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"Personally," stated Melanie Teasdale, "there are quite a few aspects of Campbell's excursion into the realm of the hero myth which I find problematic. First of all, I think a lot of the analysis involves 20-20 hindsight.

"For example, I don't really understand how the hero should know before-the-fact of the journey that it is going to be hazardous or difficult. For all we know, the guy has wanderlust or is bored and, therefore, is looking for some kind of excitement or stimulation.

"In many, if not most, ways, the hero has no real conception of what he is going to encounter or find. As a result, at this point in the story, I have difficulty in understanding how to construe this as being the stuff of heroism.

"Secondly, since the so-called hero doesn't know what lies in store for him, he hardly can be said to be undertaking the journey for the benefit of the rest of humanity. If anything, the quality of heroism only arises after the individual is confronted by the desire to stay in the new world, and, consequently, he has to struggle to overcome this inclination in order to return to the normal world and share his wisdom with the rest of his fellow human beings.

"Moreover, once the individual returns to the everyday, normal world, he, supposedly, realizes the principle of Divinity is active in the normal world. Therefore, in reality, the individual has lost nothing by returning to the normal world since he brings the new world with him in the form of his enlightened condition.

"This raises several other problems for me. If the individual truly had become enlightened in the new world to which he had journeyed, then why didn't he understand that nothing would be lost by returning to the normal, everyday world from which he originally had set out?

"Just as importantly, one wonders what 'desire', in the form of wanting to stay in the new world, is doing in a supposedly egoless individual. If the individual is detached from everything, would this not include desire in all its hydra-headed modes of being?

"Similarly, why would a, now, egoless individual, who allegedly had set out, originally, with the heroic intention of benefitting humanity, wish to avoid the responsibilities and obligations inherent in the normal world? If anything, one might suppose the egoless individual is in a better position to carry out those duties without having to try to do so through the problematic qualities of selfishness, egotism, greed, and other debilitating manifestations of a personal ego.

"Furthermore, until one reaches the fourth volume of his The Masks of God series - namely, Creative Mythology - Campbell is consistently a critic of western individualism and an advocate of the egoless communalism he believes is being proposed by eastern traditions. Yet, when considered from Campbell's perspective, the qualities of a true individual have carried the day.

"Someone who already is enlightened does not go on a journey seeking some missing aspect of oneself. This is so because this kind of individual realizes, as part of the wisdom of the condition of enlightenment, that there really is no other truth or missing element to discover since the enlightened state is described as being complete unto itself.

"Moreover, one might suppose that someone who is egoless might not have to struggle with human weakness, ignorance, fear and desire. One assumes this battle already would have been won during the journey to an egoless condition and constitutes one of many benefits that ensues from enlightenment.

"Presumably, the egoless being has no sense of sacrificing anything since what is most precious is carried within this individual. This would be true, even if, in contrast to Campbell's hero, the normal world to which such a being returned was devoid of the principle of Divinity.

"Ignorance, desire, and delusions are all qualities of the individual prior to enlightenment. However, so are the qualities of courage, struggle, and self-sacrifice that are necessary equipment for the difficult journey to egolessness.

"A person may start out with little or no understanding of the meaning, significance, value or possibilities inherent in the journey inward, and, as a result, one cannot really call this kind of journey heroic. The nobility and integrity of heroism only begin to surface when the individual starts to encounter danger and difficulty on the journey and does not turn back, and when, in spite of such danger and difficulty, the individual sees, however dimly, the potential - but, by no means, assured - benefit for oneself and all of humanity that is possible if one is prepared to struggle on and sacrifice oneself during a journey of hardships and hazards.

"Furthermore, I believe the enlightened person knows that people, in general, probably will not be inclined to undertake the journey to realized selfhood after the hero has returned from successful completion of the quest, anymore than they were likely to undertake such a quest prior to his journey. The enlightened individual also realizes, I feel, that each individual has to decide, for himself or herself, whether to respond to the symbols of the myth or the entreaties of the returned hero and step into the unknown in order to undertake the trip.

"If anything, one might assume that since the hero knows the normal condition of human beings, he returns to the everyday world in order to serve as, among other things, a beacon of compassion, justice, love, and service - not only for all of humanity, but for all of being, whether animate or not. If people will not, or cannot, undertake the journey to self-realization, then the enlightened individual owes a duty of care to them as a result of, among other things, the hero's recognition of the gratitude he feels for having had enlightenment bestowed on his being.

