much conscious attention to it; instead, we live it. Atlee talks about story-fields, the area of influence of stories that are believed by groups of people. The media is very aware of the idea of story-fields and makes good use of them. The different spheres of influence of the stories believed by fundamentalists of all creeds is an example of the power of a story-field. The people who believe the extremist stories believe them to the core of their souls and act on them in ways that swing the pendulum of our whole psycho-social system.
In Journey to Mythaca, the two children receive magical gifts. Ivan gets a sort of hat called the Perspectus that lets him see from the point of view of anyone or anything, and Marianna is given the Gift of Languages: when she learns to use it, she can understand what anyone or anything is saying. The key to living co-intelligently, in harmony with our surroundings, is to become sensitive to our own stories and the stories of others. When Ivan learns to see from the point of view of others, he solves the riddle that opens other worlds. When Marianna learns to understand the non-verbal language of everything around her, she truly becomes part of that other world.
The real trick is to recognize story-reality and to co-create it consciously. It's easy to get stuck in one of your own stories, a victim story, for example, or an “I'm right/you're wrong” story, and to live your whole life in that story, especially when everyone around you believes in the same story. Realizing that it's a story isn't easy, but once you step away from it enough to do that, you can start to change it. That's the basis of both cognitive and narrative therapy, and the reason that mythology is so central to depth psychology.
Once we recognize the stories we believe in, we can change our personal stories and, with a little cooperation, the planetary story. It isn't too late. All it takes is a Perspectus and a willingness to learn other languages.
posted by Eve at 10:33 AM
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