Radical NLP, Mythology, Spirituality, Leadership, and other Change Technologies » Mythology

#146 Embodied Mythology Series 15: The Holy Grail with Paul Rebillot, part 3

RCG — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 15:00:26 +0000

We are continuing our conversations with our teacher and friend Paul Rebillot on the topic of the Healing Theatre – the combination of acting and drama, mythology, gestalt therapy, and rituals. For more information about Paul and his work, please visit his website – Direct Impact Creativity.

In this episode, Paul continues the discussion about the myth of the Holy Grail.

The topics covered in this talk are:

Levels of Spiritual Quest
Which myth is right for me?
What is a myth?
Multiple cultures
- The American myths

#145 Embodied Mythology Series 14: The Holy Grail with Paul Rebillot, part 2

RCG — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:00:41 +0000

In this episode, Paul describes the structure based on the myth of the Holy Grail.

The topics covered in this talk are:

The Structure
"What’s troubling you, my uncle?"
- Instead of giving an answer, ask a question
- Instead of solving each other’s problems, listen and make it possible for them to solve it
- Giving power to the person, rather than power over them
Staying present
Accepting the Symbolic

#144 Embodied Mythology Series 13: The Holy Grail with Paul Rebillot, part 1

RCG — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:00:13 +0000

In this episode, Paul tells the essential parts of the myth of the Holy Grail.

The topics covered in this talk are:

The Holy Grail – Parsival and his Mother
King Arthur
The Grail Castle
The Great Knight
Healing of the Wound
The Sacred Feminine

#143 Embodied Mythology Series 12: Rituals of Transformation with Paul Rebillot, part 2

RCG — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 15:00:06 +0000

In this episode, Paul explains the structure and design of Rites of Passage, or the Rituals of Transformation.

The topics covered in this talk are:

How do you know it’s time for the rite of passage
- Putting "blood" (life) back into the ritual
Lack of rituals in the modern society
- There are no rituals for crossing age thresholds – people want to stay young and don’t appreciate their own age
Making rites of passages in everyday life

#142 Embodied Mythology Series 11: Rituals of Transformation with Paul Rebillot, part 1

RCG — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:00:43 +0000

In this episode, Paul explains the structure and design of Rites of Passage, or the Rituals of Transformation.

The topics covered in this talk are:

Rites of Passage – Example
- Ways of leaving the "nest"
- Suffering is being stuck at a passage
Structure for creating rites of passages
- Ritual is dying to the old and being born into the new
Boy becoming a man – one of the aboriginal rituals
- How did you find out that there is no Santa Clause?
Various rites of passages
How do we construct these rituals?

Saying good-bye to the past
Symbolic act of ending the past
Going into the no-man’s-land
Crossing into the other side, being who they are. Trying something new behavior in the new place.
Group gesture to complete the ritual

#141 Embodied Mythology Series 10: Personal Myths with Paul Rebillot, part 2

RCG — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 15:00:34 +0000

In this episode, Paul is describing his approach to designing new structures from Personal Myths.

The topics covered in this talk are:

Identifying with every character in your myth
Variety of Shadows
Moving between roles
A story from Hero’s Journey workshop
- Example – Baba Yaga story
Feedback about the structure
Common patterns in the structures

#140 Embodied Mythology Series 09: Personal Myths with Paul Rebillot, part 1

RCG — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 15:00:32 +0000

In this episode, Paul is describing his approach to designing new structures from Personal Myths.

The topics covered in this talk are:

Personal Myths
- How to create your own structure
Trip to Epidavros (Greece)
- The sacred path of healing
- Illness means being out of harmony
- Healing process:
  - Going to the temple, dream, meet the priest, get diagnosed
  - Take care of the body
  - Go to theatre – to experience catharsis, take care of the soul
  - Go to a temple and re-integrate the God inside themselves
The workshop structure
- The body is the temple of the soul. Fool’s dance – meditation on the myth in the body.
- Dramatizing the myth – playing the roles, with interaction
- An initiation
The Minotaur story
An initiation
- Brings it to here and now.
Create your own structure

#139 Embodied Mythology Series 08: Death & Resurrection with Paul Rebillot, part 2

RCG — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 15:00:29 +0000

In this episode, Paul is describing the structure called Death & Resurrection.

