In his article, “Myth, Politics and the Erosion of The American Dream,” Paul Stoller gives this myth definition.

“To paraphrase the words of the late Clifford Geertz, one of the great anthropologists of the 20th century, myths are stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. Powerful narratives based upon fiction — not fact — myths shape our perception of the world. They create frameworks for our behavior. They are impervious to logical or factual critique. As such, myths are powerful political tools that the powers-that-be have long used in their attempt to control social behavior.”

This article raises a question that has long fascinated me. How is that people can be persuaded to act against their own best interests? The article by Stoller addresses exactly this question.

“In practice, the mantra of limited government and lower taxes has provided political cover for an unprecedented redistribution of wealth from the middle class to the super-rich. According to a 2009 study in the International Journal of Development, J.B. Davies and his colleagues found that 1 percent of the US population controls 50 percent of the national wealth. If you look at the data in this and other studies of wealth distribution, it is clear that people in the bottom 60 percent bracket of income (the middle, lower-middle and working classes) control only a minimal amount of our wealth — perhaps 5 percent. These disturbing statistics suggest a strong erosion of the middle class and an unchecked movement toward plutocracy.

“Despite these scientifically validated facts, millions of Americans, who continue to believe in these mythical fictions, repeatedly vote against their interests. How can that be? I think some of the misplaced persistence can be traced to the power of myth” (Myth, Politics and the Erosion of The American Dream).

This is the power of story, especially stories that take on mythic proportions.  People in positions of power use the power of myth to persuade people to act against their own best interests.

For Your Success,

Kalinda

Kalinda Rose Stevenson

The Story Transformer 

Creator of “The Story Transformation Process” 

[Cross-Published as Money Stories And The Power of Myth As The Rich Get Richer on NoMoneyLimits.com]

For more about James Bonnet, visit www.storymaking.com.  

Press Interview, Part Two, With James Bonnet

Question: And how does metaphor fit into all of this? 
Bonnet: The metaphors are the secret language of great stories. The hidden, creative energies are transformed into the visual images of story (the metaphors) with the help of the imagination. These metaphors are made of real things that have been taken apart and artistically rearranged to represent these hidden truths. The unique combination of these real things, when brought together, create the characters and actions that express the different characteristics of the hidden creative energies. The natural world is taken apart and rearranged to reveal the supernatural, unconscious, hidden world. And when these visual images correspond to this hidden energy, you get a story with extraordinary power.

Question: Given a well-constructed, well-told story, is a good metaphor the surest way to a great success?
Bonnet: The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter are almost identical stories, with identical hidden structures, but their metaphors – Middle Earth and The Wizard World – are very different.

Question: I read somewhere that JK Rowling was making a billion dollars a year from that franchise. 
Bonnet: And she deserves it. Her series of books has sold over 400 million copies. And it’s all due to the brilliance and uniqueness of her metaphor. And if you learn how to create your own unique world – your own unique London or San Francisco…your own unique Pandora, Shangri-la, or Far Far Away, there will be no stopping you.

Question: You suggest the treatment of a single subject – anger – is what has kept Homer’s The Iliad alive and relevant for over 3000 years.
Bonnet: That’s true. The Iliad is, in fact, everything you ever wanted to know about anger. Anger is anger. And if that subject was perfectly described 3000 years ago, that description would be relevant today. And this is where that story gets its enormous power, from its singleness of purpose.

Question: You talk in your retreats about creating charismatic characters. Is that related to what you were just saying?
Bonnet: Yes. You make the characters the personification of some important character trait like courage, loyalty, anger, prejudice, or greed and they become charismatic, which is to say, symbolic. People will be attracted to them and influenced by them even if they realize what they mean. You can put them on a T-shirt and they’ll have impact and meaning. If you put Shakespeare, Beethoven, Einstein or Hannibal Lector on a T-shirt it will mean something. Why? Because they personify some important human quality.

Question: Can anyone do that with these character traits?
Bonnet: If you collaborate with the creative unconscious and rely on your intuition and your archetypal feelings, you can tease the truth about any dimension of yourself to the surface. And if you do that, you will not only increase the power of your story and the charisma of your characters, you will be getting in touch with those dimensions in yourself.

Question: How was this knowledge discovered?
Bonnet: I studied the great stories for over thirty years and discovered many of their hidden patterns. One day I remembered something Aristotle had said: that genius was seeing the connection between things. I wasn’t trying to become a genius but I began looking for these patterns in other things – and I discovered these same patterns in our own psychology and in the real world, in the groups that we form.

Question: Meaning what?
Bonnet: That the groups that we form have the same structure as our psyches. Eventually, I realized that the truth about these two realms, our psychology and the psychology of our collective lives, is what great stories were designed to reveal. And if they were designed to do that, then something had to have put that information in there. Gradually I realized it was the creative unconscious self. And that was a realization that changed my life.

