Religion is to God as comic books / sci-fi are to science

The comic book / sci-fi genre is a very valuable and informative thing. It's a mythos. It has a place in people's lives. It inspires. It draws on the science-of-the-day, it evolves as culture evolves, and it is divinely inspired. Yes, you heard right. INSPIRED. BY. DIVINITY. Through the paranormal experiences of many key artists and writers.

Just as, in the past, religion was inpsired by the paranormal experiences of key prophets and mystics.

The superpowers portrayed in comic books are often somewhat accurate exaggerations. Take Charles Xavier for example. His character is an exaggeration of psi. Psi is real. But it's not quite like X-Men.

The skeletal structure and patterns of the comic book / superhero mythos matches the skeletal structure of religion from a comparative perspective. The structure is that of the monomyth. It's the same structure that can be found in movies such as Star Wars. The monomyth is the brilliant formulaic structure that the late great Joseph Campbell gave to Hollywood in The Hero with A Thousand Faces. It was George Lucas who turned Hollywood onto Campbell big time, and ever since people have been noting the esoteric themes and symbolism in Hollywood and chalking it up to conspiracy. No it's mostly just the monomyth formula.

Lucas had already written two drafts of Star Wars when he rediscovered Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces in 1975 (having read it years before in college). This blueprint for "The Hero's Journey" gave Lucas the focus he needed to draw his sprawling imaginary universe into a single story.

www.moongadget.com...

There is a kernel of truth behind the comic book and sci-fi genre, and it lies in the paranormal experiences of many of the artists who were at the right place right time. The superheroes of comic books are the exaggerated mystics of ages past.

Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal

This is a great book and I highly recommend it. Anyone read it?

Does anyone have any comments about any of this?

Maybe I should have waited until after the solstice to post this thread? There are no responces! Maybe people are too distracted by their fear and by their loathing of each other? Or maybe people are too used to thinking about religion and comic books in conditioned ways and can't think outside the box long enough to give meaningful comments and questions?

/shrug

Originally posted by wildtimes
I'm willing to discuss if you still want to.

I think I'll wait and see if any other conversation partners come along. If they don't, that's cool. I won't lose any sleep over it.

What about essential information that is encoded into myth as an aide to memory – for example, our hunter gatherer ancestors might have bundled information about the solar year into a story about hero who has an adventure then is killed and then reborn.

Stories would be a good way to store such info

Like this
artofmanliness.com...

how to memorise a deck of cards