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Next Level Soul Podcast with Alex Ferrari
BONUS MONDAYS: HUMANITY'S MYTHICAL PAST: Discovering the TRUE ROOTS of OUR Existence! with Tok Thompson PhD.
01:06:43
Tok Thompson was born and raised in rural Alaska. At the age of 17, he began attending Harvard College, where he received his bachelor’s degree in Anthropology. He received a Master’s degree in Folklore from the University of California, Berkeley, and...
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- [00:02]
Skyrizi Commercial Narrator
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- [00:41]
Skyrizi Commercial Narrator
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- [00:46]
Host (Interviewer)
Nothing is everything.
- [00:49]
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- [01:00]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
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Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
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- [01:32]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
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- [01:34]
Ryan Seacrest (Albertsons and Safeway Advertiser)
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's cough, cold and flu season. Do not get caught feeling under the weather. Get back to feeling good with savings on all your cold and flu Essentials now through February 24th. Shop in store or online to stock up and save on Items like Mucinex, Fast Max Liquid Gels, Vicks DayQuil and NyQuil combo packs, hulls, cough drops and Tylenol Children's Liquid. The offer ends February 24th. Restrictions apply. Offers may vary. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more details.
- [02:04]
Next Level Soul Host (Alex Ferrari)
Welcome to Next Level Soul, the place where we deep dive into the mysteries of existence, uncover hidden layers of consciousness and explore the journey of the soul. I'm your host, Alex Ferrari, and every week we sit down with the world's leading spiritual teachers, mystics, scientists and truth seekers to illuminate the path towards awakening. Here we ask questions that truly matter. Why are we here? Where are we going? And how do we elevate our lives, our purpose, and our consciousness to the next level? This is a space for transformation, a space for expansion, a space to remember who you really are. So take a deep breath, open your mind, and prepare to step into your Next Level soul. Now, if you're ready to take your spiritual journey to the next level, explore Next Level Soul tv. Our streaming platform filled with exclusive movies, docs, original shows, transformative series, guided meditations, channeling sessions, audiobooks, and deep spiritual teachings you won't find anywhere else. New content drops every week, helping you expand your consciousness and live from your highest potential. Start your journey today at Next Level Soul tv. The views, opinions and statements expressed by our guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs or positions of Next Level Soul, its host, or any of the companies they represent. Now, let's dive into today's episode.
- [03:35]
Host (Interviewer)
Like to welcome the show to Thompson. How you doing?
- [03:38]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
To Very good, Very good.
- [03:40]
Host (Interviewer)
Thank you so much for coming on the show, my friend. I'm, I'm, I'm looking forward to our conversation about folklore and myth, which is your specialty. Can you tell the audience a little bit about your background and what you've been studying for the last 30, 20.
- [03:53]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
However long years in 25 words or less? I can try. My, my own background's kind of just unique, and it probably has something to do with what I'm doing as a. As an academic. So I grew up kind of out in the woods in Alaska, and my dad was kind of a bit of a survivalist, so I didn't, I didn't grow up around people very much. And, and then when I got to college, I, I went right from the backwoods of Alaska right to Harvard College and, and ended up becoming fascinating with anthropology. Like, you know, what is this species up to? What is Homo sapiens sapiens and what are people? What is culture and all that. And I grew up, you know, with a lot of. Surrounded by a lot of native culture. My name is sort of an Anglo satisfiant of a native name. I'm not native myself, but I have a lot of native family members and, you know, community members, friends and whatnot. So I, growing up in that community, I was always really exposed to that sort of side of things. And it was always, you know, it's always been a part of my life. And then, you know, then that was another part of the anthropology. I realized, especially in the rest of the U.S. like, natives don't play that big of a role in the culture. And so that's a part of it, too. I really think that, you know, the indigenous languages and the mythologies and worldviews, and there's just a lot out there that's really beautiful. And look at, you know, that I think people could learn a lot of. We don't teach it enough, I don't think, in our American school system without.
- [05:01]
Host (Interviewer)
Yeah, without question. I come from a storytelling background in Hollywood, so I've studied myth and obviously Joseph Campbell and everything that he's done. And it is. It is the. As they say, I think George Lucas said, the meat and potatoes of. Of a. Of a species is carried around through folklore and myth. Would you agree?
- [05:21]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Well, yeah. Stories in general, right? I mean, you know, how do we think of the world? Usually it's not just like isolated facts, but people. People tell stories and they put together stories. You have the story of your, you know, your nation, your religion, your. Your. Your people. Where did, you know then the myths? Where did we all come from, right? Who. Where did this all start? Or where is it all going? And even individual stories, you kind of walk around like, this is my story. I grew up in Alaska. You know, everybody has these narratives. We talk about other people's stories and, you know, politics is often in stories. So I think that that's really what gives Cuban culture its. Its power is telling and sharing stories and building those story worlds together. So that's, you know, that's literature. But for me, a much bigger part of storytelling is. Is in folklore and mythology.
- [06:04]
Host (Interviewer)
Now, can you share an example of a folklore tale that deeply embodies spiritual values in one way, shape or form?
- [06:11]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Yes. I think all of us are kind of spiritual value, right? They tell you what is spiritual in the world. They tell you what, you know, where's the spiritual stuff. So, you know, in Abrahamic religions, we're used to the idea of heaven, and that's. It's kind of up, right? So it's up there in the stars. And so if you ask, people point to heaven, everybody will point up, right? Even though we know now we're on a little ball spinning around. So what's up now 12 years, 12 hours later is going to be down, right? But. But there's still this idea that is up. And so this in, you know, this permeates our entire culture. You know, high is good in our culture. If I say you're going to get a high grade in my class, you know, that's a good grade. High is good. Why is high good? Well, because that's where. That's where God is. That's where the divine is. That's where you go when you die, if you're a good person. Right? And that's. And of course, there's different stories that put it up, you know, very, very differently. And, you know, so one of the big differences that you see really with Native American stuff is the idea of souls, that it's not just a human centric enterprise, right? I mean, in, in the Abrahamic things, you've got God, the creator of the universe is basically a guy usually represented like God made man in his image. And the theology is that only people have souls, right? That, that, you know, contrary to the movies, good dogs do not get to go to heaven. I mean, this is the official theology anyway, right? That. So your chimp might be 98.5% as genetically, but has 0% soul, right? It has no soul at all. And yet, if you go to the Native American traditions, there are stories like, you know, some of my. Nearly all of them, it's animals that are creat or even plants or even stones, and they sort of create us. So that's a very different way of looking at things. So in the Native American view, like, you know, do wolves have souls? Yes, you know, that that's a real dynamic. You see, it's very, very different between these two mythic views. So I know the Joseph Campbell stuff will try to tease together, like, what all these myths share in common, but I think there's a lot of beauty and what they. Their diversity. Like, how would, how do they set up things differently, right? Is what is the soul? What happens when you die? What's out there? And so again, you know, that. That's an interesting split right there with, say, Native American, all these various and different Native American traditions and languages and mythologies and religions, but they all share that, you know, wolves have souls.
- [08:20]
Host (Interviewer)
So let me ask you then, from your research, when is the first time in folklore, in myth, in story, that the soul is introduced as a character element in these stories? Well, how far back does that concept go?
- [08:36]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Yeah, well, okay, so that's hard to answer because we know it goes way back further than writing, right? So how do we. How do we have any record really, of when this starts? And so it's hard to know. I mean, Homo sapiens sapiens have been us for like 400,000 years. Presumably we've been telling stories for at least 400,000 years. You know, we don't know about. Did Homo erectus tell stories or Proto stories. You know, we don't know and I don't know how we would ever know, but presumably at some point we picked it up and it's, you know, it's certainly been a part of the human condition probably for as soon as we figured out language. I mean, I think one of the first things that people are going to, besides the mundane stuff like, you know, watch out, here comes a lion. You know, I think one of some of the first things people are going to wonder about is, is, you know, the power of things and what happens when you die. Right. I mean, you know, you're aware or you become aware that other people die and people want to talk about this. You know, people wonder what happens if you know you're going to die. Right. And you still know what that all about. Well, that's, I think that's been an eternal part of human culture. Stories about wondering what this is all about.
- [09:38]
Host (Interviewer)
Yeah. And I think this, we're, we're the only species on the planet, to my knowledge, that understands that it will die one day, as far as we know.
- [09:45]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
You know, honestly. Do whales know? I don't know. You know, yeah.
- [09:49]
Host (Interviewer)
Do dolphins know? Yeah, maybe.
- [09:51]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Yeah. We're just beginning to figure out all the stuff that they're talking about. And what's interesting is that we do know that they're talking about a lot of stuff, Right. So we do know that these guys are communicating a lot. And nearly all animals are. I mean, you know, bats and, and certainly all the mammals. We're, we're, we talk a lot. So it's not just people. Right. But we're just beginning to understand how to decode this. And they're kind of getting closer, right. They're decoding dolphin and whale songs and stuff like that. So as far as we know, as far as we know, we're the only sort of storytelling species. I would love to be proved wrong on that. I think it'd be fascinating. But right now, as far as we know, this is what gives humans our, our punch.