Question: You said the creative unconscious goes by a lot of other names?
Bonnet: Carl Jung called it the collective unconscious. Others call it the psyche, the higher guide, the source, the soul, the subtle energy, the universe, the God within, and so on. I’m comfortable with all of these names.

Question: But what is it exactly?
Bonnet: For me, it’s the ancient wisdom that has been accumulating in our psyches since the beginning of evolution.

Question: And we can communicate with that source?
Bonnet: Absolutely. By listening to our feelings, asking ourselves questions, by meditation, and a variety of creative techniques, plus you can use a sophisticated story model as a reference to help make that communication as constructive and productive as possible.

Question: And is the Golden Paradigm your sophisticated story model?
Bonnet: Yes. It is also my model of the creative unconscious self. It was created, as I mentioned, by the hidden structures that were put into the great stories by the creative unconscious…

Question: And these are the structures all great stories have in common?
Bonnet: Exactly. And why do they all have these structures in common? Because these extraordinary patterns reveal who we are, where we are, and where we are going, as individuals and as a species.

Question: And is that where the Storywheel comes in?
Bonnet: The Storywheel is a way of looking at the passages that emerge from these hidden patterns. All great stories have a place on this Storywheel, and when they’re looked at all together in this way, they give up their deeper secrets – and you begin to see how they are all really connected and have a common purpose, namely: they all have something to do with guiding us to higher states of being.

Question: So the Golden Paradigm and the Storywheel are not just story models?
Bonnet: They’re dynamic models of the human psyche. And they reveal how the mind works and how the world works. And you can use these models not only to analyze and create great stories, you can use them to fathom your own psychology and to analyze important events in the real world. You can use them in almost every aspect of your life. 

Question: Is the story structure different from the narrative structure?
Bonnet: Story structures transform story-worthy events into dramatic actions that are entertaining and have emotional impact. The narrative structure is the way the story is actually being told. Once the larger whole story and the story focus have been worked out, there are an infinite number of ways to tell that story.

Question: I loved what you said in your book about creating suspense.
Bonnet: About asking a question and withholding the answer? That’s what suspense means: to suspend.

Question: Could you elaborate on that?
Bonnet: A baby-sitter gets a text message that a serial killer is at large in the neighborhood. A little while later, she hears the sound of breaking glass in the basement. That’s the intriguing question: Is the serial killer in the basement? While she is going slowly down the cellar stairs to investigate, we are kept in a constant state of suspense.

Question: Any final thoughts?
Bonnet: Just this. Storymaking is an art form. It requires dedication and hard work, but if you learn to communicate with your creative unconscious self, you will be creatively partnered with the true author of the world’s greatest stories. And you can imagine what that will mean to your life. 

Then, if you work with The Golden Paradigm, and support the things you really want to write about with these hidden structures, and you learn how to create metaphors that express the hidden truth, your stories will make a powerful psychological connection. Furthermore, if you learn how to create your own unique world, you can create superpowerful stories that make a significant impact on the world, and your success will be assured.

And finally, if you follow the passages outlined by the Storywheel, they will guide you to higher states of consciousness, and that will dramatically change your life. There will be no stopping you. These are the things that I teach.

Question: Who else besides novelists and filmmakers regularly attend your seminars and retreats?
Bonnet: Psychologists, lawyers, corporation executives, people writing memoirs and family histories, and anyone else who has an important story to tell or wants to add the magic of story to their lives.

Question: One last question? Was the serial killer in the basement?
Bonnet: It was the cat.

[Read Part One of this interview here.]

Permission granted to use for publication in both digital and print as long as it is accredited to James Bonnet, www.storymaking.com  

For Your Success,

Kalinda

Dr. Kalinda Rose Stevenson

The Story Transformer 

Creator of “The Story Transformation Process”

For more about James Bonnet, visit www.storymaking.com.  

Press Interview, Part One, With James Bonnet

Question: I notice you use the word storymaker instead of storyteller? Is there a difference?
Bonnet: A significant difference. A storyteller tells stories that already exist. A storymaker creates a new story from whole cloth.

Question: And is that what you teach – storymaking? 
Bonnet: I teach both, actually. You need both skills to create a great story.

Question: In this context: what do you mean by a “great” story?
Bonnet: When I talk about great stories, I mean the great myths, legends and fairy tales that have lived for hundreds and thousands of years like The Iliad, King Arthur, and Rumpelstiltskin. Critically acclaimed literary classics like Macbeth, A Christmas Carol and A Thousand and One Nights. Critically acclaimed films like The Silence of the Lambs and The Sixth Sense. Best-selling novels like War and Peace and The Lord of the Rings, and all-time box-office successes – Harry Potter, The Godfather, Toy Story 3.