"Nevertheless, while attending to the needs of humanity and creation, the enlightened person still could search for those individuals who might be induced to undertake the journey of discovery. If, and when, such individuals are located, the enlightened individual would attempt to encourage, assist and support that undertaking in whatever way is possible.

"Campbell maintains the meaning of the hero myth is about the process of reclaiming or rediscovering the realm of the unconscious. Yet, in line with our previous discussion of Jung, I'm disinclined to believe that a recovery of the unconscious is the actual goal of the hero's project of rediscovery.

"The individual may find enlightenment, the self, identity and the true nature of the world after completing the journey of realization, but these are not found in something called the unconscious. The journey can be nowhere but from Divinity, to Divinity, with the only difference being that at the end of the journey one understands this, whereas at the beginning of the journey one did not possess this insight.

"I feel people such as Campbell and Jung use the term: 'the unconscious', as a conceptual place holder for purposes of having something to which they can make reference when talking about the journey to selfhood - in whatever way this journey may be conceived. In reality, however, I don't feel they knew what they were referring to by this term since it actually gave expression to everything about which they were ignorant, and, with respect to which, their efforts all were directed toward trying to probe, to some degree, into the inner nature of this mystery."

Picking up where Melanie had left off, Colby Shaw began to speak. "When Campbell visited India in 1954, he was completely revolted by, and disgusted with, what he observed there. In addition to the oppressiveness of the omnipresent poverty and caste system in India, Campbell was horrified by what he considered to be that society's lack of respect for the individual.

"Apparently, Campbell had been so ensconced in the rarefied and idealized world of books, he didn't seem to have much awareness of what was going on around him in the everyday world. Why he should have been shocked by what he found in India is itself somewhat startling given that the history of the world almost everywhere, and pretty much most of the time, is replete with deep rooted poverty, oppression, of one sort or another, and, as well, a rampant disregard for the individual.

"This was so even in the America of the mid-1950s. Campbell, seemingly, hadn't bothered to take a look at what was going on around him in those days in relation to native peoples, blacks, women and other groups of impoverished and/or disenfranchised people living in America.

"Whatever Campbell may have written in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, as far as I am concerned, his response to the plight of people in India hardly seemed to be that of an enlightened person who understood the Divine principle was present in the material/physical world and operating in accordance with its own essential reality, not the expectations of Joseph Campbell. The enlightened person would have understood the poverty, oppression and disregard for the individual to be the inevitable result of the activities and understanding of people who were still very much attached to their personal egos.

"Rather than permit those conditions to revolt and disgust him, he should have seen them as evidence in support of everything to which he was making reference in his books concerning the difference between realized and unrealized human beings and why there was a desperate need for the hero's quest. Rather than running away horrified and disgusted, he should have exercised some compassion and tried to bring about changes, however small, in such conditions.

"Unlike Jung, who was prepared to risk himself by venturing forth emotionally and psychologically into what were, for him, unchartered territories, Campbell, never actually took the journey into the unknown and met, face to face, the tremendous forces that are present in the unknown. He was a brilliant scholar, but I have my doubts as to whether he ever bothered, except in a broad conceptual manner, to follow in the footsteps of the hero about whom he spoke in such glowing and admiring terms in many of his books.

"Jung's works have the ring of an authentic explorer who, on the basis of personal experience, is trying to map out the new frontier. The fact he may have misunderstood some of what he saw, or encountered, doesn't detract from the boldness, courageousness, and even, at times, the remarkable insight of his efforts.

"Campbell's works, on the other hand, seem more like so many travel-logs in which the author is writing about places that are the subject of stories spun by other people who may have visited such locations but to which the author has never really traveled. The descriptions in these travel-logs may or may not be correct, depending on the accuracy of the original accounts on which they are based, but they are purely second hand and, therefore, not rooted in direct experience.

"Reflecting on such stories, exotic places and travelers, can never be used as a substitute for the actual experiences that are derived from an authentic journey. Yet, in essence, Campbell seems to be trying to argue that thinking about doing these things is the same as having done them.

"I think many people are attracted to Campbell's teachings because he appears to be offering something that we all desire. We want a way to become enlightened and realized that is purely conceptual and which can be accomplished without much struggle or any real sacrifice on our parts.

"We want to be transformed, but we also are afraid of changing. We become intimidated by, and are afraid of, anything that promises real, essential change in our lives.

"We claim to long for egolessness. Yet, at the same time, we desperately are hoping we can bring along our ego and that we won't be asked to check it at the threshold to enlightenment."

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