The topics covered in this talk are:

The Awakening
- Bathing with perfumed water, to awaken the senses
- Sensorium – different kinds of smells, senses, getting loose
What actually dies is a role
- "Growth stops when we avoid pain" (Fritz Perls)
- Create your ideal parent to heal the part of you that was retarded (not developed)
Reparenting process
- Story about a school teacher of problem kids
- Reincarnation Game
What happens to people after the workshop
A Sci-Fi Story

#138 Embodied Mythology Series 08: Death & Resurrection with Paul Rebillot, part 1

RCG — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 15:00:42 +0000

In this episode, Paul is describing the structure called Death & Resurrection.

The topics covered in this talk are:

What does Death & Resurrection mean?
- A catapillar turns into a butterfly
- Christ
- Feeling of body falling apart to come back together again (martial arts)
- Total loss of control. When you confront death, there is nothing you can do except experience it
Why would you want to experience Death & Resurrection?
- First, the willingness to give everything up
- Idea of Phoenix – letting go of everything
- Confront your death, and resurrection will take care of itself
Stanislavsky approach
- Best actors put themselves into what they are doing
- "As if true" technique
- As if in four days I’m going to die
- What do you need to do to go into the death as an accomplishment
The three centers – body
- Body – connecting to the physical world
- Meditation in nature – "Death is certain. It comes without warning. This body will be a corpse."
- "The Body Mass" – in the evening, touch every part of your body and say good buy to all the parts.
- Next morning, make up wills and give out their posessions.
Relationships – saying good-bye to everyone
Last day of life
- Give a gift to yourself
- Write your own funeral
- The 7 most important things in their life to say good-bye to, and 3 things they are glad to get rid of. Bring 10 symbols for those.
- Burning everything and watching the smoke rise to the next life
- Every day people have to be more and more silent – essential silence, only say what’s needed
- The last supper – lifting the silence
- The Last Breath process, the moment of Death. Taking turns.

The Rise of the Politics of Fear –

RCG — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:55:29 +0000

This is a fantastic documentary on how much of our lives have been shaped in the last three decades by two competitive mythologies, . Its a wonderful look at how myth on both sides of the fence played such an important role in reshaping the world in the last 3 decades

From the wikipedia and google video
The Power of Nightmares, subtitled The Rise of the Politics of Fear, is a BBC documentary film series, written and produced by Adam Curtis. Its three one-hour parts consist mostly of a montage of archive footage with Curtis’s narration. The series was first broadcast in the United Kingdom in late 2004 and has subsequently been broadcast in multiple countries and shown in several film festivals, including the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.
The films compare the rise of the Neo-Conservative movement in the United States and the radical Islamist movement, making comparisons on their origins and claiming similarities between the two. More controversially, it argues that the threat of radical Islamism as a massive, sinister organised force of destruction, specifically in the form of al-Qaeda, is a myth perpetrated by politicians in many countries—and particularly American Neo-Conservatives—in an attempt to unite and inspire their people following the failure of earlier, more utopian ideologies.

Part 1: “Baby It’s Cold Outside”
The first part of the series explains the origin of Islamism and Neo-Conservatism. It shows Egyptian civil servant Sayyid Qutb, depicted as the founder of modern Islamist thought, visiting the U.S. to learn about the education system, but becoming disgusted with what he saw as a corruption of morals and virtues in western society through individualism. When he returns to Egypt, he is disturbed by westernisation under Gamal Abdel Nasser and becomes convinced that in order to save society it must be completely restructured along the lines of Islamic law while still using western technology. He also becomes convinced that this can only be accomplished through the use of an elite “vanguard” to lead a revolution against the established order. Qutb becomes a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and, after being tortured in one of Nasser’s jails, comes to believe that western-influenced leaders can justly be killed for the sake of removing their corruption. Qutb is executed in 1966, but he inspires the future mentor of Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to start his own secret Islamist group. Inspired by the 1979 Iranian revolution, Zawahiri and his allies assassinate Egyptian president Anwar Al Sadat, in 1981, in hopes of starting their own revolution. The revolution does not materialise, and Zawahiri comes to believe that the majority of Muslims have been corrupted by their western-inspired leaders and thus may be legitimate targets of violence if they do not join him.
At the same time in the United States, a group of disillusioned liberals, including Irving Kristol and Paul Wolfowitz, look to the political thinking of Leo Strauss after the perceived failure of President Johnson’s “Great Society”. They come to the conclusion that the emphasis on individual liberty was the undoing of the plan. They envisioned restructuring America by uniting the American people against a common evil, and set about creating a mythical enemy. These factions, the Neo-Conservatives, came to power under the Reagan administration, with their allies Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, and work to unite the United States in fear of the Soviet Union. The Neo-Conservatives allege the Soviet Union is not following the terms of disarmament between the two countries, and, with the investigation of “Team B”, they accumulate a case to prove this with dubious evidence and methods. President Reagan is convinced nonetheless.