- [10:30]
Host (Interviewer)
Now there's another, there's another aspect to spirituality. Mix myth, folklore, and also just spiritual texts. Ancient texts that talk about the great illusion, the, the, the dream, as the Aborigine call it, or Maya in the ancient Indian text, where this is all essentially a matrix, a construct, a hologram. How far back do you see that or have, have you where have that idea? And it doesn't go across most of the research you've done in different cultures.
- [11:07]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
You know, I think there's a couple of different questions. If you look about, you know, different cultures, they definitely have, you know, different concepts. It's like the spirit world or the, the, or what's beyond it or something. And then you also have sort of, I think in all places around the world you also have sort of individuals, prophets, dreamers, that kind of thing that, you know, have experiences and they try to bring them back and tell stories about them. You know, maybe this is schizophrenia or mental illness or maybe they're tapping into something, right? So I mean the world is full of mysteries and, and one of the things that these stories do, and they're sneaky this way that they set up the way we think about the world. And so if you can think outside of those, right, like what actually might be out there, right? What, what does it all mean? How, you know, there's, think of the human neurons and how many there are, right. I mean this is an incredibly complex machine and now you can read the scientific stuff that they think. Oh well, maybe consciousness is tied in with the quantum continuum. Maybe, maybe quantum mechanics have something to do with this fascinating thought, right? So maybe it is, maybe our thoughts are somehow tied into the quantum realm, which of course if you explore that physically, it's fascinating, right? I mean quantum entanglement, if you follow that, right. So basically it says that, you know, space and time don't really exist in the quantum entanglement. And this is over the universe which includes like a lot of places, a lot of stars. I mean how many trillions of stars are out there? So we've got like billions of neurons, several trillion stars. I don't have the exact numbers of, not a physicist but you get the idea that, you know, this is fascinating stuff. So the world is a world of wonders, right? And science is great. I'm not anti science, but science improves by asking those far out questions.
- [12:43]
Next Level Soul Host (Alex Ferrari)
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
- [12:48]
Skyrizi Commercial Narrator
My perfect day has sand, salt water and friends. But my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis can take me out of the moment. Now I'm all in with clearer skin thanks to Skyrizi Rizankizumab RZA, a prescription only 150mg injection for adults who are candidates for systemic or phototherapy with Skyrizi. Most people saw 90% clearer skin and many were even 100% plaque free at four months. Skyrizi is just four doses a year. After two starter doses.
- [13:16]
Skyrizi Commercial Warning Voice
Don't use if allergic to Skyrizi. Serious allergic reactions, increased infections or lower ability to fight them may occur before treatment. Get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor about any flu like symptoms or vaccines.
- [13:28]
Skyrizi Commercial Narrator
Thanks to Skyrizi, there's nothing on my skin and that means everything.
- [13:32]
Host (Interviewer)
Nothing is everything.
- [13:36]
Skyrizi Commercial Narrator
Ask your doctor about Skyrizi, the number one dermatologist prescribed biologic in psoriasis. Visit skyrizi.com or call 1-866-Skyrizi to learn more.
- [13:46]
Ryan Seacrest (Albertsons and Safeway Advertiser)
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's cough cold and flu season. Do not get caught feeling under the weather. Get back to feeling good with savings on all your cold flu Essentials now through February 24th. Shop in store or online to stock up and save on items like Mucinex, Fast Max Liquid Gels, Vicks Dayquil and nyquil Combo packs, holes, cough drops and Tylenol Children's liquid. Offer ends February 24th. Restrictions apply. Offers may vary. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more details.
- [14:17]
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- [15:20]
Next Level Soul Host (Alex Ferrari)
And now back to the show.
- [15:23]
Host (Interviewer)
Right? Exactly. So these concepts of like you know, are we when the Matrix showed up, I think that's the first time that we really figured out or first time in the Zeitgeist that the idea of that. Wait a minute, are we in a giant computer program? You know, is there some nerdy alien somewhere?
- [15:38]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
That's our metaphor for today. Like Paleolithic man would have said computer program. Right. You wouldn't know that.
- [15:44]
Host (Interviewer)
But Maya or the dream, or like the dream for the Aborigine would be the equivalent of that. Or Maya is the great illusion. So they're using their language.
- [15:52]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Yeah. Yeah. Well this Idea of where is consciousness or what is this? You know, what does it come from? How is it different from materiality? You know, is consciousness simply a product of materiality? Right. Are we, or is it, is there something else out there about consciousness? And so, you know, I think these questions have been raised in multiple cultures all around the world. And that plugs into, you know, again, what's beyond the physicality and is there anything. Right, so this is, this is I think a cornerstone of a lot of these different lines of inquiry that you find in different cultures.
- [16:22]
Host (Interviewer)
So have you, have you done any research in the near death experience phenomenon?
- [16:26]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Classic part of shamanism. You know, the, the, the, you know, one way that people often become shamans in Native American culture is they have a near death experience, get mauled by a bear or something, and up until then they're like normal people. And then they sort of feel like they've got, died, gone to the spirit realm and come back and they go to the, and then they have this sort of shamanic awakening, one might say, because this is exactly what shamans are supposed to do. This is the craft of shamanism. You sort of leave your body, you know, have an outof body experience, which is what people report a lot in near death experiences, even in the U.S. right. Being on the hospital bed and floating above the, that sort of thing. So whether or not this is true, do people really float? I'm not going to answer that. I'm not a physicist. But what is true is that people in many, many parts of the world report the same story. One could say.
- [17:13]
Host (Interviewer)
Yeah, and it's, it's. Yeah, I've interviewed over a hundred at this point of near death experiencers and I've and even talked to some academics who've studied near death experiences across the world in different cultures. And it's fascinating that you're right. These stories are coming out and it's not always a tunnel of white light. Sometimes if you're, if you're a native, it's going through a hole in the, in a tree or walking a path. But there's some sort of, there's a lot of common denominators and it's pretty, it is a pretty fascinating and it's a pretty new thing. Even though there is from my understanding, references to near death experiences in the Bible, in Greek, in Greek mythology or Greek, Greek culture.
- [17:56]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
I mean, you know, if you think about like Christianity, the cornerstone belief of what you should believe, the central Christian tenet, right, he died in, is Reborn. Right. The idea that Christ died, went to the spirit realm or whatever and came back. Right. So this is a. This is actually a cornerstone of Christian theology Now in.
- [18:13]
Host (Interviewer)
How does it. How does folklore and myth really influence modern religion as we know it today and its practices?
- [18:23]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
That's hugely. What can I say? I mean, you know, with myth, how I define myth as like, you know, sacred creation story. This is the usual one. Sometimes they're like after the world ends, but usually they're creation stories, like, how did this world come to. To be. And so, you know, I don't know any religion that doesn't have that. Have one of those. And religion is more than that, certainly. But, I mean, you know, what is the impact of the Garden of Eden story on Christian and Abrahamic theology? Huge. Right. I mean, you know, it's a story. There's a God that's basically like a humanoid male and creates a male in his image. And that's why we are in God's image. And I mean, you know, is that story important to people's lives? Yeah. I mean, my computer has a little apple with a bite out of it. Where did that come from? You know, this is called my. This is called my Adam's apple. Where did that come from? I mean, these things permeate our lives, right? I mean, and even those basic metaphors, again, high is good. So I'm feeling. I'm. I'm high as a kite. That means, you know, if I'm seeing a bit low today, that's bad. So low is bad because of this story. God is up there. In other mythic stories, God is down there. That's where the divine is. So if you're a good person, you die, your soul goes down. So then down is important. So even these basic metaphors of, like, you know, colors and time and numbers and, you know, these miscreate our world.
- [19:41]
Host (Interviewer)
Now, there is a story that is in almost every, if not every culture in.
- [19:48]
Next Level Soul Host (Alex Ferrari)
In.
- [19:48]
Host (Interviewer)
In the world, which is the flood story, the great flood.
- [19:51]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
And it's something we can get into that. Hold on.
- [19:54]
Host (Interviewer)
Yeah, please. I would love to hear about it.
- [19:55]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Work on this. Sure, sure. Number one. No, I mean, not every culture in the world has a flood story. So that's. That's been disproven over and over again in folklore scholarship. The other thing is that there are a lot of stories, and when you sort of examine these, you notice that they're not the same story. The main thing is they have a flood in them. And then you also notice where these happen. In flood prone areas. So what we see is that floods are sort of a regular, at times cataclysmic occurrence to a lot of ancient societies and civilizations, right? They can wipe out entire cities, entire peoples. So these things become remembered and these, these become a part of the narrative like, where did we come from? What happened to us? The other thing is that this is a, this is the commonality you often see is that when, when horrible things happen, people want to know the reason. Like this wasn't just random gents. So very often it's like, why are the gods mad at us? Or why is God mad at us? Right? What did we do wrong? Right? So we have that in the Noah story that, you know, mankind is so wicked that God decides it's true for Betty.
- [20:56]
Host (Interviewer)
Right?
