Mythogem # 5 - Fate, Destiny, Free-Will, Predestination, & Time-travel

Image courtesy of http://www.salikon.dk/loom_behind_fate.html.

I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive. ― Joseph Campbell

We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, never to be undone. ― William James

Dreams are like stars . . . you may never touch them, but if you follow them they will lead you to your destiny. ― Unknown

How we experience the world depends on what we believe our roles are.

Do purpose and meaning exist outside of us, somewhere out there, or are they dependent on us; are we the sole creators or are we subject to a Creator? This is the biggest question that humanity has wrestled with from time in memoriam, but I will not propose an answer here because, like Campbell, I believe that you are already the answer you yourself need: “Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question [i.e., if life has a meaning] when you are the answer.”

In the debate of “the-question-of-existence” we have the matters of Fate and Destiny, Free Will and Predestination, so which do you believe governs life?

Do we weave our own fate or has it already been orchestrated? Can one change one’s fate and, therefore, alter destiny? In life, what do we really have power and control over? Are we able to choose our own adventure, or has our adventure been reserved or preordained? Or is there truth in the paradox: we were predestined to have free will? And does true love result in finding our soulmate? What power is there in choice? These are the essential questions of any literary work as much as they are the threads of our everyday life.

What do you believe your role is?

And if personality is consistent and unchanging, is your own personality-type a result of fate; why or why not?

Another important aspect of these concepts is their relationship to Time. We are all time-travelers. But some of us choose to live in different realms of Time. For instance, are you a past time-traveler; do you spend most of your time dwelling on/in the past? Are you a present time-traveler; do you live for the moment? Or are you a future time-traveler; do you spend most of your time looking into the future, living for tomorrow? How does your view of Time relate to your beliefs about Fate and Destiny, Free Will and Predestination?

Mythogem # 4 - Finding Yourself Using Self-Guides

Image courtesy of http://www.wallcg.com/fantasy-angel-girl-desktop-33494-127581/.

Humankind may explore every aspect of our world and then go on to occupy the far reaches of space; but even in those moments we will still not have begun to comprehend the true depths and complexity of the human psyche because the exploration to know what it is to be is closer to infinity than these. We must travel inward to find ourselves.

The eternal question is: “Who am I?”

. . .

For this exercise we will be borrowing the terminology and concepts of self-discrepancy theory as devised by psychologist E. Tory Higgins. And though there are various ways to apply this theory, for all intents and purposes here, we will be concerned with the most basic, that is, defining the actual, ought, ideal, and feared selves.

Higgins advocates that in defining the psychological self, there are multiple self reflections which influence our concept of self:

There are three basic domains of the self: (a) the actual self, which is your representation of the attributes that someone (yourself or another) believes you actually possess; (b) the ideal self, which is your representation of the attributes that someone (yourself or another) would like you, ideally, to possess (i.e., a representation of someone’s hopes, aspirations, or wishes for you); and (c) the ought self, which is your representation of the attributes that someone (yourself or another) believes you should or ought to possess (i.e., a representation of someone’s sense of your duty, obligations, or responsibilities). . . . A classic literary example of the difference between the ideal self and the ought self is the conflict between a hero’s “personal wishes” and his or her “sense of duty.” (320-321)

To understand each interaction Higgins goes on to describe the self and its relation to point-of-view:

There are two basic standpoints on the self, where a standpoint on the self is defined as a point of view from which you can be judged that reflects a set of attitudes or values (see Turner, 1956): (a) your own personal standpoint, and (b) the standpoint of some significant other (e.g., mother, father, sibling, spouse, closest friend). (321)

When considering the two standpoints and the three domains, he draws the following conclusion:

Combining each of the domains of the self with each of the standpoints on the self yields six basic types of self-state representations: actual/own, actual/other, ideal/own, ideal/other, ought/own, and ought/other. The first two self-state representations (particularly actual/own) constitute what is typically meant by a person’s self-concept (see Wylie, 1979). The four remaining self-state representations are self-directive standards or acquired guides for being—in brief, self-guides. (321)

Therefore, throughout this exercise, you will be concerned with defining your self-concept and self-guides.

Using both the Self-Discrepancies Assessment Worksheet and the Self-Concept Words Handout fill in each column with what you consider to be the 10 most important adjectives which best describe those domains.

>>www.goodmedicine.org.uk/files/assessment,%20self-discrepancies.DOC

>>http://www.kisd.org/khs/english/help%20page/Descriptive%20Words.htm

Furthermore, in additional scholarship, “Self-Discrepancies and Affect: Incorporating the Role of Feared Selves” by Carver, Lawrence, and Scheier, there is the added interaction of the feared self, the complete opposite of the ideal self. So, on the handout, draw a diagonal line through the ideal self column and add-in the feared self.

Next, define your self-concept (actual/own) and self-guides (ideal/own, ideal/other, ought/own, and ought/other). As the theory attests, there will eventually be discrepancies between each relationship. However, the overall goal here is to understand how to conceptualize these aspects of your own self. In doing so, they will allow you to see yourself in terms of where you’re at, in terms of what the world expects of you, and in terms of what you hope or aspire to be, as well as what you fear becoming.

Source(s):

Higgins, E. Tory. “Self-discrepancy: A Theory Relating Self And Affect.” Psychological Review 94.3 (1987): 319-340. Print.