Part 2: “The Phantom Victory”
In the second episode, Islamist factions, rapidly falling under the more radical influence of Zawahiri and his rich Saudi acolyte Osama bin Laden, join the Neo-Conservative-influenced Reagan Administration to combat the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. When the Soviets eventually pull out and when the Eastern Bloc begins to collapse in the late 1980s, both groups believe they are the primary architects of the “Evil Empire’s” defeat. Curtis argues that the Soviets were on their last legs anyway, and were doomed to collapse without intervention.
However, the Islamists see it quite differently, and in their triumph believe that they had the power to create ‘pure’ Islamic states in Egypt and Algeria. However, attempts to create perpetual Islamic states are blocked by force. The Islamists then try to create revolutions in Egypt and Algeria by the use of terrorism to scare the people into rising up. However, the people are terrified by the violence and the Algerian government uses their fear as a way to maintain power. In the end, the Islamists declare the entire populations of the countries as inherently contaminated by western values, and finally in Algeria turn on each other, each believing that other terrorist groups are not pure enough Muslims either.
In America, the Neo-Conservatives’ aspirations to use the United States military power for further destruction of evil are thrown off track by the ascent of George HW Bush to the presidency, followed by the 1992 election of Bill Clinton leaving them out of power. The Neo-Conservatives, with their conservative Christian allies, attempt to demonise Clinton throughout his presidency with various real and fabricated stories of corruption and immorality. To their disappointment, however, the American people do not turn against Clinton. The Islamist attempts at revolution end in massive bloodshed, leaving the Islamists without popular support. Zawahiri and bin Laden flee to the sufficiently safe Afghanistan and declare a new strategy; to fight Western-inspired moral decay they must deal a blow to its source: the United States

Part 3: “The Shadows in the Cave”

The Neo-Conservatives use the September 11th attacks, with al-Fadl’s description of al-Qaeda,[citation needed] to launch the War on Terror.
The final episode addresses the actual rise of al-Qaeda. Curtis argues that, after their failed revolutions, bin Laden and Zawahiri had little or no popular support, let alone a serious complex organisation of terrorists, and were dependent upon independent operatives to carry out their new call for jihad. The film instead argues that in order to prosecute bin Laden in absentia for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, US prosecutors had to prove he was the head of a criminal organisation responsible for the bombings. They find a former associate of bin Laden, Jamal al-Fadl, and pay him to testify that bin Laden was the head of a massive terrorist organisation called “al-Qaeda”. With the September 11th attacks, Neo-Conservatives in the new Republican government of George W. Bush use this created concept of an organisation to justify another crusade against a new evil enemy, leading to the launch of the War on Terrorism.
After the American invasion of Afghanistan fails to uproot the alleged terrorist network, the Neo-Conservatives focus inwards, searching unsuccessfully for terrorist sleeper cells in America. They then extend the war on “terror” to a war against general perceived evils with the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The ideas and tactics also spread to the United Kingdom where Tony Blair uses the threat of terrorism to give him a new moral authority. The repercussions of the Neo-Conservative strategy are also explored with an investigation of indefinitely-detained terrorist suspects in Guantanamo Bay, many allegedly taken on the word of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance without actual investigation on the part of the United States military, and other forms of “preemption” against non-existent and unlikely threats made simply on the grounds that the parties involved could later become a threat. Curtis also makes a specific attempt to allay fears of a dirty bomb attack, and concludes by reassuring viewers that politicians will eventually have to concede that some threats are exaggerated and others altogether devoid of reality

#79 Pattern Thinking, part 4

RCG — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:00:53 +0000

Where do we find new patterns
- Mythology
- Spiral Dynamics
- Modeling (NLP)
- Artificial Intelligence
Strict, probabilistic and Fuzzy logic
Science patterns
Techniques for shifting patterns
- Trying first in a safe context
- Dance, relationships, school, classes
- For future-oriented, look for the shortest path, make as many mistakes as possible. Learn from the shock.
Patterns of Empires