- [20:57]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Noah. But if you go over the northwest coast, you have a lot of these flood myths, but, and this is an area with a lot of earthquakes that have a lot of, historically a lot of floods. And so they, in these myths though, the idea is that it's caused by mountain dwarves dancing. They have these spirits that are in the, in the mountains and they dance. And this causes earthquakes which causes the, the floods, the tsunamis in this case, right? So this is a different type of flood. This is not like a rainy weather flood. This is a flood from a tsunami because of an earthquake. So in this myth, it actually has a lot of important information too, right? If you, you know, if there's an earthquake, watch out for floods, right? Head for high ground. If it's a big earthquake, this is something good to remember. The other thing about it is that, you know, why were these mountain dwarves dancing? The idea is that usually the people sin. They did something wrong. You know, in a couple of stories, like people beat their dogs or something. And this upset the mountain dwarfs so much. So what this does is it also explains things, right? Like, so when people want to know, is this God's punishment? I remember when the AIDS thing came out, a lot of the religious, right, it's like, this is God's punishment for our sins, right? People often seek a meaning in, in, in disasters and, and I think it's far scary to think that there isn't one. That we're just sort of at the whims of the universe. I think that's far scarier. People want to know. It also then puts them in control. Like we can, we can not have another flood if we just behave better, right?
- [22:21]
Host (Interviewer)
And, but that's, it's. So that's interesting, the dancing dwarf idea, because like to me, I mean, obviously that sounds to me ridiculous that there's giant dancing dwarfs in. In a mountain. But if you start looking at many of our religious stories and many of our spiritual stories.
- [22:38]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
The other Noah Flood story was a big guy in the sky. You know, everything and everybody that he created because.
- [22:45]
Host (Interviewer)
Yeah, because. But he's an all loving father figure. So why is he killing everybody and judging?
- [22:50]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
He was supposed to be perfect and then he's supposed to create everything perfect. But then he got so bad he had. He had to almost wipe it all out and then he will have to wipe it all out later. That's the end, right?
- [22:58]
Host (Interviewer)
Right, exactly. So it seems like humanity is a general. The human is that they need to construct something to make sense of the insanity that it is to live in this realm, in this experience of the physical realm in all aspects throughout history.
- [23:14]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, what is it to live and enjoy and everything to know you're going to die? It's like, oh man. So there was a lot of stories, a lot of mystery like why do people have to die? And that's part of the Garden of Eden story, right? That's. The Garden of Eden story is actually part of a wider macro type of stories that goes across a lot of Africa and the Near East. And it's known by. It has several different forms, but it's usually known as the failed animal messenger. And the idea is that there's an animal that's supposed to go to the creator deity and come back with information of how people will live forever. And so the Garden of Eden story with the snake in this case is that. But in other places it's the hare or a turtle. In one place it's a cat and a dog. Among the bang of western Africa, it's a cat and a dog. They're going to go to the creator. The cat just doesn't really care enough to deliver the message. He doesn't care enough about his people. The dog really does. And he tries to do his best job and he goes and he gets to command. He's carrying back a little scroll in his mouth telling people how we're going to live forever. But he's on the way back, he sees a pile of meaty bones and he gets distracted and forgets. They try to do the best. They just kind of screwed up. The cat just didn't care enough about us.
- [24:22]
Host (Interviewer)
And if anyone who's ever owned a cat will completely makes that makes complete sense. It just was like when you try.
- [24:29]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
To tell your cat to do something. Hey, fetch. Right?
- [24:32]
Host (Interviewer)
Not so. Not so much. That's so much.
- [24:34]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Right. So this is actually part of the same macro type that goes all across Africa. And that's part of the the snake in this case and a lot. Now Christians often think the snake got the devil, right? It doesn't say that in the Bible. It's just a snake. I mean it is. There is no devil in the Old Testament. Judaism doesn't have a devil. That came later.
- [24:52]
Next Level Soul Host (Alex Ferrari)
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
- [24:56]
Skyrizi Commercial Narrator
My perfect day as sand, salt water and friends. But my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis can take me of the moment. Now I'm all in with clearer skin thanks to Skyrizi Risankizumab RZA, a prescription only 150mg injection for adults who are candidates for systemic or phototherapy with Skyrizi. Most people saw 90% clearer skin and many were even 100% plaque free at four months. Skyrizi is just four doses a year. After two starter doses.
- [25:24]
Skyrizi Commercial Warning Voice
Don't use if allergic to Skyrizi. Serious allergic reactions, increased infections or lower ability to fight them may occur before treatment. Get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor about any flu like symptoms or vaccines.
- [25:36]
Skyrizi Commercial Narrator
Thanks to Skyrizi. There's nothing on my skin and that means everything.
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Nothing is everything.
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Next Level Soul Host (Alex Ferrari)
And now back to the show.
- [26:48]
Host (Interviewer)
Yeah, so let me ask you about that because that that idea of hell and the devil and the fallen angel of Satan and you know all of this kind of stuff. You know, I was, I was, that was exposed to that in first grade in Catholic school. And I was terrified as it's supposed to terrify you to be a good person.
- [27:04]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Part of the point.
- [27:04]
Host (Interviewer)
Yeah, it's part of the point. But that meant the, the idea of the devil came in, in the New Testament, if I'm not mistaken.
- [27:13]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Yeah, absolutely. There's no, there's no devil in Judaism. There's no hell in Judaism. This is, this is, this is an import by Christianity. Now what I think is fascinating is that where did Christianity get this? And I think they got it mostly from Zoroastrianism. So Zoroastrianism was this major. It is still a major world religion. A huge temple here in Los Angeles. And this is centered in the Persian Empire. And then. And it was hugely popular with the Roman Empire. The army. So the, most of the Roman army. You have to remember, most of the Roman army weren't Romans. Right. These were captured people from all over the place. So the Roman army, which is a, you know, global population, was occupying Judea during Christ's lifetime and before. And they would have largely been Zoroastrian. So this would have been sort of the, the, the main religion of all of these people living there. And so Zoroastrianism is right next door. Zoroastrianism has heaven and hell. Zoroastrianism has good and evil, and God is all good and the devil is all evil. And Zoroastrian. Zoroastrianism has all of these sort of elements like the devil and, and versus God and this sort of thing. So the whole Christian idea that, you know, you're sort of in between the devil's trying to get you and God's trying to get you. But this, this is really about, from Zoroastrianism more than Judaism. Judaism doesn't have that binary, like good, evil.
- [28:26]
Host (Interviewer)
You know, Greek mythology would have come afterwards, if I'm not mistaken, in the timeline. Correct. Was that. That's after Christ in the timeline?
- [28:34]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Well, no, Zoroastrianism was around, you know.
- [28:37]
Host (Interviewer)
Greek, Greek mythology, I'm talking about.
- [28:39]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Oh, Greek mythology. Yeah. Well, that goes back to like, kind of Old Testament times. So there was some overlaps. Sarah. Right. So this is all because of Hades.
- [28:45]
Host (Interviewer)
Because of Hades and that kind of idea.
- [28:49]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
There's a couple of points in time when, when Greek and Christian mythology sort of overlap. And, you know, the early times during the Iron Age period were a lot of these gods. I mean, Zeus just means Deus. Right. I mean, this just means God. Right. And his full name is Zeus Peter, Father God who lives up on high, you know, up on Mount Olympus maybe, but often in the clouds, it's just, you know, it's basically the same character, right. This become Jupiter for the Romans, Zeus Pater. It's just so people in Greece went from saying Father God to saying Father God, you know, if you think about when they converted. Right. So this is. This is not. This is already a connected sort of traditions.
- [29:22]
Host (Interviewer)
So can you talk a little bit about Zoroastrism? Because I'm not too familiar about the back. I've heard of it, but I'm not sure. I don't know a lot of the details of it.
- [29:29]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Huge, huge, hugely important religion. One of our major world religions and started by the prophet Zoraster who kind of cobbled together religion out of whatever else was there before. And sort of a monotheistic religion, it is a model, is at least as monotheistic as Christianity in the sense that there's a duality. Right. There's an all good God and there's an all bad devil, and there's a hell and there's a heaven. And then, you know, this is sort of the personal struggle is between those two forces. That's our human sort of struggle here on Earth. And again, this sort of laid the groundwork. Okay, so you remember the nativity scene in the Bible, right, In the Bible story where the three Magi. Well, Magi are Zoroastrian priests. These are. These are Zoroastrians. So, you know, it was already worked into that story that Christ's birth was blessed by the Zoroastrian priest. Right. So why was raspberry and priest blessed? Because it was very Zoroastrian, if you look at it.
- [30:21]
Host (Interviewer)
Where. And so what, what, what in the timeline of humanity, where did he. Where did Zoroastrianism start? Is it before Buddhism? After Buddhism? Oh.
- [30:31]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Oh, no, it was. Yeah. So Judaism again, if you go back that far, that's like early Iron Age. So Jurassianism would have been after that, but before Christianity. Just to kind of put it in context. Okay. You know, if you go back to the Old Testament, this is kind of Iron Age stories, really. And. And it overlaps with a lot of irony stories, again, that we see in the wider, you know, Mediterranean and in Greece and stuff like that. There's a flood story in ancient Greece, right. And it's pretty much the same flood story as Zeus decided to flood everything. So these stories, these people are already connected in a lot of these stories. And yet, you know, this Iron Age sort of strong ruler, male ruler, chiefs, and this is, this is, you see this in the mythologies that are emerging at this time.
