The first step to the knowledge of the wonder and mystery of life is the recognition of the monstrous nature of the earthly human realm as well as its glory, the realization that this is just how it is and that it cannot and will not be changed. Those who think they know how the universe could have been had they created it, without pain, without sorrow, without time, without death, are unfit for illumination.

This widely distributed pattern was first fully described in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949). Novelists songwriters video game designers and even amusement park ride designers have studied Campbell's work in order to better understand mythology—in particular the monomyth—and its impact. It was very eerie because in reading The Hero with a Thousand Faces I began to realize that my first draft of Star Wars was following classic motifs.

Joseph John Campbell (March 26 1904 – October 30 1987) was an American mythologist writer and lecturer best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. ". His philosophy is often summarized by his phrase: "Follow your bliss.