#78 Pattern Thinking, part 3

RCG — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:00:12 +0000

Somatic patterns
- Martial arts
- Dancing
Biological patterns
Linguistic patterns
- NLP: Meta-model, Milton model, Sleight of mouth patterns
- Priming
Habits
Relationship patterns
Spotting patterns
- Asking for help and going for diversity
- Intent and attention

#77 Pattern Thinking, part 2

RCG — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 15:00:19 +0000

High-level structure of patterns
- Context
- Sequence, Syntax
- Time scale
- Triggers
Types of patterns – Unconscious signals
- Personal unconscious signals
- Cultural unconscious signals – Time and Space

#76 Pattern Thinking, part 1

RCG — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:00:33 +0000

What are patterns
- Science: map of the world, theory
- Structure wih a specific rhythm and beat
- Mythology: Frank Herbert’s quote
- Usefulness: patterns are everywhere, which ones we care about?
- Repetition of a structure, sequence
Patterns in Self
- Personal growth
- Where you are, where you are going, and how to get there
Patterns in Relationships
Patterns in large systems
- Business, politics
Why spotting patterns is important
- Survival
Usefulness and dangers of patterns
- Saves you CPU cycles
- Learn from prior generations
- Automated thinking, robotizing
- Distinction: who has control – you over pattern, or pattern over you
- Patterns help to survive, but too much pattern kills adaptation, which leads to extinction
- Context of war: make sure you spot your patterns before your opponent does
- Context of personal growth: use your friends / teachers to spot your patterns
- Whose patterns are these? Where did you get them from? Do they work for you?

#73 Embodied Mythology Series 07: Owning the Shadow with Paul Rebillot

RCG — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 15:00:04 +0000

In this episode, Paul is describing the structure called Owning the Shadow.

The topics covered in this talk are:

What is the shadow?
- If there is no light, there is no shadow
- "We have met the enemy, and he is us"
- The shadow is "forbidden"
Illuminating the Shadow
- My way of dealing with shadow is to illuminate
- Shadow is a tricky character – he escapes, moves back and forth
- Once you begin to recognize your shadow, it loses power
- Change the duel to the death (with the shadow) into a lover’s quarrel
Looking at the Shadow
- Looking at the Shadow has to be approach step-by-step
- Shadow frequently appears in dreams
- People that keep appearing in your life whom you cannot stand
- Jokes – what we laugh at
Revealing Shadow through Humor
- And things we cannot laugh at and take too seriously
- Anti-defamation (Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence)
Distilling the qualities of shadow
- List 25 people that disturb us most in our lives
- Distilling 5 common qualities, drawing them and putting in the bag
- We are dragging the bag of parts of us that we were told is bad
- The Golden Shadow
- Acting out the characters
Integrating the Shadow
- Creating a mask
  - First of your face
  - Then add bumps and colors
- Then have a costume party to enact the shadow completely, all out
- Gestalt work to integrate the shadow – dressing a partner into your shadow costume and see your own shadow
- By the end, love begings to happen for the shadow, which is really the answer
- Finally, a medicine wheel, to take the shadow with you on a spiritual level
Examples of shadow integration
- A man recognizing his homosexual shadow
- Turing stories you tell about people to yourself into creative works
Dealing with political shadow
- Take some action
- Look at the person you dispice and see where you are doing the same thing
- Talk about it to people
Justice and Vengeance
- If become what you kill
Parallels in the books and movies
- Harry Potter (book)
- The Matrix (movie)
- V for Vendetta (movie)
- "The Terrorist" (movie)

Technocrati Tags: Myth, Mythology, Hero's Journey, Lover's Journey, Owning the Shadow, Paul Rebillot

Happy New Year – and What’s Coming

RCG — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:00:04 +0000

Happy New Year 2009 to all of you!

As the founders of RCG, we have gone a long way, and sometimes,
looking back, it is hard to recognize the people we were just over two
years ago. And yet, as we look forward, we see that the journey has
but just begun.

In the coming year, we have a whole bunch of podcasts already lined up
for you as gifts from the Radical Change Group, and from the people
and practitioners who are working with us, and through us, in bringing
this to you.

The coming year will see some exciting topics that the three of us
cover – the original trio of the three friends.