Question: Is there a common denominator in all of these different types of story?
Bonnet: Yes – they all have the same underlying hidden structure.

Question: In one of your articles, you mention The Coming Age of Story. What do you mean by that?
Bonnet:  I mean that the interest in story has grown exponentially in the last decade. People everywhere, in all walks of life, have begun to realize just how important story is and the key role it was meant to play in their lives. The time is not far off when knowing what stories actually are and how to create them may well be the most valuable knowledge a person can possess.

Question: According to PricewaterhouseCoopers the entertainment industry is the fastest growing industry on the planet and the global entertainment industry grosses will reach two trillion dollars by the end of this year.
Bonnet: And storymaking will play a major role in that expansion. There are over six and a half billion people in this world that have a desperate need for great stories which isn’t being met. And that means vast, untapped potential markets and incredible opportunities for skilled storymakers and others with a profound knowledge of story and the art of storymaking.

Question: What do you mean by “a profound knowledge of story?”
Bonnet: I mean the new, higher levels of understanding that are emerging in the world of story concerning the deep, hidden story structures which all great stories have in common.

Question: Is that what makes your story seminars and retreats unique – these hidden structures?
Bonnet: That’s certainly one of the things. These hidden structures are linked to the source of our creativity, which I call the creative unconscious self, but it goes by a lot of other names.

Question: Is that why you believe great stories can change our lives?
Bonnet: There are some extraordinary psychological benefits to be had from the creative storymaking process. These hidden structures are extremely powerful. They are the reason some great stories defy time and remain active and relevant for thousands of years and why others became so charismatic that great religions were formed around them. 

Question: Can stories with that kind of magic and power be created again? 
Bonnet: Yes. These new deeper structures make clear where these extraordinary stories get their enormous power and why these hidden structures are not only the keys to creating great stories, but the keys to understanding some of the great mysteries and problems that surround our lives.

Question: You say in your book that the author of the great myths and legends is inside each of us. Do you mean that figuratively?
Bonnet: No. I mean that literally. The intelligence and wisdom that created those old, great stories is inside all of us.

Question: Are you referring to the creative unconscious?
Bonnet: Yes. It controls the positive and negative intuitive feelings that govern our creative decisions even if we’re not aware of it. And it’s been doing that for tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years.

Question: So it participated in the creation of all of the great stories, myths and legends?
Bonnet: Yes – And that is the principal objective of my work –  to teach storymakers how to emulate the natural creative storymaking process and put all of their conscious and creative unconscious powers into their work. I do this primarily by showing them how to use the creative process, the language of metaphor, the Storywheel, and a very sophisticated story model, the Golden Paradigm, to help them bring these powerful hidden truths to the surface.

Question: And how is that done?
Bonnet: By using your intuitive feelings. You get in touch with that creative unconscious source and make that important knowledge, and the power that goes with it, come alive in your work. If you combine that power with a contemporary realism and character, you can create superpowerful stories that have a significant impact on the world. And you can make yourself very successful and perhaps even whole in the process.

Question: How does the creative unconscious communicate with us?
Bonnet: Aside from the patterns in great stories and the positive and negative intuitive feelings, it communicates with us through archetypal feelings, dreams, and the visual images and ideas that pop into our heads. Anything that comes from the imagination comes from the creative unconscious.

Question: How are archetypal feelings different from intuitive feelings?
Bonnet: Intuitive feelings come from the creative unconscious and are feelings that confirm or deny the truths that are stored in our DNA. Archetypal feelings are feelings like compassion, lust, greed, doubt, guilt, loyalty, courage, fear, and so on – that emanate from the archetypes and influence and motivate our behavior. They are also the feelings that help us to get in touch with and create the great characters that personify our different dominant character traits.

Question: And how is all of that important to writers and filmmakers?
Bonnet: These hidden structures have enormous power. If you take the things you really want to write about and support them with these hidden structures, your stories will make a psychological connection and have universal appeal.

Permission granted to use for publication in both digital and print as long as it is accredited to James Bonnet, www.storymaking.com  

For Part Two of this interview, click here. 

For Your Success,

Kalinda

Dr. Kalinda Rose Stevenson

The Story Transformer 

Creator of “The Story Transformation Process”

Accurate Assessment Of Current Reality In The Creative Process

The previous posts in this series have focused on the Genesis creation stories themselves. In this post, I return to Robert Fritz’s claims in The Path of Least Resistance: Learning to Become the Creative Force in Your Own Life about accurate assessment of current reality.