Mythogem # 3 - Metaphors That We Live By: How Metaphors Shape the Way We See the World

[M]ythology is a compendium of metaphors. — Joseph Campbell

The following prompt is based on cognitive linguists, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s thesis from their monumental work Metaphors We Live By: “If we are right in suggesting that our conceptual system is largely metaphorical, then the way we think, what we experience, and what we do every day is very much a matter of metaphor” (124). Therefore, if our thoughts, experiences, and actions are rooted in metaphor, then what do those metaphors of thought, experience, and action look like?

More specifically, what are the metaphors that each of us live by day-to-day?

It is important to be self-aware of such metaphors because they dictate everything about our social existence.

By researching your own personal, conceptual metaphors you will begin to see how both culture and personality shape the way we perceive reality.

So let’s begin with a definition of metaphor: “The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (125, emphasis in original). This is the most applicable definition describing the function of metaphor, because metaphor transforms how we comprehend one thing using the terminology and experience of another.

All linguistic concepts (for it is hard to conceive of a concept outside of language) are structured through conceptual metaphors. Some of Lakoff and Johnson’s most popular examples include: ARGUMENT IS WAR, THEORIES ARE BUILDINGS, IDEAS ARE COMMODITIES, KNOWING IS SEEING, and LOVE IS MAGIC.

To further explore this idea let’s use the conceptual metaphor GOD IS LOVE. This is probably the most important conceptual metaphor within the realm of the Christian religion today: “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8); “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:16b). What this is saying in terms of the conceptual metaphor is that we can better understand God through the terminology and experience of love. Many apologists will advise one not to misinterpret these verses as saying that wherever there is love there is God and therefore the worship of love leads to the worship of God, or even that in some new age way God is literally love or that Love is literally god. But this type of thinking also misses the point of the metaphor; the metaphor defies logic because the metaphor is arguing that God is not literally love but that God can be better understood if we figuratively think about God through the language of love. The GOD IS . . . metaphor is a powerful metaphor that characterizes the entirety of a religion: its thoughts, experiences, and actions. Even on a personal level we mustn’t forget to ask ourselves, “What is our metaphor for God?”

GOD IS                     .

And though metaphors are embedded within a culture’s linguistic heritage, we also have the ability to create new ways of seeing: “New metaphors have the power to create a new reality” (131). Mythologist Joseph Campbell also expressed that, “If you want to change the world, you have to change the metaphor.” So like Shakespeare, who changed the world into a stage, we have the power to re-conceptualize our world through metaphor. What is your metaphor for the world?

THE WORLD IS                     .

Because cultural metaphors are socially constructed, they highlight “certain realities and [hide] others” (132). What this means is, take for instance any of the aforementioned examples, metaphors may help us see and experience one thing in terms of another, yet blind us to other ways of seeing, such as with the ARGUMENT IS WAR example; it hides looking at argument as anything beyond the concept of war. But what if—as Lakoff and Johnson suggest—we look at argument in terms of dance, or, as I would suggest, a journey, or conversation. Conceptually, dancing, journeying, and conversing bring out realities which lay hidden behind the war metaphor. Dance would suggest that argumentation is not a competition but a complimentary process of movement (action) as well as a co-created artistic expression; a journey would suggest that argument is not rivalry but understanding the experience of life through empathetic exchange; a conversation would suggest that those who argue are neither winners nor losers but are participating in a dialogue where each speaker gains valuable information from the transaction. Looking at argument as war hides the realities that argument can also be about co-creation, empathy, and sharing information/knowledge.

“[T]ruth is always relative to a conceptual system that is defined in large part by metaphor” (134); change the metaphor and you change the way we see truth: “Metaphor is one of our most important tools for trying to comprehend partially what cannot be comprehended totally: our feelings, aesthetic experiences, moral practices and spiritual awareness” (134). Metaphor reminds us of the limits of our experience but also helps us to transcend the limitations of our experience. Metaphor is the ultimate aspect of What-If Framing.

Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about.

— Benjamin Lee Whorf, American linguist noted for his hypotheses regarding the relation of language to thinking and cognition and for his studies of Hebrew and Hebrew ideas, 1897- 1941

• What is your analogy, metaphor, or simile for “life,” “love,” “music,” “communication,” “reading,” and “writing” (remember that personal mythology is just as much about looking without to look within as it is looking within to look without)?
• What, then, does this reveal about how you see yourself?
• Where might your analogy, metaphor, or simile start to break down? And why is this contrast important?
• How do you see your major/career in terms of an analogy, metaphor, or simile?
• What is the significance of framing it this way?

Metaphor Analysis Mini-Project: As a separate exercise, consider the lyrics to your favorite song: What analogies, metaphors (explicit and implicit), and similes do they use? Why? And, most importantly, how does the analogy, metaphor, or simile create an argument? If you can’t decide on a song, follow the link to get started: http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/juno/alliwantisyou.htm.

*All biblical quotes are from the ESV translation.

*All italicized keywords and verb phrases are representative of implicit metaphors.

Source(s):

Lakoff, George & Mark Johnson. 1980. “Metaphors We Live By.” Language, Thought, and Culture, U of P Chicago. pp. 124-134. Print.