The natural spirituality and myths that follow

Spirituality is definitely a valid way to find inspiration. Some of the best stories in human history are profoundly mythical. Today it is hard to separate reality from imagination, psychological need from social necessity. What can we learn from our myths, if anything? You are welcome to read more here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Is there a truth behind the myth?

For millennia people used to believe in stories. Then for hundreds of years, scientists claimed most of these stories to be false. Eventually, archeologists found some explanations for some stories. There are stories which are obviously imagined, and artifacts which are real but cannot be explained. Everything else is somewhere in the middle.

Let us consider the major religions. We know quite well the recent religious history, for example, the life of Muhhamad. Regarding Buddha, Jesus, and Moses we know there is some historical truth behind some of the stories but do not have reliable references. Anything more ancient than Moses appears to be a myth.

We understand only partially how Egyptians built their pyramids, and some of the findings (like Antikythera mechanism) disrupt everything we know about the ancients.

Is history itself just a myth?

Many historical events are described by a single source. Is that source trustworthy? We might be falling for some ancient propaganda. Historians trust Josephus Flavius mainly because his mighty critical mind can be followed through the pages of his books, yet we know that his moral compass was not very strong. Can we trust him?

Can we trust the historians? They are very good at translating old books and finding artifacts, but they want to build consistent compelling stories. Are those stories too good to be true? Probably the reality was very complex. The vast majority of artifacts and books are still missing. Giant buddhas in Afganistan were removed in 21st century. 100 years from now it will be hard to believe they were there. What artifacts were lost?

There were huge empires we know very little about, and what we know usually comes from their enemies (like Chinese records of wars with barbarians).  Some of these empires were almost as big as Canada in terms of area and regional influence. We see only some part of their story, some pottery, and a few golden artifacts.

The truth is overrated

When we speak about history and myth, the truth might be overrated. We read and enjoy Greek authors because they capture some deep insights regarding human nature. Possibly this is the reason we think so highly about Freud.

Current psychology was founded by Freud’s students, yet Freud’s work should be considered fiction rather than science. Most of his books are anecdotal. The research tools for reliable psychological experimentation was not available in his time and most of his results are anecdotal and archetypal, which is another word for mythical.

Pavlov lived roughly at the same time as Freud, and is another father of modern psychology. His experiments were deeply scientific, and shocking unethical. Through his works, we see the basic dynamics of human behavior, which is great science. However, I fail to see motivating myths that capture minds and souls.

While Pavlov was more instrumental in building scientific tools, Freud built the human pull and the clinical approach. Most psychologists trace their ideals to Freud’s ideas to heal people, and not Pavlov’s surgical alterations of orphans and puppies. I think ethical human amity beats scientific truth at least in this case.

Hindsight justification

We often see the mythological figures as princes and wise thinkers, yet this is a hindsight justification. Probably many of them come from humble origins and made huge judgment errors. Simply the history was kind enough to remove these issues.

Some historical figures were larger than life. Genghis Khan was a shaman who founded a religion, a military genius, an extremely potent male, a wise person who united his people and more. His people worshipped him, they still do. We are descendants of cultures threatened by his existence. So we remember him as a menace that killed millions and destroyed several flourishing civilizations (for example Kwarasm, the birthplace of algebra and algorithms).

History is written in the hindsight. If anything this helps us to feel more empathy and interest towards those who wrote the stories, as well as a certain amount of curiosity.

Mythical founders

Was Pythagorean music as good as claimed? Did meditation practiced by early Buddhists remind the meditation we currently practice? Did Leonardo invent his machines or copied some lost manuscripts? We do not know.

We want to trace the things that we do best to mythological forefathers, and we want to be inspired by them. Nobody really wants to see the real people. Franklin is remembered as a genius who practiced self-help, tamed the lighting, and convinced the French to pay for the revolution. We do not want to know that Ben Franklin made up 200 terms for being wasted and his drunken stories caused a lot of embarrassment to the forefathers.

What do we want to learn from mythology?

The reason we love so much the mythology: it motivates us. If the heroes of our stories, be it myth or history, dealt with their challenges,  we can deal with ours.

A large part of myths and histories were written by drunk people or for drunk people as a form of entertainment. Our philosophy started this way… People who disillusioned others and looked for the truth behind the stories were simply not very popular.

So why is it so important to retain the details of the stories we read? Probably because this way it will be easier for us to tell those stories to our children and students.