Project MYTH

   During my lifetime, I've got through a lot of experiences, stories and books - and some of them have taught me important lessons. Also recently my interest in neuroscience and psychology has made me to think that visual symbols might be very efficient way to summarize that lessons in an easily recallable way and create some structure. Each symbol may represent some idea, behavior pattern or psychology method, and making that connection in my brain will facilitate its use in the right moment! As these associations are quite abstract, specific to my personality and way of thinking, i decided to call this experiences map - a personal MYTH.
   Myth is a fairytale, which does not represent reality directly, but defines a terminology and world model, usable to resolve certain real situations and tasks - pretty same way as mathematicians do introduce their abstactions and terms to find ways to solution of math problem.
   I thought that creating such Myths might be entertaining and useful for other people too - thats why I share it here. So you can see my current Myth here.

   Also now I tend to percieve esoterics as some kind of Myths, too. When I was much younger I was eager to explore world of esoterics - mainly by attending different types of festivals, courses and practices, however I always wondered why I do not feel or experience things that I was told about - like "shamanic journies", "energies", "vibratons" and so on. At that times I believed that it is something from real world, something that can be reproduced if I follow the instructions of teachers or books most precisely. It was not.
  When I got first serious health problems which endangered my way of life, and medics could not remedy fast enough, I tried a lot of esoteric "healing". It all was time waste, and by coinsidence led me to situation of conflict with authorities, which I would rather avoid.
  After all I was healed, luckily, but just with time and consistent efforts during it.
   Now, more than 10 years after, I rather support scientific approaches to reality - trusting only ways of exploring which are free of biases, blind faith and based on scientific methodology, which led modern society to progress and prosperity it has today in comparison to previous centuries. Some of them are falsifiability - existence of logically possible experiment which could refute the statement, reproducibility - getting similar results by several independent experimenters being free of expectations, statement usefullness for making predictions, and so on. And obviously true explorer should be open to admit his mistakes, wrong conclusions, and eager to search for really valuable results, even if that hurts the ego - and to admit that our knowledge is limited and never final.
  Supporters of esoterics teachings(and religions), on the other hand, often blindly believe - into "ancient books knowledge", "enlightened masters", "established schools" and so on, while accusing modern science as corrupted by money & power hungry individuals. However in my opinion we should talk not about individuals(which may actually be faulty as every human), but about principles of gaining knowledge and choosing sources to trust.

  But, what if creators of some esoteric practices & theories, eventually also did not mean them as descriptions of real world ? What if esoterics supporters are just obsessed with bright, attractive and "explaining-eveything" form, staying ignorant on the real phenomenas begind it?
   In my opinion, it might be it was designed like more of abstract psychological tool, to be available to understand and use by different kinds of people - but to improve their "neural network" brain condition, not explaining how the world works overall. For example, buddhist meditations and vipassana practices work well for resolving mental issues,a lot of yoga positions and breating techniques have proven impact on improving physical health, and some Kastaneda books may be perceived as psychological guide how to interact with people in society, and achieve life goals.
  Also some esoteric terminology, if being understood as part of Myth, may be usable in describing real psychological phenomena, for example:

  demon - is a craving or behavior pattern, which is draining resources of person or the others, but giving nothing or little in exchange,
  energy - a potential of doing some work or creating things,
  chakra - specific area of life to put attention into, and so on.

  I encourage you to continue this thought experiment and see where it will lead :) And to create your personal Myth!