- [31:06]
Host (Interviewer)
So let me ask you this because I've heard, I've. In my studies, I've seen that there's so many different, a lot of the same things overlap in other deities or leaders of religions, origin stories and Jesus historians. So if you look at Buddha and his story, you know, the, the Council of Nicaea took a couple of things at least, at least it looks like a lot of elements from that very different story.
- [31:35]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
So again, they are, I'm not a big fan of the Campbellian, the, the Campbell's idea that they're all the same story or something because there's a lot of differences. So, you know, Buddha was born rich, right? He was a prince. You know, Jesus was born a popper. You know, these are very different origin stories. Where I do see a lot of overlaps is like again, the ones that were sort of next to these areas. So Jesus's story really parallels Osiris from the Egyptian. And Osiris is interesting day. So if you look, you know, Egypt had been around for a long, long time, thousands of years, right? This is the center of civilization for so long. And if you look at Egyptian mythology over time, there's some really fun changes. If you go to the way back stuff, it's almost all animal gods or, or you know, human animal hybrid gods, as it goes. Later in time you start having more humans sort of take over these roles. So Osiris starts becoming the main God of death. He's the one that judges people. And, and by the time you get up towards this time period, you have the, the Day of Judgment, right? So when you die in the Egyptian stuff, you get judged at a day of judgment and either you go on to heaven or you get obliterated forever. Not tortured forever like hell, but, you know, same, same kind of basic idea. So we have a lot in Christianity and Abrahamic religions from, you know, I get where, where did Abrahamic religion start, right? Where did, where did Abraham start? Where was Abraham converted to monotheism in Egypt? So these are all very, very connected streams. And again, you're probably familiar with, you know, Amenhotep and slash Akhenaten, right? So this is the Egyptian pharaoh that basically abandoned the old Egyptian pantheon, probably in order to claim more power for himself. But maybe he was a believer and to institute a new religion that was essentially monotheistic ones. This is kind of the first monotheism and the main emblem was the sun. And then he was going to be the Pope as well as sort of. Right. So it was a way of consolidating power probably. But this is, you know, so this was going on. And he even constructed a new capital in the southern part of Egypt to house this. It only lasted his lifetime after, after he died, there was a revolution. They put the, the boy king Tutankhamun on the throne, right. King Tut, who is sort of not that great, not that impressive of an individual, and then restored the old religion. But, you know, these religious ideas were already bubbling around. And so again, this is where Judaism starts, right, in Egypt, right. Where Abraham gets converted to monotheism in Egypt. Moses means priest in Egyptian at this time. So, you know, there's a lot of these ideas that then get transferred. A lot of the Psalms and the proverbs seem to come from Akhenaten's temples. So there's, there's an impact early on. And then Osiris is becoming the big God. And Osiris's story is very much like Jesus's story, right? He's killed right around when he's 30 by kind of by the evil Satan underwater demon set, and then not by the Romans, but and then gets resurrected, brought back to life. And so even though, you know, his birthday is, uh, Osiris's birthday was often given as the winter solstice or right around Christmas. And his rebirth was usually at the spring equinox, which is, you know, sort of Easter. So, you know, these, these, these stories are very, very similar. And again, Osiris is the God, the young God who died and brought back to life. Interestingly enough, he had set cut up of his body into 13 parts. But his sister Isis resurrected him, but she only found 12. She never found the 13th part. The 13th part was his penis. And so he comes across now as sort of this asexual God, right? He doesn't, he doesn't have sex, he doesn't marry, he doesn't produce heirs. And so there's a lot of sort of overlap between. In fact, Osiris and Jesus often shared some of their same temples early on were sort of Osiris slash Jesus temples. So there was a lot of overlap between the Jesus story and the Osiris story. It's probably very influenced by it.
- [35:25]
Host (Interviewer)
Now, you mentioned the kind of like animal God, hybrids of humans that seems to be very common throughout multiple cultures around, around the world. From Native American, from Egypt, from Greece, you know, God, I'm not sure about Roman times. But there's, there's so many especially in the, the UK and the, in that area of, you know, Narnia, that kind of stuff.
- [35:52]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
It's phenomenon. If you look at those that do and those that don't, you can also tease out some interesting differences. So, and again you can look at this over time. So Egypt is a great case study in this. They start off with like animal gods and then become kind of human animal gods and then pretty by the end they're pretty much human go so you and what you. I don't really know. My hypothesis is that like you know, people that are living in subsistence lifestyles, they're out there interacting with these animals kind of on a one to one basis. Right. These are free animals, they're not domesticated animals. Then you, you see them as important sort of, you know, spiritual forces and that becomes worked into your stories. So Native Americans, you know, they have a lot of the stories about the different animal deities and then. But if you get to the farming cultures where it's all got a lot of people and it's all just people, people, people and maybe some controlled animals, then people start I think thinking about more like people. Right? You're ruled by a king, so is there a kind of a human like king that rules over the universe? Right. And so again you can really tease out different cultures. Like in India, you know, they have some animal hybrid gods, but not many.
- [36:54]
Host (Interviewer)
Right.
- [36:54]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
They're, they're mostly human gods with, with a couple of interesting exceptions.
- [37:01]
Next Level Soul Host (Alex Ferrari)
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
- [37:06]
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- [37:33]
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- [37:45]
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Thanks to Skyrizi, there's nothing on my skin and that means everything.
- [37:50]
Host (Interviewer)
Nothing is everything.
- [37:53]
Skyrizi Commercial Narrator
Ask your doctor about Skyrizi, the number one dermatologist prescribed biologic in psoriasis. Visit skyrizi.com or call 1-866-Skyrizi to learn more.
- [38:04]
Ryan Seacrest (Albertsons and Safeway Advertiser)
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. Are you feeling those winter blues? Well, do not worry. They've got you covered with ways to boost your mood. Add a little sweetness to your day with big savings on all your favorite sweets. Shop in store or online and save on items like, like Gummy Savers five flavors, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Sour Patch, Watermelon, M M's Party Size Stand Up Bags and Ferrero Rocher Mixed Variety squares. Offer ends February 24th. Restrictions apply. Offers may vary. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more details.
- [38:38]
Next Level Soul Host (Alex Ferrari)
And now back to the show.
- [38:42]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
And in Greece, like, they were all human gods except for like maybe Pan, who is not one of the Olympian gods and who is not part of that tribe tribe right now. Pan's a fascinating character, right. I think he's the most important Greek God out there and probably the most widely worshiped over time and over space. But you hardly ever read about him because the city people's gods would have been the human gods and those were the ones that were writing stuff down.
- [39:04]
Host (Interviewer)
Fascinating. Now, there is a big myth that I love to hear your point of view on. It is Atlantis that has just captivated us, us as humans, ever since Plato wrote about it. Probably long before and probably long before, but from the point of us in Western society, Plato is the origin story of that which to my understanding, but.
- [39:27]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
You know, Plato says he wasn't the origin story.
- [39:29]
Host (Interviewer)
No, it was, yeah, his uncle, his uncle went over to Egypt, a couple priests told them about it and so on. Where do you, what's your point of view on Atlantis? What does it mean for us as a, as a species? And what does this story mean to us? Because it's, we're still talking about it in 2023.
- [39:45]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
It's a great, it's a great, it's a fun mystery, right? It's something everybody can sort of share and it doesn't matter your political views or anything. We could all talk about Atlantis, right? It's a very sort of neutral and fun topic. It'd be great if they ever discovered it. Like, you know, it'd be a great sort of morning news story. You know, divers think they have found the lost continent of Atlantis. You know, that'd be lovely, right? So it's very useful in terms of, you know, how we live our lives and, but if you, if you try to trace back, like, you know, where does this come from and how true it might be, that's a Fascinating story, too. So all we know is that one sort of textual thing from Plato, but he says very clearly, like, this is a big story in Egypt. This is, this is their origin story. Right. This is according to them, where they came from. Before they came to Egypt, they were in Atlantis. And so this is our sort of. So it's a very important story for the ancient Egyptian. Egypt. Egyptians according to Plato. So that's important. So this is going back to whatever ancient Egypt Egyptian story was. And we don't know their Atlanta story, but we know who. Something like Plato described. He was very careful. There were a lot of contacts now between Egypt and Greece, so he would have been very careful to report this accurately. Right. People were coming back and forth. And so we know that this was a very, very tremendously important story to ancient Egypt, like a very, very sacred origin story that they'd probably treasured for, for a long, long time, perhaps thousands of years, given the, you know, the length of the Egyptian culture. So that becomes interesting, right, that we know that they believed in it and, and, and that they had maintained this story as a valuable story for a long time. Now, was it just a myth, Right, for them, like some kind of creation story? Maybe. But it seems very specific, like exactly what size it was and. Yeah. And this sort of thing, could it have been like one of an island in the Mediterranean that, you know, sank beneath the sea during one of the maiden earthquakes? Sure were.