Reactions To The Idea Of More Than One Genesis Creation Story

Timothy Beal’s article, In the Beginning(s): Appreciating the Complexity of the Bible, demonstrates the importance of accurate assessment of current reality. The real point of his article is not so much his argument that there are two Genesis creation stories, but the reactions from two groups to the idea that there are two Genesis creation stories. He includes some comments on an earlier article about multiple creation stories in the Bible. 

“I could see that what I’d gotten myself into was an amplified version of the debates that go on every day between “Bible-believers” and atheists, who looked to me very much like two sides of the same coin.” 

The Metamessage

Beal’s comments about the reactions of these “two sides of the same coin” is the metamessage—the underlying meaning—of his article.

“A metamessage is the ‘real’ message sent by a piece of communication, e.g. through tone of voice, which may be different or even contradictory to the content” (Metamessage). 

The metamessage of Beal’s article can be summarized in this statement. “Neither side was remotely interested in engaging with the logic of my argument, let alone the biblical texts I used to support it.” 

Taking God To Court?

I choose not to include some of the crudest language in the comments Beal includes in his article. (The following paragraph is taken directly from Beal’s article without editing.)   

“As one exclaimed, “the OP ["original poster," me] needs to actually check his facts. You would think one might actually read the books objectively before commenting on them. Seriously??? Differences in Gen 1&2??? Are you nuts!!!” Another wrote, “There is only one creation account found in the bible, which anybody with any intellectual honesty can see. There are no contradictions; You’re just not reading it carefully. Probably on purpose. All I’m seeing is cheap shots being taken at the bible, all of which are based on opinion and not fact.” Several made clear, moreover, that my “attack” on the Bible was also an attack on its presumed author, God, and therefore on faith in general. As one commenter put it, “i don’t buy any of this futile facts … i stand by one fact, the Bible is a true and unchanging word of God, we shouldn’t take God to court.” ( In the Beginning(s): Appreciating the Complexity of the Bible). 

My Metamessage For Bible Stories And The Story Transformation Process 

As a biblical scholar myself, I have my own experience with getting such comments to my posts on other blogs about the Bible. It’s downright discouraging and disconcerting to be on the receiving end of rage-filled, indignant, nasty comments by people who are not “remotely interested in engaging with the logic of my argument, let alone the biblical texts I used to support it.” 

Accurate Assessment Of Current Reality? 

However, my own metamessage about Beal’s article, and my own purpose in including Bible stories as part of the “Story Transformation Process,” come back to the problem of accurate assessment of current reality.

If you look at the comments that Beal includes in his article—astonishing comments asserting that a Biblical scholar has never actually read the Bible—and then look at the comments to his post, you will see people who are not doing very well with accurate assessment of current reality.

These comments demonstrate the problem. You cannot transform your to life to create the life you choose, if you cannot accurately assess where you are right now.

For a lot of people, Bible stories are part of the problem. Misunderstood, mistranslated, misused Bible stories can easily be used as weapons to keep people afraid, stuck, guilt-ridden, and unhappy.

As Beal knows—and as I also know very well—the only remedy for such abusive Bible reading is to make a concerted effort to assess accurately the current reality of the Bible. In the case of Genesis, that means recognizing the overwhelming evidence that there are two creation stories in Genesis. 

For Your Success,

Kalinda 

Dr. Kalinda Rose Stevenson

The Story Transformer 

Creator of “The Story Transformation Process”

 [Cross-Published on FreedomFromBadBibleBullies.com]

This is the fifth post in a 5-Part series.

Are Bible Stories Really Stories?

What Kind of Bible Story Is The Biblical Creation Story?

How Many Biblical Creation Stories Are In Genesis 1-3?

Using Midrash To Transform Creation Stories Into A Biblical Creation Story

Genesis Creation Story Or Genesis Creation Stories: Does It Make A Difference In Your Story Transformation Process?

Creation Stories

The Hebrews didn’t invent creation stories. As far as we know, every human society has its own creation stories, answering the most basic questions about the origin of the Earth we inhabit, who we are, and how we got here, and what it all means. The ancient Hebrews had plenty of exposure to the creation stories of other people.

Two Genesis Creation Stories

The first creation story, Genesis 1:1-31; 2:1-3, is clearly related in some way to the Babylonian creation story, “The Enuma Elish.”  [For an excellent introduction and full translation of the Enuma Elish, see Enuma Elish: "When on High . . ." The Mesopotamian/Babylonian Creation Myth, By Dennis Bratcher.]

The second creation story, Genesis 2:4-25; 3:1-24, is the older story, which evokes some aspects of Greek creation stories and other creation stories of other peoples in the ancient world.

In this post, I’ll mention only the relationships between the Enuma Elish and the first Genesis creation story.