In addition, we’ll be introducing some new conversations. Some
highlights of the topics include:

The talks on Shamanism with Ismana
On 5Rhythms dancing with the originator of the 5Rhythms Gabrielle Roth
Continuing our conversations on the strategy of the dolphin with Paul
Kordis
Speaking about a form of theatre known as ParaTheatre with Antero Alli
Mythology with Paul Rebillot

And we’re going to have a new focus on a few other areas, such as the works of Buckminster Fuller that impacted us deeply, and the work of Joseph Campbell and Richard Roberts.

We are also going to have more regular blog posts on our webpage – please visit us, read it, and if you like it – share it with your friends, and help us spread the word.

Why are we doing it?

In the spirit of Positive Deviance, because some things need to be done – to cause both societal and personal change. The key questions that we ask are:

What if… Transformational teachings were given as gifts, rather than traded for money?
What if… You had access to iconoclasts and change makers on-demand, rather than at their limited availability?
What if… The conversations were spontaneous, open, and emergent, rather than scripted, dogmatic, and dry?
What if… Change was approached holistically, through the synthesis of many streams of thought?
What if… The project was based on a sense of contribution to a vibrant community of like minded individuals?

The Gift Economy

This is a whole notion that we have started with the RCG. We want to get involved – help us shape what is becoming a shared gift, a shared reality, and also for you to take charge and shape it in your own ways.

Currently, we have two more projects going:

For both of them, our goal is to restore these tapes and videos, digitize them for the modern media, and distribute it across the World for free. We need your help here, we need you get involved, in any way possible.

We also have a Listener’s Survey – please take a minute to fill it out, so we know what resonates with you and what doesn’t, and how we can improve this.

Technocrati Tags: Radical Change Group, Transformation, Gift Economy, New Year, Shamanism, Ismana, 5Rhythms, Gabrielle Roth, Mythology, Paul Rebillot, Joseph Campbell, Strategy of the Dolphin, Paul Kordis, ParaTheatre, Antero Alli, Positive Deviance, Buckminster Fuller

Grail Meaning and Legend – LEADING SYMBOLIC LIVES

Mahipal Lunia — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:07:13 +0000

Everyone of us who has gone down the path of exploring mythology, be it personal or transpersonal we have run into the encounter with the grail legends. These stories of the lives of knights and their quest are deeply embedded into our personal and collective psyche.

These two videos are by far the coolest and easiest introduction to the legend of th grail. Watch them, perhaps a few things will become even more clear and inspire you to explore mythology and the “path to personal transformation” even more closely.

Should you enjoy these videos, click on the link below for audio recordings of Joseph Campbell discussing the grail legends and links to our various podcasts on the mythology with paul rebillot

TALKS BY JOSEPH CAMPBELL ON THE GRAIL LEGEND

Joseph Campbell http://www.futurehi.net/media.html

* Joseph Campbell – The Grail Legends (4/82) – 1A.mp3 (17.9mb)
* Joseph Campbell – The Grail Legends (4/82) – 1B.mp3 (17.7mb)
* Joseph Campbell – The Grail Legends (4/82) – 2A.mp3 (17.7mb)
* Joseph Campbell – The Grail Legends (4/82) – 2B.mp3 (17.3mb)
* Joseph Campbell – The Grail Legends (4/82) – 3A.mp3 (18.2mb)
* Joseph Campbell – The Grail Legends (4/82) – 3B.mp3 (18.2mb)

TO LISTEN TO OUR PODCASTS ON MYTHOLOGY WITH PAUL REBILLOT VISIT
http://www.radicalchangegroup.com/podcasts/categories/mythos/

08/3/08 #45 Embodied Mythology Series 06: The Lover’s Journey with Paul Re… by RCG
07/27/08 #44 Embodied Mythology Series 05: The Lover’s Journey with Paul Re… by RCG
06/22/08 #40 Embodied Mythology Series 04: The Hero’s Journey with Paul Reb… by RCG
05/11/08 #34 Embodied Mythology Series 03: The Healing Theatre-2 with Paul Rebillot by RCG
05/4/08 #33 Embodied Mythology Series 02 – The Healing Theatre with Paul Rebillot by RCG
11/25/07 #13 Embodied Mythology series 01 – Stories of Our Lives by RCG

UNTIL NEXT TIME, LIVE MYTHICALLY AND FULLY SYMBOLIC LIVES

NLP, MYTHOLOGY, JOSEPH CAMPBELL, PAUL REBILLOT, RADICAL CHANGE GROUP, GRAIL LEGEND, EMBODIED MYTHOLOGY, PERSONAL MYTH