Joseph Campbell changed my life.  Without reservation I can say he was the single-most important factor in who I am as a writer.  

When I started writing I was pretty good from a structural and technical aspect. I understood intuitively how to shape a story and how to create conflict and excitement in stories and scenes. Some of me thought it was because I was just well-read and well-educated (thank the Catholic Nuns for that.) What I didn’t realize is that I was actually channeling a lifetime, no, a universe of experience and what is known by Jungians as a “collective unconsciousness.” Campbell understood and detailed this concept in his many works and lectures.

Campbell was an American mythologist and philosopher whose first published work “The Hero With A Thousand Faces” instantly became required reading across college campuses for decades. As a young man, in the 1920's and 30's Campbell pursued his passions for myth and philosophy with single-minded determination by reading and traveling constantly. Although an amazing scholar Campbell was also a star athlete, husband, and jazz musician who lived life to the fullest. He blended the activities of his mind with a consistent level of physical activity in order to remain open to the cultural experiences that would shape his lifetime’s work.

It was during this time, while exposed to different cultures and places in the world - including a roadtrip across America - that Campbell began to formulate the thoughts for his scholarly and humanistic works through myth and myth structure. His hero book, the first expression of these thoughts, was instantly embraced by an unsettled world hungry for ideas that explained who we were becoming by understanding who we had been.

 Carl Jung was influential in Campbell’s work. The term “collective unconsciousness” was Jung’s. A lot of Jungian concepts find their way into Campbell’s dialogue and some that he puts forth in his many lectures and books seem rather “new Ageish” - a bit like “energy fields” and “sacred energies.” But what I heard those many years ago when I was exposed to these concepts was: tell a story like your distant forefathers did and you will own the world because you will tap into something that no one can explain.

 At its core, Campbell's thoughts expressed information about archetypal works that had direct resonance for all of us. “Mentor,” “Temptress,” “Hero,” “Villain,” “Shapeshifter.” these types of characters are found in tens of thousands of myths and tens of thousands of stories, fables and nursery rhymes. It was pretty obvious but Campbell was the person who first expressed it so completely and in such comprehensively academic terms.

If you think about it, we are really hardwired from birth to these stories - “Once upon a time...” is the beginning to many tales about heroic feats, consequences, and just about every life lesson you can imagine. These fundamental stories find their ways into film, novels, comic books, music, video games, etc. as we re-express them in our current cultural terms - but at the core, they are the same stories that have been told since mankind crawled out of the primordial oceans.

Is this truly a connection to a collective unconsciousness or just the fact that our common ancestors migrated across continents with similar tales that then evolved into specific cultural identity stories? American Indians have a “Jonah and the Whale” myth; Egypt has the biblical virgin birth story; all cultures have flood and creation myths. So does it really matter if you call it collective unconsciousness or common-shared experiences? The question of mankind's societal origin is writ large across many sociologists’ research but for writers it’s easy - just compose a story that utilizes those archetypes and you will be tapping into a place where our cultural and human heritages live; in other words, you be using the same techniques that Shakespeare and John Updike and Stephen King have used to create their work that has lasted decades and centuries and continues to resonate years beyond its creation.

I’ve read and taught Campbell’s lessons for years. His lectures are famous and can be found in many places including a series of brilliant conversations with journalist Bill Moyers called “The Power of Myth.” If you’re a writer, you can’t do yourself a greater favor than to familiarize yourself with this man’s work. It can be daunting - Campbell does not write or speak simply - but the rewards are worth the effort.

A perhaps more accessible version would be Christopher Vogler’s incredible book “The Writer’s Journey” which discusses both Campbellian myth concepts and the inner journey that every writer undertakes when he or she sets words to page. Vogler’s book has also been a favorite of mine for many years.

 March 26th was Campbell’s 100 birthday. Although he’s been gone from this world for decades (he died in 1987) his collected works live a robust life. Physically gone he may be, but his “collective unconsciousness” will live an eternity.

“Follow Your Bliss” and get to know this amazing man’s work.