Midrash To Create A Better Story

And so what is the value of thinking of these creation stories as midrash? Rather than get bogged down in technical definitions of midrash, the primary reason there are two Genesis creation stories comes down to a theological conviction: ”We don’t like the creation stories we have. We can do better.”

The “Enuma Elish” Creation Story

In 1879, the “Enuma Elish” was published as the “Chaldean Genesis.” The discovery of this ancient creation story rocked the world in the late nineteenth century.

For some people, the obvious similarities were evidence that the Biblical creation story of Genesis 1 was not unique, but simply a rehashing of an older creation story. This ancient document “proves” that the Bible is a fraud inflicted upon gullible people.

For other people, these claims that the creation story of Genesis was derived from the Babylonian creation story gave one more reason to dig in and defend any such “attacks” on the truth of the unique Word of God by godless scholars.

However, if you look at Genesis 1 as a midrash on the “Enuma Elish,” you gain an entirely different perspective on the relationship between these two creation stories.

Genesis 1 takes the Babylonian story and retells it, with the idea that “we can do better than this.” Here is just one example of the difference.

The Creation Of Human Beings In The “Enuma Elish”

Why were human beings created in the Enuma Elish?

“Marduk decides to create human beings, but needs blood and bone from which to fashion them. Ea advises that only one of the gods should die to provide the materials for creation, the one who was guilty of plotting evil against the gods. Marduk inquires of the assembly of the gods about who incited Tiamat’s rebellion, and was told that it was her husband Kingu. Ea kills Kingu and uses his blood to fashion mankind so they can perform menial tasks for the gods” (Tablet VI, Enuma Elish).

In the “Enuma Elish,” human beings were created from the blood of a rebel god to do menial work for the gods. All in all, this creation story doesn’t give a very high view of the gods’ purposes for creating human beings, and it doesn’t give a very high view of human beings either.

The Creation Of Human Beings In The Genesis Creation Story

The first Genesis creation story is a midrash on the “Enuma Elish,” in which the Hebrew priests said in effect, “We can do much better than this.”

The Genesis creation story says that God created humankind in God’s image, gave them dominion over the Earth, and blessed them (Genesis 1:26-27).

You don’t have to believe that a word of this is “true” to recognize that this is a higher vision of the purpose and nature of humanity than anything you will find in the “Enuma Elish.” This is what midrash does. It seeks the higher purpose, the deeper meaning, the greater blessing, in sacred scripture.

And by the way, “The Story Transformation Process” is also a form of midrash, when you look at the stories of your life and ask yourself, Can I do better than this?

For Your Success,

Kalinda

Dr. Kalinda Rose Stevenson

The Story Transformer 

Creator of “The Story Transformation Process”

 [Cross-Published on FreedomFromBadBibleBullies.com]

This is the fourth post in a 5-Part series.

Are Bible Stories Really Stories?

What Kind of Bible Story Is The Biblical Creation Story?

How Many Biblical Creation Stories Are In Genesis 1-3?

Using Midrash To Transform Creation Stories Into A Biblical Creation Story

Genesis Creation Story Or Genesis Creation Stories: Does It Make A Difference In Your Story Transformation Process?

Genesis Creation Stories

As a place to begin, I highly recommend the article by Timothy Beal, In the Beginning(s): Appreciating the Complexity of the Bible. As Beal makes clear in the subtitle, his purpose is to demonstrate the complexity of the Bible. He does this by referring to multiple creation stories in the Bible. He starts with Genesis.

“The opening chapters of Genesis give us two [creation stories]. In the first, God begins on the macrocosmic level, calling forth light from dark, waters from waters, and land from sea. Then comes vegetation, then the sun, moon and stars, and then animal life. Finally, as the piece de resistance of creation, God makes humankind, in the plural, male and female, in God’s image.”

“In the second story, which immediately follows this one, the order of creation is entirely different. Here God’s first act of creation, before there are any plants or animals, is to form a single human, not yet male or female, by shaping it from the dust of the earth and then bringing it to life by breathing into its nostrils. Thus ha’adam, Hebrew for “the human,” is formed from ha’adamah, “the earth,” and becomes a living soul by divine breath. A beautiful image of the ecological spirituality of humanity: a God-breathed and breathing lump of clay, human from humus, an incarnation of divine transcendence and earthy immanence, as intimate with the ground as with God. Then come plants and animals. Then, when no animal fits the bill as lifelong companion (sorry, Fido), God essentially divides the human into two, male and female. So, in the first story, humans in the plural, male and female, are created last; and in the second, a single human is created first. These two versions of creation simply do not sync” (In the Beginning(s): Appreciating the Complexity of the Bible).

