Welcome back into the Mind Meld, my dear friends, and my fellow wonder-divers, I have to say

that I am truly elated to bring you the following Mind Meld, because, well, this is going to be a

very roundabout, because, because first, you know, all of the forefathers of this modern mythological

renaissance that I've been so influenced by, you know, folks like the Joseph Campbell, the Houston

Smiths, the more mytho-psychological masterminds like Carl Jung and James Hillman, and really, for

that matter, all of my favorite thinkers, they all have one very unfortunate thing in common.

They are not currently alive, so I will never barring some trans-temporal mystical invention,

be able to actually share any air with these luminaries. I will never be able to get them

in the Mind Meld, despite the fact that they seem so salient, they seem to be right there,

given the fact that there's so much video of them, so many lectures, so many books, but I will

never be able to pierce that veil, unfortunately. And on that note, I've actually also considered

the fact that maybe some of their mystique is due to the fact that they're not around anymore.

It sort of makes them a bigger-than-life legend. And plus, you're never going to have any of the

awkward negative interactions that are possible when you commune in meat space. You know, you're never

going to smell their bad breath. You're never going to say or do anything. You might regret in

front of them. You're never going to see them argue with a waitress about sandwich toppings or

whatever other mundane foible. I've definitely considered that too. But there's, of course,

so much more than this potential posthumous inflation or whatever you want to call it going on.

So much that there's no way I could cover it all in this particular introduction.

So I'll keep it general and just say that I do really think that all of the above people I

mentioned, the Campbell's, the Young's, the Hillmans, the Alan Watts's are truly special for a

multitude of reasons. But one that they all share is that each of them had a very unique ability,

...