Ken Wilber, Joseph Campbell, & The Meaning of Life (B&W): How Two Great Thinkers Collaborate to Give Us the Ultimate Hero's Journey of Personal Growth & Human Development (aka 'The Human Odyssey') - Softcover

Martin, Hugh; Martin, Amalia Kaye

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1500588202 ISBN 13: 9781500588205

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014

Synopsis

This book is the main text of the advanced, B&W-interior version of the authors’ landmark, two-volume study of Human Development, The Human Odyssey. (For most readers, the one-volume Introductory Version is the better place to start.) **FROM THE PREFACE****THE MEANING OF LIFE** What is the Meaning of Life? What makes life significant? What gives life purpose? Where are we headed -- and why? How can we live our life to its fullest potential? *YOUTH. If I am young, and starting out my adult life, what paths are available for me? What should I value most? What choices will make the best use of my talents, my interests, my ideals, my aspirations? *MIDDLE YEARS. If I am in my middle years, what have I accomplished thus far? What have I missed out on? What new joys do I hope to experience, while I still have time? How can I immerse myself in a life that is deeper, more meaningful, more rewarding?*MATURITY. If I am older, and approaching my later years, what have I achieved that is truly enduring? What good have I done? What legacy of wisdom, self-knowledge, or material comfort will I pass along to succeeding generations? How can I use the insights and perspectives of a lifetime to make these years the richest and most satisfying of all? ***In the course of our life, are we just plodding relentlessly toward our own demise? Or are we in fact progressing toward some higher, more ennobling goal? Are we, like Forrest Gump, just a feather floating through a vast field of purposeless change? Or are we, like Odysseus from Homer’s The Odyssey, on a great and significant Life Journey – a Journey from Infancy to Eternity, a Hero’s Journey?**KEN WILBER & JOSEPH CAMPBELL**Thanks to the work of two great men, we are now in a position to explore systematically the Meaning of Life from a developmental perspective. From philosopher and systems theorist KEN WILBER, we have learned that Life is all about Human Development. Through Wilber’s famous AQAL MODEL, and his more extended THEORY OF EVERYTHING, we have further learned that all the multitudinous strands of Human Development are in essence the same sequence. From scholar and mythologist JOSEPH CAMPBELL, we have learned that much of the greatest literature and myth describes the Soul’s journey through the vicissitudes of Life -- our HERO’S JOURNEY. Through Campbell’s HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES, and his more extended MASKS OF GOD, we have further learned that all the multitudinous Hero’s Journeys are in essence the same Story. **ADAPT & THE LIFE JOURNEY**When we spin out all the details and implications of Ken Wilber’s AQAL and Theory of Everything, we arrive at an all-inclusive Model of Human Development we call ADAPT – a model consisting of five major conceptual Domains, with seven or more Sectors within each Domain.When we spin out all the details and implications of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, we arrive at an all-inclusive mythic story we call the LIFE JOURNEY ARCHETYPE – a Story which is told likewise through five overarching symbolic Domains, with seven or more Sectors within each Domain. *** When we compare the extended versions of Wilber and Campbell – when we trace the parallels between our ADAPT Model and our mythic story of the Life Journey – we find that in essence the two are the same. The ADAPT Model describes in abstract or conceptual terms the various factors that result in Human Development. The Life Journey describes in symbolic or mythic terms those same factors. This Journey of the Soul through the Stages of life – this Journey which can be described either through conceptual or mythic terms – is what we call THE HUMAN ODYSSEY. **A WINDOW ON LIFE'S POSSIBILITIES** Using straightforward, easy-to-follow language and illustrations, this book will guide you step-by-step through the Human Odyssey. As you investigate each new concept, you will discover that the answers to many of Life’s most profound questions reside in your own interior...