Evidence For Two Creation Bible Stories In Genesis

These two paragraphs are a concise and accurate description of evidence for two distinct creation stories in Genesis. In this post, my purpose is not to amplify Beal’s argument or even to consider why and how these are two different stories, with dramatically different origins. As a biblical scholar, I have studied the biblical creation stories of Genesis extensively and I have much to say about them.

Bible Stories As Midrash

What has always interested me most about these two creation stories, lying side by side in the Bible, is that they are evidence of a particularly Hebrew method of study called “midrash.”

The Hebrew noun, midrash, is derived from the verb, darash, which means “to seek.” 

The particular aspect of midrash that fascinates me most is that it provides a dramatic contrast between the tendency of Christian tradition to treat the Bible as the irrefutable source of answers, in contrast to Hebrew midrashic traditions, which encourage seeking questions about its sacred book.

“Dr. Charles T. Davis (Appalachian Statue University, Philosophy and Religion Department, NC) has prepared a [5] summary of the definition and features of Midrash, based on Rabbi Burton Visotzky’s “Reading the Bible”. This summary says that once a canon (i.e., approved scriptural text) is closed, the problem facing the community is the problem of “searching out” the canon. Midrash is a method of reading the Bible as an Eternal text, and is the result of applying a set of hermeneutical principles evolved by the community to guide one in reading the canon, in order to focus one’s reading. The ultimate goal of midrash is to “search out” the fullness of what was spoken by the Divine Voice” (Question 3.24: What is a Midrash?).

Rather than see Genesis 1-3 as one complete story, Genesis 1-3 are actually two examples of midrash in Hebrew tradition.

To be continued… 

For Your Success,

Kalinda

Dr. Kalinda Rose Stevenson

The Story Transformer 

Creator of “The Story Transformation Process”

 [Cross-Published On FreedomFromBadBibleBullies.com]

This is the third post in a 5-Part series.

Are Bible Stories Really Stories?

What Kind of Bible Story Is The Biblical Creation Story?

How Many Biblical Creation Stories Are In Genesis 1-3?

Using Midrash To Transform Creation Stories Into A Biblical Creation Story

Genesis Creation Story Or Genesis Creation Stories: Does It Make A Difference In Your Story Transformation Process?

What Is This Bible Story?

In classical rhetoric, before you can make any sort of case about your topic, you need to ask a fundamental question, What is it? (quid sit). This is part of the discovery process you go through before you can make any sort of argument about your topic. You have to figure out first “what it is” before you can make any claim about it.

Genre of Genesis Creation Stories

Another way to ask the same question is to ask, What is the genre of Genesis 1-3? Genre refers to the type of story it is. Genre is the difference between a fairy tale and a historical documentary, the difference between a romance novel and a murder mystery.

How did the author or authors of Genesis 1-3 intend you to understand what you are reading? Were you supposed to treat it as factual history? Were you supposed to read it as a fictional account? Or was the author trying to put something over on you, to deceive you by writing something false that you are supposed to believe is true.

Why The “What Is It?” Question Comes First

The question of “what is it” is the fundamental question that will determine just about everything else about what you or anyone else thinks or believes about this story.

This “what is it?” question is the reason why some people insist that “creationism” is scientific fact and insist that it be taught in school rather than the “theory of evolution,” and why other people see no conflict between the scientific theory of evolution and faith in this story as theologically true but not scientifically true.

(By the way, the word “theory” in science is as frequently misunderstood as the word “myth.” Both are quid sit issues, with dramatically different meanings depending on what you think each word means.)

My point here is that any discussion about the creation story/stories in the Bible begins with begins (and usually ends) with quid sit—what is it?

For Your Success,

Kalinda

Dr. Kalinda Rose Stevenson

The Story Transformer 

Creator of “The Story Transformation Process”

[Cross-Published on FreedomFromBadBibleBullies.com]

This is the second post in a 5-Part series.

Are Bible Stories Really Stories?

What Kind of Bible Story Is The Biblical Creation Story?

How Many Biblical Creation Stories Are In Genesis 1-3?

Using Midrash To Transform Creation Stories Into A Biblical Creation Story

Genesis Creation Story Or Genesis Creation Stories: Does It Make A Difference In Your Story Transformation Process?

What Is A Story?

But what exactly does it mean to refer to any part of the Bible as a story? To answer that question, we need to start with a preliminary question. What is a story?

The essential element of any story is that it makes connections between events. For example, if I tell you that today I bought a loaf of bread and I had a phone conversation with a friend, would you consider that a story? It all depends on whether or not I connect the buying of the bread with the conversation with my friend. If they are simply two separate events in my day, there’s really no story.

To make these two events into a story, I would have to connect them in some sort of causal way. I bought the bread because of something my friend said to me on the phone, or I called my friend because I bought the bread. Whichever way it goes, for there to be a story, there has to some way that one event led to the other. This causal connection between events is the essential element of a story.