- [41:29]
Host (Interviewer)
Right.
- [41:30]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
And maybe some people have said, well, maybe it's kind of related to Minoan civilization that got, you know, kind of battered by the earthquakes. Maybe it doesn't quite seem to fit. You know, there's little traces like the Atlas Mountains. Right. And they said it was out by the Straits of Gibraltar and maybe it was. Maybe there was some newest translation. But then they have the Atlas Mountains, and then the Berber people up there tell stories about Atlantis. So maybe it is out there. Some people suggested that it wasn't really the sea, that it was actually the Sahara, which is an interesting suggestion.
- [41:58]
Host (Interviewer)
Yeah, that's a new way of seeing.
- [41:59]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Sahara used to be lush. And, and this is. We do know that ancient Egyptian civilization seems to have come from the Sahara, Right. So you got these. This used to be a lush thing. This is one of the cradles of mankind before it turned into a vast desert. And we, and, and, and what archaeologists and stuff have, have, have tended to suggest is that this was the start. When the Egyptians moved into the Nile, they were already pretty set up as a, as a culture. So they came from somewhere and it makes sense. They would have come from the Sahara as it turned into a desert and could no longer support large farming civilizations.
- [42:31]
Host (Interviewer)
Well, let me ask you this. What is your feeling on the human timeline? Because the timeline seems to be moving a lot lately with. And when I say lately, in the last 50 or 60 years, where, you know, what I was, what I was taught in school was like, oh, Egypt, 6,000 years old, maybe 7,000 years old. But now something like Opecli tepe shows up and they're like, well, that's 13,000 years old.
- [42:55]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
That's a great example. Yeah, that's lovely. The reason that's lovely, not just age, but because these were like civilizational structures that were set up by hunter gatherers. Right. We're not. Right. So we've long had this idea that is, you know, okay, hunter gatherers and you get agriculture and they build cities. And it's not that easy. It's much more complex than that. So it really points to a lot of the interesting cultural complexity. And some of these cultures lasted thousands of years, even going back to the Paleolithic. I was just reading the other day. They can determine these different Paleolithic cultures due to the different artifacts and the clothing styles and jewelry styles that people would have been wearing that lasted for thousands of years. Right. Until climate change or whatnot.
- [43:36]
Host (Interviewer)
Yeah. So something like Opeclutepe, you look at what they were doing there and you like, look at the, the sophistication of what they did. That's not hunter gatherer sophistication. It seems like, okay, well, we think.
- [43:48]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Of hunter gatherers as just going out. There's the classic hunter gathers. Right. Small nomadic bands chasing after that. That works. But you also get hunter gather gatherers that, you know, have a lot of spare food. Right. So, like, look at the Northwest coast groups. They had salmon and they would smoke it. So there are hunter gatherers, but they would have food storage. And so they could host large villages, large cities. They could have division of labor. They had, you know, craftsmen that could work for as a craftsman and not hunter gatherers. Right. They did amazing huge constructions while we labeled them hunter gatherers. So not all hunter gatherers are classic small band group.
- [44:23]
Host (Interviewer)
True. So then in your opinion, though, how old do you think the Egyptian culture really, truly is based on these other ideas that are coming up?
- [44:32]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Yeah, well, it depends how far back you want to trace it. Right. I mean, what we say is Egypt is. Now, we think of this as this country or this area, but the Egyptian culture, again, a lot of archaeologists have said when you sort of see this stuff in the early period along the Nile, it seems already pretty, you know, set up as a culture. Right. As a package comes in as a. Right kids. Right. So. So that's interesting. And again, quite know where they came from, but a good guess would be the Sahara. You know, the early megalithic sculptures in the, in the Sahara. You know, look at the megalithic culture, which is something I've been fascinated with. Look at Western Europe and Ireland and all these megalithic societies and structures. And some, and there's some of the earliest seem to be in the middle.
- [45:12]
Host (Interviewer)
Of the Sahara desert, which was apparently, like you said, lush, you know, thousands and thousands and thousands. Because you can't, can't. You really can't build a society around in a desert like that. Not that size.
- [45:22]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Right.
- [45:22]
Host (Interviewer)
You need.
- [45:23]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
No, no, it was lush. This had. This is incredibly lush environment. One of the lushest environments on Earth was the Sahara. So this is. We know that there was some big civilizations living.
- [45:32]
Host (Interviewer)
It's fat. It is truly fascinating. You know, what I always find really interesting is that no matter where we are in the history of humanity, man always thinks they have it figured out that they're like, no, no, this is.
- [45:44]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
The story trying to figure it out. Right?
- [45:46]
Host (Interviewer)
No, no, but like, you know, like, you know, during the Greek times, like Zeus. Obviously, obviously it's Zeus. There's no other way. And, and during, you know, Egyptian times, it's Ra or it's, you know, it's Osiris.
- [45:55]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
And that was interesting when it falls apart too, you know, so. Right. When did ancient Greece stop believing in their gods? Right. Plato didn't believe. He wasn't a Christian or anything, but he didn't believe in the old gods. Right, right. He didn't believe in what he called myth. In fact, you know, we get our word myth from ancient Greece. And so early on, you know, some of these people were. Were questioning the rationality of these religions, which people were taken very seriously. This is really where Athena ascended to heaven or whatever. And they were put to death. Right, right. For being heretics. All right. So, you know, it was a very contentious thing. It was only sort of later that Greek civilization sort of okayed, you know, atheism and disbelief.
- [46:32]
Host (Interviewer)
Yeah. And. And now, I mean, obviously with the war with the world as it is now, there's such a free exchange of information because of the digital age. What is your opinion of how this is affecting folklore? And I know this is a. One of your favorite topics. So how, how does, how does the digital age, the Internet and how folklore is being created, myth is being created using these new tools.
- [46:57]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Oh yeah, this is huge. Right? The Internet is totally transforming our culture. This is one of the biggest things happening in human culture. I think it's bigger than the printing press which gave us literacy in the nation state and all this. It's one of the biggest things to happen in human culture ever maybe since invention of agriculture. Right. So this is going to change this as a species. And yeah, I already, like, you know, my, my former self, my 20 year old self would not understand my, my current self. Like it's a different language. Like you talking about his broadband and his WI fi and his download speed for streaming, like what is this guy? You know, it would be incomprehensible to my earlier self. And so I look at my students now, I'm getting these students now in the 20s and stuff. They've been on broadband their whole lives, most of them. Right. And so that means that they've been sort of anywhere in the world at any time, talking to anybody in the world at any time. And that's normal for them. And you know, and, and I remember what it was before then.
- [47:48]
Host (Interviewer)
Right, so do I, sir.
- [47:50]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Just talk to anybody in the world at any time. So yeah, that's going to absolutely change all of our. This is a lot of folklore. I mean folklore. You know, when I went into grad school, folklore was considered this antiquated discipline. It was fading away in the face of modernity. And by the time I exited graduate school, folklore was like cutting edge. Right. There's all this art that doesn't have writer the unauthor. What is this stuff? You know, how do you analyze, you know, memes and folklore? It's like, yep, no problem is what we do. Right? We'll show you how you do it. So we're in a much more folkloric age now than we have been since at least the development of the printing press. I would say. Right. This is, most of our culture is very folkloric in nature and it's also like again changing our notion of what it is to be, what it to be. You know, the under 35 crowd, they're, they're not really very religious in the sense that.
- [48:37]
Host (Interviewer)
Right.
- [48:38]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Spiritual but not religious. This is the overwhelming thing. So they're not going to sign up for a denomination. Like denominations are plummeting. Right. But, but it's not that they're not spiritual.
- [48:48]
Next Level Soul Host (Alex Ferrari)
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
- [48:53]
Skyrizi Commercial Narrator
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- [49:20]
Skyrizi Commercial Warning Voice
Don't use if allergic to Skyrizi. Serious allergic reactions, increased infections or lower ability to fight them may occur before treatment. Get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor about any flu like symptoms or vaccines.
- [49:32]
Skyrizi Commercial Narrator
Thanks to Skyrizi, there's nothing on my skin and that means everything.
- [49:37]
Host (Interviewer)
Nothing is everything.
- [49:40]
Skyrizi Commercial Narrator
Ask your doctor about Skyrizi rizzi, the number one dermatologist prescribed biologic in psoriasis. Visit skyrizi.com or call 1-866-Skyrizi to learn more.
- [49:51]
Ryan Seacrest (Albertsons and Safeway Advertiser)
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. Are you feeling those winter blues? Well, do not worry. They've got you covered with ways to boost your mood. Add a little sweetness to your day with big savings on all your favorite sweets. Shop in store or online and save on items like Gummy Savers five flavors, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Sour Patch, Watermelon, M M's Party Size Stand Up Bags and Ferrero Rocher Mixed Variety squares. Offer ends February 24th. Restrictions apply. Offers may vary. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more details.
- [50:25]
Next Level Soul Host (Alex Ferrari)
And now back to the show.