About this title

From the Back Cover

LIFE IS TOUGH
(From comedian George Carlin:
How humans ought to develop)
Life is tough.
It takes up a lot of your time.
What do you get at the end of it?
A Death! What's that, a bonus?
I think the life cycle is all backwards.
You should die first, get it out of the way...
Then you live in an old age home.
You get kicked out when you're too young...
You get a gold watch.
You go to work.
You work forty years
Until you're young enough
To enjoy your retirement...
You do drugs, alcohol, you party,
You get ready for high school...
You go to grade school.
You become a kid, you play,
You have no responsibilities...
You become a little baby.
You go back into the womb.
You spend your last nine months floating...
And you finish it off with an orgasm!

***

THE GROWTH MENTALITY.
The world is made up of two kinds of people - the few who grow, and the many who don't. Those who grow are called Cultural Creatives -- or Seekers, or Self-Actualizers, or Translucents, or Enlightened Beings. Those who don't are called Droids, or Zombies, or Stepford Wives, or Couch Potatoes, or Flatlanders, or Meatheads (at least by the Creatives!). The Cultural Creatives seek various forms of Growth -- enlightenment, enlivenment, maturity, individuality, fulfillment, out-of-the-box thinking, the cutting edge, or realizing their human potential. The Droids generally seek stasis - in the form of comfort, security, stability, conformity, herd mentality, status quo, and fitting into the most convenient niche. The Creatives often see life as a journey or a quest. The Droids rarely contemplate life at all.
Cultural Creatives are often involved in radical politics (at both ends of the spectrum), environmental issues, the human potential movement, esoteric religion, the arts. They need not be in the vanguard. They need not be of a particular political or religious persuasion. But they are all involved in, committed to, and passionate about Personal Growth, radical self-expression, spiritual evolution, transformation of consciousness, and other forms of self-improvement and enlightenment. In brief, Cultural Creatives are people who adopt the Growth Mentality.

.

CREATIVES VERSUS DROIDS.
In the language of this book...

• Creatives spend much of their time in the Internal Realms of Psyche, Body, and Spirit.
• Droids are mostly limited to the external Realm of Everyday Life.
• Creatives frequently receive the Hero's Call to Adventure, and often heed the call.
• Droids rarely receive the Call, and seldom answer it.
• The Creatives often ride the cyclone to Oz. Their world is in Technicolor.
• The Droids are left back home in Kansas. Their world is black-and-white.
• Creatives are often out surfing the Growth Continuum.
• Droids are Stuck in Lodi Again.

***

SUBVERSIVELY SIGNIFICANT. DESERVES TO GO VIRAL.

Brilliant concept for the framework of your work, and delicious presentation. I'll be enjoying the tasty bits for a long time to come... I LOVE the 'I-Eye candy.' Which to me is beautiful, colorful, complex and interesting art. I knew I would buy your book the moment I saw the cover art...I truly appreciate the way you have taken the meat from both Wilbur and Campbell and really revealed the essence of the work, AND in a way that is so accessible to anyone. Can I say it is subversively significant?...Where have you been hiding? This book truly deserves to go viral. -- Carol R., Portland, OR

***

AN IMPRESSIVELY COMPILED, HANDS-ON TOOL FOR SELF DISCOVERY AND GROWTH.
"Hugh and Amalia Martin have taken what here-to-fore has been an interesting but rather academic exploration of human development and created a comprehensive, beautifully illustrated, (sometimes funny--sometimes transcendent), workbook for an individual to not only know, but to grow "thy self." The Human Odyssey is an impressively compiled, hands-on tool for self discovery and growth. It also provides a mechanism for counselors, therapists and teachers to help clients and students understand and independently expand their knowledge of and experience with, what it means to be human...
"The Martins' grounding in the academic and professional literature is obvious. Their succinct, jargon free statements come alive with wonderful, arresting illustrations ranging from comic strip to fine art. Not only do they engage both the right and left hemispheres of the brain, the workbook is designed to access the various learning styles different individuals employ. One of its finest features is a series of provocative questions at the end of each section--extremely well designed and if thoughtfully answered, illuminating...
"The Martin's integrative approach, beautifully frame life's Odyssey by combining Ken Wilber's analytical brilliance in tandem with Joseph's Campbell' insights from mythology and Jungian archetypical understanding. It is a comprehensive primer for understanding human development that will engage the reader in a most thoughtful exploration... a most engaging, fun, provocative and illuminating way to explore the complexities and meaning of one's life journey."
-- Sally Thomason, author of The Living Spirit of the Crone: Turning Aging Inside Out
***
BEYOND INSIGHTFUL... A LIFE COMPANION.
"...I sincerely appreciate that this in an interactive book about relationships....relationships with yourself, your significant other, your children, and humanity... "The Human Odyssey" demonstrates how within templates there are different ways to understand, take initiative and respond to life choices. This book meets you where you are in your desire to wrap yourself around the multitude of concepts presented. You can be exposed to many concepts by simply picking up the book for a light read. On the other hand, you can spend hours delving into a plethora of human development concepts... The layout reminds me of the "choose your own adventure" type books where the story threads unfold depending on which chapters you select to read. In this scenario, you can choose which topics you are interested in learning about by selecting what conceptual threads you want to choose, and then follow, for your personal intellectual and/or practical journey. Enjoy the flavorful illustrations and comics along the way! This book is beyond insightful. I congratulate Hugh Martin and Amalia Kaye Martin for creating a literary and intellectual work that improves quality of life by placing our lives into focus. "The Human Odyssey" is a life companion." -- Chris D. W.
***
WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE.