Are Bible Stories True?

When it comes to Bible stories, so far, so good. Bible stories are narratives about connections between events. Few people would disagree with that definition.

Now we come to the tricky part of any consideration of Bible stories. Are Bible stories true? The word “story” isn’t going to help us much here.

Read through the definitions of “story” in the Online Dictionary and you will see that the single English word “story” can refer to true stories, fictitious stories, and outright lies.

So what do these definitions of “story” mean for reading Bible stories? Are Bible stories true, fictitious, or lies, or some combination of all of these characteristics?

In other words, are Bible stories accurate histories of actual occurrences? Are they fiction? Did someone make then up, the way novelists write novels and screenwriters write screenplays? Are they “myths”—a word so loaded with negative connotations that referring to any part of the Bible as myth is guaranteed to provoke an onslaught of outrage?

What better place to ask if Bible stories really are stories than with the biblical creation story—or is it creation stories?—of Genesis 1-3?

To be continued…

For Your Success,

Kalinda

Dr. Kalinda Rose Stevenson

The Story Transformer 

Creator of “The Story Transformation Process”

 [Cross-Published on FreedomFromBadBibleBullies.com]

This is the first post in a 5-Part series.

Are Bible Stories Really Stories?

What Kind of Bible Story Is The Biblical Creation Story?

How Many Biblical Creation Stories Are In Genesis 1-3?

Using Midrash To Transform Creation Stories Into A Biblical Creation Story

Genesis Creation Story Or Genesis Creation Stories: Does It Make A Difference In Your Story Transformation Process?

In Joe Versus The Volcano, the hero in Joe—Joe’s authentic self—had gone into hiding because Joe was afraid.

How Joe Became Afraid

We find out in the session with Dr. Ellison that Joe had worked in the fire department. He left the fire department because he didn’t feel good. Dr. Ellison diagnoses Joe’s problem this way.

Dr. Ellison: “My guess is that your experiences in the fire department were extremely traumatic. You experienced the imminent possibility of death several times?”

Joe: “Yeah.”

Dr. Ellison: “The cumulative anxiety with those brushes with death left you habitually fearful about your physical person.”

This little scene tells us two facts about Joe. He used to be a fireman. We also know that he got really scared.

Trying To Find The Hero

After Joe quits his job, he gets a visit from Mr. Granamore. Mr. Granamore peers into Joe’s eyes and says:

Mr. Granamore:  “I’m trying to find the hero in there.”

Joe: “What do you mean?”

Mr. Granamore: “You dragged two kids down a six story burning staircase. Now that’s brave. Then you went back for the third kid. That was heroic. Come on now. You’re a hero.”

Joe: “Well, that was a long time ago.” 

Mr. Granamore: “Yes, it was.”

And this is the real truth about Joe before he started to feel bad all the time. He had been a hero, a long time ago, before he became afraid.

Why did Mr. Granamore choose Joe for his business proposition? He was looking for a hero. He needed someone willing to jump into a volcano to save the Waponis from the angry fire god in the volcano. Who would be better than a man who had a history of jumping into burning burnings to save people?

Why Would I Jump Into A Volcano?

Mr. Granamore, for his own selfish purposes, is appealing to Joe to again become the hero Joe was before he became afraid. The hero in Joe hadn’t really gone away. He had gone into hiding in the bowels of a dismal factory—a factory that is the “Home of the Rectal Probe,” by the way.

If Mr. Granamore is going to get the boobaroo for his superconductors, he has to sell Joe on the idea of jumping into a volcano.

Joe asks an obvious question. “Why would I jump into a volcano?”

In an inspired sales pitch, Mr. Granamore gives Joe a renewed vision of his authentic self. He answers Joe’s question by appealing to Joe’s sense of his true self, the self that has been hiding in the depths of the dismal factory and his dingy apartment.

“Because of your exploits in the fire department, I think you’ve got the courage. All I know is that when you’re making those calls you’re up in the high country. From your doctor you know you’re on your way out anyway.You haven’t got any money. I checked.”

“Do you want to wait it out here in this apartment? Sounds kinda grim to me. Not the way I’d want to go. I tell you that. Live like a king, die like a man. That’s what I say. Waddya say?”

Joe answers simply, “All right, I’ll do it.”

Is There More To The Story Than Doing What You Are Afraid To Do?

From one perspective, Joe Versus The Volcano is a story about the need to do what you are most afraid to do. About summoning up your courage and taking leaps of faith. What could be a better symbol of doing what you fear than choosing to jump into a volcano?

This is the most obvious conclusion, but there is something even more significant going on in this story than simply telling you to do the thing you are most of afraid of doing.

