Hi, and welcome to my site.
The psychology of human experience
fascinates me, how we are changed by our
interaction with the world and the world is
changed by our active participation. I have
traveled to over seventy countries and am
continuously amazed by the wealth and
variety within our world.
I am not quite sure when I first became
fascinated with the Mediterranean world, but
as a child, when I roamed the halls of the Field
Museum in Chicago, I began to sense that I
was born 2500 years too late. Of course, I was
mesmerized by the lifestyles of the rich and
noble, and not the life of the ordinary person. .
Being the recipient of an essentially classical
education, my youth was filled with the tales
and heroics of myth. Sometime in college, I
became fascinated with Greek philosophy.
Then, when I set foot in Greece for the first
time, I was infected with physical and psychic
wanderlust. With Pausanias in hand, I
wandered the lands of omens and oracles,
dreams and daemons, ecstasy and
enthusiasm, of a world long gone and
tantalizingly close. I never had a better tour
guide than Pausanias. I drank from the
Castalian Spring and listened at Dodonna. I
wandered Epheseus and Egypt and finally
came upon Eleusis.
In my thirties, I went to China for the first time.
North and east of Beijing, there is a city called
Datong. Outside this city, there are sixty four
caves. They say, within the caves, are
sixty-four thousand sculptures. Some
Buddhas are sixty feet high. Others are one
inch. I wandered through each of those caves.
And when, after hours of focused
concentration, I exited the caves, I saw in the
clouds hundreds and thousands of Buddhas.
In Malaysia, I followed the rituals of Hindus.
Properly prepared, I walked across fire. That
night my spirit was lifted up. The following
year, desirous of ecstasy, I walked again. I
spent the next week in the hospital, feet badly
burned, fighting against medivac. I remember
thinking, "if firewalking doesn't work, maybe
faith healing will." The next day, the burns
sloughed off. I walked to work.
But in all of this, I began to understand the
mystical experience of Eleusis. In the
Phaedrus, Socrates opines: Our greatest
blessings come to us by way of
madness, provided the madness is given
us by divine gift.
This website is created to examine this gift, to
seek out the cause and effect, to open a portal
to a sense of wonder, to be open to the
Mystery of life.
Your comments are welcome. Send me an
email with your corrections, additions, or
reflections.
Thanks,
Todd Swanson
The psychology of human experience
fascinates me, how we are changed by our
interaction with the world and the world is
changed by our active participation. I have
traveled to over seventy countries and am
continuously amazed by the wealth and
variety within our world.
I am not quite sure when I first became
fascinated with the Mediterranean world, but
as a child, when I roamed the halls of the Field
Museum in Chicago, I began to sense that I
was born 2500 years too late. Of course, I was
mesmerized by the lifestyles of the rich and
noble, and not the life of the ordinary person. .
Being the recipient of an essentially classical
education, my youth was filled with the tales
and heroics of myth. Sometime in college, I
became fascinated with Greek philosophy.
Then, when I set foot in Greece for the first
time, I was infected with physical and psychic
wanderlust. With Pausanias in hand, I
wandered the lands of omens and oracles,
dreams and daemons, ecstasy and
enthusiasm, of a world long gone and
tantalizingly close. I never had a better tour
guide than Pausanias. I drank from the
Castalian Spring and listened at Dodonna. I
wandered Epheseus and Egypt and finally
came upon Eleusis.
In my thirties, I went to China for the first time.
North and east of Beijing, there is a city called
Datong. Outside this city, there are sixty four
caves. They say, within the caves, are
sixty-four thousand sculptures. Some
Buddhas are sixty feet high. Others are one
inch. I wandered through each of those caves.
And when, after hours of focused
concentration, I exited the caves, I saw in the
clouds hundreds and thousands of Buddhas.
In Malaysia, I followed the rituals of Hindus.
Properly prepared, I walked across fire. That
night my spirit was lifted up. The following
year, desirous of ecstasy, I walked again. I
spent the next week in the hospital, feet badly
burned, fighting against medivac. I remember
thinking, "if firewalking doesn't work, maybe
faith healing will." The next day, the burns
sloughed off. I walked to work.
But in all of this, I began to understand the
mystical experience of Eleusis. In the
Phaedrus, Socrates opines: Our greatest
blessings come to us by way of
madness, provided the madness is given
us by divine gift.
This website is created to examine this gift, to
seek out the cause and effect, to open a portal
to a sense of wonder, to be open to the
Mystery of life.
Your comments are welcome. Send me an
email with your corrections, additions, or
reflections.
Thanks,
Todd Swanson
About Me
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