Everyone is a hero, and there are many paths for a hero to take. The current circumstances and how we react to them set the path we end up on. All major religions have talked about the various paths in life. With Christians, you can take the heavenly paths or hellish ones. There are often ten paths in Buddhism, the highest being Buddhahood. Hinduism has a multitude of paths, even the paths of other religions. Islam has many spiritual paths.
Religious myths, with their profound narratives, serve as a guide to the paths one can take in life. They warn us about the pitfalls and inspire us to make better choices. These stories have the power to resonate deeply and influence human behavior. When the changes they inspire are positive, the myth’s impact is profound; when they are for control, the myth’s influence tends to sour over time.
Before people wrote down the myths, they told them to one another. Through the centuries, myths have been prescribed by shamans, priests, and other holy people to convey truth. The truth has always been and is constantly being compromised by those on the lower paths, including the false priests, shamans, and holy people. The truth is always clear with those taking a higher path. In this context, a ‘higher path’ refers to a path that leads to personal growth, self-improvement, and spiritual enlightenment. In comparison, a ‘lower path’ leads to stagnation, negative influences, and a lack of personal development.
The power to change lies within you when you find yourself on the wrong path. You can choose a different path by embodying the qualities of your desired path. If you want to escape hell, think and act like a being of light. If you aspire to enlightenment, emulate the thoughts and actions of a Buddha.
At any given moment, your path can be transformed entirely by your will. Throughout history, tools have been developed to help us find higher paths. Engaging in yoga, tai chi, exercise, meditation, therapy, support groups, and connecting with nature can guide us onto a higher path. However, we often struggle to find the will to use these tools and may even justify or argue for paths we know are not right.
Habits form, and obsessions build around the habits. Other low-path-moving people obsess about our obsessions and falsify solutions to delude us into plots of their own selfish needs. Higher path-moving people show us a way out and provide us with health, which we can feel in our spirit motivated by positive directions. Higher path-moving people are sometimes lower path-moving people, and the path you are on is not what defines you. The best chance to ease our journey to higher paths is to help our collective consciousness move on a higher path so that the network around us holds us up.
The more we collectively bargain our energy on higher path energy, the more motivated we become to pursue higher paths. Collective consciousness is just as whole as we are separate. Buddha said there is a universe inside and outside of us and infinite other universes, and we are all one. Quantum physics theorizes the existence of multiple dimensions entangled with one another.
Joseph Campbell argued that moving to the higher collective path is the work of a hero driven by visions. Other paths exist to give us a different route; all we need to do is acknowledge and take the other path. Moving from the path we are on requires a better understanding of ourselves and the correct directions to move. To understand ourselves and how to guide ourselves, we often need the guidance of others.
Carol S. Pearson built on Joseph Campbell’s work and the work of psychiatrist Carl Jung to develop the six archetypes in her book The Hero Within in the late 80’s. She has since developed the work into 12 archetypes with the help of Hugh Marr. The archetypes describe an individual’s personality traits, but they are not set-in-stone traits. A person can be multiple archetypes and move between the types based on circumstances in life. The archetypes are the traits of a person on a particular path, and it is when they realize their potential for another path and take it that they become more awakened and able to live their hero life. By optimizing the self for the preferred archetype, we work into what Campbell would describe as our blissful self.
The archetypes and other proven personality assessments can help you understand your path and the steps needed to move to another. This motivated us to build The Hero’s Path retreat from September 5th to the 9th in the Adirondack Park on 130 acres of wilderness on the Chateauguay River. This retreat will include the Pearson-Marr Archetype Indicator assessment (assessed by an approved facilitator), practices in yoga, tai chi, a healthy diet, meditation, and Buddhist chant will all be provided. We will connect to nature by sleeping in canvas tents, removing ourselves from our devices, and eating a wholesome, organic, locally raised, plant-based GF diet made with love by chefs who have worked in restaurants that changed our perceptions about vegan diets.
If you can attend our retreat, you will have an opportunity to immerse yourself in a very unique property with rich natural diversity and amazing professional landscaping. We will stay in sizeable, comfortable canvas glamping tents that breathe the natural air and surrounding wilderness at a time when the weather is almost always its best. While we relax at this fantastic property, we will learn from influential people how they navigated their paths. Regardless of your joining, if you want to level up your path, I recommend reading a copy of The Hero Within by Carol S. Pearson, PH.D., and try some of those tools or find ones more suited to you, maybe kung fu instead of tai chi.
If you are an interested vision seeker, click here to register for The Hero’s Path.