John David Ebert: A guide through the Matrix

Last year when looking up stuff online I came across a man by the name of John David Ebert. He’s a cultural critic and philosopher that is much easier stomach and more interesting than Ken Wilber with his Integral Theory. John David Ebert was heavily inspired by Joseph Campbell’s work on myth and psychology. He’s a former editor for the Joseph Campbell foundation. Mr. Ebert brings the themes of Campbell’s work up to date looking at myth in film and by looking at the new patterns of behavior as well as new archetypes spawned by today's use of technology.

His books are Twilight of the Clockwork God: Conversations on Science & Spirituality at the End of an Age, Celluloid Heroes & Mechanical Dragons: Film as the Mythology of Electronic Society, Dead Celebrities, Living Icons: Tragedy and Fame in the Age of the Multimedia Superstar, The New Media Invasion: Digital Technologies and the World They Unmake. I’m curious to read this latest book and compare it to Baudrillard’s ideas about Simulacra and Simulation. Also to see if it will help give me a context for how technology is playing in the revolutions happing now. It seems to have a dualistic effect toward “the World they Unmake”. Fascinating!

He also has a kick ass website called Cinema Discourse where he attempts to analyze famous films and encourages discourse with readers http://www.cinemadiscourse.com/ . Along with this site he also has Cultural Discourse http://cinemadiscourse.com/cultural/ with topics ranging from current events, ancient culture, religion as well as modern themes. My favorites however are his lectures which can be found on Youtube. The list of topics lectured on is amazing!! I felt like a kid in a candy store when I found these lectures as they are all subjects and persons of great interest to me. The list of subjects are as follows: Rudolf Steiner, Joseph Campbell, Freud and Jung, James Hillman, Arthur Young, William Irwin Thompson, Oswald Spengler, Jean Gebser, Heinrich Zimmer, Terence McKenna, Freud and Jung conflict, Kundalini Yoga, The Anima Mundi, Arthurian Romances, Evolution of Consciousness, Campbell’s Symbol without meaning, Alchemy, Creation Myths.

It’s strange sometimes how we find these obscure people in the world that sync up with our interest becoming a teacher and inspirational. I hope that you guys and gals check this guy out. If you have any interest what so ever in film, psychology, celebrities, myths or philosophy I think you’ll have lots to discover here. If you have already read up on many of these topics he will no doubt bring a fresh and interesting perspective to you, even if you don’t agree.

http://www.youtube.com/user/johndavidebert#p/u

Here's a link to his Youtube Channel where you can type in any of the above mentioned topics in the search box for his various lectures, interviews and film analysis. The lectures usually come in several parts and I find it useful to add them to my queue in sequential order so I can listen to it all at once without having to click each one separately at a time. I'm also posting a playlist of a lecture on human evolution, specifically man's evolution of his idea of the afterlife/death and man's evolution of technology.