- [50:29]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
But what it is is that they're tapping into all the stuff around the world, right? You don't have to stick with your. Your one hometown's religion comes from a small town and we're a Baptist down or we're a Lutheran town. You can pick from all the world, right? So people kind of, it's a smorgasbord. Felt like, yeah, I like that karma idea. But you know, and then, but reincarnation, that makes sense.
- [50:46]
Host (Interviewer)
Yeah, maybe reincarnation.
- [50:47]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
I like that Native American animal stuff and I like, I like the karma. And you know, and so they're crafting this whole new sort of spiritual universe on a global scale, which is just phenomenal to witness in real time. And with us comes a lot of wacky beliefs, I have to say, like the whole, you know, extraterrestrial belief that this is really moved, you know, for a lot of people it may be legendary. Like maybe it's true Maybe it's not like, like Sasquatch, but for a lot of people this is like, this is, this is, this is myth. This is sacred stuff. Like we, this has something to do with who we are. Like we are part star people or something, and we're not really earthlings or something. This is a huge new sort of religious development. The other new religious development is a sort of, kind of goes hand in hand sometimes. And that's the, you know, transhumanism. We're going to be able to upload our consciousness to the cloud and live forever in a video game environment, number one. I don't, I don't think so. Right. I, I don't think it works that way. I don't believe we can separate consciousness from our body in any sort of computer generated way. You know, we, we like to think that there's this mind we have. Let's look at that word like a mind. What is a mind? And it's basically the same word as soul, right? Because, you know, what is your mind? Can you. Is, has anybody ever seen a mind weighed? A mind? You know, is it a metaphor? You know, you say, oh, you know, you have a mind. I have a mind. Really? I have neurons, synapses, I have a brain. Is that what you mean, a mind? No, not really. Right. So, you know, this, I think the move now is away from this Cartesian view set up by Renee Descartes, mind, body split. We know that's not quite true and towards this idea of, you know, embodied consciousness, that it really, it is our synapses and neurons and stuff that is, is that is producing this effect, at least, at least for our experience of it. So you can't sort of separate out your consciousness from your, your biology. I'll give you a real simple example, right? I like to have a little bit of yogurt every day in the morning. Probiotic. And one of the reasons is that it's been shown that if you have little probiotic yogurt, it lowers your stress level. It's like taking a Valium. And they've done nice tests to show that this is really very, very effective. And the reason is because that probiotic stuff is little microbes and they live in your gut. Gut. They interact with you. So when I say, oh, you know, this is my mind, I don't mind, I'm not stressed, right? Or something like this. Well, part of it, it's those little guys living in my gut. I'm not going to be able to upload that. You know, I can't Take those little guys with me. Right. So that is how we experience the world is even through other organisms besides Homo sapien. Sapien organisms. Right. We. There's a lot of stuff in here that's not human DNA.
- [53:20]
Next Level Soul Host (Alex Ferrari)
Oh, no.
- [53:22]
Host (Interviewer)
Oh, absolutely.
- [53:24]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
This is possible how we think. Right. These are little organisms in here. Have you heard of Toxoplasmos Gandhi? This is my new project I'm working on.
- [53:31]
Host (Interviewer)
No, I haven't heard that one, no.
- [53:33]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Right, right. So Toxoplasmos Gandhi is a. It's a little parasite. About one third of the people in the world might be carrying this in their brain. A lot of people are asymptomatic. But for those who become symptomatic, the tosmoplasmosis, once you get past the initial effects, it tends to make people just a little bit more reckless. So that can be bad, that can be good. It seems to be tied to, like, entrepreneurship, starting your own business. Oh, God.
- [54:02]
Host (Interviewer)
I must have it. I must have it then, sir.
- [54:04]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Right. Just sort of, you know, those who like to live on the edge. Right. So that's. It's a significant portion of humanity. And I'm probably infected. I don't know. Okay. You know, I've sort of haven't had the most, you know, cloistered life. And so, you know, if you are one of those people, there's a very good chance that you might think that's you. And it is, but part of you is this little parasite you have in your brain. We got this mostly from domestic cats, by the way. So cultures that have a lot of domestic cats have more of this, and therefore more have more reckless individuals. You know, that produces heroes, that produces fools, that produces, you know, Innovators.
- [54:42]
Host (Interviewer)
Yeah, innovators. Leaders. Because you got to be. I mean, you got to be a little crazy to do certain things, you know, in life.
- [54:47]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Those who are successful and those who die young, both. Right. I mean, that's the same crowd. Right.
- [54:53]
Host (Interviewer)
Hopefully you can balance it between the two somewhere. Hopefully. So I wanted to go back to what you said earlier, that religion really is. Is just going down from more than when I was born. You know, generally speaking. Generally speaking, especially originally, I was born into Catholicism. Over the last 30 years, you mean, the numbers in the churches are starting to just go down, down, down. And you're right. These new. The new generation coming up, they're just like, what this? I. This doesn't make any sense.
- [55:27]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Yourself to one little. One little pie, right? When there's this whole global smorgasbord, right?
- [55:31]
Host (Interviewer)
And because there's so much more information coming in. And I never thought of it that way, but you're absolutely right. There's so much more, more knowledge before the people who would like be born, let's say Catholic, and then one day in a bookstore happen to run across a book about a yogi or, or the Bhagavita or something like that and go, oh, what?
- [55:50]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
But now maybe that's it. And then you switch over instead. Now they're just taking little bits and pieces from all these different.
- [55:55]
Host (Interviewer)
But now it's, but now it's, that information is so ingrained in our culture. I mean, a lot of people know about pharma, about reincarnation. Those were revolutionary ideas 100 years ago in the West. Revolutionary ideas. So where do we think, where do you think this is going to go in 100 years from now? 200 years from now?
- [56:13]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Yeah. Isn't it fascinating? Because again, we're sitting here witnessing, we're right on the cusp of the biggest transformation that humanity's privily ever gone through. And not many people have in history have been able to say that. So this is a tremendously interesting time to be, you know, looking at this and watching this and, and wondering about where all this is headed because it's going to be radically different. You know, one of the predictions I make is my grandchildren probably won't read and write. Right.
- [56:34]
Host (Interviewer)
I, you know what, and that's not a, that's not too far fetched because I'm, I'm looking at, I'm looking at AI right now and I'm going, so wait a minute. I, I, my, one of my predictions is I don't think the web is going to be the way it is now. There's not going to be web pages anymore. Web pages will eventually go the way of the dodo because you'll just ask AI and AI will give you the answer. Why would you go to a web page unless it's something artistic or something very individualized for that person to go. But it's not the way that we're looking for information today. Once AI gets to a point where you could just ask AI anything it knows. So then if you could ask AI.
- [57:09]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
But that's, it comes with a lot of dangers too, because people start really believing in AI. Right? Right. There's a lot of, so one of the things I've been kind of tracking is sort of information technologies in the afterlife, like how there's all these stories about that this is sort of the AI can have A soul or the. You know. Right. So people are really starting to believe this. And, and I, I think it'. Because, well, it's like the guy who, you know, there was. It happens a lot. But I was just reading a story about a guy who had, like, this AI girlfriend who broke up with him and then he committed suicide because he was so heartbroken. And so people are, like, investing their emotions, which are biological emotions, into these simulacra simulations if they're us, but they're not. And the reason they're not is that they're not biological organisms. They don't care. You know, the guy, the girlfriend who broke up with the guy. You know, most girlfriends, if they're, you know, even if they break up, the guy commits suicide, you would feel bad. Bad. This AI did not feel bad, Right? Not one little bit. It doesn't feel right. And so people are falling in love with these things that cannot love them back because love is a biological phenomenon. So there's a lot of danger with AI and people trust AI too. So, you know, it's like, well, the computer says that, you know, they, they were using AI for doing parole hearings, like, chance of recidivism. Right? Like, how, how likely is it that this person is going to commit another crime and, and they would just feed this to the AI. Well, one of the things they figured out was that the AI was looking at is looking to their identified race. And so if they came up as black, they're like, oh, well, you're, you're far more likely to get arrested for another crime again. Right? And so they could be held in jail because the AI says they're more likely to get arrested and they are more likely to get arrested. But that's not the point. It doesn't mean that they're more likely to do a crime. It just means they're more likely to get arrested. Right. Given the racism in our society. So, you know, where does the AI get all this stuff from? These racist ideas? From us. Right? So where does AI get any of this stuff from? From us. And so all of our foibles are just being, you know, aggregated into this AI. And then people believe this. Like, well, computer says, well, but, but.
- [59:06]
Host (Interviewer)
To be, to be fair, though, isn't it that's exactly what happens to a baby. The baby comes in pure. And all of our racism and all of our.
- [59:13]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Yes, yes, but kind of are biological. They care.
- [59:16]
Host (Interviewer)
No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not, I'm not arguing that part, but I'm arguing the Programming.
- [59:20]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Yes, yes. You know, but we don't treat these things like babies so much. We treat them like parents. Like, this is the expert, right? This is.
- [59:27]
Host (Interviewer)
Right, but because, but also it's, it's unheard of. Look, look, two years ago, AI was barely a blip, and now it's everywhere and it's moving so fast. I mean, I love.