In this story, Joe is not really afraid to jump. Joe has a history of courage and a history of leaping into burning buildings to save people. After Joe makes his decision to go to Waponi Woo, to die a hero, he never backs down from the decision.

Joe is resolute, even when he falls in love with Patricia. He will die as the hero that he was before he became afraid.

Becoming Your Authentic Self

And this is the most essential truth about Joe Versus The Volcano. The hero’s journey is not about changing yourself into someone you aren’t, but becoming who you truly are—your authentic self.

For Your Success,

Kalinda

Dr. Kalinda Rose Stevenson

The Story Transformer 

Creator of “The Story Transformation Process”

 [Cross-Published on NoMoneyLimits.com]

This is the fifth post in a 5-Part series.

Do You Sell Your Soul For Money?

A Money Story About Trading the Priceless For Orange Soda

Can You Change Your Life By Becoming Soul Sick?

The Life Changing Gift Of Knowing You Will Die

How Do You Have To Change Your Life To Be Your Authentic Self?

The Mentor’s Gift In The Hero Journey

As a mentor, Dr. Ellison is both a liar and a truth teller. His money story is that he sold his soul to Mr. Granamore and is willing to lie to Joe with a made-up diagnosis. But the story is not about Dr. Ellison, and the tradeoffs he made to be Mr. Granamore’s lackey, to be willing to trade his integrity as a physician for the benefits of being Mr. Granamore’s private—and presumably well-paid—doctor.

The story is about Joe’s hero’s journey to get his soul back. The mentor’s gift that Dr. Ellison gives Joe is the made-up “brain cloud” diagnosis.

On one side of the paradox, Dr. Ellison as a liar provides the diagnosis that gives Joe the reason to accept Mr. Granamore’s deal to jump into the volcano so that Mr. Granamore can get his boobaroo. Without the lie, Joe would never have started the journey to Waponi Woo, which is another way of stating that he would not have started on his life changing hero’s journey.

On the other side of the paradox, Dr. Ellison as the truth teller provides the diagnosis that gives Joe the essential reason to be heroic. When Joe knows he is going to die, he makes a life changing decision about how he will die. 

The Life Changing Paradox Of The Brain Cloud Diagnosis

The paradox of the diagnosis is that the lie about Joe’s imminent death from an incurable “brain cloud” provides the foundation for Joe to reclaim his authentic life.

The brain cloud diagnosis is a stark reminder that Joe’s time is limited. The story brings to the surface the fact of human mortality and that we, as human beings, have choices about how we live and how we die.

When Joe realizes that he has only six months left to live, he asks Dr. Ellison this question, “What am I going to do?”

Live It Well

Dr. Ellison then speaks these words of wisdom:

“You have some time left, Mr. Banks. You have some life left. My advice is to you is, live it well.”

This is the core idea of Joe Versus The Volcano. These words force Joe to consider how he will live and how he will die. These words are the gift that motivates Joe’s journey and shapes his decisions. He decides that he will live the rest of his life well. In Joe’s case, this means that he will die as a hero by jumping into a volcano on Waponi Woo.

Soul Sick Over Lost Time

Although Joe accepts the truth of his own impending death without much difficulty, Joe experiences his own soul sickness when he recognizes how much of his life he has wasted.

Soul sickness is not just the sense that Joe traded his authentic self for $300 a week, but that he wasted his precious life by doing it. When Joe realizes that he has only six months left to live, he quits his job because he is unwilling to spend another minute doing the job he hates.

Life Changing Questions

The core idea of Joe Versus The Volcano applies to all of us. You don’t need a diagnosis of six months to live to ask these questions.

What do you do about time you can never get back? About mistakes you have made? About bad choices? About all of the things you planned to do and never got done? About the time you didn’t spend with the people you love? And more significantly, what do you do with the time you have left? How do you live it well?

My own age makes such questions particularly acute for me, which is another reason why I have watched this movie so many times.

You Have Some Time Left To Change Your Life Story 

The wisdom lying on the surface of this movie applies to all of us. No matter how young or old you are right now, no matter what your current situation, whatever your life story up to this point,

“You have some time left. You have some life left. My advice is, use it well.”

To be continued…

For Your Success,

Kalinda

Dr. Kalinda Rose Stevenson

The Story Transformer 

Creator of “The Story Transformation Process”

[Cross-Published On NoMoneyLimits.com] 

This is the fourth post in a 5-Part series.

Do You Sell Your Soul For Money?

A Money Story About Trading the Priceless For Orange Soda

Can You Change Your Life By Becoming Soul Sick?

The Life Changing Gift Of Knowing You Will Die

How Do You Have To Change Your Life To Be Your Authentic Self?