"What you have here is the bible of human growth and development. Mr. Martin's Human Odyssey is a systematic exploration of what it means to be human and beyond. Using as it's launching point analogous models of human growth from two pioneers in the field: Ken Wilber's AQAL and Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, Mr. Martin continues and surpasses the work of these men, creating an entirely new model of human development, ADAPT... If you've ever yearned to understand your life and choices at a heart and head level in the broader context of eternity, then this book is for you. Mr. Martin has gone where no man has gone before..." -- Samuel W., Actor, Social Activist. Washington, DC

From the Inside Flap

PROLOGUE: REPRIEVE FROM DEATH.

A book on the Meaning of Life? In our pragmatic and skeptical age, this seems like an absurd and pretentious notion. Yet, deep inside us, these are the questions we all ask: What is life all about? What gives life meaning and purpose? How should I live my life, and why?

In an attempt to address such questions, author Hugh Martin describes his own personal journey -- a Hero's Journey that leads ultimately to the book you are now reading:
"Why is life so precious to me? Why have I spent so many years pondering what it means to be alive? When you hear my answers to such questions, dear reader, you will understand how I came to write a book like The Human Odyssey. To begin my story, I'd like to take you back to my early years at Esalen Institute -- that fabled growth retreat on California's Big Sur coast...
.

The Magic of Esalen.

• "I first discovered Esalen in the Spring of 1965, just three years after its founding. At that point, I was in a chronic state of shock. I had recently been diagnosed with advanced-stage Hodgkin's Disease lymphatic cancer, and given just two years to live. To make the best of my last days on earth, I had dropped the intensive stress of graduate school, and traveled via Berkeley to California's rugged Big Sur coast in search of a new life. With my young wife (a 'Joan Baez with curves') and baby daughter, I settled into a little cabin in the redwoods, only accessible in mid-winter by an undulating suspension footbridge over a raging stream. From there, my family and I commuted to Esalen Institute, for volunteer work developing the grounds of the new growth center.
• "While at Esalen, we meshed with the Esalen community, and plunged into the Esalen experience - brutal hotseats with the infamous gestalt therapist Fritz Perls, soul-stripping encounter groups with the tough-but-caring Will Schutz, graceful Tai Chi ballets with Yoda-like Gia Fu Feng, exuberant dance, pounding drums, soothing sensory awareness by the hotspring mineral baths, mind-searing acid trips on windy ridge-tops, free sex, savage fist fights, and group hugs."

The Siren Call.
"One particular episode of my tumultuous Esalen experience stands out above all others -- what I call my 'Siren Call.' Here is how I remember it...