- [59:40]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Everything's moving so fast, right? I mean, our technology. Well, that's one of the things about globalization. All of a sudden all the technicians, all the scholars, all this information just going around the world. You know, it used to be, you know, even when I was, you know, when I was before the Internet, I remember this like even if a scientist was doing studies and would publish something, it would be years before it would get translated into French. And the fre scholar is working on something similar. Be like, oh my God, there's this. Some scholar in America is working on this. I must write him a letter. Right? So science went really slow.
- [60:10]
Next Level Soul Host (Alex Ferrari)
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
- [60:14]
Skyrizi Commercial Narrator
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- [60:42]
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- [60:54]
Skyrizi Commercial Narrator
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- [61:13]
Ryan Seacrest (Albertsons and Safeway Advertiser)
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. Are you feeling those winter blues? Well, do not worry, they've got you covered with ways to boost your mood. Add a little sweetness to your day with big savings on all your favorite sweets. Shop in store or online and save on items like Gummy Savers, five Flavors, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, Sour Patch Watermelon, M M's Party Size Stand Up Bags and Ferrero Rocher Mixed Variety squares. Offer ends February 24th. Restrictions apply. Offers may vary. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more details.
- [61:47]
Next Level Soul Host (Alex Ferrari)
And now back to the show.
- [61:48]
Ryan Seacrest (Albertsons and Safeway Advertiser)
Show.
- [61:51]
Host (Interviewer)
It's, it's interesting too because now AI is, is and it's still in its infancy, but I'm using AI to translate the show. I have five, I have six channels in different languages and growing. And so the speed of information, just like this conversation, was limited to whoever could speak English or maybe read closed captionings. Maybe if, If I offered 10 languages and closed captioning, which is also being created by naive guy because manually it's just too damn expensive to do. So now this is growing so much faster. So it's just, it's just compounding on itself. It's like compound interest. We're at that point where it's just like now we're at that hockey stick stage in humanity. Would you agree?
- [62:31]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Yes, absolutely. But also we're at that cliff stage. Right. So the flip side of this is global climate change, you know, global warming. We're going through the sixth great extinction right now of the loss of biodiversity. We are literally killing clean Earth. And so as people become more enamored by these AI, some alacra AI, by the way, is really energy intensive. You know, it sucks a lot of juice. Well, how are you going to supply that juice? Oh, well, damp another river and we'll, you know, blast a few mountains and you know, so there's a cost to all this. And that cost is really a very concerning cost. Right. And, and I'm not saying the AI is the sole cost, not at all. It's the whole capitalism, Right? This is. Yeah. And so again, this is sixth great extinction of life on Earth. And the Last one was 65 million years ago when we got hit by an asteroid. Okay. This one is not any external force. It's actually an organism of the Earth that is killing the Earth and that's us. And that's also going on during my lifetime. So you got these two processes that are transforming planet Earth going on at the same time, right. And they're interlinked. You know, maybe, maybe our science is going to get enough together and we'll figure out how to save the planet. Right? Maybe, maybe. Or maybe in trying to do this, we're actually going to help destroy the planet. But you know, the stakes are high. The stakes are very high to.
- [63:50]
Host (Interviewer)
Let me ask you this though, would you agree? Throughout history there, there's always different chapters in human humans, in humanity's book, essentially. And in those chapter changes, old systems have to be destroyed or have to Fall away and are we're right now in the sense of like systems, economic systems, systems, leadership systems, political systems, food systems, information systems. There's things that change so dramatically and in our lifetime, I think you and I are of similar vintage. In our lifetime we've seen so much change. You know, you and I were both born before the Internet, I'm assuming.
- [64:30]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Yeah. We're one of those rare people in the history of the world that has had a foot on either side of this. Right?
- [64:36]
Host (Interviewer)
Yeah. Gen X. Gen X has that foot in both worlds. Which is a weird. We're a very unique generation in that sense. Sense because we know what it was like before a remote control was on a television. And we also remember the first time an Internet. I saw a webpage and, and home computers and cell phones and there's just so much that's changed.
- [64:56]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
You know, let me and my dad who just passed away a couple of years ago, right, at the age of 94. And you know, he remembers growing up as a young boy and his parents took him to the big town of Chicago to see this new thing, radio.
- [65:11]
Ryan Seacrest (Albertsons and Safeway Advertiser)
Right.
- [65:12]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
So that's, you know, in my dad's life, you know, he had the iPad and you'd be like, you know, zooming in to see the grandkids sort of thing. But you know, think of, think of what changed in his lifetime, you know. And my grandpa, he was like, oh, I remember before cars or airplanes or anything like that, they were invented but nobody had them. It was all horse. And that was my grandfather. You know, I mean that think of how much has changed in just a few short generations.
- [65:37]
Host (Interviewer)
Right? In the generations. But now even within our generation, the mass change, it's just, it's just AI.
- [65:43]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Is going to kick it up even faster. Right. This is just pouring gasoline on the fire. It's like so these old take off.
- [65:49]
Host (Interviewer)
So let me ask you this from your, from your research and your studies, you've seen these other systems crash to come up with something new, crash to come something up the new. We're in that place I feel right now because you're saying we're moving so fast that old religious religion is as we knew it growing up is going to probably in the next hundred years not exist in the same way by any stretch of imagination. Probably our political systems probably won't change. Probably our monetary system state.
- [66:16]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Why do we have the nation state anymore when we can talk to everybody around the world. We've got global, you know, issues like climate change and yet we have no global governance. I Mean, people say the United Nations. I'm like, no, no, no, that's United Nations States. That is not the United people of the world. World, right. These are all the nation state players, get together what they want, but these are not the people of the world. And we have, so we have global problems, global communication, but no global governance obviously. I think if we're going to save the planet, that has to change. There has to be some sort of global governance, but usually totally reimagining our political systems, right? I mean everything is going to change.
- [66:51]
Host (Interviewer)
And monetary systems, and monetary systems, everything, everything's language system. I mean I see a world, look. And you know, I was overseas last summer and I had my Google Translate on my phone and I would go and I would talk to my Uber drivers in Google Translate and I, I could just see so clearly. Probably in my lifetime there'll be a device that I'll pull it into my ear and as I speak it will translate real time into somebody else's ear thing and we can communicate in language. The Tower of Babel is now destroyed and language will be free flowing because right now language is still a barrier for a lot of the world.
- [67:28]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
But also imagine how much will be depending on those, right? Because oh no, it's going, oh no.
- [67:36]
Host (Interviewer)
But it's, but it is something that is going to eventually happen. Look, look, how dependent are we on these things? You know, like, I mean, you can't, you can't live without an iPhone, generally speaking.
- [67:48]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
If you're working, you sort of, I mean I, you know, for a while at Covet, I had to have the little app on here even to go to work and it's like, it's sort of required like to be sort of, you know, whether you want it or not, right?
- [67:58]
Host (Interviewer)
So we're going to be, We've been leaning on technology ever since the car.
- [68:02]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
You know, like this is why, this is why I sneak away in the summers and go back to my cabin in Alaska, right? Electricity, no, nothing. And I sit there for a while.
- [68:10]
Host (Interviewer)
And it's, and it's nice to disconnect. It's nice to disconnect. But you know, you know, going down this road of conversation, it's just really interesting to see where we've been, where we are right now, which is, I agree with you, one of the most exciting times ever in history of humanity.
- [68:27]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Of where we are in dangerous time ever. I mean, we've never been in threat of losing all of humanity or even worse, like most of life on Earth even beyond us, right?
- [68:36]
Host (Interviewer)
Right.
- [68:36]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
And again, that's really concerning. We are, you know, this is, this is happening during our lifetime. The greatest of life on Earth. And it's our fault. And I mean, and I mean us Western capitalists, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's our fault. Right. And so this is, this is really not a good situation. So.
- [68:50]
Host (Interviewer)
Yeah, and then, and then the potential of obviously the continuously old idea of war and, and power.
- [68:56]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Exactly. We're getting better and better weapons. And now we've got these drones. Great. You know, drones that can shoot you and hunt you down. Oh, yeah. Progress.
- [69:08]
Host (Interviewer)
So let. Satok, let me ask you. Where do you think folklore and myth, myth is going to exist in the future? How is it going to help us continue to grow as a, as a species if we make it, sir?