• "On a chilly, misty morning I approached the rickety little farmhouse on the bluff. The Esalen yard crew had just left for their day's chores, and the little building was deserted. From the eaves, god's-eyes twisted in the wind, and Tibetan prayer flags fluttered in the breeze. The tinkling of wind chimes welcomed me as I stepped cautiously across the creaky porch.
• Inside, a weathered oak dining table littered with the remains of breakfast - half eaten sausages, scraps of cinnamon roll, a syrupy plate. On the chair, a gauzy tie-dye shirt and one scuffed huarache. A tattered poster of Gentle Wilderness high country taped to the fridge, snapshots of a gaudy party with faces pressed toward the camera -- a faint, lingering smell in the air of damp leaves and fresh-smoked sinsemilla. Despite the clutter, the scene bathed me in warmth. I felt a glow of excitement, of anticipation, of mystery. Driven by who knows what urge, I sought to experience at least vicariously a lifestyle I'd been too timid or too inhibited to adopt.
• "By the wall, on an album cover next to the phonograph turntable, the pale, chiseled face of a cool, hard-edged young man stared out at me: Not challenging, just waiting for me to make my move. I placed the needle on the scratchy record, flipped the switch, and the turntable began to spin. From the speakers came the croon of a hollow, poignant, nasal voice - echoing as if from a far distance:

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

• "I listened and lingered, becoming more and more transfixed. As I immersed myself in the music, I was ravished, entranced, enchanted, enthralled. My eyes watered, and my lungs released in a burst of exhilaration. Chills ran up my spine and flowed out my fingertips. As I continued to listen, the sound gushed through my system, soaking the parched landscape of my soul, awakening buried longings, kindling my spirit. I felt a surge of aliveness, a chorus of hope, a great welling-up of the Everlasting Yes!
• "I didn't know it at the time, but that of all Esalen experiences was the pivotal moment that changed my life. For the first time, like Odysseus tied to the mast, I was hearing: The Siren Song of the Growth Continuum. Unknown to myself, I had decided to relinquish my fears and doubts -- to toss caution to the soft sea breeze, to follow the Tambourine Man deep inside me, to take the chances necessary in the quest for true happiness, to yield myself to change and growth when every fiber of my being yearned for it. In that short moment, my cancer began a grudging retreat. I had decided to live."

Blessings In The Shadow Of Death.
"My Esalen experience was just the culmination of a wrenching path of self-discovery that had begun about a year earlier. My shocking wake-up call came as a devastating physical and emotional collapse -- a breakdown that obliterated the safe, predictable world I had known. I call it the 'Great Fever.'

• The Great Fever.
• "When the Great Fever came, it came with a violent, torrential rush. A raging, searing, brain-frying, stormy blast that brought agonizing groans for relief. When the fever hit, I'd been recuperating from a grueling graduate school semester at the home of a dear aunt in tree-lined suburban Chicago. It wasn't a good place to get sick. My aunt was already distraught. My dear 97-year-old Grandpa - for all his life the mighty oak that sustained and supported the family - was crumbling and fading fast in the upstairs guest bedroom.
• "With Gramp dying upstairs, I began to die below. When I became sick, the only place for me was a little cot in my aunt's dank basement - amidst dusty boxes, chattering pipes, and an old ringer washing machine that throbbed in my ear. There I lay - tossing, and sweating, and moaning - with Susan (my first wife) trying to comfort me, while tending our one-year-old baby. With the fever raging at 105 for almost two weeks, and the dawning recognition that this was no ordinary flu, they finally checked me into St. Luke's Hospital for extensive tests.
• "When the results were in, Susan sat gravely by my bedside. It didn't look good. The lymph node biopsy had revealed cancerous tissues - virulent Hodgkin's Disease. Worse yet, the lymph nodes were engorged and corrupted throughout my whole body - indicating that the cancer had spread too far, and was incurable. I was given two years to live.
• The Reaction.
• "Once I got over the initial shock of my situation, and went into temporary remission, I began changing my plans. If I had only two years to live, I certainly wasn't going to spend them in the stacks of some musty library - and I certainly wasn't going to suffer through any more icy Midwest winters. Anxious, confused, and desperate, I groped my way toward a new path: With whatever moments I had left, with whatever strength and hope I could summon up, I would learn to drink deeply of the best life had to offer..." [continued]

Edition details

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1500588202
• ISBN 13: 9781500588205
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 372