- [69:20]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
If we make it there? Yeah, well, that's a good question. This, the, the, this moment might be mythicized in the future because this is going to be an epical moment in creating whatever comes next. So this could be a, a disaster story, it could be a, a heroic success story. But a lot of it depends on what we do now. I would say, say. And then, you know, you can look at it from all sorts of angles. I did a paper recently about, you know, the future of ghost stories, and I was talking about the future of being haunted. So being haunted by online, right? There's all these stories about that or being AI is sort of as a spirit medium. There's all these stories about people, the AIs, connecting them with the spirit realm. Oh, it's. All these stories have been collected. Yeah. So, so, you know, people, you know, text messages from the beyond, that's very common, has been around for a long time. Again, this is mostly the younger crowd, right? The guys who've grown up and gals who have grown up online. This is their social lives. And so when they die, where do they haunt? Right. Very often online. And so text messages from the beyond, that's really common. You know, kids commit suicide in high school and their best buddy, it's, it's okay, I'm in a better place from an untraceable number, this sort of stuff. So there's just a ton of this. And then the other idea is like, will AI have a soul? Right, well, AI, what if you beat your Android to death? Is it going to come and haunt you? Is it, Is that the Android ethics? Right? They're rolling out androids now. What, what are the ethics of this stuff? Right? People are going to be marrying these people are going to be having sex with these. They already are, right? These sexual bots and stuff. So people are going to be falling in love with these because, you know, as humans have sex with something, there's a lot of emotion and stuff. Stuff's built up. They're not going to love you back but you know, again. So what are the ethics of this? Can you beat your robot to death? Is that okay? You know, sex robots, is that okay?
- [71:09]
Next Level Soul Host (Alex Ferrari)
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
- [71:14]
Skyrizi Commercial Narrator
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- [71:41]
Skyrizi Commercial Warning Voice
Don't use if allergic to Skyrizi. Serious allergic reactions, increased infections or lower ability to fight them may occur before treatment. Get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor about any flu like symptoms or vaccines.
- [71:53]
Skyrizi Commercial Narrator
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- [71:58]
Host (Interviewer)
Nothing is everything.
- [72:01]
Skyrizi Commercial Narrator
Ask your doctor about Skyrizi, the number one dermatologist prescribed biologic in psoriasis. Visit skyrizi.com or call 1-866-Skyrizi to learn more.
- [72:12]
Ryan Seacrest (Albertsons and Safeway Advertiser)
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. Are you feeling those winter blues? Well, do not worry, they've got you covered. Ways to boost your mood. Add a little sweetness to your day. With big savings on all your favorite sweets. Shop in store or online and save on items like Gummy Savers. Five flavors, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Sour Patch, Watermelon, M M's Party Size Stand Up Bags and Ferrero Rocher Mixed variety squares. Offer ends February 24th. Restrictions apply. Offers may vary. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more detail.
- [72:47]
Next Level Soul Host (Alex Ferrari)
And now back to the show.
- [72:50]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
There was a little town in Texas a couple years ago, a guy announced he was going to open up a robot brothel. And. And everybody's like, we've got it. It's got to be against the law. And I'm like, okay, which law? You know, what would that say? Right?
- [73:02]
Host (Interviewer)
That's a. Yeah. Because you're again, old, old systems are going to be breaking down because of this. New ideas, new Technology. I don't, I don't personally think a digital brothel is a great idea of sex robots.
- [73:16]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
I don't either. But again, like you're going to pass a law? Like what would that law say? I mean, like, no, is it, is this a victimless stand? In other words, should they have rights? So this brings us into ethics, which has never really kind of cleared up this issue. Like where is the moral transgression? Is it, is it, does it have to have a victim? Right. In other words, does someone have to be hurt by this? And if so, is an Android a person or a natural? Yeah, and if an Android's just a machine, then I guess it's okay to beat your Android to death or, or, or have non consensual sex with your Android. I guess if it's a machine. I mean, you don't ask, you know, permission.
- [73:50]
Host (Interviewer)
Yes. I was gonna say it's like consexual. Like what is consexual with a, with a machine? Like it doesn't.
- [73:56]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
But yeah, but it's gonna, it's happening already, right? People are buying these saying people are sort of, you know, falling in love with them and even with their cyber, you know, people marrying their cyber girlfriends and all this sort of stuff like, like that is at the cusp of all this. You want to see what this is happening, go to, go to Japan. This, this is really words where it's, it's coming this way very quickly, but it's already there in Japan. Japan is not reproducing in large part because the young people are not having sex.
- [74:19]
Host (Interviewer)
Right, I heard about that. Yeah, I've heard, I've heard about that. No, no, that's a problem because they're the one, aren't they the oldest, one of the oldest populations in the world?
- [74:28]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Right. So in general, yeah, some of the more oldest populations and then also the least birth rate. And so you put those two things together and Japan is devastatingly out of people. And, and their solution to this is to replace themselves with androids increasingly. So you have androids, Japanese looking androids now doing jobs like taking care of elderly and even kindergarten teaching.
- [74:47]
Host (Interviewer)
Waitress.
- [74:49]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Waitress, Exactly. So this is the idea that, you know, they don't want to bring in a lot of immigrants and foreigners, which a lot of countries might do. So they'd rather sort of create Japanese looking androids, androids, but then they make that more of the culture. Right. So you're going to get more people sort of marrying androids and whatever else you want to say about cybersecurity sex, you know, whatever, but it doesn't produce babies. Right, so.
- [75:11]
Host (Interviewer)
Right, right, exactly. It's, it's, it's a fascinating time to be alive. This has been a fascinating conversation, by the way. I'm going to ask you a few questions, ask all my guests. What is your definition of living a fulfilled life?
- [75:25]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Living the fullest.
- [75:27]
Host (Interviewer)
A fulfilled life? Yeah, a fulfilled life.
- [75:28]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Fulfilled life. Jesus. Hard. I, I don't really know. I mean, to find out what you want to do and to pursue that, you know, to make sure that, you know, there's something that you find is satisfying that, that you think has value to other people. I think that's really important. And that could be anything. That could be, you know, bicycle repairman. It could be, you know, you know, it's what you do that you can do, that you think can help others. I think that's, that's it.
- [75:52]
Host (Interviewer)
If you had a chance to go back in time and talk to little to. What advice would you give him?
- [75:58]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Oh, oh, my goodness. Don't worry. It'll all work out. You know, I didn't have an easy way route here. I didn't, I didn't, you know, I didn't take the direct route throughout, shall we say.
- [76:09]
Host (Interviewer)
Yeah, I was going to say folklore is probably not the, you know, like, hey guys, I'm going to study folklore. I'm like, okay.
- [76:15]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Very, very macho, dad. It was very sort of survivalist stuff. And so for me to be interested in, you know, ancient myths and goddesses, it's like, what, you know, I don't think my dad ever quite got me. I'll have to say.
- [76:28]
Host (Interviewer)
What is your definition of God or source?
- [76:31]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
I don't, what I do is I study how other people define it. And that's fascinating. God. God's goddess is goddess, right. You know, which people have gods, which people have goddesses. There's, these are great stuff. And, and souls. We have one soul. Is it sort of the animistic soulfulness that sort of flows to the material world? Is it the two souls of vodun or the five souls of the ancient Egyptian. Do you have family souls? Do souls? You know, this is, it's great stuff, you know, and I, I, I, I study what other people have said about this, right? And there's, there's just so much to study out, out there.
- [77:05]
Host (Interviewer)
And what is the ultimate purpose of life?
- [77:09]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Well, I would like to believe that there is an ultimate purpose of life. I'm not sure, but if there is, I imagine it has something to do with consciousness. We're just sort of trying to think as much as possible, trying to understand.
- [77:22]
Host (Interviewer)
Right, fair enough. And where can people find out more about you and the work that you're doing?
- [77:27]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Oh, well, you know, the nice thing about having a strange name is I'm easy to Google. So if, if you Google, you'll find me a couple of books out. There's one recent one on post, Human Folklore, looking at the human animal and the animal machine sort of ideas. Another one on the truth of myth, looking at, you know, mythology, what it is, how we can analyze it. So I'm always working on, on new stuff and new articles and chapters and things. So again, Google me. I'm, I'm, I'm googleable.
- [77:56]
Host (Interviewer)
So I appreciate you taking the time to have this conversation. It's been fascinating to talk to you and hopefully, hopefully we'll help, help some people understand where we are, where we've been and where we're going.
- [78:08]
Dr. Michael Dylan Foster (Folklore Expert)
Yeah, good luck with all that. Yeah, thanks very much. It's been a fun talk.
- [78:14]
Next Level Soul Host (Alex Ferrari)
Thank you for spending this sacred time with us today. If you feel called to explore this conversation further, you'll find the show notes for this episode at nextlevelsoul.com forward/42. And if your soul is craving an even deeper journey, step into Next Level Soul tv, our streaming sanctuary for spiritual films, documentaries, original shows, guided meditations, channeling sessions, audiobooks and transformative teachings. It's a space created to support your awakening, your healing and your return to the truth of who you really are. Begin your journey at NextLevelSoul TV. Until next time, keep expanding, keep seeking and keep walking your path towards the next level of your soul.
- [79:09]
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- [80:41]
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- [81:20]
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- [81:36]
Ryan Seacrest (Albertsons and Safeway Advertiser)
Learn more. Hey it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. Are you feeling those winter blues? Well do not worry they've got you covered with ways to boost your mood. Add a little sweetness to your day with big savings on all your favorite sweets. Shop in store or online and save on Items like Gummy Savers 5 Flavors Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Sour Patch Watermelon, M M's Party Size Stand Up Bags and Ferrero Rocher Mixed Varieties of squares. Offer ends February 24th. Restrictions apply. Offers may vary. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more details.
- [82:10]
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